"I don't know how you managed to revive the legacy of the Belmont Clan, but it doesn't matter. I am not your enemy."

"Oh, but you are," Mana retorted. "You have ever been my enemy, Dracula. My linage has hunted you and your kind for centuries. In the name of my ancestors, I'm going to send you back to Hell!"

Shinji remained silent for a moment. "I am not Count Dracula… I am but a candidate for the Dark Lord, albeit one who has a strong claim to the title… but it is a title I neither asked for, nor desired. I cannot help what I have become, any more than you can deny your birthright. But I swear to you Mana, I am not your enemy."

"So sayeth the Prince of Lies."

"Mana… I have literally… never lied… but I can see I can't convince you." Shinji drew the flaming sword Laevatain and pointed it at Mana. "Let's get this over with."

Mana slid one foot back, ready to pounce, but in her heart, there was doubt.

"Can I really do this? Can I really defeat Dracula? The better question is…"

Her grip on her whip tightened…

"Can I bring myself to kill the boy I love…"


II: To Kill a Vampire


Shinji's stance remained unchanging. For a few more seconds both combatants stared at each other, expecting the other to make the first move. Mana ran out of patience first, rushing forward then leaping in the air to throw a flask of holy water at Shinji. He rolled in response to his left, then raised his shield just in time to block the incoming whip strike aimed at him. Mana landed and started whipping at him continuously, Shinji dodged what he could, blocking others, and putting his blade away. As soon as he had an opening, he threw a boomerang axe from his Axe Lord soul to finally force Mana to move.

Dodging the attack, she then had to leap over a blade from Flying Armor. She noted the flat end was what would have hit her.

"He's going non-lethal?"

It was a ploy, it had to be… he was trying to convince her he wasn't evil… but she knew from her studies that Dracula was evil incarnate, he was deceiving her and would go for the kill as soon as her guard was down. She had to show him she meant business.

Shinji prepared another attempt to swipe Mana with Flying Armor's blade again, aiming to use them like big fly swatters to knock her senseless when he had to use a burst a vampiric speed to dodge a spinning object heading directly for his head. Feeling the warmth from its passing, he realized what it was and returned the favor with two more boomerang axes before ducking under the return trip of the cross boomerang that was aimed at him. Mana expertly dodged both axes and managed to catch the boomerang mid spin before landing.

"Straight for the head, huh?" Shinji noted, dismissing Flying Armor. "I can't believe you want to kill me, Mana."

"I don't!" she retorted. "But I have to. If the world is ever to be free of the darkness, the devil must be put down!"

"Do you really think I'm the devil?" Shinji asked. "Do you really think I can enslave the world?"

"I don't believe you have a choice either, Shinji. The Dark Lord is not something that can be resisted forever… This is a mercy."

Shinji was silent a moment. "I'm sorry you believe that."

Mana roared her frustration and resumed trying to whip Shinji to death. Shinji dismissed Final Guard and simply used minimal movements to avoid the strikes; leaning to avoid vertical strikes ducking under diagonal ones and backing up a little to avoid lateral slashes.

"Her heart isn't in this," Shinji realized. "She's spouting church rhetoric, but she's having a hard time rationalizing what she's doing. The power of a Belmont is greater than this."

Shinji ducked under a sudden barrage of knives thrown at him, dozens of screaming silver projectiles in a seemingly endless barrage. In his mind, they weren't moving that fast and he was able to dodge them all seemingly effortlessly. When it ended, he backflipped over another cross boomerang, and retorted finally with a single spear from his Flying Skeleton soul. Mana was about to throw an axe at him when the weapon was knocked from her hand by the spear. Shinji ran low allowing the cross boomerang to pass over his head on its return trip. Mana caught it but wasn't expecting how fast Shinji was moving as he plowed into her knocking her backwards to the floor. She looked up in time to see him dropping from above, his fist covered in stone. There was no way she was going to be able to move in time and closed her eyes, bracing for the hit.

It never came. She opened her eyes seeing the fist had stopped a few centimeters from her face. The stone seemed to crumble away, fading as it went as Shinji straighten his posture, now standing over her.

Mana's gaze shifted over to where Asuka was on the ground. Hikari was kneeling next to her now, healing the wound on her back, it wasn't as deep as it looked as Mana didn't actually want to kill her, just stop her. It made Mana realize the sheer gap in power between her and Shinji. Asuka was no match for her… and in the end, she was no match for the Dark Lord.

