The Children of Destiny

Chapter 1

Entering the Castle of the Demon

It was a dark and misty night over the ocean. On the surface of the water was a small boat carrying two people. One was a young girl sitting with her hands on her lap, and the other was a man dressed in robes with a hood over his face. He was rowing the boat through the still, foggy waters.

The girl was in her early teens, her hair was somewhat short and a light blue color, her eyes a dark red color. She wore a dark blue dress with a white trim at the bottom. The skirt was short so she could move about freely. Her sleeves were long and white; she wore dark tights and knee high boots that were tied in the front with small string. Underneath her white collar was a red scarf that hung past her chest, and tied at the middle of it was a pendent with a blue gem. The two passengers were silent, until a huge ship could be seen not to far away.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked the man rowing the boat. "It would be better if the man with the Vampire Killer did this."

"I'm sure," the girl replied. "Besides, he needs to stay with the villagers to protect them."

The man then sighed. "Ok, may the angels of heaven watch over you, Carrie," the man said.

"Thank you," Carrie said as she bowed her head and closed her eyes. She stayed that way until she felt the boat stop. Looking up she saw the boat had pulled up in front of a huge chain; the ship must have had one heck of an anchor for a chain that big.

"Looks like you can get in this way. Now remember, once you get below deck, hide there until the ship makes port at the castle."

"Thank you. You best head back now," Carrie said as she grabbed hold of the chain and pulled herself up a little.

"Heh heh, you're one of the first to be somewhat concerned about me," the man laughed. Carrie then looked back.

"You've brought other people to the castle?" she asked.

"I've helped many hunters in their quest to stop Dracula. Most of the people I've ferried to places much like this are the Belmonts," the man replied.

"The Belmonts? But then that means you're…" Carrie tried to say but the man then rowed off into the fog while chuckling to himself. Carrie stared blankly into the fog for a few minutes while what she just learned sunk into her head. The man was apparently much older then he looked and sounded. What made her so shocked was the fact that the Belmonts have been out of action for years and other Vampire Hunters faced Dracula in their absence. She then remembered what she was doing and she began to climb up the chain again. As she climbed on deck, the reason why she was here began to run through her head again.

Not to long ago, her mother was killed by followers of Dracula, and just days ago her stepmother was killed by his monsters. And just the other day her cousin went missing. It all pointed to one person, Dracula, the Prince of Evil. It was both her bloodline and personal feelings that brought her here, as her bloodline was connected to a family of magic users that had fought Dracula alongside the Belmonts almost since the beginning. No one appeared to be on deck, and all was quiet, except for the creaking of the boat, which was a bit nerve racking. She made her way to the cabin door and tried to open it, but the doorknob only rattled.

'Rats. Now where would they put the key?' Carrie thought. Before an idea could come to mind, she heard a loud thud behind her. She looked back and saw a fish man standing with a trident in his hands. He was looking right at her with angry fish eyes.

'Guess these guys are patrolling the water around the ship.' She thought as she jumped to the side as the fish man tried to impale her with the trident. Carrie then focused her energy in her right hand, forming a blue ball of energy. The fish man didn't pay any mind to it as he tried to slash at her but she ducked and let out her ball of energy and it nailed the fish man in the chest and knocked him over onto his back. As he tried to get up, Carrie slashed at his throat with a ring with energy flowing around it, the fish man then thrashed for a few seconds, then went limp, and soon faded away into thin air. Carrie then heard something shifting, and looking to her left she saw a platform come out of the side of the wall.

'An odd mechanism, but helpful,' Carrie thought as she shrugged her shoulders. She climbed onto the platform, then onto the top of the cabin area. When she stood up she couldn't help but notice the odd platforms sticking out of the sides of the mast that she was close to. There were boxes around so she checked around them and looked in some barrels, but no key. She placed a hand on her hip and a hand at her chin to try and figure out where the key could be, but the thoughts were interrupted as a ghost began to appear in front of her. Quickly reacting she shot a blast at it, and it faded away while looking like it was in pain. After a few seconds more began to appear. They were pretty weak as Carrie made quick work of them, but it still didn't help her much. She propped herself on the mast while trying to figure where the key could be.

