As Leon Belmont pumped his wings, easily lifting himself into the air above them, Soma's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Oh, hell no!"
"Leon, you have wings?" Dracula cried in outrage.
Soma turned to the lord of the night as if he were stupid. "What does it look like?"
"Why didn't you use them when you fought against me?" The vampire lord demanded.
"Please," Leon spread his hands out to his side with a small shrug. "I've been teaching my descendants how to fight against you for centuries. It's kind of what I do. I knew I wouldn't need them."
Meanwhile, Joachim stood up and folded his arms, gazing shrewdly at his old friend. "Leon, since when do you fly?"
"Since my angelic transformation a thousand years ago, I've had the ability," Leon answered, simultaneously pulling forth the Vampire Killer in preparation.
"Wouldn't that have been useful before, like… oh… when you fell in the pit earlier? Or when you fought against Soma? Oh, what about the time you paid $1500 to fly to France?" the vampire pressed skeptically.
"Yes, it would have," the Belmont admitted, then hardened his gaze. "Now, are you all ready for round two?"
Isaac grinned, "Looks like it's time to pull out the big guns."
"Amen!" Soma, infused by the power of the church they were standing in, pulled out a RPG and fired it straight into Leon's chest.
The angel was thrown backwards in an explosion of dark smoke. He recovered just in time to see a pew hurled into his face, sending him back into the stone wall with a heavy thud, the wood cracking and splintering around him, raining down on the ground below.
Dazed from the blows, Leon fell to the ground with the remains of the pew, rising to his knees just in time to see Isaac pick up another pew, spin it around in a circle twice (almost hitting Alucard in the process), and hurl it his way. The Belmont's eyes widened and he quickly rolled out of the way.
Below him, the ground began to quake with heat and take on familiar circular patterns. Recalling this attack just in time, Leon double jumped in the air. Though he managed to avoid the worst of it, the tips of gold-rimmed stone blades caught his leg, drawing blood.
"Such a waste of perfectly good blood," Joachim sighed wistfully, lowering his hand and commanding the golden blades to fall back into the ground.
Leon wasn't about to be set back by this, in fact, he gave his old friend a grin. "Impressive, but next time the blood spilt will be yours."
Incensed by the comment, Joachim called forth a sphere of light in his hands. "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that."
Alucard, sensing the vampire's intentions, caught his eye. With a nod, the half-vampire flew forward, the blade of his sword colliding with Leon's whip. For several seconds, they matched each other swing for swing in a blur of movement.
Steadily, however, Alucard pushed Leon back further until he finally stood within range. Without warning, Joachim tossed the sphere behind Leon, commanding it to spew fire in devastating waves.
Alucard's tux jacket brushed the edge of it, catching fire despite his quick reflexes. Once he was out of harm's way, the dhampire pat the flames out and shot an angry glare at Joachim. "A little warning may have been nice."
"Yeah," Joachim agreed.
Meanwhile, Leon had taken flight higher above the others. "Wow, you're all doing really great!"
"Yeah, you're so fucking good at encouraging us!" Somehow, Soma felt like he was patronizing them. With a growl, he fired another RPG at the Belmont. "Do your worst!"
"As you wish," Leon quickly swooped down, dodging the rocket propelled grenade. "It seems like it's time for me to bring out my 'big guns' too."
Immediately, the air began to feel heavier. Dracula, having felt this very attack many times in the past, knew what was coming. A panicked look crossed his face as he noticed Alucard standing defensively yet completely unaware of what was to come. "Adrian!"
Desperately, he began running towards his son. "NOOOOO—!"
Alucard gave his father a quizzical look.
Dracula continued running, extending his hand forward. "—OOOOOOOO—!"
Alucard's expression slipped into one of mild annoyance.
Still, Dracula continued to dash to his son's aid. "—OOOOOOO!"
Alucard openly frowned at his father's antics.
Realizing that he may not have time to reach his son just by running, Dracula teleported next to him. "Leon is going to use a holy rain attack!" Desperately he threw his cape over his son.
Dracula's cape landed on top of Alucard's shield.
Alucard sighed, pulling his father underneath the Alucard shield.
