"Kill them all!"
Seeing this, the Gigantes rose in fury, gritting through the searing pain of their burns, and swung their weapons at the human heroes trying to flee the sacrificial grounds.
Hanging in midair, Lorne narrowed his eyes. The golden wheel behind him turned three times, its markers settling on the Boar of destruction, the White Horse that drove the sun, and the Flame that purified corruption.
"Get out of my way!"
With a cold, low shout, his arm, crossed with dozens of glowing crack-lines of light, tightened its grip on the Nation-Founding Spear and swung it forward. A crimson light of annihilation surged down into the Gigantes below with unmatched force.
Boom!
The earth shook and the mountains trembled at once as a scorching blast of air tore the charging Gigantes apart and spread outward in every direction. Even the nearby Titan temple shuddered under the force, the sigils of the Gods carved above it flickering unsteadily.
That the Gigantes had built a sacrificial ground this vast underground, meant to offer sacrifices to the Old Gods. And more than half of the Titan gods' sigils had already been awakened.
Could this be connected to that woman?
Lorne thought of the strange girl who had blocked his way deeper in. His gaze flickered as he studied the underground temple before him, and he raised the Nation-Founding Spear once more.
Hmmm.
As if sensing the threat from above, several crimson sigils inside the Titan temple hummed in unison and gathered into a single crimson stream of light that shot skyward.
Feeling the immense divine power packed within it, Lorne pulled the spear back at once to guard and threw everything into blocking the terrifying blow. The shockwave from the impact sent him flying upward.
Before he could steady himself, the entire underground world twisted like a scrambling puzzle cube, spinning around him, and flung him violently out through an opening that had torn itself apart.
Thud!
Amid a muffled blast, a falling figure crashed down hard.
Lorne shook his head and climbed up out of the deep crater. Looking at the utterly unfamiliar landscape and plant life around him, his face darkened.
Where in the world had this thing thrown him? Was this even still Thessaly?
Before he could work out where he was, the ground began to thrum with the muffled beat of hooves. Hundreds of women in light armor, bows slung across their backs, rode chestnut warhorses toward him, galloping in like clusters of burning flame.
~
Meanwhile, on a wasteland several miles from Thessaly.
Light patterns rippled, and the ground split open. A seductive young woman with hair like a waterfall of black-violet and amber eyes climbed up to the surface. She drew back her trembling arm, swayed, and dropped hard to her knees on the shaded green grass.
That man. So strong.
Still shaken, she looked down at the wound on her chest that refused to close, a shadow passing through her eyes.
Then she raised a pale, slender finger, caught a drop of golden-red blood on its tip, and brought it elegantly to her mouth. Her tongue stirred greedily around it, and a flush like drunkenness rose across her pale, pretty face.
Still, it was delicious.
Hope, love, kindness, joy. The nourishment that had given rise to that divine nature. She had missed this taste so much.
She savored it a while longer before rising slowly, her violet-black hair spilling over her shoulders. She lifted her gaze toward Thessaly in the distance and shook her head with something like regret.
A shame this particular ingredient fought back, and hurt quite a bit doing it.
If she wanted a proper taste of it, she would need to plan carefully.
Just as she raised a hand to stroke her smooth chin, weighing how to get what she wanted, a streak of crimson light fell into the dense forest nearby, and a tide of divine will spread outward from it.
She drew a slow breath, and something wistful crossed her lovely face.
A remnant of the Bronze line?
How convenient. Just when she was getting drowsy, someone brought her a pillow.
Her amber eyes opened slowly, turning with amusement toward the winged, red-haired woman in the trees.
Aphrodite, the Machine God, had come to investigate the disturbance, and she froze where she stood, an inexplicable chill crawling over her entire body.
~
The royal city of Thessaly.
"Where is everyone? Is anyone still alive?"
King Admetus wiped the blood from his face and stood back-to-back with his friend Telamon, striking weapon against shield to rally what remained of his forces.
"What are you shouting for? I'm not dead yet!"
Rubble shifted, and Caenis climbed out of a crater, one arm hanging limp, her whole body covered in cuts. She spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and let out an irritated snort.
One by one, warriors, mages, and priests emerged, some climbing out of the ruins, some rising from beneath broken stone, some standing up out of piles of the dead, all converging on King Admetus from every direction, raising spear and shield together, murmuring sacred words, and readying themselves for a final stand.
After hours of brutal fighting, the hastily built defensive line had collapsed entirely under the Gigantes' furious assault. They had no ground left to defend, and nowhere left to retreat.
The Gigantes at the perimeter looked at the city now lying wide open before them, at the few hundred surviving soldiers of Thessaly, and let out excited, savage grins.
Thoom! Thoom! Thoom! Thoom!
A sound like heavy drums and rolling thunder rose from the ground once more.
Mountain-like Titan giants strode forward, scooping up human corpses off the ground and stuffing them into their mouths to chew.
Watching their fallen comrades defiled this way, the defenders' eyes burned with rage fit to split.
But against dozens of Gigantes, monstrously strong and all but unkillable, there was nothing they could do.
