Code Pain
Chapter 1: Waking
So it occurred to me that I was dead. Or had been. Or something along those lines. Point is, I had a feeling that I had died more than once. This time must have been particularly nasty as instead of coming back in a poof of smoke or whatever, I started hallucinating. Okay, I could deal with that. Wasn't the first time I'd taken a bad blow to the head and swore I could hear Toby McGuire threatening me. Seriously, getting told some guy is gonna put dirt in your eye when you've had both of them pulled out of your head is pretty scary. Thing is I just couldn't seem to remember any of these things happening to me. I knew they happened, I knew they did, but I couldn't string the events involved together in my head. That was... disconcerting to say the least. There was a white void around me, and I could feel the uncomfortable press of a stone floor against my back. Then there was a shuffle of feet and suddenly someone was looking down on me.
"Hello. It's good to see you're awake. Are you alright?" she asked.
Well, couldn't say this was the worst thing I could have seen in a death induced fever dream. The figure looming over me was a beautiful young woman with tanned skin, dusky almost, with very long white hair, and kind eyes. They were red, but kind all the same. Her frame was slight and she was quite a bit shorter than myself. She wore a gown that was utilitarian in appearance, somewhere between environment gear and a hospital gown if I had to guess. She asked me something but like an idiot I just stared, and so when I just blinked in response, she asked me if I was alright. The way she looked at me was odd. Familiar, like she knew me. As my eyes focused in on her features, taking in the details of her delicate face, I felt a name run like gentle fingers across my surface thoughts. Cruz. This girl's name was Cruz. How I knew that was beyond me, though.
"Uh... I'm dead. I think. So define 'alright'." I said. As far as I knew, I was dead. Or something close to dead? I really wasn't sure what state I was in, but if I was stuck in some void with this girl, then being in the physical world wasn't it. I stood up and felt my joints and bones ache. I knew for a fact I wasn't that old when I died, early twenties I think, but I already felt like I could slip a disk at any moment. Just what the hell was I doing when I wasn't dead? The girl looked up at me as I stood to my full height, easily head and shoulders taller than her. She watched me carefully, yet she was relaxed. Well that made one of us, at least.
"If you can use that snark of yours, then I'll trust you're fine." Cruz said good-naturedly. Her voice was pleasant and lilting. "Do you remember much about yourself? A name at least?"
I stared at her and seriously struggled to say anything as my mind agonized, searching for anything that could have been a name. I thought of several, but none of them sat right. Bartholomew was to pompous. Muscles McMan-Awesome was too... well, you get it. Eugene was Eugene, so no. But as I combed through what must have been the yellow pages equivalent for names, one stuck out to me and resonated unlike any other. I had no idea if it was the name I had been given at birth or what, but this one in particular just felt right. Meeting Cruz's gaze, I nodded.
"Kain. My name is Kain." It was when I said it that I realised that I had tapped into some long lost memory of a life left behind. I'd taken that name from a video game from my youth. Shallow, I know, nothing symbolic or even that meaningful, but it was a damn cool name so I was taking it. Kain the Revenant. Hell yeah. Wait, Revenant? That word felt important but I couldn't for the life -terrible word choice- of me think why.
"Kain. I like that name. Suits you." Cruz said. Sweet, she liked the name. We spoke for a while, talking about nothing. There wasn't much for me to draw upon since I apparently had a killer case of amnesia, and thus had no past life that I knew of to talk about, which was shitty to be honest. I had no idea how long I'd been bad at small talk, but if I was this bad while I was alive then I dreaded to think how my daily interactions went. Cruz, however, had plenty to talk about. She talked about Blood Codes, Blood Veils, and just blood in general, which became really familiar topics to me the more she spoke about them, like she was merely reintroducing me to them and I figured out the rest. She didn't talk about herself much. Any time I asked about her personally she would deflect it or give me a rather convincing if confusing answer as to what she was and why she was taking up floor space in my brain. She was nice and pretty, but living rent free inside my head? I ain't no simp.
"I'm just a passenger," she'd said, "I'm a part of you, and I'm eager to aid you. So just think of me as a helping hand." She smiled and placed a warm hand over mine. She felt... odd. Like, really odd. I could feel the sheer strength through her fingers despite her decidedly slender form, like she could tear off my arm and slap it back on if she were of a mind to do so. But she was gentle, and I silently thanked whoever could have been listening. "It's time for you to awaken now, Kain. But this won't be the last time we meet, so go. Go and make some memories to share with me, would you? I enjoyed your company today."
Once again I was almost flapping my mouth like a goldfish that this girl was being so nice to me. Ugh, I really hoped I wasn't this awkward all the time. Forcing my mouth into motion, I answered.
"Uh, thanks. I will. Take care of yourself until then, Cruz." For a brief moment I felt a pang of sadness as her form dissolved, as did the stone floor we stood on.
Then I woke up.
My eyes were bleary as they opened. My mouth and tongue felt like I'd been on a steady diet of sand and cat litter, like I'd been chewing on those little silicon balls that you're always warned not to ingest. Focusing my eyes, I was met with a face that looked almost angelic. Like Cruz, this girl was nothing short of beautiful, but in a more serene and statuesque way. Gentle yellow eyes met mine, and a mane of wavy white hair gently moved with the dry breeze. Her skin was milky pale, and her features seemed to be finely sculpted to capture the very concept of comfort. The girl's face was almost impassive, but a sudden and very subtle slacking of her features suggested relief. Pink lips moved, but I didn't hear her words. I blinked once, then twice, feeling grit sting my eyes.
"Welcome back... are you alright?" She asked. Her voice was measured and low, but soft as fresh linen. Her presence was soothing, and her voice only compounded that.
"I need to stop meeting pretty girls like this. Being passed out on a first meeting isn't a good look." I grumbled croakily. I tried to sit up and was assisted by a small hand on my back that pushed me up and slowly led me to my feet. You know when you stand up too fast and you get sudden vertigo and you feel like you're gonna fall over but most of the time you don't? I got that. I got that bad. She steadied me as I swayed. I wanted to wave her off as I didn't want to pull her down with me just in case I did actually fall straight back on my ass. Luckily I didn't, and so she gently gripped my left hand and began to lead me somewhere.
The world around me was frankly a cluster fuck of ruins and giant scary spikes. The spikes were great black things lined with yellow veins and knots that pushed up through the ground and lanced to the sky, all while spearing through buildings. Step by slow step, the girl guided me with gentle tugs of my hand across the shattered asphalt and sand, my boots scraping along and crushing the odd shard of glass. Remember how I felt like I could slip a disk at any moment? Now I felt like my spine was going to fold in on itself. Up ahead of us was a bizarre white plant that grew in sheer defiance of the arid, lifeless ruins we found ourselves in.
