Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Brauner?!" Charlotte exclaimed in disbelief before she instantly turned to look at Jonathan. His fists were shaking and beyond him was John who caught her eye and expressed in silence his own confusion.
'Who is he?' John pondered as he saw Charlotte, she knew the name, reacted to it strongly and he could see his son's growing fury. Frustration sprang fully formed in his gut at the helplessness he felt, Sam was badly injured by this man? The hunter glanced helplessly when he saw Eric and his daughters and they knew...
They knew.
Stella and Loretta were clinging to each other with Eric holding them making John realize it had to be after their father died... When Eric was trapped as a ghost in the castle...
Trapped when a vampire betrayed Dracula...
"I'm here son," John moved closer and rested his hand on his sons' shoulder. He had never thought to 'ask' about the vampire that the pair defeated. Proud as he was over his son defeating Dracula any other had felt small fried. So it was this Brauner?
"Dracula wasn't the only vampire to reincarnate?" Sophia asked softly, her eyes discreetly glancing at Jonathan. 'That poor man, this suddenly became personal...'
"'e left his girls here though, nice though one be he must be thinking we can't reach them." Grant pointed out shamelessly looking at Jonathan. "Jus say the word lad, 'es clearly deserving some pirate payback."
"Brauner was the vampire who betrayed Dracula," Charlotte explained quietly. Her voice barely above the crackling of the fire in the fireplace. "He killed Eric, turned Stella and Loretta, we got them back but... He got to reincarnate? How does someone who turns himself into a 'vampire' and murders someone, get to reincarnate? Soma did sure, but look at him! He tried to live a normal human life until everything dragged him back into this. Brauner just... what? Gets to come back with the power of summoning 'archangels'?"
"And then he charbroils... We don't even have the whip..." Jonathan choked out, "I can't even leave the grounds to check on him..."
'Father could, or at least arrange, for you to see what was going on, were he strong enough...' Alucard noted to himself, sensing his fathers faltering strength by his side. 'Though you have a point, and I am unsure of that answer myself.'
Of course Alucard recalled when the castle was resummoned into the living world. With the Morris managing things he had not bothered to leave Japan, content to let the cycle continue to run while he worked.
"So that was the name, I recall the report you both submitted on him. Though you both opted to not supply your report with a 'name' for said vampire." Alucard finally spoke, and while he was retaining a sense of formality... There was that little thread of disapproval that was wove into the statement. With that he turned his attention back onto the others in the room. "Brauner is a vampire who..." From there he paused and turned his attention to the door. "Joachim, enter, your insight would be most valuable."
"Ahh but the sun..." Joachim drawled out, though the door did click before being pulled open to reveal the vampire. Still in cloak and hood and with his swords sheathed in air behind him. "Yes, little master, what would you have me regal you with."
Alucard didn't even move, a raised eyebrow was below him. Joachim sighed, and that he had to inhale for a sigh was degrading. "Very well, vampires that are created without the bite of a sire. Which to be fair, was the 'oldest' way for Vampires to even come about. Remember the 'chicken or the egg'? So Lord Dracula and this fellow are self made vampires, born from methods beyond the bite of a sire. As such not beholden to the servitude those such as myself must live with."
It was an interesting tale that he wove. The issue of the vampires of his time, the first bites that came from 'Hellspawn' not 'demons' that was a linguistic error in the modern age. Leading into the discussion of how one merely had to have magic in their blood, even if it was out of accessible reach to attain.
"Ok, so does the book tell how Brauner went from some artist to a vampire?" Yoko asked as she moved over to try and peek over Alucards' shoulder.
"No, it reads only the date of birth and death. Brauner did not live the length of a vampire, so he apparently became a vampire and died shortly after his own transformation." Alucard explained, the tips of his fingers sliding below the words on the page. "It does show where he reincarnated though into his next life and that is where this becomes peculiar..."
"He... outlived the life of a normal human..." Yoko read, her brow furrowed under the strange realization. "So unlike Soma who reincarnated as a human, he reincarnated as a vampire? That's not possible... Right?" She looked up at Joachim, her expression curious and expectant.
"That is correct child," Joachim answered as he floated closer to Alucard and the book.
"So its kind of a dead end?" Sophia voiced in concern. "The book only speaks of when a person was born or died and their family blood lines. If he's still alive there's really nothing to look 'after'."
