Darksiders: Light In Darkness (Fourth Book)

Chapter 19: Honoring the Dishonored

Pulling herself into the smooth leather saddle, Damiana shifted uneasily from side to side, mind flooding with questions.
'Armageddon Field?' One question seemed to float to the surface of her conscience.
The Antichrist stared up at the blood red sky, matching red eyes dulling in deep thought.
"AntiChrist."
Damiana stared down past Glory's flickering mane and into the taunting eyes of a familiar face.
"Shadow..!" She raised an eyebrow in confusion as the Hellhound smiled devilishly up at her.
"I'm flattered you remembered me,"
Taking Genesis from it's golden scabbard, Damiana pointed the legendary blade downward, glaring down at the smug hellhound.
"What're you doing here?" Damiana hissed, forcing her mare to walk backwards away from the wicked being.
"Oh I'm just here on, how you say, business." Shadow replied, sitting down on her haunches.
"Speak plainly, demon." She growled, feeling a certain emotion rise in her chest.
Was it...fear? No, it can't be fear. She was angry. Here was the traitorous bitch, literally a female dog, laughing at Damiana. She trusted the animal, she let the animal accompany her for years and blindly followed it like it was a mother to her.
Just for it to betray her in the end...
"You killed the archangels for Lucifer, for Exitium." Damiana said slowly, following Shadow with her eyes as the hellhound began to circle her.
"Guilty as charged." Shadow snickered, watching Damiana closely.
"You betrayed me."
"I prefer the term 'help', Princess. I helped you, you just didn't follow my lead." Shadow snapped.
"Help?!! You call that help?!?"
"Why follow the horsemen's lead?? Why turn your back on your true family for a false one?!"
"They ARE my family." Damiana furrowed her brow.
Shadow stared at Damiana for a few moments and began gaffing loudly without a care in the world. With each passing disgusting chuckle, Damiana could feel the blood rush from her hands as she gripped the smooth leather handle of her sword.
"They? The horsemen? HA!"
"You- I don't have time for you, I need to go defeat Lucifer!" Damiana turned Glory around and shifted in the saddle.
"Oh but of course! I have something to help you on your small journey."
"...How stupid do you take me??" Damiana yelled over her shoulder.
"I guess not as stupid as I originally thought. Wait up!" Shadow yipped, running up to Glory's heels.
Damiana rolled her eyes and urged Glory to go faster, deciding to deal with the hellhound after she won the battle. When she heard a loud crack, Damiana looked lazily over her shoulder once again. A few feet away was...Fury? In an instant, the second horseman's fiery whip wrapped itself around Damiana's shoulders and with a mighty pull from its wielder, the fifth horseman flew backwards from her saddle.
Glory roared and reared up, confused by the sudden relief of weight on its back. Damiana blinked and struggled to free herself from the whip.
"Aw," Damiana heard Fury's voice.
"Stuck?" 'Fury' stepped over Damiana and leaned over her.
Her purple eyes glinted brightly in absolute bloodlust as her purple lips peeled upwards in a menacing grin.
"Fury...?" Damiana raised an eyebrow.
"I can be Fury, or Strife," in a mess of shadows, the being turned itself into the third horseman, almost identical...
Except for the eyes...
"War," the red hooded horseman of chaos stared down at Damiana, still wearing the uncharacteristic grin as before.
"And even your beloved Death." The first horseman appeared before Damiana, usually emotionless eyes now lit a bright with excitement.
"...it was you that went to attack Abbadon."
"And I would've succeeded too, if you hadn't been there." Shadow said under her breath, reaching down to grasp Damiana's red amulet.
"Ah...Good, you still wear this."
Before Damina could utter another word, Shadow whispered many phrases, each word laced with forbidden magic as they rolled off her treacherous tongue. With every incantation she muttered, the amulet turned from a deep crimson red to a forest green. Damiana blinked and struggled more against the whip. Shadow smiled and crushed the glass amulet in her strong hands, releasing the gas and liquid like substance within it.
