CHAPTER 16
Carrie and Reinhardt looked around. Sand dunes and more sand covered the ground for as far as they could see. They had been teleported to a desert.
"Where'd Dracula go?" Reinhardt asked looking around.
"I'm not sure." Carrie said, her voice shaking only slightly. She looked down at the sand that surrounded them for miles and miles, engulfing their two measly forms. The sand around them darkened. Shadowed to be exact... The two of them looked up and saw that sand was the least of their fears.
The form was nothing like they had seen before, even in CastleVania. Half dragon, half scorpion, the gigantic beast floated down to the sand. To Carrie and Reinhardt, this beast looked like destruction and chaos itself, and indeed it was. It let out a roar like thunder and looked to crush them both with one of its large clawed hands. One swipe or sting from its scorpion tail would kill them for sure. They were certain that it could breath fire, and run faster that the both of their running speeds combined. The ground shook on its arrival. The beast curled its legs and tail around to stand in front of them like a four-story building from the Netherworld. Now Carrie and Reinhardt understood why they had been teleported to a desert. They were in the beast's realm, and at its advantage. A mere game of catch-the-mouse-and-kill-it, and of course they were the mice.
"Before this begins Mister Schneider, I'd like to ask you one question." Carrie said gazing up at the beast's pitiless red eyes. "Is there any hope that we will survive this?"
Reinhardt looked at her with a smile and said the same thing he had said from the beginning.
"There's always hope, Carrie."
Malus plunged deeper and deeper into the darkness, blinding his vision. Chains and shackles rose from the chaos pit, binding his arms and legs, and pulling him deeper into the darkness, and into the heart of the Underworld. How was he to escape now? He heard Dracula's cruel words echo around him:
Where will you go to, should you escape? And who will you run to, now that friends and family are gone?
You have given yourself the choice of damnation. They no longer trust you...
Unencouragement turned to guilt.
It's your fault the village burned, boy...
You killed your friends and family...
Your uncle is dead because of you...
You're a liar and a murderer, Malus!
Malus was too weak and tired to argue. He was not a liar or a murderer...Dracula was the one responsible...
"Liar..." He managed to say. "I will escape..."
Dracula's cold laughter echoed in the dark, sending more chills down his spine.
"I will escape...I will escape!"
Then he heard another voice, more friendly and familiar: Malus...do not give in to Count Dracula's treachery. You can win this battle, I know you can...
"Cornell..."
Malus strayed back into his mind and remembered another one of his uncle's words:
A crucifix is a powerful weapon, Malus. It can save you even in your darkest of hours...
Something cold and solid appeared in his hand.
It can cleanse your soul and chase any demon away...
"...even the Prince Of Darkness himself." Malus finished.
A bright light consumed him, washing the cold feeling with warmth and replacing the darkness with sunlight.