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This time when the tide of dark beings rose up it was not in a disorganised melee of grasping, icy claws, but rather a disciplined, united advance of a line of them pressing forward with the rest following behind. This was not the approach of some regimented army either, more a swelling mass like an oncoming tsunami as it raced toward the shore. But Kain did not move. His stance set, his face a mask of determination, and with sword in hand, he became the rock that wave broke upon.
As the dark horde descended upon him he did not deflect or dodge, but instead met it head-on, swinging the Reaver into the mass of shades as hard as he could. The serpentine blade sank through their ranks, slicing and carving their misty bodies apart with ease, a single swing sending half a dozen into oblivion. Others closed in around him, trying to take him either side at once, but Kain kept his momentum going and spun around completely, turning the arc of the Reaver into a whirlwind of force which split another wide swath of his attackers in two.
Yet more advanced, claws of frigid darkness swiping at him and coming close to cleaving his skin. Kain slid back out of range before propelling himself forward, impaling his attacker directly through the chest. The second the shade evaporated he let his own body fade into mist to avoid the swiping claws coming in from all around him before reforming beyond their reach. Then with Reaver in hand he lashed back with the sword once more.
The shades were not simply attacking Kain. A great many of them had Raziel and Ajatar backed up against the far wall of the gruesome chamber, fending off the advancing wave of darkness with axe and wraith blade. Their backs pressed together, they were defending themselves as best they could, frequently having to switch positions in order to ward off a more aggressive assault from one side or another. Flares of fire shot forth from Ajatar's hands as she unleashed elemental force in her defense, and sparks of eldritch energy rained from both Raziel's wraith blade and shield as he feinted and parried.
Abaddon had not moved. He stood there surrounded by the dark shades like they were his personal bodyguards, his arms folded across his chest and the two dark pits he had for eyes gazing out, watching the melee unfold like a distant general observing the battle unfold for his troops on a faroff warfront.
"Though it might not seem the case, these creatures are not mindless. Rather they have too much mind as opposed to not enough." Their strange enemy remarked softly, the dark, dead voids in his face flickering back and forth, watching each of them struggle in turn. "Every one of these beings consists of so many fragments of different conflicting souls that in the composite an individual is a community in and of themselves."
A sick little smile creased his face, the teeth parting behind vaguely translucent lips. Idly he raised a hand and waved it back and forth through the head of the shade nearest to him. The creature flinched slightly but did not pull away. It remained in place as that hand moved to and fro, its form parting to allow its passage like a thin mist.
"The mind formed by the collection of such constantly warring soul fragments is so chaotic, so unbalanced that they welcome any sort of overriding outside intelligence which can grant them stability and unified purpose." That hand then paused inside the head, lingering there, the tips of the talons protruding through the face.
"They're grateful to the Master for his tyranny." Abaddon went on, tilting his head to the side in a quizzical sort of way, pausing for a moment as though studying the shade like a scholar would an object of particular interest. Then his fist clenched. The shade evaporated instantly, dispersing into nothing. Abaddon held up his hand and contained in his grip was a luminescent, incomplete globule of matter which flickered about randomly and wildly. "And to me for mine."
Kain leapt up high as several of the creatures lunged for him at once, front and back. Arching head over heels, he brought the Reaver about, sharply cutting one of them in half and slicing a second diagonally across the chest. Then, as he descended, he brought the Reaver down hard on a third in the execution of the Infernal Sundering technique, slicing the misty creature from head to toe.
As he turned to confront another, however, Abaddon made his move. Gathering the essence of the shade he had crushed in his talons, he threw his hand forward and released it as a projectile of twisting, churning, chaotic light. Kain raised his hand, instinctively throwing up whatever barrier of eldritch force he could to protect himself, but it broke through his defenses like shattering a pane of glass, striking him full in the face.
Everything turned white for a moment, sound reduced to a single high-pitched, unending tone. When vision returned and muffled sounds began to intrude upon his dazed awareness, Kain found himself laying on his back on the ground. He was within the ring of carnage at the center of the chamber, the deadly circular grinding mechanism poised high above him.
"Kain, get up!" Raziel shouted, sliding back to try to reach him only to find his path blocked by a trio of clawed shadows.
Feebly Kain tried to rise, but as soon as he hoisted himself up onto his knees his legs gave out and he collapsed onto all fours, his stomach churning. His equilibrium was lost in a haze of nausea and swimming vision. He felt as though all the energy that sustained him had been bled out of his body, ached like he had not fed for days. Teeth gritted, he struggled, forcing himself up.
Suddenly Abaddon was on him, a foot lashing down and pinning the stunned Vampire to the floor again. The impact knocked Kain back into another whirlwind of swirled sounds and images.
