Duel Where Owls Know My Name (Nwul & Spectators)

[Darth Carnifex]

It began a faint breeze, a sudden wind that seemed to come from nowhere. Then, light began to distort along a straight vertical line; against an edge with no physical fixture. Light seemed to bend in on itself, pulled like a sheet of cloth through a narrow hole. A dark shape began to coalesce within the distortion, growing larger and larger until it began to take on solid form. It emerged from the distortion in space and time, a shadowy figure wreathed in a black cloak that towered over those nearby who stopped to stare and gape at the anomaly. Normalcy returned, the distortion unraveling until all was as it had been moments prior.

With a step, the dark figure ascended the steps leading to a great temple; a temple He once knew so well. There appeared to be no logical reason behind the dark figure's movements, He moved as though through water, but the pace at which He crossed vast distances was astounding. He seemed to carry no weapon, and made no effort to acknowledge the guards that moved to bar His path; for He had no need to. The guards could not approach Him, their movements slowed until they were utterly still, frozen in place as the world continued to move around them.

The figure strode into a great atrium, in which great marvels of marble and gold were erected amidst extravagance and splendor. Faint echoes of voices and sounds bounced from wall to wall, the lingering remnants of all that had once transpired within these spacious halls. He stood at it's center, the fulcrum upon which the world appeared to revolve. Light acted erratic about His person, drawn in but leaving no shadow, as though the light was being subsumed by His very presence in physical space.

He breathed out, a long exhalation. "Come forth, Steward," He whispered, "And bear witness."

Darth Nwul ​

 

[Darth Nwul]

Like the scent of the sea washing over a coastline and disguising all else. One could not even smell the rose in one's hand as the wind picked up, senses obscured by the presence of something vast. That was the shadow that Darth Carnifex cast upon the Gala where the Golden Covenant had just been signed into being. A political bloc born to replace the inner workings of the fragmented Sith Empire and rebuild it anew whilst marginalizing the tyrant, Darth Empyrean .

The temple, not far from the Restored Palace, was a place that was in the process of it's own restoration. At first, the guards that had not been stunned by Carnifex's approach readied their weapons to defend the place, despite the fear that consumed them. That was until a humanoid creature made of violet mist and wrapped in cloth that provided it with the vague shape of the living stepped into the space and raised a hand to the guards. They lowered their weapons and fell back. It soon did the same.

Silence fell for a few heartbeats. The only sound being the whisper of the remarkable guest.

As if summoned by those very words, mist began to collect from the air and coil about itself in the center of the building, no more than five yards from the imperous sith master. As the cloud gathered, the temperature rose in conflict with the chill that seemed to hang around Carnifex, a layer of mist forming along the ground and lingering their in the conflicting presences. The humidity rose as the air seemed to tighten, breathing becoming harder.

The cloud took the shape of a man before coalescing into the body of Darth Nwul. The air around him shuddered once at his arrival, his carefully controlled and coralled presence unleashed for all to see. The cosmic storm of emotions contained within him roared to life, love, hate, fear, joy, rage, mirth, they all billowed out in a palpable wave strong enough to cause the Steward's cloak to flutter in the increasing air current.

A pair of golden eyes, monstrous compared to the simple green eyes that had once faced Carnifex, gleamed brightly even in the fainter light. Behind them, a deep bleak ocean of wrongness, something coiling beneath the surface, eager to lash out.

He broke into an easy smile, "The Steward of the Dark Side has come, Darth Carnifex," He purred, his voice rippling through the air. He wasn't holding back in the presence of non force users anymore. Carnifex could handle it. "I've been wondering when you'd call on me."

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Dark Lord of the Kainate was like an event horizon in the Force, an epicenter of darkness from which no light could escape. To look upon Him was to lay yourself bare to His withering gaze, one replete with deep, unfathomable hate. Not for anything specific, no group or individual was the impetus of His ire, but all existence served to fuel the dark furnace in His blackened heart. To be caught in the rays of this blazing solar storm was to know hatred that beggared belief, defied all reason, and was absolutely unending.

His towering body was clad in the raiment of the Dark Side, a long and voluminous black shroud draped across brazen runic armor; the panoply of a warrior-king, a tyrant endowed with cruelty beyond measure. He carried no lightsaber, His waist lacked the traditional weapon of Jedi and Sith, though it was unlikely He truly needed to rely on such rudimentary instruments. The Dark Side of the Force was with Him, it saturated every fiber of His being, and coursed through Him like water through an open valve.

Through Him, the Dark Side was made manifest.

Strength beyond form, and power in the infinite.

Darth Carnifex turned to face Darth Nwul, eyes meeting with a crackle of energy. The Steward spoke words, but they were lost upon the wind, for the Dark Lord of the Kainate did not heed them. Instead, the Butcher King raised His right hand as though in greeting. His palm was held perpendicular to the ground, fingers tightly pressed together and extended. Power, an extension of Himself and the Dark Side, flowed up through His arm and into the palm of His hand. It manifested visibly as crackling tendrils of bright electricity, the very same color as deeply spilled blood, which spat through the air towards Nwul like a coiled snake that had just pounced.

The energy channeled was enough to kill a full-grown man more than ten times over, and it's passing super-heated the air particles around it; causing the very air between them to ignite and combust into flames. Stray bolts were enough to completely vivify the ground, gnarled sculptures of black glass rising up from the points of impact. Yet, the Dark Lord did not unleash the full potential of His might in the Dark Side. He had come to see the man who would aspire to unseat the Corpse-God for Himself, and to probe the limits of the man's power and ability. He had heard much from Saryn's own mouth, but words were one thing -- actions were another.

So let the test begin.

Darth Nwul ​

 

[Darth Nwul]

Carnifex held nothing back with his presence, his aura more palpable than ever. Nwul's eyes widened for a moment as he took it all in, his smile breaking into a toothy grin. So that was how this was going to be? The Lord of Passion let the pretense fall as well, his hands falling to his side as he opened himself to his emotions. To his love of every living thing in the galaxy as well as his hate for every living thing. His lovecraftian gaze boring back into Carnifex's own, his jaw tensing slightly with eagerness. Every being in the galaxy, every vista, every example of natures beauty and fury existed to spurn on his adoration of the force and his passions. Nwul's body pulsed with a steady thrum of heat that rippled around him and distorted the air.

