Part 1.5 of 7

As I departed Melchiah's lair, I became aware of the toll my prolonged presence in the physical realm had on this facsimile of my corpse...
Weakened, I stumbled for support on the meticulously engraved walls of the crypt.

I was overcome with short spells of transparency that left me hovering between spectral and physical form, the sensation electric and unnerving.
Had I poisoned myself in consuming Melchiah, or was the source of my apparent weakness something I had not yet come to understand?
I limped my way through narrow passages of the lair, past intricate problems I had solved in a slew of ways. Some with unadulterated violence, and some with my wits when I wasn't set upon by the hordes of my brother's ghouls...

When I had first been resurrected, I had heard the ominous exposition of whatever creature claimed to be the fulcrum of existence...
My mind was forcefully intruded upon by it's grating voice, but I chose not to acknowledge it's existence- I felt no entitlement, and no dedication to -it!-

But it didn't matter...

I couldn't escape it, and as my physical form began to dissolve and I fell into the underworld once more- I was hounded by vampyric wraiths that drew from my essence to feed themselves, I felt sickened as my soul was made the feast for these cloaked vultures. Every pass they made at me, I swung out on the offensive against them time and time again, but it was useless... For the first time since... I couldn't recall how long it had been, but I distinctly remembered the sensation of passing out, the vision dimming in my eyes,

As I collapsed, my newfound agenda tainted my dreams , in the sprawled clutter of thoughts that inhabited my mind- I saw the confrontation with Kain I so desired, battling fiercely - with me quickly gaining the upper hand on my former mentor - and I saw it again-

How I had taken up the Soul Reaver to strike the finishing blow, and as I impaled Kain upon it in a sputter of viscera, I recoiled with shock and horror...
For it wasn't the eyes of Kain I had gazed into, but the pure deep blue eyes of a human. Blood and phlegm oozing from his mouth and nostrils as he shuddered and smiled in a way that cemented a feeling of dread in my very being - and as he spoke, I heard my own voice...

"You're a righteous fiend, aren't you?"

And for an instant, I caught a glimpse of something terrible... I couldn't make sense of it-

I was holding the Soul Reaver in hand, with the blade lodged through my body as though I was ritualistically ending my own life upon Kain's sword - as he stood paces from me and looked on feigning his concern for my well being - As quick as the moment had intruded upon my dreams, it was wrenched from my mind and replaced by the murky green tint of the Abyss, as I recalled the torment all over again - screaming and flailing all the way as I did so-

"No!"-

I had bolted from the floor of the elder god's lair nestled in the depths of the abyss, without ever realizing how I had gotten there and escaped my spectral assailants.
I had no need for breath, and yet I gasped painfully as I came to... And there I heard that insufferable voice in my head again...

- "Return to the seat of Kain's ill-omened empire - its sterile silence has secrets yet to unveil..."