Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Only three, yet that is only those in the adult choir, not everyone here and outside who were attacked," Alexis noted.
"While I would know what inspired the children to flee the Vatican," Alucard agreed as the soft breeze that filtered into the hallway flowed through. The children would have no reason to abandon the church the way they did. More over it was most of the children, not all, suggesting that the word was sent in private and not broadcasted through out the Vatican.
Alexis nodded as the situation played through her mind. Brauner was here, reincarnated and active with sleeper agent thralls all over the church. Or churches?
'Its not unrealistic to think there are agents in more than one church, just as there were cultists around the world.' It wasn't the deaths of the adult choir that set off the alarm bells in her head. It was that, the notion of unknowing Thralls awakening in various churches around 'the world'. Churches suddenly being assaulted from the inside as their brothers and sisters turned against church and follower.
'We'll need the whole clans up and active,' she thought when the corner of her gaze caught the white fluff of Soma's hair. If Soma was free of the ring and reassumed his position, would he be able to stop the thralls? Sure Soma was a reincarnation, but would he be strong enough at this age and in this condition?
Thoughts buzzed about her head like a fog of flies, asking Alucard would have been nice, no matter how reticent he was with information. He would have an idea. Alucard always did.
Alucard was considerable old, Alex's study on Vampires put Alucard currently at the age that he would have the power to command younger Vampires. If he still had his full powers and wasn't actively helping hold back Soma's own immense powers. Was he enough though? Was he strong enough without his powers, at least against the thralls? After all they would be the... youngest?
Yoko drifted across the hallway, her arms laden down with numerous white towels. It was stacked high enough to reach her nose. "That's not going to end well..." Alexis murmured when suddenly.
"Eyyyyyyyy I knew you'd miss me Al..."
A demon materialized in the hallway, not just any demon either, small in stature, blue black in scaled skin with an obnoxious human mask face.
"Nose Demon!" She exclaimed in surprise, but was cut off by Alucard.
"Go, see to it that Yoko doesn't plunge off a set of stairs with those towels." He coldly ordered, his gaze barely shifting enough so he could glance at the demon.
"Yeah sure Al, cuz nothing makes one of these Jesus loving loons feel secure like seeing a demon in the Vatican. Am I right?" The demon asked turning to face Alexis, yet something caught the demons' attention as he began to look around. "Geeze Al, what happened to this place? What's with all the blood and..." The demon cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Ain't there supposed to be singing or something? Oils, incense... What happened?"
"And if you would stop wasting my time and go to assist Yoko, I'm sure she would fill you in on all that pointless questioning," Alucard retorted. His voice steel, his gaze mildly contemplating annoyance, his focus on his familiar.
"Yeah, yeah, ain't like you to be snippy... on my way..." Nose Demon replied as it began flying along the hallway. It only took seeing Soma in Al's arms to motivate the demon to cut it out. Sure Al was being a total drag, but he hadn't been his usual brand of sunshine and daisies when he brought Soma home the first time either. "Unholy shit, this is hideous." His gaze swung from left to right and back again, yet he couldn't really grasp how this could even have happened. 'Am I here because Al's letting me, or...'
Nose suddenly wanted to grab Demon and see what that spirit said, as the place felt normal to the demon. No painful outbursts of pain or apprehension, no 'GOD IS GOING TO SMITE THEEE' sensations. "Heeey 'Ko! Wait for meeee!" the Nose Demon called out as he double timed his flight.
"Nose Demon? What are you doing 'here'? And by 'here' I mean 'How are you in the Vatican?'" Yoko asked as she paused in her walk to take in the sight of the flying demon. The ground was a field of white fluff from the towels she carried. Yet the lavender that it had been laundered it didn't smell right to her. Something was off on the smell and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know 'what' it was, so instead she had overexerted her focus on her steps. Now Nose Demon was here in church, strangely enough. "I'd say 'give me five' but..." She dared wiggle one finger free.
"Hey I can give One!" The demon replied before disappearing from her sight. From there she felt the scale and claw tipped finger of the demon tap her own extended finger. "Man this place is a wreck, I'd help you carry but I think that would kill a nun with shock!" Nose Demon remarked casually before rising up in the air again to see the upper half of Yoko's face.
"Not enough nuns for that," Yoko answered glumly. "Some of them survived the attack and died in the aftermath. Either from shock or grief..." She confessed, "the Vatican got attacked by thralls. Everyone is in shock or trauma here, and the few of the people outside wanting in for comfort or council are draining the few functional priests. Even the Pope has been sneaking in to aid the clergy they're so overwhelmed."
