The Flight through Fanoss's territory was uneventful, even if there was someone suicidal enough to strike the Umbra Fanoss's army had been de-fanged, the ones sane enough to take orders were reassigned to infrastructure fixing the royal dungeon and fixing the farm lands in Fanoss's territory. That said there was one matter that needed to be tended to before the trek to Castle Bernhard. Both of the Fanoss Sisters had arrived at the family funeral site, a catacomb built into the underground of the Fanossian estate. Land was a premium in most territories, to the point that 'wasting' it on Graveyards was unheard of. Depending on your position in life different funerals were employed: Farmers might have their bodies broken down with magic and made into fertiliser, soldiers often had their ashes turned into diamond bullets, especially if there was a active war going on. For those lost at sea or in the void a classical funeral was impossible. Instead it was normal to see the personal belongings of the individuals in question sealed away beneath the home of the individuals in question, in the case of Holfort Kingdom/Fanoss Principality it was normal for these items to be arms and armour belonging to the individual in question, becoming precious heirlooms of the individuals in question. Hertrude and Hertraude had prepared a hot pot of rice, vegetables and meat and was now in the basement beneath their home.
"Mom, Dad, we're sorry that it took us so long to come back to you." Hertraude stated as she bowed her head to her parents apologetically.
"Vandel is dead. We're sorry that we misunderstood what you wanted from us for all these years." Hertrude gave the followed up naturally.
With that the two women began their dinner that they shared with their offerings to their deceased parents, that said they had guests over for their regular dinner with their parents.
"You guys come down here and have dinner with your dead ancestors? All the time?" Olivia asked sounding horrified. These two have dinner inside of a catacomb. It's no wonder they became the villains of those wretched games.
"Well, our parents aren't actually down here." Hertrude admitted, thanks to Vandel they didn't even have bodies to entomb. "Still they're here with us in spirit."
Leon could see spirits, they weren't here.
"Are we going to discuss the reparations now?" Leon asked making his suspicions known.
"We don't have experience in ruling." Yet another boon from Garret, while the likes of Angelica was learning how to be queen of Holfort these two were hold up in their room reading poorly written romance Novels and being moulded into ideal figure heads. "As pathetic as we may seem we don't know what we need to look after the princi-er-dukedom." The Principality officially lost their independence, thus returning to a 'mere' dukedom of the Holfort Kingdom. "We would like your honest opinions." They did know enough to know that they shouldn't just let Leon rob them blind, nor would Leon rob them blind. Good Merchants create their customers.
"Holfort will be taking thirty percent of Fanoss's annual budget for up to ten years." Which wasn't too different than what they're supposed to charge as taxes. "Your existing armour and ship production facilities will be dismantled and their personnel assigned under the supervision of the Winchester family. Your existing armours will have remote control units installed in them that can disable your units remotely, as will any additional units manufactured and given to you. The Remotes will be given to three families, one of which will be the Blackmore's, another the Redgrave's and a third that we will not disclose." That should be enough to keep the territory defended from monsters without risk of another rebellion. "Aside from that your existing military will be retrained under the Patton family." Having their respective forces bond together under the blatant torture that Patton calls training should help dissolve the lack of trust and intense hatred of the Kingdom. "The islands that use to have these facilities installed will be repurposed for agriculture, until your farm lands are fully functional Leon will be providing for your farming needs, including seedlings and personnel to teach you his families agricultural methods." Angelica didn't know what the Principality was feeding its people, whatever it was it clearly wasn't enough, rail thin and barely able to move was the norm. "Those are the conditions from Holfort. The Blackmores have their own conditions for cooperation."
"We want the Bloody Island, and any remaining artefacts in your possession related to demons or angels." Leon stated bluntly.
"How were they able to use your clan's artefacts anyway?" Olivia made her confusion known. "I mean some of the Mages from the army tried to use them earlier but they didn't do anything."
"Depending on how far back they've been handed down these two may even descendants of the clan." Leon explained bluntly as he continued to eat.
