Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

There aren't any portals to charge toward. Most of the portals have closed, and the few that are open and dispensing Shadows surely couldn't fit a beast as big as Xlentia.

Ruby starts missing the occasional Shadow, and some of her attacks leave Shadows barely alive. The poison begins to rot Ruby's mind, both powering her attacks to deal more damage, but taking a greater toll on Ruby herself, like a portion of the damage she deals is dealt to herself.

The daggers continue forming, only a small percentage of the Shadows beginning to fall to the effects of the hypnofire.


A Shadow looks at Ihra, confused slightly, before continuing it's assault.

 

Well, not really, now.
I look around, and wait for an opening to shoot at Xelentia or Ruby.

 

Ruby seems taxed...
...then remembers she has no mind to lose as she pulls out her pure mage crystal staff.
"Well well well..."
She focuses on those who tried to poison her, her beam burning twice as bright.

Xlentia seems to have some give, a link barely visible between her and Ihra.

Xlentia is an open target, but Ruby is wildly swinging a death ray around. Maybe hiding near Xlentia wouldn't be a bad idea for Crystal's sake.

 

Most of the ones that tried to poison her have since disappeared. Something strong grabs Ruby's staff, wrenching it away from her with a large amount of strength.

The daggers fully form, held by what appears to be strange, glitch-like hands. They pull outwards, before piercing Xlentia's eyes and digging around in them.

 

Whatever grabbed Ruby's staff is extremely prone to disintegration as her focus turns to the daggers, Xlentia screaming as her eyes bleed.

Ihra looks around for her friends, but upon seeing none, sighs and starts whispering something, clutching her staff like her life depends on it.

 

The daggers pull out of Xlentia's eyes, and if they weren't ripped out in the process, jam themselves back into the tops of her eyes and attempt to pop them out like pills stuck in a packet.

The force pulling Ruby's staff disappears for a few seconds, before double the force comes from two sides, one force pulling from the top of the staff and the other where Ruby holds it.

 

Ruby traces the force, then turns her beam to it. Otherwise, she starts forming an energy prison around the largest group of shadows and seals off the portals.

Ihra's body starts to fade.

 

As she turns her beam to the force, Ruby's head is grabbed and wrenched upward like it's trying to be pulled off.

After digging around the upper parts of Xlentia's eyes, the daggers shove themselves in the lower parts, almost certainly causing Xlentia's eyes to be cut out of their sockets.

 

The daggers seem to be stopped by her telepathy, barely holding on...
"You... m-monster..." She grunts, weakening.

Ruby sighs.
"Sorry, Mistress..."
She vaporizes the shadows inside the prison, then quickly lets loose her overwhelming power on the shadow behind her manipulation - likely the queen herself, as Ruby singles her out as her body disintegrates.
Ruby's detonation and the destruction of the pure mage crystal only goes to increase the power released in Ruby's final attack.

Xlentia falls completey unconscious as Ihra's staff clatters against the floor.

 

There's some resistance shown in breaching the dimensional gap between the void and the Realm of Shadows, but the attack mostly gets through, the hands holding the daggers shaking slightly and dropping them, before disappearing.

Once Xlentia falls and Ruby disappears, there's immense cheering from the masses of Shadows left alive.

 

As the storms die down and the hypnofire clears, there's a hell of a lot of destruction, Cecil and Thirteen standing barely out of the carnage.

Ihra's staff crystal flashes once, then Xlentia's eyes seem to slowly mend themselves.

An Emerald scaled draconian opens the door to Xlentia's chambers just enough to get in.
"Would you mind? There are people trying to rea- what the hell...?"

 

Most of the Shadows turn to Emerald, a sea of red eyes gazing at her. Most seem confused on whether or not they should attack or not.

"Friend or Foe?" A Shadow shouts from the crowd.

 

"Just keep it down, people are trying to read." Emerald says, leaving. "Congratulations, by the way."

 

A short round of cheering later, portals begin opening again, and the army of Shadows begin funneling out.

 

A cloaked Sapphire sneaks through one of the portals, curious.

A winged serpent slides into the room, silently observing the departing army.

 

Sapphire feels her mind being read as soon as she steps through the portal, a guard staring directly at her with glowing eyes. A short moment later, the feeling disappears, the guard resuming duty as another guard appears on the other side of the portal.

The portals lead to a large army barracks of sorts, thousands of Shadows entering through multiple portals and walking into a side part of the palace, the barracks fitted to it. One of the guards near to Sapphire speaks into a crystal in Shadow Tongue, getting a response back in the same language. There's quite a lot of talking between the Shadows, they seem to be talking about the battle and how happy they are it's over, as well as Xlentia and Ruby and the troubles and close calls they faced. The lines of Shadows split apart near the middle as the Shadow-Beast riding Shadows exit through their own larger portals.


Thousands of Shadows exit the room through dark portals scattered around. It seems that the portals are sorted for each type of Shadow, Shadow Guardians taking separate portals to the normal ones.

 

Sapphire's mind seems blank, curiosity the only readable thing.
She slides outside the barracks, still curious.

The serpent keeps an eye on the Shadow Guardians, before a book sneaks its way through, cloaked within a shadow.

 

The back of the Shadow Palace looms over Sapphire ominously, it's massive size not comparable to that of Xlentia's palace, but still pretty big. Sapphire suddenly feels her arms held behind her back, and a knife at her throat.

"State your business here, draconian! You got any weapons on you, hm? Trying to assassinate anyone!?" A guard shouts at her.


The book makes it past the guards, assumed to be collected by the Shadow as a memento.

 

Startled, Sapphire's mask falls off.
"I-I... uh... u-unarned." She stammers.

The book lets off a small pulse of energy, just enough to get the shadow's attention.

 

The Shadow frisks her, and upon finding no weapons, steps back.

"So what did you think you were doing trying to get through the portal unseen, hm?" The guard asks, calmer than before.


"Huh?" The Shadow says, grabbing the book.