Now, I don't know if I was more out of it than I originally thought, but as I got closer, pain flared behind my eyes and I fell to one knee. That hurt by the way, but as I was too distracted with the trippy visuals of Cruz filling my mind, I had no time or presence of mind to nurse my aching knee. The pain throbbed and intensified like lances of fire jetting through my brain matter. The girl knelt down and placed a hand on my shoulder, and her other hand over my wrist.
"It's alright. It's alright..." she said soothingly while I was busy bugging the fuck out. Jesus, what a sight I must have been. She shifted some of the dark wrapping around my wrist and exposed the pale skin beneath, and sunk her suddenly elongated canines into my flesh. In pain and slightly aroused, I didn't notice the effect my spilled blood had on the white plant as it was suddenly revitalised and began growing glassy red orbs like tear drops with a frost-like coating on the bottom and the tip of each orb.
"So it is you..." she said, her voice lifting as if she had just discovered something great. I mean, not to toot my own horn or anything...
She laid me down as I began to convulse with the pain, pulled one of the orbs from the plant and held it in front of my face. It looked delicious. Not the outer casing of it, but something within me knew the inner contents were the real treasure. My feral eyes locked onto it and I yearned for it. I'd bite through the glassy outer casing if I had to.
"This is for you." She held it to my lips and I drank deeply from it, practically emptying it in one go as I felt the delicious iron tang wash over my tongue and engulf my senses. The pain was washed away, replaced with a sense of calm and renewed strength surged into my limbs. Still, I was exhausted as the visions faded. My clammy skin no longer burned and my sweat began to feel like ice water trapped between my skin and clothes. She shifted to sit against the white tree and lifted my head to rest it on her thighs. The girl was warm. Very warm. Soft and inviting, I felt more comfortable than I could remember ever being. Everything from how she felt, to her smell, to her soft caressing of my hair, all of it soothed me as if she were anodyne for every one of my woes. It took great effort to look up at her, and I flashed her my best smile before letting sleep overtake me. Ahh, lap pillow.
I woke up once again, this time with my head in the soft embrace of a pair of thighs. I had to die, literally die, for this to happen. For fuck sake. I rubbed my eyes and reluctantly sat up from the thighs of that beautiful, beautiful angel that came to my rescue, only to find myself in a god damn oubliette surrounded by other schmucks all looking sorry for themselves.
"Don't make any noise, fella. Your friend only just fell asleep." One of them said. It was a man sat opposite us, his legs apart and his elbows resting on his knees. His eyes were sunken and his cheeks were drawn, but he looked lively...-ish. He had a kind of rebreather resting next to him on his seat, which was just a broken slab of concrete. Standing up and stretching, I felt my back and knees crack rather uncomfortably, but my neck had had a rather nice support by way of the girl's thighs. I looked down at her, seeing her sat against a concrete support pillar, eyes closed and breathing softly.
"How the hell did I even get here?" I asked to no one in particular, but the man answered me.
"Seriously? You don't know?" he asked.
"I was asleep and pretty comfy." I replied. The man shrugged and muttered something under his breath.
"Well, you got found by some labour scouts. Heard them talking about a Blood Spring out in the city ruins. That where they found you?"
"Probably," I shrugged, "the white tree thing, yeah?" The man looked at me thoughtfully, like I said something odd. I mean, I probably did, but he didn't have to make it so obvious. Dick.
"You...uh, you haven't been a Revenant for long, have you? Blood Springs, Gaol Of The Mists, The Lost? Any of that ring any bells?" he asked, and the look on my face must have told him everything he needed to know. But I have to make something clear, I knew what these things were. Kinda. I knew the names. But beyond that, I knew pretty much nothing else about them. They must have held some significant meaning to me at some time, but I think wandering around and taking more blows to the head than can ever be deemed healthy knocked a few things loose.
"Listen, fella, I don't know how long I can spend explaining everything, but you're gonna wanna grab a mask in case those assholes up there decide they want you out looking for Blood Beads." He pointed to a table in the far back with his thumb where a series of respirators similar to his own lay stacked in an untidy heap. Heading over, I grabbed one and slipped it on, and it suddenly felt like I could breathe a bit easier. I had no frame of reference before, but without the mask it was like trying to breathe molasses in gas form, if that makes any sense. I looked at the mysterious girl who helped me and took one over to her. I wanted to let her know it was there and it was important. But then again, I didn't wanna wake her up.
Once I sat down, I had the man explain some things to me. The freaky white tree the girl and I found earlier was a Blood Spring, a plant that grew Blood Beads, which were a pretty much perfect substitute for human blood and was like the greatest treasure one could find out in the ruined world. We sorry lot of assholes were being used to find Blood Beads for some guy called Silva, who was apparently some great saviour that kept the big nasty things on the outside of the big red wall, hence the Gaol Of The Mists. He needed the Blood Beads to keep himself, and therefore, the Gaol operational. There was a whole levy and ration system too. What bullshit. Also the Lost were apparently Revenants who went nuts without blood or exposure to something called the Queens Miasma and Frenzied, turning them into all sorts of abominations.
"You know, when you and that girl were dragged in here, she made sure you stayed together the whole time. When you were asleep they threw you in first and she was quick to follow you and held you the whole time. Lucky guy." He said with a humourless chuckle, and I didn't like the smirk he was giving me. For what felt like the hundredth time that day, I found myself looking at her with unbound curiosity. Why did she help me? Why did she even care? Did she know me or something?
"I guess that explains why my back hurts." I grumbled as I rubbed my sore spine.
CLUNK.
I looked up as the retractable ladder to our dank little hole was kicked down and hit the ground, startling some of the others down here and making the girl stir from her sleep. I frowned at that. We were called up for exactly what the guy said we would be. I offered my hand and the girl took it, rising on unsteady feet. She'd just got to sleep, dammit! Myself, the girl, and several other Revenants shuffled towards the ladder. The others looked scrappy and worn out, several wearing masks but exhaustion bled off of them like a dense fog.
"You okay?" I asked the girl as she joined me at the top and she nodded silently with bleary eyes. "I don't know where we're going, but stick close to me, alright?" Once again she nodded and gripped the sleeve of my battle-worn jacket. Look at me, playing hero when I didn't know the first thing about anything in this place. Still, I had to try. She stuck her neck out for me, finding my comatose ass out in the ruins.
It took a little while for us to be marched to wherever they thought there would be Blood Beads, and we were separated into groups. The girl was taken away from me, but not before I pushed one of the overseers away and threatened to stick his bayonet where the sun didn't shine. Got me a nice gun butt to the stomach, that one.
