Yharim spun his blade and lunged towards Sid, but he lashed out first with his Regicide. The massive blue energy blade, extending from Andromeda's hands, easily swiped into Yharim and knocked him to the side.
Sid leapt towards him, charging up a Gauss laser to shoot from Andromeda's chest, but Yharim leapt out of the way. Yharim shot towards the army of bosses, blasting through Skeletron Prime's skull, Cryogen's icy shield, and the Dragonfolly, heading straight towards the indomitable Wall of Flesh.
The many eyes and mouths that were sprouting all along it began firing lasers and burping leeches respectively, but Yharim dodged and weaved effortlessly, cleaving his Ultisword into the meaty structure and gouging out several of the eyeballs. In seconds he had torn down the Wall of Flesh completely, the fleshy mass going down like a collapsing circus tent.
"He's going for the Tower!" Sid shouted. He selected the lightning-bolt icon in the Flamsteed Ring's interface, morphing into a small jet of lightning that shot forward. Yharim began to fly upwards, sparks bursting from his boots, but Sid was faster.
Yharim was maybe halfway up to the core when Sid collided with him. There was a massive explosion of blue and white particles, Sid morphing back into Andromeda, grabbing hold of Yharim with his hands, and slamming him against the plating of the tower structure.
But Yharim was quick to vanish from his grasp.
"Behind you!"
Sid felt the Tyrant's Ultisword cleave through Andromeda's neck, the attack also dealing damage to Sid. The Andromeda mech suit fell to pieces, leaving Sid in just his Auric Tesla armour falling to the battlefield below.
"I have had enough of you," Yharim growled.
Sid hadn't. He called for all of his summons, despawning all of them with his weapons and replacing them with a massive amount of Pole Warpers – the attack-magnet summons he'd used against Yharon. Sid slung out his grappling hook at the tower, grabbing hold but then letting go so he was propelled back up to Yharim.
He didn't have the mana to transform back into Andromeda, but he had one more trick up his sleeve. He held another accessory in his inventory, a hallowed blade named the Angelic Alliance. He used it to activate its Divine Bless ability.
A ring of golden archangels appeared around Sid, each casting a healing spell that topped up his health to almost full, but also beginning to fire laser beams up at Yharim. The number of archangels spawned was dependant on how many minions Sid had, as opposed to how many minion slots he'd used, which had been why he'd replaced his summons that took up lots of slots each with the Pole Warpers, where for each slot he could summon two magnets.
That meant Yharim was quickly overwhelmed by perhaps the biggest force of summons Sid had ever mustered, slashing his blade left and right but becoming unable to even see the tower's core. All around him were flying magnets and the blinding light of archangel lasers.
That entire force had just one weakness.
Sid himself.
Yharim roared, pointed his Ultisword directly downwards, and dropped.
He burst out from the cloud of summons and skewered into their summoner.
Thrust all the way down, slamming into the ground at the bottom of the tower with a massive explosion of energy and cloud of dust.
Yharim huffed as the dust hung in the air around him. That had probably been the closest he'd come to death since Xeroc. But he was done with holding back. He was done with showing mercy. Now, he would kill anyone who dared stop him from ascending from the Nexus. Without question.
He looked down... and saw Sid had survived.
He was cloaked in a bright red force field. One that had lost a few tens of thousands of health.
"Calamitas!" he shouted, right as a massive hellblast shot out from the smoke.
Yharim blocked the attack with his Ultisword, watching Calamitas herself float out from the smoke, slinging more hellblasts towards him. He blocked two more before jumping, his sparkling boots propelling him upward, this time fully intending to enter the tower.
Calamitas was hot on his trail, throwing more and more hellblasts up. She launched a few gigablasts that exploded into rings of brimstone darts that licked at Yharim's armour, but he had more than enough health to survive that. He looked down, and realised in the moment that, in protecting Sid...
She had left herself vulnerable.
Yharim didn't even need his sword. He'd always had her on a leash, always known that killing her would be as easy as tightening a noose. He held up his fist, in which was a doll imbued with voodoo magic. With a shock of electric-blue sparks, he clenched his fist.
Calamitas screamed, her robes becoming wreathed in those same sparks. Her magic petered out, and she fell all the way down the tower.
Smashing into the ground right next to Sid.
"Meg!" he shouted, scrambling onto his knees and crawling to her side. She was losing health from... he wasn't even sure what debuff, but one thing was clear.
"You're going to die..."
"It's okay, Sid," she said. Her arm moved, a hand emerging from the long sleeve of her robe and touching his wrist. "I can't defeat him. He has overborne me for too long. But you..."
Those were the last words she spoke before her health dropped to 0 and her body was torn apart in a cloud of red.
***
Robyn wearily got to her feet in time to see the Lunatic Cultist materialising in front of her.
"Yharim has reached the Tower's core," he spoke, pointing one of the long sleeves of his robe upward.
Robyn grit her teeth and took a healing potion. This is it. Yharim had the Miracle Matter, and he had the core all ready to be fired up.
He would be heading into the real world.
"Find Sid and William," Robyn said, firing up her Elysian Tracers. "We're going to finish this."
***
Renee continued to fight as hard as she could, throwing curved arcs of her Valediction into Signus, but he just kept on constantly morphing and landing hits on her. She was getting beaten down, hard.
"You can't beat me," Signus said. "We have both gotten this second chance at life, a second duel. And I fully intend for you to be the one removed from existence this time."
He suddenly teleported, morphing into his bullet-form at the same time, the momentum of his charge slamming Renee backward. She tumbled onto the grass, winded, but found it in her to get to her feet.
Signus was floating towards her, but his advance was stopped by the red and purple globs that were fired into him.
"Ugh! What is this substance?"
Renee smirked as the Ebonian Slime God landed to her left, and the Crimulan Slime God landed to her right. The Slime God Core hovered over her head, and she heard it speak in its unique manner.
"Follower of the Way of the Statigel. I bless thee, giving thee the strength to overcome this hypocrite."
The Slime God Core shot down, absorbing itself into Renee's body. It normally only ever charged up either the Ebonian or Crimulan slimes.
Charging up a follower... this had never been done before.
She wasted no time in lashing out at Signus, the shadowy envoy being unable to fight back. His health dropped fast, until he gave an almighty roar and shot forward in his bullet form, first ricocheting between both of the Slime Gods and then towards Renee. She was knocked backwards, sliding backwards along the ground.
Right into a warming green aura. It was Nissa the Dryad, having arrived on the scene to further support Renee. James the Clothier hovered over them in his Skeletron form, his skull staring down menacingly. Then every other citizen that had partaken in the battle came up from behind, all armed and ready to take on Signus.
"We've got your back, Renee," Amber the Bandit said.
"You are outnumbered and outpowered," Permafrost the Archmage said.
"The army is on the run, and Yharim is leaving them behind," Faye the Princess said.
Renee got to her feet, slung her Valediction back into her inventory and took a step towards Signus's large form.
"You said it yourself, this is our second chance," she said. "Are you sure you want to waste it trying to kill me?"
Signus's six eyes all darted around, looking for a way to escape but finding none.
"Surrender, Signus, Envoy of the Devourer," Nissa the Dryad said. "This battle is over."
Signus's eyes stared down at the ground, then the folds in his cloak began to raise themselves upwards.
The ground battle has been won... but as the Devourer of Gods would say, it's not over yet, kid.