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

Chaos rules the field, three closed in on Vengeance and attacking at close range, blades and energy flashing around it. It howls and its fury grows... and grows all the more as it still cannot flee, cannot escape the immediate onslaught. One of Cole's strikes in particular drives rather deep and the demon knows it is in trouble.

The trouble is emphasized by magic being unleashed across the field - lightning flaring, ice swirling and shooting, rocks launched, systematically lighting up and decimating the other demons in the area.

A strong barrier flares up around those attacking it and it realizes that focusing on direct attacks will not help now, exactly. Green is the color of this moment - three rifts flaring open as another shade of green surrounds Vengeance and it heals itself, mending many of the deeper wounds but still leaving it sagging a little against the bars of its cage.

Several gibbering horrors spill forth, two rage demons glide, and one terror demon stalks its way out before it vanishes with its own characteristic green.

"This is your last chance to retreat." Not like it believes any of them will, or that it can truly call back the demons. "Most of you do not have to die here."

The slam hit Velanna hard, cracking several pieces of rock off her torso and arms but she holds her ground. A moment later she is swallowed by roots and relocates herself to Merrill's side, to shield her from Vengeance. She's taken enough of a beating.

At the sight of more demons spilling forth from rifts Velanna scowls, holding her staff up and wreathing herself in flame for a brief moment before casting Inferno down, adding flame to the swirl of frost and lightning filling the battlefield.

"You know us all, Vengeance. You know we will not retreat!"

The damage he's taken is really getting to him by now. When Kain lands after that latest attack, he groans in pain, staggering, nearly collapsing. Staying on his feet for much longer is going to be a real challenge. But he can't give up. The more it aches, the better it is, right? All he has to to is use this pain a little longer, let it fuel his attacking strength...

There are more demons, it's all just demons everywhere, and once again Vengeance is giving them his pathetic offer. "Not a chance!"

Once more bringing forth Cyclone, Kain adds a whirling tornado to the storm of elements bombarding the field. As he advances again toward Vengeance, he slashes toward him with his lance, from the ground this time.

Chaos. It is the only word for it all, but there's no time to sort through it. No time for cleaver plans. Maria joins the assault on Vengeance, the need to stop the cause before they all fall out weighing any instinct to protect the others from the lesser demons now. Her armor cannot fully protect her, the maelstrom of magics and demons reaching flesh and bone.

Light fills the room for a moment as The Wrath of Heaven falls on Vengeance and whatever demons are closest, it only grants her a moment and she takes advantage of the light to slice forward at the demon, going high while Kain goes low.

Nathaniel hears Anders pleading as he has heard him plead for months. This will be the last time.

While Vengeance is distracted, he lunges for it, his long dagger slashing viciously at its midsection.

"He's not yours!" he half-screams, half-snarls as he draws back again. "He said so! You will accept it or you will die, you fucking bastard."

It's no longer just about distraction. All his fear and pain, all his projections have come to the fore, and Vengeance will hear them at last, now that he can no longer hurt Anders for it.

"Die and join everyone like you who thought they were entitled to everything. Who thought they could use other people as pawns to gain whatever they wanted and call it right. Every poison-spewing Maker-fearing parasite who tells other people it's their fault if they're hurt, if they're sick or lonely or hungry. You starved him! You starved him!"

He's working himself up, getting reckless, and before Justice is distracted again, he darts back in, dagger lashing out once more. But he must be within Vengeance's reach before Vengeance can be within his.

Velanna comes to her and Merrill tucks in close, arm still tight around her midsection. They just have to get through this. They can survive for that long. She can cast for that long.

She's going to have to, especially with two of their healers in bad shape.

One more Crushing Prison, to keep Vengeance enclosed while elements roar around them. Velanna will keep her safe; Merrill just has to keep doing her best to make sure everyone else is safe, too. Far easier to focus on that than on the pain and the blood and the screams.

It hurt, everything hurt, but Maker's Breath, they were wearing down on it. If only they could all keep from dying before they managed to take down Vengeance.