Simultaneously, Leon shouted "Hydro Storm!"
A gentle holy water rain hit the top of the half-vampire's shield, which protected both himself and his father from harm.
Somewhere to their side, Joachim yelped and dove underneath a pew. Soma scowled at the water in annoyance. Isaac stood stoically unaffected.
"Father, what was that about?" Alucard sighed, stowing away his shield once the rain had stopped. "You're embarrassing me."
"You knew?" Dracula asked.
"The humidity in the air increased with the onset of the rainstorm," the dhampire explained scientifically. "It was only logical that Leon would infuse the water with a holy quality."
"Oh," the lord of the night said a little sheepishly, finding it a little difficult to meet Alucard's eye. "Sorry for embarrassing you."
"It's… ok," Alucard said tentatively, awkwardly shifting where he stood. "You didn't know."
"He was concerned," Leon explained gently, beaming from where he flew above them. "Oh, Mathias, I'm so happy that you've reconnected with your son!"
"It's Dracula," the lord of the night rolled his eyes. "And aren't you supposed to be fighting us?"
"Oh, quite right," Leon agreed, pulling out a bunch of knives from somewhere not described. "Blade Serpent!"
The knives naturally took the shape of a serpent, which roamed the room, nipping at them all playfully. Twice, the razor sharp scales of the serpent grazed Soma before it moved on to terrorize the others. Joachim lamented as his shirt continued to be horribly maimed and bloodied each time the wicked creature pierced him.
Alucard and Dracula attempted to fight the creature back to back, but Dracula's flames were no match for the metal. The half-vampire grunted, only barely able to keep the creature at bay.
"How are we gonna kill this thing?" Soma wailed from across the room.
"Easy." Isaac sledge-hammer tossed a pew at the serpent, breaking it into hundreds of tiny knives, which fell uselessly to the floor.
No sooner had the dangerous knife creature vanished, than they heard Leon's voice call forth the next monstrosity. "Axe Tornado!" the Belmont shouted.
"Oh shit," Soma snarled as tornadoes molded from axes materialized around the room.
Experts by now, the group began to double-jump out of harm's way. That is, until the terrible suction force of the cyclones began to take effect.
"Uaaaagh!" Alucard and Dracula both shouted as the nearest tornado caught them both into its devastation. While Dracula managed to teleport out of the whirlwind before he was too badly battered, Alucard had no such luck. Curling into a ball, he held the Alucard shield at his back, wincing as each blade cracked into the metal, and waited until the tornado flung him across the room and into the pipe organ.
The organ ceased playing its dramatic theatrical music and instead blared a dissonant chord, filling the room with an ominous sound.
The others experienced similarly painful trips, finding themselves badly cut and tossed into the relentless stone walls more than once. Just as it began to appear hopeless, the axe tornadoes faded away.
As if to mock them, Leon's voice filled the room with yet another magical command. "Judgement!" Leon cried, before holy fires appeared from the ceiling, raining down on them all.
Alucard hid behind his Alucard shield, Joachim underneath a pew, Dracula behind the Virgin Mary statue, and Isaac behind his fists. Soma peered out from behind his final guard soul shield and glared crossly up at Leon. "Why are you shouting out the names of all your attacks?"
"I wanted to give you fair warning," Leon explained, looking down sadly as the fires continued to rage on. "I can stop if you think it's too cheap…"
"No no, do carry on. It's much more entertaining this way," Joachim encouraged him from underneath a pew, noting with distaste the amount of dust this particular attack was kicking up. Thankfully, as a vampire, he didn't need to worry about little details like breathing.
Unfortunately, he did have to worry about being set on fire. Hidden underneath the pew, Joachim didn't see the devastating Judgment fire coming until it was too late.
Soma noted that lighting a vampire on holy fire was similar to catching a marshmallow on fire. It was at this point that he realized Leon was seriously trying to kill them, though he heard the Belmont's apology of "I'm terribly sorry, Joachim."
"UUAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH! LEON!" Despite Joachim's struggles and enraged cries of dismay, the blessed flames consumed him until with one last agonizing scream he burst into a flurry of purple dust in front of Soma.
