Thank you for reviewing. I wasn't planning to write more of this one, but since you like it, I will :D. I really enjoy writing this one - just like writing "the Firstborn"! I'm really glad you liked this one!!!! The magic of a paradox ...well...let us not dawdle anymore...

The gray stone walls were gathering cold moisture from the winter breath that penetrated the hallways of King William's castle. It settled on the curved cold blade that rested on a stone altar, its hilt wrapped in velvet.

Servants who had prepared the blade for William were superstitious. They feared the strange skull at the hilt which seemed to leer at them with its dark eye sockets.

The fretful lights of the chamber flitted on its cold blade...the room was silent. A lone figure was standing before the altar, gazing intently at the magnificent weapon. Its hand moved to uncover the hilt. The soft material slid gently down the stone surface.

"Pray tell, Moebius. What game do you play?" the man spoke as he heard the hinges of the large wooden door creak.

"None, my lord. I only wish to aid you in vanguishing your foes..."

Ah the ingratiating, senile voice of Moebius...William didn't have to turn around to see clearly the writhing, repulsive form of the old wizard.

Moebius, who provided him with this terrible sword...he remembered its ice -cold surface, as if there was something sinister about the blade...He shivered. Intuition told him this sword was more than just a mere tool of destruction.

He turned to see the empty space where Moebius had been a moment before. The old deceitful time streamer was probably hiding in a dark crevice, where his cowardice drove him...

William felt a chill run through the chamber...it seemed to emanate from the Blade.

Inside it, a spirit trembled, sensing approaching danger... It whispered to itself, a steady current of thoughts...

"I am hungry..... This hunger is delving into me, reshaping me, twisting me...

I am imprisoned within the Reaver Blade... This blade is changing me, and I dread this process...

I am still able to feel and think, though. Sometimes, I distort my reality in my mind with my imagination - to bring relief to my strained mind. I tread vast corridors of my dream palace, soft carpets muffle my steps. I let my imagination run before me and cover my bland reality with color and life. I look down, onto my body - it is shaped exactly like thousands of years before. Lazily, I slip into my dreams, like into a luxurious bed...

I try to subdue my hunger.

You may say I am on the verge of madness - but I use my past recollections and memories to create an almost tangible reality around me - a screen to protect me against the hostile passion. Sadly, the world I have created is a perverse, twisted mockery of what I had found enjoyable in my past lives. I revel in past pleasures that had been gathering dust since I met my end in the depths of the Abyss.

Consider me now.

A worthless shadow, here, caught within the cold steel. I can feel its coldness around me...

My mind is already being torn from the feast my imagination had presented it...and flees to a place when it stands naked before the barren reality. MY reality.

It is amazing how many shades of hunger I have come to know."



"Ahhh yes, the Vampire. Moebius told me you would come . . ."

A strong hand grabbed the heavy sword and lifted it from its resting place. Raziel felt the rush of air against the blade and the strength of the hand that wielded it. His spirit senses leapt to attention, suddenly tense with anxiety... Although he was blind to the outside world, he could sense with his entire spirit that there was a battle coming...His mind reached out as far as it could...

The air sizzled with sparks as the two Blades met. Raziel screamed with agony, sensing his twin so close, touching it, he stretched his entity to be able to feel with the surface of the Reaver...He was lusting to strike out with all of his energy, to let it flow unchecked for the first time since....

William bounded back, impressed with the strength and proficiency of his opponent. Raziel knew who it was, sensed the tense, powerful, threatening presence...

Kain...

Holding the Reaver's twin, and within it there was him, his own self twinned in time and space....

His other self was screaming to him through time, through space, despite all barriers, it screamed its rage...Raziel's spirit answered.

A long, immaterial shriek of rage and eternal hunger filled the room...

' "Ahhhh....I can sense your hunger...I can sense you..." Raziel's feverish mind shrieked, searching for the other presence, so close yet so far away.... From a long distance came an inarticulate cry of hunger and rage...

William was deaf to the spectral realm, but felt a faint shiver that ran along the sword in his hands.

Something stirred in the air as the blades clashed again. Circular waves shot from the spot, floating away, widening, taking in the whole chamber. The air became vibrant with the powerful force that seemed to distort reality itself...

A blinding flash of light filled the chamber, sending the shadows flee momentarily to the deepest corners of it. William's body collapsed, a clink of metal filled the air as his armor made contact with the stone slabs of the floor. A stream of blood snaked from under the metal and congealed lazily in the dust...

A servant approached the broken Blade and knelt beside it, a piece of soft material in his hands. Reverently, he picked it up and turned to Moebius who silently waited in the doorway.

"Seeking wisdom in my words you were, Raziel? Why did you defy me? Time has mastered you, as it masters any one who's unaware of its' secrets..." Moebius whispered to the blade as its' pieces rested beside him in a carriage. The Blade was coming back to the Sarafan stronghold.

HAHA! Too much time on my hands, and while I should be busy doing VERY IMPORTANT things I prefer to sit and write...Please tell me I'm normal! :D