She had to be careful now - Nathaniel was right there, as was Cole and Leliana. She could not risk anything but pin-point attacks.

So it was fireball, to the terror demons. Winter's Fury, to the rage demons, to slow them down so she could turn back to Vengeance to focus Maker's Fist on him, to bring him down in the cage and sap more of his energy. Bring him down, give those with blades the chance to sink in more deeply.

"No-" Teeth clenched and focus sharp, carving through the pain to find Compassion's song, blue light flaring as their power twines and twists together, the Spirit pressed against her like a second skin on the other side of the veil. Her eyes film over in familiar, soothing blue, sigils and defensive magic snapping through the air as Adelaide pours all she has into one last barrier on as many as she might reach, as she doubles back on her spell. Her voice rises, cold and resonant- her voice. Compassion's voice. Their voice. "We do not, but you must."

At this distance it is not so easy to miss.

Light flares under Vengeance's feet, a powerful glyph of paralysis to double down on Merrill's prison. "And you will."

Edited 2016-06-26 09:42 (UTC)

"I did what needed to be done!" Two spirits of compassion stood against it here and that did not feel good. Vengeance understood why they did not stand with it, but against? Now is not the time to doubt itself, however. Now is a struggle for survival because Anders' allies are proving more stubborn than expected. It sees Kain and Maria coming and braces, but with the prison holding it in place it cannot dodge - Kain's blade cuts deep, Maria's slashes shallowly but the accompanying energy of her Wrath of Heaven hits it hard. Vengeance sends a powerful slam in Maria's direction in retaliation.

Talking may be the only way Vengeance makes it out of this, it realizes. "When no one else would step in, I did. When no one would speak for those who needed a voice, I did. When no one would stop the Templars, I did. I can give what no one else can - the satisfaction of knowing blows against intolerance and injustice have been landed and will be landed." It looks at the mages. It will not join with Merrill, Compassion is too strongly with Adelaide right now to try, but there are others. "What if you'd been taken to the Circle in Kirkwall, Bethany? Would you not have wanted a chance to fight back? Or would you have preferred sitting in a cell and waiting for the blade to fall?"

It looks to Velanna, and sends another slam her way, this one weaker. "You understand how I have felt. Some actions should be prevented when possible, and punished when not. I could give either of you the ability to stand your ground all the better against what is to come. When Corypheus falls they will not need to play nice with mages or Dalish any more, and the Wardens are weakened. Take me as an ally."

Nate's dagger drives in and Vengeance whirls, furious, and unable to react in time before Bethany's spell slams into it and Adelaide holds it still. It can only watch as an inferno rips across the field, striking demons as others are knocked about by the tornado from Kain or Maria's earlier strike of Wrath. A green spot appears on the ground next to Maria and the terror demon leaps out, swinging a glancing blow before Bethany's fire ball hits it.

A gibbering horror lunges at Merrill and bites her, but can't get its teeth too deeply in. Meanwhile a rage demon exchanges fire with Bethany, struck by Winter's fury and sending a fire burst at her in return.

Leliana doesn't know if typical rules of anatomy work for demons; it's not something she's ever much considered.

"Enough."

She strikes, hooking her bleeding, wounded arm around Vengeance's throat or whatever one might be able to guess is its thoat while she stands at its back, using the leverage to better drive in the dagger with her right hand. Leliana withdraws and striks twice more in rapid stabs, aiming for its throat. It might not silence it, but she can certainly try.

"They have endured enough of you." Quiet enough that perhaps Vengeance would not even hear it, as she endeavours to hook her arms around its to rend them back and leave the demon more exposed for Cole and Maria and Kain's attacks.

From across the room, another dagger flies into the demon, sinking deeply.

"I've been waiting too long for him to shut up."

The daggers know where they need to go, where they should go, and yet the demon persists. The blows that manage to land feel like chipping away at a great tree, piece by piece.