CRRRKKK

The ground beneath his feet cracked once, then a second time. His body seeming to grow heavier with each passing second. A neutron star of might growing denser and denser with each passing second as the hurricane of emotions turned into a planetary storm. Millions of lifetimes of experiences, every individuals first moment of love, their burning hatreds, their laughter, their tears, countless memories used to fuel his own power as the crucible inside of him at last began to feed into his power. His eyes grew wider as Carnifex continued to draw in power, the fear and excitement just adding fuel to the fire. He broke out into laughter, the ground cracking and shuddering again as a quartet of dark shadows coiled around his legs, moving slowly toward his ankles.

The Steward of the Dark Side always had it with him, it's icy presence roared in his abdomen, the eerie bleakness acting like a nitrous to the power that was already building inside of him. Gold veins began to form on his neck and chin, stretching down towards his throat.

That was when Carnifex released the red lightning, fascinating! Nwul had never seen this power before! Something new to learn! Hunger for knowledge drove the force wound to increase it's output of power, the icy chill turning into gasoline thrown onto the fire at the core of his being. He threw a hand out and curled his fingertips, his eyes wild with delight, his mouth open in a soundless fit of laughter. The lightning began to gather in his palm, building and siphoning down into the force wound, his gleaming molten eyes leveled with Carnifex's face as he turned it back towards the sender, the lighting leaping from his own fingertips as forks of black energy outlined with gold. Unlike the eerie vivification of Carnifex's lightning, Nwul's bolts left surfaces it touched twisted and deformed, as if the matter had been bent.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Scintillating geometric energy danced along the Dark Lord's body, reality distorting as the returned energy passed through folded space. He took hold of the energy, spindles of light arcing away from where contact was made. He gave it form and substance, transmogrified the energy into solid matter. It became a rod, a spear, of crystal black as deepest midnight. Momentum coiled within the spear, propelled it forward straight towards Darth Nwul, but it never reached. Instead, it was subsumed by another fold within space and time, disappearing completely.

Darth Carnifex's eyes blazed with the power of the Dark Side, with the power of Mortis itself. Long had He sojourned through the mystical realms, meditating on the Cosmic Force, immersing Himself within it. Many secrets had been revealed to Him, secrets that were His alone to bear witness. They would remain forever His, and they would lay the path that He would take to achieve what He had always truly sought above all else.

Power.

Power unimaginable.

The air around Darth Nwul shimmered, forecasting another folding of space. The spear returned, but it was not alone. Over a dozen or more spears of black midnight emerged from folded space, each one coming from a different direction that would all intersect at the exact point where Nwul's body resided. For the Dark Lord's part, He merely watched from a distance, studying Nwul as one would study an animal in captivity. If needed to, He would snuff out Nwul's life there and now, but that was not His principle aim. He wanted to see if Nwul was worthy enough to merit the ambition he professed to hold, to seek the throne that Darth Empyrean, the Corpse-God, so resolutely possessed.

It was a throne that the Dark Lord once coveted, once held even, but that time had passed. He'd abandoned the throne to others, allowed the scepter of imperium to shift into the hands of another. He'd never regretted His decision, but He had evolved beyond the need of Empires like the one He'd built. The two decades of rule had given Him much insight in many areas beyond governance and economy. He did not regret that Empire's demise like so many others did, nor did He truly seek to repeat it's construction. He didn't even plan to permanently hold His current position as Caretaker of the Holy Worlds, that He would pass to another in time.

It was all stepping stones to a grander destiny, the Wellspring had shown Him that. The Eclipse would yet come, and it would consume all.

Light and Dark in equal measure.

Darth Nwul ​

 

[Darth Nwul]

Rippling shards of power crackled across the Steward's fingertips, the white-and-black lightning dissipating into the Dark Lord's body. The energy was immediately restrained, light bursting forth from points of contact. Shaped, made real, but carrying the otherness of the dark side. Nwul's eyes were wide with anticipation, his smile even wider as shadows stretched down across his feet and pooled on the floor, spreading out. Something beyond the ken of mortality danced inside of his soul, a writhing mass within a star, aching to break free and wreak its vengeance upon a galaxy that had seen it imprisoned. An old god, forgotten by time and banished by beings that could only hope to seal it away. A shadowy form took shape within the grasp of Carnifex.

Kintik Sutta

Nwul's fingers twitched with anticipation only to watch as the spear was subsumed by space and time, his mouth fell open into another laugh of delight. Yes! This was what he was looking for. Someone who had seen truths for themselves, someone who had a deeper knowledge beyond the truths that he had divined through combining the wisdom of millions of lives of experience. There was only so much one could obtain through Nwul's method of consumption, there were only so many beings that grasped the fundamental truths. He'd yet to consume them, rather, the wisdom he possessed was his own that he had discovered in his meditations.

It was still imperfect, but he found inspiration here, inspiration and something else. A pang in his heart, a distant longing, a mixture of hatred and desire. Words. Visions of ancient beings beyond powerful in the force lingered in his mind, that thing that had bound itself to him roared in an ancient and inconsolable fury. It hated those beings. Nwul didn't care. It was a broken, ancient, forgotten thing, a memory of the Dark Side. The Dark Side that Nwul served. The Dark Side that would give Nuwl the power to achieve what he desired.

Power unimaginable.

The power to reform the Sith, to bring them to their next stage.

To break the cycle.

He needed more, more inspiration, more wisdom. There were worlds he would find and consume if he had to. He was not strong enough to destroy Empyrean yet, but no one would deny him after today. No one would be able to ignore it any longer. It was not a matter of if, but when, he was strong enough.

He looked up at the spears with a thin smile on his face, holding out his arms as he bent the force to his will. It was his slave, and if he commanded it to weaken in his presence, it would obey. A bubble erupted from his body that stifled the force, creating within it an area that the spears moved through as if slowed by foam or fluid. The stymied weapons continued to move, but not fast enough to impale Nwul, rather, he darted back and outside of the bubble and it collapsed, allowing the spears to coalesce into their brutal web. He slid to a stop and raised both hands, his eyes rolling back for a heartbeat as his personal truth was brought to bear. The force bent and tore around his body, bending and twisting until it groaned and creaked, he threw his back into the effort, knowing that a being like Carnifex would have protections against mental attacks.

But no one was immune to what Nwul intended to do, save for droids of course.

Both hands stretched out parallel, palms outward, the rippling growing more intense as he gripped something in the air. It felt as if any cold in the air seemed to shudder, like the cold had been gripped and wrangled by an unseen hand. The heat as well seemed to writhe and buck, like a stallion fighting off a poacher. He clenched his fists and sneered, reaching out through the force and grasping all the emotion he could feel in the vicinity. The cornerstones of what gave most sith their strength. He would rob Carnifex of his emotions, crippling him if he must, to see to it that the Dark Lord of the Kainate became a stepping stone for his own great destiny. His Golden Dawn would come and it would bring an end to the cycle of light and dark.

