Darksider 2

Plot

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Awakened by the End of Days, Death, the most feared of the legendary Four Horsemen, embarks upon a quest to restore mankind, and redeem his brother’s name. Along the way, the Horseman discovers that there are far worse things than an earthly Apocalypse, and that an ancient grudge may threaten all of Creation... — Official plot description [3]

”

Darksiders II takes place during the 100 year imprisonment of War following the Darksiders prologue, except this time around, players take control of Death, the eldest and deadliest of the Horsemen.

Death begins his journey in the Veil, an icy realm lorded over by the eldest of the Old Ones; the Crowfather, the Keeper of Secrets. After making his way through the realm Death confronts the maddened Crowfather asking for his help in clearing War's name. The Crowfather states that it is a pointless wasted effort since War is the victim of conspiracy. To this, Death reveals that he doesn't intend to clear War's name but undo the crime he's accused of.

To this end the Crowfather reveals that the Tree of Life holds the secrets that Death is looking for but he will only take him there if Death takes back the amulet containing the souls of the Nephilim. Death reluctantly refuses the bargain prompting the Crowfather to transform into a copy of War and Fights Death. The fight concludes with Death running the Old One through with his scythe and the Crowfather opening the portal for Death.

However with his final act the Crowfather Shatters the amulet and imbeds it inside Death's chest. When Death awakens he finds himself in the Forge Lands home of the Makers and is found by the Village Elder Eidard. Eidard requests Death's help in dealing with the Corruption plaguing the Forge Lands. Death claims that the Corruption is not his concern but they're attacked by it in the form of Corrupted Constructs.

Eidard states that the Tree of life has been cut off by the Corruption and only thing capable of clearing it away is the Guardian and the only thing capable of getting Death to it is a Maker's Key. In order to make the key they will need to get The Fire of the Mountain and the Tears of the Mountain both of which have been cut off from the Maker's village Tri-Stone by Corruption.

Death travels through the Cauldron with slight assistance from the young Maker Karn where the Fire is kept and removes the seal that was keeping it from flowing into the Maker's Forge. As thanks the Makers gives Death a hand-gun he recognizes as Redemption, one of Strife's guns though they don't know where it came from. Next Death travels to the Drenchfort and kills the Corrupted Insect plant hybrid Karkinos and restores the Drenchfort.

With this a Maker's Key is created. Next Death is told to find the Maker's construct known as the Warden that while he is not capable of clearing away the Corruption as the Guardian is he can guide him to the forge where the unfinished Guardian sleeps. Death finds and awaken's the Warden and it creates a bridge to the Forge, Karn decides to tag along to the forge.

Karn and his brute force approach to solving a problem proves invaluable to Death as they make their way through the forge. They collect three Maker's hearts to install them inside the Guardian bringing it to life. Unfortunately the third heart turns out to be Corrupted and instead of reviving the Guardian as the Maker's weapon against the Corruption the hulking construct attacks the Makers.

Death tracks down Eidard and the Guardian. Eidard is trying to reason with the massive Construct but ultimately the creature has fallen to Corruption and Eidard asks Death to kill it. Death successfully destroys all three of the hearts. Eidard decides to use the last of his life force to revive the Guardian, this time free of the Corruption.

Death guides the now purified Guardian to the Corruption blocking the way to the tree and the Guardian destroys it. As Death approaches the tree he is sucked inside it. Inside the tree Death encounters the avatar of the Corruption whom claims to be Death's long dead brother and first Nephiliim Absalom. The tree spits Death out in the Dead Plains where he encounters the merchant Ostergoth.

Ostergoth claims that Death has been misled, the Tree cannot give Death what he needs but merely show him where to find it. What Death really needs is the Well of Souls where the souls of the dead are channeled from the Dead plains into the worlds of the living to be reborn. Ostergoth directs Death towards the Dead King whom can give directions to the Well of Souls.

Death travels to the Giilded Arena where he is told the king frequently watches the gladitorial matches. There Death is told by the Chancellor that if he wishes for an audience with the Dead King he must first summon and defeat the Arena's champion Gnashor. Death defeats the boney beast and is granted his audience with the king. The King states that he has no reason to help Death to which Death offers a trade: a favor for a favor.

As it so happens Three of the king's Dead lords: Phariseer, Judicator and Basileus seem to be neglecting their duties. He gives Death the location of each of the lords lairs and the means to summon them once he earns their loyalties with which he is to return to him and summon them to his presence. The first of the three, Phariseer, refuses to come quietly and thus Death must beat him into submission.

The second of the three, the Judicator, claims that he has not abandoned his duties but simply overwhelmed by the amount of souls he's had to judge since the death of mankind. He will come along willingly if Death can bring him the three souls lost in his lair. Death succeeds in the Judicator's task and recruits him as well. Basileus comes to Death and states that he will come along willingly if Death can complete the Psychameron.

