Chapter XVIII
Tragedy of an Undying Friendship
"These bugs are getting on my nerves!" Stella grumbled. "At least I get to test out how much maneuverability my new armor allows me."
"Oh jeez!" Maria shuddered as a gigantic dragonfly opened its mouth, revealing a swollen proboscis that began to spit what looked like corrosive green stomach acid. She couldn't tell which disgusted and terrified her more, she acid, or the view of the abomination's mouth.
"Arise, Holy Cardinals!" she shouted, summoning a pair of the red crested birds, both of which shot towards the beastly insect. They tore straight through its thorax, effectively cutting it into two pieces. "Insects should stay within their proper size limitations! Smaller than a half inch! Eeurgh!" She shuddered again.
They had reached the gardens with little to no difficulty, only having their progress impeded by a few zombies and armored skeletons, both of which only unnerved Maria. Once they arrived at their preliminary destination however, they were almost immediately set upon by a swarm of these oversized dragonflies.
Charlotte had cast Explosion several times but considering that they couldn't find the enchanted nest, no matter how many waves they got rid of, more of the giant bugs would keep coming. She had already worn herself out. She was feeling completely drained, which wasn't good for her ego considering that she was now limited to using her Completed Tome of Arms.
"I feel so useless without my magic!"
"Forget about that!" Loretta shouted, casting Blizzard Storm, freezing a few insects and blowing some others away, "At least you can defend yourself without your spells!"
"Char, if you can't use your magic, do you think you could do some recon?"
"Huh? What could you possibly need me to scout out at a time like this? You're completely surrounded by hostiles!"
"Well these 'hostiles' are going to keep on coming unless we destroy their nest. Go find it, and make it fast!"
"Oh! …Okay, got it! Hang in there 'til I get back," Charlotte agreed in a warning tone of voice, "If you go and die on me, I swear I'll kill you."
"No problem," Jonathan reassured her, "I could take these guys on all day. Although more than that I can't guarantee. Now get going!"
"Right!"
She ran off, going up a nearby staircase.
"How long do you really think we can hold them off?" Stella asked Jonathan.
"A few hours at best. I mean, Alucard is a huge help, but I don't think even he can stand up against an endless assault. Maria seems to be doing fine, but she isn't nearly as experienced as the rest of us. If she messes up, we're all in trouble. Also, if Loretta exhausts herself she becomes a liability, so she needs to be sure to pace herself."
Another wave of dragonflies emerged and Jonathan pulled out his crosses, throwing them at a group of the freakish bugs. Catching them both as they boomeranged back, he spun around and tossed them towards another crowded area without missing a beat, killing almost eight of the monsters in total. Putting the crosses away, he pulled out his darkfire whip and lashed out at an insect that had come a bit too close, his first swing leading straight into his second attack on another nearby dragonfly.
Alucard was beginning to tire of fighting the same kind of enemy over and over again. He slashed several of the monsters to pieces with his heirloom sword before going to check on the other hunters when something caught his eye: Maria was just standing still as several enemies approached her. She seemed lost in thought.
"Maria, now is not the time to be standing about idly! Pay attention to your—
"Aha! I remember! Heed my call, Feline of Pride!"
As she said the incantation, a cat materialized I front of her, transforming from something more akin to a housecat into a large silver-furred bobcat with primeval fangs. It purred as she gave it a quick stroke on the head before it pounced on the nearest dragonfly and ate it like a prepared meal. Its next two victims were lucky enough not to be eaten alive, but that was as far as their luck went. They still ended up sundered by a bobcat. This continued until the dragonflies figured out that the cat was clearly their predator and stayed clear of it, and Maria by extension.
"You were saying, Alucard?"
"…I stand corrected."
"Yes, you do."
"That feline at your side and those cardinals you summoned earlier. They are both animals that Maria Renard summoned regularly as her partners in battle. When did you learn to summon them? It must have been quite recent as I've not seen you perform such spells before."
"Well, as you probably heard, I just remembered how to call this friendly big guy. The cardinals though…I can't really remember. Maybe the memory of summoning them came back to me while I was asleep?"
"Perhaps. That would not be unheard of."
"…He's so cute!" Maria suddenly gushed, scratching the cat around its ears. "I think that if I'm going to keep coming with you, having this guy around will be a big help. Although…"
"Is something the matter?"
"Well, this really doesn't support the notion that I'm really Mariabella Fox. It actually would suggest the opposite. That I'm supposed to be Maria Renard."
"I would argue against that. Nothing can be said for certain."
"But still! I like these powers that I've gotten. Before this, I was content just to be an average student at Cornell University back in New York State. Now…well… it's only been a few days of this, not even two weeks yet, but I'm already not sure I'll be able to go back so easily. I really want to see my other friends again, and I'm sure my parents are worried about me, considering that I usually write them almost every other day. Heh, I'll bet even my sister and her boyfriend are probably worried about me."
