I do not own Destiny or any of the characters.
A Game of Thrones
Hunter opened his eyes as the Techeuns stepped away from him.
"Her spirit has attached itself to you," Kalli said. "But there is a way to free yourself of her."
"How?" Hunter asked.
"The Queen could separate you from Riven," Petra said. "But for that, you'd need to go to her Throne World and sit upon her throne. And it would hurt."
"Where do I go?" Hunter asked.
Petra smiled knowingly and nodded. "The Techeuns will guide you."
Hunter nodded, and he, Elsie, Ana, and Shiro all followed the Techeun to the Blind Well. the Techeuns activated it, and they all passed through into the Ascendant Realm. On the other side, they found themselves on a long bridge leading to a once-grand palace, now broken apart and shattered like every other area of the Ascendant Plane Hunter had seen. They headed toward the palace rapidly, slaughtering a group of Taken when they appeared. Hunter wasn't sure where they were supposed to go, but by unspoken consent, they all stayed together and all followed Elsie. She followed the halls and corridors of the palace quickly, only pausing to look around a few times. More groups of Tsken swarmed them, but they all died equally fast, none of the groups lasting more than a few minutes. Each time they killed a group, a glowing, white circle with a black symbol in it appesred, the same symbols as they saw when fighting Kalli and her sister. Finally, they'd activated seven symbols and headed back to the main chamber. As they arrived, a Taken Captain slashed Hunter's rifle out of his hands and he spun under the other blade, drawing Worldline Zero. A moment later, when the Captain moved to slash him, Hunter spun as he stepped around the Captain, completing four rotations within one pass around the Captain, all in under a second, and slashed the Captain four times, slicing it into five segments before anyone else could react to its presence.
"Damn," Ana said. "You're good with that thing."
Hunter put the sword away, using his left hand's Gravity Manipulator to pull his rifle back to himself. "Thank you."
"You've got to teach me that," Shiro said.
"You don't have the right parts," Hunter said, turning to a large, round section of the floor just as it split open. They all dropped into the pit just as Riven's voice began again.
"What makes you think I'll let you make it?" Riven asked. "You would have to wish for it."
Hunter ignored her as they landed at the bottom of the pit and stepped out of the door ahead of them, only to find themselves at a chasm, the only path beind a series of stairwells, bridges, and stone ledges leading downward, at least, after a huge dropp to the first set. Everyone sighed, and Hunter formed a sniper rifle for each of then that would use SIVA to regenerate their ammo. Then, they all used the sniper rifles to mop up the Taken below them before dropping down.
"Hey, Ana, why didn't you bring your dogs?" Shiro asked. "I feel like they might have been useful."
"When Spark called us, I didn't take the time to run home and grab them first," Ana said.
"Fair enough," Shiro nodded.
After a few minutes of descending, they climbed back up a couple flights of stairs before entering a massive chamber lined with Taken Vandal snipers. As they headed into the room, they all rapidly slaughtered the Taken with their rifles. The chamber had no floor, and instead had a catwalk along either side and a long bridge down the center. They progressed along the bridge quickly, jumping across any breaks and not slowing down from a fast jog, except to shoot, only to catch back up, alternating the shooters in pairs.
Taken Hobgoblins joined the Taken Vandals after a couple more minutes, each one releasing a trio of energy blasts when they were killed, but they were easy enough to avoid at range. Then, at long last, more than two miles after starting the bridge, they reached the end and turned left up a flight of stairs. The stairs led up to a balcony, but before Hunter could really look around, more Taken appeared around it, Ogres this time. They all went to work, killing the Ogres quickly, then headed out onto a thin beam-like stretch of metal ahead of them. As more of the area emerged from the darkness, Hunter saw that the only places to walk were the beam-like paths, which connected to round platforms. Ogres occupied the platforms, but between the four of them, they were able to slaughter them easily enough. As Hunter progressed through the area, it occurred to him that it reminded him of the rafters of a truly massive room in a castle, usually a throne room, and he wondered if it might not be easier to just jump down and hope for the best, but he didn't voice this opinion.
