16th April
13:39 GMT -5
"Orange Lantern to everyone." I draw my sidearm and point it at the Demon. "One of the Demons just ate my ring charge. This isn't going to be-" Two Arrows of Unmaking strike it in the chest and trigger.
"Raaaaargh!"
"-as easy as I thought."
The Tar-Covered Corpse flows away from us, the two round holes ripped in its chest swiftly being swallowed by dull orange goo. It slaps its right hand against the fallen form of the Juggernaut Wallace melted, and orange strands glow across the brute's skin, matching the runic patterns I briefly saw on the Corpse's own flesh.
Okay, power armour, go for my personal lantern or try fighting like this? Call for help? No one could get here- I note another arrow moving into my field of vision in slow motion- fast enough, at least no one with the necessary anti-Demon skill set. I pull the trigger on my pistol, sending an iron bullet towards the Corpse. Doubt that'll do much. Angel feather railgun round? In situations like this I'm really supposed to retreat but I can't leave Artemis and Wallace in the lurch, to say nothing of all the squishy civilians. Fingers moving in slow motion I pull the trigger again. Disadvantage of polytheism is that I can't just pray to my preferred jumped up Elemental to make the Demons go away. I'd have to get a god with a particular pre-existing hostility.
Wallace runs forwards, another vial prepped. The Corpse's eyes flash orange for a moment and a tar tentacle bubbles outwards from its chest, lashing out at his most likely approach. Wallace jumps, twisting in the air to throw himself over it. Next to the Corpse, the empty pits in the Juggernaut's face that once held its eyes flare orange.
Right.
My power armour appears around me-
Warning, twelve percent remaining.
-and I activate the flight system and phasing.
"Ragh!"
Things move back into normal speed. The Corpse's tentacle intercepts Artemis' arrow while the Corpse itself slides out of the way of Wallace's hurriedly thrown vial. My bullets hit but appear to do no damage. Par for the course, really. Artemis' second arrow -this one an Unmaker rather than a anti-magic arrow- punches a hole in the tentacle and causes the part severed from the Corpse to fall to the ground, where it… Ugh, where it shimmers and vaporises in a decidedly unhealthy-looking fashion. I raise my right arm, construct railgun reforming and a cold gun appearing from subspace. Cold gun is a bit iffy as Demons don't always bother creating bodies from matter, but if Crumblers worked they're probably solid enough to have their vibrations impeded. Wallace is moving too fast for me to precisely track him, but from the way the Corpse's head is constantly jerking and the presence of numerous small but heavy airborne objects I'm going to assume that he's super speed throwing things.
The cold beam hits the Corpse in the chest, coating its epidermis in frost as super cooled whatever-it's-made-of causes the water to precipitate out of the air. The Demon itself actually seems mildly perturbed by this, looking down at itself and making a weird sort of choking-panting noise. The Juggernaut starts to pull itself to its feet, a sort of crystalline construct growth appearing along its forearms. I've been reluctant to use angel feather rounds because I only have a very finite number of them, but I think I've found the time for them.
An Unmaker from Artemis hits the Juggernaut hard enough to make it jerk away, and the detonation causes the orange runes to blink out. I load an angel round and fire it directly at that point.
The round punches cleanly through the Demon's skin and into its pseudo organs.
"Yaaaaaahhh!"
It collapses, flares of gold and black flickering around it as the magics conflict and counteract one another. The Corpse takes one look at what's happening to its colleague and propels itself my way on a plume of orange ichor, mouth unhinged and hissing. I go to dodge, but its oil coated talons still pass through.. me…
Ooh, that feels disgusting. The physical component went through, but I think.. I just caught the edge of its magics and-
Warning, ten percent remaining.
-got drained further. I'm going to need Zatanna to check me out fully after this. Artemis rolls out of the way as the Corpse has a moment of indecision: go for me again when the first attempt appeared to achieve nothing, or try reinforcing its other fallen comrade? I come back into phase and fire the cold gun again as Artemis looses another Unmaker, trying to create another hole in its oil coating. It shudders under the beam's effect but doesn't seem notably disabled. Artemis' Unmaker gouges another break, but the oil covers it once more before she can capitalise. Wallace blurs past, another vial breaking on the Corpse and a patch of green sludge spreading across its back. It doesn't hiss in the way the acid did, but the Corpse flails around for a moment trying to reach it anyway. The bits I froze are stiffer, but not nearly as much as they should be. I can see the heat being leached out of the air from here; absolute zero is bloody cold.
Wallace drops back to normal speed just behind me. "Aim for the green stuff!"
Okay then. I raise my railgun and load an angel round as Artemis hurries around to this side and notches an anti-magic arrow. We fire simultaneously, my shot striking home just ahead of hers. Both finally penetrate the Corpse's outer defences and burrow into its insides.
"Nraaaaooooow!"
The Corpse collapses to the ground, more of its body appearing as the oil streams off and runs across the floor.
Right then. Rings, get my gosh darn power back.
Orange vapour leaps out of the muck and towards my gauntlets. Okay, I'm going to assume that means that the spell binding it is broken. Rings, we got a recording of the rune layout, right?
Confirmed. Ninety percent of image available. Charging in progress. Eighteen percent available.
Good to know.
"Master! Please!" The Corpse claws at the air, presumably begging either its summoner or its overlord. "Aid meeee!"
"Mrrruhhhhmrm." Keeping the rings scanning the Corpse I turn to the fallen Juggernaut. It's shrivelled as the angel round leaches its power, horns vanishing and its grey blood turning… Red? What?
"Ah, Oh El? Is it meant to do that?"
Charge at twenty three percent.
I quickly review the footage once more. The Juggernaut was that one, so… The horns vanish and the hair begins to grow from the top of its head in replacement. Behind me the outer flesh of the Corpse begins to reappear, covering its exposed muscles and bones. The injuries we inflicted are now painfully visible, and from the way the Corpse is thrashing about I'm going to assume that they can feel them now as well.
What?
"Kid Flash, healing unguents."
"But they're De-."
"That's not how Demons work. I don't know what they are."
"Okay, God, ah…" He pushes the woman who became the Juggernaut firmly onto her back, revealing the full extent of her facial burns and the hole in her chest made by my railgun round. He pours the content of one vial over her face as I go to work on the rapidly bleeding puncture, cauterizing and reknitting the damaged flesh. As well as extracting my round. Those things don't grow on trees. My constructs fade once I'm reasonably sure that she isn't going to die immediately. Wallace's efforts on her face have restored it to third-degree-oil-burns level, back from skull-with-some-meat-attached. The eyes are still gone, but that's to be expected. Don't think we caused any brain damage, but it's too early to be certain.
"Okay, next one."
Artemis just stands there, staring in shock as we rush to patch up the Corpse. I use the rings to bring her temperature up… Not sure what happened there, having part of your body at absolute zero should be pretty lethal for a Human but she seems to be getting off with extreme-but-survivable cold. Wallace splashes healing potion on the holes all over her torso.
"A-Artemis to team. The Demons, they're… People. People turned into Demons! Try not to kill them!"
How is this even possible?
