The Thantir Two, despite the fact that it had two smaller ships docked on top of it, was slightly faster than Shield Six. Because of this, it had reached the small, floating island first, and it landed rather gracefully on the freshly resurfaced parking area outside the new Thantir base.
There were a few ohs and ahs as they landed, and the plan was to wait for Shield Six to arrive so that Kal could show everyone around. But Eksi and Litvir both seemed uneasy, as they had detected an unknown presence. While Eksi nervously locked himself in his bedroom, Litvir silently decided to head outside, to see what this presence was.
Everything was quiet and empty, however, as Litvir approached what he assumed would be the area used for purifications, he spotted someone lying on the ground. Whatever it was, it was large, black and armoured. It had propped itself up against a door to one of the empty operation rooms, and something horrible and purple was crawling up its arm. The being quickly spotted Litvir and struggled to its feet.
Not wanting to provoke what was potentially an angry but familiar-looking Voidborn, Litvir raised his hands up, showing that he wasn’t a threat.
“You are a purifier, yes?” the being asked. It tried to take a step towards Litvir, but growled in pain and fell to its knees.
Litvir nodded. “I am. Are you infected with Corruption?”
“Yes. My universe is gone. Destroyed. By something… new. It is taking me as well.”
“Well, thankfully, you have come to the right place!” Litvir did his best to be optimistic. He sent a telepathic message to Retvik and Phovos, asking them to join Litvir outside. Litvir then used his telekinesis to lift the Voidborn to their feet, and carried them into the nearest operating room and laid them on the table that was conveniently already there.
“What is your name, Voidborn?” Litvir tried to strike up some conversation. The Voidborn was clearly in agony but was doing well to hide it.
Thankfully, Retvik and Phovos had both already arrived, and Itaviir and Elksia had joined them. Itaviir did sneer at the Voidborn, but he only did so out of instinct, he was much more used to killing them and once he realized this Voidborn wasn’t a threat, Itaviir backed off.
“That looks like…” Phovos stuttered, then paused, then turned to Itaviir. “Can you, like, summon a knife or something for me, please?”
Itaviir snapped his clawed fingers and summoned two small, silver blades. Well, they were small for Itaviir, but one of the blades was as big as Phovos’s arm.
The Voidborn eyed Phovos, then sighed loudly and turned back to Litvir. “My name is Kesistatir. This Corruption is tearing me apart. It is cold, new, foreign. It tore my universe apart, devoured my partner and destroyed her children.”
“That looks familiar. I think it is Kinisis’s strain of Corruption…” Litvir muttered. “Uh, Kesistatir, can you regrow limbs?”
“Can we not just burn it out like we normally do?” Retvik asked. “And should we not wait for Kal to arrive? They would know better than us.”
“Don’t have time!” Phovos hissed, immediately taking charge. “We gotta amputate the infected limb, it’s already spreading quickly. If it gets to this guy’s shoulder and chest, he’s fucking dead! Litvir, can you telekinetically hold this bastard down, please? Retvik, I need you ready to seal the wound with as much heat as possible once I’ve cut his arm off, and then incinerate the limb.”
Litvir nodded and did as he was told. Retvik made his way to Kesistatir’s side. As he did so, he increased the temperature in the room, to stop any stray particles of Corruption from spreading. With the Psion and the Flame at the ready, Phovos licked her claw and jabbed it into the Voidborn’s neck, giving him a little pain relief. Litvir assisted a little by muttering a small cantrip that distracted Kesistatir and forced him to stare blankly at the ceiling, away from his corrupted limb.
“Sorry, mate…” Phovos whispered to herself. She clicked her tongue, then waved her hand, opening her hammerspace. She pulled out a small bowl, closed the hammerspace, then spat into the bowl, which, instead of being some sort of sedative, was now a corrosive acid. Phovos then poured the acid along the silver blade she was holding. After taking a deep breath to steady herself, she made one swift motion and sliced off the Voidborn’s arm, cutting through both metal plating, metal bone and heavy golden fluids.
