"It's done?" Reign asked as Aethion nodded his head while wiping away the non-existent sweat from his forehead.
"I have to be honest, I didn't expect his soul to be this troublesome to be dealt with, he has been brainwashed quite well, he has quite the loyalty toward the enemy, and he even knew that there was a fragment inside his soul, they all did."
"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."
"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.