[sub]a collab. feat [@agentmanatee] and [@Meiyuki][/sub] [h1][center][u][i]"Dreadful Prices"[/i][/u][/center][/h1] Finally the witches arrived at the mighty Castle Ruvina. Home to the great and terrible Reyna Ruvina. Or so they thought. The caravan came to a halt outside the ruins of a once grand estate, the castle walls were covered in vines from neglect, the black iron gate lay twisted on the ground leaving the path to the castle proper unimpeded but for the tangle of weeds and the roaming undead - the last of the castle's defenders. Lorelai dismounted Ardat and took a deep breath. [color=00aeef]"Be careful everyone. Split up and find out what happened here, but don't go alone."[/color] She removed her blade from Ardat's saddle. [color=00aeef]"We better not have come all this way for nothing."[/color] [color=f26522]"God,"[/color] Vespa whispered. Brow furrowed, she stepped up to Lorelai's side, and put a hand on her rapier. [color=f26522]"Elina. Elina! Come see this."[/color] The silver-haired witch had already descended from her carriage, and the horrible condition of her family's small demesne shook her to the core. The normally serene young woman took upon a startled expression. An mild ache formed in her chest, and she put her hands there to quell it. [color=#DBFFFB]"Oh, oh my. What has happened here?!"[/color] [color=00aeef]"Hunters likely, or perhaps rival witches."[/color] Lorelai replied mildly. [color=00aeef]"We'll know more once we get inside."[/color] The castle itself was situated upon a hill, where under the orange glow of the setting sun it was ominous, domineering, and prominent. A curving path of ruined, mossy cobblestone began at the remains of the gate and crawled all the way to the distant castle doors, passing by the overgrown courtyard and grounds where dozens upon dozens of undead shambled aimlessly with rusting weapons and dilapidated gear. At their wobbling feet lay their comrades who were unlucky enough to cross Fenros several years ago, devoid of all magic and decomposed to their bare bones. The smell of death still lingered, and the mild breeze of dusk deigned to ease it towards the party of witches. Vespa grimaced. [color=f26522]"What a horrible stench!"[/color] [color=00aeef]"Indeed. What should we expect as far as the remaining defenses?"[/color] Lorelai turned to Vespa. She wished she could just console her love, but they'd work to do. [color=00aeef]"I do hate surprises."[/color] Vespa put her index finger to her mouth, and bit hard. Drawing it out, she pinched the bead of blood with her thumb and attuned herself to the castle's hex network - and found it breached, neglected, and almost useless. [color=f26522]"I... I don't know."[/color] She put her hand down, frowning. [color=f26522]"This looks like it was a proper siege... everything is... broken, in one way or another."[/color] [color=f26522]"These undead are aimless,"[/color] she added, gesturing towards the walking corpses. [color=f26522]"Whoever attacked... has eliminated our Household Guard, my mother's chosen undead warriors who command the lesser ones. The ones before us are feral, and will try to stop us out of instinct."[/color] Genoveve quietly exited Phagora's carriage, not wanting to wake her up when she was sleeping so soundly. She made her way to where Lorelai and the Ruvinas were standing at the aged gates of a once proud estate. Even still Genoveve marveled at the decrepit edifice, her eyes wideninng at the way the ancient place managed to hold its nobility, even as old and ruined as it was she could still see the extravagance and beauty once held by it. She could not help but express her ownn opinions,[color=f49ac2]"This place... its amazing! So ancient and ruined but even still I see what it was... proud and tall, and so incredibaly extravagant... you lived here?"[/color], she turned to the Ruvina sisters with a look of awe, yet the two were too shocked to give her a reply. She turned her sight back to the crumbling gates to observe the shambling dead just inside. Some were little more than shambling bones by now, sustained by aged magics long since beginning to fade, but walking still. A gust of chill-fell wind blew from within the gates, knocking one of the less sure shamblers of his feet before blowing past the tall crimson haired woman, her bright red hair set to disarray by the gust. She shivered, not because she was cold having lived in the woods her body was use to such temperatures, but because the smell of hate and death picked up by the spirits in her... and the loss.[color=f49ac2] "Someone... powerful lost something important here... something as dear to them as their own life... p-perhaps we should tread carefully... the restless dead may be afoot here."[/color] [color=00aeef]"Someone powerful lost a great many things here, perhaps even her own life."