[center][h3]IrishAngelQueen, Rtron, and Cyclone[/h3][/center]

[hider=Good Summaritan Nonsense]
-Ialu goes to Garakai and encounters Roxan.
-After a brief conversation with her, he fights Viscardi like he came to do.
-In the middle of their fight Orabil is destroyed in a place far, far away. The darkness comes.
-He wins, although Viscardi's sword actually manages to wound him...a lot.
-Roxan goes nuts and attacks Ialu before leaving.
-Vestec shows up (still claiming to be the Mighty One, though Ialu is suspicious), gives Ialu command over Garakai as promised, then takes Viscardi's sword, body and soul. Then he chases after Roxan.
[b]-Ialu drinks from blood that Vestec left for him, which empowers him greatly.[/b]
-Ialu passes out once they're all gone.
[/hider]

In truth Ialu knew not where this tribe to north was, but the trails of golden light, the Sight, led him true. Through river, wood, and plains he ran. Motivated as much by the golden path before him as his ambition and the spear's bloodthirst, he made good time. It was not long before he had made it to the hinterlands of Garakai.

Slave and overseer alike turned their heads to see a strange sight: a giant of a man clothed in some sort of strange black armor, wielding a vicious spear in one hand, walking straight down the path to the gates of Garakai. He looked beyond determined, and his ferocious manner was enough to let him approach unchallenged. Upon nearing the gate, a guard cried out from the walls above. Ialu halted, not because he cared about the orders of some puny guard, but because he needed to get this tribe's attention.

Before he could even finish his sentence, the gatekeeper found himself choking for air. Suddenly he did not feel the sturdy stone of the wall beneath his feet, and he looked down to see himself hovering in the middle of the air. He was dangling loosely, utterly at the mercy of Ialu's Wi. Most masters of the Wi would struggle to perform such a feat from afar, yet this one seemed hardly strained.

Loud enough to be heard by the gatekeeper and all the slaves tilling the fields and masters holding whips, he boomed, [b]"I challenge your king to a fight to the death! Let him face me here, or be hunted like a deer."[/b] 

A young woman, dressed in black leathers pulled her wings out of her back and ran along the branch of the huge tree she had been lurking in, curious as to see what was causing all of the commotion. She leapt, freefalling for a few moments before pulling great big black wings out from between her shoulders. She reveled in the feeling of the muscles working to keep her aloft. The black of her feathers seemed to suck in all light as she soared over to the mighty warrior, just in his line of sight.

"What business have you here, mighty warrior?" she asked. "Careful of the pathetic little male's windpipe. Much as I love to see the death of my foes, tis not the time for this one." She crossed her arms, relaxed in the air.

With a grunt Ialu propelled the limp man through the air and to the other side of the wall, within the village, before releasing him. The fall would surely hurt, but the man would live. He had to live in order to bring out the wretched chief of this tribe, so that Ialu could slay the man and be done with it. Ialu turned to direct his fierce stare at the source of the voice that had called out to him.

He cocked his head to see a woman with wings black as those of a raven, effortlessly floating in the air. Admittedly he was taken aback, for he had never seen such a being before. She also had a deathly air about her, and the black leather armor that she wore was not so different from his own. Most men would find her intimidating, he thought, but Ialu knew no fear. She had even called him a mighty warrior, and that appealed to his pride.

Intrigued yet suspicious, he called out, "The Mighty One, God of Gods, has sent me here to prove that I am the strongest of his champions. I have come to fight the chieftain of this tribe!"

He looked Roxan down and entertained the notion that she might be chieftess. Suddenly leveling his spear to point it at her in the sky, he demanded, "And who are you? Are you the master of these lands?"

Roxan snorted, but grinned. Her, master of these wretched lands? She liked the idea, however untrue it may be.

