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As the dust cleared, Vaarn stood, again standing eerily on the wall, erect, as though gravity had absolutely no effect on him. "Busy you say?" He stepped down from the wall, eyeing Thanos. "And how is that?" The man's words about a fear aof death had struck him oddly. He realized that he too was not yet ready to die. Though he was by all means dead, his soul still stirred for revenge, and would not be put out easily.

Deep in Aeishra, a strong glow emmited from a central point. Angelo had lodged itself deep into the main square, it's tall handle sticking prominently into the air. Around it, a field of light, casting everything around it into an eerie glow. Just outside the circle of light, lay hundreds of soldiers, well armed and well prepared. Their curved black swords did not reflect the light cast form Angelo, and helmets hid many of their faces. Those that were not hidden bore insectine, avian, even fish-like features. Many sargeants patrolled the ranks, making sure there were no breaks in the lines. This was only a small portion of Vaarn's private army, the Hanark or Death Dealers, yet it amassed over hundreds of yards of pure deadly darkness. These soldiers were rejected mercenaries and batlle crazed soldiers, all misfits and outcasts from their homelands. In the Shadow Nation, they had found home and friends like them, and each soldiers is another's brother, sister, or a combination of the two. If you killed one soldier, you were doomed to face the endless vendetta of the rest. Each and every soldiers would die for the Shadow Nation and for Vaarn. When they were joined with the rest of the official army of the Shadow Nation, they were virutally unstoppable; the greatest fighting force under the earth.

Zulu ran down the street and saw some soldiers. He stopped dead and ran into a rear by alleyway before the soldiers saw him. The walls of the alleyway were somewhat close to each other. Zulu saw that this and then jumped off the ground into a wall and push off that wall to the opposite wall until he was on top of the building. He then jumped from rooftop to rooftop until he ended up near Angelo. "This must be the center of this section." He said to himself. Zulu then looked over the side to see a whole lot of soldiers. Maybe a hundred or more, all around Angelo. "Damn." Said Zulu. "I could jump for the light so they can't follow me into it, but I can't reach it. So there is only one way to Angelo." He said now forming a ball of water in his hand and spinning it to create energy. Then he fell of the edge of the roof, going head first toward the ground. "The only way is down." Zulu flew toward the ground heading for a large section of the soldiers. He then pumped more energy into the ball and he himself started to spin to make the impact harder. He then thrusted he hand with the ball in it at the ground. He hit the ground, hand first. The ball shot rock all over and the shock wave it created knocked all of the soldiers around the blast into the air. Dust covered the blast area so nobody knew who made the blast.

Many soldiers picked themselves up from off the ground, rushing the point of impact, knowing an enemy had infiltrated. Those too far away from the scene trned to watch Angelo, since it was oviously intended goal. The soldiers walked siletnly through the dust, eyes and ears, or what passed as such, peeled for the intruder. Suddenly an avian woman let out a cry of suprise upon finding Zulu, crouching with a ball of water lore, as she was blasted into the air, she unfurled her wings, and angled herself back at Zulu, with several soldiers charging into the fray. It was over one hundred against one, with several more waiting in the wings. The battle wasn't so much one-sided, as impossible. Blades slashed, water flew, and enemies fell. Still the overall crushing weight of the force came bearing down on Zulu, bloodlust and anger in their eyes, backed by military intelligence. One man, inscetine, lobbed a long javelin into the air, striking Zulu in the leg before being tossed aside by the water. Several other soldiers followed suit, spears, pikes, javelins, poison tipped arrows, and crossbow bolts being launched from a safe distance, as armored foor soldiers hoisted their swords and attacked.

Vaarn felt a small shiver of fear down his spine at that smile, but his face betrayed no emotion. "I suppose that no one truly knows when you will visit. However," he sheathed his sword, and faced the shining square where he knew Angelo lay, watching the explosions of movement and dust from where he was standing. "I do know that you will never truly leave."

Vaarn only nodded, giving a kind of one handed salute. "I'm looking forward to it." he told the mist. He turned as he heared running footsteps approaching.

Hermant ran into view, stopping before Vaarn, holding out a pair of tight black gloves. "My liege, they are finished." He was overflowing with excitement.

