Chapter X
"Who are you, Alucard? And…who am I?"
"Alucard!" Maria shouted as they got back to the Library's entrance, "I want you to tell me—huh?"
Alucard wasn't where he was supposed to be, nor were the Lecarde sisters.
"Not good," Jonathan groaned, "Okay, we're all going to go looking for them together."
"Wouldn't we be more likely to find them by splitting up and meeting up back here in a few minutes?" Maria asked.
"Haven't you ever seen one of those new horror movies? This a haunted castle, and the same rules apply here. We all know exactly what happens when the characters say 'Let's split up.'"
"Those are the laws of screenplay writing and not of reality, Jonathan," Charlotte shook her head slowly in exasperation, "While I agree it's better that we stay together, the reason for doing so is so that we don't lose track of one another, not because we're all gonna die if we break ranks."
Jonathan scratched the back of his head and laughed in embarrassment.
That was when Stella burst through the doors on the room's balcony.
"Thank heavens you're back! You have to help out! Alucard's tough, Loretta's a total ice queen in terms of magic, and I'm more tenacious than that giant squid from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, but if we don't get backup right now, we're all dead! Don't ask questions, just follow me!"
Charlotte and Maria exchanged glances and Jonathan shrugged, but they still went with Stella as she ran off the way she came.
They found themselves in a room that looked to be central chamber of the library, with bookshelves covering the walls of five whole floors. And ornate double doorway with expertly crafted engravings on them stood at the lowest level. Jonathan, Charlotte and Maria were on the third floor looking down at a scene of utter chaos while Stella wasn't wasting time getting back into the fray. Alucard was slashing at archdemons with his Alucard Sword like a madman, his precise movements nothing less than a blur. Loretta was bringing up the rear by casting a wall of ice between themselves and what looked to be a hoard of countless blood skeletons, a sight that made Maria cringe. Medusa heads were pouring from the walls and wights were rising from pools of blood on the floor as though they were regular zombies. Other monsters were appearing at random, although there weren't any creatures that could potentially start fires.
Stella, not patient enough to take the stairs, just vaulted off the balcony, tearing Burtgang and Kaldbolg from their sheaths and landing on the back of an archdemon simultaneously driving both swords deep into its body. There was an awful crunching noise as Kaldbolg bisected its spine. Stella didn't miss a beat. Jumping off the back of the quickly dying demon she spun in midair, swords outstretched. Burtgang and Kaladbolg severed the wings off of a pair of demons with gruesome efficiency and she followed up by plunging both swords through the backs of the creatures' necks. Moving on, she dashed towards a horde of wights and took out a cluster of them in seconds with her light-footed dance of death.
Alucard had his hands full as he was assaulted by seven archdemons. There was a noise akin to water being displaced as at least twenty amalaric snipers came into existence, followed closely by six malphas. There was a crash as two heavy armors powerhoused their way through Loretta's wall of ice allowing the unkillable blood skeletons through. A few buster armors peered over the ledges of the upper floors and fired their explosive projectiles downward randomly, hitting friend and foe alike. Alucard sheathed his personal weapon and hefted up Ascalon, using its broad blade to deflect some of the explosions and jumping into the air, taking out four snipers with a wide swing. Fortunately, when he deflected the next explosive, it flew into an area with a lot of snipers. Twelve burned to death moments later leaving six left in total.
"Seems almost a shame. Only a few had fired so much as a single arrow."
He returned the Ascalon to its place on his back and drew his Alucard Sword again. After a flurry of lightning quick strikes, three of the seven offending archdemons would find that they needed to be reintroduced to various internal organs. The other four were dealt with as Loretta cast Icicle Drop. The fact remained that there were now the blood skeletons to deal with.
"There are way too many of them! Even for us all to handle!" Charlotte exclaimed, "And I can't even do anything!"
"Wait, why not?" Maria asked.
"I can't cast any of my offensive magic because all of my current spells would damage the books!"
"Uh oh…" Jonathan said, noticing the malphas demons.
