Reinhardt awoke from the darkness that had engulfed him in great pain. He felt that he had suffered a great fall but did not remember it. The pain he felt made him glad that he did not. The ground he lay on was dirt filled but hard underneath, like rock. He stirred slowly and looked to see where he had been thrown into now. Reinhardt now sat on his knees and examined his surroundings. The ceiling from which he had fallen from was high above him. The ceiling was made of pure rock. He was in a huge cavern held up by enormous pillars of steel. In front of him and to his left and right were tunnels spanning who knows how far. They could easily circle the inside of the earth Reinhardt thought. Reinhardt stood up on his feet and stared at each tunnel entrance trying to think of which one to take. Reinhardt closed his eyes and tuned his ears for any sound that might hint to which tunnel he should follow. Reinhardt then heard very faintly what seemed to be water. He walked closer to the entrance of the tunnel to his far right and he felt a slight breeze hit him. An underground stream he thought. Reinhardt then cautiously began to enter the tunnel.
Reinhardt traveled for quite a distance before the sound changed from being faint to audible. As he walked the tunnel made turns and sometimes narrowed. Finally the tunnel opened up once more. Reinhardt saw before him a far stretching stream of not water but some kind of green liquid. It was dark, grimy, and seemed dirty. To Reinhardt's shock, bathing inside the liquid were two young women. Both had pale skin and long reddish hair. On their heads they had rusty metallic crowns decorated with faded jewels. The green liquid reached the very bottom of their armored breastplates. Reinhardt clutched the hilt of his sword and slowly walked closer. He stopped for a moment when he thought they had heard him but they did not move. Finally, they both turned and looked at him at the same time. Their faces were different and yet they seemed similar. Reinhardt thought it might be that they had identical expressions. Their faces did not hint at surprise or alarm. They looked in his direction but gave no indication that they were aware of his presence. Then they slowly began to move towards the shore. Reinhardt's father taught him two things, one, never show fear, and two, never show aggression. Pulling his sword on them without knowing their intentions might seem to be an act of aggression, but Reinhardt could feel that these two women were not what they seemed. As they came closer to the shore, the level of the green liquid began to lower against their bodies. Soon Reinhardt could see their bellies and then… then Reinhardt saw that as they came closer to the shore something seemed to be rising up beneath them. Reinhardt tried hard not to show his surprise as he saw that the lower part of the two women did not include the normal two legs, but a large version of a spider's lower abdomen.
Reinhardt quickly pulled out his sword and assumed an attack stance. One of the spider women continued to approach him slowly, the expression on her face never changing. Looking at it more closely, the face seemed to be frozen as if in stone. Reinhardt suddenly realized that he lost track of the second. Reinhardt looked up only to catch a glimpse of the spider woman flying over him and landing behind him. Reinhardt spun around to face the much closer enemy. Reinhardt then felt himself being tied up from behind. He turned his head to see that the spider woman behind him was shooting her webbing around him. Quickly Reinhardt felt his whole body pressed together so tight that he could no longer move or keep his balance. Reinhardt fell to the ground. The two spider women hovered above him staring down at him. Reinhardt almost laughed as he felt himself getting that feeling of "this is the end" that he had only experienced not too long ago. Then once again Reinhardt felt darkness enveloping as the spider women continued to engulf him in webbing.
Everything was silent for Reinhardt. He neither heard nor felt anything. Reinhardt lost all sense of time so when he finally heard voices he had no idea how long it had been. The voices he heard were soft, female, and angelic.
"What have you found?"
"A man."
"A man!" This voice said the word 'man' as though it were a curse word. "Let me see it."
Reinhardt then felt for the first time in what seemed like years. But the sensation he was feeling was that of his skin being peeled off of him. In reality he thought it must be the webbing being ripped off of him after having bonded to his body. When the peeling was over Reinhardt was shocked to find that he could not see. Reinhardt also realized that his arms and legs were numb.
"Do not fret. Your sight will return soon. The effects of the webbing are strong. We will wait. We will not kill you until you are able to face your end knowing how it is that you die."
Reinhardt desperately turned his head trying to listen so that he could face his captors even while blind. He finally found where he thought that the voice came from and stared. Of course he had no way to know if he was right. Slowly the white blankness that filled his sight faded and color began to breakthrough. Reinhardt could see faint silhouettes forming. The silhouette that was forming in front of him was large, larger than the spider women he encountered before. When his vision returned entirely Reinhardt would have liked to be able to jump back from the sight before him. But Reinhardt's still numb legs prevented him from escaping the sight of what was obviously the queen spider. Her lower spider abdomen was much larger than others he had seen.
