Chapter 14: Enter the Castle

Disclaimer: I do not own Castlevania nor do I own the characters.

Simon looked at the all familiar sight that used to fill his nightmares before and were certainly none the welcoming as he looked at them now, just maybe a little less terrifying than before he defeated Dracula. Castlevania, what use to be the property of one Walter Nernhard, it was now the manor of Count Vladmir Dracula Tepes, the terror of Transylvania whose name alone could make the blood run cold and children to run crying to their mothers. He was the haunt of a child's nightmare come to life by the manifestation of the evil in men's hearts and his demonic castle thrived on that evil like a leech to the darkness, the same darkness that gave it birth. Evil breeds evil and yet it was because of the actions of Mathias, the knight that became Dracula, that the Belmonts now had a weapon to use against the monstrosities of the night so in a way, Evil bred good. The lines were never solid in Simon's opinion and he saw that both the darkness and the light were possible, Castlevania was a fine example. It is a sight that both awes and terrifies the mortal soul at its majestic beauty in architecture and passages that change so that one person would never stay in the same castle at night, but at the same time it was the symbol of an evil that would destroy the world with its poison. A subtle killer was Castlevania. Simon only hoped that this subtle killer wouldn't be his own killer.

"Come on, we shouldn't waste precious time," said Simon as he started to traveled up to the castle gates with Sonia and Alucard following him, the crows singing their song above his head. "This castle may have changed since the last time that I came here, but I believe that it should generally take the form of the last castle summoned."

"No, the two are wielding Castlevania and now there will be two parts to the castle," said Alucard as he stood over a ledge near the plain steps that led to the drawbridge of the castle. As if expecting them to come, the drawbridge started to close up so as not to let them in. "Come we must cross it before it is too late!"

Simon dashed off the ledge and up the steps as his boots began to pick up on the wood of the drawbridge which seemed to push back. It was surely a malevolent will that meant to push him off the bridge and into the moat that would surely hold monsters that would swallow him whole. He looked over his left shoulder to see that Sonia was following him, but he could not see the dhampire behind her and began to distress that their greatest ally had somehow gotten left behind. Reversing his direction he quickly gave Sonia a little push to send her forward into the correct direction before he went down the stairs to see Alucard dueling it out with a large metal armor come to life and now swinging a rather large curved blade. Without hesitation, he brought out Vampire Killer and sent it cracking down onto the helm of the large piece of possessed armor, which did damage to it yet it was still able to function. The blade swing in an arc at the Belmont, who just managed to dodge the blade that was soon embedded into the ground and stone of the steps. Alucard helped his friend by sending out a pair of fireballs to crash into its armor on the back, exposing a dark orb that was undoubtedly an evil spirit given a form to control for its creator's dark will.

Unfortunately for the dhampire, the armor turned at the attack of the fireballs and managed to pull its blade out of the ground ready to swing again, which it did with a terrifying burst of speed. The dhampire was able to avoid this attack, but Alucard could see that the drawbridge was high in the air and he doubted that Simon could get over it. Thankfully, by the will of God himself, Simon was a very resourceful warrior and taunted the armor to come nearer to him, enraging the spirit so that it would not tell that he was coming closer to it. Of course, the armor being very large, it was clumsier at close range and Simon was able to ue the armor as a jumping platform for the drawbridge while throwing a vial of holy water onto the orb that destroyed the evil spirit inside. The explosion shot Simon out towards the drawbridge and he was able to catch the top and pull himself over it while Alucard took the form of a bat and flew over the gate.

"Well it seems that he was able to get over the first of your little tricks, Leto," said Iscariot as he looked out the window of the master tower to see the Belmont successfully climb over the drawbridge. A grin spread across his face at this. "I guess he has greater skills than you give him credit for, despite having defeated Dracula twice."

"Be quiet Iscariot, unless you have something productive to say," spat Leto as he paced around the room and looked at the map of the castle. "He still has to find his way through this castle and I will not make it easy for him nor his other friends, but right now we have another pest to worry about, my friend."

"You mean we have to worry about the fact that our old superior, Death, does not like what we have done and will do," asked Iscariot in a manner that made it sound more like a statement than a question, much to the annoyance of Leto.

