Chapter six: The Forest

Disclaimer: I do not own Castlevania, but I freaking wish I did.

The trail left behind by the watcher was very easy to follow, enough that Alucard was feeling a bit uneasy about the matter, as if something was about that could hurt him, yet he decided it was best left for another time. His every step was one of caution as he slowly made his way to the camp that the watcher had apparently been sleeping at, but he planned for himself to take another precaution for going into the camp. The air was cold that night, not that it was unpleasant to Alucard. More so that Alucard enjoyed it all the better because it was someplace that someone of his blood could live and thrive, unlike the bothersome hot day that had some affect on Alucard. He was never as strong during the day as he was during the night when his body was basked in the awe inspiring power of the moon, especially when it was a full moon. It was just another layer to the complicated being that was Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, the son of the being thought to be the embodiment of evil. With one last look around him, Alucard stepped closer to the entrance of the camp and soon, a pair of boots were inside the camp.

Elizabeth Bartelby was a noble Draculina who lived in an old manor over the town of Janus, a small town located deep within Transylvania and as such had never been placed on a map because of how close it was to Castlevania. Her blood may have been noble, but she was described by one of the villagers as "bat shit" insane, which she did hear the comment, much to his later displeasure. At night she would bathe in the blood of young maidens, who were either snatched from the village or happened to be a poor unfortunate servant girl. To her, it was how she maintained her youthful appearance and how she ate during the evenings. She was related by a long blood bond to Vladmir Tepes, otherwise known as Dracula, which may have attributed to her families knowledge of black arts. Sometime during her sixteenth birthday and her sixteenth autumn, the villagers grew tired of her strange habits and rose up to overthrow her. Bound to help all of those related to his family and in order to expand his influence, Dracula gave her the dark gift, allowing her to put down the insurrection and kill all of the leaders of the rebels. It was by Dracula that she survived and now she was using her link with Dracula to fortify her holds in the lands surrounding Janus, especially from vampires coming to claim what Dracula had. After a decade of gathering power with the nosferatus of Germany, the low level vampires that looked like a mix of a spider and a rat, Elizabeth had managed to take over so much of the surrounding, larger, Murkwood town.

"And so why would you wish release such a loathsome creature into power to take over my father's castle," demanded Elizabeth of her guest, a devil forger dressed in black who had his hood down to show his auburn hair that seemed to contrast his pale skin. "Have you no loyalty for you old master, Iscariot?"

"No I have more loyalty that you could ever understand, for he was the one who took this worthless servant into his home," replied Iscariot as he bowed before her and waited for her blood lust to go down before he continued. "What Leto and I wish for is to have someone to protect the throne from those vultures that come in when they see that the old master is dead. You yourself know what happens to the castle and the throne of darkness when the master is killed. The last time this happened we had to kill of the offending vampire clan from trying to move in and your own power was threatened by that last clan war. The real problem was that we could all not completely organize ourselves due to central leadership and we need someone to sit upon that throne and continue Dracula's plans for humanity. All of those wishing to take the throne will go for him and not pay you any mind while you can use our own power to hold an influence over him. Despite his nature we could use him to our advantage, just like you have used so many with your own."

"I agree, it would be very useful to have him out," admitted the Draculina as she walked down the stairs and handed him a pendent. "This will lead you to the family, but you must watch Leto carefully since I have always found a bit of ambition him and such a move like this would be a perfect time for him to take the throne himself."

"He could never take the throne, even if he did have Mobius with him," laughed Iscariot as he got to his feet. "We would never allow it, not even the vampire hunters would allow a devil forger to have so much power."

"Still, I do not put it past him," warned Elizabeth as she looked into his eyes and then turned to walk towards her bath.

"I can't believe that you would fall for such a simple and obvious trick," said the lower level demon as he laughed at the son of Dracula who was bound by his binding spell. "I guess your father never advised you not to under estimate your enemies because you treated me as if I were some random lesser demon that they picked to do the spy work. I am a very crafty demon as I'm sure you're beginning to learn of right at this very moment."

"Actually I'm beginning to see that the only thing that exceeds your arrogance is your ability to chatter on about nothing in particular," replied Alucard as he smirked at the demon that had him tied up.

"Well it seems that your wit can't be contained by one binding spell, much to the displeasure of many I assume," laughed the demon as he mocked the dhampire hat was tied before him and then he was surprised to see the same dhampire disappear before him in a swarm of bats. "What? Impossible, I had him perfectly in my binding spell, the only way he could have done that was for him to not be there at all in the first place."