"I'm not your enemy," Shinji stated once again. "If I were, you would be dead right now. This was just the surface of my capabilities... And you were holding back too… I know your heart wasn't in this fight, otherwise you might have actually done some damage."

Mana stayed silent, letting his words sink in.

"Despite hurting two of my girls, I am still willing to let this pass. We're both fighting the same fight… and we should combine our strengths, not pit them against each other. Help us stop Count Rebus."

Mana gently pushed Shinji's offered hand away, and got back to her feet. She said nothing as she retrieved her dropped weapons.

"Mana, please."

"I can't ally with the Dark Lord," she replied with finality. "For your sake, I hope you mean what you say. If you fall to the darkness… I swear to God, Shinji, I will end you."

Shinji was silent a moment before he replied. "If I fall to darkness, I expect you to follow through with that promise."

Without another word Mana left, hurriedly.


Over an hour later Mana stood on the upper balcony of the church's office. Even here, statues and carvings reminding one of where they stood. Father Matsudo leaned against one of the columns near the doors back into the building.

"Could have been worse," he noted aloud.

"Failing to kill Dracula is worse than anything I can think of," Mana retorted. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

Mana turned towards the priest. "That it was Shinji Ikari."

"You would have rejected the assignment outright… you had to see for yourself that it was him."

"Do you really think I would have thought you a liar?"

Father Matsudo pushed himself off the column, approaching the edge of the balcony as he spoke. "You two have history," he explained, "History so deep that I knew it was going to be hard for you to follow through, but in the heat of the moment, I had no doubt that you would try to fulfill your duty."

"And you hoped we wouldn't have to have this conversation later because the deed would be done… and my emotions would be the price to be paid."

"Mana… The Belmont Clan has always been the one and only reliable weapon we've ever had against Dracula and his monsters. The fact that the one boy that captivated you at 15 ended up becoming the closest thing to a true resurrection of the Dark Lord was the worst possible turn of events we've ever had. This war has been waged for close to six centuries now, and now we have to deal with the fact that Dracula is returning in a form that will test the resolve of our champion like never before."

Mana made an almost annoyed noise at that.

"Make no mistake," he concluded. "Shinji Ikari must die before he can fully become the Dark Lord."

"Not all of the candidates have been found yet," Mana pointed out.

"That doesn't matter… if you are the one to slay him his essence will be sent back to its origin point… back to its prison. None of the remaining candidates will be able to attain the title and you can hunt them down at your leisure.

"For the moment though, we need you to locate where the Brotherhood of Blood is staging themselves. If we can curtail their activities, we may be able to prevent them from locating this Crucible of Blood, and maybe even learn why they need it so badly."

"I'll find it, even I have to slay every last vampire on Honshu."


It took a few hours of pushing the right contacts to find the address of one of their hide outs, but Mana was certain she could get information out of the vamps in the nest…

The assault went as well as expected…

The doors to Shiboru Manor were knocked off their hinges by Mana's midair rushing ability. Thralls in the main hall immediately turned their weapons towards her, but Mana had already become a violent whirlwind of angry divine leather, dodging bullets even as she cut down foe after foe with her whip. Landing close to the center of the room, she threw three daggers at once taking out three thralls on the top balcony before they could reload their guns. She leapt up, grabbing the balcony and hoisting herself over it, entering another hallway.

Here Axe Lords were summoned by Cultists she had never seen before but heard of. Their flame embroidered robes highlighted their origins within the Order of Infernus. Mana wasted no time blitzing them with whip and axe, destroying the constructs with axes of her own. At the end of the hall, a pair of doors blocked her path, she kicked them opened then dodged the crossbow shot at close range, before retaliating against the shooter with her whip.

The shooter was the Vampire in charge of this manor. He dropped his crossbow, grabbed his face and spun facing away. Mana grabbed him and slammed him down, back first against his own desk, pulling an Oak Stake from her belt.

"This can go one of two ways," she affirmed. "Slowly or quickly. I want whatever information you have on the Crucible… now."

The vampire pointed towards a picture on the wall. "Safe… scroll… 20 3 97 is the combination…"

"Good enough," Mana drove the stake hard through his shoulder with enough force to pin him to the desk, causing the vampire to cry out in pain. "But I have to make sure you aren't trying to double cross me."

Mana tore the painting of a dark castle off the wall finding the wall safe behind it. She entered the combination on its keypad and it clicked opened obediently. Finding the ancient parchment, tied with a simple cord, she removed another stake and killed off the vampire now that she had her prize. Carefully unrolling the scroll, she began to read it. Mana's eyes opened in shock as she learned what she wanted to know.

