Grunting, Kain stood up and took several long and deep breaths to calm himself and steady his body. Glancing down he studied himself. His skin was unblemished from the burns Divus had inflicted upon him although perhaps he did feel a bit stiff in places. What could not be restored however were his clothes. His imperial drape and its strap, which he had worn so proudly, had been burnt away along with his leather wrapped gauntlets. Thankfully his pants, for modesties sake, were more or less intact.
The only parts of his attire to escape unscathed were his shin guards and the strange telekinetic enhancing gauntlet that he had found in the village near the Serioli fort.
The band of ribbon he had used to tie his hair back was gone and so it hung loose over his shoulders and across the left hand side of his face.
His physical appearance however was not what troubled him. Deep inside him, where the sensation of a beating heart was lacking, there was a dull persistent ache. Kain had gotten used to the void where his heart had once been but this was far different, a physical low pain mixed with a mental anxiety.
It was a nagging reminder that something was missing, something very important.
.
“I awoke to find myself in a strange place, a deep tomb of stone and darkness. It was familiar enough to be welcoming.”
.
The pool of blood from which he had emerged lay in the exact centre of the chamber, which was a rectangular shape with a stone archway directly in front leading up to a flight of stairs. The walls were plain mostly but the buttresses that held up the flat ceiling were elaborately decorated with angelic iconography; winged beings with cloven hands and feet holding up the burden above.
It was then that he noticed the bodies. Lying crumbled in heaps off to one side were piles of corpses, all of them human and raging in different ages. There were men, women and children amongst the dead and the way their arms and throats had been cut it was clear that it had been their blood that was used to fill the pool.
“Oddly hospitable of them.” Kain muttered to himself, striding over to examine the bodies more closely. They had all been stripped of clothing and lay naked against each other but they all had one thing in common. Branded on the back of their necks was the symbol for eternity, the ‘Moebius Ring’.
Frowning, Kain turned to face the entrance. Just where was he and who had decided to save him, restoring him by sacrificing all these people to breathe new life back into his shattered frame? A question that definitely needed answering, sooner rather then late.
Then he remembered… the sword.
The Soul Reaver.
He glanced around quickly but was he expected it was nowhere to be seen. Divus had indeed taken it.
Kain began to swear inventively. By now Divus would have given it to Moebius the Time Streamer, who in turn would deliver it to William the Just; where it would play a part in events. How was he supposed to proceed without the blade now that it was a part of pre-destiny?
He had to get it back somehow but how was he supposed to do that without causing a paradox?
“One mystery at a time.” He said through clenched teeth and proceeded towards the open doorway. The stairs angled upwards a short distance before opening out into a curving stone corridor with more of the carved angel buttresses supporting the flat roof.
There was a faint metallic smell in the air that lingered on the tongue like zinc. Proceeding down the corridor, still dripping blood from his bathing, he could feel the air grow warmer and warmer until he could feel the heat through the soles of his feet.
Finally the corridor came to an end in a door, twice his height but narrow. Engraved into its surface was an elaborate design; showing an angel again with cloven hands and feet; but this depiction was slightly more familiar. The angel had short hair and carried a triangular shield on his left arm.
Kain scowled at the imagery of Raziel-Divus and then in a moment of irrational anger, he kicked the door open.
What lay beyond stunned him right back into stasis.
.
“I stood between two abysses, one white one black, a pillar between the ether and the void.”
.
In the distance was the whiteness he had endured below, acting like the sky it seemed to go on forever.
Below, perhaps in place of an endless sea, was the darkness which he had perceived before. Pitch black, so dark that it seemed not even light could escape its emptiness.
Kain stood upon a stone ledge, a part of a massive city complex that wound up and up stretching between the ether above and the darkness beneath.
It was an impossible construction, something that should not exist and yet here it was before his very eyes.
“What is this place?” He found himself asking, glancing up and down craning his neck to see the city soar impossibly high above and infinity far below. It was a metropolis that seemed endless, expanding out far above in a series of overhanging buildings that blocked out sight of anything further above. This is towering impossible city go on forever?
Inadvertently, Vorador’s words came back to him. He had said that those who served the false god were elevated above mortals to some higher place, a heaven reversed for the faithful and pious.
And then of course, what had Raziel-Divus said in that moment before their fatal duel? He had called himself a servant of the one true God and king of Fanum-Divus, castle of the demi-gods.
Fanum-Divus. In the old tongue it translated as ‘holy city’.
.
“And so I came to behold the city of the angels, a structure that stands beyond the veil of time itself; the capital of my enemy’s power.”
-
Below him was a wide boulevard of stone framed by stone buildings with metal extensions, wider then the canopy above and the heat that filled the air seemed to rise from several large circular opens which Kain could see from his vantage point.  There were people down there, hundreds of them all working around the metal buildings. Kain watched him scurry around like ants and came to the conclusion that he was observing some kind of alien smithy, blacksmiths all carrying hot metal too and fro from place to place and having others forge it into various shapes. He glanced first to his right and then to his left, noting the true scale of the level and as far as he could see there were humans busy working.
It might be easy to hide amongst them at least until he could devise a means of escaping this impossible place.
But who had brought him here in the first place? Certainly not Raziel-Divus who had meant to leave him drifting in the ether.
Kain slide over the side of the stone rail and down a slopping way until he came down behind one of the buildings. He remained in its shadow, moving silently with his senses alert.
