[i]"Like the filthy god of carrion that he is, the Devourer feasts on the torment of the damned. Following the wrath of the light, the rupturing chains, or the veils of dreamers, the Hungering One follows to yank the corpses from the victor and loser. The torment that follows is unlike any other, a living hell where one will never see anything again. Alone, they will suffer. Alone, in the darkness. Alone in the Void."[/i] - [b]The Artificers of Hatred: The Princes of Ruin.[/b] --- [center][u][b]Arcturus, Estara[/b][/u][/center] --- The stench of death, both human and demon, hung thick upon the breeze. There were consequences to having such a battle, as there always was. The malevolent force tested the edge of reality, prodding the increasingly delicate border between the empty world of Null and the rapidly corroding land of Anadara. It could taste the cumulative power that pulsated just beyond its grasp. Thousands of mouths salivated as they snapped on empty space, dreaming of the succulent flesh of human and denizen alike. With each passing snap of the jaw, the hunger grew stronger and stronger, forming an unending lust for the juicy morsels that paraded themselves in front of the Devourer. The Endless Lord's prodding grew stronger, forming a faint beat against the edge of reality. It intently searched for a host to explosively release his gluttonous presence upon the unsuspecting populace and their supposed survival. --- Under the wings of the crystalline guardians, among the refugees of the now burning city of Arcturus, there lay a small boy. He had spent years in the city, always hungry and alone, making a living as a beggar. It wasn't a bad life, to be sure(He'd heard rumors about the wastes to the south, were the daemonic incursions of the Princes of Ruin was daily and varied), but this newest assault had brought to light the fact that he still wouldn't be safe, even then. All he wanted was another meal and a day without the constant threat of death looming over him like the Slaver Demons. Sighing deeply, he turned over and put his ear to the ground, half-halfheartedly expecting to hear the thrum of hoof beats as the forces of the damned came to claim them. He felt only the heat of sun-baked earth. He heard Nothing. Recoiling in surprise, the boy again turned over and met the eyes of an infinitely black [i]thing[/i] that looked at him from beyond the veil. The child stared directly into the Void, and it stared back. The corpse-host ruptured into a spasm of black gas, hissing violently as otherworldly shards of pure hunger and greed lanced out of the hole that was torn between the Void and the human's simple world, smashing into the nearest soldiers of Evarast. Swarms of tiny fangs fell on the surrounding people, stabbing and biting the assembled humans in a frenzy of hate and lust. The form of the child vanished behind a veil of dark smoke, rippling into a cloud of undistilled hunger and spite that 'looked' upon the assembled masses with only one thought on its alien mind. The Endless Lord was hungry, and before him was a feast. The pillars of black smoke that made up the wicked tendrils of the descended Prince blew forth in a frothing tide of all-consuming shades. Each of the humans had no time to scream as the Devourer's powers swallowed them whole. The entire square vanished in a pit of greedily gnashing teeth and swarming black blades, biting down on everything they could sink into, taking care to put the fact that the prismatic forces had gathered the humans all in one place to good use. The corpse grinned up at the angelic creatures, before reaching across his domain to bring one of his greater servants to the surface world. Even then, the heroic forces reacted as expected, hailing down lances of pure light that punched through the haphazard shield of dark matter and smashed the once-child into a messy pulp. Even that destructive rain was not enough to halt the Devourer's plot, and the many mouths of the Wraith grinned in unison. The black substance that lined the ground bulged weirdly, sending rippled throughout the surrounding earth. Horribly alive forces writhed beneath the surface, pushing and twisting in a complex pattern of longing and pain, attempting to break through the barrier that cordoned of the land of Anadara from the apocalyptic lands of the Princes of Ruin. Each monstrous tentacle and tooth pushed and pushed, grasping and snapping at whatever they could find, before finally forcing open the gateway with a disgusting [i]snap[/i]. The Warden's muffled cries became all to clear as the monstrosity was birthed into the world, snapping it's jaws around the falling corpse of the abandoned host. Tendrils whipped out and grasped at anything they could, latching onto the forces of Evarast and dragging them to the inky darkness of oblivion, recoiling only momentarily when the spears of light smashed into the exposed muscle. The spears of fragmented light struck the great monster again and again, burrowing deep into the hide of the eyeless creature of teeth and flesh. Pungent black ichor flowed freely from the destructive wounds, splattering on the prismatic force weapons and corrupting their glow. Each new wound hissed and bubbled under the constant barrage, splitting open and revealing more teeth to bite down the devout and denizen alike, dragging all the more into it's foul maws.