A/N: I know what you're thinking, and I sincerely apologize. Have the penultimate chapter of this story as consolation. It should've been longer, but I decided I would post at least something before wrapping this up. In case you need to re-read any of the previous chapters, feel free, I won't blame you. It has been a while. ^^;

"Ah." A subdued chortle escaped the vampire's gullet. "Ha-ha. How quaint. The wayward good half of me, I presume?"

Gabriel pursed his lips. "Yes," he uttered, brow dark. His eyes raced towards the supine body of the robed woman, and a brief quiver stiffened his muscles. Marie, winked in his mind, damn it all to the Abyss. This forfeiture... Marie, it was not worth it!

"I admit, I had expected the eventual intervention of the heavenly trumpeter. The whole ordeal, the motifs, the names of Michael, Raphael, and Uriel surfacing... But even I did not foresee the true identity of the herald. Me." A bitter crease curved the corners of Dracul's mouth down. "Angels deliver messages, don't they? Very well, I'm listening."

The archangel tore his heavy gaze away from the Justicar's bloodless corpse. "I've come to finish this, once and for all, brother. You know that." He tapped his metal-clad fingertips against the helmet. "For too long Heaven's Chosen have remained inert. We have fulfilled our obligation: we waited, we observed, we understood. Now... We rise to atone for our sins."

A wrinkle crossed the elder's brow. "Your sins, angel?"

"Yes." Gabriel nodded and whirled on his heels, refusing to gaze upon the desiccated cadaver. Even with his back turned, he could feel the crimson irises of his sibling trail his every movement. Tunnel beneath his skin. The angel's wings twitched in distaste.

"It's true," he pondered, eyes flickering. "I had my doubts about the Almighty's wisdom. Doubt had clouded my judgement, anger at the loss of my loved one had spurred me on. And Zobek's betrayal had simply ignited the fuming wick."

The archangel took a deep breath. "I had allowed for this heartache and rage to fester. When the time had arrived and I answered the call, that unrestrained fury had burst out my body, and ripened into a wight, into the pestilence which would ravage the land for innumerable years to come. My own diabolic doppelganger would reap this whirlwind of death."

Gabriel glanced at his glowering twin. "My fault. It was my fault. A mistake that had cost a million of guiltless souls their lives. I am here to rectify that error and set things right." He sighed and rubbed his brow. "The people... they are lost to us. Devoured. Assimilated. We cannot bring them back. We can only... avenge them, and hope they would forgive us our inaction. My hesitation. My reluctance to act had robbed her of her life."

"Marie..." Dracul's gaze grew glassy. "Did you know of her motives?"

"No." The soldier's shoulders sagged. "I am her superior, that much is true, but I had ordered her to stay her ground, no matter what. She had objected, and-"

"Wait," the vampire interrupted, gaze dark. "Marie's ploy... What she had said. It wasn't a downright lie. You were her lover, weren't you."

Gabriel paused. "Yes."

"And you have been together this entire time. Ever since she had ascended into Eden."

"Yes, but-"

Dracul jerked his hand, cutting the angel off. "You two were frolicking, brisk and carefree, in Heaven." A prim simper quirked his lips. "Savoring every drop of your luminous happiness. Enjoying life... while I kept evil in check. Pinned to this plane, wallowing in pain and misery." A still chuckle growled in his chest. "Is that it?"

Gabriel's muscles tightened as a strange, demoralizing chill slithered down his spine. "Yes, but I can explain-"

"I doubt it." The vampire's tight-lipped smile dissolved into a snarl. "As it has been established, being well-meaning doesn't mean good things will happen to you. I... I have tried. I sincerely yearned for redemption, but what had it netted me? The death of my better half," he chided through clenched teeth. "And now... I see just how delusive it was of me. I am a villain, and villains don't get happy endings."

The herald stepped towards his sibling. "That is not true. What do you think had inspired Marie to rise up? Rebel against His command? Our Marie! The woman who would never traverse a given line? She did so because of you, brother. Not me."

The elder's eyes narrowed. "Explain yourself."

The archangel let out a fleeting sigh of relief. "You are correct: I have kept Marie company over these halcyon centuries, blissful, yet aware of your woe."

The soldier motioned, palms up. "We knew everything. Your fiendish hunger for revenge, the kindred calamities, your change of heart, and your desire to die. We've kept a vigilant eye on you, but we couldn't interfere. Not without His input. It was your pact, your gambit with Alucard, and we dared not undermine it."

