[i] Everywhere Lucien swung the massive rifle, a wall of fire leapt to Revenant's defense, hardening into a heated shield and blocking the blow. Even when Lucien dropped and shot the round at Revenant, the fire leapt from his back and turned white for a flash of a moment, [b]melting[/b] the projectile into ash. [/i] ~~~ Desmond lashed at Revenant with his Bowie knife, but was met with the same fate as Lucien; getting his blows batted away by fiery shields and countered with jabs to his body and face that were lightning fast, and hit hard. While the Black Ka'kari snuffed the flames, he was impossibly fast and was boxing Desmond around like a punching bag. ~~~ Meanwhile, while Desmond was getting boxed around and Lucien was having random waves of flame and fire launched at him without Revenant even looking at him..another body joined the fray. Eve had vanished..but a feminine [url=https://imgur.com/a/J11rt]figure[/url] clad in a bronze colored, glossy armor leapt behind Lucien and took a swing at his neck with a strangely familiar katana..the same one Eve had been carrying. ~~~ "Son of a bitch." [i] Banshee exclaimed, vanishing from his perch within the trees and reappearing on the complete opposite side of the clearing, nearly three hundred feet from where he had been. A fast, abrupt enough transition to where he wouldn't be annoyed by fiery sparrows. And only a moment it took for him to heft the lightweight rifle, sighting Lucien in it's sights and squeezing the trigger once more. This time though.. the bullet moved impossibly fast, leaving the barrel and on target for Lucien's stomach in a blink of an eye..like the bullet had been sped up. [/i]

[spoiler]Wrong link for Eve lmao[/spoiler] "Damn!" Lucien said as his ATG was deflected off of every blow. He whirled around and was kindly met by the newcomer's blade just barely slashing into his neck, cutting off his windpipe and awarding the woman's sword with a spray of blood almost too black to be human... Noir tendrils intertwined and mended the flesh as blood began to spurt from Lucien's mouth. His voice slowly became less clogged by blood as more began to drip from the sides of his lips. "I.. Knew something was... Wrong. Nobody's ever that modest." He drops the rifle and quick draws another firearm from his hip. The draw time was just below JT the cowboy's, but it still blurred the appearance of the weapon as it was levelled at Eve. For the small moment she could see it, the gun's barrel took up most of its structure - a wide tube affixed to a polished wood handle. Lucien pulled the trigger of the Thumper grenade launcher, ejecting a grenade point blank at Eve. An explosion of blue fire sent her flying back, and while the shrapnel from the blast may not damage her, concussive force sure would. He spun the weapon and loaded in another grenade before putting on his gas mask. The man inhaled, taking in the hallucinogenic fumes that sharpened his senses... Right before he was sent sliding on his feet backwards as a sniper round collided with his chest. The thick padding of reinforced leather and insulated nano-cellulose caught the inconceivably fast bullet, but barely. The tip still penetrated a slight bit of his flesh, but had the shooter aimed at a place where the nano-cellulose was thinner, it would have penetrated more. When Lucien customized his overcoat, it was meant to deter anti-personnel weaponry as well as Infected. Making such a design also called for the factoring of the human psychology, reinforcing the places where the conventional shooter would think to fire at first... With a growl of pain Lucien drew his katana. A flare of blue fire surrounded him as the napalm soaking his sword was ignited by the infected organs living within the blade, superheating it with a sound that could only be described as the devil's whistle. His shirt beneath his coat tore itself open as sparrows began to pour forth. They zoomed into trees as fast as the flesh regenerated... What the kill team didn't know was that Lucien had been hunting before his training, acquiring ample biomass to create proxies. The sparrows set the trees around them alight, creating smoke that would interfere with Banshee's optics.

