Castlevania, Lords of Shadow

Domain of Dracul

Ch.1: Heir Apparent

-Present day, December 12, 2015. Somewhere dark…-

Matthias Roderick was utterly terrified. He was not by any means a coward and enjoyed a good horror movie as much as the next college student. True he'd never before known the very real terror of having his life threatened, which was understandable considering he attended classes in a very respectable part of his home in Wygol City, but it could easily be said of him that he had a reasonable measure of bravery.

But all of the bravery in the world is given pause by the fear of the unknown, without any exceptions. And right now Matthias found himself being forcibly led (at the point of what seemed to be a sword, no less) through a dark and foreboding hallway in a structure that could have been a large crumbling estate, and the thing he was being led by happened to be some sort of monstrous knight with vaguely humanoid proportions. And finally, Matthias had been descending the stairs to a subway station on his way back to campus after catching a late night movie showing, only to find himself in a spacious entrance hall when he reached the bottom, at which point his escort had come to direct him.

With all of the above taken into consideration, it's quite understandable then that Matthias was terrified.

"Where are you taking me?" Matthias asked in what he hoped was a steady voice. His escort lightly prodded him in the back with the tip of its sword by way of answer, causing Matthias to yelp and scoot forward a few paces at greater speed.

"Sssilence!" the creature hissed. "His lordship is not to be kept waiting by your petty questions, human!" Matthias was contemplating the pros and cons of a witty and sarcastic reply, specifically whether or not such a reply would get his head separated from his shoulders, when they reached a set of double-doors.

Of course these weren't any old doors: they went all the way from the floor to the ceiling twenty feet above it, and were both about ten feet wide. The doors were composed of black wood inlaid with silver metal twisted into ornate patterns of serpentine creatures and leather wings. There were many other mundane yet menacing details that contributed to the appearance of the doors, but rising above all of them was the atmosphere that they exuded: the entire thing seemed to scream 'dread portal of eldritch horrors; abandon all hope, ye who enters here' at Matthias' very core, and it very nearly turned his legs to jelly.

And then it opened. With many sudden creaks and that dreadful, suspense generating slowness seen in most horror movies the doors began to swing outwards, and of course there was no-one to be found on the other side pushing against them to supply the force necessary to instill the dreadful panels with movement. The doorway yawned open like the maw of a terrible fiend, and Matthias once again felt his escort give him a subtle nudge of incentive to start moving again. Hoping that he hadn't soiled himself (for his extremities had gone too numb to be able to tell), Matthias obediently shuffled forward and entered into the chamber beyond.

Moonlight filtered in through the many high windows, and everywhere he looked Matthias saw the dreadful gothic architecture of gargoyles, fallen angels, and other creepy works of stone that he'd seen throughout the rest of the hallway but had been too terrified to notice up until that point. He appeared to be in some sort of audience chamber judging by the size of the room and the grandeur of the black stone pillars, tapestries, braziers burning with eerie blue flames and the blood red carpeting beneath his feet. Although really the first clue that Matthias had picked up on was the throne situated at the top of a small flight of stairs set back in the center of the chamber. He only took in the jagged shapes and twisted black metal of the throne in his peripheral vision: his attention was squarely reserved for the figure lounging upon the throne, sitting just outside the moonlight so that their features were obscured in shadow.

Matthias barely heard the doors close behind him with a dreadfully final boom as his escort stepped up to the foot of the stairs before bending at the knee in a respectful bow. "My liege, I have brought the human as you commanded." It rasped in a reverent tone.

"The obvious thanks you for acknowledging it," the figure on the throne replied in bored sarcasm. Matthias' eyes narrowed: why did that voice sound so very familiar? "And what of the other terms of my command?" the figures tone grew accusatory. "That the humans were to be brought to me without being mistreated?" The escort tensed slightly from where it remained bowed on one knee, and Matthias felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as something in the room seemed to be stirring—squirming really—in anticipation.

Then the figure on the throne stood, and Matthias felt an irrational impulse to mimic his escort and get down on one knee. He also felt a very rational impulse to run away as fast as his legs could carry him, as well as an unexpected yet still rational suspicion that he should start praying, even though he was not overly religious. His escort remained silent, though Matthias could imagine that it was probably licking its lips nervously or struggling to come up with a good excuse.

