<span style="text-decoration: underline">Do Not Presume To Command Me.</span>intoned the Crimson King, leveling his blade again at the Destroyer. His duplicates continued to war against the dead, but the Maw-rider was wholly focused on the Reaper.<span style="text-decoration: underline">I Am No Mere <span style="font-style: italic">God,</span> To Bow To The Whim Of The Exalted.</span><br/><br/>The deluge of ichor, pus and gore that the Reapers sought to drown the world in turned against them in that moment. The liquid darkened and hissed as it gained a semblance of life, swelling and coagulating to form five gelatinous, green-black tentacles up to fifteen yards long. These lashed themselves around the Destroyer, dragging the Soulsteel construct to the ground with an ominous groan of protest. The Maw which The Crimson King rode surged forward, bucking it's passenger towards the Reaper's back.<br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline">Cosmic Power Flows Through Me, Yearning To Build Worlds And Tear Them Asunder. I Am That I Am, And All That Is Bows Before Me Or Sickens And Dies. In My Left Hand Is Cold Fire. With My Right, I Raise Monoliths To My Glory And Crush My Enemies. Upon Me Rests The Crown Of The Universe.</span>The scissor blade bit into the plating around the Reaper's eye, anchoring The King. The Reality-Raking Claws of his left hand suddenly grew dark, the emptiness filling with what appeared to be a Smashfist wrought of a black hole.<br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline">And Do You Know What Else?</span>The fist drove into the Reaper's plating, digging into the seams as easily as squeezing putty. Ichor-Flux tendrils struggled to keep the Reaper prone, their poisonous acidic sheen gnawing at Soulsteel hide.<br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline">I Am So Fucking Metal My Name Is A Power Chord.</span>With a swift wrenching motion the plate tore free, and The King blinked back to his Maw. This time the great Wurm coiled as if to drive itself at their foe, it's passenger kneeling to grip it's ridge for balance. A trumpeting call pealed out as to mark it's charge, ushering in a new tune that throbbed from the Crimson King into the bones of the world.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">The time has come and so have I<br/>I'll laugh last cause you came to die<br/>The damage done~the pain subsides <br/>And I can see the fear clear when I look in your eye. </span><br/><br/>The Maw reached the Reaper unhindered, it's bulk slamming into the larger metal foe like a ton of bricks. The King, However, whipped away at the last minute. He reappeared beside Anderson, blade and gauntlet pulsating angrily. Overhead a shot rang out, and a scream unlike any the living had ever endured shredded the air. Ferrous ichor bled from a new gaping wound on the Maw's crown, and it collapsed into a ridge of sivelr-sand dunes.<br/><br/>While the dead had learned that to flee was as good as to fall, their numbers were still thinning. The Thousand Mirror Legion stood beside Alliance Marines, mowing down Husk after Husk after Cannibal. The tide was slowing. The Reapers were learning, holding some of their forces back. But now new shadows darkened the field; black animas boiling with the sins of the past. The dead drew back from them, shying away in fear and reverence. Abyssals.<br/><br/>Familiar faces led this new contingent; a woman wearing a bird mask, another armored in ribs and wielding a massive Daiklave, and a man armored from head to toe in featureless armor. Beside them walked a woman clad only in her luscious black hair and twin skulls held aloft on scanty chains, and a man who filled the british big-game hunter stereotype to a T. The Hunter waved jovially, reloading his sniper rifle. As he spoke, his thick, well-trimmed mustache wiggled and cavorted atop his lip.<br/><br/>"I say, excellent dodge sir!" His gaze suddenly went steely, black fire flickering to life in the muzzle of his rifle. "Sorry to break it to you though, but I always get my man. Say good b-"<br/><br/>Black Hole Sun sprinted forward before the new Abyssal could speak, racing forward with an animalistic roar towards his old opponent. Esone-Who-Was answered in kind, darting across the separating distance with Daiklave drawn back and Smashfist raised to strike.<br/><br/>"That's not the plan, you wanker!" The Hunter yelled, sounding aghast. "Where's you sense of fair play?"<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">I never kneel and I'll never rest<br/>You can tear the heart from my chest<br/>I'll make you see what I do best, <br/>I'll succeed as you breathe your very last breath.</span><br/><br/>Day and Scourge met with a peal of thunder, Smashfist and Daiklave hammering home against a strangely crafted weapon. The thing Sun supported one handed resembled a grenade launcher, but along the back end had been mounted a curving blade. It was this attachment that now held the Crimson Blade aloft, The Breaker's Hand locked in a contest of strength with Sun's right hand. Only the might of Isidoros kept the contest even, Abyssal strength inhumanly straining against Infernal. The Day Caste uttered a storm of unintelligible grunts, snarling and snapping at The Crimson King.