People said conflux but you said smaller. Then people said witches from the Hive and ogres/thrall. I'm gonna say (my second guess) the lanterns in he first part of Crotas End. When we get close they turn volatile and explode. They're an instrument of the hives own destruction since the Hive made them. And I believe the paragraph said something about a path of non creation. The path of lanterns create LIGHT to lift the weight of darkness but doesn't actually create life. Dream of teeth, well there skeletons everywhere in the maze so you see tons of teeth indirectly. You wipe the darkness and if you fail your wipe the Fireteam.