Soulstorm (Part 2)
Giovanni Dania
My journey to the Cathedral was eventless, an occurrence I could only ascribe to the apparent hour. I had regained something of my former senses, however, as I could hear, quite faintly yet distinctly, the rustle of leather in the wind. It seemed my newfound ally was not so trusting and open. But that was inconsequential, as I harbored no desire to make my presence here more ostentatious than necessary. On the other hand, I mused as I climbed these very strange walls and roofs, he could be hoping that Kain were following me as well. This Bat-man displayed a brightness I had never before encountered. All the more reason for me to play dumb and simply go to the....
The Cathedral was unlike any edifice I had ever countenanced. In sheer height and empty, inaccessible beauty, it surpassed even the Aerie that once housed Janos Audron and his kin, which at the least had served a purpose for being constructed thusly. It was exactly the kind of vainglorious structure humans would build. The Citadel of my own land and time would have been something like this, if they had had the wherewithal. I did, however, upon nearing it, sense that there were souls near, possibly within, and my Reaver flared momentarily with insistent hunger. I found that I had to scale its outer wall up to the belfry, and make entry in that fashion.
I found a priest making his way up the bell tower, and fed on him. It took all the will I could muster not to consume his soul in its entirety, and thereby killing him. Before he could dwell on what he had just been party to, I disappeared further down the Cathedral. I encountered two more priests before reaching the ground floor, and consumed some of their spiritual energy. At the ground floor I fed on an elderly woman who had been there presumably to pray. By the time I had reached the basement, my strength was at half capacity. I was tempted to switch to the Spectral Realm, but was deathly afraid of not being able to find a way into the tunnels before encountering a portal, assuming there were portals here with which I could phase back to the Material plane. At least in the Spectral plane I could reenergize without having to feed on humans.
I reached the lowest portion of the basement, and I noted at one wall a moveable block. Thanking fortune that I had not switched (as on the Spectral plane I would have been unable to physically interact with the environment), I pushed it away to reveal the first of a series of tunnels. There was a fresh pungency in the air that took me aback, for I recognized, underneath the scents of blood and sad human decay, a signature odor of the type only exuded by vampires. It was not Kain’s odor, however; he and we, his lieutenants, each had distinctive smells, and it took me but a fraction of a moment to recall whose scent this was.
My brother Turel was here. Not just in Gotham, but hiding down here below the humans’ religious center. Could this have been the quest of which Kain had spoken? Why had I been able to find him so soon after my arrival, while Kain flew into the night in a fruitless search? I was mentally exhausted; my resurrection, it seemed, had been but the beginning of a search for answers, and yet at every turn the questions multiplied exponentially rather than dissipated. I had no choice, however, but to proceed. I switched to Spectral, and entered the tunnels.
On the Spectral plane, these tunnels had twisted to resemble the gullets of giant demons, and I felt, with each step, more like I was being swallowed whole by a cold, uncaring being. Strangely, it was the feel of my Reaver at its full strength in my hand that comforted me most as I descended deeper into the subterranean home of my wayward brother. And, now able to replenish my energy without having to resort to living beings, I felt more confident, able to tackle any circumstance. There was only the slightest hesitation, a moment’s pause, that flared briefly as I considered what Turel was doing here.
In the golden age of Kain’s empire, Kain would periodically undergo evolutions, each giving him a new Dark Gift or enhanced physical attribute. We, his lieutenants, would each follow in turn. At one point, however, I had the honor of surpassing him, and evolved a set of wings. In what I had previously assumed to be blind jealousy, he tore them from my back and, judging me an apostate, condemned me to be flung into the Abyss, a seemingly living maelstrom of chaotic water, and anathema to our existence. Centuries passed as I burned in eternal liquid fire, until the Elder God found me and resurrected me, in the process changing me from a vampire who lived off of living blood to a ghoul who fed on spiritual energy.
After resurrecting me, the Elder God dispatched me to murder my former brethren and absorb their souls. During my exile in the Abyss, each had mutated and devolved into differing yet equally abhorrent manners. Turel was the only one who had escaped my wrath. Fortunate dog, for his death at my hand would have been the very definition of cruelty indeed. After all, it had been he, along with Dumah, who had flung me into the waterfall, consigning me to a millennium of agony and this resultant form. Since then, I had on occasion wondered what form his evolution had taken. Perhaps now I would finally witness it, and finish him at last.
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Click here for Chapter One | Click here for Chapter Three
Created 08/01/02 / Last modified 08/09/02 by
Giovanni Dania
Copyright © 2002 by
Oh My God I'm Bleeding Ventures
Legacy of Kain and all associated characters and locales copyright Eidos Interactive. Batman and all related characters and locales copyright DC Comics.