Ethan vs. Sors

[20:56] As the forces advanced upon Dawn a smaller group of individuals made their way to the settlement, though in a fashion quite unfamiliar to those who praised the destruction of the world. Green magical circles appeared within the great and grand Ultovex household - allowing two Wayfinders to materialize out of a portal that crossed the spirit world.

With the ongoing chaos outside there was no better time to strike:

Today was the day Lailah would be freed.
(Ethan Hawke)
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[20:57] The white-feathered watched from afar for so long. No, no. She wasn't idle. The High Artificer flew up high with those wings of hers, a telescope built by her own hands. She'd become familiar with where Sor's personal dungeon is, watching movements in and out, taking notes and biding her time.

And once she and Ethan cast their six circles, she'd appear within that nightmarish dungeon. Hatred burns in her heart - but not malice. It's channeled, directed along every circuit she has, along every mana-active thread she's woven into her clothes, and along every gold damascened rune she inlayed into her gunblade.

Civilians where not harmed by her, as per her promise to Jessi... But a withering wave of golden swords and marble blades would smash, burrow and wreck its way down into that dungeon.

Nethradin, Undead and any other abominations Sors had for them would be cut down to size, as this righteous anger and overflowing protectiveness burns incandescent through the Angel-blooded, trails of runic commands chasing her as they stream from her form automatically, gold-tinted white light trails following that wave of destruction!
(Magdalen Elisheva)
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[20:59] The time was nigh. The rattle of chains, of the world's violation, filled the air around the Adjudicator as he stood inside of his manor. Eyes looked around the area, undead and Nethradin moved around as the Whispering Eye was slowly drawn from the back of the Adjudicator. Tired eyes are wiped by a gloved hand as the magical circles opened.

"Ya know, I've been waitin' fer this.

Tha' day tha' we finally meet. Tha' one who attacked Achilles, tha' one who had Maia Sunyataed, tha' one who caused ma a whole lot o' trouble. The Ethan Hawke tha's ever been a thorn in ma side."

Occultism festered in the air around him as pale green eyes opened around the Adjudicator.

"Today is tha' day tha' ya die. Today is tha' day fer ma total victory. Not only hav' I made ya kid suffer, made them take life wit' their own hands, now I get ta crush them by endin' their forebears rite in front o' 'em."

The Pale green and grey eye stared across the field at the pair, smirking at Magdalen. "An' guessin' ya get ta watch too. Nethradin. Distract 'em." The army of the undead moved quickly, striking to draw away the Demi-angel's participation.

"Ya end starts now."
(Sors Ultovex)
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[21:11] As they finally met face to face Ethan could barely hold it in. This... was what he had been preparing for. Where he knew his life was going to be put at risk. Where giving everything he had was going to be needed if he wanted to come out of this one ahead, or even at all. The man before him was nothing anyone could call 'human' at this point.

"I'm afraid I can't agree with that, though I can't blame you for thinkin' that way. Back then I should've taken care of you for what you did to Jesse. I sat back and hoped that you'd get around to being a better person; to being human. But..."

He shook his head a bit, brows furrowing. His right hand reaches behind his back; his staff glimmering with an immense amount of power. The green foci pulsed with the lifestream's influence unlike any other. The last remaining fragment of Eidolon's star had been cleansed and purified, holding within the feather of a being few could genuinely comapre to; Roko'Roko was a beast on its own level.

"... you're the furthest from one there's ever been. Today's the day you're being put down, Sors."

Ethan's grip tightened upon the staff he held. The spirit that lived within actually cooperating for once and lending as much mana as it could for that next display. A wave of flames tainted by occultic forces was sent towards the army of Nethradin roaming about, yet, the fire was... orange and red. Bright. Despite the strong occultic forces at hand their dark taint could not overpower the purify of Ethan's own flames, merely fueling them further.

"This is for Jesse. This is for what you've done to Lailah. This is for what you've done to the world.

For your sake, I hope you've got a few Necromancers that don't hate you."
(Ethan Hawke)
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[21:14] She's wandered back into the Ultovexian manner, hiding away her presence within the proximity of Dawn if only temporarily to greet the Adjudicator. The emerald eyes stare upon him questioningly, there'd been some inquiries to address of prior events taken place.

