Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: And this is why you beta your work. Even if it was about a year+ ago when you wrote it...
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"You think Soma is doing well in his sciences? I mean, if the castle has restored the alchemy lab, does that mean he might want to make something..." Alex asked, as they lightly jogged along to speed up their trip.
"Or worse, and he needs it to help him study. He already has the white coats," Max deadpanned as she jogged along.
There really wasn't a way to 'know' that they were reaching the lab, unlike the garden with the large windows. Signs weren't exactly hanging from the ceiling with arrows pointing, or skeleton scientists roaming around. While the number of sealed doors left the group wary about what 'was' sealed inside the rooms. Were their ancestors locked inside those rooms? Innocent kidnap victims?
The halls were clean with the occasional painting of Dracula and his family, all of them were portrait pieces. But there 'was' the occasional image of Soma, mostly in landscape paintings. The first one caught the twin sisters attention causing them to hang back. It was a large painting of the castle over the lake during the day. On the glance it was just that, but the ladies noted also the pale ghostly image of Soma sitting under a tree looking over the castle. The faint apparition under a tree had gotten Stellas' attention first. But upon increasing examinations they began to find that faint image in other similar paintings.
For the living the hallways bore the evening chill with the scent of candle smoke floating on the air. A strange scent for those used to the smell of the death and rot all about them within the castle. Hell there was faint wiff of roses and other soft herbs.
"So he couldn't deal with his daughters dying and was able to make himself into a vampire then sealed away areas of the castle... 'and Dracula in the Master Chambers'?" Alexis recited thoughtfully, while Jonathan and Charlotte nodded behind her. "So people can just 'become' a vampire?"
"It sounds weird I know," Jonathan agreed with a faint shrug. "But it is what it is..."
"It just strikes me weird that he and 'he alone' was able to just 'turn himself into a vampire'... there has to have been something he discovered or used and didn't realize it." Alexis pointed out, capitalizing on the chance to talk to Jonathan and Charlotte. "Otherwise what's stopping anyone and everyone from becoming a vampire to avoid aging and stuff?"
Charlotte quietly began to nod slowly as she floated after them, "I tried to do a bit of research when I had the chances. But my problem was my age..." She growled out 'age' before she was able to smooth out her tone. "More over, by the time I was old enough to be allowed to do anything the tracks had gone cold. I couldn't find anything back then, but thank the Holocaust for that."
"That could have been part of what turned Brauner," Jonathan pointed out. "Millions of people died... I mean maybe if there's time we can root through the library and find a more detailed death record there. You look at the Demon Castle Wars, it was a blend of European and Asian traditions that allowed for the seal to even work. But there 'was' also this whole demonic castle as part of it. Brauner may have escaped the camps, but that's a lot of Romany, Muslim, physically disabled, mentally ill, you name them, the Holocaust also killed a good melting pot of people. I can imagine Brauner found his way accidentally to some type of magical artifact."
"Yeah, Camilla only became a problem because a poor witch got her spells crossed and got that crazed vampire." John agreed with a faint nod, "And Camilla was all over the country, perhaps that's something the clans can do now. Find and seal away all these magical objects."
"Oh the Church is going to 'love' us doing that. I mean that's 'their' side hustle," Sam noted with a sigh.
"Actually," Eric voiced thoughtfully. "Perhaps they have whatever turned Brauner... I mean they must have been doing that. Why else keep the Pope in the Vatican all the time? They might need him to stay there to keep everything subdued..."
"And its not like they trust us, I mean they keep Yoko around yeah, but no one in a position of power likes to share it." Max agreed as she took in a deep breath. "I want hot cider... I want hot cider and a comfy rocking chair and a nap. Are we in the right castle?"
"Indiana Jones..." Charlotte suddenly spoke up, her voice a bit thoughtful and curious. "And not just that movie either, was it possible that they were? Maybe that's how Brauner got turned, by some item that they had."
"Possible, but also again in the... Vatican..." Jonathan replied as a frown crossed his face. 'No, the items couldn't be turning people could it?' They couldn't visit into the Vatican grounds despite their bodies having been consigned to the grounds...
"What do you think we'll find in the Labs?" Alexis finally asked breaking into the growing silence.
"Whatever we find, so long as these people 'can' move, they should be lead to the front of the castle. My spells are anchored... as much as I can anchor anything as a dead person, but Alucard found me and was able to pull my spells into place on his own." Charlotte sighed, "He seems to have learned and adapted my spells for his use.. Not that it will last long he warned. Said that the people we send there would start to get ill after a time."