Revenant continued to pummel Desmond, but Desmond seemed to be able to keep up at this point. Blocking flaming punches and kicks, batting them away with Ka'kari covered limbs. He couldn't land any..but they were at a stalemate. Which wasn't a loss at the current moment. "To think the Black actually made it, I thought surely someone would have use Iures at this point to destroy it. I owe Phantom fifty dollars." [i] Revenant said with a grin. His fighting style was flashy and good looking, a ridiculous amount of fancy spinning and kicks, but wherever there was a gap to attack, fire leapt to his defense, like of their own accord. Desmond kept a plain face, fighting like a demon..which would be enough to kill anyone else, but was barely enough to stay alive against Revenant. His defense was impenetrable.[/i] "Yes, the Black Ka'kari. The one that the Red was modeled after, a cheap copy." [i] He sneered, but his cockiness wasn't as flashy as normal, considering it was clear who had who on the back foot.[/i] ~~~ [i] Eve threw her arms up as the grenade collided with her armor, exploding and sending her flying backwards into a tree. She fell, getting back up and smiling under the mask.[/i] "Yeah, I'm sorry for that. If it's any consolation, you seem like a sweet guy. Tell us where Lance May is, and we can spare you." [i] She says nonchalantly, raising the sword upwards.[/i] ~~~ "Dammit I'm blind!" [i] Banshee yelled, picking up the rifle and folding it downwards and into itself until it was no more than a foot wide and long. Compact and lightweight at its best, which he slung over his back. [/i] "Ghost, I don't have a visual. Bastard smoked up the clearing. I hit him, but that coat is made of something really, really thick and resistant." [i] He reported in. Even future rifles didn't have X-Ray vision.[/i] "Good Banshee. He can be hit. Phantom, you're up." [i] Ghost ordered, where that same low, Gruff chuckle emanated over the comms. [/i] "You got it." "Banshee, Wraith, and Phantom, those sparrows came from his chest. It seems he's able to manifest life forms." [i] Specter came in over the comms, his typical job being analysis and dissection of enemy techniques..which he was performing right now.[/i] ~~~~ Throughout the clearing, no matter the fighting, a loud, thundering noise that sounded like footsteps approached the clearing. While Desmond and Lucien had no clue what it was...it made Eve and Revenant grin under the masks. "Party's here." [i] Revenant said to Desmond, as he collided a fist with Desmond's jaw. [/i]

"My apologies, Eve. But I cannot do that. I may not have been here long, but any warrior who can exchange blades with me and teach me something new I consider an ally. A warrior's code of mine I suppose. But you wouldn't know much about honour, would you know?" Lucien begins circling Eve, twirling his flaming blade and spinning his grenade launcher idly. "I will warn you now. If you do not leave this instant and call off your men, know that there will be a reckoning. Atonement is a painful thing indeed," he says as he bites his tongue grimly. He knew what the girl's answer would be but he would show mercy at least once before the battle of monsters began. [i]Black Ka'kari? Red? Seems to be relics of sorts. Make note of both during combat,[/i] Lucien thinks to himself. Once an analyst always and analyst. He looked around trying to find the source of the sound. So to give himself some cover he drags his sword along the ground and slashes upwards, creating a gale of blue flame and burnt earth as a smokescreen.

Revenant stood over the prone form of Desmond, the force of his hook to Desmond's face having laid him out. "Damn man, i was hoping for a better fight. I wonder if I can have two Ka'kari's though.." He ponders, before a lance of flames forms itself into his hands, which he drives down towards Desmond's chest... and Desmond grins. Thrusting a palm upwards, the Black Ka'kari absorbs the weapon, throwing Revenant off balance forwards. Hooking his legs around Revenants, he wrestles him to the ground and drives a punch dagger made from the Ka'kari into Revenant's bicep. Revenant screams, his arm flaring to life with white flames and melting the punch dagger, simultaneously cauterizing his puncture wound, kicking Desmond off of him with two inferno covered boots. Desmond couldn't reposition the Ka'kari fast enough, resulting in two scorched prints in his chest. He hits the earth and rolls, hissing at the pain. ~~~ "Sorry, but we have a job to fulfill." [i] Eve says, lunging forward at Lucien amidst the flames and smoke. Swinging the katana, the blade flashes blue and [b]sucks in[/b] the inferno and ash, disappearing into the sword itself and clearing the immediate area of any inhibitors of vision. Taking a swing at Lucien's chest, her blade erupts in a fantastic show of the very same flames and ash it had absorbed moments prior, the attack turning into an explosion as well as a cut. [/i] ~~~ From the trees, the culprit of the sound is finally revealed. A massive suit of [url=https://imgur.com/a/F1ZgU]armor[/url] easily eight feet tall and made gleaming chrome metal makes its way into the fray. "You guys started without me..shame on you." A voice emanates from the suit of armor, a low and gruff, bemused tone. With no further warning, the man lowers an arm and opens his palm, a barrell, or rather six barrels, extend from it and begin to spin in a mini gun fashion, before flaring and letting loose a hail of .50 caliber machine gun rounds directed at Lucien's side, him being the obvious threat, Revenant having Desmond under control.