"Like the witch who was part of the Bernhard family?" Olivia asked looking curious.
"That could even be their witch ancestor." Leon replied in no uncertain terms.
""Bernhard?""
After a moment to explain the actual literal hole to hell that was sitting in the middle of their territory the group was led to their prize now late into the evening. Hertrude personally advised against it, but given Leon's success thus far seemed the most likely solution. Towing cables were soon attached to the island to drag the land mass back to Blackmore territory. However after a few moments a geyser of blood appeared, releasing an emanciated figure with the face and wings of a bat carrying a sword and shield. Raising the scimitar blade into the air the bat like figure was about to cut one of the tow cables before the sword was shot out of it's hand.
"Now now, none of that." The monster locked eyes with Leon and immediately a shock went through both of their minds, both recognising something familiar in the other.
Vampire: An ancient threat spawned from darkness.
Vampires are a tribe of Demons, spawned from one of the three Lords of Shadows Carmilla.
A Vampire can be born from many different creatures be they human, animal, demon or some other super natural creature. The ceremony itself involves the exchange of blood between the 'host' and the soon-to-be Vampire, leading them to mutate into a bestial appearance that gradually returns to their original form with repeated infusions of blood. Physically immortal, super humanly strong and fast and gifted with the power of flight the Spawn of Carmilla are not without weakness.
Sunlight burns the Vampire's bodies, even their strongest can only stand in daylight for a few minutes, Holy power such as that channelled and contained into water by a priest also does them harm, but the most prominent of weaknesses is their need for blood, for this defines their very existence.
Excerpt from Lemegeton's Guidebook of Demons
"Yet again these cursed lands draw in the damned." The vampire spoke in a hoarse voice as he went to retrieve his weapon. "What do you want?"
"I need to talk to your boss." Leon stated bluntly as he refused to compromise. "There's something in your castle that belongs to my clan, chances are a lot of something."
"Hahahaha!" The vampire laughed as he picked up his blade. "Do you think our Lord is some cur that can be commanded on whim alone?" A lance of fire appeared in the air and metal ball slammed into the ground next to the vampire.
"We intend to negotiate with him." Angelica commanded bluntly. "Or if battle is the way that you're used to doing things-!"
"Hahaha!" The vampire interrupted Angelica's threat with a cackle. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" One that soon degenerated into full blown belly laughter.
"What's so funny?" Angelica liked nothing about this. "You mean to threaten us with parlour tricks?" The vampire shrugged his shoulders in response to the threat. "Very well: Then we will also respond with a parlour trick!"
Blood flooded the grounds, the vampire sunk back inside and was soon replaced by a giant grotesque abomination composed of tumours and coagulated demon blood.
"Some Parlour trick." Leon commented as pulled out a communication device from his pocket.
"If someone attempted this in my family's parlour they would be executed." Angelica made her opinion known.
"There's a boil that needs lancing on the rock. Fire." A moment later, one of the sub guns from Umbra spun around and fired on the abomination that had emerged from the bed-rock of the Bloody Island obliterating it in a single stroke. "Well asking them to let us in is not going to happen." Leon stated letting out a sigh. "Now what?"
"Leon. A thought occurs." Olivia piped up at this point in time. "Given how aggressive the Principality was if the monsters were that easy to kill would they be avoiding the island like they are?" The blood had not stopped gushing out, instead it had increased and was even pouring off the sides of the island like a water fall of blood.
"Crud." From the Pool of blood a massive hand emerged, one made out of bone and tips sharpened into points. "Disconnect the ship right now!" The Umbra was disconnected in time for a huge beast made out of bones to emerge from the rock. Leon looked over at the creature, and let out a sigh. "Of course it's a dragon." Why wouldn't it be? Leon simply hoped that it didn't set the tone of the day.
"What kind of dragon?" Angelica used magic to block the sun from her eyes as she tried to get a better look. "A dead one, by the looks of things being animated by the same kind of support magic that's used to manipulate Armours luckily for us."
