The Light Must Burn

[Darth Tagus]

The Dawn Temple was above their heads and their fellow Sith were keeping it's inhabitants busy while they approached the Nexus. Tagus was certain that the people above them were doing well enough at their roles because he had yet to feel anyone die through the Force.

Which was actually rather good considering the ferocity of both types of opponents. The insects and the wolves were no slouches when it came to combat but he had faith that the warriors of the Sith Empire were going to be up to the task.

Darth Inheris and the Emperor himself were with him, stepping up to face the Light that currently enjoyed control of the Nexus. It was something he would see snuffed out soon, so long as the three of them were up to the challenge that came with corrupting a Force nexus.

They were powerful things.

It was a good thing, then, that the Sith assembled to corrupt it were powerful in their own right. The Dark Side was their ally and despite everything that the Nexus emitted, the Dark side was still present here and within them.

The Dark Side would triumph in the end.

He stepped onto the stone, looking around at the stone chamber that he found himself arriving in. There was ice everywhere as well, alongside statues of Jedi long since dead. He reached out and touch the cold stone with one hand.

"I do believe we are here." he declared, taking his armoured mask off and throwing it to the side, his slightly gaunt appearance serving to better highlight just how much more brightly yellow his eyes shone now, "I can feel it's power... so much strength... wasted by the Jedi and left to just continue. I'm glad we came, it's long since past time something was done about this."

@Nightfall @Phoenix
@Raydo (DM)

 

[Varyn Rask]

Varyn took his time on the approach. The building was incredible even if it had been built by Jedi, and his fingers traced along the stone of the statues. He wished his hands weren't gloved so he could feel it for himself, but precautions had to be taken. They always had to be taken. It was the only reason the Emperor was still alive where so many others had died.

He brought up the rear of the group, his proverbial occipital eyes keeping watch against whatever might have followed their approach down here. His saber was on his belt and the ever-present mask hid his face from view. Just behind that mask, his eyes swept over the room, taking in every crevice in search of traps. Always in search of traps. Paranoia wasn't an abnormal trait among Sith.

The Force felt very different here than many other place in the galaxy. While Korriban had an even greater power than this, it was one of darkness. It's talons felt like they were constantly trying to suck you in and never let go. There was a paradoxical struggle against and acceptance of the darkness.

But here everything felt different. The "warmth" was enough to nearly scald his mind. Like standing in the sun for hours on end, his mind felt parched for the cold chill of the darkness.

How much darkness will it take to corrupt this place? he wondered to himself. And what will it cost?

They were questions soon to be answered. Whatever nerves might have been there were pushed aside quickly, for now was not the time for weakness. Now was the time to seize the strength of the Dark Side and force it to his will. There were to be tests ahead, and only strength of will would forge the path forward.

 

[Darth Inheris]

Coming up the flight of stairs between Darth Tagus and the Emperor, Saorise's breath came out as steam in the frigid air below Spintir's Dawn Temple. The Nexus they'd come to touch, to burn away, was to be found here, something that announced its presence to the trio of force sensitives that encroached upon it now.

Watching Tagus move around the site was like watching a predator move on prey, as he moved across the stone chamber. The Emperor behind, Varyn, if he felt anything about it she could not see it.

Darth Inheris. She still found herself becoming accustomed to the name. She had worked, carved a name, a place, for herself as Saorise Kallig. Here she was giving that up once more, becoming someone else. Another name to add. She'd already given up one, why should this be so different? And in a changing galaxy, perhaps a second life wasn't the worst thing to have been given.

But her thoughts could wander no longer, as Tagus announced, they had arrived,

"Then better it's done now" she offered in reply, giving a nod to her fellow, the mans gaunt features and piercing yellow eyes visible even from where she stood. She weaved her way between the frost covered Jedi statues that stood above them, heroes, apparently, whose names weren't even visible anymore upon the stone.

Time had left them faded, lost.

Together they would ensure they stayed buried forever.

