The Hylden City

The ship that departed from the wharves arrives at the Hylden City with Kain as its sole passenger…

Kain: The charlatan emperor rears his head.

The Sarafan Lord: You are far from home, Dark One.

Kain: Spare your speeches, demon. Your secrets are known to me now. Your plans crumble like dust, brought down by my will.

The Sarafan Lord: You have struggled longer than expected, but nothing is changed. You see before you your death.

Kain: Know you not that your vaunted Device is destroyed? Your hope of controlling Nosgoth lies in ruins. This world is mine.

The Sarafan Lord: You understand nothing. You are a degenerate remnant of a cursed race, doomed to walk the night as a parasite. Your life as easily snuffed out as those you feed on to survive.

My race is but a warped parody of our former beauty. We are like you - fallen gods, scratching for our former power. But we will prevail. We will cleanse this world of your kind, and bring about a new, glorious age.

Die, Kain!

The Sarafan Lord attacks Kain with the Soul Reaver, but the Nexus Stone carried by Kain repels the blow…

The Sarafan Lord: The Nexus Stone!

Kain: Fitting, isn’t it? The very item you used to defeat me, now turned against you. You’re finished.

The Sarafan Lord: It matters not. The gate remains open, and even as we speak, my army, the likes of which this soft world has never seen, prepares to enter. Nosgoth is still mine for the taking.

The Sarafan Lord vanishes and Kain ventures into the Hylden City. Inside, he finds two slaves in conversation…

Male slave: It’s not that simple.

Female slave: Why not? If we stay here, we will die. That’s certain.

Male slave: And where will we go?

Female slave: We can slip aboard one of those vessels. They bring people every time. They must come from where there are others of our kind.

Male slave: What if we’re caught?

Female slave: If we stay, we die. How is that different?

Male slave: The place the ships go to is worse.

Kain steps forward, interrupting the conversation…

Male slave: Huh? What was that?

Female slave: He is the one, he must be - look at him. He is the one who is working against them.

Male slave: Sir, is it true? Are you the vampire who’s been making war on the demons?

Kain: I am Kain. Do you know this place well?

Female slave: We do, my lord.

Kain: I must find the mechanism these creatures use to hide their presence in this city.

Female slave: He can show you. Go on.

Male slave: It is there, my lord. That building. I’ve heard them talking. The device you seek is within.

Kain: I thank you. Now, tell me, what is that?

Male slave: That is the only way to get within. The doors to the building no longer function.

Female slave: Like so much of this place.

Kain: And that one there?

Male slave: We don’t know.

Female slave: But our stories tell us that is where the demons first appeared in our world.

Kain: Stories? How long have your kind been in this place?

Female slave: We have been here forever. Our oldest fables tell us that our gods abandoned us here.

Male slave: There are others like us, new ones, soft ones. The demons bring them here from other places to work. They tell other stories.

Female slave: They had no knowledge of the arrival of the demons. We had to tell them.

Kain: Enough. Be silent. That building surely leads to the gate, but first, I must destroy the device.

Kain (vo): How long had the Hylden held a foothold here, while we, unsuspecting, fought and triumphed in our petty wars above?

After managing to get inside the building, Kain destroys the machine protecting the city…

Vorador (whispering): Kain, the Hylden City’s defences have been broached. Janos can no longer sense a ward barrier.

Kain: It’s my doing. I’ve shut down their foul magics, at least for a time.

Vorador (whispering): Then we are ready to help you. Janos is casting a spell that will bring us to you in moments.

Kain: Excellent.

Vorador (whispering): I look forward to thanking you in person for saving Umah’s life.

Kain: Yes, of course…

Janos and Vorador appear alongside Kain…

Janos Audron: I will try to detect the location of the Hylden Gate.

Vorador: Where’s Umah, Kain? I cannot sense her.

Kain: She will not be joining us.

Vorador: Umah is dead, is she not? Were you too late?

Kain: No. She suffered the fate she deserved. She stole the Nexus Stone from me.

Vorador: So you refused to help her?

Kain: I dealt with her as I deal with all traitors. I killed her accordingly.

Vorador: You did what?!

Kain: I did as you would have done, Vorador, to any human or vampire who defied your will.

Vorador: Monster!

Kain: She chose her fate. Was she acting as the dutiful lieutenant, following her superior’s orders? I care not. What’s done is done.

Vorador: We were wrong ever to trust you!

Kain: Do you so wish to return to the grave, old friend? You are in no position to challenge me.

Janos Audron: No. We have no time for this discord. I sense that the Hylden Gate is nearby. I can transport us there.

Kain: We will settle this in good time. Tonight, the Sarafan Lord dies. Tomorrow, we shall see…

Before Janos can teleport them to the Hylden Gate, the Sarafan Lord appears and strikes down Vorador and Janos…

The Sarafan Lord: This round is mine, Dark One.

