Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Fuzzy was dead.
It collapsed with all the weight of a mighty oak. The rush of wind that was stirred as its fluff lost it stiffness in death kicked up an ill wind. Trying to stave off death, it had managed a good chunk of the walls. Chewing hungrily as it had tried to bulk up its dwindling fat. Now it laid a corpse on the garden grounds while the hunters stood a safe distance back, but studying it all the same.
While over at the corner where she had been, the spider began descending from her safe perch. A little more confidence in her movement as her new feet delicately sought out safe purchase against the wall to move. At one small part of the garden she could hear the whimpering sounds of the bug's food. She gave them no notice, as she moved along. Walking down a wall was still a delicate affair to her, but as she placed a fuzzy spider foot on the ground her movements showed more confidence.
Soon all her fuzzys were comfortably on the ground, amid the well manicured grass.
"Oi Spiderwoman! Is the webbing safe for us to pull off directly from the Alura Une?" Max called out, jerking a thumb over towards the large sealed bloom.
"No, Rude girl!" Said woman retorted as she became distracted just by the feeling of cool evening grass under fuzzy feet. … It tickled and was wet.
Wordlessly the hunters split off, Sam dragging Max over to the now freed and mostly safe prisoners, Alexis and Alex moving towards the Alura Une.
"I'm going to see about if the servants can't bring something to help ease the couples' pain while the twins get the Alura Une free." Sam told Max quietly, "See if you..." he began only for the words to flounder uselessly. "Ate the kid? There's no way even Soma can..."
Max looked up at her partner, blinking with a quiet understanding as she reached up and gave him a small light punch in the arm. "We do what we can, even if we can do more than the common man. Don't forget that we're not above humanity." She recited before she went over towards the prisoners.
The group kept switching their focus between Max and the spider, leaving the young hunter shrugging. "I know, creepy spider yeah? Eh she's not the worst, my friend is going to see if one of the servants can come here with something to help..." She softened her voice as she gave a slight tilt of the head towards the couple. "Uncle? How are they?" she asked one of the older men...
While on the other side of the garden the twins approached their no longer living family members and a giant closed up bloom.
"Good to see you weren't sealed away like the others," Alex noted as the gang joined up with their remaining ancestors.
"We're avoiding it so far," John agreed with a faint nod. "But for now we need to get this flower freed."
'The Flower' in question was still bound up in the webbing created by the caterpillar. So any hope that with its death the webbing would dissolve and free the Alura was shot. They could see slight burn marks along her petals and stem extending from where the webbing rested. Though on the plus side she was a little less thrashy now that Fuzzy was dead.
All that really held the twins back was that this was still a Dark Child servant of Dracula in the Castle of Dracula.
"Any suggestions on how we can get the webbing off her without hurting her further?" Alexis asked thoughtfully as she leaned in a bit closer to one of the long bound thorned stems. "Cold is nice and all, but she 'is' a plant."
"With the monster that created the webbing dead, its possible that it can be cut and peeled off... Maybe with a tool in the gardening shed over there?" Loretta suggested quietly, raising a hand to direct the twins to the wood shed tucked off in a little corner of the garden.
"Good idea," Alex agreed as he walked off into the shadows of the garden towards the shed with Eric floating after him.
"Soo you're a teacher," Eric casually noted, earning a nod. "Quite impressive that you can do this and teach."
"Well it pays the bills, and helps keep an eye on the Children in the system," Alex admitted with a faint smile on his face. "Great grandfather, what do you recall about the one who sealed the Castle that time?"
A gentle wind slipped over the wall and ghosted along the ground, sending the trees gently waving in the night. An act that brought a sad, nostalgic smile to the ghosts' face as he looked about. "The only name I knew him by was 'Brauner', I don't know what he did before he became a vampire. But he was not bitten into his state, just the power of his will alone made him a vampire. Or maybe he inadvertently sealed away his soul in those paintings he did?"
Eric watched as Alex began rooting around in the shed, saw how the spear supped on the darkness around it. "Alex... That man down below, the Dark Child..."
Alex had grabbed a pair of small gardening shears in his hand and turned to look up at the spirit. "You know what happened?"
Eric's lips thinned out with a soft expression of reluctance and apologies, "I'm not positive, but I think he's a Belnades, you're aware of their method of handling males without magic in the family. I suspect that he somehow found out about the clans and may have involved a group."
