Blarghy blarghy blarghy! Five bah VladimirsAngel, pree knocky knocky quellis! Blee! (Subtitles: Thanks for the reviews! And Vladimirs Angel- *hugs* Hope you didn't read that all in one sitting! Blee!)
Blarghsome... knee collar boo? Funkles bee! (Subtitles: Non-reviewers will be forced to watch What Dreams May Come in an endless loop!)
*Peesome niles Mikoto {hahaha!}. Squiggy pigdy boodles, lalala Lilith shishkabob. Roonah!* (Subtitles: Thanks to Mikoto for the torture suggestion. {cackle} Will try to update more regularly, as Lilith showed her psychic self by noting that the Big Bang is coming... Enjoy!)
11- Desolation
Ishtar had been wrong, she realized as she winged blindly toward Avernus. She need only to look so far as Raziel's restless silence and her own familiar apprehension. It wasn't that she regretted flying out to meet him or preparing him for what was to come, in her own roundabout way. Kain, killjoy as he was, had reminded her of the worst consequences before she left.
But I didn't care.
She shook her head though she knew it to be true. There was no shame in searching solely for her own consolation. But she had found none. Of course not, what comfort could there be? What difference had it made to see the wings that would surround her as she died? It had changed nothing, and at the end of the whole mess that would follow over the next day, the same fate awaited her with the same leering grin. Remember me, dear lady? I'm still waiting.
To that, her only defense was three blessed words: so be it.
"Ishtar!"
Ishtar stirred on hearing Raziel's voice and risked a flash of sight. They had reached the cathedral too soon. Not far off, she felt the presence of their enemy approaching. So many. My God, it is unfolding too fast. Her heart was heavy as she tilted her wings toward the ground.
The vampire landed roughly, barely staying upright as she skidded across the ground. She thought she could feel the earth tremble beneath her hooves as they came closer and closer.
"Hurry, Raziel."
Raziel stepped up beside her. His landing must have been smoother than the one on the ridge. "Something unsettles you?"
"Yes." Ishtar stumbled toward the cathedral entrance, too impatient to notice if she fell. "We have no more time. Hurry."
There must have been something in her tone. Raziel's steps pounded at her side, then ahead. Ah, some unruffled corner of her mind noted, she would have to remember to keep all future warnings couched in panicked vagueness. It made him take notice.
Inside the cathedral, his steps rang in the wrong direction and she stood still, eyelids peeled so far back she could feel the air moving in her sockets. "No," Ishtar said. She turned her head, blind, furiously reminding herself that she needed to save the power and not waste it on something as trivial as sight. "Kain- Raziel, where is Kain-"
She felt his claws clasp her arm. "Ishtar. If some tremendous calamity approaches-"
"No time for that, Raziel," Kain's voice said. Ishtar felt her wings sag with relief. "Your daughter and I are graced with the knowledge of all that is to come, but you, I'm afraid, will have to remain in the dark awhile longer." The buzz of a teleportation spell. When he spoke again, Nosgoth's emperor spoke from a few feet away. "I trust you will keep to these unfortunately deficient instructions. Go to the Sanctuary, Raziel. Consume the pillars as you consumed your own severed wings hours ago. When all preparations have been made, confront the fallen god at the edge of the Abyss. Above all else- do not enter the spectral world. In His realm, you are little more than a fly and He will dispose of you as thoughtlessly."
"You propose that I leap into the Abyss and confront him underwater?"
"No." It seemed Kain turned away. "He will come to you."
"And where is our holy emperor during this titanic struggle?"
Silence.
Then the shrieks outside, the rumbling sound. Ishtar brushed the claws of one hand through her mane and fought a stirring of anxiety. It was happening, now. Centuries of watching it in the future had not prepared her for its occurrence in the present.
Kain's steps walked away. "Rule with *integrity*, Raziel."
Glass shattered, somewhere a stone wall clattered to the ground. The cathedral crawled with the creatures she had seen in nightmare. Sluagh formed writhing piles of green limbs against the walls. The porcupine-like creatures Raziel had first seen in the citadel lumbered through the doorways, leaving jagged holes in their wake. And behind them came the tentacled creatures with limbs that ended in spider-like claws and where they fell, the dirt itself rotted.
Ishtar heard her father leap forward and give a shout of "Kain!" answered only by a cry of "Vae Victus!" and the shriek of the first Sluagh to die. She spun around, stumble-raced toward the warp gate that would save them. Behind her she heard Kain's grim command to go, the crashing of stone as more demons pushed their way into the cathedral. The ground shuddered beneath her hooves.
