The Raven Part 5: Hell On Earth

Chapter 15

Beth glared at Dorothy as she continued to walk forward. Seeing Pam laying on the ground behind the devil was infuriating, and she couldn't recall feeling more ready for a battle than this moment. "Oh I can feel your blood lust, Beth," Dorothy said with a wicked grin, "I always knew there was a killer inside of you, and I'm just dying to see it for myself! I want everything you've got. Don't hold back on me; it'll make it all the more satisfying when I finally break you!"

Beth cracked her neck as she assumed a fighting stance. She could feel Sborra calling out to her, begging her to let him in. She was happy to oblige, and she welcomed the surge of power that came from his spirit. "Tch, as if I'd show the likes of you any mercy," Beth growled as her body began to glow, "I'll cut you into a thousand pieces and scatter you across your own dimension!"

"That's the spirit!" Dorothy exclaimed with a laugh, "Go ahead, I'll give you the first shot. I assure you, it'll be the only one you get. Consider it a last request for your pathetic life!"

Beth's aura began to take the shape of the armored warrior from her battle with Cherrie and Analise. Her blade began to glow as well. Jake and Pam looked on with bated breath and disbelief as they watched Beth change. She disappeared in the blink of an eye and appeared in front of Dorothy with her blade coming down towards her face. Dorothy unceremoniously raised a hand to catch the sword as if it were nothing, and stood there with a grin and one hand behind her back. She brought her hand from behind her back and slammed her fist into Beth's stomach with unbelievable force. The blow knocked the wind out of Beth and sent her skidding backwards.

"Come now, is that your best?" Dorothy asked, "If it is, this will be a short fight. I must say I'm disappointed. I had hoped for more of a show than this, but then again you are only a human. Let's try this again, shall we? This time, I'll give you a taste of my own strength."

Before anyone could react, Dorothy disappeared from sight and appeared behind Beth. She swung her leg around in an arc just as Beth turned around, and her foot was just barely stopped by Beth's scabbard. Not wasting any time, she disappeared again and reappeared behind Beth again. This time she threw a strong punch that connected with the back of Beth's neck and sent her to the ground. She quickly followed it up by stomping on the back of Beth's head with her boot. She removed her foot and proceeded to kick Beth across the room. Beth grunted from the force of the blows. She was stronger than she remembered, but that didn't matter to her. She could take a beating, and she could certainly return the favor with gusto.

Beth rolled across the ground, and she managed to recover from the forceful blows Dorothy had already doled out. She was on her knees when Dorothy appeared in front of her again. She saw the kick coming, and she brought her sheathed sword up to block it, and quickly unsheathed her sword to counter. Her blade sliced through air as Dorothy disappeared to avoid the blade once again, but Beth hadn't expected her attack to connect. Instead, she tried to sense some change in the air. She found it too late as Dorothy appeared behind her and hit her with a teep kick to her back that knocked her back to the ground. She caught herself, and performed a handspring to get back to her feet. She could sense it now, or rather she could smell it. A sour and sulfuric stench, faint but there all the same, happened whenever Dorothy disappeared and reappeared. She had a tell, and now Beth had what she needed to counter.

"Well, well, it seems there's some fight left in you after all!" Dorothy said as she walked towards Beth, "Let's see if we can't extinguish that once and for all."

Beth waited for Dorothy to make her move. She was playing with her and she knew it, but she expected it. Dorothy disappeared again, and Beth caught the faint odor of sulfur to her left. She brought her sheathed sword up to stop the incoming punch from Dorothy, pushed the lower half of her scabbard up with her elbow, and surprised her with a blow to the side of her head that made the demoness stagger back. Beth shifted her stance so that her hand was hovering over the hilt of her blade, narrowed her eyes, and said, "I can see you."

Dorothy frowned at her for a moment before grinning and laughing, "So it would seem that I've been found out," she said as she opened her hands and brought them to her sides, "Don't get cocky, girl, we're just getting started. One blow doesn't win a battle, you naive little shit. I'm curious to see how quickly you can adapt."

