Death comes for us all, but only when I call (Soth)

[Valirion Thorn]

:: I stood in the blood caked floor of the Crimson Pit, dead bodies strewn about the floor, their blood drying with the thousands that had died here. The obsidian columns stood as testaments to the carnage that had been held here. Cracks ran along the columns and bones had actually been indented into the stone. The smell of the place reeked of Hell and gore.
But I could've cared less about that now. The bodies thrown about had been my meal for the night and my practise targets. I focused again, my armor reacting to the use of the darkside and my violet eyes blazed wih fanatical fury as views of godliness flew through my mind. The bodies stirred for a moment. Then one began to stand and then the other. They slumped and they imitated te living about s good as rocks did for trees. One didn't stand up and my anger only increased. My head leaned back in anger and a silent scream of rage escaped my tight lips. A wave of force induced heat and fire blasted from my body, the dry carcasses around me blew apart and their smoldering pieces landed several yards away. I kneeled and my fist sank into the blood encrusted sand. It sank deep and the ground around me blew up as another wave escaped me. My armor silently laughed at me and my sword hissed slightly from within my spine.::

[Lord Soth]

The massive iron wrought gate at the northern end of the Blood Pit groaned and heaved upwards without warning, drawing Valirion's full attention to the source of the sudden clamor some twenty feet from were he knelt. The slow clanking noise of winding chain filled the corridor beyond the arena as numerous shadowy figure's appeared in the mouth of it's entrance.

Pin point's of hot red hue's marked the eye socket's of the undead warrior's that stirred behind the one who was master over them...Their sooty armor and weapon's cast a pale silvery glimmer in the torch light, baring testimony to the countless battle's they had fought at their commander's side. Loyal in life as they were now in death, the unholy legion of the Black Rose stood at the beckoning call of the one who had full and complete control over their vast number's.

As a Death Knight, Soth Nuevole was granted this powerful gift long ago when he was cursed for his sin's against the Order of Light. One of only eight Death Knight's to have ever existed throughout the known galaxies, he alone wielded the vested power over the undead as he did so with the dead. Trapped soul's and spirit's that had committed atrocities and evil's in their life time, ensnared somewhere between life and death and bound to serve the one who knew the mysteries of their agonizing bondage...They were now subject to do the Death Master's bidding as he seen fit! A dark and hideous power that only raised more question's then answer's in the mind's of skeptics alike. Weather or not such a thing was possible at all only lent to disbelief and myth to those who came across it's fabled stories. Nevertheless, the awful stench of death that filled the enormous vaulted chamber convinced Valirion immediately that the tales were more then true.

With a stately stride, the Death Knight slowly made his way into the arena where he came to a halt some ten feet from Valirion. Soth porcelain like face held no expression as he cast a downwards glance at the Sith before him.

"Rise my friend..." Came the Death Knight word's in a firm tone, gesturing for Valirion to stand with his armored hand.

"Come,...Walk with me Valirion. I wish for you to see first hand the magnificence of the Dark-Side it's self. I will teach you what only a few have ever mastered in history..." Soth paused momentarily as Valirion stood to his full height.

"I will show you how to channel the dead as well as the undead...To succeed were you have failed." The Death Knight finished smoothly, his piercing blue eye's narrowing slightly at Valirion as he studied him for a moment.

And with that said, Soth walked past the Sith understudy straight for the southern exit of the Blood Pit, leaving behind him the ghastly retainer's of evil who continued to stand in their vigilant stupor awaiting further instruction's from the one who held the rein's of control over them.

[Valirion Thorn]

:: I stood in a flurry, my blood red cape moving slowly with a wind that didn't exist as my violet eyes solemnly stared at the gaunt faces of the animated boies around him.
My gauntleted fist clenched and unclenched, the silken fibers of the armor slowly flexing with each movement. Where I failed? It was true... I had failed but I needed to learn more, where better than under the dark wig of te Death knight Soth.
My armor threw a fit, flailing spikes and snake like limbs about as he thoughts of once again being teached by Soth traveled the length of it. My sword screamed sharply at the thought of it nd my fangs slowly bit into my lips. The taste of my ow dark blood filled my mouth and closed my eyes as more fanatical vision ofdivinity and pan pased through my mind.::

As you would m'Lord.

:: I walked fluidly, my eight foot height not showing any clumsiness but more like the stalking gait of a panther. The demonic visage of my helmet hissed and then began to move, talking rapidly before returning to its normal state.::

We are glad to be at your service once more Mater Soth...

[Lord Soth]

Through a number of dark secret corridor's and long stretches of seemingly endless hall's, the two Sith finally emerged at a small juncture that led them both out on the southern most part of the Keep. A cold stillness rested over the plain's of Roon. Death and decay seemed to dominate the surrounding landscape for it's own here. The Death Knight paused at the mouth of it's exit, surveying the intended path he was going to take with Valirion.

