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Vorador's Mansion

Raziel enters the library from the eastern door.  Moebius stands at the balcony, surrounded by his mercenaries.

Raziel
In my absence, the estate had been overrun by Moebius's soldiers.  I hoped that they had not yet found the entrance to the crypt, or discovered the body of Janos.  Of Vorador, there was no sign. 

Moebius
Raziel - the conquering hero.  I understand we are to offer congratulations.  Kain, at last, is dead. 

Raziel
I suppose you expect similar congratulations on the death of Vorador?  Or has he eluded you?

Moebius throws Vorador's  sword at Raziel's feet. 

Moebius
We have him.  But not without a considerable price in blood.

Raziel
That will have pleased him.

Moebius
Let it sustain him until his head is off, and every vampire in Nosgoth at last is dead.

Raziel
And will that knowledge sustain you?  You too are going to your death. 

Moebius
For a true servant of the one God, death is never bitter.  I will go - again at peace with the knowledge that I have played my small part in our master's plans.  Kain is at last destroyed, and you have carried out the deed.   Which hero do you think you are now?  The vampire savior?  Or the other one?  Have you realized yet that it didn't matter to us which one either of you thought you were, so long as the result was the same in the end?   And now, Kain is dead.  Really, I cannot thank you enough.

Raziel
So this has all been arranged, every step of the way.  And Kain thought I truly had free will.

Moebius
Oh, but you do.  And there's the greatest triumph of all, to have compelled the one player who could choose into doing exactly what we required.   Well done, faithful servant.   And now - I have an execution to see to.

With a gesture, Moebius unleashes his vampire hunters upon Raziel, and exits.

Standing once again before Janos' lifeless body, Raziel produces the Heart of Darkness and contemplates for a moment --

Raziel
This relic had come at so high a cost -- my blood offering for the answers I sought from this enigmatic corpse.  It was the price of my freedom, for which Kain had paid with his life. 

Raziel places the Heart of Darkness into Janos' chest cavity.  Nothing happens.

Raziel
Had I journeyed so far, and forsaken so much, only to have it end like this?

Raziel angrily raises his fist and begins to bring it down hard on Janos’ corpse, but stops himself, and instead merely places his hand over the wound in Janos’ chest.  A jolt of energy passes through Raziel into the body.  The Reaver's power flows down Raziel's arm into Janos' chest.  Janos' eyes fly open.  His body buckles and comes to life.  He reaches out and clutches Raziel’s arm with his nearest hand.  Raziel's energy is leeched into Janos, and the wound in Janos' chest begins to heal.  Janos gasps as though surfacing from a very deep and terrifying place.  Raziel breaks away from Janos, and backs up apprehensively.  Janos rises suddenly, looking down at his chest and clasping his heart.

Janos
hoarsely
I remember -- 

Janos looks intensely at Raziel as he slides off of the burial slab and stands unsteadily.

Janos
-- Raziel, the heir of prophecy... You came for the Reaver - just before the Sarafan found me...

Janos touches his chest at the memory of his murder.  Raziel regards him with suspicion.  His tone here is flat, deadened -- after killing Kain, and realizing the Hylden prophecy, Raziel is empty and disillusioned.

Raziel
You've been entombed here for five centuries.  Your murderers are long dead.

Janos
in disbelief
Five hundred years?  And Vorador--

Raziel
interrupting
--also dead.

Janos looks stricken.

Raziel Your bloodline is erased.  The age of the vampires is coming to an end. Janos is alarmed, trying to take all this in. Janos Then we must waste no time - Janos begins to step forward.  Raziel interrupts again --

Raziel
I'm not who you think I am. Nor is this a benevolent act.  I have questions that apparently you alone can answer.

Janos
growing concerned
Raziel, there are forces in this world that will strive to deceive you and pervert your destiny.  But you must believe - your arrival foretells the salvation of the Vampire race.

Impatiently, Raziel cuts right to the heart of the question --

Raziel
Why then would the Vampires devise a weapon to consume and imprison their savior?

