Separated from Sabre, we fell through the streams of time; tumbling back and forth through the stream outside of normal causality. It was a strange sensation that felt entirely different to travelling though time by use of the Chronoplast.

I was as one with the flow of time and I felt that could go anywhere… to any period of time I chose. But this would not last long. I was drifting further and further into the depths of the time stream. If I did not re-enter time I would be unable to return ever again.

Picking a point in space and time at random, I willed myself back to Nosgoth. There was a loud churning sound and then I felt the air against my skin as reality seemed to fade in all around me.

I paused, trying to get my bearings. I wasn't sure of what time I had emerged in or even where I was. Dead trees that had once been pine stood up all round me, the sky a pale red above.

The voice, whispering in my head grew suddenly louder. I held my hands to my head, desperately trying to block it out.

"No… go away!" I declared. But the whispering continued.

"Kain…kain…kain…." An endless sea of voices all whispering that one name.

"Get out of my head!" It took some will to silence them but even then I couldn't completely block them out.

Regaining some composure, I took to the sky; flying directly up to get a better view of the land. I beheld the same corrupted world and decayed land I was so familiar with. It took a moment but I determined in which period of time I had emerged.

I had traveled back over two hundred years. This was a world still the midst of the Vampire Genocide orchestrated by Moebius. I could see the forests of spikes, each one with an impaled vampire, decorating ever road I flew over. The banner of Moebius' crusade was unmistakable.

Had Sabre been thrown into this period of time with me? Somehow I knew the answer. Yes he was here. I could just feel it. He had emerged in a different place but Sabre was definitely in this timeline.

When I came across the town of Stahlberg I knew where I was. I had drifted away from the Pillars and was now to the north of the province of Willendorf. This all seemed oddly familiar. I had definitely been here before.

Suddenly, I was hit by an intense feeling of Deja-vu. Glancing down, I could see a traveler on the road beneath me. My sight enhanced, I could see a very familiar figure making his way towards a hunter encampment.

It was me. This was my previous self, having recently returned from the past after killing William the Just to prevent him from becoming the Nemesis. The encampment I was walking into right now would host the execution of the last of Nosgoth's vampires, excluding myself of course.

Something about this struck me as important… that it was no coincidence that I was here. When I had been in Midgard, at the temple that assigned the nine of us our roles as Guardians, we had also received tasks to accomplish. Somehow, I couldn't explain how and neither could the voices whispering in my head, but I had to be here.

As I swung around the encampment to avoid being seen, I heard a sickening crunch as the blade of a guillotine came sliding down on its intended victim.

"We are free of this unholy scourge!" I heard someone cry. Dropping down to the ground, keeping myself hiding in the shadows, I watched as a man wearing an executioners mask held a severed head aloft.

It was the head of Vorador.

"Not yet my friend!" Another man told him and my blood boiled at the sight of him. It was Moebius, the time streamer. I had this one man to thank for the misery in my life. Out of all the beings in this world he was by far the most contemptible.

"Would you be free of the plague, if only one city was cleansed?" The time streamer continued, turning to the large crowd of mercenaries and peasants with too much time on their hands which was gathered before the guillotine.

"NO!" The crowd roared in response.

"Would you spare one wolf in the pack that had devastated your herd?" Moebius asked again and once more the crowd roared its protest.

"NO!"

"Then let us destroy them all!"

The crowd cheered enthusiastically, some of them waving curved scimitars in the air.

"He is the last!" The old man jabbed a finger towards the back of the crowd where my young self was standing. "Destroy him!"

It was saddening to watch as, at Moebius' command, the crowd turned once more into an unruly mod. I wanted to slice that old fool right here and now, or perhaps seen how entertained he would be if I tore him apart with my telekinesis. I couldn't do that however.

Moebius would die at some other point, twice at my hands and it wouldn't have been as satisfying if I did it now. Besides, I am not greedy. Killing Moebius twice was enough vengeance for me. A third time and I might be pushing my luck.

Suddenly, I realised why I was here.

It was no accident that I had emerged in this time, to witness this event once more. Whether my arrival here had been at the hands of fate or I had subconsciously chosen it was immaterial.

The fact was that I was here.

Vorador's body was pulled off by the guillotine by the executioner and dumped on top of other vampire carcasses. Once the mob had hunted down my former self I suspected they intended to make a bonfire out of Nosgoth's last vampires.

