Prickly

  The castle was empty of security, the forces of Faerune had whittled it dowime, and corpses litter the path Asahi's party walks. It looks like the fighting was tough for both sides, but to the throne room before their party did. Asahi opens the door to the throne room, and duchess Eliana sits upohrone across from the door. Rowan and Kharn stalk between the pilrs watg the party ehe loyal retinue of the duchess still standing strong. The duchess herself looks upon the party in exhaustion. No amount of decorative banners from the past cheer up the duchess, not that they ever did. Most of the decorations never made seher, like the weird-looking giant colr iween them.

  "So my end has finally e, tell me, what is to be of my future?" She doesn't seem to io put up a fight, aher does her retinue.

  "You will be arrested fh treason, and beheaded after a fair trial." Asahi doesn't see a reason to lie, and as such simply tells her what is to bee of her.

  "I see, my children will probably suffer the same fate, sidering high treason is for the entire family." A light chuckle escapes from the duchess, she would have at least wanted a future for her little daughter. As she hangs her head i, Asahi makes his way to the baly overseeing the eastern side of the city. He takes out a bright crystal, its divine shine being visible from the inside of his bag. A mighty artifact brought to them from another world, something that would bring God's light back to a broken world.

  As Asahi releases the crystal, it floats and fixes itself on the baly, the light from it engulfs the corrupted city in a warm, soothing light. A direct link to a fn God of light, the influence of the God is enough to dispel and weaken the creatures that roam this rotten city, soldiers are blinded, eldrittities retreat underground, and demons fall from the sky. The holy power of the God is enough to turide wherever Malens are fighting, invigorating allies during the entire process.

  Somewhere he walls, a soldier finds himself uo properly block the light obsg his vision, somewhere in the slums an eldritch horror doient armor along with a halberd while taking cover in the shadows. The light shines off metal from a slime as it glistens while workers do their best to aid in shaping her, and in the bastions of the former noble district a demon fights for her life as the light empowers her enemies.

  A fragile hope blossoms for all Faerunians that moment, not just hope for victory, but a hope for a better tomorrow. Once more a God is there to watch over them, once more they do not o fear the night. Maybe, just maybe, they even dare to hope that things will be eveer than they used to be.

  Hope for all Faerune except Malencia, as a tear belonging to Eliana falls on the ground.

  "I hope you are satisfied with destroying my city and people, maybe one day I will taste that hope as well when I see you destroyed." The g noise of high heels leaves the throne room, the duchess rushing off higher into the castle in search for the room where her daughter is hiding.

  Asahi's party ighe duchess as she runs off, she has o run anyway, and God's light is so beautiful at this moment. It's even so beautiful that the party doesn't notice the figuriing a mermaid starting to glow ohrone Eliana so hastily left behind. The space above the throne begins to break apart at the seams, and a crude tear in space reveals the face of a creature that doesn't belong in this world.

  The monster emerges from the fracture, and rushes over to the baly, throwing Tolbert aside. The force cracks the baly balustrades, nearly causing the dwarf to fall. Before any of the party stop the monster, it reaches the crystal emanating God's light, and crushes it with its mighty cws. It quickly follows up it's attack by charging at Nalia, but gets thrown overhand by Asahi back within the keep itself. He was too slow, and now the crystal that brought hope to Faerune lies shattered on the floor in front of him. The hated mermaid looks more armored tha saw her, and on her face she carries a nasty look no monster should ever have, glee.

  Her arrival is hailed by a portal, and a knight pte armor emerges from it. The knight is clearly not human, and not just for being in league with Esstrey. The pte armor is pitch-bck, and instead of hands a it has masses of tentacles instead, within on of the clumps of tentacles is a pin steel halberd. Without warnirey fires her crossbow at Larielle, who mao barely dodge out of the way of immi death. Tolbert moves to engage Esstrey in close-quarters, but gets intercepted by the knight instead. The knight isn't skilled, but its unventional movement makes up for its ck of skill. Asahi attempts to bisect the knight, but mid-swing a monstrous mouth opens up in the midriff of the armor, f Asahi to retreat.

