So reviews aren't showing up on this page for some reason. :(
I've been busy with work and haven't been working on this as much as before. If I'm taking too long feel free to write a review or send me a PM. I don't want to leave a story hanging as so many people on here do.
She felt it. The disturbing chill down her spin. Its darkness radiated throughout the dusky halls.
He was here.
In this school.
Somewhere.
The very fabric of time plummeted into a spiral of oblivion, dancing wildly around her without an origin. It was an ancient form of immortalization magic, the stench of which covered this place.
"You won't find what you're looking for, knight of the Seventh Scripture" spoke an old crackling voice.
Ciel gasped, instantly recognizing the dark spirit before her.
"The number of the beast is a human number. He can't have resurrected. Not yet anyway" said Nero, a powerful Dead Apostle. Ciel readied a key in her right hand but hesitated to attack the man head on. She didn't even know where he was.
"Perhaps we could strike a deal?" the voice echoed around her, "I'm not here to hurt you priestess."
"There isn't a place on this earth that you'll be safe from me vampire" Ciel said then softly muttered, "But you are right about one thing".
Ciel leapt from the building and raced towards the park. She needed to find Carrie, and quickly.
Julius made his way into the park just as the sun escaped over the horizon. He hoped the girls wouldn't be upset with his failure to find information on Roa, though he himself wasn't disappointed with the information he did get. They were one step closer to finding Dracula.
He watched for hours as the crowds thinned and people left the park. The sky had grown incredibly dark and lights were few and far between the trees. The citizens stared at him from time to time though they tried to hide it. Julius stuck out like a sore thumb in this place. "Good thing I don't have a beard" he thought to himself.
It was late into the night when Carrie finally arrived. She walked steadily on the path with a hood concealing part of her face.
"Well it's about dang time!" Julius spouted. A small smile lit half of Carries face.
"Honestly Julius, I thought you'd have figured it out by now." Carrie said, taking a seat on the bench next to him.
Julius was puzzled. What was he supposed to have known? That she'd show up late? How was he supposed to know when they'd all decide to stroll back?
Not knowing what else to say he thought it best to assume as little as possible and keep his mouth shut.
"The cities crawling with vampires." Carrie said, as if it were a perfectly normal thing to say.
"Wh-what?" Julius asked.
"Dozens if not hundreds I'd reckon" Carrie said, she opened a small bag and started munching on a piece of melon bread.
"What sorta vampires are we talking about Carrie, Draculian? Dead Apostles? Over emotional Teenagers?"
"Not Dead Apostles, I guess ghoul would be the word I'd use. I ran into one earlier."
She was still beating around the bush. Had it become her mission to be as unclear as possible? Perhaps she was baiting him? No, he wasn't taking the bait. Enough with the childish games.
"Do you have a plan?" Julius asked.
"Well" Carrie responded, pausing to put away her snack. "If these are true ghouls then eliminating the energy at its source should free the entire city."
"What do you mean by that?" Julius said.
"Take out the Queen" Ciel said. Julius noticed her walking up to the bench. Her steps were soft; owl like. It's no wonder she got so close without him knowing. There was something unusual about her though. Her face was pale white, and her posture was incredibly straight. Ciel always seemed like she was carrying a great burden, though he rarely saw her so alert.
"Is something wrong Ciel?" Julius asked.
"We need to talk."
Olga Belnades sat in the audience chamber in Clocktower listening to the endless banter of Association representatives. She didn't care about the schools budget, or new regulations within the Disciplinary Committee. Daniel had been insistent that she attend the entire meeting, saying that "it was rude to come and go as you wish". How irritating.
Word from Julius came in last week. The girl was proving more and more ambiguous. Olga had originally identified her as a threat; a decision she was beginning to regret. Julius had her trust so she wasn't totally out of the game yet. At least the Ecclesians had scarcely identified the new location of Dracula's castle.
She had to stop herself from laughing out loud. Why was that funny? She messed up that was the truth, knowing that others were worse off than her wouldn't change that. It did make her feel better though.
"Perhaps such a thing is integral to human nature. To find joy in tormenting one another" she said to herself. Her thoughts strayed to Dracula.
"Case 14573, we have new word from Belnades concerning Dracula and the girl" spoke a mage towards the center of the room. Olga stood up.
