Spark of Paracausality: A new spark

Chapter 34: The Black Garden

I stand up and pat the dirt off from me, and followed the path. As I follow it, there's more Vex statues, but they're Goblin sized, pretty much my height. But they're a little bit taller than me because of how short I am.

"They're in some kind of stasis," Nolan noted.
There's a whole bunch of them, leading down the path. When I get to the end of the Vex statues, the last one looked more recent, without decay or rusting. They stand asleep. I look closely at it, inspecting it. Then it moved. It turned to me and blasted a splash of Void energy at me. It struck pain to me, causing my body to be pushed back and collapse to the ground, landing on my back first. I groan in pain.
"Ugh. Okay, that one's still active. Got it..."
I groan more. I stand up and see more Vex arrive. I battled them and won. Once I healed up, I keep moving forward and find more Vex in every room I enter. I won every single battle in every single room. After the last room was cleared, I climb a stairway up to see the view of the Black Garden.

"There's a huge Darkness signature down there," said Nolan.

"Yeah," I sniff. "I can sense it... How far are we from the Black Garden?"

"Halfway there," he answered. "There's a bridge on the right. We take that, that'll lead up to the main door to the heart."

The path takes a right and leads to a Vex Cyclops. I kill it from a range and get passed it. The path ends with a intersection. Vex smoke appears, spawning Vex. A Hydra appears, but it wasn't any kind of Hydra. It was a Mind of the Black Garden. It created a indestructible barrier that prevented my progress to the Black Garden.

"That Hydra is powering that barrier! Take it out!" Nolan exclaimed.
I opened fire, but wasn't able to get a clear shot. It has 3 spiraling shields instead of 2, and the Mind had major minions with him.

"Screw that!" I said. "We'll have to find another way around!"
I fled the battle and ran back to the view of the garden. I look to the right and see the bridge.
"What if I jump across?" I suggest.
"But you'll only have two jumps. If it was a vertical distance, then yes you could make it," he replied.
"Who said I had to jump vertically?" I smirk.
"Wait... what do you- wait what?" Nolan perplexes.
"Modify the jump glyph to a 70° angle to boost me forward," I said.
"Modifying... done. I hope you know what you're doing. Not a fan of heights, and that Fall seems endless."
I step back to get a running start and run. I jump off and stop my velocity for an instant. I position my feet, as if I was standing on a wall sideways, and jump forward. I felt the fast winds as I push. I land on the bridge on my head, then tumbling down all the way to the end of the bridge.
I groan and shook my head.
"I would say you fell, but you did jump vertically," said Nolan.

"Then don't say it was," I chuckle.

"There's the gate, the heart is just beyond here. Get me close to the two confluxes on each side," he said.

The place was empty, no one was here. Nothing but rocks and plants. I went to one of the Confluxes and let Nolan do his thing.
"It's all starting to make sense," he said to himself. "That did it! Let's hit the other one." I walked causally to the other one and see the perimeter of the Spire on the corner of my eye. "It's working," he said. "A Spire is forming."
I let him scanned the other one.
"That should do it. Let's head to the entrance," he said disappearing into my mind.
When I approached the gate, Nolan spawned the charged Gatelord's eye into the blue keyhole that stood by itself.
"All we need is permission to enter, as a Gatelord," he said.
The door-looking blue keyhole whooshed up and split into pieces. Behind us was the Spire that shot a beam at the eye, as the eye directed and clustered the laser to the door. It worked. The door opened.
"The heart of the Black Garden," he commented. "Here goes nothing... or everything."

+ + +

As I enter, the environment got darker. I stand on the top platform and see the Vex, bowing down to the floating black heart above them, that pulses oddly. One Vex looked up and looked back, staring at me. Then another did, and another, and another, one by one. They all just stared at me.
"So," Nolan says awkwardly. "Think you can kill a god?"
I sigh. "Don't think I have much a choice now, do I?"

I fired my scout rifle and cleared out all the Vex. I stare at the heart and leered at it, as narrowing my eyes.
"Heart of the Black Garden, you will be eradicated with my wrath!" I growl, fisting my hands.

The heart released Dark energy into the air. I can see the energy spiraling and whipping it's way passed me. It travels inside one of the three Vex statues. The statue started to crack apart. Then the podium rotated slowly and descended to floor level.
"The heart is bringing that statue to life!" Nolan exclaimed.
I back up and watch it come to life. The cracks shattered and fell off the Vex figure. It looked like the Gatelord. It stomped down and stared at me. It pulled out its usual purple bursting weapon and fired at me. I weave out of the way and took cover. I thought through my next step and executed my plan clearly. I aimed for the juice box, as it staggered with every sniper shot. Eventually it died. I reloaded and clicked the weapon. "Is that all you got?!" I taunt the heart.
"The heart is dying! Keep fighting it!" exclaimed Nolan.
The heart sent another Dark energy to the second statue. I watched it come to life just like the first one. This one was the same, but it's armor was more fancy and modern.
"Wait, it's all making sense," Nolan says as I take cover.
"What?" I asked.
"They are the Protectors of the Garden, they are the Sol Progeny. Rulers of time. Each of them play a role in time. One controls the past, another controls the present, and the other controls the future. We killed the present, now we're fighting-"
"The future," I interrupt.
"Exactly," he said. "The Imminent Mind."
I use my Golden Gun and fired my explosive rounds at it and had a devious battle. At the end, I won.
Lastly, the last statue was reanimated. The heart gave it all of its power to it. I can tell because the tone color of the environment was faint. The statue came to life and fired giant purple blasts, bigger than any other blast I've seen. I dodged them except one. I tripped and got caught in the blast. I pushed me and crushed my back to the wall behind me. Then the Mind shot another at me directly. After I took the hit, cries of pain roared out of me. I growled against the lingering pain I felt. I crawled to cover and leaned against it. My breathing becomes shuddered as my Light deteriorates. Then I felt lightheaded. My Light had deteriorated to its last bit, but the last bit didn't go away. The last bit felt like it was evolving. My helmet's Light wavelength was speeding up, aside from the other armor I'm wearing. It was burning up. Solar energy was pulsing immensely, as if it had released sacred power that was dormant for who knows how long. I look at the Last Word that I hold. It starts to glow as well. Both of these things felt connected, like they were made for each other. My mind goes blank and controls me. I open the chambers of the weapon. Usually there's six holes in the weapon, three if Golden Gun is active. But I'm looking at it and there's one giant hole in it. I lift my other hand and stare at it. A large Solar bullet that fits perfectly into the one chamber. The bullet felt heavy, but powerful. I slip it inside the chamber, close up the chamber, and spin it. The gun goes golden, but flames burst intensely out of it. My peripheral vision glows out flames around my focal vision. I stand up and walk to the opening in the middle. The Mind spotted me and stomped towards me. It fired at me, but my mind started to run towards it. I jump right above it and perform my signature move. Blink, spin, aim, fire. The bullet bursted out a massive explosion. So massive that I couldn't see the Mind disintegrate. Right as I shot it and killed it, I reload quickly and fire another shot at the heart. The heart and the whole place starting glowing. I can hear the heart die as I become blinded. Once the blinding stopped, the room was in a healthy color. The heart was gone. It was a totally different place. Rose petals gently floated down. It was quiet. I pant heavily as my Solar energy went away.

"We're back, on Mars!" Nolan said. "The shroud of the Darkness is lifted, and the Light returns to the Traveler. The Speaker is calling us home... we did it. I did make the right choice..."

I wanted to speak, but instead, my vision faded away. I collapsed to the ground and blacked out.