The flames had scorched Armoire's body clean. It was irrecognisable. Her body lacked any defining features, her face was a blank slate without mouth or nose, only two piercing eyes stared forward. Sickly white was the colour of her skin, her veins protruding through as the only real sign of life. From her head flowed a dark mane of hair, all the way down to her feet.

And pierced down through her chest was a long blade, the wound dripping a stream of black blood down her body, creating a trail behind her as she walked. The monsters around were wailing in horror, making way for the beast as she marched towards the advancing formation of paladins.

Both her hands grasped the hilt sticking out of her chest, and pulled, further and further. The act inspired fear and ferocity among her ranks, they threw themselves at the paladins with greater vigour than before. For a moment they were halted in their advance, just outside the city proper.

And then she pulled it out entirely. A gust of wind began to pick up around her, blood still dripping down the blade. It did not take long for it to draw more. She descended upon the formation closest by, and it could not halt her momentum. The blade sung through the air, severing limbs from bodies with ease, tearing open the formation from the front.

Her foes had to make way or be cleaved asunder, but her monstrous comrades could not take advantage of the opening she created. The beast had been unleashed, and she did not discern friend from foe any longer, and when they made the mistake of coming within reach they suffered the same fate as the paladins. The ranks that were heavily armed melted before her, and she made it to the core of their formation, archers and priests.

At the sight of the beast they lowered their gaze and their weapons, accepting the inevitable while muttering prayers. Their words were quiet whispers, but yet they echoed within the beast and caused her body to tremble. They fell all the same, but their hushed voices reverberated within her mind. The formation was no more, the last valiant defender she sliced in two, his halves falling to the sides.

The paladins had stopped advancing. The wedges had made way for circular formations, with the knight in centre lowering their weapons in contemplation. Their voices droned across the battlefield, a heavenly hymn that made the body of the beast tremble.

Then came the flash. The centre formations, in the first and last row, erupted into blinding light, bright pillars reaching up into the vast nothingness above them. Out of the light stepped the paladins, but irrevocably changed. Through the gaps in their armour and the eye-holes of their helmets shone a brilliant, golden light, the same that now coated their weapons. Unrelenting they carved their way forward, their mere presence searing the flesh of the monsters around them.

A rift formed across the face of the beast, as skin and meat tore, wider and wider. Beyond it laid darkness, a mimicry of a mouth, blood dripping from it. And she screamed. The unworldly noise was soon answered with a roar in the distance, and the beating of great dark wings.

Alpha, the great abominable dragon came from the west, soaring high. It descended toward the rear of the paladins, right in front of the empowered, angelic warriors. It's heads spewed forth a dark miasma that clouded everything in front of the great monster. Flesh decayed, falling off in chunks of the bodies of paladins and monsters alike, only the beings made of light marched through it unharmed.

A few of them sprouted large golden wings and took to the skies while their companions swarmed Alpha from all sides. It thrashed and swiped with tails and heads alike, but they weathered it's onslaught.

On the other side of the battlefield, Armoire was engaging the warriors on her own, and they proved a challenge. Their bodies were no longer physical, bisecting them no longer caused any damage. They were faster, and now uncaring for her attacks went on a reckless offensive, pushing her back.

Even she felt the effect of their presence, causing her skin to boil and blister. They began to form a circle, cutting off her means to escape. As they closed in, Armoire grasped the edge of her blade, and ran her hand across it. within one motion it was coated in blood, darkening the metal until it was all of the same obsidian colour.

She returned to the offensive, and when her blade struck her opponent, the light bursting out of their armour dimmed, the warrior stumbling back. Taking full advantage of the opening Armoire leapt forward, suffering two burning wounds at her sides as she escaped the ring. Unlike the self-inflicted wound on her hand, these did not close on their own, nor did they bleed. Bright burning flames continued to flare up across the ruined flesh.

A bright flare brought her attention back to the other side of the battlefield, just in time to see one of Alpha's heads fall to the ground. The neck began to blister and squirm, before it split into two, with new heads already forming, albeit smaller than the first. The creature was thrashing in all directions, it's miasma coating the air around it. It could not advance, but it kept half of the seraphic paladins occupied.

"Go on, my comrades. Let your sacrifice not be in vain." Armoire nearly snapped her neck as she turned to the direction of the voice that had sounded across the battlefield. Her eyes shot wide open.

Towards her marched a hulking suit of armour, towering above the rank and file of their fellow paladins. The air was burning around the figure, which wore a hood instead of a helmet, two bright flares in the place of eyes. Their blade was the length of an adult, the edge formed of pure light.

