Duel Where Owls Know My Name (Nwul & Spectators)

[Corazona von Ascania]

Jedi though she may be, the lowly spectator did not imagine she'd draw direct ire from one of the combatants.

Seconds stretched into what felt like hours when The Butcher King leveled his gaze on her. Fear crept though her muscles like paralysis. She'd heard plenty of stories regarding Darth Carnifex and those who'd crossed paths with him. What he'd done to Vera, his own granddaughter, coiled like a hot serpent of anger and disgust in her stomach.

"You don't belong here. Don't think you're safe."

TBA was right. She didn't belong here. She wasn't safe.

A lot could happen in a millisecond. Air rippled around the dark spear that lanced towards her. The fear and shame that kept Cora rooted to her spot like a dugar in headlights seeped further into her being, into her heart. Into the Force. She grasped it tightly, transforming her terror into a will to live.

As he'd taught her.

She let it heighten her senses and tighten her muscles. Her feet shifted abruptly, pivoting her to the side, nearly stumbling into Malum. Cora's hand reached to brace against his shoulder as the spear embedded itself into one of the pillars behind her, crackling angrily with dark energy. A thin trail of blood dotted along the side of her cheek from where she'd been grazed, a few wisps of blonde hair floated unceremoniously to the marble floor.

Her eyes hadn't left Carnifex's through the motions, holding the hold the Dark Lord's infinite gaze with her own. It wasn't defiance, but it wasn't exactly fear either.

Lips parting, she answered Malum with a rasp:

"They have before. And they will again."

Darth Carnifex Darth Nwul Darth Malum of House Marr Alina Tremiru Stardust Solus Skirae Darth Trakaton

 

[Darth Nwul]

Nwul's crystaline spirit glamed in its freshly reforged glory. The crucible of his spirit had been subjected to a greater crucible, a greater forge, the forge of battle against a dauntless being. One newborn Dark Lord returned the grin of a Mighty and Seasoned Dark Lord. His molten gold eyes twinkling with barely contained delight. He felt everything with so much more clarity and intensity now. It was euphoric. He was both sane and utterly cracked with madness. It was the most freeing feeling he'd ever experienced. One he could not even begin to describe. His chest heaved at the same time as his hands went completely still, he bore his teeth widely at Carnifex as the other man angled his blade towards him.

HIs head tilted to the right a little, curious as to what the man was getting at.

Then there was a sudden shift in attention, if it hadn't been for the quantum-like processing power of his brain as a result of his connection to the Jensaa, he would have never even been able to notice it, let alone react. But for Nwul, the moment was almost in slow motion. He realized what the man was doing as he felt his intent crash upwards towards Cora. Cora. Cora who had been his love, his attachment, and also... his student. He had awakened within her the ability to draw on her emotions, to pull on the dark. It was a mighty power, yet, and she had not fully embraced her feelings and the dark side, but it would be sufficient.

Besides. He trusted her.

As the blade of impercievable energy lanced out from within his cloak, the moment, Nwul dropped into the reflective ground beneath him as if a trap door had opened, only a ripple left behind as if water had been disturbed on the glossy icy surface. When he rose back up, behind Carnifex, his eyes wide with delight, his smile cracking his face, his hand was already extended. White flames danced around his fingertips, Consume Knowledge, the brutal technique that was the very core and foundation of everything he was. It was how he had destroyed specters. Consumed minds. Ate memories. And gained the wisdom that he had so far. It was a pain unlike any other one could experience, and now that he had advanced, it was far worse. White glowing fingers grasped at the back of Carnifex' head.

He said nothing, gave no warning, offered no reservation in his actions, Carnifex had chosen to attack his attachment. That was what a Sith should do. But a true sith was powerful enough to protect their attachments or wise enough to make sure they could protect themselves. Certainly, his beloved Cora was being used as a distraction now, and he'd probably have to answer for that, a bit. But he wouldn't have acted without absolute faith. It was funny, though, to think the little Jedi would have given him an opening. He had no compunctions about killing the Dark Lord with the torturous power. But delivering even a grazing wound to the man's mind, stealing even a tiny bit of knowledge...

