faderift | Let No Soul Hunger For Justice: And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going

If you gave instead of taking, I would consider you no demon.

Vengeance's blow rings in him as he shrinks away from it, clutching Anders. So much damage he did unknowing, but Vengeance is right. On most of it, at least. This was in large part Nathaniel's fault, for making Justice open to the idea. But it was Justice's--Vengeance's--idea to stay. Against Anders' will, against their original agreement surely, against every moral Nathaniel had established to him.

Then Bethany's voice rings out like a splash of cold water. Nathaniel moves, stumbling at a right angle to Vengeance, hoisting Anders in his arms to gain a better grip. Strong he may be, but he cannot cradle a grown man indefinitely. Away from Vengeance may not be plausible, but he can at least get him out of the line of fire of the other demons.

"Don't listen!"

Another cry, but this one has more strength in it. It's defiance this time, not fear, that makes her shout.

"Vengeance and Justice only know black and white, and we're all more than that!"

She had tried to help her Keeper, her clan. It was Marethari's choice to become possessed, as it was her clan's choice to attack them instead of listen. Killing them was an act of self defense, one that Merrill always regrets, and she refuses to let this thing use it against her.

Wrath of the Elvhen is well-named, in this case; Merrill casts and the land rises up, striking at every demon in reach. Weakening all of them at once should help those who can't strike more than one at a time.

"He's a demon and he's still a sanctimonious prick." Some things did not change from one form to the other- or perhaps Justice had always been a little more demonic than anyone cared to admit. As fascinating as the study might be- now is not the time. Adelaide takes the moment presented to double down on Bethany's earlier barrier, wrapping everyone in a shield of glimmering, translucent blue with one hand while frost gathers at the tips of the other, warping power and will to tangle among the roots and earth thrown by Merrill's spell and add shards of ice into the mix.

Later she might think to name the combination of spells.

If she survives.

If Merrill survives.

It is a distant mental note that she makes, focusing instead on sending a second pulse of cold and frost along the spikes to cause them to grow, to impale, to pierce.

Fire lights up the field in a flash, taking the targeted lesser shade with it. The force spell isn't as effective, however, as Vengeance's barrier lights up and absorbs nearly all of it. Its gaze rakes over Bethany... and dismisses her. What is there to say? She has been a part of this, but a lesser part. She committed no sins in Kirkwall; there is nothing to judge. As he's eyeing Bethany, Leliana's arrows eliminate another Wrath demon. The smaller demons are dying, but that is what they are here for. To soften and weaken and give him the satisfaction of making matters final. Leliana's last arrow does catch his attention, though. It sinks in and Vengeance snarls and snaps the shaft.

"My kind does not feel pain the way yours do," it hisses. "If you feel pain at all. What stains your hands, Hand? How many died needlessly for the sake of your Chantry and the sake of your Divine? Vengeance shall be mine and it shall be theirs." It sends a slam against her, seeking to knock her down and give her time to let guilt or anger rise up. Either will do. Both will do.

The ground glows green around them and many of the lesser demons start to sag, weakening, suffering. Vengeance glares at Merrill, but the glare turns to Adelaide when spikes begin to shoot out, eliminating the rest of the lesser demons. It is alone now... but the lesser demons are not the only ones hurt. Despite the faint glow of a barrier forming around the party, spikes also stab brutally into Bethany and Leliana. Vengeance takes advantage of the confusion to send a wave of fire at Nathaniel and his burden before stepping forward and stretching out its arms.

Green rifts form, a pair of them, spitting out more judgement and wrath. Six lesser demons, five wraiths, and three Rage fill the clearing with noise as they prepare to attack.

"Howl as you will. You will not escape the truth, and you will not take him away."

Watching the demons fall is satisfying, but he wants to get over to strike at Vengeance again. There's another horror in the way. Kain readies himself to block or dodge a counterattack, except... grr, magic is annoyingly impossible sometimes. Like now, as that stun hits him head on. It holds Kain fast in place for a time as he tries to clear his head. While that's affecting him, he hears the exchange with Vengeance... He's wrong... At least he's in a state of mind to recognize that. There's no danger of mental darkness here.