Kesistatir’s left arm, cut off half way up his upper arm, should have made a metallic clanging noise as it hit the ground, but the Corruption softened the blow. As commanded, Retvik incinerated the offending limb, then cauterized the wound.
Satisfied that the Corruption was dealt with, Phovos clicked her tongue again, then took the second blade Itaviir had given her and used it to make a small slit across her wrist. She dripped some of her blood on the wound. As the Life Goddess blood made contact with Kesistatir’s body, the metal plating slowly began to regrow. Not at a particularly noticeable rate, but, eventually, the Voidborn’s arm would grow back. Phovos opened up her hammerspace again, pulled some fabric out of it and wrapped Kesistatir’s wound, while Litvir helped him sit up.
“Thank you, Holy Mother…” Kesistatir was clearly in shock. “You… you look… familiar…”
“Could say the same about you!” Retvik tutted. “You look just like Kenon, except with less gold.”
“Kenon…” Kesistatir hesitated. “Kenostaton. One of my brothers. One of the Princes.”
“You are a Golden Protector!” Itaviir hissed. He was still acting defensively, and had summoned one of his massive swords.
“I was. The Five Princes, we were all removed forcibly from the Golden Protector Cult and bound to different universes, to serve and protect the Holy Mothers we were chained to. I believe, after the death of Kenostaton, I may be the last, the other three Princes were all killed a long time ago when their universes were devoured by Corruption or killed by other Cults.”
Retvik eyed Litvir nervously. Litvir just shrugged, telepathically hinting that maybe they shouldn’t tell this stressed Voidborn that his brother was killed by their Lost Third.
“So you reject the Golden Protectors?” Litvir asked.
Kesistatir nodded. “I was bound to a universe, and during that time, I decided to renounce my cultist ways. I suppose, now I am unbound, I am now Adogtic and cult-less…”
The Voidborn trailed off. It had suddenly occurred to him that he was now completely alone, that everything he had cared about for goodness knows how long was gone forever. Litvir picked up on Kesistatir’s pain, then awkwardly put an arm around him. Kesistatir was a very large being, larger than Itaviir, so this was particularly weird.
“Do you need someone to talk to? We can offer counselling. You have lost a lot, and sometimes you need help to get over said loss.”
“You know what it is like to lose everything?”
Litvir nodded. “Us Thantir, we all lost our universes. The Life Goddess that created the universe that birthed Phovos, Retvik and myself, she turned into a Corruption, and our home was destroyed. We understand your pain, and we can help you through it.”
Kesistatir sighed to himself. “I appreciate the kindness, but I need to reorientate myself first, reconnect to the Eternal Darkness.”
“Well, either way, you probably ought to stay here for a little bit!” Phovos exclaimed. “At least wait for your arm to grow back or something. That’s gonna take, like, at least 20 hours.”
The conversation was interrupted by the sound of ship engines. Outside, Shield Six had landed. Realizing that something was wrong, Tah teleported into view, dragging Nuh and Pah with him.
“Oh. You guys… already dealt with… huh…” Tah clicked awkwardly. “We just got this Voidborn’s message about them being infected with Corruption, and here you lot are, having already sorted everything out. Uh, well done!”
“Thank you, I guess…” Litvir tutted. “Do you have somewhere we can take Kesistatir so he can rest?”
Tah nodded. “Yes, follow me. Don’t worry, friend, you can stay here as long as you need until you’ve healed up. That’s part of the reason why we built this new base, after all…”
Everyone else waited until Litvir, Tah and the Voidborn had left before anyone spoke. Pah wandered around the room, inspecting the burn marks on the floor and the ambient temperature.
“Huh, good job, guys. You did really well with the Thantir’s first official client. Quick, clean and efficient. We’re going to do SO much good work from now on.”