Creation

Book Three: The Balance of Happiness and Grief 

 

Disclaimer: Legacy of Kain belongs to Edios and Crystal Dynamics not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Vorador . . . then he’d be mine.

 

Warning: this fic contains YAOI (GuyXGuy) and a lemon, if this offends or upsets you do not read this, it that simple.

 

Rating: NC-17

 

Pairing: Raziel/Kain

 

Setting: post all games  

 

EXPRESS WARNING: Spoilers for all the games. This fic is seriously out of it, SERIOUSLY its just odd. If you don’t like

 

Summery: The games are over Nosgoth has been saved. A decision is made about life and death. Life goes on until a newer or perhaps older enemy rears its head and a warrior must rise.

 

Authoress note: this is my first fic with Raziel at the head Yay new territory ^_^ it’s also my first fic in ages that not set in the Blood omen two time frame!! Wow I’m on a roll. 

 

Also please note due to the length of this fic it has been broken up into separate parts ‘Books’ each will be about four/five chapters long. This is Book Three.

 

Italics mean either flashbacks or thoughts

 

 

* \/ * /\ * \/ * /\ *

 

 

Chapter Nine

{The following night}

 

They stood in the war room looking over the map of Nosgoth once again; only this time hundreds of little pins littered its surface. Raziel sat off to the side picking up pins from the carpet where they had ‘fallen’ aka when Kain threw them at him, trying to be funny.

 

“Well at least this tells us were we’re going.” Vorador breathed smirking at Raziel as the fledgling stood, his hand bleeding from tiny pin pricks.

 

Ariel leaned forwards and placed another pin on the board before double checking it with her record, making small sounds of thought; Vorador had wondered at her want to stay but stopped questioning it shortly, after all two balance guardians were better than one. At the moment the bulk of Ariel’s pins were littered around Avernus, apparently the city which was still in ruins was also still large, accidents had happened near there when they clearly should not have, negativity seemed to hover over the ruins, people spontaneously took ill when near, some simply died on the spot as if a force was robbing them of their souls. Raziel handed Ariel another pin and she stabbed it onto the map; the pins branched off from Avernus in great long lines moving with purpose to the rest of Nosgoth, directly to villages and citadels but the Pillars remained ‘pin-free’ this relieved Kain, at least he wouldn’t be expected to heal them once again. Raziel was silently examining the map, it reminded him of a web or roots of a plant where the seed was Avernus.

 

“Can’t say I’m surprised,” Kain breathed “it is a weak spot after all,” Raziel frowned at that and Kain elaborated “Avernus is where the Hylden broke through,”

 

Raziel looked to the floor ashamed; Avernus was where he’d killed his brother Turel and his father. Turel had no memory of that time, like all of Kain’s children none remembered the time after Raziel was thrown into the Abyss, that memory was purely for Raziel and Kain apparently. Raziel was glad that his brothers did not remember his return; there were at least some people who would only think of him as vampire Raziel and not Reaver spirit. He remembered fighting Turel, remembered the derangement in his brother; he truly believed he was a god, greater than Raziel or Kain despite the fact he was trapped in a very big hole. Turel was the only brother he had faltered in harming, but whether that was because of the influence the Hylden had on him or some form of brotherly love he did not know. For why would Turel who was his rival be shown his mercy when Melchiah whom he truly cared for was not, it made no sense, but then again he had gone after Melchiah first when his rage had been uncontrollable, his anger unrestrained.

 

“Must be something to do with the constant dimensional magic,” Vorador’s words brought him out of his musings “Avernus has been home the dimension guardians since I was young.” Kain shrugged

 

“Maybe,” he sighed “now we just need to know what he’s actually doing, with the weak spot.”

 

“I maybe able to give enlightenment on this,” Janos spoke holding up a book, Raziel recognized it as one of the ancients oldest surviving texts “this text was written by Hylden,” he spat “but it does contain some small semblance of truth.”

