Chapter -15: Stand Against a Devil's Roar
Aurus valiantly leaped through the wastelands with Sarajin under her arm. The path was vacant of Rot Walkers for the time being.
When she started to feel him budging around she gasped and came to a momentary stop to knee eye level with him.
Sarajin let up a couple coughs and immediately jumped into apologizing, "I-I messed this up, now everyone is…"
Auris lightly applied her hand to his cheek and he felt warm, "Forget it. You're not to blame for your fears."
Sarajin bit his lower lip and mumbled, "Twenty years…"
"Sarajin!" She raised her voice in a protective fashion, "We still have a chance. I will GIVE US that chance. But I need you to hold on until we arrive at Caimanabel."
Sarajin raised his head and worried, "I figured we were heading there…Do you have a plan?"
Auris nodded, "Even Lilith cannot ignore the Devil. I'll barge into the city and use my aura to find the Wellspring she's been hiding."
Sarajin pressed her out of a sense of concern, "Are you sure this will work?"
Auris' lips curled and she slowly closed her eyes to check the future, only to quickly open them back up.
"Wh…What? She's still there?" And with that she looked her husband in the eyes with a more reluctant demeanor.
As Sarajin breathed in deep to keep his heart in check he read her mind clearly, "You can't bring me to her."
Auris nodded.
Sarajin then murmured after some degree of consideration, "No…do it. I-I have an idea."
Though worried, she listened dutifully.
Across the land, the Devil's roar continued to be felt. Never had the ground felt itself tremble so much from its presence.
It continued to press forward, assaulted from all angles by warriors representing many different ideals and principles.
The carefree Nimus could swim around in the air and wedge his blades through the beast's flesh, dodging his blood vomit and slicing the frogs without pausing to think.
He kept aware of his surroundings and bowed out when Vermilion and Solaris jumped at the chance to have their fun.
Solaris' raw flames seemed to be the one thing that the beast's momentum respected.
Stonestein held his ground on the frontline and his shield completely negated the Rot Walkers charge, relieving pressure off the grounded warriors so they could bombard the Devil's bottom with projectiles.
Carmine specialized in trying to bind the Devil by its bony legs. Hundreds upon hundreds of vines twisted together into a snare, and yet the beast managed to keep pushing forward slightly.
One of its up to then docile heads opened up and released a swarm of disgusting locusts to devour through the vines like a pair of clippers.
Disoriented, Carmine stumbled back into Brine's view and held on again, trying to recover the damages.
"Plant eaters…!" Carmine communicated through a calm grunt.
Brine nodded and then ran ahead to meet up with Darnia, "Oi! Help me clear those pests!"
After using his scythe to blow aside an advancing group he faced the insects and worked alongside Brine to hit them with pressurized wind and water, set to burst and knock out large groups at once.
Darnia had to pull out when Zeno was getting overwhelmed, but Ezekiel picked up the slack briefly with his boulder tosses.
After a few of those Carmine was able to regain control over the beast and rein it in.
Ezekiel scooped up his hammer and ran alongside Cecilia, "Let's hit 'em hard honey!"
With Darnia's help they used a whirlwind to launch over the beast's main head, Nimus providing cover against the vomited blood.
Once over the beast Ezekiel dropped first and nailed the head with his weapon. Then he bounced up and Cecilia stabbed the spot with her lance.
They kept hammering down while they could maintain this rhythm.
The Devil was able to rear its head back to try and weaponize its roar against its attackers.
Then, like a thunderclap spearing the noise, a bullet struck the beast's lower jaw to force it shut.
Ezekiel and Cecilia then joined forces to crack the head one more time, managing to push it closer to the ground. Ezekiel looked over his shoulder at a sparkle far off on a perch and smiled, "Atta boy."
Darnia, Zeno and Glade then attacked the legs with Carmine's binds holding as strong as his will.
Glade's sickles latched into the flesh and allow him to swing to the upper side, where he kept dancing around and attacking independent of the efforts of Torren, Carolina and Nimus.
Nimus clicked his tongue and threw a conjoined volley of blades into the beast's chest, taking a cocky dive backwards until they came back to him.
"Anyone know if we're actually hurting this thing?!"
He rolled to the right on his gale winds as blood vomit burnt through his sleeve.
Vermilion leaped onto the Devil's rib cage and pulled out her sword to stab through to the head inside.
The moment she pulled her sword out the bone healed, "Oh come ON!"
She thrust herself off then used fire blasts from her feet to propel and slice up through the neck.
More locusts emerged to overwhelm the vines and let the beast fly once more, it's wing flaps throwing the acrobatic assailants away.
A slightly tired Carmine was about to be overrun with Rot Walkers, while Torren plummeted towards another group.
Brine was split between who to save but grit his teeth and ran for Carmine without a second thought.
