"Are you sure you want to do this?" Shinji asked her.

The two of them had been in the living room for a bit now. Asuka was in the process of locking her boots in place when he asked. Deep in her mind she wanted to yell at him.

"Of course I'm not sure! I have power, but is it enough? I'm going to be taking the cult on directly and this could go very badly. I could die, or worse, get captured so they can go forward with their own plans, but I'm the only one who can do this."

Instead she nodded. "It must be done," was all she replied. "The only way I'll be free of this is to destroy the cult. I have to kill Decius."

"You have to find him first," Shinji noted. "You said yourself that you remember he didn't actually live where the rituals were taking place."

"No," Asuka agreed. "But someone there must know where he is. I'll get the information out of them."

"I suppose I don't have to tell you to be careful," Shinji noted.

"No but you will anyway," Asuka countered as she strapped her gauntlets on. She stood up to find Shinji standing in front of her. Without ceremony he put his right arm around her waist and pulled her into a kiss. Asuka had no problem with that, feeling just how much he loved and worried about her in that moment. With so many memories lost to her, he and his surrogate mother were all she had in this world now. When they parted lips their faces were still inches from each other. Asuka didn't have to open her eyes to know Shinji's were still closed as well.

"Be careful," he whispered.

"As careful as I can be," Asuka replied just as silently.

He finally let her go at that and Asuka made her way to the door, resolute in her goals of destroying the cult. Silence was all that remained between them as she left. Nothing else needed to be said…

V: The Goal

The skies opened up above as a monsoon seemed to fall around her. Though she was getting soaked, Asuka paid no mind to the horrid weather. She was closer to her goal now, and nothing, not even Mother Nature herself would stop her.

Ahead of her stood an old warehouse. It wasn't the building itself that she wanted, it was the basement beneath it. This was the largest building on Urahara Road, and also the least occupied. Despite being in the middle of the city, it was quiet and empty, unused, or so it seemed. Asuka knew better though. She could almost sense the evil beneath the place.

Entering quietly, she found the stairs going down. As she got closer, the familiar smells of a cultist lair wafted up to her nose… it smelled just like that place downtown…

"Where's Decius?!" Asuka yelled at the cultist. His eyes were wide with fear as he glanced past Asuka to the bodies of his brothers. Some were still pouring blood out of gaping wounds carved with her scythe.

It was a basement of a downtown club in Tokyo-2 called the Last Mark. It was a popular hangout for unsavory types, most of which were well armed. It took Asuka less than a minute to reduce the population of the bar down from two dozen cultists and assorted individuals to three people; the last cultist, the bartender, and herself. Anyone who hadn't died by her hand, had long since fled.

"Midtown!" the cultist managed. "19772 Uraha Road! The basement of the warehouse is one of our main haunts! He's there I swear it!"

"Oh I believe you," Asuka whispered darkly, "but you're still going to die…"

Her eyes snapped opened, seeing with clarity the symbol of the cult carved into the old wooden door. Without ceremony she kicked in said door, and was immediately greeted by a mix of stronger odors ranging from sandalwood incense to freshly spilt blood. Her eyes quickly swept the room, and she counted at least 20 cultists as she entered. She wasted no time with what needed to be done.

Before the first two could even draw a weapon they had their throats sliced opened with the sickles Asuka had in her hands. Stepping forward her hands came together forming the sickles into an ornate scythe. With a low spin she slashed though the lower abdomen of the next closest cultist, spilling blood and entrails onto the floor to the horror of onlookers.

With the cultists finally getting their act together Asuka decided to up the ante. Releasing her scythe, it faded from view as one of her least used glyphs on her back lit up. She rushed forward at speed jumping over a pair of cultists to get at a specific target wearing higher ranked robes behind them. In midair her form seemed to shift as her normal outfit faded and was replaced with leather which hid little. Razor sharp claws extended from her hands as fur began to trail up her arms, across her face and down her body. As her tail came into being and her body structure completed its metamorphosis, she landed upon the front of the cultist and clawed his face nearly off of his skull with a wicked, left-handed slash. Kicking off she flipped hard and fast backwards sending her foot up in a graceful kick. Like a blade cutting air the cultist was eviscerated instantly by the attack. Before either he or his guts could begin falling. Asuka already twisted and pounced on her next target, clawing and biting like a jaguar before kicking off and lashing out at the next nearest cultist.

