"CastleVania 2000"
Prologue : Resurrection

Transylvania, Romania
July 29th, the year of our Lord 1999 A.D.

Beyond the Borgo Pass, across the Argés River, high in the Transylvanian Alps of Romania, nearly at the point where they merged with the vast Carpathian Mountains on the horizon, the thick smell of the Black Sea lingering in the air, there lay the decadent ruins of a castle long forgotten. The passing of unkind centuries had made the once-impressive structure nearly indistinguishable from the rock, soil, and smoldered forest that surrounded it.

But today an evil mist swept over the rotting bricks, culminating over a single brown coffin, the only thing within a mile perimeter unravaged by the unnatural evil in the air that did not permit even the growth of weeds.

The lid was thrust open and a tall, dignified man with a thick mustache and an authoritative, regal demeanor climbed out. His hair was matted back, and his flesh was sickly and pale. His brown eyes flickered red, and as he opened his mouth his canine teeth grew to sharp points.

"At last!" he shouted triumphantly. "The circle continues!"

Crows and other birds frantically flew from their nearby perches in a frantic flee. As the man raised his arms to the skies, the earth itself began to quiver violently. "Hear me, dark spirits, and obey the Prince of Darkness!" he shouted above the rumbling in a deep, Romanian-accented voice. "The Son of the Dragon has need of you once again! Obey me!"

As if his the very ground around him had been listening to his words, the tops of four gigantic stone towers emerged from the earth, rising above the ground for two hundred feet, soon revealing the decrepit walls that joined them together. Before the eyes of the man who beheld it, his castle was recreated in a mottled flurry of swirling atoms and molecules.

It had been only a few days since his last resurrection by rite, when a Belmont and his like united against Dracula to bind him during the lunar eclipse.

"Julius Belmont..." he spoke, his tongue flicking as he spoke the name devilishly. But then something dawned over the immortal's face, something regretful. He realized his curse, and the cost for his last defeat. "Thought they bound me, did they. Perhaps they did..." He would get over it. He had learned from the greats of his time that revenge was a waste of time, an effort without due thought or consideration to one's principles, to say nothing of priorities. As it was, it was moot. His most ancient of enemies were dead and gone. "But not their seed... their bloodline..." the man muttered repugnantly. "Not their cursed descendants... wherever they are."

His black/purple Toledo cape sweeping behind him, Dragon medallion jingling against his chest, and his ceremonial Toledo blade that had been his father's slung at his side, he stalked into the deathly forest of bare, black trees, laughing coarsely as the entirety of his castle solidified in the moonlight.

CastleVania—the Demon Castle—had resurrected. And so had he.

The Count found the further he went in time, the more the need for subtlety and to shroud the acts of sorcery he had come to rely on in previous centuries. In time he could re-muster the gypsy army that had pledged their loyalty to him in the previous century before the disastrous Carfax Abbey debacle. Prince Vlad Dracula III would once again be forced to take on the reclusive persona of Count Dracula of Bistritz, an army of gypsies at his servitude rather than an army of Undead ghouls, skeletal warriors, and monsters molded into mythical images.

"The year of our Lord, 1999... merely two years from the dawn of Third Millennium. Plenty of time to prepare for my deliverance." His hands at his hips as he watched the all-too familiar spectacle, a smile flashed across the King of Vampires' lips. "What wonders this new era must hold..."

Wonders... and enemies.

-----

To: Subject: A written memorandum, 09.30.00

A written memorandum from Rupert Giles, Watcher

It is with no sense of pride that I must let it be known that my earlier documentation, theories, and accoutns on the 27th of September... are all absolutely and undeniably true. Only days ago The Slayer, the young Ms. Summers, and her friends -- myself included -- became entangled in something of a confrontation with this Count Vlad Dracula character on the 26th of September. From what I gather, Ms. Summers was wholly able to hold her own against the Count in his temporary Sunnydale property estate, who first had her in something of a vampiric trance. After much strife, Ms. Summers was evidently able to repeatedly "kill" the Count, though he continuously took to morphing his being into a cloud of mist. From the Count's own mouth, he made the journey to Sunnydale, California for the sole purpose of meeting The Slayer, Ms. Summers, who he referred to as simply "the Killer."

It can only, thence, be my conclusion that not only is Count Dracula still alive beyond his war with Julis Belmont only a year previous, but that we haven't seen the last of him even still. With the dawn of the Third Millennium still looming before us, I fear ominous tidings lay in the days ahead. I can only pray The Slayer will be ready.

Rupert Giles
September 30th, 2000