Fan Fiction ❯ The Soul Reaver and The Spirit Shield ❯ The Village of Ash ( Chapter 12 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter Twelve

Jenise jumped back, avoiding the attempted blow from the Sarafan priest. Tripping over a rock, she fell backwards onto her rear. She looked up with wide eyes as the priest hefted his sword high over his head. His aura glowing, Jenise could tell he was summoning glyph energy with which to strengthen his final blow. Before she could stop her attacker, the blade came down upon her.

At the last second, Jenise rolled to her left. The blade crashed down into the ground barely inches from her head. The Sarafan attempted to pull his blade back up into another attack, but found the blade stuck in the ground. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jenise kicked out across the back of the priest's ankles, causing his feet to sweep out from underneath him.

With her opponent on the ground, Jenise jumped back up to her feet. She reached for the sword's handle and with a fierce pull; she freed it from its lodged position. Turning her attention back to the priest, she was taken by surprise as his fist connected with her jaw. The force of the blow sent Jenise's head spinning to the right, taking the rest of her body with it. The priest grabbed Jenise from behind in a headlock, attempting to cut off her air supply until she passed out in an effort to subdue her. Jenise countered with several blows to the Sarafan's middle with her elbow.

Having knocked the wind out of the priest, Jenise freed herself from her assailant. The priest fell to his knees struggling to breathe. Still holding the sword with her right hand, Jenise used her free hand to soothe the forming bruises on her neck. She kept her eyes on her adversary, assuring he wouldn't attack her off guard again. Satisfied with her attempts at soothing the pain in her neck, she kicked the priest in the ribs, preventing his recovery.

Raziel had less difficulty with his opponents. Though they tried to double-team the reaver of souls, he was far stronger than anything they had ever fought before. Both Sarafan warriors wielded pole arms, giving them considerable reaching distance, but sacrificed their speed. Keeping the first Sarafan between himself and the second, Raziel was able to avoid a two-on-one brawl for the most part.

The first knight thrust his pole arm at Raziel, who easily dodged the attack. Raziel swung the Soul Reaver at the knight. The knight grunted in pain caused by the gash in his arm. The second Sarafan took the opportunity to attack Raziel, however, the attack was in vain. Raziel leapt out of the way and brought the Reaver down across the knight's back. The first knight had recovered somewhat, and had jabbed Raziel in the side with the end of his pole arm.

Raziel fell back a few steps, but was unfazed. The first Sarafan summoned up his glyph energy in an attempt to strike Raziel down. However, the former vampire easily dodged the slow attack. He swung the wraith blade at the knight. The blow resulted in the amputation of the Sarafan's arm. The second warrior decided to attempt a successful assault. He swung his weapon at Raziel, but his weakened condition left him vulnerable to attack. Raziel disposed of him quickly.

Turning his attention back to the previous Sarafan, Raziel noticed that the loss of blood from his wound left him staggering in place. Raziel did him the courtesy of easing his suffering. Impaling the Sarafan with the wraith blade, Raziel released the knight's soul. Needing to heal his wounds, Raziel devoured the souls of the Sarafan warriors. With his foes defeated, he looked over to Jenise to see how she was faring.

Despite a few bruises, Jenise seemed to be fairing well. She had successfully disarmed her assailant, who was on his hands and knees struggling to breathe. Raziel noticed that Jenise had a murderous glint in her eyes. Her devoid of emotion, she stared unblinking at her opponent. Slowly, she brought the sword high above her head. Before the priest could see what fate was in store for him, Jenise brought the sword down upon him. In one clean swipe, she decapitated her victim. As the Sarafan's head rolled away, his body fell to the ground with a quiet thump.

Raziel was almost shocked at her brutality. It sunk in how rough Jenise's life must have been to have created such a brutal killing instinct within her. She stood stoically in place, staring at the body of her fallen opponent as if it would jump up and attack her again. With the heat of the battle still fresh in her mind, she seemed cut off to the world around her. The reaver of souls was actually beginning to be a bit spooked by her silent stature. Almost as if to reassure himself more than Jenise, he tried to pull her from her trance. Walking up next to Jenise, Raziel spoke to her.

