Lord of Azure Flame Final Chapter: Victory or Death

[Snike]

"...We need to end this now," Eric half yelled, as he charged towards the heart. "For the sake of everyone else. If you don't want to die for that, then take the wounded and leave."

[scorri]

"No... no more. This ends now." Tiria charged, aiming to destroy the heart. Reika busied herself stabbing demons, while Adena busied herself healing those who needed it. They might not make it out, but if they did, these people needed healing sooner rather than later.

[-Cynthia-]

The Priestess

Charlotte felt a burst of energy surge through her as if from the Goddess herself, her wounds no longer bothering her. She used this energy to channel through her staff, healing her fallen allies in an area around her. The demon formerly known as Miranda was heading towards the heart of the Lord of Azure Flame at Ixion's insistence. So that was his plan all along...

"We can't allow anything like this to happen again! Destroy the heart by the will of the Goddess!" she attempted to rally everyone, healing the wounded who required it.

The Archer

Even General Jackson doesn't seem to know whose side Ixion is on anymore... Chase thought to himself, firing into the demons indiscrimately. It was pretty clear they were still the enemy at any rate.

The Prince

As Charlotte's healing magic reached him, Tristan slowly opened his eyes but was too weak to move. The chaos of the battle, the structure seeming to collapse around him. So this is how it ends...I never was a very good prince anyway...

The Druidess

Morgan looked at Lev, fear in her eyes. "I...do not know either. I cannot tell whether Miranda is truly our enemy or not at this point..." Uncertainty is weakness, only those sure of themselves can succeed. Why was I not prepared for this possibility?

"Let us go. If they should fail, one crimson weapon may be all the hope we have left- and we still have our lives left to live," she said, turning her head away from the battle. One's own survival is paramount- do not hesitate in sacrificing others for this necessity, she thought to herself, though Flemeth's words had never felt so hollow.

Edited September 19, 2014 by -Cynthia-

[eclipse]

Arlene's eyes adjusted to the newfound scene. She was moving, but to where. Much to her surprise, Midori was at her side. When did SHE get there?

"Mother, we have to go! You're going to be sucked in by that thing!" the girl yelled, motioning towards the Lord of Azure Flame.

"My job isn't done yet. . .that mage still lives, and I have to protect him. . ." the older woman protested.

"So if I do your job, will you find somewhere safe to rest?" Arlene looked at Midori in confusion, then in horror as one of the harpies made towards the girl.

"GET LOST!" A knife appeared in the creature's chest. It shrieked and plummeted into the depths below.

"But I thought you were working for--" Arlene started.

"I had some good teachers before I met him, and I didn't abandon my studies while employed there. Perhaps I'll tell you about them some other time." Midori took out another set of knives. "Rest, mother. It's my turn to keep you safe!"

(O/C: Would've make Midori A Character, but was too lazy to write up a stat sheet for her)

[Balcerzak]

Chauffeur

The reason for the momentary pause in answering Conrad's request for input had not been Iris because she needed to decide upon a response－Frederikov had already swiftly weighed her slight misgivings with some of the man's uses of dark arts against his history of sound advice, effectiveness during the revolution, and fierce loyalty to Zaftra's emperor. She quite simply hadn't expected it, and certainly not from him, as she still considered herself somewhat of an outcast from the group as a whole. Was it because she'd reached out to Viveka recently? If so that was good, and she didn't want to disappoint the trust she was being given.

Still, there was nothing to do but to give a frank reply, phrased as concisely as possible. "Sir, to be completely honest, while the idea of replacing one demon with another runs a shudder down the spine, Ixion's advice in the past has always consisted of sound strategies he held the utmost faith in and genuinely believed would produce the outcome with the greatest benefits. Dismiss this as bias toward a countryman if you must, but I don't believe it is. I hope it's not. Still, if you decide otherwise, you are the ranking officer, and I'll follow your orders."

prince... of darkness (ohoho)

not really

Helios didn't really have a clear path to the Lord, for the moment. His platform had been jostled by collision with another, and the sage was in no condition to do any acrobatic leaping from one to another. He might still have had a shot, but as the vile foe had begun sucking everything toward him a chunk of falling debris had neatly lined itself up with the most direct line. Maneuvering for the next best option while remaining on his platform the prince found one that seemed like it would work if he could eliminate a small flock of deathgoyles in the way. (Well, 2 or 3 isn't really a "flock" but surely when the bards' tales embellish the matter, right?) Taking them out would have to serve for the meantime.

miss not quite concious just yet

Tessa was just going to have to rely on the protection of the goddess and hope she didn't get crushed or drawn off the edge of her platform by that strange and inexorable pull towards the beating core.

