They were not falling.
They should have fallen already.
The Ancient Feeder had rained down His droplets across the small, floating island, the place harbouring those that went against the Great Unending Ancient One’s Will, that denied The Natural Laws, but those spores were being both burnt and washed away. The Ancient Feeder had spawned as a fog of black, inky tendrils, trying to flood the island and pollute both ground and soil, to salt the land and destroy everything. However, these ‘Thantir’, a tiny group of inconsequential Decayons, were holding strong.
Really though, that statement was wrong. If they were inconsequential, the Great Unending Ancient One would not have requested that the Ancient Feeder consume them. And considering that these Decayons were fighting as hard as they were, maybe that was why the Great Unending Ancient One wanted them gone.
The Ancient Feeder slammed a tentacle into the ground, in an attempt to knock one of the Flames off their feet. Much to their dismay though, the Flame managed to roll out of the way just in time. That pattern seemed to repeat itself. Every action the Ancient Feeder took was blocked or dodged by the Decayons.
Plasma ran up that tentacle, severing it from the Ancient Feeder’s main mass. The Ancient Feeder retaliated by trying to suck up the liquid of the lake, to contaminate it and wash away the Flames, reducing their efficiency. Before they could do so though, the surface of the lake froze over, denying the Ancient Feeder access. Well, apart from one small area. But that area quickly sealed up as well, as the Ancient Feeder detected Life Goddess energies, using the water to alter the weather, which had been essentially non-existent before the Ancient Feeder had turned up.
From the dark clouds, thunder burst through the sky and lightning began to strike. Directed lightning, each bolt directly striking the Corruption. Rain and hail also began to fall. Sharp pieces of ice. The rain was slowing down the Flames as well, ever so slightly, but telekinetic shields protected them as the rain changed from water into acid. Burning, hideous acid.
The Ancient Feeder detected the location of the Life Goddess, then swung a spiked, extra infectious tentacle at them. But, again, the Life Goddess managed to escape, just in time. In fact, she seemed to perfectly dodge multiple attacks, up until several exploding blades penetrated the tentacle and blew off the Ancient Feeder’s limb.
Something was going on. Something just beneath the Ancient Feeder’s senses. There was a telepathic network, flickering around. Scanning the Ancient Feeder’s higher thoughts, and redirecting that information to the other Decayons.
“Yatra Netrad!”
The Ancient Feeder roared, then shut off their mind, running solely on instinct. That way, the telepaths could no longer detect what the Ancient Feeder planned to do. They flailed wildly, but… nothing really changed. The buildings were all still protected by various magnetic and gravitational shields, the acid rain kept on falling, the Flames were pushing harder now and everyone was still perfectly avoiding all of the Ancient Feeder’s attacks.
The telepathic network was helping, but it wasn’t the cause of this strange behaviour. It wasn’t until the Ancient Feeder accidentally swiped at one building, a guard tower, while aiming for another that the strange behaviour briefly stopped. A flicker of panic echoed across the telepathic network, followed by a sudden intensity of heat. Quite clearly, the Ancient Feeder had hurt someone, and caused one of the Flames to become enraged. In retaliation, the Ancient Feeder smashed through the iced over water and started drinking up the lake. While the ice was converted into painful shards that were directed at the Ancient Feeder, most of the ice spears were absorbed. However, one of the flames worked out what was going on, and it caused the water to boil, while it was assisted by a similar being, who electrified the water as well.
While the Ancient Feeder drank heartily, it continued its more mindless attacks, striking almost at random. It was pretty sure it took out one of the Flames this way, by swiping a draconic being out from the sky. And while the water may have been boiling, it was enough for the Ancient Feeder to convert those fluids into infested, corrupted liquid, which it then sprayed across the ground.
Another Flame fell, as did one of the larger beings, one that had been using acid-covered blades to cut off tendrils that got too close. Bolts of electricity fired from elsewhere were a vague attempt to make up for the fallen Flame, but the Ancient Feeder was starting to make progress. Yes, these Decayons were protected by personal shields, but those shields would only do so much if the Flames couldn’t keep up with the Ancient Feeder’s infection rates, and if the ground itself became corrupted.