"I'm sure that if you can adjust to talking to a creature such as myself so regularly, you can readjust to your normal life."
Maria smiled at his attempt to cheer her up, but she laughed at his intended proof, "That is such a bad example. You look exactly like a human. Other than the noble behavior and getup, and the unnaturally fair skin, you look just like a human, so of course I could get used to you. The monsters are another story. But I guess I've gotten used to most of them too."
"Although you're still frightened of the undead monsters. I should expect that must be reassuring. You still want to return to your education, and you still love your friends and family."
"I guess that's true, but what about everything about me that's from other Maria? I know that she's the reason I like these Victorian-style outfits. Even before I first came here, I've never been able to tolerate it when people give me any sort of criticism on my cooking. I don't even know if these feelings I have for you are genuine," she blushed madly upon realizing what she had used as an example, covering her mouth with her hands as if by putting them there quickly enough, the words would be unsaid.
As it happened, her train of thought was broken and their unconventional therapy session was cut short as Charlotte ran back into the room.
"I found the nest. Burned it. All flowers and sunshine from now on…at least until we see something else that wants to kill us."
"Huh. I was wondering why I couldn't hear those dragonflies anymore. I guess I was too preoccupied to think about it more clearly."
"Preoccupied?" Charlotte asked incredulously, "With what?… And where in the world did that bobcat come from?"
"Oh. I, uh, summoned it," Maria clarified.
"And once again, I'm feeling inferior to the novice."
An oozing watery substance landed on her shoulder with a splat. She looked at the slime in disgust, trying in vain to move her shoulder far away from her neck. Finally, she noticed that Maria was staring past her and realized that something was definitely violating her personal space.
"There's a disgusting vine with a decaying human face at the end of it hanging over me isn't there?"
Maria nodded, but didn't seem very intimidated. More drool landed of Charlotte's shoulder and she cringed as she felt it running down her arm.
"Ew…Maria, what are you just standing there for? You have a huge bobcat at your disposal! Kill this damn plant and make it stop drooling on me!"
"Oh, right, that's what I was thinking. Uproot that ugly vine for me would you sweetheart, she said pleasantly to the feline, which obeyed without another word."
As if it sensed the impending danger, the corpseweed lunged at Charlotte. If it had to die here, it would be damned if it didn't at least have one last meal.
As it turned out, it was damned.
"Has anyone got a rag I can borrow?" Charlotte asked, "I don't know how much longer I can hold down my lunch with this drool on my shoulder."
"Hey, Alucard, can I borrow your handkerchief, again?" Maria asked, holding her hand out.
"Certainly," he dropped the cloth gently into Maria's waiting hand, at which point she immediately picked the oozing saliva up off of Charlotte's shoulder. She immediately dragged the handkerchief along the ground to rid it of the slimy substance, and causing Alucard to adopt a facial expression commonly worn by curmudgeonly old men.
I'm sorry Alucard, but would you rather have monster drool on your tissue, or a bit of dirt? I'd choose dirt."
"You never said that 'neither was not an option, so I'd truly rather have neither on it. Though…I suppose it cannot be helped now."
"I commend you for your continued survival," came a voice, "Your resourcefulness and your abilities to defend yourself almost make me sorry that you'll be dead so soon."
They had only heard the voice once before, but Jonathan and Charlotte had made a point of remembering it. It did, after all, belong to their target. Said target was presently standing on a ledge overlooking the center of the garden, a pompous smirk perfectly clear on his pale features.
"Alastor, so you came to us?" Jonathan snarled in preparation for battle, "Thanks for making our job that much easier. We appreciate it!" he shouted lunging at the vampire, Vampire Killer out and thrashing. Alastor, sidestepped the attack and blocked it with a strange, black sword with the sharpest edge Jonathan had ever seen. Embedded in the pommel was a blood-red gemstone, and he may have been imagining it, but for a moment he could hear familiar screams from deep inside the blade.
Deep inside the blade? The whole sword wasn't even as thick as his arm at its widest point other than the guard. There was no depth for the screams to come from. He'd go see a doctor about this when they got back.
"Hmph! Do try to control yourself. I can't have my sword tainted by the filthy blood of a human now can I?" Alastor sneered.
"Between the two of us there is someone with blood filthier than the slums of Istanbul, but it certainly isn't me!" he lashed out again with the Vampire Killer, only for Alastor to leap deftly out of the way. "I'm truly sorry, but I'll not be joining you on this particular evening. I have made arrangements for your entertainment however."
Based on the malicious grin spreading steadily across his face, none of them expected any of said 'arrangements' could be good for any of them.
