- Forest of Silence -
As per usual, the sky was cloudy and dark - threatening impending doom - as it had been for some time. In the last few years there hadn't been a speck of sunshine. (Sales in sun block had dropped to an all time low in Wallachia, but one would already have assumed that.)
Reinhardt Schneider looked around the Forest of Silence as he crossed himself and prayed to his God. The quest he was about to embark on was not going to be easy, but many of his ancestors had taken on the same perilous task before.
"Courage, don't leave me."
The Belmont descendant strode ahead cautiously with one hand on the hilt of his short sword and the other ready to lash out with the sacred whip of his ancestors. Of course one would wonder if he were ambidextrous - being able to have a weapon in both hands - but to keep it simple, he sucked-ass with his left hand.
Despite his caution, he couldn't help that three trees came crashing down one after another right before him. He sighed in relief, wiping his brow with an arm.
Off in the distance, he heard an explosion and a loud roar of anguish. Scrambling over the smoking pile of wood before him, he hurried down the path to his right and came screeching to a halt at the edge of a cliff. On the other side he spotted a large tiger-like creature lying in a heap on the ground moaning in anguish. It went silent a moment later.
All was eerily quiet in the forest until Reinhardt heard something scuffling below him. He peered over the edge and noticed that some… thing was scaling the cliff side.
It turned out to be a human girl. She looked up to see him looking down at her. Startled, she cried out in shock and accidentally let go of the ledge she was holding on to. Reinhardt acted fast and lashed down at her with his whip. It wrapped around one of the girl's wrists, preventing her from hitting the stone surface that lay far below her. After pulling her up to safety, Reinhardt gave her the once over with on eye and shook his head.
"What is a child like you doing out here? It's too dangerous - "
The young girl shot him a cold glare while cutting him off. "I am not a child!"
"You look like one to me,"
"That's because you're a narrow-minded adult."
"Now wait just a minute," Reinhardt raised a brow at her saucy comment.
" - Sorry," The girl cut in. "I can't waste time when I'm on an important mission. …Thank you for the help." With that, she turned to leave.
"What kind of mission?" The vampire slayer was becoming too inquisitive even for his own liking.
The girl stopped, turned back to him and sighed. "None of your business."
Reinhardt blinked. He could tell by the look she was giving him that she was headed the same way he was. "You really ought to leave Dracula to the professionals."
A quiet growl escaped her throat as her right palm began to glow hot white. A moment later she had formed a sphere out of the energy and sent it flying at his breastplate. The force of the blast sent him sprawling on his back. Stepping over to him, she put a foot on his chest and leaned over to give him a piercing gaze.
"I am NOT a child! I can take care of myself."
The grounded man blinked in wonder when she stormed off. "Feisty kid,"
A few minutes later he had caught up with her and had assisted her in defeating a rather large skeleton that had blocked the way to the castle's drawbridge. It had taken them a few minutes to beat the thing, until they had the brilliant idea to hijack some of the motorcycles that the boss skeleton's minions rode into the battle on. They had then proceeded to ride up the back of the creature, effectively pounding it into the dust. Reinhardt took the liberty of dismounting and moved to sever the skull from the spine so that it wouldn't reform again. Boss defeated.
The girl hopped off her mechanical mount, sat down on the ground and congratulated him on his success.
"Good call on hijacking those contraptions" He replied.
"I suppose," She paused and studied his face as he sat heavily on the ground near her. "So you're headed after 'him' too, am I not correct?" The other nodded. "Since were going after the same thing, should we stick together?"
"I usually travel alone," Reinhardt scratched the back of his neck and looked at the sky. "But I suppose a traveling companion wouldn't be too bad. This time."
The girl stood again and looked at the castle's outer wall. "The name's Carrie Fernandez - and I will only tolerate you if you can treat me as an equal."
The descendant of the Belmont clan stifled a laugh and smiled. "Same goes for you, too. Reinhardt Schneider." With that, he stuck out his hand for a handshake.
Carrie nodded and accepted. "...If you're not a Belmont, why do you have their legendary whip?"
The other gave a slight smile. The girl wasn't as simple as he had assumed. "The blood still runs in the family. My grandmother was a Belmont… and only the clan name has fallen to the ravages of time."
"Ah, I see. And thus it's your turn to follow the path of victory that your forefathers followed centuries before. Interesting."
A long moment of silence followed as the two adventurers looked upon their upcoming obstacle.
"So what's your story?" Reinhardt found himself asking after a while.
Carrie paused for a long while before answering. "I'm doing this to avenge my family and the people in my village that were killed by his minions." As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes but she did not weep. "My foster mother died trying to save me..."
Reinhardt nodded and almost felt bad for asking. All he could muster in reply was 'I'm sorry'. The girl nodded and looked up at the large drawbridge before them. An instant later, it lowered from the castle wall and allowed them access inside.
Swallowing his pride, Reinhardt lead the way towards the never-ending darkness inside. . .
- Castle Wall -
"Well, Mr. Hero. What do you propose we do?" Carrie retorted icily as the drawbridge closed behind them. The passageway was secluded, a door on either side and two large heavy gates in front of them.
Reinhardt thought for a second and came up with an idea. "I think these large gates have a mechanism up top to raise them. You go left, I'll go right."
Carrie turned to her left and fumbled with the doorknob. "Stuck."
The other blinked and turned back. "Let me see," He too fiddled with the knob. "No, it's locked. Have a hairpin?"
"No, but maybe..." She stepped back, put her hands in the air, posed like a pitcher in a baseball game and fired up a bolt of energy. "This should work - move it unless you want to be knocked flat again!"
A second later the door was blown off it's hinges. Carrie gave a two-finger salute of departure before jogging onward.
Reinhardt shrugged and went for the door on his right. Luckily it was unlocked.
Both adventurers had to climb a spiral set of staircases/obstacles to reach the top of their designated towers. At the top of each was - like Reinhardt had predicted - a large switch mechanism for one of the two main gates.
At the top of the right tower, (Reinhardt's location) was a large three-headed serpent lying in wait for whoever had the nerve to interrupt it's afternoon nap. He gave it a puzzled look and then managed to defeat it quickly. After raising the first gate, a shortcut opened up that allowed him passage to the room he started in. When he landed on the main floor again, Carrie was already standing in wait.
