Chapter 8: Knowledge

Galamoth stares at Celia. "Why have you summoned me?" he demands.

She stares directly back into his eyes. "Why did you respond to the summon?"

"How do you know my name?"

"Why have you refused to agree to a pact?"

"Where have you brought me?"

"Why are you writing your life story?"

Both hesitate. Then Celia speaks again. "I can keep this up as long as you can. It is easy to ask suspicious questions. Let's try actually having a conversation instead."

His expression turns to anger. "You are mocking me."

Celia shakes her head. "That's what I get for trying to treat a demon civilly." She takes a breath. "I have requested your presence because my colleagues are in need of the aid of demons. As you have responded to the summon, I can only assume that you have some reason to visit the surface."

Galamoth gives her an uneasy look, then attempts to sound diplomatic. "Ever since the great war of 1999, the other demons and I have found ourselves cut off from the surface. We seek to reestablish non-aggressive relations with humanity in a manner that will allow us to regain what Dracula's war has cost us."

Celia smiles. "Not bad at all for a first try. Regarding how I learned your name, well, we'd like to keep some of our trade secrets to ourselves. As for where we are, this is my castle. It is interesting that you mention Dracula, because his absence is part of the reason why I called you here."

"You requested the presence of Thanatos before me."

"It is our understanding that Death leads the demons. Previous summoners have found it convenient to summon him and allow him to handle the task of summoning the other demons." She frowns. "However, this is a dangerous approach if a pact is not established first. You have not been helpful in that regard."

He crosses his arms. "I find the idea of a pact unappealing. It also would not be to your advantage to form one. None of our demons are currently capable of summoning each other."

"That is unfortunate. The problem will be solved once we have a new dark lord, but we'll be unable to accomplish anything without demons."

"You want to create a new dark lord?"

She stares into space, almost religiously. "It is our view that pure good in the world cannot be achieved without pure evil existing to counterbalance it."

He rolls his eyes. "Evil. An annoyingly common human perspective. Our interest is in the practical advantages of having a leader and representative."

"How interesting. I have summoned you and you have come to me for an identical purpose. I would almost call it destiny. I suspect that it will require the two of us to work together to accomplish our goal." She shakes her head at him. "And to think you were trying to push us around."

The guards tried the same thing on me, Galamoth doesn't say.

While the agreement could have easily been reached without the use of pen and paper, such items were available and made the process appear more formal.

Galamoth had insisted that no pact be required, instead noting that their similar goals, his disinterest in rampaging across human lands, and Celia's ability to unsummon him whenever necessary would suffice to keep him in line. In fact, he argued, his part of the plan would require him to return to hell.

His rationale was simple. He could arrange for the demons to agree to be summoned by her group for the purpose of reviving the dark lord, but they would need to know about the plan first. The only way for that to occur would be to let him tell them. He had suggested that two of the higher-ranked demons, Malphas and Agni, be summoned to help her oversee the process and make decisions regarding which demons would be the most suitable to request. Galamoth, meanwhile, would be making regular runs between hell and the castle to deliver information. Celia never questioned how he would be able to do so.

He then raised the question of how the dark lord would be revived. She revealed what he had known for a while now: the castle included access to the chaotic power that once belonged to Dracula. While he emphasized that Dracula's rebirth would not be the most desirable outcome, Celia had another plan anyway. He was introduced to her assistants Dario and Dmitrii, two men who she believed had the potential to claim the power and take up the position. Galamoth found them adequate, although he considered that Dario seemed like the type who would start the war again just for fun.

Shortly afterward, she unsummoned him, allowing him to set the plan into motion on the other side. She was left with a piece of paper on which a few reminders were written. No pacts. Keep a low profile; the demons don't want the dark lord to be a target again. Galamoth is the messenger; only summon him again in case of emergency. And if you do, use a circle of at least twenty feet in diameter.

The demons were fond of the idea and didn't need much convincing. Agni was more hesitant than Malphas at being put in charge, but Galamoth insisted that they would not need the forge. All in all, it looked like things were finally going to get better.

With all of these tasks completed, Galamoth returns to the room and resumes his writing. He has almost completely forgotten where he left off.

