Castlevania: Nightmare of the Azure Moon
Prologue: Curse of the Blue Blood
In an era long past, as humanity lived in perpetual fear of the night and its creatures of chaos. In response to this threat, the Church trained knights to face the threats that loomed in the darkness in God's name.
In this age, there were three knights that were said to be invincible due to their strength and courage.
Leon Belmont, a courageous man who feared nothing and whose combat abilities were second to none, Mathias Cronqvist, a genius tactician whose learning made him an exception in a largely illiterate society and finally, Ludegert, a pure woman with a noble heart who was revered as a living saint.
They trusted each other with their lives and were bound by camaraderie and a deep friendship. Though for Ludegert and Mathias, it was an everlasting love
However, Ludegert's fate had been sealed when the Church chose her to slay the Nightlord and prevent the eternal night from consuming the world. With a heavy heart, she slew the Nightlord, however, victory was at the cost of her own life. But with the Nightlord's defeat, Blue Blood rained down upon the land and infected people and objects into Fiends that stalked the darkness, thus turning the battlefield into the Land with no Night.
Upon hearing of his beloved Ludegert's death, Mathias' grief was profound, and he swore vengeance upon God, who he believed had stolen his beloved from him despite his loyalty.
Through a deal with the Death God and through manipulating Leon and the reigning Vampire Lord, Walter Bernhard, Mathias recreated the lost Crimson Stone and he attained terrifying power and in the name of lost love and eternal vengeance, became a being more dark and powerful than the Nightlord had ever been.
Thus, Dracula, the King of the Night was born, and Leon vowed that he and his descendants would hunt him throughout the centuries.
Mathias, now Dracula Vlad Ţepeş, left for a faraway land and centuries later, met Lisa and after the two fell in love and married, they then had a son who they named Adrian Fahrenheit Ţepeş.
But tragedy soon struck when Lisa Ţepeş was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. This act of cruelty greatly angered Dracula and his war of vengeance against humanity had begun.
However, Adrian, having heard his mother's last words urging him not to hate humanity, chose to oppose his father, taking on the name Alucard to signify his rejection of his father's beliefs.
Through centuries of battle against his own son and the Belmont Clan, Dracula's deaths and resurrections persist.
But now, the Castle rises once more with a new lord. A lord that wields great power and knowledge of the Eldritch Truth. A human who hunted the Great Ones until he ultimately became one. The stage is set on an unmapped island named Rusewal and Alucard must face this new lord.
The year was 1827, thirty years after Dracula's defeat at the hands of his only son, Alucard, Hunter, a pale and sickly young man with white hair, green eyes and pulsating blue veins running up his neck, dressed in a suit and hood, walked along the docks, looking for a ship to travel in.
Hunter kept walking the dimly lit docks, thinking of every decision that led to where he was now and at the same time, lamenting the pain his frail body was in.
"I'm running out of time…" Hunter touched the blue veins on his neck, wincing in pain as they pulsed with the blue blood.
As he felt his body breaking down and transforming slowly and painfully, he lost his footing and almost collapsed to the ground, but before that could happen, he felt familiar arms hold him up.
Those arms belonged to his childhood friend, Arnice, a young woman with silver hair and dressed in a red and gold sleeveless dress.
"You shouldn't be out of bed." Arnice frowned at Hunter, frustrated with him for pushing himself to walk alone despite his illness.
"Arnice… what are you doing here?" Hunter struggled to stand once more, only to fall back into his friend's arms with a sigh.
"After the letter you left for me and Lilysse… do you think I'd just let you go?!" Arnice frowned once more as she let go of Hunter.
Hunter stood as he regained his footing, listening intently to Arnice, somehow knowing she had more to say.
"Just stay here… Curia will find a way to cure you." Arnice balled her fists in anger as she thought of how inconsiderate Hunter was being. "Leaving now is selfish-"
"You know it's impossible for them…" Hunter sighed and closed his eyes, he truly felt bad for leaving his friends and home, but he knew being cured there was nothing but a pipe dream. "But if I travel to Yharnam and undergo blood ministration… there may be hope for me yet."
"Hunter, if you go there, you could die! I know all about the Hunt… and the Beast Scourge!" Arnice finally snapped at him, her anger building up inside her with each word. "How could you do this to me… to Lilysse?"
"If I stay, I'm simply waiting for the Blue Blood to turn me into a fiend… but if I go, I have a fighting chance." Hunter touched Arnice's shoulder, hoping he calm her down. "Risking everything for that chance is better than suffering the inevitable…"
Arnice's anger didn't subside in the least, but she couldn't deny Hunter's logic, so she sighed to herself, knowing she was losing their argument.