He whipped both arms out to his sides, tearing the emotions around him asunder, leaving only his own storm of feelings in its wake. His eyes blazed with eldritch might as he wrenched feeling from the air itself, rendering it inert.

Darth Carnifex

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Spectating the duel between Darth Carnifex and Darth Nwul

Nearing the top of the temple, from an open-air hall that circled the main floor, Cora watched the two titans of darkness as they clashed.

She was fairly certain that she should not be here, but she was fascinated. In the Palace, rumblings of power reverberated in the Force like the aftershocks of an earthquake in a way she could not ignore. After managing to dodge enough guards, she'd drifted her way to the upper level of the temple. Cora had taken care to minimize her presence, but now it seemed silly. A wisp of light devoured by a raging inferno of darkness.

Carnifex was a name she knew well. A man of immense ability and reputation who'd slaughtered worlds, responsible for a bloody swath cut along the galaxy. Perhaps more intimately, he was Kahlil's father, who'd kidnapped his own granddaughter for gain. Sickening. Cora felt her jaw clench, teeth grinding together unpleasantly.

The spectator had arrive in time to witness a hail of obsidian spears crash down onto one another, their prey having escaped from being skewered at all angles. She let out a breath. Nwul seemed to be enjoying himself with sinister delight.

The ire she felt for Carnifex was one of the threads he grasped, feeding his power in a blaze of emotional might. With a hand pressed to her chest, Cora gasped silently and took a step back - only for one of the guards to approach her.

"My Lady, it's not safe here - please, allow me to escort you back to the-"

Still focused intently on the battle that raged below, Cora raised a finger to silence him. It wasn’t often that a Jedi Padawan was afforded the chance to witness two Sith Lords duke it out.

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

She would not have missed this battle for anything, knowing the minute carnifex had arrived on the planet drew stardust to the massive gathering of dark energy, in a hurry she moved throughout the palace towards the nexus of the battle as she slid to a stop next to Corazona von Ascania and a guard as she let a excited breath out and then let a little laugh out as she quickly started recording having missed the beginning but it didn't matter no what mattered was catching the end result of this fight

isn't it amazing! We are witnessing a major event for the covenant don't you two knows this?!

She held her hands out towards the battle to feel the energies as she inhaled and then let a shivering exhale out

here we shall witness one of two paths, either the infant covenant shall end in this very battle or we will see its ascension!

She took a step forward and then turned to look to Cora as she spoke

witness this battle with me jedi, see what no jedi gets the privilege nay the honor of seeing!

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Feeling was ephemeral, He'd done without it before.

Long ago, the Dark Lord of the Kainate sought power. He was a younger man then, known by a different name -- Darth Vornskr. He'd watch an empire arise from the heart of the Galactic Republic, the Jedi thrown from their vaunted temples, and all of the Core Worlds bowing in obeisance to their new gods. Coruscant was bathed in darkness, a breeding ground for the Dark Side. He'd ruled from a majestic pyramid, rising from the twilight cityscape, and He relished in the shadows which crept out across the world.

But He had not been satisfied. He'd wanted more, and He'd do anything to seize it. In His reckless folly, He sought knowledge He didn't fully understand, began rituals He didn't yet comprehend, and paid a price He'd not yet been ready to pay. Power flowed into Him, but there was a sacrifice. Before He realized it, He'd been split in two; the Carnifex and the Demiurge -- the Destroyer and the Creator. His own consciousness, that of the Carnifex, continued on a feckless pursuit of greater power, while the Demiurge sought knowledge and understanding.

The Carnifex retained much of the strength He'd once possessed, but in exchange He'd given up emotions, feelings, and other tactile sensations. He was a numb being, entropic and hungry. He'd go on to build a new Empire, which He ruled as it's Emperor. It was this Carnifex that sowed terror across the galaxy, brought low the Galactic Alliance, and pushed the Mandalorian people to the verge of extinction. The other, the Demiurge, found the Sepulchral, and came to know their ways. It wasn't until the Wellspring when the two who were once one were joined together again in the Great Reuniting. Rather than returning to who they once were, they were now the aggregate of all their individual journeys, far greater than the sum of their parts.

So when emotion and feeling slipped away once more, the Dark Lord of the Kainate found it to be a familiar sensation. Many decades had been spent like this, an endless void of nothingness. Compared to those years, this momentary void was nothing. The Sith before Him, this Darth Nwul, reveled in their emotions and their passion, adorned themselves with opulence and excess. The Eclipse cared not for paltry ornamentation, it would swallow all in utter blackness. He saw himself as Slave and Master of the Dark Side, but that was a narrow path.

The Dark Lord wielded much more than just the Dark Side.

Within Him was the mystical ichor of the Dathomiri, and it now heeded His beck and call. Roaring flames, glittering like sapphires, arose from the Dark Lord's outstretched hands. It bathed the floor at His feet, spreading out like a tapestry before arising in a pillar of flame and fury. The fire exuded no heat, rather it seemed to leech warmth from the surrounding air. And it consumed all on it's path, even stone and metal. The more it consumed, the greater conflagration it became, taking on an intelligence of it's own as the floor began to rapidly disappear beneath it. Soon it devoured a nearby column, stone eaten away at as though it were little more than parchment.

The pillar seemed to regard Darth Nwul, though it had no eyes nor any discerning features. It lurched forward, a spiraling gout of flame erupting from it's center mass towards the Sith, intent on consuming him utterly.

Darth Nwul | Corazona von Ascania | Stardust Solus Skirae ​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"It's not as dramatic as that, you know."

Alina took her own seat beside the two woman, her eyes very much focused on the battle being waged below. "Lord Carnifex is just testing the next generation as always. I'm more curious if Lord Nwul will be able to live up to expectations." And, perhaps, to keep their Jedi guest from being too consumed by the battle that waged below. It would be painful if she was harmed before she returned to her Jedi Master.

At least for those involved in harming her, anyway.

"Is it everything you imagined, little Jedi?"

Darth Nwul | Darth Carnifex | Stardust Solus Skirae | Corazona von Ascania

 

[Darth Nwul]

Nwul had not the time nor the patience to consider those who were watching the exchange. His mind, all of his minds, were focused on what was before him. Changed forever by the transformation of Thule and creation of the Jensaa, each and every one of them an extension of his will and a scaffold for the gigalith that was his mind. His thoughts, despite being able to think at speeds that begat reason and made a mockery of reality, were still completely focused on a singular task. Overcoming the foe before him. It was not a matter of whether or not he could defeat or at the very least match Carnifex.