Gabriel cast his eyes to the side. "Marie and I lived a good life, but neither of us could be happy. Not with the misfortunes that had befallen you and your clan. Oftentimes, she would ask me if there was anything that could be done. To relieve you of your burden. And each time she approached me with such question, I would counter her. No, beloved. He will suffer loss until he understands the consequences of his actions. After dusk, each and every night, she would plead the Almighty for you. Hope for your eventual deliverance. At the time, none of us could foretell the catastrophe which would betide us with your salvation."

"The consequences of my actions," Dracul echoed, eyebrows dropping a little. "Fine, I recognize that. But... my salvation? Is it related to her goal? What does this unusual wish to harvest my hatred have to do with anything? Why would she, the daemon-" He gestured at the bemused Forgotten One, "and you, presumptively, would want to harness it?"

"The Founders of the Order and the Lords of Shadow. One being in two independent bodies. Both cannot exist without the other. Same here. But, I'm afraid, the connection that binds us together had destabilized over these centuries. Now, it registers the tiniest displacements in our personalities, and as we both correspond to the opposite sides of the spectra, a change in one impacts the other. An evil side cannot become good without tainting the other and the other way around. Your redemption... it, well. See for yourself."

Gabriel unfastened one of his crested gauntlets and held out his black-veined hand. "Marie's feat had halted the Decay. The corruption. But at the cost of her own life." He wedged the steel glove back into place. "But she has always been strong-minded. She had abandoned her position in Elysium and rose up against God's decree. So we- I would have the strength necessary to repent my sins and make amends. Just as she had requested."

The vampire's crimson irises glimmered, yet his voice remained serene and steadfast. "And dare I ask just how can this be accomplished?"

"By slaying the demon accountable for these immoral atrocities." Gabriel tensed at Dracul's restlessness. "The Bernhard's Fiend," he promptly added. "The beast that had ensnared you and exploited you... to a certain degree. Its destruction is sought after, but-"

"But what?" Dracul's mouth pinched.

The herald presented the elder with a resolute glare. "Ikayiel might have spiced the message given to you with lies and subversions, but one thing stays certain. Bernhard's Demon will not stop until it has overpowered your mind. Your body, your connection with the castle... It is its only way of escaping the ordeal. Prevent it at all costs." A brief scowl furrowed Gabriel's brow. "Now, give me the Vampire Killer."

The elder's eyes rounded. "Wh- Why?"

The archangel turned somber. "Because, if it does lay claim on you, I will not hesitate and put you down. Such feral creature must not wander and flourish unchecked, Dracul. And with your abilities and armies at its disposal... You understand this far better than anyone."

"Somehow, I'm not surprised." A gruff, unamused chuckle fled the vampire's throat as he placed the weapon onto the messenger's outstretched palm. "But- Wouldn't that condemn you?"

"It is a sacrifice I am willing to make." Gabriel's voice was a bit too dry for his own tastes. Smirking, he whirled the cross's knob aside. "Well, it seems Michael's fiendish sibling had spent quite some time recreating the original relic. It might have been shattered and reconstructed, but, still, I've missed its weight. And I see the stake is still broken. Hnnh, a shame." He rewarded Alucard with an arched eyebrow. The younger vampire smirked and shrugged casually.

"Angel." Dracul's quiet voice reached out for his ears. "The Fo- Ikayiel had implied that... Marie might have survived. Is this one his fabrications, or can it be true?"

Gabriel looked at his half-brother, perplexed. "Truly? He had said so?"

A questioning crease puckered the vampire's features. "He had described the Justicars as being everlasting. Immortal. According to him, she could still be alive."

"She is alive. In a sense." The Forgotten One approached the duo. "The castle had cleaved you off of its blood spring, had it not? The origin of your power?" He let out a mocking chortle. "Consequently, it cannot claim the Judge's divine blood which now courses through your veins. You are in possession of her very life-force, her essence. And with that soul, she can be revived. Just try not squander it mindlessly."

A sigh of release parted the archangel's lips and he cleared his throat. "Ikayiel is the guardian of knowledge. His wisdom branches across eras. If he identifies something as possible – it is," he uttered, giving the vampire a brief crook of his mouth.

"I would not have gambled if it weren't so, angel," the archfiend stated, earnest. "I recognize the price of a mortal life. You share something, something that we, the Firstborn, – angels who were created on the first day of creation – cannot experience. It is pure, unfiltered love. His greatest gift to His children."

"It is a shame that Michael did not discover his, for his demonic twin sought only power," Gabriel voiced, arms akimbo. "Pride is a venom. Venom that exists in all of us, and he could not ignore its influence. Just as I could not disregard my own degradation."

He flashed a glance at the elder. "We began this journey as one, let us finish this here-" the angel stretched his other hand out. "Together. And then we will ponder on how to bring our beloved back."

