The Devourer of Gods burst from the star in a massive cosmic blast.
Except now it was even bigger than before.
The spikes on its side were more profound, coming out in ridged blades. More gems were speckled across its body, pink ones in addition to the blue ones. Its tail looked like it contained a universe, a swirling pink-and-blue galaxy rotating within, supposedly being a source of power. Its mouth was layered with glowing magenta teeth, and those jaws looked even sharper and more deathly than before.
The sheer size in comparison to its previous form overwhelmed Robyn with the slightest gaze. Not to mention the fact that it seemed to be much longer.
There was no use complaining, though. All she could do was keep fighting.
She ran along a platform, the Devourer chasing straight after her. She didn't react in time to the pink fireball that shot from its mouth, taking some damage and being set ablaze again. She jumped to dodge the next one, then flew upwards as the Devourer accelerated past where she'd been running, then flying backwards firing arrows at its body as it passed beneath her.
That was when the laser-grid started firing.
Bright beams lit up briefly around Robyn, followed by laser bolts firing down all the beams. In the first volley she was hit. She was still struggling how to process the attack as a second grid fired around her, and she was hit again. Then a third grid. She tried to move to the side to avoid the lines from one direction but was still hit by a laser bolt coming from below.
Blast! She felt like if the Devourer did this attack again she might be able to dodge it, but the learning process had cost her a lot of health. To make matters worse, she saw another pulsing white star in the air. What was happening now?
There was a loud ethereal roar, and the Devourer suddenly disappeared, only to be now emerging from the star. It charged towards her, more purple fireballs firing at her. She fired more typhoon arrows at it, dealing more damage, but based on how deathly this boss fight had been it felt like it would be eons until it went down. She saw Renee was chasing its tail now, hammering it with her Valediction, the thrown shark fins homing in on it for quite a considerable amount of damage.
The Devourer started turning partially transparent, only the pink and blue gems on its side remaining fully opaque to telegraph where it was, and then another laser-grid flashed around her.
It must've turned invisible like this during the first set of grids as well, but she hadn't noticed it. She fared better this time – dodged the first, misstepped on the second, but evaded the third.
Another star, another teleport. Except this time it was flying straight upwards, away from both Robyn and Renee.
"It's flying up to the planetoid!" Renee exclaimed.
Robyn glanced up in horror to realise she was right.
***
Sid ran to the planetoid entrance, eager to rejoin the fight now that his health had regenerated, only for the Devourer to burst up through the floor and straight through him.
"Good luck recovering from that!"
He was knocked to the side. No! My fully topped-up health! He pointed his summons towards its body, causing them to go on the attack. But then he saw it was curving around and burrowing straight into the planetoid, blasting into the entrance chamber and towards him.
"Cac!" Sid exclaimed, his mind reverting to basic monosyllabic swearing. He leapt upwards, avoiding the Devourer's charge and the fireballs spurting from its mouth. A grid of lasers appeared around him, but being experienced in a similar attack from the Empress Light, he simply accelerated himself extremely far upwards, out of the grid's reach.
Two more grids spawned around him, which he also avoided as he fell through the sky, but right after the last grid he found himself falling onto the Devourer's mouth.
"A fatal mistake!"
He grappled to the side of the planetoid. This was bad. He was on low health, and magic-mirroring wouldn't save him, as it would just bring him back inside the planetoid where the Devourer could just burrow straight in and gobble him up.
He flew upwards onto the top of the planetoid where he spotted Cirrus and Roxanne.
"Howdy!" Cirrus called. "This looks like a perfect night to light some candles, drink some wine and relax!"
"Whatever gave you that idea?" Sid shouted, mad that the two of them hadn't evacuated. He jabbed a finger up at the Devourer's scaled body. "Look at what we're fighting!"
"Geez, now that you mention it, I wish I could transform into an Alicorn and fly away. Oh wait, now that I mention it, I can!"
There was a puff of pink smoke. Sid blinked upon seeing Cirrus was gone, in her place a pink animal that looked like a unicorn but with cosmic-purple hair and a heart tattooed on her hind leg. Now greeted with that random transformation, Sid began to think that maybe the Devourer of God's choice of language wasn't the weirdest thing to come out of today.
Cirrus turned around, clopping on her feet. "Hop on! But don't get any ideas!"
"Flying headfirst into the D-O-G is the last thing I'd want to do," Sid said.
He landed on Cirrus's slender back. Once Roxanne had climbed on behind, he took to the skies, trailing
"Wouldn't this Nyan-cat trail make it easier for the Devourer to follow us?" Sid shouted.
"I don't know, but I hear it's amazing when the famous Devourer of Gods out in flap-jaw space, with the tuning fork, does a raw blink on Hara-kiri rock." Cirrus blinked her long alicorn lashes. "I need scissors! Sixty-one!"
"Here you go," Roxanne said from behind Sid.
"Thanks doll, you always come prepared with everything I need!" Cirrus preened. "Could you trim that stray hair in my tail please? Thankiesss!"
Sid just shrugged and looked back at the Devourer, only to realise it was still hot on their trail. His summons had dealt a considerable amount of damage to its head, but it was still a long way away from being defeated.
On the bright side, his health had regenerated a bit and he had led the Devourer quite far away from the planetoid.
He looked forward just in time to realise they were flying towards a twinkling portal-star.
He got Cirrus the Alicorn to pull up just in time to avoid the Devourer's head emerging from the star, her hooves flying them just above the Devourer's scaled body as it flew in the other direction.
He glanced back just in time to see the Devourer had turned around and was accelerating towards them.
