Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Galamoths pinkie was flung to the wall in a rage fueled blind slap. A slap that saw said pinkie get sliced through by the sword with the Odin carved hilt. The claw stabbed into the stone wall with the blood trailed after it lost to the deeper darkness of the room. Not that there was any sign that he was aware of what he had just done.
Up above the witch looked above her head and saw the stone floor starting to repair itself. She could feel her Lords influence on the floor intensify and looked down at the trio of living people. A frown crossed her lips before she zoomed down on her broom. "I think you should know that the Master is reinforcing the room. He's fixing the ceiling and I don't know how I can tell him you're in here!"
"On it," Charlotte replied as she rushed up into the air.
Julius noted through the play of shadow and light that there was a droop in Galamoths head. How that long lizard muzzle tipped a little further down than when they first arrived. Yoko and Max were impressive with their skills with magic and ability to fight. Leaving Julius free to focus more on Galamoth and a twisted regret that his sons weren't here. If the boys had been trained, he would have been home and they would have been here making names for themselves as Hunters.
The would be usurper's movements tumbled into a slow stop until finally Galamoth grew still, his arm dropped with his fingers motionless. Had the light source been candles Julius would have been wary that Galamoth was dead. But the witches orbs of light were as steady as sunlight or a brand new light bulb. Leaving him free to observe the burns born both with fire and holy water, the slashes from the weapons Julius had used, and the still trickling trails of blood that flowed down the body.
"I am soaked, I'm icky," Yoko grumbled, the sound of her shoes squelching through the standing pools of blood. Amid the orbs of light she was also a mess, blood splattered all over her clothes and skin, her hair had soaked up blood darkening the blond into a dark red color.
Max was only marginally better and even then she, like Yoko, looked like she had stepped out of a Carrie movie set.
"Once upon a time, that would have been fine, you kept going until Dracula was dead and washed up when you got home." Julius pointed out while the girls began discussing what type of bathroom Soma would have in the castle. 'Simon would be so ashamed,' he thought to himself.
Meanwhile, said hunter felt a need to give his nose an intense rub.
"Yeah because back then slaying Dark Children was a given and no one raised an eyebrow. In 'this' day and age..." Yoko retorted smartly.
"About the ceiling?" The witch called back down, her tone a bit more on the uppity annoyance than before.
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A raucous laugh echoed down a hallway, pulling at Sam and Alexis to follow. Across the polished silver and metal surfaces a flash of a vibrant warm red dance from reflective surfaces. The laughter had no visible source save the haunting presence in the hall. A hand rose up from a silver tray that a vase with roses rested on. The pale hand with long, boney fingers pointed down the hallway further.
"Wait, don't go!" Alexis called as she dashed over. The fingers smoothed out and turned towards her, almost like a duck head. "Will this way lead to the cult that invaded the castle?"
The hand shook side to side, as Sam joined up. "Are you helping us find someone though?"
Fingers went up and down in a 'yes' manner.
"If we follow you can we find the way to turn that kid and the other transformed humans back into humans?"
Sam's question was answered with the same 'yes' motion, and that was all the pair needed to see to resume their journey. The hallway was the one that would bring them past the entrance to the library, which they still hadn't found a way to open.
"Its nice to see them again," Alexis noted. "Seeing our grandparents, both the ones we lost and the ones we never got to meet."
"Yeah, I think if I didn't see granddad and only met John I'd be intimidated," Sam confessed as they walked. All around them the paintings were of typical outdoor scenes of different parts of the world. Meanwhile the windows showed the outside beauty and majesty of the countryside. Beautiful blue skies, and once one got past the devastation of Soma's return, the emerald green and rich brown of trees and earth. Though you kind of had to squint to see those greens and browns.
"Why? John seems like a nice guy," Alexis asked looking up at the blond.
"Yeah, he's also a bear, barrel chested and me with my..." Sam shook his head earning him a smile he didn't see.
One that held sympathy and understanding, "Ahh yes, the bear of the Morris clan. John is a formidable looking man in his prime. But you three are nothing to sneeze at," she pointed out with a light bump into him.
"I know, but I don't know how I would deal with the Belmont clan themselves. Sure Julius is old enough to be our granddad and he's kicking ass like he was my age. I wish I knew where I measured up in his or their eyes. We're the 'B' squad after all, we're not supposed to be here doing this kind of stuff. This is the stuff meant for the 'legendary' members of our clans."
