"I guess we should add little Éirynn to the list now too, and Maebh by extension since she married Clovis, but yes, child. It might seem heartless, but I do not personally care that much beyond the few people I care about and their immediate families and loved ones.

When something like Cainte invading and killing my citizens happened, it did not infuriate me because of the people killed, child. It infuriated me because they stepped past a line I had made certain they knew had consequences, and the consequences of that was their annihilation.

On the other hand, if some of those I care for chose to go out on their own, to an errand that could result in their death, I would neither forbid nor coddle them. I would aid, but not intervene. It is your choice to make, and I choose to respect that choice. Do you understand me, child?" - Nec Aarin, the Bone Lord.

Aideen felt the heat wash over her, felt as her flesh burned away and blood boiled, even as her own magic instinctively tried to counteract the damage. It didn't help counteract the damage much, but at least the agonizing, burning pain she felt helped keep her conscious. Conscious and swinging her weapon, which took her opponent through the neck even as he reduced the left half of her torso to a charred skeletal frame.

She could never get used to the weird feeling of having her flesh literally regrow on her own skeletal frame, notwithstanding the horrible itchy sensation it gave her as the burnt off nerves regrew, which only subsided when they were covered by smooth, fresh skin once again. Even her hair grew back to precisely its old length and no more, which was… convenient to say the least. Guess she's used to her hair being of medium length anyway.

Before she even got the chance to take a metaphorical breath, a spear punctured her chest, right between her breasts. She didn't even care anymore and just brained the offending Antemeian with the other end of her staff, taking the chance to twist the other blade into place and separate the staves as well as he fell dead.

A whirl of violence ensued afterwards, as she noticed Trí step up beside her and helped her cover the walkway. She felt every bit of it as blades bit into her flesh, overriding survival instincts no longer of use to her in favor of dispatching her opponents even a moment sooner.

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At some point Maebh arrived next to her, and they nodded as they fought their way forward, side by side along the walls of the palisade, with other Templars joining them and following behind them. Trí had jumped down and held the nearest staircase up the palisade and helped cut off the flow of enemy reinforcements, allowing those atop the palisade a smoother advance.

Bolts of concentrated death magic started to fly their way as they approached the Antemeian necromancers who were now forced to split their focus between controlling their hordes, bombarding the climbing Templars, and fighting off the closer threat all at once.

Aideen helped Maebh deal with the bolts sent her way, while the ones aimed at herself, she just took head on, even as they corroded through her body and ripped large gouges through her flesh and bones. Gouges that refilled themselves with surprising alacrity as she continued forward.

She noticed a rooster therian who seemed to be commanding the necromancers, and together with Maebh, aimed for him. Her guess was vindicated when two revenants jumped forth from behind the necromancer just as she drew closer, making her certain that this necromancer is likely an important one, probably the reported ascendant himself. She couldn't be sure as there were a few more rooster therians amongst the Antemeians.

She allowed the revenant's claw to tear at her flesh even as she batted one of them hard towards the other, giving Maebh a straight path at the necromancer. When the revenants tried to head that way, she stopped them, even as other templars kept the rest of the necromancers busy fighting for their lives.

She fought the two revenants, doing what she could to keep them occupied, even if it meant trapping their claws inside her own body, trading wound for wound with them as the battle raged around her. Due to how narrow the walkways were, she was the best choice to keep them occupied, as otherwise it would have cost the Templar many, many lives to do so.

After what felt like an eternity, the revenants suddenly lost cohesion and went wild, giving her a chance to put one down for good as the blade on her weapon scythed through its neck and beheaded it. The other revenant leapt and bit through her throat, its arms pinning hers to her torso, but before too long some Templars hacked it apart and freed her from its deathgrip, though a chunk of her throat went with it and she had to wait a while before she regenerated enough of her throat to thank them.

Immediately after that though, she rushed to Maebh, who was slumped against the palisade wall, the therian necromancer's decapitated head beneath her feet. She looked horrible, with her left arm and bits of her face corroded to the bone, and her right hand clutching the deep wound on her stomach that the necromancer managed to inflict even as she decapitated him.

Hastily, Aideen began to heal her niece, Maebh gritting her teeth as her flesh regrew over her bones, even the ruined left eye regenerating as if nothing ever happened to it. Neither of them paid much more attention to the battle, as the Templars had flooded through and overwhelmed the necromancers on their side of the wall, whereas from the other side of the wall cries of victory already resounded.

Aideen and Maebh looked at each other, and just hoped that the battle, was finally and truly over now.