"Geez, I'm getting tired," Cirrus groaned. "And besides, while you're riding me I can't rip you off-I mean offer you excellent deals you won't find –"
Sid just kicked off her back, leaving Cirrus and Roxanne sailing to the ground below. The Devourer curved upwards as he soared, Sid just narrowly avoiding getting hit by the head again, but his wings ran out of flight time around that moment, so he ended up landing on the Devourer's scaled body, bouncing off it for some damage before falling.
Now... magic-mirror!
Sid disappeared in a blaze of particles.
But instead of respawning inside the planetoid lab, he found himself standing in the middle of a desert, the purple sky still overhead.
***
"Okay, I've destroyed the bed," Renee said.
"Looks like Sid lured the Devourer away already," Robyn said.
"Yeah, but he'll still be weak. If we get low too and have to magic-mirror away, it'll put us all the way back at the centre of the world. Then it'll take the Devourer some time to fly all the way back."
"Unless he just teleports."
Renee shrugged. "We've got to buy whatever time we can."
The two of them ran out to the entrance.
"Here he comes," Renee said.
The Devourer, flanked by three Cosmic Guardians, bore straight towards them.
Renee concentrated on the Cosmic Guardians first, her Ghoulish Gouger easily able to get rid of them, while Robyn fired her Monsoon at the Devourer itself. She flew up into the air to avoid its charge, the Devourer charging straight through the planetoid and coming out about fifty degrees up its northern hemisphere.
She tried to glide back down, but realised she'd forgotten to account for the lower gravity this high up, meaning the Devourer easily hit into her.
"Delicious..."
She fell down, the now-familiar signature burn of the Devourer's touch scathing across her, but she wouldn't let herself stop. The Devourer had less than 300,000 health remaining – they were getting close!
She fell past the planetoid lab, saw Renee beginning to throw her Ghoulish Gouger at it. Robyn fired directly up, arrows hitting the Devourer's head and typhoons blazing into its body. She fell and fell and fell.
Right before she hit the ground she dashed to the side, but the Devourer simply angled its trajectory and landed a glancing blow against her armour.
Her health dropped to super low levels. They had brought down a lot of the Devourer's health, but it was pushing them to their limits. She felt herself reaching for the Terminus in her inventory. She needed to end this now.
"No."
She almost froze from the voice.
"It is not time."
She reached for a different item, and disappeared in a blaze of bright blue magic mirror particles.
Above, Renee kept hurling her weapons at the Devourer, then watched as another wormhole began to materialise in mid-air.
The Devourer was going to teleport.
To Sid and Robyn, and end them both.
She couldn't let that happen.
She was going to have to finish the Devourer right here, right now.
"For Statis!" she shouted, diving off the planetoid's platform entrance.
She threw her Valediction first, directly into the Devourer's tail for direct damage. Then, once she'd passed the tail, she switched to her Ghoulish Gouger. Freefalling dangerously close to the Devourer's body, she threw it upwards, angling the piercing weapon to hit as many segments as she could for maximum damage, even reaching the tail above.
She watched the health label fall away. 100,000... 80,000... She could do this!
Then she looked down and saw the Devourer had turned away from the forming wormhole, instead towards her.
It was all too easy for the Devourer to predict her speed in freefall, and she was hit, the Devourer strangely holding back on its boastful shouts.
Then, she realised she was about to fall into the curving section of the Devourer's body below her. She flapped her Elysian Wings to avoid that fate, but then saw the Devourer seemed to be performing loops to each side, forming a complete sphere of its body around her. Before she knew it, the Devourer had completely closed off any avenue of escape.
"A GOD DOES NOT FEAR DEATH!"
***
Robyn haggardly got to her feet. She saw Sid standing nearby in the Desert, all of his summons hovering around him. His health was low, but not as low as hers.
"The sky's turned pitch-black again," he said. "Is the Devourer low?"
Robyn nodded, but thought to herself, So are we. She could only hope Renee could distract the Devourer long enough for she and Sid to regenerate health.
That was when she spotted a familiar flashing star appear in the sky.
Too soon. Too soon! Robyn was certain she still wouldn't be able to survive even a single blow from the Devourer, and same with Sid.
The Devourer burst forth. Sid's summons rushed up to meet it, and Robyn started firing arrows. Time seemed to slow down as their attacks met the Devourer's armoured skin. The Devourer opened its mouth, a fireball blasting out that Robyn found the strength to dodge. She fired and fired and fired, landing arrow after arrow into the target that was the Devourer's mouth.
Come on!
Then it seemed to grind to a stop in front of her.
Like a braking train, hanging limply in the air.
She noticed parts of its scales beginning to turn black and disintegrate. Then its tail exploded in a purple blast, followed by the next segment along and the next, the Devourer becoming a fuse burning away, the chain reaction exploding all the way to its head.
Robyn felt the world itself shake when the head went up. Flames and particles of cosmic energy were thrust out.
The Devourer of Gods had been defeated.
She heard an ethereal voice whispering in her ear.
The harvest moon glows eerily.
The frigid moon shimmers brightly.
The dark sun awaits for those who can see clearly.
She let out the scream that had been trapped in her throat for that entire fight.
We did it.
We didn't even have to use the Terminus, but we did it!
She fell to her knees, her entire body weak beneath her armour, from both the physical exertion and the insane stress of the Devourer's coming.
She watched as Sid ran forward to pick up its drops and shouted them out. Cosmilite Bars. A Staff of the Mechworm. A sword named the Excelsius.
Then she thought, Where's Renee...?
***
Far from the desert where Sid and Robyn had magic-mirrored to, all the way in the Astral-infected island beneath the planetoid lab, a mess of items were scattered about.
In the centre of it all was a single tombstone.
Renee was destroyed by Devourer of Gods.
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