Springtide Rosalia 2021 - Rosalia #9) Old Mother Knows Best
[Toggle Names]Description: "Old Mother, I will be sending two troubled morsels your way. You may elect to take one under your care. Or perhaps there is value in letting them choose for themselves which is to be left in your custody. Either way, in accepting my offer, you must let the other go... and see to it that they to no harm by any force of nature, corrupted or otherwise. If both manage to escape, the protections apply to them both. Do be sure to explain the rules to your potential wards. The game is no fun of they do not know how it works. I will have you greet them in my father's old Greenhouse. I believe you will find the fauna there particularly... salubrious."
[EADNI]
The greenhouse was infested by the witch.
If you pass through the broken, overgrown doorways of the abandoned greenhouse, you could feel the heavy humidity and smell the stench of fertilizer and earth. Sickly streams of moonlight pour pale and cold across the stained and broken glass of the greenhouse. It is too large, practically a crystal palace. Wrought iron and panes of glass are structured in a modular, hierarchical design. THe geometry was like a gallery; the layout was a rectangular shape with grid-like sections for the various sections of planters and plant life. The greenhouse had two floors, and the center pathway across the greenhouse was opened above to the second floor. THe wrought-iron stairways have long been crushed and rusted by the runaway plantlife. There is a sense at one point, the diversity of plant life here would rival the greatest of arboretum on Earth, with the exotic cultivated flowers and herbs being unrivaled. THat is not the case today.
Today there are only pumpkins.
Signs of the previous plant life can be seen everywhere; consumed and bound in the inexplicable vines of the ever-present gourds. Choking the life out of the orchards, bursting like galls within the stems and branches. Pumpkins, only pumpkins. Orange, green, white, black; hundreds of combination of colors, and hundreds of sizes as well. The smallest with the size of small gooseberries, the largest could swell to the size of an elephant.
And many of them bearing the carved visages of skull-like effigies.
Dim soul lights linger in the facades of the Jack O Lanterns, infesting them and casting ethereal radiance around them. If you could force through the old paths between the planets, you could reach the center. In the center of the greenhouse, at the nexus, is a huge pumpkin about 8 feet in diameter. Hanging over it, the shape of a scrawny crone in weathered cloth stirs with a long stick. It's long, craggy nose nearly touching the surface of it, every churn of the stick gives a burst of thin green tendrils at the base of the pumpkin, spreading the growth more and more. Spices, exotic aromas of incense and spices hang heavily around the central pumpkin, along with the obvious smell of stewed pumpkin. She had been here for a while, at the blessing of the hostess.
But how did the two children find their way here?
[EDENLITH]
The greenhouse was about to get crazy in more ways then one. Eden knew she wasn't going to a party. At least not your typical party anyway. This was why she was coming in the first place. What's more, she was bringing her cat as well. Storm had tried to have her leave him behind for this fight, but she was having none of it. If the two wanted different things, Eden would be the winner, at least usually.
Upon arriving to the destination written on the invitation, there was nothing, it was empty. Storm spoke up on the matter. "See there's not even anything, let go home." He was so uneasy about the whole thing. It was true he was scared cat. An animal version of Rafferty, but right now he had a bad feeling, quite a bit one too. "I really don't like this.". Eden made her first sign. "Oh you don't feel it, but it's there." She picked Storm, and ran toward the spot she felt the power from.
And poof, they were both gone, like they were never there. Only to appear right in front of the 8 foot pumpkins. That makes Storm screams like the end of the world was happening right in front of him. Eden idly wondered what Rafferty and Nena would have done. Nena would have had no reaction, and Rafferty would have screamed like Storm. Storm meanwhile looks up from the pumpkin, and seeing the "old?" crone makes him scream even more. Eden just grins, and brings a sign up, that probably would be agreed to anyone hearing Storm screams. "Will you shut up? It's all good. If anything you will wake the dead." It made Storm shut up.
When things quieted down, Eden bows her to the old lady, not looking scare at all. Instead she looked happy to be here, and excited. She looked around to see if there was anyone else there, then her eyes settles back on the woman, waiting to see what this night brings. For now she lets Storm buries his face into her small bosom.
[ROSALIND]
Ancestral recall is a strange phenomenon.
For Rosalind, it manifested as a sense of deja vu as she wandered the halls of Castle Alucard, her weapon low and at the ready, on edge and awaiting an attack by some monstrosity that did not come. The Eisenschloss family had served in the crusades centuries ago - best known for their service with the Teutonic Order - and somehow, this felt familiar, like something from another lifetime. Was it the ingress into a foreign castle, though, or was it the expectation of supernatural horrors? Rosalind didn't contemplate this, as the sensation was, for her, simply an unnatural familiarity - and she had heard no tales of Eisenschloss knights fighting things that lurked in the dark corners of the Earth.
As far as she knew, she was the first. Perhaps that was where the familiar sensation came from.
Banishing the ancestral recall from her mind (it isn't tournament-legal, anyway), she continued to explore the maze of twisty passages, all alike, drawn inexorably onward to the exterior of the greenhouse. Seeing the lights within, she'd silently frowned before approaching, her lightweight, modernized black plate armour clinking quietly.
---
Rosalind's footsteps echo quietly through the greenhouse as she steps inside, an errant boot unintentionally crushing one of the smaller pumpkins underfoot. Her lips purse as she looks down at the sundered gourd, and her blue eyes shift to the soul lights surrounding her. Extra-sensory perception - the ability to reach out and touch with her mind - only serves to amplify the sense of foreboding that hangs in the cursed atmosphere of the greenhouse.
She's never been particularly fond of Hallowe'en, either.
"I am Rosalind von Eisenschloss of the Sacred Order. Show yourself," she demands of the presence that she can sense in the darkness as she rests her segmented sword on her shoulder and steps further along the rusting walkways toward the great pumpkin that lies at the greenhouse's black heart.
[EADNI]
"Eisenschloss is not a name I've heard in a long time, child."
