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xp_logsThe final showdown. Tandy accompanies the team going after Cul Borson, but Cul has other plans for the Dweller's host.
Tandy was one of the last one through the portal and immediately her stomach did churns at the sight of Cullen, no Cul Borson. He already reached his full power again and taking him down would be a battle for sure. Tandy didn't want Marie-Ange's precognition to come true.
Marie-Ange reached out blindly to steady Tandy before she stumbled. "I remind you, what I see is easily misinterpreted." She said, voice gentle, even as armored gauntlets began creeping up over her wrists.
"Besides," Doug said with a bit of forced cheerfulness, "I've died twice." Approximately, anyway. Depending on how you classified getting waterboarded and revived a whole lot. It probably said something about him, how cavalierly he tossed that off. He shrugged. "I got better," he said in his best Graham Chapman impression.
This was getting out of control, and if there was one thing Cul hated more than anything was that: loss of control. This motley crew, this ridiculous group thought they would best him? Him, who revived the Worthies, who was more Worthy than anyone else? Pitiful.
He was stronger than ever, the fear and despair filling the city had taken over and he stretched his arms out to feed into that energy. The pain, the screams, the anguish ...it washed over him and he knew what he was going to do with it. "Awaken, Dweller!," he called out in a calm voice. "Join me!"
A flash of bright colour exploded from his fingertips, and went directly to Tandy. Cul's lips curled with mirth.
The light inside of her cracked as Tandy took the hit and sent her crashing backwards into Marie-Ange. "Fuck..." Sinking into the ground as she held her head, Dweller was awake and trying to claw his way out. Glaring at Cul, she was hoping to get a punch in before this happened.
"Not helping, Cypher." Marie-Ange muttered. "Talk less." She braced herself, reached down and offered Tandy a hand up - and as the other women took hers, the imaged metal covering Marie-Ange's arms spread to cover Tandy's hands and wrists. As it crept, cool and slick, it lightened to a polished platinum that glowed with it's own light and settled into gloves of metallic chain, protecting Tandy all the way to the shoulders. "We are in the right place, at the right time, and we are not letting Cul Borson win."
Doug rather thought he deserved a cookie for not retorting at Marie-Ange to 'smile more'. Except now he really wanted to misquote Serio Forel, dang it.
Cul would win. He knew it would happen. He'd won this far. He'd awoken his Worthies. He had the Hammers.
There was no way he wouldn't win. He could see the energy spreading throughout Dweller's avatar, he knew it would work. How could the body resist?
Cul was all powerful.
X-Men back Thor up as he battles his uncle, but Cul gets the upper hand.
"Cul! Cul!" Thor stepped out of the portal, sword at hand. Whatever had been Don Blake was gone at the moment. This was a God who had generalled Heroes into battle a thousand times. Sword at the ready, he called out his challenge. "This realm is under my protection! You shall not interfere! You shall not wage war here! And if you do, I will destroy you without mercy!"
He cleared the way for the X-Men to follow, but they saw the challenge answered as lightning touched down near Thor. The god shook it off and held up his hand. "You were exiled, old man! Put down for your crimes by my father!" He raised his hammer and the rest of the lightning grounded against it. "And my other father agrees. You're shit that needs to be taken down!"
There were people who focused on battlefield quips and japes, and Thor wasn't one of them, for him the idea of straight and too the point seemed to work, and as he slid away to the right to clear a space between the two gods Scott had to admit that he was very much ok with this. Who would have believed that they'd be facing gods now, although it wasn't such a far cry from demons...Kitty and his grandparents would never believe this one.
As glad as Logan was for Thor's presence in the battle, he needed less lightning and more actual fighting. He stepped out of the portal behind them and what greeted them was Cul in full Asgardian armor with a vengeful look on his face. Thousands of years of retribution and anger were directed right at them. "Why's it always gotta be us wadin' into something we had no part in," he muttered to himself. The lightning kept him on his toes as he manuevered out of the blast radius of as many as he could. The hair on his arms and the back of his neck were standing upright from all the electricity being thrown around. It was a tenacious gaining and losing of ground to get closer to Cul.
