June 1, 2019, Penitent Hall...

Legion was with me as I entered Penitent Hall once again.

I came here regularly, speaking with the Warlocks old and new, monitoring their conditions and intentions... and dropping off massive amounts of goldweight for them to burn away into dust.

All of them had seen literally billions of dollars in gems and goldweight Burn away in Infusing Patterns by now. They had watched craftcoins and jewelry and beautiful gemstones dissolve into sparkles and get poured into base magical Weapons, Armor, Cure Wands, Death Ward Amulets, and plenty of other things big and small.

It came, bright and shiny and glittery, ransoms beyond kings; and they Burned it all away to kill the undead.

There were a few who thought about taking some of that for themselves, and a couple couldn’t control their greed, despite the fact they were being paid the same rate as literally thousands of others to do this work, if not better.

They got moved out of Infusing to straight power generation all the time, and a black mark was applied.

Get three such marks, and they were booted. If they had a Dark Pact, they had twelve hours before the hunt began.

Shvaughn’s terror-hunt of Kiss and Heart-Pacted Warlocks around the world, and the implacable vengeance of the Morningsuns on all those associated with the Church of Shoul, meant not only that there were fewer beings around Granting Pacts, but those willing to face the forces actively hunting them with ill intentions were even fewer.

It also meant that more and more of their Warlocks were coming in to Penitent Hall, ready to leave the hunt, work for a living, and contribute to society, instead of feed on it.

Yeah, a lot of them had tremendous chips on their shoulders, grievances against the whole world, and sad stories of violence and pain and emotional trauma that could be shared among others who actually knew what it all meant.

They could also feel their Pacts burn en vivus, and the influence the Pacts had on them also burning away, leaving them startled and aware of just how much pressure had been slowly placed on them over the years to generate more Sin and provide examples of what Warlocks could do for the foolish.

Some were smart enough and wise enough to consider the implications, and maybe choose a new path. Others just didn’t care; they just didn’t want to be hunted anymore, and even if it was a soft prison, the fact they were getting paid well meant they could either enjoy simple pleasures for themselves, or hire others to contribute to things they cared about.

And then some had decided that they were going to fight their doom.

Their fates at this point were laid out before them.

They could die with their Pact, and get sent into the Shroud, hoping some other sucker took their Pact... at which time they’d be trapped in the Shroud and fuel for it, instead of going Down. Trading one horrible doom for another.

They could be Penitent, and use the power of their Pact against the interests of its owners. They could hope those Powers would cancel the Pact, but that probably wasn’t too likely... in which case they were putting a massive thumb in the eye of their Patrons before they went Down.

Yes, using the Pact to do Good was possible. Yes, it would sucker some people in. But now, the onus was on the other side. If all its Warlocks decided to be Penitent, was the value of their souls worth what was being given up to work against them, especially when those Warlocks rapidly became aware of what the true cost was, and would speak about it?

Some of them knew they could ask to be Consumed, and so their soul would not go Down if that Warlock did not. If it was Legion... they might not go Down at all...

The last option was to take their fate into their own hands and break the Eternal Barrier, climbing beyond the power of their Pacts to take their souls.

That would take tremendous amounts of Karma, great amounts of time, and a frankly extraordinary amount of luck to defy all the odds of making it there and beyond.

Unless they had a Pact Morituri.

With the Pact Morituri, they would not die as long as the Shroud was around. They would simply be reborn at the next dusk in the nearest Shroudzone, to take up the fight again.

The undead of countless worlds, reduced to vivus and freed from their slavery, would provide the Karma. Even if the Shroud suppressed living souls, there would be no stopping their Leveling. Eventually, if they kept fighting, they would get there.

In doing so, they would free world after world from the Shroud, be it purging it from a world that had already fallen, or stopping it from seizing another.

And if they passed Twenty and made Eternal... what then would the universe hold for them? All that they had to fear on the way was something that destroyed their very souls, which the Shroud would take very personally.

That, and potentially being under the Shroud fighting undead for a VERY long time... but if you had friends and comrades there, and were legitimately saving people, and fighting what could only be a very GOOD fight... was that so bad?

Especially if you made it to the end?

Today was the day I came to pick them up.

The Warlocks of Penitent Hall were basically all Primos, so that meant they could take multiple Pacts. Adding on the Morituri Pact was simple. Adding on a Volcano Pact from the Firezone wasn’t hard, either.

They’d have to reach Seven to add another one, but that was fine. They still had a lot of anti-undead punch.

Once they swore the Morituri Pact, I’d paid for the Gear upgrades, and they’d Infused them. The Death Ward Amulets were the biggest and priciest thing, but eventually would be unneeded and could be passed on to others. Beginner Weapons and Bracers were next. The rest would be earned as they went.

They were why I’d gone ahead and taken the Lord of Scepters Title. Function Rods for everyone!

A Warlock’s Scepter was basically used to enhance their Wrath or the spell-like effects that came off of it. A Warlock’s Weapon was used to stack their Wrath onto another killing effect, and naturally ranged and melee Weapons were different. Master Fred, for instance, had a Scepter, his Grit(s), and Idiot, his Sword.

