Minds Inflamed - Nin vs. Lucid

[Anomaly]

"Ion output at 100% and holding!"

"Enemies on the ground keep coming, increase magical shields to compensate for low level fire!"

"Airborne enemies inbound, increasing Ion field discharge field to maximum! We're losing air-space superiority!"

"Orders from the top, ignore the ants stings, swat the flies before they can infest us with maggots."

"Roger, commencing energy blanket discharge!"

The Dragons Skull gate, curling horned nerve center of the Floating Fortress' navigational and defense systems. Also the main gate of the fortress itself. If this gateway falls, there is no point of protecting any others. The massive maw of the beast who's name is long forgotten remains tightly closed against the would be invaders. Though thick bolts of crimson energy scythe through the thickly swarming monstrosities, some have already alighted on the rocky 'shore' of the island beyond the fortress walls.

Instantly, soldiers from the realms of Life and Death surged from their respective sectors to meet the enemy, adding the chaos of the chimera horde and the horror of the undead armies to the already terrible scene of demonic blood shed. Despite all this it was ease itself to see that unless serious action was taken, it would only be a matter of time before the invading forces pry open the Dragons Gate and enter the fortress at the border of Life and Death, giving them a straight shot to the Keep itself that looms far to the north.

Masters scramble from computer bank to computer bank, strengthening a power matrix here, augmenting a magical shield their, diverting magical and scientific energy through an endless corridor of systems far more complex than any normal person would be capable of dealing with. Each staff member specialized in making their own console sing and dance. This is not the first attack they've had to deal with, but this one certainly seems to be putting them to the test. Watching them scramble to and fro, one can't help but sense a certain amount of anxiety in the air. They have had orders not to move the fortress...phasing out of this dimension would only leave them open to further attack. Do or die, this was where they made their stand.

Suddenly the sense of hopelessness fades. The staff members again move about their tasks calmly...still moving swiftly and with purpose, still shouting commands and figures to one another, but now they move like a well oiled machine. This is all thanks, in no small part, to the man that stands at the helm of the Dragons Gate. The Pillar of Mind manipulates them each, strengthens them, and sends them dancing like pawns on a chess board. Lucid's powers reach out to the chimeran and undead horde, and what was a mindless brutal mob of beasts suddenly take on a chilling tactical order. The demon horde is not pushed back, but is held, sharply away from the Dragon Gate as the Gate defenses are brought online. Smoke curls out of the gates nostrils as a pulse of light and flame roars from between the clenched teeth. Balls of non-elemental flame whizz over the Masters forces and land in the demonic ranks where it burns and hisses, swallowing all that nears it.

For now, the gate is safe. Lucid smiles to himself...this is child's play for him. Yet even as this thought crosses his mind, he is made aware of a blind spot in his psychic field. Though he cannot directly sense a mind, the very absence of brain-wave activity sets off alarms. Even where the undead stand, who most of which lack brains altogether, brain waves can still travel. No...here is an anomaly that needs his attention. Bringing the visual screens into focus, he guides the controls mentally to zero in on the point of distortion.

There stands Nin, outside the gate and amidst the horde of this Brotherhood of Doom. There he stands and appears to gaze back across the channel of the visual screen into Lucid's soul. The demon within the Pillar of Mind stirs as Lucid readies all the Gates defenses. Amid the shouts of war, a great battle of the minds is about to take place.

[Nin`]

Out Of Character:

Here I’ll be “setting the scene” – so to speak, since it is my hope that this will be an epic battle. So I’ve decided to expand, from Nin’s point of view, upon Anomalies introductory post above while introducing my own. My goal (apart from winning of course ^^;) is to just put on a good (and interesting) show for people.

For clarity of mind: thoughts are italicised, whereas sub-vocalised thoughts are italicised with quotation marks.

---

***

Nin stood silently in anticipation, his patience waning beneath the blackened sun as he awaited the order to move. Arms crossed and with a black cloak swirling fiercely about him, Nin, poised in sinister meditation, observed the entire planet from within the psychic eye of his mind.

He quietly watched as events had unfolded…

Dawn had broke clear over the horizon of the world, bathing the perennial plains, the vast forests and the soaring red mountains in a bloody hue. Flesh-plants waved delicate fronds in the first glowing rays of the sun; screw-grass writhed as it sank its roots deeper into the hard earth. Strangle-vines tightened their grip on the ruins of an abandoned outpost, rendering steel and plastic down to their constituent parts ready for absorption. On the horizon the upright cones of spore chimneys, towering over distant cities, sputtered smoke into the sky, readying the clouds that would bring the afternoons fertilizing rain.

As far as the eye could see the sky was bare, yet a sinister heaviness, veiled and unseen, continued to linger high in the air. The rising sun was hazy, yet behind it, creeping slowly up from the horizon, there was a growing body of darkness: as of a great storm moving out from all directions. It looked as if the twilight, under an endless procession of trees, was flowing downwards from the mountains as the vast blackness reached out to veil the sky; blotting out the sun into little more then a silhouetted black orb.

The Masters floating fortress hung in the aerial midst’s of an untainted firmament, like a angelic sanctuary and cocoon of dreaming will, as the amassed armies of darkness closed in ever more, and to lay siege of what was soon to become the Masters tomb.

His senses were quickly diverted, bringing Nin’s mind back to the presence of the dusty hill as he detected a shift in the Dark Christ’s semblance. He nodded to them.

An irrepressible grin forged its way across his face, hungrily, as Nin, along with his brothers, was teleported directly into the heart of battle.

***

Strident and clear, the booming wail of a war horn sounded their arrival.

The sky was now utterly dark, the stillness of the heavy air foreboding a violent storm with a procession of clouds. Suddenly, in the skies surrounding the Masters fortress, a blinding flash seared the gathering clouds. Branched lightning smote down, lashing against the fortresses eastward tower defences as, for a staring moment, the watchers amidst its walls saw all the space between them and the sky alit with a white light. There, as the light faded into fierce swirls of black and contorted shapes, twisting and flaring in almost every direction like a rampant fire, Nin, embraced in a cloak of shadows, stood within the sky in effortless levitation.

His eyes flared menacingly, casting his sights down toward the raging struggle below. Brazen trumpets sounded. The hordes of the Brotherhood surged forward, some against tower walls, others towards the causeway and the ramp that led up to the Dragon gates. There the hugest Demons were mustered, together with the thundering gait of scores and legions of wild Orcs. A storm of arrows and energy blasts met them together with a hail of boulders alit in flame. The hordes of the Brotherhood wavered, broke and fled back; and then charged again, broke and charged again; and each time, like the incoming sea, they halted at a higher point. Again trumpets rang, and a legion of roaring Orcs rushed forth in tactical formation. Many held up great shields above them providing protection for others by forming a metallic canopy of singular armament, while in their midst they bore a titanic steel ram - swinging on mighty chains and imbued with the psychic force and strength of the armies stronger minded horrors. They gained the gate.

The mighty battering ram, swung by thousands of mesomorphic limbs, smote the Draconic gate, penetrating its supernatural defences with rending boom. Again and again the great ram swung and crashed, while the Masters continued to hail down fire after fire of bitter defiance.

The fortress was under heavy siege; Nin could tell that its defences were already suffering the malaise of the innumerable strain of the black horde, despite possessing the psionic faculty of being able to hear the Masters within as he honed his senses - their voices filling his mind:

"Ion output at 100% and holding!"

"Enemies on the ground keep coming, increase magical shields to compensate for low level fire!"

"Airborne enemies inbound, increasing Ion field discharge field to maximum! We're losing air-space superiority!"

"Orders from the top, ignore the ants stings, swat the flies before they can infest us with maggots."

"Roger, commencing energy blanket discharge!"


‘ Pitiful…’, he thought to himself. But then something changed. Another mind more advanced then the remnant psyches surrounding it had sharply entered into the fray. It brought on a strong sense of tactical order amongst the disarrayed minds of the Masters. There was an evident improvement in the Draconic gates defences.

This one was interesting…

Nin’s blood began to rush, surging like liquid fire coursing through his veins as he peered deeper into the mental field surrounding this aberration.