"Yeah, strange to think that so recently the castle was a demonic entity and now its been stripped of that in less than a decade." John noted as he glanced over at some paintings.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Alchemy Lab \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Expansive, stairs rose up leading a person to platforms that hosted tables that had people resting on them. Visible from even the door, people were strapped down to various tables, with saws and other horrific instruments looming over their prone forms. Everything was clean though, despite the horrible places the people were left at. The sterile, white floors were duly swept, the soft shade of blue toned walls were clean as well. With the whole area seeming strangely absent of any of the usual servants or protectors of the area. Unlike the garden where Alura and Jane were stationed, and the probability that Fuzzy ate the staff. There wasn't anyone here that could count as a castle employee, butlers or maids, or... well who knew what Soma would put in a lab.
Everyone scattered to reach a bound prisoner, bounding across the floor to reach stairs or table side. More than one hunter was grateful for the still living humans they found, several wide eyed and scared. The tables had straps to hold a person down as well as a neck brace that kept the prisoner from looking from side to side.
"Oh my God are you human? You look human!"
It was a question borne of understandable desperation from multiple people in various languages. Whimpering and sobs punctured the air as well from other tables that the hunters couldn't reach immediately.
"Did you wake up like this?" Alexis asked confused as she looked at the bound woman at the table shes stood over. Dark skin and stubbornly trying to act like she 'wasn't' scared, the woman tried to shrug. Only to have her straps remind her that she couldn't at the moment.
"No, woke up in a nice room in a chair with a maid offering me spiced wine out of hand. Would have drank it if I didn't realize she was a freaking zombie!" The woman began, her fear channeled into annoyance. "Tried to find our way out of this crazy place and this guy claimed he found a way out... That he came 'looking to help other lost people'. Nope, don't ask me how I ended up on this table. We... I don't remember..."
"I got tired... Suddenly I remember that, jus' so sleepy, then wake up here..." a voice from the platform above called out. "I remember waking up in the same room, delicious cider than that man... He is here no?" Heavily accented English called down adding to the story.
The straps were little more than straps of leather and buckles that held each person down. But thankfully also were easily removable. Though it was peculiar that none of the servants had released the prisoners, given Soma's will...
But where 'were' the servants?
"Uh, you haven't seen anyone roaming around here freely have you?" Sam asked, "even if they don't look entirely human?" The question was futile he even knew it before the middle aged woman at the table shook her head. The people were kept from looking around, so the servants could have formed a conga line and danced through the room and no one would have seen it.
"Heh," Charlotte chuckled as she looked down at the small petri dish. Mold and fungus laid out in little dishes and causing the witch to shake her head in amusement.
"I.. Everyone I found the staff for this area..." John called out, his voice slightly tensed with displeasure. It drew the attention of both his fellow spirits and the living members of their clans, but the living had to free the bound.
"Oooh..." it was the only sound Stella made as she and her sister joined the elder Morris.
John was on another platform also elevated from the others and with a slight border that made anything spilling off difficult to accomplish. There was two shelves resting on the platform pushed up against the wall. Loaded with books with leather bound spines, but also a few more modern editions as well. Discarded on this platform floor were a number of zombies from maids to animals, their bodies dismembered and cut open. Anything with a hinge or ball joint was removed and scattered about, clothes were damaged, ripped to the waist or removed.
"What the hell?" Jonathan asked as he and Charlotte up to the platform. He looked over all the zombies, trying to figure out what the lunatic had tried to accomplish.
Fingers were crawling, caterpillar style, muscles were visibly moving even if the limb wasn't. One series of fingers were writhing about a palm creating a strange feeling that they were trying to turn around properly...
'Are they pulling themselves back together?' Charlotte had recoiled in shock, grateful that she couldn't get sick from the horrible sight before her.
"Do you think, perhaps, they are attempting to pull themselves back together?" Loretta unknowingly echoed Charlottes' thought, after a moment of closer examination of one cut. Clean slices, not the savaging bites of a beast, the ground was clean of any blood of careless chunks of flesh. After all, zombies weren't always filled with blood, and it made sense the area could be clean.
"You think someone was dissecting them? For what..." Eric began as he rose up to the platform.
Loretta looked up to answer her father only to see his gaze move about, "yes father. I believe so..."
"Believe?" Jonathan asked turning from the rolling of a cut out eye rolling slowly towards a petite head of long black hair.
