Castlevania: Let the Symphony Last for Eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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Your father needs you.

Those were words that pushed at him. Watching as Alucard disappeared from their sights simply reaffirmed that he wasn't human. Not completely. It affirmed how he catered to the slower moving humans in the party, until now. Now when the very human soul of Dracula was on the line, now Alucard showed more of his vampiric side.

"Sooo I know the saying is 'Fly' to encourage someone to go as fast as possible, aye... But... Al can turn into a bat and that is a great deal faster then running... Why isn't he a squeaker right now? It literally was one of the higher points to him being with us. Helping us move faster and knowing his way around the place." Grant asked the group in general as they gathered at what was becoming a well acquainted door.

"Maybe he forgot the spell?" Trevor suggested while rolling his shoulders.

"He slept so long he forgot his spells? Is that what you're suggesting?" Simon asked, trying to process that thought.

"Its happened before, or so I was told," Hector commented as the door was pushed open and they began the next leg of their trek through the Castle.

"Seriously? Details lad, 'details'," Grant chuckled as Leon lightly shook his head.

It would be unbecoming to partake of a conversation that would clearly embarrass the Dhampire... But if the rest of his kin wanted to 'freely' tell the tale, he wasn't going to stop them.

"Lady Lisa spoke of it, just things during his childhood as he wasn't one who enjoyed lessons. So..." Hector explained. "Apparently Death is a dry teacher, though Dracula is a far better instructor when he chooses to be."

"'Dry to the bone', you say?" Trevor commented before shaking his head.

"All this ammo for tormenting the guy, and we'll never see him again," Grant pleasantly mourned, the smile fading from his face. "We're never going to see him again Trevor... That guy is going to stay in a coffin for 200 years, wake up, smack his dad around at this point in time... Then what? 'E's in the painting, he's lived so long that he's going to see his pa's reincarnated self. While we're all done fed the worms..."

"He's been alone looking after the world for so long, it seems terribly unfair to deny him Mathias' presence in his own time. Though its pretty clear that Mathias derives some perverse degree of pleasure tormenting his child. Its light hearted and kind, and as much as I still hate Mathias for what he did to Sara and I. I want not for his son to be denied the good that his father possesses," Leon noted.

"Yes, it will be bad enough when Soma does age and die as a mortal, he'll be alone again. Probably crawl back into his coffin and sleep forever..." Grant agreed while the walls of the Castle sped by.

"Humph, what makes you guys think he's still human? Whatever woke his powers never went back to sleep. He's the Lord of Darkness, for good or for ill, its what he'll stay. I doubt Alucard is going to ever have peace from his father. Either he kills his father for the sake of humanity, or he kills his father for the sake of his sanity."

Everyone in the group slowly turned to look at Simon, taken by his sudden display of lyrical talent... "Who knew Simon was a poet of some regard?"

"I will kill all of you."

'I know not who I shall take as a bride... but I now know that the future safe,' Leon thought with passing gratitude that he could hold a straight face. "I know that it may appear to be amusing, but let us not forget. That Mathias comes far from the future, we can not afford to get careless or assume that Alucard will be able to reach his father in time. If Mathias returns back to his own time turned, the Alucard of that time will be forced to slay the only manifestation of his father's good graces."

"Of course, you speak true," Hector agreed as they ran, the wall that the door leading to the Outer Wall standing before them. "So assuming the positive outcome, we rescue Soma and...? Resume hunting the root cause of why we were dragged into the Castle from various points in time as it were?"

"Naturally, and hopefully with Richter, Juste and his friend restored to their human states it will go all the quicker. I'd like the chance to know them as something other than forced adversaries, personally," Trevor commented.

Hector's grunt startled Simon, who regretfully wasn't the fastest of runners, but it meant that he was there when Hector stumbled to a stop. He stopped beside the Devil Forgemaster and rested his hand on the man's back. While the footsteps of the other hunters slowed to a staggering stop.

"Simon? Hector?" Trevor called out in concern from a lower platform.

"He's waking up..." Hector answered as he shook out the feeling. "They must have begun, this feels of Lord Dracula..."

"Didn't take long to break the brat..." Simon grumbled, only to be halted by Hector shaking his head.

"He's not been broken, Soma and Dracula are the same person at their core. Forgive me for using it as a way to differentiate the two. But Soma's control feels like Dracula, he's 'in control' not as a young man learning, but as a full master. What that says for his state of mind or memories I know not."

