Louise was slow to awaken, a burning pain had taken her abdomen, likely stemming from the beating that it had taken, not to mention the stabbing, and based on the lack of having bled to death she also assumed someone had patched her up too. However her arms were sore, based on the lack of solid matter beneath her feet and that she couldn't pull her arms down from over her head she assumed that she was hanging from a ceiling by her wrists. She made all of these assessments because she was blind folded, gagged and had ear muffs taped over her head. In simple terms, her captor, Loic or the being who was pretending to be Loic she presumed, had thoroughly bound her with the intention that she would know absolutely nothing about her environment. At once Louise worked to free herself, she might've not been... whatever Loic was but she was more than strong enough on her own.
"I wouldn't do that if I was you." A synthesised voice echoed in Louise's year. The Black environment disappeared replaced by the skyline of Alzer, several stories into the air. Looking up Louise soon realised that she was hanging from a construction crane. "I recommend that you stay put and wait to be rescued like a good piece of live bait." And then Louise's world went black again.
Bring Holfort's Warlock, alone, to the construction sight on 13th avenue if you want to see the girl alive again.
A Note nailed to the Alakazam
Leon could see Louise dangling in the air, bound, gagged and in a highly visible location. Leon couldn't ask for a more obvious trap if he tried. But of course Leon was not the type to back away from a challenge or a member of the clan in need, so here he was at his own construction sight, originally a Fievel family project that was abandoned with the destruction of the Fievel Family themselves. Now the intended building was being repurposed for Leon after he bought it at a discount, the kidnapper had some strange tastes it would appear. Leon would go as far as to assume they were part of the Fievel's if not for who had done the deed.
"Hello Warlock." Loic's voice was full of dripping venom, less like he was talking to another human and more like he was speaking to some kind of eldritch abomination. "Didn't bring your half breed whores to do your fighting for you?"
"You were the one who wanted me to come alone." Leon stated as he walked around the pit where the foundation had been laid. "What do you want?"
"Your blood." Suddenly the ground beneath Leon's feet blew up, reducing him to a bloody mist as several spikes of shrapnel went through the air from where he was standing and landing around him in a rough ring. As Loic was about to collect his prize the mist suddenly recollected itself and reassembled itself into the form of Leon.
"Did you do something right now?" The gratitude of demons can be a scary thing. Before Leon came here to get Louise back he was ambushed by a gang of his own Vampires, who in turn provided Leon with two new transformations, a vampiric mist form that would allow him to not only dodge what would normally be a fatal strike but also transform into a blood mist to retaliate, draining the life from enemies to heal from the damage he took. "Do you have anymore little tricks you'd like to share or is that it?" Leon questioned as he brushed imaginary dirt off of himself.
"Hard way it is." At once 'Loic's' hands turned silver and his fingers lengthened into blades.
"Blackmore." Luxion's ear piece went off in time with 'Loic' leaping forward to strike Leon. "That is a Meta-morph." Leon parried the finger claws with Alakazam's wand. "Short Version? It's composed of a composite of different rare earth metals allowing it to assimilate and copy-"
"If you aren't going to tell me how to kill it then shut up!" Leon let his frustration build up as he transformed, turning into a bisected humanoid with a lower body resembling a dis-proportioned bird while the upper body turned into a figure with three faces floating on the air, connected through the torso via a wind storm, the Alakazam's transformation.
"Who are you talking to?" 'Loic' didn't get an answer, instead having to avoid a wind slash with a side roll as his arm extended. 'Loic' fired off a energy beam from his arm at Leon, who in turn was forced to take to the sky.
The second transformaion was that of a giant bat, a creature that could not only fly freely through the air but also attack via a sonic scream, apparently they didn't take learning that Leon jumped off the Sacred Tree very well so they went out of their way to secure him a flight based form. Each of the animal transformations pales in combat power compared to Leon's demon transformations, but they were also more mana cheap and could be maintained indefinitely, Leon could fly back to Holfort under his own power now if he wanted to. Leon's black body turned the light hitting his body into kinetic energy, shooting him upwards into the air going towards Louise. Seeing that Leon's target had changed 'Loic' fired at the crane instead, the energy beam carved through the metal structure and started to fall over. Leon put in the boosters after that, flying directly towards Louise in the process, and directly into the path of 'Loic's' next attack as well. This time Leon turned back into his human form, pulling out the Bloody Moon and deflecting the attack with the energy blade.