And then Carolina managed to swoop in to save Torren, while Darnia and Stonestein backed up Brine to get Carmine covered.
With the three forming a perimeter to let Carmine catch his breath, they saw the Devil fly over them.
Brine clicked his tongue and swung his trident at the Rot Walkers, "Darn it! We keep this up and the Devil's gonna raze Tanglefae to the ground."
Stonestein remarked, "Any ideas, Darnia Stratos?"
"I feel Auris and my son must have picked something up during their battle," Darnia said, making an effort to hold his breaths and endure the rabid onslaught, "The ribs were damaged when we arrived. Now they aren't."
"What does that mean?" Brine wondered.
"Something they could do together…" Stonestein mused to himself.
Brine saw Torren riding atop a wave to wash some Rot Walkers aside, and reached out so she could scoop him up.
He then shouted, "We'll figure something out ourselves!"
As they joined up with Nimus and Carolina to attack from behind the Devil swung its tail to send frogs their way.
Nimus and Carolina speared them with projectiles and Torren whipped water out to dispel the poison.
"These hoppers sure are annoying! Let's see about gettin' rid of that tail!" Brine's courage led the charge, and Torren arched forward, pushing the wave faster along.
Nimus and Carolina continued to cover them while at the front of the Devil, Solaris was able to briefly slow it down with an aggravated assault.
Brine punched out pressurized water and Torren danced to send out slicing waves. She soon split their ride in two to divide the tails attention.
Nimus joined in and peppered the tail with a spiral release of blades, then followed along the back of the tail, slicing with his wings until the wings uprooted him from the sky.
He went crashing but a couple bounces later and he was on his feet, Vermilion rushing past him to take a leaping slash at the beast's underside.
He lunged forward with a smile and attacked together until she shouted, "Get your own section, nuisance!"
Nimus snickered and backed off with an air of sarcasm in his voice, "Alright, clearly you got this under control."
So for the time being he plunged down and bailed Zeno out of a jam, levitating behind him with his hands in his pockets, "Need a hand, little fire puff?"
Zeno swung his sword at the Rot Walkers and was the first to show signs of tiring, "Y-You're the bad man dad hates!"
"Nah, chill. Today I'm the cool uncle you never had." He then used his blades to shove a path clear for Zeno, without even looking.
Zeno then ran out and Nimus chuckled, "Heh, kids these days."
He then tangled with the Rot Walkers for a time while Darnia caught Carmine up with the others, where he used his vines to snare the legs.
Vermilion and Zeno formed an unlikely duo to attack the legs with a flurry of flames slashes so thick they conjoined into a tornado burning against the belly of the beast.
"Feh, I haven't forgotten last time, brat!" She shouted, trying to take a swing at him while attacking the beast.
Zeno parried and then slashed at her and the beast at the same time, "You're crazy! And I'm not scared of you!"
The locusts flooded through their flames, using their burning bodies to kill the vines. Then the Devil's rise made the feuding fiery warriors go their separate ways.
From far off, Pitori laid on his stomach and kept unloading powerful ammunition from his long barreled gun to cover his parents' attacks on the beast.
Adderbolt watched over him and had just finished his last bit of sweets, "That monster's gotten halfway to us."
Pitori calmly remarked while reloading, "I'll escape if it gets any closer. You don't have to watch me anymore."
Adderbolt nodded, "Alright. Good luck, Pitori!"
Once the bullet fired Adderbolt touched it and used its properties to fly off the perch and smash into the front of the Devil right as Ezekiel, Solaris and Vermilion hit it.
The Devil roared and was forced towards the ground.
Adderbolt kept hurtling his body to pound across the beast's body, giving his other allies a chance to keep hitting it harder.
Brine and Torren's efforts to dismantle the tail were so far not getting anywhere, and so many dead frogs meant too thick of a poison cloud to get near.
"Back away, Brine!" She said, guiding their waves off to the sides.
Brine and her launched one final attack that mixed together and hit the tail above the head.
There was a brief shine that Stonestein caught, and the Devil's roar rose in anguish as the rotting tendons broke, struggling to stitch back together.
For now, it was time to escape, as he grabbed hold of Carmine and rammed his shield through the Rot Walkers, trying to find other allies to assist.
After securing escape for Cecilia and Darnia, he turned to the right and noticed larger Rot Walkers were starting to gather, including one Skarr Drago.
He broke through the horde and let Carmine off near the front of the Devil so he could get back to work holding it down, all the while using his shield to force the Rot Walkers off until Torren and Brine arrived as back-up.
Together they were able to put pressure off Stonestein, but Brine's thoughts were undermined by frustration, "How're we supposed to keep this up? These things've got more energy than my teach!"
Stonestein had hope, "Your efforts did SOMETHING to it."
