Castlevania: Let the Symphony Last for Eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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"I've been traveling down the Outer Wall, seemingly all day..." Jonathan sung, off key and with his voice kept to a low hum tune of 'I've been working on the railroad'. "I've been looking down so many dresses, my balls are now at stake... Can't help my situation, your dresses are surprisingly risque... I've been traveling down the..."

POW!

Charlotte's book was hurled with enough force to the back of his head as though flung by the hand of one of the lower archangels of God. So much for the hope that the rain was masking any other sound he was making quietly under his breath. It was only water being slapped against the walls facing the outside, why 'shouldn't' it be louder than his singing?

'I have so many stories to tell you about your son, John. He's amazing and you should be proud...' Eric thought to himself as he stood there watching Jonathan get beating with a book. "You realize that if you're looking down my daughters' dress. You're now duty bound to marry her right?" He teased, cheerfully remembering having watched as Jonathan had literally fallen down a set of stairs after he had looked down to check on the girls. Only to see down Stella's dress and tried to stop himself by turning around fast, perhaps a bit 'too' fast. Since he had lost his step, fell to the ground below and ended up in a roll 'down' that flight of stairs.

"You may not know this but, Stellas' sword is way bigger than mine..." Jonathan began, perched on the edge of the hole leading to the lower area of the wall. Only to end up with the largest updraft of ice cold air that could be imagined... Hi Loretta.

Meanwhile; Sophia stood with Shanoa and Stella at the door leading into the castle, confused over what Loretta was doing. Casting an out of place ice spell up the hole that connected the main part of the outer wall to here because...?

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" Jonathan's voice carried over to even 'their' ears despite the distance and sound of rain from outside...

"I worry over the Lady of the Castle, she has not reappeared..." Shanoa finally voiced amid the faintly heard conversation going on where the men were at.

"Yes... now that you mention it, she has been absent this whole time. Strangely so considering the dire situation she had informed us of. I doubt the other group would not want us informed," Sophia confessed, folding her arms across her chest as she thought about the distance between where they 'had' been when Lisa had found them. Versus now. "Perhaps it merely took longer?"

"Rather than something dire has afflicted her husband and now Soma is being reverted back into his old personality?" Stella voiced as her sister floated to back from the shaft while Eric dropped through.

"I hope its merely that there was some new development that arose that distracted her," Sophia commented. If Soma had reverted, the monsters would turn on them instantly, so it would be better if she was just delayed. 'I wouldn't be surprised if she reported any findings to Leon first, she has a decided distaste towards us. However; Leon is a personal friend so she would prioritize him over us. I hope.'

Jonathan had comically fallen through the hole, unceremoniously on the floor before pushing himself up. He moved to join Eric so Charlotte could drop down, her hands holding down her skirt. The stone stair pathway they stood on lead further down, though they couldn't see much because of the way the platforms were positioned.

So far the skeletons and knights had been wary, but not hostile. Always a plus. The weather had been decidedly... it was raining, it was raining outside the outer wall, repeated glances outside the castles' arrow loops had proven that yes. Yes it was raining. On this side of the Castle, that sparsely cloudy sky from before? Totally different on this side of the Castle.

It was frightening, to say the least, to think that even the weather could be made to bow to Dracula's whims. So much so that it could have several distinct weather patterns affecting each side of the Castle. Was it because Soma was incapacitated? Just part of his powers he couldn't control? Something that was part of the Castle, not him, that he couldn't control?

Meanwhile Eric joined the three near the door, "I guess we should be thankful for the small blessing that the only other place, 'visually appealing' is the chapel of the castle."

"No chance a vampire would want to take over and rest at such a place," Stella readily agreed.

"I wonder what happened in the Master Chambers. True it sounds immensely like spell work, but Isaac having to hold off a Belmont? I worry that he was slain out of hand."

"Yeah, Isaac isn't even a footnote in Trevors' time, Trevor mentions a Devil Forgemaster who rebelled against Dracula. Clearly that's Hector, only there's no information about 'another' Forgemaster. He never went into details about those battles, but someone from Trevors' time facing Richter? That's a death sentence." Charlotte spoke up as she made her way over to the group.

"It is peculiar though, is it not?" Sophia finally asked as the group gathered together. "You clearly enjoy knowing the history of the clans and nothing has changed with you," she commented her expression thoughtfully placed on Charlotte. "Yet, it feels strange how now that these events are happening, no one ever recorded it for you. I don't understand why I, or my husband or anyone else wouldn't leave our tales for you."

"True, even if Isaac died fighting Richter and never made it back to his own time. Trevor and Simon both have still met the man now..." Eric agreed.

