AMEN XLVII: Who's the Leader, Again?

[Green Elf]

[Temple Assault]

Luvon sees the offered hand but currently ignores it. It was very suspicious at the moment. He calls out to Steve, "Catch it, then drop it!" He throws a small black and blue disc, which as seen before, would put up half of a shield dome.

[Felandria]

Temple Assault

Okay then, Felandria considers, since her "Have her friends climb onto her shoulders so she can electrocute all the bad guys" plan doesn't seem to be an option, she must decide what her next move is.

The Righteous Might ends, and she is once again only as tall as the ceiling, she pulls out her greatclub and decides to start bashing the skulls of the water golems, hoping that will stop them.

[Shadowcaller]

Temple Assault

The shield will stop the swing, the magical energies fizzling as the weapon makes contact.
"I understand now." He can suddenly hear not-KR's voice. "Why I can't bring myself to leave you, why you won't give up. These emotions that have been riding me since I inhabited this body... They are holding me back, yet at the same time, they are showing me the way. I was confused, yet now I see why it all aligns. This unity is a has brought nothing but suffering for both partners and now my desires align. I must end it, like I should have at the very beginning. I must repent for this impurity." He hears her taking a deep breath as her invisibility suddenly drops along with the protective shield. Her eyes are closed, tears running down her face, and she is shaking with fear. "End it, Wenomir."
The demonic illusion near her stares at her in surprise.

Meanwhile, the winged being sigh and with a beat of her wings, she is suddenly flying, keeping herself in the very center of the room, out of reach for the invading water that is now covering the entire floor as well as the skeletal beings that are made up of it. "So be it then. But I shall not abandon you. Once you need to leave, I shall be at your side."
Anyone who touches this water, or the skeletal beings, with their bare skin will likely get poisoned as it turns out, this isn't water at all. It is pure corruption coming directly from the demon realm itself.
Felandria will find that the corrupted elements are protective of their skulls, moving away from her as she attempts to destroy them, or letting the skulls submerge into their watery bodies to protect them from the club. But she does manage to get a hit in one of them them. Making the skull fly, and shatter against the wall, which makes the body collapse into the water it came from. Apparently, that was rather effective.

Steve, who will find himself standing in corruption as the 'water' comes in, and might feel himself sliding further than he intended as the stone floors are suddenly slick with corruption. The demon is ready to block his next attack as he spend time healing himself, again parrying his blade with its own black sword. It can't actually damage Steve though thanks to Luvon's shield, but its partner appear to have something in mind for that. "Anu-raka-zhu...." The demon mumbles as a red beam comes from its sword and hits the shield Luvon just made. While it won't actually destroy the shield, it will continually batter it as the beam doesn't stop. In addition, the heat around the shield will start to increase, and Steve might find himself standing in boiling corruption soon enough as the beam heats up everything it touches.

[Temple Assault - A-2]

It might be difficult to avoid the wall demons like that as the temple appear to have been designed to keep invaders from getting too far from the walls. There are pillars in-between the walls that the demons seem to be capable of emerging from as well, not to mention long, narrow, corridors with doors placed at inconvenient spots, forcing trespassers to stop in the middle of the corridor to open them. Right now they all appear to be locked too, giving the group little room to maneuver unless they start blowing holes in things.

[8BitNinja]

Temple Assault

The shield will stop the swing, the magical energies fizzling as the weapon makes contact.
"I understand now." He can suddenly hear not-KR's voice. "Why I can't bring myself to leave you, why you won't give up. These emotions that have been riding me since I inhabited this body... They are holding me back, yet at the same time, they are showing me the way. I was confused, yet now I see why it all aligns. This unity is a has brought nothing but suffering for both partners and now my desires align. I must end it, like I should have at the very beginning. I must repent for this impurity." He hears her taking a deep breath as her invisibility suddenly drops along with the protective shield. Her eyes are closed, tears running down her face, and she is shaking with fear. "End it, Wenomir."
The demonic illusion near her stares at her in surprise.

