Richmond devestated

[yaburu]

It's been some time since Lord Malice has come to this planet. In that time, he's received quite a shock, discovering that something, or someone, on this planet was exerting some kind of force or energy that was severely hampering his natural, nearly boundless powers. In fact, he had become so much less powerful, that the combined efforts of two of the planet's "superweapons" drove him off, nearly separating the bonds that kept his "other" Unule imprisoned within him, providing him with more power.

Now, he's flying through the air, looking for a suitable place to attack. He had stayed in an area, that humans of the planet had ironically designated "Death Valley" and attempted to regain his lost powers, but to no avail. In the end, Malice decided it didn't matter. He was still the most powerful being on the planet, and was more then capable of killing every living thing on it. Perhaps after everything was dead, his powers would return. Once that happened, he'd go back into space, and finish killing the Bartosians, as well as the other races that appeared to be working together in a feeble attempt to subvert the humans.

Finally, after hours of flying, Malice grew tired of looking for a suitable city, and came to realize the humans more or less built their cities in the same manner. He touched down on the next one he saw, Richmond, Virignia. Rather then land gracefully, Lord Malice choose to simply free-fall down from a height of about 1000 meters, landing directly on his feet, and his weight shaking the Earth, and causing ever structure within a two-mile radius to collapse from the impact. His landing was directly in the heart of Richmond's suburban area, and most of the buildings that collapsed were homes and apartments, filled with families. Instantly, thousands of people were dead, buried within their own homes, or falling into the massive chasms and splits in the Earth Malice's impact caused.

From the bottom heads, fire and napalm quickly blanketed the area, ensuring that whomever had survived their homes collapsing would be burned alive, screaming and helpless. Multiple Darkness Orbs were launched, smashing into the structures that had survived the initial impact, and reducing them to rubble, many with their inhabitants inside.

His main mouth opened, and unleashed his Shadowflame beam on another untouched area, creating blankets of black fire where it struck and killing yet more humans. It had been less then a minute since he'd touched down, and once again, scores of innocent lives had been claimed by Lord Malice.

Perking his head up, Malice heard a noise coming from behind him. He turned to face it, and saw a Fort-Hog APC galloping in, it's massive cannons already pointed at him. Reaching out with his mind, Malice found the pilot. "Good morning Carl." Malice snarled

The Fort-Hog came to a halt, and fired it's cannons at Malice. The shells exploded against his middle section, and he grunted. "Not feeling very talkative I take it?" Malice said, annoyance creeping into his voice.

"Can the small talk you sonofabitch." Carl responded "I was briefed on you, and what you did to Calloway. He was young, and lacked the nerve to deal with something as sick as you. But I have no family for you to torture. My wife died a month ago, and I have no kids. I barely even have any friends. None of your psychological tricks are going to work on me."

Malice stood for a moment, smoke still smoldering off his midsection, which was already regenerating the damage. For a few seconds, he was silent. But then...laughter. Deep. Menacing. Evil.

"You're a fool Carl." Malice said simply as he tossed a Darkness Orb at the Fort-Hog.

The machine was rocked, but fired back with Anti-Kaiju Missiles from it's shoulders. Malice grunted again as the missiles made their impact. "True, you're faring better then Harry did. But it doesn't matter. You're still going to die. Everything on this planet is going to die by my hands."

Carl laughed "You're underestimating me. And the whole human race for that matter."

"Why? Because you think you're little plan to distract me long enough for the approaching Stealth Bomber to drop it's superbomb on me is going work?"

Carl gasped inside the Fort-Hog. "H...how!?"

"I can read minds, remember? I knew of your plan the moment you came near me. You were here simply to distract me and keep me in one spot so your allies could drop a...what is it you call it...'Mother of All Bombs' on me. Apparently your government considers me a top threat to the safety of humankind...if only they knew. And you, you bravely volunteered to sacrifice yourself so this mission would be a success."

"Well, if you know about it, you know that you're as good as dead."

"Hardly."