Cole does not succumb to physical exhaustion, but Vengeance's proclamations and promises begin to chip away at his resolve in the same manner. This is not like the Envy demon, who only ever sought power and conquest, or the Nightmare, who only ever preyed upon fear. Once upon a time, Justice knew what was right. What was fair. Cole can taste how its nature has been twisted, dark, murky. He can hear the cracks in its arguments where light might have poured through, once. Through which a person might be tempted to take it up on its offer. And it is still not dying.

He starts to lose hope, his attacks landing with less raid-fire efficiency... and then, Leliana. Then a new chance to attack, a new angle.

"Die!" Cole exclaims, rushing forward to renew his efforts.

It seems that their attacks are starting to weaken Vengeance, but he's a formidable foe. Except all that the spirit is saying are empty words and nothing more. Of course, it does bother him that he's held a lot of the same ways of thinking in the past... that the ends sometimes had to justify the means... ugh, no, he could never agree with something that possesses others.

Kain doubles over for a moment after darting back a bit, his breathing shallow and strained. Can he make it long enough to get in another attack? Everything hurts terribly at this point. But. Still. If he can move, he can fight, and right now, Leliana's giving them an opening. He better take it while he still can.

With a growl, Kain leaps forth again at Vengeance with his lance at the ready. It's not quite as high of a jump as earlier, but it's well aimed and strong, thanks to his pain fueling his Blood Frenzy.

Nathaniel is still in a frenzy, lunging in and lashing out with the slice of his dagger each time Vengeance turns away. Now it's trying to tempt Velanna and Bethany. Like hell is he going to let it keep talking.

He is tall, but it's still quite the reach when he tries to stab the demon in the throat. No more talking.

The gibbering horror lunges and Merrill shrieks, swinging her staff and- well, conking it right in the face. It pulls at the injury to her torso but it's an instinctual reaction, and the too-many teeth at least don't rip any chunks of flesh out.

"I've had enough of this!" Lightning erupts once more, going first for the gibbering horror and then arcing to the other demons, Vengeance included.

Bethany swung her staff around, to send a freezing arc of Cone of Cold towards the rage demon, before she turned to face Vengeance. Something flashed across her face - pity, perhaps - before she aimed her staff at him once more.

"I never wanted justice. I never wanted vengeance. I just wanted peace -- and you've never brought that. We're tired of the blood, we're tired of the bodies littering the ground in your mad campaign to change something that could never be changed through murder. The templars proved that, and the mages too. All your revenge has gotten us are more graves than I care to count."

She stared at him, before she said sternly. "Go home, Vengeance. We don't want you anymore."

And she let loose a Flameburst, following Merrill's lightening, keeping it right on Vengeance himself so she did not hurt Nathaniel, or Cole, or even Isabela.

Edited 2016-06-30 03:40 (UTC)

"I told you before, this world is no place for you. You belong in a world of ideas, back in the Fade. So go," Isabela hissed, slashing with her blades.

Velanna lets out a bitter laugh, taking the slam full on but barely feeling it, swinging her staff around again and pointing it at Vengeance.

"Justice was the one who convinced me to try to atone for my mistakes. He wouldn't want me joining with a creature like you." She punctuates her sentence with a volley of fireballs, carefully aimed to avoid those in close contact with him.

Cole, Bethany, Velanna... Vengeance looks around, taken aback. They were the ones it'd thought might see the reality of the situation, that it was needed in this world. It was no creature. It was seeking the end of injustice and what was wrong in this world. Surely that would be helpful, not reasons for fury and bitterness.

Not that there's much room for looking around with Leliana on his back, driving the dagger in repeatedly, causing more pain than it had felt in so long, weakening it and loosely holding it back. Isabela charges in, blades flashing, Cole joins her, and Vengeance realizes a lot of what's still powering it isn't strength, but rage. Kain's lance drives into its abdomen, deep, staggering it and it searches frantically for openings as Nate's blade sinks into its throat as well.

There might not be a way to win. Survival might not happen. It had tried so hard to make a difference, and it has been betrayed. Lightning strikes among its demons, pushing the gibbering horror back from Merrill, scattering others, striking Vengeance, and it flings a strong firebolt at her barrier.