 

“Why do you have it then?” Raziel asked and Janos actually looked ashamed

 

“They wished to turn us to their way of seeing things, they knew that –he swallowed- God was not God but something else.” The ancient faltered and Vorador reached out to him but Janos shook him away “this book tells us of true Gods and of those who stand behind the Gods, those who are forces in nature.”

 

“Janos,” Vorador breathed understanding how hard this was for the ancient to admit, for him to say aloud that the ancient vampires had been wrong to begin the war. But this also showed that the Hylden were not blameless, tales of the atrocities preformed by the Hylden in the war to the more delicate vampires had made Raziel cringe and now it was the Hylden’s brutal madness that kept them in that place not -as Raziel had first thought- the ancient vampires pride.

 

“Gods can only exist with believers, they take power from belief, strength from faith” the ancient began again “but it is also possible for non-God, creatures of enormous power to take a physical form through that same power, belief.” 

 

“What does this have to do with anything,” Vorador asked

 

“This text talks of the powers that are not gods but anthropomorphic personifications,” Raziel coughed loudly to cover up his snigger

 

“Bless you,” he smiled, Janos glared

 

“We have already spoken to one lately, Fate.” Janos dipped his head and waited as if expecting a big reaction, he didn’t get one “these powers need no believers to live and will be here as long as people have a fate, as long as people lust and as long as people dream, despair and die, but through worshipers they can take a physical immortal form,”

 

“You think this Chaos creature is trying to take a physical form?” Kain asked Janos nodded

 

“Destruction as it is called in this book has always wished for a body, he is envious of those who possess a true form and can feel, sense, touch and lust; so yes I believe that he is trying to come through into our world and gain a physical form.”

 

“Why Avernus,” Raziel asked “what does that have to do with anything,”

 

“He needs the weak spot where the dimensional walls are thin to talk with his ‘worshipers’,” Vorador guessed, “he’s stealing energy from fate to strengthen himself for the change and to weaken the walls further,”

 

“You’re good at this,” Raziel muttered, Vorador grinned, Kain kicked him

 

“Janos ran this by you before,” Kain stated simply, Vorador blushed his skin turning deep emerald. It was rather fetching and made Kain smile.  

 

“I did not know if the idea held weight,” Janos explained “but we discussed it and it sounds reliable,” Kain nodded, it did make sense, it explained the imbalance, it explained why fate was losing energy and it gave this chaos creature a motive.

 

“Very well,” Kain sighed “off to Avernus we go,” he grabbed Raziel’s arm and proceeded to drag the fledgling out the door. 

 

“Wait,” Vorador snapped “what are you doing?” Kain paused and blinked at him slowly, Raziel pulled back his arm and glared at his father

 

“Going to Avernus to fight what’s-his-name,” Kain said simply, Raziel blinked at that, he was still having trouble adapting to his father’s ‘new’ attitude, he was used to the Kain who spent years thinking something through before acting, this ‘Kain’ did exactly the opposite, he simply ran in head first, a normal person could not have survived his fathers life.

 

“You’re going to fight Chaos,” Vorador raised an eyebrow “how prey tell, you don’t even have a sword any more,” Kain hissed loudly and Vorador hissed right back. The two looked as if they would leap at each other and Ariel very wisely moved out of the way.

 

“I did not think my abilities would still be in question,” Kain hissed “least of all from you who witnessed the restoration.”

 

“What you fought before was a daemon Kain;” Janos sighed, bringing Kain’s attention to him although the fledgling’s eyes kept wandering to Vorador who was still hissing quietly until Janos threw a pin at him “behave.” The ancient barked then turned to Kain “you fought a powerful manipulative daemon, and while Chaos is not a god it is one of the forces that cause the universe to function, you cannot kill it.”

 

“What are we meant to do then, give it flowers and tell it to have a nice time?” Kain snapped “welcome to Nosgoth force of destruction, please don’t litter!”

