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After destroying the Scion and fighting off Natla I thought my work would be done. Not so. There were many other mysteries to solve, and given my late arrival, lots of adventures to pursue in a largely random order. Finally, after completing all of the other adventures, it was time to return to the Atlantean Stronghold and destroy the mutants created by Natla once and for all. To that end, I returned with intent to ultimately destroying the remaining inner Hive.

From the top of the structure overlooking where the hive pyramid erupted from the rock I could see the far cliffs ahead, but no way to reach them. On the ground below, in the far distance, I perceived two golden doors, tempting me forwards as the best means of progress. Alas, despite my best investigatory efforts, there was no way to open the doors and although I knew I needed to ascend to reach my goal, the only way forwards was now down into the hive pyramid itself.

Working my way through the pyramid, I dispatched various terrestrial and winged mutants en route, including those showering me with deadly darts and explosive projectiles. Luckily many of them suffered from idiosyncratic perception difficulties – no doubt a result of the mutation process – that made them more likely to follow my shadow than me. Fooling them using acrobatic prowess – dangling from ledges and leaping on top of blocks – and showering them with persistent pistol fire while dodging their own deadly projectiles saw me prevail. Yet this was no easy fight through the chambers and passageways.

As I continued onwards the way became more treacherous still, with lava flows cutting off my path, dangerous precipices to be scaled over lethal spikes and watery pools containing hidden switches that bore the secrets to opening the passageways ahead. Oftentimes I saw glimpses of future dangers, obliquely viewable through the many impenetrable glass and tissue structures of which the pyramid was built. But these ominous forewarnings only drove me harder to complete my journey.

Eventually, working down and then higher again into the rocks above, I found myself overlooking the same pyramid again, but now from the opposite side, from an angle where my goal was visible. Leaping into the unknown, I dived through the darkened hole in the pyramid with only serendipity and an unwavering belief in the existence of a path forwards to trust in. My faith was rewarded, with the pool below deep enough to buffer the impact of my fall. I climbed out to find myself in the inner hive of the mutants, and able to finally finish what had been started all those years ago in the Peruvian Andes searching for the Scion.