Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Reaching the battle ground part of the garden, Alex could see the damage the caterpillar had caused already. Even in the darkness he could see a swath of dirt where there should have been grass. So either 'Fuzzy' was eating as it went, or it could devour things under its body as well as what came into the mouth.
At the same time he could also see what the trio had accomplished on their own, with the ice wall down and its pieces cast along the ground. Fuzzy was a bit wet and there were now several new dry spots on its fuzzy armor. There was also a sick sweetness to the air that Alex couldn't put his finger on save that it was probably toxin. In that the caterpillar was in a bad location, for it was out in the open and the constant flow of air was countering what its toxins could do.
There was also webbing, unlike spiders where it would be high and low, this display was more along the ground. Patches that were in some cases half immersed in sickly colored water from melted chunks of ice. Tainted water. Poisoned.
"So one of Soma's souls has been tied up by Fuzzy... I think I heard that much right?" Max was looking about. Now that they were in the garden it 'was' large and there were sections that they couldn't see from the maze and just the sheer size of it. Now, she could see what 'could' have been the Alura Une's sealed up blossom up tucked against near another corner. It was moving, swaying in fact, probably wanting out of the cocoon it was trapped in.
"Right, well cold does little good for a plant," Alexis noted. "But I hope the demon and the garden doesn't mind this..." She knelt down and channeled her ice magics through the ground, shooting up as spikes into the caterpillars' body.
"Winter is winter," Sam pointed out before shrugging, "doubt they would get offended if it gets Fuzzy out of it."
Fuzzy didn't enjoy getting spikes driven up to its body. Less so when the second male returned and joined his own repulsive ice magics with the female. The reinforced power was enough to be a threat causing the caterpillar to squirm its body as quickly as it could. Not that it was very fast, but it was enough that the next set of spikes missed its vital organs.
Instead for a moment it hung in the air the way a worm dangled from a fishing hook. Its fuzz flaring out in a massive poof, bits of toxin flung this way and that. Cries of surprise from the humans who had been fighting it, displeasure and maybe a hint of burned flesh. Then the ice melted and cracked from the poison allowing the caterpillar to start to return to the ground. Its middle sagged down, dragging the extremes down with its bulky weight.
Its blood hissed along the ice, traveling to the ground in thin greenish rivers that tainted the water. Only for that other hateful male to toss another of those infernal bottles that ignited into the flame. Right under the wounds inflicted by the ice spikes. It burned as it touched the ground, even before the caterpillar could rest its head. Holy water licked hungrily at its spilling blood and open flesh, setting it all on fire and searing open the wounds.
Worse yet it was so sleepy, it had spent its energy sealing away the plant so it could supplant the demon as the one in control of the garden. Only to have these bothersome humans come and weaken it further. There was not enough food stores in it to go into its cocooned state, and as hunger took over, it began to turn its attention to the walls of leaves. Once its body was back fully on the ground, its fuzz twitched with each movement. But it began to lumber its way towards the walls of leaves and flowers.
Food.
Even on the faint breeze it could smell the fresh scent of flesh from those that had been kept for a meal by the others.
"Woah, hey!" Sam moved out of the way as Fuzzy made a dogged wiggly march towards the maze. "Think its hungry?" He asked aloud as he was apparently being dismissed as a threat. Wounded though it was, it was still a toxic bastard after all.
"Probably, but also that's where I left the prisoners, and if it heals via eating..." Alex pointed out as he began trying to spike it away from a potential meal.
"There's a spider wearing clothes in one corner, and this Alura Une here," Stella noted with her fellow spirits. They weren't visible to the living, but the demoness seemed to be responding to their voices with the way she would move about. She was a white rose, the petals that were closed up longer that they were tall.
"Well she can't hurt us, think we should have a talk?" Jonathan asked with his arms crossed as he thought about it.
"I mean, we can ask," John suggested as Loretta side eyed them and drifted over to the sealed up bloom. The vines that served to swat away would be threats against Soma were bundled and wrapped around the base of its stem in a thick layer of corrosive looking webbing. Burning into the petals of the demon flower as the group hovered there.
While within the cocoon there was layer upon layer of petals that made finding the human female part of the demon difficult when coupled with the flailing. "We need to speak with you if its possible," Loretta began as she watched the petals as they moved about back and forth.