Fortunately, it's a weakened spell, so he's not stunned for too long... but any amount of time isn't good.

As always grateful for the mages' barriers, Kain feels that hitting and steadying him a little. The lesser demons are starting to weaken, but the new wave that appear seem to be even stronger. Still shaking off the effects of the stun, he launches back into the fight. This time as he spins the lance just so, he unleashes Cyclone, swirling winds moving out and toward the nearest demons.

Nathaniel cannot outmaneuver Vengeance's fireball while he is carrying Anders, but he turns his back to the demon, shielding Anders from the fire with his own body. The spell is mostly blocked by his armor, but a patch of his hair catches fire.

Fine. Vengeance can have his attention, his guilt, his anger. But he's never getting Anders again.

Anders is out of the way now, so Nathaniel gently sets him down on the ground before patting the fire out of his hair. Well. It needed to be cut anyway. He straightens and takes bow in hand, nocking another arrow and sending it toward Vengeance's throat. Maybe he can get it to shut up for the first time in eleven years.

Ice stands out from her left arm, skewering the muscle of her forearm. She flexes her hand, tries to ball it into a fist, but it feels weak - too weak to hold a bow steady. Leliana approaches, then, beating one of the demons in the face - or whatever it has that passes for a face - with her bow, once and twice before her knife is in hand.

Few know how Justinia cared for the plight of mages. Few would care to know. Leliana could have done more, but she works though the knot in her stomach as she reaches for her blade, stabbing the demon so she can try to continue her procession towards Vengeance.

The barriers are weak and need to be redoubled, reinforced- Anders is down and injured, fire everywhere, a general casting of restoration would shore them up for the next wave of demons. Adelaide's mind runs through what she must do, power flares in her hand as she settles, reaches-

As ice she'd crafted so carefully, that she'd used with all due precision grows further still than she expected. As it cuts through more than demons- but her allies as well.

As she does harm.

Beyond the veil there's a quiver of dismay, a cry- Compassion flees and Adelaide staggers under the loss, light sputtering to nothing in her palm as she's left cold. For a few precious moments she is vulnerable, staring at the ice that has pierced Bethany and Leliana both, a gutted horror plain in the widening of her eyes and slackness of mouth half open, struck dumb mid incantation by her error.

Then the rifts, then the rage and it is so much easier and productive to be angry, to pull on her own mana and spend the extra few moments to carefully craft the next needle sharp spear of ice in the singular to hurl at the nearest of the rage demons. One target, one spell, no chance of catching anyone else in the cross fire. Not again.

Justice -- Vengeance -- sounds too familiar, too much like the Nightmare in the way he speaks now. He's beyond hope... and yet Cole will not be the one to strike at him now. Not yet, not when there are two more rifts opening above their heads, more demons pouring through to halt their advance.

He sees the rage demon targeted by Adelaide's ice and moves in, aiming to shatter its frozen form with his blades.

Roots shoot up from the earth, attacking all the lesser creatures in the area, Velanna the obvious point of origin. It's deliberate and careful and takes a great deal of her concentration to attack several targets at once, but she's done it a hundred times before.

Usually with darkspawn, but the results are the same.

The ice spike plunged upwards into Bethany's torso, catching her right where she had just begun healing again, through the shoulder and out the other side. She gasped, one hand going to her chest once more, as blood came spurting out her back, and she knew the moment she pulled the spike out that the blood would be so much worse.

So while the others ran around, she fell to one knee and slammed her hand into her own chest, sending a fireball through to cauterize the wound, and then a swift and battlefield Heal spell to take care of most of the damage.

It was the only way she was going to survive this, even though she knew she was leaving herself open for more attacks.

Oh, for goodness' sake.

With Velanna's roots joining her own, Merrill feels far more confident about abandoning her position. Stone's Throw lets her move through the earth to Bethany's side, one arm wrapping around her friend to help her up. The other still holds her staff, and while Merrill isn't really sure if any of the other mages know any Entropy magic, none currently seem willing to use it -- so she will. Another round of Sleep for the new demons, her staff ready to physically beat back any who try to come for herself and Bethany.