"Yes that is what I mean, he does not have any vision in his being," said Leto venomously as he continued to silently rage against his mounting problems and the taunting of his friend, who seemed to be more antagonistic ever since he took the appearance of Iscariot. He could realize that I have no intention of giving him power or he must have. "Anyway, now we have Carmilla to raise the castle once more and we will soon have all of our guests up and ready to give Belmont a warm welcome."

"Fine then, I will go with Carmilla to my part of the castle and wait for him there," said Iscariot as he walked up the stairs leading to the tower of the east wing, his own wing. "I believe that Death is in your wing so he is your problem."

"He will leave and Belmont will die before he reaches your tower," said Leto not bothering to look over at his friend because he wanted to hide the insecurity that was surely on his face. The time is not right yet, but that idiot will most definitely keep Belmont busy enough for me to resurrect Mobius and then I will use Mobius to gain the dark gift and Castlevania all at once. Nothing can stop my rise power, not even Iscariot.

After they had crossed the gate, Simon and his allies weren't surprised to see lowly skeletons in the empty spaced between the front gate and the main doors of the castle. Each skeleton was an exact carbon copy of the other, only being different in height and length, plus a few had cracks in random area of their skulls. They were the remains of those who had failed to cross that space and were now doomed to wander around this area until Dracula gave them leave to finally rest in peace, but the time would had been delayed longer if a less merciful man had come. Mercy was what Simon had brought with him and this mercy was Vampire Killer crashing down onto their bones and they were destroyed into a fine white powder. To accomplish the task in a relatively short amount of time, Simon moved his whip randomly, hitting any and every skeleton that he crossed paths with until he was finally on the other side of the space. He stopped for a few minutes to wipe the dust and powder off of his whip before returning to his path to the inside of the main doors, where he was greeted by the sight of bats.

They fluttered above his head threateningly, but he was not in the least bit intimidated by the low level vampires and walked on, using his sword to hack at a few that got close while his companions did the same. It was a repetitive task, but a necessary one for this was only pestilence, which left three other horsemen to deal with. Most of the bats were burnt by Alucard's fireballs or were cut in half by Simon and Sonia's swords. The rest fled into the night since they were not bound by any loyalty towards the devil forges, the only loyalty being to the true master of the castle, they just served their posts out of reflex.

After passing through the main door of the castle, the group started at the bottom of the castle in the catacombs of Castlevania that was now the first thing that a person would walk through at the bottom of the castle. It was a cold and dark maze of corridors and ledges made from the bones of the dead that were twisted and deformed to fit the décor of the castle. The haunting dim lights of the torches of the wall did little to stifle the chill that the trio felt crawling up their spines as their boots softly crunched against the bones of the floor. The air reeked of the corpses of those who had come before and the vile smell of something so disgusting that Simon himself would not like to think on it. As he slid down the narrow and steep slopes, tearing and breaking the bones that lined the surface before he finally reached the bottom of the catacombs. On the other side of the bottom floor was a passageway that surely led to the next area of the castle, but before he could make his way there the floor started to shake. When it stopped its shaking, the floor then seemed to change form as the bones on the floor formed into singular entities, the common bone throwing skeleton. Simon let out a sigh of frustration at the many pests that seemed to be there to get in his way at every turned, regardless of how many he killed before.

"We shouldn't waste our time on such weaklings," said Alucard as he started forming a large fireball in his hand. "These are clearly meant to slow us down so I will create a gap for you and Sonia to slip through."

"And what of you," asked Simon as he pulled out a vial of holy water.

"I can get by these things most easily while you'll have trouble with that," said Alucard as he let his fireball loose, destroying a large portion of skeletons and, sure enough, leaving a large gap that Simon and Sonia could slip through easily. Alucard then followed behind them in the form of a bat.

When they had finally reached the other side they found themselves in a staircase of many platforms of white marble that was smooth as metal. It was a thing of beauty only marred by claw marks on the marble that left Simon wondering as to the nature of the creature that inhabited this area. The howl in the air told Simon that he would soon find out.