The Leading homunculi lashed out, sending a bolt of condensed magical energy directly at Kain. In retaliation the vampire contemptibly intercepted it with a focused burst of telekinetic force, the two forces meeting in mid air and cancelling each other out with a crash.
Using this as momentary cover, Kain lunged forward and jabbed the Reaver into the chest of his first opponent. The tip of the serpentine blade burst out the far side of the creature in a spray of its liquid insides.
Kain brought the sword sharply to the left, slicing the homunculus in half and it fell down dead at his feet its companions joined together in a frantic attack. Whoever controlled these puppets knew that their only chance for defeating him laid in swarming him under with their sheer numbers and directed them thus.
One grabbed Kain around the waist. Another tackled him from behind, grabbing his hair and shoulders. The third clung savagely to his sword arm as if trying to pry the Reaver out of his grip.
Snarling, Kain reached around with his free hand and grabbed the creature on his back around the neck. With his vice like rip he cursed it and then pulled the slackening body off. This he used almost like a club, swinging with twitching body around to smack into the homunculi attached to his other arm.
The two of them exploded in a disgusting display of their liquid interiors, their outer shells crumbling into the goo and growing brittle almost like clay.
The last remaining creature had the opportunity however to stab Kain through the middle with its short sword. It was not a serious wound for a vampire o Kain’s statue but it irritated him enough as to make his response a little crude.
He simply slammed the hilt of the Reaver directly into the creatures face and as it staggered back, Kain kicked it to the ground. 
It struggled to rise but the vampire pinned its head to the floor with his talons and then stamped, his talons bursting through the head and crushing it into pulp. The body writhed briefly then collapsed, its shell becoming fragile and then breaking apart to let its insides spill out.
Kain took a moment to recover himself and to check the wound he had received. It was healing but after so long a trip here he would soon need to feed to replace lost energies.
“I can not tell you how long it has been, the wait I have endured for you.” A voice began suddenly, echoing out from the doorway above. Kain glanced up and frowned. In one bound he cleared the stair and stood on the threshold.
Beyond was another, larger chamber. It had an arched roof with pillar supports at each corner, each imitating a Hylden warrior or other important figure. A large char stood at the far side of the room, delicately embroidered with clothe that might once have been fine silk but by how had rotted away to clearly nothing. If Kain were to hazard a guess at this places function he might be tempted to believe this to be a throne room of some kind for whatever Hylden Lord had once ruled the Forgotten Keep.
“Yet it seems time means nothing to you, Scion of Balance.” Out from behind the throne, strode a lustrous figure with swaying hips. Her hair was short and chestnut brown against creamy, even ivory skin. Her eyes were a deep purple and her legs were long and well shaped. Her other, less human features were far more apparent.

“And here at last was the woman herself, the mysterious Seer whose incite might lead me to the Tablets of Dark Fable. But after so long playing the pawn I was no fool and knew better than to take anything she might say to me at face value.”

Kain eyed her almost suspiciously as she approached.
“You know I am?” He asked. The Seer kept his expression neutral but her eyes were cold and unfriendly.
“And what you are.” She said. Her accent was a strange one that Kain never heard from anyone else.
“Which would mean when I met you before; you were insincere in your self portal of an abnormal hermit.” He pondered, thinking out load.
“Met before?” She asked, circling him to examine his body with a critical eye.  “This is the first time I have laid eyes on you, Scion.”
Kain chuckled almost to himself.
“Oh we have met, or will meet.” He said, tilting his head to one side.  “For me our meeting is ancient past but for you it is yet to come.”
The Seer stopped pacing and assumed a supercilious look.
“You speak in riddles like some doddering soothsayer.” She accused but then smiled faintly. “And I thought that was my livelihood.”
“Enough banter.” Kain remarked then, deciding to cut to the point. “You knew I was coming I take it.”
“Naturally.” The woman shrugged and strode over to the old throne. “I have been observing you and my old friend Vorador since you entered this place.”
Kain had suspected that for quite a while and frowned at this confirmation of his own fears.
“And are you responsible for those creatures that dog me?” He asked, gesturing back the way he had come.
“The homunculi?” She looked actually offended at the idea. “I was almost about to ask you about them. Their arrival here was as just as a surprise to me as they are to you.” She waved off that concern with a toss of her head, clearing some hair out of her eyes. “After all they are left over weapons of your race, not mine.”
This last remarked caused Kain a small amount of confusion. He blinked trying to understand but then cast a glance up to the likeness of the Hylden images around the chamber.
Suddenly his eyes widened and he cast a glance between her and the likeness. The head ridges, enlarged ears and back protrusions.
There could be only one logical conclusion to draw.
“You’re Hylden; aren’t you?” He asked, perhaps a bit foolishly.
“Was it not immediately apparent?” The seer asked back, gesturing down at her body, her tone almost taunting.

