CHAPTER 15: UNHOLY ALTAR
As he crossed the gate to the future, Magus' senses were overwhelmed by the now Evil aura the church had...
Magus : N... Nani(What)? How can the Castlevanian church turn to evil? This place gets holier by the year to try to counter the growing darkness of the rest of the castle... but this is definitely not holy. Magus proceeded inside carefully, one sword in each hand. He crossed into the next room, a long hall and spotted a trail of green scales. He bent down and picked one up.
Magus: This is a Medusa's scale... but why do I find a trail of scales? He followed the trail across the hall and in to the next, larger room. In the center of it were four Medusa quarters. Coming in between the four quarters were large lines of blood forming an X across the floor, going up the walls and joining in the same fashion on the ceiling.
Magus: What could've done this? Slice a Medusa in 4 from the front and leave such a trail of blood across the room? He went to check on the pieces and found them empty, except for a slime- like residue.
Magus: No... This is different... I think it evolved instead. He looked around the room and saw three doors out. Neither had any sign of the Medusa's passage, so he had to take a guess. He went down the path to his right and ended up in the arms of one hell of a beast. It was completely black, seemed kinda liquid except for it's two red eyes in the center of it's forehead. The beast's appearance shifted to a black panther. It roared at him and dissolved for a second, reforming into a huge jaw that lunged at him. Magus barely dodged it and turned to face the cat again. It stood there, gathering power in it's nose, deforming it's face into a spear and extending it torwards him, practically impaling Magus on it. It put it back to normal and leapt up, starting to spin rapidly until it came crashing down on him. Magus got the blow full force, but managed to recover fast enough to swing at the beast, causing three projectiles to shoot out of it's body and ebbing themselves in his arm, making him drop one of his swords.
Magus: Kuso(Damn)! The beast studied him intensely and planned it's next assault. It Melted into a puddle on the floor and approached him, then resumed it's bite attack. Magus sidestepped it and cast a light blast spell. The room filled with a tremendous light, clawing and disintegrating the beast's form, revealing a red pulsing ball floating where the cat had been. Magus slashed it viciously and it grew blood red. The cat reformed around the ball itself now blood red. It started it's assault again, but rapidly exploded.
Magus: Dammit, what are those things? They're damn hard to beat! He hear a strange sound and saw a red gate form on the ground and out of it was emerging another such cat. Magus panicked and dashed outside, closing the door behind him. Now back in dead medusa room, he healed up and took the Left path. He got to a room whose entire floor was made of bones. In it's center was one man, unarmed.
Man: So... another for the pile...
Magus: What?
Man: You've entered the church of the damned and you think you'll just waltz through? The man extended his hand torwards his foe and Magus felt his power leave him rapidly, being drained away by his foe. Magus grabbed one of his swords on his back and threw it like a boomerang, making it spin rapidly, slashing the man numerous times and then returning, but he still stood, nothing more than one bloody slash in his stomach.
Man: Heh, that was quite impressive... Master Galamoth was right to place guards like me around the castle.
Magus: Galamoth?
Man: Our master Galamoth is a demon lord of royal blood, but the Nether King took the throne in his place. We, the demons loyal to our master are gathering within this castle to take him down. Oh... and thank you so much for disposing of that meddlesome Catoblepas for us.
Magus: What? Catoblepas was after your master?
Man: Don't worry about it, because you won't live long enough! The man replaced his hand in front of him, but this time Magus knew how to stop him. He placed his hand in front of him to contain the absorption on that place alone, but this time, the flesh and muscles dissolved, leaving nothing but bones. The demon sucked his very essence away, destroying any physical obstacle in it's way... Magus bet his life and charged the man, slashing with all his strength at the man's neck, managing to cut off his head. Magus once again started to regenerate and went back the way he came. He took the center path into a large room. As soon as he set foot in it, it blew to bits, leaving Magus mangled on the floor. After more regeneration, he returned to the center room. There he heard footsteps. HE stayed hidden and saw a normal zombie dressed into the robes of a priest enter the room and head torwards the boneyard. Magus discreetly followed and saw the zombie cross the room and walk across the wall in front of him. Magus followed and also crossed the wall.