"What was at the top of your tower?" She asked, arms crossed and expression perplexed.
"An ugly fire-breathing creature." He stated dryly. "You?"
"Only the reincarnation of darkness himself." Carrie returned, stepping towards the outer portcullis.
Reinhardt gave her a wide-eyed look.
She nodded, then shrugged and walked on ahead. "I have to say that I am disappointed that the Count didn't have more tasteful insults."
- Villa ~ Front yard -
The Villa lay straight ahead. The gardens around the building were pretty, yet also an effective blockade. There were two garden gates barring them from entering the Villa's front garden. Reinhardt couldn't budge them and Carrie couldn't blast them. After they had stepped back from the gate, a large 3-headed dog jumped out from the bushes.
"Why do they always have to have three heads?" Reinhardt sighed and defeated the creature with a flick of his whip.
"That was easy," Carrie retorted. Suddenly two more of the same dog-beasts appeared out of nowhere. She blasted them simultaneously with a bolt of energy fired from each hand.
Reinhardt kicked open the now-mobile gates after stepping over the carcasses and started down the pathway to the next set. Two fire-breathing dogs jumped out of the bushes. The pair of dogs were defeated in about 3 seconds. Finally, a huge three-headed dog emerged from the front gardens and proceeded to tear things up a bit. It took a bit of cheap manoeuvring but the pair managed to destroy the beast.
"Bad dogs," Carrie rasped and fell to her knees when reaching the fountain that was in the front garden. She scooped her hands into the water and splashed over her face. "What's next? Three-headed tigers?"
Smirking, Reinhardt made his way to the front steps of the grand house. "Ready to continue?"
The girl nodded and followed him into the ominous-looking manor before them.
- Villa ~ Interior -
Carrie stopped cold when something flitted about in the entryway.
It turned out to be a rather mean and hungry looking vampire.
He landed before both of them and licked his lips. "Mmm... easy prey,"
Carrie and Reinhardt looked at each other flatly before swiftly ending the vampire's existence.
Looking around, they split up and searched the spacious room for anything else that was liable to attack. The pair soon found their way to a long hallway of numerous doors. Reinhardt nodded at his companion before kicking open the first door, allowing both to enter the room with brandished weapons. Carrie ducked and rolled into the room to end up in a defensive crouch position as Reinhardt merely stepped over her cautiously.
To their disappointment, nothing active was in the room.
"So much for the cautious approach," Carrie sighed and went for another door in the room which she mistook as a closet. Before she could turn the handle the door swung open to reveal a tall, white-haired man.
"Ahhhhhhh-hhhhhhhh!" They both cried, completely caught off guard.
Acting on instinct, Carrie stumbled backwards only to fall over her feet and the man grabbed a cross from one of his coat pockets only to thrust it at her face.
"Stay where you are! Don't move! Not even a finger!" He walked around the child holding the cross towards her as he inspected. "All right, you seem human enough, and you too." He nodded at Reinhardt.
"Of course, but the feisty one is hell-spawn, you know." Naturally, he received another bolt to the chest plate from the blue-haired girl. "See?"
Carrie growled and crossed her arms.
The other man laughed loudly and pulled up a chair. "You two are quite the pair. Name's Vincent. Charlie Vincent. " He then grew serious for a moment. "But what are you youngsters doing in a place like this? It's too dangerous - "
"Don't treat me like a child - !" The two adventurers piped up at once.
"You're a vampire hunter as well, so why are you here? It's too dangerous for someone your age, really." Reinhardt pointed out, a little defiantly.
The girl nodded in agreement. "We're going to destroy the dark lord. Nothing will stand in our way."
Charlie Vincent sighed, rubbing at his left temple. "Leave Dracula to the professionals."
Carrie shook her head at him. "We've already come this far. No sense in leaving now."
"But this is only the beginning, young one. From here, you two have to go through a maze to even find the way towards the castle centre. How easy does that sound?" Here he paused and took out a cloth to shine the cross he held. "Legend also says that there are four trial towers . . . not an easy task. Your ancestor, young one, may have been able to overcome the trials, but it won't be so easy for you."
The girl huffed. "I think I can easily do what Sypha accomplished."
Reinhardt rubbed his chin. "So which way is it to the maze?"
Vincent pointed to the door of the room. "Out that way and to your left. About three doors down, there will be a long parlour, look for the double doors."
"Reinhardt, do we have to go now? I'm rather tired..." Carrie tugged at his sleeve childishly.
He nodded in agreement to her. "It is quite late, I have to admit." He looked over at the other vampire hunter. "Is it safe to rest here?"
Vincent nodded. "This whole room has been purified with holy water, but I'd keep a cross on your person, however."
"All right, then we'll go first thing in the morning."
Carrie smiled slightly and curled up in a large armchair right away.
- Villa ~ 4am -
Reinhardt awoke to the sound of someone singing. The words were inaudible to him, but the melody was intriguing. He rose, left the room quietly and stole down the hallway towards the sound. Peering into the small atrium, he saw a lady dressed in red tending to a large bed of roses.
He walked into the room slowly, so as not to startle her.
When she heard him, raised an eyebrow as if he were an annoyance. "Do you mind? I'm watering my white roses," She turned back to tip the watering can in her hand over a clump of flowers. However, the liquid in it was not water.
"Blood...? You're a...!" Reinhardt looked shocked for a moment before regaining himself. If he wasn't careful, this vampire might try something sneaky...
"Of course. None but vampires and demons live here," She paused a moment and looked into his eyes innocently. "You should really flee while you still can. Once you reach the underground, there's no turning back."
"I can't retreat from my mission,"
A sigh escaped blood-red lips. "The key to the garden is in the archives, just so you know." She turned and walked towards the atrium's entrance. "Try not to let your life slip away too quickly, "
With that, she disappeared.
Reinhardt shook his head roughly as if he had been in a trance. She hadn't tried anything, but he had found himself drawn into her eyes. They weren't evil, like other vampire's. The woman was still human inside... how odd...
- Villa ~ 6 am -
Carrie rose, stretching and yawning like any cat might. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around the room and found no-one in sight.