"These other demons can be summoned all day -- we have to deal with the source!"

This clearing has definitely seen better days. Two small cyclones spring forth from Kain, ripping loose leaves from trees, pebbles from the ground, and slamming into a lesser shade each, knocking the things back and staggering them. One of the staggered shades stumbles back to Leliana, promptly takes two punches to the face, and as the knife stabs in it disintegrates.

Not too far from her are Cole and Adelaide, taking on one of the rage demons as it crackles and swings. It manages to fling a minor burst of flames at Cole before it's frozen by Adelaide's ice spear in mid-reach for the mage. The flash of Cole's blades hit it just right, shattering it into pieces. A wraith takes its chance as they're distracted by the shattering Rage demon, firing a moderate drain life spell at Adelaide.

Vines sprout up, directed from Velanna, striking all five wraiths and a lesser shade. The Shade retaliates with a moderately strong Horror spell, hoping to give itself enough time to break free. Merrill casts sleep near Velanna, knocking out ten of the demons - all five wraiths, all five lesser shades - and safely reaches Bethany's side.

Vengeance watches her go and shakes its head. The source. She would know about sources. Nathaniel's arrow strikes the side of his throat, mostly glancing off, and the demon looks between the archer and the blood mage before striding forward, into the heart of the fray, and raising another barrier around itself.

"For once you call it true. Demons, and not spirits." For years she'd attempted to provoke him, apparently pretending ignorance. Her whole survival technique was pretending ignorance. "Most of you could go now. You could leave, and Vengeance will only have what is due. Three, out of all of you."

Vengeance raises a hand and sends a severe blast of fire in Merrill's direction. "Surely they are not worth all of you dying. Anders, Merrill, and Nathaniel. Let me have them, and the rest of you may go." As if to emphasize its point, Vengeance sends a minor burst of force magic at the ground Kain's standing on.

Edited (I can words gud) 2016-06-22 00:36 (UTC)

It aches, the wash of that spell. Invisible fingers reaching in deep and yanking on her very bones, dragging breath and blood and again staggering Adelaide for the moment it takes her to find the right Wraith, find the right path and incantation, jaw grit tight against the sudden wave of exhaustion. Compassion still gone, flitting about on the other side of the Veil but this much she might manage on her own. Spite and will twist together as Adelaide snaps out a quick dispelling, pointed and concentrated on the Wraith that's bound to her by wisps of green power and her own energy.

Whether it hits and succeeds or sputters out does not matter. Vengeance speaks. Vengeance demands they flee. Adelaide has had, quite frankly, more than enough of putting up with what this entity wants.

"Vengeance has had more than its due- or were you so wronged by every innocent life lost in Kirkwall? When will they have their revenge for what you did?" Anger coils sharp and cold, cutting through the pain, frost coiling along her skin, fogging her breath. Ice crackles and spins between her hand and the head of her staff, condensing like winter's fog. "I am not abandoning them- least of all now that they are finally free of you!"

Adelaide snaps out her staff, sending the glittering shards of her concentrated blizzard directly at Vengeance. Merrill is right- if this is to end? They must kill him first.

"You broke your agreement." Nathaniel speaks at last, standing over Anders, nocking another arrow. "You took instead of giving. You forgot life and love, and accomplishing things together. He became the body you used. Worse than Kristoff because at least you respected Kristoff. You respected a corpse more than Anders. You abused him. And since you wouldn't go willingly, we gave you as much choice as you gave him in the end. There is your vengeance."

Up comes the arrow, ninety-five pounds of draw weight sending it flying to Vengeance's eye again, though speaking would have alerted him. It doesn't matter. Nathaniel will be a distraction, if he must. If Vengeance wants him and the man he guards, he ought to be a very good one.

