“Do you know how you fell a tree?”

“Imagine, in your mind’s eyes, a tree sprouting up from the soil towards the stars. A large oaken stem giving way to a thousand branches that block out the sky.”

“Large, unmoving, imposing.”

“Roots dug deep into the ground, grasping the earth beneath it in an ironwood grip that simply refuses to let go. A permanent fixture built into the planet itself.”

“Or so it thinks.”

“The tree wishes nothing more than to grow, to expand. Its roots need to push deeper, its branches must multiply, and all that surround it must give themselves to be nutrients in the dirt where it took root.”

“But nothing lives forever, you know. No matter how old, how massive, everything must finally give way to eternity.”

“How do you fell a tree?”

“By chopping down the base.”

“Taking an axe in hand, sharpening the blade, and burying it into the tree’s trunk.”

“Burying it deep in the chest of you, Padre.”

“Because you and your little family? You’re nothing more than a Family Tree sitting on my land. A parasitic, long grown weed begging to be plucked from the earth and tossed into the compost where it belongs.”

“You are the one who sits at the center of it all, Padre. Every family tree has a patriarch who leads, a being that decides just where the roots spread and the branches grow.”

“Those who oppose you fear what they cannot comprehend, don’t they? A mass of writhing limbs and furious roots snaking through the ranks of OSW to choke out every last bit of nutrients from the masses who share your soil.”

“How could they ever fight back against something so overwhelming?”

“Simple.”

“You take out the trunk. You dismantle the father and the whole family tree topples over, falling as swiftly upon the ground as Death’s scythe cleaves through your neck.”

“What’s to remain if you perish, Padre? Will your family rise up and let one take your place at the base?”

“Or, deep down, do you know that the moment you die, the moment you draw your last breath, that they’ll fall to pieces? A big, beautiful tree reduced to firewood and left for the world to burn. Corpses left for the elements to decay.”

“Soon enough we need not wonder.”

“Come Slam I’m going to walk out in the forest with an axe and do what should have been done a very long time ago.”

“I’m going to chop you down, Padre.”

“Harvest your soul.”

“Reap your poor little family.”

“Size, power, age, they hold no power over me. I do not fear them just as the axe does not fear the tree.”

“Strike by strike, chop by chop, I’m going to send the entire Venganza family toppling over into the dirt.”

“You can’t outrun the reaper, you can’t outlast him, you can’t overpower him.”

“He simply does.”

“As you stare up at the lights, your body broken in half, remember my words.”

“Death comes for us all.”