'It doesn't appear to be on deck. I'm out of luck if it's below deck, but maybe one of the fish men has it.' But she then shook her head.

'But when I killed that one fish man, that platform appeared so I can get up here, so the key must be here somewhere,' she then thought. She then noticed a lever almost right next to her. She then looked at it before taking hold of it.

'Maybe this will make the key appear,' she thought before she pulled the lever, and the part of the mast that was above her rotated. And one of the odd parts that she noticed was close enough for her to reach if she jumped.

'A rather odd place to stick the key, but affective I guess,' she thought as she climbed that mast, and there it was, sitting there at the top platform on the mast. She took it and made her way back down to deck. When she reached bottom, fish men with clubs jumped onto the deck.

'I can probably take them, but I've wasted enough time up here,' Carrie thought as she ran for the door. She slid past the ones that were coming toward her and rolled to the side as one with a trident began to clear the railing. Moving fast she unlocked the door, opened it, got inside, slammed it, and locked it. She then pressed herself against the wall to her right and let out a big sigh of relief.

'Good thing those guys are somewhat slow, had they been fast, that would have been it for me,' she thought. She looked around the room and it was quite small, just a path that led to a hole. And just when she was just a few inches from the hole when a skeleton just rose up out of it, but she soon realized it was because it was on an elevator. He went down without to much of a fuss. Carrie stood on the elevator and turned around so she was facing the same way the skeleton was facing and it went down. When she reached bottom there was a small welcome wagon waiting for her, a fish man and two skeletons. It didn't take her long to floor the skeletons but it took her a little work to take care of the fish man as he spat acid water at her. After she took care of the fish man, she went partway to the door the fish man was guarding but a bone flew by her face. Looking back she saw skeletons were coming out of the boxes that the two skeletons she took care of were standing next two.

"YIPE!" Carrie screamed as she ran for the door as the skeletons kept on coming. She swung the door open and slammed it shut and pressed her body against it.

'That was one of the scariest things I've ever seen! Just how in the world did all those guys fit in there? There were about twelve of them before I got out!' Carrie asked in her head. But then she noticed that five fish men were in the room, and they were all staring at her. Four were on the ground, and the fifth one was on the upper area.

'Uh oh, bad move,' she thought. It took her a few minutes but she beat four of them, and the fifth came down. This one was a little tougher but she beat him. She then rested awhile while the ship went for its destination. She sat with her back to the wall and almost dozed off until the ship began to shake violently. She stood up to try and figure out what was going on.

"Are they crazy enough to crash the ship onto land?" she asked. But the ship kept on shaking and dust was falling from everywhere.

'No, if it was doing that, the ship would be on an angle already, something outside the ship must know I'm here,' Carrie thought. Soon the ship began to stop shaking, but then something hit her from behind and she flew forward a ways before hitting the ground. She stood up and looked back to see what hit her, and sticking out of the wall was a long pale reddish colored scaly arm with claws waving back and forth.

'Boy, I'm lucky I didn't get impaled on one of those claws!' she thought. But the faint sigh of relief was replaced with a horrible thought. But before she could look down she already felt it, water was slowly flowing past her feet. The arm then went back in and the water that was slowly pressing past it flowed faster, and other parts of the ship began to burst from the pressure, and the water level began to rise. Already her mind was racing on how to escape. It didn't take long before the water got close to her knees, but she saw a box that she could stand on and possibly reach one of the upper rafters. She ran over to it and climbed it, but she couldn't reach the upper rafter. But when the water was high enough, the box began to float and she was then able to get up onto the rafter. After that she had to jump past a swinging lantern that was lit. She soon reached an opening that led to the upper deck which wasn't there before. When she reached the deck the ship began to tilt. She was hoping she could reach a box before the ship capsized, but the deck fell apart under her feet, and soon all that could be seen of the ship was the rear end of it slowly going under. But then Carrie resurfaced on a long part of the deck and it laid flat on the surface of the water.

