Kain and his sons used the shortcut tunnel to Melchiah's Clan Hold. Only guards greeted them at the entrance. After Kain inquired them of their master's location, they told he was under the slab which was in the middle of the room. After observing no visible means to lift it, Kain pointed his hand toward the slab and a beam of energy extended from it. Making contact with the slab, it slowly began to rise. Once it was high enough, Kain threw an energy globe with his other hand on the slab, which then held it in place.
Hole in the floor turned into a downward sloping tunnel, leading into a large chamber. A circle shaped metal cage dominated the center of the chamber. A path surrounded the cage. A single human male was in the cage. Kain, Raziel and Turel headed right while Dumah, Rahab and Zephon headed left. Both parties observed empty side chambers along the way. Everyone arrived almost simultaneously to a ramp leading into a darkened alcove.
"Come out, Melchiah!" Kain commanded
"Are you really certain you want me to do that, master?" Melchiah asked from the darkness, voice sounding unusually raspy.
"I will not repeat it." Kain replied.
After a faint sigh, the sound of Melchiah dragging himself forward started. What emerged from the darkness gave everyone a pause.
Melchiah's lower body mass had increased slightly and even more shocking was that majority of his skin had a rotten look. Several pieces of it were missing and few bits of it just crumbled away as Melchiah stopped. His hands were twisted grotesquely and had become slightly larger than normal. Even his torso looked partially swollen in certain spots.
"What is the meaning of this, Melchiah?" Kain found his voice first to ask.
"You could put the blame on this to my already weaker than normal physical condition, but this goes much deeper than that." Melchiah said, somberly.
Kain merely nodded for Melchiah to continue.
"At first I thought this to be a sign of further decay to my already weak body and a residual side effect of my Gift, along with losing my legs. But when my arms began to twist and my torso began to swell too like my now-current legs, I began to suspect something else. Top of that, my skin is rotting at alarming rate. Am I evolving into something else still or is my body unable to deal with the nature of the Gift?"
No one had an answer, they could only stare in mute revulsion of what had become of Melchiah. All knew he was the weakest of them, but to degenerate in such a way, felt incomprehensible to them. Even Zephon had lost all impulses for even a playful punt. Only Kain seemed to retain his composure after the initial shock.
"I wish I could offer an explanation, Melchiah, but this is something that for the first time I have no answer for." Kain said, sounding defeated.
"All I can offer is that you should see through it, what becomes of it. Usually evolution can take more drastic process to achieve even better and greater result." Kain concluded.
Lieutenants were puzzled momentarily when Kain admitted he had no idea Melchiah's condition, usually he had answers to just about everything. But perhaps the evolution was, as Kain said, so much different thing that it even escaped his grasp.
Melchiah pondered Kain's words momentarily. Then, he seemed to smile, although from the current state of his face, it was hard to take it as a smile.
"You may be right, master, nature is very unpredictable, even whatever of it remains in our world." Melchiah said, with surprising cheerfullness.
"Should you require any kind of assistance, do not hesitate to ask." Kain said.
"Thank you, master. My mood has certainly improved, in fact it should show on my physique as well." Melchiah replied, simultaneously gesturing towards the cage where the lone human was. Human went immediately rigid and a blank look came to his eyes, result of being mind controlled. The bars in front of him became transparent for a brief moment and the human stepped through without resistance. Human was young and handsome in the way humans term it. He walked obediently towards Melchiah while other vampires observed.
Human stopped right in front of Melchiah and then his control was released, but he didn't have time to react at all as Melchiah scooped him up with his hands. Melchiah immediately proceeded to drain human of his blood, leaving him on his death throes. Then Melchiah began removing human's skin with precision a master tanner would envy. Human was still slightly alive since he was able to scream in ear pitching tone, despite being almost drained to death. Human died shortly after few pained gasps.
Once the grim operation was done, Melchiah began fitting the skin around his form, covering his face, torso and few other spots in bad condition. Finally, he was ready. Everyone observed Melchiah reminded slightly of himself again, although in a bit more grotesque way than before. He wasn't able to cover his hands but that was a minor detail.
"It is good that procedure still works on you, Melchiah" Raziel said.
"I agree, Raziel, this compensates the unfortunate side-effects of my latest evolution process. Still, I hope you all understand that I do not care to have anyone else than my children see me while this process lasts, so if you have something important to say, relay it to me through my children and I shall reply. Raziel, can you be my contact to other Clans?"
