Shortly past midnight
April 6th, 71 BNM
North midland Equestria
Citadel fortress
Sub-dimensional magic realm

As the wind rustled around her in the realm, Teal Quirt’s energy spell charged in her claws, hands and 4 horns reached critical mass.
Behind her, the gaping maw like a vacuum sucking black hole that was Siral’s indoctrination spell manifest, tugged at her stronger than before.
Dark magic burnt and consumed her, as she felt her form being pulled into the looming abyss of Siral’s mental consumption and enslavement in this realm. Before her, clinging to a magical presence that acted as a real world magical support beam spell for the Citadel, Golmoc shook off waves of dark magic moving in on him as Teal was on the verge of being lost.
But as her body built up a green energy, Golmov’s eyes widened in anticipation, the draconic creature leaping away from the pillar he clung to in order to fly as hard as he could away.
Hidden across the realm here, Siral’s blackened eyes widened too, realizing what Teal had been building to as she let herself surrender to his pull.
Black smoke trails that were his grip flew towards her like a dozen lightning bolts, but as they closed in, every joint on Teal Quirt’s scorpion/ape featuring body glowed a toxic green, as the air around her became electrified and emptied of all energy.
Then, as she shrieked in rage and defiance, she flung her ape hands in both directions, the explosion of her energy being directed into two distinct plumes.
One shot straight into the gullet of the metaphysical black hole that was Siral’s indoctrination, a rumble of pain and shock reverberating around this strange realm.
At the same time, the other beam blasted through the realm unconsumed by any indoctrination presences.
Glass pillars, metaphysical presences from the enchantments Siral placed to structurally strengthen and support the Citadel, began to crack, and some even shatter entirely by the force of the green waved blast.
As green light engulfed the realm, everything turned a blinding light once again, as the sub dimensional realm that Siral brought them to, began to shatter, as their master and one who brought them here received this high powered attack spell at point blank range, shattering his concentration in supporting their presences in this strange side realm of magic.

Shortly past midnight
North midland Equestria
Citadel fortress
Main Atrium

The Citadel shook even before the dark sphere consuming the entire main atrium faded, and blasted out a large amount of black smoke before vanishing entirely.
Glass windows shattered all over the hall, and from the outside the entire Citadel looked as if it had pulsed outwards from the inside.
Inside, as the black smoke faded, the large centipede hybrid dragon lay crumpled against a shattered pillar, slowly shuffling to his feet as a scorpion/ape centaur shaped creature stood strong in the centre, slightly knelt and coiled in writhing green energy.
As the castle’s many fractured stone supports crumbled, the entire place rather structurally unsound now, the black smoke surrounding them in the Atrium began to dissipate.

Up in the tallest tower, an astronomy viewing room, a black smoke swirled into existence, its essence reaching out across the night skies beyond, vanishing as its reach and power extended far beyond and out from the Citadel to the vessels it sought to shelter it.
Tiny presences across so many hosts, each alone going undetected.
Out in the forests beyond, birds and owls Siral used as proxies, as familiars and eyes across Equestria, glinted their now blackened eyes briefly before reverting to normal, only to quickly take flight in any and every direction.
A precaution, nothing more.

Citadel, Catacombs lake chamber

A dark smoke vapour filtered down the deeper depths, searching.
A thousand voices from the labyrinth and in secret depths of the Citadel replied, hungry for violence and discontent in any way, shape or form.
Invisible, a wind picked up, ripples going across the underground lake’s waters as a thousand presences, a thousand demons harvested to use as assets on Siral’s part, congregated in the darkened prison lake bridge for their role.
They were hungry, they sensed a soul on the brink of losing their mortal body, a powerful soul. It did not matter if they had served him for the convenience of food, of habitat safety, he was fodder like any other corporeal being was.
But as his very essence in his ‘recovering’ state that he sent down here rallied them, their initial desires of preying on a weakened master were dashed.
“I learned from Geldrath’s mistakes in using demon-kind. I shall not be victim to you in the end, but a beneficiary.”
“Even after death, you shall have no command but mine.”
The Savant’s shattered presence through the castle dimmed torches, as the entire upper castle audibly shook and cracked under tremors and impending collapse.