"Such a fine thing it is to grant the mercy of subjugation unto those in need." Kain could just make out their enemy's words as he lingered over him, foot heavy on his shoulder. "I had never realised before just what a blessing it truly was. Indeed it is the most glorious thing in the world, to grand vision, clarity, and purpose to those of lesser mind." Those dark pits gazed down at him, inviting him, calling him to a death which was catching up to him. "Don't you agree, Emperor of Nosgoth?"
"For an Angel of Destruction you certainly run your mouth!" Kain grunted, one hand trying to push the foot off of him as his strength failed him.
"My voice is the last thing you will ever hear. Do not be so quick to silence me." Abaddon remarked and slowly his hand raised, a second twisting mass of energy gathering between his talons and forming a struggling orb.
There was a sudden whistling sound, a screeching as the air parted in protest of an intruder. Abaddon turned sharply but not quick enough to avoid being struck by a barrage of rocks and debris, bombarding him like a hailstorm. Their enemy was forced to back off, bringing his wings around to shield himself from the onslaught. Kain rolled onto his side to get away, catching sight of Ajatar as she advanced.
Her stance was set wide, her feet scraping the floor of the chamber. As she did, she called upon the elemental power of earth to gather more debris, her footsteps spreading cracks across the surface. Her hands clasped together and then cupped themselves before her face, her expression one of outrage and indignation. Her eyes were cold, yet burning with anger.
"Every day of my entire life I have had to struggle against those who would stop at nothing to see me dead!" She spat and spun about, bringing her leg up and around in a sharp arc which sent more and more debris hurtling Abaddon's way.
Behind her Raziel was fending off the shades, thrusting his shield out before him and calling upon its own energies to blaze with elemental force. For the moment the shades were struggling to get past it. Their unity was gone and they seemed to have returned to being a mass of chaotic fury. It appeared that while distracted Abbadon could not direct them as efficiently. Hurriedly Kain tried to right himself, forcing himself to get back to his feet despite the swimming head and blurred vision.
"I don't care who you think you are, you're just another in a long line of enemies that have gotten in my way!" Ajatar cried in a hoarse, outraged voice and in one fluid motion she changed her stance. Her body thrust forward, left arm extended. Along the length of her arm an icicle formed, condensed from the moisture in the air as she called upon the power of water. As soon as it was long enough she took hold of it like a spear and hurled it forward. His wings raised to protect himself, Abaddon did not see it coming and with a loud crunch the icicle punched through his abdomen. Abaddon lurched, doubling over at the sudden impact. Kain could not help but grimace as he could see the ice stuck right through that partly translucent body.
Ajatar was not finished, however. With a swift flurry of her arms she adopted a third stance, changing her attack. Her talons flicked out before her and she unleashed the elemental power of air, calling upon the devastating force of lightning. With a crash that shook the entire chamber it connected instantly with the tip of the protruding icicle and flooded Abaddon's body with light. Their enemy's form writhed about as the energy tore through him, fixing him in place. Small parts of him began to explode, beams of light pouring out of the torn wounds.
Kain acted instantly. Turning quickly he caught sight of the switch he knew was on the far wall, the large handle which operated the chamber's gruesome mechanism. Raising his hand to gesture, he seized control of it with his telekinesis and forced it to respond. The mechanism protested loudly, having not been used in some time, but firmly he made it work. Unseen gears churned, clunking and screeching. High above, the great saw-toothed grinder was beginning to turn.
Abaddon was rooted to the spot by Ajatar's attack, arms spread out wide and light pouring out from the tips of his talons. He was struggling, however, forcing himself to move. Ajatar simply poured more and more energy into his body, trying to drown him in destructive force, her face angrily set. Kain knew better than to let the stalemate continue. Firmly he wrapped one arm about her waist and leapt backwards, up and out of the cage-like ring.
"Keep him there!" He barked at her. Despite being so startled by his actions, she obeyed. Ajatar's hands lashed out, spreading wide as she called on yet another element. A ring of intense flame erupted from the ground around Abaddon, forcing him to recoil even as he freed himself from electrical paralysis.
In that instant, the grinder came down. It descended impeccably, driven with industrial force directly on top of Abaddon. The curtain of flames did not allow Kain to see much detail but the sounds were sickening enough. Then, at one sudden motion there was a flash of light, like an exploding ember on a hearth. Then Abaddon was simply gone. No body, no remains, not so much as any splattered residue.