 

“We don’t know,” Janos admitted, “we need to send it back and we need to keep it back,”

 

“We should scout out the area first,” Raziel spoke knowing it was better to keep Kain occupied rather than let him sit and fume over a problem, “we might find something that will help,”

 

“There’s an idea,” Janos smiled understanding Raziel’s motivation “but Avernus is in constant danger of complete collapse, please take two others with you at least, should something go wrong,”

 

“Magnus,” Kain mumbled, his pride hurt. Raziel frowned, it had been hard enough dealing with Magnus when Kain was not here and despite the fact that Magnus was with Sebastian Raziel still felt threatened.

 

“Melchiah,” Raziel snapped glaring at Kain, if he was going to have to survive Magnus he at least  wanted back up.

 

≈ Δ ≈

 

Avernus was in ruins.

 

It was one of many cities still in ruins, the building work was fast but there is only so much even magically gifted winged vampires can handle and Avernus was quiet low on the list to rebuild. But Kain had a sneaking suspicion that once they had dealt with this problem Avernus would become a fort. A great building to protect Nosgoth from the dimensional weakness; absently he began to imagine what they could build maybe a labyrinth to stop anything that came through ever getting out? A tower with only one door at the panicle so anything to come through would fall to its death? Maybe the mortal circle could build it in the style of their buildings, so once inside the creature could wander forever and never find its way out, when ever it thought it was out it would just be further in. Kain had really hated the circles buildings, so small on the outside yet within they were colossal. He’d gotten lost . . . eight times, he cringed inwardly.

 

“Kain!” Raziel snapped bringing his father out of his day dream as the carriage pulled up to the edge of the ruins, there was no possibly way it could go further, they would have to go on foot. Melchiah and Magnus leapt out of the carriage and looked none the worse for wear for the long trip; Kain however felt awful, he bloody hated carriages, absently he wondered why he hadn’t flown. He grunted at Raziel remembering why he hadn’t flown, bloody Vorador, over protective was the word fashionable to describe Vorador at the moment but Kain preferred Ariel’s word of anal.

 

Raziel walked slowly into Avernus and sighed, nearly all the roads were blocked with the ruins of once tall and proud building that were now collapsed burnt shells, vaguely he wondered what could have caused Avernus’ fire and the daemons to break lose in the city. He dropped this thought when he was confronted with yet more rubble blocking yet another road to the cathedral. They would either have to climb, a lot, or take down the barricades by hand which would take forever with so few of them to lift and move the rubble. He contemplated another way, when he was a fledgling vampire he had used rooftops a lot, but this city hardly had any surviving rooftops, only the walls had survived the fire. He was thinking when a loud crash behind them made Raziel turn just in time to see his father kick down a fractured doorway.

 

“What are you doing?” Magnus asked leaning into the ruined house peering after Kain, Raziel glared.

 

“There are tunnels,” Kain explained looking at the walls as Raziel pushed Magnus out of the way and entered the small shell of a house “all the great cities had tunnels in case of invasion,” he felt around the walls for a moment, knocking softly in places, before smiling and kicking hard, part of the wall fell down showing stairs. “These I used when hunting Azimuth,” he grinned and lead the way down.

 

The stairway was thin and dark; the wooden steps creaked unsafely as they walked down and entered the first basement, which lead no where. Magnus looked as if he would say something but a glare from Kain stopped him and the vampire kept his own council. Briefly Raziel wondered about what had occurred between them, a short time ago he had decided he’d been kept in the dark about this for long enough and had eventually asked Kain what had happened between him, Magnus and Sebastian. That had been a few nights ago and Kain had not remembered but when he retrieved him memory the night before last Raziel had asked again. It sounded simple to him Kain had been with Sebastian but had slept with Magnus the night before the final battle; Sebastian had walked in, saw and left to betray his Lord to the Serefan. But apparently it wasn’t Sebastian’s betrayal that caused Kain to lose his faith in people; it was his own betrayal of Sebastian.

