Planeside 3

[bc56]

Court of Lights
"Ah, the lost daughter." The documents are flipped through. "Will you be trying her locally? We do not have an established extradition treaty with the Nexus. As for Love, she is outside my department, but I can pass the message along."

[Recaiden]

[Court of Lights]

Alice takes a moment to make sense of that otherworldly voice.
"Yes. She was surrendered specifically into VIGIL's jurisdiction."
"Contacting the angel of love would be most appreciated. Allegedly she set a lot of this into motion." It's all explained on page 7 of the summons document.

[Ironsmith]

[Brefaisil]

ka-CRACK!

The crystal under Marcie's fist splits neatly into a series of triangular furrows, splitting open the floor in straight, perpendicular lines. It's an impressive punch, but it's not really doing anything.

ca-rumble

Oh. There it goes.

The fragments Marcie knocked loose slide free of the floor, clattering down onto the floor below, followed quickly by large chunks of the crystal snap free, breaking out under their own weight. Seconds after the collapse starts, it ends, with empty space around Marcie's hand.

And not a moment too soon. When Marcie blinks, she's going to see Fraochun there, frozen mid-stride in the air as the floor collapses around her, leaving the spider-woman momentarily airborne.

And then, in another blink, she's on the floor below, on her back, a look of alarm and pain on her face.

Bingo.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pecatorium]

"Well, I'm not sure how these people feel about polyamory, but for a start, the band and I were... close." Mania replies, putting a meaningful lilt on the word. "Yeah, that part wasn't just branding. If you ever end up spending any amount of time as a demon, you end up developing a pretty strong appetite. Euphoria had it worst, being half a millennium old and all, but we were all sort of cut off from anyone else. And... well, we were intimate in the more innocent sense, too. It just sort of made sense."

Mania shrugs. "But honestly, I think they're going to focus more on what I did while we still lived in the Abyss. I got around up here; no surprise, it was my job to do that. But that's nothing compared to a week in the Abyss. Hundreds of demons of differing sexes in the same room, after the same thing, and all of them insatiable. Yes, that included me." She winces. "Outsiders looking in are probably going to be pretty disgusted. Especially the holier-than-thou types who run this place."

"So... yeah. When they say I was promiscuous, it's an understatement."

[Pecatorium]

Jaahlyn raises an eyebrow, titling her head like a confused goat. "But you, ah, didn't force yourself on people? I mean... this might be my satyr aspect speaking but that sounds nice honestly." And it made this whole thing even more confusing.
So people that were bad were punished with an... orgy?!?!?
"I must be confused but back when I was human it was believed that when you died you joined the great halls below the sea and one of the benefits with that was that you could do... exactly that." She gestures to Mania. "It was supposed to be one of the rewards for a life well lived. So... I... I'm not sure I follow." Mania had talked so much about how awful the abyss was that the last thing she had expected was something that was clearly the opposite of torture.

[Ironsmith]

[Pecatorium]

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Mania replies with a shrug. "It's... not like what you would think." She sighs. "See, as demons age, they lose their ability to be satisfied. And I don't just mean in that sense, I mean in any sense. You never have enough stuff. You're always hungry, always thristy. If someone pisses you off, it stays with you, no matter how badly you beat them up in return. Whatever you do, you want more."

"Now extrapolate that out across a crowd. Everyone in that room is just trying to fill an insatiable void inside of them, and it shows. There's no love or care to it, and if you can't satisfy them, maybe the next person can." She sighs. "And it's all a big distraction anyway. I've seen succubi and incubi eat up all their time trying to satiate themselves, which means they fail to make quota and the devils in charge finally put them out of their misery." She shakes her head. "At least the band actually gave a damn. I haven't felt right about it in forty years... but they still felt more right, you know?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Pecatorium]

Okay, that fell more in line with torture.
She probably should stop making these detours though, they needed to keep to the topic at hand. "That makes more sense, yeah..." Feeling a bit dumb for even raising the subject now since it had to be awkward for Mania to talking about
Then something seems to occur to Jaahlyn and he raises her hand in a pointing gesture at Mania. "But if it was an actual part of your torture, your punishment, you can't actually be blamed for it right? Since that crap is intentional. They're essentially forcing you to do it. Same with all the killing. I'd argue that all of this expect the band is a part of your punishment and you have, despite all the odds these monsters have stacked against you, still fought to be better. That certainly makes you a better person than me if nothing else and probably everyone in this courtroom too." She glances back at the spot Adira had stood at.

