Alucard had no idea how long he had been walking or where he had even gone. When he finally took notice of where he was he was surprised to find himself stepping into a chamber that he could vaguely recall from before. How had he come here without realizing? Alucard didn't have long to ponder the odd situation before a deep voice addressed him.
"My savior."
Alucard was surprised as an unearthly man that was crowned with golden curls and several pairs of alabaster wings walked from behind the great winged statue that this chamber held. He was unclothed but a swirl of wings wrapped around from behind to conceal his body. He recoiled from him, unsure who he was or what he wanted but the man raised his hands and showed he was unarmed.
"Don't be afraid. I am your friend, Alucard." Alucard looked at the man with wary eyes but he did not move away as the ethereal creature approached him. "Who are you?" Alucard felt he should know this man but, like so many other things, he could not place him.
"I am a divine creature who was cruelly imprisoned in this God forsaken place." He told him, looking mournfully around the room. "A wicked vampire that served Dracula trapped me here so that I could not rise up to challenge him." The angel sighed and shook his head, "If only I hadn't been caged here I could be out doing great good for this world."
Alucard frowned at the story but could feel no obvious signs of treachery from this creature. Perhaps it was telling the truth. "You are an Old God?" The other nodded, standing regally as it looked at him with compassion. "Yes, and I felt you enter this place and was able to reach out to you in hopes you could help me. I can feel you have gone through so much suffering, child…" Alucard ducked and looked away, missing a dark and all around non-virtuous look that flashed across the "Old God's" face.
How right this Old God was. "My suffering is no concern of yours, it is mine alone." The Old God shook his head, smiling gently as he approached him, his many wings fluttering gently. "Don't say that, young one. I understand you better than you know. I know a way to abate your pain. I can offer it to you if you would but only take pity on this poor soul and free him from his deplorable fate."
Alucard glanced back up at him weighing his options for a moment before he come to the conclusion that it could do no harm to free this being. After all it was imprisoned by the Prince of Darkness or at least one of his followers. An enemy of that man was a friend of his. "Very well." Alucard said slowly, "What do you need me to do to free you?"
The angelic being smiled warmly at his words. "The wicked vampire used the most horrid of magic to seal me here; Blood magic. But the blood of a vampire can also break this seal. All I need from you is to give a small blood sacrifice and I will be unb-". The creature cut off quickly before adding, "…free."
Alucard narrowed his eyes at the Old God and his almost slip up. He was beginning to suspect that this majestic creature might not be exactly what it claimed itself to be. Perhaps he should find a way to leave without alerting it. "My blood? I will give you my blood gladly but…" Alucard trailed off realizing he couldn't think of a convincing reason to leave and he cursed himself mentally as he threw out a weak reasoning. "There is another dark creature in this castle. Let me figure out a way to destroy him first to allow you to be freed in safety. I need to leave but I will return, I promise." He started to back out of the room but the being sighed loudly, dropping all pretenses immediately, his dark nature becoming evident.
"Actually you don't." He said sternly, flicking a hand at Alucard who dropped to his knees and found himself unable to move. "What is this?" Alucard exclaimed, looking angrily up at the creature whose angel veneer became tainted and disappeared to reveal him as something far darker with a single set of black wings and hair colored like a moonless night. "You are no Old God! What are you?" The man chuckled wickedly and stepped up to him to look down at him with his now black eyes. "It was a good rouse don't you agree? I almost had you but, alas, I fear it's hard to keep in virtuous character."
"What are you?" Alucard gasped, trying to figure it out as bits and pieces of meeting with this very creature earlier started to come back. He highly suspected this dark creature had masked his memories to play out his faux "poor Old God imprisoned by Dracula" play. With the rouse spoiled it no longer saw a reason to hide them from him.
"That doesn't matter. Now use that sword of yours and spill your blood a final time so that I can be free!" The man cried lifting his arms to either side of him in a very theatrical fashion, his wings unfurling on either side of him as he did. Alucard was started as he did just that, grabbing his sword from his belt and holding it and his other wrist out in front of him, the blade hanging in air beside the skin. Before he could be coerced into slitting the skin a shrill voice rang out, interrupting the enchantment.
