Erica couldn't breathe. He may not have been tight enough to properly choke her, he was definitely tight enough to interfere with her breathing for the moment.

Instead, she just smirked and brought her uncovered marked arm up, wrapping her hand around his wrist as best she could. He watched the markings glow, before throwing her to the ground. She landed, hard enough to know the air out of her lungs, but it didn't seem to properly get her down.

"What are you doing!?" He demanded. Erica didn't answer, just got to her feet again.

"Come on, come at me again." She then said.

"I'm not fighting you off."

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica planted her feet, realising that this was likely going to be the only wayu that she'd be able to actually get his hand, get directly to the marking she was trying for. She took the hit.

As she felt her ribs and sternum break from the force, but she stayed standing and grabbed his wrist. The markings around her hand and and going up her arm starting to glow quite brightly and pwerfully.

She could barely breathe, but she had to do this.

"Thanks." was all she managed to get out, as he felt he mana from her doing... something. He couldn't identify it, exactly, what it was doing or why it was, but he could almost feel the clarity coming.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica was silent as she sank to a seated position. She was trying to fight back the mental images of what had happened to her recently, the hell she'd been through, and how she knew that she'd had breaks in the same area, via the same means (a blunt force blow of that style), from overwhelming her for the moment, but was finding it notably difficult.

The pain kept reminding her of what she'd experienced.

It kept forcing those horrors to the surface.

It was helping to break through whatever it was that Chris had done to offer her some clarity for the moment from everything that had been done to her.

Azazel didn't get a vocal answer, just a shake of her head. She couldn't voice anything for the moment, and if anyone got a good look at her face, they could see the horror that was bubbling beneath the surface.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica just pointed to Azazel, as if to say 'he's right' or something of that variety. She was definitely having a hard time breathing though.

".... Z.... " She started, trying to get Zeke's name out, as she knew that he could help with this. He'd done it before, after all. Even if not perfect, get her to the point that she wasn't about to die.

She was still capable of breathing for the moment, with some effort, though.

". . . Z.. z... zeke c... can " She managed to get out after a few seconds.

"P... prett... tty sure "

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica wasn't able to say anything, merely motioned to Uriel, then her chest. Trying to say that he'd punched her - hard. Zeke merely nodded before using his mana as he could, and started to try and repair the damage that had been caused.

He couldn't make her perfect, she'd still benefit from some actual medical treatment, but she could at the very least breathe now.

". . . thank you. Thank you so much." She said after letting out a few rather large breathes, making sure she could breathe.

"Still hurts, but I can breathe, that's the main thing." She added as she carefulyl got to her feet before looking toward Yuri.

"Feeling better?" She asked the archangel.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica sighed.

"I'm reasonably sure that she'll be understanding. At least if she's any sort of quality woman, she will understand that it was completely out of your control." She then said before pausing a moment.

"Just tell her it was my fault and that I made you do it. It'd be true and all, so why not?" She asked

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

"I ... will make sure I do that." Erica assured the nephilim.

"Thank you, both of you." She added.

"And... confusing? Try living it. It's horrifying. Imagine you had a double out there fucking your life up." She then said with a heavy sigh.

"Anyway. I have one more stop to make. If you need me... well, leave a message with the Fyrane's. Bitch still has my phone."

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica was silent for a moment.

". . .. not pretty there...?" She asked before pausing, and sighing.

"Know what, I'lkl find out once I get there." She added. "If someone wants to offer me some help getting there, that'd be lovely."

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica was silent for a moment before taking a breath to prepare.

"Thanks." She said simply.

"I'll see you two later, I'm sure." With that, she stepped through the portal.

Almost instantly, she felt the rune. There was no effect to her, but she felt it. It was strong enough that she could almost feel it wanting to tug at her very soul, but she hadn't stepped in range of it. Not yet at least.

"well... at least I have an indicator for where I'm going." she muttered before starting to walk in that direction. She didn't know how long she'd be walking, but she found that it didn't really take long at all. Maybe five minutes later, she broke through the edge of the trees, and saw the Fyrane's on the grassy ground a few metres away.

Rowena looked over, nodded, before getting to her feet.

"I'm done." She told her son simply.

"You've got someone else to deal with." was all she said before turning and walking off, the farther she got from Ash, the weaker her rune got in the immediate area. The weaker her rune was, the more strength his was able to find.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫

Erica was the rune coming and steeled her nerves. She knew she couldn't give in to it here, and couldn't hide.

She also had learned over the years from Azazel, that her arm offered her som form of protection from it, as had been proven with Rowena a couple of times, as she'd been willing to help.

She pushed on, approaching Ash with determination. He could see how difficult it was though, and while he tried to pull the rune back, it just seemed to get stronger.

Erica managed to reach him, although that wouldn't have happened had he not taking a couple of paces toward her, and had her hand reached out, her arm glowing. She barely managed to touch him, before the rune got her.

She froze, and he was able to literally see her soul starting to disconnect from her mortal shell.

Her mana was still active though. The disconnect merely made it a bit slower.

♫Born of graves and left below ♪ Painted ashes, painted snow♫