[Phoenix]

Fly From the Inside

Looking at the scene through a spyglass wasn't making things any clearer for the scout. The vantage point was just too poor. "What the hell is going on in there?" he asked those around him. The most informative responses he ever got were shrugs.

"It's incredibly dangerous at this point ... but we need to know whether the crimson brigade succeeded in their mission," Reese announced. "The place hasn't been on fire too long ... but by now any serious fight should be over. Scouts, go check it out--but be careful."

"Grand Marshall! Grand Marshall! We've got a flier! Wyvern rider! Twooo ... yes! two survivors!"

Reese decided to wait until the pair had landed before getting all excited about it. A single flier coming out implied bad news more than anything else, anyway, so that's all he was really expecting when the wyvern touched down. "What's going on, you two?"

"Don't just stand there! Get your riders in there, right now," Lev demanded. Irina was still in there ... "The demon king's about to be destroyed or pass the torch and once that happens, anyone who's still in there is probably going to die!"

The news was dire but not completely unexpected. The demons occasionally showed some cunning, so it was no surprise that their master would take advantage of the situation in some way to ensure his attackers at least died with him. Noting that Morgan was Lev's passenger, Reese figured he was trying to make sure at least one crimson survived, just in case the Lord didn't actually fall in battle. He nodded, and the scouts, who had been waiting, took off and flew toward the smoldering ceiling Morgan and Lev had just flown out from. "You've got a wyvern; you ought to help them out," Reese noted. He couldn't order Lev to help them, and he knew it was asking a lot to go back into that inferno.

"... I ought to," Lev agreed bitterly. Hopefully Morgan wouldn't think less of him for this. Pride and loyalty were things he just couldn't shake; he didn't really want to, either. At least with her outside, she'd be relatively safe.

Shatter Point

"No! He's trying to draw in the crimsons weapons," Ixion warned. "He'll devour you one after another if you attack with the crimson blades! Think! Why would he expose his most vulnerable point like this? Just for you to attack and finish him off?! Keep your distance and focus on the demons!"

"That eliminates me, Damian, Tiria ... and Reika," Conrad said, thinking of which crimsons should be attacking versus which ones shouldn't. "Lieutenant, you can let me down, here. You've still got the royals to worry about, and if you don't get them out of this mess soon, you won't get another chance. I'm going to get my captain over there to send for more fliers. We just might have enough time to save a few more people before these platforms come tumbling down."

Nearly a third of the surviving demons had reached the core, including Miranda, when the face of the battle changed yet again. Massive, rocky tendrils raced out from the gaping wound in the Lord's chest and began snatching up the demons that were in range. Miranda narrowly avoided one, but nearly all of the fliers were caught right then and there. The demons that had been taken by the tendrils were hauled off to either side of the Lord's torso as their bodies were slowly melted and absorbed. New tendrils emerged to meet new challengers as the old ones consumed the demons. Try as she might, Miranda couldn't get to the core without leaving herself wide open to an attack. If one of those tendrils took her, that would be where her story ended.

Raphael was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the tendrils, but their arrival made one thing clear, the crimsons and their allies weren't in a position to completely destroy the core anymore. The only way to achieve that would be to overwhelm the tendrils, blast through the demons, and strike the core. All of this would have to happen at once or there was a chance the opening wouldn't last long enough to be of any use. Raphael began gathering his energies for one last attack of his own, one that would hopefully disintegrate the tendrils, demons, and damage the core enough for the fragments to be swiftly dealt with by the survivors. "Hold for one moment! I'll deal with this! Once I do, move in and strike the core's remnants!"