@Raydo @Nefieslab @Phoenix

 

[The Storyteller]

As soon as the three Sith Lords touch the stone path, they would feel the pressure begin to build around them. With each step, the light side of the Force crowded them, pushing back at the darkness they brought with them.

The power of this place had slept for hundreds of years, awoken as the beasts below were brought into an agitated state by their attackers. It now began to awake, this place a true bastion of light. There was nowhere to hide from the Force's light here. It would expose the things that each of them had done to get to where they were at in life. It would be uncomfortable, but would also carry with it a hope of redemption, a chance to begin a new if only they would reach out to take it.

As they ascended the final stairs to reach the large stone done to enter the temple, they would see a child with a bald head and robes in an ancient Jedi fashion. The child's body was covered in tattoos that glowed with a faint blue light. He sat meditating in front of the door but opened his eyes as the three Sith reached the open area before the door.

The boy tilted his head in a slightly alien fashion that didn't seem to fit a child of his age. He studied them, and as he did, they would feel the pressure crescendo into something nearly unbearable. The darkness in each of them recoiling at the light.

"Have you come to lay down your burdens?" the child asked as he stood.

@Nefieslab @Phoenix @Nightfall

 

[Darth Tagus]

The Light was becoming more than irritating - it was beginning to press down against him. It felt like a pressure, as though he were passing through the atmosphere of a planet or deep under the waters of a deep ocean. The warmth that most people felt from the Light was beyond comfortable for the Sith, it was like dipping into a bath that was already too hot and then having more boiling water added once you were in.

It wasn't offensive, not yet, but it was a cause for concern.

Tagus began to layer the Dark Side within himself, concentrating it. It was akin to someone folding a fabric again and again and again, to increase it's layers and thickness overall. The difference was that the Dark Side didn't grow any less when he folded it, it just became thicker and stronger within himself as he used it to limit the effects of the Light pressing down on him. It would be like trying to break through pitch-black oil with a lightbulb. Even the most powerful light wasn't going to be having much luck reaching into him.

Of course it's feelings, it's messages? That soft, subtle, urging to seek forgiveness... he felt it. He felt it and it took a small place in his heart despite himself. There was always a part of a person, no matter how much they believed in their cause and their conviction, that worried they were wrong. The Light wormed it's way inside but Tagus walled it up inside of that tiny part of himself with one fact.

The only person he would ask forgiveness from was dead.

There could be no forgiveness.

Approaching the child, or the Light approximation of a child, Tagus smiled a little bit but it didn't reach his eyes.

"No." he admitted honestly, "We are here to relieve you of your burdens. You have stood here as a balwalk to a dead society and a dead way of life. It is time for the Dark Side to take the reigns and guide this planet."

@Nightfall @Phoenix
@Raydo (DM)

 

[Varyn Rask]

Varyn didn't know exactly what the light would feel like here, but he'd experienced it in other places before. This just felt... more potent. It was a heat that pressed in on every side and sought to smother the Sith Lords. But beyond just the power of the Light, there was a plucking at his soul. It was doubt and fear. Fear that the path he had chosen was the wrong way to bring about peace and prosperity, and fear that he had made the wrong choice. Fear that all the death he had caused was for nothing... and there were so many deaths.

No. I've come too far to doubt now. Everything I've done was necessary, he thought, and he wondered if the thought had echoed to the small child that stood before him. The Emperor found himself oddly captivated by the "child" though he knew it wasn't any child. It was something from the Force: the Light Side itself. It had chosen to stand before them, and even as he stood here, he could feel the burning grow all the more intense. It crawled over his skin, and he resisted the urge to squirm away, not fully being able to suppress the twitching that pulled at his muscles.

Even as the child spoke, there was another voice at the recesses of his mind that had a different whisper. It was a voice well known to him, but one that he feared and suppressed. It lived at the end of a long road as if living in a cave at the base of a mountain. It spoke of phenomenal powers that seemed unreachable. It promised survival at the cost of the soul. It was only as Varyn understood the precariousness of his situation here that he pondered the voice's offer.

