Snake Secret

  The battle for Dracula's castle was over. The Aetherius Militum now took over the post-battle tasks - sweeping the entire area, tending to the wounded, recovering the dead and cleaning up. The Umbra Venatores accompanied me back to the main camp, carrying their own fallen. Three more coffins followed.

  When we arrived before the Cardinal Inquisitor, he greeted us as heroes and held a triumphal ceremony for those who had defeated evil and to honour the lives lost in the dark night. For me, it was nothing but a great interruption. At that moment, I had far more urgent matters to attend to than anything that had happened tonight. But respect had to be paid to those who had fought by my side, so I said nothing.

  After the ceremony, the Cardinal invited me to the main tent, along with Sebastian Belmont, Walter Bernhard and Tiberius Blackthorn - those who had survived the harrowing night in one piece. As he had not summoned Tamamo, I told her to call Stella and bring her as soon as possible, as it was really important.

  Cardinal Lorenzo Visconti wanted to question us about the deaths of the three Inquisitors, the heads of each family of hunters, and how they had been beheaded. I spoke first and said it was Dracula. The three Inquisitors fought bravely against the Dark Lord, but unfortunately, the vampire was a formidable opponent. They died in the line of duty.

  Sebastian and Walter looked at me - they knew it was a lie. Yet they remained silent, simply nodding when asked if my words were true. At the very least, they wanted to preserve the honour of the Van Helsing and Lecarde families for their centuries of service.

  The Cardinal then turned to Tiberius Blackthorn, thanking him for his part in the battle and telling him that he could return home with pride, having honoured the ancient pact of his ancestors. The werewolf bowed his head and left the tent ahead of the rest of us. It seemed he had a long journey home ahead of him, but for him the worst was over.

  The rest of the conversation revolved around Sebastian - how they had not expected to see him here today, how he was being praised for helping in the fight against Dracula, and how he should be proud of upholding his family's legacy, even if he was not the one who struck the final blow.

  They seemed eager to discuss further matters, but I asked to leave early, using the excuse that I needed to tend to my sister, who had also been kidnapped, and check on her health. The Cardinal kindly allowed me to leave.

  When I left the tent, it was Stella who greeted me, and I was a little surprised to see her among the other soldiers of the Catolic Church, considering that she was an important angel. But she simply pointed out that she was just one of the crowd at the moment, so there was no danger of her being discovered. She showed me a path deeper into the forest, a safe place where we could talk in peace. What I hadn't expected was that it would be where she had parked her spaceship, but that wasn't important now. So we gathered around a campfire and she offered us food and water so we could rest while we talked.

  "So, what did you want to talk to Stella about?"

  "You usually do that when she screws up big time, right? Did she do it again?" my sister asked casually as we ate.

  Hearing my sister speak, Stella's eyes widened completely, surprised and frightened at the possible repercussions.

  "No, not this time."

  "But I have many important things to discuss."

  "Please, oh great emperor, speak until your thirst is quenched."

  "I am only a humble servant who..."

  "Stella, how many times have I told you to stop talking like that?"

  "You only make conversations longer than necessary."

  "Oh, I'm so sorry, oh great... um... Cesar."

  "All right, let's start at the beginning."

  "Dracula's castle is not of human origin."

  "It is actually the Great Cathedral of Vaelyra, the Church of Light and Truth."

  "It is an important building in Atlantis, from what I've read, it's where the potion that turned Emperor Orion into a dragon was made."

  "Humans cannot have it. I want it back for my private kingdom."

  "Steal an entire castle? That huge castle in the background that's still full of human soldiers?" Tifa pointed behind her.

  "A difficult task, but not impossible."

  "For the great... sorry, force of habit... for Cesar, such an important ally, we will spare no expense to fulfill his order."

  "I assure you, with the pride of angels at stake, in three days you will see the Great Cathedral of Vaelyra restored to its majestic rightful place," the angel vowed, hand over heart.

  "Still, I have my doubts. How did Dracula end up using that castle?"

  "I mean, I get the whole evil vampire in a castle thing, but why did he choose that one out of so many?" my sister asked casually as she scrolled through her phone. It seemed like the supernatural was no big deal to her anymore.

  "I think I have some information on that," Stella mentioned.

  "Although I was unaware of the Atlantean origin of the castle, I've checked the official church documents on the matter."

  "Dracula's father, Vlad II Dracul, was a king who was part of the court of Sigismund of Luxembourg. Sigismund himself made him a member of the Order of the Dragon."

