It had almost been two days since I had ventured into the black garden and ripped out its heart and personally, I thought that an act such as killing something that was deemed as a ‘god’ would at least grant me the chance to rest. But, much as I hate to admit it, a guardian’s work is never truly done. Shortly after returning to Twilight, she informed me that while I was away having to deal with the Black Garden, a Hive incursion had started taking place on Earth. One that was lead by a hive wizard named Omnigul and loyal to a hive prince whose name I’ve already heard of once before.
Crota. The one who stripped Aria Blaze of her light and left her to rot in the Hellmouth.
Even though Crota’s soul was banished and Omnigul was destroyed at the hands of Adagio, there was still one other thing that had to be taken care of. Which leads us to where I was right now. At this present moment, I was not only with my fireteam but with Adagio and two other guardians on the plateau that was just above the hellmouth itself on the moon. The first one was a titan that I recognized from my Rumble match back when I had to fight against Indigo, named Noble Arms. A titan that was a defender like Big Mac. The second was another hunter, who looked like someone that Indigo happened to know, despite the fact that he was someone that Rainbow added to the team to fill out the roster. His name was Eagle-3 and instead of a Bladedancer, he was a gunslinger and wielded solar light instead of arc.
Now that we were all here, there was another question that had to be tended to. One that Indigo impatiently asked while we were standing here, “So, is someone going to explain what the hell we’re doing about this ominous pit?”
“Good, it seems that all of you made it safely,” we now heard the voice of Commander Sentry speak to us, “Now, I know you might have some questions, but I will keep this brief. All six of you are called here as a single fireteam for a crucial raid operation that the Vanguard needs you to undertake. As most of you are aware, the Vanguard has seen a resurgence of Hive Activity in the Cosmodrome and on the Moon. Our efforts have pushed them back, but in order to truly quell this incursion, we need to take the fight to the one commanding their forces.”
Wait, is Flash saying what I think he was suggesting?
“Your goal in this operation is to go deep into enemy territory and assassinate Crota, the hive prince who commands this incursion. Removing him from the picture will severely weaken the hive incursion in the Cosmodrome and on the Moon,” the titan continued, “I will let Aria Blaze take over from here. Good luck.”
As soon as he stepped away, we all now heard the somewhat familiar voice of Aria take over in Flash’s place, “Thank you. Now… in order to truly end the threat of Crota once and for all, you must take the fight to him in his own realm. The prince thinks he’s invincible on the Oversoul Throne, but his own power can be turned against him.”
I looked back towards everyone on my fire team, including Adagio before trying to say the first thing that came to my mind as we found ourselves in an open clearing around the edge of the Hellmouth, “So how do we get started?”
“To truly begin, you need to step forth and form the bridge. From there, you need to enter the abyss of the Hellmouth itself,” we heard Aria explain to us, “Be careful though, once in the abyss, the darkness will try to weigh you down and crush your light.”
So, wait… the only way that we’re going to be able to get inside is by going into the giant pit of death and suffering? How exactly does that work?
I did not have the chance in order to voice my question though, because when we walked over this circular plate that was on the ground, it began to immediately glow all around us. Whatever we did had plates of hive architecture immediately materialize and form together out of nowhere, forming the bridge that would have us above the center of the pit.
“Guess there’s no turning back now,” I said, priming the rifle that I had received from the Stranger as I looked at everyone else. “Everyone ready?”
Mac and Indigo were the first two to give confirmation, followed by Noble and Eagle. The only one left was Adagio, who only just let out a deep sigh before arming the hand cannon she had on her. “Fine… don’t forget though, I’m only doing this to make that bastard pay for what he did to Aria.”
That’s all I needed to hear. After informing Aria that we were about to go in, we immediately began to cross over to the other side of the bridge before jumping through the ring that was at the end of the bridge. Feeling ourselves being pulled down into the depths of the pit that awaited us below. As we fell, everything around us became pitch black and I could not see my team.
When we were able to see something, it was a dim glow of light that was around a platform at the bottom of the pit. Illuminating the piles of bones all around us as I had to use my glide to slow my rapid descent. Adagio and I landed first, followed by Mac, Indigo and Eagle. Noble was the last one to land, but did not do anything to slow his descent as he took the full force of the fall. Landing on one knee as he grimaced in pain.
“Really?” Indigo asked him, “You do realize that landing is hard on the knees, right?”
“Yeah yeah, whatever,” Noble shrugged it off. If I could see his face, I would bet that he would be rolling his eyes right now.
Now was not the time to comment on that as I looked around, before placing a hand to my helmet, “Aria, we made it into the pit. What now?”
“Look for the faint glimmer of light. Only the lanterns can guide your way, but do not linger near them for too long. Their glow doesn’t last forever-” Shortly after hearing that, I began to hear a familiar screeching and clicking noise as I began to look at my team, “Go forth to the Ascendant Realm, quickly. The Hive already know that you’re here.”