[/color] Lorelai nodded at Genoveve, a bit of pride stirred at her keen eye. [color=00aeef]"Such is the folley of hatred and grudges. They're poisonous, much better to direct your energies to more active threats than to expend it on vengeance."[/color] "Mother," Elina said, her voice trembling. "We have to find my mother." Genoveve nodded at what Lorelai said,[color=f49ac2]"Indeed Mistress but... how shall we proceed? There are undead everywhere and while not intelligent in numbers... well I don't feel safe if we travel alone, we could get overwhelmed."[/color], she watched the shambling and rotting corpses lurch this way and that, nails turned to jagged and filthy claws, teeth rotted and sharpened. She gulped slightly, she never liked the undead... well at least not zombies, they were far too unnatural. She turned to look at Elina, somewhat worried by the way her voice trembled, and she leaned in to whisper to Lorelai,[color=f49ac2]"Mistress, I believe you should accompany Ellina lest she make a... an emotional decision."[/color] Lorelai nodded. [color=00aeef]"We'll all have to keep our heads."[/color] She began walking forward through the gates. [color=00aeef]"Keep your eyes peeled, I doubt this place is yet devoid of danger."[/color] [color=f26522]"It isn't. I shall lead the way."[/color] Vespa unsheathed her rapier and walked briskly a few paces in front of Lorelai. Elina followed suit, nervously looking around. The ruined, uneven cobblestone was unkind to the silver-haired maiden and she struggled as she walked. At times, the moss made it slippery, and at others, she would bump against a hole in the ground or a misplaced flagstone. Her gaze constantly shifted between the surrounding, oblivious undead and the backs of Lorelai and her sister - and to her unashamed relief, they were also having some trouble with the dilapidated carriageway. Indeed, and she also saw Vespa cleanly driving her sword deep into the throat of a zombie that had gotten too close. She groaned and grimaced at the putrid stench of thick, rotting blood and at the weighty, fleshy thud as the corpse fell from unlife into true, still death. There was a hedge maze there, and neatly kept pines over there, in a time that felt so far away now to the two sisters. Now those areas were overgrown forests, and the crawling vines, moss, and random shrubs reached all the way into the main entrance. The party had gotten close enough to see that the front double doors of heavy, iron-fitted oak had been forced down. [color=#DBFFFB]"I hope mother's alright,"[/color] Elina said, mostly to herself. [color=#DBFFFB]"We really should... tend to this horrible mess with her."[/color] Vespa said nothing. Genoveve began to grow worried, and suspicious, as they moved ever further into the dilapidated edifice of a once grandiose estate. The more Elina spoke of her mother the more certain Genoveve became about the identity of the force of loss she could feel in this estate. She did not wish to tell the girl, which would likely only put further strain on their... tenuous footing with one another following the whole wealth thing. She came up alongside Lorelai again to whisper to her, "Lorelai I fear... I may know the identity of the spirit which may still reside here...", she made he voice as quiet as she thought she could. Lorelai simply nodded and whispered her reply. [color=00aeef]"So old scratch hasn't claimed her yet. Interesting, but not unexpected."[/color] She reached into her pouch and handed Genoveve a small bag which contained various salts useful in bindings. [color=00aeef]"Ensure she doesn't trouble us overmuch?"[/color] Moving over to Elina she placed a hand on the silver-haired witch's shoulder. [color=00aeef]"Elina, dear... I'm sorry."[/color] Lorelai did her best to offer a consoling look, but the truth was the Reyna Ruvina wouldn't have survived this expedition either way. She had the bloodmoon stones to ensure that. What Elina didn't know she couldn't hate her for though. [color=00aeef]"Look around... I don't think your mother is here."[/color] Vespa stopped and waited, but did not look around as she found the topic distasteful. Looking into Lorelai's eyes, Elina blinked once, twice, before forcing a smile and shaking her head. [color=#DBFFFB]"No. No, you've not met my mother. She's not that weak. Let us continue."