Chasing Godhood (Blueslime)

[Tassadar]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Spoiler

HP = 43, PP = 54/64, EP = 39/41, Status = Fine

Roll

Spoiler

Resistance: Nala wins!
Casting: Success.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 3 + 1 + 11 = 15 * 4 = 60 EP damage.
Nala regains 30 EP! She also gains another 30 corruption though.

The creature did indeed seem to notice the reversal of Nala's behavior, and its simple mind simply lacked the willpower necessary to resist her commands even if they were given through the actions of her flesh rather than by verbal or mental commands. It pulled its tendrils from her holes, its release swiftly beginning to pour out of her violated sex and anus and onto the floor, and gently set the elven witch down upon her feet. Its cum was thick and stuck to her thighs as it dribbled out of her, but Nala could only take a moment to recover from its treatment, as she saw that the ones she had come to protect were being pumped as full as she was, their bellies bloating as they were filled with the tentacled creature's semen.

With a single motion and a paltry effort, Nala tore the energy from one of the creatures, and absorbed it into herself. The slimy thing dropped boneless to the ground, but the woman it had been holding continued grinding herself against the tentacles that were still buried in her holes. There were still five more of the things not including the one that now stood behind her awaiting her command, however, so she still had much work to do. The paltry, filthy spiritual energy she had leached from the creature had restored her strength, but she would be required to use a great deal of delicacy in removing the aliens from their victims lest she harm one of them by accident.

The sounds of violence from outside were dying down, the rifle reports and the shouts becoming fewer and farther between. When last she had been outside, Nala had assumed that her side had been winning, if barely, and she had no reason to suspect that the battle had once more reversed against them once more. That meant that she could probably take as long as was needed in here, but the question of where Charlotte and Amanda had gone to still didn't have an answer, as not a sound had come from the officer's quarters, which was the only place in the cabin that Nala couldn't see, since she had arrived.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

"Delicacy."

Nala exhaled the word slowly as she struggled to regain her sense of balance and support herself under her sore thighs. The women around her were too entwined with these creatures to allow for any black lightning or similar methods. Nala knew this would require a scalpel, not a broadsword. Her kind of scalpel.

She formed a blackfire blade, not empowering it this time so that she could conserve energy. These enemies were weaker than the casters and juggernauts she had previously dealt with, and a normal spell should finish them.

With her blade hovering in the air beside her she gave her first command to the seduced grappler.

"Protect me from anyone attacking me."

Then she proceeded to stab the offending aliens carefully, severing their grey flesh without harming the girls that they were impaling. She knew her methods now were lethal, but she had no need at the moment to be merciful.

Spoiler

cast blackfire blade, use it to start killing the remaining enemy grapplers.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Spoiler

HP = 43, PP = 54/64, EP = 21/41, Status = Fine

Rolls

Spoiler

Casting: Success.
Attack: Guaranteed Hit.
Damage: 7 + 1 + 14 = 22 * 5 = 110 damage.

There are 5 of them, so that's 4 more rounds after the initial casting.
Total of 6 + 12 = 18 EP spent.

The alien creature stood by the door as Nala commanded it to protect her, and she began her work of separating those she had come to save from their attackers. The blade of black flame that she conjured practically disintegrated the aliens as it touched them, leaving the women they were holding unharmed but utterly destroying the monsters she had created it to slay.

Within half a minute, she had burned the last of the monsters to dust, and as if on cue, a glowing blade passed through the monster she had seduced. It was cut clean in half, and Violet came rushing through the doorway in a blur of motion, a blade of white light extended out from her hand. "Quickly, through the dooor to the officer's quarters!" She barked, and surged past Nala at nearly superhuman speed, her body glowing faintly.

Practically smashing her way through the half opened door, Violet stopped mid stride, and as Nala followed the blade in her hand and the glow around her body vanished. The assassin seemed diminished following the release of her powers, and stepped forward as Nala reached her back, allowing her to see inside.

Amanda had moved from where she had been when Nala had last seen the abused girl. She was kneeling on the ground, and had obviously seen further sexual abuse by whatever had come in here while the others were distracted by the tentacled creatures. She lacked the slimy coating that those particular monsters left behind on their victims, however, having only a few new bruises and scratches on her face and chest, along with a small amount of white cum leaking from her womanhood. She was kneeling in a pool of fresh blood, and cradled in her arms was Charlotte, a wide gash in her neck. No more blood was coming from that wound, though her entire front was coated in red. Charlotte's eyes gazed up at the ceiling, glassy and lifeless.

As she entered, Amanda looked up from her sister, and met Nala's eyes. She couldn't quite tell who's gaze was more empty, in that moment.

"The cut is too jagged for this to have been done with a knife, and too shallow for any longer blade." Violet's quietly delivered words seemed magnified by the morbidity of the room, and were immediately followed by her arm coming up and pointing. "There. Look." Tracks in blood led toward one of the windows, which had had the thin veil that was meant to keep insects from harassing the occupants of the hut torn out. They had three toed feet with very pronounced claws on each toe, more like those of a bird or a reptile than those of any creature Nala had ever seen the like of before. Only one set of tracks led out, and that was the only window that had been torn open.

"Whatever it was that.... Did this.... Went that way. But.... With the battle outside over, you will be needed to make sure things remain peaceful. And you should not be alone." Violet continued, turning to look at her questioningly. She might offer advice, but Nala didn't doubt that Violet would follow any path that the elven witch chose to follow.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Nala felt perhaps a bit too pleased with herself and the way she had managed to clean up these enemies with her fearsome entropic spells. Death and sex had mingled inside her consciousness and she could feel herself being shaped more and more by those forces. Dimly in the back of her mind, Nala knew that changes were occurring, and not just the kind of changes one could describe with language alone. Some things were simply too primordial to be conceptualized by the mortal tongue.

On cue, Violet burst into the scene just as the last of the crawlers fell to the floor in dust, leaving the abused women in this room safe for the time being, though Nala feared for their eventual return to sanity. Violet's sharp bark of an order made Nala realize that Amanda and Charlotte could still be in danger, and she rushed behind Violet as they burst into the next room.

The image she saw burned into her mind, and the sinking feeling in her chest and stomach, a nauseous churning of emotion, returned in an instant. It was deja vu, as seen from the time when Charlotte had been cradling the horribly wounded Amanda in her arms. This time the other sister had suffered, and the price she had paid had seemed to be the ultimate.

Violet was saying something. Something about the wound at Charlotte's neck, and the trail of blood leading away. Nala realized she didn't have time to think about that sort of thing. As Violet continued to speak, Nala rushed over and cast a simple Nature's Breath spell to seal the wounds and put Charlotte's body at least into a livable state. She knew that the soul however would be a trickier and far more deadly matter.