"But think of how many people have their genetics, and only one... well one of few people who actually..." Alex paused thoughtfully before slowly nodding. "No, I can see that among my students if there's no reason to awaken the power it doesn't. Sometimes I'm not helping students at school, its a friend or a sibling of a friend. Great Grandfather... if that's the case, and the Belnades are already connected to the Dark Children. How much of the world is already predisposed to serving Dracula?"
Silence from the spirit was the only answer Alex got, but he couldn't really fault the man. It wasn't as though Eric had a chance to know about genetics. But the realization of how many people could have access to Sophia's genetic code... Sterilization of 'select people' were still an on going thing if not openly discussed. "Maybe it doesn't matter in the end, what's done is done and thinking about it only ties us up in knots. Better to wait until this is resolved and we're 'bored' to do that."
Eric nodded, 'I guess he forgot that the only reason he can see me is because of the castle. He'll have to rely on Kazu otherwise, and no one else save Yoko, her mother, Alucard and Soma know that Kazu exists.' "Well in that case let's go free the Alura Une and see if she can produce something for that couple."
"Yeah... Fuzzy ate their kid..." Alex shook his head as he moved out of the shed, past the neat rows of gardening tools, sacks of mulch and dirt, pots and such. "But its not the first time we've dealt with stuff like this, the Freelance police get a..." He stepped back out under the star filled sky before moving back to the large flower. While ahead he could see Sam returning to the garden with a maid at his heel and Max moving about as well. With the spider moving closer to the flower, picking up each foot and giving it a little shake as she did so...
"She looks like she has tape stuck to the bottom of each of her feet..." Alex noted, earning a snort of amusement from Eric.
"Well when you put it like that..." the ghost noted with a soft chuckle. Bringing to mind a dog or cat struggling with tape and making the spider less threatening looking. "Maybe she needs some footies for when she's outside, barefoot on the grass."
"I didn't need that mental image, the school has knitters club..." Alex remarked as he began to chuckle.. 'Straighten up Alex, you can't be snickering when we get the Alura free, she might take offense.' He pushed the mental image of demon spider sized footie booties being produced by the little knitters club away.
"Find anything?" Charlotte called out, leaning to the side and drifted out to watch the pair as they approached. Alex raised his hand and waved the shears in his hand in silent answer, "that's good, she's getting less happy I think."
It took a bit of work to get the webbing cut, wedging the nose of the shears in place and snipping. Trying not to scratch the Alura and not brace their hands against the burns scoring her soft petals.
"Well we got a Mexican Zombie Maid on her way to help the prisoners," Max's voice cut in as the group worked. "But um, I can't help with the kid and you'd be amazed about how many mental health professionals don't end up murdered so they're here..."
"I'm just glad the idiot is dead so I can climb down. We knew there was a chance we would get transformed, but to turn into 'that'..." The spider commented as she walked over. "But really it only affected a notable number of Grahams' followers. The rest of us..." The spider commented before shrugging, "well I have no room to talk huh?" She looked down and lifted up her right front foot to look at it.
"You got a name?" Charlotte asked finally, "Because otherwise we're just going to have to call you 'Spiderwoman'..."
"Jane," was all the woman answered with, arms crossed as though challenging Charlotte to make a joke.
"Jane... last name?" Sam asked only to get a shake of the head.
"No, I like my privacy," Jane answered with a sniff of mild disdain. They didn't have a camera to take her picture with and run it through the internet. Leaving the hunters to turn their attention back to Alura Une.
"Do you know what the requirements are for the castle to have changed someone so fast?" Sam asked curious as he kept his eyes on Jane.
Jane settled back, a frown on her face as she cast her thoughts back... "I have no idea, I'm not among them but here I am like this."
"Ahh there we go..." Alexs' voice cut into the conversation, pulling the pairs' attention to see as the top of the Alura began to open, there was still a number of webbing on her, but the highest layers fell away from the demon rose.
"Are you ok?" Alexis called out to the flower.
"THAT ABOMINATION! LET ME AT HIM!"
Ten pairs of eyes grew wide at that offended shriek, one pair of eyes were startled, but came with an added raised eyebrow.
"To the brave soul who would like to step up," John muttered, as he looked over at the group. Enraged demons wanting to kill in the name of Dracula was one thing, enraged demons wanting blood for indignation was another.
"He's dead, we killed him... Are you Soma's Alura Une by any chance?" Alexis called out to the top of the rose. It couldn't open enough for them to see the human part of it, but if they could still talk to her that was a plus.
