Castlevania: Fate of Sorrow
Prologue: A Fated Night
Cover image: Soma standing before a magic seal with Saber materialising over it.
For almost a millennium, the evil Count Dracula, a being so powerful that he was considered God's polar opposite, terrorized the world and led the forces of Chaos against God and his children. Driven by an eternal grudge, the Prince of Darkness struck down countless innocents with his terrible powers.
But one clan of holy warriors opposed Dracula, the legendary Belmont Clan. Wielding the sacred Vampire Killer Whip, they fought the Immortal Count throughout the centuries, slaying him every time he was resurrected.
One of Dracula's greatest adversaries was none other than his own half-breed son, Alucard, who swore to honour his human saint mother's final wish and to protect mankind from his father.
Many other clans assisted Alucard and the Belmonts. The Morris Clan, who served as the keepers of the Vampire Killer, the Belnades Clan, who used their powerful magic to aid in the struggle, and the Lecarde Clan, who acted as the key to the whip's power.
Finally, at the year 1999 A.D. Dracula met his ultimate demise at the hands of Julius Belmont and Alucard in a war that shook the magical world to its very core and using the Holy Grail War, a ritual from the east, they ended the Dark King's terrible reign over humanity and his dominion over Chaos.
Now, in the year 2035, the prophesied year of a new Dark King inheriting Dracula's powers, the destiny of a young man named Soma Cruz unfolds and the Holy Grail War begins anew.
Night fell over Fuyuki City and Soma Cruz, a young man with white hair and pale grey eyes dressed in white fur-collared tailcoat with a blue trim over a black shirt and bell bottom jeans, walked home from school after saying goodbye to his friends. The mysterious youth, however, knew that this night would be different from others, because he was adopted by a powerful clan of mages, the Tohsakas when he was only six and no doubt his younger sister and fiancé, Rin Tohsaka, would participate in in this eventful night.
"My name is Soma Cruz, I'm a high school student at Fuyuki Academy." The mysterious youth thought to himself as he walked home. "Tonight, is the night of the Holy Grail War my sister always talked about. I don't know much about it, since I try to live a normal life, but Rin swears it's the most important thing she'll ever do, so I have to support her. Even though I left home last year, though with the murders and missing person cases going on now, I can't help but feel like my peaceful life here is coming to an end and I can't help but feel that it's because of this war."
Soma made his way back to his apartment and he found a mysterious letter by his doorstep, sent to him by Lord El-Melloi II, one of the professors at the Clock Tower, a prestigious academy for mages.
"What the...?" Soma picked up the letter and he immediately recognised the name of the sender since his late adoptive father, Tokiomi Tohsaka, expected him to enrol in the Clock Tower to support Rin when they were of age. "Already?"
Soma didn't expect to receive a letter so soon, especially since he tried his hardest to distance himself from life as a mage, especially after what had happened to his family, but he opened it anyway and there, he found instructions to a lost type of soul memory magic.
"Guess there's no running away from this..." Soma sighed as he held the letter, walking into his apartment.
The next day at school, Soma sat beside the window, both bored and listless before Rin Tohsaka, his adopted younger sister and fiancé, a young woman with long wavy brown hair tied in twintails and aqua eyes dressed in a red coat over her school uniform, pulled the mysterious youth's ear as she glared at him.
"You still haven't come home!" Rin glared as she let go of Soma's ear, still annoyed that he moved out in the first place. "Come on... it's been a year already."
"Sorry about that... but there are things I have to figure out on my own." Soma smiled nervously at Rin, knowing that his half-assed explanation wouldn't satisfy here. "Besides, it's not like I never visit."
"I'm not letting you run away..." Rin sighed as she sat beside Soma, leaning on him gently. Because of the tragedy that took the lives of both of their parents, her brother was all she had and she wished he would take their engagement more seriously, after all, the future of their family depended on it.
"You're impossible..." Soma chuckled as he held Rin close, though she was to be the head of their family one day, he still saw her as his precious little sister.
As Soma walked home from school, he witnessed a gruesome sight, a crime scene and in the middle of it, was the corpse of a young woman that was bisected and drained of all blood. He walked past it, sick to his stomach, but he knew these murders would only intensify, just like when his parents were killed.