Nose Demon's eyes got big behind his mask as it was a lot more than he had anticipated. They were aware the Castle had returned, and been watching that particular part of the world on the TV. They would have gone to the castle in service to their master. Yet no one was summoned until now.
"How is everything at the estate?" Yoko asked as she resumed her trek with Nose Demon following behind her.
"Eh, you know how it is, we were aware that the castle had returned and figured both Masters went there. So we just waited until Al called me here..." Nose Demon flew a little closer to Yoko and lowered his voice. "Thralls? Ain't that like something the church don't do? How do you get 'thralls' in a 'church'? Isn't that like one of them 'so we stuffed a duck into a turkey?"
"Well that's the big question Nosey. That is most certainly a 'big question'," she answered tight smile on her lips.
Her not Yoko speak spoke though, it was too mature and responsible a statement and if Nose and the others knew anything about Yoko. She didn't 'do' mature and responsible unless things were serious. Behind the mask the demon twisted his mouth up to the side realizing the possibilities that could be going on. Thralls didn't have a 'holy' counterpart, so to have one 'here' implied that someone was 'already here' to create them. But only Vampires had the knowledge to make the Thralls, those mortals that had learned the knowledge were long dead. Their text that recorded the knowledge were taken by the Vatican and stored away...
'Well that would be one way, if a human got into the vaults this church has and found the knowledge... Humans would be likely, a vampire would be possible-.'
"Hey Nosey, I had a thought to ask. How does the church feel? On the metaphysical level? Like do you feel the same as you would normally?" Yoko asked as she turned towards one of the currently functioning washrooms.
"How? It uhh, don't feel like God is close, ya know? Kinda like any other building... Which is weird I admit, cuz like all these priests and Popes and the Belmonts..." He rattled off all the things that should have made him want to leave.
"Sam, you remember him right? The current enemy summoned Angels, full fledged Angels in the Castle, and here there were... Like illusions that everyone was bowing too except the kids, its why they kept getting lost here. The spell wasn't working as well on them as others..." Yoko recounted causing the demon to shake his head.
"Wait, summoning angels in the castle and illusions in the church?" Nose Demon rubbed at the back of his head as he tried to think that one through. Sure fairies had their illusions but that had no limits, good or bad anyone was subject to their magics. Yet no Fae could summon Angels... or would if they could... "Can't be the Fae, 'Ko. They 'hate' Angels ever since the Angels spread that rumor that Fae have no souls... And besides, human kids aren't immune to Fae magic. Hellfire they THRIVE in its atmosphere the best out of all humans!"
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Alucard listened to Nose Demon's comment to Yoko, as the girl was keeping her mouth shut. 'Perhaps sending Nose Demon to her was a smart decision, he's always had a relaxed disposition and I've not the time for her snooping.' And Yoko would have snooped. The nuns dying from despair was a possibility, a broken heart was a condition both shared by vampires and humans. More over the nuns were often of the elderly sort... But with the oils removed the incense gone and Alucards' senses not being held back... 'How long has it been since I walked these halls without the corruption? How did even 'I' not realize what was going on?'
He was left pondering that as they reached the offices where two priests stood guard before a door. "His Holiness is not here?" Alucard noted to the pair, as he didn't hear three heart beats before him, nor could he sense the life force of another beyond them. "You actually allowed the Pope to take a stroll?" The pair paled sharply at Alucards' stoic, accusatory words as they took in the worrying sight before them.
"His Holiness merely went to relieve himself, I can fetch him while you make yourselves comfortable." The one on the right began while the one on the left quickly beat feet to do so.
Leaving Alexis feeling pretty bad for the pair, they were humans, not thralls, and she wasn't a regular to the Vatican. They 'might' have been a pair of guards already and dealing with the shock of their fellow guards being thralls. Or they could very well be newly instated guards with no clue what was expected of them or what to do. Instincts said they were lying about the Pope going to the loo, but their agitation was all together real.
She walked ahead of Alucard, to ensure the protection of not really himself rather for his father. Somas' pale face and slumbering form was unsettling and she was beginning to wish that he would resume that plush doll so she knew he was well.
The office was a disaster to her eyes, scratches and chips along the wooden tables and a mess of blankets along the floor and couch. A slumber party was the first thing that came to mind and it felt strange to her, out of place.
"His Holiness, in his wisdom and benevolence, allowed for the newly orphaned to sleep here so as to feel safe. Sorry about... I mean 'pray forgive the mess...'" The poor guard, strawberry blond and slightly pock marked of face he was modest in height and not entirely formidable.