"Simon never left a great deal on his own, it was those around him who recorded his journeys when he spoke about it to the clan..." Charlotte pointed out, as she cocked her head to the side finding the truth in their words. "Granted it might be that history has changed so subtly that I might have my memories altered and not realized it."

'How sad... Isaac is clearly loyal to Dracula.. yet to be forgotten so completely as to be neither a footnote among his enemies, or worthy to be brought back like the others by Dracula himself...' Shanoa thought as she stood to the side, listening to everyone around her. 'And we were also forgotten for not being part of these vaulted clans weren't we, Albus?'

"Don't fret so much Sophia," Jonathan offered as he walked over. "We're not directly of the clans, I doubt that we got the same level of access to information as a direct bloodline. The next in line is that man in the painting, there isn't an actual Belmont after Richter who carries the whip so far here. For all we know that Belmont in the future has access to all this information."

"Hey!" Charlotte began in annoyance only to have Jonathan shake his head as he made his way to the door.

"We can only hope, all our knowledge about the clans extends only to how to ensure a Morris can wield the whip," Loretta spoke up casting a glance to her sister.

"And how the Alucarde Spear was forged and presented to our ancestor," Stella agreed nodding slightly towards the strangely simple spear that Eric held.

"Yeah, that's a question. How 'was' it forged? It doesn't look like the one I'm using and they're the same weapon." Jonathan finally asked, now that he actually got to 'see' the spear with Eric. "I always just assumed it looked like this..." he gave the slightest of shakes on his spear to indicate his Alucarde Spear drawing attention to its larger almost sword like blade compared to the more realistic spear head of Erics'.

"The spear absorbs dark power and transforms as its power increases while doing so," Eric explained with a faint shrug. "I have never been able to get the spear to reach the stage you have it at, or even knew that it had a final form."

"Yet you are not slaying anything that would fuel the Spear," Sophia noted as she approached now more fascinated by the spear. Bearing Alucards' name as it did was also interesting, she couldn't see the esteemed prince at a blacksmith's anvil forging anything by hand.

"No... it is the whips by his side," Loretta explained quietly bowing her head slightly as she did so.

"Its the trade off, the Whip is extracting Jonathan's life force in payment for the right to wield it. The extraction comes off as a type of darkness causing the Spear to loop and feed on that peculiar type of darkness," Stella elaborated, her voice lower than normal, bothered by something.

"I'm dying. Just say it. 'If the whip is used by anyone not a Belmont the whip slowly kills them.' I've made my peace with this ladies," Jonathan replied turning to face the sisters, drawing everyone elses' eyes sharply to the pair of whips he wore. One in a position he could use, a second one carried more just for the sake of carrying it seemed. "Draining a life force like the whip is doing comes off enough like a vampires' bite that the Spear is reacting."

"You can't lead... we're going to face vampires..." Sophia sputtered in protest as she looked at the others in their group. Only to be reminded that they all came from roughly the same time, this was all stuff they already knew. Charlotte looked away biting a knuckle, unable to face Sophia, while the sisters stood there stoic in their stance and grief in their eyes. Their father to be and Shanoa were the only two who had any reaction that didn't resonate with this knowledge.

"John has the whip in my time... he's fought Dracula using the whip exclusively, but I guess that's why you're using the spear." Eric held Jonathan's gaze with a mixture of horror and respect in his eyes. "And here I thought... I thought John would get better, I thought his wounds would heal..."

"I understand your situation," Shanoa finally spoke up, her often quiet reserved nature causing the others to start at her voice. "I was raised an orphan trained to fight Dracula while the Belmonts were missing from the world. The group who raised me, groomed me to use a power that was meant to destroy Dracula. Only that use would cost me my life, but I bear those marks still with the exchange of life costing me a dear friend instead."

Jonathan turned to face her, but his eyes were quiet and understanding, somehow the awareness that they were tethered to death made the man feel a little closer to the huntress. A sense of solidarity in another person who was going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice for the world.

"We'll take point," Stella suddenly said, breaking the uncomfortable silence that was starting to consume them. Drawing the attention on to her and reminding them all why they were standing there to begin with. "Sophia can not, her speed is sub par and she has not even birthed the first of the lines. Father can not take point, for we have not been born yet either."

"Charlotte can not take point because the spell she casts will take time without distraction, which leaves only us and Shanoa." Loretta added following her sisters' assertive lead as ever. "We have a task that must be completed and the sooner we find the owner of the second whip. The slower the drain from the Vampire Killer."

The scent of burnt flesh was the first thing to waft to Shanoa's attention, alerting her to their new company.

"They're coming here..."

The voice came out of nowhere, a whisper on the wind confirming Shanoa's sense of smell. A voice that they hadn't heard in a while, as the scent of cooking flesh began to float about them. Elizabetha, or Lisa, began to manifest, her pale skin and hair was the first to stand out amid her otherwise dark attire.

