Come and See [IC]

[Electra]

Erin rocked back on her heels a moment, surprised to hear it stated so plainly. Most of the celestial beings she'd met were a lot more cryptic, and generally much less helpful. She immediately suspected some kind of trap, but even her ingrained cynicism couldn't quash the hope and relief welling inside her. "You can? Can I-" 

 

The scream inside her head cut off her words; instinctively Erin knew it was her "horse" crying out with fear and rage. Something had gone very wrong back at the stables. Well that just figured. "I have to go," she told the angel in front of her. "Something bad is happening, and I have to help." Spinning around, she raced through the hallway and out the nearest window, which obligingly fizzled away instead of shattering at her passage, then began sprinting towards the stable. Thoughts of home and family would have to wait, now, she suspected, was the time to earn her badge. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Of course they are here." Comrade Frost snapped to attention, Dimitri's theological hesitations forgotten. "Harpies! Their abilities, now!" He'd felt his own energies permeating the globe as he'd gone into that 'other place' that was Famine, but he had no idea what such things would mean in combat. Having spent his life battling unspeakable eldritch abominations, this situation was one he understood far better than mere questions of theology and Heaven and Hell. He strode right out of the stable again and positioned himself between the front doors, after taking a moment to secure his own mount with ice. The plagues of ancient Egypt, I wonder? Such would have been their work of angels now fallen. Plague of frogs? Boils? It is Nick Cimiterie who is the Angel of Death here, not me. "Gabriel, I recommend you take to the air and prevent assaults from the sky!" 

[KnightDisciple]

Moments after the Horses began to cry out in...panic? Fear? Anticipation?...Gabriel was standing in the midst of all Four of them, his features almost eerily calm. His gaze took all the creatures in, and raised his empty hands in the air. He Spoke then, with an authority underlined by his power, in a way he had long practiced.

 

"Peace I say unto you. Be calm, brothers and sisters. Quiet your hearts. This trial we shall face together."

 

From him flowed waves of calming, peaceful sound. Humans couldn't hear it, but they always felt it. The angels and the Horses might hear parts of it; not words, more like...music. A soft background music of calming that fought against even the strongest fires of rage and fear. 

 

Comrade Frost strode in then, using brute force where a gentle touch might perhaps have won the day. No time for that, though. 

 

His spear was in one hand, and without having thought it, his bow was in the other. A light step, and he flew through the air...to land upon the White Horse of Conquest. The beast was calm now, and obedient once more. 

 

"Come, my valiant steed. Let us face your old master and show him the error of his ways. However we must accomplish it. Hya!"

 

With that exclamation, he spurred the Horse onward, and they were airborne, almost immediately leaving the stable and beginning a circular patrol through the air that widened a bit as it went. 

[trollthumper]

Gabriel's steed surged out of the great doors of the stables, the mighty hooves raising sparks on the streets of Heaven. With a few yards' progress, the hooves left the ground, and soon, his steed ran at full speed on thin air. The glories of the celestial city passed below, hardened into something more real for the Horsemen's sake, but Gabriel was starting to see beyond the borders. There was a radiant, infinite expanse beyond the borders that had been raised, blinding and incredible in its expanse - but despite the warnings of the angels, Gabriel could see into it with little more than a stinging of the eyes. Perhaps riding on the wings of a metaphor provided a buffer against the raw potential of the divine.

As he swept over the endless expanse, he could feel a sense of a vast divide - not an expanse, but a great wall. The lights began to part, revealing a vast army of the heavenly host with swords and spears raised, mustered around the pearly gates. They were making war with... what could best be described as abominations, blights and delusions that lacked meaning the way that the greater structure of Heaven overflowed with it. But these things were just the vanguard.

