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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3993442" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 335THE POWER OF LIFE AND DEATHAllera lost all sense of sight and surroundings as she pushed deeper into the ring of fire.  Blue flickers danced along her arms and legs, burning her flesh.  They stabbed into her cheeks, and tortured the skin around her eyes.  She could not see; for all she knew, she had been blinded. Power smashed into her like a battering ram, missiles hurled from siege engines crafted of mental potency and dark evil.  The Overmind was... awesome, the strength of its will greater than that of the demons she’d battled, stronger than the clerics of Orcus, stronger even than Maphistal.  She knew that if she faltered, even for an instant, that power would sweep away everything that she was. But she had power of her own, and the healing flowed through her body at her command, easing the pain of her wounds even as the blue crackles burned new ones into her flesh.  Her holy aura had faded, the protective ward expired, leaving her only with her own inner strength.  But that strength had carried her through terrors darker than any nightmare, and had forged her own will into a suit of armor that withstood the Overmind’s assault. It could not hold forever, she knew. Awareness other than sight made her know when she was there.  It was the thing before her, floating in a black brine of concentrated corruption.  It was dead and not dead, but wholly throughout, she could feel the negative energy coursing through its substance. Well.  That, she could fight. The first flickers of power faded as they reached tenuously from her into the blue fire.  The Overmind was strong, and she was just a mortal woman, for all her magic. No.  That was not the way, a whisper from it to undermine her, to bring her low.  And if she failed, they would all die.  Dar, already thrall to it, his life snuffed out like those of her friends...She bent forward, and thrust her hands into the foul liquid that filled the basin. Pain.  It made the earlier blasts feel like soft caresses.  This was pure, vicious, penetrating into her body and through it into her brain like icy needles.  One not trained to withstand it, one not conditioned to the suffering of the flesh, could not have withstood it.  Allera was nearly driven mad in that one instant. But who she was, what she was, anchored her, and once more she called upon her power, letting it fill her before she poured it into the basin in a violent deluge. Talen thought he was at his end, as Dar’s club came down in a blur toward his head.  His body continued to repair the damage it had suffered, but he’d taken too much damage in the course of the battle, and the multiple hits he’d withstood from the fighter had been too much even for his improved body to withstand.  He no longer feared death, but it was galling, to be undone by him.  And, of course, the Overmind’s victory would spell an end to his dreams of revenge upon the Demon. But then, power flooded into him, a sweet, delicious surge of... life.  He laughed as it filled him, and he straightened as his lassitude fled like a breath of wind.  Dar’s club still struck him, crashing down hard into his shoulder, but the pain from the impact was just a fleeting weakness. Dar immediately lifted his club to strike again, but Talen got to him before the blow could land, seizing the club.  The two fought for it for a long moment, Dar’s muscled thews fighting against the unnatural power in Talen’s unliving body.  But finally the vampire won, and he hurled the fighter to the ground as he tore the weapon from his hands.  “My thanks,” Talen said to Varo, who’d been standing behind them.  He adjusted his grip on the club, until his hands were tight around the thin end of the weapon.  Dar was already getting up.  He was moving slower now; perhaps he’d been hurt more than Talen had first assumed.  “He does not control his own actions,” Varo said, as Dar fumbled for the punching dagger riding at his hip.“Do not fear, priest, I will let him live.  I gave my word.”  He laughed as Dar came forward, his punching dagger clutched tightly in his right hand.  Talen lifted the club to bring him down, but the blow never landed. Allera kept pouring healing power into the pool.  The punishing nimbus of energy that surrounded the Overmind melded with the glow of positive energy that she summoned, flaring out from around her like a bright azure sun.  Within that radiance, Allera felt her grip on consciousness fluttering like a trapped bird.  Her head pounded with the mental shrieks of the entity she was attacking, and the flares of energy that continued to lash at her cut into her flesh like knives.  Her hands, immersed in the pool, had gone numb.  But she spared only a tiny fraction of the healing she worked for herself, focusing the majority of it into the pool, cleansing the corruption that filled it. Dar screamed and clutched his head, his dagger clattering to the floor as he fell to his knees.  Talen checked his swing but remained wary of another trick.  But a moment later a massive explosion of light and energy erupted around the pool, enveloping all of them. “What’s happening?” Talen yelled.  He drew back, blinded by the blast.  “It’s Allera!” Varo replied. The display ended abruptly, along with the blue glow, leaving the area within the pillars utterly dark save for the flickers of the everburning torch thrust through Dar’s belt.  The fighter had collapsed, blasted into unconsciousness by his ordeal.  Varo rushed toward the pool, and after a moment, Talen followed him.  Allera lay against the edge of the basin, slumped over the rim, and as Varo reached her she fell back, groaning.  The cleric eased her to the ground, summoning a healing spell.  Her skin was... devastated, black marks covering her arms, face, and neck.  Her hands were blackened claws, blood oozing where the skin had cracked.  “Is it destroyed?”Varo looked up at Talen.  Shay had joined him.  Behind them, the cleric saw Calla, still grievously injured, drift over to where Dar lay insensate upon the floor.  Talen followed his eyes, and looked back.  The girl’s face was still a ruin, but Varo could see the feral, hungry look in her eyes.  Of Talen’s four bandits there was no sign; the gaseous remnants had departed.  “I sense nothing at all,” Varo said.  Talen turned back to face him.  His stare was cold, utterly cold, and Varo tensed for a moment.  But then the fallen knight made a slashing movement with his hand, and the vampire girl drew back from the unconscious fighter, slinking over to a spot behind her master.  “Is Letellia all right?”“She’s still breathing,” Shay said. Talen glanced down at Allera.  “Aren’t you going to heal her?”Varo unclenched his hand; it had been holding his divine focus tightly enough to leave marks upon his fingers.  Summoning his power, he trickled life-giving positive energy into the healer, while in the basin, the inert chunks of matter that had been part of the Overmind drifted aimlessly in the black murk of the pool.</blockquote>

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