"Charlie...?" No answer. She called the next name in annoyance. "-Reinhardt?" No answer there either.
Sighing, she got up and went for the door. Before she grasped the knob, it swung open to reveal the elder vampire hunter holding a basket.
The action startled the hell out of the child. "Ahhh! Stop doing that!"
"Sorry," He shrugged and entered the room, setting down the basket on a nearby table. "Would you like something to eat, young one?"
She wavered a little while eyeing the basket. "What do you have in there?"
"There's an orchard on the side of the building. A real b*tch to get at, though. One of those infernal dogs is guarding it."
"But I thought we...?" She knitted her eyebrows in confusion. "How...?
"Don't ask. They just keep popping up. Have a peach." He tossed one at her and started munching on another.
"Thanks," She nodded and looked at it. "Have you seen the big dope anywhere?" Her question answered when the door opened and Reinhardt staggered in. "Never mind."
He sighed and sat down heavily on the chair nearest to him. "That damn archive door won't open... I tried everything..."
Charlie raised an eyebrow. "You spoke to the lady tending to the flowers, didn't you?"
The young man nodded. "Yes, that's right. She told me the garden key was in the archive room. But I couldn't bust my way in."
"I could blast it o -" Carrie started, being cut off by the elder slayer.
"-I have the key to the archives - it's no use to me now. Take it." He then handed it over to the other man in the room. "Be careful, though. The garden isn't a walk in the park."
Minutes later they stood at the garden gates, the pair could see how the hedge maze twisted and tuned out of sight.
"You think he might be right?" Carrie asked. She was unafraid but her tone was quiet.
"Well, someone ancient like him must be wise."
They both snickered at the concept.
"These statues are freaky . . . " the youngest frowned and looked up at the two stone gargoyle-dogs perched on top of the columns holding up the gate. "They look like they're going to come alive any minute."
Reinhardt looked at them and rubbed his chin. "If they were going to, I think they would have done so already."
"Well, then I guess they're just lumps of rock." She shot a bolt at the one on her left with a newfound haughtiness.
The statue turned it's head and snarled at them. The other stood up and growled.
"Dammit..." The Belmont offspring backed away from the scene, pulling the other human with him as the two statues jumped down and followed.
"Back to the Villa!" Carrie cried, spinning on her heels and mad-dashing for the back door.
Reinhardt followed closely and slammed the door shut when they were both safely inside. "Are they still out there?" He asked after a moment.
Carrie opened the door a crack and peeked out, only to have the two statues roar loudly in her face. She slammed the door shut again. "Yeah, I think so."
In unison, the two sank to the floor and rested their heads on their knees.
"Now what?" Reinhardt queried, more to break the silence than anything.
"Beats me. But let me just take a moment to rub in your face that your theory was wrong - "
"- At least I didn't make those things angry!"
They bickered for a while until someone else entered the room, and cleared their throat. Both looked up to see a man dressed in a dark green suit complete with a matching derby. He seemed human, but a swishing tail behind him told otherwise.
"Do we have to fight him?" Carrie whispered aside.
"The name's Renon." The demon raised an eyebrow. "But I'm not your enemy. I'm here on business to provide services to adventurers on their way to the castle."
The two humans looked at each other with the look of 'yeah right' on their faces.
The other being shook his head. "One needs gold, even in Hell these days. I'd present my service to you, but I can't seem to find my contract..."
Reinhardt reached into his 'omega-inventory' and pulled out a scroll written in demonic text. "This?"
"Ah yes. That's it." He gratefully accepted it and read the conditions of the document before returning it to the two to sign.
Carrie grabbed at it and pointed at the tiny script at the bottom that Renon had failed to read to them. "Wait a sec... this says that if we spend over 30,000 gold... our souls become yours? The Hell?"
He grabbed the contract and shoved it in his inner coat pocket. He couldn't believe the child could read his world's text. "Never mind the details, it's all the same in the end. Well, I must be off! " He then disappeared with the blink of an eye.
In the spot where he vanished, an identical contract appeared on the ground.
Reinhardt heard his stomach gurgle a few moments later. Automatically, he was compelled to reach for the contract. Upon doing so, he was pulled into a swirling vortex which turned out to be the inside of Renon's briefcase.
"Keep it short, adventurer..." The demon requested politely, poised midair in a sitting position. "Now... what do you require?"
The other bought what he though he'd need and closed the first business transaction. Carrie waited patiently for Reinhardt's return from the other dimension. When he appeared again, she immediately questioned the sights of the alternate time/space continuum.
"It wasn't all that great. Pretty dark," He shrugged, already halfway through a roast beef item, tossing the child a leg of roast chicken, who immediately pounced on it and ate it like a hungry wolf.
-Villa ~ Maze -
Much later, they found themselves quietly sneaking around the hedge maze after finding out that the dogs had vanished. Probably on some kind of business hell hounds go on when tired. None the less, Carrie led the way.
"Shh!" She peered around one corner and listened to a faint sound in the distance. "Listen..."
Reinhardt tried to detect what she was listening to, but couldn't hear what she could. "What is it?"
"Sounds like a low growling sound," She whispered. "It might be those statues," Tiptoeing around the corner, she disappeared for a moment, then came right back holding her breath.
"What's wrong?"
"You're not going to believe this... there's something that looks like Frankenstein's monster trimming the hedges with a chainsaw over there,"
"What?" Reinhardt looked at her in disbelief for a moment. "I swear I'll be repeating this all to a psychiatrist someday..."
The pair slowly crept away from the direction of the gardening monster and headed towards a closed door. On their way, a child wearing a swanky purple outfit crawled out of the nearby bushes.
"I'm Malus," he whimpered after the others introduced themselves. He then told them about being kidnapped and that all his friends had been taken to the castle. After stopping dead in the middle of his story, he began to cry.
Carrie walked towards the child and crouched down before him. "It'll be all right, we'll help you, Malus."
He smiled through his tears and looked at them both. "Really?"
Both nodded back at him. Suddenly, the two statues from before leapt into the clearing through one of the hedge walls and advanced forward.
"Dammit, again . . . " Reinhardt cursed, grabbing a child under each arm and running away like the wind.
