Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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The Master Chambers had been sealed, Graham was dead for now, while his demon was overseeing the protection of the passage. With Celia serving as a strange ghost. She was clearly carrying some form of trauma so perhaps her abilities just weren't being presented?
"So what have you been doing here Celia? I can see a purpose to why Graham would be here guarding the Master Chambers, but why you? How did either of you even get so clearly put here?" Julius asked as the sound of a heavy weight began to drag through the air.
"So close to greatness yet so far," Yoko suggested with a hint of quiet cynicism in her voice. Julius glanced over his shoulder and followed her shoulders down to her hands... Seemingly without thought she had placed them over the spot Graham had stabbed her.
"Well this was completely unexpected..." Julius remarked as he pushed open the door and found himself standing in the main entryway of the castle. In the distance he could see the doors that would let him out of the castle and into the front, between gates leading off the grounds and the doors of the castle. But it wasn't that which caught his attention or urged him to speak. "Alucard."
When he last recalled being in the castle, and therefore his actual memories were intact, Alucard had been a blond. But the clothes were ever the same high end, quality stitched suit and for a moment he wished this was that day. That his memories hadn't been lost and he was following Alucard to the safety of the outside.
"You chose to face him, yet you're here."
Facing Alucard was akin to being confronted by thoughts one wasn't fully done processing.
"I haven't spent far enough time with the young man to know for sure if I made the right call, even now. In order to believe that all of humanity has both good and evil within them, I just can't be instantly confident that his good can win." Julius walked the few steps and turned back once more to look towards the castle. Raising his gaze up towards where he had last seen Soma.
"Its both interesting and appreciated that he didn't kill you when you gave him the chance." Alucard turned and began walking down the hallway, "its strange to look at him. As he is now."
"Dracula is now a teenager, technically he could both ground you and still have to do homework." Julius noted with a faint grin that had no life. "Alucard. How are you handling this?"
"Handling what?"
He didn't turn around to look at Julius, he just walked along, a straight back militant step of expectancy. 'Not a single one of us is ever glad that we have to put you through this.' He thought as he followed Alucard along down the hallway. The occasional zombie would start to rising above the ground only to note Alucards' presence. Then sank back into the ground in some rotted out minds' attempt at a bow perhaps.
They promptly rose up again between Julius and Alucard, raising their arms up in that shambling attempt at moving forward. It was enough to make Julius snort in amusement, "last time we were here we both got this treatment.. Not this time..."
"No, father has not asserted himself over the castle, even now. And it..." Alucard paused and Julius watched as Alucard looked about the hallway. One black gloved hand rose up to gesture faintly around the hallway, "needed direction."
"So I see..." Julius replied with a few thrown daggers dealing with the undead and allowing him to follow again. "So before you found out that Dracula, denied resurrection, opted into reincarnating back into the world. What did you think of my technique?"
"As opposed to now?" Alucard replied with a faint shrug. "Like your ancestors, you performed your duties admirably. As for how my father has returned, I see no reason to place fault on anyone. As long as I have lived, I have yet to encounter a reincarnated soul. A blindside I didn't cover in all my plans."
"Well its not your fault either, Christian faiths in any branch neglect to cover reincarnation," Julius replied, hoping to sound casual. But it was a thought, Alucard was ancient by any measuring stick. If anyone, 'anyone' was going to encounter a reincarnated soul it should have been him right?
'No, I'm being stupid, Alucard is ancient yes, but he's not a social butterfly. Its probable that he wouldn't meet a reincarnation simply because he doesn't actively go out and meet people. He'd be limited to just the clans and only his current occupation in the Japanese government.' There was a chance that his ancestors 'did' reincarnate. Just opted for lives free of this war against Dracula and thus just missed meeting Alucard again.
"Valencias' daughter is here," Alucard suddenly broke his way into Julius' thoughts with a verbal wrecking ball.
"She has a..." Julius couldn't stop the bitter sweet grin from forming on his face at that thought. "I missed the wedding huh..."
"Indeed, though I will warn you, Graham injured Yoko so she's not going to be as lively as she normally is."
"Well its not like we come to this castle expecting to leave it in the same condition as when we entered it," Julius acknowledged. But it put a spring in his step to see meet this 'Yoko' it even sounded like something Valencia would pick. Short and cute.
