Draconua chanced a step forward, crooked grin broadening as she watched for a reaction. If they were not sequestered into the pinholes of a knight's helmet, her eyes would be beady and practically bulging out of their sockets with glee.

Instead, she crouched somewhat, back arching like a cat about to take a swipe at the end of a string.

Chaos-Two was drawing themselves up, putting on a facade of bravery—and it was a little cute. Perhaps, she could humor it… ? Feed into it, only to deliver a crushing blow; or, perhaps, she could nip it right in the bud. This lesson, after all, just sounded like a grab at her being friendly, or socializing: creature comforts that she had no use or care for.

(Not that things needed reason, the Sleepless Chaos knew better than most.)

They then mentioned Nidhogg, "that sniveling fool." Draconua had to laugh, a harsh, wheezing sound, "under my wing—" Her tail lashed, the heartbeat thu-thump! of it hitting the ground acting as a countdown clock. "I have no need for that nitwit." (A countdown clock for what… ?) "All that he has to offer me is entertainment."

The clown at the circus, the court jester before a king, the magician upon a fairground stage—any were far more adept at amusement than that (comparatively) little beast.

Yet, yet, yet—"could have Gembound willing to be taught the ways of Chaos."

Wasn't that a concept?

"And imposing it upon them would not be more effective… ?" The monster grinned wider, now, breath cooling in an instant. "To give no illusion of choice?" Draconua's chest swelled, and by way of a horrible example, she let loose a column of entropic flame with a bellowing roar, "like this?!"

It'd easily reach the vaguely herbivorous-seeming Chaos-Two, but it was focused into a concentrated nightmare of a stream and it was clearly an orchestrated, telegraphed attack.

Feel free to have Chaos-Two dodge this, whoops--
@V-Chaos-Two

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas waited, and watched.

These most certainly were not the basics of survival, no. Chaos-Two had swapped lessons early on, it seemed, but again he made a mental note that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Adapting to the particular pupil was good, though he did note too that "basics of survival" had apparently been wholly abandoned.

Still.

He said nothing, simply observing, and his metrics of "pass" or "fail" were held close to his chest and unrevealed. Not even hinted at. What he wanted from this--what he expected of Chaos-Two--he said nothing of it. But he watched, closely.

The idea that Draconua had "taken Nidhogg under her wing" was amusing, though, and he had to suppress a snort. She was offering the serpent a little training--but only by Vargas's orders. And the little shit had turned on her more than once. He still didn't know where Chaos-Two had gotten these ideas of love and bonding, but the chaos that was Draconua held none of it. Even the idea of her gently sitting near Nidhogg--what, telling it bedtime stories?--was something to only dream about, and laugh at.

Her 'attack' was clearly an intentional threat, and Vargas remained silent, acidic eyes flicking to Chaos-Two to watch its reaction. She was not out of control--far from it--that much he could gauge; but to another, outside observer, it would almost certainly seem that way.

Chaos-Two was starting to think that he wasn't so much as teaching Draconua survival as teaching himself survival. Time seemed to slow down as Draconua opened her mouth, fire coalescing in her uncanny maw.

’This is stupid,’ they thought, ’Maybe I should just leave and take a nap.’

That sounded great right now.

They frowned and jumped to the side, feeling chill from the fire instead of warm. Huh. They set their spear on the ground and looked at Draconua with an ageless sort of exhaustion, tempted to turn and leave. There was nothing to teach her, she already knew everything... or did she?

"You know," they said, "Gembound would turn and run if you did something like that. They'd flee into their holes and cleanse themselves where you cannot reach them with your great size. You cannot spread chaos if those you spread it to resist you."

Chaos-Two eyed the valkhound, noting her ego was almost larger than she was. They could use that.