"Lucky?" Olivia didn't feel lucky, the last time they got 'lucky' they had to fight a newborn Sloth that didn't have any of the combat experience that a more mature creature would possess. It still nearly shredded them to pieces and raised a army of fallen angels to serve it's whims. "Define 'lucky' for us please."
"Instead of 'we're fighting an ancient highly intelligent monster and guardian of a limitless supply of mana and magical energy' it's a case of 'we're fighting a puppet made using their corpse that possesses almost none of it's previous strength, durability or ferocity.'" Leon clarified after he put his binoculars down.
Contrary to popular belief, bones aren't that hard to deal with. Most of their durability stems from the fact that you have to go through everything else to get to them including impact absorbing muscle. In fact most of the time bones are hollow, especially in large creatures, only the bones that have the job of supporting the creature's body weight are solid, the rest are hollow in the name of weight management.
"Take the shot."
Jenna had the foresight to put an iron sight on Dr. Faust, the magical monocle flipping down from the hat onto Olivia's eye. Sticking her tongue out in concentration Olivia made a finger gun with her gauntlets and a barrel formed from demonic blood around her finger, hardening into metal under the influence of the Gilgamesh while a metal sphere formed from demon blood was loaded into the barrel. With a loud explosion the ball of blood/metal was fired out of the barrel, propelled by the repulsive power of the Gilgamesh, and slammed into the body of the Bone dragon shattering it's skull in the process. As the bones fell from the sky they turned into blood and disappeared in midair.
"Did we get him?" Olivia asked wondering if the creature was really defeated.
"Olivia. I wish you wouldn't speak such cursed words." Leon let out a sigh. "Come on. I have an idea of how we're going to get inside the castle."
Oh so you want to know what Inferno is like? Imagine the worst parts of history all happening at once. Our thoughts, memories and emotions leave behind an impression on the Trinity of Reality, but Inferno only gets the bad memories just like Paradiso only gets the good memories.
If you hear that description then you're probably imagining all of the battles that were fought on the continent, with the most recent addition being the Principalities attack with the God of the Earth. This is not entirely true though, while those things are happening other lesser emotions also leave an impression.
The fear you feel while exploring the Dungeon, the greed for new drop items, the disappointment of a failed dive. You may not think much of what you do or say to each other at the academy but every hurt feeling, every instance of wounded pride, every anxiety about your future and how others see you leaves behind a imprint. I imagine that the Infernal version of the academy is several times larger than the 'real' academy. So what's the difference you maybe wondering?
Well even all of you, Individuals who have never been involved with the field of construction work a single day in your life, understand that there's a difference in the strength and integrity of a building made out of brick and mortar and wood and paper correct?
Jeanne Blackmore's lecture on Inferno to her first Class at the Royal Academy
Well that was one nightmare over with. In all honesty? Compared to the Royal Capital the Blackmore's territory might've been closer to a vacation.
"You're main body is off for repairs?" Mylene was surprised by the Drone's statement.
"I'll be able to use the facilities I've been building to repair my body." Luckily the Colony ship had prioritised getting the resource extraction facilities and secondary factories up and running, getting actual metal would be difficult, but not impossible. The medical facility that Cleare would be running was already in fully working order, and Erica was already there for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment.
"And the defences and infrastructure of the capital?" Mylene asked letting out a sigh.
"If we can get the holes in the dungeon patched we should have our power generating facilities up and running again." Which meant getting power back to the defence grid once more, which would be good cause whatever country has heard of Fanoss's attack would be on it's way with their own fleets by now. "We also still have all of the Arroganz armours as well." All of the armours Luxion built were still in working order, part of that Luxion would attribute to superior engineering, but he also knew that it was mostly due to the battle's early victory thanks to Olivia and Angelica, and the armours late arrival thanks to Roland. "Which reminds me. How is the 'King?'"