Citadel fortress
Main Atrium

Gaining her final bearings, Teal Quirt felt how drained she now was, the attack she launched having severely damaged the magical support structure spells that helped hold the Citadel’s form together, along with seemingly crippling Siral.
Wherever he was.
All around her, she sensed him, his essence, his presence, but he wasn’t attacking yet.
Outside the Citadel’s now weakened structure however, distant rumbles came from the south, as the battle with Gaudium heated up all of a sudden.
But a red glow from the shattered atrium windows outside was proceeded by a grey creature bursting through a half collapsed wall section up high, and landing with a crash close to the ‘throne’ in the atrium.
Bigger in size than he had ever been, standing 4 Alicorns tall, Odi-Viscer was now entirely monstrous, the stone protrusions and bones having grown over most of his grey skin like an exoskeleton on a beetle, some even protruding like blades from his elbows, knees and knuckles. Only the non-vital areas of his ape shaped body were devoid of such stone armour.
“Where, is, Siral..?”
Answering his growl, Golmov shuffled up from his shattered pillar, gesturing with a wing:
“All around us, he’s up to something…”
As she quelled the green glow in her claws, Teal remarked bitterly:
“I hit him with enough to kill anything else… I don’t think this is over yet.”
“And that seventh slave of his is still out there, with the others he’s trying to bring in.” Golmov remarked, thinking of the distant echoing battle taking place to the south, which had oddly begun echoing louder all of a sudden.
Cautiously, Teal looked around at the cracks across almost every wall and pillar in the atrium, as she summerised:
“What I unleashed took its toll, a few too many more fights and this whole place will come down.”
“Let this place fall to ruin, anything to do with Siral I want dead or destroyed…”
Odi growled, unable to bring himself to a calmer state at all.
Over the winds passing through the now crumbling structure of the Citadel, barely intact, a ghostly whisper carried as a few swirls of black magic visibly distorted the air:
“That would include you all in turn…”
Looking around, the three beings heard the voice from everywhere, and as he went on, Odi scanned the crumbling atrium and castle behind with his keen senses, whilst Teal’s claws and hands were ablaze with green magic. Golmov meanwhile, had hued his wings yellow, watching for an attack.
“While my moulding of you was interrupted to my suffering, I ensured my goals before anything else. Rebellion is the first thing to prepare against for any competent leadership. You are all my servants, like it or not, you cannot escape what you are. Vessels, avatars of my will.”
“What, like Gaudium, that Alicorn whelp?” Golmov spat, his teeth in a snarl at the insinuation being made by the disembodied Unicorn wizard.
“The Alicorn stallion is merely the only one who was perfected. He shall never stray from my will, for his mind is my mind. All that was him is gone, I ensured that was so from his rebirth, learning from shortcomings with the others such as you all.”
“So we were naught but experiments for you? If each one got better, why not be rid of us and just make more of him? Frankly I don’t know whether to be insulted or relieved at being the first of seven!” Teal accused, her face alight with hurt and anger. She was the first, and by extension the ‘least’ perfected in Siral’s eyes.
“Yes, but you all know this, you’ve seen my mind, you know of that accursed prophecy that drove Starswirl’s actions, and mine. One that foretold of seven that would spread great upheaval through the lands. But it occurred to me, that upheaval often comes when a time of great change occurs, especially change necessary to escape the clutches of a crumbling, tyrannical rule.”
“The only upheaval that will come will be from tales of horror spread about what I do to end you.” Odi-Viscer’s voice was laced with venom as his red eyes glinted, his fist thrusting out to grab and claw at a stray black magic vapour passing near him in the atrium.
“You are doomed then. You rebelled after our plans came to light, our capabilities. Given time, both factions shall come after you all. And in quelling you, they shall have to gain great power, power which shall corrupt them. You saw such power, power that will be adopted by Alicorns by their natural skill for powerful magic. The weapon at Tartarus.”
They all recalled the devastation unleashed by that spell from Tartatur’s peak, one which drew on the very celestial heavens themselves for a virtually unlimited power, the only true limit being how well the caster could handle it.
“Without my leadership, without unity, you are ill equipped to counter this. In the end, what occurs depends on your desire to live.”

