Chapter three ; bitter harvest
Dark chambers of Adella's sanctuary stood empty and deserted, even the servants were gone. The silent darkness never smelled so foul. It was a smell of treachery. There was very little sign of combat, only a few toppled sofas, some extinguished torches and candles, but there was more than enough foreign footprints ; a testament of a most shameful defeat. The Sumnali were incapacitated somehow and than taken away, and not just them but also the Tergetti and the Zatara. The action was simultaneously conducted in all three sanctuaries during his conversation with Vorador and worse yet, it was performed by humans. Kain wondered what kind of a new weapon it was that knocked out all of them simultaneously, and so fast none of them had a chance to call for help. It was expected and obvious that Vorador's hand was all over this act. His conversation with Kain was enough of a distraction for humans to strike at that time. Using them to achieve his goals was never before Vorador's stile but that alone was what was making this so brilliant. Kain would be impressed if he wasn't angry while he walked towards Adella's living quarters. He walked steadily but not with great haste for he was more than late to prevent what has happened.
Adella, Tarian and Jasmine were still here, but for some reason they didn't answer him. He sensed they were filled with great content and pleasure, which made him worried, but it didn't change his iron intent. As he barged in the chamber he found them altered. Erotic music filled the air with electric charge emanating from the disk player in the corner, and his three offspring were dancing on it giving into the energy, completely ignoring everything else including his presence. They were even dressed differently. Adella was now practically naked, only in a black bra and panties, and from her arms hung gentle transparent curtain-like sheets stretched between her palms and shoulders dragging slightly on the ground even when she would extend her arms. Jasmine was in shining black leather that exposed her legs and the inside of her breasts, connected on the silver metal collar around her neck, and Tarian wore an unbuttoned white silken shirt and tight black trousers. All three were unreachable by his word or a thought, continuing their dance and touching their naked skin like a group of lovers.
Kain slowly but angrily came down the stairs. At his approach the disk player blew up in a small flash as an expression of his state of mind. Only than did they noticed him and all three instantly hissed at him with their claws at the ready. The next moment they were all captured in bonds of his kinetic shackles. They began to behave like animals, shacking their heads and snapping their jaws, occasionally releasing cat-like screams trough their sharp teeth. Kain approached Adella first and raised his palm before her. She tried to bite him, but his will began to pore into her and she tossed her head up in a paralyzing shock. Strands of his spirit were released to probe her and see how to restore her from this spell. Adella was possessed by a foreign will. It was so strong it squeezed her soul and held it chocking in some dark corner of her being. She couldn't even cry to be released, instead she just hung there chained in the hell of her own self, forced to watch helplessly as the bride acts trough her. This parasitic spirit was the bride, and it was now her jailor and her driving force, the entity in control of her body and her mind.
Cold sparks of rage passed trough Kain's eyes, and Adella started to shake as the combat with the bride begun. Strips of Kain's anger circled around it, squeezing it like a piton, but it fought back. Kain had to put most of his focus into it and the scalpel like shards of his will begun to bite and dent the parasitic ghost. It attacked with animal rage, like Kain's efforts were a virus within its host and begun to suffocate the anger and will Kain pored into her. But Kain's anger was not to be extinguished so lightly, and the bride begun to fade before it. Adella managed to gain some freedom, and she joined all her efforts with Kain aiding him as much as she could. Finally her own tormented grateful look begun to return to her face and she even managed to smile slightly to him trough thin strands of smoke that fled over her face. Kain took a short pause to notice it. It was the ring dangling on a silver chain around her neck. As Kain fought and begun to destroy the alien spirit within her, the ring started to smoke and melt away. It was now glowing orange, making a burned mark between her breasts. The ring was the source of this magic. Vorador's ring that he once gave to Kain, and that Kain passed on to her and also the identical replicas to Tarian and Jasmine. Vorador has used these rings to do this to them, and the realization stung him ; giving them these rings he practically handed them over to Vorador on a platter. It was Kain's good fortune that Vorador was decapitated, or he might have chosen to use the same trick on Kain, or was it ? Why didn't Vorador ever try something like this on him before ? Perhaps he did, but failed because of Nupraptor's curse. He decided not to ponder this any more until he frees them all, but as he looked back at Adella he saw something in her eyes that was clearly intended for him. She was frightened all of the sudden, and was trying to tell him something… to warn him of something.