The statues gave chase right away and nearly caught him at one point, Carrie prevented that by throwing a huge bottle of holy water on the ground, which impeded their advance. Unfortunately the monster with the chainsaw joined in the hunt soon after.
"Reinhardt! We've got more company!" Carrie cried, almost losing a limb.
"Excuse me if I can't run that well with you two weighing me down!" He called over his shoulder.
"Drop me, then!"
Without protest, he obeyed. Now able to run faster, he blundered through the maze and managed to get them through a door in a stone wall. On the other side, the three breathed a sigh of relief.
A question plagued Reinhardt's mind at that point, but he didn't want to jinx the quiet moment. After they let Malus escape through a gate to their left, he did however bring it up.
"You'd think those things would be able to bust down this door or something," He stated, as they walked in the opposite direction.
Carrie shook her head. "I felt a strange aura in there . . . I think the maze causes their existence. Thus, if they leave the outer perimeter . . . they become lifeless."
Her companion nodded and looked at the sky.
They found out a bit later that their path took them back into the Villa and also granted them access to a locked alcove in the maze. Braving it once more, they whipped through, fought off the guardians and headed for the underground dwelling in the clearing.
Inside the underground room, they found a pair of vampires - which they defeated quickly to some annoying music that blared out of nowhere.
"Whoa! Wait a minute!" Carrie exclaimed, looking through her Castlevania 64 soundtrack booklet. "If that stupid music that played while we fought was The First Struggle then what the hell did we just go through to get here?! A cake-walk?!"
Reinhardt rolled his eyes and snatched the booklet away from her. "No cheating."
"It's not cheating. It's called interpretive playing." She countered, trying to get the booklet back from him. However, she could reach high enough to grab it out of his hands.
He smirked at her attempts, before receiving a blast to the breastplate that knocked him to the ground yet again.
"A-thank you!" She beamed with forced cuteness, taking back what was rightfully hers.
"Hm, what next?" She asked, sitting down on the large coffin at the end of the room. The lid slid aside and revealed a hole that went further into the ground. Unfortunately, Carrie didn't notice that until she leaned back and fell down. The drop itself was about 6 feet.
Immediately after her cry of surprise - then pain - Reinhardt went to her assistance.
"What I'd give for the invention of acetaminophen right about now." She muttered sarcastically after a long while of silently cracking her back.
The other stood up and looked at their options. "Should we travel together or should we split up again?"
Carrie illuminated the room with a glowing fist. "It's necessary for one of us to make it . . . I'll go right, you go left?"
Concerned, Reinhardt looked her over. "Are you sure you'll be okay on your own?"
"I said I'll be fine. Hopefully I'll see you later!" She pointed at him with a newfound seriousness and headed off into her chosen direction.
"Don't get yourself killed, Fernandez!" He called after her.
"Same to you, pops." She taunted back, disappearing in the darkness. Reinhardt turned and started in his direction before realizing that he had no light of his own. "Hey!" He yelled down the tunnel. "I need a light!" The reply he received was heard to be a barely audible 'Smoking is bad for you!'.
- Underground Waterway -
Carrie's pathway had been a water tunnel, possibly the castle's sewer system. That would have explained the lizard-men that had nearly dragged her into the foul smelling brine. Despite a few scratches and slight poisoning, she made it out of the cavern alive. But before she could even finish the level, someone cut her off from the doorway to the Castle.
"Only a child . . ." A darkly dressed, white-haired woman let a mirthless smile slip as she looked her over. "But a true Fernandez . . ."
"Who are you?" The 'child' replied while swigging back a cure ampoule to cure her minor sickness. The woman introduced herself as Actrise, a witch. She then made an offer that many could not refuse. She offered her powers beyond her imagination if she gave herself up to the dark forces of the Count. Carrie shook her head.
"My mission is to destroy Dracula. I shan't be dissuaded by temptation!"
Actrise looked more pleased than one would imagine. "We shall meet again, in hopes you will reconsider. Just don't die before our next encounter." Laughing in a high-pitched tone, she disappeared.
- Tunnel -
Meanwhile, Reinhardt had managed to finish his route, an underground tunnel also swamped with the same venomous water. However, his enemies had been spear-wielding spider mutants.
Before he could finish the level, he found himself in a room with Rosa, the vampire gardener who was stepping into faint sunlight that shone from an open manhole above.
"Stop! Don't be stupid!" He cried, running forward and dragging her out of the golden rays. She looked shocked and relieved at the same time.
"Why? Why save me? I'm only a vampire,"
"God doesn't permit suicide," He replied quietly.
"Then I guess there's no hope for my sinful soul," She stated plainly, a hint of sorrow in her voice. "Why don't you just destroy me then?"
Reinhardt shook his head at her. He would not.
"So you won't attack anything that resembles a woman or a child?"
"I was brought up to never threaten the weak." He stated it plainly, but was sincere.
Rosa sighed, looked at him in thought for a moment then turned to leave. "Such sentimentality will cost you your life." With that, she disappeared.
- Castle Center -
Both adventurers managed to reach the castle center at the same time, with their separate entrances being side by side. As they stepped out of the underground passages and into the new area, they glanced at each other for a millisecond before becoming startled by the other's presence.
Reinhardt yelped in surprise, backing off and brandishing his whip instinctively. Carrie cried out and backed away as well, doing a ninja pose with her razor rings in hand.
She lowered her guard when she realized who it was that scared her. "Jeez! Don't scare me like that!"
"If I was any older, I'd blame you for the heart-attack I just had," He grabbed his head in his hands in frustration. "I swear, this is all getting to my mind...!"
"I know for sure I'll be in a mental institute rambling on about this when I'm your age, so don't feel that you're alone."
It took him a moment to realize what she had meant, but he laughed good-naturedly at her wise-crack. "H-hey..!" It was probably going to be his last laugh for a long while.
Comparing stories, they wandered further into the castle center, all the while fighting off random skeletons on motorcycles, various servant vampires, more lizard men and even a blood-monster. After ascending a few flights of stairs, they found themselves in a room with a large lizard-man bent over a small table.
Carrie assumed it was another enemy to fight, thus she gave a blood- curdling battle cry and tackled the creature.
