The Darkness Consuming

[Stÿx]

The crowd spread out before the stage whispered and chatted amongst themselves, not sure what to expect of this day. They made glances at the dark stage, empty braziers lining either side. Equipment had been set up there, yet there was neither players nor singers for the band that was attending it today. On the outskirts of Radasanth, this concert stage had been set up and excited rumors had passed around. Some band dubbed the “Black Legion” was playing here tonight, with the lead singer supposedly having such an amazing voice that even the animals stopped to listen. A few people began to walk away, heading towards the makeshift stable that had been set up across the back to hold the vast multitude of horses. Just as the crowd began to break up, a loud drumbeat sounded a dead silence.

Another beat, then the slow roar of a drum solo. While nobody had been looking, four silhouettes had climbed the stage and stood now in the darkness. Four braziers around the drum set flooded to life simultaneously as another loud base beat echoed out. Sitting there, a black hooded figure held two matt black drumsticks. The man followed into his solo, the precision and rhythm attracting a few of those that had begun to leave. They were interested now, but not impressed yet.

A screech sliced the air next, not a screech for a human, but from some sort of guitar that the people had never heard before. Four more braziers breathed flames revealing another robed and hooded figure wielding a pitch-black guitar. However, fountains of mana flowed from the center of it, and large boxes on either side of him echoed out a metallic and strange sound, that was somehow pleasing. The figure followed the drummer into a introduction, a repetitive playing that drew up all the anxiety and impatience of the crowd, letting them know there was something more to come.

Words burst from all around, large crystals growing in color to come alive, a blood red light spilling from them. They surrounded the area and amplified the speaker’s voice tenfold. Though the speaker did not explode into visibility, the people felt his words. The words were sung, with a type of singing they had never heard before. Low, yet eerily chilling and magnificent, a quality the townspeople never expected.

”Into the darkness…”

A base guitar joined the music, its player following suit with uniform and appearance. Finally, the fourth instrumental player revealed himself as an enormous black matted orchestral piano flared into sight as it began playing. The pianist was soloing at first, the other players dropping their instruments to a very low roar. Then, as the player burst into the song, the last member of the band revealed himself, leaping to the front of the stage. With him, the last of the braziers burst upwards and this man was in white instead of the casual black. With a thorn design in many places in his clothes, some people didn’t wonder why he called himself Styx. The man was reminiscent of death itself. Adorning his face was a headset that ended in a crystal that hovered near his mouth. The crystal pulsated with blood red energy, and was probably the link between his voice and the other Echo Crystals.

”Into the Darkness of this day,
We will rock the night away!”

The introduction made, he began into a dark song that brought people in. All those that could hear from the outskirts began riding out, and the original crowd had soon multiplied to twice its size. People had been chatting endlessly of the “Black Legion” on the streets the day before, and most knew that there was some strange foreign band coming to play here. Many had ignored it, but couldn’t ignore that there was an enormous amount of foreign tourists in town, simply to attend the concert.

The “Black Legion” had played in most of the other large cities, including Alerar, and was attracting a following. People said that the lead singer, Styx, was trying to find someone, to get their attention. Others believed that he held the free-entry concerts just for fun, that he was some noble aristocrat that had talent and didn’t care about money.

Everyone had their opinion and none could ever ask, for after his performances the entire band crew seemed to disappear into the night. The same night that was reveled in their morbid symphonies.

Mallory, if you can hear me, these songs are for you. Where are you?

Styx prayed his love hadn’t forgotten him. He knew not how long he had been gone, but always prayed to the Thaynes that he still looked; that love didn’t die.

[Automatic Acrimony]

A placid chill spread over the city like a whore past her prime, freeing a wide variety of cutthroats and lunatics from the bonds of daytime shadows. All the rapists, all the muggers, all the killers; it must have been a playground for them tonight, with so many youths twisting through the labyrinth of back alleys blissfully unaware of the dangers they held. That was the natural way of things though; survival of the fittest and Riptide didn’t feel sorry for those too weak to aptly defend themselves. Such pathetic links in the evolutionary chain had little to offer the world anyway. Still, right now, that philosophy didn’t prevent the Soul Breaker’s thoughts from wanting to help the shrieking man pinned against the wall up ahead by two men twice his size whilst a third rooted around in his pockets for-

“Is ‘at it?” Cried the smallest of the three thieves. “Is ‘at all you got?”

