[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Novel - Episode 26] Mother's Final Words
The central clock did not stop when the thirteenth chime had finished.
Its hands pointed to a time that did not exist and slowly completed one more revolution. The black marble wall split apart to either side, revealing the vertical passage hidden behind it. At the heart of the inverted castle, the stairway climbed toward the ceiling, and at its end waited a round door marked with no crest at all.
With each step Alucard climbed, the five relics were drawn further into him.
The Ring bound the other four pulses together. The Rib tried to settle along his own ribs, and the Heart beat in time with the one in his chest. The Tooth filled his jaw and fingers with strength, while the Eye in its dark vial strained to see beyond the door even through a shuttered gaze.
He stopped halfway up the stairs.
The wound in his left shoulder no longer pumped blood out properly. The cloth had dried black, and his arm hung heavy at his side. His armor had lost both pauldrons and one side plate, and the backplate was caved inward. Only a single heavy sword remained in his hand.
Even so, the relics kept pressing him upward.
Alucard pressed a hand to the inner pocket of his coat.
"I am the one who walks."
The low words scattered into the hollow space of the stairwell.
He climbed again.
When he stood before the round door, all five relics leapt at once. There was neither lock nor handle upon it. But when their pulses overlapped three times, a red line split open at the center of the black stone. It spread in the shapes of rib, eye, tooth, heart, and ring, then sank inward.
The door opened.
The chamber was more orderly than any other place in the castle. No dust or blood stained the black marble floor, and the candles set along the walls did not waver by so much as a single flame. At the center stood a round altar, above which six green orbs floated at even intervals.
Between them stood an old man in black priestly robes.
Shaft looked over Alucard's wounds and his sword in turn, then smiled.
"I knew you would come this far. The master's son should be capable of at least this much."
Alucard stopped before the altar.
"The one who controlled Richter."
"Just so. Set those who claim to destroy evil with holy power against one another, and even the strongest hunter will erase himself. No one else could have defeated that Belmont, so I seated him on the throne and removed him as a threat."
"You failed."
Shaft's smile widened a little. "Did I?"
With that answer, the six orbs moved all at once.
Two rose to the ceiling and kindled red fire. Two dropped near the floor and began to ricochet rapidly. The remaining pair spread to either side of Alucard and cast blue currents toward one another.
The first bolt of lightning tore across the room.
Alucard dropped low, but one of the rebounding orbs struck his side. The orb that had bounced off the opposite wall came back at once and slammed into his backplate. He pitched forward and brought up his sword. Above him, the red orbs flew toward the walls and collided.
Flame burst upward in the shape of a cross.
Four pillars of fire raced along floor and wall from the crossing point. Alucard did not search for an opening. Before the pillars intersected, he dissolved into mist and passed through the center. As he took form again, the orbs at his sides traded places and spun another line of lightning.
Shaft did not move directly.
He drifted over the altar as though sliding on air, changing only the rhythm of the orbs with his fingers. Before the flames had even died, the two rebounding orbs were already skipping between floor and ceiling, and the lines of lightning cut off Alucard's retreat. The six were not independent weapons. They worked in pairs, yet at a single gesture from Shaft they changed roles.
Alucard cut straight for the priest.
Just before the tip reached him, two orbs slipped between them. The impact rang through his wrist like striking metal, and another pair kindled fire behind him. While attacking Shaft, he lost track of the orbs' positions. A pillar of flame scorched his right leg and the side of his armor.
Shaft laughed.
"The blood within you is already answering. What you gathered was never a weapon. It is a door."
The pulses of the five relics locked into the altar's rhythm.
Alucard felt something inside his chest being drawn forward. The Heart tried to tear through the cloth, and the vial holding the Eye swung at his waist toward the altar. When he took a step back, the orbs closed around him again.
Shaft was not merely waiting for him to collapse from exhaustion.
He was buying time until the relics matched the altar's rhythm completely.
Alucard lowered his sword.
The next fire orb flew toward the wall. He did not watch the point of impact; he watched Shaft's hands. When the right forefinger dipped, the fire spread in a cross. When the left hand folded, the angle of the rebounding orbs narrowed. When both hands faced each other, the lightning pair aligned in parallel.
He had to sever the hands that conducted them, not the orbs themselves.
But if he approached Shaft, the six orbs would block his body.
Alucard deliberately did not avoid one pillar of fire. Flame rising from the right swallowed the remaining side plate of his armor. The metal glowed red, and the smell of burning flesh rose with it. Instead of twisting away in pain, he stepped one pace deeper into the fire.