He had to.

Even so, Nwul's power came from the absorption of millions of lifetimes of experience, memories, emotions, passions, all of them used to fuel his power but ultimately they were again nothing more than scaffolding for the wisdom that he had painstakingly drawn from them. He had not been honed in the same way that Carnifex had. While each of the lives he had consumed were honed in their own way. He was not the people he had subsumed. He was himself. He had made the decision to convert everything he had consumed into his foundations rather than amplifying his personal power. He had made the decision to learn rather than explode in growth.

Yes, the version of him now was the one that had chosen the conservative route, rather than tossing away his sanity for ultimate power. Or rather, what remained of his sanity.

That knowledge had made him into an entity unlike any other. Carnifex did not know. Empyrean did not know. No one knew but him. He was becoming a living holocron for the Dark Side. A repository for all Sith Knowledge. He needed more, though, and he needed the power to acquire it. He needed power! He wanted power! He had to have it! Not just for himself. For that which he wished to protect and for the path that the Dark Side had laid out for him. If he was to become Emperor one day, he needed strength! Real strength. He needed to walk the path of battle and trials just like those who had come before him. It was almost funny that his first great trial, was against the gatekeeper himself.

Carnifex. Carnifex. CARNIFEX!

Nwul's chest heaved as emotion dissolved in the air, he was the only person in the room that could experience feeling and passions, at least for a few minutes. That should have been enough. The Dark Side would not serve someone without passions. He should have been master of this room. But Carnifex was not one to back down easily. Nwul's eyes widened as he heard it before he saw it, it was like a chime in the air, an echoing sound that drew his focus full and center even as shadows stretched up the walls and onto the ceiling. Nwul bore his teeth, his eyes widening with delight, alarm, and excitement. His smile growing almost manic. He burst into laughter, throwing his arms out wide as a column of green flames bore down on him.

The gout of flame erupted and spread around him. An armor of shadow formed on his skin, spreading across his body like wicked plants as he turned his body to the right, drawing on the force to move with the flames. It was not easy by any stretch of the imagination, the pressure on his mind intensifying as the possessed flames moved to consume him. He felt pain for the first time in so long as they licked his flesh, his eyes watering with the effort. He laughed again, drawing on the pain and delight, the burning hatred he felt for Carnifex, the joy for encountering some one of the dark side as powerful as him, his respect for the man, his hunger for greatness, his desire to lead, his need to grow further. All of it fueled him as he drew his hands apart, forcing the flames away while coiling them around him. They wouldn't go out, though!

He needed to... a flame caught on his clothing and he snarled, spinning about, another flame, more pain, his eyes widened as his body began to catch. Everything burning on him for a moment. Pain beyond any he could comprehend, a burning wound on his soul that tore his force wound open wider sent him screaming to a standstill. His knees buckled, but he did not fall. His mind screamed at him to just die and let the pain end, but even as one of his arms sloffed off of his body he held on, the pain having blocked him momentarily from using the Jensaa mental network to formulate a plan. In a heartbeat he knew what to do, even as the pain demanded he just lay down and die. He threw his hands out and with a burst of power and a roar of might he compressed the air around his skin into a thin bubble and then let it free in a concussive blast that ripped the oxygen out of the air around him in its wake.

He was free. He shuddered out a breath as the sudden whoosh of air returned to where he stood, one leg twtiching, one arm broken, the other burned off completely. He breathed hard, staring at Carnifex with one good glowing golden eye. He drew another breath, clenching his fist and calling on the powers of the ring on his hand. He'd never had to use it before and he refused, refused to have Carnifex be the one to force him to jump into a new body for the first time. No. The only person he would tolerate that defeat from was Empyrean. Nwul roared, his robes falling off of his body as his veins glowed gold, his skin grew back of its own accord, his arm, his eye. The pain was worse than the burning. But he stood there, his powerful body now exposed for all to see. Gleaming skin with glowing golden veins, his chest rising and falling around powerful muscles rebuilt with the use of the force and his own desperate efforts to grow.

He didn't wait to catch his own breath, Carnifex wouldn't let him. Instead he darted forward, not holding back any longer, stepping through the air and turning into mist. His body disappearing and reappearing once, twice, three times, before he reappeared above Carnifex, upside down, with one hand held out next to the man's ear.

Nwul snapped his finger.

KRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNKKKKKK

Sonokinesis, most Sith used force scream as their primary use of this talent. The Jedi could throw their voice. Nwul created an eardrum-annihilating sonic wave with the snap of his finger before coming back down to land on the ground behind Carnifex, whipping around to defend himself from the Sith's next response.

Darth Carnifex Corazona von Ascania Stardust Solus Skirae Alina Tremiru

 

[Darth Carnifex]

He watched, unmoving.

The other Sith Lord struggled under the deluge of flame conjured forth by the Dark Lord, but managed to compose themselves after a brief reorientation. Carnifex let the flame dissipate, no longer keeping it alight and letting it's dying embers eat through the floor where they had fallen. Nwul roared, the Dark Side growing in strength, but the Dark Lord's eyes narrowed. Many emotions roiled freely from Darth Nwul, chiefly anger and pain, regrowing the burnt sections of his body with rapid regeneration.

For now, the Dark Lord of the Kainate felt no emotion; an old sensation. Perhaps if this had been fifty years ago, it would've been a challenge to Him. But He'd long learned to master the Dark Side without the use of emotion, such was His grasp upon the Force itself. But if He could feel emotion, He would only feel disgust. The corners of His lips involuntarily curled down in a frown, His eyes narrowing as He traced Nwul's movements even though it was little more than mist.

And He did not flinch when His eardrums ruptured, nor when sound abruptly stopped entirely. It was painful, there was no escaping that, but He'd spent as many years numb to pain as He had numb to emotion, and He'd known greater suffering since. Black blood trickled down from the Dark Lord's ears, which rapidly crystalized and flaked away, as He turned to face Nwul, the Golden Upstart.

"I am disappointed, Nwul. When you stood before me on Dromund Kaas, I saw in you real potential; the ability to grow beyond your means and seize true power. It was this kernel of potential that convinced me to elevate you, but what you have become is little more than an abrogation of other people's power and knowledge. They writhe within you, but these tricks and acrobatics are hardly your own to claim. Do you think what you did here on Thule makes you a Sith? That you are deserving?"

The Dark Lord extended His right hand, green flames bursting forth in a long line perpendicular with His body. When it was snuffed out, a sword of great size and terrible strength remained in it's place. The tip had been broken, only three-fourths of the blade remained; but even still it hummed and vibrated with latent power.

