Disclaimer:- The Legacy of Kain series and it's characters is owned by crystal dynamics and originated from silicon knights. I get no money from typing this up.
Zephon sat on the sanctuary roof, a pair of zephonim accompanying him. He spotted Dumah carrying an unconscious Raziel over his shoulder, and dropped down from the roof to see what was up, his zephonim following suite.
"Dumah." Zephon bowed. "What happened?"
"Uh..." Dumah flashed a guilty look on his face before explaining. "Had a little sparring accident when he was coming back from a fight up North with some vampire hunters. Got a nasty knock on the head that doesn't seem to be healing properly. I figured it was best to send him back to the sanctuary."
"I see." Zephon narrowed his eyes at his elder brother.
"Well. I've done enough." Dumah grunted as he took Raziel, still unconscious, off of his shoulder. "Better leave him to you." Dumah simply tossed Raziel into Zephon's arms. Zephon wasn't quite as strong as Dumah, and struggled to hold him.
"What!?" Zephon hissed.
"He's your problem now." Dumah walked off at a fast pace, seemingly wanting to get away. He passed a small group of Razielhim moving towards Zephon, who got the pair of Zephonim at his side to relieve him from Raziel's weight.
"Lord Zephon." The Razielhim nodded at the clan leader. "We were looking for our lord Raziel when he did not return..."
"Yes, yes. I know." Zephon snapped. "Dumah got a little excited when he turned up for another spar, and Raziel got hit on the head." Zephon explained what he had been told, slightly irritated.
"We should take him back to his resting place." A Razielhim female announced. "He would heal better there, perhaps."
Zephon shrugged, indicating to his zephonim to hand Raziel back to his clan.
"But we're Razielhim." The female frowned, somewhat snobbish. "The highest clan. Shouldn't yours bring Raziel back?"
"What?" Zephon stared at the Razielhim, his face a snarl of anger. But as the Razielhim waited patiently, he relented. "Fine!" he snapped. "Tarantulus! Quickstrike! Take Raziel to his clan's sanctuary." He whirled around, and stalked off. "We're Razielhim. The highest clan," Zephon repeated mockingly as he left. The Razielhim followed the zephonim carrying Raziel back to his home.
Marissa, the Razielhim, watched over her masters' form, who was still unconscious. Gora, still burnt from battle, and Bob, another Razielhim, waited just behind her. The zephonim had long since left, but Marissa felt it was best to watch over him. He was their leader, after all. Even if she knew for certain that he would recover...
Raziel remembered that he had just taken the vampire fiend's heart. He had ran from the crumbling Eire while Dumah took the vampire's sword. He had just seen a strange, blue wreckage of a vampire, and though he was eerily drawn towards it, he knew he had to get out of the place. His fellow Sarafan followed behind. The blue creature did not chase, but stayed behind with the other vampire, Janos Audron. Raziel didn't look back. He headed back on he long march home back to the Safaran stronghold, still wary as he was before, uneased by the blue creature he saw. But he had to keep the heart from falling into the wrong hands. He had done it, the demon Janos Audron was dead, and perhaps the rest of his spawn would follow, including the demon Vorador. He had done quite well, he figured, fulfilling his lifelong duty as a Sarafan warrior-priest. All Raziel needed to do was take the heart of darkness back to the stronghold. He had marched all the way back, taking short-cuts, and when inside the stronghold, met up with Moebius and Malek, then gave the heart to those members of the circle, where it would be best safeguarded. He took the sword from Dumah, and placed it on the table as Moebius told him to do. Strange... There was something odd about that sword. He finally let it go, reluctantly, then all of a sudden... Raziel couldn't remember anything.
All he saw was blackness. He realized, all of a sudden, that he was on his back, on a bed. Raziel wondered if he had just blacked out, and tried to figure out why that was. He opened his eyes, and realized that the room he was in was oddly dark. Looking around at the fancy tapestries on the wall with a strange question mark like symbol on them, and the windowless room, with various ornaments here and there. Raziel knew on thing. The stronghold didn't have such a place.