"Raziel! This way!" Ishtar called. Couldn't tell if he heard. The crumbling cathedral was a chaotic mess of battle cries, none of which could be distinguished from the others. But she did hear the thud of paws landing in front of her, the guttural snarl of the demon eying its new prey. As if in answer, the black power inside her surged into dominance. Ishtar lost herself to the other that rose to battle its most hated enemies.
Her hooves left the ground and with an electric clash that left her bones tingling, the gathered power rushed out. Pure energy split the air with black lightning. Her inner sight flashed and she saw the demon consumed by black flames. Her body jerked again and the lightning flashed in all directions. The walls, before crawling with the invaders, now twisted with walls of black fire. She saw the demons draw back before the blind darkness fell once again.
Ishtar dropped to the ground, dazed by the sudden release from her trance. Hell. It would be twice as difficult to get to the warp gate with so many bodies on the ground.
"Quite flashy, wasn't it?"
Ishtar smiled in her father's direction, as best she could under the circumstances. "It worked, did it not?" She tripped and caught herself. "We need to get to the warp gate, second entrance on the left up ahead. This place is surrounded."
"Then Kain-"
"I have a feeling he'll be alright."
"What a surprise." Raziel vanished from her side and somewhere to the right she heard the ravenous hum of the Soul Reaver cutting into its adversaries.
Though at first repelled by Ishtar's show of force, the spectral creatures had doubled their assault against the cathedral's walls. At least the front entrance was guarded well... after all, Kain was there. And it was not his fate to die under the claws of an unholy mob.
Ishtar's sight flashed and she dropped to a crouch. The tentacles of the attacking creature lashed harmlessly overhead. The vampire leaned back, hissing half from her own mind and half from the foreign spirit inside her. The energy force *had* been flashy. She would have to use a more conservation approach.
Ishtar cupped her claws in the air as if clutching the creature's heart between them. She doubted it had one. She squeezed, willed the power to follow this less raging bend, almost grinned when it relented and burst from her in the familiar violent rush.
She felt liquid splatter onto her body, the splash of water as it fell from the air. The resulting puddle was all that remained of her assailant. Ishtar turned toward her goal, wresting the energy from one opponent to many. The power unraveled them, twisted their flesh into a state of pure water. Her legs were wet up to her knees.
"I see it!" Raziel called somewhere ahead.
She nodded, but her voice refused to comply. It was too early to be exhausted. Of all the times for the attack to happen, it had to be the hour before dawn. She gritted her teeth, fighting off the daylight lethargy as much as she could. Her mind was still slightly dull with fog.
Ishtar dropped to all fours and ran half-crouched toward the warp gate. It was too desperate to think she could run through the demons blocking her way. No choice but to plow. She reached for the power again and felt her body tingle with newfound energy and a new, mindless appetite for the battle.
The vampire hurled herself at her enemies. Their talons slid off her or snagged in the energy coursing at the surface of her skin. But her claws ripped through them with hardly any effort on her part. Blood spurted or flew from the edges of her rapidly whirring claws. She ginned, in the grip of the frenzy, watching as Kain toppled all who attempted the front entrance and as she mutilated all betwen her and the warp gate.
Then there were none. Her destination glowed just ahead and she ran toward it, her senses all drunk in carnage of her kills. But the edge dropped, the keenness of the cries and the blazing heat of the blood on her skin faded into ordinary sensations. Her eyelids flared open a moment before the blindness crashed over her.
Ishtar stumbled.
She caught herself, but she knew something was wrong. Raziel's warning shout slid over her, she could not comprehend it. The clawed tentacle of the demon behind her ripped through her skin, slid through the gush of blood that sprouted beneath its edge, and bludgeoned its way through her ribs. Dull sensations, really. But they forced a ragged scream through her throat, unrelenting as her body trembled with pain.
The Razielim tried to turn, but the demon's claw had punched through her back and into the stone floor. It would not let her move without pain that choked her mind. She gasped, groped inside for the power that had failed her. The response was dim.
The demon twisted its tentacle inside her and staying conscious was almost too much. The wound went numb with the supernatural poison it pumped into her. Her claws scrabbled at the stone, but she could not move.
Just as it seemed the pain would send her exhausted mind spiralling into oblivion, defiance flared inside her. No. Not this way. Did she or the power decide? In the quiet center beneath the unending pain, they were one.
Ishtar's claws stopped scrabbling and arched against the floor. There was a moment as she summoned the power, as the demon paused almost consideringly. What new antic would its prey perform?
