Ignacious's Story

Several lights suddenly start flaring up from within the dark, maze-like forest, slowly but surely forming into the pattern of a makeshift pathway. The source? A number of fireballs being randomly tossed about, landing in the various treetops, their branches bursting aflame and providing a fair light source.

"Why are there so many damned trees here?!" a voice yells, sounding incredibly agitated; its source, what appears to be a floating skeleton dressed in a ruined cloak and tacky feathered coat - his bony hands ablaze with an orange glow - having likely gotten lost, and is now apparently leaving behind an extreme adaptation of the typical breadcrumb trail in his wake.
"GODS! It's like people need them to breathe or something, seeing this many! The great Ignacious did not force his way out of the underworld's boring pits, just to get lost in probably one of the most fiendish places EVER imagined, being forced to stare at.. ugh.. greenery, all day!"

Ignacious continues throwing fireballs here and there, angrily berating the trees as he does so, trying to find his way out of the forest.
..Likely to no avail, of course, considering that from a bird's-eye point of view, his 'path' has started to turn into the shape of a fiery circle.

Hearing the distinct sound of fire, Estrella turned towards the source, seeing smoke rising to the east. She immediately runs west, wanting absolutely nothing to do with whatever's setting those fire.

This is probably for the best, as the source of the fires seems to be operating on a mental hair-trigger; mostly evident in the fact that some of his fireballs can be seen careening upwards into the open sky in the distance, with said source screaming bloody murder about something involving bats hiding in the trees.

Estrella suddenly feels a sharp pain in her head and collapses to the ground, crying out in agony.

Hearing the faint sound of Estrella's cries in the distance, Ignacious suddenly stops in his tracks, puzzled; the glowing flames that were engulfing his skeletal hands dissipating in a puff of smoke.

"..There are trees that can cry out in agony in this forest?" Ignacious contemplates, scratching an invisible chin. "...and the great Ignacious is not the cause for it?! Why do people think they can steal Ignacious' hobby of torturing talking trees? It's one of the only things Ignacious has left to himself!"

Grumbling, Ignacious dusts some charred wood splinters off of his robe, before slowly floating away towards the general direction of Estrella's pained cries.

Estrella slowly stands back up, the pain in her head subsiding.

"What- what was that?" asked Estrella.

"Is there someone else here in this disturbing forest, picking on the wailing trees?" Ignacious' voice suddenly rings out from somewhere nearby, the source sounding like it's steadily closing in on Estrella's location. "If so, stay where you are! Ignacious seeks to demand that you stop tormenting them at once - making them cry in agony for no applicable reason is his job!"

An awkward pause.

"..and he also seeks to maybe compare notes on said tree torment! ..More so with the first demand, though!"

Estrella remains silent. Saying anything would make this situation much, much worse than it needed to be. Instead she backed up, trying to hide within the trees.

Ignacious soon visibly appears out in the open, looking for the sign of someone being nearby. Seeing no one around however, he pauses, scratching his skull.

"Gone already? That's no fun," Ignacious mumbled to himself, visibly disappointed, before taking out a pair of reading glasses and some slightly-burnt documents, beginning to read them.
"And here Ignacious was, looking forward to having more notes on.. what was it, bot.. botanical.. botanicide? Yes, that one."

"Ah, just what I've been looking for," an ethereal, yet unseen voice suddenly speaks up.

Ignacious puts away the papers and glasses as a dense cloud of gas flies down into the clearing in front of him, the cloud vanishing as an unfamiliar, yet rather tall figure takes shape and steps forward.

"..And who are you supposed to be?" Ignacious said, a hand over his chin bone as he studied this new person, his other hand starting to lightly flicker with an orange glow behind his back. "More importantly, why is it you were searching for the great Ignacious? He was already looking for someone here, first! Go find people in your own lost woods!"

"..I see no need to answer either of those questions, pyromaniac, nor do I really care what you were doing," the tall figure chides, before pointing backwards with his thumb towards the direction of Ignacious' fires, the smoke still floating up above the treetops. "What matters most as of right now however is that there is something you can do for me, that will be a much better use of your time than setting half the Shadow Forest on fire."

Estrella tries to get a better look at the new, taller figure, hoping that would get a better read on his intentions. While Ignacious would certainly do less damage if he was out of the Shadow Forest, she didn't really believe that whatever the figure wanted him to do would be much better.

The figure appears to be roughly humanoid in appearance, although is of course unnaturally tall for one - nearly double an average human's height. There's also the fact his skin appears to be made entirely of some sort of shiny metal; his face meanwhile looking more like the mask of a ritualistic helmet rather than.. well, a face.
There is little else to tell about him, as he wears a long purple cloak that is horribly shredded near both the bottom and cut-in section, and odd chest armor marked with veins or hieroglyphs that lightly glow with many differing colors, both of which block the rest of his appearance. However, one unsettling fact in his wardrobe choice would have to be that he has a rather damaged-looking Koopatrol helmet slung over the right side of his cloak; likely serving as a shoulder pad.. or trophy.