<br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline">You Wish For Your Shotgun, Don't You.</span>The King intoned, his voice rich and echoic yet devoid of emotion.<span style="text-decoration: underline">I Cannot Oblige You. That Abomination Has Been Melted Down Into Scrap Metal. All To Better Kill You With.</span><br/><br/>Sun howled in anguish, kicking upwards in a resounding groin-shot. The blow contacted emptiness, but The King spun away none the less. Sun brought his launcher around to bear, explosive rounds of frigid water erupting in pursuit of the dancing smear of scarlet. The other Abyssals moved to engage the other Exalts, Hunter grumbling as he did so.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Now I know how the angel fell<br/>I know the tale and I know it too well <br/>I'll make you wish you had a soul to sell <br/>When I strike you down and send you straight to hell</span><br/><br/>Golden light was beginning to creep into Esone-Who-May-Have-Been's banner, elegant calligraphy scribing onto the seven wings and mandala of roots. Over the black space where a face should have been, sparks of heavenly fire were tracing out indistinct features. Features that would have looked more at home on a Javik than a human. They dueled, he and Sun, primeval sparks kicking up with every clash of their armaments. The King's voice was changing, returning to the thunderous, ancient tongue of the Old Realm.<br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline">You Come In Force, You Come To Kill. You Call Yourselves Salvation, Preaching Annihilation. I Fought Against Your Kind In Ages Past, And I Shall Do So Again! Your Corruption Cannot Protect You!</span><br/><br/>The Infernal's weapon blazed with flames the color of molten gold, as his fury and madness become transparent with the malice that had boiled for millennia in the memories of a warrior betrayed by his most trusted advisers and confidants. Black blood sprayed from the resultant wound, rotten bile leaking from where the Daiklave had pierced a vulnerable joint. Sun plowed his own armament into The King's gut blade first, firing a round off in reverse to stab even deeper.<br/><br/>Hunter And 042 were locked in a duel of bullets atop one of the Maws, Hunter sniping 042's rounds out of the air as quickly as the Geth's turret could spit them out. Wrist-mounted guns were still preoccupied with protecting civilians, and it's Jade carapace was scratched and scorched. The Maiden of the Mirthless Smile advanced on Shepard and Del Pilar, her Daiklave cackling with anticipation. Raiton threw a Crypt Bolt at Marina, necromantic energy broiling to wreath her hands. Skulltits alone did not choose an opponent, rather rushing to where the Reaper still struggled beneath Ichor Flux Tendrils.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">My army comes from deep within<br/>Beneath my soul--beneath my skin<br/>As you're ending, I'm about to begin<br/>My strength is pain and I will never give in.</span><br/><br/>Chains rattled through the air, binding themselves around Sun's, limbs. The links faded in midair, vanishing into Beyond. They dragged the Abyssal away from The Crimson King, laboring to pull him off into dreamland. The Day Caste refused to die; actually stepping forward and forcing one of the chains to become slack. He strained, one meaty hand inches from grasping the Infernal...<br/><br/>And his body snapped.<br/><br/>Three Reflections assaulted the Abyssal; one drove a blade through his back, another delivered a devastating uppercut, the final duplicate kneecapping with the back of his Scarlet Blade. Sun fell to his knees, still somehow resisting Elsewhere's chains. One of the duplicates rammed his weapon through Sun's head, again to no avail. The Abyssal simply refused to die. His fingers dug into the asphalt, ripping furrows. Blood and ash bubbled up from these gashes in the earth, smoke wafting from them towards the nearest corpses. Sun gargled, blasphemous runes of pus weeping into existence along his armor. As these runes began to glow, the smoke-violated corpses began to shift, tumble and roll towards the chained Abyssal.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">I'll tell you now I'm the one to survive<br/>You never break my faith or my stride<br/>I'll have you choke on your own demise<br/>I make the angel scream, and the devil cry</span><br/><br/>Gesticulating like a mad conductor, Sun drew forth long-buried bones and fresh corpses from the earth around him. The rising bones grew pearlescent, shining with a faintly greenish light. They lifted from the ground and surround the caster in an osseous whirlwind. The winds lifted him from where he knelt as the bones locked into place to form greaves and cuisse, gauntlet and vambrace, a helm with a visor and cuirass marked with an eclectic mixture of Greek letters. Finally, the spell formed a warstrider dire lance from the stiffened spine and tailbone of an enormous, unknown monster.<br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline">Are You Immortal, Abomination? Have You Enslaved Yourself to Malevolence?</span><br/><br/><span style="color: #000000">This is Exalted. "Immortal" just means that a Solar hasn't put serious effort into trying to kill it yet.</span>