They entered what must have been a cursed clock tower, how it was adjacent to the condemned tower was off, but they didn't put too much weight on it before they encounter a familiar foe. Soma drawing back in surprise as Celia commented. "You've only come this far? You seem to be taking this rather leisurely."
"Well, we can't just warp to where we want to go, Fortner." She looked at Alex and drew back as she was readied in shocked surprise.
"How did you get here!?"
"I walked..." Alex voiced as Soma glanced between his mentor and Celia, it seemed like she was afraid of Alex as he smiled. "Nice place, really brings out the haunting feeling of the dark lord's essence subtly enveloping the castle, I give you credit for trying, but as I can sense, you have also been doing your best, fusing a demon of flames to Dario, sure to boost him, but the proper rites would also make sure that he didn't lose those powers IF the demon were to be slain." It was a stand off before Genya arrived as he spoke.
"I see. Is that your plan?"
"Soma, back off." Julius spoke as well in joining Genya in the confrontation, getting in front of the party as Soma exclaimed.
"Arikado! Julius, too!" Celia tried to remain strong, but the short confrontation with Alex had wavered her strength a bit more than expected.
"Your presence is without meaning. No one can stop Dario now. The emergence of the new lord of darkness is all by certain now." She warped away before Genya reached out and sensed where the most power was being built up as he shouted.
"Julius! I'm sensing a surge of magical power coming from the river. It must be Dario. You go after him. I'll track down Celia." Genya rushed off as Julius turned to the party as he explained.
"Soma, from here on, you stay away and let us take care of it." Before any of them could voice it, Julius rushed off as well before Alex sighed in speaking.
"What is with Belmonts and thinking that they can handle everything?" He shook his head as he continued. "If Celia picks a fight with us, we will handle it, but let's clear out the area, the more areas lost to Celia, the less her cult has to work with, the guardian monsters serve as a stabilizing power for the castle, so let's see what we can find."
"It shouldn't be too hard, I am just hoping for Harpies and Imps."
"Let's do it!" The three turned to Soma as he breathed in rubbing his neck, the talisman still on.
"Yeah, okay, let's do it." They nodded in heading out, fending off Medusa Heads and other flying monsters as they ascended, only going down once to find a alternate section of the Garden of Madness, avoiding the death traps and spikes that littered the interior before heading to the very top with the fourth Magic Seal in their grasp, the seal of the dragon, before entering a courtyard around a clock, Alex stopping Soma short from rushing ahead before he walked forward himself, stopping on the edge of the clock before he spoke.
"I am familiar with this song and dance, now let's fight."
"Uh... Alex, there's-" Time froze as a figure dashed past Alex and chuckled before time unfroze and the candlesticks shattered to the clawed hands as Soma near continued. "-no one..." He stopped to the sudden figure when he exclaimed. "Where did he-!?"
"Zephyr, a creature with mastery over time itself." Alex moved into stance as he spoke. "I am familiar with such foes, but time is something that I don't need to worry about..." He sweatdropped as Zephyr seemed to be posing. "But... I swear that his vibe is very weird for me right now..." He shook his head as he moved, the Sword Lord's blade in hand as Zephyr chuckled and he hit, time freezing and the being going for a hit before Alex gripped and slashed, Zephyr quickly pulling back in the frozen time as he exclaimed.
"Impossible, time is on my side, human!"
"I don't think so, I have some friends with the same ability on time." Alex grinned as he fought the being in the frozen time before striking him down with a slash before binding him to the dragon seal. "If you see Saint, say hello for me, would you?" Time unfroze as Zephyr screamed as time zoomed for him, reducing him to bones and dust before Soma got the same soul before he exclaimed.
"What just happened!?"
"Time is a fickle thing, you don't have any control or lose that control, it punishes you hard for it." Alex mused as he patted Soma's shoulder. "It's much like the Chrono Mage we once faced, he had a control on time and used it to his effect." Soma blinked in thinking about it before shrugging it off a bit, there was so much he still didn't understand about all of the monsters, to be fair. They soon headed back to the Village to get some rest and supplies before planning for the next course of action, pouring over a map before they came to a safe conclusion, the Dark Chapel had an underground catacomb and they suspected that, without anywhere else to go, there they had to move to and, if the catacombs lead to a river, then they either find Dario or Julius there, so they headed out.
The hunch being correct as they found the catacombs and moved through, with the aid of the Puppet Master before entering the area that must be known as the Subterranean Hell. They didn't go too far before facing off with Rahab, a serpent fish with a control over ice, the fight was simple on account that the members... still had their aquatic ability to fight, Soma had to wait on ice platforms to strike, but a swift strike and strike of lightning and Rahab swam no more with the binding of the Serpent Seal and Soma could traverse the waters again as they dove deeper in.
Fish Heads, Mermen, and other aquatic monsters dwelled in the depths below, but it was still not enough to stop them from proceeding through into an underwater tunnel, where they encountered the addition of the Frozen Shade and even the Alura Une or Alraune, to Soma's grimace at the teasing smiles of his companions on her 'Sweet Jail' ability as they pushed on through, searching the domain for any lead to Julius or Dario, the Bone arks were annoying though, even when their skeleton bearers were cut down.
They even opened up a path to the Wizardry Labs and continued downward to a cannon firing, but time ceasing before Alex snapped his fingers and time resumed as he spoke to the now-crumbled pillar. "Not late this time, Chrono Mage." They pressed on into the Silenced Ruins which was more manor in the underground than a series of ruins, protected by the dead skeletons and bats, unlocking a passage between it and the Subterranean Hell before pushed deeper in before they found both as Julius grunted, having toppled to the floor in pain.