The Pillar of Mind!

Perhaps he would have a challenge this day after all…

Raising his right hand to the tip of his scalp, Nin slowly pulled down an ornate death mask – flawless in specular reflection - over his face; shaped with a nightmarish countenance. Then, reaching behind to the back of his head, he pulled up the cowl of his moiling black cloak, concealing the remaining areas of his cranium.

Continuing to peer into the mental field of the Pillar himself, Nin slowly descended unto the extending bridge below, where scurrying monstrosities rushed to and fro the Draconic gate: the very nerve centre to the fortress itself.

Then, almost without warning his mind rippled with electrochemical activity, like capillary waves along the interface between two fluids, as a secondary presence formed within the recesses of Nin’s mind.

‘Hmm… what’s got you all fired up, eh?’ A robust voice vibrantly sprung to life in subitaneous thought, sub-vocalised and confined entirely within Nin’s skull. He knew it well. Ignoring the question put to him, he sub-vocalised a laconic response.

‘Stay quiet.’

The ripples of mental activity, as gentle as a passing breeze, swiftly withdrew back into the quantum neural depths.

Reaching the stone bridge, his cloak wavering amidst the air between the boarders of life and death, Nin stood directly before the great fortress. The structure loomed up from the horizon like a stoned creature of obscene beauty. Great ring walls of stone, like towering cliffs, stood out from the keep like a mountainside, from which it ran - in complete circular design - and then returned again. The Dragons gate lay directly ahead.

The skull gate roared, as if with fury, as great streams of molten fire were expelled from its huge gaping jaws, engulfing the attackers in a torrid of writhing flames.

Hordes of Orcs fled in dismay, a great many burning and cast a light as they scattered in multiple directions. Out of the disarray, Nin swiftly grabbed a fleeing Orc commander, his hand gripping tightly around the grotesque creatures neck as he held it up from the ground.

“Sir, Nin…!” The creature yelped in discomfort, clutching at the warriors arm in hope of release.

“Why does the Dragons gate still stand commander? You were ordered to bring it down were you not?”

The Orc gasped for breath as it attempted speech, it’s vile voice rasping in the process.

“Aye, indeed sir, but… its power seems to have… somehow intensified… We could not overcome it.”

Staring up at the gate once more, studying both it structural and energy lay out, Nin knew of what the Orc spoke. Lucid…

“Why, if it was not for...”

He instantly cut of the Orc.

“Their victory against you needs no explanation…” He paused, releasing his grip; the Orc fell to the stone floor with a clash, slowly scampering away as it picked itself up, breathing freely once more with a momentary sigh of relief.

“… But your defeat allows none,” Nin closed.

Without a second thought the Orc was instantly flayed alive; it’s body writhing uncontrollably in violent discord.

Facing the fortress in full view, focusing his mind, Nin sternly arose to challenge her defences. His mind washed over the ion fields, the magical barriers, the technomechanics and the gates structural integrity, but without possessing an acute knowledge of the gate itself breaching it would toll both time and effort – two things he could ill afford this day. Suddenly, like the dark gathering of clouds about him, a scheme hatched in his mind.

He rapidly increased his neuronic activity, allowing him to take advantage of the brains quantum nature. Then, coupling his mind to a coherent quantum system, Nin began to continuously pump his brain into cycles of quantum coherence and collapse. During each episode of coherence his brain entered and re-entered a state of superposition with infinite counterparts of itself across parallel universes, where his mind attempted neural coupling between parallel states. His thoughts suddenly became plural, as if behind every thought he detected the faint choral echo of others that perfectly shadowed it. The act itself always forced the brain to collapse down to one macroscopic state, but the collapse was not instantaneous. There were series of vast moments when coupled brain coherence bled back into his own mind, putting him into a weak superposition with his own parallel-world counterparts - each in a different point of relative time. Impressions and information gathered and solidified, like the phantoms that take shape after hours of sensory deprivation, as a long white corridor stretched out to infinity within him. Then suddenly, like a torrent of rolling waves rushing out from the breach of a dam, a barrage of selective neural data swept across the dimensional barriers of space-time, flooding directly into his mind. His neurons began to stabilise once more, decelerating back into their natural speed, as the quantum link broke away from the endless white corridor of parallel future states.

Concealed from all but himself, his lips forged a reptilian grin. By sharing the task between infinite counterparts of his mind, spread across parallel universes and varied future states, Nin was quickly able to obtain the knowledge he sought.

Extending his right arm, palm arched vertically, Nin exerted his own mental efforts toward the gate. Blackness surfaced within the irises of his eyes, and it seemed that in a moment of silence the world had stood still. Almost hauntingly, the silence was luminously foreshadowed by an aggregation of psychic energies, as space-time rippled in distortion - guided by a power and mind of malice. The mighty skull of the Draconic gate began to tremble, as if almost with fear. A sonorous rent, like the cracking of bones, smashed through the fortress, as thunder running in the clouds, with the squeal of metal being torn aside - rupturing apart as the gates magical barriers waxed and waned. Horizontally stretching his fingertips, his eyes widening in the process, Nin intensified his assault. Slowly, severing the mighty gate piece by piece, the skull was rancorously torn from its architectural majesty.

The fortress hung amid dark skies in an effusion of rubble, like a lithic beast abruptly decapitated, with lapidary prowess.

Then, as if stricken by some blasting spell the gate was ripped asunder: there was a flash of searing lightning, and its great jaws trembled in riven fragments to the ground.

The way was open; the gate was breached.

He quickly withdrew the armies of the Brotherhood; psychokinetically manipulating each of the synaptic creatures accordingly, as the causeway leading up to the now hollowed entrance became clear with the parting black tide of his troops. He would face this foe alone.

Staring into the seeming void of the cleft, mindful eyes - followed by a bleak and sinisterly whisper - pierced through the darkness and unto the Pillar himself.

‘…I see you…’

[Lucid]

((OOC: Edited for the sake of the story flow..))

Lucid in control text is green.
Lucid's thoughts text are in green italics.
Kraai in control text is red.
Kraai's thoughts text are in red italics.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ah, what a nostalgic feeling..." Kraai mused as he watched the battle taking place on the visual screen which Lucid used to observe the battle and moniter his army, sending out his army of mindflayers and other creatures to take on the opposing forces. Despite the circumstances, Lucid looked and felt extremely calm. One would almost think that he was a bit too relaxed for a battle to be raging outside, but it was this feeling that gave order to the chaos inside the control room. Everything seemed to be going much smoother now, but Lucid could tell that something wasn't right. He could sense there was a powerful presence approaching, but he couldn't read its mind or locate it.

"That's strange..." Lucid said out loud to Kraai as he scanned the area looking for the source of the disturbance he had felt. With some effort he was finally able to locate it, but if he was surprised, he didn't show it. Standing just outside the gate with an army of orcs, all determined to force their way through, was a member of The Brotherhood of Doom.

"Hmm? Is that him? How did he get here so quickly?" Kraai asked, but Lucid ignored him, narrowing his eyes as he looked upon the image of the intruder.

"Don't worry, My Lord. I won't allow him to pass..." Lucid said under his breath as he prepared to give the staff new orders. Unable to see into his mind, but anticipating the intruder's ambitions, Lucid quickly diverted his attention to the gate's defenses, and not a moment too soon.

"So forceful, isn't he?" Kraai observed as the intruder focused on destroying the gate piece by piece, but Lucid said nothing in response, concentrating only on protecting the gate. It was only a matter of time, however, before the gate was torn apart, but Lucid was not deterred by it. Of course, if one saw the destruction as a simple process, then he would be sadly mistaken.

As soon as the intruder was alone, he stared at Lucid through the void left by the destruction. ‘…I see you…’ a whisper taunted, but Kraai merely sighed. If the intruder intended on getting some sort of fearful or frantic response from this pathetic attempt at a challenge, then he was sorely mistaken. Kraai knew well of went on inside of Lucid's mind and there weren't many things that moved him so.

