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The collapsed central chamber of the Razielim city was a towering pile of debris which had to have been a crushing weight. But when Thanatos arose he shouldered it aside as though it were nothing more than a stack of pebbles. His wings fanned out sharply, scattering the debris in all directions. A powerful gust of wind erupted from those wings, a rushing burst like the birth of a hurricane from still air. Ruined buildings were battered and set to leaning before crumbling and blowing away before such elemental fury.
-"YOU WILL ALL BURN!"- The Dragon's thundering, anger ridden voice lashed out in a mental screech. There was a flash, a surge of bright light, and an instant later billowing clouds of white hot flames were shooting down the streets of the ruined city one after the other. The fire spread over the ruins like a tidal wave, washing across everything in its path and reducing it to fragile char. Even Legionnaires which had not yet pulled back from the path of the Dragon's wrath were not exempt from such fury and were reduced to smoldering remains in a matter of seconds.
Thanatos spared nothing. His fire engulfed all the city which lay within his reach. The flames danced high into the sky as he fed them, more and more heat boiling free from his jaws. A thick column of black smoke rose into the air, far taller and more intense than even that which had been spewed from the Imperial smokestacks. The city of the Razielim, the once proud capital of the foremost clan of Kain's empire, suffered its final destruction then and there. When Thanatos finally relented, his flames had consumed everything.
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"As the Dragon vented his fury above, it seemed we had departed with not a moment to spare. The diversionary tactic was complete and, thus far, seemed to have been successful. Our allies were free, at least for the time being. All that mattered now was to escape, to rendezvous with as many of the others as we could so that the Divus could be countered once and for all. It all seemed so simple, but fate had yet to be kind to me in such things and I had no reason to suspect it of a change of heart now."
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Raziel stood for a long moment staring back up the tight passage through which they had climbed, a trail of wispy smoke falling down after them. His expression, eyes narrowed but eyebrows arched, was one of whimsical regret and a distant longing. As the roof of the cavern above shuddered some dust free, the blue wraith finally shook his head and turned to join the other two of his group.
"Hail and farewell." He sighed, finally leaving the last, clinging memories of his clan and people to perish in the blaze.
The caverns below the city were a mixture of both natural openings and carved tunnels, all interconnected like an ant colony or hive of bees. Having extensive underground dwellings was prudent for any Vampire settlement, when there were fragile fledglings about who had not yet developed the resistance to sunlight. In such caverns they would be housed, trained, and expected to prove their worth if they were ever to join their elder kin on the surface. Now such chambers were still and deathly quiet.
Ahead of them there was a grunt. Ajatar-Cadre was leaning against a side wall with one hand, one of her wings suddenly trailing on the ground. Her feathers did not rustle and soon, as Raziel summoned the wraith blade to once more provide light, Kain could see why. They were matted together with blood and she was smearing a long red trail across the floor.
"You're hurt." He stated, stepping forth from the shadow into the wraith blade's light to examine the injury. Kain reached out with both hands to tenderly open the wing without so much as waiting for a response from her. The three of them had separated from the others, leaving them to venture down alone into the caverns, guided by Raziel's knowledge of the city and its various passageways. Three was a good number for a small group, easily able to conceal itself and traverse vaster distances with greater speed.
Ajatar let out a hiss of pain as her wing was extended. Sure enough, buried into her flesh at the joint just above the shoulder bone was a large bolt. It was thicker than the common crossbow ammunition, being at least an inch across. It looked more like a metal stake than a bolt close up. Frowning, Kain took hold of the intrusion and began to slowly withdraw it. The thing was long, very long, and came out a good foot from her chest before its pointed tip finally slid free with a wet squelch. Blood spurted down over her side and the Grandmaster of the Serioli let out a cry, stumbling against Kain who kept her upright. Kain tossed the spike away where it clattered loudly on the floor.
"I've had worse before, I'll be fine." She said but in a voice which noticeably wavered. Kain looked at her with a flat, unimpressed expression for the bravado.
