The Fire Raged [Chapter XVII]

[Raal]

Where was Firebrand during this clusterfuck? He was busy trying not to die.

He moved left and right, clinging to the walls of the castle and crawling around like some wallcrawler to avoid arrows and spells. The Red Blaze spat fireballs at the intruders, each fireball getting bigger and hotter. Firebrand had moved to the outside area before the invasion, and since he could fly, he could give aerial cover. He found an opportunity to catch a breeze, getting carried high in the sky. Not missing a beat, he used Luminous Body, red skin turning white. This was too much! He had to dwindle down some of these guys!

Dark fire came out in great streams, incinerating armed civilians and any weaker demon in the army. Hey, they had weapons, it was justified that he defended himself! Firebrand made himself a nuisance to the ever-growing army, hoping to buy some time for the others in their respective places. Good thing he was naturally quick.

Firebrand screeched, making lots of noise in an attempt to annoy and hopefully distract a chunk of the army.

[Ayen]

While Maelys and Firebrand was busy with bombing the ground, portals would open around them in the air and thousands upon thousands of aerial beasts came flying out of the portals. To anyone who looked up they would see the blood red skies covered with winged beasts as they attacked Maelys and Firebrand relentlessly. Giving them little mobility and time to react to their charge as they kept flying out of the portals in each passing second with no end in sight.

---

Neither Kyrie nor Jeho would touch their mark as Ranko moved from the spot in the time it took to blink and appeared in front of the irate Empress.

"D-don't ignore me! Nobody ignores me!"

Ranko looked down as the puddle of the blood and the undead rose up from the ground to claim her. As the Crimson Devil's fear came up to the surface Chloe would know that the only thing Ranko feared.

Was fear itself.

As a result of this simple ideology that the the devil held only one thing appeared before Ranko and Chloe. The very manifestation of fear.

Veran.

Many would have made the natural assumption that this would be the beginning of the end for Ranko. But those who knew how to pick attention to detail wouldn't be so easily fooled. While the form of Veran was created by Chloe's Waking Nightmare one would notice cracks spreading along its mask. For every time the Waking Nightmare was passed on it grew weaker, fragile than the one who held it before them. Veran was perfect in exactly what he was meant to be and Chloe did have not have the strength behind her to create such a monster before them. So there was only one thing that could happen.

Utter destruction of the vampiress' mind.

The mask shattered and the image of Veran exploded between Ranko and Chloe. The undead disappeared as quickly as they had appeared and the puddle of blood came at Chloe like a flood, washing her away as she plunged down into the depths of her own mind, consumed by insanity. To the others they would only see a once proud warrior having a mental breakdown as her world around her came crashing down. But it was so much worse.

“One down.”

Ranko's eyes fell upon Aper.

“One to go.”

[Silver Eyes]

"It's so beautiful I could cry!" Richard clasped his hands together, "...if I remembered how to." Here was the notorious Lord of the Dance flying on the back of an enormous dragon, minding his own business, when he suddenly happened to find this war! The warlock knew there was something he could do, but there was just one tiny problem.

He had no foxes.

Well, he'll have to make do with his current resources. Richard rapped the metal armor that encased his mount and shouted:

"Dragon! Burn things with your horrible breath while I cackle maniacally!"

There was another problem...



That was the dragon he foolishly happened to catch a ride on, and it wasn't happy.

"Or sprout more fiery tentacles to push me off, that works too." Richard grasped one of them with a flaming hand. More of them were sprouting up from Deathwing's armor, but rather than going after the tiny nuisance, they began burning the demons that were landing all around him. He let out an earth-shattering roar and unleashed a stream of fire from his maw at the army in his path. It didn't matter who was in Deathwing's way. He destroyed much of Azeroth, and he'll gladly destroy this place if it'll get rid of these gnats.

While Deathwing's tentacles mercilessly tore apart the demons, Richard chose now of all times to make a very, well, unimportant observation:

"They certainly don't show that in hentai."

'course, Deathwing's "table manners" were very sloppy for the armies below. Demon bodies, both charred and bloody alike, were raining down.

,

[DC Comics]

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

A portal opened up in the Ajerian's sights and out came the Sorcerer in a more traditional pair of black robes made complete with a hood. The portal soon closed behind him as Quan Chi waved his hand and Demetrios felt an invisible force raise him up into the air and then sent him crashing back down head first into the ground with enough force to break his neck.

"Your motivations are misguided. Look around you. Hell merges with this world and it is only a matter of time before Genesis falls to the power of the Netherrealm. Killing me is a meaningless endeavor."

