CastleVania: The Unfinished Symphony Chapter 9
Matters of Life and Death
By The Dark Requiem
The year: 1476
The place: He no longer knows.
Vlad III Tepes Dracula stands on the battlefield, his usually narrow eyes
now wide in shock and anger.
Not long ago he had come down from his fortress to do battle with his enemies:
the Turks.
The Turks…
He hates the Turks…
They took everything from him…
…his father…
…his brother…
…his first wife…
…his kingdom…
…his faith…
…everything.
He reaches around to his back and feels something sharp and wooden buried
deep into his back…
…and cries in agony as it is ripped with force from him.
The cry fills the air and echoes off the stone walls.
Dracula, trapped in his cell, holds his newborn son, his beloved Adrian,
in his arms for the first time.
And sitting beside him…is his lovely Lisa.
They gaze at the child in wonder, this product of their love.
Love…
Love between princess and prisoner…
Reports had said that the time of Dracula’s confinement had been relatively
short…
…but his treatment as a prisoner, as time passed and rage subsided,
had also been slightly relaxed.
After all, a princess would never have been allowed so close to any normal
prisoner.
But this was no normal prisoner.
This was no normal man.
She was drawn to him from the moment he arrived, having lost everything.
And so…she has given him something.
Despite their royal heritage, however, Dracula knows that the child has been
conceived…and born…out of wedlock.
The child is illegitimate…
…but that does not mean that it is too late.
Without a word, Dracula lovingly stares into her eyes…and falls on his
knees…
His knees hit the bloody ground hard and his body sags down.
How, he thinks.
How is it that I have been so defeated?
He looks up…
…and sees the wooden shaft, stained with royal blood…
…in the gloved hand…
…of one of his own men.
His unbelieving eyes stare at the site.
And then, as he had done many times before over many a victim, he laughs.
He laughs with all his fleeing energy.
He laughs as if it were the Lord’s Day again.
He laughs…and laughs…and laughs…
How ironic, he thinks to himself.
The Impaler Prince…
…has been impaled.
Indeed, it was very fitting after all.
Tepes.
Impaler.
He still laughs, but the laughter fades as a menacing looking Turk approaches
with a large axe.
He knows what is coming.
He saved others…but cannot save himself.
As the axeman draws nearer, he finds himself whispering words that he has
heard before…
“LIBERA ME DOMINE DE MORTE AETERNA.”
…and as the axe comes down, his thoughts are elsewhere.
Lisa…forgive me.
Farewell, my son.
Somewhere, in a far away realm of which we currently know nothing, Death
laughed…
…at Dracula.
Poor Prince Vlad, he said.
How does it feel?
How does it feel to be swallowed by the power of Death?
…No words, I see. Only a stare.
No matter. Words would be useless to you now.
Once again, you have lost everything…
…and yet it still exists!
And when the time comes for their destruction…
…you shall watch from afar and know full well that there is nothing
you can do!
I finally have you…
…and, at last, your soul is…
…But no!
Why should it end there?
Why should you, even after such torments, be embraced by the grasp of eternal
rest…and suffer none of the desecration you so brazenly committed upon
others?
Oh no…this is not over for you, my poor and pathetic prince.
This…is only…the beginning…
.