A few hundred feet past them stood something grand and terrible. There was a sensation that rolled off of it, much like the aura that he'd felt in the presence of the divine - but where there was warmth and splendor in the angels, here it was cold and rotted. A tarnished circlet bit into the skin on its forehead, and greasy white hair flowed down to his shoulders. The vanguard wasn't even advancing with him; as he passed, the abominations fell in supplication. He stepped over them and on them, not caring for his underlings. He looked up to the skies, and even across the vast distance, Gabriel could feel his eyes locking on him.

And as he did, he tore forward faster, aiming at the great gates like a battering ram.

---

Nick swiftly mounted his steed. As he did, he could feel a slight twitch running through his horse, as if the nice system of causality and natural causes he'd been running had just had a sledgehammer taken to it. "How well do the old Horsemen know the layout of Heaven?"

"Well, they were handed their duties shortly after the seventh day, so..."

"So quite well. Guess that means they could come from anywhere." He tightened his grip on the reins. "Means we've gotta be ready to hit anywhere."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Ah, do we need the horses after all? Well, yesh' moye der'mo!" Frost hastily freed his mount from the freezing cold that had held it in place, then climbed aboard as man and horse rode pell-mell for the gates of Heaven. Famine and his mount maintained their unnatural fusion as he pulled up before the inner gate - the horse he rode had grown black wings and red eyes like some fell Pegasus, seeming to stare with a fascinated hunger at the melee all around it. "This is so much easier when I have tanks to-oh, of course they are here now that I have prayed for it!" He threw up his hands as golden armored vehicles rumbled up behind him, their long barreled main guns firing blasts of pure weaponized glory at the oncoming horde. "But if I prayed for this to be done, would that do it? No!" 

He pulled his bridle this way and that, absently soothing the uneasy horse with his free hand as old, old habits reasserted themselves. "Famine, Pestilence. Where would I go if I were...oh." He spun the horse around and rode like the Devil, the predatory mount vaulting and biting its way through the crowd and swooping over streets, before they landed before their goal - an outdoor nursery where parents and their children were together, some of them angels on guard, others souls protectively guarding the innocent. 

 

"Come to me, Famine!" he roared as the horse reared on its hind legs and gave a whinny like .a wolf's howl. "We have a score to settle! Ya mochit'sya na mogilu!"

[Electra]

Somehow Erin was unsurprised to see that her small cadre of angels had caught up to her again by the time she reached the stables. In the heat of the moment, she could ignore the fact that her horse was a horse again, leaping to settle on its huge back. "Any warriors that are mine to control, have them join me at the front gates. And bring lots of weapons," she added with a grim half-smile. Drawing her own crimson sword, she nudged her horse into motion, following Gabriel into the sky and off to War. 

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel's pace slowed as he took in the twisted, fallen being that had once mastered the Horse that he rode. His eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch...before falling into a scowl. His mouth set itself in a thin line. He spurred the White Horse on faster, and began circling over the increasing defenses at the gate. 

 

His voice began to ring out, and it reached those at the gate and beyond, the words as clear as if he stood next to them. All who heard felt as if a spark of hope was kindled in their heart. 

 

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart exults! And with my song I shall thank Him! The Lord is our strength! And He is a saving defense to us, His anointed! 

 

Our enemies stand before us, but they shall not prosper! The Lord gives us strength this day! I bid you all stand firm! Take heart! Evil and corruption and madness have no power over us! No power over this place! Our victory is already won!

 

We have answered the call! 

 

And you!"

 

At that moment, the former rider of the White Horse knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gabriel was talking to him. The Irishman in shining armor, bow in one hand and spear in the other, planted his horse firmly in the path of the raging creature of madness, his voice ringing out even more clearly.

 

"In the name of the LORD I bid you begone! Turn aside! You shall not befoul these gates! You have already been defeated! In the name of God, I cast you out!"

 

The final words rushed out with such power they were like the roar of a hundred lions all at once, a sheer, physical force that slammed into the being's person, seeking to push him back, to knock him down, to render him senseless.

 

In short, to make him rethink this whole "charging the gates" plan. 