Their formation spun clockwise to alternate attacks on the beasts, allowing Stonestein a chance to examine Carmine's vines binding the legs.
Darnia and Cecilia were fending off the locust swarm for the time being.
"Torren," Stonestein pointed at the vines, "Strike where the vines are."
"H-Huh?" She uttered.
Carmine gripped his fists tighter and grunted, "I-I trust his eyes, do it!"
Torren broke off from the group and rode upon a wave, gracefully evading the Rot Walker's leaps until she was close enough to hit with maximum impact.
Cecilia was left befuddled by her actions as she leaped through the air to slice apart the locusts, "Betrayal?"
But then Torren's attack met her mark, creating a loud, visceral crack as the bone split open to reveal raw, throbbing, rotten nerves underneath.
And it was taking it's time to heal.
The Devil reared it's heads back in a terrifying roar that paralyzed all beneath it, save for Ezekiel, who spotted the weakpoint and pronounced, "Well I dunno what she did, but good work!"
He then buried his hammer into the ground and hauled up a massive boulder straight at the raw nerves to deliver a direct hit that made the beast roar louder.
It then turned it's body downward and started vomiting streaks of blood rapidly at the grounded warriors.
Nimus flew in dangerously close and stabbed his swords into that head to draw it's attention and chuckled, "Hey big guy, finally saw us huh?!"
His flight was interrupted by a furious buzzing noise coming from the bottom-most head.
"Heads up!" He shouted as flies emerged from the head, "It's throwing in some new tricks!"
He backed out and rapidly sliced his wings in front of him to cut down most of the flies, but reducing numbers meant little when they were dealing with the potentially infinite.
"Tch…!" He and many others got out of the fray, the only ones managing to stay onboard being Vermilion, Glade and Solaris.
"Ha…! Is that all!" With her fire aura she had the best chance to fly in and keep pounding away at the beast's rotten hide, while Solaris just burned millions of flies down with a single swing of his sword.
"They must think we're insects, master!" His flames roared on high and he rocketed straight up to the main head, plunging his hand straight through their eye socket.
His macho man attempts to drag the Devil down with raw strength probably could have used more time in the oven though, as all he did was hurt his biceps failing to make it budge an inch.
The beast then flung him back and Vermilion, cursing her instincts, jumped off the beast's back and caught him out of the air before cratering a bunch of Rot Walkers in fire on landing.
Glade used a poison shroud to kill the flies and then continued slicing away along the beast's back. He was eyeing something, yet unseen.
Darnia and Ezekiel backed away from the Devil in tandem, flinging boulder after large boulder at it.
This created a divide that Torren and Brine filled to snare Rot Walkers, and Cecilia and Carolina froze it over to give themselves some breathing room.
But the larger beasts were getting closer, with Cecilia noting to their group, "If we do not hurry, this beast will trample over Canofloe and Cryofloe!"
And then she paid further attention to her surroundings and gasped, "Pitori…!"
She had to hurry off as his perch was now within range of the beast's blood vomit. She skated forward, lobbing large chunks of ice just to slow that down for even a moment longer.
And then finally she skated right up the rock and tackled her son off right as the attack hit. Fortunately, thanks to a quick summoning of his armor, he was able to survive an impact with the ground.
"T-Thanks mom. I got cocky." He said, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Brine remarked to the others, "Hol' up! I thought the Devil was heading towards Tanglefae?!"
Ezekiel bashed a dozen Rot Walkers away through the sky with a heavy grunt, "Has nobody been keepin' track of its movements?!"
Nimus bailed him out from being ambushed from behind and then snapped his fingers, "Sorry, kind of been busy saving all your lives."
He then looked up at the Devil and shouted, "Hey Glade! Which Tribe's this beast flying towards?"
Glade answered quickly without losing focus on his goal, "It has been flying in the same direction since we engaged it."
Stonestein muttered, "Straight to the east…?"
Nimus sharply turned around and his composure cracked a bit, "But wait, the only location in that direction is…"
He flew high into the sky until he could just peek over the horizon that the Devil was flying towards.
And there it was…
"S-Sancturia…?!" He uttered with momentary confusion and dread.
Halfway across the world, two priests stood guard at the door to Caimanabel.
Before either could blink, the left guard was rammed against the wall into unconsciousness by Auris using her Drive.
She then summoned her shield and threw it at the other guard's head to knock them out. All this while keeping Sarajin on her shoulder.
She pulled him over to the door and then forced her hand into the center, gripping hard and using her monstrous strength to pull it open.
Light flushed out over her body and she pushed forward into the realm of light proper.
There was no time to bask in the majesty of the lands wrapped in gold and marble. She could see the palace steps and jumped straight towards it with her Drive.
The guards positioned here flinched and then armed themselves in a circle surrounding her.
