Eirene and Zosha were already waiting for them on the southern of the two rocks which bordered the edges of the Abyss; as the three of them approached, Kain noticed that Shiva’s gaze was fixed on the human, as if he were wondering what Zosha was doing there. In a way, Kain agreed with the vampire: among the five of them, the human, the grey-on-grey human, terribly stuck out. She and Eirene were, perhaps, like the Nosgoth that had been and like the Nosgoth that would be: the first, grey and mutilated; the second, proud and self-confident–
Clear, bright rays of the morning sun played on Eirene’s scales; she could have been seen from far away, and, Kain thought, the three of them must have been similarly visible. Eirene would know, then, that Kain had another Hylden with him.
The three of them settled on the rock; Eirene approached the other Hylden with an inquisitive look on her face–
“Half-sister,” Perun nodded coolly.
“Perun,” she gasped, looking at Kain with an expression which hovered between betrayal and admiration. But she recovered her wits almost immediately, and asked, looking at Shiva, “And the vampire?”
It was clear that Shiva’s appearance had not shaken her as much as Perun’s.
Understanding what was demanded of him, the vampire introduced himself curtly, “Shiva,” and looked, in turn, to the human.
“Zosha,” she replied; then, looking at Perun thoughtfully, she asked, “You were the one who led the attack on the Citadel, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” he replied immediately, without a trace of embarrassment.
A shadow crossed Zosha’s face. “There is– an armistice,” she said reluctantly. “There were some prisoners. Few. They are now in Avernus,” she said, casting a look in Eirene’s direction.
“Then, I believe, all matters have been satisfactorily resolved?” Kain asked, finally drawing the attention of all to himself. He had refrained from speaking until this point; he had been curious how the four would manage to sort out their little enmities on their own.
“In the Citadel, yes,” Zosha bowed acquiescence.
“My people are on the plains east of Avernus. The tower is sealed and secured,” Eirene added, casting a meaningful look in Perun’s direction. The Hylden visibly stiffened at the mention of Eirene’s people.
“Good,” Kain said curtly. “And Avici?”
“Inaccessible. The last portal closed just after I left with the final group.”
“How much time do you need to open a Nexus Stone Gate there?”
At this, Eirene looked at him uncomprehendingly. “A Gate? Why would–”
Deciding not to pursue the matter, she said, “I don’t know. It took Father a century, at a time when the Pillars were very weak–”
This was certainly not the sort of answer Kain had expected.
Eirene continued, thoughtfully, “I can do it within several hours, perhaps, if I have help. Her,” she said, pointing to Zosha, who started. She was not the only one.
“I need someone competent in Dimension magic,” Eirene said, by means of explanation.
“Then it is settled,” Kain said. Then, he turned to the other Hylden, “Perun, I need you to raise the waters of the Abyss.”
Just like the previous request, this, too, initially met with a mixture of incomprehension and disbelief on Perun’s face; and, again, they quickly gave way to thoughtfulness. “It is feasible,” he said, “But not for too long.”
“Only for several hours,” Kain replied, “As long as it takes Eirene and Zosha to create a portal.”
“Ah,” Perun replied. “If they hurry–” He shrugged, clearly indicating that if Eirene would do her job, he would certainly do his. Then, curiosity overwhelmed him, and he asked, in a way, the same question that Eirene had not finished before, “What is there?”
To the surprise of most, it was Zosha who answered.
“A– God? My brother told me that he found his God when he looked into the Abyss–” She looked at Kain tentatively, as though she could not believe her own words.
Eirene started. “He? But he was under the Pillars–” She turned her head to Perun again; and, for the first time, there was no antipathy in her voice as she communicated, curtly, “The Wheel of Fate.”
Perun nearly spat out, “The Wheel–”
At the same moment, Shiva, who, until this time, had not spoken at all – so that Kain wondered if he even understood what was being said – moved.
“The Wheel of Fate?” he asked curiously, “Le Dieu Ancien?”
“Yes,” Kain affirmed. “But he is no God. He is a demon, a fraud; a parasite who sows conflict and reaps death. He feeds on the souls of the dead – and, for a long time, he had been very weak. He had starved: there had been no fodder for him in Nosgoth save the humans of the Citadel–” He interrupted for a moment, and watched how the expression on Zosha’s deformed face changed into one of pure disgust and horror–
So did, nearly simultaneously, the expression on Perun’s countenance. “But with the recent invasion–” he started to speak; but did not finish.
“With the invasion,” Kain finished for him, “with Sava’s cult, with the demon uprising within your ranks; finally, with my own acts – he has feasted. We have supplied him with much fodder with our petty wars.”
“Just like in the old times,” Eirene sighed; Shiva nodded seriously.
There was a moment of silence; and then, Zosha said simply, “He must die.”

