Ary casts the spell once Annabelle moves up to her, feeling as though she has wasted precious time she could be doing other things... like killing the enemies surrounding Valaria. With her weapon Aligned, Ary shifts forward to better defend Valaria and Hinagiku.
"Take down the one beside me. It doesn't move as quickly on its left side; perhaps an old wound. Don't let them surround us. Break them, one by one."
Hinagiku felt the magic of the wardstone slowly recede, leaving her movement less perfect than they had been moments ago. Still, Ary's strong and decisive voice coupled with Isilme's lingering performance meshed with the Tian woman's meditative like state and gave her movement's extra purpose and precision.
Following Ary's command, Hinagiku strikes at the cloven feet of the babau behind her. In one fluid movement, she then comes to reposition herself where she was moments again before taking a short step forward, avoiding an attack from one of the babaus and tripping it by striking its knee.
Annabelle frowns that Ary didn't just come to her - then she moves towards Ary and Isilme, behind them, and strikes at one of the babaus. Her glaive is guided by her confidence and by the inspiring rune that Isilme has placed in the air. Somehow, the blow comes down with significantly more force than any blow she's delivered before, though it's still a relatively clumsy blow.
Round 3
One of the babaus growls in frustration and charges at Ehren, ripping into his shoulder, but the power of the ley heals the wound almost instantaneously.
Another babau stays in the back, furiously attempting to cast a spell on Ary. Nothing happens, much to its anger.
The blind babau in the back vanishes. Another babau steps back, and teleports to Ary's flank.
The babau that Markus blinded flails around with its claws, but doesn't manage to actually hit anything.
Finally, one of the babaus that Hinagiku tripped tries to stand back up, but is swiftly cut down by Isilme, Valaria, and Hinagiku.
The worst of Valaria's wounds heal over and she feels much better.
Valaria is up.
Val lets out a small sigh of relief as she feels her injuries closing all on their own. "Now that I could get used to. Pity it's not likely to last." Her knives go to work again, slashing and stabbing at the already injured babau in front of her.
Valaria's terminal stab sends the demon heaving in a series of violent death-throes, before fizzling out of existence.
Isilme is up
"Agreed wholeheartedly. It's gonna be a shame when all this goes away... still want to evacuate out the window, or are we going to clear out the castle as long as this lasts?" Ary asks, continuing to stand guard over her allies, watching the enemy's movements.
"We can consider that when we defeat this horde of demons. For now focus on the fight, we haven't won just yet." Isilme says chidingly. They might be blessed by the power of the wardstone for the moment, but these weren't exactly quasits either.
Moving quickly to the side, she ducks behind two of the demons, tumbling around their attacks to get into a flanking position with Valaria. She then turns to the demon, harassing it with a series of vicious thrusts from her rapier, hoping to wound it so Val would be able to finish it off quickly.
Isilme's thrust slips silently towards her target, opening a painful-looking fissure on the demon. Acid sprays out of the wound, but Isilme is impervious.
The blinded babau continues to savagely rip into Valaria, but her wounds heal as fast as it can go. The babau on the floor stands up, though Hinagiku twists around and slams the full weight of her body into it as it rises, followed by a deep wound scored by Valaria. It then turns to the tiefling and gives her all it has, but it is ultimately thrown back to the floor by Hinagiku.
Ehren is up.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ehren barely flinches when the babau sinks its teeth into his shoulder. By the time he briefly turns his head to regard the wound, it is already gone. Glowering at his attacker, he flicks his hands outward, sending the small star lights flying nearby. With a small flash, the sound of screeching and bestial calls immediately rips through the air as from out of nowhere appears three hundred angry monkeys. Their eyes all shine with a supernatural gleam as they restlessly hop in place, awaiting a command.
"Coinnigh an ceann seo go fóill," Ehren says to the swarm, which immediately proceeds to pile onto the lone babau.
As the monkeys scratch and bite and pull on the demon's limbs, the druid draws his scimitar and looks for an opening. The moment he sees one he lashes out with a swing so precise that it does not even strike any of his monkey minions.
The swarm of tiny monkeys overwhelms the lone babau. Ehren lashes out with his scimitar, running the weapon from its brow down to its chin, slicing its face open with a shallow cut.
Markus is up.
Markus unleashes a trio of missiles towards the babau threatening his allies - Ary and Annabelle. They're powerful and unerring, and the creatures' natural resistance threatens to bounce them right off.
Annabelle has trouble striking against creatures that are adjacent to her, of course.
The babau growls, the missiles only dazing it slightly.