Auris switched out shield for sword and brandished it at the enemies, with them cautiously stepping back as she deepened her voice to tell them off, "I don't have time to deal with brainwashed fodder. Where. Is. Lilith?"
The palace doors flung open with an echo, and as the unaware citizens closed in on Auris' location from behind "Mother Divine" pressed forward slowly down the steps.
She gestured her arms like a welcoming hug and smiled warmly, her back bathed in the purest golden light, while the front of her body cast the shadows her body truly inhabited.
With but a mere wiggle of her fingers, the guards parted the way for her to step down and meet Auris at eye level.
"Ah, if it is not the Rainbow Valkyrie in the flesh. And a sinner, I have found, abreast your arm." She played up her soothing tones for the audience, but Auris was not to be a silent voice in her facilitated audience.
"Drop the act, Lilith. We figured you out long ago." Auris was almost left breathless in the disbelief that she would even bother attempting this foolishness.
Yet Lilith kept walking until their faces were inches apart, upon which she leaned in with a tilt, her expression warping instantly into one of a pure, haunting smile.
"And so what if you have?" She whispered in her sincere voice, depraved of any sense of care.
She caged Auris' chin between her fingers as she pulled back, returning to her motherly expression so easily it was like applying a theater mask.
"You bask in the light of the revered and all-knowing voice of reason. To brandish thy tainted accusations is to steep your soul in blasphemy."
Auris' face sharpened, with her brows arching into a firm, unamused glare, "Pull your theatrics on someone who gives a shit."
"Oh, darling princess of aura…" Lilith bit her lower lip and mumbled in cold disdain, "Always pretending you're so…infallible. Invincible. But your weakness has always been closest to your heart…"
A quick snap of her fingers made the guards point their weapons at Sarajin, surrounding them both tight enough to mask this scene from the prying eyes of the audience.
From there, Lilith let more of her cold expression show through her narrowing eyes, a devilish sneer smearing her face, "Truth be told, I expected him to be at my mercy eventually…But I did not expect it so soon, nor did I think you'd deliver him to me by hand."
Auris flinched with genuine surprise, then returned to narrowing her gaze while shielding Sarajin from the enemy's approach with her body, "What are you talking about?"
Lilith began to kneel, but kept herself over Sarajin's head, "You delusional soul…Always putting yourself in harm's way to save others, believing that you're what this planet needs…"
"So easy to manipulate…I curse myself for not considering it sooner." She tried to reach out and play with Sarajin's head as the vulnerable toy it was for her, but Auris grabbed her by the wrist and crunched down.
Lilith remained utterly calm as she whispered, "Release me, savage girl."
Auris smirked with the ferocity of a herd of dragons, "You don't want that. I'll take your hand with me."
"And in turn, I will take his life," Lilith then lightly shook her head and murmured, "I can see us wasting time on banal threats for hours. You came to me because you need the Light Wellspring to give him a second chance at fighting the Khull Drago."
"But instead…you've merely played right into my hands," She looked Auris directly in the eyes and told her the truth, "That's right. I…was the one who awoke the beast from its slumber, and set it loose on the world for him to fall to."
Auris' eyes dilated and with a shiver in her throat, "What did you say…?"
"It bears no repeating." Lilith asserted.
Sarajin let out a couple painful coughs and Auris looked at him grimly, with Lilith pointing out, "If you want to savor his love one more day, then the 'wise' Auris Aurora would do well to listen to her superior."
Auris pointed her gaze at her and remarked, "You want to spare him? Liar."
"I do not harbor ill will to the flesh, merely the spirit it carries that has inconvenienced me time and time again. But if that spirit has no power to fight back, then…why should I waste the effort to snuff it out?"
Auris began to aim her aggression at Lilith through her sword, but Lilith beared down the weight of her blade's tip and smiled wider, "The Devil continues to march with every second you waste seeking an out to this impossible trap."
"And at the pace it's going, it will soon be at Sancturia's doorstep."
"S-Sancturia…?!" Auris uttered aghast.
She then turned on Lilith with genuine outrage at her cavalier tone, "That's our home you're talking about! You, a Sage, would dare leverage our home, our PEOPLE, as hostages?!"
Cold shadows plunged over Lilith's eyes, bearing a colder illumination of her irises upon Auris, her voice as dry as the wind, "You seem to have fallen under the illusion that I care about that place."
"No, dear, sickly child, I have abhorred those lands ever since I tasted its sterile air, and suffered under its self-righteous laws."
"But you do…Oh how fortunate for me that that man, even freed from his chains, managed to instill in you his bleeding heart."
"You don't want Borealis Aurora to die. And he will. Even his strength cannot tame the Devil," Lilith extended her hand towards Sarajin gently, "But I would. Surrender willingly to me every Wellspring in your body, and I will smite the Devil where it flies."
