Private Force of Nature

[Arianna Belasko]

The skin and muscles and blood that had been extracted formed into three different Witches Vivian had killed and absorbed over the years.

From the blood formed a green skinned, slender Twi'lek woman with a hazel gaze. From the Muscles formed Darth Ryluss, a fair skinned thin brunette of middle age and from the skin formed The Clustering, a strange looking Sithspawn woman with blue skin and a crested head. Ritual rune marks soon appeared all over their bodies.

"There are still more Assassins inside this temple. Find them and clear them out..." Vivian ordered. "No survivors."

The flesh spawns nodded, each bound to her will, and powered by a fragment of her essence, not truly separate beings and begin to walk into other, unexplored sections of the temple, the runes on their skin glowing as their flesh shuddered somewhat, while Vivian decided to head to where she suddenly sensed Laertia...

Meanwhile...

Xiphos didn't hesitate to take up Naivia Neryn on her offer, and immediately flanked it as best she could, even though she sensed whatever this monster was, it was far from the real threat. Merely a threshold.

She was still going to kill it.

Her blade came out, slicing and hacking into the monstrosity, while Rebecca shot it's face.

Xiphos in the meantime was just relieved the woman wasn't scared of her. She found too many outside the House of Io were these days.

She almost missed the days when she wasn't given a second thought. When she could be quiet and play with her rabbits. But those days were no more.

Now it was only triumph or die...

Xiphos swung her saber for it's neck...

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Many of us remember ourselves as children, weak, delicate but curious as hell! We can't spend even a second without the sudden falls and rapid rises that are actually climbing trees and "flying" on swings, surrounded by the sweet silence of spring and the gentle breeze that plays with our hair like a living thing and tickles the toes of our little feet, and beside you stands a whole army of nannies who, if anything, will pick you up with their strong feminine hands and immediately fill your head with all sorts of verbal treatment, lest you cry and call for your mother, thus putting a cross over the fate of these good women in theory. This feeling always overwhelmed Neryn when she realised that her imagination was ahead of her again and that in front of her was in fact an ordinary monster and thanks to Singing Fire she had adjusted her force so that she would not have to break the ice of many kilometres to the centre of the planet, for in that state she was capable of such madness and stunning strength of soul and mind. Speaking of history, though the girl knew roughly her birthplace, she sometimes had her doubts that one day it would turn out that her whole life was a silly childish dream and she would finally wake up in some place untouched by time or movement or voice or word or light or silence. . and in front of her would be a bare garden, open for exploration and for learning...Her little private world...But those were dreams, memories of the past wrapped up in the stuffing of the well-read and brilliantly gifted girl that in almost 35 years of her life Neryn had managed to become. She wasn't particularly proud of it so openly, but in her heart she knew the value of her existence and if one day she had to give her life for her dream or the dream of someone close to her, she would do it without a second thought. For now the best thing she could do was to wake up and surround them with a special barrier that could be passed by people either trusted by Xiphos or Neryn and no one else. She stood up and smiled, ran her finger over the cave, touching the icy walls, and came full circle back to where she had been at the start, where she clapped her hands and said, in a language unknown to her, but having something to do with the core of her being and her essence.

"Take me the river dry and fill thee depths with my blood, and love the river dry, my heart hot...From birth to death...Remember the river about me"
(translation of what she said)

The barrier was invisible, but inside they felt a special tranquillity and ease of life, as if they were in a quiet garden, hidden from the gaze of mortals and the gaze of the gods...

"Thit seems to be all... Is there anything I can help you with, Xiphos?" Neryn asked.

Laertia Io
Arianna Belasko

 

[Arianna Belasko]

The naked Witches, whose flesh shuddered, covered in runes Vivian had summoned from her own flesh inflicted terrible magics upon the guardians of this Ancient Temple. Ryluss reached into their minds, filling them with Confusion while the Twi'lek Witches whispered terrible blood curses that caused blood to boil in these weak Assassins. Parts burst into flames! Impressively large, powerful flames. The blue skinned Witch had seized a Vibro Sword, charging into the thickest combat, the limbs and various manner of viscera spraying onto the walls from her blood thirsty attacks. Ryluss led the charge, her flesh shuddering as it channeled more magic to truly disgusting, horrific levels to reach into Multiple minds. It was a shame they were to destroy this temple...she would have enjoyed studying it...

The Blue skinned Witch screamed as she was blasted to ashes by a Sonic Disruptor, body breaking down hidiously into ashes. The two surviving Witches dived behind cover. It didn't matter if they had Armor or didn't. Nothing took a Disruptor to the chest and walked...

But these unnatural beings were still dangerous. It's just that when a hallway suddenly fills with near endless, disorienting whining sounds and Sonic Disruptor bolts, it's kind of hard to, well, move.

The Twi'lek Witch, known in life as The Sorceress of Ardasa, hissed a spell that turned the blood of their slain enemies that leapt from their puddles beneath the bodies into arrow heads. There was a large amount of screaming and for a second, Ryluss was impressed and gave her fellow Witch a thumbs up. The Witch smiled back.

Then someone tossed a Thermal Detonator and they ran for their lives...

The blast caved in the passage they were in.

Meanwhile...

Xiphos watched as the beast fell and then sensed the invisible barrier Naivia Neryn had summoned.

Xiphos reached out and touched it. She was exhausted and wounded, and Rebecca the General Purpose Nuetralizer slumped next to her. Both damaged.

"Let's never go to Hoth again, Mother..."

