Number of The Beast
In a subsequent series, it would later be revealed that the High was still alive, despite his body being nearly completely pulverized into jelly. He was used as the base material to produce superhuman clones, all of which have so far repeated the phrases "Change or Die" and "Reap What you Sow" over and over. The Eidolon is also revealed to have returned to his state of "non-life". Due to his ability to gain more powers from surrounding death, and the widespread destruction brought on Earth by the High clones, he's in a mostly unbalanced state, likened to a drug addict continually fed new doses, and roams the Earth leading a gang of sadistic murders and fanatical followers to harness new deaths for himself.
As a personal penance, The High sheds every bit of his hubris, and acts as a ferryman, escorting survivors into Finland, one of the last safe havens on Earth and a place in which posthumans aren't allowed. He confesses to a little girl that he feels alone and guilty, but finally gains purpose and self-fulfillment by pushing himself hard to help as many people as he can.
Read more about this topic: Changers
Famous quotes containing the words number of, number and/or beast:
“The serial number of a human specimen is the face, that accidental and unrepeatable combination of features. It reflects neither character nor soul, nor what we call the self. The face is only the serial number of a specimen.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“Ah, but to play man number one,
To drive the dagger in his heart,
To lay his brain upon the board
And pick the acrid colors out,
To nail his thought across the door,
Its wings spread wide to rain and snow,
To strike his living hi and ho....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“what are we,
The beast that walks upright, with speaking lips
And little hair, to think we should always be fed,
Sheltered, intact, and self-controlled?”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)