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Post by Carter on Nov 6, 2010 9:27:31 GMT -4
"Are we having fun yet?"
"Fucking buckets," Carter replied as he glared back at the demon who really he really wished would stop smiling back at him...all the fucking time!
Carter pressed the blade harder into her throat as her noise of discomfort reached his ears. He knew he could just fucking cut her head off and tear the place apart for the graces. But that would take more work then he was currently wanting to fuck with; he rather get the graces and then kill her. It was better that way.
Carter kept the blade of the sword dug into the demons next even as she opted to stand; some people wanted to die on their feet he could work with that. Taking his eyes off of the demon for the slightest moment Carter took stock of a small box which now sat in the rubble of what had once been the chest in the room.
Bingo.
It was at that point in time Carter made a mistake that he would have no-one else to blame but himself. He took his focus off the demon entirely and for his trouble seconds later he got a knife in the chest. The breath was immediately forced from Carter and replaced by an icy chill which seemed to travel through his veins. Stumbling forward slightly Carter crashed to his knees his eyes clenched such for the moment as he attempted to get some sort of grip upon reality.
"You...fucking...bitch," Carter growled his voice low and labored as his hand gripped the handle of the night and he tore it from his chest sending a torrent of blood cascading down his chest. Carter struggled through the pain to keep his focus but he could quickly feel himself slipping and something else...something stronger taking a hold of him. Allowing the knife to tumble from his grasp Carter braced himself as the walls of the church began to tremble and the air began to sizzle with potential flame.
"Fucking...demon," Carter growled as his hands wrapped around the small box and slipped it into his pocket. Pain or not he still had a fucking job and sure as shit hoped it was the graces in the box and not lollipops. With every passing second Carter felt something burning through him and with the passing seconds the walls of the church shuddered and groaned until the ceiling collapsed in the room outside of the one they found themselves in.
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Post by Lilith on Nov 6, 2010 18:21:19 GMT -4
Lilith stepped calmly out of the way as the nephilim fell to his knees, her knife in his chest. It wasn't quite the blessed sword he was using, and he didn't really have a grace to steal, but it certainly seemed to have some sort of effect.
"You...fucking...bitch,"
"Now now," Lilith said, shaking her finger at him. "No need to get into name calling."
She watched as he pulled the knife out of his chest, her eyes rolling to white at the sight of his blood leaving his body. Placing a hand to the wound in her abdomen, Lilith sneered at the Nephilim.
"Now we match."
"Fucking...demon,"
Lilith could feel the air around her burning with energy and it caused the smile to slip from her face. She hardly thought the knife would increase the creature's power. Why couldn't the angels have left at least a few nephilim alive? They were very difficult to study when dead.
She made to snatch the box of graces off of him but stopped at the sound of the ceiling in the main hall collapsing.
"Oops," she muttered, now glaring at the nephilim. Soon the entire building would come crumbling down and there was no time to continue this fight. Trying to calm herself, Lilith reassured herself by pointing out that she no longer really needed the graces. She just wanted them.
"Time to go," she said, stepping away from him further. "I'll be seeing you again."
With that, Lilith disappeared, leaving the nephilim behind in her crumbling church. She would need to move now, she thought, but since she appeared to be so easy to locate, it probably wasn't a bad idea.
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Post by Carter on Nov 7, 2010 1:12:41 GMT -4
"Time to go, I'll be seeing you again."
"Don't count on it..." Carter managed to force out as his clenched his eyes shut trying to force down the power clawing at him to get out and force away the pain so he could deal with what needed dealt with currently.
What felt like ages was in fact only several pain staking moments as the church continued to shudder and collapse all around Carter. The pain in his chest was consuming and he had long since realized it was from more then just the dagger to the chest that had done it...though the whole bleeding chest wound and no doubt collapsed lung was an entirely new set of problems to deal with. The dagger itself had set something off in him; something dark and primal and something Carter had no hope what so ever of controlling.
The demon was gone; though as the walls tumbled down Carter only wished she was there to die in the wreckage of her own made world. Heath and agony slid through his veins until it reached his eyes and that was when the world seemingly exploded in a flash of white hot flame and total destruction.