Finally, they reached a door at the far end and stopped, Hunter reabsorbing the SIVA from the sniper rifles and switching to the Ace of Spades and a fan of knives. Ahead of them was a wall of what looked like water, but the room on the far side was thick with Taken energy, and Hunter could see Thralls inside. The others nodded and they all stepped through, the thick, heavy atmosphere of Darkness instantly weighing down on them all, making it a struggle to walk. Thralls swarmed instsntly and they all opened fire, Hunter and Shiro both hurling knives along with using their guns, the Ace of Spades' explosions clearing groups. As they continued, Hunter narrowed his eyes, seeing the Thralls press in closer and closer. He focused, forming dozens of blades around his forearms as he magnetized his arms, then hokstered his pistol and jumped, stepping off of Shiro's shoulder to jump again as he spun before hurling four fans of knives along with the dozens on his forearms, all of them Solar-charged, into the Thralls, the resulting explosion and flames slaughtering the Thralls and clearing them a huge space to work. Then, as Hunter began to fall, he hurled half a dozen SIVA Grenades ahead of them, the SIVA drones all working to quickly clesr them a path as Hunter landed with the others again, demagnetizing his forearms and drawing both of his Hand Cannons, opening fire immediately. Finally, after several more minutes, they left the field of oppressive Taken energy, leaping over a railing into a fifty foot drop, Hunter spinning and hurling a SIVA grenade that freleased drones designed to generate Azidoazide azide. The massive explosion obliterated any followers still chasing them, and the four of them landed safely, Shiro and Elsie both giving him unimpressed looks.
"Again with that stuff?" Shiro asked.
Hunter shrugged. "I didn't almost blow us up this time."
"Fair enough," Shiro sighed as Elsie merely shook her head.
"You and your explosions," Elsie sighed. "Come on. We can't be too far now."
"Don't jinx it," Hunter grimaced.
Through the door seemed to be a massive, shattered courtyard, and they could see light reflecting off of a set of stairs off to their right. They crossed the room quickly, then turned right along a broken path of ledges on the cliff face there, avoiding pulses of Taken energy from pools of Darkness here and there along the walls. As they reached the stairs, Taken moved to stop them, only to die rapidly, Hunter and the others ascending the stairs quickly. At the top, they entered a large room filled with pillars, then dropped into a lower section off to one side and headed through a door there. They stopped as they reached a ledge overlooking a massive chamber with four glowing circles on the ground in a square but no enemies visible.
"I don't see anything," Elsie said.
"That'll change," Hunter said. "Come on. And be ready."
He jumped first, Elsie just behind him, then Ana and Shiro together. Instantly, a massive Taken Blight formed, depositing a Taken Ogre that stood four times their height. A moment later, four Wizards appeared in aimikar fashion, along with a swarm of Taken Goblins, Acolytes, and Vandals. All four of them separated instsntly, heading for a Wizard, only for the Ogre to unleash a stream of massive blasts at them, starting with Hunter, and forcing them all to take cover, the other Taken joining in a moment later. They all leaned out carefully when they could, taking out the weaker Taken one or two at a time, but they all knew they were getting nowhere fast.
"The Wizards have Void shields!" Ana reported as they all leaned back in under a particularly violent spray of various gunfire and Darkness blasts. "Strong ones! Even you might need to match elements, Hunter!"
She and Shiro were both hidden behind a pillar by the stairs, while Hunter and Elsie were hidden by separate pillars.
"Way ahead of you!" Hunter shouted back, SIVA swarming to his hand, where he was holding Worldline Zero.
