Chapter III

The Castle of Change, and Secret Tunnels

As Jonathan closed the door behind him there was a shriek from Maria. The reason was obvious. It was the one thing that he knew he could always count on to be in the castle's front corridor: There was a rotting corpse clawing its way up through the floor: Jonathan dashed forward and chopped the zombie's head off before it had even fully emerged, spraying ichor forward in a gory arc and earning another scream from Maria.

"What the hell are these things?"

"Just zombies," Charlotte answered without a hint of worry, "Don't worry, they're harmless."

As if trying to disprove her dismissive statement, one of the creatures lurched towards her and bit down hard on her shoulder. Charlotte cringed in revulsion, but seemed otherwise unharmed. She reluctantly grabbed it by its partially rotted head and shoved it off effortlessly. She used the same hand to set the infectious corpse on fire, the flames coming from her hand burning off the slimy residue from the zombie's melting skin.

"I'll rephrase that," Charlotte said as she sent another jet of fire at a small group of zombies that had emerged from the floor, "Zombies are harmless, but they're sickening to be anywhere near, forget about having to touch one. Jonathan, could you escort Maria to the next room. Hopefully there'll be fewer monsters of the undead variety further on."

"No problem. You can handle these things."

Jonathan took Maria by the arm and pulled her along as he hewed a path through the undead hoard. The other four followed shortly thereafter, having removed the ones that were in their way. They found themselves in a chamber full of what appeared to be decorative suits of armor. Jonathan went up to one of the motionless ornaments and put his sword through it. A black cloud erupted from the suit and it fell to pieces. Unfortunately, the clatter woke the other suits of armor, which proceeded to pick up the axes positioned next to them. Alucard immediately pulled his sword out and cleaved three of the axe armors in half with a flourish of his elegant sword. Loretta finished the other four by impaling them on stalagmite icicles.

"You alright?" Stella asked Maria as they watched the living suits of armor clatter to the ground.

"I think I'll be fine as long as I don't see anything else that's supposed to be dead.

Stella opened the door to the next room and looked inside noticing an abundance of skeletons walking about aimlessly.

"You are not going to like what you find in this room," she said without a hint of emotion.

As they continued on through the halls of the castle, Charlotte grew continually more confused. The castle's layout was nothing like she remembered it, which couldn't have been right, because she never forgot anything: She prided herself for her photographic memory. But other than the fact that monsters were everywhere, nothing indicated that this was the same castle that she had been in three years ago.

"I don't understand this! How can this be the same place that we were last time? It's crazy! Nothing's the same at all!"

Surprisingly, it was Alucard who took it upon himself to answer her question.

"The castle always changes whenever it is reincarnated. It is never the same twice. Castlevania itself does everything it can to make sure that intruders are either kept out, killed, or removed in some other fashion."

"I see…" Charlotte mused, "That's very interesting. I wonder why none of the books have never said anything about this?

"That is because very few have ever even been in the castle more than once, and the few who have managed to escape would have never wanted to return anyway."

"Well, that makes sense."

They continued making their way through the castle and its supernatural inhabitants. Maria soon found herself feeling more and more useless. She watched her friends take on monsters twice their size and win easily, and while she knew she should have felt proud of them—albeit in a weird and possibly delusional sort of way—she only noticed that she wasn't able to defend herself. And every time she was attacked and rescued by anyone else, she only saw her own inadequacy. They were heading across a bridge over a pool filled with what appeared to be mutant squids when she finally couldn't stand it any longer.

"That's it! I can't stand around and watch while you guys do everything. I can't stand being defenseless! And I really can't stand that pitying look you guys give me every time you save my sorry neck! Isn't there anything I can use to kill the…things…that seem to be everywhere in this place? I mean they're infesting this castle like rats!"

Charlotte and Jonathan stared at her with a somewhat surprised expression. Then Charlotte pulled a book out of her knapsack and carefully placed it into Maria's hands.

"That's a book of basic spells. It's not particularly useful in combat, but there are a few things that might be helpful to you. I'll show you when we get to a sanctuary. I think that there should be one up ahead. They stepped off the bridge and walked down the adjacent hallway towards a door that oddly enough, was emblazoned with the figure of a Cross. They opened the door and crossed the threshold, finding a statue of the Virgin Mary. There were beds, a desk and even a small washroom off to the side.