Magus: It was only an illusion! But why? He turned around and saw something amazing. Across the room he was in were hundreds, perhaps thousands of zombie priests gathered in a titanous room. In the center was an Unholy altar, a rare and extremely powerful artifact. It was composed of a black altar with runes carved in blood ebbed all over it's sides, four razor sharp spikes, one in each corner, one huge axe blade suspended above it and a symbol Magus had never seen made of magic in between the two. It was green with a very pale hint of red. Beside it was a man dressed in the robes of a monk. After closer examination, he noticed the fact he had no legs, but a snake tail and he had boobs.
Magus: So there's our medusa as well... One of the zombies rose and went up to the altar. He layed on it and impaled his hands and legs on the spikes, letting blood flow onto their surface, making the huge blade move down and slash the zombie in two. The two parts were then enveloped in darkness and pieces started to fly all over the place. Bits of intestines, piece of skin and even the brain flew across the room. The darkness dissipated, leaving nothing on the altar and a corner of the symbol became a bit closer to red. Magus : Um... Eww... let's just annihilate the bunch and be done with it. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows
Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows.
In twy great name, I pledge myself to darkness
Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed
By the power you and I possess
Dragon Slave!" A dark beam burst from his hand, flying at great speed torwards the Medusa and colliding hard, becoming a destructive dome spreading fast across the room, annihilating the horde of zombies, but the medusa and the altar remained... The medusa's robes had disintegrated. It was a human-sized snake with two arms made of two live snakes.
Magus: Well, this is the dreaded Gorgonite, let's see what it can do. Magus charged across the room fast, reaching it with no difficulty, but the beast's eyes turned grey and looked at his left arm, instantly turning it to stone.
Magus: My arm, you bastard! He slashed at the beast's eyes and pierced both. The beast coiled back in pain and two blades came out of the mouths of the snakes forming it's arms. It lunged fast in his direction, managing to knick one of his legs.
Magus: Ha! Is that the best you can do? He went forward, finding he couldn't move his legs anymore, both had been totally stoned and the stoning was going higher and higher with each second.
Magus: Damn, that's one hell of a stone spell... Magus Dug his sword into the ground and threw his other one straight at the medusa's lower body. He then grabbed the other and threw it at it's neck. The beast sensed the sword coming at it's lower body and used it's sword arms to deflect it, but noticed the other too late and died, releasing Magus from it's Infernal stoning. He took his swords and brought them down on the altar, breaking it to pieces. The room's floor gave out and Magus fell into the deep chasm...
As he crossed the gate to the future, Magus' senses were overwhelmed by the now Evil aura the church had...
Magus : N... Nani(What)? How can the Castlevanian church turn to evil? This place gets holier by the year to try to counter the growing darkness of the rest of the castle... but this is definitely not holy. Magus proceeded inside carefully, one sword in each hand. He crossed into the next room, a long hall and spotted a trail of green scales. He bent down and picked one up.
Magus: This is a Medusa's scale... but why do I find a trail of scales? He followed the trail across the hall and in to the next, larger room. In the center of it were four Medusa quarters. Coming in between the four quarters were large lines of blood forming an X across the floor, going up the walls and joining in the same fashion on the ceiling.
Magus: What could've done this? Slice a Medusa in 4 from the front and leave such a trail of blood across the room? He went to check on the pieces and found them empty, except for a slime- like residue.
Magus: No... This is different... I think it evolved instead. He looked around the room and saw three doors out. Neither had any sign of the Medusa's passage, so he had to take a guess. He went down the path to his right and ended up in the arms of one hell of a beast. It was completely black, seemed kinda liquid except for it's two red eyes in the center of it's forehead. The beast's appearance shifted to a black panther. It roared at him and dissolved for a second, reforming into a huge jaw that lunged at him. Magus barely dodged it and turned to face the cat again. It stood there, gathering power in it's nose, deforming it's face into a spear and extending it torwards him, practically impaling Magus on it. It put it back to normal and leapt up, starting to spin rapidly until it came crashing down on him. Magus got the blow full force, but managed to recover fast enough to swing at the beast, causing three projectiles to shoot out of it's body and ebbing themselves in his arm, making him drop one of his swords.
Magus: Kuso(Damn)! The beast studied him intensely and planned it's next assault. It Melted into a puddle on the floor and approached him, then resumed it's bite attack. Magus sidestepped it and cast a light blast spell. The room filled with a tremendous light, clawing and disintegrating the beast's form, revealing a red pulsing ball floating where the cat had been. Magus slashed it viciously and it grew blood red. The cat reformed around the ball itself now blood red. It started it's assault again, but rapidly exploded.