  Another bolt flies through the room, and finds purchase in Asahi's shin. The momentary stagger being enough for the unskilled knight to make use of. Unfortunately for the monstrous duo, Asahi is far from alone. An arrow finds purchase in the knight's eyeslit, while a barrier blocks the strike. Esstrey is pelted with magid smokebombs for her part, and tries to throw... something at the wolf assassin. All she ends up aplishing is making the area around the wolf slightly more moist.

  The strikes of the hero's party seem to shift in focus from Esstrey to the knight, as it bees clear that while certainly though, it's much less apt at defending itself tharey is. Tolbert charges it while Asahi duels it, and succesfully bring its 'legs' out from u. Xyrashi Nalia and Larielle are doing their best to keep Esstrey busy while Asahi moves to behead the knight to end its interference. His strike beheads it, and the helmet of the knight rolls uselessly away. A momentary breath of relief for the front liners as their enemy t is reduced to one once more, Esstrey watches just in time to see the helmet leave the body of the knight, and fury repces her arrogant smile. The air around the keep begins to grow dry, and the sewers below begin to flow in strange dires as well.

  Before Esstrey enact her vengeance, Asahi and Tolbert are knocked on their asses as something slithers out from beh them. A creature emerged from the armor, the same ohat had ambushed them in the woods wheried to defeat Esstrey st time, a monster shaped in a mog imitation of a maid. Asahi charges forward to strike down Cathy properly, but gets his jaw broken by the heft of a crossbow for his efforts. Fadunia is quickly by his side, knowily when she o not be seen and when needing to be present. As he feels his jaw set bato pce, he thinks to himself that none of his enemies really beat him as much as the mermaid ever does, and currently she looks exceptionally pissed.

  Cathy retreats behirey together with the halberd in her limbs, she opens a portal and stabs the halberd through it. The pointy end of the on pierces Fadunia, but misses her vitals. The priest quickly retreats while healing herself and cursing The Beyond food measure. Seeing that Cathy isn't a beheaded corpse right now makes Esstrey slightly less angry, but cold fury remains on her face. The fight gets interrupted by two additional teams joining the fight. A squad of liquidators along with one of the flying demons arrives from the stairs to the roof, while a squad of padins arrive to reinforce the Hero's party. Their loud fighting attracted more forces to the fight, as both sides fighting outside realize that the keep could very well decide the fate of Malencia.

  The squad fires a volley at Larielle, and the shock of their arrival nails them some solid hits. Padins rush in to cut down the colborators, but one is instantly killed by Esstrey as she bashes his skull in with her crossbow. She uses her magic to fling his corpse at a sed, who tries to back off from the relentless assault, but he's beheaded for his effort of desperate survival as a halberd spears him from behind. The remaining two padins successfully back away from the monstrous duo to rally with the hero. Asahi and Tolbert attempt to get close to Esstrey and Cathy while they are still looking at the padins, but fire and lightning blocks their advance as the demon unleashes destructive magics. The magic gets blocked by Nalia, who unches an attack of her own on the demon. Water begins to ruhe floor of the throne room, tripping up a aced to fighting on sy terrain.

  Xyrashi goes invisible and jumps between the liquidators, killing one and injuring ahe quick reflexes of the liquidators allows them to make a quick stab at Xyrashi, who is forced to retreat to Fadunia lest she gets caught while weak. With the demon suppressed, Asahi and Tolbert advance again on the main monsters of Malencia to lock them in bat. While they are locked in a melee, the padins waste no time to move to finish off the liquidators, who retreat upstairs with their wounded rade. One of the padins gives chase, while the other cuts down the demon who was in a magical duel. Just as the demon falls to the ground, it bees expoially more difficult for the Faerunians to move. The water has risen to knee-height now, and Asahi is starting to seriously wonder where the hell it's all ing from.

