Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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For a time, Leon found himself confounded by the building.
After all, upon his first visit via a portal to the Vatican he never got a chance to take a tour of the place. Instead, he had been mostly carried around by the boys around the choir rooms and Lady Yoko's personal suite. So he stood there for a moment as everyone took a moment to stop and stare at him.
Then ran screaming.
'Animal eyes are so odd,' he mused to himself as he looked around. The main entryway had a few statues, all of which were staring at him, but none appeared hostile. There 'were' out of place things about the area that he could now recognize with his living nose. It was enough to make him narrow his own eyes and do a more intense sweep as he tried to decide the best direction to go.
Cleansing fires in the Hakuba shrine versus the scent of natural fire was now something his nose knew. Here there was nothing, he could see candles burning, yet the scent was not of natural smoke or a purification smoke. 'There are holy oils that Lady Yoko's family produces yes?' he pondered as he moved forward, yet even in his faint recollections of times he smelled oil infused smoke...
His ears pricked up out of concern as he looked about. Before him was a flight of stairs and his memory of glances out of windows told him that the choir rooms were on the second floor. Every step felt as though he was tethering into falling backwards, his 'heels' were just on the edge of each step. His toes slamming into the next step and those claws he kept sheath and often forgot was there... reminding him with each step.
'I guess the steps at the shrine are wider...' he mused in an effort to avoid the annoyance of his limbs as he continued to climb up the stairs. In the background he could faintly hear the sound of Julius and Lady Yoko talking. Though it was murmurs to him given his distance and focus on the stairs. They had entered and he was fine with whatever they decided to do. 'I would suspect the priests and His Holiness will be the top of their concern. I'll fetch the children since they know me, and will be more likely to follow my instructions.' Especially since they saw Richters' transformation, coupled with Leon's ability to speak.
Once he reached the floor he looked about and could recall a bit of the furniture. The scents weren't as cloying as when he was in Japan. So few people when compared to the ever growing crowd, the occasional vehicle exhaust.
"What is a lion doing here?!" The priests turned and ran, shoving the aged nun with them to the ground as he approached the choir room.
Such an offending behavior for men of the cloth that Leon's ears shot up and his hackles went up in outrage and disappointment. The old nun was trying to crawl to a wall in an effort to stand clearly, her eyes never leaving him.
"Please, oh God! You are my Sheppard," the woman was praying as Leon walked over.
"Excuse me dear Lady, I mean no harm," he began, and her sudden study of the hallway was reassuring. Clearly she had enough sense to realize someone was talking and trying to find the speaker.
So what if she didn't connect that the speaker was the lion approaching her?
"No, you hear correctly, I am the lion speaking," he sat down so he could bring his hand up to his chest and give a rough lion form bow. "The Vatican isn't safe currently and while I was here to find the remaining children and guide them outside. If my presence is too alarming, I assure you Lady Yoko will undoubtedly be here soon enough to render aid..."
"Little 'ko?" The nun seemed to return to her senses as she heard the name and calmed a little more. "Little 'ko is here?"
Leon nodded politely before he stood up and made his way to her side, moving slowly enough so she could watch his every movement.
"A holy lion?" The nun blinked before shaking her head. "The boys aren't up here, some of my brethren came to evacuate them to the Vault for their own safety."
"The... the Vault?" Leon inquired his head tilting to the side in worry. Outside was safer, why the vault? He moved beside her and lifted his arm up so she could push herself to her feet. As old as she was, she barely had any weight, perhaps she was pound for pound with the robes she wore even! And while he didn't like his head being used as a brace, it would be beneath him to make such an elderly lady struggle.
Annoying, the idea that the children were herded off to a Vault, given what Juste had said. Perhaps the children would be safer with the now vampire pope who was trapped there...
The thought began to circle his mind, occupying the space very quickly until, like a lotus from a lake of mud... 'Why would you bring children to a 'vampire'?!' the pope part was eliminated as the horror filled the man. "Excuse me, but how may I find this 'vault'?" he asked as he stood up to move his lower half. He wasn't really fully aware of it, but his tail was thrashing and it was a strong enough to send the poor woman back to the ground.
"Oh," the nun lifted her hand up and pointed down the hall, from there he was given a list of directions. Unfortunately including the 'but you don't have hands so you can't enter' comment. Granted if he were in his plush form, he 'technically' had hands. But undoubtedly also lacked the physical weight and mass necessary to open the door.