"Ah noooooooo!" It cried, trying to shake the savage child off. "I was once human, you idiot! I'm only this shape because of a curse!"
Reinhardt almost died laughing as he ripped Carrie off of the Lizard Man. Her nostrils flared wildly, and a piece of the accursed's pants was still clenched between her teeth. After she had settled down and begrudgingly apologized, the lizard-man went on to tell the two about magical nitro and Mandragora, which they would need to use if they wanted to get any further into the castle. He then asked them if they had seen the large white seal on the far wall of the indoor stadium.
"Yes, we snuck a peak into that room . . . What were those remains in the middle?" The elder of the two questioned.
"I have no idea. It seems dead, but you never can tell in here."
"Great," Carrie sighed.
After conversing with the lizard-man-thing some more, the two then exited to a nearby room that contained the nitro. The room itself was divided into two by a long shelving unit, which displayed six bottles of the magical nitro.
"Potent stuff," Carrie pointed to a large crater on the wall on the opposite side of the room.
"No kidding..." The other replied but paused. "Malus?!" Sure as sugar, there was Malus, on the other side of the shelves. "What are you doing here? Why didn't you escape?"
Malus looked up at them with fiery red eyes. "This place? Escape?" He paused a moment and looked away. When he looked back, his eyes were normal. "... Say, are you going to get revenge on Dracula?"
Carrie nodded and crossed her arms. "Yes, we're going to get revenge and we're going to free the world of his evil!"
Suddenly, the boys' eyes became red again. "Ha ha ha... you'll never defeat him... this world shall be plunged into eternal darkness... and everyone will be trapped like wretches! Ha ha ha!"
The other two looked at each other, confused by Malus' words. Before they could ask what he was talking about, he ran off.
"Oh, Malus... what have you been saying?" Carrie looked at the direction he had fled, worry strewn across her face.
"Something's terribly wrong with him..."
"Should I go after him?" She offered aloud.
"No, we have other things to worry about. Like getting into the library, first." Reinhardt leaned forward to grab a bottle of nitro.
"- I've got a better idea. Let's take the nitro to that room with the white seal before we pick up the Mandragora? Saves us a trip."
"But we don't know what is in the other direction,"
"Well, we can't go back the way we came. The gap we jumped to get up here would be impossible to get across with the stuff."
He thought about the mess either one of them would make if they attempted to jump across the gap with the liquid explosive. Carrie crawled through the shelving unit and on to the other side with ease but he wouldn't of had it so easy. His shoulder guards would have knocked the planks - and the nitro down onto the ground.
"Let me move the nitro first," She offered, carefully picking up each jar and moving it to a crate in the back of her section of the room. After, they both ripped down the wooden planks, creating a shortcut. "Now we don't have to go all the way around again."
Solemnly, he nodded, picking up a jar gently. "So who carries this then?"
"Let me test something first," Carrie grabbed the jar out of his hands and threw it across the room at the door. There was nothing left, save a few splinters, when the dust from the explosion settled. "Meep! You can carry it."
He shook his head, not taking his wide-eyes off the destroyed doorway. "Oh! No way in hell am I carrying it!"
"Well then... how are we going to settle this?"
A moment later, they were in the middle of a fierce 'rock, paper, scissors' match. After 3 ties, they thought they had the other's attack pattern might be.
"Paper!" Carrie announced proudly as she held a hand out flat. Her expression faded as she saw what her companion had chosen.
"Scissors cuts paper. You lose."
- Castle Center ~ Magical Nitro Gauntlet -
Oooh... the gauntlet Carrie had to run had been stressful. She'd almost fallen off a narrow walkway six times while Reinhardt had scurried around below her killing a bunch of fire-breathing lizards that had nearly hit her with their flames. One had come so close in front of her she could have sworn her eyebrows had been singed off.
"Ow! Son of a..!" She heard him cry out in anger as one of the red creatures clamped down on his arm. He stabbed at it after shaking the thing off, leaving a bloody mess on the floor where it had once stood.
Balancing cautiously, she held her leather pouch with the jar inside with her teeth, thus preventing any moderate shocks or jolts to affect the stability of the nitro. When the lizard had been slain, Reinhardt had carelessly thrown it against one of the pillars holding up the narrow path.
"Reinhardt you idiot!" She mumbled through the leather between her teeth. It came out sounding a lot like 'Run you harlot'.
He turned from beating in the face of another lizard and stared at the child. After she raised a brow, he figured out what she had meant to say.
"... Kids say the darndest things, don't they, scaly?"
Carrie rolled her eyes as she watched him finish off the monster. She had just gotten off the ramp and on to solid ground before looking ahead. A rut in the floor extended across the room, yet two turning gears in the floor prevented the pathway from being easy. She shook her head and realized what she was supposed to do.
"There is no way I'm going to chance getting squished and then blown up in the middle of those gears." She thought, gently placing the pouch on the upper part of the floor before hopping up out of the rut. "Reinhardt! Let's go!"
"Aye-aye!" He called from the hollow behind her while climbing up.
From there, they continued towards the large room containing the sealed wall. Carrie tiptoed carefully along the way while her partner fought off any monsters and the like that tried to get at her. They mostly consisted of baroque armor statues that came to life and tried to jab at them with either a long sword or a pole axe or another onslaught of motorcycle-riding skeletons. The aforementioned almost managed to nail the child with it's bone club, but it was knocked right off and destroyed with the holy whip of her present body guard.
Peeking inside the room, Carrie left the jar of the explosive on the floor, a few feet away from the wall. She'd carry in over to the sealed wall later.
"Another brilliant plan just struck me,"
"Hmm? Do tell?" The other asked as they bolted down the hallway to the torture chamber, which contained a fully-stocked shelf of Mandragora.
"Well, you go back up and bust into the library. I'll wait in the arena and then I'll attend to the wall. Saves us more time, don't you think?"
He thought about it for a moment, as they entered the room and swiftly cleansed it of evil spirits. "I like your thinking." With that he took a Mandragora jar off a shelf.
Nodding, Carrie grabbed a jar of the magical herb for herself. "Just be careful, hmm? And get back down here as fast as you can after breaking the seal."