Meanwhile, the winged being sigh and with a beat of her wings, she is suddenly flying, keeping herself in the very center of the room, out of reach for the invading water that is now covering the entire floor as well as the skeletal beings that are made up of it. "So be it then. But I shall not abandon you. Once you need to leave, I shall be at your side."
Anyone who touches this water, or the skeletal beings, with their bare skin will likely get poisoned as it turns out, this isn't water at all. It is pure corruption coming directly from the demon realm itself.
Felandria will find that the corrupted elements are protective of their skulls, moving away from her as she attempts to destroy them, or letting the skulls submerge into their watery bodies to protect them from the club. But she does manage to get a hit in one of them them. Making the skull fly, and shatter against the wall, which makes the body collapse into the water it came from. Apparently, that was rather effective.

Steve, who will find himself standing in corruption as the 'water' comes in, and might feel himself sliding further than he intended as the stone floors are suddenly slick with corruption. The demon is ready to block his next attack as he spend time healing himself, again parrying his blade with its own black sword. It can't actually damage Steve though thanks to Luvon's shield, but its partner appear to have something in mind for that. "Anu-raka-zhu...." The demon mumbles as a red beam comes from its sword and hits the shield Luvon just made. While it won't actually destroy the shield, it will continually batter it as the beam doesn't stop. In addition, the heat around the shield will start to increase, and Steve might find himself standing in boiling corruption soon enough as the beam heats up everything it touches.

[Temple Assault - A-2]

It might be difficult to avoid the wall demons like that as the temple appear to have been designed to keep invaders from getting too far from the walls. There are pillars in-between the walls that the demons seem to be capable of emerging from as well, not to mention long, narrow, corridors with doors placed at inconvenient spots, forcing trespassers to stop in the middle of the corridor to open them. Right now they all appear to be locked too, giving the group little room to maneuver unless they start blowing holes in things.

Steve isn't harmed by the liquid as his armor covers his entire body. After putting down the shield as instructed, he yells out to Luvon "I did what you said, but I'm pinned down now. If you have something to use against them, I suggest you do it now."

[Morty]

[Temple Assault]

Wenomir turns around to see his allies in dire straits. He has to help them. But first... nothing this demon is saying is making any sense. But it does seem to want to die, and he's glad to oblige.

"Those feelings don't belong to you, parasite. You took them from me, and for that you will die. Know that your entire kind will follow suit."

He makes another swing with his axe, at her neck. Third time's the charm. This time, he doesn't go for a decapitation, but instead tries to simply cut her neck wide open, without severing it. Kr's body deserves that much from him. Even if he's unlikely to be able to get it out of here.

[Green Elf]

[Temple Assault]

The ranger is affected by the corruption but only slightly. He is fairly resistant to this and will heal himself later. The shield by Steve will actually begin to visibly weaken. He fires a silver arrow away from what would be expected, towards Not-Kr. He then shoots another at the pitlords attacking Steve.

[ThePhantom]

[Temple Assault - A-2]

Unfortunately for A-2, there is no way for a gun of that size to hit the henchman in the face. He's inside an enclosed metal box that is the controls of the hoverdrill and the metal is still thick enough to protect him. After all, the front of the machine was where the most metal was, in the form of the drill itself. She might have a better chance of disabling the hover engine of the drill, crippling the machine.

As things stand, the henchman is piloting the drill near blindly, so it continues forward, not likely to hit her.

[Felandria]

Temple Assault

Felandria will continue to smash as many skulls as possible' hopefully without splashing too much evil goop on her friends.

[Darkcomet]

[Temple Assault - A-2]

The drones continue with evasive maneuvers, floating and firing on anything that gets too close. Their shielding systems continue to prove a nuisance to any attempts at grabbing them that get through, for one can simply deactivate their forcefield defenses and slip away. Of course, even that won't work forever.

Which is why A-2 trades one of her guns for a mono-edged vibro-saber, evidently having had one sheathed under cloak. With augmented strength and speed combined with the kind of precision only powers like hers could bring, she'll try to hack straight through locked doors and kick them out of the way as she tries to reach the VIGIL party. Rapidly-vibrating superheated monoblades and cybernetic limbs might go a long way here.

She doesn't know about what Wenomir just did yet.

