Anthriel had to move for a bit longer than she might have liked in order to get into position to hit all of the goblins, and Dori decapitated another goblin with his bare hands. He calmly hopped out of the way of a hail of gunfire after that, and Anthriel then unleashed a burst of lightning that disintegrated the rest of them.
Anthriel smiled as she got into position and the subsequent blaze of power cut a swath through the remaining goblins, leaving nothing more then charred corpses where enemies had been. This fighting style had its advantages, and she had more then enough power left over. Chuckling at Dori and his rather impressive display of physical strength, she moved to stand beside him.
"Well, you know the area better then I do, so it's your call. Odds are there's something of value left in the tower as well, but I sincerely doubt that would be wise even with the demon gone."
Anthriel: HP = 69/71, PP = 71, EP = 132/148, Status = Fine
The two goblins that Dori had killed were quickly searched, and the dragon quickly pocketed teeth from both of them as well as a few coins he found in their pockets. The rest had been disintegrated completely. "We'll split the loot when we get home. And of course there's still something valuable in the tower! That's why we're here!"
Anthriel sighed and looked up at the tower again before nodding slowly. The place still made her skin crawl and she would have liked nothing more then to just turn it into a pile of rubble and spit on the stone. Still, If she could help Dori, then she would and that was all that really mattered at the moment. That was not going to stop her from being careful however...
"Alright Dori, lets go then, eyes and ears open." She said as she moved towards the entrance, her wings wrapped around her like a cloak to try and ward of the recent memories...
Anthriel: HP = 69/71, PP = 71, EP = 132/148, Status = Fine
"Of course!" Dori said exuberantly before leading the way into the tower. The inside of the ancient stone structure was in disarray, with marble statues toppled and intricately detailed ornamental vases smashed open, and over a dozen demons turned toward them as the two of them entered, including the two goblins they'd seen rush inside as soon as they sighted their approach. In addition to the goblins, there was a corrupted satyr crouched in the far left corner holding a shortbow beside a corrupted gruff wielding a battleaxe in both hands, two more goblins wielding spears in the center of the room some twenty feet away, six people (mixed men and women) that were clearly demons in dark leather armor holding rifles like the goblins had standing along the rear wall some forty feet away, and three more demonic women in form fitting clothing standing just behind the four goblins, the ones with rifles having stepped up beside their kinfolk.
The woman standing in the middle of the trio, upon spotting Dori and Anthriel stepping into the darkened interior of the tower, shouted out to the two of them, "Intruders! Turn back or - oh, an angel. Guess that line probly won't work on you! Uhhhh.... Get 'em boys! And girls, girls too!"
Anthriel blinked, surprised by the amount of leftovers the lord had left after her death, idly wondering why they would cling to this tower when their benefactor was dead. Pushing the thought aside, the angel raised her hand towards the three women behind the goblins, and let loose another bolt of lightning, the black and twisted energy tearing through the air.
Anthriel's line of black lightning tore across the room and disintegrated the goblins and the three women, leaving nothing but ashes in its wake. Cornered by the powerful duo, the remaining foes had no choice but to fight as hard as they could, the corrupted gruff rushing across the room toward them. Dori, smirking drew back and then leaned forward, unleashing a breath of flames accompanied by a tremendous roar upon the fallen faerie. As with Anthriel's lightning, there was nothing left in the wake of the dragon's breath but dust and charred bones. The riflemen across the hall opened fire, but as before their bullets simply zoomed around Anthriel without harming her. The satyr, meanwhile, raised his bow and sent an arrow streaking out toward Dori, striking him in the shoulder. He glanced at it as if amused before pulling the arrow out and snapping it between his fingers.
Anthriel noted that there wasn't much to loot after she turned everyone into ash, and decided for a different tactic. Hoping she didn't shock Dori too much, she looked to improve her physical form rather then relying on turning everything into dust. As she focused, red light poured from her tattoos, and her wings turned a sooty black, a shock even to her as she called on a power that would have gotten her instantly killed by any of her angelic brethren.
Fell Might X15 =+45 Dodge, Attack Rolls, Melee Damage, and Grapple. Costs 13 EP Upkeep per round, and 11Hp Upkeep. She can't keep this up for long, but loot is loot
Anthriel: HP = 68/71, PP = 71, EP = 97/148, Status = Fine, Fell Might X = 15
Rolls
Anthriel activates Fell Might X = 15.
Dori murders the satyr brutally using only his bare hands. Fuck your dice, he's a dragon attacking a goatman. >.>
The soldiers all fire ineffectively at the newly beefed Anthriel.
