“Im not gonna lie, the situation inside the stockades is dire… The horde have been spotted in the area, and the prison infrastructure has shattered… This will not stop us however, We are the alliance!” The great armored man spoke, he did so with passion and faith that pushed the recently downtrodden guards. “I realize you are all still reeling from the effects of your last commander… Know I am not him, I will fight along your side!” The man roared, on each of his side stood three Paladins totaling six total. “Open the barrier, we are going on!” Berex commanded, moving forward with great purpose… Berex and his men flooded into the stockades, “You men, contain the prisoners on the right side of the compound. If anyone sees the horde do not engage without my presence! I will not lose any more of you today.” Berex roared before turning towards the left and making his way down towards the last location the horde had been heard going…
Berex had time to think, Jakk has been his subordinate, a wild and vile man that Berex didn’t particularly like… Jakk caused the death of so many this day, Berex sighed he felt the burden of their deaths on his shoulders… But now he would avenge them, he would bring the horde to justice… “Horde your time has come!” Berex roared charging forward towards the last room of the stockades where the vile horde was bound to be!!
Varicar watched as Faendrel enjoyed Jakk’s last moments of life, she had no doubt waited a long time to gain such pleasure… It was also apparent to Varicar that perhaps even for only fleeting moments, Faendrel had dreaded that she may never get to exact such revenge on the cruel man. After all if the alliance never executed her, Jakk would’ve grown old and died a old man while she lay trapped in that cell watching time move by but still forever imprisoned…
Varicar noticed Faendrel’s intense ritual, her loathing for Jakk went beyond deep… It was much like how the master tortured the individuals who crossed him… Chilling yet for Varicar familiar… The homunculi has years of memories watching the original Varicar cry out in agonizing pain as the master stripped him of flesh and bone but refused to let him die… How the master purposely set each of the elves trillions of nerve ending on fire for months on end until he had become catatonic to the pain… The cruelest fate perhaps at all, was that Varicar never knew why he was being tortured so cruelly, the curse had robbed him of the motive for his rebellion…
Varicar turned his full attention to the elvish women before tilting his head… “Jericha is bound to the Great Demon Lord Salkeen, as his right hand of destruction!” Varicar stated as if informing a new individual on the great power of the legion. “As for reasonable?” Varicar pauses for a long time… “Define reasonable…” Varicar stated monotonously, for the powerful organization such out-lashes of power and fury could be conceived as relatively normal especially in the soldiers under Salkeen… “I met her recently… She is… Complicated…” Varicar informed Faendrel all he knew in the limited time he had learned of the Void Witch…
Varicar twitched suddenly, they should continue moving forward… “The alliance will be sending more, it’s time to move out, through the breach…” Varicar commanded before glancing at the hole in the wall he had made, with a short gesture Throggore dove through first disappearing into the shadows on the other side… Varicar moved then, making his way through the broken stockade walls he knew they might run into a warlock or their alliance aligned demons… Varicar paused to consider their options, they could fight upwards killing any warlock they encountered in the crypts then the bar above no doubt calling forth more guards as they made their way out… Or Varicar wondered… Focusing his chi energy a pulse rang out through the ground showing him the makeup of the earth around him…
Perfect… If the decended lower, there was a weak stone wall leading to the sewers from there they could make their way out… Perhaps even escaping along the same paths Sairfang of the horde took… “Mov-“ Varicar was interrupted…
Damn, sooner than he thought… “Move deeper into the crypts I saw a way out that statistically won’t bring more alliance guards rushing at us in a way we can’t conceal…” Varicar hissed, they might might not like it, but the sewers below were a safer bet than fighting and alerting the entirety of the alliance to their presence within the city…
Faendrel tilts her head as she Gaza’s at Varicar. “I have heard of the Great Demon Lord Salkeen, although I’m more use to hearing his name spat out with bitterness, and disgust.” she says with all honesty. “Not that I feel the same, anyone that Jericha would follow must be very powerful.” Faendrel tries to imagine just how powerful this Demon Lord truly is, to be able to control Jericha and her void. “With all that was happening I cannot remember if I said who I was. I’m Faendrel Jericha’s older Half Sister.”
Faendrel taps her chin in contemplation. “Reasonable as in she will at least hear me out, before she tries to kill me. I was surprised to find out that Father hadn’t killed her while trying to break her. He is now glad that he didn’t with the knowledge that recently discovered.” I’ve discovered so many things while trying the track my elusive sibling down.” Faendrel states then pauses her face falls and for a moment she has a lost look in her eyes, then she s back to normal. “Jericha is in danger, and this time it isn’t from my wretched nut job of a father. It is our mother that she should fear.” She stops there and doesn’t say anymore, fearing that she might have already spoken to much.
Faendrel shrugs she can use the vermin around her to listen throughout the entire Stockades. They needed to get moving, now wasn’t the time for conversation. “From what I’ve seen all that are touched by the corruption of the void are complicated at best, completely bar crap crazy at worse.” She says turn her head in the direction they had recently came.
Faendrel didn’t need to be told twice, she swiftly moved deeper into the crypts using her connections with the vermin, to keep track of any surprises that might pop up.
The Juggernaut stood unmoved by the swift actions of Jericha, what he saw was physical attacks made in admittedly a blinding fast move, but physical they were… The commander, watched with a measured patience as the minions under Salkeen made themselves known and clear like lions of a pack asserting the chain of dominance. The whole act wasn’t that unfamiliar to Drednautt, orcs were similar in that way when asserting their position in the clan.
The Juggernaut crossed his arms once more as the two continued their power struggle. Ahcirej’s power in the light was interesting immediately causing burns on the damaged Void Witch… Would Ahcirej truly stand a chance however if Jericha was at full power? Would the power paradigm change more when Ahcirej was introduced to a new robotic body?
The Juggernaut tilted his head, perhaps Jericha misunderstood, the Juggernaut and his soldiers were far from anything remote as Salkeen’s enemy. The Juggernaut willingly created the demon lords weapons of war and if the moment called for it would gladly fight at Salkeen’s side. Even in this arena, they were merely combatants, not enemies…
The Juggernaut uncrossed his arms before giving Jericha a small salute hitting his chest with his fist. “I will make sure of it.” The large armored orc stated before the women left, he had noticed her lack of desire to battle… It wasn’t that she was a pacifistic or cowardly being, no she held herself in a certain degree. Much like most of her elvish kind and even that of many the Juggernaut had come to know under the master, Jericha considered herself above the machines and drudges that commonly graced the arenas. Salkeen was different, his nature so tied with the fel desired destruction, in all its forms regardless of what it was used on, it was why the Burning Lord could fight in the arena. The Juggernaut nodded, he would need to create a observatory lounge for the arena, somewhere Jericha could relax while her lord destroyed…
Salkeen watched as she thanked him once again, deep in his corrupted soul, he felt she was still damaged… More so then just the fragmentations and fissures that graced her flesh. Salkeen cast his visage upon the Juggernaut and Ahcirej, “I shall return… Soon…” The demon lord locked eyes with the Juggernaut, “I expect the best.” The demon lord hissed before swiftly moving through the ever closing portal of Jericha’s.