Beth's eyes scanned around the room as some of the energy from The Well began breaking away from the soulnado. She'd seen this trick with Cherrie before, but she knew Dorothy was on a whole other level as a fighter. Dorothy's wicked grin widened as she suddenly began waving her arms about as though she were conducting an orchestra. Dozens of souls obeyed her commands, and they swarmed on Beth's location from different angles. Beth was forced to redirect her focus to cutting through the tortured souls that rushed towards her. She managed to keep them at bay without getting hit, but then Dorothy appeared in front of her and threw an uppercut to her stomach that caused her to double over in pain. She then spun around with a furious roundhouse kick that knocked her away. Not finished yet, she held out her hand and a green energy enveloped Beth's body and held her still. She lifted her hand into the air, and Beth was launched upward before she brought it back down and slammed her into the ground on her back.

Beth winced as pain rushed through her body. She hadn't been expecting Dorothy to be able to multitask like this, and she certainly hadn't expected any telekinetic powers from her. She got back to her feet, but Dorothy was upon her again in a flash. She brought her palm to Beth's face and a flash of green energy blinded her and sent her flying again. She felt herself get wrapped in that strange energy again before she was pulled back toward Dorothy. She felt the devil's fist slam into her jaw and knock her back to the ground before she knew what was happening. She managed to recover just as Dorothy materialized beside her and tried to kick her when she was down. She caught her boot with her sheathed sword, and released a powerful energy slash that forced Dorothy to retreat.

"Hmm, seems you have a trick or two up your sleeve," Dorothy said as she appeared ten feet from Beth, "No matter, I haven't even used ten percent of my power."

"I'm just warming up," Beth said as she got to her feet, "You can talk as much shit as you want; you don't scare me!"

"Oh that bravado is so….enticing!" Dorothy said with a grin, "Don't stop, it's going to make breaking you that much more rewarding!"

A faint rattling noise from behind Beth caught her attention, and Beth turned around and swung her sword just in time to shatter a set of chains that seemed all too familiar. Thankfully, she had experience in battling these types of attacks, but if Dorothy could utilize them in conjunction with her other attacks it could mean trouble. She had to stay on high alert unless she wanted to find herself pinned and at the devil's mercy. The lights from more rogue souls began flickering above her, and she could already see Dorothy's hands starting to glow again. She could defend against them, but her telekinetic abilities were the real problem. Maybe if she kept her distance she couldn't use them properly, but then Dorothy had that damn teleporting ability as well! She needed more power if she was going to win this fight, so she tried to draw on more power from Sborra's spirit.

The attacks came at blinding speed and with relentless strength. Orbs of tormented souls rushed at her, chains burst from the ground and attempted to ensnare her, and to top it off, Dorothy was once again on the move. Beth could feel Sborra's energy intertwining with her own as she cut her way through Dorothy's offenses. She leapt back to avoid a group of chains and souls combined into one surprise attack. Her evasive maneuver also helped to keep her away from Dorothy and her imposing powers. Dorothy had appeared where she had been mere seconds ago with a hand outstretched, but Beth had thought she was far enough away. To her dismay, she found herself gripped by the strange light once again and being pulled toward Dorothy. Feeling a fountain of energy welling up within her, she let out a warcry and released some of her energy alongside it. It seemed just enough to break the binds of Dorothy's power, and she quickly tried to capitalize on the small opening.

Beth practically flew forward on the wings of Sborra's power, and she swung her sword in an almost ornate pattern as she approached. A series of blue energy lines appeared as she passed Dorothy, and once she resheathed her sword they exploded in a burst of power. Dorothy was caught in the midst of the blast, but outside of her clothing and body receiving several cuts, she seemed unphased and unimpressed. Her blazer fell apart, and her face had more than a few gashes on it from the attack. For the first time since their battle began, Dorothy frowned as she turned to face Beth. Beth readied herself for whatever surprise the devil had up her sleeve.

"Irksome little thing, aren't you?" Dorothy asked as she brushed off the remnants of her blazer, "As amusing as this little game is, I think it's time I remind you of just where you stand. I am the lord of this plane of existence, and you are nothing more than an insignificant little speck. You are not even the scum beneath my boot. I decided that I would have this realm, and I took it, I've decided that I want your world, and I will have it as well. You are just a fleeting distraction for me, a toy for me to amuse myself with. Your precious whore, your foolish friend, and you are all merely cogs in my machine. I think it's high time I show you just how different our powers are."