Dori didn't see Anthriel's transformation immediately, though the demons did. They aimed and fired a little bit more frantically at her, but they hadn't been able to hit her before. Now, with her aura even more powerful as she pushed her energies into it, they didn't even have a prayer of hitting her with their bullets. Dori, meanwhile, had moved forward and casually murdered the satyr that had shot him, swatting aside the fallen faerie's bow before grabbing it by the horns and twisting his head all the way around. The dragon did turn to glance at Anthriel then, and his eyes widened at her crimson glow and pitch black wings.
Anthriel waded into the fray, empowered now, dangerous, willing and wanting to tear her remaining opponents limb from bloody limb, a twisted smile marring her already warped appearance as her tail lashed from side to side as if it too, contained menace. As her first target neared, bullets tearing around her or slamming into the strength of her spirit like rain drops on stone, the lost angel reached out to crush the throat of the first unfortunate creature to be in her way.
Since there are only four enemies left, I'm just gonna say you splat them too and move on from here if that's alright with you. >.>
Gain 4 experience. Dori grabs 4 demon bloods and 2 faerie horns.
The four demons in the back of the room backed away as Anthriel started forward, firing once more and doing about as much as they had last time. The first one she went for, selected at random, was almost pathetically easy for her to reach, and was doomed from the moment Anthriel set her sights upon him. His hands closed around her wrist at the same time that her fingers wrapped around his throat, but the very first word of the demon's pleading for his life was cut off as, with a sickening crunch, she squeezed his throat until most of it tore away from his body, bone and gristle exposed beneath. He collapsed to the ground, not even able to gurgle his last few breaths.
The other three cut and ran, but the first to head towards the door leading into the tower found his way blocked by a once more smirking Dori, who laughed aloud as he grabbed the black-clad soldier's head and smashed it against the stone wall beside the doorway. The other two turned and sprinted for the doorway that Anthriel and Dori had just come in through, but neither of them got that far. Dori ran up, tripped one, and then brought his foot down on top of the prone demon's head so hard that it popped like a bubble, while the last of them was left to Anthriel to finish off however she liked. That left the two of them alone in a room filled with corpses, and the very first thing that Dori did was turned towards Anthriel and study her intently for a moment, his purpose in doing so unreadable on his blank expression. "Gotta say," he began sternly, "Right now, on a scale of one to ten, you're sitting at about a twenty."
The dragon smirked at her again, his eyes sparkling slightly, but he didn't specify exactly which scale she was being judged on. Whether it had something to do with her being naked or her being covered in blood was something that Anthriel would have to guess for herself.
Anthriel never even let the second get away from her, her other hand snapping out and twisting the other demon's head around like a toy, breaking its neck in an instant and letting it crumple on the floor.
Turning at Dori's pronouncement, Anthriel let the energy pulsing through her like flame, die down and finally bleed away, leaving her looking much as she did when they met. "I'll take it as a compliment dear" She said smiling. Cleaning the gore from her hand, she realised it was pointless as she was covered in blood, even the feathers of her wings stained by it.
Looking down at her broken enemies, she shook her head. "They should have run when their Master was killed. They should have run when we walked in." Snapping from her thoughts, she looked to Dori. "Did you get what you needed?" She asked as he collected various high value pieces from the corpses to sell later. Anthriel's first stop was the stream to clean off if they were done here because right now she was torn between claiming the tower as her own, and smashing its foundations to collapse it. Regardless, she had no interest in being covered in blood for too long.
Anthriel: HP = 46/71, PP = 71, EP = 71/148, Status = Fine
Dori seemed slightly disappointed as Anthriel returned to her normal appearance, but the expression was drowned by a surprised frown at her obvious discomfort. Even so, he seemed willing to accommodate it, as he replied, "Errr... Yeah, I suppose I have. Lets get out of here, let this place rot a bit more and empty itself out." With that, he led the way back outside, which was just as empty as before. Holding up a hand for them to halt a short ways from the tower, Dori said, "Hold on a moment, might as well sell it now so he doesn't freak out Mom. Merchant!"
The dragon's sudden shout echoed through the trees, and was perhaps responded to mere seconds later by a man's voice sounding from right behind them; "Heheheh.... Hello stranjah!" The voice came from a masculine figure wearing a long coat that covered most of his body, as well as a hood and a bandanna that wrapped around his face, leaving only his sickly yellow eyes and a narrow strip of unnaturally pale flesh showing. He pulled open his coat and continued, "What are yah sellin?" Dori, meanwhile, handed Anthriel her share of the winnings before selling his own portion efficiently to the man.
(Anthriel gains 2 demon bloods, a faerie horn, and one monster's fang.)