And so, like a survivalist taking a dump in a hole, I was pushed into some pit with some other guy I didn't know. I had no weapons, only the Blood Veil on my back, and no supplies. But this guy, a lanky, awkward man with a huge hammer made of some rebar and a slab of concrete, was gonna have to be the heavy hitter out of the two of us. I spotted a pipe lying on the ground next to a weird creature with a sword sticking out of it. I'd been about to take the sword until-
"W-wait, don't touch that!" the lanky guy cried out. I looked at him and cocked an eyebrow.
"And why the hell not? It's a sword."
"It's what's keeping that Lost dormant. Don't remove it." He said insistently. Seeing how I had no memory of anything like that, and he did, I listened begrudgingly. I wanted the sword, not this dumb pipe!
"Sure, alright then," I sighed, "Got a name, pal?" I decided then that I might as well start getting some names. I was really bad at introductions, and I had the sneaking suspicion that it had always been the case with me.
"Oliver. You?" he extended a hand and I reluctantly took it. Jeez, I really sucked at social stuff. It wasn't like I was nervous or anything like that, just... averse, I guess?
"Kain." I said, offering the name I'd come up with for myself. "Well Oliver the sooner we search and find some Blood Beads, or not, we can get out of here. Let's get moving." I said. I didn't even wait for him to reply before I turned and began heading further into what I could only guess was some kind of parking lot as there were a good few cars haphazardly scattered throughout the place, with bays outlined on the asphalt where those giant spikes hadn't completely messed up the ground. I looked up at the hole we came through and frowned.
I swear, if any of them hurt that girl, heads will roll...
Okay, forget what I said earlier. The pipe rocked! I was splitting Lost skulls quite happily with it until I found a huge ass axe down there, but for what it was worth, the pipe was a damn good slayer of uglies. I wasn't sure when I'd become so good at fighting, but I had an inkling that what my mind had forgotten, my body hadn't. I must have been at this for a good while in the life I'd forgotten. But one must advance, so I ditched the pipe in favour of the Heavy Axe. Seriously, who just leaves such a huge axe in a box? Oliver was pretty impressed at how I fought. I liked to keep fast and agile, and while the Heavy Axe wasn't my preferred kind of weapon, I was still light enough on my feet to manoeuvre about any fights and deliver a killing blow to any Lost. Counter to me, Oliver was deceptively strong despite his lanky build, and was taking hits left and right with little issue, all while dishing out hits that sent Lost flying in all directions. Seriously, the guy hit like a freight train. But for all that, I could see where he made amateurish mistakes and relied solely on his sheer strength and toughness to see him through a fight. He must have noticed it too because he asked me if I'd been doing this for long, and I said... maybe.
"Maybe? You don't know?" he asked. I tapped a finger to my skull.
"Memory loss is a bitch. I'm aware I've forgotten a lot of things, but just not what. Can't be all bad though, seeing as I can still kick some ass. Must have something to do with my lost memories." I replied.
"Oh. That's gotta suck, sorry, man." Oliver said glumly. I shrugged and said it was alright and we continued.
The huge spikes, which Oliver had told me were called Thorns of Judgement, had really torn this place up, as huge chasms yawned open into depthless expanses below our feet. Seriously, what bizarre shit had to go down for all this to happen? None of this was natural, of that I was pretty damn sure. So, Oliver and I were chopping and smashing our way through various Lost, turning them to ash after flattening them into ground beef, until we looped back on ourselves. We came down a staircase and stopped at a gate.
"Oliver... did you see this gate when we got down here?" I asked as I looked at him. He scratched his head, lightly raking his fingers through his coppery hair. I couldn't quite see his face through the visor of his mask, but I could tell that he was hesitating. "Oliver...?"
"Uh, well I guess I did? Didn't think we'd get back here though." He said sheepishly. I wasn't impressed, but I wasn't about to go off on my only ally down here. Besides, it was just a door. Probably didn't even open from the side we'd been on previously. Just to make sure that I was vindicated, I grabbed the handle of the metal gate and pushed, then pulled. Nothing. Awesome!
"Guess we can't-" CLANG!
I turned to see the source of the noise and saw the metal gate lying on the ground, the hinges and bolts free of the concrete doorway. If he had said something or just used is gorilla strength on that gate, we would have had such an easier time. Ugh... never mind. We left after I'd made myself look like an idiot, all with Oliver chuckling to himself only to go quiet when I cut my eyes at him.
The tunnels and sprawling parking spaces changed as we passed through a gaping hole in one of the walls further up. Beyond it was a sprawling network of caves with slick walls and purple fluorescent fungi. The tunnels were wide and tall, made by who knows how many years of erosion. We ventured further in with only a few Lost, all of which met the same fate as their late brethren as my axe and Oliver's hammer did their work.
"Man... to think people were walking around with this place under their feet. Nuts, huh?" Oliver said as he looked around in wonder. I nodded but decided that the things that wanted to eat our faces on sight were more important than soaking in the sights.
"Let's try and stay focused, yeah?" I said as we walked. Water dripped down on us and the moist walls shimmered with the purple glow of various fungal growths. As a Revenant, I apparently had heightened senses that left me sensitive to most sensory stimuli. I could hear every drip of water and where it came from with near pinpoint accuracy. I could see in near perfect darkness, though the glowing mushrooms were a nice touch to the caves, though ultimately unnecessary. But it was the smell that got my attention the most. The smell of mildew and warm moist air were the most prominent, but there was the smell of the wet sand under our feet and the smell of... blood. It wasn't mine. It wasn't even Oliver's, but blood of a kind I hadn't smelled yet. It was definitely a Revenant's blood, but I couldn't tell who.
We came down a sloping passage that opened up into a wider section of cave where several wooden crates had been left to rot. The child in me wanted to break them just for the sake of it, but Oliver and I were both distracted by the lone figure knelt down in the sand. Their back was facing us and their shoulders shuddered as they retched and clutched at their throat. Judging by the state of their clothing and Blood Veil, smeared with sand and bearing gashes and burns, this person had been down here for a while. We exchanged a look before Oliver walked forward, that damn goody-two-shoes nature of his won out against caution and he approached with an extended hand. Little did he or I know, and much to his horror and ultimate undoing, it was the last mistake he'd make.
