Chapter 21: I'll Kill You And The Night!
"It's not that big of a deal really," Jonathan patted Soma on the back, attempting to console the pale haired youth after the loss of his ebay bids. "I mean, there will be more bids, and probably even better items with even bigger bonuses! Maybe you'll even find a few +1 items!"
"What does it matter?" Soma wailed. Saddened beyond belief, he sent the dance rave skeletons home. One skeleton girl held her hands out in outrage. Skeletons never want to stop partying. Soma just shook his head back sadly. "It's already too late…"
Joachim's inner fashionista nodded in agreement. "Yes, your fashion sense has needed help for years now."
"That's not what I meant! I was talking about—" the pale haired youth began, but was cut off as Maria crashed into him, sending them both flying into the center pedestal.
The ceramic and wood of the pedestal crunched from the force of the impact and shattered into several splintery pieces and dust. Hector, who had been hiding underneath, began coughing on the dust, still crouched over on an intricate pattern on the floor. He squeaked as a bloody Isaac flew past him, sending yet another punch Maria's way.
Maria quickly vaulted herself off Soma's shoulders, sending her soaring into the air and smashing him into the floor. They both just narrowly missed the punch so devastating that it created a sonic boom shockwave and destroyed several of Dracula's remaining decorative wall tiles.
"Isaac, cease this madness!" Dracula declared.
"Why?" The grin never left Isaac's face as Maria kicked him into the wall.
"Maria, will you not stop?" Alucard implored.
"I've finally found my meaning in life!" She roared, ducking as Isaac came at her with a flying scissor heel hook.
"Please, if you continue you will both destroy the castle, and everyone along with it!" Leon begged.
Though the Belmont had no further power left, somehow his words resonated with them both. Maybe, just maybe, destroying what little remained of Castlevania with all of them inside it might be a bad idea.
They both halted, Isaac punching Maria's foot, and Maria kicking his hand. With a chuckle, they both relaxed. "I look forward to our next match," Maria said with a broad smile.
"Likewise," Isaac replied, with a genuinely large grin of his own.
For a moment, they all stood in silence, surveying the terrible damage that had been wrecked upon Castlevania. Then Death decided to start throwing Deathscythes everywhere.
"Fucking fuck, Drac! I thought you told him to stop!" Soma raged, knocking the blades away with sweeping heavy swipes of a Terror bear.
"Death! Stop it!" the lord of the night roared.
The grim reaper thought about it for a moment, then shook his bony skull. "No."
"This isn't right! You should be under my command! You're not allowed to say 'No!'" the vampire balked.
Death began to laugh, a cruel and merciless laugh, filling the room with more and more deathscythes.
Suddenly, Richter threw a bottle of holy water at him, freezing the reaper in place. "Die monster!" Then he threw another. And another.
Juste and Jonathan also pitched in, each tossing vials of holy water lazily in Death's direction, keeping the reaper frozen in place.
"Hey Drac, you got any good ideas? Because this holy water isn't going to last forever!" Jonathan cautioned, reaching for his reserve holy water vials where he had stored his trusty Shovel earlier. Charlotte eyed him strangely but chose not to comment.
"I don't know why he's acting like this!" Dracula complained. "He was perfectly fine before he went on Holiday!"
Leon coughed feebily in Dracula's arms. "Mathias… perhaps he still thinks he is on vacation? Perhaps he is doing this simply because he can."
It took a moment, but the truth of Leon's words finally settled into his aged vampiric brain. With a sinister glare, Dracula fixed his attention on his grim reaper. "Death, I herby renounce your privileges. You are no longer on Holiday!"
Suddenly, all the tiny sickles fell to the ground. The reaper heaved a great sigh. "Fiiiine."
Once again, calm settled about the room. The soft glow of the moon came in through the open hole overhead, and the wind rustled their clothes, also from the gaping hole overhead.
"Oh this is terrible!" Dracula wailed. "Do you know how long it took Isaac to build this place?"
"A week?" Jonathan answered.
"I'll be homeless for a whole week!" the lord of the night complained.
"You could always just sleep in the homeless shelter and panhandle for money like the rest of the homeless people out there," Charlotte suggested helpfully. "You won't even smell as bad as them!"
Jonathan gaped at her, "Did you seriously just say that?"
"Mathias, dear friend, you are always welcome at my home," Leon offered.
"What?! Oh no, not this again!" Sara perked up at the horrible news. "Leon, you are not letting your freeloading friends invade my house again!"
"Honey, let's discuss that later," Leon said, struggling to stand up as he glared up at the ceiling. With Dracula's help, the Belmont was able to get to his feet, leaning heavily on the vampire for support. "Something terrible is coming."
