(I do not own LOK, etc.)

KAIN

Chapter 5: The Hylden Dimension

I had not anticipated finding the father of the vampiric bloodline here in the demon dimension, the prison of the Hylden race. True I had seen him thrown in here by the Sarafan lord during my rise to power, but that event was yet to take place in this timeline. Clearly, time meant something very different here as it did in Nosgoth. It had once been in my best interests to keep him dead so that the Hylden may not use his body to bring themselves into the world. Raziel however unintentionally thwarted my attempt and so Janos was brought back to life, used by the Hylden and then held captive inside a device deep underneath the city of Meridian. His very body used to feed their weapon, the foul colossal Mass. That is until my younger self freed him on my quest to defeat the Sarafan Lord.

Janos looked up at me weekly from the floor of his cell, his golden eyes slowly being tainted green by over exposure to this realm. Eons of imprisonment had driven the Hylden insane and warped them beyond physical recognition. I could only imagine what it might do to a vampire.

"I know it's you Kain. Your eyes have remained the same but the rest of you has dramatically changed." He began, taking note of my green skin and the set of horns running along my hair line. All gifts from my evolution into an Ancient.

"And you are beginning to." I told him, helping him up. He was very week so I had to let him rest on my shoulder. "You should not linger in this place any longer than you have."

"Indeed." Janos coughed. His blue skin was pale, showing that he had fed very little. "My captors tell me that madness is the last thing that takes hold. Physical deformity comes first." He looked down sadly at his feathers, each of them lined with an orange streak. It seems I had reached him just in time.

"Rest easy. Once my business here is done I will help you escape from this place." It was clear he needed to hear something comforting, that and badly needed nourishment. "Here." I removed one of my gauntlets and used a talon on the other hand to slice a cut down my arm, freeing a great deal of my blood. I had fed quite well on Hylden and had plenty to spare.

He was reluctant to accept at first, but after a moment his need took over and he drank as much as he could before my wound healed itself. A vampire, especially one that had been alive for as long as I have, carried with him far more potent blood than that of Mortals. It was only a sense of brotherhood and comradeship that kept vampires from attacking each other for their own blood. I could almost see the difference in his facial features as my blood got to work, healing whatever damage it could inside his body.

"What are you doing in this place Kain? What possible crusade brought you this deep into hell?" He asked, the blood giving him the strength to stand rather unsteadily on his own two feet.

"Necessity." I replied flatly. "I require something important and I suspect the Hylden have it." Janos managed a small laugh as he leaned against the wall of his cell.

"Ah, you seek the cure." My eyes widened.

"You know of it?"

"Of course." He replied. "The Hylden are accomplished and professional alchemists, they never create any curse or virus without making an antidote in case one of their number became infected by mistake." I felt a smirk part my lips.

"How fortunate." I began. Finally a lead, maybe this endeavour would not be as fruitless as I first imagined. "I don't suppose you know where it is?" The ancient shook his head.

"Only that is lies within this settlement. My jailors would show me it often, just to show me how close to I could come to a cure." I paused, trying to think up several new strategies at once.

"What does it look like?"

"It's a white liquid held inside a glass vial, which itself is contained inside a brass canister. They keep it inside such a thing because of it's potency. They tell me a vampire dose not even have to drink it in order to be cured. Once exposed to the air it becomes like the winds, transferring itself to every vampire it comes across for miles. One drop could cure an entire city full of our kind. At least according to them." This information instantly put me in a very good mood. I had thought the cure would only be enough for a few vampires to start their ancient race again, but it seems the cure could restore all the vampires in Nosgoth to their original forms. The only problems left now were obtaining and escaping with it which I had no doubt would not be easy as it sounded.

"Strange the Hylden would tell you all this." I stated, suddenly looking puzzled, even suspicious. Janos levelled his eyes.

"Not intentionally. It was more taunts than anything else. They wanted me to know that they held all the cards." I smirked.

"Not for long they don't." Once that cure in my possession, I could restore the vampires, save them from the humans and achieve my destiny. That is if everything went according to plan, but from long experience I knew that something always came along at the last minute to spoil it. "Can you walk?" Janos paused, testing the strength of his legs. My blood had been able to strengthen him enough to move them, for now at least. The effects of the nourishment would not last too long, my blood would only satisfy the hunger for a while.

"I believe I can." He told me, taking a few steps just to be sure. "Although, I doubt I will be of much of a help in a battle." He was strengthened, but not to the point were he could employ any magic or advanced vampire skills that was for certain. Still, I couldn't leave him behind. He could prove useful later.

"Don't worry about that." I told him.

Agreeably traversing the rest of the tower with Janos as a companion slowed my progress down a little, but not enough for him to become a burden. With my blood coursing through his veins, his strength held out for some time. Surprisingly, we encountered little other Hylden as we advanced up the tower. Only a few guards standing to attention near key doors. This un-nerved me. We were on Hylden home ground and by now, they were sure to know of our presence. The conclusion was clear. We were walking into a trap.

Even as we entered what I gathered to some kind of meeting chamber for high ranking Hylden we met no resistance. Now I was sure of some form of deception. Warriors as ruthless and powerful as the Hylden would never have let us advance this far. The chamber itself was very similar to that in the ancient vampire citadel, large and round with an arched ceiling. A small collection of metal chairs large in turned in a circle in the centre, a sharp pillar of green light lanced directly between them travelling from the ceiling to the floor. At the far end of the chamber away from the door was a long collection of windows that looked out onto the settlement and the surrounding wastelands.

Janos moved to enter the chamber: I held out my hand to stop him.