Making their Scepter a Weapon thus saved some effort, and making it a Function Rod did double duty.

A Function Rod was first designed by Mulcaster back on Terra-Luna, and was considered one of the gold standard for Artificed Weapons. It was clever, multi-purpose, useful, versatile, and flexible. Many people wished they had one at Level One, and there were a number of people who fed Named Weapons to Function Rods, moving the Name and effects so they had a truly versatile Weapon to use.

Function Rods were based on an old item called a Rod of Lordly Might from another game. Basically, it was a Weapon that could transform into other Weapons. Now, Morphing also did that, but was an external effect that was shut down in Greyfields. The Artificer mechanic of Function Rods did not, and Morphing couldn’t imitate the things it could do.

Basic Function was a jo stick, two feet long, made of adamantine, and so built up as a Weapon. It had several depressions on it that did several things.

Button One extended a blade from the end, or retracted it. Button Two extended the length of the Rod, or shrank it. Button Three made it split into two, or rejoined the splits. Button Four split it into two, but connected by a chain. Button Five made it rise by levitation, or fall, and Button Six locked it in place immovable.

In addition, if you pressed in on one end, it opened an Itemized space equal to a Wand Chamber, and about a cubic foot in effective volume. If you pressed on both ends, the Rod was made hollow.

Just little tricks, but the combinations you could get out of them were impressive.

Add in the Expertise Enhancement, and any skill you had in one weapon form, like, say, the Sword, transferred over to all the Weapons with the Rod, which was very useful.

As for ranged Weapons, the Warlocks went with Autobows. They were aware that firearms weren’t going to be useful in their classic format, and you couldn’t replicate the Alchemical Ammunition that would be required to make them work with Abundant Ammunition effects. So, better to get used to the new paradigm of ranged combat and make it work for them.

They’d also been through a bunch of training. They had mostly served as assassins, using pistols and light melee weapons against living targets via ambushes and sneak attacks. Going up against the undead, the Fiends that were slaved to them, and the occasional Constructs among them was a completely different style of combat, requiring a lot more brutal power than the finesse many of them knew.

They’d been killers of the living; now they’d be the bane of the undead, and for a very long time.

Those who swore a Pact Mortai weren’t treated quite so well, because they didn’t need to be. They weren’t going to fight forever; they just had an additional weapon to fight against the undead. They were basically just like everyone else who got a Pact Mortai, but they were getting out of Penitent Hall, and being allowed to fight and Level quickly, instead of safely and slowly.

It still meant that over half the Warlocks here were going to be heading out to a Shroudzone to fight, and the remainder were screwing up their nerves to do the same thing. Most of them had Blessings to their Wisdom, as I wanted them to understand and be more introspective about their decision here, as opposed to overthinking things with Intellect or just getting bullheaded emotional with Charisma.

They were all in their own Markchat Box, linked to Legion and Shvaughn and some key other people they could turn to for advice, now getting subdivided for battle into smaller squads and teams.

The looks they sent at Legion were hungry, but they always drifted over to me, as obviously I was the one who had made their breakthrough possible. Legion wasn’t technically over the Twenty+ hump and Eternal, but they had the power to defy their Pact now, which was the key thing as far as most of the other Warlocks were concerned. They’d all seen Legion in full-out Pact-magic abusing mode, and definitely wanted to get some of that power for themselves.

They were all hopelessly smitten with Legion, too, but that was a separate issue. Legion would have no problem keeping command of them.

“We’ll leave from the roof,” I told them all calmly, and the Shrouded Warlocks followed me out to the open-air rooftop many of them were wont to spend some time on, leaving the White Fountain room where constant streams of igniting Wrath were being poured into massive Formations that conducted the power all over Heavenbound Hall, tapping it for making ever more magical items to support the effort.

One of the things I had to plan was what to do with all this Warlock magic once the Shroud was gone. Other Churches were already piping up about sanctuary plans of their own, and even offering more money and benefits to said Warlocks.

Redemption, however? Not so much. Those Churches wanting a suspension of sentence for the Warlocks pumping power for them also didn’t exactly get a warm reception from Heavenbound Hall. The Hall very specifically gave them multiple Causes to pick from and work towards, and they could be certain that what they were going to do was helping that higher Cause.

If that meant charging up Healing devices of various sorts for poor parts of the world, that’s where such things went. If it meant helping with Arms and Armor meant for fighting the Shroud, or other things that were coming after it was gone, they could work on those. Protective devices? Sure. Cure Wands? Not a problem.

Just to make money by selling Wrath for time? What was the money going to be used for? If it wasn’t for a Good Cause, it was just mercenary work, which inevitably devolved towards highest bidders and willingness to do extreme things for more money, a spiraling pit of compensation for lack of morals that only went in one direction.

Cynics just called Good Causes one more Cause that should pay like any other, probably envious of just how much effort and morale people put into what they considered worthy Causes than those who merely got paid for them.

We were heading to one of the Gulagzones, this one reserved just for the Warlocks.

Fight. Level, get Naming Karma. Withdraw, work on downtime stuff. Rinse, repeat.

Get stronger. Walk the Double Helix.