"The Sith do not bandy words with animals, they do not scrape and beg, they do not appeal to hearts and minds. A Sith demands, and a Sith takes. Blood is the price of power, of imperium, and only through blood can a throne be won. You will find no easy victory. The Corpse-God sees far." Carnifex angled His weapon so that the jagged, broken tip was pointed directly at Nwul. "And he sees right through you, little Nwul, through all of your opulence and gilded soirées. You'll need more than borrowed power and honeyed words."

Darth Nwul | Corazona von Ascania | Stardust Solus Skirae | Alina Tremiru ​

 

[Varus Vraks]

Darth Trakaton had walked in on one of the balconies overseeing the duel a few heartbeats after the duel had started. Battle-scarred and ripped, his armor and cloak seemed like he just came from a similar brawl, even though he did not. His skull-faced helmet was looking right at the couple below, watching their engagement. Watching what he came for to watch and witness.

He had felt their states upon entering, their presences, their powers glowing with the Darkness. It was inspiring, refreshing, like a spring well to drink from. With every step closer, the Sith Lord felt how his mind and body were cleansed of doubt, of weakness, of void. It was filled with a burst of emotion, of unleashed passion and unrelenting strength.

Once he had laid eyes on them, the armoured figure became like a statue, observant and unmoved. From behind his white face-plate he looked at them, how their powers swept back and forth, how they refused to at all utilize anything but the Force itself to harm each other. For Trakaton that was both fascinating and disappointing. He was a warrior, he believed that greatness in the Dark side was as much down to mental and Force abilities as it was to physical capabilities. Conflict was all-encompassing.

When Darth Carnifex started to talk, to taunt, Trakaton could not agree more. He had heard and observed the idea and rise of Darth Nwul , but what was that strange idea, what was this waste of energies and strength to unite and gather, rather than claim and seize. There was no strength in the many, no benefit of millions. There was only yourself and the Dark side.

The Lord of War smiled under his mask. Awaiting the former Emperor to dismantle the pretender.

 

[Darth Nwul]

Nwul's chest rose and fell, golden glowing eyes burning with the ever increasing storm of his passions. His emotions burned openly, he did not hide them, rather, he felt them all at once. His joy and hate were equal to one another, though it took practiced skill to maintain the balance. He stood, the dark side boiling inside of him, demanding to be unleashed, set free, opened to the world and consume it all. A faint white aura wriggled around his fingertips and he glanced down at his hand, thoughtfully. He clenched his fist, no, he'd consumed enough. He needed to control his appetites.

Instead, he watched Carinfex' expression. The Dark Lord's frown telling enough. His words that followed were targeted barbs, blades of words pointed in his direction. Nwul stood up straight, straighter as the Dark Lord of Dromund Kaas leveled with him. His smile twitched once, his head tilting to the side slowly as he looked the man up and down. There was a mixed expression on Nwul's face, as if he was both surprised, disgusted, and amused all at the same time. So Carnifex could see through the cloud, he knew that there was more hiding within, he could see the twisted threads of madness coiled together and pretending to be sane. He could see the fragments of millions of lives being turned toward a signular purpose.

Nwul's smile widened as the Dark Lord continued, throwing Nwul's percieved crimes at his feet. His disgust at Nwul's approach. His distaste for how Nwul had claimed power. His warning about the Corpse-God's power. Little Nwul. Little Peace.

Borrowed power?

He supposed that was true, in a way.

He sensed disgust above him as well a new mind had joined the spectators after Nwul had dispersed emotion. He ignored the small minded hatred. His smile growing wider, his teeth bared, his eyes beginning to glow ever brighter. Above them both, the shadows had at last made their way to the center of the ceiling molding together into a solid mass that grew larger and larger. Far above him, carnifex, and the spectators, the shadows stretched until they consumed the surface above. Nwul tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, his words a whisper in the force for the man with broken eardrums. "Dun Moch, really, Carnifex? You think you can achieve Dun Moch against the Lord of Passion?"

He held up his hand, "Borrowed? I took this power. Knowledge and wisdom gained one way or another are still knowledge and wisdom. Abrogation of power?" Nwul chuckled and let his hand fall to his side, "What's the difference? The Sith Conquer, the Sith Consume, the Sith Take, the Sith Absorb, but the sith are of the Dark Side, Carnifex, Passion and Life," His expression fell, finally, his unflappable smile at last crumbling to dust. For the first time anyone had ever seen his face... there was rage.

He seemed to grow, his body expanding, "My power? You want to see my powers? Are YOU even worthy of that, you failure. You strut about with scraps of what you once were, you gatekeep greatness, holding down our order and suppressing those who would rise to heights beyond yours. Not just me. You've done it before Carnifex. I know," Above them the pool of darkness bubbled up and parted, a terrible golden eye with a pupil as deep and dark as the void itself stared down at the battlefield. Black ice spread across the ground and walls, one unlucky observer was caught up in the wave of frozen death, subsuming him as his body was dissolved within the solid shadow. Colums of reflective icy glass erupted from the ground and stretched to the ceiling, criscrossing horizontally, vertically, diagonally.

"You little Half-Sith," Nwul said the name of their order with disgust, his voice coming from above, from below, from all sides. "You have forgotten the law of nature. You have forgotten what it means to bear passion. You have forgotten the meaning of the code you shout to the heavens! You hide in your little holes, gloat your power, sit on your dark throne and brood. You have abandoned the Bogan, cutting yourselves off at the knees in exchange for quick power. You lack the patience, the commitment, for the true power of the Dark Side,"

"No more games then, Little Carnifex, no more posturing, no more experimenting with other powers!" The voice rebounded across the room, emotions surged back into the space, feelings that had been blocked until that moment returning to Carnifex and all the spectators. Each emotion carried with it weight that grew heavier and heavier in that space that he had been preparing for since they began their battle. Nwul's lightsaber ignited within the area without a sound, the whisps of white smoke wreathing around the eerie thin blade. Nwul stepped out of one of the shining surfaces as if it were water, his golden eyes burning with righteous fury. Indignation. Disgust.

"I am the Steward of the Dark Side, I am its voice, Carnifex. I will be Emperor and you will know your passions, or I will make you do it. Little Half-Sith."

He extended a hand and a ripple of heat exploded out of his palm, like a nearly transparent heat haze. The blast was a concentrated wave of emotions, joy, love, happiness, exhultation, fanaticism, delight, ten thousand years of lifetimes worth of positive emotions being funneled like a singlular burst at Carnifex in an effort to send his mind reeling.