"Alucard!"
He turned around and saw the welcome sight of his Belnades comrade and self claimed "mother" standing just outside the ruined doorway, her blue eyes wide and terrified. "Yoko?" He called to her, blinking away the fuzzy vision and light headedness the dark creature's enchantment over him was causing. The young woman began to rush forward but he cried out when one of the towering carved figures from beside the door caved under an invisible pressure and fell over to block the path, a wave of cracked and crumbling architecture from above falling to further bar her entrance.
"Yoko!" He cried, turning to try and reach her but a tutting from behind him interrupted him. "Forget her, Trevor. There is no escape for you. Now give me your blood, I'm beginning to grow into old impatient ways." With that Alucard found himself frozen and forced back around with his sword once more held at ready to slit his wrist. Yoko's muffled voice was calling to him through the rubble.
"Alucard! Your sword! Focus on the spirit that is in your sword! You must remember!"
Alucard was startled at her words. His sword? He looked at his sword, feeling the same thrum of energy it always had. According to Yoko it was a spirit? Perhaps it could offer some form of help in this situation. He closed his eyes and began to reach for the power that lay within the sword until he was surprised to find himself link with it on some level to realize it was a dead-ringer to Dracula's dark energy. What was the energy of Dracula doing within his sword and how had he never realized this? Alucard was unable to consider it or try to pull back from the tainted power before its aura flooded through him completely and even within the depths of his mind where he felt a warmth flow from it and at once the dark angel's power over him sever, the other crying out in surprised anger. But it didn't stop with that, immediately and suddenly the chain that held his forgotten memories completely shatter allowing everything to flood back to him in a powerful and breath taking way.
"Father!" The cry was strangled and saturated with fear and disbelief, the sentence ripped from Alucard to finish a long ago cut off cry that he'd been unable to complete before the sword - his sword - had pierced him so thoroughly to stop it. The vampire's chest heaved with unneeded breath as he let all the memories of the past remold with the rest of his consciousness. Falling forward onto his hands he adjusted slowly to the melding, his short term memory blurring as it allowed for the return of his shattered memory fragments.
What... had happened? He had just been fighting with his father… no. Ages had passed since then. He'd lived a very different life since that time, awakening as a beast who had sought Dracula out to get revenge on him. The very thought of that distressed him as he realized what Dracula's plan had done to him; it had turned him into the vengeful creature he had once been just as he had feared it would. And if his memory served to be true he had aided the newest Belmont in destroying Dracula for good. "Damn it, father..." He murmured, the weight of Dracula's apparent death sinking in and pulling him into a new sort of despair. He had succeeded in aiding the Brotherhood in killing his father. The amount of self hate he felt at that moment was immense.
"Well… What a surprising turn of events. It seems you have all your memories back, Trevor."
Alucard snapped his head up, digesting the new information from his current memory quickly, realizing he had been led unaware back to Satan's hold in his ignorance and was now at brim of letting the monster escape. "You bastard!" Alucard hissed, leaping to his feet and brandishing the Alucard sword toward him.
Satan looked at him with great amusement, his eyes falling to the crafted blade in his hand. He made a knowing sound in his throat as if he'd just realized something. "I see… Gabriel put a piece of his soul into that. No wonder it broke my spell. But it is of no matter. That sword is not Gabriel and does not have his strength."
Alucard dashed toward the man with every intention of burying it into his throat but Satan dodged his attack and knocked him easily to the floor, pulling a cry from the vampire as he hit the unforgiving floor harshly. Before he could recover Satan seized him, twisting his sword arm cruelly behind his back. The fallen angel sneered in glee as it made a loud pop as it dislocated, earning a pained shriek from his captive, the sword falling to clatter loudly on the stone below. The sound of Yoko attacking the rubble from the outside with her magic echoed in the small chamber, the rocks and timber falling away in chunks. It would not be long before she broke through.
