Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: Oh gods the editing I foresee in the future... (Flomps over.)
"They're not zombies, but they're not alive either so- its like any other trip through the Castle for you right?" Soma nonchalantly asked, looking a bit over his shoulder over at Julius as they walked into the castle. Earning the man's muted expression of tolerant suffering, while ahead of them, three blond women ghosts waited for them. One a sunlit shade of ringlet blond, with an incredibly innocent, indeed a naturally vulnerable face decked out in a knee length black gown that almost looked like a maid's gown. The other was long and honey shade, with a knowledgeable expression bordering on smug. With the tallest having sunkissed blond but worn down, with a calm more knowing expression.
With Yoko keeping most of the appearance of a calm collected huntress, two of their group could hear the acceleration of her heart beat. 'We never discussed what to do if he saw them. We never even thought this was possible!' she thought in anxiety, her thoughts more focused on her brother and mother than the castle.
"Alucard long time, no see, thanks for attending my funeral by the way. Was sweet of you," Charlotte began as she took lead of the group of ghosts. Not everyone was there yet, most of the hunters were further in the castle and she was the lone combat experienced member there.
"Aulin," Alucard replied stoically as his eyes glanced once over the current collection of spirits before returning to settle on her. "We can assume the others are further in the castle, but that you are visible now... Can the civilians see you?"
The small trio of spirits shook their heads in the negative, "well, you are all hunters so maybe you have a special trait that lets you see us," Lydia suggested quietly. The blond looked about, her ringlets bouncing lightly as she turned to look behind her. "Or maybe its just that we wouldn't scare you. I mean, we can't affect anything solid here, we've tried..."
"Better to not be seen than scare some poor person into the very hallways where monsters that 'would' hurt them are," Annette finished out the thought with a light shrug.
"Well regardless, we're here and while we can't do much, we can still do something," Charlotte said with forced cheerfulness. "Just don't bother asking us to leave the Castle... We can't go past the outer walls."
With all three women focusing their gazes on Soma carrying a focused thought they all appeared to be sharing. For which he raised an innocent pair of eyebrows and raised his hands as though to ward off some form of accusation. Charlottes' expression shifted into a small double take as she noticed how his ring hand appeared.
Inflamed from tip to past the sleeve of his coat, the band she saw around his ring finger now had razor thing black lines extending up towards the tip of his finger and down into his palm. As thin as blood vessels they weren't far from the ring, yet the stark difference between both hands was alarming. Something that he picked up on as he suddenly shoved the hand back into his pocket.
"Oh no you don't, you bring that right back out here," Charlotte ordered as she zoomed in on Soma. "How are you wearing such a cursed ring?" She demanded as Annette and Lydia both followed her, caging Soma into their space. 'Its never looked this bad! That looks sickening really, with the way the very veins appear to be rotting out in his hand.' She thought in growing concern. 'Wasn't this supposedly a ring from the Vatican?'
"Its a ring from the Vatican. It has been blessed by the current Pope, though resummoning the Castle seems to have an ill effect on Soma," Alucard answered in a sharply.
'Are you sure?' was the question on Charlottes' lips as she tried to stare Soma down into producing his hand from its jean pocket. 'I may not be a great judge of his personality, but I don't recall Alucard sounding like that. Usually he has little emotional inflection with his voice.' She thought yet the proof was in her ears. 'Come on Charlotte, get it together, we can't expect that Alucard willingly aids us in murdering his father. He does it for humanities' sake...'
Sobering as that thought was, it kept her from trying to tease the Dhampire or tease anyone at that moment. Alucard was concerned over his fathers' well being and they owed it to the man to respect his feelings. He certainly had given them far more than he had received back after all.
But perhaps that was only because with his new body, it was harder to recall that Soma was Dracula reincarnated. Stare downs were pointless.
"Alucard make him pull his hand out, it doesn't look right," Charlotte tried instead only to have a voice disrupt her effort.
"You've grown!" Jonathan called out, his voice warm with recognition and indeed a great deal of remembered fondness.
Causing Julius to stiffen at the voice and search it out before seeing his old teacher dropping down from the ceiling of the great hall. A sudden sucker punch of unexpected proportions as his old mentor appeared with that same nonchalant attitude. Yet the lines of age and experience had been washed away returning Jonathan back to his younger years. As it had with Charlotte, who on the side, continued to badger Soma to show his hand again.
Yet for Julius...
"Yes, well. I..." Julius struggled to find words, clearing his throat with a gruff cough as his more recent memory of visiting Jonathan's grave came to mind. Reinforcing the fact that he had lost his memories and never came back to the clans after he defeated Dracula.