"Your magic fails you often, doesn't it? Leaves you injured, humiliated,", they said, "Then why not negate the need for it in the first place? If you offered them some respect, false or otherwise, you could lure them in and corrupt them without having to go on a wild goose chase. Not only would you have followers and more bodies to corrupt, but you also wouldn't have to risk your magic backfiring. I'm sure you can agree that as much as you love chaos and the power it brings, that aspect- the pain and misery it brings when it fails to be controlled- isn't so nice."

There. That might work.

For now he was ignoring Vargas. They were so angry at him for this that they didn't even want to look at him at the moment.

@Draconua

"Gembound would turn and run if you did something like that—" "GOOD," came the wicked, crowing response. Sawband teeth ground out from behind tattered lips, Oil dribbling from the gums where she gnashed them so intensely. Gobs of it flew away with her saliva and she drew herself up onto her hindquarters. "A body is not the only thing that can take on his power."

Tail lashing, Draconua twisted so that the halo of her horns surrounded the Black Spire. "This ground breathes it. Can't you hear it?" The groan of the aperature, the stone's ever-shifting chaotic shape. The current of chaos riding higher and higher in the back of her skull.

It throbbed, thumbtacks pushed into what rotten mess there was for a brain.

Chaos-Two then proceeded to set nails into its own coffin: "Your magic fails you often, doesn't it? Leaves you injured, humiliated." If the box was already prepared, then—well, she could make a hole for it.

Draconua snarled as she launched up from her hindquarters. Halfway to standing totally upright, she toppled forward with a bellowing hiss, "DOES IT?"

The impact of her landing back on all fours rattled through her entire frame. Yet, where Draco should have shuddered in the Sleepless Chaos's wake, there was silence. Silence, and the horrific twist of invisible corruption shooting up both forelimbs. Teeth snapped shut, harshly quelling the shriek building in her throat. It forced its way out anyways, taking on the shape of sputtering coughs and wheezes. Flanks seized.

Yet, the valkhound howled as she stalked forward, "DOES IT, NOW? HIS POWER LACKS NOTHING BUT RESTRAINT—WEAKNESS."

Her voice dropped abruptly, a low, simmering murmur. "Whatever lies in its path," she paused, peeling skin back from Oilstained teeth in a lopsided Chesire grin, "it will consume totally." Talons curled into the earth and she giggled almost... dreamily. "I'll kill you, if you wish to be a skeptic. I'll reduce you to nothing with what His power has granted me." Hussaresque wings stabbed through the air, and she dropped into a hunter's crouch.

A word of advice? "RUN!"
@Vargas ?

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas listened, content with all that he was hearing. Draconua was playing her part admirably, though he had no way of knowing how much was genuine threat. Chaos-Two was trying to keep its head, and making good points in its argument.

He wondered if it'd actually manage to talk her down. If it would manage to prove the usefulness of tact over true Chaos. He wondered, too, if he ought to nudge the lesson a little, so it didn't completely end in disaster. To that end he raised his voice, tone mild, as he sat on his haunches. "Chaos-Two makes a good point, Draconua," he offered, but it was not authoritative--merely a sort of suggestion.

What she did with it was her own choice--and what Chaos-Two did with its scenario was its own choice. And wasn't everything a test..?

Well, this certainly was. It said it on the label, really. Vargas waited, patient but attentive, to see what would happen next.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two's eye twitched. They heard nothing but rushing water in their ears as they clenched their jaw and stared Draconua down with such hate that if their glare could kill, it would have.

"... Fine. When His power fails you again because you, as his conduit, fail to control His power, you can deal with your consequences," they said, both immeasurably angry and so afraid that they couldn't help but quiver, "Master Vargas, just fail me or whatever is the equivalent. I'm done here."

They stepped back, placing a spotlight on the ground where they'd stood just in case Draconua lunged for them. She'd get a nice big flash of light in her eyes and they'd have a chance to run while Vargas hopefully dealt with her, or if he didn't, he'd be able to prepare another spell.

"If you would allow me, I would like to leave," they said, glancing at Vargas before staring at Draconua, their fluffy tail tucked between their legs.

’... Khavur, if I get chrysalized, would you please ensure no one touches my music box? It's under my nest,’ he thought, swallowing hard.

