Crassius

Crassius is one of the members of the Reformed Black Wings, and a lifebender, with the ability to conjure skeletal spawns, bones, as well as the absorption of life energy, and other such powers. At the Temple of Time, Crassius is defeated by Minku, but is later brought back to pristine state as part of the plan set in motion by Acnologia. Then, Crassius, realizing he is being used, betrays Acnologia after he uses an energy gain to empower only himself.

## History

### Reformed Black Wings (? AG - 585 AG)

The lifebender, possessing a specialized bending unique to himself, joined Acnologia's organization, named the Reformed Black Wings, at an unknown point in time. Crassius worked with Acnologia, apparently being an integral part of some of his scheme. He loyally and faithfully served his master along with his other allies for years.

When Acnologia was ready to expose himself fully to the world, in public, with his organization, all six members of the Reformed Black Wings accompanied him to Inferno City. Farys, another one of the members, utilizing the powers of quakes, caused the volcanic city to erupt, completely incinerating the entire settlement and attracting the attention of the World Leaders, including the Fire Lord and Avatar, the former being beyond enraged because of the desolation of his home. Crassius and the other members introduced themselves, before taking off with Acnologia to the Temple of Time, where they fought against its Keeper.

Ossus, the Temple Keeper, put up quite a resistance when the Reformed Black Wings attempted to desecrate the Temple, intending to use it to fulfill their malicious deeds. The engagement ended when Orys, the spacebender, used his powers to teleport Crassius behind Ossus. The lifebender plunged his hand into Ossus's back, implanting a radiant mint green energy into his adversary, causing Ossus to drop to the ground, barely alive. Acnologia then commanded his organization to finish off the World Leaders, triggering a brawl between each of the leaders and Black Wings. All entered in action with one of the other six present.

#### Downfall

Unfortunately for Crassius, his opponent turned out to be rather powerful, being Minku, the Air Elder. Some banter occurred between the two, with Crassius stating that Minku would have to find a new home after his was gone. He instigated combat by knocking Minku to the ground, causing the airbender's attack to miss. A horde of skeletons was sent to maul Minku, who created waves of wind to crumble the bones. From a portal, Crassius summoned a skeletal incarnation of the Earth Guardian, a massive two headed dragon. Quickly, Minku acted and targeted Crassius instead, loosening his hold on the dragon. With a last blast of air, the dragon fell to the ground, smashing to pieces upon impact on the grass.

Spear-shaped bones jutted from the ground to pierce Minku's body, but the Air Elder dodged the attack, provoking Crassius to wield his spirit manifestation. Minku, in turn, did the same, with both manifestations clashing. This lasted a very short time, as Minku left his spirit and leaped over, shoving a cold blade into Crassius's back. Crassius attempted to heal himself, but to no avail; he was defeated, and slumped to the ground, unconscious.

#### Rebirth and Redemption

True to the plan Acnologia had in mind, the Dragon King used the power of the gem of life to revive Crassius, as well as Torrence (A plantbender), restoring them to full condition. Together with Torrence, on Acnologia's command, he brought the world tree, which had fallen over in Ranmaru's battle with Harlock, to its former glory, until Acnologia caused it to expand and grow even further using the rest of the gem of life's power. Satisfied, Acnologia sent many vines from the tree to the world below, siphoning the power of the world's benders into it, giving the stolen power to Acnologia himself. The King of the Dragons transferred the energy into each of the gems, merging them all into a single stone named the seal stone.

Acnologia brought the seal stone to the central statue, freeing Rhinne, the Goddess of Time. He demanded that the Goddess to his bidding, to which she refused, bombarding him with a series of blasts from her magical staff, interrupted by the appearance of Krom, who aided Acnologia and corrupted the Goddess by slamming a hand into her back. Although the Goddess was corrupted, she still remained hostile toward Acnologia, who drew a slight of power from her and escaped with Krom to an alternate future.

Torrence and Crassius could only watch in awe and shock as onlookers, unable to comprehend what had occurred, or what parts of Acnologia's plan they had not been told in full. They thought about how none of their other allies were brought back, and how they were used, compelling them to join the Avatar's cause after Kane, the Chief of the Earth Kingdom military, requested their help in taking down their former master. The Goddess disappeared, and both former Wings traveled to the future with their new, albeit temporary allies.

Entering the future, they were introduced to a corrupted, ruined world, beginning with the wrecked Temple of Time, depicting all six of the Reformed Black Wings upon the six statues at the original Temple. The group encountered Ossus, who had recovered from unconsciousness to warn and aid them in this dire circumstance. Ossus willingly transferred the entire league to the city of Union Hold, which was also in ruins, finding the waiting Acnologia, who immediately reproached Crassius and Torrence, calling them traitors. Crassius retorted, saying that Acnologia never believed in them and only wanted them for his own selfish goals. Acnologia admitted to this, and released a shockwave of energy which sent them to the ground, saying that this was now his world.

