-Author's Note-

To Orionali: Thanks for being my first reviewer, as this is my first published fic on this site.

To everyone else: I am very proud of this particular chapter because half of it is made from a conversation I had with a friend of mine on Google Drive over how his OC Matthias might react to my OC Adrian's plans. The result was far better than I could have expected and we ended up with the bulk of this chapter, so credit goes to zombieapoc for supplying most of Matthias' dialogue here. Hope you all enjoy!

-End Note-

Castlevania, Lords of Shadow

Domain of Dracul

Ch.2: What is a Man..?

"So… what happens now?" Matthias' question hung in the air like a thunderhead waiting to burst. For several long moments Adrian did not reply as he sat back upon his throne, lost in thought. Finally he rose and began to pace slowly around his throne as he spoke.

"I've been thinking about that quite carefully, ever since I read the memories of my past life. There is no way to reverse what has happened to me: I shall remain a vampire forever, and now that the castle has acknowledged me as its master, the destruction of my physical form is only a temporary inconvenience for me. Even now, word of the Lord of Shadow's return is spreading amongst the creatures of the night, and soon they will come in droves, either to swear their allegiance to me or to challenge my rule. None who challenge me will succeed, for even now my power swells and continually draws closer to being what it once was." Adrian halted and fixed his friends with a weary look. "However you look at it, I cannot escape this fate: I am the Lord of Shadow, and nothing can change that."

"There must be something we can do to free you though!" Charlotte insisted. "If we contact the Brotherhood of Light, maybe we can get them to call the other religious orders together again and try to break the castle's connection to you!"

A cool breeze sped through the throne room, and in its wake Matthias and the others thought they heard voices whispering. "Free me?" Adrian responded with an amused smile. "I thank you for the thought Charlotte, but whoever said I wanted to be free? Or that I considered myself a prisoner?"

The mood shifted; now there was a tense, worried uncertainty in the air. "What are you talking about?" Eric asked. "Are you saying you want to be like this?"

"Unable to die? Imbued with incredible power and vigor? Legions of creatures at my beck and call and a lavish castle to call my home?" Adrian chuckled. "I'm certain I'll get used to the lack of sunlight eventually."

"B-but, you'll h-h-have to drink b-blood," Riley pointed out. "W-will you b-be able to live w-with yourself having to d-d-do that to innocent p-people just to stay alive?"

"Who said anything about innocent people?" Adrian countered. "As I speak, a few witch covens are working on a spell to link the castle dungeons to every death-row of every prison in the world: I'll have a constant supply of blood, and it'll come from the worst that humanity has to offer. I'd call that a win-win scenario."

Silence. "That's actually a pretty good idea, when ya think about it," Matthias said at last.

Jonathan rounded on Matthias. "Don't tell me you're actually supporting him in this madness?"

"Madness?" Adrian snapped, his voice suffused with a feral growl that made the gathered humans flinch. "You want to talk about madness? Mankind succeeded in vanquishing the Dragon, and what did they do? World Wars one and two, firearms, mustard gas, the atomic bomb! Humanity freed itself from the fear of Dracula's rule and tore into each other like a bunch of feral dogs! For the love of God, why?! They had peace, and they threw it away to war with each other! I guarantee you that any other animal on this planet would not attack its own species if it had just been released from the threat of a beast greater than itself. Yet mankind will; why?"

Adrian spread his arms apart. "In the end, what is a man? Is man inherently good, or inherently evil? Philosophers have debated this question for centuries, and though they have endless theories they still don't have a definite answer. But I have found that whatever man inherently is, he can still choose to commit good or evil. So why, with the freedom of this choice, does man continue to sin and wage war? The answer is quite simple: man lies. Mankind lies to itself: 'this war is for a just cause,' 'our occupation of this country is justified because their government is unstable,' or 'we're not terrorists, we're freedom fighters.'"

Adrian snarled in disgust as he let his arms drop. "All of these lies are to mask one thing: mankind wants an enemy to fight. It needs an icon to hate just as much as it needs icons to call heroes. And with the creatures of the night vanished, who does humanity have left to hate, but itself? But mankind can never admit this, so people always lie to themselves so that they don't have to face their true nature."

