(AN: No, I'm not dead, and yes, I will get to work on the BO2/TR and TR/SR stories. Right now my school life is eating up my free time, and I desperately needed something new and serious to work on. So tell me what you guys think and if I should just give up and go back to working on my other stories. ^_^ )
Somewhere, a blade that can devour souls is imbued.
Somewhere, a forgotten enemy crows with exaltation.
Somewhere, an emperor emerges triumphant from the battle, but alone as ever before.
Somewhere, the only being with answers is locked and hidden away, to fuel a cruel machine with his life.
Somewhere, an eons old god plots his revenge.
And somewhere, a broken memory from time before the war between Ancient and Hylden is about to be unleashed.
May the Dark Gods protect
those that unleash it.
An old being. A new confrontation.
The coin still turns.
Set further in the mountains even than Malek's Bastion was a millennia-old temple, fashioned by the hands of the Ancients at the very beginning of the war. The fortress was small, only containing a few antechambers before stopping at a pair of monstrous double doors that had runes of warding and sealing carved in dancing patterns across them. Only one being inhabited the broken ruins: a vampire guardian, left with the knowledge of his Ancient creator, and ordered to guard the doors and let nothing open them.
With the destruction of the Pillars, the Hylden had extended their reach, taking more bodies as their forms, and a collection had assaulted the temple, forcing the guardian to practice his near stagnant skills with a blade.
"What do you hide here?" one of the Hylden murmured.
The guardian stood before the double doors, acting as the last bastion against the Hylden. Broken, decrepit corpses littered the ground around the vampire's cloven feet, abandoned bodies left by the retreating Hyldens' spirits.
"What is entombed here must stay undisturbed!" the vampire hissed, moving slightly into a guarding stance. The two remaining Hylden weighed their options carefully. The vampire was badly wounded, but they themselves weren't in the best of shape. They shared a nod and dashed to either side of the vampire, racing toward the door.
"NO!" The guardian slid out of his stance and ran after them, grabbing one of the creatures, his claws viciously severing spinal cord and column. The other Hylden didn't hesitate, but grabbed the warding rune papers and ripped them down, its talons digging into the symbols carved into the door. A shudder ran through the fortress.
"Fool!" The vampire snatched the Hylden away from the door and slammed it up against the wall, claws at its throat. Another shudder ran through the stone. The vampire glanced back at the doors, then released his hold and grabbed the Hylden's arm instead.
"Come," he snarled. "Let me show you what you've unleashed upon us all."
The Hylden snatched its arm out of the guardian's grip. The vampire didn't give it a second glance, and merely walked into a side room, ignoring the enemy as if it no longer mattered. The Hylden considered the change in the guardian's behavior and decided that perhaps fro the moment, it would be wiser to let its opponent survive. It cautiously followed him.
Beyond the door was a small room with a single large crystal window. The vampire stopped in front of it and crossed his arms, oblivious to the drying Hylden blood on his claws. The Hylden hesitantly stopped at the crystal and looked out of it. Past it was a huge, almost cathedral-like structure. At the far end was a cylindrical pod, leaned back so it was slightly at an angle. Carved lines in the stone centered on it and streaked away to form runes all over the walls, ceiling and floor. Each was glowing softly and the luminescence slid down the lines to end behind the pod. A final rumble ran through the temple and the Hylden and vampire watched as the pod shivered and a line broke its smooth surface. A part of it much like a lid slid back and up, and a cloud of what looked like silvery mist slid out. A moment of silence and stillness passed before a shadow shifted ever so slightly within the creation.
The vampire shook his head sadly.
A form sat up from the pod. The Hylden's stolen eyes narrowed.
"What is that?"
The creature slid out of the pod to land unsteadily before the object. The being was a woman, dressed in simple, skin-tight clothing, had a visor over her eyes, and a pair of shackles on both her wrists.
"Do you see the metal around her arms?" the vampire inquired calmly.
"Dark steel, correct?" the Hylden queried in answer
"The strongest metal in existence. Nothing can break it. Watch her."
The woman seemed to look around, though the visor appeared to blind her, and then twisted her face, the faceplate visor making it obvious, toward the shackles. She pulled at them, stopped a moment, and then stretched her arms apart. The metal links straightened and stopped her movement. The female cocked her head to the side as if confused by this, and then appeared to gather her strength and pull. An audible shriek of pressured metal sounded, and the links snapped. The Hylden's eyes widened.
"What in all that is pain is she?!"
The vampire steepled his claws and bowed his head.
"She is a creature that was locked away thousands of years ago."
He looked like he would have said something else, but the female twisted suddenly and moved her faceplate straight toward the two. She threw her hand out toward them and black, shadowy tentacles slashed through the air to engulf the crystal in blackness. The vampire let out a muffled curse and raced out of the room as the sound of crystal breaking filled it. The Hylden decided that following the vampire out of the danger zone would be prudent, as its senses were telling it that this… creature was far more dangerous than the vampire. The vampire slammed the door shut behind him and leaned on it, trying to keep the vile powers that had sought them inside.
In the cathedral, the woman reached up to the faceplate and calmly pushed it up, showing a pale face, with eyes shut. Ebony black hair reached down to her thighs, and was marred only by the front bangs, a resounding, vibrant purple. She opened her eyes to reveal golden amber irises, but pupils in the shape of an etched out X. Her eyebrows knitted together in annoyance.
"What is that thing?" the Hylden demanded, eyes darting to the double doors.
"Something so powerful and dangerous, all the Hylden and Ancients agreed to lock it away. That is why I guarded this place, and why only a Hylden could start the awakening process." The vampire met the gaze of his enemy, knowing that the Hylden was far better than what two doors kept from him.
"What do we do?"
The double doors gave a resounding crack as both fell out and away from the center and their hinges. Beyond it, a heavily accented female voice carried clear and loud as a bell in pure silence.
"Oh boys… You've been very naughty."
"Do?" the vampire answered the Hylden softly, a ironic laugh escaping him. "We die, that's what we do."
(A/N: So, what do you guys think? And before you get all paranoid and go 'oh boy, here she goes off with another pairing,' I actually have no intention of any pairings happening. Any pairings that happen will be due to you guys, the reviewers, saying if you like any, don't like the ones currently happening, or what have you. You guys get to take an active hand in how the story shapes. Yay! ^_^ Anyway, drop me a line and tell me what you think, kay?)