Julius quite soon had to notice there was more about being a hunter than just wielding a whip, and knowing how to effectively use his secondary weapons. It was a question of focus, and unrelenting will. The zombies, opposed to his imagination, were not looking like clones of each other. No, they all sill bore their individual faces. He could see what people they had been. And it was unsettling him deeply.

After only ten minutes of fighting, he was out of his breath, needing to seek shelter in one of the many save rooms of the castle. It was strange to see places of serenity and holy energy in the middle of such a castle, but then again, he guessed that with all the chaos around, even this castle needed something to stabilize it, to create an antagonism to balance it.

While he was catching his breath, Julius clutched on the cross again, becoming lost in his thoughts. What would await him still? This was just the very begin of the many horrors which would lurk for him along the way, and he would need to gather his strength to push through all of the battles and challenges. Hopefully, there wouldn't be too many riddles along the way. He always had hated those puzzles...

Julius gritted his teeth, getting back on his feet. He could rest later on, but now, he had to go on. If he already let the challenges overwhelm him, he wouldn't have much of a chance to get to the very end, to the fight against the Dark Lord. He didn't want to be seen as a weakling, especially not by his arch enemy. Or rather, the arch nemesis of the whole world.

Once more, his hand closed around the cross pendant dangling around his neck. Julius felt a strange, soothing feeling coming from it, but at the same time, it was unsettling how this warm feeling rose into him. It felt like something was possessing him, rather than something embracing and soothing him.

He wasn't sure if he had felt right or had just imagined things, but there was the strong impression that something was off about the castle. There wasn't just one pulse of darkness coming to him, but two. So, someone had succumbed to the darkness and was supporting Dracula? Had the exact case he had loathed so much become reality?

'I'm just trying to scare myself. It must be Death, Dracula's beloved pet. Or maybe a vampire having gotten a little bit of power from him.'

Julius shook his head; then, with firm steps, he left the room and went back to the corridor. Still, the zombies were endlessly rising from what seemed to be solid ground (only at a closer examination, Julius noticed the metallic smell coming from the deep red carpet covering the stone ground), staggering towards the hunter.

But this time, he felt more in control of himself. He was aiming for their weak spots, rather than letting himself get distracted by the bats joining the zombies soon enough. Those little critters were no problem; with one well-thrown dagger, they were taken care of.

After a felt eternity, the zombies ceased to rise from the ground, and Julius was left panting in exhaustion. He did, however, recover faster from it than before, which surprised him. Was there more about Vampire Killer than just being a weapon? He stared down at it in wonder. Well, considering what feats of strength his ancestors had performed, it wouldn't have surprised him. And after all, they somehow had to be kept supplied when traveling through the castle.

For a while, everything was quiet—except for the howling of some giant creature in the distance. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it, but as long as it remained distant, it was nothing of his concern yet. Though, it could become his concern quite fast, with knowing how warped and twisted the castle could be with the closer he got to the core of Chaos fueling it.

Julius calmly collected the throwing knives, noticing that the spilled blood of the creatures he had killed was dissolving into bright sparks. He seemed to have purified the vile and the tainted with his weapons. Nothing surprising, since they were all blessed with holy water and protective spells. He needed to watch out when to use what, though. He couldn't rely on an endless supply of holy water, or a never shrinking amount of knives. If he would have drawn them forth with magic, though, it would have been an entirely different thing...

Shaking his head lightly, Julius pressed on as soon as he had collected all of his knives. He was wishing for things beyond his control. First, he would need to make sure that he gathered more strength, before dipping into the realms of magic and holy weapons summoned from … well, where would they have been summoned from? He never had questioned it, and probably never would.

His thoughts ended with the moment he stepped into a hall just behind the Entrance of the castle, which was holding just the next wave of unholy creatures for him to fight. And it weren't just some puny zombies with the occasional annoying bat, oh no. Skeletons and Axe Armors had assembled here, accompanied by Wargs growling at him threateningly. Julius's eyes narrowed, the grip on his whip tightening. Alright, so that was the next level? He would do this. He had absolutely no other choice.

The Skeletons were easy enough to handle, since their bones were dry enough to shatter on impact. The Axe Armors, however, were a whole different deal. The copper plates were not easily to be dented, or destroyed by the whip. Julius was huffing, especially since the Wargs with their snapping jaws were distracting him here and there, and it surely wasn't the good kind of distraction. Rather the deadly kind which would have served to get him into the grave much too early.

