The Return of...Abaddon? Ch.1
Author's Note: I was just thinking after I beat Abbadon for the first time that it was pretty pathetic to have such an easy second to last boss. It felt as if there should have been a round 2, and this story took form.
Setting: One month after Dawn of Sorrow. It's night and it takes place in the city.
Note: I know the Castlevania section isn't exactly thriving with reviews, but I need at least four or five to keep me going.
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Soma hadn't known exactly what to think when the rather ridiculously clothed figure of Abbadon stepped in front of him once again. Not that he'd had the time to do so, considering that a swarm of flesh eating locusts were already charging at him. Acting out of the reflex he had developed being attacked time and time again in both Dracula's and Celia's castle, he quickly called upon the soul of Aguni to burn through the cloud of insects. Abaddon smiled as his opponent took a ready stance and produced Claimh Solais out of thin air.
"You p-p-plan to use the h-h-holy sword on m-m-me?,"Abaddon chortled.
Soma blinked in surprise, did Abaddon just...speak? Abaddon's voice was high pitched, rather like a girlish squeal, or more likely a cricket's song. His throat struggled to form understandable sound, but the words were strangely clear.
Soma had just been walking home from Mina's when the rapid beating of wings caught his attention. At first he shrugged it off as some kind of bird and continued walking home, struggling to convince himself it was not the exact sound of something he'd heard in the castle. And then, just like that, the purple suited Abaddon walked up to him in the empty street, twirling his baton and looking pleased with himself (itself?).
"Excuse me for asking, but could you speak the first time?"
Abaddon beat his wings angrily and the locust swarm followed suit, making a deafening simultaneous noise. Even so, Abaddon spoke over the crw
"You were p-powerful. You destroyed m-m-me m-minutes into our b-b-battle. However, I acquired the gift of speech...r-r-r-recently."
"So you've come to fight me again? What is the reason? Revenge? Pride?"
"N-n-no. I understand full well that I c-c-cannot gain my Lord Dracula's p-p-power by defeating you, but I can use other m-m-methods to bend you to my w-w-will."
Soma didn't know why, but he suddenly felt tense. If Abaddon was an intelligent creature and seemed sure enough that Soma would be defeated to put himself in danger, then Soma had reason enough to be wary, especially since Abaddon also knew he would soon face the Belmont and Belnades families, not to mention the entire church. Abaddon must have been sensed either Arikado or the Belnades Clan coming for him already.
"Ok then, my next question...how do you expect to defeat me? You were one of my weakest foes, it surprised me to see that you had a complicated seal to be locked in."
Abaddon didn't answer. Instead, he unbuttoned his suit and hundreds of locusts flew out, and the ones hovering around Abaddon took up the Demon Conductor's desired formation, the 'waterfall'.
Soma had been prepared for a sneak attack, and called upon the soul of Mandragora to aid him as it did the last time he fought Abaddon. Unfortunately, the moment it left Soma's hands, it burst into red flames. Soma was surprised by the impact and pushed back into a metal street pole. Ignoring the dilerium, he focused his eyes on Abaddon and ...Dario?
Abaddon laughed and retracted his locust swarm.
"Does t-t-that answer your q-question?"
Soma felt the back of his head for damage. Finding none, he stood straight and readied the Claimh Solais once again.
"Dario, how did you regain your powers? I thought-"
"-that because Aguni was sealed, Dario lost his powers?",Abaddon finished.
Suddenly, Soma noticed something very odd about Dario. His eyes were all white and his skin was pale and a bit greenish at the same time, and his jacket was torn to shreds and face unshaven. It looked as if Dario was possessed by an untidy demon. But that wasn't what was so odd about Dario.
"Why isn't he speaking?"
"D-d-dario, he asked you a question. Why don't you answer h-h-him?"
Dario took his hands and placed them in his mouth. Slowly, he pried open his jaw with shaking fingers. Inside, there were a swarm of locusts and larvae nesting on his tongue. One of the locusts was actually using its (arms?) to try and force Dario's mouth back shut.
"That answers his possession. But his powers..."
Abaddon smiled,"That was actually the simple part. All I did w-w-was have my locusts consume a few d-d-dozen Ukobacks and a Flame Demon and keep their souls captive inside my locusts. The hard part was finding Dario, but when I-I-I did, I forced those locusts into his body and ordered them to r-r-r-release the souls they had c-c-captive. Since Dario was the almost Dark Lord, he could handle the souls of fire. Unfortunately for him though, he has lost all control and is as much of a p-p-puppet to me as any of my l-locusts."
