Aeryn watched in amazement at the fire ball and hoped it would hurt Okandar.

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Just became a college freshman; be on sparingly

A credit to their combined efforts, Okandar was actually forced to dodge aside in a flurry of black robes. The titanic fireball sizzled past and smote the wall behind him with a cataclysmic boom that shook the chamber.

Recovering, he spread his palms out before him and out spewed an icestorm, its intensity contained within the confines. A tulmult of jagged ice shot straight towards them both.

[last post going to summarize the battle after this... this is getting wearying]

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((Bump - waiting for Artemis, as there's really not much Nakaida can do against ice))

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The rest of the battle was unlike anything the world had witnessed before. Firestorms smote full upon walls of ice. Earthquakes shook the small confines of the chamber, dislodging debris from the ceiling. Great rifts opened between the planes, where all manner of elementals exploded forth shrieking and charging - only to be repelled by a hurricane of fire.

Through the Armageddon, one thing remained certain: The Keepers were losing.

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She felt keenly the pain of her Five Chosen. She felt keenly their anguish, their desperation, their beseechment to their elemental powers to defeat this monstrosity of all evils.

Tears fell like diamonds down her alabaster cheeks as she glided across the garden that was her celestial plane. She reached an ornate bowl upon a slender pedestal and gazed into it. The powerful divination upon the bowl revealed everything.

Naidele... falling... drowning in her own flames.... Nakaida... being swept into a tempestuous cyclone of her own creation....

She saw doom.

Sorrow turned to anger as she swept the bowl to the marble flagstones, where it shattered into a thousand infinitesimal shards. She felt the divine power surging within her, deluging her serene essence, imbuing her life-giving hand with death.

Lord Okandar - usurper of the Elements, Master of the Night, Nemesis of her Chosen - had been condemned.

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A chaste, pure light bathed the room in silver. Shafts of ethereal sunlight lanced down from the unseen heavens, striking the Keepers with almost surreal power.

In the middle of his unholy spellcasting, Okandar watched in horror as the Great Goddess's hand was revealed in the climax of the battle.

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Nakaida, dizzy and sick from the mayhem surrounding her and lightheaded from the effort it took now to even stand - found herself miraculously strong again, as though the exhausting battle had never taken place. Bathed in silver, she stood erect, a goddess in her own right.

All the elements smote Okandar simultaneously, not solely air, as Nakaida flung out her arms as if to call down the very heavens upon him. "Thank you, Goddess," she breathed, watching in odd detachment as earth, fire, air, water and spirit together deluged the sorcerer.

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(hey artemis, CF couldn't get here in time to catpure Aeryn. we will have to find out the brother/sister thing some other way...)

Aeryn, breathless, looked aruond the destoyed room. He looked at each Keeper and had a newfound respect for each of them as they all looked wiped out. But what confused him was the hand. Was it from the Goddess herself? He would have to ask the keepers later. He looked around and everyone seemed to be intact. He grinned.

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Just became a college freshman; be on sparingly

((Ai! I seem to have missed quite a bit... ugh. Anyway.))

Khienro looked around, sorry that he couldn't have done much more than stand there the whole time. Though a stray flame had left a long, but not all that serious burn on his right temple, he was unscathed. Visibly shaken by coming in close contact with Okandar, but fine. Looking around, he walked forward a little, and looked at the keepers, with respectful awe on his face. Then he just broke out into a smile.

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

Aeryn grinned at Khienro and asked, "Are you alright?" Even as he asked the question, he couldn't sop grinning.

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Just became a college freshman; be on sparingly

Khienro's smile faded. Patting himself down, he discovered that he had two more burns, one on his leg, just above his knee, and one on his mid-torso, leaving him with a nasty charred hole in his shirt. Wonderful. Strangly though, it didn't hurt as much as any other burns he'd ever gotten.

"I'm intact. A few burns, but I'm definatly all here."

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

Aeryn took out his flask and offered it to Khienro. "Will some water help at all? And if not the burns, then you could drink some."

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Just became a college freshman; be on sparingly

"No time," Orindil breathed, casting an apprehensive glance at the ceiling. "We have to escape."

Indeed, the cataclysmic battle had thoroughly shaken Okandar's citadel. Debris and stone were dislodging from the ceiling, which looked about to tumble on their heads.

Orindil darted to the door and yanked it open. "Hurry!"

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Nakaida stood alone in the center of the chamber, numb and feeling oddly detached. The world seemed to spin dizzyingly.

Faintly she was aware of Orindil speaking. Oblivious to everything but his voice, which penetrated the odd fog the world seemed shrouded in, Nakaida turned to go to the door. His face, too, seemed the only clear image she could see.

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Khienro refused the flask of water,

"No, he's right. We have to get out of here, top priority." He then turned to Naikada, who looked not all that concious. "You ok?" He asked, half not expecting an answer.

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

Nakaida suddenly seemed to jolt out of her trance and as part of the crumbling ceiling crashed to the ground behind her, others poised to follow, she surged out of the door and after a moment's hesitation down the passage they'd come.

Everything still appeared oddly surreal, and Nakaida seemed only capable of one thought at once - get out. Get out, get out...

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Aeryn ran over to Naidele and grabbed her hand. "Come on!" He yelled and they followed the others.

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Just became a college freshman; be on sparingly

The escape from Okandar's crumbling citadel took on a surreal, nightmarish effect as debris mingled with flickering torchlight and the inhuman shrieks of those caught in the aftermath. They stumbled down the tower stairs, shoving past wailing half-demons. The dark human soldiers put up a relatively impressive fight, though their morale had taken a critical blow from their master's fall.

Out the tower, into the courtyard, where the fire demon was in the throes of sending itself back to its infernal plane. It hardly gave them a moment's notice. Okandar was vanquished, and its cause was once more descended into the chaos from whence it'd conceived.

At last they all stood upon the barren rise overlooking the doomed citadel silhouetted against the sunset. Orindil scanned over his companions with the words, "Is everyone all right?"

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