The Juggernaut nodded, he understood the intricacies of powerful right hand minions… The Juggernaut did not create everything in this place alone, the Juggernaut had his own right hand minion, a goblin by the name of Bludgeun… Drednautt could not question the odd name of the green creature figuring his own name was quite unique… “Come, we begin the crafting of your body.” The Orc stated, it wasn’t a command as he didn’t have the authority to do such commands, but orcish accents were anything if not blunt. The orc opened his hand summoning his hammer once more, with a great swing the orc tore a piece of metal from the wrecked scorpion and slammed the metal onto the newly made hole by Salkeen’s power… Satisfied the orc gave a small grin before heading towards a part of the arena with one of the many doors that let so many of his minions rush in…
Moving through the great metal doorways, Ahcirej hopefully right behind him, he passed great metal rooms of soldiers waiting for combat. Each room snaked into other rooms like a odd mix of the goblin undermine, blackrock depths and the blackrock foundry on draenor… Some rooms were filled with races of many kinds, most of them troggs, orcs, goblins and other rough races that hammered metal into many different shapes. Every once in a awhile formally armored orcs moved around the rooms and would bark at one of the many smiths, forcing their way in and adjusting the works of metal as they saw fit, the system might seem odd to include idiotic creatures like troggs but it was done in a way where the troggs only worked on rough metal in its earlier shapes only to be forged again more precisely down the line by other more detailed races.
As the two moved through the domain of the Juggernaut the rooms seemed to change away from forging and smithing, the machines heavy built for mass metal production to rooms filled with more gears, levers and mechanical bits… As they pushed through it became apparent their were much more goblins in this part of the Juggernaut’s domain… Finally the Juggernaut came upon to massive metal doors before using his strength to push them open revealing a great metal working and tinkering workshop, it was made for two people, the Juggernaut and his right hand minion… “This is the place.” The Juggernaut stated casting his eyes around the he was searching for the items he needed… Unlike the rest of the Juggernaut’s domain this room was made for more personal works of creation, one of a kind or first of their kind creations… The Juggernaut finally focused his eyes upon what he was looking for, a kodo sized chest filled with a particular ore… Elementium… The Juggernaut hoisted a large triangular shaper pieve our before beginning the the process of smithing Ahcirej’s new body… “Tell me, beyond what you just showed me… How do you fight?” The Juggernaut asked he slammed his forge hammer hard on the elementium piece creating what would be the beginnings of a chest plate of her mechanical body…
Ahcirej bows respectfully “Yes Lord Salkeen.” It is all she says. She is certain that he knows that she is loyal, if they had been fighting true enemies, she would never have protected them. He will deal with Jericha, it is something that only he is capable of. Ahcirej thinks, before turning her attention fully to the Orc known as the Juggernaut, once her Lord has vanished into Jericha’s rapidly closing portal. Ahcirej was more than ready to have some form of a permanent body. Even if she wasn’t able to feel things that most living can. She would still have a shell of sorts to which her unbound self could occupy.
Ahcirej didn’t have to be told twice, her face lit up at the thought of finally getting started on this cyborg like body of hers. Ahcirej grins as the Juggernaut tears a sheet of metal from the destroyed scorpion and uses to mend the hole Lord Salkeen left behind. She followed him as he headed towards one of the large doors that a bunch of the earlier combatants had come through. As she passes them she acknowledges a few of the Goblins that had used their brains and congratulated them on their ingenuity. As she steps through the door she is completely amazed at what she sees once she steps out of the arena area. There’s a literal army, they are divided into different area’s. There are great forges that are running non stop, they are races of all kinds working together to keep this, incredible machine running. Even the Troggs which some consider to be a useless race have their place in the running of this machine. *It wasn’t an actual machine, but Ahcirej referred to it as one. An army like a machine had to have all of its parts working cohesively. If one part wasn’t working correctly, it could wreck the whole machine. Sometimes other areas could pick up the slack while the broken parts were repaired. Ahcerij takes in everything that she sees and stores it away. It was amazing how much she could store away now. It was like her mind had no limits to what she could absorb and obtain.
Ahcirej looks around the workshop, and smiles. She had no doubt that the creation that the Juggernaut would make, would bypass everyone’s expectations. “I see that this is a workshop meant for two to be working in. Will the other occupant be helping with the creation of this cyborg body of mine?” Ahcirej asks, unlike Jericha who only trusted Lord Salkeen, Ahcirej trusted anyone that Lord Salkeen trusted. If he claimed that the Juggernaut was the one to make her the best and most powerful body, she knew that it was the truth.
Ahcirej looks around the workshop until she spots something somewhat humanoid in shape. “It will be easier to show you, however I will not be demonstrating using the power I normally would. These bodies that I pull together do not last long.” She says as she brings her arm up to show Drednautt where the flesh has further dried up, where it has begun cracking and flaking off. “The more power I use he faster the body corrodes. I used up much of my power helping Lord Salkeen power his fel earlier. As she speaks she moves away from the Mag’har and turns to face the object from across the room. From where she stands she unleashes a barrage of holy and fire based spells. None of them a particularly strong, then again she was only trying to give the Juggernaut a look into how she fought. “I would usually be using much stronger spells.” Ahcirej explains as she switches smoothly between fire spells, light spells, or a combination of both. Then she vanishes and appears right before the target with twin blades in her hands one blade glows with holy light the other with fire so hot that it glows an eerie whitish blue color. She waits on the prop, striking it numerous times in countless places, before blinking back away. As she appears further away multiple images of her appear each one casting fire, and light based spells. Feeling her body growing more exhausted Ahcirej stops.
“I’m not sure if that gives you any idea, I usually fight both at a distance with spells and up close with magically enhanced weapons. I actually power my weapons as I spell cast from a distance. Once powered I move into melee range and let loose a barrage of attacks before blinking away, and switching back to spell casting.” Ahcirej says as she reaches pulling a chunk of dried up flesh and muscle from her arm. “We were originally trained as battle priests, we had to know how to melee as well as spell cast from a distance. I can also fight with my fists if necessary, my feet, my mind, every part of me was taught to be a weapon. I can also take things from imprint left behind and adopt it as my own in a way.” Ahcirej says, she stops speak g to see if the Juggernaut has any questions about what she has said.
The Juggernaut turned at Ahcirej’s question, the answer he had though probably wasn’t exactly what she expected. “No, the Technician is out, he caught wind of a rumor involving a long lost gnomish city.” The Juggernaut stated, his voice was not however laced with anger or questions for the task ahead. “Much like your lord and his witch, the technician and I compliment each other’s abilities. I shape the hardest metal, he creates the machines… He has left me with everything I need right here.” The Juggernaut barked pulling a great crate free it was filled to the brim with completed technologies just waiting to be installed.
The Juggernaut nodded and watched her movements and spells carefully, much like Salkeen when the moment demanded of it the Juggernaut could watch for the tiniest details of what he needed to know…
The women switched from ranged to melee combat with great effectiveness, the Juggernaut would need to create something that could effortlessly switch back and forth. Something capable of great magical affinity yet, still hardened war metals…
The Juggernaut nodded, her attack style was quite apparent to him, the women switched back out to range once her empowered state started to waver, it wasn’t that she was weaker, she just always kept the power rolling in cycles…
The Juggernaut had nearly finished hammering the chest piece he had been working on when he heard the smallest of detail words. “We?” The Juggernaut asked, “You and Jericha.” The Juggernaut reaffirmed his question, he had gotten rumors that the Demon Lords witch had split into to individuals. Finally the orc held up the crafted chest piece, it would be just one of a many overlapping into a armor so protective it might rivals Drednautt’s own. The Juggernaut placed the chest piece down before gazing into the crate of technological wonders, within a short moment the great orc pulled forth a a center mechanism that would fit behind the chest plate and act as the motherboard… the Juggernaut pushed over a different box filled with other metal slabs before grabbing a red slab of metal called indurium, the Orc swiftly maneuvered the slab before the shaped chest piece, using his enhanced strength he forced it to fit snuggly. The orc than grabbed a piece of slab that was called Chromium and fit it behind the indurium before finally connecting all of it to the motherboard mechanism. The orc grabbed a few more pieces of metal, consisting of Elementium, Indurium and Chromium before creating more of the center body in layers, occasionally adding small micro joint mechanisms in the chest area, just because Ahcirej would inhibit a robotic body didn’t mean the Juggernaut couldn’t make it flexible…
Next the orc pulled forth two massive gems called might stones, before looking at Ahcirej. “Touch each stone with your hand, channel your magic. Which kind does not matter the stone will hold both light and fire…” The Juggernaut stated before moving towards another area in the room, the women’s magic was familiar to him, he was sure he had a few objects that would help her channel her magic.
