Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"What a horrible night to have a curse..." Simon growled as the group walked outside of the portal. They moved along, their own gazes sweeping across the familiar walls of the Vatican. No distant cries for help, or people running, so the shields that had kept the spirits off the Vatican grounds had held up for the most part.

"Set out rounds? One checks out Yoko's quarters to make sure that's been untouched, the rest of us check around?" Christopher offered his voice low and thoughtful as he looked about.

"Each take a floor," Richter agreed and walked past the others, with his fellows following him they began walking down hallway, ears pricked with the awareness that they weren't sure what Soma had done to them. The trip through out Japan had shown that the land was still barren of their normal natural spirits. Trevor had noted it didn't 'feel' abandoned so they were in hiding, and given he was 'designed' to look after Kazu. Well they had no reason not to trust the man.

Juste took the stairs and began descending to check the ground floor, his ears pricked up in case there was any distressed nuns or priests. It was quiet, only the soft sound of his feet on carpet when he suddenly paused next to a picture of the Last Supper... his attention was suddenly fixated on the painting and trying to figure out what was bothering him. Something felt off as he stared at it, granted he wasn't really a student of art. He studied each face, each position of the body when something in the distance caught his attention.

It was the evening rolling cart, starting its trek through the Vatican causing Juste to turn his attention towards it. He stood up and started walking towards the passage that would lead towards the kitchen area, unaware as Judas' gaze followed him.

While Juste was surprised when the cart didn't appear as he walked along. Until his muzzled nose was in the branch of the hallway. There was a priest walking down the hallway with said cart, Juste had seen him time and again when the others had been out for their walks yet... His head cocked to the side as the man's eyes were off... Pale? Worried the Belmont backed up and tried to stay as much out of sight as he could.

'How peculiar, I've never been able to hear things at that distance with the level of detail as I just did... is this a side effect? Or main effect of what Soma did? Did he enhance us somehow?' Juste pondered as he waited, listening to the soft rattle of the cart. There was food on it, he knew though he couldn't smell it. The late night snack for His Holiness that was always delivered, 'well it would be a way to get to the Pope and check in on him. I do not believe there is any other direct way to him. Unless there was an emergency...'

With that Juste waited until the cart came into sight, it was sturdy cart with sliding drawers, a pair of doors and a good sized section meant for trash that was currently unobstructed. He hopped onto the cart and tucked himself between the bag and the cart. Watching the walls as they rolled by, Juste patiently tucked into his spot...

And rolled...

And rolled along... past the hall to the lift that would have brought them to the second floor where his Holiness' private office was located at.

?

Juste expected to be carried to the lift, but the walls kept going and the path to the lift didn't match what he was seeing. 'Where are we going? Outside? But why?' the path matched going to the lift, and his mental map of the ground floor was worrying. Soft light began to warm the windows that they passed by. Haunting light that Juste could trace his eyes along the various shapes he saw as they moved. 'We're heading towards the offices?'

Of all the things in this direction, the only thing of note for Juste was the actual vault. Where the most sacred items were kept. Worry dragged the corners of Justes' pup mouth down as he thought back to the priest. The robes of the priest didn't imply a rank affording him the right to come this way. The offices yes, but the hour was wrong, too early to prepare for a meeting, so the only other reason was the vault. But if the vault, why bring the cart? Had he 'always' come here instead at night?

Juste wiggled back and tucked himself even further down and in, hiding himself as much as he could. 'I should have run across one of the others...'

But they were in small plush bodies, even if one of the other Belmonts came to the area they could have checked and left. They all assumed the cart was going to the Pope only it wasn't.. This would be too easy to miss..

The priest continued on, going further into the Vatican than Juste had ever seen. Below the rug clearly changed though Juste couldn't see it, with the way it bumped and rolled before following what could have been grooves. 'I suppose there would be fewer times for the rugs to be changed if we're heading where I think.' The walls themselves were also seemingly older, lacking windows there was no natural light to look around.

More over there was this strangely calm sense that came from this hall. 'This isn't natural...' he thought, but since the Vatican carried any holy relics from around the world...

He could feel the path they were taking was on some form of an incline, descending deeper into the ground. But that was all, if the air quality was more chill or not it was beyond him. 'No candles, or electric lights, how is this man seeing where he's going? The grooves could serve as a form of rails, but I'm not confident...' he thought to himself.