"Oh, shut up!" Beth snapped, earning an annoyed glare from Dorothy, "All of you self entitled people are the same. You drone on and on about how superior you are, how weak the rest of us are, but at the end of the day you're just stalling for time! If you're so damn powerful, then let's see it! Otherwise, stop torturing my ears with your bullshit and fight!"

"Insolent little girl!" Dorothy exclaimed, "Allow me to educate you on the futility of your efforts, and let me show you the price of such blatant disrespect!"

Jake watched as Beth and Dorothy dueled one another. He was still tired, but he could see that Beth was struggling on her own. Knowing Beth, though, she wouldn't back down until she was dead or completely broken. "It's time, Jake," Ashley's voice spoke in his head, "Get up and give it everything you've got. She can't do this on her own. No matter how much fury she has, she needs you and Pam by her side."

"Get up, boy!" he heard another voice call out, a darker and malicious voice: Lilith, "I gave you that mark so that you could fight, not so you could sit around and sulk! Show this charlatan what happens when you mess with a God!"

He pushed himself to his feet and watched as Pam did the same. Dorothy was focused on trying to pin down and subdue Beth with her abilities, and she didn't notice the two of them readying themselves for the fight. Just as Dorothy tried to drive her chains down onto Beth, Pam summoned her own and they wrapped around Dorothy's arm. "What the?!" Dorothy demanded as she looked at the burning chains, "It seems that the three of you have forgotten your place! You are worms compared to me! I'll make you all suffer before casting your souls into the Well!"

She jerked her arm forward in an attempt to pull Pam off balance, but Pam had merely used her power to distract Dorothy from Beth who charged forward with her sword by her hip. Dorothy heard Beth running towards her, and she brought her arm, with the chains still tightly coiled around it, up to block her attack. The mystic aura of the chains collided with that of the blade, but Pam dispelled her chains and allowed Beth's blade to dig into Dorothy's flesh. She recoiled from the surprise of the attack, but she brought a glowing hand to Beth's chest and sent her flying backward with a brilliant burst of green energy. She growled as she spun around and released a volley of souls from her body that forced Beth and Pam to dive to the ground.

Jake was on his feet, his back tingling from Lilith's mark, and was doing his best to sneak around Dorothy. His speed was amplified by Ashley's powers, and with the added boost from Lilith he could feel his reflexes heightened as well. When the wave of energy lashed out from Dorothy, he leapt into the air and over it with ease. Giving up on the notion of surprising her, he ran forward with his escrima sticks drawn. She barely had time to react when he was upon her, and she was forced onto the defensive as he attacked. A swift swing with his left arm at her face was blocked by her forearm, and she only just managed to catch his right as he tried to drive his weapon into her gut. Undaunted, he let go of his weapons and performed a spinning roundhouse kick that hit her in the face. She stumbled back in surprise, but another flare of her aura stopped his assault.

Pam channeled her power through her chains and morphed the end of one of them into a spear. With one sharpened and four left unchanged, she sought to capitalize on Dorothy's growing anger in hopes that she would make a mistake. The surge in power from her was unbelievable, but she had had to try to land a blow against her. She used the fingers of her right hand to guide the chains in a calculated series of strikes, and she began charging a spell in her left. Two of the chains whipped through the air and tried to slam down onto her shoulders. Souls from the Well flew down to deflect them before they could make contact, but she sent two more in opposing directions. One snaked its way along the ground towards Dorothy, while the other circled around her through the air. Her hope was that Dorothy would be too distracted by the one flying through the air to notice the one on the ground. Her plan seemed to work as Dorothy directed her power at destroying the one flying through the air, and the one on the ground quickly wrapped around her ankles.

Dorothy looked down at the chain coiling around her ankles with disdain. Breaking it was child's play for her, but the momentary distraction of it provided the opening Pam needed. Her body tensed up as the edge of Pam's spear pierced through her back. Pam doubted it would be enough to kill her, but it was at least a way to wear her further down. She twisted her right hand and pulled her arm back. The chain retracted and pulled Dorothy back a few feet, but she planted her feet before she went too far. The spell in her left hand, a chromatic orb that she'd channeled holy energy into, was ready, and she launched it at Dorothy's angered form. Dorothy reached behind, grabbed the chain sticking out of her back, and wrapped her hand around it, and ripped it out of her back. She turned around just in time to see the massive flashing orb hurtling towards her. She held her hands out to stop it, but it exploded upon impact.