A phantom of a mirthless smile graced Dracul's mouth. "Marie had well-deserved her happiness – it would be unjust not to fulfill her request. And to think that a certain part of yourself had filled your loved one's existence with joy is... odd, yes, but not unwelcome. Though I do not share your mindset, understand that I am grateful of the heart you had put into this." He clasped the saint's hand in unspoken agreement. "Now... how do we finish this?"

"The Bernhard's Spawn is no fool," the Forgotten One interjected, "yet even millenia-old demons can be tricked. We have to put its paranoia and thumping sense of self-preservation to good use. It grows fearful for its well-being, it starts committing errors." He leveled a meaningful glare at Dracul. "But first, you will have to draw it out."

"Me?"

"Don't be dense, you know how much it vexes me. Of course, you! We cannot exactly pummel emptiness and hope to emerge triumphant, now can we?"

"How unseemly of you." Gabriel heard his half-brother reply in a withering tone. "And here I imagined that your repeated defeat would offset your caustic remarks."

The archangel did not mind the remainder of their exchange. He trotted towards the bloodless form of the Justicar and knelt against her. An anguished furrow twisted his brow as he cupped the woman's wizened face. Gouged-out eye sockets, skin as thin as paper, shriveled hands frozen in a final act of selflessness... And yet, the trumpeter could see a small smile upon Marie's lips. The twitch of her mouth coaxed a melancholic smirk in return.

"You should have let me die, Marie," Gabriel murmured, petting the woman's grizzled hair. "I am neither true, nor valiant. You're dead- because of me. What kind of Paragon could allow such thing to happen?" He squeezed her hand and grimaced. "A hapless one. A wretched one." He paused. "Know this, my love. This is my promise to you; no damnation will keep us apart. I will find a way for us to be together. I will end this."

"We sound more alike than I have previously realized," a jagged voice intoned. A rustle of leather against stone.

"We were one," Gabriel returned, muscles taut. "Our obligation's the same, – protectors of our respective planes – just our way of carrying it out... is- it varies. Finesse, frankness, forgiveness. This is my belief. My core. I am incapable of feeling anything but that. None of the earthborn angels, none of the saintlike doppelgangers, can."

A drawn-out pause. "You detest being impeccable?" Disbelief oozed in the vampire's voice.

The archangel climbed to his feet and twisted to stare Dracul in the eye. "This? This is not purity. The Firstborn may bask in it, but humanity cannot. Humanity is imperfect. We were fashioned out of clay, and clay is what we will become. None of us can stay wholly good or wholly evil for long. We are fallible, yes, but we can atone. We have only to ask for forgiveness deep within ourselves and be welcomed back."

An odd, quizzical crease twitched the vampire lord's lips. The angel bit his lip; what could his silence signify?

"But, let us not waste time." Gabriel gave the fallen Justicar one last, over-the-shoulder glance. "The Demon needs to be slain at any cost. Alucard? Mind handing the Horn over to your father? No, not me." A cheerless laughter gurgled in his throat. "My brother."

Trevor's brows rose. "Very well-" he said and proffered the Trumpet to Dracul.

"Now, play it."

A nonplussed scowl darkened the Dragon's features. "Play it?"

"The Trumpet's enchantment is potent enough to wrench beasts foreign to this plane to Earth. The castle's entity, for example. It is its primary and only purpose – Ikayiel had been instructed to lie to you so you'd set out on your quest."

Dracul's head tilted back and the corners of his mouth pulled sideways. "I see," he uttered grimly, grip around the artifact stiffening.

"I apologize." The archangel eyeballed the ground. "We should have informed you, but-"

"Speak for yourself; I had no intent of warning him." The Forgotten One's guttural chuckle reached out for his ears, and the saint bore his glower into the daemon's skull.

"-but you were merely following orders," the vampire concluded, and a wry grimace twisted his face. "Fine. Let us finish this." Clearly hesitant, he brought the Horn to his lips, broke to throw an indecisive glance at Alucard, and gave the instrument a deep blow.

A roaring blare echoed across the ravaged battleground. The archfiend, the archangel, and two vampires, all jolted their heads heavenward, awaiting a response. A handful of seconds trickled by, and, at long last, Ikay let out a frustrated snuffle. "Quaint," he said, tone reeking of sarcasm.

"Hm." Gabriel's wings twitched. "I don't understand. That should have been sufficient!"

"By chance, the Horn was not put together correctly...?" the Forgotten One attempted to suggest.

"It would not reassemble itself if some fragment was absent," the herald cut him off.