Vaarn took the gloves almost reverently from Hermant's mismatched, puppet-like hands. He slipped them over his long pale fingers, still able to move them freely. "The ultimate weapon..." he breathed. He aimed one finger at a nearby wall. A small needle was fired from his finger, sticking into the wall. The silver liquid flowed into the wall, which disintegrated into nothingness in a matter of minutes. "Excellent craftsman ship Hermant." He said.

Hermant bowed, knowing that compliments from Vaarn were extremely rare. He decided to keep the knowledge that Renna was inside the Shadow Nation a secret; for now.

The barrage of sword blows continued until the blade was caught in between two gloved hands, clasped on either side of the sharpened steel. A heavy boot came flying into Zulu's chest, knocking him farther away from Angelo. As the dust began to slowly settle, Vaarn emerged, covered int he blood of his own soldiers, their bodies lying around him. Vaarn cast out a hand around them both. "Look around you. Do you see what you have done?" Yards upon yards of men and women lay dead, many near death, oters trying to staunch the flow of rancid blood from their veins. "They were at the bottom rung of their societies, and I pulled them from that hell, showing them that they belonged. And what have you done? You lay waste to them, slaughtering them. You'r just like the rest of your wretched society; unthinking, cruel, willing to destory all those who don't fit into your perfect puzzle world. They have come here to change that world, to irradicate your so called 'just laws', that serve only to make yourselves more powerful." Vaarn turned to his soldiers, angling their hate of the world onto one man; Zulu. "Come my friends, let us rid the world of their so called 'justice'." A wild cheer went up from the army, and as Vaarn turned back to face Zulu, a small smug smile was playing across his lips. "I have the power here Zulu." He said in a low voice that was barely audible over the loud warcries. "And I wish to dine on your blood." As he finished his sentence, he struck out with Kri Hana, nearly severing Zulu's right arm, instead leaving him badly injured and profusly bleeding. The soldiers let out a cheer, and rushed forward, the sight of their leader inspiring them to new heights. They rushed past the smiling Vaarn, and soon he dissappeared behind the flood of weapons and armor, that smile still filling Zulu's mind, as if imprinted on his vision.

Thanos appeared among the dead and dying in his usual cloak of mist. He said nothing, nor acknowledged the presence of Vaarn or Zulu. Silently, he glided through the ranks of the fallen. Occasionally, he would lay a hand on a dying soldier as he passed them by. When he removed his hand, the soldier would fall to the ground dead. Some of their faces were frozen in fear, others had a peaceful grin. Some would fall dead as Thanos neared them. Others were not affected at all. A woman with a large gash in her head screamed out, "Please! Save me from this pain! Make it go away! Take me!" She threw herself forward in hopes to latch onto the hem of Thanos' robe. However, her hand passed right through Thanos, as though he were a ghost. "I can't." Thanos said as he continued to walk on. The woman continued to shout in protest, "Yes you can! You did for so many others!!" However, her shouts here in vain, for he was much too preoccupied to hear her shouts. Besides, he had heard so many similar shouts before, the cries no longer affected him. He stopped about twenty yards behind Vaarn, watching the battle unfold in front of him. "Vaarn, our paths cross again...and in such a sort amount of time."


[[Am I breaking any rules by having Thanos jump everywhere? =/]]

"Let me ask the same question to you, Vaarn." Thanos replied. "As we speak, I am claiming the lives of your men. What are THEY to you? Are you willing to loose so many lives over one man? You use fear as your commanding force. I do as well. However," his eyes locked in with Vaarn's, "Fear is not always the best way. Death is NOT about fear. Death is a new beginning. Those who can see death as the beginning of a new spiritual life and freedom from pain are more than happy to see me. Those who cling to the idea and concept of life often find themselves fearful when I come. Back to your original question..." he paused for a moment, and seemed to become very distant. A handful of wounded soldiers fell dead behind him. He came back to reality and continued on, "To me, you are all a mass group of living organisms fighting your way through life. What you do with your life, I have no care for or interest in. You all end up at the same spot, no matter how high up you are in your society. After all of your struggles through life, I should think that you would be happy to leave. But no, you want to stay. When I let you stay, you want to leave. YOU are the conundrum."