Snowtalon: Sacred World, Part VII
(Previous: I, II, III, IV, V, VI)
He turned around as his robes billowed in the onrushing wind of the portal, facing the end of the Redeeming Room. His expression stony-faced and completely hardened against any kind of emotional reaction, The Judicator was corrupted long before Tharne's hostile takeover, but now his body was corrupted. His horns had twisted into a demonic shape and he carried skulls of varying origin - some resembling human, some Tralonian, others resembling that of other species. However, that was not the most terrible thing of them all.
Horrors started to pour from the portal, a direct conduit from realspace and into the Qliphothic reality. Wielding scythes on their hands, daemonic chains, vicious claws, the Lovecraftian horrors poured through the portal and so did various imps, their wings beating rhythmically. Worst of all was the head of the band of horrific entities which had just entered their reality - a Nightmare Demolisher. With four, powerful arms and an impossibly muscular body with a gnashing mouth which took up almost the entirety of its head, which drooled viscous, putrid saliva from its maw.
The Judicator held a black crystal in his hands with purple cracks running through it. He gazed upon it for a brief second before at Skarius and his crew, before slinging a finger forward and uttering only a sentence.
"Let the feasting begin."
Snow brought his wristpad up and called into it while Mesira, Varulfr and Armory destroyed the reinforced glass with a combined effort of claw scratches, magic blasts and good old fashioned bullets, leaping down into the room itself. The Redeemer laid disassembled, courtesy of The Judicator.
"Rebecca, Lelianna, Sasha! You three continue the search for Drozala and the others! We'll hold The Judicator off!"
Giving the order, they obeyed and continued moving through the facility. Snowtalon leaped from the shattered observatory and landed on the ground, while the other three were already engaged in combat. Varulfr was plunging his claws into a nearby Scythehand's face while Mesira channeled her faith in the Creator, Scindixus, the Rodi's patron goddess, casting a large cone-shaped golden beam around the group of Horrors rushing in to claw her apart, and failing in their attempt as they were blasted back into the portal. Armory, with Varulfr by his side, let loose plumes of extended fire from his assault rifles, peppering his enemies with them while the wolf cut down anybody gaining on him in melee.
"Mesira, to me!"
"As you say, Battlemaster!" Mesira fell in behind Snow, her hands still glowing dimly with magical energies. Snowtalon had his autocannon drawn, looking behind himself to the Rodi.
"...Do it."
With that, Mesira began muttering the rites. "By the light of Scindixus and her eternal righteousness, I commit thy divinity to this warrior of virtue!" With that, a single-handed beam emerged from her hand. It was like a thin rope, surrounded by a golden aura and various magical runes, somehow tethering itself to Snow's form. When it did, the light blue lights upon his armour glowed brightly, enough to blind someone if one looked too intensely. But even more interesting was the fact that Snow tossed his autocannon aside for the moment, and between his hands was forming a pulsing ice crystal.
His amber eyes began to flare up like two of the sun inside his skull, flaring like they were made of fire. The amber light was a terrifying sight to behold, and the snow dragon let loose a blood-curdling cry when he extended his arms to his side, the crystal growing larger, and then quickly closing the distance between his hands, using the crystal as a focus point for a massive concentrated blizzard which soon swooped over the area, snap-freezing the remaining Horrors and hitting them with enough force they immediately shattered afterwards.
Mesira's free hand was trained on the other two, shielding them from Snowtalon's unbridled cold fury, which not even a warrior of his capability would normally produce. All that was left was the Nightmare Demolisher, and The Judicator, protected by their own shields. With a contemptuous glance, The Judicator snapped his fingers, the shield dissipating. Snow fell to a knee and breathed heavily, Mesira resting a hand on his shoulder.
"Do you how we managed to convict you, Skarius?" His voice was booming and yet an eerie calm. "The Tribunal of Tralonian Militants never convicted you of their own will. There was no evidence shown at all. They were under the thrall of Tharne, and myself..." A low chuckle came from his maw as he strolled along the steel floor, clapping his hands. "I gave you your weapons, your armour, and your belt to lift your spirits in the hope we would send you someplace where you would survive. And you did. But we did not expect you to come...back."
"Oh, if only you joined us. You would have been such a useful ally, but your meager selflessness and your righteousness blinded you to your true de--" The Judicator was immediately interrupted by Varulfr leaping upon him, pinning him to the ground and attempting to slash at him. The Judicator swung a hand forward and repulsed the wolf from him, sending him spiraling backwards.
Varulfr got to his feet and glared right at the Tralonian judge. "Why'ya idiotic bloody bastard gotta drivel ya' plans right in fronna Snowy's face? Tha' man's been through enoug' on Earth!"
Getting himself to his feet, The Judicator revealed he had received a nasty, jagged, bleeding scar from Varulfr's blow. "By mere chance he survived on that repulsive human haven! Demolisher, destroy them!"
The Nightmare Demolisher beat its meaty fists together, letting loose a screech which shook the room as it charged towards the group. As it bellowed monstrously, another one emerged from the portal. And another. A trio of Demolishers soon took command of the room, but Skarius, of all people, was soon struck by a deep purple blow from the Judicator's Voidite crystal. With a few sparks, Snow's suit of armour had been shorted out, powering down completely, and without access to his utility implant. The dragon glared at the Judicator with a ferocity unseen since his young days.
Varulfr, Mesira, Armory and immediately began facing down the Demolishers. Riddling their grossly over-muscular forms with bullets, Armory soon found his assault rifles useless on their own. Reaching into his own personal hyperspace belt, the very same Snow had given to him, he pulled from it his security shotgun, firing a volley of pellets at one of the Demolishers, drawing blood from its chest. Into the other hand, came his iconic "Boom Tube", a slender, light-weight rocket launcher, and with a single, thermobaric missile. For only the most stupidly durable targets of course, and this was just one of the handful he had ever used the missile on. Firing directly at the point of wound, the *woosh* of the rocket freeing itself from the cradle of the launcher was heard as it soared through the air and impacted against the monstrous aberration with a thunderous crack, felling the monster as it flew inside the creature's body and destroyed its midsection entirely, leaving bits of gore to shower from the air above.
By comparison, Varulfr was far more subtle in his attacks. Leading around the vicious brute with his claws, mostly blows aimed at his legs. Running through the beast's legs, it swung wildly, attempting to catch him in a mighty blow from one of his four fists, but missing haplessly. Clawing at his ankles and causing the tendons in the abomination's legs to give way to his razor-sharp talons, the wolven savage leapt upon the Demolisher's back while it was incapacitated, and making all the way to the head. Using his immense strength, he grasped at the Demolisher's head, and while its featureless face was contorted into a permanent state of anguish, it screamed inhumanly as its neck was bended in such a way not intended by its skeletal system. With a sickening crunch, it was dead.
In spite of being more a priest of creation than one to do harm, Mesira channeled her extremely powerful magical abilities to remove the threat of the Demolisher far easier and faster than the others. Summoning the same beam of light that clashed with Snow's armour not long before, it slowly parted into several beams that constricted the Demolisher's movements. Eventually, the beams rose in and split the Demolisher apart, causing diced chunks of what was once its body to flop to the floor in a bloody heap.