Castlevania: Minuet of a Cursed Fate

Announcement: Fate/eternal night

Hello to all my readers, I hope you're all doing well. First of all, thanks for your continued support and reviews I never imagined that this story would get more than fifty favorites and follows.

So on to the announcement. While I was writing the last chapter of Minuet of a Cursed Fate, I decided to re-watch Unlimited Blade works and I had a new idea for a story in my head.

The name of the story is Fate/eternal night and it's a radical departure from Minuet's storyline, an A.U/reboot that uses different timelines, Masters and Servants.

The first major difference is that Fate/eternal night takes a few months after the events of Castlevania Aria of Sorrow and Soma is at his most powerful, having several demonic souls and legendary weapons in his arsenal. Weapons like Claiomh Solais, Excalibur and more. His main weapon however will be Valmanway.

The reason Soma is in the Grail War is because mages, being as callous and curious as they are, wish for Dracula's resurrection so that they may learn from him, since was a genius in the fields of both magic and science, having centuries of experience and knowledge as well as long-lost spells and rituals. Alucard wants Soma to fight so that the Grail won't be won by one such mage and the stakes are real because Dracula being summoned as a Servant means Soma's death.

However, Soma won't be an overpowered Gary Stu, since that kind of story would be boring and would lack depth.

Like his counterpart in Minuet, Soma will summon Saber, but this time he follows Alucard/Arikado's instructions and uses Excalibur as the catalyst. However, Dracula/Mathias and Artoria/Saber are not connected whatsoever, having never met and having existed in different points in history. That way, the romantic development between Soma and Saber will be a little different.

The main pairing, however, will be Soma and Rin and in this version of the story, they aren't childhood friends or adopted siblings, but strangers at the start. They only meet through the war and Soma transferring to the same school as her and Shirou. Rin and Soma get close over their lives being in each other's hands.

Rin will summon Archer instead of Avenger in this story. Illya instead will summon Avenger in her place. Avenger replaces Berserker and he has a closer bond to Illya since he can sympathize with her pain, since as a Shardbinder, he experienced similar abuse and experiments. Avenger is protective over Illya and is most likely the most powerful Servant.

Rin and Soma will ally in the war and Shirou will ally with Illya. Illya and Shirou's alliance is familial but similarly belligerent, it's through her that he learns more about Kiritsugu and Irisviel

Upon learning more about Kiritsugu's past and involvement in the last Grail War from Illya, Shirou displays Archer-like tendencies earlier on in his life and he'll be more competent and learned as a result. His Servant will be a Lancer, either Gareth, Vlad III or Enkidu.

Each of Shirou's potential Servants will impact the story in a different way. If Vlad is chosen, he will hate Soma because he's living proof that the Dracula legend is real, and the historical Vlad was a cover story made by the Church to hide the existence of vampires. If Gareth is chosen, she will serve as a reminder to Saber of her past as well as a potential love interest for Shirou. If Enkidu is chosen, he will be Shirou's trump card against Gilgamesh, cementing Gilcamesh as his rival in the story. Tell me which Lancer is best suited to Shirou in the reviews. I might even start a poll for it.

The story shifts focus between Soma and Rin's alliance and Shirou and Illya's. Shirou and Soma are both the protagonist of the story and develop a sort of friendly rivalry. Avenger and Archer are bitter enemies, though and it's because of their past together.

As for other Servants and Masters, some remain unchanged, Shinji Matou summons Rider/Medusa, Caster/Medea is contracted to Souichirou Kuzuki and she summons her Assassin. One major change is Kirei Kotomine summons Death under the Reaper class Servant. Kirei wishes to see Dracula's resurrection and Death cooperates with him for that purpose. Gilgamesh's role is more or less the same.

If you don't want to be spoiled on Avenger's identity in Minuet, skip this section, because the same applies to the upcoming story.

In an alternate future, Soma joins the Order of the Dragon, a secret society of Dracula worshippers because he feels that he could topple the Mages Association, seeing them as corrupt and monstrous and he eventually becomes the Order's leader when he awakens his powers as Dracula. Uniting the Order of the Dragon and the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors from Tsukihime, he leads a formidable army.