He stepped towards the figure that was hunched and retching by the cave wall, when it turned, and a Revenant who had lost his mask was growling with his canines elongated and his eyes glowed arterial red. Okay, well that was pretty unsettling. This was what a Revenant in Frenzy looked like. Both of us were too slow to react as the Revenant pounced at Oliver and swiped out at his face, his fingers angled like claws and sent Oliver sprawling to the mushy sand. His mask landed several feet away. Before Oliver could get mauled by the frenzied Revenant, I intercepted and brought my axe down on the upper portion of his back, crushing and slicing through bone and destroyed his heart, turning the poor bastard to ash.
I didn't wait to see the Revenant completely dissipate before I looked at Oliver, the lanky, copper-haired guy I'd been pummeling Lost with was writhing and clutching his throat. Black veins slowly spread from his eyes and his main artery up his neck looked as if it were pumping oil rather than blood. His eyes, the colour of which I hadn't been able to see beforehand had turned red. His eyes met mine. He struggled to smile and gave me a look that I recognised for some reason. He knew he was finished, and he accepted it. Somehow I knew I'd seen that look countless times in whatever life I'd been living before now.
"Guess I'm done, huh?" he croaked. "You should get going, don't wanna be around when I Frenzy. Good luck to you, Kain."
I knelt down beside him. It was dumb all things considered, but I placed a hand on his shoulder. It was a sad thing. However, this was the life we led, and it was a lesson I remembered as if encoded into me in my old life. Life was a fickle thing for Revenants. We always walked the knife's edge between becoming monsters and holding onto our last scraps of humanity.
"Godspeed, Oliver. I wish we met under different circumstances, but for what it's worth, it's been fun." I stood and he nodded to me, and I left him behind.
I continued on by myself, venturing deeper and cutting down whatever Lost got in my way. There was this huge one that kinda looked like a man with a weasel for a face, but the weasel had a sock stuck on its head. Weird. I'd snuck up on it while it was presumably eating sand or whatever and used its back as a stepping stone, then jumped up just as it caught on to what was happening and slammed the blade of my axe straight into the top of its skull, killing it in one go. Way to go, me!
After killing some purple slime things that really grossed me out, I came to a large chamber that surrounded a black pit. Walkways were carved by years and years of erosion, and along them walked Lost, some clutching swords and others holding bayonets. I wasn't interested in attacking the other weasel-faced giant down below, and so I took the left path where a clutch of three bayonet wielding Lost stood watch. I briefly wondered if they somehow knew that I was there, as they were in a prime position for an ambush. Backtracking, I found an opening onto the raised position they were on and leapt down. They whirled and open fire on me, Ichor bullets streaked towards me like red comets accompanied by loud bangs of weapons discharge.
They didn't seem to be too strong as the bayonets they used were degraded to all hell and looked like they barely even worked anymore. I took a couple of hits as I dodged around. They stung, but they weren't enough to slow me down. The salvo didn't last long as I put my axe to work and split one Lost down the middle from head to crotch like a log, then swept the weapon out horizontally and bisected the other two. Further down the path was an alcove where old military supplies lay still in their crates, the dull green of their exteriors worn with browns and greys from weathering. There was a Mistle that I rested at to get my bearings and take a load off for a few minutes.
The Mistle was kinda like a stalk, with white flowers growing from it, yet it strangely gave off a dull glow and a low humming chime. I was fairly certain plants weren't supposed to do that, but then again it was the same plant that was restoring me, a Revenant, to full strength just by being near it. Yet another oddity I'd have to wrap my head around at some point. Continuing on, I ran into someone I would come to regard with a great deal of respect in the coming days. Standing against the cave wall with his arms crossed and a large, crimson bladed sword resting tip down in the sand, was another Revenant. He heard my approach and opened his red eyes, his lower face covered by his mask. One eye was partially covered by his wavy, raven black hair. From the way he was dressed in a sort of cowboy-meets-aristocrat style, gotta say, guy had drip.
"Another person looking for Blood Beads? Haven't seen anyone else this far in." He spoke.
"What can I say, I'm good at what I do. But you don't look like you're here for the same reasons I am." I replied. There was a brief moment of uneasy tension as the two of us sized each other up. Suddenly there was a feeling at the back of my mind, like a sudden jolt of recognition.
"Louis..."
Okay. That wasn't my internal voice. Was I schizophrenic as well as an amnesiac? Just how shafted had I been waking up? Unless...
"Yo, voice indicative of early onset schizophrenia, you wouldn't be Cruz, would you?" There was a pause.
"You can hear me?"
"Uhhh... yeah? Why wouldn't I? I thought as I recalled the vision-dream-thing I had before waking up to that girl's oh so beautiful face. I needed to find her again. I had a feeling she and I weren't quite finished.
"Sorry, I'll explain later. You're staring and really weirding Louis out."
True to her word, I had been staring and Louis was gripping his weapon and looking at me rather uncomfortably.
"Sorry, man. Mind's a bit burned out, you know, just Revenant things." I said hastily with my hands up in a placating manner. I already had Lost to deal with, I didn't need a fully cognizant Revenant swinging on me also. He seemed to relax a bit, though his hand never left his sword.
"You've got memory loss too? It's a safe bet as it's pretty common to our kind." He said knowingly. He spoke in a way that made me think of a professor, always analysing and looking for deeper meanings in whatever he saw or heard.
"Yep. I remember basically nothing of who I was or where I've been, or even what I've been doing up to this point." I said matter-of-factly.
"Strange... if that's true then your case is more severe than most. Say, you wouldn't be planning on going further in, would you? I think it would be best for us both if we went together. Whaddaya say?" He said with a nod.
Couldn't see a reason not to. I felt a little guilty that I had left one companion behind only to stumble into another in the space of ten minutes, but when survival's a priority, it didn't pay to be too picky. Offering my hand to shake on it, I agreed.
"Sure. Beats going it alone in this pit, so let's get along. Name's Kain." He took my hand and shook it.
"I'm Louis, pleasure to meet you."
We went on our merry way, slaying Lost and trying not to die. More of those giant weasel men, three in total, occupied the same chamber as some gunners and a couple of sword-wielding Lost. Had to say, no disrespect to the guy, but fighting with Louis went a lot smoother than with Oliver. Where I could reliably have the latter soak up damage for me so I could slip in and kill our enemies with the risk of getting splattered with that giant hammer of his, Louis and I had a sort of synchronicity that allowed us to wordlessly coordinate our movements and attacks with devastating effect. Not once did we come close to hitting each other, and where one of us was left open to attack, the other was there to close that gap in defence.
"I'm impressed. You handled yourself a lot better than I expected." Louis said as the last of the weasel men was reduced to ash. We stood in the now empty chamber with a ladder now unguarded for us to use.
"Oh? And what did you expect?" I asked with amusement. I may have been an amnesiac who had lost the theory of swordplay, but as I've stated before, what the mind forgot, the body remembered. I was definitely and old hand at combat.
