Chapter 70: Lucid Dance of Souls
Priscilla and Belle shared one last look over their shoulders and nodded, acknowledging the confidence in each other's strength. Then Priscilla broke off the ground at her feet and charged straight at her chimera-like foe.
Vyvy stood there with eyes thrust wide-open and her hair radiating off the back of her head like a lion's mane, catching Priscilla's hands when she went to grab her.
The two were dragged along the ground, pivoting and cutting into the glass floor in all manner of directions. Priscilla opened her mouth and shot a blast of purple lightning point-blank, grazing the side of Vyvy's face as she evaded.
Vyvy rammed her forehead into Priscilla's and drew blood, then slammed against her two more times, though the half-breed never yielded.
Priscilla grit her teeth, weaved her head back to evade the next blow, and then slammed her forehead in with a thunderous crack.
Vyvy was catapulted away into the nearby wall, sticking to it with the back of her goat hooves. Her pressure built up until the wall started to crack, upon which she tried to leap back into the fray.
Priscilla lunged up and grabbed Vyvy by the face, smashing her back into the wall so hard her head caved a hole into it.
She then pushed down and caved a trench down the wall with Vyvy's skull.
Upon reaching the ground one of the chimera's eyes gleamed between Priscilla's fingers, upon which she muttered, "Is that all you got? I hate that you're holding BACK!"
She then battered her hooves repeatedly into Priscilla's kneecaps, forcing the halfing to pull her up against the wall. Then she let go and hopped back, thrusting a foot into Vyvy's gut to wind her, then pushing back in and wailing across her face with her fists in tandem.
Vyvy ducked under the attacks eventually and rammed her skull under Priscilla's chin to knock her up, followed by leaping and driving her back down with a heel kick to the gut.
Priscilla coughed roughly as her body lurched and bounced on impact. Nevertheless she briefly unfurled her dragon wings off her back and threw herself at Vyvy with one flap, tackling and tumbling her around in mid-air until they were halfway to the ceiling.
Vyvy thrust her right hand at Priscilla's eyes but the halfling moved away and then bite viciously into the chimera's wrist, chomping down to the hallowed bone.
Vyvy's hand twitched then stiffened, gripping all its fingernails into the back of Priscilla's nape.
Priscilla roared internally and bit down even harder, bits of dark, pussy green blood splashing upon her face.
Vyvy grabbed onto the other side of her head and then tugged back as hard as she could. They turned upside-down and started plummeting towards the ground, hitting their heads against the floor at the same time.
They tumbled away from each other and rose to their feet, both having quivers throughout their body. Vyvy hung her arms down and continued to stare with that hollow gaze of hate.
Priscilla brushed the underside of her left cheek and spit a drop of blood on the ground, then grit her teeth and hunched down ready to fight.
Her eyes shook a little when her wife suddenly leaped between them, gracefully floating away from a line of arrows falling from the sky.
Belle fell to the ground and whipped her hand up beside her mildly sweating face, drawing a pool ball into her grasp.
Amor flew high in the air, her impish, hate-filled gaze having only the eyes for her. She pulled her bowstring back and dark pink light collapsed into her arrow from four, curved directions.
Belle made the last minute call to thrust the ball before her and sacrifice it to create a shield around her to block the arrow. On impact the arrow went off like a flurry of violent heart-shaped fireworks and rolled her quite a number of feet away.
She glanced back to find her back against the wall and her foe arming another deadly arrow.
She threw one card from her sleeve as quick as a lightning bolt past Amor, who laughed and tugged her arrow prepared to fire it.
Belle hid her smirk behind another card she just drew and then, magically infusing it, she let it loose and it grew to cover her body and fly around her.
In the blink of an eye as the arrow went flying, Belle and Amor had swapped places via the cards. Amor looked behind her all dumbstruck as her attack smashed into her body and pummeled her with explosions.
"Hmm hmm!" Belle chuckled, waving her magically glowing pointer finger around in the air to carve out a rune suspended in place.
She then dove to the ground, ducking back as Priscilla and Vyvy's brawl passed her by, and then gliding along towards Amor.
Amor was a tad scuffed up but her anger seemed to stem more from the insolence of her enemy than any pain she may have felt.
When she saw Belle charging towards her she readied her bow and fired. Belle danced through the air over each shot, her pool stick glistening like light made of diamonds behind her back.
When she was a foot away she swung her stick out as quick as a whip, only for Amor to duck out of the way and then slide between Belle's legs.
