The army charged forward. Yells, roars and shrieks pierced the air.
Robyn found herself leading the charge, straight at Yharim, her Exoblade held to the side, ready to strike. William was by her side, with his Ark of the Cosmos held up in the air, and Sid had summoned forth his entire armada of summons, including the Elementals and Profaned Guardians. A Sepulcher ran alongside him while a Draconid flew above him.
Yharim didn't charge himself, instead pointing out with his sword, indicating for his army to move forward. They stayed in formation, the soldiers at the front holding out Galvanising Glaives like lances, while the soldiers directly behind lobbed electricity-inducing mines overhead and another line flew upwards, a variety of laser weaponry ready to fire.
The line of weapons did nothing to deter the oncoming forces. Robyn slashed with her Exoblade before any of the lancers even had a chance to thrust their weapons forward, knocking the entire line backwards. William did the same with his own weapon, and Sid's summons began to carve into the lines.
Renee came out of her stealth to hurl a stealth strike with her Ghoulish Gouger, the weapon launching a wave of phantoplasmic souls that rushed out and into several of Yharim's soldiers to deal damage. The Archmage cast himself upwards on a pillar of ice and began firing streams of frost forward, freezing an entire group of soldiers with Gatling Lasers.
The bosses and citizens quickly caught up. Some fell quickly, casualties in battle, like the King Slime that got immediately blown to bits by a soldier wielding an electric flail, but the Queen Slime paid retribution by slamming herself directly on top. The Arms Dealer and Demolitionist were raised into the air by a platform of Permafrost's ice, and they began firing bullets and throwing explosives respectively at Yharim's forces.
"Fourteen!" Durim counted. "Fifteen!"
"Your sci-fi stuff ain't no match for traditional bullets and explosives!" Tony shouted at Yharim's forces.
"And not for paint either!"
"Luigi!" both Durim and Tony exclaimed as the Painter was risen up on ice beside them.
Luigi smiled. "Let's settle this once and for all, who the best slayer truly is!"
Omicron the Cyborg-Ravager, with Whitney the Steampunker riding atop its heavy bulk, surged forward. Its huge size meant it quickly became a target for laser fire from Yharim's army, so it did a leap upwards and slammed the ground, causing several large pillars of rock to rise from the earth in front of it, some of the pillars bowling over a few of Yharim's soldiers. Zop'a and Red Beard took cover behind the rock, the Witch Doctor expertly firing poisoned darts straight into the soldiers' skin. The Pirate set up a line of cannons and began running back and forth along the line firing cannonballs into the army.
Several more larger bosses moved forward. Astrum Aureus leapt cleanly over both Ravager and its rock wall defence, beginning to drive back the lines with its stomps. The Plaguebringer Goliath flew up in the air, launching an array of tactical plague nukes into enemy lines.
Robyn landed on top of the Ravager next to Whitney, firing her bow all across the oncoming army. A figure popped into existence next to her, giving her a quick fright, but she realised it was Renee.
"Robyn! This is crazy! What did I miss?"
Robyn couldn't resist smiling. "Quite a bit, but your sacrifice wasn't in vain. The Devourer went down, thanks to you!"
"Good!" Renee threw a handful of Sealed Singularities forward that created small black holes to crush Yharim's soldiers together. "That Devourer was all around me, his constriction killing me. It was strange, I felt myself rising like a ghost, and everything went black. I thought it was the end... but next thing I knew I was walking through that portal!" She jerked her hand backwards. "How did you do it?"
"Remember the Terminus item I found at the bottom of the Abyss?" Robyn gestured at their forces with a wide sweep of her arm. "This is what it did!"
"So I've got you to thank for being brought back to life?" Renee said. "I'll have to make it up to you somehow."
"Win this battle with us," Robyn said.
That was when the Plaguebringer Goliath got sheared out of the sky by a single beam of light.
Yharim was up in the air, and Robyn saw with horror that two more portals were opening, this time on his side. From the left came Jungle Dragon, Yharon, who began breathing a wave of fireballs forward, broiling Astrum Aureus in an instant. The Devourer of Gods shot out from the other portal, its three Sentinels also showing up.
She grit her teeth. The Terminus wasn't a weapon, it was an artifact. Impartial; not on any side. They had the numbers, but the Devourer and Yharon alone were insane powerhouses.
"We've got to take those bosses down!" Sid shouted, directing his summons at the Ceaseless Void first. It was already surging towards where the Ravager was bunkered, its gravitational force disintegrating away the rock pillars and threatening to suck up the citizens that had been crouched behind it.
William found himself getting pulled as well, so he snapped his Ark of the Cosmos at one of the Dark Energies that surrounded Ceaseless Void. With his sword charged up, he then cleaved his way through every Dark Energy and then quickly dismantled the void itself, the power of the cosmos overwhelming the power of the singularity.
Storm Weaver flew over the battlefield, its weather attacks falling down amongst the bosses. Lightning strikes burst both the Hive Mind and Perforator Hive, but Storm Weaver was finished off quite quickly when Providence's Profaned Guardians charged at it, first burning its armour off and then through the Storm Weaver itself.
