Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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It was a painting of the very spot that it hung over.
As clean and precise as a photo.
The painting couch that Soma was laying on was empty, but there was a vibrant, visibly shimmering, fire in the fireplace. Even the light outside was reflected in the painting, with the corner lightened up. It hung now over the fireplace, looming over the room with a strange presence while the three servants stood near by. Now that Soma's will had been completed the trio set about looking to Alucard. Silent yet wondering if there was anything 'he' would like.
Their expressions, as much as they could have, was still something that Alucard noted. He settled back into his seat, gesturing faintly with an upturned hand for them to leave. The puppet boy was moving smoothly as a puppet. There was a stilted swing to the arms and hands as the child moved, showing he was becoming comfortable with his form.
The boy was growing irritably comfortable with that wooden form.
Last to leave was the maid, turning once more she gave him a polite curtsy before stepping out and shutting the door. Alucard returned his gaze to his father laying on the couch before him, as still as death and yet... He brought his gaze up to the painting, where now Soma was seated on the same couch. Rigidly stiff on the couch facing the fire with his hands up to absorb the heat from the flames. His coat collar was pulled up obscuring his feature even more, but he was there.
"Father?" Alucard called out as he stood up from his seat and approached Soma's physical side. For a moment he closed his eyes before willing the fireplace back to life. Sending a rolling wave of heat to wash over him, before he reopened them and affixed them keenly on the painting. Moments passed before the Soma in the painting finally moved, his stiff posture relaxed and his upper body turned to face Alucard.
Soma looked down at him, with this thoughtful expression on his face, his two hands appeared normal as he seated himself closer to the fire. In this bizarre parody of life, Alucard stood before the fireplace looking up at a painting of the very room he was in. His father was laying behind him on a couch sleeping in person. But in spirit was sitting on the self same couch depicted in the painting looking down at him.
It wasn't the Master Chambers with its raised dais, commanding one to gaze up upon the Lord of Darkness. The eyes were partly slanted, the skin tone off, the clothes and hair color all wrong, yet Alucard felt like a child looking up at his father. Resentment of an old remembered longings rose up like bile in the back of his throat as he stared up at his father. Soma wasn't a threat to the world when left to his own devices. Leaving Alucard resentful that he could never mourn properly.
He mourned losing his mother, mourned losing the man he knew as his father to the monster known as 'Grief'.
"And now here we are," Alucard finally spoke. "You are in a different body, and I can not fathom what I am to do now. You have a soul, you no longer act out against the world, and even have your memories back. But this castle is now filled with the very reason I can not allow this to be."
The world knew about the Castle, and soon, too soon, they would realize there was a Lord to this castle. People lusting for power would strive to take it for themselves, and for that Alucard didn't care. His duty had ever been on keeping his father from destroying the world. It was not his interest to involve himself in any other would be pretender to the throne. So long as his father was left to his own Alucard was fine with humanity destroying itself in their fight for this power.
But Soma was here, alive and there would be people who could very well come for him. Seeking a proxy figure head to protect themselves from any potential punishment from on high. For a moment he let his eyes close as he tried to sort out his thoughts. Find some peace or balance in the absurdity he found himself in. Finally his father was free of his hate, the world safe from his fathers' war, and now the world knew of him. With Fortners' group proof that his father would not be safe in his human life.
He felt the heat of the fire gently push against his skin. As gentle as a touch while his mind burned through possibilities. Churning irritation that he would even 'be' in this improbably, unwinnable situation caused him to open his eyes and look back up to his father.
Soma was still there, a plush doll fashioned in the childish image of Alucard when he was a child in the humans' arms. He sat there, fairly trying to console the doll as the warmth of the room took on a different meaning suddenly.
"No, stop it..." Alucard began, loathing the cracks in his voice as he tried to speak. "I don't wa-," he began and stopped. It felt beyond wrong to lie, he 'did' want to be comforted. 'I can't... I can't let you in Father. If you were to go back to your war I can't...'
At the same time Elizabetha stood in the shadows of the furthest corner of the room. There was no way for the painting to depict her from where she stod and it allowed her to watch the conversation.
"By your leave Father, I need to take a walk. I shall return shortly," Alucard told the painting version of his father before leaving. Turning on his heel and stepping quickly out of the room, his face colder than ice.
"Mathias?" Elizabetha walked forward, her eyes on the painting and a pained smile on her lips as her gaze took in the doll.
