Disclaimer - I own nothing from Vigil or THQ, all Darksider characters belong to them not me. If you skipped the Warning I'll state it here. This is a FANFIC if you don't like personality changes in the characters don't read. Death and War won't be exact to the games or novels or anything else because this is MY FIC. I don't mind creative criticism but posting how much you hate the fic cause Death or War are too different is NOT acceptable and the review will be deleted immediately.
Chapter 1: War Comes
He felt it, the summons, he heard the call to ride, and now here he was, the Kingdom of Man, Earth. It was wrong he was to bring about the End War, start it and yet here were the forces of Heaven and Hell fighting upon the Earth before his arrival. Abaddon had mentioned that the 'final seal' had not yet broken and then Straga had appeared which lead to where he was now. His name is War, the Rider of the Red Horse, the First Horsemen, the youngest of the four, the most honorable of them, was now retreating from the demon general. During his fight with Straga War noticed something wasn't right, his power waning, "they" where behind it, the council, stripping him of his power, but he'd be damned to the darkest pits of hell if he were to be killed before righting his wrong, fixing the balance that his brother had tried too hard to preserve with the killing of their kinsmen.
Demons now roamed the Earth, killing the powerless humans, the generals of Hell's army flow through the lands like a black plague, killing all they come into contact with whether they be human or angel. War rider of the Red Horse, rode his massive, monstrous mount to the other one that could truly help him, the only one he truly trusted. While War is honorable he is also prideful and rarely asks for help and yet in his weakened state he had no choice, he needed help and he needed advice and 'he' was the only one that War would ever truly go to for help.
Ruin, War's horse is a massive beast mimicking the human Clydesdales with a thick, heavy build. The beast's mane and tail consist of black smoke and glowing red runes are carved into the beast's stone like flesh. At this mount's hooves the stone like skin begins to crack, revealing burning fire underneath and allowing fire to flow up its leg, allowing the beast to leave burning hoof prints. The thick saddle is made of leather and sharp metal attached to the beast by heavy chains, even the reins are thick chains attacked to a sharp bit.
Ruin gallops across the deserted, broken streets of New York, the rider looking for a very specific building. The demons have been fighting the Hellguard, destroying the buildings and everything they came into contact with, the Human's caught in the crossfire and the demon's hunting them down like deer in hunting season. The very streets showed this, dead bodies of human's scattered across rubble and bloody feathers piling up over the bodies. It was now unavoidable, the fall of the Human race had been complete, any of the human's that were alive now hid and even then, it wouldn't be long before the demons finished them off….unless he could save them.
War pulled up on Ruin's chains and the massive horse comes to a stop outside a massive church with large chunks missing from the steeples and broken chunks of stone strew about the courtyard. Yes, this was the building he had been looking for but in truth the building had little meaning to him, it was in fact, what was hidden beneath the building that held his interest.
War himself was a big creature with the basic shape of a human male but much larger and thicker with white hair and glowing white eyes, a red hood and thick silver armor decorated with jagged edges and demon faces. War's angelic face would be negated by the massive gauntlet on his left arm, glowing with fire and made of silver metal with a skull set in the center this massive gauntlet not only was an intimidating part of his armor, but took the place of his actual hand.
The rider walks up the crumbled steps of the massive church, each step accompanied by the rattle of his heavy armor. Upon reaching the doors of the church, which had nearly been blown off their hinges, War slammed his gauntlet into the doors forcing them to fly off the doorframe.
War walks into the church's entryway and looks around at the crumbling walls and broken pews, wood and stone scattered like confetti at a party. The rider takes a few more cautious steps into the building before raising his massive sword, Chaoseater into the air to block an angelic blade that came down hard near his head. War pushes back against the blade, forcing the angel back, getting a good look at his assailant.
Uriel of the Hellguard, Abbadon's supposed lover and the current leader of the Hellguard since Abbadon's fall to Straga. An Angel of beauty with yellow eyes, silvery hair and gleaming white and gold armor, Uriel is a force in of herself and from the look in her eyes, her wrath is aimed at War.
Uriel flies up and brings the sword back down at War's head, trying desperately to kill her target, "I will make you pay for what you did to do Abbadon."
