World Tree MUSH

    Last time, our intrepid group of heroes/adventurers finally made it to Pandemonium Fortress, only to find themselves face-to-face with Azmodan, Lord of Sin! As Dante and Li-Ming charge forth with all they've got, in the form of blazing hellfire blade and burning meteors, the massive spider-like demon summons forth six portals, each glowing an eerie red and appearing to be powered by a small diamond-shaped device. Hell brutes come pouring out of the portals in droves, wielding various melee weapons as they rush the group. A sizeable chunk of them get taken out instantly by Li-Ming's meteors, Dante's blade, and Misaki's lasers--they aren't all that tough. But...there are just so many of them! And this onslaught isn't going to stop until the portals are destroyed.

    As if that weren't enough, pools of some sort of dark crimson substance appear on the floor underneath him and begin to spread quickly. Anything other than a demon that touches them gets flesh eaten or armor corroded. Is it acid? Necrotic energy? Whatever it is, it hurts. "The dark power of the Burning Hells will consume you!" the demon shouts as the pools begin to cover the ground!

    Fully Devil Triggered out Dante might confuse the hell out of Azmodan, a half-demon rushing to an angel's defense, fighting beside another ANgel? That's pretty weird, isn't it? Regardless, the half-demon rushes Azmodan with his greatsword, screaming out as he cuts through the Lord of Sin's hide.

    He ignores the burning acidic blood that sprays onto him, even though he can feel it burning through his flesh. Rage and sheer demonic might are fueling Dante right now, turning him into a berserker.

    The bright sky blue of Lian's lightsaber whirls around her, a curtain of light offering a single, clear ultimatum: 'continue your attack, and this blade is your fate.' Not that she expects even a threatening posture to ward them off. And of course, with her expectations set low, at least she's not surprised when the demongs continue to swarm.

    So for a brief moment, the Jedi Master takes a deep stance, left arm forward, right arm back, lightsaber in her right hand and parallel to the ground. The stance lasts only briefly because she very quickly finds herself among the demons, and then she is motion. Clean, efficient motion. Her weapon flows around her, minimal movements, always just enough to deflect or destroy a weapon swung her way. She doesn't launch counterattacks often, but when she does, they're sudden, swift movements, always at just the right angle that she can draw her lightsaber back into a careful guard.

    Of course, it's not as if Lian's going to come through this unscathed. A nick here, a glancing punch there. But the sheer efficiency and tight guard of her saber style make it all but impossible to land anything more against her. And slowly but surely, she'll cut herself a path towards the nearest portal-generating diamond, intending to carve it apart if she can.

"Well I'm not touching that ground, so if you have any better ideas miss Emily, I'd like to hear them, but please don't throw me out... until we've figured something out." Misaki makes sure her seatbelt is properly secured while she's riding the hovernyx, and takes aim at one of the devices, her guns charging up for a bit before she fires a pair of green and blue beams, spiraling around eachother for a little flair.

    Charging in with all her fury tends to work well! Li-Ming, dark and sparkling like a human-shaped slice of the night sky and limned in a faint almost ultraviolet glow, surges in behind her and Lian's shower of stonework, Dante's charge and Misaki's fire. The first of the cannon fodder to reach her is welcomed by a crushing pulse of force, likely creating quite the unsightly mess.

    All of this is familiar, of course, so she calls out in a voice that booms throughout the hall. "I have bested this creature once before; Beware the spreading pools of filth. Destroy the portals and spread out; this coward prefers to fight from afar despite his bulk!"

    With another thump of diplaced air, the wizard blinks into the fray, hovering above the spreading pool amidst the swarm. Outstretching both arms, she releases a roaring beam not unlike her prior disintegrate spell. Just scaled far beyond what she's capable of maintaining outside of her altered state. She'll rake it through the budding hoard, clearly aiming to cut a path directly to Azmodan.

    Emily glances sidelong at Misaki. "You believe in me?" she says. "Great, now I'm under pressure, heh." She pauses, furrowing her brow as she regards the acid floor. "... Also, yeah, no, you don't have to get off me. Releasing Capacitor Seal One!"

    A pearlescent aura surrounds her, then shatters. In a swirl of silvery glitter, she transforms around Misaki into a five-foot-wide robotic orb covered in red eyes, with a much larger robotic eye in what appears to be the front, and three seats embedded into the top as if it was a vehicle accompanied. Then six clawed robot-arms extend from the sides. (The same form she had when Dante first met her when the halcyon remnant blossomed, but with seats and two more arms.)

    "Maaaaan, this form gives me major nostalgia!" says Emily's voice from the exact center of the machine, and dozens of golden bolts of energy appear around her and start firing at Azmodan and the other demons. "I mean the seats are new, but, yeah! Uh ..." Her tactical display highlights the corrosive red goo. "... Anyone who can't fly and needs a lift?"

