Author's Note: It may like I'm posting this chapter really early. However, the last chapter(s) were just really late. So please enjoy this next one.

Loretta's been mostly silent for far too much of the story, so I'm determined to give her more dialogue.

So, based on the title of this chapter what minor villain do you think is going to make an appearance in this chapter?

Chapter VII

Through The Marble Corridor /and/ Lord of the Locusts

"Okay," Jonathan mused, "there are a bunch of hallways around here; I'd suggest splitting up into two teams. I'll go with Alucard and Maria, and Charlotte can keep Stella and Loretta out of trouble."

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Loretta's voice had been as sweet as ever when she asked her question, but the look in her eyes could have petrified a cockatrice. Stella on the other hand looked like she was trying to keep a vein in her head from bursting.

"I think what Jonathan is implying," Charlotte began, "is that the last time you two went hunting around on your own, you ended up getting turned into vampires, which is surprisingly insightful of him; you've got to give him some credit."

"Hmph. In your dreams," huffed Stella, running a hand through her elegantly braided hair, "I resent that statement."

"Resent it all you want, but you two have a history of getting yourselves into trouble," stated Charlotte matter-of-factly.

"Of course, and Jonathan himself doesn't rush into things sword first?"

"I think that Alucard has proven his worth by keeping Maria safe. If he can keep her out of trouble, then I'm sure that he can keep Jonathan on a leash."

Stella and Loretta both rolled their eyes. Jonathan just looked at Charlotte aghast.

"What?" she challenged him, "I'm on your side here. Just trying to support you."

"That was still pretty harsh…" he gave her a look like a kicked puppy."

"That look hasn't worked on me since the fourth grade, I'm not apologizing for something that you've proven me right about so many times."

"You can be really mean sometimes," Jonathan mumbled.

"Really?" Charlotte grinned mischievously, "I could do worse to you…just for a," —cough— "hypothetical example, I could set you on fire, electrocute you, drop giant rocks onto your head, turn you into what could for all intents and purposes be called an ice cube…" she counted on her fingers.

"Yeah, I'm outta here—let's go—hurry!" Jonathan ran off down the hall.

"Alucard, Maria, you should probably try to catch up to him," Charlotte suggested, "I think I see him being assaulted by a maid with a vacuum cleaner."

"For some reason, I wouldn't be surprised if that were really happening," Maria scratched the back of her head.

As it happened, the aforementioned situation was actually occurring. Persephone was a lot more devious this time around. She had actually pretended to cower, and the moment Jonathan had his back turned to her, she sprung from her crouching position and beat him about the head with the mouth of her vacuum hose. Jonathan wasn't exactly having difficulty beating the maid, but every time he came close to killing her she would start bawling her eyes out. He couldn't bring himself to kill her when she seemed so helpless, but the moment he tried to get away, she'd grab him and punch him in the back (or side) of the head. This went on for some time until Alucard appeared and lifted his cape by its hem, summoning a trio of fireballs (also eerily reminiscent of one of Dracula's attacks), that shot towards Persephone and ended up killing her. Naturally, she reappeared in another hallway moments later, but they'd deal with her again when they got to her. In the meantime, Maria was admiring the atypical dress that the maid had left behind. It was surprisingly unsinged from Alucard's attack. In fact…it looked almost brand new. She got a sudden urge to try it on.

"'S'cuse me," she said pushing past Jonathan and through an adjacent door, "By the way, if I catch either of you peeping, I promise to murder you," and with that, she closed the door behind her. Moments later, a high-pitched scream came from behind the door. Jonathan was about to barge in when Maria spoke.

"I'm okay!"

"What the hell happened?"

"Don't worry!" she called back, "It was just some sort of magic…cyclops…head… —I can't believe I just said that… Uh, anyway, my doves flew through it and it…"

"It what?"

"Well, it's hard to describe: It made a face like a fish out of water, and then it kind of caught fire, became two-dimensional and dive-bombed the floor, but it was thinner than a piece of paper and it sort of melted before hitting the floor.