“Yes…” The victim muttered breathlessly, with resignation and it occurred to Riptide that it was highly likely the little group had roughed him up before bothering to search for money.

To help or not to help? It was a difficult decision for Riptide. The very idea of helping someone as powerless as that caused his stomach to contract with disgust and yet, if he did aid the young man, he’d be able to tell Lycus something that he might like to hear as opposed to yet another guilty confession. Riptide the Soul Breaker, saviour of the weak? Yeah, his lover would love to hear something like that and the pleasant warmth Riptide felt in his chest through a soul link once thought broken made the engúrel seriously consider moving forward but in his heart, Rip knew that he could never betray himself like that. Not even for Lycus.

“Well, well, well,” the Soul Breaker had to stifle a cackle at the irony; he’d finally been spotted. Apparently, the Thayne wanted him to do something about these fools after all. “Look what Ah’ve found, lads.”

The burly men pressing the victim to the wall moved away and the young man slumped to his knees in obvious pain. He met Riptide’s gaze for a split second and then staggered haphazardly away as fast as his beaten legs could carry him. The engúrel snorted, that was exactly why you didn’t help the weak; they couldn’t do a damned thing to help you.

Steadily, the muggers advanced and in a decision most would consider stupid, Riptide stood his ground. Only the weak ran from challenges like this. Well, the weak and Lycus, who Riptide knew had the power of a god yet for some reason he didn’t like to use it.

“I don’t want to kill today.” For Lycus. “Move.”

Riptide’s tone was vicious, each syllable growled rather than spoken but despite its venom, his opponents didn’t budge. They were all bigger than he was after all, all probably stronger and Riptide moved his hand behind his back, fingers spayed wide.

Finally one of them spoke: “Alright.”

Inwardly, Riptide smiled but when he moved forward, not one of them shifted out of his way. Warning sirens blasted in his mind, the scream of a dead girl echoing alongside them as he tore her soul to shreds; the pieces shifting, invisible and ready to take solid form at the tips of his fingers. He held back, and instead, chose to glare at the man – the liar – that had told him he could go.

“I was being sarcastic.”

“Oh.” It would probably help to know what sarcasm was then.

“What’s-“ The massive man mountain to his right lunged then, cutting Riptide off but the Soul Breaker had been ready for combat the instant he’d seen them and within the span of a split millisecond, the man was dead at his feet, a glowing shard of dead girl lodged in his throat. The others fled and Riptide allowed himself a small grin; he’d only had to kill one after all and that wasn’t too bad, he supposed, though he had hoped he wouldn’t have to take any lives. Not today.

Several times, Riptide had to remind himself that even Lycus would have to admit that the death was unavoidable before he came close to believing it yet even if it wasn’t, even if he’d just taken out the man’s legs, surely Lycus would prefer it was Riptide that survived and not some burly slum-rat mugger. Riptide glared at the corpse for making him doubt himself and casually, he reached for the original victim’s wallet, still clutched in the dead man’s hands.

Waste not.

Pushing his hair out of his vision, Riptide continued down the alleys until they widened into a larger main street the Soul Breaker found himself amongst a small crowd, heading out of the city and into a field which was emitting a strange, red glow. That must be the place then, the place where the band, ‘Styx and the Black Legion’ were playing and though he knew that it was only an outside chance that the group was connected to Lycus, Riptide knew in his heart that they were.

Nothing could have prepared Riptide the Soul Breaker for the reality of a rock concert though. He’d never, ever heard such sounds before, the shrieking of some lightning-charged guitar was, well, it was painful and certainly not what he was expecting. Riptide winced and brought his hands to his temples for a moment and then he heard it, a voice that he could recall with such clarity that to hear it now, for real was nothing short of unfathomable. Riptide’s eyes snapped upwards to the stage and there, stood in the centre was his soul mate. His very dead soul mate but the link he felt now, the reawakened strength of it, that couldn’t lie.

Shamelessly, Riptide stared.

[Stÿx]

Mallory!