***** ***** *****
Something was burning; that was the first thing Carter noticed as his world slid harshly back into focus the next observation was that it felt as if he was one of those things which were burning. Forcing his eyes open...(against his better judgment) Carter saw something he never would have expected to see for as long as he managed to stay alive. The sign a few feet in front of him still read "Travis-Town Mississippi Population 72" but what was found behind the sign was anything but. What was there was no town...simply the charred scorched and crumbling earth of what had once been Travis-Town Mississippi.
No church...no buildings...no one stop light...everything was engulfed in flames beyond the city limit and not even the pain which still sliced through Carter' body could dull the realization of what had happened...what he had done.
Forcing himself to his feet Carter only managed to stumble a few feet backwards away from the destruction before tumbling back to the earth. Spent and in pain Carter simply lay curled upon the side of the road the world around him resembling more of a living hell then he ever recalled signing up for. It made sense though in the long run; the angels had no doubt set it up long ago. They would get what they wanted; the graces back and Carter dead.
As a violent attack of coughs tore through Carter and he found the ground beneath him soaked with more blood then was ok he decided that if Death wanted him he could fucking come and get him.
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Post by Mercy Thompson on Nov 7, 2010 1:31:17 GMT -4
Mercy had been driving for hours. How many hours, she wasn't entirely sure, but it had been some time. When she had first left Carter, she had started going in the direction of home, only to realise that she couldn't go home. Not without giving her parents heart attacks. As much as she hated Carter for telling them she was dead, it was probably for the best.
So she had turned around and headed for Mississipi. She would do what she had originally planned to do when she first ran away, find a new place, become a new person, forget about everything. And with her freedom from the angels now guaranteed, it would be so easy to do so. But of course there was the reason she was now free that wouldn't leave Mercy's mind. Carter had made some sort of deal with the archangel. And from what Carter had told her about the angels' view on Nephilim's, it couldn't have been anything good.
Mercy was dragged from her thoughts at the sight of a large explosion a mile or so ahead of her. A normal person would have turned around and driven as quickly as possible in the opposite direction. But Mercy has to see what was going on, if only to satisfy her own curiosity. It didn't really occur to her that it could have been something extremely dangerous.
What she found though was a town. Or rather, what had once been a town according to the sign on the side of the road. Now it was a crater, and she assumed anyone who had been in the town at the time of the explosion was probably dead.
The question was, what had caused the explosion?
The smell caught her attention before the familiar face curled up on the side of the road. And had it not been for the smell, she almost wouldn't have believed it.
"Carter?" she asked herself, braking the car immediately and jumping out, running to the crumpled figure. It was Carter alright, but she had never seen him in such bad shape. Whatever he'd been through, it was probably worse than anything else.
"Carter?" she asked again, this time directing it at the Nephilim. "Can you hear me?"
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Post by Carter on Nov 7, 2010 14:15:49 GMT -4
The sky was dark and it probably shouldn't have been being that all signs had pointed to a bright and shinning fall day but then again blowing a town completely off the map tended to screw around with the flow of life in general. Clouds gathered and thunder rumbled and Carter was content with the sound. As a kid he had lived for the days when it had rained; not a few drops here and there but world ending power storms which knocked the electric out for hours and blew down trees. As he grew up he figured it fed his destructive nature to see something else take a stab at the world. He allowed his eyes to slip shut and simply focused on the sound of the gathering storm; it should only be a few more minutes before word got to the angels that there plan had gone off without a hitch.
"Carter? Can you hear me?"
"Really?" Carter muttered forcing his eyes open in response to the familiar voice.
"You dress up as her to kill me?...Touche..." Carter muttered locking eyes with the angel whichever fucking one it was above him. He normally would have cared to know who it was about to take him about but he was too fucking tired to ask and knew that since angels had a habit of monologueing anyhow it would probably tell him eventually.
It hurt like a bitch but Carter pulled himself up into as much of a sitting position as was possible and continued to glare back at the angel. He couldn't tell if whoever the fuck this was had tracked Mercy down despite the deal and was using her as a meat puppet now or if they were simply using her appearance; either way it was working to piss him off.