"Cruel and unyielding fate," Julian suggested, throwing up a quick shield to deflect an errant strike of lightning...then another, and another- it seemed that standing next to Logan was perhaps not the best idea when bolts of electricity were being flung about. Pushing off the ground, Julian erected a sort of shell around himself as he glided across the battlefield to support the God of Thunder. Each strike on the field stung in the back of his mind, but he did his best to push past it- after everything that had happened in the past months, this was their great, cataclysmic battle that would decide the outcome. Not willing to lose Tandy, Julian floated out past Cul's left flank and began to gather the lines of force around him, intent on bringing all the energy he could to bear to try and hold the god in place, giving Thor a chance to strike.
Angelo was next out of the portal, dressed once again in his Asgardian armour and sword at his hip. He was well aware of being perhaps the weakest fighter there, when it came to gods, but what he could do was try to distract Cul’s attention from the others. He spat out a string of elven curses as he circled to the right.
This was unbelievable, but then here they were fighting with gods. Scott had heard some describe mutants with god-like powers but this was...well this was...real gods. "Grandma's never gonna believe this one," he muttered to himself as he cut to the left, eyes glowing red as he waiting for an opportunity.
Cul was enjoying every moment of this. All his hard work, everything he'd been through culminated to this point. He could still remember the pathetic being who lived in this original body, how his broken spirit had given in, allowed Cul to break through as he was.
It was wonderful.
And to have Thor there? His very own blood, fighting against him? It was laughable. "You have never once bested me, Thor," he called out confidently. "Not when you were at your prime, and know this -- you are no longer there." As for the others on the battlefield? They were insignificant. He could see them getting into place, waiting for their opportunity, but it wouldn't happen.
Erecting his own shield, a shield that looked dark and grim, filled with pain, he lifted in the air, the points of his toes barely grazing the ground. "Let us begin," he exclaimed. "Come! Try and learn that your fate is not to win."
Thor reached back to the hilt of the scabbard sword on his back. It came free, iron bright and gleaming. "The All-Father has sent you a gift, Cul. Forged in the same fires as Mjolnir. Etched with runes from the greatest of the Dwarven smiths. It is a weapon fit for a God to wield, or to be felled by. Before this battle is done, you will be spit on this blade, I promise you."
Cul, or whatever his name was, was distracted by Thor, almost enthralled by him. The chance to do battle with a fellow Asgardian must've really got his blood up. Logan couldn't exactly fault him for that. He just wanted to know why this planet always had to get caught up in the chaos. He seized the brief opportunity that lightning wasn't scattering the air and ground around them to charge toward Cul. Maybe he could get close enough to deal some damage. His claws were unsheathed and he swung them in an arc in front of him as he got closer.
Julian spotted the elder X-man's charge and pushed forward through the air to support him. The shield around Cul was hideous, but he'd faced worse over the past ten years and wasn't about to be deterred just because something looked strange. Reaching out, he brought all his power to bear on the shield, pressing on it with thousands of tiny, telekinetic jack-hammers, trying to find a weakness, trying to find for Wolverine to slip through and do what he did better than anyone else on the team. Unfortunately, the second his powers brushed against the field, the feedback from whatever magical energies made it up caused the world to seemingly invert- forcing him to stop his assault as he plummeted out of the air. Nausea and disorientation grounded him- but with Tandy's life at stake in this fight he pushed back off the ground...just very, very carefully.
Cul was ignoring everyone except Thor, and Angelo took advantage of that to dash around behind him, stretching out to support Julian. "I think maybe we should let Thor go at him first. He might get that shield down."
"He might," Scott allowed, taking a half-step back before nodding, "At the least I don't think we want to get into the middle of that fight, just wait for one of them to give us an opening."
Mjolnir smashed against the shield like a crack of thunder and the magical energy shattered into a million shards. Cul barely avoided the follow-up swing and parried the sword thrust. Lightning crackled between him and Thor as they fought, trading blows back and forth with thunderous sounds.
