The monstrous building had a Roman quality to it. Amanda could tell just because it seemed way too beautiful, too much detail had been put into it for the country's main religion. As she stepped close to it, the gun in hand, Raziel suddenly pulled her back a step by her shoulder.

"Wait."

He walked forward, his hand slipping from her shoulder. The massive doors were inlaid with unfamiliar designs, although some carried a familiar note. Obviously more so for Raziel, for he seemed taken to the ones with the design of the sword, which covered the split between the two large doors.

Finally he pulled on the large handles, opening them wide and letting the candle-light spill outside. He cast a slightly terrifying shadow. His eyes' glow intensified as they adjusted to the swift change in lighting. The human girl swiftly scampered up after him, being unnerved in the darkness below. She slipped in and stood, leaning her hands against the back of the rear pew.

Once they established that they were alone for awhile, Amanda set about casting a couple of minor level spells, giving herself protection, lighting her own candles, sitting in the middle of the floor with her eyes closed. Raziel explored the room alone, touching the walls and brushing his claws over the tapestries. He pulled them down, eliciting a gasp from Amanda.

"What the fuck?"

"I'm looking for other doorways. There may not be anything down that way. Just keep doing what you're doing."

The tone was rather condescending. It made Amanda's skin bristle against the back of her neck, like he just ran his claws through her spiderwebbed nerves and ripped them apart. She took a deep, steadying breath before she put her ingredients back in their proper places. She was finished anyway. "Maybe we should just split up."

"Perhaps. But that weapon will not serve you for very long."

Amanda followed him, stepping over huge tumbled lengths of crimson tapestry, tripping and landing in the dust-laden fabric before she could get up again. Finally he pulled one down, near the huge angelic motif near the front of the cathedral, shrouded with shadows cast by a large candle set-up. The wall was made of stone, while the rest was dark oak wood. There was the unmistakable sword design again, an ominous keyhole, and a faint shimmer that even Amanda could detect.

She stood back, and felt a chill as her ears picked up faint screams as the Reaver manifested. She watched it coil its way from his shoulder, around his arm and then outward from his hand like a serpentine blade. It roared with energy, blazing with ethereal radiance before calming and roiling quietly like a coming storm.

He took a breath and drove it into the hole. It was drawn in like the 'keyhole' were a vacuum. He turned it with muscles tensing and withdrew it, watching the door open with a ton of dust pouring down around them. Amanda swiped her hand through the air and sneezed.

"Dusty. Maybe they need a choir boy in here to do some dusting once in awhile," Amanda commented, stifling a cackle.

The doors slammed shut behind them only a few steps within the dark tunnel. Amanda couldn't see a damn thing except by the light of the Reaver and the glow in Raziel's eyes. She carefully stayed on his left hand side, away from the maniacal blade, and she walked forward with him into the stagnant darkness.

To Raziel's sight, the walls which were apparently as clear as day, were familiar to him. Murals were the end-all story tellers of his world, telling secrets that he didn't understand until someone had but to explain their meaning. These seemed to be displaying unrecognizable figures in a vast room, all of them, in black robes whose hoods shadowed their faces. Further along showed the proceedings. A portal was raised against a wall with arcane symbols; two figures approached it. One of them was strikingly familiar, but the face was blank.

The other had an uncanny resemblance to himself. Another prophetic image he had to divulge. Amanda couldn't see these in the dark, not even by his own light, but by her reactions she knew he was noticing something.

"What is it?" she whispered, one hand clutching the symbol she wore around her neck, the other the gun in her belt.

"It seems," he began, "we may be expected."

"Oh, yay. Maybe they've got some cookies or something. I'm really hungry."

"Did you know you're not really that funny?"

"You know you want to laugh. But you can't, because you're a stuffy old guy in a scary soul-eating personality. And stop picking on me!"

