I hope you enjoy this chapter and offer constructive feedback on what you think of it. Thank you and have a Great Day!
Hey guys, this is the first chapter of the story arc from ๐ฏ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐: ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐บ๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐. And like I said at the beginning of this story; this is Cross-Posted on AO3 under the same Fic name and under the same Name I use here; Nsydian. I have already posted 60+ chapters there, each chapter having many images, for more immersion.
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Chapter 43: Peace... Was Never an Option
โโโโโโโโง๐ โงโโโโโโโ
"๐๐ค๐ช ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ช๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ก-๐๐ก! ๐
๐ช๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ข ๐๐๐ฎ๐ค๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ง๐๐ซ๐!"
โ๐๐-๐ณ๐, ๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐
โโโโโโโโง๐ โงโโโโโโโ
โ
~Xฮ-Dะฆ~
~๐ฮฮฃ Pฮฮะ๐ำจM KIะG~
-Four Month Later-
Finallyโฆ
Throughout time, dimensions and universes, he found him again. The boyโฆ young, still weak, still fragile and soft, at least compared to the monster his father had becomeโฆ In a place where many want him to be as dead as he.
Jor-El, using the legendary Mirror-Box, an artifact nearly as old as time itself, came to this universe a long time ago. And in doing so, made many enemies. Most of them being demonic creatures from an infernal dimension called the Burning Hells.
It was the emergency signal activated by the guardian Nano-swarm defense system that brought Xa-Du here. The boy had been hurtโฆ badly. Alone, he would have died. But these primitives along with an angelic species came to his aid just in time to save him.
The other guardian, named Kelex, tried to enter this universe by force, but her intrusion was easily stopped by one of the Crystal Rods Xa-Du stole from the vault of the boy's mother along with a few other artifacts. It hasn't been easy, and it took Xa-Du nearly half a million years of real time calculation to break through the Matriarch of the House of El's security codes without her noticing it.
Lara Lor-Van is maybe the most dangerous woman he has met yet, but the Phantom Zone was his Kingdom well before she stole its crown from him. Now, even if he is only a vagabond in the Phantom Zone, the Void unconscious, he is still a master at moving unnoticed here.
It took a century to track the boy throughout the flows of time and universes, and then here, barely a year before some kind of weak celestial being made itself known to the Phantom King.
The one calling himself the Architect of the Eternal, the Silent Angel, contacted him the moment Xa-Du's existence touched this universe's membrane in search of Kal-El, in hope to end the boy's interferences in this small worldโฆ once and for all. Some grand plan to purge demonic essence from somethingโฆ Xa-Du won't lie, saying that the affairs of some backwater universe interest him in the slightest.
But if the thought of a temporary alliance makes him want to hurl, his choices are greatly limited.
Even now, in this endless Anti-infinite, as Xa-Du is still stuck in the Phantom Zone, his movements are restricted, both by the Aethyr that hunts him, and her, the usurper, the thiefโฆ the now crowned Queen of the Phantom Zone.
And soโฆ he will have to compromise with weaklings and aliens to kill the childโฆ To make them, Jor-El and Lara, suffer for all they did to Xa-Du.
This place, this small world where the primary way for those primitives to move around is to crawl in the mud or to ride other pathetic creatures. Primitives that also use some form of mystical gateway system to rapidly move between pointsโฆ a system the boy uses a fair amount of timeโฆ a system that can be easily hijacked and tapped intoโฆ to send him a gift that the boy will never forget.
That thought makes Xa-Du smile like never beforeโฆ After so long, vengeance at last.
None of that should have been possible without Xa-Du spying on the boy and the other abomination named Leahโฆ Unlike what the boy seems to believe, she is not only some kind of celestial and infernal hybridโฆ but whatever the boy calls Aura, has gifted the girl a bit of Kryptonian essence. Kal-El's essence. Nothing muchโฆ but enough for Kryptonian technology to react to her proximity.
Thisโฆ cannot stand.
Xa-Du may not care for muchโฆ But he still considers himself a proud and pure son of Krypton. This boy is a clear menace to their glorious and great culture, an abomination to what they are, their purity as a race and their beliefs. Him and the girl will have to dieโฆ painfully, for their transgressions.
