The Norse had wanted more than immortality.

They had wanted the removal of death as an aspect, to ensure that nothing died… that life would be perpetual and ever lasting in all organisms.

When they failed, their bodies degenerated and their race became almost extinct. Desperation driving them, they attempted to create a being that would artificially bind them back to the flow of life and death.

That being was codenamed K.R.A.K.E.N and by the later denizens of Nosgoth was known as the Elder God, the Oracle of the Ancient vampires.

Centuries later, that same being knew that here and now its hold on life and stranglehold on the flow of souls was about to come to an end and was doing everything in its power to prevent it.

Desperation driving its actions, it pushed hard on Nosgoth, vigorously attempting to drown the land beneath the waves and tear apart whatever was left.

Empowered by the souls of every single Balance Guardian, the Reaver blade cut through the mass of swirling tentacles it sent after me like a scythe through wheat. The slimly limbs were sent bleeding back into the shadows for as soon as they came into the light they were burned with the purifying fire that was spirit, the power of the soul.

"This is the end for you!" I told him and now my words were doing him more damage than my sword was. "Perhaps I am not fit to pass judgement but someone has to. No more Kraken, no more!"

"Insect!" The beast snarled, a massive tentacle with the width of several men came souring up out of the darkness below in an attempt to squash me.

Flying towards, I brought the Reaver across the limb and sliced through it sending the severed end flying off to crash into the wall.

I had the advantage in the power contained within my sword but the Elder could regenerate his tentacles almost instantly, providing him with a near impenetrable barrier of expendable limbs with which to keep me at bay. The longer this battle was dragged out the more damage was inflicted upon Nosgoth. This had to be ended here and now.

Racing to the pillars, Janos and the others who had won their elections encountered problems of their own.

As the pillars came within sight, dozens of giant slathering tentacles burst up through the ground to stop them. Purified by the blast of spirit that had come from the Pillars, all of them could now see the barrier that was in their way.

The veil had been lifted. There was no way for the Elder to hide its hideous body behind its honeyed words.

Janos was the first to react.

"Cut through them! We have to get to the Pillars!"

The clan chiefs responded almost instantly, ordering their archers to open fire; raining down dozens of arrows upon the slime covered limbs.

T'kral barked an order to his warrior of house Pyre and the Hylden summoned forth the elemental magic fire that was their house's trademark and sent torrents of flames forth.

Ewoden burst past the, his furry hands grasped around Havos and Malice as he became a whirl wind of blades, cutting his way in a savage attack that sent a torrent of green blood flying into the air.

Reverting back to human form, they called to them to follow him through the path he had cut but only Sally managed to fly through before the tentacles re-grew.

One large tentacle made a lunge at Dumah but coming to his aide, Malek cut through the limb with his sword before gesturing forth to send a lightning spell back in retaliation.

"Kain is struggling." Umah informed Vorador. "I can sense it."

"Then we must hurry." Vorador replied, clasping both hands together and unleashing a powerful bolt of energy that tore several tentacles apart allowing Janos and the Seer to dart through.

Hoping to incapacitate the monster, in the caverns below, I slice through several of the smaller eyes destroying them all; the eyeballs bursting open in a horrid spray of liquid.

It made little difference for the tentacles souring at me didn't slow down in the least. That giant eye, the Elder's main eye, its nexus point… if only he could get to that. The Elder however knew this as well and was not about to allow me anywhere close so it fired dozens of magical bolts at me, sparks of power that soured through the air like angry wasps.

Batting them aside I tried to sour in close but a small tentacle lashed out, grabbing me around the foot and tugged me down hard into the path of an oncoming far larger limb. The blow was hard for something that hadn't any bones, knocking me against the side of the chamber wall with a resonating crash.

"Why?!" The Elder screamed. "Why won't you just die?!!!" Dozens large tentacles flew at me in an attempt to break my body against the rock. Dissipating into mist I faded around the strike before becoming solid again.

"Because it's not any fun!"

Attempting a translocation spell I moved through space hoping to reappear right next to the giant eye. The Elder however had powers of his own and was able to move my destination, attempting to place me inside solid rock.

Only at the last second was I able to abort the teleport, arriving not at my intended destination but close enough to unleash a blast of raw magical energy directly at it. The Elder attempted to block it with some more tentacles but none got in the way in time and the blow struck his eye directly.

He screeched like some kind of wounded animal and his tentacles around him shook, trembling in pain.

This happened above as well, the barrier placed in the way shook as if caught in a seizure and Vorador and Malek were able to cut through it, allowing many of the others through.

