While Balothiss and Sarin had a great duel in one corner of the ruined square, their strength seemingly evenly matched at the moment, nothing of the sort happened between the vile Keeper and Athinar. Their strength was far from matched and the treacherous warlock was never one for honor or drawn out duels. That wasn't to say that what happened wasn't dramatic, though. It was quite a horrific spectacle.

The Overlord was struck clear in the head by the flung helmet, caught vulnerable more from surprise than from slow reflexes. The human body began to convulse wildly and stagger backwards. It almost fell to the ground, but some unnatural magic held upright. The demonic Keeper would not suffer the humiliation of being knocked into the dirt by some lowly minion of his! The warlock's mouth opened and emanated a choking sound along with a haze of sulfur and black smoke. Though the warlock's mouth was gaping wide open and his tongue unmoving, a great voice reverberated from deep within his chest. It was a diabolical rasp with the cadence of grinding steel, with cruelty and anger dripping from every word. Without a doubt this was the unadulterated voice of the demon speaking by itself, rather than through its mortal host.

[color=Red][b]"Fool! Your arrogance is without bounds! Your might is nothing before my own; behold the true power of an elder demon![/b][/color]

Wildly, as if he were a puppet being thrown about by unseen strings, the warlock flung two hands upwards. A bloodcurdling wailing of tortured souls echoed through the town, heralding the two portals to the inferno that appeared on either side of Athinar. Monstrous, demonic arms shot out from those rifts to claw at Athinar and grasp him with all the hunger and desperation of a starving man. The demons below were always hungry for a fresh soul.

Restrained by the claws that tore at and grabbed him, Athinar's forward advance was stopped. Noticing the pitiful antimagic barrier that stood between him and the one that dared challenge him, the Overlord was tempted to simply conjure a fireball so strong that it would smash through the magical shield and incinerate Athinar and half the village. But no...fire would not be painful enough.

A hundred bolts of crimson lightning flew down from the clear skies like arrows and struck Athinar at once, wracking him with agony and paralyzing energy. Then a third massive portal opened behind Athinar, but it was not claws that reached out. Instead it was some sort of sickly green spear straight from the Underworld. Like a living snake, it lashed forward and effortlessly impaled its victim. The metal of the spear was the bane of life and consciously hungered to kill, and so it warped and twisted with barbs pushing through flesh to pierce Athinar's heart.

As tempting as it was to just leave his traitorous follower there to suffer, this particular demon never left a job half done. A ball of sickly red ight appeared in the walrock's hand, and he used blood magic to utterly destroy Athinar. The Mighty warrior's armor cracked and burst off like a bone burned in fire, then his skin melted into tallow and dripped off before the rest of him was incinerated by fire and the demons started a great tug of war between his charred skeleton before they ripped it in half.

With Athinar thoroughly dead, the demon could now behold his soul...and he saw something surprising. [i]Of course,[/i] he thought to himself. He would have allowed the demons to simply claim Athinar's soul and drag it to the inferno, but this was too valuable a prize to surrender! Its power would be his! The warlock waved a hand, turning the demonic arms to ash (and unintentionally obliterating the charred skeleton to dust) before closing the three portals. Then he snatched up Athinar's soul.

It was at this time that the demon at last turned to face the intruder, Sarin. He recognized that fool as one of the great champions of this realm. Were she and the emperor already aware of his presence? Quickly he banished such distracting thoughts and left her to Balothiss; he had to resurrect Athinar before death brought back all of his former memories! The Master called upon his blood magic once again, turning the ashen remnants of Athinar and the other dead humans into a suitable form, then inserting the Keeper soul back into it...