The SIVA surrounded Worldline Zero and combined with it, taking only seconds to form a black sword with the long blade curving forward then back gently, like a feather, decorative openings in the blade, a purple crystal that glowed gently, and a hilt with a finger guard decorated to look like feathers. The sword's gentle, elegant design in no way betrayed its true power as Petra had demonstrated to him when he'd spent a few days staying with her, but that power was exactly what he needed now. Once the sword was finished, he focused, beginning to glow with an aura of Void Energy before stepping out and leaping into the air, beginning to drift through it quickly, unaffected by Gravity's pull.
The others stared at him as he raised the sword over his head, the gemstone in the blade shining, then slashed downward toward a group of Taken. An arc of Void Energy flashed from the blade, racing sownward and slamming into a Taken at the center of the group before exploding, killing half a dozen more. And just like that, the shooting had resumed. Hunter pulled the sword back again and again, firing a lethal, explosive arc a second into the Taken below him and slaughtering them rapidly, all the while drifting through the air, shimmering with Void Energy and keeping out of the way of the Taken's attempts at killing him.
A moment later, he glanced at Elsie just as her SIVA shone, swarming to her back and shoulders and forming a jetpack and a pair of rockets. He cheered as she flew into the air just as her SIVA formed a pair of new arms from her shoulders, with which she began to reload the rocket launchers every time they fired a Void projectile, Elsie alternating sides for maximum rate of fire, each projectile setting off a single massive explosion with powerful enemies or armored targets in mind. Hunter grinned, and began to slash faster, but also switching from vertical, two-handed slashes to slashing quickly one-handed, instantly doubling his rate of fire, but also the drain on his stored Void Energy, with which he was powering the weapon in place of standard heavy ammo. Finally, once the weaker Taken had been thinned out enough for the others to handle with ease, he and Elsie turned their attention to the Wizards, slaughtering them in seconds. Each dropped a small orb and Shiro, being a Hunter through and through, caught on instantly and grabbed all four, each of which fused with the next, than ran for the glowing circles, each of which had a light glowing from them now, and dunked it into one. Instantly, the barrier that had been protecting the Ogre vanished. Elsie and Hunter targeted the Ogre the moment it was gone, and within seconds, the Ogre spiraled into oblivion. Bunter and Elsie both dropped to the ground, Elsie reabsorbing her SIVA extras as Hunter put his sword away. Then, he turned as Elsie reached him and swept her into a hug, cheering.
"You did it!" He grinned widely, both forming lips and kissing each other excitedly.
"Am I missing something?" Shiro asked.
"Elsie's been struggling to learn to use her SIVA like Hunter does," Ana grinned. "She finally figured it out."
"Took me long enough," Elsie smiled, accepting a hug from Ana.
"So, how much further, do you think?" Shiro asked.
"Far enough to not celebrate getting close yet," Hunter said.
"Well, before we go, what the fuck was that?" Shiro asked. "Since when can you fly? You looked like a Dawnblade."
"There's a reason for that," Elsie and Ana both said.
"What, you're secretly a Warlock?" Shiro asked.
"No," Hunter snorted. "Hunter to the bitter end. As for how I did it, I used Void Energy, which manipulates gravity, to be unaffected by it. It's actually easy, once you know how."
Shiro shook his head, looking dumbfounded. "Easy? That looked...You are literally the only Hunter to ever do that."
Hunter shrugged. "Guardians can do anything they can imagine, and Hunters learn by experimentation, necessity, and practical aplication. Seemed like a good time to try something new."
Shiro shook his head. "Well, when you learn to move as fast as lightning using Arc energy, let me know."
"Still working on that one," Hunter said. "Oh, but while I'm thinking of it, here." He passed everyone a shielding unit like he'd given the Eliksni, but powered by their respective elemwntal energies. "Channel whatever element you use into them to charge them. Shiro, where your element is arc, don't expect much against Fallen."
Shiro sighed. "No kidding. But thanks. This will probably help a lot."
"Yeah," Ana said. "Now we four are finally on a Titan and Warlock's level defensively."
