“I need to make some notes''. I loved and played a lot of Aria of Sorrow, well Castlevanias in general , so I remember a lot of facts about it. While I don’t have a near perfect recall of every room, every piece of loot and drops, and so on, I remember quite a lot especially the general layout of the map due my multiple runs of the game, and my parents thought that playing video games was a waste of time.
While the castle changes appearances through every entry in the series, certain similarities are kept, particularly at the beginning of the games such as the long hallway followed by a big room sometimes with water at the bottom. Aria of sorrows thankfully follows this pattern and has that fountain with merman, the interesting thing is the water. It's flowing from the deeper levels into the Underground Reservoir stage, I am willing to bet that I could find a source of blue mana there. The study is also another source but it's on the other side of the castle and the Reservoir connects to the Arena so maybe I can get a red land there.
“Down it is, Zombiton hit that wall” . A guttural rumbling is the only response I got from my undead servant as he hit them all rather hard and to my continuous disappointment no Wall Chicken, so we continued our way down the stairs. It was relieving and disappointing at the same time that the castle layout is not a parkour theme park but rather something intended to be used by humans or well human shaped beings.
I paused for a moment. I can't see any monsters but there should be mermans in the pit below the fountain.
“Let's see if I can cheat a little” I said as I activated my mage sight.
I focused on the water below seeing concepts of WATER, MUD, STONE… ah there it is. I see a conglomeration of concepts particularly FISH, MONSTER, and FIRE? What a weird concept for a water monster. I count 1..2..3..4…5 in total. It looks like the little bastards noticed us and are gathering toward the end of the pit in what I it's clearly the preparation of an ambush.
They don't seem in a rush and are patiently waiting to make their ambush so help myself to a merman pattern. Once I got it I decided to make a basic zombie to spring the trap and begin charging for a wide area shot. The newly minted zombie started to shamble towards the edge of the pit…and nothing happens either this fuckers are smart or they do not recognize the zombie as prey.
“Well they are still grouped together, how nice of them” I said as I used a scatter shot over the area they are costing me about a third of my pool of white. And off they beams of light go hitting the water with a loud splash, sadly I got four of them but only two died.
Quite rude of them but nothing a Soul Steal can’t solve. This time I got the remaining merman and the last one jumped from the water as I gathered the souls of the dead.Lucky for us Zombie A was there to receive the brunt of the attack. Poor Zombie A got burned to ashes as the merman spat a fireball at him. Ahh so that's why they have a FIRE concept.
“Zombitron, I chose you” I said, channeling as much mana and Ash Ketchum as possible.
Zombitron was proving to be the superior zombie than poor A. I see as he grapples with the merman enduring one claw attack after another. He took them like a champ with nary a grunt of pain. He finally manages to get a hold of the merman and proceeds to slam it into the ground with a wet crunching sound. Puny merman.
“Move Zombitron”
I make careful aim so as not to hit my poke..minion with a purifying shot. To my surprise the shot managed to hit the fallen merman but it did not manage to penetrate his scales nor did it catch fire. While it indeed does damage it's far less than it did to Zombitron lesser brethren. Perhaps it's not the correct “element” it's a monster so the purification damaged it but not to the extent of a zombie or perhaps a demon.
“Fantastic I need another attack spell” The arsenal of a mage it’s never complete, you always need a new spell for something.
“It can't be helped” I said as I cast LESSER SOUL STEAL to kill and gather his soul.
After finishing the fight I looked at Zombitron covered in gashes from the claws of the merman. Gotta take care of him but how. Healing with PURIFICATION power will kill him. Maybe I can use black mana to boost his UNDEAD concept.
I locate the concept symbol in his head so I put my hand on his head and call upon a trickle of black mana and channeling towards the concept. It went better than expected the concept started to suck the black mana like a black hole and I can see the wounds in Zombitron closing. Not only that, his body is growing larger until I saw the UNDEAD symbol transform into a bigger and more complex version of itself.
