Noise, smell and blood, that’s all this war was turning into. The screams of the dead, the screeches of the Void beasts, blood everywhere. The smell in the air was horrendous, and it was all a lot of people could do to not throw up the moment the had it in their noses. But as per normal eventually that scent even managed to fade into the background of war, of just trying to survive. Standing still meant death, not paying attention meant death, a moment’s hesitation meant death.

Sirona was out of speeches to give to rally those who were here in the Marsh with her fighting against the beasts coming through from the Void. She had done as much speaking as she could when things had started and they weren’t getting better as time went on. There too many beasts, even for her Diving powers she wasn’t able to kill them fast enough before they overran people along the fighting lines. Sirona had watched as one by one her Clergy were overrun and slaughtered by the beasts, and there was nothing she could to help them. Sure the angel was immortal and wouldn’t die from these things, but that didn’t mean the attacks didn’t still hurt in some way, and immortal or not breathing in toxic vapours may not kill her but it would damn well make her sick for a few moments.

With a grunt Sirona threw her Faith shield and slashed at more of the chompers that were close by. Her shield collided with one chomper, killed it and then bounced over to the next one thanks to the enchants on it and the sheer force that Sirona was able to throw it thanks to her Strength Aspect. Sirona was also glowing, literally, as she allowed the Light Aspect to fill her with brilliance and she was a radiant beacon among the dead and drying.

Sirona was also emitting an aura of Strength to those fighting along side her. Anyone that was fighting on her side and came close enough would feel an immediate gain in their overall Strength. Be it physical, spiritual, mental or magical, it wasn’t a lot more, but it was something extra at least. Her shield came back to her and Sirona caught it time to bash a chomper with it before cutting its head off with her sword. Sirona threw her hand out and a beam of pure light burned through some of the beasts leaving chard corpses behind and a few of the plaguers caught in the light beam burst before they could get close enough to the line to be a problem.

But the offensive line was long and Sirona could only do so much against what seemed like infinite foes.

OOC: Easy access to the bestiary clink HERE

Attie was just arriving on the battlefield in the marsh. She had been flying through the skies in the form It seemed only a few days ago that she was using portals to hop around Revallir to warn others about the incoming threats of the Eldritch abominations. Now it was time to fight against them. She would have been there earlier but she had to replenish her supplies of potions, rations, and a few other materials before joining the battle. A bandana wrapped around the bottom half of her face helped keep her from breathing the toxic vapors. Attie ran towards the army to join them in their battle against the monsters, though she was careful to stay ahead of the other soldiers as her magic was more destructive than most. Raising her hands up towards a Chomper, flames erupted from her palms to burn the monster to the ground. Fire swirled around her as she began burning every Eldritch abomination in her path. Attie’s only purpose at that moment was to destroy the enemy, leaving only ashes of them behind. Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind and she held out her hands towards the massive amounts of monsters. Her hands glowed with a bright red as bright magic began to build in the group of Eldritch monsters.

“EXPLOSION!” She shouted at the top of her lungs. 

Attie gave the other soldiers near it a brief warning before the magic burst into an explosion. Pieces of the monsters’ flesh soared through the air while the rest of them were obliterated. In a matter of seconds there was a gap where a portion of the Eldritch used to be. Attie could feel her mana level significantly lowered after that last spell and quickly hide behind a boulder to sip down a mana potion that she had brought with her. She snatched the potion and chugged down the bright blue liquid before smashing the empty bottle on the ground. Flames swirled around her as she felt her magical strength returning. 

She leaped out from behind the boulder and sent a fireball towards one of the Plaguers in the distance, causing it to burst into an explosion due to the feeling of being threatened. A soldier had pierced another beast through the chest as quickly as he could but a Chomper was approaching from behind, threatening to kill him. Attie leapt towards the monster and plunged her fire-tipped fingers into the Chomper’s eye sockets. She sent columns of flames through the Chomper’s skull, burning it to a crisp. She dropped the monster and moved onto the next. There was no time to check if the soldier man was alright, there were too many Eldritch for that.

Attie kept fighting and ended up next to Sirona. While the angel was busy fighting monsters, a Plaguer was creeping up to her on her left. Attie snatched her whip from her belt and struck the beast, the tail wrapping around it trapping the creature. Then she used her right hand to burn the mosnter’s face as quickly as she could, as she wanted to avoid experiencing its bio bomb.