Once behind her she fired a few dozens tiny arrows into her back to pin her against the wall before charging up an exceptionally bigger arrow.
Belle leaned back with a smirk and then tapped her knuckles upon the wall. The part she was on immediately opened up and swung her around to the other side, catching the large arrow on its back.
Dumbstruck again, Amor was unaware of the rune glowing in the air behind her until it was already spitting a massive multicolored fireball her way.
Try as she might to fire arrows to slow it down, it burned right through them and hit her, creating a towering inferno on impact.
Another part of the wall then flipped a few yards overhead and Belle dropped down with her stick still glowing, clobbering Amor right atop her head.
She then did a ballerina's pirouette to land on her feet in front of Amor and then bounce away. Amor was steamed and made her feelings quite clear on the matter, "You think you're funny with your little parlor tricks, don't you?"
Belle held her stick behind her back and leaned over her shoulder with a small smile.
"Ooooh!" Amor pulled back on the bowstring and fired a large arrow that Belle jumped out of the way of.
The arrow continued to fly onward, passing by Priscilla's hip and eventually into the hands of Vyvy, who immediately leaped out and tried to stab it into the halfling's eye.
Priscilla crossed her arms and checked the chimera in the neck, but all her strength didn't seem to faze the damn thing.
The arrow tip was centimeters from her eye and all the danger left Priscilla's heart pumping like crazy. She turned her arms to claws and swiped them out to throw the chimera off.
Then she coated the tips of two of her fingers in venom saliva, followed by charging them with electricity. She fired a lethal purple lightning bolt down at Vyvy's hand to singe the skin and destroy the arrow.
Vyvy's pupils shrank and she pulled her legs away from a second lightning bolt. Priscilla then dragged her claws back, all of them coated in that same lightning.
"You shouldn't have fucked with us, you damn beast!" She then lashed her claws out, lightning screaming in multiple directions before ultimately converging upon Vyvy's location one at a time.
The multiple shocks pulled the chimera off the ground for the final, most lethal bolt, to then smite her back down with earth-trembling force.
Priscilla had no confidence that her foe was downed and immediately charged in to try and scoop her up and continue the assault.
Vyvy suddenly thrust their hands out from the smoke and grappled them around Priscilla's arm. And with one hard twist, the halfling heard their bones crack.
Vyvy then pulled her down to the ground behind her and got on top of her, pinning her down with the pulled back arm.
"Ghhh...! Get off of me you mangy beast!" Roared Priscilla.
"That lightning is cool...! I wish I could shoot lightning like that...!" Vyvy said, clearly entranced by the shocking power at the halfling's disposal.
She reached one hand down slowly to the back of Priscilla's skull as she struggled to break free. When Vyvy grabbed onto her skull Priscilla felt a jolt throughout her body.
"You bitch...!" Priscilla grew her tail out from behind and whacked Vyvy off and quickly rose to stand. She then grabbed onto her throbbing arm and locked the bones back into place with one tug.
Gritting her teeth she swiped her hand out and then suddenly froze up, glancing back at her hand and wiggling the fingers around a bit.
"What the hell...?"
Static clung to the air viciously in front of her and she slowly turned to find Vyvy's body exploding with purple electricity, a bold smile crested across her face.
"Now this electricity is mine...! I have something you don't have! Don't you hate it?" She sounded so childish, though her tone was hollow and dead inside.
"Pfft...!" Priscilla pulled her arm back and spat mildly in annoyance, "Nice trick. Won't help you in the slightest!"
She lunged forward and Vyvy raised her hand, indiscriminately firing lightning every which way as each massive bolt jerked her arm around in the air.
"All that power and you don't know shit about controlling it!" Priscilla yelled over the roar of lightning.
Dodging between the bolts she eventually saw a chance to leap into the air and plunge her draconic feet into Vyvy's chest, the scales shielding her from the searing, lethal lightning.
Stray bolts were blocked by her scaly arms until she could pull a fist back and punch Vyvy square in the face. Her knuckles stuck to the chimera's face like glue and they seemed uncaring towards the blood dripping out of their nose.
"Control...? You're able to control this? I hate that so much...!" Vyvy's eyes glowed with a pale light and she pushed Priscilla off her with just her head.
She then kept the lightning surging around her body as she assaulted Priscilla with wide-sweeping kicks.
Priscilla let the legs glide harmlessly along her scaly arms as she pushed closer and clobbered Vyvy in the chest. Then she backed away when Vyvy tried to kick her in the gut, and repeated this process two more times.
