First and foremost, I want to admit that I'm not really that great at lengthy battle scenes or most battle scenes, especially when it comes to multiple people fighting one person, but I still hope you enjoy this particularly long chapter!
The following morning, the four Inquisitors began preparations for their battle against the Reaper. They each took a side of the room to gather and prepare what they needed. Leo joined Soleana as she used whetstones to sharpen the edge of her two-handed blade. She handed one to him and the two of them conversed.
"How do you think our chances are against the Reaper?" Leo asked.
"I know we'll win." Soleana said confidently. "Not only are there four of us with anchors, but we're each formidable fighters on our own.".
"I think so too." Leo agreed.
Kaya found herself on the balcony, mediating and listening to the Voices. While the other Inquisitors focused on stopping the Reaper utterly, she was interested in who the person was under the hood was. She believed that their identity could help them identify their weakness. She began theorizing on the Reaper's true identity. Maybe they were a Corypheus loyalist or Corypheus himself from another world. It would explain the Tevinter robes she believed. But these were just theories she reminded herself and the truth would be revealed once they defeated them.
Campbelin sat on the couch tinkering with a bunch of equipment. He was making sneaky traps and gadgets that would aid in their fight against the Reaper. He laughed just thinking about the Reaper falling into each of these traps and blasting all over the place. Once he was finished with the traps, he began practicing on the dummy that Soleana had set up in the room. As he fought the dummy, he cursed it out and call it several names, which made the other three Inquisitors cringe.
Whatever gets him pumped up, they thought.
After all the preparations were made, the four of them joined together at the center of the room.
"Are you guys ready?" Leo asked.
The three other Inquisitors nodded.
"Alright." Leo returned with a nod. "Give me your anchored hands.".
Kaya, Campbelin, and Soleana placed their hands in front of Leo and when Leo touched them, a small portion of their anchors' energy transferred into the jump rift anchor, allowing Leo to experience three times more energy than before. The amount of energy was almost overwhelming, but Leo was willing to stand his ground until they found the Reaper. The augmented jump anchor would definitely give them enough time in the interdimensional plane to find the Reaper's location.
Leo opened a rift in the center of the room with ease and urged the others to grab each others' hands so that they could stay together. Once they fell through, the rift behind them close and they were left floating in the middle of the interdimensional plane. Surprisingly, Soleana was quite calm being in this strange place despite this being her first time, while Campbelin once again slightly panicked.
"Alright Kaya, now that we are here, do you think you can sense the Reaper?" Leo asked.
"Yes." Kaya nodded. "Just give me a moment.".
"Take your time." Leo assured, noticing that his overwhelming energy levels were slowly decreasing.
Using her own magic and the knowledge from the Well of Sorrows, Kaya summoned a green aura around her non-anchored hand. To test the magic, she displayed it on Leo and the four of them was able to see that the aura glowed immensely on Leo because of his jump anchor.
"With this same magic, we should be able to find the Reaper." Kaya stated gliding her hand around the space.
The aura fluctuate many times, indicating that the Reaper had been to many of the worlds around them and it disturbed her to think about the fates of the Inquisitors there. After a minute or so, Kaya was able to successfully locate the Reaper's location.
"Down there." she pointed below them.
Leo guided them as they slowly descended towards the world Kaya pointed them to. As they approached closer to the world, the images around them started to blur and the noises of the worlds around them started getting louder. Despite this disturbing setting, Leo urged them to stay together and not fall into the abyss around them.
Once their visions and hearing return, they found themselves at the Crossroads of the Hinterlands. It was largely abandoned, most likely recovering from the Mage/Templar War, but there was an awkward dead silence about the place. No sounds of birds chirping in the trees, no noise from the goats in the hills around them. Just the sound of dead leaves being crushed as the four of them walked around.
A moment later, Leo felt a tingly sensation in his jump anchor. The three others awkwardly approached him not sure what to do, but he waved them off. After getting back to his feet, Leo and the others were introduced to a jump rift before them. Not a couple of seconds later, the Reaper came through walking slowly out of it. The four of them noticed that there was fresh blood on the Reaper's robes despite how dark they were.