"There is no place for you here, Cul. No kingdom to be won or land to be pillaged. Only death by my hand unless you yield."
Cul didn't even dignify that with an answer. They both knew that Thor would tire before Cul. Thor's power was drawn from Asgard, and they were far from there, while Cul's energy grew with every shriek, with every scream. Reaching deep into the recesses of the Earth, Cul absorbed as much as he could, his dark light shimmering with more faces, each crying out in pain.
In an instant, he released that energy out, pushing his nephew away and loosing the sword from his grip. From his position, he grinned widely for the first time. Thor, on one side of the field, the sword on the other. "You should know better than to raise a hand to your Elder," he said mockingly. "You have lost, Nephew."
Things look grim. But there's always a light on the horizon.
"Do not say it." Marie-Ange shot Doug a dark look at his mouth opened, and he snapped it shut before anything particularly memetic about Norway could escape. Her imaged armor, gloves and bracers and one shoulder piece almost rippled as she picked her away over rubble and overturned stones. "And stay close." The spear in her hand did not ripple, it was as heavy and solid as steel, and she used it more to steady her footing and clear a path than anything, it would do little against the Chosen besides.
Doug still wasn't entirely sure why he was there, to be honest. He'd just recently been through an intense physical and then an even more intense conversation with Marie-Ange about his ability to function in the field.
"Yes, Doug, I am aware we just talked about you staying behind, but I also added a clause regarding the potential end of the world, and I am quite certain this qualifies," she had said somewhat exasperatedly as she buckled the back of his body armor.
Still, he felt even farther out of his weight class than normal, between his condition and the fact that they were apparently up against the no-kidding evil brother of freaking ODIN. Thor was wielding the Odinsword, and at best fighting a losing battle. It was even harder to fight down a surge of despair when Cul sent Thor crashing limply to the ground, the Odinsword pinwheeling the opposite direction across the ground...
...and landing only feet away from him, Marie-Ange, and Tandy.
Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but Doug swore he could see a single gleaming rune in the otherworldly uru that formed the blade of the sword. Tiwaz, for Tyr. The god he called on when holding his own Asgardian blade. A shining arrow pointing directly down the tip...right at him. His hand twitched toward the sword, halted only by a belated awareness of Marie-Ange's fingers tapping on her spear that cut through the roaring in his ears. It didn't seem right for Morse code, and then he realized she was humming under her breath, not even really aware she was doing so.
His very-much-not-Hamiltrash girlfriend certainly wouldn't be telling him 'wait for it (wait for it) wait for it (wait for it)' on her own, after all. Doug's hand returned to his side, but now he knew he wasn't just standing still.
He was lying in wait.
As suspected, these mutants were no match for his epic powers. He was fully strong. He was Cul, God of Fear. He deserved everything that was happening and had put into place for so long. The fruits of his labour were becoming evident, and all he needed was Dweller, by his side again. Still fully enveloped in a shield of screams and pain, he stepped closer to Dweller, ignoring everyone else. They were insignificant, they were useless and more importantly, they were completely beneath him.
He had just bested Thor. He could best Odin.
And now he needed Dweller.
Extending a hand to Dweller's avatar, he gave an evil smile, filled with anger and fear. When he opened to speak, it was as it he was using the voices of those he'd drained. "Come to me," he cooed, his fingers beckoning to her, dancing in the air. "Come join my side, and we will rule as we deserve."
Tandy winced as she looked at the scene playing out before her. Cul had thrown Thor like a rag doll and now he was swordless, meaning his Worthy were doing what they were meant to be doing. No matter how hard her friends were fighting, it would be for nothing if they didn't cut the head off the serpent. Tandy let out another yelp as Dweller clawed her from the inside, it was getting harder to contain him.
Opening her eyes and there was anger. She knew had to do, and that, Dweller knew what she was going to do. Quickly Tandy stood up and began to walk toward Cul, she yelped again as Dweller continued to claw at her. Her crescent moon started to glow brightly but started to flicker to black as she approached the god of fear. Ignoring the pleas and whatever the X-Men were calling out for her, and she didn't dare look at Julian. He would stop her if he knew what she was planning.