She lowered her head and energy burst from her weakening body. It traveled from her in a shockwave that burned its way into her victims' minds. She felt their thoughts, even the most primitive urges, shrivel like so much burning tinder against the onslaught of the power. Their minds shattered so gracefully.
Ishtar shuddered again as the demon pulled its claws from her back. Her blood was so hot as it pattered on the stone. With the thought came the realization that she was dying. But it could not be, she had not seen it like this. As the deranged demons ripped into each other a few feet away, she lowered her cheek to the bloody floor and waited.
Her father's claws closed on her shoulder. "-be damned! Ishtar?"
Yes. Ishtar raised her head, barely conscious. Of course it did not end like this. "W... w..."
Raziel lifted her beneath her arms and walked backwards, dragging her toward the portal. She felt the heat of her blood dripping down her skin. So much.
"W... will..."
"Death will not take you here." The soul reaver's snarl was almost feral. "This is not how it ends."
She tried to shake her head but it would only droop. "Will... en... dorf..."
Raziel's claws slightly relaxed around her. "Willendorf?"
Ishtar's eyelids closed. Her mind could not summon the words to reply.
She felt herself dragged onto the glowing green circle of the warp gate. With a great effort her mind sluggishly reached out, groping for the connection that would bring them to the Razielim home. She found it, but knew this only when Raziel told her of the symbol. A square in the middle of a shapeless block. Yes, that was it.
They did not enter the portal at first. Instead, she heard the stone behind them come crashing down. The sounds of the battling demons grew faint, and Raziel said something about Turel's gift having a use after all.
They entered the warp gate. Ishtar could not focus at all. Her grip slipped, and it took several moments of firm shaking before she became aware of Raziel again. He was asking where, where now.
"L... l... left..."
She felt him adjust her weight until he was fully carrying her. So much dead weight. His flesh was so cold.
Raziel's steps quickened almost into a run, and he was no longer carrying her, and she was staring into a stream of blood. Ishtar blinked, the hunger and the weakness completely deafening her to the voice that spoke of the blood of ages. She let her head fall into the stream, felt the pure sweetness and primal bliss of the blood. It streamed into her weakening body, flowed and flowed until the strength returned and her wound closed, all traces of the poison gone. Her head reeled as she feebly pushed herself away, her mouth sticky and drawing tight as the blood dried.
"Rest... we are... safe here... for now..." Raziel's claws hovering nearby as she lowered herself into a lying position. He said something, but she slipped away before she could hear.
Blarghsome... knee collar boo? Funkles bee! (Subtitles: Non-reviewers will be forced to watch What Dreams May Come in an endless loop!)
*Peesome niles Mikoto {hahaha!}. Squiggy pigdy boodles, lalala Lilith shishkabob. Roonah!* (Subtitles: Thanks to Mikoto for the torture suggestion. {cackle} Will try to update more regularly, as Lilith showed her psychic self by noting that the Big Bang is coming... Enjoy!)
11- Desolation
Ishtar had been wrong, she realized as she winged blindly toward Avernus. She need only to look so far as Raziel's restless silence and her own familiar apprehension. It wasn't that she regretted flying out to meet him or preparing him for what was to come, in her own roundabout way. Kain, killjoy as he was, had reminded her of the worst consequences before she left.
But I didn't care.
She shook her head though she knew it to be true. There was no shame in searching solely for her own consolation. But she had found none. Of course not, what comfort could there be? What difference had it made to see the wings that would surround her as she died? It had changed nothing, and at the end of the whole mess that would follow over the next day, the same fate awaited her with the same leering grin. Remember me, dear lady? I'm still waiting.
To that, her only defense was three blessed words: so be it.
"Ishtar!"
Ishtar stirred on hearing Raziel's voice and risked a flash of sight. They had reached the cathedral too soon. Not far off, she felt the presence of their enemy approaching. So many. My God, it is unfolding too fast. Her heart was heavy as she tilted her wings toward the ground.
The vampire landed roughly, barely staying upright as she skidded across the ground. She thought she could feel the earth tremble beneath her hooves as they came closer and closer.
"Hurry, Raziel."
Raziel stepped up beside her. His landing must have been smoother than the one on the ridge. "Something unsettles you?"
"Yes." Ishtar stumbled toward the cathedral entrance, too impatient to notice if she fell. "We have no more time. Hurry."
There must have been something in her tone. Raziel's steps pounded at her side, then ahead. Ah, some unruffled corner of her mind noted, she would have to remember to keep all future warnings couched in panicked vagueness. It made him take notice.