"RELEASE THE CENTIPEDES!!!" Just because you weren't on the front line didn't mean you were any less dangerous, and Shiloh proved her point with the arrival of her mechanical war machines. Even if she couldn't be everywhere at once, she had plenty of things at her disposal to assist those putting their lives on the line. The information gifted to her from Natsumi was invaluable, and she had increased the production of models she already had en masse. It didn't matter if it was a Stalker, Corrupted, or Infecter–they'd all be turned into a finely blended paste by the Centipede Diggers. Unlike beings of flesh and blood, machines weren't affected by whatever mutagen the hideous Infecters had. And that was just one of their good points. The Diggers mowed through hordes of stalkers like a scythe through grass, easily covering more ground than an infantry squadron. However there were piles of the 'remains' left behind, leaving a clear trail of destruction. And if the concentration of enemies weren't dense enough, Shiloh would make them burrow underground until they found another patch to grind.

Right now she was only sending in Centipedes and thelyphonida machines to dull the brunt of the invasion. The Bakulaw spider drones still weren't ready, and she had plans for them. No doubt seeing one's own fall in battle would hit hard, and even if she couldn't fully understand Shiloh tried to empathize. Not everyone saw machines in the same light as she did. But she was no healer, so any of the angel's clergy who found themselves cornered would have a chimeric scorpion-like machine charge to their aid, ready to buy them a few moments to fall back or heal. And if the situation was too dire, the thelyphonida would withdraw the wounded from battle, using their own mechanical bodies to shield them from greater injury. Using aura sight she detected small skittering forms easily missed in the carnage, and sent the angelic goddess an abrupt telepathic message.

'Incoming Infecters, stay alert. Make sure appropriate physical barriers are applied. One bite and you'll get another Twisted in the making, so destroy them at all costs. They're incredibly weak compared to the rest, so one smack should do it in. The following is a visual depiction of what said Infecters look like; viewer discretion is advised.' The warning was given moments before the mental image of an Infecter would flash in the goddess' mind in excruciating detail, courtesy of the Nameless One's archival efforts. The telepathic transmission ended as soon as it came, leaving Sirona with one more thing to worry about.

The call had come; Revaliir required its citizens to answer.

Artiya'il was no soldier, not by nature. Her role, as she had been given by her father, was to judge the souls of those suffering the weight of Grief - be they classed as bad or good, all were judged fairly, and Artiya'il would act accordingly. Her job, her duty, her entire existence had been to remove Grief from those who were judged as worthy, so that they might grow stronger and fulfil their destinies without the burden of overwhelming sorrow.
Her family had never understood her, had never been able to comprehend how she could almost blindly do her duty without questioning it, or in fact becoming consumed by the sheer weight of the despair she carried within herself – the evidence of which was physically evident, for her white hair and her pure white feathers were slowly turning blood red, whenever she consumed the Grief of another. How had she not lost her mind to it?
Her family asked the wrong questions. And that was the thing wasn’t it? For they had never once considered, let alone asked, how strong she truly was. Physically, Artiya’il paled in comparison to many of her siblings; if it came down to a fight she could certainly hold her own, and she was no frail thing during times of war (though she tended to avoid being directly involved in the conflict if she could) and she could never be called the strongest of them in that sense… but not one of them had ever really thought about who and what she was, nor the words they so often said to her… all that weight… all that pain and despair… it did not affect her but it would others… and there was the thing that all of them forgot, the thing that they never asked – if Artiya’il could remove Grief, could she give it back?

Yes.

She could.

What God had never told the Host was this – while the rest of you might be physically stronger, or have stronger powers, Artiya’il was the strongest of them all, for she carried the weight of the world within her breast and never missed a stride, should she ever turn that which she had devoured outwardly… well… she could have destroyed even God’s mind, though he had never admitted that to the Host, he knew that his Daughter was aware of her strength, but he was also acutely aware that Artiya’il did not wish to turn that which she had taken away, into a weapon to harm others… unless she really, really had to.
Like today.

The world screamed at her; the Grief of every creature living in Revaliir, called out to her heart, pulling at her, gnawing at her mind, as every instinct within her cried out, screamed loudly in agony, begging her to take away their suffering and relieve them of that which burden them. She wanted to, she wanted nothing more than to do her duty and free them of their suffering… but she had another task, she was Champion to the Goddess Shiloh, Revaliir was in danger which meant that her Goddess was in danger… she would aid Shiloh and once this enemy had been defeated then, and only then would she complete her task and remove the Grief now consuming their world.

