"Alright, I think we can agree that the spear works best for you. So we should practice with it a bit more." Trevor says as Stela moves the speartip away from his neck after she had managed to knock him to the floor (again, this was the third time this evening).

"I think I want to take a bit of a break, relax a bit with the books." Stela responds as she drops her weapon to the ground and bends over to help Trevor up. "I feel bad having my brother and Sypha do all the reading while I did nothing but play with weapons."

"Alright, your choice." Trevor shrugs and gestures to another part of the library. "You know exactly where to find me if you get bored, or want to knock me onto my ass again for the fourth time tonight."

"Oh so you have no problem with someone shorter and lighter than you knocking you onto the floor over and over." Stela asks teasingly and Trevor chuckles.

"When it comes to someone less experienced than me and who doesn't piss me off, I have no problem with it. Now, go do your reading."

Not needing to be told twice, Stela hurried for the stairs to head to the second floor. She remembered Sypha mentioning she found some books talking about the castle in one of the shelves there and she had been meaning to read them when she finished her training with Trevor. Once she found the shelf Sypha told her about, she grabbed two books out of the shelves and flipped one of them open to carefully read through it. This book talked about the structure of Dracula's castle, and what the interior looked like, and a few pages later Stela found some theories of how Dracula possibly got the castle to move, all which were a bit weird and quite off.

"Well that certainly doesn't make sense." She mutters to herself as she put that book back in it's old place and opened the other to examine it. As she was reading, she heard what sounded like Sypha shouting in excitement.

"Trevor! I have something!" Stela looks up from her book and hurries out of the shelves to see Sypha waving a book she was holding in the air with an excited look on her face and looking over the balcony.

"No, when I say what, that doesn't mean I'd like to ask even more questions." She hears Trevor say from below.

"Would you please- you're the most annoying- just stop!" Sypha groaned in frustration as her friend approached her.

"What did you find?" Stela asks pointing to the book Sypha held in her hands. She could hear footsteps from below and from above, indicating Trevor and Alucard were coming.

"I think I found a locking spell!" Sypha says excitedly as she showed her the pages she had been reading. "Trevor's family have an entire literature here about the castle, they tried for centuries to eliminate it's main advantage. It transports itself through magical means!"

"Right, so you can't attack it if it just jumps somewhere else." Trevor says as he was approaching them.

"Yes, so some clever Belmont eventually formulated most of a locking spell." Sypha explains. "A method to catch the castle and lock it down to a single location so it can be invaded."

"Most of it." They hear Alucard say from above in the other shelves.

"I can finish the final clauses of it myself, it's all based on Adamical structure." Sypha says as Trevor approaches the two girls and as Alucard was making his way down the ladder.

"I don't ever recall Adamic, what is it exactly?" Stela asks and Sypha grins.

"Adamic is the original human language, the one spoken by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The one that was split into all other languages of the tower of Babble by God to prevent human cooperation."

"Is that how you understand that story?" Alucard asks as he approaches the three humans. "Stela told me a different version she had heard when she was little."

"Yeah, the version I heard was that he caused humans to speak other languages when they tried building a tower to reach the heavens to be better than God or something like that." Stela said with a nod. "This sounds a little different."

"Oh yes, the Speakers are the enemy of God. We live in cooperation and hide our stories inside ourselves so he could not strike us down in jealousy."

Before anyone could say anything, they all heard a loud thud from above that shook the room slightly. It sounded again and Stela could hear things falling off the shelves and breaking. Sypha looks up at the shaking ceiling and points up at it.

"See, God hates me!" She says as if to prove her point.

"That's probably not God." Alucard says as the room shakes again.

"Earthquake?" Stela asks as the room shakes again.

"No something is up there." Trevor said and Stela heard the faint sound of something roaring loudly from upstairs. "Looks like Dracula sent some demons to stop us."

"No, father wouldn't do that." Stela says as they hurry to the stairs and make their way to the bottom floor. "He wouldn't just send a bunch of demons to kill us like this."

