*hangs head* So... so sorry to keep everyone waiting for this chapter. I've had a lot of distractions lately and not enough motivation to get back on the computer, plus this chapter had a lot of improvising. That's still no excuse, I know, and I thank you all for your patience, especially when I sorta left you guys on a bit of a cliffhanger last time. Anyway, I'll try to be better about updating, promise. Alrighty, with that said, on with the action- trust me, there's plenty of it in this chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the universe of Darksiders II. That belongs to the original developers and creators of the game. Eleyna, however is mine. The wonderful pic of Eleyna was made by the awesome 'The phantom's girl' on the Dark Fairy creator game on the Azaleas Dolls website.

Chapter Five: The Nook

Death could only usher Despair through the forest, toward Eleyna's home, in desperation. He could hear his trusted mount huffing with each pressured step, but he could not afford to be late- not now.

All too soon, he found himself facing the path towards her tree home- blocked. The thorns seemed to have exponentially grown- not only in size, but also in density, thus creating a vast barrier that blocked any form of entry into the forest.

"Damn." he spat, his glaring eyes scrutinizing to try and find some way around this. After deliberating for just a moment, he pulled forth his scythes, blades ready to shear through the wood if need be. Before he could step toward the wood, however, a rapid rustling sounded in his ears. The next thing he knew, a flash of autumn auburn burst from the thorns and Eleyna's small body collided with his. Whatever was in that forest must've frightened her horribly, for no sooner did she collide with him, she started thrashing against him, her words lost amongst her screams and near tears. Death's only thought was that he had to calm her down, thus he abandoned one of his scythes in order to grab her shoulder and force her to face him. "Eleyna," he rasped out. She stilled upon hearing his voice, and for that moment, their eyes met.

Suddenly a great rumble erupted from the forest of thorns. He heard her fearful whimper and pushed her forcefully behind him. His twin scythe blades were flourished as if they were extensions of his own arms. Carefully did he watch until he saw it, moving down beneath the earth, uprooting rock and dirt and grasses and sending such manner of detritus flying. Swiftly did it move past them as Death scooped up Eleyna, pulling her out of harm's way. The creature moved on, toward a large tree. It surfaced and he finally realized that the creature was serpent- like, formed of dark, metallic thorns. It shot its upper torso into the air, winding around the base of the tree. It faced the two and then let out an ghastly sound- something akin to a roar.

With as high up on the tree as it was, he could only surmise that it was at least a good mile long- suffice it to say that the creature's lower body was still underground. This was not just a creature that had been merely created in the blink of an eye- no, this monstrosity had taken time to grow, since Corruption did not create, but rather twisted, and the thorns had provided the perfect medium for its nasty magic. Before he could ponder more on its origin, however, the serpent opened the ground with the rest of its body, whipping its tail about. Death gripped onto Eleyna before the thorns could snatch at her. At this point, he could only note that the girl was at a complete loss- if her silence could be noted. It indicated to him that his thoughts had been true- the Corruption sought a useful fuel source in a being that could create. While Eibhlen's magic was in short supply, there was more that could be found in the young mage currently behind him. It did not take him much to understand that she had tried to fight this creature, but had made the mistake of using her magic against it, falling for the trap so cunningly laid for her.

After securing her behind him he again crossed his arms so that the blades of the twin scythe blades faced toward the enemy. He paused for only a moment, taking in the situation before he launched himself forward, towards the tunneling creature. It must have sensed the challenger known as the Horseman Death, because at that moment it rose from the ground, lunging for its prey. He anticipated this and leapt for the thorn beast, meeting it halfway.

At the very last second, he merged the two of his blades, creating the one large blade and swung so that it plunged into the beast's head and used his charging momentum to swing himself onto its back. The creature did not take very well to this and thrashed; Death, in response, stuck the blade down at the juncture of head and body. In an attempt to shake him, the thorny serpent again dove under. Death, however, had foreseen this and rapidly hacked into the serpent's body, caging himself in the beast's body. Dirt and rock sprayed over him between the thorn branches. An eerie greenish glow then caught his attention- at the center of this horrid creation, he could see plain as day a green orb that was connected to every massive thorn branch. He moved for it, but found his path blocked by rapidly growing branches; they did not last long against his blades. The thorns that grew at his feet were dodged without thought. Finally, he reached the orb and swung into it.