"Please, my servant, it's not polite to keep my guests waiting," Something in the cruel tone of Alastor's voice was unsettling. It was the tone a slave driver who enjoyed his job might use, Jonathan thought.
"No! I will not obey you, monster!"
"Ah, how hypocritical. You call me a monster, when you yourself are no different. It's true; I have been a vampire since birth. However your own master is the one who inflicted the curse of the vampire on you. So I wonder, between me and the son of that worm Mathias, which of the two of us is the true monster?"
"You are one hundred times the monster that Master Alucard could have ever been, despicable scum!"
Alastor merely cackled, before vanishing, leaving them alone except for the unseen speaker.
"That voice! It's impossible!" Alucard gasped, eyes wide with horror.
"What do you mean? Who was Alastor talking to, Alucard?" Maria asked apprehensively.
"It simply cannot be…" Alucard said, his voice a ghost of a whisper.
The speaker stepped out of the shadows, looking as though he was being pushed by something. He wore a white shirt beneath a black coat that reached his ankles. His unnaturally pale face was contrasted by his jet-black hair, and in his effort to avoid moving, he had his teeth bared, exposing a set of fangs.
"Lyudmil!"
"Alucard! You…you must destroy me…now! I do not know…how much…longer I can fight Alastor's…will!"
"He's controlling you? Cowardly bastard!"
"Regardless, I shall end up killing all of you if you do not…destroy me! Aarrghh!" Lyudmil lunged at Alucard, fangs bared, only for the dark prince to dive out of the way and slash at his former servant's back, missing by a few inches.
"You know this guy?" Jonathan asked him as he jumped away from another attack, once again trying to strike Lyudmil.
"We were friends…many years ago…yyrraaghh!…I was his servant in…this castle."
"And for a time, my only friend," Alucard concluded.
"Then why are you fighting?" Maria shouted, "Find a way to break Alastor's control! You saved…Richter…that was his name, right?…from a spell that was controlling him before! Why can't you do the same with Lyudmil?"
"Richter was being controlled by the Dark Priest Shaft, an entity that had no body of his own and was restricted to hovering near his host's body. If Alastor was here, and we could kill him, then we could save Lyudmil. As it stands however, Alastor has trapped us all inside this garden."
"His intention…was to either have me kill all of you…or to break Alucard's spirit by forcing him to kill me. Unfortunately, he played his cards flawlessly."
"I've never heard of a pure-hearted vampire before. He could have been a valuable research subject," Charlotte murmured, her curiosity practically forming a visible aura around her. Unfortunately for her, Jonathan was listening closely, and slapped her in the back of the head.
"Hey! What was that for?" she hollered furiously.
"He's not a lab rat, Charlotte. Don't talk about him like one. Honestly, sometimes you just have no common sense."
"Hmph, you're one to talk."
"You have a point, but so do I."
Meanwhile, Alucard dodged another attack, and missed with his own strike again. Jonathan made a move to enter the fray but was startled when Alucard shot a fireball at him, forcing him to leap out of the way.
"Stay out of this, all of you! This is between Lyudmil and myself. I have no need for your assistance."
"Alucard! Hurry up and destroy me!" Lyudmil shouted.
"You're too fast! Use a weapon of some sort!"
"You're right. That may help you."
Lyudmil picked up a sword from a fallen skeleton blaze and attempted to slash at Alucard, but the dhampir parried the attack and kicked Lyudmil in the chest, knocking him onto his back for a moment, though he picked himself up fairly quickly and blocked Alucard's follow-up strike with his second-hand sword. He lunged at Alucard again, locking swords with him, pushing with all of his might.
Full-blooded vampire or not, he was still outmatched. Alucard slid away from their struggling position, using Lyudmil's excess momentum against him. The vampire found himself thrown forward by his own weight, and was barely able to block Alucard's next strike. The half-blood didn't stop there however. He continued slashing ferociously with his heirloom sword, giving his former servant no room to counterattack, keeping him entirely on the defensive. Steel clanged against steel as the two swords collided.
Lyudmil was prepared to block every single attack that Alucard directed at him. Whether or not he could land a hit himself, he was able to continue this indefinitely. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and Alucard was gone. He looked around, wondering where he'd gone when suddenly…
"Hellfire!"
A salvo of fireballs slammed into Lyudmil from behind, where Alucard had rematerialized. Before he was able to recover, Alucard had driven his sword through his chest, a look of regret crossing his stoic features. Lyudmil coughed, hacking up a handful of blood, before his strength abandoned him and he collapsed. He smiled, even as blood began to pool beneath him and trickled from the corner of his mouth. Alucard knelt beside his former servant, propping his head up with his right hand.
"Alastor will pay for this, old friend. I promise you."
