[Salone]

Na'lsa cackled. The sinister laugh was both childlike and diabolical at the same time, a sound that hinted at intense pleasure derived from the current events. The hunger, however, lingered on.

"You would do well here. Oh, so very well."

He stumbled forward a bit in hesitant steps. Hands and arms clutched to a hungering stomach, a stomach craving the fresh flesh of what remained of the priest that was just slain before him. He spoke in a weathered and halted manner, trying to keep his urges in check...for the moment.

"Hell is...broken. I am a stranger to this plane and even I know that. The only reason you still exist is because they spend more time posturing and positioning for power than anything. You forget that we are driven by petty desires. After all, hell is the result of pettiness itself."

He took cautious steps closer. Oh, the flesh of the priest was delectable. What little was left was tantalizing. Someone of holy power, someone alive not seconds ago, someone so divine slain by divine in the bowels of Hell itself. The irony was almost as succulent as the meat.

"I will not twist words. You desire to kill me. And the hunger that drives me pulls me to devour you, or the wonderful meal that you have just prepared. You have a choice. There is always a choice. Let me lay them out for you."

Maddening hunger now.

"You let me feed. Let me suppress my hunger. Allow me to consume the Priest, re-purpose his flesh. Bind it to these bones and blood. I have as much love for this place as you. Allow me to slake my thirsts and there will be more alive here than dead when this ordeal is over. Or...or..."

He had started to pant. Sunken lines were evident under his eyes. He began to take in sharp breaths not unlike an alarmed animal, one on the verge of lashing out.

"Or you sacrifice your comrades. Possibly yourself. Perhaps you do end me, and survive. But mark my words. I will devour the one brought back from death. I will remove the spines from these mere children. I will rend flesh time and time again before I fall. The flesh I touch is tainted. Unclean. I will spread through it. Alter it. Consume it. Like your Priest said, before he was so unceremoniously ejected from his position...I am a virus. He spoke truth. I am a virus, and I have not yet ran my course. Either submit flesh to me, or risk me invading your own."

He stumbled closer to the corpse, still keeping distance between Diogenes and himself. If he lunged he might be upon the body before anyone could try to remove him. Oh, the flesh called. It sang to him. The sweet chorus began to erode his sanity.

"We are not so different, you and I. I see in you a wish to destroy my kind. I share the same, so long as they pass through my jaws first. But I will consume ANYTHING that gets in my way. Think...think on that. Think hard, but think fast. Because even I cannot contain this hungry maw for much longer. Oh the sweet throats call to be crushed by the jaws of the All Consuming! Oh how they cry out for sustenance!"