Kain suddenly turned only to be blinded by a flash of sickeningly purple color. It faded on the torch light, leaving him on the ground hissing trough his teeth in pain. It was Vorador, but as soon as he realized it, the pain started to break his senses like glass. It was way beyond Moebiusse's staff and it swiftly got even worse. Those mighty senses that could once gaze across the entire land were now reduced to less than a humans and the darkness that gained hold became huge and terrifying. But he didn't have time to fear, since the pain progressed trough every inch of his being constantly growing and chocking him. As much as he struggled he couldn't make it stop but he did managed to cry out some barely understandable words :
" What is this !"
Vorador approached slowly with a face full of cold loathing. Kain could still see him trough the black smoke, and as he came closer, Kain smiled lightly. Vorador realized ; the soul reaver wasn't on Kain's back. And if it wasn't with Kain it could be anywhere. The fact made Vorador grow angry for a moment but his green face faded out of Kain's eyes as his torment continued.
At the wave of Vorador's palm, Adella, Tarian and Jasmine were free and they passed by their sire to stand behind Vorador, although Adella did it with an insecure walk. As she joined them, Tarian and Jasmine begun to use their charms on her trying to seduce her back to their side and Vorador kneeled down to Kain who was lying on his stomach. He was barely moving, taking short breaths and releasing long silent growls with his eyes half closed.
" You came here without the reaver, thinking you can handle what ever I throw at you. "; Vorador said and his words were like strings that pierced the pain, the only thing in this world that wasn't ripping him apart :" Handle it than ! Can you hear them, Kain ? Can you hear their screams ? All the souls that suffered at your hand. "
And Kain heard it, every single one who ended its existence in him. This was the very pain that he caused to others, and now he was re-living it again as all his victims together. His soul was being devoured a thousand times in a second by the reaver, blood was being drained out of him, searing fangs and claws found their way to every inch of his flesh and even their fears and horrors crawled into his hart. It was unbearable.
" Isn't it remarkable ?"; Vorador's voice came to him :" How bitter this harvest has become. Guilt is the one true poison. Enjoy the fruits of your own labor, Kain. I know I am. "
Kain somehow managed to realize that he was now hanging on a pair of chains on the wall in the room… did Adella's quarters even have chains ? He couldn't remember. The world collapsed around him into flame of suffering leaving him alone in this hell with nothing but that hideous voice to increase his dementia.
As Tarian and Jasmine chained Kain's wrists to the wall and left him hanging there, Vorador approached Adella and took the ring off of her neck. Despite it, she still remained as she was, in a silent conflict and struggle. The bride was still within her laughing at her week efforts, but still she struggled against her with all she could.
" You would have undone this, had I've allowed you. "; Vorador continued while flipping the half melted ring in his palm. He turned to him again :" These three now belong to me. They are my brides and I won't let you take them from me. "
Adella shook a little like in vertigo, but Tarian and Jasmine came to comfort her and help her get back on their side. Vorador approached Kain and lifted his chin to face him :
" Where is the reaver ?"
Kain tried to say something but instead he coughed out some blood that spilled on the flour. His skin begun to release long feathers of white smock that stench the air around him. Ignoring the odour, Vorador came closer :
" Where have you hidden it ?"
" …go…t… to… "
" Yes ?"
" …hell… "
Vorador had to pull his face away not to loose a peace of it in Kain's snapping jaws.
" Charming. "; Vorador said :" We haven't made any progress, but the night is still young. "; he took out a com link and attuned the frequency :" General Madalty ; this is your anonymous friend. You'll find the last fiend in the underground chambers of their first hole… Yes you'll have to come back here… He won't give you any problems, but I would come prepared if I were you… It's my pleasure, believe me. "
Flame erupted briefly out of Kain's mouth. He was too far away to hear or realize what was going on.
" I'm handing you over to the humans. They'll love you this helpless and broken. "; Kain managed to look at him under his eyes :" How humiliating it will be to have them dissect you with their gadgets… "; the last few breaths of anger were spat at him, but Vorador just smiled :" Good by Kain. "; and turned, leading the three brides out of his awareness.
Walls of the chamber warped into a torture pit with every chunk of hot iron stabbed trough him. Torches on each wall were searing his flesh even without looking at them and he just hung on his chains with liquid melted iron flowing trough his vanes. He was passing trough every one of those sadistic moments that once filled him with pleasure a hundred of them in a second and over a thousand in a minute. Pain erased all but it self out of him, making him a putrid shell of a being that exists only for pokers and knives but still it all was nothing compared to the worst that came ; The bones of his wings were ripped out of his back and he was cast into the abyss, the deepest blue tomb in all of Nosgoth. Water burned his flesh, his skin was pealing away, and the flames left nothing but the cruel devouring lust, the beastly rage for vengeance and destruction that consumed everything else.
