[CENTER][img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/e5fd7346-eed0-4416-8203-58b0d230afe3/dfejck1-acd63414-d837-481c-99cf-28b8bff5451c.png/v1/fill/w_1280,h_255,strp/helstrom_logo_png___disney__variant_by_bats66_dfejck1-fullview.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MjU1IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvZTVmZDczNDYtZWVkMC00NDE2LTgyMDMtNThiMGQyMzBhZmUzXC9kZmVqY2sxLWFjZDYzNDE0LWQ4MzctNDgxYy05OWNmLTI4YjhiZmY1NDUxYy5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.o_zc3HzkCTNgjCxz6r38rpjFrfuVdzZHwVP-FJPYMN4[/img][/CENTER][indent][sub][COLOR=#B22222]#1.03:[/COLOR] Awake, Arise[/sub][sup][right][I][COLOR=#B22222][b]Previously:[/b][/COLOR] [I][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5419815]#1.02[/url][/I][/I][/right][/sup][/indent][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT]
[INDENT]Hooves crunched on rocky ground as flames licked the air from where Blackheart stepped through to the mortal plane. Hell closed behind him, and with it a gust of hot, sulphuric wind that singed the leaves of nearby trees. Blackheart breathed deep, swallowing lungfuls of air, marveling in the peaty, earthen fragrances of the woods he had spawned into. The forestry was still and quiet, eerily so; it seemed even the trees feared what had suddenly appeared amidst them, and Blackheart felt the trunks themselves straining to leave, the very flora of Earth rejecting his blasphemous presence. No matter; his will was strong, and he pressed it against the world, daring it to push back. It didn't. He was free to stay.

Blackheart stepped forward, and as he walked his form flickered and morphed. Hooves became feet became clad in leather-bound shoes; the tendrils that sprouted from his head were replaced by thick locks of hair cascading down his back; his tail sloughed off, flaking away into nothingness as it lay on the forest floor; ridged, scaly skin smoothed itself out and became a heavy-set coat that fell to his ankles. He could feel a burning in his eyes as the pure darkness gave way to sclera and pupils, eyes that he blinked with previously-absent eyelids. By the time he reached the woodland's edge, Blackheart resembled nothing of the towering, sinewed frame he had be born as; he appeared as a gentleman, a person of means, alluring but subtly frightening. There was an edge of the uncanny to look at him, like a high-pitched whine just on the edge of your hearing. You wouldn't place what it was, but he would unnerve you. By the time he revealed why, it would be too late.

"If you're quite done with your self-admiration, we have a duty to attend to." Came a woman's voice through the clearing ahead, stirring Blackheart from his narcissistic rumination. He growled subtly, still flexing and stretching as the new skin settled and he accustomed himself to his new form.

"Tis not thy place to demand haste of me." Blackheart rumbled, his voice a low, menacing drone, absent of emotional inflection. "My father is assured of my fealty."
"I'm not questioning your loyalty to Mephisto, Blackheart." Ana Helstrom replied, appearing as if from thin-air in front of the demon as she waved her glamour away. She appeared more convincingly human that Blackheart did, owed to her more mortal origins, but the signs of her time spent in Hell were still plainly apparent: ever-burning embers at the frayed edges of her hair; extremities of her skin deepening in colour toward tones of ashen greys and burnt blacks; gnarled, curved horns budding through her scalp. Her eyes looked Blackheart's new visage up and down. "But the profane perfection of your genesis affords you privilege here that I have forsaken."

Blackheart merely lifted an eyebrow, not bothering to utter his question. Ana sighed.
"You have asserted your will upon this plane, and it has submitted to you. But it rejects my infernal presence, and maintaining myself exhausts me."
"You require sustenance." Blackheart said, at once understanding Ana's eagerness. She nodded.
"Quite so. Your father sent us to send him an army. We shall have to find...[i]extra[/i]."
Blackheart smiled, his maw twisting into an expression that didn't quite seem to fit the outer bounds of his face. To find reason to deliver suffering beyond what Mephisto had charged him with; it filled him with fiendish delight. He felt voracious for the evil he now had the opportunity to inflict.
"Then we shall seek sustenance, good sister; lest you find yourself paling from this horizon."

They traveled onward, leaving the woods behind them. The city lay at their feet, and they would soon wreak havoc.[/INDENT][/INDENT]