Author's Note: So Fanfiction is wearing thin my last living straw, and I've figured out how AO3's story posting works. As of today I'm going to start cross posting my old stories as an experiment, see how that goes. I'm going to do it one at a time though. Enjoy
This was what a proper adventure should be!
The Thrill of delving into unknown territory!
The promise of riches!
Most important of all: the low stakes of knowing that the fate of an entire country didn't rest on your shoulders. That is something that the three of them have hard far too much of lately. Angie was practically vibrating.
"Is that the 'Guest House!?'" Angie looked ahead of her.
One point of entry, retractable sliding bridges the controls of which were on the far islands. She could also make out several anti-air ballista on top of the Guest house too. Not to mention the fact that so far there was no sign of any of the guards or defenders that they could see. There are some low to mid-level Noble Houses in Holfort that weren't as well defended as this one house.
"If they were just Drawbridges like at the castle we could just blast them to make them come down." Olivia took a look at each of the islands in question, and noticed something out of place in the middle of them. "Are those wind up Keys?"
"The Toy Maker may be insane but he has a sense of fair play." Agares helpfully chimed in at this time. "If a solution looks obvious it probably is." The Jailer turned around to leave the trio be. "I have my duties to attend to, if there will be nothing else." The Jailer sunk into a pool of blood leaving Leon and the girls to ponder the 'puzzle' in front of them.
"Should I just fly over?" Leon suggested and as an experiment Olivia grabbed a boulder with her barriers and threw it over the gap. A huge Shellfish creature leapt out of the mist below them and snapped down on the rock crushing it before diving back down below.
"Very good anti-air defences." Angelica summarised as the moral of the Toy Maker's defences unfolded: use the solutions I give to you or suffer the consequences.
"If I knew which way to turn the key's I could just use my barriers." Olivia lamented letting out a sigh.
"I know that when I was in puppet form with Umbra my wind up key turned this way." Leon made a clockwise motion with one of his fingers.
Olivia gave it a try, and to the surprise of few the key started to turn, the bridge connecting the two points sliding forth like a telescope. Their bridge in place the trio started to run forward while Olivia worked on getting the second of the three keys Turning. Even if they were on the bridges it wasn't a guarantee that there wasn't something else waiting in the mist to attack, the shellfish creature might've been trained not to attack people on the bridges themselves but it'd be fool hardy to believe that nothing was protecting them. Then Reinforcements arrived, all over the keep statues that looked like they had been limited in purpose to decorative Brazer's came to life and flew into the air.
Gargoyles: Ancient wardens come to life.
From atop the highest towers of the Castle, the Gargoyles watched the fields of battle from within and without the castle for generations, observing the troop formations, learning how to identify commanders and learning the most effective way to take the enemies of the castle apart.
Thanks to The Toy Maker's research into the Artefact spirits of the Orient, he has been able to bring these statues to life allowing them at long last to make use of their extensive knowledge of war.
With mouths full of the fires of chaos, bodies crafted from the castle's stone and magic of flight in their wings the Gargoyles of Bernard are a fierce force to be reckoned with, and a prelude to the horrors that the Toy Maker's research into the subject of bringing life to the lifeless can unleash when the craftsman is caught in a bad mood.
Excerpt from Lemegeton's Guidebook of Demons
Despite appearances the wooden bridges were fire proof, the explosive balls of fire were slamming into he bridge from the angry maws of the stone Brazer's. Unfortunately for them, they were up against a fire mage. Incoming balls of fire was nothing more than ammunition to Angelica.
"Come closer weaklings!" Even though Angelica was thinking that way, there was a red aura around the flying statues, a barrier of some kind that was blocking Angelica's attacks, or rather repelling them.
"This looks familiar." Olivia thought about where she's seen this red aura before, and remembered a certain cross. "Is it shadow mana like what the Cross said?" If that's the case. "Angie do you remember how the Angel's flames felt?"
"If you aren't going to play nice and come down here!" Angelica was smiling as she fought, already getting ready with a new spell. "Then I'll just fight you up there!" Heat was sucked out of the air, frost covered the surfaces of the gargoyles, and the atmosphere became charged as Angie's hair started to stand on end. A Loud crash echoed out as lightning came down from the sky on top of the Gargoyles heads, the smouldering remains of the creatures falling into the mists below to the sight of a cackling Angelica.