    So a lot of things happened last time! And just where did Morrigan go?
    This is a good question as things seem to, literally, go to hell in a handbasket, between Imperius getting angry and Azmodan showing up.
    Well it turns out when the underground tunnels collapsed, the Warlock had gone missing.
    This was bad.
    The shuffle of motion from the entryway behind the party that they had come through says that someone ise coming.
    Slow bootsteps echo through the chamber over the din of battle as a tiny figure comes flitting in.
    It is a shinki.
    Marry Contrary floats herself over the center of the chamber, watching the chaos unfold.
    "Oh dear... Oh dear... Um. Should I do the thing?"
    Morrigan's voice answers from the entryway, where she stands with a hand on her hip.
    "Yes, Mary, darling. Do the thing."
    The little helper robot bites on her lower lip briefly, mechanical tentacles wriggling as she rests her hands upon her chest and draws a breath.
    Mary Contrary begins to sing.
    It is a bitter, mournful, and baleful song that only the Hell brutes will hear as they come charging out of the portals; Caiphon's abominable melody resounds through the chamber as Mary lets the Dream Whisperer sing through her... And the instant they hear it...
    Mary Contrary instantly will become the most terrifying thing in the room, intending to instill the monsters with a wild flying terror while rending their minds, as Morrigan steps into the chamber, grinning like a shark, whilst stepping around the crimson substance.
    "Remember to avoid the null zones, guys, or we Raid wipe~." She chimes playfully.
    So she's still alive.
    That's... Good?

>> SUMMARY[Morrigan] >> Mary Contrary sings the spookiest song in all of ever.

    Dante's blade digs into the demon lord's hide, his black blood spilling out. But it doesn't seem to faze him much. He just laughs and grabs the demon hunter with his sharp claws, then hurls him away--straight toward the middle of one of those burning cesspools. Fortunately, even though the liquid does hurt him it doesn't actually seem to be hurting him as much as it does everyone else--this is thanks to his own demonic heritage. However that's not all. A flaming meteor not unlike the ones Li-Ming summoned materializes in his hand, and he throws it after Dante! A second one appears in his other hand--this one is lobbed at Li-Ming as she cuts through hordes and hordes of Hell Brutes, literally mowing them down by the dozens.

    Emily's bolts do more to put a dent in the Hell Brutes' numbers than anything else, though this certainly helps Misaki and Lian carve their own paths to take out two of the portals spawning the minions. The devices don't appear to actually be that durable, and are destroyed quickly. Two down, four to go. Then Morrigan and Mary Contrary make their entrance, sending the fodder demons around them into a frenzied state. Unsure of what to do, many of them try to rush back into the portals, creating even more chaos as new demons try to come -out-. Unfortunately this also makes them harder to get to for those trying to destroy them.

    Dante roars as he's grabbed, thrown into the cesspool. It hurts like hell being in Azmodan's grip, but he manages to re-right himself big-flight. He has wings in this form after all. Hovering above the cesspool, Dante rushes back at Azmodan, moving to slice the meteor in two! "You throw another one of those at me and I'm gonna lose it!" He snarls, taking a swoop at the hell brutes to cut a few of them down in the process.

    Two down, but the efforts of others to drive back or frighten off the demons, combined with the portals she and Misaki have closed, have greatly increased the density of the demons between Lian and her next target. And those puddles are slowly growing, making it even harder to find a path.

    There's a soft frown from the Jedi. After so much fighting already, and with potentially much more to come, stamina is a precious resource. But if she doesn't deal with those portals, they might just plain get overwhelmed. So she doesn't really have a choice but to trust in the Force.

    Up vaults Lian, turning a high flip in the air before coming down on a demon's head. She springs from there to another, to another, hopping across heads and shoulders with a foresight and precision few other than a Jedi could match. Once or twice, her lightsaber lashes out, slicing a weapon or severing a hand before they can strike against her, but mostly, she's focusong on crossing the demonic mosh pit to reach another portal and destroy it.

    Li-Ming makes some headway getting through the swarm of portaled in demons, though the pressure suddenly lightens as Morrigan's play starts to take effect. Though everyone has split up so they can't all be simultaneously targeted by Azmodan it appears she suddenly has the problem of being a target for one of the chunky fireballs the demon lord is conjuring.

    She just teleported too.

    So again, she decides to use another body to take the brunt of the attack. One of the demons, flailing in a maddened panic-rage gets lucky distinction of being snatched from the ground and hurled into the path of the fireball. When it explodes she might still be caught in the margins of the area of effect but at least she won't be incinerated. Calling it a win.

    Dante's display hits her with a sudden realization and she calls out to the raging demon slayer. "Whatever you do, do not strike Azmodan down! Wound him as much as you like!" As the rest of that train of thought pulls into the station, she turns to regard the Worldstone. She turns then and begins to double back along the path she'd carved. Running from the fight?! So very unlike her.

    Unless she's scheming something.

Misaki is sketching a rough of the situation to keep track of where everything is, with blinking red lights for the portals. Once she's satisfied she knows where her targets are well enough, she takes an ambitious approach and points both her guns somewhere clear of obstacles, charges and lets loose, then bends the beams around the demons to try hit two portal emitters at once.

>> GAME >> Misaki Sakai spends an Edge for: Time to break physics with bendy lazors.