“Would that happen to be what she’s talking about?” We heard Eagle now ask, pointing to what appeared to be a faint silver glow that was right in front of us.
“Maybe. Though, Aria said lanterns,” Mac now spoke up as he looked at the hunter, “We should keep an eye out for more. Cause ah think that’s the only way we’re going to get out of here otherwise.”
“So, let me see if I understand this correctly,” Indigo now took a turn to speak, “We go to the first lantern, find the next one, immediately head to that and then repeat the process until we find a way out?”
“All while destroying any hive that might be chasing us along the way?” I now added.
“Exactly,” he nodded his head, “Noble and ah should lead while the rest of ya follow. If the hive are going to come for us, then they’ll immediately attack the first thing that they see. If anyone sees a lantern, call it out so we can go to it immediately.”
Each one of our team members, Adagio included, agreed to the plan as we looked towards the first lantern in front of us, before we began to sprint. As we moved towards the pillar, I could feel the darkness weighing down on my body as the hive began to emerge from the walls and the ground beneath our feet. Once we reached the lantern, the construct pulsed with light, illuminating the thrall that were coming for us as we fought them off. Aiming for the heads as several of them disintegrated in green fire.
“I see the next one! Everyone on me,” Noble shouted, before the defender went around the first beacon and started heading towards the second one that was on the left hand side. I could see a few cursed thralls mixed in with the ones that were mindlessly charging at our team as Indigo made short work of them with a few hand cannon rounds to their heads. Sticking to the stone path, despite the fact that several sections in the path were giant holes in the ground.
At the second lantern, I was already looking around for the next one while Eagle threw out his grenade. Upon hitting the ground, it turned into a swarm of smaller grenades that immediately darted towards any thralls within proximity. Indigo joined in as well, tossing her skip grenade as it split up upon touching the floor while Noble and Mac were attacking any thrall that got too close with their melee strikes.
As for me, I was on my guard and looking out for the thrall, but as I turned to my right, I found something else instead. “Mac, found the next one. On my right!”
The defender that was facing me turned to his left, before calling out to the rest of our team “You heard her. Let’s move!”
Traversing through this dark abyss to me was something that collectively tested our wits, and for some of our team, their patience. We were forced to keep moving every so often to find the next lantern that kept us alive, trying to navigate a pitch black labyrinth while the hive were breathing down our necks.
What made things worse was that after several minutes of running to and from ten different lanterns, we soon ran out of places to run too. The last lantern that we reached was nearby what looked to be a large endless pit, with no way of possibly getting across.
“Guys, we can’t stay here! Have you found anything!?” Eagle shouted, firing a few shots from what looked to be a scout rifle before throwing a knife right at a thrall’s head.
“Nope! No sign of anything else,” Mac grunted.
As I was looking around, I spotted something that caught my attention. A circular plate, one that looked exactly like the one that we activated to draw the bridge over the Hellmouth. But what was something like this doing here-.
“If you fools aren’t going to do anything, then I guess I’ll have too.”
“Wha-?”
Immediately, I turned to see Adagio ran away from the lantern, just as it was glowing red. A white outline began to form in the circle as she threw out a lightning grenade at several thralls that were charging at her. However, seeing this soon had something click in my head.
“Guys, I think Adagio’s onto something!” I told her, before taking off to join her. The weight of the shadows from before returning to the point that it felt like there were shackles that were chained to my legs. But it did not stop me from reaching over there.
“Shimmer, what are you-!?”
“If you think I’m going to just let you do this on your own, then think again,” I immediately said, before switching to my shotgun and firing off rounds at two thralls that were within striking distance of Adagio, “We’re a team, so we do this together. Whether we like it or not.”
“Grr, fine!” she snapped, firing off several hand cannon rounds as the rest of the team began to join us. We could not be able to move from our current spot, but all of us were doing everything that we can in order to fend off the hive as the circle we stood on shined brighter. Markings of Hive symbols began to light up around the ring
“Guys, whatever this is doing, it needs to be done faster! We got Knights coming at us!” Eagle alerted us, before the gunslinger’s body was coated in a glowing fire as a revolver of solar light formed in his hands. Firing off three shots of solar light that disintegrated another pair of thrall and hit one of the knights that was coming towards us. In the distance, I could also see something float around in the air, before realizing that it was something that was a much bigger problem that was immediately making its way towards us.
“Heads up!! We got an Ogre!!”
“Crap! Everyone, stay where you are!” Noble cursed, before channeling his light as a Ward of Dawn formed around us as the eye blasts from the Ogre collided with the barrier. The hive were coming at us from all possible angles now and we were struggling to maintain our position right now. My shotgun ammo was already running low and I’ve already used up over half of the ammo that I can carry for my Pulse Rifle.
Yet, as we were being pushed to our limits and Noble’s Ward was near its breaking point, we heard a loud crack from the other side and a bright light began to shine. The weight on my legs was not going away though.