"Pity. I rather liked your company." Was all she said before smothering Damiana with the odd green material.
        Damiana struggled and breathed some of the vile substance in. Coughing, Damiana brought her leg back and rammed her steel heel into Shadow's chest, propelling the disguised hellhound back a few feet.
"The fuck?!" Damiana wheezed, pulling herself up.
       Tearing the whip from her body, Damiana coughed and struggled to her feet, barely able to see a few feet in front of her. Shadow eased up from the grass and began to laugh quietly. After a few minutes, the small laughs began to trumpet across the quiet desolate plains in loud, rapturous glee.
"HA! I did it! Oh you're too late!" Shadow sang, getting up to her feet.
"What're you talking about?" Damiana shook her head.
"Oh you'll see!"
     Damiana glared at Shadow and limped back over to Glory, who shared the same glare with its rider.
"Let's go." She mumbled, heaving herself into the leather saddle, feeling oddly drowsy.
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      Charging forward, Glory whinnied and snorted, uncomfortable by the swirling sand winds.
"Are you sure you know?"
"Of course! Such little faith in me, rider." Glory slowed down to a canter.
    Ahead of them was already the beginning of a grand battle of the centuries to come. Angel fought and demon and demon fought against angel in a turmoil of mass death and unrelenting fury. Feathers and blood stained the sands of the battlefield as Glory traveled past the blood and carnage. Damiana scanned the scene around her, twisting and turning in the saddle to sideswipe the demonic hordes as they charged her. The engravings scattered across Genesis glowed a lemon yellow, channeling its wielder's excitement into raw power within the blade.
      Slashing through the legion of demons with ease thanks to Glory's fiery stomps and lightning fueled charges, Damiana spotted the four horsemen on top of a cliff, all staring down at the bloodbath below them. Raising an eyebrow, Damiana turned Glory around and raced towards her family, ignoring the obvious laughter from the surrounding demons. When two angelic champions glided above the fifth horseman, they stopped and looked at each other.
"Look, she can barely hold that sword up," one snickered to the other.
"You might want to leave wars to your elders." The other nudged his companion.
     Damiana looked up and tilted her head. What did they mean? Sure, Genesis was getting pretty heavy, but it did weigh like 500 lbs. Thinking nothing of it, Damiana continued on towards her kin, trying to ignore the obnoxious taunting of the demons surrounding her.
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"Where is she?"
"Damn, I still have a headache...did she poison us?"
"No, it was a harmless sleeping agent...she might have put more into you, War." Death explained, looking for the fifth horsemen through the confusing massacre.
     Admittedly, he was livid with the fifth horseman's treatment of the rest of the brotherhood. But now, he just wanted to see the idiot girl again, just to know she is safe.
"Hey guys!"
'Right on time." Death turned to look at the approaching horse and it's rider.
       When he stopped and gawked at the rider, the other three slowly turned to follow his gaze. Damiana blushed under the other horsemen's glances.
"Uh...sorry for...drugging you guys...where is Lucifer?" Damiana tilted her head at Strife, who seemed to be the most shocked, even with his mask on.
"Um, kid, what in the hell happened to you?" He said shakily.
"What're you guys talking aboout?" Damiana groaned, thinking about how her voice changed.
     Taking a few steps towards Damiana, War gruffly picked her up by her cowl and set her on the ground.
"Wow, you guys are dumb tall-wait..." Damiana looked down at her apparel and sighed angrily.
        Orange sweater wrapped around her waist, sky blue jean shorts, a white tank top and black laced fingerless elbow long gloves...
"Why?!" Damiana threw her small 11 year old hands up in the air.
"You really are short."
"Enough! Minor setback, I'll uh, go and find Lucifer now-"
"Are you insane?!" Fury growled, her turn now to pick up Damiana by her cowl.
"You can't even pick up the sword!" Fury shook the small girl in anger.
      Death blinked and snapped at Fury in an ancient tongue, who begrudgingly obeyed her brother and set Damiana down.
