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Ryoken- One needn’t be it to love it.

The Edge of the Coin III
By Ryoken

She fell deeper and deeper into what seemed to be an eternity of pain. She didn’t bother to try and fight against it. She was soon drifting to the ground, still in horrible pain. Her surroundings shifted drastically, and she was in a room. Everything was blue and there were green balls of mist floating around. She looked around her surroundings and saw two entrances blocked by dark blue barriers. Suddenly, one of the gates disappeared and a blue, misshapen figure walked in. He leaned against a nearby pillar, apparently weak.
“The old hunger has left me. I have no desire for blood.” He seemed to speak to no one, but she knew immediately that this was Raziel. She ried to call out to him, but nothing came out. She looked at herself and saw that she was a mere soul. She began to feel compelled to go to Raziel, but she thought better of it. Instead, she floated through the other barrier and into another room. She backed quickly away when shesaw what was inside. Odd creatures were devouring the other souls in the room, just as Raziel had done. Was he one of these things? She shivered at the thought. No, there must be another reason. Soon she heard his footsteps behind her and tried to float across the room without the creatures seeing her. Successful, she glanced back at Raziel, who was fighting the creatures. She watched his every move up until he swallowed them. Then he seemed to look up at her. Or at the exit, but it didn’t matter because she hurriedly flew out of his view.
After a few minutes in the cave-like place, she came out into the real Nosgoth. Raziel wasn’t far behind. He approached a blue spiral in the middle a circle of pillars. She went up right behind him and he did some sort of movement with his hands. When she had “touched” him, she manifested with him. The world around her changed and there was finally color. She looked at herself and found she had her old form again, but she was still a spirit. A soul.
He didn’t seem to notice her as he headed away from her. She followed behind him and when he came upon what looked like two disfigured vampires, she continued on. She emerged in front of the Sanctuary of the Clans. She knew her body wasn’t far away. She floated down to the other side of the lake where she sensed her body and found it. It was mostly bones. She would have sighed if she could breathe. She could sense Raziel approaching, but made no move to hide herself. There was no reason to, and she doubt that he could reach her on the other side of the lake. Even if he did, he would probably only make it as far as the water and he would not last long. So, feeling utterly helpless, she wondered how long it had been since she fell into the abyss. Now that she could not die again, she had no need to fear
Kain or his other lieutenants and felt brave enough to speak to the
Lord of the Vampires.
Just as she had floated into the barred gate, Raziel caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye. It couldn’t have been what I thought it was, she’s dead. And he moved on.
Seeing as she could apparently be invisible, she disappeared into thin air when she reached the door to where she would find Kain. She wanted to see a look of fright on his face. When she entered, she saw him sitting on his throne, apparently with no one else here or with anything to do. She decided to have a little fun with him and pulled his hair.
“Ariel, what the hell are you doing?” Ariel? Who was Ariel?
“What do you mean, Kain? I haven’t done anything.” Another ghostly
figure such as herself appeared. This must be Ariel. She only had one eye and appeared sad all of the time.
“Yes you have, you little wench! You pulled my hair!”
“I did nothing of the sort, it was her, not I.”
“Her? What do you mean her? Have you finally lost your poor little
mind?”
“No, Kain. She pulled you hair, not me. She’s standing right in front
of you.”
“I think you’re making up an excuse. Now get out of my sight.” And she
disappeared. My what fun this was. She then decided to scare him a bit.
She slowly picked up his sword, the soul reaver, so as not to make a sound or have him realize what was going on. Then she heard a faint whisper. I wouldn’t do that if I were you. But she ignored the warning that Ariel gave her and as soon as she had full possession of it, it was time for a little revenge.
She held up the sword in front of Kain and tried to speak in a voice of a man. “Prepare to die, fiend!” She cried as she swung out without much skill. He ducked and the sword cut off a few of his hairs.
“Ariel, stop this nonsense immediately!” Ariel appeared before him and
said “This is none of my doing, as I told you before.”
