Chapter Text
Aloy
Two spirals of smoke wound through the sky. They joined the fading trails of many others, each a story of another missile that pounded into the line of defense.
More would follow. The FARO machines had crested the final rise in the banks across the river.
Behind Aloy the Oseram cannoneers fired with increasing panic, no longer focusing on one machine at a time as the ridge became overwhelmed with targets.
One stopped to watch the missiles flying straight at their small platform.
The explosions echoed against the defender’s position. One screamed. The other simply fell, silently crumpling to the ground. The platforms had no defense left against the onslaught of machines that were bounding up the river.
“To the walls!” Aloy shouted, pushing past the growing terror in her belly to force the words from her throat.” Get up to the walls!”
She dropped her own cannon. Her empty hands were slick with sweat. Empty hands. What weapon did she have left against this horror?
Her only chance was to stop HADES from reaching the tower. A last line, a physical defense against this AI terror of the past, now it seemed so feeble. Had she really thought her and a few allies and friends could stop an assault driven by the depths of ancient malice?
There was no force in all the tribes that could hold against such an onslaught.
Aloy turned to run towards the walls, now lined with Oseram reloading their cannons.
Another whistle sounded overhead. Four more trails of smoke joined the ones already trailing to mist across the air.
The sound hit her like a punch to the ears. The force slammed her to the ground. Above her the gate, her last barrier to the city approach, fell down. The heavens themselves had broken apart to crush her beneath with a terrible, bright pain that shot through her head.
Her belly lurched. The wind was gone from her lungs. The throbbing from her skull made her instantly nauseous. When she opened her eyes she could see her hand in a growing pool of blood.
Her blood.
Above her the weight of the rocks pinned her to the ground. She had no breath to try to pull herself free.
The blood pool in front of her trembled. The ground shook under her empty fingers. Thuds echoed against the ringing in her ears. A shadow crossed through the smoke that hung heavy in the sky.
One massive strut slammed into the ground a span from her hand. She felt the splash of blood on her face. Her eyes blinked but she could not even flinch. Her body would not move at her command. It was as if her muscles already knew the end was near, and now ignored the screaming in her mind to move, to flee, to fight, to do anything at all.
But each scream was not answered. She was motionless as a doll, helpless and unmoving.
The deathbringer thudded again. And again. Corruption began to drip off the machine. It slithered across the ground, lighting up her blood with a sickening glow.
The shadow cut away. Light streamed around the ropes dragging the Horus core.
Red light swirled up the black metalbite that was already eating the flesh of her fingers. It jumped and skittered straight up to her face, faster than she could blink, her body unresisting.
Her focus sputtered to life. The voice entered her brain like a deep tolling bell.
ENTITY HAS FAILED
She felt the deep smugness behind HADES voice. The certainty. The knowledge that the AI had won.
And Aloy had lost it all.
The horror struck through her like the red lightning that danced across her skin. Her fingers finally heard the call of her trapped mind and twitched.
But her hand had nothing to hold. Her spear was gone. Her bow was gone. She had no weapon left against this threat.
Her throat was as hollow as her hands. Nothing came out though her mind shrieked. The metalbite on her fingers burned. The corruption dug into her eyes, worming its way in with agonizing slowness. The smoke and light was replaced with red.
Each thudding step of the deathbringer faded under her hand, her eyes now blind and unable to see it dragging HADES ever nearer to its goal.
A woman’s face swam in front of Aloy’s vision. A familiar face but also distant, muddied by Aloy’s memory and hopes of everything this woman could be. Yet, though she was so close, the woman was not looking at Aloy.
She had never seen Aloy’s face. She had no idea Aloy existed.
Aloy would have done anything to get those eyes to turn. To see her. For the woman to know that in some strange way, she had a daughter, separated by a thousand years of time.
This ancient had seen the world in peril and done everything in her power to save it no matter the obstacles put in her way. For a brief span of time Aloy had almost thought she could be something like the one she desperately wanted to call mother.
But Aloy did not have power in her hands. She did not have the skills or the knowledge or the tools. Her hands were empty. She had nothing left to give.
Aloy reached for the woman’s face. Her face, older, wiser, a woman who had succeeded in the most impossible task, and died knowing her work would live on.
Inside her belly Aloy felt the crushing weight of knowing she could never live up to this mother she had never known.
Elisabet… I can’t. I can’t do this. I can’t save the world you made.
I’m sorry.
I failed.
Her hands slid through still air. The old one’s eyes never acknowledged her desperate plea.
Darkness overtook all.
Erend
The bridge trembled with every step of the approaching demon. His boots vibrated on the stone, again, and again.
His vanguard had fallen. The massive demon pushed aside one last body in its path, continuing to march across the dead at its feet without a care. Relentless, unending, each step was as a hammer’s strike hitting the air.
Behind him the remaining Nora defenders fired their arrows. Each landed, snapping like twigs against the demon’s impenetrable metal skin.