"Give us the sword, Damiana, and stay here-"
"But Whhhhhyyyyyyyyy-"
"Because it's for your own good so just sit there and wait!" Strife barked, snapping from his confusion.
       Damiana stared up at Strife and hugged the golden scabbard of the blade, which clearly had a few feet on the small girl in height. Taking a step towards Damiana, Strife took a knee and glared at Damiana, barely matching the girl's height from a stooped over position.
"Are you going to give me the sword, or must I take it?" Strife hissed.
"You can try." Damiana gave her father a heavy lidded stare and stubbornly held on to Genesis.
      Before Strife could act out on his threat, Death took a step forward and reached out to take the large sword from Damiana.
"I SAID NO!" She snarled, taking a few steps back.
"This isn't up for debate." War said quietly, picking Damiana up with ease.
"Put me DOWN!"
"I was hesitant before in even allowing you to do this. But now. There's no way in the darkest depths of Hell that I'll allow you to undertake this." Death muttered.
"Grr, you guys don't understand!" Damiana's high pitched voice screamed.
"Understand what?! That you're basically going to KILL yourself?!" Fury retorted, not looking Damiana in the eye.
"No! This was my one chance to finally-"
"Glory? Is that it? Honor, Notability, is that all you want?!" Strife roared.
"Are you being this selfish to leave us just so you can be remembered as the foolish girl-"
"I WANT YOU GUYS TO FINALLY RESPECT ME!" Damiana bawled, breaking free from War's grasp.
"I'm so DONE with you guys not taking me seriously. I'm so TIRED of you acting like I'm an object that's so fragile and not a person." Damiana balled her hands up into fists, ignoring the stinging feeling in her eyes.
"Everyday I live in all of your shadows, do you realize how that makes me feel?! Just this once I wanted you all to see that I'm just as good as all of you and not some responsibility passed around to each of you!" Her piercing red eyes stared at every horsemen.
"I understand, Dami-" Strife began.
"No. You. DON'T! That's your problem. YOU. DON'T. UNDERSTAND!" She turned her head away from Strife.
"You don't know how dark it gets in another's shadow..." She muttered.
Shadow...
Shadows....
      Smiling to herself, Damiana took a deep breath and smiled widely at the stunned horsemen. With the snap of her fingers, a whirlwind of darkness blinded the horsemen for a few moments.
   When the shadows ceased, Death looked around the small area for the young child.
Only to find that the large blade Genesis...
And Damiana...
     Were gone, leaving only scorched hoof prints in the ground.
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"Ha!" Damiana whooped, urging Glory to a faster gallop.
      Glory nickered in agreement and lowered her head, charging past the enemies surrounding them. Damiana squinted and noticed 3 familiar figures leading the remaining troops.
"There they are!" Damiana forcefully dug her heels into the horse's soft sides.
       Glory happily obliged and blew past the large legion of demons, coming up to the 3 figures in record time.
"H-ey! Damiana screamed at the tallest figure.
       Dantè looked over his shoulder and felt an air of relief escape his lips when he heard the young antichrist's voice. But that breath quickly got caught in his throat when he noticed the small child in the saddle in place of Damiana.
        Lucifer looked over at Damiana and in a few short moments, began laughing cruelly. Demetrix didn't even bother to look behind him, he could already feel how the Anti Christ screwed this up.
"Lucifer! By order of the Charred Council, I command you to stop!" The small child screamed, jumping down from the saddle.
     Her mount blew the platinum blonde hairs from her eyes and gave Damiana a sideways glance. She couldn't be serious; The fifth horsemen barely stood taller than 4'4, the sword that was twice her size she had to drag behind her. It would almost  be funny to the eons old mare if not for the fact that all of creation was at stake.
"You've lost a couple years, my daughter, is this Creation's last hope?"
"The one...and only!" Damiana grunted, pulling the sword behind her with great difficulty.
       Dantè shook his head and looked up at his father, donning almost a desperate look in his eyes.
"Father, she isn't worth it...just leave her alone." He said under his breath.
"Oh, she is more than worth it." Lucifer snickered, turning fully around to face the young girl.