Chapter 26: Storming the Castle
Three days after the Fist of Crota was killed, the trio was trying to figure out what to do as they waited for their next mission against Crota's followers. Right now, the Lion and Serpent Sins just decided to play a game of cards to pass the time. Yeah, they were bored.
"Got any twos?" Cortona asked Vulcan.
"Nope, go fish." The Titan said, shaking his head. Cortona groaned as she drew another card, only for Alex to barge in.
"Guys, we got a mission! And it's a big one." He told them.
"What's the mission?" The largest of the group asked.
"We're going after Crota's soul." He replied seriously. "Grab your best gear. We're moving out immediately." The male Exo told them.
"Right." The two nodded.
(Elsewhere)
In the canyon that led to the Temple of Crota, a female Hunter was being chased on her Sparrow by a band of Exile Fallen. The Hunter had armor that was white, blue and silver. Her grips and cloak had a Wolf's head on it.
"This was not my idea of an easy scout for Bray tech!" She said before an arc bolt caused her to swerve and crash. The Hunter groaned in pain before she got up and shook her head clean of cobwebs.
"That wasn't fun." She muttered to herself. Then she heard a deep guttural roar come from inside the Hellmouth, louder than any Hive she had ever heard before.
"... What the hell was that?" She wondered warily.
Her question was unfortunately left hanging when she saw one of the pikes coming flying towards her, causing her to dodge. When she looked at who threw it, she saw three guardians: A male Hunter, a female Warlock and an absolutely massive Titan.
"Sorry about that. Locals decided to piss us off, apparently." The Warlock apologized.
"Yeah… Sure." The woman nodded in surprise.
"What's your name?" The Hunter asked as he helped her up, he sounded like he was an Exo, just like the Warlock.
"Uh, Ana. Ana Bray." She said, still getting over her surprise.
"... Snake, ring please." The Hunter suddenly said. With that, a ring was suddenly in his hand. "I'm pretty sure this is yours. You left it behind on Venus." He told her as he held the ring out for his fellow Hunter to take.
"I knew I left that somewhere!" Ana said as she took her ring. "Thanks for finding and holding onto this. Who are you guys, by the way?" She asked.
"I am Alex-7, The Dragon Sin of Wrath." Alex said, before he gestured to the other two. "This is Vulcan Sol, the Lion Sin of Pride. And Cortona-54, the Serpent Sin of Envy."
"Hello." Vulcan greeted.
"'Sup." Cortona waved.
"So, what brings you guys to the moon?" Ana asked.
"We're on a mission to destroy Crota's soul. Unfortunately for us, we gotta go into the Temple of Crota to find it." The male Exo explained. "And that also means running into more of those damn Ogres." He grumbled.
As if he summoned the devil, an Ogre came stomping into view from inside the main entrance to the Temple of Crota. Alex quickly took out his Gjallarhorn and blasted it.
"Fuck you guys!" He shouted at the Hive, much to Ana's bafflement and the other Sin's amusement.
"Am I missing something here?" She asked as she gestured to the dead Ogre.
"He hates Ogres." The Titan told her. The woman nodded in understanding.
"Mind helping us out? We may need the extra help." Cortona asked.
"Sure. This is pretty important, anyway." Ana nodded.
With that, the four Guardians went into the Temple of Crota and began fighting their way through the Hive that got in their way. As they passed by a Seeder, they suddenly heard a deep, rumbling voice, but couldn't make out what it was saying..
"Crota… The ritual has begun!" Eris said over the comms.
"Eris? Is that you?!" Ana gasped in shock at the sound of the former Hunter's voice.
"Ana? My word, it has been a long time, hasn't it?" Eris replied, sounding pleased to talk with another old friend.
"I haven't heard from you since the Great Hunt. What's happened to you?" The woman asked as the group continued forward.
"Many things, dear Ana. Too many things to recount at present." The Hive Bane told her.
"Shit!" Cortona yelped as she jumped out of the way of a summoning circle that appeared in front of her, which a wave of Drells crawled out of.
"What the actual fuck are these ugly shits?!" Ana asked in disgust as she picked several of them off with her scout rifle.
"Hive and Fallen Hybrids. They're the newest threat to pop onto the Tower's radar." Alex explained. Then he was blasted backwards by a Heresy witch that appeared behind the Drells. Its name was Vas'ara, Crota's Concubine.
"For the love of- Cortona! Blast that bitch!" Alex called out to his female Exo companion.
"Here!" Ana said as she tossed the woman a fusion rifle called Telesto. Cortona took aim at the witch and fired, sending it into a neutrino scatter.
"... Wow. I like this gun." Cortona said appreciatively.
"Crota's taking hybrid concubines now?" Vulcan asked irritably as he crushed the last Drells skull in his hand with a loud pop.
"Apparently." Alex shrugged.
As they continued, they passed by the chamber where they found the shard of the Traveler. When they entered a dark corridor, they heard the voice again. This time, they could tell what it was saying.
"I cannot die…" It said. Everyone immediately identified it as Crota's voice.
"I know that sound. Hurry!" Eris urged.
