Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
A comfortingly comical moment happened for Yoko as she watched Leon reach the upper floor. Several priests had been running towards the stairs until they saw Leon and stumbled to a stop. Then turned and started screaming in such amusing high pitch voices as they ran back the way they came. Leon himself even began following them in this casual stride.
"I know where the His Holiness' office would be," Julius stated as he went to the stairs.
"I'll check my suite first to see if anyone tried to hide there," Yoko replied as she joined him in approaching the stairs. 'That can't be good,' she thought to herself when she saw Leon running the other way. Julius seemed to be of like mind as he began running up the stairs, with Yoko taking up the rear. The sound of Julius' long coat flaps snapping sounded almost whip like while timed with the thud of his combat boots as they reached the second landing.
Taking one swift search of the area, Julius threw out his right arm and pointed for Yoko before disappearing in the blur of Vampire Hunting speed.
Yoko followed the direction of his gesture and saw Sister Anya shivering against the wall, paler than alabaster.
"Little Ko!" the old nun called out in such distress, her arms extended as though to envelop the Witch in a hug. As tears in her eyes slipping down the numerous creases borne from age.
Yoko rushed over and hugged the brittle little old lady. Sister Anya began babbling about Leon, the 'talking lion' but there was this hideous bruise already spawning on the palm of the woman's hand. She had huddled herself against Yoko, amid her sobs Yoko saw the bruise as the woman began wiping away tears.
Mortified Yoko grabbed at the hand, gently, and turned it to see how it was blossoming across the aged Sisters' palm. "Sister Anya I can't imagine Leon did this..."
"No... Oh Little Ko our Brothers got startled by the lion and pushed me to get away... I was so scared..." Anya's face was buried in Yoko's shoulder, the woman was distraught and as Yoko eyed the front of the Vatican and around her she saw a few more members of the Church sneaking out. Eyeing the hallway with incredible trepidation until their eyes landed on her.
"Its Yoko!"
It was almost a war cry of comfort, two doors burst open and priests and nuns spilled out. Literally in the case of the door on the left, and soon everyone was heading straight for her. The noise of their confusion, and worry over the elder Sister made it about impossible for Yoko to answer easily. Thankfully, their eyes were all normal as Yoko began to detach herself from Anya.
"Ok, so here's the short of it, the Vatican has been compromised, you need to get outside. I 'know' this is going to sound weird, but if you need to avoid Fontana delle Tiare. Its spouting blood and attracting threats."
"Fontana delle Tiare... is spouting..."
"Blood?!"
Yoko was quiet as everyone looked at her with expressions that ranged from mortification, to excitement to mortified excitement. "How was I supposed to get here outside the Vatican in time? I had to ask Soma and we all know."
"That Soma is the Lord of Darkness..." The priests replied in unison a sea of black robes and white collars.
"We need to get out of here!" Sister Elena deadpanned as she moved to Sister Anya's side supporting the older Nun.
"Do you know if any of the other priests are ok? Some of our fellow Brothers and Sister have been acting weird." Brother Joseph asked, while at his hip was a small boy from the Cherub Choir.
Yoko's eyes drifted down to see boy before she lit up, "oh! So you have the Cherubs with you!"
"No," Elena shook her head immediately. "'Brother' Peter came and took the rest with him saying he would take them some place safe..."
"Sister," Joseph began, it was this tired tone as though Yoko had rekindled an argument between the pair.
"Little Manuel was hiding under a table when they came so he was stuck with us," Sister Elena elaborated politely. Ignoring Joseph pointedly.
"Well argue outside, I'll see who else I can find," Yoko instructed as she gestured behind herself to the stairs leading to the front. The priests nodded and with Sister Anya resting against Sister Elena they moved off.
"Be careful Little Ko, everyone is acting so strangely," Sister Anya was the last to speak, her hands showing more of the bruises as they spread.
Yoko nodded with a cheery smile on her face as she watched the group leave, and once they reached the stairs. She turned and began a more in depth trek towards her suite, a side table that held a vase of fresh roses was broken into pieces on the ground. Draped helplessly over and under the broken pieces of the white vase were the roses. A pile of bodies resting on a darken stain on the carpet from where the water had spilled.
She was closing on the hall that her suite rested on when she heard the distant sound of Leon roaring. It rumbled through the wood and stone around her, traveling up through the muffling carpet up into the soles of her shoes and up into her legs. 'That is some pair of lion lungs, Leon.' She thought to herself as she turned back to the way she came.