"So be it," Lucien says quietly as his own blade clashes with Eve's. The flames dance over him and scorch his exposed skin, revealing pulsating muscle mass that seem to have... Tiny fanged jaws? Whatever they were, they were quickly covered by the chiton-like armour forming over his burnt flesh. Little did Eve know, the ash was just calcified remnants of his DNA. Which meant she had supplied him once more with his own burnt and still-alive flesh. He absorbed the ash into his body, hardening the burnt skin and recreating small patches of his skin before more of his body was torn open by the barrage of machine gun fire. A cluster of flaming sparrows burst from the ground and detonated themselves against the large armoured figure in an attempt to stop - or at least hinder - the machine gun fire for a moment. Lucien falls to one knee before he lifts his head and glares at Eve. For a second she can see something beneath his reflective visor - the unbridled flame of pure hatred. He stabs his blade into his own stomach and twists. A thick and warm miasma begin to fill the area, disrupting any thermal sensors and bringing upon a scent of burning flesh and brimstone. Lucien's form grows two large avian wings, made of burnt-black flesh and soot-ridden feathers. A pair of colossal arms unfold from his lower middle back, seemingly made up of thousands of thrashing arms all amalgamated into two limbs. Two of the arms withdrew Lucien's .50 Desert Eagles while others picked up his PTRS-41 and 2-gauge shotgun. One even reached into his holster to draw his Mateba revolver. Whatever demon Lucien had become laughed in a thousand different tongues. It unfolded its wings as they were set alight with corrupted cobalt flame - as did his sword, who's flames only heightened and seemed to whisper with every crackling ember emitted from it. With the wings, the massive limbs and the flaming sword paired with the grenade launcher, he looked like some demented Angel of Eden. One of Lucien's arms merged with his Angel-Arm fired an anti-tank round towards the man with the .50 machine gun, chambering another round before firing once more at the man. He dashed towards Eve with the speed of his massive wings, slashing once up across her chest and following that up with a point-blank grenade shot. Lucien's Angel-Arms opened fire with the Deagles, firing more armour piercing rounds towards her in a hail of gunfire. One of them opened its giant hand to catch Eve if she went flying back from the grenade blast. [spoiler]This isn't the good part yet. Just FYI :)[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Yeah, I know. The good part shouldn't happen until Desmond gets fùcked up lmao.[/spoiler] [i] While the first Anti-Tank round is curiously swallowed by a twisted warp of black abyss in the air, the second collides with the man's armor towards his shoulder, the sound of screeching metal echoing as he is forced back a step and the minigun fire ceases..for now. ~~~ Eve manages to back away from the sword slash, bullets pinging off of her clearly strong armor, but is hit by the grenade full on in the chest, while she feebly attempts to block the explosion with her sword. She's thrown back once again, feeling a bone in her forearm crack from the repeated abuse. [/i] ~~~ "I've got a shot." [i] Banshee says, having found a better vantage point off towards what was Lucien's right side. With the smoke having been cleared momentarily by Eve's katana, he had barely enough visibility to make out Lucien's outline. Loading a .50 caliber round into the chamber, which curiously was painted all red, he pulled the bolt back, sighted, and fired. If that bullet landed, it would explode with the force of a pound of plastic explosives. He just hoped Eve was far back enough to avoid the worst of it. ~~~ Desmond staggered to his feet, the Ka'kari now fully enveloping his body, It's oily, glossy black appearance writhing over his form. A long black [url=https://imgur.com/a/KSBma]sword[/url] now in Desmond's hand, he lunged at Revenant and took a cross slice at his throat. When he flames of the Red Ka'kari leapt to his defense and block the blow, there was an explosion of black light and Revenant was sent sprawling in the dirt. Once he regained himself, he looked up at Desmond. [/i] "You..that's Iures." [i] He said in awe, where Desmond recognized nor acknowledged anything. Iures, the only weapon that could destroy a Ka'kari.[/i]

