[i]Chapter Twenty Two: The Well Part Five[/i] “Everyone!” it suddenly clicked, “Those are called Fanatics! Don’t let them or their radiolaria touch you!” “Radio what-what?” Hunter scoffed. “The liquid in their stomachs,” I revised, “Its green instead of white, right? Don’t touch it.” “Right,” Warlock acknowledged, “Stay away from the glowy pop bots.” Several snickers sounded over the channel. The mood, however, did not stay so light as the battle raged on. The Vex did not ease up even for a moment, and although the Fanatics’ explosions would cause harm to their own allies, they were still far more dangerous to us. A few times Hunter had to fall back to me until we could clear enough Vex for him to move back up to the tunnel mouth again. Only once did a Vex make it past him; a Harpie, slipping by while he was grappling with a Minotaur and then cruising around a block of cover so I couldn’t shoot it. It reached the conflux and stopped, tilting its eye down at the ground and becoming surrounded in a white glow, but I tore it apart before anything more could happen. Eventually, the assault stopped again. The Templar’s quaking cry filled the silence again, and a flash of light announced the return of the first conflux. But the other two remained where they were. “Sonuva bagel,” Drew grumbled. “I think everyone should stay put,” Guardian’s Ghost suggested, “Any other positioning will make it easier for the Vex to reach the confluxes.” “Tell us something we don’t know, scrap ball,” Sierra snapped, irritated with this endless cycle. Again the Vex came forth, pouring into the Templar’s Well by tunnel and teleportation. Hunter was pushed back almost right away by a Minotaur backed with Harpies, but I joined him with my fusion rifle and he reasserted his position. This time the loud cracks of detonating Fanatics filled the air, and their green glow never left the cavern. I even ended up shooting several of them as they quickly marched out at Hunter. “Drew! There! And one th-LOOK OUT!” Sally’s cries suddenly filled the channel. “What happened?” I asked worriedly. “A Fanatic got close to Drew and blew up, but he’s fine,” Guardian’s Ghost reported. “Why are there so many of these little pansies sprouting over here?!” Drew shouted, and I heard the boom of his rocket launcher across the platform, “This goo is disgusting!” “It’s on you?!” I panicked. “Yeah man, but it’s fine,” Drew dismissed, “Everything’s just kinda wavy lookin’ and kinda green.” “Hunter, I’m going to Drew,” I alerted my comrade, then bolted down the ramp to Guardian and across the top of the steps to Drew. He didn’t stop shooting as I got behind him and started inspecting the radiolaria. The splatters only covered a few spots of his armor, but his entire body was wreathed in glowing green mist. I had no idea what to do. Robotic hums filled the air, and it took me a moment to realize that the Templar was speaking again, only this time it was a series of different pitches. “William,” Rush sounded panicked, “Ritual of Negation.” “No no no!” I fretted, racking my brain for a solution. Drew was about to be erased from time by the Templar. My eyes fell on the pool of Light, surrounded by a force of Fanatics and Goblins that never stopped coming. The Templar’s eye stared directly ahead of itself, no longer focused on the Guardians scrambling below it. “Drew, we’re going,” I grabbed the Striker by the forearm and dragged him out behind me, summoning my shotgun to my hands. With Drew and Guardian shooting down the Vex to my sides, I charged down the middle of the stairs, pumping rounds into one Vex at a time. Close to the bottom, the gun clicked empty. With a flick of my arm I spun the shotgun in my hand so I was holding it by the barrel and slammed it into a Fanatic, launching it into the wall. At the same time I flung a grenade from my left hand that burst into a sphere of swirling Void energy right in front of the pool of Light, clearing the enemies in front of it. Taking Drew by the collar for just a moment to get him going, I led him down the last few steps and together we jumped through my heatless fire and into the Light. I suddenly felt warm and clean standing inside of the pool, but not necessarily empowered or invigorated. Looking over to Drew, I saw that the gaseous shroud that had surrounded him was gone, and even the Mind Fluid splatters were gone. I flinched when an energy bolt hit my side, returning me to the problem at hand, and together Drew and I leapt out of the pool of Light and ascended the stairs. Behind us, the Templar’s voice finished its monologue, only to replaced a moment later by a roar that rang with anger. Just in time to avoid the raging blasts of the Templar, Drew made it to cover and I ran around the corner and up the ramp where the giant Vex couldn’t see. I found Hunter pushed back to the conflux with a force of Vex led by a Minotaur trying to advance on him. Springing into the air, I destroyed a dozen Vex with a furious Nova Bomb flung from my hand. Hunter quickly advanced, knowing that I didn’t need help to take my place at the conflux. The conflict raged on for a time, and although there were several times when someone needed to be revived and Hunter and Guardian each had to take a turn cleansing themselves in the pool of Light, no one was killed permanently or erased. Eventually, all fell still once more. All three confluxes vanished, and no more appeared. Trusting Hunter to watch my back, I snuck up to where the giant platform we were on connected to the wall and peered around a corner directly to the side of the Templar. It hovered there for a moment, then emitted yet another of its soulless bellows and disappeared in a flash of white. We all froze, tensely awaiting its reappearance. “It’s gone?” Drew questioned, breaking the silence. “Can’t be,” I reasoned, “The Vex wouldn’t give up on killing us unless they were beaten, and if they were beaten the door would’ve opened.” “So what ha-?” Rush began to ask, but was cut off as a single, clear note like that of a bell rang through the air. A second sounded, this time from a different source. Drew and Sierra yelped at this one, and I noticed yellow light shining on the Vex structuring around them that disappeared after a moment. A third chime came, and I saw the yellow glow flash on and off near where Warlock was. Then a forth sounded right next to me and I flipped around, squinting into the sudden bright yellow light of a Vex construct in the form of a ball of conflux grid bits. It disappeared as quickly as it came, and three more appeared one at a time in different spots around the platform before the quiet returned. “What were those?” Warlock asked. “If I had to guess…” I readied my rifle and slowly scanned the area around me as I spoke, “The Oracles.” Pt4: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/249614288/0/0 Pt6: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/249614385/0/0 ToC: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0