"I was the one who was Disappointed, Carnifex. I was hoping you or Empyrean would be the Sith'ari I would serve. But both of you are lacking. So I will do it myself."

With that he stepped back into the icy glass again, vanishing from sight while the golden gaze above flicked about before focusing on the Dark Lord.

Darth Carnifex

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Dun Möch is unnecessary, I merely speak truth."

Emotion returned to the Dark Lord, a welcome sensation, but one He did not dwell on for long. He'd clearly touched a nerve with Nwul, one who foolishly embraced and indulged in every emotion possible. Carnifex found that such indulgence unbalanced a Sith, for a Sith needed little other than rage to sustain their power. He'd honed His anger and hatred to an infinitely sharp point, capable of being deftly utilized whenever the situation arose. He did not need to barter for power, to let His emotions swell, they were already at the point of bursting just beneath the surface.

The Dark Side obeyed Him, not the other way around.

"Your rage is impotent, all of your words amount to nothing. I've seen what a motley band you've assembled around yourself, failures upon failures. Lesser nobles and second sons all vying for power that they could never obtain on their own. You dress it up in gold, and call it a revolution, but the rot cannot help but claw to the surface the moment that façade is chipped. Look at you now, twisted and consumed by the maddening voices of a million minds, wound up in self-aggrandizement. You are less an Emperor, and more a child with a rifle."

He saw the ripple of heat before it even manifested, His senses honed beyond mortal limitations. More than that, He could feel it in the ripples of threaded fate. The space around Him was already folding by the time Nwul let off His attack, the Dark Lord stepping between the folded space to appear to the left of Nwul. Derriphan shot out like a spear, the sword imbedding itself in the ground half-a-second after Nwul disappeared into the darkness he'd conjured. The blade seethed with hunger, it sensed all that was contained within Nwul and longed to feast upon the man's corpse; to take all of those minds into itself.

Carnifex left His blade in the ground for the moment, He could retrieve it at His leisure. For now, He remained where He'd been standing after folding space, looking up at the darkness which surrounded Him, and the eye that glowered down at Him. A parlor's trick, manipulating darkness was an old skill that He'd seen replicated thousands of times over His life. But why reach into an old bag, when you could flex power you've recently spent time to learn.

And that was what the Dark Lord would do.

He raised His right hand, fingers pointed to the ceiling, but began to coil them inwards. Then, the Dark Lord snapped His fingers, and a sphere of inverse light ignited a few centimeters above. The sphere was little more than an inch across, though a particle field sparkling with white electricity danced over it's surface. But what was most concerning was that the sphere had adopted the attributes of a singularity in space, and had suddenly become a gravity well right in the center of the room. Everything affected by gravity, save for the Dark Lord, was immediately affected, and was being drawn directly into the singularity.

It had taken Him many years to even begin to manipulate the Aperion, but under the dutiful tutelage of Ahani Najwa, He'd begun to grasp the power. When He'd found her, she had been orbiting a black hole, completely unperturbed by the effects of the event horizon and gravitational pull of the singularity. In an instant, she'd transported them across space and time with a snap of her fingers. He'd thought those powers were beyond Him, and He was so mighty even then He thought it not worth the effort.

But after the Wellspring, and the Great Reuniting...

Oh, He knew He could learn more. He'd traveled Mortis, meditated at the Well of the Dark Side, and journeyed through the twisting passages of the Father's Monastery. He'd come back to Ahani a changed man, and she had imparted her knowledge onto Him. Conjuring a singularity from thin-air was but a powerful example of what He could do through manipulation of the Aperion. He'd changed the effects of gravity in the past, strengthened it or dispelled it completely on multiple occasions. But He'd required something more vulgar in this test.

"You believe yourself to be the future, but they'll forget your name all the same."

Darth Nwul | Darth Trakaton | Corazona von Ascania
Stardust Solus Skirae | Alina Tremiru ​

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Steadying herself, Cora kept a hand pressed to her chest. The emotional novocain that was the byproduct of Nwul's ability kept her from startling when she found herself flanked on either side. First, by the Twi'lek giantess from the party, and then, by a pale woman with the countenance of a vampire queen.

"I think most Jedi would prefer to witness two Sith Lords killing eachother." She intoned flatly.

Cora shook her head briefly as if she'd been slapped, eyes wide. Where did that come from? She was a guest, the scion of a noble house, she knew better.

Peering across the way, she spied another onlooker, stalwart and armored.

"Men often fight duels where I'm from. Over land, contracts, slights, even women." Duels on Ukatis were sometimes to the death. With sabres or rapiers, not with unholy dark magic. Growing up in a vicious court gave her a certain appreciation for Nwul's tactics – power and might were all well and good, but empires built solely on fear were brittle. The current state of the Sith was a testament to that, fractured and impotent as they'd become.

Not that she saw that as a bad thing.

Did all of that really matter, when you were as powerful as someone like Carnifex? Even she knew well the terrible stories of Khalil's father. Icy fingers of dread clenched around her stomach at a sudden thought – specifically, the thought of what would happen to her if her benefactor died.

"What will happen if Lord Nwul fails?"

Stardust Solus Skirae Alina Tremiru Darth Nwul Darth Carnifex Darth Trakaton

 

[Darth Nwul]

Words were meaningless now.

The great golden eye centered in the ceiling stared down at Carnifex as he raised his hand towards it. What he believed was a manifestation of shadow was far worse than he could have possibly imagined. Yet even then, Nwul knew it was not enough. The gaze of the dark side fell upon the sphere of inverse dark and widened with concentration before the pupil shrank to a point. The glass-like material that had coated the walls and floor, that had turned the room into a horrific hall of mirrors, held fast in the presence of the gravitational anomaly. Tendrils of biting darkness whipped out of ripples in the glass, reaching out to lash at the singularity only to be rebuffed by the powerful field. Some of the tendrils lashed out at the man himself, and it seemed like the space itself was more the domain of some manner of ancient, horrible, unknowable entity than a place in space and time.

Nwul rose out of the floor, silent as the grave, and lashed out with Derriphan. The weapon that shared its name with Carnifex' own sword. Again, he was rebuffed, forced away and slinking back into the shadows. Nwul bit his lip in the space between, the realm of reflections, a world that seemed like an ocean beyond oceans that he now touched intimately for the first time through creating this dark place. It was so strange, it wasn't a power he had learned from the many minds he had consumed. Ah- as the thought crossed his mind he saw their faces reflected in the endless sea, each molecule a piece of glass that screamed impotently at him. Their wills were still so strong. Had he truly only borrowed their power? Not made it his own? Was Carnifex right?