Ahcirej pauses for a moment at the question. “Yes! Jericha and I were once a single person, although I am certain that she no longer views me as being a part of her.” Ahcirej explains her voice carrying an air of sadness to it. “Jericha’s mind is broken, when we went to Ebony’s Tower to destroy it, she was instead claimed by the void.” Ahcirej states, as she watches the Juggernaut work, it was fascinating to see how m in his element. “Jericha saw me as a weakness, saw the light as a weakness. She tried to cut me away from her mind, her body, her soul, still a part of me clung to her. It wasn’t until Yumara destroyed our soul, and Orion locked away our body that the true separation took place. When she bound our mind to her spirit it ripped our mind in half. What was once one was now two, Yumara then ripped my soul free and locked me away. I spent centuries locked away, not knowing day from night. Yet a sliver of me escaped and it bonded to the only thing it knew, Jericha!” Ahcirej says, unlike Jericha she was more extroverted and liked to talk. “Because of that bond I was able to feel what she felt. It is the reason that even unbound, I still feel as though I belong to Lord Salkeen. I had been his for as long as Jericha has been his. Well I hope that Jericha will at least try and explain things to our Lord. She tends to have trouble putting into words what she wants to say.” She finishes deciding that she has spoken enough about her insane other half.
Ahcirej watches quietly as the Mag’har works his magic. Not magic like the spells cast by mages, or priests, but magic non none less. The way he worked, and shaped, the chromium, indurium, and elementium, was amazing. To be able to make such intricate details. To hammer it out so it was so thin, so flexible, yet still stronger than most was a testament of a true Master of his craft. Ahcirej continues watching as he adds the mechanical mechanism. Hooking each to what could only be the motherboard, the heart heart of who Ahcirej would become. She nods and takes the two Might Stones. She channels fire into one, fire so hot that even with her immunities it burns away the flesh and muscles on her hand. Into the other She channels her light, her hand glowing like a miniature sun, before it is drawn into the stone. Once finished she awaits further instructions on what to do next.
Jericha steps out the of the swirling void vortex, onto the the edge of one of the many walkways. One that over looks the heart of the Kiln, that molten Fel Star that resides at its very center. So close to the edge that the front of her feet hang in mid air. If she had created her portal an inch or two closer? Would she have fallen? Not that it mattered she could catch herself before she burnt away. Clutching her head Jericha peers down into the ever collapsing fel green abyss. She hasn’t fed the beast in a while, it was slowly but surely taking its toll. It was ripping apart her mind, a penchants, a want, a pleasure, they call it. Yet it is so much more, something they cannot understand, will not understand! Jericha just stands on the edge, needing the pain, desiring to return to her Lords side.
As Jericha stands there unmoving, and unsure, she begins to burn away the damaged flesh, underlying tissue, muscles, etc. She hisses in pain as the fel flames incinerate parts of her body along with the the clothes that had become permanently adhered to them. While the pain felt good, it didn’t feed the ever hungry monster that lived deep within the recesses of her twisted, insane mind. Jericha’s slows the burn to drag out the pain, the agony, still it is about as useless as slapping a bandaid on a severed limb. She needed to get to a place where she could be alone. She needed… It didn’t matter once she is able to find her rooms she could do what was needed, not what was needed, but it would stop her from… Jericha’s thoughts come to a halt as she senses a familiar presence.
“Now is not a good time Rajen.” Jericha says her fel burning eye fixed on the Ethereal hovering before her.
It is never a good time Jericha! Still to let it go this long… Rajen states, and is about to speak further hen he is cut off.
“I have gone longer than this Rajen, I am perfec…”
You no longer have the pleasure of surrendering to madness whenever it pleases you Jericha. Rajen says his mental voice a low sounding hiss. He can tell by the fury in Jericha’s eye that he hit a nerve. Did you forget that unless your Lord is near to stop your soul from escaping, it will return to Ebony’s Tower if you die. Rajen snaps.
“I haven’t forgotten anything Rajen, the only one forgetting anything is you. You forget your place!” Jericha snarls the agony from the slow burn effecting her voice.
My place has always been to guard you, perhaps it is you who has forgotten my place? Still you are damaged a lot worse than you are saying. Rajen is sure of this when Jericha averts her gaze from him and looks down. Rajen looks to see Lord Salkeen Standing behind Jericha. He realizes that Jericha hasn’t sensed his presence yet. ”Have you spoken to Your Lord Salkeen, about what you need, and why you need it?” Rajen asks speaking aloud for the first time during the whole conversation. He bows politely towards Lord Salkeen, knowing that even if she has trouble putting it into words, Jericha would now at least have to try and explain what she needed to him. Try and get him to understand why it was something she needed. I will leave the two of you, good luck Jericha. Jericha’s Head snaps up, yet before she can part her lips to speak, he is gone.
Lord Salkeen cast his gaze upon his dark minion, her words of thanks would not be enough next time to halt the demon lords fury. The demon lord quickly used his magic afterwards to heal his witch, he could’ve made it painful, the demon lord clever as he was knew what she craved… Still he denied her…
The demon lord watched her closely with his spectral sight, his fel empowering her broken form, he watched as he saw her being unconsciously crave for the pain and agony he could easily cause… The desires for self agony and punishments died quickly as Jericha’s emotional rage level rose while she locked eyes with Ahcirej…
Salkeen didn’t move even as a inch as his two minions faced off and asserted their position. Salkeen watched only half amused, he fully understood they were of the same person at their base, but the demon lord had no doubts Jericha could take out Ahcirej, if Salkeen had ever demanded it… Jericha felt a rage that Ahcirej would ever save any creature or thing that fought against them, even if the reason for the combat was to empower them all.
Ahcirej’s retaliation was just as swift and brutal as Jericha’s original assault against her, the two high commanding female minions glaring each other down. Ahcirej was right this once, if any of them had decided to save the goblins it wasn’t a show of treason against the demonic lord, it was a high ranked commander showing mercy… A tool Salkeen rarely used, he like Jericha felt no care for the life of such feeble and low borne creatures… If they had died Salkeen would’ve had even blinked as they fell into the consuming void that ripped them apart… But Salkeen mused, it was highly likely the goblins would remember Ahcirej, the being of light that rescued them, perhaps they might even bring the women a offering for saving their miserable lives…
This is when Lord Salkeen made his own way through the portal to the Kiln, making through it before the void rift sealed up completely the demon lord appeared on the other side… In the Kiln… Appearing in wreathing fire, the demon lord appeared behind Jericha his body standing tall and powerful fueled by the rampant destruction he had just caused…
The great demon lord towered over her form from behind his ever burning eyes peering deep into her essence… “Jericha… I have never known you to keep secrets from your lord…” Salkeen’s voice rang out deep and seductive like the allure of a flame… The demon lord rested his right demonic clawed hand on Jericha’s shoulder, this time it wouldn’t be healing or fel empowering her but his all consuming power weighing down on her like the fel star in the center of the Kiln… Lord Salkeen could’ve easily waited for Jericha to answer, but this time his predatory nature began to take over, fel flames racing across Salkeen’s flesh then washing over Jericha… “I rather enjoy extracting secrets from those who try to hide them…” Salkeen hissed low before his eyes filled with chaotic fury, the demon lord dug his claws into Jericha’s shoulder before lifting her into the air…
The demon lord cast his gaze upon the demon armies below him assembling for his next incursion… The great demon lord had already been planning his next incursion, he had recently come into knowledge of a easy world to crush… A world ready for a rebirth in the hellish fire of chaotic oblivion, Salkeen would’ve told Jericha of this next campaign if he had not discovered her trying to hide something from his power. The demon lord gave a wicked grin, his wings extended like a burning cape of fire… “What do you need?!” The great Phoenix roared, before the raging fel raced onto the walkways causing the metal path to shudder from his great power and minor demons to flee.
