Tracking down the fallen was easy enough. Tolcum had learned from years of experience how to track down a target, and the burn marks from the fallen pikes made his hunt all the simpler. The guardian pair zipped across the landscape on their freshly polished sparrows, swiftly weaving their way between the numerous trees that lined the still flourishing forests of Earth, intent on catching their targets. Iris knew the landscape well, as it was where she had once died. They followed the tree line, and watched as it split to reveal a steadily flowing stream of water. The stream grew to become a river, and the guardians followed it until it plummeted over the cliffside as a waterfall. Tolcum then took a hard right, with Iris following close behind. They stuck close to the cliffside, tracing it around the winding path against the steep mountainside above.

"Are you sure we're on the right track?" Iris called out over comms.

"I'm positive," Tolcum affirmed. After winding the final turn, he saw them; six pikes were releasing heaps of smoke from their rear thrusters. Three contained a member from the House of Devils, with the others being of House Kings. One of the fallen glanced back, almost smirking when he spotted the guardians in hot pursuit. The members from the House of Devils broke off, headed for their own home as the fallen from the House of Kings continued onward.

"What do you want to do?" Iris questioned. She wanted more than anything to eliminate the Devils.

"We follow the Kings," Tolcum stated, his sparrow accelerating desperately to catch the enemy. The chase continued over another river, their vehicles gliding elegantly across the water. Though he tried, Tolcum's sparrow simply wasn't fast enough to catch the fallen. That was when he resorted to another tactic entirely. The hunter reached for his revolver and lifted it to the enemy. Bang! A single shot slammed into the engines of a pike, setting its rear on fire. The vehicle erupted in smoke and flames as it flipped forward, crashing into a nearby stone structure. The remaining two fallen continued onward, unfazed by the pursuing guardians. The group eventually entered a terrestrial complex, and Tolcum began to fear the worst.

"Where are they leading us?" Iris questioned. Her sparrow was now zipping through the air alongside Tolcum's.

"To the King's Watch," the hunter replied. He gave a slight frown, realizing they would be unable to prevent the scouts from entering their keep.

The pair of fallen dismounted their pikes and made a mad dash for the entrance. Sentries at the doors raised their rifles to stop the oncoming guardians, but were immediately gunned down as Tolcum zipped past. He leaped from his sparrow and slammed his feet onto the trash-covered ground of the King's Watch. Iris fired rounds from her pulse rifle over his head, her bullets crashing into the skull of one of the scouts. The last fallen veered around the corner of the hall and disappeared into the facility.

"After him!" Tolcum shouted as he sprinted down the hall and around the corner.

"Tolcum, slow down!" Iris called out. She ran after her comrade and turned the corner, only to find a hallway littered with fallen bodies; the hunter was causing a ruckus throughout the facility as he chased down the final spy. Oddly enough, Polaris had remained behind, choosing to examine the corpses left in his guardian's wake. "Tolcum doesn't seem to be acting normal," Iris commented as she approached the hunter's ghost.

"He hasn't acted normal for years now," Polaris answered half-heartedly, his eye not courageous enough to look upon the warlock. "Just look at this mess he's created."

"We're supposed to kill these monsters," Iris replied, taking in her surroundings.

"While true, Tolcum's behavior has become increasingly more erratic within the past few days," Polaris stated. The corpses he gazed upon had been viciously hacked to ribbons. Somehow the hunter had made a fatal process which should've taken minutes occur in only seconds. Iris herself barely heard the struggle.

"Come, let's catch up with him," the warlock urged, stepping through the hallway of corpses into the chamber beyond.

"Though I hate to admit it, I'm worried for Tolcum," Polaris abruptly said. His floating components were hung low with concern. His eye stared off into an empty corner of the room, as if something was calling his name. "He wasn't always like this, you know."

"What did the hunter used to be like?" Iris asked, her curiosity peaked. Since the moment she'd met the man, there was some odd sensation about him that drew her to his side, even though his personality was less than stellar.

"He used to be a lot like you," Polaris chirped, a bleak sort of joy rising in his voice. "I remember waking him from the dead. He was distraught, but after hearing my explanation, his eyes appeared to sparkle with a new sense of purpose," the ghost explained as the pair journeyed through another door. "I remember the first time we traveled to the Tower. Back then, the Vanguard was actually fond of him. Every time we'd return from a mission, he'd journey to the City Core and openly chat with the civilian population," Polaris claimed. "But, that all changed when…"

"When I lost everything," a hostile voice boomed.

Iris was so caught up in Polaris's words that she had forgotten where they were headed. Now, she was within the inner sanctum of the King's Watch, and Tolcum was standing directly in front of her.