"Only because I allowed you to..." Lucid replied stoically to the intruder, exiting through the portal as the mouth of the Dragonic Gate suddenly reformed around him. "By merging my mind with the gate, I was able to distort your readings and input my own information, allowing you to see what you wanted to see." Lucid came to a stop before the gate as the mouth closed, his bangles giving a small jingling sound as he rested his hand on the side of the giant dragon skull. He closed his eyes, as if in contemplation, then re-opened them seconds later, now looking upon the intruder with crimson eyes.

"How foolish to think that you could breach the gate so easily..." Kraai smirked. "You're a thousand years too young to even try and accomplish such a task."

[Nin`]

Out of Character: Again, thoughts are italicised, whereas sub-vocalised thoughts are italicised with quotation marks.

---

Caught in the continuing reflection of his mask, Lucid stood distantly ahead of him.

He approached the entranceway with strident gait, his cloak swaying vacillatingly around him like an erratic black flame, as the fortress continued to loom overhead with riven statuesque.

As Nin drew nearer, the flash and flicker of his eyes shimmered lustily against the backdrop of a forlorn empyrean.

His mind was still in the process of decelerating after accessing its neural quantum state. The subjective effect was normal consciousness, but at an accelerated rate. It was as if his brain had been supercharged, able to process thoughts at a rate of twenty times faster then any normal mind. He could watch an apple fall from a tree and compose an assiduous disembowelling before it had reached the ground. Or watch the depressor and elevator muscle flex and twist in a hummingbird’s wing.

Lucids words coursed fluidly into his auditory cortex, intermittently, syllable by syllable at a time. He knew everything Lucid was saying, even before his brain could processes the frequency vibrations. It was something else he had learned while his mind was in superposition with its various parallel future states, when acquiring the knowledge he needed of the Draconic gates internal structure.

Then suddenly, without warning, his advance came to a swift halt as a squad of Master troops appeared from all sides around him, quickly encircling Nin with a thicket of spears all pointed towards him; and some had bows in hand, with arrows already fitted to the string, while others bore rifles of some arcane design.

This was unexpected. But Nin knew well that not all things could be so foreseen.

Nin quickly noted that those holding firearms were not soldiers, but technicians. By withdrawing his legions he had obviously given them all some sort of valiant encouragement. One strode forward toward him, a tall man of the castle guard from what Nin could judge, glancing at his armoury and uniform. He advanced until the point of his spear was within a foot of Nin’s breast. But Nin did not stir; momentarily, with an evanescent flicker of his eyes, Nin glanced back toward Lucid, yet the pillar just stood there before the open entrance of the gate, almost as if he were in a state of reverie, and completely unaware of his surroundings.

'Poor boy,' thought Nin to himself as the Pillars words continued to filter throughout his auditory senses. He steadily turned his attention back to the guard in front of him, his mind continuing to decelerate with the world still moving slowly around him. He could quite easily have forced his neural deceleration and restored his mind back to its natural processing speed instantly, but he didn’t want to risk overheating his glial cells or suffer any brief information loss. Better to let it restore itself naturally, he thought.

“Who are you, beast! What business have you in these lands!” Yelled the guard, viewing himself in the reflection of the stranger’s contorted shaped mask.

Nin remained silent, maintaining his composure as he viewed the guard with little more then a stoic gaze. The guard was quickly infuriated by his unmoved mien and apparent show of audacity.

“Beast! We are willing to die for our homeland!!” The guard lunged his spear toward Nin’s breast. But Nin continued to remain still, even as the spear hit - yet its edge failed to pierce any part of him. The guard’s eyes went wide with shock, before his countenance sharply contorted with ashen horror. Reaching out his right arm, Nin pulled the guard in closer to him; gouts of blood splashed against the ground below, while the remaining Masters each backed away like a flock of fearful birds.

“Willing to die for your homeland are you…?" Muttered Nin, almost teasingly.

"That’s very fitting, because I’m wiling to kill for it.” His words echoed malignly through the small band of Masters. The guard’s spear had struck his torso cleanly, but, unknowingly to him, Nin was adept in violently twisting space-time around him, over certain areas of his body. The weapons reality had been bent around itself, to such a degree, that it was propelled in the opposite direction, now impaling the guard on his own spear.

As revelation struck them, the remaining Masters each turned to flee, but to their despair they were unable to move… their minds had been petrified with fear; Nin had locked each of their amygdalae into a state of perpetual dread.

'These minds should do nicely,' he thought to himself satisfingly.

Then, from out the swirling blackness of his cloak, a mass of twisting black shapes, like great arched vines of shadow, loomed up all around him; like a slithering, restless dance of ink like arms on many scales, mimicking the way an octopus moved through the water. Almost no remaining light was visible beyond the absolute shifting black of the tentacles, accept for a flickering mauve light within them.

Clouds of smaller black shapes attended each major assemblage, and as the assemblages neared each other they threw out extensions between themselves, like umbilical cords of flowing darkness. Waves of energy pulsed between the main bodies, as the tentacles rapidly fissioned and merged with one another. The purple lightning continuing to flicker between the inky shapes with intensity, occasionally forming a geometric shell around Nin before collapsing back into something which appeared much more random. Despite the certain feeling that they were going to die, the Masters found the approach disturbingly hypnotic, like watching a finely orchestrated group of dancers, each locked in sinuous lithe. But it was also sickening: simply looking at these black and ink-like tentacles inspired a hollow feeling of dreadful nausea, for they were apprehending something that had clearly never been shaped by human intelligence; and in their minds the Masters knew that they had terribly underestimated their enemy. Veins of shadow crept closer and closer, malignly, oozing tightly around their prey.

Limned in violent arcs and sprays of lightning – quivering sheets and dancing baubles of contained plasma energy – the arcs of shadow probed inwards, obscenely and hungrily. The pointed ends of the forming arms suddenly bifurcated – rushing at the guards with unrelenting haste. They grew via oozing waves of pulsating darkness along the lengths behind them, the shadows swelling or contracting before locking into their fatal positions. Bifurcating and re-bifurcating they now formed a many fingered black hand, poised before each of the Master’s faces, ready to be plunged into eyes, mouths, noses, ears, even through skin and bone.

The Masters were forcefully held up in mid air like an array of puppets as the shadowy arms taut their quarry, gripping their faces in a show off pitched horror and tonal discord - like fingernails scratching sharply against a blackboard. The bifurcated hands delved deeper and deeper into the guard’s heads ravishing every orifice they could find, drilling through bone and muscle, until they had reached the cerebral cortexes. The arms were interrogating them, retrieving neural structures and synaptic transmissions, deep from within their encephalons.

The shadowy arms, like wild gluttonous monsters, sapped the Masters of everything they knew, including the Draconic gate and its defensive systems; drinking and stripping them of their very identities in the process, before feeding them directly into Nin’s mind. After their skulls had been emptied, and completely hollowed, the lifeless band of Masters were discarded like rag dolls as the arms of shadow hurled them outward in multiple directions, before quickly regressing back to the depths of Nin’s cloak.

Now that he had secured the data on the gate the information could be used and passed on to other, and various parallel states of himself - throughout the endless multiverse; and thus continuing the cycle.

He smirked, directing his attentions back toward Lucid, just as his mind restored itself back into its natural acceleration rate. Subjective reality normalized once more; his surroundings flowing in steady synchronisation with his conscious perception of them.

"How foolish to think that you could breach the gate so easily..." Came the Pillar of Minds voice, almost convincingly from what Nin could detect in his tone.

'Is this fool deliberately trying to play mind games with me?' he questioned to himself, eyeing Lucid, when suddenly his thoughts were interrupted with the presence of another: 'I do wish you would refrain from that Nin, or at least give fair warning before hand. Accelerating your mind like that is horribly erratic'.

'Thought I told you to be silent… besides it was necessary,' replied Nin, his tone cold and betraying no emotion.

The presence took a moment to respond, as it sometimes did. 'Yes I see, you made quite a mess… so this is the Pillar of Mind?' It questioned, turning its attentions towards Lucid.

'Tell me Chronos, what do you make of him…' asked Nin.

Chronos almost chuckled to itself in response. 'You call me by name, and ask of my opinion, all in the same sentence? My, my; and what’s got into you pray tell… don’t you already know?'