Inside the cathedral, his steps rang in the wrong direction and she stood still, eyelids peeled so far back she could feel the air moving in her sockets. "No," Ishtar said. She turned her head, blind, furiously reminding herself that she needed to save the power and not waste it on something as trivial as sight. "Kain- Raziel, where is Kain-"
She felt his claws clasp her arm. "Ishtar. If some tremendous calamity approaches-"
"No time for that, Raziel," Kain's voice said. Ishtar felt her wings sag with relief. "Your daughter and I are graced with the knowledge of all that is to come, but you, I'm afraid, will have to remain in the dark awhile longer." The buzz of a teleportation spell. When he spoke again, Nosgoth's emperor spoke from a few feet away. "I trust you will keep to these unfortunately deficient instructions. Go to the Sanctuary, Raziel. Consume the pillars as you consumed your own severed wings hours ago. When all preparations have been made, confront the fallen god at the edge of the Abyss. Above all else- do not enter the spectral world. In His realm, you are little more than a fly and He will dispose of you as thoughtlessly."
"You propose that I leap into the Abyss and confront him underwater?"
"No." It seemed Kain turned away. "He will come to you."
"And where is our holy emperor during this titanic struggle?"
Silence.
Then the shrieks outside, the rumbling sound. Ishtar brushed the claws of one hand through her mane and fought a stirring of anxiety. It was happening, now. Centuries of watching it in the future had not prepared her for its occurrence in the present.
Kain's steps walked away. "Rule with *integrity*, Raziel."
Glass shattered, somewhere a stone wall clattered to the ground. The cathedral crawled with the creatures she had seen in nightmare. Sluagh formed writhing piles of green limbs against the walls. The porcupine-like creatures Raziel had first seen in the citadel lumbered through the doorways, leaving jagged holes in their wake. And behind them came the tentacled creatures with limbs that ended in spider-like claws and where they fell, the dirt itself rotted.
Ishtar heard her father leap forward and give a shout of "Kain!" answered only by a cry of "Vae Victus!" and the shriek of the first Sluagh to die. She spun around, stumble-raced toward the warp gate that would save them. Behind her she heard Kain's grim command to go, the crashing of stone as more demons pushed their way into the cathedral. The ground shuddered beneath her hooves.
"Raziel! This way!" Ishtar called. Couldn't tell if he heard. The crumbling cathedral was a chaotic mess of battle cries, none of which could be distinguished from the others. But she did hear the thud of paws landing in front of her, the guttural snarl of the demon eying its new prey. As if in answer, the black power inside her surged into dominance. Ishtar lost herself to the other that rose to battle its most hated enemies.
Her hooves left the ground and with an electric clash that left her bones tingling, the gathered power rushed out. Pure energy split the air with black lightning. Her inner sight flashed and she saw the demon consumed by black flames. Her body jerked again and the lightning flashed in all directions. The walls, before crawling with the invaders, now twisted with walls of black fire. She saw the demons draw back before the blind darkness fell once again.
Ishtar dropped to the ground, dazed by the sudden release from her trance. Hell. It would be twice as difficult to get to the warp gate with so many bodies on the ground.
"Quite flashy, wasn't it?"
Ishtar smiled in her father's direction, as best she could under the circumstances. "It worked, did it not?" She tripped and caught herself. "We need to get to the warp gate, second entrance on the left up ahead. This place is surrounded."
"Then Kain-"
"I have a feeling he'll be alright."
"What a surprise." Raziel vanished from her side and somewhere to the right she heard the ravenous hum of the Soul Reaver cutting into its adversaries.
Though at first repelled by Ishtar's show of force, the spectral creatures had doubled their assault against the cathedral's walls. At least the front entrance was guarded well... after all, Kain was there. And it was not his fate to die under the claws of an unholy mob.
Ishtar's sight flashed and she dropped to a crouch. The tentacles of the attacking creature lashed harmlessly overhead. The vampire leaned back, hissing half from her own mind and half from the foreign spirit inside her. The energy force *had* been flashy. She would have to use a more conservation approach.
Ishtar cupped her claws in the air as if clutching the creature's heart between them. She doubted it had one. She squeezed, willed the power to follow this less raging bend, almost grinned when it relented and burst from her in the familiar violent rush.
She felt liquid splatter onto her body, the splash of water as it fell from the air. The resulting puddle was all that remained of her assailant. Ishtar turned toward her goal, wresting the energy from one opponent to many. The power unraveled them, twisted their flesh into a state of pure water. Her legs were wet up to her knees.
"I see it!" Raziel called somewhere ahead.