Janos is taken aback, confused by this revelation -- Janos No - that cannot be...  Raziel continues, with controlled hostility -- Raziel While the blade yet exists, I am drawn inexorably toward my doom.  It was you who bound me to this fate.  Only you can release me.

Janos
Raziel, you have been misled - you are ordained by prophecy to wield the Reaver.

Janos adopts a romantically far-off expression. 

Raziel
And so I do - though not quite as you'd envisioned. 

Raziel summons the wraith-blade and brandishes it before Janos, who regards this new revelation with astonishment.  Janos gasps softly and studies Raziel intently, as if seeing him for the first time.  Standing there, he does appear to be the Hylden hero, with his blazing eyes and fiery sword.  Janos appears to be approaching a kind of epiphany.  He thinks aloud, as though repeating an ominous scrap of prophecy --

Janos
Redeemer and destroyer...

This is not the first time Raziel has heard these words -- his eyes flare with distrust.  Janos continues, thinking aloud --

Janos
...is it possible?  Did I misread all the signs?

Janos addresses him with a new urgency --

Janos
It seems your destiny is more labyrinthian than I had imagined.  You must trust me, Raziel - we may have very little time.  I will convey you to the place where your answers lie.
 
 

The Citadel

Janos reaches out and grasps Raziel’s shoulders with both hands.  They are transported into the ruins of the ancient Vampire Guardians' council chamber -- the remains of its windows look out onto the Nosgoth landscape, and the Pillars beyond.  Raziel breaks from Janos' grip and takes a distrustful step backward, looking around the room.  He hasn't been here before, but he recognizes this as ancient Vampire architecture.

Raziel Where have you brought me? Janos We are within the ancient citadel of the Vampire race, long ago defiled and abandoned.   This fortress endured through centuries of war against our great enemy - Raziel - the Hylden.

Janos is a little surprised to hear Raziel speak the forbidden name, but he continues.

Janos
Yes.  From this chamber we witnessed the summoning of the Pillars, and the banishment of our adversaries from the land.

Janos turns toward the ruined windows, and sees the corrupted Pillars for the first time.

Janos
This is a dire omen... The Binding is in peril - the hour of prophecy is at hand.

Raziel
It's too late.  The Pillars are already damned.

Janos
As long as a single one of us stands, there is still hope.  The Pillars must not remain under human guardianship.  They are not competent to serve.

Raziel
Why then did you allow the Pillars to fall into human hands?

Janos
Raziel, there is no time--

Raziel
--I want answers.  The world can end this instant, for all I care.

Janos acquiesces.

Janos
Very well.  The Hylden cursed us as they fell, afflicting our race with a predatory blood-thirst.  But with this transformation came our enemies' true revenge: immortality.

Raziel
They liberated you from the Wheel of Fate.

Janos corrects him --

Janos
They imprisoned our souls in this flesh, expelling us from the purifying cycle of death and rebirth.

Raziel reacts in disgust -- this sounds a bit too familiar.

Raziel
And yet you passed the curse on.

Janos
It was a necessary evil.  Our immortality banished us from God's grace - He turned His sight from us, and fell silent.  Many took their own lives, unable to bear the separation from our God.

Raziel
distrustfully
Not you, though.

Janos Curse or blessing, it is the price we pay to keep the Hylden banished from the land.  To sustain the Binding, we had to preserve our bloodline.  And so we passed the dark gift to the human successors of our fallen Guardians.  They rebelled, inevitably, refusing the curse and seizing the Pillars as their own. And so we come to our present dilemma.  While mankind governs the Pillars, the Binding decays.  The Hylden strain against the barriers of their prison, scratching to gain a foothold back into this world.

Raziel
And what does all this mean to me?

Janos
We stand at the threshold of a new aeon, Raziel, and you are the fulcrum upon which our destiny turns.  Beneath this room lies our innermost sanctum - 

Janos gazes blankly for a moment, as if sensing something.

Janos
concerned
- the outer chamber has been opened.  It appears events are already in motion.

Janos removes a golden torque from around his neck, and gives it to Raziel.  We see that the ring forms the symbol of the ouroboros -- the head of the golden snake devouring its own tail.

Janos
This token is the key to the mysteries you seek.  I cannot accompany you; you must face this trial alone.  If you prevail, you will have your answers.