"Ugh, that's three times now. He's going to be so angry with me," Leon lamented through the falling boulders of christened flames.
Soma sneezed.
Leon stopped his spell immediately, the holy fires ceasing to fall, and politely said, "Bless you."
Soma blinked, a little confused as he brought down his final guard shield. There was something he was supposed to say back…
Then, Leon lifted his hands again, this time pulling forth the holy crucifix that he had stowed away earlier. Its mere presence caused Dracula and Alucard to wince, but they did not seem nearly as affected as earlier. "Grand Cro—"
"Thank you," the pale haired youth said, a little disappointed that all of Alucard's harping on him over his manners had started to sink in.
The Belmont paused again. "You're welcome."
Alucard, who had previously been debating how they could possibly take down the angel, watched the interchange with steadily widening eyes. "That's it…"
"What's it?" Dracula asked, peeking out from behind the Virgin Mary statue.
"That's how we'll take him down." Confidently, Alucard began to stride towards Leon. "Everyone, follow me, and do as I do!"
Not waiting to see what the half-vampire had in store for him, the Belmont lifted his hands in the air again, calling a holy energy towards him once more. "Grand Cro—"
With great determination, Alucard marched forward and sneezed.
Again, Leon paused mid-prayer. "Bless you."
Taking the opportunity, he double jumped up to Leon's height and grasped his legs, bringing the angel to the ground. Leon back-handed Alucard with the cross, knocking the half-vampire away.
Holding the cross aloft, he determinedly spoke, "Grand Cro—"
"Thank you," Alucard uttered, bowing gracefully.
"You're welcome," Leon nodded politely, holding down his cross for just a moment.
The moment was long enough for Dracula to leap forward, singeing the Belmont with a flurry of hell fires. Sharply, he turned to his son, "I have to sneeze?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes," Alucard affirmed. "Leon will respond out of politeness, breaking his concentration and interfering with his spells."
"But I don't even breathe! How can I sneeze?" Dracula wailed.
"Like this." Isaac said, then inhaled deeply. "A-choo."
The force of Isaac's sneeze blew them all into the cold stone wall. A dazed looking Leon managed to peel himself off the wall and utter, "Bless you."
Resolutely, the angel pulled forth his cross again, muttering this time, "Grand Cro—"
"Thank you," Isaac said, calmly flying scissor heel hooking him to the ground.
"You're… welcome…" the Belmont grunted between strangled breaths as he attempted to get out of Isaac's perfect submission lock. "Grand… Cro—"
Dracula forced himself to breathe in and sneeze the air outward. "Achoo!"
"Bless… you…" Leon said, struggling to summon forth the holy energy to begin casting his spell again.
As the angel labored to pull forth the cross again, Dracula kicked it distastefully out of his hands. "Thank you," Dracula stated.
"You're… welcome…" When he reached for his whip, Soma pulled the weapon out of reach. "Sara…"
"Oh, don't call for me this time, Leon, this is your mess and you're gonna fucking clean it up!" Sara screeched from within the whip.
As usual, Leon could not hear his darling's words. When he reached for the whip, he was faced with the point of Alucard's sword.
"Give up, Leon," the half-vampire advised. "You have lost."
Realizing that Isaac did indeed have in him locked into submission, and that all of his weapons were out of reach, Leon finally caved in. "As you wish, I admit my defeat."
Bowing his head down, the Belmont's forehead touched the chilled floor. "Isaac, you don't have to trouble yourself with pinning me down. I promise that I won't struggle anymore."
Knowing that Leon's word was as good as a U.F.C. title match, the red-haired devil forger released his grip on the Belmont.
Though he sat up, Leon continued to bow his head in defeat. "You have won. I will resist no longer…"
Soma punched Leon in the face. "That's for the fucking axe tornados."
Seeing the lamenting man before him, Alucard sighed, putting away his blade. "Now that this has been settled, will you cease your foolishness and join us once again?"
A small bitter laugh escaped Leon's lips. "I can't… now that I am here, I am bound to my seal."
"Where is you seal?" Alucard persisted, looking around the room for any suspicious objects.
Leon pointed toward a wall on the far side of the room which housed an altar full of candles. "Walk through that wall."
