Azrael tapped his chin, closely observing her wounds. "Did the stories tell of this spreading by bite..? I can't remember."
Nightshade shrugged. "No idea. But we should..." Olga suddenly let out a howl of pain and fell to the deck. Ice was spreading up her arm from the spines, slowly creeping towards her shoulder.
"Damn it..." Azrael growled in frustration, grabbing onto Olga's arm with his hooves. "I think we'll need to cut it off."
(Walks over to the swords, and passing a small amount of energy through his hand, passes his hand over the swords a few times while concentrating, before looking puzzled) Huh. Usually weapons have some sort of voice, when they are as powerful or important as these. These weapons are silent, no matter how closely I listen, probably due to one, my recent energy draining, or two, I'm not accustomed to this world very well.
The flesh was already taking on a rotted appearance under the ice layer. Rose shook her head when she saw it. "You're right, Az. Toxic frost. Fast, painful, and always lethal. Take the arm now. If it reaches anything vital, she's dead." ******************************************************************************* The shadow creature seemed to have lost interest in attacking or escaping, and was watching Silver and Rep with curiosity. Silver shrugged. "Perhaps because the set is not complete." He placed his own blade next to the others. As the Blade of Death joined the the blades of Darkness, Light, Chaos, Harmony, and Life, they suddenly began to glow, each emitting a different sensation. The Blade of Darkness gave off a terrible sensation of loneliness and loss, while the Light sword gave off a feeling of joy. Chaos swirled with conflicting emotions, and Harmony radiated warmth and friendship. The Blade of Life gave off a feeling that only a mother would recognize as maternal love, as only a mother would have the ability to bond with the blade. Finally, Silver's own blade radiated a cold emptiness that only the most emotionless killer would know. "What now?" he asked. "Do the swords speak to you?"
"I couldn't suck souls from the wraiths. No magic. I am sorry." He was clearly troubled by what he was about to do. Assuming this was acceptable, Azrael gripped her arm tightly in his hooves, closed his eyes, and yanked hard, tearing it completely off. "Somepony stop the bleeding, now!"
Olga let out an agonized shriek before mercifully passing out from the pain. Rose sighed, sprinkling the wound with coagulant powder. "A clean cut would have been better, but at least you stopped it. It's not like Rain could have reattached the arm anyway." She licked a bit of Olga's blood from her hoof and placed the much larger dog on her back. "I'll get her bandaged up in the sickbay, and give her something to kill the pain. We'll need to get her to Rain as soon as possible, so hurry up with the gear."
After getting Olga bandaged up and drugged, Rose collected samples of the spines, and of the affected flesh. She'd work on an antivenom when she found the time. Nightshade and Az loaded the gear onto a pair of carts, and loaded Olga into a third. Before long, they were back on the elevator heading below. *********************************************************************** The look of relief on the other's faces quickly turned to concern when they saw the condition Olga was in. As Rain started working on healing, Cannonball turned to Az and Nightshade. "What the hell happened up there?!"
"She was bitten by an Ice Wraith," Azrael replied, hiding the fact that he wasn't happy about what he had to do behind a stoic demeanor. "I had to remove her arm by force to keep the infection from spreading." Navaja winced as he looked Olga over up close. He had some idea what having a limb torn off felt like, and it showed in his face. "Erm. Ice Wraith? Somepony know what he's talking about?"
Nova paled noticeably. "The Forsaken..." She shook her head. "I thought they were just a myth. When we fled from this place, not everypony made it out. The old, the sick, the weak... they were left behind. Prisoners were left in dungeons. The insane were left in their asylums. We believed we had doomed them to death, but several scientists proposed a theory too horrifying to imagine. They claim that the ponies we abandoned... the Forsaken... were being somehow changed by the windigos. Changed into something monstrous. The scientists were ignored, because the guilt was too much to bear. But if something still lives..." She hung her head. "All this time. What must they have gone through? We were so desperate to escape... but maybe we should have tried... tried to save them." The realization hit her like a ton of bricks. She, and so many others back then, had abandoned the most helpless ponies in their society to a fate worse than death.
"Then it seems we have a duty," Azrael said bluntly. "If we come across any more, we slay them. End their suffering once and for all."
They do. They are quiet, but they do seem to speak. Two seem to speak loudly to me though. One speaks of loneliness, the other of beings existing together without much dissent. That may be due to how there aren't any Beings like the Council other than each other and no other being such as me, that we have found, and in order for me to be around, most, if not all, of them need to be in accordance with each other. If they end up in an argument while I'm fully around, they split and I lose the powers and abilities I had when they were in accordance.
"Agreed," Cannonball said. "But remember, this isn't a hunting trip. We still have samples to track down-- Rosie, that's where you come in-- and maybe try to find enough treasure to make us all obscenely wealthy." "And that's where I come in," Nightshade replied. "I suggest we split up. Half of us will stay here and collect samples, and the rest will go check out that tower. If my hunch is right, it might connect to something important buried above. Maybe even the castle itself." ********************************** Silver nodded. "Darkness and Harmony. Which one calls to you more?"
"Of course you are," Nightshade replied. "You're probably immune to those things, so I want them stinging you instead of me." She was expecting to run into more wraiths. As a nascent draconequus, she was likely immune, too. Rose Thorn, with her vampiric nature, probably was as well. "Me, Az, and Rosie. Think we'll be enough, Az?"
Navaja sighed, stepping up to the group. "I'd be better at stabbing monsters than picking flowers. With yours and the beautiful doctor's permission..."
Nightshade nodded. "I would imagine you have experience breaking into to highly-secure places, correct? That might be useful." Rain shrugged, still focused on Olga. "Be careful, and if you run into any of those things, let Az and Shady take the front. They can survive frost venom. You can't." Rose shrugged. "Fine, but I'd really prefer to stay here. I'm an alchemist. I'm more useful in the garden." Nightshade shook her head. "You're coming with us because you're an alchemist. We still don't have an antivenom for ice wraith toxin."
Navaja shook his head, pasting on a very Azrael-like pride. "You'll learn quickly. I'm too stubborn to die." "Should have brought Maya," Azrael added plainly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile, back at the bar, it was already tomorrow morning. Against all better judgement, Raven herself decided to be the bartender while her parents took care of her new brother. Man, they needed some new employees. Asmodeus, working security again, snickered by the door at Raven's situation. "You don't know dick about making drinks kid. This was kinda not a good idea." Raven returned a determined smirk. "Got my Fake ID and my recipes. If anypony else can do it, so can I!"
(Listens carefully, and then holds his hand over Harmony. The Council begin speaking through Rep's manifestation, even without having fully formed Rep, as Arch could not be able to do so) We may be alone, but that is something we have come to terms with long ago, we needed to in order for Rep to be formed, and as such Harmony, considering it is the acceptance of our Loneliness that allows us to form Rep, is the better choice for him to wield.