"Melted?" Alucard said, a hint of skepticism in his voice, "are you sure it didn't disintegrate?"

"Nope, it just melted in the air, and then it evaporated, and now there's really nothing left of it as far as I can tell. Don't come in."

"Sounds like a Dogether." Jonathan mumbled, before calling back to her, "You'd better be alright! I've gotta bring Charlotte's friend back in one piece or she'll do one of those things to me! You know…the things that she was talking about before we split up?"

"Yeah, yeah I get it, stop making me yell through the door! You're giving me a sore throat!"

"Oh…sorry!"

No response. Ten minutes went by. Then twenty.

"What is she doing in there?" Jonathan grumbled. He went over to the door and was about to turn the handle when he found a sword at his throat.

"Respect the lady's wishes, or I'll take your head off where you stand before she even gets the chance to murder you as she said."

"Uh, sure thing…" he said backing away from the door, when the sword was lowered he added, "…Ye Olde Sir Nobleman…"

If Alucard had reacted to Jonathan's chiding, he didn't show it.

Finally, another ten minutes later, Maria came out wearing not the bright green camisole, but a forest green corset-coat with gold lining and a silver trim.

Jonathan gave her an irritated look.

Alucard stiffened and his already pale face lost any traces of color it had. If he didn't already look like a ghost himself, one would have thought he'd seen one.

"I liked the maid's outfit, but then I remembered that Scarlet would definitely give me her two cents about it. And to tell the truth, when I found this in the sanctuary earlier, something about it just felt…right. It's like this outfit was made for me. I feel that it's missing something though.

"A gold ribbon—around your body between your bust and your waist," Alucard said automatically, before clamming up. His voice had been monotone, as if he were simply reciting an old memory.

"Wow, you know Alucard, that's a really great idea. Actually, when I go back home, maybe I'll wear this to formal events."

Alucard didn't respond. His face seemed devoid of emotion.

"Hey, Alucaaard? Alucard, please respond. Anyone home in there?" Maria waved a hand in front of his face with a lopsided grin.

"What?" he snapped, suddenly losing his tranquil façade, "What do you want from me? Why are you dressed exactly like her? Why do you possess the same abilities as she did? How dare you invoke her image!" he pushed her away forcefully and stormed off down the hall, his cape flowing behind him dramatically. Before he went around the corner he turned back to face her, his face a portrait of pure fury to her look of frightened astonishment. He looked her in the eye and roared: "Maria Renard is dead!" That having been said, he turned away, and continued around the corner.

"What was that about?" Jonathan asked.

"Beats me…but who's Maria Renard? Not to mention why the heck are our names so similar?"

"I can't answer that, but maybe Charlotte can. If she's important in any way whatsoever, she'll know everything about her. We can ask her the next time we get to a sanctuary."

"But…I want to know now…" Maria said quietly.

The three girls had wandered aimlessly through the marble halls, but the corridor they were in now was different, and they all noticed it: The further one progressed here, the darker the stone became. There was a point far ahead at which the marble was actually pure black. Charlotte decided that it would be best to avoid that area for a while: At least until they met back up with Jonathan and the others. In the meantime she was preparing a spell that would leave a trail of bright red crystalline dust behind them; like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs, or the string given to Theseus before he entered the Labyrinth. These halls were a maze, and she had no intention of getting lost. She had found an exit, and she wouldn't lose it even to go find everyone else. She finished reciting the incantation and went on her way—

—And promptly bumped into a rather angry Alucard as he rounded a corner. His uncharacteristic anger was duly noted.

"Is…something wrong?"

"No, nothing," he said, brushing her off.

"It's alright," said Loretta calmly.

"You can talk to us," Stella finished.

Alucard was silent for a moment before he turned his back to them.

"You're wrong. I can't talk to any of you. Not in the manner to which you refer."

"Why not?" asked Charlotte suspiciously.