The witch murmurs with a soft, scratchy voice. "And no introductions from the young lady, nor her guests. Karlos, you have been a poor teacher indeed if you can't teach a young lady her manners." The hollow eyes of the ancient witch lift from the steaming pumpkin, casting across from Edenlith, to the cat, to Rosalind. The witch's face looks almost carved, hew crudely from wood in unnatural, bark-like features. She keeps a hood over her head, but there is no sign of hair. Her mouth is shut, twisted in the faintest smile, but as she speaks, the glint of iron flashes deep within the maw. "I am Eadni. The Old Mother." She introduces herself, the soupy stench of pumpkin stuff oozing around with the sharp and intoxicating air of incense and spice.
"You have come on the request of the lady of the castle to provide entertainment."
She continues her stirring, as she explains crisply, clearly and coldly, with her soft, grandmotherly voice. "Your entertainment will be a trial of humanity. You both will be fighting me. When one of you fall, I will claim you as my own sweet precious daughter." The witch explains cooly. "And the other can go free. Whether by my hand or another, if you cannot fight back any more, you will be mine. If you both fall, then I will have you both. This is my prize, and my payment for this trial. You fall. ANd you are mine, children."
"This is your prize and payment."
The witch continues. "If you defeat me, then your houses will be sheltered by my influence. I will not interfere with the House of Eisenschloss. I will not meddle in the affairs of Zaizen, of the cat, and..." The witch pauses, a flicker of frustration glancing across her craggy, bark-like features. "And of what you are hosting, precious child. You will forever by free of my touch, no matter the price of my inaction... and curses thereof. The trial is such, a trial of human spirit. Will you work together to overcome a witch, or betray one another to ensure your own safety? Or will you both fall, and share the same fate? It is a simple trial." She continues her stirring once more. "You do not need to agree or disagree to the terms. Your acceptance has been given by your hostess. You have agreed to this with your arrival. I only need to know this." She leans over the edge of the pumpkin, her empty sockets staring blankly from
"Do you understand the stakes?"
[EDENLITH]
When the other woman speaks, Eden can hear her, and it makes her look in the general direction, trying to see what she looks like. That's until she is referred to by Eadni. She looks back at her then. She seems surprised when the name Karlos comes up. The only thing coming from the cat, is a yelp, as she knew his real name, his human name. After all who would call a human Storm. This was real life, not the x-men.
She pets her Storm, to calm him down, while making another sign for the witch to see. "Do not blame MY cat. I do the blaming here. My name is Eden, which you know already, and when I am done with you. You will never forget. So granted, if i fall I belong to you I understand. I will finally have a mommy! But Storm leaves safely, to be given to a man named Rafferty. The cat does not fight, so he isn't part of the contract. Storm leaves." She looks very firm on this, the demon and the girl, in agreement on that one,so there was no trouble being clear on it."
Storm felt it instinctively or perhaps they had a connection that allowed him to know what she was saying. Either way he lifted his head up, after the message to look at her. "Eden." She simply puts a finger on his little cat mouth and he said nothing else. Instead he jumps down from her arms, so she can fight without his interference when ready. But he wanted nothing more than to stay in them. No matter how crazy or how rough she could get. Eden was his little protégé. If one had never seen a very sad cat before, they could right this moment.
[ROSALIND]
The veins of Rosalind von Eisenschloss flow with ice as Eadni relays the hostess' terms for the guests. While it could be blamed on the lingering effect of a recent incident among the barrow-downs of Illyria, more likely it is the Old Mother's offer that draws the cold from the German knight's blue eyes.
"Perhaps if you did not deign to live so many lifetimes, you could have supplied enough children of your own to satisfy yourself," Rosalind says with a biting tone as she steps forward amongst the pumpkins, her sword low at her side. "I understand your stakes, Pagan Mother. If we vanquish you, you will humbly reserve your further predations for others. A wonderful and equitable bargain."
With a faint 'shkkt,' razor-sharp blades slide out of slits along the sides of her segmented sword, the previously-toothless viper now baring its fangs with implicit intent.
"Personally, I have little intention of allowing you another soul to light your lanterns with. I find it rather unnecessary in this electric age."
Rosalind turns her head slightly to the side to regard Eden sidelong over the top of her gorget.
"And I've no intention of allowing you to hand her over to this false mother, demon. Fight for her sake, or I will seek to deny you both your claim!"
The Knight-Armourer raises her blade, directing it from Eden to Eadni as her expression hardens.
"Now, come, creature! Let's see which of us belongs to the world of tomorrow!"
COMBATSYS: Rosalind has started a fight here on the left meter side.
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Rosalind 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Edenlith has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Edenlith 0/-------/-------|
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Rosalind 0/-------/-======|
[EADNI]
Eadni is pleased.
"Such a pair of strong-spirited young daughters." The witch purrs, nodding. "With such sharp tongues. Yes, I will spare the cat, and ensure he returns to the safe care of this... Rafferty. I will remember this name. Though I am very interested in your personal demons, child, but the so called hero has her own merit. Praise be to the earth, should I claim you both." She clenches her hand towards Rosalind, before shaking the hand dismissively. "Ore must be refined from impurities, to be reforged into worthy metal. And often enough, the impurities of an ore lays in one's mother." The old witch chortles, as she pulls out the stick. Tossing it aside, the pumpkin begins to rattle. Foul energy begins to ebb and flow now, the greenhouse panes beginning to rattle.
Eadni begins to rhyme.
"Peter, peter, pumpkin eater." Climbing up to the edge, she begins to stretch her gnarled legs over the lip of the pumpkin cauldron. She has no toes, her feet nothing more but twisted, gnarled chitin. "Had a wife and could not keep her..." She stares with hollow eyes from Edenlith to Rosalind, clutching the sides of the pumpkin as she eases into it. "Put her in a pumpkin shell." The witch whispers, as she lowers herself into the swirling pumpkin cauldron. The contents within bubbles up in a slurry of orange sludge.
And it seals itself.
The souls blaze with life along the countless vines, the magic energy flooding with impossible power. The jack o lanterns jerk and surge, the vines whipping and flailing. Several of the lanterns rip themselves free of their vines, tearing into the air ablaze in blazing verdant flame. The thick hide of the pumpkin twists and shudders, the visage of the crone spreading across the flesh of the pumpkin. A long, tumorous growth stretches, the nose of the witch. The flesh groans, as the voice responds through thousands of mouths across the greenhouse.