Unparalleled power it whispered in a raspy tone. And what price wouldn't be worth that? What good are you to the galaxy dead? it asked him. The temptation grew stronger the greater the pressure of the Light, and the Emperor was caught between a battle of far greater powers.

But survival instincts were difficult to override. Only through survival could he hope to change things. So his decision was made for him.

The Light funneled down that dark road, and the monster opened its maw, drinking in the Light to sate its voracious appetite for power. Like a black hole out of which no light could escape, the monster began to consume, siphoning off the energy of peace and serenity before twisting it with emotions: fear, cruelty, and anger. There was no resisting the Light, there was only twisting it... feeding off of it until even the Light was Darkness.

Out of that monster flowed the malevolent energies that would protect the Sith Lord from the burning of the temple and the child. This is the price of power. This is the price of change.

 

[Darth Inheris]

Saorise hadn't felt such pangs of feeling for a long time. The particular energies and ambiance of the light side of the Force was something her body had forgotten, something she hadn't turned her mind to for an age.

And here, now, it was almost overwhelming. She could feel the way its quiet, its warmth rolled across her thoughts like soft rays of sunlight, how they threatened to envelop the images and ideas she could form. The Jedi had called the Dark Side insidious, that it could eat away at you, 'corrupt' your being. They were blind to what their own powers did.

It's honeyed energies bathed the whole area, there was no escape. Not until they did what they had come here to do.

Steel yourself she thought, forcing the fires to hold it back, melt away the pressures the Light sent her way. What the Light sought to do was smother everything that had made Saorise who she was, made Inheris who she was. That's what it did, made you lose yourself, forget individual for the falsity of some feigned idea of fellowship, of communion with the world.

She was the world. Individuals were the world, and they changed it every day. It was the Light that couldn't bear to show itself. Like here, buried beneath the earth, lying in silence for centuries.

I am my own, I owe myself, my burdens are not for any other to carry.

Gazing over to the child, she denied what its energies would do to her. As Tagus answered for them, Inheris extended her gaze, asserting herself, her person, the individual that she to be present in the world. To do so was the antithesis of the light, and in doing so clad herself in the armour contempt, a thick layer of the dark side welling with it, and keeping the light side at bay.

At least, for now.

@Raydo

 

[The Storyteller]

"I have no burdens. he said looking at the approaching Sith, face expressionless. I can not carry your burdens, they are your's to lay down." he said. All of their thoughts were like an open book to the entity in front of them. As the young gaze passed over them it was as if they were being looked through not at. "They are not for you to carry, either." he said to Inheris.

As their leader, Emperor began channeling the Forces energy into himself the boy turned to look. His eyes had turned to blazing orbs of light, the tattoos pulsed with the energy as the forces of Dark and Light clashed. The Child vanished and appeared next to Varyn "Destruction will never lead to peace." he said speaking to man's fears. Deep down, there was a part of the Sith Lord that understood that.

He reached up as he spoke and touched the Emperor's hand. The Light Side of the Force burst from the child, channeled into the beast the resided within the Sith Lord. It would threaten to overwhelm the dams that protected the man from the energy flowing into him.

 

[Varyn Rask]

Varyn watched as the small child quickly appeared next to him. There weren't steps or movement, just suddenly he was in a different place. He heard the words, and he wasn't sure if they'd been spoken aloud or simply echoing through his mind. He wasn't sure it mattered, though. The words were intended to speak to his deepest fears, but he refused to give into them. The first Sith Empire had proven the words to be false. They had torn down the old, and built something new. A new peace.