For the final approach Priscilla pummeled her thick, scaly knuckles into her enemy's vagina all the way up to her face, ending on a particularly vicious strike to her forehead.
She then spiraled into the air wreathed in black and pink flames, opening her mouth extra wide so that said flames would be sucked together into a fireball.
"I've learned plenty of ways to kill people like you!" She growled with a deep voice. The fireball grew to the size of her body, drenching Vyvy in a deep shadow.
"Feel the wrath...OF THE SCOURGE DRACONIS!" She launched the fireball out and its sheer gravitational might swallowed the chimera up in an instant before it hit the ground.
It then collapsed like a star getting denser, going from black to white, before exploding into a vicious shockwave that tore up any cracked glass on the floor and damaged the lowest walls.
Belle and Amor took flight away from the shockwave and blew each other's projectiles right out of the sky. Amor sneered in the direction of the other fight and said, "That useless bitch can't do anything right on her own..."
She narrowly escaped a pool ball to the face and fired an arrow at Belle upside-down. Belle twirled her stick to knock it away and smiled.
"Not her fault my darling is so powerful," She said calmly with pride, "Even among our ranks, Priscilla is stronger than us all."
Amor turned upright and let out a brash "Hmph!" before stating, "No wonder that weakling Aava'ris perished like a run-over dog."
Belle cautiously drew one hand behind her back and flicked up a card from her sleeve to between each finger, "You sure think lowly of the one you're trying to avenge."
"Avenge?!" Amor reared her stubby head back and nearly busted her gut laughing, "Hahahaha! You stupid little girl! Why would I ever want to avenge those idiots?!"
Belle closed her eyes and whispered, "Ah, I see now. 'Revenge' and 'Avenge' have no relation to each other here."
"That's right..." Amor said coldly, "Ba'al and Aava'ris deserved to die. They were eyesores that'd only impede me later on. But to die to mortals? Ugly, clay-faced MORTALS, of all things? That is an offense I can not, will not, SHALL NOT stand for!"
"And just why, pray tell, do you hate mortals like me and my darling?" Belle said, more amused than anything to find out.
"Why DO I hate you...?" Amor growled viciously between her teeth, opening her eyes wide and trying so, so very hard to smile, "What's there NOT to hate?"
"Love, love, love, all you mortals are so sickeningly sweet and intoxicated with love in all its many forms. But you aren't content just expressing love in one manner oh no no no. You spread your filthy ways with such a vast expanse of variety that it almost makes me sick to think of them all!"
"You're a bunch of kissy-faced, tongue-dipping, dick-throating, feet-sniffing, snuff-loving, bondage-freaks, piss-leaking, anal-smashing, blood-playing, nipple-penetrating, ear-blowing, BELLY-WORSHIPPING, FART-WHIFFING, SCAT-LATHERING, CUM-GUZZLING, FUTA-LOVING, ARMPIT-PAMPERING ANIMALS!"
Belle calmly closed her eyes and said with a chuckle, "Sounds to me like you just don't have a taste for some fetishes."
"I've had more than a fair taste you putrid womanizer," Amor growled, "I AM Lust. I don't just see your crimes of passion I FEEL them! Every time you animals come up some new way to satisfy your throbbing meat I'm forced to feel it crawling in my skin!"
The cherub squirmed viciously in place, "Love is already a happiness you actual fuckers don't deserve, but time and time again your craven instincts find new ways to express love and make that torturous emotion exist in this damned universe! You defile all rational instinct just so you can cum more frequently!"
"Hmmm..." Belle gently shrugged, "Experimentation is good for a lasting relationship, I'd say."
"Nnnnrrrghhh!" Amor nearly snapped her bow in twine with her hand, "To hell with your love! There is only one type of acceptable love in this universe, and that's unbreakable obedience!"
The little cherub raised her head high with a gaudy smirk and said grimly to Belle, "I shall fell the concept of love with my own two hands, and turn all mortal life into mindless, obedient servants that shall worship me forever. This attack on your putrid home is merely the start of my reign."
Belle shook her head, almost pitying the cherub, "Love isn't something you can destroy. It exists in the heart of all-"
"Oh spare me," Amor spat out in disgust, "I will raze this universe in hellfire until all love is undone."
Belle opened her eyes narrowly and murmured coldly, "There's a special place in Hell for someone like you."
"Yes," Amor grinned and began to draw her bow back, "Its called a throne."
