I’ll be forever sad that there wasn’t an ending with Kang, but ultimately, this farewell fit his character perfectly. Kang showed genuine regret and accepted his death with dignity and poise. My favorite black flag in all of RC. 💔 🪦
“Your demise has one blue eye, the other red.”—This prophecy by the statue of Nemesis in HS1 is believed to be about Malbonte because of his description in the Malbonte Treatise written by Winchesto’s father.
Malbonte is perhaps the most powerful immortal currently in existence after Hunger and War. In a previous post (Immortal Power Structure in the HSU), I catalogued immortal powers into the following categories:
Let us peel back the layers of Malbonte’s powers using this framework, focusing on bullet points two to four.
Malbonte’s Innate Powers
Half-breeds are extremely powerful because of the blend of two energies within them. Malbonte is considered the strongest of them all, perhaps because he was the first half-breed to survive a time of instability. Shepha likely did not anticipate that his brother could communicate with half-breeds in the darkness or that they could break the seals of the Book of Life. Otherwise, he would never have allowed the union of angels and demons in the first place.
The first time Shephamalum ruined Christmas
If Shepha had actually helped train Malbonte to use his powers, things may have turned out differently.
But Shepha split Malbonte in two and threw his dark half into the dungeon with his brother and instituted the Law of Segregation. Shepha’s two solutions were division and segregation; neither of those measures was effective in the long run.
And so, while the Bont-half of Malbonte received an angelic education, Shephamalum tortured the Mal-half to nurture the darkness within him.
The Mal and Bont halves were both powerful in their own right. But ever since they reunified, Malbonte has relied solely on his dark energy. His angelic Bont powers are never mentioned, though they are probably merely dormant.
Transferred power between immortals
As we know, the ritual to rejoin Bont and Mal transferred part of Malbonte’s energy into Vicky. This was only possible because Vicky was born an empty vessel, specifically destined to carry part of Malbonte’s Darkness and help balance his power. He needed her support and cooperation to defeat Shepha in HS1.
I mean, a good lock should have only one key
He eventually gets all his powers back from Vicky, thanks to Plague, and to my understanding, he suffers more as a result.
Implanted divine power
Shephamalum has on occasion poured an extra dose of his darkness into Malbonte via the tattoo the dark god branded on his back. This is different from Malbonte’s own dark energy. The surge of Darkness gives him enormous power, but it also comes with extreme physical pain and loss of control.
We see this when Malbonte battles Shepha in the HS1 finale…
The eyes are windows to the soul
On the knife’s edge of disaster
…and when he faces Death in the HS2 finale.
The Iron Fist of Control
Shephamalum knew that once Mal escaped the dungeon, he would not be motivated to release his tormentor.
Mal has the wrong wings in this vision
And so, after Mal escaped and reunified with Bont, the dark god relentlessly tormented Malbonte to force him toward one goal: making Malbonte desperate enough to release Shephamalum just so he could kill him and stop the torture. Shephamalum probably authored the abuser’s playbook.
Shephamalum even seems able to deprive Malbonte of his powers by proxy, using Audrey—another person carrying his Darkness.
The malevolent embrace of the darkness
According to Dino, Shephamalum’s tattoo acts as a two-way conduit through which the dark god can both empower Malbonte and deprive him of his powers.
Their first proper tête-à-tête?
To be truly free of Shephamalum’s control, Malbonte needs to get rid of the tattoo.
(To be continued…)
You can find the link to my previous post (Immortal Power Structure in the HSU) in the pinned (topmost) post on my profile page.
Boring, but reliable. I’m practically swooning… 😋