Ice strikes a rage demon from Bethany, but Vengeance is unable to retaliate against her, held back by a weak flameburst and suddenly followed up with fireballs from Velanna. Vengeance breaks from Leliana's hold and slams the ground in Velanna's direction before changing its own path. Anders is weak. Surely after all of this work, if it can take Anders' body back, they won't kill them. Vengeance, too, is weakening, steps slow as it heads toward the two mages on the ground.

The other demons aren't as slowed. A horror demon flings Venom at Isabela, the rage demon struck and slowed by Bethany's ice casts a firebolt at Cole, and the terror demon vanishes into the earth to leap up from the ground underneath Nate and attack.

"You will not have him." It is almost serene, their voice, their focus winding together tighter and tighter, Compassion pressed as close as possible from the other side of the veil. Eyes blazing blue, chill misting their breath, Adelaide sets herself firmly between Anders and Vengeance- teeth grit against the jar and drag it takes to get there. She gave her word. She gave her word and while Justice has made a failure of himself- there is nothing that will tear the last shred of her promise from her grasp.

Vengeance has done enough.

Frost glitters as it spreads over her skin, the tight lines of a spell condensing in her palm as she waits for the demon to approach, waits until he is close enough to make the strike most effective. A single shard of ice, a variation on a mine etched into being on the ground that trips and triggers when the demon comes near- shooting out with an audible crack, aimed and angled to pierce the flesh of it's gnarled throat. "Never again."

Edited (ohmygod html why) 2016-06-30 23:05 (UTC)

The terror appears from beneath Nathaniel's feet, and he lands hard on the ground, only barely managing to put his hands under him first. It still hurts. It will hurt any time someone of his weight hits the ground. He turns to his side and is struggling to rise when Vengeance kicks him in the chest.

Nathaniel rolls through the air before crashing to the ground and blacking out briefly. When he comes to, he cannot move. The air is gone from him, and the pain is so bad, the vacuum so tight, that he cannot take a breath.

Merrill screams.

It's not the firebolt that makes her scream, though her barrier doesn't absorb all of it. It's the sight of Vengeance moving toward Anders, toward Adelaide; it's the sight of Nathaniel landing on the ground so hard that she's certain he had to have broken at least one of his arms trying to catch himself, of watching Vengeance proceed to kick him in the chest.

She doesn't have enough air to scream for long -- it's short, piercing, and it sounds overall like the word no.

Raw nature magic erupts from her in tendrils, curling around Vengenace's limbs to yank him back toward her. Ensnare has never been a spell that she's necessarily wanted to employ unless she's had no other choice, if only because mages are not always meant to fight up close and personal. This time, she feels she has no other choice. This ends now, with magic working to drag him away and injure him at the same time.

After all of this, Bethany is going to let herself faint. She is going to let herself fall on the ground after she's done something for Nathaniel but right now? Right now - she's going to keep this damned thing away from her family.

"You should listen to Compassion!" She growled, her teeth ground together, as she shifts towards Adelaide's/Compassion's side, to stand in front of Nathaniel. Healing pooled around her, battlefield only but it was dirty and quick and she pushed it into Nathaniel and Adelaide, before she lifted her hand to thrown down a closer Cone of Cold - added on a Deep Freeze, making the ice spikes slam upwards into Vengeance himself, into the rage demon.

"You're Not Having Either One OF THEM. Any of them!! You are done!"

Trying to turn the earth against her is a foolish move, really. Velanna slams her staff down as the earth quakes, and it shifts before ever touching her, rolling away towards Vengeance, although she loses focus on the spell when she sees Nathaniel fall, and the obvious path that Vengeance is taking towards Adelaide and Anders.

"Leave them be!" she screams, her voice added to the others, her staff slamming into the ground again and her left hand sweeping out in front of her, sharp-edged roots shooting from the ground again to attack several targets, though her efforts are clearly favoring Vengeance and the demon focused on Nathaniel.

Isabela's footing shifts when the ground does, but she dodges the roots, burying her blades deep into Vengeance's flank.

"You're probably enjoying this. Vengeance. Take this for my friend."

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