Prince of Darkness: Shattered Past Book 2

The Escape from the Hellmouth

The world down under the surface of the moon is nothing short of a picture of hell itself. Rooms filled with bodies of guardians from the battle that was lost all those years ago are simply a glimpse into the macabre world that the Hive call home. A hell that for decades one guardian had managed to survive. A huntress by the name of Eris Morn. She had existed in the dark for so long she had forgotten what the surface of the moon even looked like, more so everything outside of the lunar orbit. She began to crawl around in the Hive chambers like a spider, clinging to the ceiling with her unnaturally long and sharp fingernails. 

She learned from the years she had been under the moon about the hive, their secrets, their rituals, their Gods. She never forgot what had gotten her here in the first place. She recalled every scream, every death, every ghost snuffed out by the prince himself. Crota, the Son of the Hive god-king Oryx. She had a plan, a plan for the City to reclaim the moon. Nearly a thousand guardians descended upon the satellite towards the Hellmouth. No army of such skill and aptitude had existed in human history. The hive countered their offensive with their own army, the battle of the Ocean of Storms had begun. 

Guns and artillery fire from both sides flew across the battlefield. Explosions detonating in so many areas that new craters began to form on the lunar surface. The army of light appeared to be winning as the hive was pushed back. Then, He arrived. The Dark Prince rose out of the Hellmouth, looking much like a ghost. His sword could drain the life of any being that it touched. The crown the prince wore was sharp pointed to a tip. The behemoth was two stories tall, and with a roar, he rallied his soldiers to the battlefield. With himself leading the charge. The guardians fired futilely at the gargantuan knight who had stormed the battlefield with everything they had. 

Even using some of their ships for an aerial strike on the prince. Crota would not be defeated so easily. Crota rose up from the smoke left by the missiles from the ships and using a hive magic he destroyed the vessels in a single shot. The tide of battle changed so fast it was comparable to when a nuclear weapon arrives from one army to decimate the other. Crota left the battlefield when all the guardians were killed, leaving his soldiers to take their corpses to the chronovores. However, of the thousand, six remained. Eris Morn, Erianna-3, Vel Tarlowe, Omar Agah, Sai Mota, and Toland the Shattered. 

The six of them descended farther into the Hellmouth than any other group that had come before them. Toland knew something that the others did not, he knew how to seal Crota away in his throne world. After much strife and horror down in the abyss, Toland sealed Crota's soul in a crystal, one that the Hive themselves would take years to break him free from. Toland after those events went missing. Everyone else, Eris assumed were dead. Vel was pulled into the furthest point in the abyss by the thralls. She underestimated their strength. It wasn't in their individual prowess. It was in numbers. 

Eris continued climbing around in the Hellmouth, still hoping to find an escape. Her clothing that she had worn all those years ago was drenched in sweat, blood, and tears. It was tattered in places exposing her skin to the cold lunar atmosphere. She had been down there for so long, tortured, battered and broken. She was astonished at her own will to live at this point. There was only one thing that had kept her alive and willing to live, the two guardians she saw three months ago. The one who slew a chronovore by himself, and the Eliksni with a solar battle ax. She knew that at some point she would be found. The evil and darkness had begun to eat away at her light many years ago, changing her eyes to a luminescent green and gave her a third one on her forehead. 

Then as she continued to climb upon the ceiling, she saw a blinding light. That light made it difficult to see so much so that she lost her grip and fell to the ground. The impact was hard making her nose bleed, but that didn't matter, she wanted to get out and onto the lunar surface. She ran up the slight incline to get to the surface of the moon faster than she had ever run before. She finally breached the surface bathing in the bright light that was around her. The sun felt so warm, so comforting. It had been too long since she had last felt the warm embrace of the star that warmed the sol system. It brought her down to her hands and knees and tears of joy enveloped her.