They split ways again, Reinhardt returning to the room where they had found the cursed human, while Carrie headed into the stadium, keeping the two items well apart from each other.
"I wonder what the heck that thing is?" The girl pondered to herself as she sat near the entrance patiently. "Makes me crave a hamburger something bad, though."
After a few minutes, a while ball of light entered the room from the ceiling and dispelled the rune on the far wall. Reinhardt had figured out how to remove the seal!
(Actually, he had just guessed at the planetarium puzzle and had managed to fluke it. And of course, he wasn't going to tell her that.)
"All right!" Carrie took the nitro over to the previously-damaged wall and set it down carefully. She then went back for the mandragora and set it next to the nitro, immediately sprinting away in order to take cover behind the large furry thing in the middle of the room.
The arena shook violently as the fierce scream of the purple herb detonated the nitro. The magic aura that had been leftover from the white seal magnified and spread the effect of the explosion, completely demolishing the thick wall.
After the dust settled, she peeked around her shelter and whistled in admiration. Gazing up at the large white jewel that was in the space where the wall had just been, she toddled forward and touched it with a wavering hand. An inscription at the base of the jewel read 'Release the power within'.
"Now do I really want to do that?" She pondered for a moment before nodding and touching the spot that was supposed to be touched in order to release the power.
Nothing seemed to happen, so she shrugged and turned to leave the arena. Bad idea, however. The beast that had been laying on the floor before was now stomping around the edges of the arena.
"Holy..."
Meanwhile, Reinhardt paused outside the library, feeling a wave of anxiety flow over him. Not one to ignore instinct, he dashed off to assist his companion. A minute later he burst into the arena to see Carrie cornered by a rather large and pissed-off looking monster.
"Reinhardt... a little help?" Carrie asked loudly, looking more annoyed than scared. She edged over to the left slightly then to the right; the monsters' eyes following her every move.
"What am I supposed to do?!"
The large bull looked back at the new mortal in the room and snorted. Wheeling around, it charged straight for the vampire slayer.
"Holy -!"
"-Don't you dare say cow!"
Barely having time to think, Reinhardt lashed out with his whip, which latched around one of its horns. He then swung himself up and on to the shoulders of the charging creature. Infuriated, it started bucking wildly in attempt to throw the rider.
Typically, Belmont clan members weren't ones for hats, but at that moment he really wished he had one. "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee-haw!"
Carrie stared at her partner's antics with a flattened expression. A few moments passed before the monster came bucking her way, spewing plasma attacks left right and center. Dodging a heated blast, she managed to catch a glimpse of the eyeball in the mouth of the enemy. She didn't have the strength or dexterity to blast it directly... thus she figured there was only one thing she could do... Do the Xena.
Backing up a step, she let loose an imitation of the Amazon war cry and ran forward only to do a whole series of tumbling moves finishing with a triple twist in the air and letting loose her razor rings like the double chakram. The rings bounced around the arena a few times striking multiple surfaces.
One bounced off of Reinhardt's breastplate much to his discomfort. The impact force made him fall off the creature to which it wheeled around and stared at him icily. The slayer covered his eyes in fear of the worst as the beast reared up and opened its mouth to blast him.
The rings coincidentally hit the eye in its mouth at the same time, causing the energy that was brewing to backfire, frying the behemoth to a crisp.
Reinhardt looked over his arms that were crossed over his face and blinked.
"Only in fantasy are things that damn ironic..." Carrie stepped a bit closer to him and leaned over slightly to look at him directly. Offering him a hand, she rolled her eyes and sighed. "Nice work, rodeo clown."
"Why thank you, warrior princess,"
Leaving the arena, the two set off for the elevator that would take them to the next series of separated paths. Entering the room across the hall, they stopped cold at the sight before them.
A purple-winged skeleton armed with a scythe 'gazed' in their direction. (An admirable feat for a being with dark and hollow eye sockets.)
Reinhardt cringed at the scent that hung in the air. "Death..."
"Correct, mortal. But it won't be me to undo your existence today..." with that, Death moved aside to reveal a sad looking vampire wielding a long sword.
"Rosa?!"
"Who?" Carrie asked, noting the odd glow in the vampire's eyes.
Reinhardt didn't respond, but pushed the girl aside as Rosa advanced on him.
"Those who threaten Lord Dracula must die...!"
"Rosa! No, I don't want to fight you!" He backed away but soon realized that he had no choice.
Carrie sat aside and watched, munching on popcorn that she had pulled out of her 'inventory'. The two she observed fought out their differences, with Rosa giving up after a short while.
She dropped the sword and clutched at her right arm as she sank to her knees. "I... I'm sorry... I couldn't..." She breathed in a dazed and confused state. Thereafter, she asked a favour of her opponent - that if he ever returned to the village, to tell her family about her fate.
"And...tell them that I… didn't run off to join the circus… or that I wasn't sold to the gypsies, or that I wanted to become famous by starring in adult peepshows…"
"-Okay, I get it." Reinhardt nodded in promise and was about to say something else before Death reappeared and took the frail vampire under one wing before disappearing with her. The male slayer sighed and turned back to his companion, to which his jaw dropped open momentarily.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He asked in monotone, noting her box of popcorn.
"Watching the unfolding plot of the love that a vampire killer has for a vampire and vise-versa. Want some?" Carrie held the popcorn towards him as she got to her feet. She then took his blank stare as a 'no'.
Just as suddenly as Death appeared, Actrise took her turn to appear and present a pawn for one of the slayers to play with.
Carrie raised an eyebrow as she looked at the green-skinned girl hovering before her. "I feel like I know you... your presence..."
triteness
The cursed girl stared at her icily not saying a word. Actrise in the meanwhile cackled and sputtered on about Carrie's final choice to join them or die, before disappearing in order to let the two magical girls duke it out.
"I choose neither. Reinhardt, hold this," She handed over her snack, rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward to kick her cousin's undead butt. A couple minutes later, she prayed to the spot where her relative had once stood.
Reinhardt slowly walked over and put a hand on her shoulder supportively.
"Let's continue, okay?" Carrie regained her composure and nodded at him. After riding the elevator to the top of the Castle Center, the pair found themselves in a dilemma. Carrie started off in the direction of the one bridge she saw as safe to cross. Reinhardt stopped her before she took a step on to it.
