If history was doomed to repeat
itself, then it wasted little time in practice. In the years following, the
world had again fallen into a state of chaos as nations began to take
sides in a calamitous conflict that would become known as the second World War.
By 1944, the war's climax, the entire globe was gripped in terror, hatred and
fear becoming of whole populaces; over sixty million lives were lost in humanity's
darkest hour. The agony and hatred residual in these lost souls summoned forth
from its underworld resting place Castlevania, the demonic castle of evil, which
over the course of history had come to administer its own brand of fear
and terror.
For some, war is hell.
For those who hide in darkness, it's a golden opportunity to capitalize on the
suffering of others. Such is true of the vampire Brauner, who had been plotting
revenge against mankind for the deaths of his daughters, who in 1914 were killed
as a result of the events of World War I. Inspired by the unfathomable actions
of the previous Elisabeth Bartley, Brauner used his at-the-time limited powers
to collect the souls lost during World War II and in harvesting their hatred
had a direct beacon for resurrecting Castlevania, whose very rising fully revived
the vampire's powers. Brauner did this with one goal in mind: To destroy the
humans who again started war.
Meanwhile, the 18-year-old
Jonathan Morris, son of John Morris, was floating through existence with an
air of self-assurance but also a sense of aloofness, as if not taking life too
seriously. He never really knew his father, who died when Johnathan was very
young, nor did he hold his parent in high esteem, to the shock of the community.
Hotheaded and energetic, Jonathan was never known to think things through, but
he would in the clutch showcase attributes of poise and cleverness. Though,
it was his thoughtlessness and often-misplaced humor that made him the perfect
foil for childhood friend Charlotte Aulin, an intelligent and booksmart youth
gifted with great magical power. Charlotte always applied to every problem logic
and an absence of emotion. Herself pushy, meddling and sometimes overconfident,
it was clear that she complemented Jonathan very well.
 So
it was Jonathan Morris, the possessor of the famed Vampire Killer whip,
and Charlotte Aulin, seen as the potential final weapon in the battle against
Dracula, who were called to action when the Church learned of Castlevania's
rising and mysterious events surrounding it. Upon the Church's request,
they traveled to the castle's outskirts to meet with Vincent Dorin, a local
priest, who immediately recognized the unmistakable Vampire Killer; though,
he was confused by Jonathan's admission that he could not use it--that
the whip wasn't actually passed down through his family. The Morrises were
related to the Belmonts by blood, Vincent knew, but Johnathan rightly insisted
that they were not the true successors. Still, even without it, Jonathan
had never suffered a loss on the field of battle, and he had at his side
Charlotte, a definite trump card. Vincent, not one to be defined by courage,
would assist by providing the duo with potions and other magical items ...
for a price--a matter of economics, to which the Church was no stranger. |
Though he had not been
seen, Charlotte had no doubt that the castle, which she sensed was pulsating
with dark magic, was home to the Lord Dracula. The two hurried inside. After
surviving some early dangers, the pair encountered in the upper entrance a mysterious
specter, a human figure who had somehow regained consciousness in death. Seeing
the figure as shady, Jonathan was ready to vanquish it; its words ("Can
you truly destroy me with a whip you can't even use?") only fueled Johnathan's
fire. Charlotte, the voice of reason, questioned its knowledge of the Vampire
Killer and sensed, furthermore, that the ghost was not being controlled
by the castle. Impressed, it revealed that it before death cast upon itself
a magic barrier, binding its soul to the castle; while free from its control,
the price was that the specter would remain trapped within the castle walls.
Doubting the possibility that a paranormal entity could resist the castle's
power, Charlotte could only wonder who this was. "Call me 'Wind,' "
it selected in light of a passing breeze.
 Wind
would not rest until the lord of the castle was vanquished, and he, too,
would lend assistance to those who wished to defeat the master of the house.
Jonathan, still not impressed nor very accepting, argued about the matter
with Charlotte, who in attempting to tame Johnathan's impetuousness brought
up the possibility of death, much like the one suffered by his father. It
hit a nerve: "My father's dead. Forget him," he spouted
before apologizing moments later for what he knew was an overdramatic response.