"And then what, spirit?! They fall to their deaths?!" Ixion called up to the light spirit.

"It's a necessary sacrifice ... and it won't be forgotten." Raphael said nothing else before his body disappeared in a brilliant light. The light outshone the flames all around them. It was like a second sun. The light spirit wasted no time in charging to the core at tremendous speed. The tendrils could do nothing. The demons could do nothing. Miranda spread her wings and flew back just in time to survive the blast. When the light faded soon afterward, Raphael was nowhere to be seen, the core had been shattered into shards the height and width of grown men, and many of them floated blissfully near the former whole, which itself lay half buried inside the Lord's chest. The tendrils were burned away up to the stems, and there was no sign left that any demons were ever there, save for those that had been outside of the blast radius, and the explosion had caused them to reevaluate the situation. The body of the Lord was beginning to fall backward, slowly but irrevocably.

(A necessary sacrifice ... no, simply one imposed by a simple minded zealot. I doubt Miranda will be able to do anything about this collapsing tomb, now, but if she recovers just one fragment of the core, then this will have been worth it in the end.) Ixion was forced to abandon the rocky platform he'd been standing on, as it as several others suddenly began to drift downward. Just as he cleared the platform, it fell into the flames below. The Lord's power was waning.

[Mercakete]

Namid didn't know what was going on. All he could do was curl up around Tas -- or Tas' body, as he couldn't really tell if he was dead or not -- and watch in frightened confusion at the goings-on around him. Above, he'd caught a glimpse of one of the plains-dwellers having fled. Perhaps he had the right idea... Namid didn't want to leave this flock alone, but this wasn't the first time he'd had to do so... There had been a lot of fire then, too...

The mountain wyvern told Nikita that he was taking his rider and fleeing, and advised that she do the same. With the rocks falling, after all, soon there wouldn't be anywhere safe. With that, Namid beat his wings and carefully picked Tas' limp form up in his talons. Then, he sped upwards to find a breach big enough for him to fit through.

[-Cynthia-]

Outside

"Do not be an idiot. If you go back in there, your chances of dying are extremely high. I have kept my end of the bargain in staying alive, it is now time for you to keep yours," Morgan said to Lev, attempting to remain calm though her voice involuntarily quavered a little.

Inside

Shoot the demons? Shoot the core? Shoot Ixion? I don't know what to do any more... Chase thought frantically, continuing to fire arrows into demons- that was a good idea at least in his experience.

A necessary sacrifice? I always thought that I would make it through this, Eric and I together headed back to Jerdon. But if this is how it must be, then let this end here, Charlotte thought to herself, catching her balance and calling upon the Goddess to destroy the fragments of the core.

[Phoenix]

Hero

If Lev could have ordered Krinkov to go in and bring Irina back, he would have, but the wyvern wasn't quite sure what was even happening and didn't have that kind of training. Somehow, though, Kiev seemed to have everything figured out, and took off with the rest of the pegasus riders, intent on finding his master. Jasmine was stunned to see the wyvern take off without his rider and head in with the others, but was reminded that she needed to go in as well to help Viveka, the General, Beau--if everyone else wasn't already handling that--and the reckless duke's entourage.

"I don't know what kind of deal you two have, but I doubt it includes the wyvern," Reese noted, gesturing at Krinkov. "If she's not letting you ride him, then I'll go." As he approached Krinkov, the wyvern, sensing his intentions, snapped at him, only to receive a surprisingly swift punch on the nose. "Your work isn't done yet, so shut up and deal with it." The ornery wyvern tried to bite the Grand Marshall's hand off again as he reached for the reins and was punched again.

"Only Kiev would do something that stupid ..." Lev groaned. "Well, for once I'm thankful for that stupidity. Alright, Morgan, you win. Kiev's obviously got this one ... and if the Grand Marshall here knows how to ride a wyvern and gets Krinkov to listen to him, we might actually have enough fliers to save everyone."

