Chapter 1

Strife landed on his feet in front of the great dragon, the leader of hells armies, the Destroyer, "well look who it is, Strife" the Destroyer said, his army of demons behind him, "Hello there Abaddon" Strife said, the destroyer was Taken aback, "what how?" He demanded, "I went to the tree of knowledge, it didn't show me everything, but it showed me enough,"Strife replied calmly.

Strife drew Mercy and redemption and pointed them at Abbadon, "Gah Strife you will not stop me now humanity is dead and all of creation will be heavens" Abbadon growled out, "yeah how exactly did you become this Abbadon?" Strife asked, "no wait let me guess, the same guy who put it into your head that it would be a good idea to start the apocalypse early then think the horsemen would not get involved".

Strife was really pushing Abaddon's buttons as the dragon growled, "who turned you into a dragon, who is pulling the Strings? Oh I know" Strife continued, "so where are you...Lucifer?!" The name echoes around the entire city as Abbadon began to actually get nervous, Strife was known to be Maverik and Abbadon had doubts the council knew of this.

"I am right above you Strife" Said a dark voice from behind Strife, he appeared there when he wasn't a minute ago, Strife whirled around and pointed his guns at the archangel, he was greyskined and white haired, with black angel wings and yellow eyes, "hey dad?" Strife said to the father of the Nephilim, "so here we are at long last".

"Indeed we are and how did you know" Lucifer chuckled, "Azreal gave me access to the tree of knowledge" Strife said, "WHAT!?" Abbadon bellowed in rage, "traitor i shall see him suffer for this", "no you won't" Lucifer snapped Abbadon quivered, not visible but quivered none the less at the Dark prince and father of the nephilim.

"Yeah so Lucifer what exactly is your plan?, why are you doing this?" Strife pressed, "you know i could kill you now" Lucifer pointed out, "true but you won't because then there will only be three nephilim left" Strife countered, Lucifer laughed "true" he said and made a magic circle in his hand, another circle of the same kind but larger appeared under Strife and he was lifted off his feet and hung in the air.

"But soon after your own Brother Death will replace the humans seed with the seeds of the nephilim and Eden will be the nephilim sand I shall rule heaven, Lilith in hell and my first son will rule the nephilim " Lucifer said evilly, "so that's your plan? Replace one seed for another? Honestly expected something more like complete domination of the three kingdoms" Strife quipped as he struggled against invisible bonds as he hung in a crucified position. "But Absaloms dead so how can he rule the nephilim? Also why are you telling me this and what do you plan to do with me?" Strife asked.

Lucifer said nothing, but rather cast another circle, "have a nice holiday until the true apocalypse, say hi to death when he claims you" Lucifer quipped, as a portal appeared under Strife, "oh shit" was Strife's last words when he was dropped down and disappeared.

"Don't worry soon your brother will be back thanks to your sacrifice" Lucifer said as a parting shot, "but for now no more interference". And the portal closed.

Unknown location

Time was irrelevant to Strife as he felt years go by as seconds and seconds go by as years in his unconscious state, the first sensation he feels is cold, cold that begins to get warmer and warmer, and he begins to feel wind past him, he opens his eyes.

He was falling through an atmosphere that did not unduly worry Strife. He had done this many times before, what did worry him was where he would end up, and what world he would be in. Strife didn't need to worry about that now.

Strife braced himself for impact, he was not disappointed. The impact created a small crater, coming down in a fireball would do that, it also set the ground around you on fire, Strife simply walked out of the fire without much damage done to himself.

He looked around; he was in a forest in the rain that was pelting down in him, Strife walked through the forest not exactly to sure he was going but he headed for a large mountain that towered over the land, however Strife was an impatient one and soon got board, so he summoned his horse, Mayhem, or he tried to summon him but to no effect.

Strife stopped and tried again, still nothing, he tried accessing his power, He tried creating a shadow clone he even tried transforming into his anarchy mode, no luck either, odd unless… oh of course Lucifer would play this card, "God damn you Archangel" Strife thought. Lucifer must have locked much of his power.

he would have to unlock the rest of his abilities somehow, and the only way he could think of was by practice and time. Off to a good start isn't he? Strife continued to trek through the forest double timing since he was an impatient one and soon came to the mountain range and began climbing the mountains, walking up accessible paths while hugging walls, he could not use his Shadowflight wings, unfortunately those had also been locked so when climbing down he had to be careful.