"I can't do anything..." Though adopted by the Tohsakas, Soma wasn't even half the mage Rin was and he often wondered why he was adopted in the first place, let alone engaged to the heiress of their esteemed family. He felt that maybe if he had more strength, he could prevent such tragedies, but all he could be was a bystander.
Night fell over the Tohsaka family mansion and Rin, its sole occupant, was getting ready to enact a ritual, the heiress stood before a magic seal that glowed as she began to chant.
"Hear my call. Place thy flesh under my command, and my fate I place in thy sword. With the authority of the Holy Grail… and your desire to comply, answer my call. I possess the virtue of all creation, along with the power to release evil into that creation. And I offer before you my pledge, now thou cloaked in the three great word spirits, hailing from the Seven Heavens." Rin recited the spell before cutting her palm, allowing her blood to drip down unto the magic seal, as the summer's blood resonated with the red circle; the runes rose from the ground and passed through the female magi. "Come forth to me!" The arcane symbol bathed the whole mansion in a strong crimson glow, and the heiress was quite pleased with the spell, confident in the power of her servant. "I have to have drawn the most powerful card… I know it!"
Just as Rin revelled in her victory, she heard a crash coming from another room in the mansion and when she ran over to investigate, she found Archer a man with short white hair and grey eyes dressed in a red coat over a tight black sleeveless shirt and black pants.
"Oh brother..." Archer closed his eyes and sighed, not expecting to be summoned by someone like Rin. "Looks like I've drawn by quite the unusual little Master."
Rin could only glare at Archer, he was not who she had expected either, and she was disappointed.
In a castle situated in the forest outside Fuyuki City, Illyasviel von Einzbern, a young girl with silver hair and red eyes dressed in a white and purple dress with a gold trim, smiled before her newly summoned Servant, Alter Ego, a tall man with shoulder-length white hair with his features hidden behind a dark grey mask with four red eyes, the stranger was dressed in a dark cyan armoured coat with a silver trim over a dark red dress shirt and an ascot, though he was well-covered, what was seen of his skin seemed covered in crystals that resembled stained-glass.
"I, Alter Ego, shall serve your will... Master." The Masked Servant knelt before Illya as he took her hand in his own as a sign of his loyalty towards her.
"Then crush the other Masters and Servants for me!" Illya smiled as she held Alter Ego's hand, satisfied that she had summoned a powerful Servant.
Within an large auditorium, Graham Jones, a man with grey hair and pale grey eyes dressed in a white suit with a purple tie and ceremonial scarf gave a sermon to his cult of followers, who believed him to be the second coming of the Dark King and after he has concluded his sermon, he retreated to his chambers and there waiting for him, was Lancer, a petite young woman with pink hair and light blue eyes dressed in a black and white gothic dress, though her most unusual features were here horns and tail.
"I'm bored, Master..." Lancer sighed as she laid on her back, pouting, she grew tired of hearing Graham preach all night and she wanted to have some fun for a change.
"Patience, Lancer." Graham chuckled as he knelt by her side. "Did your last meal not satisfy you?"
"She broke too easily..." Lancer sighed as she remembered her victim, who she had drained of blood and bisected earlier, the very same corpse that Soma had encountered.
"Then go hunt once more." Graham smirked, amused by Lancer's penchant for bloodshed. "My demons will accompany you."
Lancer smirked in turn, standing up and walking towards the exit, determined to feed once more and to leave a more gruesome display this time.
Later that night, Soma made his way to a secluded section of the city park with the note that Lord El-Melloi II had sent him, from what he understood, it was to test this lost form of soul memory magic to summon a familiar using memories of one of the mysterious youth's past lives as a catalyst.
"O threads that tie all souls to Akasha, follow my voice and entwine my soul to that from a past life of mine." As Soma chanted, a red seal resembling a crown with six wings appeared under him and in front of him, a second blue seal resembling a sword appeared. "I entrust my soul to one long lost, I beseech thee; awaken to the living world!"
