Location: The Abyss
The Shade Lord was currently humming tunes, telling stories, singing songs, his usual activities. Of course his mind was still on his lost children, but he couldn't let that get in the way of taking care of the children he still had under his care. His children however couldn't stop talking about their missing siblings, and kept discussing what they would do when they got back.
Some were discussing what kinds of games they would play with them. Be that tag, hide and seek, dancing, running around in random directions, or napping. Some had even thrown around the idea of tying them up and forcing them to take a nap so they wouldn't be able to hurt themselves, or some new argument they could use to finally convince them, like the black in their eyes, or the fact the Abyss gives them strength, and that the Shade Lord is the god of void, and therefore would know a void being when he sees one.
The Shade Lord however knew that they would never come willingly. Continued conversations with Julia in her dreams reinforced this. They were wholly convinced that HE was the one who was mistaken. She mentioned that some of his lost children even consider him mentally deficient... Having his own children think so little of him made him feel things... things he didn't particularly enjoy feeling.
Of course he knew that they were the wrong ones, it was clear to him now. The dilution caused severe mental damage, and this his diluted children couldn't be trusted with their own decision making until they were fixed. It explained why they couldn't detect their souls, why they didn't recognize themselves as void entities, why they didn't recognize their siblings, why they didn't recognize… him.
The Shade Lord sighed internally, the bigger child will be particularly difficult to get back. It was fast, strong, and powerful. It was able to single handedly devastate the City of Tears, and was able to put up a fight against the Pale King, to the point where neither was able to win. By how easily it was able to just smack Hollow out of the way, it was clear that his largest undiluted child wouldn't be able to pull it off.
No fault of his own, of course, Hollow was a skilled warrior… though how he got his training was… something he deeply regretted that he had to go through. It was just that the bigger child outmatched him. The Shade Lord suspected foul play in how strong this broken child was, he suspected that something tortured it into that form, much like the Pale King had done to Hollow. If that was true, then who did it? He would rip them apart and make them wish they never even existed!
Oh… he was getting ahead of himself, for now, he had to take care of his beloved children that he had in his care currently, and collect those he could. He wondered how Hollow, Lost, and Ghost were doing-
The doors to the Abyss creaked open, catching the Shade Lord's attention. Ghosts little form squeezed its way in, and began running over to the Lord of Shades.
"Ghost, you have returned, where are your siblings?" The Lord asked, who moved towards the metal platform at the Abyss' entrance.
Ghost stopped at the edge of the platform, and began speaking frantically.
"Siblings in danger, found four siblings, fourth sibling soul extra diluted! Nightmare troupe got fourth sibling!"
The Shade Lord took a moment to process this information, he was not pleased. So… this nightmare god thought that they could just dilute his children? That was completely and totally unacceptable. He was going to pay dearly for his transgressions, no one harms his children and gets away from it unscathed.
"My child, where are they?" The Shade Lord asked.
"Siblings were in Dirtmouth, Lost and Hollow stayed to keep them safe"
The Shade Lord once more raised his shell from the Abyss, and placed it down on the platform. Wordlessly, he dove into it, and took the form of a gargantuan vanta black biped with four arms and eight glowing white eyes. The Shade Lord bent down on one knee, and looked Ghost in the eye.
"I must go save your siblings from terrible danger my child, I will hopefully be back soon. While I am away, I need you to look after your siblings here" The Shade Lord said.
"I look after siblings!" Ghost proclaimed
The Shade Lord nodded, and burst through the door.
Ghost watched them leave, and just stared for a moment. Suddenly the sound of footsteps could be heard behind him. Ghost turned around to see one of his siblings run up to him.
"Tag!" The sibling yelled, touching Ghost's shell, and then running away as fast as they could.
Ghost chased after them, the game was on.
Location: Palace Grounds
The guards of the White Palace were some of the greatest warriors Hallownest had ever produced. It was their duty to protect their monarch from whomever would wish to harm them. Well… that's what's on the job description at least. In reality, they were usually nothing more than decoration, and law enforcement around the Palace Grounds. Most of the time they just stood around and looked pretty for any guest that may come, sometimes stopping a break in of those trying to steal from the palace while the king was away, though that was rare. This job didn't even exist until the Pale Kind decommissioned the Kingsmoulds for some reason, which were the things previously tasked with ensuring the King's safety.
The guards all supposed that it made sense, the King needed someone to watch the White Palace while he was away on some important duty. Still however, if there was anything that came with the intent and ability to even harm the Pale King… well, what could mere mortals hope to do against something that could harm gods?
Cotta didn't really care, after all, the job paid very well, to the point where one could mistake her for a minor noble with all the luxuries she could afford. The job also was quite prestigious, it gained her some social standing, and what were the chances that they would actually fight something or someone that they couldn't take care of?
Okay, yea, sure the giant was an example of something that they really could not handle. However its behaviour was looked over again and again by scholars, and they noticed that it only attacked when it itself was attacked. So to deal with the giant, you need only stay out of its way, and not be collateral damage.
Over all, those dumb enough to try and raid the Palace would either be stupid untrained rabble which they could easily dispatch, or beings that can harm gods which were rare and they could probably avoid.