"It seems you little friend doesn't give up so easily." Satan jeered, dragging a hissing Alucard over to his alter. "Your screams are music to my ears, Trevor. I think I've been given some inspiration on how to get that last bit of blood from you. And since my weakened seal will allow it…"
With that proclamation Satan seized Alucard's head and forced a severe electrical shock into the creature below him, relishing completely in his pitched cries. "What? Still no tears? Well that won't do!" Satan laughed as he increased the voltaic shock exponentially into deadly levels, the visible electrical current searing Alucard's skin black and causing him to absolutely wail at the unimaginable pain it brought. "That's right my little nightingale sing me a song of your misery!" Satan cackled, his smile widening wickedly as he saw the first streams of bloody tears running down Alucard's cheeks.
"Yes!" Satan growled animalisticly, shoving Alucard forward so that the tears would fall onto the floor that held the invisible lines of the seal, "Through bloody tears I will be free! Through your deliciously bloody tears, Trevor! You should feel so honored!" A pool formed from the flowing tears and when he was satisfied Satan released Alucard from the vicious attack allowing the vampire to crumple lifelessly to the ground, his flesh sizzling and smoking from the currents that had just been wracking through his body.
Satan held his arms out and laughed madly at his victory as the blood flowed to the final node of the seal and seeped into the floor, the third and final chain that had represented his entrapment in his prison falling away and shattering completely. The tower at once began to quake violently, the structure beginning to crumble under the unwanted onslaught.
At that moment the ring of "Sanctus Fulgur!" shattered the air and a final powerful electrical bolt from outside blew a hole into the chamber allowing Yoko to scramble gracelessly into the chamber. The young woman spotted Alucard's smoking body and she rushed over to his side in severe distraught ignoring the demon that was soaking in his newfound freedom.
"Alucard!? Alucard!?" She cried, picking the man's top half up to cradle in her arms. She winced at the terrible burn marks that twisted across the barely conscious man's body.
"Don't cry for him girl, he'll live." Satan chuckled, finding terrible amusement from the girl's sorrow. "I could have done far worse things to him than that."
"You monster!" Yoko shrieked, glaring dangerously at the fallen angel, "How dare you do this to him!" Satan laughed mirthfully at her anger, enjoying it. "He is my property little girl, I can do with him what I wish. Now if you don't mind I'd like to have him back. I'm not done with him yet." Satan began approaching the cowering Yoko, his hand outstretched with a vicious dark energy crackling at his fingertips that promised only pain for her.
"Fuck you!" Yoko hissed, cursing in an uncharacteristic fashion as she held tighter to Alucard, the relic she'd received from the chupacabra held in one of her hands. She picked an area and focused on it and before the monster reached them she found herself in the castle entrance with Alucard still in her arms. The chupacabra had fled once she'd broken the doorway in so she did not worry for him.
She sighed in relief, safe for the moment. But Satan was unbound which meant none of them were safe. She turned her attention back to the incoherent Alucard that was barely clinging to consciousness. "It's okay, Alucard. Just relax…" She cooed gently, pulling at her restorative spells as she chanted "sanaret" and "percuro" over Alucard's marred body.
She was pleased when most of the burns began to fade from sight but the dislocated arm would need to be set by hand. She stopped her spell and began to gingerly touch Alucard's arm, wincing when he made a pained sound, but a loud shout interrupted her from starting to set it. "What is going on here!?" It was Soma. The young man appeared before her, his crimson eyes narrowed as he looked over to Alucard. "What happened to him?"
"Soma!" Yoko gently laid the vampire down and ran up to the young man and grabbed him by either side of his fur collar, her eyes wide in fear, "We must leave now! Satan has been freed from his prison!" Soma stared at Yoko like she had just grown another head before he laughed at her, "Nice try Yoko, you almost had me with that convincing act but it's going to take a far more convincing story to get me to let you leave." Soma brushed her hands off and looked her over. "Where have you been skulking? You're covered in dirt and dust."
Yoko looked dumbfound at the dark lord, wanting very much to rip her hair out. He didn't believe her? This idiot was going to get them all killed! "Soma! I'm not lying! Alucard just broke the seal that had kept Satan in check unwillingly! Please believe me! We are all in danger if we stay! He'll find us if we don't leave!" Yoko all out begged hoping to get through to the dark lord but he was not moved by her words.