"I'll make due, thank you for your time I must go see to the children." He finally stated as he began running, glancing down he saw the pair split and moving but still making their ways across the room. "Lady Yoko, you are needed to assist a nun up here!" he called out, his bounding steps having carried him across the path. Anything further would require him to stop and he just didn't have time.
Down the hallway he hung the first left he came to and stopped so suddenly he did a full roll with his tail flying over his head and sending him tumbling.
Absolutely undignified, unbecoming, and so far beneath him to do it, roll!
Still happened as Leon found himself horrified by what he saw.
The hallway was split into various paths each the exact same as the other causing Leon to rub at his eyes in growing distress. Innocent children needed him, yet here he was staring at a hallway? 'This is impossible...' Logic stated that a square hallway should be straight, so he walked to the right and leaned against it and began walking... but the wall 'curved' away.
As he walked the hallway began to straighten out, but his nerves wouldn't let him just keep walking in full confidence. Instead he turned and returned to where the split was the most pronounced and followed the left side of the hallway, but the curve took him further left.
'Split up? Larger than it appears? No, the priests would have recognized the issue instantly...' Leon sat back at the starting point his tail lashing out and his massive claws had stuck out and began digging into the expensive carpet. 'If these paths take everyone to different locations how are they not aware of the outside influences?' He pondered in growing frustration, it wasn't even just 3 paths and he had to walk dead center of the hall. There were all these splits and somewhere on the other end was the children...
More over he could even 'see' people in the hallways! Several paths had people rushing about or looking about until they noticed him. Then the panic would begin as they saw this lion and ran further down the hallway... Their backs splitting as they went down various hallways.
Frustration started to grow on Leon, rumbling out of his chest in the form of a low, displeased growl. Rubbing his eyes would do no good, but the growl got louder as he sat there. Take a chance and waste time wasn't something he was keen on doing. All those ridiculously paths when dealing with Walter played themselves somewhere in the back of his mind. If he had just been given a straight path maybe Sara would have survived.
Though his roar worked outside to reveal the thralls...
Granted roaring like a mere beast was demeaning in ways that Leon didn't want to discuss, but at the same time if it saved the children...
Drawing in a breath he let out a massive roar, a sound that he was so unused to that he was taken aback by it. Outside it felt more like a guttural 'stop' to him, a roar instead of the words he would have chosen. Now that it was intentional he was more aware of how it rumbled out of his chest, how it tickled his mane and his arms...
When the world before him shattered as glass bursting forward into the hallway. Cast down as it though it had been it struck. Resounding further into the hallway leaving only the distant signs of the priests robes as they ran. The echo vibrated off the paintings that hung on the wall and the sparse furniture that rested against the walls.
Flexing his jaw before he clamped it shut. He resumed walking down the hallway, while the ground proved to be clear of any 'glass'. 'How long has this been going on? Why did no one notice?' He wondered, though granted it was a futile thought. Perhaps if he had time to spend and speak with Juste he could learn. But it was a thought he could chase as he began to jog down the hallway towards where the nun had directed him.
Glancing to the sides showed the paintings here were still of motion. If it was because of Leons' roar, the former knight had no clue. But the less to distract him or get in his way the better all around, while the carpet deaden the sound of his weighted body as he moved. Off in the distance he could see one priest laying on the ground.
The man didn't move much, his hands were clamped at the sides of his head with his eyes clamped shut. Leon couldn't check the man's eyes, so he nudged the man with his paw in an effort to get those eyes to open. 'Though I admit I am at a loss for what to do with him,' Leon mused to himself as those silted eyes opened up.
Terrified at the lion before him the Thrall sat up and began pushing himself back in an effort to get away. Such painful light radiated off the beast, with eyes that held the intelligence of a man.
"Where are the children? I was told they went this way."
The beast... spoke? The lion spoke? Was this some divine beast from God?
"No, God does not answer us anymore.. Are you from hell too?"
"I most certainly am 'not' from hell!" Leon rebuffed in irritation, shaking out his mane as though he would cast the words off with a flick of his fur! "Now answer my question, where are the children?"
This couldn't be a hell beast, it felt so different than what he had felt before. There was an almost calming sensation from the beast before him...