“Before me stood a representative of the enemy race. That I had been too blind to see it before struck me dumb.”

Kain stared for a moment before he recovered himself. He cleared his throat and frowned, feeling utterly foolish for such an unforgivable oversight.
“I have seen many Hylden in my life time.” He began, remembering those creatures and beings he had faced eons when he destroyed the Mass and assaulted the Hylden City. “Yet they were all hideous, monstrous…”
“And ugly?” She cut him off sharply. “What you have seen vampire, and what you see before you, is a travesty and the plight of my species.” She looked up towards the images carved all around them. “I escaped the Binding and so have never been to that hellish realm where the rest of my civilisation was banished. What you see here is the only remaining example of how my people used to be.”
Kain observed the images more closely, taking more detailed note of the far fairer features in contrast of the almost scared appearance of the invader who took orders from the Hylden General.
“Prolonged exposure to the demon realm warps the occupants, mind, body and soul.” The Seer explained a bit wearily.

“The words of the taunting Hylden came back to me, declaring that my fair form would disappear in the demon realm followed by my very sanity. I paused to contemplate such a terrible fate, doomed to decaying ugliness and madness for all eternity. Such a sentence might well have been earned later but still the mere thought of this being inflicted on an entire race was one I could not in good faith call just.”

He shook his head.
“If you are trying to make me feel guilty, need I point out that it was your people who left mine as predators of the night?” He asked rhetorically, patting his own chest. “In cosmic circle of karma I think our two races are just about even.”
The Seer let out a short chuckle.
“Possibly.” She conceded with a sad smile. “My people brought most of it on themselves, this I will not deny.” When Kain looked at her blankly she carried on. “Did you know how my kind became exempt from the Wheel of Fate?” She asked. “It was we who first opened the way to the Demon Realm and it was our alchemists who discovered that binding ourselves to it’s energies provided us with immortality.”
Kain pondered this new information, wondering at it and realising that perhaps this had been what the Sarafan Lord had meant in his final moments when he had claimed that their banishment ensured his peoples immortality.
“And so when the Pillars were raised, your people were damned to the hell of their own making.” He eventually concluded.
“One might put it that way.” The seer said glumly but then frowned at him. “Your kind left us with no other choice. It was either that or forced conversion.” But then she seemed to remember some degree of manners and sighed. “But I digress; you are here for a purpose other than to argue about irrelevant points.”
Kain nodded, his mind now back to the business at hand.
“My visions are clouded, ransom, formless… all but one. The Scion of Balance, who would come to me for aide in his quest.” She said looking up at him.
“So you know why I am here and what I have come for?” He asked, already knowing the answer.
“There can only be one thing you can come to me for Scion.
He held up a hand.
“My name is Kain.” He said. While Scion of Balance was quite a flattering title, if used too often it could get monotonous.” The Seer smiled.
“Kain, then.” She agreed. “You seek from knowledge of the Tablets created by the first Balance Guardian.”
Kain smiled.
“Then you know where they are?” He asked eagerly. To his disappointment she chuckled and shook her head.
“Sadly no, I do not.” She sighed. “The Tablets were long eons ago, during the human uprising against your blue skinned ancestors.” Then her smile spread. “But… I can tell you ‘when’ you might find them.”
Kain raised an eyebrow. “When?” He repeated.
The seer walked over and looked him directly in the face.
“You have the aura of the Chronoplast all over you, you have seen it, learned how to use it.” This comment took Kain aback.