The Alura stilled a bit, but she wouldn't be completely still either... "Is it the cocoon? It seems to be attempting to burn its way into you..." Loretta inquired politely as she hovered there.
Bowing forward and back it was the closest the group would get to a nod from the large demon rose. "Think the staff might be able to help us get her loose?" Eric asked as he looked about the place.
From this part of the garden he could see a small wooden shed that probably had tools for managing a garden. Undoubtedly for the castle gardener, who would be an undead skeleton like as not. But there was probably tools that could hopefully be used to free her, if they could get someone out to help her.
"I suspect the bug ate the gardener though, Dracula's servants would more than likely be here otherwise," Stella theorized out loud as her sister floated back to join her. A glance to her side to confirm with her twin earned her a quiet nod as an answer.
"Notifying the maids won't do much good, looks like there isn't any doors that they can take to come here without having to go through 'Fuzzy'," John noted. Jerking his thumb over his shoulder back at the large caterpillar that was working its way through the rose wall maze.
"We don't know that, the zombies normally rise from the ground, who's to say that the maids can't do the same." Eric argued before tilting his head to the side, "I suppose I can try to find a maid and find the answer to that very question."
"That would work, and maybe if there's something that can be done for the couple," Charlotte noted thoughtfully. 'White Alura's turn red once they drink blood normally. But if this is the one who's soul was serving directly under Soma... Is the white a symbol of 'him'? Did she feed off his blood when summoned or was the bond of master and servant enough?' she pondered. "I wonder if she's still serving as his guardian soul just being forcibly projected out here or if she's just materialized here because Soma can't use her."
"Think there may be other spirits in the same position as her?" Jonathan asked and was rewarded with a faint nod.
Charlotte gave a half shrug as she stood there, wishing she had her books, even if she found nothing that would help. There was a comfort in having the weight of a solid book in hand, the solid crisp sound of pages turning. There were times when the knowledge was better teased out of her own mind via the sound of a book. 'But now I'm dead.' she mentally griped as she turned to study the caterpillar.
"Ok so that is one of Grahams followers and he's clearly not like that guy in the underground," Charlotte added.
"So there's clearly something special about the underground guy, but on the plus side this one isn't really intelligent..." Jonathan replied.
"Don't get lax though, what if it manages to get into a cocoon? Will its intelligence return with an advance form?" John pointed out.
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Stone walls stretched along down the path, with a plush, vivid red carpet rested on the floor trimmed in corded fabric version of gold. There were torches and candles that lit the way to a door where the wind was moaning low. The outside staircase that led directly to the Master Chambers of the Castle. The hallway wasn't always like 'this'; sometimes it involved a platform that had to take a person just to the staircase. Though today the hallway had readjusted itself about five times already in the span of several hours.
The first time required the ability to fly or repeatedly jump without touching the ground just to get to the staircase. Now it was this long hallway, and every so often the staircase leading to the Master Chamber got more of a roof and walls. Not that anyone really saw its hard work and effort, save the servants.
And these two.
In fact it was because of the effort of this pair that the hallway was now blocked off while these two were stationed here with a duty.
Protect the Masters Chamber.
These two weren't here in the beginning, when he first arrived to find the chamber and try to seal it. Now they were and he couldn't get any closer to the stairs with the pair staring him down.
"Lord Jones, Lady Fortner..." He began, eyeing them cautiously to see if they still retained their human minds to go with their... mostly... human forms. Graham looked human from the head down to his waist. The rest of him was still lost in those massive women's bodies... whatever he turned himself into. There was a chain that was connected to the ring between the two girls' faces, a dog on a leash, with the chain above the entry way to the hall leading to the Master Chambers.
While Fortner floated about the room in this strange ghost like state. He couldn't tell if she was or wasn't, but they both turned to look at him. Though if it was from them understanding their names or just reacting to a new presence was the question.
The womens' hands flexed their nails trimmed to sharp points with the red either being polish or blood. The organs that Grahams' lower extremities were buried in were slick with vibrate red blood. Despite its vivid color it didn't appear to give any life to the sickly pallor of the skin in the women or even the man trapped there. Half there, naked and bound, and enslaved as a murdered soul to serve the Castle as one of its many monstrous defenders.
