Vlindrel:The Black Knight

Day 4, Unknown Time
Bastion of the Negative Sun

Kaali: How close are we? **As they've been quickly moving through the strange garden she's been looking around and up at the strange globe above them. Obviously worried that the Black Knight is closing in.**

Barlowe: Not far now. **He turns around one of the strange stone buildings.** The exit is just ahead- There! **He points to a the lonely door, still left slightly ajar after he and Loki passed through it.**

Kaali: **She starts moving faster, breaking into a sprint that ends abruptly as the sounds of the cathedral's bell tolls once more in the distance. The ringing echoes through the garden and out into the huge city built into the basin of the crater, distorting into a resonating hum as it bounces between the walls and tall structures. She moves to run for the door, but stops as a black prominence of light loops out from the small sun above.** He's here! **She looks around, drawing her sword.**

**The prominence of black plasma quickly folds back into the strange, causing it to crackle with a loud "pop" that resounds through the city, drowning out the bell. The sun then shines a dim white spotlight down and a tall knight, taller than Kaali, stomps loudly into view, carrying a greathammer with a spiked mace at the top in his right hand, its handle longer than he is tall, and a large black teardrop shaped shield in the other. From head to toe, the knight is clad in a black suit of plated armor, and behind him drags a long blue cape. The knight's equipment, both armor and weaponry, shimmers with a trembling black and white darkness.**

Barlowe: **He readies his hands, rings of emerald light dancing about his wrists and fingers.** I would suppose that talking this knight down is out of the question...

Kaali: He speaks only in the language that we are well-versed. **She reaches for her shield, before remembering it was destroyed moments ago, then looks to the Black Knight.** Combat.

Black Knight: **He suddenly sprints at them with an uncanny speed despite his heavy armor and equipment. A shroud of shimmering darkness wreaths around him, it looks exactly the same as the energy that wrapped around Kaali earlier when she fought Barlowe.**

Barlowe: **His old grey eyes turn stern and he speaks in a bold tone.** I know this technique!- **The emerald rings around his hands suddenly burst with green light as he pulls his hands upwards, and a wall of black granite rises up in front of him.**

Black Knight: **He raises his shield and slams into the stone wall, destroying it utterly on impact and sending the chunks of it flying towards Barlowe.**

Barlowe: **Surprised by the Knight's charge being powerful enough to shatter solid stone, he raises his hands in a blocking motion, and the rocks flying at him crash into an invisible barrier of terramancy. He closes his palms into tight fists and the chunks form into a single large sphere of stone and quickly leans forwards and punches with both fists in a heavy and strong motion that belies his advanced age. The stone sphere blasts forwards like a canon ball towards the knight.**

Black Knight: **He shoulders forwards and slams his shield into the oncoming rock. With a crashing gong of metal the rock explodes and the turns and swings his huge mace at around, the spines cutting black trails through the air as it rings around to slam into Barlowe's head.**

Barlowe: **A pillar of stone bursts up from the ground and collides with the head of the mace, sending it bouncing just over Barlowe's head. He then turns and and sweeps both hands forwards and the pillar rips off its base and crashes into the knight full force, but doesn't knock him back, instead wrapping around him.**

Black Knight: **There's a rumbling boom as a beam of darkness streaks down from the black sun above and into the Black Knight. The rock around him explodes off and then evaporates into black and white energy as he launches himself at Barlowe with a powerful leap. The top of his mace turns completely black, with shimmering white pinpoints of light inside as he slams it down onto Barlowe with his landing.**

Barlowe: **He conjures up another pillar of granite, then quickly transmutes it into diamond just as it rises up and slams into the head of the Knight's mace to block it. The imperfect diamond cracks on impact, but stops the Knight's attack, and Barlowe jumps backwards a few feet before letting out a grizzled yell from deep in his throat, and the fractured diamond rushes forwards and tears into the Black Knight, the ten-thousand razor-sharp fragments singing a high-pitched chorus of tones as they cut through the air and slice apart his armor in a crystalline hail. Barlowe gasps and breaths heavily, the spell taking a great deal of his strength, even in this astral form.**

Black Knight: **He stumbles backwards a few feet, dropping his mace as the shards rip apart the blue cloth about his armor, and tear down his cloak to tatters. He lets out a deep groan from within his armor.**

Kaali: Why are you fighting him?! **She's standing a few feet from the black door.** You cannot bear a Sovereign Knight under the Negative Sun! **As if on cue, the Black Knight wraps himself in a shimmering darkness and dashes forwards, slamming his shield into Barlowe and launching the old wizard backwards a good twenty feet with the collision.**