Kain started at the sound of the human’s voice. It was the same cold, calm voice with which she had told him in the Citadel where he would find her brother, sealing Sava’s death.
(From the look of it, he was not the only one surprised. Perun was looking at the human closely, as if he had only just comprehended something; possibly, his own army’s defeat in the Citadel.)
He waited a moment; he felt rather relieved. A major hurdle had been overcome: the words had been uttered, and none had protested. They were all committed; the issue was now not if, but how they would assist him.
Aloud, he said, “He cannot die. He isn’t only immortal; he is eternal. Even if he is killed at one moment, he may exist the following one. Or, possibly, he cannot be destroyed at all, because he has always existed.”
“But if he is banished to Avici through the portal, and the Pillars seal space and time after him, forever–” Eirene mused. “It will have to be done fast, though. Very fast.”
“But,” Perun asked suddenly, “Eirene said that he was under the Pillars–”
Four heads turned in unison towards Kain. He sighed internally: the Hylden really was too intelligent for his own good at times–
“He is under all Nosgoth – or rather, wherever under Nosgoth he wishes to be. He is limited by space no more than he is by time. However, the Abyss is his seat of power. Here, he is the strongest.”
He prayed that they do not ask him why he thought so. He was guessing. (Of course, it was a rather educated guess; but a guess nonetheless.)
“While Eirene and Zosha prepare the portal,” he explained further, “I will endeavour to weaken him. He will leave the other spots to defend this place.” I hope, he thought; nothing but hope remained now.
“I will go with you, Scion,” Shiva suddenly said, in the slow, unsure manner in which he spoke whenever he was not using his native dialect.
Kain looked at him. “Yes,” he said thoughtfully, “I may need you.”

Zosha and Perun remained at the southern edge of the Abyss; Eirene flew over to the northern edge. The Nexus Stone, supported by Eirene’s telekinetic powers, hovered in the air mid-way between the Hylden and the human, over the very centre of the giant whirlpool.
Kain turned to Perun. “Begin,” he ordered.
A moment later, the maelstrom slowly began to uncoil; then, the curtains of the waterfalls rose; all the waters joined together again into a shimmering funnel – which, in fact, also whirled, but in the opposite direction. The funnel was much larger in girth than the initial whirlpool: it enveloped also the two free-standing rocks which had before defined the edges of the Abyss: the rocks on which the five of them were now standing.
The wooden bridge which linked the southern outcropping with the path leading to the Pillars snapped under the enormous pressure of the whirling water; but inside the gigantic funnel, it was completely peaceful. They were in the dead zone; in the still centre; in the eye of the cyclone.
Kain looked into the gaping hole below. The curtain had been raised; it was the time for the final act of the play to begin.
“Follow me,” he bid the vampire.

