I would give this topic a better name, but it's the first topic in this place. (Forcie/Invite)

Whatever Sarah was doing could probably be best described as pouring more energy into a being made of energy. Doing so caused the entity to let loose an agonizing scream as its bodies began to melt. Sarah was taken aback by this for she had not intended to do this. She decided to cut the flow of energy that was being sent into the entity. There was a pause before it was stopped, but it ceased and she stood there trying to figure out how she was doing all of this as the entity finally started talking.

There are no bodies? What the hell did she mean by that? There was that funeral for all of the children where she had first spotted the spirit after all. Was it held with a bunch of empty caskets? What did this thing do to those poor children? The entity then said that the reason there were no bodies was because they were still alive. Sarah looked at it in complete disbelief. Wait, she had seen and interacted with their spirits. It was their spirits that she saw earlier, right? If they weren't, then who or what were they?

The entity started revealing its overcomplicated plan of creating an army of demons for some most likely nefarious purpose. It suddenly stopped talking as it apparently realized something. The spirit asked Sarah to kill the thing now that it had revealed its plan. Sarah looked to it and saw some desperation in its face. She refused to kill it however. She wanted more information from this thing.

Sarah turned back to the evil entity and started talking to it. "Okay, I want to know where the children are and how to get there. You're also going to tell us what we'll be up against when we get there. Are you going to tell us or do I have start tearing your skin off again?" she asked it sounding deadly serious.

"Many of them are already possessed...where they are is quite impossible to say. But there are a few who are still empty. Five of them are to be possessed in the next ritual. It was supposed to happen in the lotus temple." The demon replied, requiring very little prying this time around. Spirit looked to Sarah and then let out a little hum.

"You saw the spirits of the chilren however?" Spirit said, the demon just scoffed, Spirit looked to her. "She saw what she chose to see. I would think you would understand your own people. Spirits of compassion came to emulate the pressensce of the children, to ease the sufferings of the families...likely to uncover me as well. Before you two." She added the last part with a venom that came across quite clearly. "It explains that...though I do not unerstand how you were able to become that "thing" from earlier when neither of present company had ever seen such a thing." Spirit pryed, though to this she did not answer. If anything her silence solidified that it was something of her own doing. Hi mind recalled the book on the table, and he remembered echoes of the past calling out that many had been forced or tricked to read the book. He could not add up what had been done, but that was because he himself lacked the cunning of a corrupt member of his "race".

"I am at a loss for what there is to do about those hat have already been under forced possession. I fear that I will need to deal with the matter at a later date. I'm not even certain they can be saved...but if you know where this lotus temple is, perhaps there are still those who CAN be saved?" Spirit asked Sarah, resolving to himself that perhaps something could be salvaged. Sadly, he was ignorant to locations of the world.

That little threat of hers worked and the demon started talking. She said something severely sickening. According to this demon, it may be already too late to save most of them, for they had already been possessed by other demons. Damn those demons for what they had done. Maybe they could still save some of them. It was still possible according to this foul creature, even if Sarah didn't find her remotely trustworthy. They could possibly save five of them if they got to this Lotus temple place before whatever ritual took place. The problem was that she didn't know what this Lotus temple was.

Nothing came to mind, but more questions were answered. Sarah had wanted to know how these children were still alive when she had seen and talked to their spirits, or at least believed she had. Apparently they were something else entirely, though she really didn't know what. Whatever they were didn't even matter at this point unless they could help Sarah and the spirit rescue the kidnapped children. If they could, now would be a great time for them to show up.

Sarah turned her view from the spirit and the demon and walked a few steps away. "I don't know what this Lotus temple even is, but this demon probably knows exactly where it is. She is involved in their operation after all." Sarah paused wondering if the foul creature would tell them how to get there, or try and play more games. It became clear to Sarah that the demon was stalling for time. She sighed ashamedly for what she was about to do. Sarah then turned around and blasted the demon with more of her astral energy like she had done before. "Tell us where the Lotus temple is and how to get there." she shouted above any sounds that would be made.

