In March 2012, an army of 40 faced the wrath of 60 and prevailed. The sound of war and the ferocity in warrior hearts reached far below the forest into the darkest corners of the earth, where a fallen Lord felt their efforts in defending the very core of himself. The separation from his name was like being torn in two; his physical self in one world, and his very soul in another. Where it belonged; in the possession of friends and strangers to whom his everything belonged to.

Iaurdagnire ran for days in the dark, spurred on by the adrenaline of every stag and doe who sliced and slayed the demons who would dare try to touch what did not belong to them. One battler fought most fervently in sending this message - Ephiré. The one who had helped send his friend to hell so that he may come out the other side a free being and return home. If Gods did not know his name already, they would know now and fear it... They would do well to fear each, and every one of them.

The Scar-Giant would never really know what transpired on Dandelion Hill. Their spirit lifted him, and a battle won fueled his determination to see his journey though. He will find Velocity.

And the Wolf? ... Merely a log in his path that he will step over.

The sharp shattering sound of their demise - like blades slicing through slate - came to a poignant silence as Dag scrambled through a narrow pathway between crags of black rock. At the end he could see a glow of light, and in getting closer felt the heat in his eyes as he stared through the haze. When he reached the end, a circular plateau opened up in front of him and dropped down sending flames soaring high around the edge, forcing him to leap and fall on his front to avoid being burned. What he landed on could only be described as a crust barely holding, and the impact of his weight began to crack it to a point where he could see it bleed and ooze semi-molten rock.
He was in the right place.

"Ah-Ah-Ah, I'd be more careful." Echoed a voice that brought Dag hastily to his feet, "The world is delicate."

Every muscle, every hair on Dag's body prickled at that voice. The Wolf wasn't so much his enemy, but his catalyst; even the smells and sights associated with the God-like creature brought fire to the Giant's eyes, and everything about him became electrified. It is the only state in which one really notices his tines; his dense barrel-chest; the way he would growl and bear his teeth like a prehistoric predator. A presence big enough for him to be felt without touching - a feeling that you will be torn down,

Brick.

By.

Brick.

"My soul was sold for a game. I've waited far too long to redeem my Right, so Velocity can wait a little longer." Dag assumed the comradery above was against creatures the wolf had sent, and a personal vendetta seemed to grow very large with the thought of friends in pain for the sake of his mess of an existence. Little sanity was left in him; if he could put everything right above, he didn't mind staying below and fighting a hell-beast for eternity as his prize.

"I'm going to kill you."

"That's a little selfish of you, don't you think? You've been down here a long time - I've been watching you all along. Can you even remember yourself?"

The wolf faded in and out of the flames, parting them like water with each step. Every now and then he would appear solid, real, before melting seamlessly away and taunting the hate-filled eyes of the beast he had scarred.

"I've watched too many have the fight taken out of them. They give up and become nothing but ghosts. I'm no fool, Spring. All this? All this is your own bullshit."
Dag could barely contain himself, his whole body trembling with rage as he pushed every word through teeth clenched so tightly shut he could feel the pressure in the temples of his skull.
"You're acting like a God."
The stag grunted, scraping his hoof across the charred rock,
"What a fucking joke." Dag's tether was very, very long. To all who witnessed his journey it was certainly longer than most. This was indeed the end of the line in more ways than one; his patience gone, will at its peak, and an ill-mannered temper vile and previously unknown. There was a moment where he smiled, laughed, even.

You can only be clever for so long: defend as your priority - be strong and see that they weaken - then strike when you are sure to be victorious. It was his way, but not now. This is how it feels to be exposed after every hammering blow to your shield... until you stand and let it drop on your own free will. You then draw your sword and face your enemy to destroy or be destroyed.

Spring tittered at this new reprehensible demeanor his servant had come to display, still keeping his distance,
"And what would your friends say if they saw you now?"
Dag's ears pricked to their mention, so he humoured the wolf:
"You obviously know little of my friends. Many would already have their tines in your back."
He mocked, lowering his own slightly to prove a point. It is then he noticed something... a tail tucked between legs.
"... Why are you afraid of me?"