"And there he kept her very well."
The Jack O Lanterns begin to fire off jets of eldritch flames, the green energy consuming the soul stuff within to blast out the fires. Some stray shots strike other pumpkins, exploding them in a blast of pumpkin guts. But as the hollow eyes of the Witch Gourdess Eadni stare at Edenlith over Rosalind, the blasts become directed. Dozens of Jack O Lanterns, all consuming themselves in a fusillade of emerald flames, jets of them flaring straight at the half-demon girl.
All as the shadows begin to dance against the light.
COMBATSYS: Eadni has joined the fight here as a boss!
EADNI
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Edenlith 0/-------/-------|
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Rosalind 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Eadni has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Edenlith 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Eadni
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Rosalind 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Eadni successfully hits Edenlith with Shut Your Eyes.
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Edenlith 1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 Eadni
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Rosalind 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Eadni has joined the fight here as a boss!
EADNI
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Edenlith 1/-------/=======|
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Rosalind 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Rosalind has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
EADNI
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Edenlith 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Rosalind
[EDENLITH]
Eden listens to Rosalind speaking to Eadni. The former doesn't seem to like the latter at all. She takes note of that inside her head. It might be useful information at one point.
When Rosalind addresses Eden personally, the currently stronger part, she looks back at her. She doesn't even bother to answer, but Rosalind might feel something strange, and Eadni too perhaps. The Demon soul, although having no love for the girl's soul, and even being fed up, over the control of the body, was somewhat protective of the girl. There was definitely that feeling. How strong it was, it was hard to say, and the why, would be a mystery. Or perhaps it was just a trick who knows.
As to answer Rosalind's accusation, or worries, she simply looks at her with disgusts, except for a llittle smirk at her mouth.
After that, her attention goes back to Eadni. She agrees to the terms for Storm, and that gets a nod from the possessed girl. With that out of the way, Eden could finally enjoy herself in a strong fight.
She keeps her eyes on the witch, the energy was building up, and she didn't think that was going to be anything good. But who would get the witch first favor. Rosalind or her... She was curious. She keeps her senses on the witch, even though she could hear voices coming from everywhere from the green house. It was awesome, disorienting a little, but awesome all the same.
Storm, waching this happening, has to speak up. "Eden, you can do this, but be careful. You can't stay here forever." He wouldn't mind being with Rafferty, but he would miss her too much.
Eden pays no attention to her speaking cat right now. She keeps her eyes on the old woman, and on the energy now. Pumpkins explodes, and it looked like it was messy. It was ok though. Just messy.
It's when she the energy coming toward her, she tries to form a shield, she really does, but she didn't have control of the body and the mind enough, to form one that could absorb it. So it breaks through and hits Eden hard. She makes a face, the pain could be felt, the clothes getting beat up as well as the girl falls to the floor. But she gets back up, and already, part of the damage heals up. Not a lot, but it might be felt from both ladies.
Storm winces. "Oh no, Eden, don't let her do that to you!" he didn't like this at all. He's a stressed cat right now.
A sign appears for the witch. "Ok, that's how we play it. Fine, thank you." She grabs a pumpkin from her surrounding area, and she's not gentle about it. And she does not simply throws it at the witch, but actually punts it toward her head, the text changing on the sign already there. "Dinner is served."
[ROSALIND]
Rosalind's expression remains cool as Eadni lowers herself into the pumpkin, subsuming the great plant; even as the voices speak all around and the Jack-O-Lanterns begin to burst with unnatural flame. The green blazes cast Rosalind's pale skin in a sickly hue, evoking the knight's internal sensation more emotively than Rosalind herself.
She keeps the same look as Eden - or the thing possessing Eden; she couldn't truly differentiate - shows disdain for her words. Even then, she can feel the protective urge.
To Rosalind, though, it's like so many emotions: difficult to distinguish between where her own feelings end and others' begin.
As the flames burn toward Eden, Rosalind sets her jaw and gives a flick of her wrist. Schlangenschwert, her segmented sword, falls to pieces on the ground - or rather, becomes a writhing, serpentine thing, a central cable running through each separated segment to turn the blade into a lengthy scourge of inconsistent dimensions. Another flick of the wrist sends the viper-like weapon leaping through the air, skewering a pumpkin and darting between the bars of the walkway on the other side of the gargantuan pumpkin-witch, looping around to lunge horizontally around another bar, then darting back down. It's a deceptively long weapon - long enough to make its tour of the upper levels before shooting back down to target the Jack-O'-Witch's eye, guided not only by mechanical prowess, but an unseen hand...
COMBATSYS: Eadni blocks Edenlith's If It's Not Nailed Down, It's a Weapon.
EADNI
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Edenlith 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Rosalind
COMBATSYS: Rosalind successfully hits Eadni with Slithering Steel.
- Power hit! -
EADNI
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Edenlith 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
[EADNI]
Eadni was well aware of the spirit within.
While not attuned to the psychic energy, she realied on more mundane senses. Watching. Tendrils writhe up as Edenlith gathers up her composure in the face of the eldritch fire. Piercing the girl's defenses, the counter attack was coming. As she rips a pumpkin form the fine, Edenlith would -feel- the jolt of pain. Not of her own, but from the pumpkin itself. And if its pain was not clear when plucking, it certainly was as it was hurled at the face of the pumpkin witch. A tendril lashes up, the vine smashed into the pumpkin as it explodes.
Something falls out of it, as if it was an egg.
A shadow -something- plops out, half-real and curled up in a fetal position. Slowly, the creature curled up within the pumpkin uncurls, raising up into a stand with a small body, and a head that was far too large for its body, and it's neck far too weak to support it. While smashing pumpkins was not the wrong way to go, it seemed that in spite all her rage, Edenlith was still a rat in a cage. And someone may say what is lost can never be saved. But in spite- oh no Rosalind was attacking. The face fades into the pumpkin, attempting to escape the thrusting blade. But the witch is not fast enough. It drives straight into the eye of the witch, whose face contorts into agony for a moment.
And the pumpkin implodes.