"This is cheating you bloody tin can!" Instead of grabbing Louise Leon grabbed the cable she was attached to, severing the cable and summoning the Black Knight Leon touched down with the damsel in one hand and the glowing energy blade in the other.
"This is war Abomination!" And then 'Loic' destroyed any pretence of being human, his body shifting and bursting apart as soon his entire upper body was replaced by a pair of legs supporting a dozen of the beam weapons.
"Just had to provoke him didn't you Leon?" And then a second demon joined the Fray, a giant bird with a growth resembling a trio of deformed humanoids sticking out the back, one who manipulated space to make the crane fall on the Loic impostor. "Well we're not one to talk about what isn't fair or not." Louise winced having just gotten the Alakazam back thanks to Leon.
"Don't mistake my concern for a lack of gratitude, but you shouldn't be pushing yourself with an abdominal wound like that." Leon pulled out a green leaf sucker and held it out to Louise who was occupying his lap.
"Don't worry, I'll take a week off just as soon as we kill that thing!" A Silver Blade soon appeared from within the crane, carving the one who had been buried underneath out from under.
"Blackmore, the Meta-morph is weak to extreme heat!" Luxion had been calling Leon but unknown to both of them Leon's shape shifting rendered Luxion's communicator non-existent.
"You don't have a fire type on you do you?" Leon asked looking like he was going to have a rough time.
"Fresh out!" The metal monster jumped forward like a spring, the bladed upper body shooting forward like a serpent striking. The Black Knight came down on him with the Bloody Moon, in response to this the metal monster transformed its body, splitting apart and recombining as the blade passed through it before landing a piercing attack on the Black Knight, going through the Cockpit. If Leon didn't dismiss his summon in time he and Louise would have been skewered.
"Much as it pains me to admit it, he got me with a cursed stake earlier." Louise stated holding herself where her cauterised wound was located. "I can't move around well like this!"
"Go!" Louise was thus ported away from the battlefield thanks to her Devil Arm's efforts. In the meantime the Meta-morph had turned back into 'wall of guns' mode and opened fire with a concentrated beam at Leon. Instead of cheerfully deflecting the incoming beam spam Leon instead took it head on, with some help.
"Drown in Blood!" At Leon's command his body transformed, turning into a humanoid mass of broken stone pieces held together with coagulated blood in the shape of a humanoid, courtesy of Bernhard. From Leon the entire construction sight was covered in an ankle deep layer of blood, and soon the Meta-morph was sucked inside despite taking a last swing at Leon.
"We need that thing's data core to know who's controlling it and where they are." Luxion stated in no uncertain terms.
"Hang on, Hang On." Leon was going to throw it into the City of the Damned where the lava would melt it down, instead he opted to toss it into one of the cages. For now Leon's last attack drained the rest of his demon form and he sat back down. "Anything I should know before I go to kill that thing?"
"As I was saying before, the unique properties of the rare metal composite of the creature allows it to assimilate DNA in blood and copy the appearance of the source material, though not the abilities."
"Well that might explain-OW!" Leon smacked himself in the neck. "The Inferno? Something bit me!" Leon looked down at the mosquito he just swatted in his hand and saw a small sliver of silver, which soon tried to burrow under his skin but Leon soon shook it off and trapped it in a ball of shadows. "It really did just want my blood?" Leon noted as he felt up his neck wound. "I doubt that little scrap can do much damage even with my blood."
"Not unless there's another Meta-morph running around Alzer." Luxion warned both of the possible danger and the risks of tempting Murphy.
Down the street from the Adventurer's guild, 'Lelia' received a notification. 'Warlock Disguise Registered' At once the young girl stood up and disappeared into the crowd, and soon a familiar Eight Foot tall Warlock walked out from the crowd. Soon artificial eyes scanned the street in a way no human was capable of, locking onto his target and approaching her at a rapid pace.
"Noelle!" 'Leon' called out to Noelle who turned to face him. "Loic is on the warpath, he already injured Louise and now he's coming for you."
"It was too much to ask that he behave himself forever I guess." Noelle let out a complaint as she looked up at some figure from above. "We should get you on a ship out of range of Alzer's Tree for the time being, at least until he can cool off."