Jericha’s Head snaps up, what did Rajen mean by the two of them? She was quite certain that she had come through the portal alone. She feels her void power start gathering…
Jericha’s heart literally stops for a second. How could she not of sensed him behind her? Had it truly gotten so bad that she had been to consumed by it to feel her Lords presence, even when it was so close. She trembles slightly beneath the weight of that clawed hand resting on her shoulder. Partially in fear, and trepidation, partially in fury, and rage. His words are like liquid velvet, they burn into her mind. They promise both pain, and pleasure, a release from the torment that is constantly consuming her. Secrets! Secrets, how dare he, had she been keeping things from him she would have felt the burn. Yet before she can speak.
Jericha’s entire form is bathed in her Lords hellIsh fire. It is agony beyond imagination. She wails her body twisting mindlessly in his dominant grip. Long powerful claws pierce the cracked blackened flesh of her shoulder, and shoulder muscles, send waves of unrelenting pain rushing through her. He lifts her up off the ground as easily as one would lift up a doll. The pain she feels while being eaten by Her Lords, her Hearts flames. Carry within them a fury a passion that has her feeling both immense pain, and pleasure. Yet beneath it her mind rages, she reaches up with one of her burning hands and places it on top of his own clawed one dug into her body, She turns her head and glares at him. “Secrets My Lord?” She spits out the question like one would something that tastes horrendous. “You dare accuse me of keeping Secrets! Your lack of understanding Lord Salkeen doesn’t amount to my keeping secrets. Had I felt I was keeping something important from you, my heart would have felt the pain.” Jericha hisses in pain her own claws digging into Lord Salkeen’s hand. “Yet I felt no such thing, the fact you mistake my needs for simple desires, penchants, and yearnings is a you problem Lord Salkeen.” Jericha says before being forced to stop speaking as she screams o cue again in tormented agony.
What did she need? How dare he ask such a thing, he cared not what she needed, when he drug her into that awful pit known as the arena. Fury fills her as she rips herself free from his grip. Opening a rift she suddenly appears behind him, dropping onto the molten metal pathway. Jericha drops to her knees a few feet behind her Lord. “You know what I need Lord Salkeen, you have known it as long as we have been acquainted.” Jericha states from her kneeling position behind him. “But to you what I need is nothing more than… Oh Jericha craves pain, and want to torture things.” Jericha says the last part in the flippant mocking voice of one ho looks down on others. “You never once considered that it wasn’t something that I wanted, it is something that I need.” Jericha gasps her rage and fury dying, like the final remnants of embers flickering and fading away. how could she ever hope to make him understand what he himself was unable to see or feel.
Jericha sighs the fight draining from her body, causing her to collapse further against the burning steel beneath her. “I have a permanent portal to the void always open within my mind, my body. This portal cannot be closed or sealed by any means. Because of this I am constantly assaulted by the maddening voices that dwell within the deep recesses of that all consuming abyss.” Jericha tries to explain, unsure if Lord Salkeen is even capable of comprehension of what she is saying. “I try constantly to fight the madness, the corruption. To do this I must feed, feed the beast with what it needs, it calms it, allowing me to continue living.” Jericha pauses for a second to catch her breath before speaking once more her voice so soft, and broken, it sound like a soft whisper in Lord Salkeen’s ear. It feeds off of two things, Lord Salkeen. The Torture, torment and mind breaking agony that you yourself afflict upon me. Or it feeds off of the more innocent souls that I torture and break. It gains sustenance from the despair, misery, wretchedness one feels once they have been broken to the point that all hope is gone. If I don’t feed it, the irrationality will devour my mind until I surrender to madness as I have down countless times in the past.” She says still not locking eyes with his own. “As Rajen says I no longer have the luxury of letting the void just consume me. Mindless slaughter while pleasing to me at times, becomes painful and gives the beast power when it hasn’t been fed for some time. It is why I didn’t want to go to that horrific place. Should my mind ever be completely devoured by the void madness, even your burning soul will not be able to save it Lord Salkeen.” Jericha says her fel eye locking onto his. “Yet I followed you into that hell, knowing the price I could of paid.”
Throggore dove through the sane crumbling wall as the others as Varicar commanded, they would escape using this catacombs over the stockades… Though Throggore hated to admit it Varicar and the master were clever beings, always one step ahead of others in many ways… It made being opposition to them very very difficult. As the rogue scoured the path ahead scouting for the group, the Orc noticed that the crypts below the warlocks domain had been unusually silent and inactive… Throggore glanced around suspiciously, this didn’t bode, there was definitely a trap… Throggore crept forward before it struck, like the force of death paralyzing victims before the end of their mortality, Throggore’s body became unresponsive and seized up…
“Did you truly believe you could deceive me?” The dark voice rang out in his mind… Throggore had fear grip his heart, recognizing the dark voice as the creature that deemed itself master over so many… The orcs heart didn’t fear for himself, but something else entirely, he worried he had just damned his own sons soul! “I could easily use this betrayal to take your son… You are very lucky I still find you useful and redeemable… But at a price…” The dark voice hissed… Throggore fell to the ground struggling against the overwhelming power that might be considered to a god… “I…” Throggore tried to resist with all his might, his body numb from the force holding him down…
Throggore wasn’t the only one to hear a voice in their soul and mind… The dark master was a ever present and ever reaching creature, “Faendrel… You wish to reach Jericha? You must prove yourself…” The dark voice hissed, a mask of steel and metal appeared before the women’s face… “Take the mask…” The voice hissed low and a dark commanding undertone… “Place it upon the skull that laughs, prove yourself and you shall see witch of the void…” Isaik’s dark voice hissed, now was the true test to see if Faendrel could truly join them… Where she would be in the end depended entirely on her actions now, would she be under Salkeen by Jericha’s side or by the Masters plotting Ebony’s fall?
Behind Faendrel was Varicar, he only observed the whole scene, he already knew what was going on… Now that they were not in the sight of those unworthy to see such a master work the master had extended his hand and made his influence known… Varicar tilted his head, would Faendrel have the will or resolve to turn on someone she had just begun to have the bonds of companionship with? The creature that gifted her the head of the man she so hated? Or did the orc not matter in the scheme of finding Jericha? Varicar heard a noise behind him, one of many guards sent forward by Berex… The man stood at the edge of the hall, staring straight at them? No… The man was staring through them, the guard watched what to him was a empty hallway for many moments longer listening to the deathly silence that the master had allowed him to hear… “No sign of them down here! They must’ve gone up!” The man called out behind him before turning and making his way back the way he came.
Faendrel’s first reaction is to fight back against the voice intruding into her mind. She only knew of one being that ever so willfully violated her mind. That was her horrifically evil and vile Father, Ebony Darkskill. The man she hated more than anything in existence, the one she would sell what remained of her tattered soul to destroy. So when a dark voice appears in her mind she starts to bring up her shields. Shields created from centuries of torture, to protect her from that foul loathsome wretch of a man. Faendrel watches as a dark steel and metal mask appears before her. She has a sense of foreboding as she looks upon its rather simple but terrifying visage. Faendrel physically struggles against the dark command that is compelling her to reach for the Mask, that seem to stare right through her soul. She would not be some puppet to a dark force, she was stronger than… but oh how she needed to reach and speak to Jericha.