The path forward is clear
“We got the bridge up! Everyone run!!!”
“No need to tell me twice!!”
Immediately, we turned around and made a break for it, ignoring the hive that were behind us and the thrall that were crawling up the sides of the bridge as we tried to make it across. If anything, we were just trying to hurry over the bridge as fast as possible to the bright light on the other side. That was our only way out of this wretched pit and our only opportunity to make it over. We couldn’t pass up on a chance like this.
Once we were off the bridge, the weight that was placed on us before was immediately thrown off, allowing for us to sprint and run past everything else that was coming for us. Closing my eyes, I jumped towards the light at the end of the hall, not knowing what was waiting for us on the other side.
???
When I began to open my eyes again, I found myself in a place that was definitely not like the moon at all. There were no stars in the pitch black sky. Nothing but what looked like a giant broken moon that glowed an ominous emerald green. The surrounding area definitely looked like the hive structures on the moon, but there were two giant pillars in the area with another plate in the middle and what looked like a burning red fire that was over an endless pit as I saw the rest of my team come through the same way I did. Adagio was first, followed by Mac and Noble, with both Indigo and Eagle rounding out our team.
“O-ow, m-my head,” I heard Indigo speak, scratching the back of her head as she slowly began to pick herself up off the ground, “U-uh… Where the hell are we?”
“Not the moon, that’s for certain,” Mac added, before looking back at the rest of the team to make sure they were okay, “Have ya tried contacting the tower?”
Immediately after hearing him say that, I tried to have Ray establish a connection, but all I got was a loud buzzing noise as I looked back to the titan. “Dammit, I can’t get ahold of them. All I’m getting is static. We’re on our own out here.”
“Aside from our ghosts you mean,” Eagle added.
“Still not exactly good,” I told him. If we’re cut off from the tower, it also meant that we’re cut off from Aria. She was the one who was guiding us through the abyssal hellhole that we just escaped, but now that we were cut off, we couldn’t be able to get her help from here onward.
“Hang on a moment,” we now heard Noble speak up, “Before we jumped in the Hellmouth, didn’t we hear Aria tell us something?”
That had all of us, including Adagio, look back at one another before Indigo folded her arms. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“In order to truly end the threat of Crota once and for all, you must take the fight to him in his own realm.”
Immediately, everyone stared to me, just as I extended my hand and my ghost began to materialize in front of me. “What was that, Ray?”
“What Aria said,” he told me, “In order to truly end the threat of Crota once and for all, you must take the fight to him in his own realm. Which would mean…”
“This is his domain,” Adagio said, venom seeping from her words.
“Exactly. In that pit we escaped, Aria also said ‘Go forth to the Ascendant Realm’. Something tells me that we’re here in that realm.”
“And what exactly would make you think that?” Mac now asked, which resulted in Ray turning around and facing a new direction. Prompting me to look out in the distance and see what my ghost was looking at, before he materialized back into my helmet. Letting me speak now.
“Well, I’m not positive,” I told them, before pointing out towards the burning ashes that resembled a pathway and what exactly I could see in the distance, “But I think Ray’s got a couple of theories. Mainly relating to that over there.”
“Oh, bloody hell,” Noble cursed upon first seeing the hive construct that was in the distance, “I’m already getting a chill down my spine by just looking at that thing.”
“Well, it’s the only other thing that’s here and we don’t exactly have any other options,” Eagle added, before reloading his weapons, “Only question now is how in the name of the traveler are we going to get across?”
“Let’s look around first and see if there’s anything that we can find,” Mac then suggested to us, “Given the fact that the red… burning embers over there extend all the way to the other side, maybe it’s connected to some kind of mechanism?”
“So, another bridge?” Indigo bluntly put it, before looking back to Eagle and a couple of others, “What is up with this place and bridges? How many has there been so far that we’ve seen and had to cross?”
“Three,” Adagio bluntly said.
“Exactly,” the bladedancer replied back, “We’re just doing the same thing over and over again. If this Crota guy is somehow testing us in some way, the only thing he’s testing is my patience.”
I felt the same way, but honestly, we’re too far in to start turning back now. If what Mac said was true, then we needed to find a way to activate it.
“Everyone, we got movement. Hide!” Before any of us had the chance to properly react, we found ourselves splitting up. Myself, Adagio and Mac hid behind a broken column on the far left since while Indigo, Eagle and Noble did the same on the right. From a door that was behind us, we watched as two acolytes and a knight walked out. Each of the Acolytes stood by a pillar that was on either side and the knight stood in the center, raising the sword that he was holding as a new overpass was formed.
As the knight was crossing though, the path was starting to crumble and wither after it had reached the halfway point as both of the acolytes that were with it fell to their deaths, before meeting a second knight on the other side. One that glowed the same color as the cursed thralls as it allowed for the knight to pass before returning to its post.
“I… think we just found our way across,” I spoke up now.
“Really? What’s your newest ‘theory’ then?” Eagle asked. I assumed that he was saying that jokingly, but it did sound like he was coming off like a bit of a jerk.