He had assumed, falsely now it seemed, that with Moebius finally dead the Chronoplast time streaming chamber was his little secret. “I can give you the settings so that the machine will take you to the era when the tablets were still owned by the vampires and in that time you might be able to retrieve them.”
The proposition was quite tempting. But Kain knew that this was not the beneficent offer it seemed to be.
“I sense a condition for this intelligence.” He said dryly.
“You are quite perceptive.” She said with sly eyes. “The humans have a saying… something for something, nothing for nothing.” Her tone was suggestive. “If you want those settings then there is something I would like for you to do for me first.”
Kain scowled at her.
“I do not run errands.” He said firmly.
“This is no errand. I wish only for you to share that which is in your possession and can freely be given to those who seek it.”
Kain watched as she extended her hand forward to him, her expression changed to one of awed hope. Clearly this had been what she had been building up to and waiting for.
“Purify me Kain, lift the veil from my sight so that I may finally be able to see clearly.” She asked, saying it almost pleading.
“What?” Kain asked slowly.
“The purifying power of spirit lies within you. Share a small portion of it with me and what you seek I will give you with my blessing.”
The Vampire looked down at her hand and then up at her again, looking into her eyes and seeing the desperate hope there.
Grimly he set his jaw and reaching forward he took her hand in his.

“As I took her hand, the strangest sensation welled up within me. For the first time since Raziel had sacrificed himself, I actually felt the flowing power of Spirit coursing through my very veins. It was almost a physical sensation as it passed through our contact and into her.”

The Hylden seer gasped audibly, eyes wide as invisibly her soul was a washed with purifying energy. The veil was lifted from her sight and a look of such wonder came over her that Kain felt almost captivated by the moment himself.
“Oh… it’s so wonderful…” She breathed. “It’s so warm and…and…” Then something happened, her eyes grew troubled and distant. “What….no…”
The look of awe on her face stopped abruptly and after a moment of hesitation instantly fell away to stunned horror.

“I knew what she saw for that look was all too familiar. Somehow, perhaps through transferred memories, she had caught a glimpse of the terrible form of the False God.”

Sharply she drew her hand away from his, almost cringing.
“Is... is that what it looks like?!” She asked in a choked voice, trembling uncontrollably.
“I have a good eye for details.” Kain told her seriously.
“I could never have imagined such a monstrosity even in my darkest nightmares.” She began. Still shaking she went over to the throne and sat down, holding her head in her hands. This moment that she had been anticipating had an unexpected bitter aftertaste for her.
After she took a moment to control herself she looked up again.
“But… but you have fulfilled your end of the agreement.” She said and then gestured over to the far wall. There was a light surge of force and a short panel opened, revealing that the wall was honeycombed with a mural draw over the concealing flaps. Out from this opening floated a wrapped parchment, sealed into a scroll. It flew at Kain and the Vampire caught it out of the air in one hand.
“Here, take this scroll. It will give you the necessary settings for the time period you require.” She assured him. Kain broke the seal with a talon and unrolled it. There were rune like marks for writing but Kain recognised these symbols enough from the various dials and devices in the Chronoplast chamber.
This could very well be what he needed.
“And Kain…” The seer began and he looked over. “Good luck to you Scion of Balance. Such praise might seem strange to you from a Hylden but I have hopes you might be such as much a boon to my people as to your own.”
Kain smiled whimsically and clutched the scroll.
“Perhaps Seer… Perhaps.”