"That is…not for you to know," Alucard muttered, "Enough of this. There are more important things to discuss. I found an ornate door with the figures of two swords engraved in it. They might lead to the location of the swords that Oliver referred to."

"Can you lead us to them?" Stella asked.

Alucard let out a heavy sigh, "Very well. Follow me."

The enigmatic man led them through various stark white corridors, occasionally dispatching the odd monster on the way. There was an abundance of skeletal fiends throughout the hallway. Charlotte figured that this fact was undoubtably causing Maria no end of discomfort. And now that Alucard had left them, it was just she and Jonathan. Something irritated her about that, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. It was however distracting her from the fact that the less people around to protect Maria from undead class enemies, the more danger that she'd find herself in. Over the course of their trek through the marble halls Charlotte had found it filled with skelerangs, skeleton flails, jack o' boneses, and skeleton blazes, as well as bone pillars and white dragons. Also present were harpies, killer dolls, various armored foes and Loretta had actually needed to rescue Stella from being trapped by a Great Armor.

"We're very close now," Alucard muttered, having reverted back to his usual stoic self in the relative anti-social atmosphere. They turned the next corner and were suddenly hit by something. Charlotte was aware of herself screaming but it wasn't out of pain, more from a feeling of pure dread. And suddenly the intense fear passed. Alucard was on the ground, shuddering uncontrollably and Stella was unconscious. Loretta was more or less unscathed and she was tending to her incapacitated sister. Charlotte was about to check if Alucard was alright, but then she realized she should at least look at what had attacked them. She turned to face whatever was there, and recognized it immediately. The first things she noticed about it were its insectoid legs and disproportionately large clawed hands that were covering its head. It had green and brown leathery skin, as well as undersized wings that shouldn't have been able to keep its bulk aloft, but it seemed to be managing just fine. Although she could already make a good guess as to what it was, she waited for it to move its hands away from its head before she could be sure. She was proven right as it dramatically swiped its arms down at its sides and bellowed; more of a loud hiss than a roar. The dome shaped head; yellow eyes and tendrils coming from its mouth said it all.

"Malachi," she growled at it. She and Jonathan had brought down a number of these creatures. They were easily subdued by her magic, but despite their bulk, they were surprisingly fast. Before she could finish casting, it lunged forward and swiped her feet out from under her, knocking her spellbook out of her hands. The Malachi then did something Charlotte never would have anticipated. It grabbed her spellbook in one of its huge claws…and ate it. A visible change was immediate: The monster grew to about twice its already intimidating height and it changed colors from green and brown to red and black. Charlotte barely registered that it was now two heads taller than a treant…It had just destroyed her spellbook! She was barely holding off tears. A sudden wave of fury suddenly took hold of her. Pulling her Tome of Arms Completed Edition out of her bag. She vaguely realized that this kind of monster had never been encountered by anyone before. She may as well give it a name, "UltiMalachi," She huffed, "Lame, but no time to think of anything better," She rushed the creature head on—and was instantly engulfed by a gigantic orb of electricity. She shrieked in pain as the electricity coursed through her body, thanking Heaven for the protective enchantments on her clothing.

"That was…Thor's Bellow! It can use my spells just by eating my hard work! You lazy cheater!" It suddenly occurred to he that she had lost the Sanctuary spell. This was the crowning moment of her life then. Her greatest failure would be greater than any achievement she ever made in life. She discovered a spell that could cure vampire spawn, and then she went and lost it! She'd never live this down if she lived to be one thousand. She tried getting close to it again, but was swatted into a wall by its now jumbo-sized claw.

"Okay," Charlotte grimaced dizzily, "Third time's the charm."

