The Pillars of Nosgoth.
My fate…
The Fate of the Vampires…
The Fate of mankind….
The Fate of the Seroli…
The Fate of the Hylden…
The Fate of Nosgoth…
The nature of history itself now depended on them.
Eight of the nine pillars had been restored and they stood pristine against the sky, which despite the new life in the land, was still dark. Only one remained.
My Pillar… the Pillar of Balance. The key to it all.
As I emerged out of the teleportation spell, I took a moment to remember all the times I had been here.
The first had been during my first journey across Nosgoth to hunt down the corrupt circle of nine. Here I met the spirit of Ariel for the first time.
Upon these same grounds I fought with the Hylden possessing Mortanious and made my ill fated decision to damn the pillars.
Upon this spot I constructed the sanctuary of the clans and shattered the Reaver Blade against Raziel, freeing the deranged spirit within.
"Happy memories, I'm sure." Raziel retorted with dry wit, talking to me telepathically.
I ignored him. My attention as on the figure awaiting me at the base of the still corrupted Pillar of Balance.
Sabre stood with his back to me, glancing up at the eight restored pillars that stretched on for eternity. I had an intense feeling of déjà vu from this. This was exactly how I had stood, awaiting for Raziel when we first travelled to the past from the future.
"So Kain, are we going to waste time on mindless banter before we kill each other?" Sabre asked, turning to face me. He hadn't bothered to replace the breastplate I had shattered during our last fight and now stood before me with an exposed chest.
"This is the fight to decide the fate of Nosgoth." I replied. "I would think you'd like to do this the proper way."
"There is no proper way, vampire. One of us is going to die. What happens adjacent of that is inconsequential."
"Very well then. Let us finish this." Gripping the Reaver in both hands, I tensed my muscles before charging straight at him; the sword igniting into elemental blaze.
Sabre grinned, before parrying away my strike and doubled back.
Laying a hand against the Pillar of Energy, Sabre chuckled before holding the tip of his sword towards me. There was a sudden surge as if the air turned hot only for a single instant. Then without warning, a bolt of magical power shot down Sabre's blade directly at me. The tremendous projectile was heating up the air around it as it went.
Dodging around it in mid air, I unleashed a bolt of compressed telekinesis at Sabre in retaliation.
Surprisingly, he simply slapped it aside and unleashed another powerful bolt of magic at me.
There was no way Sabre had enough mana contained within his body to discharge bolts of that magnitude in succession. It was impossible, even for vampires.
After another three bolts had come close to hitting me, I had had enough. Gripping the Reaver Blade tightly in both hands, I flew directly at Sabre before he could finish gathering mana. Just as he discharge the spell, I swung the Reaver around in an arch; slicing the bolt across with the sword.
The resulting explosion dislodged Sabre from the Pillar of Energy, throwing him clear. As he did, I saw that threads of energy travelling from the Sarafan leader to the pillar were severed one by one.
"So that's it." I declared, turning about to face him. "You were having the pillar lend you its aspect."
Sabre's smile widened.
"So then, can the scion of balance withstand all the aspects of balance itself? Let's find out."
Before I could stop him, he laid his hand against the Pillar of Conflict. Again I felt the familiar surge of heat and watched as with a sudden flow, the bulk of Sabre's muscles doubled. He went really buff in an instant, his muscles becoming more defined and he even gained a couple dozen inches of height making him taller than me.
"Oh this is going to be painful." Raziel remarked dryly.
Like a behemoth, Sabre charged directly at me. In his enlarged hands, his sword blade was almost ridiculously small but he still swung it with skill and speed. It took every ounce of agility I had to avoid being cleaved in two. Several of my feathers were sliced from me but not enough to clip my wings.
Lashing out, Sabre grabbed me by the one arm and lashing me about like a rag doll, he tossed me with all his might into one of the pillars. I smashed into the ivory with a sickening crunch. I could not break the pillar but physical means but my body was another story. I felt several of my ribs crack on impact and several more accompany them as I slid back down to the ground stunned.
His muscle mass receding, Sabre changed back from the hulking giant to his normal state.
