Ian was drawn again to the dark. It called to him. He wanted power. He wanted GODLY power. He wanted to be able to act as he pleased. But at the same time, he knew there were good people he would have to fight for it to come to pass. He was torn. So, the evil inside had led him here, where it would be stronger. It began to feed on the ambient darkness of the area. Ian cringed, feeling a stabbing pain in his chest. He could barely speak, he was gagging.

"Gg...GURK...Guh...auk..."

"GUAAA!" He managed to fight it off by cutting his palm. He struggled with himself. And he howled out, loudly and painfully. The area would mute the sound greatly though. The Evil Within had taken great cares to ensure it's host would not have any help.

"Ggguuaa....aaaoooor...NRRRG!....EIYAAAURGH!"

Ian clawed at his chest. His feet became stuck in the mud. He clenched his face. "No! No! I'm me, you're not me! Get out! Get out!"

"Hah...You're you? That is pathetic, I'm as much you as you are."

"THIS IS MY BODY! GET OUT! GET OUT!"

"You see how our voices intermingle? I've been with you since you were created in the womb. I'm the rightful owner here, I'M the soul, you're just the shell! Get out! I've taken pains to get you here! Exerting my will on you is a difficult task, in my present state, I don't want dominance, I want to be the only sentience in this magnificent, beuatiful, strong body! Now Submit!"

The best laid plans, as they say, however...

...Might get mucked up by Paladins who can't learn a lesson, even one as simple as "Don't go into the misty woods if you are going to get f***ing lost." Sadly, such a case was happening, as Meglumar, despite only having decided to leave the Sanctuary of Angels to go on a small walk, somehow ended up BACK in the misty woods, and heading towards the swamp. He was angry, because of this, but admitedd it could be worse. He could run into Ian and have to fight him again, as he still lacked armor. Granted, he did master that weird spell he somehow subconsciously learned, as well as a spell of Holy Magic.

He looked around, sighing. Still lost, all these trees looked exactly the same! How was he supposed to figure out which path led where?! He could not fly above the fog, he was no elf with super vision, but even then he doubted an elf could find their way through THIS! For the love of Kieraline, Lothlómendil, and Curin, what person would not put some sort of sign port or something for people to see and use?! He'd do it, if he had the materials for such a thing, but he lacked the money for that!

He then heard a noise in the distance. A faint scream! Maybe a damsel in distress! it sounded high pitched enough! He drew his sword, and ran in the direction he thought he heard the faint screams. After a few moments of running, he arrived at the swamp to see....Ian. Hunched over and looking downright odd. Lothlómendil damn it all to hell, why can't he, for once, get a break from strange happenings?! Does this happen to ALL Paladins?! Maybe he should ask the next one he sees about what oddities they have seen....If he ever found his way out of this damned maze, where he felt he would be trapped...for all of his gaming life.[/Rawest Forest reference]

Ian looked over at Meglumar, distracted for a split second by the intrusion. That was The Inner Evil needed. Ian jerked, his breath caught in his throat, and he froze, stiff, where he was.

Ian's face paled. He gripped his Elven Saber with ferocity. Ian's alignment shifted to Chaotic Evil. And so began a reign of terror. Ian's head turned to look at Meglumar. Meglumar didn't NEED a "Detect Evil" Spell to get a vague idea of what just happened. Ian grinned sadistically. And he began chanting an incantation.

........Oh gods dammit AGAIN! What happened to Ian now? Ugh, whatever, it did not matter, he obviously had gone insane. Maybe that Evil Soul crap he was spewing. Whatever the case, he was casting something, and Meglumar did NOT want to find out what! It would not be a good thing, and was likely to hurt worse than a drink of some drink his father bought from a merchant..."Warlock's punch," it was called, and it made his father suffer immensely, through many disturbing ways. But what spell could Ian be casting NOW? Looking back at the list of spells Ian mentioned before......well, if he got any of them, Meglumar was going to be screaming "HyeaaaaaaaAAAAUUUURGH" Like his father did.

Of course, he's not take that sitting down. He himself placed his hands together, and began to recite the phrase needed for the Holy Magic Spell. "Gods, bring salvation to this soul!" He yelled out, firing off a golden bolt of light at Ian, illuminating some of the swamp somewhat. This was bad, VERY bad. If Ian was going to fight to kill, could Meglumar's magic deal with his speed? Then again though, how would an insane looking Ian fight?

...He'd rather not know. Meglumar started looking around for something, anything that could be used to fight the crazed man off, vines, ropes, left over items, ANYTHING! Nothing but mud and old vegetation, though, was all he could see at the moment. This was partially due to the way the swamp was. If there WAS anything here, it was probably buried in this crap! Hell, if Meglumar had time, he might have wanted to dig in this mud, it probably has lots of things buried beneath. He just hoped to the gods none of it would react badly to Holy magic and blow the area up in an insanely large explosion.

Sadly, no such explosion occurred, no matter how much the forces that are wanted it to.

