They had all gathered around Sypha, and she gestured to the two books that she held. One held the spell that would lock the castle in place, the other was a new one. It was that one that she held up with a smile. "This has cross-references that I can use with Adamic roots in the spell so that I can finish it. I'm not sure how I missed it before."
Alucard gave her an odd look. "What is that word?"
Sypha gave him a smug look. "It is the original language spoken by Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. The first before they were all split in the tower of Babel by God to prevent human cooperation."
Alucard gave her a flat look. "Is that how you understand that story?"
Eva looked at Adrian before she gave Sypha a curious look. She wondered for a moment if he was having the same thoughts she was. Sypha struck her as a rather pragmatic woman, so the fact that she seemed to believe in the tower at all was odd. Though, given what she had seen over the last two days, who knew. It could have been real.
Sypha seemed oblivious to their disbelief as she continued. "Oh yes, Speakers are the enemy of God. We foster cooperation and hold our stories inside ourselves so he cannot strike them down in jealousy."
All of the others were giving her looks as though they were unsure of exactly how to respond. However, none of them had a chance to. It was at that moment that a resounding bang echoed through the entire structure. They all looked up in shock before Sypha looked back with disgust. "See, God hates me!"
Alucard sighed as he eyed the dirt floating down. "I doubt that's god."
When another bang resounded, they all tensed and glared up. It was a few seconds later that Trevor practically growled. "If only that mirror hadn't been shattered."
The others eyed him curiously, though Eva felt a slight pang of regret. Obviously, whatever had brought her to this place had not served to help them if it destroyed something that could have been useful. She wasn't given long to worry about it as Adrian spoke soon after. "I believe there might have been at least one shard large enough to carve the runes into directly, but doing so could limit its usefulness."
Sypha gave him an excited look. "Oh, that's a good idea, but I can't do both at once."
Alucard went to sift through the pieces of the mirror and came back with one that was larger than two books together. He then looked over at Sypha. "I know some Chaldaic. I also know how to carve the runes and operate a distance mirror. Which shall I do?"
They both then looked at Trevor and Eva. She stepped forward immediately. "I don't know either of those, but I'll help any way I can."
Alucard felt the side of his lips tilt up, but he shook his head. "You need to stay back if you are not a trained fighter." He then looked at Trevor, who still looked unsure.
Trevor looked back and forth between Sypha and Alucard as the banging got louder. "I don't know how to do those things either."
Alucard practically growled as he stepped forward. "It's time to choose Belmont. You're either the last son of a warrior dynasty, or you're a lucky drunk. Which is it?"
Trevor looked up once with a frown before he looked back at Alucard. "Alright. Alucard, get the mirror working and see if you can get me force numbers, species, and weapons count. Sypha stays on her job for now. Eva, you stay back and only help if there is dire need."
Everyone moved to do as directed. Though, Eva moved to the far side of where Alucard was working. She watched in interest as he pulled one glove off with his teeth and held the mirror shard in his other hand. He held a finger out, and the nail grew so he could start carving the runes into the glass. Her voice was barely over a whisper when she spoke. "Fascinating."
Adrian looked over at her with a raised brow. "What?"
She pointed at his hand, and he looked almost taken aback for a moment. "Given your reaction to finding out about my heritage, I didn't think 'fascinating' would be your response to seeing further proof of it."
Eva had to fight not to roll her eyes. Though she wasn't given a chance to say anything. A frustrated Sypha spoke up from nearby. "Now is not the time!"
They both looked away from each other as Trevor turned with a frown. "I'll fortify the point of entry."
By that point, Alucard had finished the runes, but he turned to face Trevor. "I think we're going to see the size and disposition of the attacking force fairly quickly with our own eyes, Belmont."
Trevor was arming himself, but he turned to face Alucard. "I'm forced to agree. Do you have a further suggestion?"
Alucard's face lost all expression, and his voice became deceptively calm. "Are you asking my advice?"
Trevor rolled his eyes as he walked to where the vampire was standing. "We're working together, Alucard. You're still a bastard, but you're the bastard I chose to fight beside back in Gresit. Do you have a problem with any of that?"
Alucard had a slight frown by that time, but it cleared after a moment, and he gave Trevor an almost smile. "Not at all."
Trevor took it in stride. "So, what do you suggest?"
"Using this to find Dracula's castle. Now." Eva took in a sharp gasp next to them, and Alucard gave her a hard look. He didn't say anything to her. Instead, he turned back to Trevor. "We are trapped in a box down here, and will eventually be overwhelmed unless we change the nature of the battle."
Trevor grabbed the handle of his strange weapon. "Agreed." He then turned to the Speaker. "Sypha."