“Who is this?!”
“I believe it is Seacia.”
“Seacia?!?!” He said as he ducked again. “Seacia, stop this right
now!” To gain a good yet funny, which no one laughed at, effect, she stopped the sword in mid-air. “Now, why in hell are you trying to kill me?” Seacia decided to make her appearance and appeared before Kain while leaning the soul reaver on her shoulder.
“I did it to see a look of fear upon your smug face, Kain.”
“Oh is that all? I thought you were trying to gain revenge.”
“No. Trying to save Raziel taught me that vengeance solves nothing and
it cannot change the past.”
“I am glad that you learned this lesson well, Seacia. I knew you’d
have a clear enough mind to realize this. Tell me, why did you want to try and save
Raziel? I know there is more to it than that it was unfair.” A look of
surprise came over her. She had never though about there being another
side to it. She must have been too filled with anger to think about if there was another reason for her actions.
“If there is another reason, Kain, I am afraid I cannot tell you what
I don’t know.”
“I know that deep down you know the reason, Seacia. Perhaps this
simple sentence will bring about the reason: You love him.” It hit her like a brick
wall. Love? She didn’t think vampires were capable of it.
“I most certainly do not. I’ve never even heard of vampires ever being
in love before.”
“True, very true. Although we vampires have no need for the same means
of human reproduction, it’s still not entirely impossible for vampires to fall in love.”
“It would be the same as saying that souls found their mates when they
were dead instead of alive. It’s absurd.”
“Not entirely, Seacia. Now, I suggest that you return my sword to me
and we will discuss this further later. Your love approaches.” She didn’t know why, but she hastily gave him the sword and vanished. She turned to see Raziel entering the room and he Kain got into a heated argument. After he had killed Raziel, Kain had apparently killed off Raziel’s kin as well. Kain and Raziel battled, but Kain seemed to be the winner of the quick match and smashed his sword upon Raziel’s head. Instead of seeing Raziel’s head shattering to pieces, the sword broke instead. Seacia watched as Raziel faded from her view, utterly bewildered as Kain then disappeared into nothingness. All alone now, it seemed like she would have to wander back into Nosgoth’s desolate terrain, but then she heard voices. She thought she was going crazy, but it was the voices of Raziel and Ariel. She couldn’t see them, but she could plainly hear them. They spoke of how Raziel must kill Kain and set Ariel free of her imprisonment to the pillars and about how the
soul reaver was now intertwined with Raziel. The Kain part she understood, but not the part about the soul reaver. But she decided not to concern herself with it. Instead, she began to wander out into Nosgoth, back towards her body.
She sat there on ground next to the little pool of water that had her bones decaying in it. She seemed to sit there for hours upon hours, days upon days. Until she saw him. Raziel was emerging from the entrance to his territory and he seemed stronger. He glided to the platform nearest her and then glided towards her. She stood up, amazed at what he was going to do, and then plummeted into that pool of water where her body lay. Instead of him dissolving, he was swimming! She thought only Rahab had this ability, but somehow Raziel had obtained it. He swam towards her, although he couldn’t see her, and then he stopped. He acted as though someone were speaking to him and he looked down into the water towards her skeleton. He swam towards it and seemed to examine it. Then the oddest thing happened. The skeleton got up. It then tried to claw Raziel, but he got out of the way and jumped onto the ground Seacia stood on.
“What sorcerer dares to do this to her?!” He seemed to yell out. He
had no time to listen for an answer as the skeleton jumped from the water and
clawed his face. Helpless to do anything, Seacia could only watch as he
battled the remains of her body. Raziel seemed to grow weaker with
every strike the skeleton got, but yet the skeleton didn’t seemed weakened at all. Seacia thought of only one thing to do. She made herself visible and rammed into the skeleton of herself. Seacia appeared to vanish as she entered her bones. The skeleton gripped it’s head, tearing at it as if to rip something out of it’s skull. Then it fell to the ground. Slowly, it again rose, but it didn’t attack Raziel. In fact, it was swerving about as if it were drunk as
hell.