"Have you considered the Trumpeter himself-"

"He is me, Ikayiel. He has to have the potential to evoke its power!"

"-as you were Sundered long before you became His harbinger! And you know it better than anyone that only a harbinger can sound the Horn. Try playing it yourself."

The paragon sighed. "I can't. My time is yet to arrive."

A sneer of disdain rang out behind him. "Naturally," Dracul muttered, "it wouldn't be the first time an artifact of God's would not function."

"...would not function?" Gabriel clicked his tongue. "Or- Hm." He inspected his vampiric half-brother; Dracul responded with a distrustful glower, crimson eyes burning. Hatred and hostility, the herald supposed, though not directed at him. "Or possibly- Can you repeat that?"

"Don't you understand?" A scowl twirled the Dragon's features. "God is the capricious puppeteer, and you are His marionettes! You're dancing to His tune. Fulfilling His every ludicrous whim. And worse, you are wholly aware of that! You approve of that! Why?!" Immediately, he grimaced. The castle's demonic influence must have lashed out at him, Gabriel realized.

"Wait." The archangel's frame stiffened. "Ikayiel, do you feel it?"

Ikayiel gave his superior a curt nod of his head. "I do. Its stench is unmistakable. The Bernhard's Spawn. It lurks below us, eavesdropping on our conversation." He laughed. "So the Celestial Horn did work! I'm impressed. The mongrel just needed a nudge in the right direction."

"Makes sense." Alucard rapped his fingers against the hilt of his sword. "Wygol was built over the foundation of the castle, after all."

"If it's truly here," Dracul interjected, unconvinced, "then why does it hesitate?"

"As I told you, it is feeding off of your fury, your anger," the archfiend uttered in an indifferent voice. "Your anger has compelled it, provoked it to answer the Trumpet's summons. And now, it is waiting for an advantageous moment to reveal itself." The Forgotten One bristled. "Prepare yourselves. This rival will be most formidable. Yes, indeed."

"More formidable than me?" Dracul wondered, eyebrow arched.

"You do not count!" the giant proclaimed, outraged, but then admitted under his breath, "You trounced me and humiliated me. Firstborn Archangel of Wisdom imploring his Liege Lord to spare his life? Augh! This is the new low."

Gabriel's smirk mirrored his half-brother's.

Bodiless rustles rushed past the party like a gust, and Dracul jolted his head. "It's here."

Blood frothed into view, wreathing 'round slabs of brick and concrete, flooding every crevice, fissure, and crack it could find in its eyeless wake. Ichor of the innocent, the substance that had kept him nourished and youthful, yet in fetters throughout many centuries, it was now blighted and rotten. The vampire lord's hands furled into fists as thorny extremities burgeoned out of the ever-broadening pool.

Tendrils sprouted, entwining together, forming a webbing, swelling in size and proportion. A tortured bellow stirred the sagging cloudscape, and pouches of washed-out plasma budded all across the creature's form. And, as it raked its serrated appendage across them, ripping the membrane open, hordes of blood fiends emerged from the pouring matter, talons outstretched and fangs bared. Burly, malformed, with thick, calloused hides, they snarled and snapped and spat at the party, the clamor of their shrieks overshadowing the roar of their overseer.

As for the overseer- it... it was evolving. An instant, and it was as tall as the Forgotten One. A heartbeat, and the venous stump topping its torso – its head – grazed the eaves of the church's dismantled facade. A gap running down its body cracked and flaked, revealing a... a nightmarish visage composed of two maws lined with knifelike teeth, four featureless white eyes, and slimy outgrowths instead of hair.

The Dragon shuddered. That face. It was akin to the fiend's first attempt at re-creating his appearance, though this time, it appeared shapeless. Monstrous. Askew like a crude mimicry.

The colossus squinted at him, and its set of mouths parted in a grumble. "Wrested." A disgusted huff escaped the fiend's throat. "Lured to this plane like a lowly mutt." It paused. "You owe me loyalty, My Prince. I have obeyed you for nearly a millennium. I have protected your secrets. Never have I misled you, unlike these celestial paragons."

Dracul's mouth curled downwards. "Past feats do little to offset the harm you have caused as of late. You abducted my boy, exploited my power, sought to enslave me, and-"

"Enslave you?! Bah!" the castle's avatar chiseled in. "You put trust in the grunt who'd lie and deceive in order to preserve his own hide? The one who had executed your loved one for this imbecile's sake?" The behemoth stabbed its index finger at the insulted archangel. "The paragons! They know naught of your plight, of your anguish! Through them, the Supreme Being is manipulating you yet again!"

