Let The Training Begin

[Alicaz]

Night broke way into day, the navy blue sky faded into the bright pale blue of dawn. Alicaz rubbed her eyes, even as a demon she needed sleep like any being. She was leaned against a tree, her auburn hair whirled around a branch from the wind that was still blowing across her. She was in conquered territory. It used to be elven but a faction of the Military, led by Alicaz herself, had managed to gain this piece of land. It was only this thin section of forest that was still green from being on demon territory, all other spots had taken on a distinct grey or brown tone. This area was now used as a training area under her own command. New recruits were arriving today and she was not at all pleased with the idea of training possibly inept soldiers. She knew not all of them were ignorant and inept but there were always some. But they never lasted long. They either got on her nerves, and she killed them, or Typhon would tire of their annoyances. Either that or they'd survive long enough to perish in battle.

She stood, her face stoic towards the rising sun which she faced, and she turned her back to it. Not because she was mad or afraid of it but merely she needed to go the other direction. The woods were thick and leafy, just the kind she hated. Alicaz never early understood demons aversion to living objects such as leafy forests, but she knew what she liked and that was barren trees. There was always something about them, a silent beauty that could only be seen in it's entirety by demon kind. Elves and Humans could never really grasp the beauty this fallen sight akin to that of autumn and winter.

Alicaz moved on through the thick trees her bare feet that impacted the ground we're caressed by the dying grass, their blades snaking between her toes and tickling her heels. She stretched her arms out, letting her fingertips brush the leaves. Frost made it's way down the branches turning every tree to ice. As Alicaz began to relax her mirror form began to release. She no longer looked completely human and her demon features were beginning to show. Her pure white tattoos began to erupt from the pigments on her skin and glow lightly.

A light chortle escaped from her mouth. The thought of Humans believing that demons were purely associated with fire and heat always made her laugh. No, demons are far colder or at least she was. She had power over ice, not godly power but merely the ability to lower the temperature of moisture and it freezes. She couldn't explain it right, it was just as a mystical power to her as many other people.

Alicaz lowered her arms as she entered a grassy clearing. The clearing was barren of most vegetation save for some dying tall grasses lining the outside of the large clearing. Within the center was the sandy training field where the recruits were beginning to gather. Some were in their demonic, or true, form but most were in their mirror form. Alicaz regained her composure her markings fading and her appearance returning to mostly human omitting the fact that her eyes remained black and a light spattering of scales lined her jawline.

She turned her face to the sky, the sun was far much higher than it had been before. 'Time seems to have gone much faster than I had though.' It was nearly time to begin to train the recruits.

'Days, always days. Never ending and never ceasing to annoy me.'

Alicaz tramped through the tall grass, her arms tight against her back. She always hated the day, filled with the vile stench of both elves and those humans. They overrun the world like rats within a sewer. She hated it. She glared over at the rag-tag group of demons she paced in front of. New recruits. They always annoyed her, much like the day, they're always there and they never let up. But she couldn't blast them back to hell, well she could, or Typhon--the Warlord of the demons--would blow her out of this earth. Alicaz wondered, for the briefest of moments, if Typhon would really even care if she blew away some inferior demon. She came to the sudden but inevitable realization that no, he wouldn't really care.

'Best to start this now.'She sighed and faced the unruly bundle of demons, legs apart and standing at attention. Save for a select few, they were completely unaware of her gaze. Her lips parted in a snarl to reveal fang-like teeth, barred in anger.

"Listen up you unruly clad of putrid vermin." They snapped to attention. She was pleased without he sudden fear of the unruly ones. She began to pace again. "Welcome to the Demon Army. I am Imperator Alicaz. You will follow me and any order from me unless Warlord Typhon says otherwise. You will address me as Imperator or Ma'am. If you call me otherwise I will not hesitate to freeze you into a block of ice and deliver you to the Warlord for target practice." A few of them looked stricken with fear and she knew her words struck deep. Yet some were stoic, strong, and unfazed. She continued her speech. "From now until I see fit you will train with me or with my Secundus, who is not present at this time, to become better fighters and overall to become better soldiers." She stopped and faced them. "There are many tenants of battle. Most notably are strength, strategy, weapons, tactics, organization, logistics, and battle-space. Many of you believe that strength is all that is required to defeat your enemy. Yes, but, with such strength what might you need to use it effectively?" She paused, possibly to let the recruits to reply. But she didn't want a reply. She wanted to make a point.

A bird chirped madly and shot into the sky towards her. Alicaz's arm darted out from behind her back and a white blur emanated from her hand. The bird stopped chirping it's wings going limp as it crashed to the ground. It's beak stood agape and was pried back by a thick needle of ice that pierced through the roof of it's mouth and exited through the top of it's head. She replaced her arm and continued to speak, walking towards the small bird,picking it up to show to the recruits.