Then the figure stepped into the moonlight, and everything that Matthias had been feeling up to that point was rudely kicked aside by a combination of surprise, joyous relief, and confusion. "Adrian?" he blurted out. "You're alright! Where've you..? What in the bloody hell?!"

The man (or rather, the human-in-appearance entity) stepping down the stairs to the throne with all of the casual airs of one who not only has all the time in the world, but acquired it all at a bargain price, looked very much like Matthias' best friend since high school, Adrian Andreas, aside from several key differences. For one thing, Adrian was supposed to have a pleasant peachy complexion, not skin as smooth and unblemished as porcelain that was steadily paling. His fingers should have ended in slightly chewed nails, not short black claws. His hair should have been neck-length messy locks of a dirty blond persuasion, not shoulder-length blond that bordered on platinum blond. The Adrian Matthias knew owned one modest dinner jacket; certainly not the jet black dress-shirt and trousers combo or the elegant white overcoat embroidered with blue and gold threads that this look-almost-alike wore. And Adrian certainly didn't have eyes that were black where the whites should be and gold where the blues should be. It was as though some artist had taken the features of his missing for a month best friend and decided to redraw him as…

Adrian paused in his descent from the throne and sniffed the air. His eyes narrowed in a mixture of suspicion and simpering anger before he suddenly vanished in a cloud of dark red and black mist and reappeared just as suddenly behind Matthias, his upper torso bent to the side slightly as he peered at something on Matthias' back, his expression twisting into that displeased frown that sends a signal to entities of the lackey persuasion. In this case, the signals translated to 'I am not amused and someone is going to royally get it.'

"You've got a spot of dark red seeping into the back of your shirt," Adrian observed stiffly, his voice somehow causing the temperature to drop a few degrees. "Blood, unless I miss my guess, and seeing as I am now something of an expert on blood…" Now he leveled a full-bodied glare at the knight. "I believe I shall have to hurt you now. Seeing as we're short on numbers, I can't afford to get carried away," the casualness in his voice was bone chilling as Matthias watched him stroll over to the still kneeling knight, whom by now was visibly shaking in fear. "All the same, the lesson must be effective if I'm to keep from seeing you repeat this monumental blunder. I was certain I stressed how important the finer details of the order were…"

"In no uncertain terms, my-" The remainder of the creatures reply was drowned out by bloodcurdling screams. Matthias took a few steps back more out of awe than out of fear. He'd seen Adrian dig his claws into his own palm, and from the points of contact his own blood had surged out in ribbons to form a shadowy whip, which Adrian had then wrapped around the full length of the knights body with a single practiced flick of the wrist. Adrian stood a moment watching the knight thrash about in pain, giving the whip a tug every now and then when the creature's screams began to die down in order to renew them. After a minute or two Adrian flicked his wrist again and the whip vanished, leaving the knight to collapse upon the floor, its breath ragged as its body quaked in pain.

"That should do for now," Adrian muttered as he began to walk back up the stairs towards the throne. "Next time take greater pains to follow my order to the letter when I tell you it's important, or greater pains will be taken upon you."

"I repeat: what in the bloody hell?" Matthias gaped. "Adrian, you're standing here turning into mist and makin' whips outta your blood and ordering monsters around, and you expect me to just watch quietly?"

Adrian smiled (Matthias took note: fangs) and replied, "Of course I don't, in fact I'm amazed you went as long as you did without saying anything. I'd just prefer to save the explanation until…" he trailed off and looked at something over Matthias' shoulder. "Ah, there they are."

Matthias spun around to see a group of familiar faces being lead (more gently than he had been) by an entire platoon of monster knights. There was timid Riley Summers, her thick glasses reflecting the moonlight as she shivered in fear. Next to her was Charlotte Fairweather, one arm draped protectively over Riley's shoulder as she took in the throne room and tried to keep her expression from showing any more fear than it already was. Eric Mason and Jonathan Dunbar brought up the lead, both of the young men on guard for any further signs of danger despite being unarmed and unable to retaliate. Trailing behind the girls was Lucius Castellan, his expression a carefully schooled mask of neutrality as he scanned the room with intelligent eyes; Matthias could practically hear the wheels in his head turning as he brushed a stray lock of oily black hair out of his face and briefly settled his gaze on Matthias before glancing over at Adrian, one eyebrow arching inquisitively.

