Author's note:
For those of you who have read my novel of Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, some of what transpires below may seem familiar to you. I say familiar because some of the things have changed since I first wrote them. I am currently revising the novel. For the purposes of this story I have had to reveal some those changes.
For those who have not read my novel, good luck. You guys might find some things confusing. You see in my novel I diverted away from the game's story in many spots. First and foremost I introduced the character of Coller [the playable character that was deleted from the actual game and whose model was used to make the pestering Frankenstein gardener]. In this chapter I do my best to summarize his character arc from my novel so that he might be included in this story because he has a part to play.
All of you might think you know what part he has to play because of the last lines of this chapter, but take it form me, you don't.
The far away figure rolled himself into a bed of leaves before lying still and preparing for sleep. Through the viewfinder of a hunting rifle, the hunter watched as his prey desperately tried to fall asleep. After perhaps an hour of observation, he knew that the lone figure was not only asleep but dreaming. Possibly nightmares even.
He himself had not slept in a long time. Many years had past since Coller felt the rapture of sleep overtake him. It was not a case of insomnia; he simply did not need it. His energy came from a different source. Many years ago, he was known as Coller the Hunter. The definitive article. The greatest hunter in.well at least the province of Wallachia. His reputation became great because he had more man-wolf killings to his name than anyone else. He had made it his business. Did he enjoy it? He never thought he did. In those days Coller never really thought about why he did what he did. He only did it.
He was present when the man-wolves agreed to put an end to their conflict with the humans. Coller watched history unfold before his eyes. After a long and desperate winter that would have wiped out the village where he lived at the time, the man-wolves called upon the services of a great wizard. This wizard revealed the secret of the man wolves. "They were once humans, like us, but they were cursed." The wizard could not lift the curse, but he could seal away their powers and their form so that they could live their lives like humans. So he did and so did the man-wolves begin their lives anew. Coller meanwhile was left without a purpose. He left the village that had been his home for many years and wandered aimlessly. Finally he met her.
"Camilla." her name floated off his lips.
A powerful sorceress and current matriarch of the Fernandez family, Camilla was also the love of Coller's life. He saved her from being burned at the stake as a witch and continued to save her for years after that. But Coller could not save her from the strange affliction that struck her down into a feverish state. Her family traveled like gypsies in a wagon train. Their journey took them into the Dora Woods and finally into a dark and ominous swamp. It was in this dark place that Coller met the other most important woman in his life. She figured importantly in his life not because he loved Actrise, but because from the moment he met her, she would be an almost constant force driving him in one direction or another. Actrise was hell bent on guiding Coller though a life of perpetual torture. First she ripped away Camilla's soul and made her into one of her minions. She forced Camilla to destroy and scatter the remnants of the Fernandez family all over the countryside. Then Actrise baited Coller into journeying to the ruined remains of an old Wallachian castle. It was Castle Dracula.
A heavy smile crossed Coller's face as he remembered what he found there. The castle that he was to spend so many years of his life inside of was in ruins when he arrived. A wealthy man had erected a villa for he and his family and had devoted himself to studying the ruins of the castle. Apparently he had traced his lineage to someone who lived in the castle. Jeremiah Oldrey, his son Henry, his wife Mary and even the gardener Victor, were all unsuspecting victims of what came after. Dark forces were hard at work to resurrect Dracula. Everyone in the villa in one way or another unwillingly helped in the return of the castle. Everyone watched in horror as the castle rebuilt itself and rose from the ruined grounds.
With the castle back once more, things went bad, really bad. The missing ancestor he had been searching for, Gilles De Rais, turned Jeremiah into a vampire. Jeremiah would later kill Mary. As for Victor, the gardener, well he was turned into a mindless killing machine with a machete. Coller waited awhile to try and decide what to do next. It was then that he was met by none other than Cornell. He was apparently in search of his kidnapped sister like Coller was in search of Camilla. Together the two rescued the boy Henry and got as far as the soaring rooftops of the castle towers where they fought off mad harpies.
Coller then recalled how he was separated from the others. He could still remember the first time he found himself in the clutches of Dracula. The pain that followed was as vivid a memory as the others that followed. Refusing to join the vampire willingly, Dracula used an unusual contraption of magical origin to transform him. The figure that Dracula left strapped to a table could only be described as a lizard man. In shame, Coller hoped that he would be left to rot, but then Actrise came. She promised him the return of Camilla if he would build weapons for Dracula's armies. At first Coller did not agree, but alone in the castle, he would have gone mad had he not. In the intervening years Coller was given carte blanche not only throughout the castle but through time itself. It seemed that Actrise had peeked into the future and had not liked what she saw. Apparently in the future magic was almost extinct. It was replaced by something that in our own time was something very new, technology. For this reason Actrise allowed Coller to walk into the future. What wonders Coller saw. But what horrors he brought back with him. The knowledge that Coller brought back with him was a double-edged sword. The secret of flight, the gasoline engine, and many others. One of the worst was the laser. A beam of light so powerful that it could burn right through the human body. After he had perfected some of this technology, Actrise wanted to see it in action. Coller recognized her real motive. She wanted to see if technology could defeat magic.
