Destiny: Steadfast Seraph

5 - Brutus' Bright Heart

Deep in Norway, a ship lands in a frozen forest. Brutus and Dolos walk out of the ship.

Brutus was struggling with a newfound power, Pure Light Energy. She has no idea how she got it, but Dolos was determined to help her control the power. Hopefully, they can figure out how it got to her as well.

They walk through the forest, to a large clearing of ice. They see a Shard, once belonging to the Traveler.

Dolos came here when he first got his Light power. He was afraid of it, just like how Brutus is now.

They stand infront of the Shard.

"What do I do?"

"Put your hand on it, go ahead."

"Are you sure....?"

"Yes. Trust me."

Brutus took his word for it, and began to approach the Shard. As she did, she could feel the power attracting towards her. It was surreal, even to Dolos.

Dolos watches her approach slowly. He takes the time to think deeply about his situation, how much he's changed.

Why me?

Why was he chosen, and not someone with a stronger will than him. He still feels he'll never do enough, or be enough. Perhaps one day he'll live up to his brother's heroics.

Brutus takes a deep breath, and places her hand on the Shard. Dolos gets ready for an explosion of some sort but....nothing happened.

"Wh...what? I don't feel anything?" Brutus stands back from the Shard. However, when she did, she did indeed begin to feel something.

She falls over on the ice, and her head sticks up in the air.

Dolos runs over to her. She was unresponsive, but humming. She wasn't having a seizure though.

Dolos relaxes and sits down to wait, leaving her fate up to the Light.

Brutus sees herself, standing alone in a rainy forest.

The Brutus in the forest, who was wearing more simple armor instead of her usual Titan armor, looks up at the trees, letting the rain hit her face.

She sits down on the wet grass, looking up at a large tree. On its trunk was many carvings. They were different messages in various languages, and not just human languages. Eliksni, and even hieroglyphs relating to the hive we're there.

However, as Brutus watched herself look at these messages, a dark smoke runs past her.

The dark smoke begins to form a being, the Witness. It stood behind the other Brutus.

She tried to stop it from hurting her future self, but she couldn't move. She wakes up, and a large shockwave of Light fires from her, sending Dolos flying into the snowy forest.

Brutus runs after him.

"Dolos? Are you okay?"

Dolos sits in a small crater of snow, stunned for sure. He was holding his helmet, which had received a nasty scratch over it's dome.

"I think I'm okay....what was that?" He asks her.

"I saw a vision, I'm not too sure what it means though." Brutus helps him up.

As they stand in the cold, they feel the presence of warriors, they immediately get ready.

Nine ninja-like men jump out of the white trees. They bore white and gold armor, and their swords had Light Energy surging through them.

"Surrender your weapons. You are coming with us!" They demand.

"Who are you?" Brutus asks, refusing to surrender.

"We are disciples of the great Light Priests. They demand an audience."

"Then why send warriors with swords?" Dolos asks.

"Because the great Priests only want you...not her." They point to Dolos.

"Like hell. You're not taking him."

"I'll go, but she needs to come too."

The ninjas all look at eachother and whisper.

"So be it, but if she does not comply with our demands, she will be executed."

"You mean you'll attempt to execute me." Brutus jokes.

The Ninjas lead them into their own ship, it was also gold and white.

The flight was long, but once they reached the southeast of Earth, they landed in very dense mountains, where a large White Castle laid.

Dolos stares at the castle through a window. Brutus watches him from across the ship.

She doesn't know how to feel about him. She wonders if they really were meant to be together, or they were just foolish enough to try romance. But he's a good person, so why does she feel a decline in her feelings?

Dolos notices her staring at him, and waves over to her. She waved back, a melancholy smile on her face.

The ship lands in front of the castle, where Dolos and Brutus are both escorted out.

Brutus looks up at the castle, it looked as if it had been there for centuries. How had no one found it before?

She looks to Dolos beside her: "How has no one found this before? It's not in any history books."

"Unless the history books never got written."

Entering the castle, more ninjas stood waiting for them. The interior was also entirely white. Brutus stuck out like a sore thumb with her bright red armor.

The ninjas stop them, and all look up to a balcony up above, where three hooded men appeared out of thin air.

"Dolos! You have been summoned by we, the Light Priests of Sol!" They yell in unison.

"Why me?" Dolos yells back.

"Because you...are the most powerful. We must have your power to better contain the dark, when only Light remains!...do not resist Dolos." Immediately, Dolos feels the heat of one of the Ninja's light blades coming towards his neck.

Brutus jumps into the air and throws her fist upon the ground, causing a large shockwave of light energy, and pushing back the ninjas.

The Light Priests watch from above as Dolos and Brutus fight the Ninjas elegantly, using eachother to perform great feats against impossible numbers.

One Light Priest looks to the others.

"We must act! They will defeat all of our followers!" He says.

The oldest of the Priests glares at him.

"We will wait. Dolos will submit to us, in time...come, to the summit." They leave.

Dolos summons his Lightspear and cuts through a large group of the ninjas, but is stabbed multiple times by their blades, and overwhelmed.

Brutus summons a Warhammer of Light, and brings it down upon the Ninjas, saving Dolos from a swift end.

Dolos looks up at Brutus, with her Light forged weapon.

They get up, seeing that the Ninjas had either ran to hide or were defeated.

"We need to get after them." Dolos begins to make a large jump, but falls over from his wounds.

"You right?"

"Yeah. Just give me a moment."

Brutus keeps watch as Dolos heals his own wounds.

"That should do. You ready to get after these Priests?"

"Hell yea."