Evercrest

Crazy.

"You tortured my realm with your games and experiments. You stole from the Void." the man ranted, becoming some kinda...thing.

...It'sssss wrong to kill the handicapped...but if it breedssss then it could become an epidemic. Missssstressss shall I begin? the black being inquires, cocking it's head for a moment. The transformed being was kinda neat looking. All the eyes and what-not. The effect was lost on Nox however- it had seen the bleak wastes of the Veil and beyond, it could not feel fear. It's green eyes swept along the figure, taking in it's mass and stance. The fight would be a quick one. They usually were.

Lilith sighed. This person was crazy. Why did she seem to be attracting the crazies?

"I have no idea what you are talking about. You die for no reason, how cute. Nox. End this." Lilith was loosing interest, a crazy person? Some kinda sword creature? Rants and raves about her 'stealing' from some place called the 'void'? The only thing even resembling that was Nox...and it came to her willingly. This man was either mistaken...or a fool. Either way he was dead.

Nox moved.

To say he flowed is easy to imagine- he was fluid in mass. One step became a flowing glide, Nox's form sliding towards the big ol' sword wielding thing, showing no heed for whatever the beast may have planned. By avoiding all that pesky friction and stepping that most creatures needed for locomotion Nox moved pretty damn fast. Zipping along it closed the distance between itself and whatever Cauld had become in the blink of an eye.

As it moved it prepared itself. Mass vibrated, shifting slightly. It was preparing something nasty.

As a creature from between worlds it was used to dealing with horrific things. It had ways to survive damage that would end most creatures on the spot. Nox was going to be a hard nut to crack. Cauld should have picked a better battle plan. Like running away. Too late now.

Cauld saw the creature move and was about to defend but before he bring up his sword the creature was in front of him vibrating like a bee hive. He grunted and stepped back bringing up the sword and letting it wail its mighty scream. The sonic boom of a scream exploded from the blade digging his feet into the ground. The scream wasn't by any means an offensive move but was completely a defensive one creating a form of shield against the strange creature. The armor was holding its place but his body pressed back into the armor. Then Cauld mustered up enough strength to swing the sword and with it the scream at the monster.

Scream.

Nox had arrived where it wanted, but the foe seemed to be too afraid to do anything. Anything but scream that is. The blast of sound did more to annoy Lilith and Conall most likely, Nox simply stood there, and waited. Action was coming, it could read it in the tension in the fleshy armor's stance. The grip tightened on the blade's hilt, as all grips do, before the swing begun..and that was when Nox would strike.

I too can scream, fleshy one. Though I am not limited to your range of sound. Observe. the being spoke, before releasing a torrent of sonic power...directly into the mind of Cauld. Nox spoke through telepathy, by accepting the link the first time...allowing the being to speak to Cauld in the beginning...a door had been opened. As the myths of daemons spoke...once you invite it in, it can do as it pleases.

To give the reader an idea on the level of sound burst Nox released within the confines of Cauld's mind, please, read this aside:

"The Tunguska event was a massive explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya (Under Rock) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at 7:40 AM on June 30, 1908. The explosion was most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometers (3–6 mi) above Earth’s surface. It was measured with the similar impact of a 1000-Mega-ton bomb with a decibel rating 300-315. This is often considered to be the loudest single-event in history."

Nox's sound was louder.

And it kept getting louder.

Cresting at a peak decibel rating of 606 dB if emitted audibly it would cause the ears of those hearing it to simply bleed. Bleed and become dead. The delicate membranes of the inner ear would shatter like sugar glass...useless evermore. Luckily for everyone else...only Cauld could hear the sound. Only HIS mind was effected. Weather he could survive this maelstrom of sound was to be seen- regardless he would come away from this damaged in some way...physicaly or mentally, morale would drop.