A great shrieking rang in his ears, again unlike anything he had ever heard before and the serpent surfaced, thrashing in the air. While it did indeed thrash about in agony, Death cut himself free and landed but a few feet away from its body. He turned about and found Eleyna not too far away, ready to run if necessary.

With that, he turned back toward her pursuer; the thorny creature had attempted to move away, to burrow itself beneath the ground, but he would not allow it. Instead, at that moment, he struck the blade of his still-intact larger scythe into the ground and then morphed into the terrifying cloaked creature. Bony fingers grabbed the scythe by its handle and then sliced through thorns so quickly that the enemy had no way of defending itself. The large, nasty blade dug through the thorns and right into the glowing orb- which was now bleeding and oozing with the black matter. The orb then fell apart in two even halves and the serpent of thorns stopped struggling for dear life.

Eleyna swallowed out of nerves as she timidly approached, realizing just past her shock and fright that her mouth had been dry this whole time. Death morphed back into his usual visage and pulled his scythes up to rest at either side of his waist before he looked to her. Slowly did he approach, surveying her condition. Small cuts and nicks covered her skin and clothing from where she had pushed herself through the thorns. She seemed otherwise a little winded, but nonetheless alright- physically.

"I see you were handling that fairly well." he noted, sarcasm dripping from his voice. She glared up at him sharply.

"I didnae expect that- thing to come up through the ground the way it did.

"And when you used your powers against it, it used those to its advantage."

"I was caught off-guard." she argued.

"Naturally." he countered, a hint of arrogant smugness in his voice. If looks could kill as her eyes narrowed further...

"Why are you even here now, anyway? I thought ye did what ye had to." He could only let loose a small chuckle at her childish tone when she snapped at him. With a roll of his eyes he walked past her.

"Many in your situation would offer thanks after being saved, not that I expect it."

"Oh good;" she countered, "because I am in no mood to give it."

"Tell me," he began as she started to walk away; thankfully she paused to listen, "what do you know of Eibhlen?"

"The immortal?" Eleyna questioned cynically. When his response was merely a silent stare, she knew then that he was not in the mood to play games with her. She sighed. "Only what I've heard in the tales, Horseman. You telling me that I have powers similar to hers is not news to me."

"Then I don't have to spell out to you why Corruption formed that creature and sent it after you. Good." he deadpanned before giving a raspy sigh. He didn't want to traipse back to the Tri-Stone just to get an idea of where to find this Stone Warden. "As a guardian of this forest, you must know where the remaining Stone Warden is." He glanced at Eleyna, who gazed back at him. At first she was silent, but then her eyes flickered north, towards ruins in an uncovered corner. Without a word, Death turned and began to make for them. He paused then as he heard her tentative footsteps behind him. He didn't say anything- she made sure he couldn't.

"At this point, I donnae have a home to return to and it's dangerous for me to be out in the open. As much as I'd hate to admit it, the safest place to be is with you."

"The irony is not lost on me." he commented lowly. "Come then, Eleyna." he stated.

They entered the immense ruins, ascending into the main part of the opening room when he found something most interesting: a pile of boulders- expertly carved boulders- some of which were suspended over the others. He took the Maker's Key and lodged it within a carven circle, from whence the gleaming aura of violet surrounding the stones came from. All at once, the stones pulled themselves together, forming a wide-shouldered construct that balanced on a carven orb, glowing a bright fire of blue in its joints. Death was mildly impressed with this outcome, reaching up and swinging himself onto its shoulder. He paused in his control in order to allow Eleyna a hand. She stood at his side, forced to hold on for dear life as he began to move the construct towards an indentation in the floor.