She ran up to it, and dodged its orb of screaming Nightmares that had caught them all off guard earlier. This proved to be more difficult than expected. She was able to cast the spell better than any of the Malachi demons that she'd fought before. Now that it was carrying her power on the other hand, the rolling magical monstrosity was utterly colossal. She had to press herself against the wall in order to avoid getting hit. At least she had gained some ground on the attacker. Her satisfaction lasted all of three seconds as a Fireball crashed into her. She decided that the most apt expression to describe her situation was that her goose was cooked. She crouched on the floor awaiting the inevitable when a very familiar voice came from behind the demon.

"Holy smokes! This guy needs to lose a few pounds!"

"I'll say," came another voice, this one distinctly female.

"Well, no sense standing around here all day," there was the sharp sound of a whip being cracked, and the UltiMalachi roared in pain. It turned around, and swiped at its new attackers, Charlotte took the opportunity to lunge at the creature, she opened up the Tome of Arms and the signature spectral form of Excalibur shot from its pages followed by axes, lances and maces of all kinds. Once again, it turned to face her, but it barely was halfway around before it was struck again by a whip glowing with green light.

"The Undead Killer. Which means…Jonathan?"

"Charlotte? That you?"

"It ate my spellbook!" Charlotte cried tearfully, "And what's worse, it managed to steal all of my powers by doing so!"

"Whatever, you're a quick learner. But if that really is the case," the sound of a whip snapping back into place was followed by that of a flame igniting, "I guess I'll just have to reach into its stomach, get it back, and clean it off for you. No problem. This is gonna be fun."

Charlotte couldn't see him, but she was sure he was smirking; she felt her tears stop flowing and the stains on her cheeks began to dry up. The UltiMalachi on the other hand decided to charge up for another one of its wonderful new Night Terror spells.

"You got your Tome of Arms ready?" Jonathan asked, "The one you compiled yourself over the past two years I mean?"

"Yeah!"

"Then let's tear this ugly bug a new one!"

The UltiMalachi released the Night Terror, and there was a thud as Jonathan must have tackled Maria against the wall to avoid being hit. Once again, Charlotte felt that odd sense of irritation.

"What was that for?" Maria's voice confirmed her suspicions. Jonathan had tackled her.

"So you'd rather get hit by the ball of screaming horror?" Jonathan's sarcastic comment seemed to sufficiently shut Maria up for a while. The next scream came from the UltiMalachi as the blade of Dragon Slayer pierced through its back. The blade then was dragged through its flesh. Jonathan was apparently having a difficult time with it judging by the grunts and cries of "Ow!" coming from him. This demon obviously didn't want to be separated from its internal organs, but then again, what would ever want that for itself anyway? There was now a semicircular arc on its stomach and that was when Charlotte saw Jonathan get picked up and thrown into the opposite wall. Charlotte jumped up, and tried using the spectral Excalibur from the Tome of Arms to continue cutting, but she was also knocked away. That was when Alucard got up. Drawing a huge sword out from under his cape, he plunged it deep into the UltiMalachi's body and with a single fluid motion he completed the circle Jonathan was carving. With a hard kick, Alucard 'emancipated' the center of the UltiMalachi's body. The demon suddenly went into convulsions, falling to its knees, and barely keeping itself upright. It changed back to its usual colors, and shrank back to its original size. Suddenly the convulsions stopped. It stood up, spread its arms, reared back, and roared one last time. Slowly, it began to turn pitch black to the point that they could barely make any of its features out save for its eyes. Flames enveloped its body, and it began to turn to ash from its feet upwards. Its howling only stopped when its mouth had disappeared.

Jonathan handed out potions to everyone, though he neglected to take one himself, leaving him with four potions left. He then held down his lunch as best he could and plunged his hands into the severed entrails of the formerly giant Malachi.

Charlotte looked away in disgust, choosing to examine Alucard's sword.

"What is it?" she asked, admiring its ebony blade and detailed crimson engravings.

"It's called Ascalon," Alucard answered her, "It's a legendary sword with a reputation for slaying dragons. Your friend Jonathan Morris has a similarly famous sword."

"Are you talking about the Dragon Slayer?" Charlotte asked, "We just found it in a ruler's sword's collection. There's nothing particularly special about it."