"Couldn't leave her be?" Carter continued wanting to express how much he wished he could take out the fucker but his breath was growing short and the dull ache in his chest was becoming a smothering wave of agony once more as fresh blood slid from the wound and from his nose and ears and corners of his eyes and from pretty much anywhere else it could find to make an escape.
Thunder clapped much closer now and Carter flinched slightly the noise surprisingly startling; he really wished they could just fucking leave him be to die alone.
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Post by Mercy Thompson on Nov 7, 2010 15:10:46 GMT -4
Mercy did not like the growing clouds the suddenly gathered around them. It had been sunny moments ago. Though removing large things from the world did tend to mess with the eco-system a bit so it wasn't too strange. Sort of.
She had no doubt that Carter had something to do with the crater that had once been Travis-Town, having witnessed his ability to blow shit up spectacularly. She'd never seen it quite on this scale of course, but who really knew what nephilim's were capable of?
"Really? You dress up as her to kill me?...Touche..."
As Carter forced himself into a sitting position, Mercy finally noticed the gaping wound in his chest and immediately pressed her hand against it in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
"Jesus..." she muttered, lifting her eyes from the wound to Carter's face so she didn't have to look at his blood slipping through her fingers. This was the worst wound she had seen in him to date. But what the hell had caused it?
Adjusting herself slightly, Mercy's elbow grazed against something in Carter's pocket and, for the sake of trying to figure out what the hell was going on, she fished it out. It was a small box. And it reeked of angel.
"Couldn't leave her be?"
His voice drew her attention back to him and she shook her head at him and sighed. "No one's dressing up as anyone," she told him, opening the box to see what was inside. "It's just me. Now make with the healing so we can get out of here."
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Post by Carter on Nov 7, 2010 15:48:51 GMT -4
Carter bit back a cry of pain as the angel pressed it's hand against his chest sending a fresh wave of pain through the wound in his chest. He really wished if they meant to assist in the whole him dying deal they would get on with it as he had a habit of being a bit impatient.
"You're not helping..." Carter muttered harshly as he attempted to twist himself out from under the angels' hand but he barely had the strength to stay upright never mind actually go anywhere. His powers were friend and he was long since fried for the first time in a very long time Carter felt useless.
"Jesus..."
"He's got nothing to do with this."
Carter watched silently as the angel fished the box of graces from his pocket and he figured that it was of course an important piece of the puzzle before they went on smiting him to fuck knew where. Ange;s had the graces and everything was complete...save of course for the fact that the fuckers hadn't kept a single part of their side of the deal; but honestly that shouldn't have surprised him.
"No one's dressing up as anyone. It's just me. Now make with the healing so we can get out of here."
"If there not in there you're going to have to track the bitch down," Carter muttered slumping backwards slightly till his back was laying upon the grass once more and his eyes were vacantly staring up at the gathering clouds. There was something about the angel's tone...something that was off in regards to angelic but spot on as far as Mercy went. She had gone though; back to her portion of the world to have her normal life and there would be no reason for her to be here now on the edge of disaster with him.
"I'm barely making with the breathing..." Carter muttered his chest shuddering ever so slightly as a fit of coughs tore through him causing fresh blood to slip from his mouth.
"...'sides I'm pretty sure I blew a hole in...Mississippi..."
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Post by Mercy Thompson on Nov 7, 2010 16:03:22 GMT -4
"You're not helping..."
"Sorry," Mercy said, though she didn't move her hand. It appeared to be doing next to nothing, but short of stripping down and using her clothes, she didn't really have a better option.
Mercy stared down at the little box in wonder. Inside were a number of small vials that appeared to be filled with a bright blue light. Angelic graces? In a tiny box? What the hell?
"If there not in there you're going to have to track the bitch down,"
She wasn't sure who this 'bitch' was, but Mercy was pretty sure she was the one who had managed to nearly kill Carter. Must be a powerful someone, she reasoned. And the last wheel clicked into place. So the stupid thing that Carter had agreed to do was to retrieve angelic graces from a powerful someone who apparently didn't want to let them go.
