Zzzzzzzzzz...huh, oh!! I'm awake at last!! Now I can continue!! Yay!
The Edge of the Coin: The Return of the Darkness
By Ryoken
"Seacia escaped!!" Dumah yelled. His hair was out of place, his clothes sagging. He looked like he had slept in his clothing.
"What in the world happened to you?" Rahab asked questioningly at his appearance.
"She...he...uh.." he said, uncertainly.
"Just called her "it" for now," Kain suggested. "Now what happened?"
" 'It' tried to seduce me so it could get out!! I-" Before he could finish his sentence, Raziel was up and had him by the throat.
"Raziel, let him go!! Now!" Kain ordered, taking a step towards him. Raziel growled menacingly at Dumah and released him.
"As I was saying, she, I mean it, must have cast some sort of spell on me because I couldn't stop myself till the last minute. Then she rushed past me and she was gone!!" he explained.
"Raziel, you shouldn't jump to conclusions in these cases. Especially when Hash did it to you as well," Kain pointed out. "Now then, we'll go out and find her once more, you three stay here and find a cure. Come!" And he ran out the door, the others following behind him, Dumah trying to make himself more presentable along the way.
"Bah, why do I have to stay here looking through these damned books?! I want to go out and search as well!" Zephon complained, dropping into a nearby chair.
"Don't complain, just keep searching!" Rahab said, flipping through the same book.
"Hrmph!" He retorted, picking up a nearby book named Carpentry for Dummies and gingerly flipping through it. "What the hell!??" He said, standing up while still looking at the book. The two other vampires looked up from their books. Zephon grinned evilly. "Rahab, I never knew you were interested in these things..." Rahab turned white and rushed over and grabbed the book Zephon was holding, which was now turned sideways.
The four vampires found Seacia not far from the abbey. In fact, she was sitting cross-legged at the abyss, her eyes closed, arms crossed. They cautiously approached her and she didn't move, even when they were right behind, within arm's reach. Kain nodded to Dumah and Turel and they took opposite sides of her, but when they went to pick her up, they were thrown back by some unseen force, and were almost flung into the abyss, but caught the edge of the small scrap of land that still stood.
"Well that's not going to work," Raziel said, pulling Turel up.
"Obviously not," Kain agreed. So they gained a little distance from Seacia to think about how they could bring her back to the abbey or some place where she couldn't go anywhere. After what must have been an hour, Seacia made a sound and stood up. They watched her suspiciously as she calmly walked towards the edge of the land and when she took her first step off of the little island, water flew up from the abyss below and flattened itself to make ground so that she could walk upon it. This kept up until she was in the center where she turned and faced them. She opened her eyes and they, except for Kain, gasped in horror. Her eyes had turned completely black and her irises were white.
Seacia extended her arms out and water rushed up from below in two pillars, which stopped at the tips of her fingers. Then they formed themselves into balls of water, hovering just above her upturned palms.
Hash'ak'gik spoke. "This makes three, Kain. You're running out of time. I must say I'm very disappointed in you. I would have thought you'd have beaten me sooner." As he said this, he rose Seacia's arms so that they faced the heavens and the two balls of water joined into one massive one. "But now, you won't get the chance. Because I'm ending it, and destroying the only means of stopping me!! Guess it's like the old saying goes: kill two birds with one stone. Except this time, it's four birds." At that moment, she lowered her arms in front of her and to massive ball of water shot itself at them, trying to burn them and throw them into the abyss. The four dove out of the way, holding onto the edge of the bridge that they had backed up upon.
"Everyone back on the bridge now!!" Kain yelled as he pulled himself up. The others had a slower time of doing so, except for Raziel of course, and Kain teleported up to Seacia to face her.
"Fool!! Do you really think you can win against me?!" Hash said triumphantly.
"I can die trying," Kain replied as he powered up a ball of dark energy and threw it at her. She ducked and laughed at him, until Kain punched her. "Raziel, the Reaver!!" he said, punching her again and again, not giving her a chance to retaliate. Raziel drew the blade at once and Kain grabbed it from his hand. He then caught Seacia behind her, one arm wrapped around her neck, the other holding the Soul Reaver up to her throat.
