Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"My goodness, do you get to eat while out doing... whatever it is you're doing?" the Cook for the Inns' name was 'Eleanor'. She was a solid woman with a warm heart and was, from what Alexis had managed to glean, old friends of the innkeepers. She arrived to Alexis' room using the key that the inn kept and had, of her own volition, decided to look after Alexis.
"Not enough I'm afraid," Alexis admitted with a sigh as Eleanor brought over... 'is that soup or a meal?' she pondered as her eyes took in the array of rich reds and greens, coupled with the fresh pale chunks of chicken.
"I think I'll start with something simple..." Eleanor offered before dipping in the slab of bread she had brought.
'Simple? Oh bread? I didn't even notice...' Alexis thought dreamily while Eleanor helped her eat.
It was a struggle despite her need for food, Alexis was chewing slowly, lacking the energy to move her jaw faster. The bread, soften after a soak in the soup proved the easiest. Color slowly began to return to her cheeks as she ate. But even with color restored Alexis had to keep her wits about her. As generous and kind as Eleanor was, it wasn't out of the question to wonder if she fishing for info. The town had one hotel and the various inns basically served as spill over locations.
Between both cults the hotel had been booked solid and Alexis couldn't imagine the staff oblivious to some aspects of the cults. Granted the cults weren't calling themselves 'that' they were merely the 'Holy Elevation of the Lowly to Ascend'. A type of brotherhood that sought to restore the world to righteousness from the 'corruptible' influence of Dracula. HELA for short, ironic in that Hela was the Goddess of the dead in Asatru traditions. An organization that sold itself on the premises of fighting 'evil'. Using a Goddess who oversaw the dead who didn't die in combat as their acronym.
Not everyone was oblivious and stupid.
The soup that Eleanor made was thick, there were large chunks of various vegetables, large chunks of chicken and all the noodles a kid would want. Or Alexis. Alexis liked noodles. They were literally the softest, most easiest thing to chew above the bread. It wasn't that Alexis had been deprived of food as she worked. Just that she was expected to eat 'and' work, so she was often working with a sandwich in her free hand.
Not that it could do much against the sheer amount of energy invested in coating everything in the Oils.
Reaching the stomach, her body began reacting as though the food was sales on Black Friday that one time. One time, only time, that Alexis ever celebrated the holidays in America with the guys. Her exhausted mind stopped focusing much on logic or Eleanor and began screaming 'finish that bowl!' Not that she wasn't trying to inhale the meal. But her stomach was clearly missing that point with the way she was shaking with her need to sate her hunger.
'Alex says that Yoko will be here in a few days at most. I just have to hold out and hope no one from the cults tries to deal with me before then.'
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Wind moaned as it flowed through out the empty streets. Bodies were strewn around, slumped against walls or huddled in the shadows of buildings. Store lights, fighting against the sun all day were finally gaining ground, as the sun began to wave a flag of surrender. Sinking further into the western horizon in the distance. All day the only sounds were the occasional bark of a stray dog as they roamed the streets.
Birds took wing for their nests as bats started to rustle in their caves with the coming of night.
Scanning the surroundings to the best of her ability before she dared to slip out of the local church. The town appeared as a ghost town, nearly everyone was passed out asleep where they had been standing, even some pets were passed out. Phone towers had gone down, the internet disrupted, and Alexis couldn't fathom what was used to put a whole town under all at once.
Drugs didn't feel right, even if the water supply was tampered with, since people were just asleep. But why 'asleep'? Why not just poison the whole town for part of a summoning ritual if that's what they were doing? Despite her best efforts, she couldn't reach the upper positions in the cult, thus she was kept out of the loop.
'I need a nap,' she thought as she began flitting from dark space to dark space. Wanting to stay out of any possible cultists line of sight. The soups and meals that Eleanor had provided had been a blessing. The two days of unlimited sleeping and eating had done wonders, one more day and she probably would have been completely better.
Probably.
If she hadn't awaken to Death, Itself, looming over her its eyes aglow with blue tinted flames.
"My Lord does not approve of these cultists clearly. So despite my better judgment, seek out the mark of my scythe on these cars. Else the young lives inside will come to me..."
If that didn't light a fire under Alexis...
So she had dressed as quickly as she could in generic jeans and blouse before rushing out of the inn and to a world gone silent. A glance upon the various vehicles showed one with such a mark. Carved out of the door from what appeared to be heated metal. Its slightly faded blue paint job was bubbled up around the mark, the front of the car was knocked off its course slightly by another vehicle. Two drivers that had fallen asleep at the wheel at the same time. The damage seeming thankfully slight due to it, yet for there to be a mark and Deaths' remark about 'young' lives...