"Not that. The majority of Revenants are former civilians revived after Operation Queenslayer. No combat training or physical conditioning to speak of. It leads me to believe that you're at least a second-generation Revenant. Does Operation Queenslayer mean anything to you?" He rested a hand to the underside of his mask in thought. The classic pondering pose. But now that he mentioned it, that name did bring a sense of... not nostalgia, but it certainly felt like it was a turning point for me. I'd have to get the details of the event somewhere else, but something deep down in my core knew for a fact it was of great significance to me.
"Cruz, details?"
"..." I was met with silence.
"Okay then..."
"Feels like it should. Everything's just this grey fog in my memories. My most recent memory is waking up to this cute girl, falling a sleep and getting dragged off to some pit by the merry band of assholes upstairs."
"Hmm, well, there's no point in worrying about it now, but I'd like for you to come with me and answer some questions after we get out of here, if that's alright with you." Louis said. I wasn't gonna say no to that. If I had to pick between this stranger and my previous company, I was gonna go with the guy who didn't kidnap me and the girl.
"Sure, don't see why not. But it won't just be me, though. When those assholes snatched me, I was with a girl who had white hair and yellow eyes. Speaking of, you haven't seen her, have you?" I asked. Louis shook his head.
"Sorry but I haven't. From what you said, she's pretty distinct, so I'd know if I saw her. She a friend of yours?" Friend? I'd hesitate to say we were friends despite saving my life. We didn't know each other's names and we didn't know anything about each other. However, she did seem awfully concerned about me, and if that guy in the hole was to be believed, she protected me while I was asleep too. Dammit, that girl was gonna start making me act up.
"Could say that. She did me a good turn when she really didn't need to, so I'd like to return the favour. She seemed injured last I saw her, so I wanna find her as soon as possible." I said.
"We'll find your friend, I promise. But first we need to get out of here. I can feel an air current from up there, so we can't be too far from an exit." Louis said as he gestured to the ladder of dark iron. I was grateful for the reassuring words. Louis was a pretty stand up guy so far, but I decided to withhold any real judgements until we got out and found the girl.
We climbed up and came to a room with a several foot deep pit with a Blood Spring in it. It was another large white plant which took up most of the pit's floor space, and Louis's eyes grew wide. We hopped down, ignoring the smaller iron ladder that was there, and approached the Blood Spring. I stopped while Louis approached it.
"Dried up. I've been looking for Blood Springs to aid in my research. If I can find the source of the Blood Springs, then maybe I can stimulate the growth and spread of them. More Blood Springs means more Blood Beads, which will take a lot of pressure off of the surviving humans." I hadn't asked for an explanation but I was grateful all the same, I guess. It didn't take a genius to figure out that more Blood Beads would make search parties unnecessary, keep the Provisional Government off everyone's backs, and keep Revenants fed and the humans happy. But the way Louis spoke, the tone of his voice in particular, clued me in to the idea that there was something personal in this for him.
In my reverie, I remembered that blood was used to activate dormant Blood Springs. I didn't know if it could just be anyone's blood, but what I was certain of is that my blood had awakened the last one with that girl. Slicing my finger on my axe, I let a couple of drops fall onto the roots and soak in. The change was as rapid as last time as the buds flowered, the branches expanded and grew out, and Blood Beads grew sporadically one by one. Louis watched on in amazement, not sure whether to look at me or the Blood Spring, but now that I was in a state of mind to watch it, I was also enraptured.
"What... how did you...?" Louis was apparently lost for words. Hell, if I'd seen a man grow a tree with a little bit of blood, I'd be pretty damn surprised too. I just shrugged.
"Not a clue, buddy. Apparently I can just do that." And I was being honest too. Louis took a small metal capsule from his breast pocket, opened it, and tipped out the contents on the roots. It was a pale-yellow liquid with an almost fluorescent glow, and it reacted with the roots of the Blood Spring and sent out a glowing trail off roughly in the direction of where we were heading.
"What was that?" I asked.
"A kind of medicine for Blood Springs. With what you just did, it was the perfect time to use it. Now I'll be one step further in tracking the source of them." He replied, his tone clinical as his thoughtful pose returned. So was this guy a scientist or something? Neato. I pretended to understand what he was saying, making a show of it by nodding and humming. Louis didn't comment on it, too busy staring at the Blood Spring. We swiftly moved on and took another ladder and then went through a winding corridor to a ramp which led to the surface.
We emerged on to the sun-baked surface, the sudden change in brightness made my eyes ache. Around us was what I believed to be the remnants of a terminus where tunnel entrances branched off to various places. The asphalt was practically a jigsaw with how broken up it was, and lamp posts had been knocked down, while concrete barriers were scattered off to the sides. However, what grabbed both mine and Louis's attention was the scene in front of us. The bodies of various Revenants, which I later found out were some of the people pushing people in to pits to look for Blood Beads, lay spread out. One by one, they crumbled to ash and scattered on the balmy wind. Then I saw them. The girl who helped me was lying prone at the feet of Oliver, now having gone berserk since I'd last seen him. Dammit! I should have mercy killed him back in the cave. I wasn't about to shed tears for those other assholes, but that girl had done nothing wrong, and now Oliver was on a rampage.
He must have heard Louis and I stop suddenly as he whipped around with his eyes glowing red and his teeth bared. He held his enormous hammer one handed in a white-knuckle grip. Huh, he couldn't do that before. Good to see our crazed friend here had gotten a bitchin' strength boost.
"Oliver..." I said quietly. My guy, what happened to you? Louis never took his eyes off him as he raised his crimson blade in anticipation of the coming fight.
"Careful, he's Frenzied. I don't know how long you've known him, but there's nothing left of the person you knew. All there is now is a creature succumbed to the Queen's Miasma and it thirsts for blood. The best thing we can do for him is to kill him quickly." He said with steel in his voice.
"Yeah..." I replied. There was something within me that stirred then. It was the awful feeling that I'd done this exact thing before and on more than one occasion. I knew what I had to do, and any feelings of guilt were washed away by the overriding sense of duty that emerged. It was a very cold thing, I had to admit. It was like a switch in my core had been flipped, as if some part of me that had been left behind in a forgotten life had suddenly reared its head. I had to save the girl. I had to grant Oliver final mercy. Emotion died.
Oliver engaged us first, leaping the several meter distance with his hammer raised and poised to flatten us both. Louis and I dodged to the side as the ground exploded with the force of Oliver's strike. A cloud of brown dust billowed up, and for several long moments, neither I nor Louis knew which one of us Oliver was going to attack.
