Chapter 2: The Bell Tolls for Thee
Luigi had not been expecting to wake up again. He was dead, after all, so unless he came back as a ghost or something…
Oh, he was a ghost. That would explain it. Being able to see his body lying on the ground off to the side was a surreal experience, especially when he was looking at it through his hand.
He couldn't say that he had been expecting this to happen, nor that he particularly liked the idea. But mostly, he just hoped that he wasn't one of those ghosts who was stuck haunting a specific location and couldn't leave. He wanted to go home and certainly didn't want to spend the rest of his life stuck in Castle Bernhard. Or at least he assumed that's where he still was.
There wasn't much point in sticking around where he died, so he decided to go looking for Leon. The former crusader seemed to have more experience with these sorts of things than he did, after all, and he wanted to make sure that his new friend was safe. Perhaps he could even still help rescue Sara, even in his current state.
Before he could head deeper into the castle, however, the front doors slowly creaked open again. Luigi turned, hoping to see Leon coming in behind him.
It wasn't.
Four people entered the castle. The first was a man with long, dark hair and a nasty-looking scar running down the left side of his face. He was carrying a whip that looked an awful lot like Leon's but he had a much darker disposition than the knight. He was followed by a blonde woman in vibrant blue robes who must have been a mage of some sort given the flames conjured above her hands, and a man wearing nothing but a worn set of trousers and a red bandana on his head. Bringing up the rear was a tall, white-haired man in a black coat who couldn't have looked any more like a vampire if he had tried.
Luigi ducked behind one of the many statues that lined the great hall. He didn't know who these people were but they seemed like trouble.
"Hmph, I was expecting more of a welcoming party," the man with the whip said. "Are we sure that this is Dracula's Castle?"
"Do you think that I wouldn't recognize the place where I was raised?" the white-haired man asked. "This is definitely the right place."
"Maybe he doesn't know that we're here yet?" the woman suggested.
"With the mess we made on the way here, not a chance." The other guy pulled out a dagger. "Oi, Dracula! Get your lazy keester down here!"
"Hm, here's a thought," the first man sighed. "How about we don't tick off the ancient, extremely powerful vampire lord?"
"Why, we're ta kill 'em anyway, ain't we?"
Dracula? Like the old novel? What happened to Lord Bernhard? Did he somehow get transported to some other vampire's castle? Actually, that wasn't completely out of the question. Luigi was going to have to investigate that as soon as these people left.
"Hm, what do we have here?"
Luigi looked back up to see a pair of piercing red eyes staring straight at him. When had the white-haired man spotted him? Luigi let out a small scream and would have jumped if he still had a body, but instead floated away from the guy who was very definitely a vampire standing in front of him.
"You don't look like one of my father's minions," the man said as his companions drew closer. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"I-I'm Luigi." There wasn't exactly any point in hiding his identity at this point. It could potentially provoke them if he tried. "And I'm not entirely sure. I was with a man named Leon when we were separated and I was attacked by… by Death… and then you guys showed up."
"Leon?" The brown-haired man perked up at that name. "What was this man's family name?"
"What, do you know who his companion was?" the woman asked.
"Just a hunch."
"B-Belmont," Luigi stammered, which elicited a surprised reaction from the others.
"Hey, wait," the shirtless guy started to say, "isn't that-"
"And did he carry a whip like this one?" The brown-haired one cut him off.
"Yes." Luigi nodded. "And a sword with a silver handle with rubies in it."
"And how long did you say that you've been here?"
"I don't know for sure," Luigi stammered. "It feels like just a few minutes but I don't know how long it was between when I died and when I woke up again. Probably not long, though, since my body's still…"
Luigi looked over to the empty stretch of floor where he had died.
"That's odd."
"Leon Belmont died about four hundred years ago."
Luigi froze. That couldn't have been right, could it? It had to have only been a few minutes, hours at most, right?
"You know, you could have built up to that a little nicer," the woman scolded him.
"F-four hundred…" Luigi muttered, unable to process what he'd just been told. "That can't be… it was just a few minutes ago. Are you sure?"