He sat bolt upright. "Where am I?" He wondered aloud. He didn't expect an answer, and was surprised when a girl, standing nearby the bed, answered.
"You are back at the sanctuary, my lord, in your restroom."
"My.... My restroom?" Raziel pondered, looking around again. "This doesn't look like my restroom."
"My lord, you must be disorientated." The girl said, concerned. "You need to heal still. Here." She gently shoved Raziel back towards the bed. But Raziel wasn't fooled. Through the darkness, Raziel glared at the girl more closely. Clawed hands, pointed ears, yellow eyes...
FANGS!
"VAMPIRE!" Raziel yelled, pushing the girl towards the wall with surprising strength, where she fell on her butt, staring, puzzled, at Raziel.
Raziel wasted no time. He grabbed a torch burning on the wall. He didn't want to be caught or killed by any vampires, and they were to be exterminated. He pointed the flaming torch at the girl, but another pair of vampires rushed into the room. One was already burnt, by the look of things, and Raziel used the advantage by pushing the torch towards the burnt vampire.
"Buuuuurrrrrrrrnnnn!!" Raziel grinned.
The stupid fiend didn't stand a chance, and collapsed on the floor, dead now, it's stagnant soul now released. The torch had gone out now. Raziel threw it hard at the vampire girl on the floor. It didn't go into her heart, like he intended, but it buried itself in her shoulder, where the vampire clutched it. He pushed past the last remaining vampire, and ran out the door. Not that he was afraid, but it was his best chance at survival. Besides, the Sarafan needed to know that there were more vampires about...
"Quick! Something's wrong! Follow him!" The girl hissed. "I'll go get help!"
The vampire rushed after Raziel, following him at a distance.
Marissa hissed as she pulled the torch imbedded in her shoulder, and threw it away. She held her wound for a moment, then ignored it. The wound would heal quickly. Besides, she had more important things to worry about now. She hurried out of the room, towards the place where she knew more of her clan was staying. She spotted some of them, bored, playing cards with each other.
"Vosa! Bando! Lucien! Kat! Matt! Quick!" The razielhim turned towards Marissa, running towards them, confused.
"Something's wrong with Lord Raziel! His head was injured badly by Lord Dumah earlier, and when he woke up, he attacked me, killed Gora, and ran off!" Marissa said.
"Whatever you did to get him that pissed off, you deserve to be punished." Bando sneered, picking up a card as if nothing was wrong.
"I mean it! Something's really wrong. Why would he run off like that?" The razielhim stared at her, looking somewhat more convinced. "I got Bob to follow him. But I don't know what's up with Lord Raziel. I need someone to tell Kain, or at least one of the other Clan leaders."
"We'll get on it!" Matt said. He saluted, his hand still holding a deck of cards, which he dropped on the table. Taking Kat with him, he took off towards the pillars.
"I'm going after Lord Raziel now, to help Bob. I saw him head to outside the sanctuary. I'll need help..."
The other three got up, ready to follow Marissa.
Raziel smirked to himself. He had finally gotten out of the vampire's lair. Now all he had to do was get back to the stronghold somehow. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. Odd... Everything was all gray and stone. Though the lair behind him stood gleaming richly, the landscape around him seemed somewhat more barren, than what he was used to seeing in Nosgoth. Even the sky seemed different; the sun blocked out by thick, smoky clouds. Raziel shook his head. He could figure it out later. Trying to remember from the geology of the place, he figured that the direction the stronghold must have laid, and headed in that direction, only to stop when he spotted someone whom looked quite familiar.
"Zephon?" Raziel asked. The man in front of him looked very much like the Zephon he knew so well from the Sarafan brotherhood, but he wasn't exactly wearing his Sarafan armor. He wore armor over his shoulders and upper torso, with an odd shoulder-cape with a fang-like symbol displayed on it. He wore a tight pair of leather pants, and a thick pair of boots. But these clothes were hardly what Raziel was used to seeing him wear. Not only that, but there was something else different about Zephon...