[/color] And without waiting for a reply, she ambled on. No words passed among the four as they came up the hill and as the sun set behind the Castle's massive body, draping them in shadow. Things looked worse the further the party went, and the courtyard's central fountain of what was once a finely sculpted marble statue of a manticore had all but collapsed, the water gone and the plumbing destroyed. The lumen globes, which were supposed to light up automatically by nighttime, and contrary to the twins' expectations, lay dormant and dark in their lamp posts. So there was nothing illuminating the massive seal of House Ruvina that hung above the breached entrance, that of a passant black wolf upon a blood-red escutcheon. That greatest of symbols which welcomed them every time they came home just a scant few years ago was nowhere to be found - and they both knew that they would find no comfort here anymore. What lay before the four was an abyss in the shape of an archway, where there was no light whatsoever, and sickly groaning could be heard from within. [color=f26522]"Shit."[/color] Vespa cursed. [color=f26522]"I have a bad feeling about this."[/color] [color=#DBFFFB]"Mother... might have gone to Cathay again?"[/color] Elina weakly offered. Genovve could feel it here, the spirit of the old Matriarch of the Ruvina household. Genoveve breathed out slowly, and turned to Lorelai, "She is here Mistress, I beleive I should contact her now... it may perhaps give her daughters closure.", as she said this Genoveve opened the bag of salts and began a binding and contact circle, chanting in the language of the dead. As she finished the intricate symbols and circle around her and the others she took a small aged book from her pack, its covers blackened by age and fire and its pages yellowed and faded. Even still she opened and recited in a guttural ancient language from this, one of the few remaining copies of the ancient book of the dead. As she chanted from the heirloom and went to her knees it seemed as if a chill wind picked up around the witches, and strange phantasms swirled around the circle as if some hellish gate had been opened. Slowly they tied down, until a single force seemed to scream in the air, the poltergeist attempting to enter the circle before giving up, its connection established. Genovev exhaled calmly, and spoke with a strange and soft spectral voice, "Lady Reyna Ruvina, we seek to contact you, your daughters have returned, show us your presence.", her eyes glowed a strange spectral green as she spoke, the book of the dead open at her knees, and its script glowing similarly. Lorelai surveyed the area warily. Her mind writhed with pacts, ready to be called on at a moment's notice. Hand on her blade she finally settled on watching the door in anticipation of whatever ugliness awaited them. [color=00aeef]"Quickly now."[/color] The sisters looked towards Genoveve's crouched form, with the older one shifting her gaze towards the entrance. Elina, meanwhile, was utterly transfixed. She had never seen Genoveve at her craft, and were the circumstances different, perhaps she would have appreciated them more - alas, her mother's disembodied voice shook her, and even Vespa was surprised. [color=purple]"Indeed they have,"[/color] Reyna said. Hers was a voice with a deep tone and a commanding presence, and had enough of an outline of her power in life to give a chill and a buzz in the air even in death. [color=purple]"To this place which was once their home, and which they had abandoned. Do you see now, dearest Vespa, dearest Elina? This is the price of your failure."[/color] [color=#DBFFFB]"M-Mother?"[/color] Elina said. [color=purple]"Three years and twenty-one summers old and yet you are still a child, Elina. Do you not know? You are the reason this all has happened."[/color] [color=#DBFFFB]"I... I-"[/color] Elina began, but Lorelai cut in. [color=00aeef]"Silence, dead old witch. This is the price of your arrogance... nothing more."[/color] Lorelai wore her disdain and condenscension plain on her face. [color=00aeef]"Blame them if you will, but we both know who caused this. Continue to speak of it though, and you'll find I've little patience for such things."[/color] Vespa joined her lover in step. [color=f26522]"Neither have I the patience for misplaced choler, mother."[/color] [color=purple]"Oh Vespa,"[/color] the party could feel the matriarch rolling her eyes. [color=purple]"You could have been the greatest witch to have tread upon Christendom, yet you chose to split your sacrifice with your weak-willed sister. Perhaps I should not have expected so highly of you. A woman? Instead of cockslaves, you turn to a woman for your bedside comforts? Disgusting."[/color] [color=purple]"And you, Von'Strauss? Fool, when death inevitably takes you, your fate will be infinitely worse than mine. No matter how many demonic cocks you take up your putrid womanhood, your soul is damned forever to the most miserable depths of Hell."