The orbs had already moved to their next positions.
It was the opposite of the direction Shaft expected him to evade.
With the tip of his sword, Alucard cut the strap of the burning side plate. The red-hot piece of metal dropped to the floor and bounced, changing the path of one ricocheting orb. The orb struck the wall sooner than expected and shot between the pair that had been forming lightning.
Three orbs collided.
Blue current exploded near the altar. For the first time, Shaft's body lurched. In that opening, Alucard turned to mist and slipped through the remaining orbs. Reforming on the altar, he drove in a short thrust.
Blood spilled from Shaft's side.
The smile vanished from the old man's face. All six orbs flushed red at once and began ricocheting through the entire room. Order collapsed, but their speed increased. One struck Alucard's shoulder, another his knee, and another a pair of cracked glasses. The lenses shattered completely and scattered across the floor.
Alucard did not shield his eyes.
The vial of the Eye was still closed, yet the gaze within forced the trajectories of every orb into his sight. Too many possibilities overlapped at once, and pain split through his skull. Every path could avoid death, and every path could lead to it.
He did not choose the safest path.
He chose the shortest path to Shaft.
He deflected the first orb with the flat of his blade. He let the second pass by at the cost of his shoulder. When the third aimed for his knee, he loosened into mist for only half a beat, then returned. When the fourth came from behind, he kicked off the altar's pillar and spun his body around.
The heavy sword slashed diagonally across Shaft's chest.
The old man staggered back, but did not fall. He raised both hands and drew the remaining orbs together. Red fire, blue lightning, and black impact fused into a single mass above the altar.
Alucard raised his sword.
Light burst outward.
The shock snuffed every candle in the room. Black marble split, and part of the wall collapsed. Alucard was driven back on one knee across the floor. Feeling vanished from his right hand, and the sword's tip was buried deep in stone.
Shaft stood at the center of the altar.
His robes were torn, and black blood flowed from the wound in his chest. Three of the six orbs had shattered, and the rest hovered near the floor, drained of light.
"Cast off the weak blood of man," he said, dragging in breath, "and you could become the one to remake this world."
Alucard pulled his sword free. "That blood is what brought me here."
He straightened his shaking legs and walked the last distance.
Shaft hurled the remaining orbs, but their force was no longer the same. Alucard evaded one and split another with his sword. The last struck him in the chest. His body rocked, but his feet did not stop.
The blade pierced the priest's body.
A short breath escaped Shaft's mouth. Clutching the sword, he smiled.
"Whoever draws near the fire is bound to burn. But the door has opened."
Red light surged up from beneath the altar.
The five relics tore through cloth, glass, and metal and were dragged out into the open. Ring, Rib, Heart, Tooth, and Eye rose into the air between Alucard and Shaft. He reached for them, but they were already passing into the circle of the altar.
Shaft's body was engulfed in black flame.
"The Count will wash this rotten world clean in the fire of chaos."
The flames swallowed his laughter and his body together. Alucard tore his sword free and ran for the relics, but the space at the altar's center collapsed into blackness. A deep hole opened there, belonging neither to floor nor wall.
From within it came the sound of a gigantic heart.
With a single beat, the room broke apart.
Alucard fell downward. Black wind coiled around his body, and the five relics vanished into the darkness before him. He tried to become a bat and arrest his fall, but the space itself dragged his wings downward.
When his feet touched ground, there was nothing around him.
In the middle of endless darkness, only a crimson throne floated. Before it stood a black figure. Long hair, a high collar, the bearing of an old aristocrat. The face Alucard had most wished never to see again slowly turned toward him.
"My son."
Dracula's voice was clearer than the memory that had spoken from within the relics.
"It has been a long time."
Alucard did not lower his sword.
"I had hoped we would never meet again. I cannot allow you to leave this place."
Dracula's eyes narrowed.
"Do you still stand with mankind? Have you forgotten what they did to your mother?"
Alucard's left hand trembled for an instant. The light of the execution pyre and his mother's voice passed through him. He did not tighten his grip on the hilt again. He left the unmoving hand as it was.
"I have not forgotten. But neither have I chosen revenge."
"You still speak the same folly. Cast away the weak part of you that is human. Stand at my side, and let us remake this world."
Alucard looked into his father's face.
"In my mother's name, I will stop you again."
Behind Dracula's body, the black cloak spread wide.