"He was one of my ancestors, so yes, I'm sure," the man said grimly. "This is the same whip he once used, the Vampire Killer, which has been passed down my family for generations. My name is Trevor Belmont."
"I'm Sypha Belnades," the woman introduced herself next. "I'm a witch and monster hunter working for the church."
"Grant Danasty," the shirtless man said with a sly grin. "Thief."
"If we're all introducing ourselves, then you may simply call me Alucard," the white-haired man sighed. "As you can see, I am a dhampir, born of a vampire father and human mother. If you were an ally of Leon Belmont, then you may have known my father before he turned. He was known at the time by the name of Mathias Cronqvist, but he has gone by many names since then and is currently known as Dracula."
"What kind of name is Cronqvist?" Grant chuckled.
"What kind of a name is Danasty?" Alucard countered.
"Fair enough."
"I think Leon mentioned a Mathias." Luigi wracked his brain, assuming that he still had one of those, as he tried to remember where specifically he'd heard the name. "I think he was the one who told Leon that Lord Bernhard had taken Sara. But if you're his descendant, that would mean that he managed to rescue her, right?"
"Nope," Trevor said bluntly with a shrug. "According to his old journals, it was already too late by the time he got there. She'd already been turned into a vampire and he was forced to kill her. Though one legend passed down by my family is that her soul is what gives the Vampire Killer its power. Don't believe it myself but either way, he eventually settled down with a Wallachian woman named Felicia, had a couple of children. I think his firstborn was named Louis, though Emil was the one who carried on the family line."
"Louis? But that's what he called me," Luigi frowned in confusion.
"Must've left an impression, then. I take it you're the Genoese knight, Sir Louis, that killed a pack of werewolves single-handedly, then mysteriously disappeared?"
"What? No! There was only one werewolf and Leon was the one who killed it… him." Luigi pointed out. "I just helped and I'm not a knight."
"I guess these things tend to get exaggerated over time," Trevor shrugged. "I know my mother, Sonia, liked to romanticize your legend."
"Wait, your mother was Sonia Belmont?" Alucard suddenly asked, seemingly caught off-guard.
"Yeah, why?" Trevor asked in turn. "You know her?"
"Never mind, there are more important things here." Alucard hastily tried to change the subject. "Like, what are we going to do now?"
"Plan's still the same," Trevor said. "Storm the castle, fight whatever gets in the way, kill your dad. 'Sir Louis' here is free to tag along if he wants. Doubt he'll be much help, though, in his current state."
"Probably not," Luigi agreed. "But if there is anything I can do, I'll try to help. I owe Leon my life, even if it didn't exactly last long, and I wasn't able to repay that debt when he was still here."
"Hm, perhaps that's why you remained here as a ghost," Alucard speculated. "Fulfilling this life debt may allow you to pass on."
"Come on, we're wasting time," Grant said impatiently. "Let's just go already."
With that, the group of apparent vampire hunters set off deeper into the castle. As soon as they stepped, or floated in Luigi's case, into the next room they were attacked by a horde of zombies. Trevor's whip lashed out at once, taking down three of the rotten corpses in one blow before he advanced. Luigi noted that while his form wasn't as refined as Leon's had been, Trevor seemed to be just as adept with the whip if not even more so. Meanwhile, Trevor's companions weren't exactly slouches, either. Sypha used her magic to conjure up giant spikes of ice that she launched at the monsters, not even needing a wand like the magic users that Luigi was familiar with, while Grant unleashed a flurry of knives and Alucard practically danced across the room with his sword. Luigi just ended up watching, unable to do anything else but hover above them.
Despite how quickly they plowed through the horde, more and more of the oozing corpses seemed to rise up from the floor. It was clear that they weren't going to be able to thin down the enemy's ranks, so Trevor and the others simply fought their way across instead. After a few minutes of fighting, they finally managed to reach the stairs leading up to the next hallway.
"Not much of a challenge," Grant said as they walked up the steps. "We sure this Dracula guy is actually here?"