Magus: Dammit, what are those things? They're damn hard to beat! He hear a strange sound and saw a red gate form on the ground and out of it was emerging another such cat. Magus panicked and dashed outside, closing the door behind him. Now back in dead medusa room, he healed up and took the Left path. He got to a room whose entire floor was made of bones. In it's center was one man, unarmed.
Man: So... another for the pile...
Magus: What?
Man: You've entered the church of the damned and you think you'll just waltz through? The man extended his hand torwards his foe and Magus felt his power leave him rapidly, being drained away by his foe. Magus grabbed one of his swords on his back and threw it like a boomerang, making it spin rapidly, slashing the man numerous times and then returning, but he still stood, nothing more than one bloody slash in his stomach.
Man: Heh, that was quite impressive... Master Galamoth was right to place guards like me around the castle.
Magus: Galamoth?
Man: Our master Galamoth is a demon lord of royal blood, but the Nether King took the throne in his place. We, the demons loyal to our master are gathering within this castle to take him down. Oh... and thank you so much for disposing of that meddlesome Catoblepas for us.
Magus: What? Catoblepas was after your master?
Man: Don't worry about it, because you won't live long enough! The man replaced his hand in front of him, but this time Magus knew how to stop him. He placed his hand in front of him to contain the absorption on that place alone, but this time, the flesh and muscles dissolved, leaving nothing but bones. The demon sucked his very essence away, destroying any physical obstacle in it's way... Magus bet his life and charged the man, slashing with all his strength at the man's neck, managing to cut off his head. Magus once again started to regenerate and went back the way he came. He took the center path into a large room. As soon as he set foot in it, it blew to bits, leaving Magus mangled on the floor. After more regeneration, he returned to the center room. There he heard footsteps. HE stayed hidden and saw a normal zombie dressed into the robes of a priest enter the room and head torwards the boneyard. Magus discreetly followed and saw the zombie cross the room and walk across the wall in front of him. Magus followed and also crossed the wall.
Magus: It was only an illusion! But why? He turned around and saw something amazing. Across the room he was in were hundreds, perhaps thousands of zombie priests gathered in a titanous room. In the center was an Unholy altar, a rare and extremely powerful artifact. It was composed of a black altar with runes carved in blood ebbed all over it's sides, four razor sharp spikes, one in each corner, one huge axe blade suspended above it and a symbol Magus had never seen made of magic in between the two. It was green with a very pale hint of red. Beside it was a man dressed in the robes of a monk. After closer examination, he noticed the fact he had no legs, but a snake tail and he had boobs.
Magus: So there's our medusa as well... One of the zombies rose and went up to the altar. He layed on it and impaled his hands and legs on the spikes, letting blood flow onto their surface, making the huge blade move down and slash the zombie in two. The two parts were then enveloped in darkness and pieces started to fly all over the place. Bits of intestines, piece of skin and even the brain flew across the room. The darkness dissipated, leaving nothing on the altar and a corner of the symbol became a bit closer to red. Magus : Um... Eww... let's just annihilate the bunch and be done with it. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows
Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows.
In twy great name, I pledge myself to darkness
Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed
By the power you and I possess
Dragon Slave!" A dark beam burst from his hand, flying at great speed torwards the Medusa and colliding hard, becoming a destructive dome spreading fast across the room, annihilating the horde of zombies, but the medusa and the altar remained... The medusa's robes had disintegrated. It was a human-sized snake with two arms made of two live snakes.
Magus: Well, this is the dreaded Gorgonite, let's see what it can do. Magus charged across the room fast, reaching it with no difficulty, but the beast's eyes turned grey and looked at his left arm, instantly turning it to stone.
Magus: My arm, you bastard! He slashed at the beast's eyes and pierced both. The beast coiled back in pain and two blades came out of the mouths of the snakes forming it's arms. It lunged fast in his direction, managing to knick one of his legs.
Magus: Ha! Is that the best you can do? He went forward, finding he couldn't move his legs anymore, both had been totally stoned and the stoning was going higher and higher with each second.
Magus: Damn, that's one hell of a stone spell... Magus Dug his sword into the ground and threw his other one straight at the medusa's lower body. He then grabbed the other and threw it at it's neck. The beast sensed the sword coming at it's lower body and used it's sword arms to deflect it, but noticed the other too late and died, releasing Magus from it's Infernal stoning. He took his swords and brought them down on the altar, breaking it to pieces. The room's floor gave out and Magus fell into the deep chasm...