Fan Fiction ❯ The Soul Reaver and The Spirit Shield ❯ Time's Destruction ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three

As Raziel emerged from the narrow passageway, he came across another, though smaller, valley. This one, however, contained the most luscious forest he had seen in centuries. From his vantage point, Raziel could make out the roof of a building peaking out over the treetops. Without hesitation, Raziel made his way over to the building.

Rounding the edifice, he could not find and entrance, until he came to the forth side. A large boulder had blocked off this side of the building. Spotting the Earth glyph on the side of the building, Raziel placed his reaver within it, and slowly the boulder gave way, revealing a door, with the symbol of Mobius etched upon its surface.

"Who goes there?" a voice from the left startled Raziel. He hadn't thought anyone was in this area.

"Show yourself!" a second voice called out. Raziel calmly rounded the corner of the building and discovered two heavily armored Sarafan knights.

"There's the demon Lord Mobius warned us about!" the first announced. Raziel crouched in a combat position, ready for the approaching warriors. The first hastily ran up to Raziel, wielding his sword in front of him. He swung his sword ferociously at Raziel, who simply dodged around it. Spotting an opening in the knight's defenses, Raziel swung the reaver at his opponent, but before he could make contact, the second knight clipped him with his sword.

Slightly angered by his carelessness, Raziel took aim with the reaver at the second knight and released a sphere of energy. Having no time to dodge, the ball of energy collided with the knight, sending him skidding backwards across the ground several yards. Raziel then focused upon the first knight, who had been calling forth his glyph energy into his battle blade, readying it above his head for a critical strike.

Raziel barely had enough time to dodge the attack, but the amount of energy the knight had focused into his sword had left him weak and slow. Using the reaver, Raziel slashed out at the knight, amputating his sword arm. Screaming in pain, the knight fell to his knees clutching the bleeding stump that was once his arm. Distracted from the pain, the knight didn't realize when Raziel readied his fatal blow, and was impaled by the wraith blade. The knight combusted spontaneously, his soul released from his body.

"You will die for that infidel!" screamed the enraged second knight, who had just recovered from his earlier incapacitation. He charged Raziel with his sword, swinging like a madman. His blind fury made it easy for Raziel to dodge his poorly calculated attacks. As Raziel dodged around the Sarafan, he swung the wraith blade, slashing the knight across his right side and his back. The knight grunted in pain, but his rage kept his persistence.

Bleeding and weak, the Sarafan knight glared at Raziel with a deep hatred. Panting heavily and slightly staggering, the warrior was bleeding all over his front, side and back. Even if he survived the fight with Raziel, he wouldn't live for more than a few days with those wounds.

"Now you die," growled the knight, hefting his long sword in both hands. He summoned up the last of his energy, preparing what he hoped would be his victorious blow. If Raziel were still human, he probably would have felt remorse for the knight's `valiant' efforts. That was, however, stifled by the knowledge of what the Sarafan represented: vampire annihilation. Before the knight could deliver his blow, Raziel thrusted the reaver into the human's middle, killing his prey. With the threat abated, Raziel was able to consume the souls of his victims and regained the strength lost in the conflict.

Upon returning to the door with Mobius's symbol on it, Raziel took note of the gem placed above the doorway. Raziel looked down upon his reaver, knowing he'd have to harness the power of light to open the chamber. The reaver seemed to know what Raziel was thinking, for it shifted its elements from the earth energy to the energy of light. After opening the door, Raziel descended the long stairway deep within the building. Finally, he reached the chamber of time.

He crossed the chamber, to the time setting devices. Studying the dials, he realized that these controls were a lot less complex than the previous chambers he had encountered. This must have been the prototype for the smaller time chambers. There were three dials in all. Raziel reached for the first dial, and slowly began to turn it in the one direction it would move. As he did, he noticed that the time streaming platform seemed to hum with life with energy. He continued turning the dial until it clicked to a stop.

The second dial, Raziel discovered, would move in either direction. As he turned the dial, he noticed three arcane symbols above the dial. If he turned the dial to the left, the symbols would change, until the first digit disappeared, leaving only two symbols. He turned it back towards the right, and then the first symbols returned. He continued to turn the dial clockwise, passing its original setting. He noticed that at he turned the dial; the symbols on the right would change more quickly than the one on the left. Raziel realized that these symbols must indicate some ancient form of numbers.

Once the far-left digit had changed a few times, he let the dial to rest and pushed its center inward, locking it into place. Raziel then proceeded to the last of the dials. It too, had symbols above it, but these were slightly different. Deciding to leave this dial at its current setting, Raziel pushed in the center, locking it in to place as well. Satisfied, Raziel approached the streaming platform and took the hourglass-shaped device in his claws.

Giving it a hefty pull, Raziel activated the device by rotating it ninety degrees. The energy of the streaming device engulfed Raziel, causing him to suspend in the air before the former vampire's surroundings swirled into a blurred confusion. After a few moments of suspension, the streaming energy relinquished its grip on Raziel, and settled him back on the ground.

Raziel made his way out of the time chamber and back into the open of wilderness. It seemed that time had played a cruel joke upon the landscape Raziel had left behind. The beautiful forest Raziel had laid his eyes upon beforehand was completely ravished. A few old rotting tree stumps was the only proof that a forest had once occupied the now barren valley. Through the chasm that Raziel had first entered this valley through, he could see smoke rising from where the village was located.

Curious to see how the small town had held up through time, Raziel headed off in that direction. As he emerged from the path, the sight had almost appalled him. The entire town lay in ruins. A few charred support beams and crumbling stone walls were all that was left of most of the buildings. Making his way down the ruined streets, rotting corpses of the village's inhabitants cluttered the ground. Someone had attacked this secluded town.

At first, the bodies were those of warriors who had been protecting the village. But as Raziel progressed, there were more bodies of women and children who had been fleeing for their lives. That was all Raziel could tell of these corpses. The bodies had been decomposing far too long to conclude anything else. It was obvious now, that this town had been massacred. But by whom? And for what purpose?

On the other side of town, Raziel could make out a small fire from where the smoke he spotted had originated. As he approached, a lone warrior stood at the fire. With the warrior's back to the former vampire, Raziel was able to sneak up on his unsuspecting prey.

"Tell me, what has happened to this village?" Raziel demanded of the warrior before attacking. The warrior didn't appear to have been taken by surprise. Instead, the warrior merely glanced over its shoulder guard. Before Raziel could get a good look at the warrior's face, the warrior's form dissipated in a flash of light. Blinded only momentarily by the light, Raziel was shocked to discover that now in place of the warrior was a brightly glowing soul, hovering in the air.

Before getting his question answered, the soul shot off towards the chasm, towards the destroyed forest. Hoping to get some sort of explanation for this turn of events, Raziel raced after the soul, which now had a tremendous lead. Raziel followed the soul to the valley of the dead forest. The soul retreated to a cavern, which had in previous times been hidden by the thick vegetation. Without a second thought, Raziel pursued the soul into the dark caverns of the unknown.