Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Hmm actual hunters, I wonder if there is any use for you among the audience..." The voice in question wasn't loud or attempting to project itself to the 'audience'. As such only Alucard could hear the nasally sharp voice. No different than any other vampire, there was that faint sense of familiar presence. All the vampire made of sound was just the slight sound of leather joints creaking in a metal, armor. But it was musing, disinterested, and Orloxs'.
Alex stood still and began to study the room, Alucards' sudden stillness a tell. He trusted Alucard to speak up when he was done with whatever. 'He is a dhampire after all, his senses are more keen than my own. Hold on, the maids, they said all these bodies are still alive. So he could be trying to identify a particular heart or something...'
Turning his head he began to exam the stage far below more keenly where he saw a pair of pointed shoes. Even from this distance he could see the stark difference between the wooden floor and the pointed boots with armored shin guards. While Alucard had gone from facing the door to facing his right, with a speed he rarely displayed when dealing with the hunters. When suddenly he started marching his way down between the rows of bound cultists towards the stage.
Alex followed in growing concern as the warning played in the back of his mind. If Alucard attempted to use Soul Steal, it could be countered. 'But he's not a novice,' Alex told himself as he studied other parts of the stage and room as they moved forward.
"Where is the cultist, Orlox," Alucard ordered, the thin aisle carpet muffling the sound of Alucards' foot steps from human ears. Though to someone with senses as keen as a vampire, it could easily have been the sound of a glove covered fist punching a weighted bag. Steady, muffled and powerful, the room smelled of cleaning chemicals and waxed wood. It had only been the past century that modern chemicals were potent enough to erase most scents.
"Oh, well he needed a hand with something and left," Orlox answered blithely indifferent to the dhampire approaching him. "But so long as Dracula is in his state he can't control us as he normally would. I will not be used as a distraction or bait for those filthy hunters." Orlox answered his tone turning sharper and less amused. He began walking further onto the stage, his armored boots clicking sharp on the wooden floor as the light revealed more of him.
Having never met the vampire or heard much about him, Alex noted that Orloxs' limbs, torso, everything appeared stretched out. It brought to mind the NBA with those towering players. Seeing someone who had been stretched to their maximum length before they became inhuman really. Orlox appeared to surpass that height. So tall he could easily fit in the roster of any team, but the armor he wore hid if he would be any good on the team.
"That's right, you were Richters' distraction if he wanted to hunt," Alex agreed with a faint nod as he moved. "Though its weird that you would want to do something that would endanger you. Say aiding a cultist who is causing so much bother."
Orlox snorted in disdain as he stood there, his slit reptile-esqe eyes didn't even flicker towards the human hunter. "Endangered? The Belmont is a relic of age and the rest of you are just children," Orlox retorted though there was something in the one hunters' eyes as the Dark Child approached... something almost... familiar... 'Alucard?' it couldn't be. What was once a raging fire of power was nothing but a mere torch.
'He's dressed elegantly enough to be a noble... but he's so weak...' it floored Orlox even as a sense of excitement raced along his nerves. 'If it is him, he's no threat to me any longer. Even old the Belmont would be a threat, if this is Alucard and I feed off his blood the Belmont will be nothing against me.'
"You seem to think you have what it takes to keep us from getting through though," Alex pointed out as he brought the Alucarde spear to his hand. While behind Orlox a horde of pale blue lights ignited. Clattering teeth from skulls began floating out of the darkness behind the vampire.
"When you reach my age, there is little that can serve as a threat. With Dracula more docile and imprisoned there's nothing really here to fear." Orlox pointed out smirking under his helmet, "Oh that's right, you humans can't."
'I suppose with all these humans he can just feed whenever he's been weakened,' Alex noted. Even as he sensed the two zombies had faded into the floor, 'not that they could do much against a vampire...'
Outside the room, down the hallway where the quartet had passed through with ease... The doors weren't open and the sound of fists pounding on it could be heard. The two maids could only exchange worried glances as they rushed ahead. Along the ground from the room, threads wove out from the room along the ground barely hidden on the hallway rug.
Now they were glowing, pulsing with the power of human blood leading to the door, crawling up the wall like vines they coiled around the hinges and the handles of the doors.