"Well, this is certainly unexpected," Lucius began calmly. "Here we are wondering where we are and what are escorts are, not to mention how we could have gotten here, and now we've been lead to a throne room where our missing friend Adrian is waiting to receive us like some king. I don't suppose we should bow, should we?"

"Guard your tongue, human!" hissed one of the knights, only for Adrian to wave it off dismissively and smile at Lucius.

"I had missed that arsenic tongue of yours, Lucius. You don't have to bow, but you may want to have a seat… can we get some chairs for my guests?" A half-dozen knights appeared in a cloud of black smoke, each holding high-backed wooden chairs that looked like they belonged in a nobleman's dining room as they each were set down in a line just at the foot of the stairs to the throne. The knights then gave a synchronized waist-length bow to Adrian, who gave them a quick "thank you" before they vanished the way they came. "Please, sit," Adrian insisted as he himself sat back on his throne. "I've got quite a story to tell you all."

"Mind telling us where the hell we are first?" Jonathan asked as they were seated. "Last time I checked, there wasn't an old crumbling castle inside the gym's locker room."

Eric sniffed the air lightly and then wrinkled his face in slight disgust. "Ugh, I thought someone smelled like adrenaline and sweat around here."

Adrian chuckled lightly. "Apologies for that: I told my servants to bring you to me right away without mistreating you, although it would seem that only most of them were listening properly," he shot a dark glare at the knight that had brought Matthias in, whom was still breathing heavily while it stood at attention with the other escorts. "As to where we are, well… you've all heard the rumors that Wygol City was built upon the ruins of an ancient castle, right?"

"Vaguely," Eric mused uncertainly. "Something about the stronghold of a tyrant who was so terrible that the people who lived in that age were sure that he must be a demon or a vampire, or something like that."

"And that's where we are now?" Charlotte asked in a tone that made plain her reluctance to believe such a thing. "But this castle doesn't look ruined," she paused before adding, "well not completely at any rate, and if the city's built on its foundations, how can there be moonlight? Shouldn't we be, I dunno, underground?" Adrian smiled, and Charlotte felt herself blush as she found her eyes drawn to his face. He hadn't exactly been hard to look at before he disappeared a month ago, but she didn't remember ever having found her friend so… mesmerizing as she did now. Next to her Riley was fidgeting in her seat as she found herself similarly spellbound by the change in Adrian's appearance.

"The castles physical remains have indeed been built over to make way for Wygol City," Adrian answered. "But the castles spiritual presence is as much a physical realm as the ground where it once stood. Where we are now is something between a memory and an illusion of the castle that housed the dreaded prince of darkness, but the dark forces that inhabited it seeped into the very stone and cobbles, anchoring its existence and creating this shadow realm. Here the castle sleeps, awaiting the return and command of its master so that it may once again rise from the earth and serve as his domain."

"B-but why are you here?" Riley squeaked. "W-where have y-you been th-this past month? And how I-is it that the m-monsters listen to you?"

Adrian sat back in his throne, eyes lightly shut. "About a month ago I was on my way back to campus one night after my monthly visit to the orphanage I grew up in; to assure the caretakers that I was doing all right." He frowned slightly. "I was on my way to a bus stop when I felt something odd that I couldn't quite place. There seemed to be something calling to me from somewhere beneath my feet, something insistent and desperate for me to hear it. Then I began to hear voices in my head, whispering to me and begging me to return somewhere. I felt dizzy and blacked out before long, and when I woke up I was here, seated upon this very throne." Adrian's eyes opened, and there was now a ghost of a smile about his lips.

"My presence was soon noticed by the creatures that still inhabit this memory of the castle, and they attacked me. Having no way to fight back, I was soon stabbed through the heart and found myself bleeding out on the floor." Riley gasped and covered her mouth with her hands; Eric and Jonathan both turned pale while a look of horror darkened Charlotte's expression. Lucius remained impassive, merely steepling his fingers together and leaning forward slightly while Matthias simply put two and two together.

"And then ya turned into a vampire and had a drink, didn't ya?" Matthias said at last, earning some startled looks from the others.

"Indeed." Adrian responded evenly. "The castle touched a part of my soul that had been dormant all of my life, and I went from living to undead before using my attackers to quench my thirst." Adrian smiled pleasantly, taking care not to show his teeth while most of his guests shifted in discomfort. "I spent the next twelve days or so bringing the rest of the castle's inhabitant's in-line. I was confused as hell at first, but then I discovered a room just behind my throne," he thumped the barrister of his throne lightly for emphasis. "Contained within it was a sort of enchanted journal, one that automatically chronicles the deeds and even the very memories of the castles master. Upon perusing its pages I learned where I was, and more importantly: who I once was."