'I know only the basics of him. I could infiltrate his mind, but it would mean lowering my defences. So tell me what you see, use the warp if you have too.' Nin could feel Chronos’ thought processes churning somewhere behind his own. The experience was a bit like possessing a subconscious mind actually being able to communicate with you.

'Hmm,' murmured Chronos, 'it would appear that he is, what you would call, a duel soul being. He seems to posses both the soul of a demon and a human; acquired rather then inherited I think. Kraai is the demons name, quite a unpleasant little creature.' Chronos continued to delve deeper. 'Now lets see, Lucid… it seems he tried distorting your mind, which in turn appears to have distorted his own, allowing him too see what he wants to see…'

'I thought as much,' responded Nin, relatively unsurprised considering the power of his death mask. 'But lets be sure…'

He looked down to the rubble beneath him, picking up a shattered piece of debris in the process with a slight of his mind, before grasping it in his right hand. He analysed it for a long moment, allowing the structural information to wash over his tactile senses, passing through into the depths of his mind. Satisfied, Nin crushed the rock with near-effortless ease, allowing it to crumble back down to the ground below. That was all the evidence he needed.

Nin mused silently to himself over the pillars prosaical words, before addressing him directly. “Your tawdry arrogance dissimulates your fears well… or perhaps it ignorance...” An echo of dark laughter followed in his words like a myriad of sweeping shadows, as if a thousand other voices had surrounded him from some bleak and unknown place.

“You’re a surrealistic mind I can see, but it will not aid you against me…” The wind suddenly died, and all the air stood still as if quenched of hope.

His voice crackled with a faint laughter.

“Your illusions and ignis fatuus won’t work on me, boy.” His laughter grew, sinisterly.

“Anything which you attempt to mentally project, affecting my mind, is directly reflected back unto your own. A weakling like you cannot distort any part of my mind from me, nor can you control it.”

Extending his mind once more, Nin psychokinetically raised up the aggregated mass of rubble around him.

“Unfortunately for you, your illusions have just become your own,” the aggregation fell back to the ground with a thunderous crash, as he released the wreckage from his psychic grip.

“I’m afraid your gate is still very much in ruin. In attempting to distort my mind you’ve only succeeded in distorting your own,” he up looked toward the sky, watching the ongoing battle raging high above them with minor interest.

“Perhaps this is ample explanation for you regarding my mask… perhaps not. Given how easily fooled your rabble is, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn that you still don’t understand. Think, however you might try,” he mocked, turning back to Lucid with a scorn.

[Lucid]

"Tch...so that's how it is, hm?" Kraai said as he looked back at the gate.

"What is it Kraai?" Lucid asked.

"His mask seems to protect him from mental manipulations..." Kraai replied. "..and reflects it back upon the original caster...other magic spells as well, I imagine..." This new revelation didn't really surprise Kraai much. He had almost expected it, especially since Lucid wasn't able read the man's mind earlier, but it probably wouldn't have mattered much to him anyway. Still, it was best to keep Lucid from taking control at the moment since his mind was already warped enough as it was. It was a very bothersome turn of events, regardless.

With his mind still merged with the gate he was able to reform it, but he still had to protect it from anyone else who might try to attack it.

Kraai stood across from the intruder, silently observing him for a moment when two flying creatures crashed to the ground nearby. A mighty gryphon with her wings held out in a threatening manner was locked in a fierce battle with a demon she had pulled from the sky. Talons and claws slashed at each other as the two fought, their cries of pain piercing the air already filled with the sounds of shouts, explosions and the clanging of weapons.

"Too noisy!" Kraai suddenly growled, setting the demon ablaze with a hateful glare. The gryphon, sensing his anger, quickly backed away from the burning demon and gave a small apologetic bow before flying back to her post. Kraai didn't seem satisfied until the demon had burned down to mere ashes, and only then did he turn his attention back to the man before him.

"How bothersome," Kraai muttered in annoyance. "There's too many distractions here for a proper battle. Allow me to set up a barrier..." he said, but didn't wait for an answer before using the gate's power to form a large magical barrier which surrounded them and the gate. Once the barrier had been completely erected, the two found themselves in a strange and empty landscape that seemed to stretch on forever.

"Don't worry, this isn't a trick." Kraai began to explain. "This barrier will merely protect us, as well as the gate, from any outside harm or interference." He pointed to the shadowy image of the gate in the far distance. "The area within this barrier is also much larger than it seems...in case you need some room to run," he taunted. "Oh, but one thing...only when there is a victor, will this barrier be negated, so I imagine we'll be seeing alot of each other for now, so..."

As Kraai turned away from the man, the blackness inside the barrier suddenly changed to a snowy scene of a forest clearing. All around, great trees stood, their branches heavy with snow, their skeletal forms reaching towards the white sky as if trying to find the sun. A lone weeping willow bent over a frozen pond, her bare boughs blowing in the gentle, but cool breeze as snow continued to fall from the bleak white sky, covering the ground and trees with new layers of snow.

It could be said that this was a peaceful scene of perfect silence, but this was not entirely true. If one listened, then they could hear it...the sound of trees as they creaked under the strain of heavy snow, the sound of the breeze as it blew through the branches, the sound of water as it flowed below the thick layer of ice, and the sound of snow crunching beneath one's feet.

"Let's play a game..." Kraai suddenly said, breaking the silence as he turned back to face his opponent. "...but first I would like to know the name of the one who hides behind a mask. Why is this I wonder?" Kraai smiled devilishly. "Are you afraid?"

[Nin`]

"How bothersome," he seemed to mutter out in annoyance.

"There's too many distractions here for a proper battle. Allow me to set up a barrier..."

Keeping his sights continuously engrossed on the human-demon hybrid, Nin glowered with little more then disdain. His eyes glinting with a wild and manic look to them.

As warped as Lucid’s mind had become, he was still able to reform the gate to some extent. Re-establishing her defences to some former degree of stature.

Then, suddenly, something began to change.

He sensed a shift in the fabric of space-time surrounding them both. It felt almost like an energy discharge, to small and minute to perceive directly, but it was there. Something had been manipulated, twisted into some sort of other reality, but he couldn’t see it. He could only sense the meagre distortion echoing all around him, almost as if it were tying to target him.

'What's this…? What “barrier” was he speaking about?' Nin questioned; remembering the pillars words which he had earlier disregarded as more fantasy.

'He’s drawing what energy remains of the gate, manipulating the surrounding area with some sort of illusionary environment. Because of your psychokinetic defences you don’t see it, and it can’t affect your mind. But you can still sense its quantum effects'. Chronos explained, adopting an expression of seriousness. Nin felt the sudden urge to draw his blade and rent the pillar of minds little fantasy apart.

'No… not yet,' reasoned Chronos. 'Play along with his games Nin, let him think he is in control, just for the moment. Then destroy him, but not before we have some fun with him first,' he concluded; his tone sadistic.

Nin’s lips betrayed the hint of a small smile.

"...but first I would like to know the name of the one who hides behind a mask. Why is this I wonder?" Kraai asked smilingly, filling Nin with a loathsome resentment and disregard.

"Are you afraid?"

Nin met Kraai's gaze; his crimson irises flaring with wroth in a pool of black sclera.

"Fool! Do you think the fear you feel is mine?" Countered Nin, lowering his psychic defences, challengingly, to the required limits; allowing his opponents barrier to take effect of only his most basic sensory perceptions.

In a fleeting instant he found himself immersed in what seemed to be a vast forest clearing, immersed in snowfall, stretching out for what seemed an eternity in all directions.

"More illusions of yours?" He questioned to Lucid rhetorically, laughing lightly to himself as if he were humouring a small child.

"As for who I might be - Pillar of Mind - you may simply call me Nin."

He readjusted his stance, standing sternly and with readiness. "Your gate was never what I was after. That was just a means, and quite an enjoyable one, of reaching you, and an act of which I now pass on to others like me, even as I speak. No, I’ve been ordered to destroy you personally – and shall take great delight in doing so." He paused, examining his surroundings for a brief moment.

"But very well, oh “Pillar of Mind”, we’ll play it your way… for now." With haste, Nin threw back his cloak.

