(Hey, everyone. If you're enjoying the story so far, and want to learn more about Kali, go check out this Facebook page at KaliRazielim?ref=br_tf. Here, you can find information on the character posted by the original creator of the character. I can also be found on this page, so if you have questions or comments about the story or character, we can be found there. Enjoy this chapter!)
LEGACY OF KAIN: BLACK HEARTS
CHAPTER 14: ARIEL'S LAMENT
An unexpected sight lied beyond the time streaming chamber doors. Raziel and Kali stepped into a world that was decrepit and rotting. The Sarafan stronghold was destroyed, and the dark and cloudy sky was exposed. The stronghold's walls barely stood, only supported by the ground below them.
"Please tell me this place is being constructed," Kali said as the time streaming chamber's doors closed behind them.
"No," Raziel sighed. "It's rotting. Moebius deceived us."
Both Raziel and Kali were blinded by a bright light in front of them. When the light faded, two demonic creatures stood in the room. Without hesitation, they attacked Raziel. Raziel defended himself from one while Kali attacked the other.
Kali slashed the demon's back, getting its attention. The demon swiped its oversized claw at Kali, and she jumped back to avoid the attack. The creature charged and swiped its claws again. Kali ducked and sliced its legs, and it crippled to its knees. Kali stood up, and impaled her sword through the skull, and the demon's body fell limp.
She looked over to Raziel, who was battling the demon with the Wraith blade. Once Raziel slashed at its body, the beast disintegrated, and its soul was all that was left. The demon soul was so filled with pure power, that it was visible to Kali. But instantly, the soul was forced into Raziel's mystical blade.
Kali looked back at the demon she had slain, and its soul began to rise out of the corpse. Raziel pulled down the Razielim flag that covered his face, and absorbed the soul.
"What were those things?" Kali said, out of breath. "Why did they attack us?"
"I don't know," Raziel said. "Demons of some kind."
"You say that so casually," Kali observed.
Raziel shrugged. He tried to speak, but his voice was held back by the vision of the statue.
Kali studied his look, then turned to see what Raziel was observing. The statue in the middle of the decrepit chamber eliminated any hopes Kali had. The statue of Moebius, idolized as a hero, a saint, carved into stone holding the head of the vampire Vorador, filled the air with an aura of dread.
Kali looked around at the bitter world. Seeing the statue had opened a new perspective of her surroundings. The walls, the sky, the rain... This happened because of the conflict between two races.
"Kali," Raziel said. "Are you Alright?"
"Yes," Kali said, her mind shifting back into reality."I was just thinking. Where should we go?"
Raziel looked around. The structure, although destroyed, seem to have the same path. Perhaps the surrounding world would be the same.
"I'll scout ahead," Raziel said. "Just through the building to find a safe way out."
"You want me to stay here?" Kali asked.
"Yes," Raziel responded.
"The preposterous," Kali said. "I'm not letting you..."
"Kali," Raziel interrupted. "If part of this building comes down, I have a way out. You couldn't follow me into the spectral realm. This chamber is stable enough, but I can't insure that the rest of the building will be the same. I promise, I will return shortly."
Kali hesitated. "Just... go with haste."
Raziel nodded, then turned and walked away. Kali was left alone in the timestreaming chamber.
In the corner of her vision, she saw a figure forming from the mist. On instinct, she drew her sword.
"Who's there?" She shouted.
"Only I, a tormented spirit," Moebius materialized from the fog, limping and clutching his side.
"Moebius," Kali said with ice in her voice. "What pathetic game is this?"
"Game?" Moebius said. "This is not a game. I am simply reduced to a martyred spirit."
"You deceived me and Raziel," Kali said. "You won't gain sympathy from me."
"I'm not asking for your sympathy," Moebius said. "I truly apologize for my actions, but they were entirely necessary. Raziel gave me no choice."
"Raziel?" Kali snapped. "What has he done to you?"
"Look around you, Half-Blood," Moebius said. "Look at the world that Raziel has created."
"I don't understand how this is Raziel's doing..." Kali argued.
"He spared Kain!" Moebius interrupted. "In doing so, he allowed Kain to unleash horrors this world was unprepared to face! I sacrificed myself in order to rid the world of the plague that Kain has created. But when Raziel failed to complete his destiny, I suffered the consequences, and died in vain."
"That's where your wrong, Timestreamer," Kali pointed out. "The world collapsed when Kain refused his original sacrifice. You tried to make Raziel assassinate the Kain that had long made that decision. Did you forget about that thread, Moebius? Or did you think that I wouldn't figure it out?"
"As long as Kain clings to his parasitic throne, the Pillars continue to decay, at crumble to the ground, dragging all of Nosgoth with it!"