Rocks Fall

There were no more demons near her, so Irina began to focus on Nikita, who despite her injuries, were her only way out of here. She was finally beginning to understand the full extent of the danger they were all in. The rocky platforms were beginning to fall one after another and there was no rescue in sight. Even if someone came to their aid, she wouldn't be able to do anything for Nikita. Any mounts that couldn't fly out of here under their own strength were going to die here, and that obviously included Nikita ... "Drink this," she insisted, hoping more of the healing potion could give her the strength to get into the air and escape. "Come on, hurry ..."

The wyvern refused, moving her snout away in frustration every time. "Don't do this right now," Irina hissed. The other wyverns were already gone, but Nikita was in too much pain to even try running at this point. That was what she believed, at least. Soon, the platform the two of them were on began to fall. On instinct, Nikita stretch out her wings, hoping to catch the rising air. Irina had no choice but to grab onto Nikita by the horns on her head and dangle in front of the wyvern's face as she tried to recover. The rider's thoughts weren't on her own safety, though; she knew Nikita would bear any pain to avoid falling into the inferno below. No, Irina remembered that she wasn't the only one on this platform. "Urgh! Damian," she called out, unable to tell if he'd fallen or not.

All of the platforms were beginning to drift ever downward, if they weren't already in free fall, but it was difficult to notice for someone standing on one of them. Ixion watched as Nikita held Irina and herself up, and as the ground they once stood on fell hundreds of feet into the flames below. He also saw Miranda approach the shattered core along with several demons. She, along with each of them grabbed the largest fragment they could safely reach. While Miranda simply held onto hers, a sharp, sixteen inch long shard, the others began trying to force theirs into their bodies, even as the tomb collapsed all around them. Ixion knew at least some of the demons that were gathering shards would still be killed in the collapse itself, but any stragglers could be hunted down later. As for the current situation, he was finished here, especially now that he could see over a dozen pegasus knights racing in through the chasm . "... it's time to leave," he said, looking toward the east. It was the same area he and Miranda had come in from, and now there was a new figure approaching from the air, his personal mount, the chimera, Stratos.

Iso wasn't content to just watch as his sister struggled and tried to get closer. He had no idea what he could do for her, and he was in much more danger than she was, realistically, but none of that mattered to him, not until his own platform gave out, and began tumbling down. (Not yet!) Iso catapulted himself onto another platform with the last of his strength and collapsed in a singed heap, the realization that he couldn't help Irina, or anyone else at this point, hitting him hard. Again, he could sense the platform he was on picking up speed as it began to fall. This time, he couldn't do anything.

It was time for a leap of faith, Irina thought. She hadn't seen if Damian fell or not, but she could see Iso falling clear as day, as well as Ixion boarding his four winged wyvern. She couldn't count on him to save her brother, but she could count on her wyverns trying to save her, and if she could get to him quickly enough ... Nikita nearly panicked when Irina released her horns and began to plummet, her attempts to catch her master with her claws, having come too late. She had no choice but to nosedive after her. What she didn't know was that Kiev was closing in behind her. She was faster in normal flight, but Kiev would catch up easily in a straight dive.

Irina's fears were confirmed as she flipped over to face the flames below. Damian and Iso were both falling like a pair of ragdolls, and so far apart that even if the fall lasted four times as long as it was going to, she'd never reach them both in time. She had two wyverns on the way to help, but was at a loss for how to get one of them to rescue either Iso or Damian on their own. For now, she straightened up, hoping to increase her speed and catch up to them before Nikita or Kiev grabbed her. She had to reach one of them first. (Come on, Iris! Viveka! Ixion! Someone! Catch Iso for me,) she thought to herself as she closed in on the two falling crimson wielders. Iso was higher up, so if someone caught him, she could focus on Damian and both would be saved. She couldn't see this working out any other way. All the while, other platforms were giving out above them ...

[Snike]

The core was shattered by Raphael, and Eric continued to advance, relentlessly striking both shards and demons as he went. By now it was pretty clear that the floor was falling, but he didn't care; the core had to be destroyed at all costs, especially now that it looked like he wouldn't be making it out of the lair. Forgive me, Princess...

