At this point, the night split in two.
On one side, Albedo surged forward riding Ember, his form coated by streaks of Ember's white & blue flame tore across the rotting, corrupted terrain. The very roots of Hollowwood screamed and recoiled from her heat as Ember's flames corroded and burned away the corruptive features.
Ahead of the duo, shadows were viciously writhing ahead of them, walls of chanting cultists arrayed to buy time for their ritual. For original chapters go to NoveIꜰire.net
On the other side, Persephone, Morgana, and Elara continued to stand at the broken edges of the shrine, continuing to cut down the hordes of Abyssal Worshippers crawling through the forest.
Already they were regrouping after the first massacre, the grotesque bodies of the attackers swelled with borrowed Abyssal energy. The three girls braced themselves, backs almost touching as the horde circled.
Two fronts. One mission.
On Albedo's side, the first line of worshippers broke the tree-line, charging at Ember with wild shrieks, blades gleaming with an oily sheen that hissed in the firelight.
Albedo raised Havoc and Ruin, both pistols already whirring with arcane matrices. His irises blazed violet as the Source Code unfolded a thousand predictions. His Source Code immediately pinpointed the weaknesses of all of the attackers with exceptional accuracy.
Each bullet tore through heads with surgical precision, bodies collapsing mid-leap, rolling across the moss-rotten earth. Ember's hooves thundered, crushing skulls into pulp as she barreled onward. Her mane streamed like a comet-tail of fire, igniting the air in her wake.
"Forward," Albedo commanded, his voice low and steady. Ember obeyed without hesitation, accelerating.
From the distance, the ritual circle came into view: a massive, jagged sigil etched into the earth, black fire pouring upward as though the Abyss itself was bleeding into the mortal plane.
Dozens, no, hundreds, of figures surrounded it, arms raised, their chants booming in eerie synchrony. Above the circle, the distorted silhouette of a swarm-beast flickered, its many eyes blinking open in the rift.
Albedo's jaw tightened. "So they're bringing that through…"
The swarm-beast, a nightmare of wings and jaws, a collective predator forged of thousands of Abyss-spawned bodies fused into one entity. If it crossed into Hollowwood, not even a battalion would hold the forest.
He raised Havoc high and whispered, "Time to cull."
The pistol flared crimson and shot continuous bullets of crimson apocalypse flames. The crimson beams tore through a swath of chanters, vaporizing their torsos, turning them into pillars of cinder.
Ember leapt over their burning remains, hooves landing in the middle of the circle as her flames charged up.
The summoners howled and the Abyss howled back.
Meanwhile, back with the three girls, Persephone slammed her hand outward, detonating a fan of black flame that reduced an entire charging wedge of enemies into crackling ash. The ground quaked with the backlash of her power.
Elara's Battle Map continued to burn brighter, golden arcs of predicted movements fanning out above them. Sweat trickled down her cheek as her voice quavered, "Incoming! Both sides, thirty at least!"
Morgana snarled, "Then we erase thirty!"
Her shadows burst outward, jagged threads whipping around to intercept. One pierced clean through a worshipper's mouth, erupting from the back of his skull like a spear and using his dead body as a weapon to toss at many other attackers.
Another thread wrapped around a cluster of five, tightening until bones snapped in sharp cracks. She then infused her dark magic into their body through their wounds, corroding their organs and leaving them dead.
She dragged their corpses into the shadow-web, swallowing them whole. Still, the Abyssal cultists laughed even as they died, writhing in pleasure at their dismemberment. For every one felled, more pressed from the trees.
Persephone was already moving, silent and merciless. She stepped into the tide, palm thrust outward.
A figure exploded into gore. She pivoted, her elbow smashing into another's jaw with such force it twisted their neck backward. Black fire coiled around her ankles, every step an eruption.
Elara clenched her teeth and planted her hands into the soil, whispering desperately, "Root, bind!"
The earth answered. Thick vines surged upward, wrapping dozens of cultists, slowing their charge. They roared and thrashed, but it gave Morgana and Persephone the opening they needed to tear them apart.
The shrine shook with the force of their clash.
Back at the Ritual Core, the summoners had already turned towards Albedo, wielding daggers that dripped with Abyssal energy, glyphs etched into their flesh glowing with unholy fervor.
Ember was already running around the arena, kicking many worshippers in the head and spreading her ferocious corrosive flames that flooded their bodies and burned them to the ground from the inside out.
Meanwhile, Albedo just raised Ruin, the pistol whirred as crimson energy coiled along its barrel, signifying it being in Infernal Mode.
"Scattershot: Crimson Barrage."
The weapon bucked violently in his hand. A storm of flaming bullets ripped outward in a circular spray, shredding through cultists like a scythe through wheat.
Screams filled the night, but their chanting did not fully stop, others had taken up the words, louder, faster, desperate to maintain the summoning and bring forth the swarm beast, and the other monsters that tried to slip through the summoning circle.
Above, the rift split wider. The swarm-beast's wings scraped against reality's edge, thousands of limbs twitching, while the roars of other monsters echoed right behind that behemoth of a creature.
Albedo hissed, swapping Ruin to Graviton Mode and keeping Havoc in Infernal Mode.
"Ember, circle them."
The mare obeyed, charging along the perimeter of the glyph, her hooves tracing a blazing ring of azure fire. The heat seared into the summoning lines, unraveling their structure. The chant faltered, cultists screaming as the lines of power twisted under Ember's interference.