"You need blood. You're lucky that didn't hit anything vital." He told her sternly. Ajatar raised a hand to her belt, fumbling for something, but ultimately shook her head.
"I left my last bottle…" She admitted. The Serioli practise of taking the blood of Humans and bottling it for later use had proven beneficial more than once before, but it seemed their current supply must have run dry. Kain sighed, shaking his head. Supporting her with one arm, he raised his free wrist to his mouth and without pause bit down sharply into his own skin.
"Here." He said, offering her the bleeding wrist. Ajatar looked up at him, her eyes focusing on the offered sustenance. It seemed to take a moment for her to grasp what was being placed before her and her eyes widened in sudden confusion.
"Lord Kain, I… It wouldn't be proper, I..." She started, albeit with her tongue slightly extended past her lips. Kain simply held his wrist closer.
"Drink, Ajatar." He commanded her with absolute authority in his voice. She needed no further encouragement than that. She quickly moved forward and latched her lips onto the wound, drinking the blood from him eagerly in order to replenish her own energies. Kain carefully monitored just how much he was allowing her to take, for his own strength had been taxed by the battle and he knew he was going to need as much of it as he could call upon.
Once he saw the wound left by the spike begin to finally close and seal shut, he firmly pulled his wrist away from her lips. Ajatar hung there momentarily, panting with her tongue extended and blood dripping from her fangs and lips.
"Better?" He asked her, allowing his Dark GIft to heal the self-inflicted injury. With a shiver Ajatar recovered herself and pulled her wing into its proper position against her back, although not without a slight wince.
"Y..yes, my lord, thank you." She panted, before wiping her lips with the back of one hand. As she did he could see the steel bracers she customarily wore had become dented and scratched quite badly.
High above, muffled by the interceding rock, Thanatos' cry echoed loudly. The ceiling trembled again and a stalactite nearby shook free from its moorings and tumbled to the floor with a crash.
"The Dragon isn't giving up. It must know we have not gone far." Raziel said, holding the wraith blade up to cast more light.
"I did not expect him to let us slip away quietly, Raziel." Kain grunted flatly while adjusting the leather bracers he wore across his forearms. Ominously he gazed up at the ceiling above, as though he could see through it to the no doubt still circling monster. "A beast like that expects a kill at the end of its hunt."
Raziel cocked his head to one side, listening to the cries coming from above. They were all angry sounds, screeches of annoyance and frustration.
"I suppose no roars of triumph mean that the others have gotten away safely." He mused idly as though to himself. Kain shook his head.
"That would be fortuitous, but it would be best to assume nothing at this juncture."
"No optimism, Kain? After all, we succeeded, did we not?" Raziel asked, looking down again to give Kain a whimsical sort of amused stare. Kain stared right back, his face completely rigid and emotionless.
"Optimism is expensive, Raziel, and our balance has been dangerously taxed of late. For all its faults, pessimism is at least cheap." He said. To that Raziel let out a little chuckle and walked past him, carrying his ghostly blade before him like an ethereal torch.
"You sound like Vorador." The blue wraith opined. Kain folded his arms across his chest and creased his brow in a deep frown.
"And you can keep the insults to yourself."
Raziel led the way, taking a slow pace and pausing every now and then to listen to the sounds coming from above. It would do them no good now to be discovered in their escape by the Legionnaires, or worse still, the Dragon. The caverns were pitch black and Kain was glad Raziel was illuminating their path for them. He could have easily done so, of course, but at the cost of energy. Raziel seemed to waste nothing in using his weapon so.
Finally they came to a carved room which had three doorways leading off right, left, and straight ahead. The passage to the left, however, had collapsed, debris piling up in the opening. The path straight ahead was barred shut by a large, rusted iron door with the Razielim symbol upon it. The doorway to the right was ajar, but wafting from that passage was a distinctly unpleasant smell. Bad air, stale and still. That usually meant there was no way on the other end.