Raziel smiled, chuckling to himself. They rounded a corner which was bathed in yellow torchlight. The murals became more muddled, as if they were walking closer and closer to their unknown future. Raziel had the distinct feeling that he was inside the Chronoplast room once more, facing off with Kain and viewing things that were perhaps forbidden to him. Such knowledge was common in Nosgoth. It was all in how you interpreted it all.

They descended a few sets of stairs, the walls becoming made of hard limestone instead of piles of rock. Their trip was silent, and finally, where she began to hear water dripping from the shadows, they reached a huge pair of doors. However, opening them revealed a grated doorway which by all means meant that they could go no further.

Well. Amanda couldn't, anyway.

"I can move through objects such as these in the Spectral Realm. But I can't touch anything physical, or move objects in the material world."

"How is that going to help me? I can't put a portal through the gate for you."

"It won't be necessary." Raziel suddenly sagged, slowly falling apart in particles and clumps of glowing Raziel dust.

------

It was unnerving to see the human vanish before his eyes. The realm was as he remembered it. The torches contrasted sharply as they blazed with blinding white light. Everything was cast in an unnatural blue hue, as if he were in a watery world stained with blue dye instead of green. He approached the gate and passed through it, pulling his incorporeal being through it and gazed about the room beyond. Several braziers filled the circular room, each of them burning bright. He searched the skewed floor, the walls, before a ledge quickly came to his attention. He leapt to it, scrambling up, suddenly noticing he was not as he was in the material world. He was just like before, a ghoul that devoured souls.

Very well. It doesn't matter here, anyway. From his new vantage point, he observed the design on the floor from above. Then there was the design on the wall, directly underneath him. It wasn't fun staring at it slightly upside down. It didn't seem to make any sense to him, so he stood up again and leapt to another ledge, facing a huge chandalier. He looked around, and there, ah, yes. A Planar Portal! He jumped to it immediately, and was about to switch when a voice from behind him turned him about.

The voice was crying. He peered with a predator's intent into the shadows. He was a little soul-starved. But what spirit could be about, crying like this, in a tomb so far from the surface?

"Stop crying, whoever you are."

Sniffles. A hiccup. "What? What's this? Who are you?"

"I asked you before. Answer me."

The ghost came forward, a haggard little spirit with straggly blonde hair and baby blue eyes. Then again, his eyes were also blue. She was just a child, with tattered overalls and a tee-shirt. One side of her face was blasted off and she was missing three fingers on her right hand.

"Daddy? Where's my daddy? Why did daddy leave?" she simpered, crawling closer and reaching out to him. "I haven't seen you before... have you seen daddy? You're not supposed to be here..."

Raziel hissed, pushing at her. "G-Get away, spirit! I don't know your father, and I am not your father!" He breathed deep, and heard her horrified, strangely enraged scream as he vanished from her. Unfortunately, the ledge upon which he stood melted into the wall and he was forced to free-fall down into the room. He landed on his feet rather awkwardly. The clothes he wore intact as was his state.

Maybe I've got too much on my mind. I wonder who in blazes that annoying ghost was? How odd that she should linger here... in this place.

He looked around. Amanda was staring at him, having seen him fall apparently out of nowhere. He waved, before exploring the room. The braziers were bright and the fires roared softly.

"Do you see anything? A switch, a lever..."

He pulled on a large lever on the floor by the grate. It continued to open as long as he held the lever. Once it locked into place, Amanda quickly ran under it, skidding to a stop as she gasped at the symbols on the wall in front of her.

"Oh my god! This looks like... like... that book. Okay!" Her breathing quickened. The sheer immensity of this room astounded her. "This is like...out of the Mummy or something."

She sat down on the floor, removed her sneakers, and rubbed her feet. She was tired of walking, and her pain was obvious as she grimaced. And maybe something else was on her mind. Raziel approached her, knelt, touched her shoulder. She tensed, however slightly, but leaned toward him. "We've almost got it. We're here."

A wrenching sadness ensued. Raziel looked into her face, which was wrought with a sort of sorrowful gladness - for him, not for herself.

"Why don't you want me to leave?" he asked softly. "Answer me honestly."