Adrian drew himself up to his full-height while remaining seated upon the throne. "I am the Lord of Shadows reborn. I am the master of this castle and all who dwell within it. I am the ruler of all the foul things of this earth that go bump in the night. I am he who once gave even the Lord of Lies himself reason for fear! Eu sunt, Dracul!" The knights flanking the room all gave horrible roars of triumph and adulation, while the very air appeared to thrum with a dark and menacing force that seemed to press in upon the humans from all sides with a terrible weight.

Lucius frowned. "I'm vaguely certain that was Latin. I don't suppose you know what he said just now, Riley?" he asked the mousey brown-haired girl.

"I-it means 'I am the dragon,'" Riley answered after a moment of contemplation. Matthias noted that Adrian's expression fell for a moment, and wondered if Adrian himself had been looking forward to explaining his declaration. "B-but," Riley continued, "t-that w-was less Latin and m-more Romanian. A-and in Romanian it means… it means…" Riley shivered and shot Adrian a fearful look as she squeaked out: "'I'm the devil.'"

The roars of the knights died down and left the room as silent as a tomb. The six humans seated before Adrian were kept silent by a mixture of dread and worry, unsure of just how much their friend had changed since becoming a vampire. Even Matthias was somewhat disturbed by the translation of the statement his best friend had just made so proudly.

Finally Adrian broke the silence. "A little over one thousand years ago, people had a good reason for calling the time period they lived in 'the dark ages.' Wicked men with wicked hearts summoned vile demons to this plane of existence to gain dominance over their rivals, and with the demons came the foul influences of hell. Monstrous beings bred and propagated in the dark places of the world, and in time a great horde came forth such as has never again been seen on this good earth. Forget men living in fear of one-another: this is why all humans are hardwired with a supposedly 'irrational' fear of the dark: at the time, having that fear offered you at least ten extra seconds of life."

Adrian paused in his narration to allow his words to sink in. "I note that none of you seem to doubt me on this, despite how radical my claims are."

"Well, I saw you make a whip out of your own blood to discipline one of your knights for being rough with me," Matthias pointed out.

"He did what with his what?" Charlotte asked in shock.

"There's also your change in appearance to consider," Lucius said evenly. "Along with the creatures and our sudden arrival here. All things considered, I think that denying the realness of anything going on here would only be a waste of time." He turned to his fellow humans. "I think all of this is real, what do all of you think?"

"I wish it wasn't, but I'm uncomfortably sure it is," Jonathan replied while gripping the armrests on his seat, knuckles turning white.

"You've got your answer: we believe ya' already," Matthias quipped. "Now get on with the story, I know you're using it to lead up to something."

Adrian smiled pleasantly before continuing. "The remains of an ancient warrior order, possibly the Knights Templar, and the reigning Church came together under three great founders to create the Brotherhood of Light. They vowed to stand between humanity and the darkness of the night, and fought tirelessly to rid the world of evil. To obtain a great power with which to counter evil, the three founders of the order shed their mortal bodies to ascend as pure spirits, second in power only to God himself, and for a time it seemed the Brotherhood would triumph." Adrian scowled darkly, and it seemed that doing so caused the flames in the braziers to flicker as if caught in a sudden wind.

"But that time of peace was uncomfortably short. For in ascending as pure spirits, the founders left behind all of the darkness that clung to their souls, darkness which inhabited the bodies they left behind. So while three pure spirits were born, that time also saw the rise of three monsters known as the Lords of Shadow: Cornell the father of the lycans, Carmilla the queen of the vampires, and Zobek the lord of the necromancers. From these three came the werewolves, vampires and wretched undead as they are known in various forms of fiction. The Lords of Shadow covered the world in a second dark age, ruling over mankind with terror and death as their enforcers. As if things weren't bad enough, the lord of the dead Zobek cast a spell that divided heaven from earth: all who died could never ascend to heaven and were doomed to wander the earth as lost souls for all eternity."

