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Ritual
"Look to the sky, Guardians!" Mara shouted over the roar and the sound of Tomb ships appearing from rifts all around Mara's spire. "Hear the Worm God's roar! After millennia of insatiable hunger, they are powerless against my retribution!"
"This is Xivu Arath's last chance to capture Savathûn," Petra warned the incoming reinforcements. "She's dispatching all local forces to the spire. Use the teleporters to join us as soon as you can!"
Hunter charged through the next teleporter's portal and onto a long bridge. The battle had already begun.
"Corsairs to me!" Petra ordered. "Hold this line to the last soldier! For the Reef!"
Hive began to teleport down ahead of them on the bridge, but the Slayer bellowed in rage as he charged straight ahead. Solar Energy shone from his shoulder, and when he slammed into the first Hive, an explosion cleared the whole group. A Hive Knight leapt at him, but he caught the blade and blasted its head with a double-shot from his sawed-off. As the Knight fell away, Hunter leapt over the Slayer, hurling a pair of fans of Solar-charged proximity mine knives, the knives slaughtering a dozen Hive before exploding and clearing even more. Then, as he landed at a sprint, Elsie to his right and the Hero of the Red War to his left, all three opened fire. Hunter and Elsie used their Pulse Rifles, and the Hero used a Scout Rifle, and between the three of them, everything that stood in their way was slaughtered. A Tomb Ship dropped off several Hive Acolutes behind them, only for Ana's dogs to stop and turn, slaughtering the group before catching up to Hunter and the others.
"Guardians, with the Ley Lines activated, Xivu Arath's forces are pouring in from the Ascendant Plane!" Petra warned. "We're being overrun! Break through the-"
Hunter and Elsie both fired a pair of rocket launchers, the resulting bombardment of explosions cutting off Petra's request.
"What were you saying?" Hunter asked as they all slowed to a stop in front of Petra.
"What took you so long?" Petra smirked.
"A few of them wanted autographs," Hunter said, looking to the Slayer.
The Slayer growled as he tossed a Thrall head he'd ripped off over the edge of the platform.
"Here come more," a Corsair warned.
"Let them," Hunter said, shouldering his rifle. "They'll never get close."
Then, a trio of Tomb Ships appeared over the platform itself.
"Cheating bastards!" Hunter growled.
The Tomb Ships' Void Cannons opened fire, and John's arms snapped out, forming a Void Bubble around them all before Hive began to drop from the ships, swarming toward them.
"The inside of this one's not solid," John said.
"Now that's cheating," Petra grinned as all of them, Guardians and Awoken alike, opened fire out through the shield, slaughtering the Hive.
A moment later, Hunter and Elsie's ship shot past, a pair of laser rockets and a railgun blast ripping the Tomb Ships apart. As all three crashed down on the platform, the last of the Hive went down in a hail of gunfire.
"Guardians, commune with us," Mara instructed as ths doors opened. "The ritual is about to begin."
Saint had passed through the door before anyone, Hunter shortly behind him. As they approached, a spell circle appeared before Savathun.
"Hello, my love," Savathûn greeted Saint, mocking his relationship with Osiris. "Osiris admired your patience, but you look antsy to me. Having doubts?"
"Shut her up already," Hunter said.
"If only it were so easy," Mara smirked. "It is time."
Hunter looked around, ignoring Mara as she spoke, beginning the ritual. More Hive were coming. He stowed his Pulse Rifle and drew the Joker instead. As he did, Cayde jogged into the room, Ace of Spades in his hand.
"Hoo, that ship flies like a dream!" Cayde grinned. "Please sell it to me!"
"Not a chance," Hunter said.
"Petra, babe, still beautiful," Cayde greeted her.
"Cayde," Petra nodded.
"Be ready," Mara warned.
"They're coming," Slayer warned.
"They're here," Hunter corrected him.