"However, once I am done with your antics don’t think for a second that I won’t rip your little fairy tail asunder!"

In a single, silent motion, he slid Ka'tallasith free from its black sheath. The blade shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out.

"Now… lets us dispense with theses preliminaries and move on to the main event!"

[Nin`]

A feral smile crossed the dark warriors face, his eyes narrowing, as he swung Ka’tallasith before him in an idle, fierce gesture; almost beckoning the Pillar’s assault hither.

Scores of serrated spikes, like great icy incisors, shrieked aloud with a howling crescendo cutting swiftly through the open air, and towards him like a wailing blizzard.

Nin’s gaze held steady and clear, and for a moment he stood in complete observation, his views reflecting flawlessly in the speculum of his masked face - save for his eyes, which only seemed to absorb everything beyond them.

Then, in a rising thermal agitation, Nin’s eyes suddenly ignited into a luminous vibrato, and the world began to slow; the flow of space-time distorted all around him, degenerating into a torpid remiss, as he willed his mind into a transitory state of accelerated consciousness.

Caught in the permutation of time, the expance of ice loomed over Nin with predatory advance, like huge flying daggers caught in slow motion.

He smiled to himself reassuringly as Ka'tallasith, gripped firmly in hand, shon out from his right side like an ardent flame, hungry for battle. Without hesitation, Nin launched himself into the air, somersaulting, just before the first shards reached him.

He moved with an unnatural velocity, avoiding the first two ice shards with astonishing ease whilst swinging his blade impetuously around him and into a synchronised wave of gyratory slashes.

Lunging and twisting in midair, Nin aligned and realigned his offensive, counterattacking time after time with inhuman speed. To an average mind observing him he would have seemed only like an array of caliginousness blurs between movements - followed abruptly by a rending discharge of concentrated ice.

Again and again, with devastating effect, Ka'tallasith struck relentlessly with unequalled careen - meeting each target with shattering boom while veering swiftly apace throughout every dimension with obscure motion. The blade itself was very strange, not appearing at all completely natural, as it seemed to defy the very laws of physics – almost as if it were not of this universe.

In what would have seemed like an instant in real time, Nin descended between the plethora’s of shattered ice, medially in midair, before touching down only seconds after his feet had left he ground. His eyes slowly faded, reverting back to their normal colour, the momentary lapse of accelerated consciousness fading quickly, once again restoring the flow of space-time around him; the ice shards swiftly followed - smashing loudly to the ground around him.

Then, in a flash of instance and as if from nowhere, an ice shard, much smaller, silently shot out of the changing environment. Without a second thought, Nin threw his blade into the air, extending his right arm and stretching out his palm towards it.

The icy spike struck his hand perfectly; piercing it all the way through with dagger-like laceration while he revealed his left hand from the darkness of his cloak, clad in what appeared to be a fierce metallic claw, before clasping Ka'tallasith at its hilt. His movements were sinuously swift, as if they had already been predetermined and orchestrated with wondrous intent.

But Nin’s demeanour betrayed nothing.

“Childs play,” he uttered with avowal.

“I hope for your sake that you can do better then that…” he directed to Kraai, “because if this is all you’ve got you’d better start running,” Nin vaunted, his tone confident and disdainful.

He took a moment to take in his new surroundings, observing them with a tactical curiosity: the skies were sanguine, stained and running with blood as if a thousand heads had been smashed against it. The air grew colder and denser with what would have perhaps been a deathly chill to most mortal men. And the trees, abstractly, continued to wizen, disfiguring in a way that might have been the gloom of death itself. But what had caught his interests for a moment longer were the eyes that bulged out from their bark. All around him they seemed to stare with something monstrous in their gaze, an innate affinity to which he could deeply relate. Honing his mind, he consciously tuned the psycho-electronic frequencies of his visual cortex in with the trees eyes own visionary senses almost instantly granting him the vision of a multitude of eyes throughout various positions. He watched Lucid, silently anew, with a gathering scorn.

"You obviously don't know the meaning of fear..." Kraai had earlier retorted - his words playing through Nin’s mind.

Looking back down to his bloody impaled hand, Nin conceded his point with the slightest of nods. The vertical spike shimmering, like a rapier that had only just drawn blood.

"I wouldn’t know the meaning of fear, no – at least not anymore…" he looked up staring back to Kraai. "I tore out my amygdale a long time ago, eradicating such primitive and innate traits entirely from my genetic being, before regenerating and evolving them anew to my design..." He voice rang with a dark tone.

Quietly, Nin ignited his psychokinetic abilities, manipulating the surroundings to his will. The incision to his hand flowed red in a surge of effluence, but not a drop had spilt unto the pristine white of diamond-like ice shards beneath him. Instead, the gouts of blood coursed up his palm, skyward, to the tips of his fingers, ebbing away from the ground and up into the above.

"… At first it removed the idea of pain from me, and I thought I felt no pain at all," Nin continued, "but then I came to realize that I just didn’t care about it." He mused to himself, watching his blood rise up above him, as he clenched his hand into a fist, shattering the spike of ice into a million twinkleing parts. The flow of blood stopped, and the small opening in his hand gradually began to close.

"The propensities of fear are not something I have in mind – quite literally."

A pool of blood amassed above him in complete suspension, stretching and coagulating into an elongated shape resembling a red tentacle. The billions of fragmented ice pieces were quick to join it, as they to were pulled into air in rapid motion. Piece by piece the ice was absorbed into the bioplasm of the tentacle, becoming an intricate part of it as the matter was broken down and assimilated, increasing its size threescore.

Without hesitation, and with spiralling momentum, the bioplasmic arm advanced upon the Pillar of Mind with ferocious agility. The tip, no longer blunt, begun to open, dividing into multiple red fingers that were themselves growing and coiling, writhing their way through the air, with the intent of binding Lucid’s upper body in strangulation.

In the same instant, Nin clasped Ka’tallasith in both hands to his right side, the blade upright and towering vertically above him. He rushed at Kraai; expeditiously with inhuman speed and completely silent, save for the reaping howl of his blades edge.

As the bifurcating blood arms descended upon the Pillar, Nin thrust his blade forward in an effort to cleave his opponents legs from under him whilst striking from multiple horizontal directions; the blade slashing diagonally from both left and right angles as its quantum abilities were activated.

The blade roared with a primordial scream, and its howl, against the wind, resounded like a hunter’s challenge to its prey.

[Lucid]

"D...don't look at me like that..." Lucid said, seemingly wrapped up in his own thoughts as the eyes looked towards him. "I'll never run from you!"

"Focus Lucid! Clear your mind." Kraai suggested to Lucid, but wasn't sure if his words were getting through to him.

Although Nin was granted the vision of numerous eyes, it didn't necessarily mean that what they saw was clear. What the eyes saw was a twisted version of the scenery, further distorting the already warped reality around them. Seen only though the tree's eyes were mutilated bodies, the bodies of those Lucid had killed, hanging from the trees, dripping deep crimson blood upon the snow below. Though their eyes had all been ripped from their faces, their heads lifted and stared at Nin with empty and bloody eye sockets as if trying to bore into his soul. The eyes then also looked back towards Nin with sinister glares, attempting to purge his control from them.

Lucid still appeared distracted, and even Kraai wondered if he was even paying attention until Lucid finally replied to what Nin had been saying.

"I've found that pain is what drives me," Lucid said, giving a smile full of malice as he looked up at Nin once more. "It's what makes taking revenge all the more satisfying..."

He appeared to watch what Nin was doing with little interest, but in truth, he was continuing to carefully study his opponent, and prepare for his attack. It wasn't that he was worried, but he wanted to be extra cautious.

As the red tentacle split and came towards him, a wall of thick ice suddenly surged up from the ground between Lucid and blood hands. It hit the wall with an enormous amount of force, spraying blood upon the wall and sending chunks of ice flying as the wall was destroyed on impact. He was about to move back away from the wall as it was destroyed in an attempt to avoid the flying chunks of ice, but the force of the impact caught him off guard and knocked him back, sending him rolling through the snow where he finally came to a stop on his side several feet from where he had been standing.