Varyn felt the scalding in his hand, channeled into the monster, and yanked his hand back. The monster had other plans, however. It was often claimed by the Jedi that the Dark Side wasn't stronger, but that had been proven false time and again. Titans of the Dark Side and titans of the Light faced off, and inevitably it resulted in victory for the Dark Lords. Andraste, Kravos, and Evandrus vs. the Telunaris, Vollen Shai, Jinlo Halan, and Aliyah Phoenix or glimpses of a small green creature fighting a decrepit old man. Varyn couldn't have known what he was seeing at the time, but it was the path of Dark vs. Light. Dark was stronger.

And it was strongest by destroying. Attacking. Aggressing. He couldn't hope to simply resist the Light, but he could pour his own anger into the being. Whether it wanted to, it would feel a sudden hammer of emotion, and though Varyn alone may not have been able to overpower this being, it would be enough to offset the power of the creature.

Begone. You lie, he hissed. He thought back about all those who had died along the way. All those he had sent to their deaths, those of his Venatori brethren who had been murdered by fellow Sith for their beliefs about changing the galaxy, those who had tried to kill him, and those who had allowed the Empire to fall into disrepair. It caused his anger to burn. Hotter than he had ever known possible, and the power of the monster grew. Alone he may not have been able to hold out, but there were two other masters of the Dark Side who knew how to pour hatred and anger into the Force. Dead wives, betrayals, and more wracked their lives. More than enough emotions to go around.

 

[Darth Inheris]

Saorise screwed up her face as she listened to the emanation speak back to them. Here was something that knew them, she could feel its presence beyond its physical form probing them, feeling their feelings, sharing their thoughts. Its words were strange, and what did it say, that they could simply let their concerns, all concerns, be left to drift in the void of the galaxy? It was wrong. The Force had no plan, it was a tool, each could hardly leaves its destiny to it as one could leave their fate to the tide.

This place then, the child, was the tide rolling in, a flow that couldn't be anything else. It was they who could push back against it, direct it to where it needed to be. And if it tried to drown them within it, they would have to show it why it was they who were the ones who stood before it, and not any others.

As the being teleported across the space and gripped Varyn's hand, Saorise lashed out with the Force, her thoughts burying themselves in all she had learnt, all she had suffered to see her way forwards, to do what had to be done for this Empire. Part of her knew this wasn't the thoughts she often had, that the need to channel the Dark Side, to fuel her powers pointed her thoughts in directions they did not always go.

And yet, there was no other choice. And she made it willingly.

Reaching her arms out she let the Dark Side spill from her arms and wrap around the child's waist, tendrils of energy antithetical to the beings own would move to tear it away from Varyn and burn at its own 'hallowed' form. If Varyn was the bulwark she would be the blade, and Tagus was yet to come.

@Nefieslab @Raydo @Phoenix

 

[Darth Tagus]

The Light creature decided to go straight for the Emperor and that made sense. The emperor was their leader and if it succeeded in taking him down then he and Inheris would have a hell of a time taking it down. So the name of the game was simple in theory and difficult in practice; they had to make sure the creature left the Emperor alone.

Of course the Emperor resisted directly, Inheris lashed out with the Dark Side like a whip and Tagus? Well he went for a different approach.

The child was pure Light - so what he did was form a rough spike of Dark side energies in one hand. As a weapon it might be different but all it needed to do was act as the delivery system. He thrust the spike like a blade for the creature's back - the raw hatred, anger and fear that made up the spike would be pushed into the creature on contact.

The idea was to distract it with an attack that would push corruption into it's being to disrupt the Light. Almost like poisoning it with raw emotion.

@Nightfall @Phoenix
@Raydo (DM)

 

[The Storyteller]

As the Emperor opened himself to pour the Force into the being, the energy of the being continued to pour into him. As dark and light clashed inside him it would threaten the mortal body of the Emperor, even one as strong as him. His skin would begin to tear, light pouring from the wounds. The pain would be excruciating as the energy started to tear him apart.

The creature, being the force itself smothered the energies the sought to take ahold of it before it seized ahold of it.

