Board Thread:Random RP/@comment-26444332-20170731031801/@comment-26444332-20171108011521

‘I think it’s time this ended.’ Catherine finally shouted, before throwing her arms out to her sides. ‘Desiring with supreme ardor…’ As she spoke, magic circles formed in front of her palms, and the grips of weapons appeared. ‘Bring down the hammer against witches!’ She grasped the weapons and pulled them through, revealing a long flintlock musket and a short pistol, also a flintlock. Behind her, a third magic circle had been concealed; this one disgorged a clock with no face, only spinning gears and the ever-ticking hands. She leveled the musket at Kurenai. ‘Zaphkiel! Aleph Bet!’

The Crimson Witch flinched as the Inquisitor fired a lethal shard of magical energy at her, but Kurenai quickly recovered and dodged.

‘A Relic.’ she spat. ‘You really will stoop to anything.’

‘Of course. Wouldn’t you, Tsui Ling, Bloodstained Witch? The Inquisition knows what happened to the city of Izumo, and even if the Demon Sin can forgive, we won’t.’

‘I don’t expect you to. But… I still have a card up my sleeve.’ she replied, and Catherine actually paled at the implication and wondered if she hadn’t pushed the Witch straight to the ace that all mages carried; it might leave the Falcon Sin defenseless and weak after, but that was the price one paid for the ability to flatten any opposition. Kurenai’s next words had the Black Witch of the Inquisition scrambling to erect wards and defensive boundaries.

‘Dance, dance, God of Thunder.

Come thunder, come lightning.

Nothing lives forever.’

Catherine swore softly as she continued to build up barriers between her and Kurenai, knowing it wouldn’t be enough; she had pushed too far, too quickly, fatally miscalculating the fine line between anger enough to make a mistake and anger enough to use a Noble Art.

‘An instant, a flash, indulge in pleasure.’

Catherine gave up on barriers and began summoning as many Echoes as she could, feeding on thousands to increase her strength– that was the reason she had taken the position as the chief Inquisitor of this city, this deplorable place where so many died and so many were still remembered. As her orange-red Flow began to illuminate her from within for the sheer quantities of power she was taking in, she began casting her own Noble Art, hoping she still could find a way to make it work.

‘Abandon all in the blink of an eye.

Do not despair– tonight the banquet is held in honor of Death.’ Kurenai continued.

‘I sang in the morning when the world turned young,

I danced among the stars when the moon died out,’

Catherine began, not knowing if she would finish.

‘''Perish, perish, perish, perish. Purge all life, enlightenment comes easily''.’ Kurenai chanted, picking up her pace slightly.

‘I played in the fields of a distant land,

And watched the sunlight fade away.’

Catherine stumbled through the words for her haste, knowing she wasn’t in the proper mind to cast, hoping the spell would not backfire.

‘Share with all this uplift, this joy, the freedom of oblivion!’

‘Daughter of Oaths!’ Catherine finished, orange-red Flow crackling and freezing the air around her for its potency. But despite that, she knew it wouldn’t be enough.

‘Curse of the Storm King: Dance of Lightning!’ Kurenai chanted a half-second later, and Catherine was subjected to the worst pain she had ever felt as bolts of red lightning, a tornado of crackling scarlet electricity, struck the ground where she stood and leveled the Mages’ Quarters, the city walls, and everything else for a quarter-mile.

Azarias's eyes widened a fraction, and he threw up a massive shield in the form of his magic circle as a massive torrent of red lightning and fire comes to earth  behind them, throwing the group several dozen meters: only Azarias's shield protected them from the worst of it, as houses catch fire and begin to burn fiercely.

'We need to go, now, while they're still recovering!' Azarias shouts, before throwing one hand in the air. 'I seek the raging tempest!'

While his incantation has no noticeable effect, the Paladin drags Astron to his feet and gives him a push. 'Go, now!'