Faendrel turns to look at the Orc, the one who had recently saved her, and gifted her the head of the one that she despised. The one who took sick pleasure in torturing her, in many twisted and vile ways. Away from the view of those who might of objected. Still could this being that spoke with her truly bring her to Jericha. Faendrel digs her nails into her palms as she continues to try and fight the compulsion to do as the dark, sinister voice commanded of her. Yes, yes, just take the mask and put it on, what does it matter, what does he matter in the end of things. You wish to find Jericha? Yes? Reach up, grasp it, feel the cool metal and steel between your finger… Faendrel’s hands start to lift reaching for the mask, one looking closely could see a part of her trying to pull her hands away, yet it was being overwhelmed by the power of the Masters dark command, and her own twisted desire to be with Jericha. Her hands tremble before the mask, her fingers a mere hairs breadth from touching the surface. Prove it, prove to me that you can actually bring me to Jericha. Faendrel had learned a few things in her search for her little half sister, one was trusting people ended with her in a world of pain. Faendrel had no idea who was intruding on her mind, it could very well be Ebony himself. Still deep within the sense of foreboding she felt was completely different.
Salkeen gave a wicked grin behind his mask, he fully understood Jericha was incapable of lying to him, the demon lord just felt great pleasure in eliciting such emotion from her… Salkeen was like a predatory cat playing with his food, the more she grew furious the more he rnjoyed himself…
Lord Salkeen, watched the women squirm in his grip as she released her own fury and spat her rage even going as far to blame the demon lord himself… The demon lord was still unmoved, the Void Witch was forgetting something very important… Underestimating the Burning Phoenix was a very dire mistake… The demon lord would be sure to let his Void Witch know such things very deeply…
The Void Witch has the audacity to rip herself free of his grip, he had not given her such permission to escape his grasp… She was right with her words however, the demon lord knew exactly what she needed, but he just loved making her writhe and resist saying it, speaking exactly what he wanted… He knew to her that the torment of innocent beings was to her like it was to the deathknights created under the fallen prince Arthas… Salkeen was far from done with his torment of her even with her fury dying down…
This is what the demon lord wanted, he couldn’t exactly even himself describe why he desired this from Jericha… Perhaps it was his inner demon forcing him to cause pain on those close to him, whether he truly realized it or not, or perhaps it was the void from Jericha that occasionally would try to twist the demon lords own mind with hell bent whispering… Whatever the dark reason was it forced him to revel in watching someone so close to him this low, even if internally it might conflict with the other part of who he was… Salkeen was many things, the chief among them was arrogant, his pride was one of the very reasons he had gotten involved with demons and the legion, his all consuming wrath only growing with the dark path he took… But deep down occasionally revealing itself was other versions of himself that made Salkeen what he was… A desire to protect what was his, once a much more noble aspect slowly growing into what some might now refer to as greed and territorial behavior… In a way even if Jericha didn’t know it he to struggled with the powers he used sometimes, his volatile nature coming forth from the power that felt like his own… Fel… They were more alike then one might think.
Salkeen didn’t respond to these words, in some ways Jericha had been right somethings the demon lord couldn’t understand… This was among them, Salkeen was a dominant being, even with his internal demon trying its best to cause pain, the possible void in his mind from Jericha, the main thing Salkeen refused was to be truly subservient to such things! If his corrupters craved, they would receive when he willed it! The demon lord would never completely submit to any being! Jericha made it sound as if she was at the mercy of the portal in her mind, but in truth Salkeen couldn’t accept that, the only thing he allowed her to subservient to was him! The words that fell from her lips only filled the demon lord with rage and fury.
Salkeen had finally had enough of the defeated version of Jericha as if the chaos inside him couldn’t decide, he originally wanted her to admit the thing aloud he already knew but he was far from one that wanted Jericha in this state. The demon lord gestured with his claws to the air causing the fel iron beneath Jericha to bend up and ensnare the Void Witch. Molten metal laced itself around Jericha like a metal pillory forcing her to remain kneeling while forcing her arms near her face. “You are not at the mercy of anything besides me…” Salkeen hissed…
Salkeen watched as Jericha’s eyes locked with his perhaos it wasn’t the wisest thing to do while the demon lord was in this state of his own. Deep down the demon lord knew she wasn’t challenging him, yet still his internal demon the chaos that made him urged him to punish her for such a thing! The demon lord forcefully closed his claws at a blinding speed, causing the shaped fel metal pillory to sprout razor bladed spikes that dug into Jericha’s flesh. The demon lord would feed her this torment but he would never do it because some force demanded it, he did it because it was his chaotic nature to cause suffering to those he knew… The razor blades of pillory moved along the metal structure like saw teeth shredding the witches flesh not unlike a goblin shredder might fell trees! Salkeen’s eyes glowed with a furious rage as he moved his clawed hand forcing the fel metal contraption to twist Jericha backwards until he heard her back snap from the force… The demon lord swept his hand across his chest causing the metal lacing Jericha’s back to pierce through her and all the organs in the way… “You pay only the prices I demand…” Salkeen growled, inside he knew what she meant still his pride would not let him admit anything, she had not paid the price, he had by having her get injured in this way… Without her, he had no purpose, nothing not even Isaik would stop him from taking his rage out on Azeroth and ultimately paying the price for it…
Salkeen closed his claw slowly this time, he had tortured her enough, understanding it would relieve the edge though he despised that anything but her directly or he would benefit from such a thing. The demon lord stood over Jericha at his most tallest stance, he had unwittingly transformed into his full metamorphosis form during the ecstasy that was inflicting pain… The demon lords great eyes still scanned the walkways around him, so many of those minor demons were emboldened by the idea that perhaps their god was not perhaos able to control his Void Witch… It was a dire mistake… With a quick hiss of demonic words dozens of fel blooded elves seemingly appeared from thin air grabbing every demon in their master vision and hoisting them into the air, without a second word the Kiln was filled with the cries of torment of the foolhardy and arrogant… Fel flames wreathing around the fel blooded elves and their targets horrifically burning the worthless creatures…
Salkeen cast his gaze to the spot behind Jericha, another slew of demonic words caused six fel blooded elves, more of his Burning zealots, to appear prisoners in their grasp… Salkeen cast his gaze upon Jericha, “Now that your flesh has felt the torment, now your hunger will be stated as well…” Salkeen hissed, he crossed his arms causing the metal contraption to melt back into the fel steel floor… “Feed your hunger…” Salkeen commanded, behind Jericha each of the fel blooded elves maneuvered their prisoners forward, each one of the pitiful prisoners creating soft sounds of fear and sadness. The fel blooded creatures had managed to somehow capture what looked like orcs, mostly women and children… Silently several of the female orcs tried to pray to the elements to save them from this fate… “This is just a taste of our next campaigns…” Salkeen hissed trying to coax Jericha further into a blood frenzy, he cared not if his devoted were harmed in the process, if they were to slow to escape her torment, they were not worthy of being Burning… The innocent lives before Jericha stiffened, they had not seen things like her in their lives only hearing of such horrific things from long dead ancestors…
Varicar nodded, this was useful information that the homunculi took in eagerly, it however was needed to give Faendrel information as well… “Salkeen is a demon lord unlike any other commanding the utmost devotion of his followers, his power is unlike anything seen by most mere mortals…” Varicar stated monotonously, the demon lord was unlike any power Varicar had known his overwhelming power only eclipsed by a few… “Half sister… interesting” Varicar stated, the information was now undoubtedly being observed by the master, he always kept a close eye over things…
Varicar considered the question carefully, he had only known Jericha to be rather aggressive and sadistic, the chances of the Void Witch to hear someone she might consider lesser was not likely without a great deal of agony and suffering… It was possible she might get her word out from the demon lord… But that was only if he himself was in a reasonable mood… If Salkeen was in a savage mood, neither of them would be safe…
Varicar focused much closer on Faendrel doing his best to read any tell signs of dishonesty perhaps. The homunculi has begun taking direct and fire threats to the Void Witch rather seriously… He like a few others had been informed of her importance to Salkeen and everything else for the plans in the future…
That’s when they went deeper into the crypts… It appeared now the master had decided to strike, no doubt spurred forward for Faendrel’s words… he only observed the whole scene, he already knew what was going on… Now that they were not in the sight of those unworthy to see such a master work the master had extended his hand and made his influence known… Varicar tilted his head, would Faendrel have the will or resolve to turn on someone she had just begun to have the bonds of companionship with? The creature that gifted her the head of the man she so hated? Or did the orc not matter in the scheme of finding Jericha? Varicar heard a noise behind him, one of many guards sent forward by Berex… The man stood at the edge of the hall, staring straight at them? No… The man was staring through them, the guard watched what to him was a empty hallway for many moments longer listening to the deathly silence that the master had allowed him to hear… “No sign of them down here! They must’ve gone up!” The man called out behind him before turning and making his way back the way he came.