“We have part of the team stick by both of those pillars while one of us stands in the center, kill the knight bearing the sword and use it to form that link and cross over. Whoever crosses kills that gatekeeper knight on the other side with the blade and holds position over there while we repeat the process with everyone else. It’s the only feasible way that we could be able to get over without plummeting to our deaths.”
I know that wasn’t exactly what some would consider as the best strategy, but it was the only one that we had. Especially since we couldn’t be able to contact Aria right now.
“I’m all for it,” I heard Indigo say as the Bladedancer got out from behind the broken column on her side. “Question is, who’s going to cross over first?”
“We got two titans, two hunters and two warlocks on this team. We should have one each make it over first before everyone else follows suit,” Noble suggested, before looking to me, “But for who specifically should go-”
“I’ll do it.”
We all looked back at Adagio, some of us being surprised that she was taking matters into her own hands now. “The more that we banter on, the more that we’re wasting time. The sooner we get this over with, the better.”
“Can’t really say no to that,” Mac added, “We’ll cover the left. Indigo?”
“I hear you, we got the right side,” she nodded as her, Eagle and Noble got into position while Mac and I stood by ours. “Adagio, whenever you’re ready.”
The stormcaller grunted, before holstering her hand cannon. Arming herself with a weapon that I could only assume was a fusion rifle. One that have markings and the exterior appearance of a hive weapon as she turned a switch, the gun illuminating a cyan pulse from the outside. Only hearing her say one thing before she stepped on the plate.
“For my sister.”
The energy from the platform immediately came to light upon her stepping forth as we heard the sounds of the Hive encroaching upon our position. They were coming out of cracks in the ground and climbing up the sides of the walls behind us as we engaged the threat. Doing everything that we could in order to fend off the impending swarm while the platform Adagio stood on was charging.
It took a few moments of fending off the Hive and even having to tell Ray to use an Ammo Synthesis to restore my pulse rifle magazine. Luckily though, it was starting to pay off. “We got a swordbearer! Focus your fire!”
Noble himself immediately took the chance to get out a rocket launcher that had a wolf head on the front as he fired two rockets that followed the swordbearer. Exploding on contact and having a swarm of cluster rockets swarm around the knight like it was one of Eagle’s grenades. It was enough to stagger the knight and provide myself a chance to land a few shots at its head before Adagio fired a blast from her rifle to take it down as it dropped its sword. Prompting her to grab it as the overpass materialized and she took off.
“Alright, she’s on her way! Someone else needs to take over.”
“I got you covered. Just focus on keeping these hive bastards at bay!” Eagle said, before racing over to the center platform. I wanted to look and see if Adagio had taken down the gatekeeper, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off the situation that was going on right now as I went back to fighting off the Hive. Unloading shotgun rounds into the thrall that came too close to Mac and I.
“Okay, Gatekeeper’s dead! Now what!?”
“Stay where you are and fend off any hive that come after you,” I quickly answered to Adagio’s response just now, before seeing another Hive Knight that was armed with a sword coming for the center plate, “We got another Swordbearer coming. Eagle will be coming over to back you up.”
“Well, make it quick! We don’t have any time to waste!”
Fighting off the second knight was a little bit more challenging since we did not have Noble firing his rocket launcher this time around. Instead, Eagle brought out a machine gun and used the ammunition from it to stagger the knight as I threw out my solar grenade and let the flames from it burn away at the knight’s protective chitin. While this was happening, Indigo brought out her sniper rifle to fire off three shots at the Swordbearer’s head, with the third shot being the killing blow as it dropped its sword and Eagle picked it up.
“Got the sword, coming over!”
“Make it quick! I don’t know how, but my blade disappeared shortly after killing the gatekeeper!”
That was news to me. Specifically because it meant that the swords were holding had some kind of limit as to how long they could be around for. Making it a race against time. “Mac, cover the center!”
“Already on it, Sunset!” the defender told me, leaving his post right next to me before moving to the middle. Like with Adagio, I wasn’t able to look to see if Eagle killed his gatekeeper or not, but I hoped that he would be able to follow through. As for us, our objective did not change. We needed to fend off the Hive and defeat the Swordbearers that came our way so that each member of our fireteam could make it over.
After Mac took his turn, Indigo was the next one to make it over and slay her gatekeeper. Follow that with Noble doing the same thing as I stayed behind to fend off the hive. Yet, during this, there was one thing that I did not anticipate.
The bridge is fully formed
“Sunset, hurry up! The bridge is solid!!”
Wait, what? “How-?”
“I don’t know, but after Noble killed his gatekeeper, the bridge didn’t disappear and six swords just showed up out of nowhere,” Indigo shouted back, “Get over here, quickly!”
Well, that was a change in plans that I did not expect. Falling back, I threw my grenade at the base of the bridge so the Hive couldn’t come after me before racing over to the other side to join with the rest of my team. Like what Indigo said, six swords appeared in front of us, floating in place as if they were expecting us to grab them.