The test subject of the test would be Victor, the gardener. After the castle had risen, Actrise had removed the poor man's soul and left him as a cold emotionless automaton. However the removal of his soul was not all. Actrise had placed within him a magical core. The core was the ultimate blessing and the ultimate curse at the same time. The core replaces the body's heart and acts as a limitless source of power. The person with a core beating in his or her chest can never die. However, that person cannot have a soul. Once the core is inside them, they are never the same again. And so Coller prepared his first "laser cannon" to be test fired on a man that was supposedly indestructible. To Actrise's delight, he proved just that. The laser pierced a hole into the gardener's body but nothing else. Coller stitched the dead man together again and Actrise left Coller to do more work, content that technology would never challenge her authority.
Time progressed and Coller allowed himself to collaborate. He provided the gardener with a steam powered cutting blade to replace the hand he had lost in a previous battle, built motor machines that skeleton warriors could ride, and finally he built his greatest creation, the tower of science. The tower was one enormous unceasing machine. The tower meant to be the ultimate death trap to anyone who dared to enter the castle. Never did Coller suspect that it would be used against a grown up Henry Oldrey. After eight years Coller finally took a stand against those who had kept him in chains of servitude. Having built the tower he knew that there was only one way to turn it off, a small and inconspicuous lever well hidden behind large and fast moving gears. For the first time Coller found a use for his lizard body's ability to grow back appendages. Coller thrust his hand into the moving gears and threw the lever. The sight of his very own hand being ripped to shreds by large metal gears was not one that Coller could forget.
To Coller's surprise Actrise appeared before him. Always looking for an opportunity to make herself an annoyance, the witch returned Coller to his human form before his lizard body could grow back his lost hand.
"One of life's little ironies." Coller would think back in the future. Coller recalled his curses upon her and how ill chosen words lwould later haunt him.
"I hope I live long enough to see you die you wretched hag!"
The wicked smile that crept across Actrise's face would forever be etched into Coller's mind. Still weak from the blood lost from his hand, the witch was able to force him unto the ground without the use of magic. She then thrust her hand and slammed it hard against Coller's chest. Her eyes were lit with an evil red aura. Coller remembered the burning feeling coming from his chest. He recalled how he could feel something moving inside him.
"I can feel your heart, Coller," the witch said. I have it in my hand. I also have your soul." Actrise began to laugh as Coller screamed in pain.
"You want live to see me die? Then live.you shall!" Actrise then ripped one hand away from Coller's chest and then thrust her other one back to where she had placed her hand previously. Coller felt something new nd alien begin to surge inside him. He didn't realize it at first. He only thought about it until after she was gone. Actrise had ripped his heart and soul out from inside him and left him with a magical core beating inside his chest.
Coller recovered quickly he remembered. The core inside him would no keep him moving forever without getting tired. His first order of business was to destroy all his work. He planned a self-destruct mechanism for the tower and then set it off. He then traveled to the castle center where he kept his notes and his workshop. He destroyed all that was there as well. His final stop before leaving the castle was the garden. There he found Victor. The soulless, heartless, shell that now reflected him. The difference between he and Victor was that Victor was a reanimated corpse. Coller was now a corpse in waiting. Coller bid farewell to the gardener but not without taking a little something for sentimental value.
The sun was now shining in Coller's eyes. The downpour of past memories had finished. As always, he had not slept. As always he just sat there, immersed in his own past. Now the future lay ahead of him. In the distance he watched as the former man-wolf named Cornell awoke and began to move again. Coller slung his rifle over his shoulder and stood up to resume his pursuit. The hunter gently tapped the metallic instrument that was strapped to his wrist. His "keep sake" from the gardener had served him well over the years. Coller had discovered that he did not need to use steam to power the cutting blade, which he had heard described as a "chain saw" in the future. His magic core provided all the necessary power for its use. It was the same power that he had used to keep up with his prey and to hide from his senses.
The last thing that crossed Coller's mind as he descended the gentle slope to pursue his prey was that any good hunter knows that there is a time and a place for everything.
The time for his confrontation with Cornell was coming soon. The place, he sensed was very near.
