The Dark Lord Dracula impatiently tapped his fingers across the throne. His powers were returning far faster than expected. He should be pleased, but the situation worried him.

"At long last my Lord, we have returned" spoke the skeleton-like creature in a dark grey robe, otherwise known as Death. He wasn't truly death of course. That was a state, a property upon the world that could never be harnessed much less understood by mortal creatures. Even Death himself lacked the vision to see death as it flows among our world. Rather, Death is a demon. Born of human suffering and grim interpretations. Long ago people referred to him as "the Black Death" though that name was stolen as well.

"Indeed we have my faithful servant. And in due time" Dracula said. "Though the situations regarding our rebirth are most unusual"

"My Lord, I haven't known you to be one for complaining about an early resurrection" Death said.

"I would not show such caution if the conditions of my resurrection were clear. The situation is not as it was" Dracula said. "My powers have grown exceedingly fast, yet I am without a human host on which to feed."

"You speak of the chamber deep within this castle" Death said. "Has the subject been taken care of?"

"The chambers are empty" Dracula said. "Not even my own arrogance can cloud what is obviously transpiring"

"She knows" Death said. "That is…..unfortunate"

"UNFORTUNATE!" Dracula screamed "UNFORTUNATE YOU SAY!" His fists clenched hard enough to draw blood. He wanted to destroy something, feed on something. But the castle was bloody empty. "Grah!" he cussed. Perhaps he could destroy a town to vent his anger, though he'd be a fool to start a war this early.

"My Lord, if you do mind me saying, your mortal soul may leave you vulnerable but it also grants you power beyond any incarnation known before" Death said. "With such power at you're command, you cannot lose"

"Possibly" Dracula said. It was the whip that truly frightened him. Long had he known its wraith and his resurrection was near certainly followed by the wielder of vampire killer. It was a fate he could never hope to escape, though never in his life had that truly terrified him. The whip could never truly kill him after all. This was different. He was without a doppelganger, he had resurrected as himself. Vlad the Impaler. Mortal, and vulnerable.

"I will send our forces to investigate the crystal chamber. If anything is hiding down there we will find it my Lord" Death said.

"I won't stop you, though if she is gone it's already too late for that" Dracula said. "Fortunately I have my woman out on an errand to address that already"

"Oh? You sent someone after her?" Death said. "I do hope it's Carmilla"

A smile spread across his face. "Indeed. And we are siphoning energy from a particular Holy Grail" Dracula said. "Though despite the name there is nothing holy about the object"

"What fun!" Death said. "We certainly wouldn't want to rely on the girl's energy to resurrect our forces"

"That can't be helped" Dracula said. "Though there may be hope for her yet"

"Oh?" Death said.

"She was turned once, she can be turned again" Dracula said. "And once she has, the vampire curse won't elude her as it did before"

"She was never the creature of light she pretended to be" Death said. "Would you like me to see to it myself?"

"Not yet, we'll let her energy fuel us a tad further" Dracula said. "What I need from you is bodies. Thousands of them, discretely please."

A scythe appeared in Death's left hand as he spoke, "Now THAT I can do"


The once quiet forest grew noisy with the morning light. Motoko Hakuba was hiking along a rigid stone path up the mountain. The bricks must have looked beautiful at one time though erosion had torn the road into shreds and cobble. Hakuba Shrine, which lay towards the peak, was a little known location in the mountains of Japan. The shrines around Kyoto had less hazardous trails; though with that came more foot traffic. Motoko rather enjoyed her morning walks in solitude.

She held the end of her kimono as she stepped around some eroded rock. Parts of the path could be quite dangerous were she to slip, though it had never happened yet. It wasn't something to boast about but it was an accomplishment of itself. She had been making the hike every day for the past decade.

Motoko was to become the caretaker of the shrine one day. She lived at the base of the mountain until such a time for her to take on that role. The current caretaker's never had children of their own so she wasn't related by blood. She had initially met them through her father, an astronomer who frequented the shrine for its clear view of the sky. This is what the shrine had become famous for.

The path subtly grew less steep as she neared the entrance to the shrine. The road was more maintained here so she could ease her muscles a bit. The air was especially crisp and cold at this altitude. She loosened her scarf and wrapped it around her face to keep from breathing the coarse air.

The path ahead was free of snow and swept clean of debris. Maintaining the path was one of her duties as an apprentice. It might snow tonight so if not today she'd need to address the path tomorrow.

Motoko pauses before stepping on. The rest of the walkway was lined with hundreds of red gates. There were two stone horses resolute at the entrance of the path. The white stallions were carved hundreds of years ago yet their gazed pierced into her today like never before. Did she see movement from the corner of her eye?

It was a warning. Deep down she knew it to be so. But the rational half of her brain overcame her fear as she stepped onto the path. She slips.

