Reincarnated Into Destiny Universe - Volume 1 Chapter 33 Witch Hunt

(Day 167)

“A mission for Eris, concerning the Motes of Darkness? What exactly is this mission then?” Ikora asked.

“I need her to infiltrate the various Wizards of the Helmouth, from the weakest to the strongest, and spy on their rituals and incantations. I need her to gather as much information as possible about how their rituals are performed and any other knowledge she can obtain concerning Hive magic.” Isaac responded.

“I see. That would make sense considering our current circ.u.mstances but your right about her not liking this. Actually, the more I think about it the more I’m certain that, unless I convince her myself, she’s not likely to comply. You should let me speak with her about this, Isaac. Even if it’s me, I’m not certain of my success but if she knows it’s a request from you she’s likely to not even take it seriously.”

“Is that so…? Well, I suppose I’ll leave it to you then, Ikora. If you think that’s the best way to get it done, I’ll take your word for it. Let her know that she can rely on my team for backup, if it would make her feel better about it. We could go to the Summoning Pits and do some slaughtering, while she’s down there. That way we would be close by, if anything happened.”

“That’s not a bad idea and it may make her more comfortable with the proposition. Thank you, Isaac, for sharing this with me. I’ll do my best to talk Eris into cooperating, for now however, I think it’s best if you leave. Eris will be here soon and she is quite intuitive. Let’s not give her any reason to suspect us.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right. Alright then, in that case, I’ll see you when I see you, Ikora.” Isaac said, as he promptly left the command room and returned to the Potential Energy Meditation Chamber.

———-

(Day 169)

Isaac was trying to increase his Potential Energy Attunement to even further, after having broken through to level three yesterday.

“It’s Ikora.” Wraitheon informed Isaac, of the incoming call, rousing him from his meditations. “Should I put her through?”

“Absolutely. It’s probably about Eris, after all.” Isaac responded.

“Good morning, Isaac. I hope you are well.” Ikora greeted him.

“I am well, Ikora, thank you. Was there something that you needed?”

“There is, actually. I’ve been speaking with Eris Morn, about a special mission I have for her. She, however, isn’t too keen on it. I can’t divulge too many details but I was hoping you and your fireteam could go into the Summoning Pits, as I know you’re accustomed to that, and just basically be on active standby. Just go there and do what you normally do and, if Eris runs into any trouble while on her mission, she can signal you, with the comms device you’ve already connected with, and then you can go to her location to back her up. She says that she’s willing to go but only if she has your team backing her up.  You should know, however, that this mission will take at least a couple of weeks to complete. So what do you say, Isaac?”

“Hmmm…it sounds interesting. Sure, I’ll help out with this. When exactly is this mission? I’ll need time to let the others know.”

“Ahh, thank you, Isaac. See there, Eris, Isaac and his team will be there to back you up, so you’ve nothing to worry about. As for the mission, Isaac, it’s not going to start, until tomorrow morning so you’ve got plenty of time.”

“Nice! In that case, I’ll talk to you tomorrow morning. I’m off to let the others know. Bye, Ikora. Bye, Eris.” Isaac offered, as he disconnected and began contacting his teammates.

———-

(Day 170)

Isaac and his team had already taken separate routes into the Helmouth. Koren and Daniel entered via the Temple of Crota and Laurel and Bravo entered via the Hall of Wisdom. Isaac and Ferra entered via the Gatehouse. After clearing out their respective starting areas, each team began making their way towards the Circle of Bones.

As the six man fireteam continued their diligent slaughter, Eris crept into the Temple of Crota and began her search for Hive Wizards practicing their magic.

Making sure she stayed within the shadows, as she had done in the aftermath of that fateful mission, Eris took full advantage of the empty corridors and moved quietly but quickly from corridor to corridor, room to room looking for Wizards working their dark magic.

Not too long before the two teams met up at the Circle of Bones, Eris entered a circular chamber with a domed ceiling close to twice the size of the command room. In the center of the room, there was a knee high circular platform with an asterisk shaped pillar in the middle. The pillar was about eighteen inches wide and rose approximately four feet off the pedestal. The top of the pillar ended in a slant, as if it were cut off at a forty five degree angle.