Weighted wooden doors swung open easily allowing the pair to pass through it and out under the strange sky. Half dead grass, statues of mounted cavalry, stone paths and stairs it was similar to how he remembered it, but there were always those small changes. It was fully dead grass the first time he came here, the whole of the Castle looked more dead than alive. Below was a black, military dressed man sitting by an alarming number of weapons.
While beyond him was an auburn haired miko tending to a maroon clad blond. Julius could only stare for a moment, staring into that odd mix of vivid European blue windowed by Asian eyes and blond hair. "I have sons her age... I know its been years and still I can't believe Valencia had a daughter..." Julius mused aloud.
"Lord be Praised, not another guy interested..."
That wasn't Alucard.
He was on the left and that other man was on his ri- oooh...
'Just going to keep on walking and say hello to Valencia's daughter...' Julius decided to combat that pang of conflict. He had forgotten his family, his name, his legacy and past, yet he had a family of his own, his wife and kids and grandkids. 'Wouldn't trade my family for all the things I lost, but I can only hazard a guess at what my absence put them through...'
"Hello!" Yoko's voice was pained, but she tried to give a cheery greeting that only put a grimace on her face.
"Mr. Arikado! Ahh hello," the miko stood up and gave a bow to Julius as the pair approached, then she began to she lean over a bit as though looking for someone.
"Soma isn't with us at the moment," Alucard explained and the mikos' shoulders drooped in disappointment.
"Oh... I see..."
"How long have I been out? I need to find Graham," Yoko asked with both her hands covering her stomach. When the miko had stood up, Yoko had gone back to laying down, allowing Julius to see the large pool of red that deepened the color of her maroon outfit.
"Grahams' dead and the Castle has acknowledged Soma," Alucard answered causing Yoko to turn and look at him rather sharply.
"The... castle acknowledged?" the miko repeated slowly, unsure and uncertain... "Mr. Arikado the last time I saw Soma... he had fangs. I'm sure I saw fangs when he spoke and he, his... What happened to Soma?"
"Mina..." Yoko called out but her gaze went back to Alucard, then to Julius in this thoughtful curiosity. She had questions, but was biting her tongue for the moment.
"Soma is the reincarnation, the 'true' reincarnation of the Lord of this castle," Alucard finally answered.
"Wait, what about Soma? Where is he?" The guy in the back spoke up, distance wise there was no way for him to hear the conversation clearly. But a stray breeze must have carried Soma's name to the man as he left his station and approached them.
"It is to every person to decide their fate and that is what Soma is doing right now. Deciding if he wants a new destiny or to return to his original one." Alucard explained addressing the man by speaking over his shoulder as said man joined the conversation.
"The hell... He's an adult yeah but what's this talk about fate? Isn't that kind of deep for a guy traveling a castle?"
"Oh, umm... This is Mr. Hammer, he has been running that... shop? Over there to help Soma. And ummm..." the Miko stammered out and it only got worse as her gaze rested on Julius.
"I suppose you're right, my name is Julius, Belmont Julius," Julius answered in Japanese and watched as the girls' eyes lit up as she didn't have to speak English for him. But given what the girl had said it sounded as though there 'had' been a language barrier between herself and this Hammer fellow.
"Oh amen there's a man who speaks English." Hammer remarked in relief as Julius turned to look back at him. "All I know is the nice girl is Mina... or is it Hakuba..."
"Ah, Hakuba would be her family name, Mina her personal name. Though given how you're dressed aren't you US military?" Julius asked. The guy was in fatigues, but there was a way he moved as he walked over, this easy type of swagger that didn't match the training of a military man.
"Yeah and partner for this mission just 'had' to try that tiger fugu stuff..." Hammer hung his head low as Julius' eyebrows went up.
"He didn't."
"He did..."
"Did they lose their license?" Julius asked, he 'knew' about Tiger Fish and its risk, he even had it once. But he also knew about amateurs who could fail in preparing it and had heard about it killing people.
"For what? He never 'got' to it, got sick on the tofu. Who does that man?" Hammer threw up his hands in frustration. "Get sent to another country with a translator who gets all ballsy about how he's going to try Fugu and he's eaten at all these fancy Japanese restaurants. Then gets an allergic reaction to tofu?
"ooohh..." Yoko murmured in amusement, "Did you have any?" She asked.
"Sure did, cleaned off the plate out of spite as they rushed that tofu fool to the hospital," Hammer replied with a vicious sort of pride to his voice.