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'I can feel father's presence... his power...' Alucard thought as he rested his hand against the door, even as his eyes roved over the wooden frame. It felt of home, if there was anything that could be more gut wrenching, it was the sensation that the castle had become what he recalled as a child. He could almost believe that they were...

"Adrian! You made it, I'm... Adrian?" that his mother still lived. "Are you? Are you crying?"

He blinked and then brushed the traitorous tears away before turning to address his mothers' spirit properly. "I'm fine mother, and do not worry, I'll rescue father so please wait here."

"Awww brave wittle Kid Dracula's going to save his daddy?" Elizabetha crooned out with a warm hearted playfulness in her tone. Thus rewarded by her son's slight blush of embarrassment, a clear sign that her baby hadn't lost all his emotions.

"Mother, please! I'm not a child anymore!"

"No, but you'll polish off a mug of that stuff your Father sent up to the Master Chamber readily enough. Besides, you're our baby, you'll 'always' be our baby and we're going to love you no matter what. Pestering is just a side benefit," she pointed out as her son looked at her. Yet there was grief and guilt in those eyes that saddened her as she suspected she knew 'why' he looked so. "We're not angry..."

"Mother, I've taken part in his death... I'm going to probably do it again at some point," Alucard pointed out.

"Your father has done terrible things I understand, I'm sure Soma understands as well," Elizabetha began only to be cut off by her son.

"Well 'I' don't! Why can't things be like they were before?" Alucard blurted out.

"They will sweet heart! Soma's proof that one day he won't be so filled with anger!" She pointed out, wishing she could physically hold her despondent son.

"But he didn't know I was his son, he doesn't know me 'as' his son, just told that I am his son he had when he was a vampire." Alucard pointed out, grateful that he could finally have some time to talk to his mother without an audience.

"That makes his behavior all the more important dearest. That he looks at you, and without reservation accepts you," she pointed out with gentle firmness. Allowing the rest of the sentence to hang so that he could finish it on his own. "Go save your daddy my sweet Prince. If you have such doubt about your father or yourself, do this for him. So that you may remind 'yourself' that it is not your father that you loathe, but the anger that has consumed him time and again. That you may accept that you are ever your father's son and will be his strength when he is weak. As he has ever been ours."

He nodded before lowering himself into the proper courtly bow to her as he had been taught earning a gentle smile from his mother as she stood there.

"I'll let Lord Leon know to take this door," she faded from sight, trusting her son's ability to make his own choices.

The empty short hallway felt almost anticlimactic when Alucard opened the door, but he could still hear the faint sounds of the battle going on the other side. He raced to the other door and pulled it open to see just 'what' Camilla had concocted to keep them from his father.

The turned Belmont, the one that was controlled, along with the hunter and even with that it was enough to stop all the group. Of course this was a group trying 'not' to kill their opponents suppressing people trying to kill you 'would' be more difficult. He could see his fathers' influence start to show further down the hallway.

Large skeletal arms were protruding out of the pillars that held up the ceiling further down the hallway. Shadows had eyes or flashing large fanged teeth, and a skeletal dragon drifting on the air currents while a stuffed doll version of Soma sat on his... what? Alucard had to do a double take as he saw and made eye contact with the dragon. It began flying down and the stuffed doll, which had been observing the battle, turned its attention towards Alucard as well.

'Father you are a brat. I wish I was adopted.' An impulsive thought perhaps, but that his father, the 'Lord of Darkness' and all those titles... that his power could be manifested as a childs' toy riding a skeleton dragon. 'Father you 'are' trying to torment me! I just know it!' Yet he was ever grateful just 'for' that torment. The toy looked at him with its big, blue glassy eyes, pausing long enough to look him up and down before drifting towards him.

Hovering over his shoulder like a familiar...

"We can hold them here so please go on Alucard."

Loretta's voice wasn't a shout, showing she was aware that Alucard could hear just fine given the distance. "The room is shifting even as we fight, so please."

He ran forward, following the path of the floating dragon as it dashed forward dipping and curving around all the battles with little thought or concern. The twins were holding off Camilla admirably, Stella's fierce swords work coupled with her sisters spells showed their greatest strength. If she had mistaken the sisters for weak, the fact that the sisters had revealed her true decaying corpse appearance corrected 'that' notion.