    Emily glances over at Morrigan. "Oh, hey, you're not dead!" she says, floating around based on Misaki's tactical sketches to try to give her better angles from which to aim. "... aaaand Dante just cut a meteor in half." She snickers. "That's, like, out-awesomed everything I've ever done. Wow."

    But Li-Ming suddenly says something that sounds important! "Don't kill Sinbad, got it!" she says. She starts alternating waves of bolts: one set towards the swarming demons, pause, then a bunch of bolts set to stun aimed at Azmodan, pause, then back to the demons, and so on.

    "Nope, not dead!" Morrigan chirrups back to Emily.
    With the brutes stricken to their very infernal souls with terror, Morrigan lets Mary continue her dread song. She spends a good moment weaving around the chamber to avoid the spreading pools of malice and blight.
    She watches Li-Ming go running.
    That is the speed of someone taking off not out of terror. That is the speed of someone taking off because they have a plan.
    It is as Li-Ming passes by her that Morrigan reaches out a hand.
    Her eyes glow with eldritch light... And as the Warlock makes contact with the Wizard, something dread happens.
    Something, somewhere... Out there in the beyond reaches of the Far Realm, something opens one of its many eyes...
    And that eye falls into focus upon Li-Ming.
    And as this horrid entity from the beyond begins to stir, its voice floods the Wizard's mind with whispers and her mind's eye with visions.
    Visions of what she intends to do.
    Visions of what she will do.
    Visions of what will inevitably happen.
    Visions of how to change that which she desires.

    "Don't be gone too long while we hold down the fort~."

>> SUMMARY[Morrigan] >> I cast Foresight. On Li-Ming.

    Dante slices the meteor clean in half, the rock cracking and falling to the ground after exploding with hellfire and burning anything in a five-foot radius, including the demon lord's summoned minions. More Hell Brutes fall to Dante's blade as well, and now that two of the portals are down there seems to be less of them at least. Azmodan chuckles darkly as Dante doesn't seem to give up. "You are a fascinating specimen aren't you? Such a shame you don't seem to have the basic shrewdness that most creatures like you do." As the demon hunter comes at him, all four his eyes blaze with a red radiance and a bright energy beam lances forth at him, following his movements.

    Lian's faith in the Force pays off, and she is able to--for lack of a better word--dance across the hordes of flailing demons. Some of them swing or swipe at her as she steps on them, at least the ones who aren't frightened out of their wits, and she is finally able to make it to the portal device and destroy it, shutting it down. Three down, three to go! The pools are continuing to grow, however, and with her foresight she'd be able to tell it won't be long before they'll cover the entire room--so they'll need to act quickly. 

    The unfortunate Hell Brute that Li-Ming grabbed gets crushed as the meteor collides with it, then explodes in much the same manner that the other one that had been headed for Dante did. She does still get singed by the blast, but not enough too badly. No one seems to notice her backing away from the fight, or if they do, they probably figure she's retreating for some reason. Azmodan is pretty preoccupied with Dante at the moment, anyway. 

    Misaki's lasers bend and reflect, bouncing between the demons too many times to count. Miraculously they somehow manage to hit their targets, destroying two portals at once. Now there is only one more to go, then it'll be a swift matter of cleaning up the rest of the trash. It's getting easier though, with their numbers thinning. The stun bolts Emily fires at Azmodan don't seem to have much of an effect, though the other ones continue to help take out the hordes of brutes. There are still some groups trying to rush her, but again, their numbers are thinning. 

    With Mary's continued panic song, the brutes are mostly disorganized in their attacks, some of them even beginning to attack each other in their mad rush to get away from the shinki. So they are..mostly dealt with. There are still those pools, though. By now, the are almost covering the entire room. While they don't do a huge amount of damage, if one stood in them for too long the results wouldn't be good to say the least. 

    Morrigan's Foresight spell would show Li-Ming that what she is planning to do might create some...tension. No, not the tension that obviously already exists between her and the demons, but tension between her and her current allies. Tension over the use of the Worldstone, an artifact that she knows well is powerful beyond measure...

    

    Losing her archon form as she moves, she trails motes of light, revealing her human form gradually. Her boots hit the ground and she's forced to sprint to get clear of the spreading pools of corruption. She raises a frosty aura around herself to help resist some of the effects of that horrid substance but traveling this way is rather inconvenient.

    The tag from Morrigan draws her gaze, then the near-violation of foreign thoughts enters her mind and she almost stops in outrage without actually listening. Almost, though she quickly begins to parse the input and her face sets into an impassive mask. Not all of that must be good news. She offers a nod, then two more steps on she teleports the last couple dozen meters or so to the Worldstone.

    With the weird sheen of violet light still leaking from her hair, she sits. Closing her eyes, she reaches out with every scrap of consciousness she can spare to take in the scope of the primordial artifact. Following the influence of Morrigan's spell and presumably the patron being granting her power, she begins to try and seize control. Her intent won't immediately be obvious that she's trying to separate fragments of the thing until her efforts begin to pay off, though for now? She's out of the fight.

