Spider Reaver

By Divine Dragon
 

Chapter 2: Return of a Dark One


      “Another one? How many of you tight wearing freaks are there?” hollered the Hobgoblin, one of Spiderman’s many psychopathic nemeses. Spiderman crawled from the rubble of the decimated vault in the bank, and watched as Raziel, known on Earth as Spider Reaver, turned the viscous symbiote on his arm into a spiked mace. The symbiote known as Venom had split into two in a previous journey to rid the worlds Nosgoth and Earth of the Elder God, and transformed Raziel into a superhero in league with Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman. Raziel had the power of web fluid, arachnid strength and agility augmenting his own, and new wings. He remained on Earth, his dealings with the dying Nosgoth done. Raziel swung the spiked mace into the concrete wall as he walked. 
      “You know, Hobgoblin, it’s not very nice to steal, especially in my town. My destiny and free will have been stripped from me, and thrust roughly back into my face many a time. I know what it is like to be stolen from, and I don’t like it at all…,” Raziel said as he drew back the mace, ready to strike. 
      “Destiny? Pff! You’re born, you live, you get old, you die. End of story!” Hobgoblin said.
      “You have obviously never been to Nosgoth. Let me show you something that will shake your very soul.” He pulled back the cloth that hid his absence of jaw, revealing some of the vampiric fangs he still retained. Hobgoblin could not tear his eyes away from the ethereal green-blue light. Raziel willed himself to pass on his most angry and miserable memories, and the horror he endured in his own Purgatory. Hobgoblin screamed and writhed, trying to scratch the images from in front of his face. He bled through his mask and curled into a ball, his eyes hollow and frightened like a child in the dark.
      “I think I’ve done enough,” Raziel said, fixing his mask-like cloth. Spiderman hung Hobgoblin up by his cape on some webbing. 
      “Something bothering you, New Yorker Angel of Death?” Spiderman asked Raziel.
      “I loved to be a vampire, to kill, feed, and stalk in the night. Those were the best centuries of my life. The minute I grow wings, I am damned for my ‘transgression’ on a jealous whim. I hated myself for what I was, past and present, after I was reborn as the Reaver of Souls. Sometimes…sometimes I wish I were human once more.”
      “I know how you feel, Dark Spidey. When I went through my mutagenic phase, I wanted to be normal more than anything in the world. I even sought out the help of Dr. Charles Xavier and the X-Men to reverse my mutation. But it all turned out okay in the end, didn’t it? I love the superhero life.”
      “But your life is like the sun compared to my darkness of ages past. I have lived for thousands of years, hating myself and everything else. Now I envy the humans and their wondrous Earth.” He swung away on his own brand of webbing, to the abandoned warehouse where he made his home. He pulled an urn carved with the face of the Soul Reaver, and held it to his Spider Reaver insignia.
      “Time for bed, Dark Spidey.” The black symbiote burbled, and melted off of Raziel into the urn until the morning. Raziel left his warehouse not as Spider Reaver, but as Raziel, to feed. He visited the nearest prison, and waited by the bars of a man waiting to die in the morning for his crimes. He looked up, and saw the glowing eyes. Raziel phased through the bars, and grabbed the throat of the man. 
      “What is this?” he shouted.
      “‘Death comes for us all,’” said Raziel as he drew in the man’s soul. He went to about three other rooms, and consumed a few more souls. Except for me, Raziel thought. I am Death. 
* * *
      Spiderman watched Raziel in the distance, easily recognizable by his glowing eyes.
Apparently, a conscience was one last curse for Raziel, who was growing weary of his existence. 
      “Got a problem, Parker?” said a voice.
      “Venom? Shouldn’t you be trying to terrorize something?” Spiderman asked.
      “Nah, we‘re good guys now. After Unreality, we have better things to do. That giant octopus thing made us literally see how bad we really were.” Spiderman laughed out loud.
      “Good one, Brock!” he laughed, “you really had me going!”
      “We were being serous!” Spiderman told Venom of the Hobgoblin fiasco.
      “Raziel had become tired of his role as Angel of Death,” Spiderman explained. Though Raziel had become New York‘s newest and darkest hero, he still seemed to be missing something….