[Ironsmith]

[Pecatorium]

"I wish I could say I agreed." Mania replies quietly. "Because a lot of the stuff we did in the Abyss wasn't forced on us. The devils didn't have a mulchman put his knives to my back and say 'get in sleeze pit or else', I decided to go in because I wanted to." She rubs her arm nervously. "It turned out to be awful, but it was still my choice. The killings are the only part they actually forced on me. And even then, they were mum on the how; if the court decided the kiss of death is more cruel than was strictly necessary, that might still be enough to condemn me."

[bc56]

Court of Lights
"I will send a message, but I cannot make her come," the being explains. "Is there anything else you require while you are here? If nothing else, I appreciate you informing me of my daughter's apprehension."

[Shadowcaller]

[Pecatorium]

Jaahlyn doesn't seem to like this sort of framing judging by the frown on her face. "That's like saying that the person that gave you a weapon to defend yourself with didn't mean for you to hurt anyone with it. Sure, they might not have put a knife to your throat but that whole place and system seems designed to make you do this. Since let me ask you this, did a demon ever not give in to this?"

[Ironsmith]

[Pecatorium]

"Sometimes they don't." Mania replies immediately. "Malady didn't, and neither did Ecstacy. Euphoria kind of went on the other end and stopped being a part of it." She sighs. "And regardless, we've still got to make a case they'll agree with. Otherwise I just get to be carted off to the Abyss with the assurance that I'm right and they can suck it. Which would be better than the immediate alternative, but not ideal."

[Shadowcaller]

[Pecatorium]

"They can't really-" Jaahlyn starts but then stops herself. Of course they could blame her for that. They had been cruel enough to put her in this situation to being with so what's to stop them for blaming her for what they had made her do?

The satyr lets out a sigh.

"Alright, so we know what you did. We know how you got away from that awful place... so do you know who the judges are and what they are like? Since you've already gotten judged I mean. Could adjust our approach based on that."

[Ironsmith]

[Pecatorium]

"If it's the same guy? He'll really be stuck on my professional track record. Objectively speaking, I'm worse than most mortal serial killers. If that doesn't get me binned immediately and we have a fighting chance, we'll want to play up the charitable events DEATHKISS, and myself by extension, have been a part of; that seems to be the only thing that makes that man happy."

"Unfortunately, we haven't had very many of those. We tried, but nobody would take the money. Not sure if it's because we're demons or because they just didn't want to physically touch it, but that's the situation."

[Shadowcaller]

[Pecatorium]

"Oh, there's just one judge? For some reason I had expected there to be a vote or something." Or you know, a jury. "But... and this might sound absolutely crazy, but you're a musician right? So to prove the good you give to the world they will need to hear your music." And this is not Jaahlyn trying to suggest they should do a duet in the court room.

Maybe.

Even though she totally would do just that.

[Ironsmith]

[Pecatorium]

"I... what?" Mania frowns. "No, really, what?! You've heard our music. How well do you expect that to play off the judge? I'm pretty sure it'd resonate with the gigantic stick up his butt, but I don't think he'd count it as a point in our favor." She sighs and massages her forehead. "...Unless you've got a song we could do other than what DEATHKISS would normally play? Oh, and, um... drums. Somewhere."

[Earl of Purple]

Spoiler

Show

[Prison Realm]

The flames stop streaming out from her, and she looks at the scene.
Ah, the other ogre thinks it has a hostage. Poor Bishop. It's such a shame that he got caught.
What would Haru suggest to her, she considers for a moment. Attack the ogre anyway. You can bring him to the Pit, and if that doesn't work, his body will still be useful. Well, that's all true enough, but Kiun doesn't like it. Surely she can find a better way than that. Her main skills are flying, fire, friendliness, and mind control. Well, when she thinks of it that way, it's pretty obvious.
"Put him down." she says. Her voice is shaky, but there's a strong, if clumsy, compulsion to obey anyway.

[Moirai]

Harry slaps the huge wyrm with her mace and-!

Well.

It doesn't do a great deal.

Mostly because this creature is very large. It doesn't seem to like it a great deal, though, and responds by lashing out at Harry with its multitude of pointy legs. The leg-thrashing is mostly just meant to distract Harry long enough for it to follow up with a devastating combat belly-flop at her. The weight of such a beast crashing down on someone would typically squash a human, but should Harry find herself pummeled she's going to discover just how resilient she is.

