The gods did not respond, only continuing to channel their cosmic powers. A kaleidoscopic portal began opening, the familiar dimensional prison waiting to claim its escaped prisoner once more by Tribunal decree...
Sensing the ominous shimmering portal expanding behind the Eventide gods, the colossal Destroyer roared in defiant rage. After endless torture trapped frozen for millennia by Tribunal magic, now being condemned back to that lifeless abyss? Insufferable!
"You pompously heroic weaklings!" the entity thundered, causing stars to quiver in their constellations. "I am Chaos unleashed! I am Destruction Incarnate! You shall not enslave my glorious purpose again!"
Summoning the pain and power born from 10,000 years of isolation, the Destroyer focused its energy into a cataclysmic orb of raging crimson fire between its clawed hands, growing hotter and denser by the second.
The Eventide guardians recognized the terrifying buildup of apocalyptic force. "Now ends your misguided crusade, fallen one!" Their divine voices melded into a singular booming decree of judgment as they worked in unison to open the sealing portal wider behind them.
With a guttural wrathful scream, the mammoth entity cast the howling sphere of molten plasma and rage straight towards the gods, a trajectory that would also engulf the helpless planet behind them...only for the cosmic projectile to abruptly halt, quivering inches from the trio's outstretched palms.
The psychic backlash caused the hydra and its minion horde to scatter in shrieking disarray. As the only sound left was the Destroyer's heavy breaths rasping in frustration, the gods spoke calmly. "As we decreed - now ends this."
They forced the raging sphere backwards slowly. The Destroyer futilely tried resisting, but could not overcome their combined Tribunal authority. Inch by inch they forced the plasma bomb through the shimmering portal, the Destroyer letting out an agonized scream...before the portal silently winked out, leaving only silence and three gods gazing down upon a newly peaceful world.
As the radiant gods hovered triumphantly over Eventide's healed skies now cleared of the ravenous invading hordes, a mix of celebration and grieving echoed from the cities below. Though the planetary guardians had intervened just in time before complete annihilation, not all destruction had been undone nor lives restored.
"The Tribunal's justice is complete," the lead guardian declared, his voice still tinged with sorrow. "The Destroyer will pose no further threat - it will remain sealed beyond the farthest cosmic void. But healing sacred scars such as these will require further sacrifice and toil."
The goddess beside him gazed across what was once a glittering silver metropolis - now crevassed with decay from rampaging beasts, charred wastelands from endless flaming barrages, broken infrastructure heaviest near the decimated town center where the hydra had descended.
"We had grown complacent in the peace brokered ages ago," she lamented. "This world was to be a sanctuary against all external turmoil and hurt. And yet still suffering found its way in due to our lowered guard."
The third deity nodded slowly in agreement. "Even sealed, the Destroyer's creeping influence managed to turn the very heavens against this land it so detested. We must bolster our realms protections - starting with purging any lingering infectious traces of chaos."
As the trio raised their hands in synergistic focus, reality itself seemed to ripple around Eventide. Like a pulse wave of harmony and order flowing out through every darkened corner left by the Destroyer's campaign. The cleansing cosmic energy infusing rebuilding matter to heal lingering damage.
Yet deeper emotional wounds would rely on further care of the people themselves - for Eventide to reclaim its sanctuary mantle meant valuing all that could still slip away when vigilance faltered.
Though the gods had tapped into tremendous power to reverse the physical devastation and banish the invading armies, utilizing such concentrated divine energy had drained even their cosmic forms greatly.
As the deities hovered closely together high above Eventide's atmosphere, their radiant glow had dimmed to a mere flicker. Even keeping aloft taxed what little reserves they had left.
"That final surge...took more out of me than intended," the lead god Vulon admitted, his projection wavering slightly. "I can barely maintain this manifestation."
"We are too weakened to return properly to our realm," the goddess Levita added in dismay. "If our forms fade fully here, we may be adrift..."
Their avian companion Horus stretched his gleaming wings in alarm. "Surely we cannot remain stranded here in limbo! Without direction, our power may dissipate into the void!"
Vulon shook his head adamantly. "I refuse dissolution after eons of guidance simply due to exhaustion. We must focus our intention - project what anchors us onto sympathetic mortal souls below willing to uplift."
The other two divine beings exchanged uncertain looks but closed their eyes, concentrating in unison with Vulon on psychically reaching out. Searching for virtuous hearts that still remembered their protection in direst need...
There! - three devout acolytes far below whose daily rituals helped hold space for departed loved ones. The hidden anchors are needed. Using the last divine sparks within, the gods merged their essence into those waiting vessels - just as their forms gave way to glittering dust...three shooting stars descending in grace to troubled but healing land.
As divine cosmic beings, the guardian gods would not have a mortal existence and therefore could not technically "die". Given their ethereal godly nature described as consisting of pure soul energy.
With the last of their divine force depleted by banishing the Destroyer, the three lead guardian gods of Eventide found their radiant soul manifestations begin to flicker and fade. Lacking the energy to sustain the intricate cosmic patterns that gave them form, their intricate astral tapestries slowly unwove, transient consciousnesses adrift.
Of course, unlike mortals subject to linear existence within fragile flesh, the aloof gods normally resided simultaneously across countless planes beholden to no single realm or incarnation. However, having anchored so much of their current focus upon defending corporeal Eventide, now even their vast transcendental minds were overwhelmed and disoriented by the abrupt dispersion of identity cohesion.
Struggling to retain purpose without a stabilizing pattern to give their diluted thoughts shape, the homeless souls plunged in search of temporary psychic vessels that could house their fading divine resonance. In times past, back when belief waned, the gods would project slivers of soul into advanced relics and altars. But now - with the Destroyer's siege causing such collective trauma below - finding minds able to sync harmoniously would be key to sheltering what remained of the guardians until strength returned.
Guided by subtle post-traumatic flashes within broken hearts below, the three found reflective hosts to inhabit symbiotically. Yet the gods knew unless those spirits mended fully in defiance of despair, whatever ephemeral shards now anchored there could flicker out forever...