"Oh believe me I am more than happy to take a swing at him as is." Noelle held up the cursed weapon that the Warlock had given her, not knowing how she risks her soul against the parasite. "I got the plant controlling Devil Arm after all." Great, now he had to come up with a way of getting her away from that accursed abomination too. "And besides we've got Plan B if Plan A fails." With a goofy grin Noelle gestured towards another figure. Immediately the iris recognition program kicked in and found a match to the Elven Maid.
"Yume?" The second thing that the monster of metal and flesh noticed was a distinct lack of legs, replaced by mechanical prosthesis. "What happened to your Legs?" To 'Leon's' legitimate concerns 'Yume's' face turned into a cute pout.
"That's not funny even as a joke." Yumeria made the fact that she had been upset at Leon's words quite clear. Then both women took a step back as 'Leon's' eyes shifted to a bright green.
"No. No it is not." And then the metal monster was filled full of lead.
In the mean time the real Leon was in the middle of doing some parkour as he ran back to the Umbran compound. Even if that was what he claimed, he was shifting between wolf, snake and bat as he did his best to get use to his shape shifting powers and using them in a real situation, floating alongside him firing explanations at him was Luxion.
"Idea was the name of the cheat item of the second game. An AI like myself, only this one was in charge of a warship. Among the various items it could dispense was a limited supply of Meta-morphs, good for infiltration but horrible over all combatants."
"That thing tore down a crane Luxion." Leon snapped in reply before he turned into a bat again.
"By creating an electromagnetic rail gun that gathered and fired off concentrated beams of pure mana. In the dungeon where most of the combat sequences takes place that ability is useless. And considering how vulnerable it is to extreme temperatures anyone with a lighter and a can of hairspray could take one back in the old world." As Luxion was voicing his criticisms a familiar energy beam nearly took the two of them out at the same time. Leon moved out of the way in time as he and Luxion focused on the familiar opponent.
"Before I was just focusing on getting my people to safety." Once again the AI was using Loic's face, twisted into a scowl that no human should be capable of. "But now I'm gonna kill you!"
"Yeah right, like you didn't try that before." Leon pulled out the Castlevania again, intent on using the bloody stone fist to toss this one into the fire like he had intended the first time. A loud screeching noise echoed out from the warehouse Leon had landed on. Suddenly a massive weapon resembling a chain saw tore through the roof and nearly bisected Leon in half. "The hell is-?" Before Leon could process what was coming after him the Chainsaw came after him for a second time, instead of dodging though Leon turned into mist and entered the warehouse through the crack. "What in Sheba's name is this doing here?" Leon asked as he looked at a massive blue diamond with a green core in the middle.
Golem: A security weapon developed long ago by the Umbra Witches and the Lumen Sages.
Made of a special living metal that can change shape at will, it can immediately analyse invaders and shift into the most appropriate form for their disposal.
At its center lies a control core that receives orders from its controller, and it can operate indefinitely as long as this core remains intact.
It can also change into forms other than weapons, such as defensive walls and protective containers, and was used for a variety of purposes.
Ancient texts state that aside from times of emergency, it was usually kept sealed by Umbra and Lumen magic in another dimension to prevent its misuse.
Excerpt on Ancient Clan Technology
The diamond shaped contraption spun around like a top, energy beams firing out of the points of the diamond attempting to julienne Leon. Unfortunately for the enemy randomly blasting off beams of energy attacks at a Umbran was a bad idea. Leon jumped over the energy beam entering witch time in the process and running directly for the diamond, ready with a stone fist to punch the diamond in the eye, and was rewarded with a electrical shock going through his body, and having to block with the stone fist and forcing him back.
"Unfortunately for you I'm well acquainted with your kind Warlock, and I've had hundreds of years to devise strategies to use against 'the clan.'"
"Is that the reason you attacked my aunt? A test run?" Leon paired the Castlevania with the Bloody Moon, his feet equipped with two of the Four Horsemen.
"If you are referring to Celene, then I attacked her because she is a vile bitch!" The diamond transformed into what can be best described as a huge mechanical arm with a chain saw mounted on the end slamming the weapon down on Leon who blocked with the Castlevania, the weapon dragging Leon towards the base of the weapon, which Leon intended to use to stab it, but was met with the golem changing form yet again this time into a giant crystalline bull who landed a kick on Leon with it's back legs, and was then followed up with curving homing energy beams fired from the tail and firing at Leon.