Adrian raised his eyes to the ceiling and concluded, in a softer tone: "So what is a man, but a miserable pile of secrets? And now, as the Lord of Shadow come again, I am the symbol that humanity once focused all of its hatred upon. If I were to accept this role as prince of darkness and reveal myself, the Brotherhood of Light would resurface and urge humanity to direct its aggression towards me, instead of directing it upon itself. If I do this, it is possible that humanity will stop fighting itself and begin to take steps towards reconciling the wrongs the people have done each other. Under my rule, I will passively threaten humanity: I won't mount direct attacks, and I'll place restrictions upon my subjects limiting the amount of carnage they are allowed to inflict."

Adrian smiled and clasped his hands together. "So, that's my plan in a nutshell: I'm going to become the great and terrible master of evil and what-not, paint a big target on my chest, and let all of humanity focus its hate on me. I just had my servants bring you all here because…" Adrian hesitated, a frown appearing upon his face as he sat back down on his throne. "I don't know, I guess I wanted someone to know the truth. So, thank you for your time, my servants will see you all safely home now," Adrian concluded with forced cheer while shooting a withering glare at the monster knights that roughly translated to 'screw-up and you shall suffer.'

However, before the gathered humans could respond to Adrian's declaration, and before the knights could move in to begin leading them away, mankind experienced the first of many defections as Matthias spoke up. "Right... well, do ya need a general ta help ya? Cuz' I'm bored with that stupid school mate."

Adrian blinked very slowly, unsure if he had misheard or not. "...what?"

"What?!" parroted Lucius, Charlotte, Eric and Jonathan, unable to believe what Matthias had just said.

"I asked if you need help mate," Matthias replied with an impish grin. "Because you were never that great a strategist, considering I always whip ya in Warhammer 40k, and you always focused on the small scale of things."

Adrian felt a brief flicker of annoyance at Matthias' mention of the strategy game he'd fervently roped him into. "I think I'm focusing on a bit of a larger scale here; were you not listening to my big speech? More to the point, you're saying you want to help me be the prince of darkness?" He didn't dare to indulge the bloom of hope rising in his chest. "You do know that's going to involve, you know, humans dying either at my hands or at the hands of my armies? Which you would then be accountable for as one of my generals. And you're human too, let's not forget," Adrian pointedly stated.

Matthias merely shrugged. "Humans kill each other for the stupidest reasons anyway, which you've pointed out. Besides, the human part's changeable, and most humans are arse-holes anyway," he added bitterly, and Adrian knew that he was chiefly referring to his own alcoholic father. "Also, I want a lab to experiment in so I can upgrade this Dark Age rabble of yours into a modern fighting force." Matthias added enthusiastically, a fiery and dangerous gleam in his eyes.

Jonathan gaped at Matthias in astonishment before finally finding his voice again. "You're just going to turn your back on humanity? On the rest of us? What's going to happen once his armies have assembled? They'll butcher thousands of innocent people! And you want to help him?!"

Matthias was unmoved and simply replied, "Humanity has butchered MILLIONS of innocents in the name of everything from money to power to religion, and you say that we are going to be the monsters?"

Jonathan was about to give a thunderous reply when Lucius spoke up. "Now hold on a moment Matt: you've forgotten that we've also killed millions in the names of freedom, justice, and let's not forget the purity of the Aryan race," he finished scathingly, his tone cold and measured.

Adrian watched the proceedings from his throne in mute silence, conflicted but secretly glad that some of his friends seemed to 'get it' enough to the point of wanting to help him. Reluctant though he was to potentially damn his friends and drag them down with him, part of him had to admit that he wouldn't mind having their company if he was to pursue the course he had chosen for himself.

Matthias quickly continued the verbal tirade by using Lucius' statement as a springboard. "Yes, millions die to bring one man to justice-that's required-then we put them in kangaroo courts to speed things along," his tone grew more and more outraged as he went on, steadily building up steam as he was wont to do when making a heated argument. "Then there's freedom, or terrorism to the other side. And don't get me started about the whole Nazi fiasco," Matthias concluded in a biting tone.

Though he could see the argument Matthias was building, Eric found himself too preoccupied by the fact that now Lucius seemed to be joining in on the 'wrong' side. "Not you too, Lucius! Don't the two of you realize what you sound like?" Eric pleaded, desperate to make his friends see sense and still determined to sway Adrian from his madness. "Our best friend is turning into a demon and announcing that he's going to 'take the job' of being a terrible murdering tyrant like something out of a bad movie in order to 'save' humanity from itself, and you're standing here justifying his position?!"