 

“His betrayal taught me that when you cared for people they would always use that weakness against you. My trust in Sebastian blinded me to what he was capable of and I almost died as a result. I vowed then never to let another have such control over me. But you broke that,” Kain sighed and Raziel smirked proudly “but that is not the only reason why I lost my trust in man, I cared . . . a great deal for him and still I betrayed him, it showed me that no matter how much you cared for someone you could still betray them easily.”

 

“Well who’s bright idea was this then?” Kain’s voice snapped Raziel back to the real world, Raziel smirked they had encountered the sewers of Avernus; the tunnels were still covered in shallow water from their days used as a sewer system.

 

“Yours,” Magnus smirked “and I say we risk it anyway.”

 

“Oh you do?” Kain asked “well off you go then.” He held out his arms indicating that Magnus should go forth alone. Magnus’ smirk grew in size and he leapt forwards landing on one of the few dry ledges before making his way forwards, jumping to another ledge when the need became clear.

 

“Show off,” Raziel muttered, Kain turned to him and smiled obviously enjoying this envy, Raziel pulled a face at him and Kain shifted into a mist form and moved over the water. “Another bigger show off,” with those words he and Melchiah followed the steps Magnus had already trodden.

 

It amazed Raziel just how short the tunnels were in comparison to how long and winding the small streets above were. It took then half an hour to make there way leaping and shifting through the underground network, twice walls had been in their way, and once a tunnel began collapsing behind them but they made their way forwards with surprising speed and after a short time Kain lead them up to the surface again.

 

“Wow we’re right by the cathedral,” Melchiah breathed “that’s . . . really handy.”

 

“It time of crisis the cathedral would be the best place to be,” Kain answered “strong and easy to defend with the bell for calling for help. So all the tunnels lead to it, so the city dwellers would be safe.” Melchiah looked sheepish at missing something so obvious and nodded.

 

Avernus cathedral hadn’t burnt in the fire and was still whole and perfect; it looked out of place in the ravaged city. Magnus laughed as he walked in, before pointing to the floors which were so clean you could have eaten off them, the entire building was pristine. Magnus seemed to find this hilarious that the cathedral, the source of the Hylden and the daemons was so angelic.

 

“Corpse and coffin.” Raziel answered when Magnus had calmed down a little. Magnus looked at Raziel with an eyebrow raised in question. “The white wood coffin hides the putrefying corpse within. Just because its pretty doesn’t mean it’s not gross and sticky on the inside.”

 

“Sticky?” Kain smirked,

 

“Yes, sticky.” Raziel answered, but before the debate could go further Melchiah brought them back to why they were here in the first place.

 

“What are we actually looking for father,” Melchiah asked, Raziel watched as Kain turned and looked to his youngest.

 

Before the purification when they had all lived in Kain’s empire, Kain had always had a soft spot for Melchiah although it would have taken years of torture to get him to admit it. Kain despised weakness and yet he practically nursed Melchiah for the first few years of his life, Raziel had tried to find out why many a night and one night after a little ‘persuasion’ Kain had mumbled something about helplessness, something to protect and Raziel had summarized that Kain had liked the feeling of protectiveness he had for his youngest and weakest son; all his other children could go on their own but not Melchiah even at the height of his power Melchiah had needed his father. But at the same time it hadn’t been an irritating neediness, for Melchiah had tried it alone and had never actually asked for help, he had pride.

 

“To be honest I’m not sure,” Kain said calmly looking around the pristine entrance chamber before walking up to the statues at the alter and placing his hand on them “anything that will help us,”

 

It was then that Raziel had his brainwave and he owed it to his youngest brother, Melchiah had needed his father and in some way Kain had need Melchiah he needed to have something small to look after, he needed to be needed it made him feel humane. Raziel almost laughed as he followed his brother and Magnus into the ancient portal Kain had reopened that lead to the basement. The human forces that had warred with the vampires had known they could never go after Kain he was to powerful so they went after what he cared about, something small that if harmed would hurt him.