What Eris saw inside a groove within that slant and at the base of the pillar made her stop dead in her tracks. A mixture of fear, hatred, and rage surged within her, as thoughts of her departed comrade’s ghastly fates flashed inside her mind. She forced herself to calm down and sink back into the shadows, before the attendant Wizards caught wind of her.

In the middle of the pillar’s slanted top inside a groove that seemed as if it were cut especially to fit its occupant, there laid a ghost being drained of its Light, as its Guardian laid Lightless and lifeless at the pillar’s base. Using the comms device given to her by Ikora, she immediately sent a Haste Signal to Isaac.

The attendant Wizards continued incanting and waving, as Eris tried to suppress the tumult of emotions that kept threatening her composure. She was here on a mission and, as much as she longed to lash out, she knew that she would only end up being killed or probably worse, if she were to do so.

Suppressing that constant tide of emotions, Eris focused as best she could on the Wizard’s actions and the magic it was wielding. As she tracked the behavior and characteristics of the magical energy filling the room, she noticed that the Wizard’s movements were in perfect synch with its incantations. This synchronization created the appearance of some type of song and dance routine. If she were not so thoroughly incensed by the mere thought of the Hive’s existence and if the nature of everything the Hive strove for weren’t so insidious and destructive, it might’ve even been called pleasant.

———-

(Day 169)

“Goodmorning, Eris. How did your attunement training go yesterday?” Ikora asked.

“It seems your hunch was right, Ikora. The very limited power that I have, in this twisted and tainted state, seems to be very similar to the energy in that room. While I can no longer even detect the other elements, by the end of the day, I could just barely sense that energy and I suspect, if I had a month or more, I may even be able to attune myself to it. I’m not entirely sure how that’s possible, after being drained of all of my Light, but, if the magic wielded by the Wizard’s of the Hive is indeed a counterpart to it, then studying their magic could very well yield promising options for Potential Energy’s future applications.” Eris confirmed.

“That’s wonderful news, Eris! Absolutely wonderful! So is that a yes on the mission then? I won’t send you in there alone, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“…I will go…but only under one condition. I don’t want just any backup. I want Isaac and his entire six man fireteam. If I can’t get all six of them down there with me, you can forget about it.”

“Done and done, Eris! As a matter of fact, I’ll contact Isaac right now and let him know. Also, you’ll need this, while you’re down there.” Ikora responded, as she handed Eris the same communication device she had used during Isaac’s previous missions.

———-

(Day 170)

As Fireteam Isaac was making their way towards the Circle of Bones to meet up with the others, Isaac suddenly received one of the preset signals they had discussed before starting the mission. It was the Haste Signal, which indicated that the threat was imminent but not overwhelming.

Immediately after realizing which signal had been sent he addressed Daniel. “Daniel, Eris is trouble. Immediately head back the way we came as fast as you can. I’m sending OneShot the coordinates right now.”

Daniel didn’t respond or waste any time. He immediately rushed towards the direction they had just come from and turned the speed up to eleven. Flying past all of the familiar terrain at a terrifying speed, he reached the corridor that Eris had turned down sprinted towards the room OneShot had indicated. Although the trip from the Temple of Crota’s entrance all the way to Isaac and Koren’s position had taken the better part of two hours to cross, Daniel had crossed nearly half that distance in less than ten minutes.

Arriving at the room in which Eris was hiding, Daniel decided to keep it simple and summoned a Golden Gun. Stepping into the room, Daniel took less than a second to size up the situation. In a move very similar to one of Cayde’s performances during the Red War, he expertly dispatched all three of the Wizards with three fluid movements that looked like only one.

OneShot also quickly adjusted to the situation, moving towards the dying ghost to retrieve its memories, as soon as Daniel began firing. OneShot finished his scans, as Eris finally emerged from the shadows walked towards the platform.

“Isaac, we’re good to go on this end, bud. The enemies weren’t anything serious but, sadly, it looks these Wizards grabbed themselves a lone Hunter and had already drained him. We got here just in time to get his ghost’s memories.” Daniel reported.

“Well, damn!…Alright, I’ll report this to Ikora. Eris, are you good to keep going? Do you have anything to report?” Isaac asked.

“Yes. I shall carry on and, though I have some hunches at the moment, I don’t have anything reliable to report.”

“In that case, Daniel, come on back and well continue on to the Summoning Pits, once you arrive. Let us know if you need anything else, Eris.”

“Of course.” She responded, as she dropped the connection and steeled herself for the next encounter.