"That whoever did this was practicing on the zombies and could very well be moving on to the living soon." Eric answered for himself and his daughter.
"The world doesn't really 'need' a Lord of Darkness, humanity can do that just fine..." Jonathan snarked as he shook his head in disgust. "I'll let the others know to brace for a possible guest, keep an eye on whatever doors the room has and give a shout if someone starts coming in."
"Yes, sir. Whatever happened to respecting your elders?" John good naturedly mocked as he leaned back at his son's orders.
"I didn't see you taking charge old man," Jonathan retorted as he floated off to the living.
"What happened to respecting your elders?" John repeated this time turning his gaze towards Eric, but got no sympathy from that quarter either.
"Well, you're American, and everyone knows Americans are not good with respect or manners," Eric smartly.
"Some Americans are, father," Loretta pointed out.
"Just not certain Texans..." Stella followed her sister with an amused grin on her face before she went to investigate the walls they hadn't seen. Seeking out any potential doors that the person who did this could come in from. The tables here 'did' looked riffled with, and while she wasn't a doctor or a nurse in life or knowledgeable in death. 'Now I have an idea as to why the servants weren't trying to help the prisoners here...'
"But if they've been dismembered... How do we guide the everyone to the front of the castle?" Alex asked as Jonathan filled them in.
"From my heart and from my hands, why don't people understand, my intentions," Max sang under her breath as she looked about the room. Everything looked clean, because no one living had been hurt 'yet'. "We take this guy out and we should be able to get a maid or someone to help out."
"You want us to follow a zombie? Girl you crazy..."
"Look we need to get all of you out of the castle and if the servants can help out we need to take it," Max pointed out as she unstrapped the woman's wrist.
"You know what's going on around here?" A man asked as he followed the steps from his platform down to the ground. He was dressed in slacks and a button on, The sleeves had been rolled up and the top button had been undone, giving the brunette the look of pulling a later nighter.
"Is that those sick cultists?" The group of prisoners were congregating at the foot of the stairs and looked up at the pair as they were releasing the last of the people.
"You need to be quiet, this place is dangerous if you've forgotten," Alexis replied her voice low and firm. "You're not the only people here so keep your heads on straight."
"But what do we do now?" A random voice asked, concern and fear keeping her voice quiet as well.
"We get you out of here..."
"That's what the last guy said..." Several voices noted from the group the loudest being a fiery red head. "We trusted that guy and we ended up here, why should we trust you?"
"You got a point and I wish I could tell you, but let's be frank here for a moment," Sam answered as he began descending down from the last platform. "We don't have time, you don't have to go all the way to the front of the castle alone right now. But you can't stay in the lab here. But if you stay outside you need to stay there until we deal with the guy who brought you here."
'I can't just say they can trust the servants. After all Janes' turned into a Dark Child and its not like Soma can assign name tags on his actual employees...' Sam thought, but the automatic distrust didn't bode well for how the rest of this mission was going to go. People were dying, safe spots for the rescued were few, far between, and possibly dwindling if Soma was still in decline.
While Charlotte and the sisters hovered beside a shelf, large and filled with medical sounding books. From thick volumes of dyed leather to glossy white with black fonts, it was a sign of how far the castle could reach through time for information. Making how the library look with its storehouse of book an interesting question.
But it wasn't the books that got the women's attention. Sputtering gargling sounds could be heard from the other side of the books. Suggesting a hidden door, or the shelf...
"Ah yes, see? The floor is clean true, but if you get close," Loretta noted quietly, pointing to the slightest signs of dust that had been missed.
"The shelf was slid into place, however its full of books and undoubtedly heavy," Stella followed up thoughtfully. "So whoever has also been gifted by their arrival here..."
"And playing Jekyll..." Charlotte added with a frown, a deep one as she noted how the bottom of the shelf had a visibly noticeable darker than the rest of the wood. However being dead herself she couldn't exactly check further as to possibly causes. "Goes with what they were saying about being 'helped' by someone and trapped here..."
"Indeed, if the castle is running with that idea though, we at least have an idea of what our families are about to face..." Loretta noted before floating through the books to check on the other side.
This room, unlike the others, was the most like how she recalled the castle when she visited. Bloody violence from wall to wall, the monsters were strewn about their limbs removed and blood pooled on the floor. The maids and skeletons outside were clearly the practice dummies to what followed in here.
While in the center appeared a seemingly ordinary man. Save that he must have gotten all this massive parts on the tables somehow and by himself...