"How thoughtful of you to let us go." His voice is dripping sarcasm. Imagine that, Vengeance is giving some of them the easy way out. More like the coward's way. Kain narrows his eyes, loathing how insulting that is. There's no chance he'll abandon anyone, ever. The force magic hits him then, and it feels like a crushing weight bearing down on him. He doubles over for a moment, the pain overwhelming until the worst of the spell passes. But he's a Reaver... so he'll do all he can to find strength in that pain now.

"But I refuse to leave!" He shouts furiously as he straightens once more, readying himself for another jump-move. He leaps into the air, and descends on Vengeance in his Crashing Dive, with his lance in a slashing motion at him.

Cole attempts to dodge the flames, arms up to protect his face, and almost manages to evade them. The heat singes the exposed skin of his fingers and wrists, little red spots that will turn shiny and raw later on. For now, it barely hurts. He keeps moving. The daggers know where they need to be.

Vengeance's words are given no heed, but Merrill's are. Cole has hesitated to attack the demon directly, reluctant to turn the blades toward one he had been so recently trying to save... but she's right. The sooner Vengeance is sent back to the Fade, the sooner he can start to find a way to become something other than this. At this point, it is the only kind thing to do.

A small puff of smoke, like a cloud of dust, and Cole has vanished from all but the keenest sight, now running in an arc to attack Vengeance from behind. As Kain is descending from above, Cole strikes: twin daggers biting at the demon's back.

"You won't take them!" Not as long as he can still fight.

She has always known that this spirit in particular likes to twist things. It wouldn't surprise her to know that Justice had felt she was mocking him, baiting him. Justice could only think in black and white, and she had always been too many different shades of grey -- different than what he was used to, than what Anders was used to, it was likely too much.

Maybe she would pity him, if not for the fact that he'd made so much of her life miserable.

An Elemental Wall springs up as Merrill twists, trying to protect Bethany from the fire that's been shot at her with her body and the magic. Her teeth grit and she releases her friend to move again, calling up a chunk of stone to throw directly at Vengeance's big ugly face.

"You've become everything you ever claimed to hate! You're no better than any of the Templars you've ever fought against!"

The words have Vengeance narrowing its eyes with fury. They know nothing. They are fools that do not understand how years of half-measures have made everything fall down and decay and lead to this. What it has become is needed. A slumbering Wraith off to the side is hit by Adelaide's dispel and crumbles, and Vengeance does not care. They are fodder the way mages have been for so long, the way any pawns ever have been.

"You speak of things you were not present for." There's anger in its voice as it focuses on Adelaide. She has worked hard for mages... but she has also worked hard for this. The combination had not made sense to Vengeance until this moment - she is here for revenge for Kirkwall. She will not have it. Kirkwall was needed. Justice shakes off the wave of ice that hits him, steps back as the arrow pierces the same spot, and glares at Nathaniel.

"I did not abuse. I helped. I stood when no one would. Fewer died in Kirkwall that night than would have otherwise. Hundreds of mages, versus a few dozen people? Templars and those who would close their eyes to injustices, far from innocent."

They're coming at it from all sides, now, and while the barrier completely absorbs Kain's blow, the twin daggers strike and send him stumbling forward. Vengeance's barrier holds, but it's taking a beating. And even the little blood mage clearly wants in on this, hurling a stone that glances off the barrier while protecting Bethany with a fairly impressive wall.

A rage demon joins the fray, enlarging itself so it can take a swing at Kain. Without a barrier, there's nothing blocking the hard blow. Vengeance has no lack of targets. The most immediately aggravating ones happen to be mages, though. It teleports forward, grabbing hold of Adelaide, squeezing her leg, and flinging her in the direction of Nathaniel and Anders in hopes of stalling the archer. Merrill is next - another powerful slam is thrown her way.

"I am better. I can do what everyone has failed to do! I can bring justice to this world, vengeance to those that cry for it, and force eyes open! Do you truly think this world saved? Fixed? I am the answer for that."