Grabbing the handles the maids pulled on the massive doors, only for it to not budge. Despite being undead servants of the very castle that constructed the doors they couldn't open it. And it meant really nothing if the doors became another wall.
"Hey! Let us in!"
Yoko stood there banging her fists against the wall as this strange feeling grabbed at her gut. Maybe it was womanly instinct, but she felt a growing fear for the two men now on the other side of the door. Big sister instincts made her worry for Soma, and knowing Alucard was on the other side.
"The castle should be obeying Alucard why is it locking us out?" Max grumbled as she beat on the door as well.
"Its not," Julius mused his tone dark as he stared at the doors. Unwilling to waste his energy on meaningless beatings, he could see it though. The way the arcane energy twisted against the door's hinges and locking systems. Sticking out like a cancerous growth against the natural energy of the castle. "Not the same as the seals that are on parts of the castle. But at the same time not the castle..."
"Hello!"
Muffled under the sound of Yoko and Max's frantic pounding, Julius heard the sound of voices calling out. The stilted tone of the undead, and female so he guessed it was probably a zombie maid. "Stop someone is talking," he ordered placing his strong hands on the womens' shoulders and pulled them back.
"Hello! Hunters?" The voice called out again, her voice was a peculiar blend of worried, controlled while stilted the way the zombies all spoke.
"What is happening in there?" Julius demanded while both women settled for being quiet for the moment.
"Orlox has sealed the doors, he has a large numbers of humans... There appears to be a spell he is using to lock up the door." The maid answered, the report causing Yoko to freeze up with horror.
'If Alucard is in there, and he probably is, he's already in a weaken state because of the seals on his power. No, Alucard may be weakened, but he's not stupid. He's a trained fighter and Orlox was just a snack for Richter to deal with,' but it hurt. Soma had put himself in danger trying to help from the paintings, and Yoko couldn't handle the idea of losing her 'little brother'. Any more than she could handle the idea of losing the man who had looked after her, and the world really, for centuries.
"Can't you unseal it? Or something?" Max demanded turning to look behind her, pondering if the other spirits or if the living would be more help... wait... "Wasn't Alex with him? Where's Alex?"
"Here, confronting Orlox even as we speak," the maid answered while her fellow, mute, maid kept trying to pull on the doors.
"They'll be fine, so long as we don't distract them," Julius finally stated. "though the humans makes it a problem. I can break the seal, its not like the one in Fortners' castle. I'll be winded, and I doubt the room would be a problem for the two of you. But if I brute force the seal and its innocent victims..."
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Alex quickly realized how terrible this situation was.
Orlox was not a warrior of any type regardless of his armor. He hung back casting spells that sent out mediocre blasts of energy against the pair. Some were through the air, others rose up from the ground in eruptive blasts. While Alucard, despite sacrificing so much of his power to hold his fathers' power at bay, threaded the needle of blasts.
The Alucard sword and shield were easily willed into existence on his arm. Solidifying that this 'was' Alucard for the vampire. Orlox kept moving back, filling the air with blasts of energy or littering the ground with arcane pillars. Single minded in focus and determination Alucard pursued the vampire, while ice filled the air striking at the chattering skulls that approached from above.
Said skulls were spilling forth from various portals that Orlox created, illuminating the room with a demonic glow while the air crackled with power. Even if it was mostly Orlox's vampiric power, Alex easily speared down the skulls that tried to approach Alucard from various angles. Only to turn to watch his own back as the hairs on the back of his neck rose up.
Behind him were a multitude of skulls that were sinking down into the prisoners, their skulls absorbed into the heads of the cultists. The sacks that covered the peoples' heads ignited into flames matching the skulls as they straightened up in their seats. Demonic eyes stared out of the sacks as the ropes burned away, releasing the last two rows of 'prisoners'.
Alexs' professor trained mind was already calculating the number of 'students' rising up from their seats. Some ignited into flames as they transformed into a variety of random beings, others just started climbing over the seats and prisoners in front of them. Some growing into various demons, Weres', and undead, others just glowed in a state of possession.
Clashing against a Were that had lunged over the rest, his freshly grown claws already out for blood. The beast loomed over Alex, his teeth still growing out, sharp and as long as an index finger to say nothing of the fangs. The fur erupted out of the skin of the person while the eyes glowed purple as they slitted into animal fury. If not for his connection to Alucard, if Alex had been a mere human, he would have already been pinned to the floor and had his throat ripped out.