[trollthumper]

Gabriel's will washed over the old Horseman of Conquest like thunder, with enough force to crack the heavenly firmament around him. A number of lesser nightmares, those who had earlier been bowing in Conquest's presence, went flying across the plains of Heaven and came to rest as gently as cannonballs. The wave of sound struck the Horseman... and faded out, dying before the fallen angel's glare. He looked at Gabriel with eyes that could break saints.

"You wear your mantle like a child in his father's clothes." Chains of some horrible metal formed in his arms. "I shall do what I was made to do - take what is mine."

---

The armies of the heavenly host fell into ranks behind Wander, both angel and soul alike. Soon, the ragtag outfit was traveling in formation, arms raised and ready to meet the foe. They found the enemy slowly washing over one of the lesser concourses of the Silver City - the abominations outnumbered the angels 5 to 1, and were starting to gain purchase. But when Wander's forces crested the horizon, things from the gibbering void froze in fear for a half a second. As they did, a thing that might have once been a man charged forward. He was lost in armor that was more like a tank, in the color of oxidized blood - or perhaps, once it had been a man's armor, but had grown thick and horrifying from all the gore that had fed it. Barbarous blades rested in his hands, and when he lowered his head, the only thing in his eyes was bestial madness.

He let loose a scream like a falling nuclear warhead and charged forward, his forces compelled - by bravery or by fear - to join in the tide. And the battle was joined.

---

The nursery was well-guarded now, with Comrade Frost's forces helping to usher the families and children to a more secure location. But over the noise of rolling tanks and general murmuring, another sound began to rise - a low, horrible droning, one that stripped the nerves and chilled the blood. Shadows fell on the crowd - armies of gigantic, terrible locusts, with forms somewhere between insect and nightmare. Comrade Frost recalled another part of Revelation - "And the form of locusts was like the form of horses prepared for battle..."

Hanging in the air, suspended on invisible cables between the locusts, was an enervated figure in black armor that hung off of him, chitinous in its appearance. His dry, withered, and deathless face rolled in his helmet, jerked by the motions of his mounts. It was only once Comrade Frost got a bead on him that he realized the armor was not armor - it was a swarm of locusts, coalesced into something almost solid. Famine's eyes snapped open... and then he fell apart, his armor taking flesh and bone with it as it reformed into a terrible, rapacious cloud.

---

Nick rode through the streets of Heaven on the back of his black steed, trying to realize where Death might manifest. This was Heaven, after all, the place where they said such a thing would have no dominion. And yet, that didn't cover up the fact that, for all that this was paradise, it was still an afterlife. As in, the place where death was part of the entrance fee.

As he rode past the borders of the "neighborhood" that the angels had crafted for him, the world shifted to something slightly more tangible. But as he approached the border marches of Heaven, Nick knew his quarry was approaching. Around him, the stable form of everything was starting to give, fading away back into raw potential. Nick raised his arm to his eyes, trying to avoid the beautiful, horrible radiance of Heaven, but soon realized that the light of potential wasn't there. He lowered his arm - there was naught but gray, slowly fading to black. Where once there was everything, there was nothing, and even that was creeping away.

Marching through the wasteland was a gray, pale figure, clutching a scythe that trailed the ground. Where its blade scraped, lines of black took root and quickly expanded, spreading blight. It looked up into Nick's eyes - age, gender, emotion, all seemed to have been boiled away out of its features. And as it approached, the whisper on his lips began to reach Nick's ears:

"Mercy... mercy... mercy..."

Here, before him, stood an angel of Death, broken and eviscerated by something he couldn't comprehend. He was shaken... but he had his duties. He drew his key from his jacket and raised it high, trying to brandish it like a dagger. "Well," he said, "let's see what we can do about that."

[trollthumper]

The thing that had been War once paced around Wander like a caged tiger, his forces joining in the dance. The abominations danced and gibbered in ecstatic fury, blades flashing wildly through the air, while the warrior angels that accompanied her moved in perfect formation, striking whenever a weak point emerged. But as she observed from the corner of her eye, she noticed that some of the angels were breaking ranks - slashing out less like a disciplined unit, and more like an angry mob. The longer they spent in the fallen angel's presence, the more its rage might start to overcome even their heavenly will.