He leapt down, spreading out his wings to slow his descent; Shiva followed him. He was, Kain noticed, already becoming more proficient in flying; good, that–
So this was the sight which had greeted Raziel after his execution and rebirth.
The tentacles and the eyes were everywhere.
Like a thick carpet, they covered the walls of the sinkhole of the Abyss: not in a single place could the rock underlay be seen. As they descended down the well, Kain watched Shiva’s face change: and he wondered how his own face could have looked when he had first beheld this monster. He thought of Janos; of his words– “The horror! The horror!”
There was a bottom to the Abyss: a floor; also covered by tentacles and eyes, large and small. There were, to Kain’s infinite surprise, traces of civilisation even here: carved steles, barely sticking out of the mass of writhing flesh. He settled on one of them, careful not to touch the green mass; Shiva perched on another. (The vampire’s face, Kain noted, satisfied, had already lost its expression of awestruck horror; the former Guardian of Conflict was now scanning the surroundings with narrowed eyes, clearly deciding on the best way to attack.)
Kain looked up: far, far above him, there was a tiny dot which, he knew, must be the Nexus Stone. There was a tiny whirl of energy streaming out of it: Eirene must have started opening the portal. Now, it was up to him to do his part: he must weaken the creature as much as possible–
“Kain. So you, too, have come at last to look into the Abyss.”
Ah. He had been waiting for this.
(He looked at Shiva: the vampire, though clearly astonished by the booming voice which seemed to come from all places at once and no place at all, definitely wasn’t as utterly dumbstruck as before. Evidently, the novelty of the experience was already wearing off–)
“I have looked there long ago,” he replied, without a moment’s hesitation.
“And what have you found there, Scion of Balance?”
“A monster.”
A moment passed in silence; and then, Kain laughed.
“Did you truly think that I would deny myself even for a moment? I know who I am: and we both know that this will be no heroic battle. There is no place for righteous hypocrisy in this fight; we will fight not for ideals; not for truth, or vengeance, or freedom; but for power and for the reign over souls.”
“Ah. Tell me, Kain, do you intend to share the spoils of war with those on whose goodwill and competence you are even now forced to rely?” The voice was dripping sarcasm. “Or will you destroy also these tools when they become too independent – too powerful – for you to control?”
The Elder One clearly believed that Kain would resent the implications of being forcedto rely on his retainers’ skills. How odd. They were, in his estimate, rather adequate for the tasks he had assigned to them–
“I am not the one who could not contain the tools he attempted to manipulate,” he replied. “And, unlike you, false God, I know that it behoves a leader to reward loyalty as much as punish betrayal; those that had chosen to fight for me will receive their due. And so will you. I promised you that–”
“I have forced you to break your promise before, Kain,” the Elder One nearly hissed out; the tentacles around Kain lashed at him angrily. He dodged them easily. “What makes you think I will not do it again? I know your pathetic plan to depose me; I heard it all–”
“Yes,” Kain agreed dismissively, “I expect you would; you are omnipresent, after all– However, what you fail to realise is that your foreknowledge is simply inconsequential: you may know my strategy, but you will not escape your fate. Indeed,” he laughed, “in a way, it is perhaps the proper way for things to end: the time has come for you, demon, to finally taste the despair that comes with the awareness of the relentless – and inevitable.”
For the first time, traces of fear and uncertainty entered the deep voice as the Elder One asked:
“Then you do intend to pursue this foolishness to its conclusion?”
“I do.”
“You lie. You will not deliver.”
Now, Kain noticed with no small measure of satisfaction, the creature seemed to be alarmed; he finally managed to disturb its calm. Still, there was one more possibility: that this was yet another act–
“Tell me, demon,” he taunted, “Are you afraid that I will fulfil my word; or that I will not do so?”
He was met only with silence; he smirked, and continued, “Or is it that you cannot simply make up your mind? That, even as you have lost the ability to predict the movements of your enemy, you have also lost the knowledge of your own intent? If so, my task here will be even easier. Know your enemy and know yourself: now, I know them both; while you know neither.”
The voice suddenly regained all its previous firmness. “It matters not. You will not survive this fight, Kain.”
“Yes,” the Scion of Balance agreed, “Enough banter. You have overstayed your welcome in Nosgoth, false God. Now, you will leave; and you will not return.”
And that, as they say, was it: and the Battle of the Abyss was begun.

