Facing the Dragon

[Name: Qoirre Shatterstone (Natural classes: Level 20 warrior, Level 15 Dark Knight of Morehammer. Artificial class*: Level 20 berserker)

Species: Black Dragon

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Personal Law: The Code of Morehammer

Personal Virtue: Satisfaction

Personal Vice: Gluttony

Artificial Vice*: Wrath

Sexuality: Pansexual

Deity: Morehammer

Magic Sensing: Qoirre is an ancient black dragon, and as such has immensely powerful natural connections to the element of earth. He never bothered to truly hone those connections though, that said they remain strong.

The magic that resonates within him is conjuration magic, which was part of why Selena could summon him in the first place. That, and his hatred of you since you were the one who destroyed Torus, which he knows because Morehammer told him after you left.

Faith & Soul Sense: Qoirre is an unconventional worshiper of Morehammer. Qoirre worships Morehammer as a god of justice and vengeance and is determined to use the powers he gained as a servant of Morehammer to strike down the one responsible for destroying Torus. He wants to destroy you, since you destroyed a world where he could easily and lazily acquire lots of food.

Morehammer enjoyed gaining the service of a powerful dragon, especially one who hated you as much as Qoirre does. The vestige would surely be delighted to know that you and Qoirre are locked in battle.

Authority Detection: Qoirre is an influential member of a sect of dark Morehammerians, those who seek to avenge the world of Torus. He is not that sects leader, but he is a valued member of it.

*: Selena utilized powerful corruption-based powers to forcibly convert Qoirre's personal vice and to forcibly grant him considerable powers over rage. She also loaded him up with blessings to make him an enemy as close to you in power as she could. The blessings are not blessings that empower Qoirre, they are blessings that protect him from some of your powers. That said since Selena is a vestige her blessings are imperfect and lose potency as they are used to protect Qoirre from your powers. They can be overwhelmed.]

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The dark dragon lunged at me, even as I absorbed his memories and gained knowledge of his powers. I instantly knew the personality of the beast, and I made a choice that I suspected would most agitate him with regards to his attack. As the massive creature approached me and its attacks drew closer and closer I didn't move. I didn't react, physically, to the creature.

I chuckled lightly and made him incorporeal when his attacks were a split second from me. They phased through me, harmlessly, his enormous claws doing nothing but disappearing for a few seconds when they "hit" me, and I grinned at the beast.

The dragon gazed at me, hatefully, as even its enormous body passed through mine. I was unfazed by its hatred and looked at it curiously.

"You can't possibly expect to win this. I'm a god. What are you doing?" I asked the gigantic beast, speaking in the ancient, serpentine tongue of dragons. My words were a series of articulate and powerful hisses. The black beast didn't reply to me and instead opened its mouth, revealing its maw to me, in a gesture meant to be a threat which was instead an ineffectual display of the monster's hatred for me.

The dragon's maw was filled with row upon row of sharp, dangerous teeth. They couldn't hurt me, but I was one of the few beings in reality that could either nullify or outright ignore the attacks of an ancient dragon. Ancient dragons were so powerful that they could fight greater demons and survive. They were the pinnacle of power among mortals, and yet I was not scared of them.

The hatred in the dragon's eyes was amplified by my lack of fear. I felt it, tasted the hatred the monster felt towards me.

"You... Destroyer of worlds!" The beast roared, savagely. Its words were loud, and accurate, but didn't shake my resolve or frighten me. When the beast was done speaking its mouth remained open and I watched as it began to charge another powerful burst of its earthy breath. I didn't interrupt the creature since that attack was harmless to me.

That said, even though the creature was closer to me this time that only meant that the attack traveled less distance before I opened a portal in front of myself that hungrily ate up the attack and deposited it, harmlessly, away from me. In fact, I actively reversed the attempt on my life.

The attack itself went from coming at me to being teleported into the air directly on top of Qoirre. As his own attack began to rain down on him I made him corporeal again, causing him to be battered by his own attack.

I watched as massive stones, a steady stream of dirt, and more, landed on the foolish beast, and audibly chuckled when an enormous boulder landed on his right wing and tore a hole through it. As the boulder hit the ground beneath the dragon and shattered into many pieces the dragon let out a deafening howl in response to the pain the foolish creature felt. I chuckled and attempted to use my powers over pain to amplify the creature's discomfort, fully expecting to fail.

As I reached out and targeted the beast I was surprised to find that my powers over pain were still able to affect the beast. He reacted to the vastly amplified pain by visibly trembling, and having to work to maintain his consciousness. I began to smirk at the beast as I rose my hand and continued to utilize my powers over pain since it seemed that either Selena hadn't or couldn't protect Qoirre against pain itself.

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Being a deity of pain was a strange thing. Many of my powers over pain weren't offensive abilities I could have used to actually harm someone, they were instead abilities that allowed me to make those I disliked, or in some cases those I liked a lot, experience immense pain.

As I reached out and moved my hands in the direction of the dragon I took careful aim at the beast and began to unleash "attacks" made of solidified pain energy. The attacks manifested as long streams of pink energy that flew out of my hands and sped through the air towards the dragon. The beast glared at me and attempted to dodge the projectiles, but its enormous size worked against it in this chamber.