"Yelp!" Motoko cries in surprise. The dark shadows from the stallions loomed over her as if to laugh. "So much for a clean record" she thought. She steps onto her feet and freezes. The shadows in the morning sun, it couldn't possibly emanate from the stone on the mountain before her. A soft growl behind her immediately locks her knees. She tries to will her legs to move but they begin to quiver beyond her control. Perhaps if she could just remain still whatever it was would go away. There were boars on the mountain but they wouldn't attack unprovoked right?

The growl grows louder. She uses her right hand to force her stiff neck to the side so she can look. From the very edge of her peripheral vision stands the silhouette of a dog. It appeared to have several heads but that's impossible. Maybe her vision was shaking as bad as her legs were.

This wasn't a dream. What could it want? Was it a yokai? Or a spirit from the shrine? Certainly the stallions would protect her if she could just make it past. Three steps she calculated. Three steps to the inside of the gate.

Unable to bear any more, her legs burst with an explosion of speed. The creature charges and she slams her feet onto the hard ground with all her might. Her face slams into the icy dirt. She slipped. Thousands of climbs up this mountain and today of all days she failed. The cerberus dog leaps into the air with open jaws….

*BLAM* The creature is forced aside by a brilliant light.

Out of nowhere, a blue haired girl charges the monster with her bare hands. No, they weren't empty. There was a glowing contraption wrapped around her wrist and a belt at her side containing several blue vials. Motoko's eyes snap shut in reflex as a bright red light bursts from the farther down the mountain. The path is black with smoke and filled with the howls of beasts.

"RUN!" shouts the blue haired girl. Just as she slashes apart the creature's stomach, five more dive from between the trees.

"But, I can't leave you alone!" Motoko says. Her bravery surprised even her. It felt much easier to move knowing there were others in danger. The last thing she wanted was to die alone on this mountain.

"We can handle ourselves, now MOVE!" the girl yelled. She struck three cerberus simultaneously with her rings and blasted the fourth into pieces. But the fifth….

"We?" Motoko wondered. "Who's we?" Her body is suddenly pulled backwards into the gated path. A cerberus growls at her from where she just stood. "No!" Motoko cries. She grabs a stick from the ground and rushes towards the beast. "I won't let you fight alone!"

Her path is suddenly obstructed by a large violet crystal. She tries to crawl around the gate but another larger one appears there as well. A roar of snaps, clangs, and growls can be heard beyond the minerals but she is unable to catch a glimpse of what's happening on the other side. What is visible however, is the cloud of black smoke bellowing into the sky above.


*CLANG* the throwing knife sinks deep into the cerberus skull. Julius could hear the sound of screams ahead and prayed Carrie had made it to the girl in time. The woods were crawling with demons and the fire was growing out of control. Nothing could stop it now.

He ripped apart the wolf's side with his whip and raced up the path. Carrie was being swarmed with them. Fifteen? Twenty? They were moving too fast for him to count. With any other warrior he'd have been worried, but she moved graciously among the pack as if she were one of their own, masterfully slicing them apart in a delusional dance.

A lone cerberus pounces at her flank. Julius flips his whip around the creature's hind legs, yanking it backwards and releasing a powerful ray of negative magic. Carrie screams.

"Dammit Julius! I told you to stay back!" Carrie said. In the urgency he had forgotten to holster the whip upon approach. The whip vampire killer, was a magic canceler, and couldn't be used in conjunction with Carrie's witchlike abilities. As she sidestepped an enemy attack Carrie broke one of the vials from her hip and is instantly doused in bright blue holy flame. The creatures scamper back, though it won't hold them for long.

"Get her out of here I can handle myself" Carrie said.

"You want me to run back down the mountain? The whole bloody things on fire!" Julius said.

"I meant up to the shrine doofus. She can't survive a walk through hell on her own." Carrie said.

"Heat rises Carrie" Julius said. As he spoke the effects of the holy water died down and hundreds of guardians began closing in from the trees. "Shrine it is then" Julius said. The crystals blocking his path exploded as he ran near. The woman stood directly on the other side.

"Time to go" Julius said. He picked her up and began racing up the steps between the red gates.

"Put me down! What's wrong with you!" the girl shouted as she pounded on his back.

"No can do miss. You lost your chance when Carrie told you to run before and you stood there alone with a toy" Julius said.

"It's not a toy" she said.

The wooden gates ahead suddenly cracked in pieces and strange tentacle covered creatures squeezed through the cracks.

"Nothing ever goes smoothly Julius" Julius says to himself, setting the girl down and drawing his whip. "Why would I ever expect otherwise."