As they would not catch my former self this left the encampment relatively undefended. Moebius was being escorted away to a carriage, probably heading to the fated confrontation where I would lop off his head. The old man was confident that in the event of his death his master, the Elder God, would restore him to life. He would soon face reality when the Elder God would discard him, believing his pawn's purpose fulfilled.

I smiled. The old fool was so convinced that he knew everything that would happen and could plan his way around them, yet still he failed.

Vorador's head was taken apart from the other decapitations, probably as a trophy. As saddening as it was to rob the executioner of his prize, I required that head.

With Moebius gone and the last few vampire hunters simply standing around, I flew forth and in plain sight landed on the guillotine stand.

I did not expect them to challenge me, seeing as how these Vampire Hunters just like the Sarafan used angelic mythology to justify their murders.

Yet a few of them, once more just like the Sarafan, were simply in their endeavour because they could not tolerate anything unlike themselves.

A few of them took one look at the blue skin across me and the wings on my back were meaningless. Like the frothing racist fanatics they were they attacked, attempting to drive their swords through my stomach.

I flicked their sword thrusts aside with the Reaver and acting on instinct I sliced two in half before decapitating a third.

I expected to feel the exhilarating rush of battle I had always experienced but this… this felt different somehow.

I had killed hundreds of men throughout the centuries. I had ripped them apart, burst their bodies and caused torment in the most horrific ways but now, I actually felt guilty.

I had killed these men when they had not been expecting an attack and would have been helpless against me even if they had.

As the Reaver drank the last of their souls, I heard new voices added to the intense chorus of the dead that whispered in my ear.

Sabre had been right…they were the voices of those who had died by my hands. There was no doubt now.

As I looked at the corpses on the ground I felt… I felt disturbed.

I felt… as strange as it sounded…sorry.

"Oh my god…" The executioner breathed, staring directly at me. I whipped around, fully prepared to use telekinesis to impale the human on the Reaver. I stopped at the last second.

"A conscience, Kain?" Raziel asked telepathically. "Is this a product of your new mortality or perhaps its something you've simply buried for so long you'd forgotten about it?"

I sheathed the blade and slowly advanced towards the terrified man. Clearly he was stunned, simply standing there shaking with Vorador's head between his hands.

I could easily kill this man but some part of me, neither new or old, compelled me to try a far different tactic.

"I have been sent by god to claim this vampire's head and body." I spread my wings to make myself look biblical. "They must be taken so that his evil will not corrupt Nosgoth in death as he did in life. Do not defy the will of the lord, as these men have, lest I have need to strike thy down."

Religious rhetoric mixed with a little intimidation always seemed to impress humans, especially the weak minded ones.

Whatever hunters were left dropped down to their knees in an instant.

"Lord Moebius, our master, is also a servant of the lord." The executioner stated, handing the head over. "Shall I inform him off your coming?"

I smiled, knowing full well that Moebius would have his head removed by the time any message could reach him.

"Yes, please do that. He is to be rewarded for his service."

The head was easy to carry, but the body was somewhat more cumbersome. Finally I had to resort to carrying it in both arms, placing the head in the corpses lap.

To make a show of it to these humans, instead of flying away, I translocated in a flash of light.

Vorador's body had to be taken to a place where his life could be restored.

This was my task here, to maintain the causality that lead up to the election. Once this was accomplished the Election would be final and history, how it behaved… the nature of destiny itself… would be decided.

To finally destroy the cruel hand of fate.

To do that, I travelled west across the width of Nosgoth and returned the pillars. There was someone there I had to meet.

Although I did not know whether he would be in a disposition to aid me.

The pillars were cracked and grey, dull and compromised and the world around reflected that.

As I expected, standing there waiting at the bottom of the pillar of balance was a single figure.

Dropping down to the ground, I approached him making no attempt to conceal my presence.

"Whoever you are, you come at a bad time." The man stated, keeping his back to me. "The demon within me is sleeping, conserving its strength until its enemy comes to confront it."

He was Mortanious, the necromancer and Guardian for the Pillar of Death. It was he who had me murdered and transformed me into a vampire.

Here he awaited the coming of my younger self, who would come to claim his life.

"The Hylden lord is of no concern to me, Mortainious." I stated. Recognizing my voice he whipped around, eyes going wide at my blue skin and black wings, the visage of the ancient vampire who he had served before aiding Moebius in mankind's revolt.