The blast earned a pained wail from the devil, and caused a bright flash that lit up the room. Pam called upon the other facets of herself to prepare for her next attack. She knew her attack wasn't enough to defeat the devil herself, but she knew she'd wounded her. Her body began to glow as she powered up in anticipation of what Dorothy might do next. "You insignificant little cockroaches!" Dorothy roared as the smoke cleared and they could see her exposed rotting flesh, "That hurt, that actually hurt! I will make you regret challenging me. Don't think that this is over. If you want to play, then let's play!"

The sight of Dorothy's exposed flesh was enough to turn the stomachs of the three heroes, but what happened next was almost terrifying. The souls from the Well poured out and down onto Dorothy's body, encasing it in an ominous green glow. They watched as the mass of souls lifted her body up into the air before it began to take a new shape. A set of large horns appeared atop her head. They curved upward as the rest of her body tripled in size. Her arms grew longer and her fingers turned morphed into claws. Her legs bent at an unnatural angle as the souls continued to swarm around her being. She dropped out of the air as her transformation came to an end. Her hair was long and ran over an odd noseless skeletal face, her legs were covered in an odd and matted fur, her feet had turned to large hooves, and her arms now hung down past her waist. Her eyes glowed with the fires of Hell inside of them, and she stretched as she let out a roar that shook the entire chamber.

She spoke in a guttural growl that made the hairs on everyone's neck stand on end, "Behold, the true visage of the lord of Hell! You should be thankful. You three are only a handful to ever see this form!"

"I didn't think she could get any uglier," Beth remarked as Jake stood beside her.

Pam appeared beside them and looked at Jake, "Still think she's hot?"

"What?!" Beth asked.

"We are not doing this right now," Jake said, "We've got bigger problems to deal with."

"Yeah, no shit, but we are definitely talking about this later," Beth said.

"Dammit, Pam," Jake sighed as he sized up their opponent, "Alright, she's bigger, but we can still take her. We've got to find a weak spot."

"I'll try to keep you two protected while wearing her down," Pam said as she began to levitate into the air.

Before they could discuss their battle plans further, Dorothy leaned back and released a toxic breath attack aimed for them. A thick smog poured out of her mouth and towards them. They were forced to scatter to avoid taking a direct hit, and the ground where they'd been standing disintegrated upon impact. Pam focused some of her energy around Jake and Beth to create a shield around them for added protection. She could feel her power straining against her body, but the memory of serving Dorothy's repugnant body and the image of Beth doing the same strengthened her resolve. Nobody was going to subject her girlfriend to those kinds of horrors, nobody. She pushed past her limits as she held out her hands to create two massive violet fireballs.

"What an adorable little light show!" Dorothy's distorted voice boomed, "Too bad it won't do you any good, Pamela!"

Undeterred, Pam hurled her fireballs at Dorothy's mutated form. They slammed into Dorothy's chest, and the force of the impact surprised the devil. Violet flames flickered across her skin as she was forced to take a step back. Pam kept a watchful eye on Jake and Beth as they split apart and raced around Dorothy's flanks. More of the souls from the Well fluttered out and around Dorothy as she readied her next attack. She roared as she reared her left arm back and swung at Beth. Pam started to prepare a counter attack, but Beth had seen the attack coming and raised her sword to block her claws. The blow pushed her back, but she was otherwise unaffected. Seeing this, Pam prepared to send out one of her duplicates to support the two of them. Her aura began to flicker between the brilliant purple to a pale blue and a vibrant red. It seemed Rage and Clarity wanted a turn at battling Dorothy, and Pam was happy to grant them the opportunity.

Dorothy was momentarily focused on Beth, so Jake looked for a way to close the gap and deal some damage to the devil. Finding a weak point on her colossal frame was difficult enough, but he wasn't sure if his weapons would do much good against her in her current state. He still had a handful of blessed birdarangs at his disposal, but he knew they wouldn't do much in the way of damage. He saw her preparing some sort of blast attack to use against Beth, and he decided that if nothing else they could serve to possibly interrupt her attack. He threw them in an arc as he continued to run behind her. They curved through the air and dug into her chest. She let out another roar of anger and annoyance as the hit, and thankfully, his plan worked. The blows were just enough to break her concentration and disrupt her attack.