She then turned her head to Auris, who was hanging her own head, gritting her teeth.
"And I will even go so far as to spare you both, letting you live your foolish, sickly love affair to its end. It's a simple choice really. You KNOW I am right."
Auris trembled in bitter rage, "I used to trust your advice…I believed that…even behind all your ill-intent you were a true Sage at heart…!"
She threw her flaring eyes at the woman and shouted, "But you're nothing but a deceitful snake who cares about no one but herself!"
Lilith's gaze narrowed and she muttered scornfully, "Lob whatever names you want at me. When I become a Goddess, I will have transcended the need for petty strife."
"I am your only hope."
"Y-You're wrong…" Sarajin stirred with a dry, but energetic tone.
"You dare…?" Lilith muttered.
Sarajin had just enough lift in his legs to look up at her, "Hope…won't die with me. I get that…"
"Because right now, everyone is fighting to save the world in their own way. They're fighting against their fears. Against death…against themselves…"
"And they're doing it together."
"But you…" Sarajin looked her dead in the eyes without flinching, but never raised his voice in hate, "I get you now…You want everything for yourself. You think you're owed the privilege to decide everyone's fates."
Lilith began to tremble, peeling her teeth along her bottom lip as she maintained her smile, "You think you understand me, you cretin?"
Luminesca's words were reflected in her memories, causing her voice to raise in discontent, "There is nothing wrong with me! It is the world that is WRONG!"
"...You never had anyone to support you, did you Lilith?" Sarajin's sudden insight left her speechless.
"I don't know if it would have made you a better person but…I wish you at least had that chance."
Lilith's trembling reached a breaking point and she brandished her hand out, drawing her sword at Sarajin's neck, with Auris crossing her blade up at her own neck.
"Pity me will you…?! Is it not enough for you to have stolen from me, now you mock me as well…?!"
She showed only the slightest restraint, grinning madly from ear-to-ear.
Auris then mocked her on her reckless decision, "It's easy to act threatening when you aren't even here in person, isn't it?"
Lilith's eyes darted her way and her tone turned mocking, "Finally figured it out, o' wise one?"
"Too many discrepancies in your actions built up over the years. Most importantly, how you never showed the world the scar Sarajin left on your face!" She announced that last part loud enough for the entire audience to hear.
Gossip stirred in their tongues, and Lilith's eyes darted around, hating every word she partook in.
Eventually she locked eyes back on Auris and Sarajin, and muttered her final decision, "Fine. I suppose I should savor ending this little resistance of yours in person."
She laid down her sword and her body dissipated into golden motes, "Come into the palace, if you are as brave as you are foul-mouthed."
The guards stepped aside to give Auris passage up the steps. She grabbed hold of Sarajin and with a silent, approving nod, she began to carry him upwards towards the golden light…
The Devil's march brought bleeding skies into view within Sancturia and with it, a penetrating sense of fear.
The guards upon the border towers raised their heads and saw the Devil's silhouette growing larger by the second.
At first, their minds raced to firing their weapons, but they could not hold them steady for long.
And upon dropping their arms, they turned and threw themselves off the towers into the city, until every post was abandoned.
And as the frontline soldiers fled with their stingers between their legs, Atrax walked out atop the foremost tower and stared out at the beast of oblivion with a heavy, mournful sigh.
"Too many pages of history have turned and turned until becoming dust in the wind and yet…Two things have managed to remain constant."
He held his hands out and stood his ground against the beast's raging, pained roars, crying for a just vengeance.
"That is right, Vyrmina…" He said, choking with hesitation to paint this scenic unholiness with a shade of his personal sorrow, "I…am still here."
As the soldiers sought to retreat into the city, the regularly silent citizens began to stir with upset hearts. Even they felt something was wrong.
Borealis marched out from the confines of his palace through the city with Gabriel at his back, warning him of the approaching threat, "Lord Borealis, this sensation can only belong to-"
"I am aware, Gabriel…" Borealis said, the confused furrowing of his brows showing a perturbed man fighting onward with valiance.
"I don't know what the Devil seeks from our lands…" With his hands glowing with comets burning out of the night sky, Borealis held them high and reinforced the city barrier with three layers of runes, "But it shall not lay its foul breath upon our people so long as I still stand!"
He then looked over his shoulder and commanded the man behind him with respect, "Find Damascus and guard the eastern border. I know naught what this beast can do yet."
Gabriel marched off under his orders, and Borealis narrowed his eyes towards the flagrant unholy beast, sensing with pain in his heart that many of his fellow Sages were battling on the front lines at this very moment…
With the Devil's intent now out in the open, the Sages had a more personal and desperate reason to find a way to stop this beast.