Silently with the mental summons she had used to conjure the Reaper daemon, she called it to her side with all haste. Even so, it would take a few precious moments to get here. In that time she gazed into Charlotte's empty eyes, rage and guilt and abyssal loss swirling with Nala's mind.

I caused this, Nala thought. I led these girls to this fate. Their bodies, minds, and souls were my responsibility. They ARE my responsibility.

"No," she said in response to Violet's assertion that she should not be alone.

"Where I am about to go, you cannot follow," she said, her voice flat and uncharacteristically emotionless. "Stay here with Amanda and the girls until I get back. I am not letting Charlotte die... I simply cannot let that happen."

The Reaper appeared, materializing through the wall of the room, its face a mask of death. She approached it.

"Take me through the underworld and trace the scent of this woman's soul."

Bravely, Nala gripped the Reaper daemon by its cloaked elbow, steeling herself to re-enter a realm that she had not been particularly eager to see the first time she'd been brought there. She didn't know if this was a good idea or a pathetically dumb idea. That didn't matter at the moment. All that mattered was not going back on her word. She had said she would protect Amanda and Charlotte. She had said no more harm would come to them. She had promised what she could not deliver, and she would not accept that. It was time to go to Hell or whatever passed as the abyssal equivalent, and tear back Charlotte's soul or die in the attempt.

Violet undoubtedly would have protested by this point but Nala's voice was firm. "I have to do this. And you cannot come with me. Not here. Not yet. It's simply not your time, Violet. If I come back, we will talk more about everything. If I do not, I charge you to live as best you can and care for these girls as I could not."

With that said, Nala and the Reaper stepped into the underworld in search of a freshly departed soul.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Spoiler

EP = 74, Spirit = 74

Violet looked at Nala incredulously as she cast a spell that sealed the wound on Charlotte's neck, but said nothing. Amanda continued to stare blankly at Nala, her eyes empty and lifeless. The wound sealed itself, at least, even though the body was most certainly devoid of life. It hadn't regained any color or warmth, but if she could retrieve Charlotte's soul, she might be able to return her to life somehow.

"What? Stay... Where are you... Oh." Violet muttered, her questions answered as the Reaper walked through the wall as though it were nothing but air. "You aren't.... Oh heavens.... Dammit, don't make me do this! Don't leave me out here to watch! Damn..... Fine, but don't take too long." Violet said, her voice anything but emotionless.

The daemon stood impassively after Nala's order, utterly still and silent for several moments before.... It began to laugh. It wasn't as mirthless a sound as Nala might have expected from such a being, and even seemed mildly familiar even though Nala couldn't precisely place where. After a moment of laughter, the daemon stopped, and reached back to pull up its hood. The cloth fell away, revealing the reaper's face.

Surprisingly, it was completely human in features. Handsome, even. Darker of skin than most of the human men that Nala had met, though it was more tanned from the sun than naturally dark. Surprisingly simple brown eyes, and a clean shaven face that showed hints of dark hair, barely enough to call stubble. Short dark hair clung to the apparently normal man's head, and the only reason that Nala had to think that the black robed being standing before her was supernatural at all was that she remembered what it was capable of when it got its hands on something. "As you wish." It said, and suddenly swept forward, and pulled Nala into a kiss before the elven witch could hope to react. Before another second past, she felt herself being swept away, and her soul was drawn out of her body by the daemon with as simple an effort as one might use to suck in a breath of air.

Her perceptions were gone for the span of a heartbeat, but after that single solitary moment, Nala "awoke" to a world of flat, grey nothingness. Or at least, at first it was nothingness. Shapes began to appear around her, blurry and translucent at first, but gradually becoming more and more substantial as the seconds ticked by.

After a few moments, Nala found herself in a street akin to one she might have walked down in Celesis, or another city from her jungle homeland. But... There was something different about this place. There were no trees to be seen save for a few ones that were far too thin, and had leaves only near to the top, and the air was dry, parched even. The houses were small and made of some sort of stone that looked as though it were ready to crumble, and it was shaded too dark for it to be the white limestone and marble that the people of the amazon favored. There were signs of habitation in her black and white surroundings, food half eaten lying upon tables, though nothing she had ever seen before was sitting out.

There were bodies in the street. Three men and two women, along with a half dozen or so children, had been butchered and left to rot in the baking sun. They hadn't been dead long, as far as Nala could tell. All of her senses were operating as normal, except perhaps for her sight, which only allowed her to perceive herself as having any color save for grey.

A trio of beings were approaching her from down the street, however. Unlike anything else she had seen, they were completely black, as dark as starless midnight, and the air around them seemed to darken merely by their presence. They were like nothing that Nala had ever seen or heard of before. Massive and insectlike, almost like highly warped men covered in chitinous armor and fuzed to the body of some massive, horrific ant. Lances were grafted to their arms, and they picked up speed as they come toward her, charging at her position without a sound save for the rapid clicking of their limbs hitting the stone pavement.

Spoiler

This world works differently from the normal one.

In here, Nala is nothing but pure energy, and because this world is nothing but memories, there isn't any ambient magic for her to use to cast her spells. She only has her Spirit stat, which is also her main stat and the source of all of her stats while she's here. She has no maximum EP, but if she ever runs out of energy, she will cease to exist.

She has learned to control her own energies so long as she stays here, however. She can learn additional powers along her journey, but for now she only has the following:
Spirit Warrior: Energy Blast, Energy Blade
Psychic: Telekinesis

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Everything had happened so fast. The Reaper's laughter, it's face - that of a handsome man's, humorous and clever, it was the sort of man Nala might have gone out of her way to flirt with in another time and place. The Reaper approached her in a blur of motion.

"As you wish..."

And its lips met hers, inhaling her soul in one swift, disturbingly easy movement. The witch elf had no time to even proffer a resistance, not that she would have had he gone slower, it was such a bizarre occurance that Nala would have been stunned into acceptance.

She awoke in a world of gray silence. A morbid land with the scene of grisly murder laying strewn across the street before her. Nala's body, the only splotch of true color left. However, she felt strange. Different. Less... "alive." Certainly she still perceived, still held a facsimile of conscious thought, and really that was as "alive" as she needed to be, she supposed. But still, she was certainly not breathing.

Nor was she wielding magic anymore. Currents of life, even death, were absent in this realm. Yet she felt she was not completely without power. Memories, distant and vague, curled at the edge of her thoughts. Her mother's voice, preaching about the power of the spirit, the weaving of one's own energies - not that of the world, but of oneself - resounded in her head.

"Of course... I am a spirit here. No body. No magic. Just spirit."

