"Well done, well done," complimented Pasurendra as he strode towards Kalikekeztra with a happy skip in his step. "Ulfgar of the Bat was a valuable liaison in this strange land, but his usefulness was nearing an end. He had the fool notion that he would actually betray us before we betrayed him. Can you imagine? You saved me the trouble of ridding him myself."

Keke ignored her wound and faced her opponent. A grinning youth with short yellow hair and radiant golden armour walked towards her from down the tunnel. "This man was powerful. You shouldn't throw away your …'tools'… so recklessly. Simple cannon fodder to soften me up? Come now, you can do better."

Pasurendra paused and considered her statement before throwing his head back and laughed. While Pasurendra had assumed the form a normal, albeit well armored human youth, the power and volume of his laugh betrayed his supernatural origins, Keke had to brace herself along the wall to maintain her balance. "Always the General eh? True, Ulfgar has his unique talents, but it was simply a matter of doing away with him before he …attempted…to do away with me. It was almost comical in the way he did his business, attempting to recover the legendary…'Black Blade' of all things while aiding us in establishing this foothold here. As if a chunk of sharpen metal could do anything to me."

Keke crouched, he preferred Pasurendra when he was a raging twenty foot tall armored Asura, rather than this chatty youth with a very punch able face. "I seemed to recall my swords slicing you up good enough, but enough prattle, my blades hunger," sneered Keke as she readied to pounce.

The yellow hair youth shook his hand and raised an open palm before her. "I'm not here to do battle with you Kalikekeztra, like I said before, I'm here to welcome you back into the fold. "

Keke raised a dubious eyebrow. "If that's the case, then what's with the welcoming party?"

Again Pasurendra tilted his head back and again made that thunderous braying laughing noise. Keke thought he sounded like a drunken ogre, and wanted to throat punch him right there, or at least drive his perfect looking human face into her knee to shut him up. "Consider that an audition. A test to see if your skills and power have eroded since your dismissal."

"Eroded? I was only gone for like a month," fumed Keke, insulted at the suggestion.

The golden haired youth smiled. "Divinations were cast, pools were scryed, and bones were thrown to find you. They were quite cloudy, though what we could discern was that you were in the mortal realm, but more importantly that you were somehow caged in your mortal form. Nonsense really, as your butcher work has demonstrated, and any fool could see that you simply maintained this form to better blend into your surroundings."

Keke snorted at the suggestion, though she knew that Pasurendra's soothsayers were not far from the mark. "Regardless, I'm not here to join with you. I'm here to kill you, just because I feel like it."

Keke tensed up, she expected another laugh which would be her chance to strike, but instead Pasurendra frowned and his youthful face had a hurt look about it. "Your words wound me, but do not surprise me, especially after my own stay in the 'Pits'. I've learned things about you, that I wonder if you know yourself, but that is the past, please hear me out before we resort to violence."

His stay in the pits? Keke was a little bit infuriated, confused, and curious. She had rotted in the Pits of Abaddon for centuries, tortured endlessly until she forgot what got her in there in the first place. Pasurendra was sent there after she defeated him in front of Taraksun, he stayed there for what? Two, maybe three weeks at the most? It just made Keke more eager to throttle her rival for comparing his ordeal to hers. Still….he mentioned knowledge of her past. That intrigued her since nobody seemed to know anything save for Selexia, and who knew where that flighty Succubus went off to.

"I think I may know you more than you know yourself," smiled Pasurendra. "For example, your loyalties are loose and you will betray those around you without a second thought. They talk about that Deva or Archon or whatever that creature was that you seduced, deceived and then killed, all just to save your skin. "

Eliaos? I betrayed him.

Keke's mind was flooded with images of the handsome angel, and their passion. She still had nagging thoughts that it had all been a dream, a product of her imagination. Could it have been real? If so, then how could she betray him? Betrayal was well known and practiced by Keke, but to betray Eliaos? She couldn't imagine it. How could she?

Keke's mind drifted, but only for a moment. She recalled where she was and the danger before her and quickly dropped into a combat stance. However, instead of seizing on her mental lapse, Pasurendra simply stood there with that stupid smile of his.

"My offer is simple," said the golden clad youth. "This world will soon fall under Taraksun. It would be easy enough to simply slaughter everything in our path, but our dark lord doesn't want that. He wants to…..harvest this world, and to harvest this world you will need some semblance of order. "

"Order? Like some Saptrap from the great pit. A Baatezu Archduke?" scoffed Keke.

"Aye. More or less. Someone to give the cattle some semblance of order, some faint hope of fair and just resolution, while we bleed this world dry," explained Pasurendra. "I was given the power to take their form to be Emperor, King, President, or whatever term they wish to use. So as to better process our spoils. However, an Emperor need an Empress, a King needs a Queen, and even a Presidents needs a ….first lady. "

Keke felt a bit of bile rise up her throat. While ruling this world did have some sort of appeal, the thought of Pasurendra, regardless of his guise, and herself was disgusting to say the least. The thought of him and her ruling this world side by side, king and queen, was almost enough to make her throw up.