Raziel
And if I fail the test?

Janos
forebodingly
Then you will not return.

Janos takes a step backward and dematerializes, teleporting himself out of the room.

Using the ouroboros key Janos gave him, Raziel enters the Spirit Forge beneath the Citadel.  To his dismay, he finds the entire chamber infested with the mass of the Elder God.

Raziel
I should have known I'd find you here.

Elder God
Here and everywhere... Now and always.  I am the Wheel and its turning; I am the Circle of life and death. 

Raziel
- and I am beginning to think the Vampires committed suicide only to escape your voice.

Elder God
Do not forego my favor with your impertinence, Raziel.   You have finally fulfilled your purpose.  I am pleased. 

Raziel
What are you trying to obliterate here, then?  What is it about me that has you so afraid?

Elder God dark laughter Your fate is trivial, Raziel. The camera centers on an image of the Scion of Balance – an image unmistakably representing Kain as the Vampires' savior figure.  Elder God It was Kain's destiny that mattered all along.

The Elder wraps his tentacles over the spout of the Spirit Forge’s ethereal flame, barring Raziel from it. 

Raziel
My master seemed keen to extinguish the purifying fire of the Spirit Forge.  Perhaps the Reaver would loosen his grip. 

Raziel solves the Spirit Forge.  Ariel manifests before him, her disfigurement undone.

Ariel
It is accomplished.  The Forge summons the spirit of every Balance Guardian to itself, for this final purpose.

Raziel Ariel?  You? Ariel Yes, Raziel - yet I am much more than I was.  The veil is lifted from my sight.  My spirit, united with the souls of my predecessors, is drawn here now for the final baptism of the blade.  To restore Balance, the sword must be rendered pure by Spirit.  Release me, Raziel - the Soul Reaver has the power.  Release us all.  For this we were called.

With his left hand, Raziel reaches out toward the pure white fire that surrounds Ariel's spirit.  The energy flows to him and through his body, into the wraith blade in his right hand.  The Soul Reaver is imbued with splendid, transfiguring flames, as Ariel's spirit is consumed.

Ariel
You have done well, Raziel.  But there is one more trial for you to bear.  You must unite that which has been set asunder... only then will the Scion of Balance be armed for his true endeavor.  Only then... 

Ariel's voice fades, and the Citadel trembles loudly.

Raziel
The Reaver now blazed with purifying flame.  But far from being enlightened, I found myself entangled in an even greater web of mysteries.  What had Janos expected me to learn?  And what of Ariel's cryptic message?  If the sword was endowed for the Scion of Balance - for Kain - and he was now dead, what hope remained?  I needed to find Janos, and soon.  I dreaded to think what these ominous rumblings might portend.

Raziel returns to Janos in the Council Chamber.  Janos stands by the ruined windows, looking anxiously out at the vista of the Pillars. 

Raziel
Janos!  What is this?!

Janos
alarmed
The Binding is failing - all is lost. 

The Citadel trembles again as the catastrophe approaches.  Raziel looks out upon this portentous scene.

Raziel
We had arrived at that cataclysmic moment, when a younger Kain faced his fateful dilemma as Balance Guardian.  Choosing self-preservation over sacrifice, he doomed the Pillars to eternal ruin.

Hurriedly, Janos turns to Raziel --

Janos
Raziel, there may yet be hope.  There is One who will be called; you must seek the Scion of Balance--

Janos' words are cut off as a huge tremor blasts the Citadel.  Janos turns back to the Pillars, and we see them begin to shatter and fall -- 

Janos
Dear god...

-- followed by another, massive blast.  The scene is apocalyptic.  The collapse of the Pillars creates a dimensional rift that spreads across the land.  A blast wave radiates out from the falling Pillars, tearing across the landscape.  Raziel recoils, and Janos stiffens as the blast strikes the Citadel.  As Janos recovers, he is changed.  His body is now inhabited by a different entity -- the same being Raziel encountered before, when Mortanius was possessed.  The Hylden Lord turns to Raziel, grinning.