"Of course, Melchiah."
"It is settled then. We shall continue as before. Do report at once if anything out ordinary occurs in your evolution." Kain said.
"Yes, master." Melchiah said, bowing slightly.
Kain and Lieutenants returned back to the Sanctuary but despite the reassuring mood Melchiah had experienced, everyone, except Kain, felt slightly uneasy. Although it wasn't surprising that Melchiah, weakest of them, would experience such drastic deformation but it just didn't feel like he was evolving anymore. Everyone had the nagging feeling that they had gained what was their specialty already and were at the peak of their evolution, there wouldn't be anything else coming. But what was happening to Melchiah?
Years passed and things remained as Kain had foreseen, humans continued their small scale attacks which hardly ever provided decent results. Melchiah remained in his isolation but sending confirmation from time to time that he was alive and well. Vampires were now the uncontested masters of Nosgoth. Humans basically didn't have any kind of freedom but Kain allowed them the belief that they had, since their attacks kept lesser vampires in check and alert. Prevented downright boredom actually.
Then one day, one of Raziel's children was flying above Melchiah's Clan Territory. As he observed his land walking brethren below, he suddenly noticed something unusual. Diving down for a closer look, he was momentarily taken aback when what he first thought to be some strange monster, was in fact one of Melchiah's children. But he didn't resemble them in any way at all, all his skin was missing and his body was more shriveled than what was normal to them, also his eyes were almost red and seemed to glow faintly.
"Pardon for my bluntness but who are you, I have not seen your kind around here before?" Razielim asked.
Both a faint chuckle and sigh emanted from the vampire. "So I look that bad? Well, I assure you that I am Kern of the Clan Melchiah. What you see is merely the result of our master's condition extending to us. As you can see, some of us over there look quite normal right now." Kern said, pointing forward.
Razielim looked and indeed saw other Melchiahim, who resembled bit more their original form, but they too had the signs of change which already were evident on Kern's physique.
"I beg your pardon again, just seeing you like that among your brethren surprised me. I am Masha." Then he bowed in respect.
"Do not worry, Masha. I understand perfectly your confusion. Reason for this is that I am the last person my master raised so I seem to display his condition much faster than others, it will catch up on them in ascending order I believe, sooner or later."
"Seems so. My apologies again, I shall continue my patrol then. Good day." Masha said, nodding to Kern.
Kern nodded back and watched as Masha took to the sky, heading towards the Razielim Clan Hold.
Once Raziel heard the news of Melchiahim's further degeneration, he was at loss for words. He had partially expected it, since in the past Melchiah's weakness had transferred to his descendants, but he couldn't imagine it would become even worse. Melchiah certainly didn't have an easy time. Raziel could only hope that Melchiah's current evolution would turn out better than it had in the past. Meanwhile, all he and others could do was wait. Raziel started selecting messengers to other Clan Leaders to inform the latest developments.
Years went on and more of Melchiahim started to resemble grotesque ghouls rather than vampires. It didn't hamper their performance at all, although to humans they had become even more frightening beings than ever before, considering their ability to burrow through solid ground without effort and pop up from anywhere around them. Of all the vampires in Nosgoth, Melchiahim had become the most focused group of vampires which humans attacked. It was either due them being the most accessible ones, or the most weakest, or both. Mostly it was the fact that Melchiahim never left their Clan territory, which kept them in more isolated area to handle. It wasn't entirely too easy for humans to kill Melchiahim despite that though, Razielim patrols flew above the area too and often would come to help their brethren on ground, usually resulting in a deadly distraction to humans during which Melchiahim would pounce up on the hunters.
When it finally seemed all of Melchiahim had reached their current state and since no word from Melchiah had been heard for a while, Kain took it up to visit Melchiah to learn the truth of things. Teleporting straight to Melchiah's underground chamber, Kain found the place to be in exactly the same condition than last time, except the cage floor was slightly more messier. Kain saw Melchiah's outline in the shadowy alcove, which Melchiah had apparently made it magically more darker than normal for even a vampire to see clearly into.
"Explain, Melchiah. Why have you not reported of your condition?"
Several breaths passed before Melchiah responded and even then, his voice sounded like it contained barely restrained anger.
"There is nothing to explain! You all have seen it in my descendants!"
"Still, it is not an excuse to totally isolate yourself from us."
"I have every right, my condition is of no use to anyone outside so I am just fine right here, answerable to no one!"