The dark voice returned with much more urging this time, truly he could’ve probably forced her to do as he commanded, but that would mean she failed the test… Isaik had to see where her loyalties would truly lie… Dark laughter hissed through her mind, it truly entertained Isaik that this women would doubt him… “The mask… Place the mask…” Isaik hissed, his voice still urging her as images of Jericha appeared within her vision around the room… The myriad of images showed Jericha in her current moments, from dozen and dozens of angles, the power of Salkeen standing over her… Isaik had used the numerous demons as mere pawns to see everything he desired, now he was merely forwarding the images to Faendrel…
“But is it truly Jericha you desire? Or did you just wish to pass on the information about your shared mother? The mask…” Isaik continued his whispers, “Perhaps Your here for vengeance… place the mask…” Isaik continued, “Place the mask and you may do more than just find Jericha…” a image of Faendrel casting dark spells against Ebony appeared within her vision, in the vision Faendrel struck Ebony down… “He has really been a thorn in my side…” Isaik hissed, before the same words graced Faendrel’s mind again… “Place the mask…”
Jericha could see it in his eyes, he was laughing at her, was she nothing but some sick joke to him? something to amuse him? The thought angered her, but more than that it hurt her. Hurt her in ways she no longer thought herself capable of being hurt.
She couldn’t quite look Lord Salkeen in the eye, he might see her breaking, he might see her weak, she digs in grasping what anger she can to bury the anguish, as she realizes she might be nothing more than a joke to him.
Jericha bit clean through her tongue to stop herself from begging when the molten metal wrapped itself around her. It entwined around her legs and torso forcing her to remain in a kneeling position. It laced up around her arms forcing them to towards her face. Jericha cannot help but tremble slightly at Lord Salkeen’s words. Even if she was just something to play with his words still terrified and thrilled her. She feels the fractures widening spreading.
Jericha lets out a choked gargling scream as the metal pillory starts to shred and rip away what remained of her flesh, after she had burned most of it away. The pain of having the mostly non-corrupted flesh stripped from her, along with muscle, and other bodily tissues, was agony. Before she can try and move Jericha finds her body be bent backwards. she cannot shriek through the blood filling her mouth. She can feel the fire racing up and down her spine, as the bone starts splintering. There’s a loud sickening crack as the bone snaps, Jericha’s body freezes, before going limp. Long metal spikes pierce her body in dozens of places. The tear through her organs, crimsom spills from her lips, and splashes onto the steal floor. Mixed among the blood is tiny little air bubbles, Jericha’s fel eye starts to grow dull, and lifeless.
Jericha didn’t answer him, she didn’t move from where she lay deathly still in the puddle of blood at her Lords cloven feet. the hand that was lightly gripping his leg, falls lifeless to the floor. A split second later chaos flames completely consume the body. They burn away everything leaving not even a mote of dust behind. Where jericha once lay at his feet, there was now nothing, sot even a pin drop of blood. From the steel floor wisps of void rise up dancing around Lord Salkeen’s form, touching. and caresssing his flesh… they seem to be asking Why? Yet before Lord Salkeen can so much as speak, they snap closed crushing his wings to his back and his arms to his side. More void tendrils bore through the eyes, mouth, nostrils and ears of the devoted zealots. their faces explode in bits of blood, bone shards, and chunks of bloodied gore, as their organs are ripped out through them. Their lifeless bodies are tossed over the edge to feed the fel star.
A void rift opens behind Lord Salkeen, and his Void Witch steps through it so she is standing behind him. She knows that she doesn’t have long before he breaks free. Standing on her toes she bites his ear hard enough to draw blood. “Your ignorance is showing Lord Salkeen.” Jericha hisses into his ear. “you might want to tuck it back in.” she finishes before driving her long void corrupted claws right through his spine. So much anger, so much pain, lost, she felt so broken, so lost. Jericha watches as a single drop of fluid drips from her face, falling onto Lord Salkeen’s armor. She screams and it is a sound unlike anything Lord Salkeen had ever heard her make before. Jericha drives her knee up into his back, grabbing his shoulders she jerks him back snapping his spine. From his bent-over backwards position he saw something he had never seen before. Jericha’s artifact eye isn’t glowing it’s normal eerie white, it isn’t glowing at all. Her eye is an azure blue, but that isn’t what would grab his attention. it is the first time he has ever seen his Void Witch brought low enough to cry. “I was wrong Lord Salkeen, my heart does hurt, but it isn’t from keeping secrets.” Void rifts open up beneath the Orc women, and children, swallowing them. “I will not be a joke to you Lord Salkeen.” Jericha states her voice barely above a whisper. She then crushes his wings and arms before opening a Portal and going to step through it. Only to scream in frustration as she is blocked from entering it. In a rage she storms off kicking a wyrmtongue she happens to pass over the edge.
Perhaps she should of kept the Orcs, but her pride at being played with and hurt, wouldn’t allow her to take from Lord Salkeen what she so desperately needed. He was probably back there laughing beneath that mask of his at her. she so wanted to go back there and kick his teeth into the back of his skull. Her legs nearly buckle from the pain, yet she drags herself away from her Lord.
Close by the crossroads a void rift opens depositing a bunch of female orcs and their children. They knew not why but they were free, they had survived, perhaps the elements had saved them. It mattered little their continued survival would depend on them.
Faendrel looks over at Varicar, “I will admit that I’m surprised that Jericha would be subservient to anyone. Then again that twisted pile of feces did a great job breaking and remolding her.” She says closing her eyes images of her younger half sister being tortured fruit through her mind making her shudder. “Still being a Void Witch, I assume she doesn’t mean much to the Demon Lord Salkeen.” Faendrel says in a questionable voice. She knows for the most part, fel, and void, don’t always mix well. “I’m her older half sister, which is kind of messed up because I am also her half Aunt, considering her Father is my half brother. It would seem Mommy Dearest had a penchant for twisted evil men, and keeping it in the family.” Faendrel’s voice is laced with hurt and anger, “She denied my existence when I went to her for help against father. I thought surely being my mother, and having been part of the group to originally defeat him, she would help. Instead she treated me like I wasn’t even hers, it was how I found out…” Faendrel stops speaking realizing that she is carrying on.