“Well, we’re here… now what?” I heard the gunslinger standing by Indigo ask us.
“There’s six of us and six blades. Let’s take one each and see what happens,” I suggested, slowly setting my rifle on my back as I went to grab the blade in front of me. Holding it with both of my hands as the rest of our team grabbed hold of the other swords.
The moment that we armed ourselves with these blades, the hive came out in full force as we had to fend off thralls, cursed thralls, acolytes and even two ogres. Not only that, but there were other gatekeepers that appeared as well. Forcing us to be aware of their attacks before we could be able to attack them ourselves. Which was already hard to do considering how many Hive were already trying to get ahold of us with their claws.
Over the course of the battle, we had to face five gatekeepers and two ogres along with all the other hive that swarmed us. But once they were defeated, the barricade that was not far now opened up, showing us the way forward.
“Guys, hold on just a second.”
When we turned to Indigo, all of us were rather confused. “Why, what’s wrong?”
“My ghost just, I don’t know, picked something up just now after we completed that fight. Not an engram, but an actual piece of equipment,” she explained, her armor looking a bit different as she was now wearing a new harness that had fangs and teeth around her neck along with a new cloak that looked like the chitin of a hive, “Check with your ghosts and see if you happened to get anything too.”
Curious, I brought out Ray and began to look at the items I happened to have. As it turns out, I did get a few things. Two pieces of armor and a new weapon. The pieces of armor were referred to only by the title ‘Deathsinger’ as the first piece was a pair of gauntlets and the second was a new robe that had shoulder guards and a chestplate that looked as if they were ripped off of a hive wizard and sewn into a garment.
Lastly, there was the weapon. To my surprise, it was a pulse rifle. One that happened to have some similar traits to the rifle that the stranger gave me. Taking a moment, I had my ghost inspect the weapon.
Name- Oversoul Edict
Weapon Type- Pulse Rifle
Manufacturer- Unknown
Slot- Primary
The light of the will of Crota shines down like a vast and inverse sun.
Modifiers:
-Arc Damage: This weapon causes Arc Damage
-Red Dot OAS: Snapshot Sight. Enhanced target acquisition.
-Red Dot ORES: Flexible Sight. Enhanced handling, range and recoil control.
-Full Auto: This weapon can be fired in Full Auto Mode.
-Snapshot: Aiming this weapon is incredibly fast.
-Field Scout: Increased carried Ammo Capacity
-Dark Breaker: Projectiles will overpenetrate through Hive Knight Wall of Darkness.
-Hive Disruptor: Increase damage to Hive Majors.
Holy… shit.
I remembered when I was asking myself about how many different perks could a particular weapon have when I looked at Mac’s scout rifle when searching for the Gate Lord, but this was much more than I was anticipating. But this could be particularly useful. Especially if you consider what we can use this for as well as our current situation. “Ray, equip the new armor and switch out my Pulse Rifle. I think I’ll need it going forward.”
“Give me a second and I’ll have it ready.” he told me, shortly before my equipment and gear changed. As I looked up, some of the other equipment that the rest of my team had was also different as well. New armor along with some of them carrying new weapons. The only one that didn’t have any new weapons was Adagio, who still had her hand cannon and fusion rifle as I looked around for a moment at the rest of my team.
“Everyone all set?”
“Yeah, if you consider that this new stuff makes us look like the same monsters that we’re trying to kill,” Eagle replied, “But if it’s better than the equipment that we had when starting this mission, then I’ll use it.”
“Same here,” Mac added, “Let’s be careful moving forward. We don’t know what to expect going forward.”
The next hall that we had to traverse was a full on gauntlet of chaos for we had to not only kill Thralls and Shriekers that were scattered throughout a hallway, but also had to make it past a door in the distance that was slowly closing as we were fighting off the Hive. Several of us found it easier to defeat them now that we had equipment that gave us a small advantage against them, but we did not want to get too cocky. For we still did not know what was waiting for us in store the farther in we went.
Once at the end of the hall, we found ourselves in a strange room. There were hive on both sides, but when Indigo cloaked herself to get a better look at what we were dealing with, what she found was… not what I was thinking originally.
“So, both sides look to have some wizard that’s hiding and a shrieker that’s asleep. On top of that, there’s another chamber that’s directly above us, but it looks to be sealed.”
“Sealed?” I asked.
“Yeah. There doesn’t seem to be anyway inside because any possible entry was blocked by a wall with hive markings,” the bladedancer replied, “I’m not sure what it means, but just from the amount of enemies that are here, it would be better if we split up.”
“Like in two teams of three?” Noble asked.
“Yeah. I can take one side with Sunset and Mac while you guys get the other. If anything out of the ordinary happens, we’ll regroup,” Indigo explained further, “What do you guys think?”
“I say that works.”
“Agreed.”