As before, it was Galamoth who fell to the ground defeated.

Alucard gazed at his battered body, a task that didn't require him to look downward. "There was no need for us to battle. We could have been allies."

Galamoth struggled to rise, but failed. "I promised to serve Dracula... but I can no longer tolerate this war... Rebecca is gone... I am not strong enough to stand... finish me..."

"It is tragic what Dracula's influence can do to one like yourself."

Galamoth almost agreed with him. However, he was unable to ignore his belief that, before he had met Dracula, he was arguably just as much of a cruel murderer. "Please... end the war... but don't forget... your father was once great..."

With this said, Alucard reluctantly delivered the final blow. He probably had a wise one-liner afterward, but his opponent would never hear it.

Galamoth awoke to find himself in the same room of the castle as before. Alucard had long since left. Below where he stood, he could see the remains of his body. Above where he stood, Thanatos floated, staring down at him impassively.

"We are going back", he said with little emotion. And he produced his scythe, and he used it.

And then Galamoth awoke again to find himself in the middle of a familiar room. His room. The one the demons had made for him.

He struggled to one knee. "What is this?"

Voices sounded from outside the room. "Galamoth's back!"

He started to stand up and look around to get his bearings, only to find Rebecca lying on the ground near where he had landed. If he had to draw a conclusion, he would say that the act of dying had deprived the two of any material possessions they had carried, which meant that they remained back on the surface. Indeed, Galamoth no longer carried his weapons or wore his garments, and Rebecca was subject to the... same fate...

"Rebecca!" he shouted emotionally.

She awoke slowly. "I... couldn't protect you."

"I fell in battle as well. I guess we truly cannot die after all." And without giving her a chance to protest, he scooped her up in one hand and held her body tightly to his chest. Her body was warm to the touch, and he let out a deep contented sigh that she probably felt.

Rebecca was almost crying. "I thought I would never see you again!"

He stroked her gently. "When I found out you had died... I could think of nothing but delivering justice to the one who killed you."

At that moment, a number of demons entered the room with intent to welcome the two back, only to find them together on the ground, neither of them wearing anything. He was holding her body tightly to his chest, his grip covering her and keeping her safe.

They promptly left, apologizing for the interruption.

As they left, Galamoth thought to himself. Yes, he saw it. He saw everything. And he knew what it meant. But did it really matter to him?

Not at the moment. He hoped it never would.

He left Rebecca in the room and went to meet with the other defeated witches. Perhaps one of them had a spare robe for her to borrow.

It was not the end he would have expected from the greatest battle of his life.

In the end, despite all of the preparations, all of the backup plans, and the fact that I had been personally involved, the battle still ended in failure. Alucard successfully prevented the return of his father.

Thanatos was not happy. He was polite about it, naturally, but his words gave me the distinct impression that I had not lived up to my lord's expectations and that I would not be assisting in the next attack. I accepted this fate begrudgingly, yet readily.

Normally I would have said that the plan was considerably better thought out than the others, and that the failure must have been due to the ingenuity of our enemies, rather than our own ineptitude.

But I didn't. I remembered Alucard's words, and I believed them. The war was a bad idea, and it needed to stop.

Galamoth's part of the plan is based on the belief that his involvement with the process should appear as limited as possible. He has done well to not give away any information that could not have been determined by the humans from the knowledge that Dracula died in 1999.

Aside from the fact that he was summoned at all. This part continues to bother him. Still, the humans didn't seem to think that it was a big deal.

Getting information from the humans via the demons is the easy part. The hard part is sending messages to them. He uses an obvious method: give a message to be relayed by the demon they next intend to summon.

He looks around. Hell is the emptiest it has been in the past three decades, aside from that one incident last year. This, he decides, is a very good sign. It means that, for the first time in a long time, the demons are on the surface and are not being killed for it.

"I regret to inform you that I will no longer be able to fulfill my duties here."

The forgemaster and the other demons who aided him could only stare at Galamoth as he made his announcement. He had worked the forge for over three centuries. He had done a very good job of it. He was the demon to see regarding the construction of armored guards. And his decision had come without any warning.