Arriving in time, William came flying down out of the sky with Princess Alicia in his arms.

Eight of the nine guardians stood before the Pillars, each moving to pure white shaft that was their obligation.

Sensing this, the tentacles recovered somewhat and moved to stop them. The Hylden and other vampires moved to form a barrier of their own, their warriors fighting side by side to keep the slathering limbs away from the guardians.

"Ewoden?" Sally asked, looking at the Guardian of Nature. "Yes… I do."

He looked at her with an expression of incomprehension. She laughed at him.

"Yes I'll marry you, you idiot!"

Ewoden was suddenly more happy then he'd ever been in his entire life.

Reaching out laid his hands against the Pillar of Nature and Sally put her forehead against the Pillar of the mind. As they did so, their tokens for being Guardians appeared before them. They were rings, made of purest gold and inlaid with Silver.

Vorador placed his palm on the Pillar of Conflict and the token he received almost at once, manifesting before him, was a one handed war hammer. It was made from Obsidian and engraved with runes. A tassel made from fur was attached to the end of the handle, feathers of blood red tied into it.

Janos drew in a deep breath before he gently touched the Pillar of energy before him. A gauntlet made of brass for the right hand appeared before him, a large ruby in the top with a smaller set going down towards the end.

William snarled and his hand put itself on the Pillar of Dimension, not really relishing his task. Perhaps the Pillars had implied a sense of humour in the token they gave him, a crown fit for a king with a large mosaic mimicking a third eye directly in the middle.

Hylden seer smiled back at her brother before touching the Pillar of Time, receiving at her token a book in which all the deeds of the new history would be written; a large leather back tome with a buckle shaped seal across the front.

Alicia Ottmar looked aside to William. He returned her look and the two of them smiled at each before the princess placed her hand on the Pillar of States. Her token was a sword, as long as a claymore with a beautiful hilt inlaid with silver and a blade of steel that gleamed even in the thin light.

Umah was the last and reaffirming her alliance to me, the being who had taken her life, in her own mind she laid her hand on the Pillar of Death. The token she received was a cuirass, black armour with flowing strands of purple down the back made from satin.

The connection, that wonderful link they had all briefly experienced once before was reborn with tremendous force.

The symbiosis that all guardians shared with each other and the pillars.

I could feel their strength suddenly flow through me, a power unlike anything I had ever felt before.

Janos, trained by his thousand year wait, freely gave to me his endurance.

Ewoden's insight, his believe in the good in all peoples and race's was a greater source of strength than I had imagined.

Vorador's determination, his iron glad resolve to pursue a goal was enough to dramatically reinforce my own.

William's innocence left no room for doubt. He was not the Nemesis I feared him to be.

The Seer's cold mask was peeled away to revealed no emotional scared she actually was and through that, her strength her ability to preserver despite the pain to herself, flowing in, a gift she was giving to me without a moments hesitation.

Alicia Ottmar's own pain at the loss of her father was thrown aside so that she could give me her emotional strength.

Sally, despite her overall innocence, possessed a hidden mental strength she barley knew she had. This flowed from her to me.

And finally I accepted with the greatest amount of guilt, the gift of Umah's affection.

Her love.

All these traits when combined yielded strength I have never known possible. I felt like I could reach out and crush the moon between my fingers.

The Reaver blade sung as the sword came arching through the air one last time, its song a prequel of death.

My wings soared out wide I soured towards the Elder's largest eye, tentacles and bolts of magic thrown in my way to try and stop me.

But there was no stopping me.

Not now.

The Reaver destroyed anything that came close to me, tentacles dissolving and magic attacks vanishing without a trace and despite the Elder's best attempts I kept coming straight at him.

An unstoppable force that rivalled him in power, the weapon of his very worshippers turned on him; now used for its true purpose.

Destiny was rushing towards him; true destiny; not the fables he had strewn across history. A titanic tidal wave that was finally crashing down on top of him.

His tentacles swarmed to stop me and in that single moment I could see the utter terror and desperation in his eye.

There was fear.

I felt neither anger nor compassion.

Neither satisfaction nor pity.

I simply knew that this was something that had to be done.

"VAE VICTUS!" With an echoing crunching thud, the Elder screamed as the sword blade slammed deep into the eye spraying green puss in all directions.

"Woe to the Conquered!" Raziel stated in titanic reinforcement.

Sparks of bright light began lancing out from the inflicted wound, cracks like a spiders web spreading out from it across the surface of the eye. All the smaller eyes screamed and suddenly started exploding like over ripe berries, spraying out green blood as one by one they died.