"And you plan to use him to neutralize my Mandragora..."
"Yes, and all your other annoying p-p-plants. That st-t-tupid Mandragora w-w-was the death of me in our last encounter."
Abaddon looked truly angry for the first time, which was understandable because of his embarassing defeat back in The Abyss. Soma had just kept throwing Mandragora at Abaddon's locust swarms. It took only half a dozen Mandragora to destroy Abaddon's armada. Then it was a simple matter of sealing him before he could summon any more.
"There are other ways to exterminate pests, Abaddon. For example...!"
Soma dashed back and leapt into the air, all the while summoning the soul of Flame Demon to burn away the locust clouds around Dario. Dario merely answered by creating a shield of fire around the insects and protectiing them from Soma's attack.
Soma touched back down on the ground,"How is there noone else out tonight! No cars, no people, isn't this a city?!"
Abaddon chuckled again.
"There's a few fires keeping the city occupied, and a few pest problems keeping doors closed, l-l-let us say. Well well, my speech is i-i-improving isn't it?"
Soma ignored the question and looked up into the night sky. For the first time, he noticed the pillars of smoke all around him and heard the wailing sirens.
"But this is still a city, there's no way that-"
"There's no way I could use my locusts to c-c-consume everyone in a one mile radius?"
"You..! You couldn't have! Someone would have called. Someone else would have seen!"
"I-I wanted us to have a c-c-clear battlef-f-field. Your q-q-quite welcome."
Soma was not entirely sure he believed Abaddon. An attack from a swarm of giant demon locusts would have been a bit louder. As if to defeat Soma's suspicions, Abaddon waved his arm lazily and about a dozen corpses being carried by locusts were dropped from the sky. Unable to contain himself any longer, Soma charged forth, using the soul of Baigon to be his familiar.
Without warning, a young girl's corpse sprang up with a kitchen knife in hand. She was able to graze Soma's shoulder before the Baigon ripped her to shreds. Soma cursed as he realized the corpses had been dropped in a circle around him, and the locusts were also circling him now. Abaddon, who was now twirling his baton in a circle looked quite pleased with his trap.
The zombies sprung up at once and carried random weapons they must have snatched up. One who looked like he was a mechanic held a tire iron, while a little boy, no more than five, carried a rifle. As if Soma didn't have enough to deal with, Dario started to create pillars of fire around Soma, which gave him more than a few feet to move. The zombies were given enough room to get to Soma through the flame pillars, and the locusts were able to squeeze through without a single one being burned.
Soma's mind raced as he tried to think of a soul to use. The Final Guard soul could only shield in front of him, the Merman soul was too weak to douse the flames, the Frozen Shade's soul would evaporate too quickly, Aguni's soul was simply too weak to cancel the fires to reach the locusts, the Abaddon soul...
...Abaddon soul?
Soma still felt it, even though it was weaker than before, it was still there. The Abaddon soul...would it give him the miracle he needed? There was not much else he could do.
Soma opened up his coat and locust swarms burst from them. Abaddon suddenly dropped to his knees and his clouds of locust, unable to think for themselves, flew wildy around, some being burned inside Dario's fires. The zombies looked confused and started to pass straight through the scorching inferno that Dario was creating in an effort to reach another zombie simply to do battle with them. The boy with the rifle was the only one who noticed Soma, but before he could squeeze off a round, Soma impaled him with the Claimh Solais and sent him into the demon fires. Soma activated the Merman soul and sprayed himself with water before leaping out of the flame wall. Upon hitting the ground, Dario refocused on him and shot several balls of fire.
Abaddon, meanwhile, was fighting off Soma's locusts. His baton was swirling wildly around in his hands as he swatted the locusts clear out of the sky with his claws. Finally regaining composure, he quickly used his own locusts to exterminate the unfriendly swarm. Unfortunately, that was all the time Soma needed to reach the possessed Dario. He quickly formed ice in his hands and shaped it into a rectangle while he ran.
Abaddon allowed himself not to burst into laughter. Soma was doing exactly what Abaddon wanted, but did not expect. Soma was making a mirror with one of his ice souls. Abaddon had thought that Soma, a human so close to becoming Dracula, would be much smarter than to fall into his opponent's plan B.
Dario took out a pocketknife and slashed one more time before Soma placed the mirror on Dario's face. Even though he tried to melt it off, Soma merely kept channeling the ice spirit through his hands. Truly believing that he had not done the most obvious and foolhardy thing to do, he called upon the soul of Paranoia and entered to meet Dario's demons...
...and came face to face with the fires of hell.