She felt woefully underprepared for this. Had she followed in the footsteps of her mother, then doubtless she would already have learned about spirituality and have been more prepared for this undertaking. But relying on spirit, even daring to recognize it in herself, had been one of Nala's shortcomings. It was something that she supposed she would have to remedy, should she ever survive this foray into the unknown veil.

Thoughts of survival remained relevant as a trio of chitinous insect-men appeared in the spirit-street before her. They did not appear friendly, and soon the three beings were charging her down.

"Seven shades of shadows..." Nala cursed under her breath, angered at the thought of something getting in her way at this crucial time. She had to focus on Charlotte. Every second wasted here was a second her soul might be rended by gluttonous Reaper daemons, or something worse that she could not imagine. The frustration of having failed Amanda and Charlotte already boiled through Nala's mind.

"Whatever you are, wherever you come from, you've picked the wrong witch to mess with," Nala said, fuming and having the sudden urge to hit something very hard, with a lot of energy.

With her entire form made up of solid energy, such a possibility was very much within Nala's grasp, and she formed a fist as she approached the three beings, beginning a light jog towards them.

Was she insane? She was charging head first into combat. Something that was certainly not her natural inclination. Yet she knew she could not back down from this fight. She had to be brave for Charlotte, for Amanda, and most certainly for Violet. She couldn't abandon them. She had to return, Charlotte's soul intact, as well as her own. Failure was not an option.

As the first of the insect men came within reach, Nala summoned forth a blade of dark green energy, extending from her right fist like an eldritch spike of witch fire, gleeming eerily amongst the shadows of the gray world, as though it were the most dangerous and wondrous thing in it.

The blade was bright enough to cut through these beasts, but was Nala strong enough to withstand them? Now was the moment of truth.

Spoiler

Nala summons energy blade, using 10 EP. Blade does 10d6+25 points of damage and also drains 1d6 EP. She'll strike out at the closest attacker. Let's hope Nala doesn't die. *crosses fingers*

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Spoiler

EP = 30/45, Spirit = 45, Energy Blade X = 10

Rolls

Spoiler

Nala spends 14 EP on energy blade, X = 10.

Attack: Hit.
Damage: 30 + 25 = 55 damage.
Drain: Nala regains 5 EP.

Attacks (On Nala) : Both hit.
Damage: 6 + 5 = 11, 3 + 5 = 8, total 19 damage.

Attack: Hit.
Damage: 38 + 18 = 56 damage.
Drain: Nala regains 2 EP.

Attacks (On Nala) : One hit.
Damage: 5 + 5 = 10 damage

Attack: Hit.
Damage: 37 + 15 = 52 damage.
Drain: Nala regains 5 EP.

Perception: Success.

As Nala drew upon her energies, forming a weapon of brilliant emerald witchfire, she felt.... Different, from how she normally felt when wielding magic. Some of the color drained from her body as the fiery blade was called forth, but there was no time to think on the repercussions of that now. The three beings were upon her, having closed the distance quickly and silently between themselves and the charging witch. Her blade passed through one of the black insect-like abominations, and cut through it like so much tissue paper. The black thing remained utterly silent even as its very being was rent apart by her glowing green blade, and she felt as much as saw the color returning to her as she absorbed some of its energies through her blade.

The two remaining creatures counter attacked immediately, their chitinous black forms warping and stretching, causing the lances grafted to their arms to lash out at Nala like bladed whips. Both struck home with perfect accuracy, but rather than pain, Nala felt.... Reduced, somehow. The attacks tore small pieces of her being away, and flung them aside. Her being filled in quickly enough, but she could tangibly feel how she had been weakened by the blows, both her energy and her ability to wield it affected by the strikes.

Having had portions of her soul torn from her, Nala knew now what the stakes were for this. To fall in this world was to suffer the fate that the daemon had warned her of when she had been shot. To die here would be to cease to exist entirely, with no hope of recovery or rescue. That in mind, her next strike, though reduced in strength from her first, destroyed another of the shadow beings, and as it fell apart, Nala noticed something. When these things died, they left behind a small black orb that pulsated with energy. The parts of her soul that had been torn off had coalesced as well, forming green and violet orbs of light that bobbed about slightly, as if waiting for something.

A third strike tore more of her being away, but the battle was as good as over now. The last of the shadowmen fell, leaving Nala once more alone in the grey world with no idea of where the soul she sought might be. The orbs of energy floated invitingly, waiting for her to claim them, and Nala somehow knew that all she had to do to claim them was to walk and touch them. She also knew, however, that she was just a soul now. Taking the rent essence of the shadowy beings would stain her own soul in their likeness. Too much, and she might lose herself to them completely, and then.... She didn't even know. At the same time, she would need as much power as she could gather if she wished to find Charlotte's soul, and the energies of her destroyed foes were the only way she might restore and increase her strength in this place.

Though she couldn't control them as she normally could, Nala began to feel the energies of this world around her as she became more acclimated to this place. She knew that she could use them to restore her depleted energy, if she so desired, but they couldn't be used to increase her strength as the essence of her enemies might.

The road that the three shadow beings had come down was clear, and led toward a fortress the likes of which Nala had never seen before. Golden stone reached up into the sky, toward a perfectly angular peak that. Its walls were perfectly smooth and straight, and glowed brightly against the grey background of this plane. It would be a very long walk, and there was no telling what she might find along the way, but unless she wanted to start wandering aimlessly it seemed to be the only landmark within sight.

Spoiler

The ambient energy around Nala includes:

60 Spirit from the three shadow beasts
29 of her own Spirit
30 ambient energy
30 energy from the three shadow beasts

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

The battle was unlike anything Nala had ever before experienced, but it retained the same desperation and ferocity and will to survive that all such conflicts possess. The sundering of her spirit self was not painful, but wholly unsettling as she recognized the very essence of her fundamental self being torn away from her.

With a feral savagery, the witch elf finished off the last of her foes, standing above the swirling remnants of dark energies coiling around her own green and violet miasma floating above the dream-like streets.

Nala was never one to shy away from pressing the boundaries of taboo, yet she had always been certain to never lose herself completely and become something that went beyond the pale. Now she had another such choice before her. She quickly swept back all of her own original energies and spiritual residue back into herself, amassing the energy instinctually and drawing it back into herself. She then focused her will and steeled herself, knowing that these things she just faced were likely outriders of whatever greater enemy could lie ahead. She would need strength to overcome the dangers of this place and rescue Charlotte's soul. Knowing this, Nala drew in about a third of the dark spirit energy around her and took it into herself. She would only take as much as she was confident that she could handle and still remain herself.

If possible, she would use up the dark energies first to power her attacks, not wanting it to stay in her own essence very long.

After having collected this foreign energy, she set off towards the fortress, feeling that it must be her intended destination in this strange place.

