The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Okor]

Okor turned his helmed head towards Samus, warp-spawned parasites crawling under his skin, feasting on his ever-healing flesh, squatting among the liquidized ruins of the flesh-golem, wiping his plague-drenched blade ‘clean’ against the armour of his thigh. A low chuckle escaped his tortured throat as he began to speak, the sound reverberating around the ruined remains of the village. ”Do not be so quick to take us for fools, Aran. I know the value of my own soul to the… decimal, and I will not so readily sell what little I have left for power’s own sake. If these Dark Chips want to claim me, they will have to compete with my Gods first.” He rose, striding towards the sable shard being inspected by the young witchling.

”Careful, Madotsuki,” he said, a claw placed over her hand making some approximation of gentleness to guide her away from the crystal. Nanoscopic runes crawled over its surface,  the dark fire burning around their edge visible only to one so damned as Okor. He raised an armoured finger, pointing towards where her comparatively miniscule hands had been running towards. ”The runes spiral around each other, here. It’s a rather… potent gathering of power.”

“I can’t see any runes,” stated the dream-killer, curiosity evident upon her face as she inspected the crystal closely. Okor blinked, leprous lids closing over his God-granted eye. ”No, of course not. With the thousands of realities Omni has pulled from, not all of them would know of Warp-magic.” Okor looked at the ground beneath him, reaching down to raise a stone the size of human eye to closer inspect it. Nodding in approval, he dug his claws into his his own palm, translucent blood cascading over the pebble. Words in the black tongue of Nurgle slipped from his mouth, his host of parasites and pseudo-symbiotes rustled in chorus with his words, a low hum accompanying each of his words. The ambient hum of his fellow abominations twisted and turned, forming new words, a second voice formed from the relentless hunger of his host speaking a second incantation.

As both chants came to their conclusion, he opened his fist, the stone turned milky-white and barely translucent, miniscule runes circling around its edge. He tossed the tainted stone to Madotsuki, the barbs and scars needed to speak in the black tongue slowly fading as he shook his head, the emphatic aftermath of his amateur magecraft attempting to wrack his warp-touched mind. ”Here. You should be able to see through this.”

Madostuki looked curiously at the stone, the runes along its edge seemingly attempting to crawl away from her sight. She rose the runed rock to her eye, letting out a small gasp as its dark magic revealed the veritable manuscript etched in ever-shifting sigils upon the crystal. “How… What does this mean?”

A talon reached out, pointing towards another twisted mass of tainted runes. ”The script is vastly different from my world. The basic principles should still be… transferable, though.” His hand drifted over the crystal, a single drop of diseased blood falling from his still-wounded hand, quickly being absorbed by the sorcerous shard. Black lightning coursed through it, the infinitesimal amount of blood being carried through the crystal by a chariot of coruscating arcs of electricity. After a few seconds of this light show, it spat the drop out at speed, the blood turned black and acidic as it ate away at the wall of a nearby hut.

”Blood in, blood out,” chuckled the Plagued Paladin.

“... It’s a heart.” Concluded Madotsuki, keeping her voice neutral, regardless of her feelings on the matter.

646 Words according to the OV.