Chapter Four: For Better or For Worse
Normal Pov
Raziel flew to the north where he saw many winged vampires, and since he was winged as well they assumed he was a new type. He flew right into the lot of them and towards the ground where he saw guards posted. He walked up to the gate but was stopped.
"What do you want, the Mistress does not wished to be disturbed as she is planning to move against Mistress Neptune's armies," said the vampire.
Raziel stabbed him and beheaded him and said, "I have news from the master, now let me pass or meet his fate!"
The vampire nodded quickly and let Raziel through. Raziel smirked to himself and continued on through the gigantic hall, until he came to a gate with two giant vampires.
"Let me through I have a message from the master to be given to the Mistress herself!" bellowed Raziel.
Still the guards did not move to let him in, so Raziel beheaded them and fed upon their souls and broke door off the gate. He continued down the hall and he immobilized the two vampires and set a circle of fire around them and continued on down the large hall until he came upon a large door. He pushed them open and saw what was like a cross between a crow and a human. She was half the size of Neptune, but her wings were a good thirty feet for each wing. Her feet were talons and her hands like a normal vampire's, except the thumb part was missing. Her torso was covered in black feathers and her lower half was as well. Her head was that of a normal vampire, except for the size.
"Who are you and why didn't my guards announce your presence?" she boomed.
"Well Uranus, because they wouldn't let me through, so I defeated them. I've come to tell you that two of your dear sisters is dead, Mini Moon or Darkoona as she preferred and Neptune. You are next on my list, if you hadn't grown to be so large and kept a semi normal body and had blue skin, you could have been a dead ringer for an ancient vampire," complimented Raziel.
"Then release me from this horrible prison, my children have turned against me and have locked me in this cage and now I seek release from this prison," said Uranus.
"Is there no vampire that doesn't desire death? Two of you this makes are willing to die!" said a surprised Raziel.
But he drew back the reavers and shot her with them and she began to screech in agony as she felt like acid was pouring upon her. He heard waves crashing against the outside of the dome and he blew a hole in the wall, letting the water spill in and flood the cage and Uranus's body fell against the wall burned black and her soul flew to Raziel who sent it to the underworld for peace. The other vampires outside had been caught off guard by the sudden rainfall and fell to the ground and they too were sent into the underworld. He left the building in flames as he had patched the hole and took off towards the west of his current position.
'So it has begun, just as the prophecy predicted it would.
The Prophecy of Armageddon:
The being shall arise from the depths of an abyss
The four leaders shall fall to its wrath and one shall escape
The twin blades shall be reunited and the lost blades found
The Millennium, Tenchi, Demon, Dragon, and Ancient Reavers
Five worlds shall be rediscovered and time shall bend to the creature
The return to the five worlds it shall, but also rediscover others
The twin blades shall reunited with the remnants of their brothers and sisters
The Fire, Darkness, Light, Air, Thunder, and Sound shall be the first remnants to be found
The Water, Earth, Stone, Spirit, Ice, Dragon, and Sunlight shall be the second remnants to be found
The enemies of the Ancient's shall return, unleashing a terrible evil upon the worlds
The enemies of the past shall arise again and their test shall begin, to determine if they live or die
The creature shall discover the original members of the Circle of Nine in its forms
The ultimate test awaits as the worlds watch in wonder the fate of the key world.... Nosgoth
The Elder, Eldress, Eldest, Hash'ak'gik, Hylden, Demons, Youma, etc. shall fall to their master
It shall reign down upon the key world and the others horrible plagues and destruction
The being of Souls stands against the creature, using Fire, Darkness, Light, Ice, Water, Thunder, Air, Spirit, Earth
The being of Souls brings harmony to the worlds for ten thousand years and the creature defeated, or....