For those of you who have read my novel of Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, some of what transpires below may seem familiar to you. I say familiar because some of the things have changed since I first wrote them. I am currently revising the novel. For the purposes of this story I have had to reveal some those changes.
For those who have not read my novel, good luck. You guys might find some things confusing. You see in my novel I diverted away from the game's story in many spots. First and foremost I introduced the character of Coller [the playable character that was deleted from the actual game and whose model was used to make the pestering Frankenstein gardener]. In this chapter I do my best to summarize his character arc from my novel so that he might be included in this story because he has a part to play.
All of you might think you know what part he has to play because of the last lines of this chapter, but take it form me, you don't.
The far away figure rolled himself into a bed of leaves before lying still and preparing for sleep. Through the viewfinder of a hunting rifle, the hunter watched as his prey desperately tried to fall asleep. After perhaps an hour of observation, he knew that the lone figure was not only asleep but dreaming. Possibly nightmares even.
He himself had not slept in a long time. Many years had past since Coller felt the rapture of sleep overtake him. It was not a case of insomnia; he simply did not need it. His energy came from a different source. Many years ago, he was known as Coller the Hunter. The definitive article. The greatest hunter in.well at least the province of Wallachia. His reputation became great because he had more man-wolf killings to his name than anyone else. He had made it his business. Did he enjoy it? He never thought he did. In those days Coller never really thought about why he did what he did. He only did it.
He was present when the man-wolves agreed to put an end to their conflict with the humans. Coller watched history unfold before his eyes. After a long and desperate winter that would have wiped out the village where he lived at the time, the man-wolves called upon the services of a great wizard. This wizard revealed the secret of the man wolves. "They were once humans, like us, but they were cursed." The wizard could not lift the curse, but he could seal away their powers and their form so that they could live their lives like humans. So he did and so did the man-wolves begin their lives anew. Coller meanwhile was left without a purpose. He left the village that had been his home for many years and wandered aimlessly. Finally he met her.
"Camilla." her name floated off his lips.
A powerful sorceress and current matriarch of the Fernandez family, Camilla was also the love of Coller's life. He saved her from being burned at the stake as a witch and continued to save her for years after that. But Coller could not save her from the strange affliction that struck her down into a feverish state. Her family traveled like gypsies in a wagon train. Their journey took them into the Dora Woods and finally into a dark and ominous swamp. It was in this dark place that Coller met the other most important woman in his life. She figured importantly in his life not because he loved Actrise, but because from the moment he met her, she would be an almost constant force driving him in one direction or another. Actrise was hell bent on guiding Coller though a life of perpetual torture. First she ripped away Camilla's soul and made her into one of her minions. She forced Camilla to destroy and scatter the remnants of the Fernandez family all over the countryside. Then Actrise baited Coller into journeying to the ruined remains of an old Wallachian castle. It was Castle Dracula.
A heavy smile crossed Coller's face as he remembered what he found there. The castle that he was to spend so many years of his life inside of was in ruins when he arrived. A wealthy man had erected a villa for he and his family and had devoted himself to studying the ruins of the castle. Apparently he had traced his lineage to someone who lived in the castle. Jeremiah Oldrey, his son Henry, his wife Mary and even the gardener Victor, were all unsuspecting victims of what came after. Dark forces were hard at work to resurrect Dracula. Everyone in the villa in one way or another unwillingly helped in the return of the castle. Everyone watched in horror as the castle rebuilt itself and rose from the ruined grounds.
With the castle back once more, things went bad, really bad. The missing ancestor he had been searching for, Gilles De Rais, turned Jeremiah into a vampire. Jeremiah would later kill Mary. As for Victor, the gardener, well he was turned into a mindless killing machine with a machete. Coller waited awhile to try and decide what to do next. It was then that he was met by none other than Cornell. He was apparently in search of his kidnapped sister like Coller was in search of Camilla. Together the two rescued the boy Henry and got as far as the soaring rooftops of the castle towers where they fought off mad harpies.
Coller then recalled how he was separated from the others. He could still remember the first time he found himself in the clutches of Dracula. The pain that followed was as vivid a memory as the others that followed. Refusing to join the vampire willingly, Dracula used an unusual contraption of magical origin to transform him. The figure that Dracula left strapped to a table could only be described as a lizard man. In shame, Coller hoped that he would be left to rot, but then Actrise came. She promised him the return of Camilla if he would build weapons for Dracula's armies. At first Coller did not agree, but alone in the castle, he would have gone mad had he not. In the intervening years Coller was given carte blanche not only throughout the castle but through time itself. It seemed that Actrise had peeked into the future and had not liked what she saw. Apparently in the future magic was almost extinct. It was replaced by something that in our own time was something very new, technology. For this reason Actrise allowed Coller to walk into the future. What wonders Coller saw. But what horrors he brought back with him. The knowledge that Coller brought back with him was a double-edged sword. The secret of flight, the gasoline engine, and many others. One of the worst was the laser. A beam of light so powerful that it could burn right through the human body. After he had perfected some of this technology, Actrise wanted to see it in action. Coller recognized her real motive. She wanted to see if technology could defeat magic.