He turned over on his back and saw that Nin was suddenly upon him, but he wasn't going to be done in so easily. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like he had to avoid the blade of Nin's sword at any cost. With this in mind, he quickly rolled to the side and pushed himself up off the ground to the right, just out of the range of Nin's sword, narrowly avoiding the attack.

With little hestitation, Lucid then turned back towards Nin and held his hand out with his plam facing upwards. Seconds later a flame erupted to life on his palm and began to snake around his arm before suddenly shooting towards Nin in a violent wave of scorching heat, melting the snow in it's path.

The hundreds of eyes upon the trees that were witnesses to the fight were suddenly joined by gnarled mouths filled with jagged teeth which penetrated the air with a eerie chorus of chilling screams and moans from the sight of the fire. To some, the sound of voices filled with fear were horrifying, but to Lucid it was the perfect music suited to this battle.

[Nin`]

Nin's advance was momentarily taken back as the wall of ice soared out from the ground with an unyielding force: decimating both itself and the blood arm in an exploding collision. Ice and sanguine detritus flew in all directions with equally vicious fury, but Nin remained undeterred. His blade ripped through the surroundings with hurling force, smashing through the remaining ice chunks and just narrowly missing it target, as Lucid quickly rolled to his side.

Caught in the force of his own momentum, Nin was unable to instantly arrest his speed and renew his attack on the Pillar before allowing him time to recover. The icy terrain was also taking its toll on him, making minor adjustments to his speed and finesse extremely difficult, as he tried to stop and bring himself about but only found himself sliding further away.

'How irritating!' He thought vehemently: stirring with newfound contempt for the frozen wasteland.

Arching back his left arm he swiftly raised the steel claw Mortalis, clad in his left hand, before smiting it into the icy ground beneath him with crushing strength. Almost immediately, Nin's momentum rapidly decreased; his clawed hand leaving a long and gouged mark embedded in the earth as he continued to push Mortalis into the ice. He stopped after a little distance, bringing himself up once more.

He stood sternly, fully composed and his shoulders arched high, a short distance away from Lucid, and with his back to him. The sight of the many trees around him continued to serve his minds eye; and despite them being warped and distorted with scenes of carnage there were still many angles and positions to choose from. He stared upon Lucid's position through numerous and tainted eyes.

"Your abience of my blade, for such a highly regarded figure was quite deplorable. I wonder if this is how you define fear? Or even if you yourself know how to wield a blade, much less defend yourself against one," Nin mocked aloud, but his words seemed to escape Lucid, at least for the moment. Realization quickly dawned upon him, as he suddenly sensed a rush of aggregating energy emanating from Lucid. Nin continued to observe the Pillar from within his minds eye.

Lucid's arm then seemed to suddenly flare into a coiling stream of energy, like a snake with a body made only of flame. Nin’s eyes instantly reopened, alit and shimmering with a gathering intensity.

"Fire…?" His voice resonated playfully on the word, as something within, and all about him began to stir into motion.

His senses began to fluctuate wildly in a multiplex of signals, each coursing throughout his entire body with a nostalgic frenzy of rippling motion, before quickly erupting into a bio-chemical chain of sematic reactions.

In a chilling tone of whispering breath, Nin voiced silently aloud, "…So be it…"

The Pillar of Mind launched his attack, igniting the surrounding locale into a flash of blinding waves, accompanied by the chilling screams of thermal agitation and gnarling jaws. But Nin did not waver, standing firmly with his back to his opponent, and a raging hunger from within. The fires loomed up all around him like a rushing tide, the burning light reflecting exquisitely in his mask, before the flames engulfed him.

Raw and ancient energies surged throughout his entire body, breaking free into a roaring crescendo as the fires completely consumed him within a virtuoso of burning ecstasy. It was as if something both fierce and dormant, like a slumbering beast between the violent pains of rapture, was slowly arising deep from within him, and rapidly awakening with each ascending throe.

His body was remarkable adhesive, employing a multilayered dermal structure that was comprised largely of keratin and other proteins – very similar to byssus – with internal cysts containing a viscose organic liquid and astounding thermal capacity, providing Nin with the utilization of a structural bio-stabilizing protein formed in a hyper-stable fluorinated collagen variant. His body was like a rapidly adapting organic machine, allowing him to easily manipulate his own homeostasis and physiology, withstanding his body’s exposure too much higher temperatures, greater pressures, and various reactive agents for much longer periods of time before chemical breakdown.

The fires continued to rage, and within the heart of writhing flames a body of dark form began to take shape, twisting and snapping like the cracking of bones in unnatural motion. And from its place of fiery concealment, a large black and multi-horned horror slowly emerged from the fire. A foul shriek, bloodless and cold, tore through the convulsed flames with a sinister pitch – like that of a bitter wind howling down through the frozen mountain peaks. And behind each scream, the echo of a thousand other tortured voices cried out as one in a wailing crescendo. Slowly, the fires began to wane as the growing darkness confined within them continued to rise.

And through the flames of the withering inferno, Nin loured, black and heinously with a presence that had undergone a beastly transformation. The death mask that he wore had coalesced with his face, and the contorted masks terrible shape now formed his own visage. His body remained largely the same save being a little taller, and consisting of a dark and skeletal-like form - with large spike-like protrusions reaching out from various parts of his body.

He had been partly awoken. Bred by the species of another time to serve the needs of its masters, Nin had survived the holocaust that had destroyed them, and in surviving and preserving its ancient existence, it had evolved to a monstrous degree.

The shadow of his cloak rose up from the flames, as if caught on some fell wind, while the fire slowly died away, smouldering into red wisps of ember as the darkness continued to grow – overwhelming the fire in both size and ferocity. The shadow about Nin reached out, expansively, like two vast forming wings.

Then, in a moment of deathly calm that seemed to grip the entire world, the ground shuddered violently, as if some form of hidden, sleeping life had been abruptly awakened. All around him the jungle of wizened and screeching trees were savagely torn apart with a thunderous thrashing of limbs and brush. Tentacle-like limbs scoured the land, and in their rending wake the surrounding terrain quickly became a splintering ruin.

The limbs quickly retracted back to their origin, forming a spiked crest of extended protuberances across Nin's skull, and along his shoulders. The Horn-like protrusions were tipped with blade-like edges, rising up from the creatures’ head like a crown amongst beasts.

As the Pillar of Minds attack completely died away, Nin walked forward, drawing himself up to a slightly greater height then he had been before, with his shadowy wings spreading out about him.

"No tricks, I will attack you directly," he uttered, stern and bold with his sight set upon Lucid. There was an edge to his rough voice that was cold and haunting, with each word chorally echoed, as if followed by a shadowing progression of wailing echoes; like that of endless screams of torment locked in a perpetual darkness.

At that moment Nin raised up Ka'tallasith, pointing it toward the heavens, where almost instantly it began to glow a wicked crimson hue. Around the blade arcs of red lightning surged with a loud crackle of dissonance, where then Nin, crying aloud, smote it into the earth beneath him; his eyes igniting from pitch black to gleaming saffron.

"Wake of Destruction!!" He howled in uproar, and the ground was horizontally torn in two as far as the eye could see. With a mighty and quaking roar, the land opened up like great serpentine jaws, with teeth of blackened rock and a lolling tongue of magma. Great fires burst forth in a torrid of rampant streams, like huge geysers burning endlessly in volcanic eruption, out from the giant crevasse – horizon to horizon. The tumult roar of burning waves clashed with a violent up rise, ascending to great heights with thunderous expulsions as they formed into a single and monstrous wave of incineration; scalding and devouring the sky as it ravaged all in its path.

With the awoken fires raised, Nin unleashed the volcanic tsunami with unyielding psychokinetic propulsion. The molten tidal wave surged forward with an overwhelming haste, hungrily and set to consume Lucid whole as it engulfed the surrounding milieu in wave after wave of molten flames. The remaining flesh-forests of carnivorous trees came alive with the screams and roars of denizens roused to fury as they were broiled in its infernal wake.

"Bhûl latu dûmp!" Nin exclaimed, aloud and in the tongue of the black speech.

The bitter sound of destruction had never glowed so bright nor sang so sweet.

---

Out of Character:

Bhûl latu dûmp = Accept your doom.