"To use your strength properly you must have aim and precision. Because if you wildly attack there is less of a chance to do maximum damage to your opponent." An amused smirk played across her face. "Well then, lets see what you can do. Show me your powers."

[pain]

Pain did not like ice.

He was a creature of stone and inner fire. Ice chilled and chipped, making things brittle and making him feel uncomfortably sleepy. He fought off a yawn: it was not wise to show flagrant disrespect to the Imperator, no matter how unlikely it would be for her to spot him among the masses.

Then again, his mirror form was distinctive.

Blessit.

A demon beside him whimpered, cowed by the force of the Imperator’s speechmaking. Lots of threats. Pain was not particularly impressed. He’d heard vastly more romantic things coming out of mortal mouths. This was… well, this was pretty much Tuesday material. Threatening, but without much heart behind it. He suspected, in a vague way, that the Imperator was probably much better at demonstrations than at speeches. Most demons were, especially those who played with ice. Ice was the patchy silence between mortals, the rasp before death and the stillness of the darkness. Words did not work very well with ice.

P-perhaps you’re biased Asala-mortal (who should be dead and gone and leaving him alone, he had completed her boon) giggled into his head.

He pondered that for a moment. Nonsense, he finally managed to reply. Asala-mortal flitted through the edge of his awareness and Pain wondered, as vaguely as he usually did, if he was going insane. It was quite possible. Not a single Reaper he’d spoken to could detect the small elf-mortal’s soul and they were quite the experts, supposedly. Something said or done caused the assembled demons to shudder or look alive and Pain had to wrench his thoughts away from their meandering paths, trying to focus.

There was a small feathered mortal… dead. Probably. It was somewhat difficult to see at this range. He was fairly tall and was thus, quite reasonably, kept near the back. The Imperator was saying something about effectiveness. Was this one of those ‘the right tool for the right job’ speeches? Pain had never really understood that particular analogy. Tools on the battlefield were scant and in short supply, often broken and ill-used. On the battlefield, you made do with what you had, and sometimes with what you hadn’t. Much like life.

Having the feeling he’d missed something, he watched as the demons around him tried to devolve into a brawling horde. The piteous one to the left made a mewling noise before being knocked unconscious by an errant backswing that Pain avoided with some margin to spare. He glanced critically at his… comrades.

They were not particularly good at it. Fighting. Then again, Pain did not think he could blame them. They had not been present during the initial Invasion. They were new to this. Most of them merely a small step up from a mere minion. He’d… well, he’d been through this for a while now; had actually been put back into bootcamp. Something about dereliction of duty, he hadn’t bothered to listen past the first few moments of excruciatingly boring bureaucracy. Blah blah go back to army blah blah train again blah blah. Nothing he hadn’t been expecting.

Only, as he started to smash heads, Pain didn’t think it’d be quite this boring. Even the Imperator was not the same demon he remembered, blood and glory crowning her face; eyes wincing into the sunlight; brow furrowed in concentration at strange, human maps; crowing in delight as the forces of Hell marched through the mortal armies, taking life and limb and innocence from the mortal realms.

He dodged another blow, starting to suspect that some of the smaller demons were actively banding together against the stronger ones. Something made a mad dash for his shins and he was forced to boot it aside, a movement that was quick if impractically weak. Another went for his neck.

Hmmm.

Interesting.

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OOC: I made an assumption that the unruly demonic horde would assume 'impressing' the imperator would mean 'hitting each other until one remains standing.'

[Alicaz]

Alicaz rubbed her eyes. The new demons were worse than she had expected. Instead of showing their powers to her in an orderly fashion, they had up and started to attack each other in an obvious rendition of seeing who was strongest. As if to impress her, the recruits lost most of their composure and the group broke into total disarray.
One of the recruits, Pain, did avoid many blows with expert precision which she was proudly intrigued by. At the end of it all Alicaz had to reign in the disheveled group and send them on thier way back to the soldiers quarters.
'Geze, I don't even think the last group was this unruly. But that one demon, Pain, he seemed no stranger to battle.' She rubbed her eyes again and replaced her hand to her knee. She sat in the middle of the sandy field, the night was falling again and she knew she should be headed back home. She got up and stretched her arms, reigning in the most disobedient of the recruits was straining on her arms. Alicaz hadn't seen a good battle for quite a while and her muscles were softer from lack of serious use. The thought of battle made her claws itch. Her whole mind craved for battle and for the blood lust that comes with it. It was at times like these when Alicaz longed for her Secundus to be here. She loved to spar with her Secundus, and the absence of her partner left her muscles untrained.
Alicaz looked to the well worn path that headed towards the housing areas of the proleators. It was covered in shadows but footprints were still visible, ground into the sandy dirt. She sighed and reluctantly made her way back to the housing area.

