Prologue
Call me St. Germain. If it is the crisis in the Belmont clan that you wish to understand listen up. I am your narrator, the all seeing observer not bound by time who has recorded the events into this story. I am presenting them to you to make your own conclusions with. What insight you receive or knowledge you gain is entirely up to you. I only give you a window to view them from.
"It began" is a funny way to start. Where and when did it all begin? How far can you go when everything that was relates to everything that is? I couldn't start with let there be light, for you are bound by time restraints. How about the Belmont family's destiny to always counter Count Dracula with the Vampire Killer? Heard that one already too I suppose? Perhaps the best way to start will be the day the crisis begun to climax. The crisis simply stated is Richter Belmont produced no satisfactory male Belmont to take up his mantle, so what now?
Chapter 1 On Route to Ecclesia
On a sunny cool early October 25th morning in 1855, a four horse stage coach dragging a large covered cart sped through the woods east exiting Transylvania towards a rare destination for travelers in those parts. Very few knew the spot they were heading for in Wallachia was not completely abandon accept for a few farmers near by outside Wygol Village. It was the temple of Ecclesia. Once a large building for a Christian order with the objective of countering Dracula in the absence of the Belmonts, the legendary clan always present in the past to oppose his evil. The coachman was of no significance but in the coach rode two who now sought a Belmont in the absence of Dracula, a man and woman. The man was in armor with his helmet on his lap and staring out the window during this long quite ride. Finally to break the silence he grumbled.
"Why the charade, Sister?" asked the young 21 year old Lt. Henry Oldery, a member of the Swiss Guard on special assignment from Rome. "We know the Church has decided that the Lecarde family will be entrusted with safe guarding the whip, why bring it back to Belmont and get ambushed by others who will try to claim the Vampire Killer?"
"Politics demands it," replied Sister Shanoa whom once being a gifted mystical warrior in her youth now served as a nun. She was dressed in a full black habit and over 50 years old but even this could not fully mask the beauty about her that she not just had spiritually within but physically of the flesh as well. She was no common elderly woman. She could easily pass for 35, and her most striking feature was her amazing deep blue eyes. "The few opposing forces in the hierarchy will have their objections silenced when our man is endorsed by Belmont himself."
"Why not His Holiness just order it?" Henry grumbled as a stereotypical soldier.
"It may surprise you but some things are kept from reaching the highest authority, since he has been a pope in exile before. Either way, Pius IX hasn't gotten all the clergy to recognize his infallibility, even if it was a large basis for the acceptance of the Immaculate Conception. Those who are in the know on this Belmont matter need to be united so it's best we have the credibility of Belmont to anoint Lecarde."
"For something so important you would think more direct support for this mission in the field would be better than less support," Henry protested.
"You know we are out of our turf. We are in the domain of the Austrian Empire which has not forgotten the 1848 Revolution and where the Papal Army sided, so this must be a small contingency. The Crimean War is still on with possible political implications over the suzerainty the Ottomans hold over the region, and you cannot disregard Russia."
"Big problems, very small contingency, got it."
"How are you so ignorant to the current times? Where have you been the last decade?"
"Growing up with out my family because they were destroyed by vampires, becoming a warrior, saving kidnapped children from Dracula's castle, recovering the Vampire Killer, tracking down a beast, you know…important issues. So how unfriendly are the heretics around here?"
"Our separated brethren," Shanoa reinforced, "are becoming more tolerant. Many orthodox Romanians have helped establish Greek Catholic monasteries."
"Great, but it won't make me any more tolerant."
"Well at least get you labels right, they would be rudely referred to as schismatic not heretics."
"Thank you Sister, I'll make a note of that on my derogatory language list. So when do we lead a public procession then?"
"Discretion is called for."
"Only a jest; but still, why do this now?"
"Fr. Bustamante was able to make his way out to Ecclesia but informed me in a letter last month that Belmont doesn't have much time. It must be down now."
"I obtained the whip well over a year ago. Maybe we could have done something earlier to get the whip to Belmont; without shaggy there back in the cage?"
"I will attempt a healing of him when we get there."
"There is not much time for that, it's the 25th and the full moon is out tonight," Henry warned.
