Her perception of time evaporated as she watched what felt like a thousand actions take place at once around her. An unsteady hand pressed against her forehead as she fought to center herself in a world that refused to stay still.[break][break]

She didn't even feel real to herself, like this. It felt like she was a figment in someone else's dream, suddenly made aware she existed only to be forgotten upon waking.[break][break]

Carmine eyes darted back and forth, watching the Pokemon that belonged to her acting on what seemed like their own accord.[break][break]

Her Tsareena jumped back as the Salamence's massive paw swiped for her Nihilego, crushing its dome beneath thick vines that mimicked her own. They spread wide in a FRENZY PLANT that stretched into a formidable barrier, defending the dragon and its white-haired mistress against--[break][break]

Elisabeth's gaze froze upon Wo-chien, as if seeing it for the first time.[break][break]

The enormous, hulking snail pulsed with its own slobbering greed, its GIGA DRAIN sucking all the life that surrounded freya morningstar with hideous wanting. Its ochre eyes looked upon her as a craving to be sated -- a thing to be consumed and discarded.[break][break]

A familiar jolt of fear sliced through Elisabeth like a knife, one that had once sent her running through the Petalburg Woods to flee this creature's inevitable grasp.[break][break]

That beast will kill you, a panicked reminder clawed back through her, a long-suppressed survival instinct that now rang loud and clear with its own desperation to be heard. You can only trust yourself, Elisa. You know this. You have always known this.[break][break]

What was a woman like her to the gods of this universe, if not some laughable plaything? Hadn't Tapu Fini abandoned her here, too?[break][break]

Had the figure in the mist been right, then? Had she damned herself to her death with her own greed?

[break]

Suddenly she remembered she had a body, and it moved just in time to see the ZYGARDE burst onto the field, thrusting the earth apart with the wrath of LAND'S END.[break][break]

The entire world seemed to split open, throwing every piece on the board into chaos.[break][break]

Wo-chien hissed with undisguised fury as both FERNANDO SILPH and freya morningstar acted to prevent it from consuming its fill. A tantrum manifested as BURNING JEALOUSY, searing through the plants impeding its scrabbling path to the woman it now hungered for most. The Tsareena answered her god-general's call to act as defense against the Zygarde, her DRAINING KISS seeking to delay its pursuit of the Ruinous Beast.[break][break]

Out of the corner of Elisabeth's eye, FERNANDO SILPH lunged forward from his previous confined state, and the dynamic abruptly flipped on its head as Elisabeth felt herself become the prey in this game of cat-and-mouse.[break][break]

Letting herself be distracted by the councilman was a mistake she'd pay for dearly.[break][break]

The arrow she herself had gifted freya morningstar pierced Elisabeth's soft flesh with cruel accuracy, narrowly avoiding her anxiously pounding heart. A choked scream announced her fall to her knees, before a hand pulled on the arrow so that it snapped in half. Useless Naganadel poison filtered into her bloodstream, believed powerful enough to kill a god.[break][break]

The true demons lived on, whether you wanted them to or not.[break][break]

Again the thicket of thorns and briars rose in answer to her beckoning call, but this time, they formed a semi-circle around her in towering defense.[break][break]

She now had no allies here, god or mortal alike.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x14)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

Within her self-woven cocoon of twisting vines, she attempted to hear herself think.[break][break]

freya morningstar's taunts whispered through the cracks of this imperfect fortress, and rather than answer them in words, Elisabeth castled herself in place. Inhaling deeply, she breathed out more of the BERSERK FOG to form a thin barrier against her attackers -- enough, perhaps, to keep them at bay.[break][break]

I refuse to die here, she thought desperately, even as she remained somewhat blind to events beyond her garden wall. There has to be a way out, if not a way to win.[break][break]

But would she be allowed to flee, even if she wanted to? Would Wo-chien let her evade this vengeance they'd both conspired so desperately to achieve?[break][break]

Would Tapu Fini, for that matter?[break][break]

The sound of her Tsareena's complaint at being lifted like a ragdoll was punctuated by a HIGH JUMP KICK, one that served more of a means of creating distance between the Terastallized Pokemon and the Mega-Glalie than a true attack. In the thin sliver of time that elapsed, the Zygarde received the opening it needed.[break][break]

The Ruinous Beast screamed in protest as the GLARE arrested it in place, paralyzed and denied its sinful indulgence.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x15)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

The hostile Pokemon converged on the Ruinous Beast from all sides, pathetic little scavengers that they were. Flames spewed and sputtered all around Wo-chien's SPIKY SHIELD, seeking to swallow it whole with Lyune's rage, as an irritable meat-sack of a man screamed for its lackeys to exterminate it on command.[break][break]

To be blunt, Wo-chien preferred its meals to remain silent.[break][break]

Neither freya morningstar nor FERNANDO SILPH had seen the true power that a Ruinous Beast could conjure. They had not witnessed jayden cross's pact with Chien-Pao in the Cave of Origin, or how a tundra frozen with HATE had thrust a room of Avatars and criminals into chaos and confusion. But they would learn, Wo-chien decided.[break][break]

If they wished to battle the Beast alone, so be it. They would discover the might of RUINATION for themselves.[break][break]

