Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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"That about covers everything we've found in the Vatican, Leon. I regret that the book is gone, but its not as though we're in any position to defend it," Juste finished. The pair walked through the great oak door, where Simon and Christopher waited so they could push it shut. The weighted, thick door swung silently on well oiled hinges. While the rest of the clan waited with some semblance of baited breath for Leon's assessment of the place. Back during the day they hadn't paid him any real mind beyond being their esteemed ancestor.

Now, realizing that he was seeing things they couldn't, there was a new type of urgency to study his actions and mannerisms. 'I don't think I would handle any of this well if not for my training,' Leon thought, almost painfully aware of how his kin studied him with such fixation. It was probably aided by the fact that to him, they were all plush toys. He saw no human faces so he couldn't even passively try to see family resemblances between himself and them.

Finally clued in on what had been going on from the view point of his kin. 'Though I am loath to the idea that Mathias is benefiting at all from sending me as his cats paws. I'm pretty sure even he couldn't see what I do here. But what am I looking at? Since clearly this is considered abnormal.'

Now that it was night time, the Vatican was lit up in ways that he found both fascinating and disturbing. The rolling fog that seemed to permeate the hallway, yet strangely never leaving the building itself appeared thicker. Even with the door open, the fog did not spill out into the night, but inside? Mist that hung in the air thick enough to cover up the details of the artwork. The rich paints that went into making the paintings were grayed out, the frames looked caked in dust from the ages and no one noticed. Not even his kin, Vampire Hunters all, could see how odd all this looked.

'Where do I even begin in finding where all this comes from?' Leon wondered as he walked along noting the cobwebs along the furniture. 'This is not the Castles' doing.. Though with that in mind it 'does' have some flare of the Castle. At least what I could see from my brief time there, with the disuse it appeared to have fallen in. But this is the Vat- wait... If Alucard's estate is tethered here, and the estate is an extension of the Castle. Could that mean the Castle somehow is leeching its way into the Vatican?'

It was certainly possible, Leon knew nothing of magic or Alucards' abilities. For as devote a mother as Elizabetha was, Leon was sure he would have been warned if her son was a careless sort. Mathias would not tolerate his son as an uneducated fool either so Alucard wouldn't be aware if that was the case. But Leon couldn't tell if he was facing something formidable and worrisome, or just a fall out from the presence of the Castle.

'After all, our bodies are here, even Alucards' coffin was originally relocated here as I was told. It may be the forced nearness between us and the Castle, but honestly that sounds a bit of a stretch even for me.' Leon thought as he walked along gazing at the numerous paintings along the walls, trying to pierce the thick fog with just his sight. The light above a faded, stationary beacon from a lighthouse on a far distant shore.

"Leon?" Richter called out, pulling the former Knights' attention back unto himself and his kin. The toy dog nonchalantly walked out of the fog to join Leon, and for the most part that was a reassurance.

Even if Leon couldn't see his clansmen clearly because of this strange fog, they could most certainly see 'him'. Thereby freeing him from the worry of getting lost as the small children seemed apt to do. As the stuffed dog casing holding his descendant guided him back to the rest of the Belmonts, a thought struck Leon. 'The children are getting lost in the Vatican, yes? Could it be that somehow this fog is the cause? Even if they don't 'see' a fog could it be affecting their senses in much the same way?'

"I'm taking it that you are seeing 'something' here, given how you just walked off from us," Simon noted with folded arms. He didn't sound completely pleased, and his honest curiosity underlined that droll displeased tone. He dropped his arms as he saw Leon nod with certainity in response to that and found his own concern. 'Hm... Can't wait until we can finally go back to Alucard's Estate so I can shake down the information outta man.'

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"Well I guess we can be grateful that everyone has gone to bed by now..." Christopher casually noted as he and Simon worked on opening the door.

"I'm just glad that they went no further than the yellow tape. If they had locked the door we'd have to give up. I doubt there's a readily accessible skeleton key we could use," Juste pointed out waiting. Above his head the vivid yellow tape with its stark black stretched across the door way just high enough to block the adults. Even Christopher and Simon found issue as they struggled to reach the doorknob without upsetting the tape.

The dogs and lion plush stood there silently watching as Simon squished himself against the door, belly crawling across the door. Christopher stood as support holding the other bear up until Simon got his hand around the doorknob.

"Grandfather and I should cover the ground, seeing that its easier for us than climbing up given our dog bodies." Richter sat back and watched his ancestors work on the door.