He picked up his pace as he raced around to her backside, but Dorothy's attention was now directed at him. He let out a disgruntled sigh as he realized that sneaking around to her backside was now going to be next to impossible. He caught sight of a blue glow as an image of Pam appeared beside him. He hadn't seen this copy of her before, but if it was anything like her others, he'd welcome the assistance. Dorothy stomped towards him, her cloven hooves shaking the ground as she walked, and she swung her claws down towards him. A series of Earth shattering blows forced him back on the defensive. He leapt out of the way of one clawed hand only to have to quickly dive away from another. Her claws dug into the stone floor and ripped it up as she retracted her hands.

While he was dodging her powerful jabs, a much calmer voiced Pam rang out in his head, "Use the arms to get closer to her. With your new abilities you should be able to ascend with ease."

Having three voices in his head was strange, but he was past the point of questioning these things. He just had to figure out a way to keep one of Dorothy's arms in place long enough for him to climb. She was throwing them too rapidly for him to be able to get aboard at the moment. To his surprise, he watched as the blue copy of Pam started to dissolve into a liquid of some sort. The copy was turned to a bright puddle, and glided along the ground to where he stood. He jumped back out of the way of Dorothy's next attack, and he saw the puddle envelop her arm and hold it in place. This was his chance! He charged forward, ran up her trapped hand, and raced along her arm towards the devil's head.

He felt his back start to tingle as he ran, and he felt a strange heat forming in his hands. Growling in annoyance, Dorothy tried to scrape him off of her arm with her other hand, but he slid beneath her sharp claws and continued upward. He reached her shoulder, and he kicked off with all of his might toward her face. Her gaping maw opened up as she prepared to release another of her noxious breath attacks at him. His body glowed with Pam's shield, but he could feel something else working in conjunction with it. What it was, he didn't know, but he felt unafraid of her attack. An acidic cloud poured out from her mouth and headed directly for him. He took the attack without flinching, and he felt the heat wrap around his body. He reared his fist back and drove it down into her jaw. An enormous shockwave was released that made Dorothy recoil from the force of the blow and had her crying out in pain. He latched onto one of her teeth, swung his legs upward, and delivered a mighty kick that he used to dismount and resume his mad dash of evasion.

Pam had watched as Jake performed a daring and risky maneuver, and her heart had skipped a beat when she saw Dorothy nearly obliterate him with her breath attack. Then she saw it. The faint shimmer of a reflective counter spell, one that she hadn't cast on him. She had no idea if he'd intentionally done it, but somehow Jake had managed to conjure a rather advanced spell. His body absorbed the energy from Dorothy's attack, and he'd released it upon striking her. By the look of him, she doubted that he'd even realized what he'd done, but one thing was certain: neither she, nor Dorothy, had been expecting such a move from him. He was truly an enigma, and she made a note to keep a close eye on him if they managed to escape this place alive.

Beth had just barely seen Jake land a devastating blow to Dorothy's face that actually seemed to hurt the monstrosity. She'd been trying to find an opening when Jake distracted her with his birdarangs. Then she saw the familiar red glow of Pam's possessive and angry emotion beside her, "You again?" she asked.

The glowing red figure seemed to almost smirk at Beth in response. Something about this one sent shivers down her spine, and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad. Dorothy stumbled backward, dazed from the blow from Jake, and Beth was forced to pull back to avoid being stepped on. She wasn't sure what the best move to attack was, but she knew she couldn't just stand there waiting. "What are you waiting for, Kitten?" the red copy of Pam asked, "My pet isn't the type to sit around and wait. Move in and gut this filthy abomination!"

Beth snapped to attention at her girlfriend's command. She tried to remember which one Pam had said this one was, but it reminded her more of Pam's dominant side. "Y-yes mistress," Beth said as formulated a plan of attack.

"Good girl," the red apparition said as it prepared to follow alongside Beth.