War clenched a weapon in each hand, and raised both to the sky. As the sun caught them, Wander saw that they had no set form - and every form. They were every sword, every axe, every bayonet, every warhammer, every mace, every up close and personal weapon that a warrior had wielded as they saw the light fade from another's eyes. The blade came down with terrible speed, and caught her right in the stomach, the impact of ages carrying through her body.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel's will washed over the old Horseman of Conquest like thunder, with enough force to crack the heavenly firmament around him. A number of lesser nightmares, those who had earlier been bowing in Conquest's presence, went flying across the plains of Heaven and came to rest as gently as cannonballs. The wave of sound struck the Horseman... and faded out, dying before the fallen angel's glare. He looked at Gabriel with eyes that could break saints.

"You wear your mantle like a child in his father's clothes." Chains of some horrible metal formed in his arms. "I shall do what I was made to do - take what is mine."

 

 

Gabriel sits astride his mighty steed, gazing steadily at the corrupted being before him. Part of him wished he could continue to bolster the resolve of his allies, but at this time, he knew, instinctively, that his full attention must be upon this battle. 

 

His opening salvo had failed. It was no matter; he had the measure of his foe now, and knew what he would need to do to bring him low. As part of his brain went about ordering the nodules in his body to reconfigure the sound waves they constantly generated, altering the frequency and wavelength a bit, he spoke. 

His voice carried upon his immediate battlefield, but did not ring across the city. Still, it carried a certain weight to itself.

 

"You. Will. Try."

 

He took a deep breath....

 

And screamed. It was not the scream of a mortal man, though; it was a scream of a demigod, of an archangel, of a being touched by powers beyond the ken of many in the world. 

 

That scream, though, was but a faint echo of sound to everyone but Conquest. The angels and twisted things alike heard an oddly ringing and echoing yell that carried a terrible purpose to it. That yell carried far and wide, though much beyond the Gates it was a barest whisper.

It was a wordless battle cry. 

 

But more importantly, it was a flensing blow to the Thing in front of Carson. Instead of seeking to knock him down or out, these waves pushed and tore at his defenses, seeking to break down that otherworldly protection he bore, to lay him bare to the coming judgement. 

[trollthumper]

Conquest stood still, rooted to the ground like an ancient monolith. Gabriel's assault washed over him like thunder; he flinched - slightly - as the cascading assault blew past him. When it was all done, however, there was no change to him - save for a terrible sneer. "Impressive," he said with words that ground all meaning to dust. Chains flew out from the inner recesses of the armor, both worn and impermeable at the same time. Even as they snaked out, Gabriel could tell they told a story - one with no happy endings. "Once, I might have felt that. Not anymore."

The chains lashed out, grabbing for Gabriel's form.

"Come. Embrace the truth of inevitability."

---

The swarms of Famine cut through the tide of avenging angels, his army of greater locusts following close behind. The insects swept into the golden tanks helmed by the armies of Heaven; soon, the sounds of struggle emerged from within, punctuated by the occasional scream. Famine's form crept over Comrade Frost's unit, ripping at divine flesh. He could feel the insects biting at his dead skin, even as some twitched and died from the frigid repast. But for each that fell, it seemed that there were five more...

[Electra]

Wander bent almost double at the impact of War's amorphous weapon, the air whooshing from her lungs with a pained "oof." It only lasted a moment, though. She took one deep breath and straightened up, giving the fallen angel a smile that was more than a little feral. "That all you got?" she asked, sounding no more than a little winded. "My turn." 