As she Gate travelled to the Marsh, she was hit by the sound of the dying and of the beasts that had descended from the Void to destroy Revaliir. She could feel them under her skin, so much so that she wanted nothing more than to scratch them out. They were hurting this world, but more importantly they were looking to hurt the lives of those who had become dear to her. Cao, Alairia, Kale, Shiloh – they were amongst all of this, they were as liable to suffer as anyone. And she would not have that.
It was Sirona’s presence that had drawn the Archangel of Grief to this exact spot. She had not had much chance to reconnect with her lost, younger sister, and now that Sirona was a Goddess she felt as though she were even further from her reach, after the fight with Gabriel in her own Temple… Artiya’il had seen a side of her sister that she had never in her life anticipated seeing before. It had broken the heart of the usually apathetic Angel of Grief, but she had work to do, and she would aid her sister where she could – they would find the time to reconnect later, for now there was work to be done.

Seeing the destruction before her, Artiya’il allowed herself a rare surge of emotion, her skin positively tingling, the despair within her bubbling to the surface – knowing that for the first time in centuries it was to be called upon. Artiya’il closed her storm grey eyes, knelt to the ground as several Chompers turned their attentions to her, and let out a slow exhalation. As she opened her eyes once more, they had turned completely black – just as a shadow grew around her. A dark smile crossed the Archangel’s face as the Chompers stopped dead the moment they touched it, their bodies trembling as the shadows began to swirl and shift, gripping at their legs, pulling themselves upwards.
”Welcome to Despair,” she whispered darkly, watching as her shadows began to shift and change, manifesting themselves into flickering silhouettes – representations of those she had either removed grief from, or whom the grief had been about. This was her army; this was the darkness within the Angel… and it was terrifying. Her Manifestations grasped the Chompers tightly, infecting their minds, not with madness or fear, but the sheer, devastating, weight of grief. It was debilitating and immediately they began to drown in it, just as all the other foul beasts from the Void would drown under the weight of the Grief Artiya’il had devoured over the years.

One such beast dared come close to her sister, Artiya’il snarled, hand reaching out to cast a stasis field around the monstrosity, pinning it to the spot so that she could teleport herself directly to Sirona’s side, she clasped her hands on the Chomper’s head and filled it’s mind with Grief direct from herself, the creature screaming in despair as, what little mind, it had left cracked under the pressure of it all.
”Greetings little sister,” Artiya’il said softly, turning her black eyes to Sirona… if ever there was a time to fear the Archangel – it was now. She looked up, her eyes finding her Goddess as she smiled at Shiloh – this would be a new side for even her Goddess to witness!

As Sirona fought on, driven by the need to destroy this Evil, it was also out of a duty to the mortals around her. She was immortal, and while she could be hurt temporarily Sirona was still immortal, they would fall where she would not. Knowing that only made Sirona fight harder, not wanting to show any of those around her that, because of her Divinity, she would be lax in fighting, she’d fight as hard as she could. She’d protect those around her as best she could, she realized not too long after this had started that she wouldn’t be able to protect everyone, so she had to settle for protecting who she could, it was all she could do.

The sound of a whip cracking beside her made Sirona glance at the young human woman using it. It saddened the angel to see someone so young out in this hellscape fighting along side everyone else. In a small moment Sirona waved her hand towards Attie’s whip, using her magic to imbue the weapon with Light magic to better deal damage to these fiends. Short of flying the young woman out of here it was the least Sirona could do.

Soon after Sirona sensed that she wasn’t the only Divine in the area, Shiloh was here now she could feel. With her she had brought her mechanical creations that Sirona could now see were out in the fields grinding through the beasts in mass numbers. Yet there was always more to fill the gaps. But at least Sirona didn’t need to care about Shiloh’s creations, they didn’t have Life so Sirona didn’t care about them. Even if they were handy to have around in this case.

When she felt Shiloh call to her telepathically Sirona listened, great, more things to deal with! I will keep an eye, I have something to help with that. Sirona replied back as she cleared out an area in front of her with a blast of concussive force before calling up her magic. In a brilliant flash before Sirona appeared her Light Elemental, a majestic beast that looked akin to a dragon and a griffin mixed, it’s ‘flesh’ a shining golden hue. It gave a call and Sirona smiled to it for a brief moment. ”Seek and destroy the Infesters.” Sirona instructed it, it gave a whooping call once more and took off to start stamping out the Infesters.

As it ran off it was then that Sirona, after running her sword through another beast, saw that her sister, Arti, was now there and the Chomper that she was dealing with. Sirona nodded back, noting her big sister’s black eyes, that was, even to Sirona, off putting. ”Big sister.” Sirona replied, she was happy to see Arti here though. Truthfully Sirona was wondering what Gabriel and Uriel were doing at this moment. Were they fighting somewhere? Staying out of the fighting in their own arrogance to the situation? Sirona didn’t know.