It won't be pleasant.

But it won't be lethal, either.

Magdalene, meanwhile, latches onto the dragonfly with a salvo of toothed vines and yanks the monster up into her personal space. That's shortly followed by a skull-totem bursting out of the ground and lashing at the monster with hungering power. Magdalene's combat style really isn't very mobile. Mostly she just sets up a veritable fortress and stands her ground.

Thankfully Magdalene's actions disrupt whatever awful thing Anaxparthenope was doing, causing the mind-numbing haze to begin waning.

Prison Realm

The child-headed ogre grins, and lets go of the bishop, who groans. She lifts a foot, and presses it against the Bishop's back. "The exit is right there. The prisoners are not to leave. If they try, they die. Law of the realm." The hirsute monster gestures to a metal door behind her and to one side, which has slid open to reveal a very similar elevator as the one in which Kiun arrived.

Moirai

Harriet yelps and tries blocking and parrying the onslaught of pointy legs, which distracts her from the combat bellyflop. Her vaultsuit is ripped and pierced in many places, though fortunately she's resilient enough now that she's not yet badly injured- even with the beast landing on top of her. The one advantage to being pinned like this is that Harry can't miss, as she raises her mace again and presses the disc into the worm-wyrm's side and firing another beam of heat, light and radioactivity. Her PipBoy clicks rapidly and loudly, the radiation continuing to emanate from her even as she generates a beam of more into her assailant.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pecatorium]

"Yeah, but I was thinking that-" Jaahlyn immediately starts to protest as Mania mentions how the judge might take this. "Surely there has to be one song..." She scratches her head. Not really grasping why this was so important for the judge. Music was music right?

"Alright, alright... you got a point. So what kind of song would you want to perform then? It still has to represent you doesn't it? I'm sure I can conjure up drums in here somehow." When music was involved she could do most things.

[Ironsmith]

[Pecatorium]

"I don't know!" Mania snaps, before forcing herself to calm down. "Sorry. It's just... that's kind of been our approach to the music scene in general. Most of the songs I know are about well-endowed strangers in hotel rooms. And the ones that aren't... still don't seem like the stuff you'd play for a court of angels. I don't know of any songs about being an innocent little virgin, do you?"

"...Which is just as well, since that'd be a misrepresentation anyway." Mania sighs and massages her forehead. "And my singing voice is actually pretty terrible anyway. There's a reason Malady usually does our vocals exclusively."

[Shadowcaller]

[Pecatorium]

Jaahlyn's white pupils can't widen the same way human eyes did but the way they're staring back at Mania at her outburst. Had she just touched a nerve or...?

But what Mania then says really seems to bother her. "It would be an misrepresentation, yeah." She agrees. "But so would one of DEATHKISS's sex-songs be. It's a important part of you but you can't let it become all of you if you know what I'm saying?"

At this point the satyr will attempt to take Mania's hands into her own and give them a gentle squeeze before guiding her over to the seats. "Try to take a deep breath and calm down a bit. I know that's a big ask considering the situation but we've already started snapping at one another and I don't think that's going to end up being helpful."

If Mania goes along with this, the satyr continues. "Mind telling me about yourself a bit? I mean, the real you. Not the DEATHKISS drummer."

[Rebonack]

[Moirai]

As it turns out horrible bug monsters don't like getting blasted with point-blank death rays.

The beam sears a hole straight through the creature, apparently severing something important since it just thrashed around a bit before falling still.

Probably solved, right?

Well.

Not really.

There's still a big dead bug-lizard on top of Harry and it's probably a good idea to get out from under it.

It SOUNDS like Magdalene is locked in combat with the rest of the monsters, but Harry can't really see what's going on for obvious reasons.

She should probably get out from under that thing and help!

[Ironsmith]

[Pecatorium]

Mania's grip tightens around Jaahlyn's fingers, holding tightly to the only lifeline the succubus really has left. "...Yeah. Yeah, okay." She says finally, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.

"So, I guess I should start with my real name. I don't know if your boss-lady ever told you about that. It's Marianne. Marianne Van Braun." She nods slowly to herself, as if needing a minute to confirm this. "I was born in the Nexus. I'm an only child. I think my parents were from somewhere else, but they never really talked about it. Grew up reasonably wealthy, I guess. Never had much of a hard time with that, but we didn't exactly have a mansion with a pool, either. Let me see... I was a cheerleader in high school. Not the best student, only kind of hovered around Cs, but I was great at getting people to like me and got to be the popular girl for a while. It was enough to earn me a partial scholarship at one of those colleges in Inside. Had to study and work at the same time; that's how I met Mike. Majored in Business, went to work for an acquisitions company. Started at the bottom but went up really fast."

