A New Cause

by Traitor of All Traitors

Where the madness ended, a new darkness will begin, one that leads to light…if those that are tasked with leading the way can endure the wrath of those that stand against them…as well as each other. The Angels descend, the dead talk, myths and legends come to life, and judgment comes to more than just Japan. All of the world isn't safe…but is it in any greater danger than before?

41. The Dying Fire

Creation began on 09-01-21

Creation ended on 04-18-25

Neon Genesis Evangelion

A New Cause: The Dying Fire

The horde of demon giants ignored the Flying Spider Monkeys in both Fukuoka and Namegata, responding to the order Pestilence had given them. Each giant now obeying the order to go after this Pale Titan, which did not take kindly to any number of them trying to gang up on it, responding with a series of punches and kicks that sent a multitude of body parts flying across the city of Sendai with a fury that was like the wrath of the heavens themselves.

"The Pale Titan?" One of the Spider Monkeys beside Conquest utters as he reloads a blade. "I always thought it was a myth."

"Myths are just stories that take time and patience to reawaken," the Poison Master responds, familiar with some of the story behind the Pale Titan, but can you really be Death, the Endgame?

-x-

Pyre didn't really know whether to be concerned by this bone-colored behemoth attacking the demon horde or simply impressed by its mere return at a time like this. He had seen this being rise up to the defense of the innocent, time and again, but each time it did so in a different manner and in a different incarnation, and this version of the behemoth was the most extreme he had seen by far. It was…as humans would often describe someone or something unlike anyone or anything else they had ever seen or heard of…a freak of nature. Or, in this case, a being of intense brutality.

Even if Pestilence were to send a million of these giants after this one, he thought as he flew higher, the Pale Titan draws its strength from something far greater than the deepest depths of Hell or the brightest rays of Heaven. And it is this strength it possesses that makes it a perfect threat to the infernal masters that rule Hell.

-x-

Conquest sees with eyes wide open as the Pale Titan continues to decimate these infernal giants that were ordered to face it, being sent back to Hell before they could lay hands upon it. With the uncertainty of whether it was an ally or an enemy separate from the ones they were aware of, this behemoth was a force to be reckoned with right this moment.

"Are we looking at a friend or another adversary?" He is asked by a male member of the Flying Spider Monkeys on the side of a building.

"I honestly don't know," he responds. This behemoth seems similar to them, but it acts like they're not on the same side.

Bash! The Pale Titan reduces the heads of eight more demon giants to ashy pulp, their bodies crumbling down to ash in the process.

"Rrrrrraaaugh!" It shrieks as it charges toward the other giants in front of it, colliding with the ones in front and pushing them against the ones in the back, their combined weight doing nothing to impede it.

"Jesus Christ, this creature is strong," one of the female members of the Flying Spider Monkeys expresses in awe.

"Oh, Jesus had nothing to do with this being," Conquest states, just as it reduced nearly a hundred more of the enemy behemoths to ashes. "And the emissaries of the netherworld watched in grim disbelief as the bone-white enforcer purged the mortal coil of all sinners of the flesh. Their souls condemned to eternity in the darkest of flames until they longed for an absolution that only the truly repentant could receive."

-x-

Pestilence couldn't believe this was happening! Not only were these infernal giants proving incapable of dealing with the Pale Titan, but they were being destroyed faster than they were emerging from the depths of Hell. By the time five hours have passed, the infernal horde will have been destroyed completely by this unruly fiend. It made his hatred towards the Restorative Horseman of Death rise to a new height.

"This is getting out of control," he tells himself.

"It would appear that the Pale Titan is on the hunt for sin like the last time it was unleashed from the darkness," he hears Pyre say to him from behind, and turns to face him. "Except it's more powerful than it was previously. Maybe Gaia was blessed with choosing this damned soul to serve as the heavenly Grim Reaper."

"The damned soul of a lost youth that was screwed over by virtually all manner of blood ties…and decided to condemn those that condemned him."

"Not all his relatives chastised his existence. Some never had so much as a conversation with him in life, and those that were able to meet his horseman incarnation were able to make their peace with his forsaken soul. But this incarnation of Death… There is something about him that is different from the previous Deaths. It's more than the fact that he is one half of a set of twins. It's more than the fact that he made his peace with his inevitable demise and became a Master of Death. There is something about his soul that sets him apart from the other souls of the damned. He may be among the souls that, despite having a place in Hell…can never truly belong to Hell, no matter what happens."