She reached out for Cul's hand and then felt Dweller lurching out as the demon of fear and god of fear connected. Looking up at Cul, who had a triumph look in his eyes, Tandy's eyes turned black. "Goodbye. Cul." She whispered before she enveloped them both in her light - if they couldn't get his body, she would aim for his life force and drain it. It was several seconds of intense light before it ended and Tandy fell to the ground with Cul still glowing from her dozens upon dozens of light daggers sticking out of him, sinking into his skin and draining his life force.
It was time.
Doug didn't even need the stopping of Marie-Ange's humming to know his cue when he saw it. He leaned down toward the Odinsword, which almost seemed to leap into his hand.
It was like he'd been living in slow motion for the better part of a year. And someone had finally taken the remote and pushed 'play'. Everything looked sharper, he felt like he could distinguish every single smell and noise around them, count every single hair in his girlfriend's braid... It was just this side of overwhelming, the way the magical shackles on his body seemed to fall away.
He dashed forward, the sword an extension of his feather-light arm. This asshole styled himself the god of fear. But the thing is - courage is not the absence of fear, but rather acting in spite of it. And Doug had years of experience facing the horrors of the world, and still getting the job done.
"Let those who worship evil's might..." he whispered as the sword cocked back over his shoulder.
And with a single stroke he sheared Cul's head from his shoulders.
Feathers, hundreds and hundreds of them fluttered over the battlefield, a rainbow of ebony and jet and obsidian. They cushioned Tandy's fall, and then became mist and whispers as she lie still. The mist parted as Marie-Ange knelt, hands bare. She pressed two fingers against the other woman's neck momentarily, and bent, holding her own breath as she listened for any sign of Tandy's. "She is breathing." She finally said. "But weakly, and her pulse is thready." She was not even quite sure who she was talking to, perhaps herself out of relief - she had been right that death would win here, but not in the way Tandy had feared. Her phone was in her hand without thinking.. "Blink? We need emergency pickup, please for Dagger." A pause. "And perhaps someone should call Thor regarding his uncle."
Tandy was one of the last one through the portal and immediately her stomach did churns at the sight of Cullen, no Cul Borson. He already reached his full power again and taking him down would be a battle for sure. Tandy didn't want Marie-Ange's precognition to come true.
Marie-Ange reached out blindly to steady Tandy before she stumbled. "I remind you, what I see is easily misinterpreted." She said, voice gentle, even as armored gauntlets began creeping up over her wrists.
"Besides," Doug said with a bit of forced cheerfulness, "I've died twice." Approximately, anyway. Depending on how you classified getting waterboarded and revived a whole lot. It probably said something about him, how cavalierly he tossed that off. He shrugged. "I got better," he said in his best Graham Chapman impression.
This was getting out of control, and if there was one thing Cul hated more than anything was that: loss of control. This motley crew, this ridiculous group thought they would best him? Him, who revived the Worthies, who was more Worthy than anyone else? Pitiful.
He was stronger than ever, the fear and despair filling the city had taken over and he stretched his arms out to feed into that energy. The pain, the screams, the anguish ...it washed over him and he knew what he was going to do with it. "Awaken, Dweller!," he called out in a calm voice. "Join me!"
A flash of bright colour exploded from his fingertips, and went directly to Tandy. Cul's lips curled with mirth.
The light inside of her cracked as Tandy took the hit and sent her crashing backwards into Marie-Ange. "Fuck..." Sinking into the ground as she held her head, Dweller was awake and trying to claw his way out. Glaring at Cul, she was hoping to get a punch in before this happened.
"Not helping, Cypher." Marie-Ange muttered. "Talk less." She braced herself, reached down and offered Tandy a hand up - and as the other women took hers, the imaged metal covering Marie-Ange's arms spread to cover Tandy's hands and wrists. As it crept, cool and slick, it lightened to a polished platinum that glowed with it's own light and settled into gloves of metallic chain, protecting Tandy all the way to the shoulders. "We are in the right place, at the right time, and we are not letting Cul Borson win."