"Oh, it's you!" Zephon announced, looking somewhat irritated, when he spotted Raziel staring at him. "About time you got up. I wanted to talk to you about your clan. They're really growing a bad attitude, Raziel. You had better start controlling them, or else... Raziel, are you even listening to me?"
"Zephon?" Raziel stared incredulously at the former Sarafan. "You're a VAMPIRE?"
Zephon gave him flat stare, as he was stating the obvious. "Aren't we all?"
Raziel heart, if it were still beating, would have stopped. His blood ran cold. For the first time since he woke up, he stared at his hands. Indeed, they were cloven, as were his feet. His skin was an unnatural pale color. And as he ran his tongue over his teeth, sure enough, he felt a pair of fangs rest on his gums.
"No." He said, walking backwards, still staring at his cloven hands. "No. Not me too!"
"Raziel, are you okay? You seem out of it."
"No." Zephon didn't know if that was his response or not, or if he either heard him in the first place. Raziel just continued backing away into the sanctuary walls, still staring at his hands and shaking his head.
A group of Razielhim ran up to the scene, and spotted Raziel. Zephon recognized the female from earlier.
"Lord Raziel!" She gasped, and looked him over as he still stared at his hands. Turning to Zephon, though nodding in respect demanded information. "What happened?"
"He just stared at me. Then he asked me if I was a vampire. He said we all were. Then he just acted like he is now." Zephon shrugged.
"Huh?" Marissa turned back to Raziel. The other Razielhim tried to console him, and lead him back to his clan's territory. He hardly seemed to notice that he was being moved. Zephon smirked somewhat as he noticed it was the Razielhim's turn to take care of their own leader.
Another pair of Razielhim turned up. "We couldn't find Kain, or anyone else." They announced.
"Never mind," the female said. "He doesn't seem to be doing much now. Let's just get him back home."
Zephon shook his head as he watched them leave.
"That's it." Zephon muttered to himself. "From now on, I'm minding my own business." He stalked off back to his own lair, the cathedral.
Zephon sat on the sanctuary roof, a pair of zephonim accompanying him. He spotted Dumah carrying an unconscious Raziel over his shoulder, and dropped down from the roof to see what was up, his zephonim following suite.
"Dumah." Zephon bowed. "What happened?"
"Uh..." Dumah flashed a guilty look on his face before explaining. "Had a little sparring accident when he was coming back from a fight up North with some vampire hunters. Got a nasty knock on the head that doesn't seem to be healing properly. I figured it was best to send him back to the sanctuary."
"I see." Zephon narrowed his eyes at his elder brother.
"Well. I've done enough." Dumah grunted as he took Raziel, still unconscious, off of his shoulder. "Better leave him to you." Dumah simply tossed Raziel into Zephon's arms. Zephon wasn't quite as strong as Dumah, and struggled to hold him.
"What!?" Zephon hissed.
"He's your problem now." Dumah walked off at a fast pace, seemingly wanting to get away. He passed a small group of Razielhim moving towards Zephon, who got the pair of Zephonim at his side to relieve him from Raziel's weight.
"Lord Zephon." The Razielhim nodded at the clan leader. "We were looking for our lord Raziel when he did not return..."
"Yes, yes. I know." Zephon snapped. "Dumah got a little excited when he turned up for another spar, and Raziel got hit on the head." Zephon explained what he had been told, slightly irritated.
"We should take him back to his resting place." A Razielhim female announced. "He would heal better there, perhaps."
Zephon shrugged, indicating to his zephonim to hand Raziel back to his clan.
"But we're Razielhim." The female frowned, somewhat snobbish. "The highest clan. Shouldn't yours bring Raziel back?"
"What?" Zephon stared at the Razielhim, his face a snarl of anger. But as the Razielhim waited patiently, he relented. "Fine!" he snapped. "Tarantulus! Quickstrike! Take Raziel to his clan's sanctuary." He whirled around, and stalked off. "We're Razielhim. The highest clan," Zephon repeated mockingly as he left. The Razielhim followed the zephonim carrying Raziel back to his home.