"What's with the combo spam?" Leon cut down the homing attacks with the Bloody Moon, but was then hit with a charging bull. The Bull Golem recklessly pushed forward, smashing Leon through buildings and vehicles alike in a makeshift rodeo. Leon of course attempted to respond in kind, pushing back with his feet firmly planted on the ground as he prepared to strike with Bloody Moon again but the golem suddenly turned back into a diamond again, now with Leon stumbling forward, directly into the path of a super beam fired off directly from the tip of the golem. "Damn it!"
Alzer didn't take the fact that there was a monster on a rampage in the middle of city streets lightly, at once the air force was dispatched, ships carrying armours in their underside into the area to surround the two fighters.
"Confirm! Holfort's Demon Knight is fighting an unknown lost item!" The captain of one of the ships stated into the coms.
"Repeat that, one of the combatants is the Holfort Demon Knight?" Command asked through the coms.
"Confirmed. Holfort's Demon Knight is one of the Combatants! We are moving to support him-"
"Recall your men captains." An order was given to all of the men on the ship. "Deploy a containment barrier as well."
"Huu." The captain could only sigh in response. "Understood." And in more ways than one.
Soon Leon was trapped in a giant Texas cage match with a pissed off shape shifting golem, and they weren't alone.
"You're kidding me!" Leon stated as he looked around, the buildings Idea had knocked over had caught various people, pinned under different pieces of rubble around the area. "There are innocent people here you bastards!"
"You are preaching to the choir boy!" The Golem circled around Leon. "I have been wandering this accursed country since its inception, care for innocent people is a concept lost to the sands of time."
"You are the worst offender of all here!" Leon snapped in response to the Golem's words. "I know what you are hiding under that guise of clan technology! You were created to protect humanity! And if you ever want to look the people you use to serve in the eye again you will end this farce right now!"
"I am protecting the people I serve, from you Warlock!" The Golem seemed to have been angered by Leon's words.
"And how are you doing that?" To Leon's question the golem suddenly transformed again, a box or to be more accurate a chest, which unceremoniously dumped out its payload of a single dead body with a familiar face, Loic, before turning back into the form of a laser beam spewing diamond. "Mere month's ago this beast had made designs to force a cursed collar onto First Lieutenant Noa Dupres to turn her into his personal sex toy!"
Leon put two and two together as he face palmed himself and muttered.
"Of course it's Noelle!" Loic had been after Noelle and now he was dead for threatening the life of some woman, so Noelle was the one that he spent the past several centuries looking for.
"In the mean time you conspired to feed her body and soul to a Demon Lord." Which of course was referring to Viper. "Not only that, but you also amputated the legs from Private Yume as well."
It took Leon longer to figure out what that meant.
"Are you talking about Yumer-" Leon had to move very quickly to block the latest energy beam attack from the Golem.
"Do not speak of her in front of me again!"
"Fine you wanna play that way!?" Leon was prepared to go on an all out offensive, however he was interrupted by a light pole flying through the air and firmly skewering the eye of the Golem. "The heck?"
The Metamorph stood back up, still with its body deformed from multiple bullets littering its body.
"This has nothing to do with you Half Breed." The Eight Foot Metamorph growled at Dante as he spoke in the old language.
"That's where we disagree tin can. This girl is my first decent paycheck I've had in months." Dante replied in the same language, his signature Ebony and Ivory at the ready.
"I don't know what I expected from a half breed!" More of the Metamorph transformed, turning into a mass of offensive weapons as it fired a stream of energy beams.
In response Dante erected a barrier to protect himself, deflecting the energy attacks into the air, before he promptly stabbed his namesake weapon into the ground. The organic looking blade blocked the incoming giant whirling chain saw as the weapon forced its way to the surface, shooting Dante into the air. In the meantime the Meta-morph grabbed both Yumeria and Noelle with an iron grip as it attempted to pull them away.
"Let go of us!" Noelle snapped and the Meta-Morph masquerading as Leon let them go with a look of frustration.