Doug rather thought he deserved a cookie for not retorting at Marie-Ange to 'smile more'. Except now he really wanted to misquote Serio Forel, dang it.
Cul would win. He knew it would happen. He'd won this far. He'd awoken his Worthies. He had the Hammers.
There was no way he wouldn't win. He could see the energy spreading throughout Dweller's avatar, he knew it would work. How could the body resist?
Cul was all powerful.
X-Men back Thor up as he battles his uncle, but Cul gets the upper hand.
"Cul! Cul!" Thor stepped out of the portal, sword at hand. Whatever had been Don Blake was gone at the moment. This was a God who had generalled Heroes into battle a thousand times. Sword at the ready, he called out his challenge. "This realm is under my protection! You shall not interfere! You shall not wage war here! And if you do, I will destroy you without mercy!"
He cleared the way for the X-Men to follow, but they saw the challenge answered as lightning touched down near Thor. The god shook it off and held up his hand. "You were exiled, old man! Put down for your crimes by my father!" He raised his hammer and the rest of the lightning grounded against it. "And my other father agrees. You're shit that needs to be taken down!"
There were people who focused on battlefield quips and japes, and Thor wasn't one of them, for him the idea of straight and too the point seemed to work, and as he slid away to the right to clear a space between the two gods Scott had to admit that he was very much ok with this. Who would have believed that they'd be facing gods now, although it wasn't such a far cry from demons...Kitty and his grandparents would never believe this one.
As glad as Logan was for Thor's presence in the battle, he needed less lightning and more actual fighting. He stepped out of the portal behind them and what greeted them was Cul in full Asgardian armor with a vengeful look on his face. Thousands of years of retribution and anger were directed right at them. "Why's it always gotta be us wadin' into something we had no part in," he muttered to himself. The lightning kept him on his toes as he manuevered out of the blast radius of as many as he could. The hair on his arms and the back of his neck were standing upright from all the electricity being thrown around. It was a tenacious gaining and losing of ground to get closer to Cul.
"Cruel and unyielding fate," Julian suggested, throwing up a quick shield to deflect an errant strike of lightning...then another, and another- it seemed that standing next to Logan was perhaps not the best idea when bolts of electricity were being flung about. Pushing off the ground, Julian erected a sort of shell around himself as he glided across the battlefield to support the God of Thunder. Each strike on the field stung in the back of his mind, but he did his best to push past it- after everything that had happened in the past months, this was their great, cataclysmic battle that would decide the outcome. Not willing to lose Tandy, Julian floated out past Cul's left flank and began to gather the lines of force around him, intent on bringing all the energy he could to bear to try and hold the god in place, giving Thor a chance to strike.
Angelo was next out of the portal, dressed once again in his Asgardian armour and sword at his hip. He was well aware of being perhaps the weakest fighter there, when it came to gods, but what he could do was try to distract Cul’s attention from the others. He spat out a string of elven curses as he circled to the right.
This was unbelievable, but then here they were fighting with gods. Scott had heard some describe mutants with god-like powers but this was...well this was...real gods. "Grandma's never gonna believe this one," he muttered to himself as he cut to the left, eyes glowing red as he waiting for an opportunity.
Cul was enjoying every moment of this. All his hard work, everything he'd been through culminated to this point. He could still remember the pathetic being who lived in this original body, how his broken spirit had given in, allowed Cul to break through as he was.
It was wonderful.
And to have Thor there? His very own blood, fighting against him? It was laughable. "You have never once bested me, Thor," he called out confidently. "Not when you were at your prime, and know this -- you are no longer there." As for the others on the battlefield? They were insignificant. He could see them getting into place, waiting for their opportunity, but it wouldn't happen.
Erecting his own shield, a shield that looked dark and grim, filled with pain, he lifted in the air, the points of his toes barely grazing the ground. "Let us begin," he exclaimed. "Come! Try and learn that your fate is not to win."
