TU15. Helltide Ebbs and Flows

The bombardment ceased after what felt like an eternity.

The voracious wind rushed back in, howling like a pack of starving wolves. It took minutes for the chaotic smoke to clear, finally revealing a massive crater with a shimmering Phoros barrier at its nucleus.

The surrounding soil and rock had been melted into a molten black sludge. The river, which had once flowed freely, trickled back down only to sizzle into grey vapour the moment it touched the superheated ground.

"Damn it…" Aurora muttered, dismissing her barrier.

She opened and closed her palms experimentally, feeling the slight strain lingering in her muscles.

Thanatos watched her with unblinking eyes, amused by her quick reactions. "Well," he said, clearing his throat, "I cannot be destroyed, as my physical body no longer exists."

"Sorry, bad habits," Aurora replied.

Her eyes continually surveyed the irregular, jagged tops of the slopes that now formed their horizon. She ignored the acrid sting in her eyes and nose; it was nothing but a mere nuisance.

"What are you looking for?" Thanatos asked, tilting his head.

"Enemies." An unusual grin painted the corner of Aurora's lips. "I suspected their plan would be a simple one. They will try to exhaust my mana. Another battle of attrition, I presume."

"Oh… You meant that overly long bombardment was just the beginning?" Thanatos watched as the silver-haired arcanist took a long sip from the Everfeast arc gourd.

Aurora grunted in response as she wiped her lips with her glove before dismissing the gourd into a speck of light.

In the distance, battlecries and the powerful blast of war horns echoed across the damned landscape. Judging from the intensity of the seismic tremors, she deduced this had to be a massive battalion, easily rivalling the size of the forces she had fought in Britannia.

"Guessed it," Aurora grumbled. She hated being right at such an awful time. "They aren't completely mindless armies, are they? Perhaps, there’s a mastermind behind this—" 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

In a matter of seconds, lines of dark horsemen crested the horizon. Their glowing red eyes stared down at her with pure malice. Black and red flags fluttered wildly against the treacherous winds. Their shifting numbers were a nauseating sight. It was like watching a swarm of red roaches crawling over and consuming the entire landscape.

Aurora glanced over to her companion. "Give me something fitting for this endeavour, please?" she requested politely.

Thanatos returned a sharp nod, his mind already made up.

Confident, the Empress took a step forward, extending her hand to the side. Her boots sank into the hot mud.

With a magical whir, Thanatos's weapon materialised in her palm. This time, it was a long obsidian scythe — the War Scythe of the Reaper. It was engraved with intricate details of a terrifying griffin with a dark mane, large red eyes, and razor-sharp claws.

At the crest of the hill, a demon warlord with a cast-iron skull raised his gleaming glaive and pointed it directly at her location. Tension skyrocketed as the demon riders roared, a terrifying ecstasy burning in their eyes.

"Unsullied—" one of many demon warlords shouted, his voice deep and rattling. "Charge!"

The Unsullied had been created for one thing, the thrill of the battle. They possessed fearless minds that longed for carnage, driven by the absolute belief that death was merely the end of their service.

Their hellmares galloped, pounding into the battlefield and sending shockwaves through the ground as they surged down the slope. Hundreds, if not thousands, converged on her single location. Together, they formed semi-ranks of multi-layered rings, weapons drawn and ready to strike.

"Ventiff—Go!" Aurora shouted.

Black mist pushed her upward with incredible acceleration. The legendary beast manifested beneath her.

The hellmare mounts of the enemy hissed hot exhaust from their nostrils, slanting their ears back for the joust.

"Fall!" Aurora commanded, voice booming. Her eyes glowed with an ominous silver light. Her movements became a mirage to the naked eye, a streak of two silver lines and one purple line spiralling into motion.

A sickening clash rang out, accompanied by the spit of violet flames. Hellmares and riders alike were cleaved perfectly in half. Their upper torsos were propelled into the grim sky, while their lower halves plunged into the heated soil. The cacophony of clanking metal, thudding bodies, and guttural roars filled the battlefield.

Aurora spun her scythe like a flawless pendulum. The momentum reached its zenith before accelerating into another devastating sweep.

The first rank fell, blood splashing as they collapsed into a discarded pile of flesh and armour. Their soundless screams were the product of minds failing to comprehend the swiftness of their own deaths.