"Please tell Lilysse… that I will always love her…" Hunter turned around to face the boat that was close to arrival.
"Tell her yourself…" Arnice crossed her arms, her scowl more pronounced this time as she heard footsteps coming from several feet away.
The footsteps belonged to Hunter and Arnice's other childhood friend, Lilysse, a young woman with peach coloured hair and in a frilled white and purple dress.
"I knew you'd be here…" Lilysse fought back tears as she recalled the contents of Hunter's letter.
"Lilysse…" Hunter was at a loss for words, he didn't expect his childhood love to appear before him as he was about to embark on his journey.
"Tell me it's not true… you're not leaving… right?" Lilysse approached Hunter, tears now rolling down her cheeks. "Please let this be a joke…"
"I'm sorry… but I have to do this." Hunter stood still, feeling helpless as he watched Lilysse cry for his sake. "It's the only option I have left."
"Don't go…" Lilysse hugged Hunter suddenly, fearing he could vanish at any moment if she let go.
Hunter closed his eyes and held Lilysse in his arms in an attempt to console her but to no avail.
"I will return… I promise." Hunter touched Lilysse's cheek and gazed gently into her eyes, wiping her tears away. "Until then, will you keep this safe for me?" He placed a silver pendant with a mirror fragment in her hand.
"Promise me you'll be safe…" Lilysse held the pendant close to her heart as she continued to fight back tears, knowing nothing she could do would stop Hunter and feeling helpless at the thought.
Two years have passed and on the fateful night of the Hunt, one powerful hunter ended that night once and for all at the cost of his own humanity. The Beast Scourge was gone, and the Healing Church lost their power and influence.
Hunter never returned to Arnice and Lilysse and they both believed he succumbed to his illness or died in the Hunt.
However, they couldn't be more wrong since he was cured of the Blue Blood and he transcended his own humanity after gaining knowledge of the Great Ones and hunting them until he defeated the very source of the Hunt itself, the nameless Moon Presence.
Within a dream realm stood a small workshop surrounded by white flowers and gravestones and seated by the structure was the Plain Doll, a pale life-sized doll with pale blond hair and dressed in a brown, white and red dress.
The Plain Doll watched as Hunter, now dressed in a dark duster, hat and cowl with metal gauntlets prepared to use mankind's collective memories and nightmares to summon Dracula's Castle into the Nightmare itself.
"Good Hunter… are you sure about this?" The Doll spoke to Hunter, unsure of his intentions but still trusting his judgement.
"It took me two years… but I've regained my human form." Hunter remembered the night he defeated Gehrman and the Moon Presence and when he was ascended into an infant Great One. "But I still need the Castle so I can finally end the cycle…"
"Does your objective mean that much to you?" The Doll asked, clearly knowing Hunter's true motivation behind his pursuits.
"To end Curia's machinations and prophecies… there's nothing I won't do." Hunter lowered his cowl as he saw the silhouette of Dracula's Castle materialise beyond the fog where the Nightmare was.
Under the blood red moonlight and within a tomb, Alucard, a young man with long platinum blond hair and gold eyes and dressed in a black and gold cape and suit, slept in his coffin, experiencing a dream of the Dracula's Castle rising once more, but its appearance was different this time, as well as the surroundings.
The Castle was twisted in appearance with eyes and tendrils growing out of the walls and it was surrounded by an abyss of endless mist and the mountains and rocks resembled petrified corpses frozen in an eternal scream. Below the castle was a decayed fishing village with phantom ship masts in the distance and what looked like the roof of a clock tower sticking ominously from the waters.
Alucard awoke suddenly from the nightmare of the castle with a gasp, standing up from his coffin.
"The Castle has risen… but it's different." Alucard stepped away from his coffin and picked up his sword. "Like a nightmare…"
Alucard sheathed his sword and stepped out of his tomb, gazing up at the blood moon, knowing it was time for him to take up his sword to destroy evil once more.
"I'll put a stop to this… before Father revives once more." Alucard walked out into the night, determined to perform his eternal duty.
A few months passed and Alucard used his connections to the Church and his old friends, the Lecarde clan, he was able to operate under a false identity and learn more about the current era.
He learned that the residents of Rusewal Island, the Land with no Night had the exact same nightmare he had. The nightmare of Dracula's Castle in its new twisted form.
As fate would have it, Arnice was heading to Rusewal as well on a mission for Curia to exterminate fiends.