"The girl is within the custody of Julius Belmont, a vampire hunter I'm sure you've all heard of. They've traveled to Japan in search of the Dark Lords Castle" she said.
"Japan!" shouted a female mage. "That's the other side of the continent! We are already aware of the castle's location in Eastern Europe."
"The girl spoke of an energy source from the Far East last she was here" spoke another magus. "Perhaps her intuition was correct."
"This is no more relevant than it was before" said Kayneth. "We are wasting time on a case that is doomed to lead nowhere."
"Are you not curious as to how an energy source could travel so far?" pleaded Olga. Kayneth was a typical magus. And like all of their kind he cared only for that which benefited himself. Fighting Dracula was an incredibly benevolent task, ergo one they wouldn't join under normal circumstances.
"Absolutely, if such a thing existed" Kayneth rebuked. "In the past few weeks we've seen no further evidence to the contrary. I presume you have some now Olga?"
"My team has only just arrived at the site. Such information would be impossible to know until the investigation has completed!" Olga responded.
"You are being harsher than usual Kayneth" a mage replied. "Maybe we should listen to her?"
"I am listening to her. That's the problem" Kayneth said. "You said your team just arrived on site?"
"Yes" Olga nodded.
"Why such a delay? It's been weeks since we met the subject in person" a magus spoke.
"I apologize" Olga bowed as she spoke. "We ran into some difficulty containing the girl. The problem has been dealt with"
"You must understand Olga" spoke a man at the front of the room. "If such an energy line were as important as you say we would have known what we need to know by now."
"I advise we divert attention away from the ramblings of a delusional child" Kayneth said. "We have serious matters to attend to. Especially with the upcoming war."
Olga clenched her fists; that man had better be referring to Carrie. "Sir! I must object. Dracula's forces are stronger than we have ever recorded and."
"I think the council has head all that it will hear Olga. That's quite enough" said Daniel. His words strung like lightning. Olga stared at him in shock and sunk into her chair. The council was quick to move on to another irrelevant bureaucratic matter.
Olga folded her paperwork inside her suitcase and left the room. Screw attending the entire meeting and screw you Daniel.
She flipped him off on her way out the door. Though no one in the room seemed to notice.
Julius nodded quietly as Ciel and Carrie shared their experiences in Misaki town. As he understood it, three vampires (possibly four) were making movements within the town. Their next steps should be fairly standard as Ciel mentioned earlier but something was bothering him.
"Ciel, this vampire you encountered. You believe it's the one?" Julius asked.
Ciel stared him directly in the eyes as she said, "I do".
That was troubling news. He had already detoured from Dracula too long as it was, he couldn't afford an expedition for the Serpent of Akasha. Which meant only one thing and from the look in Ciel's eyes she knew it too.
"Well, we shouldn't waste any more time than" Julius mutters. He stands and rummages through his bag. Carrie begins to stand as well though Julius ushers her down.
"You might want to sit down for this Carrie" Julius says. He pulls a flat object from his bag wrapped in red cloth. Ciel eyes the object with surprise but doesn't say a word. "Things got off on the wrong foot before Carrie. But before I begin I need you to trust me…completely. I have no desire to hurt you." He unravels the object revealing the familiar mirror.
"Lilith's Mirror" Carrie says. "You've had it this entire time?"
"No, Olga asked to me to have it before I found you. We needed your memories to return and before…." Julius's voice trailed off. Carrie's personality pulled a 180 after she regained her memories and Olga had told him that her previous encounter would likely cause Carrie to fear the mirror.
"I'm not afraid Julius" Carrie said plainly. "I have nothing to hide from a Belmont."
"That's what worries me" Julius said. "Olga did a real number on you back there, you're not skeptical at all?"
"It's not a weapon Julius" Carrie said.
"That's not what I mean" Julius responded. He looked back at Ciel who merely stared back with empty eyes. "Alright then"
Julius holds the mirror in front of Carrie and scribes a small symbol on its back. A brilliant light bursts forth from the reflection engulfing her body. Behind the void Julius and Ciel make out the outline of a woman, bursting from it is a light even more spectacular than the sun radiating beyond even the light emitted by the mirror itself. Slowly, the image crystalizes and settles down into a representation of Carrie. A representation, because though the woman shows striking resemblance to the vampire hunter her manner is entirely different; like a twin. And she shows a smile larger than anything Julius had ever seen from the girl. She wore an emerald dress much too poufy to match Carrie's style.