[/color] A Dark Chant from the book cut of the angered Lady Reyna with a guttural word before Genoveve spoke again,[color=f49ac2]"Quiet spirit! You have not been called upon to show your ire to the living, a poltergeist may do such upon her own eternal time. You are called for answers to questions, and you will bend to your caller,"[/color], Genoveve chanted again and the spirit seemed to writhe and scream as the pages of the book turned on their own and Genoveve rebuked the ghost in the guttural tones within, [color=f49ac2]"Lady Reyna of Ruvina, we seek the knowledge of House Ruvin, a fowl coven of Vampires. What connection is there to you poltergeist? Tell us your knowledge lest I force it from your tortured soul."[/color] Reyna's ghost, even amidst the pain, found room to laugh. [color=purple]"Fool. You think I am obligated to help you? Do you think that just because you have come all this way from that whore Bloodrose's coven, you deserve answers? You demand knowledge, when you bring to me the instruments of my demise - my daughters?! You insult me, yet you expect courtesy? [b]FOOL."[/b][/color] And as the word was uttered, a gust of wind blew across the ruined face of the castle grounds, beckoned there by the sheer might of the fallen matriarch even beyond death. This gust soon kicked up to a steady gale, which made the most horrible noise and elicited awful groans from shambling undead both near and far. Vespa looked towards the scene with a paind expression. [color=f26522]"You damned monster! You're a blight upon this world, in life and in death! Genoveve, do something!"[/color] [color=purple]"Do you not know who I am? Do you not know who rules this castle upon which you are trespassing? [b]I AM REYNA RUVINA, BANE OF KINGS AND DEFILER OF PLACES! HEAR MY NAME AND DESPAIR![/b]"[/color] Lorelai pushed the smaller pacts from her mind. A spirit so powerful, even in death was deadly in the extreme. The circle wouldn't bind her for long, and even Genoveve couldn't keep her at bay forever. Gripping the stone in her pocket she pulled at the black thing pulsing in her mind. Conjuring up her darkest impules she begain to make way for her birthright, she begain opening the way for the Dragon. [color=00aeef]"You're but the shadow of a cowardly whore too weak to let go, and you were never anything more than that."[/color] Genoveve had not expected Reyna to have such a solid connection to the world of the living, and decided she needed to sever the connection. She began chanting again from the book, the guttural tounge filling the air with her spectral and ghostly voice, but the matriarch's ghost would have none of it. [color=purple]"You think a woodland savage like yourself is worthy enough to address me? Foolish girl. [b]THIS PLACE WILL BE YOUR GRAVE![/b]"[/color] Genoveve screamed loudly as the Poltergeist threw her power down into the closing link beteween them. She was flung backwards with quite a bit and with some force. She skidded along the floor and came to a stop smashed against a crumbling pillar. Then she was dragged up it, but was now screaming in the guttural speech from before, desperately trying to close the link even as Reyna strained to keep it open. She was flung back down to the floor, and managed to finish the spell with a painful grunt, severing the link. She tried to sit up but screamed in pain, several of her bones likely broken. She whimpered as loudly as she could to Lorelai,[color=f49ac2]"Mistress... I think... I ca-can't move... on my own... ergh!", she grunted in pain.[/color] [color=00aeef]"Get Genoveve out of here Elina!"[/color] Lorelai gave the girl a rather harsh shove to shake her from her reverie. [color=00aeef]"Go!"[/color] Lorelai called in the numerous pacts she had prepared. Out of the shadows in the courtyard stepped a pack of twisted infernal wolves. They stalked forward snarling with voices to deep and too human to come from any natural wolf. Their fur was matted already with blood and viscera, and bone spikes protruded from their shoulders. Lorelai's grip tightened on her blade. Vespa, meanwhile, called upon the energy of the grand sacrifices she had made the other day to pump her body full of supernatural vigor. It appeared to her that their mother was the greatest threat, although whether she could actually harm something incorporeal was something she didn't know. Regardless, she readied her blade, and scowled at the unified howls of the hundred zombies which had suddenly found a common purpose. No longer shambling aimlessly around the castle grounds, every single rotting head had turned to the way of the party. Elina, who was carrying the wounded Genoveve in her magically-charged arms and making way for the front gates, was stopped dead in her tracks. The silver-haired witch despaired. [color=#DBFFFB]"N-No! It can't be!"[/color] [color=f26522]"I told you,"[/color] Vespa said solemnly. [color=f26522]"She's not above killing her own daughters for the sake of her ego. Put Genoveve at our center. It's her we need to defend."