"HAH!" Ignacious laughed, meanwhile. "Shows what you know, tin man; the great Ignacious does what he pleases!"

Ignacious promptly throws out the palms of his hands, a stream of fire erupting from them and engulfing the metal man in a blaze of red and orange almost instantly. He then starts laughing, watching the torrent of flames spin violently.. but then slowly stops when they're suddenly snuffed out, the metal man standing where he was before, unharmed, and brushing a bit of soot off his chest plate, the markings on it glowing with a red and orange color now.

"..You are likely unaware, pyromaniac, but just a few hours ago I stood on the precipice of power," the metal man said dryly, unmoving. "A power great enough that the world itself screeched in pain from my influence, for all those capable to hear it. While I am no longer whole, of course, I have nonetheless been reborn because of it - into a form that will take more than a campfire to render moot. I advise you to think again on your decision."

The metal man snaps his fingers, and a few seconds pass, nothing seeming to have happened.. up until Ignacious suddenly drops to the ground like a sack of rocks, pinned there by an unseen force and having difficulty moving around.

"..Now, enlighten me; have you ever seen something like this before?" the metal man resumed as he walked over to Ignacious, pulling a small, white cube from his robes, the object floating just above his clawed hand, glowing faintly and sparkling with a strange energy as he held it out.

The sight of this strange object causes Ignacious meanwhile to seize up, the fiery glow around his hand dissipating instantly, as he mulls something over in that centuries-decayed head of his.

"..Ignacious wishes to know where you acquired this," he sputtered, struggling to speak above the needles of grass, eyeing the object before him.

"I'll tell you, certainly," the metal man interjects, putting the cube away, this time grabbing a suspicious vial containing some sort of blackened liquid, writhing in its bottle. "But I require something first - a trade, let's say - as a gesture of goodwill."

"And what exactly is it that you want Ignacious to do?" Ignacious said, his voice slightly muffled.

"Why, I want you to do a little bit of information digging, incite a bit of chaos and, if you have the time, perhaps.. cause an international incident, of course?" the metal man said, his eyes narrowing into the shape one would usually make if they were giving off a sickening grin.

Estrella was taken aback. If the man could shrug off fire that easily, then little Estrella could do was likely to affect him. So she quickly made tracks, running for another area in the Shadow Forest - anywhere that wasn't there.

The man pauses, somehow hearing the sound of rustling grass in the distance.

"So there WAS someone else here.." he muttered to himself.

"You ruined Ignacious' game of arson-turned-hide-and-seek," Ignacious said, still stuck. "Ignacious hates you immensely."

"Don't care. Even if someone else is here, it is highly unlikely they will prove an issue, especially to me," the man retorted, standing up. The gravity around Ignacious also lessens, and he in turn quickly floats back up into the air, giving the man an unamused look. "Besides; you can resume your 'game' when you are done with the task I'm about to give you."

"Fine," Ignacious grumbled, before staring at the bottle the man pulled out a few seconds ago. "What is that tiny bottle that you hold before Ignacious? Is it going to help him? He laughs at you, if so; Ignacious does not need a silly little bottle to sow chaos!"

"Shut up and I will explain," the man said simply, holding the vial up into the air so the two can get a better look, the black liquid within it still writhing uncontrollably. "This little vial happens to hold a powerful parasite, not native to this world - it releases a unique toxin into a living organism's veins, that flows through the brain and nervous system, mutating those infected into savage beasts, whether through a fairly large physical injury dealt by one of said beasts or a direct injection. This specific strain has been genetically altered in the past to subconsciously respond to my will, so you need not fear being assaulted by the hosts. It is one of the last few specimens in existence, and I only have it, because.. well, that's a story for another time. "

The man hands Ignacious the vial with utmost care, and then snaps his fingers once again, as a spectral entity suddenly appears next to the duo in a burst of dark mist - the Lurker, looking a lot more corrupted than before, his once sapphire-blue markings now a dead, gray color. The man then pulls out a second vial, handing it to the Lurker.

"I want you, with the help of Lurker here, to use it to cause an outbreak in Haven; specifically, in the Rusty Slums and Sicherheim," the man said adamantly, preparing to give a detailed explanation of his plan.

"Aside from sowing sudden panic among the lesser beings, this rather large-scale attack is merely to draw the attention of an otherworldly group I am.. acquaintances with, who happen to have many things I wish to seize. They, and they alone are familiar with this rather dangerous plague, and will undoubtedly intervene after seeing one of their own going rogue," the man explained. "While they debate amongst themselves on what to do, and once I get confirmation of both outbreaks starting, I, in the meantime disguised as one of the members likely to appear, will launch my own attack on Sanctuary itself using the hordes of the abyss, and make a "fruitless attempt" on the lives of businessmen and people of importance alike, until they arrive."

