"Charge forward, second group, with everything you've got!" Alex shouted, his voice resonating above the chaos. The battlefield had turned into a hell of confusion and disorder. There was no time for formations or strategies; only the brutal need to survive remained.
Alex surged forward, his body moving with supernatural energy. Despite having been fighting for longer than the rest, his breathing barely quickened. He glided across the battlefield like a ghost, dodging blows and striking with lethal precision.
Blows rained down on him from all directions, but Alex parried them with almost supernatural skill. And when the blows came from his blind spots, his faithful initiates were there to protect him.
Alex's unit, those initiated into the Forest’s Sigh, carved a path through the horde of undead. Where they passed, only piles of ashes remained. With Alex at the forefront, the rest of the army began to break through, forcing their way toward the door.
"Thorel, if you get the chance, help us rescue Athena! Otherwise, secure our rear from her enemy when the time comes," Alex shouted, deflecting the attacks of two enemies and responding to a third.
"Understood," the elf simply said, for the first time since they had entered the maze, igniting his internal energy and disappearing into the air.
Although rescuing Athena and bringing her to her senses was the best possible outcome for Alex, he couldn't risk more lives in the name of saving her. He already had enough on his conscience for using these soldiers for his own ends, although at the moment he didn't have much time to dwell on feeling guilty.
Alex continued to move like a maniac, attacking anything within his reach and cooperating with the rest of his troops to deal with the remnants, slowly advancing toward the door until he finally witnessed what Athena was fighting against.
Behind him was a humanoid creature with a pale, almost translucent appearance that seemed to match the owl's. Its body bore obvious marks of void corruption, and although it retained its human form, its figure had become extremely thin and elongated, its limbs unnaturally long and almost hanging from its body. Its hands ended in sharp claws, and its back, marked by strange scars that seemed alive, was also filled with complex symbols that moved across its body in tandem, almost as if they were whispering words that should not be mentioned.
From its back emanated void energy, shadows sprouting intermittently, creating dark, nebulous shapes around it that constantly aided it in its fight.
"What the hell is that?" Alex heard one of his soldiers exclaim.
"None of our business," Alex responded. "Keep moving forward, avoid its shadows!" he shouted.
The soldiers had an instinctive fear of this enemy, as that was the normal reaction of life to the void. The eternal nothingness that consumes everything. The primordial devourer of life.
"First an accursed Eldritch, and now this thing. Could this damn forest be any more full of threats?" Alex inwardly complained, but he knew that the forest had extended a helping hand to him during his beginnings, so his complaints quickly died within him, and he focused on the enemies in front of him.
As Alex and his army continued to slowly charge forward, they began to enter the range of vision of the strange creature.
"Ohhhh, guests," a voice as grating as chalk on a blackboard echoed.
The brief interruption in the creature's concentration allowed for a desperate attack from Athena, which allowed her to regain her position and balance.
"Damn void worshipper, you won't get away with this," Athena shouted, seizing the opportunity to adopt her true form.
From the owl came a shrill sound like a scream that quickly began to turn guttural, and its transformation began, its once ethereal white feathers turning black, seemingly barely reflecting any light, making it really difficult to see, yet its entire figure was enveloped in a faint red light, similar to the image that would be observed in a black hole.
Where there had once been serenity in its eyes and a great calm and wisdom could be observed, now there was nothing but madness, they glowed with a chaotic and wild fervor, demanding blood and misery.
The owl's wings spread out to a great span, making its body appear severely disproportionate, almost as if it were made up of parts of different animals.
On its abdomen, a kind of mouth could be seen, full of a double row of sharp teeth, and within this, a depth that made no sense, as if the abyss itself were falling into it, as if the abyss itself were watching you.
The battlefield fell into a brief silence, which was only interrupted by an opportunistic shout from Alex.
At the end of Athena's transformation, the undead they were facing had fallen into a kind of trance, clutching the part of their body that housed their will-o'-the-wisp, writhing as if in pain.
Since all enemies had fallen into this trance, Alex took his chance.
"To the door! Quickly, charge!" he shouted, repeatedly shouting the last word at the top of his lungs.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The battlefield became an even greater chaos when the void being began to fight more fiercely. The shadows emanating from it became denser and more numerous, forming an almost impenetrable barrier around it. Alex's soldiers fought valiantly, but every step they took toward the door was a monumental effort.
Athena, on the other hand, seemed to be in her element. Despite being under illusion, her instinct to protect her own drove her to fight with all she had. Her claws clashed against those of the void being, creating shockwaves that shook the battlefield. Every blow she struck was like lightning, illuminating the darkness with flashes of red light.
But the void being was not to be outdone. For every blow it received, it responded with two. Its claws moved with supernatural speed and precision, cutting through the air with a sharp whistle. The shadows surrounding it moved in unison with it, like an extension of its own body.
The battle between Athena and the void being grew more intense, to the point where the rest of the battlefield seemed to fade away. All that mattered was the clash of claws and the struggle for survival.