"I am, and it is to please my darling Lord Soma that I came here..." The Alura's tone settled down surprisingly quickly. But then again she called Soma her 'Darling Lord Soma' and that got a couple of raised eyebrows and glances all about the plant.
Sam was about to ask if Soma was ok, 'no, I should wait until Jane's out of earshot to ask. It wouldn't do anyone any good if Jane's a double agent and reports to the cults.' With that thought in his head he swapped out his question. "So what brought you out here to the garden? I recall you Aluras tend to like caverns or the inside of the castle."
"True, we do, but I thought my Darling might appreciate my assistance out here. Not all of his loyal servants can talk, and you humans might need our help in lieu of our Lord." She replied, while Alex continued working his way down her bloom.
"So now I have to find out what its like to have command over a soul that is totally in to you..." Max muttered as she leaned over to Sam. Thus getting elbowed back into standing upright.
"Can you help the victims of that caterpillar? They've been exposed to the toxin and if there's something you could provide..." Jonathan asked as he floated up enough so he could look down into the bloom.
A flawless skinned red head stared up at him from inside the blossom. "That revolting caterpillar?" She asked her arms folded across her chest in annoyance. Jonathan nodded and watched as she moved her arms...
"What's wrong Jonathan?" Charlotte asked in mild alarm as Jonathan floated back as though he was about to get hit with a a fireball. But only mild, they were dead after all and it wasn't like the Alura Une could attack them. "Why are you blushing, you don't have blood you can't blush...! WHAT DID YOU SEE JONATHAN?!"
Alexis, and her twin sister ancestors jerked back in response as a pair of bottles were fairly tossed out from the top of the rose. Causing Alexis to make a mad dash to catch them as though they were a pair of wedding bouquets.
"Show me where he looked at you!" Charlotte demanded as she took over Jonathan's spot over the Alura Une, glaring down at the more robustly chested demon.
"That antidote will help the stupid bugs' victims," the Alura Une replied, ignoring Charlottes' comment though she did turn to look up at the strangely assertive ghost hovering above her.
"Max?" Alexis held out the bottles, for which Max grabbed and dashed across the garden and past Jane.
"Will the two of you be able to behave? I mean if you're going to be occupying the same area of the castle and all..." John asked looking between the Alura Une and Jane. Jane, Jane, could possibly produce spider webbing herself Jane.
"I don't want to be kicked out of the castle, so keeping the Lord of said castle happy is pretty much at the top of my to do list." Jane pointed out casually as she kicked another foot becoming coated in dew. She tugged her top to straighten out any possible wrinkles while more of the Alura Une was freed from her restraints. "I guess I can tell you that Michael, that's the leader of Grahams' half of the agreement is the one doing the sealing."
"But why seal the castle? Without Soma I would think it would be more alluring to just try to take over by reaching the chamber," Alex asked over his shoulder before dipping his head down a bit as the rose opened further. "Please close yourself up you're making this a bit hard," he called out to the rose. Her effort to break the webbing herself clearly blocking his ability to cut said webbing.
"Well given what happened to Graham can you blame him? Michaels' not stupid, and he knows his limits so just trotting into the Master Chamber. With that 'I can master this because I said so' is not really how he thinks or acts. He's a lot more cautious than that, and not all of us 'want' to control the Castle. We just wanted a home."
"A 'home'? You were performing Black Masses across the planet!" Stella exploded in disbelief as she hovered closer. "How many people did you kill just to get the Castle to return?"
"Yeah, your point? Do you realize the hypocrisy of a supposed 'monotheistic' faith where there is hundreds, even 'thousands' of versions of the self same god? That's something I realized once I came here. We all have our own idea of what 'God' is like, and assume that ours is the 'correct' version. Well I have this power now so I 'must' be right."
"But God..." Charlotte began only to have Jane cut her off.
"Oh spare me the 'God is Good' crap. There's just 'chaos' and 'order' and neither has the ability to decide the idea of good or evil." Jane retorted, "our Black Masses only appeared 'wrong' because you were raised in societies that dictated it. If chaos is evil, then what about revolutions to dispose of evil dictators? Absolute Order breeds stagnation, mindless sheep unwilling to change things even when its clearly wrong because they can't face the chaos that change mandates. While Absolute Chaos breeds endless, senseless destruction."
"But..." Everyone was struck into silence as what Jane was noting was pretty valid way to see the world. More over, Soma wasn't evil he was about as close as they wanted to believe Dracula could be if he let go of his hate soooo...?