Maria on the other hand decided to take matters into her own hands. She sent out her doves and gave them an order to attack all of the armored foes. The buster armors were pierced over and over by the doves and proceeded to explode one after another. The heavy armors were only a bit luckier: The spectral doves dealt a lot of damage to them but at the last moment, the doves disappeared, incapacitated by an entire flock of demonic ravens. Deciding to let her doves rest, Maria decided to try and get some answers out of Alucard.
Moments before it happened, she tried to warn him but they were already too close. She never got the chance to ask him anything before he was swarmed by a wave of medusa heads. Once the heads had begun to clear out she made a move to run towards him to check if he was alright. However, what she saw standing in his place was not Alucard at all. After all, Alucard wasn't a demon! He was a cute guy, who had a few odd mannerisms but still had a comforting presence. Once again she didn't know why she felt this way. She tried to blink the image away, but when she reopened her eyes, what she saw standing where Alucard had stood was still a giant demonic gargoyle. Its eyes glowed red and it began to shake, breaking free of its stone prison moments later. Maria screamed. With a roar, the demon leaped into the air and charged through archdemons, amalaric snipers, and even malphas. All it needed to do was swipe the monsters with its claws and the strike would be lethal. In came crashing to ground level and reared back, unleashing a wave of raw power that vaporized all of the blood skeletons as well as the damaged heavy armors, and sent Maria, Stella and Loretta flying into the bookshelves lining the walls. Maria felt a moment of relief as she noticed that there were no other monsters left, but then she saw the demon walking toward her, and her life began flashing before her eyes as it lifted a clawed hand. Her life was going to end here; she knew it. But before it made contact with her, the hand stopped in mid-slash. It roared again, but it almost seemed like its voice was cracking if that was possible. It clutched its head and staggered backwards, growling as if in pain, and with one final howl it began to change. She truly felt astonished to find that Alucard was once again standing where the demon had stood.
"Alucard?" Maria asked reaching out to him.
"…Maria…I'm sorry."
Maria stood in stunned silence.
"I know…you would not want to have anything to do with a monster such as myself."
"No, that's not it. I…I think that's the first time you actually called me Maria. I promise I won't run away, but…who are you really?"
Stella jumped, seeming to come to a sudden realization.
"I know where I've heard your name before!" She cried out, "I don't know why, but you must have been named after our father's spear. I remember now. He told us that it was called the Alucard Spear."
"You are a Lecarde?" Alucard seemed surprised, "In any case, you're assumption is incorrect."
"Alucard, my question? You're not get—"
"The answer to your question happily coincides with what I am about to tell Stella. I was not named after the spear. I was the one who forged the spear for Eric Lecarde."
"But that's impossible!" Stella shouted, "Father said that he got his spear when he was still a teenager! You don't look a day over twenty; you couldn't have given it to him!"
"Is that so?" Alucard said sullenly, "I suppose you think that my transformation into a demon was a coincidence as well?"
"That I don't know but still—"
"My cursed blood has never reacted well to contact with petrification magic. Sometimes it overreacts to being turned to stone."
"What do you mean by 'cursed blood?'" Maria asked nervously.
"If you wouldn't mind telling me what the year is?"
"It's 1947," answered Charlotte uncertainly, "Why?"
I apologize. I have not been honest with any of you. The truth is that I am over five hundred years of age."
"How is that even possible?" Jonathan wondered out loud, "Unless," his eyes narrowed and he dug the Vampire Killer back out of his backpack.
"You can put that away. While I have fought on the same side as that whip on more than one occasion, I assure you it can do significant and lasting damage to me in a variety of scales. I do not intend to harm any of you. I have already told you, I oppose Dracula. I have even defeated him before. But he is also…let me explain this more clearly. My mother's name was Lisa Fahrenheits, but she died over five hundred years ago. Burned at the stake under the accusation of being a witch. She had cured everyone in our village of a choleric plague. And because she knew how to cure it, the other townsfolk decided that she must have been the cause of it. Even as she was being burned alive, her kindness never wavered. She insisted that I not blame humans for the cruelty displayed by the people whose lives she had saved. Because she believed that even though men are capable of these terrible deeds, they are also able to do great and wonderful things. She told me also to pass that message on to my father who lived in a castle a few hours away from the town, and her final words were that she would love him for all eternity."
Stella, Loretta and Maria were all rubbing stray tears from their eyes, and Jonathan was rubbing the back of his neck trying to think of something to say.