Without even needing to search the crowd, Lycus instantly tore his eyes away from their seductive gaze that had settled upon his fan girls. With a flourish movement meant to appear as if he was doing something intentionally, Styx settled his eyes on his love, his soul mate, his eternal. The emotional link between them flared into life as it had been dead since he returned. The amount of time he had been gone was impossible to determine, for he knew nothing of dates before dieing, and didn’t bother to check on them now. However, he did know that it had almost been a month of concerts before this moment, which he was losing hope in, occurred.

Unable to leave the stage at that second, Styx reluctantly turned his gaze away from Mal and grinned at the fan girl closest to him. They were a following, though he didn’t admit to either liking or condoning it. A quirk furrowed in his mind whenever he saw that two girls, one Dark Elf and the other an Elf, were arm-in-arm sighing at him. Was it that they were so completely consumed by his image that they didn’t even give a passing thought to whom they were grappling, or did he effect these people in such a way that they simply didn’t care? Ignorance or tolerance, sometimes it was impossible to determine the difference between the two.

Finally, after a torturous two minutes, the song came to the end, and he decided to end the concert there. Some of his showings had dragged out until down, all of them starting at exactly midnight. The twelve beats of the nearest clock tower was deftly mimicked by his skilled drummer, who blasted out the beats until the last faded, which marked the beginning of both his first song, and the concert. The end of the concert was more dramatic, and it was thanks to the sound mages he had employed as his band members that such a feat was possible. Styx reached both arms out, each hand pointing at one of the massive Echo Crystal columns on the side of the stages. With a slow and deliberate motion that drew up the drama, he swung his arms around, encompassing each of the crystals and the entire audience. Staring outwards into space, as if he was concentrating, he began humming. Most didn’t understand or even care to comprehend the purpose of his sound, but Lycus was actually using the Echo Crystals to drone out the low chanting that spilled from the lips of the band members. When his arms clapped together, his timing was perfect, and the spell was done. The last word was his.

“Cha.”

Lycus’s grin broadened endlessly, and he slammed one fist into the stage, the echo blasting out across the crowd. The people barely even noticed that, for as he moved each of the crystals began to collect a fierce amount of blood red energy, glowing until they reached the threshold that forced the audience to lower their gazes. The second passed, and they lowered intensity for a moment, bringing gazes back into focus for the finale.

”Boom…”

And boom indeed; Each of the crystals exploded outwards, an amazing show of light, fire, and energy sweeping across the sky and crowd. In truth, it was simply an illusion displayed to cover up the fact that each was teleported to a caravan hidden behind the stage. The ‘oooh’ and ‘awww’s brought a smile to Styx’s face, as he stood in the dim light and wandered intentionally into the pitch darkness of backstage. The louder, more complaining ‘awww’ of his fans was the last he heard before he leaped from the stage and broke into a run.

Styx knew that Mallory could feel him. Across the thin link that was still rejuvenating from its temporary absence, the singer sent a purposefully sharp warmth of love, beckoning him to follow. After a moment, he ended up in a hidden place in the forest that few knew about, and even less could fathom existed. A small grove surrounded by trees that had somehow grown so close together their bark fused as they aged. An almost full circle, impassable without ingenious maneuvers, and surrounded by dense vegetation so that it was almost hidden. Leaping to a high branch, Lycus stepped between the familiar gap in the trees, but didn’t leap down yet. To mark this spot, he reached out and then opened his eyes to a new realm of vision.

Lycus’s luck was good today, for a stray spirit lingered nearby, having either not moved or, or simply visiting. With a proverbial tap on the shoulder, he sent a few commands across the link and watched to make sure it obeyed. The thing sensed his connections, and probably didn’t want to risk the whole eternal entrapment part of the deal. With a nod, the spirit of the old man hovered over the entrance, intentionally sending his spiritual energy out thickly, bringing himself to the edge of vision. Mal would see such a display instantly, and with the warm connection, know its meaning.

An entrance to the secret spot.

Styx was in for a surprise yet though. As he leaped down, a small voice called out to him, bending his imagination beyond its extreme to fathom anyone knowing such information, especially so young.

“Hello, Lycus.”

[Letho]

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