Darksiders: The Survivors

Chapter 2 - Between Life And Death

Death was certain that he had truly died. The last thing he remembered was removing his mask: the skull that forever concealed his face, handing it over to a trusted advisor, and allowing himself to plummet into the Well of Souls. A place where all souls of angel, demon, human, and everything in between went after death. Only angels and demons could be reborn from the Well to continue their endless war, Death knew this, that was, until he had been told that there was a way to bring back human souls using the Well.

Death had been feared throughout creation for as long as he could remember as the eldest and most powerful of the four, he kept his past a secret and sometimes he felt he was the only one who showed mercy at Eden. Ever since he set out on his quest to undo the actions his brother War was accused of, he had been carrying the souls of his fallen brethren, the Nephilim, on his chest. It had to be done, he had reminded himself many times in his travels, but why did he feel like things would have concluded differently if Absalom didn't attack?

Nevertheless, Death believed War was innocent and would never do such a terrible thing, no matter how reckless he proved himself to be, and Death now thought he had now truly sacrificed himself to erase such a crime after destroying the Corruption spreading throughout the Creator's worlds. Or did he?

***

Death opened his eyes to gaze at the pale blue sky of Earth, when he sat up, he saw he was in the center of a large crater, did I do this? He looked around to see the ruined building empty buildings, but there was still no sign of human life as he had hoped. Perhaps the Well of Souls brought him back along with whichever human souls it could pull, but he wouldn't know for sure.

He ran his fingers across his face to discover he still had his mask donned after all, it was the shape of skull, he had equipped it upon swearing fealty to the Charred Council as a Horsemen prior the battle of Eden, and had not removed it ever since. What was not covered by it, was his abundant ebony hair and deep orange eyes, and all he wore were leather gauntlets and boots with thin trousers, armor was never a necessity to him, unlike his siblings.

Death didn't remember much after jumping into the Well and before waking up on Earth, everything was just a dark void, like the Abyss, only there was completely nothing and he felt like he couldn't move or see anything. Then, when he saw that he was now on Earth, that could only mean one thing to him, the seventh seal had been broken, that was what resurrected him. It also meant that the other three Horsemen had arrived to the Third Kingdom with him. Death didn't know what he missed, but the first thing he wanted to do was find War.

The emptiness of the decay before him was disturbing to him, if humanity was really back, perhaps it would take time for anyone to show. Humans, as primitive as they were, with no power to fight against angels and demons, were likely cowering in shelters that were still left standing. Death remembered meeting a human hunter once whom the angel Uriel claimed she had spotted; however, Death could only repulse at the thought of Uriel still not completely trusting him. The hunter had led him to the demon lord Belial, a gluttonous demon which ended at an encounter with Death taking the hunter's life after Belial had been defeated, something the hunter had requested personally.

Death took in his surroundings one more time, "Dust, are you there?" his voice emerged deep and raspy,

A loud caw echoed from the rectangular tops and a single crow descended from the sky, landing on Death's right arm. Dust had been trusted to Death from the Crowfather himself and served as a guide to the Horseman for eons.

"Something has clearly happened here during my quest Dust, we must find the others immediately, especially War," his face grimace underneath the mask, "and find any humans, no doubt they will need to be taken to safety.