Charlotte on the other hand was looking at Alucard suspiciously.
"You said that you're over five hundred years old, the Vampire Killer could hurt you significantly? Why is that exactly? And why did your mother tell you not to hate humans? That in particular sounds almost as though you aren't human at all, if you don't count the unnaturally long lifespan. So I don't think the situation is as much a 'who are you' question as it is a 'what are you' question."
"I will be honest with you: I am a dhampir; the cursed spawn formed from the union of a human and a vampire. My mother's name was Lisa. While you were reading your history of the Belmont family, there was a woman whose name was the full form of that name. Who was she?
Charlotte hesitated, before she realized what Alucard was implying.
"Your mother…was she the reincarnation of Elizabetha Cronqvist?"
"That is more than likely."
"So wait, are you implying that—"
"My father was Count Vlad Tepes of Walachia also known as Count Dracula. You are correct, Charlotte. You're deductive reasoning is astonishingly highly developed for one as young as nineteen years old. In any case, I'm sure that you want me gone. I'm far too dangerous to be awake. While it may have been better if I had not met you, it has been nice getting to know all of you, even if only for a short period of time. We will not meet again." As he said this, his melancholy voice seemed to grow more somber than usual.
"Wait! I still have another question for you!" Maria shouted, but Alucard had already transformed into a bat and was flying out the window.
Maria knew that she couldn't let him go back to sleep. She needed to know who the other Maria was. And he knew, she was sure of it. She was up the stairs and out the doors of the central chambers of the library in a heartbeat.
Memories that weren't hers flooded her mind. Being kidnapped by a creepy wizard in purple robes, and shortly thereafter being rescued by her sister's boyfriend Richter. Suddenly realizing that she could summon animal familiars in the blink of an eye. Saving Annette and the other maidens being used as sacrifices. Fighting alongside Richter up until his showdown with Dracula. Meeting a stranger in that creepy castle that had changed since she been there, and learning his name: Alucard. Fighting him to check whether he could subdue Richter and knock some sense into her soon-to-be brother-in-law. Nearly losing him to his sleep. Convincing him to live with her, Annette and Richter. Him saying that he was not a very good conversationalist and summoning an imp to talk for him (a plan that ultimately backfired when it proved to be cheeky). That same imp insulting her cooking and her own abduction by an incubus calling himself Magnus as she came home from the town market. Magnus showing her images of Alucard drinking blood. Alucard (the real Alucard) admitting that he once drank blood but that he refused to become that kind of monster ever again, and subsequently killing Magnus with the aid and tragic sacrifice of a childhood friend who had since become a vampire. As she ran through the marble corridors, following the crystalline dust that led out of the maze, she saw birthdays she'd never had, met friends that she had never known, go to places she had never been to. She watched her other self as she grew older, but always able to look at Alucard who never aged a day, and feeling like everything was stable. She felt tears in her eyes as she remembered her sister's death and Richter's subsequent depression, at that point an old man.
She tore her way through the entrance hall, not even caring about the zombies trying to attack her and burst out the front doors of the castle. She ignored Oliver completely as he tried to ask what she was so worked up about. She found the place where they had all parked the car and headed into the woods in the opposite direction of the castle.
"Alucard! Alucard where are you!" She didn't even need to ask him who she was anymore. She just needed to know who she was to him.
She considered herself lucky when she stumbled upon the cave. Running inside, it took on the appearance of a tomb, and that was where she found him. And he was doing something that she might have found funny if not for the seriousness of the situation: He was stepping into a coffin.
"Adrian, wait!"
Alucard froze. Maria clapped her hands over her mouth.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to get your name wrong! It just came to mind for some reason. I've never actually known anyone named Adrian before. I don't know why I called you that."
Then she realized that yes, in fact, she did.
"How did you know my real name?"
"I…I think…I remember. But what did Death mean when he said that he would have to find out if his theory was correct? Am I…?"
"I believe it might mean that he believes you to be the reincarnation of Maria Renard. You look and sound almost exactly like her and you even seem to be developing the same powers that she possessed. You have also been telling me that you instinctively knew things that you have never learned."