Ian finished casting the spell for Haste. Now he was moving at TWICE his normal speed. And he had a sword specifically made for his type of fighting. And so he began dashing and weaving around at very high speed. And the mud was almost given a voice, due to how much of it there was, and combined with Ian's fast movement, you got something like...


"SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP-SHLORP-SHLURP!"

...that.

Ian drew back with his sword and made a pinpoint stab at Meglumar's left knee. Almost immediately afterwards, Ian carried the sword into an arc upwards and aimed a slash across Meglumar's face.

Aside from the ear-rending and table breaking caused by Ian's movements, Megllumar had no chance to see what was coming. He was stabbed in the knee, and Ian managed to not only knock off Meglumar's mask with the slash, but somehow slash his face beneath it! Meglumar fell back into the mud, becoming buried in it. Oh, this is all sorts of icky...... Meglumar thought, feeling the mud around him and in his wounds. He would need a bath fit for a king when he was done with this, just to remove the disturbing, yet surprisingly squishy, feelings.

Wait one second...where was his mask? He had it just one second ago, right? But why was his face feeling the mud? As mentioned above, it was knocked off, but Meglumar had not realized this until now. He suddenly felt an unending amount of hate towards Ian. That was the SECOND mask he had destroyed and/or lost! That was IT! Meglumar officially was in this fight. He would have to find some sort of replacement mask once this was done, probably from tree bark. He couldn't wander back into town without it! But for now, he had one goal: Make Ian pay for his evil deeds. Namely Mass Maskocide.

Beneath the mud, he repeated his chant for the Holy spell, and fired it up right where Ian was. Let's see him dodge such a spell at close range! Meglumar thought, pulling himself up out of the mud, looking like some sort of tar monster. Great, another thing he'd have to do is wash his clothing. He had just bought these after Ian ruined the last set. Did Ian's presence somehow seem to doom anything that belonged to him?! Keeping his sword at the ready, he tried to figure out a way to deal with an Ian who looked like he'd had one too many of those strange energy potions that merchants sometimes sold. So far, he was drawing a......a.....great, Ian hit him so hard, he forgot what you drew when you drew a......DAMMIT!

Ian wasn't about to let up on his attacks, even if he WAS struck in the chest with a holy spell. Which BURNT. AND STUNG. And...made him let up...damn.

"OW!" It brought him out of his berserk state at least...Though he casted a "Dark Regneration" spell on himself to mitigate the holy damage. And then he spoke. Sadly, due to his haste spell, it was spoken twice as fast as it normally would have.

"This just isn't my day...Have you ever considered getting a HELMET, Meglumar? It'd protect you and it wouldn't be destroyed as easily, you realize that? Sigh...it's an unfortunate realization, but your stronger than I am right now. Well, my goal is power, so this WILL change...Lack of my indecision is helpful, though. Whoaaaugh! Ugh, hang on, I'm going to wait for this stupid Haste Spell to wear off..."

So Ian crossed one arm over his chest, the other still holding the saber, just in case, and he began to wait for the Haste Spell to end.

Meglumar had no idea what Ian just said, and he did not care. He raised his hands, forming yet another holy spell. "I have no idea what you just said, but I don't care. You've attacked me again, and stabbed my leg! I'd say you've gone evil. And your reaction to the Holy Spell proves it! My apologies, Mr. Vaner, but this must end here and NOW!" He said, aiming at Ian as he prepared to launch the spell. "I wish you good luck in the after life, Mr. Vaner." He said, as he prepared to unleash his attack. A sad thing, this situation. He'd hoped Ian would turn good...but alas....

....Well, of course, this scenario wouldn't work to well, for Ian. So, naturally, Meglumar's bad luck came into play as he aimed at Ian to fire his spell, he tripped, fell back, and his holy spell flew off into the air. He landed in the mud face down, bubbles of air surfacing from the mud tho show he was alive, and likely listening, albeit in an angry, spiteful manner. WHY NOW!? WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN HERE?! How humiliating this was...

"I still haven't done anything wrong yet, Meglumar...Aside from attacking you, that is. Oh well. I don't have much to say, really."

And it was true he didn't. He COULD rant on and on about his plans, but truth be told, he didn't HAVE ANY. He was going to get power one way or another, that was just about it. Once Ian realized that, it was probably time to do some brainstorming. Meglumar wasn't going anywhere for a while, so he took this oppurtunity to think.

Money was the key here. Aurum est potestas, "Gold is power", after all. So there had to be a way of getting a lot of money with significant speed. Sadly, Ian noticed that his wallet gradually filled up over time, and even if he grabbed a bar of solid gold, it didn't make a difference to his wealth. It was about 5 gold per action, no matter what the action was. So he needed to find a way to get lots of activity. Battling was one way, but the paradox of such was that to battle WELL, he would need to battle. So bloodshed was out.

A guild was feasable, if unappealing. And there didn't seem to be any real high-profile guilds...Aside from those that served Raku or Ita or something. And lord, THOSE didn't appeal to him. If he was trying to usurp the gods, joining a group dedicated to one of them was distinctly counterproductive. Hmm...Perhaps he could look into creating one of his own, one for those who wanted to gain strength without having to be at someone's beck and call. That could work, but recruitment would be an issue for certain...