With blades drawn several tried to rush her only to find she wasn't even there anymore. Running on all fours she slipped past the targets trying to surround her to strike a lone cultist who wasn't fast enough to get into the main assault. He was quickly dispatched with another slashing kick before she turned her attention to the line of cultists behind her. They couldn't correct themselves in time as she had already begun to kill them one by one. A bolt of lightning barely missed her prompting her to change tactics again.

Ending the effects of the Arma Felix Glyph, she switched back into her high speed assault stance she'd become famous for. She summoned a pair of swords in reverse grips and began to seemingly slide from target to target slashing and weaving as she went. Finally, after nearly two and a half minutes of constant melee, she stood near the altar where another innocent girl was put up for sacrifice.

The lead cultist was at her head with a sacrificial dagger to the girl's throat.

"That's far enough," the cultist warned, though Asuka could see he was afraid. Twenty -three cultists lay dead in the room, he would make the twenty-fourth if he didn't take some kind of action. But Asuka knew he really had no options. Even if he tried to cut the girl's throat, she was far too fast for him to stop her thanks to her mastery of the Rapidus Fio Glyph.

She didn't respond, instead she moved quicker than the cultist could see, knocking his blade away and slamming him into the wall hard enough to daze him. He looked down noting he was being held off the ground with only her left hand. An ornate knife appeared in her right hand.

"Now," Asuka whispered dangerously. "I'm only going to ask this once, after that I'll start removing non-essential body parts until I get the information out of you that I seek. Where is Decius?"

His response was spitting in her face. With her eyes closed she wiped the spittle away with the back of her hand, then proceeded to use her blade to slice off his right ear prompting a cry of pain. Blood trailed from the wound away from her blade as she pulled back, the severed ear dropping to the ground with nary a sound. True to her word she didn't ask again, instead prepared to slice off the left ear next.

"Okay! I'll talk! Just stop!" But Asuka said nothing and sliced the other ear off causing him to scream louder.

"I swear I don't know! But there's a-a letter! There's a letter from someone important there! Waiting for him!"

Asuka dropped the man on the ground who proceeded to hold the gaping wounds on his head. Asuka walked to where the rolled paper waited, with a seal on it baring the upside-down cross with wings she was used to seeing from the cult.

Wasting no time, she unrolled the note, noting the seal was already broken. Decius had been here but he wasn't now, and the note told her what she needed to know.

Praetor Decius,

The time will soon be upon us. Preparations have been made to begin the ritual… the Candidate will be ours shortly. All that remains is to bring the Glyph-barer to our headquarters on the island of Awashima. There in our mountain stronghold we will complete the ritual. When the Dark Lord is once again at our side, we will be able to reclaim the castle from its hidden confines… Castlevania will rise once again! Our victory is now close at hand Decius… Join us at the fortress with all due haste, and bring six of your sacrifices for the final ceremony, we will have need of them... And make sure to bring the Glyph-barer.

Your Lord and Master,

Shaft

As she read the message, the man whispered a few words to halt the bleeding of his head, then sneered at Asuka standing up.

"Slogra! Me ab inimicis meis vocavi te perdere!" he suddenly yelled out gesturing to a specific place in the room. All at once, a massive column of hellfire erupted a mere 30' from Asuka's position in the direction of the gestures. When it finally calmed a few moments later, a bird-like and nearly skeletal humanoid armed with a massive spear stood at the ready. Its long beak seemed to drip blood.

The cultist laughed maniacally. "Now you face one of the Knights of Death, you cunt! You'll pay for what you have done he- " His bravado was suddenly cut off by a knife punching through his throat. Asuka noted as a new blade appeared in her hand that despite the death of the summoner, this 'Slogra' wasn't returning from whence he came.

"Guess I'll have to fight you after all," Asuka noted grimly. "Very well 'Knight of Death', let's see what you are made of."

It's response was a horrid shriek that sounded at once like it came from some deep abyss, and echoed as if emitted in a mountain range.

Asuka opened the battle with a barrage of blades to which Slogra easily blocked them with his spinning spear. The moment she became winded from her attack it slid forward with unnatural speed nearly skewering her in the process but she managed to dodge. Before she could recover she had to use all her strength to catch the pointed beak heading for her head and hold it at bay. Pulling the spear back he tried to run her though again but Asuka was able to get out of the way. In annoyance Slogra threw his head to the side, tossing Asuka across the room.

Upon hitting the wall and sliding down, she quickly got back to her feet seeing the bird-like monster leap at a shallow angle at her. Running to the right the demon missed but quickly slid into a rush after her.