Malice lifted the Fort-Hog up with Telekinesis, then slammed it into the rubble of a building. Overhead, the Stealth Bomber was passing by the battlezone, and unleashed it's payload, the strongest non-nuclear bomb the United States had in it's arsenal. Lord Malice looked up, seeing the bomb dropping directly towards him as the Fort-Hog righted itself. "Here it comes you bastard. Time for us both to die."

"Not yet. Not for me anyways."

With a twitch of his wrist, Lord Malice slowed the Bomb's decent to an eventual stop with his Telekinesis, then flung it into the distance, toward Richmond's bustling downtown area. Upon impact, the bomb exploded, and instantly vaporized scores of humans and brought down a host of skyscrapers, all of which created a massive dust cloud that choked the life out of those who had survived the blast.

"God..."

"...Is no longer with you Carl. I frightened him off. Now with your plan a dismal failure, it's time for you to die. And I have just the way to do it."

Malice approached the Fort-Hog, but was blasted back by the cannons. He retaliated by Telekineticlly bending each cannon upward, ruining them, then grabbing hold of the Fort-Hog in his hands. With all his power, he began tearing the weapon apart, ripping limbs off and shredding the armor until he found Carl himself.

"Ah, there you are. Come on out."

Lord Malice snatched Carl out of the cockpit using his abilities, then discarded the decimated machine.

"Just kill me and get it over with." Carl said defiantly, though with more then a little fear in his voice.

Malice did not speak, rather he just placed Carl in one of his hands, and lifted off, landing a short distance away. "Does this place look familiar to you Carl?" he asked

"This is...no...NO!" Carl yelled.

"Yes, the graveyard your wife's rotting corpse is buried in."

With a wave of his hand, the entire graveyard was upturned, and a host of coffins opened and spilled their contents to the ground. But there was one coffin Malice levitated above the rest.

"No...how did you know?!" Carl yelled.

"I can read minds, remember? You know where her coffin is, so I know."

"Leave her alone!"

But Carl's pleas fell on deaf ears. Malice opened her coffin, revealing her month-old corpse to the world.

"Please God...no."

Lord Malice then levitated Carl in the air...and unceremoniously shoved him in the coffin with his wife's body.

"NNNNOOOOOOOO!!" Carl's scream was the last anybody heard of him before the lid closed, and Malice buried the entire coffin over 50 feet below the ground.

"Hopefully that will demoralize the humans enough to stop pestering me and accept their fate." Lord Malice said.

+75 MP. This thread is open for roleplaying or challenging purposes. Or, as before, to tell me what a sick fuck I am.

[Omegarex24]

((OOC: I'd tell you you were a sick fuck, but I did that the last time we fought. Besides, Cipher needs a test run.))

"Quite intruiging, really," came a rasping voice from within the void. "So much chaos and destruction..."

"So much potential," another voice answered.

"So much fun to destroy," a third voice chimed in.

"Or convert to our master's will," came a fourth voice.

"It's all the same to me really," came a fifth voice.

"Whatever we're going to do, we should do it soon," answered a sixth voice.

"Agreed. Shall we," questioned a seventh and final voice.

"Yes, let's," the other six voiced answered in unison, creating a dissonant choir of sound as they all spoke at once.

Lord Malice was busy wiping yet another city off the map, when a sound like a bolt of cloth ripping caught his attention. A massive tear in the fabric of reality itself opened, wider and wider, as seven pairs of glowing eyes stared out of the abyss at the alien monster. From within the depths of the rift emerged a massive creature, bigger than most anything that had ever appeared on Earth before. Seven heads mounted on twisting serpentine necks, each one with one or more blade-like horns, all of them attached to a massive body shod in flame red and black scales supported by four massive trunk-like legs. The seven heads bellowed in unison, the sheer volume of the sound shattering glass and concrete for dozens of yards around the monster.

"Who the fuck are you," Malice growled, clearly unimpressed with the massive creature's appearance.

"Our name is Cipher, personal servant of the Death God himself," the seven voices said, speaking as one. "And you are about to become our new chew toy."

