-0-

-0-

The large door before him, plain as it was, was proportioned not for a being the size of a man but for creatures much larger. Creatures capable of exerting sheer force with the simple use of one colossal paw, or even simply willing it to open with the use of their immense elemental power. Its sheer mass and size made it a barrier that no normal man would be able to pass. Getting such a door open was not as simple as merely reaching out a turning a handle.

After a moment to consider the obstacle, Kain stepped forward and set his shoulder against the side of the stone surface. With a grunt he began to exert himself, straining with every ounce of strength he could call up. Centuries of evolution had granted to him physical strength far beyond that of a mortal man but even that reserve was tested in forcing the door to even acknowledge his presence.

The barrier gave way with the greatest reluctance, grudging shifting bit by bit and groaning in deep protest. Its movement dislodged the settled ancient dust, which puffed out in thick angry clouds with each motion. The tunnel was soon filled with a miasma of dust floating in the air like a swarm of enraged insects. Kain paid it no head and kept on pushing, each step forcing the door open an inch more.

Finally the door seemed to concede to his persistence and it gave way in one sudden unexpected motion. With his full strength pushed into it, Kain forced the door open firmly and slammed outward with a colossal boom. The vibration of it shook the very ground upon which he stood, fragments of dust falling down from the tunnel ceiling above. The sounds of rocks, having been settled against each other quite comfortably for countless eons, now subjected to tremors came from somewhere about. An angry murmuring protest.

Unaffected by the dust, the ghost of Moebius stepped forward past Kain and into the chamber beyond. The old man's expression had turned suddenly very grim, lips pursed and eyes turned downward toward the floor. He still carried before him his strange ghostly lantern however and as he stepped into the new open space, he raised it up and high above his head. After a moment that lantern began to increase its ethereal radiance, waxing brighter until it's light filled out the cavern completely.

Kain took one look at what lay inside of this place and recoiled, his face dissolving into an unguarded expression of utter and complete shock.

"As my life grew century upon century, my mind and soul were fortified against the bizarre and macabre. Time had numbed me to the effects of the disgustingly perverse. I thought myself hardened against all manner of shock. As I stepped into that hidden and ancient chamber however, I became suddenly and acutely aware that I knew nothing of horror. I was once again a helpless child staring into the dark abyss, confronted with a nightmare I simple could not face. Here at last I faced the core of my enemy."

The chamber was a colossal gash, a carved valley which curved around a central pillar of rock to form a half circle. This open space was immense, perhaps several hundred feet wide at its largest and was so deep that even Moebius' lantern could not illuminate all of its curving floor. The teeth like spires of stalactites and stalagmites lanced up and down at regular intervals from the floor and ceiling, some mo more than a few meters tall and others towering like like cathedral spires. Their jagged placement gave the chamber the look of a great maw, the jaws of a leviathan so large it could take a bite out of the entire world.

But it was not the chamber's size nor its ominous shape which caused Kain to blanch and hesitate, frozen in place. Covering everything before him, across every wall, every floor and every ceiling was an expanse of immense green flesh. It was an ending field of sickly looking growths, latched onto and around surfaces like a fungal growth or moss. The growths were bulging, irregular and blotchy, undulating and pulsing with disgusting potency. Beneath their diseased looking surface veins and arteries were clearly visible; some no bigger than those of a human but others as thick as Kain's own wrist.

Eyes. Everywhere there were eyes. They seemed to appear at random, spawning out of the flesh all about; forming as if manifesting from just below the skin. The eyes were all different sized and they had no limit on how small or how large they could be, some as small as a fingertip and others loomed so large the rivaled Thanatos himself for sheer mass. They were all a deep luminescent blue with that same elongated dark pupil in the centre which shifted, stretching or shrinking as the eye needed to focus.

Thick tentacles slid like colossal snakes through the horrific mass, a writhing never ceasing sea of wormy movement which heaved and boiled, undulating disgustingly. The sounds coming from the scene before him were awful, a horrible wet slathering accompanied by a grinding as those worm like tentacles pushed aside the rock and stone. The squelching sound came from the fleshy growth itself accompanied by a smell so acrid that it stunk in the nose and tortured the eyes.

Kain had seen the form of his ultimate enemy before but this utter abominable center left him aghast.

"What fresh hell is this..." The Vampire gasped, his stunned gaze running over the sickly panorama. Moebius did not answer. His gaze was directly up at the lantern he was carrying, firmly fixed on its glow and not even acknowledging the hideous scene. For a moment it looked as if he were listening to something Kain could not hear, head tilting to one side briefly.

"The Master awaits you." The ghost of the old man finally replied, half turning to look back over one shoulder. His expression was fixed and unguardedly neutral, as if he had divorced himself from all emotion. He raised a hand and pointed down into the valley of hideous disease with his free hand. Kain stared at him with open incredulousness.