"This thing is harder than I thought it would be," Asuka managed aloud and turned in time to almost get skewered again. Finally summoning up a shield she protected herself as the blade point slammed into her defenses again and again in rapid succession. She watched in dismay as the shield began to crack, with one last strike shattering her defenses at last. Asuka was able to shift left away from the point as it broke though, but was grabbed around her midsection by the beak and thrown hard into a column. Her small body shattered the column as it hit it and kept going until it stopped near the opposite wall.

Groaning, Asuka managed to get back up in time to dodge the next attempted impalement. Switching to her axes she tried to go offensive only to have Slogra quickly bounce away. Taking the opportunity, she jumped up close to the ceiling and let loose both axes. Both managed to catch Slogra directly but despite the damage and the blood, he landed on his feet and began to regenerate the damage.

"Oh I don't think so," she exclaimed and made her left axe disappear. Rushing forward she threw the axe and followed it up with a spray of fire. Slogra jumped back after getting hit with the axe but still managed to get seared by the flames. Asuka flipped forward combining the two glyphs. A massive axe, far bigger than one had the right to be, appeared as she swung it and its edge burst into flames. With a horrible shriek, Slogra was split in half with his wound cauterized. He wasn't coming back from that one.

"Short battle, but ouch," Asuka noted. "That hurt like all hell."

"Asuka!" Shinji called out as he entered the room with a gun drawn.

"Shinji!" she called back, getting his attention. "There's a survivor!"

Shinji quickly made his way to the altar to let the girl go. Asuka searched and found a sheet to wrap the poor girl in, returning her modesty to her. As Shinji held her trying to calm the hysterical cries about demons and monsters, Asuka retrieved the paper and reread it.

"I'd ask how you managed to find me, but not like I couldn't figure that out for myself" Asuka noted.

"You made it pretty easy actually," Shinji noted as he looked around at the bodies. "I see Decius is not amongst the dead."

"Shaft called him to Awashima Island," Asuka noted a she pocketed the note. "They will begin the ritual within the week."

"They can't do it without you," Shinji noted. "Just stay away from this, and we can let the authorities handle it."

"They can't!" Asuka noted emphatically. "I remember what happened the day I was taken by the cult! This is way beyond them, and you know it."

"Asuka, I…"

"I know, Shinji-kun. I know you don't want to see me getting hurt, but I have to do this. There is no other way now. I am the only one who has the power to end this once and for all."

"Not the only one," Shinji noted. Asuka thought for a moment and the answer suddenly became clear to her. "You should see if she will help you," he continued knowing Asuka just came to the conclusion Shinji wanted her to reach.

"Do I really want to drag Selina into this?" she asked herself aloud.

"She's already a part of it. Remember the battle in the village?"

"Ah yes," Asuka said with disdain. "Rastur…"

"She will help you if you ask her, I know she will."

Asuka sighed, knowing she had little choice in the matter now. Alone was not an option, she would be too vulnerable, and the island was bound to house horrors greater than what she so far faced.

"I'll go to her," she replied. Then another thought occurred to her. "There is another innocent caught up in all of this… the note mentioned that they found the candidate for the Dark Lord. He may already be at the island."

Shinji seemed to pause a moment longer than necessary, as if deliberating something. "Maybe, maybe not. We'll do what we can here to try to locate them before the cult does, if they haven't already found him. But, Asuka, it literally could be anyone. If he is at the island, you must rescue him."

"I will. Good luck on your end." Asuka gave him a brief hug before she ran out, knowing the authorities were likely looking for her by now.

Two days later, Asuka completed the ascent up Mount Tomuraushi. The spirits that assailed her the first time simply watched her as she passed though; she had already completed their trial. As she ascended, she wondered how her mentor and surrogate mother had been doing since she left. A slight chuckle escaped her as she realized it had only been a matter of days since she left this place and completed her training.

As she reached the opened path with the core of the mountain visible, she stopped walking with a feeling of dread suddenly overcoming her. She looked around, seeing one of the Salem Witches that assailed her before phase though the wall. The female spirit stared at her ominously, almost sadly.

"What are you staring at?" Asuka asked defensively.

"You do not even know the answer to that question," the spirit replied.

Asuka was about to protest when suddenly she was overwhelmed by another memory. Pain surged through her body as her mind fell into the past.

"She's perfect," An evil voice spake in her mind.

"Give her the marks of the master!" commanded another.

"Dominus… with this she will be the key…" a deep throated voice replied.

"One final sacrifice," came the voice of a woman, disjointed and impossible to place. Glowing eyes opened in the dark, red and full of malice.