"I think the proper line is 'I'm sorry I didn't get back in time to tell you!'" Jonathan pointed out as he emulated walking towards the group. He gave the hunter a visual once over, taking in the thick and sturdy clothes. Good for hunting, and keeping ones' self warm, all in all he looked fine, great actually. Especially after all these years of absence, yet he dressed as sensibly as Jonathan taught him back in the age of t-shirts and 'light' cloths.
"I've been to your grave, Uncle."
He was also more focused now, not that he wasn't when he was younger. But Julius as a teen had a fire of an active volcano really, or burning like the sun, just a constant go. Now it was tamed, still roaring but more akin to a fire in a fireplace. More steady, confident, 'Nothing like some years under the belt to take out the hare brain schemes!' Jonathan thought with amusement that he carefully kept from his face.
"To business then..." he began while off to the side, Annette quietly began to pull Alexis away from them. Yet Alucard gestured slightly at the pair causing Alexis to stay and by that Annette as well.
"We have no way to contact anyone outside of the area with the phone lines all down," Julius reported.
Jonathan nodded, only to feel a sudden problem pop up in the back of his mind. 'We can't talk about Lady Lisa, she made it clear that Alucard is 'not to know' about her presence in the castle... So how can I explain anything with him right 'there'?' the blond hunter thought as he let his gaze linger on the stars outside the large windows.
"About the situation in the castle, Soma could only tell us so much from the door," Alucard, as though Jonathan needed a reminder about the dhampire, spoke up breaking the idle chatter going on about him.
"Well, Death can probably tell you details, but I can say that the Master Chambers are sealed. Even we can't enter. Yet this cult group has someone who is taking notes on how Brauner did things. They've begun to try and seal up the castle in various parts, though not with paintings. But that could be due to not having skills in art, since they 'are' sealing stuff." Jonathan explained which pulled Charlottes attention back to him.
"Oh yeah, needed to update you, but I can do that here. The seals in the lower regions are more a place holder than anything. The cult is still busy trying to get their footing on their newly, and rapidly, advanced powers. Given time the seals will probably get stronger and more difficult to crack, I'm also seeing some variations on styles. So we don't get to just have a one size fit all issue of summoners, some are anchored on their area and drawing power from that. Others are just there, but if I'm not mistaken they're going to be keyed into the humans in the castle."
Charlotte winced as she admitted that before tilting her head towards the castle, "Sophia went to get her own assessment on that one seal. I want a second opinion on something as serious as that."
"Which makes it more important that we get other hunters in here to help, we need to evacuate the civilians and deal with these seals." Yoko spoke up finally causing Charlotte to cheer up suddenly.
"Yes! And you're also a witch, so you can came with me to the nearest seal, actually you and Alucard would be great for this," Charlotte began... 'Oh, I just shot myself in the foot. Unless Alucard turns me down...'
"Yoko should be with the civilians, she has limited healing abilities which will be more beneficial to them." Alucard countered instead, as he swept the room with a glance.
In presentation the Castle had the appearance of any other well kept home, he couldn't see dust or dirt. Granted there was smears and splatters of blood, but they didn't smell of human blood, and it smelled fresh. The rug that ran the length of the hallway was swept and whole, no patches missing or rubbed out. A few boxes were laid out with the scent of fresh soil that implied there would be plants soon added to the hallway.
Clearly the servants were keeping up with the castle more than they had in ages. Earning a gut reaction approval for the state of the Castle before he recalled he shouldn't care. 'While I am not sure what this castle is anymore. 'Safe' is not a word I would assign to it,' he thought sourly. Even as some primal instinct made him want to say 'home' instead of 'castle'.
"Wa-wait!" the ringlet blond called out, pulling his gaze back to her.
Just in time to see that Somas' back as the man took off into a casual stroll down the hallway.
"Soma," he called out as he started walking after the man.
"I'll clear out this level for Yoko, the civilians come first, then I can focus on going to the master chambers." Soma called out over his shoulder casual in tone and indifference.
"Not in that condition you shall not," Alucard returned as he stalked down the hall after Soma. "Your powers are still heavily restricted, pushed further would only accelerate the situation. You shall wait with Yoko and 'only' engage whatever she is incapable of handling on her own," he instructed.
The others grew awkwardly quiet, as Soma turned half a step to address Alucard, "then I want my weapons back so I can fight," he replied. Holding out his sword hand out towards Alucard with an expectant expression on his face.
"I will do neither, for either option would only bring about your demise all that much sooner," Alucard replied, icicles hanging off each word.