"Kain?" He asked, staggering back. "But…but I just… I just spoke with you telepathically, this can not be."

"I am from the future." I told him bluntly. "And I know why you resurrected me as a vampire and I know you used Janos' heart to achieve it."

Acting on his own, Raziel's projected form manifested beside me. At the sight of him, Mortanious gasped in horror.

"You need not fear old friend. The day is soon coming when all will be at peace, humans, vampires and even Hylden." I assured him. "Your work will bear fruit, although it will take longer than you originally thought."

"Then I can die in peace." The Necromancer sighed with the most intensely relieved look on his face. "This closure is what I have been praying for. Now I can face my appointed fate with pride, knowing I have done my part."

"With respect, I am afraid you have one final task." I laid Vorador's body and head down before him. "This vampire must be revived. He is essential to the future and in order to succeed, I need him brought back to life." I moved the head and placed it over the stump where it used to be.

"Can you do it? Revive him like you did with Kain?" Raziel asked.

"How long has he been dead?" Mortanious asked, kneeling beside the body.

"Half an hour at most." I told him. "Is it possible?"

"It is…" He stated. "But if I use any of my necromantic magic, the demon possessing me will sense it. I can not risk him awakening. If he see's you…" He paused. "Wait… I can use this." He reached into his red robes and withdrew what looked like a playing card.

I had seen such a thing before. It was a card empowered with dark magic, created by the necromancer himself, a card representing the Heart of Darkness.

These cards were not as powerful as the original relic but they did allow the resurrection of a vampire provided that vampire had died recently.

I had found these cards more than useful during my journeys.

He laid the card across Vorador's chest, the picture of the black heart face down. On top of this he laid two fingers and instantly I felt a rush of energy pass from him, through the card and into the corpse.

There was a flash of light from the cut neck and instantly, tendons and nerves lanced upward and connected with the head. The bones began to knit back together and with a loud, sickening crunch the head reconnected.

The skin remoulded itself over the cut and Vorador was once again in one piece.

The ancient vampire gasped out, crying out for air as his lungs started working again.

"It is best that he does not see me." I stated and gently laid a hand on him. Before Vorador could awaken and open his eyes, I teleported him away, moving him through space.

I knew where to place him. The city of Meridian lay to the south, from there he could direct the Cabal against the Sarafan Order and be out of the way so that the events at the pillars would go ahead unhampered by interference.

"Given that you are as you say from the future…." Mortanious started. "Then I am free to assume that you refuse the sacrifice." His tone was nondescript and made it hard to guess precisely what he was implying.

"This is the trap the Hylden engineered." I told him. "Moebius killed off all other vampires but me. If I had accepted the sacrifice then my kind would now be extinct. That alone would have damned the pillars and released the Hylden, plunging Nosgoth further into decay."

Some impulse made me sympathetically lay a hand on his shoulder.

"It will take Nosgoth over two hundreds years and myself ten times that but the life this land used to know will be reborn."

Mortanious smiled.

"Although I will never look upon such golden days, I will be content." Suddenly he looked alert. "You must go. The alchemist approaches. He comes to confront me and he must not see you."

It was in this moment that I realised this would be the last time I would ever see him. Over the centuries I had thought of the necromancer as many things, most of them not pleasant but in this instant I did not relish the fact that within the hour he would be facing his death.

"Farewell then Necromancer."

Spreading my wings, I flew up into the air, following the pillars up higher and higher into the sky.

Once more I was gripped by a sensation that told me to fly higher. This was the same compulsion that had told me to go to the Vampire Citadel after I managed to escape from the demon dimension the first time.

And again today when it told me where to go when I had retrieved Vorador's body. This time however the compulsion was intensely strong and I got the feeling that this would be the last time it would direct me.

Lightning flashed around me and I came to a stop. Dark clouds began to gather around the pillars and I realised that was once again at the instant where the fate of Nosgoth was decided.

Waiting for me, high above Nosgoth where only the pillar's reached was Sabre. His white wings spread, he smiled sadistically at me as I came to face him.

"This is the moment of destiny for all Kain, and no better time for us to fight." He stated. "While you're younger self fights the Hylden Lord possessing Mortainious below, you and I shall duel and when these pillars die so will one of us!"