"Yo-you're clearly joking." The demon snarled, seeming to be left in utter disbelief of the fact both of these people were too stupid to know of New Delhi's most renown landmark. Well, most renowned spiritual land mark with a great flow of tourism and popularity. "It's a temple...a huge landmark for the country of India...in it's capitol city of New Delhi..." It said slowly, still quite obviously surprised that it had to explain that. Seriously, what were these people? Americans? No, Spirit wasn't fat enough, riding enough motorcycles, stealing enough money, blowing up enough things or training bald eagles.... obviously he wasn't the spirit of America.

"That gives us no direction. Display it for us." Spirit added. The demon growled a little before the area around them molded to fit the Lotus Temple in appearance. Spirit blinked and looked around as he noticed the structure seemed befitting of a lotus flower. "I see...this place was in the city we were in? It must not be hard to find then. There's enough water around it..." Spirit added as he made note of the several ponds surrounding the temple.

 "Now...if that answers everything I believe you were about to do me the service of killing me. As much as I love to play school teacher, I never dabbled with the remedial." She concluded. Spirit ignored her and simply observed the area over. "I can get us there... if you can't, that is."

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Sarah asked the demon that was talking like she was stupid or something. The thing she pretty much had at her mercy was talking all smug and superior to her. She really didn't care if she survived or not. Suicidal demon, what a shame. Was it because of her failure here with whatever she had been trying to do. Come to think of it, Sarah wasn't entirely sure why this demon had attacked them.

"New Delhi, you mean the city we were just in before coming here? You're really useful you know that right?" Sarah said mocking the demon a bit for her failed attempt at killing them and then giving them information about what her allies were up to. She looked closely at the image they were being shown. The lotus temple was fittingly enough built to resemble a lotus flower. That was their destination then. If only she knew how they would get back to Earth, let alone to that temple. Luckily enough Spirit knew how to get them there. Hopefully he actually did or this could go really poorly. "Take us there then."

That was that. As he was asked, he delivered them to the Lotus Temple. Actually it wasn't quite that easy. You see, he was able to move through the spirit world without taking a step, though there was something strange within the way they moved through the spirit world. They seemed stationary, it was almost as if the entire spirit world moved and they themselves remained fixated. Despite if that's what was happening or not, they were now in an entirely different area, though it was quite clear within this area that things were oh so different. For example there was an area that seemed to have a skewed reality, there was literally a large black crack that seemed to visually warp the area around, like a singularity. The Spirit's eyes began to glow and then suddenly...they literally flashed into being. They were now in the mortal world, and the Lotus temple was not so far in the distance, but for whatever reason Spirit did not deliver them into the temple itself.

  "The area is warded from my kind. I cannot pass." It said matter of factly, though it had traces of annoyance and frustration. "I will try to find a way around the warding. You are unhindered by this, you must continue on to save those children." Spirit said as he immediately began to search around the area. Though it was invisible to most, if not all mortals there were runic markings that seemed to be existent in the spirit world...but hindering his process in this world. As strange as it may be, they didn't have the luxury of trying to figure out a way to get both of them in there. Now or never, and if nothing else Spirit was resourceful...hopefully...yeah, Sarah was on her own as he stood there and seemed to eye each and every runic marking, as if following tracings of energies as they moved from one to the other.

   Inside the temple the area was all set for the ritual. The interior was a spacious place (as the chairs are not there at the moment). The lighting was dim while five children lay systematically, their heads all aligned perfectly to the center of the room as they formed a star like formation. A red line had been drawn around them, all of their heels rest upon it while a three foot tall, one foot thick candle stood in the center, the candle top had five protruding portions, ones that made them look like a hangman's noose.

  The wicks of these "appendages" were aligned over the foreheads of the children while a rather massive wick in the center of the candle top burned with an otherworldly green flame. There on the inside were four men and two women, each one dressed rather formally and all of them most certainly not a native of India. They were chanting in low mumbles as they kept their eyes closed. A powerful barrier surround all of them except for one, an older woman, wizen and aged though not what one might have called incapable. Her voice seemed to drown out the other's as she spoke the chant. Whatever was going on here...it wasn't pretty.