Galamoth was not entirely uncivil about it. He reassured them that, by providing the items he had requested on such short notice during his absence, they had proven that they would be able to succeed without his assistance.

He never did tell them why he left. But he clearly could not allow himself to continue to aid the production of the means of prolonging the war.

Instead, he decided to focus his attentions on another section of the underworld that he liked and that needed his help: the library.

He had heard that during the previous battle, the demon in charge of maintaining the literature had traveled to Dracula's castle to investigate the stock there. Then, when Alucard confronted him in the castle, he had directly aided him in his quest. This was considered treason, and the librarian was removed from his position immediately upon his return. There may have been an even crueler fate, but Galamoth had not heard about it.

And now Galamoth would fill the same position. He did not find it as enjoyable as metalwork, but it seemed like a more productive activity at the time.

It didn't take him long to determine the major difficulty inherent in keeping the library stocked. He didn't have a portal and couldn't use it even if he did. And he knew full well by this time that all the books had come from the humans.

The solution was effective yet counterintuitive. He assigned a group of demons to do the footwork for him. They were not always aware of what books would be considered suitable for their stock, so the final decision was left for him.

The part that made this awkward was that they could only do so when war was occurring. Thanatos's new method was in full use at this time. Before the end of the 20th century, there would be no fewer than seven more attempts to revive Dracula, all of which succeeded, and then were foiled by a chosen representative of humanity.

What bothered Galamoth the most, though, was that the name Belmont was very rarely coming up now. It was starting to seem like anybody with any slight relation to the Belmonts could stop Dracula's efforts now. One of the demons postulated that it may have been due to Dracula's inability to regain power through a lengthy absence. It was entirely possible.

In fact, there were so many meaningless incidents, I will skip several of them right now and resume my story in 1917.

The most recent attack had been in 1897, and it was a battle that I took particular interest in. It had been one of Dracula's century-based revivals, and this time his plan was to leave the mainland and travel to another country, where he would be able to regain his power and subjugate the humans without any of them having had any experience battling him.

The humans handled this conflict through numbers. While few of Dracula's opponents had been warriors, they worked together to determine his weaknesses and then confronted him directly. Most didn't even know each other at first, but were brought together by the fact that he had attempted to convert their love interests into part of his vampire army.

In the end, one man landed the blow that ended the war, but at the cost of his own life. Interestingly enough, his blood was distantly related to that of the Belmonts, even though his ancestors had left the European continent years before. He also had a son, and later years would prove that this bloodline would devote themselves to stopping Dracula whenever he returned. They did not possess the same abilities as the Belmonts, but they would become almost as well known.

What made this particular battle interesting for me was not that the circumstances were so different, or even that Thanatos and the demons had a very passive role in the events. It was that I learned all of this by reading a book. All of the events I had read about were written from the humans' perspective.

This was the first time that I was aware that humanity had expressed their opinion on the recurring appearances of Dracula, and I thought it was an interesting source of insight into their thought processes and logic. In fact, it was my opinion that the proper use of this book might eventually lead to the kinds of strategies or compromises necessary to end the war.

A demon had obtained this book during the 1917 war. It was part of a stack of literature that he had looted from a bookstore's fiction section.

While I was annoyed that the tale was relegated to that section, and I had to scold the demon for gathering texts that were not useful for research purposes, I decided to keep two of the fiction books that he had obtained in our library. Both texts had, after all, contained an interesting perspective on true events.

Galamoth looks at where the two books rest on the floor. One, as always, is the text about Thanatos. The other is the second book that he had picked up at the time. Oddly enough, it had been written less than a year after the detailed account of Dracula's attack on England.

This book is entirely fiction, though. It is a novel by a human named Wells entitled War of the Worlds.

Galamoth was stacking books on the top shelf, a considerably easier task for him than most other demons, when he heard a woman's voice behind him.

"You must be Galamoth. I've heard so much about you."

He slid the last few books into place with a single finger, then turned around and bent down to look at the demon that was addressing him. "I don't believe we have met."

"They call me Astarte. They say you come from Crocodilopolis."

