Many had ventured down into the pyramid but none had returned as there was a being said to be lurking within it with a glaive at hand and the power of the darkness aiding him. Eventually, the Vanguard grew tired and soon told us to cease and desist for a moment so they could plan things out, and now, my fire team is sent, ready to raise their arms towards the creature living in the pyramids.
Though I was not ready, I was never ready.
I became a Guardian only 3 years prior and my duties simply consisted of evacuating civilians and setting up plans made by my leader. I was never sent to kill large threats of nature like other Guardians. I was just the gopher to my people and it came as a shock when I discovered my Fireteam was picked.
"Kore, are you ready?" my Fireteam leader Zeus says gently as he puts his hand on my shoulder.
I look at him and nod, nervousness tingled within me and I rub my hands. "Yeah, just thinking,".
" About?".
"My duties in this mission, what I have to do, and so forth," I admit.
"You'll be fine, you're mission is being our add killer, keep the battlefield clear for us to progress down that hellhole," he explains as he pats my shoulder and smiles.
"Sounds easy enough, but what about the creature at the end? What do we do then?".
" That's the part where you use that tether of yours and evacuate into Daemon's well, the rest should be easy enough,".
"But if all goes wrong, we need to find any way to escape. We cannot add to the countless casualties of others," I advice as I hear our ship land at our destination.
When I walk outside, I find myself in a swamp with scorn, undead creatures prowling the area, scrapping whatever they can from the throne world in which we stand.
"Let's get this over with, it's a wild world in there from recordings I heard, so follow my lead," Zeus rallies to the rest of our team as we jumped into the murky mud and made our way to our destination that was not too far from us now but required us to break through with a blackboard of technology. Dread dripped down on us like sweat as it got closer to it, the pyramid belonging to an ancient evil, the same monsters that nearly brought our race to extinction many centuries ago.
We pushed through the fronts with hideous scorn trying to stop us from entering the domain until eventually, we did it, we stepped into the dark and immediately felt chills go down my spine from the suffocating amount of dark energy radiating within it and it only got stronger as we faced the trial that kept us lingering from our main target.
Obelisks stood tall as we got closer, each having three blank haloes which Zeus stares at, studying the objects closely.
"What could you make out of this Athena?" He asks looking at the side of him where a Titan stood.
The Titan places her hand on her chin and hums, "Looks like a riddle of some sorts, or maybe even clues to how to reach him," she says as she looks around the area." Or worse a trap...".
Upon her words, more scorn dropped in with the largest being a grotesque mound of flesh with large arms and a small head that was plated in metal. It came closer to us with his hands held up towards us with arc energy building up in its palms.
"Daemon! Protect the obelisk with Athena and Kore, I'll deal with that abomination myself," Zeus orders as he pulls out his sword and runs towards the mass of flesh that is now bursting out his energy at Zeus.
Raising his sword, Zeus nulls the effect of its power just until he was close to it and began dicing at the beast.
Meanwhile, I fended off the scorn that came to us with my rifle, firing at all that got too close.
"Kore, Stay in my Well," Daemon orders as he slams his solar sword into the ground, and beams of light surround me and Athena, giving us aid in battle as we continued to fire at the enemies until eventually, the obelisk Lit up and pictures appeared on each of them, one of a black pyramid, an object with a white sphere with the same pyramid underneath it and snowflake-like shape with many colors.
"These symbols, they must tell us something..." Athena thinks out loud. "Wait, a minute...," she says as she sees a door with the symbol of the sphere and pyramid. "Zeus! Go into the room with the sphere and pyramid, there must be something in there," she advises our leader who had just come back covered in a blue substance.
Nodding, he runs over to the said area and we continue to guide Zeus through the area until eventually, he meets a creature we would call the glyph keeper.
After a quick battle against him, Zeus makes his way out where he notices a symbol on the creature's skin, a black heart. Upon going back he sees the rest of us venturing into the other rooms where we would meet the same glyph keepers who would provide us with more symbols upon their death.
"We got some odd symbols from two other guys," I report back to Zeus who touches the obelisk.
His head turns to me and he shakes his head, "Good, now what...".
Athena points at the obelisk, " This one has the same symbols I saw, maybe we pin down what the symbols were and that's how we progress through this,".
"Could be, let's try," Zeus obeys and shoots at the first symbol they got of a black heart until going down to what I and the rest found.
When shot down, lights flashed and the door opened to the other side, giving us the chance to get out of the area and into another vast room. Our fireteam makes our way into it until eventually, we meet with another large foe that appeared the same as the fleshy undead mounds. We begin to fire at the beast and tear down his footing until eventually falls to the ground and gives us access to the next room, the road to the final position of our main target.
And there we see him, a cocoon of dark casing falling apart and a red creature with six eyes elegantly floats to the ground. His hands are behind his back as he makes his way towards us, his eyes locked on both me and Athena who stood by Daemon.
