Now, stirred into action by the prayers of the faithful, the Five Abbots spoke and their voices resounded through the city:
"HARK, RIGHTEOUS ONES. HEAR THEM. HEAR THE SLAUGHTERED CHILDREN OF EBERHEIM CRY OUT FOR VENGEANCE. HEAR THE PRAYERS OF THOSE WHO YET LIVE. KNIGHTS OF THE BOAR, ARISE! ARISE FROM YOUR HALF-MILLENNIUM SLUMBER!"
From five directions, five five-meter statues of knights in Eberheim's livery came flying out of their respective churches. Faster than statues had any right to move, soaring through the air, they collectively stopped dead just outside the ritual circle's perimeter, floating a hundred meters up in mid-air. An immense pressure descended, and Zelsys felt that strange, sublime sensation grow into a tangible, divine pressure; it was akin to what she had felt before the Revenant King and the Forgemother, albeit significantly less intense.
"RAISE UP THY SHIELDS AND BLADES, O KNIGHTS OF THE BOAR! GRANT SUCCOR TO THE HOUND-FACED KNIGHTS OF THE WILLOW IN THEIR TIME OF NEED!"
The Five Abbots had not seen a single one of the Newman Sect's members. They had, however, seen the Hellhounds who had gone into their churches to clear them. They had also recognized the ancient crest of Willowdale upon the Hellhounds' armour, the same crest worn by her warriors in centuries past.
The Knights of the Boar, their helms fittingly styled to resemble the heads of boars, were much like Willowdale's own statue guardians, stone plated in metal. Their armaments were giant swords, as long as they were tall, and monolithic tower shields of the same height, wrought of stone and densely scribed with presumably holy words. All at once, with wordless yells of exertion that sounded like stone grinding together, the Five thrust forth their shields. The ground and air alike quaked with power, and a five-sided barrier sprung up around the sacrificial vortex, keeping it at bay. Zel instantaneously knew it wouldn't last long; for one, it wasn't strong enough to sever the Revenants' umbilical cords. Moreover, after only seconds had passed cracks were already showing upon the barrier, reflected physically on the Knights' shields. She was certain that they were mighty, perhaps mighty enough to break a siege from within or to repel any plausible attack on the city. The Third Truthseeker's wretched ritual, however, had created a spiritual phenomenon the likes of which the Knights' builders couldn't have reasonably foreseen. Its intensity was beyond a natural disaster - it was somewhere between the Living Storm and Eisengeist's rampage, and a thousand times more evil than Ubul.
Yet another thrice-damned Revenant made itself known, smashing into the barrier from the inside. It was at least twice as big as the other two, with reverse-jointed legs, a chest-maw just like the Six-legged and thick, bony, three-fingered arms that reached all the way to the ground. Numerous eyes littered its torso around the maw's exterior, and in place of a head it had a mass of writhing, whipping arm-tendrils. Its assault threatened to shatter the barrier, with many cracks spreading across it and its respective knight's shield.
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Like a starveling beast that just smelled its next prey, Zero smashed headlong through the weakened barrier and subsequently into the Revenant. One Knight's shield shattered into pieces, and with it, so did that segment of the barrier, with the maelstrom spilling out, beginning to eat away at both adjacent panels. Zero, smashing apart the new Revenant faster than the maelstrom could repair it, was going berserk. With each step into the vortex of souls, Zero distorted. Plates and panels were crushed and pulled away from its body, a meteor-like corona formed around it, and... It just kept going. Somehow, some way, Zero's self-repair abilities nearly matched the damage being done to it. Nearly. It was doomed, nonetheless. Zero managed to sever the new Revenant's umbilicus and consume part of it before its constituent aura could be taken back by the maelstrom. The rabid iron beast that it was, it tried to delve deeper into the vortex to reach Third, like a moth to a flame. Both Strake and Zero were marching to their deaths. The background noise of wailing had risen to such a fever pitch that it drowned out all other sounds. Another panel of the barrier was gone by this point, another shield shattered.
While this went on, Zel and Zef received an aetherwave message from Victor: "How much longer? There are monsters banging on the barrier on my side, and I don't think I will be able to usurp them and activate the pylons."
Zefaris, having finished carving the shell and enchanting her coin, conjured the Tankman Phantom, speaking as she handed the shell to Zelsys: "I can try to clear Strake's mind or at least drag him out of the vortex, but... It's a fifty-fifty that my Phantom will reach him at all."
Zelsys, loading Thundercannon and seething over the fact she couldn't just get up and do something right now, called out to the Knights: "Well?! Surely you can do more than a fragile barrier! COME NOW, IS THIS THE STRENGTH OF FAITH?! CLEAR A PATH! DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING!"
A third panel, gone. Only the two on Victor's side remained.
The Five Knights' heads snapped to meet her gaze. She knew it, even though she could only see three of them. Then, they nodded. They fell out of the sky, or more accurately, flew down, smashing down right next to one another just at the edge of the once-more expanding vortex. All five were without shields; the two whose barrier segments were still in place had simply left theirs floating in place.
The Knights' blades and bodies both came ablaze like holy torches and they waded into the mass of aggrieved spirits. Somehow, someway, they formed a clear path through. The ground and even air itself burned brilliant white, repelling the unholy energies of Third's ritual.
Wasting not a moment, Zefaris sent the Tankman Phantom in after them.
Without speaking a single word, the Five Knights reached Zero and laid their eyes upon the maddened machine, and somehow made it halt its doomed advance. Their white flame spread over Zero's armour in moments, not suppressing its own crimson flame but enveloping it. The constant, distorted screaming blasting out of the tank's speakers became less so, and suddenly, Strake realized that he didn't actually want to die here.
Dying here wasn't his mission, his mission was to lead the tankmen and support Newman in her battle with the Order's elder.
But... He didn't know where he was, and Zero wouldn't obey him. It wasn't actively fighting him anymore, as if the infernal beast had suddenly ceased to be rabid, but he didn't have the strength of will to command it. Trying to reassert full control over the machine felt like pulling on a stuck control stick with broken fingers.