The AMENite drill is going to have problems too, seeing as all those obstacles mentioned for A-2 and the drones also affect it. How does that henchman feel about causing his allies grievous property damage and/or ramming into demon walls without a functional drill? Because they're not attacking him again, they're just running/floating away.

[Shadowcaller]

[Temple Assault]

The neck is cut open and KR's body slumps down in the throne as she quickly bleeds out, her commanding eyes slowly meeting his for the last time before staring down lifelessly at the floor.
Now Wenomir will feel a burning sensation in his pocket as the cube Jaccalish gave him suddenly bursts into life, if he would take it up, he would see that the artifact is turning black and that its shape appears to loosen, like something is moving within it.

There is a groan from the demonic illusion nearby. "Why is their dialogue always so annoying?" It says, looking down at KR's body. "But I guess this was for the best. Your body was weakening you, Aegris. It was saddening." The demon comments, seemingly with little regard to what is going on inside the room. It then lets out a deep sigh. "Taking command of temple Tholos. Now gate in the eliminators to deal with all these mortals. Just hope that their equipment is more durable than their bodies..."

For anyone that can notice such things, magical signatures start appearing all over the temple. Just like back at the start of the VIGIL invasion. There is likely going to be a lot of incoming demons soon.

Meanwhile, Felandria bashes one skull, exploding into bits, two skulls, smashed into the wall, three skulls, crushed against the floor. Yet the fourth is dodging past her, hiding underneath the "water", which now slightly past the knees of Steve and Luvon. Seeing Felandria destroying so many of their kind, the demons now hide themselves underneath the surface like sharks, dodging Felandria's blows as they quickly dart past her legs, trying to cut up a wound near her heel as it passes with it's sharpened form. Having a open wound in a sea of corruption is likely not a good idea.

Luvon is getting a similar treatment, the corruption demons are aiming for his legs, cutting small wounds open to expose him to the sea. His arrows hits all his targets though, one hitting KR's already lifeless body, another hitting the pit lord fighting Steve.
However, the death of not-KR seems to have confused the two demons who completely stop fighting for a moment. One of them grunting as it has to pull out Luvon's arrow from its body with its glove protected hand, black blood flowing down into the sea of corruption underneath them.
The other one stops attacking Steve's shield and starts casting some other spell, though its effects aren't obvious yet.

The winged being looks down at the rising sea underneath her with a frown. "Can we get out of here now? I can only take one of you at the time."

[Temple Assault - A-2]

With demons coming out from the walls, the ceiling and the floor at the same time in a narrow corridor, there simply won't be room to perform any evasive maneuvers. Especially once they find themselves facing one of the doors. The only reason that they can even progress is that the demons have to retreat back into the walls once they're hit with the plasma. Thankfully, the doors aren't nearly as indestructible as the walls, and A-2 can hack through them with relative ease.
However, as she is cutting down yet another door, there is something waiting for them on the other side. Coming out one of the walls is what appears to be the head of a huge demonic dragon which opens its maw and sprays the group with black flame so hot that it melts the doors that A-2 just cut down. She was aware that it was waiting on the other side of course, waiting until she started to tear down the door to breath fire at them. In such a narrow corridor, it will be impossible for them to evade the flames, or the heat produced by them, so they either need to trust in their shields or hope to back away quickly enough to be spared.

A-2 can likely tell that there is a huge wave of demonic reinforcements being gated into the temple, and she can also tell that these reinforcements are different than the demons they've fought so far. More specialized.

[8BitNinja]

[Temple Assault]

Steve shouts out to Wenomir "Open the box! If the deal we made wasn't a dud, we might be able to end this!" He raises his shield towards the pitlord and charges at him, attempting to stab his torso.

[Green Elf]

[Temple Assault]

Luvon is being hit by the demons underwater do he uses his sword to swiftly slash at the demons.

The ranger yells to Wenomir and the others, "That deal is definitely not a dud! Open the box, it'll probably kill them all!"

[ThePhantom]

[Temple Assault - A-2]

The drill closes on a wall, but the henchman stops it as the silver he carries starts glowing showing he's close to his allies.