Fortner was dressed in robes similar to what he recalled as her 'work attire', only now the colors were toned to their extreme dark tones. They were longer now and only knowing her height to start with allowed him to know she was floating. Her hair was down, but they were still in something of a twisting braid that hung down either side of her head.
She hovered in the corner of the room pressed in a corner staring out into the room with a frightened gaze.
"Michael? You reached the castle?" Graham asked, his voice was a little vacant yes, a tremor in his tone never heard by his followers. But life started to return to his eyes as his wandering gaze began to affix itself more firmly on the man standing in the doorway. But the room didn't carry his voice, and it took a moment to realize Michael couldn't hear him. So he repeated the question, trying harder to project his voice further into the room.
He could see the man standing at the door, for a moment he found himself confused regarding when it was. Graham tried to take a step forward, only he felt as though he was in waist high... something and he had to lower his gaze to see where he was. A nest of thick, squishy tube rested about his waist, hiding his legs and while on either side of him were a pair of slender arms and hands. Confusing him as he tried to remember...
Before turning as far as he could to see what was behind him. His gaze tracing one slender, feminine arm up to its shoulder. Above him was a woman with a large golden ring driven through her eyes and connecting her with someone else. Turning around he could see the twin of the other in the same position. It started to come back to him in pieces as he stood there, or was it sit, amid... amid... Were those real organs?
"Where am I? Why are you here?"
"Lord Dracula?" Michael called out politely and watched as Graham started and a look of alarm began to grow on the mans' face. Sweat beaded his brow and his eyes shifted desperately around the room.
"Don't speak that name, he's not..." Grahams' alarm at the soft, smelly flesh became terror as he heard that name. He tried to brace his hands on the stuff that his legs were trapped in only for them to sink down. He looked for something, anything to help pull him out of this mess, the organs were layered and layered around him easily waist high.
But Lord Dracula, the TRUE Lord Dracula could appear at any time, and he couldn't be here. So while falling amid the smelly intestines wasn't his first choice, it was better than staying where he was. But as he tried to extract one leg to climb over the intestines he started to realize, that he couldn't find them.
"Oh, true, I never imagined that Dracula would be reincarnated in such a..." Michael gave a slight frown. "I suppose you could say 'flimsy' because he doesn't physically look imposing, but his personality fits the bill. Its not like he's plain looking either with that all white hair of his..."
"Help me out of this will you?" Graham asked gesturing with trembling hands to bade Michael over to him.
"Of course," Michael replied, his voice comforting as he took in the nervous state of his former leader. The hands of the 'women' were resting on the ground with the two beings that Graham was sitting between revealing to have different plans.
As he walked forward, the fingers twitched then flex and the one on the left lashed out with a surprising amount of precision for something that couldn't see.
"Can't you control them?" Michael asked as he was forced to back off, though he saw a flicker of pleading desperation in Graham's eyes.
"Control? No... I..." Graham couldn't reach his legs despite his effort to reach down and find at least his knees. His mind scrambled into the past memories he had when he was buried within these demons... His 'Demon form' as it were. His... "Michael... is this... Michael?"
The man stopped trying to move and turned his attention back onto Graham. Once upon a time Graham had been polished and confident, his hair slicked back, and his white clothes pristine and elegant. Now his hands danced along the flesh of the organs the way a spooked horse danced upon untrusted ground. Grahams' head kept turning left and right to look up at the demon behind him, but there was no sign he had control.
"Michael help me... Get me out of here!" the former leader pleaded as he began pulling in one direction then another. "I can't feel my legs... I can't feel anything below my waist... Before Lord Dracula returns. You have to help me!"
"Lord Dracula isn't up here, sir. He's down closer to the front of the castle its ok," Michael called out, his voice steady...
"He's here? HE'S HERE?!" Graham shrieked as he recoiled in horror. "He killed me... he killed me and did this to me didn't he? He did! I understand why he's here! I understand what the Dark Lord represents, we were wrong. We were so, so, very wrong!"
"Graham you need to calm down, its not going to help if you stay upset!" Michael called out as he watched as the demon womens' hands flex and stretch. Perhaps one of them had been asleep? But now they were beginning to reach out towards him. Their red nails glinting in the firelight as they apparently decided it was time to defend the corridor...