[ Some days before the Trial of Champions in a remote world ]
"The preparations are almost complete, Master Jorfaz."
Head bowed, a lizard-like figure knelt on two legs before a huge conflagration that rose dozens of feet into the air. Sweat ran down the scaly face, whether because of the heat, or inner fear, probably only the lizard creature itself knew.
"Very good."
The voice sounded at once like fire and ashes, and came from Jorfaz, the god of the Flamewalkers. Although the race of Flame Walkers he had created millennia ago was nearly extinct, he took their form; A giant tornado of fire with a head engulfed in flames at the end and arms of fire on the upper half of the tornado.
"Once the preparations are complete, we can set our plan in motion," he continued.
His expressionless gaze roamed over the barren wasteland he was on. This had once been the homeworld of his created race. Although the Flamewalkers were ablaze, they never burned out until the end of their existence.
They possessed no hands or feet, for they, like Jorfaz himself, hovered a few inches above the once fertile ground without damaging it, working magic to do the necessary things to ensure their survival. Those days, however, were long gone.
Jorfaz did not even remember when he was forced to descend on the Flamewalker's homeworld, but he remembered well the events of that day. The moment he chased a massive conflagration across the entire surface of that world and reduced everything to ashes.
Jorfaz was one of those Titans who spoke out against the Champion's trial, and thus against the duty of having to plague or even exterminate his own race should it fail to prevail in the Trial. Whatever sense the other Titans saw in this trial, he did not see any.
So, like some other Titans, he voted against implementing the Champion's Trial. Gradually, however, more and more opponents suddenly decided in favor of implementing the Trial. In the end, it was only Jorfaz who refused until the end. Outvoted by the others, he had to agree to their proposal.
The Champion's Trial brought nothing but suffering to the transient races and forced the Titans to destroy their own creations, some of which they had been working on for thousands of years. Thousands of years wasted in the destruction of their own creation.
The rage boiling inside him caused his flames to erupt in places, causing massive waves of fire to break loose from his body and sweep through the sky.
"If I have failed you, I beg your forgiveness, my lord!" cried the lizard creature at his feet.
Only now did he turn his gaze back to the lesser being before him. The draconian had done nothing wrong, but in his raging anger, Jorfaz cared little about who his anger hit. At least, almost not.
"Get out of my sight, Nazim!"
Like a thunderclap, his fiery rasping voice filled the surrounding wasteland, and in humility, the mortal being at his feet turned away from him.
The small Draconian was only a mortal being, but he had always served Jorfaz well. The Draconians were a people who were also on the brink of extinction, but they were fortunate enough to find another uninhabited planet on which to rebuild. To that very world, he sent Nazim back by means of teleportation magic.
At first it was incomprehensible to Jorfaz how an entire race could continue to live on an uninhabited planet, because after all, the Titans were the builders of the known worlds and each Titan was allowed one world.
However, it should not be granted to him to reminisce. On the horizon, a violent storm approached, but its origin did not seem to be this world. No, this storm sprang from the space between the worlds. That's how a mortal being would describe it, or those who didn't know any better.
Jorfaz, on the other hand, knew that this storm came from the void. A space, if he could call it that, that was not part of the known cosmos and could only be reached by those who knew how to reach the void.
That ominous storm, which settled like a dark veil of black and purple clouds around the world he was on, concentrated before him in a thunderous mixture of wind and lightning. Almost by the second, lightning bolts shot out from the core of the storm ball, which, however, were recaptured as if repelled by the interior and attracted at the same time.
"It won't be long before I can keep my promise to you. You've done a good job, Jorfaz."
The voice penetrated directly into Jorfaz's mind, hissing and with a reverberation that he found both terrifying and chilling. In his current form, he should be the hottest creature on this planet, and yet pure coldness ran through the flames of his body.
"Yes, master," he replied. "The day of trial approaches."
As a Titan, it was still unusual for him to address someone as Master. After all, Titans were considered the supreme beings of the cosmos, the founders of existence itself. And yet he bowed to that existence. An act that would be considered sacrilege among his peers.
"For a long time, the Titans ruled the cosmos and created races. But in their arrogance, they became blind to everything they did not understand! Just as they did not understand your objections to the trial," hissed the voice from the storm.
"And we were denied passage from the void into the cosmos!"
By all appearances, it was not only the Titan who had been displeased with some of the other Titans' decisions. His master also despised their actions. In the end, that was what united them in the first place.
"You, on the other hand, have served us well, Jorfaz, and for that I shall reward you."
A slight grin flitted across the Flamewalker titan's face. The fact that this being possessed a power the Titan did not understand already intoxicated him. But to feel that power for himself now might answer some of his questions and also provide another step for his plans.