"Angie. Are you okay?" Olivia admitted that she was a little bit concerned.
"It's nice not having to worry about the Kingdom burning down when you're fighting monsters." Angelica let out a sigh as she looked over the side of the bridge, debating the benefits of trying to fight the centipede.
"So in other words when you aren't stressed out of your mind, you're a battle junkie." Demonic energy might not be a depressant but it wasn't a stimulant either, this wasn't Angie getting high off of something they didn't realise, this was her natural personality. Personally, Leon approved, there was something about a woman bringing forth death and destruction that he found to be a turn on.
"That's what happens when you grow up listening to stories of Glorious Adventurer Ancestors!" Angie stated while she shrugged her shoulders a big goofy smile on her features.
"I have an idea of how we can fight the next group too." Olivia explained as she held up a familiar chain and cross combination that was currently glowing a bright blue as opposed to the Gargoyles deep red.
Olivia saw one of the Gargoyles fly close to them and she fired off the chain at it, smashing it's head in the process. For the time being the three of them were focusing on dealing with the enemy forces.
With Julius's magic, they were able to create a stone bowl, a temporary solution, cost a ton of mana, but at least now they had something they could eat out of. With the application of wind and water magic they had been able to peel barnacles off of the side of the Bernhard and with the use of water and fire magic they were able to cook them. The end result tasted like boiled lobster, no butter and no salt.
"Come on man quit hogging!" Greg complained as he grabbed hold of one of the boiled Barnacles and crammed it into his mouth. It wasn't the worst meal he's had, certainly better than eating gruel.
"So do we have any ideas of what we're going to do when we get into Alzer?" Julius asked his fellow band of fools, there was still the matter of a not too insignificant debt that they were all under. With Leon's supervision it didn't feel like they were going to get off any of their debt to either Leon or Sarah. "Obviously, we can't keep borrowing money from Marie." Julius stated bluntly, pointedly ignoring the fact that the last time they 'borrowed' money from Marie they didn't ask first. "It's not like any of us have any skills outside of territory management-" Not a lot of management positions available for 'Underage disowned adventurers with a criminal record from outside of Alzer' and even if there was: they were all horrible when it came to money management even if they refuse to admit it. "-Fighting and Magic-" Joining a foreign military would excommunicate them from Holfort, even if they told everyone it would only be a temporary arrangement. "-or Adventuring." The most problematic job of all.
"Adventuring is illegal in Alzer." Brad piped up. "They call it Archaeology."
"What's the difference?" Chris asked sounding confused. "We aren't allowed to break anything, and anything we find we have to turn over to the state, Drop weapons included." Brad explained letting out a sigh.
"How come!?" Greg sounded offended at the news. "'Each and every artefact that comes out of Alzer's dungeon is a precious part of our history, an invaluable insight into how our ancestors lived. You Barbarian's might feel content to sell off pieces of your history for the sake of your third rate currency but here we treat our history with a bit more respect.'" Brad sounded like he was talking down to them, which based on how he sounded like he was quoting someone meant that it was a lecture he had received many, many times. "As for the Drops: 'No we do not allow rapscallions used to solving problems with their fists wander the streets of Alzer with high grade weapons. I wonder how your kingdom's knights maintain order with anyone allowed to wander around with just anything that they want.'"
"Your family has had to play host to a lot of Alzeran delegates over the years haven't they?" Jilk noted the dead pan look on Brad's face that was devoid of emotion. "So we can't use the dungeon to make money then."
The Five Fools sighed as they crossed their arms and let out a sigh, desperately racking their brains to figure out how they were going to move forward in Alzer and help their precious Marie. Despite their best efforts, the five fools got food poisoning and cam out of the experience less fed than they had started.
In the meantime Marie was celebrating not being stuck looking after five idiots with a bowl of surprisingly tasty stew, fried Barnacle dishes, and dried bread that went down pretty good when it was used to soak up the broth of the stew. Nothing like ending a hard day of work with a bowl full of tasty food. It was certainly better than the days she had to work hard and end without food in her belly. Much, much better.