[Phoenix]

The Final Resting Place

Something had happened, an intense light. It completely overwhelmed her senses. Even Irina's sense of time had been disrupted. The dull ache in her eyes quickly subsided as she began to open them again. She wasn't falling ... in fact, she could tell she was lying slightly on her side. The ground was oddly smooth, rocky and just hot enough to be uncomfortable to the touch. Standing over her, shielding her from the bits of dust and debris that were still coming down, was Kiev.

At first, she was relieved. She'd feared that something terrible had happened ... but then the rest of her memories came flooding back, and she nearly panicked. She had been trying to save her brother and Damian but if she was on the ground ... the implications were too much to even think about right now. She was almost positive she'd failed, but she still couldn't remember what happened between her fall and waking up beneath her wyvern in this ... place. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was. White and gray smoke billowed up from various patches of ground, towering up into an enormous chasm. The atmosphere beyond was a calming sky blue ... but there was no telling how far underground they were.

Irina wasn't able to completely calm down until the billowing smoke began to subside. All around her she could see the conscious and unconscious forms of her allies. No one appeared to have suffered any new injuries, but the wounds suffered in battle weren't completely gone, either. All she could tell for certain, was that they could save everyone if they acted now. With that thought in mind, she began crawling out from beneath her wyvern and tried to pick herself up. Both Iso and Damian were unconscious and relatively close by, but she wasn't going to them. She was looking for a healer.

When Ixion's sight returned to him, the flames that made up the floor of the Lord's tomb had subsided, leaving behind a hot--though not searing--rocky surface. They weren't quite buried alive, but it would be nearly impossible to escape this place without a flying mount. The pegasus knights seemed to have survived, but it would be a lengthy process, extracting man and beast from a colossal pit half a mile deep. He began looking around from the back of Stratos, hoping to find some sign of Miranda, but what he saw first, was somewhat unsettling ....

As the smoke cleared, and the bodies of the survivors came into view, so did the bodies of the fallen, including the Lord himself. The Lord of Azure flame's corpse was resting silently against the far side of the pit. His chest torn open by assault, and his face ... little more than a clumpy mass hinting at an underlying skull, preserved forever now that it was beginning to turn into stone to match the landscape around them. He was dead, but his power still lingered in this place, inhabiting the few remaining shards Ixion could sense. He knew Miranda was in possession of one of the shards, but he didn't know which presence he should follow in order to find her. All of the other demons were dead, their bodies half incinerated, he noticed, which meant Miranda might have been overtaken by whatever that light was, a grim prospect, but a highly likely one.

At first, Ixion speculated that Raphael might have been holding back throughout the fight; it seemed only he had both the power and the will to strike down the remaining demons and ... somehow extinguish these flames. It didn't explain everyone's survival up to this point, though, and the light spirit was nowhere to be seen. The only other explanation that made any kind of sense to him, was an intervention from the Goddess, herself. Raphael was nowhere to be found, so where else could the power have come from? Of equal interest to Ixion was through what means all of that power had been channeled. Had the Goddess used the crimson brigade's healers as conduits to unleash all of that power, or had she acted in a more direct way he would never understand? Whatever the case, he wasn't going to write Miranda off as dead until he found evidence to support her death, be it her body, or some similarly damning evidence

Conrad hadn't quite lost consciousness at any point during the end of the battlefield's collapse, but similar to Ixion, he didn't have a clue as to what had happened. It hadn't taken long for Viveka and Jasmine to arrive and check him over for injuries. He was fine, though he had no idea why. It was a miracle if ever there was one, and Viveka said as much before she and Jasmine left to find Duke Bellmire. Conrad was left using his still living mount, Thunderbolt, as a backrest. The warhorse was lying passively on the ground, tolerating the heat it gave off so that he could rest from the grueling battle.