“Damn you drink deep that was nearly all my black mana” Zombitron was about my size before his transformation, now I barely reach his shoulders which were wider as well.
“Come lets see if there is a Save Room on the other side of the room”
“Grrrrooaaan”
I sigh in relief after checking the pit one more time. I don't see any more concepts signaling more mermen. I continue my walk to the other side of the room seeing a flight of stairs going up and a large wooden door.
“If I remember correctly this should be the first save room”
With a groaning noise I open the door leading to what looks like a storage room, no broken coffin or glowy statue, just a room with some boxes.
“My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined”. I said with a heavy sigh. Really can I have some game mechanics please. I proceeded to search the room, finding a small chest with some gold coins which improved my mood somewhat. I get the pattern and continue searching until I confirm that the room is void of enemies.
“Zombitron guard me as I absorb the souls”
“Yeeessssss”
“Thanks buddy”
This time I activate Mage Sight to look at the changes happening to me as I absorb 1 soul. I watch as the soul breaks into smaller motes of light and they enter my chest, specifically my heart. From that point the motes of light began to circulate through my veins. Some of the power seems to escape though. And through them the motes go to my bones, muscles, nerves, organs, I can sense the symbols that make their concepts grow bigger, more defined. I close my eyes and breathe as I ride the same sense of euphoria that I felt when I absorbed the zombies souls.
I make some standing jumps to gauge any changes in my physical capabilities. I indeed feel a little lighter but I don't think I can make anime bullshit just yet. Will I have another 4 souls to go, let's try something different.
Since the power gets distributed through my circulatory system let's see if I can enhance just that, having an improved heart and veins surely will be beneficial. I concentrate my sight in my chest and boy there are a lot of concepts there some come and go like BLOOD, LIFE or AIR. Others like NERVE, VEIN or MUSCLE, form the structure of the organ alongside their physical counterparts. I also see not so nice concepts like ENTROPY and DECAY. All of this is connected to a bigger symbol that represents the whole organ.
Once I locate the concept symbol I focus on it as I call the soul to begin transforming into power.I struggle as the soul energy tries to get out of my grasp and want to go everywhere. I somehow managed to stay in my heart and began to absorb it there.
I see how the heart symbol literally devours the energy and star glowing stronger, at the beginning I don't particularly feel much, just a tickling sensation that rapidly starts to become more painful as time goes on so I try to circulate the rest of the power toward my veins to relieve the pressure. It helps somewhat but my heart pulls back the energy so I focus again on the heart and I see a battle.
The heart is using the soul energy to destroy the DECAY and ENTROPY symbols located there, but it's like trying to dislodge a barbed arrow; it makes a wound worse when you pull it out. I see the smaller symbols get destroyed and turn into concept shards but some are absorbed back by the bigger symbols.
I wonder if I can absorb the shards into my inner cosmos like the other shards “Uggg no time to wonder let's do it” I try to absorb the loose shards like the others but I only partially succeed, the pull from the bigger symbols is greater but luckily it seems they can only focus on either on me or the heart symbol. I began to work in tandem with the heart symbol sending as many shards as I can to the inner cosmos where they become inert.
As the flow of soul power runs out the agitation of the symbols diminishes. I lay on my knees grasping my chest as I feel a strong sense of nausea, something is rising from my stomach to my throat.
I vomit a large blackish foul smelling ball of phlegm. It smells disgusting like rotten meat and tastes even worse, yuck.
THUM!! THUM!! THUM!!. Suddenly my heart symbol start pulsating faster and faster growing into a more complex pattern
BAAAM. With a thunderous sound it stops as if breaking through a wall or something. I lay a few seconds on the ground trying to regain my breath.
“How the fuck cultivators do this shit, body tempering fucking hurts” I should have chosen something less dangerous like bones but at least didn´t went for the brain I probably would have died. Better stick to general enhancement to the point my body can handle the strain.