Indeed, the wind picked up around them, swirling down, ripping the remainder of the atrium's plants from the walls and throwing them callously to the floor. Dracula's eyes narrowed, "only one vampire could have such blatant disregard for beauty!"
As the presence grew closer, Joachim gasped, clinging suddenly to Juste's shoulder dramatically. "No… no it can't be! Not him!"
Juste eyed him peculiarly but said nothing.
Despite Joachim's vehement protests, it was indeed him. A colony of bats flew in through the open ceiling, darting around through the atrium until they all met at the center of the room. Together, they combined and formed into a tall man with flowing red locks.
"Walter is here," the vampire announced with a grin.
He wore a sophisticated black Armani suit-jacket that was unbuttoned to reveal a pinstriped white dress-shirt and crimson tie. His black slacks were only slightly more casual, hiding a majority of his polished-to-a-shine black leather shoes. His fiery red hair fell just below his shoulders, neatly combed and styled so that it was somehow fitting with his attire.
"Death, you have been a loyal minion," Walter murmured, his voice so powerful that even though he was speaking quietly, it boomed through the room. "Thank you for destroying the four wings of Castlevania and keeping them here until my arrival."
"Dracula took away my Holiday," Death complained.
"Did he? No matter," the vampire grinned. "Walter will be rid of him soon."
"Ugh! Walter! I can't believe you're here! I hate you so much, why won't you just go away?!" Joachim complained loudly from behind his protective Juste shield. "And really, wearing an Armani suit? How cliché are you?"
Walter gasped, turning to the source of the sound. "Clarence? Is that you?"
"I told you not to call me that anymore!" Joachim shouted. "My name is Joachim Armster now!"
"Dearest Clarence," the vampire grinned, easily strolling around Juste, who conveniently moved out of the way. "Who could have imagined that you would be here with this riff-raff for a millennium? Why did you never come home?"
"Because I hate you! You locked me in the Dark Palace of Waterfalls!" Joachim snarled back. "You're the worst father ever!"
"Father?" Leon gasped.
"He never told you?" Walter questioned, his eyes twinkling with mirth as he gazed between Leon and Joachim. "Clarence Bernhard, Walter's son, decided to change his name the day you met him in rebellion, Leon."
"Of course not, why would I tell a stupid mortal something like that?" Joachim scoffed. "Besides, you should be dead."
"Now Clarence, that's not nice," Walter rumbled, his rich voice like a deadly mountain lion's purr. "You were always trying to coerce others into killing Walter. So unappreciative. Leon Belmont was what, the fifth? Walter had hoped you would learn by now that you simply cannot kill him so easily."
"Walter, why would you banish your son to such a horrible place?" Leon questioned, as usual, forgiving his old friend for his comments. They were the result of decades of suffering at Walter's hands, or so he had been told.
"Why indeed," the red haired vampire mused. "Clarence has terrible habits. Habits that must be broken."
"Habits that would make you torture him for centuries in a desolate pit?" the Belmont said with a tone of great disapproval.
"Leon Belmont, you speak of things you do not know. Walter will remedy that," the vampire shook his head, his magnificent tresses rivaling Alucard's as they freely flowed in the breeze. "Clarence refused to make his bed in the morning, so Walter threw him in the dark palace of waterfalls for a two hour time-out."
Silence.
"Time-out?" Soma blurted incredulously. "Like a fucking five year old?"
"In Walter's eyes, Clarence is still a child. A child that needs to learn to make his bed."
"Making beds is stupid!" Joachim raged.
Walter tisked. "See? Leon rescued him from his time-out far too quickly. Only half an hour in."
"How are you alive?" Dracula finally chimed in, having been frozen in shock and fear for the entire conversation. "Leon killed you, and I took your soul!"
"Ah, Mathias Cronqvist, how Walter has longed to see your eyes paralyzed by fear," the vampire drawled, sauntering away from his wretched son and over to Dracula. "Technically, you only need part of your soul to live. Is that not what you told the young one over there?" Walter asked, indicating in Soma's direction.
Soma, who knew that Walter couldn't possibly be talking about him, glanced behind him at Shanoa. She rolled her eyes back at him.
"So Walter let you have some of it to survive, but he kept most of it. Walter understands population dynamics," the vampire built up menacingly, his body becoming surrounded in a visible black aura. "You were a wonderful distraction. All the Belmonts and self-righteous knights attacked you, leaving Walter free to do whatever he pleased. Amassing a fortune and becoming the most influential businessman of the millennium was a simple task with you around. Walter has even become a presidential candidate."
Soma's eyes widened and before he could think better of it, he exclaimed, "You're the Walter Bernhard plastering his smear campaign all over TV?"