Then the Devourer of Gods came shooting towards Providence. She fired her Holy Ray from her crystalline core, the energy conducting itself along the entire length of the Devourer for extra damage, but it was not enough to stop it from charging into her. As the Devourer swarmed around her, Providence tried to flare up and burn the Devourer with her profaned energy, but was unable to do so before it devoured through her health completely, the goddess exploding into a fiery corona over the battlefield.
Still not satisfied, the Devourer swooped down and began moving along the ground like an unstoppable freight train, gobbling up boss after boss. Plantera. Polterghast. Crabulon. It split the Eater of Worlds in two and chomped through the Retinazer Twin in one gulp. The last boss the Devourer managed to consume was Astrum Deus, before it found itself on a collision course with...
Renee.
She threw another stealth strike, cleaving her Valediction straight into the Devourer's head. It had already lost a considerable amount of its health from Providence and the other attacks that had rained upon it, so this was enough to fracture it completely down the middle into cosmilite plating.
Its bulk collapsed to the ground in a shredded line, resting to a stop in front of Renee like a halted train. She stood there, dumbfounded but also proud at being able to best the one that had originally killed her.
"There. I win this time."
That was when Signus appeared out of thin air in front of her.
"It's my turn," he growled.
While Renee and Signus fought, Sid landed next to Bart the Angler and Faye the Princess, who were facing off against some stray soldiers that remained. Sid sent his Draconid forward to wipe them up.
"Aww, I was having fun watching piranhas bite into their face," Bart complained, hoisting his Pirahna Gun on his hip.
"I've got a crazy idea," Sid said. "Bart, do you have an Enchanted Sundial?"
"Heck, yeah!"
Meanwhile, Robyn found herself focussing on Yharon. The big jungle dragon set up some flaming tornadoes and breathed several waves and rings of fireballs into the air, but he was going up against not just Robyn but also the aquatic might of Duke Fishron, the Old Duke, and Leviathan, and even Roxanne riding on Cirrus in her Alicorn form darting around dizzily like an annoying blowfly.
"Oh yeahhhh! Yharon, you should drink something that turns you into a magical flying unicorn just like me!"
Between all that, the Jungle Dragon was quickly subdued. But upon hearing his companion's dying roar, Yharim lunged towards them, cleaving Duke Fishron in two with one blow from his sword. The Old Duke cried out at seeing its younger brethren fall, and made a charge straight at Yharim, only to impale itself on the end of Yharim's sword. The Leviathan started firing meteors at Yharim, but once Yharim started whacking them like baseballs straight back, it had the sense to fly away.
Robyn roared and started firing her arrows at Yharim, but he just teleported forward and knocked her out of the sky.
She was launched straight into the ground, a crater forming from the impact. She was fully aware he might just teleport down and finish her right then, had the white-hot death beam not shot across the sky at him.
Cthulhu, the Lord of the Moon, had arrived.
Yharim spun to the deity that had once given him so much trouble. He was pleased to see it had been reduced to merely a husk of its former self, but he could tell its power level was insane. He was going to have to be careful.
White spheres of energy started popping out of Cthulhu's hands, which it thrust at Yharim, but he teleported past them, swiping his Ultisword into Cthulhu's left hand. Another teleport, he slashed Cthulhu's right. Another Phantasmal Deathray shot out from Cthulhu's forehead, arcing towards Yharim, but he got out his Crystal and fired a yellow beam to block it. For a few tense seconds it seemed like their beams were evenly matched, but then Yharim saw his Crystal was slowly overtaking Cthulhu's. It soon gored straight into Cthulhu's forehead, blasting a hole in it, and then a few swipes at Cthulhu's heart finished the job.
Cthulhu's neck snapped to the side, his body hovering there for a few moments before his entire form went up in a massive, blinding blast.
Something then occurred to Yharim – when did it become day? Wasn't it night-time?
Then he heard a wicked, high-pitched hiss.
"Get him!" Sid shouted. "He stole my Kaleidoscope!"
Yharim teleported to avoid the wave of bright yellow bolts that shot towards him. Bolts that, thanks to the light of the sun, would have slain even him in one blow had they landed. He turned to see the Empress of Light emanating the bright yellow glare of her Sun Dance, while Sid hovered by her side.
Afterimages burst out from the Empress and she lunged forward, but Yharim teleported to avoid her attack.
She started casting lines of Ethereal Lances to shoot at Yharim, but he didn't give her the chance. He teleported forward, slicing his Ultisword straight through her body.
"No!" Sid shouted as he watched the Empress's body fizzle away. He reached into his inventory and slipped a ring onto his finger.
But this wasn't an ordinary ring.
His armour morphed, its arms and legs extending outwards, becoming spindly, and turning purplish-navy in colour. His helmet became triangular in shape, with two rods extending backward from the rear two corners of the triangle. And several blinking cyan lights began flickering on all over his armour
Ever since Sid had first donned the Wulfrum mech suit, he'd been looking for another armour set with an ability just like it, but had been dismayed at the lack of them.
Until now.
The Flamsteed Ring had transformed him into a colossal mech named Andromeda. And he fully intended to whup Yharim's shiny golden rear with it.
1 vote = 1 whupping of Yharim's shiny golden rear
(Let's face it, he deserves it)