"Nay, sir," she replied, barely hiding her disgust for the true master. "I am not master of these lands, although," she tipped her head to the side. "I do like that idea. I am the Daughter of Death to most, but you may call me Roxan." She studied him. His strange black armor and vicious spear appealed to the blacksmith part of her, while her warrior side wanted to see if there was anything to be learned from fighting him.

He was not one to be trifled with, she decided. She had an idea, "What say you to not impaling me with your spear if I were to land before you?" Her right wing popped and she grimaced. "I have a...complaint with the chieftan as well." 

Her malice towards the chieftan was undisguised, mismatched eyes glittering with intent.

Daughter of Death? That was an interesting title, Ialu thought to himself. It never occured to him to take the name literally. Reluctantly he twirled the spear in his hand and buried its point in the ground. He would not impale this 'Roxan' unless she struck first, though he was admittedly still suspicious. His eyes only left her to dart towards the gate to the village, and his muscles were tensed in preparation to fight. Whether he would fight her, the chieftain, something else, or nothing at all remained to be seen.

He wondered why she seemed to hate the chieftain, but then again, he also wondered why she had wings and why she called herself the Daughter of Death. He voiced none of these questions, though, preferring to wait in silence for his foe to make an appearance. His mind was on the fight to come, not pleasantries.

Roxan soared over to him, slowing her wings as she stuck out one foot for balance, then the other and landed gracefully. Her wings shuffled, folding, before being pulled into her back, disappearing. She took off her gloves and shook her hands out; she hated wearing them all the time, but until she learned to control her death touch, she would have to keep wearing them.

She regloved her hands before turning to Ialu. "What, pray tell, is your name?" She would say this one last thing before going silent.

Viscardi strode through the village, illuminated by the torches, the sword Ferghus had made for him clenched in his hands. [i]We already have enough problems. We do not need this fool.[/i] He thought. 

Viscardi opened the gates, and walked through taking in the weaponry that his wouldbe opponent had. He bowed to Roxan before even acknowledging Ialu. "Roxan, Daughter of Death, Child of Vestec. It's an honor to have your presence here." He turned to Ialu, tightening his grip on his sword. "And who might you be, to travel through these monster filled lands only to kill me? More importantly, why? Let me guess. I killed one of your loved ones? Enslaved them? Both?"

Roxan felt a stab of satisfaction as Viscardi opened the gates and walked through, bowing to her before he even acknowledged Ialu."Roxan, Daughter of Death, Child of Vestec. It's an honor to have your presence here."

Her mismatched gold and silver eyes shimmered with respect as she bowed at the waist, her right fist over her heart, her left one behind her back. "Viscardi, Lord of the North, tis an honor to be here. Although I had come here to fight the chieftain originally, I believe I have gotten the two tribes mixed." she paused. "I shall not fight today."

She flashed a mental message to Viscardi, Be wary of this warrior, Lord. It would be a shame to escort your soul to the afterlands.

Ialu had opened his mouth to declare his name to Roxan, but in that moment the gate began to open. His gaze and attention immediately shifted to that, and he shut his mouth. He would not be seen gawking at his adversary's arrival.

The moment that Viscardi came into view, Ialu's piercing gaze examined every bit of him. Ialu had had the unmistakable eye of a verteran warrior that had sized up a thousand foes before. The man was a full foot shorter than Ialu, though his armor made it difficult to determine whether he was any stronger. Ialu doubted hat any human was stronger than him, and he knew that his lighter armor would certainly make him quicker than Viscardi.

 Viscardi had thick, black armor, but armor was worthless against Ialu's unholy spear. His armor would be equally useless against magic. Ialu contemplated merely ripping his foe apart with the Wi in that insant, but in the end he decided otherwise. It was dishonorable, and the Mighty One would want more of a show than that.

Upon approaching the strange duo that stood outside the gate, Viscardi began a short spiel and demanded to know the identity of his challenger. For a moment all was silent, but then a wolfish, bloodthirsty grin began to creep onto his face. Answering both Viscardi and Roxan, he declared, "I am Ialu, king of a mighty realm to the south. My tribe has butchered dragon, Dyun, and Cimex alike."