"Jenise, he's de-" he began as he placed his hand on her left shoulder. The sudden contact caused Jenise to unexpectantly jump. She instinctively lunged at the intrusion. Unfortunately for Raziel, he was the source. Jenise shoved Raziel back a few paces with her left elbow. With her right hand she raised the sword in preparation for attack. Raziel was shocked when he looked into her eyes. There was no sign of recognition within them.

"Jenise!" Raziel yelled in a panic when she began to thrust the sword in an attack. Jenise jerked to a stop in mid-swing at the call of her name. She blinked a few times as she seemed to regain control of her senses. Opening her eyes, she looked down at her right hand, still wielding the sword. She looked up at Raziel, confusion in her eyes. Looking back down at the blade in her hand, realization finally hit.

"My God!" she blurted in shock as she dropped the sword. The Sarafan weapon hit the ground with a metallic `twank'. "I…I'm sorry, Raziel…I have to go…" Jenise stuttered as she turned to walk away.

"Jenise! Wait! Where are you going?" Raziel ran in front of the departing priestess, preventing her departure.

"Away from you. Not because of you, but because of me. I was about to attack you, Raziel, and I didn't even realize it. What's to say it won't happen again?"

"So what if you did? You couldn't kill me anyway. If you were able to injure me badly enough, I would just dissipate into the spectral realm and I'd just have to manifest myself back into the material realm. You'd only succeed in pissing me off. And then you'd wish you could rematerialize to the physical world," Raziel joked. Jenise grinned slightly at the humor before sighing in defeat.

"I don't suppose you'd let me leave on my own anyway, right?" she gave in.

"And let you rampage across Nosgoth killing everyone in your path? An entertaining thought, but we do have Mobius and the Sarafan Lord to deal with," Raziel brought the situation back to reality.

"Alright. Then where to boss?"

"I was thinking we should pay Mobius a visit. I'm sure he's hidden himself deep within the Sarafan stronghold like the sniveling coward he is," Raziel suggested.

"Then we're off," stated Jenise as she began walking along the path headed to the resting ground of her fallen village.

"Aren't you going to take a weapon? We most certainly will encounter more Sarafan. You will need something to arm yourself in combat with."

"Yes, but not any of those weapons," Jenise explained, not stopping. Raziel followed close behind. "Those are Sarafan weapons. They have been enchanted by the strange glyph energy the Sarafan Lord possesses. They are useless to me."

Raziel nodded, though he still did not understand why Jenise would pass up a perfectly good weapon, causing her to be vulnerable to attack. They quietly made their way to Jenise's village. Jenise paused a moment, taking in the site of destruction. The two slowly walked down the main road through the town. Jenise suddenly stopped and bent over to pick up a sign. The wooden sign was slightly charred from the fires, but was still legible. Raziel looked over Jenise's shoulder, curious as to what she was holding.

"Village of Nochton," the former vampire read aloud. Jenise nodded.

"When my village was first established, the founders of the village named it after the city of their origin: Nochtholm. Nochtholm was attacked by a vampire. Not so coincidentally, it was the very Kain that you spoke of earlier who had infiltrated the city's defenses. The founders of Nochton fled the city during Kain's raid. They were on their way to the stronghold when they discovered this canyon.

"Feeling that the natural terrain was excellent protection from vampires, the founders built their village here. Soon, others who were seeking refuge from the vampires fled to this village. They felt safe with the Sarafan stronghold in such close proximity. Only once during Nochton's 350 years was it ever attacked by vampires."

Finishing her story, Jenise dropped the sign and turned towards one of the ruined buildings. Raziel followed silently, but curiously. The foundation and a few support beams were all that was left of the buildling, aside from some ash and charred debris. Making their way back to the shop, Raziel noted by the equipment inside that this building had once belonged to a blacksmith.