 

She raised her sword, which seemed entirely content to remain a sword, even as the crimson blade began to gleam with an unearthly radiance. She feinted the ancient being once, then twice, then a dizzying series of stopped-hits that maneuvered them both dangerously close to the heart of the melee. Surrounded by chaos, War didn't even seem to notice when Wander suddenly appeared from behind him, spun him around by one shoulder, and drove her sword between the thick plates of armor, burying it to the hilt in his abdomen. It stuck there like a gory harpoon, anchored by the armor on his back, so she simply hung onto it and began punching him in the face, brutal uppercuts where helmet met bevor, hard enough to deform armor and draw blood, fast enough that each blow could barely be seen. 

 

Within seconds, the rain of blows dislodged the sword from its bloody sheath, pushing the combatants apart once again. Wander broke away just far enough to see her closest lieutenants. "Maintain the ranks!" she demanded, "don't let them break up and start brawling! Bring the flanks in closer, let's get this field as small as possible." 

[trollthumper]

Nick paced, circling the specter of Death. This wasn't exactly his first time staring down mortality, nor the first time that it was so literal. But the entities he usually faced had some sort of resolution to them, the stony fortitude of crypts and sepulchers. Even gods like Izanami, rotted on a metaphysical level, stood firm. This creature, however... the edges of him seemed to blur away into metaphysical mist, as if there was no understanding where he began and ended. The look in his eyes shifted every second, from grim to tearful to maniacal. And worst of all, there was a sense of despair wafting off of him - not the aura of dread that came with some of the more menacing Deathlords, but something that suffused the being inside and out.

It didn't say anything. It wasn't the type of taunt, but to invite. So Nick took the first step. Ectoplasm welled up out from him, coalescing into dreadful claws. He lunged forward, swiping at Death's indistinct form. It cut through swiftly and dreadfully, and the wounded corpus boiled away into nothing. The horseman's mouth fell open, its face twisted into contortions - but no sound came out, save for a dry, dread whisper.

Whatever had happened to Death, Nick wasn't so sure he could do worse.

[Avenger Assembled]

As the bugs closed in, Frost cursed explosively even as his own body erupted, a glowing nexus of power at his heart suddenly scything through the swarm like a spotlight through fog. But this fog didn't clear at the light, it simply grew and grew and grew! Luckily it seemed these things that had once been angels no longer had holy powers, otherwise the vampire would have found himself in dicey circumstances indeed. As his own cold blood dripped on the shining grass of Heaven, the unholy ichor instantly erupting into steam as it touched holy ground, Frost continued to advance on his nemesis. If swarm cannot be stopped, then I will stop the unholy thing at its heart! he thought with a fury that made his now-cloudy body swirl and boil like a damned thing. And then we shall have a reckoning, for all that has passed between us!  

[KnightDisciple]

The chains swung out for Gabriel...and at the last moment, the Irishman batted them aside with his bow and spear. He gave his opponent a level look, even as the White Horse he sat upon stood there calmly. As if neither rider nor beast was very impressed.

 

"I've already embraced Truth. You're just peddling madness."

 

A deep breath, and another window-shaking scream lashed out, hitting the maddened fallen angel head-on.

 

"Maybe you were too weak to handle your job."

 

Another breath. Another scream. Another wave buffeting the terrible armor and resilience of the twisted attacker on the Gates.

[trollthumper]

The sword sank deep into War, cutting through armor and divine flesh, sending out a spray of blood as black as pitch that sizzled and burned where it fell. Behind Wander, the warrior angels let forth a mighty cheer, driving forward into the ranks of the unnatural army. War fixed a look of frozen rage on her, one that could stop the heart of any mortal.

But for now, she was something more than mortal.

---

Gabriel's scream drove Conquest back a fraction of an inch - which, judging by the fallen's angel reaction, was like being knocked back a mile. Minute cracks began to form in his armor, no thicker than a hair, and he flinched slightly as the last of the noise died away. The fire in his eyes could set the Arctic ablaze.

