Wrath slowly continued while sizing up Vale.
"As you may have noticed, I said 'a' master, not 'the' master. That is because you are not the first master of Lust, and you may not be the last. Not only that, it is not you who is viewed as the vile existence, but your dungeon. But because you and your dungeon are one and the same, that hate extends to you… Ah, I'm getting off track. "
Wrath chuckled to himself and then gestured toward the sleeping Sloth.
"The point is that if what our resident oracle said is correct, then when a master of vice dies, a new one will be chosen for a vice dungeon up until the seventh one. Meaning, the Dungeon of Lust would cease to exist if its seventh inheritor died… You should already know this, but you are the fifth inheritor."
Vale narrowed his eyes while studying the minor movements Wrath made as he spoke. Wrath had an odd tick where he seemed to tap his finger on the table… a lot.
But… if what Wrath said was true, then that explained all the fifth stuff. Well, not all of it. The Fifth Vice Dungeon probably just referred to the Lust dungeon in relation to the other ones. However, his being titled the fifth incarnation now made sense…
But it doesn't seem he gets to keep any of the progress the previous Lusts made.
'Speaking of them… if they did exist. What happened to them? How did they die? And what were their dungeons like? What of their fallen dungeons?'
"You may be wondering why we called you here… or what purpose we have. It's simple, really. Survival in this world. That's what it boils down to. All of the Vice Dungeons and their masters are needed for this world's survival, whether the natives like it or not. That also means whether you or I like it."
Wrath leaned back in his throne, tilted his helm a little to the side, and rested it on his metal knuckle.
"While I'm not one to play nice and this situation pisses me off to no end, I'm not an idiot who throws themselves into a perilous situation by way of vainglorious pride…"
Wrath continued tapping the table with his outstretched hand.
"As for what the situation is… A truly vile existence is slowly consuming Pandora. This plague spreads to whatever lifeform it touches and corrupts them. Those infected who spread this corruption are called by many names: Corrupted, Voidborn, Plagued, Scourge, Infected, Demons, Devils, Calamity, Grimm. Call them whatever you want. The problem is that they keep spawning and killing all lifeforms wherever they appear and making areas inhabitable by untainted life..."
Wrath adjusted his position and switched his arms. Putting the one resting against the bottom of his helm on the table and bringing the one on the table to his helm.
"While we masters may not need the resources like food, beings of our dungeons do. Not to mention that the corrupted abominations are fairly strong and constantly invade dungeons and wreak havoc. If we were starved of all resources on the surface and at the same time facing a constant stream of enemies, our dungeons would eventually be overrun, no matter how desperately we struggle or how much stronger we are than our mindless opponents."
Vale wasn't entirely following yet, but a semblance of sense was starting to form.
He'd also learned something quite vital. His workers, and probably even Toy and Salome, needed to eat and perform other necessary life functions.
'Water is going to be an issue…'
Apparently, they were able to scavenge from the surface. Yet, Vale was unsure of what was even around his dungeon, nor how he'd get to the surface, if he even could.
As for what the corruption was, it was most definitely the inky black substance that clung to those beasts in that endless horde he saw before being transported here. Vale didn't have much time to study those abominations, so he'd just assumed the black substance dripping off of them was just a hereditary quirk or trait. But it seemed it was this rumored corruption.
"There is a silver lining, though… We and all associated with our dungeons are immune to this corruption. So, you needn't worry about that front, but you still can't treat this threat as something frivolous for the reason stated earlier. We will all fall if all the land of this world is corrupted…"
Wrath picked his head up and rested both hands on the arms of his chair.
"Your strength, or more like potential strength, is needed in the fight against this corruption… But that's not the only reason we have to work together."
Wrath's glowing red eyes stared directly into Vale's.
"While this world faces the calamity of corruption… it also faces the dungeon crisis. We are that crisis..."