Anthriel nodded as the Merchant appeared. It wasn't her first time seeing him, but it was her first time dealing with him personally. Handing over her share of the spoils, Anthriel took her coin and thanked him for his presence before turning to glare at the Tower. She'd had enough of the memories and the monstrosity that scarred the horizon with it's very existence. Her mind was thrown back to the recent event that had taken place there, her rape, her corruption and transformation, the act warping her for gods only knew how long. Shaking with fury, the emotion rising unbidden to the angel, she locked her gaze on the foundations of the tower. It was only stone, and like all mortal things, destined to one day fade away, its existence doomed to be forgotten.
Slowly walking up to it, Anthriel once again flaring with red light, that unholy glow once again burning across her form like so much hellfire in the eye of the hurricane that was the angels wrath, she stared up at it, inspecting the stone for a few moments, how it had warped a little here, strengthened there. Ya, it was time to end this thing. In what was probably an impressive feat of raw power, Anthriel placed her hands on the stone and focused on her power, on the violent strength of her soul and stepped back. Holding out her hand, Crimson flames began to spin and coil around her lower arm and hand like a maelstrom of Hell's fury itself. Gone was the angelic glow that had heralded her arrival and in it's place was the raw and twisted power of everything her kind vowed to destroy. But Anthriel wasn't the same as her Kin, and they had never let her forget it, burning marks into her skin, holding her prisoner, testing her and trying her again, and again, and again. With every thought the flame spinning around her arm seemed to speed up and condense, the heat from it palpable.
This flame destroyed all, Nothing was safe from it, not flesh or bone or stone, this was Hellfire, and it would not be denied. As her fury reached a fever pitch and the spinning flames seemed to howl as they consumed and pulled at the air around her, Anthriel unleashed them into the side of the tower. Like the screaming of the Furies, Anthriel's power shredded through the stone like parchment, obliterating it completely and cutting a wide and ragged hole along its side and foundations. She didn't care if anything still dwelled within, or if there was some kind of forgotten or hoarded treasure. Watching the Tower as she surely destroyed its base on one side, Anthriel waited for it to lean, and fall, destroying the unholy refuge for good and putting to rest her memories. As it started to lean, and inevitably fall to the left where Anthriel had slashed it, she turned her back on the structure, snapping her wings out agitatedly and striding away. "Lets go. This place is dead." She said viciously, the power fading away as her display of power made itself known through shaking earth and shattered sky. The shockwave of such a large structure falling would probably be felt for the better part of a mile. Let it.
Covered in gore and striding as if she owned the very ground she walked on, Anthriel made her way away from the tower, her eyes dark, but her soul just a little lighter. She took pleasure in the act, putting that demon to rest and making sure the villagers nearby would never have to gaze upon its unsightly blemish again, replacing the view with blue sky and white clouds.
Hellfire X=30 Just to make sure it gets the job done.
Anthriel: HP = 46/71, PP = 71, EP = 41/148, Status = Fine
The tower received the burst of hellfire that Anthriel sent at its foundations in a fairly predictable manner. One series of thunderous cracks and an earth shaking crash later, the tower in which she'd been raped had fallen to the ground, thankfully in a direction other than their own. The cloud of dust and dirt that had fallen over them at the tower's collapse had caused Dori to half curl and cover his face with his arms, while the merchant remained as emotionless and passive as ever. Anthriel, who had started away by this point, felt the wave of pressure and loose earth wash over her in a fairly unpleasant manner, but her wings allowed her to remain standing.
Dori had to move quickly to catch up to her, and when the dust cleared Anthriel distinctly felt the loss of the merchant's presence. "Well... I guess that's one way of dealing with that problem," Dori said somewhat sardonically once he had caught up to her, but Anthriel couldn't help but notice the hint of strain in his voice.
Before she could reply to his comment, a deep, throaty, and intrinsically powerful voice spoke from just above them, "While I will admit that that was a fairly impressive display, little cousin~" If Anthriel looked up during the brief pause, she would find a black winged angel hovering over her, and though hints of mirth might drip from the fallen angel's voice, she most certainly was not smiling. Her face and her body, as with every member of Anthriel's kin, was formed as if carved from pure marble in the likeness of a goddess and given life, and this particular model wore a tight fitting red vest and a pair of vaguely amazonian looking trousers in the same color, both pieces of clothing seemingly made of silk. Pure white hair cascaded down her back, and a pair of bright blue eyes peered down at Anthriel and Dori. She continued after gibing the two of them a brief moment in which to internalize her presence, "I have to wonder why you just destroyed my new home. You do have some sort of explanation, I hope?"
