Darksiders: The Survivors

Chapter 18 - The Jagged Spire

As Panoptos traversed through the tower, he twiddled his long fingers together as he entered, fearing for his life, but his mission was transparent and there was no turning back for him. No matter where he turned, to flee or pursue, the same fate certainly awaited him.

***

Death knew the establishment inside out as he found in a corner of the frozen cave, was the hidden upward passage. He always thought his siblings underestimated him as he traced the frigid wall with his fingers as Fury and Mathias Dimitrescu caught up on his rear. He then found his answer in mere seconds and grabbed a protruding ledge on the wall and scaled it like a leaping frog. Fury shook her head with her hands on her hips as Death dug his claws into the ice and scaled the wall up to a higher ledge like he had become an animal.

"Well, what are you waiting for sister?" He beckoned, "you're not tired from a fight or have gone soft from this human's touch have you?"

Fury scowled, it was true only moments ago she felt closer to this young human man but it was humiliating to display it in front of her constant sarcastic brother. She refused to answer him and pulled out her whip and swung it upward it grappled the icy wall effortlessly as its sharp metal blades pierced it.

"Hang onto me when I ask you to," she said, turning to Mathias who was already prepared as he stood behind Fury and clutched her by the waist. She blushed unable to fight it and scaled the wall with her whip acting like a ladder. When they reached the top she pulled her weapon free and sheathed it for now.

"You can let go now," she said with a stoic tone when she saw that Mathias was still holding on tight.

"Sorry," he said, obeying and they continued forward with Death leading the way.

The caverns twisted and turned in every direction but it meant nothing to Death so Fury refrained from questioning if they were going in the right direction. She had not said anything to Mathias since he risked his life for her, her feelings bottled inside of her waiting to burst. Is it love, she wondered as they followed Death up a spiral path with stairs.

No how could it be? It makes me look weak! She had seen humans express affection for each other during her days of watching over them, they would hug, kiss, and retreat to places at night to do more than that. She glanced at Mathias who was focused on following Death's path up the staircase.

"And he said there were no stairs," she muttered,

Death, showing evident contempt for his sister's chatter behind his back had ears like a bat. "For your information sister, I misjudged since I last was here. You could say the last time I scaled this tower was quite an acrobatic experience. I have not seen this stairwell before. Consider it perfect timing as this human does not possess the same strength and dexterity as you and I,"

"My name is Mathias," the young man interjected,

"Whatever Death and you heard him, use his name when you refer to him. Don't forget he's under my protection," Fury added vexingly,

Death chuckled, unfazed by his sister's willingness to stand up to him, "Very well, have it your way,"

Dust then came fluttering down to his master and landed on his arm, interrupting the conversation as the stairs reached their conclusion.

"What is it Dust? We're not there yet, we still have further to traverse,"

A wide circular frozen antechamber loomed before them through the great archway that they passed through. Tunnels to the left and right stretched to parts unknown and the ceiling was so high it seemed to vanish into a dark frozen void, but Death could point out little specks at the fair top that could be none other than giant icicles. Across from them loomed a set of double doors constructed from the ice that seemed thicker than the walls. Engravings embellished them with glyphs that only Death would identify immediately. Fury had her eyes on the two frozen stone statues on each side of the doors. They resembled angels kneeling on their respective pedestals and both donned long robes with hoods. However, the angel statue to the left was clasping a great red crystal sword with both hands, while the other had its arms open as if awaiting something to be placed before it.