Pestilence glares at Pyre; if this was the case, then this Restorative Horseman of Death was not only a unique individual of the heavenly forsaken…but one of the greatest enemies to his infernal masters. This means that Death, the Endgame was among the most powerful of the damned to serve under Heaven, to be at the beck and call of the celestial host whenever they desire, to hold authority over the realm of mortality through his position as the one that awaits those destined and doomed to pass through the veil of their endings.

"If his soul cannot be claimed by the masters…then why would he be condemned to Hell to begin with?" Pestilence questions. "Hell claims the souls of the wretched and unholy, those doomed to suffer for their trespasses. You can't possibly believe that his soul, however maimed by those that came before him…can be restored of its purity and light…can you?"

"It is only a possibility," Pyre states; whether or not he believes in this, it was not up to him to decide regarding the Horseman of Death of the Restorative. "And this is a being that made trouble for you, is he not? This is all…because of how he affected you. The only one that made you feel the effects of what it means to be afraid…even if it was only for an instant."

Pestilence silently fumes over this reminder of why he wanted the giants unleashed in the first place. Oh, how he despises Death for making him fear him. It was an insult to his position as the strongest of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, not just one of the oldest of demons in the service of the infernal masters. There was nobody else like him…and there would be no one else like him for the rest of existence.

BLAST! Their attention was drawn to the demise of over eighty more behemoths by the Pale Titan, shoving them aside and watching them crumble to ashes before they could even hit any of the buildings around them and shatter them.

"Damn," Pyre utters in awe. "He has a mean streak."

Pestilence just jumps off the roof and lands onto the streets below.

-x-

Dent! War jams his sword into the ground and catches his breath as he looks up and see four more giants approaching from his east.

"I was expecting better from the likes of you," he utters at the giants, and pulls up his sword as its blade reignites into flames. "Back to Hell with you."

Setting his body ablaze, War propels himself towards the four giants and pierces through them like a bullet, slamming his feet against the side of a building, looking back at his work, seeing the four giants crumble to dust.

"The bigger you are, the harder you burn," he sighs as he jumps over to a nearby roof on his left. "And the harder you burn, the worse you hurt."

-x-

"…This is incredible, people," the reporter utters as the Pale Titan continues to decimate the horde of demonic giants in the city. "This…this being, whatever it is, has apparently eradicated the majority of these giants that swarmed the whole of Sendai. There's probably only thirty or less of them left, and it ain't letting up on its brutality. Some guesses are up for grabs on why it appeared here."

But watching from the safety of their home, the Asagi family has their suspicions on the Pale Titan that laid waste to the horde.

"I think it's safe to assume that this Pale Titan is Death," Mordecai suggests as the behemoth tears the head off another demon giant. "Something about its aggressive behavior that speaks of his own disgust towards the criminal element he comes across."

"Yeah," went Mana, agreeing with her father. "There's no doubt about it. But how he was able to become such a behemoth is…beyond our comprehensions right now. Is it because he can travel between this world and the underworld? Is it a power associated with one of his position? How strong is he truly as the embodiment of the end of life?"

Himeko watches with baited breath as the Pale Titan head-butts one of the other giants close by, reducing them to dust.

"It's like a brutal warrior with a bone to pick with Hell," she says.

"Totally," Miroku agrees with her. "Or more than one bone."

-x-

Pestilence takes aim at the Pale Titan from a relative distance, the arrow he was using meant specifically for Death himself, able to give him a killer headache.

"I'll put you in the ground," he tells himself.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," he hears a voice full of righteousness speak to him, and turns around to see none other than his Restorative counterpart.

"My only disgrace that couldn't even live up to half my expectations," he replies to the Poison Master. "I'll deal with you momentarily."

Burst! He was then set ablaze for three seconds before turning back to face his counterpart, seeing him with the Restorative Horseman of War on his right.

"How about right now?" War asks, holding up his sword. "The Pale Titan is off limits right now. How about picking on someone your own size for a change?"

"Excluding Death, who's already a pain in my ass, the rest of you are just a hindrance!"

Pestilence gets set to approach them, but then gets impaled by a halberd, lodging him into the ground from behind.

"I'll gladly take being a hindrance over an asshole of a demon," he hears Death's elder twin behind him, and has the halberd pulled out of him, causing him to drop to his palms and knees. "We're not very eager, but still…let my brother have his fun with your playmates you provided him with. It's actually the most fun I've seen him enjoy in a week when it's all about the bad guys that spread like a weed."

Pestilence then gets back up.

