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The first sign that the assault had begun was the combination of two things that happened at once. First the ambient light began to fade with no obvious cause, as though a blanket were being slipped over them and shrouding them in shadow. Second was the muffling of sounds to the barest whisper of noise. Each step they took sounded fainter and fainter until soon they traveled in growing blackness and unnatural silence. The air seemed alive with a bubbling, hostile presence, and the feeling of being watched as so acute it was as though they were being studied by thousands of eyes all at once.
The three of them had barely made it to the large central chamber of the pyramid before the darkness all about them was writhing with shapes which oozed out of the shadows. The three of them stood back to back, each with a weapon drawn. Kain held the Reaver before him, one hand free to cast a bolt of arcane force if necessary. Raziel crouched low, the wraith blade flickering on his right hand and his shield spinning its own crackling energy about on his left. Ajatar held in one hand her only good short sword, and in the other was the golden axe of the fallen Ansu.
All around them figures were rising one by one from the shadows. Not a one of them was the same as the other. They were all so varied. Some were short, others were tall. Some were stout, others very thin. Many had distinct curves which could have indicated femininity. All these features were very crude, like they were only being shown in a very basic way. Their hands had no fingers, rather long claws which trailed clouds of black vapor, and their eyes were a flickering violet. They were soon enough surrounded by a circling band of purple stars winking in the shadows.
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"These foul beings, manifest from the darkness itself, were no physical creatures. I knew not what arcane process gave animation to these abominations, only that they were entities that felt neither pain nor remorse. They would come with claws like ice until the prey they sought was rent asunder."
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There was a pause of perhaps a handful of seconds. Then the shadows came at them in a rush. Not the uniform, rigid, disciplined advance of the Divus Legionnaires, but a swarming, silent stampede of grasping, icy claws. Kain did not wait to meet their charge but rather ran to confront it head-on, swinging the serpentine Reaver blade around him and putting his weight into the attack. The Reaver screamed as it was swung and met with body against body in the path of its arc, passing through them as though they were naught but air.
These shades were creatures without much in the way of physical substance, their bodies more like a thick mist or fog, but they were not totally immune to attacks. Each time the Reaver swung through their midst, Kain could feel the tug and pull of something along the blade. Whatever held them together, barely visible and mostly intangible, could only take so much before it gave way. Jamming the Reaver into the chest of one of them as it lunged at him from behind, he dragged the blade up the torso and through the head. With a deep-toned cry, the creature burst apart into a quickly fading vapor of black smoke.
Ajatar swung the golden axe of her fallen subordinate about, easily wielding it one-handed, slamming its blade into the head of one shade as it came rushing at her. The blow barely fazed the creature, passing through with almost no resistance before its claws raked her side, blood spurting free and splattering on the floor. She let out a cry and flapped her good wing, propelling herself backwards and out of reach of its grasping arms.
"Strike at the chest!" Raziel called to her, rolling into a ball and sliding beneath two reaching claws. Springing back to his feet, the blue wraith slammed his ethereal sword into his assailant's torso, the flickering tip emerging out its back. With a screech the creature popped like a bubble. Before he could run to anyone else's aid another came at him and he was forced to block the lunge of its claws with his shield.
Her face set with both pain and alarm, Ajatar dodged to the left to avoid a slash before she rebounded. Taking Raziel's advice, she went straight for the creature's chest, slicing it across its midsection with her short sword before slamming the axe blade so deep that she cut the thing in half before it burst into smoke. Using the momentum of the swing to carry her on, she ducked under the next attack before bringing the axe straight up and cutting the nearest shade in half from crotch to head in one enraged swing.
"Get away from me!" She screamed as the shades closed in around her, her voice hoarse, shrill, and filled with panic.
Her foot rose and Kain instantly recognised the gesture, having seen it often enough before. Quickly he dove out of the way. With a loud boom she slammed her foot down sharply on the ground and Kain knew she only did that when calling upon the element of Earth. The floor beneath their feet cracked like an egg and buckled up, shards of rubble flying out in all directions. Raziel had to throw up his shield to protect himself from the amount of projectiles suddenly ricocheting through the air.