Hylden Lord
Ah, Raziel, we meet again.  You have played your part flawlessly.  It is gratifying to attain both freedom and vengeance in a single stroke.

The Hylden Lord convulses slightly, and Janos struggles to break through --

Janos
with an effort
No - you can not...

His head jerks, and the Hylden Lord is back in control.

Hylden Lord
This one is strong... good.  My next move requires a more durable host.  Mortals are such fragile vessels.  Willing or not, you have provided the instrument of our victory. 

Raziel summons the wraith blade, now blazing with power after its baptism in the Spirit Forge.

Raziel
threatening
I wouldn't celebrate just yet.

Hylden Lord You pathetic creature - you haven't got a clue.   The seduction of the Circle and possession of Mortanius; Ariel's murder; the corruption and collapse of the Pillars: all orchestrated as a prelude to this moment.  We sought an incorruptible vessel, and you provided one.  We required the blood of our ancient enemy, and you delivered Janos Audron - having first been lured to the Heart of Darkness.  Best of all, you murdered the Scion of Balance to get it.  We've already won.

The Hylden Lord convulses again, and Janos breaks through, fighting for control --

Janos
urgently
Raziel, you must not allow them to carry out their plan.  Kill me, and you end it now.

Another spasm --

Hylden Lord
disgusted
Suicidal, like the rest of them.  Know your place, Raziel.  The true hero plays his role, and then steps aside.

The Hylden Lord makes to leave the chamber, but Raziel blocks him, flourishing the wraith blade.

Hylden Lord
laughter
You deluded ghoul.  Do you so wish to die a martyr for the Vampires' lost cause? 

Raziel
You're not leaving this chamber.  I will destroy Janos if I have to.

Hylden Lord
Very well then, I'll indulge you...

They battle.  Raziel delivers what appears to be a killing blow, sending the Hylden Lord in Janos' body to the ground.  Raziel stands over the broken body, and for a moment, Janos' eyes clear -- 

Janos
Raziel... Finish it - before he returns...

Raziel hesitates, unwilling to destroy Janos.  The Hylden Lord, not fully dispelled, seizes the moment to regain possession of Janos.  He rapidly gets to Janos' feet, blazing with fury over his near-defeat. 

Hylden Lord
You should have listened to him.

The Hylden Lord unleashes a barrage of electrifying energy from his fingertips, blasting Raziel helplessly backward.  Raziel crumples, and the Hylden Lord advances, redoubling his attack.  Raziel screams in agony.  When the Hylden Lord finally relents, Raziel lies helpless, nearly destroyed.  The Hylden Lord steps back, recovering his breath as he regains his composure. 

Hylden Lord
Now it is finished.  And thus a new epoch has its beginning.

The Hylden Lord flies away in Janos’ body, and Raziel sinks into the spectral realm.  

Raziel finds himself back in the Spirit Forge, once more at the foot of the Elder God.

Elder God
Do you see?  However far you stray, you will always return to me.  Surrender, Raziel.

Raziel
furious, defiant
Never!

Raziel strikes out at the Elder God with the wraith blade, again and again.

Elder God
laughing with satisfaction
Your efforts are wasted, Raziel.  That weapon you bear, however endowed, remains only a wraith blade.  It cannot touch me.

Raziel relents, exhausted.  He scans the chamber, looking for a way out, but finding none.

Raziel I will not be your prisoner - Elder God You have no choice.  Your task is fulfilled.  Kain has been cleared from the board, and this chamber made ready for my more malleable servants.  There is nothing more for you to do.  Raziel I refuse to bend my will -

Elder God
- it has always been my will you satisfy, never your own.

Raziel
with controlled rage
You parasitic fraud - you're forced to imprison me because I possess free will--

Elder God
--you possess nothing.

The Elder God dismisses Raziel's tirade, and continues with his pronouncement.

Elder God
As you are undying, your soul cannot be returned to the Wheel - but it may console you to abide here in eternity with me. 

The Elder God's tone then changes--

Elder God
Moebius, my good servant, I call you to the place of our first meeting.  Return to me here...

The scene fades with Raziel still trapped in the bowels of the Spirit Forge, at the mercy of the Elder God.

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