...that would be enough.

Darth Carnifex Corazona von Ascania Darth Malum of House Marr Alina Tremiru Stardust Solus Skirae Darth Trakaton

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Good," crooned the Dark Lord in a long raspy whisper, "Very good. That's what I like to see."

The 'Jedi' had called upon the darkness to save her own life, the imperceivable spear slamming into the wall at her back with only a shallow trench carved into the side of her face to show for it. Their eyes never wavered from one another, dark staring into light, and light staring into dark. He could see why Nwul had kept this one around, she had potential that went further than those of her former contemporaries. A name wafted to the forefront of His mind, Corazona von Ascania, along with the reports He'd read of her husband's death by her hands, and how she had been whisked away from Ukatis in the company of Jedi. There was more there, the Dark Lord was certain of it, and endeavored to pry more deeply into the local affairs of Ukatis.

But that would come later, His mind was drawn back to the conflict at hand. Nwul had slipped beneath the shimmering reflective surface at their feet, and disappeared from view. When He next arose, it came from behind the Dark Lord. They shot their hand out, wreathed in white flame, towards the back of the Dark Lord's head. A shadowy hand drew forth from the Dark Lord's back to catch the hand by the wrist before it made contact, but the tips of Nwul's fingers briefly brushed against the Dark Lord's skin before it could be stopped.

The effect was immediate, a pallor of utter darkness falling over Nwul's mind as he became witness to a sliver of the Dark Lord's mind. Time was forfeit, and there was no light to be found. There wasn't even a floor, a void without fixture, and horrible wracking pain. Agony without form, disembodied suffering. Endless, mind-shattering pain, as though their very spirit were alight. Through it, shapes became visible. An endless blood-drenched sky, though it was not truly a sky, more like an inversion of the ground below. Black rock twisted into unnatural shapes, deformed structures disassembling and reassembled endlessly. Faces floated in front of Nwul's vision, faces he did not recognize but whose identity would be conveyed through the memory he was experiencing.​

​

Mother.​

​

Father.​

​

The pain intensified, beyond description, greater than anything that could ever be inflicted in the world of the living. It threatened to overwhelm, to shred his mind, but as quickly as the vision came it dissipated like fog. Nwul would have no context for the vision, but would know that what he saw was a vision of the Netherworld of the Force. Specifically, the endless torment of Chaos, where the souls of those enriched by the Dark Side were discarded. This must have been the Dark Lord's first brush with death, more than fifty years ago, and the unbelievable torment He endured.​

Snapping back to the moment, the shadowy hand wrapped around Nwul's wrist tightened and began to push it away from the Dark Lord's body. More shadows emerged, taking on form and substance, as a woman's face began to peer back out through the shadowy mass. Two eyes appeared, blazing bright as shining amethyst, and a wicked smile stretched unnaturally wide across what passed for the shadow's face. "Now, now, young Lord. My precious does not like to be mishandled so vulgarly, you should know this." The woman's voice was like knives scraping against bone, each syllable eliciting pain from any who heard it. She then tried to shove Nwul back with tremendous strength, to put some distance between him and Carnifex.

Carnifex pivoted to face Nwul again, the shadowy lady now draped across His shoulders like a shroud, her smile never wavering. She was His shadow, His constant companion, and she had been waiting oh so patiently for the duration of the fight to be called upon. For thousands of years she had existed prior to becoming His shadow, but through the Dark Lord she had escaped certain annihilation, though she understood that she was but a facsimile of the ancient being she had once been.

"Be wary of where you dig, Nwul of the Sith, you might regret what you unearth."

Darth Nwul | Corazona von Ascania | Darth Malum of House Marr
Stardust Solus Skirae | Alina Tremiru | Darth Trakaton ​

 

[Darth Nwul]

The information was ripped from neural synapses. It was a different way of tasting the mind from the psionics and mental powers of other ways of wielding the force. Perhaps that was why, unknowingly, Nwul had bypassed a protection he hadn't even been aware of. The scent of ozone danced in the air for a heartbeat as his fingers slowed to a stop. His eyes going wide with surprise and curiosity. What was this new defense? This new layer of protection that the Dark Lord had. How fun! How many new things he had learned. There was no ceasing the number of tricks and traps that a Dark Lord like Carnifex created for himself. Nwul would have to do the same, it would seem.