Marissa, the Razielhim, watched over her masters' form, who was still unconscious. Gora, still burnt from battle, and Bob, another Razielhim, waited just behind her. The zephonim had long since left, but Marissa felt it was best to watch over him. He was their leader, after all. Even if she knew for certain that he would recover...
Raziel remembered that he had just taken the vampire fiend's heart. He had ran from the crumbling Eire while Dumah took the vampire's sword. He had just seen a strange, blue wreckage of a vampire, and though he was eerily drawn towards it, he knew he had to get out of the place. His fellow Sarafan followed behind. The blue creature did not chase, but stayed behind with the other vampire, Janos Audron. Raziel didn't look back. He headed back on he long march home back to the Safaran stronghold, still wary as he was before, uneased by the blue creature he saw. But he had to keep the heart from falling into the wrong hands. He had done it, the demon Janos Audron was dead, and perhaps the rest of his spawn would follow, including the demon Vorador. He had done quite well, he figured, fulfilling his lifelong duty as a Sarafan warrior-priest. All Raziel needed to do was take the heart of darkness back to the stronghold. He had marched all the way back, taking short-cuts, and when inside the stronghold, met up with Moebius and Malek, then gave the heart to those members of the circle, where it would be best safeguarded. He took the sword from Dumah, and placed it on the table as Moebius told him to do. Strange... There was something odd about that sword. He finally let it go, reluctantly, then all of a sudden... Raziel couldn't remember anything.
All he saw was blackness. He realized, all of a sudden, that he was on his back, on a bed. Raziel wondered if he had just blacked out, and tried to figure out why that was. He opened his eyes, and realized that the room he was in was oddly dark. Looking around at the fancy tapestries on the wall with a strange question mark like symbol on them, and the windowless room, with various ornaments here and there. Raziel knew on thing. The stronghold didn't have such a place.
He sat bolt upright. "Where am I?" He wondered aloud. He didn't expect an answer, and was surprised when a girl, standing nearby the bed, answered.
"You are back at the sanctuary, my lord, in your restroom."
"My.... My restroom?" Raziel pondered, looking around again. "This doesn't look like my restroom."
"My lord, you must be disorientated." The girl said, concerned. "You need to heal still. Here." She gently shoved Raziel back towards the bed. But Raziel wasn't fooled. Through the darkness, Raziel glared at the girl more closely. Clawed hands, pointed ears, yellow eyes...
FANGS!
"VAMPIRE!" Raziel yelled, pushing the girl towards the wall with surprising strength, where she fell on her butt, staring, puzzled, at Raziel.
Raziel wasted no time. He grabbed a torch burning on the wall. He didn't want to be caught or killed by any vampires, and they were to be exterminated. He pointed the flaming torch at the girl, but another pair of vampires rushed into the room. One was already burnt, by the look of things, and Raziel used the advantage by pushing the torch towards the burnt vampire.
"Buuuuurrrrrrrrnnnn!!" Raziel grinned.
The stupid fiend didn't stand a chance, and collapsed on the floor, dead now, it's stagnant soul now released. The torch had gone out now. Raziel threw it hard at the vampire girl on the floor. It didn't go into her heart, like he intended, but it buried itself in her shoulder, where the vampire clutched it. He pushed past the last remaining vampire, and ran out the door. Not that he was afraid, but it was his best chance at survival. Besides, the Sarafan needed to know that there were more vampires about...
"Quick! Something's wrong! Follow him!" The girl hissed. "I'll go get help!"
The vampire rushed after Raziel, following him at a distance.
Marissa hissed as she pulled the torch imbedded in her shoulder, and threw it away. She held her wound for a moment, then ignored it. The wound would heal quickly. Besides, she had more important things to worry about now. She hurried out of the room, towards the place where she knew more of her clan was staying. She spotted some of them, bored, playing cards with each other.