"You know we're past that age, Lord Arikado does understand the modern tongue, a great many of them in fact." Alexis replied attempting to soothe the poor guy. He was young, too young for this position and she was starting to.
"I.. er I know? I think... I, this wasn't my original assignment I was transferred from America and got here yesterday. I uhhh... I just know that I was told..."
"It is enough, you may step back outside, we shall await here." Alucard ordered, turning the youths' mind into obedience. He had heard enough of the stammering, the boy was probably not even a guard, raising questions for Alucard on if there 'was' anyone capable of the position now. 'Now that I think on it, its possible that the majority of capable of thought priests are too old to be guards. This one just got off a plane from America of all places. He's undoubtedly jet lagged and I should be grateful that he wasn't sleeping at his post!'
Meanwhile, Alexis in her sympathy for the children, began rolling up the bed rolls in an bid to make space for Lord Alucard, but also for Soma and the Pope as well... She just forced herself to be encouraged by the many blankets she had to roll.
That way she could ignore how the pillows were cold and wet to the touch. Too many children, crying themselves to sleep at night... "I may not be Christian in any capacity, but now I can't help but worry if the Pope can even properly receive anyone now. If the children were crying I don't see how he got any rest and if he's out working instead of resting..."
"Removing the ring is as simple as it sounds for him," Alucard pointed out as he laid Soma out on the couch when the last blanket was removed. "Yet your concern holds merit, as what is considered 'advanced aged' human, overexerting himself is not welcomed."
There was no need for the Pope to die prematurely and force the Vatican to go back into finding a replacement. It was time and resources they didn't really have to spare until Brauner was found and permanently dealt with. With the threat of Thralls being in the church, it would be akin to dealing with the plague in parts. Trying to figure out who was safe, who was turned, a mess when knowing that Brauner would not put himself up for election.
Clearly the man was hiding in the shadows, using the church and its clergy as his catpaws.
"Lord Alucard, will Soma be ok? That is to say, will he be able to instantly heal from this or will his health take time to recover?" Alexis asked as she found another bed roll and began rolling.
"I am unsure. When the ring was forged it was meant only to seal the powers away from a person. Akin to that silence spell that is used in those video games mortals play. This," he gave a brief sweep of his hand to indicate Soma, and more importantly, the blackening of his skin. "is abnormal and unintentioned."
"How would they know? Did they just slap on test subjects? Or was that just how its said to work?" She inquired as she uncovered a picture under the pillow of another roll. A family of four, the boy had an older sister...
"I permitted them to test it on myself," Alucard replied, before following it up with a tired, expected, "settle down."
"'Settle down'? Settle down?! After everything you do for the church and they collared you like a..."
"Do you desire for my father to awaken in a state of outrage?" Alucard coldly asked, "what I choose to do with my time is of my own discretion, if you have forgotten." Not that he didn't understand, it was only right and proper for a servant to be outraged at such things. But they weren't supposed to be 'servants' they put themselves in this servant type role on their own. While in truth he 'did' object, internally, to the ring initially, she was right in it feeling degrading.
It was also the first time he ever felt really 'human'. He could touch water without a holy item or pain, the intense noise of human civilization was blessedly silent. The air was free of pollution, body scents really anything except the faint whiff of incense. Alone with his own thoughts Alucard could admit it wasn't a bad experience all in all. He just felt incredibly vulnerable feeling 'human'...
Outside he heard the steps of someone approaching the office, the weighted steps of someone wearing cumbersome robes. Suggesting that Alexander was about to join them, thus he gave a slight gesture for Alexis to settle down 'now'. She did so obediently, though she still appeared pretty miffed to the dhampire.
"Your Holiness, you have guests," was the hushed whisper on the other side of the door, assuring Alucard who was approaching. It wasn't as though Dionysus was out for the casual stroll after all, though perhaps...
Swinging open the door Alexander walked into the office his tired, aged eyes scanning the room as it fought the bags that were dragging the gaze to the ground. Alexis instantly settled down emotionally at the sight of the man, the weight of the situation pulling at his shoulders. His skin was wane and appeared to sag akin to his robes. They appeared washed, but the grime of the past few days resisted the wash, leaving scars in the fabric.
'Maybe its just the lights now,' Alexis thought as she scurried about the room to make a proper seat for Alucard and the Pope. "Here allow me," she began as she pulled the chairs out and tried to make thick formal looking seats 'comfortable.'