A Demonstration of Power

[Erhat Varen]

Erhat’s life was hanging by a thread, and the thread’s name was sheer curiosity.

The demon knew his life in this shell was over. He wasn’t certain how many of his organs were destroyed or how many bones were broken, but he could feel that there’s a whole lot of wrong in him and that he probably had a foot in a grave and another on a block of ice. But seeing the world around him explode in belligerent mayhem was simply too precious to abandon at this point.

The plan they had put in motion seemed to be unfolding perfectly. The inky barrier persisting meant that nobody traced its origin to the sewers, and the amount of houses being swallowed by erupting flames signified that most of their mages managed to secure a good detonation spot. But more importantly than that, those that didn’t opt to tuck tail and run like beheaded chicken seemed to be caught in a struggle that was bound to end up with more than just a couple of bloodied noses. As intended, Letho was in the center of it, but the appearance of someone who had to be a very old friend of his was a fortuitous addition. This madman seemed almost as powerful as Letho and was more than willing to join Letho’s side in the chaos of combat. Erhat didn’t know why and didn’t care. The man took down the false priest and that feat alone was enough to put him on Erhat’s good side.

Propping himself up on his elbows and getting in as comfortable position as possible while having half of his torso crushed by a pile of rock, Erhat was preparing to witness another violent exchange when another figure passed through the barrier next to him. The flame in Erhat’s eyes, moments ago feeble and weakened by his dying body, burst with renewed vigor as the figure fully emerged from the blackness.

“YOU!”

[Lorelei]

“Me,” Lorelei simply said, managing a smirk as she laid her eyes on the trapped demon. She had expected this creature to show up here. After following the trail of Letho Ravanheart and his demonic posse for the last couple of months, she had already had a couple of encounters with the filth that now lay at her feet. In Underwood she had been too late, coming upon nothing but charred remains of a small town and scattered bodies of those unfortunate enough to be caught in one of these spheres. In East Tymerande she was tracking them for days before losing their trail in one of the forests. And in the suburbs of Gisela encounter with the demon and her estranged father had almost cost Lorelei her life. It was only by sheer luck that, when the buildings had started collapsing around her in blazing heaps, she had fallen through into the sewers below, where she eventually found the emitter for their entrapping barrier. All of these encounters were marked by the cloven hoof of this demon.

“I thought you were dead!” Erhat spat at her. The demon, only seconds before content with staying under his pile of rock and bask in the glorious carnage he had caused, now tried to wiggle from his prison like the worm that he was. Lorelei decided not to give him that chance.

“No. But you are.”

Pulling her hand back as if dragging on an invisible bowstring, Lorelei brought into existence a translucent bow with an arrow already knocked against the hair-thin string. Erhat had just enough time to put one clawed hand up in defense before she sent an arrow made of ice straight through his palm and into his forehead, pinning his hand to his face.

That’s one thing settled, the teenage sorceress thought as she precariously made her way past the demon and deeper into the fray. Amidst the rapidly growing flames and the accumulating smoke that grated against her lungs and made her cough weakly, she could barely discern what was going on exactly. There was no obvious sight of Letho currently, though the traces of silver fur flashing here and there through the ruins made it clear that he was still alive since his wolves were on the prowl. Of the rest of those caught in the battle, only one face was recognizable to Lorelei. And the Lavinian seemed to be caught in a battle with someone who wasn’t Letho, which was a very bad thing. She had hoped that everyone would focus solely on the imposter Marshal, but there seemed to be other grudges being settled right now. Which bode well for nobody.

“Mr. Dahlios!” she shouted at Seth as she hastened to his side. Knocking another ice arrow into her incorporeal bow, Lorelei tried to keep her eye on the others, hoping they wouldn’t try to take her down as well. She had to make them listen, make them shift their focus back on Letho, or it would be Gisela all over again. “Mr. Dahlios, everybody, we need to...”

The pain that struck her felt like a literal lightning bolt, sans the ear-shattering thunder and the smell of burning flesh. The summoned bow and arrow were gone as the teen was brought to her knees by Seth Hex magic, her lithe body caught in a shocking spasm. Though her jaw was locked so tightly that it was on the verge of snapping, she still managed to push some words through her clenched teeth.

“Letho,” she mumbled, struggling to cope with the ache that overtook her. There was no time for explanations. In a perfect world Lorelei would have had time to explain to all of them that the murderous madman wasn’t truly her father, was nothing but a verbatim copy of Letho’s own flesh that the demonkin was using to sow fear and doubt in the minds of Coronians. But by now the teenager had learned that this world was far from perfect. “We have to... focus... on Letho.”

When the earthquake came, she knew it was too late. Cracking the cobblestones and bringing further ruination to the collapsing world around them, the quake originated from the building upon which stood the huge man with two hammers and his considerably smaller companion. Such was the power of it that even such a sturdy construct, so far unscathed by the lashing flames, started to come apart as its walls cracked and collapsed under the sheer weight of the stone they bore.

“Too late. Again...too late.”


((So, just to clarify, Letho is going feral, and the transformation is bringing the house down. Literally. On his own head. And it would be great if everyone kicked his ass when he comes out from beneath it. ))