Anthriel looked up and her lips curved up in a smile surprisingly. "Well well well, Cousin Indeed! How have you been? Personally I preferred those of us who tasted the darker side of things." Anthriel said cheerfully, her sudden change in mood probably a little unsettling. "As for your new home, Surely you can understand that it wasn't yours until you killed the NEW owner, which is Me. I killed the demon lord of the Tower, so I lay claim to the rights as spoils of war. Sadly, I have used those rights to obliterate it. There are other places you can roost, although probably not as grand as the Tower."
Standing with a hand on her hips, Anthriel wondered what the fallen angel really wanted. Her options were pretty limited, that display draining a hefty chunk of her power and the angel didn't seem to want to play nice. But she was up against Anthriel and Dori, neither of them slackers and Anthriel's solutions were.... A tad unstable... to say the least... She was fairly certain she could turn the fallen angel to stone like she had the demon, but that was a gamble of long odds if this angel had powers like she used to... There was also the chance that this was just an illusion, like the demon had used as well. Sighing loudly, Anthriel shook her head and floated up into the air.
"Look. I'm really not in the mood for a tussle, and you're not capable of defeating us both. It's in your best interests to leave, or behave while you are on MY turf, and while I lay my head here, that is exactly what this place is. So why don't you tell me what it is you really want, before I decide to get angry..." Although Anthriel didn't act outwardly, she did level that baleful eye of hers in the fallen angel's direction just in case. She was telling the truth, she didn't want a fight personally, her blood lust had been sated for the day. But if it came down to that..... Anthriel sincerely doubted this angel could resist the same power she had used on the demon...
No action for now. Because I don't think she's openly hostile yet, just pissed... Full Defense.
Anthriel: HP = 46/71, PP = 71, EP = 41/148, Status = Fine
"Not well," the fallen angel replied quietly when Anthriel questioned her well being, and her poorly hidden distress likely wasn't from the half-angel's sudden change in tone. "And killing the owner was unnecessary, given that you had abandoned it when you left with the dragons. Though it might be your right to destroy the tower and those that remained within, I would point out that now it and its secrets will be of no use to anyone."
Anthriel saying that the fallen angel couldn't possibly defeat the two of them brought a wry smile to her face, and at that she lowered herself to the ground beside them, within arms reach of herself or Dori. "I can't defeat what? A half-blood with the powers of a youngling and a baby dragon?" she said lightly, but there was no mistaking the derision in her voice as she met Anthriel's gaze, including that of her baleful eye, without any tract of fear. "Baby? Who's a baby? Fuck you!" Dori spat angrily at the woman, and then lunged forward as if he'd been on a spring. The fallen angel didn't even take her gaze off of Anthriel as she caught the punch aimed at her face by the dragon in human form in one hand and then simply held him in place. Dori began to squirm, trying to keep pull himself out of the fallen angel's grasp, but her grip on his fist was hard enough to cause his knuckles to pop audibly, and he winced in pain.
"What do I want? Well, I want a great many things. Many of them the same things that I've always imagined that you would want, little cousin. Freedom from our "pure" kindred, for one, and the ability to stay in one place other than Acheron for more than a week without having to fear some lunatic coming along and doing as you just did to that tower to my home for another. Buildings don't grow on trees you know~" the angel continued, looking up at Anthriel if she had still risen up into the air but looking at her still regardless. "As for behaving myself, I think you'd better have that conversation with your little pet here rather than with me. You wouldn't want him to misrepresent you to your betters, now would you?" Dori, who had been struggling in the woman's grasp more or less silently up until that point, chose that moment to grunt, "Lemme go damnit!"
Anthriel chuckled darkly. "Make this into a fight, and I wont be able to walk away. You know who I am, put him down." She said surprisingly politely. "Gently if you don't mind. Dori, as much as I value your company and strength, do me a personal favour and stay out of this conversation, your anger will only make things more difficult. Now, You need a place to stay in safety? Fine. The Tower is beyond repair, as for my strength, it's considerable, but I'm drained, you chose your timing well, and honestly, I don't have the strength left for anything but one decent strike, but even you have to be wary of the stone eye. So lets be civil and bargain. You're right, I want my freedom." She said tugging at the mask and chains that adorned her face, neck, and arm and gesturing at her tattoos.
