Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Everyone was piling into the hallway both the living, the dead, and that one undead.
Scorched into a blacken smear with the rugs and stonework charred into a horrific dusty blackness. The paintings and furniture that had been parts of the hall were charred to ash, dusting everything in this somber gray as a faint reminder to people that they were once there. The doors to the library were barely visible, the wood scorched and the doorknob melted into a melted smeared art piece of dripping metal all the way down.
The windows had been blown out, the glass shattered, allowing the wind to flow into the hallway, lightly picking at the ashes. Lifting the scabs of ash into the air, drifting through the spirits that stood about the group, while the living continued to check over Sam.
Then there was Alucard.
Standing apart from the others his vision focused more on the vampire standing off to the side, facing the doors to the library. Deeply hooded in a cloak of matted black, it made sense in that there was still daylight, but it also meant that this vampire had supped on the blood of innocents. "Is there a reason you did not present yourself before me?"
The hooded figure looked over their shoulder before giving a slight shrug, "hard to do, when sealed in the great library, little master. Also I had not been made aware that you and your lord father had reconciled to the point that I should."
Turning around the hooded figure regarded the open windows before the hood was drawn back enough to show the strangers' face. There wasn't enough sunlight to be a threat at this point, normally, but the room fairly writhed in holy power. Having faced the full blunt force of a pair of angels, that holy power radiated the way heat lines rose from the desert sands at noon. He was the typical pale vampire, with a fringe of white hair on either side of his European face. At least that's what anyone could see so far.
"My name, little master, is Joachim Armster, I've kept to myself all these ages since I was reborn..." the vampire replied.
The term was a bit surprising, Alucard didn't recall all too many vampires who were old enough to address him as 'little'. Vampires that served his father directly used 'young' in respect or deferral to his father. "You are older than I?"
"Ahh yes, I suppose that is currently hard to tell given that the hallway is awash with holy power..." Joachim admitted with a dip of his head before returning his focus on the door. "I was already a vampire long before your lord father used my sires' soul to become a vampire himself, in fact."
Ghosts whiplashed between Alucard and this 'Joachim', the conversation suddenly becoming incredibly interesting. It made being worried over Sam all the more frustrating in fact! Julius and the others alive wanted to look up, but their concern to keep Sam among the living took priority.
"You knew my father? When he was human?" Alucard asked, his tone dropping a notch, the thought that anyone existed from that far back in the past. Yet the vampire shook his head against the idea.
"No, my sire had me sealed within his own castle. Your fathers' 'friend'," Joachim's voice dropped to put more emphasis on the word. "Slayed me, but as the same with the Medusa, and other spirits that occasionally find a place here in service to your father. I was also brought back to the living. I just chose not to return, and he was surprisingly amenable to that."
Suddenly a conversation came back to mind, the visit of that little talking toy lion that Soma had called 'old friend'. "Leon, you speak of Leon Belmont."
"That I do," Joachim admitted lightly, as he scraped his sharpen nails against the wood to try and get purchase to make it open. The ends of the hallway were no better than here and the burning sensation had yet to leave...
"So what brought you here?" Alucard inquired almost pointedly as Joachims' shoulders slumped.
Alucard was far younger than he was, his only 'power' over Joachim came from being Draculas' son."I've been around for a longer time than yourself little lord, I grew tired of conflict..."
"You came from the time of my ancestor Leon?" Julius asked, as Leon was one of several spirits that didn't arrive haunting the castle. 'If he's predating Somas' original incarnation as a vampire, he must be powerful in his own right. But why is he here if not to take over or serve?'
"Must we talk in this holy soaked hallway? Those angels did a right job of scorching the hallway when the child defeated them..." Joachim grumbled as he continued to work on the door.
It was a statement that caused everyone to cast glances among each other. Several of them had faced angels or angel adjacent beings during their times in the castle. But a glance around the room and it was clear this wasn't one of those angels that had been summoned. A back burner thought likened to rouse up about the very fact that Dracula could even 'get' angels to enter the castle. It was one of those 2 am, the brain wants to mess with a person thought that kept them up sometimes. But no angel did stuff like...
"But even angels serve Dracula and none of them have ever been able to do this level of damage..." Alex pointed out as he joined Joachim to try and get the door open. There was signs the door was trying to manifest a new doorknob. But it was slow and cumbersome, the metals on the floor were beginning to pour upwards. Metallic tear drops that defied gravity as it hovered in the air churning in the air to work the ash out of its composition.