"Shoot. Looks like you got away. Well, if you think you can get out past me, you have another thing coming!"

The henchman drives the hoverdrill back the way he came, fuming at his failure.

[Darkcomet]

[Temple Assault - A-2]

Two's empowered intuition suddenly tells her that the best thing to do to survive would be to swiftly interpose a drone between herself and the forcefully-opened path. Now, you might be thinking, wouldn't that confuse her? But she's had that sort of feeling before and she's learned not to question it. As a drone's shield comes back up from a narrow miss with a demon, she abruptly kicks it into the path of the flames to shield herself and the machines from the blast. Oh, that's why she was supposed to do that.

What the hell are you DOING -

Power to shields, Three!

The distant psychic has no choice but to adhere to A-2's plan, the drone's systems diverting all possible power to keep its shields up and weather the corrupt inferno. The shields flare up brightly, crackling under the assault, and by the time it's over, they're flickering rapidly before they outright collapse. It's not over quite yet, though.

As A-2 rushes ahead to get away from the visible targets, one of the drones lowers its weapon to aim an energy projector toward the exhausted one, sending an invisible energy beam towards a port on the back and giving its systems a jump-start. That takes some power from the supporting drone, but they both use EI tech systems, so both will recover in time provided no major bursts happen again. Two drones will stay on rearguard versus the demons, and two will move forward, firing on the demon-dragon head as they all advance.

[Temple Assault - NOT A-2]

Two's voice comes on over VIGIL comms again. "Incoming enemy reinforcements. Something different."

[Morty]

[Temple Assault]

"The cube worked. The demon's essence is imprisoned and can't get out."

Then, A-2's communication comes in.

"Of course. They're gating another batch of cannon fodder. We've got an escape route, but it'll take a while. Try to get here quick."

Turning back to the winged woman, he tells her:

"Start teleporting us out! The rest of us will hold down this place. I'll go last."

That being said, he changes the Answer back into a longsword, and leaps into the water. He lands right next to Luvon, and his sword cuts a complicated curve, aiming straight through the swimming demons. Then he jumps up again, minimizing contact with the "water", and lands close to Felandria, trying to apply the same sharp treatment to the demons attacking her.

[8BitNinja]

[Temple Assault]

"The cube worked. The demon's essence is imprisoned and can't get out."

Then, A-2's communication comes in.

"Of course. They're gating another batch of cannon fodder. We've got an escape route, but it'll take a while. Try to get here quick."

Turning back to the winged woman, he tells her:

"Start teleporting us out! The rest of us will hold down this place. I'll go last."

That being said, he changes the Answer back into a longsword, and leaps into the water. He lands right next to Luvon, and his sword cuts a complicated curve, aiming straight through the swimming demons. Then he jumps up again, minimizing contact with the "water", and lands close to Felandria, trying to apply the same sharp treatment to the demons attacking her.

Steve says "Allow me to aid with the extraction. At least allow me to be second to last. If I die, the blood is on my head."

[Green Elf]

Steve says "Allow me to aid with the extraction. At least allow me to be second to last. If I die, the blood is on my head."

"I guess I'm going first then. I'll see you when you get out." He takes one last shot at a pitlord, just out of hatred for them. He decides to make one more closing remark. "And I expect to know how you jump like that, Wenomir." He prepares to be teleported out.

[Felandria]

Temple Assault

Felandria kicks at the demons under the water, then looks down at Wenomir.

I'm not going anywhere, Wenomir, no man left behind.

[Shadowcaller]

[Temple Assault - A-2]

The dragon roars as the drones shoot back at it, it's body quickly starting to melt as they hit it with their payload. With its remaining energy it manages to pull itself back into the wall. The path is now open to a door at the very end of the corridor. It looks more ornate than the others, clad in white and black metal. They can see that the corridor turns to the right, and likely continues, so they now have a choice of breaking down the door or continue down the corridor.

But the drones are not getting any respite, even as the dragon pulled back, another of the wall demons is attempting to use the weakened shields to pull one of the rear drones into the floor by grabbing it with its strong claws.

