Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written by: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Such as?
The reply came, lightly thumping against his chest as he jogged along, the silvery bark of the line of trees ahead serving a type of finish line. The light of day was gone, his internal clock was going to slap the hell out of him when he tried to go to bed tonight. With the the guys stuck out of reach in Japan and resigned to the eternally slower method of traveling from one side of the world to the other. It made the Princes' estate and the supposed powers of the Castle one to envy during nights like this.
Behind him the lurid red and golden glow of the fire flung his shadow before him. Stretching the form out as he jogged along to reach the line of trees. Though he had yet to hear anyone pursuing him. With the window already broken there was no sound of built up pressure exploding. Just the crackling and consuming sound of fire as it ate through that hideous room.
Does anyone outside of your clan know how to make those oils? Or do you have a type of trade that goes to the Church?
He tucked the phone back into his coats' inner pocket as he resumed a light jog to his self imposed finish line. Not even the Dark Children could text and run, at least coherently. 'How could they have gone under the radar of the Morris or Aulin clans though?' It was a thought that was currently gnawing away at him. Had it taken this long for these two Vampires to reach him? Were they only made aware because someone they knew got hunted?
If the trees had Dryads attached to them, they made no sign of awareness. If these wanna be hunters had any mechanical means of tracking him, it wouldn't be through heat signatures. Given the 'fun' ability ice mages had in adjusting the temps around themselves. Sure they could freeze even people to statues to shatter at most. But they, and he, couldn't get it the degrees to an exact science to match and hide from heat reading devices. Ultimately he would just drop the temp drastically enough around him into making an even bigger sign of his presence.
As minutes ticked by with no sound of sirens in the air, concern over why even the local police department wasn't responding grew. More over there was no sounds of nature around him, everything silenced by either the fire or experience of what this place was about.
The light from the fire easily gave him the light he needed to see the finish line of this impromptu jog and as he approached. The vampires finally ghosted out to meet him, both remarkably young by the looks of it, easily as young or younger than Max. But that only implied when they were turned.
"So.. I have questions, I suppose I don't have time to ask them," Alex finally remarked as he joined them.
"Not going to ask us to rescue you?" The girl asked, now that he could see her better, he could see that she was a red head, her hair was bound down under a black beanie while her face was field of freckles. Which seemed a cruel and hilarious fate, easily burned red head becomes a vampire. She stood roughly below his head in height, her green tinged gold eyes just visible in the limited light. Not to mention the old joke about red heads and souls. Her clothes appeared baggy hanging off her frame either as a fashion or necessity.
"You mean you 'would'? If you're just going to help me escape, why would you bring me here in the first place?" He asked folding his arms across his chest.
"Because seeing is believing. You wouldn't believe us if we told you about this place," the guy, as young as the girl with deep brown hair and black on black clothes. His eyes were electric blue, sharp and bitter, a look that Alex was used to among his students. The broken ones that never got to learn trust among family. Everyone was the enemy.
"Ok, so human police I can kind of see, but why not any of us? How long did you know about this?" He jerked his thumb over his shoulder back towards the lodge.
"Longer than we've known about you," the boy replied curtly.
"They'll come out to hunt you, and no one will care. The local sheriff and top prosecutor and defender are in their pocket, everyone is here. Even if you got out of this forest, the locals will turn you in," the girl explained moving to the side so she could watch the building.
"The building being on fire would be attributed to me, rather than them I suppose?" Alex asked, receiving a pair of nods. "So I would suggest you take me 'back' to where you found me, unless you plan on there being a body count. They may be used to civilian Dark Children, but I come from no such relaxed clan," Alexander pointed out. 'How does a town become complacent in this?'
He didn't get much time to think before the shadows around the boy rose up and ensnared him again. Though thankfully this time without the strangling sensation from before.
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"You have guests, Great Master," The blue clad of the two fairies waiting for him announced as Soma walked through the front door. Earning a raised eyebrow, the fairies never announced Yoko's presence. Soma just got to be surprised whenever he opened a room door and THERE SHE WAS. More over 'guests' implied more than one and he couldn't fathom anyone save... Well maybe it was Yoko's mother... Just the three of them...
"Today is a good day to die..." He quipped in answer, earning a concerned look from the small being.
"Umm I don't think they can do you any harm anymore. Unless they drop a bowling ball on your head or something..." The one in green pointed out pragmatically with a small nod.
He sighed before shaking out his coat and gestured towards the interior of the estate, "well, lead the way."