  "According to secret documents, this was because he was severely wounded during an ambush the Order suffered in a battle against the Ottomans."

  "While fleeing through the forest, he apparently encountered an old sorcerer who lived near the castle's outskirts."

  "Vlad II Dracul paid him with most of his possessions in exchange for his help. The sorcerer agreed and gave him a magic potion that gave him supernatural power - the power of a dragon - to evade his pursuers."

  "That's how he got his title of 'Dragon,' which his son inherited years later."

  "It seems that the war between Sigismund of Luxembourg and the Ottomans continued for several years after that. The Wallachian Kingdom, of which Vlad II Dracul was king, was taken by his enemies, and he had to hand over his two sons as hostages to ensure his people's neutrality in the conflict."

  "His own people considered him a traitor, and he was assassinated in a square by local dissidents while fleeing a new invasion."

  "According to documents from his followers and servants, from the day of the first ambush, Vlad II Dracul began to behave strangely from time to time."

  "Drinking pig's blood, sudden fits of rage, unprovoked fights at parties."

  "As time passed, his health deteriorated somewhat and his strength diminished considerably, which may explain why his kingdom fell to the Ottomans."

  "The ancient wizard was probably the first to find the castle and study it."

  "He must have found some remnants of the original dragons and worked on them for years."

  "The potion he gave to Vlad II was probably nothing more than a prototype, or the first version he created."

  "Which would explain its side effects, like the thirst for blood, and why his son became the monster of legend even before he turned into a vampire."

  "When the son returned from the First Crusade and learned of his wife's death, he sought out the mystical castle his father had told him about and harnessed its supernatural power."

  "Then he simply studied and perfected the formula until he transformed himself into a dangerous vampire."

  "Wait a minute! Didn't Vlad II Dracul and Vlad the Impaler live in the 15th century?"

  "That was 400 years after the First Crusade, which, according to the Belmonts, is when Dracula was created!" my sister said in surprise.

  "Oh, Maria knows history?"

  "Since when are you a historian of medieval Eastern Europe?" I teased her a little.

  "Don't give me too much credit."

  "I just looked it up on my phone, on the Internet."

  "That's because the vampire, Vlad III the Impaler, or Dracula, gained historical significance in the 15th century, when he was already a full-fledged vampire."

  "What the Church did was to shift the dates of events by 400 years to cover up how a 400-year-old man suddenly became king."

  "It was nothing more than a cover-up."

  "This is also why the stories of Vlad II Dracul's youth are so poorly documented - a deliberate error," Stella mentioned.

  "So Dracula, who was a vampire, was also a real dragon?"

  "Wouldn't that make Cesar a...?" asked Tifa, the little fairy, confused.

  "No, I'm not a vampire, thank you," I answered her.

  "There are several races of dragons, in case you hadn't noticed."

  "I am a true dragon. The Dracula I fought would have been a dragon general at best during the war."

  "'Dear God, I think I've mentioned this before, but damn.'"

  "Dragons are brutal, they don't bother with nonsense," my sister said in surprise.

  "Still, what the hell is going on? Why are so many pieces of Atlantis breaking away?"

  "The Ariandel Crypt in Costa Rica, the Great Cathedral of Vaelyra in Romania, the Celestial Forge is also missing from the floating continent..."

  "I was there during the fall of Atlantis, but why are such crucial pieces of Atlantis so conveniently missing?"

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  "........"

  "And speaking of coincidences, that brings me to my next point."

  "That girl over there."

  I pointed to the poor girl Tamamo helped me sneak out of the castle.

  "You mean that unconscious snake girl over there?"

  "Now you are going to tell me that you want her as a wife too? You have some peculiar tastes, brother."

  "When are you going to add a normal human girl to your harem of only monster girls? You're starting to worry me," my sister teased.

  "Can you shut up for one damn second, you damn bitch?"

  "This is serious business I'm dealing with here! This is real shit!" I snapped, already annoyed.

  "Oh, sorry, my bad."

  "I didn't know. I didn't mean to upset you so much," Maria said, realizing the matter was really serious when she saw my red eyes flash for a moment.

  "The Lamia, that girl was with me at the beginning of the night. She turned into that thing during the fight with Dracula."

  "The important thing is that during the battle she summoned a very special weapon to attack me."

  "The Twilight Spear belonged to the Great Campaign General Gaenbald the Abysswalker," I said, using magic to summon the presence of the weapon and show it to Stella.

  "This is another of the great Atlantean weapons, made of the same Atlantean Orichalcum as Avalon. Gaenbald used it during the battle of Atlantis against the sky. It was the same weapon used against the rebellion and again against the dragons."