As Eve is thrown back Lucien's left Angel-Arm catches her. A hand extends from the limb holding her and unloads a 2-gauge slug in her sword arm's shoulder. As the hands work to reload the weapon, Lucien's other Angel-Arm begins pummelling her, forming hard armour on its "knuckles" in the shape of flaming bone spikes. It continues to punch her in its own fist before raising her up in front of Lucien, who was poised to stab her with his own flaming sword. But in that instant, every Infected and enhanced eye Lucien had on his body or saw through from the perspective of a proxy widened at the sight of the approaching red bullet that had just left the sniper rifle's chamber. By pure instinct Lucien's Angel-Arm turned with Lucien and raised Eve up to block the bullet. Yet it was no ordinary bullet. The explosive round shot into the back of the Angel-Arm's Palm before detonating less than a nanosecond after. It ripped through the giant limb, but also exploded against Eve's back and let her take the brunt of a pound of C4. Wasting no time with his other Angel-Arm, he began firing more anti-tank rounds at the downed heavy gunner. Their tungsten cores would be propelled into the man's heavy armour upon the explosive within the round detonating with impact.

[i] While Eve, at the moment, couldn't do anything about the fact she had been shot in the shoulder, the shell piercing her armor and shredding skin and bone, or about being punched repeatedly, breaking her armor and searing her skin, she could reach when the bullet exploded against her skin. Watcher's were masters of reaching in split seconds, making the best out of the little time they had. After all, time was their most valuable resource. As the bullet struck her skin, an anomaly occurred before Lucien's eyes. Her body vanished, and reappeared in the place where she had been flung and caught by him, her armor and body still fairly intact. The new thing..was the fact that explosive bullet slammed into Lucien's wing directly Instead of her. Phantom took the chance and lapse in fire to stand back up and raise his other hand, small tubes sprouting from the gauntlet, a half dozen in total. With a hiss and whistle, six micro missiles were sent screaming towards Lucien. It also seemed like Desmond had the upper hand with Iures/Retribution as Revenant charged him. A weapon that could nullify the Red Ka'kar's abilities..perhaps he would win this fight. Until, the final piece of the puzzle showed up. Silent as death, a new form appeared behind Desmond. One who's movement made Desmond's look like a bull in a China shop. [url=https://imgur.com/a/4jr0C]He[/url] wore a matte black armor, every piece chiseled to outline a male body, the helmet solid black except for the orange slit in the center. Odd circles sprouted from his back, and no weapons could be seen. That was, until, he started burying them into Desmond's back. With a swipe of his hands through the air, a solid black dagger appeared into his grasp like a sleight of hand trick. Before Desmond even had a chance to react, Ghost had put one, two, three knives to the right of Desmond's spine. Another flourish, and three more. Desmond had no chance to counter or even react, before he fell face down into the dirt, sword beside him. That wasn't the strangest part though, the strangest part, was now the knives seemed to be fusing with his body. The steel became malleable, spidering out a few inches and molding itself into Desmond's back. Desmond wouldn't get those out, unless he wanted to rip out his back. [/i]