On the one hand Juste wanted to check on the priest, recalling the strangeness about the mans' expression. But there was a chance doing so would get him caught and ejected from this little 'trip'. He was left feeling the unsettling even rumbling of the cart. Until it came to a stop, pausing so that he could get a good look at the wall while the world felt still. Through this 'trip' he had started to notice light as they progressed, a soft, warm golden light that brought to mind the comforting soft illumination of candles. But candles 'this' far underground? 'Well there were candles in the Castle and even after we broke them they never set fire to anything.' A casual thought of awareness that suddenly sparked... 'But how could the Vatican have access to such candles? There are battery powered fake candles true, but to install them here? It would be pointless.'

Illuminated by the candles he could see the stonework that went into the walls, so at some point during this walk they had gone from the current structure of painted walls back into stonework. Each stone bigger than Juste's current form and while he was no mason, he could see the age in each stone.

The priest walked by, going to a door and began working to open it while Juste slipped his head out just enough to get a look around. Said doors were wide and tall, but the Vatican was supposedly the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Juste couldn't see the type of handles that were used for the doors, but he did see when it cracked open. More light could be seen slipping out from the room beyond before Juste stuck himself back into his spot.

Silence was all the door gave as it swung open, but as Juste sat there he realized the candles were also pretty quiet. There was usually a comfort to the soft sound of the wick burning, the modest sound of the flame flickering. Even as he strained his ears, he couldn't hear anything save the soft even rhythm of people breath...

'Wait...' Juste hurriedly laid down and leaned his head out in an effort to get as clear a chance to hear as possible. Only one person had pushed the cart, and Juste didn't breath, but... somewhere further in he could 'hear' something. Strained, wispy, with a slightest bubbling gargling type sound, but it 'was' breathing to some degree or another.

'There's a 'living being' in here?!' he was mortified, ears flipping back as his muzzle became more cone shape in response to his thin lipped expression of mortification. Holy relics from around the world was one thing. But he had never heard of a 'living' Holy Item. So he stayed down and watched as the priest walked past him and the subtle push of the cart resumed. Allowing Juste to watch as they passed by the door frame and into the part of the church that had not been seen by the common man in ages.

Thick stone stretched out before him, but there were shelves blocking his view, each shelf filled with sacks placed at measured distance from each other. For the common human it probably would have looked no different that just that. Sacks evenly spaced out, there was no reason to even think this to be 'the' fabled vault of the Vatican. Yet, Juste wasn't the common human, or alive. Each sack was more than its coarse exterior. Sealing bags that contained whatever relic that had been confiscated and there was no telling what each bag held. They were of various sizes, some large, some small, each sack sealing away what was contained with various degrees of success.

Various bags were either straining against relics still robust with power, as currently venerated objects of power or that still had worshipers. Others were dead, lacking the glow of presence or power their bags were limp, powerless and purposeless for what they contained. Others looked full and round their power peeking out between the stitches in some cases.

Some items were mounted on small alter spaces that suggested of swords or weapons. Juste kept his eyes peeled, looking about for a possibly living entity. A sign of movement among the bags as they continued rolling quietly among the shelves. Rattling of the cart wheels couldn't drown out the softer sound of breathing as Juste began to check both sides of the cart.

'I shouldn't be reminded of being in the castle just by being in here...' Juste mentally grumbled to himself as he listened. The aura of power that was often radiating off of everything wasn't blinding per say. However; there was a difference between an aura of power and actual light. Aura's didn't get stopped by walls, or spikes, or any such other mundane things. While all these sacks tried to contain the auras to the point where it almost served as glow bags.

'Is it a monster...?' Juste pondered as the sound grew steadily louder. Dracula kept demons against their will imprisoned in the castle and this...'I don't want to think or believe that the Vatican could be some reverse version of Dracula's castle. But I can't ignore the fact that this large room feels... much the same way...' The roof loomed high above, if he was seeing correctly through the occasional spaces between shelves, there was a large honeycomb of drawers that lined itself against the wall.

Breathing became more audible, pained even causing Juste to only side eye the path they were on. Could be a demon being suppressed by being in the Vault, or an ageless Dark Child. In the distance he saw a space with what appeared a side table. It was enough to catch and hold Juste's attention as a bed became visible as the cart approached. A bed with someone 'in' it that had a very human appearance.

'This is wrong.'

Juste didn't have long to see who the person was, the distance and the bed was high enough to hide a great deal of detail. But he could see it was a man who was nothing more than skin and bones, sunken into the bed. A frail display of skeleton with a paper thin skin resting over his bones. The bed looked soft, and at the foot of it there was a bag that bore yellow liquid.