1-mile south-east, lake shoreline

As he fired another round of purple magic waves at Ave-Dol and Iena, Gaudium’s head veered towards the Citadel, as a ringing warning in his head alerted him to his master in mortal peril.
The Draconeraqus powered up his magic, ready to snap his fingers to teleport.
But as he readied to teleport, a draining, even slightly burning tendril latched onto his red tail.
Snapping his gaze around, the Draconeraqus saw the lake waters retreating ever so slightly, as something massive surged out, glowing bright orange.
Satio, in a massive shapeless form, surged out, an orange bulging, writhing form with uncountable number of tendrils extending from his form. Waves soaked the shoreline of the lake, as the orange glow from his massive body lit up the shoreline in a bright orange glow.
“Release me!”
A humming growl, a clear denial, came from Satio’s shapeless mass as the tendril tightened around Gaudium’s donkey leg, the Draconeraqus’s purple magic unable to free himself from its grip as the massive blob creature began to pull him into the lake. As Gaudium fired wave after wave, he found his magic was being slowly drained, as Satio’s orange mass began to take in a stream of purple light inside himself.
As the entangled pair ventured into the shallows of the lake, Ave-Dol took flight, her face gaunt with fear as she saw Gaudium writhing against the draining magic.
“Ave-Dol, take him, he’s distracted!” Iena screeched from the ground, her serpentine form slithering to the lakefront as she saw the writhing creatures out in the lake sending waves her way.
A light blue magic sphere hovered before Ave-Dol’s face, as she saw the orange mass that Gauidum battled with begin to slowly sink into deeper water, the Draconeraqus tangled in a creature’s slowly consuming embrace that was now the size of a large mansion.
But as she readied to increase the sphere and hurl it, she saw Gaudium’s gaze turn skywards, and his eyes lock with hers. Red and yellow, with a tint of blackness in them that wasn’t his own. They gazed at her and narrowed in anger.
Hesitating, Ave-Dol’s expression turned sad, the sphere before her horn diminishing slightly.
Seeing this, Gaudium writhed again in the many tendrils of orange, gelatinous mass engulfing him, and took a deep breath before firing a maelstrom of purple magic into the mass.
The orange mass that was Satio audibly screeched in pain as the lightning bolts electrocuted him, and the purple magic he’d absorbed flowed back as Gauidum turned Satio’s own magic against him. Right as they were about to vanish under deeper water together, Gauidum broke free of enough tendrils to then see Ave-Dol still hovering above them, the sphere dimishing entirely as her face fell in sadness.
“What are you doing?!” Iena’s screeched echoed in the night.
Gaudium’s own expression hardened in focus, as a smile crept across his many horned head’s features.
“Pity, that was always your weakness Ave-Dol…”
His red and yellow eyes then turned bright white, and a pair of burning white beams fired skywards from his eyes.
Caught by the beams, Ave-Dol spiralled to the ground, her Windigo/Alicorn’s glowing blue form smoking as she crashed, her scream lost as the fighting continued.
Satio surged upwards once again, his form resembling a gigantic orange jellyfish if anything, as more and more tendrils now shot out, and Gaudium felt the burning of his ‘surface digestion’ eating away at his purple body shield even more now.
Expanding his shield, Gauidum began to slowly slip out, as he turned to fire his eye beams at the small part of Satio’s massive form that was underwater.
But from behind, leaping from the water as she swam, a dark blue hued, serpentine shape slammed down onto his back, Iena’s clawed hands wrenching his head back as the eye beams shot skywards.
Grappling with Gaudium, Iena saw the water rushing up to meet them as Satio growled to her mind as he pulled them all underwater:
Whatever happens, keep him as still as possible!
The water rushed around them, as the dark lake water, lit up by Satio’s orange mass and the smaller lights from Iena’s dark blue magic and Gauidum’s dark purple, engulfed their forms.