Suddenly, a blinding explosion distracted the Ancient Feeder. One of the Flames (not the angry one) was… no longer a Flame? Well, it was a Flame, it was burning away at the Ancient Feeder’s tendrils, but…
The Ancient Feeder paused, then turned its full attention to the being. It was Corrupted. No. It was Corruption. But not of the Ancient Feeder’s strain. Something the Ancient Feeder had never seen before. A completely different, new strain, somehow both younger and older than the Ancient Feeder. That made… no sense at all.
The Ancient Feeder though had no time to consider things further. This Corruption suddenly moved faster than the Ancient Feeder could perceive it. The being from the guard tower seemed to have recovered while the Ancient Feeder was distracted, and the Ancient Feeder abruptly realized that it wasn’t a Decayon, it was a Time Drake. And that Time Drake was as angry as-
The strange, corrupted being was now… inserting themselves into the Ancient Feeder. Corruptions ate each other all the time, but this new strain was somehow also slowing time down, meaning the Ancient Feeder couldn’t fight back. At the same time, the Time Drake was reinforcing this Corruption/Time Drake hybrid, and the Flames had all recovered.
In an instant, the tendrils and infection from the secondary Corruption that had penetrated the Ancient Feeder’s physical form all turned into sheer, burning plasma, destroying the Ancient Feeder from the inside out. As the Ancient Feeder began to die, it realized several things: firstly, these Decayons were not just Decayons, they had members of the Three Main Types with them. Secondly, they had a Breaker of Natural Laws, an Oull with them. But not the one that the Great Unending Ancient One was concerned about. Thirdly, the Ancient Feeder was about to die. And, strangely, it was fine with that.
With a final splutter and an almost peaceful sigh, the toxic, vast Corruption melted into hideous, black soot, before turning into nothing more than a black, inky puddle. A puddle that boiled away as the smallest of the Flames coated it in plasma.
An awkward silence drifted across Savepoint. The handful of patients that had been present during the attack were sheltering in the decontamination showers were trying to peer and see what was going on, but no one really knew what to say.
The silence however was swiftly broken by the sound of someone violently throwing up. Elkay emptied his stomach contents, paused to try and reorientate himself, then incinerated his own vomit. He then wobbled over to the decontamination showers (the Thantir’s private ones, not the public ones where everyone was hiding), muttering the words “I am not a Corruption” over and over.
It took a while for anyone else to move. Vikalos and Pah both went to work burning away any remaining traces of Corruption, while Akah started on the enormous task of completely freezing the lake, so that no one could swim in it and to freeze off any lingering Corruption before the water could be purified and made safe again. Tenuk abandoned his duty of keeping the patients in check, giving the task to Koh and Leh, so he could rush over and make sure that his darling Elksia was alright. Teekay was desperate to do the same, he hadn’t quite seen what his dear wife Elkay had done, but he found that Eksi and Retvik both weren’t letting him.
“I NEED to see Elkay! I need to make sure he’s alright!” Teekay hissed as Retvik grabbed him by the arm.
“Dude, I know…” Eksi frowned. “But Elkay needs to cool off first and convince himself that he’s still Elkay. And he kinda needs to be able to do that on his own.”
“Litvir will keep a distant eye on him, Teekay…” Retvik explained further. “We will let you know when Elkay is safe to approach again.”
“He’d never, ever hurt me though!”
Eksi held Teekay’s hand tightly. “Yeah, we know. Elkay’s a good guy. He made a promise to you. But he’s freaking out and doesn’t know he’s Elkay right now. He’ll fine fine, he just needs a few minutes to work out what the fuck he just did.”
“What did he do?” Teekay was whimpering slightly, clearly very upset. “I… I didn’t really see… I was busy helping Phovos make lightning…”
Eksi hesitated briefly. “I think… I think it’s best that Elkay tells you. He’ll be alright though. We called him Unender for a reason.”
“Yeah… I suppose…” Teekay calmed down and rubbed his eyes. “Well… time to fix everything up, I guess…”