The city lay below, alive and oblivious, its towers glittering under the moon. Alucard stood at the edge, Yuki's body pressed against his chest, Alexie bound to Hairless like broken cargo. His sword dripped blood, the last echoes of the ruined temple burning behind him.
Shadows writhed at his feet, eager, whispering. Burn it. Burn it all. Take from them as they took from you.
His lips split into a grin too wide, too sharp. His eyes gleamed red, fevered. The thought of the city screaming, of mothers clutching children as fire rained from the sky, filled him with vicious joy. His grip on Yuki's body tightened. "They'll know my pain," he whispered, trembling. "They'll ALL know it."
Hairless snorted, stamping hard enough to crack the marble beneath its hooves. The beast turned, eyes like twin coals, and stepped into his path. Its massive body blocked the road down into the city.
"Move," Alucard growled. His voice broke, rage and grief tangled into something unholy. Shadows hissed forward, lashing at the horse — but Hairless stood firm, its eyeless face tilted toward him.
"You DARE defy me?" Alucard snarled. He ripped his blade free, swinging in wild arcs that split the air. The sword cut shadow trails around the horse, but Hairless didn't budge. It reared, its hooves slamming down with a thunderclap that knocked Alucard back several steps.
Alexie's broken laughter carried from where he dangled. "Yes… YES! Burn it, monster! Give me their screams! Tear them apart like you tore me apart! Do it!"
His glee was a knife in Alucard's skull. The vampire staggered, clutching his head. His thoughts fractured, voices overlapping, shadow and grief boiling together.
And then — a whisper.
Soft. Familiar.
Sebastian…
His breath hitched. His eyes darted around, wild. "No… no, don't… you're gone. You're gone!"
But she was there. Not in flesh — never again in flesh — but her voice wove through the shadows. A gentle thread in the chaos. Yuki's ghost.
This isn't you.
Alucard's body shook. He fell to his knees, clutching Yuki's body as tears burned down his face. "I… I can't… he took you, he took EVERYTHING—!"
Then don't let him take what's left. Her tone was soft, patient. The way she'd speak to him when she teased him about brooding too much. The Dark Castle needs you. Our people need you. Go to them.
"Dark… Castle?" His voice cracked, almost childlike. He blinked through tears, and in his madness, the image of the stronghold came to him — walls shrouded in shadow, their one safe place.
Save them, the voice urged. Don't let him win by turning you into what he wanted.
Alucard's chest heaved. He looked up at Hairless, the horse standing silently, waiting. His hand trembled as he touched its neck. "…Forgive me," he whispered. "I almost… I almost damned us all."
Hairless bowed its terrible head.
Behind him, Alexie's chuckle broke the moment. "Pathetic. She's dead, Sebastian. DEAD. And you didn't even have the courage to make her death mean something."
Alucard turned. His shadows fell still. His grin faded into a flat, empty stare. He walked slowly to Alexie, every step deliberate.
Alexie's mangled body writhed, his smile grotesque despite the ruin of his flesh. "Yes… come on then. End it with fire. End it with fury. Give me the climax I deserve—"
The blade whispered once.
A single, clean strike.
Alexie's words cut off mid-laugh. His head hit the stones. Silence followed.
"No," Alucard muttered, staring at the corpse. "You don't deserve an ending."
[You have slain an awakened human: sun priest Alexie]
He buried Yuki outside the city. He couldn't bring her into the soil of ruin. No — she deserved beauty, even now.
The tree he chose stood on a hill, its branches vast and sheltering, its bark silvered under the moon. The grass around it was soft, untouched by fire or blood. He dug with his hands when his blade dulled, claws tearing through soil until his fingers bled.
When he laid her down, he smoothed her hair one last time, pressing his lips to her cold forehead.
"I'll come back to you," he whispered. His voice broke, his shoulders shaking. "I'll come back when it's over. I'll… I'll tell you everything. Every fight. Every victory. Every loss. You'll hear it all. So wait for me, alright? Just… wait."
The wind moved through the branches above, as if answering.
He knelt for hours, unwilling to leave. His hands lingered on the earth long after it was closed. Finally, when dawn threatened the horizon, he rose.
He mounted Hairless, shadows coiling tight around his shoulders. His eyes, hollow and fevered, turned toward the distance.
Smoke rose there. Thick, black.
The Dark Castle.
When Alucard reached the gates, he almost fell from the saddle.
The gardens were gone, reduced to ash and mud. Corpses lined the path — knights of the Sun sprawled broken, their armor melted, twisted. Monsters lay scattered beside them, half-burned husks, their blood soaking into the soil.
The walls of the castle loomed, broken and smoking. Towers were collapsed, banners shredded, stones blackened. Shadow and fire had torn the place apart.
Alucard sat frozen on Hairless, staring at the ruin. His home. His last refuge.
And somewhere within, the faint echo of Yuki's voice whispered again. Go on.
The gates groaned open as Hairless carried him forward, but Alucard barely noticed. His eyes locked on the dead that lined the path.
The skeleton guards were first. The same ones who used to make off-color jokes about their missing organs, who bickered like old men while patrolling the gardens. Their bones were shattered now, their skulls caved in. No wisecracks. No laughter. Only dust and silence.
Alucard clenched his teeth, shadows writhing around his boots.
Further in, he found the maids. Their stitched mouths had been torn open, their bodies split and left in mockery. Some were sprawled against the stones with their uniforms torn away, violated in death as much as life. The stench of cruelty hung over them.
Alucard's hands shook, claws digging into his palms until blood dripped down. He wanted to scream. He wanted to drag every knight of the Sun back from the grave and butcher them again, slowly. Bastards… all of them. Damned bastards.
Hairless whinnied low, urging him forward.
By the training yard, he stopped cold. The werewolf professor lay slumped against the wall, a massive sword driven clean through his chest. His eyes, still faintly glowing with that familiar drill-sergeant fire, stared lifelessly ahead. Around him were the corpses of two sun-knights, their throats torn out, their armor mangled. Even dying, he'd taken some with him.
Alucard bowed his head. He remembered the professor shouting at him, berating his sloppy form, then laughing when Yuki defended him. He remembered those moments — harsh, but alive. Now nothing.
He forced himself onward, deeper into the castle.
Inside was worse. The silence wasn't absence; it was suffocation. Every step echoed against stone that once sang with life. Servants whispering. Guards training. The smell of wax, of food, of laughter. Now only blood and ash.
The library stopped him in his tracks.
Or what remained of it. The once endless shelves, towers of knowledge guarded like treasure, had been reduced to blackened skeletons of wood. Books lay in piles of ash, words devoured by flame.
Alucard stood in the doorway for a long time, unable to move. He didn't care about the knowledge — not really. What gutted him were the memories. Sitting in the far corner with Yuki, teasing him as he tried to teach her words from forgotten tomes. The rare, heavy silence when Dracula himself would read there. Even the fights with his old, spoiled self… they were still his. And now they were gone.
His throat burned. He turned away before the shadows swallowed him whole.
The deeper he went, the heavier it became. The weight of every corpse. The weight of every absence.
Finally, he reached the last corridor. The massive gates to the throne room towered before him. Black iron, cracked but still standing, their runes glowing faintly red in the dark.
Alucard froze. His chest felt tight, his hands numb. For the first time since Yuki's death, fear gripped him. Not of death. Not of pain. But of what he might find on the other side.
He swallowed hard. His fingers closed on the handles.
And he pulled.
The throne room waited.