---

Jeho pulled away after Ranko disappeared from sight and he took a step back from Kyrie, looking over to where the Crimson Devil now stood in front of Aper and approached her again.

"Ranko! Stand before me and fight!"

Sir Jeho yelled. Raising up his blade as he screamed to get the queen's attention.

[Sparda]

There he was, finally showing his miserable face. But before Demetrios could take a step in his direction, he felt himself being hoisted into the air by the sorcerer's telekinesis. Though hurled to the ground head-first, it was a trivial solution to simply raise his free hand to break his fall. He fell forwards out of this handstand, back on his feet in a moment.

"Not entirely," came his retort. "Even if there's nothing for it but to butcher your queen and the rest of her esteemed officers to send you all packing back where you came from, that's all the reason I need to make my stand."

Without warning, a blinding pulse of intense blue light flared up from the Ajerian's eyes, filling Quan Chi's vision. Almost in the same instant in time, the Dread Seraph lunged forward, crossing the distance in a single bound and stepping into a lunging straight when he was right up in the wizard's face. All the while, he poured his energies into his right arm, accelerating the thrust to nearly the speed of sound.

[Maelys Knight]

[Transformation-6]
[Beam- 4]

He couldn't sense the demons appearing all around him, however the power spikes that normally indicated warp fields were very clear to him. The sheer amount of them, however, did surprise him. Hmph, persistent little girl.... Once he sensed the portals begin to form, he ceased his bombing of the ground to hold the still-appearing orbs of Light around him. He brought his wings in, seemingly shrinking to afix to his back, and continued in his flight all the same, the orbs now revolving around him, preventing any of the monsters from getting in close, but still slowing him slightly by the frontward impacts. He dropped down in an attempt to use the ground as a tool to remove some of the demons, but immediately felt both another very powerful source of power as well as a nasty surge of flames above him.

The demons let up a bit, though the portals continued appearing, and Maelys pulled out of his dive to see what had caused such a display. A massive dragon was lumbering through the air, attacking anything in it's way, in particular the demons, but Maelys made a note to stay away from the dragon. If it becomes a problem later, then I will meet it full on. He knew he could no longer remain fully airborne, due to both new aerial threats, third if you could count the white gargoyle figure against him, though unlikely. A new problem soon arose, in the demons now falling like rain from the sky in the new dragons wake. The battlefield, in a matter of seconds, had gone from demon-infested to all-out nightmare. Fighting these lesser demons is accomplishing nothing... I need to find their leader... but still...

Even if he could find their leader in all of this, there was another problem Maelys had in his current form...

[Kragen]

The army was already adapted to the fire being used against them. Not because they were demons and it was the biggest known stereotype, but because fire was a common element used against enemies in battle and they had felt damage from it before. Unfortunately for them they were unable to do anything about the holy energy that came crashing down to the ground alongside it before the sky filled with more death from the demon army to deal with the creatures up above.

Scorpion was knocked back by Ghost Rider's blow. The fire in his own eyes growing in intensity as he closed the small gap the Rider made with his previous attack and unloaded a three hit combo with his open palms against the Rider's face.

[Tenjou, Utena]

"Who was that man?" asked Utena as they followed Kara to safety. Personally Utena didn't even want to know what was going on out there. Already knowing what was going on in here was more than enough for the fencer. "He seems to know you."

[Cap'n Failz]

The fact that this man had just taken a blow from the Ghost Rider and merely suffered being knocked back by it told him that he was more than a normal human. With the mass of demonic souls and evil flooding the area around him, it had been difficult to tell, but now he knew for certain. A normal man would have been splattered across the ground by the blow he had just, in all esscence, walked off as if it were nothing.

The first blow landed straight in Ghost Rider's face, pushing it back and he staggered half a step from the impact. He lurched forward, meeting the second strike head-on quite literally, pushing it aside on the smooth surface of his skull, and struck out with his left arm, knocking the third blow wide before it could strike him. In the same instant, a multitude of chains erupted from his chest, their ends glinting with knife-like edges and glowing red-hot with Hellfire, just as Ghost Rider opened his skeletal jaws and a torrent of Hellfire spewed out, and it would strike with a physical blow, like a battering ram....aimed straight into Scorpion's face.

[DC Comics]

Quan Chi held the palm of his hand out in front of his eyes, both in order to provide some protection against the blinding lights and to counter-attack. Through the use of his magic he redirected Demetrios' own momentum back to him and sent him hurling back into his own allies that attempted to make it pass the gates and into the castle.

