*SHRIEK!!!
"Don't let up, attack the parts where the battlemasters aren't—provide cover fire!" exclaimed a commander as he whipped his hand,
"Aye!"
commanding the soldiers and other commanders to follow in unison.
*Bang! *Bang! *Bang! *Bang!
"Releasing Artillery!" exclaimed a soldier, prompting the rest of the soldiers near the front to duck and deploy shields.
*BANG!!! *BANG!! *BANG!!!
"Reloading!"
The soldiers' attacks were restless, as if the god of wrath were guiding each energy blast, each missile, and each eidra attack they dished out.
*SHRIEK!!!
*ROAR!!!
The very atmosphere seemed to convulse with each thunderous wail that erupted from the beast's massive throat, as though the sky itself recoiled in fear.
*SHRIEK!!!
"Damn it! Cover your ears!" exclaimed another commander, prompting each soldier to pause and cover their ears tightly.
*SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!
"Motherfuc—Argh!" a soldier gritted his teeth as the roar of the beast sent a painful shiver throughout his body.
Its cries were no ordinary sound—they carried weight, a depth of agony and fury so raw that every soldier on the field felt the vibration not just in their ears but deep within their bones.
Their hearts rattled in their chests, shaken by the intensity of it, and for a moment, the battlefield paused under the weight of the monstrous Queen's voice.
===
*On the other side, where half of the army was stationed just behind Mezra's flame wall
Across the distant edges of the battleground, the Atroxian horde had gone into a maddened frenzy.
As if they had heard the painful wailing of their queen.
*ROAR!!!
"What the...?" a soldier pointed out as he continued shooting.
*Bang! *Bang!
"What the hell are they doing?"
The atroxians flung themselves toward the barrier of roaring fire, their limbs clawing, scraping, and battering against it with reckless abandon.
Driven by pure instinct—or perhaps by the last cries of their Hive Queen—they struck the flame wall in waves,
*S-SHRIEK!!!
*Sizzle!!!
their screeches nearly drowning beneath the crackling fury of the barrier.
But the wall did not falter.
In fact, with every impact from the desperate swarm, the flames seemed to grow only stronger—rising higher like a tidal wave of fire, as if feeding off the very rage of its enemies.
Mezra's will—fused with the pure, unbroken flow of her own Eidra—poured into the wall, keeping it fortified.
Her control over the flame was absolute, unwavering, even under the weight of a million lives behind her.
"Keep firing at them! Don't let up for a second!" General Evaan roared from his command post, his voice slicing through the comms with absolute authority.
"They're getting desperate—that means the other side is winning!"
*BOOM!
*THUD *THUD!
Explosions rocked the earth, and the sky lit up in flashes of artillery fire as the Zerafhon soldiers, half a million strong and holding formation behind the flame wall, unleashed a continuous barrage.
*BANG! *BANG! *BANG!
Their weapons never stopped.
*zzzzzPOW!!! *zzzzzPOW!!! *zzzzzPOW!!!
Like machines of war, they fired in sequence—plasma shells, explosive rounds, Eidra-fueled beams—all howling across the battlefield in perfect rhythm.
A wall of weaponized death met the Atroxian horde, tearing them apart before they could even reach the edge of the flames.
And even if they were—
A swift and painful death awaited once they touch even a single flicker of flame from Mezra's flame wall.
That's how powerful a battlemaster's eidra is.
That's how powerful Mezra's strategy was.
It was nothing short of annihilation.
The Atroxians—despite their numbers, their madness, and their Queen—were helpless in the face of Zerafhon's might.
Their bodies littered the scorched field, reduced to broken shells and scattered limbs.
Even the Queen herself, towering above all, was faltering under the pressure.
She let out another scream,
*S-SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!
this one laced with desperation.
Her enormous arms swung wildly, crashing down like towers toppling in slow motion.
But her movements, once terrifying, had grown sluggish—predictable to warriors like Merilyn, Mezra, and Erenhold.
Without hesitation, the three siblings surged toward her.
Merilyn's body became a blur, her glaive Zaepherax spinning as spirals of wind Eidra howled around her.
Her slashes landed true—
*Fwooooom!!!
cutting deep through the Queen's carapace, each impact followed by bursts of slicing wind that tore through corrupted flesh.
Erenhold was right behind her, his chain-blades unfurling like twin serpents.
They wrapped tightly around the Queen's limbs,
*RATTLE!
locking her in place with a violent snap, preventing her from swiping at his sisters.
His grip strained, muscles tensed, but he didn't falter.
Mezra struck with surgical precision.
Her flaming blade, Flarethorn, left gashes that seared shut as they opened—cauterizing with heat that devoured muscle and soul alike.
Her strikes were ruthless, exact, and continuous.
Blackened, corrupted blood gushed from the Queen's wounds in thick torrents, the earth beneath her feet quickly becoming a tar-like pool of her suffering.
Her once thunderous cries had grown weaker now—
*Shriek... *shriek...
reduced to trembling groans and pitiful wails.
"It's time," Mezra muttered.
Her voice, though quiet, carried a finality that all three understood.
She bent her knees and rocketed skyward in a pillar of fire,
*ROAR!!!
her flaming blade trailing behind her like a comet.
Her crimson-red hair rippled like silk in a storm as the wind and fire swirled around her.
