KAIN

CHAPTER 3: The Hylden Dimension

The Dimension the vampire ancients banished the Hylden to eons ago lived up to my expectations. The place was filled with putrefying air I could hardly breath. The air itself was a sickly pale green that even turned my stomach to look at it and I had seen the bleached red skies my Empire would bring about with it's pollution. This very dimension had driven the Hylden's entire race insane and warped their physical forms to ugly monstrosities. This form of imprisonment was even worse than the conditions I had observed in the Eternal Prison.

So far I had remained undetected by the Hylden in their city. Although I knew that would not last long. Sooner of later one of them was going to catch a glimpse of me and the alarm would be raised.

Hiding around a corner at the base of the towering structure that stood in the centre of the settlement, I paused to watch those on guard. Two large incest like demons stood at the gate like entrance, both at least twice my size with a pair of serrated claws on each arm; a round mouth filled with dagger like teeth. Obviously while trapped here, the Hylden occupying themselves by breeding the different demons for alternating duties.

Even though I could assaulting them directly was out of the question. Apart from the demons, several warrior Hylden stood to attention in a sort of gatehouse at the side. One of them would raise the alarm before I could kill them and I would never get in and I had to. The cure for the curse surely lay within.

Briefly I considered using my mist form to pass unseen, but quickly ruled that out. Their technology would detect me. I'd seen it happen before. The Hylden had spent eons perfecting ways of hunting and killing vampires, I would do best not to forget that.

The Reaver on my back buzzed wildly, sensing my dilemma. Taking hold of the hilt I studying the blade for a moment. There was no mistake now, the captured spirit within was trying to get my attention.

"What are you trying to tell me Raziel?" I asked quietly. In a flash a surge of memory leap from the sword directly into my head and saw my first born again; still in his ruined wraith form, use his wraith blade to become hidden from his enemies. He did this by evoking it's power of invisibility. Then as quickly as it had come, the memory vanished.

It was clear Raziel's spirit was trying to tell me how to use the same trick, the only question was what it I do to start? As if I had known all along, my instincts told my to direct the blade down towards a shadow behind me. I did so, and it was like the Reaver ate the darkness and took it upon itself. The shadow shot up the blade and engulfed my, rendering my body completely invisible. It seems that when Raziel healed my body before being taken by the sword; he passed on knowledge and abilities that he had had. Raziel had left my more than I had originally thought. A gift too precious not to use.

Clad in nothingness I crept along the outside edge of a wall towards the entrance. Neither demon on guard moved, their kept their gaze locked towards, frozen like statue. The Hylden around the gatehouse didn't notice me either, their kept on talking to edge other in some tongue I did not understand. Briefly I wondered what the Hylden had looked like before their imprisonment. I doubted their eyes glowed green naturally, but rather as an effect from over exposure to this realm. Remembering the clock was ticking before I became like them, I quickened my pace and soon as clear of the gate entrance and stood facing a long flight of stairs up towards the interior of the structure.

As I began my climn, I could see that this entire place was powered by Glyph energy; energy that would be used one day to make the city of Meridian a very unfriendly place for vampires. I was lucky I had not encountered any ward gates. Apparently, they did not anticipate one of my kind making it into their realm. Still, I remained alert for anything unexpected. The Hylden were quite often unpredictable.

The architecture of the building was very much like those I had seen in Meridian. A blending of metal and flesh , all designed with god like precision. Like a spiders web vines lanced up the side of walls and pillars and from somewhere deep inside I could feel a distant thumping like a heart. Searching the rooms one by one, I began to grow impatient upon finding empty chamber after empty chamber. Once did I encounter a Hylden inside the structure itself, a lone warrior on patrol.

He was quickly neutralized as I grabbed him out of the darkness and breaking his neck, draining him dry before quickly I stuffed his body behind a corner and carried on.

"Impossible." A voice began and quickly I faded into invisibility. From around a corner a pair of Hylden came, one of them a warrior and the other a sorcerer wearing a purple robe with black runes down the side. Both of them had glowing bright green eyes. "No vampire could travel here, and why would it want to?" I held my breath as they passed by. Oblivious to my presence.

"I don't know." The other admitted. "They just found a few bodies down in the city, blood drained and everything." Their voices grew distant as they carried. So my first victims here had been discovered. Security around here was only going to grow as time passed.

Eventually I made my way to one of the high levels. This one was a wide open space that served as some sort of storage area with a few demons with goat like horns standing guard around the outside. A large number of metal crates with strange symbols written on their sides lay scattered here and there. A large metal door stood between me and another chamber on the far side, a faint green ring around it's outer edge marking the presence a Ward barrier. Strangely enough though, the barrier was on the inside of the door with a control panel on the outside. That barrier was not to keep vampires out, but rather to keep one in.

This might be a lead to the cures locations. The only problem was that the control panel was being monitored by a Hylden and if I killed it, the demons here would converge on me.

Ducking behind a large metal crate, I paused again to consider my options. Fighting all those demons at once was out of the question, so I had to get that Hylden away quietly. Looking back around the edge, I saw the his exact location and I extended a claw, my telekinetic powers lancing around across the chamber to a small stone on the floor some distance away. With my mind I picked it up and tossed it against the wall, making a echoed sound. The Hylden grunted and looked up from his work and I could see the extent of the damage the exposure to this world had had on it's face. The flesh had nearly completely disappeared and for a moment I was certainly I was staring at a skull.