[Nex]

Emerging from the shadows Nex takes a reclined pose against a tree who's bark twists and gnarls under the weight of his enormous true form. As the great dragon takes a heavy stride forward, he quickly morphs into his mirror form. He has been watching the day's proceedings and has taken great notice of Alicaz. He stepped forward and the cold breeze felt good in his hair. He decided to stand and relish the sting of the wind, which had just picked up. It burned his face like hot coals and he loved it.

As he stepped forward once more, he once again took notice of Alicaz. Her long hair dazzled him and his expression slowly changed from a stony glare to a cold smirk. He had found his next playmate. He took a series of long strides towards her and then stopped. He knew that as magnus he could ask favors from Typhon and could have Alicaz at the snap of the Warlord's fingers but, he liked the sound of a challenge. The Imperiator would become his next game "Yes," he thought " yes, this, will give me something to do with my time."

Suddenly Serxe gracefully pressed up against the magnus' leg. He looked down to his companion and quickly shooed the hellhound away, he had no time for such nonsense, he was looking to capture his next mate.

Soon Nex's thoughts became clouded, he shot forward towards Alicaz, but stopped. "No, the heads on approach would be too easy." he thought. "Instead I will summon her to my quarters and seduce her there."

He rushed past a group of soldiers, slowing down when he passed them to mock their pitiful existence and laughed a cruel snicker. He heard no laughter from his minions. Nex was not pleased he took great disrespect and struck one of the soldiers down, killing him instantly. He then commanded the others, "I bid you, take jest to my humor or suffer the same fate as his." The demons laughed. This pleased Nex. He grabbed a Dux by the throat, "These will be promoted.", the soldier, strangled, shook his head and the magnus released his grip.

Nex took no more delays on the way to his private Death's Keep quarters. He entered the large tent which was being tended by minions. He ordered them leave and sat on an intricate throne like chair.

Now, he was one step away from his prize, "Alicaz!" he called and then silence fell on the camp....

[Alicaz]

The wind picked up as she walked, Alicaz could feel the slight bite of the cold air on her face and she knew cold. Every once in a while a smaller demon would rush past her, eager to get to the training area she had just left, or dashing away to deliver something in haste. Farther down this direction, the trees were barren and dead. They had been within demon territory long enough to have been tainted and died, she saw this as the more beautiful side of the forest.

Raucus, laughter emanated from the training area she had just left. She knew that some demons were still there even though the session had ended, yet something seemed strange about the laughter as if it had been forced rather than created out of some joy. She did not let it bother her though, the affairs of Proeliators. They would be reigned it and put in line by the various Dux that were in that area, either that or the Dux would join them in their laughter.

An eerie silence cut across the forest, as if all the creatures that made all the noises were scared to do so. It was not uncommon for silence to fall upon Death's Keep, but this one seemed strange, unnecessary. Alicaz kept on walking, not allowing the uncalled for silence to deter her. The wind also did not falter, which helped in carrying the already loud sound of her name being called. She found this odd. Not expecting something like this she stopped in her tracks. The silence thickened from uneasiness to silence out of fear. Alicaz repeated the sound and timber of the voice through her mind, it was familiar and she knew she should remember it but couldn't quite put a finger on it. Whoever it was, they weren't too far away. She turned herself in the proper direction, willed her wings to form, and pushed off hard from the ground. She was fast in the air, as fast as on the ground, yet up here she could see things better. With her wings moving at a fast pace, Alicaz reached her destination much faster than usual. She landed and her wings dissolved back into her mirror form. The closest place, and the most likely source of the caller was one of the outposts in Death's Keep. It wasn't a large area by any manner but it also wasn't at all small. Tents lined the hollow and irate minions scurried in a rodent-esque manner throughout the camp. One got too close to her and she kicked it, with all of her frustration of the day packed behind it. The minion soared through the sky and landed somewhere outside the perimeter of the hollow. In the center of the hollow, though, was a larger tent gilded with patterns she recognized which she sometimes wished she could forget.