[/color] Elina did so immediately. As she rose, she looked at her older sister with eyes on the verge of tears. [color=#DBFFFB]"I- I can't fight; I've never-"[/color] In her other hand suddenly materialized a rapier, of a make and look identical to her usual swordarm. It was a spell set many years ago but only activated now, just in case she would lose her sword. Vespa never imagined actually having to hand Elina a fighting blade in whatever manner. [color=f26522]"Then it is best you start learning. Ready yourself. The horde is coming."[/color] The horde indeed came, pouring from the darkness behind the archway and from the grounds in a tide of dead flesh and ruined steel. Lorelai's wolves darted forward to meet them, but were woefully outnumbered. For each drug to the ground and brutally dismembered two seemed to crawl either from the earth or the shadows. Lorelai quickly found herself surrounded. The blade of her scythe flashed and parted bodies with ease, but she was losing ground. Soon she was covered in decades old viscera, and breathing heavily from exertion. [color=00aeef]"We'll have to cut our way back to the carriages!"[/color] Lorelai screamed over the clamour of battle. Vespa fared no better. As the bodies fell and formed stinking mounds, her thin blade dulled and developed a predilection for being stuck in wounds. Covered head to toe in unholy blood, what she could not kill by her sword, she dealt with her superhuman strength. Her desperate punches shook the air and detonated heads. It was woefully inelegant, but given the circumstances, it was necessary. [color=f26522]"We just might have to! Elina, quickly, get Genoveve!"[/color] And Elina, for whose protection Vespa fought more than to actually kill the enemy, nodded meekly and did so. The groaning witch's long arms fell limp, almost to the ground. The young woman carrying her, who felt so betrayed, had rivulets of tears running down her cheeks at this point. [color=purple][b]"Yes! Fight for my pleasure, fight and die, fools! The denizens of Hell have placed high prices on your souls, and I will be the one to claim the bounty!"[/b][/color] Even disconnected from Genoveve, Reyna could still deliver her voice to the mortal world. [color=f26522]"Fuck you!"[/color] Vespa yelled between sword strokes. [color=f26522]"I should have killed you when I had the chance!"[/color] [color=purple][b]"You had no such opportunity, fool. Now you will pay for your treasonous arrogance!"[/b][/color] Lorelai did her best to ignore the spectral voice that seemed to fill the courtyard. Focusing instead on clearing the way towards the gates they'd entered through. The horde finally seemed to be thinning. Her infernal wolves - those that remained - were steadfast in their task of keeping Elina and Genoveve unimpeded as the witches slowly made their way towards the exit. Lorelai was tiring, the dead had opened up small cuts along her legs and arms. When they'd reached the gate Lorelai turned back towards the castle. Planting her feet she called her wolves to her to bar passage against the remaining dead. [color=00aeef]"Quickly now!"[/color] Lorelai's heart sank as a figure appeared in the archway. Over the moaning sounds of the few dead remaining could be heard the tell-tale sound of hooves on stone, and rattling armor. To her increasing dread the figure revealed itself; Astride a massive skeletal horse in steel barding was an imposing knight in full, black plate. The seal of House Ruvina was emblazoned on its kite shield, and in its other skeletal hand it grasped a long wicked lance that seemed carved from a metal too hard for any mortal to ever work. Slung over his back was a massive, sheathed greatsword. The knight's eye sockets were filled with a purple flame that conveyed its malevolence and fury emphasized by the ornamentation of his helmet, which had a crown of steel thorns crudely forged on. Hanging from his shoulderguards, a tattered, blood-red cape fluttered behind him. [center][img]http://imgur.com/8nBKdBw.jpg[/img][/center] [color=00aeef]"Fuck!"[/color] Lorelai exclaimed. Lilith stirred in her blade, and with a familiar pain Lorelai invited her in, her wolves crumbling as their connection to this world was severed. [color=00aeef]"Vespa! What is that!"[/color] Vespa paled. [color=f26522]"Shit! It's John, the most powerful of our Household Guard. My mother resurrected him?! Careful! He might be just as powerful as Hector Digard!"