The being of Souls stands with the creature, using Fire, Darkness, Light, Ice, Water, Thunder, Air, Spirit, Earth
The being of Souls brings hell unto the worlds and reigns in evil for ten thousand years and the Protectors defeated
I have already rediscovered most of the lost blades and have found a few of the remnants of the original element blades. This prophecy predicts that I will either condemn the worlds as Kain did to Nosgoth or I will save them as Kain should have done. A very hard decision it will be to make.' thought Raziel.
While Raziel pondered over his thoughts he came across a graveyard, where vampires were recruiting from the grave. Raziel blasted them and they burned until they collapsed. Then he landed on the ground and suddenly he was overcome with hoards of vampires, all coming at him. He summoned up the fire glyph and released it upon them all, causing them all to roar in pain and collapse on the ground. He looked around and saw that the vampires were still coming.
'Damn these vampires are worse than Melchiah's clan, at least they weren't coming out at every turn,' thought Raziel.
He ran at them slashing at every vampire that came at him, which was quite a lot as they kept on coming, endlessly. That is until Raziel came upon a glowing orb that swirled with a black mist. Raziel ran at it and leaped into the air, soaring above the heads of the vampires and landing next to the orb. He stabbed the orb with the reaver, but it grew darker and mistier.
'Strange when I try and destroy the orb, it grows stronger. What could possibly be strong enough to grow stronger if I try and destroy it?' thought Raziel.
Raziel decided that the orb would be something to deal with later, he tried to leave, but something compelled him to take the orb with him. He picked it up and the reaver's on his two arms disappeared would not reappear, even when he summoned them.
'Moebius! This orb is like the crystals in his staff, they weaken a vampire, but seem to make these vampires stronger, yet it still makes the reavers disappear. If I shatter it, the orb pieces will dissolve into the ground, but if don't then the vampires will keep coming. I need to put it in a place where it won't cause any trouble,' thought Raziel.
He took it into the spectral realm, where hundreds of vampire wraiths waited for him. One of them approached Raziel and took the orb and said, "You are similar to us, but can manifest yourself in the material realm. You have brought us the orb that causes us to be forced into our bodies as soon as we adapt in this realm. We thank you as when this orb is shattered in the spectral realm we will be bound here until we choose to go to the underworld. You may find our mistress below the gardens of the dead. She personally oversees all matters with the gardens of the dead."
Raziel nodded and found a hole that led into the underground fortress of Saturn. He found a planar portal and shifted back into the physical realm and discovered her subordinates were everywhere. Though they seemed to be her elite clan members and allowed him to pass unprovoked. As he walked down the enormous hall he found himself looking at the pictures of her from a fledgling to her next state in evolution. He even found pictures of her as a human child, all the way to wear she was killed by Turel. Raziel was impressed with her evolution, he saw that she had evolved better than Melchiah had, she was devolving in the slightest appearance. She had evolved to closely resemble his Reaper form, which made him wonder if she became a vampire, whether or not she would take his place as the Reaper of Souls. When he came towards the end of the hall the last picture showed her with bat-like wings crossed with wings like Janos Audron's. However the wings seemed to have holes appearing in her wings. He continued on down the hall and came to a set of enormous doors that held her clan symbol upon them. He pushed open the doors and saw her sitting upon her thrown staring at him with such fire in her eyes.
"You made it here without my guards attacking, that means you freed the wraiths from my prison and they are committing mutiny against me. So you are the one that destroyed my best friend and sister, and the two who looked after me while I was still a weak fledgling, whom were also my sisters. Who are you and why have you destroyed my family?" demanded Saturn.
"I am as your sister Neptune said your uncle, as your father and master Turel is my brother. I only granted Neptune and Uranus's wishes for me to free them of their bodies. You are next as you are a threat to the souls who reside in the underworld, whom wait to be judged. Saturn you are the next one that I send to the underworld, no matter how strong your powers over the dead are!" said Raziel.
He summoned forth the will to change his form and he grew taller and his cowl turned black and grew to surround him in a black cloak. His clan symbol appeared on the hood of his cloak, his cloven hands became longer and the same happened with his feet. His cloak suddenly took on a look of partial decay and the Holy and Soul Reaver disappeared into the staff that suddenly appeared, then they appeared from the staff as two blades overlapping each other.
