I stood up with more energy than Dracula had been able to muster in years, my body moving with frantic motion. The answers lay in my study. Which brought up a new question: where even was my study? Fortunately, it was not a question I had to ponder for long. My feet began to move at once, leading me away from the throne room and up a set of stairs that had coincidentally appeared where there had been none.
"Isaac, Hector, attend me at once," I called out, with an air of command as I began to walk forward, and my ever-loyal Forgemasters followed after me at once. Despite how strange my character must be, despite everything, they followed without a word.
Castlevania was alive. Not literally in the sense that organic beings were, but in its own way, it lived. The steam pipes that ran through the entire castle were its veins and arteries. Its heart was the engine that housed the core of the castle. The further I walked, the more doubt tried to slip into my mind. However, like fear, doubt didn't seem to be an emotion vampires were fond of. Unlike fear, though, I could feel the slightest trickle of it, which meant it was not completely cut off and atrophied like my sense of fear.
Instead of allowing myself to think too hard on the very clear and obvious possibility that my plans were very likely to fail, I distracted myself by questioning my Forgemasters.
"Where are my forces?"
There was a brief silence before Isaac replied. "You ordered them into hibernation since you got married to Lisa Tepes. When we arrived at the castle, you said you would awaken them after the war council was convened."
I hummed at the new information Isaac had supplied. I knew I was not doing myself any favors by asking questions Dracula should have known. Questions that I did know, but simply didn't have the patience to sit back and find by sifting through the ocean of Dracula's memories.
So I continued my questioning. "And the night creatures?"
This time Hector was the one to reply, and there was none of the previous hesitation, indicating they were either getting used to the strangeness of answering questions I should already know the answer to, or it was a report they had not had the chance to give me.
"We've only just begun creating them. Between the both of us, we have a dozen total that have been made. If you need us to hurry things up, I'm sure—"
I immediately raised a hand to forestall the suggestion.
"There is no need for that, Hector."
My feet finally came to a stop. This was not just any other part of the castle. This was my study, and past these doors was another entrance that would lead to the heart of the castle. I had asked about my soldiers and the night creatures to get a better sense of the time frame I had to work with. So far, it seemed like Isaac and Hector had just gotten here. If they'd only been able to scrounge up a dozen night creatures, especially compared to the thousands they had unleashed upon Wallachia by the start of canon, then that meant I had at minimum six months to get out of Wallachia before I was forced to make truth of Dracula's promise. And I felt it.
Even with all the knowledge from the show about how futile and wasted the slaughter of Targoviste as well as the rest of Wallachia was, somehow I knew if I remained here until then, I would regret it because I would be compelled to follow through on that threat. However, despite how scattered and wild Dracula's original attack had been, he had managed to accomplish something important. The death of the bishop that had led the attack, abduction, and subsequent burning of Lisa Tepes.
My fists automatically clenched in anger at the image of the bald-headed, self-righteous man who had been the cause of everything wrong that happened in the series. This time, blue eyes would not have the pleasure. Dracula deserved it, and I would give it to him.
I pushed the door to the study open and stepped in, ignored the floating shards of glass, and instead walked even deeper. Past books, a wide mahogany table, and chair, beyond a picture of Lisa hanging over a fireplace. Instead, I stopped at a hidden door that was not there a minute ago, pushed it open, and stepped into the heart of Castlevania.
Here, more than anywhere else, I felt the truth of the world. Of this castle. Magic and technology, working hand in hand. I could see giant gears turning, clanking, and spinning in the background. I could not tell for sure what they did by just looking, but I was certain that whatever it was had to be important. Then alongside that, there was the thick and heavy feeling of magic. One that radiated fiercely off the large floating cube in the middle of the room.
The black cube, sectioned into different parts with bands of gold, hummed quietly with magical power. I recognized it. Right now it was inert. Simply moving power, absorbing and refining it before spreading it around the castle. That was it being dormant. Now that I looked at its sheer complexity, I understood the choice I was making. And I understood more importantly that it was going to work. Yet before I could begin the great work of figuring out how to go about manipulating and configuring the castle to travel to not just other locations but other universes, an act I knew for certain I would have to delve deep into Dracula's memories to uncover, I needed to clarify things with my most trusted.
"I brought you both here to let you know that the plan has changed." At this point, the duo must have grown tired of being surprised, so their reply came quickly.
"What do you mean, Lord Dracula?"
I hummed for a bit, my eyes laser-focused on the floating cube before me. "I shall not be going ahead with the original plan. Humanity shall continue on only because I shall not be here to witness it. I have grown tired of them."
This time the silence was poignant until Isaac decided to break it.
"Are you sure about this, my lord?"
For such a stoic and apathetic man to express such shock...
"You had been certain. We had gathered together for this."
I was suddenly reminded of why Isaac had joined me. This was not the Isaac Dracula had thrown into the desert to spare his own life. Not Isaac who had a riveting and deep conversation with a wise night creature. It was not the Isaac who had gone through a journey of growth and self-realization. No, the Isaac I had by my side was simply a young man who hated humanity enough that when a centuries-old monster asked him for help in genociding his race, he had answered with a yes, and barely a blink of his eyes.
