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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3622355" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks, Vurt!A milestone for the story today... chapter 200. Man, that went fast. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />* * * * * Chapter 200PAINDar blinked.  His body was numb.  Sensation... everything felt distant, as though he was being told about another person’s experiences.  The stench of roasted flesh.  Sounds.  Pain.  Anger.  Violence.  He blinked, and it all came back in a rush.  There was still little pain, but he could see his hand, a blackened claw, bright red where the skin had cracked away, revealing the savaged muscle tissue below.  There was a spot of white, where a piece of bone was visible. He tried to get up.  It felt like there was a dragon sitting on his back.  He saw the hilt of Valor, and reached out ot grab it.  He could not feel the touch of the weapon, but it was reassuring to have it in his hand. Why was he alive. Memory, returning in a rush.  He lifted his head slightly.  The flesh of his cheek stuck to the hot bronze he was lying on, coming away in a swath.  He did not feel it. His gaze traveled over a blackened forms, on the ground beside the bronze tier.  He did not recognize it at first, until it moved... no, there was something under it.  Kalend, his eyes wild and unfocused as he pushed away the dead hunk of material that had been a vibrant young woman a few seconds before.  Serah...Realization hit him like a dagger thrust.  He took a breath, ignoring the burning in his abused lungs.  At least it was... feeling, a physical sensation that told him he was alive.  The pain started to come back, too, as the mass cure that had revived him continued its work, reconnecting the nerves that had been burned away with his flesh.  He stood, Valor’s tip dragging on the bronze.  He looked up, to witness the battle raging on the edge of the dais.  Talen felt metal crunch as he smashed Beatus Incendia across the body of the woman cleric, but she only smiled at him, even as he staggered back.  To his right, Shay had rushed in to face the other cleric, the one that had taken down Herzord with a single blow from his flaming mace.  The hobgoblin had been the first to reach the platform, emerging from the dying flames with blood trailing down his body from the vicious wounds that had been inflicted across his body.  The male cleric had just stood there, waiting for him.  Talen, clambering up the last tier, was too late to do anything except watch as Theron brought up a mace, its head surrounded by an eager nimbus of fire, and smashed it across Herzord’s chest.  The hobgoblin had to have been a good forty or fifty pounds heavier than the priest, but the blow had knocked him on his back, tumbling over the edge of the dais to land limp on the first bronze tier below. Shay had not hesitated, leaping into the gap left by the fallen hobgoblin to engage the cleric.  Talen felt sick knowing what could happen to her, but he was far too experienced to turn his attention from his foe, even for an instant.  When the final exchange came, it came quickly and decisively.  Both clerics lunged, almost as though they were directed by the same mind.  Neither Talen nor Shay were quick enough to avoid being touched, even the briefiest of finger-brushes enough for the priests of Orcus to deliver their deadly spells.  The harm spells undid all of the healing spells that Allera had layered upon them, and both fell to the ground, their bodies convulsing as the evil magic wrought its unholy work upon their bodies. “Fools,” Celleen hissed, “to think that you could stand before the might of the True God.”Licinius Varo stepped up onto the dais.  “Ah, the Creeper’s scion finally dares to come before us,” Celleen said.  “You seek to destroy the world,” Varo said simply.  “I will not be the last to defy you.”“Noble, but ultimately too late,” Theron said.  “Even if we should fall, the power has already been gathered to sunder the barrier between worlds.  Before this day is out, the ritual will be complete, and the way will be opened for our Master.  Your powers are impressive, but they are not enough to defeat us.”“You underestimate me,” Varo said.  He gestured, and a huge fiendish centipede appeared behind the statue of Orcus, coiling around the graven momument as it emerged into the light. Theron raised an eyebrow, and Celleen sneered.  “Is that the best you can manage, shadow priest?” the woman asked.  “You have fought well, but this distraction will not save your friends,” Theron said.  The cleric extended an arm, and unleashed a mass inflict serious wounds spell. The spell should have been instantly lethal for Talen and Shay.  But even as the dark energies of the spell spread out from the cleric, Allera countered it with her last mass cure spell.  Allera’s spell was far weaker than that of the evil cleric, but the power that she commanded was at the same time much stronger.  The negative energy was countered by the positive, and the pair even gained some small measure of strength, though both still lingered close on the edge of unconsciousness.  Theron’s eyes widened slightly at being countered, but his voice remained level.  “Your powers are weakening, old man.”It is not my power that you need to be worried about,” Varo replied calmly. Celleen lifted her hand to fire off her own inflict wounds, but was distracted by the charge of Varo’s monstrous centipede.  The creature struck the cleric hard in the back, driving its mandibles through the links of her magical chainmail into the flesh beneath.  The cleric was far too tough to succumb easily to its venom, but the vermin was too big to ignore.  Celleen looked almost annoyed as she reached around and touched it on the head, unleashing a slay living spell into it.  The centipede spasmed and released her, dissolving almost before its head hit the ground.  Dar slid up onto the top of the dais from the highest bronze tier, lashing out with Valor even as he surged to his feet.  His blow caught Theron in the back of his left leg, and bit hard even through the man’s platemail.  The cleric was clearly limping as he came around to face Dar, but before the fighter could set his feet for a full attack, Theron reached out and placed his palm on Dar’s chest, blasting him with his second harm.  Varo helped Talen to his feet, infusing him with a cure serious wounds as he did so.  “Help Shay,” Talen said, and he started to turn to her before Varo stopped him.  “You must stop her,” Varo said, pointing at the enemy cleric.  Leaning in, the cleric said, “If she gets another mass inflict off, Shay is dead.”  Even as he finished speaking, Celleen took down the centipede, and turned back toward them.Talen roared and charged at the cleric, before she could unleash another one of those destructive inflict wounds spells.  He didn’t even try to cut her down with Beatus Incendia, sliding the sword back into its scabbard, and leaping forward to bear her down in a grapple.  He hit her hard, and clearly outweighed her, but it was like trying to grapple water.  The cleric slid effortlessly from his grasp, and a she twisted out of his way his inertia carried him forward, and he fell hard on his face, his mail clattering around him.  He tried to get up, but only managed to turn onto his back before the priestess shoved her boot down onto his neck. “Pathetic,” she said, before she hit him, hit all of them, with another mass inflict spell.</blockquote>

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