Legacy of Kain: Last Son of Raziel

By Gyrin
 

Prologue: Betrayal


     I am Gyrin, and I am the last. Our leader has fallen. My clan has been slain. And all because of him. Kain has betrayed us.
     I was away at the time of the attack. I grew tired of the life I led, always the same. The humans offered me no challenge anymore. I had been in existance since the rise of Kain’s empire began. I stood with our leader, Raziel, as his most powerful soldier…
     But I had questions, questions that no vampire could possibly answer. About my past, who I was before I was cursed to stalk the night. Yes- I said “cursed!” A never ending half-life… an eternity of bloodshed and darkness… How the others could call it a blessing is beyond all reasoning!
     So, I left on a journey. I wandered aimlessly, for centuries… building my powers and enhancing my magical skills… then it happened, after and evolutionary state, the most awesome gift to ever be bestowed on a vampire since the days of Janos Audron…
     I grew wings.
     This new power made it impossibly easy to explore the land, and in a mere hour I could travel between the Dark Eden and the ruins of Meridian. Feeding is no longer a problem. I merely swoop down and deal a fatal blow, before the mortal could so much a flinch…
     It was then that I decided it was time to return home. I expected to see Raziel and the rest of the clan… what I saw was horrifying. The clan territory, ravaged. The corpses of my brethren lay scattered across the ground in every possible direction. But what horrified me the most was the information I beat out of a fledgling Dumahim wandering the ruins… that the one who had slain my kin, the one who had cast my leader, Raziel, into the abyss, was our master, Kain…
     I knew that I was no match for Kain or the other clan leaders, even after my centuries of training. So I fled. The vampires I encountered were no hindrance… even the Turelim were easily defeated. I journeyed far and wide for centuries, training rigorously. Now, the time is ripe, and I am ready. I will exact my revenge. I will destroy the one I once called Master! Woe to the fool who gets in my way.
 
 

Chapter 1: The Necropolis

     For centuries I traveled the world, aimlessly, honing my skills, and gaining strength. As humans were rarely found out in the open, my main blood source was that of vampires; not the best tasting blood, but it is the most potent. I had learned many new magic spells as well. I could now summon lightning from the sky, and I could turn myself almost invisible. I could also harness my energy into one massive ball of energy and shoot the energy-bomb in any direction (This takes a lot of energy however, and it tends to leave me drained of most of my energy, so I use it very rarely.)
When the time came to exact my revenge, I returned to the place where this all started: The ruined castle of the Razielim. This was where I awakened to find that I had become what I had feared and hated most as a man. It also served as a convenient starting-point for my journey; this castle was very close to my next destination: the cemetery where the clan leader Melchiah made his home. A fitting place for a vampire who resemble a zombie more than anything else. 
     Of course, I knew already that he would be warped beyond all recognition; vampires evolve over time, changing in appearance, and gaining new Gifts. I myself experienced many changes during my centuries of training. But strangely enough, I was physically unchanged. Though my wings had grown longer, and my physical strength and magic powers were improved immensely, I was still somewhat human. Though I was grateful for this, I could not help but think it strange…
     Upon arrival I was greeted by two vampires; or rather, I thought they might be vampires, but I wasn’t sure. These beasts had a vampiric scent, but they looked… different. This proved my point. These vampires had evolved.
They were startled by my sudden airborne arrival, but they knew who I was by the pendant I wore; it was pure gold with the symbol of my clan on it. It was given to me after a battle in which I saved Raziel from death by killing a Sarafan Glyph Knight who was about to deal a fatal blow to my leader. As a reward, he had awarded me with this pendant, which I carried with me always, as a sign of my heritage, so that those who wiped my clan from this world would know who had returned the favor.
     “Heretic!” shrieked the one on the left.
     “Traitor!” screamed the second.
     They rushed at me from either side. On instinct, I took flight; the two vampires charged into each other with bone-crushing force. That has to be embarrassing. I swooped down and beheaded the one on the left. The other, however, managed to dodge, and attempted to lash its long tongue out at me.
     I was far to high in the air to fall to such an attack, however. Deciding it was time to end this. I swooped down and decapitated the second vampire.
     After drinking their blood and restoring my strength, I flew to the roof of the castle to look around. Nosgoth had changed since the last time I had been here. It had once been beautiful to look at… now, it was a barren wasteland. I knew the reason for the change. It wasn’t time. Nor was it the vampires; no, not even the towering smokestack we built to block out the sun was the cause for this.
     It was the Pillar of Balance. Well over one thousand years ago, Kain had elected to rule the world as lord of vampires rather than sacrifice himself to right the pillars and save the world; and, in an act of calculated irony, Kain chose the fallen Pillars of Nosgoth as the seat of his empire!
     I took flight once more and flew swiftly to my destination: The Necropolis, Melchiah’s clan territory, lay to the west. I was not prepared for what I would find.
     Decaying bodies of what I presumed to be evolved Melchiahim vampires littered the ground. I examined the bodies. Some had been immolated. Others were impaled on spears. A shaft of sunlight, a weakness that no longer affected me, I noticed, had hit one,; I had evolved past that limitation. I journeyed further in. I found a strange archway at the bottom of a spiral stairway it had a strange glowing emblem of a sun on it, and the Walls on either side of the room were marked with Melchiah’s clan symbol.
     On the other side of this room was a short hall with a door marked with the same sun emblem. Passing through, I came to a foggy area with a lake and several vampire corpses impaled on spears. I could have easily flown over the lake, but something else caught my eye; two massive stone blocks, far more than even I could even budge an inch, where stacked on top of each other, and above them, a ledge.
     I flew up to the ledge, and followed a dark tunnel out into what appeared to be a small canyon with another lake, and several Melchiahim vampires at the bottom of it. On the other side of the lake was a large tomb. I entered to find another corpse and several unlit torches. What had happened here? At the end of the tunnel, I found a large gaping hole. Descending slowly into the darkness, I landed on top of a large crypt. There where two tunnels; one leading back up, another descending further into the darkness…
     I proceeded cautiously down the second tunnel, only to find my path blocked by a closed gate. Blasting it with a bolt of lighting, I proceeded through to find the one thing I least expected; The ground up remains of Melchiah.
Someone, it appeared had gotten here first; who it was or how long ago this battle had taken place, I could only wonder.
     As I left the Melchiahim territory, I pondered; who could have possibly wiped out the Melchiahim clan? Was it humans? Could the Melchiahim have possible suffered the same fate as my clan? Or was it something else all together? I could only speculate.
 

Prologue | Chapter 1
Back