Gasping, Seacia said "Kain...let me go...I can't, breathe..."
"Ha, like I'm going to fall for that," Kain chuckled. Struggling, Seacia called out to Raziel.
"Raziel...have mercy on me...set me...free," she said.
"Don't listen to her, Raziel!! Don't even look at her!!" Kain yelled. Seacia weakly rose up a hand, reaching desperately for him. Then, in retaliation, Seacia readied the same clawed and hand and sunk the tips of them into Kain's arm. He tried not to sound like he was in much pain, and he responded by tightening his grip on her neck with his arm. Finally, she fell unconscious under the suffocation and fell limp. "At least now there won't be much struggle for a while," Kain said, releasing his choking hold on her and letting her slip to the ground, gasping for air.
"Are you sure that was so necessary, Kain?" Raziel asked, picking her up automatically.
"Well what did you expect me to do? Kill her? I'd be running for the rest of my unlife from you if I did so," he chuckled. Raziel slyly grinned.
"Good point." The four hurried back to the abbey with the unconscious Seacia, where they put her in another cell, but this time, it was heavily guarded.
"Find anything more, you three?" Kain asked as they walked back into the room.
"Not a thing," Rahab said.
"Well I-" Zephon started to say until Rahab covered his mouth.
"Keep looking, there must be something."
"I think we've looked in every bloody book there is, Father," Melchiah said, pointing at the many many books lying on chairs, a table, a desk, and the floor. There were hardly any books still left on the shelves.
"I see."
"Perhaps, then, we should look towards the library that the humans keep," Turel suggested.
"Good idea, they must have the other half of this book," Rahab noted.
"What do you mean 'the other half'?"
"Well, that same book that I read the excerpt from was only half. The end of the book had been ripped out," he explained.
"What are we waiting for, let's go!" Dumah cried out.
"I agree. There's not a moment to waste, as Hash'ak'gik could wake up at any moment," Kain said. He ordered his sons to fetch their cloaks and return to the abbey as soon as they did. As they did so, Kain went down to the cells to see how the prisoner was. She was sitting up, her head bowed down, but he could tell that Hash was awake.
"So, you've awoken, Hash. I imagined you'd be out cold a lot longer," Kain commented, sitting on a nearby stool.
He grinned. "The possessed know no unconsciousness, Kain."
"Is that so?"
"They, the possessed, know only dreams until they are released. As for Seacia," Hash'ak'gik looked up. The face that had once been Seacia's was a much deeper color than it was supposed to be. Somewhat black, although physically, it didn't seem it. Her lips were raw. "She shall dream for all of eternity, for I, Hash'ak'gik, WILL SLAY THE ONLY HOPE SHE HAS!!!!!!!!" He boomed, rushing up to the bars of the cell and shaking them. Then he began to laugh, though not insanely, and sat back down on the edge of the cot.
"And this hope that you speak of? What is it?" Kain asked.
"Heh, doth thou truly believe that I am going to tell you? What a fool I would be if I did so, what an imbecile. No, I'm not going to tell you, I am not your everyday foolish blasphemer!"
"Then we shall have to find it in one of the books that the humans possess," Kain answered as-a-matter-of-factly.
Hash'ak'gik slashed Seacia's face as she put her hands to cover herself. "You...won't find it...in a book...Kain, it's...in...his...ahhhh," Seacia tried to say, but Hash'ak'gik took over again and released his grip on her face. It was bleeding, but the wounds healed fast. Strangely, there were scars where she had ripped her skin.
"Foolish...vampire...Do you really...think that you...can stop me now? I'll get out of here, and when I do, YOU'RE going to be the next element that I collect, DO YOU HEAR ME!!!" Hash bellowed at Kain as he left to wait for his lieutenants at the abbey. "YOU WILL DIE ONCE I AM FREE ONCE MORE, KAIN!!!!"