That of Elaine's attack on the little Elisheva, the engravings of presently inactive runes, which brighten in the fighting presence of the vile demonic presence meshed inside of her person and sealed to a degree, and a few more topics.

Lailah steps forward, glistening eyes of a worried mien lock with grey and gold, but before she's able to utter a word, a bright flash of green lights the manor's interior-

The soothing presence of her mother, Magdalen Elisheva, and her father, Ethan Hawke, appear from traversing through the Spirit Realm with their method of Wayfinding. The teenager's already glistening eyes filmed over with the dark infection of the void stare at them in a longing, content manner. It finds its way down her cheeks, coating the already dry black stain with another layer of the tar.

Seeing them again churned her stomach, however, and the inactive runes begin to illuminate with their luminous white, flickering sporadically. Eyes close half-way, but she fights.

As per usual, again and again. It was no doubt still a difficult process deep within to fight for one's willpower to come out victorious over the other, but once the battle begins to ensue, the teenager finds herself reeling back away from the two who aim to clash with one another.
(Lailah Elisheva)
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[21:20] And there he is.

Her waking nightmare for a year - in the flesh. No, no. Not this time. The pangs of fear and anxiety are pushed away by the light that ebbs radiant from her. All she can feel is that righteous anger, that hatred that she's never felt in her life before.

That heartache of hers, hatred bundled tightly with her need to protect Lailah. It's like a piece of her was ripped out... And she can fix anything.

"You monster. Give my dearest treasure back!"

She screams aloud, clinks of fallen rune-traced cartridges heard as baleful arcs of her gunblade are swung and slashed. Discharges heard as she wades through the fiends she's happened upon - the cartridge detonations serving to speed up the swings of her weapon-

So as to give her enough space!

She glows gold and white, every circle glowing balefully, her wings blazing behind her, slashes of the mana-charged feathers sundering enemies as if she wielded two extra weapons. Covering her clothing completely are runic patterns stitched in mana-active thread, and entirely layered over her weapon are inlayed, damascened glyphs. All of these glow, and leave glimmering markings in her wake!

"I told you I'm going to temper the blade that sinks into your gut, abomination!"

CLANG

Her blade is embedded in the tiles, a burst of glimmering, gold-veined marble pouring out like a rose of white, to stab at the undead around her. A wall of blades to defend her while she casts something-

A spell that uses every single circuit, artificial and inlayed or stitched on her body. Mana thrums through her form as hands begin to rapidly paint runic circles in the air,layers and layers of them forming.

Her gaze can't help but see Lailah, a breath caught in her thought as her dark-stained form is witnessed

But that only has the light pouring from her flare dramatically! More of that righteous hatred, that justified anger fueling her ultimate spell!

"We're taking you back home, my dearest Lailah Rene Elisheva! One of the irreplaceable, best things I've ever made! We just need to obliterate this monster first!"

Runic circles shine green and gold - six wayfinding runes readied, as the runic matrix she's weaved pours light directly into it, her marble blades defending her from undead attacks as she continues her spell...

But what is it?
(Magdalen Elisheva)
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[21:31] "Ya hav' never been mor' wrong."

The dark flames burned at the wooden floors below them, swallowing it all in a burning smell. The torture room of the Ultovex was getting cramped, and eyes spread out, taking it all in and opening on everything around them. Darkness scarred the skin of each man, but as it struck the Ultovexian's body, the wounds would slowly begin replacing themselves with scarred over skin, life taken from whatever was available.

"Ya say ya 'xpect ma ta b human. But tha's 'xactly wha' I am. I am human. I am tha' most human. Ya look at humanity tha' wrong way. Ya'll think it's some selfless fest, doin' thangs fer others. An' ya'll are so wrong 'bout tha'.

Humanity is all 'bout furtherin' yaself, no one else. It's 'bout obtainin' satisfaction, an' avoidin' pain. Ya were one tha' got in ma way, an' got in it often, yet ya never came out o' tha' woodwork. Ya always hid from ma. Tha' ways ta hurt ya was jus' killin' Jesse.