"Again let me say try a more convincing story." Soma rebutted, smiling infuriatingly at her.
Yoko started to scream at him but Alucard's voice cut her off. "She's telling the truth Soma, I released a very real and very much alive Satan into this world." Yoko glanced back to where she'd left Alucard, and saw him struggling to his feet holding his lame arm, his face showing the shame and guilt he felt. "I've doomed us all." Yoko rushed to his side and held him steady despite his protests. "Soma, no matter what you believe we must leave this castle to save ourselves from his wrath." Alucard implored, lending his credit to the fact.
Soma rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you're a part of this fiasco too? Julius I know you're in the shadows! What do you think?" In the blink of an eye Julius appeared in a flash of blood tinged darkness beside Soma and eyed his former companions thoughtfully. He took in their haggard appearance and frowned thoughtfully.
"We need to lock these two in a padded room I think!" Soma laughed, laughing so hard he was hunched forward and grabbing his sides. Julius didn't look amused. "Maybe what they've said has some bearings of truth, Soma. Maybe we should listen."
"What!?" Soma balked, shoving at Julius and sending him to stumble a few steps, "Believe that Satan has been freed from some mythical prison? That's just absolute rubbish!"
"No!"
The high pitched cry was that of a child's and it silenced them all. Everyone at once turned to its quickly approaching source. The group was surprised to see a young girl dressed of dark nobility and a proper appearing man clad in a brown coat with a dull green vest beneath it and an interesting shade of purple trousers approaching them. The man was recognized as the commander of the Order of Shadows but the child was unknown though it was glaringly obvious that the girl was a vampire.
"Shut your foolish mouth you stupid boy!" The girl sneered, stopping just short of their midst, her wickedly black eyes narrowing. "Lucifer has indeed been freed!" Her lithe body trembled in a mix of anger and horror. "We're too late, little sister." The man mumbled at her side as he rubbed at his heart, looking down to her. "What do we do now?"
"And who the hell are you two!?" Soma angrily yelled at them but neither paid him any heed which prompted him to begin stalking toward them, "How did you two get into my castle!?" Soma gave a surprised yelp as the young girl waved a hand at him and sent him flying into a wall with enough force to crack it.
It was a great shock that she had so easily batted away Soma which eluded to her possibly being far stronger than even him. The remaining three, realizing that her tiny exterior hid a great power, gaped in awe and fear at her. Yoko shared a look with Alucard before asking, "Who are they?" Alucard looked at the new arrivals and nodded toward the little girl, "I believe we are in the presence of that ancient power behind the Order of Shadows."
Not paying any mind to the whispers the girl looked up at her servant, "We can do nothing now. We must awaken him. We must awaken G-" She was cut off when the room began to rumble around them, causing everyone to stumble and stagger and the walls to wail and crumble at the force. "He's here!" The child cried, her eyes widening almost comically. "Cullen! Grab Gabriel's son and forget the others! We must flee now!"
"Everyone out! Now!" The man yelled gravely, rushing forward and gently grabbing Alucard from Yoko, ignoring the disapproving glare he received from the little girl. "Let me have him. I can bear his weight better than you." Alucard fought against his grasp but Yoko waved her hand at him to make him stop, "He can carry you better than I go with him." Alucard knew she was right so he allowed himself to be hoisted up by the mysterious stranger. He didn't know the part these people played in this grand scheme or even if they were allies but they were a better alternative than facing Satan.
Everyone rushed for the entrance that led out of the castle but a great explosion of creeping darkness cut them all off, sending everyone with differentiating cries to fly in different directions as a monstrous pillar of darkness rose high into the air. A deep throaty laughter filled the hall as the newly unbound Satan stepped forward from the darkness, his characteristic triumphant sneer on his face.
"Now, now everyone, don't feel a need to leave on my account..." He looked around the room at the different faces that were pushing themselves to their feet, spying a familiar face. The demon materialized over the girl and he seized her by her throat and lifted her high into the air. "Here's the one that sealed me away. So good to see you again, Laura!"