"I'm not going to lie. This room's made me question my sanity again."

"You're fine, Maria, it's all real. Dracula occasionally had mortal guests. He didn't expect them to sleep in the halls where the monsters would eventually show themselves and kill them. Those monsters can't get in here because of the holy presence."

Alucard closed his eyes and sighed. He knew the real reason for which these shrines were originally built. Not that he could reveal that reason to any of his current companions.

As Charlotte had promised, she began teaching Maria some of the simpler spells in the book. Maria seemed to be having a lot of trouble, and after two hours of her best efforts she was barely even able to light a candle.

"I don't think I'm cut out for this magic stuff. I'm thrilled that I was able to make a fire out of nowhere—that's pretty cool—but I think I'm doomed to only ever doing parlor tricks. Well, at least I'll be the life of a party when I freeze everyone's drinks." She was about to close the book when something caught her eye.

"What's this?" she asked, pointing at a diagram of a grey summoning circle. The circle contained a dodecagon that was crisscrossed with lines stemming from each angle, forming a twelve-pointed star. Arcane symbols that she didn't understand were drawn near every point of the star and several of the points were linked together with arcs and smaller circles.

"Oh, that's probably one of the more advanced Artes in this book," Charlotte explained, "It's a spell called Summon Familiar. I never actually mastered that, only ever figuring out the things that had specific animals or monsters defined in the incantations."

"Can I try it out?"

"I don't see why not, but don't be disappointed when nothing happens. This is a really tough invocation."

"I know. But I just have this…good feeling about this one."

Charlotte just shrugged as Maria took a deep breath and focused. When she closed her eyes she could envision the summoning circle perfectly. She traced the lines of the star in the air and recited the incantation:

"I call thee forth from the other world;

And beseech you aid my noble purpose;

Come forth from the void on my command;

And lend me thine spirit's power;"

At this point something sparked in her mind, and for a moment she saw thousands of different animals in great detail all in the same instant. She suddenly thought of the doves that she had first taken care of as a child; the doves that she still kept with her back at school. The final words of the incantation came from her mouth automatically.

"Doves of the Heart!"

As she finished reciting the spell, the circle that she had seen in the book drew itself in the air in front of her. Charlotte looked on in excited wonder as the ethereal grey summoning circle turned pure white, and a pair of doves slowly emerged from the circle. Maria was doing her best to control herself until she completed the spell, restraining herself from jumping up and down in shocked awe. The doves finally stretched their wings and took off as the occult symbols behind them faded away. Maria pumped her fist in the air and cheered for herself as the doves took to flying around her cheerfully. Charlotte was utterly dumbstruck, her mouth hanging open in incredulity.

"Oh my God! How did you do that?"

"I'm trying to figure that out! It just came naturally to me. I don't even know why!"

"This is just too incredible!" Charlotte breathed, "I need to sit down for a minute. I never realized that you had to give the animal its proper title according to the spell. Maybe it's only meant to be used by certain people."

"Could be," Jonathan observed, but shouldn't we get moving now that we're done with our detour?"

"Yes, definitely," Charlotte agreed, "By the way Maria, feel free to keep that book for now. I'll want it back sometime, but you can probably teach yourself a few spells from it. It'll be good practice for you. But you'd better be careful with it. It's still in perfect condition. I do not want anything happening to it."

Maria smiled gratefully, picking the book up. The group left the sanctuary shortly thereafter and proceeded down the hallway. After several encounters with a few bat colonies they found themselves at a staircase that would lead them down into the castle's catacombs judging by the cave-like qualities that the stairwell possessed. The walls and ceiling were carved directly out of the rock. The stairs were really the only things that even indicated that it was still part of the castle. They were nearing the bottom when a heavy rumble coming from all around them stopped them in their tracks. Jonathan hushed the rest of the group and walked forward, Charlotte close behind him. Then several things happened all at once. The ceiling between Jonathan and Charlotte and the other four shuddered and began to cave in on itself, separating Jonathan and Charlotte from the others and sending the two of them diving for cover. As the rocks falling from the ceiling hit the ground, and began piling up further down, cracks began forming in the staircase. They had seemed solid enough on the way down, but moments later the stairs crumbled.

Stella and Loretta, who had been trying to figure out what was causing the ceiling to collapse suddenly felt the ground beneath them give way, and they both shrieked as they fell into the dark abyss.