Aboard the Minerva, a galleon headed for Rusewal Island Arnice tried her hardest to get her mind off her seasickness, she always hated boats, but her work as a Holy Knight of Curia demanded almost constant travel.
Arnice pulled out her favourite book, "The Legend of the Tragic Prince", knowing that she could get lost in it for at least a time. She always wondered what it would be like meeting her hero, the one who inspired her to come to terms with who she was.
As luck would have it, Alucard himself was passing by in his disguised form, a young man with long black hair dressed in a black suit and yellow vest.
"Is this seat taken?" Alucard gestured at the seat across Arnice.
"No, go ahead." Arnice looked up from her book to reply to Alucard.
Alucard bowed his head in a polite gesture before taking the seat across Arnice, noticing the book in her hands.
"You know the Tragic Prince?" Alucard asked, amused that a book about himself was still being read up to this day.
"Of course, it's my favourite story." Arnice smiled at Alucard, eager for any opportunity to talk about her beloved book, even to a complete stranger. "'The Tragic Prince, Alucard was a hero who chose to fight his own father for the sake of humanity…"
"I wouldn't call him a hero…" Alucard spoke wryly about his own experiences that he was sure the story left out.
"Still, I know this book was based on truth." Arnice spoke, her excitement still apparent in her tone. "He was even sighted thirty years ago; the last time Dracula's Castle rose… Curia said so."
"You know Curia?" Alucard raised a brow in interest, he knew that organisation, they were around even during the days when he was still living in the castle.
"Yeah, I'm one of their Holy Knights…" Arnice nodded and closed her book. "Sorry, we've been speaking all this time and I haven't introduced myself, my name's Arnice."
"And my name's Alan Lecarde." Alucard gave the name of his false identity to Arnice. "Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise." Arnice smiled at Alucard, who she thought of as a new acquaintance and possible friend. "So, we're both headed for Rusewal…"
"Yes, I have business there." Alucard spoke vaguely of his objectives.
"Be careful at night… only fiends walk the streets." Arnice warned Alucard as any good knight would.
"Noted… thank you." Alucard gave Arnice a curt nod of acknowledgement at her warning. "You may be a trained knight, but don't underestimate your enemies… I can tell there's something different going on this time…"
The night sky illuminated Ruswal Island in crimson moonlight and waiting by the docks was Lilysse, who was sent on the same mission as Arnice by Curia. As she thought of the fiends and blue blood, she was reminded of Hunter, who never returned from Yharnam. With a heavy heart, she held the pendant close to her chest like she did those two years ago.
Author's note: So this story was suggested by one of my closest friends and when I listened to all his ideas, Castlevania and Nights of Azure crossing over was a no brainer at this point since the two series are fundamentally compatible in terms of tone, music and gameplay, since Nights of Azure is basically Castlevania Curse of Darkness 2 to an extent.
So, when my friend was telling me all his ideas, it sounded crazy at first, especially Bloodborne's inclusion of all things, but upon listening more, it all just clicked. So, this story will be a three-way crossover between Castlevania, Bloodborne and Nights of Azure.
As stated by a Tumblr post I found recently titled "Nights of Azure - Fear the Blue Blood" Nights of Azure and Bloodborne are very similar in a sense in terms of narrative and gameplay.
So, my friend thought of the character dynamic between Alucard and Arnice as well as Hunter and Lilysse. Arnice has a crush on Alucard that will blossom into love, but Alucard is emotionally distant and this mirrors his relationship with Maria Renard in the audio drama Nocturne of Recollection.
Hunter is developed in a way that makes him as far away from an OC as possible and since the name Hunter is a common real-life name, it fits. Hunter is developed like Albus from Castlevania Order of Ecclesia. He's a well-intentioned extremist that would sacrifice anything for his goal and what he wishes to protect. He and Lilysse are childhood sweethearts and Arnice would often protect him since he grew up sickly, frail and bookish.
The backstory behind Dracula/Mathias and Ludegert will be told in several diary entries across the story and will get some development past the opening of the prologue and will be told in the same style as Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
The sequel story to this one is called Castlevania: Across Oceans of Time and it takes place during the events of Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon and shortly before Bram Stoker's Dracula novel. The protagonists are the partially resurrected Dracula serving as a Proto-Soma Cruz type character and the other is Quincy Morris before his fight against Dracula during the original Dracula novel and Abraham Van Helsing might be included in the story.
Nights of Azure and Castlevania have a lot of compatible lore, so this crossover just makes sense in my opinion. I hope you all like it and look forward to future chapters of Rosario of Sorrow and Devil May Cry: The Traitor's Bloodline Vergil Arc coming out next.