One summoner shrieked, throwing a bolt of Abyssal energy straight at Albedo but he effortlessly leaned sideways in the saddle, the blast sizzling past his cheek, then fired Havoc in return.
The summoner's chest detonated, spraying the air with burning ichor as his body was quickly devoured by crimson apocalypse flames.
Then, Albedo shot off another Graviton Slug that pulled 4 enemies together, and shot off 4 Infernal shots that ignited them all and burned them to death.
Meanwhile, back with the girls, Elara gasped as the map flared again, "Forty more, from the west! They're not stopping, Persephone!"
"Then we won't either." Persephone's voice was calm, cold. She raised both hands, and a hurricane of black fire ripped outward in a widening spiral, consuming the forest edge. Screams erupted, bodies collapsing into smoldering heaps.
Morgana's threads snaked up Persephone's arm, merging into her spell. The hurricane doubled in ferocity, shadows laced within the flames, tearing apart anything the fire didn't consume.
Elara pushed harder, her hands glowing, "Sanctum Barrier!"
A dome of green light flared around them just as a volley of Abyssal projectiles struck. The barrier shuddered, cracks spidering across it, but it held. Elara's vision blurred with the strain.
Persephone glanced briefly at her, "Hold it. Just a little longer."
Elara nodded, even as blood trickled from her nose as she pushed harder.
Back at the ritual core, the swarm-beast forced its way further through the rift, its gargantuan form now half in reality. Chittering shrieks filled the forest, and from its wings, smaller spawn began to spill out of various sizes, insectile and animalistic horrors with too many eyes.
Albedo clicked his tongue, "So it begins."
Dozens of the swarm-lings leapt toward him. Ember reared back, hooves blazing, and smashed down. Each impact crushed three creatures, incinerating them instantly.
Albedo twisted Havoc and fired. Bullets of compressed fire tore through the swarm-lings in rapid succession, their bodies bursting mid-leap. But more poured out of the rift, replacing them.
Albedo's eyes glowed, Source Code painting endless lines of trajectories through the chaos. The swarm-beast's wings scraped against the veil of reality, every twitch shedding hundreds of writhing horrors.
"Keep them off me, Ember!" he barked.
The Celestial steed answered with a piercing shriek, her mane flaring hotter, her hooves slamming into the earth. Shockwaves of white-blue fire blasted outward, frying the first waves of spawn.
But the tide never slowed. For every shattered insectoid corpse, three more tumbled through the rift, mandibles clacking, carapaces gleaming with Abyssal slime.
Albedo continued to fire off, a dense graviton slug cracked outward, detonating midair. Half a dozen swarmlings screamed as their bodies were dragged inward, fused into a crushing knot of limbs. Albedo flicked Havoc up, muzzle glowing like a newborn sun.
A searing crimson shot cut through the bundled horrors. They didn't even have time to screech before bursting apart into raining ash and molten ichor.
The summoners shrieked louder, their chants spiking into maddened crescendos. The swarm-beast's body forced further through the rift, its jaws gaping, dripping corrosive black saliva that sizzled where it landed. One glob streaked toward Albedo.
He kicked Ember hard. The mare vaulted aside, the acid slamming into the ground, hissing through roots and stone. Rotten fumes billowed upward as the acid tore through the earth beneath them.
Then a clawed limb lashed out from the rift, longer than a tree trunk, jagged talons whistling down. Albedo twisted low in the saddle. The air exploded where the claw landed, tearing a gouge through the earth wide enough to swallow a house.
Havoc spun in his hand, runes blazing. He sighted up the claw as it withdrew, "Infernal Drill."
The pistol roared. A spiral of concentrated crimson fire tore through the limb, searing straight to the bone. The swarm-beast shrieked in outrage, ichor raining as it yanked its limb back into the rift.
Albedo spat to the side, "Not tonight."
But the tide pressed closer. Swarmlings bounded from every angle, lunging over each other in waves. Ember lashed with her tail, burning dozens mid-leap, but gaps broke through.
Albedo holstered Ruin, drawing both pistols to full Infernal Mode. His hands blurred.
~BANG~BANG~BANG~BANG~BANG!~
A relentless barrage. Each shot ripped through a creature's skull, another's thorax, another's wings. His movements were ruthless efficiency, his aim unerring, Source Code painting every weakness. Bodies piled, littering the scorched ground. Yet still, more kept spilling.
Then, a thunderous eruption shook the battlefield.
The shrine side of Hollowwood lit in a spiral of black flame and shadow. Persephone stepped through the burning tree line first, her arm outstretched, eyes like frozen death. A wave of charred corpses smoldered behind her.
Beside her, Morgana strode forward, her shadow-threads dragging the twitching husks of Abyssal worshippers like puppets on strings, their empty eyes glaring hollow as she discarded them. Her dark aura writhed with satisfaction.
And between them, Elara stumbled forward, pale but defiant, her hands still glowing green. The earth itself seemed to rise in her wake, vines writhing, dragging cultists into strangled heaps.
The three women reached Albedo's flank, their breathing heavy but their gazes fixed.
"You kept the big one waiting for us?" Persephone asked coolly, her voice carrying like the crack of ice.
Albedo smirked faintly, guns still smoking. "Thought you'd want to finish it together."