“I can see why this place was abandoned!” Tahnaiious growled as he helped Mavriir to his feet, while a blast of flame pushed back a tentacle of Corruption. “This shit is just smashing through the walls like they’re made of paper!”
“Yes, should have done a structural integrity test or a quick history lesson or something…” Erin muttered, summoning a telekinetic shield around the sect leaders.
While the invading Corruption had caught everyone unaware, the Pentathax did seem to be holding their ground. However, there was clearly something wrong, as the Doom Drums had left the eight sect leaders to their own devices in the main meeting hall, in order to better organize their troops. That had been fine up until the Corruption had suddenly pushed through a main barricade, infecting several Pentathax troops as they did so, and forcing everyone to group together.
In the mean time, Peshon had been given a crash course on how to remove Corruption using telekinesis, and it turned out he was very good at it. The handful of nearby, infected troops were now all recovering, as Sysasa tended to their wounds. Kuuraa on the other hand was using their emotion-based powers to rally nearby troops, replacing any fear with anger and rage towards the Corruption and stopping them from fleeing. But the main thing holding the Corruption back and stopping it from claiming the meeting hall and everyone inside it was Retvik, who was channelling his fire powers into a vast inferno, burning away each tentacle as it tried to break in.
As they fought though, there was also an odd layer of confusion among the Pentathax. No one quite knew what they were dealing with. The telepaths among the eight guests had picked up an acronym, UAOSE, but they could only guess what it meant.
“How are you holding up, Retvik?” Psehon asked as he bolstered Erin’s shield.
“Ugh… Hungry…” Retvik grunted, not really giving a reasonable or understandable answer. Kuuraa and Mutau suggested that Retvik needed food (after all, he was generating very high heats), so they decided to try and find something edible, but there wasn’t much around. Tahnaiious and Mavriir had grabbed their flamethrowers (turned out both the Alsyr and the Ekthris all carried small pocket fire weapons for emergencies) and were now trying to help Retvik.
Instead, Psehon decided to scan the minds of everyone nearby. He finally worked out what the acronym was.
“What is the Unending Ancient One and why is this attack classified as a Sentient Entity?” Psehon queried one of the recovering Pentathax.
“One of what we consider to be the oldest and most dangerous strains… But normally we don’t run into Sentient Entities! Most of the time, we only get mindless traces, the sentient clumps are incredibly rare and…” The soldier stuttered. “Didn’t… even know they existed…”
“Well I fucking hope this shit doesn’t come into our territories!” Tahnaiious hissed. “It’s fighting off standard levels of anti-corruption heat, and us Ekthris only have a handful of Flames working for us! Wait… is that the… uh, fuck, we should move!”
Chunks of concrete fell from the ceiling as more tendrils began to break through. However, the tendrils were frozen in place by blades of ice, and a frosty dome provided some shelter.
“I’m really damn sorry about this!” Permafrost sighed as he used blasts of ice to block up holes in the walls and the ceiling. Just in time too, as Retvik’s flames were beginning to falter and he needed a moment to recover. “First UAOSE we’ve ever seen and it’s tough as nails!”
“Seems pretty damn bad…” Mutau tutted.
“It is!” Permafrost exclaimed. “Also, I see what you mean by it… chanting at us. Anyway, I’m getting you all out of here. Through the exit behind-”
The ice dome shattered as the ceiling collapsed entirely, and several colossal tentacles broke through, reaching into the various Decayons in the room, clearly trying to grab and infect them. The only thing that stopped the tendrils from getting too close was a blast of intense heat.
The Corruption though worked out what was holding them back. A new wave of tendrils smashed through a nearby wall, immediately targetting the source of the flames. And Retvik, utterly exhausted from the amount of heat he had been creating and still focused on the ceiling above him, didn’t see it coming.
Thankfully, he didn’t need to. A blinding light filled the entire room, burning away at the corrupted flesh trying to break in. The corruption seemed to screech in pain, and the odd telepathic chanting suddenly fell silent.