Suddenly, the image dulls and shreds of fabric begin to fall from the maidens sleeves. A black beetle sprouts from under her fingernails, crawling all over her body leaving behind an inky fluid that sucks the light away from the illusion. The fluid spontaneously ignites in a green flame too bright for either Julius or Ciel to see.
When the light dims a more stoic and familiar Carrie stands before then nearly naked. Her body covered in glowing green tattoo like structures. It stares at them with bright glowing red eyes, which quickly shut and vanish. The mirror dulls and returns to normal.
Julius re-wraps the mirror and places it in his bag.
"Her origin is Inscription" Ciel says. "Such a thing hasn't been recorded in well over a thousand years."
"Ciel, didn't you notice that!" Julius says with sorrow in his voice.
"Don't even start with me Julius" Ciel says. "She at least had a choice."
Julius isn't surprised by Ciel's reaction though it angers him anyway. It was times like this that he truly hated being human, unlike the two comrades he had stumbled upon. Carrie had a truly radiant destiny ahead of her, an unbelievingly rare one indeed. Her reflection had glowed brighter than the mirrors power itself which was unheard of. "So this is what Olga saw when she used the mirror on you before" he said.
"I've had an inkling since I found myself Julius" Carrie said. Olga didn't get the whole story before.
"You stained your own soul!" Julius said. "Carrie that's…..that's quite serious." The idea of it chills him to the very bone. Only someone so kind, so destined for happiness could possibly sacrifice enough to attain this kind of power. She was dying even as he watched her now and she didn't have to be. Even now she could end it all if she wanted to. Her period of amnesia suddenly made a lot more sense.
"My God, what have you done?" Julius says, looking back and forth between Carrie and Ciel. "At least now I know why you two bonded so quickly."
"We are nothing alike" Carrie says.
"Yeah how about that" Julius said.
"None of this tells us anything we didn't already know" Ciel says. "You could have just asked"
"Asking isn't enough to satisfy the Mages Association as you're well aware Ciel" Julius said. "This is proof she's on our side."
"And now that you have it we should keep moving" Ciel said. She walked away towards the parking lot.
"I understand now how you plan to destroy the Count for good" Julius says.
Carrie nods and leaps from her seat to run after Ciel. They quickly approach the gaudy green Lamborghini. Ciel opens the trunk of the car and expands her magically condensed luggage. Carrie gazes across the assortment of magical items as Ciel compacts most of them into a small pouch. Her eyes gaze upon a large chest resembling a guitar case. She motions towards the padlock but Ciel grabs the container before she reaches it.
"Best not to play with something like that" Ciel says, slinging the case around her shoulder.
"Have you had that this entire time?!" Julius shouts.
"Longer than I've known you" Ciel says.
"And you didn't think to mention it? After all the trouble we've been in!" Julius said.
"I'm saving Seven for a special occasion" Ciel said.
"I almost died!"
"Key word 'almost'. It takes a lot of mana to charge her up." Ciel said.
An eerie voice suddenly shouts. "I agree with Julius, what good is a tool if you never use it?"
Ciel, Carrie, and Julius all rush around the vehicle. Julius searches for the source of the voice, unsure if he should get in the car or prepare Vampire Killer.
A tall man suddenly appears sever meters ahead of them. He has short grey hair and a face that looks as if it had been brutally beaten yet failed to heal.
"JULIUS LOOK OUT!" Ciel shouts as Julius notices a large black spot appear under him. He leaps from the sinkhole as a gigantic boar suddenly rises from the dark. Before he can blink, dozens of similar pigs reform around the car. Carrie stands in the center of them.
Ciel throws a flaming black key towards the center of the horde.
"NO!" Carrie shouts, suddenly appearing on Julius's left side.
"What the" Julius says. Can the woman teleport? Ciel's flaming key sizzles then vanishes without further affect.
"You're lives are precious to you" Nero says. "Are you ready for that deal yet Ciel?"
"Are you ready to die?" Ciel spits.
"MuaHAHAHAHA" Nero laughs. "And I thought you were the rational one" Dozens of black animals suddenly spawn around him in a variety of sizes. Some as small as a raccoon, others bulky as a Grizzly Bear.
"All bark and no bite Nero" Ciel says. "You know those weapons are useless against me"
"We all have a few tricks up our sleeves" Nero says, his trench coat pulsating with living things.