War blocks again with Chaoseater, the swords meeting in a shower of sparks, "Uriel, I don't have time to deal with your petty vengeance when I seek to restore the Kingdom of Man." Chaoseater's blade is embedded with screaming faces of demons which seem to glow as more sparks flow from the two blades clashing.
Uriel narrows her golden eyes as she clenches on the hilt of her sword, "This is your entire fault rider. In the name of the White City I will bring you to justice." Uriel's voice would be full of venom as she swings the blade again and again, each swing meeting only Chaoseater's blade.
War narrows his own eyes, the white almost looking blue in the light of the sparks, "I will save the Balance and if you get in my way, I'll have to deal with you accordingly Uriel, now let me pass, there are things in this church that not even you can deal comprehend." War's voice would be deep and almost angelic, but neutral and indifferent.
Uriel growls and goes to swing again, a small opening but enough for War to swing his blade sideways, the blunt side of the blade hitting her abdomen and sending her flying into and through a wall to the outside of the church. War takes this time to run as fast as his heavy legs can carry him towards the door leading to the churches basement and doesn't stop, running through the door as he runs through the wood like its paper.
The stairs leading down the basement would creak and groan under War's weight but hold long enough for the rider to reach the basement, which is full of old furniture and paintings covered in dusty white sheets. War walks over to the far wall which lays bare and runs a hand over the stone, glowing green runes appearing over the wall.
War mutters an incantation in a low voice and the runes glow brighter as the wall breaks apart to reveal another set of stone stairs, going even further down in a spiral, "It will always be a mystery to me how something so obvious can be so well hidden from the humans." War begins his quick paced walk down the stairs, having to go down for several long minutes before reaching a set of doors decorated with multiple skulls and bone handles.
As the rider reaches for a handle that venomous voice cuts the air again, "You will not escape my vengeance horsemen." War turns around to face Uriel who is now accompanied by two other angels in golden armor and long swords.
War eyes the angels and instantly blocks as a sword comes at him and kicks the angel away with a heavy boot, causing him to hit the stone wall, "You don't understand, I'm not your enemy you stupid child."
Uriel narrows her eyes even more and charges at War, blinded by pain and rage, her eyes going wide as War grabs her leg and slams her into the doors with a swing, causing her to fly through them. Uriel cries out in pain as her body shakes violently as she an orb behind her glows a bright ethereal green, sending wave of pain through the angel's body. The other two angels fly in quickly and pull Uriel away and help her stand up, one of them picking up her fallen sword.
War walks in and holds Chaoseater tightly by the hilt he takes on a defensive stance. Uriel looks around the room with disgust the room filled with skeletal figures and skulls all facing a center pedestal behind her where several skeletons sit on the floor and reach up with boney hands, reaching for a large statue in the shape of the grim reaper.
The statue was cold stone of a hooded figure with bones showing through the robe, showing a ribcage and skeletal arms and hands. The head of the statue is covered in a hood and a spiked shoulder guard on the left shoulder with skulls impaled on it. The statue would have a demonic belt with a face of a crying demon and tomes hanging off the waste along with a crystal and small lantern. The most terrifying thing about this statue could be the large skeletal wings at the shoulders, the bones held together by rotting flesh. Despite this macabre statue it seemed to be calling out as it holds a lantern out in an outstretched, skeletal hand as if guiding someone or something to it.
Uriel eyes the statue and the grasping skeletal hands at the lower part of it, "What in the name of Abbadon…"
The statue glows a bit as a shield shimmers with a ethereal green color before returning to its invisible state. War walks closer and pushes past the disgusted angels, "I told you there were things in this place you couldn't understand."
Uriel turns her head towards War, "What foul demonic magic are you doing here rider?"
War reaches up towards the statue and quickly pulls his hand back as the shield reappears, "Do I look like someone who uses magic, Uriel?" War puts Chaoseater back on his back and kneels down at the base of the statue.
Uriel pulls her sword from the angel and chargers forward, "I won't let you call upon more demons rider." Uriel brings the sword down on the statue and is instantly sent flying backwards into a wall, sending bones flying across the room from the impact. The statue is illuminated in a green glow as the shield reappears. Uriel groans in pain and kneels down, "What foul magic is this."
War looks up at the statue, "Brother, I need your help. The End war has been started prematurely, the human race is going extinct, and the council has taken my power. I need your help to make this all right."
