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(For those who decided to jump into the story right here...don't. Go back and read Blood Omen 3 first, then Soul Reaver 3, followed by Absolution, Heritage, Soul Reaver 4 and Insurrection. For those already up to date - Welcome back ladies and gentlemen! This is it. The finale. The final story of my Legacy of Kain story which collectively I'm calling the 'DIVUS' saga. Its taken a lot of frustration, pain, blood, sweat and tears over so many years but we've finally reached the culmination of my long work. I'll admit, I think that when this is finally over and I'm all done, I'll probably feel pretty sad. This little doosey of mine has been with me far longer than any other fan project I've undertaken. I'll honestly be sad to see it go. But all good things must come to an end. So let's do it people...buckle up with me one last time and let's ride this LoK horse into the sunset!)

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"I began life as the unimportant son of a noble of no great worth. I died, cold and alone in the mud of a slum of no great importance. Buried and left to rot, I was intended to be forgotten. I rose in blood, fury and vengeance to bend the world to my will. I ruled Nosgoth for centuries, the emperor god of an Empire of immortals. Yet even this was little more than a tomb, a rotten dying world for a rotten dead man. I desired more. I desired what had been my true destiny. Have I fought hard enough, changed enough, become strong enough; to claim the only prize worth the taking?"

"There is, as mortals would say, only one way to find out!"

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Legacy of Kain: EQUINOX

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The chamber was dark and silent, lighting braziers having been neglected for so long now that the one only light was through a single jagged gap in the curved dome ceiling high above. But even that light, with the near perpetual covering of smog and soot, was dim. A simple patch of pale, weak luminescence cast onto the floor in the shape of a ragged thunderbolt. The air was still even with the exposure to the sky, not so much as a breeze coming in through the inviting opening. Dust was accumulating on the floor, inch by rising inch like a covering of snow.

The six large banners hanging around the inside of the wide circular chamber were faded to a near uniform grey. In the dark they all seemed identical. Only if one looked very closely could the six irregular symbols for the clans of the collapsed Empire be seen, the colors bleeding away after so long. Each banner hung silent and still, several torn in places and each with tattered, fraying ends. The carvings around the chamber, painstakingly crafted by the most gifted artisans of their time, were all either worn, filled with dust or chipped beyond repair.

The only exception to this complete and utter desolation was in the centre of the chamber. Set into its exact middle was a large circular raised platform, covered in arcane style markings all centered on a single focal point. These markers were pristine and unnoticed, marred only by a coating of dust. Jutting out at one end of the platform were two raised extensions with a stone flight of stairs leading down to the lower floor, offset from one another by several degrees. From the other was a wider extension of the circle itself, upon which now lay nine distinct piles of lifeless grey marble rubble.

"So it is true..." A voice spoke from the darkness, mournful, filled with regret and profound loss. The sound echoed around the chamber unnaturally, a seeming intruder against the disapproval of the silence. As the last of the echoes died away, a long figure stepped from the impenetrable shadows and into the dim light. His form was tall, muscular and broadshouldered. His long white hair was tied back behind his imposing crest. The light fell upon his face, outlining the long nose and high cheekbones of a bronzed and toughened face.

Kain, master, emperor and god to an empire of Vampires which had lasted for over a thousand years, stood alone in the gloom staring forlornly at the rubble which at one time had been the Pillars which had served as his very throne. He, of course, had heard about their current state but to actually see them now for himself was distressing. He had thought himself fully prepared for the sight but the reality was another matter. There was a sense of loss so profound that he felt it akin to staring at the corpse of a loved one. The effect was made all the more poignant by the fact that for so long he had disregarded these edifices as irrelevant. Now he was left saddened by their loss and the sense of what might have been.

Their final collapse had occurred because he had been lost, cast outside the rim of time itself after losing his battle against Raziel-Divus. Severed from the Pillars as if dead, they had had no last even thin lifeline to which to hold. They had crumbled, their energies dispelling and their enchantments evaporating. The binding was shattered so that the Hylden could march out of their imprisonment, released from their exile and allowed to colonize Nosgoth once more. By the time of his return, rescued from that space between the infinities of everything and nothing, it had been much too late. The pillars were gone, beyond any hope of restoration.

Could it truly be that they had found a way of remaking them from the ether itself, as had been done in days long since past? It seemed all too incredible, not to mention epically convenient, that this so called Pillar Forge could simply allow them to make a new set of Pillars. True, it had been a struggle to not only secure the forge but to attain its Igniter, the orb which had ironically been the summit of Moebius' forsaken staff, but still somehow the mere idea seemed far too easy. Perhaps he had just been through so much that by now he had grown unnecessarily cynical but Kain could not shake the feeling that the path to the raising of the new Pillars could not be so simple.