Nimus and Carolina's attacks got more frequent and tiring, and Stonestein was pressured to piece together a solution from everyone else's efforts so far.
Darnia diverted attention away from fending off the Rot Walkers to briefly help Carmine reinforce the vines around the beast's legs.
But the pressure of the ever-growing horde was making it difficult to maintain this for long even with them both surrounded by back-up.
Ezekiel in particular was starting to feel exhausted swinging his hammer around all the time and wondered, "We need a break of some sorts here!"
Nimus coyly replied, "Oh let me get right on that! Give me a break! There's no letting up on this thing until it stops!"
Cecilia was separated from the group, forced to defend her son while picking off the Rot Walkers jumping at him.
"This isn't looking good…" Her heart felt faint thinking about the possibility of failing, but even the slightest dip into this mindset forced her to look back and declare to her son, "The moment you see a chance to escape, take it and don't look back!"
Pitori shook his head and hastily kept reloading his weapon to puncture the Rot Walkers through the heads, "I can't leave you, mom!"
"You might have to! Right now, the world needs you more than it does me!"
"No!" He shouted.
"Tsk…!" She was upset…but at the same time, couldn't be more proud of him for standing his ground.
With some many warriors focused on keeping the Rot Walkers at bay, no one was able to divert enough attention to stop the locust swarm, and once more the Devil kept advancing towards its destination.
Carmine fell to his knees, panting and sweating.
Brine backed up to shield him, but his trident was starting to show wear from the Rot Walkers' bites.
"This can't be how it ends, can it?"
A Skarr Drago shoved it's way through the horde and terrorized the gathered warriors with it's feebler roar.
All eyes were on it, a few of them swallowing their last hopes with a terrified gulp.
Then, from the skies, fell a lob of magma on top of the Skarr Drago. Not enough to slow it down, but then two more joined the fray, hardening to an extent that it could bring it closer to the ground.
And a few seconds later, giant icicles rose from the ground around Cecilia and Pitori to send the Rot Walkers flying away.
Marching into battle from the south were the soldiers of Canofloe and Cryofloe standing together with their mounts and artillery weapons. Leading the pack were their two Titans, Magmankey standing with flaming brows and announcing to the main warriors, "We can't meddle in affairs outside our Tribes, but we sure as shit can lead a couple armies!"
From the north came rushing in a massive flood of water on one side of the warriors, and a fissure split open on the other side, dragging the Rot Walkers into an uncertain state of oblivion.
Ezekiel looked up and his terrified heart cheered with joy as he saw his mom riding atop the largest Argent Heaver, and many other men and women of Oreore joined her.
And to the left of them was Lulu Coraline of Aquamoria and many of her citizens.
Lulu swung her fist out and yelled, "Ya really didn't think ya'd get away with doin' this by yer lonesome, ya daft guppy?!"
Lianne crossed her arms and roared, "This is our world too ya know! So let us handle these riff-raff, ya go and worry about the big bastard, boy!"
Darnia's heart felt light as he witnessed this scene unfold before his eyes, "Unbelievable…"
Ezekiel clenched his hands around his weapon and was the first to leap over the fissure. Upon landing he turned and swung his hand in the direction of the beast, "Well ya heard me mum! Time to fire up for round two!"
The remainder of the warriors escaped isolation and joined together to pursue the Devil, leaving a great and unforgettable event to unfold between the undying bodies of the Rot Walkers and the undying spirits of the Tribes.
Those who still tangled with the Devil in mid-air were relieved to see their allies catching up. Nimus could not waste an opportunity to crack a remark at this, "Took you long enough! Please tell me you came back with a plan this time!"
With his heart elevated by the spirit of unity in his wake, Stonestein finally had a solution to shout to the whole group, "Attack with aura and elements together!"
Nimus clicked his tongue and gathered all his blades back behind him ready to strike, "Oh? That easy, huh? You heard the man!"
Vermilion shouted in defiance while pummeling the underside of the beast, "I don't need anyone's help to take this down!"
Nimus raised his voice at her, "Girl, this REALLY isn't the time for your bullshit!"
This stunned her into silence and she dropped to the ground next to Zeno, drawing her sword and setting it ablaze like a raging inferno, "Fine, you better pull your weight, brat!"
Zeno tucked his sword into the sheath, drawing upon some of her inferno to make his own flames blue, "I'm not a brat…I'm a hero!"
At that announcement he swung his sword out in time with hers, hitting the beast's underside to create a massive burning flash that made it scream in pain.
The underside split open and spilled litters of rotting juice onto the ground, forcing the warriors to divide their paths and start focusing on attacking the sides.
"It worked!" Brine sounded stunned at this revelation, and then worked alongside Torren to attack the underside of the wings.
On the opposite side Carolina and Cecilia lobbed their ice in unison to start piercing through the other wing.