[Temple Assault]

Felandria can feel the demons moving underneath her, the currents she create simply by moving her giant foot shakes them off her for now. Yet they are bond to return soon. She can see their skulls moving underneath the water like skeletal sharks.

Luvon will see that the sword he slashes the underwater demons with causes the "water" to fizzle and boil, the creatures swimming underneath him, hissing in contempt as he cuts through one of their skulls. But then Luvon can feel something grabbing his foot from behind and attempts to pull his leg to cause him to fall into the water. It is attempting to bite through his boot and take a chunk of his foot with it.
But as this happens, the winged being descends down towards him and attempts to grab his hand. If he takes it, the two will be transported away from the temple (more on that in the next post if it happens).

Steve will see that the two pit lords he fight against suddenly disappear in a bright flash of light. It appears that they're... fleeing?
Either way, the winged being can't reply to him as she is busy attempting to get Luvon out of here. The paladin will note that the "water" around him, which is now up to his waist, fizzles and boils as it comes in contact with his armor. Not only that, but one of the remaining corruption demons is swimming right for him. It's white skull visible in the black water.

Wenomir can see his sword cutting through one of the demon's skulls, leaving only four of them. Two attacking Luvon, one going after Steve, and the last one swimming up behind Felandria.

The illusionary demon now simply watches the fighting without little comment. It seems to be taking a while for these reinforcements to arrive.

[8BitNinja]

[Temple Assault - A-2]

The dragon roars as the drones shoot back at it, it's body quickly starting to melt as they hit it with their payload. With its remaining energy it manages to pull itself back into the wall. The path is now open to a door at the very end of the corridor. It looks more ornate than the others, clad in white and black metal. They can see that the corridor turns to the right, and likely continues, so they now have a choice of breaking down the door or continue down the corridor.

But the drones are not getting any respite, even as the dragon pulled back, another of the wall demons is attempting to use the weakened shields to pull one of the rear drones into the floor by grabbing it with its strong claws.

[Temple Assault]

Felandria can feel the demons moving underneath her, the currents she create simply by moving her giant foot shakes them off her for now. Yet they are bond to return soon. She can see their skulls moving underneath the water like skeletal sharks.

Luvon will see that the sword he slashes the underwater demons with causes the "water" to fizzle and boil, the creatures swimming underneath him, hissing in contempt as he cuts through one of their skulls. But then Luvon can feel something grabbing his foot from behind and attempts to pull his leg to cause him to fall into the water. It is attempting to bite through his boot and take a chunk of his foot with it.
But as this happens, the winged being descends down towards him and attempts to grab his hand. If he takes it, the two will be transported away from the temple (more on that in the next post if it happens).

Steve will see that the two pit lords he fight against suddenly disappear in a bright flash of light. It appears that they're... fleeing?
Either way, the winged being can't reply to him as she is busy attempting to get Luvon out of here. The paladin will note that the "water" around him, which is now up to his waist, fizzles and boils as it comes in contact with his armor. Not only that, but one of the remaining corruption demons is swimming right for him. It's white skull visible in the black water.

Wenomir can see his sword cutting through one of the demon's skulls, leaving only four of them. Two attacking Luvon, one going after Steve, and the last one swimming up behind Felandria.

The illusionary demon now simply watches the fighting without little comment. It seems to be taking a while for these reinforcements to arrive.

Steve says to himself "Only one thing left to try." He bows his head and prays "Protector of Justice, please put your protection around your servants." (Magic Circle Against Evil). A circle of light of where the floor would be appears in a ten foot radius. Any evil objects or creatures are repelled from the circle and are kept out if it powerful enough against the demons.

[Green Elf]

[Temple Assault]

The ranger is bitten, but takes the hand of the winged being, hoping he didn't leave prematurely, with both swords in hand.

[Morty]

[Temple Assault]

"We're not leaving anyone behind, Felandria. We're retreating, one at a time. Plenty of time to do as much damage as we can, first."

As he speaks, he jumps again, and tries to skewer the demon attacking the half-giantess, so that she can focus her attention elsewhere.

"Their reinforcements aren't coming just yet, it seems. We've got some time," he says, both to the communicator and those still in the throne room.