The organs and juice slurry gush out from the remains of the pumpkin. The flesh of the gourd spread out, carried by the stew pumpkin guts. There is no witchy body washing out; no Eadni there. The Jack O Lanterns, once their barrage completes, fall to pieces, smoldering pumpkin ash. There is the sound of stretching and metal groaning. Was she gone? Was that the end of the challenge? There is still the dark presence in there, still the feeling of movement. The shadow child, the creature was hobbling over to other pumpkins now near the cat.
Rosalind might notice the vines still moving out of the corner of her eye.
The countless vines that had connected to the base pumpkin were whipping along, shifting and shaping as they move and knot together. "Child, my magic was being work long before your arrival" The voices rattle across the pumpkins. Vines lash up at Rosalind's legs and neck, attempting to seize her. Should they catch a grip? They would artlessly fling her straight up to the upper floors of the greenhouse; attempting to seperate the two fighters to deal with them each apart. The shape of the witch remains in the vines, still rolling along, still moving. And its right eye was broken, unable to properly form even in the vine-effigy.
"You are all in a witch's domain!"
[EDENLITH]
Eden looks happy, but inside things are warring. Are they always, or is what's happening today, special. A part of her wants to go, though, it doesn't seem to be from this place per say, but just go, disappear, like one who wouldn't want to exist any longer. Then another part that was stopping the first part to a point. Meanwhile there was also the excitement of the fight, and something else as well, like a child on the borders of puberty, though Eden should already be well in that stage. It was just a mess there.
She did feel the jolt of pain from the pumpkin, but she didn't care one bit about the pumpkin itself. She has been known to punt her own cat she "loves", so the pumpkin could hurt, the whole place could hurt, but she did wonder if the pumpkin, the little creature inside, if their pain were connected to the witch.
Eden also kept note of Rosalind. She has hurt the witch with that weird weapon. She brings up a sign. "Well done, but this seems complicated. Two curvy knives would be much better." She gives a nod and even a little smile.
Then as she looks around, she realizes, for a moment the witch seems... gone. Ah if things were so easy, and if Eden could believe so, it would be... pretty boring actually. She doesn't believe it one bit, and soon enough she is proven right.
She sees the vines trying to grab Rosalind, and something is going to Storm. She has to decide what she's going to do_ So her train of thoughts shifts around. Yes she can still think, even if some people would wonder if she truly does. The witch had promised the cat could leave and he would be taken to Rafferty if Eden herself couldn't leave. She won't dare attack him, will she... She has to win. So she makes a decision. Since the witch could be seen inside the vines, sorta, she decided to run toward them and jump at them. At last she doesn't really have to dodge them, as they aren't going for her. If she succeeds in doing so she grabs into one/some of them, even impales nails if she could, and then she bites in, hard. Upon biting, a sign appears yet again, the other disappearing. "I said dinner was served, so I am eating." Maybe she didn't think too much after all.
COMBATSYS: Rosalind blocks Eadni's Medium Throw.
EADNI
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Edenlith 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
[ROSALIND]
Even with the success of her strike against the witch, even as the demonic pumpkin caves in on itself, Rosalind remains pragmatic, remaining on guard as her weapon winds its way back through the bars and foliage. She remains acutely aware as the vines shuffle on the periphery of her senses, detects the vines lashing at her legs and neck. Schlangenschwert slithers all the faster as her focus sharpens. She twists as the first tendril latches around her left leg, both hands grasping the hilt of her sword.
*KLIKLIKLIKLIKLIKLICK*
The many segments of Schlangenschwert slide back into rigid configuration as Rosalind spins, the erect steel flashing in the darkness and cutting low as she turns away.
*SCHWKKT*
The second tendril loops around her neck as the knight turns, growing tauter as she pulls with the motion. Even as it starts to dig into her throat and cut off her air, though, the vine becomes stretched and exposed - and vulnerable.
*SCHWKKT*
Both severed tendrils fall away from the swordswoman as she stands her ground, breathing in deeply as she brandishes her blade.
"I believe in a greater dominion, witch," the Knight-Armourer declares as she centers herself, her gaze sharp. "One under which we all shall ever reside!"
COMBATSYS: Rosalind calculates her next move.
EADNI
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Edenlith 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
COMBATSYS: Edenlith successfully hits Eadni with I Am Hungry.
EADNI
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Edenlith 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
[EADNI]
The chopping of the vines at least stop them dead.
The plants and the witch were connected; as much as there was in the greenhouse, there was progress in hacking at them. The witch was sending more and more vines, her attention directed in trying to overwhelm the defenses of the Sacred Order soldier. Eadni was in no pain as Rosalind struggles, the deft whip-sword work matching her own assault. As she rebutts her statement, the witch hisses back as she prepares another surge of vines at Rosalind. "I am well aware of that dominion, sweet child-"
And Edenlith has thrown herself at her.
There is an incomprehensible shrieking as the vines scramble. The assault on Rosalind was ended. The witch seizes up as Edenlith takes her bite. Foul liquids mingle with blood, as the bite tears into the witches shape. That seemed to have a much more direct effect than merely attacking the vines she could control. She falls away into the vines, the shape collapsing as her words echo around. "An eldritch god dreams have ended, its stirrings writhing as it dares to awaken. Oblivion and animalistic madness are its only offerings, to allow us to return to earth. Consider the serpents, and how vital those secrets will be to save humanity." Riddles? Cryptic passages? The vines were slapping against the glass panes within, as the jack o lanterns in the air begin to circle.
The shadows were approaching Edenlith now too.
Stroping around blindly, cornering at her. They would only go up to her knee. "You are more demon than child!" The witch purrs, as one of the larger pumpkins fly into the air, as big as a man. The visage of the witch flashes across it, glaring down at her. The vines writhe and curl, as the other jack o lanterns fly around it, orbiting it as if they were small satellites. Verdant flames boil around the large pumpkin, as the face begins to speak "And you are; only the innocence of a child staves away the appetites of incomprehensible creature that you host within! What little will it take to snuff out that spark of humanity, to unleash your true strength in the face of the coming absolution?" The shadow children begin to try and encircle around Edenlith, emerald fires blazing around them as they ignite into shrieks. Their bodies collapse into arcane shapes and symbols; a seal? A target. "I could make you a most incredible daughter..." The pumpkin suddenly rockets down at Edenlith, threatening to crush her into the vines and shadow fetuses. An explosion of green flames would erupt out, contained by the circle of shadows.