"Follow me Valirion Thorn,...To a place that is rich in spiritual activity. Tonight will be your first lesson my apprentice..." The Death Knight paused for a brief moment as he slowly turned to face Valirion who now stood at his right.

"I will teach you how to identify their force signature's, to channel their ever wandering essence back to the foul corpses they have left behind,...Back to the land of the living if you will." Soth finished his sentence almost in a whispered tone before he stepped away from the Sith understudy and down a steep embankment towards the "Dead Forest" below them.

The moon over head cast the desolate terrain in errie blue hue's that lent to a melancholy mood as the two being's pressed on through the night towards the Dead Forest a number of miles away. Through thick brier patches and long dead oak's that clawed at the Roon sky line as if in protest to the never ending night cycle that the lower side of Roon's hemisphere was known for.

After what seemed an hour of traveling on foot, the two reached a lage clearing deep within the forest floor. In the center of the clearing was an ancient temple that even predated the Shrine of the Damned. Cascading moon light from above spilled through the entangled canopy revealing the ancient structure in it's entirety, bathing the visible stone work in soft turquoise hue's that gave it a glowing appearance. Thick Marrow-Crest vine's wound their way around the once viewable support columns to it's main entrance, now simi-obscuring the intricate stone tooling and much of the surface of the architecture of this once magnificent building.

"Can you feel them Valirion...They are amongst us." Replied the Death Master with a curtain hollowness in his voice.

"Reach out to them through the Dark-Side...Call to them in the command spell that I have taught you..." Soth eye's narrowed as he spoke to the young Vampyre, his word's were now tipped with an air of authority.

"Then focus on the earthen vessel's they once inhabited. Command them back to do your bidding as their new master in the land of the living..." Soth knew this would take a great deal of effort and concentration on Valirion's part. For this was no ordinary Sith incantation, it was a power that came rarely and only to the gifted...And the accursed...

For the Death Knight it was as easy as breathing air when he himself was alive and mortal. However, Valirion's abilities in this area, even though new and limited to him for the time being where still far more advanced then many of the Vampyre kindred that Soth had come across back at the Shrine.

"Make them your slave's Valirion!...Give them purpose and they will gladly follow you...Even to the depth's of hell. To them, it is a far better lot then roaming pointlessly throughout all eternity." The Death Knight concluded as he gestured smoothly to the open clearing were they existed, but remained unseen.

[Valirion Thorn]

:: My body shuddered as I called on the powers of Sith darkness within me. My newly tapped power had recently been... adjusted by the Goddess Empress Ashiva and the proximity to the evil forces in the forest only boosted my own.
My eyes closed within the helmet, my armor writhed from my shoulders and my sword slithered imbetween my spine. I clenched my armored fist as tendrils and snake like limbs spun from my body. The armor was basking in the power that I was summoning. But I hadn't even released the darkness, only gathered it. My shadow was void black compared to the shades of the forest.
I focused on the souls, the dark ones that Soth claimed wandered about endlessly in a purgatory. I focused on the evil they had wrought in their lives, the sins they had committed to the pathetic light. And they came, I could "hear" them with my eyes closed, I could sense them as I gathered more power, calling their spirited essences to me.
I slowly opened my clenched fists as I searched through the dirt for the bodies of the fallen. I willed my power to push and turn the souls back to their vessels in the physical realm. The trees seemed to move, their dead branches like hands reaching for the souls of those no longer living. I bared my teeth in concentration, my fangs biting deep into my lips as I felt blood running down the inside of my helmet.::

[Lord Soth]

The Death Knight placed his razor sharp talon hand's behind him as the Sith apprentice began to delve into the Dark-Side of the force. An undeniable energy filled the cool night air about the two men, tree's groaned and strained under the fast forming clouds that pressed in. The moon above the forest canopy no longer gave off it's lunar light as the wind rushed over head unannounced. The summons was strong and direct as Soth had hoped for in the young Vampyre...

"Yes,...Command them with the authority you have been granted Valirion. Show them the true hand that guide's their way back to the land of the living!" The Death Knight exclaimed, his voice raising above the brewing storm's tempo. Off in the distance, in the clearing a few yards away from the abandoned ancient temple, soft tendril's of luminescent blues and violet's began to form over the green carpeted clearing. The scintillating color's swirled in a serial dance as their movent became more chaotic with each passing moment.

"Good, good...They heed your call young summoner...They know who call's to them,...Now make them obey!" Soth eye's never blinked as he continued to instruct Valirion.