Slowly his eyes wandered over the rubble and he was able to pick out each individual pillar amongst the debris easily. Over the centuries he had held court in this chamber, he had grown so familiar with each Pillar that he knew each one simply by the hue of its coloration. The nearest to him was the matter that once belonged to the Pillar of the Mind, the Pillar that many centuries ago had attended to by the Mentalist Nupraptor. It had been his grief, his disturbingly deep sense of anguish, which had poisoned the symbiotically joined circle and began the nightmare.

Slowly Kain made his way across the platform, his eyes wandering from each pile of debris and noting the pillar it came from in turn. The pillar of Dimension, the pillar of Conflict, the Pillar of Nature, the Pillar of Energy, the Pillar of Time, the Pillar of States, the Pillar of Death. Finally, the very focus of the others, was the sad rubble that had once been the Pillar of Balance. Its pile was slightly higher then the others, collapsed on top of what remained of his imperial throne. Once that throne had been the very centre of the Empire and from which he had ruled all the known world. Courts of Vampires from all the clans had vied with each other for the favor of the one who sat upon that throne.

Staring at it now, its presence seemed ridiculous. It was a foolish addendum he had had crafted on top and around the existing Pillar stump. He had defaced a site older than most civilizations and all so he could enjoy a gaudy, insanely overdramatic throne to impress the Vampires which served him. What made it even just that little bit more sad was the fact that it hadn't even been that comfortable a seat.

The first thing he was going to do once the Pillars were remade would be to have this thing removed to leave the place as its original designers had intended. But there Kain caught himself and smiled wryly. This all supposed on both his still being alive to implement such changes and that there would be new Pillars to enact them on. That of course, was still to be determined.

Reaching up behind one shoulder Kain grasped the hilt of the blade slung at his back and drew it forth. It responded with a low steely growl, barely audible, as the entity within surged with wakefulness and power at being handled. With his hand firmly grasping the hilt, the power of spirit within him merged with that of the entity and the blade hummed with ravenous, cleansing power. A flicker of white light ran down the length of the sword, illuminating more of the chamber and casting its wielder's face in more defined shadows. With a grim frown he gazed along the length of the Soul Reaver in deep contemplation

There was no going back now. The Tempus Crux, the lens of time, the very artifact which had made timetravel through such devices as the Chronoplast possible had been destroyed. It had been struck by the tool which had created it and had shattered, bringing down the city of Fanum-Divus with it. There would be no second chance now. No meddling with paradoxes and causality to try and undo the constrictions of fate. This was a unique time, one that would never come again. The coin had struck the earth and was turning on its edge, ready to fall.

But this coin toss was at the very least more honest than any he had faced before. Always before the game had been rigged, each side of the coin being a doom of equal proportions. It had taken journeys back and forth across the ages of Nosgoth itself to make that particular coin land on its edge. This time the coin had no edge. This time the coin would either fall one way or the other. The odds were an even split and that unnerved Kain more than anything. Having the odds against you and struggling against them was one thing, but having an even chance of death or salvation was simply torture to the nerves.

Still though, was this not the toss of the coin he had worked for? The only fair coin toss to ever be given to him throughout his entire existence? A chance at a game where fairness had been guaranteed from the outset? Indeed it was, but that did not mean that his enemy would not do everything within their power to cheat. That however was a more pleasant thought. If he felt nervous about the upcoming contest then they must be outright petrified. For they had had the benefit of a rigged system for so very long, but now they were faced with the outright possibility of their losing. The fear gripping their souls had to be beyond description.

Kain set the Reaver point down on the floor, resting his hands upon the hilt, gazing thoughtfully at the rubble that had once been the Pillar of Balance. Perhaps that then might be the key to final victory, to play upon that fear, to turn it against them, to make their terror of losing into a self-fulfilling prophecy. After all, when gripped by fear and panic, even the best of strategic masterminds made mistakes.

A soft scuffling noise caught his attention, a scrape of a hard material over stone. It had been barely audible but the total silence of the chamber it had been enough to draw notice. Kain turned his head slightly to gaze back over his left shoulder from whence the noise had come, one of the many arched alcoves over which the clan banners were hung. There was a patch of darkness there more dense then the rest of the surrounding shadows, but from the centre of this patch two pure white eyes watched him; so bright they stood out easily in the gloom.

Kain's lips parted in a wry smile.

"So what say you, Raziel?" He asked, his voice echoing as he raised one hand from the Reaver's hilt and gestured towards the debris strewn display before him. "Do you think this calamity can be salvaged?"

The intruder made no immediate move, continuing to stare from the darkness for a few contemplative moments. Then it began forward, slipping into the dim light and revealing its emaciated almost skeletal cobalt body, the eyes blazing from behind bangs of raven black hair and over the rim of a once proud Razielim banner wrapped about the shoulders.

It still struck Kain that itwas nothing short of a miracle that Raziel was here, standing with him at this crucial time. After he had witnessed him drawn into the Soul Reaver, to become the ravenous entity trapped within, he had feared him lost; forever trapped in a loop of despair and madness. But it had not been so. Raziel's spirit had endured the Reaver and as the mysterious wraith blade had cured Kain of the curse of Nupraptor's poisonous corruption. Within Kain's body and soul he had lain dormant, until freed by the actions of his first Divus incarnation.