Time to head back to Earth then. Sarah's first trip to spirit world hadn't been all that pleasant what with fighting some evil entity that could cause people to become riddled with sadness and anxiety. Now that it had been defeated, it was time to return home. Well, back to Earth at least, she wasn't necessarily heading home. Hopefully the trip back would be an easy one. Sarah was half expecting another vomit inducing affair would occur when they made the trip back. It was feeling like it would be one when it first started. Everything around her was rapidly changing, but before any nausea could set in, it stopped and they were back on Earth.

Now having been spared of another nauseous experience, they could proceed into the temple that now stood ahead of them and go save those children that were being held in there, if they were that was. Sarah stepped forward and started heading towards the temple before being stopped by Spirit. The strange being told her that he couldn't enter the temple for some reason, meaning she would have to venture in by herself to face whatever waited inside. "Are you sure?" she asked, and didn't need much of an answer. She could see something preventing the spirit from getting any closer to the temple. Some kind of energy lay present that she did not believe she could remove to allow it entry. Conceding to this inconvenience, Sarah walked towards the temple and entered it.

Inside was a large room, and people on the other side of it. Seven in total standing around, a barrier surrounded six of them, and the five children were laying on the ground before them. A sick and disturbing sight this was regardless of whether or not you understood what was going on, and one that needed to be stopped. "Stop what you're doing." Sarah shouted as she rushed forward without a second thought and immediately tried to put a stop to whatever this was. Her spiritual energy tore through her and was fired unimpedingly towards the only one not surrounded by the barrier, then fired another one at the barrier to try and shatter it.

Sarah's blast would unfortunately not do much. It would seem as though that the creature was not barriered for a reason. With the extension of a hand the older woman grabbed the energy with her bare hand and forcibly took control of it, condencing it to the size of a ping-pong ball and crushing it. The barrier on the other and proved to be much weaker than the unshielded one. The barrier shattered into a radient glimmer of reds and black before seeming to become nothing more than a thin black powder on the ground. The older woman resumed her chanting, unphased while the other six members looked to Sarah, rather irritated by what had enveloped.

    The five knew they were no match for a metahuman, let alone something able to break a Daemon's barrier. Their strengths seemed dependant upon the older woman. She seemed to be the source of all of this. Her chanting ceased and the candle wicks on the appendages lit, wax not taking long to drip down on the foreheads of the children. The woman let out a sigh with a rather mean look to Sarah, one that somehow prevented Sarah from running away. Don't ask, it's magic.

  "I hope you have a good reason for attempting to interrupt our commune with the spirit world young lady?"The voice was stern but quizzical. The older woman's gaze fixated upon Sarah before looking to the two cultists closer to her. "Go deal with the one outside." She ordered. They promptly attempted to make their way for the door while the woman kept her attention to Sarah an her explanation...if there was even one she would waste her breath giving.

Two powerful blasts of astral energy that had been sent out by Sarah Milosi. One directed at a barrier than surrounded a group of people that she presumed were demonic in nature, and the other one was aiming for an old lady that was chanting something that she felt didn't want to be finished. The beam that hit the barrier shattered it like glass and left the people that were hiding behind it unprotected. The other one wound up doing absolutely nothing. The old woman just grabbed energy and stopped it effortlessly. "What the hell?" she thought upon seeing this. That didn't look like something that should have happened.

Undeterred by her interruption, the old woman continued whatever this was by lighting the large candle that stood in between the children that were laying on the ground, seemingly comatose. This was really weird to witness. Sarah didn't want to keep witnessing it though. It didn't matter if this woman could easily stop her energy attacks, she would still end whatever this was and save those kids.

Two of the others were sent outside to deal with the spirit that was still out there unable to get in. Sarah figured that he could handle himself and therefore, she didn't need to worry. That was also two less for her to have to fight through. In the meantime the old woman actually asked if Sarah had a good reason for being here and interrupting their proceedings. Like she even needed to answer that. She did anyways though. "Yeah, I'm not letting you harm these children. So screw your precious commune." she said and emphasized her words by blasting the top of the candle clean off and away so that it would no longer be leaking wax on to the children. Seeing earlier that her energy attacks could be stopped, Sarah then opted for straight up trying to punch the old woman in the face as hard as she could.