"Fight with my powers, or fight with my weapons, but I 'will' fight. Oh don't give me that look, I'm not looking for a fight. But this is my castle, these 'are' interlopers and I will see them gone from here or made part of the staff." Soma replied, while Grant dropped down to the floor from through the ceiling. "Besides, if Simon can fight his way through multiple castles, past Death and face me while a rotting corpse. I should be just fine on my own," he pointed out.
"Right chip off the ol block..." Grant finally said breaking into the tension like... well a brick hurled through the front pane window of a high end jewelry store... "It gets easier and easier to see how you are related to Dracula! Now that he's had himself a refresher course on being human," Grant continued.
"Not now, Grant," Alucard just barely resisted the urge to growl.
'Are you trying to get yourself kil... oh... that's right, we're dead,' Lydia thought to herself as she clasped her hands before her chest in alarm.
"If not now, then when?" Grant asked with a shrug, "You didn't want to fight him back when I was alive. Its pretty clear you don't want to risk losing him either," he continued only to have Alucard shift his gaze onto the pirate.
"Is there something you wish to discuss," Alucard asked pointedly, his posture now ramrod straight.
"Aye, aye, I was going to discuss with me fellow ghosts since we weren't sure you could get back in. But since you're here I can discuss it with all of you, though you might want to be giving Soma back whatever you took from him." Grant answered feeling regret that once again Alucard was being tormented. 'e was so close to sending his father away for good. Instead now he gets to see this bratty, nice version. Lord above it must be agony.'
Soma turned to give the pirate his attention, moving so he could peer around Alucard to see the pirate. The other hunters gathered around as well, giving the pirate their full attention. "So you know, those with magical skills been checking on the summoner cult members. Those of us more physical in our skills been hunting the other set, and its that set I've got word on."
"So far the people in parts of the castle that appear, well like a 'castle' has gotten the better of the situation. They've come to learn to hide in the rooms they're in and seem to be minding the zombie maids and skeletons. Which I am the first to note that it is absolutely batshit insane, but I'm guessing they thought it was costume stuff at first. Well they know its not anymore, instead they be listening out of the fear of the monster cult."
"But there are people not fortunate enough to be in those areas," Yoko began slowly as a frown crossed her face. Picking up on Grants word choice.
"Aye, and that's where its been tricky or outright tragic. People are trying to transverse the castle's lower parts and running from everything. They can't, and its understandable, tell the difference between the monsters trying to help, and the ones wanting blood. The summoner cultists are sending some of those turned members into rooms where the seals are as guards as well."
"So we need to find a way to get the Freelance here fast, that would give us three more people who are active. We only have eight living people who can go about the castle and try to deal with the cults, the seals, and the castle." Yoko recounted as Julius sighed.
"Seven really, Alucard is the only one with a government identity and we're undoubtedly got world leaders up in arms at the castles' return. And the one thing we don't need is the castle being nuked while we're in here." The older man pointed out as he began stroking his beard in thought.
Charlotte winced at the thought, "even if the castle could some how defend itself from a nuke or three, the lands around here would be wasted. There'd be no way to get anyone out safely," she sighed.
"No. I mean, Alucards' place is tethered to the Castle, so its reasonable to believe that there 'are' ways to send people from the Castle directly to other safe areas. But who here wants to put the Castle's ability to survive or repel a nuke to the test?" Yoko countered, only to repeat 'Alucards' place' a few times before she smacked herself in the head. "You have a phone there! You have towers and the ability to call out! Since we're here we can use your sanctuary!"
"You can call your bosses at the Date building, or I can call the Pope! Let him know what's been going on so they can call an emergency meeting with the world leaders!" Yoko energetically pointed out, and for once since this whole debacle began, they had an easy solution to a problem.
"We could also contact Alexis' group as well" Julius asked, turning his attention to Alucard. "Since I'm assuming that you never keyed them into reaching your sanctuary to start with."
"That's why you didn't want me leaving!" Alexis blurted out startled in awe as Alucard graced with her with the slightest tilt of his head.
"It would be faster to call from my place, and get them here than if we rely on the dreams. Now that I have a clearer picture of the situation inside the castle, I feel safer with that option," Alucard explained.
"So then we should get this started. The faster we do the faster we can get those civilians out of the castle and can deal with the cults." Julius commented with a sigh, a quick glance around the room showing him more heads sticking out of the ceiling.
Sophia was peeking down with a literally entourage of people, and once she caught sight of him staring up at her she began floating down.
"Sorry, you seemed to be in the middle of planning and we didn't want to disrupt it again. Because you are right, we're on a very tight schedule what with the people and the cults and everything," she apologized. "Honestly I don't think there's anything else I can offer outside of discussions with Charlotte and Alucard soo..."