"Weakness is nothing. All, in the end, are weak. It is all a matter of pressure." The chains lashed out towards Gabriel again... but as they flew past his head, he could hear a faint noise between the whistling and the clanking. An endless chorus of choked screams, desperate sobs, and ragged breathing.

---

The locusts swarmed around Comrade Frost once more, ripping through corpus both divine and undead. As the insects of Famine clung around his ears, the buzzing formed words that stabbed into his eardrums like daggers. "They will starve. They will wither. They will waste. As all does, falling to bone and ash. You cannot stop it..."

[Electra]

Despite his obvious rage, her attack had set War back on his heels, if only for a moment. Wander capitalized on the moment of hesitation, driving forward with a blinding flurry of blows from her sword. He was prepared for her tricks this time, spinning with her as she ducked under his arm to try and come at him from behind. The crush of battle made it hard to maneuver, but there was little time to regroup. Even if she'd gotten the early advantage, Wander knew she couldn't take many blows like the one she'd been dealt a moment ago. If this fight didn't end soon, she could easily lose through sheer attrition. 

 

Bringing her sword up, she finally managed to land a hit against the side of his helmet, making a noise something like a gong as it rattled the fallen angel's skull. The helmet, she noticed, was not quite as sturdy as the rest of the armor. Interesting. She drove in for another hit, but was parried back as the fight swallowed them both again. 

[trollthumper]

Death roused from his strange, slackened state, looking Nick right in the eyes. That horrible whispering carried on, like radio static; for a second, he thought if he tried to listen to it, he might be able to learn something. And that was when it struck. It was quick and thin, like a dagger stabbing out from darkness.

But whatever it was, it dug deep. The radiant glory of Heaven fell away quickly, replaced by nothing but darkness. The cold bit into his bones so fast it was like being set on fire. There was no sound, no movement at first - but then the noise began to rise, faint at first, then surging, charging forward as a cacophony. A morbid symphony of groans, screams, and death rattles. And beyond the darkness, the sense of something dancing outside - predators, come to feast.

Nick wanted to run, to flee, to get anywhere but the darkness. But it was everywhere, and his feet were like lead. He wanted to crawl away, crawl deep inside himself. But as he did, retreating from the flesh at miles per hour, he felt a flicker of warmth. The part of him that had seen worse things and come away unscathed. He felt his claws tensing again, ready to tear. He lunged forward --

-- and the illusion ripped apart, leaving just the specter of Death standing before him. The fallen Horsemen danced out of the way of claws, letting up a wheeze that sounded more like broken laughter.

"Wow," said Nick, almost certain of himself again. "You must really want me to shut you up."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel stood strong as the chains of Conquest flew by his head. The sounds of oppressed souls saddened him, but he knew his duty. He would not falter.

 

No, instead he lifted his spear in one hand, and his bow in the other....

 

And somehow, they shimmered, and the bow was huge, and the spear just a bit smaller, and while he was not an archery master, the spear and the bow together all but sang their instructions to him. His muscles tensed as he pulled back, the string of the bow humming with barely-restrained power. He almost released, but caught himself in the last moment, taking precious eyeblinks to re-align his shot.

 

"Then the Lord will appear over them; His arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet; He will march in the storms of the south, and the Lord Almighty will shield them. They will destroy and overcome with slingstones."

 

And then the over-sized silvery arrow flew through the air at incredible speed, slamming home center-mass on Conquest, piercing through the already-weakened armor.

 

"If it is a matter of pressure, I believe one of us is exerting and withstanding more than the other."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Your mewlings may affect other men," sneered Frost as he advanced through the horde of insects, his billowy, gaseous form shedding frozen insects as he swarmed around the master of the swarm like a bank of hungry, devouring fog. The biting insects had left him hungry for both blood and heat, a hunger he could let loose against such an inhuman monster. He'd have had fangs in his mouth were he solid, and as it was his voice was a predator's whisper in Famine's ears as the air froze to supernatural temperatures around the walking abomination. He punctuated every word with another drop in temperature, until even the air itself was beginning to freeze around the monster. "But not one with a  heart! so! cold!" He had slowed the swarm-master, forcing the insects to focus on him rather than any other foes, but would that be enough? Only time would tell. 