"He's here," Alucard said grimly. "I can feel his presence, like an overwhelming pressure bearing down on everything."
"I guess he wasn't expecting anyone to be crazy enough to come barging in while his forces are out there tearing up the countryside," Trevor replied. "Only left the weaklings to defend the place."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Sypha shook her head. "I have a feeling that the stronger monsters are going to be deeper in."
"Most likely," Alucard agreed. "If I know my father, and unfortunately I do, then he's just toying with us. Probably doesn't even consider us a threat."
That certainly seemed foreboding. Luigi was starting to wonder just what it was that he'd agreed to help with.
"So, what exactly is going on?" Luigi finally asked.
"Oh, right, I guess we haven't explained," Sypha looked up at the ghost of Luigi, a somber look on her face. "Dracula has amassed the largest army of monsters the world has ever seen and has sent them out to destroy everything. Villages have been burned to the ground and innocent people are being killed in droves. They say that he's declared war on humanity."
"That's awful." It was an understatement to be sure but Luigi wasn't sure what else to say to that. "What would bring someone to do that?"
"What's it matter?" Grant huffed. "What's important is that he is, and we need to stop 'im."
"My mother was killed by humans," Alucard explained. "Burned as a witch once people heard that she had married a vampire. He had been on the path to redemption. I didn't even know what a monster he had been before he had met her. But a part of him died with her. It broke him."
"I think I'm with Grant on this one," Trevor grunted as they reached the top of the stairs and headed into the next chamber. "All that matters is that we put an end to this."
They were attacked by skeletons this time, of all shapes and sizes. Most of them didn't put up any more of a fight than the zombies but others seemed stronger, more resilient. It still wasn't much of a challenge but Luigi still felt that he needed to find a way to help.
"Think, Luigi, think," Luigi muttered to himself as he looked down at the battle below. "What can a ghost do?"
The boos back home could physically interact with the world around them but that didn't seem to be the case here. He tried grabbing one of the skeletons but his hands simply passed right through. It was almost like he wasn't even a part of this world at all, which he supposed in a way he wasn't. Possession, maybe? He just passed through another skeleton when he tried. He couldn't even distract them as they simply ignored his presence altogether.
The final skeleton fell with a strike of the Belmont family whip, and the team regrouped by the doors leading to the next room. So much for Luigi being able to help out. He lowered himself beside the others as they walked towards the doors. Maybe if they ran into any other ghosts, then he'd be able to help out?
"Do you see? This pathetic excuse for a man will not be able to do anything in his current state. This game is already won. Continuing is merely a waste of time."
"We have all the time to waste. Please, humor me."
"Very well. I believe this chapter ended with the Belmont and his allies fighting Death. Perhaps he will be able to finish the job that he left half-done."
"Perhaps, or perhaps not. We shall see."
"Just how big is this stupid castle," Grant complained as they cleared out another room and progressed to the next. This one seemed to be empty, which would give the mortals in their group a chance to rest and recover before they continued. It felt weird to Luigi that he couldn't be counted among them.
"It is impossible to say," Alucard replied, leaning against the wall. Luigi suspected that the half-vampire didn't need to catch his breath and was merely waiting for the others to do so, much like Luigi himself. "My father's castle is not so much a physical location as it is a creature of chaos. It is constantly changing and does not conform to the laws of reality as you would understand them. Even when Walter Bernhard was still its master, it was an unnatural place and that has only grown more true since my father took it over."
"What?" Grant just stared at him. "Bull."
"Believe what you will, it does not affect the truth." Alucard turned to Luigi. "What of you, my friend? How are you faring in all of this?"
"I wish that I could do more to help," Luigi admitted. "It feels like I'm not even doing anything."
"Understandable." Alucard nodded.
The two undead, assuming that Alucard counted in that category, stared in silence as the living humans gathered around the center of the room, where Sypha had set off a magical fire for them to sit around. Luigi noticed that she leaned her head against Trevor's shoulder and briefly wondered if there was anything going on between them but it wasn't his place to pry.