"This is your master!?" The Vampire demanded, voice taut with his struggle to take this abomination in. "This...this thing!?" Moebius made no reply but met Kain's eye with a steady gaze. Kain however was not perturbed. "This is what you sold your soul to? That you murdered countless Vampires to serve?" The Vampire moved forward and then past the spirit, standing at the edge of the unhealthy expanse of writhing flesh. "This is what you help drench the world in blood for?! It's nothing more than a colossal tumor! After so long, even YOU must see that now!"

Their eyes met again and in that moment, staring in the ghostly eyes of the old dead Time Guardian; Kain saw that Moebius was not blind. He saw everything that Kain saw. Perhaps even more. His gaze was directed towards anything by the horror laid out before them, as if he were willing himself not to see.

"He awaits you." The ghost said with emphasis, jabbing his finger down into the center of that underground valley. Before Kain could say anything more, the flesh before them shuddered as if it had been roused from dormancy. Dozens, hundreds of eyes of various sizes opened at once like a field of blooming flowers and rotated around to look directly at them. One especially large eye opened directly above them, shuddering two large eyelids made out of rock out of the way with a crack and boom of colliding stone. The air about them changed, the sense of pressure increasing dramatically, as if a sudden heavy weight had been pressed down upon it from above.

"Indeed I do, Kain." That familiar voice said, an echoing and disdainful sound rolled through the ground itself. Kain turned sharply back towards the valley, watching as thick tentacles shifted and slithered about. A quick flurry of activity taking place in the dark shadows before rocks began to rise up, irregularly shapes platforms pushed into place by many tentacles. A path opened up before him, a bridge suspended and kept strong by the support of slippery twisting limbs.

"Come… for we have much to discuss." That voice called to him as the bridge emerged, stone after stone rising up all laid out in a path going down into the depths of the valley.

Kain stared out along the bridge as it formed, his expression tightening into a deeply sour grimace. Reaching back over his shoulder he drew the Reaver and held the serpentine blade at his side, fist clenched tight about the hilt, before he took the first step and began down the laid out path before him. Moebius followed instantly, holding his lantern aloft to light the way.

It was a march through hell. Kain steeled himself to avoid the instinctive urge to wretch as he walked through that valley of flesh, hundreds of blue luminous eyes watching his every movement and following his progress. It revolted him to think that without Raziel's gift, the purifying Spiritual energy infused through his being, he would not able to see this horror. It would be a danger that was simply invisible, capable of striking him down without any warning. Being aware of the peril however, replaced the risk of physical harm with grim horror at the pestilential growths all about.

As they made their way deeper into that valley, Kain began to see more evidence of the Dragon's city here and there. Broken pillars jutted out from the side of a wall of flesh, a section of uncovered stone revealed detailed patterns before being swallowed up once more by the growths. Massive clumps of stone were embedded in the ground, some of it forming the bridge upon which he was walking. Judging by exactly how much debris had been scattered about, the Vampire judged he was walking through the remains of some kind of colossal cathedral like chamber. The structure had long ago completely collapsed into a far more natural cavern and his enemy's body had spread over the resulting rubble.

The path led on and on, deeper and deeper into this slopping valley before finally it reached the far end, a large grove cloaked in the shadow of a looking overhang of stone . Before they got to this point however, Moebius stopped following and merely stood there; his ghostly form still holding his lantern aloft. His expression was neutral but the tightness about his eyes was palpable. As Kain turned to regard him, he saw an easily recognisable emotion in those eyes. An emotion he had seen many times before; simple, basic, instinctive, fear. The two of them exchange glanced for a prolonged moment, before the Vampire turned and walked on into the grotto alone.

Faced with what lay within, this time Kain really did wretch.

"So here at last was the fabled Celestial Arrow I had heard so much about. The weapon created by Nosgoth's first race as their means of striking back against the cancerous invader from the inky void beyond the stars. Now that weapon lay wrapped in disease, coated in tumours, imprisoned in the belly of the very beast it had been intended to kill."

Vorador's description of the artefact, a colossal pyramid made of a calcified unknown white material of elemental potency, made it clear that was what he perceived. It loomed before him and from its immense presence he could feel emanating from it was so palpable and strong it was like he had walked into a wall of water. It was every bit the powerful artefact both Vorador and the Seer had made it out to be. Shear elemental spiritual energy condensed into physical form.

It had been this bizarre artefact that the Seer had sent Vorador back in time to find leading him, according to the story, to get involved early military campaigns of William the Just. That quest had been the only blunder in the Seer's carefully laid out campaign, unleashing the one thing that actually scared her; Thanatos, the last living Dragon. Under any other circumstances Kain might have felt reverence, awe or wonder at the sight of such a creation.