Faendrel’s hands still hover near the steel, and metal mask, when her mind is filled with images of Jericha being tortured. She had seen her get tortured and broken countless times. These images didn’t seem to really have much of an effect on her. As a matter of fact she seemed almost relieved to see her being tortured. “I see that she doesn’t mean much to him, that’s kinda good to know considering…” Faendrel becomes silent. She hated what had to someday happen, she really wanted to get to know her half sister. Faendrel reaches out and grasps the sides of the mask, just the feel of it gave her chills. For a brief moment she was nearly overwhelmed with the desire to place it over her own face. Just holding it made her feel anxious as her heart and mind raced.
Faendrel brings the mask towards her face, gasping and pushing it away before it touches her skin. “It is Jericha that I seek, There are things that she needs to know, only about mother, but, Ebony, and the tower as well.” Faendrel states as she slowly walks towards the bound Orc. “Jericha is needed to get into the Tower, she is needed to defeat Ebony, but not in the way…” She stops and looks at the Orc who had gifted her the head of the man who had tormented her for the past few months. Still the dark velvety voice in her head, could bring her to Jericha, the one who could end the one who tortured her her whole life. “I am sorry for this but reaching Jericha is something that I will do anything to achieve.” With those words Faendrel places the mask over Throggore’s face.
The Juggernaut continued working on several pieces of metal, he was creating the layered pieces that would eventually make up her legs… Occasionally the Juggernaut would search for more mechanical pieces that he needed, this was how he had his right hand worked. If not together at the direct moment, they left finished pieces for the other to use… “Knew you had something to do with Jericha…” The Orc stated, he had his sources that could gather information, but his spy networks were not as expansive as the other commanders or Isaik himself… “The actions between each other also showed a connection beyond just Salkeen…” The Orc stated, he might not have had as much spies as the others, but his tactical knowledge and ability to notice details made him a heavy threat…
The orc continued to listen to Ahcirej’s tale as he fitted machined joints into the layered metal pieces he had smithed. The orc was creating adaptable system for the legs allowing Ahcirej to switch from digitigrade to plantigrade on a whim allowing her to benefit from both forms of structural leg make up. The Juggernaut recalled each advantage of the different leg structures, digitigrade legs were easily better for allowing a target to be more agile and reach faster speeds much quicker, but plantigrade structure leg allowed for more torque and power behind strikes… Drednautt nodded at her words of Jericha and the void, the Orc had learned quickly that the void complicated a great many things made one weary of the force called the light… Not that any force was inherently evil, as the Juggernaut once believed…
“So long trapped, surprising your not more mad than your other half…” The Juggernaut stated moving onto creating a housing for rocket boosting system that would extend from her heels… The orc fitted two large solium crystals deep into the housing, rocket fuel was a powerful thing, yet so quickly did it deplenish… The solium however would link up with the mightstones, Ahcirej would fly using her own magic power as the fuel…
The orc took hold of the two stones before with his mighty hammer he slammed it down with such force the ground shook. The two stones only glowed hotter as the orc sent his hammer crashing down, until finally after one last strike the two stones became one… A mightstone that held all the fire and a light Ahcirej could muster, it began to glow unlike anything others had ever seen, a miniature sun of light that didn’t burn to the touch. The orc grabbed the glowing stone with his hand, the metal covering his flesh sizzling as the air recognized the power in its presence. The orc quickly adhered the stone to the back of a second piece of metal that would serve as her back plate… The orc examined his work so far, it was going well… The orc moved another box aside before grabbing the piece underneath…
“Choose your side weapons…” The Juggernaut stated, within the box was a myriad of different concealable weapons… Heated blades to be imputed into the wrist or heel, several different sizes of folding cannons that could appear from shoulders, arms or the body. Concealable missile racks, laser focus arrays, saw blades, you name it the goblin partner had created it for whatever Drednautt needed… While Ahcirej had begun choosing the Juggernaut made his way towards another part of the room to a great safe… Spinning the wheel in a direction the great metal container opened up to reveal many different colored metals and gems, this was his most important collection that made the masters minions and commanders their most deadly… manufactured alloys, alloys that shouldn’t ever exist but did… The orc expected wyat was before him before settling on a clear piece that looked like glass… With great force the orc brought his arm up then down onto the clear substance before examine the piece… No fractures… A great alloy… Or should he say a great metal… One of the reasons the Juggernaut was so lethal was not because he used so many different metals but because he cultivated his own metals…
Bringing the great ore over he placed it on a nearby anvil and brought his mighty hammer down; the room echoed with the claps of thunder as he shaped the clear metal a thin sheet to cover the might stone and two thin orbs to be Ahcirej’s eyes, she would not have to worry about being blinded this time… Next the orc had to work of the power sources…
Salkeen stares down at the scene of her supposed death, Salkeen knew she was much stronger than that. The demon lord had no fear that she might be dead, not while he still lived would that ever happen… Yet still the demons of the Kiln grew horrifically silent, they realized that if Salkeen was somehow mistaken they might all die…
There was the Void Witch he had come to desire, even when he played the cunning animal ready to play with its food, she showed herself as his equal! The demon lord strained as she constricted his form and butchered his devoted… It was of no matter, they were so brainwashed they welcomed dying for their god!
Salkeen hissed as she drew blood from his form, a minor bite on the ear, but for him it might as well been the allure of power… The demon lord roaring as his spine was punctured shattering his diamond steel like bones and spraying the area around them in his bright green blood… The demons of the Kiln deathly silent, was this the beginning of a new commander? Would Jericha be able to defeat the demon lord and claim the Kiln as her own?
A sound so horrific escaped her lips that demons around the Kiln held their heads in pain trying to ease the god like wail… Salkeen feeling Jericha be so close, felt her attack him again snapping his spine, his towering legs nearly buckling from loss of commands surging from his brain… The demon lord coughed up more bright demonic blood, before he saw her tears…
Salkeen, only began to grow more furious, furious at everything around him but most importantly furious at himself… His wings were crushed and his body broken but the rising flame that was his unbridled anger returned strength and form to his body! The flames of Lord Salkeen enveloped him entirely before dying down revealing the demon lord in all his power and splendor, reborn like a phoenix… Salkeen now didn’t care at all for the pitiful creatures around him, what matter now was only Jericha… The demon lord moved like a blur from the position he was at to mere inches in front of Jericha’s face, she could’ve easily struck him again right now, this time however it was unlikely the demon lord would move… “A joke?! Is that what you believe I think?” Salkeen growled his voice and with a edge so hard it might cut diamond… The demon lord towered over her, “Do not mistake my pleasure for condescension, you would not be here if I thought you were nothing…” Salkeen snarled his rage quite apparent, the demon lord roared turning away from Jericha and summoning twin flames the demon lord sent his burning fire down into the Kiln like infernal lances before they impacted with the two of the platforms that held demon warriors in formation! The platforms detonated killing many of those aboard before collapsing into the pits below…
“They were nothing, Jericha!!” The demon lord roared turning back to the Void Witch, “You are mine! You will never be nothing, not as long as I live!!” The demon lord snarled before in a blur appearing before her… “As my most coveted, you are not permitted to cry…” The demon lord hissed, bringing his claws to her face… Slowly sliding them below her eyes they burned a line of flesh until each side reached her tear ducts, then the demon lord burning them away… “You are mine…” Lord Salkeen hissed before leaning his lips towards her own…
Jericha had felt the heat from her Phoenix’s flame on her back as he was reborn from the ashes. In her hurt, and her anger, she desired to strike out at him. Still she halts her progress and stand before him. His fury and power washes over her, it takes all of her strength not to fall to her knees, had she been in any other frame of mind, she would be on her belly groveling for his forgiveness… This however wasn’t one of those times. The only telltale sign that Jericha is even listening to her Lord speak, is the tensing of her shoulders, and the barely noticeable changes in her facial expressions.
