At last it was that day, the day appointed by the dark lord on which a woman was 'supposed' to be taken. But all day had gone without incident. The sun left its orange trail upon the sky as it disappeared behind the mountains in the distance. Belmont walked through the main thoroughfare, watching merchants and guards disguised as them put away their wares for the day. He admired their calm efficiency when putting away the things that they sold. His glance fell upon a younger boy helping a portly vegetable seller. The boy had dropped a box of potatoes on the dusty ground. Instead of getting angry the merchant just pursed his lips.

"You're washin' those up tomorrow, you are." He said.

"Y…yessir." The boy replied.

Belmont nodded his head at the merchant as he strolled pas them, the merchant bowed graciously and smiled, and the boy nodded his head while picking up the potatoes and putting them in the box labeled 'wash'.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Leonidas turned, seeing the father of Aurelia Braerwood behind him, looking worried.

"What is it, what happened sir?" Belmont said to the old man.

"It's Aurelia, she's been gone since this afternoon." He replied, catching his waning breath.

"Why wasn't I informed earlier?" Belmont said, frustrated and suddenly alert.

"I wanted to make sure it wasn't a false alarm, it's things like that distract you while the real thing is happening behind your back." Replied the man.

"Arcturus, please, go home. Protect your wife I must go to Castlevania. I can't believe I was such a fool." He said, almost out of hearing range of the old man already.

"Don't blame yourself, young master. Dark craft is that of trickery and fooling." Arcturus yelled to him as he ran away towards the hills.

The forest grew darker by the moment as the Belmont heir made his way towards the dark castle looming in the distance. Leonidas was taken aback by the gaudy frivol of the large castle before him. Menacing gargoyles and regal lions adorned every place imaginable, to the point that straight lines were unrecognizable in the mess.

Leonidas quietly and alertly walked through the gate of Dracula's castle, searching through the darkness for a trap to be strung or an ambush waiting to happen. Behind him the gate closed loudly and suddenly, making him jump. A twig snapped, and he turned about in every direction, trying to discern shapes in the black.

Before him red glowing eyes peered out, a pair, far enough away to suggest a beast with a rather large head. The eyes brightened their hue and several feral growls could be heard from all sides. A howl in the distance, the forest was quiet. A lone owl hooted its sorrowful call through the silence and then time stopped. A blade whipped around, then another, slicing some foul beast in half both ways. Blood showered through the air. Two other beasts leapt at the new corpse and began ravenously eating as a third, larger beast leapt at Leonidas. One fell sweep and the large beast was down, whimpering awfully as its last bit of life left its body.

The two left fell easily, as the new meat distracted them. His blade fell easily into the stomach of the first, spilling slimy steaming fluids from it. The second cried out sickeningly as the blade cut across its windpipe and caused it to drown in its own blood.

Leonidas cleaned his blade with his kerchief and sheathed it, walking up to the large doors that marked the entrance to Castlevania. With a knock, the doors to the castle opened wide, spilling bright candlelight out upon the once black path. Wargs, he saw, the large wolves must be drawn to the gates of the castle in case some unsuspecting zombie or skeleton wanders outside.

Closing the door on the bloody scene outside, the Belmont crept silently through the empty passage of the grand entrance hall. His feet made loud clicking sounds as he walked on the stone floor of the room, small drops of sound in a pool of silence.

As he made his way through the second hall Leonidas found it strange that the first was empty, now reaching the door at the end of the second hall, he looked behind himself, almost confused. He opened the door to a gruesome scene: Several heads impaled upon blood stained pikes lined the floor below the ledge that marked the entrance to this new room. As he walked in, he saw the shrouded figure of a demon hovering above the pit.

"How dare you desecrate this sacred home of the master." The demon said in a deep guttural manner.

"I have come to retrieve the woman that Dracula is holding prisoner here in this castle." Leonidas responded.

"So you have come to die, and so you shall, by my hand." The demon immediately rushed forward, swiping his arm at Leonidas. The Belmont blade sliced directly through the demons belly, causing it to recoil in pain. It came for one last desperate slice at Leonidas, barely cutting his left shoulder.

With a bloodcurdling yell Leonidas eviscerated the beast. His hands did not stop, though, when they should have. The Belmont family sword slipped from his hands and clanked noisily down the large pit, falling down. It's landing made a sickening splat sound that echoed back to Leonidas. The demon was no longer before him, but his two halves were now impaled atop two of the pikes.

Richter knelt down in despair. His brown hair covered his face as tears fell down his cheeks, each wringing their notes of pain and fury inside him. That blade was the blade of Leon Belmont, which he renounced when he went to this cursed castle to find his betrothed. It was returned to the Belmont line after being blessed by a priest and a shaman. Leonidas' father had used it in this castle to fight off the very monster it had fallen under. Strong proud laughter rang in familiar gradients throughout Leonidas' head.

"You monster, I challenge your laughter, I will still beat you and this castle even without the blade of my fathers." He said, his mind reaching points of rage he never thought possible. He jumped the distance of the gap over the pit and continued on through the castle of Dracula, which locked the door behind him.