He grabbed the shaft of his warspear with a crushing grip and pulled its head from the ground. Immediately Viscardi would see that this was no ordinary spear; it was twisted and savage, cackling with chaotic energy and a mere look at it was enough to know that it wanted for blood like a parched forest thirsted for torrential rain. However, it was not so magnificent with mud from the ground caking its point. Ialu pointed it at a nearby tree and unleashed a bolt of pure chaos. The raw energy disintegrated the mud that defiled the spear before crashing into the tree and vaporizing it as well.

That display of power done, Ialu began to menacingly draw closer to Viscardi, having completely forgotten about Roxan by this point. "My tribe is mighty indeed; yours is the only one that comes close to being its rival. Yet two cannot both be strongest. There is room for only one, and so I have come to slay you and conquer your people. Our common god has declared this my sacred mission."

Ialu was now alarmingly close to his foe. He couched his spear and tensed up, his muscles rippling visibly even through his armor of dragon hide and scales. He would offer Viscardi the chance to charge forward, though if his foe did not make the first move he would, lunging like lightning to strike anywhere that Viscardi did not guard. He cared little for finding any sort of weak spots, for he knew that his spear had the unnatural ability to pierce through solid metal armor as if it was nothing was but cloth. Failing that, the spear seemed capable of simply unleashing a blast of chaotic energy and boiling an opponent in his own armor, so Ialu certainly had options.

Viscardi took in the display of power, calmly, and nodded in acknowledgement to Roxan. [i]Well, that's one thing to look out for.[/i] Then he spoke to the aggressive man. "Congrats, Ialu. You came here to die." A solid spike of earth shot up beneath the challenger's feet, intent on impaling him.

The sudden spike of earth grazed Ialu's leg before he could move out of the way, though his dragonhide leggings took the worst of it. He staggered forward for a moment after losing his footing, then tripped and found himself sprawled on the ground. Angrily, he decided that he would bring Viscardi down with him. Channeling all of his Wi, he tugged at Viscardi's body like a puppet and tried to slam to the ground face first. He then sprung back to his feet and snatched up his spear, intent upon quickly finishing off his hopefully downed foe.

Viscardi slammed his sword in the ground, moving his stance and using it to keep himself propped up despite the pressure on his body. As it lessened he stepped backand drew lightning into his hand, throwing a bolt towards Ialu.

Ialu braced himself and faced the lightning head on. It surged through him, causing plenty of pain as it tightened his muscles and made weakened him, though of course Ialu showed none of that outwardly. Laughing, he taunted, "I have bathed in the flames of a dragon's breath. Your magic is like the bite of a flea!"

Throwing an arm forward, he summoned his telekinesis and threw the very air itself forward in a concussive blast that could knock over a horse. He would see if Viscardi could slam his sword down to weather that!

Viscardi gestured, and the wind turned around back at Ialu. "I created Vistoc, boy! The elements obey [i]my[/i] command!" Following the concussive air, the Lord of the North sent a stream of flames, hot as dragon fire. 

Alarmed when the air turned back against him, Ialu barely managed to summon another blast in time. The two gales collided and with a great clap that shook the ground, the twin forces annihilated one another. A genuine grin showed on Ialu's face the moment before he was engulfed in fire. His dragonhide resisted the flames, as the great reptillian beast whose hide had made that armor had known no such things as burns. When the heat abated, Ialu stood there unmarred, his face seeming to mockingly say, [i]I tld you that fire was nothing to me.'[/i]

Viscardi shrugged and cast another fireball at Ialu. Then a fist of earth shot up behind Ialu and attempted to grab and drag him beneath the earth.

Ialu dove this time to avoid the fireball and charged Viscardi with a swiftness unknown to most men, moving too quickly to be dragged below the ground. At the last moment, when Viscardi would have his guard up and be prepared to counter the charge, Ialu halted and slashed his spear through the air. He willed it to conjure a massive blast of chaotic energy, like the one that the Dyun champion had used to slay thirty-two of his best hunters.