And keeping the force of the pumpkin intact with the witch's visage on it.
COMBATSYS: Eadni successfully hits Edenlith with All The Way Home.
EADNI
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Edenlith 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
[EDENLITH]
foul liquids, blood, bits of vine, it all goes inside Eden
Foul liquid, blood, bits of vine, it all goes inside Eden's belly in the end, though she tries to spit some out, because the body wasn't very happy with the taste, but there was no puking, for better or worse.
She let go of what she was holding, jumping back a little, as the words starting echoing around. She expected pay back for it, and she tried to be more aware of that than the words. Words were cheap, the only reason a pen was stronger than as you could use one to stab through an eye, all the way to the brain, with one.
She noticed the shadow were coming closer, to be honest at the moment, she didn't know what form the attack would take, would the shadow do something. She hits at them, like one trying to swap a fly away, hands going through. That either wasn't the attack, or she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Then she speaks directly to her, she nods at that. It was complicated, but right now she was more demon, she was the stronger soul at the moment, and it was probably easy to feel for them. She didn't have much time to ponder. She wanted to girl's soul to die. There was something inside the girl, who wanted that too, but perhaps not the one everyone would expect.
Eden never answers. She seems to be stuck in the seal, the target, between all those little shadows that are no longer such. She sees the pumpkin rocketing down toward her. She tries to move out of the way, it should be easy after all. Well whether because the seal kept her in or because the body didn't want to move out of the way, the result is the same, Eden gets hit, and she gets hit hard. Her body is a mess blood, burnt bathered, and she seems out for the count, or perhaps even dead?
It takes a moment, but suddenly, there is a Guttural shriek. It's loud, it's ear piercing, and it's coming from Eden. She forces herself up, pushing herself from the ground, her eyes redder than they ever was, her hair although damaged by the fire, are actually getting a little longer. The girl's soul is hanging by a tread to the body. Now it can clearly be felt, the girl's soul is trying to leave, and for one reason or another, the demon is holding to it, but it seems Eden demon, was about to fail.
Finally it all goes silent again. Like Eden never actually screamed, almost an unholy silence. She gets out of the seal, like it was never able to hold her before, and then she proceeds to do a carnage... She shrieks again, and grabs anything she can pick up in that room and starts throwing it all around. She is frustrated, she is hurt, she's a bitch, and something is wrong. Every movements at the moment was pure pain, but frankly the demon didn't care about that. That body would obey the owner, not the other way around. After a (long?) moment of throwing things, trying her best to hit the damn crone. The shrieks stops, and Eden falls on her ass... is she sobbing... it looks like she does.
[ROSALIND]
Rosalind awaits a renewed assault, weapon at the ready, as she holds her ground. As she does, though, the abomination's attentions shift - back to the girl. Even though she can sense the demonic presence to which the youth plays host, even though that's what she addressed, it is the girl that Rosalind sees, oppressed and threatened, a hope for redemption about to be quashed by something she saw as beyond salvation, an enemy of righteousness.
"Save your riddles and deception, witch!" she demands, lowering her sword to her side and advancing forward into the opening created by the diverted aggression.
Her blue eyes widen as she witnesses the symbols born of the shadow children and the pumpkin preparing to crush the girl beneath. She moves to act, empty hand outstretched - "Nein!" - but too late, as the pumpkin crashes down on her and explodes.
Then, the shriek cries out.
Rosalind shudders, her blood running a different kind of cold, and then burning - it's a chaotic shot of sensory overload for the empath. The instinct is to step in, for consciousness to cease, to abandon all else and offer succor to the girl, alleviate the pain that was overflowing into Rosalind.
The demon starts to fight back.
For a moment, there is indecision.
Then, silently, Rosalind allows a portcullis in her mind to fall heavily shut.
The coldness in Rosalind's eyes return as she suddenly whips around, focusing back on the Mother as her weapon lashes out like a lightning bolt toward the only thing that she allows her tactile mind to reach for in the moment - the witch. Schlangenschwert seeks to wrap around the creature where it hides, before the scion of von Eisenschloss would attempt to wrest it toward her with all of her might.
There is no love in Rosalind's voice as she shouts:
"Come, blasphemer! Your reckoning beckons!"
COMBATSYS: Eadni blocks Edenlith's You Can Be My Trash Can.
EADNI
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|===============|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Edenlith 0/-------/---<<<<|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
COMBATSYS: Rosalind successfully hits Eadni with Lamia Coil.
- Power hit! -
EADNI
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|===============|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Edenlith 0/-------/---<<<<|=======\=------\1 Rosalind
[EADNI]
"Temper, temper."
The witch purrs from the pumpkin, as the seal burst apart. The wrath of the demon child boils out, the witch almost scolding the child as she crushes her with the pumpkin. Rolling off, the barrage comes, and the vines lash around. Everything the girl seizes, the witch seizes in tandem. Pumpkins are snatched and crushed. Vines torn away. Jack o Lanterns burnt out. Some slip by to smash against the pumpkin, but when a stake of wrought iron is pulled out, the control of the witch is not enough. It drives into her thick hide hard, a glancing blow into the side. As the final shriek exhausts, the attention rolls aside, turning towards Rosalind.
Face contorted in pain.
"Reckoning?" Shrieks the witch as the pumpkin rolls. "Child, your hope blinds you to your selfishness, both of you. If you only sacrifice yourself, you could save the other from their fate. Will it be the demon-possessed child willing to spare the innocent knight, by offering herself? Or will the noble paragon of justice- Nrgh!" The sword whips around the pumpkin, jerking the visage towards her, cutting the flesh of the pumpkin deeper and deeper. "Or will the noble paragon offer herself in the stead of the demon child, in the hopes that as long as the light of her soul endures, she will escape her inevitable fate? She is so much weaker than you now, sweet child. Only a morsel on the edge of her eternity..." The pumpkin is nearly at Rosalind, as the purr comes.