"I practically relived her entire life while chasing you. Who was she? I want–I need to know more!"
"My apologies, but you will have to find someone else. I'm afraid that I never met—"
Maria stepped into the coffin and angrily shoved Alucard out, making him land flat on his back. Stepping out again she dug one of her heels into his ribcage, not really caring about the fact that he probably wouldn't feel it through his breastplate. "You're a liar! I saw you there in the majority of her memories!"
"It may have been someone who looked like me," he tried to hide the fact that he was sweating and failed.
"No it wasn't, and you're going to tell me exactly who she was right now!"
Alucard tensed, then stood up and tried to walk away.
"Adrian…please?"
That stopped him in his tracks.
"Maria was…a good friend. She was already a talented witch when I met her; able to perform a kind of summoning magic I had never even heard of. She helped put an end to Dracula on two separate occasions: Once at the side of a Belmont when she was only twelve years old, and again when she was eighteen and working on her own. That was when I met her. She convinced me to live with her and her sister and that was where I stayed. Even for a while after she had died I stayed in that house to take care of her brother-in-law, the Belmont she had fought alongside with. After he died I went back to my tomb here and fell asleep again."
"She loved you. You know that right?"
Alucard nodded his head once but couldn't bring himself to say anything.
"I think I'm actually falling for you too you know."
At this Alucard only seemed to grow even tenser, "I will not…dishonor…her memory!" he choked out. He was breathing heavily and he was paler than usual.
"Are you alright? I guess that I might be pulling up a lot of painful memories for you. I'm sorry. But still, I'd like to get to know you better. I don't want to just go by someone else's memories. I won't ask you for very much, but could you at least continue with our group?"
"I'm sorry, but… I cannot do that."
Maria's eyes dimmed in annoyance. She recalled having done something to Richter to get him to let her come along with him. Maybe she could get it to work in reverse.
"I summon thee, Dragon of the Zodiac!"
Alucard's eyes widened as a huge serpent burst forth from a glowing Chinese symbol that appeared in the air above Maria. It flew around the cavernous tomb a few times before coming up behind the dhampir and giving him a forceful nudge strong enough to make him stagger forward, but not send him flying.
"Oh yes you can, Alucard! Now march!"
"Do you think she found him?" Loretta asked her sister.
"Don't ask me. I'm not omnipresent."
"There's no need to be sarcastic, Stella."
Charlotte pulled a book entitled Demons: How to Negotiate With Them Without Losing Your Soul off a shelf and began flipping through it.
With the sound of thousands of cackling ravens at least seventy more malphas spawned in the room in he room with them. Charlotte replaced the book with a look of disappointed irritation and maybe even a hint of fear.
There was no way to overcome this onslaught.
With a shriek and a roar, a huge bat burst through one of the windows followed by what could only be Shenlong incarnate. Jonathan got the Balmung out for another round and Charlotte opened the Book of Binding up to its buffed Chain Lightning spell…until the bat began shooting volleys of fire at the malphas while the dragon tore through multiple demons as it flew through the chamber. The four grounded companions stared up at the carnage occurring above them when they noticed a pair white birds circling the dragon's head diving at anything that came too close, not able to incapacitate any of the crow demons, but enough to push them away.
The great bat was shooting fireballs hitting malphas with pinpoint accuracy. Charlotte was growing nervous about the books catching fire but even when an accident seemed inevitable the dragon would block the (admittedly very few) stray fires with its sinewy coils before they could hit so much as a page on the shelves. One of malphas tried to set its spectral crows on the dragon only for them to be swallowed like potato chips before the bat came up behind it and burned through its torso. Though the remaining malphas seemed to be growing nervous, none of them seemed to be ready to back down.
The shrieking cries of a thousand demonic crows sounded as the malphas were either torn to shreds by the Chinese dragon or burned to a crisp by the bat's fireballs.
This rampage continued until there were about twenty remaining demons. The dragon was about to make another turn when it seemed to shimmer out of existence, leaving its rider to fall five stories to the floor. Moments before she landed she was caught by the bat and lowered gently to the floor. The bat flapped its way up a few feet before it drew its wings around itself and landed on the floor, a human figure with its cape drawn around itself.
