The thump in his chest woke Kain with a start and he strained with a gasp, eyes snapping open and staring up at the vaulted ceiling high above. His vision swam momentarily and he blinked to clear his eyes. Everything seemed disconnected and vague, sounds muted slightly and his skin numb.
Then came another thump, and another and then another and the vampire lay there feeling it pulse inside his very being. Each thump from within restored more and more clarity to his senses and he became painful aware of everything around him.
Slowly he raised his hand and laid it over the left hand side of his chest. There was no wound there anymore, it was completely healed and whole. There he felt that sensation, that steady strength renewing thump of a beating organ.
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“Awakening from my enforced slumber the sensation of the steady beating heart in my chest was a feeling that left me squirming uncomfortably. I had grown use to its absence and with its return, my body had to readjust one more.”
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Every ounce of weakness was gone, all trace of it evaporated and replaced with his tried and tested reserves of strength. But even more he could feel new reserves course through his veins now to join with his own stockpile. His body felt as light as a feather and as solid as a rock.
Without any effort at all he hoisted himself up into a sitting position and blinked several times to clear his vision completely. His eyes focused on the sight on the far side of the carved ritual symbol. Lying in a crumbled heap was Ezekiel. The old man was dead there was no doubt about of that. His chest was still wrenched open liken a butchered hog and he lay unmoving in a thick puddle of black blood.
Kain stared at the corpse for a long time with a peculiar tugging regret deep inside him. The old man had been the last of his sister’s bloodline and the very last member of his human family. The proud nobility of Coorhagen had ended with a selfless old man who had done is duty even to the death.
“Kain?” The vampire turned to see standing over him was a distinctly feminine set of Sarafan armour, glowing from within faintly. It took him a moment to reconnect his short term memory with his present mind.
“Umah?” He asked and then shook his head as he reconnected completely with the present situation. Quickly he got back up to his feet. Either Ewoden or strangely Ashar was anywhere to be seen. He was about to speak but stopped as Umah was staring with some intensity at his chest rather than his face.
“Your heart?” She asked with only a moment’s hesitation.  Kain managed an almost boyish grin and patted his chest again.
“Where it should be.”  He stated and then paused, only now becoming aware of the steady rumble of noise from far above, it was an ominous sound like a distant roll of thunder only much closer.  Then he noticed a pile of armour lying off to one side. It hadn’t caught his attention at first because of the horde of armour piled up in the corners from the chamber but when he looked he saw quite clearly that the collapsed pile of crumbled armour had been that very same set which Ashar had used as his vessel.  It lay there unmoving without the barest hint of an inner spiritual glow.
Kain grew alarmed. He could not afford to lose the Hylden king for Ashar had the knowledge passed down to him by Ba’al of the strategy the two of them intended to implement
“What happened?” He asked looking at Umah sharply. She half turned to look back at the collapsed armour herself, apprehension clear in her body language. Kain was finding he could detect her feelings through watching her stance since she lacked a face to make actual expressions. Right now he sensed she was worried and restless, a stance he had seen her use before when in the Cabal’s sanctuary hideout.
“Ashar’s energies were expended during the ritual.” She said and there was fear in her voice. “He is severely weakened, Kain. He will require a lot of time to reconstitute himself.”  The vampire however was shrewd enough to detect that her concern was not entirely for her benefactor. She was after all in the same situation the Hylden king was since her body was not her own but an unnaturally animated puppet. If this could happen to Ashar it could certainly happen to her.
“But there are more important matters afoot now!” She said and almost at the exact same time the rumbling from high above grew even louder.  Several pieces of discarded armour from the horde jumped and clattered in response to the accompanying vibration.
Kain looked up at the ceiling above frowning.
“What is going on?” He demanded.
“The Bastion above us is being attacked by an army!”  He almost didn’t register her words for a moment. The vampire blinked and looked at her sharply, incredulity written large in his face.
“An army!?” He burst out in surprise. “Who’s army?”
Umah glanced off towards the open doorway of the forging chamber.
“Your lycanthrope friend called him Raziel-Divus.” She replied. Kain stiffened slightly at the sound of the name and was silent for a long moment, his lips pressed tightly together.  Then, slowly at first, a wide grin began to break across his face and his eyes narrowed into savage amusement.  
“The king of Fanum-Divus has finally found me then as he?” He asked rhetorically. His voice carried the hint of a dreadful and eager pleasure, a chance to be vindicated. Revenge was not a pleasant desire even by vampire standards and often only motivated the young and foolish. Kain would be the first to admit that revenge had been one of his primary motivation during his youth and that by now he had outgrown it, but the king of Fanum-Divus had earned a return to that kind of bloody and visceral retribution. 
“So much the better.” He said with a malicious grin showing off his fangs. He started towards the door but when Umah did not follow he stopped and looked back at her. She was standing beside Ashar’s collapsed form almost resolutely.
“Kain, Ashar cannot defend himself in this state.” She said and her voice was solemn. “I owe him too much allow his vessel to be destroyed.”