The Tablets of Ruin burned once more on Wo-chien's back, the familiar names of both its prey lighting up as if invoked by an ancient curse. A coalescing storm crackled with thunderous dark energies, while the nearby terrain blackened as Wo-chien drew upon the wealth of resentment and grudges that had scattered across this barren landscape.[break][break]

The lifeforce of their Pokemon, the humans themselves, and what little plant life existed in this underground place all felt the strain of Wo-chien's demands.[break][break]

Satisfied by its greed, the building RUINATION released with explosive purpose. It repelled back all the encroaching silhouettes with a single mental push, its after-effects thoroughly blighting the cavern.[break][break]

Nothing here escaped the gravity well of its hunger.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH freya morningstar[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x16)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

As it held itself against the ZYGARDE's earth-shaking power, the rot of RUINATION didn't spare Wo-chien's chosen Avatar, either. Her name also rested upon the Tablets of Ruin that fed its spite.[break][break]

"MORE," that voice commanded her, gleeful in its insistence to be fed. "THIS is what OUR suffering is DESTINED to overcome. MORE!"[break][break]

The sight of freya morningstar's writhing agony flashed through her mind's eye, and the primal terror it invoked in her left her far too aware of Wo-chien's sudden invasive plumbing of her mind.[break][break]

Wo-chien rooted around the hallways of Elisabeth's memory with childish impatience, carelessly tossing open doorways to the horror show that had characterized the worst decade of her life. It paused for her reaction then, the way a human might crassly lick the salt from their fingers to prolong the taste of an exquisite meal, before rummaging for more grudges to savor.[break][break]

And what a rife collection of resentments it had to choose from.[break][break]

"MORE." She relived the isolation of being discarded after giving up everything for a man she thought she loved.[break][break]

"MORE." She relived the humiliation of being exposed and exploited by him and by others for their own selfish gain, betrayed over and over again.[break][break]

"MORE." She relived the loss of her sanity -- first in name, then in reality -- as that man took even her own sense of self from her.[break][break]

"MORE." She relived so many goddamn days spent slowly killing that man, knowing that ungodly act would kill her humanity, too.[break][break]

"MORE!" She relived the hollow emptiness that awaited her the day he died at her own hands, that ache forever haunting her.[break][break]

"MORE!"

[break]

Would killing FERNANDO SILPH leave her empty, too?

[break]

"Stop!" A sob broke out from her throat as Elisabeth keeled over, the sheer weight of Wo-chien's mental demands as dense as a hammer repeatedly shattering against her psyche. "Stop," she begged it again, having been made to bleed for the Ruinous Beast one too many times. "I can't..."[break][break]

I can't keep doing this, a tiny voice pleaded with her patron as she knelt on the ground. You'll kill me.[break][break]

With RUINATION complete, ochre eyes swiveled about the premises, just in time to see the flames burning away the encasement that its chosen Avatar had hidden herself behind.[break][break]

Stop, it heard her beg again, and Wo-chien's indignation at the audacity of this ask reared its head with an ugly vengeance, sneering at this weak and unexpectedly exhausted source of once-unending sustenance.[break][break]

Who was this mortal, to deny a god what it wanted?[break][break]

"Coward," slithered a dissatisfied voice in her ear, reeking with disdain. "We do not BEG. We are a GOD. We TAKE."[break][break]

Carmine eyes blinked back tears as she attempted to find her footing, meeting its gaze across the battlefield. Wo-chien looked upon her, and for the first time, it could not understand what this woman thought or felt when it gazed upon her.[break][break]

Again, the strings were pulled. Again, the sting of her rejection cut through the Ruinous Beast like ice.[break][break]

"You'd dare deny our power?" roared an unfathomably enraged voice in her ears, buzzing like locusts to eat at what shreds of restraint still held her back. "THEN SUFFER ITS ABSENCE."[break][break]

All at once, a SPRINGTIDE STORM howled around them, scattering blackened petals and rot as the Ruinous Beast at its center vanished into the nearby fog.[break][break]

She had to be taught better, yes. She had to know her place. She would need to be reminded who was the master and who was the mastered, here. It would let her suffer, just enough to save her. To show her that she needed its guidance. Her insubordination required punishment.[break][break]

Betrayal was inevitable, it seemed, whether it came from a source human or divine.[break][break]

Stripped of the walls she'd built to defend herself and abandoned by her Divine patron, Elisabeth now faced the unflinching stare of her enemies, knowing she had but seconds to act. Her existing Pokemon had been distracted from her; she had no time to summon the army needed to defend herself now.[break][break]

If only her shadow wasn't shackled here. She wasn't too proud to run.[break][break]

"Coward," came that voice again in her mind, dismissive and cruel in a way that felt almost comfortingly familiar. "Suffer, then. That is all we know how to do, isn't it?"[break][break]

No, she insisted, shaking off that self-defeating thought with newfound clarity. I know how to survive, too.[break][break]

"Are you the trainer or the trained," a different voice taunted, and that strengthened her resolve as she pulled her palms apart in a familiar stance. Pink mist blossomed forth from their center, spreading out as she summoned the god that had never seemed to view her as its own.[break][break]

But they'd made a deal, she and that goddess.[break][break]

And gods were bound by their oaths as much as mortals.[break][break]

"Tapu Fini!" she shouted to the sky, aware this bid for survival might be her last. "I have held up my part of the deal. I call upon you now to answer yours!"

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH freya morningstar[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x17)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.