Alucard, who had been standing next to Maria, had grabbed her at the last moment and jumped aside just as the floor began to fall apart. He heard the terrified shrieks of Stella and Loretta as they disappeared into the blackness. As the rocks continued to fall, Maria stared wide-eyed at the deep hole that was now in place of the stairs, a look of horror plain on her face.

"Are they…they can't be…"

"The sisters are fine. Stella managed to reach Loretta in midair and was able to drive her sword into the wall to slow their fall. They'll be fine provided they make their way back up. The catacombs are full of nightmarish creatures, but I'm sure they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves."

"You're sure, Alucard?"

"Do you doubt me?"

"I saw them fall into a bottomless pit! They might be fatally injured!"
"Trust me, they are perfectly safe—at least as safe as one can be in this castle."

Maria glared at him for a moment before she found the nerve to respond.

"Fine," she said simply, "You'd better be right."

The falling debris finally slowed and came to a stop. They heard Jonathan's voice from the other side of the obstruction.

"Are you guys alright? How are things on your end?"

"Not good! Jonathan, the floor collapsed and Stella and Loretta fell into a bottomless pit! I'm really worried! Alucard says they're okay, but I don't know…" she glanced over the edge and pulled herself back as she felt a wave of vertigo pass over her, "It's a re-eally l-long drop!"

"Oh God! That's awful!" Charlotte cried back, "Hell, thanks to this rockslide, I think that we have to split up. It won't do us any good to wait around hoping that this obstacle disappears. The two of us can try and find Stella and Loretta, you two should just try to keep progressing through the castle."

"S-Sounds like a plan," Maria answered, "Do you guys think they're alright?"

"The Lecarde sisters are tough," Jonathan said in assurance, "It'll take more than a pitfall to finish them, however deep it may be."

"Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. So are we ready?"

"No problems here…aside from the obvious I guess," Jonathan confirmed.

"Good," Alucard spoke up, "We will try to find another route to the upper levels on this side."

"Alright, let's make tracks," Jonathan announced. The two groups headed off in their separate directions.

Meanwhile, deep within the catacombs Stella and Loretta were woozily picking themselves up.

"Hello?" Stella shouted as loudly as she could, "Can you guys hear me?"

She received no response beyond her own voice echoing off the cavernous walls.

"Stella!" Loretta sounded apprehensive, "I think you've just attracted some old friends over for dinner, and we're probably the main course."

Stella looked around. She wasn't surprised to find herself surrounded by a sickening hoard of weights, zombies and ghouls.

"Well, let's not be rude," Stella grinned savagely, "Let's greet the guests!" she dashed into the midst of the walking corpses and pulled her rapier out of its scabbard and whirled around in a jagged dance of death, tearing through the rotting monsters like scissors cutting wet paper. Loretta was finding that her ice spells were growing ineffective against the undead monsters, and opted to try something different. She was by no means proficient in terms of fire spells, but generally, she had found that the lesser undead monsters were almost all flammable. Though she wasn't able to do very much, she was able to fire off a shower of sparks and embers, burning some of the creatures, and even setting fire to some of the others.

"Stella, a little help here?"

"Let's try a more direct teamwork approach maybe?"

"Ready when you are."

"I'm always ready," Stella said with a smirk.

"Ice Claymore!" The sisters shouted in unison.

Once again Stella's took the form of a huge blade of pure ice. She swept it in as wide an arc as she could manage. The blade ripped mercilessly through the shambling attackers. Weights that weren't bisected smashed into zombies and ghouls, flattening them against each other.

"What a shame," giggled Loretta, "Such a wondrous display of our power and these things don't even have the decency to be sentient so that they can tremble before it."

"So true," joked Stella. The words had barely left her mouth before she was already destroying the monsters again. They didn't last long.

"So tragic," Loretta mused, "And to think that this bloodshed all could have been avoided if we'd just brought them some dinner."

"I'm afraid I may be missing something," Stella said in confusion. Then she remembered what had been said as the fight had started. "Oh."

There was an eerie groan from the far end of the hallway. There was, however, a rather conveniently placed door near where they were standing. They threw it open and ran off down the next corridor. They weren't sure, but they were beginning to think that the hall had begun to grow darker as they continued forward.

"Miss Fox, I believe that I have found something that may be of interest to you."

