Chapter 63: The Rebis
St. Germain's heart was in his throat.
The portal glowed brightly in front of him. It was slowly and surely making its way to the vampire and his human wife. Once it arrived, St. Germain would be able to pull them out and install them in the body of the Rebis. And with Death breathing over his shoulder, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
When he saw Belmont and Belnades on the other side, he was a bit surprised with how relaxed they were around Alucard. Then again, later generations of Belmonts would call him "uncle" and work with him just as easily. That had to have started somewhere. And they were all supposed to be responsible for Dracula's death.
When Sypha charged up her electricity, St. Germain found himself hoping it would work – even if that meant it would shoot through and kill him.
But when the electricity cleared, Sypha had fallen back and Trevor Belmont had caught her. And he looked like he'd been expecting it. She was leaning heavily on him, trying to catch her breath. Why would that have tired her out so much…Wait, what was the date? And when was…? Oh. Oh, yes.
That was why.
Death chuckled beside him. 'It was a nice try on her part. Nothing is breaking through that barrier.'
Trevor waited until Sypha gained enough strength to stand on her own again. Then he looked in. He'd seen him before, of course. But, at that point, he'd been far more focused on St. Germain. Now he found himself looking at a figure he'd only seen in textbooks, pictures, and statues before.
'Oh, my God,' he said. 'That is actually Death.'
'What?' Alucard asked. 'That's supposed to be the Grim Reaper himself?'
'He looks worse than the statue of him we saw,' Sypha remarked.
'Not quite the Grim Reaper,' Eliza said with a nod of acknowledgement to Sypha. There was a thoughtful look on her face; the kind of look she got when a plan was cooking itself up in her brain.
'That's just the name it took,' Yvette added.
'It's like a vampire, only it feeds on whatever leaves us when we die,' Trevor explained. 'The family books called it an elemental spirit that disguises itself to serve power.'
'We saw an old vampire jump through the mirror,' Sypha recalled.
'There's no one else in there,' Trevor observed. 'That was him. He was probably part of Dracula's court.' He pulled out the Morning Star. 'Stand back a bit.'
'If the first hit doesn't work,' Eliza said, 'give me the heart. I'm going to try something.'
St. Germain shuddered as he saw Dracula and Lisa Tepes.
He held his hand out to do the magic, but his hand shook. It was suddenly hitting him just how right Eliza Aurealis was. Locking two souls in a single body was going to send them both mad. If it wasn't an abomination, then that wouldn't happen. And this madness would make Dracula's last assault on the human race look mild.
Overcome with fear, he yanked them out. He heard them.
'I can feel the air changing,' Lisa Tepes remarked.
'We're moving,' Dracula observed. 'I smell the human magic.'
Yvette stood on one side of the barrier.
Eliza stood on the other.
Trevor snapped the Morning Star at it.
There was a loud bang as the heart of it made contact. The barrier barely shook. Eliza nodded and caught the end.
'What's the idea?' Yvette asked.
Trevor, Sypha, Alucard, Law, and Reudi moved in.
'This is blood-locked to you Belmonts, isn't it?' Eliza asked.
'Yes,' Yvette drawled.
Inside, St. Germain groaned with the effort of what he was doing.
'Then it'll have to be you,' Eliza said. 'I know a spell that can increase the strength of something. How much more strength it gets depends on whose blood is used in the spell, but it'll only work on the Morning Star if I take blood from a Belmont. And ordinary human strength just will not do for this.'
'So you'll need my blood.' Yvette nodded and pulled out a knife. 'Okay. Just tell me what to do.'
Lisa Tepes screamed.
When their souls came out, St. Germain saw Dracula covering her. Glancing up, he noticed the Belmonts and the Slayers were doing something on the other side of the barrier. He prayed to God that it would be something strong enough to stop what was happening here. If this worked, St. Germain would be the first to die.
The blonde, and vaguely familiar, woman cut her palm.
The two souls emerged out into the room and began floating around. Alucard stared with wide, horrified eyes. Sypha looked just as horrified. Both of them immediately looked back at the group gathered around the blonde woman's bleeding hand. Whatever they were doing couldn't be rushed.