I turned my head to the side and away from the engine that had taken up my focus for the past few minutes, an act that allowed me to look behind myself and the dark-skinned man behind me. The whites of his eyes, the slight opening of his lips, the flare of his nose in surprise. So I gave him a small smile, probably the first I had made in over a year.
"Are you still my friend, Isaac?"
The question stilled the dark-skinned man, and like a dark cloud dispersed by the coming of the sun, his features eased. The worry, surprise, and doubt that plagued him for the past few seconds disappeared in place of his total faith and loyalty in me as he replied.
"Always."
I could feel a weight lift off my shoulders. It had been doubt. Not just my doubt, but Dracula's as well. Isaac seemed as much a son to him as did Alucard.
"And what of you, Hector?"
The gray-haired boy in a man's body blinked surprised eyes at the exchange he had just witnessed.
"Of course, my lord."
I nodded in response.
"So be it then." I turned back to the cube.
"If I may, my lord, what is the plan now?" Hector asked in confusion.
"I'm leaving. Leaving this place, most likely never to return, for if I do, I fear I would slaughter the world to appease the ache in my chest." I admitted to them as much as I did to myself. "So I would ask you this. Would you join me?"
I was not sure why I made the offer. I had a feeling it was some remnant of Dracula, some subconscious part of him that had made the request. Yet I was not averse to it. The plan was to get home. I was not certain how we were going to go about it, but I doubted the duo would hate modern-day Earth that much.
"Of course, my lord," Hector replied immediately.
"You will always have my complete loyalty, Master Dracula, in this life or the next," Isaac finished.
"Good, because I have a job for you, Isaac," I started, the vague plan for revenge taking root in my mind. I doubted Hector could do it, but Isaac was different. Stronger. Faster. Better. He was perfect for what I had in mind.
"You'll travel to Targoviste for me and bring back a certain bishop."
"Of course."
With his agreement, I waved them away. As they left, I sat down on the floor in a cross-legged position and opened myself to Dracula's memories in full as I began to make sense of the engine that sat in the heart of Castlevania. The heartbeat of the castle and the means I would use to travel in search of home.
x
It had taken long months, broken up by only a few hours of rest, where I sat and watched like an observer as Dracula struck the stupid bishop that killed Lisa Tepes bloody. It almost became a routine. An hour or two in which he was beaten within an inch of his life before I left to rest for a few minutes, then went back to the Heart of the castle.
It was with that singular, burning intent and focus that I reached into the core once more.
My hands were stretched forward, my fingers twisted into a shape. But there were no spells spoken. The core was already keyed to me, so I reached out with my will.
The heartbeat of Castlevania pulsed in time with my thoughts. The cube, no longer dormant, began to glow. The bands of gold twisted, clicked, and rotated around the obsidian mass. Glyphs flared into being on its surface, each one ancient and unfamiliar, yet intimately known. Not learned, but remembered. Dracula had built this. Or rather, refined it. The engine had existed long before his birth. A relic from a forgotten age. He had simply bent it to his design.
And now, I would take it further.
I pressed my palm to the air just shy of its surface. The cube responded. Power surged through my arm, linking me to the castle in full. I gasped, nearly buckled from the weight of the connection. Castlevania wasn't a place. It wasn't even a fortress.
It was a machine. A thinking, feeling, half-living bridge. A bridge not just through space, but through possibility. I don't think even Dracula had anticipated what the castle would become from its humble beginnings. He had only ever scratched the surface.
My mind flooded with schematics, dimensional calculations, records of past jumps, locations it had visited, and echoes of other realities it had skimmed across but never dared to anchor in. There were dozens. Hundreds. Some were strange but grounded, other continents, other times. Others were outright alien, shattered timelines, realities where the stars bled green or where the laws of magic had been stripped bare.
But one of them, far in the distance, was vaguely familiar. I was not quite sure it was home, but it was more familiar than here. My time was running out. Since I had kicked out the vampires, they had been making a mess of things. But that was no longer my business. What remained my business was the fact that I had been locked in here for over seven months.
So I reached for it like a drowning man reaching for air. And Castlevania, understanding that I didn't seek conquest or war like I previously did, but only to escape, began to shift in kind.
Metal groaned. Gears twisted. The floating cube rose higher, rotating faster. Sparks of red lightning danced in the chamber's high ceiling as the castle responded. The air thickened with ozone and old blood.
A memory sparked, Sypha speaking to Alucard about locking down Castlevania. "Magic is changing things according to intent." Her intent had been to lock down Dracula's castle, to summon it to the Belmont Hold and stop it from teleporting away. But I was different from the blonde-haired Speaker in that regard. My intent was vastly simpler. I wanted to get the hell out of here.
There was a crack of thunder and a displacement of air, and the castle that had stood outside Wallachia for the past few years disappeared from sight. Peasants nearby would be the only ones to observe and notice that, unlike the first time the castle had appeared, this time it vanished in an explosion of red lightning.