Every so often, Conrad would move slightly to get more comfortable while he awaited further news. One time when he did this, a blue shard was uncovered from beneath his cape. When he noticed it, he picked up the glowing fragment of the Lord's core and closely examined it. "This is what Ixion was after," he thought aloud. "Is it the power to create demons? Perhaps mere immortality? What was the purpose in seeking this kind of power?" There were plenty of shards left, as Conrad was beginning to notice. In the distance, each was beginning to give off an unnatural sheen that gave them away against virtually any surface. They wouldn't be difficult to track down and destroy, neither the large ones, nor the small ones, though Miranda had likely escaped with a rather large one ... so as far as Ixion's plan was concerned, their part in it was over. Conrad crushed the brittle shard in his hand and as its power faded, he let his hand fall back to his side and loosed a heavy sigh as azure dust sprinkled to the ground. "The Goddess might really be involved, after all ... I'm glad. I'm glad she hasn't given up on us, just yet."

[-Cynthia-]

As the light flashed and the smoke cleared, Charlotte was thoroughly convinced that the Goddess had intervened directly on their behalf. All of the group had survived, although Raphael and Miranda both appeared to be missing. Fighting through the exhaustion, she began healing everyone that she could reach,

As somebody healed him, Tristan opened his eyes- and apparently all the demons had died? He had no idea how that had happened, but some good fortune or divine intervention seemed to have saved them.

The demons were dead, although a possible threat still remained...in all the chaos Chase still wasn't sure what the whole plan with Miranda actually was. "It's over, Ixion," Chase said, nocking an arrow in the direction of the dark druid.

With the bright lights and smoke obscuring her vision, Morgan had to rely on a different sort of sense to tell what was going on- all the demons seemed to disappear in a flash. "Have we destroyed them all? Are we truly victorious?" she asked in a baffled tone, partially to Lev and partially to herself.

[Mercakete]

The first thought to come to his mind was the perception of pain. Soreness and various kinds of aching wracked through him. It felt like he'd fallen down numerous, hard, rocky, rough flights of stairs. Rough patches of shallow scratches stung here and there and he knew there had to be more than one substantial bruise. Beyond that, a deeper ache cut at his chest and his shoulder felt absolutely terrible.

It was the pain in his shoulder that brought Raemond back to conscious thought. He remembered that dreaded dog practically destroying it as it tried to dig a hole through his chest as though he was a patch of ground. The pain eventually became unbearable, and he'd lost consciousness, figuring it was a spot of cruel irony that he'd die defending his sister's prized student. Yet here he was, alive. Still torn and bleeding to some degree, but alive. ..But how long could that last? Now that he thought about it, the sounds of battle had ceased. The air was cooler now, too...

The monk's eyes snapped open. Dust was in the air, and light filtered in from above. He could hear the sounds of debris falling to the ground here and there in the cavern. No fire seemed to remain. What...happened...? The new scene was both more relieving and more terrifying than the one he'd left. Was he alive by some fluke? Where was everyone else? Who had won the battle? ...Had anyone won the battle? Where was Raphael? ...Where was Beau?

Raemond bolted upright, but he immediately regretted it. His head swam, confusing his vision and threatening to take away his consciousness again. As he grit his teeth and bowed his head (upon which he placed the hand whose shoulder was not torn up) Raemond remembered that he'd been thrown onto his back when the hellhound had attacked him. Why does my head hurt so much, then? It was as though he'd been dropped on it... But he was on his back when he woke, too, and on the ground between some of the once-floating stones no less.

Well, that mystery hardly mattered right now. As soon as his head decided to behave, he was going to look for the young duke he'd risked his life to save, not to mention start trying to find answers to his numerous questions.

Little did he know that Beau wasn't actually all that far away, still unconscious. He'd fallen off of the stone he'd been laying on when it shattered, and now lay face-down against the new stone ground. He was only a few boulders away by the original count, however, now that the once-floating stones had broken apart, there were a lot more, smaller rocks between them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That place had been full of terror and death and now Namid was speeding away from it. He'd seen the flock of humans ahead and now was drawing very close to them. The wyvern adjusted his talons around his unconscious rider worriedly. Hopefully, he would be okay...

[Snike]

Time shifted, and Eric found himself staring up at the sky blue ceiling from some sort of ground, Mother's sword at his side. At first, he thought that he had arrived in the afterlife, but his own exhaustion, combined with the uncomfortably warm ground indicated otherwise. With a little difficulty, he rose from the ground, picked up his sword, and scanned the area. The demons had been slain, and it looked like everyone was going to make it. The Lady had favored the Crimson Wielders, after all.