"What does it matter where we are? The problem will have to be dealt with when they arise."
"Sure but its best to pick our environment on our terms preventing any likelihood for escape. The dungeon he had been kept in the last year was a fortress and he broke out. It took me a year to track him down and finally capture last month. I think you are seriously underestimating his power, this is no ordinary man suffering from lycanthropy."
"I am no ordinary healer?"
"I await to be impressed, Sister. However, we also have one more variable, what if Belmont doesn't choose Lecarde?"
"He will do whatever so I ask of him. When we get there all you need do is take our poor tortured soul back there to the crypt below the temple, I'll deal with the Vampire Killer."
"What crypt? How do you know the layout?"
"Never mind how just hear listen to my directions."
Meanwhile in another coach of similar description 5 miles behind sat four travelers. In the back facing front was Reinhardt Schneider and his wife Rosa leaned against him asleep in a red gown and white shawl. She was a beautiful vision of a young 21 year old woman, with her charming smile and long golden hair. She was everything a young man could ask for in a woman if he was simply seeking a companion to display to one's peers as a trophy. However she also had more that many a young man wouldn't care so much about; a calm, gentle, and pleasing nature. She was truly good hearted but was originally a tended to flower gardens and from a peasant family. She didn't quite fit in with her husband's social circles.
Reinhardt was a big and strong 24 year old with short blond hair and a frame that emulated that of Simon Belmont, his most famous ancestor. He dressed like an adventurer with modified armor under a jacket that had a fur collar like a lion's mane, the same way he dressed when he proved himself worthy of the Vampire Killer 3 years ago slaying Dracula's latest incarnation. He was sure of his abilities and righteous but still tended to want to prove himself to others.
Facing the rear sitting across from the married couple was Professor Charlie Vincent and Carrie Fernandez, two vampire hunters that aided Reinhardt before and have become like family to him. Vincent was an older man gray haired with a beard that turned into a mustache but stayed off his chin. He looked like a detective in his long overcoat. He was well accustomed in the occult and usually carried some type of the repellent to fit every situation. He left his large cross that he usually had strapped to his back while traveling these parts of Eastern Europe tied town with luggage at Reinhardt's request much to his inconvenience. However, even now he had a silver crucifix, holy water, stakes, a hammer, and enough garlic to go around.
Carrie Fernandez was just a young teenaged girl when she aided Reinhardt with her supernatural witchcraft, but now she had blossomed into a heart breaker of men still at a tender age of only 16, not quite 17 yet. She had long black hair and a bronze tan. She wore a fairly modest green dress and poncho. She had a little too much gypsy in her Spanish blood to ever fully be accepted into polite society. Reinhardt however tried to defend her honor when necessary, but she really didn't need it with her powers.
"How much further you think, my husband?" Rosa asked awaking.
"With in the hour we should arrive. I can hardly believe my great grandfather still lives. I cannot even say if my father would have wished to see him if he still lived."
"Unfortunately the Battle of Novara took his life, but he was a hero for your Austrian Empire over Sardinia. Field Marshal 'Vater Radetzky' decorated him," Vincent boosted. "Don't forget that, my boy."
"I should have been there with him six years ago," Reinhardt regretted.
"You had a bigger destiny to walk," Carrie interrupted.
"And now it's coming full circle with Richter Belmont. He has to be 80 years old. My father was the only son of his only daughter. He never spoke much of Belmont except that training from him were his earliest memories; until Belmont disappeared after a plague took the lives of my Grandfather and Grandmother Schneider, and Great-great Aunt Maria Renard in 1825 when my father was only 13 years old."
"He was left all alone?"
"Not completely, two old ladies, Iris his governess, and Sister Tera looked after him, until they died or disappeared from the destruction of the House of Belmont six years later. That was from a fire that also murdering one of my father's last mentors, Nathan Graves. Father was not there during the fire, he was training with the Vampire Killer, but had a good suspicion that the whip was what the one who set the fire was after."
"Any suspicion of who the suspect who set the fire was?" Vincent inquired.
"For now that is a private matter but I believe it could be something settled this day," Reinhardt prophesized.
"Then he established our estate in Bavaria?" Rosa awkwardly cut in.