She resembled one of the human females, although she was at least a foot taller than an average example. Her hair was dark, her skin tanned, and she was clad in the traditional garments of a high-class Egyptian. Barely clad, though. He got the distinct impression that she could easily remove them at any time.

"I never stayed around there longer than necessary", he said dismissively.

She nodded. "I can see. While you clearly have the features of a desert dweller, I'd say you don't handle yourself much like an Egyptian at all."

"I was loyal to the Petsuchos, not the pharaohs." He gave her a suspicious look. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to meet you. You know... get to know you better."

"I am busy at the moment."

"This is exactly why I want to talk to you", she responded confidently. "Whenever someone like me comes around, you always get testy. I think you're ashamed of your heritage."

"That's not true."

"Then why do you no longer wear your outfit?"

Galamoth opted for the honest answer. "It was lost in battle and never recovered."

"And before that?" She was getting hard to bluff.

"I am not one of the gods!" he shouted in an annoyed tone. "I do not wear clothes well, yet they left me, an outsider, to fill their absence! Why does everyone want me to act like one of them?"

She looked behind her. "I thought I saw Anubis around here once."

He paused for a moment. "I had not noticed his presence. I'm not certain that Thanatos would want the competition, anyway."

She shook her head. "Typical survivor of the times. The Europeans take over and suddenly you prefer their ways of doing everything. The nudity, the battle, Thanatos... you know, even Crocodilopolis is the Greek word for the city."

Galamoth was getting very worried. Was this a trap? If he kept responding in this manner, she might back him into a corner.

He changed his tactic entirely. "To be honest, I do not even speak Egyptian. I never took the opportunity to learn it."

This revelation of the partial truth seemed to soften her accusatory tone. "You had no problem learning the language here."

Now, he thought, he had a chance to control the conversation. "When crossing the desert, there were few creatures of my stature with which to speak. Hell, though, is a social place. I could not accomplish anything without taking the time to learn first.

"I suspect you are correct. I was not much of an Egyptian. Even today, I think of myself more as a demon than as the Petsuchos bearer." He looked down at his feet. "You must hate me."

Unfortunately, she didn't. She calmly walked up to him, changing the tone of her voice to one more soothing. "No. I don't hate you. But I can help you. Stay with me. I will remind you what it was like... back in the days... when we were proud."

He took a step away. "I shouldn't. I am busy..."

And she started singing. The song was simultaneously alluring and alien to him, and he realized that, having researched the culture solely with texts, he could not have possibly gained any kind of experience with Egyptian music. It was indeed beautiful. And so was she...

This had to stop.

"I have had enough of you, temptress! I do not consider myself an Egyptian! I only shared their land and their fate! Do not bother me again!" And he stormed out of the library.

The biggest problem with Astarte, he considered, was that she didn't even realize that what she was doing was wrong. In her attempts to get on his good side, she was simultaneously threatening two of his most severe weaknesses.

Very well, he thought. If any woman was going to have that kind of control over him, he would choose the woman himself.

Rebecca was reading the Stoker novel when I entered our chamber.

I felt guilty about doing this as soon as I had made the decision. I had been worried that Astarte was testing me. And now I would be testing her and myself at the same time, solely for my own benefit.

The Wells novel had been placed to the side. She had apparently already finished it. This would help greatly.

He remembers the plot of the book. In short, a number of aliens from the nearby planet of Mars decided to travel to Earth, harvest the population, and steal the resources. The story was told from the perspective of the victims, and it detailed what psychological effects were the likely result of an alien invasion from outer space. Included were depictions of the draining of blood from victims and the sense of utter helplessness against a far superior threat.

At the time, he figured that he could pass it off as an analogy for the humans' perspective of the constant demon threat, but he knew full well that he had an ulterior motive for keeping that book.

He had given it, as well as the Dracula story, to Rebecca to read. He wanted to see if she appreciated the same nuances that he did.

"I have a very large favor to ask of you", I said.

She looked up at me. "You look tense."

"I just spoke with Astarte. Are you familiar with her?"

She nodded hesitantly. "I think she's shown us some of her magic before. Nice woman. A little self-absorbed, but...