"Walter understands the socioeconomic situation," the red haired vampire agreed with a grin. "Becoming President is a simple task when you are as wealthy as Walter."
"No way! I'm never voting for you!" Soma shouted.
"Walter does not need your vote," the vampire assured him. "The electoral college will see to Walter's election."
"But you're a vampire!" Jonathan protested. "You think people aren't going to figure it out when you never come outside during the day?"
"Walter is unfortunately affected with sensitive skin. Inferior humans, sheeple, are fortunately affected with grave stupidity," the red haired presidential candidate explained. Then, he turned his attention back to Dracula. "Mathias, you have helped Walter achieve great heights, but now that Walter is planning to be in the spotlight anyway, there is no more need for you. You are merely an annoying fly in Walter's chardonnay. So now, Walter will end you."
Dracula braced himself for the deadly strike, but it never came. Instead, something very unexpected happened.
Hector's cry of pain echoed through the tower, as Walter's blade stabbed him through the chest and into the center of the intricate pattern on the floor where he had been crouching. The pattern shifted and glowed, followed by a rumbling sound from the stones surrounding them. "Begone, Castlevania stock-value!"
Nobody needed to be told what had happened. They had felt this ominous shaking beneath their feet many times already. The remainder of Castlevania was soon to fall.
Isaac, enraged that Walter had stabbed his friend, rushed forward but was repelled by the vampire's dark aura.
"Mathias, your final key, hidden within Hector, has unlocked the last of the power sources that you so foolishly borrowed from yourself in the past!" Walter cried, his deep laughter filling their ears. "Did you ever wonder why you could never win all these centuries? Why, even though you borrowed Walter's power, puny Belmonts were able to defeat you?"
"They had a Vampire Killer whip!" Dracula protested.
"Only one!" Walter roared back triumphantly. "It should take at least four Vampire Killer whips to take down Walter!"
"Four Vampire Killer whips? How convenient."
Walter snarled, turning to the annoying source of that comment. "Sara Trantoul… how Walter loathed hearing your voice in the past. It hasn't become any better."
"Too fucking bad. Now shut your fucking cunt-hole because I wasn't done talking," Sara roared back at him, extending her dark wings out magnificently. "How convenient that it should take four Vampire Killer whips to take you down. That's just how many we have!"
Leon, Richter, Juste, and Jonathan all looked at her strangely. No they didn't. They each only had one.
Sara didn't waste any time for realization to dawn on them. In a moment, she was at Leon's side, grasping and taking away his Vampire Killer whip. Holding it aloft, she shouted, "Awaken!"
Instantly, three other Saras appeared in the room, one next to Richter, Juste, and Jonathan. Each Sara grabbed her respective whip, pulled out her wings and held the Vampire Killer aloft. The four Saras looked at each other, and without having any further communication, they knew what to do.
Walter began to look a little unnerved in his Armani suit as the Saras surrounded him, circling around him with their dark energy. "You think you can defeat Walter?! Foolish girls, Walter invites you to try!"
Each Sara gathered as much dark power as she could muster, then flung it at him with the crack of her Vampire Killer Whip. "Vanish!"
Thick, gooey darkness surrounded Walter, pinning him to the ground as the four continued to cackle gleefully, whipping and whipping until his red blood flecked into the air around them, covering them all with a fine mist of crimson. Then, they continued to mercilessly and shrilly laugh and whip, shouting curses and obscenities at him, unleashing a millennium of pent up rage at the vampire that had caused her so much grief.
Eventually, their power dissipated. Three of the Saras vanished back into their Vampire Killer whips, which fell unceremoniously to the ground. The last remaining Sara, the one who had summoned the other three, immediately cast the whip back at Leon, knowing that if she used any more of its power that it would reabsorb her too. Then, spent, she leaned on her knees for support, panting from the physical exertion.
Sara's black mist swirled around the hunched form in the center of the room, and all eyes watched for any sign of movement. After a few moments, the darkness cleared, revealing Walter's crouched body, covered with the torn remnants of his once fine suit. Ever so slowly, the vampire rose to his feet. With a disgusted scoff, he said, "you remain unamusing as always, Sara Trantoul. Why must you take out your revenge on Walter's suit?"
The red haired vampire watched as Jonathan, Richter, and Juste each reclaimed their whips, ready to pick up where Sara had left off. Even Leon gripped his whip tighter, ready to give this battle everything that he had left.
"Walter does not feel like fighting four vampire hunters tonight," Walter commented watching them all with a bored expression. Despite his less than stellar threads, he readjusted what was left of his suit and glanced evenly at them all. "Very well, stay within your crumbling castle. With the world economy struggling as it is, Walter doubts that it can be rebuilt anytime soon anyway."