"We do our part, remember that our part is just as important as any other part of the clans. What would America look like if you and Max weren't there keeping the Dark Children under control? Then there's my brother and I in Europe."
"Yeah, but Julius is an old man, he should be home and yeah his kids aren't trained. So let us handle this, we've got the experience and the training." Sam griped and Alexis could only shake her head.
"He can't." She answered, two words and amazingly simple, but it caused Sam to turn and look at her. "I guess that was the 'dream' huh?" She gave a small smile up at him, admiring the shape of his face. Sam wasn't his great granddad John in terms of muscle. But he 'was' like his granddad, well toned, clear skin, and his hair was soft with the shade of blond that brought to mind fresh hay or properly churned butter. "With Julius missing, you were going to be the next 'Belmont' the one to face the big threat for all of us..." She gave a half smile as he flinched and looked back to the front.
"Nothing wrong with having a dream." He fairly sulked the answer out and got an amused head shake from her for it.
"Its part of the 'Belmont Curse'. We all heard the story, even without his memory he was compelled to return here to the castle. And its still active now, he wouldn't be able to put this aside until he can put the whip itself aside."
Sam raised his fist as though to punctuate a point, but it fell to his side the point lost to silence.
And Alexis didn't add to it, because they both knew why John died, and why Jonathan died in the end. If Julius was to pass the whip on, it couldn't be to his sons as they were untrained. His great grandchildren 'could' be trained to take up the whip, only that would be for the future. Because they were just children in the present.
It would come down to Sam, and if Sam inherited the whip from Julius he would die the way his granddad did.
The way his great granddad did.
"It might not mean as much as the chance to wield the Vampire Killer, but," she walked up so they were side by side. Leaning in she gave a slight bump again, bumping her shoulder against his forearm. "But I'm happier if you live like your dad, to a ripe old age."
"I think I could be happy-," Sam began when he noticed from the corner of his eye that hand again...
The index and pinkie raised up to give a 'smiling' type expression that made Sam just... "We're having a private conversation you know!"
Paranoia's hand began emulating a kissing action, followed by overly dramatic kissing sounds echoing out of the air around them...
"Sure Soma is a nice guy, but how about this take. I kill him anyways" Sam growled.
Alexis was smiling, a bit tight lipped and her cheeks with 'just' a little red...
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Alex pushed open the door that led to the garden, his spear in hand as he sought out a... well the jury was still out on Janes' reliability. The garden stretched out before him, the signs of the earlier fight still scarring the grass and hedges. The Alura Une was in full bloom and seemed to be in some form of conversation. With the way she was moving her arms and hands, but he couldn't see 'who' she was talking to. If it was family he would have assumed they would be visible to him. But they weren't, so who was she talking to?
All the while a battle to restore the garden was being headed by a small army of skeletons in overalls, button up plaid printed shirts and wide brim straw hats with slung over bags at their hips. A few eagles were flying through with flea riders mounted and raining water from watering cans.
There was this strange unreal sensation when he was able to stand back and just observe the undead doing living jobs. Wearing hats alone was enough to give him a moment to pause, from a distance it would look like a multitude of people working. Leaving him pondering if the skeletons were working off a magically induced 'program' or if they had been gardening types in life.
The maids and butlers were eye opening now that Dracula wasn't sending them to kill intruders, they were amazingly life like. While this... It made the man shake his head before he walked into the garden proper and began looking for a particular spider. A very not, itsy bitsy spider.
She wasn't on the wall, instead she was on the ground with a tray of food balanced on one hand and eating with the other. Janes' spider legs were curled up under her body while she had apparently also been watching the work going on before her. Not that she ignored Alex when he arrived, turning her attention to him. "Alone?"
She didn't shout, but he could still faintly hear her speak. A blessing of a castle that didn't have a lot of modern technology. No low hum of electronics, allowing for nature to carry her voice to him.
"For now. I was wondering if you knew where your fellow cultists might be hiding. Since we haven't seen any of them since the Alchemy labs."
Approaching Jane, he could see the food that the servants had brought her better. The tray was loaded with typical finger foods, small sandwiches and sweets, all of it human food from what he could see. Though perhaps the maids could make insects look like human food when they cooked? Bleh.
"Well its day and we've been up all night so they've probably gone to sleep." She picked up a small, incredibly delicious, square of cucumber sandwich and took a bite. The crisp bite of cucumber was a pleasure as she began to stand up. "The quarters are off to the side of the castle, not against the wall and stick out like a small mansion on the grounds. But I suppose because the usual servants here just rise up from the stonework, the castle had to come up with something for us."