Viscardi used the earth to shoot himself above the spear stroke and subsequent blast of chaos. It destroyed the gate and a piece of the wall, not mention the pillar. He used the wind to direct his fall, speeding towards Ialu. Once again the earth rose again, and attempted to snatch Ialu from behind while he was distracted.

The earth itself grabbed Ialu from behind and began to drag him backwards, forcing him to face skywards at Viscardi as he shot downwards. Ialu quickly raised his spear towards Viscardi. If the Lord of the North did not use the wind to direct himself away, he would fall on top of Ialu and find himself impaled on the spear.

[b]The spear.[/b] Both the sentient weapon and its wielder were now enraged at Viscardi's deftness and ability to counter and dodge all of their attacks. He grew tired of this game; Viscardi fought with no honor, and so neither would he. The Chieftain of the Strong Tribe could pull dragons out of the sky and rip asunder a Dyun's heart using just his Wi. Why would Viscardi be any different? Concentrating hard, Ialu attempted to use his tribe's twisted form of Wi to simply destroy his enemy's innards.

Viscardi drifted to the side, landing on the ground. Before he could strike and attempt to finish Ialu, he felt a pressure on his organs. [i]Oh no you don't.[/i] He thought, pushing against the pressure with his own Wi. For a while, the two stood there, pushing mentally against each other. Then the ruler of Garakai thrust his sword towards Ialu, grunting as the pressure on his organ's increased because of the divided attention.

Ialu tried rolling to the side, but he had forgotten about the earth that held him steadfast to the ground. With a grunt he broke free, though not soon enough to stop the sword from grazing him. It raked through his armor, leaving a gash in his flesh. On the outside it was a minor enough wound, though words could not describe what it did to Ialu. No sword had ever so much as broken his skin. He had thought himself invincible, yet that blade had cut him with impunity. After one last tug at Viscardi's innards, he stopped trying to use the Wi to kill him.

Howling with rage and eyes glowering, Ialu thrusted his spear straight at Viscardi's chest where he was armored the thickest. Strengthened by a burning desire for vengeance, he would drive the spear all the way through and slaughter his adversary in the most brutal way that he could envision.

Viscardi smirked, seeing his opponent lose control, and brought his sword up to deflect the spear thrust. He misjudged how much strength was behind it, and merely prevented it form impaling him. The spear point cut through his armor like butter, sinking into the flesh of his upper arm with ease. Viscardi snarled, sending a wall of earth upwards to force Ialu back, as he himself moved back. 

He waited for Ialu's next berserk attack.

Jumping backwards off the rising earth, Ialu suddenly found himself at a distance once again. The dulled stinging of his wound, drowned out by adrenaline, was quickly beginning to fade entirely. He healed unnaturally fast. Some degree of calmness returned to his mind, and his look was now more like that of an excited predator than a frenzied berserker.

He stared at Viscardi for a moment, weighing his options, when he remembered what he had seen the slingers in his village do. Spotting a small, round rock on the ground nearby, Ialu used his telekinesis to whip it at his armored enemy like a bullet. It travelled far too quickly to be flung back. At best Ialu would miss or Viscardi would manage to avoid the projectile, and at worst it would dig its way into his armor and break a few bones.

Viscard threw up a solid wall of earth the second he saw the rock levitate and disappear from view. It almost wasn't think enough, the rock gently pinging off his armor as it pierced through the wall. [i]Enough of this.[/i] He thought, sinking into the earth. He burst from the ground, earth falling off of his armor in small cloud, and swung his sword at the challenger.

The Mighty Chieftain of the Strong Tribe spat upon seeing his opponent vanish. [b]"Is this how cowards fight?"[/b] he roared, but then Viscardi was suddenly upon him. He quickly moved his spear's metal haft to block the sword's slash. He then pressed it forward to shove his enemy backwards, while simultaneously backing himself to regain the advantage of reach, his longer spear not being so effective in close engagements like the one that had just happened.