Cipher bellowed again as the rift gate sealed behind him, the two titans of darkness preparing to square off in the ruins of Richmond...

[yaburu]

Malice folded all ten of his arms in response, and narrowed his eyes at his immanent foe. "This 'Death God' again eh?" Malice snorted, recalling his previous encounter with a few of the Death God's lesser minions "Amusing, on many of the worlds I've smashed, the people would take to calling me the Death God. Yet here, on this world, it seems that title has already been taken by another."

"The Death God I serve is the true Death God." Cipher's heads said in unison.

"It's not a title I ever actively sought. Now, either attack me and embrace your death, or begone, I have a species to exterminate."

As one, Cipher's heads let loose a roar that would chill any other monster to his very soul. But Malice had no soul. The head on the far left side of Cipher opened up and unleashed a stream of Hellfire that struck Malice dead center in the chest of his upper section. Malice unleashed his own blood-curdling roar and the tendril of his middle section snaked out, aiming at Cipher's middle head, and then spewing acid on it. The middle head screeched and flung around wildly, splattering acid on several of the other heads. Malice chuckled to himself, and then opened his maw, launching forth an Agony Blast (Shadowflame). The dark fires struck Cipher's front, and set off every pain receptor in his body.

The sudden, unyielding pain struck Cipher so severely that he was unable to stay on his feet, and fell to his side, now all seven heads screaming aloud, none of them ever bearing witness to the kind of horrific pain they were now going through. "Now, know your place in the universe." Malice said as one of the long necks on his bottom section spewed napalm, covering Cipher and burning his flesh as it ignited upon touching the air.

More screams filled Malice's ears. He Telekineticlly yanked Cipher off the ground and held him in front of him, then slammed three of his fists into his exposed gut, sending him flying before landing some ways away.

Malice created three Impulse Orbs and launched them at his enemy, who was starting to get his bearings back...

[Omegarex24]

The three orbs however, merely slammed into a pulsing barrier of darkness that appeared before Cipher, causing the attack to detonate prematurely. When the smoke cleared, Cipher still stood, unharmed.

"Impressive, oh false one," his heads cackled in unison. "My master could use one such as you. However, let's see what you are truly capable of..."

With a mighty roar, Cipher unleashed beams of blinding white energy from his three central maws. They were, in fact, anti-matter weapons, designed to destroy anything and everything they came in contact with. The air itself exploded around the beam's passage from the cancellation of matter and anti-matter, as a thunderous roar shook the area. Lord Malice bellowed in rage as the beams struck his torso, ripping apart flesh and bone on the molecular level. Malice practically keeled over, his immunity to pain almost compromised by the sheer amount of damage the weapon could do. And it was all the opening Cipher needed.

The mammoth beast charged forward, shaking the earth with each step and closing the gap between the two monsters with relative ease, before lashing out with all seven heads, clamping them down on various parts of Malice's body before they started siphoning energy from the destroyer himself. Malice could feel himself weakening as Cipher only grew stronger. Rather than let this continue, Lord Malice unleashed streams of fire from his secondary heads, coupled with a pulse of shadow energy that blasted Cipher's heads loose and set his legs on fire. But the Beast wasn't worried in the slightest.

"Now you see, oh false one," his heads chanted as one. "You cannot hope to defeat me. What makes you think that you could take my master on in battle?"

"Shut your mouth worm," Malice snarled. "I've been destroying entire worlds before you were even a cumstain on some hellhound's bed."

"Ooh, testy," Cipher laughed, the sounds echoing off the ruining streets. "Let's see how you like BURNING TO A CRISP!"

And with that, Cipher unleashed Hellfire from four of his seven heads, the burning shadow energy washing over Lord Malice, scorching skin from bone. Even as Malice writhed within the flames, Cipher unleashed another barrage of Hellfire....

[yaburu]

With more dark flames of hellfire washing over Malice, he took to the sky, levitating above Cipher as well as the decimated city. "I see. I burn you, you burn me. An eye for an eye, as it were."

