When the path straightened, there was a giant fall that led to a maze called the Gorgons' Labyrinth; the deadliest place before the Vault of Glass. According to Ikora and the Warlocks' libraries, these Gorgons are Medusas. Harpies with an unknown element that can turn any living thing into stone. It is certain that a Guardian will die in seconds after being spotted, and your Light is sealed in the stone along with your Ghost. You will not come back. We could try to kill them, but they've nearly reached a god hierarchy, therefore making them almost invincible. Imagine, one of these things roaming around the City. They could turn every citizen into stone in hours. The Vex are truly something.
There are multiple of them roaming around the maze. Fortunately, the Medusas lack eyesight comparing to most Vex. At first we decided to split up, but then we realized that paracausal beings from the Traveler are not meant to be tampered with in time.
Only choice was to stay together. I led the way through the maze, only then realizing that I have no idea where I'm going.
We hid behind a rock from the Medusas. I look around to see if the coast is clear. Once I verified it was, I gave the signal to keep moving. I climbed up a rock to get a better view. When making it to the top I hear someone gasp behind me. I see everyone panicking and running back. I look around and see a Medusa. It stared at me with its snake-like tails. I ran to the top of the rock. It didn't go off. I breathe heavily and start to worry. I check if there's any more of them around. Once it was clear again, I waved over to them. They caught up with me, as I search for an exit.
"That was way too close!" Athena whispered.
"I know! But we're almost out. I just need to find a way..." I said. I found a crevice that leads deeper in between the rocks. "Aha! There!"
I jump down and walk towards it. Everyone else does the same.
"Picking up nothing on the radar. We're clear," Felix relieved.
I turn to the exit and right around the corner was something floating. I froze and gasped faintly. The floating object turned around slowly and stared at me. A Medusa was siting here and blocking the exit. It spun around, like the regular Harpies, and shrieked in an ear bleeding tone, so loud that all of us collapsed to the ground. Indigo and Violet tries to pull out their helmets to block their ears as I scream in pain. I had it worse because I'm the only one here that has a heightened sense of hearing.
I can hear the ringing sounds pulsing. I can't hear anything except for that ringing noise. I growl and grunt trying to take my helmet off. My vision was turning red and dark.
I knew it was the end us, but I didn't want to stop here. I'm not giving up. What if I tried that ability mother told me about? The one that she told me to be careful with. But I don't know how to even activate it. I had to try. I concentrated as hard as I can on my Solar abilities. I used every bit of my Light to power the Last Word and my Helmet. I tried so hard, but it no use. I can't manipulate my Light to direct it to a specification. I wasn't taught to do that. So then I was mad at myself. I got so furious that I released pulsing solar energy, as it hums around me. I punch the ground and growled. At the same time, I felt cold rock overwhelming my insides. The Medusa has almost turned me into stone. I stare at the Medusa and felt the helmet burning me inside, feeling the gun melt solar energy. I raise my weapon at the Medusa's red eye. Warlocks say that staring at it makes your death quicker, so you would turn to stone quicker. I knew that, but did I care? No, I didn't. I felt no pain, no fear. I did not fear the Medusa. I made it to fear me. I narrow my eyes at it with such hate.
I pulled the trigger. I let the bullet fly towards the Medusa.
The explosion of the bullet bursts at the Harpy, so large I was blinded. I close my eyes and hope that killed it. I close my eyes to hope to either live another day, or to accept that my life has come to an end.
+ + +
I stand there frozen. Eyes still shut, weapon in the same position, still breathing. The shrieking stopped. My body doesn't feel like cold, hard stone. It's warm and loose. A hand was put on my shoulder.
"It's dead," said Indigo. "It's dead."
I exhale deeply and lower my weapon. I can't believe what I did. I wasn't in relief, yet, I was in anger.
"Crim, your heartbeat is higher than normal, try to relax," Nolan said.
"I'm not gonna promise that," I said, growling my fangs. "Even if that my means my life."
I've changed and became someone else. I can't figure out why I'm like this.
I walk along the exit path, not thinking about anything. The only thing I thought about was about what happened with the Medusa.
At the end of the path, it led us to teleporting platforms, like the ones where Skolas was captured but these ones were quicker.
I waited for everyone so we can all jump at once. We all ran and jumped from platform to platform. We all made it across no problem. However, there was a small problem after. Indigo had to walk sideways against the wall because of the narrow ground to make it across. I saved her a bunch of times and guided her across.
"I am never doing a raid like this again!" She complained. Felix laughed and Carolina laughed softly.
Then in front of us was a narrow pathway. This wasn't no ordinary pathway. According to Ikora and the Warlocks once more, it's a path that the Vex contained the memories of every Guardian and Ghost they captured in time. I saw a few fizzle in and out.
"Awful," Athena quoted her mother. "Just awful stuff."
There was a Vault of Glass symbol, which was a blue triangle, on the door. We stepped closer to take a look. A larger triangle rimmed the first one. Then another rimmed the other two. The door finally opened. When it opened, I was already able to see that the room was split into two time-streams: Past, and Future; the Precursors, and the Descendants.
The present was in form. The middle of the room was an orb. When we all stepped in, the door shut.
"Time is causing our Light to not exist, just like the Oracles," Nolan said to everyone. "But our Light can withstand it if we can gain a vengeance of time: Transversing through time and eliminating the Oracles will allow us to wish our Light to overlap the present and will cause a paradox on the Vex's logic."
"Which means?" I ask, loading my gun with solar energy.
"Our Light will multiply because our 'Present' Light also exists in the Past and Future, which is a glitch to the Vex because it doesn't correspond to their logic."
The middle orb spawns. It spawns the lord of Time. The Time Conflux; Atheon.
"Then let's kill them three times," I smirk.