  "Its owner died defending the Celestial Forge during the battle. It was believed that both the owner and the weapon were lost in the thousands of casualties that day."

  "And yet here it is, back again, summoned by that girl over there."

  "I want to know her background, where she comes from, how she got this weapon.

  "It's possible that after all this time, there's finally a way to find the Celestial Forge."

  "I need to get back there as soon as possible."

  "I understand perfectly."

  "Please allow me to take a closer look at the lamia and make some phone calls," Stella said, immediately stepping away to check on the unconscious girl.

  "Dear Goshujin-sama, I know this is an extremely important matter for you, and I don't intend to get in the way."

  "I just want to remind you to take things a little more calmly."

  "Remember that you have my support, as well as that of the others, in every step you take. We'll be here; we're not going anywhere without you by our side."

  "I am as interested in the matter of Nanamo as you are. It is an important matter for me as well," the kitsune goddess said and hugged me worriedly.

  "Tamamo, don't worry, everything is fine."

  "I'm not going to get lost in my own misery, if that's what you're worried about."

  "Relax, I'm not going to split into two kids and start fighting again or anything like that."

  "I'm just a little... sentimental... about maybe finally putting an end to all this."

  "It's something I have to do."

  "And I know that very well."

  "I'm just asking you to take it a little more calmly, Nanami is an issue that affects all of us."

  "We all know that she was your first wife, she was here before all of us, and none of us mind that"

  "We are happy to know that someone was able to see your value before anyone else, even before you yourself."

  "We're glad to be a part of it, too," Tamamo said in the calmest and most loving way she could.

  She didn't stop hugging me, and even when Stella came back, she didn't let go of my hand for a moment. Lisa, who had been eating quietly next to Maria, looked at me with a nervous expression, holding her own hands and trying to smile in a somewhat normal way instead of her usual vicious, psychopathic, serial killer laugh. For the demonic succubus, this was the greatest gesture of empathy her damaged mind could manage to ever show - it was her way of saying that she was worried about me and Nanami, too. Tifa, the little fairy, was at her side, paying attention to everything, showing that she cared just as much as the others.

  "Alright, I have the information."

  "I know you don't like grand speeches or embellishments, so I'll get right to the point."

  "The Lamia, as you may have guessed, is not human."

  "But she's not from Earth either. In fact, she's a being summoned from another place, another world."

  "The good news is that we've been able to find her by searching birth records."

  "She's Voranoa, a wild Lamia who's lived most of her life in a cave, so it's likely that the Celestial Forge is in that very cave."

  "The bad news is that it's in a hard-to-reach place - a cave - so for obvious reasons we can't go there directly in the spaceship."

  "The trip to get there will probably take us one or two Earth days."

  "I don't care if it takes two days or a week, we can go right now."

  "Now that we have a lead, it's time to act."

  "Agreed, I'll try to coordinate with my team to carry out the expedition with more security, supported by the best warriors I can find - my comrades in arms."

  "......"

  "As for the Lamia herself, there's more you need to know."

  "......"

  "The Lamia is the one who originally lived in the tunnels. It would be a great advantage if she could act as our guide."

  "But after examining her condition, it's clear that she's not the right one for such an important task."

  "What do you mean?"

  "The first problem is that the Lamia has a serious problem in her mind, similar to Lisa, she suffers from a severe personality disorder, all caused by the magic used on her by Henry Lecarde."

  "......"

  "First of all, the person of Lucy Lecarde, the girl you interacted with tonight, is nothing but a lie. She does not exist; she is not real in any way."

  "Lucy Lecarde was a personality created by Henry Lecarde and implanted into the original Lamia for the sole purpose of being loyal to him and being 'cute like a pet' in order to get close to the warrior known as Cacique and secure his cooperation or stab him in the back if necessary."

  "Now that Henry Lecarde has been killed, rightly in my opinion, Lucy Lecarde is nothing more than a passenger embedded in the mind of the original Lamia, taking up space and never to emerge again - a fate worse than death for a being that was never truly born."

  "......"

  "The other part is that the original personality, Voranoa, is nothing more than a wild creature."

  "She is an animal with remnants of humanity that she never truly possessed. For her particular race, concepts like family and society don't exist. For her, there is only devouring and finding a place to hide."

  "She is capable of communication and understanding, but in her mind she's nothing more than a wild animal."

  "For example, she had to kill her mother at birth because she was to be used as food for her mother."