* * *
      Raziel perched on his claws in the warehouse and waited for morning, when Parker would be awake. Raziel never slept, and he grew bored. His vampire ears, though rotten like the rest of him, picked up a tiny sound. He turned, and saw none other than Mortanius, the necromancer. He had jumped almost silently into the room, followed by Raziel’s Sarafan brethren! Raziel himself had murdered Melchiah, Zephon, Rahab, Dumah, and Turel twice apiece. Yet here they stood, human again. Though Raziel loathed himself for what he was, and what he had been, he still looked down at humans disdainfully. 
      “I know you’re here, Raziel. I’ve come to visit you, and I brought a few friends with me.” Mortanius had resurrected the five brethren, somehow. As if reading Raziel’s mind, Mortanius said,
      “I used what little bit of vampire matter I could find around where each of your brothers was killed. That was all I needed, because here they stand.” 
      “Time to wake up, Spider Reaver,” Raziel whispered. He jumped down to where the five Sarafan and Mortanius stood. As Raziel prepared to strike with his claws, he saw something familiar. It was Sarafan Raziel.
      “I see you have changed since I last saw you, vampire. Once again, we will fight.”
      “You do not understand, do you? I am beyond death,” Raziel told himself. They fought with claws and sword, until Sarafan Raziel began to pant with fatigue. Before Raziel could murder his other, Mortanius stepped up between them.
      “Be still, Raziel. I can give you this creature’s youth, and form. You will still be beyond death, but you will look like a hero, and not a monster.” So desperate was he to be more human, Raziel said, “I am listening.” 
      “That is what I thought. All you must do is destroy the Circle of Nine.”
      “What plane of existance have you been living on lately? There is no Circle anymore,” Raziel said. 
      “Not in this time period, there isn’t,” Mortanius said with a grin.
* * *
      “Parker! Parker! Wake up!” Peter Parker slowly went to his door to admit Eddie Brock. 
      “What is it, Brock?” Peter asked. Venom emerged, and spoke for Eddie.
      “We can’t sense Raziel anymore!”
      “So?”
      “He’s gone! From Earth!” Peter thought, and wondered where Raziel had gone. “We felt him leave, and we could feel him. He was angry, and determined to do something, but…we can’t remember what.” Soon after, the two were web swinging to the huge crater that still remained after the defeat of the Elder God. There were people gathered around, talking amongst themselves. Spiderman and Venom went to the bottom, and found a miniature gold pyramid, encrusted with red jewels. As soon as Spiderman touched it, he felt something like a hook around his spine as he was transported to the barren realm that was Nosgoth.
* * *
      “Wait, aren’t you dead, or something?” Raziel asked Mortanius.
      “You know, I don’t even know anymore, this story had become so complicated.”
Raziel shrugged, and kept walking with the band of Sarafan.
      “I am curious…how did you replicate me? I am the remains of my vampiric self.” In answer, Mortanius pointed to Sarafan Raziel’s jaw. “You found my jaw? I lost it in the abyss centuries ago!” Raziel exclaimed. 

      Soon, the Sarafan arrived at their own stronghold, decades before any of them were even born yet. 
      “Raziel, I want you to go inside and slay them all. When the paradox tries to expel you, I will use my power to reshape the world whilst it is vulnerable to my magic. You will be immortal, though human once more. I will be king over all of MY Nosgoth. I think I’ll call it…Mortanius-land!”
      “Yeah, that rolls off the tongue,” Raziel muttered.

* * *
      “Who are you creatures?” demanded the long-eared, green vampire known as Vorador. 
      “We are on a mission to find Raziel, Reaver of Souls.”
      “Who?” Evidently, Spidey and Venom had come out a few centuries before Vorador had met Raziel.
      “Nevermind.” The two trekked on, following the path of vampire heads speared in the roads to the Sarafan Stronghold. At the foot of the Stronghold, six Sarafan heroes waited. 
      “Strange new vampires, eh, Raziel?”
      “Indeed, Turel.” 
      “Raziel, is that you? Where’s Dark Spidey?” inquired Spiderman.
      “Dark Spiney? Is this some incantation of vampiric black magic!?” demanded Raziel. With that last inquiry, Raziel and the Sarafan attacked the two spider-themed heroes. Webs and tight costumes, however, were no match for the razor sharp blades of the Sarafans’ weapons.