"Your evolution is most impressive, it is quite similar to my own; with the exception of you having no wings. So Uncle, what do you propose to do with me, become my general?" asked Saturn.
"No, my reason is I have never been a general, I was a lieutenant in Kain's empire. You will join the other three in the underworld. My Soul Scythe shall see to that Saturn, I shall destroy you!" exclaimed Raziel.
Raziel summoned his death mist as he had named it and he started towards Saturn, but four of her most loyal and elite vampires appeared and charged Raziel. The leader of the group stopped and they stopped, it sent out one of the four to attack Raziel from one side and another from the opposite. They seemed like they were going to try and box him in, then annihilate him. When they were in position, Saturn gave a wave of her hand and they attacked. Raziel just stood by and commanded his mist to surround him and the vampires ventured into the mist and screamed in agony. When they fell to the ground only one vampires hand was seen, but nothing but bone was left on it. The mist devoured even that and Raziel turned his gaze upon Saturn. She rose from her thrown and ripped her gown off to reveal her battle armor, which was spiked at the shoulders, elbows, knees, heels, back, and knuckles of the black colored armor. She frowned at the failed attempt of her warriors to defeat Raziel and drew her glaive and slashed at Raziel. He parried with his staff and slashed at her armor, but it was deflected. He hit her with the staff and knocked her back a few feet. The two of them continued this routine for several hours. Raziel and Saturn were evenly matched at their sword fighting techniques or at least swords connected to staffs.
"Since I cannot defeat you with the Soul Scythe, I will use my symbiotic weapon for this form. I have harness its complete and total power, so be prepared to feel the taste of my blades sting!" said Raziel as he summoned the Millennium Reaver from the confines of the Sanctuary of the Clans.
The Millennium Reaver appeared in his right hand and he raised the blade in attack position. Saturn struck out at him and he parried the strike without activating the blades power. She struck out several more times, with Raziel parrying each strike. Raziel grew tired of the fight and activated a small portion of the blades power and struck Saturn's glaive. She was able to parry the strike and push back with her own power, except she used her full amount of power and sent Raziel flying across the room. Raziel's eyes narrowed and he charged her using the full amount of his blades power and struck her glaive, cracking it, as she had twisted at the last second. Raziel brought his Soul Scythe out and under her chin with the blades against the side of her face. She knocked the scythe away, but Raziel swung his golden blade up through her armor into her gut.
"Uh! You, you beat me!" gasped Saturn.
Raziel nodded gently and removed the Millennium Reaver from her gut and her soul floated free from her body. Raziel drew it in and sent it on its way to the underworld. He then made his way out of the throne room, but he saw the dark forge symbol upon the door. Touching it the symbol began to glow and seemed to float off the door and merge with Raziel. He knew he had acquired the Dark Glyph, he had a few more glyphs to go and he would be finished collecting them. He left the room and halfway down the hall unleashed the sunlight glyph, burning the vampires to the ground, then he continued towards the exit. He found a tunnel that led up to the same area he had come from. Upon exiting he unleashed the sunlight glyph once again and the vampires crumpled to the ground and began to burn. He switched to his Hunter form and took to the sky and decided to head to the Hiwikawa Shrine to rest for a little bit until he regained his full strength.
Raziel arrived to find that the shrine was in total ruins. He moved cautiously through the gates of the temple and around it. Vampire bodies lurked everywhere, all were either impaled, decapitated, set a flame, or burned by water. Turning around the next corner brought a shock to Raziel and he saw Pluto being pleasured by a human and a vampire. Then suddenly she sliced the head of the vampire off and she seemed to have frozen it in time. The human bowed and moved away quickly, he watched as a human sized dragon-like vampire came flying down from the sky.
"Master Raizol, I am pleased to see you, my sisters have been killed. I am also in need of more concubines for my pleasure, this time human and it can be male or female, it doesn't matter to me," said Pluto.