He would take up Wind's offer, on second thought; the pair would accept
from him the tasks and through their completion prove their brevity and
worthiness of Wind's teachings. After completing the very first task, Wind
supplied them the means for increased accessibility. Too, he had more information:
He revealed that his death came at the hands of Brauner, whose identity
had been kept secret for years. Through this encounter, he learned that
the artistic vampire could infuse paintings to increase his powers--this,
Charlotte surmised, to concentrate the castle's power and make it his own. |
Not far from this location,
the pair discovered a suspicious painting. Its power incredible, the paranormal
phenomenon was functioning to control the castle's dark energies; since it could
not be broken without the threat of regeneration, Charlotte would align her
magic with the painting's to grant the pair access into it and thereby circumvent
the castle's magic--but not without risk. They entered into the painting only
to discover a detached habitat modeled after Brauner's art. After defeating
the painting's guardian, which served to lessen Brauner's control of the castle,
they met Loretta, the vampirized daughter of Brauner; she revealed that this
was not her father's only painting and that others like it still functioned
castle-wide. When Johnathan jumped to attack, a powerful force knocked him back.
Citing orders from her father not to fight at this point, Loretta vanished.
When questioned by Charlotte as to why he stopped attacking, Johnathan thought
it to be the whip's doing but quickly reconsidered and brushed it off.
 Upon
reaching the Great Stairway, they were confronted by the none-too-pleased
Death. Why would he be here, Johnathan thought, when Dracula was no longer
the castle's master? This was a silly notion, Death declared, as no one
else could possibly own the castle. Charlotte had come to deduce
that he and Brauner were in it together, but Death, though keen in sense
but perhaps dormant for too long, knew of no such being. Annoyed by Johnathan's
insistence that the two must be cahoots in a Dracula-resurrecting
campaign, Death belittled and enraged the young hero by playing a familiar
card: "Your father was much stronger than you. And now he's
dead!" After Death relieved the flustered pair of his presence, John
discussed with Charlotte the flame that was igniting his outbursts: Feeling
largely unequipped with what he felt was an inadequate amount of training,
John had come to resent his father for what he saw as a selfish act in neglecting
this duty. Getting himself killed and leaving Johnathan heir to an unusable
whip only reinforced these feelings. |
 The
pair continued its invading of paintings. Within one in particular, the
Sandy Grave, they finally encountered Brauner with by his side Loretta and
his other daughter, the impatient Stella, who wasn't pleased by Johnathan's
lack of respect. The pair's hunch, spurned by Death's dismissal of Brauner,
was correct: Brauner had no intention of resurrecting Dracula. Why was it
necessary, Brauner queried, when the Dark Lord had failed so many times
before in attempting to control humanity? For the sake of his daughters,
Brauner would do it himself. Dracula was indeed powerful, Brauner
admitted, but all he really needed was the castle, for it would provide
him the power to eradicate the humans and grant the world an unholy rebirth.
Brauner had discovered the secret to separating Dracula from his magic,
as suppressed by the paintings that would remain active as long as their
possessor lived. His daughters wanting to tear them apart, Brauner remained
calm and forbid their whim; there was, after all, a more pressing matter
of Dracula's faithful servant snooping about, which might in time jeopardize
their plans. |
Stella would get her wish
when arriving in her chamber were the heroes. Alone, she was no match for them.
Before she could be destroyed, Loretta hurried in and made the save, scolding
Stella for foolishly disobeying her father's orders. Though, in parting, Loretta
had for the heroes a warning: If they continued to oppose father, they would
surely meet an unmerciful death. The sisters then vanished, obliviously
leaving behind a dropped item; it was a locket with a photo depicting a trio:
Wind plus a more-human-looking Stella and Loretta. The meaning of this was lost
on Johnathan and Charlotte. They hurried back to the entrance and confronted
Wind about the matter. Speechless by their finding, Wind could no longer defy
explanation. He was of course Eric Lecarde, the friend and ally of John Morris;
after entering the castle to investigate its emergence, he was killed by Brauner.
The girls depicted were his daughters--not Brauner's, whose real daughters
were the ones killed during World War I. They followed their father to the castle
on that fateful day, devastated to find him slain. Believing Stella and Loretta
to be the reincarnation of his own daughters, Brauner used his powers to infect
the girls, transforming them into vampires accepting of his nurturing. This
was why the Vampire Killer resisted attacks launched upon the sister, Johnathan
guessed correctly--it sensed the blood of the Lecarde family!
 Eric
knew that the secret to unlocking the whip's power lay with the Lecardes,
but he could not help in a deceased state, and his daughters were vampires.
