Causing havoc in a Shuriman Village.
_Enter _
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It was chaos. The belched smoke of firestorms engulfed the air and the sickening smell of burnt organic material was enough to make any man gag.
Unless the man was Ascended of course.
Azir stood on the precipice of a sand dune, his sharp falcon eyes overlooking the ruins of the village that could no longer be part of the glorious rise of Shurima with sadness. The golden sun shimmered off his golden armor, and his tunic flapped in the desert wind. He was as brilliant as the sun itself, a herald of the glory of the slumbering empire of Shurima.
He was aware of the scent of charred flesh, but he did not let it distract him from the task at hand. He saw the creature of flame among the tattered cloth of a devastated shelter, laughing maniacally as he torched it to ash.
Azir's eyes narrowed as anger took over the sadness in his heart. He would not let this stand.
He barked an order, at the same time he exerted his will on the sand around him as he raised his staff high over his head.
"ARISE! THE ORDER IS GIVEN!"
Memories of the fallen soldiers of Shurima rose as the sands themselves swirled around Azir, as his power manifested. He had the power that was denied to many other of the Ascended. They were warrior-gods, equipped with the power and might to wage war singlehandedly.
He was the emperor the Sun Disk desired. The emperor to save them all. To do that he need not be the strongest Ascended, or the fastest.
He needed only the power to create.
The soldiers, a proper battalion, gathered around him, bowing before their emperor, joined to him in the sameness of soul and body. Azir could see through their eyes, feel what they felt. He shut his eyes as their last moments of life came screaming into his mind.
He had to learn to block it out completely. The memories. He could feel for them without needing to experience their previous suffering after all.
He had more than his fair share of experiencing Shurima's fall.
He brandished his staff, pointing to the foul creature of fire. This creature would pay dearly for defying him. It would pay in blood.
"SOLDIERS! ONWARDS!"
As a single force, the Grand Army of Shurima converged on their enemy. The fire creature saw them coming, and roared in a mixture of rage and anticipation. He gesticulated; the ground beneath some of the soldiers exploded into flame, blasting them into shiny glass, incapable of movement. Others who made it close enough were caught in a firestorm as the creature let loose with a wave of fiery devastation that swept through their ranks, somehow lighting them aflame with fire that was unnatural. The creature then launched several fireballs, ones that exploded on contact with the soldiers and transformed the front half of their bodies into immobile glass.
Then the explosions occurred. Azir could not fathom the causes behind them, but after a particularly large cataclysmic torrent of fire ravaged through the soldier's ranks, stronger than the first. The soldiers that were not destroyed outright were transformed into walking bombs, exploding in chain reactions that would have put Xerath's worst feats of power to shame.
Not one had touched him.
Enough. Azir thought, and he swept up the sands among him as he moved to intercept the fire creature himself. The beast saw him coming and prepped the ground beneath Azir's path to explode into flame, but he had seen it coming. Deftly Azir dashed around the fireballs and waves of flame that went his way with the speed and ferocity of a sandstorm.
Azir overtook him then, and with a mighty blast of magic from his staff, struck the creature in the chest. As it staggered, Azir summoned a soldier directly in the beast's path, who didn't hesitate to impale him through the chest with a spear.
This seemed to anger the beast more than hurt it, and it retaliated by unleashing a torrent of flame not towards the soldier, but to his emperor. Before even Azir could respond, the soldier dashed into the flame's path, blocking the mystical flames before they licked his emperor's tunic. Azir twisted aside, recalled the soldier to safety in the same motion, and pointed outwards towards the beast with an outstretched hand.
A line of soldiers formed behind their emperor, armed with shields, and charged. The beast attacked again, but the flames hit the shields with no ill effects. With a mighty shove the soldiers caught the beast on their shields, and launched him into the air. Azir leaped into the air, and summoned the sands themselves to blast the beast back to the ground, with a mighty crash.
Azir landed deftly on the ground, and looked at where the beast lay, some 80 yards away. It was time to end it. The sands swirled around Azir once again, and with a gesture Azir caused the very sands to quiver like quicksand. An earthquake rattled the area, and off to one side a massive tower constructed out of sandstone rose from its graves were it lay dormant. A Sun Disk formed at the apex and gleamed in the sun as the ancient sentry tower was completely constructed.
Azir looked down at the beast, who was struggling to get back on his feet. This weapon had been powerful enough to make the ancient Void beasts think twice; it would make short work of this one. The Sun Disk shone brighter and brighter, as more and more energy gathered in its core. Azir had a hand up, ready to signal it to attack.
A brilliant beam of light shot across the sand dunes, hot enough to warp the air around it. Azir was not expecting this. He also was not expecting a smoking crater where the beast once was. He looked behind him to the source of the magical blast, and a young woman came running up to him, stumbling on a few loose patches of sand. She was wearing the appropriate clothing for the climate, but Azir knew immediately that she wasn't Shuriman. Behind her a larger man huffed as he heaved a large sword behind him, obviously eager for the fight that he missed.
"Don't worry mister!" The young woman said a little too brightly. "I saved you from the fire elemental!"