"A ruler's sword poltergeist just collects any sword it can find. It is not surprising that you found it among them. You call it Dragon Slayer, but its real name is Balmung and it is truly a force to be reckoned with."

"Well, I'll be sure to keep that in mind the next time I'm using it. I'll handle it with care, or something," Jonathan noted as he came up behind them. He gave Charlotte a sympathetic look, "The book was destroyed for the most part, but I managed to salvage some of the pages," he handed her a small pile of slightly damp paper.

"So what's left…" she groaned dejectedly. She began sorting through the pages.

"Raging Fire, Explosion, Chain Lightning, Ice Needles, Spirit of Light, Piercing Beam, Heal, Summon Medusa…and…Sanctuary? Oh, thank God! I didn't lose it after all!" she sighed miserably, "This is less than a quarter of the spells I had in my book…"

"Oh, I also found a scroll where the Malachi-thing's body was," Jonathan added, handing her a sheet of parchment.

"Night Terror," she muttered, "This must be that supercharged version of Nightmare it kept trying to use on us."

"I'm going to go get some more potions," Charlotte decided, "I'll at least be able to find my way back—" she stopped and looked around worriedly, "Um, do any of you know where Stella and Loretta went? Because they're gone."

Stella had since gotten up and without anyone but Loretta noticing, she had gone through the door with the sword engravings, followed closely by her sister. The hall was built of both black marble and white marble; black on the right, and white on the left. There seemed to be tiny tunnel-like structures going into the wall, but neither sister paid them much notice. If there was something behind those walls, they didn't feel like reaching through each and every hole trying to find it. At the end of the hall stood a single pedestal holding a pair of elegant swords. On the right side of the pedestal—black like the rest of that side of the room—was a black sword with a ruby embedded in its silver pommel. On the left–white–side of the pedestal, there stood a white sword with a sapphire encrusted in its golden hilt. Other than having inverted color schemes, the two blades were virtually identical. Engraved into each side of the pedestal was a short note.

On the side of the black sword was an almost poetic verse:

'Kaladbolg — I am the Power and Ferocity of the Demon's that forged me.'

On the side of the white sword was written a similar verse:

'Burtgang — I am the Grace and Mercy of the Fairies who fashioned me.'

"Hmm, it's interesting to say the least," Loretta noted, "These swords are twins, but they were forged by two opposing forces."

"Wait, how could they have been forged by fairies of demons if Oliver's the one who made them? Oh, wait…I know," Stella glared at the wall, "I know exactly how!"

"You think he ripped us off?" Loretta asked.

"No, I know he ripped us off. For his sake, they'd better be worth the money we gave him, or he won't be able to reproduce by the time we're all off the Castle grounds."

"How delightfully violent of you to imply, madam," came a posh sounding voice.

The sisters whirled around to find what appeared to be a creature that had a human head and the body of a cricket. His skin was a very pale shade of green, and his turquoise hair was slicked back elegantly. He also wore a deep blue coat with four tails. It had a bright red lining. They also noticed that he wore a golden glove on his (upper) right hand, which was carrying a conductor's baton.

"What…er I mean…who are you?"

"Abaddon, madam. I would also like to apologize in advance. You see, my locusts are hungry, and they have just noticed you.

"Are you implying that we're supposed to be their dinner?"

"I suppose I am," Abaddon said with a shrug of his lower arms. He then raised his upper arms and the doors at the front of the hall slammed shut. The sisters didn't have to check to know they would be locked.

"Locusts! Come forth!"

Locusts suddenly began to pour from the multitude of small tunnels in the walls, and within moments the sisters and Abaddon were completely surrounded by a swirling, towering cloud of the insects. With a flick of his conductor's baton a wave of locusts came towards the sisters, who were barely able to dodge out of the way.