The swing of the sword would likely be effected, regardless it would be a simple thing to avoid, swung blindly as it had been- no clear target. Nox simply slid back a step, all the while feeling the ground shift below. Something was coming. Lilith had not summoned back-up...so that meant they were not friends. Good. This meat-bag was proving boring. All he did was yell and flail about.

Can I kill these as well missssstresss? it asked, the tidal wave of sound snapping to silence.

Though she had only felt and heard a minor part of that sound blast Lilith still had a headache. Frowning she took note of the shifting earth and let loose a sigh. "I must be cursed. That has to be it. Some curse that I may never know a moments peace..yes! Kill them. Kill them all." she snapped, her tone beginning to grow harsh. Mother was getting angry.

As the first undead rose from the ground Nox ended it with a single motion- what looked like a spike of it's mass extended from a point just below it's neck...impaling the Draugar through it's skull...and wrenching it from the body. Similar tendrils sprouted, each ending in a devastating point that sliced bone and flesh like cheese paper. Before long the ground was littered with the tatters of flesh, and a few neat stacks of bones. All this in the time it would take the armored man to finish his swing, set his stance and lift the blade for another try- should that be his plan or within his ability after that scream.

Nox was fast. Undead things simply were not.

Standing now, quite still, having spent it's build up of vibrations in that harsh scream, Nox waits to see what shall be next- the flesh bag...or more zombies. It hoped for both. Both would mean more fun.

Cauld stood there in the prison of Void material as the echoing boom rattled his flesh. His ears bled profusely down his head and neck as blood frothed from his mouth. Soon the eyes on the armor stared to close one by one in sheer pain. His knees buckled beneath him forcing him to kneel. He had gone in over confident and under prepared. The only reason he was still sane was because of the Void's hot madness. Finally Cauld collapsed into the dirt his mind starting to grow cold and quiet, he could no longer hear Void Splitter hissing in the back of his skull. He felt the freezing hand of death sliding into his body and he accepted it watching the creature stare at him with such joy in its eyes. Cauld started to close his eyes as his breathing slowed.

"Here my voice Cauld Neth. I am Arktorius Malakath, the One and Only Lord of the Void. You're benefactor has graciously appraised me of your current predicament and I grant you a boon. First I make your weapon whole."

Cauld's eyes snapped open when the words flooded his mind. Then the power came all at once into him flood his nervous system with a shock that sent his body into spasms of a drastic scale. Even in the heavy mantle his body flopped about like a fish out of water. As sudden as it had come the power surge stopped leaving hims twitching in the dirt. After a second Cauld started to pick himself up as burning blue hieroglyphs appeared onto the pieces of armor of the mantle. When he had fully picked himself the eyes had opened, a chunk of the helmet was missing revealing his left eye, and Malakath burned on the crest of his helm. Void Splitter's blade glowed a ghostly blue while the organic material on its hilt pulsed with a new aura of energy.

As the dead began to crawl from the earth when Cauld hear the voice again in his head, "Behold... The dead rise to fight at your side, bearer of Void Splitter. My gift to you."

Cauld swallowed hard as he watched the gray creature dispatch the dead monsters. The creature stared at him and it unnerved him. He had tasted a bit of his power and wanted nothing to do with the creature, but then something slapped his mind with cold intent. It wasn't a familiar feeling something he didn't know how to handle. It was overwhelming, much too powerful for Cauld to take. This was a new form of madness a cold one that froze the original inferno that had occupied his mind's deepest reaches. Before he could stop his legs the pushed him forward at the creature, when he was in range Cauld's arms swung the sword at the monster freezing the air it cut through.

Conall

Any chance of someone explaining things was a lost cause the wolf had decided. So much he did not understand was taking place and he was smack dab in the middle of it all. Just earlier he was enjoying the pleasantries of a little village, now he was experienceing the horrors of Hell it seemed. Maybe he was going mad. Never had he seen such creatures before: living ooze a screaming swrod.. What had he done to witness these things? He was quickly regretting his prior hopes in discovering something new. That which he first thought to be a miraculous blessing had quickly spoiled.