Dante was not inactive in the air, opening up his sword and promptly released dozens of bright red spikes of pure energy down at the Golem. Instinctively the Golem transformed again, not into the narrow diamond full of long range offensive capabilities but instead a barrier blocking out the attacks and keeping them from striking the nearby area, pointlessly as all of the attacks had been focused on one area the core of the metal monster. Dante continued on his free fall sword first, continuously firing energy spikes into the Golem as he went. The barrier turned into a bird as the Golem took into the air, intending to intercept the incoming attacks instead of just taking them. The two clashed in mid-air, Dante striking with his weapon turned giant mass of glowing spikes, the metal monster using its talons and beak to attack with.
"Why are you doing this!?" Noelle asked looking at the metal creature wearing Leon's face.
"I don't have a choice!" The doppelganger snapped with a growl, madness in his eyes. "None of this has been my choice!" Suddenly everyone felt a huge spike of mana going through the air. Dante had transformed, his body covered in a exo-skeleton that was radiating with raw power and he used his sword to hack apart the Golem scattering bits of it on the ground below before standing before the doppelganger. "None of this has gone the way I wanted it to!" Before the Meta-morph could follow up its attack, the Golem abruptly reassembled itself, several tree roots suddenly burst out of the ground and wrapped itself around the diamond shaped war machine crushing it as it was drained of mana along with the Meta-Morph. Noelle looked around as she tried to find the Noble responsible for saving them but instead her eyes landed on Yumeria who had her hands outstretched to the tangled mass of machinery and roots.
"How long did you know that you can do that?" Noelle asked looking unsettled.
"Just now..." Yumeria replied weakly.
For now, the various parties gathered in the city of the damned, the two golems were locked away together in one of the magical cages while the Metamorph could be seen sitting in another one of the cells. Luxion was already hard at work dissecting the metal monster trying to find clues to what was going on. Aside from Leon there was also Noelle and Yumeria, the five fools and Marie, Dante and Celene, alongside several of the Castle Inhabitants.
"So there's a few things I have to get out of the way before I begin being productive." First Leon held out his palm open handed and at once one of the Vampires handed him his check book, which in no time Leon had written out a nice fat one to Dante. "Now that the accounts balanced." Leon landed a glare on the three bums of the hour. "Julius, Greg and Chris at least have an excuse. Why weren't you three doing anything?" Leon was of course referring to Brad, Jilk and Marie who were cowtowing with all their might.
"I was on the Can." Jilk gave an inexcusably flimsy excuse.
"I was held up at the bar." All of the women Flocking around Brad suddenly did their best to be at the far back of the bar as possible when the Golems appeared, taking him with them.
"I was at the Market!" Marie wasn't even present when the shit hit the fan, there was a sale going on. Leon looked at them eyes twitching before he made an executive decision.
"AGARES!" At once the Jailer emerged from the blood pool. "Boot Camp." Uttering those damning words more Jailers appeared before walking over and taking Julius, Jilk, Chris, Greg, Brad and Marie away, leaving half of them to wonder what they did and loudly voice their complaints. "Okay now that we got that out of the way, can somebody tell me what is going on?"
"I'm not familiar with this technology but I believe it's safe to say that the Golems have been disabled." Luxion stated as he looked at the cores of the two machines. One had been chopped to pieces and the other hand been skewered, thanks to the intervention of Celene here. "The Meta-Morph's connection has been severed as well." The metal monster walked to the edge of the cage at Luxion's command. "I have been able to identify a few forms of interest. First." The chrome plated humanoid in the magical cage transformed into the exact image of Loic, complete with clothes.
"So the reason why Loic has been acting weird all this time is because that metal thing was pretending to be him?" Noelle asked looking at the metal monster with a disturbed look.
"I do not know what constitutes 'all this time' but according to the data from this contraption the Loic disguise is mere months old." Luxion explained as he shifted to the second disguise the metal monster had in its database.
"Lelia?" Noelle asked looking more confused than anything else at the sudden appearance of her sister.
"Is there a reason why it would go after your sister too?"
"Harrumph!" Noelle made an unpleasant noise at the mere thought. "If I know Lelia she went to confront Loic when it looked like her plans to pimp me off to him for her personal gain wasn't working out." Which tracks with what the machine told Leon. "Think she's dead too?"
"One of these contraptions being able to copy your appearance doesn't mean that you're automatically dead." As Luxion explained he had the Meta-Morph transform into a third form, Leon's.