Xa-Du, since he tracked down the last son of EL, has been watching him, discreetly, as even from the Phantom Zone, the boy can sense Xa-Du's gaze on him. How many times did the boy just look into nowhere, right at Xa-Du without seeing him? How many times Xa-Du had to stop watching in fear of him being discovered by the child's Guardians?
And Xa-Du may be prideful, yes, but he is not suicidal enough to face the remnants of the ๐๐ฃ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ง itself. Or as the boy calls it; Leviathan. Even at full power, a Kryptonian such as General Zod, engineered before birth to be the ultimate defender of Krypton, would not dare face the ancient machine created during the golden age of Krypton to combat entropy on a cosmic scale.
And so, Xa-Du has to play the long game, to wait for any moment of weakness, to hurt the boy in any way possible little by little. To break him mentalyโฆ to plant the seeds of doubt, to isolate him, to learn to better kill him.
None of that could have been possible without the Imp's helpโฆ ๐๐ฒ๐ง๐๐ค๐ญ๐ฏ๐ฑ. Whatever he wants, the dangerous and insane Imp, even for his kind, has proved himself helpfulโฆ too much even. But Xa-Du has nothing to fear from the fifth-dimensional imp. It has been a long time since Kryptonians developed countermeasures not only to counteract their reality-warping abilities, but also to contain or even kill those beings.
"๐๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐๐!" Xa-Du shouts, silencing the weeping and terrified creature in front of him.
He knows that this trapโฆ probably won't be enough. But the fallen angel assured him that he would use that moment of weakness to take care of the boy. Xa-Du scoffs. The boy, even if only a child, is still a threat that this Malthael has no hope of defeating in direct combat. But even if killing the child would be a dream coming true, Xa-Du is only here to gather data against the boy's defensive systemsโฆ and his unseen guardians. But also to make him suffer. Becauseโฆ that won't be fun if not.
"๐๐ค๐ฌ ๐ก๐๐ฉ ๐ช๐จ ๐จ๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐จ๐ฉ ๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐ช๐ฃ-๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ง, ๐๐ฉ๐๐ง ๐พ๐๐๐ก๐." The madman, looking at the juvenil imprisoned beast, laughs as the trap is set, knowing that just like his father, the boy's greatest weaknesses are his compassion and his sense of morality.
Now, all he needs to do is waitโฆ wait for the last son of EL to make a mistake.
A mistake that is about to happenโฆ right aboutโฆ now.
.
.
-๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐-
-New Tristram-
Johanna, after entering the Town Portal, cracks her back and sighs deeply, thinking that she really needs a massage and a very hot bath to loosen up her tired musclesโฆ "That and sleep." She thinks as she walks toward Kal and Leah's current workshop.
Even if her current quest has been met only with failure, she is happy to come back here. It has been a month since she left New Tristram in search of other Crusaders around Westmarchโฆ Yet, even if she would have found others, the chance of them accepting to follow her toward new Realms, or as Kal calls them; universes, are close to none.
And so, she will have to be alone to preach her faith about the Light in these places. She just hopes that the Arc family is as receptive as Kal is to new knowledge and ideologies, or at least open-minded enough for her to spread the Light of the Zakarum, the Inner Light, to their world. Knowing that most warriors of Remnant, Kal's adoptive world, use Aura, the Light of the Soul, brings her joy and hope for the future.
But any plan for said future would have to wait for now.
Entering Kal and Leah's shared workshop, she stops for a moment, looking at Kalโฆ She hides, or at least conceals her thoughts as she gazes at him. The boy, after a year here, has not even taken an inchโฆ Not that she had her doubts about Kal's species and their aging processโฆ But seeing him so small stillโฆ
That can't be easy, living with a kind that matures and dies so quickly. It took time for her to truly understand why the Healing Art is so important to him. His quest to give what he calls biological immortality to mortals โ something with just too many unknown words and lore for Johanna to completely comprehendโฆ but she can understand Kal's reasoningโฆ seeing the people you love wither away with the passage of time to then only die while you barely look like a child.
...That can only leave scars. Scars deeper than any physical wounds.
She shakes her head and sighs.
"Still experimenting?" Johanna asks as she comes closer to him.
"Huh uh." Kal nods, still looking at a runic array.