Shouts of "Maria!" and "Alucard!" came from all around. They had suspected that it was the two of them from the moment the two creatures had begun helping them out, but the two figures on the floor confirmed their expectations.
Above them, the malphas had noticed that they no longer had a giant dragon to deal with, and were preparing to renew their assault. Several prepared to dive at their targets while others made to send waves of ravens at the group. None of them ever got the chance as a horrific shriek of rage filled the room.
One by one, the malphas began screaming. Nothing visible seemed to be happening to them, but then Loretta saw one of the malphas' bodies changing in a sickening way. She pointed at the particular creature to get the rest of the group's attention: They all recoiled in disgust as the crow demon seemed mutilate, its feathers losing their ebon color and falling off revealing ash grey skin that withered and grew more wrinkled and disfigured as they watched.
Useless vermin! Even if a horde of assorted monsters can't dispose of them, shouldn't an army of organized, thinking, intelligent archdemons at least be able to disable them! You shall spend all of eternity in bloodless agony for your pathetic failure; unable to move, unable to scream, unable even to die!
There was a familiar cackle as the vampire they had met back in Ithaca had materialized in front of them, a look of cruel satisfaction written on her almost purple features.
"Well done, mortal pests. I might even congratulate you if you weren't human scum. I would advise you to stop snooping around my master's castle. You never know what you'll find, and I assure you, I've left all sorts of…interesting surprises for you," she cackled again.
"If it isn't the home wrecker lady," Jonathan drawled. "You know, I almost had second thoughts about killing you seeing as you happen to be a helluva thorn in Death's side, but whenever I find myself thinking that, I just remember how much money it'll cost me to get our front porch fixed."
"What in the hell is wrong with you?" Stella gasped, appalled, "You sent all those monsters to try and fight us just to slow us down and then when the heavy duty attack dogs don't work quite fast enough for you, you just put them down? And like that? You are disgusting! And you waste resources better than campaigning politicians!"
Charlotte nodded, expressing her approval of Stella's analogy.
"You pathetic cockroaches!" Camilla shrieked. She drew back her scythe and swooped towards Stella. Not being particularly focused due to her rage, she ran herself through on one of Stella's swords as the swordmistress ducked beneath the scythe's otherwise deadly arc.
Stella stood up again and shook the vampire off of her sword, letting her drop feebly to the floor.
"Aww, does 'widdle Camilla have a temper?" Stella mocked her in a babying voice.
"Whore! I'll see to it that you don't live to see another sunrise!" Clutching her wound in one hand and her scythe in the other. She stepped back a few paces and faded into the darkness.
"Was that really necessary, Stella?" Jonathan asked, "She could have taken our heads off with that swing. If we had died it would have been your fault."
"Well then, as you might say, there's no problem here 'cause nobody actually got hurt anyway," Stella replied haughtily.
A pair of ornate double doors on the floor below them opened and a very old man walked out.
"What has been all of this racket!" he shouted hoarsely, "I can barely concentrate on my work! I told the monsters in the library to keep it down four hundred years ago and they're already being disobedient. Young creatures these days…"
In a very uncharacteristic move, Alucard actually smiled.
"Good to see you sir. I see you've not changed at all in all these years."
"Ah! Young master Tepes, my good pupil! What brings you back here after such aan extended period of absence?"
"That would be Master Fahrenheits Tepes to you, but I will not forget my manners in front of you, teacher."
"So…how has your father been…I've not heard from him in ages. You'd think he'd visit an old man now and again seeing as we live in the same castle…"
There was a moment in which nobody could think of anything to say. Except for one of them:
"You have no idea what's going on in the rest of the castle do you?"
Jonathan's comment was met with scowls from everyone else.
"Everyone's thinking it, I'm just saying it!"
The glares persisted.
Author's Note: So, how was that one? I'm very worried about Maria's 'epiphany' scene. Was it alright? I'm worried that it might feel a little rushed, or maybe just too…standard. I had wanted to work in Alucard's easter egg gargoyle form somewhere. I think I went a bit overboard with it seeing as it sent Alucard running a bit early. Also, was the banter between Maria and Alucard okay? I'm always worried that I'm getting them wrong. If you didn't like anything about it please let me know.