"Move!" Alex ordered as they charged forward. After a good few minutes of running, they found the ritual, and it was already halfway done. Hybrid Concubines of Crota and Death Singers were all over the place, and at the center was a giant green crystal where three glowing eyes could be seen inside. Omnigul was there too, and she was floating in front of it with the Drell they saw at the bunker (which was now a Vandalyte) at her side and she was stroking the crystal tenderly.
[Soon, my lord, my husband. We will be together again.] She whispered to it.
"Stop them! They are waking Crota's soul!" The Hive Bane exclaimed in alarm.
"GUESS WHO, BITCHES!" Alex yelled as he sent a pair of rockets at some Death Singers and Heresy Witches.
"Twinkle Twinkle, Assholes!" Snake laughed as the Hive blew up.
Omnigul whirled around and screeched in anger at the gall of the four Guardians in front of her daring to try and stop the return of her husband.
"Cruel Sun!" Vulcan yelled as he hurled a sun at the second group of witches and singers, causing Omnigul to scoop up Hy'riks and fly away to safety.
Ana, meanwhile, couldn't stop herself from gaping at Vulcan's attack in shock.
"What the hell was that?!" She yelled, unable to think of anything else.
"Vulcan proving his superiority to the Hive." Alex told her as she blasted a group of Drells.
The next person to attack was Cortona, who entered a Storm trance and chucked a grenade at the remaining Hive and then went to town, shocking everything in reach before consuming all her other energies to fill up her super before focusing it all into her hand and palm striking forward at the crystal, shooting a massive beam of arc energy at it.
This caused the crystal to crack, but it did not shatter. Instead, it seemed like Crota himself was willing to entertain them because his crystal rumbled before it rose into the air with several fragments orbiting him.
"Vulcan, how many minutes to noon?" Alex called.
"We still have fifteen minutes." Vulcan told him. "You think you can weaken him with your Assault Mode or Super?"
"I'll see what I can do!" The Dragon Sin replied as he entered his Assault Mode, much to Ana's silent amazement. "Alright, let's see if you can survive this!" He exclaimed before he charged.
First he did a thousand divine slashes, then he used dark bullets, and then another slash before he activated his super and his Void Light clones.
"Come on, boys! Let's cause some damage!" He told his clones. Jumping, he and the clones jumped and did a mid air spiral wheel slash at all angels, cracking the crystal more before they jumped back as soon as the super deactivated.
Next was Vulcan, who activated his super and charged while wielding his giant one handed ax and slashing the crystal with heat hotter than the sun.
The heat was evidently too much for the dark gemstone to take. It was at critical damage level before three golden gun rounds shot its center and made it shatter into pieces of varying sizes as Ana twirled her Golden Gun.
"And that's that." Ana smirked with a hand on her hip. She then turned to Vulcan and Alex. "Can you two please tell me how you're so fucking broken?!" She asked them.
"Trust us, if we could, we would." They told her.
That was when Cortona had an idea. "Hey, Ana, why don't you join us? We're still missing four other sins." She offered.
"Huh?" Ana got out in surprise. Alex and Vulcan looked at the female Exo curiously.
"Cortona, what are you planning?" The male Exo inquired.
"You'll see." The woman told him. "Besides, I'm sure Eris would love to have an old friend to talk to after all these years."
Ana looked down in thought. The chance to talk with Eris again would be nice, and she could get a bit of insight on how the three sins in front of her became who they are now, and maybe even become like them. She hungered for knowledge, and she wanted to satisfy it.
"Alright, let's do this." She finally nodded. The other Sins smiled at her response. Just as they were about to transmat back to their ships, Cortona suddenly felt something nudge her leg.
Looking down, she saw a small animal nudging her leg. It was red and had an almost triangle shaped head. Its body looked like the combination of a bear and a big cat.
"Hey, that's a Cabal War Beast." Alex noted.
"What's it doing here?" Vulcan wondered.
Ana looked around before gasping, pointing at the other end of the cavern. "I think that's why." She said, pointing in that direction. As they looked over where she was pointing, they saw many Hive worms wriggling in and out of the corpses of a dead Cabal squadron.
"What in the galaxy were the Cabal doing on the moon?" Alex wondered before shaking his head. "Whatever. Looks like this War Beast is just happy to see a non-Hive face." He decided.
"Can we keep him?" His partner asked, holding the baby animal in her arms like a teddy bear, causing it to hum happily.
Alex looked between the small creature and his partner before he nodded. "Sure. Nyx needs a playmate, anyway." He replied, causing her to squeal in delight as she tackled her fellow Exo to the ground.
"Who's Nyx?" Ana asked Vulcan as the two Exo's goofed around a bit.
"A Hive Worm they rehabilitated." He told her, causing her to stare at him in disbelief.
"Rehabilitated Hive Worms? That's a thing?" She asked, getting a nod in return. "Okay, I need to see this worm for myself." She declared.
With that, the four left, with the baby war beast in tow. The Sins were now four, the newest Sin to join was: Gluttony, the Boar's Sin.
ThermalsniperN7: BOOM! With that, Ana Bray is the Boar Sin of Gluttony! And on top of that, Nyx is getting a playmate.
Dragon Emperor0: Feel free to leave name suggestions if you want. And if you think you guys know a good Destiny based extra ability similar to Merlin's power 'Infinity' let us know.