[center][@Wraithblade6][@supertinyking][@thewizardguy][/center]

The world seemed to shrink down, compress itself into a single point in space, as if the darkness of that black stone had consumed all but itself and Firebrand. It was impossible. No, that wasn't right. He had seen impossible many times. Nothing was impossible when worlds got all jumbled up. It was unthinkable. No, that wasn't it either. He could have surmised that all interworld flotsam would eventually make its way to poor accursed Arcadia. The truth was he hadn't wanted to think about it. He hadn't wanted to even consider the possibility. How in all the Hells of the universe had the gluttonous thing managed to find its way back to him? 

He could feel a dull ache growing in his chest with every thrum of power the crest gave off, It spread throughout his body, awakening all the old and buried scars. A burn from the dragon, Somulo, a wound in the side from Arma, a deep gash in the back from the cowardly Phalanx, and wounds older still from the like of Nagus and Breager of the Black Light. [i]You are old[/i], it seemed to be telling him, [i]you are strong but you are old and one day you will turn around to find another young strong gargoyle coming up behind you and he will only have to be as lucky as you were.[/i]

What the black crest, the Infinite Crest, the Blazon of Nothingness, offered was perfection. The power to rule through might that could not be challenged. He had forsaken such ambition along with it. He wanted to crack it in two and be done with it, but the logical part of brain used all its might to keep him in check. It wasn't the crest of king here, in this moment. It was a key. It could be the key he had searched for all of yesterday, the key necessary to break through this weird space and make their way to the strange building. He was searching for a way to get ahead of whatever disaster he felt coming and this land had presented it to him on a silver platter.

His eyes tore away from the crest and the world suddenly had color and texture again. He looked up at the paladin, eyes narrowed. "How did you come by that?" He asked breathlessly. "And how do you know that it is mine?"