Across the globe, Quan Chi's expression faltered as he sensed his Lord's displeasure, though at what, he could only hazard to guess. Suddenly, a guttural, strangled sound brought his attention back to the conflict with his wraiths, just in time to narrowly avoid Raiden's bo-staff.
No longer concerned with maintaining his concentration on an unseen conversation, the Netherrealm demon blocked, parried, and dodged furious electrically charged strikes until finally bested by the Storm Warrior's relentless assault. Driven to the ground by a bone-shattering blow to his temple, he narrowly escaped impalement, slipping through a swirling green portal just as Raiden's staff cleaved the ground where Quan Chi's chest had been.
Now observing the thunder god from a less harried vantage, Quan Chi noted his wraith's body still twitching and arcing with electricity. Scorpion would need time to recover and be reconstituted, Quan Chi thought with irritation, again narrowly dodging Raiden's renewed assault.
"For what purpose was this fight, demon!? A probe to test Earthrealm's defenses? Or an insult to-"
Raiden felt his body seize and for a brief moment, his movements and words were no longer obeying his thoughts. The red-eyed sorcerer strained as he cast his magics to bind the very god of thunder's will to his own, and brought his martial prowess to bear on the restrained lesser deity, driving him to the ground and beating him into temporary submission. He then quickly opened a portal beneath Scorpion's body, ensuring the Order of Light would have no chance to secure Hanzo Hasashi's permanent return to Earthrealm.
Raiden groaned as he shook off the disorientation from the sorcerer's brief but savage assault, and launched himself with furious battle cry directly into Quan Chi's back. There was a satisfying crack as vertebra strained, and finally shattered from the sudden impact. Raiden's fierce ki-ai ended as he threw Quan Chi bodily against one of the massive boulders that spotted the beautiful desert surroundings. Dazed, Quan Chi was unable to portal away as he had previously.
Relentless, Raiden boxed the demon sorcerer's ears and surged, accosting him with paralyzing lightning. Raiden roared, sustaining the shock until Quan Chi finally broke, crying out for mercy as he felt his eyes begin to heat within his skull. Only then did the thunder god allow his body fall from its levitated rictus, smoking.
"I will not hesitate to end your pitiful life here and now, Quan Chi! Divulge your secrets or thunder take you!"
Raiden's threats were not idle. Quan Chi was well aware of this, though he knew a worse fate awaited any who would betray Lord Shinnok. He noted Noob Saibot's final, gasping struggles as Fujin's winds sliced the shadow wraith limb from limb just beyond his view of Raiden, whose flashing eyes were awaiting his answer with murderous intent. The shadow would dissolve, and find its way back to the darkness of the Netherrealm, of this Quan Chi was certain. He had at least not allowed the enemy to regain an ally through his failure, but he felt that his time was fast approaching.
"You misunderstand, Lord Raiden. My purpose here was not for invasion, nor insult to Earthrealm-" Quan Chi began, using every moment to try to find a way to slip from the thunder god's grasp. But through his agony, he could taste his own partially cooked tongue, and knew that his broken body could not move fast enough, nor could he conjure with the speed necessary to avoid another attack. Especially not now, as Fujin, though injured from his own kombat, approached the stand off with barely contained rage.
Quan Chi's red eyes darted from Raiden to Fujin and back before closing with finality.
He flashed a defiant sneer and made his choice, "-Though my true intentions will forever remain hidden from your limited sight, thunder god."
Raiden's ire set his eyes alight with crackling thunder, and he hauled the sorcerer to his feet, his battle cry drowned out by Quan Chi's own screaming as he cooked him alive. Raiden then hurled his cavitated body against the ground before calling down a final bolt of lightning to smite the demon's blackened husk.
Fujin observed his brother's savagery with an uneasy foreboding. He took an unconscious step back, hesitant to risk re-directing Raiden's anger in the heat of kombat, but eager to leverage that which Raiden's Sky Temple could offer for his own recovery. However as Fujin made his request, the mention of the Jinsei chamber rendered his brother speechless.
"The Jinsei…" Raiden's expression fell, and without a word, his form flashed and disappeared with hitherto unseen haste.
Shinnok found the Elder God's incessant struggle against reconstitution amusing. To him, they were a victorious team refusing to leave the stage of kombat to allow the next match its start. They could not let go of their victory, and declined to engage in the competition to follow. Even with the assumptive wisdom of countless ages, they were petulant, short-sighted, and arrogant, he asserted.
The fallen Elder God had felt the presence of a similar spirit, one trapped even now within his most holy symbol of power worn proudly upon his chest. It was the spirit of a sorcerer. One not without skill, but who's time had long expired with the passing of many brief human ages. This mortal had artificially extended his station, supping from the whole of life, and stealing the souls of others to similarly prolong his long overdue retirement and slip into death's loving embrace.
"You are quite the puzzle, my dear..." remarked Shinnok as he held Y/N's jaw in a vice-like grip, coursing terrible unseen energies through her, but still proving unable to liberate her stubborn life force from its mortal husk. As Shinnok bore into the mortal woman's curiously resilient soul, he felt the barest influence of that entrapped sorcerer, like an echo. It seemed this was not the first time she had successfully rebuked the attempted subjugation of her spirit.
Through this harrowing ordeal, the stench of sulfur was overwhelming, and it was all Y/N could do to remain conscious through his torturous assault. The skin of this creature's fingers felt like burning ice against her flesh, and his prolonged touch, much different from the earlier savagery, sent a horrible chill of dread down her spine. She fought to remain awake, as his very presence seemed to leaden her limbs and drain her body of vitality. But as she suffered his influence, so too did his flesh begin to blacken and peel where he held her face.
When Shinnok finally released her, seemingly satisfied with what he had gleaned, the charred flesh of his hand flaked and dusted away, leaving only the bare skeleton digits in-tact. Y/N collapsed from the sudden release, feeling as if she'd just come up for air after being held below the surface of a freezing lake. Gasping upon the ground from the ordeal, she pressed a hand to her face to relieve the numbing cold that had seeped into even her teeth.
"Ahh… Fascinating." The fallen Elder God hummed as he clicked his bare bone digits against each other in contemplation.
Never before had Shinnok been so roundly denied a victory so facile. He was beginning to find it amusing, and it reflected in the slowly peeling smile across his expression.
There was nothing outwardly remarkable about this mortal woman. No presence of magics nor talismans of arcane power. No seals or wards. It was clear she was not even capable of participating in physical combat, as he was able to inspect her person with brusque audacity without her able to muster the slightest credible resistance. To snap her neck would be trivial… but now the Mad God recalled the echo of the trapped sorcerer upon Y/N's soul, and felt quite keenly the spark of the soul-stealer's spirit thrumming within the bronze amulet.
Shinnok felt something akin to revelation as a new game presented itself. He had been intent on clearing the field and renewing the turning of the grand wheel, but here a yet unseen and unexplored conundrum beckoned. After all, what was an end but the opportunity for new, unexpected outcomes? The Mad God's tongue deftly traced the interior of his lower lip as his pale eyes considered the mortal, still gasping at his feet.
With shivering breath, Y/N felt a horrific presence accost her, as if a heavy weight had been shackled to her heart. And just as soon as it had manifested, she heard a voice that shattered the unseen spiritual chains, glancing up to behold Lord Raiden's burning eyes revealed with the upward tilt of his conical cover.
"Shinnok!"