As Soma finished chanting, a torrent of magical energy surrounded both seals as they began to resonate and blue threads seemed to exit the mysterious youth's body and gather towards the blue seal and from that seal, Saber, a young woman with blond hair and green eyes clad in armoured blue and white dress appeared before him.
"Are you my Master?" Saber's gaze met Soma's as she asked him, though her heart stopped for a second when she noticed how deeply familiar his visage was to her. "It can't be..."
"A-A Servant?" Soma was shocked to see that he had summoned a Servant when he only intended to summon a familiar, it was then, he looked at his right hand, seeing the Command Seals burn themselves into it.
"I am Saber, your faithful Servant..." The armoured girl composed herself, though earlier, she looked like she had just seen a ghost, still thinking of Soma's familiar visage.
Unknown to Soma and Saber, they were being watched by a bat-like familiar with crystalline growths all over its body and through the familiar's eyes, Alter Ego watched the scene play out, knowing that it was all too familiar.
"So... fate has played its hand once more." Alter Ego watched Soma's successful summoning ritual and the look on Saber's face said it all, history was repeating itself.
Within The Agency's headquarters, Genya Arikado, a deceptively young man with shoulder-length black hair and black eyes dressed in a black coat over a grey vest and gold ascot had just received word that the Holy Grail War had begun.
"Another Holy Grail War... in the prophesied year of the second coming of the Dark King..." Arikado sighed as he sat down, opening a letter he had received from Lord El-Melloi II. "Soma will summon Saber... just as planned. I'm trusting him to defy fate." The mysterious man then looked at an ornate silver sword with a gold guard that resembled a wing over a spiral ribbon that adorned the hilt. "In the name of my mother Jeanne... I will stop the Dark King from returning."
The Holy Grail War had begun and Soma unwittingly summoned Saber, who is shocked by his visage. Now, the stage is set for another grand battle.
Author's note: My reboot of Castlevania: Minuet of a Cursed Fate is finally done. The initial chapter is short, so I apologise for that in advance. It's been more than a decade since I wrote the original story and so much lore has come out since then so I had to make a new story out of it. Also, I'm well aware of the years the stories take place in, so I'm reimagining the timeline.
I deliberately opted out of a more detailed opening crawl because it would spoil future stories set in the same universe especially Castlevania: Requiem of the Dark Reign, the 1999 story of this saga and Lament of the Dragon, the origin story. Look forward to those when they come out.
Soma and Rin are still adopted siblings and engaged and we'll see just how much Rin really depends on Soma as the story goes forward. They will get a flashback chapter eventually and Tokiomi's reason for adopting Soma will be revealed.
Alter Ego is essentially the same character as Avenger from the previous version of this story, but this time, Illya summons him instead of Rin. This is done so that Soma isn't just a replacement for Shirou. Speaking of Shirou, he will appear in this story as Soma's best friend, his Servant is still being decided upon, but I'm leaning towards an Assassin or a Berserker class, Stheno is my top pick for now.
Alter Ego and Archer have a bitter rivalry that parallels Soma and Shirou's friendship and the reason for that will be revealed in the future, though if you read the previous version of this story, you probably know already. Alter Ego is based on Full Frontal from Gundam Unicorn and his rivalry with Archer borrows from Char Aznable and Amuro Ray's from Gundam as well.
Graham and Lancer's relationship is an interesting one to write, Graham is delusional and believes he is the true reincarnation of Dracula and Lancer, who loved and worshiped Dracula in the past, knows he's full of crap, Lancer eventually falls for Soma when she finds out who he really is.
Genya Arikado planned for Soma to join the Holy Grail War as part of his gambit to prevent the Dark King from returning and it will all make sense when they're in Dracula's Castle. In this story, Jeanne d'Arc is Alucard's mother and he bears both a dark and holy legacy.
Soma unlocks his Power of Dominance in the next chapter and I'm working on a unique way that power reacts to Servants, I won't spoil it, but it will be interesting.
This story adapts the Fate route, but there will be AUs that adapt both the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel routes as well as a Hollow Ataraxia sequel, so look forward to those.
That's it for now, I hope you guys enjoyed the new rebooted story. Take care and have a great year.