All about them the shades vanished, evaporating into thin air enmass. One moment they were surrounded by a horde of darkness, an army of shadow creatures. Then they were alone. The three of them were left standing there bewildered, the only sign of battle the wounds inflicted upon them and the damage done to the chamber itself. The grinder scraped the floor of the ring of carnage for a few ear-grating seconds before it began to slowly rise back up again, its teeth gently spinning about.
Raziel approached aprehensively, ducking to examine the grinder as it slowly ascended.
"Did we kill him?" Ajatar asked, looking suddenly very worn out.
"I...don't know." Raziel admitted, his eyebrows knit in a puzzled expression. "He just disappeared."
Kain gazed up, watching the grinder rise back up to its normal position. He wanted to believe they had won. He had, after all, witnessed their enemy crushed beneath Melchiah's cruel device, the same which had ironically taken his own life. But those deep black eyes still taunted the back of his mind.
"Perhaps, then, he was nothing but talk." Kain began, reaching for the sword which lay off to one side.
"I am many things." A sudden echoing voice said, coming from nowhere. "But mere talk is not one of them." Instantly Kain had the Reaver in his hands and was jerking his head this way and that trying to find the source of that voice.
"What in hell?!" Raziel demanded, looking around sharply.
There was a sudden, second flash, this one brighter than the first, like the rising of the sun over the edge of the world at dawn. Before them dust was gathering, swirling about itself as though awoken by new and powerful purpose. More and more matter and substance was being wrenched from all around, torn free and pulled together, galvanised and forced into a new form. Directly before their eyes, the body of Abaddon rebuilt itself. Bit by bit his form recombined and reconstituted, becoming whole in a matter of a single moment.
Then with a flurry, his wings spreading, Abaddon was standing there once more. His deep, pit-like eyes locked onto them.
"How … is that possible?!" Ajatar hissed, staring with wide, disbelieving eyes and her mouth agape. Raziel wore a no less stunned expression, his far more expressive eyes bulged wide.
"You gathered matter to rebuild your physical form." He breathed, sliding back a pace in startlement. "You're like me!"
Kain's knowledge of exactly how Raziel's unique existence functioned was not as extensive as perhaps he might like. But if Raziel thought that this was indeed the same as how his own body functioned, then this was cause for massive concern. Grimly Kain's grip on the Reaver tightened.
"No, Raziel. I am what you were supposed to be." Abaddon corrected him with a cold, implacable voice, flapping his wings either side of himself. "I am you done right!"
Kain did not make the mistake of waiting for their enemy to attack. He lunged forward first, swinging the Reaver at him in a flurry of movements which was the Cadaverous Laceration technique. Not so much as one blow connected. Abbadon burst into a speed which defied all explanation, rocketing forward so fast he was a simple white blur. He did not attack Kain, however, but shot past him, his entire body spinning.
With an acrobatic skill which left him a swirling streak of motion, their enemy landed his attack directly into Ajatar's unprotected head. The roundhouse kick connected with a terrible crack that echoed through the chamber, slamming her face-first into the floor. There she lay, still and silent. She did not try to rise again.
"Ajatar!" Kain cried, racing forward, throwing out his hand to fire several condensed bolts of telekinetic force at their enemy. Abaddon batted each bolt aside with one hand and easily ducked under the swing of the serpentine sword swung at him. Kain moved to bring the Reaver down, to impale it through Abaddon's head but before he could their enemy struck again.
A punch smashed into his shoulder, then another into his side, then a third into his neck. A rapid succession of powerful and precise blows, each one adding to the pain of the others until Kain's already overtaxed and tired body finally gave out and he was slammed back into a wall as one final blow smashed across his chin. In that rapid series of attacks was such leashed fury, and Kain was finally exposed to the terrifying truth of this altercation.
Abaddon had been holding back. He had allowed them to gain ground against him because he had simply been playing with them.
Raziel was coming around toward them, shield humming on one arm and sword sparking on the other. Abaddon half turned to see his advance before shooting across the distance between himself and the blue wraith in the blink of an eye. Raziel went to raise his shield to protect himself but the motion was simply too slow. Abaddon slapped the arm aside and seized Raziel by the throat with his free hand.
In one powerful motion he yanked the blue wraith from his feet and then slammed him into the ground, pinning him there. Both unearthly sword and shield went out with a flash. Raziel let out a cry of pain, struggling to free himself.
"You have an excess of soul about you." Their enemy said quietly, his hand snaking down towards the struggling wraith. "Let me take that burden off your shoulders."
Before Raziel could do anything to resist that hand jammed forward and Abaddon's talons sank right into his chest, puncturing fully down to the wrist. Raziel stiffened and twitched, his eyes wide in stunned horror. Kain grunted, righting himself from his collapsed position and rising as swiftly as he could back to his feet.