They were a people of hunters, but even they did not know how to hunt the minions of the Buried Shadow.
Erend gripped his hammer tight.
“We can’t take it down here,” His voice sounded small, even to himself. “Go!”
No one heard. Why would anyone listen to him? He had just led the vanguard to their death on this bridge. All for Aloy.
And Aloy was gone.
He had watched the gate fall on that distant red hair. He could not admit it to himself. But somewhere in his mind he knew she was dead. He just could not think that his friend, so vibrant, so strong, could die.
However the demon had marched on. She was gone. It was only him and his hammer. What good was he now?
“Go!” This time he shouted to be heard, heard above the demon’s steps, heard above the distant shouts that now filled the city. “We can't take it head on! You–" he stabbed a finger at the Nora warchief, wishing he remembered her name. "You all go to the Alight, prepare a defense on the ridge!”
Erend glanced back at the approaching demon and swallowed the large lump in his throat. “I'm gunna give you all the time I can.”
The Nora warchief held her arrow. Then bid the other Nora to stop firing.
She knew what he was offering. And that it would take his life.
But she did not protest. Her eyes were cold. Determined.
The warchief nodded, taking her son’s arm and began to shout orders to the other Nora defenders. The last chance to stop the devil itself went with them.
Erend turned back to the approaching demon. Each step echoed louder. Each one ran terror up his legs.
He hefted his hammer and rolled his shoulders. He took a deep breath. Then he roared with all the pain that remained in his belly, turning it into fury for one last fight.
Varl
“Take it down!”
His mother’s words were harsh on the wind. As if her voice would be enough to defeat this devil’s minion.
As much as he hated Sona’s constant orders, Varl felt her firm commands give him more strength. He pressed his shoulder back against the stone pillar with the remaining braves. They shoved, together, at Sona’s count.
Finally the massive stone pillar they had chipped away at the mesa’s edge toppled. Slowly. So slowly he thought for a moment they had missed.
Varl peered down to the switchback road below. All the braves were silent now, even his mother. The rock tumbled down, bouncing once and he thought perhaps it had been useless after all – but then it crashed into the approaching demon’s side.
His breath caught in his chest. The demon that dragged the devil itself toward them tilted. Legs slid on the road below.
For the briefest moment there had been hope.
Then one of the demon’s legs slammed into the far slope. The tilting back steadied. Another leg slammed back into the path ahead. It rose, relentless and terrifying. And began to walk forward once again. Corruption spilled in its wake, staining the ground with black metalbite lit by an unearthly red glow.
Sona gripped his arm. He saw, for the briefest moment, something he had never seen before.
His mother was afraid.
“We cannot let the devil win. We know they can die. We have seen Aloy do this thing.”
He did not know if Sona was trying to steady his nerves.. Or if she was trying to convince herself.
“No matter what it takes. We cannot let the metal devil win.”
Varl nodded without responding. The terror in Sona’s eyes gripped his heart with fear, even more than the sound of the demon approaching below.
Avad
He had not believed it was possible. No matter how the huntress Aloy had insisted, no matter how much he had told himself he would listen to her, he had not given her words the gravity they deserved.
And now the sun would cast him out for his sins. While taking with it the lives of his people, each one lost another bloodstain in his shadow.
“Your radiance, the scouts confirm the gate has fallen. The outer markets are already consumed. General Uthid has pulled back defense to the city, awaiting your orders.”
The gate had fallen.
“Aloy?” he asked, knowing it was not the proper question to ask. But it was the first thought on his mind. The guilt of asking after one girl instead of the people’s welfare hit him like a slap, but the word was already out of his mouth.
“It appears she bled out in the rubble. Your radiance, if you have orders, now is the time.”
Marad was not subtle. Avad knew what orders he wanted. And the spymaster was right to ask for them..
Avad nodded. “Tell Uthid to begin the evacuation plan.”
How many had he doomed by refusing to evacuate at Aloy’s warning? An entire city of souls rested in the palm of his hand and he had failed them all.
Because he had not believed.
Marad left Avad with his thoughts. He watched the sun starting to set on the city that had seen ten thousand sunrises. Now, because of his failure, it may never see another.
When the stone rumbled under his feet his heart clenched in fear. The deathbringers were still mounting the bridge – how could one have gotten so close?
However when he went to the edge of the railing he saw it was not a demon on the balcony below. A hole had been blown in the wall of the Sun Tower. And from it Eclipse soldiers poured out.
A familiar headdress stepped from the smoke.
Helis looked up to meet Avad’s gaze.
And smiled.
Avad gripped his sword hilt. He had failed the city. His people. He had failed his own faith.
But he would not let this man touch his brother again. His fear mingled in his belly and turned to anger. He would not fail Itamen.
Avad pulled his blade free and leapt onto the Terror of the Sun with a cry of rage.
Fin
Additional artwork for this chapter can be found on Tumblr -
Aloy's Defeat
Erend's Battle