"I see you are considering my offer," smirked the golden youth. "Having a companion would make the transition easier, Lord Taraksun would be pleased. As well, I must admit, I always did enjoy out little tussles in the past, your hot breath on my skin, your scales wrapped around my neck…."

"Ugghh….okay I've heard enough. Let's get this over with. I rather have your blade through my chest, or your giant golden fist through my skull than listen to you preen about you and me. It makes my skin crawl. I'm here to kill you , not to marry you. Now let's get this over with," spat Keke as she readied her weapons.

Keke had hoped that the last statement would have wiped that perpetual smile off of Pasurendra's face, but it seemed that mindless grinning was the only facial emotion that he had mastered. "Oh I see, it's to be that way. Nothing is ever easy with you it seems. I've heard the mortals like to play games, to have a bit of sport, a hunt you might call it, before any union. If that is your wish I'll gladly comply."

The golden haired youth, raised his sword and dropped into a dueling stance.

Keke drew a rapier and a mace. She had had enough of all his prattle, wounds or not she exploded into action. While she had only assumed this form for roughly a month, her upper half of her true form was basically humanoid in shape, save the fangs, snake eyes, and of course the four extra arms. Adapting was easy for Keke, not so much for Pasurendra His lack of experience with his human form was clearly evident, as she slipped past his guard and slashed her blade into his side even as she hammered her mace into his hand. While his reactions were slow his armour was heavy. The golden haired youth simply grunted as he stumbled back, flailing his blade madly.

Keke did not give her foe respite. She ducked under a lazy swing, slamming her elbow into his armoured gut with such force it lifted him off his feet. A small shove and a push later, Keke hefted the surprised Pasurendra and sent him slamming onto his back, even as she spun on her heel and hammered him with blade and mace.

She caught him with one good slice across the face, and two good slams in the chin and throat as her opponent flailed around on his back, futilely trying to protect himself. Keke didn't over commit though, she knew this battle was just beginning. After a kick to the head, her prediction proved to be true.

"Enough!" roared Pasurendra, Keke noted despite his anger and fury he still had that stupid smile on his face.

Blades upon blades erupted from the golden haired youth's body, swirling like a storm around him. Keke easily hopped out of reach, batting away one blade that got too close, even as Pasurendra rose from the ground.

Keke waited till her foe rose to his full height, judged the speed and direction of the blade, before throwing his mace at the opponent. She didn't even watch her missile strike as she drew a classic Alphatian gladius, but was rewarded with a thud as her unseen mace struck the golden haired youth's forehead.

Pasurendra was enraged, which was hard to tell given his near frozen facial features, as he charged Keke with his swarm of blades. Keke loathed to use magic, preferring her own physical might instead, but did so in this instance. She spoke the words and her own wall of blades formed around her. While Pasurendra's swords were straighter and narrower, hers were curved and light.

A shower of sparks erupted between the two shape changed demons, as their respective walls of swords slashed and parried each other. Keke and Pasurendra met each other in the eye of the storm, she attempted to parry the great arcing blade hurtling towards her head, but her opponent's strength was too great. It didn't matter though, she deflected it enough so it slashed past her even as she skipped closer and jabbed her rapier into the golden haired youth's crotch.

While his armour was strong, the rapier slipped through the plates and found its mark, and the stupid smile was finally wiped off of the golden youth's face.

"Aggghhhhhh!" screeched Pasurendra as he stumbled and fell on the ground. His swarm of swords withdrew from their minor duels and guarded their master as he caught his breath. He then struggled to stand and gaze at his now mutilated groin. "No wonder these mortals are so frail, not only are their bodies are weak but they have soft spots as well. Well, enough of these silly guises, I guess we both knew it would come to this."

Pasurendra's face contorted and darkened, even as his body grew bestial, hunchbacked, and most importantly huge. The Asura lord's body quickly grew to such a size until it was jammed inside the tunnel. Keke knew their battle in their mortal forms would quickly shift to their true forms, a prospect she would normally relish, but unfortunately she was still trapped in this one.

Instead of falling back from her powerful opponent, Keke smiled as she watched her foe struggle comically as his massive golden clad body grew too big and was pinned in the tunnel. His vast mass slammed and shook the walls even as he roared in frustration. Keke simply strode just out of reach of his snapping jaws and began stabbing him repeatedly in the face.

It wouldn't be that simple though. Keke thought she could quickly dispatch her foe, especially after piercing one of his eyes, but that seemed only to infuriate Pasurendra even more. Enough so, that he rose impossibly to his full height, roaring in anger and triumph, before bringing the entire roof down on both their heads.