Shifting, the burns on her shoulder and chest aching and smoking terribly, Ave-Dol saw the roiling water before her, out on the lake, erupt in surges in water and light, as massive detonations and surges of magic and movement went unseen from her view.
“I can’t, he’s not…”
As her voice trailed off, she turned her gze northwards, to where the Citadel had been plunged into darkness, not a single light from it. Only the fires on the hills north of it, where silhouettes of two destroyed Stone Giants, gave its outline shape in the night.

Writhing underwater, Gaudium’s neck had formed a set of gills, as had Iena as she clawed and held him as much as she could. As she strained with her magic to calm his erratic mind, she felt more tendrils from Satio’s massive form snake around the Draconeraqus’s long body.
Straining, Gaudium fired his eye beams, but his magic made them curve around underwater to burn into Iena’s back, the changeling/siren/naga hybrid screeching as she held on through the pain, sending her claws, hewn with dark blue magic, plunging repeatedly into Gaudium’s back.
All the while, Satio slowly engulfed the draconeraqus, the latter’s magic giving slightly as the parts of his body engulfed began to ever so slightly dissolve inside of Satio’s all-consuming innards.
Deeper into the lake, the hulking mass ever so slowly assimilating the draconeraqus from the tail up in the dozens of tendrils extending from his body. The being of gluttony’s mass slowly engulfing pride while lust fought hard to stop the draconraqus from focusing on escape, even if she was being badly burned from her back in the process.
Elsewhere, their master, having only Gauidum as a loyal servant still, went unaided in his weakened state by the draconeraqus that desperately tried to escape his assaulters.

Citadel fortress
Main Atrium

“If the Alicorn race endures, you shall die by their fear of power greater than their own, and the lands shall fall victim to their infighting that great rival powers inevitably come to. But if they fall, you shall endure, and the lands shall be free of tyranny. You shall be free, to reshape the world as you see fit.”
“Not true, we can go to them, expose everything you are and what you’ve done!” Teal Quirt bellowed back, though she didn’t notice that Golmov’s eyes narrowed at the prospect of going to the Alicorns.
“You would be fools to consider that they would even let you live after what you all have done to them, when they find out what you are.”
Slowly stomping around, Odi sensed with his red eyes, his gaze suddenly turning upwards towards the ceiling, as did Teal Quirt’s. Golmov saw this too, as all eyes turned upwards.
“As long as Alicorns live, you will never be free from danger, and those who you have your own grievances against shall live unpunished while you suffer in silence. As long as any of you live, I shall endure.”
“Enough of this, you won’t be around to see that future, whatever the outcome!” Teal rebuked, her green magic flaring up as she sensed a focal point of Siral’s presence, higher up in the castle.
The entire Citadel seemed to creak as Siral murmured the last few words weakly, at which point, they definitely came from up above.
“As long as even one lives, I will always control you.”
Enraged, Odi-Viscer crouched, and with a red hue engulfing him, he leapt upwards, a few pillars cracking as he smashed into the ceiling, beginning to claw his way through floor after floor, heading to where he knew where Siral was.
Down below, Teal engulfed herself in a green glow as she flew up, yelling to Golmov as she flew up:
“He’s escaping, get outside!”
Surging out, Golmov’s wings wrapped around himself as he slipped through one of the blown out windows, into the night sky.