"Was my previous explanation not detailed enough? As I've said before, I used to believe in this world. I used to believe that my friends and I were unstoppable," Tolcum stated, his tone hushed. The last fallen scout was lying dead behind him, next to the central data terminal of the facility. "The first friendly face I ever set my eyes on was a titan by the name of Lorix-18. The two of us soon became close friends, and eventually we met others," the hunter explained, his tone sharpening. "Jaren, Itheria, and Harver were as good as my brothers and sisters. We were a tight-knit group of guardians who toppled one enemy after another," Tolcum explained. He gave a gentle chuckle as he reminisced over fallen friends. "Yep, I was living the life, but something was missing; something I found in a new member of our team: Saris." After uttering her name, his body began to shake. "She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, with one of the biggest hearts," he said, a grim smirk of happiness appearing beneath his helmet. "I truly began to see my reawakening as a blessing from the Traveler, and wanted to do whatever I could for my those I cared the most for." His gaze suddenly dropped to the floor, and the faintest sound of tears being stifled rang through Iris's eardrums. "Then, one fateful morning, as the sun dared to show its face, I caught the shadowy outline of a fallen captain. Then there was another, and another. My friends were already on their feet, ready for a fight. We were brimming with self-appointed confidence, ready to slay the numerous enemies of the Last City," he explained. "So we fought, initially massacring the aliens that had dared to trifle with us." His hands were balled in fists, as if ready to strike anything that dared to move. "Then, a terrifying noise rang out. It was that of a fallen walker firing. In an instant, Harver was dead. My head was spinning, not able to comprehend what had happened. When I finally realized the truth of the situation, it was too late. We noticed that what was initially fifty fallen had turned to three thousand, and we were surrounded," he explained. Slowly, he raised his head to the warlock that stood before him. "One by one, my friends died as we attempted to retreat. Saris and I were almost clear of the carnage when a wire rifle…"

Iris dared to step closer to the hunter. "Tolcum?" she asked hesitantly. Her rifle was still held firmly within her grasp.

"When a wire rifle tore through her chest!" Tolcum roared, his foot cracking the steel flooring he stood upon. "Her ghost was blown away with another stray shot, and the person I cared most for was gone."

"Tell her what happened afterwards," Polaris suddenly urged.

"I stumbled through the wilderness, longing for another shot from the enemy to whisk me away, when I came across an ancient hive seeder ship. Inside contained texts that never should've been read," Tolcum explained, a sinister grin peeking out across his face. "But I did read them, I performed the ritual, and now…"

Iris watched as the hunter's left arm turned black with shadows. Molten ash and mucky fog coated the arm, but Tolcum showed no concern. In fact, Iris took note of his laughter.

"Now I am the monster you see before you," Tolcum stated. "I hunted down the fallen that murdered my friends, and butchered every last one of them!" he shouted viciously. "I mounted their heads on bloody stakes, and strolled away with my head held high."

"You became the very thing you vowed to destroy," Iris stated in a soft voice.

"So what?!" Tolcum questioned angrily.

Iris dropped her weapon, instead choosing to move her hands to her helmet. Slowly, she unstrapped the piece of armor, and removed it from her head. Her light blue eyes practically pierced Tolcum's soul. "You may have tried to hide your emotions, but you forgot that your emotions are what make you human," she explained.

"Don't," Tolcum protested. "Don't try to argue with my decision. Everyone that gets close to me dies. That's why I've gone for so long without anyone by my side," he explained, gritting his teeth. Still, he couldn't deny how splendid the warlock appeared without her helmet. The awoken woman wore long, flowing white hair which stretched out on the right side of her head.

"I think it's time you gave up the delusion that a curse is out to cause you misery," Iris stated, her voice sympathetic yet stern. "You think you're the only one who's lost loved ones? We're guardians! It's practically in the job description." The woman took another step closer, her hand slowly reaching out as if to provide some form of comfort. "What would your friends think if they saw you like this?"

Tolcum's body shuddered. His mind was torn between opinions: part of him wanting to strangle the warlock and the other wanting to fall on his knees in humility. He never got the opportunity to decide, as a noise began to emit from the terminal behind him. By the time he turned to the machine, Iris was already approaching it, her helmet returned to its rightful place over her head. "What is it?" Tolcum asked.

"Don't know," Iris replied, staring intently at the console. "I suppose we should find out." With that, Zoira materialized from thin air to appear by her guardian's side. "Think you can get this machine to work?" Iris asked her ghost.

"Can I?" Zoira questioned, as if offended. The quirky little ghost set to work decrypting the lock on the console's info, and within a minute pulled up all the data she could find.

"It's a map," Tolcum stated, approaching the terminal with a cooler head than earlier. The blue holographic image contained the familiar terrain of the nearby regions. It was after a closer examination that the hunter finally understood what he was staring at. "These are battle formations."

Iris saw that there were twelve main groups, each with its own designation. They were spread out all across the mountainside, but the center of their deadly circumference was the Last City. "I never knew the House of Kings had so many troops. There's hundreds of thousands of soldiers depicted in this diagram," Iris remarked, her heart sinking as she felt the weight of the fallen horde's numbers upon her shoulders.