Nwul's expression hardened. Of course he was.

A Sith Lord of Carnifex' calibur only spoke in deeper truths, they did not need to lie to dominate. But they could twist the nature of their words to create the impact they desired. Nwul knew that tactic all too well.

Nwul drew his hand to his heart, closing his eyes, he felt the ceaseless storm of power that raged inside of him. The mighty planetary hurricane of emotions made of every feeling one could conceive. Each mote in the stormcloud was another feeling that he had taken from someone else's past. Someone else's life. They were not his feelings, but he felt them anyway. He had let them roam free in a storm around the core of his being, the crucible that fueled his power in the dark side. The stormcloud was his fuel source, he drew a bit in to his dark crucible when he needed power. Just a bit. Just enough.

Nwul analyzed the feeling, analyzed his emotions in a way he hadn't done in some time. He'd become so blinded by his growing power that he'd almost forgotten the fundamentals of his own teachings! He had to observe his feelings, dissect them, understand them, and then make them his. Break them down into fuel until they were separate from him but also his own. As a tool. He was Sith. The cloud inside of him billowed and raged, the joy, love, hate, fear, lust, madness, passion, worry, greed, all of it a cacaphony. Nwul believed that the force set someone free and that emotions were meant to be felt freely and without restraint. That did not mean they could not be honed and controlled. The two were not mutually exclusive. That was his own failing.

In the heartbeats it took to understand the error in his thinking, the blindness of rage dispelled. The redness that had begun to inch into his eyes and poison his thoughts faded, leaving by the molten golden luster once more. He lunged for the surface, to return to the real world again. Outside, in the three seconds that passed the mighty gaze of the Dark Side grew more and more intense, boring down like a looming god.

Nwul stepped out of a glassy surface to Carnifex's left and slashed out at him, rebuffed again, but this time he accepted the pressure, the fear, the emotion, the delight at fighting such a powerful foe, and more importantly. The opportunity. His furious expression shifting to one of sorrow as he faced his sadness, the depths of his grief and the grief of millions as he rapidly consumed them, the cloud shrinking in his chest, the distortion that hid the core of his being becoming a bit smaller. He returned to the mirror world and returned again behind Carnifex, another slash, rebuffed again by Carnifex' might, his tear filled eyes now ones of joy, a smile on his face, contentment in his heart even as he attempted to skewer the other sith.

Again, the cloud began to shrink.

Over a million lifetimes all of them compressed slowly as he re appeared again and again, lashing out with his lightsaber, firing a bolt of black-gold lightning, shrieking with power, striking with shadowy tendrils, blasting with pure concentrated bursts of emotion. Each seemingly desperate disjointed attack was naught but Nwul throwing himself against a whetstone, the pressure building inside of him, the emotions crushed further and further and further, the cloud compressing until it began to take solid shape. This was experience. Processing the aeons of experience and making it his own, dominating it, consuming it, digesting it, and throwing himself against the unflappable, unbreakable wall that was Carnifex. The cloud continued to shrink until that boiling star that he had revealed to Madrona A’Mia was finally unveiled within his spirit.

The wound in the force in his abdomen recoiled from the heat before easing around it even as the pressure built on the cloud that had shrunk to the size of a fist rather than a titanic storm. No longer a cloud of particulate matter, no longer a disjointed mass of confused emotions and broken wisdom. No longer something that did not belong to him. A gemstone of pure feeling now rest at his center, honed, controlled, focused, purified as it sank into the star that served as the crucible for his power.

There was no choice. Either he rose to the challenge now, took the power for his own, or he would die at Carnifex's hands. There were only two outcomes today. Either become the Equal of a true Dark Lord or Perish.

Nwul stepped out of the mirror realm for the upteenth time, but this time he did not move to attack right away. The thin blade of his lightsaber glowed at his side, his golden eyes were fixed on Carnifex.

"I apologize for the delay, my Dark Lord. I seem to have been struggling with my digestion," Nwul said with a smile, canting his head to the right. His eyes were no longer plagued by the many twisting threads of madness. Insanity no longer plagued him, burdened by the legion of minds and hearts. He bore his teeth and his fingers curled, power building around his fingertips. His unmatched love for all beings in the cosmos exploded within him. His unbridled fury at the galaxy and all beings that he loathed crackled beneath his skin, his golden gaze fixed on Carnifex with the same intensity as the unknowable being that clung to the ceiling above them. He drew a deep breath and raised his weapon in a salute to the Sith before him, "I will never forget the lesson I learned today." He rasped, "So I will say it only once, Mighty Dark Lord, thank you, from the bottom of my heart."


Darth Carnifex Darth Trakaton Corazona von Ascania Stardust Solus Skirae Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"He'll be killed."

Failure always meant death in the Sith. But loosing didn't always mean failure. Alina canted her head to the side, watching the realization settle in. In a way, Nwul had passed if she was going to hazard a guess of Carnifex's intentions. "Though that doesn't mean he'll come out unharmed. Lord Carnifex does prefer that lessons are learned through flesh. I'm curious which he might take. A hand? An arm? A leg?"

Nwul likely could recover, just as Alina had when Carnifex took her leg. If he wasn't killed, anyway.

Corazona von Ascania | Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Darth Malum of House Marr]

"Now, now, Lady Tremiru, let us not scare our guest, after all, I have invaded Darth Carnifex 's home and live to tell the tale, with all my limbs still attached to prove it." The voice of Darth Malum broke through the windy balcony on which they all stood, letting go of his cloak, revealing himself, leaning up against a marble white pillar, as all others looked down upon quite the worthy duel. He stepped forth, leaning against the railing, and vigilant of all which went down below. He had heard it all, the tell-tale sounds of battle, the constant dialogue between two warriors... or well, perhaps a novice and a master. For well, though he might have been biased in favour of Darth Nwul , a recent friend... even if currently rather annoyed at him regarding his conduct at the recent celebration, Malum held in his heart, not rather a hope, but a belief, that Carnifex would win this day.

After all, though Darth Xyrah had been there with the Twice-Failed Emperor's side that day on the Malsheem. It still stung to this day, that both he and Alisteri had been unable to defeat Carnifex.

For Nwul to pull it off.

This... perhaps not a newcomer, but an individual which he had not known at all, since his self-imposed exile upon Alvaria.

To have him, defeat Carnifex, alone.

Well, where exactly would it leave Malum? In the dust, was the quick and obvious answer.