Cipher's seven heads all chuckled "Watch it, you've only got two eyes, six if you count those two heads at your bottom. We have 14. You'll run out of eyes long before we do."

"And you'll run out of life before I do."

A volley of six Impulse Orbs were launched from above Cipher, and all but two struck home, once again setting off his pain receptors and causing him to collapse to the ground from the brutal assault on his nervous system. Before he could recover, Malice freefell like he had when he first landed in the city, albeit from a reduced height, only 230 meters or so. But the impact was still devastating for Cipher, as all 80,000 tons of Lord Malice slammed down into his body. The End of Life stepped down off Cipher as his seven heads all coughed and struggled to maintain their composure. But Malice quickly clamped down on two of the heads with both his pincers and stabbed them with the needles hidden within, injecting hemotoxin into both. Both heads screeched and started foam as the pincers kept their deadly grip, and continued injecting more hemotoxin into Cipher's bloodstream.

"Yesssss, more pain, more agony. You see? Even a beast such as yourself cannot stand against my power. Now cower and realize the inevitable end to-AGH!"

Malice was interrupted by Cipher's middle head blasting him point blank in the face with his powerful Negative Energy Beam, much of the flesh being stripped away and forcing him to release his pincer's death grip on the two of Cipher's necks.

"There, you see?" The middle head stated "Already, two of your eyes are gone, while we still have all 14-GAH!"

"12." Malice sneered, his eyes still closed, but regenerating as his bottom section's heads served him with sight so he could slash across Cipher's middle head's eyes with the sharp tip of his long tail.

One of lower section's necks opened it's maw and spewed a stream of fire at Cipher...

(The Unule Shield has taken 3 out of 30 hits. As before, make sure you state which of Malice's three sections you're attacking so I can keep count of when to set Unule free!)

[Omegarex24]

"So, you want to play rough do you? So be it."

Cipher waded through the flames, ignoring the damage entirely before clamping the fangs of his middle head down on Malice's neck. As soon as he made contact, he began injecting large amounts of poison into the monster's body. The powerful hemotoxin immediately went to work, causing blood vessels and muscles to swell and rupture. Malice fought through the pain, ignoring it in a way that Cipher couldn't hope to match, but the damage was still there.

And, to add insult to injury, four other heads clamped down on Malice, their immense biting strength penetrating his hide with ease. Cipher's other two heads cackled together as he lifted malice bodily off the ground and began to slam him around, smashing him into and through anything that was still standing. By the time he was done, malice was battered and beaten, chunks of rebar and concrete sticking out of his flesh. Cipher slammed him to the ground and released his hold, pausing long enough to charge up more Negative Energy beams and taunt Malice with the other four heads.

"You're really quite pathetic, you know that? You come all this way to bring chaos and destruction, and you spend more time toying with them when it would be so much easier to ARGH!"

Malice interrupted his speech by firing another beam from his maw, setting off the pain receptors in Cipher's body again. The attack disrupted the hydra's aim, causing the beams to wash across his torso instead of Malice's face. More of Malice's flesh was stripped away by the anti-matter weapons, leaving wide, smoking swatches where bone and muscle poked through.

"Fine, have it your way," Cipher snarled in unison, as he powered up all seven beam weapons at once...

[yaburu]

Malice saw all seven heads charging up their respective weapons, and in response, unleashed six Impulse Orbs as well as his own Agony Blast. All seven attacks met their counterparts, and the resulting explosion was strong enough to knock both Malice and Cipher away from each other.

Both lay unmoving for merely a second before they stirred and got back to a standing position. "Your attacks are impressive, perhaps I should employ them as well." Lord Malice said with a sinister, toothy smile.

From behind him, Cipher heard another monsterous roar, exactly like his own. He turned to see a duplicate of himself hissing and roaring at him! But the duplicate was colored completely black, with red, glowing eyes and long, forked tongues coming from its mouths.

"What...is this?" Cipher demanded in disbelief.