When the last of them had arrived, Hash'ak'gik's yelling and screaming could be heard from the cell bellow. Kain, in fact, went to check on whether he had escaped or not several times.
"What's he mumbling about now, Father?" Turel asked.
"Oh nothing too important. Just how he's going to come after me once he's freed, that's all. Turel, I want you stay down there with the guards and make sure that he doesn't escape again, understand? If he does break out, use a spell or anything to stop him, understood?" He nodded a bit weakly. "Good. But we are not going to the citadel."
"What, how come??" Dumah protested.
"Because I went down to his cell earlier and Seacia told me that the answer was not in any book. But I'm afraid that she wasn't able to finish her sentence, Hash'ak'gik re-took her over," the lord explained.
"How can you trust what she said?? You know that Hash'ak'gik can control her voice!" Rahab argued.
"She was trying so desperately to fight him, to win control over him again. Even if it was just an act, by the way he's shouting it's as if he wanted us to go look in that library. And you should never trust a demon, by what I've learned."
"Then where should we look?" Raziel asked. All eyes were on Kain.
"I'm not sure, but I believe the answer lies in a 'he', not a thing," he said.
"A 'he'? You mean a person?" Zephon asked.
"Yes. Before Seacia let go, she said, 'the answer doesn't lie in a book, it's in his,' but that's all she could say."
Before they could think more on the subject, a loud blast and several blood-curdling screams came from the depths of the abbey.
"Well, I believe that's our cue!" Kain said as they rushed to the exit to stop Hash'ak'gik.
Smoke billowed out from the tunnel and a shadow revealed the figure of Seacia walking slowly towards them, but leaning with a clawed hand on the nearby wall. When she came into a clearer view, there was a harpoon stuck in her back, but not so deep as to kill her instantly, obviously the vain attempt to impale her. "Damn you...and your...blasted guards, Kain," Hash said, gasping. Then he started to fall forward to ground, only to be caught by a speeding Raziel. He looked at Kain, who nodded, and pulled the harpoon out from Seacia's back. She screamed in agony, only to stop and begin laughing hysterically in Hash'ak'gik's voice. He grinned evilly up at Raziel, who was looking down upon Seacia's tattered body. With one hand reaching out for the harpoon and other pinning Raziel to ground, Seacia on top of him, he said "Time to die and release the hope of this world!!!" Raziel, with all strength he could muster, struggled to keep the point of the harpoon from digging into his neck. Kain rushed to help him and tried to pull the broken end of the harpoon out of Seacia's hand. In a split second, Seacia let go of the harpoon, sending Kain toppling backwards onto the ground, and ran past Raziel's horrified brothers.
"Get her!!" Kain yelled at them, but when they finally snapped out of their trances, Seacia was gone. "DAMN IT!!!" he said, pounding a fist onto the wall.
"Turel!!!" Melchiah realized, and lead the group down to the dungeon. There was no sign of any bodies any where, but the door of Seacia's cell was broken off its hinges and on the floor. Blood was stained on the walls where it hadn't been before and weapons of sword, spear, and shield lay broken or torn to shreds all over the place. There was no sign of the vampire lord.
"Hash'ak'gik will pay dearly for their deaths, especially Turel's..."Kain vowed, hitting the wall again.
"But I am not dead, only scared out of my freaking mind," came the voice of Turel. He stepped out from the shadows of hiding place.
"Wha-, but how? There are no bodies here at all!!" Melchiah confoundedly said.
"When I saw Seacia trying to break out, I tried to use a projectile to stop her, but it wouldn't work. Thought the best thing to do was to lay low until she was gone," he explained.
"At least that's one death that I will not have to avenge. We have to find her, and fast," Kain said. They ran out of the abbey to track down the possessed vampire and find out the rest of Seacia's answer.
Thought you could all use a bit of a longer chapter since I've been gone so long. Well what was Seacia trying to say? Who is this 'he' she spoke of? Will Hash kill Kain??? Read the next chapter to find out!!!!