"If the Forge can do what it's reported to do." The blue wraith replied but with the tone of one not quite covinced themselves. Standing with one hand resting on his skeletal hip, Raziel looked over the debris, skepticism clear in his featureless but expressive eyes. "Vorador seems convinced."

Kain grunted. "Yes, he does." He reclasped his hands over the Reaver's hilt. "But I will only be satisfied when I see it perform its function with no lackluster debut."

Raziel stepped up onto the Pillar's circular platform, kicking aside a piece of rubble with one foot.

"And what joyous fun it would be for us..." He mused with dripping sarcasm, coming up by Kain's side. "To come this far only to discover our saving grace to be little more than enthusiastically embraced snake oil."

Kain started to laugh but stopped himself when the returning echoes threatened to rise to an unearthly din.

"I suppose then that we must simply trust Vorador and the Seer in this." He mused. Raziel cocked his head to one side giving his once lord and master a sidelong look.

"And there is the crucial word." The blue wraith observed flatly. "Trust." The two of them exchanged look over that observation.

"Yes, quite." Kain agreed, tapping his talons against one another as he held the Reaver's hilt. His lips were pursed in grim reflection, humor abandoning him. "No one in this alliance of ours really trusts one another, do they?"

"Of course not. But can you truly blame any of them?" Raziel asked. Kain just shook his head.

"No." He admitted.

"The Humans are especially nervous." At that the Vampire let out a grunt, his eyes rolling skyward.

"They're a herd of sheep surrounded by wolves. I'd be more surprised if they weren't."

Raziel folded his arms over his bony chest, lowering his head.

"And the Hylden are barely holding themselves back from...cultural differences...with any other Vampire group you care to name." He added. Kain could not help himself from smiling.

"Ah, good old fashioned xenophobia and generational hatred." His fangs showed just beyond his dark lips. "Simple and predictable. Refreshing even."

Raziel looked like he was about to say something in reply but he was preempted. Over them both a pale luminescence came into being like a spreading mist. Quickly it gained luster and shape, swelling into being until the slender but powerful form of a woman with long, flowing strawberry blonde hair. Her face an almost flawless beauty, occasionally marred as the left hand side faded to reflect skeletal features.

"If you gentlemen are so worried about the state of current affairs then you ought to be occupied with productive endeavors, not standing here complaining to the shadows." Her soft but firm voice rebuked them both but her eyes were firmly on Kain. Kain gave her a firm level look in response.

"Ariel." He said in as neutral a greeting as he could manage.

The spirit of his predecessor to the position of Balance Guardian and he had, for quite some time and for understandable reasons, not been on the best of terms. Trapped to haunt the Pillars by his decision not to sacrifice himself, she had been mute witness to the rise of his Empire and the slow death of the land itself. Over that immense time they had spoken very little and those infrequent conversations had been filled with accusations, denunciations and bitterness.

Now however things had changed. Through some method that was not clear at all to him, Ariel had become bound to Raziel. She was one with him, haunting his very essence as much as she had haunted the Pillars before hand. In their joining however he could clearly see a union of kindred spirits, a melding together which had gone some way to helping them both heal from the wounds inflicted by fate upon them. He did not know exactly how far that went in terms of engagement but he suspected neither of them wished to ever undo what had been done.

"Not going to join us in our nostalgic melancholy, even for a moment?" Kain asked, nodding whimsically toward the rubble of the Pillars. Her ghostly visage steadfastly refused to look at them. Instead she merely furrowed the image of her brow in disdain.

"My entire mortal life revolved about this place." Her voice was suddenly flat and tightly controlled, almost repressed. Raziel turned his head to look up at her as if sensing the change. "It was the only thing above all else, even my own personal feelings, to which my entire being was devoted. I wish for nothing more then its full restoration." Finally Ariel did turn to look, but only sparingly. One glance and she turned away again with a shudder that shook her image. "But I can't bare to see it this way and remember it as it was while I do. Not after that long a residence."

Kain regarded her a long silent moment, before looking back at the rubble. Now that she had voiced such a feeling he could not help but find that same repugnance in himself. Suddenly it seemed distasteful in the extreme to be standing here bemoaning the cherished past. She was quite correct. He had little time to brood in the darkness while the fate of Nosgoth hung so precariously in the balance. The Divus and their Ark had finally come.

"Then into the fray we must go." He said forcefully, lifting the serpentine blade of the Reaver and laying it against his shoulder. There was no hiding from it now. He would either return here to this place a conqueror with the cure to rid Nosgoth of its terminal illness, or he would not return here at all.

"Tell me Raziel, are you prepared to sacrifice yourself for me again?" The Vampire asked, unable to stop himself. The blue wraith gave him an almost unfriendly direct look in return.

"Only if you're prepared to return the gesture, this time." Was Raziel's very blunt response.