All of the world leaders began the fray, most directing their attention toward Krom with the exception of Minku, who was involved in both the battle against Acnologia, and the assembly against Krom, Kane, and the Avatar, the latter two being solely devoted to Acnologia. Crassius spawned many skeletal creatures, which were instantly crushed by Krom's darkness. As the other world leaders joined in, Crassius aspired to drain the life force of Krom by creating a channel between the two, but to no avail; To his horror, the dark energy slowly seeped through him, nearly corrupting his body until he stopped. In conjunction with Oberyn's slash of flames, Crassius unleashed an energy blast in the direction of Krom, causing the shadow beast to be flung across the city, crashing into a number of houses.

He watched Oberyn and Minku work together on an assault to Krom, with Minku creating a twister which Oberyn ignited. The combination of wind augmenting the flames, and the flames setting fire to the wood in the tornado caused great damage to Krom. Crassius made an attempt to create a skeletal version of his opponent, but to no avail as it turned to dust. More attacks bombarded Krom from the allied leaders, with Crassius adding into the unrelenting assault on Krom, who was perceived as more of a threat due to the corruption of the Goddess, and the past experience the world had with the shadowbender, by crafting bone chains, which were rapidly crushed.

Finally, Crassius and the other world leaders all unleashed powerful blasts to finish off Krom, who could not stand the combined strength of all of them. The spirit of Rhinne emerged from his corpse, thanking them for their hard-earned victory and for freeing her. The Goddess granted each of them a blessing so that they would have the strength to defeat Acnologia.

They squared off against Acnologia, aiding the Avatar, who was rapidly sent flying into the wreckage of Union Hold's castle, leaving the rest of the World Leaders to fend off against him. Torrence held Acnologia down with vines as Oberyn shoved a fiery spear into Acnologia's stomach, burning away his entrails. This caused Acnologia to enter his spirit manifestation, calling upon its power and forming the gigantic being around him. Acnologia brought his gigantic foot down on Oberyn, after the Avatar watched what was happening, and slammed down, killing the Fire Lord.

Crassius helped to divert his energy to the Avatar, empowering him for the one-on-one duel between him and Acnologia, both combatants preparing. The Avatar released his spirit manifestation and ferociously went at Acnologia, while the World Leaders watched the display of power. Houses were lifted into the air and thrown, attacks of all elements were launched and deflected, and punches and blows were exchanged, eventually resulting in the shattering of both manifestations. Acnologia attempted to crush the Avatar with Union Hold's castle, gaining little success. The Avatar readied to end the battle with a final blow to Acnologia, a huge spear of condensed flame burning with great intensity and augmented by wind. The Dragon King, now in his dragon form, unleashed a purple, blue, and red beam of power which collided with the fire in the air.

Thankfully, Crassius watched as his former master's beam was vaporized by the flames, and Acnologia was impaled, causing his head to explode. The Avatar cleared away the remnants of Acnologia's body in the hopes that he would never be resurrected again. The future began to fall apart, and Ossus transported Crassius and the others back to the present, where disaster was occurring due to the Goddess's antics.

#### Duel with a Deity

Nothing could prevent the World Leaders from seeing that the Avatar was obviously in a weakened state, after the intense battle with Acnologia. This was quickly put to remedy by Ossus, who transported the Avatar and his allies to a lone area where the dwelling of a past Avatar was built upon. Confused, Crassius was one of the onlookers as the Avatar encountered a past version of himself, who taught the Avatar that he must embrace darkness, or the other side of him, placing shadows inside of his body and explaining Equilibrium.

Shocked, the World Leaders were again transported to the present, this time to the Thunder Empire capital, Stormfall, which was now in ruins in almost the same fashion as the future Union Hold, minus the ground being a charred black stone. The Goddess waited for the leaders, now ready to fight, already enraging Ranmaru because of the destruction she caused. To "even the playing field", Rhinne corrupted Ossus, who began to wildly assault his former allies. Kane, Minku, Aurick, and the Avatar jumped in to oppose Rhinne, while everyone else, including Crassius, held out against the corrupted Temple Keeper.

Realizing that not much was working against the unfaltering Ossus, Crassius formed skeletal hands from the ground to grab the Keeper, assisted by Torrence's vines. However, Ossus used his transportation and Time Keeper abilities to switch places with Torrence, just as Raiko, the metalbending President of the United Republic, charged for Ossus with an electrically-charged steel blade. Torrence was impaled due to being held down, and lightning was released into his body, totally frying it to the point where Crassius failed to heal it.

Purified by Ranmaru, Ossus came back to find Torrence on the floor with Crassius and the others at his side, dead. Meanwhile, as they gathered around Torrence's body, Rhinne continued against the other World Leaders, enduring a Tempest-lava combo from Kane and Minku, resulting in the latter's death.

Blasts rained from the sky and sent everyone sprawling, hitting them head on. Everyone joined in and attacked Rhinne, with Crassius making skeletal hands to hold her down as the others battered the Goddess.