Hello, everybody, here's part 57 of Into the Hellmouth! Also, we have officially broken 60K words!! This is literally the longest thing that I have every written (the previous record holder was 52K or something like that). Thank you all for your support on this story. It's been a pleasure to write it. Here's [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/213760884?showBanned=0&path=0]part 56 [/url]if you missed it, or, if you're looking for a different part, here's the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/209303839?showBanned=0&path=0]master post![/url]. As usual, if you liked it, give it a bump, and I'll get more out soon! Stay classy, Guardians! After wandering through the caverns, Eris eventually came to a series of metal rooms. The Hive’s style of architecture didn’t make the rooms any less foreboding than the other chambers that she’d wandered, but it was a welcome change from the rocky caverns she’d grown used to. It didn’t take Eris long to figure out what the rooms were used for. With all the half-assembled boomers and shredders lining the walls, it was fairly obvious that it was where the Hive manufactured at least some of their many weapons. Eris grabbed one of the half-assembled boomers. It was missing it’s purple center, as well as several other mechanisms that she couldn’t identify. “How many people will you kill?” she asked. How many Guardians? she wondered. She carefully set the boomer back down on its’ shelf, and walked through a doorway. However, this room was different than the first. In place of unfinished weapons, various tools whose purposes she could not identify adorned the walls. And in the center of the room, there was a small platform, upon which she could see two weapons. Guardian weapons. Eris moved in closer. The Hive appeared to have taken their own spin on the two guns - their frames were a black, pitted metal, which curved back into sharp fins - but their inner workings were clearly the work of a Tower Gunsmith. One was clearly a fusion rifle, and the other appeared to be some sort of auto-rifle. A series of strange objects were scattered around the table, some of them glowing. Eris reached for one of the objects, but then hastily retreated when she heard noise coming from a nearby room. Cautiously, she peaked around a corner, and saw two wizards - coming straight for her! “Shit!” she said. Eris quickly ducked into a nearby alcove, only to find that it was a dead end. She turned back, only to see that the wizards had already entered the room. Grimacing, Eris retreated as far back into the alcove as she could manage, and curled into a ball, praying that the wizards wouldn’t notice her. Fortunately, they seemed to preoccupied with the weapons to notice her. Soon, the two wizards began to speak. And, to Eris’s surprise, she could understand them. “How goes your work, sister?” said one, with a voice as soft as sandpaper. “As well as it can be hoped,” replied the other. “The weapons of the light. . . they seem so simple, yet so complex at once.” “Hm,” said the first. “Keep up the work, sister. Your weapons may soon be needed.” The other wizard paused. “What do you mean?” “You heard of Aluk-Hul’s venture to the Argian system?” “Of course, sister,” she said. “What of it?” “His fleet has stopped responding,” the first wizard said. “It seems that the Argians may be a bigger problem than we thought.” “That is troubling indeed,” said the second wizard. Just then, Eris felt a tremor pass through her body. She grasped at the origin point, and felt Toland’s orb. And in that moment, she knew. Somehow, she just knew. The wizards seemed to sense something as well. They went rigid, and one of them blinked. “It seems as though the Servant of the Light has met it’s end,” said the second wizard. “Yes, it does,” said the first. She drew in a sharp intake of breath. “I would have thought that the Heart would have stripped more from him.” Eriana closed her eyes. So, her feelings hadn’t lied. Omar was, at last, dead. “Be at peace, my friend,” she whispered. The first wizard seemed to have heard her. “What was that?” it said. The second wizard looked confused. “What was what?” it replied. The first wizard started in the direction of the alcove. “I heard something,” it said. “We have an -“ With a shout, Eris launched herself out of the alcove, knife in hand. She stabbed the wizard in its’ torso, and hit it with enough force to send it sprawling against the platform. The second wizard hissed, and raised it’s hands, but Eris was too fast for it. She jumped, arms outstretched, and tore into the wizard’s arm, slicing the limb open. Then, she dropped to the ground. Screeching, the wizard flew out of the room before she could attack it again. Eris turned back to the first wizard, which was trying to get up from the floor. Eris jumped onto the platform, knife in hand. Grimacing, she stood astride the wizard, and stabbed it in the chest. The wizard screamed in pain. Eris pulled the knife out, and stabbed it again. Pulled it out, and stabbed again. Pulled it out, stabbed again. She began to feel stronger, as though the wizard’s pain was aiding her ailing limbs. All the while, Toland’s orb glowed. When she’d stabbed it for the tenth time, the wizard’s wails were reduced to dry rasps. By the fifteenth, the last of it’s life leaked from it’s body. But Eris didn’t stop. She continued to stab the creature with a raging fury, until at last she collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Eris lay panting on the floor for several minutes, slowly catching her breath. When she finally stood up, she felt. . . reinvigorated. She looked over at the corpse, and was surprised to find that it appeared. . . drained, almost. As though it had been dead for five years, and not five minutes. Eris shook her head, and grabbed the knife from the floor. She looked around, and began to pick up the tools and weapons that were scattered on the table. She spotted the fusion rifle, and grabbed that as well. Suddenly, she heard the screams of the Hive - coming straight for her. Cursing, Eris ran from the room, and descended through the tunnels further into the Hellmouth. Half an hour later, Omnigul looked down at the wizard’s corpse. The knife wounds were the obvious cause of death, but she could not account for the body’s desiccated appearance. She turned towards the other wizard. “What did you say did this?” she asked. The wizard gripped her limp arm with her sole functioning hand. “I didn’t see,” she said. “It attacked so fast.” “And you fled, leaving your companion to die at the hands of this . . . thing,” Omnigul said. “My arm was in tatters!” the wizard protested. “If I hadn’t fled, it would have killed me there and then!” “Quite right,” Omnigul said. “Instead, you shall die here and now.” And with that, she reached out, and slit the wizard’s throat with one of her claws. The wizard collapsed to the floor, clutching the body wound. Omnigul looked down on the twitching corpse. “Such a waste,” she hissed. She turned towards the other Hive in the room, and nodded to a pair of knights. “Take her away,” she said. Then, she turned towards the room. One of the weapons that the wizard had been working on lay on the floor. Omnigul looked over too one of the knights - a Blade, to be precise. “You!” she said. “Clean out this trash!” And with that, she left the room. The Blade of Crota looked over his shoulder as the two knights slowly dragged the dead wizard away. Then, he looked down at the gun in front of him, and picked it up. He looked around. If it was garbage, he supposed that no one would mind if he kept it. The Blade grabbed the rifle, and clipped it to his waist. Then, he cleaned up the rest of the room. Edit[url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/215132432]: Part 58[/url]