“Things have gone from bad to worse in the mortal realm.” Adelia addresses her fellow Elders. Her short blonde hair meets the collar of her pristinely white robes. Blue eyes rest on Perrin’s form. He was the Head Elder and, although they work as a collective, his status and years of experience give him a slight edge. “The witch trials are out of hand and now this goddess is killing everywhere she goes. We must take action.”

Adelia stands before the entire assembly of Elders. Each one is donned in white robes and they all stand in a semi circle. All eyes are on Adelia as she addresses them. The council numbers approximately a dozen Elders in total. The blonde Elder goes to speak once more and brings her arguments to a conclusion. Her mouth opens, poised to continue, when the familiar jingle and soft blue lights of orbing appear.

Frowning, Adelia turns just as the other Elders look to the new arrival. She plans on admonishing the whitelighter for their rudeness. The Elders were in closed council and no whitelighter should be entering this chamber without permission.

The bluish white orbs fade and leave a very unwelcomed sight in their wake. A woman stands before them with blonde locks and a piercing gaze. Adelia did not recognize her, and that could only mean one thing. She was a threat.

Immediately, Adelia’s slender hand shoots out and a crackle is heard throughout the council chamber followed by a streak of forked lightning. It is generated from the Elder’s palm and is hurled against the mysterious woman.

The electrical attack makes contact and slams into the woman’s shoulder with such force that it sends her flying backwards several feet. Adelia lowers her hand and awaits a reaction. Much to her surprise, the woman climbs to her feet as her wound heals itself. Adelia watches how the other woman seems completely unfazed by this and knows that the woman before her could be no other than Pain, the goddess she had just been speaking of.

At this point, the other Elders had come to the same conclusion and began to unleash lightning bolt after lightning bolt upon Pain. Adelia joins in even though she knows that it is doing no good. The woman is a goddess. They needed to find another way. However, it is difficult to think clearly in the midst of a battle and you can not simply call a time out in order to strategize.

Nothing but the sounds of cracks of lightning reverberating off the walls is present in the council chamber. Pain’s counter-strikes seemed to have a wide array going from energy balls to telekinesis to optical thermodynamics. It made one wonder where all this power was coming from.

Adelia finds herself being thrown through the air by a telekinetic attack. She had been in the forefront of the Elders. Now she lies on the ground, recovering from the attack. The Elder pushes herself up and gets to her feet… only to find someone’s hand around her head.

In that moment, the entire chamber fell silent. The Elders all held her in their gaze, their attacks having ceased, and Adelia realizes that Pain was nowhere to be seen. A millisecond later and it begins. A force pulls on her very being, ripping through her from the inside out. She screams from the excruciating pain that comes from the process.

Vision is the first to go as the world becomes blurry until nothing is distinguishable any longer. Then it is the feeling in one’s body as it becomes numb and the mind shuts down. Finally, the consciousness goes and everything is black. The process only takes a few seconds, but to the victim, it feels like an eternity of pain.