Adrian paused once more, and Charlotte noticed a subtle change in his bearing. She had always had a knack for reading others, and though he was putting up a strong facade of confidence, she could see sorrow and regret seeping into Adrian's eyes. "Into this dark and terrible night rode a champion of the Brotherhood. His weapon was a unique retractable metal whip known as a Combat Cross. His driving purpose was to free the soul of his wife who had been brutally murdered a year prior, and to end the reign of the Lords of Shadow. His name… was Gabriel Belmont." The soft, almost reverent undertone in his voice was not lost on any of the humans. "In another life, I was that man. As Gabriel Belmont, I fought against the Lords of Shadow, chasing a desperate prophecy that he who slays the Lords of Shadow shall have God's power to bring back the dead. Gabriel Belmont destroyed Cornell and Carmilla, but when he left to destroy the lord of necromancers he was betrayed by one of his allies, who had actually been Zobek all along, manipulating Gabriel into destroying the other lords so that he might obtain the godly power. Yet even he was a pawn, manipulated by Satan himself."

"Satan?" Matthias said in disbelief. "As in… Satan?"

"Satan, Lucifer, the Fallen One, take your pick," Adrian snapped irritably, a corona of dark red flames wreathing his body as his temper flared. "May I continue?" Matthias nodded mutely, and the rest of his friends let out sighs of relief as Adrian composed himself and the ethereal flames died out. "As I was saying, Satan himself escaped hell and attempted to steal the godly power Gabriel sought, but after a mighty battle Gabriel defeated him and sent him back to the pit. In doing so Gabriel broke the spell separating heaven and earth, freeing the lost souls and ending the reign of darkness. But the power of God that he had sought could only allow him to see his beloved wife as if through the eyes of God himself: it could do nothing to restore her to life."

Adrian paused once again. Charlotte found herself short of breath: were those tears in his eyes? "W-what happened then?" Riley asked timidly. "What became of G-Gabriel?"

In an instant Adrian's gaze became as hard as steel. "Without his wife, without hope for rebuilding his destroyed life, Gabriel had nothing left. A young vampire who had shown him mercy during his quest contacted him, begging for his help to prevent the emergence of a powerful daemon that had been imprisoned by a seal tied to the life-force of the three founders of the Brotherhood of Light. In doing this for her, Gabriel was forced to become a vampire and defeated the daemon by stealing its own powers from it. The castle in which the daemon had been summoned and then sealed grew sentient and took Gabriel Belmont as its master, tying itself to his soul and life-force. Embittered at the world and angered by the fate that God had orchestrated for him, Gabriel became the new Lord of Shadow; a tyrant known as Dracula."

"And somehow," Lucius asked quietly, "you are Dracula reborn? How?"

"As master of this castle, Dracula could never be permanently defeated," Adrian explained. "Only his physical body could be destroyed, and it took the two mightiest warriors of the Brotherhood to accomplish this, one of whom did not survive the encounter. But then the castle called out to its master, lacing its dark power with his own until it rose again from the earth, a resurrected Dracula seated upon its throne. About nine hundred years ago, the Brotherhood launched a desperate assault against Dracula's domain with all the strength it could muster." Adrian's expression turned bitter. "With the help of a traitorous vampire, the Brotherhood managed to slay Dracula's body. He would have been resurrected a decade or two later, but in their desperation the Brotherhood of Light had banded together with virtually every known religious order in the world. United, the faiths of mankind managed to sever the connection between Dracula's soul and his castle, breaking his resurrection cycle and reducing him to a wandering soul, unable to be claimed by either heaven or hell. And for centuries Dracula's soul haunted the earth, unable to return to life without the aid of his slumbering castle."

Adrian suddenly burst into laughter. It was no different from any of the other times Matthias and the others had heard him laugh, but something about his laughter now sent chills down their spines. "But then… but then the wickedness of humanity compelled some of them to seek his return, either to gain favor with dark forces or for other equally stupid reasons. Regardless, they enlisted the aid of a certain necromancer, and with his assistance they were able to cause Dracula's soul to be reborn in the body of a human." Adrian proudly laid a hand over his heart. "Me. When I met you all I was a normal human being. My birth mother may have been a cultist who offered herself up to allow Dracula to be reborn through her womb, but besides all of that I would have gone on to be a normal human; provided I left Wygol City before the castle buried beneath it recognized my soul. But now that it has… I am the new Dracula."

No-one dared to say a word for several tense moments. Finally, it was Matthias who broke it, and he did so by giving voice to the thought no-one wanted to say aloud. "So… what happens now?"