Darksiders: Light In Darkness (Fourth Book)

Epilogue

    It had been days since the horsemen defeated the traitorous king of demons, days since their youngest had severed his head from his neck.

But at a cost...

     The cursed blade grazed her side as Damiana attempted to dodge its' murderous path. Nothing too serious, a bit of poison that put her into a deep sleep, a bit of a last disgusting trick of the Prince of Lies. She was better now, more than better actually. It seemed as though the graze had given the AntiChrist more control over her Darkness Manipulation, a good side effect from her close encounter with death. Now she was awake and alive, much to all of the brotherhood's relief...

Especially with Strife and Death...

            Watching the young nephilim cavort in and around both Fury and War whilst they were in training, Strife felt another presence loom behind him.

"What do you need?" He said after a short silence when it seemed that Death wasn't going to ask first.

"A favor." He said curtly, walking up to the spot next to Strife.

"What do you ask of such a lowly warrior?" Strife scoffed, spitting distastefully onto the grass.

"Well," Strife could hear faint traces of disgust when Death recoiled back.

"I want you to take care of Damiana-"

"I don't need you to tell me that," Strife grumbled, rolling his yellow eyes in an aggravated sense.

              Death made a grunt in distaste and leaned against the wooden beam beside him, also watching Damiana train tirelessly with the eon old beings. He was impressed, at least. Although she wasn't taking it too seriously, Damiana was tiring the two horsemen out by what it seemed to be...prancing. Instead of focusing, she was giggling and laughing, prompting the other two to slowly join in with her laughter.

"I know you don't like me-"

"Understatement."

"Oh I'm sorry, Did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours? Anyway, just do the one thing I ask of you, for once." Death finished.

"...I'll consider it."

"Good."

"...This kind of makes me wonder about the Council." Strife muttered, unsure if whether or not he should share his thoughts with Death.

"Oh? Why?' Death said, examining the blade of Harvester in indifference.

"They didn't hesitate in keeping Damiana's relationship with us. What else might they be hiding?" Strife huffed, noticing how little his older brother cared about it.

"They very well might be keeping entire worlds from us. But they also may not ."

"That's not really reassuring."

"Life isn't reassuring."

       Strife sighed and after a few moments of silence, simpered quietly to himself. When Death looked at him from the corner of his eye, he slowly joined in with a single chuckle in uncertainty.

"Awww! You guys are bonding!" Damiana snickered, jumping on the banister with a triumpth smirk plastered on her round face.

       Strife looked at Damiana in surprise, then meekly smiled and rustled her spiked bangs, making her unkempt hair even more messed up. She sniggered and pushed his hand away, red eyes glinting playfully up at him. Death sighed to himself and folded his arms, watching the two exchange soundless greetings to each other. He was happy she found true happiness, however...

He couldn't help but feel a small pang of jealousy whenever he looked at those two together...

"Oh! Fury told me to tell you 'It's Time'...What does that mean?" Damiana looked at Death.

"The New Treaty...The Council is summoning us for the new signing of the Two Kingdoms-"

"I thought they only did that because humans weren't ready for the EndWar." Damiana raised an eyebrow and tilted her head.

"Well, there were a significant amount of Human refugees who thrived on Earth, hundreds even. I didn't tell you?" Death turned to walk away.

"NO! You didn't tell me th- Wait for me!" Damiana scrambled off to catch up with Death.

       When Death refused to tell the nagging girl anything else, Damiana huffed and walked towards her mare, Glory. The horse shifted uncomfortably on its hooves and looked away, trying not to maintain eye contact.

"What's wrong?"

"This is probably the last time we'll be speaking to one and other, young one." Glory said in a saddened voice, looking off towards the setting sun.

"Huh?"

"My duty lies with the Warrior of Creation-"

"I AM the Warrior of Creation! Look, I have Genesis and everything!" Damiana pulled the rapier blade from it's harness at her hip and showed it to Glory.

"I don't cater to children. This is goodbye, AntiChrist." The mare turned its head and started to walk off.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot." The mare stopped and motioned at the saddlebag.

"I have something for you, well...Just get them." The mare mumbled, motioning for Damiana to get the parcels.

              Damiana rolled her eyes and stomped up to the placid mare. She opened the leather saddle bag and tilted her head at the parcels within; three letters bound to one and other with a silver band.

"Who is this from?"

       When the mare didn't answer her, Damiana looked up to see no one else standing with her in the clearing. Tilting her head, Damiana looked around her, wondering where the horse had gone off to. FInally, her eyes rested on the three letters. One was addressed to Abbadon, the other to Strife, and the last to herself.

"Huh...?" Damiana opened the letter assigned to her and read each elegantly written word carefully.

My Dearest Daughter,

First of all, I cannot express how proud you've made me. Just thinking that my own daughter being the Warrior of Creation, the Savior of all worlds just fills me with such pride in you. On behalf of The Creator and myself, I bid you a well deserved congratulations and I'm honored to inform you that you have a reserved spot in this realm if you ever pass. And the second thing...I know you have many questions regarding Strife and...well you. He is indeed your father, your true birth father. I...knew about this for some time, I was just...disgusted with myself. I let myself be manipulated by my husband, allowed my feelings to cloud my better judgment and practiced adultery and tolerated my imprisonment in Hell. I sincerely hope that you could find it in your heart to forgive me...for my incompetence. You truly have surpassed your mother. I love you, Damiana, I only wish I could be there to wipe your tears away as you read this. I wish I was there to raise you with your father.

             You're My Everything and More,
Muriel

"Hey Kid, Are you-" Strife walked up to the sniffling Damiana.

He raised an eyebrow and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, kiddo, what's wrong?" He tried to make his grating voice as soothing as possible.

"Ah...nothing...I. uh, have something for you...Dad." Damiana wiped her eyes and handing him the letter assigned to him.

Strife gingerly took the letter from Damiana's small hands and opened it, yellow eyes scanning the long letter in interest. When he got to a certain sentence, Damiana could see Strife's fist clench in an unknown emotion. PInching the bridge of his nose, Strife took a deep breath in and looked down at Damiana. Smiling, the 3rd horseman rubbed his daughter's head lovingly, hand still clenching the written parchment.