"HISSSSS!"
With a flare of its hood, a black mist began to spill from the scales of the serpent. As the mist spread across the field, all life around them seemed to extinguish. Whether it was the grass, trees, or even the ground itself, they began to turn black and decay as the toxic miasma siphoned their very essence.
The horns on its crown began to bubble and fester like sores as they burst open to reveal red barbs that gleamed with a sinister light. The sclera of its eyes turned to a deep black as the red of its pupils became even more pronounced—like freshly spilt blood. Its body began to stretch and expand, growing even larger than before.
Watching the transformation of the beast before him, Ardamesh slowly lowered his raised arms and tilted his head to stare at the serpent with a blank expression. Just as the serpent raised its head to roar at the heavens, it was met with the impassive gaze of the creature opposing it.
Before it could even register what was happening, Ardamesh tapped a single finger toward the space between them. As if touching the surface of a pool of water, ripples cascaded through the void and the serpent stilled with its mouth agape.
Within milliseconds, its entire body cracked as blood erupted from its wounds.
"GRAORRRRR!"
"There, now you are acting much more like the filthy beast you are."
The wounds that now littered the serpent's body were so thin you wouldn't even know they were there were it not for the deluge of black blood coating its now-falling scales.
Admiring his handiwork, Ardamesh gazed down at his finger to see it crumble to dust and scatter into the ether.
"This body is still too weak. Just a little bit of force and it begins falling apart. Vairon, you truly do not deserve to exist in the same body as myself."
With a sharp dig at the defenseless Vairon, he once again focused his sights on the beast writhing beneath him.
"Still… for this worm to only have flesh wounds is quite curious. But I shall not complain—it is not every day you find a toy as sturdy as this one. Yes indeed, this will be glorious!"
As an excited smile once more graced his peerless face, he took a step before coming to a halt.
Spurt. Cough.
Ardamesh vomited a mouthful of blood as his body swayed dangerously.
"Dammit, this body is not yet ready to contain the energy of our Incarnate. I do not have much time before it completely breaks down."
Analyzing the state of his body, Ardamesh clicked his tongue in rage and frustration. Listening to the pained hissing of his opponent seemed to bring his mind some peace as he steadied himself once more and straightened his back.
"Since we are on a time limit, let us enjoy this moment as long as fate allows."
Crossing his arms before his chest, the nine golden rifts behind him faded out of existence before being replaced by a mass of rifts that seemed to blot out the skies. Seemingly feeling an existential crisis hovering above it, the serpent snapped out of its pained tantrum and turned its furious gaze toward the numerous golden lights obscuring the sky above it.
"Vairon—let me show you the true meaning of our Incarnate. The significance of being war's Champion. War's glory!"
And what a glorious sight it was. Golden stars seemed to light up the sky in a shower of holy doom. The serpent coiled its body and the black miasma that surrounded it quickly formed a barrier around its body. Perhaps due to the interruption of its transformation, the miasma barrier barely lasted half an incense stick before spears and swords of purest gold began to break through it.
As they planted themselves around the beast, their golden hue began to darken as they revealed their true rusted, brittle forms. As more and more waves of targeted destruction compounded on the serpent, it began to suffer deeper injuries as the rusted weapons embedded themselves within its flesh.
"HISSSS!"
"Every war carries the hopes and ambitions of its participants. These soldiers in turn carry the wishes and dreams of those they defend, as well as the fear and hatred of those they seek to subjugate.
Lives are lost. Hopes shattered. Ambitions flayed till there is nothing but the truth of war—strength and power. Those who live on carry with them the faith and wishes of those who fall. They live on, maybe moving from battlefield to battlefield, war to war. Or maybe they cower and let the weakness in their hearts fester and rot until they can no longer truly hold a weapon.
These are the outcomes of war, Vairon, that much is true. But they are not the only truths. Your ignorance blinds you. While you praise the soldiers who emerge victorious and scorn those that cower, you fail to see what is left behind on those battlefields."