"As well as can be expected, or so I'm told. I'm going to go see him now." Terrific, you could see reluctance oozing off of Mylene.
Roland was confined to his bed, he was paralysed from the waist down during his brief brawl with the Black Knight, and was dragged off the battlefield by Julius and the rest of the fools, who despite being in another dimension at the time had no problem carrying Roland off to the temple much to the horror of the people who watched them do so. Speaking of which the prognosis was grim. Neither the temple or Cleare had any hope of the man being able to use his lower extremities again, of course by design.
Point of interest: being the father of the young man who managed to shove the false Saintess down the throat of the temple, a Saintess who by all accounts fled in terror from the position, does not exactly endear you to the temple or it's popess or any of it's clergy.
Similarly: Endangering the lives of the people that Luxion has spent years and millions of Dia in raw resources training and arming by sabotaging their deployment and allowing a WMD class monster onto the continent does not garner favours from the AI's.
Mylene would like to say that she would be able to take a break with this, maybe take the R&R that she has so desperately needed and deserved after strapping Roland to a desk in front of a mass of paper work. Sadly that would not be the case.
"You are being stripped of your administrative rights and privileges." Roland looked up from his bed as Mylene spoke. "You have finally proven that you are too childish, too irresponsible, too Saintess be damned petty to ever be trusted with any type of authority of any kind. Personally speaking, I don't care if you rot away in this room for the rest of your life."
"That must make you extremely happy, I'm sure." Roland replied bitterly.
"That my husband is a moron who'd rather chase ass young enough to be his daughter and somehow towards that end sabotage the defence of his home land there by putting his country and the people in it in danger just to make himself look better?" Mylene was exasperated, here she was desperately hoping that something from this horrid arrangement could be salvaged. Instead Roland had fully degenerated into goblin mode. "No that doesn't make me happy. Because of you we are in such a weakened state and are being forced to rely on a gang of demon summoners who are, at best, completely dismissive of the royal family and its interests, and at worst actively hostile and seek to wipe us out."
"Yes so I heard." Roland pulled out a file that he had no business possessing. "So we've met."
"Give me that!" Mylene snapped as she ran over and snatched the file out of Roland's hands, then a thought occurred. "You've met?"
"The two women in that file were both among the various trysts I've had over the years." Roland pulled out a book he was keeping under his bed, a list of his various mistresses that he was keeping or kept in the past for the purpose of avoiding sleeping with his own daughters. Alzer's gaggle of inbred idiots proved that plowing your own relatives, let alone your very flesh and blood, was a good way to mass produce useless morons. Course it seemed that letting Roland reproduced period was a good way of producing morons anyway if Julius and his brothers were any indication. Roland opened the book, and to Mylene's surprise Cereza and Jeanne were both on the front pages, thus implying that they were the first of said instances of him cheating on her in their marriage from at least just after he conceived Julius. "Not the most pleasant of my trysts I'm afraid. I spent the entire evening strapped to one of their torture machines as they took turns having their way with me, I only later learned that they only did it to gain access to our treasury vault."
There would probably be a notice about what they took if Mylene checked the official logs, assuming that Roland didn't destroy them to spare himself the embarrassment of someone finding out that he had been bamboozled. Sadly given who her husband was that possibility was more than likely. That said Right then Roland's embarrassment was the least of Mylene's concerns as she left her husband's room with a list of the various women he had cheated on her with.
"I must advise you against attempting to seek vengeance on your husband's mistresses." Luxion stated bluntly. "As the Country's former highest ranking authority none of them were in a position to refuse the king's advances."
"What would you say are the chances that Leon is Roland's son?" Mylene asked in simple and blunt terms. Luxion took seconds to respond, the equivalent of dropping his jaw in shock.
"If we compare Leon to what Roland was supposed to be like a decade and a half ago in terms of competency and personality there are some similarities, in terms of appearance I would say he leans towards his mother though there no doubt he would be considered handsome if he put more efforts into his looks. That is equally likely a result of his mother's genetics, and whatever monster that they plowed to produce him." Luxion replied with a analytical summation.