Julius gritted his teeth as he jumped backwards, having managed to defeat about a fourth of the armors by now. The Wargs just kept coming at him, and it was unsettling as well as unnerving him. And the stupid bats were fluttering through the room, too, which almost got him the one or other time. Those obnoxious bloodsuckers were making him angry, but he knew better than to let this anger overwhelm him. He needed to stay composed if he wanted to get anywhere.

The Wargs were the next to be slaughtered by the whip, but the Axe Armors were still pressing forward. Julius was panting, gritting his teeth and trying to shove his exhaustion away from him. He couldn't give up right now, not at such an early stage. It would have put him to shame, and it would have been horribly embarrassing—if he would have lived to tell the tale, of course.

He lost the count of armors he defeated, and of time passing while he was at it. In the end, however, he was victorious, even if very exhausted. Julius kept himself upright, though, not willing to look all miserable and like he was about to collapse. There weren't many more obstacles awaiting him, thankfully, and by the time he made it to another safe area, he was feeling much better again.

Once he had sat down in the safe area, Julius began to feel a little hungry. But where in the world should he get food from? He pondered for a while, then decided to just meditate for a moment. These rooms were something extraordinary, with how the pulsed and rippled around him. It wasn't of the unsettling kind, rather of the soothing kind. Something giving him the feeling that he was perfectly safe in the middle of the blessed areas.

While he was sitting there, he had the strange feeling that something of him was left behind. Just the softest, physical trace, while something else filled him. New energy, and the hunger was forgotten. Could that be healthy? Julius wasn't sure, but for the moment, it had to suffice. He couldn't afford to leave the castle and search for supplies for hours. It might cost him more than he could ever afford.

While he was heading towards the growling he heard in the distance, he noticed the complete lack of any enemies. A slightly uneasy feeling fell on him, but he remained on alert. He could feel a more concentrated amount of Chaos further ahead, making his stomach flutter nervously. Julius knew that, soon enough, he would face his first real monster. That before, that had been the canon fodder walking these damned halls for all of eternity, but what was only a few rooms further was the real deal.

As soon as he stepped into the next big hall, the gate behind him fell shut, the lock clicking and indicating that he was trapped in the room. Julius had to realize that the growling hadn't been coming from this room. And there wasn't much to be seen from the room. There were too many bats in the way to see anything at all.

Like on a secret sign, the bats rose into the air, fluttering in a confusing swirl. Julius was shuddering at the sight, a deep feeling of horror grasping him. Their perfectly synchronized movements, along with the countless gleaming little eyes on him, had something all too predatory. Had the other Belmonts of his bloodline felt the same way with their first big monster to slay? He could well imagine so … but it was not the right time to go to the 'what if' part.

'I have a fight at hand. And I will win this fight. I will slay this first monster, and claim the Core.'

The calmness coming over him was strange, but also reassuring. Keeping the movements of the bats in the corner of his eye, he focused on not making the slightest mistake. He may was a Belmont, but that didn't guarantee that he would win all of his fights. No, he would have to work on even getting that far, else there was no way he would get around the other big creatures. He needed to struggle and grow stronger by surviving everything Dracula would throw at him, no matter how horrible it would become.

The bat was attacking in two forms—one time, it would be one giant beast, and the next moment, it was dissolving into a cloud of hundreds of smaller creatures. Whenever Julius had the opportunity to, he was attacking the smaller ones, taking them out by the dozens with every hit. It didn't seem to weaken the big form substantially, but he could well imagine that if he took out enough of them, the Giant Bat would collapse sooner or later.

It took him a long enough time. Now and then, he almost got cornered, or attacked by those vicious little beasts, but he somehow managed to dodge. But the Giant Bat was more and more struggling to even stay in shape. It was slowly faltering, getting more and more into trouble, and finally, it exploded into thousands of little sparks, before something seemed to form in the center of the room.

A pulsing orb, glowing eerily, was floating there, and Julius for a long time wasn't sure if he should touch it. Then again, he had to try. Maybe it was something evil staying behind from the creature, and he had to erase it before he could completely eradicate the trace of chaos and darkness left by the Giant Bat.

As soon as he touched the orb, it glowed brightly, then vanished in a flash. Julius felt how new powers woke in him, and a smile spread on his face. The first step was taken. Many more were to follow... but he would see this through.