The Psychameron is a gauntlet of undead creatures only accessible through the arena though unlike the arena which exists as entertainment the Psychameron is truely damming. Death beats the gauntlet and meets Basileus and his pet spider monster Achidna at its conclusion. Basileus and Achidna proceeds to fight Death though Death ultimately kills Achidna and defeats Basileus.

Death brings the three lords to the Dead King whom seemingly destroys his disloyal subjects. The king holds true to his end of the Bargain and directs Death to the City of the Dead where the Well of Souls and a more recent soul that can help Death are located. Death arrives at the entrance to the Well of Souls where he encounters a Undead creature called the Wailing Host which contains everyone of mankind's souls.

Death defeats the host and encounters the soul of the Crowfather whom claims that the job is not yet done. Crowfather states that Death merely released the souls of humanity back into a corrupt and broken well. According to the Crowfather in order to gain access to the well and repair the damage done to it Death will need two keys; one kept by the angels in their outpost at Lostlight and the other held by the demons, believed to be kept in Samael's vault in Shadow's Edge.

When Death questions why the Four were never made aware of the Well, the Crowfather reveals that the Well also grants the abillity to ressurect the Nephilim, a fact the Charred Council wished to keep from the Horsemen, since "Power must be tempered with ignorance"; the Council feared the Horsemen might try to restore their kin. The first stop is to Lostlight where Death discovers that even the angels have succumbed to Corruption. Death encounters the Archon whom claims to be the last uncorrupted angel left in Lost Light.

The key Death seeks is trapped inside the White City by the Scribe which thanks to the Corruption has become a fortress for mutated angels. One item, the Rod of Arafel is capable of cleaning the city of corruption but it was lost on Earth during the Endwar and no angel that goes to Earth is capable of coming back. Since Death is no angel he offers to retreive the rod.

Traveling to earth Death soon encounters Uriel and the Hellguard and saves them from the latest attack by the Swarm. Uriel claims that she should kill Death for what his brother did but she does owe him for saving their lives. Death asks Uriel about the Rod to which she states that it was broken into three pieces and spread about the Destroyed City to power the armies of the Destroyer.

For the first piece all Death need do is follow the trail of angel corpses left by those that sought to retreive it and wishes him good luck in the form of the heavy weapon Salvation. Death retrieves the first peice and asks for the location of the other two. The second is in a collapsed tunnel and according to a vision from the rod the third's location is given to Uriel in a vision from the first two pieces.

Death retrieves the remaining two pieces of the rod which reassembles itself and Death takes it back to the Archon in Lostlight. With the Rod's power the Archon purges the White City of Corruption. His path clear ,Death storms the city, beats the Scribe into submission and threatens him at scythe point to hand over the Key. Now Free of Corruption the scribe reveals that it is the Archon who has the key.

The Archon went mad when he used the Scribe's gift of Second sight to find the truth behind the apocalypse and discovered Abaddon is the Destroyer, causing him to fall prey to Corruption. Death fights the Archon, eventually cutting off both of his wings and tossing him into the nothingness below the city. Death is able to retrieve the key from Archon.

Next Death goes to Shadow's Edge, though as observed by Ostergoth the realm is falling to ruins which means that Samael is no longer in control. Death enters the ruins and runs into his self proclaimed mother and creator of the Nephilim from the dust of Demon and Angel, Lilith. Lilith opines that Death is the only one of the Four to show remorse for betraying the Nephilim, and the sole reason he kept their souls, even after the Charred Council ordered their destruction, was to undo his sin. When Death demands her help, Lilith upgrades Death's Voidwalker abillity into the Phasewalker, allowing him to return to the past to confront Samael. In return, Lilith asks that Death "follow his heart" when he reaches the Well of Souls and ressurect the Nephilim instead of humanity.

Death uses the Phasewalker to travel back in time to a time where Samael still ruled the area who is able to tell immediately that Death is both from the future and not on council business thanks to his near omnipotent powers. Death at first attempts to bargain with the demon prince for the key but he refuses calling Death nothing less than a flawed copy of Absalom. Realising he will have to take the key, Death attacks.

The two fight to a standstill in which Samael decides to give Death the key, opining that no matter what happens, the coming battle between Death and Absalom "will be quite a show". Death inserts the two keys into the Tree of Life and enters the Well of Souls where he encounters Absalom. Absalom claims that he is not the source of Corruption but Death whom created the Corruption from the slaughter of his people and that's true source is Death's own heart.

Absalom and Death fight a long and brutal battle in which Death ultimately comes out victorious. Death briefly debates whether he should ressurect humanity or the Nephilim, knowing that whomever he saves will forever damn the other but ultimately decides to restore humanity in order to save his brother War, and with this removes his mask, for the first time since the slaughter of the Nephilim, and jumps into the Well of Souls.

The epilogue is shown from the ending of the first Darksiders, in which War has defeated Abaddon and shattered the final seal, summoning Strife, Fury and Death from oblivion.

At the same time, Lilith is confronted by her master, who is furious that instead of the army Lilith promised him, mankind has been restored to the Balance and the Nephilim lost forever. Lilith accepts her chastisement but her master asserts that she will not enjoy her punishment this time.