Even Nephilim have their limits when it comes to resilience and a drop from the heights he was climbing from would mean certain death…

"Strife..." a voice whispered in the distance.

Strife turned to look at the horizon where he thought the voice had come from, all he saw was a crow flying, Strife sighed as he began to continue climbing down but when he got halfway down he noticed something shiny in the ice.

Strife brushed away some of the ice, it was metal, Strife scraped some more ice away and even tore a small chunk or two away, it was a bit of chain. Strife touched it, nothing happened, probably just a stray bit of metal.

Abit of snow fell on him from above, "damn it!" He exclaimed from the cold shock of it and he lost his footing and fell but luckily he righted himself and landed on his feet, the ice cracked slightly under the sudden impact but held.

Strife looked back up and for a second he could have sworn he had seen what looked like a tail of a lizard, but it vanished quickly. "What the hell?" Strife muttered to himself. Then he heard a caw, Strife looked to see the same crow again, the crow flew around Strife then dived a little and changed course to some smoke rising up from an area of mountain…

What? There was smoke rising up from an area of the mountain!, smoke meant fire and civilization, "you trying to tell me something aren't you" Strife said, "Alright I'll bite". Strife traveled through the mountains and followed the crow to his destination.

A few hours later

Strife was tired and cold, but being a horseman he could endure it, he had arrived in what seemed like a village, an abandoned village, with strange ice statues surrounding the entire area. "These things are gonna come alive aren't they" Strife thought as he walked through a crowd of the statues.

Then he heard something, "no no!" A cry, "Me just wanted woman!"didn't sound very intelligent. Then there was what sounded like something flying through the air at speed. Looking up Strife saw something triangular shaped heading towards him, the shape landed on the head on one of the ice warrior statues.

It bounced on the snow and rolled until stopping at Strife's feet. It was the head of an ape-like creature with a horn on its head, "uh what the hell?" Strife said to himself as he bent down to look at the head, then there was a creaking noise.

Strife looked at one of the ice statues, it was very viking like with a metal horned helmet, rounded shield and axe. It had moved, only a little, but still it moved, Strife stiffened as his hands slowly went to his pistols, the thing moved again, this time it shattered a bit of ice and shock of some snow.

The warrior swung it's axe at it came alive, "grrrr" it growled as it banged it's axe on it's shield, Strife didn't waste time in firing at the warrior as it charged with shield raised, the Shield blocked all of the shots and the ice warrior swung it's axe, Strife ducked under the swung then rolled out of the way of a slash downwards.

The warrior then tried to bash Strife with the shield but Strife parried it with his guns(he could not summon his Sabers either unfortunately) and Shot at the ice creature's chest with Redemption, it staged as Strife finished it off by Shooting it in the back with Mercy.

"Now i know their weakness, a backstab" Strife said, then he heard what sounded like a low moaning, it sounded close by, Strife curiosity, despite how aware of the danger he was in, couldn't be repelled, he walked through the village, luckily no other ice warrior had woken up, if he had as much trouble with the first then any more would be a great problem.

However Strife soon found himself at some kind of temple, japanese style temple, Strife then heard the moan again, it was louder this time and more aggressive, Strife readied himself for combat. He was not disappointed as a demonic creatures jumped down from the roof of the castle and into the courtyard in front of him.

It stood double the size of a regular man, it was grey with entire lower area covered completely in fur including it's tail, it had sharp white claws and bony claws and a bit of bone covering it's chest and bony spikes jutting out of it's back and elbows, two horns on either side of its head made it slightly more intimidating than it already did.

"The hell are you supposed to be?" Strife asked as he drew his pistols as the thing stood on it's two fur covered legs, it roared at Strife and pounced with it's claws outstretched, "Crap" Strife exclaimed as he dove out of the way and set to work firing on the beast, without his powers this could be the end of him.

Strife aimed for the head mostly but all that did was annoy and bruise the creature slightly, it didn't take long to act again as it once again pounced, Strife ran up the nearby wall and effortlessly jumped over the creature as it landed firing bullets at it's back, the creature quickly grabbed nearby bolder with one hand the tossed it at Strife.