"Shouldn't you be with them?" Luigi asked after a while, turning back to Alucard.
"Why? I am not one of them," Alucard replied, continuing to stare in the direction of the others. It seemed to Luigi that his gaze mostly focused on Trevor, though. "I never was and never will be."
"What do you mean?"
"As I explained before, I am a dhampir. I was born of the union between a mortal and the undead, something which should be impossible, and as a result, I am neither." Alucard sighed and finally turned to face Luigi. "You were once a mortal man, yes? I cannot say the same. I thought that I could live as one, for a time, but I was wrong. I'm just a monster."
Luigi opened his mouth to speak but stopped. He took a moment to think about what he had to say, before finally saying it.
"Even if you were a monster, that wouldn't mean that you're not a person. My brother died… well, I guess it wasn't that recently but to me it still feels like it just happened. It hurts a lot, to think about how he's gone, but my friends have helped me to get through it. One of those friends is a… sort of purple dragon-y thing, I'm not sure how to describe him. Anyway, he was apparently a really nasty pirate before I met him. I've heard stories of some of the things he did before and… it's not pretty. He even calls himself a monster but in the time that I've known him, he's been anything but. Sure, he has a bit of a nasty sense of humor sometimes but he's been there for all of us when we need it and has even helped put an end to a war between two countries that have been fighting since before I first got there."
"Good for him but I don't see what that has to do for me," Alucard replied stiffly.
"The point that I was trying to make is that it's what you do that's important, not what you are. And even if you've done bad things in the past, as long as you regret those actions and work to change, there's always hope to be better."
"A noble sentiment. Thank you." Alucard nodded slightly. "Although I am not so optimistic as to believe that everyone is capable of redemption. Sometimes a monster will always be a monster and needs to be put down. Do not assume that we will be able to simply talk things out with my father."
"I believe that everyone deserves a second chance," Luigi sighed. "But I know that not everyone will take it when offered. It's not like I have much say in anything right now but if it comes to that, I'll respect that choice. But it can't be easy, having to fight your dad."
"No, no it is not," Alucard admitted, grimacing as he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sheathed sword. "A part of me does wish that I could convince him to abandon his foolish war and live as Mother would have wished him to but I know that won't happen."
"Well, at least you have friends by your side to help you," Luigi pointed out.
"Allies," the pale man corrected him, a sense of pain buried deep beneath his eyes. "I don't have friends, it… I will likely outlive not just these people but their grandchildren's grandchildren. Such fleeting relations would be… painful… if I allowed myself to grow too attached."
"Oh," Luigi glanced down at his feet. He'd never considered what it would be like to live that long. Perhaps that's why Rosalina always seemed so standoffish? "Well, maybe I could be your friend? I don't think I'm going to be going anywhere anytime soon."
"Hmm…" Alucard took a moment to consider the offer. "Perhaps, after this is all over, I might consider that offer."
They ended up waiting for around an hour, by Luigi's estimate, since no one knew for sure when or if they'd have another chance to rest. Luigi had wondered if they should have gotten a move on earlier but Trevor had pointed out that defeating Dracula wouldn't stop his armies that had already been set loose across Europe, which meant that taking a little extra time wouldn't make that much of a difference, but that rushing things could lead to disaster. Getting the job done was more important than getting it done fast, after all.
Once everyone was ready, they put out the fire and gathered around the door to the next room. The living humans in their group certainly seemed refreshed so clearly the rest must have done them some good.
"Alright, everyone ready?" Trevor asked, though he already knew the answer. No one objected, so he pushed on the large double doors. They didn't budge. Everyone worked together but they still couldn't get the doors to open. "What's going on here?"
"Oh, you didn't think I would allow you to pass, did you?" The voice was all too familiar to Luigi at this point but the tone was off. He'd never heard Death speak with such malice before. "I'm afraid that you won't be getting in the way of my master's plans anytime soon."