"You are not worthy of the power of Dracula!" the voice screamed.

Asuka broke from the vision roughly. The spirit was gone, leaving her feeling almost drained from the experience. Unable to reconcile the images, she put them to the back of her mind.

"I must have imagined it," Asuka whispered. "This ordeal with the cult is taking its toll on me. Soon it will be over," she assured herself.

Upon reaching the top of the mountain she saw Selina preparing wood for her fire. The scene roused her from the depressing feelings that lingered since her encounter in the caves. The training grounds were especially snow covered today and it was a bit cold, but Asuka couldn't feel the cold anymore; the magic of the glyphs maintained her temperature now, allowing her to feel comfortable in most environmental conditions.

"You know it would be so much easier to do that using magic," Asuka noted aloud with an amused tone in her voice.

Selina looked up startled then appeared happy. Asuka went to her and the two shared a brief embrace.

"It is good to see you again," Selina noted. "But I wasn't expecting to see you so soon after your training had been concluded."

"The time is almost upon us," Asuka replied at her query. "I attacked one of the major cult strongholds in the city. There was a message there for Decius from Shaft himself stating it was time."

"I see," Selina replied looking concerned. "Did they say where the ritual was taking place?"

"Awashima Island," Asuka replied. "The note seemed to indicate they may already have the Dark Lord's Candidate on the island."

"I can see why you came here," Selina noted with concern in her voice. "This was far sooner than either of us could have anticipated. I will accompany you to the lsland and help you finish this. Between the two of us, I'm certain we'll be able to deal with what awaits us there."

"That is my hope as well."

Selina's face took a more serious turn. "You realize though, if the Dark Lord's Candidate is already on the island, they would have already prepared him for his ascension to become the Dark Lord. He will be twisted and dark now, even if he appears normal on the outside."

"I understand," Asuka said sadly. "He must die then."

"I fear there is no other recourse, my student. We must also assume that they know you are coming and have prepared appropriately. They need you to finish their dark scenario."

Asuka sighed and turned towards the setting sun. The cold picked up enough for even her to feel it though the glyphs but she couldn't shiver, as if unable to react to it.

"Tactically, this is quite dangerous," Selina continued. "If they manage to capture you, they will have everything they need to complete their plans… but…"

"But," Asuka replied finishing the thought. "I am one of very few who can do this."

"We will leave tonight," Selina decided. "You should go inside, help yourself to food, and rest. We have a long night ahead of us."

"Thank you."

Asuka finished eating quickly, then took some time to read in the library in order to settle her mind for the short nap to come. The encounter in the cave lingered in her mind but she wasn't sure what to make of it all. She decided it was time to look into what it was that contacted her. It took almost an hour before she finally found a similar picture. What she read was not encouraging…

"The spiritual entity known as the "Salem Witch" by many historians, is a spirit of a female practitioner of the Wiccan or other magical arts. While witchcraft is often associated with the devil, such entities are normally transformed into demonic creatures or apparitions. Salem Witches however avoid this fate as they practiced nature based Wiccan rites which are actually light based, rather than dark.

"According to legend, these spirits guard tombs or other holy sites in death, and can often appear to a soul who has suffered a great betrayal in their lifetime…"

Asuka wondered at that. Had she been betrayed? From what little she remembered of her time at NERV, betrayal was the name of the game. But how did that relate to the visions she received when she was approached by one such spirit?

The sound of a clearing throat pulled her from her pondering.

"I figured you'd be asleep by now," Selina noted.

"I wish," Asuka replied. "I'm still too wired." She closed the book she was reading. Selina seemed to note which one she put down. "Mama… Why do you think some people are so dead set on reviving Count Dracula?"

Selina seemed to ponder that a moment as she walked towards the window. "I suppose some see hope in worshiping him," she replied at length. "Others might believe he will bring them eternal life or salvation."

"Shinji said it was because God abandoned the world," Asuka replied. "And people are too weak individually to seek their own salvation."

"I never pegged Shinji to see religion as a weakness," Selina replied. "He's seen far too much for such odd views. Both of you have."

"Tis true," Asuka replied. "I have few memories of that time, as you know, but the memories I do have would certainly convince me that there was more to religion than just finding something to believe in."

Selina sat down near the window. "Religion does give us power, but it in turn has the power to dominate us completely if we are careless," Selina noted. "For some, that domination would be salvation in their eyes. The weakest I imagine want to be controlled on some level, while the stronger ones have a tendency to see religion not as a crutch or security blanket but rather a support that empowers them and grants them strength they wouldn't have alone."

