Strength
She was losing. Exactly as she had feared she would.
The burning sword of the Archangyle clashed with her axe as she stood her ground, the impact shaking her body to the core, pushing her back through the ferrocrete streets of Dis, as she fought the creature alone.
Her mentor was in front of her, battling the entire Archangyl's retinue after it had unleashed them all upon him after he had successfully wounded it for the dozenth time, his blade cutting it to its very core.
At the same time Jacob, Jane and Lulana fought for their lives against their own trio of second circle of Archangyls, their incredible skill enough to stand against monsters that could destroy entire planets single handedly, but not defeat them in short enough order to come to her aid.
Every time she clashed she could feel herself growing ever weaker. The sheer power of the Archangyle had stopped her normal go to techniques, because it could match her skill by making up for it with pure power, but while she could match it there, she was loosing the far more important physical battle.
She was going to die at this rate. She could think of nearly one hundred escape routes she could use, but if she did so Lin would certainly perish, her mentor could not butcher the second circle angels fast enough, not with this many pressing him and Rotbart even with the blade would be cast aside like so much chaff.
She needed more. And so she made her choice. It was risky, but at this stage what did she have left to lose?
Stepping backwards she threw a small package inscribed with the true rune of fire, the same bomb that she had given Ridcully before he had ventured into Nurgle's mansion. Within the warp the overloaded bomb would have been enough to harm a chaos god, upon Avernus during an incursion there was still more than enough power in the air to increase the bomb's strength considerably.
The Archangyl fell backwards howling as it tried desperately to quench the soul consuming flames that fed upon its essence, growing stronger as it poured power to try and quench them.
In a normal circumstance she would have believed it over, but the creature's damned god was watching over it. It demanded Lin's death and would give the Daemon all the strength it needed to see that task completed.
So she needed more strength. Even if it cost her dearly.
Closing her eyes she threw forth her consciousness, finding the monster that had so nearly devoured her once before and offered it a deal.
It would be given her body in order to fight. To defeat the Archangyl. To prove its superiority as the Alpha.
And then it would return it to her, unharmed and still her.
The creature gleefully accepted, but it told her frankly, that it made no promises about whether she would survive. All the better for it in fact if she did not.
Lin watched in slow horror as the Archangyl gathered itself and swung down through the flames eating away at it, the light of the abomination pressing down upon the True flame, smothering it, towards Areatha's seemingly unguarded head.
Yet just as the burning blade would touch her, she had grabbed it bare handed, the impact sending out an explosion of air like a bomb.
He looked as she raised her head upwards, her face splitting in a smile that could not physically fit upon her face, before she reached up dropping her axe to grab the bewildered daemon and slammed her head into its own over and over again.
Her grace and intellect seemed gone, replaced by a brutal, beastial joy as she began to physically overwhelm the Archangly, shrugging off its blasts of power until at last she took an enormous bite out of its neck, spitting the daemonic flesh and blood to the side and letting forth a baying laugh.
"YOU ARE NOT THE WITCH! IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"
It helped that the Archangyle seemed as confused as he was in this instance, as it held a hand to its throat desperately trying to staunch the gaping would.
"Who am I? Your master really is new on the block if you don't know who I am!"
The voice that issued forth from Areatha's lips was like listening to a chorus of a trillion howling beasts.
"I am every monster that lurks upon this world. I am the shadow of the Spider. The flight of the Dragon. The terror of the deeps."
It stepped forwards, every step buckling the ground as it did so until it had lowered itself to all fours upon the ground, muscles tensed to pounce.
"I am that which the little fool lacks. I am the ultimate power of the World."
The reality split and time froze as the creature pounced, the Spine itself quivering as it came.
"I. AM. STRENGTH!"
@Durin
Another small non canon idea.