"It's not just the House of Kings. Look closer," Tolcum pointed out. Over each group was a banner, and Tolcum knew what all of them signified. "This map contains forces from the House of Kings, Devils, Winter, and Wolves."

"But every group with the Wolves' banner is crossed out," Iris said, pointing to three of the twelve groups.

"My guess would be that they've either been wiped out, or are a no-show for this assault," Tolcum hypothesized.

"I suppose it doesn't matter, as long as we have this information," Iris replied. She nodded to Zoira for her to extract the data, when the sound of a foot touching steel sent a chill down her spine.

"Get the file, quickly," Tolcum urged. His revolver was already in hand, a fresh clip eager to be abused. The footsteps grew louder, and the hunter was forced to act for his friend, removing Iris from the terminal as an enormous creature came from the shadows to reveal itself. The being then violently brought its arms down upon the terminal. The machine buckled under the creature's massive arms, crumpling like crushed paper. Sparks shot across the floor as wires tore apart, and the guardians were stuck staring up at the figure of a mighty fallen. Yellow markings ran across the eliksni's armor, with the cape of House Kings flowing quietly behind. The creature slowly lifted its body off the console and turned savagely to its adversaries. "So, you're the Kell of Kings," Tolcum said.

The creature did not respond right away, most likely due to its lack of knowledge with human languages. "No guardian has gazed upon me and lived," the kell finally growled, his voice deep with authority. Then, in vicious rage, the kell swung his arm, horrifically knocking Iris into a nearby pillar. Tolcum pulled the trigger on his weapon, causing six shots to tear their way across the room. To his surprise, the rounds splintered and cracked upon contact with the kell's armor. The shattered cases then fell helplessly to the ground. Tolcum continued to fire, but his shots simply pinged off the fallen's armor as the he reached for a shrapnel launcher at his back. Once in hand, the kell fired.

Tolcum leaped to the side of the oncoming flames, barely avoiding death. His revolver was quickly reloaded, but even with bullets the weapon had proven itself useless. The hunter chose to holster the firearm and resort to a more efficient form of combat: his Light. After narrowly dodging another volley of shrapnel rounds, Tolcum called to the void for aid. A violet bow of energy formed in his hand, with a single arrow embedded within it. The hunter raised his brilliantly glowing weapon to the kell and let the arrow fly free. How could he possibly survive this?

The kell watched the arrow fly to his head and smiled beneath his helmet. With the simple move of his head, the dreaded beam of Light that would've proven fatal flew harmlessly past him to the ceiling beyond.

Before Tolcum could regain his focus, he heard what sounded like an army of ants scurrying about. He looked to his right and left, to his horror witnessing dozens of fallen exit from holes in the walls. Their ranks included the likes of the house's most notorious barons: Paskin, Phyksin, and Vekis. The hunter's mind was flooded with ideas of how to retaliate, when a voice suddenly consumed his ears.

"Run!" Iris called out, making a blind charge for the kell. "Get to the Vanguard!" she urged before igniting her hands with the lightning bolts of a stormcaller. She unleashed a torrent of electricity upon the kell, forcing the creature to stumble back as bolts of blue energy ignited its armor. Unfortunately for Iris, the fallen quickly recovered and brought its heavily plated arms to bear on the bolts. The kell then began to confidently stomp forward, his eyes dark with rage, intent on killing his target.

For once, Tolcum did as he was told, choosing to retreat to the room's exit. He wanted to run even further, but an urge to look back forced him to turn. What he saw filled him with grief and anger. The kell stood triumphantly in the center of the chamber, Iris firmly held high in the air within his left hand. The numerous additional members of House Kings were charging the hunter's position, and he felt the Darkness calling to him. A pent-up form of anguish that had never seen the light of day consumed his mind. He outstretched his arms, granting the evil of the void to gift him with its dark powers. A black, bloody bow fell into his hands, with three arrows already implanted in the string. He pulled back, aiming for the ceiling above, and fired. The ceiling caved in, crushing a fallen vandal beneath its weight, and blocking off the rest from his position.

"Iris," Polaris uttered, his voice weak.

Tolcum fell to his knees, unable to breathe. Not again. Not again. Not again. "I guess that curse is real," he laughed, tears of frustration slowly falling down his cheeks.

"It's not your fault, Tolcum," Polaris attempted to assure his guardian. "Remember what she said: inform the Vanguard of what we've learned."

"What good it'll do," the hunter replied angrily. "They want nothing to do with me. I wouldn't be surprised if they threw me out of the Tower for merely making my presence known."

"We have to try," Polaris stated, flying over to his guardian's side. "For Iris's sake."

Tolcum lifted his head to the ghost. Slowly, his hands went to his hood and brought it back. He then lowered his bandana to his neck, and grabbed hold of his helmet. In one swift motion, the piece of armor came off his head, and he was left staring at Polaris with his own eyes. They glowed purple, with his once spiked black hair falling to his forehead. A scar over his right eye was the only blemish on his perfect face. "You're right, Polaris," Tolcum eventually agreed, a light smirk coming across his face.