"This is simple, You know very well what I want. What do you ACTUALLY want. I have no issues leaving you in peace, but the humans here are under my protection as is the dragon you were just toying with. If you wanted us dead, you would have struck, you didn't, that means you're after something. So What? Allies? A home? A place to rest? All of these are available, even willing given, but I rightfully don't know how to break my bonds. I have an axe to grind with the archangels and am in need of powerful allies, but I can't have them at eachothers throats so at least make half the effort to be polite please?" Looking around slowly, Anthriel began to think. "You're right, Buildings don't grow on trees, their built usually, but if you're worried about lunatics destroying your home, you should try a more passive approach. I've been here all of a day, and I've been captured and raped by a demon, freed by dragons, and taking penance from the Tower and it's master. Suffice to say I do not like it here, but it's better then the prison I was in and I'm rather protective of the mortal races. What do you think Cousin? Can we get along? Or not."
Anthriel: HP = 46/71, PP = 71, EP = 41/148, Status = Fine
"I am quite sure that you wouldn't walk away," the fallen angel replied conversationally, "If I were in a good mood - which I should note that I'm not - I might allow you to crawl away in a manner befitting a half-blood such as yourself, but such is besides the point, methinks." She gave Dori's hand one last crackling squeeze before releasing him and dropping her hand back down to her side, apparently quite at ease. The dragon growled, a vein in his head popping out in anger, but he begrudgingly took Anthriel's advice and remained passive and silent.
"What do I really want? Nothing that you could provide, cousin, barring perhaps a quick recharge of my energies. Sadly, your pet here would likely be more useful in that regard than you would, given the nature of our kind when exposed to corruption. You are not wrong in thinking that I could have killed or incapacitated the both of you without any trouble, nor that I am not interested in violence at this time because I did not. The reason that I appear to you at all, dear cousin, is to satisfy my curiosity regarding your actions. I must say, the answers I have found in this conversation alone are quite disappointing, if unsurprising."
She paused and allowed her words to sink in, a smirk on her face that was anything but respectful, before going on, "As you say, you have already killed the demon responsible for your abuse, and that you would cringe at the sight of the structure in which it had happened was quite confusing to me. When I saw you I had hoped that you had inherited the strengths of mortalkind, but apparently all you have gained from them is their cowardice. Honestly, fearing a collection of stones and concrete as if it were responsible for the actions of the one who had once lived there~ I have known humans with more fortitude than that! Though I wasn't present at the time, I can only agree with Michael's decision regarding your kind: He was quite right to eradicate the scions of our race and humans, if you are indeed a decent example of your kind. As for whether or not we can be friends...." The fallen angel paused again and offered Anthriel the very same smirk as before, "Yes, I think that we can be the very best of friends, dear cousin~"
"Spend some time in my prison if you wish to speak of fear, Cousin." Anthriel said barely above a whisper. "As for Micheal, and the extermination of my kin, You of the pure blood have no right to speak on it unless you held a blade yourself and saw the death of the Grigori with your own eyes. Bear the marks of the sins of your father rather then your own for your entire existence and wear the chains of forced servitude rather then chose to obey or leave before you speak of my strength or weakness. The Tower was still infested, and posed a threat to the humans of the nearby village, and as long as it stood, others of the unholy ilk would come to try and claim its secrets and threaten those close at hand. This is unacceptable. What I do with my property is my business, and to say you could have claimed it is violated by the fact that you failed to do so in time BEFORE I turned it into a pile of rubble, a cairn marking the death of a tyrant. I will save my anger and my fury and my vengeance for those of our kind too blinded by their own fervour to avoid committing genocide. Who besides the archangels knows where we're even from, who our true forebears were. Not I, and Not you I think. We have no place as masters of this world, so we serve. But not I, No, I am unworthy, my blood is unpure, my soul is tainted, even before my body and my powers warped to reflect what happened in that tower." The twisted half breed said, her face slowly becoming more and more warped by her hatred of her supposed Family.
"As for you, the Fallen, and the Demons, and all the others who walk this land. It's simple. Leave the mortals be and I have no problems or even interest in what you do so long as it does not put them at risk, or does not further my goals. You want to be friends? Fine. That's perfectly fine. But do me a favour then as a token of this proposed peace and do not speak of my past again, lest it be a way out of these chains, or to Micheal's throat. I know I'm weak, especially for one of my age, and especially after having my power warped into what it has become. But I know you would not have bothered to talk to us at all if it didn't further your goals in some way. So. As I asked Before. What Do You Want."
The entire time, Anthriel kept her voice even, a testament to the truth to her words, refusing to let her anger get the better of her even as her blood seethed and boiled at the backhanded comment.
"Yes, I'm a halfblood, filth, the Last of the Filth, the only bearer of the Nephilim's legacy. And you could kill me, and Dori. But you haven't, and you wont, because you want something. So Spit it out." Anthriel said crossing her arms, getting tired of this twisted little exchange that seemed to lead nowhere important.