The metal man pauses, checking to see if Ignacious understood a word of what he just said.
He doesn't, of course; just staring blankly at the metal man, causing him to groan in utter frustration.

"..Just take your vial of the parasite, go to the Rusty Slums, stab as many people as possible with it, and then set fires everywhere or whatever," the man said, visibly agitated, grabbing a syringe from somewhere in his cloak (where did he get all this stuff from?) and forcing it into Ignacious' hands.

"..Aaaaah, okay then," Ignacious said, saluting awkwardly and taking off into the sky, flying towards the Haven region.

"..Are you sure you can trust him to follow through with this, Lord Garrison?" the Lurker spoke up, as he watched Ignacious fly away. "He seems.. unhinged."

"If he has any recollection of the man he once was, the ignorant rodent will be intrigued enough to do this little errand. Either way it matters not, he's as expendable as anyone else," the man, apparently dubbed Garrison, spat with disgust.
"Now, get going. The window of opportunity for this will be shrinking by the minute."

The Lurker merely nods before flying off into the air, following after Ignacious.
Garrison on the other hand remains within the forest for just a few seconds longer, looking about his surroundings, his eyes narrowing inquisitively.. before he turns into a cloud of miasma and flies away, himself.

-----

Wherever Estrella may be at this point, she should be able to sense a chilling presence slowly vanishing from the forest, as if the wicked entity she had seen earlier had finally left.

A streak of red and orange suddenly blazes through the Old Haven area, meanwhile; an object trailing fire, likely a meteor or something similar, passing by overhead. It doesn't last long enough to warrant a proper look, however, as it quickly soars down into the distance, plummeting into what appears to be the Rusty Slums.

A streak of red and orange flares up through the sky, as an object ensnared in rock and trailing fire suddenly plummets down somewhere into the village, landing with a resounding thud and leaving a small crater in its wake - sending a few of the Rusty Slums' ordinary denizens, who might have happened to be nearby at the time, scattering in a panic.

"Ah, hell," said Quintus, hearing the loud crash. "So much for an easy way out."

Over by the site of the crash, meanwhile, Ignacious suddenly crawls out from the small crater his impact had made, a few chunks of superheated rock stuck to both him and his robes.

"Hum," he pondered, as he floated up a little bit into the air. "Ignacious must remember to purchase some peanuts later, for whenever he decides to do that again. Maybe an in-flight movie, too."

Dusting himself off, Ignacious looks about; noticing the pale and/or otherwise surprised faces of a few of the random citizens around him, who didn't already run away.

"..Oh, boy!" Ignacious cried out, taking out the surprisingly undamaged parasite vial and the syringe that he was given earlier, slowly approaching the frozen-in-place citizens with a menacing glint in his eyes. "Volunteers - already! Ignacious will be done with this errand sooner than he'd thought!"

-----

About a minute or so later, several people suddenly run out from around a corner a little ways away from both the prison and Quintus, screaming for their lives. They, in turn, are followed by a few more citizens.. except these ones are much more monstrous-looking; covered almost entirely in a tar-like substance, and sporting numerous grotesque, yellow-tinted eyeballs, which sit within said tar.

These infected citizens also appear to be really, really angry, judging by how they're pouncing on and attacking the stragglers from the earlier group.

Quintus soon comes across the running and screaming citizens.

"I remember when I used to be able to get that kind of reaction," reminisced Quintus.

Then he saw the tar monsters.

"Now it's all 'abomination this, monster from beyond the stars that'," said Quintus. "Pfft. Just a scary face with some extra frills attached, that's what frightens people these days. I must say..."

Quintus stomps the ground near a manhole cover, sending it spinning into the air and out of the manhole it was covering, before grabbing it with one arm and unretracting his claws on the other.

"I'm disappointed."

One of the tar monsters that is not tearing random citizens apart finally sees Quintus and roars, shortly before it and two others suddenly leap at him!

-----

Ignacious has finished injecting the parasite into the last healthy citizen within his immediate area, tossing the vial over his shoulder after seeing that there's none left to be used. Said citizen meanwhile drops to the ground in a heap, groaning in pain and twitching violently as they slowly mutate into yet another tar monster.

"Looking back, Ignacious always wanted to be a doctor - but then again, he wouldn't have time for his arson-related antics," Ignacious said, staring at the helpless citizen; his jaw forming a toothy grin as he wipes his hands, content with the fact that his errand will soon be over and done with.

"Boo to you too," said Quintus.

Quintus leaps over the tar monsters lunging for him, waiting to see if they crash into each other.