"Thank you, Master Alucard… I express my deepest…regrets that I've caused you such pain again…even after what I've already done. How is it…that I've ended up being the tool of a creature of the night so often? This is the third time you've been forced to kill me. Perhaps God truly has…abandoned me."
"You've kept a pure soul, even as a creature of darkness. I know little about the methods in which He operates, but I can only imagine that this fact alone proves that you've not been deemed a lost cause in the Lord's eyes."
"That is a pleasant thought… Perhaps you're right."
"Perhaps. I could not know for certain."
"No one in the world could. It is…not just you." He coughed once again, expelling more blood from his mouth, "Three times… I suppose…I could…influence…a dark priest to…resurrect me. I…could become notorious…for constantly reviving, just like…your…father." Lyudmil was making a physical effort just to continue speaking at this point. Life's only certainty had finally come for him again.
"I suppose that would be amusing. Perhaps you should attempt that the next time I sense a threat to humanity. You would make a formidable ally."
"Y…es… I ag…ree… M…as…t…er… A…l…u…—"
Lyudmil never finished his sentence.
"Good luck in the next life…Old friend."
Alucard stood up. A look of fierce determination on his face, "Are we prepared to face Alastor?" he asked grimly.
"You know it. I don't like problems after all, and he is a big one," Jonathan confirmed.
There was a round of agreements.
"Alright then. I'll lead," Jonathan decided, "The top of the castle is… this way!" he pointed towards a door and was about to move when Charlotte stopped him.
"Hold on! Maria, I feel like I should clean that handkerchief off."
Before Maria could stop her, Charlotte had snatched Alucard's handkerchief from her and was bringing it over to a nearby fountain.
"Charlotte, that's a really bad idea!"
"Come on, it's just a fountain," she unfolded the cloth and began soaking it in the water when something she wasn't expecting happened. Maria on the other hand was completely ready, and was simply staring at her friend with a look of pity as a merman surfaced inside the fountain.
"I already told you to stop making a mess on our doorstep! Are you not satisfied with making a mess out front? You have to sully our back door too!"
"What are the chances? It's the same guy," Maria groaned, shaking her head in dismay as Charlotte took a jet of water to the face.
Only a few minutes later they once again heard the screams. They sounded slightly different this time, but they were unquestionably of the same kind of source
"What are those sounds!" Maria shouted over the din. "They're terrible! This is the third time too!"
The noise died down soon enough, but even after it was gone, nobody said anything for a while. Finally Alucard decided to break the silence by responding to Maria's question.
"I'm afraid that I cannot answer that," Alucard muttered grimly, "To be perfectly honest, the most I can say is that something has been caused a great deal of pain."
"But what?" Charlotte demanded, "Not to mention who's doing this? Is it Alastor?"
"Most likely, but as for what it is…I haven't the faintest idea."
"How about why they're screaming like that?" Charlotte continued asking questions.
"I've never heard anything of the like. Whether I appear it or not, those noises set my fangs on edge."
"You? Scared?" Jonathan gave the dhampir a questioning look, before raising his hands in hasty apology, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound obnoxious! It's just not something I would have expected."
"As you might say, no problem. I'm perfectly fine. Now you should lead on. We cannot afford to dally about here."
Jonathan nodded and opened the door, motioning for the rest of the group to follow him. Beyond it was a spiral staircase that appeared to lead towards a large area of the castle with a number of large, elegant windows, some of which were stained glass. While the staircase seemed familiar, Jonathan knew where he was going. He had studied the map for almost an hour back when they took their break at the castle's entrance. At the top of this staircase was the grand ballroom, and the only areas beyond that were the living quarters and the top floor. He began his ascent.
"Psst! Charlotte!" Loretta whispered fiercely.
"Huh? What is it?" Charlotte began before the younger Lecarde sister quickly put a hand to her mouth.
"Keep it down, I don't want to worry my sister, she'll likely overreact, but I have to tell someone."
"Oh…uh, okay," Charlotte whispered back, "What do you need to say?"
"Well, it's just that…what Death said earlier worried me. He said that he couldn't tell us anything that we didn't have the evidence to discover on our own already. But then how could he tell us that Orlok is likely at the top of the tower? What evidence of that do we have?"
"Well, uh, we have…" Charlotte tried to answer, pressing her index fingers together, but coming up short, "Actually, I can't think of any reason why we would know that. As far as I can tell, his ugly corpse should still be buried under a massive pile of tower wreckage."
"Exactly," Loretta confirmed, her eyes narrowing, "So what does this mean?"
Charlotte hesitated.
"I don't know…I haven't got the first clue."
"And that's what's worrying me."
Not quite the answer Loretta had hoped to hear.
Author's Note: I always liked Lyudmil. He was a tragic, and very moving character, even if he only appeared in a radio show that only aired in Japan. On a related matter, Alucard's imp familiar is really obnoxious to Maria Renard.