The Keepers of Chaos: A Vault of Hell

Vaelle Lurval: CXLII

Mercy: CXLII

"No.." Vaelle whispered again for what felt like the hundredth time. "N-no- n-no! It can't!" Her voice krept up into her throat, pleading. Begging the air itself to change the image in front of her. "This.." She held her breath, the spear in her arms suddenly felt so heavy. Was this possible? Was this true? Smoke filled her nostrils with the smell of burning rotting flesh. In the distance Vestus screamed and fought against a similar creature. Shit. She'd known Estral, she watched him die. How after all this time did she not put two and two together? Maybe it was fear.. Or perhaps she'd just managed to suppress the memory like when she sold her shop. But no amount of fear or suppressed memories was enough to make this figure go away. Tears rolled down her cheeks, damnit. Adleth had told her to stop crying, but this.. She looked up, meeting the purple eyes of her opponent, long dark brown hair was engulfed in purple fire. The chest was sewed back together roughly, while being made of dark black charred meat. Her little oval face was turned sickly, grinning like a dead rat. Dead. Yes she should be dead. Vaelle slumped her shoulders, staring at the body she'd watched die.

"Donna?" Her voice broke. Donna Evergrove smiled even wider, the woman who had been sliced in two by Estral so long ago was struggling to step forward. Her legs had been replaced with a pair of donkey ones, and body was made up of charred black flesh. It looked like a piece of jerky left on the stove for hours, blackened and hard. Every square inch of the woman was glowing with a purple fire, soft and unnatural. Her face may have been burned, but Vaelle knew who it was.

"V-aeellee.." The voice made her cringe, it sounded like an echoing mass of birds. Hollow and without life. "Where did you go Vaelle?" Pain tugged at her chest. Fuck. "Why did you leave me Vaelle?" No...

Biting back her anger, "Leave you?!" She exclaimed, her tears tossed to the sky. The woman before her stumbled forward, how on Toril was it alive once again? How was she alive?! "You died! Y-you died Donna!" Fear was creeping throughout her body, she twirled her spear in hand, remembering everything Adleth and Markos had taught her. "You, Jeski, Brar, Damian. You all died!" The instincts Herod drilled into her head, and the calm Riu tried to preach.

"I'm alive, Vaelle.. I'm back.. But you left us!" The thing screamed again. Confusion enveloped her, what? No she hadn't! She hadn't left them! What was this thing? How was this possible? What had the purple flames done? "Help us Vaelle.." Donna smiled. No. no that thing wasn't Donna! Suddenly her rampant nightmares about her friends began to make sense, the same things Andraste had talked about seeing. God's it was horrific. "Look... we are being attacked."

She turned her head, seeing the fights raging around her. Alekzandr stood up on the balcony fighting some figure. Herod was slashing through small demons and devils in the direction of Markos who fought Victoro. Her heart sank, it was not an even fight. "We?" She questioned. Vaelle shook her head. "Donna! I'm here to stop this cult!"

"Faith!" The abomination tried to correct.

"Cult!" She sneered back. Tired, she was tired of the games, the manipulation. "Its a cult Donna! You don't just worship some god. They're gonna sacrifice people! This is a cult!" Tears filled her eyes while she said it. Some part of her jumped with glee to finally scream it out, this was never a faith, it was a cult to a demon. And it was wrong. The creature's head cocked curiously, its face twisting with anger.

"You.. betray.. Us-!" Oh no. Donna lunged, swinging a cultist dagger in her arms. She was fast, so very fast. Vaelle jumped back swinging her spear around to deflect off an attack. Her brain raced miles a second, fear overtook her. "We welcomed you Vaelle! Brought you into our light!" The voice wailed on and on, sounding high pitched and vile. The attacks never ended. She was backed up, more and more desperately on the defense, narrowly batting away strikes from the monster.