Gracious Hosts and Ancient tales Part 2

Soularous inhaled deeply before he spoke, "Over two thousand years ago, as you recalled, I was summoned frequently those days, may it be to give worshippers power, mages knowledge, or simply someone wanting to praise me. I've had many children with mortals, however many would either live relatively peaceful lives, or simply pass on, nothing too grand. I never took track of them, or their lives, a foolish brat back then. One of my children, the Dark One told me his name was Garith, had lived a life of suffering and pain. He saw him as an opportunity to shape the world to his image, so he and a collection of Gods, powerful entities, and ancient powers transformed Garith into a great being. Now Jynieth, you might have heard of a few of his names, Heartless, the Horned King, the Herald of Ruin, Harbinger of Chaos. He changed his name to Vonakai, separating himself from his old life, and declared war not just on Aeran, but the natural order itself."

Soularous shuddered as he began his tale, "I was summoned by the Dark One to deal with his rebellious creation."

2033 YBTR, current day Orodrim Wastes.

The bright sun beamed down the quiet plains of Orodrim, outside of the mountains that block Zatar. Great dark clouds slowly approached the land, blue lightning crackling, alighting the sky. Soularous kept his sight before him, his hair blowing along the wind. In the distance he could see a large mass, the ground around it a deep red.

As he drew nearer to the mass, he saw it was a massive pile of corpses, the red he saw was their blood that stained the ground.
Sitting on this wicked throne was a being as great as Soularous, his height was nearly the same as the King of Blue, large horns grew upwards from the side of his head. His impressive frame was covered head to toe in black infernal armor, embers floated around him, from the faceless black helm, two flaming eyes peered from the visors. In one of his gauntlets was an ebony blade, red energy pulsing through it.

Soularous gave the man a sheepish smile, "So, you must be Garith." The mighty being didn’t raise his head, as if he didn't hear him. Soularous spoke up, "Hello? I'm talking to you!" Finally, he looked up at Soularous, "Oh, apologies. I thought you were speaking to someone else."

Soularous clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Who else would I be speaking to? Are you not Garith?"

"Not anymore, I go by Vonakai, Heartless, or Horned King, you pick." He sounded disinterested, bored by the presence of Soularous, which annoyed the demon lord.

"Look, whatever you wanna be called, you are causing too much trouble, so either surrender peacefully or this gets messy." Soularous requested Vonakai.

The Horned King chuckled, "Surrender? Yeah, no. I'm not stopping. You, the Gods, and so many others are all the same. You're children with too much power. This world must be fixed, and I intend to do so. So, let's get messy, 'father'." Vonakai sneered at Soularous.

The King in Blue snatched the defiant man by his head and slammed him into the ground, creating a great crater from the impact, he drew his sword and raised it to the sky, bright blue light channeled down to the blade. Once the blade was empowered by his storms, he brought it down upon his target. A great explosion of lightning and fire struck Vonakai, smoke billowing from the larger crater formed.

Soularous rolled his shoulders, "So much of a threat, had a mouth on you." The demon lord noticed something moving in the smoke, he blocked an upcoming attack from the man he blasted. He was knocked back by the blow, he rolled onto his feet. Vonakai exited from the smoke, his armor was blasted apart, however it slowly reformed itself back into place. Soularous noticed the nasty scar in the center of his chest, where his heart would have been.

"So you truly are heartless, I thought it was figurative." Soularous remarked, Vonakai chuckled, "That lightning was powerful, hit a mark did I? You godly beings are nearly all the same. Powerful, yet selfish." He pounced at Soularous, the two entering a clash of blades.

Their steps shattered the ground, their blows sending wind-slicing cuts, and their blades clashing sent shockwaves of force. Soularous was impressed that there was someone who could keep up with his combat prowess. He decided if he was going to defeat his foe, he was going to have to get creative. Summoning forth his storm, he bombarded their combat area with light strikes, absorbing the lightning near him for more power, while blasting Vonakai with the bolts around him.