"...Probably too fast. I got drawn in by the promise of a huge paycheck and didn't pay enough attention to what we were actually doing." Marianne gives Jaahlyn's hands a little squeeze. "I was pretty high up in the chain of command before I learned what, exactly, we were selling. Oh, I know what my bosses told me we were selling; diet pills. But they didn't tell me where they were coming from, what they were made of, how addictive they were, any of that. It was just my job to convince people to buy them. By the time I learned about all of that, I was already involved fist-and-foot. And when I confronted my superiors about it, they told me in no uncertain terms that if I went public with that information, I'd not only lose my job, they'd sue away every penny I made."

"So I kept quiet. Just kept pushing the damned pills with a smile during the day, went home and drank myself to sleep at night. Kept trying to tell myself I wasn't doing anything wrong. Rationalized the whole thing away."

"Like a [hecking] coward."

Marianne blinks back tears and shakes her head again. "Of course, that caught up with me eventually." She holds out her hands (and Jaahlyn's) to indicate a wide space. "My apartment had these big windows... they're more like doors, I guess. You open them up and there's this little railing you can lean on to look outside. It's actually a really nice setup." She shrugs. "Sometimes, on a good night, I'd climb up there and just watch the city below. There's a kind of thrill to just kicking off your shoes and watching cars drive by under your toes. A little adventure for the world-weary saleslady, you know?"

"Buuuut then I made the mistake of doing it on a bad night. After about half a bottle of gin." Marianne stiffens. "And that was the worst three seconds of my first life."

"Next thing I know, I'm here." She gives an involuntary shiver, as though just now remembering how cold it is in here. "You know what happened from there. Went to trial, they deemed me bad, sent me straight to the Abyss. I came this close to getting mulched right away... but I got lucky. The devils decided I was one of those one in a thousand they'd give a fighting chance. They made me an offer; bring them souls, I get to live. 'Same as it ever was', I thought."

"Fifty years later, I meet a couple of young succubi who... well, you've met them. Malady and Ecstacy. They were both having a hard time adjusting to being dead, but... well, you should have seen them. They were inseparable. Tried to help each other as much as they could. They were a bit stupid, though. Picked a fight with the wrong demon. I didn't want to see them get torn up, so I jumped in and bailed them out. I thought that was the end of it, but they kept hanging out around me. They wanted me, in a sense I didn't really understand at the time." Marianne smiles. "They showed me how they were keeping their spirits up down there. They used to play together in life, see. Malady would sing, Ecstacy played the guitar. Apparently, they had ambitions to put together a band before they kicked the bucket. I... I have to admit, they made it sound pretty enticing. So I got to learning to play something so I could be a part of their little dream. Drums sounded easy enough." She gives Jaahlyn a little nudge. "Incidentally, they were not."

"Which brings us to DEATHKISS forming, when Euphoria took an interest a few months later. As a way to get around the sort of nihilism that thrives in the Abyss, it was... maybe not entirely effective, but it helped. I found people I could actually get close to again. We had admirers. We liked what we were doing. When we weren't out tempting, it was almost like we weren't in a hell."

"But we ran into a bit of a problem. We were closing in on the end of Malady's first year, and she hadn't brought back a single soul. She couldn't bring herself to, the little sweetheart." She smiles a little at recalling this. "I end up hearing about it from Ecstacy. The girl comes up to me, crying her eyes out about how Malady's going to die for good and it's all her fault. When I heard that, I couldn't just let it go by. Malady was my friend. So I began asking around and trying to put together a way for her to escape. Euphoria finally found one. But when we got to arranging it, Malady thought, 'hold on, if we can get one person out, why not three more?'. Turns out all we needed was to convince a summoner he wanted four succubi instead of one. Surprisingly easy, really."

"And the rest, as they say, is history." Marianne finishes. "...Does that tell you anything?"