He crossed the room to examine the area and as soon as he had disappeared around a large crate, came my chance. Still under invisibility , I silently crossed the chamber to the control panel and flipped a large switch on it's left hand side. The metal door grunted quietly as broke in two, each half sliding to one side with a steam like hissing.

I'd been right, there was a Ward gate inside. Beyond it was a small room with an arched ceiling and flat metal floor; dimly lit by a single green light above. I seemed to be made completely out of metal and was completely featureless, apart from a huddled mass at the far end, hidden in a shadow so I couldn't make out it's exact features. I could hear breathing come from it so I gathered that this was the prisoner the Ward Gate was keeping in. From it's scent, I could tell it was vampiric.

If I wanted to get in there, I would have to shut down the Gate and I saw no obvious level for it's deactivation here.

"Vampire!" Came a screech and I shot around, the Soul Reaver already in my hand. The Hylden had returned from it's patrol and it's eyes blared bright green. It was then that I noticed my invisibility had worn off. In response, the four demons around the room looked up and as soon as they had me in their sight came charging, their eyes burning with fire.

I slashed the Hylden across the stomach with my blade, killing it instantly before turning and casting a telekinetic blast at the closet demon, momentarily stunning it before sweeping forward with a stab, impaling the tip of the blade through it's stomach, the sword draining both it's blood and whatever collection of violent thoughts it called a soul. In my fledgling youth, I had had trouble dealing with these monsters, but now my strength and agility was equal to theirs. And having a powerful sword didn't hurt either.

Retracting my blade and letting the monster fall backwards, I back flipped over a slash from another before landing on it's head. Again the blade entered another victim, driving itself directly through the neck, breaking it instantly.

The other two reared their heads back and fired a blast of fire from their mouths before the other one had even fallen, engulfing the giant in flames. Sliding backwards into mist form, the fires past right through my body and I was left undamaged. Another came charring at me, claws out stretched. Spinning by entire body around, I slashed it across the back of it's legs and it toppled over, crashing to the ground.

Before it could even attempt to rise I was driving the Reaver directly through it's head, a few strands of brain wrenching out when he removed the blade. The final demon was jet black and sufficiently larger than the others. It roared before sending more fire my way. Diverting it's path with a telekinetic blast, I came in close and brought the tip of the sword across it's throat, leaving a spray of blood in the air as it toppled backwards. Screeching It actually picked itself back up, before grabbing my torso and flinging my violently against the side of the wall. Rebounding off the side, I cam back with a slash, cleaving a good deal of flesh from it's left arm. With it's right it took hold of one of my legs while I was still in mid air and slammed me down into the ground.

Taking hold of the Reaver, I swung the blade around and sank it's blade directly into the side of its' stomach; but even that seemed only to annoy it. Then, like a burst of sunlight, fire danced along the length of the sword, seeing the flesh around the wound before consuming the entire demon's body in an inferno, reducing it to a charged skeleton in moments.

Again I saw Raziel, in battle carving it's way through Sarafan warrior armed with a fiery version of the Soul Reaver lancing down his arm. It seems Raziel's gift to me was indeed more extensive than I had realized. It stood to reason that as Raziel could engage the elemental versions of the Reaver, now so could I. Darkness and Fire had already shown themselves. Who knows what, given time, I might have at my disposal.

Sheathing the Reaver across my back, I realized that my time was nearly up. This carnage would be detected soon as I was no closer to discovering the cure yet. I hoped the prisoner inside this cell could tell me more. Looking up, I traced the green line with my eyes as it lead away from the doorway, across the wall and finally through a small hole in the floor; but not until it passed through a conduit that looked like a brass pipe.

I pointed my hand towards it and with one sharp tug, my telekinesis tore it out from the wall, disturbing the line. The Ward gate buzzed widely before dissipating with a loud reluctant hiss. Surprisingly, the prisoner inside did not move, it simply lay there like some puppet with cut strings. Approaching it, I made out more details and I was astonished to find it was an Ancient Vampire. Blue skin and raven black wings, a mess of untidy black and silver hair on it's head. It was dressed in a few simply grey rags, barely covering itself. It was visibly shivering, clearly deprived of sustenance for some time.

It didn't even resist as I reached over and turned it over to see it's face. A face I had seen before.

"Janos…" It was indeed the Ancient Vampire. The last of their kind, father of the present bloodline. During my crusade to recapture the Reaver from the Sarafan Lord, Audron had confronted the Hylden Leader himself and in his weakened state was cast straight into their dimension. His sacrifice had bought me just enough time to retrieve the sword. But this made no sense. I had entered the Demon Realm during the era before the corruption of the Pillars. Janos had been cast down eons afterwards.

Had the Hylden some time streaming device? Or maybe they could enter any period of history through this dimension itself? Did time matter here?

That made relative sense. If they could traverse the time stream at will from this place then they could easily have outwitted Moebius as they did, using the vampire ancient as a vessel to open the Hylden Gate. A porthole my younger self destroyed

Janos had been here for some time, at least a hundred years or so. I could see the corruption of this realm marching on his body. His face was thinner than before as a thin trail of orange lined each feather of his wings. Slowly he opened his eyes and I could see the gold in them was beginning to die, a taint of green slowly becoming dominant.

"Kain…."