Destiny: Rise of The Warlock

Throne of Pain

Max Prodigy glumly looked down at the ship's floor. His history was presented to his team as plain and simple as it could be: he alone caused the First Collapse, he alone brought Humanity to its knees, he alone nearly destroyed the world. Why? he asked himself, What could possibly cause me to snap against my kin? He looked across the cargo bay at his team, except for Leviathan piloting the Jumpship back to the Moon. Jess looked confused, she couldn't bring her wide eyes to meet Max's. Cass was grumpy, here was a Warlock who broke the law so much that it destroyed the world. But his friend, Shin Malphur, had the worst expression on her face. She was sad, and who wouldn't be when it's revealed that their closest friend also has the potential to be their worst enemy.

The only one who didn't look sad, mad, confused, or zealous was Kaden-2. If anything, he looks at Max as if he were only human. He signed to the Warlock, "Do you want to talk?"

Max shook his head.

"Ok. I'll be here if you need anything."

Max said, "ok," unsure if he meant it or not.

Leviathan said, "We're here, Beginning our descent."

Max moved to the passenger seat and looked out the window, Wait! We're diving into the Hellmouth!?

The Dredgen Bane grinned, "You and I, Max, we can save the world!"

"We have different concepts of 'saving the world,'" Max warned, "You might want to tell Crota that before you drag me to him."

Leviathan laughed, "Causing the First Collapse? You two are more alike than you know!"

Max scoffed and returned to his original seat as the sunlight pouring into the cargo bay shrunk in intensity and volume. Cass looked away from Max in disgust, Jess heaved as she went to the passenger seat, and Kaden signed to Shin, "Ask him about his past."

"Why?" she whispered, "The Vault showed us the truth!"

"The Vex only know the 'What', they only show the 'what' to divide us. You need to ask him, 'Why did you do it?'"

Before she could even ask Max, Leviathan spoke into the comms, "Open the doors, Ir Yut. I have the Worldbreaker." A thin vertical slit of poisonous green light appeared before the ship. The slit had small, dark, horizontal lines at random points, and as the slit grew into a large rectangle, the small dark lines were later revealed to be forks in the doors, keeping them shut in case of intruders. Leviathan pushed the flight stick forward, thrusting the ship into the light. As they pushed further away from the doors, the light began to pour in from the windows, blinding everyone except for Leviathan.

Then the intensity shrunk back to normal, revealing an almost empty world except for a green star armored by rock, and a floating green castle made of bone and a metal composite known as Hadium below the star. Inside some of the walls and pillars of the castle, Vex radiolaria flowed without a problem. The castle had 9 different large rings surrounding the central cylinder, each ring's height was lower than its neighboring inner ring, and every so often on the exterior of the rings was a symbol of an outstretched wheat crop surrounded by a green circle. Acolytes, Thrall, Knights, Wizards and Ogres would bow to this symbol when they had a chance.

And in the center of the cylinder of the castle stood the Altar and Throne of the Hive Prince, Crota. The Altar was divided into two floors and an indoor and outdoor section, the floors were connected by two staircases and the sections were connected by a ringed bridge representing the second floor. In the middle of the bridge, opposite the inside section was a large upside down arch projecting a large image of Crota to oversee his Throne World.

Max's first impression of Crota's Throne World was fear, shock, and terror. "Oh my God!"

Leviathan parked the Jumpship on one of the long platforms leading into the cylinder and shouted, "Everybody out!"