Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everybody! How are you all doing?

God only knows how this is going to work out.

I guess I can only find the strength to post stuff during holidays.

Eh, I hope that's not too horrible, but sadly my work drains me of any willpower to write and even now I find it very difficult to hype myself up enough.

I either forget something important, think of something new and great, try to mix them and fail, or I just open the writing menu and immediately give up on writing.

I don't know why...

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break..

A few hours later... - Kilnchapel - Alice's Point Of View...

A fresh breeze filled with natural magic woke me from my daze as Fluffy flew over the great iron city of Kilnchapel.

It was a massive city, built upon the dry remains of a lake rich in iron and other metals. The city seemed to be wide awake as people of all kinds were rushing around its center, where a giant statue stood. It appeared to be a lithe man with a glowing sword and shield in hand, wearing strange enchanted clothing, almost as if he were some form of adventurer.

Ah, is this a statue built in the honor of my grandfather, Lucian Pendragon?

Also, the entire city appears to be surrounded by the corpses of ratmen... something seems to be amiss.

My soldiers within the city appeared to have noticed me by this point and had a large oval area cleared of people to allow me and my bat monstrosity to land. As soon as I reached solid ground, two familiar faces approached me. One belonged to the guardsman I promoted to a commander Argon Lissarn, and the other belonged to Clauss, the dwarven mayor of this remarkable city.

The human of the two rushed to salute me."Milady Pendragon!"

"Hello to you as well, soldier. I see that you've been quite busy." I somehow managed to hide my disappointment from the man, who leaped in joy but the dwarf spoke before he could say anything else."Yes, your men arrived here just in time to reinforce my city against the ratmens attack. The filthy beasts threw everything they had at us, even their young, but with the help of your elite troops, we managed to exterminate them!"

So the rats have been unmade, eh?"I see. I assume that casualties on our side were not dire?"

Both the dwarf and the man stepped back and looked away from my judging gaze and when neither dared speak, I let out a sigh."I suppose that's the best we could have hoped for. Holding out until reinforcements arrived was not an option?"

My question was quickly answered by Clauss as the old dwarf pointed towards a giant hole in the ground in the middle of the city."No milady. The ratmen attacked us from all sides, swarming the walls with their young while the more experienced soldiers attacked us in the rear... my forces were about to rout when your men charged in and saved us all, but both of us paid a heavy price of soldiers lives. The civilian population has not been harmed but a great many families shall spend the next few days in mourning."

"Then bring the construction plans to a pause, let the people mourn for a few days before we begin drafting workers." A nod was my answer as I looked back towards Fluffy and sighed."Well, I suppose that's all I could do her-"

"MILADY PENDRAGON!" A soldier exclaimed somewhere from my left, dragging behind him a white-furred ratman who appeared to still be alive. This rat had golden, glowing eyes much like mine and a few threads of his fur were colored crimson. A chaosborne ratman?

The soldier stopped in front of me with a tired sigh."Speak, soldier!" My exclamation brought the man out of what appeared to be a strange daze."H-huh... lady Pendragon?.. what?.. I thought you were a-..." The man fell onto the ground, alive but unconscious. The ratman he was dragging around rose to his feet, a withered cane in his hands. My current entourage rose to action and drew their blades, yet a wave of my hand stopped them from attacking the old rat.

The strange thing looked me dead in the eye and ripped out one of its whiskers after scratching it, deep crimson blood flowing freely from the fresh wound. It licked some of its own blood and gulped, seemingly regaining a portion of its strength."N-not regain, reuse. N-not last l-long." The ratman spoke, much to the confusion of my guards.

"You can read minds, old one?" The rat shook its head in negative, making me quirk an eyebrow in turn."N-no n-no... your thoughts.. loud... too loud... cannot h-help but re-read."

"I see." A blink was the old ones answer as I watched him *reuse* more of his own blood, eventually managing to fully open his eyes with renewed vigor."You wouldn't have mind controlled the soldier and made him bring you here without a reason, old rat. Why are you here?"

He swallowed down hard, his golden eyes betraying the rats intense sadness and despair."I.. we... Gadrik came to ask this; why have you not c-come to s-save u-us?"

I blinked in confusion as the wheels turned inside of my head, the image of Chaos popping inside of my mind and yet, not a single soundless sound to follow it."I do not understand. What do you mean?"

Gadrik took an amulet out of his weathered pale robes. It was made out of crude iron yet seemed to glow as brightly as gold as it devoured the very shadows around it. A foolish man would claim it was a holy artifact, but I knew better, for the image of a thousand-eyed wolf was carved into the front of the amulet while the backside seemed to picture an endlessly bleeding creature of, to me at least, unknown origin."The Devouring One told us to flee our home in the m-mountains.. c-c-come here, to dwarf-city. There, another like m-me would bring us into h-her f-fold, a matriarch but not rat-kind... you... it was promised you would save us."

The guards around me seemed to shiver in fear in discomfort, not entirely sure of how to react as I cracked my neck, the giant bat behind me merrily deciding that this wasn't worth its time and promptly fell to the floor in order to take a quick nap."And why did you have to flee your home, old one?"

Gadrik blinked, almost as if uncertain of something."... have, have?.. flee.. we flee from ogres, they saw the shiny things in our lair, wants them... attack us... a-ah, my essence fades... please, tell me..." The rat pulls out another whisker and drinks as much as possible."Why have you not come to save us?"

"Was there another option? Couldn't you have stood your ground and fought or appeased the ogres somehow?" Gadrik stared directly at me once more, yet I held the old rats gaze."Such q-questions.. and yet, you should know nothing about our f-fight."

His eyes closed for a long moment and when they opened again, one eye was no longer golden or glowing. In its place was a pure-white socket, a blind thing upon a blinder host."The ogres... demanded food. Our young. The adults refused, said if I decide this, they eat and replace me as leader..."

