Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Shaken not stirred, my ass..." Sam grumbled shaking his head at the sight of the man before them. Having watch Max churned the man's interiors into a garish mush that was oozing out of his mouth proved a bit much. Yet it still left the question of how could someone become a monster and regress 'back' into a human?
"Shouldn't his body be breaking down?" Alex asked as he nudged at the corpse and felt the flesh give way as though he stepped into excrement.
"We need to find someone comparable," Alexis replied as she walked to the only exit the room had. "Was he a fluke? Or is this a constant among all the Cults and their activities?"
Sam and Max were staring down at the stranger with matching frowns on their faces. "So what do you think Max? The Castle and Soma may try to do it the old fashion way, but these new guys..."
"I think we should go and kick their butts out of the Castle in body bags. I mean we can't really let them get out and think that its safe to do this stuff." Max replied with a faint shrug as she turned to look at the melted cages.
"True, though what about the hostages?" Alex asked, while the limited light provided played off the walls and cast his shadow before him.
"Well I mean its not like we 'had' hostages to deal with until the Cults. For all we know we could just have the front gates thrown wide open and everyone should be able to leave." Max pointed out pragmatically. "The only reason we can't is because of these cults and maybe possibly, could still happen, a few nukes might get dropped on the castle."
"Show of hands of anyone who would like to be their own personal night lights?" Sam quipped and began looking among the other two members of their group.
Both pairs of hands were kept down and Alexis could be heard calling out, "Thank you no. I'm much more comfortable sleeping in darkness. But jokes aside, she has a point. How long until someone drops a nuke on the Castle? Or what will the Castle do if someone tries?"
"We need to know if there's anything further Soma can do to get the Castle to help us," Was the last thing that Alexis could hear clearly as she slipped into the small passage.
"Hello?" She called out, "the battle is over, are you all ok?" her voice bounced lightly against the rough walls, running away from her into slight distortions the further they moved. No rats skittering along the ground, or bats rustling among the ceiling, the place was as quiet and empty as though the earth had cracked it into being.
Which was terribly, terribly wrong.
Further down the path she found a lone maid standing in the way, the passage had widened into a size acceptable to hold the people she had rescued. A castle servant, holding a lit lantern with its flame illuminating a lavender hue upon her pastel lavender dress and sickly corpse skin tone. Her hair was tied up in a bun at the back of her head, and her dead eyes flickered as though recognition came alive.
"What happened to the people I left here," Alexis asked, causing the maid to lift up the lantern some.
"The Lord of the Castle took charge of them, ma'am. The- A lady is escorting them to a hopefully safer room upon the ground floor. I was instructed to wait for you and inform you of the situation." The maid stammered over the correction from what the Lady had instructed to say, before giving a polite one handed curtsy.
"I see... thank you... That said, you wouldn't happen to have a map on you of the Castle would you? There could be other hostages such as they and we really could use something to help us navigate," Alexis explained. A shot in the dark, normally maps were found or purchased from shops after all.
But the maid looked as close to mildly confused as a zombie could before she shook her head. "I would have no reason for one I'm afraid," she explained earning a soft sigh and nod from Alexis.
"Can't blame a girl for trying. Though would you know if the Castle manifested a type of shop at all?"
The undead servant blinked slowly, while she was faintly aware that the Lord wished a few new areas added to the Castle. There hadn't been any updates to a possible merchants stop, legitimate ones. "There is one sanctioned by the Lord of the Castle. Though the Cults have a shop of sorts..."
"Wh... wait why?" Alexis stammered as her mind attempted to process such a notion. Even as the maid shrugged in professional ignorance Alexis shook her head. "Sorry just talking aloud... Um thank Soma for helping with down here, we'll be upstairs as soon as possible."
The maid nodded before holding out the lantern out to Alexis, allowing the huntress to take the lantern by the ring above it. Upon switching hands, the flame ignited into the traditional orange and gold flames. With that the maid gave another curtsy and turned sinking into the ground even as she walked further back down the path she might have taken. Suddenly a thought sprang to Alexis' mind causing her to take a few steps after the maid, "Wait!"
The maid was shin deep in the ground as Alexis jogged over, but she turned to look up at the huntress.
"The Master Library is here correct?" Alexis asked as she realized that the stories were plentiful at how massive it was. 'Is it possible that we can find out about that guy from there?'