Hinagiku is up.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hinagiku, still guided by the "ki", strikes the babau facing her twice before taking a step toward Isilme. Once she has moved away from the blind babau, the Tian woman joins the conversation.
"Let not the ears of our foes hear our plans." she answers to the others before speaking to Valaria "Miss Valaria, I can take care of these two with miss Isilme."
With a surge of vigor Hinagiku overwhelms the demon on the ground, striking blow after blow until there is no need to strike again - it has vanished into nothing. Acid and slime stains her hands, but it does not burn her.
Annabelle steps away from the babau that had drawn to melee with her, towards the other babau in combat with Ehren. She lashes out at the babau with her glaive.
Ary moves forward to the nearest Babau and fakes a light slash, before arcing the blade into the creature's movements, putting her full weight into the strike.
"That babau has an old scar on the right, it's overprotective of that side." Ary said indicating the next vulnerability she spotted.
Round 4
The babau in the swarm writhes and shrieks as monkeys scratch and bite all over its body. Yet another babau moves down and lashes out at Hinagiku with a claw but the open wound glows softly with light and heals over.
The babau next to Ary lashes out at her, but aside from ripping up her clothes, it does not accomplish much.
The babau blinded by Markus growls with frustration. It gives up, and vanishes.
Valaria is up
Val nods. "I think we can manage that. Let's do this." Her knives shift to their next target, cutting into the babau trapped between her and Isilme.
Valaria easily targets a vital area and sends the babau's soul back into the Abyss.
Isilme is up.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Isilme marvels at Valaria's devastating efficiency with the star knives as she rends Babau after Babau. "It's a good thing she's on our side," she thinks. Isilme decides to set up the next Babau for her and steps to the side. She attacks the last remaining Babau near Deradnu's body, trying to attract its attention from Hinagiku and Valaria to open it up to attacks from its flank.
Isilme's well-placed thrust is rewarded as the tiny nick she created ruptures in a grotesque spray of boiling blood and acid, but teeming with mythic power, she barely feels it.
Ehren is up.
The swarm of monkeys continue to relentlessly assail the babau, their cacophonous shrieking literally falling on deaf ears.
With Annabelle at his back, Ehren slashes at the demon once more.
As the demon writhes under his swarm of monkeys, Ehren cuts into the demon again, this time along its torso.
Markus is up.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Blindness having been revealed to be a suboptimal strategy, and with demons in the way of a safe approach to Irabeth, Markus draws his trusty cold iron dagger and charges the babau in combat with Ary, emboldened by Isilme's rune and by the success of his allies.
Markus' dagger darts in and out of the babau, as slippery as quicksilver, before they even realize they've been stabbed.
Hinagiku is up.
Taking advantage of the strenght imparted to her by the "ki", Hinagiku continues her attack. This time, she lifts one foot over her head and lands a blow on the babau's head, follow by a punch to the abdomen.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Annabelle shifts over such that she and Ary are flanking the one of the last remaining babaus before she thrusts with her glaive. The thrust is just a feint and she brings her glaive up for a violent and forceful overhand chop.
The blade comes down with devastating force, cleaving through the unfortunate demon's flesh with power and wild abandon far beyond that which a mortal normally can summon.
Ary was impressed by Valaria's apparent transformation from simple butterfly into deadly six-stingered-wasp. Each strike seemed to be setting up a Babau to be completely removed from its corporeal form.
She shifted herself between the Babau and Irabeth, before hammering at the creature once more in a strike almost precisely reminiscent of her last, hammering into the same location as before, taking advantage of the fresh wounds.
"I don't know if you monkeys can understand me, but go for the eyes." she calls.
Ary lofts a brow at Annabelle's strike, pauses, looks to Markus, then back to Annabelle... and to Markus once more. "You're telling her, not me."
And with that, she moved around Irabeth to focus her attentions on the Babau caught in the monkey swarm, providing a hammer blow to the monstrous creature.
Hinagiku kicks the babau in the face, but the demon squirms out of the way of her punch at the last second.
Meanwhile, Annabelle cleaves the babau in front of her in two - it fizzles out of existence around her weapon. Acid coats her glaive, but it is not enough to melt the steel weapon.
Round 5
The two remaining babaus second-guess their ability to handle the situation. They back away and vanish.
Combat Ends
The battle finished, Annabelle moves next to Irabeth and rests the pole-end of her glaive on the ground.
"So... the Commander is okay, right?" She glances at the empty wardstone cage and smiles huge, baring large fangs. "Oh man, you guys! We did it! Let's get the Commander up and get outta here!"
