It really was a beautiful moment for everyone. The full moon hung in the sky, illuminating the scene unfold as you all reunite with those peers you thought you lost. Potentially awkward, but nonetheless, very heartwarming.
“What the fuck.”
Any quiet chatter made among you was was briskly cut off by a sharp, very confused feminine voice from behind you. As you looked to the origin, you see a young, blonde haired shrine maiden with a broom in her hands akin to how you would now hold a sword probably.
“It’s four in the morning. Why are you all here.” Her expression had shifted from bewilderment to just plain grumpy.
You’re all still a little dazed from suddenly coming back to planet earth, but amongst you all, Juzo steps forward to have a quiet word with the shrine maiden and explain everything. This ends not great, as you watch Juzo get smacked upside the head with a broom. It’s admittedly, pretty amusing.
The girl looks back at all of you, going from grumpy to pissed. “Please leave.”
And you did.
It didn’t take long for you all to be found and swarmed, promises and excitement thrown around as the missing class of 30xx was found again. You were filled in by media that you had been missing for around five days. It’s funny how different moon time and Earth time were.
~~~~~
Of course, it took time for anything to feel normal again, but school started as planned, and the time that followed felt… right.
Hey, you kids aren’t the only ones back at school either!
Dominique now served as a local history teacher, and the incident within the castle remained knowledge between only them and yourselves.
And… life went on! Life was good!
Happy ending baybee!
As you lay the final hit unto your foe, the room lit up, blinding all within with a bright, white light.
One.. Two.. Seventeen of you stood upon a hill, staring at the moon. It was over. It was all over.
Everything that had happened, it felt like a dream. All 16 of you stood on that hill, unharmed, alive. The only thing telling you that this was all real was… a very confused Dominique.
“You know… one thousand and one years, I’ve been living in Castlevania.” They’re stunned, and mumbling to nobody in particular.
“I.. don’t really know what to do with my life now. But in the end, I’m more thankful that you all worked so hard to get this far. Thank you, all of you.” And perhaps the most genuine smile you’ve seen was on Dominique’s face.
A tension hung in the air as your local, quite lovely, librarian admitted to apparently inheriting Dracula. Which sucked.
You all got a moment to react, like perfectly normal human beings, before Dominique bashfully clears their throat.
“Well… This is how it is kids! We mustn’t prolong this. Of course you have all right to… give it all you’ve got,” They sigh inadvertently, a frown pulling on their face.
“Or… I suppose, hm. You could attempt to fight the very chaos that hold this castle together. I thought this would likely be impossible but… the castle has given us the opportunity. I didn’t want to jump on it sooner, lest Dracula expose themselves to it and gain more power. It sounds risky at best but it would be a way to banish Dracula - me - without more loss than necessary.”
They reach down to their waist, taking their trusty whip from their side. You’d hardly seen them use it, now you thought about it. They hold it out in front of you and your peers. “Here. This is the Vampire Killer. You can use it to open the portal to the chaos realm or… well… to slay me.”
“Haha, kids, h-hold on.” Dominique quietly pipes up, quickly negating their attention away from anyone in specific.
“I’d hate to see anyone be punished by mistake, especially as I’m the one who’s supposed to protect as many of you as I can.” They take a pause, their gaze dropping to their feet, “Which is why I’m ashamed to say that this has gone on for far… far too long. I’ve done a terrible job of protecting you from the dangers of this castle, from each other, from Dracula.”
Something about Dominique felt hauntingly off. Maybe it was their lack of presence over the last few hours, or how they couldn’t bring themselves to even look at you all. Something was off.
“I… please, don’t start attacking each other now. Please. Work together. You can’t do anything until we reach a definite concl--”
They suddenly gripped their chest with their hand.
A stunned silence followed. Nobody dare made a sound, nor move a muscle. You witnessed soundless tears drip down Dominique’s face. It felt like an eternity, before they finally looked up to everyone.
“I see. So that’s… that’s what’s happened. It was me.”
The Finale Approaches [Investigation End/Trial Start]
A few hours passed, you investigated, trained, or looted the castle for equipment, anything to prepare you to fight Dracula. Thinking that Dracula was still among your peers was… a frightening thought.
Now one by one, you all filtered into the second topmost floor of the Pinnacle, where Dominique said they would meet you. Alas, four of you stood there, and there was no sign of Dominique. That is, until a few minutes later. “Pardon my absence, there were a few things I had to deal with prior to.. All this.” They lead you onward up the vast staircase.
Upwards… all the way to the Throne Room.
It all came down to this, one final do or die debate. Dominique would be able to mediate and watch and… hopefully intervene should things go awry.
“I’ll leave it to you, kids. Please don’t do anything rash.”
What a mess, what a mess. Commotion rose between the remaining four of you as Dominique entered the scene, exhaling sharply as the corpse came into view. They continued down the stairs and steeled themselves as they approached you and your peers.
“Oh dear. Oh deary dear.” They couldn’t even force a smile of nerves. They were horrified. They knelt by the body, to do their brief examination as they usually did. A short moment passed before they got to their feet,shaking their head and pulling out a piece of paper to make their usual note on the matter.
While they wrote, you may have noticed that the castle hadn’t started crumbling. Huh. Dominique was quick to comment on the matter. “Without Death, there’s no reason for you to attempt to debate the culprit as you have before.”
