Ion stood amidst the smoldering ruins of what had once been the grand gateway to the city of Kythera. No longer cloaked in divine abstraction, he had taken on the guise of a man once more—humbled, or perhaps merely reflective, as he beheld the devastation wrought in his name.

"I am Ion, the Grand Karcist, Sorcerer-King of Adytum. I shall rise to become the master of all flesh and creation. As all creation is but the skin in which you wrap yourself, so shall you be the robes I drape upon myself."

Adjusting the crimson robes draped over his form, he gripped his staff—an unnerving thing of living, writhing flesh. His presence was a contradiction of time itself; he appeared ancient yet untouched by age, his form both regal and grotesque. Inhuman features marked him as something beyond mortal understanding—curved horns jutted from his skull, and four unblinking eyes, filled with an unsettling intelligence, bore into those before him. A sinister smile curled his lips, his expression one of eerie amusement as all four of his eyes fixed directly upon you.

"Treat the sickness and the host together, and they will become one flesh, one life, one truth."