"Dracula doesn't summon Archangels," Joachim amended with a nod. "He seems to stick with the apex demons and lets his counterpart have the Archangels."
"Someone has the power to summon 'archangels'?!" Max nearly choked on the size of that thought before her eyes went back to Sam. Bruises were plentiful, the clothes were singed, the weapons were super charged with holy power, but the thin rivers of blood that was being wiped off his face. The way Sam looked to be in such intense pain, even now his limbs would twist in pain. "How can a cultist have the ability to convince an 'angel' of that tier to come down here. Then casually nuke a vampire hunter?!"
Every sentence was punctuated by Max stomping her way over to Joachim with a scowl on her face. "Well? You're older than forms of dirt, you have to know something!"
Her words caused him to turn around to face her, and he was amused at how her fear manifested. Fear radiated off so strongly as to overpower the holy power, as she cast anger against it. He had certainly seen it enough times though granted, it was usually flip flopped in terms of gender.
"Actually no. I do not. I came to gather some books and return others as I have done in those brief hours that the castle is here. While I was taking tea with the Master Librarian the seal went up leaving me sealed within the library. Now I 'did' faintly hear the sounds of battle, hence how I was able to reach the child so quickly. As for this 'cultist'? I know them not."
"That's fine, there should be a book in the library we can use," Alexis spoke up. Quickly reminding everyone exactly 'why' the Great Library had been one of the necessary places they wanted unsealed. "Though the stories say the Librarian won't speak to us..." She looked up at Alucard, with the same earnest expression of trust she and her brother had in the dhampire.
"Indeed," Alucard agreed glancing pointedly at the handle to the door. But even with the young master willing it, the castle just couldn't restore the doorknob any faster. Deprived of chaos the darkness was reaching its limit with the tenuous link it had to Alucard when compared to Soma.
Moreover, the castle also lacked an actual 'medical wing' to send the Morris to, and Somas' soul was still locked up... or was it?
"The castle will not tell me what rooms are sealed up, but if the seal here is down and the one who placed it is gone..." Alucard began while the door at the end of the long hallway slowly creaked open...
"Young master? You summoned us?" Several maids, butler skeletons and zombies stood in the doorway. Lifeless eyes gazing around them in quiet concern over the damage they could see in the hallway.
"Yes. You will bring the hunter here to the room with my lord father," Alucard ordered, before amending the instruction. "We will bring him to you, so stay where you are."
The zombies visibly relaxed at the instruction and moved back while Alex took note and moved back. Sam ran hot with holy power, his breathing was harsh and ragged, coupled with his near limpness reinforcing what he had just gone through and how much it took out of him. Alex draped Sam's arm over his shoulder as he hoisted the hunter up. Julius taking up the right side, and allowing the pair of them to carry him. Max stayed close as they carried her partner, while Yoko continued to offer what meager healing she could.
They moved as a unit back to the doors. Pulled open by the maids, the zombies could be seen picking up a stretcher that spawned on the ground. Lifted up by two zombies with the butler uniformed skeletons moving as a type of honor guard.
"I will send the master librarian to find the book, then see if the room that Soma was sealed in has been released." Alucard announced, even though they all knew there was a chance that their cheeky dark lord might start showing up in the paintings on his way back... a chance though was not a promise...
"I'll go check on Annette and Soleli," Lydia offered, Maria nodding and separating to join her fellow blond.
"We'll let you know what's Alucard finds." Maria offered as she waved off the rest of their fellow dead.
Jonathan and John were floating after the group with Jonathan mostly on the ground walking as though he was alive. With John at his back occasionally resting his hand on his sons' shoulder, while the others also made their way with the group. Maxim was the last to hang back, studying the group as a whole. Before breaking off to follow Alucard as the dhampire went back into the Great Library.
'Grand' was a word for the Library, the walls and floor were highly polished wood, interesting modern lighting was placed in the ceiling. Illuminating the room far better than the ages of candles and torches. Off to the left and the right were large rooms with floor to ceiling shelves loaded with books. Now that he was in there, Maxim was taken by how the library was larger inside than it would logically be outside.
There were maids through out the library that Maxim could see, many were setting up rolling ladders and scaling them with dusters in hand. 'I guess they're now free to catch up?' Maxim pondered.
Meanwhile Alucard strode down the hallway, his eyes studying the room around him. Making sure everything was in place and that there wasn't any unseen cultists or more traitors to his father wishing to ambush him. In this incarnation, the castle had updated the lights to a modern lighting system, but the tables were still the thick, solid crafted wooden tables that he knew. Several spirits were actively pulling books from the shelves only to get scolded by the staff as they had begun their attempt to clean up.