Rrrrumble.
A low roar rolled in from the distance. Straining their eyes, the defenders saw, rising out of the dust, herds of monster beasts being driven out of the forest once more, sweeping across the wasteland in a vast tide toward the royal city of Thessaly.
Thousands of them, at least.
They really do think highly of us.
The few hundred exhausted defenders atop the ruins exchanged glances. Looking at the Gigantes closing to within a hundred meters, and the beast tide surging back toward them, each saw the same wild look reflected in the other's eyes.
Damn it. Let's take them all down with us.
From king to soldier, from hero to common man, they wiped the blood from their faces without a word, bared their teeth in fierce grins, and charged out past their useless defensive line, straight at the enemy before them.
Shff!
Just as the slaughter was about to begin, the sky and earth dimmed all at once, as if dusk had fallen like a curtain, and a blazing white flame streaked down from above, driving itself into the ravaged battlefield and planting itself squarely between the two armies.
That was... a spear?
Battered and black, like a withered branch.
"Twilight of ruin, the hour of judgment has come. Let the song of despair be sung here, proclaiming the end of sin and the doom of all things!"
Under the stunned gaze of both armies, the fierce shout rang out across the sky. The ether around them boiled and blazed, and ring after ring of magic circles lit up beneath the Gigantes' feet.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
In an instant, the earth split open, rivers boiled over, and pillar after pillar of blazing white flame erupted from the ground. Under that fierce blaze, the Gigantes and the driven monster beasts across the field turned to drifting ash in great swaths.
Clang!
Amid the drifting smoke, the withered-branch spear, pulled free of the rock, let out a bright, joyful ring. A figure with tousled brown-black hair and golden wings on their back crossed the scorched battlefield, light on their feet.
"Sorry. Got held up on the way here."
"Doesn't matter. You're right on time."
The King of Thessaly laughed heartily amid the ruins and raised his hand at once, gripping the one offered to him tight.
Beside him, Caenis knocked aside a few burning chunks of rubble with her shield and thumped her fist hard into Lorne's chest, shouting with excitement.
"Ha! Reliable as always. You saved us again. I'm about ready to fall in love with you!"
"Talk's cheap. You ought to show your appreciation properly."
"Show it how?"
"You're the most beautiful woman in Thessaly. Obviously, take him to bed!"
The survivors around them grinned wickedly and egged Caenis on.
Seeing Caenis's eyes glimmer with what looked like genuine interest, as if she were seriously considering taking him right there on the spot, Lorne broke into a cold sweat and waved his hands quickly to decline.
Just as the people of Thessaly were venting the pent-up swing of emotion from the battle, the ground rumbled with thunder again, and dozens more Gigantes climbed out of the fissures.
Again?
Everyone in Thessaly instinctively gathered their magic power and tensed into a combat stance.
Shff shff shff shff!
The next moment, a sharp tearing sound cut through the dim yellow sky to the southeast, and a dense cluster of black dots dropped straight out of the air.
Thud thud thud thud!
In an instant, heavy arrows a meter and a half long, their heads marked with glowing divine sigils, fell like a meteor shower, turning one Gigantes after another into pincushions.
Straining to look into the distance, the defenders could make out that the archers stood a good seven or eight hundred meters from where their arrows landed. That kind of arm strength and range put even Thessaly's finest god-blooded royal guard to shame, and it left everyone stunned.
Right after, a sound like shattering gold and jade rang out as a short, silver-haired woman on horseback swung a howling chain-mace, crashing it down like a falling meteor and grinding a few monster beasts in her path into pulp.
Blood sprayed through the air, and the horn of attack sounded.
"Amazon!"
A red-haired warrior woman on a chestnut horse swept her sword forward, and the earth thundered behind her.
Warrior women over two meters tall, built lean and powerful as cheetahs, clad in light armor, came sweeping across the wasteland, some mounted, some running on foot, all at nearly the same blistering speed, kicking up wild trails of dust behind them.
Their spears, each over two meters long, swept through the air with what looked like careless ease, and the fleeing monster beasts that met them went down in rows like wheat before a scythe, bones shattering, tendons snapping, organs bursting.
A beast tide nearly a thousand strong was cut clean through by these ferocious she-leopards within the space of a few breaths.
Seeing the women break through, the surrounding Gigantes roared and surged forward to meet them.
No matter how fierce, women were still just ants in the end. What could they possibly...
Thud thud thud thud!
Amid the low howl of the wind, streak after streak of blazing, blood-red light shot out, carving vicious gashes across the Gigantes' bodies.
Divine sigils. God-blood.
Women.
Amazon warriors!
Watching the scene unfold, the King of Thessaly felt his heart finally settle, moved almost to tears.
Lady Artemis, forgive me. I admit I used to speak too loudly to you.
Watching these fresh reinforcements join the battle, Lorne's eyes stayed calm, without a ripple.
Because he was the one who had drawn them here in the first place.
Still, when he noticed the red-haired woman leading them break through the enemy line and come charging straight at him, his eyelid twitched, and he edged back into the shadows.
(End of Chapter)