Viscardi pressed against Ialu, to prevent his long reach from becoming a factor again. Suddenly he stopped pushing against the spear haft, ducking his sword below the haft to thrust at the hopefully off balance Strong Tribe Chieftain.

Viscardi's ploy worked, with the sword finding its way past the spear and Ialu being forced to push the haft down to drive the blade's point away from his body, while simultaneously staggering backwards. Before Viscardi could stick him with that sword or hack him apart like a piece of meat, Ialu grabbed one of the horns on Viscardi's black helmet. Meant to be intimidating, the horn also made for quite a good grip as Ialu tried to wrench Viscardi's neck and take advantage of the narrow vision that his foe's helmet afforded.

Viscardi snarled as his head was turned, whipping his sword up towards his horns. That, of course, is when the lights went out. Immediately Viscardi jerked his head towards the town, for Ialu had to let go or lose an arm,  bellowing, "Block the holes in the gates with the earth! Man the walls!" He turned back towards Ialu, grinning beneath his helm. "I hope you like monsters."

"The monsters only come for cowards," was Ialu's response. He threw himself forward, his patience and nerves both evaporated. The spear seized control of Ialu's mind and it demanded blood. He would triumph on this day, [i]no matter what it took.[/i]

Viscardi raised his sword and prepared to lung it at Ialu. The threat of the sword did not stop the warrior's frenzied charge. Ialu lept onto Viscardi, letting the blade run him through. His spear still in hand, he found himself on top of a knocked over Viscardi. Before his foe could react, Ialu drove the spear's point clean through the throat of Garakai's master.

Ialu pulled the spear's head back out, ripping out a chunk of bloody flesh with it, and cast it to the side. Blood spilling out of both their mouths, Ialu's hands found their way to the gaping hole in Viscardi's neck. Choking the man as he spoke, he managed to croak, "I don't die so easily."

The sword still through Ialu's abdomen and sticking out of his back, he laid a bloodied hand on Viscardi's helmet. Ialu's Wi surged through the man, pulverizing brain, heart, hungs, intestines...all violently burst out of the chinks in the man's armor, spilling down in a horrific cascade of gore. 

Roxan howled like a wolf as Ialu speared the Lord of the North in the throat and threw a poisoned needle into Ialu’s neck, her wings appearing out of her back, tembling with rage.The deadly demigoddess usually accepted eath, but she just could not with this one. Viscardi had never treated her with disrespect, or gazed at her with fear and contempt whenever their paths corssed, or when she came to esort the souls of his tribesmen to the Afterlands.

A sudden flash of golden light in the corner of Ialu's vision startled him. The Sight had led him here, but now he was done. What did the Sight demand he turn and face. So the deathly Ialu took his time and slowly began to crank his neck, which he realized to be a perilous mistake the moment he heard Roxan's howling from behind.

Moving too slow to react in time, Roxan's poisoned needle pierced into the scale of the very top of his collar, poking through. It dug into Ialu's neck but didn't pierce into his skin, luckily. He had kept an eye on Roxan in the very beginning, but when she didn't interfere he had made the mistake of thinking her harmless.

Roaring as he found his feet, he turned to face Roxan. This effort made him hack up blood in a fit of coughs. He couldn't even breathe with the sword through him, yet he still found the strength to stand and point the spear at Roxan. Just before he unleashed a bolt of chaos that would either obliterate either her or the acres of farmland in the distance, he heard a strange sound.

A slow clapping sounded behind Ialu. "Very nice." The same voice that had spoken in his mind after the death of the Dyun Champion said. Vestec stood there, a solid red color. He briefly returned to his normal chaotic color state to turn to Roxan and wave cheerfully. "Hello there dearie. Enjoying the fight?" He walked past Ialu, once again solid red, picking up Viscardi's corpse and drawing the sword out of Ialu's body. "Oh no you don't." It wasn't clear at first what Vestec was talking about till a third hand sprouted out of his back and grabbed an almost invisible soul, twisted and blackened.