Citadel, upper astronomy tower

The black smoke materialised, solidifying itself as the Black Unicorn, his body horribly scarred from injuries long past, sat on his hunches inside the observatory.
Breathing softly, weary and tired, Siral felt his body emanating the black mist of his very magic, his eyes black entirely.
All around him, he felt the nipping of a few demons, their eyes and teeth around him as they gathered. But Siral was focused, he had summoned them here.
Each one siphoned a part of his magic, his essence, and with each one Siral felt his physical body diminish.
Before him, the floor cracked, as a grey hand burst open the masonry to clamber the massive beast up to stand before him. Red eyes burnt into Siral’s own blackened ones, as the being of wrath beheld his master seemingly wounded, wasting away by visible bleeding of dark magic, demons whispering around him.
His foot claws scratched the floor as he slowly advanced, while outside the yellow light of Golmov’s form was followed by an entire wall of the tower room being ripped asunder, and cast down far below onto the mountain slopes the Citadel was built into.
As the last, the one who broke away first, hovered up behind Odi-Viscer, Siral spoke weakly as he seemingly bled dark magic:
“I can admit one mistake, I underestimated how powerful you would all become. I can take pride in that at least…and in the fear it causes Alicorns now.”
Surging forwards, Siral choked slightly as Odi-Viscer’s massive clawed hand engulfed his neck, beginning to squeeze tighter as his red eyed burned brighter. Behind him, Teal’s green eyes showed her contempt for him, as she made not one move to stop this, while Golmov flew around the tower passively, watching this exchange.
“They will come for you, you have two choices, to destroy Alicorns before they destroy you, and everything else. With us united, we had a good chance. But you cripple that with this rebellion…”
As he wheezed through Odi’s choking grip, Teal noticed the dark magic he was bleeding off like smoke from a fire, her expression turning suspicious.

1-mile south-east, lake shoreline
Underwater

As half his body was engulfed, Gaudium felt his body going into shock, his magic being overwhelmed by Iena grappling and attacking his mind and body while Satio engulfed him.
Struggling, the draconeraqus finally held nothing back, as his entire body glowed a bright purple for a moment, and blew apart.
Thrown backwards underwater, Satio’s giant, jellyfish shaped form was blown apart, orange parts littering the lake as the orange glow from his body diminished noticeably. Hurled backwards in the other direction, Iena writhed as her head pounded from the shockwave and heat.
Up on the lake surface, the entire surface of the lake rose up, as the purple explosion blasted a gigantic plume of water upwards.
In midair, reforming from the explosion by a large volume of water glowing purple and soaring upwards, Gaudium rematerialized from water, his body transformed back from the state his self-destruction changed him to.
Down on the shore, Ave-Dol saw Gaudium was visibly tired and disoriented, as the Draconeraqus began a frantic flight to the Citadel.
Out on the lake, as an orange mass floated to the surface, it slowly took the serpentine form floating there in one of its tendrils and began to drag her to shore.
By the time Satio had flopped Iena on the lake shores, his orange gelatinous minotaur body collapsing from exhaustion and shock, Ave-Dol saw the Citadel’s uppermost tower, like a needle from the mountain slopes, begin to glow a bright red.
“Odi…”
Her fearful murmur wouldn’t reach anyone besides Satio and Iena, as she was too tired herself.

