Lacrimosa

It happened so quickly. Within only a few short seconds, the entire room had erupted into chaos. For the beast, it was hard to determined what happened first. It looked as though Kain was about to speak, but his entire being looked eager to destroy her. At the same time, Holly had made a dash for the weapons she had lowered.

Just as she reached the cannon, Holly realized she wasn't going to have the time to use it. She took aim and pulled the trigger, only to realize that she needed to light the fuse in order for it to work, and that the matches were in her pockets. She made this realization just as Kain had leapt into the air and was coming down at her: as soon as she had made her move, he was already countering it. In a panic, she dashed out of the way, narrowly missing him but not gaining enough distance to feel safer. Holly shot out with her leg, kicking Kain in his ribs with enough strength to knock him onto his side. Just as he fell, she turned around to run away. Holly did not doubt that he would be able to quickly recover from his fall. She dove behind one of the large collections of pipes and wires near the beast's cage, praying that she was hidden from sight, if only for a moment.

Light the wick right now!

At that time, Holly realized that using a match was not the only way to light a wick. By some miracle, she hadn't dropped her cigar this time. Without removing it from her mouth, she used the fiery tip of the cigar to light the wick on the cannon. Just as it sparked, Holly took a deep breath. She couldn't afford to miss, and she knew this. She only had a select number of cannonballs. Every hit was going to count. She had to be careful...

After a moment, she pushed herself off of the wires and took aim in Kain's direction.

And she saw him sprinting right at her. His great speed caught her completely off guard and she was frozen with shock for a moment.

Without taking the time to focus on her target, she simply pointed the cannon in his general direction and pulled down on the trigger. The cannonball blasted in Kain's direction, hitting him directly in his chest. Because he was rushing directly at her, he did not have the time to dodge it. The force from the cannon was strong enough to make him fly back a few feet, much to his surprise. Blood burst from his wound as he struck the wall behind him.

Reload! Now!

"Right," Holly hissed to herself, her hand forcing into a small pack she had attached to her hip. With a quivering hand, she shoved a second cannonball into the barrel of the rifle. Just as she lit the wick a second time, she realized that Kain was much faster than she would have expected. She had taken her eyes off of him for a moment and he was already gone.

No! Holly's eyes went wide, and her head turned right, then left, looking for him. Where did he go!

"Here." A voice hissed, and immediately Holly turned to fire in the direction of the voice.

The cannon went off, and the cannonball missed Kain's head by mere centimeters. The vampire grabbed the cannon and thrust it forward, smashing it into Holly's face. The strike caused her to black out for a second and the cigar fell from her lips. When she didn't fall to the ground after the first blow, he hit her with the cannon again. The first strike had been directly between her eyes, the second one hit her on the bridge of her nose. She saw stars and wobbled a few steps backwards, almost losing her balance.

Then she felt Kain's claws slash in her direction. Acting completely on instinct, she leaned away from the swipe and unfortunately lost her footing. Horror flashed across her face as she found herself falling backwards.

Damn!

Her back struck the ground, the pain stunning her for a second. Kain glared down at her. He tossed the cannon to the side and from the corner of her eye, Holly saw the weapon skid across the floor to the other side of the room. Within the next second, she saw Kain rushing at her, reeling his leg backwards, ready to kick her. She twisted her body, rolling away from the kick and tried to get back onto her feet. But the vampire leapt at her, his claws coming down on her back. She heard her shirt rip, felt his claws cutting through her skin, and a pained yell escaped her.

"Your strange weapons were painful..." she heard him hiss, hate filling every word he spoke. "But you should have known it would take more than that to take me down." Kain hissed, and she felt his sharp claws grab a handful of her hair.

He yanked her head back and twisted her head to the side. Holly was fortunate enough to roll onto her back before he could break her neck, and found herself gazing up into the flaming red eyes of a vampire. His mouth opened wide and she saw his fangs extend, growing as long and as sharp as two large needles. Immediately her eyes went big and her hands shot upward, pushing against his throat. Kain hissed and using his other claw, swiped at her arms. In a spray of blood, her arms immediately fell helplessly to the ground, and Holly released another pained yell.

Damn it! God damn it, Holly! Do something!

That was when she felt something… itchy. Or at least, strangely irritated. After a second, that irritation started to burn. It took her a moment to realize that her bleeding arm had fallen on top of her fallen cigar when Kain had swiped them away.

…Alright. How is this for something?

With a hiss, Kain's mouth widened and his head thrust towards Holly's throat. In that time, her hand grabbed onto the cigar and she pushed it into his face. To her ultimate surprise, Kain's head whipped back and a very loud yell was forced out of him.