“Whatever…”
“Then I guess we have a plan. Let’s draw those wizards out of hiding,” I said, following Indigo and Mac as we took our positions. The area that we stormed had the giant broken moon that was up in the sky, along with several different Hive all around us on the ground level and up above on the walls that surrounded us. Almost as if we were walking into a caged off pit.
If that wasn’t bad enough, seconds after the first shots were fired, all of us heard a bone chilling shriek echo everywhere.
The Deathsinger prepares her song
That… definitely did not sound good at all. If anything, my heart started to race because of that alone. When fighting against the hive right now, it felt as if there was a creeping sense of dread that was slowly making its way up my body, forcing the hairs on my neck to stand upright. Whatever we were up against wanted for our deaths to not be swift, but agonizing and painful.
I was not going to let that happen. Turning around, I now saw the sealed chamber Indigo was referring to before noticing the wizard that was hiding. I threw my solar grenade in an effort to destroy it’s protections, before Mac peltered the wizard with machine gun fire as the wizards was torn to shreds. At the corner of my eye, I noticed that on the barrier to the sealed chamber that there were four hive runes similar to when Ray and I found the Temple of Crota. When the wizard was killed, one of the runes faded away, leaving three more remaining.
“Shrieker, on your flank!” Indigo called out, before rushing over and shooting at it to get its attention so Mac could turn around in time. I also contributed in attacking the wizard as I aimed my rifle at the Shrieker’s eye, being careful to avoid any blasts that come directly towards us.
After Mac fired another clip of Scout Rifle ammunition, the shrieker was destroyed. I watched as another rune went down before getting on coms, “Noble, I think I figured out how to get inside that chamber Indigo was talking about.”
“Well, you’ve been right the last time you suggested a plan. What is it this time?”
“When we killed the wizard and the shrieker on our side, two runes on a hive barrier disappeared. There were originally four of them on there.”
“So,” Eagle added, “What you’re saying is that if we kill the wizard and shrieker on our end…”
“It should open the chamber-” As I said that, a Hive Knight came out from behind a wall and began to shoot at me, prompting me to back off before firing a rocket. Allowing me the chance to seek cover. “We need to hurry though. I got a bad feeling that if we take too long, it’ll end up horribly for all of us.”
“That is already obvious, Shimmer.”
Well, that was… unexpected. I don’t remember there being any time at all where Adagio and I actually agreed on… well pretty much anything really. Though, now was definitely not the time to focus on that. Wasting anymore time would only lead to us getting killed, so we had to act now and stop whoever or whatever this ‘Deathsinger’ was.
The rest of the team did not waste any time trying to kill the wizard and shrieker on their end. Because a few seconds after I told them what I was thinking of, the last two runes on the door disappeared. Opening the chambers as our entire team regrouped on our side before storming in. Finding acolytes, knights and one wizard that was floating in the middle next to a giant crystal.
Ir Yût, the Deathsinger
“Everyone, focus your fire on that wizard!” I called out, before bringing out my rocket launcher and firing two shots at the wizard. The first one made contact, but the wizard moved out of the way of the second shot before it could even hit them.
“That’s easier said than done, Sunset! There’s too many knights in here!”
Noble’s comment just lead to me focusing on trying to combat the hive knights that were making things difficult for him. Throwing out a solar grenade first before unloading several shotgun rounds into the two knights, killing one and leaving one damaged enough for me to incinerate with a scorch attack. I heard Machine Gun fire echo behind me and turned to find Mac taking down two more knights on his own and Adagio disintegrating another with her fusion rifle.
“Knight’s are down. Go!”
All of us wasted no time getting back to attacking Ir Yût, using every trick that we had to avoid her energy bolts and to avoid any other attacks that she had. However, the problem that we were having was that every so often, she would just float away from any attacks that we would try to hit. Which, in itself, was annoying.
There was a point where the wizard did stop moving. Yet, that in itself did not feel good. The sense of dread that I had before was now crawling up my neck as I heard another screech from Ir Yût.
Ir Yût shrieks in fear. The deathsinger begins her liturgy.
Immediately, the edges of my helmet began to start going dark as if I was losing consciousness. “We need to hurry!! Focus your fire!!!”
“If that isn’t obvious enough!!” Adagio snapped, firing off multiple blasts from her fusion rifle at the wizard as it stood in place. I immediately had Ray use a heavy synthesis and began firing off my rockets at the Deathsinger along with Indigo and Noble while Mac was firing off machine gun rounds at the wizard. Eagle himself was firing a machine gun too, but it first started off slow… before rapidly spinning up as the rounds were fired off as quick as lightning.
Seconds continued to pass, my vision began to darken with each passing second as a yellow flame was seen burning around the Deathsinger. Their song was slowly beginning to kill us and I felt my soul being torn from my body. Only to hear the vile scream of a dying wizard as the deathsinger’s body turned to ashes. A final blast from Adagio finishing off Ir Yût and the deathsinger was no more.