I sat down before her. "I can't stand her. If I run into her again, there will be trouble."

"I didn't think she was that bad."

"I am serious." I gave her my best pleading expression. "I need you to do something for me, or there are going to be some major problems in the future."

She set down the book. "What do you need me to do?"

"I want you to try to love me."

She blinked. "I already love you. You know that. Why? Is she..."

"That's part of it. She was coming on to me, and... if she keeps trying, she might succeed."

I didn't like talking like this. It made me feel like I was somehow weak. Certainly, the other demons would scoff at the idea of a thirty-foot-tall demon who was afraid of being unfaithful to his human mate. Perhaps if they had bothered to get to know the witches at some point...

She eyed me suspiciously. "This bothers you. Are you afraid that you don't love me?"

"I know I do. I meant... I think we should try to actually make love."

Her eyes widened immediately, and she started blushing. "What? How would that even work?"

"I am still not sure", I said hesitantly. "All I know is that, if I'm going to be seduced by anyone here, I want it to be you."

She gave me a strange look, and then shrugged. "Okay. What do you want me to do?"

I sat upon the floor and once again adopted the leg-spread position from my two earlier encounters with the succubi. "There's supposed to be something inside that you need to stimulate first."

She was still staring at me. "What's that?"

I looked down. "It's a cloaca." Her expression was still blank, so I elaborated. "The other reptiles also have them. They are used for waste disposal and reproduction, serving the combined purposes of a mammal's..."

She was already starting to walk away from me. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"This... the whole thing is wrong. I can't do this. I'm sorry. I can't."

"Please stop", I pleaded. "If you don't want to do this, we won't. I just thought... I wanted to find out if I could."

"If you could?" she asked. "I haven't even had sex with a human, let alone..."

"I haven't, either. And I've tried. The succubi were attractive, and yet... I don't know! For some reason, I actually feel like it could work with you. I know I've felt stronger feelings for you than any of the others..."

She sighed audibly. I knew what she was going to say next, so I decided to admit it first. "...and I know it's not that, because I don't feel anything around any of the other male demons..."

I probably should have phrased that in a less blunt manner, because she was staring at me, gaping. "You knew?"

I nodded. "You lost your robe after you fought Alucard. I think a few of the others have known for a long time..."

"Why didn't you say something?" She seemed almost angry now.

I gazed evenly at her. "Because I didn't think it mattered. If I'd felt any different about you after I found out, I might have let you know. It's never come up before today, has it?"

She looked at me thoughtfully. "What do you mean, it doesn't matter? You were the one asking about..."

I started to lose my patience. "You are right! I shouldn't have done that! If I was a human, maybe! I'm sorry I brought it up! I thought we might be in love!"

She paused briefly, and then continued in a calm voice. "I didn't say we weren't. It's just... well... I'm not used to the idea of actually following up on it. It's kinda weird, you know..."

"It feels the same way to me as well! But for me, weird is the only option! I cannot simply go home and find a woman of my own kind to mate with!"

And there was the cold breeze again. I sighed. Other demons probably didn't end all of their heated arguments with low-level magic and a few calm words.

She walked back to my side and rested her hand on my leg. "I do love you. And maybe you're right about this. But if you are, we can't just rush into this. We need to build up to it, make sure we're comfortable with it, and then..." she looked at me in a confused manner, "what do you mean, your own kind?"

At that moment, I was wishing she had cast that spell a few sentences earlier. I had said that, hadn't I? I thought for a moment, and decided that I had little reason to not tell her. It was only fair. Her secret was revealed. I wanted to be convinced that she did love me, no matter what. And I wouldn't have even started this conversation if not for Astarte...

"Do you remember the book that I gave you?"

"On Dracula? I'm not that far into it."

"No. The other one."

"War of the Worlds? I finished that. It's kinda depressing, and the ending came out of nowhere. I'm not sure I like science fiction."

Depressing, I thought. I was starting to have second thoughts. "Well... I should tell you, but I don't know if you want me to build up to it or not."

She looked at me, then looked at the book that she had placed on the floor beside her. Then again at me, this time uneasily. "Are you saying..."