[trollthumper]

The frost crept over Famine, sending some locusts plummeting to the ground like black icicles. The rest of the swarm struggled to stay aloft, listing and twirling under the weight of chilled wings. Somewhere in the swarming storm, Comrade Frost could see a glimpse of the face of Famine. And now, the old Horseman didn't look to be in laughing spirits.

---

Wander's blows may have glanced off of War's armor at times... but the sword she bore could cut through to the heart of the earth itself, if she pushed for long enough. The blow that did strike true left the avatar of warfare reeling, his boots trying to gain purchase on Heaven's soil. And seeing the great destroyer of men and armies stumble was more than enough to cause War's eldritch's forces to falter... and more than enough reason for the angels of war to surge forward, forbidding to yield one inch to the forces of the void.

[Electra]

Wander whirled around once more, dodging around the moving bodies of fighting angels as she looked for her opening. There it was: a single moment when War's attention was diverted by the battle, his face turned away. She leapt over the blades of the fighters surrounding her and brought her own sword down with vicious force on the fallen avatar. But the effort of battle was taking its toll on her as well, and the distractions of being surrounded, and the unfamiliar weapon. Her aim was off by fractions of an inch, just enough that the sword smashed against the armor just to the left of the shoulder joint, ringing like a deep-voiced bell but bouncing away harmlessly. 

 

She swallowed against a mouth that was suddenly dry. "Hold the ranks!" she called again to her army. "Stay with your comrades, fight together!" 

[Avenger Assembled]

Clouds of ice and insects swarmed around each other, looking for purchase - before suddenly Frost solidified long enough to stamp his booted foot against the grassy ground! Instantly, a chilling wave erupted from his feet and sunk deeply into the ground beneath their feet, the grass browning and blackening where he stood, the holy ground beneath his feet flash-freezing into a crunchy morass of dead, frozen soil and hard-packed earth. "Come to me, insect," Frost sneered, his red eyes wild and fangs bulging behind his teeth. "There is no rock under which you may lay your eggs, there is no tree where you may raise your young, there is no crops that you may devour. It is I who have become the plague lo these many years. WINTER IS HERE!" And with that, he erupted back into the icy blizzard, and fell upon Famine like the wrath of an angry god. 

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel noted that Conquest was so rattled by the blow he'd been dealt that not only had he not attacked, he hadn't even spoken.

 

"Looks like I found out how to shut you up, Mister It Is All About Pressure."

 

He raised the bow, drawing the string back...as an arrow of condensed vibration took shape. He didn't need the bow, but somehow it just felt right, in this moment, to use it. He took aim, and loosed the projectile...and followed up with three more in rapid succession.

 

None of them struck the corrupted being's heart (or what passed for one) or head, but all of them struck nonetheless, and they struck powerfully, their very nature sending tiny shockwaves ripping back and forth across Conquest's body.

[trollthumper]

The volley of blows hit Conquest at all points - chest, neck, and joints. The great being stumbled, its eyes flared with incandescent hatred, its mouth locked in a silent curse. And then, like an ancient statue, he began to topple. The former angel, imposed so greatly upon the background of the universe, began to fade at the edges, becoming indistinct. The celestial matter that composed his body began to stream away, like dust on the winds of time. The being that had wished to grind parliaments and monuments under the steel soles of his boots fell away into nothingness, and was gone.

The armies of Heaven paused, taken aback for half a second by the sight. The armies of the void froze for just that much longer, fear streaming through their primitive brains. And then, with a triumphant cheer, the angels broke their silence, and streamed over their foes.

---

Famine, meanwhile, charged forwards towards Comrade Frost, the vast majority of his insectoid bulk crashing over him like a tsunami. He could feel the twisted locusts biting into him - not to devour the flesh, but to try and pin it down.