Revealing a very unpleasant view as space became skewed. A kaleidoscopes of shapes that were pieces of the hallway broken off and copied. It felt old, the shapes felt jagged and off leaving her wondering if she could even reach her room...
Shattering from the center of the hallway it shuddered in response to Leon's roar then fell to the ground. No different than if it had been a glass wall and Yoko had knocked it over, the pieces scattering across the carpet. Spinning and tumbling though totally unreal and only visible to her because of her witch skills. 'But when did this show up? How could it be up while I've been gone at the Castle?' she pondered.
Moving forward the hallway appeared normal once more and she let thoughts about what Leon's roar could do. He had a voice box that allowed him to talk when he was a plush toy, and clearly it carried over into giving him the ability to speak as a real lion. 'Well sound can cleanse energy,' she concluded...
"But why didn't I notice?" She wondered aloud when she reached her suite.
Opening the door to her suite she could see everything was in mostly the same state as it had been. The Stuffy Patrol moving things around for their own ease was expected. She could see the signs of plush feet putting dents in the blanket over her bed. But the older hunters weren't here, hopefully Joachim would be able to find them.
Beyond that there was no one in the suite, absent were any possible nuns, priests, or children looking for safety in Yokos' room. 'I guess His Holiness' capture was a surprise, he has the key he would have passed it to the children if he had the chance...' The thought left her to put up several wards and lock her room up before resuming her search for other normal members of the clergy. Prayer rooms, confessionals, the kitchen and dining area, and gardens were the first places that popped into her head where people might be found...
'But given what just happened I have to wonder if they are hiding 'here' in this place or did they get shunted into some alternate space?'
Or a small child lost and needing Simon to find them...
'Oh my God...' suddenly Yoko's stomach plunged at the horrible possibility. 'The kids been getting lost walking through the Vatican... Was that 'why'?!'
Illusions wasn't her area, or her moms. But Alucard was skilled at them, from disguising his pale skin to his whole private estate. 'But he's been to the Vatican and never said anything, is it because he just sees it and thought we all knew? Or was he blind to it as well? I mean this 'is' the Vatican and the whole Holy aspect might mess with him...'
How many times had Simon been called... 'Simon didn't see it either... was it because of me?'
Doubt twisted its way all through Yoko's stomach as she moved to the nearest prayer room.
Prayer rooms were quiet affairs, stern austere chairs so no one fell asleep when they were supposed to be praying. Jesus was still being crucified on the wall opposite of the door, and there was a strangely lone priest sitting hunched over the pew towards the cross.
"And you would be?" She asked, flame licking at the inner tips of her fingers. Her mind was distracted by the hallway, how Leon was able to shatter that with a roar. The 'castle' made that shell, not some machine on earth. But it wasn't sentient anymore, it was an extension of Soma's will and he wouldn't even have known to make Leon's shell. So who did? How did it get designed to have an illusion shattering aspect?
The priest stumbled to his feet, arms hanging by his side, head low and just swaying like some mournful weeping willow.
"You know the zombies in the castle at least like to throw their hands up in the air and wave them like they just don't care right? Put some energy in this!"
She didn't recognize the 'priest' he could have been someone incredibly new, or from a different part of the world. Her rational day to day mindset was chewing through the stuffy roar conundrum, leaving her Witchy Vampire Hunting mindset at the front.
Thralls 'had' the ability to be called back, depending on how far along they were. But there was no metric that could be discerned as to how a person lasted before they were 'too far' gone. This guy had the eyes and the fangs of a late state Thrall, or he took to the nature too easily. A fire ball to the face burned the head, the flesh melting enough to reveal elongated canines on the skull. It wasn't seriously long as a vampires' was but it was there. The robes collar kept burning as the priest kept lumbering forward towards her.
Maybe he needed his eyes to see, they had melted in his skull, he shambled into the chairs knocking them over and tumbling onto them. The older chairs cracked under the weight while the newer ones rocked a touch. Ashes and flames began to lick at the fabric on the chair seats and backs, tumbled further to the carpet below.
Another blast of flame and the thrall went up like a candle.
It spilled into the wooden chairs and fabric, forcing Yoko to bring her full mind back to the moment. Pouring down along the length of the legs and back of the chair, they licked and then began gobbling up the carpet.
