Immolation

Immolation felt the nag of a voice, deep inside; the faint essence of another that shared their new vessel. It may have been a question, or even a request, he wasn't sure. One thing was certain though, it was an irritation, like a fly buzzing incessantly around your head. The voice wouldn't go, though. He knew that from experience. He would have to rely upon the one thing that always managed to shut it out.

“Wh-what are you going to do with us?” The merchant's hands shook, and a dark stain grew across the front of his trousers.

Immolation smiled, the voice inside growing fainter as he felt the flames burn brightly across his body. “I'm going to burn every last one of you.” When the Vuto-duum, refugees from a broken world, arrived on the Splinterlands, they created their ultimate warrior, Caladuum, from ancient magic using the potent fires of the Burning Lands. With such a mighty and powerful beast, they thought little of the consequences of what such a rite would bring, for if they had, they might never have forged ahead with their creation.

As the body of Caladuum finally became whole, a small part of the magic that had held its spirit for so long sank into the rocks of the Burning Lands carrying an essence of Caladuum with it. Dragged and pulled through tiny cracks and fissures, it knew not where it was going, and most of the subterranean vaults it passed through were empty until it came upon one littered with dry bones and the dust of ages. The light from the torn essence's shade lit the chamber and revealed a broken altar strewn with all manner of artifacts and fetishes, a tattered shroud hanging from its side. When the essence touched the altar, something foul accosted it. At first it toiled with this new entity and tried to push it away, but the demon that appeared was stronger and quickly took control of the torn essence's dwindling flame, overcoming the magic within. The demon was hungry, the appetite of eternity waiting upon its lips, and now that they were one, the essence too felt the need to sate this craving.

They left the chamber, and the onward journey carried an urgency that hadn't been there before. When at last they came upon the great lava lake, the birthplace of Caladuum all those years ago, the demon plunged into the burning magma, dragging the essence with him. The lake's fires fused the two souls together and created a fire demon the likes of which had never been seen before.

Stepping from the bubbling inferno, it dripped with molten fire and a burning desire to kill. As tall as a hill giant, the demon was cloaked in a pillar of fire, its horned skull peering through the flames with a twisted rictus. Clawed hands toyed with the fires, curling and bending the blaze to its will. But nothing burned as bright as the hatred that had completely consumed this new body. Full of an ancient rage and the pain of a hundred deaths that had been waged upon its forsaken soul, this new Immolation journeyed to the surface and sought the first living thing it could find, something it could utterly destroy, and not a single soul was safe.