The faraway roar of thunder rolled across the skies. In the distance a lightning flashed its venous frame, and first droplets of rain began to patter the ground.

The portent of a storm could not quench the beast's fervor. "God is a whimsical child! He is toying with you, Prince of Darkness, and when you no longer pique His interest, He'll dispose of you! Toss you aside! Move on! Do you wish to see this doll of you wrung and mangled? Do you wish for history to repeat itself?"

A mention of the Maker's part in his life had set the vampire lord on edge. And, to be blunt, he has not been on speaking terms with the Lord because of it ever since.

"Prattle all you wish, cur," the Forgotten One rumbled over the howl of tempest. "You're merely delaying the inevitable." A sickle-shaped scimitar gleamed into his hand, and the archfiend poised.

Gabriel and Alucard followed suit, the chain of the Vampire Killer and the blade of the Crissaegrim whooshing through the rainy blanket. Dracul stayed his hand.

All of the behemoth's numerous eyes centered upon its host and master. "My Prince, we needn't continue this purposeless struggle," it said, voice mellow. "You brought me into this world. You took care of me. Permit me to crush these pests; their supernal lifeblood would grant us the power to subdue entire planes of creation! Penumbra, Gehenna... their kingdoms shall fall, and Heaven itself will grovel before us!"

The avatar's mouths widened in fine-toothed grins. "And now with the arrival of His heavenly emissary, this is your chance to take your vengeance on the puppeteer who had brought you to your knees!" It gave a poignant sigh. "Return to us, My Lord. Let yourself be carried away by the true nature of the Dragon."

The Dragon stepped forward, dismissing his allies' startled exclamations. The gale whipped at his eyes, raindrops pounded against his chest, yet he did not halt until he reached a lofty porch comprised of two sloping blocks of stone. The crimson throng hurtled back with a craven twitter, and a fleeting smile curved the vampire's lips.

"You are correct," Dracul professed, arms folded across his chest. "I do find His decree distasteful and unfair. I have waged this war to oppose Him, to spite Him, to forge my own destiny free of the divine scourge. I have spent decades contemplating the injustices brought down upon me; the way my beloved abandoned me, the way the Brotherhood have duped my son, the way I lost everyone I cherished in His name-" He could sense the demon's pleased smirk. "But no more."

The vampire lord regarded the bemused beast. "My sibling had kept Marie safe and sound, Trevor challenged me of his own accord, and He... Zobek and Satan have been vanquished and Wygol saved. This would have been impossible without His intervention. And I-" He glanced at his boy and his half-brother. "I do not care what kind of torment I'll have to go through as penance for my sins... As long as the people I hold dear to my heart get their happy endings."

"God gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers." Gabriel offered him an openhearted grin.

"God gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers," Dracul returned with a nod. "I may dislike Him, but I loathe the castle's influence and everything related to it."

"And I ask for nothing more," the archangel said and neared to stand alongside him.

"You no longer hold sway over me, abomination," the elder addressed the castle once more. "You may gorge upon my personality, but my beloved's blood sings through my veins, and I shall see her once again in this life or the other!"

A harsh, grating rattle overshadowed the concluding part of his speech as the horde before him bristled, rancor warping their already contorted faces. All of the overseer's mouths curved in feral snarls. "Defiant cretin!" it roared. "Wretched worm! I will crush your resolve and seize your power! And then, at long last, there will be only me!"

The creatures charged.

With a low-pitched growl bubbling inside his throat, Gabriel clobbered one of the castle's sightless servants across its head. The beast scuffled back and let out a whine, though it promptly deepened to a frenzied howl as the Vampire Killer's stake sought its chest. Grinning, the angel wrenched the weapon free, and the fell fiend crumbled, maw agape.

Exhilarating.

A wave of nausea assaulted his senses, and Dracul stifled a gasp. The Hell...? Pausing to recover his bearings, the vampire's hearing picked up a short, barking cackle. Pivoting on his heels, the elder saw his saintlike twin lunge at the nearest servant and seize the monster by its head. It thrashed, arms flailing about, until-

The beast's cranium caved in with a sickening pop, and the archangel's chortle ripened into a roaring laugh.

At once, a strange numbness paralyzed the Dragon's limbs, a shock not so dissimilar to when he had fled the castle's domain. And this meant- His half-brother was not lying. They were shackled to one another! One thrived, the other suffered.

Dracul's brow knotted in concern. "We must end this... And quickly," he breathed and stabbed his void blade into the gut of a slobbering servant.

"Irksome half-wits," the Forgotten One grumbled and swiped his weapon across the advancing tide, reducing a handful of front-line troops to a gory, shapeless pulp. Hah, gargantuan stature and strength had its perks!