[/color] The horse upon which John rode was half again the size of the largest natural stallion, and cloaked in a raiment of deathly shadow. Each fall of its massive hooves was like the sound of a distant thunderclap, and each print burned with purple fire. The steed was strong and just as malevolent as its rider, as it crushed a score of weaker undead in its advance, sometimes even shoving them dead with an annoyed swing of its massive head. And so the path to the gates lay completely open, and amid its ruins were the four witches, of which only two were capable of fighting. John lowered his jaw as if in glee at targets so open and vulnerable. His massive lance shifted awkwardly as he secured it against his breastplate and brought the tip down. His armored boot kicked his horse once, and the unholy beast accelerated to a frightening speed. [b][color=purple]"John, you failed me when I was alive - redeem yourself now!"[/color][/b] Vespa readied herself however she could, trying to think of a plan. She'd never actually seen John before, but read about him only from the family chronicles. The man had been a Crusader knight once, and earned the appellation of "Terror of the Saracens." The scriptures talked at length about his exploints and glory, but never of his methods. When he fell in battle, somehow an ancestor got a hold of the man's corpse and brought it to Castle Ruvina to transform him into a death knight. He died a second death fighting against a rival witch many decades ago, but Vespa never expected her mother to actually give this small legend a third wind. John was large, in life and in death, and thoroughly appropriate to the size of his steed. Upon his superior position and the sheer velocity of his charge, he looked larger than life to Vespa. Perhaps three tons of armored demon were barreling towards her. She wanted to look towards Lorelai, but she stopped herself from doing so. One mistake and it was over. The ground rumbled beneath Lorelai as the titanic knight's charge drew closer. She and Vespa had but a moment to halt the charge or face the dreadful consequenses. Lorelai stepped to the side, bringing her blade up in an attempt to unseat the mounted terror. Vespa leaped, her blade arcing up towards the smoldering flame of its eyes. At the last moment the steed leaped, sending both of their strikes far from their intended targets. Lorelai's blade instead caught hold of the steed's chest plate, it clattered to the cobblestone below as her scythe ripped it from its bearer. Vespa's blade left a small wound on the knight's arm instead of blinding him as intended. They looked in horror as the knight landed well past them, continuing his charge towards the defenseless Elina. She cried out her sister's name, once, twice. Vespa had only just recovered from her landing. The world twirled into slow motion as the death knight's cape and his steed's shadowy raiment became the sole focus of her vision. She kicked against the ground, and she saw that beautiful girl with the silver hair and the pretty red eyes stop running towards the carriages, but turn around instead, with Genoveve still in her arms. Vespa heard nothing as for a split second the two sisters made eye contact. Their shared gaze was broken as Elina abruptly fell, and the most horrible scream in the world pounded against Vespa's ears. Elina and Genoveve fell into a heap. John slowed and turned around, hefting his lance up victoriously. Hanging from its crooked tip was Elina's severed, bleeding leg. Its owner was on the ground, screaming and gasping - from the awkward stump of what remained of her left leg, magic-infused blood poured out by her every heartbeat in sickly arcs, to form an immediate puddle on the soil. Vespa sprang into a furious sprint. John simply let his lance and shield drop without a care and dismounted. His horse fled into the distance. She flashed her thin, dulled rapier while the ever-grinning knight drew a giant blade at least six feet long from his back. Forged from dark steel, its reflection under the rising moon was dim and sinister. Tears ran down the elder sister's cheeks as she, without any thought other than destruction, charged. Lorelai pushed the rage and horror from her mind, for now. The black knight lifted its blade into the air in anticipation of Vespa's charge. Darting forward, Lorelai's blade caught the knight's shoulder during the blade's descent, diverting a mortal blow to the ground in a spray of broken stone. Pressing her momentary advantage Lorelai battered the knight's shoulders with a flurry of strikes in an attempt to remove its chestpate, and expose something vital. The knight however recovered far faster than she'd anticipated. Lorelai felt Lilith scream inside her as the massive blade sliced up, catching her shoulder. Black smoke poured from the ragged wound as the demon accepted the strike on her behalf. Lorelai bought her prize though as the massive front plate clattered to the ground in front of her, revealing the matrix of animating engergies. Yet she would never take advantage of it. Vespa tried to capitalize upon John's momentary stumble and attempted to drive her rapier