Yes. He'd master this strange mirror world he'd discovered, he'd create protections and defenses and weapons and toys and tools. He would become a beast just like the man before him. The man who he had fought to a standstill.

A standstill was enough.

Nwul was satisfied-

Then the vision came. Normally his consumption of knowledge was gradual, but perhaps it was the nature of an Epicanthix that his powers would react differently. Perhaps it was the grazing touch rather than the full contact. Regardless, the sparks of flame would leave burns and scarring most likely, the scent of ozone carrying as the smallest injury would, depending on the man's constitution, be delivered to a spot on his brain. That scent of ozone and visceral satisfaction was blasted away by the ruthless images that assailed him. A memory made vivid by a malinteraction of traits and power. Nwul's body went rigid, his fingers twitching, his molten eyes fixed on somewhere far away. Incomprehensible distant pain became mind shattering, his hive mind buckled for a moment under the sudden shock, his chest hollowing out as a breath of horror was wrenched from him.

A place, it was a place, so horrible and so beautiful at the same time. There were no words. Nwul's fingers twitched again as he consumed the memory, trying to understand what he was seeing. What Carnifex had experienced. Then lukewarm water began to rush through his veins. Not lukewarm. Searing hot and cold as a dead moon, tears of golden ichor blossomed in Nwul's eyes that dripped down, sizzling on the ground. He gasped, his force wound widening like a gaping maw in is chest, a black hole forming around his heart. It howled at him, screamed, its biting noise ripped at his psyche warning him away from what he was seeing. He bit back at it. It was his, he was not the slave, the wounds strange power obeyed him. That unknowable leviathan trapped within a star was nothing more than a memory.

That place, that horrible place, he knew it even if he'd never been. Was it because of the knowledge he'd torn from Carnifex? Yes, but more than that, it was as if the wound had informed him of its nature in a way that a simple memory could not begin to compare. He wrenched his hand free from the hand that grasped him, clasping his hand to his head and staggering back with the sudden force wedged against him by the shadowy woman. He gasped, golden tears pouring down his face and dripping onto the icy ground where they hissed a terrible squealing sound. Like molten metal against ice.

"Chaos," Nwul gasped, "You..."

He chuckled. Then giggled. Then burst into uproarious laughter. His chest rising and falling hard as he bellowed out mad amusment. His wound in the force did not change in shape again, it did not shrink, but it's presence seemed to fall back as if startled by him. The golden eye looming above them shrank as well before falling shut. The glossy ice around them began to melt and dissolve, turning into a fine black mist that hung on the ground around their feet. He kept laughing, finally his hands falling to his sides, revealing the hairline crack along the side of his head. It looked like golden crystals hidden beneath his skin. A scar left behind by the memory he had taken from an incompatible host, a horrible, untouchable memory. But one that was now his.

"I know it now," Nwul said hollowly, staring off into space for a moment as his laughter stopped. "As if I'd endured it..."

He turned his golden gaze back to Carnifex and his shadowy protector. "Have my passions reached you, Dark Lord of Domination?" Nwul asked, ready to draw on the crystalized passion within him if he had to, but he knew that his ascension had taken it's toll. He would have to rest before he could face someone like Carnifex again. And to beat him? He still had a long way to go. Even so. He knew he could hold his own now, that was enough. That had to be enough. Until he was stronger, until he'd passed through those selfsame fires. Until he could move from looking him in the eye to looking the Emperor in the eye. He wasn't ready, not by a long shot.

All that was left of this terrible test, this trial by torment, was those words in return.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"If the truth is frightening, Lord Malum, I would advise you find some courage. I've lost a leg to Lord Carnifex's tests." It was a little frustrating to hear that Malum had somehow escaped bodily harm even after actively going against the Sith Lord. though, perhaps it was that bit of courage that had him spared the razors edge. And Alina's own heightened recovery rate. Alina didn't move as she watched the spear launch. No, she was distracted by her thoughts.