Soma would have argued about the practicality of walking through a wall, but he had seen crazier things that very day. Pushing aside the candles, he followed the others through the stone wall.
Just beyond the illusory stones was a small room that contained little more than a wooden pedestal. Atop the pedestal sat a smooth flat stone with a familiar angelic engraving, carved in light blue and pulsing with holy goodness.
Tentatively, Dracula picked up the seal, sensing the connection that it had with the Belmont that had caused him so much misery.
"What should we do with it?" Soma asked dubiously.
"That's simple," the lord of the night stated, sweeping past them all as he walked through the wall and back before the defeated man. "Belmont…"
"Yes," Leon smiled grimly, seeing that his former companion held the very stone that could release him from his fate. "All you need to do is break that symbol, and I will cease to exist. You will likely never be troubled again by a Belmont."
"I find that highly unlikely," Dracula said with a grin. "Especially since I plan to build this into Castlevania again once I remodel."
"Mathias… why would you do that?" Leon asked, his clear blue eyes opening wide in bewilderment.
"Because… you were my best friend when my name was still Mathias." For once, Dracula ignored his mistake and instead offered Leon his hand. "Leon Belmont, join us. Together we will defeat the last angelic being and remodel Castlevania."
"Gladly, friend." Taking Dracula's hand, Leon stood up confidently again. "Besides, you have my seal, so I can't exactly say 'no' to you."
"Oh really? How convenient," Dracula mused, earning him a sour look from Leon. "Don't forget your whip, but if you would… leave that cross behind," the lord of the night scowled at the glowing crucifix. "It gives me a most horrible headache."
"Does this help?" The Belmont asked as he picked up both objects, placing the whip back at his hip and magically stowing away the cross again.
Dracula blinked, feeling the unpleasant burning in the back of his head vanish. "Actually, it does. What did you do?"
"I removed the holy charm," Leon explained sheepishly. "Sorry, I had to keep that on when we were fighting."
"That is no longer a problem, but this is," Alucard said, indicating towards the pile of purple dust that once was Joachim. "Are we planning to remedy this… situation?"
"Yes! Oh, goodness…" Realizing that he had forgotten about his old friend, Leon's eyes again widened as he dashed to the pile. "Joachim, I know you can hear me right now. I am sorry that I could not avoid this. You seem to have scattered all over the room, but I'll bring you back."
The group appeared a little leery as Leon summoned his axe tornadoes once again, causing Soma to raise his fist, but this time the tornadoes carefully avoided them as they pulled all of Joachim's ashes into one pile.
Leon's wings drew closer to him as he knelt next to the dust, pulling forth a gleaming golden apple from his travel bag. He began murmuring quietly in a language that Soma did not recognize but suspected might be Spanish.
It wasn't.
The angel's wings flared behind him magnificently as a brilliant white light filled the room. The Belmont pressed the golden life apple into the dust, and moments later the light faded away. In its place, Joachim laid renewed back to non-life along with his clothing. Everything was back to normal aside from one small detail.
"Leon! That's the third time!" Joachim shrieked, slapping the Belmont across the face as he gasped and sat up angrily. "And why is there snot in my hair?"
Soma looked away discreetly.
Discovering an even more important fact, the vampire's yelp of horror filled the room and echoed through the castle. "My hair! Leon, you burned away my coloring!" He agonized, grasping and pulling the slightly snot-filled pale silver strands.
"It was… washing out anyway?" Leon attempted weakly, knowing that sometimes this was enough to convince his delusional friend.
It was.
"Quite right, I'll show that brand a lesson. Next time I'm buying L'oreal," Joachim huffed confidently.
"Congratulations," Alucard said dryly, catching their attention. "Now if you don't mind, I would rather not stay in this room all day. I have never felt at ease in churches."
"Indeed," Dracula agreed, gazing at Leon's seal stone briefly before stowing it away. Looking up at the hanging crucifix, he scowled. "Leon, next time we're building your seal into a cemetery."
"I dislike cemeteries," Leon commented, looking distantly aside.
"Stop being a bitch and let's go," Joachim rolled his eyes and lead the way out.
