Let the Symphony Last for Eternity
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta: Me
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Leon stopped in his tracks as he looked about at the hallway they had entered after the long grueling climb up the tower. The long hallway with the wooden walls, mounted candles and windows that blew in a soft wind from the elevated height that he recalled from a recent memory. In concern he left the group where Sophia was beginning her tale and looked out of one of the many windows. It was awkward to confess, as the monsters they had come across had trouble talking. As such he had not bothered to inquire about what went beyond the tower. Now that he knew...
"Forgive me Lady Sophia for interrupting you, however; we have a problem," Leon finally interrupted the group. The quartet turned to face him and he was grateful for his experiences in leadership. Made these things easier to deal with, "we seem to be heading for a dead end."
The group was understandable upset as he announced that statement, and he allowed them to air the initial displeasure before he raised a hand to still their words. "This was the last area I was brought to back when the Castle was teleporting us around before. Down this hallway leads to another small tower that leads to a dead end. In the tower itself is an opening in the ceiling that leads to the next section. 'That' part has a doorway that leads to a broken stairway that leads to the Master Chambers. However; there is no way for any of us, save Sir Grant, to reach the stairs," Leon explained patiently while the others stood there absorbing the information.
"You couldn't bother to tell us before we went up that?!" Sophia protested as she pointed back towards the way they came. Right before leaning against Trevor in disbelief, though she had been fortunate enough to be carried up the whole way... Still being carried up was decidedly different than being carried 'down' something.
Leon shrugged unapologetic since they all knew how the doors had worked at the time, it wasn't as though he had an option before.
"So what do we do now? Short of seeing if Grant wants to do a bit of recognizance," Trevor asked, alarming Leon into straight out shaking his head against the idea.
"That... could be dangerous as it was what happened last when I was here. The Sisters and Lady Shanoa all attempted to take look at the interior of the Master Chambers and was struck down for their actions. Regardless of who is inside the Master Chambers, there is a clear chance that they can sense when people approach. It would be one thing if there were enough of us who could reach him if Mathias lashed out, however..." Leon left the sentence hanging.
"Aye well that be mighty kind of you to be concerned over me, not even knowing me that well," Grant answered. "But we needs to be aknowing what is going on up there, or at least an idea of what we be needing for all of us to reach that area." He patted down his vest before producing his spy glass and held it up. "How bout we compromise, I'll not approach the Master Chambers, but I'll climb up the wall of the tower that faces it and see what I can spy."
The others nodded, it was certainly a sound suggestion and Leon couldn't find any fault with it that could be dealt with if it happened. Climbing up the tower would mean that if something happened they would be unable to catch the pirate as he fell. Unlike with the ladies where they Lady Marias' dragon friend to aid in recovery. With a nod he gave a slight forwarding gesture, "my apologizes for interrupting you Lady Sophia, please, continue."
"Ah yes, well if I had any feeling that the castle had any vendetta against me, I could say that it was proven upon that moment. For the Castle warped me back to the door that I first used to arrive in that bloody Colosseum. Alone yet again, I was pondering the point in attempting to find another door when I heard a woman's voice in the area and opted to hide. Given my initial encounter with Sir Leon, I was no longer confident that I would run purely into evil forces." Sophia resumed her tale of travels in the Castle that seemed to have it out for her.
"As I hid I witnessed a vampiress in a long red dress and done up brown hair with two newly made thralls of hers. A silvery haired and a brown haired pair of men, and that was rather interesting as well..." She began as she thought back to it. "For they both appeared to be armed to hunt Vampires, especially the silvery haired one. He was more peculiar with his oddly out of place silvery hair color and the arcane protective sigils he bore on his red coat..."
"Wait, silver hair? Red coat?" Trevor interrupted forcefully cutting his wife off as he grabbed at her shoulder and spun her around to face him. His concern for Juste suddenly compounded as the reality of another member of his bloodline had already disappeared. Guilt pained his expression as Sophia looked at him in surprise at his behavior while he urged. "Describe him, this is important to me Sophia."
"Very well Trevor, but I warn you I didn't get close to them. The rooms are saturated in blood and I believe that to be the only reason they didn't realize I was there before the change happened." Sophia warned before she focused more on the appearances rather than just recalling a series of events. "He was tall, his silver hair reached past his shoulders and he was the pale of a vampire. His clothes were mostly white save the coat which, as I said, was a bright vivid red with sigils marked along in silver on the edges. I got the impression that he was more a spellcaster than a direct warrior, but the man with him probably dealt more with the direct attacks while the other used spells."
