Ascension!

The light finally dies down in the human world to reveal a naked man. The figure looks a lot like Uklag, brown skin, same height, a muscular, thin build, if anything it looks like the warlock has gone five years back, all signs of aging blown away.

However, there are also a lot of not so subtle differences. His hair has turned long and grey. His right eye has turned demonic red. The being raises his new left arm and musters it. It is of a light grey colour, his fingers end in curved claws at the shoulder the colour of his skin changes back into brown.

At his lower back a long tail makes its first movement. It looks like Jalkal’s, a sharpened extension of his spine, and curves upwards as the being takes a first step. ““Uklag?”” The twins ask, surprised. “Not quite, you traitors.” The being answers and kicks the ground to test his new strength. His naked foot shatters the ground. “Your little ploy didn’t work out as planed but it seems you also didn’t fail.” He says, “Call me Lord Ulal, that seems to be my name now.”

He raises his human hand to his head as if to hold a headache, “I have to sort out all of these memories, going to be a gruel task.” He finds the demonic essence within him and manipulates it a bit. First his demonic arm transform into a thick,black smoke that keeps the rough outline of his hand, only small amounts of it drifting away. He undoes that change and looks deeper.

He feels his wings pushing out from his back and turns to look at them. Because of the Arch-Incubus earlier change, they are only a skeletal outline and are made from the same black smoke that his arm transformed into. He moves them for a bit, leaving remainders of the smoke as he does so. They disappear again as he wished them to do so and one final look at the demonic essence reveals a last thing inside it.

Ulal extends his hand and Jalkal’s axe lands inside it. His axe. However, it is made for an over three metres tall Demonlord not a meaningfully smaller half-human. Although the axe weighs next to nothing to Ulal it is still way to big. After some experimenting, he finds a way to solve that little problem and the axe shrinks to a size where he can swing it without a problem. With its long shaft it reminds him a lot of his staffs, only that this is an actual melee weapon instead of an enchanted rod.

“Well, I will find something else to imprint my enchantments on.” Ulal says as the weapon dematerializes in a small cloud of black smoke. He clenches his fists a few times to get accustomed to this new body and finally looks around.

The cave is in a dire state. Broken bodies litter the hallway, Catherine, Alratha and Zal are still unconscious, Meltzer stands up with a pained expression, Celine is hanging over Droy’s body, the twins are still lying there, staring in disbelief. “You tricked the Prince of Pleasure?” Analea asks, “Tricked isn’t the word I would use.” Ulal says, “He simply underestimated my ambition. I will come back to you later.”

He walks towards Meltzer, who seems both absolutely terrified and revering. “Meltzer, did you get the gemstones I, that being the old me, asked for?” He asks. The Treasurer nods, “Yes, I brought them with me, they are the cave entrance.” Ulal smiles, “Good, very good. Zal, prepare everything to immediately leave the base with everything of worth.” The First-Servant looks perplexed, “We are leaving, Master?” “Lord, Zal, it is Lord now. And yes, cleaning this up would take too long and I have something bigger in mind.” Demonic and Arcane knowledge combines in his head to take shapes formerly unthinkable, “Much bigger.”

A small sniff from Celine catches his attention. Ulal looks over to see the lifeless Albino. The hit of Jalkal’s tail has ripped his side wide open. If Droy died immediately or bled out during his transformation, he does not know. “That is highly unfortunate.” Ulal laments. “We will have to bury him with outmost respect.” “I will prepare everything.” Celine says in a trembling voice. “Do that.” Ulal walks away, only stopping to pick up Catherine with his tail before continuing his way to where Meltzer said the gemstones would be. From there he goes into the enchantment quarter. Placing the unconscious Catherine on the floor. He begins to work on his new clothes. “Not the most glorious ascension.” He mumbles as he looks through the gemstones until he finds a ruby that satisfies his needs, “But an ascension nonetheless.”