"Ah, well I am a bit surprised you are not running to your fathers' side..." Joachim commented at the end of the hall. His voice quiet to humans but audible to Alucard. "Ever the impossible prince."
Alucards' gaze flickered back to the vampire, yet despite his silence Joachim seemed to understand.
"You wish to know why I say 'impossible'?" He asked and when Alucard gave the barest hint of a nod in answer, he answered with one of his own. "Simply put we vampires can not have children through the same method that humans do. We lack the... blood flow if you will," Joachim answered. "But your father used the crimson stone and was never truly turned... I can only theorize that it is the reason why you live. That you can call yourself a dhampire and Dracula your father."
Joachim had cast off the hood he wore, allowing Alucard a better look at the vampire. He was pale, but that was a given among vampire kind. He had European features, and pale hair that was actually white. Unlike Alucards' that was just blond to the point of near white. Under the deep cloak Joachim had worn to step out of the library, he was dressed in slacks and a button on. So clearly he had a life outside the castle.
'I have no idea what this 'crimson stone' is, but for now, I need to reach the master librarian.' Alucard thought to himself and looked about for signs of where the librarian was. Off in the distance he could see the stairwells that rose up to the second floor. Regretting how the librarian didn't have his 'office' on the ground floor like the humans' own libraries.
The ground of the library had a long elegantly designed rug that ran from the door along the floor providing more silence for anyone who came. It went down from the door, split off for the various lesser hallways. With its deep red background and black lining serving as those quiet touches to remind all of Dracula. Soma was a nice enough human, but when he was pushed, and that hurting Alucard had pushed him this time...
The lines that formed Alucards' lips dipped into the slightest of frowns as he walked, as much from his father as from the vampire. "Is there something you wish to discuss?" He asked over his shoulder, even if he didn't slow his step.
"I merely find you fascinating," Joachim confessed as he glided over the ground, "vampires have attempted to create versions of you. The babies died, some eating their mothers from the inside out only to die once outside. Others never made it, yet somehow the crimson stone did something different, for you to live..."
Steps never slowed as Alucard continued walking, but he found himself taken aback at what the vampire said. It began to bother him as the questions began forming in his head. 'I'm... one of a kind? I have never thought about it before... have I really spent my whole adult life fixated only on banishing my father from the world?'
"What is the 'crimson stone' then? Until I reach the Master Librarian I would hear of this magical stone."
"One of two stones, failed attempts at creating the philosopher stone," Joachim began, soon floating beside the dhampire as he explained. Painting a picture of a time older than Alucard and for once, in an absolute rare chance, Alucard was afforded the time to be ignorant. Learning about both the magics that man used with their alchemy, similar to womens' craft. As well as the realization of his fathers' place in that world as an alchemist.
It was a strange thing now, to try to picture his father as a human, living among humans and that he somehow met that Belmont.
'Stop it Adrian, I can not afford to think of father in such humanized terms. Perhaps Soma is the closest version to that side of my father. If it is true, he swings evenly between fathers' humanity and his vampiric wraith,' the dhampire thought. 'Though could father create these two stones? He speaks that they preexisted father, did he make another? The crimson stone sounds very much like his innate power to rule. Obviously Soma lacks the stone internally, so did the stone leach out into Soma's soul and just make Soma effectively both a crimson and ebony stone?'
That felt almost foolish, since both stones served as failed attempts to create the true philosopher stone, it would suggest Soma 'himself' was the stone now. 'Though his ability to turn humans into Dark Children could be viewed as a type of 'immortality', when looked at it from an angle...' Alucard mused.
'Bah there is no point in these ruminations! Soma may or may not remember, and if he does. Far wiser to say nothing of it. We are already dealing with the fallout of the world discovering the Dark Children officially. I do not need them attempting to hunt father down to seek immortality more than they shall once they learn of just 'who' is the lord of this castle.'
"Your words are informative, and the knowledge appreciated, but at the moment I am far too busy to give it much weight." Alucard finally announced, "But I... am willing to speak on these matters further later when time allows."
"Of course," Joachim agreed with a slight bow as he glided. His swords, having materialized out of old instincts, trailed along as he moved. Young lord of the castle or not, Alucard was still a vampire hunter and self defense instincts never truly died. 'If the prince can keep his father under some semblance of control, the other young vampires might finally have a place to call home...' he mused. 'Finally, a vacation beyond the library!'