“You have made NO PROGRESS!”
Deathven stared down Skotadision. The leader of the Deathven-allied Vast Voids had stormed in and started making statements in a rather traditional Voidborn manner. Which was quite odd, because normally Skotadision was a well-behaved and polite person.
“I have made no progress in what?” Deathven remained calm, despite the fact that Skotadision was holding a sword. “I am a very busy person, I have many duties and many tasks, many of which do not progress at a steady speed.”
“You said you would deal with the Red of the Rainbow Ruin, that you would find it, contain it and, preferably, destroy it. You have not done that!”
Deathven eyed Skotadision some more. “For someone who claims to be above the Plated Cults, you are acting in a very plated manner right now.”
“Because we now have TWO rogue colours and NO ONE knows where they are! Not to mention the fact that you have Yellow working for you directly! You SAID you would keep those monsters down, that you would destroy them! But you have stopped doing so! You let Yellow live! You failed to contain Orange! You then let Green live as well!”
The Voidborn was getting very angry. Deathven just sighed.
“I assume you are talking about little Deathbringer. I did not just “let” him live. I was in fact killing beings you believed to be amalgam mimics, but Deathbringer earned his right to continue existing, as did Unender. They are officially Decay Lords and are thus under my protection.”
“You made Yellow into a highly ranked Higher Decay Lord!”
“I did, yes. Because Deathbringer earned that status, and I decided it was better to have a powerful being working for me than against me.”
Skotadision hissed. “That goes against our contract!”
“It does not. Your demand was that I contain what you dubbed the All And None. They are contained. It is not my fault that you decided that Deathbringer suddenly isn’t one of those two amalgam mimics, and it is not my fault that you have switched from the All And None prophecy to this even sillier Rainbow Ruin one.”
Skotadision was about to argue back, but Deathven raised his hand.
“Let me ask Deathbringer and see if he has made any progress.”
With a snap of his fingers, three beings appeared between Deathven and Skotadision. Skotadision blinked, feeling very concerned about what Deathven had just done. But as the dust cleared, Skotadision very suddenly calmed down.
“YOU ARE TINY!”
Arkay blinked, not sure how to take both randomly being teleported and being told he was small.
“Uh, hi, Overlord, I guess we made some progress, since I am actually wearing armour today! Not much progress though since my two babes are well and truly naked. What do you need? I guess it’s important?”
Deathven grunted. Deathbringer seemed less snarky today. Souldrainer and Flamebearer though were clearly not quite awake though.
“It is not majorly important. I just would like a status update on your attempts to find this other Thrice-Torn that we have dubbed Red.”
“Oh…” Arkay frowned. “Well, we are definitely still looking. We checked our own troops and found nothing at all and I had a chat with all the local sects and we haven’t found anything yet. I also spoke to the Pentathax and asked them if they could tell us if they find anything unusual, but, well, space is big and Decayons are normally quite small and Synaisthyns seem to be even smaller outside of your old trio buddy, so it’s a needle in a haystack situation. On a stupidly large scale.”
“Do you have a way to detect amalgam… Thrice-Torns over long distances?”
Arkay shook his head. “Not at all. Like, I can tell up close, within about 100m. As far as scent particles and certain mind waves can travel. The periuniversal void is empty though so those don’t travel far.”
“Question…” Litvir sleepily interrupted. “Who is your friend and why am I picking up murderous intent on a vast scale from them?”
Skotadision glared at Litvir. Litvir was too sleepy to notice. Deathven silently told Skotadision to calm down, then introduced the Voidborn. Rather than calming down, Skotadision went back to eyeing Arkay.
“This is Skotadision, the leader of the Vast Voids, who requested that we find Red.”
“Huh. Nice to meet you. I can see why one would want to kill all Plated Voidborns…” Litvir muttered. “Apologies, my telepathy is a little wonky right now. But you are more interested in Arkay.”
Skotadision snarled. “I assumed the former All, the being the Plated Cults call Yellow, would be… much, much larger…”
Arkay put his hands on his hips and tutted. “My name is Arkay, thank you very much. Codename Deathbringer. No idea what those two names suggest. Or why you expected me to be huge.”
“To be fair, you are below average for a Decay Lord,” Deathven shrugged. “But the void is vast and varied, so averages are not really something that can make sense. You are however still working on finding Red, yes?”
“Yeah, of course. I’m just waiting for some other folks to get back to me, and we’re still looking…” Arkay paused briefly. “Also, unrelated, did you get my email about those assassinations attempts in the Justarian Circle that are leaking into the Ventra Expanse?”
Deathven nodded. “I did, yes, Deathbringer. I have sent Featherlord and some associates to look into it.”
“Alright, cool. Is there anything else you need? Because Retvik is still half asleep.”
“No, I think everything is covered. Please let me know if you get any new information.”
“Will do!”
“Thank you. Stay safe.”
Satisfied with Deathbringer’s words, Deathven snapped his fingers and sent the Missing home. But his mood quickly soured as he turned back to Skotadision.
“He is fine.”
“That thing will murder many. The other members of the Rainbow Ruin will murder many more.”
“Oh, and we will not?” Deathven tutted. “We are all beings of death. Like I said, I am working on your silly request, and I would appreciate it if you did not get violent with me. Doubly so as I am no longer sure of your intent. After all, the destruction of the Chrysem Eternatum would probably be a good thing.”
“We all know how powerful Everlord was!” Skotadision growled. “No one wants a repeat of that.”
Deathven simply sighed. “Alright, I am tired of your presence. I am already doing as you saked. You may leave now.”
With one final snarl, Skotadision disappeared in a puff of smoke. Deathven rolled his eyes, then checked his calendar, to see what he had to work on next.