"You shouldn't struggle so much," Abaddon suggested in an almost helpful manner, "Don't make this any harder on yourselves than this has to be." Despite the noise made by the locusts, Abaddon didn't seem to be shouting to be heard. If anything, the buzzing only accentuated his aristocratic voice. How that worked, neither sister could imagine.

"You couldn't just feed them a couple of pigs?" Stella asked spitefully.

"Oh, no! They prefer to only eat the flesh of men."

"Well, I case it's escaped your notice, we're not men; we're women," Stella growled.

"Madam, you're missing my point," Abaddon said in exasperation.

"No we're not, we just don't feel like getting eaten," Loretta yelled, "Now then," she rose into the air and an intricate symbol appeared in front of her, "Freeze Bite!"

Several lupine heads proceeded to appear from in front of the symbol and then slowly made their way over to the Locust Conductor, chomping on any locusts that were in their way.

"Honestly, I don't really understand why you're so resistant to the inevitable."

"Quit you're blabbering!" Stella shouted over the roar of the locusts' wings, "Did it ever occur to you that nothing really likes being eaten alive?"

"A necessary evil. Everything has to eat. Surely you understand, madam? You seem sensible enough."

"Locusts steal food anyway! Swarms of them ravage crops and ruin the harvests of entire countries! How can you say they don't get enough to eat?" Loretta asked in exasperation.

"Enough of this! You're trying my patience needlessly," the cricket-like demon raised his upper arms, "Locusts, devour!" he flicked his baton again and another wave of locusts came from the top of the swarm forcing the sisters to once again make a futile attempt to avoid them.

"Alright, that's it!" Stella looked down at herself, noticing that her dress was practically in tatters, "You're going to pay for this! The bloodstain I might have been able to wash out, but this is just ridiculous!"

"Stop worrying about your clothes Stella!" Loretta shouted.

"Loretta cast Blizzard storm in the direction of the pedestal! I need to get those swords!"

"Yes, sister!" Loretta jumped, her arms stretched out in front of her.

"Blizzard Storm!"

Thousands of ice particles filled the air in front of her and tore through the wall of swirling locusts.

"Not ideal," said Stella, "but better than trying to fight my way through a wall of crazed, flesh eating bugs," she covered her face with a gloved hand to avoid any stray ice and charged through the opening towards the pedestal, barely managing to get there before the locusts surrounded her again. She took the black sword, Kaladbolg in her right hand and the white sword, Burtgang in her left, and pulled them both out of their respective places on the pedestal. She gave them both a few experimental swings.

'Funny,' she thought, 'they look like longswords, but they handle like rapiers,' a savage grin made its way across her face, "Perfect."

"Sister! Could you possibly hurry up? I'm not sure I can hold him off by myself for much longer! I'll need a tonic or at least a rest before I can cast any more spells."

"Oh, don't worry about a thing, Loretta," Stella shouted confidently over the noise of the insects' wings, "I think we're almost home free."

"But we've barely landed a hit on him yet!"

"I told you not to worry."

With another flourish of his conductor's baton, Abaddon sent more locusts flying at them, but Stella noticed something about the way he did it this time. The gesture he made with his baton was a flick that went forward, and then up. If her theory was correct, then the insects would be coming from right in front of them and then make for the ceiling. Sure enough, the locusts behind Abaddon branched off from their usual circular pattern and flew towards Loretta and herself. In one swift motion, Stella pushed her way in front of Loretta, swept both swords along the ground and shouted.

"Furious Wave!"

Not one, but two tornado strength walls of wind rushed along the ground from her swords and decimated the charging locusts. Running up to Abaddon, she started making a flurry of slashes and stabs, some of which he dodged, but others of which met their mark. He cried out in pain.

Stella continued her dance of death until the Locust Conductor managed to hop away. Knowing that Stella wouldn't give him enough time to catch his breath, he just flicked his conductor's baton her way again. However, he was just hit with a Hurricane spell and Stella walked through the gap in the locusts that were intended to attack her.

"S-st-stay back!" Abaddon cried.