"No… they can't!"


The church had a small library on its grounds, and Mana hoped she would get lucky with the information she has and be able to somehow cross reference documents to find out where she could find the Crucible of Blood. She knew from the scroll the Brotherhood of Blood still did not possess it, but they knew it was somewhere within the confines of the city of Utsunomiya. It was obvious the church's intel was solid now… The cults were trying to cause chaos in the city in order to more easily retrieve it.

Mana entered the church library and saw a woman in red reading an ancient text. Her outfit was definitely not that of a nun as it included a tight skirt… she had to be a Church Witch. Ever observant, Mana saw her clearance signet ring, and it indicated Seraphim Level… she would be in the know.

"Can you help me?" Mana asked as she approached, getting the woman's attention.

She looked up, and smiled sweetly. "You must be The Belmont."

"That would be me… Mana Kirishima, last survivor of the Belmont Clan."

The girl stood up and held out her hand, though she looked Japanese, this was a very western greeting gesture. As Mana was half westerner herself, she didn't care about the lack of formality in this case.

"Yoko Belenades, at your service," she greeted warmly with a fairly strong handshake for someone who seemed to not posses that sort of physicality. Mana had to admit she was pretty, and wished she herself looked as good. "What do you need?"

Mana held up the scroll she found. Is there someplace private we can talk?

A minute later, they were inside the small office Yoko used in this diocese for her work. Having read the scroll, a worried look crossed her face.

"So that's what its for…" Yoko noted gravely.

"If they get their hands on it," Mana began, "they can perform a ritual that will destroy the seal over the eclipse… Castlevania will return to this world, and with it, the madness it brings. I must find it before they do."

Yoko rolled the scroll up carefully and retied it. "We still have no idea where it is hidden."

"There has to be something… some resource we haven't tapped yet… something that would at least point us in the right direction."

Yoko seemed to be debating. Mana watched her carefully… her body language and expression was of one having a moral dilemma. In that moment, Mana was convinced she knew more than she was letting on. The next words out of Yoko's mouth confirmed this.

"There may be one."

Mana locked her eyes on Yoko's face. "I'm listening."

"There is an underground archive hidden in the now destroyed city of Matsumoto, southwest of Nagano in the same prefecture. Vatican Spec Ops Division Matthew-3 recently launched an operation in the area to try to secure the archive, but they were almost completely wiped out by a vampire coven that has taken up residence there. The archive is huge, about a third the size of the one at the Vatican itself. Whoever was in charge of it died a hero as they destroyed the catalogue index, preventing anyone from easily finding any information there."

Mana couldn't believe what Yoko just told her. "Wait a minute here; if an archive like that existed, and was taken by hostiles that strong… why didn't they send me to clear the nest?"

"I don't know," Yoko replied, and the slight waver Mana detected in her voice told her this is where her dilemma originated. "I was told this information was to be withheld from you."

"So now you're disobeying orders to tell me… why?"

"It may be our only hope of finding the Crucible at this point. I don't know why you're not supposed to know about this place, but there are two things I can tell you for sure; they were adamant about it to the point of threatening all of the Seraphim Level Scribes with Excommunication if they said a word about it to you, and every one of your predecessors were also kept in the dark about it."

"The Belmont Clan has always been the church's best weapon against the darkness… why would they lock my entire linage out from knowing about this singular location?" The thought made Mana's heart beat harder in her chest. "Are they hiding something?"

"I don't care what they ordered," she boldly stated. "If this location has the only access we know of to information on the Crucible's location, I have to go there. How do I find it?"

"Easy," Yoko replied. "Go to Matsumoto-jō Castle, find the basement. The archive door is located on the north side of the lowest side. But be careful; according to the survivors, the place is loaded with vamps, cultists, and monsters. You'll likely have a fight on your hands just getting inside."

"It doesn't matter," Mana asserted. "I will fight a small war if needs be, but I will get that information."

"Good luck, Mana."


Arms wide opened,

I stand alone

I'm no hero,

And I'm not made of stone

Right or wrong?

I can hardly tell

I'm on the wrong side of heaven,

And the righteous side of hell

I'm on the wrong side of heaven,

And the righteous side, the righteous side of hell


"Why would the church hide information from the Belmont Clan for so many centuries? I have to find where the Crucible is hidden… but what is this I'm reading… No! This… this can't be!"

Next Chapter: The Wheel


A/N: Yes, the safe combination was an Easter Egg. It is the date of release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on PS1, in European Format… 20th of March, 1997