The struggling vampiress struggled in his grasp, her braids whipping wildly around her. Hissing she tried to sear his hand with an electrical spell but he only laughed at her attempts. "Silly girl, you were merely lucky that you seized me when my power had waned from defeat at Gabriel's hands. Your little attack now is but only a tickle." He growled, tightening his grip on her. He started to send an electrical shock of his own into Laura but he gasped in anger as a an ice sphere hit him in his back, causing him to drop the girl. She was quick to teleport away and reappear beside the one that had saved her. Satan turned to look and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at the man dressed in a brown coat the girl stood defiantly beside; noting the man apparently was versed in some Bernhard dark magic. "Well, you're a new face. I apologize for not knowing you, give me a second and I'll remedy that."
The man cried out and dropped to his knees as Satan began probed viciously into his mind. "Oh, an adoptee of Carmilla? I see you were the play thing to by Friedrich von Frankenstein too. How painful that must have been for you little...puppet." Cullen blanched under the penetration of his consciousness, covering his head with his hands in a desperate attempt to escape it. Satan released his captive and retreaded from his mind with a dark chuckle before giving a vague message.
"You should seek out your father and show him how you have wasted his preciously given life; I hear he still haunts the theater of this castle." Laura grabbed hold of her trembling commander, yelling at him as she tried to bring him back to his senses while Satan turned his attention elsewhere in the room, finding what he sought.
"Ah, there you are my little one." Satan cooed approaching the vampire who had been helped up and supported by Yoko as she tried to lead him toward the entrance. Alucard gave a loud gasp as Satan grabbed him from Yoko's arms, the young woman wailing at him and trying to throw a spell but she was knocked away as if she were nothing but a pesky fly. Alucard fought violently against Satan's firm grasp with his one good arm in an effort to free himself. "Release me!" He cried, tugging at the wrist that Satan held. The dark angel chuckled at the way Alucard fought him and pulled him toward the pillar of darkness.
The sound of approaching hooves reached the demon lord's ears and he agilely twisted himself out of the way of a demonic screaming black horse, momentarily releasing Alucard as he sliced the wailing beast in half with a slash of darkness, the horse disappearing in a flood of blood and dragging entrails. He turned to face an angrily heaving Soma, smiling good naturedly at him as Alucard crawled away from his captor. "Well, I see the new Lord of Shadow has awakened. So good of you to join us Soma."
"Get out of my castle you bastard!" Soma snarled, calling on the power of a Big Golem to throw an enormous fist of stone at the fallen angel. Satan chuckled as he knocked the fist away like it was nothing more than a feather. "I appreciate your effort, boy, but it is wasted. Now do me a favor and play elsewhere with your petty little souls!" With that Satan hurled a fist made of darkness back at Soma in mimicry of the soul he just threw, hitting the boy and knocking him back several feet with a pained cry.
Satan sighed dramatically, flapping his wings forcibly in an extension of his annoyance. "I tire of you weak creatures." He didn't even turn when Julius, Yoko and Laura made another attempt at combating him, instead sending out a powerful dark shock-wave to knock all other parties back.
Looking to his side he saw Alucard bounce along the stone floor with a cry from the force of the shock-wave, further injuring his already dislocated shoulder. He smiled smugly as Alucard struggled to his feet and began to limp away. He quickly walked up behind the vampire, noticing the way he froze as he sensed his presence. He snaked his arms around the young man and pressed his lips up to his ear, "Where do you think you're going?" Before the other could answer he propelled them backwards with a flap of his wings to land just in front of the pillar of darkness.
Alucard renewed his struggle within his grasp; ripping at him with his one good hand and even attempting to bite him which tore a throaty chuckle from Satan's throat. "Oh Trevor, the way you struggle against me pleases me. Can't you tell?" The man pressed himself against the trembling creature, a terrible smile splitting his face ear to ear as the man froze at the feel of his arousal against him. "I have no words for your twisted desires, Satan!" Alucard hissed trying but failing to scratch at the demon lord's face.
"Release Gabriel's son, Lucifer!" A shrill voice cried. Satan looked up at the use of his name and saw Laura glaring at him.
