24th Corbet, 1117, Eleday. Orchilla.
The music of the parade faded, the jingle and joy dispersing in the streets as a cord of tension constructed in the street.
"Halt the parade!" A golden voice erupted.
"Do my eyes deceive me, or is that…" Roy looked up, fire in his scarlet eye. He armed himself as he rose from the ground, a violent smirk upon his face.
"Years I've waited for this, Goldinveer!" The moment he saw the slicked back lightning hair of Luscious Goldinveer, all of Roy's focus centered into an entropy, Judari stood newborn and bare in the opening of the alleyway. The star mark upon his chest hadn't faded, nor any other injury upon his flesh. Though no scars could be found on him, only removal.
"O' people of Oresfall! Bear witness to this day's event! A tension breaker, years in the boiling pits. Between I, and the Ardorian filth you see below me!" Luscious howled, his chained dagger already slid between his fingers. The crowds dissipated to below covers and walls. The glossy dancers all caked in dust and lipstick fled away. The Dukes upon their parade thrones sank beneath their cowardice, as Luscious rose with bloodthirsty intent. The veins on his neck bulged out from beneath his pale, thin skin, pumping with so much adrenaline one could only imagine he'd injected himself with dirty needles found in the very street he paraded himself in. Though clear in his eyes, the only drug the golden Duke was high upon was arrogance and lust.
"Years I've been waiting as well, Abyss Walker. You've been the only one ever to injure me, physically yes, but spiritually… You hit quite the nerve I didn't know I quite had. So I must thank you, even if you do not deserve gratitude." Luscious brandished his ego, his teeth on full display.
"Nothing could be more disgusting than a Solan faithed praising or thanking me in any sort… Though luckily for me you're but a parade of his worship, with no real reflection from it."
Roy said, and Luscious scanned the area with his quick yellow eyes. A small smile appearing.
"Glad I could make our encounter less of a revolting experience." He cracked his neck, as if something had been weighing upon his back for decades.
"The nail of my superiority will finally be hammered down on the wood-post in my minds-eye."
Luscious leaped high in the air, thunder crackling in the air as he charged energy within himself and his gilded dagger.
"Shut your mouth and stance up, Duke. Ain't nobody knows what a mind's eye is." Roy readied his stance and his endless backshelf of void-bathed weaponry slithered out into his hands. Judari stood observing, his mind fractured but not divided. For he no longer bore control, no longer spun the string that so seamlessly flapped from his shoulders. No, someone, something, had grabbed ahold of them. It hurt him, but he did not care, his actions were no longer in the equation of consequence. He tried thinking of himself highly, as he'd once wished he could. But as the voice said, to be without flaw, is to be without self. There was no self to punish nor praise. Just silence and the purring of a beastly hunger.
Judari's reformed and glossy skin reflected in the torchlight of Oresfall, and he peered out into the incoming violence. He picked at his skin, a loose piece of it hung loose. Once ripped, he threw it to the nearest flame he could find as he entered the street with deluded confidence.
"Flaw is never to be coddled or held. It is to be burnt." He thought. The lightning struck high above, to the very slate sky of Oresfall. Roy prepared for the thunderous assault from high above, without keeping eye upon his sides. Judari placed his foot upon the ground, pressing it down so viciously the rock bent downward like a spring.
Like a beast of the Abyss, Judari hurled himself forward, his fist knotted tight into steel and landing straight upon Roy's upper skull. An explosion of glowing crimson blood spewed out, the bone beneath Judari's fist cracked and snapped.
Roy flew in a blitz toward the wall, his open skull seeping his cursed blood out. The lightning held upon Luscious's blade ripped forward, striking the earth at Judari's feet. Crackling rocks went flying.
"Interrupting my glory match are you!?" Luscious roared, holding his form high above, his sight crashing down upon the slate with blood craze in his eyes. Serrated lighting whipped its trails across the street, Judari winced as his arms were sliced by several of them. Judari set focus on where Roy would've landed, but only a reverse silhouette of warped crimson flowed from the textured wall. A searing pain entered Judari's neck.
"Mute like your God, free of hith you'll be." Roy said, sliding his dagger round Judari's veiny neck. Though before he could fully sheathe the weapon within Judari's neck, Judari grappled upon Roy. His fingers dove deep into the Ashiin's sides, and with his left hand disarmed him with a bone-breaking thrust to his arms. Quickly he launched a powerful kick into Roy's stomach, the Ashiin's foot catching sparks as he flew through the slate. Judari gripped upon the loosely dangling dagger in his neck, taking it out with neigh a wince.
Roy's arm snapped back in place with an erratic twirl, his crimson blood spiraling around and mending itself. A secondary dagger appeared in Roy's left hand, which was quickly passed to his right. A stripe of lightning struck across Roy and Judari's cheeks, both grazed by the immaculate energy.
"This is no spotlight for your radicalism, it is a day for the people of Gaia to gaze upon me!"
Luscious's accentuated lips parted and spoke like two dancers vying for attention. He dashed forward in a thunderous sprint, the suspended chain from Luscious's gilded dagger clashing against itself. The chain wrapped itself around the Vind and Ashiin, being guided by a constant charge of lightning like some limb brought to life, whilst Luscious slid his lithe body under them. They both received smoking chars across their skin, as the Thunder General yanked them across the streets with his surprising strength. Judari in his delirious state was the first to break free of the electric wrapping, slipping out of the chains with help from his oily, newborn skin.