"And if we're talking about which explanation is the most logical?" There was another point of concern for Mylene though, that was making people believe that Leon was Roland's son. "Given his super human abilities many would easily believe that Blackmore is half monster, but part of that can be explained by how much time he spends in the dungeon, the other part though would depend on whatever training his parents put him through."
"Meaning that the explanation we want will be more believable depending on how many individuals like Blackmore the witch produces." Mylene summarised looking through a window at the sky.
"I believe she will seriously train at least Angelica and Olivia." The two girls were their son's would be fiances after all. "Obviously it's best if we can mass produce individuals like Blackmore, but that's only the best case scenario. For one thing we may simply assume that Blackmore is talented, from what we are made to understand of their clan he has a unique bloodline from both of the mothers." One mother was 'the daughter of the Clan Chieftess, whom if a demon makes a deal with they must obey it not only to the letter but the spirit of the agreement' the other was 'a cursed woman born of both the Umbran and Lumen Clans' finally there was a 'powerful demon used as a medium between them for the purpose of producing a child.' With all of that it would make more sense if he was an exceptional individual.
"That is unfortunate. Because right now that exceptional talent is running away to another country." Mylene could only exhale in exhaustion.
"For now the Witches and I have agreed to an alliance to share information. We both have information on mutual threats, I intend to cash in on that." Luxion's lens was rotating side to side, amazing how many tells a machine can have. "Go." With that Monarch and machine separated.
If Avalon Forest is the world's first Dungeon, Bernhard Castle is the second.
The forces of Paradiso have long since sought a way to end the forces of Inferno on Midgard, when it became apparent that that was no longer possible, they instead settled for corralling them.
The most brilliant part is that they didn't even have to do most of the work.
Castle Bernhard was the existing base of a group of demon cultists, The Hierarchy of Laguna ordered their followers to take the fortress and put the cultists to the blade.
The Castle became the sight of a ritual to ascend the leaders of the siege, Cornell, Carmilla and Zobek as minor gods as part of a seal away a demon of unfathomable power, the Forgotten One.
In the process the darkness in the three individuals hearts were left behind.
The Trio's bodies, now deprived of their humanity, mutated into horrific demons with few rivals, the Lords of Shadows.
Carmilla stayed in the castle, forging a symbiotic relationship with the bats who lived in and around the castle and ultimately became the first of the Vampires.
Carmilla was ultimately slayed by a member of the same order she once led as a human, Gabriel Belmont of the Brotherhood of Light, the cursed blood of her, her kin together with the stolen power of the Forgotten One transformed Gabriel into the Demon Lord of Darkness, a being with few Rivals.
Under Gabriel's-now-Dracula's command the castle increased it's numbers, absorbing the remains of Cornell's and Zobek's forces alongside other creatures of darkness and uniting them together into one fighting force with the intention of waging war against the Brotherhood of Light, rival demon lords and the heavens in order to reclaim the things that were taken from him by his former masters.
Exactly as planned.
The possessed Castle forged a symbiotic relationship with it's Lord and it's residents, a scenario was created where they were no longer able to leave the castle, except to go on raids into the surrounding territories.
Because of this the Brotherhood of Light was able to destroy the castle in a single blast and it's forces banished to Inferno.
Even after it's destruction the ensuing Crater had a city built on it, Wygol city, which continued to attract the forces of darkness who became trapped in Inferno as they killed each other off.
Excerpt from The Ancient Dungeons by Rodin
The 'castle' was like a tumour on the face of creation, a massive disjointed chunk of stone ramparts and towers of stone, glass and metal stacked on top of one another with no rhyme or reason. Near as Angelica's eyes could make out, two or three battles were taking place at once, one between the castle's inhabitants against angels pouring out from stone monuments, and one among the castle's residents.