A blue flame burst into life in the air above the center of the previously empty room they had been attempting to leave, growing and shifting into a vaguely human form before dissipating to reveal the cloaked figure. His dark blue robes were tattered and seemed to be of a simpler make than the clothes that Luigi had previously seen the reaper wear but it was hard to mistake the floating, legless skeleton carrying an ornate scythe in his hands. There was definitely something very wrong about him, though. In his previous encounters with Death, Luigi had never felt this level of malevolence that seemed to radiate off him at the moment. Even when he had come to take Luigi's life, he had seemed rather amiable.
"What are you supposed to be, the Grim Reaper?" Trevor asked sarcastically, readying his whip.
"That's exactly who he is," Alucard pointed out. "You could say that he's like my father's old drinking buddy."
"Dracula and Death sitting in a bar, now there's an image," Grant chuckled. "So, I guess we're killing Death, then?"
"I can't imagine that it would be as simple as that." Sypha shook her head and raised her hands, sparks emitting from her fingertips. "But we must do our best."
"Good luck out there," Luigi said, and the fight broke loose.
Trevor's whip lashed through the air at sonic speeds, the resulting crack echoing like thunder. Death merely dove out of the way and took a swing with his scythe at Grant, who jumped back and tossed a knife that passed harmlessly between Death's ribs. Sypha thrust her hand out and a blast of lightning fired from it. Death dodged out of the way, straight into the path of a second bolt fired from Sypha's other hand. That gave Alucard the opening he needed to lunge forward with his sword, an upward slash cutting through the grim reaper's robes. Trevor managed to wrap his whip around Death's left arm, which seemed to let off smoke where it made contact. It seemed that they were already getting the upper hand in this fight.
Then, with a wave of his scythe with his free hand, Death conjured a barrage of smaller sickles that arced through the air in a spiral pattern. The attackers were forced to disengage to avoid getting hit, allowing Death to retake control of the battle. Things were starting to look grim, pun unintended.
Sypha tossed a few fireballs that each collided with one of the sickles, causing them to burst in small explosions of magical force. With that obstacle out of the way, the melee fighters pulled in close again. Death was ready for them this time, however, and managed to avoid getting caught in Trevor's whip this time before striking at Alucard with his scythe. The dhampir parried the blow with his sword but that left him vulnerable as more sickles flew out from under Death's robes. Alucard stumbled back awkwardly as he tried to avoid getting hit, while Trevor wasn't so lucky and took a glancing blow to the arm. It was enough to draw blood and the flesh around the cut seemed to grow dark. The blades must have been infected with some sort of poison or curse.
One of Grant's throwing knives hit its mark, getting caught in Death's right eye socket. It didn't seem to do much other than draw his attention but that was enough to allow Trevor to regroup with Sypha. The witch ran her hands along his injured arm and a black smoke rose up from the infection as the cut seeled itself back up. It looked like it left a thin scar but Trevor seemed otherwise unharmed.
It was hard for Luigi to watch this go on in front of him without being able to do anything to help. Surely, there had to be something that he could do.
Grant made a run for the far end of the room as Death pursued him, scythe bared over his head and ready to swing down like an executioner's ax. Luigi reacted without thinking, flying after them as Alucard also made to pursue. After a few more blows were exchanged, Grant found himself backed into a corner as Death came ever closer. Trevor lashed at the chthonic personification but Death barely reacted as the whip lashed his back. Luigi reached them just as Death's scythe slashed downward towards the self-proclaimed thief and he reflexively held up his hands as if to block the blade. He closed his eyes, expecting the worst.
When Luigi opened his eyes again a moment later, he found that he had managed to grab Death's scythe by the handle and was holding it up, preventing the skeletal being from attacking. Alucard's blade slashed along his ribs, one of Sypha's ice spears struck him in the back of the head and Trevor's whip wrapped around Death's neck.
Luigi stared up into Death's eyeless sockets, and the blue flames burning with hatred behind them. His skull's rictus-like grin seemed to hold nothing but contempt and murderous intent as he pushed harder against Luigi. However, as Luigi struggled against him, something seemed to give way and for a moment he thought he caught a glimpse of something else behind Death's expression before suddenly he seemed to stop resisting for just long enough that Luigi was able to pull the scythe out from his grip entirely.