Another Inquisitor's life had been taken.
"It's the Reaper." Leo said.
The four of them prepared their weapons and assumed different offensive stances. The Reaper smiled and turned directly towards Leo.
"So you're the Reaper huh?" Campbelin questioned. "Alright, you have the robes and hood down, but you completely missed the scythe! Could've easily fashioned a staff to look like one at least."
"I see that you have more... colorful guests with you." the Reaper said in a distorted voice.
"Yeah and we're going to put you down." Soleana aggressively assured.
"You've come very far unlike your predecessors young Trevelyan." the Reaper stated. "I'm impressed.".
"Well, your killing spree of Inquisitors ends now." Leo returned. "There's four of us and one of you.".
"How confident you are in your abilities." the Reaper laughed. "Still, you should know that it's quality that matters, not quantity.".
"Let's go." the Reaper whispered.
The four of them rushed at the Reaper, Leo leading the charge as he had a personal vendetta against them for killing his mage counterpart. Despite this Reaper's horrible actions, Leo managed to keep his composure while fighting them.
Leo for the most part was on the offensive side, but kept his shield close to his face as he was aware of the Reaper's tricks and fast attacks. This method of fighting style however slowed Leo down and limited his reach as he soon found. The Reaper constantly taunted him, but Leo ignored all of the verbal blows and focused on the battle before him. As the fight continued, the Reaper managed to get the upper hand by fade stepping behind the slow Leo and slamming a great deal of magic against his back, causing him to fly across the field.
"You are very focused and defensible when it comes to battle, but you struggle at anticipating your opponent's next move." the Reaper judged. "I admire your specialization as a champion, willing to save others from harm, but you can't save them from me.".
The Reaper's attention was then drawn to the raging Soleana who slammed her sword near the ground they were near. The Reaper managed to dodged the attack and stepped back to analyzed their foe.
"Hmm, a Qunari Inquisitor?" the Reaper chuckled. "That's new.".
"That means you never faced anyone like me before!" Soleana smirked back.
"True." the Reaper admitted. "But if you are like the rest of your kind, it'll be very akin to putting down a savage beast.".
Soleana grew enraged by the Reaper's words and rushed towards them with unrelenting fury. The Reaper used this opportunity to land several hits on Soleana, but none of them seemed to phase her. The Reaper closely examined Soleana and realized her bloody wounds were slowly healing with each attack. It was at this point, that they realized that Soleana was a Reaver.
"And to follow your bestial nature by using the blood of yourself and others to your advantage?".
"That's enough out of you!" Soleana growled.
She dropped her sword and started swinging at the Reaper with her fists. The Reaper fluidly dodged the attacks and slammed their staff against her face. For any human, elf, or dwarf, the hit would've been enough to knock them unconscious if not kill them, but for Soleana, it merely dazed her. However, the daze was enough for the Reaper to go behind her and attack her with a powerful bolt attack causing her to fly near the downed Leo.
"I've seen others managed their anger into powerful abilities, as seen with the dwarven berserkers, but when you fight with anger, you lose all sort of method and strategy. You fight in a blind rage." the Reaper judged.
The Reaper then heard the sound of something trickling behind them. They turned around and saw that several elemental bombs were placed before them. They quickly reacted by casting a magical barrier shield around them as the bombs went off. Surrounded by smoke, the Reaper couldn't see anything and had to use their sense of hearing to detect their next enemy. The Reaper soon heard footsteps approaching behind them and turned to confront Campbelin who was now rapidly trying to stab them with his daggers.
"A carta dwarf?" the Reaper questioned. "I guess they make anyone an Inquisitor nowadays.".
"I've made a name for myself in my world." Campbelin chuckled. "Adding 'Kicking the Reaper's ass' as another accomplishment would be pretty nice."