"Vosa! Bando! Lucien! Kat! Matt! Quick!" The razielhim turned towards Marissa, running towards them, confused.
"Something's wrong with Lord Raziel! His head was injured badly by Lord Dumah earlier, and when he woke up, he attacked me, killed Gora, and ran off!" Marissa said.
"Whatever you did to get him that pissed off, you deserve to be punished." Bando sneered, picking up a card as if nothing was wrong.
"I mean it! Something's really wrong. Why would he run off like that?" The razielhim stared at her, looking somewhat more convinced. "I got Bob to follow him. But I don't know what's up with Lord Raziel. I need someone to tell Kain, or at least one of the other Clan leaders."
"We'll get on it!" Matt said. He saluted, his hand still holding a deck of cards, which he dropped on the table. Taking Kat with him, he took off towards the pillars.
"I'm going after Lord Raziel now, to help Bob. I saw him head to outside the sanctuary. I'll need help..."
The other three got up, ready to follow Marissa.
Raziel smirked to himself. He had finally gotten out of the vampire's lair. Now all he had to do was get back to the stronghold somehow. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. Odd... Everything was all gray and stone. Though the lair behind him stood gleaming richly, the landscape around him seemed somewhat more barren, than what he was used to seeing in Nosgoth. Even the sky seemed different; the sun blocked out by thick, smoky clouds. Raziel shook his head. He could figure it out later. Trying to remember from the geology of the place, he figured that the direction the stronghold must have laid, and headed in that direction, only to stop when he spotted someone whom looked quite familiar.
"Zephon?" Raziel asked. The man in front of him looked very much like the Zephon he knew so well from the Sarafan brotherhood, but he wasn't exactly wearing his Sarafan armor. He wore armor over his shoulders and upper torso, with an odd shoulder-cape with a fang-like symbol displayed on it. He wore a tight pair of leather pants, and a thick pair of boots. But these clothes were hardly what Raziel was used to seeing him wear. Not only that, but there was something else different about Zephon...
"Oh, it's you!" Zephon announced, looking somewhat irritated, when he spotted Raziel staring at him. "About time you got up. I wanted to talk to you about your clan. They're really growing a bad attitude, Raziel. You had better start controlling them, or else... Raziel, are you even listening to me?"
"Zephon?" Raziel stared incredulously at the former Sarafan. "You're a VAMPIRE?"
Zephon gave him flat stare, as he was stating the obvious. "Aren't we all?"
Raziel heart, if it were still beating, would have stopped. His blood ran cold. For the first time since he woke up, he stared at his hands. Indeed, they were cloven, as were his feet. His skin was an unnatural pale color. And as he ran his tongue over his teeth, sure enough, he felt a pair of fangs rest on his gums.
"No." He said, walking backwards, still staring at his cloven hands. "No. Not me too!"
"Raziel, are you okay? You seem out of it."
"No." Zephon didn't know if that was his response or not, or if he either heard him in the first place. Raziel just continued backing away into the sanctuary walls, still staring at his hands and shaking his head.
A group of Razielhim ran up to the scene, and spotted Raziel. Zephon recognized the female from earlier.
"Lord Raziel!" She gasped, and looked him over as he still stared at his hands. Turning to Zephon, though nodding in respect demanded information. "What happened?"
"He just stared at me. Then he asked me if I was a vampire. He said we all were. Then he just acted like he is now." Zephon shrugged.
"Huh?" Marissa turned back to Raziel. The other Razielhim tried to console him, and lead him back to his clan's territory. He hardly seemed to notice that he was being moved. Zephon smirked somewhat as he noticed it was the Razielhim's turn to take care of their own leader.
Another pair of Razielhim turned up. "We couldn't find Kain, or anyone else." They announced.
"Never mind," the female said. "He doesn't seem to be doing much now. Let's just get him back home."
Zephon shook his head as he watched them leave.
"That's it." Zephon muttered to himself. "From now on, I'm minding my own business." He stalked off back to his own lair, the cathedral.