"What are you doing?" Johanna asks, looking over his shoulder as Kal keeps experimenting with a Horadric portal Waypoint.
"I am using the Runes Maude found to create a stable singularity projector. Or what you call a Waypointโฆ one who doesn't make me sickโฆ" He groans.
Johanna chuckles. Ever since he came here, Kal has not yet been able to overcome what he calls some kind of motion sickness. Something to do with some of the more mystical elemental effects of the portals that open from point to point.
"We are trying to rediscover the creation process of the Horadric Waypoints!" Says a voice behind a large wall.
"Leah? You are in there, girl?" Johanna smiles, hearing grunts of the working young woman from here.
"I am!" Leah responds before slowly walking out of her hidingโฆ spot.
Johanna, gaping, looks in shock at the young woman in front of her. She gazes at Leah for a minute before finally closing her mouth.
"You haveโฆ grown? Again?" Johanna voices her confusion.
"I have!" Happily replies Leah, showing her form, now at 6'2" (โ188cm). "I am not nearly as tall as you, but meh, close enough." She smiles, shrugging.
"And you're still growingโฆ" Kal crumbles at his desk. "Damn Nephalem bloodโฆ"
"Owh come on~" Leah smiles before walking to the small boy. "One day you'll be as strong and tall as anyone elseโฆ one day." She chuckles as she plays with his hair.
"Don't touch me! You damn giantess!" He says while shaking his head away from the laughing Leah.
"Don't be like that~" Leah chuckles as she gets back to her work. "I know you have a thing for tall women!"
"...Being small sucksโฆ" Kal crumbles while the Angelic Goblin and the flying golden golem come to himโฆ Johanna looks closer to the flying machine and sees things that were not there before.
"Runes?" The crusader voices her thoughts.
"Yep." Kal nods. "Probius' systems are sensitive to energy fluctuations and some spells could bypass his plasma barriers. These," He points to the many Runes all over the golden machine, "are meant to protect him further. I made other upgrades, butโฆ" He lightly cringes.
"I know, Kal. Your science is too advanced for me to grasp with my current understanding. I also know that I am not a scholar, but a warrior." Johanna shrugs playfully. "I'll leave that for you."
Kal, turning his head toward her, is about to speak when Leah calls for him.
"Kalโฆ?" Leah's voice begins to waver a little as she speaks his name.
"Yeah?" Kal turns his head in a blur toward Leah's part of their workshop.
"Have you put into place the control runes yet?!" The young woman asks.
"...I put the Heartstone and the Powercore in their chambersโฆ but they shouldn't work. Why?"
"Kal! The control runes?!" She asks again urgently.
"Iโ No. Why?" Before Kal can ask for more, a large and ominous, shadowy portal opens in the middle of the once inactif platform. "Leahโฆ?"
"This isn't me!" Leah says with a hint of fear.
"It seemsโฆ alive? Holy shit, it is." Kal whispers before widening his eyes in what must be shock mixt with a bit of terror. "Lev! Secure and protect protocolโ! LeahโMOVE!" The words die on his lips after blurring to Leah, pushing her away from the shadowy portal that, in a flash, projects some kind of dark appendages, many of them, that ensnare Kal's right arm to the shoulder only for their darkness to eat through his Aura in seconds as he screams in agony through clenched teeth.
โ
โซแตแดผแต -KฮL- แตแดผแตโซ
Everything was going so fucking wellโฆ
The day had begun so beautifully. Everything was fine!
Kal knew that he was too impatient. That placing both the Heartstone and the Powercore inside their ports could be problematicโฆ but he made the necessary calculations, and he knows for certain that said calculations were perfect. The Runic Control Rode, which was not even placed in the stony machine, whose sole purpose was to regulate and control the high energy transference and conversion needed between the Mystical Heartstone and the Runic Powercoreโฆ Well, its absence should have prevented any of that to happen.
There was no scenario where anything could go to shit, no place to be wrongโฆ The damn machine wasn't even connected to any network! No outside interference could mess this up, nothing should have been capable of connecting without the correct sequence codes he and Leah had created and the extra-dimensional know-how!
Or so he thought.