"You are still answerable to me, Melchiah, or has your condition made you forget that? Perhaps you need to be reminded of protocol?"
Melchiah made an very audible sigh and started to lumber forward. What appeared from the shadows gave even Kain a pause. What had once been the proud Clan Lord was now almost a shapeless mass of rotting flesh, covered with stolen human skin. Rest of his body had become part of the large mass. His hands were still twisted but now were much larger than before. Only Melchiah's head was still same as always. But Kain couldn't help to see that even the head had the signs of starting to swell slowly, evidently the head too would fuse with the body or would become bigger than before.
"Do you still think I need to be answerable to anyone anymore, master?"
Kain was at loss, this went beyond even the most carefully prepared explanation. It was clear now that Melchiah wasn't evolving anymore, devolving more like. But whether that process would bring anything positive along with it, was another matter. Even if it did, was it worth the price?
"In the light of this, I can only grand you a special status. You do not need to attend Clan meetings anymore. Just keep relaying messages about happenings in your territory as before. You only need to notify me if anything significant occurs in your process, no need to let everyone else know."
Melchiah considered only briefly, it was as good an offer he would ever get from his master. "Very well, as long as I do not need to explain others of my absence and condition, it is enough. I will inform you the moment should anything exceptional happen, whether it is good or bad."
"It is agreed then. I dearly hope something positive comes out this, despite what it looks like now." Kain replied with a tinge of emotion never heard before in his tone.
Melchiah was touched of this token of emotion but kept that revelation to himself, as it was proper. "Thank you, master."
Kain nodded once and then vanished from the room.
Years came and went, and things remained more or less the same. Almost every last one of the Melchiahim had reached their ghoul-like state. Only the second-in-command still resembled a vampire slightly. Humans had concentrated most of their efforts on Melchiahim, with only very basic attention directed to other Clans. Kain allowed this to continue since humans had been pretty effortless in recent years. This concentrated offensive showed some promise that humans were gaining back their courage a little. Perhaps there were interesting times ahead after all, despite Melchiah's dilemma.
A Clan meeting, like any other, was about to commence. Only foreshadowing thing about the meeting was that Zephon had not made any contact with anyone for weeks. Envoys sent by Raziel were only turned away with indication that Zephon was engaged in urgent personal project and could not be disturbed, he would resume contact once it was over.
A week after the meeting without Zephon's presence and still no word from the Silent Cathedral. Kain couldn't tolerate the insolence no longer and summoned all other Lieutenants, except Melchiah, and proceeded to teleport them all straight to Zephon to act as witnesses to his punishment for not delivering a proper reason for his absence and silence.
Teleporting all to the courtyard of the Cathedral, Kain demanded from the first startled Zephonim he saw where his master was. He told him Zephon had relocated his quarters to the top of Cathedral. Kain and his entourage proceeded there by foot since Kain had not yet visited that location in person.
Once they reached top after receiving directions, they arrived into a dimly lit chamber with no windows. For humans, the chamber would have been almost pitch black, but vampires saw in it as clearly as humans in daylight. It didn't take long for Kain to notice Zephon's form sitting in the far end of the room. Quickly ahead of everyone else, he crossed over the chamber to Zephon.
Zephon didn't react at all to his master's ferocious approach, merely sat in uncaring manner to everything around him. As Kain and rest came closer, they noticed Zephon's feet were covered by blanket which seemed unusual since vampires never needed to keep themselves warm in any way.
Kain's curiosity got piqued and instead of yanking Zephon on his feet, he questioned first.
"Why have you remained out of touch with everyone and sended Raziel's envoys away with a same obscure message each time?"
For a moment it seemed Zephon was going to ignore even Kain and everyone else almost betted how fast Zephon would die. Then he slowly raised his head to face Kain and all could see he looked rather detached from the world.
"I have certain… mobility issues right now. Nothing serious that won't go away with a decent amount of rest." Zephon replied, sounding weary and down beat.
"Zephon if you really think the day will come when a blatant excuse like that goes through, I will not be your master anymore. What can be so..." Kain said as he grabbed the blanket away from Zephon's lap.
The sight which greeted them stunned all into deathly silence. Zephon's legs weren't human-like anymore, more like that of an insect. Top of that, there seemed to be another similar extra pair of legs along with the normal pair. Zephon had also kept his hands under the blanket which now sported bigger and sharper talons than before.
"Are you evolving too again, like Melchiah?" Turel found his voice to ask.