"The book is a work of fiction. There are no creatures on Mars that have any intention of attacking the Earth. But I happen to know that there are worlds other than this one where other civilizations exist, and some of them are indeed hostile to less developed worlds. And I know this because I came from one of them. I am an alien."

She didn't say anything. I couldn't bear to look at her.

"This is the first book I've read to ever propose the very notion of what I am. And it was written less than 20 years ago. I do not think the other demons would have responded well if I had told them the truth back in the 15th century. So I told them that I was from Egypt, so that they would stop asking."

She spoke again. "...they might have accepted you."

"I can't be sure of that."

"I understand what you were thinking, but I don't think anyone would have been offended by the truth. It's not all that different from telling humans that you're a demon."

I looked at her in surprise. "Really? Have you done that?"

"A few times. Usually to people who treat me nicely."

I frowned. "They used to kill you for that, didn't they?"

"Not the ones that cared about you."

She was never persecuted for being a witch. I sincerely hoped that she was being realistic instead of optimistic.

"Still, that's not the worst part."

She sighed. "I'm not sure it's a good idea to build up to these things. Just tell me what's bothering you."

I chose my words carefully. "The humans hate Dracula, and rightfully so. Even I have trouble tolerating this war of his. So it may be hard for you to believe that there was once a time, almost 500 years ago, when he and his son actually saved humanity from their demise."

"Why do you bring this up? And how do you..." She stopped suddenly. I remembered that I had already told her that I had waged a war against Alucard. She might have figured out the connection.

Still, I had to finish. "They stopped me that day. If they hadn't, I would have been exactly like the aliens in the book."

"You're not like them. You're nothing like them."

I closed my eyes. This was painful to admit. "I was. That was the very reason why I came to your planet. I would have eliminated everyone on the Earth to make room for the other members of my race."

Her voice was shaky. "...you would have?"

"Not necessarily with my own hand, but that was the intent back then." I smiled sadly. "I certainly wouldn't do it now."

She took a deep breath. She probably needed it. "Please tell me that was the last of your revelations."

I opened my eyes. "It was."

"Good. Because I don't like repeating myself. I don't care what you were like in the past. I care about what you are like now. And what I see today is a man who's worried about who he is and who wants me to know why. I see the same man who once said he'd do anything for me, and for whom I'd do just as much." She hesitated. "At least, if we work toward it patiently." She may have smirked.

"Rebecca..."

"I'm concerned about what you told me. Honestly, it scares the hell out of me. But that's because you're worried about it, and you act like you think it could change you. That's what I'm afraid of. That you'll think that it's who you were, and not who you are, that decides who you'll be."

I nodded. "I think you're right. I'll try not to dwell on it."

"You said something like that when I first met you. It doesn't matter what you did before you came here. What matters is what you will do now. Everything you've done here was for our good, and I trust you'll keep it up."

I considered this for a while. "I have been a demon far longer than I have been an alien, I suppose. If this is good enough for the others, it's good enough for me. I am a demon."

She smiled at this. I gave her a wry smile in return and continued. "And by the same logic, I will consider you a woman."

Galamoth sighs. Things had almost turned out perfectly. There was a small amount of unease, but that was normal.

While the two had stayed together through the end, he still remembers the day when they finally succeeded at making love. The two had just returned from a meeting of the spellcasters, he noted that he was feeling in the right kind of mood, she had tried again, and this time, it worked.

At least, it worked as well as it could have. It is hard to copulate when your phallus is more than half the length of your partner, he considers. They had to improvise.

He once again looks around the room and considers the properties of hell. It has always been hot and dry, and he has grown used to it, and it isn't unreasonable for him, considering that he grew up in a desert. What he had failed to remember, though, is that the desert tends to get very cold in the evening.

He decides not to write this part down, for three reasons. First, some aspects of his life just don't need to be detailed in full for the other demons. Second, the whole experience had left him feeling rather shallow. It was not very reassuring to learn that the original reason why he fell in love with his chosen mate was because she was capable of lowering his body temperature.

And third... he can never have those days back. She is gone.

Without another word, he sets the paper down and heads to the surface to watch the events progress.