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Dark Chronicle - Chapter Twenty - Full Circle

The Sarafan Inquisitor is defeated, and as he staggers, Raziel runs him through with the Reaver. Transfixed on the blade, Sarafan Raziel chokes and gasps as his lifeblood is drained from his body. Face to face in this deadly embrace, Raziel curses his former self with the solemnity of an oath -

Raziel: (with revulsion and finality)
I renounce you.

Sarafan Raziel:
(Gasping and dying)

The Sarafan Inquisitor collapses to the floor, and the Reaver blade slides free of his body.

Raziel: (quietly, to himself)
And so it ends. My history comes full circle.

As Raziel stands over the corpse of his former self, the wraith-blade begins to manifest, its power gradually returning. Raziel watches in growing alarm as the wraith-blade abandons its symbiotic grip on his arm, and coils itself around its twin - its former, physical self - instead.

Raziel V.O.:
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...

Thus joined, the twinned Reavers turn on Raziel - with the blade still bound to his hand, Raziel is dragged helplessly as the Reaver exerts its own will. Raziel struggles, but is powerless to resist the blades as they turn inexorably toward him.

Raziel V.O.: (a horrible epiphany)
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 Reaver plunges toward Raziel and impales him. His eyes widen in agony, despair and recognition -

Raziel V.O.:
... 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.

Raziel falls to his knees, transfixed by the Reaver. His hand, still bound to the blade, forms a perverse vicious-circle as his soul is gradually but relentlessly drained away, absorbed slowly and torturously into the Reaver. Raziel strains against the blade, trying vainly to escape this horrible fate.
At this moment, Kain reveals himself, stepping out from the shadows of the Chapter House. Raziel sees him, and immediately believes he has been betrayed - that this is a trap set by Kain himself.
Overcome with rage and agony, Raziel accuses Kain -

Raziel:
You!

Kain approaches, watching Raziel with intense fascination. Raziel cries out in anguish -

Raziel:
Are you enjoying this, Kain?!

Kain: (intense)
Don't fight it, Raziel...
Give in to it...

Raziel: (in agony)
Was this your destiny for me, all along?!

Kain urges him intently -

Kain:
Trust me...

Raziel's strength is fading; he begins to collapse.

Raziel V.O.:
I felt myself weakening... unable to hold on any longer.
The Reaver was too strong... the compulsion to simply let go too great...

Out of strength, Raziel surrenders his will. As he nears the brink of oblivion, a fluttering distortion tangibly begins, and Raziel approaches a dawning revelation -

Raziel V.O.:
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 lunges forward - and with a massive, history-defying effort, tears the Reaver from Raziel's chest.

Raziel:
(Screams in agony)

The Reaver flies across the room, and the wraith-blade flickers and fades as it is separated from its twin. Raziel falls forward, rescued from the threshold of oblivion, but nearly completely drained.

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

Gradually, the room begins to warp around them as history strains to find a new course around this new obstruction. As the future reshuffles itself, a look of horror slowly dawns on Kain's face. With new memories blooming in his mind, Kain realizes he may have just made a terrible mistake.

Raziel V.O.:
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.

Then the reshuffling begins to settle, as history finds its new course. But the horror on Kain's face remains, as he realizes what price has been paid to restore Raziel's future.

Kain: (quiet, awestruck horror)
My god... the Hylden...
... we walked right into their trap...

Then, with a sudden realization, Kain tries to warn Raziel -

Kain:
Raziel! Janos must stay dead!

But Raziel, drained almost to the point of annihilation, is losing consciousness. He falls to his knees, and begins to waver out of existence as he sinks into the spectral plane.

Raziel V.O.: (ominously)
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.