    The effects, when they do manifest, should be spectacular. Obvious. Clearly defiant in the face of any who would object and damn the consequences!

    One portal yet remains, and between that and the singing shinki, the demons are in such disarray that they are nearly a nonthreat. Even if the last one is left alone, they have breathing room. There are very few truly safe places to put feet, but Lian is going to have to cross the room to reach Azmodan, so she'll just have to deal with it; touch the ground as little as possible, and only briefly when she does.

    It's another sequence of hopping and stepping, leaping and landing, off anything and everything Lian can find. Pieces of rubble, fallen demons, any columns that might be standing, all of it makes a potential springboard. Even with all that, the Battlemaster's boots will still be touching that acid here and there, and she's all too keenly aware that the material won't last. They need to finish this fight quickly.

    So Lian hurls herself into range of Azmodan, and goes to town. Broad, powerful slashes, one after another, the older Jedi doing her level best to make as many wounds as she can. While she doesn't miss the effects of Li-Ming's interaction with the Worldstone, she has only a faint frown for the moment, an unspoken 'What is she doing...?' floating through her mind.

Misaki knows there's just one portal left, but she isn't quite sure which one of the emitters was taken out by Lian. As she knows the remaining one has to be one of two specific ones, though, she just focused on repeating the trick and if that means one of her beams goes missing, so be it.

    "Blah blah blah blah!" Dante barks at Azmodan. The Lord of Sin's not making it easy on Dante not killing him, like Li-Ming asked. Azmodan should be counting his blessings that Dante's willing to listen even in this fight-hungry state. Instead of rushing to cut Azmodan down on the spot, he simply hits and runs, dodging and zapping through the demon's attacks as he rushes and strikes with glancing blows, to slice and dice shallow cuts.

    "Dang," says Robot-Orb-Emily when she parses the lack of effect of her stun-bolts, a smirk audible in her voice. "Guess I'll just aim for the not-vitals, instead!"

    She resumes firing major waves out towards the remaining demons and at Azmodan, carefully firing to avoid hitting Dante, but they're only projected from the air around her left half; she flies over to Lian, extending one of her right arms sideways for the Jedi Battlemaster to sit on. "Need a lift?" she says cheerfully. "Oh, uh, here, I'll ..." Silvery glitter swirls around the arm for a moment. "There, I've added a bunch of mechanical bits you can control with the Force!"

    The giant robot-eye glances around. "I'm gonna go pick up Morrigan next," she adds. Okay, Li-Ming is going for the Worldstone ... wait. Wait, what's she doing? That big eye is suddenly fixated on Li-Ming, even as the others continue watching out for enemy attacks.

    With Li-Ming going off to do her thing, Morrigan turns her attention back to the fight.
    "Right then." The Warlock says, wheeling around.
    For lack of better idea... She holds out her hand and...
    With a crack of green lightning and the sonic boom of a gunshot, she eldritch blasts Asmodan while holding her other hand up for Emily to come snag her.

    As Li-Ming focuses all her attention on the Worldstone, attempting to take command of its vast power, the red crystalline structure does begin to crack from a convenient outcropping near her. It's not quite loose, but a bit longer she'll have it!

    Misaki manages to take out the final portal more easily than the others, given the disarray and thinning numbers of the Hell Brutes. With Emily's added efforts, they clean up the last of the trash mobs. 

    Now it's just them and Azmodan, and Lian, Dante, and Morrigan go to town on him. He finally seems to be actually be taking some real damage. "Graah!" he cries out in fury. "Your attempts to destroy me are futile, mortals! As many times as you may bring me down in battle, I shall return to your realm once again!"
    With that, he leaps into the air and attempts to slam his massive bulk down right on top of everyone within melee range! The pools are now covering 90% of the platform, with only a few patches and slivers of clean ground. The mire is also sullied with dead demon parts and bodies, as well as their black, putrid blood.

    Li-Ming knows what she's doing, honest! Well. She's partially being cheated through it but with her uncanny sense for magic, she's doing her best! The stirring of the Worldstone may tip off the attentive, Azmodan's revealing statement of being an unkillable, recursive nightmare is also a pretty huge clue. As well as the original intent of their visit.

    The wizard finally begins to exert her will, channeling so much of her borrowed arcane power into the effort that her form beging to heat up, making the air around her shimmer a little.

    She seizes upon a particular shape, something she's seen used in the past for purposes both righteous and perverse and from the Worldstone she tries to pluck it; a soulstone capable of imprisoning a demon lord such as the one raging some distance away.

    Here's hoping the toxic mire doesn't reach her before she's done!

    Well there's not a whole lot Lian can do at this range. She's able to brace herself and take a leap back, avoiding a crushing death and lessening the effect of the shockwave, but she still gets blasted across the room, and does a tumble through the acid pools and the demonic corpses before she manages to come back up. Thankfully, her lightsaber is still functioning. But the amount of safe platform they have is dwindled to almost nothing.

    So she decides to make more.