-x-

Pyre watches from the air as Pestilence is surrounded by the Restorative Conquest and War, along with the Horseman of Unity that is the Horseman of Death's twin. He sees that they are the ones with the advantage against Pestilence in terms of numbers, but he has his doubts that Pestilence will even put up a fight against these three; despite being the oldest of demons, Pestilence was never known for playing fair, even against those that outnumber him. Then, he watches Pestilence throw down a smoke bomb that shrouds their location for twenty seconds, but he is able to watch Pestilence sneak away past the horseman incarnation of his bastard and War, the Violent One, living to sin another day.

Then again, he wouldn't face off against the other horsemen without backup, he thinks as the horsemen look around and realize that Pestilence got away.

"Coward!" He hears War call him, but Pestilence clearly represents the act of cowardice being that sometimes, just sometimes, the cowards do survive. "You can run all you want, but sooner or later, your despicable luck will run out!"

"In the end, the luck of all who do wrong will eventually become spent!" Pyre recalls the words of a previous Horseman of War from long ago, and shakes his head to clear it of the memory.

These horsemen…even when they're not the same incarnations…they are similar to their predecessors. Angels of the highest order, condemned by the darkness they defended mankind from the majority of, corrupting them into twisted forms, dimming the purity of their shared light. Blessings… Peace… Abundance… Life… Where did you four fall in protecting mankind?

-x-

BASH! The Pale Titan continues on as it decimates the horde of inferno behemoths that came after it, destroying several more with righteous rage.

"Rrrrrrrraaurgh!" It roars as it turns its head left to see a reduction in the quantity of demonic giants that approach it, counting less than seven left. "Grrr…"

-x-

The Asagi family watch on the television as the Pale Titan charges toward the seven remaining behemoths of fire and ash as it leaps into the air and tackles three of them to the ground and leaves only a pile of ash behind as it rises back up, like a demon emerging from the depths of Hell.

"I know we all agreed that this creature was Death himself," went Mordecai, "but are we really sure it's him? I mean, he… We could be wrong, right?"

"Death is…a little extreme when it comes to combat," his wife expresses, "but it's definitely him. I mean, he can give worse than he gets."

"And he doesn't like it when the bad guys don't get their comeuppance in the end," Mana adds in. "He really doesn't like it."

And on the screen, the angle of which the camera was filming the Pale Titan, its head and face directed towards the remaining demon giants that appeared to be showing hesitation in continuing their advance against the embodiment of life's end. It was almost as if they were truly afraid of facing it.

"I don't know if it's a demon or a devil, this pale behemoth," the reporter says on television, "but it's unlike any other creature ever encountered before. Is it even truly from Hell?"

"If it was truly from Hell, you would think a devil would know a devil," Miroku utters, "but I doubt any devil would be social with another devil."

Then the pale giant raises its left arm up…and gestures for the remaining fire giants to come at it.

"He's taunting them?" Mana questions; she finds this confusing since Death normally didn't try to provoke his potential victims, just cutting to the chase most of the time.

"Maybe this form of his can't talk?" Her mother suggests, seeing the remaining behemoths finally muster the courage to go down the path they were condemned to travel and advance towards the Pale Titan.

Then…the Pale Titan stretches out its arms on either side of its body…and slams them together, resulting in a sound wave that reaches out across from it. All around it, glass from windows, cars and trucks, shatter from the sound wave…and the demon giants halt their advance, dropping to the ground as they crumble to pieces.

-x-

"This is unbelievable," went Fuyutsuki as he and the rest of NERV witnessed the chaos in Sendai. "Not even the Evas would be able to face that many like this one did."

"No kidding," adds Misato, wondering how any of this was even going to affect their agency, since they were tasked with dealing with the Angels, many of which they hadn't done anything to deal with on account of the horsemen.

"In a world of humanity," Chansu utters, "what is the worth of deities and monsters?"

"Sendai has been cleared of these…giants," Ritsuko informs them.

"Only Sendai?" Fuyutsuki asks her, reminding them that they still had the ones in Fukuoka and Namegata that were likely not going to leave just yet.

"Perhaps we can request the use of an N explosive at both locations?" She recommends.

"Unacceptable," Chansu says. "What's more, we have no jurisdiction over either city. Let the military deal with it."

They were harsh words, but NERV has no choice in the matter. These giants were not deemed to be Angels, as they didn't give off a blue blood type or erect any AT-Fields. The same applied to this pale giant that appeared to fight them and reduced them to ashes. Even if the military had the authority to do away with these behemoths, it was anyone's guess if they could.