Even in her pain, and anger, Jericha cannot help but jump slightly at Lord Salkeen’s power. A small watery smile graces her lips for a brief second at the sight of the destruction, the deaths. she wanted all of those that saw, heard, witnessed dead. Those that they told dead as well. Jericha stands frozen unsure what to do, which way to move.
Jericha’s heart suddenly starts racing, she has no idea what to expect from her Lord, she is fearful of lifting her head, of looking at his face. Would it still hold that mocking smile, would the laugher at watching her brought low still be present? None of that seemed to matter, a silent voice demanded that she look up, her tear rimmed blue eyes lick with his fel burning ones. A single tear spills from the corner of her artifact eye, as Lord Salkeen brings his claws to her face. It sizzles and evaporates into steam, as he burns a path along either eye. Her eyes burn as the tears filling them boil away, Jericha whimpers softly as the tear ducts are completely destroyed. Her lower eye lid and the flesh beneath it, are now mostly just scarred blackened tissue. The blue eyes vanish returning to her ever present, fel green, and eerie white.
Jericha moves forward, her hand tangle in his hair, her lip is cut against his teeth as she tries to devour him. Her own teeth slice open his mouth as well. He tasted of torment, power, fel, Blood… and so much more. She hisses I to his mouth deepening it, then pulling back before she went to far. She gasps for breath her eyes wild. Lord Salkeen had asked something’s of her just moments earlier. Her hands still rest on either side of her Lords face. Hardened void blackened claw like nails lightly caress his flesh. Jericha looks at him, her artifact eye has once again fully taken on its unnatural eerie white glow. Those who are able to listen, can her the screams of millions of lost, tortured, and broken souls. Screaming, howling, wailing, in despair, loss, and never ending torment. The taste of fel, unbelievably potent Demonic power, and blood still clung to her lips, it filled her mouth, and coated her tongue like a drug. It yearned fo her to forget, to reach forward and once again savor that sensation. Yet she hungers for what her disease mind requires, she hurts. “You asked.”
Jericha averts her eyes, as she speaks her voice soft, laced with pain. “What did you believe I would think. You knew I was damaged, that it was growing worse. You know that I cannot keep important secrets from you.” Jericha stops one of her hands slide down along his face. The nail of her index finger lightly scores Lord Salkeen’s flesh, leaving a barely noticeable trail thin trail of blood in its wake. “Yet you accuse me of keeping secrets, when you know what I need.” Jericha grows silent her eyes staring at her hand resting on her Lords strong muscular chest. Did he truly understand that it was a need? Or did he still think that it was just an extremely powerful penchant or urge. Did he honestly comprehend that it wasn’t a case of this could kill her, if not fed. It was a case of this would kill her, there was no maybe, yet he laughed. “Knowing what I need, you laughed, you brought me low, just so you could laugh at my pain Lord Salkeen, that is what I saw. It is what I felt.” Jericha states, the sharpened claws on the hand still laying against his face barely puncture his Demonic skin, as she tenses.
Jericha looks up at Lord Salkeen, her eyes not quite locking with his own. “You take pleasure in bringing me low Lord Salkeen?” Jericha asks of him, the sadness in her tone is littered with traces of amusement, and anger. “I will take it at face value Lord Salkeen, it was patronizing, condescending, arrogant. You wanted to make me weak before you, and you got what you wanted. And all you could do was mock me and laugh behind your mask, and you ask if I honestly think that I am a joke to you Lord Salkeen?” Jericha’s hands fall away from him as she turns her back to him and makes a sweeping motion with one of them. Gesturing at all they could see around them, all the demons moving about The Kiln. “You didn’t just force me to admit that I was weak to you, Lord Salkeen. You forced me to admit I was weak to all of them, all of those that should be beneath me, those that have no right knowing something so personal. Yet you made me admit to them that I was weak, and you stood there grinning while you did it.” Jericha says she refuses to let her anger rise, that is what he wanted. Jericha wouldn’t give her Lord, her love, that type of ammunition to use against her again, at least not while her mind and heart were still so vulnerable. “Would you kill them all Lord Salkeen, could you? Destroy their Demonic souls so they could never be reborn? All of those that saw, all of those that heard, would you do that to return to me the power that was taken when you made me kneel before them all.” Jericha asks, there’s not even the slightest trace of a demanding voice as she speaks.
After a brief pause her words fill the air between them once more. “Do you truly understand that I need to feed the beast. It isn’t a hunger, I am not sure if you understand that. Would it be better if I were to say it’s an incurable disease, a cancer. That it will be a part of me forever, do matter how many bodies I go through.” Jericha says her voice soft, the question hanging in the space between them. “Would it help if I showed you, Lord Salkeen? Perhaps seeing it would make you better understand that this isn’t something a strongly desire. It’s not something that could potentially kill me if not taken care of. It is something I need, something if I do not get, it will,” Jericha’s hands snap out her fingers grip her Lords Horns and she yanks his head down. “It will kill me Lord Salkeen.” Before he can reply Jericha crushes her mouth to his, in a bruising passionate kiss, that leaves them both tasting the others blood once again.
Ahcirej got Vessel a wistful smile behind her mask. “If I were being honest there is no longer a connection between myself and Jericha. All that remained no are what used to be, what might hav been.” Ahcirej states, in a neutral tone, as she watches the Juggernaut search through the stacks of mechanical equipment. The pieces that would make up the brain, the central nervous system, ones that could mimic the respiratory system, the cardiovascular systems. “I believe it will be sometime before Jericha can be in the same room with me without striking out. She saw what I did as a betrayal, and she no longer trusts me because of it. I donor k ow yet if that will cause problems n the future.” Ahcirej finishes
Ahcirej had been so concentrated on watching the Orc create her legs that the question nearly caught her off guard. strangely enough, she had never been all that upset with Jericha for having been locked away for all of those centuries. If she was to be angry at anyone it would’ve been Yumara. As it was Yumara who was responsible for trapping her and locking her away. Just as she is responsible for her current situation. Still Ahcirej doesn’t find herself angry, she doesn’t even believe herself truly capable of the emotion. “I never thought to be angry at her, it wasn’t Jericha that placed me in the soul prison, although she was the reason I was placed there. Still even while there I was experiencing, and feeling the things that she felt, thought…” Ahcirej’s voice trails off as she watches him add the large solium Crystals, to the rocket boosting system. Not being originally mechanically inclined she found herself fascinated by everything that Drednautt was accomplishing with this new form for her, that he was building.
Ahcirej moves over towards the box the Juggernaut had indicated and looks inside, the array of things was amazing. She lifts up different blades, weighing them in her hands. Swings them spins them, flips them in the air, she tests there sharpness, there reach… an a myriad of other things before selecting six of the blades. Four of them would be built into her arms, and feet, ready to spring into use when she needed them. The other two would be kept at her side. These where not just blades, but guns as well, ones able to fire blasts of both holy magic, and fire magic. She then selects the concealable cannons for her shoulder blades, and hips, she chooses laser focuses to add to them. Miniature missile racks to drop down from each for arm. While adding two massive missiles to be housed within her chest, along with a laser, who’s beam that would burn through practically anything… a few containers of bombs joined the ever growing pile, along with a few saw blades of various sizes. Lastly she grabs a giant glaive to strap across her back, one gat she could send crashing into her foes like the weapons armor of mass destruction that the Night Elves used.
By the time Ahcirej had finished going through and choosing her side weapons the Juggernaut was already back to work g on her body, so Ahcirej does what she had done for centuries she silently observes.