He was once more on the flour of the chamber obviously managing to rip out the chains which held him in his agony, but it didn't change a thing. Countless different pains and his cry in a hollow dark remained.
It was too much. In fact, this was the last straw. Was he reduced to this ; a worm to crawl on his belly, forced there by the very those who once perished before him ! The darkness mocked him from depths of his eye sockets and the insane laugher broke trough. He recognized them all, all of them. They were all nothing more than memories lost behind his steps and buried in the dust of his passage.
" No… I won't… fall to the likes of YOU !"
The answer came in all of them together and his organs started to crawl under his skin like a river of searing bubbles, but still he didn't avert his sight from them :
" You are MINE ! You belong to ME ! Every… single… one of you !"
And the first amongst them started to scream instead of him. Roles started to reverse back the way they rightfully should be, and as soon as their grip was even slightly loosened, they started bursting in their own flame that spread trough them like a forest fire, stretching as far as the vampire could see. The empty darkness was incinerated. Walls gained back their foundations and he was in Adella's room once more.
As his vision cleared, the first thing that caught his sight was a pair of boots placed right in front of his face. His senses instantly flushed back into him and he was once again the power in the land. Shaking his head to force the last bit of his previous experience out, he looked at his company. Men and women in matching green uniforms, similar to those of the NUC but clearly not its member, were surrounding him with their pulse weapons pointed at him. Kain heard thirty two separate hart beets and their blood called out to him like it always does.
With a slow movement, Kain rose from the ground and the chains fell of his wrists at the simple touch of a red talon. Men were all on a distance around him, uncertain but brave and without a clue of the lack of their safety. One would think that he gained some sense of mercy after experiencing everything he caused to those similar, but no. These were nothing but sarafan in new color and the only thing he felt for them was disgust. None of them noticed, but the entrance dour of the room sealed them selves shut slowly and silently.
" This is the one. "; one of them said
The human had certain badges which separated him from the rest and it was obvious that he was the leader. Short black beard and messy hair covered his skinny face. He continued :
" He killed regent Sandra. He must have bean. "
" My god, look at it. "; one female said in a shock :" There's no trace of anything human within him. "
Kain didn't pay attention to their chatter. His calm breaths were enjoying the taste of a world without pain. In freedom he was restored and it was the most pleasurable knowledge of all. But pleasure of life can wait when revenge runs loose. He pooled him self together and smiled lightly in the face of his meal.
" He won't be captured. "; the leader said :" Kill it on my mark. Ready… aim… "
Kain's whisper broke into all of their heads :
" …Frightened blood… in darkness frozen !"
" … f… FIRE !"
Kain simply jumped and the bolts of energy from their weapons passed under him, most of them hitting and killing those on the other side, but it was not the end. Kain dispersed in a horde of black bats and at the same moment all the light in the room went out. Chaos and panic were reining the chamber as the soldiers tried to flee before the unseen creatures. Most of them were shooting blindly but they would more often manage to hit their colleague than one of the flying monsters. Bats were merciless. Their needle like jaws were stabbing every inch of their naked skin, on face hands or anywhere else exposed in the mob, and trough it all Kain's whisper echoed :
" …in darkness frozen, in darkness taken… "
Terror and anarchy flooded the air, but Kain had no intention to stop. Even when some of his bats would take a hit, they would instantly be restored by blood, for he had thousands of jaws now and every bat was a part of a whole. None of them will escape ! None will live ! They will all pay dearly for even thinking of crossing his path !
At last it was over. Their dry dead bodies were making a new carpet over the flour. Kain re-formed him self and the torches relit exposing his handy work. The leader was the only one left, crouching in a corner mad with fear constantly repeating :
" … in darkness… in darkness… in darkness… "
His hair was torn out and numerous cuts and bite marks dominated his head painting his face in red. Kain reached into his thoughts, which was not an easy thing now that he was mad, but none the less he dug up the location of the Sumnali and the rest of his progeny. After killing him as well Kain came to the wooden stairs that led to the exit. As he approached they blew up in splinters and the soul reaver hovered out of them to his palm. It was there all along.
Now, cold anger bubbled up and silently emanated from his being. Vorador has seen enough nights concluded with this one. First to deal with him, and than to set free his captured children. Fortunately they were not to be terminated, but to serve as lab rats in a facility north of Waserbunde. They could wait, unlike Adella, Tarian and Jasmine who were slipping out of his hands farther and farther the longer they remained under Vorador's influence. He shifted in his bat form once more and went for the swamps.