A Shadow on the Seal

Zenevas cast a pall on the shops, his dominating height and oppressive helm and armor only slightly muted by the sweeping black robes. He was alone. He stepped in front of the Seal. He breathed deeply. No one can phase, teleport or cast a spell to get through. All right.
He walked through the Seal without hinderance. The Tower loomed in front of him. His third plan was going on well.
(Monster Master, NPC control needed.)

'Who is this young lad I'm seeing?' asked the Seal, eyeing Zenevas eye-to-eye. He felt this 'scary' presence looming from him, in form of a black aura. Some sort of spell he released, he figured. For someone who doesn't feel anything like him, he didn't bother. His job is to prevent anyone from entering. He just needed to ask the question to this lad to see if he's 'worth it'.

"I am a willing student of the Arcane. I come to learn of the mystic arts and also impart some of my own magic into the tower, for the benefit of the magicians inside." What he said was true. He knew his knowledge was vast and that the Tower was going to flourish with his knowledge. Under his robes, the Journal of Hyarnakal was wrapped in cloth.

The doors of the Seal flung themselves open. The Seal said these lines that he always said to everyone, 'I shall keep an eye on you.' He placed an irremovable rune above Zenevas' head. 'Don't be alarmed,' said the Seal, as he gestured Zenevas to go in, 'The rune is harmless, and irremovable. It only tells me where you are, and what you are doing. After you leave the Dimension, it will disappear.'


A set of wizards greeted Zenevas with a bow, just like what they do to every mage that comes inside. "Follow this way, the Tower is waiting," said one of the wizards, leading the path.


The area was vast and huge. It was a floating island, after all. The sky isn't a sky, but a view of the cosmos, with the other Dimensions looming 'in front of them', urging them to go to them before going back here. The Tower was in front of them, but the distance is far.

Zenevas dipped his helm slightly and followed. His right hand gripped the Journal in its wrapping.
"I have new arts to teach to you great lords of magic. I am Zenevas yet I am also Annatar, Lord of Gifts and I have a particularly interesting gift for you." he said. He stopped to look at his reflection and copied the rune on his forehead onto a piece of paper.

(o.o)

"Like what, sir?" asked a wizard behind Zenevas. He didn't dare look at the journal he's writing at, and he wondered why he copied the rune. Even if he would dare use it, only those in the Dimension are its scope of effect.

"The Art of Defiling, master." Zenevas said. "A sparring session then! In the courtyard. I shall demonstrate." He announced.

'Art of Defiling?' thought the wizard, it was a regular thinking session. He didn't care if someone can read his head right now, he felt like saying it, 'I wonder what that is.'

He walked towards the courtyard of the Tower. He walked towards another side, and waited for Zenevas to walk on the other. "If you need to demonstrate this...'Art' somewhere, then this should be worth watching. What should I do?"

Zenevas walked to the other side, near a grove of trees. "We shall test our prowess in magic. No attacks, just demonstrations of our arts." He waited for the wizard to act.

"Like this?" asked the wizard as he raised an arm and a seal appeared on the air. It expanded and the center of the seal is 'space' 'ripped off' from the air. From Zenevas' direction, he will just see a 'jelly-like', transparent liquid, on the wizard's direction, on the other hand, he's seeing Zenevas as if he's only three feet away: a warp seal. "That's the first thing I can think of."

Zenevas snorted inaudibly. He raised a hand to face level and bolt of green bionergy shot out of the tips of his fingers.
"Without Defiling" he explained.
He half turned so that his other palm faced the grove behind him. He concentrated a moment. The tree began to whither and shadows crawled upward their bark. Soon they collapsed in a heap of foul-smelling mulch.
He repeated the bionergy, but this time, a whole storm of bionergy shot out of his fingers. They coiled like hungry emerald snakes in their dozens. The lightning was so fierce, it was alarming. The wizards could see the trees' life force adding a huge amount of power to Zenevas' aura.
"With Defiling." he murmured when the storm was gone.

The wizards are, of course, shocked with what Zenevas did.

"Basically..." said the wizard that did the first spell, "You 'feed' yourself energy bye using the life force of...living things."

"The harshest of all harsh rules I've ever heard," whispered another wizard, "What kind of magic is this, if I may ask?"

"Hmm..." asked another, "How can you 'contribute' your knowledge about Defiling to the Tower?"