But as he peered up at its towering immensity Kain felt only revulsion, for wrapped about this once pristine construction was a smiley mass of slippery, pulsating, stretched rubbery flesh. It was a single mammoth organ, a lopsided sack like a balloon expanding and contracting over and around the Arrow. It was a hideous thing, lobed like a brain but pumping like a heart; the functions of two organs together as one. Thick black veins lanced out of it at regular intervals. Like the threads of a spider's web with the organ at its centre, the veins spread out across the roof of the grotto and vanished into uncounted numbers of hidden holes and crevices. As the organ itself beat, pulses of blue radiance were pushed down those veins and as they passed by Kain could almost swear he could hear agonised human screams. There was no blood in those black pipes he realized, but rather the pulped souls of those that passed on, feeding this entity and turn its horrendous wheel.

"I bid you welcome Kain." His enemy greeted him and the Vampire stood a step back in dismay as part of the organ's pulsing parted, flesh pushing to either side, as a thick bulging eyeball emerged and rotated down to look at him; dripping a foul smelling liquid to splatter on the uneven floor. "It was only a matter of time before I would converse with you, here."

"Good Lord..." Kain breathed shallowly, eyes wide and lips drawn back over his exposed fangs in an expression of distaste. "And here I thought I'd seen all there was to see of your disgusting form."

The eye rotated in its temporary squishy socket, focusing on him.

"No living being can behold all of me, Vampire." That deep echoing voice said and it seemed as if the beating of that hideous organ intensified the sound of the words. "I am beyond your lowly perceptions. You see only what I permit you to see. That is all any one is allowed to perceive of my glory."

The use of such a word as 'glory' made Kain peer about this hideous grotto with one eye narrowed in incredulity, his lips pressed together in a disgusted sneer. A second glance brought his attention up to the top of the organ, where it jointed the apex of the Celestial Arrow's tip. At this towering point was a large round opening. It was only when it quivered and convulsed that Kain realized it for a mouth, a gaping suckling orifice which parted to reveal four curving interlocking fangs.

The mouth gaped wide open and into its suckling depths a luminous torrent was being funnelled, a swirling vortex of lights which tumbled all around each other so rapidly it was like the flow of water. Kain had not seen such things very often and whenever he had it had only been for a single instant, whenever he had swung the Reaver. When his blade had killed an opponent and claimed the fleeing soul, the spirit had been visible for a fraction of a second. At first Kain had thought such manifestations to mere expressions of the swords magic, but as his understanding of the blade had grown he came to understand the true importance of what he was seeing.

With that understanding Kain could appreciate the full hideousness of the scene before him. He was seeing countless souls, freed from the flesh of their bodies, pouring in to feed this monstrous creature. Here, for the first time, he was seeing the Wheel of Fate in its fully manifest form; a swirling unending torrent of harvested souls, all being poured into the mouth of an every hungry predator which would strip them of all their energies before sending them back to repeat the cycle. The sight of it before him made his stomach turn in ways he did not think possible.

"I suppose then I ought to feel honoured." The Vampire said with heavy sarcasm, his grip on his sword tightening.

"You should." His enemy replied, ignoring the sarcasm. "For only Moebius, tried and tested and loyal to the last, has been permitted to see my Nucleus before you."

"Nucleus?" Kain quickly repeated, his eyes narrowing sharply. The eye set into that massive organ widened out, the pupil dilating disgustingly.

"Before you Kain, you see the very heart of me. The great centre from which I grow and from which all life on Nosgoth in turn originates." That great voice stated in thundering pride, the beating throbbing and pulsing the air about it through a great vibration. "Behold, Kain. The Heart of the World!"

Kain's next action required no conscious decision to implement. Instinct took over and he was moving before his mind could even be aware of it. He took hold of the Reaver in both hands and lunged, throwing himself with all the strength he could muster forward and thrusting his sword towards that offensive sight. The only impulse in his mind in that instant was to rid his sight of that monstrous entity, to finally rend its heart and kill the thing once and for all.

But the Reaver never made contact. Before the tip of the serpentine blade could come within reach of the pulsing organ it slammed into a barrier, an invisible obstacle which turned the attack aside with ease. For a moment Kain saw before him a swirling wall of intermingled souls, energies taken from the beast's feedings used to form a barrier their pain, agony and anguish. Such a terrible force crashed against the Reaver's attack and in that contest the sword had been found wanting.

A tree trunk thick tentacle twisted like a snake out of the shadows in response. It arched around swiftly and smacked the Vampire away, a contemptuous slap which knocked Kain back through the air until he landed with a crash on the rocky floor. The impact left the Vampire stunned, his body pulsing with waves of nausea.

"Did you truly believe I would invite you here, reveal my nucleus to you, without some means of holding your fury at bay? Of keeping that wretched sword of yours from striking my form?" The False God demanded contemptuously, holding the tentacle over him threateningly as the Emperor of Nosgoth heaved himself back to his feet. "Naive fool."