"So you aren't always stupid," said a familiar voice above him and in one of the trees stood Alucard, looking down on his prey with the smile of a ruler who had just tricked the enemy army into his trap and was now about to block off any chance of escape. "I figured I would have some of my familiars to assume a form similar to my own and if there was a trap then I would have you reveal your ace in the hole to me without having to suffer for it. Now then, we will resume this conversation, but this time on a different standing. Now then, where is the little girl?"

"You're still under estimating me," said the demon as he opened his cloak to let out a hail of spears to shoot out of his cloak and impale the dhampire to a tree. Upon a more thorough observation of the tree, it was observed that Alucard was not touched by any of the spears and the only thing that had come into contact with the tips of the spears was the cape that Alucard wore.

"You assume that I cannot simply do that or know every trick that you have," said Alucard as he swatted the demon away as if he were a fly and then brought his sword out and pressed the tip to the demon's throat. "You are not irreplaceable and if you die then another, more informed demon will take your place. Now tell me where is the girl before I have to bite into your neck for the answer."

"I was not informed of her whereabouts, I was only told to come after you," replied the frightened demon who had long since stopped laughing. "But if you spare my life I will tell you what Iscariot plans to do."

"Speak then, before I kill you here and now," commanded Alucard as he twisted the blade a bit to leave a small cut.

"Iscariot plans to learn of the family's location from your cousin, Elizabeth Bartley," said the demon quickly as he sighed when the blade was taken from his throat. "He will offer her a scapegoat for when someone wants to take the throne that Dracula left behind. The clan wars will be even greater now that old enemies have once again flourished, this is a storm worse than Dracula and many mortals will find death between all of this."

"Damn, it seems that I should have cut down more weeds when I was a child," said Alucard as he stood up and picked the spears out of his coat. Placing it on his head Alucard only said five words to the demon. "Get out of my sight."

"I would also worry about you Belmont ally," muttered the demon as he started crawling to his legs.

Sonia had already gone to sleep a few hours ago, but sleep seemed to allude Simon as he once again began to contemplate the situation of evil and where the great strength of evil was. If he looked at where it all stood, Dracula was apparently looked at as the immortal enemy of all good, the manifestation of evil that was supposed to unleash all of Hell's gates for one last great battle, but that hardly seemed like Dracula. It was after an hour of thinking that Simon came to the conclusion that Dracula was not the supreme evil being of the world, he was just a powerful creature that had pledged his allegiance to evil. True he wished the destruction of every human being on the face of the earth, but he could be redeemed to the light just as any human who did wicked things could come back to the all powerful redemption of the light. Sometimes he wondered if there was another way to help Dracula instead of defeating him at his every resurrection, but no other solution for Dracula seemed workable and so it would all end when Dracula wished it, strangely enough that in the end if Dracula decided he had grown tired.

"Such thing I suppose are only wishes that cannot be fulfilled," decided Simon as he stated to put out the fire when Vampire Killer began to stir, a vibration resonating as the response of a vampire coming nearby. "Come out, you have already been exposed by my sacred whip, Vampire Killer!"

"So it is true what they say about that whip," commented a vampire that belonged to a German clan known as Nosferatu, disfigured vampire who were more akin to the mating of a rat and a spider than a true vampire. "I have come to take your life, Simon Belmont."

The Nosferatu flew towards Simon, like a phantom in the night, with claws extended and his crooked misshapen fangs bared to the moon light. Simon, expecting it to make that move since Nosferatu's were known to possess none of the magic that real vampires have, lashed his whip at the creature, earning him a howl as the creature felt the blow on its shoulder. This did not stop the Nosferatu from coming at Simon, despite the damage done to it by Vampire Killer, but Simon was strong enough to grab the Nosferatu's arms and hold it so that it could not attack him. The pale moonlight hit its pure white flesh and only enhanced the horrid features of the creature, unlike when it was on other vampires. With his strength, Simon was able to keep the Nosferatu away from him with its sharp claws and hideous fangs that were like rat teeth snapping at the Belmont. Placing his foot into the stomach of the creature, Simon pushed it off with a great burst of strength that was unexpected of a human to possess, which may be why the Nosferatu was so easily caught off guard and before it realized it, the creature was flying into a tree. Moving fast, Simon jumped to his feet, turned and let fly a golden dagger that struck the Nosferatu square in the chest, causing it to burst into flames and turn to ash.