I got back to my feet and took slow breaths until the pain receded and I checked the condition of my heart. The symbol of the heart really becomes bigger and a bit more complex not by much but enough to be noticeable but the problem is that I see a lot of small wounds. I am not a doctor but that can’t be a good thing.
I searched my pocket for the potion Hammer gave me and took a big gulp. It tastes sweet with a refreshing after taste kinda fruity. I see the wound in my heart healing slowly.
“So its healing over time and not instant like in the games” I monitored the effects of the potion noting how the concept of LIFE slowly seeped into the wound helping the healing for a few minutes for until it ran out of power, sadly some of the wound remain partially healed. I took a another mouthful and it had almost no effect.
“ Le sigh it seems I can’t binge on potions”
“Ok let's try again to absorb the souls now, they seem rather restless” I said, feeling my hands trembling as I brace for the pain. It didn’t come as I absorbed the first soul. I don't even feel that rush of euphoria is diminished. Less than a drug trip and more like a warm relaxing bath giving me a nice buzz.
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The absorption goes even faster as my heart breaks down and transports the soul power through my body, my veins seem sort of thicker letting less power escape. So it seems that I was right in enhancing the circulatory system. The process got faster and more efficient. Sadly it seems that it has barely had an effect on the wounds.
It took a few more minutes to absorb the remaining souls. I feel great but the wounds in my heart continue to worry me.
“What to do?” I said out loud trying to think of another solution since the potion is not effective anymore. I felt something in my Inner Cosmo. Ahh it's the pattern I took from Mina, it's pulsing like trying to get my attention.
“Of course, If I can’t do it I can subcontract the skill” I checked the pattern and boy it's expensive it cost more than twice Zombitron original cost. It's more than what I single land can give so it's kinda like the card game . Even if I put all the white mana I have I still need about 40% of the black mana.
Well you need money to make money so it kinda makes sense. I start to pour white mana first into the pattern and then black mana hoping they won’t clash. It goes surprisingly smoothly so thanks for small mercies I guess.
In a small light show a young girl wearing the Hakuba shrine robes about Mina's age appears but she has long black hair. Her face is reminiscent of Mina like a cousin. Also she is shorter than Mina.
“Let's call you Miko for now”
“Yes master” She replies in a calm if slightly emotionless tone.
I didn't need to give her orders, as a summoned creature they can sense what I want them to do. She stood in front of me then put her right hand over heart. A warm energy began to fill my chest. I took a quick look at the wounds and I could tell that they were healing. After a minute she stopped.
“It's done master” she said in the same tone as before.
“Good let's go then, that blue land it's not going to get itself.”
----------------------------------------
We traced our way back to the fountain and took the door at the other end of the room. Unsurprisingly instead of the fancy white marble hallway that connects one area of the castle with another simple hallway of the same undecorated stone that makes the previous room. Really it makes my inner fan cry and I have yet to see a Wall Chicken. But hope has yet to die in my chest.
“Mmmm the air seems more humid. Hopefully we are going in the right direction” I activate Mage Sight and indeed I can see tendrils of blue mana rising like tendrils of vapor coming from below the door.
“Indeed master”
“Grooaaan”
In the next room we found a rather big staircase going downstairs. Torches littered the walls though they little toward the damp chill of the place. Thankfully the place was devoid of enemies so we made it to a two way hallway at bottom without much drama.
I try to get a feel for the land but it is still rather distant. I have to go deeper. if I remember correctly the Arena should be connected to the Reservoir at the lower levels.How does that work make sense to put the Arena in the courtyard or inside the castle like in Symphony of the Night I don't know. I chalk it to the castle's chaotic nature.
Rather than take the door to the next room I opted to go the other way as my completionist instinct told me to leave no room unchecked for loot. It didn't take too long to reach the end of the hallway. It was another storage room full of shelves and boxes on the walls filled with old construction tools, pick axes, shovels, hammers and the like. At the center was a rather sturdy table with a folded piece of paper and a small box.
I use mage sight on the room to check for traps, finding none. I focused on the box at the table, I didn't look for concepts for traps such POISON or KNIVES, I even checked for CURSE and such but to my surprise I found FORTUNE.