A pity, though, that it could not have fazed his old rival... ever since that disastrous conflict in the heart of the Underworld, the fallen archangel's core ached for a rematch. A proper battle, void of any rules or restrictions. Ah, what marvelous struggle would that be! A fight of the ages, hah!

He grunted in satisfaction as the servants' cadavers slowly decayed into a puddle of malodorous sludge. A split second, however, and a dozen of neonate demons scratched their way out of it, teeth gnashed together in savage snarls.

Ikayiel cursed and squashed a bloodcrawler under his heel. "The castle has tapped into the bloodspring!" The archfiend cried out. "It shut itself in a continuous loop! Every servant we cut down will spawn another one!"

Meanwhile, a flock of bats whizzed past the swarm and perched in the eaves of the half-dismantled church, some feet away from one of the castle's fleshy appendages. With a bemused scowl creasing his numerous faces, Alucard glanced over the battleground. What he saw unsettled him.

The Fiend's forces were innumerable. Rasping and baying for blood, the demon's thralls marched forward, oblivious to the agonized wails of their brethren. A sightless, feeble-minded extension of their master's will. Seeking to stave it off was futile; they had to concentrate on the castle's avatar.

The colossus itself appeared to be rooted to one spot, slung between two buildings like a lifeless doll, and only by the malign glare of its eyes Alucard could tell that it was self-aware. Made up of the lifeblood that had once belonged to his father's victims, – the Wolf pulled his faces into a wry grimace – it did not seem to have anything artificial animating it. No Aghartian sigils, no power cores. No, nothing. Then how did it keep its frame in a constant state?

The younger vampire flashed a glance at his sire. Right before his eyes, Dracul broke into a furious sprint, snatched the rampaging archangel by the arms and snarled something into his ear. As if sedated, Gabriel slouched and rewarded his twin with a questioning stare. Instead of answering, the vampire whirled and swept his sword in an arc, cleaving many fiends hapless enough to dare and flank them. Gouts of blood freckled the wet stone as the elder rushed forward, carving and dismembering anyone who obstructed his path.

Instantly, a wicked smirk twirled the avatar's mouths. A single motion of its lumpy appendage, and a half-dozen of tendrils shot up and twined around Dracul's left leg. The elder's figure dissolved into a vapor, and the castle let out a displeased growl. Next moment, the tendrils were incinerated in a burst of scorching light; Gabriel heaved a breath and lowered his hand. Alucard's eyes widened.

The Bernhard's Demon relied upon its host's hatred. To the monster, it was a source of nigh-boundless power. Its world revolved around it. It and its ruler were chained to each other.

The archangel relied upon his half-brother's hatred, too. To the saint, it was a trade. His only route to deposit and, unwillingly, withdraw the darkness that has sullied the heart of his human sibling. The angel and the vampire were bound to each other, as well. One individual in two separate bodies, weren't those Gabriel's words?

The castle embodied all the rage, resentment, and ferocity that Dracul had felt across the centuries.

The herald personified all the love, compassion, and tenderness that blossomed within Gabriel's heart.

Oh, no-

With heavy heart, Alucard took wing and wheeled towards the angel.

The brute's fleshless jaws parted in a roar. A heartbeat, and its disfigured head was severed from its torso in a single cleave of the saint's bardiche. Blood gushed out of its shredded stump of a neck, freckling the archangel's face and chestplate. Alas, though beheaded, the fiend's body continued to advance with diabolic determination. Dozens more of its kin thronged behind it.

Gabriel ground his teeth together. To counter both the castle's brood and his twin's thirst for murder and violence had proven to be an effort. Latent, yet not wholly hidden, it gnawed at his psyche, goaded him into giving up on the sacred teachings he had followed- What difference did it make? They had all been damned from the beginning anyhow...

It was apparent that the castle sought to wear them down, exhaust their bodies and beat their minds. An earthborn, regardless of his present-day nature, could only stomach so much.

His fingers furled into a fist. A column of light punctured the sagging clouds and engulfed the Demon's underlings, instantaneously reducing them to gory muck on the stone. However, Gabriel knew it wouldn't take long for them to reform. Though, as it turned out, using magic to eradicate the castle's spawn did not penalize him in any way: the angel did not feel any backlash. Good, so he could tackle the enemy without succumbing to the blistering rage.

Gabriel twisted his head. The tips of his feathers remained red – the taint afflicted him still. However, if he and his siblings played it safe, they would emerge in one piece.

A flock of bats swirled about him, their shadowy forms melding into the white-haired warrior. "Father!" Alucard's eyes were ridden with fear. "I- I m-might have a theory on how we can defeat the castle, but-!"