"Indeed the office is probably as generic as the rest of the offices for the sake of uniformity and professionalism," Juste agreed. His paw aimlessly swatting at the rug they sat on while waiting for the pair of bears.

"And we should avoid touching as much as possible, in case our casings wipe away evidence or becomes noted. Say when we push a chair around to climb it," Christopher agreed as Simon began turning the knob.

"I can't wait until Yoko returns, we grab her, go to her brothers' place and we can finally share what's going on." Richter remarked with a quiet sigh, "I just wish that her part of the clan wasn't so..."

"Sooo?" Juste echoed when Richter shrugged.

"Man hating? We're in a possible dire circumstance here and we have to tip toe around like criminals because of them." Richter grumbled when he saw Leon turn to observe him. "I don't suppose you know why Valencia's mother hates all men?"

'I... don't even know my whole and extended clan if I am to be perfectly honest,' Leon thought as he shook his head. 'However; given the current circumstances I can see the frustration.'

"I just want my spellbooks returned to me," Juste commented with a sigh. "Even if I can't cast, I'd feel better if I had them."

"You'd end up sleeping on them and on a hallmark card," Simon mocked as Christopher pushed the door open. Allowing Simon to drop to the ground, only to flatten his ears as he heard Juste inquire about what a Hallmark was.

"Well we don't know if you can't," Christopher noted casually as the clan piled into the office. "You need them to cast correct? Its not as though you have them on you and we're pretty restricted to needing an item after all."

'Simon with access to axes or throwing daggers...' Richter thought to himself before giving himself a good shake before stepping over the threshold. 'Pincushions, and splitting headaches for miles around... Though I would be remiss if I didn't admit I'd like my old side weapons back. Its not as though I would deny Julius Vampire Killer. I can't even use the whip in this state after all.'

"I suppose, though being able to just read, even if its just my spell book would be nice," Juste admitted.

"We need to see what the top of the desk looks like before we climb that." Simon noted as he began checking each chair to see if it was viable to climb. Christopher nodded as he joined Simon, Juste began searching under the desk and Richter made his way along the wall of the room.

The room in general didn't look too disorganized, from what anyone could see in the darkness. But of course this was an office for conducting business, not a personal suite. If everything was left the way it was when the man died. The only thing moved was clearly the chair behind the desk so that the body could be removed.

"There we go," Richter commented as his paw pushed on the small mandatory night light in the room. It rested beside a small love seat that was pressed against the wall, giving the group a small light to work under. Since these lights' sole purpose was to aid people when the office bulb above blew, it just wasn't super effective in examining the room.

Juste on the other hand, was busy crawling under the desk generating a soft scratching sound as he moved. A sound that was causing Simon's ears to wiggle as he turned towards the desk confused. Since, soft fuzzy shells didn't inherently 'make' scratching sounds so how..

"Juste?"

Said Belmont was currently trying to suppress his irritation as he stood there, lifting one foot to shake off the clinging tape. "There's tape here, actually..." The strip of tape was kinked up and long, strangely so given its place. It didn't make sense to be on the floor, the routine cleaning crew would ensure it have gotten picked up eventually.

But it brought to mind the book that Julius took. How it had been covered in tape just like what was stuck to Justes' paw. It was a long shot, a chance that Juste was willing to investigate. As he made his way to the small trash can that would be resting around the desk. The book had been taped up under a table, and if the priest found another such book. He would have had the ability to merely snipped off all the excessive tape so he could read it better.

Could it be possible that he had been murdered because he found another such book? He probably could read it easily, making him a possible threat. Depending on whatever was in those books to start with. But if he had cut off the excessive tape, it would have undoubtedly ended up in the trash! So long as no one went and cleaned out the can, it felt like a tentative lead that Juste could welcome.

'Well as far as the fact that there was another book, but not knowing what was in the book. More over we might now be in a race to find others if they exist...' he thought as he walked over to the trash can. "Here is to hoping that there's a pile of tape in the trash can," Juste commented.

"Why?" Christopher asked as he observed the room from the top of the chair that went with the desk.

"I suspect that the priest found another book, given the tape I stepped on," Juste explained as he finished walking around the trashcan so he could pull it down towards the meager light that they had to use.

Though he was silent, Leon offered his own help, controlling the trash can so it didn't tumble mindlessly down. Rather than letting it spill out and possibly warning the murderer that the room had been searched again. The fog of the room wasn't as dense, in fact out of the whole path through the Vatican this was the first place that Leon could see clearly in. It was nice not to worry that he was going to end up walking into the random wall blindly either.