"That is right," Reinhardt continued, "and at least he savaged the Sword of Lord Leon Belmont from the rubble and the crimson armor of Simon Belmont. But now that fiend, Lt. Oldery stole the Vampire Killer."
"That is not his only transgression," Carrie reminded him.
"No, it isn't, and he will answer to me if I ever get a chance to catch up with him again, Miss Fernandez."
"Yes, priorities must be weighted. There is a chance maybe you emphasize to much significants on the Vampire Killer which is likely not any mystical whip dating back to Leon Belmont," Vincent spoke with some hesitance as the others were blindsided. "After all my research shows that Simon Belmont purchased a Morning Star in the village of Oldon to attack to a chain whip he paid for from a merchant in Veros during his quest to find the remains of Dracula in order to rid himself of a curse."
"What? Where do you claim to get such bogus research?"
"Hardly bogus I assure you"
"That whip has been in my family since the Crusades. What happened when I used the Vampire Killer was real," Reinhardt ranted.
"Surely you don't believe the only way to kill a vampire at night resides in such primitive of methods? Miss Fernandez and I were on to the boy Malus's deceit early on and one of us could have finished him surely."
"Lets not imagine revisionist history here, Professor. I am thankful and consider you both allies that greatly attributed to my success but I was the one necessary for victory. Regardless if doubts have developed for me over the righteousness of Belmonts the likes of Richter, I know we have a special destiny tied in with the whip."
"And I'll have to come clean here," Carrie said shyly, "I would have been in a marriage contract with Malus if not for you, Professor."
"Good for you child, a showing of integrity," Vincent remarked.
"Who lacks integrity?" Reinhardt snapped.
"I didn't wish to offend," Vincent responded calmly, "I just think you should have a more intuited mind and not jump into beliefs blindly."
"Do we not all ready do that regularly when we call things either black or white, Professor?" asked Reinhardt.
"As long as you mean actions. Man himself is shades of grey, only God will finally judge by weighting all our actions that are either good or evil and determine what they be."
"Well, God certainly seems to be uncaring now whether we be good or evil by allowing it. So I will just have to see with my own eyes that some men are just pure evil." Carrie stated with conviction.
"Can you really?" Vincent tested her. "The Russian Orthodox refered to Napoleon as the Antichrist."
"He could surely be considered pure evil," Carrie agreed.
"By some, but was he really aware of what evil he was doing or just ignorant?"
"Ignorance is an excuse than?" Reinhardt chimed
"No, it is not," Vincent assured him. "However, God will judge him; we don't know the intentions of his heart. And when all is said and done we may be just as ignorant to the evil we do in our lives and be on a rode to hell. Many end up doing evil that started with acts of good intentions. I don't think anyone is pure evil. And why would they? No demonic possession would need to reside in Napoleon's body if his actions were already paving his way to the abyss."
"You should have been a padre, Professor," Reinhardt joked.
"No my boy, not a charitable nature in me. Simply scholastics will do for me."
"So no one is beyond redemption until judgment?" Rosa asked.
"No one, my child," Vincent said pleased with himself.
"Even Dracula?" Rosa pressed on.
Vincent's face grew red and with a stern voice he responded, "Impossible. Dracula is already the living dead. When Dracula was human, even as 'Vlad the Impaler,' he did start with good intentions to drive the Mohammedans out of Europe, but he lost his soul to Satan and has no ability to love God."
"Well, my family tells a story that Vlad Tepes III was really much older," Reinhardt went off track.
"Yes, yes, and if true that man was still in the Crusades with good intentions but turned evil," Vincent remarked annoyed. "Still my case is made that as a vampire he was forever doomed."
Reinhardt oddly came to Rosa's defense half heartedly. "But surely some vampires can turn back to their humanity and are capable of good acts."
"No, an evil tree cannot bear evil fruit."
"I thought you said only our actions are good or evil until Christ alone judges us?" Carrie teased.
"Yes but vampires are different. They and all they infect are pure evil."
"I heard Dracula's son, aided my ancestor Trevor and his wife along with Grant…"
"Who?" Carrie mocked.
