Fan Fiction ❯ The Soul Reaver and The Spirit Shield ❯ A New Element ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two

Satisfied with himself that he would soon get the explanations he desired, Raziel pushed the doors of the time chamber. To his dismay, the doors were sealed shut.

A flicker of fear rose up within Raziel at the thought that he may be trapped within this era permanently. But that was when he realized his mistake. Above the set of doors was the `key' to his entrance. The strange gem, that when contacted with the element of light, would allow Raziel entrance to the chamber. Raziel returned to the previous chamber, where he had noticed a light forge beforehand.

As Raziel imbued the Reaver with the elemental power of light, the wraith blade seemed to take on a life of its own. The blade seemed to consume every bit of energy from the tiny forge, leaving nothing behind after its `feast'. Dismissing the strange turn of events for now, Raziel returned to the entrance of the time chamber with the imbued blade.

After taking careful aim, the released light energy collided with the gem, and the large metal doors began to tremble and groan under the force of its own weight. However, the doors were unable to provide Raziel access to the desired chamber of his destination. After several moments of struggle, the doors stilled to silence.

"It's true then," Raziel muttered to himself. "The doors are sealed shut, by some twist of fate. Either I am forever trapped in this time, or there has to be another way to travel through time."

Leaving the stronghold, Raziel noticed a slight change in the landscape from the last time he had looked upon the land. When at one time there had only been the one pass through the mountains to the stronghold, there now were two, though the second was much higher off the ground than the original pass, making it inaccessible from the ground. Hoping for the best, Raziel gave up his physical form and shifted into the spirit realm.

To his relief, the altered spectral realm created a ledge from which Raziel could reach the higher passageway. The former vampire made his way around a few bends before coming across a rift between the realms. After devouring a wandering soul, Raziel shifted back into the physical plane and continued his journey. To his surprise, this mountain path seemed abandoned. Apparently humans couldn't reach the high cliffs of the passageway, nor could the vampires of this time.

Upon rounding a final turn in the passageway, Raziel came upon a vast canyon in the mountain range. Not far in the distance, he could make out the outline of a small town. With night approaching, Raziel pressed onward, making his way to the town while he still had the light of day to guide him. As dusk settled, Raziel reached the edge of the town. Entering the village with no opposition, Raziel assumed its residents had turned in to the safety of their homes for the evening.

The former vampire slowly made his way through the small settlement, carefully studying his surroundings, and staying on his guard for adversaries. Once or twice, a human had appeared from one of the buildings of the town, but they seemed to not notice Raziel's presence and just continued on their way. Raziel continued forward through the town, not much perking his interest.

He made his way down the main road and left the town at the opposite side he made his entrance. As he left the town, Raziel noticed the road led to a narrow path in the cliff side. He continued on the path, but after rounding a turn, he noticed large boulders and rocks had blocked off the path. Obviously a rockslide of some sort had caused the obstruction. Unable to climb over the boulders, Raziel turned back towards the town. He knew he'd have to find someway to get through the path.

As Raziel reentered the town, a wisp of smoke caught his eye. He turned in the direction of the smoke, and came upon a strange doorway embedded in the side of a rock face. Above and beyond the door, the source of the smoke revealed itself: an extinct volcano. Looking back at the door, Raziel could see the image of the blue winged vampire that he had come to familiarize himself with, the image always present on the doorway to an elemental forge. Above the door was a symbol. The symbol was a design of circles. Two full circles in the middle were encompassed around the bottom half by three half circles. Above the center circles were three smaller circles, each of varying size.

Using the wrath blade, Raziel opened the door and ventured inside. The door then slid shut. After making his way down a long corridor, Raziel came to a large chamber. There were large stones in various places. High above the chamber was a small doorway. Obviously a puzzle of some sort, Raziel set to work placing the stones on one another. Setting them in strategic places on ledges within the room Raziel was eventually able to reach his goal.

Having finished the puzzle, Raziel found himself in the entranceway, however, the door that now stood before him could only be opened by light energy. Unfortunately, there wasn't a single light forge in the chamber. Sighing with defeat, Raziel turned from the door, when he noticed the wraith blade suddenly change appearance. Without having to be imbued by a forge, the reaver was able to manifest the element of light within itself.

`The wraith blade must have permanently absorbed the light element from that forge within the stronghold,' Raziel mused to himself in realization. `I can now summon the light element at my will.'

Turning back to the door, Raziel shot a ball of light energy at the door. The door willingly gave way to reveal a small chamber. Inside, was a large, but empty, forge on the ground in the same symbol Raziel had seen above the door to the forge. Above the forge, were several stalactites, seeming to be barely hanging on to the ceiling. Turning to the right, Raziel noticed an active air forge.

Knowing instantly what to do, Raziel began to imbue the wraith blade with the element of wind. As before with the light forge, the reaver took full control, absorbing all the air from this forge as well before releasing itself. If the same held true for the air element as did light, then Raziel would be able to summon this element at will as well. Determined to harness the power of the as of yet unknown element, Raziel aimed the wind-imbued reaver at the stalactites and released a force of energy. Upon doing so, the stalactites came crashing down into the forge, falling into each of the three circles within the symbol of the forge.

The result of the falling rock and debris caused the forge to begin to rumble. The trembling continued to grow to a point where Raziel could barely stand before the temors plateaued. Carefully making his way to the center of the forge, Raziel thrusted his wraith blade into the forge. The blade absorbed the power the forge had to off, greedily consuming its energy. Once accomplished, the reaver took on a darker, heavier appearance, though not as dark as the shadow element.

`Now imbued with the element of earth, I should be able to continue my journey through the passageway,' Raziel realized to himself. On that note, he left the Earth forge and returned to the boulder-blocked pathway. Now noticing the symbol of the earth element on the ground in front of the blockage, Raziel impaled the reaver into its center.

With a growing tremble, the boulders seemed to begin to move out of Raziel's way. Almost as if watching in reverse, the boulders began to lift themselves up along either side of the passage and rest at the top of the cliffs. As the last of the boulders freed itself from the path, Raziel removed the reaver from the symbol and continued on his way.