I hate beef. I fell so bad after eating it (point one for why I was becoming a vegetarian). So why did I have a steak tonight? To try and give my poor muscles some fighting chance mostly after what I put my body through yesterday. (Total and complete breakdown in karate; couldn't even breathe even though I wanted to.) I've never had to actually eat like an athlete even though I was one. Horse back riding, although strenuous, didn't require much beyond balance and leg strength (which I have severely lost in the last four years) and fencing, not so much of anything really that I can remember. But I was riding and fencing at the same time so I was in good shape from both. Now, I've done nothing for four years and my first twenty little jumping things killed me.

I need to disconnect the old chords, make myself whole and me again so I can stop doing this. (Congrats, you just found a random topic generator. You win a piece of lint.)

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The Lord looked over his prizes, his wives, his trophies. All of them were his; even the unicorns. He made a point to smile down at the trapped Mai. Trapped by his own power. He grinned and stroked the topaz amulet that now hung around his neck; who would have thought that it would have taken the power of another creature of light to trap her? He was unstoppable, and the thought made him raise his voice and let out a bark of laughter that echoed around the chamber.

They cringed at his voice. Good. Humility and fear were traits he desired in all of his wives, and he felt that fear from every one of them...except something wasn't right. Pride flowed from someone- and it wasn't the ragged remnants of the girls'. He turned, rage lending a sweet lucidity to his bones as he prepared to teach whoever it was a lesson. But he wasn't prepared to face the figure that leaned against his throne, one cloaked arm resting on the back of the magnificently carved marble.

The figure watched the Lord turn and he smiled, partly curtained by his own dark hair. He watched the glow fade from the demon and he saw the glint of blue topaz against dark skin. The air turned cold and the figure's breath hissed out in faint wisp of visible air.

"Who are you?" the Lord snarled, lifting his lip, unable to place the psychic signature that was cloaked as effectively as the figure's body was. Whoever it was had to be rich, the cloak was made from velvet softer than a child's blood, and wholly unknown. "Speak before I cut your throat for trespassing." The Lord didn't want to wonder about the logic of someone finding his treasure house.

"Is that all you would do to me?" the figure asked, letting his native accent play with the words. "That hardly seems worthy for one of your thug level."

The Lord stepped closer and ice began to form on the floor; the throne was already crystallized and shining in the light of the nearby fireplace. But the figure raised one hand and stood straighter, his features coming into more focus as the shadows receded. He was a middle aged man with long salted brown hair and pale eyes that glowed like the cross in his ear. The Lord had never seen him before and still couldn't get a psychic sent off of him which irritated the demon to no end and he tapped into another stolen power to break the man in half and get rid of him.

But the air shimmered purple in a bubble around the man as the power hit his shielding and was deflected into the throne, shattering the frozen marble and skating the pieces across the icy floor. Even the fire shrank back from the chill in the air. Goose bumps raised on the demon's flesh.

"You believe yourself to be a god?" the man asked and stepped forward. "I must congratulate you, really. You have almost managed to attain that level. But you've made one fatal mistake..."

The cloak of velvet changed to feathers sheened in green and purple which lifted and formed into huge wings with a snap and a slight crackle of settling bones. The man's eyes glazed over purple as horns of pure silver twisted back from his head and echoed the clinking of the chains across his waist and chest. Satin flowed into the shadows and the man smiled as he lifted the shield and let his power fill all the shadows of the room. Lucifer.

The Lord felt uneasy suddenly and took a step back, raising his hand to the angelic amulet. If it stopped a unicorn it could certainly stop an Angel, especially a Fallen. But the ingrained respect that every demon had for the Prince of Hell made the Lord pause briefly, then dip into a cautious bow.

"My Prince, I heard you were dead," the Lord said with as much respect he could muster. "What have I done to offend you?"

"You attacked my Clan and harmed my protectorate," Lucifer said with very little emotion but a thin coating of ice formed around the Lord's feet and he had to break it to keep himself from being trapped.

"Completely unintentional I assure you."

"I really could care less." Lucifer's hand flicked and the Staff appeared, called by its master. The golden rings tinkled with a light, almost childlike laugh, and the Lord brought all his power to bear, preparing to bun out Lucifer's mind and shatter his power. The reputation he would have after defeating the Prince of Hell...

The Staff rang out and the Lord felt his limbs and tongue turn to tar. His mind worked but the shield was up again and none of the stolen telekinesis could penetrate the amethyst power.

"Bind," Lucifer said and the Staff rang out again. Tendrils of black energy shout out of the ground and try as he might the Lord couldn't keep them at bay for long. He snarled and worked at getting a spell off through his slowed lips; but by the time the spell was completed it shattered harmlessly against the protection ring Lucifer had called forth. Four marks glowed on the floor in correspondence to the four directions, each one different and fragile but forming a linked whole which nothing could break. Not even a god.

The tar fell out of the demon's blood and he raged inside his bonds, snapping the tendrils only to find more reaching out to hold him in place. Nothing could have withstood the unleashed power but the protection circle kept it all bottled inside and Lucifer stood there as still as the late throne had. Everything but his eyes were cold, where the rage was kept, deep and quiet. The Angel rubbed the Staff between his palms, creating a cacophony that opened up the spell which he began to recite in Hebrew, punctuated by taps of the Staff. Each ring from the bangles as the Staff struck the floor created another ball, each with its own hue until four of them ringed the circle, hovering about chest height.

Lucifer kept chanting and the first ball, yellow in color, began to spin and pick up speed quickly. The Lord felt his skin raise towards the spinning ball as if a great wind compelled it until the skin split from the pressure and pulled inch by inch off his flesh and was taken into the ball. The Lord's threats became insensible screams and he tried with every fiber of his being to reach out and rip the Angel's throat out.

There was a pause before the second ball, red in hue, began to spin in the same counterclockwise direction and blood drops could be heard hitting the floor. Then the screams started up again as muscle was ripped from organ and bone and sucked into the ball. No more rage in the Lord's voice, just pain. Halfway through Lucifer sealed off sound in the circle.

The third green ball took all the organs that were slowly sliding to the floor and sucked them in with a greater speed than the previous two. Now the muting made no difference since there were no lungs, no voice to scream with. Only the Lord's eyes remained in their sockets and all of his intelligence still shone in the glassy orbs. The forth ball spun and shattered bone, pulling the dust into itself until all that remained was the soul; a rather formless blob of barely visible energy unable to take the shape of the newly deceased simply because it didn't know it was dead yet. The bits of stolen souls clung to the Lord's like parasites of all different colors.

Lucifer stepped into the protection circle and held up the Staff. Slowly he pulled the pieces off and stored them in the amethyst at the top of his staff, the dark purple crystal glowing as it acquired more energy. Finally, only the Lord was left, a shivering mass of vapor that retreated from the Angel's approach. Tapping the Staff on the floor he opened an instant doorway to Hell and sent a call out. Soon a fourth level demon pulled itself from the screaming inferno and hung there in the air, little more than a specter itself with a long black tail for a body and two long arms that ended in blunt claws. The devourer opened a mouth filled with both physical and intangible teeth and hissed through its tongue as Lucifer motioned to the hovering soul. The devourer was quick and soon there was nothing left of the Lord as his power shattered with a sudden blow.

There was an antique gesture between Angel and devourer and the circle of protection's runes faded as the gate to Hell closed. Lucifer stood in the center of the chamber and the feathers of his wings rustled as he bent down to pick up the blue topaz amulet which had fallen to the floor.

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Alternate. My spell, no touchie (for anyone other than the people I know reading this).