"This whip is useless," John sulked. "I guess my being its
heir is just the emptiest, most meaningless title of all." Though it
was forbidden to reveal such information, Eric could no longer hold back--not
in light of the pair's false belief that John had died due to mortal wounds
suffered in his battle with Dracula. No--John died because for one who is
not a direct member of the Belmont family, the whip's true power can only
be unleashed if its wielder is prepared to give up part of his or her own
life. The Lecarde family acts as the key so that it will only be used when
necessary. Unfortunately, John used the whip too much, which cost
him his life. This is the reason John never completed his son's training;
it was too dangerous to leave in his son's hands such a weapon, and he preferred
that Johnathan develop the strength to survive without using the
whip. In the end, John was only looking out for him. Pained, Johnathan wondered
why, then, the Belmonts bothered to give the whip to the Morrises. The answer,
as Eric had heard: The Belmonts could not touch the whip again until the
year 1999, the predicted date of Dracula's ordained cyclic revival, but
that wouldn't stop deviants from trying to resurrect the Dark Lord earlier.
In the meantime, someone had to counter such a threat. Hope wasn't
lost; Johnathan could still somehow come to wield the whip. How? Well, Charlotte
had a plan: If she could use her magic to purify and thus break the sisters'
curse, they'd have the means to unlock the whip's power. |
After learning such a
purification spell, Charlotte consulted with Eric, who was hoping that it wasn't
too late. But he had a request: If successful in curing them, he didn't want
his daughters to know of his ghostly existence. He was in reality dead, a memory
they needn't relive, and just seeing them one last time from a distance
was good enough.
Continuing to the castle's
heights, the pair tangled with Death, who unlike Brauner very much desired for
the return of the Count. The overconfident Death launched an assault against
the Vampire Killer-less Johnathan but would not find what he thought was a sure
victory. Immobilized, he could only wonder how Johnathan came to possess strength
so great that he didn't even need the whip. "Know your limitations,"
Death warned, still not fully impressed. "You still have tasks to perform."
The pair was again confused by vague rhetoric, but Johnathan was as unabatedly
determined as ever, much to Charlotte's chagrin.
They moved on the castle
keep, which was being protected by a barrier. It was spatially segregated, which
meant that Brauner had successfully separated Dracula from his powers. Maybe
one of Eric's new skills might help, Johnathan thought; and besides--he had
a lingering question: Did his father know that the Vampire Killer would consume
his life due to overuse. He did not, Eric shared, as they only began to notice
his lack of recovery after using healing magic, which repeatedly failed. Johnathan
wondered, suspiciously: Did his grandfather, Quincy Morris, know of this
deadly quirk? "Have no worries--your grandfather was exceptionally strong
but kind." While it didn't completely quell Johnathan's curiosity about
the matter, it was a good enough response. Of greater urgency, at the moment,
was that their assisting clergyman, Vincent, had been bitten, the early stages
of vampirism his welcome. Charlotte quickly acted to use her new purification
spell, which did the trick--Vincent was spared an undesired fate. The better,
more important news was that the spell worked and that there might be
hope for Eric's daughters, and they knew where they had to go next: To the Master's
Keep where the sisters lay in wait.
They burst into the sisters'
chamber with only the truth--that they were being tricked by Brauner into living
a life that was not meant for them. Unmoved, the sisters, emotionally charged,
combined their strength and began tearing into the heroes. There would be no
counterattack, as Johnathan would work to distract the sisters while Charlotte
complete the incantation that would hopefully purify. The spell was perfect,
and the vampire's control began to fade; the sisters, dazed but surely cured,
came to their senses and could now see the truth. It was the heir to the Vampire
Killer, they recognized, as if seeing him through new eyes. They were truly
sorry for all the trouble they had caused, and they were eternally thankful
to Charlotte for never giving up hope and freeing them. Though mournful, they
had a job to do in return: They would help in the defeat of Brauner, who was
at the moment working on a grand painting meant to destroy the world! If the
heroes would only enter into and cleanse four final paintings, the sisters explained,
they could break the seal and gain access to one final painting: Brauner's
studio. Though having promised to keep it confidential, Charlotte thought it
time to reveal the truth about their father, Eric, but the sisters would have
none of it, for there were more pressing matters at hand. It just wasn't
the time.
