Vekeus wasn’t sure what to expect as he entered the Athata Rift and approached Savepoint, the headquarters of the Thantir. Most Decay Lord sects generally worked from a colossal flagship, but Savepoint was a floating island with four smallish ships (larger than Vekeus’s own Celestial Endflame, a typical Voidborn cruiser, but painted in metallic red though) and a collection of buildings. But he didn’t really have time to ponder any of this as he landed his ship in the mostly empty parking area, then exited the ship. As soon as he locked up, a Decay Lord approached him. One that Vekeus recognized.
“Oh… Oh no… I… I thought you were a Phantai soldier, Shatterblade?”
The colossal, heavily armoured Beh’evok stopped 5m away from Vekeus, then looked down at the admittedly rather short Voidborn.
“I left a long time ago, formed my own sect. How do you know me and why are you here? Do you need assistance?”
Vekeus nodded. “I… was infected with Corruption. I severed my arm, but I can still hear the murmurs. My fellow Adogtic ally Kesistatiir recommended I come here… Also, you are 100% the reason why I left the Golden Protectors.”
Itaviir eyed Vekeus some more. “Well… I did kill a LOT of Golden Protectors and other Voidborns in my time with the Phantai.”
“You cut through my troop like butter. I mean, I hated the Golden Protectors anyway, but you gave me a chance to escape. I played dead until you left, then ran. Been doing Corruption Purges in the Ventra Expanse ever since.”
“Hm… Uh… I do somewhat apologise, I do still somewhat immediately see Voidborns as a threat. You said you were infected. How long ago, and do you know what strain?”
“Yes. About 5 hours ago, and the Ancient Unending strain.”
“Alright. Please stay here a moment.”
Itaviir backed off somewhat, then quickly pulled out a communicator. Vekeus caught the words “potential infected explosive Voidborn” and, almost immediately, a tiny, 1m tall red and silver robot with large, blue, crystalline eyes teleported to Itaviir’s side. Unlike Itaviir, they had a shimmering, faint silver and orange sheen covering them, some sort of protective gear. They patted Itaviir on the leg, as high as they could reach, suggested Itaviir tale a quick “decon shower”, then stepped forward.
“Hiya! I’m Tah, can you follow me, please?”
“You’re very small…” Vekeus muttered.
“I’d make a comment about good things coming in small packages, but I’m not sure what the original phrase refers to, so please just come with me. And please don’t touch anything.”
Tah led Vekeus to a building separated from the main hub. Waiting there were two other robots, identical except for their colours – one was black with neon green eyes, the other was brown with dark green eyes. They nudged Vekeus into the building, which seemed to consist of a single, heavily fortified room with a door and a glass window, then instructed him to sit on the bed.
“Alright, sorry to be a pain, but we have a few more questions!” Tah clicked. His voice was quite monotonous. “Firstly, where is the limb you cut off, secondly, where were you stabbed?”
“I was stabbed through the hand and immediately cut it off at the wrist. When I could still hear the murmurs, I cut off my arm up to the elbow. But even after that, I could still hear murmurs.”
Tah turned to his cohorts, both of whom had the same shimmering sheen on them, then clicked again. “I see. That’s good, low incubation time. Third question, can you regrow limbs?”
“Yes.”
“Good…” Tah clicked some more. “Quick explanation, we’re just waiting for our resident Synaisthyn to suit up, he’ll be here in a moment. My brothers here are Nuh and Pah, they’ll be performing the removal. Last question, how good are you with intense pain?”
Vekeus grunted. “I’m a Voidborn, I have a massively high pain tolerance.”
Nuh glanced at Tah and clicked three times. Tah clicked back, and Nuh fell silent. After a few awkward seconds, a new strange creature teleported in. This being looked really, really familiar, more familiar than the Decay Lord that had forcibly changed Vekeus’s path of existence, but Vekeus couldn’t work out why.
“I have brought the pump, some of Phovos’s blood and a litre of my own, which I literally just had removed…” Elkay grunted. “Is this another-”
“Yep.”
“Oh. Alright.”
Tah clicked yet again, then bowed somewhat. “Everything’s ready, I’ll be outside, monitoring. Good luck.”
“Won’t need it, Tah!” Nuh almost hissed. He then turned his attention to Vekeus. “Alright, Voidkiddo, lay down on the bed, and Elkay will strap you down. Makes things slightly easier for me. Also, I’m going to be blunt, this is going to be very, very painful.”