Beth pulled out her grappling gun and decided to use it to make a quick attack. If Dorothy had her back to her, then she would go for those hairy legs of hers. She quickly aimed her gun at the monster's back and fired it. The claw dug into her back, and she retracted it to pull herself toward Dorothy. She saw Pam's red form rush through the air beside her. It changed into something almost like a bolt as she rocketed towards Dorothy, and Beth kept her sword at the ready. She sliced upward along her right leg, driving the blade as deep into her flesh as possible while flying upward. Dorothy whirled around in response to the sudden pain in her leg, and Beth's trajectory was quickly altered into a crash course. She'd done her damage, but she lost her grip on her gun and was hurtling towards the ground. She felt a pair of warm arms wrap around her just before she hit the ground, and she looked up to see herself being cradled by the red figure.

"Uhm, thanks?" Beth said with a confused tone of voice.

"Formal speech, Kitten," the red figure chided as she turned to face Dorothy.

Was this thing serious? She wanted her to keep her speech pattern formal in the midst of a battle? She didn't have time to argue before the red clone was off to attack Dorothy on her own. She saw a small ball of energy leave her body and begin to orbit around her just as she took off, though. What it was, what it did, she couldn't say, but she took off to avoid risking getting smashed or slashed by Dorothy's claws. "This is ridiculous," Beth grumbled to herself as she raced around the chamber.

Pam had watched with mild intrigue as Rage remained by Beth's side. She could sense a hint of shock from Beth just before she attacked followed by some confusion as her duplicate saved her and sat her down. Rage was protective of Beth, the emotion had been the most vocal about her lying to her, and she wasn't surprised when she chose to stay beside Beth. What she hadn't expected was that Rage would disperse some of her energy for Beth before she went on the offensive. She readied her own attack against Dorothy while Rage occupied her. Her spell would take time, but Rage was up to the challenge of inflicting some payback on Dorothy while she worked. She bent the fabric of the weave to her will as she channeled as much of her power as she could muster.

Dorothy was growing increasingly impatient and annoyed by her prey. Pamela's power, Jake's shocking counterattack, and Beth's damned cuts with that wretched blade were infuriating her. Now, she found herself swatting at what appeared to be a sentient ball of fire! The figure was a byproduct of Pamela, but she'd never seen power like this before. It darted around her attacks with ease, and shot beams of raw fury at her whenever she left herself open. Between the pounding headache from Jake and the wound to her leg from Beth, she was struggling more than she cared to admit. Whatever magic Pamela was using to create this thing, it was more powerful than it looked and faster to boot.

"Ugh, annoying little pest!" Dorothy exclaimed as she roared and released a shockwave that finally dispelled the buzzing nuisance.

The shield that Pam had cast over Jake and Beth protected them from the explosion that Dorothy released. Her attack was as close to being ready as it could have been, so she raised her hands above her head to call her spell into action. A deep rumbling filled the chamber as dark clouds began swirling above Dorothy. The devil looked up in shock just as Pam called down a series of powerful bolts of lightning. They streaked along the ground, slicing into Dorothy and ripping the stone floor to shreds. Summoning a storm indoors was difficult, but Pam knew that this would be the blow that pushed Dorothy to the brink. She only hoped that Jake and Beth would be able to both dodge and capitalize on any openings she created. Her control over the bolts of lightning was limited at best.

Jake and Beth were caught off guard by the sudden burst of power from Pam. When the lightning bolts began crashing down around them and onto Dorothy, they were forced to change their tactics yet again. Their biggest concern was now avoiding the large blasts from the strange indoor storm. Dorothy was preoccupied by the thunderbolts that rained down on and around her. Every step she took to try to avoid one led her into another. "Jesus, Pam, a little warning next time, yeah?!" Beth yelled as she jumped back to avoid getting electrocuted.

"This might be just what we need," Jake said as he stuck close to Beth in his own evasion, "Look at her. Her guard is almost completely down. I've got an idea, maybe not a good one, but an idea nonetheless."

"Well, we're gonna die if we don't do something, so I guess this is as good a time as ever to do something stupid," Beth said, "What do you have in mind?"

The two rolled in opposite directions to avoid another bolt that destroyed part of the ground. "Hear me out," he started, "Once we get a clear opening, I'll throw you at her and you drive that sword into her heart."