Citadel, upper astronomy tower

Holding Siral in a chokehold, Odi-Viscer was ignorant as Teal suddenly spoke up:
“He’s right. Killing him would mean we have to face all we’ve been involved with alone.”
“You cannot seriously be considering leaving him alive are you?!” Golmov spat, as he flew in closer to cling onto the side of the Citadel’s tower, his head peering in, mandibles clicking angrily over his draconian teeth.
“Let them come, my future is my own.” Odi growled, as his eyes and mouth began to glow a bright red, lighting up the whole tower.
As Siral’s face was lit up, he repeated:
“As long as even one lives, I will always control you.”
Teal stepped forwards, her cry to halt his attack lost as the noise and blazing force engulfed the tower, and Siral:
“Wait!”
Red light erupted from Siral’s eyes and mouth, and inside the blinding light, Siral’s body was disintegrated, stripped away by flesh and bones until nothing remained.
As the light vanished, Odi’s hand was smoking hot from his attack, the Unicorn he’d held gone.
In the distance though, a Draconeraqus flying towards them suddenly erupted in purple light as a howl of rage and grief left him. After that, the being of Pride went spiralling to the ground, as if shocked by something.
Taking off, Golmov tore after the falling Draconeraqus a quarter of a mile away, while Odi seethed at the Citadel’s tower edge, still larger than Teal nearby.
But the scorpion/ape centaur shaped hybrid was unnerved by the whispers from the demons now fleeing the tower, the very faint ‘scent’ of Siral’s magic on all of them.

Dawn
April 6th, 71 BNM
Citadel, deep catacombs, hidden storehouses

They had taken shelter here, away from the upper levels, as word spread from above that the fighting had stopped for now.
Lower staff, all non-guards that had been spared from the massive death toll among the garrison here as a result. Bookeepers, housekeepers, the day to day workers, all had taken shelter in the lower levels.
Those lucky enough not to be caught or trapped by or under corridor collapses that is.
Around him, other staff kept silent, as every crumble from above, every faitn tremor from the now weakened foundations of the massive Citadel above them was like the sound of death upon them.
Tacit Scrivener was silent as usual, though now his vow to silence seemed unneeded, but his mind and face were gaunt, worry etched onto him as he wrote into his journal entry for today.
April 6th
-They have the citadel, the creations have murdered my master, and now they fight each other. I only hope the tunnel remains unharmed in their infighting, the surface entrances are watched.
The satchel of Alicorn Amulets lay beside him, though he still was fearful of what might happen if Siral found out one of them, a red one, was missing.
Unbeknownst to him, that red Alicorn amulet lay in a corridor just below ground level, and would be one of few escapees from this place.

Meanwhile
Citadel, main atrium

Golmov had been quick to find Gaudium earlier that night, but the death of Siral had put Gaudium into a slump of sorts, no magic attacks anymore.
Restrained by Golmov and Odi-Viscer’s magic, Gaudium wriggled slightly, the Draconeraqus straining to break free.
Nearby however, Ave-Dol pleaded quietly with Teal Quirt as she walked forwards on her scorpion lower body:
“Please, he’s not to blame, Siral is gone, we-.”
“He’s too dangerous to be left as he is! I will ensure that Siral cannot control us anymore.”
“Like he said, there is nothing of Gaudium left, his mind is entirely Siral’s.”
As she came to a stop, she declared to Ave-Dol beside her with utter determination:
“So I’ll destroy it.”
“No, you can’t!”
“Restrain her!”
Teal’s bark came swiftly, as a quick flick of her green magic sent Ave-Dol tumbling backwards, while Iena and Satio gripped her, though the naga hybrid and blob-like minotaur had their own misgivings about this.
Striding up to Gaudium, his magic weakened by the twin restraints of Golmov’s and Odi-Viscer’s own magic, Teal wrenched out her scorpion claw to reach up and grip Gaudium’s neck, pulling his head down to her own.
Gripping his head with both ape hands, the four horns on Teal’s head lit up, as did her eyes. And despite Ave-Dol’s pleas in the back, and the looks of horror from Satio and Iena, she fired her green magic from her eyes, directly into Gaudium’s eye corners.
Her magic sought his mind, Siral’s toxic thoughts, and she found them. Her green magic flared up as it illuminated the room, burning Gaudium’s mind to its core.

To an outsider, and to those much later in history, Teal Quirt’s magic worked its way and attacked the front of Gaudium’s mind. A lobotomy and exorcism all in one.
Gaudium’s body visibly stiffened, his wriggling suddenly stopping after a few moments before Teal’s magic ceased.