Barlowe: **As the Knight rushes him he casts a spell that infuses his body with green light. The knight slams into him dead on and sends him flying through the air and then tumbling over the ground. Even with an infusion of Iron Fortitude to make his body as durable as iron itself, the impact trauma brutally harms him, and he lets out a hacking cough and wheeze as he struggles to catch his breath and stand up.**

**As Barlowe gets to his feet the Black Knight has already turned on Kaali, apparently not only reaching her, but somehow blocking her escape through the door. He's drawn a long sword, and the two of them are fighting in a flourish of swings, clashing booms of black and white energy bursting from their weapons as they hit. It's obvious that Kaali is quickly losing the fight as she struggles to maintain her ground and is forced to deflect the Black Knight's strikes, which are so powerful that she can barely deflect them from slicing her in two.**

Barlowe: **As he stands upright to his feet fully, he holds his hands out to his sides, his fingers shaking as he struggles to maintain the physical presence of his astral body.** Jeh tah... **Magma suddenly wraps around his neck and then pours down behind him in a sheet to form a long fiery cape of molten rock.** En-VOHK! **A large stone slab appears over the ground in front of him, and a ring of molten glyphs burn into it.** TzTok... JAD! **The slab shakes as glowing red cracks fan outwards from the center of it before it suddenly explodes, a huge crimson beast covered in dark red horns roaring loudly as it rises from the summoning circle. It stands nearly forty feet tall, and stands on all fours. Smoke rises from it as its body is so heated that the very air that touches it seems to burn to grey smoke.**

Black Knight: **He slams Kaali away with his shield, sending her tumbling backwards, and then turns to look at the huge creature. He quickly leaps to his huge mace and pulls it from it the ground, heaving it up onto his shoulder as he turns to look at the beast. His whole body shimmers with dark energy that has a white rim, a great corona of power that matches the Negative Sun above.**

Barlowe: **His eyes burn with a burning orange light that matches the great beast he's summoned, and he breaths heavily as his cloak of liquid flames pours down behind him. He takes a deep breath, as a calm passes over the battlefield, the burning beast and the knight staring one another down. He suddenly breaks the silence with a summoner's command.** Deh-Tuiweer! Jad!

**The beast roars and stands up on its hind legs, then opens it great maw to release a torrent of flames and a huge half-molten boulder of primordial rock bursts from deep within its mouth. The boulder arcs through the air towards the knight, bouncing heavily across the ground as it quickly closes the gap.**

Barlowe: **Purple geometric shapes descend around him to form a cube. As they fade out he's gone.**

Black Knight: **He lets out a courageous warcry and launches himself forwards, slamming his greatshield into the boulder. Fire, lava, and ash wreath his form, all of them immediately consumed for the corona of black light that surrounds him, and he leaps upwards a good forty feet into the air, slamming his great black mace up into the underside of the creature's chin, an explosion of glistening darkness blasting outwards in every direction as the strike connects, hitting the huge burning beast with enough strength and force to lift the entire thing fifteen feet from the ground before sending it falling back to earth with a loud crash.**

Barlowe: **He grabs Kaali's arm as she watches the Black Knight fight his summoned beast, pulling her towards the door, breaking into a run as he pulls her through it and slams it closed behind him. As the are once again encompassed in the dark of the Pyxis he looks to her, his eyes still burning bright.** Have you your faculties -Are you at all harmed? **In the darkness his burning cloak is like a bright backdrop that almost makes it look like he's been lit on fire.**

Kaali: **She looks to Barlowe.** I've my mind and have been issued only light wounds. **She looks about herself, a few cuts on her arms and one across her forehead, all shallow wounds that are hardly even bleeding. She looks back to the door.** We must hurry. The Black Knight may follow us into the dark.

Barlowe: **He turns and flings out his hand, snapping his fingers. A short trail of tiny blue paw-prints light up, Loki's prints from when he lead Barlowe, leading from the base of the door to about ten feet away before fading.** Come now, we must make haste to where we were... **He starts to move as quickly as he can, but can't run as his strength seems to be failing, the fight having taken a great deal out of him.**

Kaali: **She keeps pace with him, walking beside him as the move through the dark.** What sort of sorcerer issues spells of stone and dirt in his spells?

Barlowe: **He's silent for a moment, the only sounds he makes being heavy breathing, footsteps, and the pops and crackles of his cloak as they walk through the dark, following Loki's paw prints. When he speaks he ignores her question, his tone obviously angry.** We sought you out to help us escape from this place, yet all that's happened is that I must fight you, then fight the one that guarded you. Who are you? Why were you imprisoned? What was that place beyond the portal? Who was that Black Knight that barred our escape?