"Aren't you supposed to be a little more careful with those five?" One of the overgrown men who Leon said were called Jailers were keeping an eye on Marie with the intention that nothing happens to her.
"Don't worry cause I!" Marie pulled out a sheet of paper and hoisted it into the air like it was the Void Sword of the Castle's master. "Have a cheat sheet!" Which is not what the Jailer was talking about.
One of the Easter Eggs of the second game is that if you have a save file from the first game you can import your chosen love interest from the first game over to the second as an exchange student, which makes no sense as they do not make a absence in the second year of the first game.
There are limits, for instance you cannot import all five characters from the reverse harem ending, nor can you romance any of the five on account of their existing romance with Olivia from the first game.
As it stands their experience in the first game makes them slightly over levelled for the second game, still have their atrocious personality defects that cripples their potential, though the second game does a better job of having them grow out of it than the first.
Part of that though has to do with throwing them into the real world to make their own money.
As it stands the five do develop skill sets outside of fighting and dungeon diving: Brad becomes a stage illusionist performing for the entertainment of the masses, taking advantage of the boundless charisma that he seems to sweat constantly. Greg a Personal trainer, a job that likely has less to do with his own skills and more so showing off his rippling physique to paying female clients. Chris a bath host/attendant, his success likely also involves spending long stretches of time naked in front of clients. Jilk is the only one who ends up entering something resembling the Adventurer field, as an archaeologist at Alzer's royal museum. Julius finds work as a chef, a job in which he arguably makes the least amount of money of the five but walks away having learned the most valuable lesson: money is not cheap.
Now if only they carry this character development into their third year.
Excerpt from Diary 2
Angelica, Leon, and Olivia ran through the doors of the Toy Maker's guest house in that order. Olivia was covering the rear with a red tinted barrier as Leon summoned his demon forms arms to slam the door shut.
"So making a barrier favouring demonic power repels demonic attacks. That's good to know." Olivia confirmed the knowledge that the Cross had shared with her as she looked down and assessed her hands.
"It also makes them weaker to Angelic attacks." Leon gave a light warning, something that the Cross had also informed her. "In a situation like this where we know that we're going to be fighting lots of demons it's useful, even more so if you can pair that with Angelic power to create armour piercing attacks, but if you aren't sure about what you're up against next it might not be worth it."
Sound advice to keep in mind when you're in the dungeon back in Holfort, they hunt angels because Leon hunts angels but there were also a fair number of demons that cross their invisible border too.
Still onwards to the present situation.
"It's our first 'Trap Dungeon!' I'm so excited!" Angie was bouncing on her heels as she looked down the hallway they would soon be crossing with glee on her features.
The first of the rooms Leon and the girls arrived at was a ballroom, as made apparent by the music and dancing. However these were not humans dancing, in fact near as Leon could tell they weren't demons either though he'll have to get closer to know for sure.
"Over here." Leon and Angelica turned their attention to a body they had found, a Knight in full plate armour. Olivia was wondering how long ago the man had died, taking off his helmet Olivia found a flesh-less face underneath. "Is it wrong that I'm getting used to this kind of stuff?" Perhaps if it had been a fresh corpse Olivia would be hit with a sense of revulsion, as it stood though it was a museum piece at this point. At this point the cross used its chain to extricate a scroll from the Knight's person before giving it to Olivia to read.
Among the more common magic items given to Brotherhood of Light soldiers is the thought scroll.
While it is ideal for scouts to come back alive when performing their duties the sad truth of the matter is that this is not always the case. Thus when entering dangerous areas scouts are given these scrolls, which record their final thoughts at the moment of their death in the hopes that insight can be given on which of the countless horrors that may have done them in.
Excerpt on the Brotherhood of Light
Curse this Blighted Toy Maker!
What human is capable of surviving that death trap of a room?
The switch to open the door is located on the opposite side, but as soon as I pressed it the door behind me locked, and spikes emerged from the floor starting at the other end of the hallway and trailing towards me going all the way up to the ceiling and dropping back down as they went! I only got through because I attempted to leap over as soon as the spikes went down! Even then my body has paid the price! As soon as I get my hands on that bastard I swear...! Isabelle forgive me but I shant make it home to you.