The air seemed to thicken as Spring gradually came to a stand-still to reveal himself as a physical being. He had a white-hot coat with shimmering celestial flecks, and solar-flares served as his eyes.
"It is not you I am afraid of."
The wolf spoke in a very low tone without a hint of aggression, looking up between Dag's antlers,
"Velocity sent creatures to retrieve it, but your friends anchor it to the forest."
A fierce growl spilled from Dag's throat as he sprang forward to a more threatening distance,
"I am the one seeking Velocity so that I may right my wrong, not the other way around."

"... Are you sure?"

"Don't you understand? We only run because we are chased by something bigger."

Shoulders slump. For a brief moment as they locked eyes there was an understanding. Their collisions were a means of their own undoing; a relinquishing of responsibility that they both claim should have never been bestowed upon them. But their thoughts trailed back to finding who to blame, and as far as Spring was concerned, the fault lay equally with the Gods and Iaurdagnire.
The servant is so stubborn in trying to gain a right to mortality as he dictates.
Dag on the other hand didn't blame the Gods. Instruction, clear as they were, have always been barred by the wolf standing in front of him.
The heart of creation is so stubborn in thinking the world ends with him, and only him.

Because they don't want it anymore.

"But while you're here..."
Spring's eyes narrow as his mouth curls into a confident smile.
"... It is I who has control. I thought that perhaps you would have succeeded in your dastardly trick IF your name had stuck with you. How fortunate for me that it didn't. Without it you can't claim to exist, not mortally, anyway. I thought I would have to work hard to make sure no harm came to you down here. Ha,"
An understanding was very brief indeed.
"- You trapped yourself. I would get comfortable while I play my role on the inside."
A rippled of light flashed from his eyes and pulsed to the end of his tail. Rivets of blood-orange larva opened up and trickled down his muzzle and into the creases around his gaping jaws, pooling in the gums surrounding dagger-sharp teeth. There was a menacing growl before they clapped shut in in a booming bark, followed by a loud CRACK in the earth.

A fracture ran deep from the core up to the surface. It scuttled up and through the earth finding stone - the last remaining wall of the Ename Ruins - and cut through it. Though the wall remained standing and seemingly unchanged. If one were to look, a thin crack weaved through the bricks.

The sound was all the wolf wanted for the time being, something to scare Dag into acting. The bull appeared to be so unafraid of the world when it was all pinned onto him, and he wanted to see him scared. To for once see him in his place, beneath him and grovelling for mercy like so many others routinely do before he sets their universe aflame.

But nothing.

Dark eyes set in stone.

The monolith shifted, his tattered and scratched hooves clicking on the surface as he moved toward Spring, head low and... ominous in his curiosity.

"In this moment, without my name... to be clear, you are saying I may as well not exist? That I am beyond any kind of mortality?"
The Wolf growled at his questions, was he being mocked? He didn't have much time to think on it; in his approach Dag had attained a chance of a clear strike with his outer tine, and he took it. He blind-sided him with sharp sweep resulting in a devastating blow to the head. The Wolf roared in pain and fell backwards onto the floor, his body scattering as bright orange sparks on impact before reconstituting into his form. Waves swelled and crashed over his back in anger, the platform quickly filling with steam.

"... How very interesting."
"This is not... by law you should not be able to touch m-"
"- Surely any kind of law was broken when I set foot in your domain. When we last met I told you that I had not gone far enough."

They rounded each other in the mist, going by nothing but their shadows,
"I've wanted nothing more than an even battlefield. You want it to end? I am more than willing to facilitate it."
The flames around them began to rise again as the steam seemed to part and dissipate on the demand of his opponent,
"Very well. May the Gods have mercy on you."




All at once the spirit world erupted, and Iaurdagnire was again chased by a familiar and relentless sea that once upon a time chased him to the edge of the world. A fire that could run, that could bite, but one that he could also touch without fear. There was no such thing as death in this world, and whenever the King's body was scorched he would deliver a scathing wall of tines that shred the wolf, split the sea and extinguished the inferno.

The pure energy flow would amalgamate and return only to strike again. Dag suffered every burn dealt by the fires, but he too would appear in tact and unhurt, only ever bearing the old scars from the world above; all that he is was left with the Dandelion. Away from his place, the painted stag is simply a ghost trapped in the only battle he had come to know.

May the Gods have mercy? Hm-hm.