Stunned, Death backed away from the group, rising higher into the air. Whatever had come over him seemed to have dissipated just as quickly and Luigi could almost feel the anger and hatred radiating off him.
"You fools think that you can defeat me?" Death cackled wildly as the sounds of bones snapping and breaking filled the chamber. "I am Death, the end, destroyer of worlds and the one who comes for you all. This has only been the beginning but I shall now bring this to a close, as is the order of all things. Know fear and perish, mortals."
Death seemed to spasm wildly as the bones that made up his form continued to crack and distort. It was hard to watch, as Death's ribcage elongated into an almost centipede-like body, his fingers fused together and grew into scythe-like blades that almost resembled the arms of a praying mantis, and spiky protrusions erupted from around the shoulder plates of his increasingly hulking form. The thing that now faced them no longer resembled a humanoid form to any capacity safe for the glowing skull, being more bug-like in its monstrous appearance than anything else. Luigi was sure that he would have wet himself at the mere sight of the creature if he still had a functioning bladder.
"You will die."
"That didn't happen."
"No, but this is my world which means my rules. Why not make the game a bit more interesting? You still seem confident in our guest's chances, though."
"I am sure that he will find a way."
Death, or the hideous bug monster that had taken its place, sped through the air like an oncoming train, slashing its scythe-like hands as it chased down Luigi and his allies. Trying to dodge its attacks was growing harder by the second and he wasn't sure how much longer they were going to be able to hold on.
"Any- anyone have a- anyone have a plan?" Grant gasped, barely able to keep running.
"I'm fresh out!" Trevor yelled back, pulling Sypha along with him. Of the three mortals of the group, he seemed to have the most stamina but even he was clearly growing tired.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Alucard slid to a stop and turned around. "I'm going to try and distract it."
He jumped and shot up into the air, higher than his legs should have carried him, before plunging his sword down into Death's skull. The creature barely slowed down from the blow and seemed to ignore him entirely, continuing to chase after the others. Luigi drew a deep breath, out of reflex as he lacked any physical need to breathe, and gripped the scythe in his hands tightly. He was utterly terrified but he knew that he was going to have to fight as well if he wanted to make sure that the others made it out of this alive.
Stealing his resolve, Luigi followed Alucard's example and flew high into the air to avoid the slashing blades before diving down to strike. He was still rather clumsy in his new form, not being used to flying about under his own power, and overshot his mark. He ended up slashing the scythe into one of Death's overgrown, spiky vertebrae. To his surprise, both the backbone and attached ribs were instantly destroyed by the attack, the remaining length of its tail-like structure shifting forward to reconnect with its front half. It seemed that they had a way to weaken it after all.
"Hey, guys!" Luigi called out. "Its spine is its weakness! We can shrink its body by attacking it!"
With that, the three humans split up so that Death couldn't follow them properly and were able to run around to rejoin the fight properly. All five of them took turns striking the segments of the long creature, gradually chipping away at its body. Unfortunately, Death's attacks only grew faster and more ferocious the more damage that it took. Eventually, however, they managed to shrink Death down to a much more manageable size.
Of course, 'more manageable size' was still giant.
The hulking figure of Death continued to lash out with its giant scythe hands, which were becoming harder and harder for them to dodge out of the way of. The monster managed to back Sypha up into a corner and was just about to finish her off when Trevor managed to wrap his whip around its neck and gave a mighty pull. He managed to disrupt Death's attack enough that it went wide and clashed against a wall instead, but the Death beast wasn't incapacitated for long. It turned around and began charging towards the Belmont. Luigi acted quickly, raising Death's scythe and slashing it across the monster's chest.
Death let out an inhuman bellow, an echoey, hollow noise that sounded unnatural even by the standards of this place and writhed about wildly. It seemed that Luigi had finally struck the definitive blow. With one final howl, the creature of bone and malice reared back its head and promptly exploded into a pool of black ink.
Not exactly the reaction that Luigi had expected, but at least it was finally gone.