The Princess seemed to have been healed already, as she was healing others herself. Eric decided to not get in her way, instead turning his attention to Alex. She was still unconscious, but her wounds seemed to have been healed up already. Satisfied, the ex-templar decided to make himself useful, and slowly began to walk across the rocky surface, destroying the fragments of the Lord's core as he found them. Better to be safe than sorry, after all.

[scorri]

Slowly pushing herself up, Tiria looked around. It seemed... It seemed they'd won. Staggering, she slowly made her way to where she'd last seen Beau, hoping that he would be ok. On her way there, she instead managed to trip over his body. "Wha... Oh. Oh no. Raemond, we need a healer over here, now!"

Adena meanwhile had been busy healing people she could find, so when she heard that call, she rushed over. "It's alright, relax, let me look at him." Concentrating, she touched the young man's chest with her staff and filled him with healing energy. "Hopefully that will be enough."

Reika, on the other hand, seeing the Lord was taken care of, set about trying to find a way out of here. As far as she was concerned, that woman no longer had any need of her and so she was getting out before it was decided she needed to stay.

[eclipse]

"Nnnnh. . .wha. . ." The last thing Midori remembered was hurling her last set of knives at something. She slowly picked herself up off the ground, gently shifting her dagger between her hands, and her weight between her feet. Good, nothing was broken. Her eyes darted for a bit before she turned her head and spat in a most unladylike fashion. It looked like the worst was over, but where was everyone? A bit of spare cloth marked her starting point. She walked in an outward spiral, until she spotted a familiar lump.

"MOTHER!"

The lump didn't stir. The girl ran, cursing as she nearly lost her balance. The lump's shoulders slowly moved, and Midori allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. From the corner of her eye, she noticed another downed person. That's probably the mage with mother. Hope he's alright.

[Mercakete]

As Raemond's head recovered, he noticed the sound of people walking about. Then, not entirely too far away, came the distressed cry of Tiria. It seemed she had found Beau...and the boy had apparently not made it out of the battle unscathed. He grit his teeth and pushed himself to his feet. However, by the time he was standing, he heard some talk over by where Tiria's voice had come from. The Templar still did his best to make his way over, but it sounded like things may already be being taken care of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What injury Beau still had -- which was some bruising around his neck -- was reversed successfully, but he still didn't awaken. He did visibly take in a large inhale, however, and then gently release it. It seemed the young duke would be fine.

[Ether]

Far too much had happened, really. Damian's body and mind simply weren't in a state to even attempt to register it all, though the feeling of solid ground beneath him was enough to dull his worries somewhat, as he came to. Granted, consciousness was fickle and fleeting, and he wasn't sure how long it would last. His dulled senses didn't seem to dull the one thing that the Halton Colonel wished for, however, the pain that by this point had encompassed his entire body.He... he had made it, he had lasted until the end, without his body shutting down on him. But it was swiftly becoming a losing battle. and as he lay near-motionless on the ground, he could feel himself slipping.

'Ah... I knew that it was doing my body no favours, to continue as I was... but... for what we were trying to... needed to do... the strength to accomplish that goal meant so much more than my longevity, as far as that was concerned, I needed only but enough... it's over now... will this blasted body of mine choose now of all times to give out for good?' He wondered to himself, a lance of his father's make at either hand... the one bound to him within his own hand, not even gripped, only loosely covered, and the other, which he had received oh the more recently, just out of his grasp. Had he grown so entwined with this demonic thing, that even as he was, it defaulted to keeping itself solid? He had not even the strength to dissipate the blasted thing, leaving it to simply lay beside him, it's sinister crimson glow more faded than usual.