It was not cloth. The cloak opened to either side and transformed into a massive body of giant claws, three monstrous heads, and flesh and bone knotted together. Dracula's upper body rose at the center like a throne, and his hands grew large enough to cover half the chamber.
The first claw came down.
Alucard leapt aside. The second swept across his retreat, and the third and fourth raked the ground in turn. Black wind rose between the giant fingers. He slipped beneath the wrist and swung his sword. The blade tore the cloak-flesh, but the wound was quickly filled again with darkness.
Dracula raised one hand.
A giant raven-shaped fiend appeared in midair. Before it could even spread its wings, it was crushed between two hands. Black blood and feathers turned to light and were drawn into Dracula's chest.
"Do you still feed your strength with the deaths of other beings?"
Without answering Alucard's words, Dracula withdrew behind darkness. The distance suddenly widened. A vast sphere of energy gathered before his chest.
The Eye showed him the center of that light.
Alucard did not close his eyes. This time the relic was outside his body, within the shape of his father. What it showed him was not only his father's attack, but dozens of scenes in which he himself was struck down by it.
He did not choose one among them.
The instant the sphere fired, he became mist and flowed aside. The light carved through the dark floor and passed on. As the mist unraveled, the three monstrous heads lunged out in sequence. The first attacked with fangs, the second with horns, the third with a burning tongue.
Alucard rolled beneath the first head. He guided aside the second horn with the back of his blade, and when the third opened its mouth, he drove the sword deep inside. The head shrieked and recoiled.
The three heads drew back and formed a triangle.
Between them, fragments of light were born. Four transparent triangles overlapped one another and flew toward him. The first came from above, the second from below, and the others spun to seal both sides.
Alucard started to rise as a bat, then stopped. The upper fragment was already aiming for his wings. He ran low in human form, passed beneath the first shard, vaulted the second, and at the instant the third and fourth crossed, dissolved into mist.
But claws were waiting where the mist would reform.
A giant hand struck his side. His body flew through the darkness and crashed into the ruins of the throne. The sword flew from his hand.
Dracula's laughter rolled low through the void.
Alucard tried to rise, but his left arm would not move. His right leg also trembled from lightning and impact. The five relics were beating in perfect rhythm within his father's body. The Ring linked the movements of cloak, hands, and heads; the Rib supported the giant frame; the Heart sealed the wounds in darkness. The Tooth gave force to claw and fang, and the Eye read Alucard's position before he moved.
Everything he had gathered was completing his father's body.
Alucard looked at the sword on the ground.
His father's Eye already knew he meant to reclaim it. The claw moved first.
He did not go for the sword.
He rolled the other way and slipped beneath the claw. Dracula's gaze wavered for an instant. The Eye could see possible movements, but not a choice without reason. With empty hands, Alucard seized one of the giant fingers and climbed.
The strength housed in the Tooth surged through the finger joints.
He did not use that strength to break the hand. Instead, he tore the cloak-tissue between the fingers and made footholds. Dracula shook his hand, and Alucard's body swayed as if it would fall. He became mist, passed through the back of the hand, and reformed to run up the arm.
The three heads attacked.
He sprang over the first head's fangs and onto its neck, stepped on the second horn to gain height, and before fire could pour from the third mouth, turned into a bat and flew close to Dracula's true body.
Dracula reached out with his own hand.
Alucard folded his wings and dropped. The hand closed above his head. Falling, he returned to human form and stretched his hand toward the sword embedded in the ground.
This time he seized it before the Eye could catch up.
The instant he pulled the sword free, a claw came down. Alucard did not evade; he raised the blade. The impact ran up his right arm into his shoulder. The heavy sword trembled as though it might bend, but it did not break.
He did not try to push the claw away.
He let the force slide aside and drove the fingers into the ground. Stepping on them, he leapt upward again. Dracula's chest was before him.
The five relics shone within it.
Alucard did not thrust his sword into the Heart. The Heart had driven poison and curses from him and saved his life more than once. The Rib, the Ring, the Tooth, and the Eye were parts of his father, but they were also proof of the dangers and choices he had borne to come this far.
Instead of destroying the relics, he cut the center that bound them.
A single black line connected the five relics to one another. It was the knot made by Shaft's will. When the blade severed that line, their pulses fell out of step.
Dracula's body lurched violently.
The Rib could no longer hold the giant frame together, and the Heart lost the rhythm that sealed its wounds. The futures shown by the Eye blurred as they overlapped. The Tooth's strength clashed between claw and fang.