The seraphic paladins obeyed and let off Armoire, instead spreading out once more to clear the way for their comrades. "Wayward child." The great warrior spoke as they approached. "How far you have fallen. Worry no longer, you shall finally rest and be redeemed."

Armoire's eyes rested on the crest adorning the warriors armour. The crest of her old chapter. Her body began to tremble, her back hunched over. Muscles began to protrude, the grip on her blade tightened. Only five more steps separated the two in their wide open space amidst the raging battlefield.

The warrior took another step, and Armoire threw herself at them with everything she had. Their blades created waves off pressure when they clashed, sending friend and foe around them reeling back. The ground cracked under their steps as first the warrior, then Armoire was pushed back in a relentless tide of offence and counter-offence.

Armoire was so focused on her opponent that she lost track of the rest of the battle happening around the circle of their arena. How the paladins slowly got through the ranks of monsters, how the first columns began to march into the streets of the city proper. How their defensive had failed.

None of this mattered to beast, her mind raced only what was in front of her. The great angelic warrior, the crests of the old chapter and the memories long past. Their dance did not remain bloodless. Armoire surged forward, running into nothing as the warrior moved to the left, letting her pass and raising his blade. They brought it down and Armoire's mind was awash in agony.

Her left arm fell to the ground, burning up in golden flames, leaving nothing but pale ash. A flame continued to burn across her shoulder. But all it did was enrage her further. She completely leaned into the imbalance of her body, swinging in the momentum of every strike to build up pace, an enraged hail of blades began to descend upon the warrior. She also hit her mark, piercing their armor below the chest. The black metal caused the light that made up their body to dim and weaken as they let out a ghastly wail.

As they continued to lash each other in an ever-escalating dance of death, Alpha was crumbling under the onslaught of the empowered paladins. Severed heads and legs laid about the battlefield around the large creature, and the regrowth process became slower and slower as exhaustion set in. It cried out, a howl of pain that reached all the way back to the sea that spawned it.

A new murder of flying monsters took to the sky in response, humanoid creatures with large leather wings. And among them flew Menagerie, heading straight towards Alpha.

The Battlefield underneath them had largely been decided at this point. The angelic warriors had done their part to cut a breach for their comrades to enter the city, only the last formations in the back were fighting Alpha and keeping the great monster at bay. But they were approaching their end, their power spent. One by one their lights faded, and their armour fell to the ground, empty and void.

Only the great warrior and Armoire were still stuck in a struggle to the death. Finesse and skill had made way for a brutish trading of blows. The warrior's armour was dented and torn, and countless fires burned out of the wounds on Armoire's body. She laid all her strength in the final blow, and burried her blade deep into the chest of her opponent.

Instead of reeling back, they instead pushed forward, and instead of dimming the light that constituted their body began to glow more brightly. "Fear not, wayward child." Their voice was laboured and heavy as they forced Armoire down onto the ground. The light was erupting out of their armour, searing Armoire's flesh, it boiled and vaporised under the violent energy.

"You will be saved."

The light erupted in a wave, and in a pillar up into the darkened skies. When it faded, both combatants were gone. All that was left of them was an empty husk of armour, and the sleek, blackened blade, piercing the ground.

Menagerie had reached the great Alpha, landing on it's back. She was in no hurry and leaned down as her right arm changed. Pale skin made way for pitch blackness, covered in scales, fingers turning to claws.

"I hope my dear young master has not wittnessed your regrettable performance, poor child." She pierced its hide. "But worry not! I kept a keen watch on you, and the next one will be far superior!"

As she spoke, Alpha's form became unstable. The black blood making up it's body began to drip down onto the ground, first in small driplets, then torrents of liquid. It bellowed out, the long necks turning and twisting, but it was no use. Menagerie beat her massive wings and ascended, watching as the great monster was dissolved into an ever-growing pool of black blood that consumed all in it's path.

Only a handful empowered warriors were still standing, and faded as they were washed away in the tide. Menagerie landed amidst the spreading pool, a wide smile on her face.

"Arise then, my dear children! My most beloved!"

She spread her arms, and out of the liquid arose forms. Humanoid, bipedal. Their outer form resembled armour, their heads formed as skeletal helmets, behind which burned a sickly white flame. Their left arm extended downward, forming a grown shield, while the right arm formed a curved blade.

They arose in the numbers of hundreds around Menagerie, in rank, facing the city.

"Go my children, and prove my dear great sister that she is not the only with a legion behind her!" Menagerie's voice was a shrill crescendo, and it set the warriors around her in motion. Towards the advancing paladins.

Towards the breached city.