Uriel narrows her eyes, "Brother?"
War turns back to Uriel, "Be quiet and stop trying to hit him, you won't break his Aegis Guard, you'll just keeping hurting yourself as it can send damage back to those that try to deal it to him. It's something only the most powerful necromancers are capable of." War looks up at the statue again, "Death, I need you brother."
The statue begins to shift and rotate until it faces to the right, the stone lantern cracking and breaking, revealing a lantern that glows ethereal green, burning brighter before a beam of green breaks out of the lantern and hits into an adjacent door, causing it to open slowly. The beam would fade and the lantern would turn back to stone as the statue repositions itself to face War.
War gets up and goes to the door and walks through, Uriel hot on his heels, "Rider, what have you done?"
War closes his glowing eyes for a moment and follows the stairs up into another room, "I have done nothing Uriel. I answered the call and when I arrived Heaven and Hell were already at war. The Balance is destroyed and the Human race is nearly extinct. I will have the Balance restored but I need help and I trust no one more then I do my brother Death."
Uriel walks behind War and narrows her eyes, "And your brother is a statue?"
War walks along the ledge of a platform and looks down, a large drop into water. Across from the gap was another platform with large circle of runes that glowed ethereal green and in the center of it was a part of Death's soul, sitting in a meditative state. Unlike the statue the part of Death's soul was in his humanoid form, muscled build with long hair and skull mask, bone armor covering him from the waist down and his forearms and hands. The soul would be glowing brightly, almost like a ghastly green beacon.
War sighs and backs up a few steps and eyes his brother's soul, "Death is the eldest of the Horsemen, Uriel, and his power is hard to understand. Taking the physical form his Reaper Form and turning into stone like that allows for his soul to split into two halves, that soul over there is half of his soul." War walks back over to the edge and eyes the distance, "Death himself is sleeping in his physical form but his soul halves seem to be meditating over those rune circles
Uriel eyes the glowing green soul, all anger lost, for the moment, "What dark magic allows such a separation of the souls."
War walks back towards the door and turns around and takes off running, jumping the gap and his gauntlet catching the ledge of the center pillar and pulls himself up, "Its likely a ward of some sort, he's protecting something." War walks over to the meditating soul and reaches down, the soul disappearing in a wisp of green into the gauntlet. War then turns around and leaps back across the gap, "In order for brother to take his physical form again, he needs both halves of his soul. Normally he can recall them back himself but with them meditating he can't do it."
Uriel follows War as he goes back to the room with Death's statue, "By Abaddon why are you bothering with this after everything you think even your leader will help you?"
War instantly tops and turns to look at Uriel, his indifference gone as his eyes blaze, "Death is my brother, my leader. Death cares for us as siblings not underlings; he protects us as any caring older brother would." War turns back around and heads to the statue, holds out his gauntlet and the soul releases to sit by the statue, still meditating.
The statue shifts again, the lantern glowing again as the statue turns to another door to the left and opens it with the same green light before shifting back into its original position. War walks through the door with Uriel still following close behind, seeming rather curious now. War and the angel follow a winding staircase down for several minutes before ending up in a long hallway of bone and stone.
Uriel looks around and eyes War how walks down the hall and takes a right. Uriel quickly follows and slams into his back as he stopped instantly. The angel looks around the large male and eyes another soul that glows purple, meditating between two statues, a large blackish green crow with red eyes sitting by Death's soul.
War holds an arm out and the crow flies up and lands on the gauntlet with a caw. War reaches up and pats the bird gently on the head with his normal hand, "It's been awhile Dust." The crow caws again and moves up to War's shoulder then head, sitting on his red hood. War moves closer and reaches out with his gauntlet and pulls the purple soul into his gauntlet and turns back towards Uriel who blinks.
Uriel follows War as he walks back to the statue, "You have a bird on your head…"
War keeps facing forward, "Dust, Death's companion and familiar, a scout if you will." The crow caws and tilts his head before pecking at War's red hood with its long, curved beak. War smirks a bit.
War walks over to the statue and holds up his gauntlet and the purple soul sits next to the green one, both meditating. Dust spreads his wings and flies up towards the statue's shoulder and lands with a caw. The two souls begin to grow brightly before floating up and turning into purple and green wisps before being pulled into the statue. War just stood there and waited.