Dark clouds, as thin as a veil, broke loose from the thundercloud and ensnared the Titan's fire body. Even this gossamer veil was imbued with lightning and felt like more power than Jorfaz himself had ever felt before.
Within an instant, the veil of cloud connected with the tornado that was his body. The fire vortex, previously shining in bright tones of yellow, red and orange, turned into a mixture of black and purple. His entire surroundings changed under the Titan's new influence and seemed to darken.
"With this power, you will be able to strengthen your following. Use it for your own purposes."
"Yes, Lord. I will not fail you."
His voice still sounded like fire and ashes, but there was something else in his voice that almost captured his own thoughts. A depth which seemed almost endless and still sounded very unusual for himself. Almost as if his voice alone sucked in everything around him.
"I'm sure of it."
The storm of darkness, wind and thunder moved away from the Titan piece by piece and left the planet's atmosphere again after only a short time. There, the massive cloud disappeared through a rift and left the known cosmos.
Jorfaz was left alone in the wasteland of the once life-filled world. Even without trying his new powers, his altered magic spread around him. The barren ground burned to black ash, and wherever his fire met the earth, it liquefied, carving deep hollows in the ground. There, the purple fire bubbled ceaselessly.
"The day of the champion's trial is approaching. It will be this one, to make this Trial the last of its kind," rumbled Jorfaz.
The two fiery hands concentrated on a greater amount of magic around them. It felt different from before, changed, corrupted. Instead of being driven by the order of the cosmos, something else, a chaos whose magnitude Jorfaz had never felt before, drove this magic.
Having accumulated enough magic, he pointed his hands forward and let them create a moving circle before him, its veiled edge flickering wildly. Still, he merely gazed into an endless purple void.
"Krz'tak," he hissed.
All at once, the image of the void transformed. In view was the new Draconian homeworld, Krz'tak, dotted with fiery lakes and many volcanoes. Landmass also existed, but it represented a smaller portion of this world.
Through the created portal, Jorfaz entered the world of the Draconians, which looked anything but life-friendly. But here he had sent Nazim, his faithful servant.
"Master!" called that servant.
Jorfaz looked around and realized that he had teleported directly into the Draconian city. Immediately, his corrupted magic spread across their floor, changing the landscape around the titan.
"You have served me well, little Draconian," the Titan's all-consuming voice rang out. "And for that, I shall reward you and your people. Speak, do you still thirst for vengeance against the Titans?"
His voice swept rumblingly over the Draconians, making it impossible not to hear it. Jorfaz wanted every Draconian to hear him, for he could use all who would be of service to him.
"Whoever submits to me shall receive a precious gift!"
"I am at your service, Lord Jorfaz!" cried Nazim, kneeling before the Titan.
Jorfaz smiled, raising his left arm. With his right hand, he formed a blade of fire, which he rammed into his left arm without hesitation. A few drops of liquid fire emerged from the wound and fell to the ground. In contrast to the troughs of purple liquid fire, a small pond formed here. The liquid, blacker than a moonless night, bubbled hissing.
"Drink of my blood and grow stronger, little Draconians! Those who swear allegiance to me shall have their revenge on the Titans!"
At first, no one dared to approach the bubbling pond that augured disaster. After a few seconds, Nazim caught himself and rose, taking a few steps to the pond filled with his master's blood.
Once again, he dropped to his knees and dipped his hands into the liquid fire. His whole look of pain had not escaped Jorfaz or the other Draconians, and yet he uttered no cry. Instead, he slowly brought the liquid in his hands to his lips, and Jorfaz watched closely as the draconian beneath him wet his lips with the black fire.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. No reaction came from Nazim after he drank the liquid.
"ARGH!"
All at once, the draconian fell to the side and writhed in the ashes of the scorched ground. There was almost no end to the cries of pain, and it seemed as if he was dying of the Titan's blood. But from the outside, bit by bit, changes in the body became noticeable.
Black veins formed between the scaly skin and seemed to split the body where they appeared. The green-brown color of the scales, which was considered healthy among the Draconians, gave way to an ash-gray hue, and with the change, the cries of pain disappeared.
When Nazim stood back up a few minutes later, his entire body was covered in the ash-gray hue, except for the black inlays that glowed purple. It was hard to recognize him as a Draconian anymore. Only those who knew the scaly skin and their general, physical appearance could tell what kind of being Nazim had been before.
"From now on, you are no longer a Draconian. Nazgrim shall be called your kind, in honor of your unswerving loyalty. Tell me, how do you feel, first in command, Nazim?"
"Ready to kill some Titans!" he retorted with a grin.
"You will. So will everyone who joins me. This Trial of champions will differ from ever before. It will be a Trial of the Titans and it is they upon whom plague and disaster will be brought!"
The Draconians, hesitant at first, approached the pond of Jorfaz's blood, from which they drank one by one.