Once their stony friend was secure in the indentation, she pointed to him where a hatch had apparently opened upon activation across a deep square indentation in front of them. It was fairly high up on the wall, just ending at a platform beyond which was presumably their door forward. He wanted to reach it, and thus, apparently, the construct read his need and held out its great, bulky hand. But a second later, the hand launched toward the hatch, followed by a great, thick chain. Death couldn't help but be pleased by this fortunate outcome, even if only minutely. He reached for Eleyna and pulled her over his shoulder once more- not without hearing the grumbling of the young guardian, to his mild amusement. Securing the construct custodian, he stepped onto the chain, maintaining his balance and distributing his weight carefully yet quickly. After letting her down, he pushed open the doors and the two once more stepped into the open air.

What they were greeted with was something interestingly new- constructs of smaller build, but covered in black matter. Both of them knew instantly, without needing to see the eerie black crystals that seemed to be growing out of the backs of each stone enemy that they had been Corrupted. Death stepped forward, ready to fight, while Eleyna drew back. As long as it took him to wonder why, he figured it out only seconds later; in her panic to get away from her would-be captor, Eleyna had left behind her seeds, her staff, her scrolls and maps, everything. Death could only groan beneath his breath; he did not sign up to be a guardian- especially to a girl whom apparently attracted nothing but trouble. Rather than voice his opinion, however, he opted to let out his frustration on these new annoyances running through and slashing at them.

Had he looked, he would have noticed that Eleyna bent down, touching her hand to the grass, murmuring beneath her breath. Beneath her hand, small lights of green pulsed from each separate blade of grass along small spiritual channels into the outstretched limb. From that collected energy came a small capsule that could fit between two of her delicate fingers. Pressing it into the ground, she outstretched her hand. After a moment of concentration- which miraculously was uninterrupted even as Death managed to launch a Corrupted construct right past her, missing her by mere inches- she pulled her hand away from the ground, pulling with a small amount of magical force a rapidly growing sapling. From it, she again reached in as it began to twist, grabbed it, and raced in to begin her own battle. At that time, there were only a few left, but she wasn't about to complain. Rather, she quelled her grumbling heart by expertly keeping the constructs distracted with a few well-placed hits.

When the dust settled, the two were left facing each other, with him glancing in marginal approval at her gain of a weapon before he turned into a small, ruined alcove where an inert bomb waited. Not needing preamble, he threw it at a cluster of Corruption crystals that blocked any other way out in the corner opposite. Following Eleyna, who again used her powers and made the grass grow under her, springing her up and onto the ledge above, they surveyed the nearly empty and bottomless room. Death again grabbed Eleyna, who stayed silent, instead looking anywhere but at the Horseman she was now clinging to.

Death carefully walked along the wooden outpost, leaping with a flip- which in turn caused Eleyna to tense on his back- and latching onto the bared vertical beam before them. He scaled quickly and harshly to the top, then leaping onto the first of four more horizontal beams. From the last one, he leapt to an exposed ledge on the wall and then dropped down to another, which led them around the corner at last to safely put their feet on the ground.

He dropped down after her and followed her down the winding stairs and out into what appeared to be a main courtyard. The company they met there was not of the friendly variety, made clear by the stingers that were turned on them the moment they were spotted.

"It is a shame that you no longer carry your seeds with you." he noted lowly before pulling forth his scythes and racing in. Whilst he kept the stingers at bay, she raced for the nest and began to bash in the nest, also making sure to knock away any stingers that came too close. Easily were they dealt with, but the unlikely duo did not stop to pat themselves on the back. Eleyna ran ahead, past where the remnants of the stinger's nest lied and at the set of doors opposite where they had just come from, leading into the mountain itself. He followed her into a cavernous room, at the base of a tall, spiraling staircase and assisted her by slashing and finishing off what had been started by her and the immensely powered swings from her staff.

"Do you know where we are going?" he asked her.

"Up." she replied. "The place we are looking for rests within the heights of the mountain."