Holly's cigar had found it's way into his eye.

And they said smoking would kill you. Looks like it just saved your ass.

This bought her a moment. She rolled onto her knees and made it to her feet, breaking into a run over to the cannon. She heard Kain curse her, then heard his footsteps approaching her. At that time, she had reached her cannon and broke into another run, desperately trying to find another spot to hide. This was not a simple task: the room was small, and the crevices and corners that could be used as decent hiding places were ones that would have to be reused over and over again. She didn't have the advantage in this battle.

With some luck, she managed to reload the cannon as she ran. Her hand then shoved it's way into her pocket, grabbing the matches. This was going to be more difficult: she knew he was gaining on her, and trying to run with a cannon under one arm and lighting a match at the same time without it going out was tricky. And unfortunately for her, the match went out as soon as it was lit.

God damn it! Next time I'm upgrading the cannon so it sparks on it's own!

His footsteps drew near. He was coming at her faster now... no. He was upon her. And it wouldn't take long...

To hell with this!

Suddenly she stopped in her place. Her hands gripped one end of the cannon and she twisted her body, swinging the cannon with both arms like a sword. Kain had been terribly close this time: the cannon passed over his outstretched arms and caught him on the side of his face. His head whipped to the side, stunned at this brash action. He growled, then grabbed onto the cannon again.

I'll be damned if this bloody leech going to hit me in the face again!

So she kicked him, though her foot did not reach her desired target. His strong arm slapped her leg away and she felt herself falling off balance once more. Her mind was cursing and screaming at her as she hit the ground again, and in her panic, she could only kick at him once more. This time, he caught her foot, and after throwing her cannon to the side again, snarled down at her. His body twisted and he began to drag her across the floor, bringing her out into the open. At this point, Holly's heart was pounding in her chest. Her hands tried to grab onto the nearest pipes and cracks in the floor, but the vampire was too strong.

He was going to take her away from her potential hiding places, and was going to butcher her on the spot. She knew it.

I need a miracle. I need a goddamned, bloody miracle and I need it right now!

In the back of her mind, despite her desperate thoughts and inner screams, she never expected another opportunity was going to come her way. And just as that fact was about to come into full realization, that was when she saw it: the fire-thrower.

When Kain was dragging her into the open, he had walked right pass the fire thrower. He had no idea what it was capable of.

Wish granted.

And immediately, Holly threw her arms upon it.

Without properly attaching it to herself, she instead she took aim with the hose and pulled back on the weapon's lever. A jet a flames burst from the nozzle and burst onto Kain's back. Holly watched as the fuel coating his back, attached to his clothes and then burst into flames. He screamed. His hands immediately released her foot and gripped the back of his head. The hood he wore was already burning off and making it's way onto his flesh.

She rushed away from him, gaining distance and was ready to blast him once more. This time, unfortunately, she felt a minor backlash. The hose would tremble when the fire tried to make it's way back into the hose and to the fuel source. So she had to shut it down. Unfortunately, it resulted in a large flame blasting up her hand and arm.

In her pain, Holly screamed several unpleasant comments and dropped the fire-thrower. Her hand patted and smothered the flames on her arm to the best of her ability, but the pain was only increasing as the flames died out. She held her arms against her and proceeded to back towards one of the nearest doors. And to her great dismay, the door refused to open for her.

She was trapped.

"Quickly!"

With all of the commotion, she had completely forgotten about the third creature in the room. She whipped her head in the direction of the Beast. It was the first time he had tried to speak during the battle, and judging by the way the machines seemed to be operating quickly and rapidly, the excitement in this room had damaged him further. Holly glanced over at him, then back at Kain. The flames seemed to be dying away on him… but that was impossible. If it were any other vampire, the flames would have killed him. Vampires feared attacks that impaled or enflamed, and although the fire clearly hurt him, he was somehow repelling the element.

"Human!" The beast bellowed again. "He will be healed in a matter of seconds. Get behind the Ward Gate!"

Holly's eyes went large then. To get behind the Ward Gate, meant to be at the mercy of the beast. Then her eyes turned to Kain, now without his shirt and hood. His back covered in large burns and blisters. Anything he had planned on doing to her before was going to be a thousand times worse now.

Her eyes turned back to the beast… then back to Kain.

Do you honestly have to choose?

"Shut up…" she hissed under her breath, then grabbed onto the fire-thrower. She would be damned if Kain was going to return the favor by using her own weapon against her.

Without further hesitation, she sprinted towards the Ward Gate. As she passed through, she came to an immediate halt infront of the beast. He was back on his feet once more, the machines going wild with every quick movement he made. Holly took a deep breath, placing her weapon to the side and shook her head at him.