Alexis had rushed forward to find a newborn in the back car seat. Strapped in, they were crying with frustration, possibly simple frustration or from injury. It wasn't much to freeze the window down to a point where it could be shattered into harmless dust. The smell of a full diaper caused her nose to scrunch up at the odor.
But even as she resigned herself to changing the infant another, more horrifying thought struck her. 'This may not be a big town, but Death didn't give me a solid number. How can I check this 'whole' town for babies like this one? How many people went under before they turned on their cars or trucks? How many babies or toddlers are trapped?!'
The scope of the situation sent Alexis reeling, as she couldn't just take the babies. There was little to no clue to how many children and she was in no situation where she could look after 'all' of them! If the town wasn't destroyed, there would be parents waking up to finding their possible dead or near death infants with them!
"Someone? Anyone?" A womans' voice could be heard, faint from distance but still a living voice. She sounded scared but she was awake and that was what was important.
"I'm here!" Alexis called out, her instinct to run forward, literally weighed down by the baby in her arms.
"THANK GOD! Where are you!?" The voice frantically called out, which lead the pair to call our their locations.
An awkward way of meeting up, until Alexis finally saw the woman. Easily about the same age as Alexis, the woman, Isabella, was in nurses garb and proved to be a new intern. So new she didn't know the region at all, and had yet to acclimate herself to the town. She was clutching tightly onto several leashes that roped in a small series of dogs. Clearly pets that she automatically began babbling about being found alone. Discovered aimlessly wandering about, the poor dogs had drifted to her for comfort and reassurance.
Unable to handle the poor dogs' sad eyed stares, and probably due to a strong need for some form of companionship, she had brought all of them with her. But they appeared perfectly normal, nothing affected by any potential demonic activity. Nor reacting as though there was demonic activity afoot. So Alexis felt more comfortable assuring the nurse that, no the Zombie Apocalypse hadn't begun. Though if she was asked, Alexis couldn't see this woman staying a nurse if she didn't bother to check the clearly sleeping people beyond a glance.
It started with Isabella, Izzy to her friends, from her they found a small group of various people. Mostly medical staff, and a few hotel staff members that were still awake and able to help with the issue of children. The local hospital was still open and it wasn't a situation with say Zombies, so it had been decided to bring the infants and small children there.
Now free of the responsibility, Alexis was free to hunt down the cult. Everyone who was awake was hold up in the hospital. There were supplies for the babies, and everyone avoided the water out of concern that it would put them to sleep. Running alone through the town, Alexis kept an eye out for the cult. Wondering when they would appear and 'how' they would appear. Essentially, the whole town was now isolated from the outside world, as far as she could tell. There was no way of knowing if the roads were safe, if bridges had been destroyed, or local travelers were about to roll into what appeared to be a set for a zombie movie.
'That actually would make sense too, prop up some blockades and claim a movie was in production...' Alexis thought as she slipped into the shadows. Alexis hadn't exactly been 'chatty' when Eleanor had taken her under her wing. Making up for the silence Eleanor had given some information about the town, and hints to the history.
Revealing that ages of being the nearest active town to the Demonic Castle of Dracula had something to it. The town wasn't exactly a tourist trap save around Halloween, and it wasn't exactly a bad place to live. It was quiet, yes, peaceful for long stretches of time, with its history of the occasional run of Zombies and other monsters well... Though with the world not exposed to the castle on a regular basis. The town developed a type of 'keep your head down' mentality where they didn't broadcast the undead.
Movies did instead, television shows kept the monsters in the public consciousness, but not as things to be scared of. Rather instead things to watch, mock or profit from. Thus why there was only one hotel, with the inns that dotted the area. For the only time of the year when people tried to visit the 'Castle of Dracula'.
Until 1999 when the Castle actually appeared.
The military had arrived, not from just one but multiple nations. The soldiers had taken over the town, the few bars packed with soldiers who believed this to be a training exercise. But for the locals, they knew the castle had a scheduled time of arrival, that was coupled with the occasional rando who would summon it back out of its proper time.
The local church was actually the one odd thing. No other churches had been able to enter the region. The buildings would slowly erode, the crosses would crumple, even when the Castle wasn't around. So the one church that was still standing, untouched was taken as being something truly sacred. Hence the presence of HELA captivated the town as it had, for they weren't just a religious organization intending to purify the land. They actively built a 'church' on the Castle grounds.