And because of his impatience and arrogance, some kind of juvenile being had used Kal's mistake to come throughโฆ No, it was his mistake that brought this thing here. No creature, or at least predator, because yes, this is one, should be that terrified. And this poor creature's whole consciousness, body and mind is gripped not by fear, but sheer terror, tremendous confusion, hungerโฆ and so much pain and despair. By a desire to survive. It doesn't understand why it has been hurt so much or why it was brought here.
A starved, small and young being who just wants to live.
"Emergency Protocols engaged! Overrating stealth protocol!"
A being that is slowly but surely is going to kill Kal if nothing is done quickly.
"Engaging Eradication Protocol!"
"Abort!" Kal yells, denying Leviathan's kill order while taking a small metallic tablet from his back.
"Kal! This thing isโ"
"I know!" Kal says through clenched teeth. "Containment Protocol only!" He shouts, feeling that creature feeding not just on his flesh, but also his stored Solar light. The pain is so much that he sees stars appearing in his vision.
"... Acknowledge. This is going to hurt, Kalโฆ"
Kal responds with a pained groan before tossing the small slab on the ground and behind the strange creature that is currently eating him. Probius, the Protoss drone, uses its tractor beam to hold Kal in place while the two stone pillars extend from the ancient tesseract his father left in this universe, breaking the ground and ceiling with ease as they deploy.
"Prepare for Emergency SpaceShift! Grit your teeth, Kal, while I prepare the MedBay."
"Anytime now!" Kal kicks his right foot into the ground as the grip of the shadow being gets so much strongerโฆ Or is it him that weakens?
The space around the creature shakes and warps as Leviathan engages the tesseract's Transwarp Systems. Kal's screams of agony fade into the singularity that drags the creature into its midst. His mind and nerves nearly fry from the pain as Kal struggles to escape the being's grip... it is as ifโ
Kal has to stop himself from falling back when the pressure around his arm and the creature disappear. He nearly stumbles, the many dots of light in his vision make it hard to see where he stands, just as the ringing in his ears makes it impossible for him toโฆ toโฆ
He blinks his eyes a few times, trying to clear... to...
He asks himself why it is so hard to think. And also why his body just won't move.
Kal turns his eyes to Leah and Johanna wanting to know if they are alright,โฆ they are, and well protected behind the crusader's towering shield, but it seems that both are bleeding from their ears. Johanna speaks to Leah. It is only Kal's ability to read lips that he knows that she asks the smaller girl if she is okay. Leah takes sometimes to respond as her ears are too damaged to listen.
Kal asks if they are okayโฆ or at least he tries. His throat feels like it is on fire, he can even taste his own blood in it. But whatever sound comes out of his mouth, or at least Kal's movements seem to work as Leah then turns toward him... and gasps. Johanna follows her gaze and takes a sharp breath.
Kal finds it so much more to breath nowโฆ he shakes his head, or at least he thinks he does and then mechanically turns his head and eyes to the right, to whereโฆ to whereโฆ
"Oohโฆ" Such is the only trembling word that leaves his lips, as he looks where there is supposed to be not only an arm... but a whole shoulder. He thinks he can even see his right lung through the gaping injuryโฆ He slowly understands why his windpipe is now so full of his own blood while his legs give up under him.
โ
-๐๐๐๐-
"Heavens! Kal!" Leah can't even hear herself as she rushes Kal. This doesn't help as Kal hits the ground before she can reach him. She kneels and sees a black and blue crystalline mist forms around hisโฆ hisโฆ "Oh gods!"
Leah knew that Kal's voice was powerfulโฆ but for both her and Johanna to lose their hearing due to itโฆ Damn.
She casts what she knows of Healing spells on both herself, trying to bring her hearing back, and Kalโฆ even if she knows that this won't do anything to grow back not only an arm but also a whole shoulder. The golden machine glides to Kal's side and starts toโ
"We are under attack!" Kharazim shouts as he enters the workshopโฆ only to then freeze as he sees the boy on the ground. "By the godsโฆ" He shuts his eyes and sighs deeply.
"Explains!" Johanna demands Kharazim while also kneeling at her sideโฆ Leah didn't even see Johanna walk near her.