"So its time to hunt these girls down," Maxim announced looking at his fellow spirits. "They may or may not know what's been going on. But they're 'his' girls and he clearly he cares enough to protect them."
"So between Alucard, Death and Joachim, Soma should be safe enough for us to go hunting," Alex noted as he looked at their reduced numbers.
"Oh yes, we'll be 'fine' against a full archangel..." Joachim mocked as he rolled his eyes before letting the roll end on the hunter.
"Enough," Alucard cut in before turning his attention onto Alex. "Go, find these women, I would know more of this vampire."
The other two hunters didn't need to say anything, they merely left the room with Alex and several spirits following in their wake.
As the minutes rolled by, the pair of vampires stayed unmoving in the room until Joachim finally looked at the room more thoroughly. Dracula was in the painting sitting on the couch that he was sleeping on in the real world. His gold eyes and the peeking of fangs and pointing of his ear showed how he was transitioning.
"Are you strong enough to roll their minds little master?" Joachim asked, finally breaking the silence, while the remaining spirits glanced over at him. "I suppose at your current age you might be, however; these cultists are with powers of their own."
"If I must have something to drink before then, I shall, otherwise you need not worry over such a matter." Alucard answered with the barest of hand waves. "Tell me of this supposed hunter's club that has been spawned. If you know of it."
"Ahh yes, well after that one Belnades had been raped, the son produced developed magic..." Joachim replied easily enough...
The words sent Sophia fleeing the room her hands covering her ears in distress. Lydia dashed off after the witch her eyes wide at the revelation and worry for the revered witch. While Erics' eyes widened in horror as his daughters wept. It was horrible how casually Joachim recounted the youth's superior physical skills. Showing clear signs of the Belmonts physical attributes and there really wasn't anything else.
"You heard about this?" Eric murmured to his girls who nodded shaken though they were.
"It was horrible, Alucard found and brought her home but the scars..." Stella explained in hushed tones as Annette was torn between outrage and this strange sense of wanting to be sick but having nothing to be sick 'with'.
"Its a weak attempt at emulating the Belmonts, though they have hunted many young children over the ages and assume that they are 'getting stronger'. I did not think after all these centuries I would be hosting a... a... a 'home for run away children'. But here we are. They are no threat to me, however; the children need to 'find' me before I can look after them."
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"So the difference 'tween 'demons' and 'hellspawn'?" Grant asked as he floated after Alex. They wouldn't need to bother Jane, however; it was 'still' a trip to the 'living quarters' of the cult. Servants were still on the move, the demons and other servants either working or lounging about in naps.
"Its a translation issue," Alex answered in this scholar mode that made Maxim and Soleli relax from having to explain.
Because they didn't know and didn't care but shhhhh.
"So when the bible was being translated by King James, he used 'Daemon' to indicate any entity that wasn't human. It actually originally merely described a supernatural event that any higher being could have done. So here's the problem. Not all Dark Children come from hell. Most don't in fact, nymphs of all form, shape shifters, intelligent animals... So it makes sense that the vampire who lived prior to that bible's translation would use the original wording."
"Ooh," Grant nodded. "Yeah, kinda how Sophia's whole witch thing got twisted up..."
"Exactly," Alex nodded as he checked out of the window on a whim. "So the vampire that Jonathan and Charlotte defeated, reincarnated and gets the power to summon archangels..."
"Oh... Ok so that's the issue going on." Soleli murmured, "bad enough its his grandson but... it was his kill, back."
"Yeah, it is," Alex agreed quietly. "That's what makes it so scary. You think 'Well of course God isn't going to give some vampire the ability to call upon his strongest'. Then you start to see signs that maybe God doesn't care. That his actions are 'literally' 'daemon' just stuff that any god could have done not necessarily 'him'..."
"You can't lose faith," Maxim pointed out, wincing at how his voice didn't carry the strength he thought it should. Filling the air with indecisive weakness was just...
Alex gave a soft laugh and shook his head, "my family doesn't serve the Belmont Clan. We aligned ourselves to Lord Alucard. Helping him defeat his father has been our clan's mission this whole time. Which becomes the problem. We never thought that it would be possible for Dracula to reincarnate as someone decent. Now the idea that God is going off the rails and its because Dracula isn't existing.." Alex's lips became a straight line as he stared at the doors they were approaching.
