Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

The trio takes it, heading inside the spire and taking a right.


With a sudden reaction, the succubus seems to regain control and slides to the side of the uppercut, using a leg sweep to try to knock Petra off balance before pouncing on her; using her momentum to try and flip her and slam her into the ground.

 

A harpy glances at the trio as they approach.
"You're the new guests? You look... more human than I thought."


The succubus winds up skewering herself on the earthen spines following up Petra's attack, inadvertently snaring herself as well as injuring herself. Petra simply uses her momentum on the way down to hammer the succubus' shoulder with a punch just as viciously forceful as the first.

 

"We're not with the demons." The forest guardian says.


The succubus moans in pleasure again, though Petra is met with an unseen force as she goes to hammer the succubus' shoulder. Right before her punch lands, she finds her face hitting a wall which throws her backward. The back of the succubus' foot appears to have buried itself into the center of her face; the succubus appearing to be extremely flexible.

The succubus simply snaps the spine penetrating her, launching herself up without seeming to suffer from the injuries.

 

"Everyone was watching when you arrived. Don't lie," they respond flatly.


Kicking Petra feels about as moot as trying to bash through the succubus' iron skin (albeit resulting in a bit of collateral; her spines easily cut into the succubus' foot), though her small size does result in being knocked slightly off course.
However, snapping the spine results in the force of a powerful earthquake's epicenter ripping through the succubus' body - giving Petra enough time to both safely land and closing the distance again, while also liquefying the bones near the spine. The succubus also suffers from a half a second of the consistency of the slime being reduced to that of water, further giving Petra the opportunity to bounce back.

 

"We traveled with them, but we're not with them. We come from Gaia's Gardens." The forest guardian explains.


As the pain of the damage rips through the succubus' body, she can only convulse in pleasure. To the onlookers, it almost looks as if the pain makes her stronger, before she gets up - seemingly unharmed - looking as if her muscles just went through a hundred workouts.

"Not bad, not bad at all," The succubus says, cracking her neck, "It appears we both underestimated each other."

 

“Gaia? That seems to be a rather common name for a goddess of life...”


“What, you perverts never seen a child who could put up a fight?” Petra asks, though her tone hints at her being serious, “You might not be as much of a predator as your local ilk, but that’s not gonna keep me held back for long.”

 

"It seems so," The forest guardian shrugs, "Where there is life, there is Gaia."

The earth guardian rolls his eyes.

"May we enter?" The earth guardian asks.


The succubus just laughs, before - with what seems like unfair speed - she's behind Petra and has her tight in a chokehold.

 

“The dance tonight is limited to couples, I’m afraid,” the harpy says while shaking their head.


The succubus can’t press against Petra’s hide tight enough to do anything short of carry her - even with her increased strength.
“I gave you a boost, please tell me you’ve got more than that,” Petra taunts.

 

"Oh, I see." The earth guardian says, the trio sharing awkward looks.


The succubus doesn't delay in using the opportunity to simply use Petra as a tool. Holding her by the head, she rapidly swings Petra over her own head - slamming her into the ground either side of her like an ape gone wild. Each successive slam is met with even more force, the momentum threatening to snap Petra's neck.

 

"If you come back tomorrow, it's an open floor."


Petra lets it happen, seeming much sturdier than the succubus expected as the increase in force does little more than cause Petra's scales to cut into her hands.
"Hell, if that's all you got I could've left the limiters on!" She laughs.

 

"Are we allowed to inform the others, or is that a private event?" The earth guardian asks.


"Oh, this isn't my attack. I'm just building up speed." The succubus says as she continues pounding Petra into the ground, momentum building up.

After about a minute - as the succubus' slams become incredibly fast, Petra feels slightly nauseated as the world spins around her in less than a millisecond, the force of the succubus' speed multiplied by her now gargantuan strength being focused on a small point of Petra's back. Those with good enough eyesight would see the succubus quickly flip around, barely letting go of Petra before slamming her back down over her diamond-cut knee; threatening to tear her in half from the force alone. Only in the aftermath of the succubus' spin does a mist begin to appear, obfuscating Petra's perception of the world and worming it's way into her mind to submit to the succubus' will.

 

“You may inform the others.”


Petra winds up using this attack against her, the succubus’ hands landing on an earthen spike as she begins to reach mach speed. From there, spikes shoot throughout her body from within, with one small difference;
The hallowed ground rapidly negates the succubus’ demonic power from within, her nerves defying their usual delivery of pleasure as her gargantuan strength is sapped just as fast as it regenerated during the earthquake.
Petra knocks the succubus off-balance in attempts to bring her the rest of the way to the ground instead of freeing herself as she tries to full-on impale the succubus with the now hallowed battlefield.

The nature of the ground near Petra makes it hurt for the other demons to look in its direction, as if it was a type of magic made specifically to combat their kind within hell.

 

"We'll be back tomorrow, then." The forest guardian says.

"Are there any other events going on?" The air guardian inquires.


The succubus hisses, though falls to the ground; unable to attack. Her allies look away, pained at the sight of both the succubus' downfall and the hallowed ground.

 

“No, just the dance. Pretty much everyone else is working overtime because of... well, you.”


She falls on one more hallowed spike, piercing one of her breasts while narrowly avoiding her heart.
The throbbing reminder of sudden mortality pulses through the succubus’ body as Petra puts one foot on the succubus’ gut.
“Do you yield, or am I going to have to drag you to the med wing?” She asks with a smirk, earthen shackles pinning the succubus’ limbs down to the ground.

 

"We're not causing a problem, are we?" The forest guardian asks, concerned.