Everything has been pain for what feels like hours, but finally he's starting to hear things through it. Combat and arguing. Voices he knows and one he doesn't, and Anders manages to get his eyes open to see sky. Peaceful, open, sky, which he knows is deceptive. Especially as Adelaide yells about Kirkwall. He closes his eyes again to feel guilt and hear... nothing. No commentary. Nothing on how it was justified and right and needed, no accompaniment of righteous fury. Anders' eyes snap back open and he manages to roll on his side despite the pain thundering through his head. Nate's in front of him, but past Nate... Past Nate is such a familiar voice and unfamiliar form, yelling about what it's done. Justice. But twisted. Twisted, and throwing Adelaide, and being attacked, and Anders can't even get up to a sitting position yet.

This can't be happening. This can't be going so wrong. Bethany's on the ground, there are demons, and this can only end one way.

"No." The quiet word is as close to a prayer as he's ever managed. What else he can manage is small, a thin bolt of lightning zipping past Nate to strike one of the shades - the one furthest from any allies. Double-vision makes this a little risky, but he needs time, anything. There still has to be a way to salvage this. Somehow. To save all of his friends.

While the others speak and fight and distract, Leliana has tried to move closer. Her arm aches and it bleeds, but the fight is not near done. After the horror of seeing Adelaide thrown and Nathaniel and Merrill - all of them - attacked she grits her teeth and lunges forward, striking at Vengeance's back with a dagger, sharp and vicious. She tries to move, to dart around and strike again, because Merrill was right. Though killing the others might clear a path, this was the one that needed their attention, their focus, and each moment it carried on was a moment when they were all in danger.

The thing that was Justice has lost its mind. It's mad now, where before it seemed to be testing them. But Anders is alive, and the others need to be helped, and she can do that. He comes for her now, fast -- too fast for everyone to avoid, too fast to be struck by conventional weapons -- and Merrill has options. She could flee, she could try to make the blow softer... or she can help finish this.

Paralyzing Prison is cast to keep Vengeance in place, to wear him down -- and her ground is kept until the fists slam into her.

So now Kain's getting to see what these spirits are really about. He's always loathed the whole concept, but what Vengeance stands for is abominable. He's tired of listening to him drone on.

He's gathering himself to go all out into a major attack, when the rage demon gets in the way. Its blow strikes him hard, its fiery fists pummeling him terribly, slamming into his chest, knocking him straight back to the ground. He's definitely gotten some burns in addition to the physical damage. This pain is good, it'll make me stronger... channel it, damn it... Never before has his Blood Frenzy come so strongly into play, but he's about to see just how well it'll work. The weaker he is, the stronger his attacks should be. Now he's getting a real taste for what it means to be a Reaver.

He gets up, using Dragon's Fang to stab the lance repeatedly, straight out at the rage demon. He's got to at least weaken it so he can get away and try again on Vengeance.

The shade's Horror spell was enough to knock Velanna off her game for a few moments, the visit to the Nightmare's domain still fresh enough that the wounds are raw and easily exploited by such spells. Once she shakes it off she turns her attention to Vengeance, knowing she can't keep ignoring the real threat, even if he'd been something close to a friend, once.

"You're no longer fit to hold judgement over anything," she adds her voice to the others, casting rock armor on herself before shifting her stance, sending a fireball towards him after Merrill cast her prison. "There's nothing left here of the Justice we knew!"

Time - time was all that Bethany had needed and Merrill had bought her that time. She now was burnt, but she was no longer bleeding, and at some point she was going to be fairly embarrassed for burning off the front part of her robes.

Right now though, all she was feeling was grief, and anger, and a lot of other damned things that made her lift her staff to the sky as she twisted around to find Vengeance's back to her, and Merrill just stumbling after a blow. Adelaide was moving across the room and it was all moving fast - too fast.

The spell she was going to try to slow Adelaide's descent was thrown off by the flames being shot by the rage demon, and she turns to face Vengeance once more, gritting her teeth together.

"There's nothing left to you - but impotent rage and delusion." She stated, her voice icy cold as she shifted her staff back towards him, hopefully giving Nathaniel and Adelaide enough time to at least get down, get out of the way.

Then she lifted her hand, bringing about a master over Winter's Blast, looking to turn Vengeance into a brittle statue for them to chip away at. Piece by piece.

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