Quietly Juste moved to the front of the cart and dropped so he could let the cart roll over him. Then he proceeded to belly crawl his way with the cart, finding the floor to have a thick layer of dust save this path... 'Its unnatural really, this path is clear while the rest of the floor has a thick layer of dust. Meaning this has been going on a while...'

A while that the Belmonts had been living in ignorance of. It felt reprehensible that they didn't realize there was a person trapped here. 'What type of shields are they using here? I know our remains are being used to shield the Vatican from the exterior, but... this can't be a saint. Was this a matter of a Saint being kept here?

Rolling to a stop the cart came to rest by the bed and Juste was left under the cart observing the feet as it moved about. Minutes dragged along at a snails pace while the priests' work took him all around the bed. Freed up, Juste scrambled out from under the cart and hide himself under the bed during one such opportunities. Checking it quickly in case there was something under there to also be dealt with.

Yet the bed, at least from below, appeared no different than Yoko's bed. Which was the only real bed he had experience with since she finally lifted those restrictions. 'All those years stuck on a shelf save the winter holidays...' just the thought alone was enough to send Juste's head hanging low as he shook it recalling those days.

Meanwhile the priest continued doing whatever, something was placed at the bottom of the garbage bag. The blanket that rested on the bed didn't move, so whoever was sleeping on it was unresponsive. Nor did the bed move or creak as though the person was awake... 'why would a person be left down here? I can't imagine the pope being fine with this...'

'All this time, we thought he was bringing food to Alexander, the men and women we saw using the cart were explained it as such at least...' But was it this? If he had been made into a real dog, perhaps his nose would have detected something amid the work the man was doing now. 'Of course it is also just as likely that my own breathing or the sound of my claws on this stone floor would have alerted him as well.. so there's the trade off.'

Tucking in his paws he waited while weighing on if he should leave on the cart or if he should stay for a bit. 'They come nightly so its not that I can not grab another chance to travel down here... And there's enough room for me and another.' With that decided he snuck his way back onto the cart, and nearly felt his fake fur fall off him in alarm. The plastic trash bag rustled slightly as he crawled in, now that there was a weight at the base of it.

Juste had to dive back under the bed as footsteps quickened towards the cart. He scrambled to the farther end of the bed and hoped the priest wouldn't check under the bed itself. Said priest 'did' kneel though, he began checking the cart while Juste studied him from the furthest leg of the bed. 'Something... his eyes...' the corners of his mouth pulled down as he tried to squish himself to hide properly behind the bed leg.

Glowing, the priests eyes were radiating a light he had never seen on any of the other church members who had been dealing with that cart. Nor had any of his family members made mention of such a light before... 'Is... I could never do this when I was alive, nor after I was placed in this body... the mystery of Soma's stunt was starting to take center stage in Justes' mind. 'He knows he can't help, we all saw him in the castle and his condition isn't good. So did he some how figure out how to enhance our forms?'

Juste felt like he had an itch he couldn't scratch, Yoko created this spell out of ignorance, and he couldn't really condemn the girl for that. Indeed it was commendable that she could create such a spell when she was so young to start with. But that Soma was able to 'work' with such unique spells in what was clearly a declining state. Soma wouldn't have the magical teachings to perform such a thing... but that Dracula 'could'...

But, for now, that was not important, the fact that he could now visibly 'see' something off about the priest raised a whole new level of possibilities. There was still the death of the exorcist that they hadn't been able to make headway... If this was a type of mind control was the pope in danger? After all if no one else could see this save the transformed Belmonts. Who knew where he could get to and do to others?

Drawers were slid open, the two small doors were thrown opened, the possibly possessed priest checked everything. Each spot, the area around the trash, nothing was left unchecked leaving Juste to realize how tricky this would be. Clearly the priest could hear and respond to stuff even if he was in some altered mental state.

'We need to plan this out, how can His Holiness not know about this? Has he not been down here himself? Is he also... no that's impossible he doesn't, his power comes from...' Justes' ears drooped as he started to realize just how bad the situation was. Popes weren't divinely chosen, they were picked by human people. Was Alexander safe? Was he in danger? Was he 'part' of the danger knowingly or unknowingly?

Juste heard the cart start to be closed up, drawers slid back into place, doors closed, all warning him that the man was about to leave. 'And I can't get on the cart because he can hear the sound of the bag moving and its bottom is more filled out.'

It hit then.

He was trapped in the most hidden, protected, and sealed part of the Vatican with no way to communicate with the rest of his fellow hunters, at least not until tomorrow...