@Draconua

Vargas spoke, and Draconua whirled to glare at him, if briefly. A baleful growl escaped her, though it was decidedly milder than anything offered to Chaos-Two—and speaking of...

Sanguine faceplate twisting, the monster shifted where she was crouched. Her gnarled ear to ear grin split into a downward tilt, veering straight into a grimace. Putrescent green eyes met a dozen sunken ones; and they met with a challenge. If looks could truly kill, then perhaps the Sleepless Chaos would have keeled over then and there.

How funny is it, then, that it just stoked the low-simmering fire in the valkhound's gut? Precisely the opposite of what that wish was.

Chaos-Two stepped back, turned away, and in that moment, she launched foward. Jaws snapped preemptively, and she took a wide stride forward—and like the flash of magnesium put to flame, her world exploded into light. Pupils dilated with agonizing speed, the impression of white burnt into her retinas. A startled shriek erupted from the pit of her throat.

She stalled out in place, and rip-roared back into action like some sort of horrible animatronic running on low power. Her tail smashed against the earth and a tremor rippled beneath her feet. Draconua blindly swung her head, humanoid teeth gnashing onto thin air, and found her chin meeting stone. Hussaresque wings and clawed limbs alike flailed for a grip and found purchase only on the edges of the rapidly-forming rift—not much larger than she was—beneath her. Her underbelly thumped against the bottom of it, and oily stones pushed to trap her at all sorts of unnatural angles.

Draconua, having proven Chaos-Two to be completely right, raged. Bellowing at the top of her lungs, she clawed and scraped, writhing to shove aside jagged, corrupted stones and barely wincing as their seething corruption bit into her.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas was listening intently to--and watching intently--the exchange when Chaos-Two simply... quit. Quit. Few things truly surprised the Leviathan, but this did--and he felt immense disappointment drop through his gut. Of all the creations, Chaos-Two had seemed one of the most level-headed, the most patient. It certainly wasn't distrust, or was it? Vargas had never done anything truly unfair in regards to Chaos-Two itself. He had always given it the extra consideration, remaking it and finding work that would suit it, giving it time aside for training... So it could not (could it?) be that the creature imagined this task to be a trick of some kind. Vargas considered himself a good judge of character, and this was the last thing he'd expected it to do. It had never given up through Nidhogg's idiocy, or Vedette's fury. He'd truly thought it would push through.

The refusal drained cold through his enthusiasm.

He'd held out so much hope for this one. He'd really, truly believed that it would triumph, and it was with grinding regret that he at last began to speak (virtually ignoring Draconua, though an ironic glance was cast her way). He had to raise his voice to be heard over her bellowing, and the first thing he did was call out to her. "That's enough, Draconua. If you wish a fight I will give you one but for now I need to speak to Chaos-Two." Because it had been planned, of course. He hadn't given her terribly explicit instructions; merely to challenge Chaos-Two, and not to truly harm it. But she'd done her task, and apparently Chaos-Two's true colors had been revealed. Vargas could only hope that it was some sort of misguided pride, and not something darker, more insidious, that had twisted Chaos-Two's willingness away.

"V-Chaos-Two, you have decided to fail and so you have. In the task we chose for you--training our creations, our spawn, up from children if needs be--you would need certain traits. Patience. Insight. Perseverence. You have long shown those traits, but it seems they have failed you tonight! Our creations are chaos, as Draconua is. Some will be easier to handle. Some far worse." He paused, studying Chaos-Two with the same disappointment roiling in him. There was no violent retribution; he wasn't angry. It would be a hassle working around this failure, true. But the Oilstone was not rebelling... simply quitting. This was not a personal insult. "I wanted to see if you would push through, if you could. And you were very nearly there." He looked to Draconua, embroiled in her own backfired magic--exactly as Chaos-Two had said she would. "If you had pushed on just a little longer, perhaps she would have listened! You would have made your point. But you gave up."