As he fell, Alucard slashed through the cloak-tissue again and again.
The claws swung once more, but slower than before. The three heads formed their triangle, yet the shards of light struck one another and shattered. Dracula withdrew behind darkness and began to form a massive sphere.
This time Alucard reached him before the light was complete.
As a bat he tore through the dark, as mist he passed through the first impact, then returned to human form and gripped the sword in both hands. His left hand had almost no feeling left, but it still held the final line of the strike.
The blade pierced Dracula's chest.
The vast cloak stopped.
The claws and monstrous heads collapsed into black ash. The shape of the throne and the darkness that had filled the giant body guttered out one by one. In the end, only the body of a single man remained, impaled on the sword.
Alucard pulled the blade free and stepped back.
"Return to your rest. Trouble my mother's soul no more."
Dracula looked down at his own chest.
"Why? Why have I been defeated again?"
"You were defeated the moment you cast away the ability to love."
The faintest trace of a smile touched Dracula's mouth. Whether it was mockery or self-reproach, Alucard could not tell.
"Then if one gains the world and loses the soul, what remains?"
Alucard did not answer.
Dracula lifted his head. They were no longer the eyes of a king, but of the man who had once been a woman's husband.
"What were Lisa's last words?"
For a long while, Alucard could not speak.
The voice that had begged him not to hate humans even in the flames. The plea that if they could not live together, they should at least do no harm. The woman who had said their lives were already hard enough. The mother who, even before death, had not withdrawn her love from her husband.
He gave those words to his father.
The last strength left Dracula's face.
"Lisa... forgive me."
His body began to scatter into ash of light. With a fading face, Dracula looked at his son. "Farewell, my son."
Alucard lowered his sword and remained there until the very end. "Farewell, Father."
Where Dracula vanished, the five relics fell. This time they returned to no one's body. The Ring cracked, the Rib turned to dust, the Heart beat once and stopped. The Tooth split and broke, and the Eye closed like an ordinary eye with all its light gone.
The castle's bond was severed.
Above the dark chamber came the sound of a colossal rupture. The distinction between ceiling and floor collapsed, and the towers of the Reverse Castle and the spires of the normal castle split apart together. Bracing his sword at his side, Alucard ran through the collapsing passageways. Alternating between bat and mist, he passed through falling stone and flame. As he crossed the final doorway, the central clock shattered behind him.
Dawnlight lay over forest and lake.
The castle folded in on itself like two shadows devouring one another. The great towers collapsed into mist and at last left no trace behind.
Richter and Maria were waiting by the lakeshore.
Maria started running first, then slowed when she saw Alucard's wounds. Richter bowed his head, the whip coiled at his waist.
"Shaft?"
"He was swallowed by the power he summoned." When Alucard's answer ended, Richter's hand stiffened on the whip.
"I'm sorry. Because of me, you had to fight your father again."
Alucard looked toward the place where the ruined castle had stood.
"I had my own reason to finish it."
Richter looked at his bare shoulder and the clothes stiff with dried blood.
"It must have been painful."
"It was." Alucard watched the fading afterimage of the fallen castle, then spoke again after a moment.
"All evil needs to triumph is for those who can stop it to do nothing."
Richter slowly nodded. Beside him, Maria, who had been silent, asked Alucard,
"Where will you go now?"
Alucard looked at his own hand. Even after the Tooth was gone, the memory of the strength that had wanted to crush remained in his fingers. Though the Heart had stopped, an echo of his father's pulse still lingered in one side of his chest. The cursed blood had not vanished.
"My blood is too dangerous to remain in this world. It is better if I never return."
Maria's lips moved, but no words came.
Alucard gave Richter a short bow.
"Farewell."
He turned and walked toward the forest.
He had no cloak, and no pauldrons remained on either shoulder. All he had left was a single sword and wounds that had not closed. Yet his steps were lighter than when he had entered the Reverse Castle. The five relics no longer drove his body onward, and no alien gaze looked ahead in his place.
From behind him came Richter's voice.
"Maria, are you sure it's all right not to follow him?"
After a brief silence, another set of footsteps entered the forest.
"I can't let him vanish from my life."
Richter did not stop her.
Alucard did not look back. Maria's footsteps were still distant, but they did not stop. Dawnlight streamed long between the branches, and over the lake only the mist remained where the castle had stood, slowly scattering away.
Deep in the forest, a bird cried out.
It was not a bell, nor a whip, nor the wings of the dead.
It was the first living sound to be heard after the end of the night.
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