The convoy came in like a funeral parade.
Black trucks with bone symbols painted on the doors. Bikes with chains dragging behind them. People in robes riding on top, chanting through megaphones.
"Mother Cain watches," they sang.
"Mother Cain blesses."
"Mother Cain owns the dead."
Varkos raised his rifle. "Positions. Don't let them surround us."
The twins stood in the road.
Juvy's chest glowed like cracked glass.
Maxruell's shadow spread across the asphalt like oil.
The first truck accelerated.
Maxruell lifted his hand.
The shadow of the truck peeled off the ground and flipped upward.
Metal screamed.
The vehicle rolled over itself and crushed three cultists beneath it.
The rest opened fire.
Bullets tore into the ruins.
A guard's head exploded.
Juvy screamed and slammed her hands forward.
Fire swept the road.
Wind slammed bodies into walls.
Crystal burst from the earth, skewering riders and snapping bikes in half.
They didn't stop coming.
A woman stepped out from the convoy.
Her face was carved with symbols.
Her eyes were empty.
"Children of Significance," she said calmly.
"I am Sister Mourne."
Her chest split open.
Souls poured out and wrapped around her body like armor.
She smiled with a mouth full of blood.
"I brought you gifts."
The ground behind her moved.
Dozens of stitched-together corpses rose from the dirt men, women, children, fused by bone and wire.
Juvy's voice cracked. "Those are… people…"
"They were," Sister Mourne said. "Now they belong to Mother Cain."
The monsters charged.
Maxruell's shadow surged forward and tore them apart in strips of darkness.
But every time one fell, another crawled out of the ground.
Sister Mourne raised her hands.
The souls screamed.
Maxruell felt his head split.
Memories vanished.
He forgot the color of their old kitchen.
He forgot the smell of rain from home.
He screamed and fell to one knee.
Juvy ran to him. "MAX!"
Sister Mourne laughed. "Every kill makes him hollow."
She lunged.
A blade of bone grew from her arm.
Juvy stepped in front of Maxruell.
"Touch him and I'll burn your god."
Her power exploded.
Lightning tore from the sky.
Wind crushed Sister Mourne into the road.
Crystal wrapped her legs and snapped them.
But the woman kept crawling.
"Mother Cain promised me heaven," she gurgled.
Maxruell stood.
His eyes were black.
"I'll give you hell."
The shadows grabbed Sister Mourne and lifted her into the air.
Her soul tore out of her chest like smoke.
She screamed as it stretched and twisted.
Maxruell closed his fist.
The soul collapsed into nothing.
Her body hit the ground like meat.
Silence fell.
The cultists ran.
Those who didn't… died.
The road was red.
Juvy dropped to her knees, shaking.
"That… wasn't a fight. That was slaughter."
Maxruell looked at his hands.
"I didn't feel it."
Varkos walked up, blood on his coat. "You just killed one of Cain's lieutenants."
"Good," Maxruell said.
Juvy turned on him. "NO. That's not good. You're changing."
He didn't argue.
He couldn't remember their father's face anymore.
From far away, thunder rolled.
In a ruined cathedral, Mother Cain stood before a wall of bones.
She felt Sister Mourne die.
She smiled.
"They've tasted blood," she whispered.
"Now they will choke on destiny."
She dipped her fingers into a bowl of red liquid and drew a symbol.
"Let the world learn their names."
Back in the Dead Zone, Maxruell turned to Juvy.
"We're done running."
Juvy wiped blood from her cheek.
"…Then we choose who dies."
The wind howled through the ruins.
And the Dead Zone finally understood:
Two Fighters had arrived.
And neither of them knew how to stop.
THE END OF VOLUME 1