"Now that's funny," Elsie smiled as a Stasis-blue barrier appesred around her before fading from sight, a matching one appearing around both Hunter and Ana, who could wield Stasis but was miles better with Solar, so stuck with that. "Titans and Warlocks are still better. Warlocks have their healing and Titans are defense experts."
"Come on," Hunter said. "Let's go find something to test these against, shall we?"
Everyone nodded and they headed through the door deeper into the palace. They passed a statue of an archer, one which told them they were worthy, which made them all frown in confusion but not question it, then started down a sloped, broken trail beyond it. At the end was an round, shrine-looking area with four Taken Wizards around a gravity lift, but by the time the Wizards had turned to fight them, they'd already broken through their shields, and had killed them seconds later. They took the lift up to a room with Taken Acolytes and Knights swarming around. The incoming fire began instantly, but their new shields held, though since most of the projectiles were Arc damage, Shiro's shield faded after a few seconds, forcing him to use cover more often thsn the other three, whose Stasis-powered shields stood up to much more punishment. They all swept into the room, using cover when needed, and working through the Taken with their rifles, and Shiro with his pistol. After about two minutes, Hunter's rifle's SIVA drones from his last kill swarmed the only remaining Taken, and they all continued to the gravity lift on the far end of the room. That lift took them to another area that reminded Hunter of the rafters of a massive room. The few scattered Taken failed to even breach their shields before dying, and they all jumped down to a hallway ahead of them. Hunter hurled a Proximity Mine Knife into a Taken Captain as they were landing, killing it, and they followed the hallway to a room with the floor having fallen away.
They leapt across it into the opposite hallway and killed the handful more Taken Captains and Vandals between them and the next gravity lift. The next section was swarming with Shadow Thralls, but they quickly slaughtered their way through, then through the Taken Phalanxes after them. As they reached the last platform, they turned left along a rafter-like path attached to a broken wall where pools of Darkness were exploding periodically and carefully followed it. Several Taken Acolytes appeared, but they killed them without much trouble. The problem wad the path, which shrunk down to only about a foot wide. Hunter took the lead with his rifle, and they all followed carefully. Finally, they reached a stairway leading to the next gravity lift, which desposited them next to what seemed to be the last. However, as they headed for that one, Riven spoke once again.
"Can you survive?" Riven asked in Mara's voice.
Hunter tensed as they rode the gravity lift, and as they reached the top, he saw what she meant. A huge Hive Wizard floated abobe the throne, one radiating power. And as they landed, Taken began to appear around the Throne Chamber from Taken Blights, and a trio of massive Hive Knights, as big as the Ogre from before, stood, turning to them and hefting its equally over-sized axe in one hand. Hunter swapped his rifle for his sword instantly, charging at the knights as the others targeted the lesser Taken.
"Fool," Riven said in Mara's voice before switching to Ikora's. "Those are Fatesmiths." She switched back to Mara's voice. "Why did you think I let you get this far?" She switched to Petra's voice. "You'll all die here, and I will be free once more." She switched to Elsie's voice. "But if you wish for it, I'll allow you to sit upon that throne. I'll give you the power to defeat them. You need only ask."
"Keep your power!" Hunter snarled, using his Void intangibility dodge to pass through an axe before slashing the giant Knight's leg.
As it fell to that knee, he lespt onto its back, then off just before the next one's axe slammed into the first's back. He flipped, stabbing the next in the face, all of the excess SIVA that had turned Worldline Zero into Black Talon detatching and breaking down before swarming the Knight. As Hunter landed, he spun, launching himself back to the heavily-wounded Knight he'd struck first and slashed upward, sending its axe arm spinning away before jumping into the air and spinning, removing its head. The last bellowed in rage and charged, but Elsie passed in front of it, the Lament's thruster screaming as it remived the Knight's legs at the knees. Hunter shot forward instantly, his sword once again reshaping itself with SIVA, becoming a double-edged blade with a cross guard themed as a set of wings before he sank the blade deep into the Knight's head, then released it, allowing it to completely deconstruct into SIVA drones, the drones burrowing into the Knight and exploding, killing it.
