The Eternal Prison

Entering the prison, a guardian appears before Kain…

Prison Guardian: You there! I don’t know you. Are you a guest? A visitor? An intruder? We do not permit guests to disturb our routine. We are involved in important work here and nothing, nothing, must be allowed to interfere.

This is a place where those who have transgressed the laws of the gods and man, and so created a dangerous imbalance within themselves, contemplate the wrong that they have done, through peaceful, uninterrupted meditation, until they have regained the balance of their true, perfect inner nature.

This process must not be interrupted for any reason, until a spiritual transformation has been achieved, however long that may take. Thus no guests, no visitors, are allowed. And intruders, we know how to deal with. Go! Now!

Ignoring the warning, Kain ventures deeper into the prison. The same guardian appears before Kain again…

Prison Guardian: You there! I see you have not yet found your way out. I suggest you do so. Your presence may disrupt the progress some are making toward fulfilling the inner balance of their perfect nature, and that cannot be allowed.

Heed my warning, and depart at once!

Kain continues pressing deeper into the prison. The guardian decides to attack Kain…

Prison Guardian: You! Have I not told you that you do not belong in this place? Have I not told you to go? But you have not heeded my warnings. Now I must explain my meaning in a manner you are sure to understand!

In one of the prison’s corridors, Kain finds a prisoner being chased by a creature…

Wretch: Help me! Let me out of here, I didn’t do nothing! You can’t let him get me! Help me, help me!

Magnus: … it must be blanched, it must be poached, it must be fresh! Where is my meat? Sopping with blood, running with gore. Here, there -

Prison Guardian 1: Stop that. You know you’re not allowed down there.

Prison Guardian 2: Get back!

Magnus: Give me meat! Fourteen hundred ounces every day. And it will be fresh, and on two legs - or in this case four!

The creature lunges at the guardians and devours them. It lets the prisoner go free…

Magnus: No, no. I’ve had my allotment. Fourteen hundred ounces or twenty stone. You may go!

Kain is pursued by the creature but manages to evade it…

At last, Kain arrives at the chamber where the Hylden Builder of the Device is held…

Kain: Prisoner, I require information.

The Builder: You… you are not a jailer. I beg you, release me.

Kain: First you must answer me. I seek a prisoner in this place, a builder. He created a large device that lies below the city of Meridian.

The Builder: Seek no further. I am he.

Kain: How fortunate. I intend to destroy this device. I was told only you can tell me how.

The Builder: I can indeed help you. But in return, I need an end to my suffering.

Kain: Tell me of the Device and I will grant you any request within my power.

The Builder: Yes, yes. The Device. The Device was built as a weapon aeons ago when two races warred with each other for dominance of Nosgoth. It houses an ancient creature, whose very mind is capable of killing any living thing with but a thought.

The Device was to channel the mental energy of this creature, and direct it onto Nosgoth. It would attune the creature’s mind to kill all living creatures except for my race. Before it could be completed, however, I was imprisoned here, and the rest of my race was banished to another, far more terrible realm.

Kain: So this Device was never finished? And yet, the creature still lives within it?

The Builder: It was dubbed ‘The Mass’. It is eternal and deadly, yet harmless without a channel for its mind. But we never completed the weapon. We needed a way to send its energy out of the Device and into the land itself.

We needed a conduit throughout the cities - a network, if you will. Once this network was created, the Device would channel the mental energy of the Mass, and send death upon our enemies.

Kain: You say ‘a network’. Placed like a web throughout a city?

The Builder: We never completed the network. We never used the Device.

Kain: But the Sarafan Lord will. The Glyphs. He is using the Glyphs to channel the Mass to wipe out the city, humans and vampires alike. That must be his plan.

The Builder: If this is indeed true, you must act quickly. It will be too large a task to destroy the Device itself. You must kill the Mass itself.

Kain: You said this creature was eternal.

The Builder: It has a simple weakness. Blood is like poison to its system. And not any blood, but pure blood from the elder races. My blood. My blood will poison and kill the creature.

Drink from me, vampire, and use my life’s blood to kill that which I created out of arrogance and pride. Kill me so that the Mass will die, and the Device will be destroyed.

Kain: You have suffered here an eternity, poor wretch. I will grant you release from your prison, and I will carry your blood in my veins. I will bring the Sarafan Lord’s plans tumbling before him.

Kain rushes at the Hylden to kill him and drink his blood. He then activates a mechanism and an explosion destroys the cell structure…

Prison Guardian 1: You have ruined everything.

Prison Guardian 2: Now these lives can never be redeemed. Our great experiment for nothing! For nothing!

Further along, Kain confronts the creature that had been pursuing him throughout the prison…

Magnus: So many enemies, both stone and flesh. I won’t let them beat me! I will destroy you with my mind!

Kain inflicts some damage on the creature…

Magnus: Water is not my friend!

After it flees, Kain manages to defeat it completely…

Magnus: The fog lifts… Sire, wait!

Kain: What trickery is this?

Magnus: No trickery, sire. I am your servant once again. Your champion.

Kain: Pathetic wretch. I have no… Magnus? Could it be?

Magnus: It is I, sire.

Kain: How is this possible?

Kain (vo): Here in this cursed place was my finest warrior. The Sarafan had fallen before him by the score. Together, he and I were invincible. Until…

Kain: Magnus, the traitor. Is this your reward for betraying me to the Sarafan Lord?

Magnus: Sire, I did not -

Kain: You left my camp in the night to join with my enemy, like all the others.

Magnus: Sire, no. I wanted only to serve you. I thought, in my pride, I would strike a blow that would end the war. I went to kill the Sarafan Lord, alone. I was your champion.

Kain: You never returned.

Magnus: I failed you. I tried to kill him. Even now, I cannot remember how he defeated me. I was struck down, helpless at his feet, and then through his foul magic, he took my mind and transported me here to this… hellhole.

But what of you, sire? I heard that you were dead.

Kain: Not so dead as some would like to have me. As you see, I have returned.

Magnus, my champion. You have suffered long enough. It is with pride that I grant you your death.

Magnus: Sire, my thanks…

Kain finally finishes off Magnus and claims his Dark Gift…

Kain: Go, my friend. Be free. As the rest of us, living or dead, can never be…