The sky above, far above the abyss, rumbled something mighty. A roar that seemed to shake the very foundation of the castle, or was that just the sound of war? The sounds of death. De'mari looked around the room, her mind striken with a haze of anger and bloodlust. The firey tingles of the unknown power within in her tingled all across her body. It had enveloped her very spirit, locking her away, helpless to do anything but succumb to its sweet seduction. She shivered as a chill raced up her spine, the chilling grip of the magic. The thick, intoxicating substance sliding across her skin, masking her, letting her become something else. Something less pathetic, no more weakness. Only the iron grip of power. It terrified her, that she could do nothing to stop its hold on her.
Mainly, because she didn't want to stop it.
A sword arced down above her and she moved, faster than she thought she was capable of. The hollow sound of metal on stone rang out as the blade struck the floor. The man hadn't of even turned to look at her before she was on him, tearing through him in a frenzy of claws, formed from her magical metamorphasis. She was no longer pushed aside by the growing flame of power, but rather it had consumed her. She was not weilding the power, it was weilding her, she was the beast. The man crumbled underneath her, his blood spurting out, covering her real form, seeping through her etheral armor.
She looked at her blood stained hand curiously, the opaque red magic was still swirling around her, but it didn't seem like a real magical shell. The thought played across her mind only for a second before the scent of blood wafted across her senses and her head snapped up. With a primal instict she flew back into the fray. Unrealizing that the pirsoners she and the uncloaked man had worked so desperately to free were attatcking her out of fear. That was fine, she wasn't afraid of any of them. Swords missed, and she tore them open and bathed in their blood. Magical manifestations dispelled before her, or missed entirely. She could feel the magic users crawling across her spirit with their magic, trying to break through her. She laughed in their face as she rended them open from gut to throat.
It had taken eight minutes for her to butcher the soldiers. Each kill more delightful than the last. She was now entirely soaked in blood, her magical shell seeming less opaque in the likeness of colors between real and metaphysical. She smiled as she stalked her way out of the abyss, leaving behind a room of humanoid peices and gore. The fire of her magic had spread into her bones, her very veins. It hurt, but it was so good, the world slowed as her body moved faster. Magic infused her, making her stronger, hurting her, but bringing her joy. Because now she had the power she had always dreamed of, and an insatiable hunger to match.
It had been some time, De'mari didn't quite recall how long. It didn't matter, she had killed many people between then and now. Her teeth had found many exposed necks, but her thirst never went away. Her magical shell had appeared eyeless, but she could see so clearly. Her body trembled from the infusion happening, the burning fire spreading out across her body. But she did not feel the pain, did not feel it destroying her. There was only the prey below her.
She had smelled him. He was powerful. She wanted to eat his magic, to open his flesh and consume him. The others weren't near as mouth watering as he was. She watched him as he fought one like herself, but much weaker, laughed as the beast was bested by the male magi. She smiled as he turned and walked away from the other prey, good, they would only get in the way. Her claws clicked across the shingled roofs as she raced across them. Practically drooling as she stalked him from above the rooftops.
~~~
Vaerun stalked through the narrow back alleys of Providence, laughing like a madman as the world he knew slowly turned into a nightmarish hell. It seemed like every street he turned down, his eyes were greeted by new images of butchery and slaughter as the demons... what else couod they be?... rained down around him. He had been lucky so far, the demons had swarmed to areas that they seemed most likely to encounter other prey, but with each new body that Vaerun stumbled across, his anger grew.
The sounds of nearby fighting caused him to turn his head in that direction. The increasingly familiar screams of demons and death cries of his fellow humans tore at his mind, and he steeled himself for yet another grisly scene of death and disaster. He ran around the corner of a building in time to see a man engaged with some nightmarish mockery of life... and watched as that same nIghtmares head simply... exploded. For a moment he was stunned by the sheer impossibleness of the moment, and then another demon cried out for blood, snapping him back to reality.
The other man at least appeared to be human, which for now meant he was not a target. Vaerun grinned at him savagely and flipped his daggers over in his hands. There would be other monster to slay, but it was always good to know he wasnt the only one fighting back.
~~~
Angir continued to pick his way through the narrow streets in the city having just moved away from the market square which by now would be filled with the dead. Until now he hadn’t considered the bigger implications of what was happening, what this all of this meant, but now he couldn’t help but keep the thought from his mind. It was over four hundred and fifty years ago, but this was not the first time that oblivion had invaded the realm of man. The tale itself was almost general knowledge, however it had become little more than a bedtime story that was starting to fade from the minds of men, it become less accurate and less repeated over each generation. Angir wracked his mind to recall what he had read from the books within his father’s study all of those nights ago, wishing now that he had focused more on the Repelling and a little less fanatically on the field of magic. He couldn’t recall how the races of the world had defeated the hellish armies and prevented them for binding the two realms permanently, but at least it had been done before, somehow.
Interrupting his thoughts suddenly he jumped as something from above fell and smashed a few steps away from him. Looking down quickly he saw that a shingle had fallen from the rooftops above him and with a sinking feeling he gazed upwards to where it would have come from. Perched on the crest of the rooftop above him was a menacing red creature that was looking back at him, its deep red eyes seeming to cut right into him as they sized him up. The beast itself seemed to be made of a kind of magical shimmer, a red opaque substance obscuring the truer form beneath the layers of magic. It's long, stretched back ears quivered as it silently changed its stance, its eyes still boring into him. With a swish of its tail and a snarl from the creature's wolf-like maw and it was on the ground before him. Its humanoid limbs were spread low and flat to the ground and its body was coiling up, preparing for the attack as it continued to stalk him.
Stumbling backwards in his panic Angir raised his sword and pointed it at the monstrosity, considering for a moment that it hadn’t just outright attacked him like each of the other hellish creatures he had fought, he had a sinking feeling that this was something else, something… more.
De'mari smiled at the man before her. Tasting the sweet, yet odd, magical air about him, the residue of his last spell weave still lingering. Her silently screaming muscles flexed as she lowered herself to the ground, staring at the terrified prey before her. Smiling inwardly as she took a step forward, and he stepped back raising his pathetic weapon towards her. Such magic inside of him, and he would try to best her in hands on combat? She laughed, her magic shell twisting it into a snarl, which was all the same anyways. She now knew what true fear looked like...
But how would one taste?