"I honestly do not know what to call this, evolution or devolution!" Zephon said, with bitter sarcasm.
At that moment it occurred to everyone Melchiah's transformation had nothing to do with his weak physical condition at all. Something else was happening and unlike before, it now seemed to start from the bottom of their hierarchy, not the top. A change was heading their way again, but this time it seemed to indicate much more than before.
"How is it affecting you?" Duman asked.
"Other than having the feeling of sporting four legs instead of two, not very special. Spended half a week in state similar to receiving Gift, once out of it, I had these." Zephon replied, indicating his hands and legs.
"Can you move with your new legs?" Rahab asked.
"At first it proved rather difficult but I have gotten better with them, in fact they work much better with my ability to climb. Covering greater distances on land is something I do not feel trying to do anymore."
During the conversation Raziel had a thought of what was happening but he wasn't sure he dared to voice it.
"So you mean you would rather remain here to oversee your operations instead?"Kain asked.
"If that is possible, yes. Although I know I am unequalled in climbing, on the ground I would be more vulnerable than before. I would rather see through this latest evolution first than risk my well being otherwise."
Kain pretened to think it deeply although Raziel was certain he would grant it to Zephon, since Melchiah had received the same pardon too. Raziel's own thoughts led to the conclusion that they had started to evolve in accord with their Gift, it seemed their physique was changing to better accommodate it. In Melchiah's case it was difficult to prove since his physique had always been weaker so it had only seemed an evolution gone awry. But Zephon's mutation was too obvious. His new legs were more better suited to climbing, his Gift. If Raziel was correct, similar evolution was coming to others as well and it would occur in ascending order. Raziel felt better to wait until next time, likely Rahab, to evolve. If he would evolve in way fitting to his Gift, Raziel would speak out.
"Very well, as long as you keep me informed of how you progress. Your second-in-command shall attend the meetings in your stead." Kain said.
"Thank you, master." Zephon replied.
All things said, Kain teleported himself and others back to the Sanctuary.
Time passed, everything was as before, except reports of some of the Zephonim starting to display their master's evolution process. While their legs too started to change similar to Zephon, they didn't grow another set of legs. Instead their hands began changing to insect like shape. Another development worth of notice occurred which revealed some of the Melchiahim had started act in more erratic manner. Few seemed to have lost part of their vocalbulary and had difficulties in forming sentences and most seemed to have abandoned their skin replacement process, bothering only to drink the body dry and partially mutilate it. Razielim occasionally studied the remains of the victims and one day discovered that instead of mutilation, there were signs that the corpse had been partially eaten.
The fact that Melchiahim seemed no longer to bother cover their rotting flesh with human skin and not speaking clearly was indication that their intellect was degenerating. They actually started to behave like the grotesque ghouls they resembled. But that didn't make them any less dangerous, they still operated in same manner as before and seemed to be able to communicate between themselves somehow. They certainly displayed the same cunning of ambushing vampire hunters which intruded on their territory. Other Clan Leaders started calling Melchiah's area Necropolis, due the looks of its inhabitants. Although communications seemed to cease with Melchiahim, they still acted in accordance with other Clans as before who paid visit to Necropolis.
Years rolled on. Cause Rahab couldn't attend Sanctuary meetings during day, they were held at night. One night he didn't show up and rather soon his second-in-command arrived and informed that Rahab has evolved, hence being unable to attend. This led Kain teleporting all (Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Zephon's and Rahab's second) to Drowned Abbey where they were directed to the large chapel outside. A Rahabim warned that there were only few dry spots in the room so he drew a rough diagram of the room on the floor with his talon so Kain was able teleport safely since the door to the chapel was underwater.
They all appeared above a large stone pillar. Everyone spread to the other pillars sticking out of the water. The room they were in was half-full of water. There was no sign of Rahab but it was certain he would appear soon once he saw his master had arrived. As if on cue, Rahab surfaced in middle of the room, greeting them cheerfully, which was a total surprise, considering the mood in which the two previous Lieutenants had been when confronted.
"Greetings, master and brothers. I am happy you were able to come. I will show you the reason why I was unable to attend personally."
Before anyone managed to reply, Rahab swam to the pillar Kain stood and jumped on it. There he quickly placed himself in sitting position. No one wondered why when they managed to get a good look of Rahab. He had no legs anymore, instead it seemed they had fused together and turned into a tail with tail fin. At that moment, Raziel received full confirmation to his theory years earlier.
