Once again Kain journeyed north to that near impossible to find cave, nestled in he frozen reaches of the spine of Nosgoth. He did not press himself as he had on his journey to the pillars. He wanted to arrive there relatively fresh and he needed the extra time to plan.
The Serioli Ancients were not that large in number but they could very well be the only Ancients beside Janos Audron to survive. The fact that he had found these hardened survivors who had rejected the dogma of the Wheel of Fate had always rung true in his mind, as if it was meant to be.
Now certain that finally he was on the right path Kain was more than prepared to let destiny take over to propel him forward.
In this era, the hidden spot that marked the entrance to the fabled ‘Oracle’s Cave’ was nearly completely obscured from sight from the air and it was only after he sighted one of the Serioli out on watch that he finally managed to find it.
His bats condensed back into one in mid air and he dropped down into the thick snow of the mountain passes.
Outside the barley visible cave entrance was winged Ancient was standing watch. It was the same Kralek who had met him with hostility before at the Pillars. This time upon sighting Kain, his response was a lot more respectful.
He paled slightly but then dropped down onto one knee, even in the thick snow.
“Lord Kain, we are all here as you ordered,.” He announced as Kain wadded forward, plodding is way up to the barely visible path to the cave mouth.
“All of you?” Kain asked as he came near. “Every last one?”
Kralek nodded with his head kept down.
“Yes.” He said. “The rest are inside. The grandmaster sent the fledglings of Audron into hiding in the east.”
Kain managed a short smile. The fledglings would carry on the Serioli traditions and pass it on to the humans, persevering the ancient forging techniques and securing the Order’s place as the legendary weapon forgers of Nosgoth.
“Good. Where is Ajatar?” He asked.
Kralek looked back over his shoulder towards the cave.
“The grandmaster is preparing to set up a defensive barrier inside” He said. Kain chuckled and stepped past him.
“She needn’t bother; we won’t be staying here that long.” He muttered leaving the puzzled seeming youth behind.
The caves were a natural fort and they seemed to appeal to the Serioli quite a bit, perhaps reminding them of their stronghold. The labyrinth Moebius would one day use as his home and tourist site for gullible visitors was little more than a set of empty hollow spaces in this day and age.
If Kain’s theory was right, it would be here that the time streamer would discover the Chronoplast and then reverse engineer its design to create his own cruder time streaming devices. Of course that did leave the question of who actually built the original device in the first place up in the air. Kain had no time to dwell on that pursuit, although he might like to find out when this was all over.
For the moment he had other priorities.
Ajatar he found overseeing the supplies that they had stored in the central cave where in times to come Moebius would have his museum of oddities from various eras. She was with her escort in the form of the large warrior, Ansu.
Almost as if sensing him, she turned to observe him entering the chamber. There was a serious expression on her face as if she was finally doing something serious that might make a difference after so long of fighting fruitless battles.
 “Lord Kain.” She greeted him formally.
The vampire looked around at the stacks of supplies that they had assembled. Weapons would be useful certainly but Kain was more pleased with the crates of bottled blood they had taken with them. They would need to ration this supply quite strictly until the human population in the future recovered enough to permit a decent crop.
“Do you have all your supplies ready?” He asked, turning to look at them. The grandmaster nodded.
“Yes. I’m assuming we are moving again?” Her voice was shrewd. Being a military commander and an intent realist she would know that it would not be feasible to live in these caves forever.
“Yes but not too far.” He motioned for them to follow him. Ajatar and her warrior obeyed, closely following him down through the caverns.
Kain knew his way of course and waited with a great deal of anticipation for their reaction as to what they might see.
As they past from caves into stone chambers of silent clockwork, Ajatar’s face creased into a puzzled frown. The architecture was like none she had seen before.
“My Lord Kain, what is this place?” Ansu asked for her, his own features contorted with surprise and curiosity.
Kain chuckled to himself. They had reached the large door that marked the Chronoplast’s entrance.
“Our way forward.” He remarked and threw the doors open advancing inside the central apex of the ancient device. With some curiosity, he noted that the ‘figure eight’ symbol for eternity was not there on the floor where it had been before.
Ajatar stared around her in utter amazement, her mouth hung open to show her fangs.  Her wings dropped down either side of herself.
 “By the elements what is this?” Her voice echoed. Ansu, being less intimidated by the strangeness, advanced first down the stairs to the central point after Kain.
“A device of ancient construction.” The vampire told them, brushing centuries of dust off of the first set of controls. “It will deliver what remains of our people to a time where they will be safe from our enemies.”
He needed no setting for this machine to use it. He already knew how to manipulate its controls to set it to the time from which he came. He decided that he needed to set it relatively close to when he first left, perhaps a week or so after in order to avoid crossing either himself or a vengeful Raziel.
Ajatar blinked and looked over at him incredulously.
“A… a time?” She repeated questioningly.
“For lack of a less crude and common place phrase, you may call it a time machine.” He replied. Even the less impressed Ansu spluttered at that. The Serioli as an order must have faced countless foes in battle but this for them was some new, beyond their understanding and experience.
“Incredible… inconceivable.” He was saying in between awed sighs as he behind the Chronoplast’s layers and the large dials arranged around the outside.
“Now I understand.” Ajatar began, descending the stairs. “Now I truly do understand why you didn’t intervene in the fall of the Citadel.” Kain turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. “You’re from the future… you knew it was going to fall.” Neither her tone of voice nor the expression on her face was accusatory but rather her eyes where willed with a sad but calm acceptance.
“Was it truly unavoidable?” She asked.
Kain nodded once and once only.
With that rely she let out one last sigh of regret and with that single sigh all the bitterness that remained seemed to flow out of her being.