As Ardamesh continued to speak to himself, the serpent beneath him finally began to counterattack, launching a storm of black qi like daggers toward the weapons falling upon it. Steadily gaining ground as it struggled to lift its bowed head.
"The scattered flags and banners. The weapons rusted from dusted blood and sweat. Those are the true treasures of war. They are the true remembrance of the glory that war hath wrought. They carry the blood, the hope, and the wills of all those who wielded them and fell. They carried the key to their survival and journeyed with them to their ends. They are the true tombstones of warriors—the last and only witnesses to the truest essence of man and life before it is extinguished.
They are the makers and the arbiters of our glorious end. Even I have accepted this truth—that on my journey of conquest, my weapon too could lie among some forgotten field. But you deny this. You run from it, hiding behind your stories and tea like a coward. Trying with all your might to DENY WHAT WE ARE!"
As Ardamesh's words swelled with passion, his eyes began to shine as the gem on his brow spilled light in all directions. Veins appeared on his forehead and blood dripped from his nose as his body began to shake.
As if in tune with his emotions, the weapons began to ring as if singing of past glories. The rifts began to merge together as a single colossal rift formed above him.
"...But you cannot deny this. You cannot run from it. We are the herald of war's stories. The vessel of its glory. And the keeper of its graves."
The massive rift began to quiver as a weapon of immense size emerged from its depths—a war halberd that, unlike the other weapons that littered the ruptured earth below, looked weathered and old but seemed to carry an ancient weight that pressed down on the world.
Sensing the scent of death hanging over its very being, the serpent roared before expanding its body to a massive size, towering like a three-story building. Gathering the full might of its Peak Early-Stage Soul Expansion cultivation, it began to gather a sinister dark qi from its beast core into its mouth—preparing to unleash a beam of unholy destruction.
Watching the worm beneath him challenge him once again, Ardamesh remained calm and impassive, with his arms still crossed before him as if none of this had anything to do with him, before a smirk appeared once more on his lips.
"When the world stills, truth shines through the frost—Incarnate: Frost Clarity."
An explosion of qi erupted from the forgotten Kaelira, now standing on her feet as her silver hair turned into a sparkling white, her eyes carrying an unending winter within them as the battlefield transformed into a domain of ice in seconds.
The serpent's eyes, once glued to the hateful figure above it, swiveled to the weak female it had entirely ignored. Its eyes widened—but it was too late. Its body became encased in frost that seemed to chill and burn its very soul, steam rising from its frozen body as it remained in the same stance, mouth agape.
As her white hair began to shift back to its lustrous silver, Kaelira's forehead dripped with sweat. A trickle of blood escaped her lips as tears of blood streaked down her weary face.
"There you go, stone-face. Finish the bastard so we can get the hell out of this nightmare. I need a goddamn nap."
Shifting his gaze to the woman hanging on by just a thread, a flicker of emotion crossed his eyes—but it wasn't the same arrogance or pride that seemed to ooze from his being. These emotions were... contemplative.
With a grin that held a myriad of meanings, he unfurled his arms and raised one toward the rift above him before letting out a maniacal laugh.
"Vairon, this crazy woman—she's a keeper. You fuck this up, and I'll skewer you in places even our mother would flinch at."
With a downward motion, the massive halberd fell from the sky like a meteor, piercing right through the open maw of the beast below, cutting off its mortal coil and extinguishing its soul.
As he floated above the fresh corpse, he gazed into its frozen eyes to capture its fear and despair for all eternity and flashed a bloody smile—before vomiting liters of blood and collapsing toward the ground.
"Now that… that was the look I was waiting for. I leave our survival to you, my other half. When next we meet… I hope… yo-... ac-... m-…"
As Ardamesh's voice and presence faded, Vairon was pushed back into control of his body. But before he could make sense of what was happening, a wave of unbearable pain struck every nerve in his body—and his eyes went black.