Castlevania: Let the Symphony Last for Eternity
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"A Devil Forgemaster with a hobby of collecting chairs..." Simon was not exactly in awe of that fact, however; it did give a passing note of Hectors' position originally. That he could be permitted to have such a sizable hobby permitted in the Castle.
"You get bored..." Hector replied with a flat, unamused, almost glare at Simon. "It is not as though I spent every hour of every day creating devils for Dracula."
"Didn't you routinely collect Dracula's body parts?" Maria offhandedly asked Simon while petting one of her doves, earning her a gleeful look from Grant. It wasn't smart to tease or taunt Simon, true, but the girl had the type of moxie that always made this whole debacle more enjoyable to go through. Well for the humans in the group at any rate, as the one half blood among them turned away from the pointless banter.
Alucard couldn't be bothered with the conversation, his first concern existing for only the painting above the throne. Thus he turned on his heel while lifting his gaze up to check up on what was serving as a silent warning bell for his Fathers' temperament.
Soma, as Dracula, sat there with his eyes partly open, he no longer reclined in the seat as though he was sleeping. Instead he was straight backed, with his clothes now more elegant, as though a master tailor had made the set. His hair was a little mussed from some unseen wind, giving the golden eyes a unique center stage. Gold, his father's vampire side was pushing itself forward again, in self defense or outrage he didn't know.
Around him the hunters who kept him in check were falling. The Belmont who carried the Whip in Soma's time was slumped on the side of the throne. Be it age, or the struggle to hold back the power that Soma possessed, the Belmont was sitting beside the throne leaning against it looking as though he would fall asleep any second. The witch was out cold on the ground, her long blond hair spilled about with the rest of her body getting lost to the background.
Alucard himself was still awake, the shield now rested over his legs, the sword resting on the middle of the path to Dracula. The hilt was still held though, but Alucard could recognize his own fatigue for what it was. They were fighting to keep Soma and losing the longer this dragged on, and not necessarily because Soma got kidnapped.
It was simple to forget that Soma, while not antagonistic, was under the magical supervision of the hunters who had slain him time and again before. Making Alucard resent his own reaction to his father, for realistically Hector would have been perfectly suitable to aid the future Hunters in holding his father back. If only he had thought to get the Forgemaster to use his magics on Soma. Instead he had been so childish, so foolish as to stumble headlong into a trap and now his father was a prisoner of...
Everyone started, multiple whips drawn in reaction as the chair that Alucard had been sitting on shattered into pieces. Splints of wood both large and tiny were shot out from where the chair had stood, the fabric used to line the cushions tore apart by seemingly invisible hands. The shattering of wood and rendering of fabric echoed in the ears of the alarmed hunters. Silencing their own conversations as they took in the sight of Alucard staring at the painting.
Like father like son, as they said.
The fixation caused the group to follow Alucards' study of the painting and see exactly what had upset him.
"'E's waking up... We got to find the Fluff soon," Grant spoke the internal thoughts of the other hunters, putting out into the open what they all thought.
Time was running through an ever widening waist of a hourglass, what had been done to Richter was to be done to Soma. While at the same time needing to find Juste, since he was still a vampire it was clear that the other group had yet to find them either. "Leave the chair to the maids, actually, Alucard can you summon one of the maids? They clearly are talking to each other and we would be well served if some of their gossip helped us find Soma." Trevor broke the growing silence as he took initiative and approached his more dangerous comrade.
No one in his time could ever believe he willingly befriended a dhampire, in fact 'the' Dhampire son of the monster he sought to kill. Bravest or dumbest thing Trevor had ever done in his life certainly. Finding out that all this time Alucards' mother had been here, but invisible due to his fathers' uncontrollable rage. While also meeting a version of his father from the far flung future? Calmer, more inclined to listen? What was Dracula like prior to becoming Soma though? What would happen if Soma returned to his time broken to the state that Richter was in?
As snippy as Alucard was currently towards Soma, it was clear to Trevor that Alucard needed his father near by. Deprived of that he needed a friend, regardless of if he was willing to admit to it or not. A friend to notice that Alucard didn't seem to thrilled with the suggestion of 'him' summoning a servant.
"The ability to summon a servant, is one granted by my father, when I rebelled it was revoked." Alucard stiffly explained, followed up by a small snort.
"So 'e grounded you, and you're still grounded... Wow, that's a long grounding Alucard..." Grant teased, then took a step to keep Trevor and Simon in front of him.