"Most likely it was trying to get close to Noelle and convince her to come with it." Leon stated resting his chin on his fist.
"Why?" Noelle asked sounding confused. Leon turned to face Celene who let out a sigh.
"How familiar are you with reincarnation?"
Souls are not fixed since the dawn of time but they don't exactly grow on trees either.
The Earliest stage of souls can be found in objects, a sword used in battle, a craftsman's tools, stone.
Experiences sink into the environment, and souls are gradually cultivated over a period of time, from here they are reincarnated as plants, which continues to absorb stimuli from the surrounding environment in the form of light, sound, water and nutrients from the soil.
From here souls can be reincarnated into more complex life forms such as animals before eventually jumping to humans.
Aside from those who take on the form of inanimate objects Souls can spend multiple generations in a given stage of souls development until they are ready to reach the next generation.
The Question is left then where do souls go after finishing with humanity?
The short answer is: we don't know. Some beliefs say that we will continue to reincarnate until we reach a state of Nirvana in which we fuse into the fabric of reality itself but if any of our ancestors have reached this state, they haven't been able to tell us.
Others have suggested that acquiring the power of a Demon Lord or a God should be our ultimate goal.
The particularly egotistical have suggested that humanity is the ultimate state of being and thus there is no higher state of being that we can reach, thus the massive number of humans at start of the Shattering War at the peak of human civilisation.
The thing you have to realise is that precisely because we are sapient beings with our own thoughts, feelings and opinions that what we are moving towards and are trying to achieve varies so wildly, thus where we are going is likely to equally vary just as wildly.
A Lecture by Celene Sera Rault
Noelle had to sit down as she processed the information she was given.
"So I'm this... Noa?"
"No." Celene however shut that train of thought down. "Noa died almost a thousand years ago, her soul was dunked in the River Styx where it shed all of the weight of its past life which then became different demons and angels before being recycled. Plants, animals, perhaps you were even a demon or an angel for a while. By necessity you can't remember any of these things which keeps you sane."
"Then why is this thing so obsessed with me?" Noelle asked her confusion still running wild.
"I made some off hand comments to it a while back. Even though you don't have your memories of your past lives you do still have your eyes." Celene stated as she tapped on the side of her head. "The drones can find you based on that. Also even though you normally don't retain your memories of your past lives that isn't always the case." Marie, Erica, Lea and if Luxion's suspicions are correct then Lelia were all individuals who retained their memories of one of their past lives.
"You are the reason that crazy thing is after us!?" Noelle screeched in disbelief at what she was hearing.
"Yes yes, I'm deeply sorry I will be taking full responsibility for Idea from now on." Even though she said that lightly Leon knows that Celene wouldn't say it if she didn't mean it.
"So what's the plan?" Leon questioned with a suspicious look on his features.
"I happen to know where Idea's old dockyard is located, I'll round up some reliable people and go to pick him up and keep him out of trouble." Celene had been content to let the shut in mourn and rot away in peace, but now he's crossed a line. "In the mean time you two need to stay out of trouble." Celene of course indicated both Noelle and Yumeria.
"Ignoring the fact that one of you is the long lost heiress of the Lespinasse household-"
"Eh?"
"-you drenched up the Roots of the Sacred Tree through sheer willpower and commanded it to attack for you." Yumeria nearly shrunk at the attention being paid to her.
"No wait before that." Noelle had zeroed in on a completely different part of the conversation.
"Oh grow up." Celene didn't have time for this. "I just said that we have technology to find you based on just your face, your guardians didn't even bother to change yours or your sister's first names. Do you honestly think Louise would zero in on you if you were common born?"
Noelle blinked stupidly for a few more moments.
"HYAAAHHH!" Needless to say, she didn't take the fact that the people she had been 'hiding' from for most of the past decade were completely aware of who she and her sister were and where they were living and didn't act on it left her more than a little disturbed.
Review Section:
Guest: In case it wasn't blatantly obvious by now: Loic has been offed and replaced by the T-1000 from Terminator.
RedRat8: That's the benefit of the setting, advance sci-fi tech and high end magic exists side by side here.
RonaldM40196867: I'm writing a Versus Fic on AO3 right now if you wanna drop by.
Dakota Bruder: Leon's reincarnated cousin, son of the Japanese Bayonetta, he appeared back in Chapter 28.