"I assure you that your death is quite necessary," he insists.
"But I have been summoned here by your own goddess!" you remind him. "Why would you seek to undo her work?"
"You will never know!" You notice a symbol in the hollow of Nathos's throat, painted there in deep red. It begins to glow, like iron heated in a forge. The light from the symbol seems to fill him with power, and he repeats his assertion, "You will never know…"
He begins interweaving his fingers and whispering. Almost immediately, a wall of fire begins raging in the air above him! It congeals into something very like flesh, growing scalelike feathers and a chitinous beak, until it has transformed itself into a great bird. Flames lick out from where its eyes should be, and as it beats its wings, you can feel blazing heat emanating from its body.
You reach instinctively for your sword, but perhaps you do not need it…