[Raal]

Shit hit the fan, and it was a huge fan.

The sky was alive with flying soldiers. Firebrand folded his wings in, and let himself drop out of the sky in a last ditch move to avoid the surprise bombardment. Son of a bitch. If he hadn't tossed those Crests of Power, this would be a piece of cake! How was he to know that he'd be cast into another world with foes that were near god-like status?! Whatever. It seemed they were fire-proof, so Firebrand did the next best thing.

Still having Luminous Body for more speed, he got back into the air, looping a U-turn and crashing into enemies with the momentum he had.

He continued to smash into the aerial demons as a hit-and-run tactic, using his claws and strong jaws to tear into flesh and hopefully kill them while still in the sky. This was a serious clusterfuck of a battlefield, more-so than the battlefields in the Ghoul Realm. The wind was on his side!

The white blur with wings was like a phantom, striking hard then seeming to disappear.

[Garrus Vakarian]

Noob Saibot fell back from his brawl with Superwoman in every copy on the field to evade the blast from above before closing in towards the goddess again while the aerial wave up above went into effect. Another Noob Saibot slipped pass the defenses of Miracle and took control of the High Priestess' shadow blending in and appearing normally. Manipulating Miracle's movements to send a different set of commands to the Second Aspect turning him away from Ranko and onto the heroes of this story.

Aper and Miracle were now under Netherrealm control.

[Miracle]

"Wh-what?"

Miracle froze into place, feeling something crawl into her shadow and started taking control of her body. She could see as plain as day what she was doing. Telling Aper to turn away from Ranko. To raise up his blades and attack the Aircano officers. His blade falling down upon Jehanne as no matter who it hit the explosive force to follow would continue hitting anything in its path until it left nothing behind in its wake.

[Linx]

Leon paused to catch his breath as the fighting seemed to explode. Dragon and warlock in the sky with an army of demons materializing into existence, two armies on the ground, and not enough heroes to go around. In a sheer moments span, he felt the Arashi come into being, Aper becoming manifest and a shudder ran down his spine. Aper, the herald of his death. Maybe once before, but not this time. Not again. He died to defend Miracle, and as he watched, Aper began to turn on them, and he knew she needed defending again. "Oh hell, I need a fucking drink." he swears as he forces himself to stand, slightly unsteady on his feet. He managed to beat back the forces chasing Aminee and Utena, hopefully giving them a clear run to the woman in spandex and he shook his head. "Spandex. You wear spandex and you're considered a hero. Or, heroine as the case may be. You wear dark clothes and people assume you're a punk kid. This whole mess is on the train for downtown FUBAR and I'm too stupid to get out." he grumbles as his fingers weave through a quick spell, before quickly abandoning it as he glared.

With this many rifts open, a teleport could easily go awry and tear him apart. "For once, can't things be simple and easy?" he sighs and weaves light around him, launching himself across the battlefield towards the towering mass of Aper. Hopefully he could attract Apers attention, even for a moment to spare the people below. He roars in challenge and defiance as he rockets in, his form bursting with light as wings exploded from his back, bathing the battlefield below in brilliance. Unknown to him, it had the added effect of destroying the shadows being used to control Miracle, even if for just a moment as he slammed power through his palm, raising into being a shining dome of light in a barrier before Apers blade. He was certain it wouldn't hold up to the blow, but it could divert at least enough of the power of it to keep him alive, as it gained strength from all the light around them, and there was still plenty to be had. "I died once for you Miracle, for gods sake don't make me do it again! Get rid of him!" he cries out, shunting as much power as he could into his barrier.

[Alex]

There was no purpose in remaining in this battle as the demon army had a clear upper-hand and a shot at either Ranko or Chloe wouldn't be worth the throwback the Blind Assassin would suffer for going after them. Instead she headed straight for the ships near the ocean by the city where Superwoman and the other Moon Valley refugees were heading home for freedom and safety. She would live to fight another day. Others however...

---

Would not be so lucky.

Seeing that the Second Aspect was turning on them through commands by Miracle no less made the General immediately aware that something was amiss. There was no way that the High Priestess would ever turn on them in such a way. Either the power of the Arashi had corrupted her or something was possessing the child. He assumed the latter and went after her but as he moved in a hurry he wouldn't be quick enough and Solomon found himself directly in the path of the Second Aspect's blade with Leon coming down from above. With no time to move the blade sliced right on through the knight before reaching Leon's shield and those around him would watch as the General, the long term friend of the High Priestess, was cleaved in two his halves falling into the black desert sand.

General Solomon was dead.