“Gathoen! This hate of mine is irreconcilable! I will not rest till all that is yours comes to ruin by my hand!”

How long ago had he heard those words? How long ago had he tossed a man transformed into a pig into a dimensional vortex? He did not even remember the name of that man.

Gathoen, Scourge Lord of the Void Fortress Gatheadral. A dimensional pirate, he had made countless people walk the marble plank within his void-faring fortress into the vortex within said castle. He mainly transformed them into harmless animals first for his own amusement, that and when you have a wand that does that sort of thing just lying around, why wouldn’t you use it?

The Scourge Lord himself was a massive worm with a number of arms around his front mouth. He had tried a few times to count his own arms while he was bored and admiring his reflection in the mirror that adorned a whole wall of the throneroom of Fortress Gatheadral. That throneroom, also happens to have a dimensional vortex inside a large pit.

It was common sport among the depraved pirates of Gatheadral to force people to fight above the vortex. Those that lost would be turned into an animal and then would fall into the vortex. Those that won would also be turned into an animal, but only after that unfortunate person truly believed they would gain their freedom.

A day like any other, Gathoen was coiled about his throne, eating food with his rear mouth and trying to admire his reflection, not really paying attention to the prisoners that were fighting desperately to avoid the vortex.

He had troubles you see.

Recently the vessels and holdings of his fleet had been going missing or getting destroyed in greater numbers than was usual for dimensional pirates. He looked with displeasure at his pirates.

They were a motley lot of course, but most had the same look. Chainmail shirts, baggy pants as pink as Gathoen’s own skin and whatever boots they could get. They also had chainmail veils and cloth bandanas. A few had a bit extra. Gathoen had also forced all of them to learn how to use a whip, since he felt whips were elegant weapons close to the glory of his own movements.

If his pirates weren’t so incompetent, they wouldn’t have fallen without even a distress message. He considered turning a whole bunch of them into cute harmless animals. As an example of course.

As he was considering how best to torment his own subordinates, the whole fortress shook! Gatheon was going to demand to know what was going on when it became quite clear. A sky broke through the mirror wall of the throne room.

It was a clear blue sky filled with hope! The pirates, having doused themselves in wickedness and cheap rum too much could not help but recoil from the sky. Outside the fortress was the void between dimensions, there was no sky, so someone or something had brought this sky before Gatheon.

“Hahaha! Do you remember me Gatheon! I swore I would bring all that is yours to ruin, and now, all that is left is your fortress and yourself!”

A man descended from the sky. A man with a body as if he was sculpted by the finest dimensional sculptors! Each curve of his muscles radiated nobility! He was shirtless and wore blue woollen trousers, each stuffed into black boots plated with blue metals. He possessed a wild mane of hair that would be worthy of a divine level lion! He could have been considered among the handsomest of humanoid men! Why even the most venomous and bitter of women would melt at the sight of him.

Until his face was seen of course.

See, the problem wasn’t just that he had a pig’s head. Some pigs can be quite handsome really, such handsomeness can usually only be understood by those who are likewise porcine or those with a deep understanding of beauty.

The problem was that he had an ugly pigs face. It was, in fact so ugly that several of Gatheon’s pirates lost consciousness there and then. The Scourge Lord himself even spat out in disgust the food he had been eating with his rear mouth.

He did not even remember this man’s name, but that face. Oh how he had laughed when he had turned the man into a pig and that face appeared. Now the face was back to haunt him and he recalled the words that man had said. Gatheon shuddered in fear. He hadn’t even dared to consider that all of his vessels and holdings were destroyed by one man.

“I-Impossible, how can this be, how do you possess such power? You were not even a dimensional!” Gatheon shrieked.

The man flashed a horrific smile of tusks and ghastly teeth.

“You were undone by your own actions, Worm of Gatheadral! For when you cast me into the vortex it brought me to a dimension where I received aid and power! Behold, my Azure Wish Horizon!”

The man spread out his hands, and a sky blossomed, blowing away all before it.

“My name is Hoogar! Remember it as you meet your end monster!”

Gatheon hid behind his throne as the sky crashed against it. His fingers rapidly twitched as he performed his sinister arts! Ghostly black worms burst from the ground but they could not stand against Hoogar’s sky!

“It won’t work! Azure Wish Horizon perfectly counters your worm magic! Worms don’t belong in the sky! They can only hide beneath the soil, and there’s no soil here, only my Horizon and the void!” Hoogar shouted.

“Heeek!”

Gatheon slithered away as the sky crashed around him, and soon, Gatheon was coiled about the plank that he had sent so many people to walk.

Hoogar wordlessly closed the horizon on Gatheon, but the villain jumped, and instead of being killed he was chopped in two! Both halves screamed as they fell into the vortex. Hoogar had the feeling it might not have seen the last of him, but he gathered up the prisoners of the Gatheadral pirates into his sky and departed into the void.

He didn’t feel too bad about Gatheon getting worse odds of survival than he himself had.