'Narrowly escaped getting impaled, and just barley escaped going down with the ship, lady luck don't give up on me now,' Carrie thought. She looked around and thought she was stranded, but behind her were boxes and parts of the ship that led to a stone bridge. After hopping for a little bit she reached the bridge and found an ax.

"A rather odd place for an ax, but perhaps it belonged to someone who tried to stop Dracula," she thought as she picked it up, and hoped it would do her more good than the person who last had it. She marched down the bridge and could see some kind of gate off in the distance. When she was halfway there, something emerged from the water to her left, and after the water cleared, she saw the same color scales that were on the arms that sunk the ship. It was a dragon like-serpent from what she could tell by how its head was shaped, its eyes were a green color, and it looked at her intently.

"So you're the one who tried to send me to the bottom of the ocean? Well I hate to tell you but I don't drown easy," Carrie said as she placed her hands on her hips. But she sadly knew she couldn't swim worth a darn. But the dragon just let out a loud roar and held one of its arms back. Carrie gasped and just barley ducked his swing. She then ran to try and become a harder target to hit, but then a pillar of water came from under her feet and she went skyward and hit the ground hard.

'I have very little space to move, this battle won't be easy,' Carrie thought as she managed to stand up despite the pain. She then fired a few balls of magic at the dragon and they hit its head, but it didn't even react, but she saw she did some damage. It then went under the water and Carrie slowly walked left and right while trying to keep an eye on the water. It emerged where she figured it would, and she jumped backwards when she saw it spit something she thought would make that pillar of water, but nothing happened. She then shot a few more blasts at the dragon and when she was done she began to turn around but her legs wouldn't move. She looked down and saw a green slime had incased her feet and held them tight. She tugged a few times to try and get free, but the dragon scooped her up. It looked at her as she tried to get free of its grip and it snarled at her before it held her up high. Carrie knew what was going to happen, she then pulled out her ax and tossed it where the arm came out at and chopped it off. She landed softly and shot the dragon a few times in the head, but she freaked out when a new arm quickly sprouted from where she chopped it off at. The dragon then faced her and straightened up but Carrie realized it was going to try and smash her flat, so she dove past it as it slammed into the bridge and took part of it with it. The dragon the soon emerged again and shot out water that made the towers of water, but Carrie dodged each one, but then the dragon shot out a green slime while in the middle of doing that and Carrie landed on it while dodging that last pillar of water, but she quickly shot it and it vanished and she dove under the dragon's swing and shot it one last time in the head and it thrashed around in pain before slightly pausing, then falling onto its back and it floated on the surface of the water, with no sign of life. Carrie then took a big breath before letting out a sigh.

'If this was the first guy to face, I'll be lucky to be able to beat the rest,' she thought. She then heard the gate behind begin to open, so she made her way to the gate and walked past it and it then slammed shut behind her.

'Not like I can escape that way,' she thought as she shrugged it off. She was still on a stone bridge, but she could see the side of a cliff ahead of her. Close to the base of the cliff were five odd looking green guys, just jumping up and down. She stared blankly at them for a few seconds before she got what she figured was close enough and shot out a fully charged blast at one of them, but it kept on going and bashed the other two, so she had to shoot one more to get the last two.