She fired a tri-shot of arrows and right away Belle whipped her hand out behind her back, linking the cards together into a chain that sliced through the middle arrow and lodged itself into Amor's chest.
Belle then pulled herself closer between the other two arrows and laid one more card against Amor's forehead. Waving goodbye, she floated away as Amor grabbed for the card and failed to pull it off. Slowly, it built up magical energy and exploded loudly, hurtling the cherub towards the ground.
She followed through by lining up a white cue ball before her stick and summoning a triangle of ten more colored balls between her and Amor. Taking the shot, the other balls ricocheted around Amor and slowly converged upon her location.
"Its time to put the finishing touches on this little show," Belle kissed two of her fingers and flicked the heart-shaped glowing imprint towards the ball with a wink, "I do have a casino to attend to, after all."
Amor grinned and stiffened in place with her bow pointed upward, "Yes yes I agree. I've humored you long enough, you sickly little witch."
She fired a shot that seemed no different from the rest into one of the ricocheting balls, then continued to spin around and fire her shots randomly until she hit all the balls around her.
All the balls' energy was overcome by a shade of pink and suddenly stopped in place, the kiss of death Belle had sent flying harmlessly past them.
Amor then gripped her bow below the middle prong and pointed at Belle. The balls faced her direction and, much to the magician's surprise, flew towards her aggressively.
Belle dashed through the air to get around the balls, wary of letting them even graze her body. Meanwhile she gathered energy in her pool stick in preparation to flick it towards Amor.
Yet upon seeing the cherub readying her bow with a smirk, Belle hesitated, allowing the shadow of her bewitched pool balls to get the drop on her from behind.
They all came crashing down atop her together like a small pyramid and pinned her upon the ground.
Priscilla noticed this from far away and grit her teeth as she charged forward to help, "Hold on, Belle!"
She was locked in place by the bite of a snake's fangs on her right leg. Grunting and turning back, she found Vyvy rolling onto their stomach to pull her to the ground.
The chimera's hair was partially on fire and half her shirt was burned off, but her skin looked fine. In fact, her eyes simply shined greener.
"You're mine...!" She growled.
"Take a hint and die you waste of space!" Priscilla pulled herself up and thrust forward to try and punch Vyvy in the face. The chimera veered out of the way and clamped the fangs deeper into Priscilla's skin.
Priscilla turned her leg draconic so the hardness of the scales would force the fangs out, but she felt a little dizzy when they left.
And because of this, Vyvy threw herself up and squeezed her hands around Priscilla's neck, forcing her mouth open.
Her body then surged with electricity, particularly within her mouth. Screaming and shouting like the air was being ripped asunder, the electricity clambered out of her throat and wailed into Priscilla's mouth with vigorous force.
Tears were forced out of Priscilla's eyes as billion of volts went down her throat and exploded within her stomach.
Vyvy happily kept this going for ten whole seconds, in what felt like ten minutes for the poor halfling.
But when it was over, Vyvy drew her head back slowly and smiled timidly towards the smoke filled maw of her victimized foe.
...And that mouth, creased into a grin, as a gray smoke was puffed from the halfling's nostrils. Purple electricity crackled around Priscilla's body, and she laid into her foe with a quiet, merciless, verbal beatdown.
"You dumb fucking oaf."
With one quick blast of lightning from her mouth Priscilla forced Vyvy to her feet and continued to pressure her into the nearby wall, taking large, thunderous steps forward.
She then clamped her mouth shut and ripped her claw down by her hip, thrusting forward tirelessly to try and impale each and every claw through Vyvy's skull.
Vyvy pulled out of the way with her eyes maddeningly wide-open, frustration and anger swelling up in her irises.
"You're so cocky! It really PISSES ME OFF!" She swung at Priscilla's hind with her leg only for the halfling to grab it with her tail to then raise and bash Vyvy repeatedly against the ground.
On the last impact when Priscilla let go she then turned and clobbered Vyvy across the chest, hurtling her into a nearby wall.
"Get a new act you low-life," Priscilla stampeded forward, starting slowly and then building up steam as she cracked her knuckles, "All this talk about hating this and hating that?"
She spread her wings behind her back and set her whole body ablaze with black flames, "A hate-filled person like you...!"
She reared her head back and gave the chimera an ugly glare, "HAS NO RIGHT BEING HERE!"
She charged in full force and smashed Vyvy through the wall, gripping tightly onto her face as she dragged her through the halls of their home.