"We'll soon see how strong your hope endures."
The witch states, the jaw of the pumpkin distending. It opens far too wide as it keeps coming to Rosalind, the mass of pumpkin wreathed in the flames. There are rows and rows of jagged gourd teeth, some studded with teeth of iron like the mouth of a shark. And in turn, vines lash out, attempting to ensnare the noble knight in a tangle of vines. Should it catch her? Immediately, it would draw her into the maw of the witch. To devour Rosalind inside, for several hideous chomps, to draw away her blood, her life, her -flesh- with raking tears.
Before spitting her away into the pumpkin patch.
[EDENLITH]
Eden Demon was so close, all she had to do was let go the girl's soul, but she didn't. Whatever her reason was she didn't, but another hard hit like she received, and who knows if the Demon would be able to hold on to it, or if the girl soul would be free... Free here, fat chance, but free of Eden's body.
She makes a sign she wants to answer Eadni apparently, she tries with her mouth, but even though she made sounds to shriek, she couldn't talk, at least not at the moment, so a sign it is. It says. "There are a few people I manage to care for, and you are not one of them.
She stays on her ass, letting her body heal a little more before she gets back into the fray. However she focuses on the witch, even observing her. Truth be told, she was looking for a better way to strike her. Eden doing that? Things were starting to be different for sure...
Meanwhile, Storm... We didn't hear about him for quite a while. He was hiding where he could. First of all, he never saw Eden get so beat up, he was scared for her and didn't want to really see this. What else? Her shrieks. It scared the shit out of him, he never heard her do that. he also had his left ear bleeding a little, but even he didn't notice, he was so stressed out right now... Part of him wished he had a cellphone, but he wouldn't be able to use it anyway. He wanted to say something from his hiding spot, but only a tiny meowl came out. If someone would be able to see him, they would see him shaking like a leaf at the moment.
COMBATSYS: Edenlith focuses on Edenlith's next action.
EADNI
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|---============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Edenlith 0/-------/---====|=======\=------\1 Rosalind
COMBATSYS: Rosalind fails to counter Don't Say A Word from Eadni with Steel Constrictor EX.
EADNI
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|---============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Edenlith 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
[ROSALIND]
The whip-sword tightens as Rosalind draws the witch recklessly closer, inviting the horror to come. It's a gambit - not something that the sensitive part of Rosalind would desire - but that part of her is sealed away.
At the least, the girl would be spared the fate - if only for a little while.
"This is not hope," Rosalind retorts as the vines lash out, and her own weapon flies free of the witch, attempting to fend against the vicious vegetation once more. Faith, hope, love - these are things of the soul, and Rosalind has drawn the gates to her soul, lest it be assailed.
It is the mind that is in command, as it is the mind that allows terrible acts to be willfully committed.
"This is duty!"
The razor shards of steel flutter through the air as she aims to bind the pumpkin around its terrible distended mouth - but not swiftly enough. Rosalind's expression doesn't change as she's pulled into the witch's waiting jaws.
There is only so much that even modern steel can do to resist Eadni's macerating maw, the terrible teeth finding their way into the flexible joints and penetrating the mesh that protects Rosalind. It's nearly enough to break down the barricades within, to draw out the primitive urge to scream. Rosalind remains silent, though - even as the blood begins to flow, feeding the beast.
And then, it's over - Rosalind is expectorated from the gorging gourd, left soaked and shuddering, prone and bleeding on the ground.
She gasps and sputters as she finally opens her eyes.
[EADNI]
Where did the witch begin, and where did she end?
"Sugar and spice, and everything nice." Purrs Eadni, and soon after comes the hideous sucking sound as the visage of a pumpkin slurps up the flesh. "For children to care so little for a precious and kind mother. Well. Spare the rod. Spoil the child. You both will learn a lesson today. And it will be taught. You both will be shaped into proper young ladies. By hook. And by crook." The pumpkin rises up, and then, smashes into the ground. Chunks of gourd scatter around, as a slurry of pumpkin guts and Rosalind meat spread out, thick with blood and slime.
Eadni was gone.
There is the sound of bending iron, cracking wood, snapping and shattering glass. But above all now, the sound of vines rubbing against vines behind Edenlith as the voice continues. "Choose your failure then, sweet child. A failure of duty, or a failure of hope. If you cannot choose your own fate, your own sacrifice, then I will take it from you. But know this. There is no dreams of a noble afterlife, no paradise of warriors, of mead and fortune. Only the transitions of life and death." The shape of Eadni was now forming amongst the fines. And the cold words come as dozens of pumpkin vines surge from the planter pits.
"Allow me to show you."
The vines would be like a tsunami, rushing towards Edenlith as the knotty form of the witch herself is carried with it. "The breath ceases. The blood stops. The body starves and smothers. But peel away the layers of skin and sweet flesh, and truly see the strength of the living." The witch hisses as the vines would surge around Edenlith... harmlessly. "The spirit is willing, and yet... the flesh is so weak." The vines weren't the attack. They were there to simply obstruct her, to entangle and hold her in place as the ground of the greenhouse begins to tremble. The form of the witch would sink below the vines a moment, sink out of sight before....
She would rise underneath Edenlith.
Like a scarecrow of vines, eldritch flames swirl around her as the shape of Eadni explodes upwards at Edenlith. On top of her head would be a great jack o lantern head, carved into the effigy of the witch. Tendril arms over her head, she would tear into the poor girl's body with the drilling strength, driving up to the full height of over nine feet tall, before allowing her to fall. The vines were absorbed in her now, a towering giant of vines and a pumpkin skull. It turns at Rosalind, eyes blazing with emerald flames. "Answer me this child. Is this the end?"
"Or merely a new beginning?"
COMBATSYS: Edenlith endures Eadni's Grows All Around!