She called back. "I'm close to getting it!"
"I'll protect you for as long as I can."
She looked back with a soft look. "I know." She then disappeared into the aisle. Presumably, to concentrate.
As soon as she was gone, Eva looked on in awe as Alucard focused on the mirror shard, and an image of an architectural impossibility showed up. Alucard's voice was low when he spoke. "There you are." However, it was not there long before it disappeared. The image wavered before it reappeared. The castle was the same, but the area around it was different. This time, it was in the middle of a town. Alucard looked on in horror as parts of the city were destroyed.
Eva couldn't see as well from where she was standing, but it was enough to understand what it meant, and she agreed. She wasn't given long to think about it as she heard the sounds of Trevor fighting nearby. It made her skin crawl. She wasn't sure if she wanted to run and help or just run away.
It was at that point that she remembered something, and she started to sprint back up the stairs. "I'll be right back!"
Adrian was jerked from his horrified stupor as he glared back at her. "Where are you going!"
She ignored him as she ran to grab her bag and started rummaging through it as she rushed back. By the time she got back to him, she had a small metal cylinder in her hand. He frowned at her. "What is that?"
She shook her head and focused on the area that Trevor had disappeared. "Don't you have something more important to worry about?"
He nearly growled at her impertinence. Though, both their attention was drawn when a flood of red came rushing into the room with Trevor. Eva looked at it with disgust. "Is that blood? Oh god, that stinks!"
Alucard looked at her with curiosity again. "Most women faint at the sight of that much blood. They also do not notice how bad demon blood smells."
Eva had placed a hand over her nose as she glared back at him. "My mother was a doctor. Blood isn't likely to phase me. As for the smell, ugh. How could they not? It's enough to make me want to puke."
Their attention was drawn back to Trevor once more as he fought off another demon, and one more flew up to attack him. Eva was amazed at his skill, but she couldn't stop herself from taking a step forward when he was thrown back. She was relieved when he stepped forward again. At least she hoped he was as good as he kept claiming.
Trevor had already killed two of the demons, but this crow, man, bird demon thing was not like the others. It seemed to be smarter. That was a problem, but not one he couldn't work around. Despite being rebuffed several times, he was able to eventually break the bone around the things face and shove the damn stick through it.
He nearly groaned when one of the others landed in front of him almost immediately. Still, he knew the others were focused and needed him to keep these bastards at bay until they could drag Dracula's ass here for them to kill. When the giant bat-looking thing growled at him, he smirked and held up the item in his hand. "I'm armed with a-"
He looked at the thing with a little trepidation before he kept on as though it was nothing. "A stick. I wouldn't blame you if you want to run."
He was shocked when the demon lifted its muzzle and sniffed once before it jumped off the side of the bridge. Trevor then looked at the stick with a bemused expression. "Huh, I didn't think that would work."
He was shocked from his surprise when he heard a feminine scream followed quickly by cursing that rivaled some his own. It took him a second to realize it was Eva, but he hadn't even had a chance to move before he heard Alucard yell out the woman's name followed quickly by Sypha's voice. "Focus, Alucard!" Trevor cursed under his breath as he raced to try and see where the demon had chased the damn woman.
Eva really had been trying to stay back. She had been a little sickened when that bird demon thing had fallen and basically splatted all over the floor, but part of that had been the smell. She had definitely not been expecting the next one to just run away from Belmont and come after her out of the blue.
She had somehow managed to run from the first attack, but only because Adrian had sent his sword after it. Unfortunately, Sypha was right. He needed to focus on the mirror so the Speaker could summon the castle once she had the spell finished. As terrified as she was, she knew Belmont would be right behind her, or at least she hoped he would.
Despite how hard she ran, she was still unable to outrun the demon before the hunter came to her aide. She turned to face the thing as it finally cornered her on the other side of the room and tried to keep her knees from buckling as it growled at her. She had to admit there was no way in hell that she could even think about saying demons weren't real anymore. That made her rethink a whole number of things about what she knew.
She tried to shake those frantic, useless thoughts out of her head as the demon finally swiped in her direction. She screamed without thought and flung herself to the side. She managed to avoid the strike, but the thing was right behind her again. She finally remembered what she held and turned over to spray the beast in the face.
It paused, and she held hope for a split second before its long tongue flicked out and licked across the spray. Eva had scrambled to her feet while it paused, but cursed when she saw the reaction. "Well, shit! I hoped that would work."
She wasn't given any chance to regret the failure as the demon swiped at her again. This time, when she tried to roll away, she managed to fall to the side, but not without getting injured. One of the thing's claws grazed up her forearm deep enough for her blood to immediately start dripping. She looked on in disgust for a moment as the demon paused long enough to lick the blood from its claws.