Kain could see from her body language she meant what she said. Truth be told he was happy she felt that way. After so long he had found her again and had gone further in earning her forgiveness then he had ever thought possible.  He was not prepared to risk her in the melee so soon.
“Then protect him if the fight is brought down here.” He told her in a tone that he intended to solidify her resolve. He didn’t want her second guessing herself later and come up to assist where she might be in true danger.  “He has the instructions from Ba’al. I would prefer not to lose that insight.”
Resolutely he turned to face the chambers entryway.
 “I will keep the general of this army occupied.” There was no further need for conversation. She said nothing to him as he left and he did not venture to say anything either. They had said enough to each other already and if further words were really necessary then they would keep until another less strenuous time.
The lack of any coherent strategy to face the greatest enemy general he had ever known did not concern Kain was perhaps it should have.  During their last direct confrontation Raziel-Divus had not only defeated him but left him for dead.  The only thing that had saved Kain had been his enemies tactical error in assuming he could leave vampire floating in the ether.
Perhaps Ewoden had gone on ahead to delay the arrival of the armies of the Divus. It was a noble gesture and Kain did not mean to see it mean nothing in the end. This time Kain was adamant there would be no escape for either himself or his enemy. One of them was not leaving this mountaintop alive.
With his heart restored to its proper place all the energy he had lost returned in force and he found himself moving with restored speed, only now aware of how slow he had been when afflicted. In mid stride her changed form, slipping his body down into the sleek lupine shape he often used for clearing large distances in a hurry.
He rejoiced in the return of his vitality, revelling in its speed and near endless stamina. This was a kingly gift indeed from his sister and her bloodline and he would cherish it most dearly.
Perhaps some of the invading forces had managed to slip around the vanguard Ewoden had tried to provide for when Kain erupted out of the entrance of the secret tunnels and into Malek’s throne room he can almost directly into an advance party of armed homunculi.
He was in their midst is a startled moment and he reacted with the instinctive violence common to nearly all vampires and especially the trained warrior.  
In lupine form he bounded into the air and came down on the officer leading them, pinning him to the ground so hard and fast that his terracotta foe shattered into pieces on impact.  Rebounding of the shattered enemy Kain morphed back into his normal form in mid air. Twisting around quickly, he kicked one of the homunculi in the chest. To his surprise the talons of his feet shredded through the terracotta which had previously taken some force to puncture.
In that moment he realized what this meant. His thought that his strength had been augmented by the return of his heart had been confirmed. After a moment of stunned incredulity, a wide evil grin parted his lips. Laughing with glee he tore into the now outclassed homunculi with a passion, his talons raking through terracotta with ease.
One of them he punched straight through the head as if it were made of paper. A second he tore an arm off of with his bare hands, ripping the limb clear before proceeding to bludgeon another two into pieces with it.
A third attacked him from behind with a spear. He grabbed the shaft as it stabbed past him and he swung it back across the side of the nearby wall with enough force to break the puppet holding it into wet pieces.
Another two he set into slamming them up into the side of Malek’s throne the frozen corpse toppled forward out of its seat and clattered to the floor loudly as Kain ripped his enemies apart with his bare hands.
Unsatisfied with a mere physical chastisement, Kain turned his magical energies on the remaining force baring his way.  He sent bolts of burning energy at them blasting holes through them with ease, shafts of lightning that reduced a homunculus to dust and waves of telekinetic force that hurled his enemies out of his way.
So strong was his body now that he found himself disappointed he could not test it further when he ran out of homunculi. The swift skirmish could not even be a called a warm up. With an almost boyish grin on his way he made for the corridor that would lead him outside, quite confident that the enemy general commanding these puppets would be a more substantial method of testing himself.
Kain purposely did not take the direct route out into the Bastion’s courtyard. Instead he made for a set of stairs that he remembered would lead him out to the top of a rotten watchtower. Through the stone arrow slits he could see glimpses of the chaos outside.
Quickening his pace he made towards the top of the tower. Bursting out onto the battlements he came to look out at the melee. An endless army of homunculi was marching in through the Bastion’s gates, like the snow itself was coming to life and spawning the terracotta troops.  The sky above was sparking with unnatural red lightning, thick black clouds roiling angry emitting growls of like a hate filled snarl.
It was as if the heavens themselves had ripped themselves apart to spill out their fury and wrath onto the earth.
From across the castle came the sound of thunderous detonates that accompanied flashes of surging multicoloured rights. The ground trembled slightly underfoot with each flash.
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 “And so this was the scene for the final confrontation with Raziel-Divus was it? How epically fitting.”
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Kain found himself smiling at the picture. No other battlefield was more appropriate, more worthy to service as the ending place between the rivalry between the scribe of heaven and himself as this.  
With a bound he leapt from the tower to the stone below, landing quite purposefully in the midst of a thick platoon of homunculi. The terracotta soldiers turned sharply to face him instantly, weapons and shields at the ready. Kain kept his eyes on the battle before him almost ignoring the enemies that were no less then dust to him, arms held at the ready out wide with talons flexed.
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“Now, with my heart restored and my soul aflame, it was time to end the so called Scribe of heaven once and for all.”