"You seem to have evolved in manner fitting with your Gift, Rahab." Kain said.
"Thank you, master. It certainly is better than I expected. Only downside is that I am forever unable to walk on dry land but actually it doesn't bother me too much. Total freedom of moving in water more than compensates it. I admit I cannot imagine how Melchiah and Zephon are feeling of their developments but for my part, I am very happy with this. I can already see how my children will evolve. Rahabim will be undisputed masters of water in Nosgoth."
Rahab's second-in-command could do nothing else but kneel in front of his master after such inspiring speech.
"I had a feeling it would lead to this but did not dare voicing it earlier. I wish to tell you what I thought up about the current evolution when Zephon got his legs." Raziel said.
After Raziel told of his theory, Rahab talked first.
"I concur completely, Raziel. Other than Melchiah, which is understandable, rest of us are experiencing a sort of adaptive evolution based on the property of our Gifts. Mine and Zephon's evolution proves it. It only remains to be seen how the last three of you adapt to your Gifts."
Raziel, Turel and Dumah felt like they were immersed in water. So far they hadn't thought of their own evolutions but since Rahab had now experienced his, they were next in line. Raziel quickly surmised that Turel and Dumah at first glance didn't held any specific creature in their Gift element but as he thought about himself for a moment, glancing his wings, he suddenly felt very troubled of what might be coming.
"Since everything else is already established in the matter of information processing, same goes to you, Rahab, your second-in-command shall present you in the meetings." Kain said.
"As you wish, master." Then Rahab nodded slightly and jumped back into water.
"As before, meeting is ended." Kain said, then he teleported everyone away, except Rahab's number two.
Years went on, not much changed, except humans started making half hearted attempts to try re-capture the Silent Cathedral but all attempts were met with complete failure. From the reports of Razielim, all Melchahim had now lost all semblance of civilized intellect. Melchiah was the only one who retained his sanity, as far as it was possible. More of Zephon's offspring began to display insect like qualities. Their bodies had began to twist into form more fitting for insect, or to be specific, like a spider. Zephon's bulk had increased in size, otherwise he was the same for now. Some of Rahab's children had started to evolve too, but unlike their master, they didn't develop tail fin. Instead, their legs transformed into shape suitable to moving in water and their skin began having scale-like quality, as Rahab did too.
When Dumah was late from a Clan meeting, Kain was prepared to teleport his remaining Lieutenants and the representatives to Dumah's city, Dumah himself stepped into the Sanctuary with noise loud enough to be heard all the way to Human Citadel. His size had increased from normal and his skin had clearly hardened. While his feature were clearly recognisable, it seemed obvious if his size would increase, his form would expand too and dissolve his features further.
Dumah certainly didn't display anything which would hamper his movement, so his evolution didn't prevent him from participating future Clan meetings. Only one negative aspect he gained was reflected on others instead on himself. Dumah had started to become more arrogant, it seemed he felt himself to be more powerful than any other vampire. His fear of Kain's retribution kept him from displaying it out loud though, but his mannerism started to reflect his supposed superiority.
As years went on, aside the normal, developments occurred amongst the vampires. Zephonim evolved and Rahabim too, and some of Dumahim started to display more muscular structure than normal, although it was hard to say what it would look like in the end. When Turel was slightly late from the meeting, everyone else waited patiently for news. In record time, Turel arrived to Sanctuary himself, portraying a slightly larger size, head and faintly his ears were larger than normal. Only benefits he reported were he now was able to hear far better than anyone else but his sight had become more limited than usual, but not enough to hamper him of course.
Years moved on, things developed in their own pace. Vampires continued to evolve.Turelim started to have similar features as their master. Then the day when Raziel didn't show up on time ever since him first receiving his Gift, those who still came to Sanctuary knew what to expect. When Raziel finally arrived, a clear sign of change was upon him. His fangs were more prominent than before and his skin had faint sign of fur. Not to mention his face looked much more savage than his usual handsome self. Raziel was clearly shaken of his appearance, as others were slightly too. Somehow, it didn't came as a surprise when Raziel announced that he planned to move his Clan away from his current location and asked permission from Kain to relocate them to the Malek's Bastion which he had told of in his past exploits.
Kain agreed and the transfer happened in overnight. Raziel still kept attending Sanctuary meetings after that however, although he clearly wished to be elsewhere during the event, so shaken he was from his transformation.