I was chosen. He repeated silently. In all he'd ever done, he'd never abandoned the souls the way they had.

Without a shred of fear, he approached the death dealers, stopping when the two on either side of Harmony drew their swords. Harmony appeared hard, cold, her pretty features unyielding.

"This is the end, Gabriel," she started.

"It is, Harmony," he agreed. "I am the rightful master of the underworld. I know you've been operating under a lack of faith in me as the underworld's choice of Death. Because of who I am and the relationship I shared as a colleague with you, I want to offer you and your dealers a final chance to stand down."

"Mercy is a human trait," Harmony replied firmly. "You lack the strength and the mindset required to be Death. I'm going make things right."

Gabriel didn't let her words sink in. After many lifetimes as the top assassin for Death, he knew better than to believe such nonsense. "I'll take that as a no," he said. Raising his voice, he addressed those with her. "Does she speak for all of you? If not, step forward."

He was greeted by silence.

Harmony started to smile. "My turn for an ultimatum."

Gabriel waited, making a show of shifting his armament around to prepare for a brutal battle with those before him. He'd faced down more than this before, demons even. His reputation was known far and wide, and he was going to use every ounce of it to dissuade those he could from fighting him.

"You stand down. Hand over the title of Death, and I'll let you leave this place alive," she said.

Gabriel hefted the long sword strapped to his back and gazed at the blade. "No can do, Harmony."

"There are over six hundred of us!"

"Not a problem."

Harmony frowned at him. "If you think your friends can help you, Gabe, think again. No, in fact, look again." She pointed.

Gabriel glanced where she indicated, and his gaze stuck. "You awoke the ogre?" he demanded. "There's a reason past-Death didn't wake them when the demons invaded. If you brought them out of hibernation to take care of a few men …" He shook his head.

The massive creature gradually moving towards the palace wasn't all that that caught his attention. It was trailed by a storm unlike anything he'd ever seen. It appeared to be uprooting and swallowing the forest as it grew nearer. The sky at its core was black, the swirling clouds and dark fog enveloping everything in their path. Tendrils of blackness shot forward to grab trees and haul itself closer. It was neither a true storm nor a true monster, but some kind of twisted hybrid, something that didn't belong in the underworld. Gabriel faced the direction fully, unable to explain the horrific sight.




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