I still keep his head ya know.

But now tha's different. I hav' a way ta hurt ya, ta maim ya, ta make ya suffer. I found ya kid. I made her take the lives of rats, o' puppies. An' soon she'll take a human life too. Knowin' tha' she'll do tha'? Knowin' I can make her do thangs ya'll would never wish she could?

Tha' is the way I can harm ya Ethan. This is the way I stab inta tha' skin o' ya's tha' hides in shadow."

The chains rattled around him as he spoke of his sadism, of his hate. The flames of Ethan's burned bright orange, but the Ultovexian's own darkness grew around them.

"I am goin' ta keep ya dearest treasure."
(Sors Ultovex)
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[21:38] It hurts. It hurts so bad.

The man's mind was filled with pain, both physical and mental. Was this really all he could muster? His daughter had been taken away and the man before him only seemed to enjoy making her suffer more and more. To make him suffer in a way that he couldn't quite stop. There was no other way to do this but confront him and...

... boy was he strong.

Grit teeth, blood dripping from his fingertips, emerald eyes laid upon the empty ones before him. A defiant soul that did not want to stop. One that wouldn't stop, in fact. He had to live through the pain, to perform even at his lowest. He could not afford to lose, it would only make Lailah's life worse.

"I've... got no one else to blame but myself."

A statement, one that fired up his body with a second wind, that brought up from the floor and into the air - floating strong against the odds.

"... and that's exactly why I'm going to be the one that'll take care of this issue. Lailah's not my treasure— she's much more important than that."

A flash of green appeared around the man who's life was hanging on by a thread, his spirit being pushed to its utmost capacity, his body flickering out of existence as he appeared right before Sors, challenging him head-on.

"She's family!"
(Ethan Hawke)
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[21:50] "She's family?!"

The Ultovexian laughed. "Tha' is the problem wit' ya'll. Ya let sentimentality rule ya lives. Ya believe tha' family is the core ta thangs, tha' because something is family, it makes ya stronger. An' ya are wrong.

A person should only try ta keep wha' they can keep close ta 'em. If family won't listen, ya break 'em o' let 'em go. There ain't no need fer family tha' ya ain't able ta control. Tha's why I ain't gon pursue anyone ya take from ma. No, ya can try all ya want, but tha' weakness ain't exist fer ma."

The invisible chains smashed into the earth as Ethan flickered away from the Adjudicator. Sors was having trouble connecting, but occasionally pale green would streak across the room as he ended up on the other side of Ethan, colliding with an attack. Gravity weighed down heavily around them both as arrows fired at them.

The Adjudicator doesn't dodge. The arrows lodge into his blackened flesh, and he reacts little, but mainly they landed on their target, Ethan. Finally it grew too much, the gravity weighing down on the man and dragging him to the floor.

"Ya are takin' nothin' from ma. Not Lailah, not ma life, not ma entertainment, nothin'. Why? Cause it's like ya said.

I am a monster. An' I still got nightmares ta giv' lives ta take, sufferin' ta make." The invisible chains lurched, throwing Ethan backwards against a wall as the army of Nethradin separated him and Lailah from the pair.

"Hecate. Come."
(Sors Ultovex)
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[22:05] It hurt even more the second time around. Renewed vigor was nothing but bravardo. Provocations lead to nowhere but his own demise. Even with the aging man's insane ability to avoid the blows coming from him eventually the void-tainted cosmic energies hit him head-on, dragging him all the way back across the room.

His body felt weak, but he pressed on. His breath was shallow, but he fought on. He... barely had any strength left, but this was no reason to just give up, was it? A barrage of arrows came alongside the claw marks of the fallen that spread onto the Wayfinder's body, only to be reduced to ashes within moments. He could see his life being drained away, his body barely hanging on by a thread.

"If... you aren't gonna have anything taken from you—"

He was suddenly forced down, his legs caving in to the pressure as he falls to the ground, unable to defend himself. Heavy breaths plagued his words and half-lid eyes kept themselves on the Adjudicator.