"Weโฆ We have undead, ghosts, skeletonsโฆ hundreds of them, walking closer to us! I do not know where they were hiding, but we already lost the few people who were too far outside to come back in time." The monk replies, already using his own healing arts to give aid to the boy.
"...This was plannedโฆ" Johanna says through clenched teeth.
"Impossible."
"How can you be so sure?" Kharazim asks the one Leah knows as Leviathan.
"No being on this world as the technology to bypass myโ"
"LOOK AT HIM!" Johanna shouts, silencing the mysterious Leviathan, her eyes on the boy.
"..."
"This is not the time for bickering!" Kharazim tells them.
"Agreed. Please take a step back."
They do, and in a strange phenomenon, a pulse of light and sound coming from Kal's chest, the boy wakes up and inhales sharply.
"Combat stims? Really?!" Kal asks, groaning.
"Kalโฆ Your shoulder along with a sizable portion of internal organs are gone with your arm. I need you to move your ass in MedBayโฆ YESTERDAY."
"Leah, you are going with him." Johanna states, Leah doesn't have time to nod as the crusader gets up and runs, Kharazim behind her, toward the screams of the undead that are heard even from here.
"Come on! How can you be that heavy?!" Leah asks Kal who only chuckles.
"One day you'll be as strong as meโฆ" He whispers with a wavering smile. Leah squeezes his remaining hand softly as she helps him get up.
"Kelex is going to kill usโฆ"
"... Yeahโฆ" Kal sighs, as both walk toward the large gateway. "She isโฆ"
They silently cross into the gate, followed by the drone and the odd goblin behind them.
.
.
-๐๐ข๐๐๐๐-
-Eight Hours Later-
Diabloโฆ was defeated.
For a time it seemed they would know peace. But it was not to beโฆ for Diablo's essence lingers in the Black Soulstone.
Tyrael cannot destroy the stone, nor allow its evil to remain within the Heavens, and so it must be hiddenโฆ even from the angels. Unwilling to let it fester in Heaven, Tyrael, with the aid of the reformed Horadrim, absconded with the artifact and took it to Sanctuary to hide it from both demons and his own angelic brothers and sisters.
After considering various sites, Tyrael and the Horadrim decided to place the stone in a series of catacombs underneath Westmarch, an ancient nephalem city which housed the Tomb of Rakkis, a man since long dead who was a devout champion of the Zakarum faith and the first King of Westmarch.
He prays that it would be enough.
"You have done well, Horadrim." Tyrael sighs as finally the Black Soulstone rests now far from both mortals and immortals' hands. "Your service here is finished and you should allโฆ" A soundโฆ between tearing metal and the voices of the dead resounds from the entrance of this chamber. Tyrael's eyes narrow as what feels like Death itself approaches. "...Run."
What, or who he never thought to meet again slowly enters in the light.
"Malthaelโฆ" Tyrael whispers with growing dread as his former brother tilts his head.
In a flash of angelic steel too fast to be seen by mortal eyes, the two men near the once angelic Aspect of Wisdom lose their heads. Without a word, Malthael takes flight and unleashes literal death with a wave of his shadowy wings.
The men in front of Tyrael have no time to hide nor to run as the former Archangel of Justice drives his sword, El'druin, deeply into the ground, projecting a defensive holy barrier to protect himself and the young man behind him.
"Go! GO!" Tyrael asks the youngest Horadrim named Lorath Nahr behind him. "Find the Nephalem!"
Obeying Tyrael's order, the man runs for his life.
Tyrael clenches his teeth as the flows of death clash against his righteous sword. His eyes turn back to the bridge andโ widen in horror as a man he himself recruited kneels facing himโฆ his skin drying up in seconds as death claims his life and as his soul hopelessly fights against the grip of the flows that Malthael conjures to devour their mortal souls.
Breathing in, Tyrael rises, in an unwavering move, he brings his sword point first against the approaching Malthaelโฆ Only for the blade to pass through the fallen Archangel, now an angel of death itself. Malthael ensnares Tyrael's fading blade with his sickle, throwing it aside like a mere toyโฆ and then Tyrael finds himself in what once was his friend and brother's grip. With a dance of Malthael's sickle, Tyrael can feel his soul slowly leaving his body as he feels himself being judged.
"Brotherโฆ Whyโฆ?" Tyrael, through the agony, voices his confusion and dread.