By this point Alicaz knew exactly who had called her. She ran a hand through her hair, letting out an exasperated sigh. Her face changed into one of mild annoyance as she approached the mouth of the tent. She didn't expect much good would come out of a visit here. She slid her hand in between the folds of the tent and parted the canvas doorway. A lavash room spread out before her, which circled around an intricately crafted chair gilded in all manners of finery that did nothing to ease Alicaz's vexed attitude. In the 'throne' sat a well built demon with strikingly white hair. His face was intricately plastered with all manner of black tattoos and is punctuated by a silvery scar lacing thickly across his features. Odd cat-like eyes stared back at her, yellow and red. Alicaz folded her arms and rolled her eyes.

"What do you what, Nex. My day has already been bad enough, you can only make it worse." She said. Knowing how Nex could be, she forced the same exasperated anger of the day behind her words.

[Nex]

Nex stood from his throne and approached the Imperiator. He circled her for a short while until he decided to once again sat. He waved he called to Serxe who came bearing drinks on her back. He picked up the drinks, held in intricate chalices signature to demon royalty. He set one down on a table beside Alicaz and took the other himself. He sipped the drink with an alluring look etched into his hard, attractive features and motioned her take the other."The finest wine in Alterna, the Warlord's personal recipe. I hope you enjoy."

Her anger was not meant to turn him on, but it did. Anger excited Nex and he was now more intent on capturing Alicaz then ever. He stepped up to the Imperiator and stroked her face with his steely gauntlet. Circling around her once more he spoke in a soft voice, "Come with me to my bed, and I will show you the wonders which only I can demonstrate. Now, Imperiator, drink my poison and come along with me." He sensed she was stressed and tired so he spoke once more, "Lay with me and I will make the stress go away. It's simple. Now come Alicaz. And come prepared."

[Alicaz]

The elegant glass sat innocently on the table before her, shining and speaking to her to drink its brew. As much of an honor it was to receive such a fine glass of wine, Alicaz was repulsed by the gesture. He was hitting on her, luring her in. 'This is going too far.' She thought. But she couldn't run, not now, it would be both against her pride to stand up to the magnus and would only worsen the situation. Nex approached her again, his armored hand stroking her face and pacing around her, as if appraising an object for its beauty. her repulsion deepened, sending chills up her body. Alicaz knew he could probably feel her anger and repulsion, he wasn't that unskilled.

"I appreciate the gesture of the wine but I should not partake in your wine or your," She punctuated her next word with the disgusted poison she felt, "'festivities'. Unlike you, I still have a job to do and I'd rather not mismanage my duty. And I most certainly would not ever fool around, fiddle about, play around, fidget, toy, trifle, tamper, tinker, interfere, meddle, mess around with or monkey about with you. I would with anyone but you." As she said it she jammed her finger in front of his face, as if scolding a child. To her that's how he acted, like a child. A spoiled child who only 'wants' never asks for something, only demands it. 'I want this' or 'Give it to me now', it was all the same selfish tone displayed by an immature, spoiled child. She couldn't keep what she thought of him inside, "And for explanation I would never since you are an overindulged, pampered child who is constantly mollycoddled, cosseted, babied, and waited on hand and foot so much so that you don't know when to stop wanting and start asking. You're killed with kindness and nannied so much that you can't stand it when someone has to be strict with you. You let your power and royalty go to your head with demands of luxury. " She stared him in the eye willing for her angered point to get across. "So you have to be broken to the truth some time. You can't get everything you want, Nex" She did not want to give him any time to respond, and backed up for the entrance.

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OOC:: Sometimes Alicaz likes to eat Thesauruses. And yes I did just use every synonym possible XD

[Nex]

Nex looked onto the retreating Alicaz. He thought he should strike her down... Oh, how he hated her. She thought he was a pompous idiot. She was wrong. He stood with his eyebrow furrowed and punched a hole through the side of his tent using his claws to destroy the canvas as much as he could. He looked to Alicaz with a stony glare torn by his characteristic anger. Nex tore at more of his shelter until it was merely scraps on the ground. He pulled his longsword form his back and smashed the throne behind him and his table next. The whole camp became silent once again "Alicaz!" he screamed as loud as his voice could go and quickly morphed into his true form. The entire camp froze and stared. Nex did not like this, he slashed at a group of minions who were chatting nervously behind him killing them by the dozen. He used his spiny tail to kill a group of Prolieators who had reacted to the death of the minions in awe killing the higher ranked demons also. He then slithered up to Alicaz and stared at her with his imposing eyes. Going directly up to her face with his. He flashed her his teeth and then whispered through his sharp teeth in a soft voice that stung like a razor. "I'm not the pompous idiot,"that word stung the most, "You don't know me Alicaz, you don't know how I've lived. You, don't know a thing." He shot hot air from his nostrils into the Imperiator's open face and smiled at her angrily. He snorted in her face again and then lashed out at her with his claws and tail simultaneously,seeking to silence the Imperiator. Permanently.