The spike pierced the creature's back, causing an ear-shattering scream imbued by the force energy that made up the creature's body. A wave of energy would erupt from the creature. Targus and Rask would, in such close proximity, likely suffer severe hearing damage if not permanent damage from the scream and be thrown backward by the powerful force wave.

The creature stumbled backward away from the three Sith, droplets of light leaking from the creatures shoulder. It's eyes blazed with light, twinged with an angry fire

(Phone post - let me know if I need to clarify something)

 

[Varyn Rask]

Varyn experienced an agony unlike anything he had ever known before. Large, laceration like injuries began to open along his arms, and light spewed from them. Although the creature tried to smother the darkness, it wouldn't be able to shrug off all of the corrupting influence of the Dark Side. To ignore it completely would be nigh impossible because it wasn't the Force that Varyn had poured into the creature, it was emotion, and dark emotion at that. It was a feeling that would have been almost foreign to any entity that wasn't of the Dark Side. While it wouldn't cause as quick a reaction as a spear, such a drop of poison had a tendency to expand and multiply. It was the very thing that made the path to the Dark Side so difficult to resist: it multiplied like a virus infecting host cells.

It was clear, though, as the burns welled on his arms that the Emperor would not win a fight of sheer strength of will against the creature. He wrapped himself in the Force even as the screech and blast erupted. He was thrown backward, slamming roughly into the wall as his ears rang, but the blow was at least slightly cushioned by his action. Whatever this was, it was like no mortal enemy he had ever fought, but for all of his pain, they had learned something important: it could be hurt. And if it could be wounded, then it could be killed.

For the moment, Varyn made no move toward the creature. He channeled his anger and his rage, drawing from the agony coursing through him, as he pushed himself back to his feet. The wounds didn't heal, but they seemed to pull themselves closed through some unnatural process, and the Emperor readied himself for another round. He allowed the other Sith Lords to temporarily take the assault as he began to form a weapon of his own from the Dark Side. He had a feeling this was not a creature that could be harmed with a simple lightsaber.

 

[Darth Inheris]

As her whips of energy fell diffuse against the light energy the emanation generated around it, Saorise cursed internally. Whatever thoughts she had believed of her own proficiency with the Dark Side were so clearly misguided. She was learning that all too clearly in her return. First with Victress on Centares, one who'd once been her equal now had moved beyond. Here, Varyn had always had a power hidden under layers of restraint, and Tagus she had been unfamiliar with until recently, a figure that had moved forward and clearly utilised the Dark Side so completely. Even others who had once been mere acolytes approached or equalled her understanding.

She was learning, and learning quickly, that if she meant to maintain her position, her chance, she needed to grow, and expand not only her abilities but her powerbase as well.

Assuming they made it out of here.

Inheris felt only the remnants of the burst of light energy as the thing went to move away, and had thrown at least Varyn across the stone. If such a thing could hold back her partners, she meant not to close in on it for it would easily overpower her. But if she could allow them a moment to recommit their energies and keep it from doing so itself, then perhaps there would be a chance.

Having not taken the damage her allies might have, Saorise changed tact, summoning the Dark Side and trying to cloud the creatures mind with it, prevent it from reassessing the scenario and readying itself to defend any other attacks from Tagus or Varyn. And with the darkness Varyn had already pressed into the thing, hopefully it would be even more vulnerable to such influence.

They would find out soon enough.

@Nefieslab @Raydo @Phoenix

 

[Darth Tagus]

Well now!

Tagus shook his head as if to clear it, picking himself back up off from the floor and dusting himself off briskly. It seemed that his attack had damaged, harmed, the defensive creation of the Nexus and that was good. What was, however, not so good was being blasted halfway across the chamber.

And if the incessant ringing in his ears for any indicator? Tinnitus.

Well that or maybe something worse - he could swear there was some blood leaking from one of his ears - but that might actually have been from the landing against the stone. He had rolled with the landing but there was only so many ways to land on stone and none of them were especially light on damage.

The spike had worked though - educational!

