Chapter 2: Call to Action

Disclaimer: I do not own Castlevania or any of the characters associated with Castlevania. Please review.

The curtains of the room where pushed back to reveal the luscious body of the woman he loved, still resting in her slumber as he brought the light of the torch to reveal all of what his love looked like. Her skin was a bit wrinkled by the starvation that she was undergoing as the price of not eating, but she still looked so beautiful to him, like a statue of some otherworldly goddess, but she was as real as the pale moon light which shined so brightly on her face. She would rise again, to be able to bask in the glow of the moonlight and for him to further ignite the flames of love that burned between them. It could burn them both if they weren't careful, but he wasn't paying attention to that, he was more concerned about getting her back. Every second she wasn't awake was a moment of agony for him since he never slept and would have to spend waking moments without her, but she would rise at the same time to talk to him, to read with him, to help him understand himself.

"What are you doing here," demanded Leto as he pointed towards the ord above the statue of the great serpent, Envy. "The attack started some time ago, what are you still doing here?"

"It will be a simple second for me to get to that village, all I need do is summon a portal and I'm there," replied Iscariot with a simple shrug before he opened a portal and waved as he walked through it.

Simon Belmont thought he had finished seeing skeletons or werewolves or any of the monsters of Dracula's castle, or at least he wouldn't have to see them for a while, but right now they were all attacking the village. Quickly, he raced to the inn that he was staying at and retrieved his trusty Vampire Killer and sword, before running back out to help the villagers with their problem. Stepping into the market square, Simon lashed his whip out at a werewolf, hitting it straight in it's chest as it gave a howl and gray as it fell to the ground wounded. Before he could finish it off, a man got in front of the werewolf to hold off Simon from finishing it off with another crack of his whip and he saw the man remove his hood to reveal wolf like eyes.

"Please we mean no harm sir, we just came here because we are honored bound to help," said the werewolf as he took out a crest to show his allegiance to two families, one being the Belmont family crest and the other being the Tepes family crest.

The only time they were both forged on the same crest was when it was a creature that had allied himself with Trevor Belmont and Alucard during the time of the alliance of the four, the four greats who defeated Dracula during the fifteenth century. Most of the werewolves had stayed on Dracula's side seeing as how they had been persecuted because of their traits, but there were some who sided with Alucard in hopes of gaining some redemption from their dark fates. The order had gone into hiding due to their unpopularity with other werewolf clans and had long since been believed to be extinct, but apparently they weren't. Of course, Simon did have his doubts about the man before him, but they were all silenced when he saw the werewolves running around and killing the other creatures that were causing trouble in his town.

"What is your name," asked Simon as he held his hand out towards the werewolf and the werewolf took it in his own strong grip.

"My name is Taven Schneider, I've been sent by Lord Alucard to inform you of his presence," replied the werewolf as he pointed towards the werewolf lying on the ground. "The one you nearly killed was my brother and I'm glad you didn't kill him, but I'm afraid he won't be able to get into the fight."

"I am deeply sorry for that," said Simon, who was embarrassed by having nearly killed one of his stronger allies than most of the vampire hunters in Transylvania. "You must understand that I have fought other werewolves in my fights against Dracula, and when I saw him running around, I thought he was one of them."

"Oh it is quite understandable, Lord Belmont, and we hold no offense towards you," declared Taven as he helped his brother to his feet and carried him off. "Lord Alucard will meet you later, but for now he is tending to some other matters in the other villages close to Castlevania."

"The Alucard," asked Simon, astonished that the Dhampire would be alive after all these years, but then again, he reminded himself, that Alucard contained the blood of a vampire as well as a human and would never age.

"Yes sir, the very same Alucard who helped Trevor Belmont all those years ago," replied Taven before going off again to help his brother.