The beast's roars worsened and it started unleashing swarms of flies from its gut to get in everyone's way.
In response, Stonestein approached Ezekiel with an idea, "Ezekiel, strike my shield."
He planted it in the ground and Ezekiel grinned, syncing with his thoughts, "Ah, I see what yer up to!"
He started lobbing his best punches at the front of the shield and Stonestein absorbed the force into it with his Drive.
Once they had enough force built up, Ezekiel went behind him and roared, "Everyone! Get out of the way!"
And once the rest of the warriors vacated the premises, Stonestein unleashed one massive shockwave that deafened even the mighty Devil's roars and tore off gargantuan chunks of its body.
It brought it closer to the ground and in the shockwave's aftermath, Carmine and Darnia grabbed hold of it's legs once again with their vines.
The warriors began piling on it to deal any lasting damage it could. With the Devil's body now covered in holes, it performed a very massive flap of its wings to throw its assailants off and then started to show unusual behavior around its body.
The air started to become wavy, exuding a foul stench worse than anything ever smelt. The rim of the wavy air turned a horrific shade of black, and everyone who was close could feel it in their hearts…
A ruinous, deadly sensation, colder than ice, more fearful than darkness.
Stonestein gathered his courage and in a brief state of panic roared to the others, "BACK AWAY!"
The black air was suctioned towards the Devil's main head like a black hole and it split it's maw open, spewing black flames with a hollow outline towards the ground and then achieving lift, dragging said fire in a straight, sweeping line to Sancturia.
One of the towers was destroyed in the process of striking the barrier and Borealis recoiled a couple inches, grunting with nary a drop of sweat forced from his skin.
The flames ate away at the ground with no sign of recovering.
Everyone knew.
Touching even one ember meant death.
Instantaneous, with no chance to breathe a last word of defiance.
The Devil shrieked and with most of its body beginning to recover it flew closer to Sancturia.
Nimus was the first to beat back his fears and pursue the beast, stabbing it beneath the right wing with all his blades while falling back first towards the ground, "HEY! Quit cowering and attack!"
The Devil was only a couple miles out from the city and approaching fast.
Brine grit his teeth and thrust his fists out to send multiple pressurized water bullets into Nimus' blades.
One by one he succeeded in punching holes through the wing support until the whole thing snapped off and gravity took its course, but not without a fight.
The Devil continued to vomit blood at the ground to push itself further along, and flapped its other wing to suspend flight.
When it finally crashed it did so with an earth shaking impact and continued to drag along until it was breathing down atop the barrier.
Borealis stared down the devilish head, alone dwarving him in size, its rotting pants steaming into vapor against the barrier.
In his heart he should have known fear, as any mortal man would.
But every bone in his body stood as pillars in support of his people frightened at his back.
And in the house of the great and wise Borealis Aurora, none would fall.
The Devil shrieked and viciously bashed its skull into the barrier as it pulled itself up. It then started vomiting blood against the barrier and preparing another blast of its dead flames at point-blank range.
Flashes of black light penetrated through the barrier as the shrieks of the damn scorched deep into it. The first layer of runes melted and the forces in play continued to apply pressure to Borealis himself.
While many warriors fought on the outside to save their home, there was one whose soul burned so great to protect it that it pushed his strength beyond the limits of his mortal flesh.
For all the death the Devil spewed, it made no difference to one who was already born through death.
The Devil found itself being pulled off the barrier in spite of great resistance and continued to attack with all it had, ignorant to the one tugging it by the tail.
With both his arms and an aura burning around him as hot as ten suns, Solaris thrust his eyes open and roared with an echo, "HEY UGLY! THAT'S MY FAMILY'S HOME YOU'RE MESSING WITH!"
"SO YOU…" He pulled up, tearing many muscles as the density of this unholy beast felt like the equivalent of pulling an entire solar system along, "NEED TO GET THE FUCK AWAY!"
He managed to fling the beast over his head and force it to shriek in anguish as it was sent crashing into the ground.
It released a swarm of frogs from it's tail in retaliation but they all burned up on contact with his aura, and the poison along with it.
"Devil?! Ha! You're fucking with a GOD here! So get out of my sight!" Solaris then resummoned his sword and gathered the flames up into it to slash down directly on top of the beast's tail head.
The ground cracked apart and a bright, concentrated plume of solar fire pierced the sky up into space, dragging the tail up along with it into a state of disintegration.
His flames then burned out and he dropped onto one knee, coughing with a purple liquid dripping out the sides of his mouth.
"S-Shit…!" Turns out the poison wasn't completely rendered inert by his fire.
While the rest of the warriors piled on top of the fallen Devil and attacked it, Glade departed in silence over to Solaris, pulling out a vial in one hand a needle out of his sleeve.