“Ra-z-iel. It’-s me, S-eac-cia,” the skeleton tried to say. Struck
with surprise, Raziel could only stand back. “I can’t h-old it-t back for m-uch lo-n-ger. Plea-se, dest-roy me.”
“No. There must be a way to help you without destroying you.”
“Indeed there is, Raziel,” Came a voice. The Elder spoke to him with
words that only he could hear. “Find blood enough for three humans and feed it to her. She would then be completely restored and in control. Or at least I believe it will work.”
“And if it doesn’t? Then what will happen?”
“She will either continue to be this way, or she will be restored and
the demon will be in control.”
“I’m willing to take a chance.”
“Then go, Raziel.”
“Seacia, stay here and try not to let it take over your actions. I’ll
be back.” And he set off to look for the blood he now needed.
Alone on the path, she sank to her knees, doing her best to keep the monster at bay. She could only wonder in her pain what was going to
happen. Sometime she would have to ask Kain all about it.
Some four hours passed by. It was an eternity for Seacia. Then she could
sense Raziel’s life force, as he had no more blood, along with what
seemed several live humans. Live humans? I guess he wants me to gain blood without killing them.
“Seacia, I’m here. I am sorry I took so long, it was difficult to
persuade some human friends of mine to help you. Only drink some of their blood, I by no means want to kill them,” Raziel said as one of them held out a wrist. By this time, she felt too weak from fighting to move. “Seacia? Seacia, are you alright?” She finally gained enough strength just to move her head towards him in acknowledgement.
“Damn monster’s...so hard...to...to fight...” She said. She summoned
up the strength to move her head just enough to bite the man’s wrist. When she drank, she could feel her strength returning, and she wanted to drain every ounce of blood she could from the human. She let go and her body seemed re-grow. Although it came with pain, muscles seemed to grow back a little.
After feeding what blood she was allowed to drink, she grew more and more of her vampiric self back until she was completely restored. The demon’s ability to fight had weakened until it went away completely. When she stood up, she was unused to not being in her body and she swerved dangerously near the pool of water, but Raziel caught her and supported her.
“Thank you, my friends. I owe you a debt of gratitude.”
“Don’ worry about it, Raziel. Just stick to your word, alright?”
“Anything.”
“We’ll be seeing you around then,” they said as they left to the
citadel. Alone, she thought about what Kain had said in his throne room to her. Even if she wasn’t in love, Raziel’s recent heroics proved that he must be. Exasperated from fighting such demons, she wanted to sleep. It was hard enough to keep her balance.
“Seacia, try and stand up.”
“I am trying to stand up. I just c-can’t seem to kee-keep my balance.”
“Then sit down and rest. Sleep, if you must,” he said as he helped her
sit back on the ground. “I must go after Kain and my brother, Dumah. I will kill them both and return hither.” She barely heard the words as she fell into a deep slumber.

She dreamt of nothing. When she awoke, she found herself still in the exact same spot, unmoved. She had regained full control of her body again, but she knew something happened. Surprisingly to her, the hunger for blood was
completely gone, as if she had somehow fed while she slept, or had had
a great feast of blood. She tried to sense Raziel as she knew that the
Chronoplast was not far, but she could find no trace of him. Fearing
the worst, she tried to sense Kain, but also, could not sense him.
Something most definitely happened. The only place to really look was the Chronoplast. As fast as she could, she ran to the room where she saw Raziel’s fate of death. When she reached it, the contraption seemed to be operating. Seeing the yellow glow of the portal, she didn’t think she had much choice in the matter if she wanted to find Raziel or Kain. She stepped into the portal and, instead of visions, she emerged in a small room with an infinity sign on the floor. The light disintegrated and she saw no one in the room. But she could smell a human nearby. Though not hungry, she believed this human would know where Raziel was. She approached the only exit in the room and the doors slid open. Standing near the doors was the human she smelled.