Simon ran off to help the defenders of the village fight off the many earth demons from summoning up tremors in the earth and used his whip to snatch one out of the air. With a flick of his wrist, Simon flung the demon towards his other dark brethren and didn't stop to watch the demon implode in flames, as he was busy dealing with a pair of skeletons. Both skeletons wore leather armor and were armed with scimitars as they further attacked some of the villagers, but their movements were far from graceful as they often tripped over their own feet. It took all of thirty seconds to turn them into dust and then he was back to looking for whatever nightmare that still lay about. Overall it was easy to fight these creatures after having taken on Dracula twice, but all of the fighting had made him weary and there were so many of them, piling on top of each other with no end in sight. This would have to be the work of a vampire summoning them from somewhere, thought Simon as he looked around to see where said vampire was. He didn't have to look far, for standing on top of a gargoyle statue was a figure dressed in black with long, pointed ears and all the features of a rat. Its fingers were long and pointed into was looked like claws, without a doubt it was the vampire he was looking for.

Taking out his golden dagger, Simon flung the weapon right at the vampire, only to have it deflected with a wave of its hand, but that didn't stop the Belmont from swinging on top of the roof via his whip and a pole. A hiss escaped the vampire's terrible rat like mouth that made it look hideous and it was a clear indication that it was one of the lower level Nosferatus, a failure who couldn't handle much of power and clung to the first powerful vampire who would take it in. Simon simply responded to the hiss by lashing his whip at its arm, hearing the sound of its arm breaking at the force of the whip and the Nosferatu jumped back and let out a weak fireball at him. Dracula's fireballs were much faster and more powerful than the pathetic camp fires that the Nosferatu threw at him so Simon dodged it easily while bringing his whip up to cut his leg off with his sword. With one final swing, the Nosferatu's head was left to roll off the roof and turn to dust before it ever hit the ground.

"Simon," cried Sonia as she fought another vampire to get to the man in black that had a small girl in his hands. "Help me! He's going to take Lydia away! Stop him!"

Reflexively, Simon leapt off the roof and rushed to fight the two axe armors that stood in his way, but they were already taken down by two werewolves who motioned for him to go on while they took care of the rest. Not wanting to debate this, Simon moved along until he was within two meters of the door to the house and he could see the short blond hair of the man as well as his eyes, his normal human eyes. Simon could never understand why anyone would want to serve a creature of evil like Dracula, but over time he came to see that Dracula was no more evil than the men who gave rise to him and that made him get a better understanding of Dracula and the humans who served him. It was not anger that Simon felt for the man, just an old cat's curiosity as to why him that he was working for Dracula, the question never answered as to why a man would sell his soul. Maybe it was the other way around, though, and the real question was why not, but such ideas were for another time and place.

"Let her go, cretin," commanded Simon as he stood in the doorway twirling above his head in his right hand, while leaving his sword in his left. "I will not allow you to take that girl for whatever purpose you have."

"Simon Belmont, odd that we are to meet now, but I suppose it must be fate," said the dark figure man as he put his hood back to show his full face that had pale skin and smoothed down into a round chin that wasn't chiseled, but still well formed. "We haven't been introduced, my name is Joshua Iscariot, devil forger, but it seems I am unemployed at the moment do to you killing my master, Count Dracula. My usefulness is in the making of weapons for my master, such as the sword that is by my side right now, but we have made other things with the use of devils."

"Why do you serve such a master," asked Simon as he looked the devil forger in his cold black eyes.

"My abilities make me an outcast to humans like you, my naïve friend," said Iscariot, chuckling slowly as he held out his hand to summon a small blue demon with butterfly wings. "I was given the choice of always being looked at like a monster and a freak or I could join Count Dracula and find a place where I could belong. Sure his ideas sometimes go against my conscience, but I would be able to tell it without being beaten. If I didn't agree with a decision then I could opt not to have anything to do with it. No one had ever shown me such kindness as Count Dracula had shown me."

"Is that why you wish to use that girl to raise him from the dead," asked Simon, a bit less hostile towards the devil forger.

"With this girl I plan to raise the woman I love from her sleep so that we can be reunited," replied Iscariot as he opened up a portal behind him. "Don't try to stop me, Belmont, because you would not succeed in tearing me from my love."

"Stop," commanded Simon as he rushed to the door, but it was too late as the devil forger was already gone. "I will hunt you down, Iscariot, and I will see that Lydia is free from your vile clutches."