Ludwig stepped first.
Sloth answered by doing almost nothing.
That was what made the exchange so infuriating. Ludwig came forward with the full weight of Noctivex's enlarged form, the ice cracking beneath every step as Wrath rolled from his armor in heavy red waves. Nightbreaker rose in both hands, its pentagonal head vibrating with such hunger for impact that the air around it seemed to grind. Any creature that had seen Morde'Xander once, even through inherited memory, flinched at the sight of that weapon lifted again upon Solania's frozen field.
Sloth merely looked at him.
The Sin stood upon the black water where his throne had refused to sink, pale and immense, his smooth body almost statue-like beneath the dull glow of the battlefield. The few crimson eyes set across that strange, almost featureless head followed Ludwig's approach with the tired disinterest of someone watching dust drift through a room. He did not raise a guard. He did not brace. He did not step back.