"You know," Kali chuckled, "I don't think Raziel's choice had anything to do with Nosgoth's corruption. I think that the future Kain was trying to interfere with some twisted plot you've conjured. That's why you wanted Raziel... But then why do you appear to me now, rather than him?"
"Kain's lies have filled Raziel's mind, and he drags you with him!" Moebius said. "Remember, young Half-Blood: Raziel serves one who wishes to cure Nosgoth of the vampire plague. In the end, he'll want you dead just as much as Kain."
"Raziel serves no one!" Kali shouted.
"You speak with ignorance in your voice," Moebius said. "And that, I cannot fix. Leave this place, and disturb my spirit no longer!"
"You just wait until Raziel returns," Kali warned. "When he does, we'll find out if you really are a spirit."
Moebius scowled, and vanished.
"That's what I thought, you coward," Kali taunted.
Kali thought about the encounter with the Timestreamer, and what he had said. Raziel couldn't have possibly been doing all of this to serve someone. And who would he be serving? Not possibly Kain, nor Moebius.
Moments later, Raziel entered the room.
"Kali, I found a way out," he said.
"Where are we going?" Kali asked as she followed him.
"We must return to the swamp," Raziel answered.
"Why there?" Kali protested.
"Perhaps time had cleared a path for us," Raziel explained. "Even though Janos has long been killed, perhaps we can find some clue of his presence, and how we could return."
"What about that time streaming chamber?" Kali suggested.
"That's what I was thinking," Raziel said. "Assuming we could open it."
"You opened the ones in the stronghold with you sword," Kali offered.
"Yes," Raziel agreed. "But I don't recall a crystal in the swamp."
"So what should we do?" Kali asked.
"Let's see what paths time has cleared, then we'll worry about that," Raziel said.
"Very well," Kali agreed. "Lead the way."
Kali followed Raziel through the desecrated stronghold. She looked around at the damaged structure. The walls barely stood, only some areas had a ceiling, and certain rooms had caved in entirely.
Despite the destruction, Raziel had managed to find a clear path out of the Sarafan Stronghold, into the open air.
Well, the air didn't seem to open to Kali. The world that they emerged into seemed to be transforming into the Nosgoth that Kali grew up in. Now, after seeing Nosgoth's former existence, teeming with life, this sight did not satisfy her.
Kali looked at Raziel, who walked calmly through the pouring rain.
"Raziel," Kali said.
"Yes?" Raziel answered.
"How is it that you resist the burn from the rain when it was water that brought you to this form in the first place?" Kali asked.
Raziel waited a moment, as if to purposely build an agitating suspense.
"Well," he finally said, maintaining his sight forward, "when I hunted my brethren, I devoured each of their souls, each of them granting me a new ability."
"Like Melchiah's ability to push though certain materials?" Kali asked.
"Yes," Raziel agreed. "You should've seen each of my brothers. They were all... changed. Hideous, yet powerful. Zephon had an appearance to match his personality. Rotting and grotesque."
"Like Dumah's sense of humor," Kali mentioned. She was glad to mad Raziel chuckle. He's been too serious lately.
"Yes, true." Raziel said. "But Rahab earned a unique gift. He overcame his immunity to water. By devouring his soul, I gained this immunity."
"Irony is a cruel thing." Kali said.
Raziel chuckled again. Kali couldn't help smiling.
"Very cruel indeed." Raziel said.
Kali's feeling of tension in the world lessened while she spoke with Raziel. It seems all he wants to do is move on, or track someone down. Kali was glad to be able to casually chat along the way, at least.
Kali and Raziel arrived at the Pillars. Except now, they were obliterated and decayed. Kali remembered the time when she used to be impressed with the sight of the destroyed Pillars and Kain's throne at the center. Now, she was repulsed by the sight.
"Hold on," Raziel said, stopping Kali at the top of the concrete stairs at the Pillars' base.
"What is it?" Kali asked.
"Look," Raziel gestured to the Pillars.
Kali thought she was imagining things, but then realized the glowing aura of a woman was real. A spirit floated in front of the Pillar of Balance.
"Forever am I bound," she said, lamenting to herself, "hope abandoned, my spirit tethered to this place... What destroyed the Circle could not touch me. For I was newly dead, and beyond harm's reach. I alone was spared the descent into madness, and Kain alone was spared the pain of death. When Nupraptor's poison seized Kain even in the safety of the womb, much more than just his destiny was lost. All of Nosgoth lost Balance. Consider us now... both of us less than we once were. I, pure but insubstantial; and Kain, terribly real, but corrupted."
Raziel stepped forward, and interrupted Ariel's lament.