"Alucard," Richter whispered urgently to the dhampire. "I think he said the castle is crumbling!"
"He did say the castle is crumbling," Alucard noted, then turned his golden gaze to Walter. "How will it reflect on your future presidency if this whole building collapses? The destruction of one of the most well-known landmarks in the city will surely attract attention."
"Alucard, Walter must thank you. When Leon removed your seal with his holy blessings, Walter was able to see your location and locate Castlevania," the red haired vampire murmured while grinning wolfishly. "Walter has already erected a barrier around Castlevania. The destruction of these floors will not affect Walter's assets and investments in the floors below. Only the new floors built this past week will disappear. None shall miss them, and none shall believe whatever stories you may tell."
"How dare you use Adrian like that!" Dracula roared, sweeping forward with determination, dragging a hapless Leon along with him.
"Stay your hand, Mathias," Walter advised, holding his own finely manicured, but now bloodied, hand up in demonstration. "Walter shall let you live a while longer. It will be amusing to watch you pick up the scraps now that you are bankrupt."
"Walter, I have not forgotten my promise," Leon warned. While he was still leaning heavily on Dracula for support, it was obvious that he could not do battle at the moment, but the hard glint in his eyes made his threat unmistakable. "I have already killed your Eternal Night. Someday I will kill you."
"Leon Belmont, should the day ever arise where we do battle again, Walter shall look forward to it," the vampire agreed, brushing off the threat like he was brushing a gnat off his coat. Then, he turned to gaze fondly at his son, "Clarence, feel free to come home whenever you like. Walter will have a perfectly made bed for you soon at the White House."
While Joachim began whining in protest, the red haired businessman turned to face them all. "Now, Walter must go destroy the middle class." The red haired vampire bowed deeply to them all, disappearing into a colony of black bats mid-bow. His rich laughter echoed through the chamber as the bats flew through the wide open hole in the ceiling.
The now clearly crumbling castle gave a violent lurch to the left, causing the remaining people in the atrium to stumble. "We should leave. Now," Leon advised.
"No shit, Sherlock," Sara muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Mathias, can you fabricate a portal to my home?" Leon asked.
The lord of the night pondered this for a moment, then nodded in ascent. "Though it seems there already is a portal in your home, I can make another." With a wave of his hand, a beautifully crafted dark portal opened beside him. Charlotte eyed it enviously.
Isaac, now able to get to Hector, removed the blade from his friend and heaved him up into his arms. "No dying, ok?"
Hector nodded weakly.
They all ran through the portal, just barely making it as the first stones of the atrium began to collapse into itself. They ran out onto Leon's front lawn, and from the distance they could just barely make out a flash from the top of the building they had just left. Had they not been looking for it, they would never have noticed. From his view far away, Dracula sobbed in despair.
LateNiteSlacker's Notes:
1 – One more chapter to go! It's already done, but I'd like to give you guys a shot at answering the trivia first. So, if you want to see the last chapter sooner, review sooner!
2 – By the way, don't think you have to answer trivia to review. I love seeing what you have to say even if you don't try my questions.
3 – Though his part in this story is small, Walter just may be one of my favorite characters in this fic. Hope you liked reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!
4 – Congrats to the lovelies that answered the trivia questions correctly this time!
Chapter Trivia #20: Heavenschoir and Hoshi no uorufu
Bonus Trivia #20: Hoshi no uorufu
Title Trivia: Heavenschoir and Hoshi no uorufu
Chapter Trivia #20 Answer: The song "Vampire Killer" plays in this chapter. Which Castlevania games feature this lovely tune? This trivia's answer is VERY long, and even I can't promise that I caught them all. But, here goes! Castlevania, Vampire Killer, Castlevania 3, Super Castlevania 4, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Rondo of Blood, Dracula X, Chronicles, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Symphony of the Night, Legends, Legacy of Darkness, Lament of Innocence, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia, Judgment, Harmony of Despair, and Lords of Shadow. There are also several non Castlevania games that feature Vampire Killer, which include but are not limited to Contra: Hard Corps and Dance Dance Revolution.
Bonus Trivia #20 Answer: Dracula is thrown into holy water twice in this chapter, freezing him in place temporarily both times. In which Castlevania game did this actually happen? Castlevania. Yep, the original. Though, I should note, this only works on Dracula's second form.
Title Trivia #20 Answer: From where is the title "The Morning Sun Has Vanquished The Horrible Night?" Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest
Chapter Trivia #21: What allows Dracula to command Death?
Bonus Trivia #21: The title for this story (Modern Problems) actually came from another source. Can you guess what it is?
Title Trivia #21: Which Castlevania game features the line "I'll Kill You And The Night!"?