      “Venom, look out!” hollered Spiderman as Venom was attacked by the short, stout, and very bald Melchiah. Venom didn’t move fast enough, in spite of Spidey’s warning. The lance bit into his side, drawing out dark blood and symbiote. With two wounded heroes, and five healthy ones, odds were bad. Venom had killed Zephon with his own sword early into the battle, so the other five were wroth with self-righteous reprisal.
      When it seemed all was lost, with Raziel and Turel bearing down on the two heroes from Earth, the two were rescued by…someone. The voice was that of Raziel, but this was not the Angel of Death we have come to admire so much. This was not him at all….
* * *
      “There they are Raziel…take them down, along with Vorador when he arrives. I want the Timestream so far beyond repair, no one will ever know a single familiar memory again!” Mortanius raved. 
      “Wait…I want the new body now.”
      “New body?”
      “You said you could make me human,” Raziel said.
      “I said nothing of the sort…well I did, but I was lying.” Raziel spread his claws in a threatening manner. Mortanius shrugged and used some kind of spell on Raziel’s reanimated carcass. Raziel felt a surge of magical energy burn his dusty, ancient bones. He felt them solidify and strengthen. His atrophied muscles swelled with youthful vigor. Raziel was aware of his skull splitting to re-grow his long-gone jawbone. The symbiote curled and fell from Raziel’s body as he became a new creature. His wings began to regain their fair color as they closed around new bone structures protruding from his back. His claws began to harden and sharpen, and become like the claws he used as a vampire. His fangs did the same. He felt his abdomen (or lack thereof,) fill with new innards and regain its human shape. With a final burning sensation, the change was complete. Raziel was a new man…creature…thing? He flapped his re-grown wings and enjoyed the unfamiliar feel of substantial muscle. His concealing cloth fell away and revealed his new chin and teeth. 
      “How about one more change?” suggested Mortanius. A flash of energy, and Raziel was dressed just as he had been as a vampire before his “execution.” 
     “You still can devour souls, shift between planes, and use all of the abilities you have inherited from various triumphs. You also can drink blood again, just as you used to when you served Kain. Not only do you devour blood once more, you can also eat human food, like meat and bread. You are stronger than you have ever been, and you can fly, rather than merely glide.” Raziel looked at his new claws and flexed his new muscles.
      “I like this…I like it a lot,” Raziel said, his eyes widening.
      “You have one more gift. Remember how the Reaver, your doubled soul, attached itself to your arm? I gave you the ability to draw from your own power, and summon an equivalent to the Reaver. It cannot be drained, it does not become overexcited, and it does not keep its victims for itself. It is a channel of your very soul, so the blood and souls it devours will transfer to you.
      “It also has every elemental augmentation you, or Kain, have ever found. Dark, light, fire, air, water, earth, flame, lightning, dimension, time, and even Spirit and Balance are yours to command. Now, do what you will to the Circle…”
 Raziel approached the door, and focused his energy on his right arm. With a little will, and a lot of power, an ever-coiling, ever-pulsing, and ever-glowing blade identical to the Reaver in shape materialized around Raziel’s right arm. He willed the blade to become manifest with the Fire element, and it was so. He pointed the orange, flaming wraith-blade at the massive gate of the Sarafan Stronghold. The door began to smoke, and the metal adornment began to melt away. Suddenly, the door burst into flames, and was soon merely ash, blown away with the winds of Nosgoth. Raziel marched with the Light Reaver held high, making his way through dim corridors.
      “I have not named my new weapon…I will call you the Ruinous Reaver,” Raziel whispered to the Reaver-duplication. He entered into the chamber where the Circle stood. They all looked at the suspicious person wielding the wraith-blade. Raziel instructed them not to move. He approached the pool where Moebius had shown Kain to him, a few centuries from that time. He looked in, and saw Venom and Spiderman, struggling to ward off the Sarafan Heroes. 
      “I was sent here to destroy you. You have every reason to fear me right now. I wield a blade superior to the Blood Reaver, which is later to become the Soul Reaver. You have reason to fear me, but I will spare you,” Raziel announced to the trembling Circle. Mortanius drew back, and gasped.