“You truly mean for us to cross the boundary of time itself?” Ansu asked, still sounding skeptical.
Kain could understand the scepticism. What he proposed would sound almost insane to them, but he needed their loyalty and their cooperation and in this there was no room for scepticism.
“You did say that you would follow me.” He reminded them both with a feigned glare of disapproval.  “Do you wish to go back on your word now?”
The grandmaster of the Serioli shook her head.
“No. As fantastically impossible as this all sounds, yours is the only solution which might offer us any hope of survival.” She said but with a certain amount of optimism. “If the future is the only place where we might be safe… then it is the future that we must…”
Before she could finish, the air was suddenly alike with thick dust, pulled it seemed from the surrounding surfaces, all of it swirling up high into the air like a twister before condensing together to form solid shapes in the air.
Ansu’s hand went for the hilt of his massive axe and Kain responded in much the same way, swinging the Reaver around to hold it battle ready.
-
“It would seem my enemy was not about to let me get away with what I planed without a fight. The Homunculi were here.”
-
Over twenty centurions formed in mid air, dropping down into organised battle rows. Further behind them were officers, about six of them by the number of plumed helmets that Kain was able to count.
“These things pursue us even here?” Ajatar demanded in a snarl, winging backwards out of reach of their swords while drawing her own short blades.
The homunculi wasted no words and attacked, their numbers advancing step by step with their swords swinging in unison.
Kain parried a swipe before lashing out with his foot. The kick knocked his enemy back into the other dolls behind it and in this moment, Kain brought the Reaver around in a single swipe that sliced their heads clean off. Their liquid interior’s burst forth from the gaping holes as they then collapses into terracotta pieces.
Beside him, Ansu fought with almost berserker like savagery, his double blades axe carving huge holes in whatever it connected with.
Ansu, experienced from fighting these creatures already in Vorador’s forge, used that past knowledge to good use, learning how to anticipate their attacks and dodge around them.
Kain however was keeping his attention fixed on the Officer’s behind the main force, which were holding their hands out in front of themselves as they prepared to fire the energy projectiles he had come to expect from them.
When the finally seemed on the verge of doing so, Kain slammed his way through the ranks of the centurions and unleashed a focused burst of telekinetic force through his gauntlet directly at them.
The officers were knocked back, toppling over to crash into the floor and the energy they were charging detonated between hands blowing off their arms in a tremendous explosion of force.
Two more officers on the higher steps which had escaped the dismemberment, raised their hands to try again. Before they could, the sword like tip of a spear lanced through their bodies from behind, their disgusting insides pouring out down the steps.  A small group of Serioli warriors had come in though the entrance and seeing the plight of their leaders, had attacked their besiegers.
The added assistance quickly was able to turn the tide and quell the homunculi which began fighting far more defensively.
“Lord Kain!” One of the warriors shouted from the entrance to the chamber. “We are besieged!”
-
“And now I saw the seriousness of this attack. There was an army of these soulless marionettes pouring into the caves. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of them. The Serioli were vastly outnumbered. With nowhere to run to they would be slaughtered… unless I hurried.”
-
With Ansu and a small collection of soldiers able to deal with the homunculi within the central chamber, Kain received the quick report that these creatures had begun manifesting through the entire cave complex. More and more of them were turning up, hundreds within the space of a few minutes.
Kain growled. This was not the way this was supposed to happen.
“Withdraw everyone we have and all the supplies into this chamber.” He said making the only hasty decision he could. “Barricade the door and hold them off.” The vampire turned to Ajatar who was coming up the stairs, her twin blades dripping with what counted for homunculi blood.  “I need time to work the controls.” He added, gesturing around at the machinery.
Ajatar followed his gaze, seeing his intent.
Kain was no fool. He was not going to fight an army of these creatures with such a vastly inferior force to back him up. The only recourse he had was to flee and now that they were trapped down here, cut off from any other hope of escape, the Chronoplast’s time streaming ability was their only option.
“Can you get this device working in time?” Ajatar asked even as Kain made for the first set of dials.
“I do not know.” He admitted, grabbing the first and pulling it to the side. It grated loudly. Moebius had kept it in relative good condition but since in this era he had yet to find it, its condition was that of an abandoned relic. “It is a complex mechanism…”
The Serioli carried out his orders, herding their number into the chamber which quickly became quite crowded. With such numbers they were quickly able to overwhelm the homunculi which had formed here and then began to shift what supplies they could grab through the door.
“As soon as I tell you to go through its vortex I am not inviting you or any of your warriors to an extended debate about it. When I say jump you jump. When I say go you GO understand?” Kain asked Ajatar, without so much as glancing up from his work.
 The gears and old cogs of the machine were so rusted that it was taking all of his strength to turn them.
Ajatar nodded and went down to oversee the barricading of the door. The lat of the crates with the blood bottles came through, with the marching sound of footsteps echoing after it.
Before the Homunculi outside could enter the chamber, the Serioli slammed the door shut and piled a few of the empty crates they had against it.
It was a superficial barrier that would be easily overcome with a simple battering ram but under the circumstances it would just have to do.
Frantically now, Kain set the controls watching the chamber only sluggishly respond to his commands. The armillary above, suspended from the ceiling was only just beginning to churn with a protesting groan of metal against metal.
The energy charge up was slow, far slower than it had been since he had ever used it before.
The door gave a sudden lurch forward accompanied b a loud hollow booming sound that left the entire chamber shaking in the aftermath. The Serioli warriors rushed to press themselves up against it, even as the door lurched again, struck from the outside by some heavy object.
-
“They were breaking through. I had to hurry.”