Creatures; creatures out of nightmares or a madman’s delirium; misshapen creatures which seemed to be made of random limbs arbitrarily sewn together–
They appeared out of thin air around them, around him and Shiva; and Kain did not even have the time to wonder what they were; because already did he have to take to killing them. He cast the Dimension spell, and rapidly dispatched several of the beings with well-aimed cuts of the Reaver; then, he threw a series of fiery projectiles at a particularly large one, which had assaulted him with some sort of Death energy-draining attack–
Beside him, Shiva murmured several words even as he skewered one of the creatures on his Serioli sword; and the next moment, a host of shades appeared at Kain’s side. These summoned creatures proceeded to tear at the foes; and Kain was free to deal with the true enemy; their true goal–
One by one, the tentacles fell to the Reaver; and for each one that fell, two or three immediately grew in the exact place; they lashed out at Kain, who did his best to protect himself; the spell of States, which made his skin as hard and durable as stone, proved invaluable in this case. Telekinetic projectiles cast by the Elder One’s eyes crossed the air; some hit Kain’s shield, some the shades, some the creature’s own minions; so far, all had missed the unprotected vampire–
Kain cut off another tentacle, which immediately grew back–
(–Good, he thought: he really was managing to draw the Elder One back from the rest of Nosgoth to this place–)
–and then, thrust the Reaver deep into one of the smaller eyes which, for the moment, was not protected; immediately withdrawing it, he spun around and cleanly beheaded one of the nightmare creatures which threatened to strike Shiva. The former Guardian of Conflict did not even notice this, so caught up was he in dodging a series of projectiles cast by one of the larger eyes; he flew up and down, left and right, in a wild, maniacal dance–
Kain cast his Time spell; the projectiles slowed down, even if the rate at which the eye fired them off did not; and so, the vampire, for whom time also slowed, could take advantage of a few moments of respite. In the meantime, Kain shot out an arc of Death lightning straight into the middle of the giant eye. He was rewarded with a yelp of pain, the first such during this fight; the eye was left charred and empty, and did not grow back.
He looked up: the tendril of energy issuing from the Nexus Stone was visibly larger; but it would be still a long, long fight.
Offhandedly, he cut off the thin, vine-like tentacle which tried to coil around his ankle.

They simply could not proceed further this way, Kain thought, dismayed: Shiva was already slowing down, and it would not be long before he started committing mistakes. And the plan to force the Elder One to spawn tentacles worked well, all too well: he – they – had to cut down their numbers, fast.
(–One of the nightmare creatures noticed his momentary distraction, and aimed another Death attack at him. Absent-mindedly, he electrocuted it with his own Death lightning, and then, for good measure, ran it through with the Reaver. It disappeared, as they all did; but immediately another spawned in its place. It really was like fighting a thousand-headed hydra, he groaned. But that was, after all, the plan–)
Shiva summoned yet another host of shades to act as cannon fodder, all the while dodging the eyes’ telekinetic bolts and sending off his own fire projectiles–
One of them hit, by pure chance, the stump of a tentacle which Kain cut off seconds before, and which did not yet grow back; the flesh hissed and sizzled as the wound cauterised. The tentacle did not grow back.
Kain and Shiva looked at each other; and from that point on, the battle plan changed.

The tentacles were no longer a problem: they managed to keep their number more or less constant – Kain cut them off, while Shiva cauterised the stumps. The vampire’s attempts did not always work: he had to time his strikes perfectly, as the Elder One was immune to the Time spell, and so, they could not take advantage of the slowed time–
No, the tentacles were no longer a problem.
That left only the summoned creatures and the eyes.

Kain flew up a bit, and took a quick look at the battleground. It was oddly... clean: both the severed tentacles, the creatures summoned by the Elder One and the shades summoned by Shiva simply disappeared when they were destroyed: and so, the whole place was virtually unchanged.
(Except, of course, for the sky above. The tendril of energy issuing from the Nexus Stone had become a rather large swirl–)
Several steps away from him, Shiva was defending himself from yet another of the Death creatures. He was already tired, Kain noticed–
“Back off!” he ordered the vampire, “Find cover!”
Then, he concentrated: and less than a few seconds later, the whole clearing was filled with the deadly white-blue light of lightning bolts–
They struck everywhere, hitting indiscriminately the summoned creatures, the giant eyes and the tentacles and feelers, leaving behind only charred flesh and the smell of cooked meat. Arcs of lightning leapt from tentacle to tentacle, from giant eye to giant eye, from one summoned creature to another; wreaking havoc on them all.
When the storm ceased, Kain hovered in the air, temporarily drained of his power; but already one of the surviving creatures was floating towards him. He dashed to meet it, and, before it had the time to understand what was happening, he neatly cleaved it in two–
Shiva emerged from the niche where he hid during the storm, clearly intent on rejoining the combat; but at that moment, one of the Elder One’s telekinetic projectiles which he had previously so nimbly avoided finally hit him. Dazed by the impact, he first staggered, and then looked around with a wild expression in his eyes, until he met Kain’s gaze–
“Leave,” Kain ordered, “Now.”
Shiva followed the command, and teleported out, disappearing in a flash of magic–
Kain concentrated, and called the lightning again.