 The
sisters opened the way forward and would furthermore perform a ritual to
unlock the power of the Vampire Killer; upon their hesitancy, Johnathan
disclosed that he knew well the risk. In preparation, Loretta would incarnate
the last memory of the Belmonts inhabited within the whip. Johnathan would
have to fight the memory and defeat it to make the whip recognize him as
its rightful owner and thus trigger its true power. That memory was the
image of a one Richter Belmont, and it fiercely attacked as the Belmonts
always had. Though the task was greater than any he had ever faced, it was
his time, and the whip's memory would meet its match. "No problem,"
Johnathan quipped when returning to the sisters' side, the Vampire Killer
now his to brandish. Addressing the sisters' concerns, he promised not to
overuse it. Eric was thrilled to learn of his daughters' purification but
like his offspring was concerned about Johnathan and the young man's fear
of the consequences; that is, he remembered a time when John had the very
same hesitancy. The time to stop using the whip, they agreed, was after
this battle was over. |
The pair stormed into
the final four paintings and destroyed familiar guardians. Now only one painting
remained, and they would not be alone in its infiltration. Entering, too, were
Stella and Loretta, whose presence disappointed their former father. What upset
him more was the realization that they had been cured, that gone were the believed
reincarnations. If it was the subject of fathers, of which Jonathan now had
greater wisdom, he would have Brauner know that a father would never
use manipulation as a means of parenting. Brauner, expressing his outrage in
losing his daughters again, would show them true loss! The power of his
new painting would make it so. For the sake of the whole world, Johnathan
weathered the storm of emotion and defeated the considerable Brauner. What was
good news soon made a turn for the worst thanks to the arrival of Death, who
applauded Jonathan's efforts. "The interloper is no more!" he rejoiced.
"The studio painting was cutting off the throne needed to revive Lord Dracula."
Death quickly exited the vicinity, a horrible truth his only remnant. Sensing
a terribly powerful magic directly up ahead, Charlotte had no doubt that the
castle's fully restored power was surely being returned to its haunted halls
and its legendary master, as Death knew well. They would have to prepare for
a final battle.
 Eric
was puzzled by the notion that Brauner's seals were powerful enough to hold
back Dracula's power, but Charlotte had the answer: Perhaps Dracula had
not yet revived completely! Either way, they had no choice but to defeat
him. They rushed to the castle keep, where Dracula stood stoically, ignoring
the heroes. His power was immense, and Johnathan immediately understood
why this was "the Lord of Darkness." Tiring of Jonathan's attempts
at exposition, Dracula tossed aside his wine glass. "Enough with this
sideshow," he slithered. "Why don't we show him our combined
power?" This sounded like a good idea to Death, who joined his ally
in countering the team of heroes. Death and Dracula together? Charlotte
had never read anything about this! The final battle raged, the masters
of evil versus mankind's only hope. Death was eventually struck down, his
time passed; as his final act, Death sacrificed his powers and urged Dracula
to absorb them, which the Dark Lord was happy to do via his soul-stealing
ability. Dracula harnessed the fallen angel's spirit as the means for the
transformation into True Dracula, a much more formidable opponent. Whatever
the Count's form, it wasn't enough to overcome what were most-persistent
heroes; he lost, yet another failure in a long line of them. "Too bad,
pal," Jonathan said smugly. "As long as we're here, you won't
be revived." After hundreds of years still not convinced, Dracula,
as he always had, vowed to return and believed his to one day be the last
laugh, and he said as much before perishing in a ray of sunlight. |
Knowing the routine, the
pair escaped from the castle and watched from afar as it crumble to the ground.
The apologetic sisters greeted them, each vying to accept the blame for their
actions. Only the sudden appearance of Eric served to break the uneasy tension
of the moment. Sensing that Stella, as the older sister, had come to worry most
in all of this, he soothed her emotional wounds with a request that she not
overdo her role. Loretta's was a restrained silence. "Live for all you're
worth," he asked of them. To Johnathan and Charlotte, he expressed his
gratefulness and disappeared just as quickly. "Don't go!" the sisters
yelled, but it was too later; Eric had finally passed on from this world. Stella
began to sob, but just then, the previously repressed Loretta stood up and promised
to become stronger so that her big sister would never again have to worry, nor
would she always work so hard. It was what Eric wished, Johnathan refreshed,
now advising Stella as to the perils of overdoing it. As Charlotte and he began
to bicker about trivial matters relating to the irony of his statement, Stella
came to and apologized yet again for the trouble she caused everyone. All was
forgiven. But what about Vincent? "Did he escape?" they wondered.
They all agreed to search for their new friend, who after their departure could
like a true recreant only give chase in a hurried frenzy befitting a "hero."
Page 18: Of
Successors and Fate | Back to Page 16