"We serve Lord Malice!" The Cipher doppleganger replied "We serve the End of Life."

The three center heads opened their fang-lined maws and unleashed their own Negative Energy Beams at the true Cipher. Too stunned to bring up his Shadow Field, Cipher was struck with his own devastating attack.

"Now, we will drain your life, and give it to Lord Malice!" The false Cipher snickered. All seven jaws clamped down on the necks of their counterparts, and true to their word, began draining Cipher's lifeforce, transfering it to Lord Malice, since this Cipher was more or less an extension of him.

"Now you realize it is pointless? I can call forth a warrior that is your equal in every way, and serves me. How can you possibly fight and defeat me...and you as well?" Malice said with another booming laugh.

"Because...your Cipher...DOES NOT SERVE THE TRUE DEATH GOD!"

With a roar of supreme willpower, Cipher unleashed all seven of his beams as one, the attacks slamming into his false twin and stripping flesh from bone. The chunks of flesh that fell off simply disappeared into thin air. The false Cipher keeled over with a groan, and Lord Malice waved his hand, causing it to disappear back to wherever he summoned it from.

Cipher turned back to his enemy, still a little weak from the combination of the deadly Hemotoxin and his own Lifeforce being drained. Malice acted quickly. His exceptionally long tail shot out and wrapped itself around two of Cipher's necks, then snapped in the other direction, lifting Cipher up and tossing him away, but not before he was able to unleash a Negative Energy Beam from two of his heads, striking the back of Lord Malice's bottom section.

Malice stumbled from the impact, but recovered and fired another Agony Blast at Cipher, longing to hear him cry out in pain once again...

(The Unule Shield has taken 5 out of 30 hits)

[Omegarex24]

Pain was but a minor hindrance to Cipher. Even as several of the outer heads bellowed in agony from having all their pain receptors go off once again, the central three heads opened fire with Negative Energy beams once more, the powerful anti-matter weapons stripping flesh apart at the molecular level, leaving gaping wounds in Malice's torso. Cipher cackled in triumph as he charged forward, taking the opportunity to lash out with all seven heads once more, sinking all his fangs deep into the flesh of malice's pincer arms and neck.

"That's OUR energy," he snarled as he began to siphon power back from Lord Malice, the alien entity growing weaker with each passing second. Malice struggled against the titan's death grip, firing more napalm and fire from his lower heads. But all this succeeded in doing was pissing Cipher off even more. The Beast's massive tail came around, smashing upside Malice's head, dropping the monster to his knees as Cipher continued to suck the life out of Malice.

"My, but that was ever so satisfying," Cipher sneered, looking at Lord Malice as he disengaged his bite. Malice's flesh appeared to be pulled taut against his muscles and bones, side effects of having his power drained away. "How about a little more fire, false one?"

And with that, Cipher unleashed more Hellfire from his maws, intent on leaving nothing but ash in his wake....

[yaburu]

Malice groaned and struggled to get up as more Hellfire washed over his body. With great effort, Malice called upon his Pyrokinetic abilities to squelch the flames. He staggered again, his energy reserves recharging after being drained by Cipher, and his body starting to look full again.

"You...you cannot stop me."

"Strong talk for one who can barely stand on his own six feet." taunted Cipher

A roar of anger and frustration escaped Malice, anger from being challenged like this, frustration from his inability to call on his full powers and slaughter this insect. His eyes glowed red, the red of blood, and Cipher was suddenly unable to move.

"You dare taunt me? Me?! Know your role in existence insect. I am The End of Life, I am Lord Malice. Who do you think you are? Well, let's find out..."

While still holding Cipher fast with Telekinesis, he reached out and tried to enter his mind. But he was in for a shock. Cipher's mind was like a slippery eel, every time he got a hold of it, it slipped away. Malice grunted, Cipher laughed

"What is this? Why can I not read your mind?" he snarled.

"You're dealing with not one mind, but seven." Cipher's heads replied in unison "Seven acting as one. You are only able to peak at one piece of the puzzle at a time, and when we sense you trying to peak, we move the puzzle!"