 

“The worshipers,” Raziel breathed as they slowly made their way down Magnus turned to look at him “Kain!” Raziel snapped getting his father’s attention “idea!” he shouted delightedly, “I’ve got an idea,”

 

“Did it hurt,” Kain muttered absently lifting some dust from the earth and sniffing at it, “people have been down here recently,” he muttered

 

“The worshipers!” Raziel snapped

 

“Probably,” Kain agreed

 

“No! LISTEN TO ME!!” Raziel bellowed, everyone froze as suddenly the sound of mortal men was heard down the tunnel, footsteps running towards them

 

“Smooth Raziel, real smooth,” Magnus muttered “HIDE!”

 

“Hide!” Kain spat insulted, briefly remembering when Vorador had told him to hide from the Serefan lord, he’d been just as insulted then but Vorador had been right. “I can’t believe this!” he muttered enraged as he vanished into mist form. He reappeared next to Magnus who had crammed himself behind a door. “I can’t believe we’re hiding, hiding from humans!” Kain continued to rant quietly

 

“Shut up!” Magnus breathed, they remained silent as the mortal men ran past shouting to each other about voices. The mortals remained for a few moments as if waiting for the vampires to crack under the pressure or for some small pathetic animal to jump out and take the blame for the noise. However after a few moments one of the mortal uttered something about being underground for so long corrupting his mind and the pair made their way back down the tunnel.

 

“You utter moron,” Melchiah’s voice came from a little further down the corridor and Kain and Magnus went to join him, “complete fool!” Melchiah was ranting at his brother who was looking suitably ashamed and embarrassed; Kain clipped him on the head

 

“I had to hide because of you!”

 

“Get over yourself,” Magnus nudged Kain “I doubt he did it deliberately,” Kain muttered something profane before moving on

 

“I still have my idea,” Raziel said much quieter this time. Kain ignored him still mentally ranting about hiding but Melchiah and Magnus looked to him. “We can’t fight chaos itself because its to powerful, even if it wasn’t we need chaos to balance fate/order so we cannot kill it,”

 

“My child the genius,” Kain muttered still sore about having to hide. But even the once Lord of Nosgoth knew that there could be a small army down here and even he could be outnumbered. “Alright what’s your idea,” he muttered as they approached the big entrance doors “please be quiet this time . . .  wait here.” He disappeared into mist and slid through the old cracked doorway. A click on the other side and the door opened, Kain dragged them inside and against the wall.

 

Raziel swallowed at the sight before him, hundreds of mortal men stood around the pit that had once held the evolved Turel. They were not chanting this time they were silent but still power radiated through the chamber making Raziel nervous; there was something big in here. Magnus pointed upwards and the vampires looked to a high ledge before nodding and clambering up the wall. Raziel winced as he heard a loud crunch as Kain broke the neck of who ever was already on the ledge. As he clambered over he saw three worshipers piled against the wall.

 

“So we kill its worshipers,” Raziel said suddenly, everyone frowned at him, “look at them,” Raziel pointed “soft and human,”

 

“What good would killing the worshipers do?” Magnus asked “other than really annoy their master; yes good plan Raziel les annoy the amazingly big force of destruction.”

 

“Shut up Magnus,” Melchiah snapped cluing into what his brother was trying to say

 

“When we ruled Nosgoth,” Raziel explained “the humans knew they couldn’t kill Kain, he was to strong,” Kain preened at the compliment “so they went after Melchiah or Zephon sometimes even Rahab.” Melchiah hissed quietly in anger, Raziel looked apologetic.

 

“Kill what it cares about,” Magnus nodded “I doubt it cares for its worshipers,”

 

“But it can’t live without them,” Kain said suddenly understanding, he smiled at his eldest “I knew I kept you for a reason. Kill the worshipers and it can’t form a body, it can’t come through.” Kain smirked and absently ruffled Raziel’s hair making the fledgling grumble “But there has to be something we can do magically to lock this place once its banished.”