"Alucaaaaard!" Maria whined, "Why can't you just call me Maria? Miss Fox makes me sound like an old lady!" Her new dove companions cooed, trying to make her feel better.

"My apologies. I simply thought that you might prefer it to 'Mariabella.'

"Well, actually, I do. But that's not the point! Just call me Maria!"

"I cannot do that."

"And I can't convince you to tell me why," Maria let out a growl of frustration before she found herself able to speak again, "Whatever, what did you want to show me?"

"I found this scroll here. I do not know a lot of magic, but it looks like it has a summoning circle on it."

"Oh?" Maria said in interest, "Do you think I'll be able to do it?"

"I would be interested in seeing you try."

"All right, why not," she took the scroll as Alucard held it out to her.

It had the same basic circle design, but there was some text beside the circle that Maria couldn't understand. Based on what Charlotte had told her about spell failure, she weighed her options. If she tried casting it, she might get a new familiar. If she messed up with a spell this complex though, any number of harmful things could happen to her. She made her decision.

"I think I'll just hold on to this until we can find Charlotte again. I don't want to risk making a mess of things. If I get hurt, I'll be stuck here after all."

"I suppose that you have a point," Alucard agreed, shall we continue moving forward?"

Maria made a gesture as if to nod, but suddenly stopped short, her head turning to face the adjacent wall. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

"You mean the sound of running water? Yes."

"I think it came from behind this wall here," Maria pressed her ear to the stone wall and concentrated, covering her other ear with her hand. Sure enough, she heard the faint gurgling of flowing water on the other side of the wall.

"Yep, there's definitely something on the other side here. Do you think you can break this wall?"

"I suppose so," Alucard said, pulling his sword out of its scabbard. He took a hard swipe at the wall. A crack rang out as a fissure appeared in the rock. He slashed at the wall again, and the crack grew wider. His third swing was rewarded as the section of wall fell to pieces. The dust cleared, and as they looked through the hole they found an interesting sight indeed.

"Well, I don't know where we're going. We're completely lost," Jonathan groaned. He and Charlotte had continued through the dark tunnels beneath the main structure and were growing horribly frustrated.

"You know, we could have asked that ghost for directions," Charlotte complained.

"I did! If we'd followed his instructions we'd have walked right into the cave wall where it was covered in spikes."

"Oh, yeah, that's right…" she muttered. Their situation was beginning to look rather bleak. She shivered a bit as a chilly breeze passed.

A breeze…

"Hey wait! Did you feel that draft?"

"Yep," Jonathan said excitedly, "and I think I can tell which way it came from. Right down…here," he began leading Charlotte down a series of corridors and slowly but certainly it began to grow brighter. They finally made their way to a pair of staircases, one leading up into the light and another leading down into deeper darkness. Jonathan could see the night sky and a few plants at the top of the upper staircase. On the other hand, Stella and Loretta were unquestionably further down.

"So which way?" Jonathan asked uncertainly.

"I'll go with up," Charlotte said, conflicted, "I mean, I know that Stella and Loretta are further down, but these tunnels are giving me the creeps. We haven't been attacked but I feel…I mean…it's like there's something down here with us…I can just feel it stalking us, but whenever I look around there's nothing there. I don't want to leave them down here by themselves but—"

"It's alright Char," Jonathan reassured her, giving her a soft pat on the back, "you don't have to explain yourself to me. I think we went over that at some point before, but I can't remember when. Anyway, up it is."

"Thanks."

"What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't wait on my lady's wishes?"

"That just does not sound anything like you," Charlotte giggled, "but I appreciate the thought, really. I do!"

"Thanks," Jonathan blushed slightly and scratched the back of his head, "Let's go?"

"Right behind you," her response was inaccurate in that she raced up the stairs as quickly as she possibly could, ending up out of breath by the time she had gotten to the top. A chill ran down her spine as her fear dissipated in the moonlight. They were in a garden. They could see a few unes and mandragoras, but other than that, it seemed like a normal garden, albeit filled with exotic and outlandish plants.

"Vaht are you doing een my private gardens?" came a voice as outlandish as some of the foliage. They looked around to find a familiar face in the background. He was wearing a hideous brown trenchcoat, very dissimilar to the garish purple suit he had been wearing the last time they had seen him. But how was he even alive?

"Brauner?"