Soma's gaze moved to where she stood, acknowledging her presence so easily. Unlike the painful past centuries where he heard not her pleas or her sobbing. "Can you still feel your body? If you are uncomfortable or need something," she offered as she walked over to where his physical body rested.
It felt like minutes had stretched further than necessary when it dawned on her. Those weren't entirely questions he could answer with any degree of ease could he? He couldn't really express his feelings either. "It fills my heart with gladness that you are here and calm. Though I wish you weren't suffering in body the way you are."
She looked at Soma's physical body, and he really didn't look 'that' bad save his hand. But his coat sleeve was long leaving her unable to see more of his state. Perhaps it had leached up to his elbow or shoulder? "Adrian must feel so lonely, trying to be a grown man... Well he 'is' a grown man, yet this is not the ideal situation for a child of both worlds..." She looked up at him and saw this expression of quiet, rueful amusement on his face. The doll on his lap, and his hand was resting on the head...
"Mathias don't tease Adrian. You know how our son is about that..." She admonished with this mock tired tone as she looked at him. Yet he suddenly looked to the side, the focused intensity on something outside of the paintings view. So much so that she turned to see if it was in the room with her, yet she was still alone. Either of the living, dead, or undead...
So she looked back up at the painting and Soma was gone. Only the plush doll version of their son sat in his place, deceptively peaceful with its happy smile and little fangs. But where did her Lord Husband go? He was traveling in a way that she lacked access to. She made herself invisible again, and turned to leave the room only for the door to open again.
Alucard strode in, with all the stoic seriousness of an upset prince, and it got worse when he turned to look up at the painting. "Father..." If the word allowed for hissing he would have at the sight of that doll. So he settled with a low, unamused growl. The others would stay silent, but Yoko? Oh he could imagine how she would use that against him!
"Father..."
Elizabetha frowned at the irritation entering her sons' voice. His safe return meant the departure wasn't because their son was in danger. Turning she left the room, hurrying to the garden where she knew the Alura Une was resting. She could communicate with the plant and see if she knew where Mathias had left to. 'Outside of checking every painting in the off chance that Mathias went to that. I pray that his connection to his loyal souls will allow me to find where he is.'
Adrian would be safe in the room, and if he stayed there the whole time fuming at the painting that was fine too. He would be safe. Arriving at the garden, she found the Alura Une with her petals closed, a sure sign the plant was taking a nap.
"Alura Une!"
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Galamoth was an interesting being in the castle.
The Belmonts didn't have much on him, the information coming what Alucard was willing to share. Where he came from or why he decided to fight against Dracula was a mystery with only one real question.
How was Galamoth able to keep fighting?
The towering reptile was growing enraged the longer the fight carried on, the pooling blood was squelching under Julius' booted feet. The stickiness that made each step feel like the boots had to be peeled off the stone ground. That while the average person might have found it horrifying or distracting. Such feelings were worked out of the Hunters, petty distractions such as that were a weakness one could ill afford. It stagnated the air with its iron flavored odor and Yoko's constant sounds of disgust were pronounced. She was wearing heels after all and he could only imagine what her hands and legs looked like now.
Probably some crazed serial killer.
But Julius' wasn't focused on that. The blood wasn't rising from below, which was fine, but there was this low vibration. This was only Galamoths' upper body after all, and he had worked one limb free up here. Julius wasn't sure if Galamoth was trying to break free further than he already was, given the amount of blood he had already lost.
Yoko was in the back, forced to use her elemental magic to counter Galamoths own lightning. He was twisting his some of his spells to target the iron content he seemed to have in his blood. Electrifying the ground and sending arcs up to sting Julius' shins, but Yoko... Well she couldn't fly on a broom or transform into a bird. So negating Galamoths' attack was more on helping protect her than anything else.
Amid the falling orbs of light he could see a few of his daggers, hilts protruding around Galamoths' eye. Unsatisfactory misses, cuts of axes that while reaching the target didn't strike as true as they used to. Not the bulls eye, but a second place shot easily. Unwelcomed signs of how his advancing age was stealing his ability to be done already. Someone like Galamoth should have already been dead, he was already held down, and weakened. In Fortners' castle Julius would already done and moved on in many of the rooms that held such powerful demons.