    Sweeping her hand around, Lian Kamoya reaches out with the Force. She reaches for all the debris, all the chunks of ceiling and wall and column and anything else she can find. She begins to draw it all in, not even bothering to lift it, just sliding it all across the floor, gathering it in one place, where it will rise above the acid to form a makeshift platform within melee range of Azmodan.

    And then as the acid closes in over the patch of bare floor under her feet, the Jedi leaps for the new foothold she's made, turning the high, tumbling jump into a powerful and acrobatic falling strike.

Misaki gets back to charging her weapons after the final portal goes down, she prepares a pair of big beams to be sent straight into any already open wound she can find in the big demon's body. She's unaware of any shenanigans Li-Ming may or may not be up to.

    Dante is betting a LOT on Li-Ming knowing what she's doing, she better not screw over the rest of the crew. In the meantime, he flaps his wings and propels himself towards the rocks Lian has thrown together, bouncing off them. Acid is making ground a sketchy proposition, especially with how much it's growing. "You better fucking hurry, Li-Ming!" he growls, before he bounces off a rock and hurls himself toward Azmodan once more, his sword stabbing out at the demon.

    Robo-Orb-Emily rolls her eye and gives Morrigan one of her left arms, and, since Lian is following her own path instead of accepting Emily's offer, starts firing from the space on her right side head instead, aiming at Asmodan towards bits that don't look vital. At this point, her are movements just a little bit more sluggish; Morrigan and Misaki's combined weight is enough to encumber her slightly.

    "Uhhh." Dante's shouting catches her attention, and she is momentarily distracted by Li-Ming. "... Misaki, Morrigan ... we ... might want to get ready to do ... something, I'm not even sure what at this point, but, y'know. Bailing out back to where we started seems like a good prospect!"

    Hoisted by Orbily Nyx, Morrigan latches onto that left arm and doesn't let go. It's a good thing, too, when the lord of sin comes in for reprisal.
    "I am all for bailing, right now." The Warlock replies, "But Li-Ming is still doing her thing, we need to just hold him off a little longer."
    With that, she pew-pews another resounding eldritch blast at the great demon.

    With a resounding crack, a piece of the Worldstone finally breaks free! All Li-Ming has to do is grab it. This draws Azmodan's attention, though, and he's suddenly aware of what she's trying to do. "NO! You don't dare--!" he roars, and hurls -both- meteors at her, desperate to stop her from using the powerful artifact against him! More black demon blood spills out into the vile mess on the ground as the rest of the group keeps laying into him, but he seems too focused on stopping Li-Ming to pay them any mind. 

    The fortress itself seems to shake as Lian begins to pull at pieces of debris around the dilapidated structure to create more safe ground to stand on. A good thing, too--because the pools are now completely covering the platform.

    Lian had planned to use her platform as a means to launch a second onslaught against Azmodan, but when the demon turns his attention wholly to Li-Ming, the plan changes. The Jedi turns on the spot and reaches out with an arm, submerging herself in the Force and attempting to grab one of those meteors. It's a lot more work than just dragging debris across the ground - she'll have to focus on it exclusively, and that still leaves the other meteor.

    Dante, wings flapping, realizes Li-Ming's gambit and grins toothily. Upon seeing a meteor headed for the wizard, he propels himself towards it. If he makes it in time, and given his speed he probably will, he'll slice it in half like the other one. Shame he can't make it three for three, but right now's not a good time to style. Embarrassing Azmodan is enough for him anyway.

    "... Aw crap, I don't have any fingers," says Emily. Okay, okay, good, Dante and Lian are handling the meteors, and now she's figured out what Li-Ming is doing. Better prevent Azmodan from causing more trouble in the meantime! "Oh, I know! Misaki, get ready to turn on the lights! Morrigan, uh ... you figure something else out!"

    With that, she flies over and hovers in front of Azmodan, getting right up in his face. "Hi, Danny!!" she says loudly.

Misaki turns on the lights, and off, and back on again. Flashing brightly rapidly and right in Azmodan's face, "Are you enjoying the show, mister Azmodan?"

    Success! Li-Ming, regains her feet quickly enough and seizes the shard. It's not pretty, though she managed to sever it from the main body of the Worldstone with plenty of power for what she needs. Of course, she's not deaf to Azmodan's bellowing and she breaks into a somewhat unsteady run.

    "All of you; bring Azmodan down now! He does not fear destruction but he fears the prison I bear!" Testing her magic defenses against the dark corruption covering the area, she bolsters the power of the shard, laying what magic she can upon it before the moment arrives to test it's power.

    The meteors are the reason she's risking the dangerously tainted terrain and commiting to a slower advance once she reaches Lian's impromptu stepping stones. With first one and then the second meteors taken out of play, she blinks forward to bring herself closer Azmodan. She tries to trigger the soulstone, targeting the Lord of Sin with it's soul-wrenching pull and she releases it.

    The shard of red crystel begins to darken as it ascends, clawing at the demon almost hungrily even as that darkness grows, yawning like the maw of some dread leviathan.