The wolf was instantly incinerated in emerald smoke as Carrie fired magic into its jaws. She had dealt with these creatures during her first visit to Dracula's castle. They weren't tough in their own right, but a pack as large as this was different. Cerberus are social creatures and they can coordinate attacks among one another to tackle more potent prey.

This pack was endless, but ill coordinated. Caster must be summoning creatures en masse from the Necronomicon. The attack would have been better planned were Carmilla involved. This was a relief, but the pack was still dangerous. Carrie had no doubts she would die if she couldn't catch up with Julius.

The gates around the shrine exploded in blue smoke as Carrie threw another vial of holy water. She had been drawn to Hakuba shrine by a mysterious magic emanating from the peak and made a gamble that whatever forces created that structure were on their side. If this were true, the cerberus shouldn't be able to follow her past the protection of the stone stallions. Utilizing the brief opportunity, Carrie dashed into the blue flame and races up the path. The growls of dogs grow faint behind her.

"It worked!" Carrie says. But her praise came too soon as a column of black ink spirals towards her face. She ducks, suddenly noticing the tentacle monsters crawling on the other side.

Carrie floods her feet with a burst of magical energy and races up the mountain trail. Julius and the woman aren't far ahead but they too are being swarmed by the black creatures. She fires bursts of green ahead of her and equips her rings. But just as she closes in on their position her body is forced to the ground by a supersonic force.

The sky is transformed into a deep crimson red as though all other color drained from existence. Carrie leaps to her feet but the monsters are gone, as though vanished from existence. The woman they rescued appears unusually calm.

"They've done it" she says.

"Done what?" Carrie asks. She had rescued maidens before who turned out to be monsters or succubi. Though her thoughts drift to her own time within the castle when Julius and the vampire hunter Ciel pulled her from her hibernation chamber. What a hypocrite she had turned out to be.

"The gates around the shine are restored" the woman said. "We should be safe now"

As she spoke, the crimson color dulled and a normal atmosphere returned to the scenery. Carrie's glowing red eyes remained active as she studied the new phenomenon with intrigue. A new set of golden specks had replaced the trail she was following earlier, this time leading a current up the mountain rather than down. Something had indeed changed.

"That's a relief" Julius said. "Not often we catch a break like that"

"Yes" Carrie flatly said. Her eyes still wandering in the air.

"We should hurry to the shrine. The barrier won't protect us outside these gates" the woman said.

Doubts still lay in Carrie's mind as they walked steadily towards the top. Julius was busy chatting with the woman, whose name was Motoko Hakuba. Carrie wasn't in the mood for small talk herself. She'd been following this odd set of specks for months, and they were definitely of the same sort that flowed into Dracula's castle halfway around the world. Dracula had a presence here whether the young Hakuba was aware of it or not.

The path widened towards the top as it expanded into a short plateau. There were buildings and shops scattered about with a large bell positioned plainly at the center. Motoko cut off her conversation with Julius to grab a stout white cat waiting on a ledge.

"Mina! Mina I was so worried about you" Motoko said, embracing the cat. "I made some friends to fight off those nasty things so don't worry okay!"

"As happy as I am for your….cat" Carrie said. "I'd like to see what I've come here for."

"Patience isn't just cliché, it's intrinsic" came a crinkly voice. It came from a short, bald man walking slowly toward them with the aid of a wooden cane.

"Grandfather Hakuba" Motoko said. "We were attacked on the mountain, is everything all right?"

The old man grew silent.

Carrie stepped forward. "I tracked an energy source from Transylvania to your home. If your hiding something it won't remain secret for long"

"We don't keep secrets in this place. If you want knowledge you need only ask" the man said.

"I don't have time for this" Carrie growled. "Am I the only sane one in this country?"

Julius reached to her out but she had already rushed to another part of the shrine.

"Your friend carries a great burden on her shoulders" said Grandfather Hakuba.

"Aye, she has some peculiar habits" Julius said. He had no intention of chasing after her this time. Though she pretended to be frustrated with others he had known her long enough to tell what was really on her mind. Or at least what he hoped to be true.

"Young Motoko has been working with us for many years. Thank you for saving her Mr?" Hakuba said.

"Julius Belmont" Julius said. "And the pleasure is mine"

"Ah, a Belmont" the man's face grew dark. "Then it is as we feared"

"If you and grandmother needed help you should have asked" Motoko said.

"We were hoping to wait until you were older Motoko. The duties of the shine maiden should not burden those around them so." Hakuba said.

"The situation has changed" Julius said. "We've been looking for this place for a while now. But now that we are here I'm not sure what to do."

"There is little you can do. And what you could you've done already" Hakuba said. "We've known that forces beyond this world were trying to connect with the gate, but I had no idea the scope of those powers. I underestimated them, and my failure almost cost Motoko her life"

"It's perhaps more complicated than you realize" Julius said. "Have you ever heard of the Holy Grail?"