Crossing over the room, Raziel went for the closed door on the far side. The blue wraith tried the latch, but it was rusted shut and did not move. Raziel backed off several steps, paused, and then slammed his body against it. For such an emaciated being his lunge had a great deal of momentum in it and the door shuddered on impact, the lock giving way with a crunch of crumbling metal.
"This passage heads west , but only for a short way. If it's intact we will emerge in what was once the outer city district." Raziel said, pushing the door open against the protest of its long-dormant hinges and revealing the way beyond with the glow of his sword. A flight of stairs was revealed, descending down into utter blackness. Kain stared after it for a moment before giving Raziel a sidelong look.
"That place was claimed long ago by another." He said slowly, a gentle reminder. Raziel nodded without looking around.
"Yes, I know, it's part of the Melchahim necropolis now." Then he started down, leaving the other two to either follow him or be lost in perpetual blackness.
As they descended, Ajatar frowned thoughtfully. Her chin was still stained with Kain's blood and she was holding her only mostly healed wing rather tight against her body, the other spread much more loosely.
"I saw their kind before." She admitted with some hesitation into the silence, her voice echoing down the stairwell. "The state to which they had degenerated was shocking. It was hard to believe they were Vampires."
"Unfortunately they were, they and all the other clans which mutated." Kain grunted, shaking his head slightly in some small dismay. "Balam and his Turelim, as you saw, became monstrously large with the raw strength to match."
"The Melchahim were not so fortunate. They inherited the weakness of their sire, for their skin was mortal while the rest of their flesh was not." Raziel, still in the lead, continued the gruesome history lesson. His wings trailed after him as he walked, the light of his blade playing off them to give each a faint ethereal glow like a cloud of fireflies. "And so blood was not the only tithe they took from Humans. Typically they were skinned as well to replace their rotting originals."
Ajatar visibly recoiled at this intelligence, leaning back with her eyes widening. Her lips drew away from her teeth in disgust and she shuddered, her good wing rustling noisily against her back.
"And this is our evolution?" She asked in bafflement, shaking her head side to side as though trying to contemplate such a thing, yet ultimately failing.
"Hardly." Kain told her, earning him her confusion. He pressed his lips together slightly as though he did not wish to continue, but then finally elaborated. "All Vampires of this era, save Vorador and his Cabal, were descended from me. It was from me that each of them inherited a small measure of the corruption that had infected me since the fall of the Circle. Ultimately, I am responsible for the degenerate plight of every modern Vampire."
It was not an easy thing to admit, even though he had already done in the privacy of his own mind. Doing so, aloud and in front of others, was somehow different. It felt as though he had exposed something he had kept protected for a long time and the sensation was almost akin to being naked in public.
"Pessimistic, but not humble, I see." Raziel said with amusement, gazing back over one shoulder. Kain returned the look for a long, silent moment. Then he smiled, a cruel grin which almost connected both ears.
"If you ponder it, Raziel, I spared you from the corruption." The would-be Emperor of Nosgoth stated. Raziel's eyes widened outright comically at that statement. "You saw the horrors that your brothers became. Could you imagine what you might have transmogrified into had I not cast you into the abyss?"
The blue wraith came to a sudden halt right then and turned to face him. Kain stopped a few steps above him, arms crossed over his chest and head cocked to one side, still smiling wide. Ajatar looked between them somewhat nervously as the silence lengthened.
"I doubt whatever form I might have hypothetically taken would have been worse than my current one." Raziel finally said in a flat tone. "At least I would have my dignity."
"Did Melchiah have dignity?" Kain asked in return and his smile faded distinctly. He looked suddenly very grim. "Did any of them? Really? You would have ended up a monster regardless, Raziel." The two of them held their gazes, focus locked on one another in a long pause of tense silence.
Ajatar looked as though she were about to intervene, to say something, when finally Raziel turned his head away with a snort of disgust and began down the stairs again.