    The newly minted Soulstone deployed, she takes her own licks at Azmodan's legs, raking with hissing red beams and bolts of force to harass and keep the monster off balance until he's weak enough to succumb.

    "Your doom is upon you, creature! Scream in despair and begone!"

    'Figure something else out'.
    Easier said than done when the lord of sin is still standing after the entire party has been laying into him as long as they have now! "--I'll... Yeah."
    Morrigan will figure something out- and it takes her just a second before she gets an idea.
    With a snap of her fingers and a harsh word, a portal opens up from under Azmodan. A portal that leads to the dark place between stars. It is chill cold... And full of untold horrors.
    Horrors that reach out with their milky-acid coated tentacles and try to wrap around the great infernal being and try to hold him still in their crushing grasp.

    Lian is able to grab one of those massive burning rocks with the Force and hold it in place. But she will find that it is harder than she may have thought, as it seems to have a life of its own, pushing with all its might against her grip. Or rather, all of Azmodan's might. The hell-spawned forces behind it are also nothing pleasant to encounter mentally. But she just needs to hold out long enough...

    As for the second meteor, Dante rushes at it and slashes it in half, much like he did for the one earlier. And in much the same fashion, it falls to pieces but also explodes on him. Good thing he's half demon, so he probably has some measure of resistance against the hellfire given he has been hit by two of these by now. 

    This opens up the way for Li-Ming to grab the newly-created soul shard and rush Azmodan. He tries to fire his eye lasers at her to stop her advance, but Misaki and Emily just end up intercepting them instead.

    "No....NoooooOOooo!" Azmodan howls as the shard rises into the air, glowing a deep red as magic swirls around it. A great, black void opens right below the stone, and begins to pull at him, his dark, putrid essence flowing out of him like a vile river of hate and into the gaping maw. Now he tries to run, to get out of its range, but suddenly a portal opens beneath him, tentacles reaching up to grab him and hold him down while the stone finishes devouring his soul! "You....you can't...do this..." he sputters, as he is at last fully sucked into the stone.
    When all is said and done, the void disappears, the dark substance on the floor suddenly vaporizes and dissipates, and the shard falls to the ground, the demon lord's black soul swirling within it.

    When the meteor crumbles in her metaphysical grasp, Lian staggers, dropping to one knee in the wake of that mental strain - both from the sheer effort needed to hold it back, and from resisting the hellish feeling backing it. "What a... foul creature," she breathes, watching from her kneeling position as the Lord of Sin is at last pulled into a prison by Li-Ming's actions.

    She gives Morrigan a wary look in the wake of that last spell, but by now the elder Jedi is recovered enough to rise to her feet again. She switches her lightsaber off, then clips it to her belt, and takes a step off the makeshift platform to walk over towards the shard of the Worldstone that now contains a powerful demon. "...will this hold?" is her first question.

Misaki lets go of a breath as it's done and over, "So are we going to need another shard for what we came here for, or will this one do?" The Senshi asks as she realizes what Li-Ming has done.

    Orbily eyes Li-Ming. With as many eyes as she has at the moment, that's a lot of eying. "Did she just say 'scream in despair'?" she says flatly. And then she turns to eye Morrigan instead -- "WAUGH!" She tilts so that Misaki isn't in the line of Azmodan's eye-laser fire, tanking the hit directly; there's a silvery scorch-mark of damaged nanomachines, noticeably denting her form. "... Oh. That wasn't so bad." She snickers. "And here I was thinking I was about to tank something stupid again like a wave of acid, and I'd have to hand Misaki my ring while I went into emergency-shutdown mode."

    But now ... they've got Azmodan.

    Emily plays a sound effect of a sigh of relief. She looks semi-sidelong at Lian. "If it doesn't hold, this is gonna be obnoxious," she says cheerfully, shifting so that the damaged is hidden under her surface. But Misaki has a good question, and she turns to Li-Ming to hear her answer.

    "Yep." Morrigan replies to Emily.
    "She totally said that."
    She totally said that while imprisoning the Lord of Sin in a soul gem.
    "Sooooo... That happened."

    Dante grins wickedly even as he's thrown off his flight path by the explosion. Tanking the blast, he lands on his back, and just grins wickedly as his Devil Trigger finally wears off. "Adios, shitbag." He says, just as Azmodan is sucked away by the portals like a ghost trap. Battered and smoked by all the chaos, Dante's still grinning like a smug idiot as he picks himself back up. "So...did we win? We should probably bail."

    Li-Ming looks upon the display of the stone's power, though she hardly feels smug about her actions. She's solved one problem by creating another. It's not a great feeling.

    Still, she drops down from her perch atop a rock and stands over the shard of the Worldstone. She crouches to retreive the thing, suspending it above her left hand in a magical grip.

    "It will hold forever if not tampered with. Therein lies the problem." She stands, turning to regard Misaki and her question. "Ideally yes, though this will prove more than sufficient to hold as many demons as we dare force into it."

    She looks back toward the Worldstone, "In my version of events, this was attempted before with all of the Prime Evils. Within the prison, they fought and were each overpowered in turn by Diablo. With the stone and a ritual, a friend was doomed to become a vessel for their combined might which very nearly destroyed the domain of the Angels who granted us passage here."