"Yes, though the Cult has sealed it off at the moment," the maid replied as she began to rise up from the ground.
Alexis shrugged, but then began presenting her line of thought to the maid, hoping that with a bit of research they could learn how he changed. Vacant as her gaze was, her voice resonated with the distracted tone of a person rifling through paperwork. Absentminded but still trying.
"Yes, the Master Library would have records of such information. As our Lord is currently resting and you 'are' servants of the Young Master. I do not see why the Master Librarian would deny getting you that information..." She noted in quiet professional observations.
"Would I need a written letter of introduction from Lord Alucard?" Alexis asked, and watched as the maids' lips twisted in a slight grimace.
"It would probably help, his loyalty to the Lords' family is absolute and you are... well more associated with the young master..."
"Thank you for your help, I won't hold you here any longer," Alexis bowed her head slightly to the servant. She turned and began her trip back to rejoin her twin, a twin she saw walking towards her. His presence an outline thanks to the flames in the area that they had fought in, if the others were with him she couldn't see thanks to his lead.
"Seems Soma pulled off one more trick to help us out," Alexis called out as she walked up to join her twin. The warm flame in the lamp illuminated the darkness revealing her brother's placid expression as she walked. With Sam and Max behind Alex, she began recounting her interactions with the maid and her thoughts regarding the books.
"Would... make sense I guess, given that the Castle never obeys anyone except Dracula... Why ask to look at the library? Its not like any of our ancestors ever had a reason to go there before going after Dracula." Max confessed as she stood moved to wedge herself between the lit lantern and the wall.
"So just reach Alucard, get permission to use the Library, 'unseal' the library then go get some reading done... Sounds absolutely boring," Sam noted with a slight resigned sigh.
"They're just 'books'," Alex pointed out before shrugging. "But given Lord Alucard, he might instruct the Master Librarian to assist us."
"Given the nature of the library, I suppose it would be books of records... Think the Castle provides books on autopsy's?" Alexis asked as she lead the others with the lantern in her hand.
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How did something that had no face to express with or hands to touch with react to a situation it found itself in? When it had began its existence it had merely been a simple structure, taken over by a vampire who wished for solitude. When said Vampire infused it with the powers of Chaos, the entity was its 'mind', random thoughts and fancies were often used to redefine the structure of the castle itself. After nearly eight hundred years of exposure to the Chaos entity, the Darkness and the Lord who embodied and ruled it all, the Castle was now marginally thinking for itself. While it could not be considered 'alive' in the classic senses of the world, or be considered fully sentient.
It was aware enough that its Lord held power, an endless vast ocean of power that it could feed off of to survive. Every time its Master gave an order, a push or a statement, it was power. Power invested into making the Castle obey and feeding It as it did so. True devouring as it had when it finally escaped the seal had been good. Gorged it had been able to stretch out, heal its numerous wounds and allow itself some measure of peace.
While these strangers were sealing portions of itself off again, locking itself up in strange, even bizarre ways. They were the reason the Lord returned to it, the reason why it could gorge on the energies of the world and feed from its Master. So it relaxed, acted 'cordial' if that was a word that could be applied to a structure turned semi entity. The Master liked games after all, and if the Master wasn't directly displeased or ordering it to do otherwise.
Well, it was only right to let the guests play?
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Trust a pirate to get word out fast, the pair were standing before the Master Library with similar frowns upon their faces. It wasn't a 'painting' true... but it was sealed, which Brauner 'did' do...
"Think he came back?" Jonathan asked as he pressed his hand against the seal, a weird thing in question. He couldn't feel it, not as the living would if they pressed their hands against the wall, because well he was dead. The hallway was empty save a lone zombie freshening up a vase of roses off to one side away from the sealed doors.
"Don't be silly," Charlotte retorted, only to be countered by Jonathan.
"Reincarnation isn't real," he began his voice pitched up to her dropping it back to his normal tone when he continued. "Except for that one guy off in that one room who is literally a stupid number of centuries old Vampire."
"Point taken..." Charlotte groused in annoyance as she stared at the seal on the door. She hovered before it with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. Her usually youthful form began to ripple until she was once more the grown woman. Her hair done in a simple French braid, her clothes the same soft blues and clean whites. But she appeared a woman easily in her mid twenties, with a simple gown of blue with white flowers twinning about it on green stems.