"Remind me to thank you enthusiastically for such mercy later." His voice echoed as he descended.
"You're so enjoyable when you're sarcastic…" Kain chuckled, starting after him and leaving the by now anxious Ajatar to bring up the rear. Raziel led the way, again silent as the stairs kept going down and down, circling around what seemed like a large central pillar of rock. It had to be one of the main supports for the city itself, large columns of stone which had been left to help keep the city in place despite the honeycomb of tunnels beneath it. Finally, however, the wraith turned his head to look back, one eye widening quizzically.
"Although, speaking of evolution, just what was that back there, Kain?" He began, asking a question which Kain had hoped he could avoid for a while longer. "I've known you for at least ten centuries and I've never seen you do something like that before."
Recalled to the event, Ajatar frowned and raised one hand to her chin as she turned her head to look at the one she had sworn her allegiance to. Her expression was confused and questioning.
"It looked as though you were calling the blood from your own body and it obeyed you." She added in her own observations. Kain stayed silent and lowered his chin to his chest, frowning at the steps they were traversing.
"I've seen Vorador's Cabal perform a similar technique, but even they couldn't make solid objects out of their own blood." Raziel said. "Sally called it the 'blood gout,' but that was different somehow…"
Kain nodded once. He knew of the ability, of course, the power to use one's own blood as a weapon, to strike the enemy with it and syphon off their own to replenish that spent in the attack. But Raziel was indeed correct. This had been different. His blood had been so totally under his control it was as though he had command of every single particle within it. Ordering them to create a simple shape such as a sharp spear had been effortless. The iron in his blood had been easy to transmute and refine, as though he were calling the metal up out of the ore from which it was smelt.
"I wish I could provide an explanation." He admitted into the expectant silence. He raised one hand and laid it over his chest and the spot he had clawed himself. The rip in his flesh had healed by now and his talons drummed idly over the fading scars. "What I did was nothing but instinct. It was like a rising of power coming from my chest."
Raziel narrowed his eyes at him for a moment, thinking, before they widened. Raising a talon, he pointed directly at Kain's chest.
"Your heart!" He proclaimed loudly, his almost triumphant voice echoing up and down the stairs several times. At Kain's questioning expression he continued. "Remember, Kain, for centuries your heart had in fact been Janos'! You owe your own Vampirism to the Heart of Darkness." Kain nodded, frowning still in his incomprehension as to where the blue wraith was going with this. "Now your own heart has been restored and it must be reasserting itself over your body."
Kain's frown deepened as he tried to ponder such an idea, his talons drumming harder on his skin. He had not forgotten the ghastly procedure by which his own original heart, kept alive by the descendants of his Human sister, had been restored to his body. It was an experience no amount of time would ever lessen the effect of. But it had saved his life and allowed him to finally defeat Raziel's first incarnation, the arrogant Raziel-Divus and the original king of their enemy.
"But what does that mean?" Ajatar asked, just as confused, giving Raziel a look.
"Vampires, or at least Vampires who were born Human, develop new powers as they grow in age and experience. As time passes, those powers become more and more unique to that individual Vampire. But Kain, up until somewhat recently, had been carrying around inside him the heart of Janos Audron. It was his blood running through his veins." Raziel explained, gesturing in Kain's direction with the wraith blade.
"So you mean the evolution of my Dark Gift was not my own?" Kain asked, finally looking up, although with genuine surprise and curiosity. Raziel nodded.
"Perhaps not." He agreed, circling the tip of his blade over the left-hand side of Kain's chest in an ominous gesture. "And now that your proper heart is back, your body is adjusting, compensating; developing the powers you would have had otherwise."
It was certainly possible, Kain had to concede. Then again, exactly what necromantic powers had been used by Mortanius to both bind the Heart of Darkness to him and keep his own alive in a different host was a secret he would never discover now. Nor was he entirely certain how such magics would interact with the Dark Gift, the ancient curse laid upon his kind by the Hylden so long ago.