Scroll of Sir Issac of Newsbury
"That's horrible. He didn't even get to see his wife again!" Olivia gave a quiet prayer for Sir Issac.
"I think he'd rather never see his wife again than see her here." Leon commented knowing that the Gargoyles were but the least of the horrors that the castle had to offer. "How did he get injured though?" Angelica commented as she examined the armour, punctured full of holes. "It's not like he could get far."
For now the group stored the corpse in the same void Leon kept his weapons. The Half Demon's body was healing, his eye still looked yellow and his new arm was weaker than the other one but he was healing. The Balcony had no direct way down to the ball room floor, but it did have another passage way, which based on how the Knight's body was positioned seemed to be where he had come from.
"So looks like two ways forward." As Leon made that comment he put his foot on the railing, as if preparing to climb over to jump into the ballroom below. As one, each and every one of the dancers turned their heads to face Leon at the same time with cold lifeless eyes. "Better not." Leon put his foot down and watched as the dancers resumed the ball that they had been acting out. "So then, off to the trap room then."
The room was as the knight described it. A U shaped hallway with switches located at either point, the floor was lined with small holes, each of the two by two foot tiles had five holes inside of them, enough to skewer anyone who was standing on top of them. Their task was simple, get by the spikes, reach the other end of the hallway, and hit the other switch. It would be easiest for Leon, whom as long as he could dodge the spikes at the last moment could use witch time to dodge. Olivia and Angelica on the other hand had to come up with a different tactic.
"We'll wait over here and you'll wait over there." Livia explained as she and Angelica stood on one of Olivia's barriers. "This way we'll minimise the risks." Angie and Livia will press the switch to activate the trap, then Leon will press the switch that disables the traps, in the worst case scenario he has a barrier underneath him as well, and his witch time that will allow him to escape from danger. The three individuals nodding their heads Olivia pushed the button. Almost immediately Leon got skewered, but luckily he moved out of the way in time, and immediately moved back as the spikes switched over thanks to witch time. Thus Leon put his hand on the switch the spikes went away, they were even rewarded with a jar of red liquid was shot out of the ground and caught by Leon before it hit the ground, a healing potion. The doors opened up and Angelica and Olivia joined Leon in looking at the abyss below them.
"So the secret passage way opens up to a hole in the side of the guest house?" Angelica observed as she crouched on the ledge. "This wood was broken, something smashed off this tunnel." As Angelica and Olivia were thinking about how they were going to do this Leon just let out a sigh in response.
"I have one spell we can use. But neither of you can tell anyone about this: ever!" After taking several minutes to swear both of the girls to absolute secrecy a large section of hallway was covered in a red aura and raised into the air, held together entirely by black hair and mana. Sadly Leon had played a severe price for this miraculous magic.
""SSSQQQUUUEEEEEE!""
Having been handed a nine year old version of their crush on a silver platter, both Olivia and Angelica had devolved into girlish squealing as they both hugged the de-aged Leon. The two girls accidental attempt to suffocate Leon to death with their breasts was suddenly interrupted by Leon popping back to his full size, and the hallway that Leon had sent back in time collapsed back into the void of Inferno below.
"So yeah, this spell has a time limit." Leon explained as he popped a butterfly shaped pop into his mouth. "So the question here is do you two cuddle bugs want to stay here and squeal over my kid form, or are we going to move on with this dungeon dive." Angelica and Olivia turned to face each other, conflicting emotions clear as day.
In the end, the girls did utilise Leon's time manipulating powers to traverse the tunnel, though not in the way Leon initially proposed. Instead of completely repairing the likely trap ridden hallway and walking up normally Leon instead reverse the hallway to a state of mid collapse, creating platforms that the three of them could use to traverse the area and arrive at their intended destination. Of course, Olivia carried the much smaller Leon on her back the whole way over. The three of them were greeted by the familiar ball room, now on ground level. The various puppet people were dancing around to the beat of the music.