Well Sarah seemed to have an idea. It wasn't a bad idea though, so that's a good thing for the most part. The old woman was not quite as durable as her display of grabbing the energy had made her appear. Flying in and punching her did the same to her as it would to any old woman. The old woman staggered before falling over. She got back up to her feet and cracked her neck.

  "Oh dear...you damaged my fleshbag." The thing said as it rubbed it's cheek. "Tell me something, how long do you think you have before those children are nothing more than little meat suits for spirits? Moreover how long do you think it will take for those spirits to be twisted by humanity? Turned into demons?" She asked in a not-threatening stance at all. The mark on her flesh was quite apparent. Sarah physically could harm her, but the energy seemed to be a no go. Spirit would have wondered why, but that was irrelevant at the given moment. The old woman didn't seem to want to fight, that or it simply wasn't fighting... was it just going to stand there and let Sarah beat the tar out of it? Secretly there was someone out there that wanted that answer to be yes.

Meanwhile at the legion of doom...

  Spirit found itself in the company of two others. Both of them the same type of demon from what he could gather. Demons of fear...very powerful demons. Feeding off of fear, unfortunately for them Spirit had no fear for it's own well being. What it did fear for was Sarah's safety. It wondered if it needlessly endangered her by sending it in alone. Something that the fear demons were all to happy to capitalize upon like the Caucasian wolves from wall street that they were.

   "She's already dead you know... of course you know." The first one said with a laugh, almost as if he were in disbelief. That confused Spirit, it didn't understand why he laughed like that. Spirit shook it's head and attempted to ignore them as he continued to stare forward, trying to trace the energies back through the runes to see why he could not pass. He treated their words as lies, as he should have. Unfortunately, Spirit was not perfect and even he could be manipulated.

  "Don't deny it... do you really think she would have just let us through? She's in there...dying. I'll bet she's hanging onto the hope that you're still coming to balance the scales." It said. Spirit shook it's head. That didn't seem like the woman's personality. Though they had a point. Spirit was unsure as to why she let them pass. Was she truly in trouble.

  "She's going to die...not quite dead yet. Holding on as best as she can. Dying light flickering." The first one said. They were just annoying at this point. You're trying to tell him that the woman who was almost omnipotent moments ago was now barely hanging on? That was too far fetched even for him to believe.

  "Those children are already lost...more of our brothers and sisters are already there. Festering inside them like a poison. We're not going to kill your friend... your right to not be afraid of that. But what happens if we turn your friend into one of us?" The other one asked. Spirit's eyes widened as it looked to the one who spoke, wearing a sinister smile on his face.

   Bad move demons....very bad move.

Oh hey, punching her right in the face worked. Mike Tyson was right, everyone really does have a plan until they get punched in the mouth. She should try doing that more often. Hopefully it would prove to be this effective often. Knowing that energy attacks were probably completely ineffective against this old woman, she had gone with just punching her in the face, and it had worked. Sarah was a bit surprised at the results herself. Oh well, roll with it.

"Unless you want more of that, you're going to stop this stupid ritual of yours and let these children go home." she told the old lady as she watched her try to recover. Despite having been knocked on her ass, the old lady wasn't too phased. Her focus was still on this goddamn ritual of hers, and how it was apparently nearly complete and that there was nothing Sarah could do to stop it. She asked Sarah how long she thought she had before these plans came into fruition. Sarah's response was full of nothing but defiance and spite for this foul person. "I have long enough." she said before attempting to punch the old woman in the face yet again. Sarah then spun around and fired an energy blast that split into several blasts aimed at the other people that were apart of this ritual to make sure they couldn't interfere.

Not even bothering to check the results of her latest action, Sarah quickly walked over to where the children lay to check up on them. They were still unconscious as far as she could tell, and were barely displaying any signs of life. "Come on, wake up." she said to try to get a response. All she heard was noise behind her and turned to look at the source of it looking furious.