Damian closed his eyes for but a moment, his mind's eye projecting the face of his lieutenant, his love, to him... she must be waiting with complete unrest at home, he thought to himself, a light laugh escaping him, perhaps for the worse, as his chest and stomach were wracked with pain as the vibrations met them. What a turn of fate it had been, to find himself without her now, of all times. He supposed that he could only blame himself... she had been left to rest because she was with child... his own, no less. He had been in too much shock, too overwhelmed by the closeness of this fate of theirs, to truly comprehend it... if he were to perish here, what would become of them? Aiya was a strong woman, she would survive, but... to deny a still unborn son or daughter their father? He did not regret his decision... a world where they were to live without him far outstripped a world where they were to die in the womb along with their mother, but... the thought of perishing here sent chills up the Colonel's spine unlike any he had experienced to this moment.

Well... it seemed it would be out of his hands, now. The fates would decide whether he remained fit to live, now. The fight of Damian Kleine was long over, and long overdue for it. As his consciousness faded away and his breathing slowed... he wondered if he was to ever wake again.

[Phoenix]

Extinguished

"There," Jasmine said, pointing to the small cluster forming around Beau.

"Okay, go on ahead. I'm going to see if I can find Tristan," Viveka said, already scanning the area. She was actually on the lookout for the prince's pegasus, as Bellerophon would be easier to spot at a distance. There were a lot of Elysimian pegasus knights scurrying about, now, but their mounts' attire and harnesses were different from Tristan's, so she didn't think it would be much of an issue.

"Oh, right ... you two are friends," Jasmine frowned slightly. "O-okay, then." (I hope he made it ... we've been through enough, already ...)

Meanwhile, not too far away, Ixion was still standing where he had been before, in the midst of rubble and dust. Chase hadn't hesitated to draw his crimson bow and take aim at him, stating that it was over. "If that's the case," Ixion began, his gaze only shifting to Chase a moment later, "then you aim at nothing. Put away your weapon; I didn't come here to battle humans." No matter where he focused his attention, Ixion hadn't felt a shard anywhere near as large as the ones Miranda and the other demons had taken during the final struggle, but they could have easily been shattered into these smaller fragments during the collapse. He could feel the power in the area fading as more and more of the demonic remnants were snuffed out by the survivors. For him it was regrettable, but he'd been prepared for far worse outcomes than this.

By the time Irina got to Iso, he had already been treated by Charlotte. That just left Damian, assuming she hadn't gotten to him, too. For now, she helped her silent, barely conscious brother off of the ground and took him with her while Kiev followed closely behind ... and a short ways behind him, Nikita was limping along with her wings gently dragging over the ground at her sides. Once she found Damian, she sat Iso down against Kiev and turned the lancer over as carefully as she could to make sure there weren't any wounds the healer had missed. Nikita came up beside Kiev and laid down.

"H-hey ..." Iso said, his voice weak, "is everyone alright? I didn't see Kelas or Arrin anywhere ..." He hadn't seen Miranda either for that matter.

"I think so ..." Irina said, uncertain, herself. "We're spread out quite a lot and this area is huge ..."

Come On Down

The Grand Marshall was more than a little surprised when he approached the chasm only to be temporarily blinded by divine light. His sense of time was completely thrown off once the light faded, and what he saw when he looked into the gaping maw of the earth was extraordinary ... all the magic and flames, gone. He wasn't one to rely on the goddess for aid, but ... he wasn't one to be ungrateful when he got it, either, and quickly got to work sending down his fliers to check for survivors.

The light hadn't been limited to the battlefield itself; the entire area around the tomb had been overwhelmed by it. This prompted Lev to take his wyvern back and head back. Since Morgan didn't seem to sense anymore demons, there was nothing to keep their distance from, anymore. Even the fire the Lord had conjured was extinguished. As they descended the massive hole in the earth, Lev looked around to try and figure out what had happened. "I don't want to get my hopes up just yet but ... I think we won, yeah. Let's just hope everyone is alright down there. I don't see how they could be, but I also don't see how all that fire could suddenly just vanish, either ..."

[Ether]

Damian didn't give much of any acknowledgement to his move, mostly due to his lack of consciousness. All that really changed was that the gentle rise and fall of his chest made itself more visible due to being on his back rather than his stomach. The breaths were faint, but there... more notable than any change in the Colonel himself was the continually intensifying glow of the demonic lance that had managed to remain lightly grasped in his hand despite his body being moved.