THE PROPHECY

Frigoris stood before his skiff. His second-in-command had just rallied the troops, and the House of Exile was ready to attack the Hellmouth. He remembered how there was no response from Sepiks Prime on Earth, and he knows that the Hive are weakened due to the Guardians. They have weakened the Hive, he told himself, Now we fly for their end! He held his shrapnel launcher, boarded his abnormally large skiff, and prepared to land his fleet upon the Hellmouth.


We came back to the Speaker. "We're back!" and we handed him the piece of the Traveler that we found in the Chamber of Night. "And, we managed to kill off Crota's generals as well."

"Then he is coming back!" The Speaker managed to keep his shock contained, but I knew it was there.

"Not anymore," said a familiar voice. We turned around to find Eris Morn, Crota's Bane, coming up the steps. "He was sent back into his realm. Max destroyed Crota's Soulstone."

"Thank you, Eris, for guiding these Guardians through the Chamber of Night." The Speaker bowed and said, "But, there is more to be done. Destroy the Shrine of Oryx on the Moon, and halt the Vex on Venus." With that, we left the office. Rasputin said, "Wait up, I want to give you guys something." He pulled out the rocket launcher and gave it to Lilianna, then he pulled out a machine gun and gave it to me. "These are for use against the Vex. You'll need everything you can muster against those guys."

"And you're going to the Hellmouth?" Lilianna asked.

"Well, someone has to destroy the Shrine."

"But you could die!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, and Exos can regenerate. I'll be fine. Besides," he pointed to his Ghost, "this guy can revive me if needed." With that, they left for the Hanger to get Leviathan's old ship, while Lilianna and I, alongside our Ghosts, were transported to Lilianna's ship.

On the ship, the Hunter navigated us to Venus. Rusty gave us the briefing. "Venus used to be a jungle once, and it was home to the Ishtar Collective. They were scientists who focused on developing cutting-edge tech, and some even went over the edge to develop the first Exo consciousness." While Rusty was talking, Lilianna said, "Max, I want to talk to you."

"Okay."

"Alone." She glared at Rusty, and he disappeared. I sat in the co-pilot's seat, and she said, "Max, you know that the Prophecy pertains to you, right?"

"I guess, but there are more Warlocks out there, and this prophecy-"

"He will rise after death as a Warlock, He will master the elements, He will destroy the Darkness, and all will bow to him." She sounded like she was enchanting spells.

"Now there's a prophecy that's way too literal," I joked.

She chuckled, "I guess so." As soon as she said that, we landed on Venus.

Venus in the Northern hemisphere is not entirely a jungle, but rather rocky with only one small section of a tropical rainforest. The skies were grey in the evening, and acidic green during the day, with the occasional blue streaks just barely above the skyline. The Ishtar Academy was in the center of everything, below it was the Shattered Coast, the Jungle was to Coast's right, and above the Jungle lay the Waking Ruins and the towering Vex Citadel, which looped to the Ember Caves, and back to the Coast. The Coast itself was crawling with Fallen from the House of Winter; the right side was claimed by the sea, and on the left was the Academy.

When we touched down in the Shattered Coast, 4 Fallen and 2 Shanks from the House of Winter opened fire on us, and we ran behind a rock for some cover. "They're organized!" I said.

"And skilled!" replied Lilianna.

"And dangerous!" blurted Rusty.

Both of us looked at him and said, "NO $%&#!" After that, Rusty never spoke to us for a while. Lilianna jumped out and shot down all 6 of them with her pulse rifle. We advanced along the Coast using our Sparrows, moving past a giant statue, and into a building with a control node inside, guarded by a Servator-led pack of Fallen Dregs and Vandals. Using our grenades, we dispatched all except for the Servator, which she destroyed with a Blink Strike. Then she pulled out her Ghost to examine and use the node to track the Vex. "Done!" said the Ghost, "Now we can track the Vex wherever they go."

"Nice work, Ghost!" said Lilianna.

That's when I asked the Ghost, "Do you have a name?"

"GH-847020859903875," replied the Ghost.

I pondered about names. "How about...Zelda?"

"No." Her voice was tough.

"Sapphire?"

"No," the Ghost paused, "How about Alex?"

"Then Alex it shall be."

Lilianna asked, "Why must you name every Ghost?"

"Because," I answered, as I pulled out my Sparrow, "I'd like to think of everyone as unique." I rushed off to the Academy and entered; Lilianna caught up to me a few seconds later.

Where we ended up, after navigating through a few tunnels, was an old library, about 3-stories tall, and it was well-organized. "Not even the Warlock libraries are this big," remarked the Hunter. I, on the other hand, was focused on the glowing white pillar standing before us. Alex floated over to examine it. "It's tethered to somewhere beyond Space-Time. Amazing!" But then it disappeared, a grey cloud filled the room, and a blue orb started pulsing in the center. "No no no no NO!" shouted Alex, "It's the Vex find some cover!" And we did just that.