  "......"

  "All that's left is to wait for the Emperor's word on the creature's fate."

  "Damn it, why can't anything ever be easy?"

  "I'm not even good at this mind stuff and all that crap."

  "I barely understood what happened to me when I was two little kids last time."

  "......."

  "Ahhh... both Lucy and Voranoa went through something terrible. Isn't there a way to save them both?"

  "You are angels with super advanced technology, surely you can do something."

  "I understand your desire to save both of them, but you must know that Lucy's existence can't even be called that."

  "To give an example, she's nothing more than a background program on a computer, not even one of those displayed on the screen."

  "And now that the main user has died on the chair, what should a background program on a still-running computer do without a purpose?"

  "Well, it's a little disturbing and dark, but you can still do something, right?"

  "My daughters are two androids sharing one mind. Surely there's a solution if we get creative."

  "The problem is that Kazumi and Charlotte are a single AI created to inhabit any device. Lucy Lecarde was only created to run on Lamia 'hardware', specifically the Voranoa brand."

  "She is not even a soul that we could manipulate as such. In the eyes of the Angels, she's nothing more than a mental ghost with no right to a real existence."

  "She should just disappear as what she has always been - nothing - and leave the same legacy as non-existence only can."

  "Oh, wow, you're talking a lot of crap for someone with such a detachable vertebral column," I said angrily, annoyed by Stella's contempt for someone.

  "Didn't I tell you we'd save them both?"

  "My beloved husband, Goshujin-sama, is not someone who finds satisfaction in sad endings.

  "I would like to remind Angel that she is talking to someone whose will is the law in this world. I would greatly appreciate it if she would seek creative and satisfying solutions," Tamamo said mischievously, enjoying Stella's dilemma.

  "Well, what we could use for now, while we plan what to do about the lamia... I mean, the two girls."

  "We could use enslavement magic to make a temporary arrangement, perhaps."

  "With enslavement magic, the Emperor could ask Lucy's personality to resurface and take control."

  "We could use this to facilitate the search for the Celestial Forge ruins."

  "But even though she is conscious while not the active personality, Lucy knows nothing about Voranoa as a whole."

  "To find the place, we'll need the help of the original personality, who will probably be less willing to cooperate, but it's not impossible."

  "Well, we could use Lisa's command template."

  "She's already tried to find all the loopholes possible in her enslavement magic, so using the same set of already corrected rules is a good, safe base to start with." Tamamo said again.

  "I knew this would happen when the girl showed up and looked pretty."

  "My brother never changes, always looking for new women for his collection and personal pleasure."

  "Maria, shut up."

  "I'm just trying to help the poor girl!"

  "Yeah, right, white knight trying to keep the new girl for yourself," my sister scoffed.

  "I'm just tired of all this already..."

  "I have more important things to do. What difference will another cute wife more make in my life?"

  "I'll take care of my mother when I see her again."

  "Yes, you say that now, but the house has no room for more people."

  "Where are you going to put the nine-meter girl?"

  "The garage is already occupied because you decided to marry your teacher too."

  "It was an emergency ..... another one."

  "And she's a fake teacher, don't make it sound worse than it is."

  "Oh, sorry! Does it sound bad that you married your own teacher?"

  "Well, how about this: my brother married a horrible giant spider who was known to be a murderer and devour people."

  "She never did that!"

  "Well, the killing part, yes, but not the eating part!"

  "Shut up! I'm not some weird degenerate!"

  "And yet you always try to have the biggest breasts you can."

  "My brother, the boy trapped in a girl's body who admitted he liked it more than being a man."

  "My brother, the same one who said he loved being a girl with a lustful body so much that he even wanted to walk around naked."

  "Maria, please shut up."

  "Can't you see you're about to give him another mental breakdown?"

  "Once was more than enough," Tamamo said, covering my sister's mouth with a smile that actually meant demonic fury.

  Having prepared everything, Stella approached the Lamia and placed another heavy metal choker around her neck. I'm beginning to wonder where she gets so many of these and if she always has one on hand. Voranoa, still asleep, was unaware that she was now under the effects of a new spell. Things would change for her when she woke up, hopefully for the better. I heard over the Angel's radio that new units were on their way to scout the area and devise a plan to steal Dracula's castle. I wish them luck; I have no idea how they're going to do it, and frankly, I don't care as long as they succeed. After that, we gathered our things and boarded Stella's spaceship, heading straight for our next adventure - one I had waited for years to finally be within reach. It was finally time to find out what really happened on that fateful bad day.