As it paused, Eva took the opportunity to run. She nearly ran straight into Trevor. She had no idea why he had such a shocked look on his face, or why he grabbed her and tackled her into the closest aisle, though she got her answer soon enough when an explosion rocked the area they had just been.
Trevor pulled her to her feet and gave her an impressed look. "What did you do? Tell me you kicked it."
Eva gave him a disgusted look at his shit-eating grin. "No! It tried to claw me to death before it made a point of licking my blood off its fingers like I'm fucking fried chicken."
"Huh?" Trevor gave her a confused look at her strange terms. He didn't get to ask for clarification before they both heard a growl and turned to see another demon that he hadn't seen with the rest. He cursed under his breath and tried to push Eva behind him. However, the demon's eyes only followed her. It was at that point that something she said clicked, and he grabbed her uninjured arm without looking away from the threat. "You said the demon licked your blood before you ran?"
"Yes?"
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Let me see your other arm."
She held her injured arm up with a grimace. It hurt like hell, but at least the blood didn't bother her. Well, not more than the fact that she knew she was going to need stitches, and fuck if she knew how that was going to happen here.
She was pulled from her worry when Trevor grabbed her injured arm and squeezed slightly. She screamed before she glared at him, but she didn't say anything as she watched him wipe her blood along the length of the stick he held. He looked directly at her. "Run to the end of the aisle and cover your head."
She didn't ask questions before she turned to do what she was told. It was only a few moments later that she felt a body collide with hers, and she felt another explosion nearby. As soon as it cleared, they both stood. She looked back with shock to see the other demon was nothing but a splatter. She didn't get to ask what happened before Belmont turned to her with open surprise. "What the hell are you?"
She glared back. "What is that supposed to mean? What the hell are you?"
He shook his head with a frustrated noise. "Not now. Let's get back to the others."
Eva continued to glare at his retreating back as she tried to hold the injury on her arm closed and followed after him. She thought she might have an ace bandage in her bag if she remembered correctly. Not that it would work well since that wasn't what it was made for, but if she tied it tight enough, it would hopefully get the bleeding to stop until they could figure out something better. She hoped to god that between the other two, they had enough sense to figure out how to treat a wound and it not get infected.
Before they even made it to where Adrian held the mirror, Eva saw a blue light flicker and what seemed to be lightning sparks shooting through the air. She nearly stopped until she saw that Belmont had not. She ran around the last corner to see Sypha struggling with the spell.
Eva's eyes got wide as she took in the magnitude of everything. She was seeing magic. Real magic. Not only that, but from the looks of it, a powerful form of magic. She was drawn from her stupor when she heard Alucard growl nearby, but before anything could be said, the mirror shard suddenly shattered.
There was a rebound of magic that knocked them all off their feet. Alucard was the first up and stooped to help Sypha to her feet. They both had tiny cuts all over from the explosion but otherwise didn't look worse for the wear. Alucard then moved to inspect Eva's arm while Trevor rushed to Sypha's side. He gave her a concerned look, but his voice was still hard once he verified she was unhurt. "Where is the castle?"
Sypha looked away from him with a frown. "I am unsure. I was trying to bring it here, but the mirror shattered before I could finish the spell. The shard must have been under too much stress after everything. The castle could be anywhere between here and wherever it was before."
"Well, damn!" Trevor then turned to see Alucard was trying to help Eva wrap her arm up in a makeshift bandage. That made him lift a brow, but he ignored it for the moment. He still had a wagon load of questions for the woman, but they would have to wait. "Alucard, do you think any of the other shards were big enough to try again?"
Alucard frowned back at him as he finished tying off the wrap on Eva's arm. "There are at least two more that would be large enough to carve the runes into, but they were less than half the size of this one. If it was not enough to handle the spell, then the others would surely shatter before we could barely get started."
Sypha was still frowning, but she gave him a thoughtful look. "Still, that would allow us to see where it is, yes? If so, the spell should have locked it in place. I think."
Alucard sighed. "That's reassuring." Despite the look he was given by Trevor, he still went to find the largest piece of the mirror he could. It was the best chance they had at this point. He only hoped Sypha was correct. If not, they would not have much time to act.
A/N: The action has really started now, and it isn't likely to stop for several chapters. This was actually pretty fun to write. I did want to add a note for the future of this story, now that season three has come out. If you have not watched it, then in maybe 7 to 10 chapters you may start to see some spoilers, as we will cover part of that timeline. Obviously some things will have changed, but still wanted to give you a heads up. I have plans for this story even beyond that, so I hope you are all looking forward to it as much as I am! Thanks for reading!
