Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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The Thralls were dead, their parts scattered about the hallway, but nothing regressed back to human. Twisted demonic limbs leaked red blood and perhaps that was the only thing left of their original human forms. Acrid smoke rose from the dead, twisting into sigils that sent up warnings to Julius.
"Sigils aren't words, they're symbols." Valencia explained as she glared at the math book on her desk.
"You mean like the stop sign?" Julius asked as he peeled his eyes from Richters' old Hunters Journal.
Valencia's bedroom was lined with boy band posters, and bright pastel colors with black and red marker drawn 'pictures' scribbled on them. "Yeah kinda. Basically there's two types, one 'does' use letters, and you create charms and wish spells with them. But they're not 'words'." She pointed to a rather cool twisting symbol drawn at the corners of a P!nk poster. "The other is the type hunter witches use.. Where the symbolism is fully internal. Like anyone can make those and use them, they're very low grade and keeps people from hurting themselves or others. The ones 'we' use are the dangerous ones."
"So what is the more advance ones used for?" Julius asked as he began to flip through the pages and looked at the numerous little doodles that he had been looking at. Suddenly he found himself wondering if they were sigils or if Richter just liked to doodle.
'She never mentioned transformations...' Suddenly inspired, Julius pulled out his phone from the inner protected recesses of his coat. He took a picture and watched as they writhed on the screen the way those old Harry Potter movies depicted 'wizard pictures'. They were trying to contort into something, straining against the confines of their shape even in still images...
His thumb began prodding buttons on the screen until he had sent the image to Valencia. With a brief 'this isn't normal is it?' before he gave the area one more visual sweep. It didn't appear that anything would regenerate, the area felt empty.
Thankfully no one had locked the door to the office, allowing him to open the Pope's private office door.
"Julius!" Pope Alexander and a host of Cardinals stood in the office in surprise at this presence. "Thank you Lord! We weren't sure if anyone could get in!"
Cardinal Lodovico stepped forward in curiosity, "you wouldn't happen to have a lion with you would you?"
"Leon went to find the remaining children in the Vatican, Yoko is rescuing those untransformed..." Julius reported as he felt the vibration of his phone in his coat. "Though the fact that he sounded angry in those roars makes me worry, so unless there are injuries I highly recommend that we all leave. So if you would kindly," he began and moved out of the way so the others could step out of the office.
"The child- Oh Lord..." Alexander went bone white at the thought. The kids had been ordered to escape... The world began to swim in front of him as he thought of the Cherub Choir killed.
"Most escaped, its how we got alerted to get here, but there were a few who didn't get the notice." Julius elaborated in concern as he saw the color drain from the Pope's face. He appeared so crushed in that moment that he actively began to sway on his feet. Even being corrected did little to restore the color to his face.
The other Cardinals looked just as badly, their faces pale and eyes with a shine that hinted at grief. Save the one with a clear injury with the growing knot on his head that was turning vivid red.
"Does he need help?" Julius asked as his gaze flickering from Lodovico to the head injured Cardinal and back again.
"We were in prayer when that last roar happened, it was so strong it knocked us over and he fell against the table."
"We can look after him," another of the cardinals replied with confidence. "If you can get us to the front of the Vatican. Please help save the children! Please save our flock!"
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What few thralls that came out were dispatched quickly. Often followed by prayers from the Pope at the horror of seeing one of their brethren having to be put down. In the distance there were priests that were running down at the intersection of the Vatican. They were in groups at times, but all in all nothing that screamed 'THRALL' to Julius as they moved.
"Father? Its his holiness!" a priest must have glanced over his shoulder and saw them as he paused. His voice caused the others to pause and soon even those who had passed by returned.
Suddenly it didn't matter the distance that the Pope and the Cardinals were away from the priests. How many doors could hold possible thralls or threats to their lives. They came charging down the hallway a fair stampede of black robes and swinging thin chains around and down their necks with the prayer beads glinting in what little light it could capture.
"Brothers, are you all well?" Alexander asked as he fought the distraught worry he had for the children so he could focus on the adults before him.
"Sister Yoko found us and we were heading to the front of the Vatican."
"Then take his Holiness with you, I need to go find Leon," Julius inserted himself into the conversation. 'There's no time really, I suspect I know why Leon would get so upset and I need to be there.'
