VFX FINAL: Poppy "Popinjay" Jeremiah VS Va'Ul

Tumbling and bouncing through a valley of glowing molten rock Va'Ul tried to recall what happened. His attempt to dodge might have saved him from destruction but his left arm disappeared along with a chunk of his shoulder, leaving only white hot edges around a gapping hole in his side.

The fireball burned through a long row of skirmishing cyborgs before gaining altitude. Va'Ul somehow managed to control his fall and escape from the melted trench, losing speed as he rolled along the edge.

Ignoring the scores of scorched corpses and wrecks falling into the flaming ditch, he observed as most of heat-seeking missiles locked on the fireball. Whet she didn't destroy in her path was obliterated by one of her pursuers, creating much chaos across the battlefield.

 

Flaming ash swirled in the air as a heavy hulk of powered armor succumbed to the rain of axe blows. Va'Ul limped across the battlefield toward the smoking crater, his weapon obliterating the confused combatants in his path.

A powerful tremor brought him to his knee, the mothership laser plowing through a makeshift fortification.

Under his arm he found a big gun covered by a steaming bloody heap. A few swings of chain and he could operate it with one hand, sending thick bursts of energy at the swarming bots.

Another tremor shook the ground, a barrage of plasma incinerating some light infantry cowering at the foot of the wall. From the burnt hole creeped a flood of restless spirits, one crawling over another in a race for whatever life force they could find on the battlefield.

 

The unstoppable flow of ancient souls illustrated the original motivation for erecting the wall. These things were vicious, silent and mechanically thorough. Nothing remained past the line of their advance but bleached bones and silenced wrecks. They didn't discriminate - whether bread in gene tanks, grafted onto control systems or just more machine then man, they consumed whatever scraps of life force there were. Some grew as they fed, others formed wings and launched to feed on countless creatures above. Often many weaker spirits held onto the ascending ones, dropping from above as they flew over escaping prey.

They ignored the limping giant, passing through him as he was wrestling a huge vat-grown soldier. Once the wavefront advanced, it revealed Va'Ul holding a huge meaty hand, torn past the elbow, standing above a pile of bleached bones entangled in the stiff armor that failed to protect it's owner. He tossed the stump into the knee-deep mass of advancing spirits, causing a visible stir amidst the hungry creatures.

The wall had by now crumbled all the way to the horizon, the thick stream of souls tearing their way through the insufficient opening. They were set free after eons of suffering, corrupt and mad, hell was now their feeding ground. And that was but a starter before they would reach the demon lords and fresh spirits, swarming in unstoppable numbers. Va'Ul's shiluette was now the only one moving across the battlefield, standing above the restless outline of crawling spirits.

Heaps of torn metal started raining from the sky, each coated by thick layers of feeding dead. The ones below had anticipated them, leaping in shadowy spikes, one crawling over the other, pulling the wrecks down, and, in tall fountains of debris, dismantled them instantly. The giant marveled at the scenes before him, what was the apex of a great battle so quickly cast into insignificance in the light of the calamity that was unfolding. Glowing in the dead horizon he spotted the fire-shield, almost completely covered by the hungry creatures.

One of the winged fighters dropped straight for the crater, but was torn apart before it even got close. The explosions and flames quickly quenched by the swarming souls, only chipped paint and few broken bolts burned up in the fiery barrier. No weapons possessed by the two armies had any effect on the ghosts, which leveled anything in their path.

As Va'Ul arrived at the foot of the crater, all of the spirits froze in awe. An overwhelming cry of bent metal announced the fall of the mothership. Torn in half by the hungry souls, the flaming hulk slowly descended through the sky, it's size obscuring the true speed at which it fell. Every ghost rushed toward the new prey, uncovering the shield before Va'Ul. He was met with a pair of furious eyes wishing him a quick yet painful death. The column of flame that shot from within the crater burst high into the sky, arcing back to the ground in the distance, the impact briefly illuminating the battlefield. The long shadow disappeared and Va'Ul hit the ground, torn in half by the attack, fairy little left of his legs.

Popinjay's pained breath dominated the muffled silence, only the cracking of overheated metal audible in the background. In unnatural silence, starved spirits engulfed the wrecked mothership, hardly even a crack escaping beyond the thick layer of darkness. Only the steady descent of the tip of that unliving mountain hinted at the terrifying efficiency of the ghostly claws.

The wounded demon tried to move but the last attack had drained her. "So everybody dies, huh ?" she smirked looking over the horizon. The ghosts would make quick work of the ship, and then she was next. From beyond the crater a few shining threads crawled across the ground, followed by a several more that dug through the ground below. She tried to escape their advance but the pain caused by every move almost made her black out. Along with her focus, the fire shield disappeared, Popinjay desperately struggling to crawl out of the crater. Before she knew it, a wire was locked around her ankle, others joining it as she struggled to pull the leg free. The first sting merely forced to grind her clenched teeth, but paralyzing pain soon followed, reflected by increasingly uncontrollable screams.

The tendrils went under the skin, penetrated through muscles and anchored themselves in the bones, some entering through the first opening, others making new ones. Popinjay stopped cursing and focused on screams of agony by the time the wires reached her knee, passing out soon after other threads crawled from the ground beneath her, engulfing her in a metal cocoon. She woke to the sound of her screams several times, metal fibers scratching along her bones, weaving around the organs within, tearing blood vessels and tendons. She was being massacred, yet some merciless power kept her alive.

Soon she found herself somewhere else, alone, asking only why had no one come to her aid. She saved Lucifer for fuck's sake, he at least owed her a painless death, no doubt aware of the consequences of her failure... And the chances for that matter. Indeed she felt forsaken, several times awakening on the bottom of the crater, shadowy monsters crawling over her... Ignoring her... The sky clearing, and as days passed, darkening again into more ominous shades of gray, distant echoes reaching her as hell was being torn apart by conflict between it's rulers and the unleashed spirits.

Just as suddenly her sense of time returned and she took her first breath in weeks. The dead eyes, wide open in terror, had blinked for the first time since the darkness returned. Somehow, she was uninjured, safe in a crater surrounded by piles of bones and wrecks. The first thing she had noticed upon crawling out of the hole was the wrecked husk of Va'Ul, deeply recessed into the melted soil, lifeless, looking so thin and fragile without the overwhelming presence of it's master.

Other then no visible injuries, there was no noticeable change in her. Her tattoos were as vivid as ever, torn clothes revealing silky skin beneath, leathery wings spreading with no sign of the recent fractures. A shiver shook her as she noticed slight tingling on her left hand. There was a unusual black ring sitting on her finger, a thin black band housing a black diamond. Of all the thoughts she had involving it not fitting her, none even went close to actually removing it. Looking into the jewel filled her with a feeling of urgency.

Never did it occur to her to look to the bottom of the crater, where lay the mutilated husk of her old self, tortured to death by the being now controlling her mind. She set off, soon taking off the ground, and flew to the nearest battlefield. Her new powers and leadership helped her in joining the campaign to route the restless spirits from the demonic domain, yet deep inside, she was certain that in the end, there would be no victor.