"Garakai is yours, Ialu."

Ialu turned from Roxan to face Vestec. He somehow managed to stay on his feet when the sword was pulled from his body, even though the wound would have left any normal man dying on the ground. He backed away from Viscardi's body. Clutching the gaping wound in his chest with one shaky hand as he pulled the needle from his armor with the other, a pool of vibrant crimson began to form on the ground at his feet. Light from the torches appearing on the walls reflected in the pool of blood.

Ialu made no attempt at a response to the god's declaration. He had known that Garakai would been his; nearly worshiped by his own tribe, he had come with the notion that defeat was impossible. Still, Viscardi had not fallen so easily.

Staring at Vestec for a long time, Ialu eventually stumbled closer. He analyzed every facet of the god's red form before remembering his own dreams. In his dreams he recalled the splendor, the brilliance, the utter strength that the strange being of blinding light had emanated. Yet it had claimed to be something other than the Mighty One.

There could be nothing in existence greater than the Mighty One, and so surely it was impossible to for humans to even grasp the Mighty One's greatness, much less picture in their minds or dreams something greater. Yet the one before him, supposedly the Mighty One, seemed a mere shadow of the strange entity Ialu dreamt of, the one that had given him Sight. So Ialu snorted, and openly said in defiance, "The Mighty One is incomprehensible, timeless, indomitable. Yet you somehow disappoint my expectations. I think you are an imposter."

Roxan had been absorbed in the fight, soaking up the energy that the death of Viscardi had created though she mourned his passing), that she startled when someone clapped slowly. She looked up quickly and saw red. No, literally; Vestec was  red right then. He turned back to his normal chaotic color state, briefly, waving at Roxan cheerfully. "Hello there dearie. Enjoying the fight?" For a moment, she was too shocked to say anything.

Then she snarled, her eyes turning two different shades of red. "Since when do you give a damn about whether or not I am enjoying myself?" she yelled. "And yes, I was enjoying the fight until you showed up!" She marched after him, drew one of her daggers and grabbed 
Viscardi’s sword as Vestec grabbed the soul. "That soul is mine, Vestec," she snapped as she got close enough to touch him. "I need to escort him to the Afterlands." She disappeared with him.

Vestec sighed, glancing at Ialu. "Daughters. Try to avoid having one if you can. Though... whether you like it or not, I am your Mighty One. Giving you a comprehensible form so I can give you your reward was simple." Vestec drew up a sleeve and held out his hand. Immediately the Blade of Chaos slipped from Ialu's grasp and into Vestec's hand where it changed form constantly. Despite this, the God of Chaos managed to make a clean cut on his arm. 

His blood, as ever changing in color as his mask, pooled onto the ground. "Drink, if you want to be stronger. Don't drink if you want to be ignored. Now I have to go talk to my daughter. Without this body, preferably." With two flashes, the body of Viscardi and Vestec were both gone.

To others Vestec's blood might have pulsated and flashed a dozen different colors, but to Ialu it was wreathed in a single, aurous light. The Sight made the blood glow golden and as bright as the sun, telling Ialu to drink it, no, [i]demanding[/i] that he do so. Succumbing to the light's beckoning, he fell to his knees and cupped a mouthful of the divine blood in his hands. Without hesitation, he gulped it down. Then another handful, and then another. It burned him in a way that no real fire ever could, though rather than leaving the warm and hearty feeling of alcohol, the god's chaotic energy surged through his body and it left him with flashes of every sort of pain imaginable.

Sputtering, he knew that he could drink no more. So he took the rest and simply forced into the gaping wound that the sword had inflicted. Not until every last drop of it was within him did Ialu collapse to the ground and fall into a sleep so deep that it might have appeared to others as death.