Many of the shades were not so fortunate, dozens of them bursting into smoke from the rubble embedded in their foggy forms. Many others tumbled down into the massive holes her panicked response had opened up in the floor. The remaining creatures lunged for her again, undeterred by the vicious attack or the loss of so many of their allies. But this time Kain was there to meet them, the Reaver screeching and screaming as it split the air and caught them across the midsection to cut them in half.
"More are coming!" Raziel called out, and indeed there were. Rising from the shadows, more and more malformed shapes were pouring forth. It was as though for every shade they cut down, the darkness birthed another three. If that level of reinforcement kept up then they would be literally drowned in shadows.
"Come!" Kain called out, grabbing Ajatar by the wrist and yanking her away from the oncoming creatures. With her in his grasp he leapt down through one of the holes she had opened up, dropping into the chamber below. Raziel was a moment after them, sending a bolt of telekinetic force behind him to smash a shade which tried to follow directly in its chest.
Kain plummeted down at least a good hundred feet before he came to a wooden joist, landing upon it with a shuddering impact that caused the thing to sway and buckle. He did not wait for it to detach completely and, with Ajatar in hand, vaulted off once more, jumping from the cracking support to another beam. Then another and another, dropping down farther into the dark abyss below each time.
When he ran out of joists he aimed them at his only other alternative, which was a stone ledge that jutted out at a deeply slanted angle. He had hoped that he might be able to counter the steepness by using his free hand to latch onto the wall. However, as he sank his talons into the stone it came away in his grip, crumbling and brittle. His feet skidded wildly as he sought to keep his balance but in the end all he could do was throw himself from the ledge in a controlled leap, hoping to find something to break his fall before the drop became lethal.
That came an anti-climactic moment later as his feet hit firmly onto solid ground less than a few feet away, hidden in the darkness. Braced for a heavy impact and feeling quite foolish about it, Kain let Ajatar go and turned his head to look up at the drop they had tumbled down. The opened floor of the chamber above was all but invisible in the darkness, highlighted only by the swirling purple lights staring down at them. The shades were relentless but the shaft they had leapt down, a vertical drop of several hundred feet, was detering them for now. That advantage, however, would not last very long. They would find some means of slipping down the sides of those walls and be on them again soon enough.
All about them at the bottom of this shaft was a thick haze, a red, noxious miasma that Kain knew the scent of immediately. It was the all too familiar smell of blood. So much blood that the air down here was thick with particles of iron that turned it vaguely red, a testament to the sheer amount of death which had taken place in this house of pain.
"I.. I'm sorry, my lord…" Ajatar huffed, running a hand over her face. Her voice was thick with telltale adrenaline. "I let emotion get the better of me again." The hand she was holding up was shaking and her eyes were still quite wide.
"Under the circumstances, I'll overlook the slip." Kain muttered, watching as overhead, Raziel was gliding down toward them in a more controlled manner, grasping his ruined wings to slow his descent.
"I… I have never seen such...horrors!" Ajatar admitted, leaning against a wall for support, the golden axe of Ansu hanging in her free hand.
"Do they truly unnerve you so?" Kain asked, tilting his head. "I would have thought one such as you would be used to facing creatures of nightmare. Or is there something you have not told me?" She swallowed hard and looked shamefaced, her eyes downcast as if she did not wish to speak. Finally she looked back up with pursed lips.
"As a fledgling, I… we were all kept hidden away in the darkness of the underground Rookery. For most this cures them of their fear of such...basic things as a lack of sufficient light." She took a breath before admitting; "It...did not for me."
Kain could not help but smile.
"Well, well, the seemingly fearless Grandmaster of the Serioli Order is afraid of the dark." He mused. Her returning glare, however, was defiant and contrary.
"No, not the dark!" She insisted quite firmly. Seeming to forget her place, she leaned forward with her good wing spreading out wide. "The dark is just an absence of light. No, I could not stand what lurked within the darkness. To know an enemy was there and that I could not see them terrified me." Her head turned to look back up and she shuddered, her wings rustling. "And these...these things are the ultimate expression of that! The darkness itself as an enemy!"