Thus, up the spiral staircase they went, with him racing ahead to hack through the Corrupted constructs. Those he left behind were subjected to a blow from her staff- one even losing its balance over the railing and falling into the water stories below with a sound smack. When they came to a gap between their walkway and the way forward- which was over their head and beyond their reach, he lifted Eleyna and thrust her across effortlessly. No sooner had she touched the wall was she climbing. He waited until she was safely at the top before he, too, made his way to the top and pulled himself up. From there, they dropped down and followed the singular walkway and took the door out, back into the open.

"This way," she encouraged, running out into the open quickly and going around the bend. He followed closely behind her, only to hear her groan. To say he wasn't mildly amused at the source of her frustration would have been a lie- for there plain as day, standing to the side of the massive entrance to the massive and strange building they were likely to next enter, was Karn, shining up his hammer with a good dose of spit.

"Pup never does as he's told." she grumbled. "I didn't think you would come so far from the Tri-Stone." she said slightly louder toward the young Maker, who made a face back at her.

Wanting to move the conversation past their childish antics, Death approached. "What can you tell me about this place?"

"I've been here but the once. The time I tried to tip a construct." Eleyna started to say something, not that the expression on her face didn't already speak volumes in its incredulity. Instead, she resigned to allow her hand to fall into her open palm.

"A fine sport." Death replied, his slight bemusement and annoyance shining in his sarcasm.

"Aye, 'tis!" replied Karn, and Eleyna could only groan at the fact that the sarcastic comment had gone over the young one's bald head, again to Death's slight amusement. "I could but nudge him an inch, before my nerves gave out. The whole time, I felt Muria watching me..."

As riveting as Death found this explanation to be, it did not help in the slightest in preparing him for whatever was in there. He groaned inwardly and stepped away from the two. Up the stairs he went; she was quick to catch up with him, but not before shooting a pointed glare at Karn.

She caught up after ascending a second flight of stairs. The cave of a room had two magnificent winding staircases that led up to a pair of doors forward. In addition, there were prowlers waiting for them. Death dealt with them as mercilessly as possible, already slightly annoyed at the moment.

After continuing his ascent and meeting Eleyna at the top balcony, the two proceeded through the door to the next long hall. Another pile of boulders soon became a construct custodian when Death unlocked it. He quickly leapt from one arm to the shoulder of the creation and swung himself up onto its back and then reached down, bony fingers outstretched for Eleyna to accept. When he was certain that she was secure and not going to fall off any time soon, he turned his attention to the crystals blocking their path. "Hold on." he told her lowly; forcing his will into the custodian beneath, he had the thing swing in a wide arc. The desired effect was indeed achieved, crushing through the crystal and clearing it effortlessly, which helped in turn to assuage some of Death's annoyance. He carefully guided the construct into the cavity carved into the floor and then both he and Eleyna disembarked.

The next room they entered was also wide and cavernous, but also strangely empty. That caused her senses to run haywire. Death, however, kept going. Eleyna reached for him, but faltered when a sudden green flash caught their attention. From the wall, a carven face became flooded with the liquid black matter that was Corruption and it detached itself from the column, floating over until it was directly in front of Death, with Eleyna standing not too far behind. At their sides, there suddenly appeared several constructs that dug themselves up from the ground.

Death raised both arms, pulling from the ground a set of caskets. The corpses that erupted angrily from said caskets raged and rampaged upon the constructs, flanked by Eleyna. Death, meanwhile, took to shooting at the floating head upon realizing that it was the thing that was pulling the strings. As it had no way to defend itself, it had nothing to do but take each of the shots as they chipped away at its stone face. It did attempt a small, last-ditch effort to position itself over his head and shoot down a bright, Corruption-green laser upon him, but Death- anticipating this- leapt upward, quickly drawing out the twin scythes and hacked at it with one, two, three slashes. What remained of the ruined stony face fell around him once he landed. The construct that Eleyna had been attempting to demolish broke apart before she even had time for one more swing- as did the rest of the stone creatures.

