Kulle had warned them all many times before.
"Beware the witch and the Archangel."
"You have no idea who that girl next to you really is."
"I have had many titles, but 'liar' was never one of them."
He had warned Bul-Kathos about Adria's danger and Leah's true nature long ago. As for "bewaring the Archangels," Bul-Kathos had already seen Tyrael shatter the Worldstone.
"Hmm, let me think," Kulle said, rubbing his chin as if in deep thought. "How about this: 'Join me, and together we shall rule all of humanity'? How does that sound?"
He wore a meaningful, knowing smile.
"You still haven't given up on your ambitions?" Bul-Kathos frowned, pulling out a flask of ale and taking a long swig. "You can't even resurrect yourself anymore. Your body and your blood stayed behind in our world forever."
Rule the world? No Nephalem hero had ever desired that. It was arrogant. Bul-Kathos knew Kulle had more to say.
"Then how about making this world a home for the Nephalem?" Kulle said airily. "Or perhaps you'd like to hear some new insults I've spent my long years crafting for someone like you?"
With a casual flick of his wrist, Kulle shoved Orek's soul back into the stone pillar.
"Kulle, enough games," Bul-Kathos said, his tone turning deadly serious. His power pressed down on the Wizard like a physical weight. "I am going to open a Rift large enough to draw in both the High Heavens and the Burning Hells. I'm going to take the next step. I need your help, and Orek's. But make no mistake—I will do this whether you help me or not."
"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" Kulle replied. "Isn't this the outcome you wanted?"
The sheer arrogance in Kulle's voice made the veins on Bul-Kathos's forehead throb. It reminded him of Kadala, the blood-shard merchant, asking, "That's a nice item. Can I have it back?" after a failed gamble. It was pure, unadulterated mockery to any Nephalem who had ever fought in the Rifts.
"You have a few days to think, and to learn about this world," Bul-Kathos said, giving Kulle one last look before tossing him a stone. "The next time I ask, I expect the answer I'm looking for."
The stone was the foundation for the upcoming Rift—a vessel carrying a portion of Tyrael's will.
"How interesting. Time to 'learn about this world'?" Kulle caught the stone, his mocking smirk finally fading. "You want me to draw up a plan for this world, don't you?"
Kulle was, in the end, a failure on the path to power. Despite his infinite knowledge and mana, he had lost. Without the chance to resurrect, he had no leverage to make Bul-Kathos join his plans. He was just a ghost, drifting alone.
Only Bul-Kathos, a kinsman who had seemingly surpassed the limits of a Nephalem, had the power to help him. As for Johanna... Kulle twitched his lip, choosing not to comment. A Crusader who placed all her faith in a set of legendary armor might have taken a step forward by following Bul-Kathos, but she was still trapped in a cage of her own making.
At the foot of the Holy Mountain, Leah's silhouette moved slowly.
She wasn't carrying the Heavenly Hammer. Every step she took seemed like a struggle. The power of Sin had been granted to her by Diablo himself; Leah was powerless to resist her "other father."
Even if her soul was noble, what could nobility do without strength? Without power, nobility was just something people remembered after you were gone.
Leah's will was clouded by Diablo. She was being manipulated like a puppet on strings. Since her birth, she had walked a predetermined path. She had never been free.
"Hhh..."
A rasping sound, like a broken bellows, escaped Leah's throat. It had been so long since she had spoken that the act felt foreign.
"Hey, girl. Are you alright?"
A Jeep pulled over. A Romani woman, traveling with her three-year-old son, looked out at Leah. Her voice was cautious but carried a note of genuine concern.
The woman's name was Nadya; her son was Danny.
Nadya had recently faced a crisis. Her son had developed an unnatural fever and fallen into a coma. A poor Romani woman had few options. Through some less-than-legal means, she had acquired a significant amount of money, but it wasn't enough to wake her son.
She had stolen this car to reach their next destination. Leah was a target for her—she intended to play the part of the Good Samaritan to steal from her and fund their journey.
"Hhh... I... I need help," Leah's body forced out the words under Diablo's control.
She turned her pitch-black eyes toward Nadya and her son. These weren't ordinary people. In the sleeping boy, Diablo sensed a faint, familiar scent.
It was the scent of his brother, Mephisto.
Though it was just a lingering trace without any consciousness, Diablo was intrigued. He knew his brother had been turned into pure essence by their other sibling and claimed by another, but curiosity was a powerful thing.
"Well, we can take you to the nearest city, but..."
Nadya felt an instinctive surge of danger as she looked at Leah. But she had lived her whole life on the edge of danger; she was used to the feeling. Since Leah didn't look powerful, Nadya dismissed the unease as a trick of her mind.
"Then... thank you. I will pay you," Leah said haltingly.
This was exactly what Nadya wanted to hear. As for where they would go once she was in the car? That was no longer up to the human.
Leah opened the door and sat in the passenger seat. Then, she frowned.
Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider, was heading this way. This annoyed Leah. Even without the full power of Zarathos, Blaze was obsessed with Mephisto—the being who had given him his curse.
The connection between this woman, the boy, and the Lord of Hatred was deep. Danny was the demon's child; Nadya had traded her body to a demon for life. However, that Lord of Hell had recently been sent into John Constantine by the Prime Evils who now occupied Hell.
Right now, Danny was fighting the fragmented soul of a demon within his own mind. It was an unfair fight, but because the demon's soul had been shattered into tiny pieces, the child had managed to hold out.
Johnny Blaze was coming. And Leah, as the vessel of Sin, would not let a mere Ghost Rider interfere with her plans.
A wave of dark energy radiated from her as she entered the car, turning the vehicle into a cage of fear. After masking their presence, Leah turned her black eyes to Nadya.
"Drive toward that mountain."
She had adapted to speaking now. Her voice was cold and brook no argument. Nadya realized she had made a terrible mistake, but being a survivor, she said nothing and drove as she was told.
Leah was going to climb Mount Arreat.
Diablo wanted to see if Bul-Kathos could still make "the choice" when faced with Leah's soul. He could still hear the Barbarian's mournful whisper after he had slain Leah's physical form in their previous world.
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