Kaali: **She looks away, her eyes darting back and forth for a moment as she listens to his onslaught of questions.** As I said before, I am Kaalianore, Chasm Knight of Loyce. I was imprisoned by my fellow Knights for seeking the Eochair, a pollaxe capable of opening any door, both physical and meta-physical. With it could've escaped this blackened abyss, but that was seen as treason, so I was detained. The place beyond the portal is the Bastion of the Negative Sun, and the staging base for the Chasm Knights of Loyce, of which few remain due to their long vigil... The Black Knight is the Sovereign Knight of the Negative Sun, he is tasked in watching over the Bastion, and through him flows the Sun's divine power... That is why he cannot be bested while under its dull rays...

Barlowe: **He thinks for a moment, keep his eyes cast down to the glowing little pawprints.** ...This Eochair... You said it is a pollaxe... Capable of opening any door? ...How do you know of such a thing?

Kaali: When the company of Chasm Knights were sent into the Pyxis, they were gifted three pollaxes, known as the Eochair. These weapons were forged with divine power of Loyce, and with them the Knights would be capable of opening the way back home once their task was complete... But the Pyxis is unkind, and their task proved insurmountable, even for them... The Chasm Knights were meant to be a phalanx that would hold back the dark of the Pyxis, but even their steadfast wills buckled, and the majority of them have been consumed by it. Every generation, more and more Knights were corrupted by dark, driven to madness, or were simply lost, until only a handful remain... **She looks out into the dark.** I seek to escape this place once and for all, and to that end I spent years searching for the location of an Eochair.

Barlowe: So you know of this weapon's location then? **He looks from the tail of prints to the blue knight.**

Kaali: Sir Torien held the last known Eochair, but he never returned from his last assignment. I found the quartermaster's log and its detailing of where he was sent, and I memorized it. I can lead you to his last known location.

Barlowe: **He looks to her.** ...I would be in err if I didn't point out the implausibility that Sir Torien may not be where he was sent... Which is why he never returned. What if, like you, he returned home and abandoned the knights in his company?

Kaali: **She pauses in thought for a moment.** I wasn't imprisoned just because I sought to return home, I was imprisoned because the Chasm Knights have failed, and to return would be to admit that failure before the Monarch Suns. To maintain vigil for eternity, until the task they were ordered was complete... That is the way of a Knight of Loyce. **She looks to Barlowe.** Sir Torien did *not* return home. Of that much I am certain.

Barlowe: **He looks over at Kaali and raises a bushy eyebrow, his fiery eyes still burning bright.** Then you set yourself apart from the knights in your company?

Kaali: ...So it would be apparent... **She looks ahead, large rolling hills of rubble and debris lit by the roaming behemoths in the distance.** ...I've given myself a mission... To seek Loyce and demand audience. To speak a piece about the fate of my people. My parents, and their parents- All the mothers and fathers before them- Left to rot in the dark at the order of someone we've never known. Such a lot in life is not a life... And it drives me to anger... To desire recompense... But mostly for explanation. **She looks to Barlowe.** Why banish a legion of your greatest knights to wallow in blackness for all eternity?

Barlowe: A curious question indeed... **He looks to the large rumbling creatures.** By my surmise, we are halfway to where we need be. **He tries walking faster.** Beyond these mounds of rubbish does the path cut through a great empty dark, and then to the sanctuary of light we arrived here in. **As his step quickens, his burning cape suddenly sputters to cinders, and then with a dull "whoosh", it vanishes entirely. The fire in his eyes also vanishing. He slows to a stop and puts his hands to the collar of his robe, feeling that the fire cape has gone.**

Kaali: What's the matter? Has your sorcery run its course? **She looks out into the dark.**

Barlowe: **He looks back behind him.** No... It means that the creature I summoned has been obliterated... **He begins walking again, moving more quickly now that the cloak has dissipated and lightened his step.** It would seem that your Sovereign Knight is indeed an insurmountable opponent... For no adversary of a lower caliber would be capable of destroying TzTok-Jad... Are you certain that he will follow us here?

Kaali: I cannot say for sure, but it is better to expect hardship, than to be caught ill-prepared. **She quickens her step, running slightly ahead of Barlowe.**

**Some time later...**

Tate: **He's leaning back against the pedestal, a few cups of water still remaining in the basin. Loki has been running around the edge of the darkness, anxious to see Barlowe return.** I'm sure he's fine. **He rolls his eyes and looks up above, the floating candles swaying through the air above him.**

**Loud yelps and cries suddenly echo from the darkness.**

Tate: **He sits up and looks in the direction.** Something out there? **Loki's ears at perked up and he's standing up on his hind legs, looking out into the dark. He sniffs a few times and looks around.**

**There's a loud boom, accompanied by a flash of emerald light a short ways out into the dark.**

Tate: That's Barlowe's magic! **He stands up and looks to Barlowe's physical body, still laying there against the pedestal, asleep, then back out into the dark.**

**After a moment Barlowe's eyes open and be coughs and wheezes several times.**

Barlowe: I've run dry of mana, I couldn't maintain my astral form any longer.