"Interesting interpretation." Kain muttered in thought as Raziel dropped down to the floor with a soft thud, summoning the wraith blade to illuminate the bottom of the shaft. A cracked and broken stone seal against the nearby wall bore the Melchahim sigil. Rubble lay all around, collapsed pillars, more old wooden joists, and stacked piles of shattered mosaic pieces. They must have been laying here for some time, as a thin layer of red dust covered everything, giving the entire area an almost alien appearance. Several bleached, old skeletons lay heaped about in scattered pieces, most of them Human, but some bore the telltale fangs and claws of the Vampire.
"What are they?!" Ajatar asked, still staring up at the milling, glistening purple eyes which for now were kept from attacking.
"They have no name." Raziel said with a shake of his head, holding the ghostly sword up like a common torch. "They are creatures of energy alone, held together by intangible bubbles of force. They have no soul of their own, only fragments they have ensnared from elsewhere."
"You've seen them before?" Ajatar was still quite baffled and alarmed.
"Many times." The blue wraith assured her, then turned, gesturing for them to follow with his free hand. "Come, we ought keep moving while we have the advantage."
He led them deeper into the chambers of the pyramid, and as Kain knew where they were going, he began to cobble a rough plan together. It was the only place within this lair of pain which might offer them a defensive advantage, but if necessary could be pulled down around their pursuing enemies. In order to escape such a last ditch effort, Kain would be required to employ a translocation spell. That would alert the Divus to their location for certain, but there would be no alternative. He hoped it would not come to that.
"I know not how, but those creatures are thralls to the God of the Wheel." Raziel was saying as he led them down a sloping passageway, the red mist in the air growing thicker the farther they progressed. "They obey his every whim. In fact, 'thrall' may be the wrong word, as they have no will of their own to supplant. Only his mind animates their bodies."
"How many does he have at his command?" Ajatar asked in a sickly voice, not looking around.
"I do not think the concept of numbers applies to those things anymore, Ajatar." Raziel replied with a grim frown. "My former master has devoured countless millions of souls over the eons. Cast off fragments from those feasts can easily be harvested to make more of them. There are simply as many as is needed."
Kain thought about that. If what he had learned was true, the Elder had arrived on Nosgoth during the primeval age when the world was ruled by the Dragons. Ever since he had been feasting on the life of this world, slowly sucking it dry. The Pillars had held him back and spared the world the worst of his gluttony, as per Ba'al Zebur's design, but the sheer amount of souls he must have devoured before and since was mind-boggling. Entire generations of Men and Vampires killing each other over and over, for no other reason than to be placed on an elaborate thought still made him shiver in cold anger and he had to suppress it.
"Do they have weaknesses? If they are composed of darkness, then surely some intense light can…" Ajatar began but Raziel cut her off.
"Unfortunately it's not that simple." He said with a small bit of wry amusement. "These beings can take on the elements they interact with, absorb them into their forms. What we faced out there were, for the moment, merely shades of the dark. But I have faced them when they were comprised of fire, water, or even light itself. We're lucky you didn't invigorate them with your own attacks."
Ajatar's face blanched at that.
"They are like Vampires for elemental energy." Raziel went on. "If we cannot employ the power of the elements against them, that puts us at a distinct disadvantage."
The Grandmaster of the Serioli shook her head, frowning as she tried to absorb what she was being told. Despite everything that had happened to her so far, Kain supposed that the concepts surrounding the false god and his methods was still quite confusing. He wondered how much of it she even believed. Probably only what she could determine with her own eyes. And she was the most loyal ally he had. What this said for the others of their fragile alliance, he did not want to think.
"I don't understand…" She confessed, rubbing her temples with one hand. "If this...this God can summon such a seemingly limitless army out of the guts of hell, what use has he for the Divus… Or any other earthly force?"
Kain drew in a breath and let it out in a sigh.
"Because it's not about domination by force, Ajatar. It never was." He said, and saw her head turning to look at him. "We only face the Divus as a military adversary now because we forced their hand. We have proven to be a credible threat to them at a crucial moment in their plans. They assault us because we have left them with no other option." Raziel nodded at that, turning back himself with the wraith blade held up.