Jenise stopped when she reached the far back corner of the building. Before her, was a large wooden case. It too, had been damaged by the fires, but remained in tact for the most part. Prying open the door, Jenise revealed a few finely crafted swords. Any weapons that had been left out during the village's destruction had been obviously pilfered by the Sarafan.

Jenise reached into the case and selected a weapon. The priestess held the sword of choice up, assessing its strengths and weaknesses. It was a bit narrower than normal, giving the wielder more flexibility. However, if poorly crafted, it would snap easily. Fortunately, Jenise could tell that a lot of time and care went into the forging of this weapon. The sword itself was constructed of the finest metal available. The blade had been molded to perfection. Jenise knew this sword was a keeper.

Turning to Raziel, she spoke, "Okay, I'm armed now. Is it safe to proceed now?"

Raziel silently nodded as Jenise left the crippled ruins of the building. Before following, Raziel quickly grabbed a weapon for himself, although he didn't take the time to examine his sword like Jenise had hers. `Just in case,' he thought to himself as he caught up to his partner in combat.

Raziel and Jenise left the village behind them without so much as a glance back. They made good time crossing the canyon to the rock face where the path to the stronghold was located high above. The two warriors stopped about ten feet from the bottom of the cliff, looking upward, examining the obstacle in their path.

"So how was it that the villagers scaled this cliff?" Raziel inquired. Jenise rolled her eyes as if the answer was obvious.

"We had ladders, you know," she rudely remarked. "Something we don't have now. Have any ideas?"

"Maybe," Raziel stated. "Stand back." Jenise backed up about ten paces. Raziel dropped the sword he had recently acquired and summoned the Soul Reaver. Calling upon the element of earth, he took aim at the cliff wall. He released several balls of energy at the rock surface. As each sphere crashed into the wall, pieces of rock and dirt fell loose.

After releasing a dozen or so blasts in various locations up the cliff wall, Raziel picked up the long sword he had set on the ground, as he waited for the dust to settle. Jenise waited patiently, wondering what Raziel's intent had been. After several long moments, the clouds of dust began to break up. Revealed through the dirt, was the transformed surface of the rock wall. Where the blasts had made contact with the wall, grooves had been created for which to scale the wall.

"Do you think you'll be able to climb that? Or should I have to carry you?" Raziel queried, turning towards Jenise. A smirk spread across her face.

"If you can climb it, then so can I," she retorted, as she sheathed her sword. Raziel leapt upward and clung to the wall. Getting a good grip, he began his ascent. Jenise watched intently as he easily made his way upward. Once he was halfway up, Jenise approached the wall. Grabbing hold, she too began her climb.

Raziel quickly reached the pinnacle. He turned and looked down to make sure Jenise didn't need any help. And that's what Raziel discovered. The priestess needed no assistance at all. She climbed the wall almost as easily as he had. Raziel hadn't seen anything other than himself scale a wall that easily since his visit to the Silent Cathedral where Zephon had built his nest.

With a final heave, Jenise pulled herself over the edge of the cliff. Dusting herself off, she rose to her feet and gave Raziel a triumphant glance. The reaver of souls merely turned away, and began heading towards the stronghold. Jenise ignored the fact that Raziel was pretending to be unimpressed. She knew he didn't expect her to climb to the top without his help.

Raziel and Jenise quickly traveled the high path towards the stronghold. Jenise could feel her adrenaline rise in anticipation of battle. Revenge was still priority in her mind. Rounding the last few turns in the path, the stronghold was revealed at last to Raziel and Jenise through the opening in the cliffs. They stopped at the end of the passageway, looking down at the unsuspecting edifice below.

The stronghold was the representation of betrayal to Jenise. The priestess glared downward at the building that had been her home for several years of her life. Soon, she would have vengeance for the death of her people.