You think I'm trying to end the spam?
Ha! Nay. The AoC is merely a stepping stone for the elevation of Darquesse.
Anyway, Darquesse's resistance to mind manipulation come from:
1) A Sensitive (psychic) tries to break into Valkyrie's mind to extract secrets She stumbles too deep, and Darquesse pops up, and screws the woman's mind. The woman starts obeying Valkyrie, and Valkyrie also sees that she could completely shatter her mind.
The Sensitive smiled. I'm going to have to push a bit deeper now, OK? I apologise in advance for anything embarrassing I might uncover."
"Is that part of it?" Valkyrie asked. "Do you use a person's embarrassment and shame against them? That doesn't really seem fair."
The woman shrugged. "Exposing uncomfortable truths breaks down the biggest walls. You should save yourself the trauma. Just let me in."
"It's not up to me."
"Then who is it up to?"
"Me," said Darquesse.
Valkyrie opened her eyes. The Sensitive opposite her sat ramrod straight, her eyelids fluttering, her mouth open. Her nose was bleeding. It was dark outside. The barn was empty apart from Valkyrie, Tanith and Donegan and the three psychics who were trying to break into their minds.
"Release me," Valkyrie said. The Sensitive moaned, then shifted forward and fell to her knees. She took a key from her pocket, undid the ankle restraints first, then the wrist shackles. Magic flooded Valkyrie's body and she stood up. The Sensitive whimpered. Valkyrie could see into her mind. It was such a fragile thing. Easily broken.
"Release my friends," she said, and the Sensitive scampered over to Tanith to do just that.
She waited until Donegan was free, and then ordered the Sensitive to stand. Blood was now running from the woman's ears. It would have been so easy to reach a little further into her mind and wrench everything sideways.
2 - A group of Sense Wardens (dystopian psychics) try to force feelings of hopelessness and despair into Darquesse's mind. It initially works, but then Darquesse realises what is going on, adapts, then screws them all over
Darquesse took a step and scowled. Her hands went to her head. She turned, saw white robes, lots of them, and then she gagged and dropped to her knees. The Sense-Wardens surrounded her, flooded her mind with pain and misery, made her want to curl up into a little ball, just surrender, stop fighting, beg for the instant release of death. The struggle wasn't worth it. The anguish wasn't worth it. Everything hurt and everything died and nothing was worth it. Give up. She should give up. Oh, God, she wanted to give up. She was crying. Of course she was crying. Why wouldn't she? Life was nothing and nothing meant anything and everything was meaningless and she should just lie down and die. Just die, for God's sake, and let the Faceless Ones judge her in death. Just lie down here, and stop fighting and accept the end.
But she didn't worship the Faceless Ones. She didn't believe they straddled life and death. She didn't believe they would judge her. These weren't her beliefs. These were the beliefs of the Sense-Wardens, the men and women surrounding her and forcing these thoughts into her head. Oh, they were clever, these Sense-Wardens. They crept in there and force-fed her these feelings and made her despair. It almost worked, too. But they weren't strong enough. Not against her. Not against Darquesse. She was quickly becoming a god, quickly becoming strong enough to kill the Faceless Ones should she ever meet them again. These Sense-Wardens didn't have the first idea who they were dealing with. But they were realising now. And some of them were already trying to pull out, but it was much too late. Now she was in their heads, and she was overpowering their puny little minds, crushing them with an ease that was frightening, terrifying. They tried to retreat but she caught them, one by one, and she was turning out the lights inside their minds. One, two, three and look as their bodies dropped four, five, six and they were all gone now, their minds ruined, their bodies shutting down, and Darquesse stood up and willed away the headache.
3. Darquesse resists being possessed by thousands of Remnants at once. Remnants are evil souls that crawl inside you and merge with your soul, gaining all your memories and powers and taking control of you. When this happened, Darquesse was on the verge of death from having been beaten down by Lord Vile and Melancholia, and had exhausted almost all her magic, having barely anything left.
A Remnant swooped down, attaching itself to Darquesse's face. She grabbed it, pulled it away, and another latched on to her back. She reached behind her and a third was suddenly in her hair, its little claws tearing at her scalp. A fourth Remnant flew at her, and a fifth, and they were at her face and prising open her mouth and Darquesse stumbled and cursed …
And when her mouth opened, the first Remnant slipped in. Then the second. Then the third. And then a stream of Remnants flowed down from above, straight into her open mouth, and her hands were at her bulging throat and her eyes were wide, but there was nothing she could do to stop the flow. Hundreds of Remnants ― no, thousands ― flying into her, faster and faster, overpowering her, taking control even as black veins started to rise beneath her skin. Then the flow ended, and Darquesse gasped, staggered, and Vex watched the whole thing with his hands in his pockets.
"You're going to deliver what you promised," he said. "You're going to give us a playground that will be ours forever." The black veins faded slightly.
"You think you can … you think …" She gasped again and the black veins rose. Her lips darkened.
"You're one of us now," said Vex. "It took practically all of us to do it, but I think it's been worth it, don't you? Now it's time for you to do what you do best. Kill. Destroy. Have fun." 'Darquesse smiled, but the smile turned sour, and she frowned. The veins faded again before rising. She was fighting it.
"Practically all of you?" she rasped. "Should've brought more." She stood up straight, eyes locked on Vex. "I'm killing your brothers and sisters." For the first time, Vex lost his confidence. "Impossible."
"I'm killing," Darquesse said slowly, "every last one of them. I'm burning them inside me. They want to … they want to get out …"
"Stop," said Vex. "Stop!" Energy burst from his hand, but Darquesse caught it in her palm. Her skin sizzled, and healed.
"They're making me stronger," she said. "Every one of them I kill makes me that little bit … stronger." The last of the veins faded. Her lips returned to their full, natural colour, and she smiled.