Soma scowled jealously at Leon's magnificently sexy angel wings as they flapped into his head yet again outside the room of his seal. "Leon-Fucking-Belmont, I swear if you do that again…"
Leon looked apologetically over at Soma, "Oh, I'm sorry, I hadn't realized they were still out." The angel's face contorted momentarily, and as quickly as they appeared, his wings vanished away.
Dracula blinked, "You can do that?"
"Yeah," the Belmont affirmed.
Soma folded his arms angrily and looked away.
It wasn't long before the group reached the final door, though even Alucard appeared perplexed.
"It… should not look like this," the half-vampire said as he cautiously touched a gloved fingertip to the dark ebony door. Despite the angelic engravings, the massive door that loomed before them was saturated with a dark color, the holy markings pulsing a blood-red color not unlike that which adorned the demonic seals.
"Is it the wrong door?" Leon asked.
"No," Alucard said, completely confident in himself. "This gateway appears to have the angelic seal, but for some reason, it also has the attributes of the demonic seals. We would do well to be even more cautious with this foe than our others."
"Ok," Soma agreed, placing his hands on the door in an attempt to open it. When it refused to open for him, he frowned.
"You are no longer master of this castle, don't you remember?" Dracula smirked cruelly, then stepped forward, touching his hand to the door.
Again, the gateway refused to open.
"How can this be? I am the lord of the night and the ruler of this castle! I command that this door open to me!" His roars fell upon deaf ears.
"I wonder why it isn't responding…" Leon murmured, furrowing his eyebrows and touching a hand to his chin in thought.
"God DAMN it Leon! If you don't fucking man up and open this door I SWEAR I'll haunt your pussy-ass as long as you live!" Sara shrieked from with the whip.
Suddenly, Leon looked up, a strange feeling overcoming him. "Maybe…" He shook his head. "No, it isn't possible."
"No," Joachim agreed. "You couldn't possibly be that cool."
"I admit to knowing little about the angelic being behind this door," Alucard said, turning back to face the Belmont. "Leon, if you have an idea, let's hear it."
"I don't really have an idea… it's more of a feeling," Leon continued to murmur as he slowly walked up to the door. "Maybe I can open it?"
Hesitantly, he brought his hand up to the ebony stone and touched his fingertips to the cold surface. Immediately, the door radiated with a dark energy. Slowly, ominously, it slid open.
Soma stared incredulously at Leon. "I swear, if you even fucking think about fighting us again…"
Leon shook his head. "No, this is not my seal."
While the group stared uncertainly at each other, Isaac revved up his motorcycle. "You can wait out here if you want. I'll let you know when the boss is dead." With that, he blared into the dark room ahead.
"Yeah, what he said." Encouraged by Isaac's actions (and slightly envious that it wasn't him) Soma strode confidently into the room. Dracula and Alucard wasted no time entering, and after a moment's hesitation, even Joachim walked through.
"Why do I get the feeling that this is a terrible idea?" Leon whispered to himself at this point. Despite the chilling feeling gripping his very bones, he slowly strode through the door.
Once again, Leon found himself surrounded by pure darkness. An evil chuckle beside him caught his attention immediately. He knew that voice.
"At last…" the voice laughed tauntingly again as a familiar figure appeared through the darkness.
Leon's eyes widened. "No… it cannot be!"
"Leon Belmont, tonight I will kill you."
Who is that last angelic boss, I wonder? Any guesses? ^_^
Many thanks to my reviewers! Though I wouldn't stop writing for you anyway, you make me feel like this is all worthwhile. =)
Congrats to Wild Fantasy, SunLord 89, and Willowfur for correctly answering the trivia!
Chapter Trivia #11 Answer:
In this chapter, Alucard cautions the group about the dangers of former-ally bosses. How would he know about this?
Alucard has had experience fighting against former allies on a couple of occasions. If you get the "bad" ending of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, he fights Soma. Technically, you could also count his battles with Trevor, Syfa, Grant, Richter, Maria, and Dracula from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as former allies as well.
Chapter Trivia #12:
Leon uses several different magical attacks in this chapter; however, one of them is not actually in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Which of Leon's attacks is new to him? Review with your answer! =)