"Yes, of course," Alexander agreed as the cardinals moved to join the small crowd of priests.
"And if Yoko reaches you, tell her when she's done to stay with you." Julius advised before turning and took off running down the hallway the way the priests had come.
Everything felt calm to him, enough so that he reached down and took out his phone in an effort to see who texted him. As expected it was Valencia and he flipped the screen to show him the message.
'The oils are corrupting the church.'
'How?' was what he sent to her, but, 'shit,' was what he thought.
He shoved his phone back into its pocket and hit the turn. The oils had been used for ages, burned as well as applied. So much of the Vatican was coated in the stuff, soaking into wood all over the place. It didn't take long for him to find Leon's path and over the sound of wind whistling past his ears he could hear roars that had to be Leon. It was muffled, due to distance and whatever was between them.
Upon reaching the passage that lead to the Vatican private vault Julius felt the first stirrings of distress. The air was tinged with blood, enough to make him think of several rooms in the castle and Leon had gone for the children. There was a possibility that there would be child thralls or dead children and either sickened him. He grabbed the vault door and pulled on the massive weighted door until it swung open.
Bodies were strewn across the floor, throats were torn out or stomachs gutted out completely, the floor was splotched with large pools of standing blood. Multiple boys had been decapitated and their bodies discarded, their eyes open and their innocent, smooth faces warped with expressions confusion and fear. In the center of the room was a single large bed, but it was empty now. The sheets were tossed aside with a shelf from the side toppled over onto it. Julius had no idea just how many ancient holy artifacts had been knocked over, damaged or outright destroyed. There were sacks across the floor soaking in the blood and damaging who knew what.
Or empowering who knew what.
A man sobbing was the only other sound in the room that Julius could pick up. The voice wasn't loud, but it was clearly an old man weeping. Murmuring words that could have been a prayer or pleas for their life he couldn't tell.
Creating a snapshot of a room that was processed by Julius in a second as the hunter charged in seeking out Leon.
Said man now lion, was stalking a thrall and from behind he looked almost black with red tones. His fur was smooth but the underbelly sides were pinched as blood dripped off, warning just how much blood he must have been exposed to. The thralls made no effort to try to entreat Julius, perhaps they recognized an active hunter couldn't be mislead.
'Better to keep Leon from murdering all of them, I need to be able to interrogate one or more...' Julius thought as Vampire Killer began to sizzle with some potent sensation. Lust or rage, Julius couldn't tell at that moment, but either would have made sense. Though the fact that it wasn't 'Dracula' causing this reaction was only a side thought.
"Leon! We need to be able to interrogate at least one!" Julius argued as he tried to step around the multiple bags and shattered pieces on the floor.
Leon didn't even turn to face him, and instead rumbled out a simple, "you forget that Dracula rules the dead."
Julius didn't bother trying to argue or discuss, in another time or place it would have been entertaining to see the thralls squirm.
"What did you do to the Holy Oils?" Julius demanded as he continued working his way through the Vault. Valencia's words were not lost on him even now, being told it was 'corrupted' was still limiting.
"They wouldn't be able to keep me here otherwise..."
Dionysus' voice was low with grief and defeat. Though out of sight of Julius the voice was clearly on the other side of several racks that had toppled over until they formed into a pile. "Those poor boys..."
Julius' steps propelled him forward despite not really wanting to go forward. Dionysus had been a good man, and now the idea of seeing a 'vampire' version of him... 'Was he already turned before I met him? If not, could I have saved him from this fate?' was a thought that murmured itself in the back of his mind.
He had a duty though and so he pushed through the anxiety and worry to find the old man sitting slumped over on a toppled shelf. His hands were smeared in blood, he was almost skeletal with his robes hanging off of bone thin shoulders.
'The pope of the undead.'
Such an insane notion that it burned Julius' own blood, then it chilled as the back of his mind pondered over the idea. Was Dionysus supposed to be a replacement for Dracula? 'A way to put someone in place and remove Dracula all the while staying in the shadows?'
"Pray forgive me Julius! Oh those poor boys, they fed me their blood... I've been trapped down here for so long..." Close enough to hear the man Julius began to get a new picture of what Dionysus had been subjected to.