He looked back to Chaos-Two, drawing himself up, standing. "You gave up, and that is not a trait I am looking for, and not one suited to the task of molding those we teach. You may depart, and I want you to reconsider your chosen task. If you want to stick with it; then you will be given another test--a different test--two cycles from now. If you choose another? As a guard, a recruiter, an assassin? You have been remade, after all. Come to me and discuss it. But for now, go." Vargas glanced to Draconua again.

For now, he had her to deal with. Chaos-Two's choice to fail--to give in, give up--so close to the cusp of victory..? He'd worry about that further another day.

But damned if he was not disappointed.

@V-Chaos-Two

Chaos-Two hadn't ever felt fear like this before. Hadn't stared death in the face like this before, hadn't ever felt their body turn to ice and feel the life start to drain from their body long before anything even happened.

Their pre-cast spell seemed to be their saving grace, causing the lunging Draconua to shriek in pain, now blinded, and thrash, her magic mis-firing as they said it would. They watched, shaking as they stood in place, barely able to hear Vargas as he started to sniffle, and then whimper, and then burst into tears.

"You gave me an impossible task!", they shouted, turning to face Vargas with big fat tears rolling down his cheeks, his fear apparent, "She would have killed me now! You set me, a mouse, against a rabid lion, and expected me to come out the other side! You expected me to succeed at something even you struggle with!"

They raised a hand and wiped away their tears, unable to stop their tremoring as they backed away from Draconua, whale-eyed with fear.

"Teach something to Draconua, you told me," they said, "She wanted to kill me! What could you have done to stop her? SHE WAS GOING TO KILL ME!!"

Chaos-Two turned to run, taking a few stumbling steps as panic gripped their throat. They bolted, leaving their spear behind as they took to all fours in a desperate race for freedom, to get as far away from Draconua, from their near death, as they possibly could. First Alpha, now them.

Vargas didn't reach out to Draconua. Vargas called out. Didn't do anything more than that.

A sick sense of betrayal welled up in Chaos-Two's heart, as well as shame. Brainwashed from the start to believe in Vargas, they immediately thought that it was their fault. They should have done better, should have tried harder, like Vargas said. Should have done something to please him.

They shouldn't have been made. They were just a waste of resources. Their life meant nothing.

’Help me,’ they cried out into their mind, reaching out for Khavur with a mental hand, begging them to pull them out of the whirlpool of misery like they'd done for their sibling.

They'd head for Pegasus, to the lush grasses and quiet forests for some tranquility.

exit unless stopped
@Draconua

"That's enough, Draconua."

It wasn't.

It never was.

It never would be.

A feeling—indescribable to the Valkhound but experienced time and again—roiled hot through her gut, shot through her veins like errant bolts of Chaos. Humilition, shame, wrapped in a iridescent-black gift labeled "hatred and malice." She was not like this before these caves! Prone to the loss of control, prone to burying herself beneath the ground, prone to making an absolute fool of herself.

Before, she'd been a rabid dog—a lion as that coward whinged—without a choke collar or golden chain to keep her at bay. Unseen forces would unleash her upon an unmemorable landscape and she would recall only the horrible violence she committed along the way.

Five thousand years, and all she had to show for it was THIS?!

Draconua wailed from where she writhed. "NO."

No, she did not want a fight. No, she wanted to slaughter that beast, simmering in their fear and at last taking up her advice—after she'd trapped herself in corrupted earth and gemstone. Her voice came as a shrieking howl: "COWARD. I'LL KILL YOU!"

Hooked claws sought any handhold they could, pushing and shoving against crackling gemstone despite her entrapment and the agony surging through her body. Bile rose in her gullet, but she choked it down with an enraged snarl. She drove a shoulder into a cleft of rock, and the point shattered, its full weight falling in jagged points. Oily blood sputtered from every place they stabbed in, and she bellowed again.

Every eye was fixed on Chaos-Two's retreating form as she squirmed for release, baleful and vehement.

@Vargas