"I don't think so," Stella growled with a vindictive glint in her eyes, "I'm feeling hungry, and I've heard that roasted crickets are sometimes eaten as snacks in Pensylvania."

"N-no! Please don't! Don't kill me! He tried to hop away, but Stella just appeared right in front of him.

"Secret Strike!"

Abaddon fell to the ground in two pieces, barely alive.

"Go back to hell where you belong," growled Stella.

"What would you have had me do?" the Locust Conductor croaked weakly.

"I believe my sister told you to feed them pigs instead of humans," Loretta stated coldly as the door unlocked.

"I—" whatever the demon was going to say was cut off. Because this time, he really did croak. The Lecarde Sisters left the room without another word.

"What happened to you guys?" asked a startled looking Jonathan as the ragged-looking sisters came out of the room and shut the door behind them.

"A big bug called Abaddon. That's what," groaned Stella tiredly, "At least I've got these spiffy new swords."

"Thank you for waiting for us by the way," Loretta said gratefully.

"Truth be told, we were not even sure if you would be here," Alucard informed them sternly, "We combed these halls looking for you and we only just regrouped here."

"We're sorry if we worried you," Loretta said, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly.

"Enh, it was no problem," Jonathan smiled and waved it off.

"Hey! I'm back!" Charlotte called, coming around the corner, "Oh! Stella! Loretta! You're back. Good to see you're both okay. You're okay right?"

"Yeah, don't worry about us," Stella said with a smile, "Although if you could buy me a new dress, I'd be—" Loretta elbowed her in the stomach before she could finish.

"Your dress is ruined because you chose to wear it here and no other reason. You should have worn something more appropriate."

"Hey, Charlotte, what's that you've got there?" Stella asked noticing a long package wrapped in brown paper held under her arm.

"Oh, this?" Charlotte asked, glancing at the wrapped parcel, "Actually it's for you. Oliver told me he'd wanted to give them to you earlier, but he was too frightened," She handed the unknown item to Stella, who was giving her a look.

"Frightened? What's to be frightened about? Loretta, am I frightening?"

"Not particularly," Loretta answered slowly, "but you can kind of have a short temper, and you tend to act on your anger. Which, I'll be honest, isn't a good thing."

"Oh dear," Stella looked a bit dejected.

"Look, let's go back to the long corridor that we found earlier," Charlotte interjected, "And Stella, open the box up; I know you'll like them. They're even your color."

"Wait, are they a new outfit?" Stella asked a bit excitedly.

"Sorry no," Stella's smile fell off of her face like a bowling ball on the edge of a coffee table, "but they will give you a place to keep those new swords of yours."

"Well, I may as well have a look," Stella decided, tearing the wrapping paper off carefully. Inside were a belt and two scabbards that looked like they were designed specifically to hold Burtgang and Kaladbolg. On the left side of the belt was a black and red scabbard with a silver trim, obviously for Kaladbolg and on the right was a white and blue scabbard with gold trim for Burtgang.

"Well, they are nice," Stella decided, strapping the belt on and walking around testing the balance of the scabbards after sheathing the swords "And they're easy to walk around with. These are great. Note to self: Don't kill Oliver after all."

"I don't even want to know what you meant by that," Charlotte shook her head.

"So, we all set?" Jonathan asked. There was unanimous agreement and Charlotte directed them back along her track of red crystals to the final corridor where the hall changed from white to black.

Around the center of the corridor they stopped into a sanctuary. Best to be prepared for whatever was at the end of this hall. That was when Jonathan remembered that Maria had wanted to ask Charlotte about the woman that Alucard had spoken of. He went up to her and quietly voiced the question.

After a few moments Charlotte answered, closing the book she was reading.

"I believe that she was a girl who accompanied Richter Belmont on his quest to defeat the dark priest Shaft as well as to slay Dracula once again."

"Wait am I hearing you right? The dark priest Shaft? Seriously, what were his parents thinking when they named him?" Jonathan laughed giddily.