Sensing the Draconeraqus’s newly limp state, Golmov and Odi-Viscer’s magic released him. Gaudium, now shattered in mind, slumped forwards on his dragon and donkey legs, eyes dull and unfocused as he showed he was still alive at least.
Sensing into his mind, Teal snorted as she replied with contempt:
“There, now he is free. Now he’s the husk Siral turned him into.”
Breaking from Iena and Satio’s grip, Ave-Dol flew over, the Windigo/Alicorn hybrid teleporting to Gaudium’s side, her hooves clapping his cheeks as she pleaded with him, turning his head in his unfocused state:
“Gaudium, Gaudium, its me, Ave-Dol! Please, do you know me?”
As he looked at her, Ave-Dol saw only emptiness, like the sort of blank stare a small child with have, not a single thought process visible behind it. The Draconeraqus now had no memories, no mental abilities, a blank slate.
Turning to Teal, Ave-Dol stood up, angrily remarking: “Why? Why did you do that?”
“He was a slave of Siral, nothing more!”
“He had a name, and now you took even that from him!”
“He lost that as soon as he went under lady.” Golmov remarked bluntly, the dragon having no sympathy for the Draconeraqus. Turning to look at them all, Ave-Dol couldn’t bear to look Teal or Golmov in the eye, but as she turned to Odi-Viscer, she heard him remark with poison in his voice:
“You knew, and you kept quiet.”
“I, I had to, for all of your-.”
Odi slowly walked towards Ave-Dol, his claws extending as his red eyes burned high above hers. Trying to maintain peace, Satio spoke up now, the gelatinous Minotaur speaking loudly:
“We need to think of what we do next, without killing each other!”
This sliver of sense amidst the aftermath of the horrific mental neutering on Teal’s behalf fell upon open ears, as Odi backed off, turning to walk away to somewhere else in the Citadel’s fractured structure for now.
Golmov spread his wings, as he spoke to Iena now:
“I will take over your watch of the escape tunnel.”
The Dragon/centipede shaped hybrid took off through the hole in the Citadel’s main doors, while on the ground, Teal Quirt grabbed Ave-Dol in her scorpion claws and spoke with a cold bluntness to her voice:
“You need to calm down and reconsider where you stand before we do anything more. If you care about Gaudium so much, I suggest you take him somewhere to watch over in the meanwhile, before we decide our next course.”
Releasing Ave-Dol, Teal ignored the look of scathing betrayel and disgust on the former Alicorn’s face. Turning to Iena and Satio, Teal Quirt ordered them:
“Check out the lower levels, there may be non-guards hiding somewhere.”
The scorpion/ape hybrid crawled off through the same tunnel Odi-Viscer vanished into, while in the main atrium Iena and Satio could only share a look of uncertainty. The naga/siren/changeling hybrid of Lust laid a hand upon the blob-like form of Gluttony, while she saw the being of Sloth trying to get any sort of recognition from the now lobotomised being of Pride.
In defeat, Siral was tearing them apart.

Author's Notes:

At his most powerful, tapping into their minds in that dreamscape, Siral is also at his most vulnerable, and Teal Quirt exploits this to decisive effect.
But in the end, Siral is slowly bleeding off his essence far and wide, tiny amounts undetectable by anyone in the air, in demons, in birds, just in case.
His biggest defeatist accomplishment however, was sowing doubts into the minds of the other 6, as the 7th becomes subject to their mercies.
And before Gaudium can become Discord, any and all traces of Siral, who has replaced everything in his mind, have to be erased, violently by Teal’s methods. Lobotomy/Exorcism methods won’t be easy on his mind, leaving him as mentally incapable of everything bar basic bodily functions such as walking or moving his eyes and head.
Suffice to say this treatment of someone they knew before he was turned divides them.
And all the while, the layman workers of the Citadel become trapped as this all goes on, and as the Citadel slowly becomes a fractured, precarious and unstable building just waiting to collapse, as it will soon.