EADNI
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-----<<<<<<<<<<
[ \\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Edenlith 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
[EDENLITH]
Edenlith tries to keep up, as she finally gets back up on her feet, but Eadni disappears yet again. She was hard to keep track of, especially while holding someone else's soul, who didn't want to stay in. Her focus was a bit divided
Then everything goes wrong. She is captured by vines, held wide open for whatever dark plans Eadni has in mind. She did not try to get away for long however. Instead putting her mind to hold the girl's soul with her, close. Although her motives weren't known, the demon was definitely the one stopping the girl at the moment.
She was determined to endure the attack, as she wouldn't give up. Eden did not know the meaning of that world. Everything seems to go in slow motion. She saw the flames, and then she fells the pain as he body seems to be destroyed. There has been people that have been killed with less. Was this the end of the crazy Edenlith?
HEr body hits the ground hard, and it looks nasty once she is seen, laying on the floor there, but she was still breathing, even if bleeding heavily, but her healing factors was already working to heal her... But she must be out however... It did look like it
COMBATSYS: Edenlith takes no action.
EADNI
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-----<<<<<<<<<<
> /////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
COMBATSYS: Edenlith can no longer fight.
EADNI
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-----<<<<<<<<<<
> /////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
Edenlith did not get up, the body needed to recover. There is no one to hold the girl's soul. It comes out of the inanimate body, going toward Eadni. It finds a way to communicate with her, perhaps Rosalind her's too, or perhaps she simply feels the intend. "Mother Eadni, I give myself to you, but I demand you let them be in exchange. I will be a good daughter to you. Will you be a good mommy to me? Will you take care of me?"
Eden's body is still unmoving at the moment, and cannot oppose or try to speak to the girl.
Eadni would feel the darkness in the girl's soul, and the pain that she endured. A pain prior to the demon. A pain, that includes betrayal, deep betrayal. She would also feel the truth her words. She would give hersel fully, not holding back. She was looking for something and was hoping to find it with Eadni. Whether it was a good choice or not, only the two concerned would figure it out.
To put actions, behind her words, the soul gives the feeling of a hug to the old witch, and then stays in front of her, awaiting to see if her requests, her demands are accepted. Would she be enough. Would she finally be enough to someone...
[ROSALIND]
Rosalind still lies sputtering on the greenhouse floor as Eadni's attention is swayed back toward the girl. She hears the words, but they are is if through water; ripples through a mind swirling like a vortex as she attempts to steady it. She raises her head slowly, blood trickling down her temple past her blue eyes as they fall on Eden - just as the vines start to entangle the girl.
"N-nein..."
She raises her gauntlet in a desperate attempt to intervene with her weapon - only to realize that Schlangenschwert is not in her hand. Her eyes shift to where the weapon lies dissembled several meters away. She reaches out, and the hilt of the weapon starts to shudder - but it doesn't move; the telekine's mind too unfocused to exert the force necessary to call the sword to heel.
"Verdammte Hexe!"
The emotional exposure she'd attempted to forbid herself had asserted itself as she'd regained her air, the shock of breath that had been denied recalling the near-death experience she'd undergone only days previous - an experience which, at the time, she'd endured with an encouraging smile and raised thumb to spare a young mind her own horror.
Post-traumatic stress.
She breathes in, labels and documents the fault, files it away in her mind for examination at a later date.
She breathes out.
Schlangenschwert flies to her hand, and as she catches it, she rises up and brandishes the weapon as it clicks into sword form.
*KLIKLIKLIKLIKLI-
It's too late.
-KLICK*
She breathes in.
Her gaze remains cool and steady as she regards the broken body. She can sense the soul reaching out, as if watching a silent movie, or more precisely, with the volume muted, witnessing the act without the intent. The mind comes to its own conclusions.
She breathes out, and inverts the blade to point toward the floor as she grips its hilt with both hands. Schlangenschwert glows with a dim, purple light as she raises it aloft - then stabs it downward, kneeling into the blow, as if to make the very Earth to suffer.
The greenhouse shudders as the floor rumbles -
COMBATSYS: Eadni catches Huge Thrown Object from Rosalind with Gave My Love.
EADNI
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------<<<<<<<<<
> /////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
- and then part of the upper floor comes crashing down from above toward Eadni, suddenly collapsing as the metal and vegetation holding it in place is sheared away by precision cuts from the glowing razor-sharp blade as it bursts back up from the floor.
[EADNI]
The body was broken.
As the witch tears through Edenlith, she was ready to begin to break her further. But it seemed that with the body broken, the spirit soon followed. As Edenlith's soul pours out, the hideous tower of vine and pumpkin actually seems to soften. The hostility recoils as the spirit comes to her so willingly. So peacefully. A single viney limb comes up, the tendrils of the vines interwoven. It is delicate touching it. The old witch's heart had long become nothing more than petrified wood, lumber and stone deep within. And yet, at the moment, she knew that she would carry out every promise. She accepts, reaching out to the soul. "Sleep sweet child." The witch purrs as she wraps a tendril around the soul, an emerald seal burning as it is encased in the witch's magic. "And fall into your deepest slumber-"
And she strikes.
The other arm whips around, the tendril instinctively lashing out. Limb blazing with emerald energy, it strikes away the falling debris. Knocking them aside, the assault keeps the center of the witch safe, though the pumpkins across the greenhouse begin to wither and rot, the decay spreading rapidly across the grounds as the magic is consumed. "Look what you made me do..." She whispers softly, as she pulls back the vine. It was already beginning to wither too. And yet, there is a change in the air. The pressure lifts off slightly, as she embraces the tendril around the soul. "But I will forgive you, sweet child."
"You have won, Rosalind von Eisenschloss."
The witch gestures at the broken body of Edenlith. "She has offered her soul to me, sweet child. This trial can be over. I will take my prize, and you can too, if you choose. Forever, the von Eisenschloss will be protected against my corruption, and my attention. Generations will forever be in your debt, sweet child. You are free to go..." And cold cruelty fills the air, as her head twists upsidedown, burning eyes staring into the knight.
"If your conscience allows it."