Just to clarify, Nin has not awoken into his second form. He's more half, or semi awoken as a result of Lucid's attack (he was originally almost destroyed by fire/heat and has adapted remarkably well to it. Striking him with fire may/can trigger semi/full transformation; it's a sort of defence mechanism, depending on how powerful the strike is). So first form abilities still apply to him, not second form ones. This is what he looks like.

[Lucid]

It was an unexpected reaction, but Lucid watched Nin's transformation with little care or alarm, having seen more sinister things in the form of people he had once cared about. It didn't take him long in his life to learn that devils were lessing frightening in their true form, rather than the ones in disguise.

Everything then became still, much like the calm before a storm, then Lucid fell to his knees as the ground suddenly began to shake and the terrain was violently torn apart. When he looked up again, fires were bursting forth from the shattered ground, consuming the land in a scorching inferno. The heat from the fires were so already intense that it was getting hard to breathe, but it wasn't anything he hadn't exprienced before. No, it was almost like that time...

"N...no...don't come near me..." Lucid said, suddenly putting his hands to his head as his thoughts took him to a completely different place and time, making him seemingly unaware of the massive volcanic wave that had formed and was now heading right for him, but it was the the wall of flames and the heat that had reminded him of that day. As these thoughts crossed his mind, a new energy suddenly rushed him and he became filled with an intense feeling that drove him to not only survive, but to survive no matter what the cost. It was this power that lashed out and protected him when they tried to kill him, but it was also what had begun to drive him towards insanity.

This same power lashed out again in the form of a powerful wave of psychic energy, reaching Nin's wave of flames and pushing against it as if in a battle of minds. The molten wave rippled under the force of Lucid's power, but continued to steadily push forward towards him. The more he thought about what had happened, the more angry he became. His rage continued to increase, allowing him to draw in more energy in which to push harder against Nin's wall until he was able to push it back little by little.

It was only time before Lucid was finally able to disrupt the flaming wave and split it, literally ripping it in two and forcing it to pass by Lucid on either side. Lucid then rose to his feet with a maddened grin, looking up at Nin as he reached out towards the molten stream to his right. His fingers touched mere inches from the stream, causing the flames to swirl around his hand in a frenzy as they passed by. With a small, but quick gesture, he captured a stray flame in his hand, watching as it burned in his hand, before finally crushing it out in his fist.

"That was quite amusing. You're fun to play with," Lucid stated as the flames continued past into the horizon, then disappeared behind him. "Shall we continue this game then?"

The scenery then changed once again, this time it was a place that looked much like the burned and ruined interior a hospital hallway, but it had been twisted into something that appeared surreal and chaotic. All around, wheelchairs, charred bodies and other various objects slowly hovered in the air around them, like they had been caught inside of a tornado put in slow motion.

"You will never escape from my nightmare..." Lucid hissed threateningly as he watched Nin with a look of pure madness. He lashed out again at Nin, striking at him with a wave of pure and powerful psychic energy in an attempt to catch him off guard. He then quickly dashed towards Nin, pulling out his katars as he closed the distance between them, but just as he was mere feet from him, he disappeared, then suddenly reappeared behind him, stabbing towards his lower back with both katars at once.

[Lucid]

NOTE: The post between the -- was originally written by Nin as an actual post in the battle and I had given him permission to control my character, but he wasn't able to post it so I got his permission to use it in my kill post so that all his work wouldn't go to waste. He also wrote the part about Lucid stabbing his character with the katar, but I added some things and edited it a bit to fit in with what I wrote.

I wasn't able to work with Nin on the kill post, so I used a bit of artistic license and continued the battle myself in order to make the post a bit more epic and entertaining. I tried to be true to his character, but I'm not Nin, so I just did my best to write what I thought he would do in the situation. I hope he is satisfied with the way I've portrayed him.

Also, the end contains lots of blood and gore and stuff, and I'll post a warning down further in case you don't want to continue.

EDIT: Per request by Nin, I've added in some of his own commentary for his character's responses.


--
The surrounding flesh-forests had already been completely incinerated, and the environment reduced to little more then a desolate wasteland of lifeless rock. Yet, as they crashed down upon him, Lucid continued to hold his own against the great surging flames. Suddenly, Nin’s eyes lit up with a frenzied delight, as he saw Lucid rend his monstrous wave in two.

Nin observed the human-demon hybrid with a sadistic enthusiasm, one that he had almost forgotten. Few had ever lasted against him for such a length in battle, but now, now his blood was boiling once again, surging through his veins like molten steel, before enkindling his mind with a mnemonic fervor. He exhaled sharply with a deep satisfaction.

“Hmm… How long has it been since I last had a fight like this?” He remembered back, long ago, to the third age of Doom… back to his fight with Winter, The Carpathian Wolf.

“Ah, since my battle with Winter… ages have passed since that day, and all I’ve fought since were weaklings… I’ve almost forgotten what this feels like… My blood is seething… after laying dormant for so long, it’s seething!”

The beast howled with a rapturous roar, drawing power from deep within itself.

“I am Nin! And in the name of the Brotherhood I shall defeat you!!!”

The scenery and reality around him changed once more, this time into something much more unfamiliar that resembled a twisted and dark hallway which had the ambiance of a mental asylum. But Nin took little interest, concentrating instead on solely crushing his foe in mortal combat.

But Lucid was already upon him. He struck at Nin with a wave of raw psionic energy that momentarily caught the beast off guard and threw him back. Nin uttered with a guttural breath of irritation, before counterattacking with equal psionic force and thrusting viciously at his opponents mind in an effort to crush his offensive. In an explosive flash of light, that triturated the walls around them, the psychic strikes collided with a thundering boom, like strident winds crashing high above them as thunder tore through the sky's canopy. And the residual psychic energies dissipated like evanescent sparks of light.

With lightning speed he rushed at Nin, reappearing behind him and striking his lower back with what appeared to be a pair of katars extending from both arms. The blades struck Nin, yet they did not pierce him; twisting space-time around his torso Nin was able to send the katars lunging back, directly toward Lucid’s own body instead. Nin groaned with a faint and sinister laughter, but Lucid was not about to be done in so easily. The Pillar of Mind was able to dodge his own attack with a finesse that equalled his speed, before quickly retracting the blades and renewing his attack. He struck again, this time for Nin’s neckline.

Nin swiftly pivoted to his right, bringing Ka’tallasith around before he completely turned to face his opponent head on. He parried Lucid’s attack with a hard and vociferous thrust. The two blades momentarily locked, as did each fighters resolve. Nin brought the force of his legs against Lucid, forcing his katar away from its guard with the strength of Ka’tallasith, but Lucid quickly doubled back. He realigned his defense, raising his second katar as he did. Nin charged at his opponent head on and with a howling roar.

The combatants surged back and forth throughout the nightmarish and ever-twisting gloom of the hallway. Blades flashed brightly with each blow struck, as the barrier's reality almost seemed to writhe about them, swirling uncontrollably in all directions and into obscuring dark shapes as the milieu opened up into an abyssal darkness.

Night seemed to blanket the vast landscape of the world around them, cloaking an endless horizon of gleaming spires in deep velvet layers. The stars seemed to streak and run together like molten silver. The newly risen moon burned red with blood. The darkness heaved and throbbed like the laboured flanks of a beast in pain, as the savage duel between the inflamed adversaries raged on.

The psychic energies they each channelled into their blades attacks was fiercely colossal, with every blow hurling out vast amounts of residual energy in destructive waves – slowly sundering the triturating reality around them - as the inertial force of crashing blades roared out with an equal ferocity. Bit by bit the psychic barrier began to dissolve and crumble around them, its power waning in the monstrous wake of the two foes. Very soon it would collapse completely, and only one of these two figures would stand amidst its destructive aftermath triumphantly.

