Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-3293219-20170520212120/@comment-3293219-20170521000642

Zakariah slowly waded through the wilderness, leaving burning footprints with every step. He walked as a human torch, six foot of solid flame. He was the opaque figure of a man, a beacon of light, fuelled by the grieving rage of a lost man.

Engulfing himself in flame isolated him from the rest of the world, nobody really bothered with a burning man, they usually kept their distance. Perhaps something about his flaming aura gave off a bad impression? Maybe the smell of burning just didn’t resonate well with people? Per chance, he was too bright to look at and hurt the eyes of those who saw him?

Whatever the reason, Zakariah was safe from the world, alone…

He couldn’t hear a thing, not even his own thoughts. Thoughts that could drive him to a rage induced frenzy in mere minutes.

As he arrived at a clearing, he suddenly noticed that something wasn’t quite right. He could hear something, faint, on the breeze…

“Inferno…”

Zakariah quickly turned around, seeing the large, statue-like Dwemer Centurian from earlier descending slowly, using his thrusters to make his fall gradual. The Dunmer let the flames die down, so that he was no longer alight, he merely stood before the construct as a man, his fists trembling as he glared up at him.

“I heard the story of the Burning Man, I heard that his fires are fuelled by pain.”

The Dunmer fell silent, glancing down to the ground before looking back up to the automaton, he didn’t exactly look appeased.

“I heard the story of the copper dickhead, I heard that if I shoved a magnet up his ass, he’d implode.” The Ashlander muttered, he seemed to be in control, like he was holding back a feral dog with a strong chain. The distance between control and chaos was measured by that of a flimsy bond, being half-heartedly held by the injured party.

“So what? You heard a story, it doesn’t mean that you know shit about me.” The Dunmer pointed out, the machine didn’t seem to react, emotionally, to what he was saying.

“You are in pain.” The Machine observed, stoically standing before him.

“That pain now defines you, it controls you on a level. It is the structure of your actions and it steers you towards ruin.

You must shed this pain to avoid destruction.”

Zakariah just continued to glare at him, pain wasn’t a choice, it was a perfectly reasonable reaction to seeing your life and lover being raped and murdered before your very eyes.

“I take it that you think that you know how you would go about doing that and you think that I’d blindly agree to it.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Conversion is your only salvation, your emotions will be purged.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Along with my flames… My reason for existing, you might’ve been weak enough to buy into that shit but…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“You have lost it to, haven’t you… You have lost, hope.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Zakariah paused, narrowing his eyes as he began to relax, for the first time, since he saw this hunk of scrap metal.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hope? What’re you… Babbling about?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“You have seen too much death to be naïve enough to hope. We are the same.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“We’re not the same, I’m not a monster, who kidnaps innocent children!” Zakariah growled, as he yelled, his hands lit up, engulfing his forearms in a wildfire that danced around his waist.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Are you saying that Sara isn’t innocent? Or that you didn’t kidnap her?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“You’re out of your fucking mind, you mechanical moron! She was in a dungeon, doing fuck knows what on a daily basis, to stay alive!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“And now where is she? Trapped aboard an enemy ship, awaiting conversion.” Amzdel pointed out, getting the Dunmer to twitch a little, intensifying his flames.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I swear, if you ‘convert’ a single hair on her head…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“You will retaliate with more fruitless violence. Your despair will become rage and your rage will become pain and the cycle will continue.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Just tell me where she is! Tell me how to get to her or…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“When did you lose hope?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Zakariah faltered… Did he just change the subject?

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’ll tell you, if you tell me where Sara is… Where your ship is…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“The ship is on the Elsweyr boarder but it is going North for its next target.

<p class="MsoNormal">Once the Underland is conquered, we will take the cities by storm, from the ground upward.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Under… What?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“You need not understand, just know that her conversion will be one of many things that secures our victory.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Fuck you, what’s… ‘Underland!?’ What’re you doing!?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“My end of the bargain has been met, you must now meet yours. When did you lose hope?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Who said I lost it?” Zakariah asked, folding his arms, with a glare but the machine, despite lacking animated facial features, didn’t seem to falter. It just stared at him, waiting for him to explain it.

<p class="MsoNormal">After a few moments of awkwardly staring at eachother, Zakariah sighed and began to speak.

<p class="MsoNormal">“It was when Karliah died, the second that it happened… I’ve wanted to die, ever since.” He shrugged, glancing away before looking back to the machine.

<p class="MsoNormal">“When’d you give up on everything and decide to make yourself ten ft tall and ugly?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Amzdel didn’t seem to care about the insult, he just paused before he began to speak.

<p class="MsoNormal">“There was a battle, long ago. Lovers, who represented hope, died in this battle. I awoke, searched for them but found only the ones that they left behind. I saw shattered lives, shattered people, pining after the ones that they lost.

<p class="MsoNormal">I saw the hopelessness of their situation, I freed myself, I now live a life without pain.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’d rather be dead.” Zakariah shrugged.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What you’re describing is just another kind of death, afterall.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Fortunately, you need not be alive for the process to work.”

<p class="MsoNormal">As he spoke, Zakariah noticed a large claw grab hold of his wrist, he flinged before being pulled down to the ground and dragged along, heading straight towards Amzdel’s feet. He quickly slammed his hand on the claw and wrapped it around it, with an intense sizzling sound, the claw eventually broke in two, like a dog’s skull that had been snapped.

<p class="MsoNormal">Zakariah, breaking free from the Ambush, threw his hands to the side and roared in fury as he engulfed himself in flames. A spiderbot leapt up at him, wrapping its copper legs around his shoulder and waist and zapped him, with a light electric stun attack.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Dunmer cried out in an enraged yelp as he stumbled forward, engulfing himself in black flames and quickly melting the creature’s spindly legs, resulting in it falling to the floor.

<p class="MsoNormal">He threw both hands to the ground and emitted an intense flame, that set the ground alight, this was a bright orange flame, that was less intense than its black counterparts but required less energy to cast.

<p class="MsoNormal">Zakariah frantically looked around, seeing the large construct march towards him, its large, metallic hand formed into a large, copper fist. Zakariah thrusted both hands forward and engulfed Amzdel in black flames, though Amzdel also made a move, swinging his large, metallic hand straight at Zakariah’s head. Though his body was badly singed, burned and even melted from the flames, the brief exposure made sure that he survived it before knocking his assailant out cold and sending him straight down, onto the ashy ground.

<p class="MsoNormal">Zak slid along, reventually coming to a complete stop. He exhaled heavily as he could feel the light of the world quickly dim…

<p class="MsoNormal">Karliah… I’ll be with you soon…