***Alignment Shift Application, Neutral to Dark; Start***
To come so close and yet see everything he had trained for fade as ashes in the wind. Of course throughout the whole of the galaxy less than a handful of sentient beings held the power and knowledge necessary to deny Tormentous that which he had set his mind to. This fact held no sway over Silas’s ravaged mind as the maelstrom that had been so long held at bay screamed for vengeance. The former battlemaster’s ragged form stirred from the crimson sands mired pools of his own blood, shaking in an almost anticipation of what was now transpiring. Of course Tormentous demanded subservience but it was the Dark Lord’s desire to unseal the depths of the void that Silas had long warded his mind and body to that was truly the spoil of his victory. The light of the outside world began to fade to black as the Echani Sovereign was confronted with the domain of the unseen. Without prompting and certainly without his own strength Silas beheld the world as it truly was, beyond the veil of the physical.
Though Silas had certainly granted Tormentous his share of scars and left the Sith Lord wounded, in this realm the master of Moraband stood as a monolithic spire. Ethereal black and crimson flames flowed as a fog from the Sith Lord’s feet yet his presence was far beyond the absence of light appearing as the void itself. As Silas looked up at the man who had bested him his mind broke. Never before had Silas utilized the totality of his strength and been defeated in such a distinctly personal and singular fashion. This duel had highlighted all of his long held weaknesses and revealed the limitations of his denial in choosing a side. Attempting to always stride across the blade of a knife in harnessing both the light and the darkness had finally reached its end. Yet, here, at this place, in front of that man, there was little chance of Silas turning to the light. Any hope of Silas denying the darkness and devoting his self to the light had vanished the moment he connected with the immense natural Dark Side energies that pervaded every corner of Korriban. That necessary increase in Silas’s combat ability in matching his opponent’s was now his undoing come the conclusion of their duel. Fissures began to crawl across Silas’s form as a tremendous storm bellowed out around the two men.
Silas let out a scream of anguish the echoes of which rippled out across the vast tributaries of the Living Force. Silas struggled to reclaim control of his mind and spirit but he had given everything he had, all the strength of will and the vitality of his flesh to put down Tormentous. Now, the Echani had nothing left to fight against this surging darkness. The near endless torment that had begun the moment Silas had extended his reach beyond the physical seemed to play out in an endless loop of images before his consciousness. It felt to Silas as if he was beginning to fall asleep after forcing his mind and body to remain awake. The lulling shadow of the void crept out from every crack that had formed across Silas’s form. The longer this persisted the less adamantly Silas felt the need to resist. As if to mirror the conflict that raged within Silas’s soul the supernatural realm of the Force was disrupted with a tremulous storm that sent powerful tremors across the galaxy. Lifting his head as the last of the fissures splintered across his face allowing darkness to creep across even Silas’s supernatural sight. In a final act of desperation and defiance Silas cried out in absolute indignation.
‘Absolutely not, I am a king, a lord; no measure of intangible presence shall overtake the sanctuary of my mind!’ Screaming at the top of his lungs Silas uttered a single word as he struggled for some semblance of respite, “No!” However, just as a winged fowl judges the vulnerability of its prey Tormentous was eagerly awaiting this very moment. Placing his blood stained hand on Silas’s shoulder the Dark Lord of the Sith unleashed but a trace of the Dark Side energies that remained from their earlier battle and responded to Silas’s defiant cry with but a word, “Fall.” As the last moments of Silas’s former self dwindled away he looked once more with his waking eyes at the tyrant of the red cauldron. In response to this final push Silas’s shattered form within the Force vanished. All was as nothing but the dark void for what felt like an unending years within a realm devoid of time. Suddenly an old, long forgotten voice touched Silas’s consciousness. A formless visage soon took shape within the mind of the Echani Sovereign. Jacobi Wylcott stood before him with an unsettling seriousness upon his face. Silas could not speak though he wished to question this vision.
Instead, Jacobi looked to Silas and began to talk of betrayal. Words that seemed just beyond Silas’s ability to properly interpret yet his soul recognized them with a fervent hatred that began to build. Corruption, politics, the sad cyclical state of the Galaxy, a speech that may never be remembered by any but it brought fire and judgment forth from Silas. Soon Silas could felt control returning to his being as he could hear and speak once more only to remain silent as an unyielding fury built up within him. Wylcott too had been all but ruined by entities far beyond his being. Tormentous was a result of a galaxy plagued with the very corruption Silas would never abide. For all those that believed in good and evil to these two men who had trudged knee deep in the blood of their opposition on the battlefield such notions were simply a falsehood. Grey, endless compromising of morals from every power great enough to be considered a faction within the whole of the galaxy, and it had brought only ruin.
Slowly Silas’s being emerged back where it had resided in the supernatural yet no longer was it merely dimmed light but now it was illuminate obsidian. A crackle of thunder announced Silas’s rebirth as a foul wind shredded across the barren hellscape that had bore witness to the events which preceded it. Tormentous removed his hand and stepped back as Dark Side energies swept into and magnified their presence within Silas’s soul. No longer shaking or gripped with the pain of loss and the physical defeat he had suffered Silas’s eyes began to focus anew. The waking world met his vision as the supernatural faded back behind the veil. Too broken to truly revel in the immense increase of power that had just been granted to him Silas instead slowly raised his battered form back to a proper standing position. Fatigued, both physically and spiritually Silas beheld his new master. Whether Silas served Tormentous or not he was now bound to the same fate. Only this Sith Lord could grant pause to the grasping reach of the Galactic Empire and only through Tormentous could Silas secure his holdings. “Far less fanfare that I had anticipated, yet, I am for the first time truly whole.” Silas looked around at the horizon and noted that he could no longer sense the ‘Light Side’ as he once had. ‘I must be too far removed now to touch upon its presence. I will have to compensate for my losses by delving even further into the ‘Dark Side’.” It was a moment deep with massive ramifications for the galaxy as a whole for who could stand against the unification of the Mandalorian Deity of War and the Echani Sovereign.
******Alignment Shift Application, Neutral to Dark; End***