"Very well Pluto, have you seen what slew your sisters?" asked Raizol.
"Yes, the being is clouded in a black mist, wearing nothing but black. It carries a staff with two blades overlapping each other and can summon a golden blade. I saw its battle with Saturn, she had nearly defeated it, but it surprised her, by using its staff and sword at the same time. It killed her clan as well, just like all the other clans had been killed," said Pluto.
"I will look into it later, I have come for my inspection of your clan. If any have surpassed me, then they will be executed," said Raizol.
Pluto nodded and allowed him to continue, while a couple of human women came over to pleasure their Mistress. Raziel slowly made his way through the shadows towards Pluto until he was in a close enough view to see that she had out grown her clothing and was constantly in the nude. She seemed to have humans pleasure her when she wanted, but she still retained most of her human form. Raziel moved slowly through the shadows towards the back of her and noticed that she had a series of charms implanted in her back. He guessed that was how she was able to keep her human form, she had used the charms to reverse her evolution so she could be almost constantly pleasured. He used his telekinetic ability to remove the charms slowly and carefully as not to draw Pluto's attention. When they were all removed, he watched as Pluto began to grow scales all over her body, her hands and feet changed into claws, her ears became pointed, her face remained the same, except for the horns that grew from her forward and upward. The humans and left and she was resting from her pleasure, however soon she awoke and looked directly at Raziel.
"You have removed the charms from my back, you have reverted me to my vampiric self! You have deprived me of my pleasure, for this you shall pay little creature!" screamed Pluto.
Raziel drew the Millennium Reaver and slashed in a fury of movements to fast for her to see. It seemed like he hadn't even attacked her. She smiled and grabbed Raziel, but her hand fell from her arm, dropping Raziel. She scowled at Raziel for her missing hand and noticed that Raziel had wings. She went for his wings, but she ended up on the end of the blade instead.
"You are too fast for me, but you still took away my pleasure!" said Pluto as Raziel yanked the blade upward and sliced her in half.
He sent her soul into the underworld and went on the search for Raizol, whom had come out to come face to face with him.
"You defeated Pluto easily I see, she was unused to herself in that body. Tell me what will you do now, take over in her clan or disappear to where ever it is you came from?" asked Raizol.
"Neither Raizol, I will finish the job, her clan is all but desecrated. Her clan can be wiped by the humans, no you are next Raizol," said Raziel.
Raizol started to laugh, in his arrogance, he never saw Raziel shove the blade into his stomach. He stopped laughing when he felt himself bleeding, he saw Raziel smirking as he brought out the Soul Scythe and sliced his head off and sent his soul into the underworld. Raziel felt himself being pulled to another location and soon enough the time gates came into view. He looked around and swung the Millennium Reaver to where it was pointing directly at Pluto's chest. Smirking he did a series of quick movements that seemed to miss, but soon enough as Raziel put the Millennium Reaver in its sheath, her entire sailor scout suit and everything underneath fell to the floor revealing her naked body. She covered herself and glared at Raziel as he was smirking at having gotten his revenge on her for sneaky up on him so many times.
"We're even Pluto, you wish to sneak up on me whenever you get a chance, so I decided to embarrass you and show you what your vampiric self wore. Absolutely pathetic, you should have known I would do that, now I have something to gloat about with the other Sailor Scouts," said Raziel.
"I am going to make you regret that Raziel!" growled Pluto.
Raziel drew the Millennium Reaver and held the blade to her throat and he replied, "Was that a threat Pluto? Shall I twitch my hand and see if your head goes rolling off from the rest of your body?"
She replied, "No, I think we're even now Raziel, besides the others are awaiting your arrival."
Raziel nodded and he stepped through the portal Pluto had brought before them. When he exited the portal he saw the other sailor scouts waiting for him. He carefully walked over to them and saw them all gathered around Amy trying to figure out what had happened to him. He jumped onto the roof of the building and watched in fascination as Amy typed away on her mini-computer. He watched as she was able to pin point the frequency, as she had called it, that his energy patterns were on. He turned the blade he had in his hand and pointed it straight into the face of Hotaru who was sneaky up behind him, mainly because she hadn't met him yet and because he wasn't human.