"Not the Tower, no the Tower shall not be defiled, but with my knowledge and yours combined, the Tower Arcanii will rise above all but one Tower."he said, he looked at the magicians.
"Do not fear me, for together the Towers of Angband and Arcanii will become the two strongholds of the entire Cyberspace! Do not let this chance for power, unspeakable power to pass you by, for with the union of the Two Towers, nothing can stand against us!" s dark shadow fell over the Tower, but he spoke with truth to the wizards. Ultimate Power was just in front of them , along with the alliance of the Dark Lord.

"Another powerful mage seeking allegiance," said the wizard, sighing in disappointment, "If this is your business here, then I'm afraid you must go. We do not seek to take sides once this 'war' we foresee happens. We are in the Cross Dimensions, we do not take sides."

The other wizards nodded and someone in white came from the Tower of Arcanii: an archmage. "What is this?"

Zenevas felt nothing but pity and also regret. The Tower was indestructible. The wizards however were not. But he did not want that. He looked at them in scorn.
"I hand you the power to change this world as you see fit, to control the world, protect the ones you care for in the coming war. You could have made a difference." he shook his head and turned to go. But before that he defiled every living thing in the Tower that could not resist his power. Mice, birds, flowers, millions of insects, hundreds of billions of germs and viruses, trees, shrubs, fungus, worms and every other thing weaker than a human was drained of their life and strengthened the Dark Lord. He walked pat the Seal and felt the rune disappear.
When he was past the seal, he took out 5 Arcane Locks and placed them before the Seal. The Seal was not affected in anyway but the way was locked. The Arcane Locks contained Zenevas' energy and they formed a pentacle. Anything that went through the pentacle will be ravaged by necrifying energy and would rot, if not, get cancer or physical entropy. A sixth Arcane Lock he placed before the pentacle to absorb the soul of any weakened being that passed. He smiled and sat in a stool from a stall.

The archmage was disappointed. "Such power..." said the Archmage, the other wizards, unaffected, nodded as they helped the Archmage 'recreate' what he just 'destroyed'. One wizard came running towards the archmage, "It seems that we can't pass the Seal."
The archmage laughed, "Good! So no one would dare visit!"

Zenevas took out the drawing of the Seal's Rune. He added a comma here, a little dash here and voila! His own watch titan rune!

Set appeared from the skies, landing on the floor a few miles away from the Seal. There's a commotion near the Seal, he saw strange looking locks forming a strange portal-thingy. He didn't dare approach, he knew something was wrong.

Xanatos, from a flash, appeared on the roof of the tallest store. He was hoping to enter the Tower to scan a few books on what he's trying to research about. Notebook on hand, he looked on where this Seal is. He saw the Seal, which is very unusually quiet. He knew what's happening. Something's very wrong. "What is this?" he asked, seeing the strange device from three miles away.

Mara walked with the crowd, and she stopped as they stopped. She stared at the crowd, hoping they didn't recognize that she didn't belong there. They didn't. Something else happened.

Zenevas turned to the direction of Xanatos and sent a plume of fire, thinner than a hair yet hotter than a volcanoes flame, towards him. He sent shockwaves of necrotic power down the street that Mara was in and summoned a pillar of cold energy at Set. The Vrangaka and the Sickle slid down his arms.

Xanatos made a heat-zone, just in case something was wrong. He focused on the Seal as his senses picked up something, an attack from somewhere.

"NuMaRm."

A column of spinning lava materialized from Xanatos' left hand, in appearance of a lava storm, countered the thin yet very powerful attack. Being a natural elementalist, Xanatos made a spinning motion with his finger as the storm spiraled around the plume, and it covered it, making it Xanatos'.

He sent it towards the strange fellow that attacked him.

Mara became one with the environment and she phased safely past the attacks. She wondered, 'Whoever might do that?'

Set phased through the shadows and avoided the attack. "It's not him that I came for," he whispered as he phased back, "Why on earth would he attack so suddenly? Unless..."

Set smiled.

Zenevas plunged the Sickle into the ground and Defiled. All plants, insects and critters around him in a 30 meter radius died. He released the Sickle and raised the Vrangaka. Xanatos attack was sent into Zenevas' pocket dimension. He pointed the sword at Set's direction and launched a beam of necrotic energy. He shimmered a little.