His blood smelled of treachery and deceit.
“Who, who are you?!” In her opinion, he seemed more like a mouse, what
with this high-pitched squeaky voice that he had.
“Your worst nightmare if you don’t tell me what I want to know,”
Seacia said as she, within a second, grabbed the man by his throat. “Now, where is Raziel?”
“He, has left.”
“To where?”
“I don’t know.” She could sense what a lie that was. She squeezed his
neck.
“Wrong answer.”
“Alright,” he gagged. “I sent him into, the future.”
“He is not in the future, or else I would have sensed him.”
“Not, your future, but another.”
“Then show me,” she said as she threw him down.
“If you want even a chance of catching up to him, that is not the way
to do it. If you want to catch him so badly, then I suggest you go to the past.”
“Who in hell are you anyway, old man?”
“I am the Time Streamer, Moebius,” he said as he picked himself up
with trouble.
“No wonder your blood smells so strongly of betrayal. Although I will
take your advise, what is to stop you from sending me to where I do not wish to go?”
“Nothing.”
“Then I bid you farewell, Time Streamer.”
“Tell me, how is it that I have never seen you in the streams of time?
I know of every event that is to befall this land, yet I have ne’er seen
the likes of you. Are you Kain’s daughter, or merely just another of his
dogs?”
Her eyes turning blood red at what she took as a great insult, she
picked him up and put her claws in a position ready to rip out his throat.
“Moebius, if you so ever say something like that again to me, I will
rip you limb from limb.” She then threw him across the room and left.
“She is a flaw in my master’s plans. I wonder who she could possibly
be, and why I have never seen her in my visions.”
Outside of that vile snake’s reach, she saw a stained glass window
nearby and simply smashed it to get out. She flew to the north until she came upon a swamp. A crumbling mansion now stood before her, and she smell the blood of human hunters around, and a faint hint of a vampire. She found it odd that in this time, the vampires didn’t seem to be the hunters anymore. They were the prey. She tried to follow the scent of the vampire, but he apparently knew she was here, and did not wish to appear before her.
Then there was only one alternative: sneaking upon him. She was very good at this as she let the shadows engulf her so as not to be seen. She climbed the walls of the mansion, the occasional human seeing her and staring in disbelief. She finally reached just below where she sensed him and jumped up on the balcony rail to see the vampire face to face.
“Where do you get such gumption to scare a poor old vampire such as
myself, young one?” He said, gasping from the fright.
“I apologize, friend, but it was necessary to speak to you.”
“I would have revealed myself to you.”
“How was I to know this?” He shook his head in idiocy.
“Who are you, child of shadows?”
“I am known as Seacia.”
“You resemble that arrogant fool, Kain. You must be somehow related, although you give much more respect.”
“The only relation we have is that he turned me into what I have
become. Blood wise, we are not related.”
“That is surprising, Seacia. Why do you come here? You don’t seem the
adventuring, risk-taking, daredevil type.”
“I am here in search of friend. It is a long story, but he seems to be
in the future. I did not wish to risk being betrayed by Moebius.“So, you are wise as well. This friend must be of importance to you then if
you have come out here.”
“Yes, he is. I get the feeling that you met him.”
“Impossible, child. The only thing closest to a vampire that I have
met in a while was disfigured and more demon-like.”
“That would be him.” He seemed startled.
“This, demon, was your friend?”
“Yes. Have you any information to give me?”
“Not any that would be of use to you or him now. I told him of my
maker, Janos Audrin, and he seemed to take great interest in him. Janos
couldn’t help him anyway. He died a long time ago at the hands of the Sarafan.”
“The...Sarafan? The name seems familiar, but I cannot place it. Who
were they?”
“Vampire hunters of the past. The vampire hunters you see now are what
they have become.”
“I see. That explains everything.”
“What does it explain?”