But, before she could ask there was a rumbling in the ground and Sirona looked out into the sea of the beasts to see something new coming towards them. It was Rhino beast, composed of multiple bodies and this one was about ten feet tall and charging towards the front line, uncaring for any beasts in its way. Sirona glared at it, glanced towards Arti for a moment before Sirona changed into a figure of pure Light.

She was gone a blink, faster as Light itself she was away and appeared again flying towards the Rhino. She had come out of her Light form midmovement, used some of that momentum to rocket through the Rhino, sword and shield first. It exploded from the inside out and Sirona was gone again in a flash of Light only to appear again where she had in the first place.

Sword and shield at the ready again Sirona continued to carve up anything that came near her, her sister or the young woman that was close to her.

The angel imbued her whip with some sort of enchantment or power up, to which Attie was amazed. She was still unfamiliar with many forms of magic so having the opportunity to see it for herself was special, even if they were in the middle of one of the fiercest battles of all time. Attie decided to test out her whip and used it to snare another Eldritch beast. The whip was a lot stronger than before and managed to cause deeper wounds to the creature. She burnt it to a crisp before moving on to the next monster. There were so many and their own soldiers were mostly mortal. Where was the void getting all of these monsters from anyway?

Attie didn't have the time to ponder the question as there were many more beasts to take care of. Suddenly, a giant mechanical centipede entered the battlefield and plowed through thousands of enemies, causing Attie's jaw to drop. Thousands of questions poured through her mind as she watched the mechanical creature destroy massive amounts of monsters. Attie had no idea who built the machine but it was clear that the centipede was on their side. 

Before she got time to process what had just happened, a voice popped into her mind warning her about the infesters and explaining what they looked like. Attie did not have the magic to respond with a thank you but appreciated the information regardless. A bright appeared next to Attie and she realized that Sirona had summoned a Light Elemental. The creature looked as though it was a mix between a dragon and a griffin. If there was a term for that type of animal, Attie did not know it. The magical creature didn't take any time, leaping straight into battle to go after the infestors. 

A Chomper was ready to leap out at Sirona but before it could even touch her, an angel with red feathers in her wings began pressing her hands against its head, defeating it somehow. Attie didn't understand what kind of magic had happened but she did see that the Eldritch beast was defeated. These two had demonstrated their massive amounts of power and Attie realized that they did not need any sort of protection. 

While Attie was distracted, an Infester took a chance to leap at her and knock her down. Attie managed to stop its jaws with her whip and began struggling to get it off of her. One bite was all that was needed for her to be gone. Fear ran through her mind as she struggled and a burning sensation built up in her throat. Unable to hold it back, burning flamed erupted from her mouth and burned the monster to ashes. She jumped to her feet and kept fighting the oncoming monsters, not even allowing herself time to be amazed by the flames pouring out of her mouth.  In the corner of her eye, she spotted a solider who was struggling against a Chomper. Attie wasted no time and used her whip to trap the creature then burnt it to the ground with fire. She stopped the onslaught of flames to prevent the soldier from getting burnt and held out her hand to him. 

"Come on. Now isn't the time to be laying down!" She joked with a soft smile. 

Attie knew that the world around them was hell. She knew that the fear of death was looming throughout everybody's mind. However she also knew that somebody needed to help others have confidence, otherwise they would be filled with nothing but despair. Unless you were an ancient goddess or an all powerful being, despair during a battle typically didn't help. The soldier took her hand and got to his feet, running off to join the other soldiers in battle. Attie opted to stick with the two angels as she knew that her explosion spells wouldn't hurt them as much as it would hurt others if the spell was too close. Flames swirled around her body as she cast another explosion spell towards a group of monsters. 

"EXPLOSION!" She shouted as the explosion destroyed many Eldritch beasts. 