And the hateful glare that had formed on her face at the mere mention of Alisteri. Her killer. Her betrayer. Her.. The thoughts weren't there. Something was missing, she could see that now. She frowned shortly after, but took a breath before glancing towards the Jedi. The scent of the Dark clung heavily around her now. Suspicion, then another, deeper frown. Malum's question had hung in the air between the attack.

But the girl's answer only brought a laugh.

"They won't. Not if they're anything like you, Padawan."

Her eyes drifted back to the battle, and for the briefest moment the undead woman felt a chill. Chaos. The word alone brought back the memories of the endless void she'd been left to rot away inside upon her own death. Whatever Nwul had done, did he truly think he understood it?

No. No he was cackling like a madman. She grimaced.

"I think he's broken now."

Corazona von Ascania | Darth Malum of House Marr

 

[Darth Malum of House Marr]

Damnation.

He found his eyes burning the colour as the emotions he felt, as within his hand his lightsaber was suddenly found, unactivated.

His other hand was found curled around the waist of the Jedi, as she almost fell on top of him, bracing as her hand suddenly pushed on his shoulder. If only he had been faster, he might have noticed the darkspear. He might have deflected it with his blade. He might have pooled the Force around his other hand and flicked it away with all the force which was required to parry a strike from a former Sith Emperor.

Instead, he had found himself distracted, both by the Jedi who so intrigued him, and the vampire which he... would not call a friend, but would not have called a foe either.

Trusting that some vague sense of honour might have prevailed over the duelling warriors, that honour might have chided Darth Carnifex to act within the bounds of temerity and politeness.

More the fool he was.

He felt his grip tighten, as he glared down upon the offending giant of a man. There was no thought, no calculus, no sense of self-preservation, when the darkness took root within him. He felt it haunt deep within his core, within his heart, and the whole of his form. He shook with unadulterated rage, his body simultaneously shouting at itself demanding separate causes. One, to calm oneself, whether Carnifex broke the rules of honour, did not warrant action for himself, at the moment, the unpopular choice.

The other choice was far more tempting, and so utterly convincing.

The darkness pooled behind him, as madness took form in his eyes. A spear of midnight black, the twin of that which dared try to attack the Jedi under his protection, pointed directly at the one who fired the offending projectile.

It would be so easy.

He might have failed to fell the Twice Emperor with Ali at his side, yet had he not grown stronger since that day on the Malsheem? He was a knight, not a simple apprentice. Hadn't Darth Nwul , softened him up, now the executioner, the assassin, could deliver the finishing blow.

It was as the peripherals of his vision saw the golden locks upon the floor of the balcony, that such considerations seized, as quickly as they came. Turning away from the duel below, the madness running free, he loosened the grip he held upon Corazona von Ascania , as he looked her over, apart from some stray locks, apart from a shallow cut upon her cheek, apart from the understandable shock of the attack, she seemed fine.

The spear which he had summoned, unceremoniously fizzled, and soon disappeared from existence, as his lightsaber returned to his side. His amulet having grown as hot and temeritous as he had been, was quickly found around his fingers, as was its purpose, his emotions as heady as they were, were swallowed, and as he released a breath, the anger, the rage, the fire, burned away from his form.

He found the cloak in his fingers next, dabbing the cut on her face, as gently as he could manage. It was likely the only blood which he would find on his form tonight, unfortunately.

Her words, defiant in the face of fear, were enough to bring out a quiet chuckle from him, "Then they are clearly individuals to meet," It was the strangest thing, that she so wholeheartedly believed her words, even in the face of what was only a few seconds ago, certainly her oncoming death. So what was it? Delusion? Arrogance? The truth?

The last of all did not bode well for them.

"I did warn you, that some of us would not hesitate to try to strike down a Jedi," He whispered, using the excuse of cleaning her would to lean in closer, "Still, you have my apologies." His eyes glimmered, between those emotions he felt just a short while ago, yet mixed in with others, regret... and something quite indescribable, curiosity? A sudden realisation.