Kain shook his head, trying to clear his blurred sight. When it finally cleared he saw that standing between him and his enemy's core was a shimmering wall of twisting white shapes. He could make out faces in those shapes, features of Humans and Vampires alike all contorted in agony like the vortex above; all in pain but here it was almost as if he could hear the cries of anguish coming from each one of them. A soft chorus of screams which lingered just beyond his range of hearing.

"What manner of barrier is this?" Kain growled, still holding the Reaver out before him in a grip which wavered despite himself. The eye set into that repulsive organ narrowed its pupil at him in a way that suggested amusement and pride.

"While my power is great across all of Nosgoth, it is far more so in this place." It said. "Here, in this sacred Heart Chamber, the energies of the Wheel are mine to command in ways you could not imagine." The tentacle which had struck him began to slide back into the crevice from which it had come, retreating with an oozing wet suckling sound. "Be thankful that at this moment, I choose to exercise these powers merely defensively."

Kain's eyes darted about, seeing a means of bypassing this obstacle. But the barrier was a firm wall between him and his enemy, with no means of entry or at least none immediately visible. He pursed his lips in disappointment.

"You've made your point, monster." He grudgingly began, before turning to look up at that singla large eye. "Now, why am I here? Why is it suddenly important we talk? I would have thought us past casual conversation."

"And if the current circumstances were different, I would agree with you." The entity replied with some scorn. There was a pause before it went on, with some reluctance. "However, you have caused the destruction of Fanum-Divus. The sacred unassailable city of my elite followers. This, I confess, I did not foresee."

Kain narrowed his eyes at his enemy, even as the visualization of its protective barrier faded back into invisibility. He was certain it was still there however.

"Are you admitting fault?" The Vampire asked, the corner of his lip curling upward. The eye before him narrowed its pupil so much it became a thin vertical slit.

"I am admitting that you have made more inroads in being a disruptive force then I initially gave you credit for, Kain." The voice addressing him sounded almost as if it came from between clenched teeth. "So much so that you and those who follow you, Raziel, Vorador and now even Janos Audron, have the potential to disrupt the great work the Divus have been building towards for many millennia. This cannot be allowed."

Kain let the tip of the Reaver descend to the floor, his face fixed in a sneer of contempt for such words.

"Your great work would see Nosgoth left a barren lifeless husk, unable to sustain even the most primitive form of life." He replied coldly, before pointing with his free hand. "You claim to be the creator and origin of life itself and yet you're prepared to destroy it all to achieve your goal. Of course we'd want to stop you."

High above that beaked mouth click as the teeth ground against one another and then expanded wider open, almost like a hiccup. The eye rotated around in its formed socket, making a wet slurping sound.

"The loss of Nosgoth is indeed a great sacrifice, but one I was prepared to make in order for my glory to be felt throughout the stars. Surely you are no stranger to the concept of a necessary evil?"

Kain's nostrils flared and his eyes bulged, his grip on the Reaver's handle tightened reflexively.

"You don't have the right to…" He began with indignation but he was cut off.

"However, I can be amenable. Open to negotiation." His enemy interjected, its large eye dilating its pupil once more. "You desire is to 'save' Nosgoth and rid this land of me? Is that not your goal?"

Kain opened and shut his mouth twice, robbed of the momentum of the righteous denunciation he had been about to embark upon.

"Of course it is." He said simply.

The large aquatic eye seemed to lean forward, as if projecting itself several feet out of its wet socket.

"Then I will grant you this."

Those five simple words erased Kain's entire sense of indignation, even dispelling the disgust he felt to be surrounded by so much hideous growth.

"What?" The word came out in a simple, foolish tone of bafflement. The eye leaned in closer, pupil widening until the eye was almost completely black.

"I am prepared to give you everything you want, Vampire." His enemy told him in a very blunt voice. "Nosgoth will be yours to do with as you wish and I will be gone, forever."

Aghast and frozen in place, Kain blinked several times before shaking his head in order to recenter himself

"Do you take me for an imbecile?!" He demanded, voice fraught with incredulity and utter scorn.

"I take you for many things, Kain." The entity replied with some mirth in its tone. "And one of them is desperate."

There was a pause and as Kain watched, the image of the Divus' ship shimmered into view in the inky blackness of that large pupil. The ship raised itself up through the skies of Nosgoth and out amongst the blinking constellations of the night sky, a powerful golden glow surrounding it.

"It will be of considerable risk to my ship, but if you tell your little alliance to stand down and move aside, I will launch the Ark into the black void beyond the stars. The great ship will absorb the destructive energies of the Equinox and Nosgoth will be spared its ravages. I will then take my followers and leave, departing Nosgoth never to return. This is a concession I am willing to make."

The large eye blinked and the image vanished, allowing Kain to see his own perplexed expression reflected back at him.

"So little Vampire….what say you?"