'Not very strong guys, but might have been annoying if I had melee weapons,' she thought. When she reached the side of the cliff, she could see the only way to climb up was to climb the stone platforms that were sticking out. It was a little exhausting to make the climb as there were a lot of platforms and she had to pull herself up every single one of them. But never the less she made it, and she could see another gate not to far ahead. After she walked over to it she rested in front of it as to how tired she from climbing and getting bounded a little by the water dragon. After what she felt like was enough of a rest, she turned around and tried to figure out how to open the gate. It was made of two great big wooden doors, but what was most eye catching was the huge stone plate right in the middle of them. After carefully looking at it, she figured all she had to do was blow the stone plate off. She shot two energy blasts at it, and the center of the plate broke and the doors began to swing inward. She waited patiently for the doors to fully open as she didn't want to rush in, but two big bone hands grabbed each door and swung them fully open and standing there was a huge skeleton with three eyes holes in the head, two where they should be, but there was one right in the center of the forehead. Carrie didn't even get a chance to react as it roared loudly in her face and the force of its breath knocked her off her feet right onto her back. After being a little dazed she propped herself on her hands and watched as the skeleton ran back inward.

"Boy someone sure is grouchy this morning," she said out loud. It actually became morning a little before she face the dragon, but because it was so cloudy it was hard to tell. After she stood up she couldn't help but stare at how the skeleton ran, it was running like an ape. She ran after it into a sort of boxed in area, but there were two open spots, but she could go either because there was no ground. It stopped at the opening straight from the gate and turned around and swung a huge bone at her, but she just barley jumped over it. She quickly shot a few energy shots at it, and almost knocked it over, but caught itself on one of its hands, and began to run again. She gave chase, and it soon stopped and pounded the ground with the bone.

'What in the heck is it doing? It could wake up the…' but she stopped the thought as some skeletons began to climb out of the dirt.

"Sure is one heck of a wakeup procedure,' she thought. She quickly dispatched the skeletons and got knocked down by the force of the swing from the big bone and it just missed her back by inches. She quickly rolled onto her back and shot a few blasts and got the same result as last time, and the skeleton began to run to the other opening. She followed it and jumped its swing when it stopped and shot it a few more times, and this time after it caught itself again, it held its head and stopped angrily on one foot as it roared, after it was done venting its frustration, it turned around and jumped over the ledge and made a loud splash when it hit the water below. She looked over the edge and saw the huge ripples where it hit, and could see a bridge coming up so she could cross.

'Not exactly a victory I was hoping for, but I'll probably meet him again later,' she thought. But after shrugging off what just happened, she made her way across the bridge to an old busted statue she first thought was a fountain. Also in the area were two metal gates and a path that led to a partly broken bridge. She figured the gates wouldn't budge, so she looked around the fountain while fending off some skeletons that just kept on coming out of the earth. The only path she could take was the somewhat broken bridge, as both begin and ending sides were gone, so all was left was the middle. After jumping across to the other side, she found two torches in front of a pedestal with a pillar in the middle of it. After walked around it she found a lever was on the other side.

'This should open one of the gates,' she thought as she pulled the lever. After it was fully down the gate across from her, opened, but then the bridge went down. But before she could even run over to see how far it went down, a huge muscular wereleopard landed just a few feet in front of her. She quickly turned around, but she only took one step as the wereleopard grabbed her other leg and lifted her high into the air and then slammed her into the ground.

'This guys sure don't have sex discrimination that a lot of people seem to believe,' she thought as she pulled herself forward, the main advantage she has over a lot of these guys is that she has ranged attacks, she just has to make the space in order for it to work. It was a little hard to do that as they were in a boxed area, but she got him without too much trouble, just slightly sore ribs. After she applied the final blow, his body went up and flames and roared in pain. After it was gone the bridge returned. She made her way past the statue and through the gate, and down the path beyond, she came across two more of those odd green guys, but she got them before they could even get close. After walking further down the path, she came across a rather odd setup; there was a huge hole, and two shrine like things around it. She went to go examine the one closest to her, but before she could get close enough, she heard the dirt shifting.

'More skeletons?' she asked in her head. But got a different answer, hands were coming out of the dirt, with sickly looking flesh.

"Zombies!" she then exclaimed. She went to her left to avoid one of the zombies that were coming out, but had to keep backing up as the hands kept on coming out trying to grab her. She took a few more steps and with the last one, her heel didn't go on anything so her foot slipped on the edge and she screamed as the rest of her body went with it. She fell a bit but hit solid ground not to far below, a bit too solid to her liking as she landed on another stone platform sticking out of the wall. Looking around she figured her best bet was to climb down the rest of the platforms. When she reached bottom she at first thought there was nothing there, but she then noticed how cracked the wall was.

