“Banter words, not, Cursed Thing!” challenged Paleous, the Pure, from atop his blessed steed. “The father of Lies is destroyed, your brothers, dead. You are the last of the Dread Lord’s foul dwemorlings.” Pulling tight on the reigns, the White Knight, his armor emblazoned in the noonday sun, turned about to face the Guiar. “Finished is your being, Guitan, doomed is His cause, for both shall end this day.” “You are a fool Paleous, if you think you can destroy me so easily,” hissed the Guiar. The dark creature swept about the valiant knight. Its black robes whipped about in the still air, hiding the creature’s twisted form underneath. “And even if you could destroy me, roach. Are you willing to pay the price?” “I do not fear death, damned fiend!” “For surely you do,” cooed the creature. Its serpentine voice was like iron upon iron. “For was it not you and your kind who sought to destroy my lord and master. For he is Death and Man destroys what he fears most.” “Do not dance your master’s words before me, Guitan. The Father of Lies hides behind the name of Death. But he is not Death, he is the promise of eternal life, a tortured immortality of pain and anguish where the just and righteous suffer to feed his unholy hunger. An eternal life where only the son who betrays his father, the husband his wife, the child his mother, is given reward. An eternal night where darkness feeds on the fears of the innocent. No, he is not Death. “Death is the promise of a future where the Father of Life along with his Guiding Son, in their full radiance, shall ride the clouds of the noonday sky calling forth the dead to stand forward and be judged. And those whose faith is untarnished shall ride in the wake of the Father and his Son. For the Son has prophesied ‘He who hears my words, and answers without reserve will know the promise of a new beginning’” “You are a greater fool than I took you for!” howled the Guiar. “Do you believe that there is purpose beyond this world of yours? You holy men preach of abstinence, chastity, and purity. You chasten yourselves for unholy thoughts, punishing yourselves for the faults of the flesh, and seek only to attain an unascertainable invention known as the Promise of Life after Death. Is your faith so strong that you are without doubt? Is the Promised Land at hand? Will you be raised?” “I have been anointed with the blood of the Father’s Son,” Paleous cried out to the specter. “I know his promise! I know his love! I know his peace!” “Then strike me down,” the Guiar spread his arms before the White Knight. “For know this. I am without Life. To destroy me is to destroy you. Are you ready to die Paleous?” “I know no fear, spawn of evil!” bellowed Paleous, putting his heals to the side of his mount. “I am ready to walk my Chosen Path!” Drawing his sword on high, the thunder of hooves filled the meadow as Paleous charged the shifting form of the Guiar. In a matter of seconds Paleous had closed the distance. Bringing down his holy sword with all his might, he felt the ring of steel on steel as the Guiar deflected the strike with his blackened staff. Fire and Ice, the dire effects of the creature’s magic, raced up Paleous’s sword arm as he struggled to draw the horse about for a second charge. “You are a fool, Paleous, if you thought I could be taken that easy,” sneered Gauitan whipping about to face the wounded knight. “Perhaps you have no care if you live or die. But I have many an innocent soul to feast upon, the pure to torture, and the meek to destroy. For now, with the Dread Lord vanquished, I shall rule this world in his stead.”