With his face contorting with dismayed wonder he could see a beam of intense blue light pulsing from the hole Abaddon had made, flickering as the hand within twisted and groped about. Finally the arm stiffened as the searching hand found what it was looking for and began to pull free, tugging something with it.
"R..Raziel! Help me!" A woman's voice was screaming and Kain drew in his breath sharply as he saw what Abaddon was struggling to yank free from Raziel's form. Mostly it seemed to resemble a twisting mass of matter, powerfully luminous and constantly changing shape. But in that shape flickered occasional recognisable forms, the most striking being that of a woman's horrified face, a face which occasionally displayed a bare skull on the left profile.
"Ariel!" Raziel exclaimed hoarsely as the true horror of what was happening seemed to dawn on him. "NO! STOP!" With a sudden fervent desperation he struggled, kicking, clawing, even firing off telekinetic bolts to try and force Abaddon away. But Abaddon ignored him, indifferent to anything he might do. Bit by bit he was dragging that terrified soul free.
Kain broke into a run.
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"This was a power I had only ever seen once before, when Raziel's soul had been pulled from my being by his own first incarnation. I could actually see her, tugged bit by bit from Raziel's physical body. It was as though he could grasp her ghostly form as easily as he could were she solid flesh and bone. I feared I was already too late."
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Throwing himself across the chamber, Kain dispersed himself into bats to cross the distance faster. Raziel's cries of alarm and Ariel's screams of horror leant him a speed he did not think possible, propelling him with the Reaver raised high. A scream of outrage left his lips as he barreled with every ounce of strength he could summon towards their enemy.
But he was indeed too late. With one final, forceful yank, Abaddon ripped the glowing matter free from Raziel's body and then leapt backwards. His motion came only a fraction of a second in time, for any later and Kain's sword would have been slicing through his head. Kain snarled out a curse as he missed, skidding to a stop and turning quickly.
"ARIEL!" Raziel cried out, one hand on the hole in his chest and the other stretched out toward the soul in Abaddon's possession.
Abaddon rose into the air, beating his wings to keep himself aloft. He held the stolen spirit in his hand firmly, watching its luminous matter struggle feebly to free itself. Raziel wrested himself to his feet, his face contorting with a powerful mix of burning emotions, chief amongst them being stark terror.
"Give her back!" The blue wraith demanded, trying to move forward but staggering. The hole in his chest was still leaking light around his talons and Kain had to reach out quickly to steady him. "Give her back, you bastard!"
Abaddon continued to admire his prize, turning his head side to side as if he had not heard. A slight smile was tugging at his lips.
"No. She is mine now." He finally said and that intense but emotionless voice finally seemed to exhibit a distinct quality, that of a sadistic satisfaction. "A frightened, confused woman existing long past her time."
Their enemy's fist suddenly clenched and Ariel's scream of pain echoed around the chamber, so high pitched that Kain could not help but flinch at the sound of it. The visible energy of her soul, so bright and burning, danced and writhed between the talons of that fist. The soul of a Balance Guardian, even one so long dead as her, was a powerful thing and her essense shot sparks in all directions as it was molded into a new shape.
Raziel and Kain watched in horror as, with a sudden flurry of light, Abaddon placed his captive soul over his right arm. Her sparking essense lanced up and down that arm, writhing like a snake, gathering itself at the palm. There it erupted forth, bursting forward several feet until it formed a new shape. A straight blade, twisting and flickering as though it were flame, glowing with a golden light. Slowly Abaddon raised his arm above his head and held it there, displaying his new weapon for them all to see. His hand turned about slowly so they all could witness it from different angles and positions.
"What a marvelous tool she makes!" He declared and his voice had lost all trace of detachment. It rang with rapture, of a gloriously sick fulfilment. Those lifeless voids in his face now seemed alive with intense pleasure.
"So how does it feel, former Divus King, to be reduced to nothing?" Abaddon asked suddenly, looking down at Raziel. The blue wraith stared back up at him, eyes wide with horror. "To finally have all you treasure stripped from your being and your weakness laid bare?"
And that was when Kain knew him. Suddenly the physical alterations all seemed to fall away, like they were nothing more than a cheap disguise.
"...Asmodeus?!" He breathed in stunned awe. Raziel shot him a startled look.
"What?!" He demanded hoarsely.
From above, Abaddon was still admiring his new weapon. A second wraith blade, forged from the soul of the only thing Raziel held dear.
"Asmodeus-Divus died crying out for mercy." He remarked dismissively, gazing down at them across the flickering length of the phantom blade. The golden light reflected off of those eyes but they seemed even more like bottomless pits than ever before, as though Nowhere and Nowhen lay beyond them. "I am Abaddon!"