The Empress of Light, as the boss was called, appeared surrounded by a colourful aurora, her very presence lighting up the sky.

William watched as the fairy flew upwards, launching a flurry of rainbow particles beneath her that shot towards them. He jumped upwards, his wings propelling him, while Meg teleported to the side with her Rod of Discord. Somehow all the bolts missed Sid's now unconscious body.

How had Sid just fainted like that? Was it some sort of curse that this Empress had cast upon him? Where had she even come from?

He gazed at her as she suddenly teleported to the side, cloudy afterimages rotating around her as she did. He almost dropped his sword when he saw how much life she had – almost a hundred thousand. Plantera hadn't even had half that amount.

How were they going to take down this being with one of their own down for the count?

"You DARE bring your impure selves into my domain?" the Empress screamed. That shocked William even more – none of the other bosses they'd fought had talked back to them. "Carelessly decimating a peaceful creature of purity? Condemning it to a death of fire and thunder?"

"We're only just passing through!" William hastily shouted. He looked down to Sid again, wondering if 'fire and thunder' was just how she interpreted the explosive force Sid had been throwing around with his Rocket Launcher. "Please forgive my friend. We shall leave immediately and not cause any more... damage. He just got a bit excited."

"Excitement is what leads to mistakes!" the Empress just shrieked. "For that, you shall die!"

Blinding flares of multicoloured light began to emanate from behind her, rotating around her body as though a sun was glowing behind her. She then dashed again, straight towards William. He tried to dodge to the side but he had moved too late, the Empress plowing straight through him and knocking him down to the Hallowed grass. He saw Meg now shooting at the Empress with glowing purple beams and exploding fireballs, trying out the new magic weapons from the Dungeon she'd picked up. William rolled over to his feet and saw the Wizard and the rest of the citizens staring

"Get away from here!" he shouted. "We'll handle this!"

The Wizard, Witch Doctor and Clothier all turned to run, but the Pirate and Cyborg stood their ground.

"I'm not running away from a good fight!" Red Beard shouted. "Yarrr!"

He ran forward, bullets and cannonballs rapidly firing from his minigun. The Cyborg too attacked, launching rockets from his arm, which exploded against the Empress's shining crystal armour. She shrieked and cast an swarm of coloured lines towards them, which then had glowing swords shooting across them.

Towards the Pirate and Cyborg.

William ran, but knew there was no way he could get them out of the way in time. The swords would skewer them to pieces, a loss of life that never needed to happen.

Until two giant skeletal hands grabbed them both around the waists and pulled them into the sky, the ethereal swords stabbing into the ground where they'd been standing.

"Skeletron!" William shouted. "James!"

The Empress screamed in frustration and shot herself towards Skeletron, who held his hands out to the side so that it was only his skull who took the brunt of her charge. He was sent spinning backwards as the Empress cast a stream of shots in a circle around her, which began to spiral towards him, but thankfully the shots were slow enough for Skeleton to fly out of their reach. William could see the Pirate whooping as he was held through the air by Skeletron.

"Bring me close so I can blast her!" he shouted.

"You saved our lives. We are eternally grateful," the Cyborg said to Skeletron. "Please orient yourself close enough for our shots to be in range, but keeping a safe distance from her attacks."

William realised that with the citizens helping them they may yet stand a chance against the Empress. Most of her attacks seemed to be purely trajectory-based, and they could be dodged. He ran forward, True Night's Edge swinging and launching spinning green energy swords at the Empress. Meg launched a Magnet Sphere in her direction and kept on blasting her with shadowbeams.

When William got close enough he switched to the hammer the Paladin had dropped back in the Dungeon, throwing it like a super-fast boomerang that slammed against the Empress over and over again. For the next few minutes they were able to continue dealing steady damage to her, but when her life fell below half she disappeared.

Only to reappear some distance away. William noticed at a glance she seemed to be glowing brighter, bright purple tentacles now streaming out from behind her along with her flapping prismatic wings.

And a massive array of coloured lines appeared, all pointing towards William.

"Oh, dang," he muttered as he flew up, but another array spawned. He dodged and weaved as more and more arrays of coloured lines appeared in the sky aiming at him, waves and waves of swords shooting along them.

But he was focussing so much on dodging the rainbow swords that he didn't notice the Empress firing out a plume of coloured shots that all streamed straight towards him. They blasted through his body, dealing massive damage.

He fell to the ground, the shell of his turtle armor hitting the grassy floor. Low on life, he tried to get to his feet and raise his True Night's Edge high, but it felt heavy in his hands. His heart sank as he watched another wave of glowing swords skewing into Skeletron from all directions, causing visible cracks to form along his skull and for him to drop the Pirate and Cyborg.

We have to do this, he thought to himself. However powerful the Cultists would turn out to be, or facing Robyn, it was undoubtedly going to be even more overwhelming than this glowing spirit of the Hallow. And defeating her, like every other boss that had come before, would grant them with more powerful weapons.

But at what cost?

He took a drink of a Greater Healing Potion and flew back up to the fight, throwing his Vampire Knives to try to further restore his health. But the Empress was moving too fast, staying out of range of his knives such that even if they impacted, they'd just be spinning through the air and only glance across her form. And the spinning swords from his True Night's Edge moved too slowly to hit her, especially with her erratic movement.

He soon got desperate and tried to fly for a close attack with his Paladin's Hammer, but got caught in the rays of her Sun Dance. He was forced to retreat to the ground again, running towards the Pirate and Cyborg. They were hefting up an unconscious James the Clothier in their arms, who must've transformed away from Skeletron.

He saw Meg landing next to him. "Get the citizens out of here!" she shouted. "I've got the best chance of taking her down with my magic and my Rod of Discord!"

William didn't want to leave her to face the Empress alone but knew her reasoning was solid. It had been too difficult for him to hit her at close range while she just kept on barraging him with attacks from afar. If there was anyone who was best suited for fighting the Empress, it would be Meg. "Okay!"

As Meg watched William leave with the citizens she turned back to the Empress, flying upwards and shooting out with her Shadowbeam Staff. The Empress shrieked and did one of her teleporting-dashes, but Meg dodged by dropping downwards to the grass. The Empress launched in all directions a bunch of rainbow star-shots that spiralled towards Meg, but she again dodged, flying close to her underside and blasting her with her Inferno Fork. The Empress launched another flotilla of glowing shots that Meg again dodged before emanating her Sun Dance. Meg teleported away just in time before one of the sun rays touched her and launched a Magnet Sphere and more Shadowbeams at the Empress.

In-between her mastering the Empress's attack patterns and being able to nullify any mistakes with her Rod of Discord or the Holy Protection on her Hallowed Armor, Meg was soon able to bring the Empress's health down fully. She gave a deathly screech, a crystal-blue blade falling from her body as she faded away.

Meg landed on the ground to catch her breath just as the Empress faded back into existence in front of her.

"This isn't over!" the Empress shouted. "I hereby declare war upon your lands! I will not stop until all of it is completely pure and rid of wretches like him!" She pointed a gloved finger down at Sid's still unconscious form.

"There's no need for that. Would you like to discuss this over a cup of tea?"

This was a new voice. High and young, but posh and an edge of antiquity. Meg turned and spotted a teenage girl with pink hair and wearing a dress.

"And who are you?" Meg asked.