"... The fate of humanity rests on the chance that a child shall be born of the greatest darkness and embrace their heritage to be either the destruction or salvation of humanity and the cosmos as we know it."
The doors tremble under the relentless blows for now resisting the forces bearing down on them. Xander looked upon the child in his arms thinking to himself "You will be the one thing that will direct and guide the child of fate to salvation or destruction of reality." Turning to the few Soldiers left of the first and only army of man assembled together under one banner "Hold the doors for as long as you can then fall back to the inner sanctum, it is there we will make our final stand." With that he moves into the inner sanctum and prays to Artemis, offering up what little rations he has left with the prayer asking her divine protection and guidance for the child nestled in his arms. A blinding ray of light appears in the room and out of it steps a woman armed for either the hunt or war with a silver long bow in hand and blazing auburn hair flowing from beneath a helm of silver marked with a crescent moon with 3 arrows aligned thru it upon its crest. Speaking with a voice capable of shattering the mortal before her, Artemis made an offer, " I will guide her and provide my protection; however you must accept a role to play here as well." Turning she left the sanctum and went to the hall where at sixty armored warriors prepared for death, at least half their number severely injured in one way or another and she spoke to them as well "Listen well last remnants of the army of man, I have an offer for all here however it is something all of you must willingly accept. Become empowered until the first rays of dawn and carve thru your enemies unrelenting, however you will be bound in death as hounds of the hunt as well as the dogs of Hades dragging all souls to the realm of death that seek to escape their judgement." All present had already kneeled in the presence of one of their revered gods and after the offer was said Xander stood up and spoke for all present "We were prepared to die already, So what difference does it make if we accept your offer and spend eternity as the hounds of Hades? I know I speak for all those present when I say that we will take this chance to carve humanity's perseverance and make the void remember the fight humanity put up." Then kneeling before Artemis he recited a prayer of battle that turned into a hymn among the other soldiers "May the Grace of the Gods lead us to Elysium and our honor allow us to dwell with the ancestors with pride in our hearts and souls." As the prayer finished upon the brow of each man appeared a Crest of silver depicting 3 heads chasing an arrow. As Artemis takes the child & moves to leave the pounding on the door stops, replaced by the sound of horns deep & brazen being blown "So it appears that the Daemons were able to make it here… It seems you will have allies to stand by you for the final clash." with a small smile on her face before Xander can even ask what she means by allies, a flash of silver light blinds them & she is gone leaving them to fight this last battle. Choosing to docs on the immediate situation Xander barks a welcomed order "Stand to & form a shield wall, it would be rude if we didn't skewer our enemies when given their backs."
Leading from the front of the approaching Daemon forces still outside of the fortress walls, Xeres looks down at the army of mutilated amalgamations grimacing at the imitation of life brought forth by the void to stamp out the child of prophecy that was being protected by what was one of the greatest fortresses to ever be built & garrisoned by the army of man capable of fighting the legions to a stand still & now the fortress is in ruins with the smell of fire & blood overwhelming even this far away from the walls. "Vex, Khalizam you will take the 5th, 6th & 12th legion to set up siege machines & defenses, you'll be responsible for making sure nothing leaves here & are to hold these lines regardless of the flow of the battle." His Second-in-Command & his brother nodded, not daring to waste time telling him he shouldn't be leading the vanguard knowing he would always take the battlefield to lead his troops regardless of the danger. The forces that Xeres was leading was made up of 15 Legions from the Dominion of Belonum the strongest of all Daemon territories as well as the only forces the Daemons could spare to aid mortal men with every other race also facing an invasion of the Void in an attempt to isolate each race from helping one another against a common foe with the only ones able to send aid due to their incredible individual strength forcing them to take the risk no one else could by weakening their own fortresses to send these troops.
