Full Circle

Raziel (vo): Sensing its twin, the wraith-blade uncoiled itself from me - and instead wound lovingly around its former self. I felt its grip loosen, and as the blade left me, its absence chilled me more than its presence ever had. A foreboding sense of emptiness and loss stole over me… and a terrible revelation gathered like a storm at the edge of my awareness…

With all other foes exhausted, the conjoined blades turned themselves on me. And I realized, finally, why I had sensed nothing when Janos offered me the blade. The Reaver was never forged to be a soul-stealing weapon… The ravenous, soul-devouring entity trapped in the blade was - and always had been - me.

This is why the blade was destroyed when Kain tried to strike me down - the Reaver could not devour its own soul. The paradox shattered the blade. So - this was my terrible destiny - to play out this purgatorial cycle for all eternity… I could not bear it - despair overwhelmed me.

Kain aparece mientras Raziel sucumbe ante la Segadora…

Raziel: You! Are you enjoying this, Kain?!

Kain: Don’t fight it, Raziel… Give in to it…

Raziel: Was this your destiny for me, all along?!

Kain: Trust me…

Raziel (vo): I felt myself weakening… unable to hold on any longer. The Reaver was too strong… the compulsion to simply let go too great… And then… a growing sense of vertigo, and the familiar displacement…

The paradoxical moment when my twinned soul hovered both outside and inside the Reaver blade… This was the instant - the glimmer of temporal distortion - Kain had been counting on all along. This was the edge of the coin - the minute flicker of probability upon which Kain had gambled everything.

Kain extrae la Segadora del cuerpo de Raziel…

Raziel: Aaaaaahhhhh…!

Kain: Now you are free to reclaim your true destiny, Raziel.

Raziel (vo): Behind Kain’s eyes, I could see new memories blooming and dying, as history labored to reshuffle itself around this monumental obstruction… And I could see by the dawning horror on his face that perhaps we had strained history too far this time… That by trying to alter my fate, he may have introduced a fatal paradox.

Kain: My god… the Hylden… We walked right into their trap… Raziel! Janos must stay dead!

Raziel (vo): But Kain’s warning was lost as I slipped into the spirit realm, too weak to maintain my physical form… And there, waiting for me as always, was the Reaver - the wraith-blade… my own soul, twinned and bound eternally to me. And I realized that I could never escape my terrible destiny… I had merely postponed it.

History abhors a paradox.