Tate: What happened!? **He runs up to Barlowe, Loki is still looking out into the dark.**

Barlowe: **He struggles to sit up, remembering the frailty of his real body.** The Knight we sought is out there, in the dark. I was beset by powerful opponents, and I'm afraid that it required me to expend a great deal of mana, as we neared this sanctuary the anti-men from earlier surrounded us, more than was previously here- **He coughs loudly, a hacking cough, and then weezes deeply, struggling to breath. The excitement of the day has taken a dire toll on him.**

Tate: Yeah, a shit load of them showed up after you guys left. **He turns and looks out in the dark. As he does there's a faint glimmer of steel, and one of the skinwalker's beastly arms flies into the blue-ish candlelight, immediately bursting into flames as it sails over Tate's head.** Is that the Knight? **Loki lets out a growling sound.**

Barlowe: We were still a good fifty paces out when my form failed. **He takes a deep breath, trying to clear his throat.** But a knight of Loyce should be capable of taking down a few anti-men. **He lets out another hacking cough and wipes his frayed sleeve across his mouth.**

Kaali: **Her voice rings out, loud and bold.** You've the fighting constitution of the beasts you've lain with! **One of the hyena-creature's heads suddenly bounces off the ground and rolls into the light. Tate can vaguely see her running into view, her silvery armor reflecting the blue candlelight.** A fate most earned!- **They see her shortsword suddenly glow with strange darkness, and it extends to a long fine blade of trembling white and black light as she holds it at the ready, slowly pacing around towards the safezone.** ...Come forth cowardous beast-man...

**The largest of the pack of skinwalkers lets out a cackling roar and powerfully leaps at the Chasm Knight, barring fangs and claws alike.**

Kaali: **She steps back and spins, arcing her tenebrous greatsword through the air to cut a spinning arc that divides the huge skinwalker inhalf. A wave of black and white power radiates forth and slams into the others than hung back, knocking them backwards. She turns and sprints for the light, and as she reaches it she slides to a stop, spinning and holding her blade at the ready as she looks out into the dark.**

Barlowe: **He weezes and then coughs.** Lady Kaali... You've made it, as a Knight of Loyce should be able to.

Tate: **He just stares at her a moment, taking a note that, despite her cuts and dirtied face, she's very pretty. He raises an eyebrow at her height, she's a lot taller than him even though she's a she.** You're a knight of Loyce?

Kaali: **After a moment, seeing that she's scared the skinwalkers off, she turns and sheaths her blade, looking to Tate, then to Barlowe.** Am I acquainted with you two? **She narrows her blue eyes as she looks to the small young man and the cripple old man.**

Barlowe: I am Barlowe... **He coughs lightly.** I'm sure my physical body is quite underwhelming, and not at all expected.

Kaali: **She looks at him strangely.** You are the powerful sorcerer that freed and lead me here? **She looks back into the darkness for a moment, before looking back to Barlowe.** You are right, your true form is quite underwhelming...

Barlowe: **He shakes his head and coughs several times.** What you saw before was an astral facimilie of my physical body. However my power has run dry, and it couldn't be maintained any longer.

Kaali: I see. **She seems disappointing, looking to Tate.** I am Kaalianore, Chasm Knight of Loyce.

Tate: Name's Tate. **He shrugs a little.** Tate Lawless.

Kaali: Lawless? Did you gain this title because you too are disruptive of your kingdom's laws? **She seems confused.**

Tate: ...What? No that's just my last name... **He looks to Barlowe and raises an eyebrow at him.**

Barlowe: **He puts a trembling hand to his face and pushes a few strands of grey-white hair from his eyes.** Kaali knows of a tool that will free us from this place.

Tate: Awesome. **He smirks and looks to her.**

Kaali: **She keeps looking Barlowe over.** Are you able to travel?

Barlowe: I will need time to rest, to restore my power. Then I can travel forth in my astral form and we can find the Eochair.

Kaali: **She turns and looks out into the dark.** So be it then. I will remain vigilant for the Sovereign Knight... Should he pursue us, there is no doubt that he will find this place... **Her eyes glint in the dark, and Barlowe can see a strange quality about her. Unlike the two of them, the dark only has emboldened her resolve, or perhaps it's just her freedom...**