Damn, this was going nowhere!

Ian decided to put the planning off for a bit. He decided to test what sort of opponent Meglumar would be in the future. It would be one thing to beat a dogmatically minded sort who blindly followed the gods, while it would be an entirely alternate one if he was dealing with someone out to get him specifically.

"Meglumar...hypothetical question. What do you think the world would be like without gods? Would it be a ruined world? Or a more prosperous one, as all divine conflicts would cease? No dark gods of evil, prompting sentient life to sin, or creating monsters to ravage the world, and at the same time, no gods of light and order to fall back on, thus forcing the races of Arda to advance on their own? I think it would be so much better, what about you? What do YOu think, being of a paladianic order?"

Truth be told, Ian was fairly certain "Paladianic" was NOT a word, but it suited it's purpose."

What VILLAINOUS nonsense! First him just standing there like an idiot, then asking hypothetical questions! He rose out of the mud, spitting it out of his mouth. Oh GODS, that was by far the most horrid taste he'd ever dealt with! Even his father's cooking was better than that crap! He felt like today was just NOT his day. A world without gods? What a horrid world that would be! He couldn't even STAND the thought of it, it made him sick! Wait. No, that was the mud in his stomach. Which was now in his throat. Now his mouth. Now flying in midair towards Ian.

After vomiting up the hellish bile that was in his stomach, he started to reply to Ian's question. "People are weak, by their very nature. While people may not cause as much Chaos as some gods, they also can not cause the same level of peace. A world without gods is a world doomed to fail. At the same time, a world of gods only is doomed to fail. Only this world, a world of gods and men, has any chance at peace. Otherwise, without the two working mutually for each other, things would go awry for both!"

"But enough of that! What the hell has happened to you!?" He spat out, a serious look, one of determination in his eyes. Whatever happened to Ian made him a great deal more evil. His reaction to the Holy spell proved that. If only he had that Sound Spell, he could stop Ian here and now with little to no problem! Damn his inability to know spells when he needed them! He might get Ian down with Holy, but he'd already tried 3 attacks, and was tiring. Chances are, Ian was going to escape from this in one piece. Everything else was going wrong, so it would only be likely this would happen.

Ian breathed an inward sigh of relief. An obsessed opponent would be much easier to deal with than one who actually took into consideration what his opponent thought and used it against them. Which was what Ian was doing. And it was going so well until Meglumar decided to imitate Linda Blair...

Quickly strafing to avoid the unholy mix of stomach juices and muck, Ian was a bit more whimsical. He decided he'd pick on Meglumar a bit.

"Look on the bright side, if you don't wipe all that mud off, you won't need to worry about wearing a mask back to town! Ever thought of getting a "Polymorph Self" spell?"

Ian was amused by Meglumar. Meglumar could be strong when roused to battle, but was rather oafish otherwise. Ian had identified the trick to dealing with Meglumar, or so he thought, it was just a matter of keeping Meglumar confused. Thus, acting unpredictable and chaotic would be the way to go. Truthfully, Ian didn't understand why Meglumar found his face such a curse. Being able to have dominance over roughly half the population was an asset, one way or another. Ian would have to look into stregthening his bloodline a bit, and pick up an "Enchantment" spell to fully enable him to do the same. Though, back on track, Ian decided to say something to contradict his earlier deceptively helpful suggestion.

"As for what's happened to me, I've simply decided to stop limiting myself. Not embracing my own nature weakened me greatly, this way, I can attain my true level of strenth. I am inherently evil, you are inherently good."

Ian then remembered that one half-angel he tutored for a few minutes, having helped him break through his amnesia. Ecthel, or rather, Ein had mentioned knowing Meglumar. Ian decided to shift topic again.

"I wonder how Ein, or Ecthel as you know him, will take it..." He held up one of Ein's feathers that he'd tugged off, having heard that angel feathers were good luck. "I should really find him again, He's only HALF Angel, so I need two of these for the luck, obviously. The poor boy. I can already see that innocent little face contorting in anger and confusion, wondering why the same person who helped him work through his amnesia is now a threat to everything he stands for! THAT will be entertaining!"

HE Ran into Ecthel too? Okay, there is a limit as to what he could stand. Technically, Ian was right earlier, he was legally safe. But Meglumar had had it, he wasn't going to handle this anymore. This was getting downright ridiculous. "OK, know what Ian? I'm out of here. I'm sick and tired of you, this place, this day in general, and all of it's coincidences!" He said, obviously annoyed. He pulled his hood over his face more, just enough to keep his face out of view from others, but not so that eh could not see the path ahead.

He walked off, making one last statement. "Keep this in mind, Ian. I'm still a weakling. yet ONE Holy spell of mine was all that was needed to bring you to a halt. There are people FAR stronger than I, I've met them. They can and will bring you down. It is an inevitability. I suggest you go back to the way you were. You'll survive longer." With that, he walked back into the mist, and AWAY from that swamp. He was so angry...when he got back to the inn, he'd have to sleep all this annoyance off.