He. Was. Fast. I was forced onto the defensive immediately as I felt the weight of the hammer slam into me. I'd managed to raise my weapon in time but the blow came with such speed and ferocity that I was thrown clear off of my feet and sprawled to the ground. My arm felt as if lightning had struck it as the bones rattled and numbness briefly ran up its length. I managed to roll to a standing position and parried the next attack with my axe. Steel and concrete clanged loudly and Oliver was thrown off balance. Louis was advancing on us rapidly and struck out in a downward arc. The berserk Oliver was a lot more agile than I'd expected as he bent at the hip on one leg, kicked out behind him and twisted, kicking Louis in the chest and swept his hammer out, forcing me back. He pressed his advantage, seemingly only to focus on me.
With a roar of mindless fury, Oliver threw himself at me again and slammed his shoulder into me. I stumbled back as his strength was overwhelming. Then, before I could react, a hand gripped my left arm and I was pulled off my feet and thrown bodily across the terminus. I hit the ground hard, grunting with each slam of my knees and elbows against the ground until I slid to a stop. My axe clattered loudly next to me. In the next moment, the only thing between me and getting reduced to ashes was Louis. He appeared in a burst of fire, his blade slashing in wide arcs, cutting into Oliver's flesh until his blade clashed and locked with the hulking hammer.
"On your feet!" he growled as his strength was quickly failing against Oliver's. I gave my mask a quick tap to make sure it was still properly situated, grabbed my axe and quickly stood. I bull rushed Oliver, taking advantage of his inability to use his weapon and struck what I believed would be the death blow. While I aimed for his head, hoping to cleave down and into his heart, he used his immense strength to reposition and punch Louis in the chest with an enraged snarl. Louis was thrown back, gasping as the air was pushed from his lungs.
My axe was batted aside, but I evaded the next heavy blow with a roll, turned and resumed my assault. For a brief moment, I felt like I was just a passenger in my own body, as if the current me was taking a back seat to what I could only think was the old me. I moved with a practiced ease of movement that I hadn't just minutes prior, like every way that I could move for the sole purpose of killing had suddenly become honed to a fine needle point. My focus became something wholly other than what it was previously, like a kind of heightened hyper-awareness beyond a Revenant's already superhuman senses. It was then that I did something that I had no idea I could do. Channelling my inner blood thirst and calling on the predatory instincts buried deep within all Revenants, I unleashed the power of my Blood Veil. My mask warped and twisted, refashioning itself into a wolf's snout, with a thin triangular spike on each side, emblematic of ears. From my Blood Veil itself came two long appendages, thick limbs of twisting metal with both ending in wolf heads that snapped their jaws and snarled.
Oliver met me head on, spinning his hammer all around to deny me any space to get close. I leapt over him, my legs skyward and head towards the ground. The wolf heads lashed out and bit into his shoulders and pulled him into the air. I landed and the two heads followed in an arc, resulting in Oliver being slammed head first into the ground. They retracted back to me and were ready at my shoulders while I gripped my axe tightly. At some point Louis had recovered and took up position next to me.
"Can't say I've ever seen a Hound-type used like that." He said as he spared me a glance and then focused on Oliver, who slowly rose to his feet, still unrelenting. Combat resumed and he came at us again. One strike, two strikes, three, and again, and again, and again. Wild swings rushed at our heads and torsos, the momentum of each swing carried Oliver in a seamless train of movement that made getting close difficult, and trying to stop any of the blows would have failed. Louis danced around each attack and probed with jabs and slashes to test Oliver's defences, and what attacks weren't blocked were simply ignored as if he hadn't been hit at all. His body was riddled with lacerations as Louis' swordplay was too quick for Oliver to deal with effectively. At the rate it was going, it would be death by a thousand cuts. Too long for us to safely deal with Oliver as a single solid hit of that hammer could very well have killed either of us.
"Any tricks up your sleeve, Louis?" I asked as I jumped back from an errant swing of the hammer. Louis wordlessly started and stretched an arm out, and a ball of flame erupted from his palm, exploding upon contact with Oliver's body.
"We can't keep trying to whittle him down like this, he's just too tough and too far gone. If I can draw his attention, I can try and open him up for you." He said and threw another fireball, this one evaded by the berserker and exploded harmlessly behind him.
"I understand. Just try not to hit the girl with those fireballs and I'll do the rest." I replied. We acted on our hastily made plan, separating to divide his attention. He was focused on me, and had been since the fight began. Was he angry at me for not killing him back in that cave? Was his final emotion resentment at the last face he saw? I could only speculate, but while he was focused on me, it would provide us our advantage.
I abandoned the notion of attacking while I kept him distracted enough so Louis could find a clear opportunity to get a shot in, but Oliver was fast, almost fast enough to keep up with me. What made him difficult to deal with was the unpredictability of his attack patterns as his strikes came from awkward angles, and some terminated short, re-angled and then followed through, forcing me into odd evasion timings. When I caught Louis about to throw a fireball from my peripheral vision, I sprang back several feet. As the fireball streaked towards him, an idea occurred to me. I threw my axe at him.
Oliver halted and made to catch the axe, obviously confident in his great strength. With his hand out and his balance off, the fireball collided with his back and exploded in a shower of flames, knocking him forward. He stumbled, and even his berserk-addled brain knew that if he didn't adjust quickly, he would be eating that axe. But before he could, I was already on the move. Rushing forward with my Hounds snarling at my shoulders, I lashed them out, one biting into Oliver's forearm, spurting blackened blood free and splattering across the hot asphalt. The other Hound snatched my axe from the air, while I used the other one biting into Oliver to swing around him until his back was facing me, then propelled myself forward with the axe returned to my hand and raised, ready to end him.
"Find peace, Oliver."
With a solid THUNK, my axe blade cleaved into his flesh, splitting him almost in half from shoulder to hip with a diagonal strike. Black blood spattered up me, coating my front in a thin sheen of corrupted blood. He stumbled back as I wrenched my axe free and I breathed hard as I carefully watched him. He caught my eyes as he slowly began to turn to ash, from his legs and rapidly spreading up. Relief? Forgiveness, perhaps? His hammer hit the ground with a heavy thud before his body crumbled, leaving a pile of ash, and a strange red mass buried just beneath the top layer. However, I ignored that and turned to look for the girl, who was still where she'd laid before. I hastily stopped and dropped my axe, letting it clatter against the ground, and scooped her up, letting her head rest against my thigh, and her back supported with my left arm. Without really thinking, I took one of her hands in mine. With her head on my thigh, I couldn't help but think how the tables had turned. Louis stopped near by, his eyes scanning the surroundings.