[Earl of Purple]

Moirai

Harriet struggles a little squirming and crawling out from under the dead beast, and finds her pistol as she does so. Now she's up again, she braces it with both hands and points it at one of the monsters fighting Magdalene. She's still not great at aiming, but at least this time when she fires it the recoil doesn't make her drop it. She's still holding the gun as she winces to see what damage was done- she closed her eyes as she pulled the trigger.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pecatorium]

Ah, guilt. That was a feeling Jaahlyn was inherently familiar with. It always manifested as inky black liquid and could almost be said to be the blood running through the veins of the underworld.
The shameful acts of millions people flowing deep into earth to be buried forever. Jaahlyn had often wondered if it the shame was rainwater and feed some terribly roots deep down into the earth.

But with how terribly the world seemed to be she didn't want to assume the worst of the few parts of it that she didn't know anything about.

Mania, or Marianne, she had seen the same story play out so many times yet it always felt so tragic. She hadn't had enough of a lifetime to clear the guilt from her system so one way or another, in this case getting harshly judged by a jerk, her person, her soul would drown into that inky-black pool of guilt. The same inky-black pools that she saw every time she looked at herself in a mirror.

To Mania/Marianne Jaahlyn seems to have zoned out at some point as she looks at her with a blank expression until she suddenly animates and blinks. "Ah, apologies... I was listening." She closes her eyes and puts her hand over them as if attempting to hide them. "Just... got something in my eyes." Sure enough, as Jaahlyn rubs them Marianne/Mania can she two tears running down her face. It didn't look or sound like she was about to cry though so maybe it really was something that got in her eye.

Its strange though as it would almost seem that the satyr is wearing mascara since the tears are black. As inky-black as her eyes.
Jaahlyn has soon wiped them away though and turns to the succubus as if nothing had happened. "Yeah... I've never actually played drums myself. Didn't even exist, and probably still doesn't, where I'm from. But that was a super-sweet story, Mania. Or Marianne I should say. I mean, apart from those addictive pills of course. But you're not going to be judged on that anyway. But whatever song I can make out of this it should probably include drums."

[Ironsmith]

[Pecatorium]

"...Make a song from... do we have time for that?" Marianne asks incredulously. "I mean, I'm sure it'd be great if you could sit down and compose something, but we were on our way to the cou-"

The door to the tiny room opens and Adira pokes her head in. "Um... sorry to interrupt, but we don't actually have eternity between now and the trial. If we don't leave now, we're going to be late and the judge will not be happy about that."

Marianne stands and gives Jaahlyn a tight hug. "I hope you know what you're doing..."

[Shadowcaller]

[Pecatorium]

"It... wouldn't be something completely new but I could try to match it with another song." As Marianne/Mania had suspected, it wouldn't be time to make an entire song but she always had a lot of songs on her. That's in fact the main reasons she wore her coat all the time. It was filled with small stacks of lyric texts.

Then they're interrupted.

Figures.

Jaahlyn wasn't sure how long time they had been talking but she knew it wasn't enough. Not nearly enough.
But this trial had never been fair so why suddenly start now?
"Alright, we're coming." The satyr nods and turns to Mania/Marianne. "Afraid not, but I'm going to give it my all nonetheless."

[Ironsmith]

[Pecatorium]

"...I guess that's all I can really ask, isn't it?" Marianne sighs and follows Adira out, still holding Jaahlyn's hand.

They aren't in the hallways very long before Adira leads them through a set of gilded double doors, about twice as tall as she is. They open into a large, ovular room, surfaced entirely in gold, marble, and alabaster. It's slightly warmer in here than it had been in the waiting room; merely uncomfortably cold, rather than absolutely freezing.

The room is split lengthwise, down the center of the oval, such that one half is about a meter higher than the other. In this elevated half of the room, there's a large, oak-paneled box that seems to serve as the judge's bench, as evidenced by the grey-haired man in white robes sitting there, feathered wings folded neatly. Behind his back. To his left, there's a panel of men and women, of similar apparent age and attire, sitting and talking amongst themselves... given their proximity to the judge, most likely not a jury, but maybe something jury-adjacent. To the judge's right, there's just an empty space, bound in by more of those wooden panels they're so fond of; if this is at all like an earthly court, that would likely be the witness box.

In front of this raised section of the room, there's a pair of tables with three chairs each. The one on the right is empty; the one on the left is occupied by a trio of besuited demons, one of whom Jaahlyn might recognise from the concert, despite having wintessed him get his throat torn out by an angry bear. And finally, behind the tables, there's a large, semi-circular railed-in section, split down the middle by an empty walkway. On one side, there are more of these white-robed angels(?), who watch the proceedings with a murmur of apprehension, and on the other, a jeering crowd of scantily-clad demons.