'One good blast should but this wall down,' she thought, but before she did that she went back to the other platform before shooting the wall just incase. Only the wall grumbled from the blast, and there was a hidden tunnel. The tunnel went straight for a ways, and then went right. She figured it would be best if she took the trip slowly. She few a few skeletons here and there, and was surprised at something.

'After just escaping the zombies up there, I thought for sure some would be down here, guess I was just luc…' her thought trailed off when she almost fell over. She realized it was because a zombie came part way out of the dirt behind her and stretched a ways and grabbed her ankles. She figured she best be careful on how she moved so she wouldn't pull the zombie the rest of the way out. She then heard a rather odd sound in front of her; she looked forward and saw a blue skeleton that was sparking. She gasped as she looked at her feet.

'I better move fast, the last thing I need is a shock from getting hugged!' she thought as she pulled out her rings and channeled her magic through them, and sliced the hands of the zombie at the wrist, and she dove to the side and the skeleton tripped and fell on the zombie and blew up. Carrie didn't give herself time to try and figure out what happened, all she knew was that she had to get out of the tunnel, and fast. She wasn't that far from the tunnel, and she ran out, turned to the right and jumped onto another stone platform before collapsing.

"few deep breaths ok, it appears that there are skeletons that explode for no real reason, and as to how they explode, no idea, this is just a messed up castle," she said out loud. "Wait a minute; I'm not even in the castle yet. Oh boy things are sure to be fun when I get in there," she then leaped from the platform to one that was just sitting on the water, and found a similar setup to the one lever she used to open that one gate. She operated it and soon found herself surrounded by fish men.

"Sorry guys but I'm in a hurry," she said before making herself an opening to get to the other platforms, and how they were spaced, none of the fish men could reach her. She made her way to the top and found a path that probably led from the other gate at the broken fountain. But ahead of her was that gate she just opened and she made her way to it, and soon she could see Casltevania, the home of The Prince of Darkness, Dracula. She was about halfway to the drawbridge, when a huge bone hand grabbed the ledge, and she knew who it was, it was the big skeleton from before.

"So, you're ready for a rematch?" she asked, but all it did was roar like usual. So it ran to one side, and Carrie gave chase and shot at it a few times, it seemed to be following the same pattern. After she shot at it again, its hand came off.

'AHA! I have him now!' she thought. But this time it did a slight change in pattern, it ran to the middle of the area, and she could see sparks going through its body. First it did a huge leap, and when it landed, it sent out a shockwave along the surface of the ground in a circle shape, but it moved slow enough for her to jump over it. But it was still sparking.

'What is he up to now?' she asked in her head. The skeleton then faced her and bent down and spewed poison at her, but she managed to avoid it, and it stopped sparking. Carrie kept up the pace and soon it lost the part below the elbow.

'Dang, all I'm taking off is one arm,' she thought. After a few more hits, it lost the whole arm at the shoulder. It then did the combo before, same result, but then it called up some reinforcements, but she shot him during that and she broke its spine and it hit the ground with a loud thud, but it was still alive. She took out the skeletons it called, and got whacked by its huge bone, but she then jumped onto its back and slashed at its neck with her rings until the head came off, and it made a dying noise.

"Whew, am I glad that's over" she said as she rubbed her head. She then got off and went toward the drawbridge as it began to rain, and she stood close to the edge where the big skeleton came from, the rain began to pour down faster. Soon the drawbridge came down, and hit the ledge a few feet in front of her. She gazed up at the castle as the rain began to pour harder and harder, as if to try and deter her, but she made up her mind, she came this far, she wasn't going to back down now, she then made her way across the drawbridge, and soon, she vanished into the darkness.

End Chapter 1