Entrance
Countless battles had forged these warriors into an elite force, their lives irrevocably dedicated to safeguarding humanity from the unspeakable horrors contained behind them. Decades, even centuries, of tireless training had honed their skills into deadly precision.
"Ready bows!" barked a red-haired Amazonian commander, her long tresses tightly secured in a ponytail behind gleaming bronze armor. "Remember—show no mercy, as you will not be given any to those who seek to breach our defenses!!"
Surrounding her, fifty Amazonian fighters nocked arrows on their bows and pulled them back, their superior physiques enabling them to maintain a firm grip on their two hundred and fifty-pound bows. The barbed shafts were directed at the immense black door before them, even as it trembled once more, tiny specks of dust cascading from the ceiling of the cavern in response.
"Whatever emerges from that entrance, we will take it down. We cannot permit a single eldritch abomination to pass through those doors, for that is our responsibility!" The red-haired leader continued assertively, slicing her spear through the air and jabbing it at the bound, quaking doorway, even as it ominously shuddered once more, a foreboding thud echoing throughout the stony chamber they occupied, as if someone, or something, was battering against the door from the opposite side. "We are the sentinels of the gate, we are the everlasting watchers, those who protect this realm from the infernal forces of darkness!"
"Aye, Lady Pyrrha!" The warriors surrounding her responded in unison, as they gripped their arms, a diverse array of blades, bucklers, longbows, pikes, battle axes, and war hammers at the ready – an arsenal of mystical instruments forged by the most skilled Amazonian armorers, artisans, and imbued with potent magic by their most powerful sorceresses.
These were armaments capable of penetrating the skin of immortals, be they deities, Titans, or creatures. Each warrior was also clad in enchanted armor, crafted in the manner of ancient Greek Hoplites, offering an ideal balance of defense and agility.
In seeming answer to her declaration, the gates trembled once more, and this time they creaked ajar, a menacing crimson glow seeping out as the gap gradually yet inexorably expanded, the fortifications surrounding the gates, both mortal and mystical, straining in protest as some unseen force exerted its might against them.
"Ready!" Lady Pyrrha thundered, her fingers tightening around the worn bronze shield she held before her. Knees bent, body crouched low to the ground, spear tip angled menacingly at the emerging silhouette.
In perfect unison, the remaining guardians mirrored her stance, their movements fluid and precise - a testament to centuries of rigorous drills and battles fought. These were some of the world's most elite fighters, poised to annihilate whatever abomination was forcing its way through the portal.
A guttural growl rumbled from within the gateway as a blood-smeared hand burst from the shadows, its human-like digits clutching desperately at the gate's edge. With inhuman strength, it dragged its unseen owner through the widening fissure it had carved.
"For Blood and Honour, for Death and Glory, for the Gods!" Pyrrha cried out, her vivid green eyes narrowing as she watched the figure continue to emerge. The ground beneath her quaked ominously, with rocks starting to tumble from the cavernous ceiling above, while a biting, cruel wind seemed to swirl through the chamber.
"Unleash hell!" Pyrrha urged, releasing a fierce battle cry, her comrades echoing her as they witnessed the figure finally free himself from the gates of Tartarus, the immense black, hell-forged gates crashing shut behind him with a thunderous roar.