I opened the box and found some coins and a silver pendant with a blue gem that glowed with blue mana. It was also the source of FORTUNE. In the game the pendant is an accessory that gives +1 to the LUCK attribute.
While putting the pendant I turn my gaze towards the folded paper under the box. It was about the size of a big book and yellow with age. I unfolded twice until it was about the size of the table.Ii looked like some sort of map full in black and with splotches of blue with some notes scrawled denoting some point of interest. I guess these are some sort of plans for the Reservoir since I can see some rooms with a lot of water and one note that says WATERFALL and SLUICE GATE. Truly a lucky find.
Sadly I don't find anything else of value but I decide to take a hammer and give it to Zombitron.
“Here big guy, may you bash some brains with it”
“Thhaaann uuuu” Huh it's me or Zombitron it's getting smarter.
Without anything of interest left in the room we backtrack to the hallway and continue or way deeper into the reservoir. We continue for some time until we get to a room with multiple arches transporting water to a large waterway with a small pier with a boat tied to. I checked on the map and found a note that said AQUEDUCT A. From here it connects to a room with a sluice gate and then to the cave main shaft.
If I remember correctly the path to the Arena should be at the bottom of the shaft so at least we are going the right way.
“All aboard to the SS Totally not a trap” I said in jest to mask my growing nervousness as we climbed the rickety little boat.
Since Zombitron don't have a particularly high dex score and the priestess have little dainty arms it fell to me to do the rowing. I checked the water with mage sight and found several fish swimming lazily in the waters. It would be much of a problem if those were not for the murder fish about the size of my torso. T
Thankfully they did nothing more than swim menacingly around the boat. Thanks to the multiple braziers embedded in the walls I can see well into the distance. Near the end I say a platform to the right with a flight of stairs going up.
Mmmmm if I remember correctly there should be some robes in that room upstairs, and probably full of monsters. The greedy part of me wants the loot because loot and pragmatism supports this since magic items would increase my chances of surviving the night.
“Let´s do this” I said as we disembark the boat and commanded Zombitron to bring out of the water since there is no place to tied it down.
We climb the stairs as silently as possible. I could hear a scratching sound against the stone. Clawed feet probably merman. When we neared the top of the stairs I concentrated on my mage sight to gauge the sort of enemies and numbers we were about to face.
Pack? School? Of 10 mermen. Quite the number so perhaps I could summon a pair of regular zombies to serve as meat shields. “Miko, can you use offensive spells”. She nodded, taking a stack of small papers. “I can use these ofuda to attack the monster from afar”.
“Good” I said as I summoned a pair of zombies to protect us. “I will charge an area attack to damage and disorient the enemies after that Zombitron will rush into melee then Miko and I will do ranged support while the zombies will be our meatshields, ok everyone.” I said while knowing that is not necessary but the act of explaining the plan has a calming effect on my nerves.
“C’mon Ferio just like in D&D nights”
I began to charge my shot pouring as much mana I can into the spell to make a scatter shot pattern once more. I entertained the idea of an explosion but I don't know if the attack will affect Zombitron or damage the walls and cause the ceiling to crumble or something.
“Ready, go” I said as I let go of the spell. A rain of purifying power falls atop of our enemies and they start screeching in pain, but as before I see that the purifying power is not effective as it was with the zombies. Only 4 mermen were dead and the rest got some injuries but nothing that will take them out of the fight.
Once the spell was finished Zombitron starts rushing, raising his hammer towards the group of mermen. The zombies went forward a few meters in front of us. So far so good.
Zombitron crashed into them like a fist of an angry god, his hammer catching one of the mermen in the head, a loud wet crunching sound resounding as bone and brain matter scattered in the ground. One of them jumped on him but barely did anything to Zombitron's massive size. He just grabbed the merman and threw it at his feet and then stomped on its head splattering blood and viscera everywhere.