"I understand why Leon is so angry..." Julius commented. "Please try to retain your humanity your Holiness, once this is resolved we'll.. figure out something."
'Not that I can figure out what exactly.' Julius thought to himself in muted frustration. There was no 'big bad' in the vault, a looming demon spawned from hell that he could dramatically destroy. Every prior Belmont had a simple path. Go into the castle, ascend to the master chambers and kill Dracula.
Now he was in the bottom of the Vatican, in a vault with priceless religious artifacts that the church had stolen from multiple faiths across the world and... Just a few thralls about to be a lions' chew toy and a grieving vampire.
Watching as Leon lashed out with blood soaked claws didn't even feel like much. That those massive paws and their wicked sharp claws gutted one thrall in front of him. It was almost as much of a wet 'pop' as a sound of flesh being shredded as the stomach, liver and other organs spewed out fluids mixed with blood. And he felt nothing, there was no hunters vibe that 'the evil' had been vanquished leaving Julius conflicted. Anger and anguish, disappointment and confusion, where was the one who orchestrated all this?
"You are friends with this lion?" Dionysus asked looking over at the blood soaked lion. "He arrived when the last of the children was..." He covered his mouth as blood tried to roll its way up past his throat. Several firm swallows later he was finally able to get it back down again. "Your friend is a divine beast though. He feels the same as you and your ancestors."
"Well he 'is' our founding father," Julius admitted.
"So... wait... if he's here, what's in the..." Dionysus turned his head to observe the walls with a frown. When the Belmonts remains had been brought to the Vatican their holy properties could not be denied. But could the body AND soul? No. It made no sense. But it didn't matter to the man, it took more energy than he had to even think about it.
All he saw was those boys, the blood, the chalice...
"Never have I been fed the blood of children..." He sobbed until his hands were stained in fresh blood. "How could God forsake all of us so?"
"If God forsook all of humanity so that this would happen, I wouldn't be standing here." Leon pointed out, though his voice wasn't steady. It trembled with rage and grief, his nose was filled with the stench of blood, and whatever the thralls were considered now. 'They said the children had escaped... But...'
No. Leon had been told the majority of the children. But it was a stark reminder that majority wasn't enough in situations like this. The ground was turning sticky with blood, it squelched when he stepped down and tried to suction his feet to the ground. While the memory of how cats bathed made him want to vomit. Not just the lowering of himself to debase himself by washing himself with his tongue. But also the blood of innocents being soaked into his fur.
'We need Pope Alexander to take that ring off Mathias. Right now he's not strong enough to interrogate these thralls. Actually he'll need time to recover, but once Mathias does...'
"Julius, I left one thrall alive in an office on the way here... I'm going to go check on him, see to the prisoner," Leon finally ordered before he turned, pointedly keeping his face away so he couldn't see all those blood soaked children's robes or dismembered heads.
"Understood," Julius agreed, "Just don't kill the thrall if you could?"
Leon didn't answer, there was only the sound of squelching blood and weighted padded paws peppered with the sobs of an old man. Minutes started to pass after Leon's tail disappeared into the doorway of the vault. Minutes more before Julius could even think to speak.
"Your Holiness, I defeated Dracula."
It was so late in coming, he was supposed to be a 19 year old, the world safe. The wash, rinse and repeat of history and instead...
"We waited, as did your family. When Alucard arrived and told us the sacrifice you made, that you were 'somewhere out there'.. We just accepted you would return in your own time, though admittedly your family held out longer on the hope that you would return post haste." Dionysus agreed quietly. "Though I suspect you have questions."
"Well... You're still alive, not impossible perhaps, but well..." Julius agreed before turning to face the old man. He refused to think 'the vampire'.
"I don't know when it happened, just, slowly it dawned on me that nothing changed. What had began as gratitude that I didn't have any new aches or pains became worries for the self same reason. The whispers of my longevity and growing speculation."
The old man was hunched over but slowly he pushed himself to his feet. A man who should have been in his hundreds now stood straight back. True he had all the visual markers of age, the white hair, the aged skin, the thin almost skeletal appearance... He moved as though a man younger than Julius was currently!
But it was the face, smeared int the blood of innocence, it stained down his eyes, as the man broke down.
"They made me drink! Oh Lord why!?"