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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 9808217" data-attributes="member: 6816692">Session 66Goodbye, my friend...Gabriel instantly fixates on the robed man. “Eddie... whatever you hope to achieve with this madness, this... slaughter... I will not allow you to continue one second more. This ends. Here and now.”Eddie does not respond at all. Instead, he just spreads his hands.A black, glacial chill explodes outward, swallowing the chamber in a dome of frigid night. The others take it as the signal he clearly intended.What they did not expect, however, is the sheer speed of Gabriel. He lends some of his time to Auryn, who in turn speeds up the team with a haste spell.“I will not leave this ancient place to darkness!”, she declares, summoning an image of herself which enters one of her many dancing stances.Across the chamber, Teraklir launches herself at the devil Acheral with a loud scream. The fiend barely has time to raise his arms before she slams him to the ground, displaying far greater strength than her gracious figure would have suggested. Margit falls back, seeking a vantage point, channeling protective geometry into the air.Eddie gestures once again, this time forming runes of summoning. And just as he willed, an adamantine golem rises from the floor, its molten eyes locking on the one closes to him: Asrabey. Fiery steel meets toughened adamantine fists as Asrabey engages the towering construct, showing all what the Dreadnaught of the Unseen is truly made of.Several cultists, which we judged to be mere bystanders, also attack Margit, Gabriel, and Auryn with fel beams. The axe-wielding vampire barrels at Auryn, his eyes burning red with thirst.Auryn meets frenzy with grace, skilfully defending herself, her steps starting to echo with shimmering light as she herself enters yet another dance. Together with her image, they weave around the vampire’s blows.Gabriel, seeing Margit overwhelmed by fel magic, teleports through the ranks of cultists. He becomes a storm of motion with quick strikes that hit their targets like lightning. The cultists fall in seconds.From behind them, King Vardanis raises a hand and summons a column of hellfire that appears to engulf Auryn and her image. Fortunately, he miscalculated her speed and she is already gone, vanished in a blur.After a bit of back and forth with the vampire, Auryn's expression turns into a single, determined smile. “It is time that we end this...” she whispers, concluding her dance in a single sweeping motion as she invokes the light of Srasama.The vampire shrieks, as that which cannot be engulfs the whole room: Brilliant daylight. As Auryn senses the vampire's terror, she casts one quick spell and slams the entrance door shut with magic.“You’re not leaving,” she whispers.The vampire screams in agony. And then, in one desperate attempt, he jumps at Auryn, trying decapitate her... and then turns to ash right after she nimbly dodged his blow.(That felt sooo satisfying at this point of the battle. Yes, he had a vorpal axe and a pretty decent hit modifier. And yes, he missed clearly. So... poof)Asrabey faces a much tougher threat with his mechanical opponent. He realizes that his weapon is pretty much ineffective against the hardened construct, while he himself is suffering heavy blows. Fortunately, vines grow where the sunlight has fallen, which engulf the golem and give Asrabey enough time to fall back a bit.Margit rushes to Asrabey as she sees the damage the creature has inflicted on the Dreadnaught. With quick gestures, she heals his wounds and helps him regain his trength. He rises again, leaving the golem struggling, instead moving with grim determination toward the remaining enemies.(One does not simply fight an adamantine golem...)Shealis/Teraklir, still wrestling with Acheral, channels her fury into one massive blow. The devil’s screams echo as she smashes him apart, his body scattering into fading embers. Without hesitation, she teleports the weakened blue dragon to safety, then conjures a force field, separating the rampaging golem from the rest of the battlefield.(Fortunately, no one asked why this veiled elf lady had the brawling power of a titan...)Lightning crashes across the chamber as Margit unleashes her power. Cultists convulse and fall; while she even manage to stagger King Vardanis with her spell. Asrabey and Betronga take this as a signal to team up against the fel-empowered Eladrin.Yet in the center of the room, Gabriel’s attention is now fixed solely on EddieHe approaches slowly, weapon lowered, voice raw.“Eddie… please. Stop this. Come back to your oldest friend. It is not too late to turn your back on this darkness.”Eddie’s expression softens for a moment, but he then shakes his head.“It is too late, Gabriel. To reassemble Srasama’s essence, every spark must be returned to her. Yours as well. This endless cycle ends with me” His wings erupt shadowed, serrated, terrible, as he fully transforms into a dark angel.“I will make her whole again and become her vessel… even if it is you who stands in my way.”The dark figure lunges at Gabriel.“I’m sorry.”, Gabriel whispers. Then he strikes.The two clash in a burst of catastrophic divine force. Gabriel’s blows land true. Once, twice, again, each one shattering another piece of the person Eddie used to be. Eddie falters, wings flickering.(Gabriel right out novaed Eddie... he basically chained all of his time-based powers together to create the maximum number of attacks. I imagined it to look like the kukri dual-wield version of Cloud's Omnislash)At last, Gabriel catches the falling angel in his arms. Eddie's body dissolves in Gabriel’s grasp, setting the collected divine sparks free. Gabriel lets their essence rush into him, absorbing the fragments. As they merge with his soul, he falls to the ground, being overwhelmed by a wave of ecstatic agony.Across the room, Vardanis is beaten up badly by Asrabey and Betronga, as he struggles to his feet, sneering even as he bleeds.Auryn steps before him, locking eyes with the man who once was an Eladrin, but who had succumbed to the temptations of Acheral.“Surrender your crown. Surrender your arms. It’s the only way you may yet survive.”Vardanis spits blood in return.“You sold our people to Acheral for a taste of power. You brought him here, where he could have summoned his master, Egil the Shimmering, and for what? What has your 'great power' brought you?“, she asks, her voice filled with righteous fury.