Rise Of Hades' Hellborn: Trumpets Of The Damned

The Gate Beneath The Ice

Siberia did not welcome them. The transport plane rumbled to a stop on the snow-blasted ridge, its steel frame groaning from the subzero temperatures.

Wind howled across the tundra like a dying god, lashing their suits with powder-fine snow. Myles stepped off the ramp first, the wind catching the hem of his charcoal trench coat. The cold bit like razors, but he barely flinched.

Anna followed, her visor scanning the endless expanse of white. Jack, Melissa, Leo, and Alex disembarked in quick succession, their petanium-loaded weapons secured and eyes sharp.

"Welcome to hell frozen over," Jack muttered, hoisting his rifle. "So where's our gate to damnation?"

Anna activated her tracker. "Coordinates lead us through that ravine. Half a klick east. No signs of life, but there’s residual heat buried beneath the ice crust. Something’s down there."

They moved in tight formation. Snow crunched beneath their boots. Above, the sky was a bruised gray, low and oppressive. Myles walked slightly ahead, the obsidian blade sheathed across his back whispering power through the air. No suppressors this time. No chains. Just purpose.

Alex, the bomber, gave him a sidelong glance. "So... no Paragon ammo for you?"

Myles smiled faintly. "Don't need it."

"Big talk," Leo grunted. "Let’s hope you back it up."

Jack whistled low. "Seriously though, you’re the only one out here lookin’ like a mafia boss. No armor, no neural visor. Just coat and steel. What's the story?"

Myles didn’t stop walking. "I'm not used to needing backup."

"Humble too," Jack said with a grin.

Anna silenced them with a gesture. Her visor blinked red. “We’re close.”

They reached the fissure.

It yawned beneath them like a scar on the earth, black and jagged. The ice had cracked open around the ancient structure below—stone columns inscribed with demonic sigils, faintly glowing beneath layers of hoarfrost.

Melissa stepped forward, fingers flying over her wrist pad. "These readings are off the charts. The gate isn’t dormant—it’s pulsing. Like a heartbeat."

"Then let's not wait for it to wake up," Anna said. "Jack, Leo—secure the perimeter. Alex, with me on the charge. Myles... you're point."

Myles stepped to the edge of the descent path carved into the frost. The moment his boot touched the ancient stone, the air shifted.

A low groan trembled through the ice.

As they descended into the cavern, the temperature dropped even further. Faint purple mist clung to the walls, curling like smoke from unseen wounds. Frost crusted the carved runes that lined the spiral path down.

They reached the gate.

Two towering doors stood embedded in a black stone archway, jagged and veined with glowing red cracks. In its center was the seal—seven horns curling around a burning gate.

"That’s it," Melissa breathed. "That’s Trumpet II."

Anna drew her tech bow, unfolding it with a hiss of compressed energy. Her quiver flickered as arrowheads formed from nano-matter, each laced with liquified petanium.

"No sudden moves," she said. "We breach, recon, and exfil if it’s unstable. Got it?"

But Myles was already walking toward the gate.

The symbols flared.

The stone vibrated.

And with a hiss like a thousand screams, the doors began to open.

From the darkness beyond, a heatless wind swept across them. It reeked of ash and ozone. Inside, the walls were made of obsidian veined with glowing crimson, the floor scorched and cracked. And waiting in the center of the hall...

The Guardian.

It rose from the center of a demonic circle, eight feet tall and forged from blackened bone and charred flesh. Four arms. Two blades made of shadow. No eyes—just a burning sigil in its chest like a furnace.

"HOSTILE!" Anna shouted.

Jack opened fire first, petanium rounds slamming into the creature’s limbs. Leo flanked left, firing at the joint seams. Alex dropped a detonation charge near its base.

The Guardian barely flinched.

It lunged.

Its blades struck the ground where Jack had been standing a second earlier, shattering the stone like glass. Anna loosed three arrows in quick succession—one pierced the creature’s shoulder, another embedded in its chest, and the last burst mid-air in a crackle of holy plasma.

Still it charged.

Melissa triggered a kinetic barrier as Leo was knocked backward, absorbing the brunt of the blow. Alex’s charge detonated, blowing out one of the Guardian’s knees.

Then Myles moved.

In a blur of shadow and motion, he vaulted over the rubble, unsheathing the Obsidian Requiem in a single sweep.

The blade sang.

A crescendo of metallic hum as black fire licked along the edge.

Myles slid under the Guardian’s swing, rising with a diagonal slash that severed one of its arms at the elbow. Black ichor sprayed the wall, hissing as it hit the floor.

The creature roared.

It swung again, but Myles caught the blade with the flat of his sword, pivoted, and fired his pistol point.