"Grant DaNasty the pirate," Reinhardt continued. "They killed Dracula for the first time in 1476. Was that not an apple falling far from the tree in Alucard's defense? The evil fruit is the actions of an evil heart, not an innocent offspring."
"Perhaps, but vampires are different and those who become vampires are not even themselves any longer. Alucard is just a myth spawned by heathens. There are no half breeds that I ever had come across. Anyway, to free a vampire's soul they must be destroyed. Any resemblance a vampire shows to their past dead humanity is a deceit to lower the resolve of a hunter. If a vampire is not destroyed their already lost soul will be damned on judgment day. So you can look to it as doing a charitable deed even when you kill a child corrupted into the life of eternal night."
"Unfortunately, I must agree after having to kill my own step-mother," Carrie remarked, "but then vampires like Actrice were evil before they turned. She made sacrifices her own children for eternal life."
Rosa began to look fearful and cling to Reinhardt.
"What if the vampire was freed from the curse and returned to humanity?" Reinhardt wondered.
"Impossible," Vincent confirmed, "once one becomes undead there is no going back."
"What if it was some sort of miracle?" Rosa hoped.
"More like an evil deception," Vincent said rudely.
The words haunted Rosa as this conversation disturbed Reinhardt too who remembered all to well the miraculous circumstances that permitted their happy union. As the carriage rolled on with them in contemplation, two other warriors on horse back who recently met followed on not far behind with ambition to wield the Vampire Killer that night.
"I respectfully acknowledge your past bravely, but are you not too old to inherit the whip, not to mention not related to Belmont in any way, Mr. Baldwin?" asked Ethan Lecarde; young 35 year old man with long blond hair and a slender build, decked out in middle aged armor that was concealed slightly with a blue cape that had a spear strapped over it and two additional spears hooked on his horse.
"I am only 45, Mr. Lecarde," responded the slightly grey above the ears but still considered handsome Hugh Baldwin who kept his hair shoulder length while always dressing in black and carrying swords. "I may add that I am the true apprentice of my late father Morris Baldwin, who was the true apprentice to Richter Belmont in 1809 after he retuned fighting for Bavaria during the Napoleonic Wars. My father actually inherited the whip and used it in 1820."
I heard he never actually played much of a role, the Order of Ecclesia had something to do with the destruction of Dracula that year."
"The Order of Ecclesia was the villain, responsible for resurrecting him," Hugh responded infuriated.
"Well someone in the Order still ended Dracula," Lecarde insisted.
"Well no one from any Order was with my father and me when we stopped Camilla at that Austrian Castle in 1830."
"Yes that is true," Lecarde agreed, "however who was the other guy that won the day for the Baldwin Clan, your father's successor, what's his name?"
"Nathan Graves was like a brother to me but he was no worthy successor, he was soft," Hugh remarked. "My father Morris, God rest his soul, made one mistake. That was proven when Nathan foolishly tried to train Michael Gelhart Schneider, a supposed grandson of Richter Belmont. Richter had abandoned him so that told you were he stood. Nathan was killed and robbed of the whip by Schneider who escaped to his Schneider ancestral home out of the country after burning down the House of Belmont. I will get my revenge on him and restore the whip to my blood line."
"Schneider is dead."
"No I heard he lives and is attempting to claim the whip this day."
"That would be his son, Reinhardt who has used the whip, unlike you, against Dracula three years ago."
"Then he shall pay for his father's crimes."
"You don't really want to dig two graves. Maybe I'll just take the whip and the rest of you will be able to go home."
"Why, what experience does a Lecarde have?"
"We are related to the original Belmont, our forefather married Leon Belmont's sister. We are true cousins of the Belmont Clan."
"And you carry a spear, what qualifies you for the whip."
"The same thing that gives you a stake in this, swordfighter."
"What is that?"
"Arrogance."
They both begun to laugh as they rode on but one more being was on its way to Ecclesia. It was over 8' tall. Arriving from the north moving through the woods dressed in a long coat and American western styled hat, he carried a powerful custom firearm and had a strange chain saw attached to his right arm where his forearm should have started. His face was scared severely as his whole body with stitches and he wore belt straps around his neck. Those who had seen him before could only tell he was some sort of a man but uncertain how many men.
7