A Father's Vengeance (Open)

[corinthius]

The Voidclaw's lasers burned the array into the verdant green lands below it. Trees burst into flame, portions of rivers evaporated and animals tried to run for safety as the countryside was plunged into near chaos. "Nothing compared with what I'm going to unleash" Corinthius thought. The lasers powered down, the ship's captain satisfied with the pattern and closed the spellbook he had "borrowed" from Dragos Midnight. He had lied to Jowan, as he had to so many others before. Jowan was merely another pawn, just like Dannos. Unlike Dannos, Corinthius had not seen fit to slit Jowan's throat - he had in fact urged Jowan not to follow him to this planet.

Now all he needed was the sacrifices. Corinthius' body warped and became less defined as his features darkened. He became like a shadow, however unbound from slinking along a surface. He passed through the ship's hull and flew towards a quiet village some distance from his array. He had known the area well, having spent a lot of time there only a centuary ago. The village lay sleeping - dawn just about to break on the horizon. There would be no new day for these mortals. As soon as he touched down on the ground, the shadows around him came alive and carried out their master's will. Husbands, wives, children, grandparents - all of them dragged from their beds, bound by shadow. The shadows carried them swiftly through the morning and positioned them at points around the array, equidistant and simetrical - just like the book said.

The devil hovered above the ground in the exact centre as he surveyed his work. Everything was in place, now to begin the serious preparations. He held the focusing crystal in one hand and raised it to the sky. As the sun rose, an unatural eclipse began. The shadows began to form on the surface of the sun, forcing the light down a thin channel, aimed straight for the crystal.

"Just try and stop me now..."

The challenge had been issued to nothing and no one, but Corinthius was sure someone would hear.

The shadows holding the villagers stirred once again. Corinthius nodded his head, and each shadowy bond became razor sharp, cutting into the villagers. The blood began to pool in the trenches left by the Voidclaw's lasers. Corinthius spoke an incantation in an ancient tongue, the words memorised from his sister's spellbook. The Hellgate began to form.

[Brett]

The Hellgate gave off immense energy as it formed, cracking the ground around it and even going as far as to cause the clear night sky to cloud and crackle like a storm was brewing. The gate opened in the array, as it burned with hellfire that engulfed the area in an unnatural blaze, the array then seemed to swirl into itself rapidly until it seemed to form a massive whirlpool of fire that continued down like a wormhole and continued for what must've appeared to the mortal eye to be forever.

But to the immortal eye, Hell was visible clearly on the other side and yet no Daemons took notice of the portal, not a single one of them attempted to move for it to make their escape even the mindless beasts that would have normally rushed such a tempted opening to gain freedom remained docile as though under the influence of a greater consciousness. There in the centre of the gateway standing as though on the ground that had melted away to open the gate, and thus appearing to merely be hovering above it was the God of Chaos.

"Good evening, Corinthius." he said, his purple eyes looking directly at the man without any hindrance by the unnatural shadows the devil had formed to perform his ritual. But Isaan made no move to stop him, he knew what all of the gathered artefacts would do if the ritual were completed and yet there he was stood there doing nothing.

[jowan]

Having naturally ignored Corinthius' advice, Jowan had teleported to the planet's surface directly after him and now stood crouched on a low hill some way away from the devil, cloaked by a spell he had specifically designed to hide him from immortals.While he may have been trusting, he was not completely gulible and had suspected Corinthius was lying to him ever since he killed Dannos.

He knew if he tried to interfere now he would most likely become another blood sacrifice for the hellgate so he remained hidden, clutching the hilt of his crystaline dagger as he watched the innocents die. It literally pained him to see it- the slaughter brought back memories he had spent his entire life trying to forget, but he had to know exactly what was happening if he wanted to stop his captain.

As the portal began to form, he could wait no longer. He sprinted towards it, using magic to leap over the fires surrounding him rather than waste time trying to put them out. He faltered as he saw the God of Chaos, having expected Dragos to intervene not Isaan. skidding to a halt near the edge of the vortex, he looked towards the two devils knowing there was probably nothing he could do.

[corinthius]

Corinthius frowned as the hellgate opened to reveal Isaan. The frown quickly turned to a grin as he began to laugh.
"I honestly didn't expect this of you, A'vron. Who knew that all it took to get one of the Elder Gods to get off their ass and start doing something was to seek vengeance! Who knew..." He rubbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "You could have stopped them, Isaan, and yet you didn't. I'm doing the universe a favour here, and you're standing in my way. Typical. So fucking typical. The good guy never wins."