"Wait…" I told him and carefully put a foot forward, half expecting some giant blade to come swinging down from the ceiling. Slowly I drew the Soul Reaver and marched forwards the centre of the chamber. I couldn't hear anything, no deep rustle of breath that gave away the presence of concealed hunters nor the tingle of any present destructive enchantments.

And then I saw it. Floating in the centre of the pillar of light was a small brass canister about the size of my forearm, the exact object that Janos had described. Could this be the cure?

"Yes, that's it!" Janos began excitedly once he came up to my side. Despite the relief I felt that I had at last found it, I knew that this had all been far too easy. Even when Moebius wanted me to obtain an item he didn't make my acquiring of it this simple. He knew better than that. Still, with the canister so close I had to go for it. Slowly, I reached forwards.

It seems that my long experience in paranoia paid off. As soon as I was an inch from the shaft of light, a large sheet of curved metal came slamming down from the ceiling sealing the canister off. With a loud clank, a concealed door behind just slammed shut as well, trapping the two of us in here and if that wasn't bad enough the green glow of a Ward gate instantly covered it.

"Kain, Scion of Balance." A voice from the very walls themselves whispered and materialising out of some form of translocation magic came several Hylden warriors along with two large black demons with giant goat like horns, flames burning between their large jaws. Quickly they filled the room, encircling the two of us. I scanned the crowd of glowing green eyes, the hilt of Soul Reaver tightly in my grasp. There was a sharp flash of green light and another Hylden emerged, but this one was unlike any others I had seen. It was a good head and shoulders taller than the others, clad in a tight fitting brass armour similar in design to those used by the Sarafan back in Nosgoth. His piercing eyes burning bright green.

"I am T'Kral; High Warrior of House Pyre. As warlord of this Stronghold, I welcome you to our living nightmare." I glanced briefly at the long scythe like weapon strapped around his back; with two serrated blades instead of one. "Do you enjoy this realm Vampire? Can you finally understand our anger now that you have seen what we are forced to endure?" He asked, clenching a fist.

"You have only yourself to blame." Janos snapped angrily. T'Kral glared at him, the glow from his eyes intensifying.

"And why is that cursed one? Because we refused to follow your god. Because we refused to endure your pathetic wheal of fate?" The rest of the Hylden hissed and snarled like starved dogs. I glance around the chamber again to cheek their numbers. They had out numbered and if I tried anything those demons would incinerate us instantly. Not even the power of the Soul Reaver could deflect all their attacks. I would have to come up with something more devious than a direct assault if I was going to get out of this one. "You condemned us for our free will."

"You condemned yourselves with your blasphemy." Janos retorted,

"Your wheal of fate means nothing to us vampire!" An orb of powerful magic burning with green fire formed between his fingers and hurled itself across the room, colliding with Janos's torso. In his weakened state the ancient vampire was sent cascading to the floor.

Instinctively I slashed the Reaver across the Hylden's body, the elemental force of fire already tearing through the air. I had expected it to do the same thing to the Hylden as it had to those demons earlier but to my surprise all T'Kral had to do to stop it was hold out his hand. As the fire reached his body a white shield formed around him, a shield that absorbed the energy and nullified it.

"Foolish vampire." The Hylden general hissed. "Do you really think flames would harm one on House Pyre? We have trained for centuries to harness the elemental force of fire. It can not hurt us." It seemed there was more to the Hylden than even I knew. It seems their factions had unique abilities that I had not yet learnt of. Again unbidden I saw the ruined form Raziel employ another of his Reaver's elemental powers; that of water. I saw he could use that element to freeze entire rivers and water falls and even attackers in their tracks. "Behold cousins, the Scion of Balance. Trapped here with us, in the prison his own people conceived. I've sure the irony is not lost on the fool." A ripple of course laughter echoed through the other Hylden, a laugh that gave over a feeling of deranged detachment rather than any sort of conceivable humour.

"Many have called me a fool, and none of them have lived long." I told them in a ' as a matter of fact' voice.

"Enough!" T'kral bellowed angrily, drawing his weapon. "You were simple to come here Vampire! Now you die!"

"Hand please." I began to Janos; taking hold of his hand before he could argue. The Hylden general charged, his weapon draw and his race's ancient hatred for my kind plain on his face. Elemental power came bellowing through the Reaver, the power of water emitting a cold blast of air through the entire chamber; engulfing entire Hylden warriors in the cold, Ice forming over the walls and ceiling radiating outwards.

The charging T'kral could the full blast and was frozen in mid air, collapsing to the floor with a loud thump. His body completely rigid. Even the demons with their flames became trapped, their legs pinned to the floor by a thick sheet of ice. They screamed in rage, desperately trying to free themselves.

Only Janos and myself had been spared from the effects of the elemental spell, but I was quick to discover the Soul Reaver had been drained of it's power by my use of so many spells. It required more souls in order to replenish it's power supply.

I turned to see that the metal covering behind us had also been frozen and thus weakened. One solid punch was all that was needed to shatter it, leaving the brass canister exposed. In an instant I had in my possession, the cure for the vampires. The one artefact that could put me a giant leap forward to reclaiming my destiny, unfortunately that still left the two of us trapped inside a room with a few dozen defrosting Hylden and Demons.

I had little time so I had to improvise. Grabbing Janos in one arm and the canister in the other; with no other way out; I hurled us both out of the windows.

Now, I confess that my plan hinged on Janos using his wings to slow our decent. He however had been weakened by the Hylden general and he hadn't been too strong to begin with. His wings wouldn't support him in this state never mind me as well. So instead of an effortless glide to safety, we found ourselves plummeting down towards the ground.