“D-Did we… win?”
“Well, we’re not dead obviously,” the stormcaller let out a deep breath as I tried to regain my bearings. “Don’t tell me that you felt like giving up, Shimmer.”
“As if,” I coughed, “Whatever that wizard was doing, it felt as if my soul was being ripped out of my body. I’m just glad that it’s over.”
“Amen to that,” Indigo then added on as I noticed that she was wearing a new pair of gauntlets on her wrist, “Sparky said that we got some more equipment out of that encounter too-”
“Sparky? What, is that a nickname for me now-?” Adagio glared at the bladedancer.
“Uh, Sparky’s the name of my ghost?” Indigo told her, trying to explain that it wasn’t some kind of childish nickname for her, only for Adagio to look rather puzzled, “We give names to our ghosts so that we have a name that’s specific for them. Do you… have one for yours?”
“… No.”
“Well, just take it under consideration then. No need to do it now,” Indigo replied, before switching her weapons and loading what looked to be a sniper rifle with hive platings all over the end of the barrel and the front near the scope, “Yeah, I’m definitely keeping this one.”
We took a few moments to rearrange our equipment and gear as well as take some time to prepare for whatever was going to come for us next. Grabbing whatever ammo we needed for our weapons that dropped outside before returning back to the chamber where we killed Ir Yût. We did not know exactly what we needed to do next, but something gave me the impression that it had something to do with the giant crystal in the center.
At first, it did not seem to react at all when I tried taking a closer look. But when the others also stepped forth, the chamber was sealed off with an invisible barrier. Acolytes and Knights began to spawn everywhere outside, waiting for the moment that the barriers that kept them at bay to disappear as the edges of what looked like a throne began to glow like fire.
Then, he arrived. A giant spectral being that grew in size and spawned across from the crystal chamber. A giant phantasm of the monster we came this far to kill as its body glowed the same color as the shattered rock in the sky, staring at us with three eyes before taking form and grabbing hold of a blade that it had as its weapon of choice.
Crota, the Son of Oryx had arrived.
Crota’s Presence stops Health Recovery
Oh, that’s not good-
“Everyone, get ready!!”
Immediately after Noble said that, the acolytes began to open fire at us as we focused our efforts into fending off the swarm that were eager to kill us in the presence of their prince. I fired off several bursts at three different acolytes to kill them, before running outside, with Mac following not that far behind me as we tried to get to a better position. Preferably one where the hive weren’t crawling up the walls to try and kill us.
Of course, there was no way that we could last in this fight the way it is now. We needed a plan, but it was very hard to come up with one given all the chaos going on right now. I killed two more acolytes, but one of their shots hit me in the arm. The injury admitted a glow to it and I was not able to feel anything be restored.
“Okay, what the hell is going on?! I’m getting shot at and my injuries aren’t mending!” Indigo snapped.
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, we need a plan!”
I can agree with Eagle on that point, but coming up with a plan was not exactly simple. Though, amidst all the fighting going on and the shots being fired at us, I did see something at the center of the room. A glowing light in the center. I don’t know if it was instinct or something else, but I had a feeling that it was important.
Running out of cover, I hurried towards the glow. Only to realize that it was something I could be able to pick up and carry. The warmth of the glow healing my injuries.
Sunset Shimmer picked up the Chalice of Light
“Indigo, where are you at?!”
“Over here!” I heard her shout, followed by the sound of a skip grenade. I raced over to the bladedancer, before killing an acolyte that wasn’t far away. “The hell? Why are you glowing-?”
“Just take it!” I said, before pushing it her to take off of me.
Indigo Zapp has picked up the Chalice of Light
“W-whoa! Did it just-”
“Whatever this thing is, its healing injuries. But we need to use it carefully-” I said, before turning around and killing another acolyte. “Now that that’s out of the way, does anyone notice anything that can help?”
“Everyone, I’m seeing signs of hive knights. Swordbearers like the ones at the bridge,” Eagle informed us, “We also tried shooting at Crota, but he has some kind of protection around him that can quickly return to him.”
“Wait a second… Didn’t Aria tell us when we started this that Crota’s own power can be turned against him?” Mac now asked.
“She did-” I said, before something began to click in my head, “The swords! Aria was referring to the swords,” as soon as I realized that, I had a new question to ask, “How many Swordbearers are there?”
“Only one. Who’s going to get it?”
That made me stop, before thinking for a moment as I looked around as an idea came to my mind. “Adagio. She should do it,” I reasoned, before arming myself with my new pulse rifle as I aimed at the Swordbearer knight, “Okay, I got a plan. First, everyone needs to attack the Swordbearer!”
Both Indigo and I took a chance at taking down the Swordbearer as I saw Mac bring up a Ward of Dawn at his position, allowing for us to relocate before attacking. After the Swordbearer was destroyed, we saw Adagio grab the sword as I switched to my rocket launcher. “Okay, whoever has rockets need to open fire on Crota now! Adagio’s only going to be able to actually hurt him if those protections are gone!!”