Then, half a dozen of the massive Hive snakes that they'd fought when trying to find the Slayer's body burst from the ground at the same time as a Taken Ogre and several dozen other Taken appeared. The Slayer roared, charging the nearest serpent as a Daybreak sword appeared in Hunter's hand, Hunter himself glowing with Void energy as he flew to another. Saint and John worked together to form a Void bubble around Mara and the Techeuns, leaving the others to fight from the bubble. Hunter circled his serpent, slashing it in a spiral before shoving an Arc Spear into it as he hurled the Daybreak sword into the Ogre. Both exploded, and though the Ogre lived, Hunter stole the attention of the massive serpents. One leat out of the ground at him, only for a cloud of SIVA drones to swarm down its throat, then begin to burrow in and out of it. Within seconds, it had died and they returned to Hunter.
A Taken Knight leapt at him, only for him to spin around its blade, driving a proximity mine knife into the back of its head, allowing it to die in the explosion. The next serpent leapt out of the ground at him, only for the Slayer to ram into it, his Solar energy blasting completely through. Hunter avoided the serpent's severed head, allowing it to crush several Taken, then hurled a fan of knives at thw ground a second before a serpent, the last one, burst out of it. The knives stabbed into the interior of its mouth, and it shrieked in pain, only for the Slayer's swors to remove its head ad he used it to swing around the serpent. Once he was on the ground, he kicked the head, Solar energy exploding from his foot and sending it exploding into the Ogre. The Ogre roared, falling onto its side, and the others targetted it with their weapons, Elsie opting for a rocket launcher.
Finally, the Ogre spiraled into oblivion, and everyone turned their weapons on ths remaining Taken. They all took off, moving around the massive chamber at a sprint, and slaughtered anything they met. Hunter flipped over a Taken Acolyte, driving a knife into the back of its head and shooting another just before Elsie appeared beside a group of them, spraying them and killing half the group, then vanished again, avoiding their returning fire, leaving them open to Ana's dogs. Ana picked off several snipers with her rifle, then spun as a Taken Knight leapt at her, only for Cayde to tackle it to the ground, then flip off of it, leaving several proximity mine knives in its torso to kill it. He blasted a trio of Taken Thralls as they charged, then stuck a tripmine to a pillar as he passed, allowing it to blast a larger group chasing him as he shot several Acolytes. Hunter passed him the other way, carelessly tossing an Incendiary Grenade over his shoulder, the grenade blasting several Taken Thralls.
"I missed this," Hunter said.
"It's been too long!" Cayde agreed, shooting a Taken Knight several times, only for it to bellow, charging him. "Uh-oh."
Hunter whistled two short notes and there was a flash of silver as his new pet appeared at his side. As soon as it hit the ground, it flashed, expanding into a massive, quadrupedal beast with the entire front half of its body being a set of jaws, which snapped closed on the Taken Knight, killing it instantly. Several Taken Acolytes fired at the creature, but their shots didn't seem to affect it at all, beyond getting its attention. Then, its tail lashed out, growing from a furry wolf tail to a thick, tentacle-like appendage and killing both Taken with the force of the impact. Then, the creature shrunk back down into a pupoy again.
"Aw, who's a good glowing space monster!" Cayde gushed, scratching its ears.
The creature yipped happily before darting off, adopting several different forms as it aided in the slaughter of taken. It seemed to have no limit in its shapeshifting ability, turning into a rhinoscerus-like creature bristling with spikes on the front, a flying ball with countless tentacles, a ball of spikes the size of a car. It shifted its limb into a long arm with sword-length claws, ita tail became a spear, its e tire body turned into a set of jaws. It seemed to be creates for the express purpose of killing, and seemed impervious to damage. But that suited Hunter just fine, because he liked it, and he didn't want it to die.
Finally, the last of the Taken was killed by one of Ana's dogs, and all eyes turned back to Mara and Savathûn. Just as they did, however, a massive Taken Kmight appeared directly behind Hunter, roaring.