"What in the..." Desperate Yoko cast her ice spells and watched as the flames began to die out. Steam and smoke coiled into the air choking it and her as it clouded up her vision. 'Not good' was all she could think of as she recalled her use of fire spells in the Vatican. It was very rare but she never saw the flames go off like this! Candles never turned into fireballs! 'Its not just the roar?'
Once the steam overpowered the smoke and she was willing to believe that the fire was put out she stepped out of the room. 'Oh what if I use lightning? Could I end up setting off the whole Vatican through the wiring?' she pondered as she began to jog to the next pray room.
A piece of art had been torn down and left slumped forlorn against the wall. The frame was clearly broken tilting to the ground and left dangling while the art piece was facing the wall ashamed. Yoko adjusted the painting, which proved to be two women sitting at the feet of Jesus, so it was resting more securely against the wall before reaching another room.
"Sister Yoko?" This room was comfortably occupied by the confused and living. Even as Yoko greeted the priests and nuns she checked each person's eyes in turn. These were elderly priests and nuns, the ages that made her mother shape up and be respectful.
'Between Leon's Roar and Julius it should be safe to let them travel to the stairs and out I believe.' She thought to herself, "everyone, you need to get out of the Vatican. A threat has infiltrated it," she began as the nuns began to weep.
It was then she realized there were no Cardinals in the room. While it was only the second room she had encountered people it was still off. The Cardinals had their duties through out the Vatican, and realistically why only the priests and nuns? Where was the other ranks of the clergy?! Six ranks and all she saw were the lowest of ranks? No higher ranks outside... "Brothers and Sisters? Before you leave, have you seen any of the higher ranks since this began?" She asked as the last pair shuffled out.
"Cardinal Lodovico, but they called him and the other Cardinals' away for an emergency meeting..."
'Oh I 'bet' it was an 'emergency'!' Yoko thought to herself in irritation as she nodded. 'They probably gathered them all up.'
It was a small miracle that the room wasn't guarded, and instead Yoko moved on, with growing determination to find...
Yoko's flats vibrated up up her soles causing her to grip at the nearest chair before striving for a wall. An earthquake? No, the trembling rode up her spine into her hair with electricity while the holy power that radiated out screamed Leon's name.
Cracks ruptured out of the floor up racing to the ceiling at an angle that Yoko didn't understand or wish to. Leon was furious and he had gone looking for the children. She didn't need her brain, or ponder. Once the ground stopped trembling she took off running!
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ With the Stuffy Patrol \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Sharpened ears caused Joachim to turn towards the sound of a lions' roar with surprise. It was enough to make him momentarily abandon his conversation with the woman. While three of the stuffed toys who had gathered at his feet whipped around in surprise.
"Is that Leon?!" Christopher asked reaching up to rub his ears in shock.
No one answered, the sound was enough to silence everyone while Juste stood firmly patting the last of the spells he put in place down. It felt stupid, it felt demeaning, he watched as his pitiful little pile of salt used to form this barrier. Suddenly snapped into a solid crystalline sigil!
"This isn't good," Juste muttered when he caught Richter staring in surprise at the sigil.
"But it feels stronger," Richter pointed out as he walked over and held his paw close to it. "Pure Holy power..."
"It absorbed what was just sent out and fortified itself," Juste agreed as he moved to join the bears in their group. "So what happened at the Vatican to send out something that powerful that far from Leon? While I realize his shell was made by the Castle it feels strange to think it could imbue a holy power amplifier of sorts."
"It can't think its true," Richter admitted, "so someone must have designed it. But my concern is why would Leon roar to begin with and how is it able to travel 'this' far." He pondered aloud as they reached their fellows.
"No, because I hate this."
"It would be faster if the vampire takes us back to the Vatican." Christopher pointed out, while behind the vampire, the city...
While the Belmonts discussed among themselves, Joachim, tried to shake off the pain from the roar as it resonated through his body. As young as Dracula was, or even his reincarnation, that this power could be spawned by something he made? While everything appeared normal, his ears continued to ring from the roar while the air sparkled.
Specks of light that drifted through the night time air, so many he felt as though he was seeing the night time sky again. It hadn't been 'that' full of stars since mortals discovered how to create excessive light. It reflected the light that was cast by the numerous emergency vehicles, caught the eyes of the children who oohed and ahhhed the strange thing.
They didn't understand what happened, that they had been exposed to pure holy power projected by a lone lion. But how was the toy 'this' powerful? What did Dracula give it? Or the Castle?