Aurora hacked and slashed through the relentless assault. The War Scythe was the perfect tool for wide, reaping arcs against the horde.

It's getting harder to gauge the full scale of it, Aurora's mind reeled. I'll need to push toward the higher ground. "Get the damned wretch!" a demon bellowed in the distance, likely another warlord.

Horsemen pursued her from the rear, but Ventiff unleashed a thunderous shriek, stunning the charging crowd. Then came the beast's curved claws, swiping effortlessly through their armour and bones. The clanking of tearing metal was so loud it rose above the roaring battlecries.

"Perish!" Aurora lunged into the air. Her scythe gleamed under the bleak light before she struck downward, unleashing a shockwave that crushed demonic horses and the ground beneath them alike.

A beam of fire shot toward her. In that microsecond, she continued fuelling her dance of massacre. She cut down the nearest enemies, a dozen collapsing helplessly, while simultaneously allowing the incoming fire to graze and deflect harmlessly off her armour.

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"Weak, as I thought," Aurora mumbled, her eyes singling out a spellcaster amidst the semi-circular rows of heavy-armoured demons.

"Kill her, now!" the robed demon spat, frantically waving his hands to conjure a fire spell.

Before he could finish uttering his incantation, Aurora closed the distance with terrifying speed. She seemingly teleported right in front of him.

Her scythe arched unnaturally wide. With a single, swift strike, the protective bodies of the guards before him flew apart into mangled pieces.

The robed demon tumbled backwards onto his rear, splashing into the crimson mud. "Don't—"

His plea was interrupted by a merciless severing of his midsection. The Empress gave no quarter to those who dared defy her.

The battlefield was pure chaos and mayhem, filled with the fearless Unsullied pressing the front lines. No matter how many times Aurora and Ventiff decimated their ranks, the fast-moving horsemen surged forward to replace the fallen.

Aurora caught a glimpse of the shifting ranks spreading across the inclined hills. She could no longer see the soil between them; they were packed so tightly that their war banners and weapons interlaced like a dizzying bamboo forest.

"Empyrion!" Aurora cast.

A cone of raging magical fire pushed through the enemies. They were flattened like a field of flowers being mown down.

Seeing an opening, Aurora leapt from her mount, her legs uncoiling with incredible momentum. She landed in an alley paved with corpses; the sheer impact of her landing sent guts and gore spilling outward.

In one smooth motion, she swung the scythe, letting its handle rest firmly beneath her armpit. "Now, your reckoning!"

Aurora roared a battlecry. Her breakneck agility exceeded the sound barrier in a fraction of a second. A shockwave boomed, and she became a force of nature, spearing and mowing down everything in her path.

Her hands and arms moved in perfect synchronisation, her fingers performing a deadly micro-dance to spin the scythe. Agonising screams and the perpetual, grinding sound of metal shearing through bone followed her as she pushed up the hill.

In less than a minute, she leapt to the top of the crater's rim. She slammed her weapon down before executing a wide spin that unleashed a full-moon crescent of pure destruction. The devastating attack left nothing but twitching demon corpses in her immediate proximity.

Meanwhile, Ventiff shrieked, thrashing the ground with its gigantic wings to prevent the demons from attacking Aurora's rear. Even so, the demon riders had begun to tire the legendary beast with relentless hit-and-run tactics. It was a fatal toll, but one the demons were more than willing to trade.

Surveying the full legion, Aurora found herself gritting her teeth.

The sight before her was a massive warband, boasting a terrifying variety of forms. There were lycanthropes, giant wolves, heavy juggernauts, flying harpies, and towering giants. They marched in barely uniform ranks, bristling with weapons and razor-sharp claws.

It hit Aurora then: this was their homeworld. The very place where they were created. And if the theories regarding time dilation between realms were true, these creatures had been here since the dawn of time.

"It's the largest force since the Battle of York," Thanatos noted, reappearing beside her.

"This is likely ten times that," Aurora estimated, hissing the air from her lungs. "This battle appears designed to last months, if not weeks."

From her vantage point at the protruding rim of the hill, Aurora pointed at the distant movement of tortoise-like siege vehicles, pulled forward by gigantic demons. "There's a method to their warbands… they've planned their logistics well. First the bombardment, then the fast-moving battalions to exhaust me, and now the heavy hitters."