"Such wasted potential. What ever are you going to do if I don't stop the ritual? Will you kill me? You do know that won't purge my kin from those little fleshbags right?" The old woman sighed as she stood. When she finally was standing she turned and folded her arms. From her appearance it was quite clear that her lower mandible was dislocated though she still spoke with a flawless English, the small vibration of spectral power radiating from her tone. Her power surged and it was unlike the others. The other demons were nothing as impressive as this one. She seemed to be a ringleader, or what one might have believed to be an "alpha" of sorts.

"Perhaps you'd rather them die than live long enough to nourish a spirit? That can be arranged." She said, her voice turning deep and bellowing like a disgruntled voice from beyond the void. A radiating warmth filled the area. The doors flew open and there in the background was nothing but burning ground. The area behind was lit upon fire and the Spirit stood in the doorway as he stepped through. He looked different, his presence FELT different. It felt as if he were literally twisted. The area under his eyes was an inky black and he walked forward with footsteps that left charred outlines of footprints as he walked.

"Daemon cannot cross those wards...you are a Daemon but yet...you feel as a Demon. What are you?" The Demon asked, though it was more of a sick curiosity to herself than an actual question to him. He looked to Sarah and then let out a little growl, his own voice with a low and menacing reverb of sorts.

"Angry...very, very angry." He said before the fire flooded form the entrance of the temple into the room, funneling at the older lady. The lady seemed overwhelmed at first, but in a mere moment she stuck out her hand and began to condense all the fires into a spherical shape, as she had with Sarah's energy before. Spirit snarled as the fire became hotter and hotter, but the energy wouldn't budge to hurt the woman. The woman crushed the sphere and her eyes began to glow a mix of blues and purples, her eyes looked like you were taking a glimpse into a psychedelic ride to be entirely honest. Without a seconds notice she literally fired out like a bullet, her body covered in energy. Upon making contact with Spirit the energy all transferred into him and he immediately exploded, his blood strewn across the wall in a human outline. In just another breath it could be seen that Spirit was actually only forced out of the mortal plane for a moment and he reappeared where he would have landed. Crazy trippy powers and a masochist? This vessel was one funky lady.

Spoiler:

Looking behind her led to Sarah seeing the old woman getting back to her feet after she had been punched right in the face, again. How many times was Sarah going to have to smash her face in for her to stay down? Would doing a third time do? Yeah it probably will. It didn't look like she could take another blow like that. Considering that she was an old lady that looked to be on her deathbed, she probably shouldn't have been able to take even one. It was probably due to the powers she possessed. That had to be it.

Sarah could feel the energy that this old woman was giving off as she spoke. She was clearly displeased by what Sarah was doing, but she didn't care. "Oh shut up already. I'm saving these kids here. Then I'm going to find the others and save them too. I don't care how many of your kind there are." She stated defiantly as her own energy began to flare up. Maybe there was a chance it could be of some use if she used it differently. Sarah preferred to have some options as she prepared for whatever this old woman would attempt to do. Her primary idea was to punch her in the face again though.

Seeing a lack of action taking being done by the old woman, Sarah stepped forward to aim to hit her again. She stopped when she heard the doors of the temple open. Quickly looking in that direction, Sarah saw Spirit standing there with the area outside behind him on fire. Okay, what had happened out there? Spirit began to walk towards them and Sarah started to grow concerned. "What's going on?" she asked, her voice a bit softer than she expected it to be. Sarah quickly put a barrier in front of herself and the children when the fire came in the building and started flying in her general direction. Luckily the fire would only hit the old woman, who would do to it the same thing she did to Sarah's energy attack from earlier. That was an annoying trick she could pull. She then turned into energy and flew at Spirit. Who exploded, and was then reformed. Wait, what? "What just happened?" she asked of Spirit, wondering if he was actually back to normal or not.

"It hit me...hard..." Spirit growled. Thankfully that means that he just got a metric dead-baby worth of energy to pool from and augment his own attack. Slowly but surely his own skin thickened and wounds wouldn't matter, exhaustion would not be a thing and he would be as vengeance...all consuming and never waning. Sadly upon noticing Sarah's confusion and seeing that se was alive...his desire for vengeance faded. The dark color had left from under his eyes and his aura returned to it's normal chipper form. He was a spirit once more.