"I arrived as they were leaving and my son has stated that they will come here directly. As for what is inside here, my Lord Husband has been brought in the hallway as you deduced. A spell bewitches him to stay in slumber while he rests in some circle of power. It is believed that their wish is to use the spells that broke the Belmont of this time period on my Lord Husband." She explained patiently, waiting to make sure that they were keeping up with what she was explaining.

"Isaac has taken that one girl with him and gone to the library to seek out a method to help, he seems to have a plan."

"The library? We passed that on our way down here..." Charlotte noted quietly, thinking of all the books that could be accessed. That he took 'that one girl' meant it had to be Maria, the only women that had accompanied the men. So whatever they were looking into would probably assist in helping free Richter from his condition.

"Has any of the monsters here sided with them against us? We're already going to be dealing with three hunters, two of which are Belmonts. But has any of Draculas' followers sided with Camilla?" Eric asked, as he concerned himself with the potential size of their enemies' forces being potentially amassed.

"Camilla has come up with a rather devious method of protecting their forces and keeps her pets close to her. As he sleeps she insinuates into my Lord Husbands' ear of possible threats, arousing his power to bring forth his own personal defenders. He now rests in the embrace of an Alura Une, a rather protective one that takes offense to Camilla's attempts to approach my Lord." Elizabetha finished her report, taking a bit of pride at how she had reported it. She was happy with the knowledge that her Lord Husbands' power would keep that naughty little Vampires' hands off.

"So in a way we 'will' be fighting Dracula as well.." Shanoa noted, the others nodding in an off beat unison.

"Asleep and lulled into a sense that he's in danger, his power is spread out through out the Castle. It wouldn't be surprising that they would be attracted to return to his side to defend him," Stella noted with a frown on her lips.

"Three hunters, two of which are Belmonts, all of whom have been turned into vampires themselves. Serving a vampire and whoever now holds control over Richter, and Dracula himself who undoubtedly does not want to be a part of this if he were awake." Sophia noted knowing that she had no clue just 'how many' monsters would already be there to try and protect Dracula. The battle she had faced with her husband and Grant during that, thankfully, brief time shift still present in her mind.

"Shaft..." Elizabetha spoke up realizing that maybe she had forgotten something that might have been useful? "He's a Dark Priest, in fact the reason my Lord Husband was being prematurely resurrected are his doing. He holds control over that Belmont and along with Isaac had been trying to deal with the Vampires who have been running around for this whole situation."

"That's right," Charlotte blinked as though she had just been made to realize something. Which was true she was. "Why 'were' we brought here? The vampires you're talking about we haven't seen..."

Elizabetha started at the question, before giving a slight helpless shrug, "honestly I know nothing about them. No one has seen me in so long that I never thought following or... well spying on people would amount to anything. What good is it to follow someone around and learn their secrets if no one will ever hear me?" She explained, her hand going to her face and as memories played across her eyes the group could see a remembered warmth in them.

"These vampires travel to the half of the castle still in the Chaos, they visit that large lizard my Lord Husband empowered... I dislike referring to a living being as a 'toy'. However; my Lord Husband 'did' find a small garden lizard once and gave it some dark power. Not a great deal of course, but enough to make it a challenge for our son. When our son was but a child he was so filled with life, he loved to run and play as a hero, as those found in stories. But he could get to be a handful for the servants, Death often had trouble getting him to settle down for lessons. If my Lord Husband is viewed as the eternal threat against the Belmonts... I suppose that little lizard was meant to be that to Adr... Alucard." Elizabetha recalled fondly.

"Granted every time he is slain, his form shrinks down and our baby hasn't been doing a good job maintaining that. The lizard is pretty sizable now... He stands taller than the Master Chambers in height in fact..."

'Alucard has a living, toy, lizard...'

It was a thought that really showed how far removed Elizabetha 'was' from her time among the living when she could be fine with 'that' idea. Yet when she was around humans, they took her way of thinking as justification to have her burned at the stake. This was a woman who just couldn't catch a proverbially break!

"Well that hints to why we may have been brought here..." Eric began slowly feeling a little awkward. Not wishing to speak out loud and break Elizabetha's nostalgic recollections.

"If I was created just so some rich nobles' kid could smack me around..." Jonathan noted realizing what the Castle might have viewed as a 'threat' was... And because of the way the doors had been handled they had not been able to deal with said threat.

"Uh I don't recall anything about a giant garden lizard..." Charlotte added, as she looked down at her book uselessly.

"Apparently Alucard went and struck down the lizard," Sophia suggested.

"I certainly hope he cleans up his room," Elizabetha pointed out primly.