As one wing was torn off by Banshee's explosive round, the other was ripped apart by Phantom's explosive barrage. Flaming holes were made in the already-burnt flesh of the Eldritch wings, rending them piece by piece as the micro-missiles collided. Lucien let out an inhuman growl of pain as he fell to one knee once more, his wings strewn around him and burnt all to Hell. He stabbed his sword into the ground and fed off of what little flesh there was left... A loud crackling sound filled the air as a smaller, yet still quite large set of wings emerged from Lucien's back. These wings were composed of the fleshy remnants of the former wings, bones barely held together by ligaments of burnt flesh. The rest of the wings were composed of ashen feathers and blue fire so thick that you could barely see through the self-contained infernos emerging from Lucien's back. Ash began to gather on the Angel-Arms, creating armour for every forearm and digit that made up the limbs. Tendrils emerged from the earth around Desmond. Not to devour him, but to throw Retribution through the air and into one of Lucien's many hands upon his Angel-Arms. Each firearm on his body reloaded in a rush of clips, slugs, shells and rounds. Every blade, organic or not, was set alight. He screamed beneath his mask as his own flames burst from his wings, engulfing the area in a firestorm that would melt most lesser metals with the concentration of some temperatures in different gales. Multiple anti-tank rounds fired off at Phantom in an instant, colliding with each limb and each seam in his armour that could possibly hold another weapon. Sparrows began swirling around Lucien through the storm, surrounding him like some kind of swarm barrier. If any other Vanish members wanted to get to him, they would have to run through an explosive wall of volatile avian proxies. It all happened so quick, nary a motion seen through the opaque flames of the living Hell. Lucien rushed towards Eve and fired a grenade behind her to send her forward into him. He then performed a slash so powerful across her chest it sent her flying back in retaliation. The superheated scar left across her chest began to grow glowing blue polyps that eventually became brighter within moments until an explosion of flame burst from the wound. One slash, starting off from her right thigh and slicing upwards. Detonation, nearly severing her leg. Two slashes across her chest followed by a stab to the heart. Two detonations. A third soon after. With each flare of blue fire, Lucien was there to shoot another grenade behind Eve to send her back through the air towards him. It became a deadly dance of explosions, infernos and blades - and Eve was there to absorb every bit of it. Fourth slash placed across her right shoulder. Detonation forward - detonation back into the fifth blow: a thrust into her intestines. That final thrust impaled her through her midsection. Lucien extended his hand to the burning sky with Eve impaled on his flaming blade. Another blast of hateful flame blossomed from within her own body as Lucien's right Angel-Arm held the top part of her body as the opposite Arm placed itself below Eve, the 2-gauge shotgun's barrel touching her right thigh. [b][i]BOOM![/i][/b] An earthshaking sound filled the air as the massive shotgun blasted Eve into the air in front of Lucien and took her right leg off with the force of the ginormous shell. Time slowed. The firestorm came to a halt as embers remained stagnant in the air. Lucien was barely conscious when he placed his katana in his sheathe and gripped the scabbard in an Iaijutsu stance. He tilted his head up to look at Eve who saw herself in the reflection, dismembered and engulfed in demonic fire. Time resumed in his mind's eye. With a squeeze of the scabbard's trigger and the upwards boost of his flaming wings, Lucien brought his blade upwards in a flaming Iaido uppercut across most of Eve's body, cutting off her right arm at the elbow with the superheated ceramics and then taking the rest of it off with the biomass detonation. In the wake of the Iaido came a final gale of intense flame. It consumed the airborne Eve in an expanding crescent before devouring her, melting armour to flesh and happily boiling muscle beneath. As he ended up behind her his Arm grabbed her remaining leg as she flew by him and spun through the air, throwing Eve downwards to the flaming earth.

[i] Screams..so many screams erupted from Eve until her vocal cords were raw and torn. The armor she wore, the very best the Watchers could muster from every period of time that had ever, or will exist, took the brunt of the beginning attacks, keeping her from becoming a charred corpse. But when her leg and arm were blasted/cut off, her chest opened in a fiery explosion, Vanish Squadron's last member showed himself..only for a mere moment. To Lucien, and everyone else there who couldn't manipulate the fabric of time and space, everything happened faster than they could even think. But for Specter, it took place in normal time. [url=https://imgur.com/a/2vL13]He[/url] teleported from his nest deep into the woods, his black and yellow cloak along with white mask showing only briefly to Lucien. In a flash, his manipulation of time sped up Eve's body's healing until the wounds that were open closed. Specter's powers didn't actually heal a target, they just sped up their own bodies abilities to instantaneous. Except, Eve's body didn't come with limb regeneration. [/i] "Specter, get her out of here! Vanish Squadron, retreat!" [i] Words Ghost had never uttered before, but it was necessary. This..demon was too powerful to take on now without the element of surprise. Especially with Eve how she was, she'd need to be taken back to The Horizon, and reconstructed..a thought that chilled Ghost to the core. The only one remotely injured besides Eve was Phantom, who had taken far too many massive rounds to still be operational. His form vanished into the waves of time, just like Banshee, Revenant, Specter, Ghost, and Wraith. It hadn't been a total failure, they'd killed the Black Ka'kari user.. those knives Ghost had stuck in his back melded with the skin of their target, making them a permanent porcupine if they still lived. Which he was almost positive Desmond hadn't. He couldn't be sure though..he was too busy seeing his subordinate turned into a blackened coal. Meanwhile, Desmond lay face down amidst the fire and flames, and ash around him. He looked pretty dead...except the slightest spasm of his body. [/i] [quote]Desmond..I can't heal you of this. These knives are stuck. All I would do would heal the skin around them and swallow the knives into your back.[/quote] "No..no.." [i] Desmond managed to breathe, the fact he was about to die and kill someone else he loved too much too bear..[/i]