Janos Audron: I must tend to Vorador. Proceed without us, Kain. I can teleport you to a place near the gate, but you will have to close it on your own.

Use the Nexus Stone. Cast it into the gate, and the magic of the stone will destroy it utterly.

Kain: Cast your spell then, and let us finish this.

Kain reaches the building where the Hylden Gate is located…

Kain (vo): At last I had hunted my prey to his very lair.

The Hylden Gate was before me, from which the Hylden General, in his guise of the Sarafan Lord, planned to bring forth his alien armies, and destroy us all.

Kain: Turn, vile demon! Your reckoning day has come!

The Sarafan Lord: Kain.

Kain: Did you think you could defeat me? All your plans are revealed, together with your true nature. Turn and enter the gate you have fashioned, and join your kind before I obliterate it. Or stay, and be destroyed upon its rubble.

The Sarafan Lord: I confess, I did not expect to find you here, at the heart of my endeavour. You are indeed a more capable adversary than I had thought possible.

Kain: You can ponder that thought when you have made your choice. Return to exile, or death.

The Sarafan Lord: Do you think the game is over? Do you think it will end with me? Have you not wondered why so many of your trusted henchmen, time and again, bend their knees before me, accept me as their lord, and join their cause to mine?

Kain: Cowards and traitors deserve no second thoughts, only their complete annihilation.

The Sarafan Lord: Did it not occur to you that perhaps my cause, and not yours, is the cause of right and justice? That your ambition to rule this world is but the youthful craving of a petty noble, who has gained too much power, but never enough?

Kain: Silence, demon. Your need to corrupt is only too apparent. But every traitor that you have turned to your will from my side, even Umah, your latest spy, is dead.

The Sarafan Lord: Umah? I have no spy called Umah.

Kain: You lie!

The fight begins. Kain manages to throw the Sarafan Lord into the vortex of the Hylden Gate, but he manages to return…

The Sarafan Lord: Do you still believe you can prevail? While you possess the Nexus Stone, my sword cannot slay you, but while you bear the stone to shield your life, you cannot use it to destroy the gate.

Stalemate, Kain, and mine is the waiting game. As long as I have not lost, in time, I am sure to win.

Kain: But I have not yet made my choice.

Kain takes the Nexus Stone from his chest and hurls it into the vortex of the Hylden Gate. A tremor occurs and the Gate begins to close…

The Sarafan Lord: No, no, no!

Kain once again brings down the Sarafan Lord, who loses the Soul Reaver. At that moment Janos appears to aid Kain…

The Sarafan Lord: You.

Janos Audron: Yes. Your prisoner. From whose blood you built your evil plans.

The Sarafan Lord: What could be more righteous than to take our revenge and your freedom from the same source? Tortured aeons of suffering are too good for you, Vampire.

Janos Audron: But not for you, Hylden, who has dared to set a corrupting foot upon this world after your banishment. Return to the demon dimension in which you belong.

The Sarafan Lord: And by what right, cursed one, did you send my kind to that place of evil?

Janos Audron: By what right did you lay on us the curse that drove us from the light, and made us predators of humankind?

The Sarafan Lord: It was justice, for our banishment from the world. You see what it has made of our once fair race?

Janos Audron: I see you have taken your true form at last.

After clashing, the Sarafan Lord strikes Janos down…

The Sarafan Lord: Then go, and see what it makes of you!

Janos Audron: Kain! The sword!

Kain recovers the Soul Reaver…

The Sarafan Lord: I sentence you to the hell of your own making - a prisoner for all time.

Janos Audron is hurled into the demon dimension through the Hylden Gate…

Janos Audron: No! Kain!

The Sarafan Lord: And now it is your turn.

The structure begins to collapse. Kain and the Sarafan Lord leap to the central platform, where the battle continues until Kain finally defeats the Sarafan Lord completely…

The Sarafan Lord: You have won the battle, but the war between your kind and mine will never end. Our banishment in the demon dimension also ensures our immortality.

One day, we shall return.

Kain: Should your kind ever breach that place of banishment again, I will be waiting.

The Sarafan Lord: You will not live that long.

Kain: I have lived long enough to dispose of you.

Kain destroys the Hylden Lord by impaling him with the Soul Reaver. He then departs the Hylden City…

Kain (vo): Umah… What was it she said to me in that fateful moment when she took from me the Nexus Stone? How would my rule differ from that of the Sarafan Lord? If you had lived, Umah, you would have learned the difference. You should have trusted me…

The war was over, and yet there was another battle to be fought. The cruel masters of Nosgoth, the Sarafan - now leaderless - still had to be put down. There were cities to be rebuilt, and order to be restored. And a new rule, my rule would then begin.

To the victor go the spoils. At last, Nosgoth would be mine.