Searching for an opening, Lucid lept high up from the ground over Nin, just evading the dark warriors horizontal strike, whilst aligning his body and viciously counterattacking with his katars in a scissor-like swipe, all in one swift movement. Nin, surprised by the others quickness and ferocity was barely able to block the twin katars with his own weapon, as he brought about the momentum of his blade, launching it up into a defensive and arched slash above him; the blades clashed before quickly sliding apart with a harsh rasp. At the same time, Nin spun away in a whirl of darkness before striking at his opponent anew as he leaped forward in charge. Kat’tallasith slashed out at its intended prey, alight with a killing frenzy that promised no quarter. Still in mid air, Lucid spun his body evasively and brought his arms about. Bringing one of his katars down vertically, whilst bringing the other up, Lucid was able to block the venomous attack head on, before being propelled backwards as the blows force swept him away like a rushing tide.

He landed in a crouch, and rose instantly to his feet studying the beast with a watchful gaze.

Saffron eyes glimmered with excitement and anticipation in the horror of Nin's face. He saw Lucid staring and smiled in open derision. A mist gathered about them. Above them a few stars still glimmered faintly; but on either side there arose walls of impenetrable gloom; they were in a narrow lane between moving towers of shadow, as the clash of errant metal careening off the dark walls formed an eerie shriek in the deep gloom.

With quick and hard strokes of Ka’tallasith, Nin bore into Lucid, striking at the Pillar as if his own safety meant nothing, his own mind lost in a red haze of rage and blood lust while Lucid was borne backwards by the creature's huge size and wild assault. He struggled to keep the beast at bay, trying to open up enough space between them to defend himself. Blades lashed and grated against each other with a metallic howl, and the seething darkness echoed with their fury. Nin hammered at him with such determination that he tore though the Pillar's light-grey duster, shoulder to waist.
--

With each clash of blades, Lucid could feel himself growing weaker, being worn down from the constant attacks, but he continued to try and hold his ground against the raging beast. He felt as though he was being backed into a corner and he lashed out in an attempt to gain some distance between them, but his attack left him open, allowing Nin's blade to come much closer to his body then he would have liked, ripping through his coat, but luckily not his flesh.

Nin didn't waste any time before attacking again, but Lucid quickly raised his katars in defense, crossing them in order to catch the blade of Nin's sword in a scissor like hold. They held their positions for a moment, each continuing to struggle against the other in order to get the upper hand, silently waiting for one to falter. Lucid breathed heavily, feeling the perspiration running down his neck as he held out against Nin's blade. Nin could tell that Lucid was tiring, and the beast curled his lip in a sneer before suddenly twisting his blade, roughly wrenching the katar from Lucid's left hand where it landed some feet away.

With only one katar, Lucid's defense was severely weakened, and the next blow sent him toppling off balance to the ground. He struggled to regain his composure, but Nin was already towering over him like a wolf that had finally subdued its prey.

With a sadistic grin, Nin grabbed Lucid and lifted him completely up off the ground by his neck and slammed his body into the nearby wall, momentarily incapacitating him. He groaned in pain upon impact, but once he realized what had happened, he began struggling to break free of Nin's grasp.

With an extremely steady arm, Nin then raised the edge of his sword and placed against Lucid's cheek.

"How about I cut off that pretty face of yours..." Nin sneered then ran the blade across his flesh, drawing blood. Lucid could feel the sharp sting of the cut and the warm blood as it ran down his face, and he cried out in pain.

"Are you ready to stop fighting yet, boy? You know none of this is necessary.." Nin taunted, but to Lucid, it was almost as if the words were being spoken by a familiar voice coming from the back of his mind. He knew that voice. It was the voice of the person he feared and despised the most.

"N...no! Never! Get out of my head!" he responded, sounding almost frantic. "Don't touch me!"

A multitude of arrow like ice projectiles suddenly formed behind Nin and swiftly flew towards him. Nin half turned, loosening his grip on Lucid as he swung his sword, shattering most of the icy projectiles, but a few managed to strike him. Lucid took this oppurtunity to quickly break free and drop to the ground where he was able to slip away.

Ignoring the icy arrows that penetrated his body, Nin quickly turned back towards him bringing his sword down, but Lucid parried the attack and whirled around to his left; leaping up into the air before bringing his katar down upon Nin. The katar directly struck the side of his skull, its razor-tipped edge just piercing through bone and flesh. As the blade struck, Lucid simultaneously clenched on the weapon's hand grip, splitting apart into three separate blades whilst still embedded in Nin’s flesh and cleaving the stab wound viciously apart.

Nin then struck at Lucid with his clawed hand, leaving long gashes across his stomach as he was knocked back, landing several feet away. Red eyes flashed as Kraai finally slowly stood, holding his wounded stomach with one hand while nonchalantly licking Nin's blood from his katar. He grinned in satisfaction, knowing that this was the end of the line for his opponent.

About a dozen nearly translucent arms made up of psychokinetic energy rose up from demon seal that appeared upon the ground in front of Kraai and began to maliciously reach out towards Nin. A few grabbed at him, wrapping themselves tightly around his torso, but the others wrapped themselves around his arms and legs, stretching him out in the air. Nin tried to fight back against the energy, but it held fast.

"Will you beg for mercy?" Kraai smirked at the beast.

"Never!" Nin growled in response. "I'd rather die than dishonor myself in such a manner."

Nin gave a maniacal laugh before spitting blood into Kraai's face.

"Mercy is for the weak minded…. If you’re going to destroy me then be sure that you do it right… for if I am able to regenerate I’ll not only hunt you down, but also those whom you care for most," Nin said then chuckled sadistically. "I shall tear the very flesh from their bloody bones and have you watch as I devour them before you."

"Heh...I thought as much. I respect that in an opponent, but it's a shame that you have to die. I was actually beginning to grow quite fond of you..." Kraai said almost sympathetically, pausing for a moment to contemplate before he continued.


(Don't read past this part if you don't like mindless blood and gore!)


"Ah...you don't know how much I'm going to enjoy this..." Kraai said as he looked upon his prisoner with a sadistic smile. He then raised his hand out towards the psychokinetic energy wrapped around Nin's right arm, causing the energy to rotate, twisting Nin's arm in the process. It was quite slow, but all the more entertaining for Kraai who grinned while Nin screamed in pain as his arm was twisted around until the muscles began to rip and the bones began to crack and break through his flesh.

Once Nin's right arm had been completely reduced to little more than a limp and bloody mess of crushed bones, Kraai then started with his left arm in the same manner until it had been twisted and mangled beyond recognition. The screams of pain were intoxicating to Kraai, so much that his body, too, seemed to react to the torture he was inflicting and he bit his lip to surpress a growl of pleasure.

The energy arm that was wrapped around Nin's right leg then started to move, twisting ever so slowly so that one could almost hear as the larger bones gave way to the stress of being bent too far, finally giving a sickening crack as they were broken. The process was repeated with his left leg until it was much like his other limbs.

All at once, the energy arms holding Nin's arms and legs violently wrenched the twisted limbs from his body, dropping the severed limbs and splattering blood all over the ground beneath him. Kraai grinned in delight at the sight of all the blood, but was disappointed that his fun would end soon.

"Any last words, resquests or a confession perhaps?" Kraai asked, wanting to give his captive a chance to speak one final time.

"Savour this victory while you can… the Brotherhood of Doom will not end here. We shall return… and your decedents, along with the so-called deities of this world will all reap the horror that has yet to come!!" Nin raved then laughed maniacally.

Kraai smiled in spite of himself before speaking. "Hmph...so be it."

Kraai watched on with morbid curiosity as the energy arms grabbed Nin's head. The arms surrounding Nin's torso and head then begin to move, crushing and twisting his body as they rotated in seperate directions. With one last great twist, Nin's entire body was twist nearly to the breaking point. It was truly a most grisly and disturbing sight, but that made it all the more interesting to Kraai.

"Fatality*..." Kraai whispered as Nin's head was then completely crushed and twisted off, and his body was ripped apart, spraying blood, guts and brain matter in all directions.

Lucid breathlessly fell to his knees in a puddle of Nin's blood as the energy arms disappeared and the rest of the barrier dissipated around him. Though he had been victorious, he could feel that others were not so fortunate, and he would grieve in time, but for now there was only one thing on his mind - the one thing that had kept him going through all of this.

"I have kept my promise, my Master..." Lucid said in almost a whisper as he gazed towards the sky.


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*Godean made me do it! XD