"So....my powers have grown so weak even one such as you can resist my mind-reading abilities. No matter, I simply wished to extract some information from you, but I can find out what I need later. Now, I'll settle for killing you."

Malice's middle section once again sent out it's tendril, but rather then splash acid this time, it stabbed itself into Cipher's body, and injected the acid directly into him. Cipher groaned and fought against the Telekinesis that was holding him fast.

"Don't waste your energy, you cannot break my hold on you."

Lord Malice pulled his tendril out, still dripping acid, and pulled Cipher in closer, gripping his necks with his many arms. But this was the chance Cipher had been waiting for. Just as Malice unleashed a pulse of Dark Energy, once again setting off Cipher's pain receptors, Cipher himself unleashed his Negative Energy Beams from all three heads, striking mostly Malice's arms, but one dead center in his middle section, forcing him to let go. Both monsters fell back, Cipher trying to wade through the horrific pain, Malice checking on his wounds. Malice stood up only a moment before Cipher, but that was all he needed to unleash another Agony Blast, the sudden influx of pain leaving Cipher open just long enough for Malice to levitate in, grab Cipher by his heads, and fly upward before swinging around and throwing Cipher to the ground, the impact creating a large crater that housed his pain-ridden body.

Cipher fought through, standing up once again as Malice landed some distance away.

"Admit defeat, and embrace your inevitable end at my hand."

(The Unule Shield has taken 7 out of 30 hits)

[Omegarex24]

"Is that really the best you can do," Cipher sneered. "You'd be so much more effective at ending life if you'd stop trying to cause as much suffering as you can."

"Shut up!" Malice snarled, as he fired more Agony Beams at Cipher.

Cipher bellowed in agony as all his pain receptors were set off once again, although his cries of pain quickly became demonic laughter. Lesser creature's might simply go mad from being in constant pain, although it was quite possible that Cipher was already insane.

"There you go again, causing more pain and little actual damage. Let me show you how it's done!"

With that, Cipher fired more Negative Energy beams from his central maws, coupled with more Hellfire from the secondary heads, all aimed at Malice's torso. The blasts washed over Lord Malice, stripping flesh from muscles, muscles from bone, and burning everything in sight to a crisp. The area around Richmond was a veritable firestorm with all the flames both combatants were spewing. While Malice struggled to regain his composure, Cipher rushed in, moving quickly for something so big, as he slammed all seven mouths shut on Malice's throat, lifting him overhead as he siphoned more life force from his enemy.

Malice's struggles weakened, then ceased, as Cipher slammed his catch to the ground before rearing back on his hind legs and bringing his entire bulk crashing down on Malice's back.

"I! WILL! DESTROY! YOU!" Cipher bellowed, punctuating each word with another stomp. "How about a little more fire," he cackled, unleashing more Hellfire from his secondary heads...

[yaburu]

Lord Malice snarled as he was bathed in yet more Hellfire. Indeed, with all the fires the two had been unleashing on each other, it looked as if they were doing battle in hell itself. Though to think either combatant wouldn't feel right at home in such a place would be a stretch.

Malice leaped away and then roared as six more Impulse Orbs were launched from his hands, but these were blocked by Cipher's barrier. Cipher responded with two Negative Energy Beams, but Malice saw the buildup coming and moved himself to the side with his Telekinesis, causing the beams to pass him harmlessly and slam into one of the few remaining buildings in the area, wiping it out.

The End of Life saw that the third head that could unleash those beams was gearing up for it's own attack. He wouldn't be able to move his massive frame out of the way in time, so he improvised. He lifted a large piece of building up with his mind, then hurled it directly at the head. The building lodged in it's mouth, and the beam exploded upon impact, causing catastrophic damage for the head. It screeched it's pain to the world, and Malice closed his eyes, drinking in the chorus of screams.

"How does it feel...how does the pain feel?" he laughed.