With bone breaking force, Tyrael is sent, back first, into the small stairs behind him, digging deeply into the rock. With an almost inhuman effort, Tyrael, gasping for air and in pain, seeing his brother gliding toward the Black Soulstone, turns.
"The Nephalem willโฆ stop you. The boyโฆ will stop you." He tells in between breaths.
"๐น๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐โฆ ๐๐๐๐๐." Malthael slowly replies before swinging his blade at what holds the Black Soulstone in placeโฆ Floating in place, the stone then slowly comes to Malthael's armored and sharp fingers. "๐น๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐." He says as a Phantom laughs in the distance.
.
.
-๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐-
-Two Days Later-
With the Prime Evil felled, the land seemed to have known peace for but a brief momentโฆ Yet in the western kingdom of Westmarch, a vicious enemy has emerged, and the death toll is now beyond count.
Screams drew her and Eirena to the city of Westmarchโฆ where creatures resembling Angels slaughter helpless people both in the countryside and the city streets. As the others, Kharazim, Kormac and Lyndon, decided to use the Waypoints to directly reach the city, she and Eirena decided to walk and defend the people fleeing toward New Tristram from the many undead on the roads while the others stayed behind to defend the town.
Johanna, sighing, asks herself who sent these reapers, and why. Did they also target Kal? She will learn the answersโฆ but first, she will end this massacreโฆ and teach them to fear the Crusadeโฆ
โ
They now enter Westmarch overlook in an unguarded pass and meet a man dressed in Horadric garb and upon sighting herself and Eirena, the man, someone she knows is named Lorath Nahr, calls to them.
"The Nephalem!" He exclaims as he somewhat impotently waves his spear at the incoming Soul Seekers, some lesser kind of Wraith, before falling to Johanna's weapons and Eirena's magic like chaff before the wind. "Tyrael sent me to find you! Malthael has taken the Black Soulstone. You must come with me!"
"People are dying in that city, lad. I won't abandon them." Johanna responds as she looks upon the not-so distant city bridge.
"But you and Tyrael need to form a plan! We must find Malthael!" Lorath Nahr says.
"Tell Tyrael I will meet him in Westmarch. Go!"
"It will be doneโI swear it!" The young man promises before leaving.
Johanna clenches her fist around her flailโฆ Malthael? The missing Archangel of wisdom has turned to the darkness? But why? Why wisdom?
She shakes her head as she sees Westmarch below them in ruins. Not only that, but also that those Shadows of Death have sucked out the life of all the denizens in the road before them. Although she doesn't understand fully why an Angel would steal the Black Soulstone, from what she has seen of the carnage thus far, Malthael goal is nothing short of genocide.
.
.
Arriving at the once welcoming Wolf Gate, an entrance that leads to a bridge that leads to Westmarch proper, above which is the ocean, they see the desolation and rats, scurrying to their next plagued meal as a lone survivor bolts in the other direction.
"We are all going to die!" Understandably panic-stricken, he does not stop for them as more city folks flee the scene.
"She's coming to kill us all!" A man shouts as ghostly lights reach for the fleeing civilians. It is only when those orbs of pale light touch these people that she understands that they are much worse and horrific than what Johanna thought they were.
"NO!" Johanna can't hide the horror slipping into her voice as she watches powerlessly as, in the blink of an eye, the people turn into motes of light and ashesโฆ only for nearby bodies to rise into ghostly revenant soldiers. By their armor, she can tell that the enemies they face were once soldiers of Westmarch, now re-risen.
It is only after sending back these poor people, or at least what is left of them to their final rest that she takes a few seconds to pray for their souls. Johanna doesn't know the identity of the SHE they spoke of, but they'll find out soon enoughโฆ and make her pay.
.
"Damn it, the gates!" Johanna shouts after reaching the city gates that close, pushed by ghostly arms. More of the dead rise again to serve their new master, but not even Death itself can save these creatures from Johanna's Wrath.
"Those gates are bound by a spell I cannot break." Eirena says at her side.
"We must get inside the city and stop the killing." Johanna murmurs, seeing the unlocked outer gate leading to the right, they then start to walk there and hug the dilapidated walls around the building's outskirts, and proceed to impregnate the fortress through its seedy underbelly.
