Emend’s spell fought against the titanic power of the grove – feeling like Emend was trying to turn aside a dump truck with a broom. He realized in trying, that the metamorphosis spell was a continuous effect, meaning that as long as the quorum remained in the grove, they would be subject to its powers.
Emend’s magic shield, coupled with his counter spell, was enough to prevent further change in Emend for the moment, but it was draining his mana at an alarming rate.
Robor also resisted the change, sending out a blast of corpus-shredding power. Initially intent on expanding the wave to encompass a number of the weird tree spirits, Robor was quickly frustrated by the fact that they were all spread out too far, UsdiYona was in the radius, and the sheer size of the ancient stump required almost all of his focus.
Even singling out the stump itself for the brunt of the attack was disappointing, as the vile and primordial thing slapped down Robor’s spell as easily as a man would swat away a fly.
The Saint Meanwhile, invoked his organic resilience on everyone, finding that with a little effort, he could choose whom to effect regardless of area. Emend, Robor, Beats, and UsdiYona suddenly felt a surge of invigorating power.
As if in response to his efforts however, the Saint felt a wave of nausea overcome him, as his feet suddenly erupted through the sides of his shoes and began digging themselves into the ground. Fighting back stabbing pain, the Saint ripped his now deformed appendages free from the earth – wondering if his faith was strong enough to sustain him through this horrifying nightmare.
As this went on, UsdiYona and Tree-Bear continued to tear into the massive stump. While the flesh proved easy to rip apart, the dark ivory-like ribs seemed as hard as stone – and resisted the two bears’ raking claws quite well!
Seeing this, Beats activated knife fists and strode forward to the gaping wound UsdiYona and Tree-Bear had inflicted upon the demonic remnant.
With a series of tremendous blows, Beats shattered two of the great ribs, allowing access to the now unprotected fibrous musculature beneath!
The ancient stump groaned in a dazed stupor, as its insides were being torn out - and two of the freakish flesh-trees seemed to tremble in response.
A moment later, the most god-awful sound shook through the grove – it was a sickening fracture, followed by the wet ripping of flesh – as the gruesome pair literally tore themselves free of their stumps!
A thick column of dull gray vertebrae trailed from each of the gaping wounds – wrapped in writhing mounds of torn, sap splorking entrails! Dark blood sprayed everywhere – as the two tree-tops then toppled over and began rolling across the grove at the Disciples – like a couple of horrendous flailing tumbleweeds!
Beats meanwhile, realized in dismay, that something was now hampering his lower movement. Looking down, he was shocked to see his upper thighs fusing together at the crotch! His legs were beginning to transform into a trunk!
Seeing this, a sudden realization crossed the Saint’s mind. The reason Angels couldn’t enter the Shadow. The Shadow was Hell!
The sudden revelation blasted through the Saint’s mind, being more than he could take – he was gone even before his collapsing knees hit the ground.
Another woke in his place.
So this was Hell. Big deal.
The real hell was having to live inside the mind of another, trapped and incapable of action – watching the most banal person ever born, waste the marvelous powers that the angel had given him.
But it was the Killer’s turn again now – and this time, it would be different.
