Kain

Boss 2: Sabre

I took a moment to sort through the details I had learnt in Willendrof before deciding on my course of action. To collect myself I stopped on a hillock outside the city province to stare back at it, allowing myself one last glimpse into my past. My first impulse had been to kill those Sarafan Knight when they interrupted my conversation with the Princess and the Seer, but if I did that, I would reveal my connection to the young girl and I believed I needed to keep our supposed alliance hidden from the Sarafan a little longer.

Even though my court in Coorhagen was officially independent, it still answered to the Ottmar throne. As such, my grandfather, my father and I myself had sworn alliance to the lion crest. Even so, during my rise to power I had attacked the city with my army and burned it down to the ground. I had reasoned that it was the human noble Kain who had sworn that oath, not me…the vampire king. Looking at it now, under Sarafan whips, I began to wonder if perhaps I was worse than they were.

I shook my head. I had done evil things in the past in a lust for power, I was making up for it now wasn't I? I shuddered, reasoning that I had been shaken more than I like to admit by the sight of Umah at Vorador's mansion.

"Greetings." A voice stated and instantly the hilt of the Soul Reaver was in my hand as I swirled around to confront a figure standing a short distance behind me. At first glimpse he was human, late twenties with bright blonde hair, long to his shoulder and brown eyes. He was clad in armour, Sarafan style but engraved with runes across the chest plate and gold running through the ridges. Two white drapes hung over his shoulders and the ends were attached to a belt around his waist. In his hand was a long sword, the blade metal pure white and the hilt embodied gold; a standard Sarafan weapon. "Good to finally meet you Kain. I'm honoured."

"Most people wouldn't call meeting me… an honour." I replied, descending into a fighting stance with the Reaver close in hand, the sprit of my first born within it burning ready for the fight. The Sarafan knight chuckled briefly.

"No, I don't supposed they would." This one was uncharacteristically a lot more charismatic than most Sarafan I had met. "My name is Sabre." He stated. "No doubt by now you've heard of me." That I had. The Princess that already informed me of this one. He was a high ranking Druid and a chief member of the Eye of God Cult. Also he was the one elected to take the place of the Sarafan Lord. "I must say, your visage certainly meets with the tales I've been told about you." He added. "Your past self, the one who cowardly hides within the ruins of the north country isn't providing me much sport."

"You call killing…no…extermination, sport?" I asked him but remaining a safe distance. He had come alone and armed only with one weapon. No sane leader would do such a thing and he did not strike me as the crazy type. Clearly there was more to him than met the eye.

"Extermination is such an ugly word." Sabre replied, testing his blade against the chain mail on his gauntlet. "I prefer…hunt. And you vampires are the ultimate big game. Quick, agile, intelligent. I can't tell you how exhilarating the chase can be. And I'm doing my holy duty at the same time so it's win, win situation for me."

"Oh how convenient for you." I replied flatly with levelled eyes.

"This hunt should be most interesting." Sabre began again, looking over my physical form, judging my abilities on my appearance alone.

"You assume I intend to run." The human suddenly looked most disappointed.

"That's no fun." He stated with a sigh. "It's boring when the pray just stands there." He shook his head and placed his free hand on the chest plate of his armour. "Oh I had hoped for so much more. Still, I had best get this over with." There as a sudden flash and the engraved markings on his armour flared blood red, a brilliance of illumination that could only come from the sun erupting through the air like fire. I held a gauntlet up to my face to cover my eyes. This was the magic these new Sarafan employed, the same Vorador had warned me about. "Well this is new." Sabre announced unexpectedly as the light died down to nothing and found me still standing there before him, completely unharmed.

His face bore a genuinely surprised look on it, as if he hadn't expected nothing to happen. At the very least he expected me to me in some pain, but clearly this little light show was not hurting me in the slightest.

"You think sunlight will affect an elder vampire?" I asked him callously.