But Ritsuko looks at the pale giant and suspects that it was Death himself, facing these other giants on their own level. There was just something about the face of the creature that screams of who was once known to the public as Shinji Ikari, only angrier and full of spite towards the world. She couldn't say for certain, but it had to be the case.

"You were warned by him," she recalls his twin brother's words during an earlier interrogation.

-x-

It was just as it had been like the last time something like this occurred, as Pestilence found that the legion of inferno giants unleashed upon Sendai was completely decimated, leaving the scores that had been unleashed upon the other two cities. Even if he had redirected them to Sendai to deal with Death, they were likely to be decimated, as well. There was something about this incarnation of Heaven's Grim Reaper that was leagues ahead of what previous incarnations had exhibited. Not only a Master of Death…but a being that Hell could not claim, even though his soul had been forfeit long before his passing.

"This isn't over, Death, the Endgame," Pestilence decides. "This is a pause in the play. You haven't beaten me just yet. So long as even one of these giants remain, I will not admit defeat to the likes of you. Enjoy your reprieve while you can. Sooner or later, I'll make you pay. But until then…this fight is suspended. Suspended, not ended."

The demonic horseman steps backwards into a fiery portal that appears behind himself.

-x-

Updates of events in Fukuoka and Namegata confirm that the burning giants just…sank into burning holes in the ground and vanished without a trace, with the skies returning to normal just minutes after.

"Is it over?" Mordecai questions.

"I don't think so," Mana tells him. "It's more than likely just a calm before the rest of the storm. The book says that something like this has happened before in the past, but it ended with a heavenly victory. This is more like a pause, a reprieve."

"So, whoever unleashed these giants onto those cities just called the ones remaining back?" Himeko asks her daughter.

"For now," she answers.

"Yo!" Miroku gasps, and everyone turns to face him as he was pointing to the television, displaying the Pale Titan dropping to its knees, bursting into white flames.

Mana watches in fright and can only wonder if this was a reaction that happens to those under the mantle of Death of the Restorative.

"It's bursting into white flames," the reporter says as the camera pans over to the behemoth's face, expressing agony as the cheeks melt away. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen before."

The white flames shot up into the air in a display of fierce power before receding back down to the burning behemoth as it fell face-down onto the ground, its body crumbling away to nothing.

-x-

Conquest, War and Mako get as close to the white flames as they could, but the heat was so intense that they have to keep three feet away.

"'And with the wrath of Hell quelled for a time, the flames of Heaven expand and dissipate to release the souls of the forsaken into the night sky'," War recites.

"'Towards the end of one's fury is the beginning of another's next step towards the grace of the divine'," Conquest adds, seeing something within the dying flames, moving towards them. "Just as Hell holds secrets the emissaries of the mortal damned were never meant to know, Heaven holds secrets that are not for the faint of hearts when first witnessed."

From out of the flames, Mako saw the face of none other than his twin, unscathed, looking as though he went with a sauna; despite having walked through flames, his clothing appears damp. But his eyes… There was something wrong with his eyes. They were…vacant, devoid of his usual absence.

Death stops in front of the three, emotionless, as though he were in a daze.

"How do you feel, Death?" Conquest asks him, but the Pale Rider doesn't respond to him.

"Death?" War asks, waving his left hand in front of him. "Death? Endgame? Respond!"

Mako looks at him and can't see that small speck of light that had been present in his eyes.

"I don't think he's okay," he tells them, trying to shake Death. "Death, are you alright? Come on, say something! Anything!"

Still, Death does nothing to indicate that he's present or even aware of them.

"We gotta get him back to Gaia," Conquest declares. "This doesn't seem to be normal, even for a horseman. She might know what this is."

War picks Death up off his feet and over his right shoulder.

"He practically takes down an entire army of hellfire giants and he doesn't even brag about it," War says.

"Complain later," Mako states, and the three take their leave of Sendai's ruins.

"Spider Monkeys, scatter," went Conquest to their allies in Fukuoka and Namegata. "Return to your day jobs until we need you again."

-x-

Pyre walks into a decommissioned church and stand before the fallen representation of a deity's mortal son that died for the sins of his people.