"Come on Jonathan, it's not that funny."

"No, it is, it definitely is. What was it that I asked you a minute ago?"

"Who Maria Renard was."

"Oh yeah, that's right. Anyway, do you know anything else about her?" Jonathan asked.

"Sorry, but you know that I only started studying this area in earnest a few months ago. I'm still reading the story of Leon Belmont. I've gotten to the part where the succubus tries to trick him by disguising herself as his fiancée. There's a lot about how worried he is for his friend Mathias Cronqvist. He's apparently been bedridden since before Leon left to rescue Sara. Based on the amount of respect Leon has for him, he's probably important. What I don't understand is why I've never heard of the Cronqvist family before."

"That would be kind of strange. Glad I'm not studying it. I wouldn't have the patience to do that kind of digging."

"I know," Charlotte sighed, unimpressed, "You wouldn't."

"So, you're sure you don't know anything else about her?"

"Sorry, I can't help you."

Jonathan went over to deliver the disappointing news to a soon-to-be frustrated Maria.

Two hours later they left and continued down the hallway. Finally they reached the end and found themselves in a circular room at the foot of a tall spiral staircase.

The six hunters ascended quietly, unsure of what to expect. They hadn't been attacked even once—by anything—since they had arrived at the long hallway. As they reached the landing they found themselves in a similar room to the one below them. The only real differences were that instead of just having an archway separating the two areas, there was a set of double doors and that those doors were in front of them instead of behind them as the archway would have been if they walked back down these stairs.

Jonathan cautiously opened the doors and peered inside: The room he saw on the other side surprised him, as it looked very similar to a reading room at one of Cornell University's libraries. Books lined the walls and there were some very comfortable looking chairs in various places in the room. There were even a few desks here and there, although what a vampire would ever need multiple desks for Jonathan could not imagine. He could barely comprehend a vampire ever writing anything anyway. Then again, Brauner had been a painter, and that was kind of like writing, wasn't it? Everything in the room was still. He gestured for the rest of them to follow him inside which they did. They had barely all walked inside before the doors slammed themselves shut. They all whipped around in shock, only to see nobody there…at first. They heard footsteps coming toward them as a powerful voice came from a balcony above the door.

"Salutations," said the voice, "And…welcome to my castle."

Author's Note: Well, this was certainly a long chapter. Compared to my previous updates this is practically a double feature. I felt that you deserved something special after only getting a pair of filler chapters last time. Either way, you deserve it after my crummy last update that was almost entirely filler. Anyway, it looks like something interesting is going to be happening to our heroes very shortly. I hope I didn't put Alucard too far out of character in this chapter. I just figured he'd react that way if he saw someone looking exactly like Maria. And speaking of Maria, she now looks almost exactly like her namesake. Wow, that was redundant.

UltiMalachi? I confess that I blatantly stole the Ultima concept from Square Enix. Pretty lame name too.

You probably noticed that here were a lot of weapons mentioned in this chapter. Well, I decided that since I've got a big profile of weapons of each character, I might add the weapons mentioned in each chapter in a little subtext thing. So, here you go:

The Armory:

Jonathan's Weapons:

Balmung – A legendary sword that Jonathan found in his last adventure and knew it only as 'Dragon Slayer.' Identified by Alucard.

Undead Killer – A whip modeled after the Vampire Killer. Not as effective or powerful, but won't slowly kill its wielder either.

Charlotte's Weapons:

Complete Tome of Arms – All four volumes of the Tome of Arms all in one book! YAY! Compiled manually by Charlotte over two years.

Stella's Weapons:

Burtgang – A defensive sword forged by fairies. Twin sword to Kaladbolg.

Kaladbolg – A razor-sharp sword forged by demons. Twin sword to Burtgang.

Alucard's Weapons:

The Alucard Sword – Alucard's most powerful and preferred weapon. It's a family heirloom and a memento of his mother.

Ascalon – A huge, deadly dragon-slaying sword of legend.