The sound of shifting stone brought their attention to the eastern hall, which was unfortunately blocked. He, however, noted that the panel of stone that had turned around had a wooden outcropping, which would give him a boost to the exposed ledge conveniently rounding the corner just over the crystals.

"Stay here." he told her before he began climbing. She didn't utter a word, but he could sense either annoyance or at the very least ill ease from her, but still he moved until he dropped down and out of sight.

The hallway was quiet- an unnerving change for Death, but he pressed forward. At last, he came upon another large side chamber, across the way, where there could have been a bridge, he saw the soft violet glow of another potential custodian he could put to work. Thus he took the path along the side of the 'moat'. He dropped down onto another Corrupted construct with his scythes ready to raze. Up the steps he went afterward, having his spectral hands summon the key to unlock the construct. Once it was awakened, he climbed up and onto its shoulder before sending it forward and having it launch out its hand at the crystals across the way, where he had been blocked off. The switch he spotted, without a doubt, lifted the bridge. He jumped off quickly and made his way around the moat back to the other side to pull the switch. Sure enough, the bridge lifted from the water; yet as Death made to return and guide his creation across the bridge, he heard the breaking of ground behind him. It started in subtle- perhaps just one foolish construct trying out its luck- and then he heard more. Rather than waste his time, Death raced for his construct, leaping onto its shoulders once more. The custodian moved again with life and, as per it's master's instruction, it raised its arm and swung mightily at the smaller stone men. He found with satisfaction that they crumbled beneath this worker-turned-weapon, as did the crystal when he made his way back down the hall.

He also found himself pleased to see that Eleyna was right where he had left her- it saved him the trouble of having to find her and keep babysitting her in the long run. She stood up on the steps of one of the two great staircases leading into the supposed inner sanctum of this place.

"No luck gettin' in there." she murmured, glancing over her shoulder. "It requires a key."

"Then a look in the only place we haven't been is in order." Death replied, turning to the other hallway and guiding the custodian over. While Death focused then on having the chained arm shoot across the chasm in the floor, Eleyna reached out to the flora growing just across the way. After a second, it reached for her, with a tendril reaching around her wrist. The other vines quickly reached for her; with utmost care, she balanced herself on her feet as she walked across the vines, making her way to the other side flawlessly. Her role with the vines was not over, however. As Death shot down another carven orb with the use of an inert bomb, more constructs dug themselves out of the ground. Eleyna, this time, however, was ready, sending the vines forward to wrap around the round ankle of the stone soldier. Effortlessly, the vine lifted it and then swung it into the path of the others, knocking stone against stone with a loud crash.

He, on the other hand, focused on maneuvering past the pair of rising gates guarding the chest at the end. The first was overcome as he settled the orb into the basin in the floor. After that, he took the inert bomb from the area in between the two gates and threw it before detonating it with Redemption. Liberating the key into his possession, he climbed back over with the help of growing vines and an old wooden wall post. Eleyna had busied herself with the flora, having had something placed into her hand , which she quickly pocketed. She stepped carefully across, back into the cavernous room just after him.

Unlocking the spectral lock on the door at the top of the left most staircase, Death crossed over via the vines overhead. She watched as he effortlessly made his way over and then dealt with a few more stony foes before pulling the switch. She jumped down, following him as he retreated to the construct custodian, hefting her up before he pulled himself up.

They rode through the rectangular hall on the shoulders of the great stone creation, with him directing it to destroy the crystals obstructing their way with swings of its great strong hands. At last, they reached another long hall. The stony helper was left in favor of walking after it was guided into another basin.

The next chamber was round, supported by columns reaching up toward the broken ceiling. The door ahead was straight ahead, just up the stairs. Around them, though, the stone faces had made a reappearance, glowing that eerie green. All of them drifted down to the center of the room, forming a circle, and then fired their laser attacks upon the floor in a manner of a challenge before all but one returned to their posts on the wall.

"Take care of its drones." he directed.