The Elder One’s attacks were slowly weakening; at one point, after – Kain could not tell after which lightning storm; he simply lost count–
After one of the lightning storms, the summoned creatures simply ceased to appear; the Elder One must have decided that he had to spend too much energy animating them.
Many of his eyes and tentacles had been destroyed as well; only empty sockets and charred stumps were left behind–
But equally many were still very much alive; and these, Kain systematically destroyed even as they regenerated. With the situation under control, he very rarely resorted to Death magic: his aim, he kept reminding himself, was not to destroy his enemy, but to force him into this perpetual regeneration; to drain him maximally of his powers–
On the other hand, he must not let the Elder One have a moment to consider what was happening, he suddenly thought; and he summoned yet another lightning storm.

And then, suddenly, he felt it: the Gate was about to open–

a whirlwind of energy
(blink)
amorphousness:
an inside without an outside;
a lining without a crust;
a parasite without its host;
a faint echo of an anguished cry: “No!”
(blink)
a nothing

Kain had already teleported out of the sinkhole by the time the Gate opened and closed; he was hovering mid-air directly under the Nexus Stone. He tried to catch the Stone as it fell, suddenly released from Eirene’s telekinetic hold; but it slid out of his grasp, and plummeted down–
The parted waters of the Abyss suddenly unravelled, reverting to their normal flow; by the time the Stone reached the level of water, the water was already there. And perhaps this was for the better, Kain thought: perhaps the Stone would be pulverised in the maelstrom–
He turned around, and flew the short distance to the rock which Zosha and Perun had occupied during the confrontation. Shiva must also be there: there were three shapes on the rock.
He settled down, and looked around–
Zosha was on her knees, clutching her face, quietly whimpering; something was flowing out from between her fingers: tears of a mixture of a gelatinous humour and blood. Next to her, Perun lay seized with a fit of convulsions: his body was shaking rapidly, and equally rapidly shifted its state between a more solid and a more fluid one; white froth issued from his mouth–
At that moment, Eirene appeared on their side of the Abyss. She now approached Kain slowly, step after step, leaving a trail of blood and scales after her: a pattern of red blood droplets was scattered all across her skin. Her eyes had flowed out, too: in their places there were only empty sockets.
A few steps away from him, she tripped, wavered, and finally, slowly slid down to her knees. She did not come up.
Kain spun around–
Shiva was looking at him with unseeing, unrecognising eyes. His left wing, the one hit directly by the Elder One’s projectile, was crooked – no, in fact, completely limp and lifeless; and his left hand was clutching tightly the blade of his sword. Already had the sharp steel begun to cut through the soft flesh, and blood spurted freely; yet Shiva seemed to be oblivious to the pain.
They had all played with powers which they should not have touched; had overstrained their mortal minds and bodies; or, in Shiva’s case, had defied that whose mere touch had been fatal to a mortal–
There had been a reason why only the immortal Scion of Balance could have hoped to defeat the Elder One; why it had taken Hash’ak’Gik a century to open a Gate; why no one had attempted to raise the waters of the Abyss single-handedly before–
He had much luck in that they lasted as long as he had need of them.

He knew he could heal them – each and every one of them. It would be undemanding: all it would take, he knew, would be an effort of his will. He would have to want it: simply that, and as much as that.
(Why hadn’t it occurred to him to do this with Janos? He tried to recall: those had been several very confusing moments–)
In the end, he decided to do it.

He turned away from them: he had no morbid fascination for the process of healing at this particular time. Instead, he turned to the Abyss; and for a quiet moment, there was only the whirlpool, the Reaver and he.
Then, there were some sounds behind him; but he paid them no heed; and his peace was not interrupted, either–
When he finally turned round, he saw that the four of them were already afoot. They were all completely healed; four pairs of eyes were looking at him in silent apprehension.
It was Shiva who spoke out first, expressing the sentiments of all.
“Et maintenant,” he asked, “que ferons-nous? Où irons-nous?”
(And now, what will we do? Where will we go?)
“To the Pillars,” Kain replied. “I must complete the Binding.”