He watched with a grimace as the unmatched battle took place. Ears laying flat upon his head as his legs remained locked. It wasn't only fear which kept him still. Like a patient watching their doctor perform upon them, he was sickly curious to see what would happen next, knowing that even this may be his last hours. The battle, if you could call it that, was horrible and fast. The man, he assumed was insane, went down quickly, playing a fountain for his own blood. He assumed the ink-like creature had some sort of psionic abilities, from the way it spoke and seemed to attack without attacking. Things were definately going downhill. So much for a walk in the woods, so much for getting lucky, no he had to deal with some crazy bastards and living, overpowered jelly..He was getting a headache.

Tearing his eyes away from the others, they flit over to the woman. What was it about the female species that always had to make things complicated?

Changes.

The undead kept coming. Nox could kill them all day, but it was boring. Instead he sends a message to Lilith, and turns to focus on Cauld.

Got yer second wind, eh? Should have stayed down kid. Might have survived. the being sighed into the mind of Cauld, simply watching the man rise, filled with new power it seemed. The armor's damage revealed a human eye amidst all the monster ones- and showed a critical flaw. Timing had to be perfect, aim had to be beyond that. Nox could pull it off though. Let's play a game I invented. It's called Choroidal Melanoma. Here is how it goes..

Nox waited, the other rising and charging- reckless, the actions of a fool. Not bothering to plant his mass before swinging the sword had left the human with a wide open gap in his defense, one Nox planned on exploiting. The sword's magic cooled the air, both before and within it's wake, this would have been swell should the fool prepared his swing better. As it were the beast had an easy solution for the clumsy strike.

With a wet sound the being splits- dividing along the path the blade passes, separating Nox into two halves. Unexpected as this move is, the man's wind swing would pass through and beyond Nox...and into the ground below. The human had no doubt expected impact...resistance from the mass of Nox...but with there being none the wild swing would carry onward, as the charging form rushes to harm Nox. In missing so fully, and in not stopping his head-long rush, Cauld had screwed the pooch- the sword would become stuck in the ground for even a moment, as the forward momentum of it's wielder would push it's point in slightly deeper. Stopping the rush. This would also require the man to pull the sword free, a simple action- but one that would take even a second to accomplish, before bringing it to bear upon things once more.

Divided as it were, the two halves of Nox remained connected through a shared link- It was still one mind, one being...just divided; Left Nox and Right Nox.

Already however the halves were in motion.

As sure as one knows time stops for no man...time had not stopped as the fool swung and missed, his steps carried him into a carefully planned trap...that sprung just as his exposed left eye was in range.

Right Nox(Cauld's Left) twisted into a spire and extended. Faster than an average arrow's shot, faster even than those cumbersome blunderbusses the Dwarves worked on, the spike of mass snapped upward...on a direct path into Cauld's eye. Even should the human somehow dodge the killing blow of taking a spike through the eye and into the brain, Nox was sure to leave a mark. The sharpness of the twisted point was immeasurable with even the finest glasses Atherea possessed- one would need higher tech to see the microarray of ridged edges and sharp scales coating the spike. Even a glancing strike would be enough to shred steel like paper.

But what of the zombies?

Lilith had heard the whispered message of her servant, and nodded a slight agreement. It was time for her to dirty her hands.

While the horde of undead may have posed a challenge for a monster even such as Nox..they were leaves in the wind once Lilith got rolling. Wet sounds fill the air, as an extra pair of arms erupt from her sides, her long legs fusing into an armored serpentine body while her wings slid out further to become a set of bat-like limbs. She was grinning savagely as she turned to face Conall with a wink.

With a scream of pure joy she fell into the throng of undead, her powerful limbs sweeping through groups of two or three at a time. Mighty sweeps of her tail took away heads, limbs and torsos with the barest of effort. While she was a goddess of passion and sex...one should never forget that violence and passion, violence and sex...the all share a thin red line. Lilith was that red line.