All she had to do was stand there, look pretty, and… oh dear Wyrm what in the King's name is that?!
A massive dark entity she recognized as the infamous Lord of Shades ran with great speed across the Palace Grounds, the Palace Guards raised their weapons. However the Shade Lord did not seem interested at all in the palace, and just ran from one end of the Grounds to another, so… it wasn't there problem was it…
Location: Dirtmouth
Hegemol marched off the elevator they took from the stag to Dirthmouth's skagway station's entrance with his assigned sentry detail. From what he remembered from one of Monomon's many rants about her doodads, was that it ran on some sort of soul engine or something. He wasn't exactly sure, the attention he paid to Monomon's many rants was nominal at best.
Now the reason they were there, was because something, which the King had told him was called a nightmare troupe, had set up shop in Dirtmouth, and Hegemol was sent to investigate and question the troupe. To Hegemol, this could only mean that nightmare troupes likely had a reputation for being less than… neighborly. He was not sure how the King knew about them, but that was not his place to question. All he knew is that if this nightmare troupe wished to harm the people of Dirtmouth, it would be over his dead body.
Hegemol marched out of the stagway station, his sentries filing behind him with their normal soldierly postures. The most apparent thing to them were the red tents in town, with various towns bugs standing around it, likely interested by their mysterious nature. Life in Dirtmouth could be quite dull apparently, so anything out of the ordinary was ripe for speculation and gossip here, as there was not that much else to do.
Hegemol walked with his detail to the entrance of the tents, and was stopped by a bug, while shorter than him (most bugs were) he was still rather bulky.
"Hello stranger, what may I do for you?" The bulky bug asked.
"Is this… the nightmare… troupe?" Hegemol asked,
"Hello, I am Hegemol, the Pale King of Hallownest, the Monarch of this land wished me to ask you why a… nightmare troupe, is in his domain" Hegemol said respectfully.
"Ahh… you see, my troupe had found… other ways to collect nightmare flames… albeit it strays from the orthadox, do not worry however, your kingdom will not be affected by this" The bug said.
"Right… last question, do you know of any… rather tall beings… ones clad in white?"
Brumm's calm demeanor hid his quiet panic, this wasn't good. If the Pale King found out about what these creatures could do, then he would never let them leave with them without a fight. It is clear by the way Hegemol asked the question that he, and by extension, probably the Pale King knew about, but didn't know a lot about humans.
Brumm needed to inform Master Grimm about this.
"Hmm, perhaps you would wish to speak to Troupe Master Grimm about this, he would probably be better able to answer that question then I would, would you like me to get him?" Brumm said.
Hegemol was silent for a moment before his armored head nodded in affirmation.
"I believe that to be the most reasonable course of action" Hegemol stated.
Brumm nodded back and walked back into the tent.
Location: Bunker Comms Room
Izabelle was currently in the process of repairing and replacing worn out parts of the comms system. It was almost done, and it currently looked much better than it did, and it looked like the work on it would be done soon. Then they could finally contact the expeditionary team and scout teams and inform them of the new developments. They would also be asking the Expeditionary Team what the hell was taking them so long.
"There," One of Izabelle's coworkers said, finishing replacing some broken power couplings.
"How is it going over there?" The co worker asked.
"Almost… should be done, fire it up"
The communications personnel in the room nodded, and began powering the comms on again, hopefully it won't blow out like last time.
Various lights in the room turned on, signifying the activation of the various communications instruments, both long and short range.
Izabelle and her co-worker both read the readings carefully and waited a while. After that they smiled, it looked like things were in proper working order, which meant that they probably wont have to be repairing another damn comm system for a while.
Location: Grimm's Tent
Chris was still looking bordley as the empty stage, when was the damned show starting? He just wanted to get the damned crystal and leave-
Suddenly his communications device received a large amount of notifications, David's and Matthew's as well.
"Alright… finally something to break the monotony, what do we have… what the fuck?" Chris said in confusion.
"Okay… Confirmation that a gene trooper was sent out and… returned with a not insignificant amount of damage to its armor?" How? That armor was made of Carbyne. That material could withstand some serious firepower. It took rather powerful anti tank weapons to even damage it. What did these bugs have that could pull that off? Magic? Probably now that he thought about it.
What's next… oh… what!? How does that even… they think we are his what? The vessels are… and they think we are…
Okay this isn't good.
Chris tapped David on the shoulder, who looked up from his own communications device.
Chris pointed towards the vessels. David seemed to understand what he meant, and nodded.
David tapped Matthew and Seer on the shoulder.
"We have a problem," David whispered.
"It would seem so yes" Matthew whispered back.
"My friends, why are you whispering?" Seer asked.
"Our… vessel friends didn't tell us the whole truth it would seem" Matthew stated.
"We need to separate ourselves from them as soon as we can, I will elaborate on why later" David said quietly.
"Very well my friends, I trust you" Seer whispered.
Little did the group know, but Hollow was listening in. Hollow heard everything, but Hollow was not worried. The Shade Lord would be here soon, and he would make sure that his siblings never left them again.