Miko and I shot spells all the while to keep the enemies separated so they don't overwhelm Zombitron. Everything was well until they started shooting fireballs at the zombies killing them rather quickly. Sensing an opening two mermen separated from the rest attacking zombitron.
“Fuck” I said as we star trowing spells and them but they were relentless. We managed to make one drop from its injuries while the other jumped at me knocking me on the ground. I felt the heavy weight of the monster crash into me knocking the air out my lungs. I barely manga to interpose my staff to fend the massive fanged maw of the piranha headed monster.
“Some help would…arg be appreciated Miko” I said in desperation feeling the claws of the merman sinking into my shoulder while trying to fend off the bite can't do much about the claws let alone cast. Then see some white light near us so Miko should be doing something.
One moment the monster was screaming in a savage glee, one moment trying to bite a chunk of me then screeching in pain as something burned it. Jumping away from me I can see or rather smell the sizzling aroma of roasted fish. I greet my teeth as I fight through the pain while pointing my staff toward the creature while casting a basic purifying shot.
This time I got the motherfucker hitting him in the chest caving it from the impact. Fuck that was close, I can feel the wetness running trough my shirt reminding me of my injuries so I soul steal this mofo
to heal my injuries. It's not enough.
I try to stand but a wave of dizziness from the awful combination of pain, blood loss makes it a trial. Trying to catch my breath I can see that Zombitron is making short work of the remaining mermen. I signal Miko to approach me so she can heal me. A wave of relief hit me as she began to work her spell on me. Once I feel well enough
I walked to the end of the room and saw a cloak of vivid green and blue hanging in a wall contrasting heavily with the dreary atmosphere full of blood and fish gut.
I can help but smile. I mean c'mon I KNOW that combat is horrible but this is the first piece of loot that I earned in this adventure. I chanced upon the pendant. But I wade through the blood of my enemies to get it.
I inspected the cloak and it looked like it was made of some sort of silk. I can see words stitched in silver across its length and it looks like a poem about a hero of an agile mind and body like the wind. With mage sight I don't see any negative concept in cloak. I draped across my shoulders and I begin to feel lighter and my mind began accelerating without any effort on my part.
“I need spells to run interference and support my summons”
I looked at the carnage and began to cast Soul Steal on the dead mermen. As I gathered the souls I felt a jolt in my mind like the feeling of a phone vibrating in my pocket.
I checked my Inner Cosmos and found the black land calling me to focus on it and then not the land but the black mana “spoke” to me. At the top of the pool mana a black shield and more muscular version of me emerged.
When I looked at the shield I saw images of me casting a ghostly barrier that drained the power of whatever attacks or touch me then I saw an image of me getting swole and living untouched by time for some years.A moment later the mana to send me the idea of a lesson and a deal.
“A lesson and a deal?” More information flows into my mind. The maxim of black is power is everything. Power dictates who succeeds and who fails; who commands and who submits; who lives and who dies. But with itself, and to those it wants to help, Black speaks the naked truth without distorting or hiding anything, good or evil don’t matter, one own will do. This adherence to truth is key for its success. Black is oriented on obtaining power at any cost but a cost must be paid. Wherever the one who pays is you or others.
“So a lesson in mana, its cost, a sacrifice of the resources I gathered for power to further my ambitions” I felt a pleased feeling from the star. Ok first the defensive spell would help raise my chances of survival a lot, the second offer a power up and a longer lifespan. Short term vs long term.
“I chose the spell, the extra years while nice are useless if I don't live through the night” I said making my choice.
I feel a rumbling and I see the souls flying into the shield and the pool consuming them as per our bargain. The rumbling continues to intensify until the pool of mana suddenly expands roughly to twice its size and a new star forms in my Inner Cosmo.
Tendrils of black mana emerge from the pool and they fly towards the star at the center of this universe, this star represents my soul. Whitin I can see a core of ever shifting colors, of eternity. This without a doubt it's my planeswalker spark.
I see my spark eagerly drink the mana like it's dying of thirst and then ironically everything went black.