When the remaining demons abruptly vanish, Ehren sheathes his scimitar with a sigh, recognizing that victory was theirs. With a wave of his hand the screeching horde of monkeys vanishes just as abruptly, leaving falling sparkles in their wake. He then turns to look at Annabelle, trying very hard to smile at her enthusiasm; someone was going to have to break the news to her soon.
Leaving that matter alone for the time being, he turns his gaze to the empty cage as well. He had expected to feel some sense of sadness now that the wardstone was gone, but there was none; the parts of the stone that truly mattered were with him now, in more ways than one. Still, there was a lingering sentiment, albeit one that did not weigh down on his heart so heavily.
Ehren walks back over to the wardstone cage, looking for a remnant, some sign that it had ever existed at all.
Val pants softly, still feeling her heart racing and her blood surging through her limbs. Her body sings with energy as she reluctantly sheaths her blades. She'd almost wanted to keep fighting so she could finish the demons off rather than let them slip away. "That was... a thing. Anyone else hurt?" She turns back to Annabelle and the still unconscious commander. "And Annabelle, are you okay?"
As the last Babaus teleport away, Isilme turns back to the others. When Annabell chimes in after cleaving her foe, Isilme looks at her again curiously, surprised that she really doesn't seem to have noticed a change. She lets those with more skill in treating wounded tend Irabeth and instead focuses on the task at hand.
"I suppose now would be the time to address Ary's question regarding our method of egress. As we stand, I do not doubt that we could cleave a path through the cultists. Even as I once was I could not have done half of what we did here," she says, the pride she takes in her prior form clearly evident, along with a sense of awe of the power of those she stood amongst.
She looks around at the others, still glowing with the energy of the stone and then stops to focus on herself. The energy coursing through her truly felt like a breath of fresh air, and she could still feel the hilt and other parts of herself out there. "I must talk to Ai'Sintar when we return, perhaps this is what we were missing all along... or perhaps something has changed now with the wardstone's blessing."
"We should get moving while we still have the advantage." Ary says. "But..." she frowned for a moment, gripping her fists tightly and closing her eyes. 'Damnit, just say it.'
"I had a vision. I'm pretty sure that based on what you guys have said... you had it, too." she looked to verify. "In that vision... we found out that Jeslyn was almost assuredly innocent. She... doesn't deserve this." she motions with her hand. "That bastard Hawknose has ruined more lives than all of us can count combined. How many more immortal souls hang in the balance because of his choices?" she says, looking towards Jeslyn once more. "I want to try to bring her back, if we can. I'll take personal responsibility for anything she does... but she doesn't deserve to be made a Vermlek because some inquisitor with a power trip used my Goddess's name to ruin her life and push her towards an irredeemable fate."
Isilme looks at Ary and then at Jeslyn as Ary explains her desire. "I saw it as well, and it made me understand why she chose the fate she did when we offered her another course. We cannot make her redeem herself, but given that the crusaders drove her down that path, I feel we owe her another chance. If she refuses again, so be it, but it would be wrong not to try. I will do everything in my power to aid you in this." She smiles at Ary and places a hand on her shoulder again, glad to see the same heart shining brightly that she'd seen in the little girl in the vision.
Ehren finds the room littered with shards. Unfortunately, they are all inert. Just normal stone.
For a few more moments, the heroes continue to hum with the dissipating divine magic of the wardstone. Valaria's wounds heal closed, and the remaining magic seeps into the floor, moving back into the ley from whence it came.
One would expect that this would leave the heroes diminished, less. But these six men and women were left changed... transformed into something more.
None were changed so much by the experience than Ehren. A small fragment of the ley's power clings to the hierophant, there to stay.
Annabelle looks and Valaria and smirks. "Pffffft. Takes more than demons to kill Annabelle! Did you see me chop that one in half? I totally did that."
At Ary's mention of Jeslyn, her eyes narrow. "...Innocent? Watch it. That b!~+@ killed all of these men. My brothers and sisters in arms." She gestures at the bodies of the crusaders around them. "She f++&ing ripped their organs out and put them in that pool downstairs. And then she stripped them naked and enslaved them. She's not innocent. She deserves every bit of what she got."
Ary grimaces at Annabelle's words. The irony in the fact that Hawknose was going to treat her the same way he had treated Jeslyn, almost assuredly.