Once his armor and sword were charged with enough lightning from his bombardment, Soularous knocked Vonakai back. Focusing his will and power, a ball of bright blue light began to form, "Fulmen Deorum!" Soularous boomed aloud as the bright blue ball released a great lighting bolt, bright blue light consumed the land, the entire land trembling in the blast. The plains were torn asunder, the grassy area nearby the bolt was turned into sand, and those closest to the bolt were turned to glass.

Finally, the bolt faded, the light faded which caused the sky to darken for a moment. A massive area before Soularous was now turned to glass and sand from the blast. At the end of the blast area, Vonakai stood, his armor stripped away.
His skin was a light grey, he had the same long snow white hair as Soularous however his was a bit shorter, his eyes were a golden yellow with black darkness where the white would be. His ebony horns pierced through his sea of white.

Soularous was stunned by the fact he was not only intact, but alive from the attack. Purple energy pulsed from his arms, Soularous noticed the purple electricity channeling through his opponent. Soularous spoke in shock, "How are you alive?"
The Horned King smirked at him, "It is my destiny. That is why." He raised one of his hands up, and blasted a beam much like Soularous's attack, however it was purple instead of blue. The demon was forced to use his weapon to slice the attack in half, turning the area around him into sand.

He glanced forward to see Vonakai preparing a spell, he created an orb of golden light into between his hands, Soularous began to charge at him. As he readied to stab his foe, Vonakai boomed aloud, "Regnum Vinculorum!"

The orb of gold exploded, consuming the area in a giant dome of gold. Soularous looked around, confused by the spell, "What?" In his confusion, his enemy smashed his face, sending him back. Soularous fell on his back, he felt the ground shaking around him. He watched as the ground began to crack and separate, entire masses of the landscape began to float up, connected by ebony chains. More chains began to form, connecting all around the golden dome.

The King and Blue got onto his feet, he looked out to see as Vonakai snatched two chains, pulling the masses of landscape down on Soularous. He was slammed into the ground, his storms no longer worked as they could not bombard through the dome. The battle continued, Vonakai using the mirror realm to his advantage, crashing floating islands, throwing Soularous around, and whipping at him with the chains. Soularous blasted islands, dodged chains, and even sent a few blasts at Vonakai.

The battle lasted for hours, neither of the two could get a fatal blow on each other. Soularous attempted to blast Vonakai once again with a blast of lightning, however there was a snap of metal. He turned his head, time seemed to slow down. Soularous watched as two of the black chains flew towards him. It was too late, he couldn't block them as they whipped his face. His bones crumbled, his flesh was torn asunder, his blood gushing out. All he could feel is pain, Vonakai sent hundreds of floating islands down on Soularous as he collapsed to the ground.

He slowly opened his eyes just in time for Vonakai to stab him in his chest, he cried out in pain. The Horned King began to brutally beat down Soularous, the King in Blue could barely fight back, his heartbeat slowed with each passing hit, until it finally stopped. Once his heart had stopped beating, Vonakai ended his assault, he pulled his blade from the demon lord, a gush of blood spilled from his wound.

"So falls the mighty Soularous." The dome shattered as Vonakai ended his spell, the remaining islands crashed down to the ground, the land now reduced to a wasteland. He flicked the blood from his sword, before wiping it clean. His armor slowly reformed around him, "Farewell Father." He spoke without a tint of sorrow. He raised his hand, "Come to me Flazarie!" A great black dragon with wicked horns arrived, raging embers blazing off it. Vonakai hopped onto it's back, taking its reins in his hand, nothing more than chains. "Let's go." The dragon roared in fury as it took to the sky. Leaving Soularous to die, rain began to fall on the wasteland. His eyes blankly stared at the raining sky.

Current Day
Soularous paused for a moment before speaking again, "I'm not sure what happened but someone found me and saved me from death. There was a flash, and I was healed, when I opened my eyes, I was alone. I returned to the Nine to recover. Once I was summoned again, I helped Aeran stop and imprison him. The battle was long and brutal, but in the end we succeeded. That is the tale of the Heartless." Soularous ended the chilling tale, his attention turned to his sister, then Aggie. "That's what happened."