Tagus focused as he started towards the creature again, drawing on the Dark Side again to form two such spikes in the form of blackness in his hands, sharpened to points. He grinned behind his mask and spoke (actually shouted considering the tinnitus and ear damage).

"Do you feel it yet, creature?" He taunted it, hoping to draw it's attention, "The pain? The anger? THE FEAR?!"

@Nightfall @Phoenix
@Raydo (DM)

 

[The Storyteller]

The creature recovered quickly enough from the attacks against it, its effects more corrupting than damaging in nature. It looked at the three Sith as the two began to right themselves. Its calm expression from earlier now tinged with confusion as the standing Sith Lord attempted its magic on it.

The arcane tattoos pulsed again, now tinged with black spots. Not giving the two Sith Lords time to recover, it pressed its attack almost immediately. Screaming as if it were in pain as it held out its hands towards Tagus and Rask, beams of pure energy shooting out from each hand towards them.

It began to recover some of its mental defenses as well, starting to push back against Inheris as it continued to press its attack against the still recovering Sith Lords.

 

[Darth Tagus]

Force Light.

Tagus knew about Force Light from his research... and he really hadn't liked what he had heard about it. Having it travel towards him at speed? Well he was even less okay with that. Thankfully his armour was rather light, allowing him a lot of freedom of movement, which allowed him to throw himself forwards into a roll.

Rolling underneath the beam that headed his way, Tagus pushed himself out of the roll into a sprint, keeping ahead of the beam and ducking and rolling again when it got closer to him again. Cursing, he would edge closer and closer to the creature utilizing these kind of evasion moves.

When he was close enough he would lash out with Force Fear, at the same time layering an illusion in front of him. It was a basic illusion, one so basic that it didn't even look like an illusion; he made it look like he was one foot to the right of where he actually was, to further throw off the creature's aim.

@Nightfall @Phoenix
@Raydo (DM)

 

[Darth Inheris]

Inheris looked about as she saw the creature begin to shoot out the beams of pure light at her allies. Dazzling blasts of energy moving through the air toward them, her own mental assault seemed to be having little effect. Watching as Tagus began to dart out of the way at it, she instead changed tact.

The creature held the worst of her mental attack back, but wasn't attacking her happily, and the brilliant display of power from it now had to be taxing, no matter what manner of creature it thought it was, it would take focus to sustain something like that, especially at two targets.

And she was a third.

Instead of continuing her mental attack, Inheris gathered dark energy into her hands and shot it out at the creatures chest, like a pair of darts shaped from pure darkness that would rocket toward it all while it kept its focus on other things. Between those, Tagus closing in, and whatever the Emperor would create, she doubted it would be able to dodge them all.

@Phoenix @Raydo @Nefieslab

 

[Varyn Rask]

Varyn couldn’t hope to fully absorb the beams of light permanently, but the Force-forged weapon managed to slow the progress, scalding into the weapon he’d already created as Varyn ripped up a stone that then absorbed the rest of the blast. The slab of rock was thoroughly unaffected by the blast, and from behind its cover Varyn unleashed a blast of lightning directed solely at the creature, ensuring not to strike his partners.

It was only a matter of time, as the corruption would slowly spread, they needn’t engage the creature directly while it was at full strength before its power in the Light would slowly wane. A house divided against itself - Light and Dark - cannot stand.

OOC: Sorry for the poor quality phone post, I’m still out of town and didn’t want to hold things up for too long. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything.

 

[The Storyteller]

With an outreached hand, he pushed on the rock slab, sending it flying straight back against the wall just before the creature was hit by the burst of lightning and hit by both darts.

The Force attack on the creatures mind prohibited it from defending itself properly with the damage of the attacks the creature let out another scream as it eyes faded to a pure black. The scream continued, filled with agony as the creatures lifted on the ground as it writhed in pain before exploding in wave of energy that would send a potentially lethal blast wave in all directions.

The roof above them would begin caving in, large chucks of debris falling towards the heads of the Sith Lords.