"Nero?" Julius says. "As in six hundred and sixty six?"
All the animals suddenly attack.
Julius sidesteps the lunges of two hyenas and stabs each one in the throat. They instantly dissolve in smoke but are quickly accompanied by more. He smashes a jar of Holy though the beasts run though unaffected. Carrie suddenly appears before him and blasts two incoming leopards with each hand. Julius whirls around to swing his whip at the incoming swarm of pigs yet is thrown to the ground in the panic.
A pair of wild dogs rush around Carrie. Were they trying to confuse her? How daft could this Nero fella be?
The first dog lunges and is caught in the teeth by one of Carrie's rings. It explodes on impact instantly disintegrating the apparition. The second dog dives for her leg but is kicked aside and blasted in the stomach with emerald light.
A swarm of other beasts close in on her position. She flings a circle of dark energy around her which scares the bulk of them off. Carrie checks her surroundings. Ciel was on a lamp post throwing explosive keys at the horde from a distance. Julius was engaged in hand to hand combat as his magic didn't seem to be working. "You're meant to combat vampires Julius, not mundane beasts." She instantly teleports in front of him (another trick she learned from Dracula) and destroys two oncoming leopards. She runs forward assuming Julius to be right behind her. "A terrible presumption" she thinks as a scream bellows behind her.
Carrie spins around and uses both of her hands to levitate Julius above the oncoming boar. Black keys rain down from the sky between her and the pigs, exploding in fire. She throws Julius towards her.
"I can't do this forever!" Carrie yells.
"I know!" Julius nods and turns to face Nero.
When the animals attacked Ciel instantly threw herself into the air. Most of Nero's creatures were grounded as she expected. She threw several keys into the crowd, dissolving an entire pack of wolves. A bull moose charged at the lamp post she was standing on forcing her to leap to the next one. Wave after wave she threw her keys after the swarm which had accumulated to a giant dark mass beneath her. She hadn't a place to land if she wanted to.
There was another problem. Julius was completely unfit for this type of combat and Carrie was struggling to compensate for them both. The swarm would overwhelm the two of them in seconds. Ciel leapt passively from post to post as each was torn apart underneath her. She was getting farther away from her teammates, but the extra time should enable her to store enough mana to clear a path. That's when a thorned feather suddenly whizzed past her head, slicing an inch of hair off her bangs. A flock of rapturous birds was ganging on her. "So much for the air supremacy"
Ciel threw a few keys towards the aerial foes and leapt into a tree for extra cover. In the distance she could see a swarm of pigs quickly closing in on Carrie and Julius. "Damn I'm out of time" Ciel screeched as she dived high into the air above and threw a wave of enflamed keys towards the pack. A thorned feather tore through her left leg as she prepared to land. The pain was manageable but her foot failed to respond in time to catch the next branch causing her to lose balance.
She fell to the ground as the horde quickly closed in. Carrie and Julius were staring directly at Nero. "Don't do it you idiots" Ciel thought to herself. She leapt back into the air and prepared her keys.
"I'll keep as many of them off you as I can. Go straight for his heart, ignore anything else." Carrie says. She slashes at a pair of oncoming deer.
"My magic doesn't work on these things, it's like they aren't even mythical" Julius said.
"Don't worry about them. Just focus on Nero." Carrie said. "Where are you Ciel?" she thinks to herself. She scans the area until she sees the small blue haired figure on the complete opposite side of the park.
"Alright we move on three" Carrie says. "1….2….3!" Just as Carrie takes her first step forward she is thrown to the ground by an explosion.
A piercing ring gongs in her ears. Her eyes fight to work again. What the hell was Ciel thinking? She feels a tug to her right arm and makes out Julius's figure as he pulls her across the grass. She throws magical energy blindly into the crowd, praying that Julius knows what he's doing. She is suddenly tossed aside and lands on an oddly comfortable squishy surface. Her body is jerked against a hard leather back. Not by Julius but by some physical force. Her ears slowly return to her as she hears a loud roaring all around her.
Ciel looks graciously upon the Lamborghini as Julius races away. "I always hated that car" she says, turning back towards Nero.
"How admirable. You sacrificed yourself to save your friends" Nero said.
"It was inevitable" Ciel says, and readies her blades in each hand.