Spoiler

Take all of Nala's Spirit and Energy, plus 10 Dark Spirit an a third of dark energy

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Spoiler

EP = 84, Spirit = 84, Fine
Shadow = 5%
Amount above normal Spirit: +10

Nala could feel the portions of herself returning, filling her with a wholesome feeling. When she took in some of the energy from the shadow beasts, however, she could feel something changing within her. It wasn't dramatic... Yet, but she felt it all the same. In addition, flashes of memories flitted before her eyes, images of a dozen things without any connection or context appearing before her before Nala managed to suppress them. She could guess what they were, most likely the memories of the being that she had just partially consumed, but they were so disjointed and haphazard... As if they were incomplete, somehow.

Moving onwards down the road, Nala began to notice that the area around her was growing increasingly foggy. White formless mist slowly closed in around Nala as she made her way down the road, her surroundings growing increasingly indistinct the further that she went, but one thing at least remained the same. The fortress ahead remained as clear as ever, the fog seemingly not disrupting her vision of it at all.

Eventually, Nala was walking through an empty void of mist, all of the features of this place drained from the world around her save for the pyramid that was her destination. There was no sound here, not even that of her own voice, but she could feel the mist clinging to her body just as if it were the real thing. After a span of minutes that Nala wasn't able to count, the world around her suddenly filled in once more, and she found herself in a small tavern common room. It was dark within the room, and for some reason the golden fortress was still visible on the horizon even though she was within a structure, but a set of candles around the wall illuminated it well enough for her to see.

Three women stood within the room, all of them exceptionally beautiful, and they formed a semicircle around Nala as she found herself rooted in place. Behind them, a glowing orb in rainbow colors floated over the floor, about the size of her head. Despite the overall strangeness of this place, Nala could tell instantly that she beheld what she had come here for. Or a part of it, at least, because she somehow knew that, even though that was a piece of Charlotte's soul, it was not the whole. Whether the division of the girl's soul might have any negative effects or not, Nala couldn't hazard a guess, but leaving it scattered likely couldn't result in any positive outcomes.

The three women were all nude, and quite plainly comfortable with it, something that Nala realized only now that she herself was. It was an odd thing, what one could forget in such times. The first of them, the one that stood in the center, had skin as crimson as the blood in Nala's veins, goat horns curling up from her head, and stood upon a pair of cloven hooves. A long tail that ended in a spade curled around one of her long, shapely legs, and a pair of tiny batlike wings waved from her back. The second woman, who stood on Nala's right, was as pale as a ghost, and had eyes that were completely pitch black. Other than that, however, she was almost completely human. The third woman was, like the second, mostly human in shape, but she had long, razor sharp claws on the tips of her fingers, and her skin was midnight black just like the shadow creatures that Nala had seen before, though she retained human-like facial features. Black chitinous armor clung, skin tight, to her form, but didn't impede the view of her nudity even though it shifted and moved before Nala's eyes.

All three kept their gaze directed at Nala as she examined them, and only when she had taken in their features did they speak. "Outsider." Said the first, her voice low and sultry to an almost comical degree. "You have come for this." Said the one who was wrapped in shadows, and then beckoned toward the portion of Nala's soul that floated behind them. Listening to her voice was akin to listening to a bed of serpents, every word coming out low and sibilant. "You may not take it without a price." Said the third, and the words seemed to echo back to Nala several times, though the sound grew louder rather than more quiet with every repetition.

"We three have been here for time untold, bound to our assassin. Not a one of our fates deserved." All three said at once, their unison perfect. "We are the last whole portions of ourselves, after our millennia of captivity. All else has been lost. Take us from this place, and we will allow you this soul, and take you to the second piece. Refuse us, and we will consume it, and you."

"You cannot escape us."

"You could never hope to face all three of us at once."

"But if you accept, our power will be put at your disposal until it comes time to leave this place."

All three held out a hand, and suddenly became almost completely translucent, as if they had lost all substance. At the same time, three orbs appeared, one crimson, one black, and one milky white. "Draw us within yourself, outsider. We cannot leave this place without you, and we will leave your body once you have returned to the land of the living." They concluded, their voices demanding, one and all.

Spoiler

The ambient energy around Nala includes:

30 demonic spirit
30 shadow spirit
30 undead spirit

A piece of Charlotte's soul.

10 ambient energy

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Returning the portion of her own soul felt comfortable, reassuring, and correct in all all aspects. The opposite was true of the shadow essence. It was wrong and ill-fit to her own spiritual form. She felt as though if she continued to take in much more of it, she would lose herself permanently and become like it in nature.

"I suppose I was fooling myself if I thought marching through the underworld would leave me unchanged," she said aloud as she tried her best to grow accustomed to the new energy and the flashes of memories, disjointed and unconnected, that propelled themselves into the sky of her subconscious, exploding like fireworks, impossible to ignore in the absence of other stimuli.

Hardening her focus, Nala turned and marched down the road towards her goal. She reinforced her mental state with the image of Amanda holding the lifeless body of Charlotte in her hands. Of Violet standing beside them, feeling at a loss as Nala had embraced the Reaper in what must surely have sounded like a fit of madness. Nala simply had to return to them and do whatever it took to succeed.

But she must remain Nala.

The mists rose about her as she walked until at the last she could no longer behold the landscape around her. Undeterred she continued apace, stopping only when face to face with the three women, a demon, a ghost, and a shadow creature not unlike the beings she had fought, destroyed, and partially consumed. It was only then, beholding the three alien versions of feminine beauty that Nala regarded her own naked form. The realization made her smirk in spite of the danger about her. She thought that in this moment, she a naked, purple-skinned elf, practitioner of arts both dark and sacred, must truly be as unique and scary as any of these three before her. In her own way, she felt as an oddly appropriate candidate to stand before these three.

"So, you threaten me in one breath, and cajole me with the other? A demon, a ghost, and a shadow. All are more than capable of lying - bending the truth to suit their needs. You say you've been trapped here for time untold -- then we are sisters of necessity, not antagonists. You three could not hope to escape your personal hell without me, so don't make me your enemy. After all, how many souls do you know that would dare come to this place of their own will? I may be an outsider, but I am no more an outsider than any of you. We are alike, I think. We are natural forces, intent upon achieving our desires."

Nala drew herself up to full height, standing proudly before them.

"What guarantees can you give me that you will not harm or seek to trick me? If I agree to help each of you escape this place, letting you join with me, when we again make it back to the world of the living, how will your spirits be able to exist there without bodies to cling to? Would you seek to leave me only to possess those I care for and protect? I must know that who or whatever you may be, that you will not repay my aid with treachery in any sense of the word. Each of you that can give me that assurance is welcome to join me."