  He looks at Esstrey, only to find herself focused less on them, and more on the surrounding area. She spread her arms wide, and the water obeys her and. Fadunia forms a protective barrier from the water, but Tolbert and the padin that stayed both get swept up in the current. More water pours in, carrying bodies of both sides while it does so, it seems that a fight had started outside the throneroom as the forces attempted to behead the enemy leaders, and are now all joined in the whirlpool so high in the keep. An officer Asahi knows well float by, struggling in his dire in an attempt to get in the bubble of safety. Asahi mao grab his hand and pull him in, but as he pulls harder and harder he suddenly falls back, and finds that the arm of the officers has broken off of him.

  The room is fully submerged now, and Asahi just barely get a glimpse of Esstrey who seems to be swaying side to side like a seaweed in the ter of the whirlpool. ed arouail is the maid-thing, and the spiderlike legs she had in the forest are fully out now as well. The maid detaches from the mermaid, and picks up the armor that somehow mao not get swept up. It grows over her instantly, and the knight is back while slithering over the submerged floor. She stabs at the barrier that roteg them, and when that doesn't work, begins stabbing in Nalia's dire. Asahi tries to defend her, but they have been pinned down. The shallow wounds inflicted by the maid is enough to force Fadunia to focus on healing, and now Nalia is forced to maintain the defensive barrier while she is the only one who could possibly do signifit damage right now.

  Asahi's frustration reaches a boiling point, and he sshes back at the knight ier. By some kind of miracle, he mao cut off a clump of tentacles f one of her hands, but his moment of glory doesn't st. The area where Esstrey was is y, and he is now stuck with the mermaid in a submerged room. Sure enough, his fears are proven correct, as the mermaid swims close to the barrier with a small armored individual. Tolbert is doing his best to break free of Esstrey's grip, but the dwarf was he best swimmer. She begins to pull on his helmet, and the csps begin to break off one by one uhe sheer force. When all csps break, Asahi sees a sad look in his old friend's eyes for the first time in a long time, and the st time forever as Esstrey tears his head off, and thhly pulps it. Larielle stares in horror, Xyrashi cries in e, Fadunia cries in terror, and Nalia is filled with rage.

  They don't get long to recover from what ractically a taunt, as Esstrey drops the heavy headless corpse above the barrier, causing it to drift slowly into their bubble. Fadunia is immediately upon Tolbert's corpse, and the knight tinues her offensive of small cuts. Asahi has trouble holding the knight at bay without the aid of Fadunia, and he knows that the knight is not the main problem right now. He tries to track the movements of the mermaid, but loses her as a small stab from the halberd cuts Xyrashi in the leg. Asahi desperately tries to defend Xyrashi, and he believes he's dead for a moment as he hear a slightly muffled but distinctive sound of the massive crossbow the mermaid carries. There's no noise, no scream. He look around to see Xyrashi Larielle and Nalia safe, but Fadunia...

  Fadunia ierced through the throat, her scream cut off before it ever began. She tries to heal herself in desperation, but the force of the bolt carried her to the edge of the barrier, where Esstrey's spiderlike limbs gh with ical ease. I moments, Fadunia wao desperately scream, but she couldn't as she was dragged into the water. Esstrey's crossbow has many entments, uer use being a logical one. Asahi tries to think of something, anything to get them out of the hellhole, but is pushed aside by Xyrashi, who gets pierced by the halberd through the chest. The knight ehe bubble while everyone was distracted, and there's no Fadunia to save Xyrashi. A loud thud is followed near Larielle as the rge mermaid ehe ranger with her shovel, she won't st seds, but Asahi stares at the knight in frozen shock. Eyes like stars, skin like space. One being that rips apart space, ahat makes holes in them.

  "Asahi get it together! I won't let this bee a party wipe!" Nalia colpses the barrier in a final act of desperation, and bsts Asahi with explosive magic full-force. He's unched out of the keep, a keep currently in the ter of a storm with water spewing out of it. Lighting strikes frequently, and the death of the light seems to have reinvigorated the Malens as they start another offensive. Shortly after standing up he sees the mermaid at the baly with Nalia's head in her cw.

  With that, he is now alone in this fucked up world.

  Prickly