As the last Kinght died, both the Wizard and Riven shrieked in rage. Each of the Knights dropped a ball of compressed darkness, and Hunter, Elsie, and Ana each grabbed one, the Darkness instantly joining with them, strengthening them. Then, as Elsie hurled a pair of Stasis kamas, Hunter and Ana both formed Golden Guns, unloading on the frozen Wizard. Within seconds, the combined force of their Solar Energy shattered the Wizard. Hunter put his weapons away, reforming Worldline Zero on his back, and walked to the throne, sitting down.
"You certainly took your time," Mara's voice echoed through the chamber, everyone looking around. "What had become of my Throne World?"
"Shattered and infested with Taken," Hunter said. "There was a Hive Wizard and three huge Knights, as well, but we killed them."
"Dul Incaru," Mara said. "Daughter of Savathun. You have done me a great service, Guardian. Allow me to return the favor."
Agony seared through Hunter, his body contorting but remaining anchored to the throne. Riven's shriek of defiance and rage echoed in Hunter's mind as she fought and clawed to remain attached to him, but finally, Darkness shot upward off of Hunter, gathering above him into a massive Taken Blight. Finally, it finished and Hunter slipped from the throne. He scrambled out from under the Blight, and no sooner had he escaped did it burst, only for the roof of the chamber to explode. Then, they were all sucked out as a deafening, monstrous shriek rang out. Once they'd all stopped sailing into the air, they looked around and Hunter's jaw fell open. Below them, and before them from her sheer size, was Riven's true form. Far below, looking tiny from their height, was the entirety of the shattered palace they'd just passed through. And above it, making it seem like a doll house, was Riven. A true Taken now. She had a long neck, a rounded, featureless head, except for her mouth of pointed teeth, white-green light shining from inside of her mouth, a massive, six-legged body that reminded Hunter more of an insect than a dragon, feet, or possibly hands, that looked like the gnarled roots of a tree, and despite them being able to see for literal miles now that the world around them had lughtened, Riven's rear half was still shrouded in darkness. They began to fall and Riven roared again, but this time screamed in their minds in a thousand voices at the same time.
"You dare defy me!?" Riven shrieked. "I am Ahamkara! I will destroy all!"
She shot forward, moving to eat them, only for Darkness like a gale wind to blow from behind them, Riven shrieking in rage as it obscured her from their sight. Then, as it clesred, they were all lying on the ground in the Dreaming City again. They groaned, pushing themselves up, and Hunter stopped, staring at the portal to Mara's Throne World. The others all stared as well. They could still sense Riven inside through her ocean of rage and galaxy of power, but they could also sense Dul Incaru again.
"I'm...detecting Dul Incaru's power," Spark said. "But that's...impossible!"
"You're back!" Petra gasped, kneeling beside Hunter as the portal closed. "You...You disappeared! On Queen Mara's order, we've kept the portal open, but..."
"How long?" Hunter asked.
"A week," Petra said. "My Queen had an explanation, and now that you're here, it seems more believable. The Dreaming City, and Queen Mara's Throne World have been cursed into a timeloop by Riven. When we killed her...my wish to save the Dreaming City for my Queen...Riven used it to save herself from death. She cursed the city into a timeloop around the time she died, roughly a three week period. She remained dead, but her soul was able to continue existing, allowing her to link herself to you."
"And now she's free in that Throne World," Hunter said. "And massive!"
"And pissed," Shiro said.
"We know," Petra nodded. "Queen Mara told us. She's ordered the Throne World be permanently sealed once you reappeared."
Hunter nodded. "Do you know what's going on with the Last City?"
"They've found Quria," Petra said. "The Hero of the Red War should be on his way to deal with her by now."
Hunter nodded. "We need to get back."
Petra nodded and hugged him before they all warped to their ships, then left for the City.
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