"Then—"

He was pulled back. The sound of chains rattling against the heated ground could be heard as the blue-haired one was forced backwards, away from his daughter, away from the man he vowed to take down. He couldn't move. He was... bound, competely so.

"... I hope you won't mind if I start givin' instead!"

That... made little sense. Was the man getting loopy from the wounds? Was it just a joke that no one here could understand? It all seemed pretty odd of him to say, but what else could one expect from Ethan Hawke? With Sors' gaze being kept onto him and Nethradin moving about to wall them off there was no better occasion; a light pulse of green came from his staff as the spirit sealed within it used the very downsized and basic application of Wayfinding it could. The horrible Phil had learned a few things, and despite the commotion, the spirit with Rebirth aimed to teleport something from Ethan's pocket to his daughter's.

A last act of defiance in the face of a man who vastly surpassed him.

He could only hope Magdalen had his back.
(Ethan Hawke)
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[22:05] {Item} You drop Love Chocolate.
[22:25] No. No. This wasn't how it should have gone!

The rune-weave encircled, layered Magdalen frantically paints more glyphs, allowing that righteous hatred an outlet to pour- but it isn't readied. Not yet.

Regardless, she casts the spell early-

"HEAVEN'S DIVIDE!"

During the fight, far, far above Sor's private dungeon, something was appearing in the night's sky. A matrix of green runes, larger then any previous. And from that matrix pours a powerfully glowing shape of marble and light. A pointed shape. A pointed shape aimed directly downwards into the heart of Sor's private dungeon.

And as her circuits ignited - as hands move runes, as the circuits in her throat activate with the naming of her supreme spell, as the ones that encircle her pounding, protective, angry heart flare, as those that connect to her mind igniting and finally, as those that connect to her luminous eyes pour incandescent, that shape from the sky falls.

The world's largest Judgement Blade, no doubt, this sword of Damocles descending and crashing through the roof of his dungeon, smashing through floor after floor, it's golden-illuminated tip aiming to crush Sors entirely...

If only she cast it at a better time, the great weapon breaking up as it falls...

Those marble blades lance outward as crashing and rumbling can be heard above, obliterating the undead around her as she rushes to Ethan's side, to grab him, a six-layered halo of green glyphs floating above her head. Eyes narrow as she stares at Sors, even as hot tears pour down her face. Angry, hatred-filled, and full of her desire to protect.

"Hecate is a stupid name. Her name is Lailah Rene Elisheva."

Luminous, protective eyes look to Lailah's tar-stained own.

"No matter what he does to you. No matter what he makes you do. No matter how much he dies your hair to try to pretend you're his child. No matter how much blood is on your hands. No matter what stupid, unfitting name he gives you. I will always love you. Never forget who you are, that you're my treasure.

I'll take you back home, if it's the last thing I ever do."

And then, that massive blade bisects the room with holy-charged marble and an explosion of light, leaving naught but the vision of Magdalen's blazing eyes as the last thing seen by Lailah. Burning with that protectiveness- those tears falling staining the undead-gore stained ground.

Torn, as before. She wants to stay to save her, that hatred-filled, protective heart burning - and yet her mind knows she cannot. That dissonance brings her immense pain.

But when Sors finally breaks through that crumbling light-blade, he'd find that Magdalen and Ethan are gone.
(Magdalen Elisheva)
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[22:39] Their fight ensued while Lailah cowered, finding her spirit within vulnerable to the Nethradin essence's assault deep down wherein the hushed whispers in her mind come to reverberate loudly.

Blood shed. The battle before her was just that. A blood dripping altercation between the Wayfinding father and the Riftmancing Adoptive with Nethradin and Undead assaulting the former harshly. Her mother's incandescence illuminates the room, as does the luminous white runic markings over scarred flesh shine bright over Lailah's body.

The vulnerability was her downfall in such a moment.

Each word between both men was recorded in the subconscious of her memory; this was a night she'd never forget. The Ultovexian manner was in shambles when her mother's judgmental blade came crashing through the room, piercing each room until meeting the last level.