It made contact and made Strife loose balance as he fell to the ground clutching his head, the creature once again punched this time slashing at Strife and if it weren't for his armor it would have been a lethal blown the creature then grabbed Strife and slammed him down to the ground then stomped on him painfully, "urgh crap" Strife gasped as he looked fro his guns, but saw a very long and sharp set of icles nearby, he rolled out of the way of another of the creatures claws and quickly ran to the icles.

The beast didn't seem unduly worried, where could Strife go and he was clearly no match for the creature so it waited to see what Strife would do next, Strife snapped off one of the sharp icicles, "okay i'm ready" he told the beast who roared anc charged and raised both hands to pound Strife, but Strife aimed carefully and through the icle like a spear.

It sailed through the air and impacted, in the beasts eye and impaled halfway their, the creature roared in fury and clawed at it's eye, Strife grabbed another icle and climbed up the building to the roof. The creature managed to snap half of the icle and looked around for Strife.

Strife backed up a little bit, then he ran shouting "hey UGLY!" he jumped as the creature looked and tossed the second Spear, this time it went Straight through to the creatures brain, the beast howled in pain as it stumbled aimlessly around, Strife landing behind it saw that it was stumbling towards him and began to run but he wasn't quick enough and the creature performed one last slash with its claws in the same place it had slashed before.

This time the claws penetrated the armor and cut deeply as well as Knock Strife through a wall and as fate would have it, impaled him on a splintered wooden stake that used to be part of a pillar for a part of the roof that had collapsed in that area over the years. Outside the Creature laid there and died.

Strife was doing the same, he had lost his powers, his horse, his weapons and now he was about to loose his life, he wasn't afraid about Death claiming him, Death was very caring to his brothers, but Still it could not end like this, Strife pulled himself off the splintered bit of wood.

Using what little strength had left he began to walk, further and further he limped more and more, the pain becoming greater and greater, after what seemed like hours he came to another part of the valley, it was big and deep the walls almost seeming to confine him…. "Strife..." that whispered voice again and this time he fell to the ground in pain unable to get up and that crow, no not a crow a raven, two ravens, perched on a branch watched him.

They seemed almost familiar to him, Strife looked at them, "Strife..." the voice repeated louder this time, "your time is not up yet…" and Strife began to feel a pull on him, pulling him back the way he came, "oh no" Strife breathed as he clawed at the earth and tried to crawl away, "No no no" he called.

"You can't escape it but we need you more then ever and so does this world, you have ran for too long, you have hid for too long, now is your time to fight…." it finished as Strife was Dragged, blood spilling from his wound and into darkness.

"I know many strange things horseman" Said a voice in Strife head as he dreamed, dreamed of the post apocalyptic city on earth "but yours a certainly an odd sort, you figured out long ago that the council were corrupt and believed only in self interest, and so your trying to bring them down". Images of heaven and hell floated in Strife's mind as the figure spoke.

"You wish to make sure that balance is restored because the humans are part of the balance and so without them on their original kingdom, there will not be balance"

Images this time of corrupted guardians on the makers homeworld walked into Strife's mind and the Hellguard angels that often patrolled earth flew straight afterwards, "but now Lucifer has caste you out, stripped you of your power, sent you to this unknown world where i myself thrive. And you think you have failed?"

The voice in his head began to laugh as he saw a strange creature in his mind, he never saw anything like it, it was very insect like and played a spiders web in a nearby tree like a banjo

"You have not failed you have simpe been set on a different course to make a difference, stop all this talk about your brother being cruel, he does what he needs to for your sake, you have helped your sister back on her feet be proud of that and as for your Brother you have let all who believed war guilt now believe he is innocent" Strife's hope began to rise as these strange words.

"Hahahahaha, when you awaken horsemen i shall give you the quest your were destined to, a new adventure awaits you on this world, for what happens here, now stop this ill Karma...AND WAKE UP".

Strife jolted into awakeness hit his head on something and fell out of bed, he laid their processing what had happened, "ow" Strife complained, "urgh" he looked up and saw the two crows from before, "about time you was awake horseman, i have been here for a damn long time worrying" said a scottish accented voice.

Strife looked up, to find a male angel with rather small wings, a gold and red armored attire, golden hair with horns on his forehead, and stitched all along his neck, "who-who the hell are you?" Strife asked, "i'm i back in heaven or have i moved on to somewhere worse?" the angel chuckled as he went over to a desk and picked up two artifacts, "too the liberty of making a few adjustments and repairs to them" the angel said.