Adira leads Jaahlyn and Marianne down the walkway toward the tables, beckoning for them to take a seat.

"You're late." The judge booms disapprovingly.

"My sincerest apologies." Adira replies with a little bow. "As you know, this case appeared rather suddenly. We ran a little long in our preparation time."

The judge gives a curt little nod and lifts his gavel. "Now that all are accounted for, we will hear the case for the entry of Marianne Van Braun into Elysium, in accordance to the Lecti Peccatrum."

Bang! goes the gavel, signifying the start of the trial.

[bc56]

Scorching Depths
Miranda comes through the portal, Sekhmet following just behind.
The first most obvious thing is gravity, real gravity at approximately earth level. The environment within the palace is survivable for a human, if not comfortable, but Miranda probably won't notice that besides the gravity.
What's more noticeable is the pair of fiendish guards in menacing black armor waiting at attention. "Your highness. We have urgent business that requires your attention." They're talking to Sekhmet. "Can it wait? We're, uh, just passing through." "With all due respect, milady, it has waited nearly a week already."

[Rebonack]

[Moirai]

Okay so the good news is that Harry didn't hit Magdalene.

The bad news is that she didn't hit the dragon fly, either.

The best news is that she shot one of the skittering wyrms right in the face as it was leaping at her.

Which means it'll thud into her moments later since its forward momentum wasn't arrested at all.

So!

That worked out okay?

Magdalene is, by now, surrounded by a trio of totems and she's busy blocking occasional attack from the dragon fly and lashing out between the attacks with those toothed vines of hers. The remaining skittering wyrms around her are mostly dead at this point, their corpses blackened with frostbite and frosted with ice. She actually does better with large numbers of small foes. Gives her more bodies to feed on. It's these big one on one fights where she struggles more.

She definitely wouldn't object to some help.

[Earl of Purple]

Moirai

Oh, that is good news, although then it's immediately followed by bad news as the corpse crashes into Harriet and knocks the Vault Dweller back down again, and she's dropped the pistol. Harriet grunts as she pushes the corpse off her and stands up. She doesn't see the pistol immediately- hopefully she'll find it later- and she instead jogs over to where Magdalena is fighting. She's heading towards the closest, especially if it's got its back to her. And as she moves, she grabs her spear and prepares that. Hopefully it doesn't see her coming, so doesn't dodge as Harriet aims a thrust of burning wood at the beast's back.

[Ironsmith]

Scorching Depths
Miranda comes through the portal, Sekhmet following just behind.
The first most obvious thing is gravity, real gravity at approximately earth level. The environment within the palace is survivable for a human, if not comfortable, but Miranda probably won't notice that besides the gravity.
What's more noticeable is the pair of fiendish guards in menacing black armor waiting at attention. "Your highness. We have urgent business that requires your attention." They're talking to Sekhmet. "Can it wait? We're, uh, just passing through." "With all due respect, milady, it has waited nearly a week already."

[Scorching Depths]

Miranda shuffles uncomfortably as they start having this conversation. She knows Sekhmet is the demon queen of a hell and all, but sometimes the implications go right by her. Such as, for instance, the fact that Sekhmet's life is basically a metal album cover.

Which is cool, yeah.

But also kind of uncomfortable.

Fortunately, she can still assert herself even in a place like this.

"What's going on, then?" She asks quickly. "Is someone causing trouble?" This would have happened the day after Sekhmet left; too soon for the situation to deteriorate naturally. Someone was waiting for her to leave.

[Rebonack]

[Moirai]

Harry seems to be having a whole bunch of trouble with horrible bug monsters falling on her.

Though it would appear as though charging at Anaxparthenope is a winning strategy for now at least. The hulking dragon is the only monster remaining thanks to the withering field of death that Magdalene has set up around herself. Despite the fact that the creature is lashing at Magdalene with its raptorial claws the injuries that she's taking just aren't stacking up as quickly as the wyrm would prefer.

Then?

It gets stabbed right in the abdomen.

That gets a hiss out of it as it whirls around, its glittering jewel like eyes falling upon Harry in a gaze boiling with malevolence.

This creature really isn't very happy with them.

It hauls back one of its claws to smash Harry into a pulp only for the limb to become entangled in a mess of toothed vines.

"Keep stabbing! I'll hold the (flower) still for you!" Magdalene yells.

Given that Harry is within the area of influence exuded by Magdalene's Hungering Hart totem, she'll feel her ferocity propped up by the hungry magic.