"So what happened then?" Dracula asked, clasping his hands together and leaning forward.
"Alucard took us to his sanctuary," D replied.
"Using the amulet?"
D nodded.
"Good, good. He's learning how to use it," Dracula observed.
"Why is that good?" Fairy dared to ask.
Dracula turned his head to look at her. Fairy uttered a small cry and hid behind D's shoulder again.
Dracula kept his voice mild as he answered her question. "Alucard is going to have to use every tool at his disposal to beat eeD."
"You know about that?" D asked.
"Yes. Carmilla never knew when to quit," Dracula seemed disgusted. "But continue with your story, D. What is Alucard's sanctuary like?"
********
"Alucard!"
Startled by the overly teasing tone, Alucard looked up. D was...grinning at him. He blinked. D was still grinning.
"Uhm...yes?"
"Come on...a coffin?!" D pointed. "You actually sleep in a coffin?!"
"Well, it is a sleep like death," Alucard began defensively. D raised an eyebrow.
"It's...comfortable. I'm locked away from the world until it needs me. If people were to find and enter my sanctuary, they would have to be pretty bold to actually open it and wake me."
D's smile faded as he understood.
"A last line of defense. But are you defending the world from your tainted blood...or yourself from the world?"
"Stop being so insightful!" Alucard grumbled. "This is serious! We have to talk."
"So, talk."
"Castlevania is different each time. Some elements remain the same, Father is always the last major monster you must defeat, but the layout of the castle changes and the challenges change too. Sometimes it's like a giant puzzle that must be solved, other times it's just endless fighting."
"'Endless'?"
"With what I've learned chasing eeD, and using Father's amulet to do it, I suspect that Dracula draws monsters from other dimensions to the castle. The only sure way to protect the people around it is to fight through until you find Father's chamber and defeat him. Once you do that, Castlevania sinks into the ground again, and everyone is safe for another 100 years."
"It seems simple enough," D noted.
"D. I want you to have this, on loan until you solve the castle," Alucard handed D a card. D glanced down and recognized Fairy's familiar card. His eyes widened slightly.
"She's been there before, so she should be able to help you. I discussed it with her and she doesn't mind following your orders. It's a handicap for you that you don't have other forms. I'm hoping that Fairy's knowledge will help outweigh that so you can solve the castle."
"I will take care of her," D promised.
"I know," Alucard replied simply. "Now, as far as bosses..."
"Bosses?"
"I heard the term somewhere once, and it stuck. Say when you enter, the first chamber has waves after waves of zombies. You'll have to fight through them to get to the door on other side of the room. The next room might be full of specters. You'll fight through several chambers filled with undead things and then have to fight a powerful undead to get at the next door or find the key you need or something else to be able to advance. That powerful undead might be a demon specter, or perhaps the soul of an evil mage. That would be the 'boss monster' and they are usually powerful or difficult fights. Unfortunately, you have to fight them or you can't go further. The final boss is...Dracula."
"You really are an expert at this, aren't you?" D asked softly.
"Regrettably. I'd never ask you to do this, D, fight against father, if there were another way," Alucard told him seriously.
D thought about that.
"We will see what happens when I get to him," he finally replied.
Alucard nodded.
"You know I wouldn't trust anyone else with this."
D flicked a glance at him. Alucard grinned. "Right! Well, I should be going. The full moon tonight will raise Castlevania."
D nodded. "Good luck with eeD."
"Right. eeD." Alucard looked pensive. "Good luck with Father!"
********
"You two..." Dracula mused. D lifted an eyebrow. "Two peas in a pod! Cut from the same cloth!"
D just stared at his father, wondering how it was that he and Alucard were so much alike with each other and yet so fundamentally different from their father.
"So...what does it look like, when Castlevania rises? I've never seen it..." Dracula asked curiously.
D smiled slightly. "Oh, you would like it. All mist in the moonlight, foreboding, end of the world as we know it theatrical. Just like you. One feels there should be a symphony playing a dirge in the night when the castle rises from the ground."
Dracula clapped his hands like a delighted child.
"For you to wax so poetic about it, it must be something to see! One of these times I will definitely have to see it somehow!"
D lifted an eyebrow again. Dracula was assuming he'd win their fight. Dracula just smirked.
********
"Let's go home, D!" Left Hand suggested.
D glared at Left Hand.
"Come on...look at that place!" Left Hand turned slightly to point toward Castlevania. Massive stone grey walls, seemingly pulled from the deepest earth, reached taloned turrets into the air as if the castle itself were seeking to rip the moon from the sky. "We haven't even gone inside and that place scares the piss right outta me!"
D frowned at Left Hand's explicitly grotesque image.
"We're going in," he said. They did.
********
The first chamber did have wave after wave of monsters, just as Alucard said it might, but they weren't zombies. They were rats.
Not just any rats, huge scaly mutant rats. They hissed in anger at D's intrusion. A wave of angry, saber-fanged vermin rolled toward him.
Left Hand took in a deep breath.
"Don't complain. We're not leaving, so stifle it," D advised as he slashed through the lead rat.
"I wasn't going to complain," Left Hand protested. "For you information, I was going to scream," Left Hand informed him with stiff dignity.
"I know! I'll count instead!" Left Hand decided brightly.
"So...how many?" D asked, almost gasping, a little while later. He had managed to fight through to the door on the other side of the room.
"Two hundred and eighty-nine!" Left Hand applauded.
D looked toward the closed door. "And who knows how many more monsters until we find Dracula."
"Only Father would come up with something this twisted," D muttered. His hand tightened on the hilt of his sword. "All right. Let's go."
-------------
Author's notes - I'm sorry this chapter
is so short. Someone needs to get Left Hand to stop rattling around
in my head! It's not enough that I'm writing a story with him and
D, he demanded to have his own story too, so I had to pause this story
to write Sinister. He's just so annoying!
On the plus side, the real sequel to Insult is finally gelling in my mind. Too bad (for me) it's grown into epic proportions. I do have to finish three other (non-VHD) stories here on ff.net though before I can really start writing it. The outline is coming along nicely though.
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde@stargarde.com