"I know... but..." she doesn't relent after a moment to collect herself. "More than a decade ago, an innocent Crusader was transformed into something else. She had sworn an oath, but because of the circumstances of the world, and through no choice of her own, she was transformed into a martyr. One power-hungry arse took an innocent woman who could have saved the world and turned her into a paraiah. He stripped her naked and marched her out into the street, put on a show for all to see, and then was going to burn her. Deskari saved her life." she said, her stomach roiling as she said those words. "Deskari is the good guy in this story. So tell me how bad Liotr must be."
Annabelle's eyes are crimson red slits. She pulls her glaive off the floor and grasps it in both hands. "So because some bad shit happened to her, it's totally okay that she's raising undead left and right, and murdering good crusaders? If you guys didn't show up she would have killed me and then I'd have been one of those zombies you guys chopped down. Just because life deals you a shitty hand doesn't mean it's okay to worship demons and sacrifice people!"
Markus rushes to Irabeth's side, healing her wounds and restoring her to consciousness. Perhaps a bit of business for a few moments might delay the fact that he needs to explain to Annabelle what he's done to her.
He didn't know what to do about that...what had he done?
Nevermind. Irabeth.
In the wake of the loss of the wardstone's power, Markus' eyes have transitioned to a deep red colour - a far cry from the reflective orange that they were before. They almost seem to radiate light.
Val is quiet for a moment. "I'm not going to forgive Jeslyn out of hand. She did bad things. A lot of bad things. But she was wronged first and responded in kind. She became what she was because Loitr was able to walk around and exercise his bigoted ideals and his cruel notion of justice. And now you're angry at her because she killed your friends because she felt justified after what the Crusades did to her." Her voice catches for a moment, then she growls. Her voice rises until she's nearly shouting. "Where does it end? When you get revenge? What if someone who cares about Jeslyn decides that you need to die for killing her? Are we supposed to kill them in return? Hate just breeds more hate, creates more fanatics, and causes more death."
"I will eliminate evil at its root. I will protect the weak and innocent by eliminating sources of oppression, rather than merely the symptoms." Ary said, quoting the oaths she held without being held to them, by way of explanation of her actions and beliefs on the subject.
After a brief pause, words fell into her mind unbidden... they sounded like her father's voice, but she couldn't remember when he'd said them. She somehow understood what they meant. Before she could form a rebuttle, she added, "I accept surrender if my opponent can be redeemed—and I never assume that they cannot be. All things that live love beauty, and I will show beauty’s answer to them. I lead by example, not with my blade. Where my blade passes, a life is cut short, and the world’s potential for beauty is lessened. Untold beauty can arise from an awakened soul. I will prevent the weak and foolish from being seduced by false promises." Despite the oaths not being hers, and perhaps not even beying the Shelynite's, Ary's voice carried them as she would her own oaths. She held her gaze steady as best she could.
'I will strive to emulate Iomedae's perfection.'
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Irabeth stirs, looking up at Markus. "...Markus?" She jumps up with a start. "Where is Vorlesh?"
Annabelle rolls her eyes. "Yeah, if she surrendered that's one thing. We offered her surrender, remember?" She stomps away. "But you're talking about raising the dead so that you can try to play make-up for something that you had nothing to do with!"
Annabelle pulls a body up. "So you're gonna go blow thousands of gold to raise a f%~&ing cultist. You gonna raise Vincent? Vincent joined the crusades because his family was murdered by cultists. Good thing Jeslyn finished the job, right?"
She stomps over to another body. "You gonna raise Dina too? Dina had the voice of an angel. What about Susie? Or Evan? Or Undin? Or Gaida? No? But you're gonna raise Jeslyn. That's f@!@ed up, Ary."
Ary wasn't able to continue to meet her eyes. "I'm not talking about raising the dead. I'm talking about reincarnation. I'm talking about offering a soul another chance, free from the prejudices of its old life. I'm talking about saving a soul damned by a man who didn't understand his own goddess from an eternity of pain and torment. If I could, I would bring back every single person here. But... we do what we can with what we're given."
With the voice came understanding; her father had not abandoned Kenabres; the Bishops never had. That's why Faith remained strong and stood by his side. Kenabres had abandoned the Bishops.
"I would save every last person if I could. But that's not one of the things I can do. So I'll settle for one soul. One single person who would be utterly lost without one last chance." she swallows hard, fighting back tears, though they're still breaking her voice.
"And why did the cultists kill Vincent's family? You think they believe their motives are any less justified than you believe yours are?" She sighs. "Everyone has a reason for what they believe. You think that just because your side thinks they're right, that the other side is inevitably wrong?"
