Death was riding with Despair alongside his brother War and Ruin after they went to hunt down rebel demons and angels that didn't agree with the "cease fire" from both sides when they realised the Riders were called officially this time. Fury and Strife were doing the same thing separately.

But Death's mind was far away from that mission. It was riding through his own thoughts, tracing back his memories from a time when the Nephilim still existed. It wasn't something the four would call "golden days", but it was something that was hard to forget. It was their kin, after all.

Being created from nothing and just starting to exist as a fully grown person was not easy. They were perfect as to say. Fully aware, ready for combat and each with their own set of skills and abilities, but zero ability to coexist.

The first two generations were created from the dust of angels and demons, just like Absalom, and that would mean a lot of people that had to learn and live together, and the others came from natural pairing, that, despite their conception of being brothers and sisters, it wasn't something abominable or weird to them: they didn't even had thoughts about it.

So, after learning how to live together without hunting down and killing each other like animals, they learned how to make that newly discovered gathering turn into a decent society, where they could all coexist. Before the new generation came, several years had passed and they structured everything to make this society last as long as there was a Nephilim to command it.

With the arrival of the new Nephilim, the old one were called the Firstborn, and in their shoulders rested the obligation to make their community grow and be prosperous. Everything then was separated among them to make everything flow as it should, duties and responsibilities, organization, and basically anything else that came to make them as they were now.

As they soon became many to count, they started to separate themselves into settlements in every land they would fall in, each settlement having their set number of firstborns to take care of that group, keep everything organized and maintain order. Death, as one of them, was completely aware that in that moment, the word order was foreign and unknown to the others after the successful return from another battle to get a new piece of land.

Not that they were creating disorder, or wreaking havoc, but it was never easy to calm down nerves that just came from a battle, to calm the blood that was eager for more bloodshed and conquest. Specially from younglings, that had little to no patience and lots of energy to spare, and having to control them was painful to the head as Death used to say.

Having conquered another land, some of them would spend some more days where they were settled now, and would then migrate to this new acquired place in order to keep it under their control. The firstborns, though, would go first and set straight everything. It was demanding and tiring, but that was how they kept the order up since the beginning.

Death, though, had three of his brothers to watch and take care of before leaving.

The fire and rage from battle would take a while to dissipate and until then, they could erupt in a fight with others just for the sake of it. As they grow older they eventually learn to control that urge to fight, like Death himself and the older ones did right when the battle ends, but until then it was up to him to get them in line. Sometimes it was easier and sometimes it wasn't, it would always depend on how much effort they had put into the combat.

He just waited for them to finish their gathering with their companions and had them walking to their tent, helping them focus their minds on leaving behind that battlefield and calming their bodies "The chance to fight again will come, now you need to make your minds forget that heat of battle and relax." He would always say.

That day, thankfully, was part of the calm ones, when just a couple of minutes were needed to make them relax and come back to their senses. He would then help with the wounds, if there were any, and say what they did wrong, right or what they could've done better, and then release them to their deserved time to rest.

"You three behave while I'm gone" he looked top the girl "Fury, do not let Strife go straight for problems again"

"I already told you I was going after War!"

"We are not discussing that now" he said "now go"

As the three younglings were gone, Death could finally have a couple of minutes of peace before leaving, and so he started to get rid of his gear. He unwrapped the cowl from his neck, took his gloves off and put his scythes aside, sitting down and closing his eyes for a moment, breathing in and out quietly, only to have his peace disturbed by the female voice going inside the tent, getting rid of her armour and letting it fall to the ground, making much noise as possible.

Death flinched, sighing "You couldn't just enter without being noisy, could you?"

"No, you know that" she dropped her mace, snorting "I thought the fight today wasn't going to end!"

"Hm..." he growled, trying to close his eyes again, but having to stay aware as she jumped right in his lap "Hayla..."

"Come on, don't be so grumpy!" she protested "You wont come back for what? A month? And you want to stay away? Nah, not today" she giggled, placing a kiss on his cheek "How did it go with your kids today?"

"They are not kids anymore, you know it" he sighed "But it was fine. Quicker than in thought"

"Same with me" she yawned and stretched as Death still had the same face "Hey, grumpy. Look at me"

As he did, the pair of orange eyes met with the pair of hazel coloured eyes and she smiled. He couldn't help but allow a small smile appear in the corner of his mouth as she started to run the fingers through her light brown, mid-length hair "The grumpy man here was trying to have a quiet time of peace"

"When do you leave?"