"Your imprisonment here has deranged you, spirit," Raziel said, startling the spirit. "You fixate on Kain because you believe he is the tether that binds you here. But we both know he is not the author of your agony. The Pillars were subverted by dark forces, invited by the Guardians themselves. The more I learn of your Circle, the more I see a tangle of nested manipulations."
The spirit seemed to become irritated with Raziel. "Kain handed them their victory. They sought to topple the Pillars, and he was their willing instrument."
"Or was he their unwilling pawn?" Raziel asked. "Would it blunt your wrath to know that Kain's dilemma was calculated to bring the Pillars down, regardless of the choice he made? And that the devastation would have been even greater had he chosen the path you would prescribe for him?"
The spirit turned, revealing her face to them. Kali stepped back, taken by surprise at the sight. Her face seemed to be split down the middle. One side displayed a beautiful woman that seemed strained from years of stress and loathing. The other, portrayed a skeleton completely stripped of flesh.
"You are a subtle, deceitful creature," she said. "But your clever arguments do not absolve Kain. He must die for the Pillars to be restored; there is no other way."
"Then consider this more ominous possibility," Raziel offered. "What if Kain's death does not restore the Pillars? Consider that it may simply be too late. That this world may be beyond redemption. And that you may be bound here eternally."
Suddenly, any courage the spirit had left her. All of her points seemed completely invalid after Raziel's statement. A look of fear and hopelessness crept over her face.
"Raziel!" Kali snapped, feeling bad for the spirit.
But it was too late. The woman turned and floated away, vanishing from the world. But Raziel vanished with her.
As Raziel shifted into the spirit world, Kali vanished from behind him. The world physically warped into a misshapen form, and the colors distorted. And there, dashing behind the Pillar of Balance, was Ariel, thinking she had escaped from Raziel.
Raziel approached the Pillar as Ariel hid behind it. He slowly crept around to meet Ariel. Alarmed, she dashed around the Pillar to escape him, but Raziel jumped to meet her again.
"Why do you hound me, demon?" Ariel begged. "You can see that I am captive here. Show me some mercy."
"Like the mercy you showed your fellow Guardians when you set Kain on them?" Raziel accused. "Or the mercy you showed Kain when you kept him ignorant of his destiny while you used him as the scourge of the Circle? Or perhaps like the mercy you showed your beloved Nupraptor when you made him Kain's first kill?"
Ariel's one human eye began to form tears that floated like air in the spirit world's atmosphere. "You are cruel. Why do you torment me?"
"I am merely looking for answers, Ariel." Raziel said.
Ariel buried her face in her hand, and sobbed. She wallowed in the sorrow that Raziel had reminded her of.
"Very well," Raziel finally said. "I'll leave you in peace. But know this... about you, and this purgatory from which you long to escape... you're merely at the threshold."
Raziel shifted the world again, and rematerialized in the physical world, where Kali stood at the middle of the Pillars.
"So, where do your morals lie?" Kali asked. "Do you support Kain, now?"
"I would never think of such a thing," Raziel said.
"But you defended him," Kali accused.
"I did not defend Kain," Raziel said. "I merely didn't persecute him."
Kali hesitated. "Why didn't you kill him, Raziel? You had the chance. Why did you give in to his words?"
"The things he said, Kali," Raziel explained. "It just seemed like I had to defy fate. I refuse to be his pawn, but does that mean I must become Moebius's?"
"We could've ended this, Raziel," Kali said. "We wouldn't have to be doing this."
"He spoke to you, didn't he?" Raziel asked.
Kali didn't speak.
"Kali, he would say anything to turn you against me," Raziel explained.
"Raziel, what do you think of vampires?" Kali asked.
"Why do you ask?"
"Just answer the question, Raziel. What do you think of the vampire race?"
Raziel hesitated. He didn't like where this was going. "The vampires are a parasitic race, devouring all living forces that make a world thrive. Look around. Isn't this proof of that?"
"But am I not a vampire, Raziel?" Kali asked. "Is that what you see me as?"
"No, of course not," Raziel said. " I would never call you the same as the deformed wretches we left behind. You are only half vampire."
"Does that make me half wretched, then?" Kali asked.
"Where are these thoughts coming from?" Raziel asked.
"Who is this 'one that you serve?'" Kali asked.
"I serve no one," Raziel responded.
"Moebius thinks different," Kali said.
"So you have spoken with him?"
"He confronted me," Kali said. "He told me some things about your view of vampires."
"And?" Raziel asked.
Kali sighed. "Never mind. We can discuss this later."
"Kali..." Raziel began.
"Not now, Raziel," Kali said. "I need to think this over. Let's just move on."
Raziel sighed, but continued down their path. Not a word was spoken between them for what felt like an eternity.