Perhaps St. Germain could delay…?
There was an impatient growl to his right. That wasn't an option. St. Germain could only pray that whatever they were doing would be done quickly enough to prevent this catastrophe. With a few more nervous sounds, St. Germain raised his hand above his head. The two souls floated up. He swallowed the lump in his throat, jammed his eyes shut, and brought his hand down, hard.
The two souls slammed into the Rebis.
Trevor listened to Eliza chant in an ancient tongue. Yvette's blood slowly dripped down onto the heart of the Morning Star. He knew it was working because the heart was glowing brightly. He could even fell the warmth right in the handle. It almost seemed to vibrate with the new power being given to it.
The dual screaming made Trevor's head snap up.
The patchwork corpse on the floor was spasming about. The screaming was coming from inside of it, but Trevor could hear two voices. One voice belonged to a strong-sounding woman. That had to be Lisa Tepes. The second voice he did recognise. It was Dracula. And hearing Dracula scream scared him to death.
Though not literally.
Trevor looked back down.
Eliza's expression was pinched, but she couldn't go any faster. Law reached over and laid a hand on her shoulder, no doubt calming her emotions so the stress didn't get to her. Reudi had stepped over to Alucard. Whether or not he saw a reason to alter his emotions, Trevor didn't know, but he doubted it.
The Rebis jerked to its feet and covered its face, screaming in Dracula's voice. It staggered back, now screaming in Lisa's voice. The hands dropped and a human face screamed. The head snapped to the other side and fangs appeared in the mouth as Dracula's voice screamed from inside the Rebis.
Alucard drew back in horror.
Reudi's hand tightened on his shoulder.
'I cannot stop this!' Dracula bellowed. 'Lisa!'
He doubled over and screamed again.
When the Rebis straightened up again, it looked at its hands. 'Are we alive?' Lisa asked. She looked around wildly. 'I think I recognise this room!'
Then the energy kicked in again and the Rebis doubled over again, causing them both to devolve into screaming again.
'Come on,' Trevor whispered impatiently. 'Come on…'
Sypha's hand landed on his forearm and she took a tight grip.
St. Germain watched the Rebis stagger around, both Dracula and his wife screaming in agony and confusion.
'It's an abomination.'
Yes, it was. The Rebis needed to be destroyed. But he couldn't do it. He didn't have the power to do it. St. Germain's eyes flickered to the other side of the barrier. They could do it. He just had to let them in. But he had to do it in such a way that Death would not notice that it wasn't them who broke the barrier.
'It's so beautiful,' Death crooned as Dracula and Lisa Tepes screamed from inside the body. 'Let go, Dracula. Go insane. Bring me everything I need to thrive. Murder the world, just so I don't have to be hungry anymore.'
'It's done!' Eliza crowed.
Belmont pulled the Morning Star back to him and everyone around him backed up again. With one final snap of his wrist, he flicked the Morning Star out. The heart glowed brighter than before, broke through the barrier. The red force-field shattered like glass. St. Germain twisted stared in shock.
What in hell had they done?
Turning to watch Death, St. Germain stepped back from him. 'Oh, my God. What have I done?' He turned and ran at the barrier, moving it directly between Death and the Rebis. Then he turned his head. 'Belmont! Make yourself useful!'
'Yvette!' Belmont barked as he ran in. 'Throw the holy water!'
The Rebis was overloading and tearing up the ground. It roared in agony. A wineskin was pitched over the rubble and over Belmont's head. It was almost like somebody with a Slayer Sense had thrown it; somebody who knew exactly where the Rebis was. But St. Germain didn't have time to think on it.
Then Belmont pulled a blade from his belt. When he flicked it open, St. Germain saw it was one of those four-pronged blades you could send flying through the air and have return to you. That was exactly what Belmont did. With a grunt of effort, he sent the blade flying. It cut through the wineskin, picking up the holy water as it went, and then continued on.
The Rebis was sliced in half.
There was a massive explosion, as the energy output was interrupted.
St. Germain was thrown back and he felt a sharp pain in his chest.