"I'm in here now," she snapped, trying to look him in the eyes. "Now stop moving! It looks even worse being this close!"

The beast growled and coughed, but made no effort to move towards her. Slowly he lowered his body onto the ground, the machines slowing down as he did so. Holly took several deep breaths before lowering onto her knees as well. She was never one for fighting. At least, not like this. Her back and arms were bleeding, her body was sore, her arm was burned. She was beginning to feel her age all over again. This was no job for her. She looked over her shoulder in time to see Kain moving towards the Ward Gate, hissing as he approached it, and glaring hard at the woman before him.

"You are more trouble than you are worth, witch." He spat. "If you have any delusions of leaving this place alive, it is best that you get them out of your head."

To that, Holly simply took the fire-thrower back into her arms. "Do not mistake my slight insanity with being delusional, you devil. Come near me again and I will burn that bloody face from your skull!"

"You dare-!"

"Enough of this!" The beast bellowed, lifting his head and looking between the two of them. "There is much to be done… and we cannot afford to waste more time…"

Kain shifted his eyes from Holly to the monster beside her. The glare never left his face, but as his eyes met the Beast's, a strange feeling of recognition overcame him. As if somehow, these two had known each other in times passed. Or perhaps somehow, this creature's fate was someone connected with his.

"You know me, monster?" he asked. "My memory at present has it's flaws, but I should certainly remember a being such as you."

Holly bit her lip, fighting back the urge to say something unnecessarily spiteful.

"We have not met," the beast coughed. "I know of you, of course… that you can return from the dead gives hope to us all…"

"Speak for yourself." The words somehow forced themselves out of Holly's mouth before she could stop them. In response, the beast turned it's head in her direction. No words were spoken, but his eyes carried a hint of annoyance. Holly was half tempted to snap at him for looking at her like that, but refrained from doing so. He was in pain, and he hadn't mauled her when she passed the Ward Gate. That was kind enough, and she knew she should be grateful.

"Have no fear of me..." he said. His eyes were fixed on Holly for a moment, but the words were undoubtably directed at Kain. "I am enslaved by the fiends that built this monstrosity... to feed this machine with my life..."

"Then perhaps we have an interest in common." was Kain's response to the creature before him. "I am here to destroy the Device."

Immediately, the Seer's voice rang in Holly's mind. The Device! To the best of her knowledge, Holly only assumed that it was associated with that terrible place that the Seer had mentioned. Apparently her new ally was supposed to tell her more about it... but how did Kain know of the Device?

"Yes... yes, I can help you then..." the Beast coughed, carefully sitting up to speak to the vampire. As such, the machines begin to react, much to Holly's concern. But she did not protest. Clearly whatever the monster had to say was worth the agony. "That which you seek is too great for you to destroy alone. It descends far underground, it rivals a city in its size. To destroy the device, you must seek out the being that built it."

"The Sarafan Lord?" Kain inquired.

"No, no... it's older, far older." The Beast replied. "Those who dwelt in Nosgoth eons ago left some structures in their passing. The device is one. The Sarafan Lord discovered how to use it. Only the Builder can make it stop... There is a place in Nosgoth, far to the north, where time means nothing, where hours and years are frozen for eternity. The Eternal Prison. The wretches imprisoned there pay for their crimes for eternity. The Builder is there."

"The Eternal Prison?" Holly's voice attracted the attention of the two monsters. "...That place... it is really so close to Meridian?"

"You know of this place, woman?" Kain said, causing Holly to roll her eyes.

"If you are to address me, I am Lady Angela. 'Ma'am' will do as well." she spat back at him, then spoke again. "I know very little of this place, only that it is an eternal punishment for those who commit ungodly acts of treason against the Sarafan Lord." after a moment, she smirked at him. "...I'm told that he's even sent a few vampires there."

Kain snarled back at her. "Push me further, Lady Angela..." he hissed, "And you will find that this prison is a mercy compared to my wrath."

This time, Holly rose to her feet. "I am a Sarafan. I make it my duty to 'push you further.'"

"Enough of this..." the Beast protested, then continued. "There is a tunnel leading out of the city through this room. It will take you into the Prison."

Kain ripped his eyes away from the spiteful creature before him and returned his gaze to the beast. "And if this builder refuses my help?"

"Tell him you wish to destroy the device. Believe me, he will aid you..." was the reply.

"I hope, for your sake, that what you have told me is true..." Kain hissed. He took one final look at the Beast, and at the human woman. Then he turned away, approaching a door that led further into this strange establishment.

And leaving Holly alone with the beast.