"My former master wants converts, not slaves. Beings to fall down before him in abject and total surrender. He wants generations of mortals to love him, obey, cherish, and praise him." He raised a talon to emphasis his words with a few sharp gestures. "I am sure you've heard God referred to as a 'shepherd' before, yes? A kindly guardian tending his flock? The problem with that analogy most seem to overlook is that the shepherd eventually plans to eat his sheep."
"And sheep would hardly walk into the abattoir as blissfully unaware animals if they were being herded along by a series of monsters." Kain continued sagely. "The Divus provide him with a command structure. A driving force to keep his faithful in line and a military power that transcended the restrictions of time. But most importantly it gave him a handsome face through which to speak."
A sick little smile spread slowly over his lips. "But now we have pushed him to throw caution to the wind. We've proven such an irritant, such a thorn in his side, that he sends everything he has after us. Frankly, I'm flattered."
"Your hand is shaking. You hardly seem flattered to me." Raziel observed. Kain glanced down quickly. Sure enough, by his side he could see that his hand was twitching. He held it up before him as though marveling at it, a confused expression on his face. It was then he took note of the tight sensation which had developed in the pit of his stomach, a knot of anxiety which had been lingering in him ever since they had fled into the pyramid.
Those dark eyes still haunted him, the memory of their endless, bottomless void lingering ominously. He seemed to be seeing them everywhere he looked. Just what was that creature and how did it exert such an emotional hold on him?
"Merely excitement, Raziel." He said with a forceful tone full of a vitality that he was far from feeling. Ajatar might have been convinced, but Raziel's flat expression spoke volumes.
At the bottom of the tilted shaft, the passageway opened up into a large, circular chamber with a high, domed ceiling. The clan symbol for the Melchahim was engraved as base relief at regular intervals all around, some in much better condition than others. A few tattered banners hung here and there, all soiled and threadbare. The red, bloody haze was thickest here, obscuring anything beyond a few feet away and the air stank of copper and rotten meat, a cloying taste which filled the mouth.
Set into the centre of the room was a tall ring of iron, a open-topped cage coated with many layers of dried, flaking blood. The floor within that circle was permanently stained red, blood having sunk into the stone to forever color it the brightest crimson. High above, half concealed in the dim light, were the multitude of gleaming, teeth-like blades of a flat, circular grinder on the end of a long metal pillar. It was from there that the strongest, most disgusting smells came. That machine had seen a long use of efficient dismemberment of large quantities of fresh, bloody meat.
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"Melchiah's chamber, the room where the youngest of my sons had dwelt after his increasing mutations left him deformed and hideous to behold. Too ashamed to be seen, he had in the end grown so large and malformed he had needed a specially built floor to bring him up out of his lair again. He had been the last of the six Vampires raised by me. And the first to fall to Raziel's campaign of vengeance."
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"This…this place is sickening!" Ajatar spat, one hand to her mouth at the stink, her expression full of dismay and disgust. Her eyes were wildly flickering back and forth to take in all the gory details of this dark place. "Just how many have died down here?!"
"Three too few." The voice was an insidious whisper from out of the darkness. A shadow detached itself from the ceiling above and dropped down towards them, a pair of wings snapping open like a striking bird of prey.
"Look out!" Kain bellowed and not a fraction of a second too soon. Raziel dove forward instinctively, ducking into a roll to push himself out of the way. Ajatar sprang backwards, flapping her good wing to propel her body. The shadow came down hard and Kain had a momentary impression of a clenched fist before the impact came, a blow which caused the ground all about to crack and buckle. The red haze in the air shuddered as a shockwave passed through it.
The assailant slowly straightened and Kain felt himself turn pale at the sight of it, now from less than several feet away. Those eyes again. Those terrible, deep, dark, bottomless eyes. Staring at him, commanding him to accept the inevitable. His own death, forestalled for so many years, was calling to him with awful finality. His nostrils flared wide in response, resentful and instinctive anger suddenly boiling through his veins.