The dragon was enormous, and while the chamber was large enough to accommodate it that didn't mean that it was able to move around flexibly. I had the advantage in this particular context due to my much smaller size, as well as my far greater speed. I filled the air between us with an array of pain-based projectiles and I heard the dragon roar again, this time mindlessly as he activated one of his new abilities.

My lips curled into an evil grin as I watched as bolts and beams of pain energy collided with the dragon. This, combined with my ability to make the beast incorporeal clearly signified that Selena couldn't nullify all of my powers with her blessings only the ones that would allow me to instantly end the battle. That knowledge allowed me to feel confident in my victory.

Even in the beast's mindless rage, a powerful berserker sort of rage that high-level berserkers could enter into that negated at least some of the impact of abilities and magic that affected the mind, the beast howled in pain and I felt its anger falter for a second. During that instant, I felt some of the titanic monster's anger be replaced by a sort of mental bleeding as if I had somehow cut his mind itself.

"Qoirre... I repeat, did you really think you could defeat me?" I asked as I looked up at the beast. The creature was hovering unsteadily in mid-air, flapping its damaged wings as it attempted to dodge my attacks. I had total control over the projectiles and I didn't feel like killing the dragon so instead of going in for the kill I rose my hand and created more such attacks to surround him.

As I moved my hand beams, balls, and streams of materialized pain shot out of my fingertips and moved into the air around the creature. This sort of attack wouldn't have been fatal to the beast until the second I willed for them to be even if the furious beast wasn't blessed by my enemy, which meant that this was perfect for what I wanted to do.

"Attacking me was foolish. A kinder person would have called it brave, but I am not feeling particularly kind." I remarked, as I reached out with my mind and began an assault on the dragon's heart using my powers over emotions.

At first the beast resisted, aided by the potent powers of my enemy, Selena, but that resistance had its limits. The dragon was no match for me, and I wasn't about to pretend that it was. What I wanted to do was forcibly break the blessings that Selena had put on her minion.

The purpose of my emotional assault on Qoirre was that I wanted to waste the potency of Selena's blessing. Her efforts shielded my enemy from my powers, but I also knew, thanks to the domain of knowledge, that I could overwhelm them and that enough effort on my part would overwhelm the blessings.

When Qoirre opened his mouth again and spat out more stones and earth at me I inwardly applauded his tenacity. His hatred of me was truly the real deal. I didn't feel bad doing what I was doing to the dragon, but I had respect for the beast's hatred of me. That said, I merely rendered myself incorporeal and watched as the clump of earth sailed harmlessly towards, into, and then through me.

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Minutes passed as I continued my assault on my foe. I was keenly aware of the strange fact that Akamal was not attacking me at the moment. I figured that he was merely content to watch the show, which suited me just fine. This meant that I could take my time gaining a new servant.

During the time that I was still, the dragon's rage began to subside. A berserker's rage was not like an authentic, natural outburst of fury, it was akin to fuel for a car. There was a limited amount of it which was used up while the creature in question was raging, and could run out, which was an inconvenient reality that plagued all mortal berserkers. That this inner wellspring of fury was replenished every time the creature was able to get some restful sleep didn't make this weakness any less significant in the heat of battle.

I felt Selena's blessings, which were like a shield that was wrapped tightly and protectively around Qoirre's heart, begin to crack as I continued my dogged assault. My powers were no joke, and especially now that I possessed powers over things like sloth and diligence, I had an indomitable will and the patience needed to take my time here. which was the key to my success.

I grinned savagely as I felt my powers begin to slip into cracks in the blessings that my foe had clung to. The instant some of my power slipped past my foe's mental and emotional defenses I felt the dragon's rage become manipulable.

"That's it... The time has come to calm down Qoirre." I whispered my eyes two pitch-black orbs of darkness. I reached out with my mind and crushed the rage the dragon felt, and as I did I heard the dragon began to exhale one final, furious breath, but it wasn't even mad enough to attack me now. The rage-filled breath was just an expression of its final furious throes.

The dragon now stared at me with a hate-filled expression but it wasn't one that was filled with active, red-hot rage. Instead, it was a cold, calm hatred. And that made me smile and laugh innocently as if I had no clue what I had done to merit the creature's hatred.

"Now now, that hatred will do you no good." I said, calmly, as I activated my powers over hatred and reached out, mentally, to touch the beast. This had not been a battle, it had been an extended taming mission. And I had completed it successfully.

As I began to toy with the hatred that lurked in the dragon's heart I quietly constructed a notification that I would send to Selena. One that thanked her for giving me a new servant.

With my powers over love, fear, anger, and hatred, if I was willing to fully control a creature I could exercise near-total control over them. Not that I needed to go that far, if I wanted to control a creature with my endless powers over illusions.

I reached deep into the heart of my enemy and hit it with a potent spike of emotions. The shield of blessings took the hit and shattered, and I watched Qoirre's eyes widen as he realized what I had done. He felt it in his soul. And I casually put the dragon to sleep, to finalize my victory over the creature. The beast immediately slumped over, unconscious.

"And now... away with you." I muttered, as I opened a portal into my divine realm and used my mind to hurl the beast into it.

"No one else will use you against me." I said, laughing as I did so.