"Distracted Kain?" He asked, leaning on his sword. "Are those voices driving you insane yet? The gentle whispering in your ear? Is it growing louder? Let me, how does it feel like to have the voices of each and every one of your victims in your head?"
Spitting out a mixture of blood and saliva, I hauled myself to my feet.
"When I get to hell, you can tell me after you converse with the vampires you've killed!"
Reaching up, I laid my hand against the pillar I had collided with. It felt strange, drawing upon a pillar for power. I felt the air around me grow hot as the Pillar of the Mind lent me its strength.
I felt my mind expand, growing in a way I never felt possible. My intellect doubled, tripled and quadrupled in an instant. My telekinetic powers followed and reached out with my mind, I could feel each and every physical object around me.
Grabbing a hold of Sabre with an iron grip, I tore him off from the ground and flung him high into the air. He flew high, tumbling over himself as he soared higher and higher.
Spreading his arms out, he summoned his wings of light and both of them spread out wide. He came to a stop but not in time to defend himself as I flew directly at him, Reaver Blade in hand. Burning with the power of spirit, it became a fiery white unstoppable weapon.
I stuck him with all the strength I could quickly call to bear. The Reaver sliced through his flesh and then with a spray of blood it tore out the back. I was certain such a blow would have cleaved him in two.
About when I swung about, I found to my chagrin that he was still intact. He was bleeding from a massive wound in his side but he was still alive.
I watched as the blood running down his side changed from red to black. With his back to me, Sabre laughed mockingly and I watched as the wound began to heal. The flesh knitted itself back together and the skin moved back over it. Fully regenerated, he swung about in mid air and with a smug grin on his face flew directly at me.
Our swords clashed in rapid succession in mid air, sparks flying from the moments our blades connected. Gaining a momentary advantage, I grabbed him by the shoulder and using the momentum in my lunge slammed him against a pillar. Lashing out, I grabbed a hold of the Pillar next to it and began channelling its power through me.
Feeling the aspect of Death come through me, I gathered the will I had and channelled it into Sabre's body; trying to stop his heart.
Sabre simply grinned and lashed out to his right, touching the Pillar of States next to him. His body suddenly dissolved in my grip, becoming water. He slid through my fingers, falling to the ground almost like rain.
Becoming solid again below me, he rebounded off the ground and came at me again. Just before he reached me, he disappeared as his body changed from solid to a gas like state.
He was like a mist, quite unsubstantial and impossible to strike.
"You're not the only one who can do that." I reminded him and calling upon my vampiric gift, which had not disappeared despite my new non-cursed state, I faded into mist.
The two of us fought in another realm, a realm beyond the solid. While insubstantial to others, while in this state, we dealt each other savage blows. We were fighting on a molecular level.
Finally disengaging, Sabre broke away and re-materialised; his body reforming in the air before he dropped down to the ground. Becoming whole myself, I readied my sword for another confrontation.
Reaching out, he touched the Pillar next to him; calling upon the power of the Pillar of Dimension.
Almost instantly he disappeared, faded away into nothing. I knew what he was doing. He was moving through the dimensions, passing through one level of reality after another, slipping through them.
The Sarafan leader's sword lashed out of nowhere behind me, its tip catching me across the back; slicing through my flesh leaving a wet red mark.
Then again the blade came across my side, cutting me across my waist. Slipping through dimensions, Sabre lashed one a third time; trying to drive his sword through my heart. Before he could pierce my skin, I grabbed a hold of the sword and darted forward; flying through the gate he had opened and followed him through.
As we fell through the barriers between the realms, our swords clashed. We past through realm after realm, clashing and refusing to yield to each other.
We past through the Spectral Realm, the demon dimension and other realms I had yet to know even existed.
Ending this stalemate, I head butted Sabre and the blow forced the both of back to the pillars, the two of us emerging in own reality. Stunned momentarily, Sabre hovered there in mid looking groggy. That left the opportunity to place my hand against another Pillar, calling upon the power of nature.