Shirou sees Soma and couldn't understand why his friend would go so far to take down the Association and become so warped and misguided in his otherwise noble goal.

They fight in a Holy Grail War comprised of mages and vampires. Soma summons Saber Nero Claudius and Shirou summons Assassin William Adams from Nioh who is summoned as the same Assassin in Minuet. H.P Lovecraft serves as an independent Foreigner Class Servant in that war and is a mixed character between the author and the Hunter from Bloodborne.

Both Shirou and Soma are close to Illya and care about her more than anyone and during their duel to the death, Illya becomes the Grail and uses its power to grant the entire world a vision of peace and to create a miracle, and after being enveloped in light, Soma and Shirou disappear, never to be seen again since they were absorbed into the Grail. Shirou becomes a Heroic Spirit as a result.

Soma however suffers a different fate, he consents to passing on to the afterlife, but a portion of his soul is left behind in the Grail, the twisted and hateful portion that was created when he became the new Dracula. That portion of his soul is nihilistic and doesn't believe in hope or the future because he felt humanity didn't change even after the miracle brought about by Illya's sacrifice.

The remnants of the Order of the Dragon obtained that portion of Soma's soul and summoned it into a male Einzbern homunculus alchemically and genetically altered to resemble Soma. They used the Crimson Stone to summon the soul into the homunculus and to imitate the Power of Dominance, they subjected the him to several rites and rituals to turn him into a Shardbinder based on the creation of Gebel and Miriam by the old Alchemy Guild.

The resulting being was a replica of Dracula, animated by the twisted portion of Soma's soul and he served as the leader of the Order of the Dragon. This being would eventually become Avenger in both stories.

Avenger's backstory is based on Full Frontal from Gundam Unicorn and Shirou and Soma's rivalry is based on Amuro Ray and Char Aznable's. Illya plays a similar role to Lalah Sune.

In short, Avenger is not future Soma, but a more twisted and tragic existence. He's nihilistic, seeing humanity's death as their ultimate conclusion and salvation. Hope and possibility are seen as foolish and destructive concepts to him and what ultimately brings meaningless conflict.

Fate/eternal night is set in an alternate universe to Minuet that adheres more to Fate and Castlevania canon with less connective tissues between the characters and a story that comes together with each chapter instead of certain relationships and events being predetermined by a set backstory.

This is an ambitious project and it will be significantly harder to write than Minuet. I'm not abandoning Minuet since it's my passion project, but I figured readers might like Fate/eternal night more. I still have a lot planned for Minuet.

If I don't write this story by the end of the year, I want another author to pick it up and write it based on these guidelines, candidates are Alhazad2003 and Mr. Kino-san. But if any of you feel like you can write this story, just send me a PM or tell me in the reviews.

Now to answer my reviewers.

MasterofDragonsGod

Thanks, glad you liked it.

Star's Keyblade4114

I've never played Stella Glow, but yeah.

Mr. Kino-san

Thank you for your review. As for the Castle, it was sealed in an eclipse after the battle of 1999, so it doesn't exist physically in the real world, rather it's a spiritual world sealed off from reality. So, we won't see it summoned into Fuyuki. The Dead Apostle Ancestors are well aware of the 2035 prophecy and they know Dracula's Castle will rise within the eclipse. Barthomeloi will appear as a colleague of Julius and Arikado. I hope this story and this announcement give you all the ideas you need.

Yes, we'll see more Shirou and Caster next chapter. Kirei and Graham are allies and Zouken knew Alucard and Richter Belmont. Juste Belmont played a part in the founding of the Grail War.

angelvan105

I'm glad you liked it and I'm honored that you waited this long. Avenger eventually plays a bigger role. Soma and Rin are close as adopted siblings, but she's always been in love with him. Dream sequence is next chapter.

Zero-Nightmare

Glad you liked it, expect more with their current selves.

Thanks, and there are even more twists to come regarding Avenger.

Somewhat, maybe, but Artoria's still jealous.

Thanks, I figured William would put up a good fight.

Soma's just a nice guy, so Gray will be attracted to that. Rin's not tolerating any more rivals.

Thanks, I'll need it. See you around.