Chapter 12: The Family.

Disclaimer: I do not own Castlevania or any of the characters because if I did then I would be making a remake of Simon's Quest.

The land on which they landed was very cultivated, with soft rich soil that was nothing like the dead desolate soil of Transylvania, and there was a different since of living that was found in every other part of the world except those that had experienced the terror of Dracula. Apparently Simon was begging to get an idea of why someone would ever consider joining with Dracula, but he still didn't see what would make a man actually do it. As he helped Sonia out of the boat, he bade the ferryman farewell and waved at him as the boat departed from the land.

"Now then, I believe we were sent here to accomplish a specific task that we must meet," said Simon as he set off to find the main house where the family would live.

He was amazed to see that the town that had originally been established there was almost a ghost town, filled with empty stores that still had useful items there including food, which both Simon and Sonia had run out of yesterday and were without a means to eat because the only living things were the terrible creatures of Dracula. Setting a few gold pieces on the table to cover expenses, Simon Belmont went to the shop and took a few crops while Sonia went to work gathering eggs and chickens. After making a decent meal in one o the cooking areas of an abandoned inn, the two went off to check for a place filled with living people. It was a bit unsettling for Simon yet he was use to being in places where there were no humans. The only thing was, this place was supposed to have people in it that had been seeking sanctuary from them and now it was nothing but a shadow of its former self. As ominous as a howling of some godforsaken creature under a full moon, like father like son, like Dracula Tepes.

After walking farther into the town he felt the smell of something rotten and disgusting as he was soon beginning to feel a sense of dread in his stomach as he begin to wonder even more why there were no people. It was a very familiar smell of mass slaughter that he had often smelled in the room of Frankenstein's monster. The scent that Simon was smelling was all too similar to the scent of the dead bodies that were used to create the monstrosity, the leftovers more to speak. There was a slight tearing sound in the distance and Simon couldn't help but rush off to find the source of the sound. He soon came to see a pile of corpses, all members of the town who were slaughtered and some of them were women and children, but most of them were torn so that a person couldn't distinguish man from female, child from adult and it all seemed to come down on Sonia the most who had never witnessed such a massacre. Simon had though, he served in armies sometimes and experienced firsthand, the atrocities of war. He walked around the piles of bodies and couldn't help but feel like he was going throw up, yet he didn't throw up, he just made a slight chocking sound and then walked past all of it to the thing that was making the tearing sound. He found that it was a grumbling were-panther tearing into a woman who looked like a teacher while she was trying to protect the surviving children.

It didn't take long for Simon to destroy it, the leather went cracking into the monster's back and it howled in pain as it was cut through by the powerful leather weapon and the he tossed a dagger at the head of a skeleton and heard its skull crack, but he already had his back turned to the skeleton as he swung his whip, causing all its other buddies to crack into a fine white powder. Sonia was also going to work as she used her sword to cut into the monsters and found that there were a lot more coming their way. Simon rushed out to meet them as he threw dagger after dagger until it looked like he was going to run out, but he soon found that it was only the beginning as other monsters were being torn apart by powerful cuts of a spear. He turned to see Sonia fighting alongside him as she spun her spear above her head and brought it down on the head of one of the advancing devils. She gave him a smile as the two continued to fight the army of Darkness, whip, spear, and sword flying through the air until most of the army was reduced to nothing and the two were weak and tired.

"It's alright kids you can come out now," said Sonia in a sweet voice and she watched as ten small children walked out of the shed that they were hiding in and they all rushed to hug and thank their saviors.

"It's him, Simon Belmont, the one that father was talking about," cheered one of the kids as he hugged Simon's knee. He was very young, about six, with a shock of course black hair that made him look like some kind of wild child, but he was well dressed like a young noble.

"And just who might you be," asked Simon Belmont as he looked down and then noticed that there was something about the kid that he felt would later make him a great vampire huinter.

"My name is Robert Lecarde, and I was hiding with my friends Alan Graves and Frederick Kirshner. "Thank you Lord Belmont, I'm sure my father will reward you wants he gets done fighting the man in black."

"The man in black," asked Simon quizzically and then a sudden realization came to him. "You wouldn't happen to mean a man named Iscariot would you?"

"Yes that's the very same man ….he came here and… he started summoning monsters to kill people," replied the boy, but he seemed to falter in his speech at the last moment out of the pain of the memories. "We were the only ones left, all ten of us and our teacher, but the monsters were closing in and our teacher stepped in front of them to make sure they didn't get me. I didn't want her to die if I could have stopped the killing by giving myself up, but she wouldn't let me go to them, instead she stood in the doorway so the monster hurt her and then it hurt her again and again. I was so frightened that the same thing would happen to my friends when you came and saved us. The Lecarde family will always be in your debt sir."

"I have no concern with collecting debts for saving people, I am only concerned in stopping the forces of evil," said Simon as he walked in the direction of the biggest house in the town. He could hear the sound of metal on metal inside the house so he rushed to the inside and was surprised to find axw armors guarding the door to the mansion. He jumped over one of the axes and cracked his whip down on the helmet of one of the axe armors with enough strength to split it in two. After he had defeated the first one, he immediately didn't feel like dealing with the other one so he threw daggers into its armor until it could barely move and burst right through the door. Immediately it stirred a bunch of bats that flew at Simon, but he managed to destroy most of them with his whip. The only problem was that there was no man in black, just a man with long blond hair lying on the ground with a wounded arm and a spear in one hand. "You must be the master of the Lecarde manor?"

"I know what you come for Simon Belmont, but I am afraid you are too late," replied the Lecarde. "He has already taken it."

Finally I have reached this town, thought Iscariot as he set foot into the town, but then he started to notice how there were very few people, it was like a ghost town.