Seconds later, I squeezed the trigger and began to fire off rockets at Crota. Noble and Indigo joined in too as the rockets quickly tore through his shield, forcing the Prince onto one knee. “His shield’s broken! Adagio, go!!”
I did not hear Adagio snap back at me or snarl, but instead I saw her charge. Striking Crota and driving his sword down on the prince. However, it wasn’t until five seconds afterwards that he was back up and his shield was intact. “Rockets, again!!” I called out as my team fired another volley at Crota for support to destroy the shield and allow Adagio to strike again.
As she swung her blade, I had Ray activate another heavy ammo synthesis to replenish my rockets before watching as Crota rose back up on his feet again. By this time, the sword that she was holding was gone as the Stormcaller backed away. Yet, the prince was furious.
Raising his sword in the air, a green aura began to surge forth around Crota. The giant rock in the background began to burn brightly as he let out a roar
Crota summons his Oversoul
“What the hell is that!?” Mac asked.
“Who cares?! If he brought it here, then it’s not for a good reason. Shoot it!!” After Eagle said that, the exo brought out his machine gun again before rapidly firing off lighting rounds at … whatever it was. I soon joined in with him and the rest of my team as we focused our efforts on destroying whatever it was that he summoned.
Two full ammo clips and another rocket later, it was gone as we watched Crota move locations. Moving from his position in the center over to the right as more hive began to spawn. This time, there were a pair of knights that were firing at us, but no sign of Swordbearers yet.
Nearby Sniper fire was the next thing I heard as I looked to see Indigo and Eagle engaging the two knights in the middle, avoiding any incoming blasts before Indigo had Eagle grab something she was holding.
Eagle-3 has picked up the Chalice of Light
“Thanks, I needed that,” he said, before reloading and firing two more shots at one knight as Indigo killed the other while I focused on the thrall and the acolytes around me, throwing a grenade out to intercept some of them, noticing Crota returning back towards the center where he started, “Everyone, heads up! Swordbearer’s back in the middle! Get ready!!”
All of us focused our fire on the Swordbearer once again, repeating the same tactics that we did before to kill the knight and let Adagio take its sword, before focusing on Crota himself. Opening fire on him to destroy the shield that protected him before the stormcaller proceeded to attack and harm the Prince as he was down on one knee. Once he rose up again, our team repeated the same process before Crota got back up. Forcing Adagio to retreat as the sword dissipated.
“Okay, what happens now-” then, we heard the roar of something that I honestly wished that I didn’t want to hear as I looked back at everyone, “Oh hell… everyone, get inside the lower chambers! We got freaking Ogres incoming!!”
We all began to run like hell immediately. Going inside the original chamber that we were in before fighting Ir Yût, seeing the hulking masses of the Hallowed Ogres walk towards where we are as they prepared to fire off eye blasts at us.
We first focused our shots on the Ogre that was to the left, taking the chance to make sure it goes down before doing the same with the one on the right. We didn’t come out immediately though, because we could still hear the sounds of Crota’s steps above us. Only when we found him coming back to the center that we got back out and in position as we proceeded to follow through on the same strategy as before. Attacking Crota to bring down his shield before letting Adagio attack as the prince got back up-
ENRAGED
“Oh shit, he’s pissed! Adagio, get out of there!!!”
Adagio immediately backed off as Crota slammed the ground, green aura surging around the Prince as he lifted his sword in the air to summon his Oversoul. “Kill what he summoned, then focus on Crota!! Hurry!!”
Wasting no time, I opened fire at the Oversoul with Indigo and Mac, causing it to disperse before firing whatever heavy ammo I had to destroy Crota’s shields. After running out, I used my pulse rifle and continued to fire until we got him back on one knee. “Adagio, NOW!!”
“This is for my sister, you bastard!!!”
With one final strike, the ascendant Hive Prince was destroyed. Disintegrating as nothing, not even his sword was left behind. The rest of the Hive also vanished upon his defeat as Adagio almost fell to her knees. I wanted to come over to see if she was okay, but couldn’t compel myself to do so.
We just killed a being that the hive would consider as a god. One that ripped the souls out of many victims and the light out of Aria herself. This was a victory, yes… but why do I have the feeling that this is just the beginning of something much worse?
???
There was silence in the festering halls of his domain, one that was broken by the howls of anger and rage. Two of his own servants came to tend to the king, but he forced them away. His anger and fury rising as he slammed his sword into the pedestal he stood on.
“Prepare the Dreadnought,” his voice boomed, the pedestal underneath him glowing, “We are going to the Solar System.”
The one who stood was the king who learned of how his son was struck down. How his son was defeated by Guardians who broke into the ascendant realm and killed him with his own sword. Now… he planned to finish what he started. He will take everything away from them, as they took away his son. He will have his Vengeance.
“What Crota began, I complete… My will CONQUERS ALL!!!”