"Well, that could have gone better," Grant huffed as he limped over to the others. "What even was that?"
"I do not know." Alucard shook his head, staring down at the murky puddle that had been their opponent just a moment ago. "I do not believe that I have ever seen anything like that happen before."
Trevor poked his boot into the edge of the inky mass. "Well, at least it's dead now. What's next?"
Sypha uttered a quick prayer that Luigi didn't quite catch before walking up to the others. "Whatever we face, but face together. Let no devil or enemy of God stand in the way of our mission."
"I feel sorry for anything that does," Grant chuckled. "Now, who's up for round two?"
"I just hope that we won't have to fight anything like that again soon." Luigi floated down to them, still holding on to Death's scythe. "I think that I've had all that I can handle for one day."
"Only one way to find out." Trevor began walking back up to the doors leading to the next room.
The others reluctantly followed him. There wasn't much else they could do at the moment, after all, but move forward. Luigi was the last to pass through the opened doors.
Once again, he found himself alone.
To be continued…
Author's Notes: Oh, no! Death killed Luigi's accent! When I started Super Ridley Bros. so many years ago I had decided to try writing out Mario and Luigi's Italian accents but quickly grew to regret that decision but I had to keep it up for the sake of consistency. I'd actually been planning for a while now to drop Luigi's accent with this story and while I did briefly consider having the accent gone already when the story starts, I quickly decided to have Luigi's accent go away when Death kills him. Not entirely sure why but it felt right. If you want, you can still imagine that he has the accent but I'm just not writing it anymore because I found it annoying and probably wasn't that accurate to begin with.
I was originally going to have Luigi die during the Death boss fight in this chapter but felt that it made more sense to end the first chapter with it. But then when I got to the boss fight here, I realized that I didn't really have enough going on, so I ended up adding an unplanned second phase of the battle. Death's second form here is based mostly off of Harmony of Dissonance's second phase of his boss battle, with elements of Lords of Shadow 2's depiction of Death thrown in to make him even more monstrous. I also hadn't been planning on Luigi getting Death's scythe but I realized that Luigi couldn't really do anything at this point in the story but offer emotional support, which will be important for later chapters but would mean that he'd essentially be sitting out of all of the fight scenes, which didn't feel quite right. Now the question is, how long will he be able to hold on to this new weapon?
I would be lying if I said that I didn't take some inspiration from the Netflix series when writing the Dracula's Curse gang but I tried to mostly stick to the game's lore with details such as Sypha being a witch hired by the church and Grant existing at all (apparently the showrunner didn't realize that Grant being called a pirate in early English material was a localization error and thought that he wouldn't fit in a landlocked country, thought personally I think the character dynamics work a bit better without him so I'm not really going to complain). I've also been doing some extensive note-taking on the Castlevania timeline as it would have happened in the Ridleyverse even though most of it's not going to come up. I spliced in elements from various non-canon games, for example, Gabriel Belmont existed in this timeline and was a knight of the Brotherhood of Light as per Lords of Shadow, but instead of going on a big quest (which would have been different since the Lords of Shadow themselves don't exist in this timeline) and becoming Dracula, he ended up rescuing the King of France from monsters and was offered a Barony as thanks, retiring from the adventuring life with his wife Marie. That was rather short-lived, though, as Gabriel and Marie were Leon's grandparents and I already covered what happened to him and his family back in chapter 1. Also, as mentioned in this chapter, Sonia existed in this timeline as Trevor's mother and went on a quest to fight a vampire with Alucard, but it wasn't Dracula (who was still happily living with a not-yet-executed Lisa at the time) but the infamous French knight-turned-serial killer Gilles de Rais. I'm not sure why I've put all this effort into it since chances are none of this is going to come up, but I did.
Oh, and the reason that Leon referred to Luigi as Louis (the 's' is silent) is because its the French form of the name Luigi. It's not intended as a slight against him, like Bowser and his minions constantly getting his name wrong back in Super Ridley Bros, but just Leon using a variant of the name that's more familiar to him.