"What are you doing?!" He grabbed on to one of her arms and yanked her back from what seemed like a dead end to him. "The accessible path is the other way."
Carrie looked at the sight behind him. To her eyes there was a broken bridge. She shifted her eyes and looked at him like he was insane. "That one is the dead end, Reinhardt!"
He stared at her like she was completely off her rocker. Thinking a moment, he soon came to a conclusion. "I guess it's destined that we split ways again."
"Yeah... be careful, okay?"
"You too." Reinhardt let go of her arm and turned towards his path.
"Oh Reinhardt?" Carrie called after him. "I linked our inventories earlier. Feel free to use my rocket-powered grappling hook, okay?"
He turned and stared at her. "Where did you get one of those!?"
She smiled evilly and put a finger to her lips. "The Romanian C.I.A. But don't tell anyone,"
- Duel Tower / Tower of Science -
Reinhardt slowly walked into the first of his trial towers, the Duel Tower. From what he could see, there was a series of battle arenas and platforms with long spiked, spinning bars aimed at gouging someone who was stupid enough to climb on to them.
Another thing he noticed was that the monsters appeared to have been on a recent diet of coffee and illegal stimulating narcotics. Their eyes were completely bugged out and twitched at the slightest movement. To make things worse, someone had turned the spinning bar switch up to 'Liquefy'.
Carrie strode into her first trial tower, the Tower of Science. She looked around for a moment, rather impressed by all the technology that had been created for the soul purpose of stopping anyone from traversing it. Strangely, it was all moving so fast, as if it had been turned up to 'Blinding Fast'.
She looked upwards and spotted the only door out of the room. Smiling to herself she yanked her grappling hook from her inventory and aimed for the door. She pulled the trigger and let the projectile fly, aim being perfect. The hook ripped through the door and auto-secured, enabling her to retract the rope so she could be pulled to her destination. Getting up, she dusted herself off, put her item away and continued into the next room.
Reinhardt pulled his tired body from the exit of the Duel tower and into the entrance of the Tower of Execution. He lay on his stomach for a moment while trying to catch his breath. Words could not describe how fun that experience had been, nor could they explain how he had gotten his ass out of there in one piece.
Thinking to himself that he never wanted to do that again, he paled at the next trial before him.
And as if the Duel Tower hadn't been bad enough, he coincidentally looked up to see that some bugger had set the switch that controlled the large blades to 'Mach 3'.
"Son of a..."
- Tower of Execution / Tower of Sorcery -
Carrie exited the Science Tower and cautiously tiptoed into the Tower of Sorcery. Everything seemed to be at normal speed, but the jumps ahead were almost impossible. She figured she'd have to muster what was left of her blind courage to make her way to the top. But then again, she always had her wonderful, secret new toy.
A strange blemish in the ice at her feet made it's way towards her and suddenly sprang up into the shape of a human. She blinked, looking at it closely. Without warning, it spewed an icy blast into her face.
"Why you little...!" She wiped her face clean and blasted the ice creature to oblivion. A couple other spots in the ice squealed and scurried away. "Yeah, you'd better run!" She shook a fist after them and moved forward to survey whether or not the hook would reach the ledge at the top.
Reaching into her inventory again, she found that what she was looking for wasn't there. "Oh gimmie a break...!"
Reinhardt looked at the grappling hook in a puzzled sort of way before accidentally firing it at an electrified fence near the top of the tower. The electricity traveled down the rope and gave him the shock of his life.
"Ow! Son of a...!" Dropping it on his foot, he cried out in pain and danced around.
Some while later, he had managed to retract the hook and tried firing it properly this time around. Although his aim wasn't perfect, he managed to latch the hook on to the top of the central column. A long and perilous gauntlet remained before the exit.
"Well, good enough." He figured it was the best he was going to get. Flicking the trigger again, he was whipped up towards his target.
- Room of Clocks -
Slowly, Carrie strode into the ticking room and looked around. There was no sign of Reinhardt, so to pass the time she used a nearby summon scroll to have a short visit and some tea with Renon in his pocket-dimension mercantile. When she returned to the real world a short time later, she headed down a connecting corridor and activated a small lift.
Once in out in the open night air, she found herself staring at a rather upset Reinhardt. He was cradling a mortally wounded Rosa as he placed a cross in her hand and prayed with her for forgiveness.
"...May you be forgiven for your sins," He prayed, and with that the vampire in his arms disappeared.
Carrie walked up to him, nodding fiercely in agreement when he stated to her that it was time to put Death in his place.
Reinhardt strode forward to battle with the Grim Reaper but before the girl could assist him, she was drawn into a battle with Actrise.
The two slayers fought against their respective enemies before Reinhardt came up with a plan.
"Carrie, let's switch! We might have a better chance of surviving!"
"How so?"
"Trust me! Reversing things in video games usually works!"
"We're in a video game?" Shaking off the thought, Carrie acted upon his suggestion.
Thus they changed their attack patterns and switched enemies. Reinhardt was easily able to put his dagger through Actrise while Carrie put a magic bolt through Death. The two minions of the Dark Lord writhed in their defeat before disappearing angrily or self-destructing in a ball of light.
After doing their made-up victory poses, the vampire hunters regained their composure and set their sights on the next trial. Skipping that, they soon used Carrie's grappling hook to get to the stairs of the Castle Keep, [Reinhardt cheered at the idea of not having to climb the Clock Tower. He had heard stories passed down through his family about what a b*tch it was...] the hero and heroine each took in a deep breath and summoned the last of their strength, courage and most importantly, the ability to hold their bladders for a bit longer.
"Yeah... it's been hours..." Carrie whispered, to no one in particular.
- Castle Keep -
Reinhardt nodded and began to ascend the stairs. She followed silently, summoning a ball of energy to light the stairs in front of her. It wasn't completely dark out, but at times her magic was not unlike a security blanket. They passed through a small corridor, noticing nothing out of the ordinary, and came to a second. There, Renon stopped them for a moment, to bid them adieu, and his regrets that they couldn't engage in a 'friendly' duel as per contract.
"Maybe in another lifetime," Reinhardt had deadpanned, while Carrie politely waved goodbye.