into the knight's false heart, but the sword was shattered by a quick punch from his mighty, gauntleted fist. Vespa's momentum carried her straight into a vulnerable position and the shock of having her weapon destroyed gave the knight just enough of a moment to grab her by the hair, and throw her upon his ironclad knee. Both were blessed by the boons of blood magic, but the former Crusader's were stronger. Vespa could hardly even gasp as her ribs broke and punctured her lungs from the crushing impact. John threw her away towards some random direction. Stunned and incapable, her body was limp as it tumbled along the grass. When she came to a stop face-down, blood was already oozing from her mouth and nose, and her eyes were half-lidded and unfocused. This happened in an instant, and in the next swift moment, John was running the direction opposite of Lorelai's, having thrown his greatsword away. For something so heavy, whose footsteps were like miniature earthquakes, the death knight was fast. Fast enough to reach Elina, pull her up by the hair, and press a quickly-procured dagger against her throat with Lorelai still having to run some distance. Time slowed down again, this time for Lorelai. Elina was unfocused, succumbing to shock, while the knight, that unholy knight, grinned at the demonbinder and dared her to come. He was crouching now, with a knee on the ground, so that even Elina's diminutive form would shadow his now exposed chest. Lorelai walked forward slowly. [color=00aeef]"What do you want? You know I won't let Elina die, surely you're aware you could trade your continued existence for her life."[/color] Lorelai's arm began to bleed as Lilith returned to her blade. [color=00aeef]"If that's what you want, simply release her and flee. I won't follow."[/color] The knight's voice was like the churning of lava in an active volcano. [color=red][b]"Saracens... pagans... God wills it... you will die."[/b][/color] He leaned in closer, so that his massive, fleshless jaw was brushing against Elina's earlobe, making the girl shudder. [color=red][b]"Do you abandon... your sinful ways... and accept the Son of God... as your eternal savior?"[/b][/color] He continued, [color=red][b]"I... am John. I serve... King Baldwin... and I am a warrior... of Christ. Who is it... that I will slay today?"[/b][/color] [color=00aeef]"Elina...dear, I need you to relax ok?"[/color] Lorelai tightened her grip on her blade, her gambit would require timing and presicion. [color=00aeef]"You're a holy warrior then? Why do you serve Reyna then?"[/color] She addressed the knight again, buying time as she inched closer. The knight cocked his head towards the side, and lifted his chin up an inch as if looking over the horizon. [color=red][b]"Among these sands... only one king... His Majesty the King, Baldwin... of Jerusalem... the city behind me... Christ walked upon its stree-"[/b][/color] Lorelai cut the knight's insane ramble short with a thrust from the spear tip at the bottom of her scythe's haft. It impaled Elina and ran through the knight's false heart. Elina's eyes widened in shock as she looked down at her chest, but rather than the blood she expected to find, black smoke curled from the wound instead. John stopped talking and froze. Lorelai's face paled as Lilith screamed from inside Elina, extracting her price from her own vitality. Her pulse slowed and she became cold, she'd survive this, if only just. Slumping down near a tree Lorelai spoke weakly to the silver-haired girl. [color=00aeef]"Elina, dear. Could you see to your sister please?... I can't lose her."[/color] Elina but looked dumbly at Lorelai with bloodshot eyes and dilated pupils. Barely comprehending her words, the silver-haired girl just shook her head seemingly without energy nor emotion. Behind her, John's entire form glowed purple in one instant, intensifying to be white in the next, before disappearing entirely like the mist of night meeting the coming morn. Suddenly free from his grip, the wounded girl fell back, wailing pathetically like an infant. Reyna's voice suddenly sounded again. [color=purple]"No... [b]No![/b] Impossible! Liars! They promised me- damn you, Von'Strauss!"[/color] Lorelai chuckled weakly, her face bore a small smirk. [color=00aeef]"I'm sure they promised you all manner of things, whoever [i]they[/i] are."[/color] She coughed. Turning to Elina from her perch Lorelai spoke gently. [color=00aeef]"Elina, you faced the Betrayer with me did you not?"[/color] She clung to concousness. [color=00aeef]"You can do this, calm yourself... Your sister's life may depend on it."[/color] Lorelai's eyes fluttered closed as darkness took her. Yet Elina remained there, prone and weeping and unconvinced. She remained motionless there, with her stump of a leg still bleeding heavily.