 

“We should . . . I hate to say it but . . . talk to the dimension guardian,” Raziel sighed. Kain looked unhappy about the prospect but agreed anyway knowing it was the best plan of action they had so far.

 

“We’ll have to do this properly,” Kain breathed after a moment “this can’t just be an ambush,” he paused at the look he was getting from Magnus and glared “yes I do have morals . . . of a sort.”

 

“But ambush would be the best way of getting them all at once.” Melchiah pressed, Kain looked awkward and sighed

 

“When I created you we took Nosgoth as our own, did we not, raised the clans and destroyed all opposition. We did it once before I’m sure we can manage again.” Melchiah still looked doubtful but nodded understanding the need to do this properly. His father might have done some terrible things the rumored genocide of Raziel’s clan just one but Kain was right he did have morals of a sort, a sense of justice. Melchiah had watched when the empire was raised as rumors spread about Kain’s lack of mercy his divinity but Melchiah had always known that there was mercy that he was not a god just a man, a great man but still a man, capable of mercy, love and failure.

 

“We should go,” Magnus spoke softly looking over the rim of the ledge watching as the worshipers moved in sync with each other performing some sort of choreographed dance.

 

≈∆≈

 

“That sounds like a plan!” Vorador said excitedly clapping Raziel on the back “and to think I had you labeled as a mopy depressed moocher,”

 

“Thanks Vorador,” Raziel winced as his back stung, the thin scars where his wings had once been tingling painfully, Vorador was even stronger than he looked, which was quiet considerable. Raziel wondered if he would have a bruise and paused at his own thoughts; Kain had bruised him numerous times and it had never bothered him . . . well that was different. Raziel glanced at Kain for some sort of guidance and received a shrug.

 

“All those lives,” Janos breathed not noticing Raziel’s dilemma “so many will die for this,” the ancient did not like this despite the fact they had sent a declaration to the mortal worshipers warning them that they would announce war. The mortals had made no reply. The declaration troubled and eased Raziel’s mind it troubled him as they needed to kill a great deal of the worshipers and if they had the declaration then they had time to run and if they did it would take time to find them, time Chaos could use to rise. But it eased his sense of morality some also which balanced his soul.

 

“They are there willingly,” Kain spoke trying to ease the ancient “there was no mind control, no magic of any kind I would have known,”

 

“Brainwashing isn’t magic Kain,” Janos corrected, Kain couldn’t argue. “But it has to be done, even if they left Chaos their belief would keep him alive and powerful,”

 

“Maybe Fate will return them,” Melchiah reached pout to touch the ancient vampire who smiled gratefully. Vorador stood next to Kain and snorted loudly.

 

“How could something so . . . innocent be raised by you?” he asked Kain who glared, but the glare didn’t last

 

“I have no clue,” Kain mumbled after a moment “how did someone as soft as Janos raise something as ravenous and bloodthirsty as you.”

 

“Shut up Kain,” Vorador mumbled

 

“You will have to get all of them,” Janos sighed looking to Kain, “even twenty or so alone could keep him powerful enough to form a body,”

 

“TWENTY!” Raziel snapped, shocked. They really would have to get all of them and fast.

 

“They would have to give a lot of energy, they would also have to perform the rituals but yes twenty could do it, they could form him a weak flimsy body, most likely he would wait to gather more but it is best if you get them all.”

 

“we will,” Magnus answered “I’ll go and gather the troops,” then with a ridiculous salute he marched away, Raziel frowned, even at such a time Magnus was still prating about, lightening a dreary situation . . . Raziel was beginning to really understand why Kain had loved him.

 

Jealousy bit at him.

 

End Chapter

 

Authoress Note: yay another chapter..

 

Please review.