who told you what was down here

// with our one foot in the grave //

“I would rather not.” Astaroth agrees – flashing a twitch of a small smile toward her, grateful for the shift in conversation and her okayness with swapping it. Anything to do with those feathered corvids he’d prefer to keep out of his mind, especially when it comes to being in a place they frequented regularly. At least he’d come to terms with the Climb despite the trauma he’d sustained here – a lot of that largely due to his admiration for Dygra.

However, in terms of distraction, he offers the potential for her to witness his lial shift, something that has him pausing while she considers it, and when she agrees Astaroth’s smile broadens and he dips his head. “See you there.” He hums, before he shifts – the tall spiderlike man becomes lial in a matter of minutes – long from snout to tail with black rocky scales surrounding him, and with far more teeth than his human form harbors but ironically just as sharp.

Glowing orange eyes seek out Maea, whom he assumes has shifted into a molten tiger, and with a flick of his tail and some magma that pools from the cracks in his armor, the Ancient nods his snout toward the tunnel that will guide them to the next. And perhaps it’s with some surprise for her that he quite literally takes off, utilizing the super speed of the reptilian shift to zoom through the tunnel to the other side.

Astaroth

// while the other one's kicking its way right down to hell //