[i][b]FEED... DEVOUR...[/b][/i] Lucien took a few shambling steps towards Desmond, his flesh burnt black from his own fire. Retribution was held in his hand and poised to slaughter the downed Desmond. [i]No. No you will not.[/i] He fell to both knees this time as his Angel-Arms burnt away with screams emitting from the mouths on their forearms. The flaming wings wrapped themselves around the False Prophet and cauterized every wound, but burnt away any chitinous armour grown on him. Retribution's blade shook within the ground as Lucien struggled to stand up through the pain. He limped over to Desmond and saw the metal that had spider-webbed itself into his flesh like an advanced barbed knife. It was almost like the Gaé Bolg spears he utilized after devouring the Corpse Serpent of the Olympus Springs. Taking off the mask and clipping it to his belt, he let Iures drop into the dirt blade-first beside Desmond. "We don't have that much time, boy. I will keep this brief: would you like to live at the expense of becoming a monster like me? To personify your inner demons, no matter how terrifying they may be?"

"I can deal with demons. Literally and figuratively." [i] Desmond snarled as he pushed himself up onto his knees, the knives writhing deeper into his skin like living entities. [/i] "You'd better not let me die, or I'll come back and kill you." [i] How literal that statement was, Lucien had no clue.[/i]

Two limbs emerged in front of Lucien - or what remained of them, anyway. Eve's charred arm and leg, its armour peeled away like the shell of a crab. It smelt of burnt flesh as Lucien placed them by Desmond's side, using two hands to flip him over so that the knives stabbed into his back faced up to him. "I am so terribly sorry, nonetheless." His voice was grim as he produced a metal syringe from one of his bandoliers. His fingers hovered over the thin metal point for a little as it began to heat the needle up slightly. He gently inserted the needle into the back of Desmond's neck, injecting its contents into his body... The last thing Desmond felt before blacking out was Lucien's superheated talon - an organic blade grown over one of his fingers - slicing into his flesh trying to get the metal out. ~~~ Darkness poured over Desmond's eyes a few moments after the injection. This was not the familiar blackness of his Ka'kari, however. This was much more foreign. Black outlines formed in front of Desmond's eyes. There was no light, yet the thin skeletons of bare trees were just barely visible in front of him. A faint sobbing sound rang out far ahead of the Ka'karifer. It sounded like the sobbing of a small child mixed with the cries of some kind of animal...

"Cries in the darkness..this never ends well." [i] Desmond spoke to himself, striding towards the sounds. He had no clue what Lucien had injected him with, but this was definitely a result of it. As long as he stayed alive.. He wouldn't be Durzo. No matter what. [/i]

The sky was dark. The ground was blackness. The atmosphere was grim. The silence almost seemed to whisper, since that would keep a man more sane than the quiet of the noir forest. He eventually came to a clearing. A figure was in the centre of it, cradling the silhouette of some kind of deformed fetus - it looked to be some abomination mixed between an animal and human, with the legs of a goat and the top half of a baby. Strange tendrils emerged from the infant's hips, wrapping around the figure cradling it. The one holding the child was cloaked in darkness. They were featureless, but the blackness of the entire area seemed to weave around it. No... It radiated off of it in unholy waves of shadow. It was singing a quiet lullaby to the baby despite its crying. Just hearing the lullaby contrasting with the near-silence of the forest plagued Desmond's mind with madness and intangibility.

[i] Madness was right..as a rule of thumb, darkness was a second home to a Wetboy, shadows holding them when no one else could. But this darkness..it felt alive, and completely abysmal at the same time. It felt..wrong. And that was baby/goat not withstanding. Whatever the hell that was, and whoever was singing a lullaby..it gave Desmond the creeps. [/i]

All of the sudden, Desmond feels something stab into the front of his shoulders. Two skeletal limbs that were disjointed and oozing an unnatural black essence were digging themselves into his shoulders, drawing blood that somehow made the child cry even louder. The limbs seized his legs as the figure stood up with the child. Tentacles of slick darkness extended from the empty space where its face would be beneath its hood, extending hungrily towards Desmond.

[i] Desmond screamed unintentionally, the abrupt feeling of having his shoulders pierced enough to get him to exclaim out in pain. What the hell had he gotten himself into.. He tried to take a step back, only to find his legs were being held in place..while a very weird and scary figure approached him. Great.[/i]

The roiling figure of darkness stood in front of him with its demonic Satyr child. Nothing about it seemed malicious, but the mere sight of it inspired thoughts of insanity. Madness crept through Desmond's mind as his sanity slowly began to slip away into the infinite void swirling within the figure's face. With more painful stabs that drew blood, the tall skeletal tree-like figures holding Desmond in place cut open his chest. The figure proceeded to place the child within his torso, the pain eventually turning into more madness - for not even pain could wake Desmond from this nightmare.