“...Although, it’s also a sign that we need to take Dracula down as soon as we can. The castle bends to their will, and their will is strong enough to prevent the castle from crumbling. We don’t have a choice in the matter, we have to do the deed soon.” They simply stated the facts, trying to mask their own anxieties of the matter.
“The throne room opened up when we defeated Death. It is at the top of the Pinnacle. I’m going to wait at the staircase, and we’ll head up together. Time is of the essence, I don’t know how much time we can risk, so I’m going to give you a handful of hours. I’m sorry it has to be this way.”
we’re running out of funny titles pwease help mistew obama
It’s been a few days since Death’s defeat, and peace had settled among all of you. It was a triumph, which only cost someone, namely Katsuo, an arm. Who knew throwing an egg could backfire that badly?
As so the days when by, nothing major had happened, well, until a short, foreboding message on Titter arrived from Juzo. “pinnacle. body.”
Haha oh no.
Onwards to the pinnacle, Juzo stands at the top of the staircase leading to the bottom floor, motioning for you to follow him as he leads you down to…
The last couple of days had been packed with events, not that any of them were favourable or enjoyable in the slightest. This predicament line of awful coincidences made it clear to everyone that the castle had definitely stepped up its game in terms of lethality and danger.
You guys were given a solid, one (1) day of peace before something felt off. The only thing of note that was different was the stagnant chill that seemed to expand over the whole castle. Much like an unwelcome guest, it didn’t seem to leave and felt mildly frustrating to deal with. Well, there was no real way to deal with it.
Soon following these revelations you were all called to the library by Dominique, who would hopefully clear stuff up! Or at least bring warmth. The library was warm. This was a good choice. They look a little uncertain of what to say to the lot of you. Their eyes scanned the room nervously as they drew in a short breath.
“Well, I have to be honest kids. Defeating Dracula alone might be impossible if we don’t take care of their right hand man, Death.” nervous laugh. “I didn’t tell you before because well. You combat abilities weren’t… quite there.” No shade but are they really there yet. “I withheld this teeny detail because I didn’t want any of you risking your lives when he appeared...” Their voice trails off a bit as they draw their gaze away from you lot.
“But it seems this is a less than favourable situation where Death has, ahem, made its presence known in the castle. Specifically at the top of the condemned tower.” Dominique comments blandly, looking off in the general direction of the tower.
“Now, we probably shouldn’t get to familiar with its presence here, so I… suppose I’m to go and defeat Death.” haha reah. “I don’t wish to go alone, because I fear I may not return but I also don’t want to endanger you.” Finally, the local librarian looks towards you guys again, now with a somewhat desperate smile.
“I guess my proposition is that perhaps together we have remarkable odds stacked against us, yes,  but we may be able to defeat Death...?” Gonna be totally 100 they don’t sound too optimistic, but can you really blame them?
Whaddaya say lads. Haha This Isn’t Dangerous
(Treat it like an Extended Group Investigation! uwu)
Things were… a lot, for Matthew, at the moment. They always were, really, and Matthew, quite frankly, couldn’t remember the last time he wasn’t feeling ridiculously overwhelmed. It almost felt as if every single murder and death and execution just sent the entire situation spiralling into something worse, like there was no way to just de-escalate.Â
It’d be too easy, Matthew figured. Hell, the entire last trial proved that it could never really be that easy, and that just made it worse, and things would probably never get better, and oh God now he was crying again.
Pathetically, alone in the 13th street bakery, just… crying. Not that that was any different than usual, but…Â
Ugh. Ugh! Why did he have to be like this? That was a question he asked himself near every day, but today of all days, it felt as if it grew in impact. For a second, he almost felt as if he were actually getting better, but all his friends just kept dying and killing and maybe it was just easier to stay the same. After all, he could die at any moment, so why bother with improvement?
So, yeah. Hiding out in a bakery and crying seemed pretty reasonable. But, beyond that… Matthew was frustrated. Angry. Infuriated.Â
Unsure of how to quell and quash this emotion, Matthew grabbed a chair and threw it at a wall. When he didn’t feel any better, he simply sat, leaning against a wall, and hid his face in his hands.
Silence stung in the air. The wait this time was longer than you were comfortable with. A full day, maybe more. Dominique had healed up, but they weren’t particularly in shape to be altering the light sources. That made it hard to feel time flow. The rumblings of the castle were constant, and eventually, you attuned yourself to simply drowning them out. They weren’t going away soon.
Soon, many of you had drifted asleep, waking up to the fade of the rumble. As always, Dominique checked out the door, and a familiar cold gust of wind swept into the room, delicate snowflakes drifting into the doorway. “The village?” They ponder to themself, before turning to face you all.
“The castle’s restoration has been… rather drawn out. I’m going to investigate for your safety. Aniseed will look after you, should any threat arrive in my absence.” With that, they left you to your own devices.
It felt like hours later when they finally returned, chest heaving. They probably shouldn’t have done that alone, as experienced as they are with combat, they also just had a brush with Death. They looked at you and your peers, mouth slightly agape.
“Haha… well. We have… The entire thing. Everything you’ve seen in the past and more.” they sigh.  “Maybe things are finally coming to a close, this all feels pretty climatic.”
They glance at the map they’ve scribbled. “We can’t go to a handful of places yet… but… well. Be wary of the tower. I recommend you kick your training and looting into high gear. It’s… going to be tough.”
“Other than that, the Demon Guest house has more than enough areas for you to rest in, thankfully.”
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