Finally, they reached the top of the stairs; the resting place of Dracula's coffin.
Together, they pushed open the doors and slowly crept through the room towards the freaking-huge coffin. Reinhardt put a finger to his lips in a 'shush' manner as he put a hand on the lid. His counterpart raised a wooden stake into the air.
The lid opened easily enough... creaking loudly as it moved.
Before Carrie could strike, she was floored by the time the lid fell completely open. Reinhardt followed soon after, blacking out at the horrific sight.
Inside the coffin was a skeleton.
Jammed in between it's ribs was someone else's wooden stake.
A note was attached to the inside of the coffin lid. It read: "Charlie Vincent wuz here."
After some time, Malus came bounding into the Keep, looking somewhat satisfied with himself for getting there. He noticed his liberators on the ground unconscious and quickly ran towards them. He bent over Carrie and propped her up in his arms, rousing her with his voice.
"Carrie... wake up! You must...!"
After a few moments, she opened her eyes and looked up at the violet-haired child. Shaking her head in disbelief she moved to sit up on her own. She muttered curses groggily, eyes shifting over to the coffin.
"Is he gone?" Malus asked, turning his attention to her point of focus for a moment.
Reinhardt opened one eye and then sat up. "Damn. I was hoping we'd got to him first."
"I can't believe the old goat really is as good as he said." Carrie huffed, standing so she could dust off her clothes.
"At least our quest is over. Okay, kids. Let's go home before anything else gets screwed over," Reinhardt suggested, heading towards the keep's entrance.
On their way out, the place started to shake violently, causing them to break into a full out run down the stairs. [Moreover, Reinhardt was the one running. He grabbed a kid under each arm again.] The stairs behind him fell one by one, eventually falling out from under him when his pace became too slow. Down into the darkness the three fell... everything soon went black as all consciousness was lost.
- Outer Wall -
"Twice in ten minutes. How sad is that?!" Carrie's voice was heard in the darkness that Reinhardt awoke to. "I mean... What. The. Hell."
"Considering our fall, it's not unlikely that we would have been knocked out." Malus reasoned out loud to himself. "By the way... where are we?"
Carrie lit up a hand with her magic and scanned the area around where she sat for clues. "Possibly near the Outer Wall again..." She stated, noting the grass around them.
"What I'd give for a magical map..." Reinhardt sighed, finally letting them know he was awake.
"Welcome back, o' gracious savior." Carrie scoffed, looking around the dark forest.
"Why don't you try carrying two rugrats down collapsible stairs...?!"
"- Uhm, look... let's get out of here... I'm scared..." The young boy of the group whimpered, suddenly feeling a chill run down his back. Suddenly, he threw back his head and let loose a maniacal laugh as his eyes turned bright red and illuminated the area.
Both slayers belted out something akin to 'ohmygod-demonspawn!' before running for their lives.
They didn't get too far, as they smacked right into the Outer Wall. (Had they gone the other way, their chances of finding the drawbridge may have been significantly greater.)
In the midst of the dark behind them, they heard a shrill screech pierce the night. The sound of a creature writhing agony followed thereafter. They both held their breath as they heard heavy footsteps heading their way.
Charlie Vincent stepped into view a moment later, holding on to a bottle of Holy Water. "You guys really are amateurs."
"Jeez... you killed a child?!" Carrie asked, realizing what had happened.
"You fool, that child was really Dracula!" He stepped forward and peered at her sharply. "Besides. He's not dead." Charlie turned and pointed to the cross on his back. Malus was tied to it, struggling to get free.
"Let me go... please?" His eyes were back to normal as was his voice, right to the bitter tone therein.
"What about Dracula's spirit?" Reinhardt asked, stepping towards the tied child and patting him on the head.
"Defeated... for now." Charlie replied gruffly. "Let's head back, so we can have this child fully exorcised." The next bit he said quickly and quietly. "Oh, yes, and before the castle collapses and the lake swallows us up with it."
The other two heroes could only stare at him with wide eyes.
- Epilogue -
The three able-bodied people took off for the land bridge off of Castlevania's island making it to safety just in time. Naturally. Phew.
Reinhardt watched the castle sink into the lake as the early morning sun came up over the horizon. He stood in a proud stance, though his emotion was not as such.
Carrie had returned to the village with Charlie Vincent and the still sedated Malus... hopefully to begin a new life. She had been a little reluctant to leave Reinhardt's side, but he had insisted that she do so. He had promised her that he would visit her as soon as humanly possibly.
Turning back to his previous thoughts, the slayer lost himself in memories of the adventure that had just passed. Those whom he had fought, fought beside and saved. Or not saved.
"Rosa... you have been avenged," He closed his eyes, so as not to let his sadness get the best of him. While he fought to keep tears from coming, he never noticed a single red rose fall out of the sky and land at his feet. A blinding flash illuminated from the single delicate flora organism as it disappeared and it was then shown that Rosa stood in its place.
"Reinhardt..." She smiled when she saw him, both glad to see him and worried about his current state. She stepped forward and hugged him warmly.
"Rosa... you're..." He sputtered, totally aghast.
She nodded, smiling again. "Reinhardt..." she repeated. "Don't feel despair. This is a time of great rejoicing."
"You're right," Regaining himself, he let a smile creep across his face before he grabbed her by the waist and spun her around in the air and then embraced her tightly. "...A time of great rejoicing indeed."
Although everyone in the village knew that the peace would not last for long, a great festival was held later that same day. The whole community turned out to drink, dance, and partake in the general merriment.
Reinhardt and Rosa arrived hand in hand, dressed in their best clothing, closely followed by their friend Charlie in a Priest's garb and two adorable children decked out in their Sunday best. Carrie looked aside at the now-presumably 'normal' Malus and mumbled something, which he couldn't help but smile at.
"This isn't how the game ended,"
~end
Author's Notes:
-Originally written between [?]2001-Nov.2002. Edited multiple times since then.
- I'd like to thank Fragaham Lincon of the 'Carrie Fernanzez Appreciation Society' for support on this fic, and for letting me steal the idea of Charlie Vincent already having beat Carrie & Reinhardt to the Castle Keep. [Much obliged, Frag!]