“Why Raziel is trying to get to the past. He wishes to speak to Janos
and the only way to do it is go to the past. That’s why Moebius said to go to the past instead of the future. I apologize again for my rudeness, but I didn’t get the chance to ask your name.”
“I am Vorador.” She took a few steps, obviously surprised by the name.
She bowed to him in respect. She never dreamed she would meet one of the
strongest vampire warriors of all time. He chuckled and said, “Rise,
Seacia. My hold upon the fear of humans has long since past, and I must hide here in order to be safe from them.”
“I thank you, Vorador, for the help you have given me, but, would you
happen to know of way that I can travel to the past?”
“Somewhat, yes. Do you see the cracked door with the sign of
infinity?”
“Yes.”
“I believe that to be a time chamber that Moebius built long ago. I’m
not sure if it still works or if it works, nor do I know how to operate it, but I think it will help you find your way to Raziel.” He vanished into air.
I can trust a fellow vampire such as Vorador, and she flew at the
door, ramming it open. She walked down the staircase and reached a time
chamber similar to the one where she met Moebius. Hoping it would lead her to the past, she turned it, not knowing how she knew what to do, and the room
spun around her into a blur. She then landed on the floor and immediately tried to find Raziel. She jumped in delight when she sensed his presence. He was far, but she could catch up to him in no time. Flying out of the room and into the air, she went to the mountains in the direction of where she sensed
Raziel. She flew to a small lake that was frozen over and landed on the
ice. In front of her stood a large picture of a vampire carved into the
mountain. It would be an easy task to reach the top, where she could sense Raziel and another presence, obviously Janos. Instead of immediately heading up, she heard footsteps on the ice. Human footsteps, no doubt, as vampires walked without sound. She turned to face ten humans in armor, all of which seemed to be trying to surprise and kill her. They started to run towards her to impale her, but she just flew up into the sky. They stared at amazement as she tried to make their petty lives more enjoyable before they died by doing loops in the air. While doing this, she must have gained the attention of Raziel and Janos as she caught a glimpse of them out of the corner of her eye. She landed on a piece of stone sticking out of the frozen lake and howled inhumanely. Then something came over her. A wave of uncontrollable madness at something, but she didn’t know what. She couldn’t control these
feelings and they took over her actions. She stopped doing loops and
flew just above the humans. Her eyes were glowing red once more. Then she began to let out energy in a destructive form at them. Trying to dodge in their heavy armor, they just barely missed them. Then she flew a bit higher. She raised her arms above her head and a big ball of energy formed in above her hands. She leaned back and threw it at them. It only took two of them down into the lake as the ice broke.
“Seacia!” The sound of Raziel’s voice relieved the rage that had
somehow swelled up in her and she stopped what she was doing. Turning upwards to look at him, she gracefully flew up to the balcony and landed on the rail.
“Seacia, how did you get here??” he asked.
“It is a very long story, Raziel.”
“And I am sure there will be time enough later to hear it,” Janos
said. “You have amazing powers, Seacia. How did you ever manage to obtain them?”
“I seem to have been blest with them, Janos.”
“I see.” Just then, banging on the door was heard. “Raziel, I suggest
that you go. Take the reaver and your friend and leave this place. It
appears that it is not safe here anymore.”
“No Janos! I will stay here and defend you, we both will!” Raziel
argued.
“Seacia?” She again lost control of herself as she grabbed the reaver
from its resting place and then to Raziel. She didn’t know how, but Janos seemed to be controlling her as she took him by the arm and pulled him over the side of the railing with her.
“No, Janos!!” They landed on the ice just as they heard Janos’s
ghastly screams. “Why, Seacia?! We could have saved him and yet you made me leave his side!!”
“I don’t think I had much choice, Raziel. I had no control over
myself, just as I had attacked those same humans earlier.”
“What?! But how...”