"So you stalk me, do you, apparition!? I will not fear you!" He called out defiantly, the Reaver suddenly in his hands. The animal compulsion to either flee or stand and fight was a strong one and, faced with such a display, Kain's entire being demanded that he fight. He was moving forward before he had even made the conscious decision to do so, charging with sword raised into the cloak of darkness surrounding the figure.
"Begone!" He cried and swung the Reaver with all the strength he could muster directly into its body. There was a solid thunk and an intense vibration ran down the sword. Kain looked up in stunned amazement at the sight of a shadowy hand holding the sword at bay, catching it between a set of Vampiric talons.
"What?! What manner of…" He started but the blow cut him off. Lightning fast, it lashed out and struck him full in the face and it was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most powerful punch Kain had ever taken. His vision went black, the world blotted out completely and when it cleared once more he was lying on his back all the way across the chamber with the Reaver clattering on the floor by his side. His head throbbed with the sound of a dozen cathedral bells all ringing at once.
Raziel flourished the wraith blade, maintaining a prudent distance, sidestepping slowly around the figure which for the moment was just standing there. Its form was hidden behind a cloak of pure, writhing darkness, like a carpet of black snakes. Flickering violet eyes in amongst the shifting shadows showed this obscuring garment was made of actual shades, all clasped tightly to a physical presence. Only those terrible, deep eyes in the middle of an almost featureless white face gazed out.
Slowly the figure raised a hand and then made a sharp, dismissive gesture. Instantly the shades covering its form vanished, dispersing like a cloud of evaporation. The darkness cleared and slowly the real form beneath the obscuring shadows made itself known, especially as a large pair of matted, feathered wings spread out to fan the rest of the dark mists away.
Their attacker had the general form of an Ancient Vampire, a male with feathered wings, hands and feet bearing talons. But the skin was pale, almost bleached white with an unnerving red tinge. Then it became clear that the skin had a faint but sickening translucence and they could all see the flesh beneath, riddled with black veins. Muscle, sinew and bones all writhed beneath the surface, disgustingly visible. The wings themselves were still dark like those of an Ancient Vampire, but each feather had faded to white around the outer edge, giving them the look of wings comprised of sharpened blades.
The hair on the skull was long but was tied back by a wrap of cloth into a top knot. Across his waist he wore the tattered remains of what once had been a white toga, the kind the Divus wore, or at least had worn while in their glory in Fanum-Divus. Black leather wrappings were strapped across his midsection and forearms, covering him up to the elbows and up to the chest. Over the talons of his hands and feet were silvery gauntlets, each plate engraved with an obscure arcane symbol.
The face was the worst part of that horrible visage, for the skull was visible beneath that pale, semi-translucent skin, teeth and fangs showing even through closed lips. The eyeballs were completely black and the darkness of the socket beyond made them appear even wider than normal. Two black streaks, very similar to the markings on Raziel's own face, ran from those eyes and down his cheeks to meet with each corner of his lips.
The unveiling of the reality behind the monstrous facade did little to quiet Kain's anxiety and apprehension regarding those terrible eyes, and the awful sensation of finality when gazing at them.
"My name is Abaddon. I am the Angel of Destruction." The figure said, his voice intense as he said each word but with almost none of the right inflections or proper cadence. It was as though speaking were a foreign thing and he was pronouncing everything strangely, emphasis placed on many of the wrong words in the sentence.
Kain grunted and hauled himself back to his feet, his head still ringing.
"Never heard of you." He growled, his arm trembling slightly as he held the Reaver up before him.
"Yes, you have." This creature that called itself Abaddon said contarily, sweeping his black gaze across them all. His hands were raised in front of him, talons uncurling and curling into fists over and over with the leather beneath his gauntlets creaking loudly each time. "My existence is a maddening blend of pain and pleasure. I can no longer distinguish between sensations. Even my memories are a tangled jumble so interwoven that past and present flow into one another." Those horrifying, pit-like eyes gazed past the talons to stare with unnatural focus upon them.
"But I remember you. Kain, Raziel. I remember you all so vividly." That intense voice changed, becoming more animated with greater inflection. That face with the skull just visible beyond the skin twisted with the birth of emotion. And that emotion was an easily identifiable boiling rage. "And I feel, dwelling inside me, a strong desire. A desire to grant unto you pain and suffering the likes of which you cannot imagine. I believe the time has finally come to indulge that desire."