"An interesting theory, Raziel." He finally allowed. "A very interesting theory indeed…" A smile then crept slowly across his face. "But if true, it would mean my evolution is not yet over."
Raziel shrugged in response.
"How long had you lived with Janos' heart instead of your own, Kain? Such development is not to be made up in a day." The blue wraith said, lowering his blade. "I suspect your heart has more surprises in store for you."
Kain's smile spread into an almost vulpine grin of anticipatory malice.
"Then I shall just have to await new developments, should they arise."
They all turned to move on but suddenly Raziel thrust out an arm to bar their way, his head turning sharply this way and that as though listening to something only he could hear.
"Wait!" He said quite harshly, eyes narrowed. The three of them hung there in the faint luminosity of the wraith blade, each of them poised and tensed. There was nothing. All beyond their light was total darkness and the only sounds were the gentle flow of sluggish air which had begun to move back and forth across the stairs, as the doorway at the top was now open. Kain was about to say something when the blue wraith sharply turned and thrust his body against them both, pushing them back up the stairs the way they had come.
"Get back!" Raziel began to shout. His words were drowned out by a thunderously loud tearing, a pounding crack as rocks overhead gave way and broke apart. A cascade of dust poured down from the ceiling of the passageway before the stones tumbled free, breaking apart and crashing down onto the stairs. Through the dust advanced the battering ram which had broken through into the tunnel from above, a colossal forearm the width of a tree trunk with digits that ended in curved talons. A beastly hand groped about in the darkness, scrabbling its three-foot claws over the stone, leaving gashes in its wake.
-"I know you're there, gnats!"- It came from above, a vindictive and spiteful hiss rolling against their minds like the crash of a wave upon the shore. -"Come out of those holes so I can end this!"-
The three of them had retreated back up the stairs out of reach of the Dragon's furiously scrabbling claws. Exactly how Thanatos had detected them down here Kain had no idea, but the beast must have ripped his way through several dozen feet of solid rock in order to get at them. The strength in just one of its forelimbs was proven remarkable indeed.
-"My patience grows thin! Come out!"- Thanatos' voice echoed through their minds.
"Is there a way around?" Kain asked under his breath, one hand against the wall and another poised over his shoulder, ready to grasp the hilt of the Reaver.
"Unfortunately not." Raziel replied in an equally hushed voice. "And I doubt we could double back without leaving ourselves exposed."
Glancing back up the way they had come, Kain unfortunately had to concur. Going back the way they had come would put them in danger of the beast tracking them to a place where they might be more easily pried out, or perhaps even herded into the grasp of the Divus' stolen Legion. The only way they could go was forward, past the Dragon's scraping, scratching claws.
"Then we're just going to have to make him let us by." Kain murmured, growling in frustration at being hindered now of all times, and by a seemingly impassable obstacle.
"And how do you plan to make him do that?"
An excellent question. Direct confrontation was completely out of the question. Goading and diversionary tactics were not likely to work again. Thanatos would no doubt be wiley to such ploys now. He would not be distracted. Once he set his eyes on something the Dragon simply would not be diverted. But perhaps that was something that could be used? If the beast was truly so single-minded, then what would happen if they gave him something more pressing to think about?
"He called us 'gnats'. An ordinary gnat is of no consequence and no threat." Kain observed, a smile slowly parting his lips as he watched the Dragon's large paw withdraw from the hole it had created. From above the low rumble of a predatory growl vibrated the air. "Unless it bites you in just the right spot."
Quickly he glanced about for something he could use to affect the plan that was hurriedly assembling in his mind. There was plenty to work with, for the Dragon's claws had torn up a great deal of masonry, leaving a pile of rubble laying twisted down the stairwell before them. He pointed to it, looking back at Ajatar. She caught his gaze, her lips twitching as she took his meaning and then nodded in understanding.
