The Tenth Guardian

Creando un camino hasta la cima del refugio, Raziel consigue alcanzar la cámara donde se halla Janos…

Raziel: Janos Audron?

Janos Audron: It is heartening, after all these years, to hear my name spoken without contempt. Raziel? My child, what have they done to you?

Raziel: I have been dragged through hell and back - all, it seems, to reach this moment. But I don’t yet know why.

Janos Audron: For thousands of years, I have waited… alone here, losing faith…

At the time of the Binding, nine guardians were called to serve the Pillars. And I was summoned as the tenth guardian - the keeper of the Reaver, the weapon of our salvation.

Over time, our race died out. Until I alone remained… sustained only by my obligation to you, and by my guardianship of the blade.

Raziel: And the other nine? Why did their guardianship not sustain them?

Janos Audron: I don’t know. As our race dwindled, the humans prospered. I have watched, over the centuries, as our history faded into myth, and finally receded altogether.

The humans have forgotten us entirely, and claimed the Pillars for themselves - wholly ignorant of their true purpose. To them, I am merely a devil; the origin of their vampire ‘plague’.

Raziel: Why would the Pillars summon human guardians, then, if they are meant to be served by vampires?

Janos Audron: The Pillars choose their guardians from birth, Raziel - and vampires are no longer born. This is the crux of our dilemma.

And this is the terrible irony - with their vampire purge, the members of the Circle have assaulted the very architects of the Pillars they are sworn to protect. They have embarked on a treacherous path. With every vampire they kill, the humans are slitting their own throats.

They know I’m up here, beyond their reach, and it terrifies them. You can see how they flaunt their kills to torment me… or perhaps simply to lure me out. They have this foolish notion that destroying me will somehow topple our entire bloodline. Thankfully, we’re not that fragile.

Raziel: I have seen them mustering their forces in the village, below.

Janos Audron: Yes. I don’t know what they’re plotting… but I fear our time may be bitterly short.

Raziel: Mankind seems to have brought you only torment and grief. You must hate them.

Janos Audron: They fear what they don’t understand; and they despise what they fear. But no - I do not hate them.

Raziel: Vorador does.

Janos Audron: He has suffered much. He cannot forgive them.

Raziel: Should they be forgiven?

Janos Audron: They don’t understand what they’re doing. They are simply unenlightened… and vulnerable to manipulation.

Raziel: So it’s all true, then - what Kain and Vorador have told me - I really am some kind of unholy vampire messiah…

Janos Audron: Unholy? -no. Messiah… perhaps.

Raziel: I don’t like that word - it smells of martyrdom.

Janos Audron: Raziel, your role in this world’s destiny is more crucial - and more benevolent - than you’ve allowed yourself to believe.

Your journey will not be easy - dark powers are allied against you. But I think you already know this… you appear to have been cruelly tested. The Binding must be secured, Raziel. The Pillars are the lock -

• and the Reaver is the key.

Janos Audron: Yes.

Raziel: The Reaver is here? Why do I feel nothing?

Janos Audron: The most formidable weapon ever forged by our swordsmiths… They infused the blade with vampiric energy, empowering the Reaver to drain our enemies of their precious lifeblood.

Raziel (vo): As Janos presented the blade, an inexplicable sense of dread crept over me, more palpable than anything I’d felt before. I was at once horribly repelled by the sword and yet irresistibly compelled to touch it, to take it up.

Raziel: Please - take it away from me.

Janos Audron: I fear you have been followed…

En ese momento, los sacerdotes Sárafan hacen acto de presencia…

Janos Audron: You must save yourself, Raziel.

Raziel: Janos - no!

Raziel (vo): My surroundings whirled sickeningly, and I found myself transported safely away from the ambush, to an adjacent chamber. Janos had delivered me from the Sarafan, selflessly forfeiting his own safety to preserve my life. And now I feared that my newfound mentor would be slaughtered by the very crusaders I had so recently revered.

The irony pierced me, and with dawning horror I realized that I had been duped by Moebius from the beginning… For the Sarafan had simply followed the path I gullibly blazed through this sanctuary, and had arrived bearing Moebius’s staff. Thus armed, they had Janos at their mercy.

Through the door, I could hear them battling, less than a dozen paces away - but it may as well have been a thousand miles, for this barrier was sealed by elemental forces I did not possess.

It seemed Janos had conveyed me into the heart of the Fire shrine. I thought perhaps if I could galvanize the forge and imbue the Reaver in time, I might have a slim chance of saving Janos from his grisly fate.

Activando la fragua, Raziel imbuye la Segadora con Fuego…

Raziel (vo): I plunged the Reaver into that furnace and forged the blade with elemental fire. With the Reaver thus imbued, I was now armed to unlock the elemental barrier and rescue Janos from his executioners.