"So for we who have abandoned God… what does that say about us?"

Selina looked to Asuka momentarily before returning her gaze towards the window.

"What indeed?" She sighed. "Try to rest."

Asuka nodded before finally making her way to her bed. She'd rest only a short while….

Hours later, Selina and Asuka arrived on the shore of Awashima island. Asuka realized just how much Selina wasn't kidding about the long night ahead of them. The waves lapped against the rocky coast as they disembarked their small vessel, a boat stolen from the docks on the mainland. Mere moments after they touched the dirt, they felt the presence of the supernatural… and it was getting closer.

"They couldn't have started already, could they?" Asuka noted as she summoned a pair of swords.

Flames spiraled around Selina as she prepared herself for combat. "No, but wherever the cult is, the supernatural is sure to follow."

Armored warriors wielding pikes leapt from the nearby brush to meet the intruders head on. Asuka however was ready for their assault and launched forwards at blinding speed. Selina supported her from the rear with fire as they quickly made their way up the hilly terrain. Their enemies seemed to be legion and yet Asuka would not slow down. She knew time was against them now and this travesty had to end, no matter what stood between her and the goal. Killing these minions of darkness was not the goal but rather a distraction from that goal, and so Asuka concentrated on getting further inland, only destroying the enemies that mattered and doing so on the fly. Selina was able to keep up though it seemed only barely so, forcing Asuka to take out more targets than she wanted to, and spend more energy that she though she required.

Minutes later, they managed to make it to a dirt road though the forest. Only a few of the pikemen followed them to the road, where they quickly met their end in flames by Selina. Asuka took that moment to look down the road in both directions. Looking north, she saw the silhouette of a castle.

"It can't be," Asuka whispered believing she was looking at something that shouldn't be there.

"It isn't," Selina replied. "This island was owned by an eccentric businessman before Second Impact. He had a European style castle built here, and it was quite the attraction until the day the seas rose and cut off transportation to the island."

"He make any money off of it?" Asuka asked.

"Some," she replied. "It was enough of a curiosity that it garnered at least some international fame, but not much as few people alive today even know about it."

"Perfect place for the cult to use as the ritual grounds. It looks creepy enough."

Selina smirked. "Amazing how no matter how function a place is, once the cult gets there hands on it, the perception changes into something evil."

"Why?" Asuka asked as she started down the road with her.

"Because the Cult's magic permeates everything they settle upon and expose their energies to. It's why every hideout that regularly houses them seems so dark and foreboding. It's how their sacrificial chambers are created really. They don't carve the columns or redecorate the walls. It simply happens."

"So the Cultists can literally warp reality itself with there mere presence," Asuka noted with some level of horror. "We can't let this go any further."

"I agree," she replied. "They have no sense of style at all."

Asuka smirked at the quip, and both women picked up the pace, eventually coming across a cliff. The castle was poised on top of a narrow plateau, and the sheer drop in this darkness fell out of sight.

"Drawbridge is up," Asuka noted. "Do we fly in?"

"Not from above," Selina noted. "We'd never make it inside, too many archers and spell casters. There is an entrance to the catacombs below us. We can glide across, slide down to the ledge below, and get in that way."

"How do you know about this?"

"I took one of the tours when this place was still opened. I remembered the catacombs specifically, they were scary for me at that age."

Asuka nodded, though a small nagging part wondered at just how old she was now. She seemed on the young side, but she must be at least Misato's age if she was on a tour when this place was still an attraction. Shrugging it off for now, she and Selina glided across using wings (or magic in Selina's case) and then slid down the wall until they reached the ledge.

Asuka approached the entrance, noting the utter creepiness of this place.

"No turning back now," Selina noted.

"I'm okay with that," Asuka replied immediately. "What's the plan?"

"We find the candidate and kill it, then we kill everything evil in this place. You'll need to unleash Dominus on the candidate to ensure no one else can become the Dark Lord."

Asuka frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't help thinking that the Candidate is innocent in all this."

Selina frowned. "Perhaps, but better one innocent die than millions suffer from our inaction."

Asuka sighed. " I know. I don't have to like it…"

Without another word, Asuka entered the catacombs…

We were never alive,

And we won't be born again

I will never survive

With dead memories in my heart…

"It's all come down to this. The cult cannot be allowed to succeed. I must kill every last one of them, and end Decius himself. This castle is massive. I can't fail now, I'm so close… but what is my mind trying to tell me?"

Next Chapter: Grasp the Thread