"You think you can fight them alone?" Nero said, amused. Ciel answered him with a blade embedded deep in his forehead. Nero erupted in laughter.
Hordes of beasts lunged inwards all at once. Ciel ducked under an oncoming pack of elk and slashed their bellies to pieces. A swarm of komodo dragons slithered underneath her which she leapt over and ignited into a field of fire. A pack of a hounds rushing her legs where ripped to shreds. A swarm of goats ramming towards her side where chopped in half.
The creatures kept coming, and Ciel kept killing.
"You won't use it? Not even now?" Nero said.
"HA! I've died a thousand ways worse than you could possibly imagine! You're not worthy of such a death" Ciel spat.
"Then die"
Ciel leapt over the crowd and landed directly in front of the demon. An enormous shark dived out form his trench coat that Ciel sidestepped. It soared through the air briefly before landing on the hard ground. It wiggled around in an effort to attack again but couldn't move more than a few inches at a time. What a useless creature to summon.
CIel swung towards his arm and was deflected by a swordfish. She feigned a recoil and struck again, this time at his left, and sliced his leg straight to the bone. As the man fell she stepped around him and cut his arm clean off from the other side. The appendage wiggled about the ground for a split second before Ciel crushed it under her boot. Before she could stab him again a grizzly bear tossed her aside from her flank.
The horde swarmed to her location and leapt above her. "FIRAGA!" Ciel screamed and their bodies burst apart. She charged through the masses with swords of fire until she came face to face with the demon himself. But he had already healed his injuries.
She couldn't lose. Survival was inevitable. Nero appeared panicked. He was trying to step away. Victory was hers.
Ciel leapt into the air, threw an array of keys around the animals protecting him, and jumped straight onto of the man's shoulders. As he tried to throw her off Ciel sliced both his hands apart and back flipped onto the ground. She stabbed a buffalo and sent its carcass flying straight into him. As Nero tried to recover, Ciel lunged onto him, sliced off his head, and plunged a blade deep in his heart.
His head softly laughed from a few feet away.
"WHAT!" Ciel gasped as her body was drawn into Nero's. Pain instantly exploded upon her entire body. He was eating her, chewing upon her every limb at once. Everything was black or could she see nothing? Everything was silent or could she hear nothing? No, she could hear a crunch and scrapes as the animals feasted upon her bones. Survival was inevitable. It would never stop.
And then suddenly it did.
Ciel gasped for air as she looked up at the stars from the empty park. How she escaped she had no idea, though it didn't matter. The hunt would go on.
"How do you know where you're going?" Carrie asked Julius. They had been driving for well over an hour now. The streets were quiet this time of night though the toll roads had grown annoying. They were fortunate as to leave the vehicle unscathed. Ciel had good aim, Carrie could have done without the near contusion though.
"While you and Ciel were searching the town I scoped one of the locals for information on Dracula. There's a mage in this city who's supposed to be really good with seals" Julius said.
"And you think they can detect Dracula's energy better than I can?" Carrie said.
"No, I think they'll have an idea of why Dracula's forces would come all the way to this island" Julius said. "Somethings special's got to be here."
They drive past a sign welcoming them to Fuyuki City.
"It's been a lifetime since I last wore a uniform like this" Ciel thought as she walked towards the school. She wore a bright yellow shirt and a new pair of spectacles. A school bag around her shoulder held all her books, supplies, and combat equipment. (Hidden away from prying eyes of course) Through the rims of her glasses she saw a lot of similar students walking the same route in boring white attire. She was fortunate the high school staff were lenient in regards to the dress code, not that she couldn't change their minds if need be.
Carrie and Julius came to mind. It had only been a month or so since she said a silent goodbye. Thinking about past companions was highly unusual for her as she'd had so many in the past. Never did she think she'd ever live anything close to a real life again. Carrie was different. She had seen glimpses of personality in the amnesia girl, but it all washed away the moment she emerged from that tree. That was the face of a woman who had truly lost everything and in that face she had realized something.
Carrie and Ciel were not alike at all.
Ciel adjusted her glasses and turned inside the school gate. Perhaps it will be fun to play normal for a while.
She notices a shrubbery mangled on the side of the entranceway. "There must be someone on staff who can fixed that" she thought as she entered the school. It was just past seven, giving her over an hour to search for Roa.
But did it have to be this morning? She gazed back at the broken fence posts.
Certainly there were tools in the facility somewhere.