"Wait for my word." He told her quietly, slipping past them both and edging towards the carved opening. The hole which had been torn through from the surface was quite wide, perhaps a dozen feet or more. High above he could make out a lurking shadow with spread wings gazing down. A pair of eyes was glaring into the hole through a thick iron visor attached to the skull of that equine head.
-"Do you think hiding from me is going to work? I can smell your corrupt stink!"- The Dragon's thought cracked down from high above. Kain quickly judged the distance between himself and that looming head. Perhaps about a hundred feet, maybe a hundred-ten. At the end of that serpentine neck, the head was going to able to move very quickly and they were only going to get one opportunity. Glancing back to make sure Ajatar was in position, Kain nodded to her before calling out.
"I would have thought the great Thanatos would have no problem extracting us himself!" He shouted up, affecting a distinctly contemptuous and mocking tone. "Do not tell me you find yourself outwitted by a hole in the ground? Just come on in and get us if you're so powerful!"
Above, Thanatos the last Dragon snorted with embers of flame dancing free from his jaws like fireflies.
-"You are the ones hiding like the vermin you are in the darkness."- A large claw circled the hole he had made ominously, sending small pieces of debris tumbling down. -"And you are trying to vex me. To provoke me into making a mistake. I will not fall for the same trick twice, Vampire."-
Kain smiled at that.
"Well, if you won't come in and we won't come out, what will you do, lizard?" He called up mockingly. "We seem to be at an impasse."
-"Wrong. If you will not come out, then I will just have to turn your sanctuary into a funeral pyre!"- The beast replied and Kain watched as he placed both forepaws to either side of the hole and began to rear up, spreading his wings. His huge chest expanded and a hot, bubbling orange glow grew from between those jaws. Kain held up one hand to Ajatar, holding it steady, waiting for just the right moment; as the dragon reached the end of his flexive rearing.
"Now!" The would-be Emperor of Nosgoth called back, throwing one arm down sharply. Instantly Ajatar slammed her foot down into the stairwell, calling on the elemental power of earth which was hers to command as Grandmaster of the Serioli. A large piece of rubble rocketed up out of the hole, propelled by her skill, blasting high towards the looming beast.
As Thanatos threw his head down and spread his jaws ready to burst forth the hot elemental fire, the debris flew up to meet him.
At the last possible second Ajatar smacked her hands together and then pushed her arms out wide. In response, the debris burst from one single piece into many hundreds of small projectiles roughly the size of pellets. Each one of them soared right into the dragon's maw and battered with relentless fury against the inside of his unprotected throat.
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"I had observed before that when employing his mastery of elemental power, particularly fire, Thanatos had opened his mouth each and every time before unleashing his attack. Perhaps he might find himself less inclined to call upon such raw might with his throat torn up from the inside."
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The fire Thanatos had been preparing to incinerate them with died instantly, evaporating into wisps of black smoke. The beast staggered backwards, hopping awkwardly on one hind leg, clawing at his throat with forelimbs and wings. A strangled, gurgling noise was all that escaped him before he collapsed onto one side, mostly out of view. With his body twitching and writhing in agony, the dragon was set to a hoarse coughing, heaving and struggling for breath. Blood and a few pellets flicked over the edge of the hole.
"Quickly now, let's go!" Kain cried and leapt over the gap in the stairwell to the far side, racing down the remaining stairs as fast as his legs would carry him. The others were right behind him, following him down and down deeper into the bowels of the earth where even the Dragon would be powerless to reach them. Above the sound of Thanatos writhing about, coughing to try and clear his windpipe of the shrapnel faded away,
"Interesting tactic." Raziel observed as they raced on, quickly coming up alongside Kain with the wraith blade still lighting the way. "Never considered simply giving my enemy a sore throat before."
"A weak spot we ought to remember in future. I doubt we're done with him yet." Kain replied grimly. "Now let us be out of this city before he regains his breath."