The tentacles reaching for me convulsed before the cracks started spreading up them, beams of light escaping from holes large enough. The connection established, the Pillars glowed an intense white and became as bright as the sun itself.

Those around the pillars had to cover their eyes as the brightness was far too great to behold.

"NO!" The Elder cried but whatever he could do by now would have been utterly futile a gesture. The Pillars had already sealed his fate.

The sky above the Pillars rippled as if caught in the flux of intense heat. Slowly at first the gate opened, cracking open little by little before the rift had been carved completely. At the mere sight of it, the Hylden cried out in utter dismay and sank away screaming in fear.

Through the gate was the demon realm, that horrible dimension in which they had been bound so long.

"It's not for you." Janos told them, his eyes never leaving the sight for a moment.

The ground around them began to splitter and crack as the tentacles of the Elder were torn up out of the ground, sucked up by an intense wind; a current of air that was surging up and into the air.

"You can not do this to me!" The Elder declared even as bit by bit his body was torn up out of the chamber. Small explosions were ringing out across his bodies as every ounce of the Reaver's energy; elemental forces gathered long ago were forced down into it.

Through these cracks in his body, uncountable souls were escaping; thousands of betrayed Sarafan soldiers, massacres innocents' human and vampire alike and even the Hylden souls still defiantly fighting the god who had oppressed their kind for so long.

"YOU CAN'T!! YOU CAN'T!!!!!"

I kept applying the Reaver, forcing it deeper and deeper into the wound as he did, more and more of the Elder started destructing itself allowing for the release of more spirits. The cavern around them was crumbling, unable to hold its form without the Elder's body for support.

The stress too much, the sword began to splinter and crack; the metal on the verge of breaking.

Unexpectedly, Malek grabbed Vorador and held him close.

"Vorador please… I need to know…. How do I escape from this armour?" He demanded. "This is the moment, I know it!"

Vorador simply grinned and stepped aside, gesturing to the swirling vortex of freed souls that was now encircling the pillars above and below.

"Reincarnation my old friend." He stated. "It awaits all of us now… but you may go first. If that is indeed your wish."

It was impossible for a suit of armour to cry but Vorador knew that inside, the Paladin was weeping.

"Thank you." He said simply before dropping his sword and shield and leaping into the white vortex and disappearing. A moment later the armour emerged out the far side, collapsing in a tangled heap as the soul that animated it was now gone, freed and finally at peace.

With one final surge of strength, I pressed the sword in as far as it would go and the action broke the Reaver the legendary sword spraying apart with a tremendous explosion of light as the elemental energies within were discharged one final time.

The Reaver was gone.

I vanished in the light and Raziel's consciousness was flung from the sword and into the ether.

The event the Elder had feared for so long came to pass. The purifying energy of spirit discharged by the blades destruction soured through his system, forcing every soul he had greedily absorbed out of his body; freeing thousands from the Wheel of Fate and leaving him without the strength to resist as his huge and grotesque body was pulled out of the ground and sucked out of Nosgoth through the rift.

The action tore Nosgoth asunder as the giant was pulled out from underneath the earth.

Those before the pillars watched in awe as mile after mile of the cancer, the creature now known to them all as the Kraken, that had dwelt in this land long before their own respective species' was sucked out like poison drawn from a wound.

The events were nothing short of a miracle.

The waters all over Nosgoth began to receded, sinking back and ceasing their angry assault on the land. The tornados in the north shrunk before vanishing all together and the mountains in the east became quiet and ceased to shake.

The survivors of such a violent period gazed out in wonder and stunned awe as for the first time in centuries the sky above them turned blue and the grey clouds melted away; the sun shining through.

The ground beneath their feet, so lifeless since the Pillars collapse suddenly began adorn with life. Grass spread up fresh through the fields and plains, the trees of the forests suddenly starting growing leaves and fresh plant life suddenly just seemed to appear, spreading up out of the ground as if making up for lost time.

The stale air was blown away and replaced with a blast of fresh scented wind that left those it encountered breathless.

"I don't believe it…" The Captain of the Willendorf militia began, his sword dropping from his hand as the sight of the blue sky above. The Priest at his side dropped down to his knees and instantly clasped in hands together in prayer. Dozens of peasants and royal guardsmen did the same.

With one finally scream of anger and frustration, the Elder's foul body was drawn completely through the rift and it flew shut after it.

The pillars stopped glowing and all nine of them were left there for them all to behold, nine standing shafts of pure white marble; whole and now completely healed.