"Oh they're in the Young Masters' office," the blue one answered easily as she turned and began fluttering off in that direction.
'If they're there and not getting all the familiars up in arms they can't be a threat...' A list of possible suspects ran across his mind. 'Leon brought the others?'
Curious over what reason Leon would have for visiting after one day, Soma finally reached the office and opened the door. Only to start snickering and felt horrible for doing so. On the one hand these were souls of men who had killed his more violent past self. But there was a husky laying on the floor reading a book, the others were looking at the computer and it was just...
Wait... book... crap.
It was just the moment when the group realized he was there, heard his snickering and turned to look at him. 'I can feel their rage... I might actually get a bowling ball dropped on my head for that.' "Ok so maybe I shouldn't laugh..." He confessed despite the snickering still carrying on. He walked over and plucked Juste off the book that he had been working on. 'Well I can't let you guys talk to Vampire Killer now,' he noted as he shut the book with his other hand and tucked it under his arm.
While squirming Juste struggled to get the book back, "I was reading that! Get me that book!"
Soma deposited Juste on the chair next to Leon before extending his hand to Leon. An offer to pick the former Knight up, "I suppose you're going to have to explain what's going on, old friend."
For which the Founder resigned himself to accept the hand for sake of speed. He was lifted up and rested his hand on Mathias' shoulder. "We fear... someone been listening. In the Vatican..."
Juste dejectedly watched as Soma left him on the chair, while the other Belmonts broke up from the computer. Moving to give Leon and Soma their attention when Soma joined them beside the chair behind the desk. Soma staring at them, they in turn staring at him for a time...
"You don't own the estate I'm not sitting in the guest chair," Soma pointed out earning several pairs of dipped down embarrassed ears. The Belmonts resorted themselves on the desk while Soma put Leon on the desk among them. He found an amazing mess of words on the screen, clearly typed out by Simon. Mostly a mess due to the size of their paws, because it 'had' to be that right? "You tried to type this out for me didn't you?"
"Touch screen. Easier. Simon said," Leon explained with a faint shrug of his shoulders as he moved to the side.
"So I should puzzle my way through while cleaning this up? Or would it be faster to let you explain it to me?" Soma asked while he tucked the book away in the lower drawer before he began deleting the extra letters he found. Granted there was a bit of guess work from the start given the sheer volume of letters that Simon had typed. Bless his Vampire Hunting soul.
"Bout the same if you ask me," Christopher answered as he sat down on the desk. "Though 'said' is putting it way more lightly than the words he used."
"I think Leon is learning more swear words than he ever expected," Richter agreed with a mental sigh as he sat down swaying his paw from side to side as an answer.
"Its just a countdown until he disowns our whole clan because of the language," Juste noted as he eyed the space in the desk. 'I don't know if I should be elated that he's trying to find a way to improve upon our forms. Or distressed that apparently, he's decided to use his own memories of his past for the lessons to build off of.'
"Well now that its been suggested..." Christopher answered with a faint grin in his voice.
"There is concern... Vatican members can... and have been... hearing the clan..." Leon explained long pauses included.
"Well... I... huh..." Soma blinked the suggestion as he worked through the page. 'Well it wouldn't be the first time.'
"Not safe for... clan... Priest murdered..." Leon continued earning Soma's complete distraction from the computer.
"There's been a murder in the 'Vatican'?" Soma repeated earning multiple nods from the Belmonts around him. Christopher getting up and walking over to show Soma how far up to scroll to get to 'that' bit of information. "Well they can't blame me I've been with people for the most part and my powers are sealed."
"If heard... No reaction..."
"Which is worrisome since why 'wouldn't' they reveal that they can hear the other Belmonts? If nothing else they could have helped Simon and the others ages ago. Which is suspicious I agree," Soma noted as he continued cleaning up the text. 'Wow that's a lot of vulgar words Simon, I didn't know your vocab had grown 'this' much in being Yoko's 'Snuggywuggy'.'
"How does he know... is that what you were thinking?" Richter asked, floored at how smoothly Soma could fill in Leon's words even while distracted. A question shared by his kin and Leon's small marginally 'close enough' style nod, startling them. 'I guess they really 'were' good friends before Soma became Dracula... that he can roughly fill in what Leon wants to say...'
"Need to go... back to shrine... Find Death." Leon finished, while Soma glanced at him from the corner of his eye in mild surprise.