"Channel them back to their wretched earthen vessel's...Focus in your mind upon their dim light...Show them the dark path in which they must return..." Replied the Death Master as he looked on in anticipation. A wicked smile tugging at the corner's of his mouth and the iris's of his eye's blazed a hot red hue at their emergence.

Within moment's, multiple ghastly like silhouettes formed in what looked to be deathless bodies over the very ground they were buried under. One by one their gaseous form's funneled into the soft moist soil until they vanished from immortal sight...

"Now, command them to come fourth Valirion!...Call them by name as you know them...Remind them of their atrocities and the power that you hold over them!" Snapped Soth, his very word's seemed to carry a lethal edge of steel as he finished.

[Valirion Thorn]

:: The words washed through my mind like a silent stream. A stream of blood now that I registered what he was actually saying. My mind pulled out of the pit of shadows and and my hands hung before me. My claws were stretched apart andmy violet eys opened, the white rims now blood shot with red tears streaming down my face, but my armor licked them up from within my helmet.

A dark spread of shadow seeme to tear from my fingertips, like darkstrings digging into the ground. These strings were naked to the untrained eye but I was sure Soth could see them. Did Soth summon the lost like this lso or was this my method, like calling forth marrionettes? I snarled, the demon faceplate snarling with me and then roaring as the metal sinews tensed and pulled, my will and the dark sith language escaping my lips like a waterfall of black.

My words, like the metal of my armor, tore into the ground, compelling the souls of the eternal vagrants to rise and serve me. To put away their sins and commit anew, I was their puppet master and they would bend to my will, dead or alive! And thy would rise now!

My armored hands rose above my head and the armor split along my back with tendrls and spikes going everywhere. It reveled in the power I was massing and a sharp pitched screech rang through the night as a hand broke the surface and grabbed for a brown tuft of weeds among the trees, grabbing hold and pulling up farther.

A skeletal arm followed and then a steel pauldron. The helmet broke next and then the dead rotten flesh of what might've been human came next. It grimaced, or as much as it could as it's hollow eyes, blank but filled ith the same spark in my eyes, oberved its new birthing place.

But only one string ran to the black heart of this one, I counted twelve more. I laughed, deep yet hysterical laugh that ran like metal as my armor joined, a soft wheezing, like sliced flesh.

The one stepped and then staggered before me as other hands broke the surface. Some men, some women, and some too decayed to tell. continued to laugh as I pulled the strings and they move, all to my will. But I twisted my wrist and the lines were cut, letting their souls take complete control of their bodies.
They examined their hands and one dead women, half her face missing, screamed as well as a zombie could scream. I smiled but then frowned as she began to stumble then fall.

I snarled, my teeth biting my tongue as the string reattached itself. She would like the life she had given or she would suffer more than she already was, meandering purgatory. She stood and moaned slowly. few other gave siilar responses but I would notlet them sleep, they were mine! Iwas the puppet master of Death! They were mine!

Faces across my armor formed and smiled and snarled, mirrors of the forgotten around me. I was weary but my armor was pleased, it would be a thrill to do this again.::

Master... Soth... I hunger for blood... they have none...

[Lord Soth]

Soth's narrowed eye's remained on the dramatic event's that unfolded yard's away from the two. Their ghastly decay form's pressed through the soft soil at Valirion's command...

"Impressive, most impressive. You have now taken your first step into the outer realm my apprentice." The Death Knight replied in an icy tone. Nevertheless, Soth could feel the young fledgling's strength waning...He was weak with hunger.

"Indeed,...We shall feed Valirion Thorn...This night call's for a celebration on the warm blood of the living..." Came Soth's word's in an almost shallow tone. Turned slowly to the towering specimen of a man, the Death Night continued.

"Come, let's make haste...Tonight we ride to Bahamyr...There we will replenish our needs and satisfy the hunger that call's us."

As the two silhouetted figure's emerged from the dense tree line of the "Dead Forest," Valirion could make out a small shuttle craft on a near by hill top that the Death Knight had summoned prior to their exiting the dark woodland's.

[Valirion Thorn]

:: My shoulders shuddered as my powers waned. I snarled as I diconnected the ties that I held to the undead. Some instatly fell apart but those who had more easily came to my call stood where they had awoken, awaiting my order.
I turned facing Soth now and took a step towards him, the sight of the shuttle not too far off, he had said it would lead to food and feasting. Blood... I smiled and my armor shuddered in ecstatic sensation at just the remembrance of bloodlust.::

Haste... yes m'lord. My black heart bleeds wth the gracious time you bestow upon us.

:: It hadn't been my voice, but the armor, once again enamored by the visage of Soth had taken the oppurtunity to speak. I mentally snapped the armor back to it's original composition. I was still hungy, necromancy of the darkside... it stretched me so far.::