With another roar, Malice charged in, the earth under his feet shuddering and cracking under the weight. Cipher snarled back and made his own charge, and within seconds the two collided. The very core of the Earth itself seemed to shudder in fear as the two titans crashed into one another. Malice started throwing punches with his ten arms, but these were all blocked by Cipher's barrier.

So you think your pathetic shield will save you eh? Let's just see how much damage that thing can absorb!""

A merciless onslaught of punches was launched, soon joined by fire from one of his bottom heads, acid from his tendril, and Agony Blasts from his maw. Through it all, Cipher's barrier held, though it was starting to buckle. Malice stopped his assault to let loose another booming laugh, and THAT'S when Cipher struck.

He latched all seven of his heads onto Malice, and began draining the nearly boundless reservoir of power the End of Life drew strength from. But, as he would find out, this is exactly what Malice wanted him to do.

"You feel for my trap, and now you will suffer." he stated simply.

Rising above the ground, Malice had to impart supreme effort to support the weight of both him and Cipher. But before too long, they were several hundred meters above the ground, Cipher now clinging to Malice not to drain his life, but just to avoid the fall.

Malice looked down at the mighty hydra, and smiled, an evil, toothy smile, and then opened his maw, firing an Agony Blast. Cipher's mouths could not keep their hold as his entire body was wrapped in a blanket of pain, and he let go, falling to the ground with a horrific impact.

Malice himself came back down, shaky from the amount of willpower it took for that maneuver, and from the lifeforce stolen from him by Cipher. One of his bottom necks spewed napalm at Cipher, hoping to burn the animal to a crisp...

(The Unule Shield has taken 10 out of 30 hits)

[Omegarex24]

Cipher waded through the flames, his thick armor and nigh limitless stamina afforded him the ability to ignore all but the most crippling of injuries. He couldn't necessarily say the same for Lord Malice. The shadow hydra bellowed once more, a cacophanic chorus of sound that would have shattered windows, if there were any left, before firing more Hellfire and Negative Energy beams at Lord Malice, the former striking him in the chest, the latter striking him in the head. As the abomination reeled from the blasts, more of his flesh disintegrating with each strike, Cipher moved in and began to strike with all seven heads. Not only did he continue to siphon the life force from Malice, but this time he also began to inject more hemotoxin into the monster's throat, causing he area to swell up horribly.

"Is that all?" he sneered at the weakening Malice. "Perhaps my master was wrong about you. You seem too weak to be able to cause more than a little trouble."

"I'll show you trouble," Malice snarled, unleashing a pulse of dark energy, blasting Cipher back once more. As he tried to rise to strike again, or perhaps put some distance between them, Cipher stepped up once more.

"SIT DOWN, WORM! I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET," Cipher roared, as he fired more beams as Malice's torso from all seven heads...

[yaburu]

Again, Malice was awash in deadly powerful Hellfire, and was struck with Negative Energy. To counter, his tendril snaked out and sprayed it's powerful acids upon the hydra. Cipher's heads screeched as they were bathed in corrosive fluids, and Malice took the chance to clamp down with his pincers and inject his own Hemotoxin into his enemy. And unlike Malice, Cipher could feel pain, having that fact tacked onto the massive swelling of the injection area, at the base of his furthest two heads to the right.

"Your arrogance is unfounded, fool. Your power is indeed great, but you lack the capabilities to heal your wounds with any sort of speed. I on the other hand...." Malice gestured toward several of the gashes and burns adorning his body "Can. I don't care who this 'Death God' of yours is, if he is the one interfering with my powers, I'll destroy him as well."

Upon hearing this, Cipher let loose the most maniacal laughter he'd had yet. "Kill the Death God!? Oh, you truly are something else! You have no clue the kind of power you're dealing with!" Cipher fired another stream of Hellfire, burning away more flesh.

"Nor do you."

With a flick of his wrist, Malice simply set Cipher ablaze, his entire body covered in fires so hot they would melt steel in seconds. Pure, unfiltered agony that consumed his every inch was all Cipher knew. Only when he collapsed in a heap did Malice relent.

"Now die."