    Her eyes reflect the slowly rotating crystal formation as she stares at some distant point, remembering. "The stone was safe when I destroyed that evil, or so it was thought. Until even an angel could not resist the temptation to abuse an object very much like this. The angels will not be pleased by what I have done, nor do I think they'll be willing to let us freely leave with one of their most hated adversaries. We must either do so anyway or take another piece of the World Stone and risk conflict from 'Above'."

    "Yes." A somewhat familiar voice says in answer to Lian's question. Imperius has emerged once again from wherever he may have taken shelter in his wounded state. "As long as the stone is protected from the forces that would seek to free the demon lord from his prison, he will remain there for all eternity."

    The Archangel of Valor regards Li-Ming as she holds the stone in her magical grip, floating slightly above her hand. "Azmodan is among the seven Great Evils. This shard ought not to be tampered with, for attempting to imprison an additional demonic essence within will surely allow the stronger one to absorb the other and escape even more powerful than before. It would be wise for you to find a suitable stronghold that is not easily penetrated by the forces of the Burning Hells or others who may search for him. Go and do this now--you should not linger in this dangerous realm." he tells the group. "And guard that stone with your lives."

    Lian listens, quietly, her expression neutral; a calm, thoughtful mask, long practiced and perfect for concealing the course of her thoughts. It is at last when Imperius speaks that the Jedi does so as well.

    "So you will permit it, then... we thank you for your consideration." She gives the archangel a grateful bow, then adds, "If you have any recommendations for possible resting places, we are glad to listen. If possible, one that your fellow angels might not be aware of. You seem the sort to take a hardline stance against corruption and temptation, but from what Li-Ming has said, there may be those among your allies who might reach for it in misguided need."

"So if this shard should not be tampered with, do you mind if we take another shard with us? We kind of came here for a reason, and we did kind of just fight your battle for you." Misaki looks Imperius straight in the eyes, "I promise we'll find somewhere secure to bring this shard."

    Emily considers this a moment. "Well, I only have access to bolt-holes and hidey-holes, not strongholds. Security-through-obscurity probably won't cut it with a guy who shrugged off that many lasers."

    Her voice trails off when Li-Ming gives her explanation. She stares at her for several seconds, then gently sets down Morrigan and raises all six hands in an exasperated gesture, playing the sound-effect of a train-whistle while projecting holograms of cartoonish pixelated steam.

    Still, Imperius is at least taking their side; Emily shapeshifts into a woman in a pinstripe suit with silver hair, glowing red eyes, and oversized holographic twintails. "Well, I only have access to bolt-holes and hidey-holes, not strongholds," she says, repeating herself perfectly. "Security-through-- Sooo, yeah."

    Looking to Imperius and half expecting violence, Li-Ming manages to remain impassive. She's not got Lian's poker face by a long shot but she's doing alright. "The shard will hold despite what's contained within. This is not completely like the soul stones used to contain Diablo and Bhaal; I borrowed some theories from an acquaintence of mine." Though that ritual involved the sacrifice of human souls to work. She leaves that bit out. The Worldstone was more than enough to skip that step.

    "What remains is perhaps the most troubling problem, then. Finding a place where this will remain out of reach for all." Misaki gets another glance, then she's back to regarding their somewhat unwilling host. "If you'd like, I can show you sometime places that will not work. Though my versions of Sanctuary and even Pandemonium are substantially less secure at the moment. We will be on our way, I suppose, unless you have further comment~? Also, we left Tyrael behind in the tunnels we used to gain entry here. He may require aid if he's not already nearby."

    "If the decision were mine, the prisons that lie below Courts of Justice are among the most secure structures within the breadth of my knowledge. However, as you have fought courageously to obtain this shard, I entrust it to you to find the most impenetrable fortress within which to guard the stone. Should you deem it best to leave it with the High Heavens, I shall consult the Council."
    
    "Your arrangement with the Council was for a single shard, was it not?" Imperius replies somewhat tersely toward Misaki. "The Worldstone is an artifact of great power. It is not to be taken lightly."
    But Li-Ming's suggestion causes him even greater consternation. His grip on his spear, Solarion, tightens. "I have entrusted this stone to you so that you might find a suitable location within which to safeguard it for eternity. -Not- so that you may set a being even more powerful than Azmodan loose upon whatever unfortunate realm may happen to surround it when it is unleashed, and perhaps even beyond. I have respect for your battle prowess and rightly earned reward, however, I cannot allow you to use it in a manner that will only further the Burning Hells' demonic crusade!"

    After listening to Imperius, Lian inclines her head faintly, then turns to ask Li-Ming simply, "Would the prison he's suggested work?" She doesn't speak aloud the implication of that question, but it's clear enough: 'Or was the angel who fell to temptation a member of the Council?'