[i] He continued to scream..and scream..and scream. It was like he was in a pit of nothingness, with nothing but pain for a companion. It was maddening and frankly, he wanted it to stop. His mind was blank except for the screams and the misery, the darkness and pain threatening to swallow him whole..[/i]

"Damn, we're losing him!" Lucien shouts as black smoke rolls off of Desmond's body in waves. His back was splayed open like some red blossom, held by metal spikes placed by Lucien as he extracted the knives embedded into his flesh. Inoculating Desmond with the Black Ram's inoculation was a risky move, but a necessary one to keep him alive. Lucien looked over to his blade for a moment before shaking his head. He would make it through. He placed his gas mask over Desmond's face and turned up the fume release to maximum. This amount of Tribal herbs would kill any normal man, but the sheer power of the hallucinogens would be somewhat of a countermeasure against the Black Ram's maddening power. ~~~ The child is somehow absorbed into Desmond's chest, its cries still somehow reverberating within his body. Insanity scratched at Desmond's insides like an angry tiger, and had it not been for the creatures holding him in place he would've clawed his insides out himself. [i]Focus.[/i] A voice rang out amidst the darkness, past the cries and lullabies of insanity. A voice unseen, yet felt in Desmond's mind. [i]You do not control the Dark Aries or its younglings. Embrace the abyss. You are an extension of it, not its master. Men have interpreted dreams and the Gods have laughed. Accept that you are another part of the beast and your mind shall hold onto consciousness for longer.[/i] This voice was not Lucien's - not anyone Desmond has heard before. [i]Gaze into the pit and let the Ram take hold. Gods do not trouble themselves with the desires of man, but respect it nonetheless with acceptance.[/i]

[i] If the voice in Desmond's head had phrased it any differently, if it had spoken like Desmond would serve this Dark Aries, he would've laughed in it's face. He didn't serve anyone. But he could feel, that it didn't want control of him, it didn't want to bend him to its will. No, it was exactly what it said. He was an extension of it, he was a part of it now. And he had to live with it. Prices had to be paid sometimes. Desmond attempted to clear his head of the maddening darkness and encroaching insanity, focusing on the one solitary beacons of sense; the voice in his head. [/i]

[i]Loyalty is a human objective. The Gods do not worry themselves with such things. But be warned - the beast that lurks within you is always hungry. Yet you must sate it to the point of bare control. Do not think it is your friend. Do not think it is your enemy. Do not think it is below you. Do not think it is higher than you.[/i] The lullabies slowly faded away as Desmond's focus on the voice cleared his mind of most of the madness. Within his beating heart, where the infant had been placed, a monster roared and battered within his chest. Flesh knit with smoky black limbs, intertwining to heal his body. With a painful withdrawal, the creatures let go of Desmond and let him fall to the ground. The tree-like skeletons fell and set their roots into the ground once more, as did all the surrounding skeleton-trees watching Desmond. It was like the entire dark forest had kneeled to him. No, not him. They weren't kneeling either. Their tableau expressions were ones of a child's maternal link with their mother. Otherwise known as whatever was inside Desmond. [i]If we looked at the face of God and only felt terror, would we ever pray?[/i] Cracking marrow emerged from the man's spine, extending upwards onto his face. His head felt squished, claustrophobic but eerily comfortable within whatever encased his head. Bones lanced through his entire body, growing extra muscles over them soon after and giving the muscle tension of a Titan. Pain burnt within his upper spinal cord, until it burst as two serpentine beings emerged from his back like the heads of hydras. Their jaws were like demonic snakes themselves, terrifying but somehow tempting with power. It was a beast akin to the true form of Eden's serpent.

[i] Desmond gritted his teeth as the serpents burst from his spine. It hurt..but it was more empowering than anything. He'd had a monster placed into him, what that was a part of him..and it needed to be fed. In exchange, he got it's power. Would he pray to a God if all he saw was terror in it's face? Desmond didn't believe in a god. He was the ruler of his own fate, he was the master of his own soul. [/i]