"This is where you die!" He told him, willing the flora around me to come to my aid. Vines, roots and creepers tore out of the ground around the base of the pillars and like insidious tentacles, wrapped themselves around Sabre's body; pinning him in place there. Sabre struggled against the limbs holding him but even his enhanced strength wasn't enough. His wings of light beat rapidly as he tried to break them but the bounds would not yield.
I held the Reaver before me, calling forth the power of spirit, pulling all of the spirit I had within both the sword and myself.
"That's dangerous Kain!" Raziel warned me. "If you discharge too much you could deplete your own spirit."
I ignored him and continued channelling it all.
The eight restored pillars around me groaned, as if giving away to the enormous power I was attempting to wield.
.Letting out a loud cry, I took step after step forward; the Reaver in my hands was emitting so much light it was almost possible to see it from the other side of Nosgoth.
Raziel's own will came to my aid and together, our combined willpowers forced the sword up in an arch. The blow struck Sabre directly in the chest.
Sabre let out a startled yelp as the energy contained within the Reaver discharged into his body. Intense light lanced out of his eyes and mouth and a gust of intense wind blew me away. Scrapping my toes across the ground, I managed to come to a stop. I had to shield myself from the wind and intense light with my wing.
I felt sick… as if every ounce of strength had been drained from my being. Perhaps I should have conserved some strength.
Somehow, when the light died down and the wind ceased, I was able to gather enough strength to stand up. I had to use the Reaver as a crouch.
Glancing up, I could see that held by the vines and roots was a blackened charged body. It was barely even recognisable as the enemy I had been fighting. The roots receded and they relinquished their grip, the charcoaled body dropping down to the ground with a soft thud.
"So… I've won." I sighed, attempting to catch my breath. I was so exhausted. The muttering in my mind, those countless voices still would not shut up but I was too tired to care.
With some relish, I turned so that I could witness the final restoration of the Pillars of Nosgoth; the event I had been working centuries towards.
Nothing happened.
The pillar of Balance remained as inert and corroded as ever. Not a single piece of its remains moved.
"Kain! He's not dead!" Raziel yelled at me and glancing back, I watched the blackened corpse before began to move. Despite having no toes or fingers left, he managed to get back to its feet.
It laughed at me, the sound sounding horrible from its lipless mouth.
I watch in a mixture of fascination and horror as the black corroded skin began to fade, colour returning in a bizarre metamorphosis. Flesh, red with blood, seemed to almost push out of the ashes. Intensities wound their way inside the stomach, followed by veins and arties. Heart and lungs reformed as the eyes and tongue re-grew out of the body. Teeth grew back into the mouth and nails began to adorn the fingers and toes that reappeared.
In a flood of colour, skin came back over the flesh, followed by hair that spread out from the top of the head. It grew longer than first, reaching down the back to the waist and changed from blonde to pure white. The eyes too had changed colour, changing from brown to a bright sea blue.
Sabre was naked, his armour roasted and lying behind him carbonised. Yet the same runes that had been on his armour were now decorating his body and each of them was glowing blood red. With a sudden flourish, a pair of wings folded out his back. But these new ones were not made of light. These were quite solid, like my own, only the feathers were ivory white. Each feather outlined with a streak of gold.
"Just what manner of creature are you?" I asked, staring upon Sabre's transformed body.
Sabre spread his lips in a sadistic grin and clicked his fingers. In that next moment the hilt of a sword appeared in mid air before him. He snatched hold of it and the shaft of a golden blade arched up.
"I already told you Kain." He replied. "I am the Angel of Death!"
I realized all too quickly that this was his true face and up to now I had merely been fighting the disguise with which he walked undisturbed amongst the humans.
"I am the harvester." I held the Reaver up, only just managing to ward off his blow with the Reaver. "I am the Reaper and I will have your soul!" He grabbed my shoulder with a vice like grip and opened his mouth, a thick white glow emanating out from it.
I could feel my soul churn as some invisible hand tried to tug it out of its vassal. Weakened and unable to defy him, I felt myself slipping.
All I could do to stop him was to tumble backwards, dragging him with me. Lashing out, I laid my hand against the Pillar of Time.
There was a short flash of light and we both vanished, disappearing through the cracks of causality.