She nodded, but her voice refused to comply. It was too early to be exhausted. Of all the times for the attack to happen, it had to be the hour before dawn. She gritted her teeth, fighting off the daylight lethargy as much as she could. Her mind was still slightly dull with fog.
Ishtar dropped to all fours and ran half-crouched toward the warp gate. It was too desperate to think she could run through the demons blocking her way. No choice but to plow. She reached for the power again and felt her body tingle with newfound energy and a new, mindless appetite for the battle.
The vampire hurled herself at her enemies. Their talons slid off her or snagged in the energy coursing at the surface of her skin. But her claws ripped through them with hardly any effort on her part. Blood spurted or flew from the edges of her rapidly whirring claws. She ginned, in the grip of the frenzy, watching as Kain toppled all who attempted the front entrance and as she mutilated all betwen her and the warp gate.
Then there were none. Her destination glowed just ahead and she ran toward it, her senses all drunk in carnage of her kills. But the edge dropped, the keenness of the cries and the blazing heat of the blood on her skin faded into ordinary sensations. Her eyelids flared open a moment before the blindness crashed over her.
Ishtar stumbled.
She caught herself, but she knew something was wrong. Raziel's warning shout slid over her, she could not comprehend it. The clawed tentacle of the demon behind her ripped through her skin, slid through the gush of blood that sprouted beneath its edge, and bludgeoned its way through her ribs. Dull sensations, really. But they forced a ragged scream through her throat, unrelenting as her body trembled with pain.
The Razielim tried to turn, but the demon's claw had punched through her back and into the stone floor. It would not let her move without pain that choked her mind. She gasped, groped inside for the power that had failed her. The response was dim.
The demon twisted its tentacle inside her and staying conscious was almost too much. The wound went numb with the supernatural poison it pumped into her. Her claws scrabbled at the stone, but she could not move.
Just as it seemed the pain would send her exhausted mind spiralling into oblivion, defiance flared inside her. No. Not this way. Did she or the power decide? In the quiet center beneath the unending pain, they were one.
Ishtar's claws stopped scrabbling and arched against the floor. There was a moment as she summoned the power, as the demon paused almost consideringly. What new antic would its prey perform?
She lowered her head and energy burst from her weakening body. It traveled from her in a shockwave that burned its way into her victims' minds. She felt their thoughts, even the most primitive urges, shrivel like so much burning tinder against the onslaught of the power. Their minds shattered so gracefully.
Ishtar shuddered again as the demon pulled its claws from her back. Her blood was so hot as it pattered on the stone. With the thought came the realization that she was dying. But it could not be, she had not seen it like this. As the deranged demons ripped into each other a few feet away, she lowered her cheek to the bloody floor and waited.
Her father's claws closed on her shoulder. "-be damned! Ishtar?"
Yes. Ishtar raised her head, barely conscious. Of course it did not end like this. "W... w..."
Raziel lifted her beneath her arms and walked backwards, dragging her toward the portal. She felt the heat of her blood dripping down her skin. So much.
"W... will..."
"Death will not take you here." The soul reaver's snarl was almost feral. "This is not how it ends."
She tried to shake her head but it would only droop. "Will... en... dorf..."
Raziel's claws slightly relaxed around her. "Willendorf?"
Ishtar's eyelids closed. Her mind could not summon the words to reply.
She felt herself dragged onto the glowing green circle of the warp gate. With a great effort her mind sluggishly reached out, groping for the connection that would bring them to the Razielim home. She found it, but knew this only when Raziel told her of the symbol. A square in the middle of a shapeless block. Yes, that was it.
They did not enter the portal at first. Instead, she heard the stone behind them come crashing down. The sounds of the battling demons grew faint, and Raziel said something about Turel's gift having a use after all.
They entered the warp gate. Ishtar could not focus at all. Her grip slipped, and it took several moments of firm shaking before she became aware of Raziel again. He was asking where, where now.
"L... l... left..."
She felt him adjust her weight until he was fully carrying her. So much dead weight. His flesh was so cold.
Raziel's steps quickened almost into a run, and he was no longer carrying her, and she was staring into a stream of blood. Ishtar blinked, the hunger and the weakness completely deafening her to the voice that spoke of the blood of ages. She let her head fall into the stream, felt the pure sweetness and primal bliss of the blood. It streamed into her weakening body, flowed and flowed until the strength returned and her wound closed, all traces of the poison gone. Her head reeled as she feebly pushed herself away, her mouth sticky and drawing tight as the blood dried.
"Rest... we are... safe here... for now..." Raziel's claws hovering nearby as she lowered herself into a lying position. He said something, but she slipped away before she could hear.