Yet a panic grew in him, fear at the unknown, if these were all cultists, or were they mixed with the kidnapped victims. 'I can't hold back, we really don't have that ability... do we?' he wondered as he channeled his ice into the floor, shooting it out along the ground and gripping as many feet as he could with their touch. Culled or slowed up at the least he needed something to buy time for both of them.
Beyond the werewolf he was fighting, out of his line of sight, multiple possessed people slipped on the ice that grew over the floor. Some of them couldn't even move as their now bare feet were frozen to the ground and they were left howling their displeasure. Others resorting to flinging arcane energy towards the stage, heedless if it was at Alex or Alucard. Some even flew straight at Orlox in the careless madness of the horde.
Only Orlox absorbed the energy back with ease, glancing at the sweet madness going on in the back of the room.
Alucard had taken notice as well, pausing long enough to assess the noise he was now being subjected to. Though 'long enough' for him was a second in human time, and it was enough to make his own fangs itch in irritation. The LeCarde was good for a Dark Child, but his strengths came from partnerships, first with his twin then with the Morris and Aulin clans.
Strong enough to deal with a Were or two, were it only that Alucard would pay no further mind. However; Orlox was still summoning those skulls and if they weren't coming for Alucard, they were going for more bodies in the audience...
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Jonathan floated into the hallway where Julius and two of the girls were standing before a pair of shut hallway doors. It wasn't sealed like the Master Library he could easily recognize the seal that had a unique type of energy. But at the same time... "Just brute force it? I'm sure you have the power to do so."
"While that's true, there are people who may or may not be innocent being used to seal this door. Brute force could very well cause them to be killed," Julius grumbled as he stared at the irritating red lines of power.
"Can you check for us Jonathan?" Yoko asked directing a surprising earnest expression of worry.
"Can do," Jonathan answered as he drifted around the door, eyeing the thin cords of red energy while circumventing its web. It allowed him into the large theater where absolute chaos was happening though! Alex and Alucard were both fighting a horde of possessed 'people', Alex expending his ice spells to subdued the attacks. Neither were using bladed weapons, Alucard ducking, weaving and mostly punching his would be attackers.
He floated back out almost on a complete dime, understanding Yokos' concern now. "So yeah, you need to get in there and unfortunately I need Charlotte or the sisters. There's a theater in there with a vampire who is possessing an increasing number of people with his floating skulls. But I don't have the magical aptitude to tell who are cultists and already turned, versus victims."
"If you find Alexis send her here then, between the women they should be able to override the doors without a negative feedback." Julius asked, before stroking his beard in frustration.
"She was assigned to work with Sam to find a cure for the turned victims, so if you can find Sam he could possibly tell you," Max added as she scrutinized the door further. "Sooo why doesn't Alucard just order the castle to help? Or at least the servants? He's the 'masters son' shouldn't they want to help?"
"Alucard has sealed a great deal of his power away, while he does regain a portion of it by being here. Well you're asking for him to accomplish things while he's incredibly pressured," Julius pointed out quietly. 'There is also the possible inherent difficulties that come from temptations.'
A very good point that Julius thought about as he stood there.
For it was a temptation that Alucard was being confronted by at that moment as he was forced to 'play nicely' with the possessed. Willing the castle to send its forces into the room to help would be a great help. But willing the castle was already difficult, it took time and focus, something he didn't have at the moment.
He could.
There were some among these people who were kidnapped victims, for which he could sense by merit of being 'the young master'. A subtle difference between a possessed human soul and a possessed dark child. That nuanced sense of magic that he shared...
It wasn't his father who was doing this.
So for those who were innocent he softened his punches knocking the innocents out rather then hurt them further..
He shouldn't have to hold back against those who wanted to hurt him or his family when his father wasn't even a threat...
But for those who were, there was blood on his fists, splattered along the sleeves of his ebony jacket and staining the white cuffs and chest of his shirt a rich red.
It smelled so nice...
A sea of purple flame headed people, some self made Dark Children who had crucified him. Some who were just innocent kidnapped victims. Possessed by the same vampire who had sealed Somas' soul away into some side room apart from his body.
Under his shirt, a simple golden cross he often wore grew warm against his chest.