"And just as the stench from the last sewer had finally fadedโฆ" Eirena whispers as she eyes the Moldering Waterway full of corpses.
.
And it becomes so much worse when fully inside the Moldering Waterway, as they are confronted with more corpses than Johanna had ever encountered, making Belial's attempt at genocide in Caldeum almost seemed like child's play by contrast.
Yet, say for a scant few serpents, the area seems to largely be deserted until they enter Old Westmarch's storehouse.
"Stop! Don't go out into the streets!" A man shouts inside, a woman at his side.
Inside the storehouse, they find a gaggle of frightened townsfolks huddling in the corners, not that Johanna can blame them, given the circumstances.
"It's the end of the world. So many have been killed, and the reapers are everywhere." The man says.
"And there are no survivors?" The crusader asks.
"General Torion was defending a group of refugees at the old Zakarum cathedral. But they're likely all dead by now." He responds.
"Waitโ you're the crusader who saved Bastion's Keep! You'll save us won't you?" The woman near the man nearly begs.
"I will. I swear it." Johanna promises, righteous anger growing in her heart.
So these reapers have dared to defile this city, the lives of those people, and now the sanctity of the Zakarum churchโฆ Johanna Order's church! She swears to herself that this trespassing will not stand.
They then exit into the desolate streets of Westmarch, they see the crows having a field day with fallen soldiers and civilians alike and as they head south east they come across a grisly scene.
"Keep movingโฆ I think we lost her." A terrified woman, leading four other men, walks back murmuring before an angelโฆ a reaper appears in front of her. "Ohโฆnoโฆ NO!"
Time slows down to a crawl as Johanna sees the reaper angel extend her glowing hand at the poor woman. Something inside Johanna screams! Her Wrath, shining like a star, demands for her to moveโฆ and so she does.
Before the scythe-wielding reaper can blast her cursed light to these people, Johanna charges like never before, impacting in a blast of righteous and holy light the female-looking angel right in the chest with such force that the once blessed angelic chest plate caves in.
"RUN!" Johanna shouts to the survivors before turning her full focus back on the fallen angel. "Protect them!" She shouts to Eirena who nods and leaves with the defenseless folks.
"๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐โฆ" The angel tells her, holding her chest before vanishing into the ground.
"Demon blood?! Those are innocent people!" Johanna rages against the angel's words. This murderous spirit must be what the townsfolks were trying to escapeโฆ but demon's blood? What could she mean?
The luxury of curiosity will have to wait as she puts down more of the foul re-risen.
.
She, now alone, moves north and fights through many undead until she finds herself at the cathedral courtyard, where the deadโฆ mostly ignore them? Before leading them to their true target.
"Defend the church! Repel these vile reapers!" General Torion orders as he is waylaid by enemies, and so she comes to his aid and hopefully not too late to save himโฆ or the church. Waves after wave and until no more enemies come do they fight.
"Ah, we found you!" Tyrael's voice comes from the south.
With Torion safe, Tyrael and Lorath Nahr approach from behind.
"Tyrael, why are Malthael's armies attacking Westmarch?" Johanna asks.
"Because he feeds on death. Every time his reapers kill, he grows stronger." Tyrael, weakened and hurt, supplies much-needed wisdom. "And with the Prime Evil gone, Malthael believes this is the perfect time to end the Eternal Conflict."
"Humanity has nothing to do with that war!" tells Lorath Nahr.
"But we are descended from demons and angels." Johanna explains. "When Malthael looks at us, he sees demons." Before anyone can reply to her words, a black, foul mist of Death passes through them and in the direction of the church.
"The church! All refugees are inside! Follow me!" General Torion yells. Johanna is the first to move butโ A brilliant light of the purest of white moves past them and into the mist that now enters the church. The doors disintegrated from the force and power of the light Johanna knows is Kal, followed by the screams of those trapped inside.
Then, dozens of people flee the church as Kal and whatever Death has conjured fight against one another. With little recourse, she and the others follow inside.
"Akarat's bane! This is worse than I feared!" The general says as he sees the towering angel of death fighting the small boy that is Kal.