"It did before." He replied, glancing down at the armour in puzzlement. "Even ancient vampires could not resist the magic." A smile quickly sprung up on his lips. "Well, I suppose I might get some fun out of this dispatching after all." His grip tightened on the blade of his sword and he charged, blade held ready to strike. His form was excellent, coming at me so swiftly and with such force I actually found it difficult to parry off his swing with the Reaver.

Our blades clashed and as metal bit against metal, sparks leapt into the air like stars. A power struggle engaged; the two of us trying to out do the other in strength.

"Not bad Vampire." Sabre commented with a dry smile. "The lord's description of your skills was quite correct."

"I'm just getting started!" With a shove, I forced him back before bringing my leg around in an arch and landing a kick against the side of his armour. He grunted in pain, before jabbing forward with the tip of his sword ready to pierce my skin. All he ended up running through instead was a cloud of mist. Materialising behind him, I brought the Soul Reaver up and prepared to bring the whole thing down through his back. To my surprised, he dodged the swing with near super human agility before slashing at my throat with his blade. Ducking under it, I brought a free hand up quickly catching him on the face with my talons. Blood flying, he staggered backwards clasping a hand to his chin; thick streams of crimson running through his fingers. Strangely, he looked unconcerned at the two scars I had dealt him on the chin. Instead he raised a hand and started making signs in the air with two fingers. It took me a moment to realize what he was doing, but by the time I recognising the arcane magic used by magicians it was too late. A fire ball rocketed forward and had I not evaporated into my bat form I would have been burnt to a cinder.

While I was putting myself back together, he cast another spell and instantly two wings made of white unfolded from his shoulder blades, spreading out like angelic limbs; each feather jagged like the end of a spear. Beating these, he rose up into the air and once at a considerable height began firing a rapid succession of fire ball spells down towards me. Refusing to move, I gripped the hilt of the Reaver tight in both hands and with Raziel's help, accessed another of the blade's elemental powers.

The power of water surged through the sword and a cold blast of air shot upwards, freezing the fire balls in their tracks and smashed head on straight into the flying Sabre. His hair started freezing with bits of ice forming between the strands and his skin turned a pale white. He shook himself violently to warm up, before casting another spell; surrounding his own body with an intense blood red glow.

Sabre was a fierce warrior in combat, and an expert magician when it came to magic. Clearly he had mastered both Sarafan and Druid styles of combat.

"I'd expected a little more can cheap tricks from the devil." He stated, brushing the ice out of his hair. "Especially from the corruptor of the world. One who did this to Nosgoth, could clearly keep up with me." He added, gesturing to the blackening world around us. I slid to a stop below him; still with the Reaver blade in my hand. I stared up towards the floating leader of the Sarafan order and fixed him with a glare.

"You're Master…." I began. "I am right to assume you think him god?"

"He is god." Sabre corrected me, his smile suddenly turning to a short frown. "For centuries you and your kind have been disturbing his wheel of fate, causing it to go stagnant." His smile returned, but this time it was far more of a sadistic sneer. "The Sarafan will not allow this to continue."

-There can be no question now.- Raziel whispered into my head, the eye sockets on the Reaver burning blue in anticipation of battle. –The Elder God is the one supporting these new Sarafan.-

Well, now I had the link I was looking for. The Elder God was indeed ultimately behind this, controlling the Druids who controlled the Sarafan Order and who in-turn controlled the citizenry of Nosgoth. I could see why the Princess Alicia was desperate to bring down the Order. After so many years of dictatorship disguised as peacekeeping, anyone's mouth would be full of a bitter taste.

Sabre descended to the ground and once his feet were on the dying grass, his wings disappeared, simply fading away behind him like they had never existed.

"Have you ever seen your Master?" I asked him. The human did not reply. "I have. I've seen your Master….I know what he looks like."

"Please do not try to sway me with heresy. It won't work." Sabre replied flatly, swinging his blade around between the fingers on one hand as if testing the weight of the sword. "God has no physical form. He is life itself, the essence of Nosgoth. One can not see him, only hear his divine words." It was worthless trying to correct him of his delusions and I had not much incentive to try any harder. The Sarafan army were zealots and hardly swayed by a few words, especially words from a vampire.

