"Stay focused," Eibhear murmured grimly. "Ilúvatar is not invincible. And he may yet lose."
Those words did not touch the part of him that was conducting a fight, the part of him that was lashing out with focused animal rage at the creature before him. Talmus did not deserve to draw another breath of air above the earth, for all the reasons that Ilúvatar had given him and more. And yet it was not so simple as that. He and Talmus had sung songs of great warriors many years ago, on the eve of battle, buried themselves in the bottom of a tankard and woke up the next morning wretched enough to crush a thousand suns. Yet still they'd fought. And won. There was nothing in him now physically to suggest that he'd given his soul to the shadow. Yet it was there. A sensation of evil that stabbed Ilúvatar's heart whenever he looked at the man. If this was to be the end, for true, then he wanted Talmus to suffer.
He could never torture a former comrade. No matter what the cost to himself.
"I won't yield," Talmus' breath was ragged. "I'll die, or you'll die. Only that will stop me."
For a brief moment he thought that Talmus' lips would peel back into a smile, and they would shake hands, and all of it would be a memory. that would never happen. Instead Talmus raised the sword above his head and lunged. At the same instant Ilúvatar swung his axe upward. It was a deceptive swing, short instead of extended to cause the maximum amount of terror. Yet lightning struck from the blade of his axe - twisted gnarled fingers that stretched out to grasp Talmus. The swordsman dropped to a knee, his swords swinging over his hip in a semi-circle that cut the air before him. Lightning crashed against an invisible barrier, and thunder followed after, shaking the earth beneath them with violence and malice.
The first time thunder had ever rolled in the Underdark. He wondered if Drow were the ones panicking now. Pock-marked and broken the earth around Talmus was, issuing steam and vulgar black smoke into the air. All of this could be seen because the ground itself glowed like coals, orange and hot, giving more light than it should to the shadow elf.