Shanoa was fairly dancing, like the sisters there was an elegance and grace to her movements an action that seemed to humor Richter. She was human, fighting close enough that his whip was not effective thus being a challenge for the hunter. Or perhaps one would 'think' as much however, given that the Belmont was being controlled against his will. It was probably taking a supreme amount of effort for him to hobble himself 'this' far down. Despite being human, her powers were dark like a Dark Child, which would leave her susceptible to Richter's own strengths.

Jonathan's battle with the sword wielding hunter was also an interesting display, as Alucard knew how to box... Yet Jonathan was using different methods of fighting that Alucard found unfamiliar. Despite both using spear and sword; they were also using methods that Alucard found interesting enough that only his father's plight kept him from stopping. Leaving Sophia fighting along side Eric in keeping the other Belmont occupied.

It was this battle that showed how well aware Camilla was of the situation regarding Soma was. For Juste was positioned closest to where the skeletal arms were, giving him an environmental advantage in terms of combat. She 'needed' Juste safe, for he had the ability to eliminate the spell that Charlotte was currently trying to cast. Simply by never living as a human long enough to fully realize it. Thus it was quite feasible that if they lost, Charlotte would lose access to Sanctuary.

As such Juste was staying 'just' within the range of the pillars that were attacking Eric and Sophia. Revealing his father's state of mind while doing so, as he saw the 'vampire' as the one to protect, yet not the two human hunters. Which placed the strange little familiar guiding Alucard into a new type of question. Was the doll a part of his father that could see what was going on? Or just recognizing Alucard and thus guiding him?

"Alucard is that?" Sophia had an interesting tone of voice, that 'am I seeing this correctly' mixed with concern as he moved a step ahead of her.

"The toy? I will pay honest money if that's actually Soma and he's found a way to escape from our enemies," Eric chuckled as he deflected the hand reaching for them.

Alucard gave a quiet sigh of frustration as he watched the stuffed toy as it wove its way past the guarding hands. Now that he stood next to Sophia and Eric, Juste had started to include focus on Alucard as well.

"Do 'not' allow Alucard to reach his father my dears!" Camilla called out, her tone just lightly hinting at her desperation. If she underestimated the hunters, she was learning how dear a mistake she had made. There was no one to spare and at the moment she could only struggle to redouble her own efforts to get to Charlotte. As bad as losing her toys were, losing Soma before he could be turned would be the greater loss.

To say nothing of the greater danger to herself.

"We don't advocate keeping families apart," Loretta noted quietly as she began forming an ice blade on her sisters' rapier.

"You heard the lady, go on! We've got this!" Jonathan called out as he struggled in a locked battle with Maxim. Not to mention avoiding the man's fangs which was getting dicey so if Charlotte could just get the lead out.

Weaving through the extended, protective limbs of the pillars, the dragon began floating in what was essentially a holding pattern. Which was fine because the doll riding its back was anything 'but' a holding pattern. It was tapping its sword in its other hand in the way that indicated impatience and annoyance. Or a very put out angry Nun with a ruler if that was one's mental visualization given how Charlotte dressed. Jonathan.

Alucard dashed in ducking down a swinging, skeletal hand that reached for him as he moved towards the opposing door. The doll seemed almost pleased as the dragon danced around to resume guiding him.

"Sanctuary!" Charlottes' voice sang out above the battle, casting a light that bloomed out from where she stood and started to wash the room in its glow.

He couldn't afford to stop moving, instead Alucard pushed on as Camilla shrieked in outrage. The spell could turn the vampires back into humans, but it would amount to nothing in dealing with his fathers' own efforts to defend himself. Large armored knights began stepping into view, their ornate armor and weapons at the ready.

"Alucard!" Shonoa's voice echoed across the chamber, her voice a warning that turned Alucard around just in time to see Richter heading for him. He barely deflected Vampire Killer from wrapping around his throat. The spell had freed Juste and Maxim, but it still left the largest threat in the room, the current active Belmont. One enspelled by sorcery rather than a Vampire's Kiss, and now fixated on Alucard.

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Shaft continued his spells, his gaze on his Lord's younger body as it hovered in the air. Already the eyes had turned fully gold and the fangs had returned. Revealing just how superficial 'Soma' was from his true self. Yet it was only his training that stopped him from breaking his recitation when Camilla staggered into the room. Her gown was in tatters revealing a great deal of her rotting body as she made her way to their Lord.

Slipping her fingers into Soma's hair, she pulled back his head and sank her fangs into his throat.