"Go ahead and try little girl, you will find that I am not so easy to sneak up on. Now get down to the ground before I decide to do something that will severely harm you," warned Raziel.
The other scouts heard Raziel and saw him with his back to Hotaru, but a golden blade pointed directly at her throat. They watched and listened as Raziel gave her a warning and she slid down off the roof. They gathered around her to see if she was alright and they turned their eyes to glare at Raziel, but he was gone. Raziel came walking up behind them and looked at the roof and at them, then back at the roof.
"What exactly is so interesting with the roof to the shrine?" asked Raziel.
They all jumped and turned around quickly to see Raziel standing there looking at them. They attempted to grab him, so they could severely hurt him for scaring them, but he was gone in a green mist, then he appeared behind them.
"Raziel if you keep on shifting to your safe haven, then I will personally make you regret it Raziel!" said Serena.
Raziel brought the blade up to her throat and she saw his eyes glowing white and knew she had angered him. Raziel then said, "Is that a threat Tsukino? Shall I twitch my hand and see if your head goes rolling off from the rest of your body?"
She replied, "No, that's okay, I take back what I said and apologize."
Raziel pulled back the blade and nodded his acknowledgment.
"Raziel where were you, you been gone for two days straight! We found a way to scan the spectral realm and you weren't in there!" said Mina.
"So you found a way to discover what lurks in the Spectral Realm. If you must know I was in your future if I had not come. The planet is in a post-apocalyptic state, vampires reign supreme, but a human resistance led by a Princess Serenity Moon and her court. Your daughter Tsukino is a vampire, along with the four other scouts of yours. Two of you let me kill you, just for a release from your imprisonment. Your clans wiped out by me and Turel as your father and Raizol as your master. Each of you, except for the five I originally fought with, are dead now, by my hand," said Raziel, "Though the last of you, Pluto was the easiest kill, yet also the weakest. If you expect her to appear behind me and tell you that I lie about her being weak, then think again. I have taken my revenge upon her and she won't dare try it again, or else she will die from embarrassment."
They nodded, taking his word for it as he told them what he had done, but when he finished he decided that a call to Kain wouldn't be so bad.
KAIN! roared Raziel through telepathy.
What is it Raziel? asked Kain.
GET OVER HERE NOW, I'M FACING A MUTINY! yelled Raziel.
No sooner than had Raziel finished speaking than did Kain arrive with an incarnation of the Soul Reaver in his hand ready to strike.
"I see you have made enemies of them Raziel, decide to humiliate Pluto for revenge, but it back fired? Am I right Raziel, or am I mistaken?" asked Kain.
"I did humiliate her, but they don't seem to like me very much because of it. What say we force Pluto's hand in sending us ahead to the decisive battle?" asked Raziel.
"Whenever you're ready Raziel, on the count of three then?" asked Kain.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three..."
Epilogue: The Next Dimension
The two of them stopped their backing away and charged the Sailor Scouts with their swords drawn. They were upon them and at the last second before their blades connected with the Sailor Scouts, they were brought to the time gates, where Pluto blocked their attacks.
"Forcing my hand with the loyalty to protect my princess was a stroke of genius Raziel. Don't do it again, the decisive battle is taking place and the scouts are loosing badly. They have forgiven you and so have I Raziel, but Kain will take much longer," said Pluto.
When the two of them appeared Turel was about to kill Uranus. However Kain slashed Turel with the Soul Reaver incarnation. He spun the blade around and slashed Turel another three times, before he turned his attention to Kain.
"Kain! You seem to have a blade strong enough to harm, what is it the Soul Blade?" mocked Turel.