"Bad news, Daughter..." Xiphos replied. "There's a lot of Hoth's out there..."

She turned to Neryn...

"Quick work with the Barrier... y'know... you're still young..."

Xiphos sighed.

"This Force business tends to ruin people. Even if they have the best intentions. Chews 'em up and spits 'em out. I'm not saying don't help people...but if you get the urge to retire...listen to it..." she trailed.

Then, in a quieter voice, she admitted something she never thought she would say, though but was under her breath.

"I was the stupid one. I couldn't stay retired."

Xiphos leaned against part of the Ice, trying to still her damaged mind.

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"To be honest, you're not the first person to express such thoughts about my future, Xiphos. I never have any ready-made answers or grievances about why you think so or don't you like the way I help others. Rather, I can only answer by wishing myself and you the greatest possible amount of happiness, even if critical mistakes have already been made, even if they have changed your life and your loved ones, keep searching for your happiness and your joy in life, I have not yet found it, but hope is alive and thirsty and burning in my heart and calls to my body and so I move forward, not looking back. Well, if any of my friends has ventured such an action as looking back, then my function is to help you at least a little to improve the pain that memories or actions in the present have caused unpleasant judgments about yourself and your life path. It's that simple, Xiphos" Neryn continued to hold the barrier while calmly walking over to the girl and kneeling down she placed her hot hand on Xiphos forehead and whispered "Relax a little and let my energy find the source of pain in you and soothe it" A special pure power straight from Neryn's force began to easily coursing through Xiphos physical body until it reached the spiritual level and with a sigh Neryn began to eliminate the pain , even if only temporarily . "About this fellow, of course he's no Sith Lord, but he's still very powerful by nature and a fine fighter in his own way, I'll have to think about what to do with him, otherwise someone else might fall into his clutches and get an even bigger dose of madness and pain than you and I and Rebecca experienced" Neryn smiled and stared quietly at the lying creature, trying to predict his next moves, continuing the fight or a truce or a third option? Neryn was prepared for any outcome

Arianna Belasko
Laertia Io

 

[Arianna Belasko]

As she felt each of the Witches get cut down, their power flowed back into her as their bodies broke down, their essence was drawn back into her. She had seized Arianna's Lightsaber, it's red blades cutting down her would be Assassins, Flinging daggers of light into the skulls of the corrupted. Her flesh shuddered, trying not to be overwhelmed by the ambient power in the lost temple.

One of the snow Assassins ambushed her from a hiding spot in the ceiling, and Vivian fell back into a patient defense strikes coming at her from another red Lightsaber.

It having been months since being freed, Vivian was a little rusty at combat on that level, and she let out a metallic shriek of pain as the tip managed to scrape across her abdomen, spilling out glowing green innards partly. The nude, heavily aged crone clutched at her side, instinctively forming a water tentacle to smack her attacker in the chest. She hadn't fed, so drained of energy she couldn't turn back into Arianna, and worse, was afraid of risking it in this place. It was very strong with the dark side, strong enough to serve as a possible channel to Chaos, where the Soul of the real Arianna Belasko burned.

But as the Assassin struggled back up, she knew her position was untenable. She would not last forever, so drained of energy. The wound alone had caused her to age a year.

She tackled him with her remaining strength, and reached out, the strain alone visibly aging her into her late eighties as she reached into his mind to feed on its energy. He screamed, trying to resist, and her flesh only bubbled and warped more violently as she at last began to tear the mental energy from him.

She tried. So hard did she try, not to take too much. But she was never really successful these days, her discipline having slipped.

Her aging gradually reversed itself...but she was unable to stop herself from not feeding too much and her mind and flesh vanished back under that of an Arianna in her late eighties. Then her seventies. Then her sixties, than fifties.

She stood up, fully restored, flesh on her face shuddering between her and Vivian's face for a split second before setting in Arianna's.

The Witch snarled in fury at having been slowed even momentarily and went looking for something to wear, if only for modesty's sake. She began looking for a room that had a workshop she could make use of. Along the way, an Assassin, the same one that had snapped her neck previously, tried to sneak up on her again. Concealing his presence in the Force.

His hands shot out, lightning quick, but Arianna was faster this time, feeling the gust of wind he generated and shifted backward, just out of the grasp of his hands, and activated the second blade of her saberstaff into his abdomen. He sputtered in shock as he died. Arianna smirked as she felt his death and proceeded into another passage, at last locating what seemed to be an old repair bay. She saw rolls of fabric and a knife and immediately took it, cutting a few select pieces of fabric and her wrist, glowing white blood flowing into fabric...

A few minutes later, she walked out in a long, flowing white gown, dressed to kill, and just in time, for more Assassins had arrived to distract and delight her.

Arianna rushed forward, reveling in her Bloodlust as she viciously spun and hacked her staff into them, even more sadistic than usual for her as she was under temple influence. She butchered her way to the lower levels, feeling it get colder and colder, until she at last reached the area Naivia Neryn was at, along with her daughter and Rebecca.

The Countess eyed Neryn as she sent a soothing flow of energy into Laertia, who didn't object to it, even as the beast beyond them rose. Arianna restrained it with conjured tentacles of water.

"I trust I'm only fashionably late..." Arianna said in a smooth, calculating, arrogant manner.

"Hello, Mother." Xiphos muttered. "My mysterious new friend...this is Countess Arianna Belasko, my adoptive Mother. Mother, Naivia Neryn ..."

Arianna strode forward.

"A pleasure to meet you."