And yet, even with Kal's aid, Johanna sees that the horror has not spared many people, as their corpses now litter this once sacred ground, their souls sucked from their grey bodies twisted and grotesque.
"A death maiden! Stop her!" Tyreal shouts over the screams of anguish as he points to the once angelic being, now stuck in a dome of Void energy created by Kal.
Kal, who can barely fight the maiden as he is preoccupied to protect the people around him, takes a violent hit of the scythe of the death maiden to his helmeted head, sending him flying across the cathedral, then through a pillar and into the wall behind it.
"๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐! ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐." The moment Kal has been hit, the dome he had casted around him and the death maiden vanishes. The maiden then teleports to and fro, sending her minions to attack Johanna and the others.
Johanna, even on the defensive, can spot the maelstrom of souls being sucked in in some kind of black hole that appears to power the maidenโฆ No, not power this maiden, but instead her dark master, Malthael.
Johanna now knows that she has but one chance to stop this maelstrom of death before it absorbs all the souls of Westmarch. But before Johanna can attack the maiden proper, a thin wave of Aura the purest white passes by her side and into the death maiden, cutting the fallen angel in two pieces, and ending her as she vanishes with a ethereal screamโฆ leaving only her armor and scythe on falling on the ground.
The crusader takes a breath of relief as the black anomaly in the middle of the church also dies down due to the maiden's death. The tired crusader smiles and turns toward Kalโ her smile disappears as she sees a deep, but healing cut on the boy's faceโฆ the helmet nearly cut in half on the ground at his feet.
"Her scythe could cut through Auraโฆ" Kal says while the injury heals itself. Johanna regains her smile as he walks to said scythe and picks it up along the armor, storing it in his own inventory. "It's enchanted too." He says while massaging his aching cheek.
Kal remains silent... as his shame-filled eyes roam the cathedral... and the many corpses that lie within. Johanna knows that lookโฆ one of defeat.
"Kalโฆ" Johanna calls for him. The boy does not answer, his eyes still roaming the floors and the many dead people on it. "Kal."
"I should have come soonerโฆ"
"Don'tโฆ Kal. Do not think for a moment that this was in any way your fault." Johanna tells him as she puts her hand on his shoulder.
"She is right. Kasadya, the death maiden, was known to be the cruel kind well before she becameโฆ this." Tyrael says behind them. Johanna sighs and turns to the former Archangel of Justice.
"Let's end this madness. Where is Malthael?" She asks.
"I know only that he is not in Westmarch. He could have taken the Black Soulstone anywhere in creation." Tyrael replies.
"But why does he want the stone? Is there any way to find out?" Johanna asks.
"There may beโฆ" Tyrael hums. "A sliver broke off when Malthael took the soulstone. Perhaps by studying that sliver, I can learn his plans."
"Then you study the sliver, while we save this city from the reapers." Johanna nods.
With their previous quest completed, Johanna finds on the ground, where the maiden's corpse was, a curious angelic tablet titled; The Souls of Westmarch.
โ
"๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ธ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข."
โ
She passes the tablet to Kal for him to see what other useful information he can glimpse from itโฆ she is not disappointed.
"Those are the orders given by a former angel called Urzael to the death maidens. They are Malthael's closest followersโฆ and they really don't like you and the others." Kal explains, giving back the tablet.
Well then, to the agent of death she says; "Best of luck."
As she gazes on the beloved pulpit of the Zakarum church, the sanctity of the place, felt, bolstering her resolve to purge this city of death and hunt down the now dark angel before the world is consumed by his madness.
...
๐ โ๐ โ๐ โ๐ โ
Chapter End Notes:
You thought it was the end of Jaune/Kal problems? Think again.
The singularity thingy is called a Sun-Eater. The adult Sun-Eaters of Dc comics are powerful enough to tear down whole neutron star with physical might ALONE, and, in some rare cases, can reach the size of Interstellar Cloud up to 10 to the power of 6 solar masses and are are around 15 to 600 light-years across, so even a newborn of their species can easily tear through an unprepared Kryptonian... especially if the person been eaten is a child and doesn't want to kill it. Sun-Eaters are god damn powerhouses.
And he will use the same thing as what he used in his legs; Techno-organic Amalgam.
I will describe the current rooster of villains in the next chapter not to lose you. ๐
