Tasty|Mystic Temple, Naurorod

[tuo]

Etch shook his head as the other mystic helped him back to his feet, head still muddled somewhat from Demetria's influence. "Ugh...get out of here, there isn't much time brother. We, we can't stop this...forgive me." He said with his thoughts partially settling from a disjointed state as he turns his attention to Demetria and tapped into all of his elements before unleashing them at Demetria to try to distract her from Meeka.

However, before Etch could unleash that build up of element power, Bael lunged at him once free of the lava attack and crashed into him hard enough to break bones and send him crashing to the ground. "I told you mortal.." Bael growled in anger while reaching down for Etch's head. "You do not get to harm Demetria!"

[Kender Bard]

"ETCH!" Meeka screamed. Demetria gave her a backhand strong enough to knock her to her knees before turning and lunging for the last standing mystic, who was sending a bolt of lightning at Bael. Demetria bowled into him and set to feeding rapidly, trying to replenish her lost energy and heal her wounds.

Meeka scrambled back up and threw herself bodily at Bael. She didn't have the time to summon up the lava flow again and any other use of her sign tended to be laughably weak. So was the flailing of her fists, but she didn't care. She sobbed and tried to pry Bael off Etch. "Leave him, monster!"

[tuo]

Bael lifted Etch up by his head, chuckling at the pain caused by that as well as Meeka's feeble attempts to harm him. "Was this all the resistance you have? Pathetic."

Through the pain and disorientation of his injuries and being lifted by his head, Etch struggles to keep enough focus to gather his elemental power, bringing an arm up to activate all of his signs. Hearing Meeka cry out as she did he struggles to speak. "I'm..sorry my love.." Drawing more deeply from his elemental signs than ever before, he unleashes it all towards or centered on the demon that had him at his mercy while praying that Meeka could somehow forgive him failing here and that she will not suffer at the hands of these monsters.

Just as Bael had decided to see how much damage it would cause Meeka by crushing Etch's skull when the wind suddenly picked up around him and flung him into the air, Etch still in his grip even as the still hot lava left over from Meeka's own attack was pulled into the air after him to cover the left side of Bael's torso.

While still in the air, the last of Etch's power was thrown at Bael at point blank range in the form of a powerful bolt of lightning, striking the demon but also sending deadly sparks flying in random directions from the lack of control.

[Kender Bard]

"Etch!!" Meeka screamed, falling to her knees, lightning falling all around her. How could this happen? How could the Forces allow it to happen? Etaf had warned them, but another Force had reminded them of the power of free will. Why bother, if it wasn't going to help at all?

Demetria finished mopping up the remaining mystics before moving up behind Meeka, wings raised to help shield against any errant lightning bolts. Meeka just stared on in mute horror.

"Poor woman," Demetria crooned, reaching out to cup Meeka's cheek. "Love hurts so much, doesn't she? Why, she can utterly destroy a person. Let me put an end to that suffering. I'll be so very sweet about it."

Meeka closed her eyes. "Do as you wish. There's no point in fighting it." Once, she would ahve uttered these words to surrender the will of Etaf, to numb the pain of having no control of the horrors in her life. Now, she'd take what control she could grasp, small as it would be. As Demetria closed in on her, she reached out a hand suddenly to rake fingernails across the demon's face. Demetria recoiled with a cry of pain, blood dripping from ragged scratches.

"You bitch!" Demetria snarled, releasing her aura of lust again.

Just before Meeka succumbed to the demon's embrace, she thought, Etch, I'm coming with you, my love.