Vekeus did as he was told, examining this Elkay person as he did so. Elkay quickly tightened all the straps, making Vekeus unable to really move, then stepped back, but unlike Tah, he remained in the room. Pah brought over a stool so he could see, and Nuh lifted himself into the air by altering gravity around himself.
All of a sudden, Vekeus found himself completely paralysed, and his head was forced to turn away and look out of the glass wall. He found it odd how all he could see was a pretty flower garden overlooking a strangely beautiful lake. That moment of calmness was very abruptly ripped away though as an intense heat melted the seal on his empty, Void-plated arm, and plasma was poured into his arm and shoulder, partially disintegrating what little flesh Vekeus had. This was followed by a strange tugging sensation, but that was quickly replaced by the sensation of having a small amount of flesh ripped from his body and more intense heat, that completely incinerated and vaporized most of Vekeus’s arm, stopping only just below the shoulder.
Despite the agony, Vekeus remained silent. More importantly though, as soon as that flesh was ripped out, Vekeus noticed that the muttering and murmuring in the back of his head had disappeared. Almost instantly.
After some more burning plasma, the flames died down. As the temperatures returned to more normal levels, Nuh took one of the bottles Elkay had been holding, then completely covered the area with it, most notably forcing some of the dark, nearly black liquid (that seemed to have small, red sparkles in it) into the gaping wound. The liquid burned briefly, but oddly also felt somewhat cooling at the same time. Tingly, almost. Nuh then took a syringe and injected some more of the liquid into the empty parts of Vekeus’s chest and neck armour.
Once Nuh and Pah were satisfied, Nuh took the second, smaller bottle Elkay had been holding. This time though, Nuh dabbed the liquid on some gauze, then rubbed the gauze across the edge of Vekeus’s shoulder, where his arm used to be. This sensation was much, much nicer. Soothing and calm. It also seemed to be stimulating Vekeus’s armour, causing it to regrow at an almost noticeable rate.
“Alright!” Pah suddenly exclaimed, as Vekeus realized he could somewhat move again. Elkay approached once more and undid all of the straps that had been holding Vekeus down. “You’re clean! Good job coming here nice and quick! Also, because you are fleshier than most Voidborns, that made removal easier than normal.”
“Pah’s correct. You’re definitely a bit odd, but it saved you.”
Vekeus didn’t mean to growl as he sat up, but he couldn’t help it. “I don’t like being called abnormal.”
“Well, tough, you are abnormal. But don’t worry, you’re not as abnormal as Elkay here is. Elkay, can you take this Voidborn-”
“My name is Vekeus.”
Nuh made a disgruntled clicking sound. “Elkay, can you take Vekeus to the decon showers, and then to the recovery area? We’ll clean up here.”
Elkay nodded, then helped Vekeus off the table and onto his feet. “Of course.”
As Elkay led Vekeus outside and back towards the main hub, Vekeus couldn’t help but silently inspect the strange being. Normally, Vekeus could instantly tell what type of Periuniveral Void Entity a being was just by looking and smelling them, but Elkay’s scent was impossible to place.
“So, uh…” Vekeus stuttered. “Firstly, do I owe you Thantir anything for this? Secondly, who are you, what are you and why do you seem so damn familiar?”
Elkay glanced at Vekeus and shrugged. “To answer your first question, no, we do Corruption removals for free unless you are a Life Goddess, but donations are always appreciated. As for your second and third questions, my name is Elkay Theanon-Rethianos, I am a Synaisthyn, also sometimes known as an Amalgam Mimic. I do not know why I seem familiar to you though, I do not know who you are. You do admittedly look like a Skyavok if they were turned into a Voidborn though.”
Vekeus blinked in confusion, went to rub his eyes, then suddenly remembered that his arm was still missing. He blinked some more then grunted. “I haven’t heard of a Synaisthyn before. Haven’t really heard of the term Amalgam Mimic in a long time either, thought it was some strange, fake sub-type Decayons made up for anyone who was too mixed up to fit…” Vekeus paused and thought some more. “You’re not a Life Goddess, are you?”
Elkay shook his head. “No, no. Our resident Life Goddess is a normal, albeit young Life Goddess. But we can discuss this more once we have been through the showers and you have been checked over, understood?”
“Yes, of course…” Vekeus sighed as he did as he was told. “Still, you seem really, really familiar…”