"Did you see him with Vampire Killer anywhere near him?" Trevor asked when Leon shook his head.
"I highly doubt Sara would allow a vampire to carry her, even if said person was turned against their Will," Leon pointed out.
"Err.. ye named your whip?" Grant asked leaning over to Leon just enough to attempt a private comment.
"Ah, no... but the soul that makes it Vampires Bane is that of my betroth," Leon answered politely.
'I'm never going to get this man to loosen up... damn it he's a human version of Alucard,' Grant thought in despair though he nodded at the information given to him.
"He wouldn't have the whip on him, and tis my fault... If that is who I think it is, you saw Juste, the first person I met when I awoke here," Trevor confessed, his name bringing back Trevor's retelling of his trip for the group. While Trevor had been willing to talk about Juste, giving details of his appearance had not been one of them. Making Sophia's tale all the more jarring as they realized that, by her account, one of the future Belmonts had been turned into a vampire.
"That doesn't sound too bad though," Leon theorized out loud with a faint shrug. "The time line isn't like this because he was turned, so its possible that he could be returned back into a human. Once we rescue the captured Belmont we can work on changing him back," Leon offered with an optimistic impression of the situation.
"Can't happen, there's no way to turn a vampire back into a human," Sophia renounced automatically. "You're clearly not a spell caster so it makes sense that you wouldn't know this, but you can't turn a vampire back. The act of changing into a vampire requires a vampires' bite," Sophia corrected automatically only to have Alucard slowly start to shake his head.
"That's not how Mathias turned into a vampire, he merely used an orb to absorb the soul of a vampire," Leon countered. Then felt the awkwardness as the other four people with him literally stopped and all turned to face him. With varying degrees of disbelief and wonder before they slowly shifted their gazes towards Alucard.
"There is a fox that has been let loose in the hen house if I ever have heard one," Grant finally said in a slow drawl of tone. Coloring his amazement with a shake of the head and adding, "Seems even ye don't know all there is about the dark arts eh Sophia?"
"I... don't know if I would call it 'dark arts' per say, Sir Grant. Mathias was taught Alchemy is all. And dove into the more restricted parts when his Lady Wife died," Leon confessed while Sophia glared daggers at Grant for implying she wasn't the most knowledgeable in the group in terms of magic.
As the glare didn't lessen, Grant quietly began walking to the nearest window, "Good luck man, you're about to need it," he commented to Leon before climbing to the ledge. "I'll be fine starting here, I'll be back soon!"
"I have a question though, if this person that Sophia saw 'was' a Belmont from a future time as well, why did the Castle not automatically shift in response to his change? Unless whatever changed him will get rectified before he returns to his own time. Which, regardless of it being possible or not, should have changed the Castle to reflect that shift to start with," Alucard pointed out before Sophia could dress down her husband or anyone else.
"He said he was from the year 1749," Trevor answered when it hit him that Alucard might know. Perhaps he didn't know details from the original time line due to his long slumber, but if he had been awake in the 'other' time line then he 'knew' what year they were currently in!
"And now its 1797 so whoever is in this castle would be his son or grandson depending on how late he opted to sire another child." Alucard pointed out while giving a slow thoughtful nod.
"I believe Lady Maria referred to him as 'Richter' when we met, a Belmont who wore blue as his color," Leon recalled. "The Belmont left in the Master Chambers, which makes sense now. For Mathias , as Soma, must have gone to the front of the Castle on his own, for what reason though I do not know." Leon acknowledged thoughtfully.
"So then we know that gives us two years to work with, 1749 for Juste, and 1797 for Richter, Maria knew Richter directly and changed sides so she must also come from this point in time. Charlotte was found dead so while she was not directly related to Sophia, and possibly could have still been brought. She was killed off because whoever saved her 'was' erased from history," Trevor theorized out loud.
"It sounds like you gentlemen experienced a great deal more than I in this Castle," Sophia noted aloud as she stood there. Before growing disgruntled, "Seriously this castle seems to loathe me for denying me much of the action going around."
"Action! I know what that means," Leon pounced on the word, cheering up a bit as something Jonathan taught was brought up. Only to get looks from the other three with him and began to look away in embarrassment. "My apologizes."
'I have a theory on that,' Trevor thought to himself as he recalled Alucards' mothers' presence, the cold, displeased demeanor she expressed. Given how Leon reacted to the realization that Trevor had led Alucard into direct conflict with his own father, Trevor could only figure that it was the Lady's doing. Maybe a means to get back at the trio for intentionally causing a more serious conflict within the family line. But he would wait until they got home before he would attempt to explain that to his wife..