Daniel had already left the room and so Eris examined all of the objects and materials in the room, made notes of their possible identity and applications, and then started the search for her next subject.

Eris continued creeping through the seemingly endless corridors spying on Hive rituals, for hours on end. Nearly sixteen hours after she had first entered the Temple of Crota, Eris had very nearly arrived at the Circle of Bones. She had studied the magic of ten Wizards and was currently looking for another, after which she planned to find a semi-safe place to hideout and get some sleep.

As she made her way to her current location she had encountered a total of three more unfortunate Guardians that had succ.u.mbed to the Hive’s dark rituals. The other Wizards she encountered had all been summoning a variety of abominations, to inflate the numbers of their army.

Noticing an unusual amount of activity from the numerous Hive in the room she was approaching, Eris creeped stealthily through the shadows, until she had she could discern what was happening inside.

This room was already unusual as it was at the end of a corridor. Up until now, no matter how far she traveled down any of the corridors she had never caught even a glimpse of an end to any of them. Yet, here she was at the end of a corridor and the door she was currently peeking through was comparable to the door that separates The Gatehouse from the Circle of Bones, where the Sword of Crota had been.

The inside of the room was not entirely dissimilar from the room that Phogoth had occupied. It was only about half the size but was filled with Cursed Thralls all lined up around the edges of the room. In the center of the room were six Wizards all hovering evenly spaced around a green summoning circle. The summoning circle was composed of a dense green energy that formed a variety of geometric patterns and runes inside of the circle.

Eris resumed her well rehearsed observational position, as regular Thralls were running around beneath the Wizards carrying various ritual materials and placing them precisely within the summoning circle.

Once all of the ritual materials had been put in their place, the regular Thralls all prostrated themselves worshipfully around and behind the Wizards. The Wizard’s incarnation which had been slow and droning, up until this point, gradually changed to a much faster cadence as the words themselves were also altered.

As the incantation was altered, the materials within the ritual circle gradually began to turn to dust as if they were being evaporated. The dust from the materials began swirling within the circle as they rose up into a spiralling column.

Once all of the materials had been assimilated into the swirling dust column, Cursed Thralls began running into the ritual circle and being absorbed into the column. The addition of the Thrall sacrifices added a green column of swirling fluorescent fluid. With the two columns spiraling around each other, the Cursed Thralls continued sacrificing themselves, until a total of ten had offered themselves to the ritual.

The Wizard’s incantations slowed down slightly, after the Thralls were assimilated. With yet another change of the incantation’s cadence, the spiraling columns of black dust and green fluorescent fluid slowly began merging together. They formed an amorphous amalgam that, under the Wizard’s direction, began to gradually take on a new permanent form.

As different parts of the amalgam were finalized and no longer changed shape, a familiar outline slowly began to emerge. Eris was stunned when she realized what was being created. ‘My God! What is that?! Please, don’t let that be what I think it is?’

The Wizard’s creation was finally completed and a glowing Wizard shaped Hive with green fluorescent eyes and a green fluorescent patchwork of tendon-like energy covering its chitinous exterior hovered in the middle of the ritual circle. The Cursed Wizard moved out of the ritual circle and made its way over to a vacancy the formation of Cursed Thralls had created for it.

Its left hand, glowing with green energy, was raised into the air as a green tinted fog appeared around the Cursed Wizard and ten Cursed Thralls appeared from within that fog.

With the vacancy in the formation now refilled and the Cursed Wizard hovering over its Cursed Thralls, the regular Thralls began running through the gaps in the formation, once more. Dipping into side rooms, grabbing ritual materials, and carrying them back to the circle the process was beginning once again.

After witnessing this newly created Hive abomination being born right before her eyes, Eris wasn’t sure what to feel. She was torn between fear, rage, and happiness. The fear was quickly suppressed, however, by the assurance of having Isaac’s fireteam so close by. The rage was simply her usual disgust and loathing for the Hive’s existence that had flared up, upon seeing the Hive progressing despite all of their efforts.

This entire situation, she quickly realized, could’ve been much worse. ‘Being here at this moment to bear witness to the Hive’s new weapon, before they’ve had a chance to use them against us, is certainly going to reduce their effectiveness. I need to report this to Ikora as soon as possible.’ Eris thought, as she crept stealthily as possibly out the room, after sending a Haste Signal.