Looking at the sick & twisted imitations of life as well as the undead which had been made from the decay of life leaking from these creatures made it clear that this was the main force of the invasion & had been swelling its ranks with the undead for months before assaulting this fortress with their numbers simply replenishing from the defenders whose bodies had not been able to be disposed of in time making the mass before them number in the millions. While understanding & knowing the strength of your enemy is one thing seeing the sheer number of creatures still impacted the forces present knowing that they were outnumbered at least 15-1 & while the undead lose most of their strength & capabilities they can't be underestimated especially in these numbers they provide the distraction & protection the creatures from the void need to not be attacked by multiple daemons at once. Using telepathy Xeres handed out orders to his commanders with a 2 pronged attack to drag attention away from the Atrium in the middle that clearly still had defenders, his intent being to lead his forces as a blade to pierce thru to the survivors while the rest of his forces tried to distract the enemy on either side allowing him to secure & escort the survivors to safety. As the flanking forces crashed into the mass still trying to push into the fortress through the holes in the wall they played their horns to further draw the attention of as many creatures as they could to reduce the number Xeres had to cut thru knowing that their chances of survival were slim at best since they couldn't just hold their ground, they had to advance into the mass of bodies pushing in as far as they could while making as much noise as possible. The creatures of the Void closer to the walls turned rushing towards the loud & far more abundant group of life essence trampling the undead in their way as well as pushing the undead to focus on this new group behind them with few noticing the more silent force barreling straight down on them carving a path forward. The assault was simple with a wedge shape leading the way forward, Casters & Archers in the middle of the formation protecting them while also allowing them to effectively target priority threats on all sides. Xeres led from the apex position of the wedge, using his shield as a weapon as much as his axe to carve thru the undead & only using his power to handle any void creatures that assaulted him to conserve his strength for the fight back the way they came that would be arguably more intense since they would have the survivors from the atrium at that point, the targets of these creatures. It took them only 5 minutes to push forward to within 200 meters of atrium when its doors suddenly swung wide & a small force began pushing with a standard shield wall formation into the backs of creatures just moments ago trying to break down the reinforced doors, Xeres managed to do a quick head count & saw a mere 61 soldiers left out an army numbering a million strong from the reports he had read though due to their sacrifice unlike other areas the entirety of the invasion of human lands ended up here at this singular fortress sparing many from a fate crueler than death.
Xander leading his troops out of the atrium ordered a switch to a wedge formation copying the daemons in an attempt to link up with these forces & properly get to work wiping out every trace of the void inside this fortress before dawn came. With the power granted to them by Artemis each of them wielded power far beyond human means with Xander cutting down even Void spawn that had taken dozens of men to kill in only 4-5 attacks with his spear putting him almost on par with the General in front of him. As the two forces met the wedge formation Xeres had been at the head of inverted itself with the rear guard now becoming the head of the wedge to carve a path back out onto the plains before the fortress at his order & seamlessly being able to integrate the survivors into the formation as well as allowing a few brief moments for Xeres to communicate with these survivors to understand if they had made it in time to stop the Void from successfully killing off whoever the Humans had been protecting but as if the universe heard his thoughts the sound of horns changed from the deep brazen sounds that had been sounding this entire time to the sounds of warning with the sounds quickly dying off as the ones sounding this alarm were killed at an alarming rate. Without any time to stop & consider he simply told Xander & his men to follow him as he rushed to other end of the formation to see what was happening only to see the left flank getting decimated by a large monstrosity that dwarfed everything around it cutting thru a force 30,000 strong who were all hardened veterans with some could claiming to be of the strongest the Daemon race had to offer as warriors who had up until that point been making a steady advance killing enough enemies to make a dent in the forces present were now nothing more than insects being crushed beneath a mountain. Xander also saw this & if he had to describe the creature which would forever be burnt into the memories of all those present it would be of the hideous features with flesh clearly slopping off of its elongated legs & arms with every movement, even at this distance the smell of decay so overpowering had hit them full force as if someone had taken rancid meat sprayed by a skunk, dipped in shit & put it out on a humid day with the sun making it so hot even the insects didn't dare leave their hiding spots for 12 long hours making everyone present sick to the point some were puking. It had 8 such legs & 4 arms with a large lower body reminding him of a scorpion an upper body that was spilling its intestines & stomach contents all around it every time it moved with 2 very different heads atop of it's body one looking shrunken & shriveled the other bloated as if it had been left in a barrel of water for too long. The creature wield what one would call cleavers if a name had to be given in each hand which were essentially just 5 meter long slabs of metal attached to crude handles which with the creatures strength was cutting thru & smashing the daemons to pieces even catching the surrounding undead & void spawn in its attacks not caring for their demise. Xander directed his gaze at the General of the Daemons & spoke without pretense or consideration of race, they were on equal footing at this moment as leaders "We have to bring that thing down here & now, we can't give it the chance to leave here should it get bored & decide to go elsewhere looking for things to kill." even going so far as to grab the Daemon's shoulder even though he towered nearly 2.5 feet above him. Looking down at the human who so boldly grabbed him Xeres was able to focus on what had been said & had to agree he was right especially since the majority of the human warriors capable of fighting that beast had died here before it ever appeared. Using his Telepathy he instructed the right flank to make their way to him & told Vex to maintain that defensive line to not let anything through. Then turning to Xander he asked the most important question that needed an answer "Were we in time to protect the prophecy from being destroyed??" & the human replied with the answer that made every sacrifice today worth it "Yes, They have been safely taken elsewhere that the void can not reach" with that answer given it was now possible to focus every bit of their attention on killing the abomination in front of them. There was still plenty of heavy fighting & losses happening. It seemed as though the enemies were less abundant than almost 10 minutes ago which was solved by the fact that the creature was killing off its own allies making a path towards them. They should be happy that there is infighting happening right now even celebrating it however that had seen what it had done to 3 legions already & was now doing the same to its allies though with it spending time doing so the right flank was able to make it to them & merge into the formation which Xeres was quickly trying to think of the best way to bring this beast down with his current forces while avoiding unnecessary casualties & was unable to come up with a single solution due to the sheer size of its attack range. As if reading his mind Xander offered to lead his men in as bait for the archers & casters to safely try to whittle away at the beast maybe even finding a weakness they could exploit & with nothing better coming to mind Xeres agreed however he would lead a small group of his own warriors to keep the attention divided since it had 2 heads that from what he had seen so far both worked just fine to keep track of its surroundings.