“You are nothing,” he hisses. “A weak, naive girl. You would throw away your heritage instead of restoring the Eladrin to greatness. With only a sliver of courage, you could have been a Queen of our glorious Empire, yet you chose to become the whore of the human King of Risur”Auryn clenches her teeth as she becomes more and more enraged by Vardanis' petty blindness.„You still cannot see that your path has led to your downfall. You'd pompously parade our people to ruin. And alas. you don’t know a thing about me if you define me by the man I love. You are no king. Only a puppet.”With effortless grace, she strikes - nonlethal, but devastating. Vardanis collapses, unconscious before he hits the ground.Auryn then steps back, and takes one deep breath as this nightmare is finally over.(that one comment still singed more than she'd show here and yet another straw on the slowly growing heap. That's the trouble with Auryn. She has this tendency to talk too little about her worries and darker thoughts and sometimes lets them accumulate to dangerous heights)“Asrabey,” she says without turning, “bind the false king. He will answer for all he has done.”Then she runs straight toward Gabriel, who still kneels amidst the fading motes of Srasama’s essence, cradling the weight of his fallen friend.The ritual chamber is eerily quiet once the last echoes of battle fade. But Gabriel doesn't notice, as his mind and spirit already ventured to the threshold of the realm of death. His eyes are closed.“Eddie,” he whispers, reaching out to the spirit of his friend across the veil. To talk to him, the real Eddie, one last time.And there he is. Not the twisted, angel-like form he had taken, just the man he had once been. He looks worn and tired, but his eyes are soft with recognition.“Gabriel… after all that I have done... You still came.”Gabriel swallows hard. “After all we've been through together... I’m not letting you vanish without hearing you. Not wthout trying to understand what changed you so much”“I only ever wanted to break the cycle. The endless dying. The endless waking. The suffering. The whispers. The weight of every life's memories... fading, returning, haunting. I thought… if I made her whole again, she could release us from this torment.”His voice cracks.“But the essence of Srasama… it filled me. More each day. It made me feel better. But the craving came with it. I thought it was my destiny. Now I realize that it was corruption.”“You were not weak,” Gabriel says softly. “You were drowning alone. And I, your friend, could not do anything about it. I should have known that Smithee's techniques were not enough”Eddie’s gaze flickers upward. “I learned about Nicodemus. Knew that he carried a great spark of the goddess as well. His plans… his certainty… I suspected our paths would end in conflict.”Gabriel lets his own spirit come closer to Eddie's “I’ll keep the essences safe, Eddie. All of them. Even if they once belonged to others, even if I never wanted them. Know that I never saw Srasama’s spark as a curse, just as a responsibility and, over the years, I learned to accept what I had become. She must have had a reason. And I...” He pauses, searching for the right words, “I’ve learned to find relief and fulfimmlent in duty and loyalty. And now... maybe even something else. So don't worry that these essences will tempt me to use them for myself. It is up to her to decide.”Eddie studies him with a long, soft look. “I’m glad. Truly.”Then his expression shifts, strangely peaceful, but also filled with melancholy.“I hear… something calling me. The moon. I think… I’m meant to go there.”Gabriel raises his brows. “The moon?”“Yes.” Eddie says, his presence moving slightly backward, as if pulled gently by an unseen tide.“You’ll find Nicodemus there, Gabriel. And answers. In the Gyre… beyond the stars....”Gabriel just nods in silence, knowing that he has to let Eddie go now.His mind returns back to the ritual chamber and he opens his eyes. He feels the touch of Auryn's hand on his shoulder and turns his head towards her.„You're back. Was he...“He exhales slowly. “Yes. I… spoke with him. One last time. Eddie is gone now. Truly gone.” He swallows hard. “And with him… probably the last person who remembered me from my first life.”Auryn’s expression softens into compassion and empathy. “I’m so sorry. But his death… unlike most deaths... it freed him from what he had become. Maybe he can find peace now.”„He already has, I suppose. And yet... so much death, so much suffering. And for what? This wasn't her choice, nor was it mine...“„And what happened here is not your fault. No one, not even you, can read every single person in his life like an open book and know what secrets they might hide.“Gabriel frowns briefly. “I know. And yet…”She squeezes his hand. “You’re not alone. Whatever fragments of Srasama you carry, whatever memories or voices come, you won’t have to face them by yourself. I’ll help you understand them. One step at a time. Just as I did before.”He nods and glances toward the dying embers of the ritual circle. “I never wanted to use Srasama’s power directly. I never have. She has spoken only in warnings or when I asked her for help, to lend me her power. Nothing more.”Auryn tilts her head. “Perhaps the connection between us … might allow a clearer channel. A way to speak to her presence directly. I mean... if you carry her dead remnants, and I somehow stand for her living aspect then...”Gabriel’s eyes widen slightly. “That might be possible. But…” His gaze travels across the devastated chamber. “Not now. I need time to understand this... new situation. And this place... it needs to be cleansed of the horrors that happened here“Then he notices that Eddie's adamantine golem still seems to be following his old master's commands. He concentrates briefly, and quickly takes control of the creature.Gabriel then asks Auryn to take Vardanis and what is left of his people, bring the prisoners to safety, and leave him here so he may take his time.(That was one hell of a showdown. I guess the most people on both sides in a combat since the assault on Aodhan in his palace. And a pretty emotional farewell to Eddie as well. I mean... he barely entered the scene only to leave it so tragically. In the end we still had a tie-in with Nicodemus and the Gyre, and with a good part of Srasama's essence in one place, the future adventures also made even more senseAlso regarding Auryn... well... she's going to be alone for a while after being kind of rebuffed and sent off. Normally this wouldn't be too much of a deal, but the Kraken's lull is still affecting her...)</blockquote>

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