She thankfully opened her eyes with a groan, and they searched around for a few moments before settling on me. I smiled in relief behind my mask. Her own mask had taken some damage as the visor over one eye was cracked and had broken away, but fortunately the filtration system was undamaged and fully functional.
"Hey, you. We need to stop meeting like this." I said lightly. She was very light. I'd noticed that immediately when I held her, but she felt very delicate as well, almost like glass.
"My apologies, I don't know what happened as I didn't see-" I cut her off, shaking my head.
"No apologising. You didn't do anything wrong. I'm, uh... glad to see you're alright. I should apologise for not getting here sooner."
"That is unnecessary. But thank you." She said softly.
"She still looks a little shaken up. If it's alright with you, you should let me check her over quickly. At the very least we should know if she's injured." Louis spoke, seemingly satisfied we weren't going to be attacked for the moment.
"I am already injured..." I looked her over, seeing her right leg all bandaged up, with patches of blood saturating the wrapping. She didn't even make a fuss or anything. Poor girl, being made to look for Blood Beads in this state.
"All the more reason I should check you for anything else. Kain?" I looked at Louis and nodded. I was going to trust him with this.
"Sure. Do what you gotta do." I set her down gently. Ideally, I wouldn't have dreamed of just having her lie down on asphalt of all things, but it wouldn't be long and Louis had a job to do. While my companion inspected the girl, I busied myself with the other mysterious thing in this place. Not too far from the girl was the pile of ash that had been Oliver, and I knelt down, brushed some of the ash away and exposed the red crystal beneath.
"All Revenants must pay the levy. No exceptions." A man's voice echoed in my mind. It certainly wasn't Cruz, and I figured she'd have told me if my head was becoming a halfway house for every disembodied voice that decided to make itself known inside my skull. Could it have been that red crystal? I was surrounded by bizarre shit as is, so why wouldn't it be?
I waited for a few minutes for Louis to finish, and when he did, he approached me.
"Her leg has suffered mostly superficial damage and should heal on it's own fairly soon. Can't pin down what made her pass out, and she doesn't seem to remember either. If I had to guess, I'd say it might have been shock or fright. I couldn't find any other injuries or bruising. Over all, she'll be fine after getting some rest." Louis gave his assessment, and I nodded to him gratefully. I was relieved to know that her injuries weren't serious. I sighed wearily. Jeez, what an ordeal today had turned out to be.
"Thanks for that, man. I owe you one. By the way, what's this?" I gestured to the red crystal with a finger. A surprised frown overtook his face as he looked at it.
"No way... a Vestige. Alright, Kain, these things are dangerous. I don't know why, but any Revenant who touches a Vestige Frenzies without fail. Whatever you do, don't touch it." Louis warned, taking a harder tone with me than he had anytime previously.
"Well, there go my plans for the evening." I jokingly replied. Louis didn't laugh. Right, don't make jokes when he's being deadly serious. Got it.
"Take it." I had to suppress my urge to jump out of my skin when I heard Cruz's smooth voice in my head.
"Cruz! Can you not sneak up on me like that? And why the hell should I take it? Didn't you hear Louis just say they can mess Revenants just by touching it?"
"Oh, sorry. Should I clear my throat first, or..." she trailed off sheepishly.
"We'll think about that later. Now, the Vestige?" I said.
"You needn't worry about it harming you. The reasons will become clear soon, but your blood is special. You're the only one that can handle a Vestige and see the memories that lie within. Let these memories be your strength, let them guide you to greater understanding of the world, the people closest to you, and ultimately yourself." Cruz explained, while really explaining nothing. Well, she hadn't steered me wrong yet.
"So, grab the dangerous looking shiny. Got it."
Welp, hippity hoppity, that Vestige is now my property...
"Someone has to be sacrificed..." Was that Oliver talking?
I grabbed the Vestige, saying "fuck it" to safety. Honestly, I'm not sure why I did it. Was it because Cruz told me to do it? I mean, surely she wouldn't advise me to do something that would, in all likelihood, get us both killed. However, to say that grabbing the Vestige hurt like a mother fucker was a colossal understatement. As soon as it contacted the palm of my hand, the various crystalline growths on the Vestige speared through it. However, the sheer agony of having my hand made into a pin cushion paled in comparison to the skull-sundering pain the started behind my eyes, then spread like a tidal wave over my brain. I released an involuntary growl, then yell of pain, and then a gentle hand clasped my off hand, while another rested on my agonized forearm.
My yell caught Louis's attention and he whirled back to see me holding the very thing he'd warned me not to. Eyes wide, he called out.
"Let go of it! That thing'll swallow you up!" he shouted in near panic.
Through squinted eyes, I looked and saw the girl, looking up at me reassuringly.
"It's alright. You can do this." She said. It was then that I felt something pull from within me. A strange etheric light snaked up my right arm and towards the Vestige, accompanied by a slow but definitely noticeable lessening of the pain. Blacking out, however, hadn't been part of the plan.
Okay, so I hadn't blacked out. I think, anyway. Myself, the girl, and Louis had been brought to a surreal place, a black void where only fragments of solid ground were pieced together to form the only pathway in the place. Low walls and lamp posts were dotted around, and with no other alternative, it was a silent yet unanimous decision to simply follow the light. We came to a scene of three Revenants, two in a strange set of white armour with their faces obscured, and Oliver on his knees, pleading with them.
"Please, let us keep them just this once. We won't make it if you take them!" I see. He was trying to dispute the levy system and keep some Blood Beads for himself and others. The two in armour must have been from the Provisional Government, looking to take whatever Blood Beads the believed were owed.
"All Revenants must pay a levy of Blood Beads. No exceptions." One of the enforcers said, though he didn't sound particularly harsh about it. If anything, he sounded like he wanted to be doing literally anything else. Could it be that even they could see the unfairness of the levy system? But then again, it was common sense that it was often the most unfair things that turned out to be the most necessary. Those things could be abused though, and until I learned the truth and scope of the levy system myself, I would withhold judgement.
"Those are a couple of Silva's men from the Provisional Government." Louis said. "I've seen this same kind of scene so many times. Revenants have Frenzied because of the levy system, bled dry by the demands placed upon them. The levy keeps the Horrors beyond the mist at bay, but I wonder if this is even a good alternative."
"Horrors? Fill me in on those later. I swear, the longer I'm awake the weirder shit gets." I grumbled, following the clanking and rumbling of a new path forming to take us to another memory.
"The world we live in... is so sad." The girl said.
"Apparently so..." I replied. "Where even are we?"
"This is a memory echo. Through a Vestige, we can witness the memories of another." She responded.