A harsh-voiced oath reached out for Gabriel's ears as Dracul landed beside them. A pair of blood-red wings protruded out of his back. A faint quake indicated that the Forgotten One had been tailing him. "What is it?" The vampire neared.

"You have to-" Trevor all but stammered. "You have to transfer your hatred to him!" He tipped his head towards the angel.

An abrupt, earsplitting howl swept across them like a tide. Hundreds of blood thralls glissaded down on all eights, rows of rotten teeth and birdlike talons all aimed for their throats. Yet, before they could lunge at the group, a jagged, green-hued barrier burst forth around them, cocooning the party in a protective bubble. All sound abated to a vaguely grating rasp of the servants' claws raking over the surface of their shield.

"Ngh!" Ikayiel propped up the bubble, panting with the exertion. "Conclude your chitchat quickly, Belmonts! Augh, Creation is a potent power, but even it will not last for long."

"You're asking me to do what?!" Dracul's outraged voice echoed. "Transfer my hatred? Are you delirious?! No! I shall not stand by this!"

"It just might work," the Forgotten One noted, voice strident. "If cut off from if its only source of sustenance, the Bernhard's Demon would certainly die!"

"You wish to condemn your own superior?!" The vampire lord all but frothed at the mouth.

"Your half-brother himself had declared that the Demon must be exterminated at any cost," the fallen archangel parried, a scornful huff in his voice. "His ruin is merely a means to an end."

"He's correct," Gabriel affirmed and rested his hand against Dracul's shoulder. "I was created for a purpose, granted the power I required in order to see this through. We have to believe that everything will be as it should."

"Wait! I might be mistaken!" Unmingled panic creased Alucard's features. "There must be another way! Father, you needn't fall from grace!"

The archangel let loose a solemn sigh. "A fragment cannot exist on its own; to endure the two must become one again. Either one of us dies, and the other one passes away shortly after. To ensure one's survival, the other must be excommunicated. Is there an alternative, Alucard?" The herald pursed his lips.

"Rubbish!" A frenzied snarl escaped Dracul's throat. He pivoted and grabbed his twin by the pauldrons of his armor. "We mold our own fates! God doesn't determine what we must or mustn't do!"

"The Founders of the Brotherhood, the Lords of Shadow, the Forgotten One... they were conscious of the fact they were going to meet their demise at your hands," Gabriel replied, unruffled. "This path of ours must be paved with one more corpse. We must have faith in His judgement."

The vampire lord pulled his face into a grimace of disgust. "No," he said, teeth gnashed. "I will not allow you to do this. Marie, Claudia, Pan, Agreus, Laura, Victor. They're dead because of me! They died so I could fulfill my duty! They died so I could live! Exist in this husk fueled by the lifeblood of others! I do not wish for my reverent half-blood brother to perish as well!"

Gabriel's eyes widened in alarm. "Wait, no! You misunderstand! This is not what I'm imp-"

Dracul loosened his grip and lurched back. Flames broke out around the elder's wrists, and he buried his hand into the ridged wall of the cocoon. "Enough!" he uttered a roar. "You – or anyone else for that matter! - will not lay down your life for my sake!" There, he burst through the breach and into the crimson ocean outside.

"WAIT!" the archangel cried out, dread overpowering him.

"STOP HIM!" the Forgotten One howled raucously. "He will get himself possessed!"

Mottles of crimson and gray danced as he spread his body in a swarm of particles. Imbued with the Chaos power, the fiery flecks tore and bit at the castle's minions, drenching the battleground in an echo of tortured howls. With a low-pitched growl seething in his chest, Dracul yanked the specks back into a humanoid form, pivoted, and hurled a blaze of fire at the unharmed thralls. As the raging inferno gorged upon his foes, blistering and callousing their hides, the elder let his whip shimmer into his hand. He spun it.

Amputated limbs, gouts of gore, and chunks of mangled flesh streaked his sight. Over the cacophonous crows, his companions called, disquiet apparent in their voices. At this point in time, he could only hope his saintly sibling would take care of Trevor just as he had taken care of Marie.

The elder swapped his whip for his gauntlets with a huff. 'Twas his penance to pass the rest of eternity as a senseless slave alongside those he had slaughtered. With luck, the archangel would find a way to sever the link binding them and destroy his hollowed-out shell and the demon controlling it.

A sizzling-hot sphere of flames carved a hole in an underling's chest. With scarlet bubbles frothing at the corners of its maw, the beast toppled, and two more sprung in its place. Dracul growled and rammed his fist into one's abdomen, leaving it a mass of slushy substance. The birdlike talons of its ally jabbed at his side, and the vampire's grumble grew into a bellow. Whirling, he thrust his own claws into the creature's eyes, – or where its eyes should be – hoping this would hinder the brute.