"At night"

"You'll have plenty of time for peace" she sat up on top of him "Just not now" she laughed, leaning forward to give him a passionate kiss.

"Brother!" Death suddenly heard, as if he was taken of a deep sleep all of a sudden, his mind back to where they were, starting at the horizon filled with torn buildings from that place. The Pale Rider blinked some times, turning to his brother when his mind finally stopped racing "Where was your mind?' War already knew about this episodes of daydream his brother rarely showed.

"Same place as always" he growled and banished Despair so he could go inside a building "Let's keep moving"

War wasn't a big fan of words, so he just let it stay like that. Maybe Fury or Strife would've insisted as they would always like to know what was keeping their brother's mind away.

They finished off their mission, going back to meet the other two just to briefly say how everything went, and so, after it, the eldest brother then parted ways quickly as his brothers already knew he did whenever he needed time to think, or when he just needed a moment alone in order to put in place his racing thoughts.

He went back to the fortress as he needed to check how the new resident was doing. Several days had passed since he last treated her injury and made the venom disappear from her body, her half demon helping with the healing process, even though a pretty ugly scar would set its place on her left shoulder and arm. Nothing new in a warrior's life.

The cold had left the air, a nice and warm afternoon breeze taking its place, the trees dancing with it, as the sun in the horizon was slowly giving space to the bright, shining moon in the sky, the snow, long gone from the ground, leaving only the wet grass behind.

The Rider was about to head towards the house to search for Maya, but it wasn't needed. The moment he was near enough, he saw her by the river, quietly sitting on the edge, her feet inside the water, as her hair danced along with the wind, tapping her fingers in the ground and moving her head as she played some kind of melody inside her mind.

He didn't bother her. Even though she had plenty of time alone for peace, he recognized that was one of those moments where you don't want to be disturbed, where you are just lost inside your own memories. And, if not for Despair poking him with its nose, he would be doing the same.

It was no secret that the phantom steeds were connected to their riders, so it wouldn't be odd to say that Despair could feel its master's troubled mind, slowly takin him away where he could be alone. When seeing Death sitting down and closing his eyes, the horse calmed down almost immediately.

Drifting again in his memories, the Pale Rider felt a slight bother where once was placed the amulet of souls in his chest, now only a scar to remember him of that. Oddly, he missed it being there, while he was glad it was gone and couldn't be used anymore, there was still another reason for him to cherish the green crystal other than keeping the souls of his brethren. And now, he couldn't help but to remember that reason every time he looked at the human.

Slowly, a cracking sound could be heard, the bony mask in his hand, as he deeply sighed, looking at his steed "I am probably losing my mind over it" and the horse whined, as if it was agreeing to his statement.

After some more minutes of quiet and peace, he put back the mask on his face as he could feel someone approaching. Not a potential enemy, just the resident human "Hey, Death" she said, coming closer. "Didn't know you were here"

"For a while now" he replied, inhaling deeply "Didn't want to bother you moment there" mentioning how he found her at first.

"ah, that?" she giggled "I have this song stuck in my head for a while" she sat beside him "I was just humming it to myself. It was my brother's favourite" she looked at him "The eldest one"

"I see"

"Uh, Death, since you are here, can I ask you to bring my brothers for a couple of days?" He could hear the sadness in her voice.

"It won't be a problem"

"Thank you so much!" she smiled, ear to ear "How was your mission today?" and he looked at her as if asking how she knew that "Oh, yeah, I've seen this day in my vision a while ago"

"It was fine. Ordinary as always"

"I wish I could be there" she sighed "I mean, doing something, you know? Its killing me just vegetating like a plant"

"You could be training" he said "Improving you balance over the new leg"

"Alone? I don't know how to, but mostly..." she giggled "I don't have discipline to do it by myself. I would end up losing my focus over a leaf falling from a tree"

Death just shook his head "You wouldn't last for a day, then"

"I lasted long enough all this time" she folded her arms.

"With me to save you if needed"

She slapped him in the arm "Hey! Don't disregard me like that! You said I feared well all the time" Her angry face was laughable, but he contained himself "Didn't know you're a liar"

"I am not. Just joking with you" he stood up "I will get your brothers" but her pout didn't disappear, and he chuckled as he left.