Hurling a bottle of holy water, it burst into flames on contact with Galamoths' wounded arm as it slashed across the room. The sharp nails scraping against the blades that held him down filling the air with a sharp shriek.
"Oh this isn't good... Maxine fly down this is..." Charlotte called out as Maxi blindly dropped down into the room.
A splash was heard as Max landed, followed by her choked gag, "my shoes, my socks, my legs... DIE HANDBAG YOU WON'T BE LONG IN THIS WORLD!"
"Kids these days," Julius muttered into his beard.
Somewhere in the world a dog had another sneezing fit out of nowhere.
While Yoko was keeping the ground from becoming electrified, Max began began casting flames that ignited the blood on the floor. Shadows were cast against the walls in explosive golds and reds.
"Don't start casting spells before you get the fundamentals down!" Charlotte began, torn between pride at her grandchild and frustration that the girl was trying to mix and match Charlottes' spells. 'Mid Battle'.
She watched as the fire began spiked up from the floor, trying to melt the iron in the blood and forge it. The fire was still burning and that was doing damage, but there was this pull on the metal that worried the older, dead, witch. She began eyeing the mental blades about the room warily. "Maxine, there's a 'lot' of metal and you shouldn't weaken them for an untested spell. Just use the basic elements for now. I'm sure there will be future opportunities for unique applications of spells. Just 'not now'."
"I ever tell you that you're no fun," Max snarked back as Charlotte settled near by.
"No, but Jonathan did so often enough."
"Charlotte!" Max called out in her best male voice.
"Maxine!" Charlotte struggled to keep her face straight at the joke.
The dead witch began investigating the room and frowned as she saw the injuries on the giant reptile. Several of the larger, rotted, injuries were clearly done before Julius had gotten his hands on them. Meaning that they were things Soma had done to the reptile. It was note worthy to see how extensive injuries could be from both Dracula and the Belmonts.
When inflicted on the same being.
Now, decades after that day, she could see how Julius had both grown and declined. He was leaning on the relics and gifts of the castle to compensate. Even dead she could see the magics evoked to allow him to sail into the air in a jump. It brought to mind how Jonathan had begun to slow up as he got older. Until she was making balms and other remedies to help Rachel ease the pain in Jonathans joints.
'You weren't doing that great either, though you were never a contact fighter...' she chided herself gently.
Her eyes went to the bloody floor below her and she could see the subtle ripples from the steps Maxine and Julius were making... Or perhaps... Slipping downward she checked the room below, where she was confronted by the the bloody remains of Galamoths body. The scales were gone, only muscle and bone were on display for the ghost. Swaths of flesh were torn off revealing bone, one leg was roughly in piece. The left leg was of muscle and bone, the inner thigh muscle looked clear cut in two. The knee was about her length from the ceiling of the room and was trying to hit the ceiling.
'So this isn't two rooms, its one large room cut parallel to the ground.' She realized and frowned at the tapping. He was too dissected and injured to break through the floor, but if he was able to make the floor 'vibrate' and all that blood...
"He can't break the floor beneath you, but he 'is' trying to make it unsteady to stand on." Charlotte announced as she floated over to be near Max. Orbs revealed the deepening color of flesh cooked from Max's spells. Steam or smoke rose up from fire or holy water damage, Julius cracked the Vampire Killer into creating a spark.
Max grabbed the spark and fed into it with her magics, turning the spark into a fireball. Charlotte found herself taken aback at how the pair just worked that out on the fly, and there was pride in their quickness. 'You may be slowing down in body Julius, but your mind is as sharp as before.' Charlotte thought in pride of Julius.
The fire hurled up to Galamoths' face, perhaps a basic fireball. But it was blessed with holy power, something that the reptile recognized. Forced to block the fireball with the back of his hand, leaving himself open to Julius' ax throw to the eye. Galamoths' eye burst open from the sharp, magically enhanced blade, the liquid spilling forth down his face. A roar of rage escape his mouth exposing it to Max who sent large chunks of ice into his already exposed mouth.
"I mean its like eating ice... but what can you do."
Galamoths' hand began flailing uselessly again, Julius and Max both taking shelter behind the swords. Enraged and his hand numbed by the fire, Galamoth couldn't feel the swords as he slammed his arm side to side. The world was black now, all he could do was smell the over saturated scent of blood and his prey, mixing with his fury. Lightning arced from him to the swords and began striking at random parts of the room.