"So nice to actually be called by my name for once, but I fear it's time for me to leave now that I have retrieved my prize." Satan took great show in nuzzling his face against the wriggling vampire's neck and harshly biting him to the point of drawing blood, earning a pained yelp from the captive vampire. "Enjoy what little bit of life you have left monkeys because I will tear this world apart at my leisure!"
Laura dashed forward but Satan disappeared in the swirl of shadows with Alucard and the black pillar began to fade completely, leaving nothing but the dissipating black vapors and Satan's deep laughter echoing behind for the vampiress to grasp at.
"Alucard!" Yoko cried, pushing herself to her feet and rushing forward, her eyes wide and filled with fear. "He took Alucard! What do we do!?" She screamed at Laura and the sluggish Cullen that joined his sister. The vampiress said nothing looking at the spot where Satan had once been and then around the room. "Nothing. There's nothing we can do."
"What!?" Yoko screeched, throwing her arms open, "What do you mean there's nothing we can do? There has to be something!" Laura fixed the Belandes sorceress with a glare that made her blanch.
"I said there's nothing we can do girl. I have a trump card I've yet to play but I see Lucifer has so kindly blocked my entrance before he left… I will need to retrieve some things first. Come Cullen." With that the little girl turned and walked out of the castle haughtily, leaving Yoko and other others to stare in confusion after her.
"Cullen." Julius walked up to the man rubbing his sore neck, recognizing him. "What trump card is this 'Laura' speaking of?" The Order of Shadows commander straightened himself and looked the group over for a moment before he spoke. "Collect yourselves and come with me if you wish. You can all stay at the Order of Shadows sanctuary as long as you like, perhaps one of us can come up with some sort of a plan there."
The trembling young man turned to follow his master, the tails of his faded coat twisting behind him, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. It was Julius. "Cullen, what did Laura mean by 'Trump Card'?" The man looked back over his shoulder at the former vampire hunter and said one thing. "Gabriel Belmont." Julius' hand fell away at the declaration. Cullen continued after Laura leaving the group to stare after him.
"Well Yoko, I believe I owe you an apology." Soma smugly said, walking up beside Julius and Yoko. The former vampire hunter made no attempt to move but Yoko dashed a ways away from him, eyeing him warily as she clutched at a sore arm she received from Satan's attacks. "Too little too late now Soma." Yoko bitterly snapped with narrowed eyes, Soma's almost apology meaning little to her at the moment. "If you'd listened Alucard wouldn't have been abducted by him!"
Soma only shrugged at the seething woman, "Yes, Yes, I'm upset about Alucard's lovely face no longer gracing our presence as much as the next person but from the way the demon prince was draping himself around him I'm glad it wasn't me. But worry not; I will say a prayer for him." Soma cruelly teased Yoko, jumping back when a bolt of lightning came at him. "Well, I don't know about you two but I think I'll take Commander Cullen's invitation. With Satan revived and Dracula's resurrection in the near future I see no reason to stay in this castle. Pity, I did like it here." Soma knocked dust and grime off of his white coat, straightening it from his scuffle with Satan. "Yoko for your attempts of warning me I'll grant you your freedom. No reason to keep prisoners when our doom is nigh. Julius…," Soma tapped his chin then shrugged; "If I need you I'll call you." Then the lord of shadow calmly put his hands in his coat and began to trail after Laura and Cullen.
"We should go too." Julius mumbled to Yoko. The Belnades sorceress nodded and she and Julius also set out after the figures far ahead of them, making sure to keep plenty of room between them and Soma as they did. It was the only option they had at the moment. What else could they do?
HAH! See what I did there? You know that moment when you're watching a movie and they say the title of the flick somewhere in it? Oh yea, I did that. Completely didn't intend for it to happen and didn't even plan on it but it just sort of managed to work itself in. I'm gonna go and pat myself on the back for that.
Finally, 10 chapters later and Satan is finally revived! Sheesh. :) Gods this is going to be a monster of a fic and I hope I don't run out of steam and not finish it. D: I have every intention of doing some art for this fic and even have some drawn but alas this site is violently opposed to links so I guess I can't show them. :( If anyone is curious though I did go ahead and put the links on my profile page. Any further art for this I'll keep posting there and make mention of it in the notes.