A volley of Impulse Orbs flew toward Cipher...

(Unule Shield is still at 10 out of 30 hits)

[Omegarex24]

But the orbs slammed into cipher's Darkness Barrier, detonating against the pulsing shield before the shield itself dissipated. Cipher started cackling madly, all seven heads laughing in an eerie dissonant chorus.

"You are pathetic," he called back from one head, the others still cackling.

"There is more to death than just pain and suffering."

"It makes little difference how much suffering you cause," a third head chimed in.

"IF YOU CANNOT KILL US!"

And with that, Cipher unleashed another barrage of Hellfire and Negative Energy, striking Malice all over his body, searing flesh and boiling muscle tissue, while the anti-matter weapons simply disintegrated parts of Malice's body. The abomination bellowed, even as he ignored the pain. He could not, however, ignore the toll Cipher was taking on him. The End of Life struggled to fight against the onslaught, but was quickly put down again by another barrage of Negative Energy, this time directed at his torso. Malice shrieked as the flesh around his face was simply obliterated.

"We will suck the life from you, then reduce you to less than dust! We will show you the true power of DEATH! Beware, oblivion is at hand!"

Cipher lashed out with all seven heads, simultaneously pumping more Wormwood toxins through the middle head, while the other heads siphoned the life force from the abomination. Lord Malice tried to blast him off with another dark pulse, but as his energy was being siphoned away, it was too weak to dislodge Cipher. Cipher lifted Malice up off the ground and continued to suck the life from him...

[yaburu]

Suddenly, from behind Cipher, three large lances of Negative Energy struck him, and before he knew it, seven mouths had closed around his necks, and even as he siphoned lifeforce from Malice, lifeforce was siphoned from him.

Malice, even lifted in the air, laughed, more at the irony then anything.

"Well well, it seems we are at something of an impasse here. You have me up here, taking my life energies away, while my Dark Cipher there is taking them away from you, at an equal rate, and returning them right to me. What can we do to break this cycle?"

Using all ten of his arms, Malice grabs hold of five of Cipher's jaws, two arms to a jaw, and using his immense physical power, pries them off him. With only two jaws still holding, Cipher cannot possibly keep Malice's tremendous bulk in the air, and drops him back to the ground.

Cipher tried reaching around to dislodge his false clone, but they've clamped down too high up on his necks for him to be able to bend them much.

"Hold him fast, keep those mouths pointing away from me." Malice ordered

"Yes, Master." Dark Cipher responded, still sucking life energies away from his true counterpart.

"Yeessss, return the energies he dared to steal from me. Fool. You dare to speak to me about death, and how to properly kill something. I have killed creatures in every imaginable way in my many, many millenniums of existence. I have mastered the art of death! I AM the End of Life itself. I have killed TRILLIONS of creatures, you are just one in an infinite number of victims I will claim."

Like Malice before him, Cipher's skin started to look taut against his bones and muscles, and he realized what a critical situation he was in. If he didn't act NOW, Malice wouldn't hesitate to have this clone steal every ounce of his own energy and infuse himself with it. Despite his continuously weakening state, Cipher exerted effort the likes of which he wasn't even sure he was capable of, and tore away from the (literal) death grip Dark Cipher had on him, the flesh from all seven necks getting stripped as he did so.

"NO!" Dark Cipher snarled and went back in for another bite, but Malice waved his hand, sending him back to the summoning dimension.

"That will be all, my servant. I will call upon you again when I need you."

Cipher's legs shook as they fought to keep him standing. He had lost a lot of his own lifeforce, but he felt it starting to recover. Soon, he would lock onto Malice, and drain him dry! He looked back up at the End of Life, and saw the tendril right above him. Before he could react, a generous amount of acid was sprayed on his middle head, the flesh melting and pealing off. In desperation, the other two heads to the side of the middle unleashed Negative Energy Blasts, striking each of Malice's shoulders on his top section. Malice grunted, but pressed his attack, spraying more acid...

(The Unule Shield has taken 12 out of 30 hits.)