Far to soon, and far to easily she was done...twitching heaps of flesh and bone littering the ground about her, as she pouts, "They always finish before me..." her voice husky with restrained emotions. Killing always got her excited..and left little to satisfy her. A pity. Her eyes find Conall again...he DID want to get lucky before, she thought with a grin.

Conall

As if things weren't bad enough, now he had to deal with living corpses? The once pleasant air now reeked with the smell of decomposition. He snorted and shook his head, but nothing could be rid of the overpowering stench. He had just about had enough of this. Things were already out of hand, now even the earth seemed to partake in the joke, belching out a continuous flow of death. The ink-being, of course, seemed to have no problem fighting off the horde. Not much could be done against something which had no flesh, he guessed. Though, with the amount of dead which was sprouting, he wasn't sure the creature would be able to handle them all- which sucked for Conall because he didn't want to go anywhere near those things. It took a bit of time, but it seemed he was finally able to absorb his recent situation- he was in Hell. That was all there was to it and now that he understood his predicament he could react justly. His legs, though a bit shaky, found movement one more and took to slowly retreating towards the woman. In the event that death wasn't eminent, at least he had the possibility of something good coming from this. Who knows, maybe acting as a bodyguard or savior of somesort would score some points. Chicks were always grateful for a little help here and there and rewards were a beautiful thing.

However, to the wolf's dismay, it seemed she too would partake in the nightmarish scene. What once was a body of awe-inspiring beauty transformed into a terrific daemon of somesort. He yelped as she sped pass him and threw herself into the mix. Her violence left nothing unscathed and her laughter quickly overcame the disgusting wet moans of the once more dying dead. He slumped watching the mayhem take place, all fantasies of the woman shattered. She wasn't just some beauty, or a simple summoner, she was a beast herself. Why couldn't things just be simple for once? No, the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes upon was also the most terrifying.

"They always finish before me..."

He shivered at her comment. Hints of sex coming from that body..was awful. Just awful. He could never have sex again witnessing what he had today and that angered him greatly. As if women weren't already enough of a pain in arse, now every female he'd come across he'd have to think twice if they were some sort of horrific beast or not. He watched the twitching displays of meat which surrounded the female in a mixture of awe, disgust and fear. He really hoped he wouldn't be added to bloody soup. It was then she locked her mischievous eyes with his and his insides twisted. Then again there were worse things..

(Sorry for the delayed post)

Cauld watched the creature split and his sword smashed into the ground. It was stuck pretty well. He knew he had to get free quick but he was connected to the sword physically. He struggled, grunted, and cursed at his lack of thought. Then it happened before Cauld even knew what was happening. The spike of the half creature shot towards his eye. It stopped for a second pressing against a magic barrier. As he watched the spike his eye twitched and his pupil contracted to a tiny dot. The spike pierced the barrier and shot into his eye, through his brain, and out the back of the helmet. The spike retreated unleashing a spray of blood from the hole and taking his eye with it. Cauld dropped to his knees then to his face as blood pooled around body. His Void Mantle stopped glowing the blue runes then burst into blue fire slowly burning away to black dust. Cauld's last thought was still of his foolishness and how he'd never should have challenged the god. The last breath left Cauld's body in the pool of blood. Void Splitter rested in the ground it's eyes closed and the magic fading.


The Void
Cauld's spirit sat next a pillar of ice his back leaning on it. His knees were brought to his chest and his arms holding them. All his tattoos were gone, his skin had returned to its original pale alabaster white, and his one eye was now just regular blue no longer burning with magic. The now gaping hole of his left eye cried a waterfall of crimson blood down his cheek. He no longer had clothes and he was freezing cold. He sat there staring at the permafrost of the ground eternally feeling the foolish regret he had at his death. Soon a brilliantly white fox came and stared at him. Cauld looked at the fox and sighed.

"What do you want fox? What would anything want with this fool?" He looked back down sighing again.