The Vex. Ancient war machines, bred for two purposes: simulate and kill, on sight. They are literally battle-hardened, steel-armored, red-eyed, cybernetic mini-cyclops. Goblins have arcing heads, skinny metal bodies with joints and everything, milky-white substances contained inside their chests, and are equipped with rapid-firing slap rifles, slap grenades, and regular slaps if you get too close. Hobgoblins are like Goblins, except that they have heads with thin horizontal horns, and are equipped with their sniping line rifles. Harpies are triangular, floating drones with 3 angled plates and 3 slap rifles already equipped on itself. Minotaurs are huge, armored, bipedal "tanks", equipped with torch hammers that lob Void bombs, a Void shield, and an overall rounded off shape on every part. And don't get me started on Hydras. Hydras are floating, enlarged, metal spines with 2 rapid firing torch hammers, and to top it off, they have a rotating mesh shield that blocks every attack. In short, they are the epitome of danger.

The ten Goblins marched down the steps, closing in on our position. Then they started firing, and we fought back. Against their armor, our bullets couldn't do anything, and it wasn't until the Hunter landed a shot in one's eye that we saw their weakness. As soon as we shot their eyes, their chests opened up, exposing their cores, which I later learned was Radiolaria. Firing into one's Radiolaria apparently makes a Vex unit explode. So we repeated the process 9 times during the first round, 15 during the second (which included Goblins and Hobgoblins), and the third round. On the third round, a Minotaur was deployed, and he fired his torch hammer at both of us, swapping his gaze back and forth. I threw my scatter grenade at him, then blasted of his head with one well-placed eye-shot, but it never opened up it's Radiolaria. Instead, it charged at me, lobbing bombs every half-second, and I opened my palm at him, cracking his armor and revealing its core. I shot at it, demolishing the Minotaur. That's when two more appeared, alongside 20 Goblins and 5 Hobgoblins.

With the Goblins and Hobgoblins, we repeated the same process as before. But the Minotaurs were complicated. We kept running all over the place, waiting for the next grenade, until I realized that the machine gun had Void properties interlaced within the chamber. I used my new heavy weapon to mow down the Minotaurs, for its bullets could easily penetrate their armor. 5 more Minotaurs were deployed, and I diced all of them with a shattered Nova Bomb, while Lilianna finished them off with an RPG. We were exhausted. "Phew," I said, "And I was just starting to have a good workout."

"You'll have more of them," said a familiar voice. This voice was robotic, yet human. It held both emotion and analysis, anger and sadness, it was filled with oppositions and anomalies. The voice belonged to a cloaked female Exo. The Exo had light blue eyes, mouth, and circuitry. Her metallic skin was dingy blue, her jaw was white, and her cloak covered her upper body. Her only weapon was bright yellow, and it looked like a polygonal pulse rifle. I looked into her eyes, and I thought I recognized her name: "Stranger." "We don't have much time," said the Stranger.

"Who are you?" asked the Hunter.

"No time to explain," the Stranger was adamant with every word that she spoke.

I blurted, "What is this Prophesy?"

The Exo looked like she was waiting for- No. -expecting, this question. "'One will die by the hand of a Warlord, and He will rise after death as a Warlock. One will be tempered by the hand of magic, and He will master the elements. One will be tainted by monsters, and He will destroy the Darkness. One will run, and He will stand. One will be struck, and all will bow to Him. But one will rise to the challenge, and He will become it.' That is The Prophecy of Legend, that is the Fate of Six."

Everyone, even our Ghosts, were stunned. She continued, "Find the Black Garden, and rip out its heart. That is how it starts."

Lilianna asked, "Where is it?"

"Even I don't know. Some things are shrouded from Space-Time, no one can explain it," she paused, contemplating for what she was about to say next, "except for a Gate Lord."

"A G-g-g-gate L-l-l-lord?" Alex sounded nervous. Even Rusty looked nervous. Lilianna, even though she was shaken, managed to hide it well. I didn't know what a Gate Lord was, but I assumed it was dangerous. "What is a Gate Lord?"

The Stranger was about to answer, until she received a message on her internal comms. "Too late," she told us. Then she turned her attention to her comms. "How many?" A pause. "Hold positions, kill the engines, and don't let them find you." And she disappeared. The effects of her teleportation were water-like, splashes of energy rippling from her head down to her feet. "What now?" I asked. Rasputin teleported near us, and said, "Well, I'm glad that I found you guys. We need to move forward. The Fallen have gained a position in the Academy, and we're not going to lose the Archive to them."

"Great," I said. "Let's hope it doesn't get absolutely boring." But I looked at everyone else, and I knew that we have gone too deep.


Frigoris was laying on the ground, ether spilling from his body, his armor was crumpled, and he began to cough. He was ready to die. I've lived a good life. I felt the cold kiss of death, and I have a successor. His lieutenant ran to him. (Everything is going to be alright), said the Captain. Frigoris clutched his prosthetics and ripped them off. (No), he said, (This was meant to be.) The Captain didn't understand, and he hauled the Baron's body over to the Baron's Ketch. Frigoris's last words were, (Survive the against the Night! The Traveler betrayed us!)