[Felandria]

Temple Assault

Felandria nods.

Right.

She turns to go after the other skulls attacking Steve and Luvon, at this point, she'll try simply crushing them underfoot.

[Darkcomet]

[Temple Assault - A-2]

Two momentarily pauses as she enters the door's vicinity, having spotted something others would not about what lies ahead. "Confirmed," she replies on the comm, voice as monotonous as ever. Then she steps aside from the door.

Two heavy blasts should do it.

The demon after the weakened rear drones will continue having trouble with them toggling the shields on and off to evade grappling, but that has to be draining power. That won't last long. The two ahead, though, those discharge heavy blasts into the door, the same as those used to bust out of the pod earlier, trying to cut it down and gain entry.

[Celticbear]

Main Room

A man in blue robes, gray gloves, and a cowl arrives in the main room rowing on a canoe. He holds a piece of parchment in his hands, and says: I believe this is the proper place to join.

Name: Names are legion, but I am referred as The Riverman
Age: Countless
Sex: N/A
Species: Demonic Deity of Water
Profession: Boatman. I ferry people across literal or figurative rivers. I occasionally partake in murder, however.
Reason for joining AMEN: I'm bored
Special skills/items you believe will aid/have decided to contribute to AMEN: I control the water, I have powerful eldritch invocations, and I am a god.
References (Victims preferred): Again, too many to count
Past Experience: All of the past.
Other Information: While outside of any large body of water I am weaker, reduced to only a powerful caster of spells, but inside I can stand against the gods themselves.

[ThePhantom]

Main Room

The henchmen waiting in the front room turn as a canoe enters the room. That's strange but things have been stranger here, after all the base was once turned into a water racetrack. One of the henchmen takes the paper and looks over it.

"Well, it looks like you would fit in here okay, just hope that the thing in the walls doesn't wake up then. I'll file this right away and then the boss can look at it."

[Celticbear]

AMEN / Main Room

Do you have any suggestions as to what I should do in the meantime? asks The Riverman.

[Shadowcaller]

Temple Assault - United

The final stretch is relatively clear, as they can see that the majority of the free space being occupied by the enormous dragon that attacked them earlier, it's long body circling around the walls, the floor and the ceiling. It's two dimensional eye staring at the drones as they move towards the door as if it was waiting for something.

Then they blast the door, and out comes a flood of water that crashes down the corridor.

Inside the throne room, the water levels suddenly drops as the doors are blasted open and the drones are standing on the other side.

Steve might need to avoid the doors or he'll get them toppled right over him as they come crashing down from their hinges. However, he will also notice that his circle of magic is causing the very water that he was waist deep in to hiss and disperse as if he was Moses at the red sea. The water demon does the same, now just circling him like a demented shark.

Felandria and Wenomir will find the two demons easily dealt with as their skulls are crushed and skewered by the two of them. However, at the walls which still are pouring out water, the haunting images of monsters have started to appear. The drones, and A-2, will recognize them as the wall demons who must have followed them inside the throne room and they are still not appearing very happy with the intruders in their domain.

Luvon disappears in a flash of light along with the winged woman.

[Outside AMEN]

Luvon will appear some distance from the temple, near a small forest along with the winged being. "There, you should be safe out here, great warrior."
Then she appear to notice his wound, that demon took quite a bite out of his foot. "You're wounded... you must let me heal you, a humanoid like you could bleed to death with that wound."

[Celticbear]

AMEN Main Room

The Riverman's head quirks up. I believe the answer to my question lies outside.

Outside AMEN

The eight foot tall robed man rows out in his canoe, yes on thin air. He extends a hand upon the wounded man.

Your life's blood leaks out. All you must do to release the pain is to say the words, and I shall ferry you across the river Styx.
Just give your hand to me, and I will ease your pain.

[Green Elf]

[Outside AMEN]

The ranger looks at both, but is there even a question on who to trust? He lightly pushes the canoe, as if trying to move or flip over the boat on air. "I'll take winged lady's help." He says, waiting to be healed. "Make sure to get to the others quickly."

((Just a note, not that it will happen, gods cannot engage in combat.))