Only the residual energy spreading throughout the battlefield was enough to create large explosions or send dozens of soldiers flying. However, despite the intensity of the battle, a new problem arose. The horde of undead began to awaken and join the roar of battle, converging on the battlefield from all directions.
Alex's soldiers, already exhausted from the fight, now had to face their enemy once again while trying to make their way to the door. The tension in the air became unbearable, yet Alex's constant shouts helped the soldiers maintain their focus, not lose sight of their goal.
The void being emitted a shrill scream that paralyzed the entire battlefield, while its claws began to resonate with void power, giving it a powerful appearance.
Athena responded with a scream of her own that countered and nullified the disturbance of her enemy on the battlefield. Likewise, her head disappeared from its place and seemed to come out from the bottom of where her beak was, but turned over, her now larger eyes emitted an even more imposing presence.
The being attacked multiple times, slashing through the air, and blades of wind slid at the speed of sound, creating multiple explosions that traveled in a straight line.
Athena dodged them by gliding through the air, sometimes almost seeming to teleport short distances.
The blades of air wreaked havoc on both sides facing each other on the battlefield.
"Collect the wounded, we're close to reaching it!" Alex shouted, picking up the small Kragash who had been knocked down by the body of an undead that had been sent flying.
Alex's troops, badly wounded and battered, continued to advance until the tip finally reached the door.
"Defensive positions until all our wounded cross," he commanded.
The soldiers who were still in good condition formed a semicircle around the door, allowing scattered troops on the battlefield time to arrive.
Meanwhile, Athena continued to dodge the blades of air, and finally responded with a spatial jump to the back of the void being.
Once there, her figure magnified greatly, from being a normal-sized owl to measuring over 5 meters in height.
Immediately, she bit with her abyssal mouth into the void being.
Both emitted an intense and sharp shriek that momentarily paralyzed Alex's army.
"You cannot consume the void," a voice suddenly sounded, "because only nothingness accepts everything."
A maniacal laugh echoed in the field, sending shivers down Alex's spine.
Suddenly, the shadows emanating from the being's back began to materialize into many smaller beings in the same way, constantly attacking Athena's body.
Athena responded with a snort, not letting go of the void being as she took flight and began to dive from the air.
Thud.
Repeatedly, she began to slam the body of the void being over and over again.
All of the above while an almost hysterical laughter resonated in the air.
Both sides continued to consume each other in an unrelenting war.
Finally, an unexpected attack connected with Athena's large body.
Alex wasn't able to see the blow, only another identical being laughing maniacally walking towards the center of the fight to pick up the first void being, which was half-dead and completely torn apart with almost all its limbs separated, yet it also laughed maniacally.
At this point, all of Alex's troops had managed to exit through the door, at least all those they managed to rescue alive. They had suffered almost no losses facing the undead, however, the battle between the two titans claimed some dead and dozens more wounded.
However, Alex himself had not yet crossed the door; he still harbored a small hope of being able to save Athena.
Alex's heart pounded wildly as he watched the second void being, complete and intact, slowly walk towards the center of the fight.
One of those things had been enough to fight Athena hand-to-hand; he couldn't imagine how the fight would unfold if there were two from the beginning.
Athena rose weakly, her transformation failing her and slowly beginning to unravel, gradually losing her red glow, which in turn caused her great form to diminish, apparently the energy radiating from her body was slowly able to escape, revealing what lay beneath, the horrors of the abyss that fought fiercely to be released. However, Athena did not resign herself to losing her form; with a small whistle, the radiation she seemed to emit began to return to her body, and the horrors of the Abyss were once again buried beneath her impermeable black armor, which allowed nothing to escape.
When the void being finally reached the center, it fell silent and slightly contorted the scattered parts of the other being, which still laughed maniacally, finally slapped its head and took it by the head, raising it to its level and pointing it at Athena.
Both void beings looked at Athena expressionlessly.
Athena, for her part, ensured her transformation and stood firm in her place, responding to the fixed gaze; there was hatred that could be seen in her eyes among many other negative emotions.
Both void beings began to smile, a smile that looked repulsive and deranged. The shadows constantly emanating from the back of the intact being began to come out at a faster rate, at the same time as it began to crush the head it held in its hand, causing it to open its mouth and eyes wide, from where shadows began to emerge as if they were opening a dam.
Athena, for her part, responded with a shrill scream, and suddenly her red glow turned into a conflagration, turning into red-black flames that clearly showed the influence of the abyss, with her entire body burning for the first time, Athena's expression changed, there was no longer hatred, nor the frenzy she had shown before when she had been separated from the illusion of her family, there was no anger or fear of losing her loved ones.
Only a slight smile remained, and the excitement of battle.
Somehow, Alex felt that both sides had finished testing each other and that from now on the real fight could begin. Alex felt that so far they had done nothing more than test each other, and that left him terrified, he had no way to fight against that, and he was sure that there would be no way for his spectral form to rescue him from the precipice again.
"Maybe I should just leave," he said to himself in a low voice, looking towards the door that was only a few steps away from him.
Just then something changed in the maze.