A hint of darkness seemed to swell out of her. Had she... truly dodged the spear?

What he did know was, that he needed to find a way to convince the girl to leave this world. Whether Nwul would protect her or not, was now irrelevant. the ma-, the creature, could not be everywhere, nor especially, could h-, could Nwul, be with her constantly. She was in constant danger.

And for some reason, some damnable reason, he could himself caring.

It was the end of Alina Tremiru 's words which brought him out of his thoughts, enough for him to return to the duel below.

"Nw- Darth Nwul has made a good showing, he should have no regrets," Malum had the vaguest sense, that his new friend knew not the meaning of being broken.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Good," crooned the Dark Lord in a long raspy whisper, "Very good. That's what I like to see."

The hardness in her eyes only lasted a few seconds more. Clarity brought shock, and a deeply unsettling roll of her stomach at having earned the momentary approval of Darth Carnifex . Of all the ways to betray Master Valery Noble and her Jedi training…

Cora's hand twitched, aching to summon the light. Then it stilled.

Darth Malum of House Marr ‘s ire did not escape her notice; nor was she unable to ignore the hand he'd curled around her waist to keep her steady.

"Ah…"

Her face flushed nearly as deeply as the crimson specks he dabbed at with his cloak. She ignored the condescending words from both him and Alina Tremiru ; she'd grown used to being looked down upon, and that was fine. This was their domain, and she wouldn't test fate with her pride.

"You're not the only one who has warned me." She murmured, shifting her attention back to Darth Nwul as he absorbed a snippet of the Dark Lord's memories. He'd trusted her to defend herself, creating an opening for him to attack. Her eyes narrowed just a tic, unsure of how to feel. Peril at the behest of powerful men had been the tune she'd lived her life by.

Clearing her throat, Cora worked herself free of Malum's hold and took a step to the side. She found his concern curious, figuring it had to do more with his noble sensibilities than anything else.

"This reminds me of home." A glance to the pale woman, the Malum, then resting on the Lords below. "Only with more…grandeur."

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The shadow smiled and chortled, "The golden prince bit off a little more than he could stomach, my precious. He better watch himself, lest he choke on the next mouthful." Then the shadow slipped back into Carnifex, the shadow beneath His feet now lengthening to it's proper dimensions. All that remained was the woman's echoing laughter and Nwul's maddening cackle. Ananta would remain hidden until she was called for once again, the Dark Lord's autonomous protector.

Carnifex turned Derriphan down and leveraged the broken blade against the stone floor, leaning His weight upon the hilt as He looked directly at Nwul. "Consider the memory a gift, Nwul of the Sith, a taste of what those who suffer ultimate defeat must endure. Keep it in the back of your mind as you continue down this path towards Empyrean's throne, for he will assuredly not extend the same mercy and restraint as I have. He is a wild animal, bound together only by incredible willpower. The face you will see will not be his true face, that lurks within, threatening to escape." Carnifex then straightened, and Derriphan vanished in a flash of green flame.

"I believe I have seen all that I need to see. Anymore would be self-indulgent, and that's a sin that no Sith should truly embrace." Carnifex then turned His back to Nwul, a dangerous gesture that could invite peril. But it must have spoke to the immense confidence that Carnifex possessed that He would so willingly avert His eyes from what was up to this moment a viciously determined adversary. "I have no designs for Empyrean's throne, whoever sits upon it means little. But, heed what I have told you should you continue on this crusade. In your haste to right the wrongs of the Order, you may yet unveil a greater threat that will consume you and the Order in it's entirety."

Space began to crackle and distort before the Dark Lord, perception bending like folded paper. But, before Carnifex passed through and left Nwul and his entourage behind, the Dark Lord spared the man one final glance.

"Beware the Worm."

And then He was gone.

Darth Nwul | Corazona von Ascania | Alina Tremiru
Darth Malum of House Marr | Stardust Solus Skirae | Darth Trakaton ​