Leon shook his head as he walked over to Isaac, determined to check on the Forgemaster that had been injured in his efforts to protect Mathias. The Forgemaster 'was' awake now, his eyes dulled with pain as he laid there prone while the spirit continued using its arts on him. His flesh no longer looked as terrible as before, though the bruises were still plentiful, they were reduced in darkness of shade. The bulge of broken ribs attempting to escape his chest cavity was gone as well, leaving only a vivid bruise to remind one what 'had' nearly happened.
The damage to the mans' armor was growing extensive, it would be more advisable to get it mended or replaced at this point. However; Leon could not forget that Isaac was a staunchly loyal servant to Mathias, not them. Isaac aided them not as an ally to their cause, rather because Soma was his masters' future incarnation. That Soma showed kindness and recognized Isaac's work endeared him further to the Forgemaster. Hopefully encouraging him to further aid those that he probably would have been working against in other circumstances.
The Forgemasters' gaze flickered from the ceiling over to Leon as the former knight knelt down beside the man. A small, bitter, frown creased his lips with a pinch at the edges due to pain, the same pinch at the corners of his eyes. "Go ahead. Laugh."
"There's nothing to laugh about," Leon pointed out. Normally he would point out the nobility of Isaac's actions, save that Isaac was loyal to an evil side of Mathias. He bit back words of serious encouragement, though that went against his principle. Isaac didn't enter into Mathias' service when he was Soma, instead he entered when Mathias was Dracula. "Lady Elizabetha came to us seeking to aid you."
Isaac winced at the news, the Lady of the Castle concern for him and her all about grace given this situation was inspiring.
"Do you know who might have turned Richter into the Lord of this Castle?" Leon asked. Right now, right or wrong, Isaac needed to feel that aiding the Vampire Hunters was a greater act of loyalty to Mathias than holding on to his own preconceived notions of loyalty. "We believe that person has taken Mathias with the intentions of reverting him back to the same Vampire Lord you are well acquainted with. I would assume that such an act could be seen as a benefit to you, however..."
Leon didn't need to continue talking, he left the sentence hanging in the air so that Isaac could complete it on his own. True Leon didn't know what life was like for Isaac in his own time, they had not touched on such topics with Hector. Serving Dracula during his rage would have undoubtedly been nerve wrecking daily. Soma had been quite cordial to all of them, despite knowing who they were and their relationship to him.
So who would Isaac side with? The side of Mathias that would slay him out of hand with abandon? Or the side that would err on the side of mercy and compassion?
Even if he never would live to meet Soma, would it be enough to know that he had aided his lord in the future?
Or perhaps they had already pushed him harder and further than he could handle on his own, Leon could only worry. If it was pain or stress, Isaac didn't look 'right' in the eyes anymore, there was a manic gleam in them, a desperation or perhaps muted frustration that was twisting a mental knife. For Isaacs' gaze slipped from pained to an out of placed amusement.
"You know why not..." Isaac pushed himself into a sitting position, swatting away the offended Familiar as though it were a bothersome owl sized fly.
"Isaac," Hector turned sharply from his conversation, as he recognized Isaacs' speech pattern. He felt a stone form and drop in his stomach as his worst fears came to fruition.
It was now, whether he saw it as this one incident or this whole day, Isaac spoke as a man on the very razors' edge. Madness was seeping into his voice, the pitch cranked up a little higher, the gaze a little too intensely focused. Even as Hectors' offended Familiar retreated to him for reassurance, Hector knew that Isaac should 'not' be returned to his own time. If Hector wanted his wife to live, even as he realized she never could. Isaac came from just prior to the start of Draculas' war, where as Hector came after Trevors' victory.
But if the Devil Forgemaster heard Hector, it was ignored as Isaac kept his off kilter focus on Leon. "Shaft is from this time, he's a Priest in the service of our Lord. Though I would suspect that he would prefer our Lord from my time rather than from the version of him from the future. All that 'Flames of Chaos' and such. He used his arts to break that Belmont in the blue coat and put him to work as the lord of this castle. I can honestly say he has no real area to himself what with the traitor vampires that had been attempting to take over."
He pushed himself to his feet, letting the pain keep his vision sharp on the room around him, even as a careless hand was shoved to push his hair back into some semblance of order. Letting the bangs swing down to hide half his face. "The man so loves his orbs, he uses one to oversee the hunters' behavior. However; you can't see it with your naked eyes," ooh look at the pretty sparkly lights as he moved.
"If we can free Richter," Maria began her voice tentatively hopeful.
"Is there a way to make it visible?" Leon asked, wanting to help Isaac hold on to whatever sanity he had left.