Loud cursing suddenly interrupted the awe. Permafrost’s small, child-like human form shouted in confusion as he was somehow ejected out of his suit of armour and narrowly missed phasing through the floor.
“What the fuck?”
“Sorry, I need to borrow your, uh, warframe for a second!” a new voice exclaimed, taking control of the suit. With a swish of their hands, the stranger flash-froze the corrupted tentacles, then immediately incinerated them with lashes of sun-hot flames. The lashes turned into twisting, burning vines which coiled around the corruption and forced it to almost panic and retreat.
Before long, the corruption pulled away completely. As it did so, a strange, pained chant echoed through the air.
“Yara Netrad Se Khra, Uve Oull! Xatarah!”
As the chanting faded away, Permafrost’s comms began to light up, as Galeforce’s ships were all reporting that the corruption was retreating and fleeing. Whoever had kicked Ordas out of his suit ejected themselves from it and floated before Ordas.
“Sorry, I don’t have a physical presence out here, I’m astral projecting, but I needed a physical form to, uh, stop my friend from being killed.”
Ordas looked the creature up and down, then smiled, before returning to their suit. “No worries, stranger. Thank you very much for the help, how did you do that?”
The being looked around, but suddenly frowned. “Damn. There’s other people here. Didn’t think there’d be so many folks here… As to how I killed that corruption? Standard high heat removal, I guess. Holy mimicked light…” The being turned around to face Retvik. “As for you, Retvik, please, for the love of my damn sisters, can you please stop nearly dying? You have no idea how damn stressful and painful this is for me! Also, why does that guy smell a bit like a Spast?”
Retvik picked himself off the ground and dusted himself down. “I am sorry, Arkay. I did not think I would be suddenly attacked by Corruption that knows to target vok like me…” Retvik glanced at who Arkay was talking about. “As for your second question, that person there is Tahnaiious. He used to know you when you were mortal, and he is a Kronospast.”
Arkay floated over to Tahnaiious, who was now visibly shaking as he turned back into his ancient, Ethran-type Retha form, then into his tiny, original Kronospast shape. “Huh. Hi… Guess I should have listened to you that day, right?”
“Yeah. I’m glad you’re alive though…” Tahnaiious stuttered.
“I’m not, my continued existence is pretty damn awful. It’s not your fault though. Never was. Do you still call yourself Tenuk?”
“No, I use my full name now.”
“Fair enough…” Arkay sighed, before turning back to Retvik. “Seriously, stop nearly dying. I would stick around answer all the questions you all want to ask, but this is incredibly straining for me and I need to get back to my body. Retvik, do me a favour and hug Litvir for me…” Arkay paused. “Wait, where are we?”
“An ancient Deathven fortress in the Chrysanth Lea, in the Kentarasa Pentacluster!” Permafrost answered.
“Oh. I have no idea where that is. But I REALLY have to go now. Stay safe, everyone. And use as hot a flame as you can manage for that kind of Corruption, alright?”
“Will do. Thank you, Arkay!” Retvik smiled weakly.
“Heh. No worries. Bye…”
The ghostly, yellow-plated being disappeared in a puff of sparkles. Retvik smiled some more, then wandered over to a nearby chair and sat down, utterly exhausted himself.
“Well, that was well and truly fucked up!” Tahnaiious grunted as he sat down next to Retvik. “I feel better at least, but you’ve got a ton of shit you’ve got to answer for.”
Retvik grunted back as he rubbed his eyes. “I know, I know. All I can say is that Amalgam Mimics have too many damn powers…”
Permaforst also sat down. “It’s fine. We all need to clean up anyway. Had no idea that the UAO was that damn active around here, and I had no idea this place was so weak and easy to break when we first reclaimed it. Either way, you all take a break. Once we’ve tidied up, we’ll have another quick chat, arrange all the supplies we plan to give you, then you can all head home.”
“Ah, good!” Sysasa giggled. “Because, no offence, you Pentathax have been fine and friendly and all that, but this stupid fortress sucks.”