"You have nothing to teach me about pain." Raziel replied with scorn, unimpressed. The blue wraith moved, shifting his body, prepared to lunge forward. But before he could do so, Abaddon was on him. This new enemy was swift, fast beyond even the enhanced reactions of a Vampire. His fist came down and it was only Raziel's own swift reflexes that saved him, throwing up his left arm and deploying his field. That fist smashed again and again with devastating force into the flickering circle of light, each blow causing the red haze in the air to ripple like the surface of water. Raziel held firm, trembling each time the barrier was beaten, but remaining steadfast.
"You will have to do better than…" He began harshly but was cut short when Abaddon swung low with acrobatic speed and grace which defied belief and knocked his legs out from under him with a powerful swing of one foot. Raziel was sent tumbling down and before he could even strike the floor, his arm was seized. Abaddon then swiftly reversed and swung Raziel around like a rag doll directly into Ajatar, who had been attempting to rush their assailant from behind with her good short sword.
The blow was powerful and there was the distinct, hair-raising sound of snapping bone. A cry from the Serioli Grandmaster was cut short and reduced to a muffled gargle as she and the blue wraith slammed back into the far wall with a crunch, the wall giving way and breaking apart in a cloud of dust. Abaddon turned swiftly, ready to confront Kain as the Vampire charged at him with the Reaver swinging wide.
He did not aim at Abaddon directly this time, anticipating their enemy's great speed and instead attacked with more precision. He swung at the head, forcing Abaddon to dodge by leaning backwards. Kain took a step forward, arching his body to bring the serpentine sword up, threatening to cut Abaddon from his crotch on upwards. Once more their enemy evaded, spreading his wings to push himself back. And that was the opening Kain had been waiting for.
Putting all the strength he could muster into it, Kain took the hilt of the Reaver in both hands and lunged forward. He thrust the sword directly at Abaddon's chest, aiming to hit him straight in the heart in that one moment where his vision would be obscured by the sweep of his wings. The sword plunged in, coming within mere inches of its tip piercing Abaddon's skin.
Suddenly a pair of dark arms snapped up out of the shadows, a shade manifesting out of nowhere. It grasped Kain by the arms, hauling him back with the strength of its grip alone. While this was not enough to stop Kain, it slowed his momentum. The sword drew back from that crucial moment and Abaddon escaped without so much as a mark on him.
Before Kain could adapt or even free himself from the grip of the shade holding him, Abaddon flew directly at him. The first punch struck him in the belly and the wind was forced out of his lungs. The second punch impacted his side, and may as well have been a battering ram. Kain felt his ribs crack. The third and final blow was an uppercut, swinging down and then sharply up to connect with his jaw. The force of the blow was enough to rocket Kain off his feet, arching him high overhead before he slammed to the ground.
Dazed, coughing blood onto his lips, Kain stumbled onto all fours. His vision swam ominously as he tried to right himself, his battered body calling on his already overtaxed reserves of strength to try to repair itself. Grunting in pain, he struggled back to his feet as Abaddon approached, his pace slow. He did not seem in any great hurry to end this confrontation. And why should he, Kain wondered. He was clearly winning.
"What manner of Divus are you?" The Vampire demanded, coughing once more before wiping the blood from his lips with his wrist. Abaddon paused a moment.
"Divus?" He repeated, his oddly inflectioned voice sounding quite puzzled. His head tilted to one side quizzically before he shook it in dismissal. "I am beyond the Divus. They are each but small mortals given a spec of divine light upon which to sustain themselves. They hold a mere candle flame and call it a sun."
He raised one hand and snapped his talons. Suddenly, all about him, shades were manifesting. Dozens at a time, called to his side as a horde. They appeared out of every conceivable shadow, tearing their way up even out of small patches of shade. Within moments their enemy was surrounded by a wall of dark mist and glittering purple eyes, a personal army.
"I am Abaddon." He declared firmly. "I am the sun."