Corinthius looked to the crystal he held in his hand, then back to Isaan with a wild, manic look in his eyes.
"Well, if this is how it's going to end I may as well go out with a bang, huh?"

He released all of the stored energy in the crystal right back at the star he was siphoning the same energy from. The sudden backlash was immense as the star went supernova. The explosion caused several planets in the solar system which were closer to the star to explode, other planets began to burn intensely. The bright flash of light in the sky subsided after only a brief moment, and all around them was plunged into darkness. Corinthius began laughing hysterically.

"Now what, oh great God of chaos!?"

[Brett]

Even as Corinthius jeered the area became suddenly filled with a bright, unnaturally powerful light that seemed to consume the darkness from all directions, thunder booming from within as both Isaan and Corinthius seemed to stand on what was nothing but pure light. Above them a huge void was torn open and the massive head of a dragon-like figure descended from the rip in this dazzling display, it was obvious to anyone who had fought with Dragos Midnight against Baelze that this massive dragon head was merely the start of the immense true form of the Creator.

Isaan seemed stoic as the form descended toward them slowly, revealing a long coiling body in the traditional Chinese dragon style with its huge arms seeming to grasp the sides of this tear in space and pull itself through but it would take time for the Creator was as huge as the universe itself and though the head and arms of the divine sovereign were clearly visible in truth he was billions of miles above them. Looking up only for a moment, Isaan eventually looked at Corinthius again and smiled calmly, arms crossed over his chest.

"All this over the loss of your son," he said calmly, "but how many sons and daughters have you robbed others of, Corinthius? You selfish, pathetic little man... so sure your loss is greater than anyone else's."

Isaan laughed mockingly at this fact, his eyes were even filled with pity and disgust which was a look he had never given Corinthius before, it was obvious that the man who had sired him and brought him into the fold as an immortal had now completely lost all faith and respect for him. Slowly he approached and under the weight of the immense power the elder god exerted, even with the Creator baring down upon them with eyes dark with rage Corinthius would find himself unable to move even slightly.

"So let me put it in context for you, you lost one child..." he explained, pointing up toward his father. "You just robbed him of billions. So with that in mind perhaps I should just leave, let him have you and show you the true rage of a mourning father instead of a selfish little cunt like you."

Isaan grabbed Corinthius by the throat and dragged him toward the still open gateway into Hell, then stopped beside it without throwing the devil in yet. Instead he dropped him on the ground and looked down into the fiery depths of torture beyond the gateway, where Daemons now roared as though waiting to sink their claws and teeth into Corinthius and tear his soul apart in his own personal torture.

"No, he will end you and I won't allow the satisfaction." He knelt down beside Corinthius who was forced to remain on the ground due to Isaan's continued exertion of power. "I gave you your immortality, I made you. Now I will show you how easily I can take it away again."

With that he stood up and merely rolled Corinthius over with a swift kick, that saw him falling down into Hell and with every metre he fell more and more of his powers were drained until eventually even his immortality had left him, he was nothing more than a damned soul in the pit and the last thing he saw was not Isaan jeering at him but Isaan turning his back and walking away as the gateway snapped shut again behind him.

[corinthius]

The minutes past as lifetimes in Hell. Corinthius was utterly exposed, and for the first time in his life he knew what it meant to be truly frightened and alone. The pain wasn't the worst part of it. No, the worst part of it was being forced to relive the death of his son countless times over. Every time he opened his eyes he could see the sorcerers ritually slaughter the infant to summon their daemon lord. Jeering laughter echoed in his ears, voices always shouting about his failures. He had failed his sister, he failed his wife, he failed his daughter, he failed his son. He had failed everyone he ever knew. Now, in the dark depths of this place, he was a broken man.

Over time, his memories faded, until he could no longer recall why he was here, or who had put him there. He only knew that he had lost his son. He slowly succumbed to insanity as the images of death replayed before his eyes on a constant loop. The laughter continued. He wanted revenge against whoever had done this to him, yet he could not recall who. He only knew that somewhere in this place there would be someone or something who could give him the answers he needed, and the power to get what he desired...