"Well, you're O for two," Beth said, "That's two dumbass ideas you've had since we got here, but I don't see another option. Are you sure you can throw me all the way up there?"

"Thanks to Ashley's little gift and this mark from Lilith, I'm positive," he replied, "Even with your big butt I can get you there."

"Haha," Beth said snarkily, "Sure you don't want me to throw you? You know, so you can get close to the monster you said was hot?"

"Shut up," he grumbled, "Point taken, let's just look for the opening. We can do this."

"Would you two save your bickering for later?" Pam's voice echoed in their heads.

"Okay, this is getting old really fast," Jake said, "Not sure how many more voices I have room for in my head."

"You two need to work together," Pam's voice continued without acknowledging Jake's comment, "Beth, raise your sword above your head, and Jake when I strike you do just as you planned."

"You realize that raising my sword in this fucking storm is going to get me electrocuted, right?" Beth asked.

"Just trust me, Kitten!" Pam's voice echoed, "No harm will come to you, I swear."

Against her better judgment, Beth raised her sword above her head and prepared for the pain that was bound to come. A large bolt of lightning ripped through the air and crashed into Beth's sword. She trusted Pam, but part of her still expected to be fried in an instant. Instead, she felt the energy from the lightning bolt collect in her sword and spread throughout her body. Then, as if that weren't surprising enough, the little red orb from Pam's duplicate began swirling around her blade at a rapid rate. Was this what Pam felt like all the time? She felt like a conduit of pure power! It felt incredible, and she could feel the power flowing from her sword and into the rest of her body.

Pam readied her next attack in hopes of knocking Dorothy down for Beth to finish her off. The storm was dying down, but Dorothy had taken substantial damage from it already. Pam's next attack was a low level spell, but with her added power it should have been enough to do the trick. She channeled her power into both of her hands before she made her move. Dorothy was furious, Pam could feel it, but she was angry because she was wounded. Pam moved with blinding speed as she appeared in front of Dorothy. She brought her hands together and released the power she had been storing up. The sound of thunder filled the air and a shockwave of power shot out around her. Dorothy was sent flying backward and landed on her back with a loud thud and a bounce. This was it, their last chance to bring an end to this nightmare.

Jake and Beth had to try to fight to keep their footing from the shockwave of power that Pam released, but they both saw the opening when Dorothy fell backwards. "Jake, now!" Beth yelled.

"Right," he said as he raced over to her and took hold of her arm and leg before spinning her and launching her into the air.

Beth went soaring at a surprisingly fast speed. She flew through the air after Jake threw her and aimed her sword down. One shot, that was all they had. She focused all of the power coursing through her into her sword and drove it into Dorothy's chest as she landed. She stood atop Dorothy on one knee with her sword wedged all the way up to its guard. Time seemed to stand still for a moment before Dorothy began thrashing around beneath Beth. Not wanting to get crushed by a rogue claw, Beth ripped her sword out of her chest and leapt off of her. Her breathing was ragged, as was Jake and Pam's, as they waited to see if Dorothy was finally finished. Their hopes rose as they watched her large form begin to dissolve, and in its place was the rotting figure from before.

Then, to their horror, they watched as she slowly got to her feet. She was panting, bleeding, and burned, but she looked furious. "You insignificant little insects!" she screamed, "Do you really think you've won? This is my world, and I will not go down so easily! I'll make you all suffer! With the power of the Well, I am-ungh!"

A sudden and unexplained blast of energy ripped through the air and pierced Dorothy's chest. She looked down at the wound with shock and disdain, but then she began screaming as her body was slowly ripped to atoms. A vortex formed around her and she was pulled off into the distance. Jake, Beth, and Pam turned around and their hearts dropped. There in the doorway to the chamber was Rebecca. She stood wearing a dress that was tight fitting, fishnet stockings, and a smile that made their blood run cold. They watched as the essence of Dorothy swirled around her before funneling into her. She stepped forward and gave a slow applause to the three of them.

"Spectacular job, you three," she praised, "I couldn't have done it better myself, and I certainly couldn't have done it without you. I now have all that I need to take my rightful place as the Supreme ruler of Earth. With you three at my side, we will be unstoppable!"