Is this really a Game?!

"They all what?!" Reign asked in shock as he stood up in the living room, staring at Aethion\'s small figure that had appeared on top of the table that was situated in the middle of the living room.

"Yeah, the fragment that exploded, shattering their souls and making them into nothing less but idiots that can no longer even function as regular human beings was something told to them ahead of time, they all knew what it was for, and they all accepted, that is the kind of enemy you are dealing with, one that has many zealous followers that do not mind dying for their cause."

"Only the ones deemed as the most loyal are allowed to go through the process of having corruption injected inside of them, and all of them have to accept the soul fragment as well, it is a failsafe that would make sure nobody could learn about the process, unfortunately for them, they never expected to come across somebody with incredible soul manipulation as me, it is expected, after all, who would ever think a Transcendent being like myself would do anything against them?"

Reign and the others stared at Aethion with deadpan expressions, causing him to cough before continuing his story.

"The leader is not the one that turns them into fake Tier VI combatants, instead, it is the second-in-command, a person known as the head \'priest\' of their faction."

"A priest, in a faction that deals with corruption, how does that work?" Shadow asked while Aethion shrugged his shoulders.

"In their opinion, corruption is not something bad, it is what is supposed to happen, how the world should be like."

"They seem to worship something, but even I couldn\'t get that information out of the soul, any mention of it makes the soul convulse, and had I pushed it, it would have gotten destroyed, which means a deity could be what they worship and believe in, only they are powerful enough to have their names hold such power, and I mean the true name, not one that they are called by others."

"A true name has such a usage?" Mia asked as Aethion nodded his head.

"Yes, but only the true names of deities, I have heard that only then does one learn of what their true name really is, the ones you have right now are mere manifestations of what you truly are deep inside of you, and although they do have some uses, that is mostly what they are there for, for you to know what you are destined for, what you truly are and can become.\'

"I was a Transcendent, so I don\'t know much more though," Aethion said with a sigh before continuing.

"Anyway, after figuring out that there will be no way for me to find out more about how they worship the deity or what it even was, I started trying to get more info on the faction itself."

"This guy, as well as most of the faction, had never seen the leader without his large cloak and mask on, so they have no idea who he truly is, only a couple of the Tier VI combatants seem to know."

"What kind of a mask?"

"Quite a big one, almost three times larger than an average person\'s head, with feathers and fur all around it, it looks like a combination of an Aztec mask and an African tribal mask, it hides the face perfectly and thanks to the cloak and how large it is, there is no way to even determine how tall the leader is."

"He holds ceremonies and speeches every couple of days to his faction, giving them orders and planning on what to do to the forest and how to attack it, everybody is welcome to give their opinion, but the leader only makes a decision in private, nobody except him and the closest to him know of what the plan is before it is initiated."

"Have you learned where they are, what place the faction has as its main base?" Reign asked Aethion who shook his head.

"Not the main base, but a couple of smaller ones, ones that are inhabited by mostly regular people who have not yet fully joined them."

"There is a portal present in each of those bases, one leading directly to the main base, and the exact location of the main base is something that only the leader, as well as the top characters of the faction, know of."

"I can describe it for you, tell you what it looks like and what is around it, but that is pretty much all that this person knew, even though he was not allowed to know where the base was located."

"The enemy is careful, incredibly careful," Wolf said in a low voice as Aethion nodded at him.

"Correct, so far, this is the only enemy you have come across that is as dangerous and careful as the old Order that the soul in your sword used to lead, the main difference being the size of the faction, with this one being many times larger and more powerful."

"They have multiple Tier VI combatants, you have already come across 3 of them, and from the memories of that man, I know for certain that they have at least 3 more, the three being the head priest, the leader, as well as another higher-up that this person had seen before."

"We should keep in mind that the enemy might have even more Tier VI combatants, but I doubt they have more than 1 or 2 more of them."

Aethion\'s words made the atmosphere in the living room quite heavy.

The enemy possibly had 7 or 8 Tier VI combatants, which was almost the same as they had, and they had many fake Tier VI combatants.

"Right, the fake ones, probably around 15 total, thanks to you eliminating 4 of them, there should be 11 left, but they might be able to make more of them."

"How do they make them?" Reign asked as Aethion scratched the back of his head.

"All of them all blindfolded when going through the process, so I can only go with what that guy felt during the process."

"It was painful, excruciatingly painful and he almost lost his consciousness a couple of times during the process, which lasted somewhere around 1 hour from what I gather."

"The corruption is indeed brought inside the body of the person, entering through the mouth and nose, and then the corruption starts changing them from the inside, strengthening their bodies and even tempering their soul."

"I am unaware whether this process is reversible or not, they were told that it is and that they will be able to continue leveling up and reach the peak of Tier V without any issues, from what they were told, the corruption would be taken out when they received their challenge and finished it so that they could evolve normally."

"Of course, those could all be lies, the soul of this person, although normal, is still different, the corruption has indeed changed it, but I can\'t be certain whether it would have any long-lasting side effects."

"As for their main base, it is shrouded by an array, one that makes it impossible for those inside to see outside, as well as vice versa."

"The architecture is quite simple, most of the houses are simple huts, with larger hurts present for the meeting hall, the weapons shops, and more buildings that are somewhat similar to those present in Doncaster, the ones bought from the system itself."

"The air is a bit stale there, and they can\'t even see the sun, the entire base is always shrouded in a dim light as the rays of the sun can\'t fully penetrate the barriers placed around the base."

"Great, so we have no idea what kind of place their base is at, doesn\'t that make it useless for us?" Shadow asked as Aethion smirked at him.

"I understand why you might think so, but no, after all, we do have the locations of all their other bases."

"The portals, right, we can infiltrate through them if we are fast enough," Shadow said with a smile on his face while Aethion chuckled before shaking his head at him. |em|p,yr

"No, the portals are all locked, only those that are living in the main base can enter, as well as those deemed worthy enough by the leader or the higher-ups that check up on the people living in those smaller bases."

"So … again, useless?" Shadow asked as Aethion again smiled at him.

"Oh come on, will you stop doing that, just tell us what we can do!" Shadow said with a wronged expression on his face, making Aethion laugh.