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

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."

One down. It may have killed Nathaniel, and that's satisfying. What is not is the fact that it cannot make it to Anders, not with Bethany and Adelaide and Compassion standing in its way. There is not time. It should have forced Anders to not accept so much help, chased more away from standing alongside him. But now is not time for regrets. now is time to lash out and take vengeance on whomever else it can.

Adelaide and Bethany's twin spikes of ice prove the point; it cannot get to Anders. It also cannot take either of them as host. Enough small fragments of Justice remain that Vengeance does not wish to force itself upon Velanna either, despite how her roots tear at it and its demons, killing most of the very-weakened horrors. Isabela's daggers sink in and it swings at her, shoving her away. With a ruined throat it cannot howl, but it can find the one option remaining and stagger toward Merrill. To destroy a blood mage by taking her body as host would not be crossing a line. If Marethari had not stepped in, this fate already would have befallen her.

Its progress would be slow if not for Merrill suddenly attacking back, unleashing her will and hauling it toward her. Almost, almost it gets within arm's reach and it braces to make its attempt... only for the roots to tear their way into Vengeance, burst through its body, and break it. Vengeance's eyes grow wide in denial for one brief moment before it falls apart and becomes ash.

A rage demon sends a wave of fire across the field, newly fueled by the anger Vengeance felt before its passing, while the terror demon vanishes from Nathaniel and appears again underneath Isabela, striking out. But those two and one more rage are all that remain of Vengeance's last effort to stay in the mortal realm - it is dead, and they stand little chance.

She can't get the barrier up in time - anything up on time - and fire slams into her, right into her already damaged chest, sending spikes of sharp, excruciating pain through her as the fire burns through her healing and she begins to bleed again.

She goes down to her knees, choking, as she looks wildly around for Nathaniel, Anders, or Merrill. She has to protect them from the rage demon, she has to keep going ...

Her skin boils and she lets out a cry, tears in her eyes as she tries to ease ice magic into her already tortured flesh. "I'm coming ... I'm coming ... hold on ... please just hold on ..."

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

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