A flash of green found its way to spark behind the girl; something had appeared within the rucksack she oft wears on her person filled with a collection of books, but something new and presently undiscovered resided in it now. The girl glances back, but as the conclusion of the battle nears, tears trickle down further, staining her face.

And a hand reaches forward; the fear instilled girl attempts to grab at either biological parent. The flash of her mother's eyes is the finality of what's seen, blinding the girl to look away, and when sight returns as the radiance of that soothing aura disperses, she diverts her attention momentarily to that of Sors.

The forward..

But they're gone. Nethradin and Undead alike have been obliterated.

Obedience. It forces her forward - the rattling of chains reverberate around her person, and sporadically still the flickering of runes fade in and out, until eventually they're gone.

Every inch of her body trembles with fear. What's to happen now after their assault? Surely it wouldn't be kind to the girl who traverses forward towards Sors, anticipating the worst of whatever may come.

I'll never forget. She whispers to herself before reaching the man, staring at the spot where her true parents were last seen.
(Lailah Elisheva)
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[22:53] The Ultovexian was unlucky. The Pale green and grey eyes were focused on Ethan, and focused to the point where only after sending him across the room did he feel the above. The power gathering was above normal magnitude, and was soon to descend. The Nethradin and the Undead swarmed Ethan, the Ultovexian losing focus.

"There ain't nothin' ya can giv' tha'll stop wha' I'm doin'."

The army moved, blocking off all access to Lailah as he missed the teleportion that had gone to the girl. Instead, he looked upwards, hearing the words of the Demi-angel as the power he detected began to descend.

"It's real funny. Ya think ya can pull thangs like tha' off. Ya think ya can destroy anything I work towards? Ya are wrong."

As the matrix of light shaped the sword that would fall towards his dungeons, his hands spread upwards. The world itself screamed in pain as a massive rift began to open in the sky. The sound of hundreds, thousands, of rattling chains, destructive energy, sounded to the world around them, wrapping tightly around the blade and the handle and dragging it downwards into the rift that had been opened.

"Ya'll think tha' its angels tha'll save ya, o' anything else divine. Everyone thinks it's some higher force in tha' end. But there is nothin' stronger then a human's selfishness, nothin' mor' powerful then the hatred in ma heart. Not even gods will stand in tha' way o' ma goals."

The sword of Damocles falls, descends, but it never hits the roof of the Dungeon, never falls into the manor of holding. Instead it descends into the rift, into the screaming malice and madness in the lifestream. In a cave somewhere, large walls begin to be decimated as the blade punctures a new target and he turned, facing the Demi-angel and Ethan again.

"I ain't real care. Ya ask ma, Lailah's a stupid name. So's Rene. An' Elisheva. An' I ain't tha' one ta name her anyway."

The Adjudicator gave the biggest shrug one could imagine as he cackled, looking at the Demi- angel as she fled.

"Ya seem ta know nothin' 'bout her situation. I dye her hair, an' make her kill, but I ain't tha' one who's treatin' her like ma child. I ain't tha' one who gav' her a name. No, she ain't ma family until she proves herself loyal ta ma.

She's a tool. One tha' I will use ta hurt ya 'gain an' 'gain.

Ya know nothin', Demi-angel."

There was nothing they could do. The Undead and Nethradin surrounded them, but they were wayfinders, he didn't think the army would capture them. No, he was focused on crushing something else entirely.

Their spirit.

He turned to Lailah, floating towards her.

"Hecate, I think it's time fer mor' trainin'."

The world screamed. A rift opened as he floated through, chains pulling the Elisheva behind him to further hell.
(Sors Ultovex)
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[23:06] Magdalen reforms within the square, wrapping both arms around Ethan and pulling him close, into a squeezing hug.

"You where so brave..."

She declares, eyes dripping fresh tears. This time, instead of despair, she's grateful. Grateul Sors didn't manage to kill him, to take another thing from her.

They're both on their knees, the gentle Angel-blooded hugging and squeezing as the painfully seeping light begins to die down from her form, the rune-weaved threads dimming, while the damascened markings lose their luster. Her eyes still smolder with gold-white light for a time after, regardless...
(Magdalen Elisheva)