Darksiders: Age of Creation (Book 3)

Chapter 20: Consequential Actions

Misery sat calmly in the grass, leg twitching in quiet anticipation as all the memories floated back to her. The wars, the blood, her younger twin.
      With a start, Misery jumped right up and looked around.
'Where is Death?! He didn't die too- oh yeah...Damiana knew of him...he must be out there somewhere...' Misery shook her head in the cool breeze and began pacing the grass.
      How did she...die? She remembered seeing her brother's eyes, the distant fear in them. She could remember all of her siblings, all of her comrades....
All the ones she swore to protect the minute she was born....
"What do you mean you LOST HER?!" She heard Custos yell at another.
      Taking in a small breath, Misery's eyes widened in surprise. Carried through the wind was a very distinct smell; it was one of her own. It wasnt as....she couldn't quite place how to explain it. It didnt smell like the siblings she knew, but it was definitely a Nephilim, like Damiana, but more pungent.
      Shaking her head, Misery made her way to the screaming pair, following the smell of her kind.
                   *************
          The Hellhound crouched low in the brush, gingerly sniffing the gently breeze. The creature beside her lowered as well, tilting it's head too and fro as it watched the second horseman trot by on her mount.
"Do we attack?" The monster rattled, voice sounding both male and female.
"No...we only follow..." Shadow mouthed, not looking up to meet the monster's gaze.
Lucifer did the unthinkable, the unfathomable; he made life. With the body of Damiana's deceased sister, Janelle Ivory the Human, and the blood and soul of her on and off lover Zareal.
Although figure was slim and small, about the size of a 16 year old human girl, the creature's left arm had a sword like appendage grafted into it's skin. Its skin, cracked and pale, was dripping with a strange black ooze. Her once vibrant, brown eyes was the color of the darkest night with a small red dot in the center for a pupil. Although it sported Janelle's late attire, a simple bright white tee and black jeans, it was in tatters, exposing certain parts of the stumbling figure's body.
"Hush now, we need to do a sneak attack." Shadow muttered, edging closer.
As if it was a trigger, when the word "attack" left the Hellhound's snou, the construct sprange to life; sprinting full speed towards the dormant horsewoman. Fury's head cracked to the direction of the monster and with ease, quickly dove to the side, banishing her mount.
"What in the hell?" She said to herself, quickly donning her whip in her hand.
The construct shook its head in confusion and lumbered towards the alert horseman. Fury tilted her head and easily rolled out of the way of the monster's blade.
"Die, die, DIE!" The construct cackled angrily, bringing back her blade arm to make another swipe.
Shadow breathed through her nose in agitation, belching out bouts of smoke, and stood up.
"STOP!" She screeched, makimg both Fury and the Construct look back at her.
The construct stopped mid swing and froze in position. Only it's piercing eyes moved to look back at Shadow.
"Shadow...?" Fury tilted her head and thought, sizing the HellHound up and down with curious yellow eyes.
"Down, now!" Shadow stomped her paw into the ground and glaref at the construct, paying no heed to Fury's look of surprise and suspicion.
"But Master, you said attack!" The monster looked at Shadow with disappointed eyes.
"I said we will attack when ready." Shadow barred her teeth.
"If this is a joke of some way, I do not find it humerous." Fury said slowly, glaring at the now snickering hellhound.
The construct looked over at it's master and slowly joined in on the laughter.
"I don't find it humerous that the Creator sits on that throne." Shadow said after a short pause.
"Aw, that's cute, you thought of that all by yourself?" Fury snapped, feeling agitated by both the hidden joke and the lack of sleep she was getting those past couple of days.
"Lucifer, our real lord and savior, will rise again!" The construct laughed.
Fury glanced over at the construct and slowly back over at Shadow. The horseman never really did trust the rogue hellhound. She always knew something was...off about it. The way it spoke, the things it knew...
The way it had been absent for months at a time...
The way it was a darkling, the way darklings can contort their bodies, their image, to look like another...
Another who was almost always present near it...
"It was you wasn't it?" Fury mouthed silently, feeling a familiar sense of rage creep up and swell in her chest.
"It took you long enough, dear." Shadow said, a wicked smile spreading across her smug muzzel.
"Oooohh master, tell her about how our master is going to leave Hell to go kill Abbadon himself!" The construct tittered, clanking its two blades together as if it were clapping like a child.
"What?"
"Thanks...for telling her our plans." Shadow scowled, quickly getting up from het sitting position.
'Where is Damiana?' Fury thought to herself, feeling her heart drop.
Damiana was too impulsive...
First she would hear of this, she would run off to fight her father...
"Don't know where the Princess is, I assume. Judging by the look of your face-"
"I'm going to wipe that smug little look off your face, you- I don't have time for this." Fury hissed and turned to sprint off, summoning her mount as she did.
"Did I do well, master?" The construct asked, looking over at Shadow as Fury's figure became more and more distant.
"You did perfect." Shadow smiled, showing her rows and rows of sharp teeth.
****************
"Crap, crap, crap," Damiana chanted, slipping and flipping over natural obstacles of the Nephilim's claimed forest.
Behind her, howls and whoops of deadly abominations as they closed in.
"Damiana! What did you doooo?!" Vora appeared next to Damiana, easily matching the speeding anti christ's speed.
"I got this!" Damiana smiled widely, bringing up the dangling necklace.
"But why are we being chasssed?!" Vora ducked under a dead tree branch and made a look similar to scowling.
"Calm down, we'll lose them with Betrayal!" Damiana breathed, flicking her hand.
     In a crash of thunder, the Mad Horse slowly emerged from the ground, galloping at the same pace as it's rider. Betrayal looked to the side and smiled with it's eyes in greeting, making a small whinny.
     Smile growing even wider, Damiana ran up the side of a fallen tree, trying not to slip on the slippery moss. Kicking herself from the tree's surface, Damiana sailed through the air and harshly landed in the saddle. With its rider secure in its saddle, Betrayal picked up its speed and lowered its head.
"How will we get back?" Vora said, laughing nervously as she too sat in the saddle.
"Betrayal knows...I think?"
"You think?!"
"She's been traveling through time as well as the shadow realm, I believe...either way we'll be okay."
Betrayal's eyes sparkled with a violent red and stopped at once, roaring and rearing up in agitation.
"Aw geez, not now-"
  Betrayal shook its head and charged forward, opening a large shadow portal as it passed.
"See, she knows!" Damiana grinned.