But that was the extent of what Eleanor really spoke about, baiting Alexis to give some insight into the cults' goal. Maybe out of concern, maybe out of just of wanting some juicy gossip. Yet it served well in letting Alexis know what the 'story' was in town regarding the Cult. Eleanor was only human after all, resonating none of the power that would indicate a Dark Child.
She was just curious, and that was fine.
Her cooking was top notch, warm and made with such home style care that the conversations had been relaxing. Helping Alexis recover mentally as well as physically for the past few days.
'Yoko will be here soon enough, though if the bus got turned away... well I don't know if she would slip out here or at the next bus stop...' Alexis thought as she looked around.
The roads were eerily quiet, cats roamed looking for mice, bats overhead were now in greater numbers. Windows glowing with light from interior lights of businesses, with the lights of multiple headlights and tail lights of the cars on the streets. It was quiet, save for the random snore that came from someone off to the side. In the distance she could occasionally hear yet another person calling out.
A curtain would ruffle slightly.
Everyone that Alexis had met since she woke up this morning had been outsiders, visitors or new residents. No one local was amid the small group that Alexis eventually gathered, showing now perhaps the reflex the town had developed. Everyone who was still awake stayed behind locked doors, no one stepped outside to see what was going on. Waiting with baited breath to see if the Castle would return or if there would be a rampaging series of monsters barreling through town.
Through out all of this, the Cult was suspiciously absent. She hadn't seen a single person the whole day that was with either cults. No one stepped out to stall or hinder her efforts to rescue the kids, and thanks to not having a key, she couldn't check the rooms at the hotel. Her phone was useless, the cults were missing, the towns people were in hiding and somewhere Yoko was on her way.
Pausing near the inn, Alexis looked down at her clothes to finally assess her situation. The clothes were far too pale. If there were spotters set up outside of town closer to the castle they would see her instantly. Granted Yoko might not be able to see her well in the darkness at first, well the odds were high that Yoko would be in her typical shades of travel pinks.
'But I have no choice, I need to check the church they put over the Castle. They already took down the towers so I can only assume they've gone there.'
Chances existed that the cults would just blow up the whole town. Only to her knowledge, there was no large purchases of bomb making materials. A wall, a gate, those were small, a building maybe, but not the whole town? A Black Mass wasn't going to work if the bodies were all chunky messes. The only thing left would be the Church.
There 'was' a clear reason why they would risk the wraith of Dracula himself by putting a profane church on the grounds of the Castle. 'Eleanor said that the group 'sent everyone who looked as bad as me back home unattended'. But if they looked 'that' bad, they wouldn't have made it without someone by their side. Alexis suspected that 'being sent home' was to appease the concern of the hotel staff.
Fortners' group seemed to have the majority of spell casters in their ranks, though a small amount of them were summoners. But their magics were more evoked from the Castle instead of invoked from their own beings. Being exposed to the oils as much as she had would have crippled their ability to perform such summons. Jones' cult, having views that he 'was' the reincarnation of Dracula was already attuned to the Dark Elements making using the oils far more difficult for their members.
But the few outer members, who believed in the HELA propaganda, well when she had most of her wits about her. Alexis had come to the conclusion that the church was the purpose of their presence. Lacking magic or any inclination to demonic activity, they were pretty much ideal to work with Alexis on the oil. But with that little information and given what the cult had already done. It was feasible that the cults had used these unsuspecting, and utterly drained people, as sacrifices to get the town asleep as they had.
While leaving the still fresh casters and summoners to guard the church or the town.
The buildings for the town only really got as tall as two stories even the merely stretched out longer to make up for the lack of height. But now the lights from the hotel were faintly visible, giving the area a slight dome glow that she could barely see. Nothing was revealed in that soft faint bloom of light. Be it signs of demonic or even just normal magical beings or attacks any animals still awake unbothered by current events.
Well dogs were probably giving meaningful looks at their food bowls, but she was fairly certain the cats had been at it since last night. Raising all manners of fuss over their now justified empty food bowls. In the darkness outside of town, the cliff that the Castle normally rested upon appeared empty to her normal human eyes. Despite knowing that the ground was currently holding a 'church' meant to 'God'. Even if she knew the truth of the place.
'I am literally about to go to the Castle of Dracula's grounds in an effort to hopefully stop whatever this idiot pair of cults are trying to pull off.'