"Fuck, Carter, why would you agree to do something like that?"
Closing the box, she put it back in his pocket. It wasn't important right now. Right now she needed Carter to stop bleeding. At least a little.
"I'm barely making with the breathing..."
That much was clear and Mercy cringed as he coughed and fresh blood trickled from his mouth.
"...'sides I'm pretty sure I blew a hole in...Mississippi..."
"I won't tell if you don't," she assured him, wiping the blood from his face.
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Post by Carter on Nov 8, 2010 8:43:19 GMT -4
"Fuck, Carter, why would you agree to do something like that?"
"You're going to have...to be more specific," Carter responded tot he statement as his eyes continued to glare upwards. He wondered if it would rain before he choked or if the world was simply pissed off that he had blown a hole in it.
Carter's eyes clouded with confusion as the box of graces was slipped back into his pocket. Carter eyed the woman in front of him. It wasn't only the appearance which obviously screamed "Mercy" it was the actions, words and begrudging concern which usually came along with Mercy Thompson. He had no idea how the hell she had found him and what the hell she was doing but if anyone had to be around to watch him die he was glad it was her...not that he would admit to it anytime in this life or the next.
"I won't tell if you don't."
"Deal..." Carter whispered and cringed slightly as pain flared through his chest once more and the clouds above them flashed with violent lightning.
"You should go Mercy...you'll get rained on," Carter muttered attempting to turn on his side but giving up on the action seconds after starting. It wouldn't have helped anything as far as bleeding to death but he hated laying on his back for the most part and if it did start raining he was gonna get pelted right in the face and that was a bit too Hollywood for his liking.
"You do me a favor Lassie?"
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Post by Mercy Thompson on Nov 8, 2010 14:44:35 GMT -4
"You're going to have...to be more specific,"
Right, of course, Mercy hadn't actually voiced her train of thought out loud.
"Why the hell did you agree to go on a suicidal mission for the angels?" Mercy explained. It seemed very uncharacteristic of Carter to do a favour for people he extremely disliked and end up dying. Or in fact do anything for the angels at all.
"You should go Mercy...you'll get rained on,"
Glancing up at the clouds that had now firmly gathered over the former town, Mercy knew that Carter was right. Not that it really mattered, all things considered.
"I hardly think getting wet is an important enough reason to leave you dying on the side of the road," she pointed out, shifting slightly as Carter attempted to roll onto his side and failed.
"You do me a favor Lassie?"
Attempting a smile, Mercy shrugged. "I'm pretty sure the last time you asked me to do something for you, I ended up knocked out and chained to a fence," she reminded him. "So for now I'll say 'depends.'"
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Post by Carter on Nov 8, 2010 15:38:17 GMT -4
"Why the hell did you agree to go on a suicidal mission for the angels?"
Carter turned his eyes back to Mercy as her question reached him. At the time he hadn’t seen it as a suicide mission he had seen it more along the lines of an easy job…that had of course been before the knife to the chest.
“Didn’t start off as suicide…don’t think,” Carter attempted to explain as he forced himself over on his side his eyes clenching through the motion and only opening once he had managed to lay properly.
“More of an easy fix to a few problems…graces for angels, permanent silence for you and a 3 week vacation for me…everyone wins…sort of,” Carter explained before shuddering slightly his chest pulling tight and slicing off the air to his lungs for a moment causing Carter to momentarily panic until his chest loosened ever so slightly. It felt as if he was drowning and he was almost positive it was only a few moments before his lungs collapsed entirely.
That would be a bitch.
“Mikey gave me an offer…I couldn’t refuse…” Carter explained a ghost of a smile across his face at his well placed Godfather reference. Dying or not he was still rather quick with the wit.
"I'm pretty sure the last time you asked me to do something for you, I ended up knocked out and chained to a fence. So for now I'll say 'depends.'"
Carter smirked slightly; she defiantly didn’t forget anything and she was more than right in her stance.