The witch purrs delicately, holding out her other tendril around the spirit light, revealing it. "Its as you said. It is not hope, its duty. Will you choose to walk away, and forever protect the von Eisenschloss from myself? Or will you remain, sweet child, to nobly save the soul of the child, at the risk of both your souls. Remember." The head straightens out, as a tendril taps the gourd thoughtfully. "It now ends the moment you choose it, precious child. Do you end this drama? Or do you think you can defeat me... I will make this simple. Your final trial. Do you have hope that can save the demon child's soul, and stop -me-? Step forward, and we will continue our duel. But if you accept the outcome of this trial as it is, and follow your duty to your blood and family?" And the neck of the witch stretches, the pumpkin façade looming over menacingly.
"Then -Kneel-"
[EDENLITH]
The soul, The child's soul, surrenders completely. If she disappears, she disappears, it's better than the pain she had never been able to shake away. Because in life, real monsters never hide under the bed, real monsters are not deformed, ugly, and scary by their look. Real monsters are human, looking like any normal human being, but doing such horrible things, it could make what one calls monster cry at night.
If on the other hand, if the witch actually wants her, maybe she will be able to be something, and have a mommy. It's a win win situation. So she thinks as she goes into a deep deep slumber.
With that said, Edenlith, the demon, starts moving and she forces her way up, her hair grows again, gone are the shoulders length hair. At the moment, Edenlith doesn't quite speak, but her voice would Echo a short moment inside the place. "It is all your fault. ALL YOUR FAULT." It was unclear who it was directed to.
Once she is standing up, she tries to get her bearing. She's not stable on her feet yet, but she finds what she is looking for, Storm. She takes a few steps toward him, before, she stumbles and falls to her side, slamming onto the ground. But unless stopped, she crawls toward him, and puts an arm around him, protectively, while she brings forth her other hand in front of her, as if a fireball or something was coming to come out of it. But nothing did... She just held a scared, heavily emotionally damaged right now, against her bossom, to try to salvage him.
[ROSALIND]
To Rosalind, the witch is practically gloating.
The sword slithers back to her feet, sweeping against the ground as Rosalind regards the ancient monster with frosty vehemence as the offer is made.
The gates have closed once more, separating logos and pathos. To surrender into victory; would it be pragmatic? Pragmatic to allow her own line to remain untouched and guarantee herself to be spared, but to let the monster live? Logos wages a war against Ethos within the stronghold while Pathos is left out to the cold -
'It's all your fault. ALL YOUR FAULT.'
- where the child's voice finds it and quietly flays it alive.
It isn't the child. Rosalind can sense as much. Eden had been broken when she found her, she was sure - a thing to be fixed, a puzzle that she would have hoped to put back together. Now, though, the pieces were gone.
She had chosen not to hold out that healing hand that might have saved the child, or at least shown a kindness that might have kept her from surrendering to something so cruel instead.
It matters little whether the demon was accusing her.
"Forgive me."
Rosalind's eyes close as she drops to one knee, Schlangenschwert clicking into sword configuration as she rests its tip against the flooring. Her other hand presses against her heart as her head bows.
Then, after a matter of some interminable seconds, she raises her face up to the glass ceiling and the murky darkness above. As she does, a glow begins to shine from the hand over her heart. Her neck rolls as her skin starts to knit back together and the damaged plates of her armor begin to mend.
Then, slowly, she rises to her feet and points Schlangenschwert toward Eadni with one hand as she angles her body back into a fighting stance.
"You have your prize, witch, but I do not intend that you should enjoy it for long."
[EADNI]
It is impossible to describe the horrible smugness radiating from the witch, the moment Rosalind takes that knee.
As the howling of the demoness erupts, Eadni twists her head to the side, looking as the true price of Rosalind's choice reveals itself. Not only did the witch have a soul to reshape into a perfect child that mother will be proud of, but a demon to turn upon the world. She will let it deal with that cat. As Rosalind submits to the old mother, she responds with a gentle, grandmotherly purr. "What a good girl... to listen to your mother. What a practical, sensible thing to do." The witch hovers a tendril over her, almost as if to pat her sweetly on the head. But she recoils the limb. "But you have your prize as well. And well be it." The witch chortles, taking in the warm pleasures of a child's soul within her. "I was afraid my magic was going to run out before I could stop you. But now, that's neither here nor there. As for myself and enjoying my prize, well." Eadni strokes a tendril where her heart would be, if she wasn't a towering abomination of vegetation.
"I do not expect to enjoy it for long, either." She purrs, as the limbs wither.
The heap of witch was collapsing now, drawing back into the earth. The pumpkins were rotting, the magic yielding. The towering abomination was decaying, falling away. "Thank you, sweet child, for proving what I've always felt on humanity... and on the sacrifices its willing to make for the greater good." And with that, the abomination collapses into a slurry of decayed vegetation. The essence of the witch and the child sinking into the earth, sinking away beneath the greenhouse. Leaving Rosalind alone with the cat, and whatever was now in the shell of the girl once called Edenlith.
And the full understanding of the consequences of her choices.
COMBATSYS: Eadni has left the fight here.
> /////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
[EDENLITH]
Edenlith is still holding Storm into her arm. She mouths something. She can't quite talk from her mouth yet... will she ever. That's a question for another time. Depending how one thinks about it, there is no fanfare about Edenlith leaving. One minute she is there, the next she is not. However, she did not teleport. She just got out of there, faster than the eyes could see. Things were going to change. There were a couple of people that had to die already. That was the feeling Edenlith had left behind... But whom? That would anybody's guess...
COMBATSYS: Rosalind successfully aids herself with Mending Touch.
> //////////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Rosalind
[ROSALIND]
It was not the witch that Rosalind had intended to kneel to.
As the surrender that the knight hadn't meant to offer is accepted, the knight opens her mouth to protest. Once again, though, it's too late. As the witch starts to collapse, Schlangenschwert leaps forward, its fangs searching for blood -
Only to bite into a structural pillar behind where Eadni had previously stood.
Rosalind grunts as she pulls the weapon free with an exertion of effort. The blade clicks slowly back into place as she stows it at her side via a magnetic 'sheath.' She knows that the other demon is already gone.
With a cold, rattling breath, she sets her gaze, before turning to leave the cursed greenhouse and return to wandering the wretched halls of Castle Alucard until she finds her way home.
Log created on 22:18:31 06/06/2021 by Eadni, and last modified on 19:05:52 06/09/2021.