He stabbed it into Solaris' neck and the man grunted in anger, "W-What the hell…?!"
Glade extracted all the poison out of his veins before it could metabolize in his systems and stuck it into his vial.
"This will be enough. Your recklessness is appreciated, sun god." He then bounced away towards Sancturia, leaving Solaris to rub his neck and feel very tired.
"Dick…"
As Glade stood in wait under the sanctity of the barrier runes, he took a quick glance to the upper right and noticed Atrax reaching out towards the Devil with both arms.
Glade's eyes then narrowed.
Everyone else save for Solaris kept taking out chunks of the beast with their combined efforts. The numbers may have been uneven between both groups, but the variety of widespread attacks the Sages utilized allowed the Genesis Samurais to continue being useful.
But as Ezekiel hammered off the left wing he started to notice he was taking longer breaths in-between attacks.
"We ain't dealin' enough damage fast enough!"
Zeno and Pitori were needing to be shielded more often because their young bodies couldn't keep up.
The Devil was flailing around in a desperate attempt to get back upright. With Carolina's help, Darnia destroyed one of the heads on the right wing.
Then Adderbolt and Vermilion drew the pitch black head's attention, with Vermilion's eyepatch keeping her from being affected by it's power. Once they tango'd with it enough, one swing from Ezekiel was enough to destroy it.
The Devil let out a terrifying roar with it's remaining heads that split and boiled it's guts wide open with a visceral birthing sound.
The warriors backed away and watched cautiously as the Devil's spine bent free from it's body, one final head attached at the end. Dozens of blood vessels tightly wrapped around it, and golden chimes dangled from the sides of a broader skull.
The blood vessels snapped off and let it crane it's head back towards the bleeding sky, letting out a roar that split it open even further.
Saturated hues bled out into reality and the distorted roar of thunder herald an even worse danger upon these lands.
Terrifying pitch black lightning bolts speared the ground and consumed the existence of any other noises.
Their impacts with the ground threw many of the warriors flying hundreds of feet away.
A deadly rain of fire and hail soon followed, peppering the auras of the Sages. Stonestein's shield saw damage, but he held his ground to protect the likes of Carmine and Pitori until Adderbolt could use his speed to get them out to safety.
But the storm continued growing in scope, the lightning bolts smashing down upon Sancturia's barrier countless times, each hit pounding Borealis' knees a centimeter closer to the ground.
Borealis held his ground and gained back every one, still, the beast had not provoked his sweat glands.
In the pandemonium of this beast's trump card, Nimus noticed Zeno struggling to get out and grit his teeth, diving down even as the sky warped upon his location.
"Shit…!" He accelerated with the wind pushing his back harder than he had ever experienced and grabbed hold of Zeno before spinning around and throwing him to safety with his grandfather.
As Zeno looked at him with a stunned expression, Nimus closed his eyes and grinned, "Heh…"
He then took a deep breath and tried to propel away from the storm, only for a lightning bolt to smite down the right side of his body.
His body was propelled forward to safety, but with the right side of his body fried. His blades soon fumbled to the ground behind him.
Carolina gasped and dove to quickly apply her aura to his body, but the damage actively tried to reject her aid.
Nimus cracked his eyes open and chuckled, "W-We've got to stop meeting like this, Carol."
It wasn't just him that was out of the fight by this storm. Brine, Pitori, Zeno, Adderbolt and Torren had exhausted the last of their energy escaping, and it looked like stubbornness was the only thing keeping the likes of Cecilia, Vermilion, Carmine and Ezekiel going.
Stonestein was there ready to hold off the storm as long as he could, but he sincerely wished that he did not have to be alone as the bulwark for these brave warriors…
Yet as long as Sancturia still stood, he knew his best friend was fighting his own fight, and that made him happy.
However, what these brave souls wouldn't give right now for one more savior…
And from the darkness, another came to answer.
The spinal head was immediately forced down under the pressure of immense darkness, bringing a swift and decisive end to the storm.
As the warriors looked on in confusion, Darnia turned to the right and was beholden to the march of the black armored liege upon the battlefield.
With hands armed thick with darkness, Solomon's eyes glowed and stared down the beast with disgust and fury.
"Solo…mon?" Darnia muttered.
The black king glanced over his shoulder and muttered in a dismissive tone, "Do not mistake my actions for charity, old man…"
He raised his hands towards the Devil and declared on the spot, "I have merely come to silence this beast's grating roars!"
The Devil rose from the ground with a mighty flap of it's wings and Solomon thrust his hand out, piercing the beast through the rib cage with compressed black winds.
He then widened his eyes and stated, "Sarajin may have yielded to you, Devil, but you will find that I am beyond the constraints of fear! Now come…! It is time you screamed your last scream!"
Next Time: Burn Through the Dread