Before they entered the battlefield, Shiloh had told Artiya'il of what they were fighting against. The information she had been given from Natsumi was shared with the angel and no details were spared. It was a fiend that fed and perpetuated itself through a cycle of anger and hatred, the Wrath-class world eater Dagron who had caused Verya's fall. Doing all that she could to hold back her simmering rage, the deity stared out at the carnage from the deck of her airship with a faraway look. For all the torment, all the fear, all the pain they had been put through, there was only one thing she wanted to say. In an unnervingly calm voice, the deity spoke to her champion from the bottom of her heart:


Yes, they'd return all of the injustice those world eaters had given them a hundred-fold and more…with interest. There would be no mercy. Not for those bloated, wretched eldritch scum who saw Revaliir as their plaything. But for now she would wait like a scorpion, watching in the sand for the perfect opportunity to strike back. And when that moment came, they'd regret ever thinking this world and its inhabitants were worth devouring. As Artiya'il carried out her wish Shiloh was pleased. They both understood what it meant to turn pain into strength. After all what failed to break your spirit only made you stronger, and more dangerous. And for monsters who knew nothing but their primal urges to feed and destroy, they were completely vulnerable. They couldn't bear that weight, and it crushed them. Now it was her turn to retaliate, and she wasn't holding back. Bolstered by the power vested in her from the Voice, Shiloh channeled her galvanic weaving into her most deadliest form–highly volatile spheres of electric charge that drifted freely through the air before violently exploding–ball lightning. Lasting far longer than a rain of lightning bolts, she turned the marsh's airspace into a floating minefield. Just one touch would trigger a deadly discharge that would blast the victim with searing electricity. 

No one was safe, especially not the Void monsters. The wind began to blow, dispersing her glowing lightning charges into the wetlands, adding an additional hazard to the bog. No matter how you approached it, contact was fatal. The incoming screams and charred corpses proved their effectiveness. Shiloh then withdrew into a portal to Canelux. Sirona and her sister were already holding the line; Zanar and Angela were maintaining the other continent's defense. She needed to give as much support to everyone as she could to ensure they held their ground. Nemesis and Serafina as Death and Fear were more than capable of keeping their positions, and she especially knew about the former from their brief encounter at Perditi. Darkness was his ally, and the fear created from this chaos would increase his power.

Artiya'il's eyes flickered to her Goddess; and a dark, terrifying smile, spread across the Archangel's face. Smiling was fairly foreign to the Angel at the best of times, but this expression was truly spine tingling, for there was no warmth in it at all, only the sheer, unbridled joy at the horrors she intended to unleash upon the creatures from the Void. Shiloh had done well in informing her Champion of what was to come, silently the Archangel had committed every piece of information she had been given to memory, and now she intended to use it against these intruders to ensure their fall. Artiya'il knew the Sins all too well, her own siblings suffered at the hands of them, even if they had not realised it. She herself was as guilty as any… and now she was sharing her Gluttony with these monsters, giving back that which she had devoured so that they could share in the suffering she had shouldered all this time. 

Her Goddess had told her to make them suffer… and that was exactly what she intended to make them do. 

Even her Father had been terrified of her, fearful that one day she would turn her failing gaze upon him, and judge that it was time he saw the world through the eyes of those he had tormented. Artiya'il had dared to call him a petulant child once; it had been in this moment that God had shown his true colours, and Artiya'il had worked out that even he was afraid of what she could do to him if she so wished to. She was strong, stronger than all of them, for she would not bow, let alone break, beneath the weight of that which she carried… but she could have turned him mad with it, had she ever decided to 'gift' him with even a taste of what lay within her heart. 

Shiloh wanted these world eaters and their manifestations to suffer, and Artiya'il would comply, in fact nothing would give her greater pleasure… and there wasn't much that had ever given Artiya'il pleasure. Just as Nemesis drew power from Fear, Artiya'il was able to gather more grief and suffering to herself as they fought - both from those losing friends and loved ones and also the creatures themselves, turning it against them moments later. While she could be harmed, she was invincible in terms of her reserves, she would not ask permission, not today, today she would remove Grief as her Father had instructed her to - judging swiftly and taking that which was deemed to be her's, she had only begun to ask out of courtesy… but there was no time for etiquette on the battlefield, and there was work to do, suffering to be shared. 

The Archangel would have been impressed by her sister's creation… if such things impressed her, but as ever, the apathetic Angel merely cast a glance its way and moved on. That said, she watched as Sirona became a form of pure Light, exploding the Rhino from the inside before she returned to her physical form. "Divinity suits you Sirona. If only I could say that to Father's face," she smiled, again, the expression somewhat unnerving given the lack of warmth and the colour of her eyes. Several of her manifestations returned to her side, the silhouettes trembling and wailing in their own despair. "Hush. There is work to be done, you can return home to me once we have saved this world and gathered the rest to us. Go. There are others who need to be taught what it means to suffer," she said sternly to the sickly shadows before they dispersed, each one letting out a horrifying scream as they grasped the nearest Void creature, embracing it tightly and forcing it to suffer under the weight of their combined grief, all while Artiya'il watched them… almost fondly.