"Julius!" Soma called out before they rushed over to him as he tried to sway them off, but the injures were quite intense, a bad case of second-degree burns, to do that had to take a lot of firepower on a man of Belmont's stature.
"I'm fine. Don't worry." Further in was Dario, but his aura radiated too strongly as he taunted.
"What? You done already? So much for the 'legendary' Belmont!" Julus huffed as he commented back.
"Talk all you want..." Dario didn't pay him mind as he shouted to Soma.
"Hey, punk! Looks like I can get me a little payback from ya!" He gripped his hands tight as he spoke. "But I'm not at full power just yet..." He pointed at Soma as he spoke. "The throne chamber on the top floor-you were headin' there, weren't ya?" Soma nodded as Dario pounded a fist into his palm. "That's where we'll settle scores once and for all." He warped away as Julius turned to them while getting some mending from Shanoa and Mist.
"Watch it. He's tough. Especially for me, since I can't use Magic Seals." Soma blinked as he commented on the sentence.
"Hold on, Julius. You can't use Magic Seals?"
"Uh-huh. What about it?"
"Well, didn't you run into monsters that you couldn't destroy?"
"No, I destroyed them before they could reconstitute. They weren't a problem."
"The Vampire Killer may be the reason for that, its power is laced with the essence to destroy the supernatural energies, disrupting them is simple to the whip." Julius nodded to Alex's explanation on how he could take out those monster bound to the Magic Seals as he grimaced.
"But this time, I don't think that'll work." Soma started thinking to himself about how impossible it was before Julius tried to shrug them off. "Forget about me. You can all go on. I'll be fine."
"He will be expecting all of us, we can handle a few minutes getting you back up, Julius." Alex voiced as Julius nodded quietly before they were finished and he spoke again. "Try to get back to the Village, you could use the rest for a bit." He nodded as they kept going, eventually coming face to face with a swarm of bats that formed into different shapes and fell just the same, the soul being Bat Company and gave Soma back his bat transformation after getting it sealed with the Dragon Seal.
There was another passage that must lead into the Village and they carefully navigated it to face down Homunculus, at least the question of manpower was answered for Alex's thoughts of how Celia had managed to collect and maintained such a following before they headed up and, without reason to stop, set off some dynamite and blew a hole in the ground before they ascended to the surprise faces of the team before Kenmur voiced.
"How the heck did you guys get dynamite!?"
"It was rigged up down there and, without thinking, we set it off."
"Wonderful..." Sapphire moaned with rubbed her shoulders. "As if we had enough to deal with, now we have the cult trying to get under our noses and ambush us from the fountain."
"Not so." Walhart answered as he sheathed his blade. "If Sir Alex had come through here, then the cult was unable to follow through with the plan, which would have been...?" The team turned ot Alex as he breathed before answering.
"Homunculus, artificial humans." They nodded with a grimace as Alex continued. "They were hooked up in the Wizardry Lab down below, underwater, but they were still developing, they can't get out of the water or go to far before the cord attached pops off and they cease functions in a short time." They breathed easy, but still, the cult was using Homunculus was a bad thing to hear, but that was for IF the Cult managed it as the party took a break before setting off into the castle once more.
They moved on through the Cursed Clock Tower to reach the Pinnacle, the final area before Alex spoke. "I don't think what have the means to deal with Dario proper." Soma turned as he asked.
"How so...?"
"Celia went the mile to enhance Dario's fire abilities, but Julius couldn't defeat him, it is because of one thing that Dario is unaware of." Shanoa looked to him with Mist just as confused as Alex continued. "The demon summon is using Dario's soul as a cover, and that is confusing the Vampire Killer, not striking with enough power to banish it, but we are also faced with a problem, do we kill Dario or not?" The three grimaced at the sound of it as Soma wanted to spare Dario, Shanoa knew that Dario could be saved somehow, and Mist didn't like how the idea of killing was the only option there. "So, I have a solution." They blinked before Soma asked.
"Okay, let's hear it."
"The mirrors..." They blinked again, in confusion as to why the mirrors before Alex continued. "Mirrors are often windows to the soul, revealing the true face behind the body, if we could enter the mirrors and face the demon attached to Dario, then we can spare him from death and sever his connection to the dark lord, we save him by cutting the link of power he currently is being controlled with." They hummed before Shanoa spoke.
"That is a solid plan, but where are we going to find such a power?"
"The moment we had slain the Puppet Master, I felt the presence of another foe, one that resides in the mirror, it is named Paranoia, we could use that." They nodded and headed back to the Demon Guest House, finding the path to that foe as it was sealed off by stone walls that had the faces of the Axe Armor, the Killer Clown, and the Ukoback monsters, using them crumbled the walls and let them through before they met a specter of the demented creature, driving it back into the mirror with a blood spill over it before facing the real deal who was large and used the mirrors to fire lasers and reflect them to hit the party.
it was tricky in that sense, diving back into the mirror and trying to crush them before they struck it down and banished it with the Dragon Seal, destroying and absorbing the mirrors into the seal before the soul went to Soma and Alex before Soma asked. "How did you know, exactly?"
"Back when my friends and I aided the Dhampir Alucard, we encountered a demon that traveled through the mirrors and attack by jumping through the glass, shattering it, but it had the power to travel between both the real world and the mirror world, it was quite interesting what they could do with it and they knew what ideas Alex had to handle it.
With that, they headed back to the Pinnacle, to fight Dario Bossi in the Throne Room and put an end to this nonsense of a dark lord...