Eidra surged from her very core—intense, boiling, and bright.
*drrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
It enveloped her entire body, turning her into a radiant meteor descending from the heavens.
She arced high above the Queen's twitching body, then turned, aiming downward—
*Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
her sword poised to pierce with divine execution.
*DRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
And then—
*BOOOOM!
She crashed down like the wrath of the gods, her sword slamming directly into the Queen's massive central eye.
The explosion shook the sky, fire and pressure bursting outward in every direction.
*SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!
The Queen screamed, a sound so high and shrill that glass would have shattered if any remained.
In agony, the beast thrashed, her arms flailing as if to reach the warrior who had struck her.
But Erenhold pulled with every ounce of strength he had left, tightening the chains until the beast's limbs could not move an inch.
Above, Mezra gathered everything she had left.
"Eriskera… in Flamethron…" she whispered, her voice laced with fire.
The Eidra within her surged, flowing through her limbs and into her blade.
The sword glowed blindingly—white at its center, red at its edges.
Her body burned hot like a sun, and her weapon became a weapon not of war—but of extinction.
"Burn," she whispered again.
Then she released it.
*ROAR!!!!!
A searing burst of flame erupted within the Queen's skull.
The firestorm tore through tissue, boiled blood, cracked bone, and annihilated everything it touched from the inside out.
The veins across the Queen's body lit up like molten rivers—glowing red, then orange, then white.
*SSSSSSSSHHHHH!!!
The Queen's corrupted flesh hissed violently.
Her limbs convulsed uncontrollably as the flames consumed her from within.
Then—
*BOOOOOM!!!
She exploded.
Chunks of blackened meat and trails of fire sprayed outward.
Her final scream—if it could be called that—vanished as her head and chest were blown apart, reduced to scorched fragments.
Mezra yanked her sword free and flipped backwards, landing with precision and grace as the lifeless body loomed above her.
For a moment—it didn't fall.
It simply trembled.
Then—gravity took hold.
The Queen's corpse, massive and smoking, began to tip forward—right toward the soldiers.
Cries of alarm erupted.
"Move! Move!"
"Get out of the way!"
Panic surged as troops scattered like ants, struggling to escape the incoming avalanche of corrupted flesh.
But Merilyn was faster.
Her glaive sang through the air—
*VWOOM!—
and a massive gust of compressed wind exploded from her strike.
It hit the Queen's falling corpse mid-air and altered its path just enough.
The beast fell to the side.
*CRAAAAASH!
The impact split the ground apart, throwing dust and stone high into the air.
Silence followed.
.
.
.
Then cheering.
"YEAH!!!"
"We fucking did it!"
"FOR THE EMPIRE!"
"The way to the maw is finally open!"
"Mhm." Mezra calmly sheathed Flarethorn, adjusting the rim of her scorched eyeglasses.
"Well done," she said, not as praise—but as affirmation.
The job had been finished.
The Queen was dead.
But their moment of relief was short-lived.
The air shifted—
like something massive had just blinked into existence.
*beep! *beep! *beep! *beep!
"Wait... something's wrong..." a commander's data pad beeped erratically as it captured abnormal eidra signatures.
A surge of Eidra washed across the battlefield.
But it was not corrupted.
It was not twisted.
It was… pure.
Almost too pure.
And yet…
So utterly wrong.
The hair on everyone's neck stood.
Something had changed.
Mezra's eyes widened.
Merilyn's breath hitched.
Erenhold's grip tensed.
"All soldiers—retreat toward th—"
Mezra never finished.
Something rose.
Not a mountain.
Not a horde.
But an entity.
It erupted from underground in a blur—a humanoid figure no taller than them, but the aura it exuded was monstrous.
*bzt!
It moved like lightning, slicing through dozens of soldiers before anyone could react.
Their bodies fell in silence, limbs severed, blood suspended midair.
"What in the—" Merilyn cursed, blinking toward it, Zaepherax roaring to life.
She brought her glaive down in a wide arc, targeting the creature's side—
*CLANG!
Twin blades erupted from the entity's arms, catching her weapon effortlessly.
The impact sent sparks flying.
*ROOOAR!!!
The beast let out a guttural cry and slammed its arm outward, knocking Merilyn back with a shockwave that rippled through the earth.
Mezra rushed forward, her fiery sword igniting with deadly force.
She swung—fast, precise—
*Clang!
but the twin blades met hers again.
Steel screamed.
Frustration flashed in her gaze.
The creature paused—
then pulsed.
A wave of black Eidra, untainted by corruption yet heavy with malice, exploded outward.
And then—
It split.
The entity fractured like glass—
and became five.
Five versions of itself stood across the battlefield, each radiating the same intensity, the same danger.
Merilyn snarled.
One rushed at her, twin blades slashing.
She spun her glaive and launched a burst of wind to deflect—
*Fwooosh!
but the enemy recovered instantly, pressing the assault.
Mezra's opponent danced around fire and steel with unnatural agility.
Her flames struck air—never flesh.
Erenhold moved with speed.
His chains bound one's arms, but even as he tightened them, he could feel it—this was a war of attrition.
And the last two?
Gone—slipped into the chaos.
Waiting.
Watching.
Merilyn, Mezra, and Erenhold exchanged glances amid the haze of blood and smoke.
This wasn't the end.
This was just the beginning.
Of perhaps something worse.