Reality Fracture: Peruppi's initiation donation
The visions intruded on reality. It was not a gentle shift but a jarring one as the air shimmered with heat and a dull orange glow suffused the stone walls. A thickly robed, male form smoothly stepped out of a side passage, into illusory flames and slung a ball of very real fire at her head, classic. Rough learned inclination towards self preservation made the viewed subject cover her face and leap away from the explosion but she might as-well have stood still, the flames licked at leather but achieved little else. The temperature continued to rise in mind's eye, the fireball a flare within an inferno. The young hin spun with the force of the detonation. mentally invoking her star. Blue and white looming large, this fire burned liars. It used to come from above but now it came from within, a contained but intense force that battered outward against her ribcage and skin at its zenith. The more she called on, the more it grew.
Shadowy figures writhed in the hazy, half realized world of the vision. Two legs and four, it didn't matter. Instinctively, the subject knew the black cloaked figure was real however. the harsh silvery light illuminated the hall, surging towards the figure. Her technique was still raw. Draw the power into her arms and then shove it away. Nerves singled and static seemed to suffuse her skin The blast was unfocused and straight, covering the distance in under a second, unimpeded. It didn't matter, her target was close and granted no time to scream. He did not so much as burn as he did come apart in sizzling chunks, leaving a black, vile residue on the wall where his torso impacted it. The scent of charred flesh filled the area but that scent had stopped being unpleasant some time ago. The tingling presence of ozone crawling beneath the stronger influences. The air was not still. It wavered with the heat of the vision and its elements. Crackling consistently in the background. The screams had died down to ragged moans and groans, fat sizzling and popping. This apocalypse had progressed quickly and brutally, that much she could understand.
Through the fire came another attack, strident reality now intruding on the dream-scape. Emerald arrow of some wretched magic. The already lower view dropped further as the subject dived onto her belly, the arrow soaring over her. A scream echoed through the corridor, it was not hers, she would need to deal with it later if it was indeed real. The flames shied away from her aggressor, humanoid in thick black robes. it's voice sounded male. He continued to chant with a calm and all too confident voice, exact words lost in the audible miasma. He was a false man worshiping a false god by the name she picked out so often in their murmuring and the rage that tightened the subject's throat might not have been entirely hers before but it was now. Her second strike displayed far superior skill, the power cascading through her limbs and shaped by her hand. It curved in the space between them with a concentrated edge, advancing in the blink of an eye. The chanting ceased as the figure's head was lashed. Top left jaw intact, top left eye, gone. Vital Grey mater consumed, the biting energy, no longer under her direct control sought another target and a wail of very much inhuman agony sounded from further down the hall.
The subject's head whipped around at a low moan, it was real, it sounded very real like one of the men she had came with. She hoped it was, she really didn't want to be alone in this. With a mild soreness to the movements, the subject scrambled to her feet, dizzily scraping against the wall a moment. The small statured subject stepped towards the passage from which it had emanated only to find herself moving backwards, feet lifted off the floor. Humanoid shaped pillars of ash shattered in the vision-scape as her body collided with them. Then she saw the reason she was flying backwards and a wave of nausea and pain swept through the hin. Purple, green, black and red. All hues blurred in that moment. The tentacle was a dull, dark green with a purple sheen to parts of it. Portions where charred through some means or another and the end had punctured her lower torso and then hit something hard lending the splash of crimson. She really didnÂ’t want to think about what any of that meant. If she did, she was probably dead.
Her flight ended with an agonizing slide across the stone floor, leaving a fresh stain on its dirty surface and the subject tasted acid on the back of her tongue and felt the warm prickling of deep bleeding. Time crawled as the limb withdrew and the main body of the of the... thing shifted into the hallway. Droplets of blood vibrated in the flickering air between the two as the tentacle shot towards her again. She didn't remember or feel raising her hand but she certainly felt the raw power pushing out from her core, down the arm. Not consciously focused or invoked, it came forth as a part of her alongside the responding limb. Whatever the thing was, it was tougher then the cultist. It did not come apart as arcs of destructive energy tore through its length, puncturing the creature in a cascade of sizzling energy. It had time to scream. That is all its durability earned it. A much more intense variety of the inhuman wail. The strange flesh was not tough enough however, it twitched and thrashed, leaking transparent ichor before falling over and going still. She tried to stand but rather crumpled, back down, body involuntary writhing as she covered the hole uselessly with her hand. It didn't stop the pain or the heated wetness falling out of her. She heard more screams, the hallway filled with more hazy, indistinct figures rising of the stonework and venerating the night sky even as they burned.
There should have been a roof in the way. There should have been the bulk of sigil in the way and even if all else were moved, there should have been the alien sea of lights and indistinct luminescence but there was not. The walls remained but above were the stars as this alien world has seen them in its final hours. Had to get out of there, everything would be okay if she got out of that accursed temple. A healing potion or something, that could fix her! She crawled, tuning out her senses, even the sickening awareness of something more coming loose inside. The door was off its hinges but she could barely move. Her fingers dug into grooves in the wood, hauling herself up the steps and onto dirt.
The subject fell onto her back and directed her hands to try and find one of the many vials in her pockets but they shook and her fingers would work no longer. The vision-sky was so very pretty with its strangeness, she could see why the figures revered it. In the open air, the subject felt comfortably cool, the heat seeming to have fled. It all added up to the hin feeling very drowsy indeed and despite some part of her mind telling her she was dead if she didn't find healing, another part picked out her star, gazing over the macabre scene and found it comforting. Sounds dulled and she started picking out the other stars she knew. They were in different places but she still knew them. They continued to sing and spin, songs overlapping on the edge of hearing. Her limbs were too heavy to move and so she watched the celestial dance for a few moments longer before vision also fled alongside awareness entire.
Peruppi Initiation Stone