It was Mercy and Redemption, Strife hurriedly took them and put them in their holsters, "you don't know me but i know you as my vaste collection might indicate to yah, a sad sight for a sod like me to see back in the valley after hearing all the stories of your might".

One of the crows cawed, "shut it you both of yah, this ain't valhalla no more" the angel said, "hold up let explain to me everything starting with who you are, who they are and what they have to do with Valhalla?" Strife finally exploded. "Oh you may have heard of me during my service to Odin, names Raziel the knowledge keeper, smartest man alive", "wait Mimir?, last I heard you were dead not having the job of a librarian, at least you got your wings back. but what's with the stitches?" Strife said.

"Let's just say the Vanir weren't the only one to lose their heads" Raziel said, "and you remember Huginn and Muninn? After Odin died at ragnarok i took the liberty of putting them into my services, they are now knowledge collectors".

Huginn and Muninn, the two Ravens of odin, giving to odin by crowfather up until Ragnarok where odin died and asgard was left in ruins, Asgard a sections of the kingdom of man, olympia being another, many of the gifts and gods in mythology were like the Seven Deadly Sins that Fury had hunted down, embodiments of whatever humans worships, except many of the gods in roman mythology and those that did exist were basically just the greek gods who sometimes came over to see how things were

As for many of their weapons and artifacts, they were made by the makers in hopes of preparing quicker for the end war and giving humanity a chance to become more powerful, but as time went on, Ragnarok happened killing all of the norse gods, the olympian/roman gods no longer had enough belief from the humans to exist and so on and so forth.

As for their weapons without owners the council decided that these artifacts were to close to being in the hands of two who would threaten the balance, so they tasked a demon and in watching over them by blasting him and the weapons into the universe.

"So you saved my life" Strife said matter of factually, as Raziel took out a book and began to read it "aye that i did" Raziel replied turning the page, "why?" Strife asked, "why not, your better company then those two sods" Raziel said gesturing to the two ravens who cawed angrily in response. Strife gave him a look that said 'oh really?', "fine" Raziel relented, "i need your help, there is a problem on the world you were on, at the moment you are in my library on another plane of existence, but something has gone wrong".

"How have things gone wrong?, infact how can things go even more wrong?" Strife asked, "Lucifer has sent you to where he sends all his problems, including his rivals, most of them in tomb and comas, but someone has released them", "why is that not sounding like the worst problem you have on your list?" Strife asked.

"Because the world you were onus the second kingdom of man", "seco-wait WHAT?!" Strife said dumbstruck, "as Eden was the first kingdom of man, the seed of humanity spread across the universe, this is the second kingdom of man and they have powerful magic, magic is an everyday life on this world, compared to pulling a rabbit out of the hat, many of this magic could give them a powerful advantage".

"Do you know exactly what magic they are looking for?" Strife asked, "i do not, whoever it is, but i can tell you it ain't good, i need you to stop them and figure out the plan as you go along" Raziel said. "But-sorry old timer, but i'm useless now, no powers, not so much as a flicker" Strife said sadly, Raziel nodded his head thoughtfully then had an idea.

"Your not totally useless, chin up you big fuck and i have an idea of what do to" Raziel said as he hurriedly got to work, and took Strife's belt buckle that had his holster on them, "hey" Strife exclaimed as he made an unsuccessful grab for them, Munnin made a noise that sounded like chuckling. Raziel took a set of tools, and put a pair of goggles on.

Strife watched in fascination as he worked, it was not just anyone who could snatch his belt, and many more powerful had tried, rarely admittedly but still, "here you are" Raziel said handing Strife back his belt. Strife was going to be double cautious now about his belt, "what did you do" Strife asked, "once you get down it will activate, and your powers will come back in the form of the magic the humans use" Raziel explained.

"Talk me through the humans down below will yah" Strife said wanting a demo talk before actually going down. "Right your powers will come back one at a time" Raziel explained "your type of magic will be Shadow and Holder magic if anyone asked got it?" Strife nodded, "good oh and to use the magic, you have to access the magic flow of the planet, shouldn't be a problem considering the adjustment i did to your person, now yah ready?".

"Already Angel see you soon when this is all over" Strife said, "good fucking luck horseman" was the last thing Strife said when he disappeared in through a magic portal created underfoot.