“Smart girl…” Carter muttered his form trembling slightly as the rain finally broke above them soaking everything in an instance. Somewhere in the back of his mind he thought it would help put out any fires which were still burning in what used to be Travis-Town.
“I prefer them not take me out…If I’m not done when they get here…” Carter explained forcing himself to pull in a breath of air.
“I fucking hate them…” Carter whispered his eyes slipping shut for a moment before he forced them open again.
“You’re good people Lassie…I need your word…” Carter explained each word forced and far weaker than those which came before them. Carter’s free hand gripped the grass below him as he struggled to keep his eyes locked with Mercy. As much as he despised to admit it she kept him grounded…she made him better…ish.
A series of violent tremors tore through Carter and his hazel eyes slipped shut as his body finally stopped fighting against the pull of death.
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Post by Mercy Thompson on Nov 8, 2010 16:01:31 GMT -4
“Didn’t start off as suicide…don’t think,”
Of course it didn't. Carter would probably have assumed he would come out of everything unscathed.
"Don't - " she started as Carter tried to force himself on his side again. This time he succeeded though she imagined it hurt like a bitch.
“More of an easy fix to a few problems…graces for angels, permanent silence for you and a 3 week vacation for me…everyone wins…sort of,”
"And look how that turned out," she muttered. And now of course Mercy couldn't help but feel guilty that he had done this stupid thing, in part, for her.
“I prefer them not take me out…If I’m not done when they get here…”
Mercy shook her head slightly as the rain began to fall. It sounded like he was trying to ask her to kill him... but of course that was ridiculous. Completely ridiculous... right?
“I fucking hate them…”
"I know."
“You’re good people Lassie…I need your word…”
She opened her mouth to tell him to stop being stupid. He would be absolutely fine and be able to take down any angel that came knocking. But then he was shaking... and his eyes closed... and he stopped breathing.
"Carter?" she asked, hoping that it was just a temporary thing. He was faking again. Any minute now he would draw a breath and laugh at her. "Please, Carter?" Mercy waited. And waited. But still he didn't move.
Fiercly wiping tears from her face, Mercy stood and lifted Carter onto her shoulders, carrying him over to her car where he would be try. She took a moment to take a couple of the graces out of the box and put them in her jeans pocket before closing the door and walking to the middle of the road.
Someone would need to come collect the graces. Archangel Mikey didn't really make sense. Archangel Michael on the other hand... and if an angel came, they could fix him. Ripping the bracelet off of her wrist, she stuck it in her other pocket and turned her face to the sky and screamed.
"MICHAEL!"
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Post by Dani Cross on Nov 8, 2010 23:34:19 GMT -4
Demons were terrible creatures. Humans deprived of the their intrinsic connection to the divine, their natural forms patterned after their Creator. Pain was pleasure, screams were music. Evil was desired simply because it was evil. Lower level demons thought of little beyond the need to inflict upon others the torture they had endured. They delighted in hurting the most innocent of humanity. In the time since her meeting with Carter, Michael had been hunting down every demon foolish enough to show itself. Against the power of an Archangel, they never stood a chance. Still, it didn't help anything. They were minions, their masters kept themselves hidden. The cowardliness of it was frustrating, at least during the first rebellion the traitor had possesed spine enough to engage the Host of Heaven head on.
"MICHAEL!"
The cry pulled Michael from her thoughts. The murmuring of prayers to the patron of warriors had always been in the back of her mind, almost inaudible, but present. Certainly they weren't ignored, but grand displays of divine intervention interfered with free will, and were thus rare. But this was different, immediate and familiar. Mercy Thompson. The Hound whom wanted to be removed from duty. Why would she call upon an Angel?
There was a great rustling of feathers that left a trio of recently depossessed men confused an abandoned in a cornfield two miles outside of the nearest town, and then Michael was standing ten feet behind the distressed Mercy.
"You cal-Oh Father in Heaven." That was about the space of time it took for the archangel to take in the site of Carter. Dying, dead, in between. The line was burry, especially when death was almost foreign to one's species. As quickly as possible she moved to the Nephilim's side. His wounds were bad, but not entirely irreparable. "Damnit Carter, I warned you that she was dangerous."
