Chapter Text
“For a mage your reflexes are good,” intoned the Despair Demon before a twisted smile formed on Celeste’s face and she raised her hand before she continued in the same intoned voice, “How about this then?” she flung out her hands hit Anders a blast with force spell. When the spells hit Anders, he looked like a deranged mime or marinate, dancing to the Demons tune in some macabre dance.
“DO NOT THINK THAT WE WILL GO DOWN SO EASILY DEMON” Justice roared in righteous fury, his eyes pulsing with power as Anders hands spread out as he summoned an ice spell. He relished the feeling of the power building inside his body a sweet pressure thumbed through his body until he felt like he was about to burst, then he released it and watched in satisfaction as it fanned out encasing Celeste in ice and immobilised her.
He dropped to the floor and was allowed only a few moments to breathe and think before Celeste managed to break out. Celeste reached up and brushed some ice chunks off of her shoulder before she looked at Anders with a knowing smile that didn’t belong on Celeste innocent face before she began speaking again her soft voice completely replaced by the demon’s deep dark baritone, “You’re in over your head mage. Why don’t you join me? I feel that you are possessed as well. Together we could make Kirkwall a place that Templars fear to tread where mages can be free to do as they wish. To live their lives how they see fit,”
“WE WILL NEVER JOIN WITH A DEMON!” Anders replied in a roar, his voice resonated of both Justice and Anders intertwined, than continued in the same roar, “LEAVE THE GIRL NOW!”
The demon moaned as one would after they’ve eaten something delicious as it licked Celeste’s lips with her own tongue with look of ecstasy that didn’t belong on Celeste’s young face. It then levels black eyes on Anders before it relied in a mocking tone, “Ahh-ah, I’m so sorry I can’t do that. This one’s despair is an exquisitely delicious feast. Far too delicious a feast to give up,” The look of ecstasy slowly twisted into a look of anger and the mocking tone was replaced by simmering rage, “If you don’t want to join us then you are an obstacle that we merely need to overcome,”
She raised her arms up out to her sides and the earth under Anders begins to shake as she spoke her voice echoed both Celeste’s soft voice and Despair’s deep voice “Behold our true form and despair,”
Anders watched in shock as Celeste’s body begins to shift and change in front of him. The transformation was so different from other transformations that he had seen. Her body began to grow and stretch; he heard the bones snapping and then realign to compensate for the quick growth as the muscles ripped and tore then healed quickly. Even her robes began to shift and change with her body. They changed colour from bright canary yellow to a pitch black. When she finally stopped growing the abomination that had stood before him was unlike anything he had ever seen. Celeste had grown to stand at a full 6 feet in height and when her clothes finally stopped shifting it was a full length hooded black robe. Dark purple flames, that were almost black, flickered around the hem, cuffs and hood of the figure that now stood before him.
Anders did despair then, his knees almost giving out as he stared at Celeste. His eyes burned and blurred with tears as he realised that there was no hope in reaching Celeste. She was gone and there was no way to return her to who she was. Anders died a little on the inside; he knew that he would have to tell her brother that his sister is gone forever, that he is alone in this cold hard cruel world.
Anders gritted his teeth and his eyes hardened as he allowed himself to fall back into his own mind, Justice to surged forward as he roared, “SO BE IT”
Celeste threw her hands out and Anders vaguely felt himself flying through the air before being smashed into the walls in the tunnels before bouncing off and landing face first onto the ground. He felt his body writhe in pain as it strained to draw a breath and it vaguely felt like his ribcage might cave in. But he felt it was more like a sympathetic pain then his own physical pain.
Anders felt Justice stand and throw up a shield which allowed him to catch his breath. Justice and Anders sensed that the demon was almost as young as Celeste and so they had age and experience on them. It was something they could use to their advantage.
The second Justice dropped their shield he cast an age old favourite of Anders, the grease spell.
“Oh what is that supposed to do” the despair demon mocked as it walked toward Anders anger in its step as it hissed, “I guess you want to have a go at playing with this meat sack too? Typical”.
Anders sneered at the demon before he bit out in angry hiss, “Yes of course but not the way you think,” When he finished talking he flung out his hand and lit a single flame at the tip of his figure with a smirk.
The demon’s black eyes widened at it realized what Anders had planned and cried out in Celeste’s voice, “No Anders wait please! I want to see my brother again!”
The smirk dropped from Anders face and contorted into a look of rage before he roared, “Don’t! Don’t even try using Celeste! It is too late. She is gone…and soon you will be too,”
Anders snarled at the abomination as the flame at the end of his finger shifted into a fire ball and he flung it at the grease covered demon. It took only seconds for the Despair Demon to be ignited in a whoosh which was quickly drowned out as the Demon and Celeste screamed in agony in one voice as it was bathed in fire. Even Justice was affected by the unearthly sounds of pain the Despair Demon made as it burned and the combination of the smell and sounds made Anders sick to his stomach and they couldn’t even block out the sounds and smell when they turned away from burning demon and covered their ears.
It took Anders several minutes to turn back around after the screaming had finally stopped and the heat at his back died down. As he looked at the tiny body of the little mageling that he had killed his knees almost gave out on him again as he stumbled toward her and sobbed, “What have I done!”