Alas, in response, all several rows of the brute's rotten teeth gnashed into a fiendish grin. A second, and its razor-sharp paw swiped the vampire across the face. Pain crackled through his skull like a discharge of electricity. Smothering a yowl, he pulled away and pressed his hand against the graze. The fiend's fingertips had punctured his left eyeball; he could feel the ooze-like humor dribble down his cheek.

With a roar born of both pain and fury, Dracul swung and drove his blade through the creature's gullet. Even so, before he could behead this beast, his hearing picked up an odd, tinkling chatter coming from behind him. Without hesitation, the vampire dived to his right.

A rusted poleaxe shredded the air with a whoosh, and its wielder – a skeleton draped in plasma – let out a frustrated rattle. Out of the corner of his – only – eye, the Dragon detected several more undead pacing about, rudimentary weapons brandished. They were cutting him off.

One thumped its mace against its jagged shield and sauntered towards him. A half-dozen or so of blood fiends towered behind it. A snap of his whip, and the beasts' mutilated cadavers dissolved into a puddle of sludge. The skeleton's severed bones rattled. Before long, the avatar's minions loomed before him, once more unscathed. Dracul all but grit his fangs to a fine powder.

His ire spurred the castle for the last time. Pain wormed through his temple, and the vampire cried out in agony. Clutching at his head, he waddled, oblivious to his surroundings. It did not last long.

Winding tendrils crept along the ground like vines. One wreathed around Dracul's ankle and yanked him off his feet. A cloud of black specks smeared his vision as the back of his head thwacked against stone, and he could feel his muscles go completely lax. Several more of the wiry appendages coiled around his legs and waist, though he did not care anymore. He found solace in that the archangel was in possession of Gandolfi's weapon. He would finish this and stay just as righteous as God had intended him to be.

As God had intended him to be...

The nauseating squelch of blood oozing through the cracks made him wince.

"You are a good man, Gabriel," Marie said, a faint smile twirling her lips. "You are as God intended. Fallible, yet capable of great things... I loved you then as I love you now."

Something sharp jabbed at Dracul's side, and he smothered a curse. For a split second, he thought it to be a stab of a thrall's pincer or a thrust of a skeleton's partisan, but- No. 'Twas cold. was as though it begged him for his attention.

Thick, lukewarm liquid sloshed against his legs, soaking the cloth of his pants.

"I see before me a man who has regained God's favor, and who has my forgiveness and the forgiveness of all the lost souls of this world." Marie rested her head against his shoulder.

Heaving each breath, he slipped his hand behind his coat and... and faltered as his fingertips swept across a grooved, metallic surface. The Trumpet! The relic was still with him! With choked wheezes escaping his throat, the elder grabbed onto the artifact and wrenched it free.

The outgrowths lugged his form into a crimson pool up to his waist. The grumbles and guffaws of the mob crowding about grew into gleeful squawks.

Over the vile, grinning muzzles Dracul noticed the silhouette of his sibling. Gabriel hovered above them, brilliant-white wings outspread, and as motionless as a mountain. Still, upon meeting his gaze, the herald held out his hand. Two fingers – the ring finger and the pinky – were closed whilst the remaining three stayed extended.

Benediction. A sign of benediction.

"You have saved us all and... you have saved yourself."

"I am not worthy. I am not of pure heart..." he argued.

"It appears only before those pure of heart."

"We have to believe that everything will be as it should," his own voice interjected quietly.

A throaty gargle. "I am the Dragon, Dracul! I am the Prince of Darkness! I am and will be, forever, a thorn in His side!"

The voice was not swayed. "Every man has the power to repent."

Atonement. The saint was beseeching him to atone. In front of Him.

"There was a reason we gave you that name, Gabriel."

He had jotted it down himself.

"There is a refined power in a name." Raphael's words rang.

"Gabriel" means "God is my Strength."

The Horn gleamed ever so dimly in the gloom. Intuitively, without any coherent thought weighing his ailing mind down, the vampire brought it once again to his lips. "Fo-" he stuttered as the viscid fluid sloshed against his chin. "F-forgive me, forgive me...! My God." The mournful drone of the Trumpet resonated across the battleground.

The next instant, the castle's sinewy appendage looped around his neck and yanked him under. White, wispy lights waltzed before him like a cloud of dandelion seeds. A distant echo of children laughing rang out. He inhaled a mouthful of blood and then, his consciousness faded.