"Sam and Max have been good friends for all my life," Alex noted. "And its not like we can drag God down here and ask what he was thinking to give Brauner the ability to summon 'archangels'. The hell did Sam do to make him as bad as Dracula? The Morris deal with enough as it is, the whole chain of deaths for carrying the Vampire Killer was enough."
"It is a curse," Maxim pointed out firmly as he spoke, only it was a tone he couldn't sustain. "The clans don't have the freedom to choose. But I know what you mean, I dealt with that myself, Juste wasn't like Simon, he was a book lover first of all. And it wasn't fair to me that he was being set up to face Dracula if he came back. So I thought I would protect my best friend the only way I could. I trained to be a hunter, I trained and trained until I could get Dracula's pieces and hopefully ensure that he wouldn't come back in our life time." Maxim gave a sharp, self depreciating laugh as he floated along. "Only for Dracula to take control of me. Maybe I lost my way in the process, but I had good intentions originally."
"Everyone has good intentions in the beginning," Soleli pointed out pragmatically. "But that said our main focus now is to find those daughters. One is literally the leader of half of these cultists, its not as though we're hunting two frail frightened girl."
"Yeah, but it leaves me wondering about what happens next. Something happens to them and he rushes back. Ok, my interior gets boiled, but what happens to Lord Alucard, Soma or even Joachim? Hell, what happens to Jane? Brauner became a vampire because he lost his daughters originally right? What happens if he loses them now that he has the power to call down archangels? Scorch earth the castle?" Alexander pondered out loud.
"Scorched? Earth?" Grant repeated slowly, glancing at the pair of ghosts with him and all sharing a mutual confused expression.
"Its like what Soma did when he brought the castle back this time. The way the earth all around the castle is seemingly dead." Alex explained as they passed the entrance to the Alchemist labs.
"Hey! Can I ask you something?" Maxim called out as he floated forward towards a maid who was mopping alone at the end of the hall.
The pale animated corpse looked up to see a ghost floating towards her and away from a human and two ghosts all looking completely started. "Yes?" She pulled the mop closer to her as he paused in front of her.
"There was a number of cultists here. Do you know where they are? Any still roaming the castle?" Maxim asked, while his eyes roamed down and he saw the pool of blood.
"The spider in the garden, three in the kitchen, two in the living quarters the castle bestowed upon them. Oh and two currently occupied in romance in a tower room." She reported promptly as Maxim's expression darkened in confusion.
"That... is all? Just eight people out of all the cultists who came here?"
"Maxim?" Alex called out in concern only to get waved into silence.
"Yes, they were sacrificed by the male cult leader." She answered while the others approached them.
"Who got sacrificed?" Alex asked, his eyes going from Maxim to the maid and back again.
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"I think the only problem we seriously would have is if Simon and, or, Christopher get turned into real bears... I mean... bears aren't dogs." Juste pointed out as Richter stared mournfully at his stuffed paws.
Having fallen asleep finally the trio had been privy to watch as Richter shrank down and turned toylike until he had returned to his toy state.
"Well at least Simon can't afford to eat the children," Christopher noted helpfully.
"Shut up," Simon groused in announce as he glared across at Richter.
"Its also kind of unwieldy, sure you can break down doors, maybe even get us to Dionysus, but that's a 'lot' of extra effort." Richter pointed out. "Even then, what do we do? They're going to see a 'Pope' turned vampire, this is far too delicate to send Simon off on one of his rages."
"Do you hear that?" Simon cut Richter off while turning to look at the door, his ears wiggling. He 'knew' those sniffles. "Elmo?" The man walked to the door and was already opening it at the first knock of a childs' fist faltered into the room.
Charles was standing there with a strangely large number of the Cherub Choir at the door.
"What the hell?" Simon asked as the children pilled into the room quickly.
"Elmo has to leave the Vatican," Tony didn't even give preamble and went straight to pulling out a bag. "And he's going to be miserable without you so you're going too."
The Belmonts were stunned at the 'order' because that's all it could be called. The children looked miserable as they quickly dashed about and began grabbing up the Belmonts.
"We're sorry SnuggyWuggy, he was very stern about this. We knew that Elmo won't get Mr. Juste or Mr. Richter so we're helping." Tony explained as he opened a sack.
"It will be ok? God won't let anything bad happen," Charles pointed out amid the sea of boys and squirming stuffed toy.