"Did I mishear you say weeks?" Thanatos exclaimed, briefly distracted by the grand scale of the threat before him.

"You did not mishear," Aurora affirmed bluntly. "But I shall be swift. This cannot last more than a few days."

At last, Thanatos found his smile. "Death will be paramount."

"Exactly," Aurora grunted in response. A new strategy was already forming in her mind; she would need to adapt her fighting style. "Ventiff, maintain your guard on the rear!" she bellowed.

The beast shrieked in a low tone, acknowledging the command.

The Empress took off into a sprint. "Hippos Theios!"

The divine steed manifested directly beside her. She reached out, clutched the armoured saddle, and vaulted herself upward.

Floating in the air, the demon arcanists relayed their orders. "Attack!"

The steed maintained its speed, holding course toward the flowing enemy lines. With her scythe trailing at her side, Aurora narrowed her intense eyes with anticipation. "No quarter. Full charge!"

The Helltide ebbed, flowed, and finally crashed against the Empress. It was one hero against the horde, the unstoppable force meeting an illusion of infinity. The battlefield filled with hollow screams, and the sky bled red; it looked like the end of time itself.

A sharp whoosh sliced through the air, a powerful crescent unleashed, decimating the flying harpies. Their high-pitched wail left their lungs for the last time.

On the ground, Aurora hacked into a row of heavy juggernauts, a terrifying fan of purple flame spitting from her blade. Guttural screams heaved from their collapsing lungs before their mangled parts dropped to the dirt with a collective, wet thud.

The divine steed neighed, exhaling hot breath as it stampeded through the squirming demons, crushing armour and bone beneath its powerful hooves. The relentless beast galloped forward, allowing Aurora to lead with Thanatos's scythe, swiping through the enemy ranks. Heads and limbs flew through a haze of crimson.

How does it feel? Thanatos's voice rang telepathically in her mind.

“It's a wonderful weapon,” Aurora replied. A smirk flickered across her face as she continued her reaping.

For a while, the laborious battle felt like trying to shovel waves off a beach. But when Aurora decided it was time for the real purge, she tucked the scythe over her left shoulder, locking the handle in place.

She clasped both hands in front of her, simultaneously channelling a hefty, terrifying amount of mana into her limbs.

"It's time you taste your own medicine!" Aurora roared.

Her intense glare locked onto one of the enemy warlords. For the first time, his red face turned a sickly pale.

"Retreat!" the robed warchief shouted, saliva flying from his maw. The shifting forces grew erratic as they scrambled to break the engagement.

It was too late.

"Take this—Empyrion-Hydra!"

Her clasped hands formed a perfect triangle. Index to index, thumb to thumb. A hydra forged entirely from hellfire erupted into the sky. Its sheer size dwarfed even Ventiff, gracing the skyline with its apocalyptic presence for the first time.

Demons forged in the depths of Tartarus, creatures who knew no fear of flame and boasted near-immunity to its touch, could only stare in horror. Their jaws dropped in baffling realisation. This was a heat that far exceeded their immunity. This intensity would bring their absolute ruination.

"Destroy them all!" Aurora commanded, raising her fingers high. Her silver hair fluttered majestically in the wild thermal breeze.

The fire hydra snapped its multitude of heads in anticipation.

“Destroy!” Aurora chopped her four fingers down, signalling the execution.

The ravenous beast, boasting hundreds of slithering heads, slammed into the ground. The earth scorched and exploded into molten slag. The enemies fled in sheer terror, but chaos had already consumed them. Towering giants burned, their massive bodies collapsing with thunderous thuds like felled timber.

Much like a sentient being, the fiery beast followed, thrashing and slithering, leaving deep, steaming grooves of molten rock along its path.

Thanatos felt the radiating heat against his mask. "Such a fine beast you have!" Their echoing screams of agony were like music to his ears.

"It's not… a beast. It's rather a simple construct," Aurora corrected, her tone completely impassive.

"Oh," Thanatos gasped, a flicker of disappointment flashing in his eyes.

Seeing the broken ranks and fleeing survivors, Aurora halted her steed. She caught a micro-break, wiping a single, trickling bead of sweat from her cheek. One bead of sweat. That was the only toll the first wave of the Helltide had managed to claim from the Empress.