"Assuming that we aren't supposed to fight our way over, and that simply walking over isn't an option." Leon put a step onto the floor, and at once all the puppets turned to face the trio of intruders, leading the Warlock to take his foot back and let the puppets resume their dance. "So we're supposed to dance then." Angelica observed the various puppets, they twirled around the ball room, making their way around in a clockwise circle, performing a dance meant for two people all the while. "Which is problematic considering there's three of us." Needless to say if an uneven number of people took to the field, they'd have to fight the puppets, and ignoring whatever nasty tricks the Toy Maker installed in them they probably won't get very far in negotiations if they smash all of his creations. "How do we get by the puppets then?"
Leon looked around the room, he saw some motionless puppets off to the side, dressed in a uniform appropriate for butlers. He also saw a puppet band being led by a puppet conductor.
"Balls have a stage where the people spend time standing around talking, drinking and eating right?" It took Leon a few minutes to explain his plan, longer to implement it.
Finally satisfied with his preparations Leon acted. The simple fact of the matter was that there was music appropriate for dancing and appropriate for idle chatter, so thus a young eight foot tall young man dressed in the sweater vest of a butler swiftly walked through the ball room skilfully avoiding the crowd as he approached the puppet band that had been playing for the ball dancing and then changed out the sheet music on them. If the puppets noticed the change in atmosphere they didn't show it, instead the music puppets played and the dancing puppets broke up and started to mingle with each other. Angelica and Olivia were already dressed appropriately to be at the ball, they merely walked onto the dance floor, hooked Leon's arms as she shifted into a gentleman's suit, and let him escort them to the next area of the guest house like lovers looking for privacy.
"Clear?" Olivia asked Leon.
"Just one more moment and... Clear." The two girls broke with Leon's arms as they saw the next room they would be passing through, locked with three locks, and not counting the way they came there were three different hallways.
"This is a relatively obvious set up." Angelica noted as she looked down the halls. "Shall we divide and conquer then?"
Both Angelica and Olivia were armed with two Devil Arms each, Leon had his guns. Each of them would be capable of defeating monsters on the level of mini-bosses if they so wished. Leon and Olivia nodded to Angelica's plan and then split up, their wrists tied with string made from Leon's hair and connected to him. If an emergency situation was to occur then they would pull on the strings and Leon would immediately move to help them. With that in mind the three of them moved in different directions presented to them.
Dungeon Minion: Curse Humans trapped in a castle of the damned.
The Darkness of Castle Bernhard does not only reach out to the creatures that merely look monstrous. Humans are often the most common invaders of the Castle, those that are not torn apart by it's various monsters or join their ranks do not last long.
Such is the case of the Dungeon Minions, humans who could not hide the darkness in their hearts from the castle, and thus have been swallowed up and spat back out as the small, petty and cruel creatures they truly are.
Dungeon Jailers: Among the Minions there are those that develop an especially brutal disposition, these creatures are known as Jailers.
The Jailers are over twice the size of their smaller counter parts, a result of being more successful than most in hoarding food and staying alive in the brutal eat or be eaten environment of the Castle. The Jailers take command over groups of Minions which together with the keys they have been charged with protecting allows them to establish and hold territory within the castle itself.
Excerpt from Lemegeton's Guidebook of Demons
The room had been protected by a grate, one that was too small for Angelica to fit through but which was perfectly sized for the little round creatures scurrying around inside of what she was assuming was a guest room of some sort. Sitting in the middle of the room on one of the sofa's was a massive humanoid creature in much the same vein as a particularly rotund human wearing crudely forged metal over their bare somewhat cancerous flesh.
Angelica admitted she thought she was looking at Agares for a moment. Sticking a finger through the grate Angelica took aim at the Jailer and fired a single shot, a lance of flame that slammed into the chest plate of the Jailer and blew it off of him.
"Your choice. Cook to death or hand over that Key." Angelica warned as she glared at the Jailer.
He chose death, in fact all of the creatures in the room chose death. This was a dungeon, if the monsters die then they'll just respawn, sadly for them their reputations and the trust that their Lord places in them is not something as easily acquired as new flesh and blood. That Left Angelica with the awkward situation of having to get into the ash strewn room to get the key out. Letting out a sigh Angelica took out one of the Salamandra and revved it's engine to make a way in.
Olivia had stuck her hand through the grate, before her the shaking form of a Jailer who was struggling not to hand over his Key dropped it into her hand.