She chuckles, but the sound is humorless and dull. "Not that it matters. There's no clerics in town that can raise the dead and we lost the only scroll of reincarnation in the entire city trying to get one of our own friends back."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ehren turns an inert shard of the wardstone over in his hand, quietly pondering the case Ary was making for Jeslyn. The piece of stone was virtually indistinguishable from any other, now - perhaps there was some wisdom in that fact. With a small smile he pockets the shard, when suddenly the massive swell of ley subsides. Ehren's eyes dart toward the ceiling and widen, as though he could see straight through it. No...
"Reincarnation?" Annabelle says, faintly, unfamiliar with the spell. "What? That's not even real. Everybody knows when you die you are judged by Pharasma."
She frowns at Valaria. "I believe that murdering people is wrong, yes. I don't think right and wrong have anything to do with sides. What is good is always good. And what is good is definitely not deciding to mass-murder people and desecrate their corpses just because you're mad."
"Tell that to the Crusades two decades ago. Tell that to Liotr." Ary says, shaking her head. "How many people died that were innocent in some witch hunt..? Jeslyn was a sword. Just a tool. She was a tool to Liotr. She was a tool to Deskari. She was never allowed to simply be Jeslyn. She deserves that chance."
Markus frowns, standing from Irabeth's side and helping her up. "Vorlesh is gone, Commander. The wardstone repulsed her. We've taken care of the demons that came through the rift before it snapped shut." He puts a hand on her shoulder and asks, "Are you okay, Commander? Do you need additional healing?"
"It is most certainly real, little one. Just as real as the demons we just fought off. Reincarnation and an odd twist of fate is why I am here instead of Li'an Va'ardalia, to whom my body belongs." Isilme interjects at Annabelle's assertion.
The discussion was troublesome for sure. "Answer me this Annabelle. When is someone irredeemable? If they've killed one person? Ten? One hundred? Is there a line that you can draw in the sand past which someone, no matter what may never be redeemed? How do you decide?" she asks honestly.
"Your friends died, it is true, but they will be taken care of by the Inheritor, I do not doubt."
Annabelle opens her mouth to argue but snaps it shut when Irabeth begins speaking. Like a good soldier, she knows better than to interrupt her superior.
Irabeth smiles at Markus. "Really? Then we've done it? That's incredible news!"
Commander Irabeth is fine - the suffocation spell was only enough to knock her unconscious, she was left unharmed. She beams with pride at the heroes. "Incredible work! Now we just need to rejoin the rest of the crusaders and retreat back to Defender's Heart." She pauses for a moment, catching glimpse of Annabelle's eyes. She gives her a long, searching look - but after a moment she averts her gaze. She seems satisfied.
"Uh." says Markus. "What time of day is it?"
Irabeth picks up her blade and moves sadly over to assess the corpses strewn about the Hall of the First Fatalities. "Hopefully we'll be able to retake the city tomorrow. These people deserve a proper burial."
She is pulled out of her reverie by Markus' strange interjection. "We haven't been here long. We should be able to reach Defender's Heart before sunset, if we hurry."
When Hinagiku turned her head, ready to dash to finally heal Irabeth, she noticed that the babaus behind her were gone. Turning back toward the babau she had been facing, she saw he had gone too.
The Tian woman took a deep breath to fully center herself before walking toward the commander. That's when she saw them, Annabelle's fangs. Her expression losing its focus and filling with worries, she takes a few steps toward her comrad. That's when she noticed another thing, that everyone was avoiding the subject. She searches Ary's face, Valaria's, Isilme's, and Ehren. They all knew but refused to speak.
They must think that this is the best course of action for now. I shall trust them and wait for us to leave this place to discuss it.
As the others begin to loudly discuss the fate of Jeslyn, Hinagiku slowly approaches Annabelle. Her attitude body language seem to suggest that she is supporting the young cavalier. However, she stays silent. That is, until commander Irabeth retrieves consciousness, at which points she smiles faintly, happy that the woman still lives.
"Commander Irabeth, I agree. And before we make any plans for Jeslyn remains, it would be wise to scout ahead and know what's laying in wait for us. I doubt the other cultist have been inactive while we were here"
Once she finishes the sentence, she turns toward Annabelle and puts a calming hand on her shoulder.
Touching Annabelle is like plunging your arm into a pool of ice water. So cold. Hinagiku realizes that she isn't alive. It is much like what she felt when she battled Jeslyn's reanimated crusaders.
But Hinagiku can also feel what she has always felt within Annabelle - love. Happiness. Beauty. Honor. Youthful exuberance and optimism. A sincere desire to do good in the world, and to make others happy. She is still Annabelle.
But under the surface of that, is something dark. An insatiable hunger bubbles deep within Annabelle.