Nala extended her hand towards them, but she tensed herself, ready for a fight just in case, and her eyes shifted between the three spirits, wary for any signs of malice. She knew that she dealt with dangerous spirits, but they were trapped ones, and greedy for life again. If they could help her meet her goals, she'd be happy to aid them, but not if they were going to be more trouble than they were worth. She also knew that she could not simply refuse them. Though they would be destroying their one chance at escape, they might be filled with enough rage and madness to discount logic and destroy her anyways.

She had to be sure, so she threw the burden of response back on them. Now that they knew she was receptive to the idea and not repelled by them as some others might be by such a trio of unsettling creatures, they might be more inclined to make peace and treat her as an ally. She had to hope that they would.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Spoiler

EP = 174, Spirit = 174, Fine
Shadow = 20%
Demon = 15%
Undead = 15%
Amount above normal Spirit: +100
1/3 of Charlotte's soul found

The three cackled in unison at Nala's response, the three sounds blending together in a horrid symphony that would make even the most stalward of hearts cringe. "Fret not...." Said the pale one, her image drained of what little color it had had when she had drew out her energies in offering to Nala. "We have long desired to meet one such as you... One not only capable, but willing to carry us from this place. We would not strike at you.... You are our salvation from inglorious oblivion!" Said the demon, her words dripping from her tongue like honey into Nala's ears. She alone did not grate against Nala's perceptions when she spoke, but the third of the group spoke again, hers the most offensive of the voices present; "We possess power enough yet that we will not need to steal bodies when we reenter the land of the living. We will form our own body's once we are free."

"Indeed.... Once our captor is away, we will leave you as you were when we were allowed in, save for those gifts that you choose to keep for yourself. We will offer you and yours no harm. We only wish to leave this place before we fade away completely." The demoness spoke earnestly and evenly, her words spoken a bit more plainly than they had been before. Her two compatriots nodded solemnly.

Having reached an accord with the three beings, they said, in unison; "We will grant you the use of our power so long as we reside within you. Our survival depends upon your own. When you have left this place, we will leave you at the earliest possible opportunity, yourself and all those in your charge unharmed by us. So be it." Following their evenly delivered oath, Nala drew all three of them within herself, feeling here soul stretching in order to accommodate the sudden influx of power. Three gems appeared on her chest, small and unobtrusive, but present nonetheless. One black, one white, and one red, each gleaming brilliantly before receding into her body. It was altogether unlike when she had absorbed the shadow being, no sudden flashes of memory not her own, and no strange feeling of being polluted as had happened before.

With no further obstructions, Nala moved forward to claim the shard of Charlotte's soul, the knowledge on how to take it without damaging it simply appearing within her mind at a thought. She gained no energy from it by taking it like this, but it would be preserved so long as her own soul remained whole. She could feel the portion of it within herself, a part of her yet separate, and with that, Nala was prepared to set off once more. The golden fortress awaited her, just out of reach.

After she left the room where she had found the three women and the first part of Charlotte's soul, Nala walked out into the mists once more, the only thing visible to her after stepping into them the fortress ahead. The grandiose structure grew steadily larger as she made her way toward it, but before Nala reached it, the world around her began to take shape once more. It wasn't nearly so sudden as her sudden arrival into the room with the three had been. Instead, the ground beneath her feet was a road once more rather than a blank white sheet. Then, images began to appear around her, blurry at first but slowly growing more distinct the further along she traveled. Small houses built of golden bricks, and smaller constructions built of thin, brittle looking wood or wicker, or sown together from long, thick leaves came into view, forming what was most likely some square or gathering place.

Within that center, a pitched battle was being waged. Both sides of the battle were shaded in grey, indicating that they were more a memory than spirits actively battling one another. On Nala's left, a squadron of barely more than a score of men, armored only by thin wicker shields wore on their arms, attempted to hold off over four dozen attackers of a far less human sort. The men were formed in a wall, holding their demonic foes at bay with clear desperation upon their faces as another group, all women and young children, fled down the street behind them. Seven hellhounds barked and hurled themselves at the wall of defenders only to be driven back, left to growl among the two dozen goblin's who's primitive clubs and reckless charges had already left a score of their number dead upon the battlefield. At the rear of the field, six women in complete undress watched the conflict with clear boredom upon their faces, a titanic being standing before them menacingly as it stared upon the conflict, clearly desiring to join it despite the need to guard it's mistresses.

The six were speaking, but their voices were hollow and distant, and Nala would have to get closer in order to hear them. A glance across the battlefield revealed that the man who stood at the rear of the human formation was speaking as well, his face set in determination despite the phantom sweat the dripped from his brow. The demons were readying another charge, and even though they were naught but memories, risking wading into the thick of that battle might be dangerous. A sudden gleam caught her eye, however, and Nala saw something glowing within the ghostly image of the human commander, right where his heart ought to be. If she got closer to him, she might be able to discern what it was, and possibly allow her to hear him as well, in the final moments before their desperate battle was resumed once more.

Spoiler

Nala has unlocked the following powers:
Demonology:
Vampiric Futanari
Devil's Lightning
Form of the Swarm

Shadowmancer:
Piercer
Dark Armor
Shadowstalker

Necromancy:
Animate
Call Spirit
Devour Magic


The ambient energy around Nala includes:

100 ambient energy

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The World Will Know (Blueslime)

Nala regarded the three spirits, and then talked back to the demon, the one who seemed the most palattable of the three of them.

"Good, so we have an understanding of one another. Join with me then, you three. Mingle your spirits with mine and together the four of us will each taste freedom and life once again."

She thought of possibly asking the demoness about the nature of the gifts she would receive and what price would be asked of her should she choose to keep any of those gifts, but she decided against asking too many questions at this time. Speed was of the utmost importance right now. She had to keep focused on her mission and find the other two portions of Charlotte's soul.

As far as taking in three completely foreign souls into her own, the experience was somehow not as sickly-feeling as when she had willingly consumed the dying soul of the defeated shadow being. She was beginning to regret that decision, and hoped that there would be opportunity to purge herself of that shadowy power. Better she thought to improve the quality and strength of her own spirit. How ironic that it was only after dying twice and eating souls and doing pretty much everything that went against her own mother's preachings did she now see a worthwhile use for taking up the family's tradition of training spiritual power.

Nala looked down to regard the three stones, red, white, and black, on her chest.

"Pretty."

After claiming the first shred of Charlotte's soul, the witch elf strode forward on her continued path towards the fortress in the distance. Soon enough she drew closer to it, but before she could draw close enough to properly inspect it, the terrain around her shifted and changed once again. Now she stood before a battle between an overwhelming demonic force and a noble, tribal vanguard who were buying time for the defenseless and meek to escape.

