"There is something off about this place." I mused as we strode on, a sandstorm inexplicably surging through walls without leaving the slightest evidence of its passing. I knelt down, examining the nearest wall, its pale stone seemingly solid in spite of the draft hissing through it. Then, a flash, a glimpse of a familiar bird cage helm, of a pale face with lips parted in mad ecstasy, of hands pale and fingers crooked like beast's claws at his sides. Micolash the Host of Nightmares, materialized before me for but a moment, then was gone, his chamber replaced with the labyrinth's phantasmal wall once more.

"Micolash!" I exclaimed, scrambling back, then noticing my comrade's confusion, realized that I was the only among us to see the Nightmare's Host. "You did not see him?"

"No, but it fails to surprise me." Or'do cracked his knuckles ominously as he knelt, peering into the stone slabs as if their grout wept divine ichor, their planes reflecting the secret to life itself. His intensity disturbed if not frightened me.

"Or'd-" He silenced me with an upraised hand. I noticed his lips move, yet the word they shaped was alien, spoken in a voice several octaves deeper and many times rougher than his own. "Cortalis Uunm"

The Labyrinth vanished, replaced with a rather surprised Micolash's chambers. I blinked, yet wasted no time drawing Ludwig's Holy Blade from its place upon my back. We spread out, advancing in a two pronged claw that snared him at its center.

"What did you do?" I whispered.

"You command the Flame, is it so strange that I rule the Dark?" He grinned, falling into a low crouch, hands spread at its sides as claws materialized over fingers, coarse fur rippled along once smooth, pale skin. "Micolash used the Dark to forge that prison, I merely tore down that which he built."

We sprang, no time left for my questions, as Micolash had surged closer, tendrils damp with nameless fluid wrapped around his forearm. I twisted right, bringing my blade across his face, wringing a shrill scream from the clashing metal. He fell back, slashing wide with an arm clad in braided tentacles. Too late I realized my mistake, my blade was hopelessly wide, my body shifting closer when I needed most to retreat. His arm crunched through my chest, painting the wall with my dark, steaming life. Agony shuddered through me in waves of horrible, searing fire, and with faltering vision, I fell.

Pain rolled through my body, tearing my veins like barbed caltrops scattering from my heart, cascading in flaming rivers. I stumbled, coughed, tasting my coppery life as it spilled over my lips.

Or'do crying out in rage, holding me as I lay with torn neck and lifeless eyes. We drift into the void, his tears falling like almonds of quivering glass into the emptiness. 

I roared, surging back to my feet as Or'do slammed into Micolash, his fists battering the madman's thin chest, cracking his ribs, throwing him back with the force of a siege ram, hurling him against the far wall with such force that cracks traced a dark spiderweb across it, and the ceiling wept tears of dust. Then, Micolash grinned. He lunged, moving with impossible speed; thick, fleshy tendrils braiding around his arm, stretching out in a gyrating spear. Or'do twisted aside, ducking beneath and pivoting on his planted leading foot, moving behind the Host as he passed, yet no sooner had my comrade thrust his dark blessed hand, than Micolash was already turning, catching Or'do's wrist, drawing back his own arm. The tentacles stiffened, preparing to bore through Or'do's stomach, their squirming mass turning hard as stone, keen as steel.

Or'do screaming, fury and sorrow turning his veins to a mire of frost and fire. He roared again, anger clear in his tortured voice. He slammed an iron hand against his own chest, and tore from it his Cinder.

I rose, the world slow as if trapped in honey, Micolash's arm moving forward, mine moving faster. I reached him, and with the strength of angered titans heaved him aside, sending him rolling across the floor until he crashed against another wall, sundering rock with a thunderous cry. In seconds I was upon him, each stride melting the floor beneath me, my hands wreathed in thrashing fire, my eyes glowing with dangerous light, my flesh a shivering field of char and light. My fist caved his birdcage helm, shattered his clavicle, passed through his sternum, flayed his arm as fingers of iron sank in near his shoulder and carried the flesh with them as they passed down to his wrist, leaving only bare, bloodied bone behind.

Again, Micolash grinned. I felt horrible pain like volcanic tears weeping through me as he thrust a hand through my chest, spraying my life upon the stones. I fell back, darkness claiming the fringes of my vision.