Lucius turned to Eric with a cool smile and promptly pounced upon his words. "The simple fact of the matter is that there is no justice in the world: not while man decides what is and is not justice." His tone bordered on bitterness for a moment, and Adrian knew that he was struggling with his heated feelings on the injustices of the world. "From the way Adrian described it, humanity under the reign of the original Lords of Shadow never had time to fight amongst themselves, what with the legions of darkness breaking down their doors and dragging them screaming into the night. Sure there were probably sinners and criminals even then, but were there world wars? I'm pretty sure those didn't start occurring until after Dracula's last defeat."

"That," Matthias added cynically, "and if humans are left to their own devices, they will turn on one-another faster than you can say, 'can't we all just get along?'"

Before Eric or Jonathan could voice a response, they were all (Adrian included) surprised to find Riley's timid voice rising up to join the debate. "I-I think humanity was united under the r-reign of the first Lords of Shadow too…"

Charlotte stared at her little-sister figure, utterly flabbergasted. "Riley? What..?"

"W-wasn't the Brotherhood of L-light formed by humans banding together with the church to survive and p-p-protect themselves from the m-monsters?" Riley reasoned while wringing her hands under the combined gazes of her best friends. "And even then th-they couldn't stop Dracula f-for as long as they did without having all th-the different religions come together, and th-they're not together like that these days…"

"Well of course they're not!" Jonathan scoffed, desperate to get a word of sanity into the discussion. "They're just too… too different!"

"Yet they came together to address the threat of Dracula." Lucius coolly responded without missing a beat. "Why then must it be so hard to do so during times of peace?"

"They can work together only when there is a common threat," Matthias added angrily. "After that has passed, they're right back at each other's throats!"

Lucius could see Jonathan and Charlotte were each trying to come up with a rebuke, but his experience as the head of the university's debate club soon saw him backing Matthias up with a historical argument. "In the wake of the Prohibition Act, an American mobster once said that he was responding to the will of the people. Said mobster had hundreds violently killed either himself or through members of his organization, yet he provided an outlet for volatile human emotions and in a sense caused the tension of the public to deflate somewhat. He was eventually tried for the crime of income tax evasion and sentenced, and the people who took him down were called heroes. So you see, Adrian's just responding to the will of the people: humanity always wants a bad-guy to fight, so he's volunteering."

"Well it seems that those who are gonna help are known and those who want nothing to do with this have said what they wish to." Matthias observed in a calm and business-like tone. "I'd say we're done here."

"Riley…" Eric's expression was a mix of uncertainty and intense worry as he regarded the timid brainiac. "Are you really okay with being a part of this? Being hated by humankind, helping Adrian and his army of virtually every monster known in fiction commit murder and other atrocities?"

Matthias gave a short and mirthless snort of contempt. "At least we won't be committing genocide."

"Don't say that as if humanity's done nothing but bad things!" Charlotte snapped furiously. "What about all of the good and decent people in the world? What about the people who have never done a bad thing in their life? Adrian's monsters won't make that distinction: we're all just cattle to them!"

"Based on my experiences, those people are few and far in-between," Matthias replied bitterly.

"If they have any sense of self-preservation or are as 'good' as Charlotte claims," Lucius reasoned, "they'll provide food and shelter for refugees, or they'll harness their anger and join the Brotherhood of Light once it decides to re-emerge from the shadows. Humanity will stop fighting itself and start fighting Adrian, as he intends," Lucius explained as if he was discussing the solution to a math problem.

"And once we win?" Jonathan growled defiantly. "What happens to Adrian's 'brilliant plan' then?"

"You will hopefully have learned a lesson," Matthias remarked, "or we will return to do it again. But remember: the battle will be long and hard."

"A-Adrian said th-that he can't truly die because of the c-castle," Riley finally spoke up again. "So he'll eventually come b-back to life, and I g-guess we'd either go away if humanity was at p-peace or…"

"Or start the fighting all over again?!" Jonathan roared, causing Riley to flinch at the look of fury he wore as he pointed at Adrian accusingly. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT! What gives you the right to sit up on that throne and judge us? You sure as hell aren't god!"

"Well you're right about one thing," Matthias quipped casually, "there is no-one who has that right because it is not a right: It's a job that no-one else is doing, so we will do it, and thus become the face of all evil in this world."

"But what about the lot of you?" Eric sounded as though he was moments away from begging on his hands and knees."You say that you're doing this for our own good? How long do you think you can keep telling yourself that when you're… ordering the deaths of an entire city or having people sacrificed to make his armies stronger, or just to keep them fed? How long until it all starts to change you and makes you into monsters? Had you thought of that?"