 "I have never seen a Daemon manifest it's form in the mortal world without possession. In fact it is impossible. Yet so is a Daemon turning into a demon and then turning back into a daemon. You are an anomaly." The old woman said with her sick demonic voice vibrating through the temple like a hollowed out amphitheater. She began to glow with energy again and then fired herself out again, though this time she only appeared before Spirit, her initial impact was her foot on the ground. As it did with Spirit, the energy transferred into the ground like a liquid and then caused the entire thing to shatter. The demon the grabbed Spirit and slid him up the wall as she began to inspect him. With a single finger she reached out and slowly made a nail of pure energy extend from her finger. She then pushed it forward, plunging it into the Spirit's skin and making an incision. Spirit cringed before squirming a little, his entire body was outlined by this energy of the demon's preventing his movement.

  "I wish. I were. Bigger." He grunted, the demon still continuing her vivisection, not really caring about a ritual or Sarah anymore. Yay for ADHDemon's!

Sarah was still a bit confused by what she had bore witness to. The closest thing to an answer that was provided to her was that it hit it hard. Was that supposed to mean something? She couldn't tell if Spirit was okay, or about to explode again or something else, and no answers were being provided for her. This was, kind of annoying.

The old woman was still up and trying to do terrible deeds. Sarah would save her questions for later then. First this crazy old lady needed to be stopped so that they could save the children from being possessed. Sarah was keeping the barrier she had put up active to try and keep the children protected from anything that might happen during this battle. For now she could let Spirit try and handle the old woman. Fittingly enough, she was attacking it instead of her. That attack on Spirit was vicious and brutal. She slammed it against the wall and stabbed it through its chest.

Sarah cursed under her breath as she saw what the demon lady was doing to Spirit. This was not something she would allow to continue. She began to run forward to try and help her ally here and on her way noticed something. On the back of the demon lady's neck was a strange gem. Something about it just screamed target it, so she did. Sarah struck the gem and started doing whatever she could to damage it. She hit it, poured energy into it, tried to rip it out, blasted it. Something had to work right?

Spirit felt the irritation of the unanswered questions. He would have given answers if he weren't so busy getting his rear end handed to him, which was equally annoying from his perspective. Also, he was just propelled like he was in a DBZ fight, he didn't exactly get to think about much of anything as far as an explanation or answer. The demon now had him pinned and was using him as a living experiment. Thankfully Sarah proved to be the hero of the day once more as she attacked the gem. Fists proving to do not so much, but the energy pored into it caused the old woman's body to illuminate, glow and slowly warp and distort as she dropped Spirit and walked back, trying to gather her bearings. Whatever Sarah did there was more than enough to kill the thing...or at least defeat it. The figure of solid light warped and turned into clouds of darkness before dissipating away and there with a hand on the ground and it's feet dug into the floor a little was the demon's form as it warped through the destroyed remains of the old woman.

  "How? How is that possible?" The demon asked as it's glowing eyes fixated upon Sarah, it moved forward to attack her, but when it did it lost it's balance and opted to try and stand rather. Hand up holding the back of it's neck the demon seethed at the sight of Sarah. "This isn't over." It said before fading into as black mist, it's final words but whispers in the wind. Spirit blinked and looked to Sarah.

 "Demon of pride. Wisdom twisted by humanity, the strongest of us. Very rarely surprised by anything. Yet you seem to be all surprises." Spirit said as it looked down to it's open wound that was seeping blood. He didn't seem to mind it much now that the painful slicing and dicing was finished. Spirit blinked and then looked to Sarah. "You cannot kill pride, just as you cannot kill wisdom. One of them is worth a hundred daemon of any kind..."

  "I-never answered your questions, did I? I'm sorry. I was so fixated on revenge. My mind is clear now. Ask whatever you want, though I suggest we take these children from here while I answer." Spirit said, struggling to walk in a straight line as he bent down and picked up a child, getting blood on them accidentally as he threw them over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Then another child. Then he tried to carry a third one before resolving to simply come back for that one.