Alex watched and followed Jane as she began making her way further into the garden. Keeping herself facing away from the sun more southwest that Alex could tell.
"It may be in that direction. The castle can move things around right? Its a whole building and it was created for us. Francine and Michael 'created' it if you will. I'm not sure if it still stays in the day time or not. But that's what you're looking for."
"I see... hey, do you know a girl named 'Reba'?" He asked as he studied the wall lacking the ability to see through the stones.
"Yeah, she wrote to Ceila and joined up with Francine taking to liking her right away." Jane noted with a shrug before tilting her head to the side thoughtful. "As did Michael," she picked up another crustless sandwich and bit into it. "She has MS and it got serious when she was super young, never could leave her house. The nature of the castle was thought to be able to override it. So they brought her with us here, nice girl, not a killer or a manipulator. She didn't have any magical or dark powers before she arrived her and I don't know if she has any still."
"But isn't Michael part of Grahams' cult? Why take an interest in a member of Fortners' group?" Alex asked, 'Michael clearly wasn't sent to Fortners' group as a spy. But growing attached to a member of the other cult...' "I mean... normally grown men don't take interest in much younger wo..."
Jane had started giving him this side eye expression that was in equal measures, unimpressed and scathing. Before taking another bite out of the sandwich she had in hand.
"Ok yes, but you get what I mean. Apparently Michael sealed her in the dinning room and kitchen area, which is odd. She was sealed with a number of the victims brought here and Michael unsealed the doors to let her out. There is something about this girl," Alex pointed out, as he shifted the hand holding the Alucard spear.
"I honestly have no real idea, because he only really interacted with Francine until we got into the castle. I don't know him well enough. While I know Reba is a nice girl, I can't be sure of anything beyond that. Never felt right to ask, Francine might know." Jane replied with a slight frown.
"Her parents are ok with her being her? Ok, so whatever she has, if the castle negates it that's all well and good. But I don't want to imagine her family being ok with her just uprooting and living here..." He grew quiet as a frown tugged at his lips.
"But you've dealt with it?" Jane noted and lowered herself down so she was laying on the ground again. It allowed her to see his expression, one that got her to raise her eyebrow in curiosity.
"I've seen it in the rich and elite. Kids who are either too rich to understand empathy because their parents never gave them love only money... Among other things," he answered the back of his mind bringing up the variety of students he had dealt with over the years. "But I've also had parents who are very involved in their kids lives, both in the positive and negative way."
"So you deal with kids? So a hunter and a teacher?" Jane asked with the corner of her mouth curling into a grin. "How do you get away with that? Kids must love the stories," she extended the tray to Alex, finally willing to share in hopes of a good story.
"Once I'm done with the castle, depending on how things shake out, I'll tell you a tale or too. Right now we need to find the cultist.." Alex explained as he shook his head in decline of the food.
"Reba doesn't come from a very well off family, they were having difficulties and her illness wasn't helping. See its 'labeled' as MS, only its..." Jane fairly squirmed where she sat as she tried to find the words to explain. "MS has its own set of criteria, the conditions that get it called 'MS'. Like how if you have a cold you get a cough, fever, sniffles. But she didn't just 'have' MS symptoms. It got described to me as though she had several different conditions and they all collapse on each other if you will. What ever it is, her family was having trouble keeping up with the bills. This," she tossed her hand out to reflect the castle. "Well as Francine explained it, was a blessing. Reba would be in a safe environment, and her family wouldn't have to foot the bill."
"They threw her away?" Alex asked affronted and sad, if the situation was bad enough she wouldn't have been the first sacrificed to save the rest of the family. But pity was not something he could hide in a situation like this.
"In Celia's eyes, yes. But in Francines', well Francine believed that there was something the castle could do to help. I mean look at me," Jane gestured on her spider half as an example. "And when she got here, she walked. She hadn't been able to walk since she was about seven years old, now she's walking. If she turned into something human enough her family wouldn't notice she could visit..."
"This castle is not meant to be the ultimate hospital Jane. There are naturally born Dark Children who have it hard enough as it is. Without humans harping the supernatural as a cure all for 'conditions'! Flocking here in an effort to get a disability 'fixed' or treating being a new Dark Child like a tattoo."