      “What of our deal? I made you human!”
      “You said that you would, but you did not. I said that I would kill these sorcerers, and conversely, I will not. I will, however, be rid of you,” Raziel said, his still-glowing eyes narrowed. He used Turel’s telekinesis to make Mortanius zoom across the room to Raziel. He used Dumah’s constricting power to spin Mortanius around like a spinning top. With a little of the Blood Reaver’s lightning, he struck Mortanius repeatedly, until the necromancer was a bloody heap. At that moment, the symbiote rejoined Raziel from outside (apparently, it had followed him inside the Stronghold.) The Spider Reaver symbol reappeared amidst the black skin of the symbiote. His mask-like cloth, now draped on his shoulder as before, in the days of Kain, turned blue and black. The small black pieces of shoulder and back armor that Raziel wore turned blue as well. His wings were not coated, but the Razielim symbol formed on them. 
 The black symbiote masked Raziel’s face, up to his hairline. His eyes glowed through the living mask, with white slash-marks across them on the mask’s surface. He was stronger than he had ever been, or even imagined he would be. As a vampire, his strength had been upgraded from its human frailty. As the Reaver of Souls, it was augmented even more. Arcane artifacts and numerous power-ups then pushed up the bar even higher. This new half vampire, half human form was even stronger than that.
      Now, Dark Spidey added even more power. Raziel was now unimaginably strong, with a Supermanesque standard. To test his newfound strength, Raziel embedded his claws in the ice that covered the lake, once he was outside. He effortlessly lifted the entire ten-inch-thick surface of ice, and threw it off into the distance, to crash on what would soon be a swamp from the water that would melt off of the ice.
      “And now,” Raziel thought, “I must help my companions.”
 * * *
      Who would have thought that the most well known hero of New York was about to die in another plane of existence, alongside his once worst enemy, by the hand of ruthless vampire hunters wielding razor-sharp, oversized, enchanted swords and lances?
      Not Spiderman. He tried to use his webbing, but the web shooters were empty. Venom was badly wounded, and the symbiote half of him was removing itself from Eddie Brock. He closed his eyes, and gritted his teeth as the Sarafan approached. That was before the creature appeared. This creature was Raziel, the new-and-improved Spider Reaver. He summoned the new weapon known as the Ruinous Reaver and struck the five remaining Sarafan with various elements. One lay dead already, the next four mortally wounded and dying, and the last waiting for his demise. Sarafan Raziel brandished his sword, only to have it forcefully jerked out of his hand by Spider Reaver’s web. 
      Raziel punched his Sarafan other with considerable force, and watched him sail across the Nosgothic horizon. Just before he faded away, Raziel grabbed him with telekinetic force, bringing him soaring back to the Stronghold. Raziel raised the Ruinous Reaver, and it turned blood red. Sarafan Raziel screamed in pain as his blood ejected from his very pores to flow into the new Reaver. The other five, including the fallen Zephon, underwent similar experiences. With the Sarafan Heroes’ blood drained, the Ruinous Reaver glowed an ethereal green-blue, and then reaved the spectral essence of the deceased.
      Raziel called upon the Spirit Reaver, and held the white flame over Venom’s dying being. His wounds healed, and his energy returned to him. The three went into the Time-Streaming device, and modified its power to make it sent them back to Earth. The three looked around, and saw the city known as New York. Everything was as it should be, or better. Except for one thing. This was not the same New York. The spectral signature was different, and the buildings were not the same. Venom, Spiderman, and Raziel swung over to a tall building to see a red and blue clad someone fighting off a monster that was as tall as a building. It was like living metal; a machine with huge potential to destroy.
      Raziel pointed the Ruinous Reaver at it, and used each element in turn to destroy the thing for the strange flying man. The three suddenly noticed a monster in the sky. They turned to where he was pointing, to see a colossal squid-like creature with several huge, rolling eyes. It was like a massive cloud, floating and covering much of the evening sky. This creature sounded eerily like Tony Jay….
      “Fools! I will wreak my revenge against you! You cannot destroy me! I am the Elder God!” The flying man flew over to the three at that moment, and said,
      “My name is Superman. I think you’ll need a little help with beating that thing….”
 

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2
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