"Ah, a comical dwarf. How original." the Reaper groaned.
After realizing he couldn't attack the Reaper at his current position, he threw a smoke bomb down and retreated to attack again. The Reaper looked around in the smoke and laughed. They didn't even bother casting another magical shield to protect them. They knew their mastery of words and taunting would be enough of a shield for them.
"You know, for a seemingly confident and prideful dwarf, you seem awfully comfortable with hiding in the shadows." the Reaper taunted. "If you were really talented as you make yourself to be, you'd fight me head on. No gadgets, no tricks. After all, I am a mage who just defeated two of your warriors personally.".
The Reaper waited for Campbelin to retaliate, but he was content to see as the smoke cleared up, that Campbelin awaited in front of him with his daggers in hand.
"Then let's go." Campbelin snorted.
Campbelin rushed at the Reaper with fast ferocity and managed to land some tears and holes in the Reaper's cloak, but none of them proved to hit them and caused them to bleed. The Reaper managed to hold Campbelin off until he started slowing down from exhaustion, in which the Reaper used a spell to toss him towards his other downed allies.
"You're fast artificer, but you over exert yourself too quickly and use the same strategy repeatedly. It might work on a less intelligent opponent, but not on me." the Reaper judged.
With three of the four Inquisitors down, the Reaper focused their attention towards the last woman standing. They slowly started walking towards her and although Kaya was admittedly afraid of how one mage managed to take out three seasoned Inquisitors, she would not allow herself to be taken without a fight. She returned the Reaper's action, by walking towards them at the same stride.
As the two of them got closer, they started summoning magic around their arms and tossing spells at each other. A fire spell here, an ice spell there, both managing to dodge each others attack until they were face to face. The two of them used the remainder of their magic to interlock each others' hands in a magical stalemate. The Reaper looked Kaya in her eyes, while all she could do was looked into the terrifying shadow of a face that was casted by the shadow of their hood. The magic of the two powerful mages began shaping and tearing down parts of the veil around them as they circle each other, interlocking hands. Whispers of demons began dancing around Kaya's ears, promising they could give her enough power to defeat the Reaper, but despite her current situation, she wasn't willing to become an abomination to win.
"You are quite powerful...for a Dalish elf knight enchanter." the Reaper revealed.
"How do you know that?" Kaya questioned.
"The way you move." the Reaper explained. "There is a very unorthodox way about it, unlike the Circle mages. You try to move like the ancient elves, but it is simply incorrect.".
"Who...are...you?" Kaya struggled to ask.
The Reaper simply smirked from their cloak revealing pale skin before the overwhelming magic blasted the both of them away.
Kaya flew towards her companions and laid next to them, while the Reaper fell to the opposite side. Despite both of them being hit by a powerful wave of magic, the Reaper managed to get to their feet first. The four of them struggled to get on their feet, but as soon as Campbelin got up on his feet he was eager to get back to fighting the Reaper.
"Don't be a fool." Leo stated.
"I'm not going to coward out of this fight!" Campbelin claimed.
"It's not being a coward, it's being smart." Leo explained. "We're all to injured to keep fighting!"
Campbelin simply ignored his warning and started walking towards the Reaper. However, he soon felt himself being grabbed by a hand behind and as he fell back, he found himself back in the interdimensional plane. He turned around and saw that Leo was the one who grabbed him along with Kaya and Soleana dangling from Leo's other hand.
"I've could've got him!" Campbelin angrily pushed Leo.
"Stop!" Leo yelled back. "I saved you from making a terrible mistake and killing yourself! Don't get mad because your pride was insulted!".
Campbelin pushed Leo more aggressively causing him to lose his grip on Kaya and Soleana. The both of them looked on in horror as they saw them fall right into the interdimensional stream.
"What have you done?" Leo angrily pushed back, accidently causing his grip on Campbelin to slip loose.
In a lost of concentration from losing the other Inquisitors, Leo found himself drifting into the same stream, unsure of what awaited him on the other side.