"I am one step ahead of you." she replied as she pulled out her staff and lunged forward. He, on the other hand, took out Redemption and began firing upon the stone face until it broke and fell to the floor. Eleyna, at this point, had taken out the few seeds she had managed to collect earlier and caused them to grow in order to assist her. Small plants became the strong limbs of giant tress within seconds and had their strong limbs knock the enemies away with a wave of her hand. Death, in the meantime, kept firing upon the stone faces; they had synchronized a pattern, it seemed, favoring to go in order. With each face's turn, they brought out enemies in order to keep the Horseman and the young natural witch distracted. It seemed to the Horseman though, that the fewer of the sentinels there were, the more powerful enemies that appeared. He had just finished off another of the sentinel faces when he paused.

"Eleyna!" he called, collecting a burst of speed to get to her before the larger construct soldier- almost like the one he had fought in the Cauldron- could complete its advance upon her. Before she could even register what was happening, she felt strong, steel-like arms around her, followed by a cold torso pressed against her back before she felt herself pulled back. For a moment, she wasn't even touching anything save for the Nephilim now holding her tight as he moved back. When he was back on his feet, he was quick to relieve Eleyna from his hold and out came the scythe.

"Thanks." she panted, a little more surprised than hurt. Death didn't respond but instead raised his hand, summoning more caskets of his rabid ghouls to attack with and keep distracted the larger enemies while he picked off the remaining two sentinels with loud shots from Redemption. When finally all was silent, he gazed at her as he passed and then turned his attention on the door forward. Eleyna followed silently behind with her head lowered, but that was only so she could hide her blush.

The crumbling building they entered next offered only one way forward: by taking a door to their left. On the other side of said door was a long, narrow hall with virtually no floor. "I'll need you to hold on." he told her as he took her wrist again and pulled her onto his back. By this point she had learned it was better not to ask and let him do what he needed to do- not that she appreciated being carried around like an invalid. She was slightly amazed at the extreme agility Death used when he leapt onto the wall and dug his hand into it, proceeding to run along the length. When he found himself almost too low, he leapt to the other side, repeating the process.

"Incredible." she murmured. Imagine her embarrassment when he chuckled and she realized that she had said it out loud. Rather than a snappy comeback, she pulled herself tighter to him so as to hide said embarrassment. He landed with a surprising amount of grace almost directly through the gaping hole in the wall but didn't let her get down as his eyes fell upon a narrow gap in the high wall ahead of them. At this point, as he was about to climb up, she scrambled down from his back.

"I am not an invalid." she hissed. "While I'm grateful that ye came to help me when ye did, I prefer not to be treated like I'm completely helpless, thank you." She looked up and noted the tree high above. She held her hand out to it and before she knew it, the roots of said tree burst out of the ground and scooped her up. With a satisfied smirk, she stepped onto the higher ledge, but what she found made her freeze.

Death followed after her quickly by scaling first one wall and then leaping to the other one parallel, repeating the process until he could pull himself up onto the high ledge with her. Looking at Eleyna, he noted that she had moved forward, towards an ancient-looking tree.

"I-" she choked, "I know this place." She looked up at the mighty branches of the great tree. "I woke up here, for the first time."

"I seem to recall Eidard telling me that you have been among the Makers for some time." he remarked. "Do you recall anything from before that?" She shook her head.

"Only that it was cold, and the sky was falling around me." Death's eyes narrowed at this information.

"That monster wasn't sent after you for no reason. I'm inclined to believe that it thinks you to be Eibhlen." To this, he received a derisive snort, hardly ladylike. "My thoughts exactly." This caused her to glare at him with glowing green eyes. "Nevertheless, you do have a strange gift."

"Is that as close as ye'll dare to a compliment?" she asked.

"I have a reputation to live up to." he countered. "All the same, it makes you a prime target for Corruption. In all intents and purposes, you were right."

"Oh stars in the heavens," she started in mock-disbelief, "it's a bloody miracle. Pray tell, Pale Rider, what exactly was I right about?"

"That the safest place for you to be right now is with me."

Alrighty, finishing up the other half of the temple level and possibly entering the Foundry next chap. Hope you guys enjoyed. See you next time, my awesome readers. ^^