"Thank you!" The Jailer made a horrible noise as he disappeared into a geyser of blood. "... Is it wrong that the first thing that came to mind is 'I hope he'll be alright?'" Olivia felt bad for the monsters all of a sudden.
The entire room had been covered in a layer of darkness, from which a hand emerged and plucked the key that the owner of the hand had come there for in the first place.
His prize got Leon walked away, leaving the castle itself to clean up the matter of the pile of bodies with snapped necks. The three quickly returned to where they had originally parted, the sealed room leading to what they presumed was a boss room.
"Any problems on your ends?" Leon already guessed that the answer would be no, after all none of them had triggered the security thread that he had given them for just such case of emergency.
"No and it has me worried." Angelica stated as she tapped the key against her chin. "For all the raw power that Bernhard may represent very little of it has been used against us thus far."
"Isn't it because all of the military power here has been spent on spectacle?" Olivia pointed back to the room they passed through to get here, the puppets still dining lightly. "We do not know what their combat strength looks like." Angelica countered chin in hand. "It could just be that they're stray men moving along a fixed pattern. So far everything about the Guest house has been about finding ways to outsmart the Toy Maker, thus ensuring that only a specific type of invader could make it this far. Logically then he would plant a hard counter to that kind of person."
"A brute to crush us instead of a trap to trick us?" Leon suggested and Angelica nodded her head. "Right then. I'll have my shadows ready to swallow any magic attacks. Olivia get a barrier up. Angelica get ready with the usual combo."
The girls nodded with the game plan, in theory they would be ready for whatever was waiting for them on the other side. Each of the three Adventurers opened the door, and were immediately greeted by a huge hand reaching through the door and grabbing the three of them before chucking them deeper into the room where the owner of the hand and his buddy were waiting for them.
Mezuki and Gozuki: Beasts of Burden turned Brutal Enforcers.
Demons are far from limited to human emotions, there are for instance the immense resentment of farm animals who have been worked to the brink of death and then slaughtered for their leather and meat.
Mezuki is formed from the resentment of Horses who have been mistreated at human hands, Gozuki from the Resentment of Cattle that has been slaughtered by humans.
Perhaps because of their similar origins the two demons have a relationship that's something like brothers, frequently escaping Inferno together to terrorise the farmers responsible for their cursed existence. When not slacking off the two demons are tasked as torturers of hell, breaking the will to live of the stubborn so that they can move on to their reincarnation.
Excerpt from Lemegeton's Guidebook of Demons
Angelica looked ahead at the two giant demons, one a humanoid figure with the head of a horse and a massive saw for a weapon, and the other a literally bull headed man wielding a massive wooden club with Spikes hammered into it for a weapon. Leon looked above them, at a balcony, and more specifically the grey skinned man with most of his face occupied by a massive nose.
"Stage hands! Dispose of these pests!" The fat big nose man ordered and the two Demons snarled before they began to move.
"So the little man is the Toy Maker then?" Leon noted as the two brutes charged forward.
The floor beneath the two demons was covered in a layer of ice thanks to Angelica, the two's charge turned into a uncontrollable slide forward, until their feet were taken out by Olivia's barrier sending both demons face first into the ground, where they found themselves collared by Leon, whose shadow magic not only kept them pinned to the ground but also drained them of Mana, which they needed for the passive strength enhancing spell they needed to maintain their strength to move.
"Now that that is over with." Leon Cleared the way to the Toy Maker's Balcony in a single leap. "Choose!" Leon grabbed the Toy Maker with a giant arm made of hair. "Give us the other one or I'll beat him out of you." At once the Grey skinned monster began coughing up blood, and was soon replaced by the visage of a harmless looking old man.
"I thank you for not damaging any of my puppets." Leon dropped the old man to his feet. "You have no idea what I went through to acquire the materials for them. Now than, how may I be of assistance?"
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: There's so many different Dracula's with so many wildly different interpretations and personalities that I could literally spend all day describing a hundred different characters with the same name. Castlevania, Hellsing, Hotel Transylvania just to name a few.
Dakota Bruder: Off screen after the attack by the Principality but before Leon left for Alzer.
RedRat8: Hope I don't disappoint.