"I have not, though from the tone of your voice I doubt there is anything truly holy about it" Hakuba said.

"That remains to be seen" Julius said.

"Of course!" Hakuba laughed with a coarse cough. "I would never expect his castle to forge a connection so far away without help"

"So you know of the Count, and have been struggling to keep his powers at bay" Julius said. "Is there anymore I should know?"

"I never thought I'd seen something like this in my lifetime" Hakuba said. "There have been stories yes, but nothing so dark"

The man broke eye contact and began mumbling strange words in Japanese. Julius was unsure if he should continue interrogating him. The guy was trying hard to fill the role of a wise elder but it never appeared to be any more than an act. He was in over his head and something was preventing him from admitting that. Pride perhaps. The church should have been notified the second he noticed something odd emanating from the shrine. Despite this however, pressuring him further would accomplish nothing. What's done is done.

"Thank you for your time" Julius said. He bowed and turned to look for Carrie. Motoko remained at her mentor's side.

"You didn't tell him about the prophecy" Motoko said. "They aren't here to hurt us, why hide so much from him?"

"The tale of the woman born from stone is without a happy ending" Hakuba said. "Can't you see the man is in love?"


Carrie rushes past the array of shops and food stands with barely a glance. Most of them are empty anyways and the few that aren't are filled with trinkets or souvenir junk. This place probably has a season or a festival that draws larger crowds than today.

As she rushes past a wooden stand her eyes catch a glimmer of blue sitting on the table. She pauses to examine the stone, quickly noticing several others scattered around the table. Her heart beats loudly in her chest as the name recollects hundreds of dark memories from her past. The idea floods her mind so strongly she can almost smell the stench of death holding hostage to the air.

"Those crystals are not for sale" comes an old voice.

"I wasn't interested in buying them" Carrie said. She hadn't noticed the woman hunched behind the counter. The green cloak wrapped around her head blended in with the décor along the walls.

"Then I presume you know what these are?" she said.

"Do you?" Carrie questioned. Her eyes locked with the woman behind the counter. She held an aura similar to the man she met earlier, but different. Hers was much more genuine, as though the other man had been trying to mimic her manner like a mask. There was no doubt that this was the true elder Hakuba and keeper of the shrine.

"No" Hakuba said. "But I know what they are used for"

"You should rid them from this place" Carrie said. "Places like this shouldn't be dirtied with that kind of magic"

"Dirtied you say?" Hakuba said. "Dirty because of their potential or for their own sake?"

"Evil because of what they are used for" Carrie said. The old woman smiled. She genuinely smiled. It was so unexpected that Carrie had to stop herself from flooding her palms with an emerald glow.

"You grow tense during times of peace" Hakuba said. "Will on its own is powerful but it is also frivolous. I don't mean you harm Carrie Fernandez, quite the opposite"

"I don't like you" Carrie said bluntly. She hadn't intended to speak such things aloud. The woman was making her uncomfortable. She considered walking away but sensed there was more to be learned here.

"You have no obligation to like me" Hakuba said. "All will make sense in time, I just wish for you to proceed without regret"

That comment sent a shiver down her spine. "I have no regrets" Carrie commanded. A stiffness was growing around her shoulders. She didn't recall introducing herself to this woman. Did she really know this much about her or was it a merely a coincidence. "I hope I'm overreacting" Carrie thought. Yes that was it. She was born over a hundred years ago, it would be impossible for anyone to know her. Of the hundreds of people she had met one of them was bound to rub her the wrong way.

Carries eyes made their way to the stone steps ascending behind the stand.

"The gate is closed except during festivals" Hakuba said.

"You mean you won't let me go up there?" Carrie said.

"No, I will not" Hakuba said.

"Hmph" Carrie pouted. "I can see I was wrong then"

"Hey Carrie" Julius said, approaching the counter. "What are these?" he asked, failing to notice Mrs. Hakuba as well.

Carrie turns away from the counter. She knew Julius would catch up to her and didn't bother to wait for him.

"We're done here. Let's catch up with the others" Carrie said.

"So soon?" Julius questioned. He glanced back at the stone staircase and the red gate overlooking the mountain.

"There is indeed a black presence in this shrine. But there's nothing we can do to fight it now" Carrie said.

"You're more stubborn than usual. It was those rocks wasn't it? I've seen them before" Julius said.

"I highly doubt that" Carrie said.

They descended from the mountain, mysteriously untouched by the fires that once raged through it.


I feel this is the best chapter I've published so far. My writing has greatly improved since I started the series. We are well over halfway through the saga now and the fateful climax is approaching.

Next chapter will focus on Saber and Kiritsugu.

Let me know what you think. Don't forget to review!