Eight new Decay Lords sat on the beach, watching the waves lap across the sand. It was apparently night time at Savepoint, and most of the lights had been dimmed or turned off. The mood wasn’t completely calm though. All of them felt uneasy and didn’t know why. So Nyssi decided to ask.
“Hey guys, you all alright?”
“No…” Phovoula sighed. “I feel like everyone hates me and wants me dead. Outside of our little group.”
“Hah, you and me both, girlfriend!” Nyssi smiled. “That stupid Deathven guy seems to hate weird Decayons as much as he hates Voidborns that just want to be nice.”
“He doesn’t seem to have any problems with Time Drakes though. Both Elksia and I got through without issue…” Thassalin mused. Admittedly, he was taking up most of the space, because he was in his pink Thraki form currently. “And according to Life Goddess Phovos, she was welcomed in immediately. They even give her more of a Deathven-sponsored income too.”
“Really?” Phovoula asked as she sat up. “Phovos gets more than anyone else?”
“Yep!” Nyssi smiled some more. “Turns out, the little robot guys are stupidly wealthy because they’ve been doing a vital job for years. Arkay’s kinda rich because he’s caused a lot of carnage and killed universes and Corruption and stuff, but our bosses, Litvir and old Retvik get fuck all. Less than Eksi gets.”
Thassalin shrugged. “Apparently Elksia gets more because she’s a Time Drake. So I think I’ll get extra, same way she does.”
“When do we get our monthly money anyway?” Tanos asked. “Also, what would we even spend the money on?”
“New armour…” Kuta muttered. “Definitely new armour…”
“And some weapons…” Ret added. “I miss my wall of weapons. I ought to restart my collection.”
Thassalin glanced at Ret. “Why DID you have a wall of weapons? Also, how?”
Ret smiled a little. “Up until last… year, I think? Well, I was a single, sexless Rethan, I lived on my own and, because I was an exile, I paid minimal taxes. Put that with me being a famous gladiator, I was actually pretty wealthy.”
“Oh, fair enough!” Thassalin smiled back. “You collect your weapons, I collect my shiny things so I can make a new hoard.”
Nyssi pondered for a moment. “Does Elksia have a hoard? She’s a Time Drake but she’s also… kinda not very dragon-y.”
“She chooses to not look dragon-y. In fact, I used to be a lot less draconic. I had two pairs of wings, I used to have heavy, scaly plates all over myself, I used to have six horns, similar to how the Beh’evok look, and I was more of a quadruped. But, oddly, Elksia has green energies and I’ve always had pink energies. We keep the same colours but can change how we look the same way any shapeshifter can.”
Phovoula wasn’t as amused. “Sure, I can shapeshift too, that’s apparently a Voidborn trick, but I can’t… settle on a single form. And I don’t want to make myself not a Ksithan, because then Phovos wouldn’t like me as much.”
Tanos very suddenly sat up and stared at Phovoula. “Are you two actually partners? For real?”
Phovoula sighed and fell silent. However, Nyssi patted her on the side. “Girl, I told ya, there’s nothing wrong with being in a relationship with a weird half-Ksithan Life Goddess.”
“Tanos is judging me.”
“I’m nor judging you!” Tanos protested. “I’m surprised! I just didn’t know you two were properly girlfriend and girlfriend!”
“Oh. I thought you were being mean or something.”
Tanos shook his head. “Not at all.”
“I’m just glad you and scaly Phovos get along!” Kayel beamed. “We all seem to be getting along pretty well. Although that kinda leads me to another question. Now we’re Decay Lords, what do we do?”
Everyone fell silent for a moment, thinking to themselves. However, Talok quickly piped up.
“I want to be greeter person! Say hello to people and take them to right places! Am small, am cute, people would like me!”
“That is a very fitting job,” Thassalin nodded in agreement. “Just avoid carrying your giant sword around. As for me, I will probably go back to assisting Elksia, since we both have similar powers.”
“I will most likely be going back to providing telepathic assistance, to assist Eksi and my brother,” Kuta seemed rather nonchalant. “I am good at it, might as well continue what I am good at doing.”
Phovoula though didn’t seem nearly as confident as everyone else. “Is there a job for me?”
“Oh, lots!” Kayel exclaimed. “Firstly, you can speak that weird Voidborn language, so you can do translations. But secondly, you can work as a greeter and a councillor for any Voidborns who need someone to talk to after they have surgery. Plus, you have fire powers too, right, dude? You can do the same job all the fiery people do. But on top of that? From what we read about Voidborns in our study books, you can actually make a big territorial claim and keep more violent Voidborns away! Worst case scenario? You can kinda… just do whatever you want. There’s nothing in the rules and stuff saying that you HAVE to stay here with the Thantir.”
“Those are some very good points…” Phovoula calmed down a bit. “I have options. Although I don’t like that last option. I want to stay here with Phovos.”
“Fair enough!” Kayel turned to his old gladiator team. “What do you guys think?”
Ret thought to himself for a moment, then shrugged. “I think I want to do what we somewhat did at home…”
“What do you mean by that?” Nyssi asked. “We can’t really make a gladiator arena out here.”
“No, I mean when we went off to hunt Corruptiids, as commanded by Kyr Phovos and Allbirther Sini. And when Kyr Vikalos took us to that abandoned Voidborn thingy and we killed all the Corruption. I want to do that.”
Kayel stretched out a little, then settled down. “Sounds like a good idea, when we’re all less tired.”
Tanos and Nyssi agreed.
“Oh, totally. Plus we have the silly anti-Corruption blood!” Tanos beamed. “We’re probably the best team when it comes to killing that nasty black stuff. Would be pretty easy.”
“Yeah, plus, I think big, old, fiery Retvik said he wants to get into corruption purging or whatever it’s called!” Kayel added. “It’s a perfect job for us.”
Ret smiled and nodded. “I am glad you three are on board. But I do want to relax a little first. And we need to celebrate or something. And spend some time doing things with each other…”
Kayel quickly realised what Ret was talking about, doubly so because Kuta had snuggled up to him. Nyssi had also gotten closer to Thassalin, and Talok got up and sat down next to Tanos.
“It’s weird, that we’re Decay Lords now…” Phovoula muttered.
“It is, but it’s all going up from here…”