"Who…who are you?" Reinhardt said weakly.
The huge body of the queen spider moved slowly towards him. Its extremely thin legs hid their true strength even as they carried the weight of the enormous body.
"I am Queen Algenie. I am the ruler of this realm. Who are you and why have you invaded by kingdom?"
"Your majesty, I am Reinhardt Schneider. I beg you r pardon for the intrusion into your kingdom but I assure I am no invader. I was thrust down here by the forces of Dracula."
"Ah, Dracula, a man of unfortunately great power. He is very difficult to kill. Many have tried throughout the years. I can assure you that he will never ever be truly dead."
"True, but so long as the blood of my family continues, I can assure you that someone will always be there to defeat him once more."
"Really? Then may I ask, have you a wife and child?"
"No."
"Have you a brother?"
Reinhardt paused for a moment. "Yes, but he is…missing. As I quest to destroy Dracula, I also search for my brother."
"Interesting. Then should I kill you now, the blood of your family will die with you, correct?"
Reinhardt took a deep breath, "Yes."
"Then perhaps you should taken steps to insure its continuation before you embarked on your quest. Dracula knows that we are down here. As he also knows that to send any man here is certain death!"
"Your highness, but why? You seem to have no loyalty to Dracula."
"I am loyal only to my people. Look around you; these tunnels were once the roads of a great society, my society. Now they are but dust in the wind. And it your kind's entire fault! Because of your kind my precious women, they are silent. They cannot bear to speak after the downfall of our kind. They only speak to me from their minds. Such beautiful voices are silent!
Queen Algenie pointed her claw-like fingers at Reinhardt. "It is the fault of all me…" Suddenly she stopped. She clutched her head and stared at Reinhardt again and showed the fang-like teeth.
"Never mind all that now. You time has come." Queen Algenie raised her claw-like hand as though to grab Reinhardt.
"I hate to disappoint a queen…" Reinhardt then curled up like a ball and rolled between Algenie's eight legs and jumped into am attack position behind her. His body recovered from the numbness during the queen's tirade. Reinhardt uncurled his whip and pondered on how to attack her. He suspected that considering her very feministic character she would no doubt be outraged by any slight upper hand or victory he might have against her. That alone made her altogether more dangerous. Reinhardt was forced to jump back a few feet because the queen had turned and faced him. Despite her obvious weight she was quite agile and moved very quickly. The queen's first mode of attack seems to be shooting out webbing and trying to capture him once more. Reinhardt ran across the large round chamber in which they were in narrowly avoiding long thin lines of webbing attempting to snatch him. Soon two other of the spider-women joined in the battle by chasing Reinhardt throughout the chamber. Reinhardt palmed a knife from his backpack in each hand, leapt into the air, and threw the knives at the two pursuing spider-women. The knives hit the spider-women squarely on their necks. Although they wee silent they clutched their necks and motioned their hands in the air as those gasping for air that would not pass through the blade that now blocked their windpipe. The queen had stopped attacking for a moment.
"I can hear their screams and their pleas for air. I can hear them!" she screamed. Then with rage in her eyes she turned and stared at Reinhardt who had unknowingly let his guard down and grasped Reinhardt with her webbing and began to spin him around and around the chamber. As he was spun around, the webbing gave him a connection and he too could hear the to spider-women he had condemned to death pleading for air. Reinhardt felt the odd sensation of being suffocated because the webbing was wrapped tight around his chest and receiving too much air because he was spinning so fast through the air. Reinhardt desperately gripped the hilt of his whip. His vision was becoming burred somewhat. Reinhardt then lunged his whip in order to wrap it around the queen's neck. Loosely it did wrap itself around her neck, then as she spun him further around the chamber the whip's grip on her neck grew tighter and tighter. Finally, despite being enveloped by anger, Reinhardt felt that the queen was no longer spinning him around as fast. Within moments Reinhardt touched ground. Reinhardt lay on the ground for only a few seconds when he heard movement echoing in the tunnels beyond the chamber's entrance. Reinhardt looked ahead and saw that at the other end of the chamber was a wooden door. Reinhardt hurriedly jogged towards it. He quickly lifted the latch that locked it and was greeted by the darkness behind the door. Schneider lit a small torch he kept in his backpack. It seemed to be a long tunnel. He looked back and saw the shadows converging on the chamber's entrance. He entered the dark tunnel and closed the door behind him locking it with a latch that was on the other side. Once again Reinhardt Schneider was reminded of one of many truths his father shared with he and his brother.
"Having the blood of a Belmont running through your veins means having to walk in darkness."
And once more, Reinhardt was walking in darkness.