"We took the children to the Vault to stay with the pope as ordered..." he offered before pointing further down the hallway. "I merely attend the pope, the holy relics in the vault should keep the children safe..."
"You speak of 'the Pope'; so Pope Alexander is in the vault as well?" Leon asked, there was this part of him urging him to hurry up. The children needed him now, yet as the thrall spoke to him, there were flashes of when the eyes became human. If the soul could be redeemed slaying the thrall would be wrong.
"No... Alexander is in his office..." The thrall answered as he edged back from the lion.
Those ice blue leonine eyes narrowed before the lion tossed his head. "Go, stay and that office and do not leave it until I come to fetch you." He ordered, "unless you wish to end your time on earth at this moment."
"Nonononono..." The thrall dug his heels into the carpet and pushed his back against the wall behind him. Once he got to his feet he staggered towards the office door and stumbled into it, the lion following him every step of the way. Granted the beast didn't follow fully into the room, he 'did' stick his head in far enough to observe the environment around him.
No other exits save the windows existed in the room, but the door opened inward. There was no way to jam the door shut from the outside. Dragging furniture over meant nothing and while it was frustrating he could only just paw at the door to shut it as he moved back. 'The children come first,' he decided as he moved out.
Putting the fact that these thralls referred to the former, and now turned, Pope as though he was current at the back of his mind. He could ask the man when they met, given the former Pope was a victim as well, Leon felt less inclination to try and slay the man. So instead he focused on where the turn was that would lead to the slop down towards the Vault.
There were fewer scents here, and regret colored his feelings for a moment that he couldn't really make proper use of his animal senses. But quickly pragmatism won the day, reminding him calmly that he wasn't an animal blessed with human intelligence. He was a man, stuck in the body of a lion because his former best friend was trying to 'help'.
After all were he still a stuffed toy, which Mathias could have kept him 'as', there would be nothing Leon could do to help anyone. The power and abilities of a lion were far more useful than the antics of a toy. Even if a toy had an easier time being moved about into various locations. 'Well with enough time I'm sure I could have found a better use for my stuffed lion form.' He ruminated when the vault doors...
Leon froze for a moment, his paws stuck to the ground as his nose scrunched up from a scent. He knew it, even as a human he knew the metallic scent of blood. Yet why would there be... 'Of course they were feeding the Pope Dionysus down here.' He realized and trekked further down the passageway until he reached the door.
Large with several bars and slots, leaving the former knight a touch annoyed as he studied it. Finding a relic and presenting it to a door to make it open was one thing. Have soft fake fur paws and trying to open a paper door without tearing the paper was also a thing. There were signs that other locking mechanisms had already been removed.
Had the former knight seen cats pry open more European structured doors, perhaps he would have realized his situation wasn't that bad.
He hadn't.
Instead he pawed at bars to move them to the side, and after a while of trying to shove his massive paw into the opening so he could pull on the vault door. He resorted to using his claws to hook and pull. Strong and thick as his claws were, it wasn't a pleasant sensation and he had to repeatedly swap between paws and give them a break. Before they broke and despite his roar proving to have some magical property. Claws were also a great asset.
Slowly enough of the vault door pulled open so he could begin digging at it to the best of his ability. His padded fingers pressed and pulled over and over again until he had a crack in the vault door wide enough to shove his muzzle through. One paw was shoved into the opening as he prepared to pull it open with more dignity than to just shove his head through.
Then he heard a young boy scream in terror and dignity went flying out the door. His muzzled face was shoved through the door, the whiskers not pleased with this occurrence as he pushed through. Scrambling through the door his heart stopped the instant the childs' cry stopped though it didn't stop him from charging down further into the vault.
Ahead of him he could see the boy in question, dangling by an ankle with his robes shredded and thankfully hiding his upper body. If something hid the poor childs' head that would have helped as it laid vacantly staring at Leon. Blood was poured into a massive chalice and perhaps Leon would have noticed later. But the boys were staring up at him in such vacant terror. All of the remaining children seemed to be there.
In pieces...
Killing the thrall and running here would have been so much faster.
"What is a lion doing here?"
"We need to feed his holiness..."
"No! That poor boy, you lost children! Stop this please!"
Fury turned the world red, the roar rolled out of him from black clouds of outrage, rattling the shelves and walls and very foundation of the Vatican.