"There are many things I wish I could ask of your father," he addresses the crucified depiction as he sits on a burned bench. "Such as why do these people continue to believe in hope when it seems as though hope died a long, long time ago? Or why…why was someone that fell from grace due to the atrocities their relatives committed against him and the world itself chosen to serve the Restorative and became a Master of Death when he died? Some of the darkest of hearts would believe that in the fate of destruction lies the joys of rebirth, but I see no such joys at all in the destruction that has been committed by humanity. In the bowels of Hell or on the plains of Earth, I have witnessed the arrogance of those that would willingly turn the paradise they were gifted with since beginning-less time into a place of ugliness and hopelessness in exchange for the empty promises of wealth, power and glory. I have seen men become tyrants…women who sacrifice their own flesh and blood for unspeakable repercussions…and children forced to part with their souls and become the monsters they fear to meet in their nightmares. If this is part of his plan, one of his methods employed to save the chosen few…why was she punished? Was she not worthy of his grace? Did I fail in trying to save her? Did I fail him? Has this all been meant to punish me…for wanting something that the life of a deity would never grant me? Is this my penance…for abandoning the Restorative after I lost my faith in others?"

As much as Pyre desires answers for his questions, it was as unlikely for him to receive them as it is for any man, woman or child to claim that a deity they have never met once in their lifetime has spoken to them. Because of the way things are, it is unlikely for anyone, even an elemental deity such as he, to receive the answers to their questions that they long for answer to. Still, because he was out touch with most, it was a normal quality to have these questions go unanswered for long periods of time. Even if those long periods of time were the equivalent of multiple lifetimes. What is time to one that is incapable of dying?

Pyre gets up from the bench and looks up at the ruins of one of the circular windows that had been broken in half on its left side, the stained glass that once resided there no longer present, except in pieces on the ground around him.

"In the end," he says as he turns away, "all these mortals have is now to do anything with what little time they have to leave their mark on others' lives."

-x-

"…How long has he been unresponsive?" Mother Gaia asks Mako as they, Conquest, War and Famine stand outside the cave housing Death, who sat on the smooth rock.

"Ever since he walked out of the white flames," he answers her. "Is this normal behavior for those under the mantle of Death?"

"Unresponsive behavior? Honestly…not like this. The unresponsiveness is only temporary after the initial shift into the Pale Titan, lasting only a few seconds or a few minutes. If he's been this way for over an hour, this is new grounds for 'odd'."

"Huh?!" Famine reacts, shuddering.

"What is it?" Mako asks him.

"Did anyone else feel a chill just now?"

War takes out his sword and holds it up in front of them…and watches in awe as the blade has formations of ice bits generate across it.

"A lifeless chill is being emitted," he utters, and makes the blade ignite into flames. "Only Death can emit a chill like this."

They look at Death, still unresponsive, and it worries Gaia and Mako.

"Is there anything we can do to help him?" Mako questions.

"We may need all hands on deck here," Gaia responds. "Are you close with Ms. Asagi as your brother is, Mako?"

"Mana Asagi? In what way?"

"We may need her help to pull Death out of this unexpected situation that he's in. She became a factor the moment she decided to risk her safety in a restricted zone with one of Adam's children, just to speak with one of you."

"Wait a minute," went Famine, confused by this. "How is the girl that Death and Mako frequently visit in any way involved in dealing with Death's current dysfunction?"

"Because she's the new Priestess of the Restorative," Conquest reveals, familiar with the facts than the other horsemen were. "Not only that, but Ms. Asagi is the youngest one ever."

"A priestess? Mana?" Mako responds. "But how did she…"

"It's not all that complicated, Mako," Gaia explains. "A Restorative Priestess is preordained when a random maidan decides to venture into forbidden territory only to converse with one of the Horsemen of the Restorative. Only to converse with one of the horsemen. Depending on which territory she ventures into that is deemed forbidden by the guarding of one of Adam's children, any of the original founding members could've crossed paths with Ms. Asagi. But because Sachiel's location, Tokyo-3, is being by Death himself, this means that her inclusion into the Restorative is due to meeting with Death."

"If it had been in a different location guarded by any of us," Conquest adds, "we would've been charged with the same outcome if all she wanted was to speak with us. Like it or not, this girl you two know is affiliated with us, and so long as she lives, that makes us horsemen tasked with safeguarding her against any that become a threat to her."

-x-

Opening his eyes, Death finds himself in a place he doesn't recognize. It resembles a city street, but in the background were these…cosmic patterns shaped like some of the buildings. He looks down at his attire and finds that his hakama is bare of his firearms and ammo.

"Where…am I?" He wonders.

To be continued…

A/N: This has been long overdue. I'm trying to get back into it like all my older stories. Shinji as an embodiment of the Grim Reaper holds much potential, and this story needs to be completed like all the rest. I hope y'all enjoy this chapter. One of my challenging moments was when Pyre was at the church and questioning the way things were, but he left there being a reason for his falling out with the Restorative that you'll find out more about in the future. Until the next chapter, everyone.