"Look out!" Petra shouted.
Just as it raised its arms to crush Hunter, a trio of tripmine knives below it beeped, and Arc energy began to scream over its body. Hunter walked away from the Knight as it fell to its knees, and after a moment, the mines all exploded, blasting the Knight into oblivion.
"Is that it?" Hunter asked.
"For now," Petra nodded.
"You're running out of time," Savathûn said. "I feel my sister bearing down on you."
"Your family is tenacious, if nothing else," Mara admitted.
"No more than yours," Savathûn countered.
"My brother spent years suffering punishment for the path you made him walk," Mara snarled. "Finally justice finds it mark. Let this be the end of it."
As she and the Techeuns focused, cracks began to form in Savathûn's crystal. Light shone from the cracks forcing everyone except Hunter, Elsie, and Cayde, whose SIVA filtered the light out, to look away. All three raised their guns, but as the crystal shattered, all of them whitnessed their loss.
"No," Mara laughed.
There, lying amidst the crystal, was a comatose Osiris. Savathûn was gone.
"Thank you," Savathûn's voice spoke.
"Dammit," Hunter sighed, holstering the Joker. "I really wanted to kill her."
Saint rushed forward, taking Osiris and warping to his ship. Hunter turned to Mara.
"Did it work?" Hunter asked.
"Yes," Mara nodded. "Savathûn's Worm God is mine. It will hold many insights. The curse on the Dreaming City may yet be broken."
"Mara," Hunter said. "Do you remember what I said about Hive Magic and the Worm Gods?"
"I do," Mara nodded. "I will consider your words as I deal with the Worm God. For now, we must leave. Xivu Arath's reinforcements will be here shortly."
Hunter nodded, but as Mara walked away, he caught Petra's arm.
"Do not let her make a deal with that thing," Hunter warned. "Even if she survives being its host, she will be just as corrupted as Savathûn. She will no longer be Mara Sov."
Petra was silent for a moment, then pulled her arm away, catching up to Mara. Hunter narrowed his eyes, then turned, warping to his ship with Cayde and Elsie.
"Elsie?" Hunter asked.
"I don't know," Elsie shook her head. "I never made it far enough to see what happened."
Hunter nodded, and remained silent as he flew them all home.
Hunter narrowed his eyes as he stared up at Savathûn's ship. It had been barely three days since she'd escaped, and now Mars had returned and she'd appeared over it, near a structure that shared its design and construction with the pyramids, which had been labeled as the Cradle. He'd been sent along with Elsie and the Hero to investigate the structure, but the strangest thing wasn't that Mars was back, it was that it was covered in temporal anomalies, areas where time was distorted, leaving them as they were during the Golden Age.
"The Cabal fleet is blocking our flight path to Savathûn's ship. We need you to find a way to get up there and track Savathûn down," Ikora said.
"This may be our only chance to strike," Eris Morn said.
"How weakened are we expecting her to be?" Hunter asked as he pulled his Pulse Rifle off of his back and started toward where the Cabal were setting up a massive cannon.
"Weakened enough to be killed," Ikora replied.
"Wishful thinking," the Hero said.
"Doesn't matter," Hunter said. "I owe Savathûn a death anyway."
"Be careful what you wish for," Elsie said. "This is uncharted territory."
"Good," Hunter said. "My favorite kind of territory."
They all began to jog, passing through several temporal anomalies along the way. Hunter's body tingled each time they passed the edge of an anomaly, either into the past or the present, but he ignored that, as there were no obvious negative side effects. After a couple of minutes, they spotted a group of Cabal scouts.
"We need to get to that ship!" Hunter called out.