“Listen to me, Raziel. Janos did it for a good reason. We should repay
the favor by taking his murder’s lives.” He agreed and they went back up to the balcony on foot. They had gotten there too late. The murders were gone and Janos was dead, his heart ripped out.
“Janos...I will avenge your death. Come on, Seacia,” Raziel said with
rage so menacing. She followed without question or comment, not even
suggesting that they fly there. She didn’t know why, but somehow, she must have been so enraged that she wasn’t able to think.

Soon they arrived at the Sarafan Stronghold, its towering walls
overhead daring them to breach it. “Can you get us inside?” Raziel said
maddeningly.
“Of course I can.” Seacia took hold of Raziel and flew speedily into
the courtyard where Melchah and Zephon, as humans, awaited them.
“Foolish vampires! Do you truly believe that you can get past us?!”
Melchah said.
Eyes glowing with steam pouring from them, Raziel answered “Yes.”“Ha! The devil thinks he can do whatever he wishes, we’ll show you and
that wench that filthy vampires such as yourselves are blasphemies in
Nosgoth!”
Charging at Raziel and Seacia, the two Sarafan warriors let out their battle cry and before they ever got near them, Seacia had jumped to their sides, wrenched their weapons from their hands, and impaled them both.
“Well, that’s one way of doing it,” Raziel said, his rage subsiding
for a moment to gaze at the agile work of Seacia.
“Come on, we have to find the rest of blood bastards, although I doubt
they are very far from where we stand.” They hurried to the Cathedral where they then met Dumah and Rahab.
“Come to take back his bloody heart? You will have to get past us
first!”
Dumah yelled as they ran towards the pair.
“Please, be my guest, Seacia,” Raziel said as he bowed to her.
“You are most kind, Raziel,” she said just as she leapt over the two
running Sarafan, turned, and stuck her claws wrist-deep into their
armored backs.
“You know, perhaps you should learn to be a bit more tidy when you
kill someone,” Raziel commented, a small smile would have been on his face, had he still facial features.
“You one to talk, Raziel.” She joked. They passed the two gates
leading to the upper chapel and found Turel. “He’s all yours,” Seacia said. They could see Turel wasn’t the least bit frightened, or at least he appeared not to be. Lunging at him with the physical soul reaver, Raziel fought with Turel for several minutes before sticking the weapon through his torso.
“There’s only one more left. His destiny awaits him.” They reached the
circular room which was to be the resting place of Raziel and his
brothers. In the center was Raziel as a Sarafan warrior priest himself. Without a word from either of them, Raziel stepped forward to face the Sarafan.
“So, you’ve killed my brothers in your attempt to retrieve the demon’s
heart. I warn you, I am not as easily dealt with,” he said as raised
his sword to the other Raziel.
“That is yet to be seen. Your merciless part in this crusade ends here
and now,” and the two Raziel’s began their fight to the death. Seacia
watched the un-undead Raziel battle, arms crossed and leaning against a column. She sensed another presence in the room and caught a glimpse of white hair and a red cape. Kain? What was he doing here? She would have been asking him those
very same questions had it not been for the fact that Raziel spoke the
words “I renounce you,” as he impaled the Sarafan warrior with the blade.
Suddenly, the blade seemed to have a mind of its own and turned itself
on Raziel. He tried to block it from him, but it was no use. The soul
reaver, with his hand still attached, had impaled Raziel. In fear, Seacia couldn’t move. Staring in shock at this event, she couldn’t think straight enough to run to his aide and pull the reaver from his body. Fortunately, Kain did that for her. When he pulled the sword from his body, he let out a cry of agony. She gained some common sense back and ran to his side.
“Now, Raziel, you free to reclaim your true destiny!” Kain exclaimed.
Then the floor began to shake, and when it stopped, Kain said, “My god...the Hyldans!...we fell right into their trap...” He turned to Raziel, who was dazed, and grabbed his shoulders saying “Raziel! Janos must stay dead!”

At his last words, Raziel disappeared into the spectral realm.