As the beast got closer the groups split off with the primary Daemon Force forming a large crescent shape to have plenty of angles to attack from while the 2 decoy groups worked on distracting it & exploiting any weaknesses that were exposed. Of course even with having taken casualties there was still more then 50,000 soldiers able to fight yet Xeres felt like it wasn't enough that this beast was more dangerous then they'd seen & not even 5 minutes after engaging with the creature his feelings had proven true as it began striking & moving faster than they had seen it do so before colliding with the top most part of the crescent killing many before turning its attention to the daemons that struck at it with actual strength behind their blows finally making use of their techniques & bloodlines that they been saving with Xeres leading the way coated in a black flame that was known as purgatory flames capable of melting mithril, orichalcum & even adamantine like it was candle wax, enhanced all of his physical attributes & gave him almost complete immunity against most attacks with Xeres now using this ability to directly intercept one of the large cleavers with his shield hoping to remove the creatures weapons from play one at a time however as the cleaver approached him instead of as a slice it turned presenting the entire blade at him aiming to smack him instead of cut him leaving Xeres only a moment to curse before it connected. While the cleaver had a large chunk melted away leaving it close to breaking Xeres had been knocked off his feet by the force & sent flying almost 30 meters to far away to immediately protect the others assaulting the beast & had to watch as a dozen warriors were cut down each swing having their bodies either crushed from the brute force or cut thru by the sheer force of the swing leaving them to suffer the pain for a few short lived moments though something that surprised him was the humans, they were working together to block the cleaver strikes with grouped up shield walls with the human who he had spoken to in the center of each such reaction. Though they weren't able to do as much damage as quickly as the daemons they could be a bigger thorn in this creatures side with their lack of casualties so far with being able to stop each attack sent their way forcing the creature to turn towards them & attack with both arms on its left hand side instead of just the one as well as the ranged attacks finally making progress as parts of it caught fire prompting casters to use fire spells or wind spells to fan the flames & archers concentrating fire at its heads with the hope of blinding the creature potentially. This continued on for almost 10 minutes before the creature roared in fury changing from its previous shape to something more terrifying as the skin & flesh on the creature seemed to slide off entirely even the flesh on its heads leaving a massive skeleton still clutching its weapons however they saw the core of the beast now & watched in horror as the seething energy started coating the skeleton in a black mass that slid to where muscles should be across its whole body & then its heads split open as tendrils moved up into their place & opened up exposing 2 eyeballs filled with madness & bloodlust. Before anyone could re-act it lashed out at the protected archers & casters, crushing them under foot or with its cleavers quickly mutilating & ripping apart those caught in its wake killing thousands in a matter of moments & breaking the formation entirely. Xeres attacked with everything he had at one of its legs aiming to cleave off the bottom to put it off balance if only for a moment, Xander seeing this with his men stabbed at the same location on another foot aiming to crack part of this leg making it easier to break with Xeres successfully cutting thru having the desired effect they repeated this process another 4 times before the humans became its target sending them scattering this time with its focused strikes & slamming its cleavers down on any who were unable to get up or move fast enough killing almost 20 soldiers before they could regroup in anyway but in doing so it had lost sight of Xeres only made aware of his existence again by the searing pain as he cut thru the mass acting as muscles leaving a fire burning & spreading at a fast rate soon engulfing most of its lower body in Purgatory even slowly melting the bone down instead of burning it to ash. Xeres had exerted himself with that last strike using up most of his strength & almost all of Purgatory to achieve this feat so when he went to block the next cleaver strike he wasn't able to completely do so as Purgatory sputtered out & the cleaver crushed his shield & arm into his rib cage throwing him almost 50 meters like a rag doll rolling to a stop finally nearly blacking out from the pain & in a state that no one was saving him from, his arm & shield took most of the damage with both in pieces however those pieces had punctured his chest & abdomen with the left side of his ribcage also completely broken his left lung full of bone & metal with his kidneys, liver, stomach, intestines everything inside his abdomen peppered, ripped, or ruptured. Surprisingly Xeres didn't feel the pain & was clear headed after blinking a few times which he didn't question knowing every moment mattered here & began sending out orders telepathically all while choking on his own blood feeling himself fading but still trying to direct the battlefield & as he felt the pull getting too much to bear he sent one last message to Khalizam & Vex telling them to follow his orders & not worry so much anymore before passing on from his mortal coil. With his death instead of demoralizing the daemons still fighting it invigorated them to fight harder burning themselves out trying to