Thor reached back to the hilt of the scabbard sword on his back. It came free, iron bright and gleaming. "The All-Father has sent you a gift, Cul. Forged in the same fires as Mjolnir. Etched with runes from the greatest of the Dwarven smiths. It is a weapon fit for a God to wield, or to be felled by. Before this battle is done, you will be spit on this blade, I promise you."
Cul, or whatever his name was, was distracted by Thor, almost enthralled by him. The chance to do battle with a fellow Asgardian must've really got his blood up. Logan couldn't exactly fault him for that. He just wanted to know why this planet always had to get caught up in the chaos. He seized the brief opportunity that lightning wasn't scattering the air and ground around them to charge toward Cul. Maybe he could get close enough to deal some damage. His claws were unsheathed and he swung them in an arc in front of him as he got closer.
Julian spotted the elder X-man's charge and pushed forward through the air to support him. The shield around Cul was hideous, but he'd faced worse over the past ten years and wasn't about to be deterred just because something looked strange. Reaching out, he brought all his power to bear on the shield, pressing on it with thousands of tiny, telekinetic jack-hammers, trying to find a weakness, trying to find for Wolverine to slip through and do what he did better than anyone else on the team. Unfortunately, the second his powers brushed against the field, the feedback from whatever magical energies made it up caused the world to seemingly invert- forcing him to stop his assault as he plummeted out of the air. Nausea and disorientation grounded him- but with Tandy's life at stake in this fight he pushed back off the ground...just very, very carefully.
Cul was ignoring everyone except Thor, and Angelo took advantage of that to dash around behind him, stretching out to support Julian. "I think maybe we should let Thor go at him first. He might get that shield down."
"He might," Scott allowed, taking a half-step back before nodding, "At the least I don't think we want to get into the middle of that fight, just wait for one of them to give us an opening."
Mjolnir smashed against the shield like a crack of thunder and the magical energy shattered into a million shards. Cul barely avoided the follow-up swing and parried the sword thrust. Lightning crackled between him and Thor as they fought, trading blows back and forth with thunderous sounds.
"There is no place for you here, Cul. No kingdom to be won or land to be pillaged. Only death by my hand unless you yield."
Cul didn't even dignify that with an answer. They both knew that Thor would tire before Cul. Thor's power was drawn from Asgard, and they were far from there, while Cul's energy grew with every shriek, with every scream. Reaching deep into the recesses of the Earth, Cul absorbed as much as he could, his dark light shimmering with more faces, each crying out in pain.
In an instant, he released that energy out, pushing his nephew away and loosing the sword from his grip. From his position, he grinned widely for the first time. Thor, on one side of the field, the sword on the other. "You should know better than to raise a hand to your Elder," he said mockingly. "You have lost, Nephew."
Things look grim. But there's always a light on the horizon.
"Do not say it." Marie-Ange shot Doug a dark look at his mouth opened, and he snapped it shut before anything particularly memetic about Norway could escape. Her imaged armor, gloves and bracers and one shoulder piece almost rippled as she picked her away over rubble and overturned stones. "And stay close." The spear in her hand did not ripple, it was as heavy and solid as steel, and she used it more to steady her footing and clear a path than anything, it would do little against the Chosen besides.
Doug still wasn't entirely sure why he was there, to be honest. He'd just recently been through an intense physical and then an even more intense conversation with Marie-Ange about his ability to function in the field.
"Yes, Doug, I am aware we just talked about you staying behind, but I also added a clause regarding the potential end of the world, and I am quite certain this qualifies," she had said somewhat exasperatedly as she buckled the back of his body armor.
Still, he felt even farther out of his weight class than normal, between his condition and the fact that they were apparently up against the no-kidding evil brother of freaking ODIN. Thor was wielding the Odinsword, and at best fighting a losing battle. It was even harder to fight down a surge of despair when Cul sent Thor crashing limply to the ground, the Odinsword pinwheeling the opposite direction across the ground...
...and landing only feet away from him, Marie-Ange, and Tandy.
Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but Doug swore he could see a single gleaming rune in the otherworldly uru that formed the blade of the sword. Tiwaz, for Tyr. The god he called on when holding his own Asgardian blade. A shining arrow pointing directly down the tip...right at him. His hand twitched toward the sword, halted only by a belated awareness of Marie-Ange's fingers tapping on her spear that cut through the roaring in his ears. It didn't seem right for Morse code, and then he realized she was humming under her breath, not even really aware she was doing so.
His very-much-not-Hamiltrash girlfriend certainly wouldn't be telling him 'wait for it (wait for it) wait for it (wait for it)' on her own, after all. Doug's hand returned to his side, but now he knew he wasn't just standing still.
He was lying in wait.
As suspected, these mutants were no match for his epic powers. He was fully strong. He was Cul, God of Fear. He deserved everything that was happening and had put into place for so long. The fruits of his labour were becoming evident, and all he needed was Dweller, by his side again. Still fully enveloped in a shield of screams and pain, he stepped closer to Dweller, ignoring everyone else. They were insignificant, they were useless and more importantly, they were completely beneath him.
He had just bested Thor. He could best Odin.
And now he needed Dweller.
Extending a hand to Dweller's avatar, he gave an evil smile, filled with anger and fear. When he opened to speak, it was as it he was using the voices of those he'd drained. "Come to me," he cooed, his fingers beckoning to her, dancing in the air. "Come join my side, and we will rule as we deserve."
Tandy winced as she looked at the scene playing out before her. Cul had thrown Thor like a rag doll and now he was swordless, meaning his Worthy were doing what they were meant to be doing. No matter how hard her friends were fighting, it would be for nothing if they didn't cut the head off the serpent. Tandy let out another yelp as Dweller clawed her from the inside, it was getting harder to contain him.
Opening her eyes and there was anger. She knew had to do, and that, Dweller knew what she was going to do. Quickly Tandy stood up and began to walk toward Cul, she yelped again as Dweller continued to claw at her. Her crescent moon started to glow brightly but started to flicker to black as she approached the god of fear. Ignoring the pleas and whatever the X-Men were calling out for her, and she didn't dare look at Julian. He would stop her if he knew what she was planning.
She reached out for Cul's hand and then felt Dweller lurching out as the demon of fear and god of fear connected. Looking up at Cul, who had a triumph look in his eyes, Tandy's eyes turned black. "Goodbye. Cul." She whispered before she enveloped them both in her light - if they couldn't get his body, she would aim for his life force and drain it. It was several seconds of intense light before it ended and Tandy fell to the ground with Cul still glowing from her dozens upon dozens of light daggers sticking out of him, sinking into his skin and draining his life force.
It was time.
Doug didn't even need the stopping of Marie-Ange's humming to know his cue when he saw it. He leaned down toward the Odinsword, which almost seemed to leap into his hand.
It was like he'd been living in slow motion for the better part of a year. And someone had finally taken the remote and pushed 'play'. Everything looked sharper, he felt like he could distinguish every single smell and noise around them, count every single hair in his girlfriend's braid... It was just this side of overwhelming, the way the magical shackles on his body seemed to fall away.
He dashed forward, the sword an extension of his feather-light arm. This asshole styled himself the god of fear. But the thing is - courage is not the absence of fear, but rather acting in spite of it. And Doug had years of experience facing the horrors of the world, and still getting the job done.
"Let those who worship evil's might..." he whispered as the sword cocked back over his shoulder.
And with a single stroke he sheared Cul's head from his shoulders.
Feathers, hundreds and hundreds of them fluttered over the battlefield, a rainbow of ebony and jet and obsidian. They cushioned Tandy's fall, and then became mist and whispers as she lie still. The mist parted as Marie-Ange knelt, hands bare. She pressed two fingers against the other woman's neck momentarily, and bent, holding her own breath as she listened for any sign of Tandy's. "She is breathing." She finally said. "But weakly, and her pulse is thready." She was not even quite sure who she was talking to, perhaps herself out of relief - she had been right that death would win here, but not in the way Tandy had feared. Her phone was in her hand without thinking.. "Blink? We need emergency pickup, please for Dagger." A pause. "And perhaps someone should call Thor regarding his uncle."