"Our agreement was for a shard with which to accomplish a specific purpose. It seems, unfortunately, that this shard has already been used." Misaki answers Imperius, "If this one cannot be safely used for that purpose, then our agreement with the council has not been fulfilled. If we're taking this one with us, it's as a favor to you so you don't need to worry about finding it a good home. Not to complete the bargain. Or would you make liars out of the council by pretending this shard is what the deal is about? Would you betray their honor like that?"

    "Misaki, please understand his position," Lian says, turning to address the young senshi. "He is already bending in his duties to allow us to accomplish our goal, with, I suspect, more than a little wariness. His offer is close to the letter of our agreement, and perfectly within the spirit of it - compromise would be a wise choice here."

"We came her to get the tools needed to safe someone, and he's telling us we should not use this shard to do that, and refusing to give us the tool we need to do it." Misaki answers Lian, "This might be close to the letter of our agreement, but it's a blatant violation of the spirit."

    Li-Ming looks to Lian, "Perhaps, though if anyone retains access to this place it's the same problem. It's simple, I'll retain custody of this thing. I made it, afterall. Should any of us determine a place suitably isolated, inaccessible and stable then I will journey there with as many as you all may like and deposit the shard." She looks to Imperius next.

    "However, we are here to save a soul. You wish to undermine the crusade of demons and their hellish host? Then allow us to save the soul of a young man who is not only uninvolved with your conflict but of another world that has been tainted with the spread of demonkind that you so vehemently oppose. You would do well to note; though you hold mortals in disdain we have already demonstrated influence. In a day, we've accomplished what it's taken all the might of your Heavens nearly an eternity. You may think me boastful but I simply wish to warn you that you'll forever remain at a stalemate if you always resist change in your status quo. Mortals are the tiebreaker, angel."

    She swings the soulstone lower, casting her face in it's crimson light from below.

    "I've no desire to use this on anything but demonkind."

    "He's saying that it would be potentially dangerous to use it," Lian corrects. "But whether we use it or not, the shard will still contain a powerful evil, and will still need to be hidden, so the practical result changes little. It seems to me that, both outcomes being roughly equal, we should take the option that causes less trouble for the other party. He's trying to meet us halfway." She turns then to regard Li-Ming with a raised eyebrow; but it's a little too late to stop all the bravado, so all she can do is stand back and let it play out. At the very least, 'hang on to it until they can find a safe place' could work.

    Emily shrugs. "Well, as Stephen Hawking said, eternity is a long time, especially towards the end ..."

    She glances between Misaki, Lian, and Li-Ming. For a moment, nervousness crosses her features; she's clearly entirely out of her depth here, in terms of diplomacy. She's impressed with Misaki's reasoning, though. "Kid'd make a good lawyer," she murmurs under her breath.

    When Li-Ming starts her speech, Emily whirls around as if she's about to tell her to stop saying or doing things. But when the speech finishes, Emily's shoulders slump. "Damn it, now I have to agree with Li-Ming about something," she says over-dramatically.

    If Imperius had a face, he'd be glaring at Misaki. But as it is, his tone says it all. Unlike some of the other members of the Council, reasoning with this one doesn't work as well. 

    "If the demons have tainted that realm, then vanquish them. Send them back to the Hells where they belong. The battle prowess you demonstrated only moments ago is proof enough that you are among those who are capable enough of accomplishing such a feat." The archangel tells them. He listens to Li-Ming's words, and though he doesn't fully trust that she won't go off and try something foolhardy, he also does believe her that she is as much against the demons as he is. And let's be honest, he's Archangel of Valor, he respects rewards earned through fair combat. "You may deliver the stone to our custody or not, but only once I have consulted with my brothers and sister should they deem it wise."
    Yep, he's not changing his stance. Imperius clangs the base of Solarion against the floor, holding it up. "My patience wears thin. Now go from this place, I do not wish to drive you from it."

"You feckless, honorless craven." Misaki glares at the angel, "You are too afraid of being made irrelevant to do what you know is right. You can betray the council as you like, but I am not leaving without what the council promised us. You can keep this shard if you like, it's not what we were promised we could get."

    No bravado. No posturing. Simple truth is all Li-Ming speaks. "I'm confident in my work. This stone will hold whatever it put in it without fail. We are going to acquire the means to save the boy and if you lift a finger to stop us, Imperius, you will join your foe for the eternity of senseless combat you so desire. You're in no condition to resist the pull; you know it as well as I. Stand aside and nurse your wounded ego when we're gone. The world will be better for our actions. Do not be foolish."

    Emily sighs theatrically, and projects a hologram with a pie chart with segments labeled "Danger of Dan coming back stronger", "angel fighting", and "Jeff". The proportions wobble a bit, then abruptly all three are dwarfed by "Misaki Cussing Out An Angel".

    Emily sighs theatrically, and shoots Imperius an amused and faintly smug smile. "Guess we're doing this, huh?" she says, giving Li-Ming a sidelong look. Two heroes(?) are in favor of defying the angel, and so Emily feels like she's practically obliged to do so at this point.

    Dante just brandishes his sword, not a word said. He's ready to throw down with Imperius if it comes to it.

    He kinda hopes it does.