"You, all of you want to talk to 'Death'?" Soma asked before leaning back in the seat, observing all the Belmonts currently looking at him. Nodding. "Death 'talks.'"
"Did he hurt Death's feelings?" Simon drawled out in a marginally mocking voice.
"Well he's not trying to be 'Dracula' anymore, maybe Its trying to not impose?" Christopher suggested earning an ear wiggle from Juste.
"Given what I read its less he's 'not trying to be' as he's going for a more 'modified less violent' form. Because he 'is' actively striving to learn things he would know as Dracula," Juste noted aloud.
"Always a good thing to hear in situations as tense as this," Richter pointed out as he laid down on the desk. "There's too many of us to go with him, I guess we could hang out here, or go back to the Vatican..."
"We kind of have to go back, since we're now helping Simon find the lost choir children. If we all leave its going to leave the children extremely distressed. While at the same time giving attention to anyone who may have been capitalizing on our socializing. Sure the church has 'some' clue to our level of awareness. But when a whole 'Stuffy Patrol' just up and leaves en mass?" Christopher pointed out with a faint shrug.
"True, if they've been exploiting our lack of awareness about what 'they' can hear. Our sudden absence would clue them in that the, jig is up, as they say." Richter agreed as he started to rub the bottom of his muzzle.
"We will return to the Vatican, realistically from how it sounds Draculas' wife won't talk in our presence anyway. It would be easier for us to return and allow Leon to discuss things with her." Juste planned, "we will just have to not talk about anything that we've learned."
"We can't bring up that we've been here too," Christopher noted as he sat there. "While its reasonable to think that Yoko and Alucard have their own ways of getting in and out of the Vatican. We can't afford to let someone even 'think' that anyone can gain access to the estate."
"You know, I could try to will Death here. I mean Its never spoken to me in my current life, but that doesn't mean I can't call It to my presence I suppose. Should be like summoning anything else without relying on my souls." Soma offered as he cleared up the section about the body. 'Murder in the Vatican and the victim was an exorcist... wonder if it was one of the priests who wants me dead or not...' "But honestly, I'm not sure It can bring souls from the other side back here. I mean, Leon's a special case true... but still."
"Would it be even possible? I can't imagine Alucard leaving the place unguarded, he 'must' have something up to keep Death from showing up. Given Death's affiliation with his father," Richter asked looking over at his fellow hunters.
"I doubt Alucard can stop a force of existence from appearing at Its whim, it 'is' Death we're talking about," Simon pointed out as he leaned against the desk, facing the wall ahead.
"Dare we risk pushing Soma more into the arcane arts? He's clearly self teaching at this point which is bad enough. But if we give him a validation for doing so, doesn't that make us part of the problem?" Christopher asked as he sat there.
"It does feel as though we'd been lead by the nose..." Richter noted, his own pupper face twisting slightly in answer. "The living clansmen should be here dealing with this, not us. However; they are 'oh so conveniently' scattered across the world looking for Alucard."
"So easy to just nudge Soma into doing whatever to sustain himself, even if it doesn't directly use his powers. He could easily circumvent the ring if he chose, like calling Death to his side. We're in no position to stop him, the only people who could possibly talk him down are out of range." Simon noted nodding slowly as his own mind began working over what Richter was suggesting.
"But why would he just give them what they want?" Christopher asked, frowning slightly as Soma started muttering about 'Simons' Creative Word choices'. He wanted to ask Leon directly, but given that Soma was 'right there'. It was unlikely that the former knight would answer anything out loud.
"Do you have the bottle of holy water on you? Its kinda weird that you're mentioning a bottle, so I'm going to assume there's a reason that makes 'this' bottle special." Soma turned to look at Leon, before shifting in his seat so he could check the other Belmonts.
Simon walked over to the bookshelf where Juste had found that one book. Having used the bottle to hold up the other books to ease up the extraction. With the bottle of holy water pulled out and what would have been a determined look on his face. If plush toys had one.
"Can not find... more..." Leon explained as Simon walked over. "Plain water? Holy water?"
Soma glanced at Leon before shaking his head, "well that 'is' real holy water I can promise you that. I can feel it from here and I know its going to burn me if I touch it."
"It shouldn't have to be shipped out... But then we 'did' find those boxes with bottles of water or oil. Think we should discuss that with Soma?" Juste asked as he finally scooted back before taking a leap onto the desk.
"At this point I doubt it would hurt anything," Simon begrudged.