"No fool it is an incarnation of the Soul Reaver, since it shattered a second time a second Soul Reaver was created by the Ancient Vampires. Do you think I don't know where another one of Moebius's time streaming devices is located? I was able to convince the Ancient Vampires to create a second Soul Reaver, but from a piece of the original. It has all the powers of the Soul Reaver, except this is its true form. It is like the Wraith Armor, it exists in both the material and spectral realms at once. Now Turel you shall die a most horrible death!" snarled Kain.
"I think not Kain, my magic is stronger than yours; your devolution is loosing your magic! As you told Raziel this is not the place, nor how this drama shall unfold," said Turel as he created a portal behind him and disappeared through it.
'Fool my devolution may have been that, but having gone back to the Ancient Vampires, they have cured me of my devolution. I was already regaining my magical abilities, it seems though that I passed my corrupted mind on to him,' thought Kain.
Meanwhile Raziel was battling Raizol, while the scouts battled the legion upon legion of vampires. The battle between Raziel and Raizol was explosive there clashes were sending shockwave's throughout the battle ground. Raziel would strike Raizol and he would strike back, they were equal in their battle. Raziel finally grew tired of the senseless battle and drew the Millennium Reaver and activated its magic. Since they weren't in the correct dimension they couldn't be transported into the Shadow Realm. So Raziel struck several times before Raizol was able to attack as well. Although the injuries were heavier on Raizol he still held a great leverage over Raziel.
"You know Raziel, when you banished me I was killed by humans. Several centuries later after your demise Turel revived me. That is why magic is so much more powerful than your own. Too bad you weren't around to witness Kain's astonishment as he learned that Turel was resurrecting long dead vampires into his own clan to cease the devolution. Kain tried to make him stop but his own devolution was that he was loosing his magical abilities. He still is Raziel, that's why your such a match for him, otherwise you would have been destroyed long ago," sneered Raizol.
"You are a fool Raizol, by telling me this, I no longer harbor any guilt over killing my clan member. You are not a Razielem any longer, but a defilement of my long lost clan. Now Raizol you die and your soul shall be destroyed so Turel can never resurrect you again," said Raziel.
Raziel pulled back the golden blade known as the Millennium Reaver and plunged it into Raizol. The blade protruded from the other side of his stomach and then his body dissolved and all the remained was his soul. Raziel took the blade and slashed through the soul destroying it so that it might never be brought back again. Although Raziel knew he couldn't actually destroy a soul, he could send in so deep into the underworld that it would be unreachable without having your own soul torn from your body. He settled down upon on the ground and saw the scouts had finished off the vampires and Kain was obliterating their bodies and sending their souls into the underworld. Raziel and Kain both sat on a stone at the Hiwikawa Shrine exhausted from their battle. Kain from fighting Turel and using magic he hadn't used in a very long time. Raziel from fighting with the use of the Millennium Reaver's magic while not in the symbiotic form. Raye came out with a glass in one hand and a mythology book in the other.
"Here Kain drink this, it may not be what your used to tasting, but it should be a good enough substitute. Raziel you always wondered about our past even when we told it to you. Luna gave this to us when you left and said to give it to you if we ever saw a silver winged creature fighting with us. It's a book about us in the Silver Millennium, we've read it several times and have copies of it," said Raye.
Kain sniffed his drink, tasted it, and then said, "It's not what I'm used to alright, but it is a good substitute. This should hold me over until we get to the next dimension to deal with Turel, his clan, the mysterious clan, and their master."
Raziel nodded and put the book in his cowl and they opened a portal to the Nosgoth and had a human put the book in the Sanctuary of the Clans. Specifically Kain's private chambers where it would be safest. They closed the portal and waited for all the scouts to appear. Once they did Raziel gave them his farewells and left them with a book about Nosgoth. He opened a portal and he and Kain stepped through the portal to appear in a grand chamber similar to Moebius's Chronoplast Chamber, except that some of the walls were decorated with strange hieroglyphics.
As they looked around their surroundings an old woman appeared looking like a native and she said, "Welcome time space and dimension travelers, welcome to your paradox."