He had always thought it to be his peers and superiors at the Palace of Silver Rain to watch out for. Adeline, Trayze, Omon, Sicarius, Quintessa, Kolis, Tremiru, names he knew, names he had fought alongside in battle after battle across the Imperium.

It had been a very insular hope.

Now rose others, Nwul was the obvious one, but so too there was Caedes, and there was too many others who seemed to simply grow out of the shadows.

And dead powers, long since asleep woke too, the Shaper had returned to an Empire, not too dissimilar to the one he had led to ruin. To criticise for that was right, but to underestimate him, was a mistake Malum would not make.

Then there was the next generation, making feats of their own. The apprentice that had captured Corazona von Ascania , his own apprentice beginning to spread her wings, he even heard that Ali had an apprentice of his own.

So where would it leave them?

There would be no easy answer.

He turned towards Alina Tremiru , keeping his distance, the unconscious desire to not repeat the effects the woman had upon him winning out of his desire to express amiability, "It has been quite some time, Lady Tremiru..." He noted the black outline around her eyes, but said nothing of it, knowing its meaning and noting it away for further investigation, "I never did receive the opportunity for your aid on Saijo, all the students that day owes you a debt," He meant it earnestly too, the attack when he thought back to it had been so... amateur, they had not even considered how to destroy their flying armaments if it had not been Alina, they have had lost so many more, "My apologies Alisteri could not attend the festivities, you know how he is about events like this." Of the little he knew of both Alina and Alisteri, apart from the fact they were both Sangnir, was that they were close... in some way. He had theories and private thoughts, he shared with no one regarding the truth of their relationship, but whatever the truth, he knew he would need to tell Ali of her presence as soon as possible. As far as he knew, Alina had been gone from the Order for years... unless Ali knew something he did not, it would do a world of good to know she was safe... and mostly sound.

He turned then to Corazona, a ghost of a smile upon his face, he had not expected the kiss on his cheek when they had concluded their dance, but he was not one to complain about being kissed by a beautiful woman. He would put no expectation on it, no undue value, but it had won her some amiability. Whether that was by design or not... was hard to say admittedly, "Do not worry unduly, Lady Ascania, your lover knows exactly what he is doing... if he did not, he would not be duelling the once Emperor. But still, tell me, what do you think of our warriors, would your Galactic Alliance be able to hold firm against them?" He teased, it was not difficult to see that he found her presence here as amusing as it was curious, and her reactions only furthered those attributes. Yet, there was also the reality to consider, no one could doubt the strength of Carnifex, and Nwul was no apprentice either. He was genuinely curious, how did they compare to the vaunted Jedi? Was it the twilight of the light, or its dawn?

Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Darth Carnifex]

He moved without thinking, His every action autonomous. Within Him was a speed that belied His great size, almost defying natural laws. Where Nwul struck, the Dark Lord's broken blade was there to meet him. Sparks flashed, spirits screamed, and then there was silence. The Dark Lord of the Kainate expended no more energy than was necessary, gathering it within Him and allowing it to rush out of Him for those quick bursts of unbelievable speed. Each clash lasted little less than a full second, initiating and resolving faster than most eyes could comprehend.

Amidst the storm, the Dark Lord was it's calm center. There was strength in surrendering to emotion, it was true, but Carnifex found that mastery of emotion was a path to greater power. His emotions did not dictate His actions, His intention directed His emotions to bolster His actions. Every emotion was perfectly aligned, even those the Sith often accused of being weak, lesser, and undeserving. For Nwul was wholly correct in one aspect, all emotion could be utilized to serve a Sith, even the positive ones. But whereas the young Sith Lord seemed to revel in them, dancing amidst a chaotic maelstrom, the Dark Lord of the Kainate appeared tranquil on the surface, a serene placidity that hid dark terrors within it's depths.

For when every time the Dark Lord acted, such as striking out against Nwul or moving to block one of his attacks, that placid surface briefly fell away. Within was rage unfathomable, dark emotions coiled tightly to the point of breaking. Restraint was relaxed only for the briefest glimmer, and that rage spilled out like energy from an open reactor core. Then it slipped away, the unnerving calm falling like a shroud, and the event horizon in the Force that was Darth Carnifex again began to gather power unseen.

There had been a time where the Dark Lord did not have the same rein on His emotions as He had now, when He truly earned the epitaph of Butcher King. In those days, He waded knee-deep in grisly carnage across a thousand worlds, millions cut down either at the edge of His own blade or those that called Him Lord and Master. He was still a butcher, capable of great destruction and slaughter, but He had matured; refined Himself until He was more than a mere killer.

A Sadist of the Noblest Blood.

Blazing eyes, circlets of molten copper suspended amidst an endless black sea, watched for the next attack, but it never came. Time dragged on, a yawning gulf of inaction to the Dark Lord, but only a few seconds to the dazzled onlookers. When Nwul did next reappear, the Dark Lord sensed a noticeable change within the Sith Lord. There had come a revelation, and with it an evolution. They were not the exact same brash Sith Lord, who swirled with a million braying voices, that had dulled His blade against the Dark Lord's. And the Dark Lord could not help but let a slight grin curl the corners of His lips, a brief glimmer of sharp teeth peeking between pink lips.

"In the crucible of fire we are forged, uncounted are the discarded broken. Adversity defines us, Nwul of the Sith, for it is when the truth of ourselves is tested to the limits. Long have I been tempered by war and strife, but hidden blade and political machination. So too has the Corpse-God, he who was once a man and now is something not wholly man nor wholly god. If you are to defeat him, and claim his throne, it can only be done through blood. He knows you, and knows your intention, and thus he may yet marshal his armies against thee. Yonder promises of support may yet melt before inscrutable power, power the Corpse-God possesses in spades."

The Dark Lord again angled His blade towards Nwul, the broken sword shimmering with the power of devoured souls. "Remember, Nwul of the Sith, he who relies on honor shall be cut down by he who regards honor as the dominion of fools. Amongst the Sith, there can be no honor. But most important of all..." His eyes turned away from Nwul for the first time since they began their fight, now falling squarely on one who had been drawn to their contest of arms. Carnifex looked directly at the young Corazona with an intensity she had naught known before, for it was as if infinity itself stretched out before her, and she was laid bare before it; nothing capable of shielding her deepest secrets from that withering gaze.

A great flourish of His right arm, and a scintillating spear of imperceivable energy shot out from within His cloak. It was aimed right at Corazona, flying at such speeds that the air became visibly distorted by it's passing.

"A Sith suffers not a Jedi to live."

Darth Nwul | Corazona von Ascania | Alina Tremiru
Darth Malum of House Marr | Stardust Solus Skirae | Darth Trakaton ​