She saw the bored looking demonesses watching the battle, but dismissed them for the present. Their ennui was obvious to her and she doubted she would get their attention by taking an easy path. Looking over to the man with the glowing... something... where his heart should have been, she felt compelled to draw closer to him.

A direct approach would be dangerous, but she knew that with her new found powers she might be able to circumvent a direct path. Cloaking herself in shadow, the spirit mage stepped into the darkness of the surrounding gray ruin and emerged on the far side of the battle, in the shadowy area nearest to the man with the glowing heart. Here she would stay for a moment to better hear what the warrior was saying, but if he was about to be hard pressed or if indeed Nala were to come under direct confrontation, she would fight back with the shadows at her current command.

Spoiler

Pay 5EP to activate Shadowstalker and move safely to within hearing range of the fighting man with the glow where his heart should be.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Spoiler

EP = 169/174, Spirit = 174, Fine
Shadow = 20%
Demon = 15%
Undead = 15%
Amount above normal Spirit: +100
1/3 of Charlotte's soul found

The spirits took no notice of Nala as she faded into the shadows, dissolving and re-materializing closer to the man with the glowing orb in his chest. As she drew nearer, the echoing voices that these beings spoke in became more collected and louder all at once, until such time as Nala found herself able to understand them. By then, she was practically in the midst of the soldiers.

"We cannot hold them Captain Antioch!" The soldier to the glowing one's left said as he fended off a goblin, laying the demon low with a single quick swipe of his sword.

"We can and will hold them! More than our own lives are at stake here! Stay together!" The addressed man sternly replied. A heartbeat later, the hellhounds rushed as one, breaking a hole in the line near the opposite side of where Nala stood, waiting. Four men fell before the beasts were repulsed, barely a scratch upon their shadow-armored hides. "We'll all die here if we don't retreat!" The dissenter said, panic edging into his voice. Several of the men around him nodded in agreement, and the man in the rear corner of their formation nearest to Nala seemed about to cut and run for it before their captain replied, his voice crystal clear and as cold as ice; "We'll all die if we try to run, only our neighbors and families will be joining us."

A sound louder than anything she had heard from the memories before now drew Nala's attention back to the demons only to see the ogre charging toward the human's formation, apparently having been unleashed by it's succubi handlers. The other demons drew aside, giving it room, and half of the humans near to her looked as if they were about to panic and run for it in the face of the behemoth. Their captain showed no such fear, however, and stood stock still, his shield held to the side and out of his way.

The battle between the demons and the humans seemed about to reach its climax, and now, if at any time she intended to do so, would be an opportune time for Nala to intervene. The humans looked about to be slaughtered, the demons still outnumbering them, and with the ogre charging and the hellhounds close behind, Nala didn't see how they could possibly prove victorious. Nala also knew that it was a memory, however, and to intervene would be to put herself in as much danger as these men. More so, when she thought about it, considering that they were naught but memories, doomed to reenact this scene for an eternity, while falling here would mean oblivion to Nala. Striking out at either side would not only put her in danger, but would also take this memory off of its beaten path, and into the realm of imaginings. What that might mean, Nala could only guess.

Spoiler

The ambient energy around Nala includes:

100 ambient energy

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The World Will Know (Blueslime)

Nala knew that this was a mere memory, and perhaps if she stayed out of it and minded her own business then she would stay out of danger. But here in this place, it seemed that everything she saw was for a purpose. That glow in the man's chest, it could be something important. Maybe it was a part of Charlotte's soul, hanging within this memory -- and if that were the case then she needed to make sure it wasn't harmed along with the apparently doomed Captain Antioch.

Somehow, she severely doubted that she would escape this realm alive by being complacent, and so she stepped out into the fray of battle and harnessed the power of demonology that she had learned from the red spirit jewel within her. Demonic lightning escaped from her fingers, hitting the demon ogre in front of her along with the demonic minions just behind it.

Spoiler

Use demonic lightning, spending 15 EP.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Nala (Blueslime)

Spoiler

EP = 154/174, Spirit = 174, Fine
Shadow = 20%
Demon = 15%
Undead = 15%
Amount above normal Spirit: +100
1/3 of Charlotte's soul found

Rolls

Spoiler

Attack: Hit all.
Damage: 7 + 2 = 9 * 15 = 135 - 12 = 123 damage.
The hellhounds and the succubi have been destroyed. The goblins have fled.

Attack (Ogre) : Miss.

Attacks (Soldiers) : All 5 hit.
Damage: 3 + 6 + 15 - 12 = 12 damage, * 5 = 60 damage.

Attack (Captain Antioch) : Hit.
Damage: 6 + 2 + 30 + 8 - 12 = 34 damage.
Killed!

The goblins, seeing the ogre and all of their stronger allies die, flee.

Something strange happened as Nala called upon her dark lightning, a gift from the demoness that she had allowed to share her being, for a time. The world around her warped momentarily, as if it were melting. Color suddenly filled in all of the greyness around her, and after a few moments it was as if Nala was in the world of the living once more. Enraged ogre and all. Time had stopped as the world shifted, Nala herself paralyzed in place as the substance of her being was poured into the working she had enacted to strike out at the behemoth.

Time suddenly sped up back to its normal pace as the last pieces of the world came back into color, and the fortress she had been heading toward disappeared. The city around her was built of gold and orange brick, she found, and she began to feel and smell once more as well, the sand beneath her bare feet making her skin tingle slightly, though it didn't help her ignore how burning hot the paved ground she stood on was. Growing up in the amazon, she was used to heat, but this was more intense than any she had ever felt before, and was also far dryer than any she remembered from back home. The men nearest to her gaped in surprise at the appearance of a naked woman to their side, but all of the humans save their captain gaped in amazement at the bolt of black lightning that lanced outwards from her outstretched hand, dancing for a moment between her fingers before streaking darkly at and then through the ogre.

The behemoth's charge was paused as the lightning caused it's body to tighten, and a pained roar escaped its wide, toothy maw. The lightning swept through a couple of the goblins as well, reducing them to dust, and then struck the hellhounds that had gathered behind the ogre. Their dark armor provided no protection from the power that she had unleashed, and they fell, their flesh quickly melting from their bones and leaving naught but skeletons in the wake of her power. Finally, the bolt struck into the stunned group of succubi, and the six women were reduced to ashes in the wake of her power. Glowing motes of red light appeared where each demon fell, the traces of their power evident even though Nala had stepped into a memory, and she knew that she could add that power to her own if she so desired. But, as with the shadows previously, it would leave a stain upon her soul.