"Say..." Grant stuck his head back in the window he left from before climbing in all the way, "Leon, have ye ever seen a white haired man in blue? Red sash round the waist?" He asked as he hoped the rest of the way to the ground.
"If he had hair to his shoulders, than I have, his name is 'Hector' and he's from our time. Why?" Trevor cut Leon off as the mess of time lines and body counts started to get out of hand for him.
"Ye can change it to 'was' old friend. He be dead and his corpse be hanging next to the door of yonder Master Chamber." Grant announced with a shake of his head. "Looks to me like he died rather painfully..."
"Which would be Father's way of saying the man was a traitor... I recall a Devil Forgemaster by that name. He abandoned his post though and fled to who knows where, his presence close to the Master Chamber would not have been ignored." Alucard recalled out loud for the group and Trevor was forced to nod.
"Indeed it was he that Isaac was originally antagonizing after Dracula had been banished, for Dracula wished to use Hector as a host body. But unable to break Hector he ended using Isaac instead," Trevor noted aloud, despite how it meant that Isaac was currently from 'before' Trevor's victory over Dracula. "So... There's Leon, then Isaac, us and Hector, our captured Belmont, Juste, this Richter person and Maria... From there we have that Eric person followed by Charlotte and Eric's daughters and somewhere that Shanoa woman."
"More than just they I fear and now that we have some semblance of a timeline all the more critical I would say," Leon pointed out thoughtfully.
"Hunters?" Sophia questioned for which Trevor and Leon both nodded.
"And some how through all of that, father... rather Soma had been running through this castle uncontested by all. Though even I couldn't tell he was my father," Alucard confessed recalling his rather, unique, introduction to the stranger.
"Who is this 'Soma' person?" Sophia asked, given that she had not heard her husband's tale through the Castle yet. But at this point she was beginning to feel like maybe just the facts would be better for all of them.
"Apparently at some point in the distant future Dracula reincarnated into a person going by the name of 'Soma'," Trevor explained. "In fact by what I saw, given the behavior of the monsters in the Castle I would say he was the cause of the more neutral patterns we saw. The servant type monsters readily bowed to his whim and he even went about scolding the Castle itself." Trevor explained then gestured to the sword at Alucards' side.
"As I have also met him, though his form had changed and he didn't recognize me any better than I him. But despite that he offered me this blade and unlike anyone else who was torn away due to the change in the future the blade remains. Indeed it is because of this blade that I recall the original timeline at all." Alucard explained flexing his fingers around the hilt of the claymore he carried.
"And somehow he is able to bend reality enough to keep it here despite disappearing from the history of the world..." Sophia thought aloud before lightly shaking her head, "of course its possible that he still exists in our time. A mere aspect of a much larger evil given freedom from that and went roaming through the Castle. As such he hasn't 'left' as much as been 'reabsorbed'..."
"You're daft, to think that our mortal enemy would have any humanity in him," Grant scoffed with a shake of the head. "I know I haven't forgotten being turned into a giant troll and locked up in the Clock tower."
"Indeed its hard to believe that Dracula would have any level of decency after spending all that time sealed as a self aware statue in the gardens," Sophia agreed.
"Perhaps that may be our way of rescuing that one lone Belmont," Leon pointed out calmly. "If Soma is a manifestation of Mathias' humanity we, may, have a means of getting him to hand us the means to restoring the timeline." His words earned a pair of utterly surprised expressions from the Pirate and the Witch while also instilling curiosity from the Woodcutter and the Vampire Prince.
"I've known Mathias for a long time when he was still human, he was my tactician during the wars, strategy is his strength. Given what I've seen and heard, its not hard to believe that he's been playing a game to alleviate his boredom." Leon began only to notice the mildly horrified expressions everyones' faces. "Seriously, there's really no strategy here, if he wanted to keep you out I don't see how he would simply shove an army of monsters in front of you. He knows you're my kin, he would expect certain traits."
"Are ye trying to say that Dracula well, 'let' us kill him?!" Grant asked as his mind tried to process that idea. "Cuz we had a sizable list of Belmonts killing him this whole time."
"My head hurts," Sophia bemoaned as the horror of that idea warred with a part of her mind screaming that it wasn't possible.
"Originally my father was enraged about the death of my mother," Alucard pointed out only to let his voice soften. "Yet in this time line he has... as you suggested, become more disinterested in what goes on around him. The hunters he slaughters for sport or fun..."