The cabal turned and opened fire instantly, and Hunter swore as he and Elsie vanished from sight and the Hero took off at a sprint. As his submachine gun buzzed to life, slaughtering several Psions and Legionaries, Hunter and Elsie appeared to either side of the Centurion, a pair of bursts from their rifles shredding its head. Several Legionaries turned on them, only for Hunter to hurl a fan of flaming knives, killing them all. A Centurion turned toward them, deploying its shield, only for the Hero to leap over the shield and slamm a hand into its head, a pulse of Solar Energy killing it instantly before his submachine gun killed the last handful of Psions.
"Caitl's going to be pissed," Hunter said, continuing toward the Cabal cannon.
"Then she should have made sure they wouldn't attack us," Elsie said.
After a moment, they quickly scaled a large hill and reached the cannon, heading inside quickly. The Cabal inside tried to fight them, but were slaughtered in seconds. Spark flew to the console, beginning to hack into it.
"Let's see how this cannon works," Spark said.
"After Queen Mara conducted that ritual, I would have thought Savathûn would have gone into hiding," the Hero's Ghost mused. "Why is she showing herself so soon? Seems too wreckless for a God of Cunning."
"That's because she's not showing herself, she's bating us," Hunter said, just as several Cabal ran into the cannon control room, only for the Tripmine Hunter had left in the doorway to kill them. "This is a trap."
"Maybe," the Ghost said.
More Cabal ran in, only to die in a hail of bullets. A Centurion ran in with a group of Psions, but Hunter hurled a flaming knife, and its Solar shield overloaded, killing it and the Psions.
"Okay, got it," Spark said, just as a Cabal Colossus stepped into the room, only for Elsie to appear behind him, leaping into the air and driving a Stasis Crystal into the top of his head, freezing him instantly.
As she landed, she slammed a fist into him and he burst apart.
"We need power, fuel, and a projectile," Spark said.
"So we're tsking a play out of the Slayer's book," Hunter said, then sighed. "Lovely."
"What's that mean?" the Hero asked.
"You're the projectile," Spark said.
He stared at him ailently.
"I know what you're thinking, but trust me, my plans always work," Spark said.
"Elsie and I will get the fuel, you get the power going," Hunter said. "Meet you at the chamber."
The Hero nodded, and they all exited the cannon before splitting up. Hunter and Elsie headed for a nearby fuel depot, slaughtering any Cabal that got in their way. Elsie had been right before. If Caitl wanted the Guardians to not slaughter the Cabal, she should have made sure they weren't hostile to the Guardians.
As they reached the depot, they split up, taking opposite sides as Cabal dropships brought reinforcements for the handful working on the rig. Hunter swapped his Pulse Rifle for the Joker and his knives, slaughtering any Cabal he met. When his dropship arrived, he formed a Shadowshot and fired it up into the underside of the ship. When Cabal dropped out of it a moment later, the singularity pulled them in, crushing them, then burst into a Void explosion, obliterating the dropship. Hunter turned back to the rig just as Elsie hurled a pair of Stasis kama, allowing the resulting storm to freeze and shatter the remaining Cabal on her side. Both headed to the main fuel line and picked up a pair of wrenches nearby, which were about the size of their entire bodies. They opened the valves and turned, leaving the wrenches in place as they headed back toward the gun. As they reached the chamber underneath the cannon where it was meant to be loaded, the Hero was just finishing up a massive swarm of Cabal, the last one standing being a Colossus. Hunter hurled a knife into its head to finish it, and the Hero walked over, taking a tablet from it and holding it up for his Ghost to scan.
"I've got the codes," the Ghost said. "Everyone hop on the lift."
All three complied, and the Ghost started the lift up to the cannon before joining them. Once they were at the top, they got off the lift, heading to the trigger room where a single Psion and Legionary were preparing the gun to fire. Hunter killed both with the Joker, and the three of them headed for the firing chamber. A short run along a scaffold and a jump into the cannon later, the cannon fired, sending the three of them streaking through the air and up to Savathûn's ship. Their momentum died out just in time to drop them lightly on top of a dock-like structure, and they all looked around carefully before readying themselves for a fight.
"Be careful," Spark warned. "We're alone up here."
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