The ogre, however, had not fallen as its fellow demons had. It recovered from her blast, and charged forward with a roar, directly toward the nude elven witch. Its fist came down toward her, but with an ease that she knew was not her own, Nala sidestepped the blow. The demon's hand smashed into the stone of the ground, embedding itself into the pavement, but it easily lifted its hand again, bloodied though it was, and prepared to attempt another attack. "Go for its flanks!"

The voice caused a stir of motions, and the soldiers moved in on the beast, interrupting its pursuit of Nala as they slashed at its sides and belly. Blood, real as far as sight and smell went, spilled onto the burning ground, but still the ogre did not fall. It spun about, batting at the men around it, but despite their earlier panic, each of them was just out of its reach every time. They hadn't meant to kill it, however. Only to distract it, and get it to turn its back. Their captain leaped like a wild cat that Nala had once viewed from afar as a child, jumping up onto the titanic demons back and quickly dropping to a stable crouch as the beast writhed beneath him. It only had a second or two to flail before his blade descended into the back of its neck, and it shivered once before tumbling to the ground.

"Thank you, stranger.... But, who are you? And why did you help us?" Their captain spoke, his sword still in the ogre's neck. The other demons had turned and fled after seeing their strongest and their leaders destroyed in a matter of seconds, and half of the human soldiers were now staring at the beautiful... And still very naked night elf that had appeared in their midst, and delivered them from their attackers. A pulse of golden light from Captain Antioch's chest signaled to her that her goal was still present within him, though how she was to get at it without killing him was still up to her to figure out. As she examined the man kneeling atop the fallen demon, however, Nala came to realize that he looked a great deal like the daemon that had brought her here, albeit a bit younger.

Spoiler

The ambient energy around Nala includes:

220 demonic spirit

100 ambient energy

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The World Will Know (Blueslime)

Nala was suitably impressed with the way in which the demonic power tore through most of her opposition. The three spirits within her, adding to her already potent ability, made the attack and her ensuing reaction to the injured ogre's charge things of awe and wonder.

As the mountain-sized fist came crashing towards her, she instinctively knew that she would be able to dodge it. This was just as well, because if she had been thinking in her normal, rational manner, she would have assumed that with her historically slow reaction time she would have soon been an icky purple and red paste on the ground. It appeared the spirit power within this realm was a combination of all her attributes, meaning that her mental strength was added to her spirit as well as her physical reflexes.

Lucky for Nala, the rampaging ogre was swiftly overwhelmed by the soldiers and brought down by the good captain Antioch. Nala admired the way the soldier moved, gracefully like a cat, but with the power of a jungle panther. Even in this place, with all the other concerns she had at the moment, the night elf could not ignore the sudden quickening of her heart and the familiar stirrings of passion as she watched him embed his blade into the monster and ride the felled foe to the ground.

The battle was over. Antioch stood up and freed his blade, then turned with his men to face her. The other men gaped at Nala's nude form, every pair of eyes save for Antioch's leering at the curves of her body. Even Antioch was not completely immune, but he did his best to remain proper - something she appreciated about him. He was disciplined and able to control himself.

He asked his questions, and truthfully Nala was not exactly certain how she as going to answer them. She decided to be as candid as she could be without explaining too much. She drew herself up and placed her hands over one another and covered up her nethers in a graceful a manner as she could while leaving her pert breasts bared. She was proud of her body and used to the stares of lesser men. In truth, it was only facing a man like Captain Antioch that gave her any desire to show a modicum of modesty.

"My name is Nala. My reasons for helping you are... not so simple, but if you are who I think you are, Captain Antioch, then I am returning a favor."

Nala smiled enigmatically and then raised a hand to brush back her hair.

"I apologize for my nudity. It was not my choice, and I didn't have time to cover myself before coming to your aid. I'm sure you can appreciate my decision."

The night elf glanced around at all the men still ogling her and then back to Antioch.

"Captain, if you don't mind, I would like a private word with you. We have time, I think, to speak, and it's important that you hear what I have to say. Please."

With her free hand she gestured to a secluded alleyway amongst the ruins, where she could be out of the sight of the rest of these humans and free to interact with Antioch. She didn't want to harm him, but she needed a place to level with him and not have his men overhear.

If he was agreeable, the night elf would lead him over to the private area, where she would cover up her breasts with her free arm.

"Thank you for trusting me. I know you must be feeling cautious and uncertain about me. I don't blame you, and I will try to be as candid as I can with you, but know that I don't have all the answers myself. What I am about to tell you is my best guess at what is happening."

She waited for Antioch to nod or affirm his understanding before she continued.

"As you have observed, I am a sorceress. I believe that live in a different time than you... I am from your future, and this battle is in my past. The fact that we are meeting is because I have been traveling through the spirit realm, a place where time itself breaks down. I was drawn to this battle because I have met you in my own time... or rather, I have met your spirit. I cannot be certain, Antioch, but I believe you and your men were supposed to have died here today. You were to become a powerful spirit, one that I would later summon to help me win a battle that was equally as desperate as this one. Because of your spirit's help, I survived my own battle. That is how I recognized you and knew to come to your aid, your soul is like a glowing beacon to me."

She let the arm covering her breasts drop and then brought her palm to Antioch's chest, resting it over his glowing heart.

"Your spirit saves my life in the future... but even so, I was too late to save my friend. I couldn't accept her death, so I asked you to bring me into the spirit realm with you. It was a dangerous and foolhardy decision, but your spirit has guided me here, helping me to possibly save the soul of my friend. Now I find you in physical form, in this battle frozen in time, and I think that I was meant to save you. So I did...

"Antioch, I want you to come with me. I will need your help if I'm to ever escape the spirit realm and get back to my friend. And I'm not sure, but my heart is telling me that I need to bring you with me as well. Will you help me?"

As she said all this, Nala began to draw the ambient energy in this place into her body. She was careful to not draw in the red motes of spiritual, but demonic essence. Her soul was already expanded to near breaking point, she did not want to push herself to oblivion. That would not only damn herself, but Charlotte as well. And it would leave Amanda, Violet, and the others at the mercy of the slavers at the mine.

Spoiler

Fill up energy pool from ambient energy

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The World Will Know (Blueslime)

Spoiler

EP = 174, Spirit = 174, Fine
Shadow = 20%
Demon = 15%
Undead = 15%
Amount above normal Spirit: +100
1/3 of Charlotte's soul found

While the other men looked confused by Nala's enigmatic statement, their captain seemed to take it in stride, simply nodding rather than questioning it. "Well, I certainly appreciate your haste, Nala." Captain Antioch replied evenly as she glanced at the human men who were oggling her. The lot of them managed to tear their gazes away once she looked at them, and turned to begin policing their bodies. Strangely, the environment and the men save for captain Antioch began to fade to grey swiftly, until they were back to nothing but memories. The captain didn't seem to notice, however, and nodded to her request for a private conversation. "Of course. We'll have to set out shortly, but I can spare a few moments for one who would risk themselves for my men and I." He said, and then allowed Nala to lead him to a more secluded area.