"Okay... why do you know that?" I asked. She was quiet for a few seconds before answering.
"I am... not sure." Well, that was helpful.
The next memory we saw had Oliver on his knees, two bayonet wielding Revenants at either side of him, with another squatted down above them on the remains of a car.
"All of the remaining humans that remain here are under Silva's control. Wandering Revenants like us are forced to hunt for Blood Beads, or face death. To that end, some Revenants might need to be... sacrificed for our survival." It appeared as though the crouching Revenant was the one speaking.
Was that true? Did this Silva guy have humans under his control as some kind of livestock? How was it that one guy could monopolise the remaining human lives within the Gaol Of The Mists? Question after question piled on as possibilities for all kinds of awful shit rose to the forefront of my mind.
"He hadn't been awake long by the looks of it. To wake up in such a hostile world, confused and without allies... I wouldn't want that for anyone." Louis said. I was inclined to agree. I looked at the girl, who was busy looking around with those tired-looking, yet knowing eyes. I may very well have been a dead man if not for her. I could have woken up, lay there unable to move properly, only to get found by those Revenants and get speared through the heart for being useless to them. Well, it was my turn to protect her now.
The final memory was one that I happened to share with Oliver. He was sat with his back against a cave wall, his mask missing with Frenzy setting in. His expression was a smile that belied his sadness. He stared off into the inky void beyond.
"Well, I guess you reap what you sow... right? It's alright, though. All that matters is that... one of us makes it..." he sighed. "I'll become a monster. It's what Frenzy is... but I couldn't let you kill me, Kain." I wasn't sure if my heart could stop, but I was pretty sure it almost did. "Hopefully the others up top will take me out. I saw that look in your eyes, and I couldn't let you do it. Having you kill another like that, that wouldn't be fair. I wish I'd gotten to know you better, maybe help you find yourself again, but that look you gave me told me everything. You shouldn't have to kill more friends. Good luck out there, Kain, and goodbye."
I looked down at my feet and saw my hands had curled into trembling fists. He read me like a book. Albeit, I was a book with the pages torn out and the title erased, but somehow, he knew something about myself that I had only speculated. I opened my hands and stared at them. These hands had the blood of friends whose faces I'd forgotten on them. That final look on Oliver's face wasn't relief. It hadn't been that at all. It was grief. I turned and hastily walked away. I was done with this place and regretted seeing the memory. The whole seeing other people's memories thing didn't sit well with me anyway. It was invasive and voyeuristic as far as I was concerned. I didn't want to stare people's failings, fears, and traumas in the face. And to what end? What purpose did this twisted process serve? I picked up the pace until I heard Louis call out to me.
"Kain? Kain, are you alright?" he asked with concern. I stopped at the foot of a staircase leading to a large iron door, beyond which lay a blinding light. I looked at both him and the girl over my shoulder.
"Yeah... fine." I wasn't fine, but I lied, putting on as best a light tone as I could. "let's get outta here, yeah? Place is fucking spooky."
We did just that, returning to the normal world as if nothing had happened. We were all silent for several moments before Louis spoke.
"What the hell was that?" he asked in bewilderment. I didn't think he could have gotten any paler, but he looked shaken. Yeah, welcome to the club, buddy.
"We saw the memories of another through the Vestige." The girl said.
"I didn't expect that I'd be dragged in with you." He said, still struggling to wrap his head around what we'd just been through.
"We both... melted into you." She said. Jeez, I like you, but did you really have to say it like that? I already felt dirty as it was.
"Thanks for the mental image. Really." I replied flatly. She just tilted her head at me curiously. Dammit, I can't be mad at that. Louis cleared his throat, getting both of our attention.
"Now that we're done here, I think proper introductions are in order, belated as they are." He took off his mask. Apparently, the air was clear here, so I did the same, and then the girl. "I'm Louis Amamiya, it's a pleasure to meet you both. I lead a group of Revenants trying our best to help people, and find the source of the Blood Springs. If you've got nowhere else to go, I'd like to invite you to join us. We have a safehouse not too far from here, and you'll both be safe there."
I stood from my crouch and offered a hand to the girl, which she took and I helped her stand. She wobbled a bit and I caught her, bit taking my hand from hers. For some reason, Louis smiled but said nothing.
"Well, Louis, I'd be remiss to turn down such an offer. As I said, name's Kain." I grinned. The girl nodded in quiet ascent.
"I will come too. I know little of myself, but I am certain that my name is Io." Io, huh? It was a pretty name, and it fit her well. I extended a hand to Louis and he took it and we shook firmly.
"Let's get going, then. I'll be glad when I can get my head down and pretend this shit show of a day didn't happen." I said with a yawn. Then Louis chuckled. So he wasn't entirely humourless.
"I hear you. Come on, then."
I looked at Io and smiled at her encouragingly, and she gave me the slightest one back. Good god, she was so cute. I had a feeling things were about to take a good turn.
Revenant Profile: Kain
Height: 200cm (6'5")
Weight: 99kg (220lbs)
Skin: Pale
Hair: White
Eyes: Purple
Blood Code: Fighter
True Blood Code: ?
Blood Veil: Night Fang
Blood Veil Type: Hounds
Weapon: Heavy Axe
True Weapon: ?
Mask: 10
Outfit: 4 Black primary/Red secondary
Age at time of death: 23
A Revenant whose past is lost to time, he was crucial to the events leading up to and during Operation Queenslayer. He was revived using BOR Parasites during the early days of the campaign against the Q.U.E.E.N, after being killed during her initial Frenzy. During this time, Horrors, creatures from beyond what would later become the Gaol Of The Mists, ran rampant, and it was rumoured that Kain was killed by a [REDACTED]. It isn't clear when his body was recovered, but it was remarkably intact, with the cause of death being a sucking chest wound, leading to massive blood loss. He was given skin grafts and reconstructive surgery on his chest, as well as cardiac muscle repair via stem cells after the introduction of the BOR Parasites. His sternum and a portion of his ribs on the left side had to be replaced with titanium replacements. Due to the exsanguination that ultimately killed him, his system was flushed with blood, and was fortunate that his blood type O positive and O positive blood was the most common type.
Despite his fearsome reputation amongst Revenants during the Q.U.E.E.N campaign, he also had a reputation as a talented musician, being able to play a multitude of instruments to a high level, often taking requests from anyone who wanted a song, provided he knew how to play it. He was most renowned for his bass guitar and piano playing, particularly improvised jam sessions and classical pieces respectively.
Code Vein is such an underrated game. Won't be sticking strictly to canon. Review and I'll answer whatever Reviews I can. Thanks for reading.