"Sometimes what humanity needs is not a hero," Matthias replied stoically, "sometimes it needs a monster."

"Enough." Adrian said firmly, not shouting or even raising his voice but still managing to silence the room by speaking at all."You've all made your points. I'll admit I was reluctant to accept your unexpected offers to help, but considering that my court will otherwise consist solely of vampires, werewolves and representatives from the other major monster species- none of whom I trust - with no-one that I know I can rely on, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth," he concluded with a warm and grateful smile. "Riley, Matthias and Lucius you can stay, we can discuss your court positions after you've had time to get some rest somewhere comfortable where you won't be in any danger of being eaten."

Adrian's expression became sad but nonetheless hardened as he turned his attention to those who had not offered him their allegiance. "As for the rest of you, thanks for the companionship during my human years, I'll remember to tell my legions not to eat anyone with your last names, provided they aren't coming at them with weapons. My servants will take you home without incident; feel free to vow that you won't rest until I am put down." Adrian paused for a thoughtful moment before adding: "In fact, you may want to swear that your entire collective bloodlines won't rest; the Belmonts could use the help, what with the Brotherhood still being in 'silent mode' and all."

"This isn't over!" Jonathan growled as he leapt to his feet.

"Thank you for indulging the cliché, Jonathan," Adrian replied while rolling his eyes, "but you are quite right: this is all just a prologue of what's to come. I'd seriously consider leaving town within the next year or so: I haven't decided when I'll have my castle return to the material world, but when it does it's going to cause quite a mess, what with the city being on top of it."

"We won't let you do this, Adrian!" Charlotte declared. "We'll find the Brotherhood, we'll find some way to warn everyone about you, we'll do whatever it takes to stop you!"

"And there's another cliché satisfied," Matthias observed sarcastically. "You guys realize you're trying to tell the Lord of Shadows what he can or cannot do in his own castle… in his throne room, as a matter of fact?"

"Please escort these three humans back to their homes," Adrian huffed to his knights. "Do not harm them, do not allow them to come to harm. Should I learn that they were mistreated in any way shape or form, whatever I do to you will make what I did to him," he indicated the knight that had brought Matthias in, whom happened to have some red liquid seeping through the gaps in his armor, "look like a pillow fight."

The knights turned to look at each other in what seemed to be confusion. "It's a harmless form of mock-fighting involving soft cushions," Lucius clarified. The knights stiffened and hastily began to lead Jonathan and the others away, taking care not to touch them as they herded them away like sheepdogs. As they left Adrian's former friends took the time to send him backwards glances of loathing, pity, and disgust before the doors to the throne room closed behind them, leaving Adrian alone with the only friends he had left.

"I… truly had not expected this," Adrian whispered as he rose from his throne and slowly descended to the others. "I was thoroughly convinced that I would be going at this hair-brained scheme of mine alone aside from the castle's inhabitants."

"Oh ye of little faith," Matthias joked with a grin. "We're your bloody friends, Adrian. No way we're gonna sit back and let you take on and potentially botch the hardest job in the world."

"Now who's got little faith?" Adrian fired back with a smile as he stood before his friends.

"Misery loves company, isn't that the saying?" Lucius asked as he allowed himself a smile and clasped hands with Adrian. "This isn't what I saw myself doing when I wondered as a child what I'd be when I grew up, but then I don't think there are many who can say otherwise."

"S-so, umm," Riley spoke up nervously, "what is it that I c-can do to help?"

"We'll figure that out later," Adrian said firmly. "If I'm correct, my servants collected the lot of you in the late hours of the night; regardless of the excitement, I know that you must be tired and I insist that you are all well-rested when we discuss business. There's a suite of rooms in the Bernhard wing of the castle where you should be reasonably comfortable, but first…"

Adrian straightened up to his full height and spread his arms apart in the air. "As lord and master of this castle, I proclaim that these three mortals are my friends and allies. Henceforth, they are welcome here in my castle and are under my protection. Whosoever attempts to harm them or by way of inaction allows them to come to harm shall be subject to my displeasure and wrath. Let it also be known that they have my leave to wander these halls as they desire, and all my servants are to heed their commands as if they speak with my voice and authority. So say I, Dracul." A deep rumbling seemed to come from the stone of the castle as Adrian lowered his arms. "There, now the castle knows that you are to be protected. It will take time for word to spread among my servants, but in the meantime the castle will effectively deal with any who attempt to give you trouble."

"Not that I don't have confidence in you," Lucius said calmly, "but you're absolutely certain the castle will obey?"