The test subject of the test would be Victor, the gardener. After the castle had risen, Actrise had removed the poor man's soul and left him as a cold emotionless automaton. However the removal of his soul was not all. Actrise had placed within him a magical core. The core was the ultimate blessing and the ultimate curse at the same time. The core replaces the body's heart and acts as a limitless source of power. The person with a core beating in his or her chest can never die. However, that person cannot have a soul. Once the core is inside them, they are never the same again. And so Coller prepared his first "laser cannon" to be test fired on a man that was supposedly indestructible. To Actrise's delight, he proved just that. The laser pierced a hole into the gardener's body but nothing else. Coller stitched the dead man together again and Actrise left Coller to do more work, content that technology would never challenge her authority.
Time progressed and Coller allowed himself to collaborate. He provided the gardener with a steam powered cutting blade to replace the hand he had lost in a previous battle, built motor machines that skeleton warriors could ride, and finally he built his greatest creation, the tower of science. The tower was one enormous unceasing machine. The tower meant to be the ultimate death trap to anyone who dared to enter the castle. Never did Coller suspect that it would be used against a grown up Henry Oldrey. After eight years Coller finally took a stand against those who had kept him in chains of servitude. Having built the tower he knew that there was only one way to turn it off, a small and inconspicuous lever well hidden behind large and fast moving gears. For the first time Coller found a use for his lizard body's ability to grow back appendages. Coller thrust his hand into the moving gears and threw the lever. The sight of his very own hand being ripped to shreds by large metal gears was not one that Coller could forget.
To Coller's surprise Actrise appeared before him. Always looking for an opportunity to make herself an annoyance, the witch returned Coller to his human form before his lizard body could grow back his lost hand.
"One of life's little ironies." Coller would think back in the future. Coller recalled his curses upon her and how ill chosen words lwould later haunt him.
"I hope I live long enough to see you die you wretched hag!"
The wicked smile that crept across Actrise's face would forever be etched into Coller's mind. Still weak from the blood lost from his hand, the witch was able to force him unto the ground without the use of magic. She then thrust her hand and slammed it hard against Coller's chest. Her eyes were lit with an evil red aura. Coller remembered the burning feeling coming from his chest. He recalled how he could feel something moving inside him.
"I can feel your heart, Coller," the witch said. I have it in my hand. I also have your soul." Actrise began to laugh as Coller screamed in pain.
"You want live to see me die? Then live.you shall!" Actrise then ripped one hand away from Coller's chest and then thrust her other one back to where she had placed her hand previously. Coller felt something new nd alien begin to surge inside him. He didn't realize it at first. He only thought about it until after she was gone. Actrise had ripped his heart and soul out from inside him and left him with a magical core beating inside his chest.
Coller recovered quickly he remembered. The core inside him would no keep him moving forever without getting tired. His first order of business was to destroy all his work. He planned a self-destruct mechanism for the tower and then set it off. He then traveled to the castle center where he kept his notes and his workshop. He destroyed all that was there as well. His final stop before leaving the castle was the garden. There he found Victor. The soulless, heartless, shell that now reflected him. The difference between he and Victor was that Victor was a reanimated corpse. Coller was now a corpse in waiting. Coller bid farewell to the gardener but not without taking a little something for sentimental value.
The sun was now shining in Coller's eyes. The downpour of past memories had finished. As always, he had not slept. As always he just sat there, immersed in his own past. Now the future lay ahead of him. In the distance he watched as the former man-wolf named Cornell awoke and began to move again. Coller slung his rifle over his shoulder and stood up to resume his pursuit. The hunter gently tapped the metallic instrument that was strapped to his wrist. His "keep sake" from the gardener had served him well over the years. Coller had discovered that he did not need to use steam to power the cutting blade, which he had heard described as a "chain saw" in the future. His magic core provided all the necessary power for its use. It was the same power that he had used to keep up with his prey and to hide from his senses.
The last thing that crossed Coller's mind as he descended the gentle slope to pursue his prey was that any good hunter knows that there is a time and a place for everything.
The time for his confrontation with Cornell was coming soon. The place, he sensed was very near.