"You know what to do! Daemon! Your Well, Kore, your tether and Athena, place down your ward of dawn!" He instructs us, promoting me to jump in the air and manifesting a void bow; shooting at the being that begins to slow down at the tether warping him towards it. We all got into position now in the protection of Athena's ward and from there, we began to shoot at the entity.
All felt at ease at first but all of a sudden, the entity pulls himself up and raises his weapon, a sharp glaive of spirals that then fires at us. As the impact hit us, we flew out of our protection, open to his attacks that kept raining down on us.
To escape, I threw a grenade at my feet and let the smoke cover my body which caused me to go invisible and out of sight to the beast that had just come to our position and slammed his foot down on Daemon's face; killing him instantly.
"Daemon!" Athena shouts and casts solar energy around her body then runs over to the creature in anger, but she then faces a beam of his orange light that knocks her back and off the platform where she would fall to her death.
There was only me and Zeus left who were still standing while I stared disbelieved at his power. Never in my life had I felt more fear in my life until today. I just saw two of my fireteam members be killed while I just hid from my death. Zeus on the other hand was braver than most and kept his ground on the field even as he was shot at. I could feel his rage radiating from him but that would be his downfall as a large burst of light shot around him and pierced through Zeus's skin, putting an end to him as well and leaving me alone; still hiding from him.
The room goes silent and I begin to breathe heavily with nowhere to go. I knew he was searching for me as he would walk around and peer at every corner.
"I know you are here, I saw you before," the being finally speaks, his voice coarse yet smooth. "You lasted longer than expected, truly amazed by your ability to avoid me with your stealth and camouflage,".
Walking slowly, I attempt to sneak past him but just then, the effects of the grenade wore off and I'm left in the open to him who just stares at me coldly.
" There you are dear," he says as he charges toward me and forces his hand around my neck. I gasp for air as he lifted me to his view and stared down at me with his many eyes.
"You survived the longest... I shall reward you for your endeavor..." He coos with his finger brushing against my cheek.
"Let me go! I don't want any of your stupid rewards!" I grunt against his grip.
"So would you like to cease to exist than accept my offer?" He questions. "If so, then I wouldn't allow that to be an option,".
" You killed my fire team,".
"And you lived which goes to show your survival is more fit than others, while they abused their strength, you hid, retaining yourself from combat as you know death is certain," he chimes in. "Though the other woman looked promising, I sadly killed her when I meant to immobilize her, but I can't complain though since you look like a suitable candidate,".
" What the hell are you talking about? A candidate for what?" I challenge him with my fists clenching in stress. The entity is silent for a moment until moving his hand toward my stomach and rubbing it gently in a circular expression.
"I plan on breeding you...providing young that is raised by my ideals," he discloses.
"Breeding me? I'm not a bitch you can just farm, and even then, my young will not have the light if I were to have sex with another Guardian," I chuckle in an uncomfortable tone.
"Who says you are going to breed with another human?".
My eyes widen in shock and I began to writhe around his grip, scared by what he meant. I mean I had seen large worm creatures lurking here and feasting so the worst thought of being a breeding host to them crept into my mind and made me cringe at the idea of having my womb be filled with disgusting larvae that would burst out of me.
" W-what do you mean?" I ask nervously, expecting the worse.
"My species is considered extinct since I'm the only one of my kind. I want a vessel to bear my children and after much trial and error with other species, you're kind is my last option, and from the many who came to me, you and the other woman were the only ones to make it to me," he rationalizes.
My heart sunk upon hearing his words. This creature was using me as a vessel for his own sick last-ditch option of repopulation. The thought of making more of his kind sickened me and I couldn't help but tremble. Evil would live on and I was aiding his sick ideals.
"Y-you can't do this, it's not possible, we are entirely different species, our genetic material is not compatible, you are stupid for assuming it is possible," I shout angrily at him. "I can't produce your hideous spawn so there is no use in trying,".
" I know... That's why I plan on modifying your egg, matching it close to my species,".
"You're sick!".
" Call me what you want but at the end of the day, I will sire you," he hisses as he pushes my body close to his chest.
I try writhing my way out and using my light to escape but as soon as I can, a white light burst, blinding me for a second until I realized what it was.
Under his foot, my Ghost laid motionless with it shattered in pieces. It was gone and I was now lightless. No way to run and no way to hide now, I was truly under his mercy.
"No... Please... No!!!!" I cry out with my arm stretching toward the shattered machine.
The being scoffs at my wails and grips onto my neck once more; squeezing it till I felt myself begin to pass out. "My dear, don't fret, with me, you'll cheat death either way," he whispers to me as my eyes roll into the back of my head and I collapse in his grip.
All I can make out me saying before fading was me saying "Help". I was pleading to no one and my fate was sealed.
I was to be a spouse to a monster.