When she paused to allow a reaction from him, the man actually shrugged rather than nod, and said; "Cautious but optimistic might be a better description. Many strange things have happened this day, so I am prepared to take a bit more on faith than I might under more normal circumstances." Then, he nodded for her to continue.

When she did, he listened intently, his expression not changing, but the pulsing light from his chest began to increase in power, and the glowing orb once more became visible to her. He did not flinch, nor did his expression change when her hand came forward to rest over his heart. Indeed, he did not move at all, or show any reaction, which likely struck Nala as strange. He remained that way a moment longer, and then his form began to... Shift, somehow. At first, it was just a distortion, making him appear just a little off from how he had a moment before. Then cracks began to appear along Antioch's body, as if he were made of marble. Finally, he simply exploded, rending apart and dissipating as if he had never been in a brilliant flash of light. When she could see once more, the only thing that remained of Antioch was the glow that had been in his heart, and Nala now recognized it as another one of the lost pieces of Charlotte's soul.

"He was only a memory, not a soul." The voice of the demon she had allowed into herself whispered into Nala's mind, and she could envision a ghostly image of that being standing before her if she concentrated on that voice. "Telling him that fractured the fragile nature of his existence. If you wait long enough, he will return, playing out that same memory again, but you have what you needed. It is... Strange, that it was contained within him. The being that we are within must have desired you to see that, for some reason.... You say that you saw his face, and he appeared like that man?"

The piece of Charlotte's soul stood in front of her, waiting to be claimed. Nala could hear the echoing sounds of the start of the memory playing nearby, starting over from where it had been when she had first stumbled upon it, and she could wait for it to play itself out if she wished. She might even intervene again, if she so desired, but there likely wouldn't be much point to it. She noticed that the energy of the demons had dissipated as the memory reformed, likely to create the images of what they had been in life once more. The golden fortress was visible on the horizon once more, waiting for her.

Spoiler

The ambient energy around Nala includes:

80 ambient energy

1/3 of Charlotte's soul

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The World Will Know (Blueslime)

Nala frowned as the Memory of Antioch crumbled into nothingness in front of her leaving only the glow of a foreign soul in its wake. At least now Nala recognized it as part of the matching set that would make up Charlotte's soul, and at least with no body to snatch it from, it would make the decision of simply taking the thing of no consequence to her.

Listening to the succubus' voice within her mind gave the witch elf another piece of the puzzle that had thus far eluded her.

"So, we are within someone hmm? I hadn't realized that this was the nature of my travel, but now that you say this, yes... I can imagine that the creature that holds us all would possibly desire me to see him as he once was, as opposed to what he is now. Tell me, what is your interest in all this and how did you come to be trapped here with your fellow inmates?"

As she asked this, Nala would pick up the soul shard and leave the memory, journeying once again towards that final destination - the golden fortress.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The World Will Know (Blueslime)

Spoiler

EP = 174, Spirit = 174, Fine
Shadow = 20%
Demon = 15%
Undead = 15%
Amount above normal Spirit: +100
2/3 of Charlotte's soul found

"Yes. the daemon whom you called to is far more than he seems, and it is he whom we are within now. The memory that you saw was what he was when he lived, many thousands of years ago." The succubus replied, and the image of her walked beside Nala through the empty streets. She could feel the other two shadowing along behind her, as was likely their nature judging by their appearances. The dead city around them remained quiet and still as they passed through it, but the utter serenity of it was likely not as much a comfort as it might have been. In another time, and another place, this had been a place of life. But the memory of it that she walked through was still as the grave, save for a handful of ghosts and memories.

"We are his victims. His prey. I have been here the longest of us three, but each has remained trapped within the far corners of the Godslayer's mind for a millennia at least. We just... Want to leave. Before our existence fades away entirely." She paused as they passed a guard tower, the image of the demoness lost in memory for a moment as she seemed to fade slightly. The moment passed, and she turned back to Nala as color filled her once more. When she spoke, her voice was subdued, but still spoken loud enough to hear; "His title was well earned. Before I was taken, I don't remember how many centuries ago, I was the Queen of Hell, and the right hand of the Devourer himself. I think I was called.... Corini. It matters not now, for despite our immortality, my kind have short memories for the fallen. Not long ago, I watched through his eyes as he destroyed my God, so I doubt that any who now live remember me for what I was."

"I was the goddess of shadows, an age ago." The words of the shadow were filled with rage, but it was an impotent thing to Nala's ears. Or whatever the perception might be called in this place. "I was the act of sweet murder personified. Angels and demons both could not stand against me. even the other gods whispered my name with fear. "Issir will come for you;" they would say, in warning. It did not save me from him."

"In another age, I was Avadel, the shepherd of the dead. The one who saw to it that the souls of those that fell in battle made their way to their proper place. I committed no evil against him to earn my fate here, save to perform my function as the other gods demanded. Now, he takes the souls of all who pass from life upon this world, unless another being claims them first." The echoing, ghostly voice was filled with sorrow and helpless rage.

They were drawing closer to the fortress, but they had not reached it yet. A short ways to go, and time to speak further with those whom she intended to release from the daemon's clutches if she so desired. The essences of Charlotte pulsed within Nala's chest, calling out to the final piece that surely lay just ahead.

(The names are subject to change. I had them written down, but don't have that note file with me right now. I'll edit them in before my next post, if you reply to this before I do.)

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: The World Will Know (Blueslime)

"Three mighty beings you were, and what an unusual creature this godslayer must be to have felled you. But now your names are not lost, Corini, Queen of Hell, Issir, Goddess of Murder, and Avadel, Shepherd of the Dead. I will not forget you. And if my purpose is met, you will leave here and walk the world again."

The names and titles were impressive, and Nala had no reason to doubt their verity. It only remained to see what remained of the man, Antioch, within this daemon now called the Godslayer. The memory of Antioch had provided clues to his heritage, but even the best of men could be corrupted or changed by the abuse of power. Power enough to slay gods and capture goddesses and greater spirits within his soul... that was the sort of power that could consume event he brightest of souls.

The witch elf knew she was up against powers that could crush her like an insignificant bug, but she was buoyed by the assistance of these three powerful souls, and comforted as well by the knowledge that there had at least once been a man within this Godslayer, a man called Antioch who had been good.

If nothing else, she knew that she was not yet at cross-purposes with this godslayer, and if she kept her head, she might yet be able to return with Charlotte's soul and keep her promises.

She walked along in silent determination as she passed the gray scenes of Antioch's memory, intent upon following the path before her as it led to the final piece of Charlotte's soul.