Even as everyone who understood him came to probably realize he didn't have a clear understanding of Japanese.
"But that's not here or there, how is Soma?" Hammer asked, his tone growing serious once more.
"That's for him to decide." Alucard replied and only got a snort of annoyance out of Hammer.
"Him to decide? Place is filled with undead, hell I saw dead military in there, and you're asking a kid to face all that without a breather? Travel through this whole castle and out of no where 'decide his fate'? Who is he that he gets slapped with such an unfair setup?" Hammer asked, and was amazingly not cowed by Alucards' presence. But perhaps that came from not knowing who Alucard was or what was going on.
'It does sound grandiose without the understanding that Soma is Dracula,' Julius found himself acknowledging quietly.
Alucard didn't answer for a time either, his posture never shifting to the ridged posture of offended nobility either. He was just quiet and it occurred to Julius, in the silence from Yoko and Mina that no one knew. "Its not fair perhaps to us, and you know nothing of his past crimes. He is being tasked to take responsibility for actions he made in a literal other life."
"The hell, you trying to say Soma is Hitler reborn or something?"
"No, but Hilter was a mortal man." Alucard answered with unironic or sarcastic tone, after all he was being truthful. But it was always interesting to hear the truth slanted in such a way. "Lieutenant Hammer, you are currently in stock with potions are you not?" Alucard asked giving Hammer no time to really ask any follow up questions.
"Uh sure, can get more if needed to, why?" Hammers' gaze went down to Yoko as he gave her a clinical, military once over.
"For Soma," Alucard replied, earning a pair of thrown up hands as Hammer turned and went to his stockpile of supplies.
"Soma is Dracula? That sweetheart, puffball is 'Dracula'?" Yoko whispered, staring up at Alucard in disbelief. "I realize you said the two of you had similar powers, but I didn't realize you meant like 'that'!"
"But my family said he was sealed here in the eclipse. I've known Soma since childhood, he can't be the evil my parents sealed..." Mina began her eyes, filled with worry began seeking out something invisible among them before settling on Yoko.
"The sealing worked in sealing the evil that was Dracula yes. But apparently there was more to him than just pure evil, because it reincarnated. And that's what is facing chaos right now," Alucard explained evenly.
"Its no different than if Dracula had been completely reset, starting over without his powers, no one after him trying to get him to go back to being evil." Julius began as he began stroking his beard growing thoughtful. "He's not a bad guy, he's not indulging in his power I mean look at this place and look at what he's entitled as Dracula. All that and yet he's trying to get away from it, whatever Soma is," Julius grew quiet and found himself searching inside himself. "We're tasked to hunt and kill a monster, not a man. He's not a monster, as he is right now even with the chaos trying to upend him and turn him back."
"There's something... Yoko tell me about Graham's cult." Julius finally asked as they walked, his gaze scanning the plain stone walls and floor about them. "I just can't wrap my mind around the idea of Graham having subordinates who carry on looking for Dracula. We now know what Soma does with 'subordinates' and apparently Grahams' 'second' was willing to kill his superior over the new leader of Fortners' cult..."
Yoko nodded slowly, "point taken. Its weird maybe we should focus ourselves more on this Michael person? I don't know if Alexis would know a great deal, but she may know 'something'," Yoko noted as her hands slowly went back to her sides the further they walked away from Graham. "She was assigned to Fortners group since she has magic and would be easier to integrate herself than in Grahams... At least that was the decision."
"And the Master Chambers are sealed so that's cut off from us... We're missing something, my instincts keep saying to fixate on Michael..." Julius grumbled as he walked, the soft light of morning began creeping through the slits that served as windows pulling his attention upward. "For ages when Dracula was here the sun did not rise. Now the castle and Dracula are 'both' here yet the sun is allowed to rise unobstructed."
"We're going to need sleep Uncle, surely the castle can have rooms arranged for all of us, even if we're sleeping in shifts." Yoko pointed out, and saw the telling of age on Julius as the Belmont nodded without argument. 'We don't have another Belmont, and Soma needs all of us,' Yoko thought before she began trying to attack the thought that Julius had started.
'He's a loose canon then? Is he using Grahams' cult for his own agenda? If so it got him here and what could that agenda be? He's sealed the castle what is he hoping to find here?' Yoko pondered, after all the castle was no longer connected to primordial chaos as far as she understood it. All it had was arcane and physical darkness...