"And what did the Cosmic Beast tell you to do?" Now, my soldiers were letting out soundless screams as they connected a few dots, Clauss himself deciding to approach me as Gadrik went silent."Lady Pendragon... are you.. no, do you worship the Cosmic Beast?"

I sent the old dwarf several blinks before answering."Its surprising that you don't know this, Lord Clauss. My family is cursed, has been for ages. The main heir of the family inherits the curse with each generation, a curse which turns the eyes gold and the hair white with strands of crimson depending on how far the curse has progressed. This curse grants the heir near preternatural physical strength, speed and overall vitality. This curse, originates from the Cosmic Beast."

Everyone around me let out an ooh sound with one of the guards suddenly saying."That don't sound too bad for a curse, milady."

"Well, so long as you manage to ignore the occasional whispers of utter and absolute insanity, then yeah, its not all bad." Gadrik let out a laugh, forcing my attention back towards him."I.. I see now... maybe I was meant to die." He looked over himself and promptly stopped drinking his essence. Then he offered me a curt bow."T-thank you.. for allowing me clarity in these final moments, sister Alice... May your d-days be short and your life long..." Then his tone took a far darker outline."... and may the c-cosmic b-BITCH!, stay far away from you-you!" With that one final roar of defiance, the old rat turned to dust and ashes with a silent scream, leaving nothing but the amulet behind.

Without even attempting to resist the temptation, I took the amulet into my hands.

AHH! THERE WE GO!

So now you decide to show yourself, mother? Would asking for a clear explanation of what just happened be too much to ask?

YOUR CHOICES HAVE RUINED OUR ALREADY WEAKENED LINK, ALICE. If I could have called out to you before this, I would have.

I blinked in momentary confusion as I stared at the amulet in my hands.

YOU HAVE CHO-

I let go of the amulet.

Silence, ahhh beautiful silence.

Deciding not to piss off mother dearest, I picked up the iron-wrought amulet and put it around my neck."Uhh, are you sure that wearing that thing is a wise idea, young lady?" Clauss asked me with a worried glance as I shrugged."Eh, if you were in my shoes, you'd realize that doing otherwise in this situation would be a very bad idea."

Another spree of oohs resounded as I commanded everyone to return to their posts. Argon Lissarn approached me, bearing with him the amulet of Vytar that I offered as a temporary proof of rank."Milady, if you're going to be wearing that thing... perhaps you should take this one back as well?"

Shrugging at the man, I took the amulet and pocketed it before congratulating the him for a job well done. He left in a seeming hurry to relay the news to the rest of the soldiers as I mounted Fluffy once again and took to the skies without another word. The magic-seeped fresh and frosty air alleviated my growing headache as I grasped the Chaos Amulet into my hands.

Well that was exceedingly rude of you, young lady.

To be perfectly honest mother, I don't think you have the right to say that to anyone.

... a fair point, but also one which proves my own, darling.

I guess you could call it a, double-edged point, then?

A spree of toneless laughter echoed in my mind and I let out a few chuckles of my own before continuing out loud like some madwoman flying in the sky."So am I to assume that I chose to walk a different path of fate than you had in mind, mother?"

You offered mercy to a necromancer, a person whose very existence defies me and followed cold logic to solve a situation which would cause even the least attuned to me to follow my will.

So why is it that you do not appear angry?

You rejected my path and thus ruined our already weakened link... but because of your actions, another gate has been opened within your soul.

... Did I gain a connection to... father?

Of a sort, yes. Though it is not strong enough for him to speak to you directly, not that he would even if it were.

But if that's the case how does he ever even get anyone to follow him?

He is perfection. Even if he does nothing at all, mortal beings will bow before him... His silence tends to make them even more devoted than direct communication, as it allows their fragile mortal minds to make up their own versions of what and who he is.

That's... kind of terrifying.

Right? Either way, without a proper amulet of his power, you will never have the ability to hear his voice.

So same as yours is currently, right?

Indeed, though I doubt that things will remain this way for long. A perfect balance such as this... not even Antioch could possibly keep it for long.

A perfect balance? Antioch?.. ehh...

Your soul is currently split into two exact halves of purely opposing forces, a balance of Order and Chaos.. thought you have already taken steps to shatter that balance.

A glint in the corner of my eye caught the amulet of Vytar shining with power on my hip.

The traitorous whore has been listening in to our conversations for quite a long time now... though her choice of focus interests me greatly, considering the lives at stake.

Vytar's amulet suddenly let out a massive glow of power for the briefest moment before the amulet lost all of its glow and returned to being a normal holy item.

What just happened?...

You will find out soon enough, Alice.

I swallowed down hard, not entirely sure that I liked what I just heard.

Shaking my head out of my stupor, I realized that I was already back to the front of my castle, the half-built city below me already had several makeshift houses and an artificial moat built to separate its future districts. An immense portion of the forest had been cut down in order to fuel the construction of the city, with quality stone being imported from gods know where.

The formerly wild road had been cleared of all plant life and what remained was a well-walked strait of dirt, with the occasional spot of paved tiles here and there. A city in the womb, growing as any child does, greedily draining its mother of precious resources.

I snorted to myself, realizing that that might have been a though sent to me by Chaos... Perhaps she is right... what have I done recently to deserve her favor?

Oh well, I'm sure than an opportunity to correct things will arrive sooner or later, no?

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break..

And thats it for this chapter of Destiny; Infernal!

I'm sorry for the huge wait between chapters but eh, such is life.

This is my very first (read; successfull) job, so I really don't wanna mess it up.

Which is why I have very little willpower left to give to writing.

I hope that you guys can handle the wait time without too much chaos-deprivation. XD

Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!