Judari charged, aiming his fist at Luscious's head before using his own. Not long after the chain swung back and whipped across Judari's back, black dotted blood spewing out on the street. But before it could fully reel back to its rightful owner, Judari pinched the chain with a vice grip. Luscious attempted to send another ripple of lightning through it, but was pulled off his feet and taken into the air, as Judari flinged Luscious around like a chained mace, making sure his pretty face met slate and grime. Judari hammered the body of the gold knight directly into Roy, though Luscious in the small time he had, readied his dagger, stabbing it directly into the Ashiin. Luscious sent a powerful shock through Roy and the chain. Judari felt his whole body shake and cook from the inside, though he held on as his scars steamed, pulling upon Luscious once more, and then promptly slamming him into a building nose first. Though he held onto a rim, allowing him some balance. Judari leaped upward, and simply planted his fist within the wall, molding the rock like clay to stay upon the air. From below, Roy had equipped himself with a card-fold of daggers betwixt his fingers, and thus he began throwing them against his kindred targets with aim for vitals and pretty parts.
Luscious kicked the projectiles away with his armored footwear, only dents and chips were of his concern, and of large concern they were to him. Judari however possessed no protection but the same confidence in defense, and attempted to kick away the daggers. Three daggers pierced his left foot, and another dagger cut off his two smallest toes. He thought shortly, that he was glad no other parts were harmed. Luscious took his chain back, and leapt off the building, shooting wires of pure energy to his left and right, the left one nearly piercing Judari.
Luscious hung in the air, with a lust stuck in his grin that only a man of his caliber could muster, one without guilt or shame. From his suspended position, he leaped upon Roy with red lust, swinging wildly like a madman, addicted to sweat and blood.
They swung at each other in an endless quarrel, both wielding steel and power infinitum. It seemed like their character, and image were lost in the violence, more a blur than anything resembling the kindred figure. Judari couldn't deny the draw of battle, and leaped from the building with primitive drool falling from his mouth. One of the daggers that had pierced his foot had been drawn out, and equipped in his hand. In the fall he aimed toward the dueling pair. In the instance Judari landed, the steel of one of Roy's infinitum blades caught him directly in the stomach. He was repelled back with such immense vampiric strength, that when he crashed into a nearby stone wall, he tore a hole directly through it and inside. Dusty and dazed, Judari looked around and noticed there were several refugees of his current battle, hiding here. Luscious and Roy went back upon their efforts, both laughing like some screeching specter. Any rational thought that existed for them before were long gone, and replaced with an unending addiction to the very present itself. Past or future, for them there was only now.
Counter and riposte meet each other. When Roy pulled a new blade from his abyssal cloak, Luscious struck back with his jeweled dagger. Like two souls intertwined with the other, stuck in a perversion of love and affection. Their violent, red threads had been strung for so long, and upon this glorious day, it finally snapped. Finally, Luscious landed a strike in a stroke of pure luck, sending Roy far into the belly of the city.
"Our dance ends here, beast. If you surrender now, I may consider taking you as a personal prisoner of mine." Luscious barked throughout the city. The various folk hiding away in their stone buildings and shelters dared peer their eyes out. Cheers and claps began forming like an orchestra, one Luscious certainly enjoyed. Roy spit upon the ground.
"I win, or I die. Never will I be shackled by your weak chains." Roy lifted himself up with pools of pinkish blood developing beneath him. Luscious smirked, his gold teeth shone bright. Electricity began surging across his armor.
"So be it." One could be mistaken, and see a pair of wings sprouting from Luscious in that moment, made of pure gold energy. But to those with a keen eye, they'd remark the shape to be more akin to a ribcage, cracked apart and split to form the very angelic image; of wings. Roy didn't move, for no matter what, he knew war would follow in the wake of this moment.
From beyond the dusty, ruined bar, stepped Judari, holding in his arms a shaking and terrified woman wearing a soiled apron.
"You move, and she's dead." Judari's eyes pierced into Luscious's cocksure grin. He had placed his hands like so, so that he could snap her neck at any given time. Luscious stood in a stance, ready to launch ahead and truly showcase his glamour in one large spectacle.
"Please Herr Luscious! I don't want to die, I beg of you! My life and family will be in your debt!" The woman screeched with all her lung's might.
"The Abyss Walker is mine, not yours, General." Judari shouted. Luscious didn't bother looking around at the gathering crowds.
"I don't know her, Vind." Luscious locked his eyes upon Roy.
Like a true strike of thunder, blasted across the city street within less than a second, his dagger burrowing deep into Roy's abdomen. Judari could barely comprehend the sight, before his ears were shot deaf. His eyes remained open, and despite the city's cavern ceiling being several tens of meters high, he could see a ribcage-like image painted upon the rock, with lightning. The glow of the attack had yet disappeared, as the light couldn't find room to truly settle.
In the chaos, Judari acted upon his promise, and tore the woman's head off. He could see out into the far off distance where Luscious had pierced Roy's flesh, that a new light had begun forming. The city rumbled, and bells, almost spontaneously, began ringing. Luscious had summoned… something.
"Thou dare pierce mine vessel, scion of the royals." Roy spoke, a bronze light emitting from him. Luscious, felt a nostalgic terror and fear. From Roy's mouth, formed a sword of light and metal, which swung down upon Luscious. Within Judari, primal turmoil stirred, screaming at him to run, and with no means of denying, he did so.
Judari bolted through the street to the exit of the stone city. The parade had long ended, yet fairy-dusted dancers and trumpeters still lingered in the alleys, hiding in fear. None dared give a judgemental stare at Judari, their ocular chains gone and sunken. Additionally, they couldn't bear looking at Luscious, their golden knight. Judari laughed in six long grunts, then stopped. The city lay in charred ruins, the divine match still not having drawn to an end as Judari ran past Askeladd's shrine. Judari's eyes were blank, and collecting dust and debris, not even bothering to glance at his destruction. He was free.
"Come forth, my child. Come forth to perfection."
"Come to me, in the hall. There we shall convene."
"For your bonds… are nearly ready for breaking."