"So there's an internal conflict inside of the castle itself." Angelica stated as she closed her eyes and continued to think about the situation. "What do you make of it?"
"Loyalty among demon kind is rare, but not unheard of. That said a more likely explanation is that these are not a part of the same faction." Leon explained as he wrote out the situation on a chalk board.
"Right. The castle forcibly absorbed other tribes of monsters into their ranks." Olivia had been reading up on what information the Blackmore's were able to gather about the castle. "It's more likely that they never got along to begin with." That said. "Why are the angels here though? From what I understand they want nothing to do with the place."
"Then we should assume the opposite." Leon stated in simple terms. "Instead of 'the angels are invading the castle in Inferno' we should assume 'the demons are invading the Angels in Paradiso and the Angels are pushing back trying to stop them.'"
"So we should assume three factions, maybe more." Angelica summed up the situation in simple terms.
"If that is the case, then it should be quite convenient and inconvenient for us." If the various forces are too busy fighting each other then they can use the distraction to try and infiltrate the castle proper, but for those same reasons the castle should be high alert. "For one thing, they should be aware of us by now." Leon stated as he looked down on what they had been standing on.
From Inferno Umbra looked like a floating Clock Tower that had been sitting on its side. It was a surreal sight in Midgard, but they could already see broken bits of buildings floating off in the distance, and the Castle's residents already had to deal with various buildings in random places. The various factions should be watching the area for anything new or unfamiliar, catching a new building floating in by itself should be within their capabilities if they were paying attention.
"The fact that they aren't being hostile should mean that they have no interest in us for the time being right?" Olivia asked looking at her two co-conspirators.
"Or it means that they have better things to do." Angelica once again gestured to the battlefield.
"Right, Because of Leon's spell we can't reach each other yet right?"
Technically speaking, they hadn't even stepped foot in Inferno yet, they were camping in part of Purgatorio and using magic that allowed them to peer into other dimensions to keep track of what Inferno and Paradiso in the area looked like.
Point of interest: Paradiso looked like a giant Crater, a village built inside of the edges of the Crater acting as a natural wall, there were a few of the glass and metal buildings but not many. Given the Castle's reputation the strongest positive emotion in the area should've been it's destruction, followed by rebuilding 'Wygol Village' in the years after, which eventually transitioned into a city as the forces of Darkness moved back in, even then normal people lived in the city too so there were large patches of positive emotions that had formed as well. Currently the entire area was being used as a staging ground and battle field between invading castle residents and angels.
"Unexpectedly it's nice looking." Olivia commented before she made an awkward face and looked away. "Yah know aside from the small war that's being waged."
"Let's see if we can establish contact first." Leon stated bluntly as he went back into the ship. "For one thing we aren't here to make enemies."
Attention Dracul. This letter is from the Umbran Clan, with a request to parlay with you.
Should you have not replied within the next three days we'll have to assume that you have no intention of communicating with us peacefully, and we will have to respond with force. You should be made aware of the fact that we have vast forces in the form of summoned monsters and vast foot soldiers. We are also familiar with the details of your life and legacy as well, giving us a rough idea of the composition of your troops and their physical and magical capacities and their weaknesses. We believe you are dealing with at least two enemies, I do not think you can afford to have a third front opened, but pending the contents and terms of our alliance we might be able to reduce the number of enemies you need deal with.
A message attached to several spears which reportedly fell from the sky and landed inside of Castle Bernard.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Yes, but it would come at the cost of a massive increase in the number of problems we have to deal with, because humanity is literally incapable of taking a good thing and not screwing it up in some capacity.
m6102032: Good to know.
Dakota Bruder: Lords of Shadow to be more specific. I already introduced the Combat Cross as a Seraphim arm this isn't much of a stretch.
RedRat8: Mylene has a filing cabinet dedicated to the Blackmores back at the castle, Leon gets his own drawer.
Guest: 'The Fools Dying pointless and stupid deaths' was Chiyo's prediction.