Adrian smiled, and this time he made no attempt to hide his fangs. "Well put it this way: when I first became a vampire, my powers were in fragments hidden throughout the castle. Rather than go through the annoying task of searching every room in the castle, I demanded that it bring my powers and relics to me in my throne room."

"And it did?" Matthias asked skeptically. "Just like that?"

"Well not at first," Adrian admitted with a shrug. "In fact it sent a few lesser vampires to shut me up and test me. I continued to shout at it while dealing with them and eventually threatened to think about leaving. Apparently that was all the proof it needed that I really was its master reborn, and now…" He broke off as a small group of squat, ugly goblin-like creatures wearing bits of armor stalked into the room, each of them pulling on ropes that were attached to a strange floating box that had two rings orbiting it. The creatures grunted as they continued to drag the box with them, shooting odd looks at Matthias and the others but making no hostile movements towards them. They halted in front of Adrian and stood aside, kneeling on the floor in reverence as Adrian stepped up to the box.

"Now my servants are practically falling over each other in their attempts to be the one to bring me my relics," Adrian laughed as he extended his hand towards a small, mouth-like opening in the box. "Partially out of fear, and partially in the hopes of gaining good standing with me as the new lord." The three humans flinched as a set of spikes stabbed Adrian's hand within the box, his blood pooling on the floor below it while Adrian gave a small wince of discomfort before the box dissolved away into nothing. His seemingly unharmed hand now held a deep blue gemstone that he then stowed away in one of the inner pockets of his coat. "A little competition does wonders for motivation." He turned to the creatures and told them, "You are each permitted one new piece of armor from the remains of any knights left in the castle." The creatures let out pleased whoops and grunts before bowing clumsily and hurrying towards the exit, pushing each other over in their haste.

"Well that's reassuring," Matthias chuckled as he ran a hand through his messy mop of red hair. "It sounded for a minute like you'd have to do something tedious like in some video games, but instead you took advantage of the fact that you're the monster equivalent of a final boss and started giving orders like you're supposed to. Nice."

"Isn't it though?" Adrian said smugly. "Just wait until you see the dining room. But seriously, the hour is late and you snipes need to get some rest. Vetrinari, I know you've been listening, so you can take them to their rooms, I believe you know the suite in question."

"Very good, my lord," came a voice from one of the pillars. The three humans whirled around to see a face leaning out of one of the columns, followed by a neck, torso, arms and legs until at last a strange being stepped out of the stone. His skin was an odd shade of light green like a frog's, and he had narrow, squinty red eyes. He was somewhat stout in body with lanky limbs, and he was dressed in a smart-looking red and blue waistcoat.

"This is Vetrinari." Adrian said to the stunned humans. "I've no idea what he is, but he has the ability to meld with the walls of the castle and move through them to emerge anywhere he wants in minutes. And seeing as the castle is sentient, I imagine that's no small feat."

Vetrinari swept into a bow. "My thanks, your lordship. Honored guests, if you would be so kind as to each grab a hold of this," he picked up one of the ropes that had been attached to the pain box and tied one end around his wrist, "I shall lead you through the walls to your rooms. You will be affected by my magic as long as you are in contact with me, or by extension this rope, but should you let go whilst we are inside the walls…" Riley shivered in fright as she and the others quickly tied themselves to Vetrinari.

"I will be most suspicious and cross should any 'accidents' occur Vetrinari," Adrian said pointedly as Vetrinari and the others stepped over to a wall.

"I shall guard them more closely than my own life, milord," Vetrinari assured Adrian as he placed a hand against the wall and began to sink into it.

"We'll chat later," Adrian called out as Vetrinari' s back disappeared into the wall, the rope attached to him now tugging Matthias and the others towards the wall to follow him. "Just call Vetrinari' s name when you're ready to come see me again, he is the eyes and ears that the walls are said to have. I'll have a word with the chef and make sure that breakfast includes foodstuffs that are edible by human standards." Adrian turned and headed towards the exit while snapping his fingers. A knight appeared next to him holding out a goblet while bowing its head. Adrian quickly accepted the goblet and tilted back his head while letting its contents spill forth into his waiting mouth, letting out a content "ahhh," before using a handkerchief to wipe away a little blood that had run down his chin. He paused at the doors and looked back as Matthias' back vanished into the wall, and he allowed himself a genuine smile before facing the throne and raising his goblet in a toast. "To old friendships, new beginnings, and lots of scary things." Adrian drank deeply from his goblet and went on his way.