Attacking first, I changed in my mist form and the fire ball he tried to cast passed right through me. Coming in too close from him to contour attack, I brought the hilt of the Reaver right into his face causing him to topple backwards in dismay. Swinging the blade around, I jabbed it straight at his stomach to finish him off.

The engraved runes on his armour flared to life again and suddenly it was as if some invisible force was pushing me away, hurling me backwards away from my quarry. Scrapping my talons through the mud to slow me down, I looked back to see some white light surrounding Sabre's body push the Sarafan warrior back up to his feet.

"The light of the divine fills me Vampire." He stated. "I can not die."

"Many people have made that claim; none of them could validate it!" Reaching out with telekinesis, I ripped him from where he stood and as he hurtled towards me I thrust the Soul Reaver forward. A sickening crack ripped through the air and the tip of the blade burst out his back with a spray of red.

Sabre gagged out in pain, going limp on my sword. After a moment, I let his body slid off the edge of the sword and onto the ground. There he lay; his blood slowly staining the ground. "Neither could you." I sneered at him.

Suddenly, Sabre's eyes opened, his eyes changing from their lifeless white back to their normal brown.

"Can't I?" As if nothing had happened to him at all, he stood back up and I watched in quiet awe as the wound I had just dealt him healed itself, skin, flesh and bone re-growing back into place. "I am god's new right hand man Kain. After you dispatched the loyal Moebius, I took his place." So, not only a high-ranking Druids or the Sarafan leader, but the Elder God's guardian as well?

"Why does your god fear me so much, have you ever asked yourself that?" I asked him with a sneer of my own. "It fears me because it knows that somehow, someway…I'll find a way to kill it!" Sabre's face remained unreadable, before a flat frown spread over his lips.

"You're even more delusional then I thought you'd be."

"And if I can find a way to kill it, I can most certainly find a way to kill you!" I continued, before launching into a savage attack, slashing at him repeatedly with the Reaver. Smiling, he just stood there an absorbed the blows, bloody marks quickly being carved into his body. His armour tore open, quickly followed by his flesh in giant sprays of red reaching into the air and to finish off, I sank my fangs into his neck and started drinking.

The minute his blood touched my lips, it was like poison. The taste was foul, but the effects on my body were even worse. Instead of strengthening me, his blood only made me weaker, sapping whatever power and strength I had remaining. Trying to let go I pushed away, but Sabre simply grabbed my arm and forced me back to his neck.

"Feed Vampire, drink my blood. Let's see what it does for you!" He laughed with intended malice. My vision blurred as his acidic blood bubbled like a stream at my lips. I was being poisoned. Whatever Sabre was, he was clearly not human; at least not anymore. Finally I wrenched myself free using telekinesis, before dropping to my knees, barley keeping my grip on the Reaver.

"What…" I began, spitting the blood out of my mouth and onto my hands, seeing that it had burned jet black between my lips. "What on Nosgoth are you?" The leader of the Sarafan chuckled as the wounds I dealt him healed almost instantly. Then he started laughing out load as those light wings of his returns, unfurling from behind and spreading out, the runes engraved in his battered armour glowing blood red.

"I am the new angel of death, the new Reaver. My soul is one with that of the Lord." He replied. "As now, is yours!" He opened his mouth and a thick pulsating white glow began emitting from his throat. It suddenly felt like someone was reaching down into my core, tugging and pulling at what was me, trying to wrench my very being from me.

-Kain!- Raziel exclaimed. –Get away from him! The Elder God has given him the ability to drink souls!- Acting on instinct, I pulled my arm back and using what little power I had left, cast a bolt of magical lightning straight into his throat. The blast entered his mouth and smashed hard against his tonsils. Cursing, he shut his mouth and shattered backwards, smoke rising from between his lips.

Turning back, sword in hand, he found I had disappeared; gone in the midst of a teleportation spell.

"Go...run Kain." He muttered contemptuously, wiping the blood off his armour. "I'll present your stagnant soul to the master sooner or later."