Sophia was a strong caster true, but her direct branch didn't deal with artifacts of power or alternatives to direct spells. Yoko was the first in her line to have 'any' skills that could be considered something 'only an Aulin could do'. Spell crafting, instead of soul crafting, into items. Be they seals or objects wasn't something she would know and that meant it was up to Charlotte.
Sealing up portions of the castle had only been done once before and she certainly never wrote about it. Her trip through the castle? Yes, she wrote about that. The seals? Only as much as the fact that they existed, not that they had actively been used... "Jonathan did you write that Brauner used paintings to seal the castle areas off?"
"Why would that matter? No one has access to those books save the clans themselves, its not like I made a publication." Jonathan replied with a faint nod enough as he did so. "Besides magic isn't my talent, all I wrote was that they had been sealed. Not the who, what, why's or hows. So what?"
"Well how many people suddenly get the bright idea to seal up portions of demonic castle for the fun of it all?" She pointed out with a faint frown on her lips.
"Its why you witches exist," Jonathan pointed out with a faint smile. "If we men didn't have you, we'd just throw ourselves at the same problem over and over until it broke..."
He grew silent as he watched his long time partner in crime frown. Recognizing the 'Magical problem must resolve' expression was one he was well acquainted with. This wasn't that expression, her brows were furrowed, a small frown playing on her mouth and her eyes were glazed at a distant thought. But where she would normally stand straight, her shoulders back, she was now hunched in, huddled as though hiding something.
Waiting for her to finish whatever thought was plaguing her, Jonathan shifted his focus back around at the hallway they were in. It was different of course, in fact without Brauners' sealing method mucking about Jonathan was genuinely curious about the Castle. The gardens were quiet and peaceful, the rooms looked nice and cleared up.
There was something to be said for modern psychology and looking back at the Castle. Whatever the descriptions had been given by whatever Belmont that had traveled its halls had always been that it looked run down. Nothing really could be described as 'regal' or tolerable until one started approaching the Master Chambers.
Now the Castle looked like a castle from the front to the back, walls patched up, everything clean. Be it the Castle was attempting to lull Soma into moving back in by presenting itself as livable, or was it Soma himself? If the Castle was trying to lure Soma into returning, it certainly did look like a place one would want to live in. If it was Soma's own Psyche trying to express itself through the Castle then... Well, clearly there was a benefit to the whole 'reincarnation' thing.
'They went after Alucard, and Soma did get angry... His fury ripped the Castle back from its seal and yet the interior and exterior is now like this. So I'd like to think this is a representation of his mind but...'
Charlotte sighed in frustration as she straightened up, "it wasn't our fault..."
"What?" Jonathan began to ask when the doors at the far end of the hallway cracked open. The sound echoing lightly through out the hallway, drawing their attention to the two living hunters walking in. "Eh? Julius!"
"Charlotte! Jonathan!" Yoko cheerfully as the living approached the two spirits, "I see you found the library."
"Yeah, what brings you here?" Charlotte asked, her enthusiasm tempered by the ghosts of what she had just been thinking about.
"Needing access to the Library, you?" Yoko replied, curious about how Charlottes' subdued tone and adult appearance.
"How well do you know of the library?" Charlotte asked finally, "I need to know how strong it is when it manifests." She drifted closer to the ground before frowning as Yoko's curious expression got her to elaborate. "I need to know how the Library works, like does it copy every book that ever existed. Does it draw first editions, things like that and since you're friends with the Lords' reincarnation I just thought," she explained giving a faint shrug.
"I think its just copies," Yoko giggled at a particular memory, "I remember Alucard getting annoyed at the idea of a 'romance' section in the Library."
She could still hear the soft hiss in his voice as he spoke, and while it might have been because she had been nagging him. Thinking back on those days fondly as she did, she liked to think it was just his disdain for the idea that there was a copy of 'Twilight' and '50 Shades' being preserved in the Castle for eternity. Maybe it was a bit of both worlds in that, and it brought her mind back to Alucard sitting in the room with Soma at the moment.
His father remembered him now, and that meant new, or old, wounds could be opening up at any time really. Or maybe not, maybe since Soma had settled down enough after the traumatizing sight of Alucard being crucified, it was workable. Soma clearly wasn't 'too' out of reach of them, maybe...
Charlottes' quiet sigh of frustration mirrored Yoko's internal one as she turned to settle her gaze towards Julius and Jonathan. Not that she had any desire to interrupt, what with Jonathan being Julius' mentor back then...