"While we're not staying here for long, we'd happily lend a hand to make things easier for you." The earth guardian adds.


Just as Petra finishes her sentence, she's silenced. A projectile pierces through Petra's skull and tears through her brain - her armoured scales seeming to do nothing to protect her; even seeming to help the projectile pass and increasing it's damage. The second buries itself in Petra's heart, a vampiric essence seeming to absorb her blood and leaving her heart empty as she begins to feel faint.

A strong, scar-ridden incubus stands holding what looks like a hellish crossbow with a metal skull at the end, a red glow from it's eye sockets. Another armour piercing bolt seems to be readied to fire. With his free hand, he holds back the half-spider - presumably trying (and failing) to stop him from interrupting the fight. The bat demon's large ears betray her attempt to try and hide behind the incubus, likely having snitched on the battle when it was obvious the succubus wasn't going to win. The slime demon lays in a puddle beneath the incubus' feet. She doesn't appear to be dead, but can't seem to form properly.

"You stay away from her you little bitch." The incubus says, staring directly at Petra.

"I've got more where that came from." The skull at the end of the crossbow cackles.

 

“We expected another week before anyone came, to be honest. We also didn’t expect this m-“
They seem distracted, as the room suddenly falls silent and everyone who was dancing arms themselves while getting into a defensive formation guarding the doorway.
“To murder a child in the dead of night... you certainly make for poor diplomats,” the harpy snarls.


The incubus is promptly locked in hardlight restraints and separated from his crossbow by another guard.
“You better have a good reason to break rule number one,” the other guards growl as all sorts of swords, lances, axes, and rifles are pointed at the demons, “because you sure gave us one.”

The hallowed ground fades and the succubus’ shackles crumble to dust as Petra lies dead next to her.

 

"What? We've been here the entire time!" The earth guardian protests.

"We spoke with a guard earlier about that...evil guy at the bottom of the huge pit around this place! We've not killed anyone, we swear!" The air guardian says, sounding terrified.

"I'm certain there's some confusion between both of us here," The forest guardian says calmly, "I swear on my dedication to Lady Gaia, we have no relation to any murders here."


The succubus weakly sits up, coughing, looking over the corpse of Petra, seeming a little surprised.

"You...leave him alone." The succubus says, trying to be intimidating as she stumbles to her feet.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? My soul rests in hell, and I'll see you all there with me." The incubus says with spite.

The guard that took the crossbow from the incubus finds an evil laughter infesting their mind. Suddenly, they feel like the only way to get the laughter out of their mind is to shoot a hole through their brain to let it all drain out like water.

The bat demon tries to make an escape, her wings growing slightly to assist her flight away.

 

“Oenimoras... throw them to Oenimoras? I suppose that would punish them, but...” the harpy mutters.


The doors slam close as another guard enters, throwing the crossbow in a pocket dimension - though, not before the other guard can introduce the skull to hallowed light.
The succubus finds herself facing down a hallowed blade, with the guard holding it silently telling her to kindly shut up or else.

“You willingly signed an agreement to anchor your soul here. You’re not going to be killed and reincarnated, and you’re certainly not going back,” the guard says, stern.
“I mean, they’re used to that, right? Why not just smite him eternally?” Another guard interjects.
“Get this - one of their own suggested we throw him to Oenimoras!”
Half the room bursts out in laughter; none of that half overlapping with those actively threatening the demons.
“See, I think you forgot that you’re here to prevent us from destroying your reality. Would you agree that murdering a child doesn’t quite further that goal?” The guard restraining the incubus asks.

 

"Who are we talking about, exactly?" The forest guardian asks.


The crossbow seems unaffected, whatever demonic magic stored in the weapon appearing immune. It does protest to being 'tossed about like some human trash' however. The bat demon freezes up, trying to look innocent and cute.

"If I may interject, the child did sort of put herself at the risk of death when she willingly agreed to fight." The slime demon says from beneath the incubus.

"While the murder was inappropriate, she wasn't exactly cooperative when all we wanted to do was explore your reality. I can't blame one of our own for her desire to fight for us, though by the way this ring is set up and concealed, I hardly think this fighting thing is legal." The half-spider says.

"No, it's probably as legal as it can be considering these guards could just overpower anyone who tried to stop them from doing it." The slime demon adds.

"Regardless," The half spider continues, "I think this is merely a misunderstanding and some of us jumped to conclusions we shouldn't have. Wouldn't you agree?"

The half spider turns to the incubus with a judgemental look.

"I'm sorry for acting so violently when I heard that my partner was about to be blasted with holy magic by some four-foot menace in an underground fight club," The incubus protests, seeming annoyed, "Are you all so dimwitted you don't know how to revive someone, either? You can just ask one of those tree hugging forest guardians to do it if you're that incompetent."

 

“An incubus from your reality shot a child through the skull. At least they went painlessly...” the harpy sighs.


“You don’t get it. There are guards everywhere because this is the barracks,” one guard snaps.
“Intervening in a sparring match is low, anyways.”
“Besides, rule number one is that fighting to the death is forbidden.”
“Wait. I don’t think they understand,” one guard says, stepping forward and lowering their weapon.
“Resurrection is possible, but the nature of this reality is that all memories of the soul are wiped clean upon resurrection. We can mend Petra’s body and put her soul back inside, but she’ll have no recollection of anything - not even her name. Once you die in this reality, your old life is completely over. You have no idea who you once were, what you once did, who you once loved. There’s nothing to jog your memory aside from rebuilding your life from scratch,” the guard explains, “Unlike in your home, there are no second chances here.”
“Not even phoenix remember upon rebirth.”