Carter was dying, he had succeeded in his mission, Michael could since the graces nearby, and therefor had secured freedom for Mercy and some breathing room for himself. But the latter wouldn't help if he died. This presented her with a serious moral dilemma. Was it better to follow the letter of the bargain, which had in no way guaranteed the boy would survive his mission to enjoy his short time of freedom; or should she follow the spirit of the it, which implied that he would be alive at the end of the three weeks. Gabriel would certain ague for the former, as Carter was a threat to humanity. But the part of Michael that had interceded on behalf of the Israelites before the time of Christ, and that had also spared Carter as a child called for the latter.
Gently Michael put her hand over Carter's wound. Nothing happened that was visible, the angel focused her power deeper, seeking the more vital regions. The blood loss began to slow. "This man," she said to Mercy, "is a threat to humanities existence. Why should I save him?"
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Post by Mercy Thompson on Nov 9, 2010 0:08:58 GMT -4
A part of her wondered if calling for Michael would actually do any good. Carter hated the angels more or less because the angels hated him. They were supposed to have killed him a long time ago. It was more than probable that Michael would simply let Carter die. Hell, it was possible that they had set him up, hoping he would die on this ridiculous mission.
Though Mercy would like to have thought that when they killed him, they would have the decency to do it to his face. Besides, who knew what happened to graces when their containers were shattered? Assuming the wretched things were actually important, it could possibly be enough to coerce Michael into healing Carter... or earn a smiting... it would get a reaction for sure.
"You cal-Oh Father in Heaven."
Mercy spun around to face the archangel, whose attention was on Carter, still on the brink of death. Mercy didn't look at Carter though, a part of her was still hoping he was just being a jerk again. The angel surprised her, by extending a hand towards Carter and placing it over his wound. Though there was no visable reaction, Mercy was pleased that this didn't have to be unnecessarily difficult.
"This man, is a threat to humanities existence. Why should I save him?"
Regarding the angel for a long moment, Mercy finally turned her gaze to Carter before taking a deep breath to answer.
"So, because Carter has the ability to blow the world up on a whim, he's a threat to humanity?" Mercy asked, not really expecting an answer. "I would like to point out that he has yet to do so, and probably won't. Carter likes life. It's hard to live without a planet. And it's hardly his fault he is what he is."
She paused, turning her gaze back to Michael, eyes half glaring..
"More to the point, Carter is dying because of something you asked him to do. He got your stupid graces," she pulled the ones she had out of her pocket and tossed them to the angel for emphasis. "He got a knife to the chest... and not just any knife apparently considering he can't heal himself... because you sent him in there. The least you could do is let him live so he can enjoy his three weeks grace."
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Post by Dani Cross on Nov 9, 2010 0:54:49 GMT -4
The bleeding had stopped, and the organs were mending. There was still no visible change, healing wasn't something done with the snap of the fingers. That and there was no reason for Mercy to know that Michael had already decided to heal Carter. She was curious as to why the Hound would even care. "Generally one with so much power would be considered a threat, yes."
Mercy's reasoning for why Carter would not use his power was sound. So long as he had a reason to live, he had no reason to end existence. Though there was always the possibility that he could loose his will to live. An unlikely possibility, considering his tenacity, but still there. "Those graces are the life force of my brothers. Lilith could not have been allowed to keep them. Carter was told what he was getting into, he agreed to it so that you could have your freedom."
It bothered the angel that Mercy threw around the 'stupid graces' so casually. They were all that remained of twelve of her siblings, and an important part of one that was badly wounded. Seeing the graces so mistreated was similar to a human seeing a corpse used as a throw rug. Mercy and Carter certainly hadn't given a damn about their lives being lost. Michael sighed, the anger was unproductive. Her brethren died doing their duty, that was the fault of their enemies, not Mercy or Carter. It would be unjust to vent her feelings here.
"It was likely the knife she used to kill my brother to acquire the graces." the archangel said after a few moments of silence. "His powers of healing are not dissimilar to ours, so it would have the power to kill him as well."
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