Castlevania Nocturne: A Sneak Peak

Sneak Peak: Aftermath

The light returned to a dreary dawn.

Emma watched the eclipse pass from the shadows on the ground, wrapped in a blanket huddled in the corner of a crumbled fortress. So much for eternal night. She thought bleakly. Maybe she isn't as strong as we thought. Emma wanted to claw herself for thinking such a thing. Erzsebet was powerful enough to utterly thwart their plans, and take one of her own.

From her shaded corner Emma observed the remainder of her family brooding among the ruined foundations. She focused mainly on Lyudmil brushing his horse's mane and Maria staring listlessly onto the countryside.

"Why not keep the world in darkness forever and destroy it all at once?" Annette watched the sunlight return over Machecoul. "She must have exhausted her power.We should attack again now while she's weak."

"She's not weak."Alucard paced into view, dark and silent as a phantom. Emma still couldn't swallow her father's mere presence. After being absent from her life for over a century, seeing him in the flesh felt like a surreal dream."I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner. Who did you lose?"

"Her mother." Richter turned to Maria. "Though she's not exactly dead." Maria didn't acknowledge him, or even turn his way. She hadn't spoken since fleeing from the Abbey, when she cried into Emma's arms revealing everything that happened.

She's in shock. Emma presumed. I know the feeling too well. A lump formed in Emma's throat. She was still coming to grips with what happened at the Abbey. Tera sacrificed her own humanity to save her daughter in a valiant and selfless act. Emma knew a mother's love better than anyone else, save for the angel huddled beside her.

Her heart ached for her descendant. To lose her mother in such a way...Emma could only hope Tera would remember the humanity within the way Vance, and eventually her own son did.

"I'm sorry. I know how she feels." Alucard sympathized.

Mizrak appeared in the sunlight carrying a dead goose and a cup of water. Lyudmil bristled at the Abbot's former knight with a loathing glare. Emma shot him a firm look, and Lyudmil begrudgingly avoided the monk.

"I found a well. There are places we can sleep which are dry enough. There's a hearth, too, where we can light a fire and cook." Mizrak ignored the vampire. It was a miracle Amalie stopped both of them from killing each other on sight, threatening Mizrak by personally sending him to God if he hurt Lyudmil, while warning her vampire grandson she'd smack him so hard he'd get his memory back if he did the same. Emma didn't approve of that, her son suffered enough punishment under Erzsebet.

It was an easy truce, the holy knight and turncoat vampire shared a common enemy. Both agreed to avoid each other unless necessary.

"Thanks, Mizrak." Richter said. Mizrak offered Alucard water, who took it.

"How much do you know about Erzsebet Bathory?" Alucard handed the cup over to his wife, brushing his daughter's hair as he passed. Amalie shared with Emma, who eagerly drank .

"She's a horrible two-faced she-demon with the power of the Egyptian Goddess of War." Lyudmil snarled hatefully.

"Which apparently is a lot of fսcking power." Richter added.

Alucard shot a glance at Amalie, who nodded and telepathically urged Emma to drink more. "I went to find the source of it. Her power." He recalled. "Perhaps it would be a key to a weakness. A way to destroy her. I found a temple half-buried in the Egyptian desert. Half temple, half tomb, in fact. Sekhmet's tomb."

Emma jerked her chin up and stared rigidly at her father. She remembered her dream from a few nights ago, where she saw through her father's eyes as he ventured into an ancient tomb, cutting down every vampire standing in his way only to find an empty sarcophagus. That was the innate bond between vampire sire and child, though it went deeper, with Alucard being Emma's sire in the truest sense.

"You mean the goddess is dead?". Annette asked in disbelief.

"Dead for thousands of years." Alucard said. "Her blood, however, is still stored in the temple. Goddess blood stays fresh, I suppose."

"Supernova blood." Emma murmured to her mother. "Why would they keep it?"

"So that one day, Sekhmet could return to Earth and rule again, as she did at the dawn of time." Alucard answered. "Which meant someone drinking the blood. Someone it would not destroy."

"Erzsebet." Annette tensed.

"She's very powerful." grimaced Richter. "I threw everything I had at her, but she brushed it aside. We had to run. Do you have a plan?"

All eyes fixed on Alucard. "An Egyptian deity has two souls, called the ba and the ka." Alucard explained flexing his hands. "The first is present in the blood." He put a palm to his chest. "The second is in the goddess's heart, which is preserved in her mummy."

"She gave her heart to her mother?" Richter puzzled bewildered.

"Oy vey."Amalie muttered under her breath. Emma shrugged embarrassed.

"It's an ancient pagan practice. A preserved desiccated corpse." Explained Mizrak.

"Oh. Uh, sounds lovely." Richter blinked.

"But are grounds for hope." Alucard continued. "Centuries ago, the mummy was stolen. Drolta was Sekhmet's High Priestess and did everything she could to conceal this fact. I spent the last few months tracking it, the tomb robbers, their descendants, across Africa and then to Europe, finally, France. I believe it's in Paris now, where I must go to destroy it." He turned to the young hunter. "And I could use some help, Richter. You're a Belmont, after all."

Maria turned to Richter in a livid glare.