do everything they could to put this beast down & the humans were no exception with Xander leading his dwindling forces to keep harrying the beast & making cracks on its legs which the warriors still left struck at with everything they had not caring about the oncoming attacks simply focusing on doing everything to bring the beast down. It worked, even though Xeres was dead Purgatory burned on refusing to extinguish which was the breaking point needed as the beast's legs gave a might CRACK everyone watched as it's entire right side shattered & snapped collapsing in on itself throwing it to the ground finally putting it's upper body in reach with the daemons swarming now up its body attacking whatever they could though it still fought on cutting them down but the damage had been done at this point, it was only a matter of time & recognizing this the beast prioritized striking at the humans even dragging itself closer to them. Xander immediately ordered them to fan out but before they could get more than a meter from one another a large object slammed into the ground scattering them & as he looked up he saw it was one of the cleavers then he noticed the bodies it had claimed in its flight… from 60 he was down to less than 20 soldiers & he wasn't even sure of the exact number because another one followed after obscuring his vision but he was sure even more lives were lost. As he stood up the beast had gotten with 30 meters of him close enough to reach out to kill him & it did swing a cleaver overhead aiming to crush him but instead of moving Xander placed his shield above his head & braced himself something no one could've expected happened, he emerged from the debris left arm hanging limp but otherwise intact rushing up the creatures arm with the dust clearing the eyes went wide realizing he used the gap in the blade made earlier to allow the ground to absorb most of the impact before the cleaver connected with him meaning he only needed to hold against whatever wasn't immediately transferred into the ground, a gamble on his life that paid off as Xander leaped from the shoulder to its chest thrust his spear deep into its chest piercing the core of the creature finally putting an end to it with a shriek of pain but there would be no celebration for him no walking away from this for the first rays of light for a new dawn began shining & before the daemons present his body turned to stone before tipping over & falling shattering into pieces with the morning light showing not a single human survivor & over 2/3rds of the legions sent lost along with their General all for the sake of protecting a prophecy that who knows was to going to be fulfilled or if the one in it wouldn't bring about the end of the world.
Several hours later
After collecting their dead in wagons made from breaking down the siege machines, the legions moved out making the return home with a group splitting off to go to the human capital & give a report of what happened here as well as the sacrifices made. With Vex & Khalizam leading the legions with Xeres's body on a makeshift stretcher of spears & cloaks they made their way back home with heavy hearts. In the future few will ever remember what happened this day for Humanity did what they would be known for many years & that is doctoring the truth, erasing what everyone died for instead recording it as the last bastion of Humanities might & hope fought back the darkness at the cost of many heroes not even naming Xander or any who fought there even going so far as to purge anything thing related to the man but while humanity did this the daemons made a shrine in the territory of Belonum honoring not only the fallen daemons but also paying respects to warriors that fought beside them & gave their lives in the selfless act of protecting their kind with a piece of stone from Xander's shattered body being set as an offering with Vex himself having grabbed it though he will soon wish he had never grabbed it since it would drag him into the prophecy kicking & screaming for all it cared….
& of course Vex wasn't aware but because of something only his "extended" family knew was that he was the bastard spawn of Hades & a High Daemon who died shortly after he was born due to a jealous suitor of hers & with him being a born from teenagers not thinking their life choices thru before making bad decisions her family threw him into an orphanage leading him to have a jaded outlook on life but a kindness towards children that seemed at odds with his life & military career which made him the perfect candidate for what Artemis was about to do to her cousin… He was going to become the guardian & caretaker of the little girl she had taken into her custody since no one knew of his existence or how powerful he actually was as a Demi-god & he can't physically age past where he is at currently so he was perfect because the child was a bit "special"…. I mean he's gotta raise a little girl with a prophecy that could end all life as we know it. What could possibly go wrong???
I apologize about the prologue length however I wanted to introduce important set up stuff for the world as a whole story wise.
Before anyone asks why a Greek God or why Artemis instead of So & So it is because I view her more as the Goddess of the Hunt & Archery then I do the moon specifically from my personal opinion. With these last remnants of man essentially becoming hunters of the Void Spawn & the undead until dawn with her blessing upon them empowered by the divinity of other gods as well since there are restrictions in place on ALL gods including those of every race & the reason for that will be explained fairly early on. As for them being branded as hunting dogs for eternity that will also be explained when the restrictions are explained since they go hand in hand.