“Well, aside from the sudden SCE attack, this has all been wonderful!” Pentaflame beamed as he and some of his troops helped everyone pack. Currently everyone was gathered in (the remains of) the main meeting hall, where the Doom Drums had been giving out parting gifts, as well as going over a few last bits and pieces. “It’s been a great learning experience for everyone!”
“Are those sorts of attacks… common?” Mutau asked. He was busy trying to work out what to do with the ceremonial axe that he had been given, and how he could fit it in his suitcase.
“Honestly?” Permafrost shrugged. “All the time. We all know that some corrupted entities are sentient entities, and some of them know to attack us directly, especially since the Pentathax are somewhat well-known, but we didn’t expect to run into an UAO SE out here. Also we didn’t realize how flimsy this base is.”
“Are yous going to fix it upsss?” Kuuraa asked. They too were trying to pack their stuff. Kuuraa’s weapon of choice was a double-ended staff, but their own staff was collapse-able and could be stored on Kuuraa’s back, and Kuuraa hadn’t really brought much else with them, apart from a small bag containing a towel, a reusable bottle and a small, round, stuffed toy that looked vaguely familiar. However, the Pentathax had gifted Kuuraa a collection of fancy, heat-tipped staffs for Kuuraa and their fellow Kshana Decay Lords to use, and Kuuraa was clearly struggling with them.
“Oh, no, not at all!” Galeforce almost growled. “We originally picked this base to host this meeting because it was the most comfortable, with the downside of being harder to defend. Had we known that the walls were essentially made of polystyrene, we would have used one of the other abandoned bases. I already sent a crew to go back to one of the fortresses we originally scouted out and prepare it for takeover.”
“Mhm!” Permafrost nodded in agreement “Although that actually does raise a good point. Yes, us Pentathax focus on killing Corruption but we also sometimes deal with Voidborns too. However our initial scans of the Kentarasa Pentacluster show minimal activity, and, according to reports from the Deathven Overseer, Lord Kengana, there is only one active Voidborn cult around here, that hides between the edges of the Patagenic and Tennoraka Pentaclusters.”
“Yeah, from what we’ve heard, and the last time we were remotely close to this eniapent, it was almost classified as Voidborn territories!” Pentaflame added. “What happened?”
Psehon glanced at Retvik. Retvik grunted but didn’t say anything, and neither did Psehon.
“The Golden Doom Alliance fell apart!” Erin, the Justar leader, explained. “While we kept the main cults, the Golden Protectors, the Golden Defenders and the Crystal Doom out of the Justarian Circle, they began reigning havoc, trying to find some of their ‘Stolen Sons’. However the Phantai and the Thantir managed to eradicate all three main cults, the Goldblessed somewhat blew themselves up somehow and the sub-cults mostly scattered. The only remaining threats are the Goldreach in the Tennoraka Pentacluster, the Voidclaws which the Kshana and Nuvox have mostly dealt with and the occasional break in by members of the Children of the Collector’s Grasp, looking to avenge the now dead Ancient Collector.”
“There is a Darkspawn somewhere in the Asimenion Gap that does create a trickle of Voidborn younglings, but yeah, the Patagenic sects mostly scared them all off!” Mutau proclaimed. “It’s bloody great. Haven’t had this much peace and quiet for a while.”
Pentaflame turned to his fellow Decay Lords, grinning like a lunatic. “That is amazing news. That means we can reduce the Voidborn detection subsection and put more of them on general detection duties! No one likes being on Voidborn duty. No one likes Voidborns. Worthless monsters.”
Permafrost tutted. “Pentaflame, mate, we’ve been over this. Not all Voidborns are monsters. Some of them kill Corruption the same way we do.”
“There are also a handful of Adogtic Voidborns that do Corruption purges in the Kinigian Wilderness and the Ventra Expanse!” Retvik added.
“What does ‘Adogtic’ mean?” Mutau asked. “That’s not a Voidborn cult I am aware of.”
“Oh…” Retvik hesitated slightly. “The word ‘Adogtic’ is a Voidborn term, referring to a Voidborn that does not belong to a cult, i.e. they are cult-less.”
“How do you… know about Voidborn terms?” Psehon eyed Retvik somewhat aggressively, as did Erin.
“One of the first beings we treated at our new base was a Voidborn who had been bound to a universe. Their universe had been destroyed by Corruption, they needed help, we helped them, and the Voidborn explained a few things while they were recovering.”
“Ah… I see…” Psehon backed down. He didn’t mean to be aggressive, being a Beh’en and the leader of what used to be a Voidborn Eradicator Sect, he couldn’t help it, he was born and raised to hate all things Voidborn. “Well, good thing you have more empathy to those darkness-bound bastards than I do.”
Retvik shrugged. “It is pretty surprising, really, considering I was nearly beaten to death by one when I was mortal. But it is wrong to lump every single individual of a race together. Except Corruption. We can all agree that all Corruption must die.”
That statement made Tahnaiious briefly eye Retvik, but he quickly turned back to what he was doing, inspecting several crates of flamethrowers that the Pentathax had donated to him and the Ekthris.
“I see, I see…” Pentaflame trailed off. “Either way, we have learned a lot. While I don’t think we can completely clear out this eniapent, I’m pretty certain we can make good headway, and thanks to both the information you have all provided and your blessings to allow us within your territories, we’ll get a LOT of work done. I also hope that you all will make good use of the supplies we are donating to you all, and we should be able to get the contacts required to ship in what we can’t give you now.”
Retvik smiled as he inspected the three boxes of pre-packaged omnishell suits, special, telekinetically powered shields which provided protection from infections. “I cannot thank you enough for these fifty shields, we will make heavy use of these. And we highly anticipate speaking to your contact to get a new omnishell packager.”
“It’s the least we can do for a fresh purifier sect!” Pentaflame went back to smiling. “And you’ll probably see some of us in the future. We’ll almost certainly pop by when we start tackling the edges of the Phtharospitesio Pentacluster, but we will mostly be focusing on the Kentarasa Pentacluster first, alongside the Alsyr and the Ekthris who are already here.”
“And we massively appreciate it!” Mavriir, the leader of the Alsyr, was ever so happy. Tahnaiious was also pretty thrilled. “That being said, we probably ought to get going soon. If there’s Unending Ancient stuff here, then I need to warn my troops and we need to prepare for that. Also, my trio members are probably missing me dearly.”
Galeforce clapped one of his pairs of hands together. “Not a problem. We’re getting the teleporter pods set up as we speak, and you’ll all be able to go back to your sects and normal duties shortly. Thank you very much for putting up with us and accepting our invitation to communicate.”
“Thank you too, Pentathax!” Erin smiled. “This has been a great experience for all of us. Except maybe Flamebearer, who nearly exhausted himself.”
Retvik smiled weakly. “Hah, it was a good experience for me too. But Mavriir is right, we ought to all start getting going and returning home. I have a LOT of unread messages from Litvir. Can I get, like, a souvenir for Litvir? I did promise him I would bring him back something cool…”
Pentaflame turned to his fellow Doom Drums and went back to grinning wildly. “Of course! Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you all get home, with extra goodies! You all deserve it.”