The humans working here were of many racial stocks that seemed to be blending together into one. They were olive skin and had brightly coloured hair, the most common colour being a golden blonde. Even their eyes were golden and so their overall appearance had an almost strange metallic quality to it. Seeing them all in a crowd was almost akin to watching a moving wheat field.
Kain frowned from the shadows. Like those corpses he had seen before they all had that infinity sigils engraved on the backs of their necks.
Edging closer Kain could see what they were doing. This slave race, for he could think of no other term, were in the process of the mass production of metal artefacts ranging from weapons, to armour to custom building materials. There were no markets, no shops or places of trade; every building was devoted to either housing or production.
Nor did these people seem overly sunken by their enslavement, in fact they carried on with it with neutral expression and some even chatted to one another as they worked. It was as if this brutal work was all they knew and as such they were adapted to it.
Slipping in through the back door of a metal side extension, Kain came across a man busy at what was clearly a makeshift forge. He was big and heavily muscled and was occupied hammering metal on an elaborately carved anvil. He was making what seemed to be swords, curved oddly in an oriental style. He had a table and barrel of water to one side where finished blades had been left to cool.
Kain didn’t hesitate. He simply stepped up behind the man; clamped his hand over his mouth to prevent him from crying out, grabbed his hammer hand in the other and then bite down with a crunch into the neck.
After emerging from the pool of blood Kain had no real need to restore his strength but the nagging sense of weakness in his chest had not gone away and perhaps a surplus of energy to call upon might help.
Once the man was drained, Kain let him drop to the floor. Quickly he dragged the body in under the table and pushed the barrel in front of it. He did not want his presence to be known just yet to either his enemies or those who had rescued him. At least not until he had secured for himself a stronger position then the one he now occupied
He lingered there for a moment, surveying the dead smiths work. Now that he was in the light from the forge he could see that stacked on the walls of the room on shelves were complex pieces of armour in many verities and shapes.
Feeling naked with his usual attire destroyed, Kain helped himself. He did not take much though, just a replacement gauntlet to cover his free arm and some greaves to strap across his thighs.
The armour, once attached, fit surprisingly well and was made of light metal so Kain’s reaction time was not slowed either. The bracer across his arm was segmented in places up to the elbow and allowed him to flex and provided some balance against the Serioli Gauntlet on his other side.
The greaves were also segmented and dark grey, a perfect colour match for his pants and covered up some of the more obvious tarnishes they had suffered.
“Better.” Kain observed but would not be happy until he could find a replacement for his imperial drape.
.
“If I had thought Meridian a maze, compared to Fanum-Divus it shrank into pathetic insignificance.”
.
Built of stone and metal, the impossible city was an expansive labyrinth so large that Kain began to suspect he could wander its lowest levels for centuries and not cover even a portion of it.
How long had it been here? For a city this large to be constructed the process of building it must have taken eons if indeed it was complete and construction work wasn’t going on elsewhere.
The streets, if they could be called streets, were patrolled every ten minutes by regiments of homunculi, the terracotta soldiers of the Divus. They marched in perfect unison not a foot out of step as they walked. The golden hired slave race moved aside for them as they came by almost unconsciously, perhaps having done it so often so for so long it was second nature.  The sheer amount of these dolls disturbed Kain immensely for they were a fair indication of the kind of army his enemy could wield against him.  
That disturbed him more was the fact that he saw no other living beings beside from the humans, not even any animals in their quarters and more importantly, no sign of any of the overlords; those who sold themselves for the Wheel of Fate in exchange for power and immortality.
In order to avoid the homunculi as they patrolled, Kain descended down into round cylindrical area that had no immediate function. It was perhaps about fifty feet long with a metal grill floor suspended over a long drop down.
Directly above, thick and steaming molten metal was channelled down 3 channels in the curved wall to fall into a gathering pool far below. This was the source of the near unbearable heat and Kain felt himself begin to sweat as he past through it.
Suddenly, stepping out in front of him and blocking his path came two of the slave race. They were big men and their expressions of stern forcefulness gave Kain the distinct impression that they had been expecting him. A moment later, two more stepped out of the shadows of an alcove to cut off the way he had just come. 
More came out from other entrances, perhaps around twenty in all and all keeping him trapped.
“You have no idea how badly this can go for you.” Kain remarked slowly, his eyes moving to count each of them in turn. None of them held weapons but they did have their smith hammers at their belts.
He no longer had the Reaver to rely on but that did not diminish his own skill in the slightest. If necessary he could tear these men apart with his bare hands. “Move aside.”
One of them directly in front of Kain shook his head.
“Our patron saint wishes to have words with you.” He said. Before Kain could react all of them took a surprised step backwards as there was a brief green illumination from directly overhead.
Kain swung his head up and then backed off, fangs bared and talons raised as a figure dropped down onto the space before him.
The woman, for the shape was clearly feminine was of middle height, perhaps a head and shoulder shorter then himself. Her jet black hair was longer, reaching down to calves and left to sway freely. Her skin colour was a very pale white and her eyes, barely visible beneath her very long bangs were dark lavender. She wore leather with metal armour across the shins and arms up to the shoulders, all of this hidden beneath a thick woollen grey cloak.
Her image was familiar and after a moment Kain linked her visage in his mind. He had seen her image once before, back in the Vampire Citadel. He had found a temple there and beheld murals of the deified saints the Vampires revered.
This woman had been one of them.
“I am Ophiel-Divus.” She said; her voice firm and her eyes glinting. “Patron saint of mankind.”