Grinding her up against the walls to peel her skin away, Priscilla continued to endure the punches and kicks of her enemy the whole while. They weren't aiming for anything. It was the flailing of a child throwing a tantrum.
Once she had made a full loop around the building she shoved back out into the battlefield and threw Vyvy to the ground. With both their momentum going full-throttle Priscilla lashed her limbs and wings out and charged all of them with a different type of energy ranging from atomic to gravitational.
"GRAND SCOURGE RAY!" She condensed all the energies down to beams upon Vyvy's location, creating a massive multi-colored explosion that shifted spectrums every few seconds.
Priscilla then dropped to the ground and shed her fully draconic parts, brushing the steam off her smoldering limbs and letting out a huff of relief.
She then laid a hand on her hip and muttered, "That should be good enough."
She raised a brow towards the circle of ashes left on the ground and saw Vyvy's silhouette rise up from the center of it, where she easily shook the ash off and her skin looked barely any worse for the wear.
"You've gotta be shitting me..." Priscilla rolled her head around and began to march towards the chimera with her claw swung by her hip.
Vyvy was trembling all over uncontrollably, her hands squeezing tightly into fists.
Nearby, Amor was watching with great interest, taking the occasional glance at the ball stack her foe was buried under.
"Perhaps you should pay closer attention, little cherub." Belle suddenly taunted her from above, having used her card warping to make a magical reappearance into battle.
Amor fluttered away before Belle could drop the tip of her staff into her head, laughing all the while.
"Something funny?" Belle remarked calmly.
"Oh, I suppose that wench will have one use after all." Replied Amor, putting her fingertips along her sneering lips.
Priscilla stayed her hand momentarily as the chimera grit her teeth so hard it chipped the enamel right off.
"Why...? Why why why why why why why why WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?!" Vyvy clawed at her skin, tore her hair right off her scalp, and generally tore into her body in a vicious, unpleasant fashion.
"I hate it...I hate hate hate hate hate HATE IT!" She lashed her hands down and her mouth ripped over with a desperate, saliva-dripping scream, "AAAAAAH! I'm so...so tired of this...! I hate, and hate, and hate...each and every one of you so much! You have everything I want, everything I can never have! You get to smile, love, be happy...!"
Her eyes flashed violently with green and she began to wail, "I take from you to feel the same things you do, but its never enough! I CAN NEVER BE HAPPY, ALL I CAN DO...IS HAAAAAAAATEEEEEE!"
Her whole body snapped in twine as she lurched her head back full force and screamed, "AND I HAAAAAAATE IIIIIIIITTTTTT!"
Her body exploded into green flames like a bomb at ground zero, the shockwaves pushing Priscilla back a few inches and forcing her to dig her claws into the ground.
"Grrr...!" Priscilla could feel raw, cold power washing over her, and it made her sweat just as coldly if not more-so.
The whole building rumbled and parts of the ceiling came collapsing down around them. A shadow rose from the flames and grew to a massive size, pushing the flames up from its massive, furry back, before shedding them off completely with a full set of six bat-like wings.
Standing thirty-feet tall, this creature of nightmares had the animalistic features present in its prior form, only amplified in size and strength. Its long, thick goat-like legs could now fell a mountains in a single kick. Its long, hissing tail could swallow even a beluga whale whole.
With a muscular, curved abdomen contrasting its thin, bony bird-like hands and small, mane-like shoulder, it was a wonder this beast could even stand the weight of its broad, veiny, throbbing pecs. Atop its shoulder was a head with a caved in nose and stitched together mouth, and thick, curved horns that coiled into the back of its neck. Its eyes were hollow black, save for a vague, triangular shimmer of emerald where its pupils once laid.
Priscilla trembled at the knees as this monster hung over her and glared down at her like an ant retreating to its nest.
And it spoke, but only with the visceral pounding of anticipation from its heartbeat.
Louder, and louder, the sounds from its hollow chest grew.
Belle felt goosebumps all across her skin, while Amor grinned wide with pride.
"Finally sister, you look positively ugly."
As the beast continued to lean its bones creaking and moaning echoed throughout the room. Priscilla stood her ground gritting her teeth and scoffing at the face of this mighty foe.
"Crush that little lizard into paste, my dear, sweet Invidia. Crush this love-struck fool with all of your HATE!" Amor cheered on.
The beast spread its wings and raised its arms slightly, ready to obey. For she was...
INVIDIA, LEVIATHAN OF CEASELESS HATE
Next Time: Crimes of Passion