"Well damn. Someone took out the trash, but on the plus side, I can see more strips of tape..." Juste announced as he laid down to study the bin better. There was a plastic bag of a matted material for a liner. Allowing Juste to see the slight flickers of light reflect itself off the bits of tape that didn't get removed.

"Sounds like those books are more than just bland journals from a Pope," Richter noted as a flicker of light caught his own eyes. Dull plastic though it was, there was an oddly placed ball, tucked just out of human sight under the love seat.

Flattening himself onto his belly, Richter began crawling towards the shape, keeping himself out of the way of light. It was a rounded and once he reached it he could see it was a small, childish container. In fact, now that he was next to it, it looked like a opaque, gray plastic heart, with a smoothed out side for writing. But it was special, Richter felt something emanate from it that he hadn't felt in awhile. Bringing to mind that box filled with elaborate glass vials of water, and how it didn't feel the same as this one lone container.

Richter sat there for a moment, resting his paw on the container and gently pushing it side to side. 'This feels like it contains holy water. But why would there be holy water in a childs' plastic bottle? For that matter, why is it here? Did it fall off the desk and roll over here? Seems impossible given its shape, I would think it would just fall and wobble a bit.'

"It would make sense I suppose. A person could easily use a pair of scissors and snip off all that damn tape. So that makes two books that were found apparently taped up underneath something," Simon begrudgingly admitted as he looked down at the group.

"But if the book isn't on the desk, unless the man hid it before dying, there's no chance of us finding it." Christopher noted as he sat down on the chair so he could study all the drawers that went into it.

"True, the police would have taken it as possible evidence or clues as to why the priest might have been killed. But I doubt that," Simon noted with a slight droll voice. "Whoever killed him, would probably have known he had the book. Whatever is in there, wouldn't be allowed to be public knowledge if I was to guess."

"I agree with Simon," Richter added as he began pushing the bottle out from under the seat. "We don't know what was in that journal we had exactly, but if it was just the man's life. There are undoubtedly more and one of those journals could have something that can't be allowed out." He finished pushing out the bottle and sat down resting his paw on it before looking for his kinsmen. "I found this, and despite the peculiar container, it feels of holy water. Actual holy water, can you imagine what that implies?"

Christopher's ears wiggled, Leon walked out from beside the trash bin in curiosity and Simon, who had nothing that resembled manners. "No magic boy jr. Some of us aren't magically inclined..."

'I am so ashamed of my clan right now...' Leon mentally sighed as his head sank into his paws.

"Alright Flaming Teddy, I'll spell it out for you," Richter retorted as Simon jumped down from his perch and made straight for the dog plush.

"Guys.." Christopher groaned as he jumped down from his seat.

"In short, we've assumed we can't sense anything because we're stuffed toys. However; between what Leon can apparently see that we can't, and that Richter is sensing holy water. We may have to rethink the situation in the Vatican further," Juste supplied.

"Yes, but Leon's casing comes from the Castle, not here so..." Christopher pointed out casually as he approached the brawling bear baiting match going on.

"Great, just what we need. Another mystery, bad enough that we have two cults trying to bring back Dracula. Now we have Church drama?" Simon grumbled as Christopher kept pulling on him. Why couldn't he just strangle Richter in peace, was that too much to ask?

Meanwhile Leon quietly approached the tussle, studying the bottle that they were speaking of. Granted it looked no different than anything else he could see, but the whole of the room wasn't as bad as the outside. Indeed the bottle seemed to even repel what little that 'did' seep into the room, so there had to be some merit to what Richter was noting. 'Given what the others have told me thus far, this would be the first truly holy item they've encountered here in the Vatican. But that sounds implausible. Perhaps there are others that are being moved off the grounds though why exactly would be the question.'

A soft mechanical sigh could be heard from Leon as he reached the sizable, for him, bottle and picked it up. 'I miss my maps, my fingers and my ability to write. Even if I only know 'how' to write because Mathias taught me all those years ago. But clearly there is going to be need for a map at this rate and Yoko doesn't have a computer in her room.'

Was it the Cult? Was it some subsection of the Church? Was the Church using the Cult to systematically wipe out the two most prominent members of the Children of the Night?

Futile as it may have been, Leon began looking around the room for some sign of Mathias' faithful servant. 'I should have asked that Death give me a means to contact It, or a means to contact Mathias when I need to...'