The Devil Forgemaster gave a limp wave as some form of an answer while he began walking towards the great doors of the Master Chambers. "I can forge some reading glasses to see them, just have to find a pair in order to enchant them."
"I'll go with you!" Maria suddenly offered jogging up after Isaac with her doves gliding through the air after her.
"Maria? Lass?" Grant was taken slightly aback by her willingness to merely depart from the rest of the group. Or rather her willingness to depart with someone who sounded as though he was losing his mind.
Trevor clasped Grants' shoulder in a reassuring grip, silencing Grant with that one gesture. "I hope you two find success quickly."
She nodded and gave a backwards wave to the group of hunters while she trailed after Isaac, who could only barely show any sane passing interest of expression when he turned to glance at her.
Trevor shared in Grants' very justified concern, however; when time had been changed, Maria had served Dracula as well. Not only served him, but she had apparently taken Isaac in as a fellow, something that would hopefully still be in Isaac's own mind. Hoping that she would keep his grounded long enough to aid him in keeping his own mind.
"Well, we keep shrinking down further and further. If these traitors were to come after us..." Grant shook his head and sighed. "Hey Al, be a good man and see if Soma will unground you? In case tomorrow we wake up in the castle in the far flung future? You know, so we don't have to go through all of this mess? Again."
"Grant you're a trusted friend, but please don't keep taunting Alucard. I don't know if I can protect you from him..." Trevor commented casually while looking down at his shorter pirate friend.
Simon turned and started making his way towards the great doors out of the chamber, with everyone falling in behind him. He could see Isaac and Maria already walking ahead, but he wasn't sure when and if they would split in paths. So instead he let his mind play with that bit of info that Isaac had finally coughed up for them.
An orb that was used to keep a Belmont under ones' control? Sort of a strange, inferior version to when Dracula cursed Simon in fact. While Simon 'had' powered through and had managed to defeat Dracula as a mostly undead abomination himself. The allure of power that Dracula possessed had begun to affect him as the last of his flesh was consumed by the curse. Ensuring that Simon never, ever, underestimated what Dracula could do.
The twist that it was going to be done 'to' Dracula was not lost on Simon either. They needed to find a way to take out this item, before anyone learned the technique. If it could be used on one Belmont that had faced Dracula, then mass taught? The whole clan was vulnerable to some Dark Priest and thus was a threat to the world that Simon didn't care for. Even if the spell wasn't used again until Soma's time on Soma himself.
Traitor Vampires that they couldn't deal with because of time constraints, what purpose could they even have had being in the Castle? Replace Dracula? HA! Clearly the Castle wasn't into that idea or else it wouldn't have brought all of the Belmonts and then some to stop said traitors. Time manipulation? There was no one that Simon knew who had such a power, but was there such a being? Clearly so.
"I would love to see the Monsters Lexicon that exists in Soma's time," Simon finally grumbled, the pair in front of him had already dropped down to the ground below. Lucky bastards, if Simon tried that he would end up with broken legs. Or drown had there been water, simply because he was a little... how was it that his wife put it? 'Built like a boulder and would sink like one in deep water'. Why did he get married again?
"The only thing left we can do is hopefully meet up with Jonathan's group while seeking out this particular 'dark priest'," Leon commented as he jumped onto the raised landing leading outside, joining by Simon's side.
"How long do you think Soma can hold out from being taken over?" Simon asked, glancing over at Leon while the others closed in on them. "I got the impression from Maria that Richter was missing for years which this priest used to break Richter. Soma's already dark aligned 'and' centuries of being evil to make the process quicker."
Leon was taken slightly aback by the question, but quickly put his thoughts to the task set before him. "Mathias was never a warrior, he was my tactician, a brilliant one at that, so what he originally lacked in combat skills he far made up for in intelligence. If and how that would come into play in this situation I am unsure. I want the simplest solution, and say that 'yes' he could resist whatever this Dark Priest does until we find him. But I would only be deceiving both myself and you if I said so. He could probably resist for a short time, however; how short that time 'is', that is unknown to me."
"He gives me the impression that his flippancy is borne from the intention to keep emotions at bay. So he recognizes the issue he himself bears as well, perhaps we will be fortunate and find him while he's still able to struggle against it." Trevor noted as he watched the dragon that Hector created burst into existence from the empty air before them.
"We go to the Gallery," Alucard finally stated, giving voice finally causing the others to turn to look at him while Hector prepared.
"If Camilla is helping the Priest than she'll want for beauty, and the Gallery alone will provide her with anything close to her level of self indulgence."