The ceiling was now shaking hard enough to send dirt and small rubble falling down on them as Sypha ran off into the shelves to grab books while Alucard and Stela went to grab the distance mirror. By the time they returned with what they needed, Trevor was staring at the shaking ceiling and holding the spear Stela had been practicing with.

"Can we get that magic mirror working?" He asks as the two siblings set the mirror down to lean it against a bookshelf across from Sypha

"I think so, but I can't do two things at once here." Sypha says as the ceiling shakes again, this time a bit more violently.

"My sister and I know some Caldeic, we know how to operate a distance mirror." Alucard says gesturing to the mirror and looks to his friends. "What shall we do?"

Stela looks to Sypha, who then looks to Trevor. He looks at them all in surprise.

"Uh...I can't do either of those things." The hunter admits and Alucard approaches him.

"Come on Belmont! You're either the last son of a warrior dynasty or a lucky drunk, which is it?"

"No time to answer that, we'll guard the door." Stela says marching over to Trevor to grab the spear from him. "My Caldeic isn't as good as my brother's, and you will need some help keeping those things at bay so Sypha will have plenty of time to finish that locking spell."

"Okay, get the mirror working Alucard. Give me force numbers and species and weapons count." Trevor states as he released the spear to let her take it. "Sypha stays on her job for now, Stela and I will fortify the point of entry."

As Stela was about to follow Trevor, she felt her brother grab her wrist.

"Wait, Stardust-"

"There's no time Adrien! We need to-"

"I was going to say to be careful." The dhampir gave his sister a small smile before turning to Trevor with a serious face. "You help her help to defend the entrance, but if she gets badly wounded I promise my father and his army will be the least of your worries."

"We're going to need more than your fancy new whip." Stela says as she pats the sword her brother had given her a few days prior that was strapped to her hip.

"I think we're going to see the size and disposition of the attacking force fairly quickly, Belmont." Alucard says as the ceiling shook again while Trevor was restocking himself with some throwing knives and a large sword.

"I'm forced to agree." The hunter replies. "Do you have any further suggestions?"

"Probably something that's going to keep us alive?" Stela suggests as she glanced up at the shaking ceiling.

"Are you asking for my advice?"

"We're working together Alucard, you're still a bastard but you're the bastard I chose to fight along side with in Gresit. You have a problem with any of that?"

For a moment Stela thought her brother was going to throw back some snarky retort, but instead a small smile came to his lips.

"None at all." He responds and Stela smiles.

"So what do you suggest?" Trevor asks. Alucard looks back to the cracked distance mirror with a frown.

"Using this to find Dracula's castle, now. We're trapped in a box down here and we'll be eventually overwhelmed. We need to change the nature of the battle.

"Agreed." Trevor says with a nod. "We'll try and protect you as long as we can."

"Be careful!" Stela heard Alucard shout as she and Trevor ran towards the stairs.

The room shakes again violently as they climb up, causing them to nearly fall. Trevor then unravels his new whip and swings it to hoist himself up to the next flight as Stela runs up, gripping the bannister tightly to keep her balance.

"Need a lift?" The hunter yells from above.

"No need, you make sure the door stays close, I'm almost there!" Stela shouts back as the room shakes, nearly knocking her off balance. "On second thought, I could use a hand getting up!"

"I'm coming!" Stela jumps back as Trevor lands down next to her and quickly pulled her to his chest. "Alright, hold on tight."

"Don't drop me- SHIT!" Trevor practically leapt off the stairs and swung them both up to the second level with Stela clinging tightly to him.

Once they reach the top where the door was, Trevor released a shaken Stela and hurried off towards the shelves before returning moments later with a large board.

"We can use this to block the entrance, go grab a shelf!" He says as he passes Stela.

"Wait Trevor, the door-" Too late. Trevor soon realizes that the plank of wood was not going to help barricade the door, since it opened outwards.

"I guess locking it ourselves is out of the question?" Stela asks innocently.

"Shut up." Trevor mutters as he pushes the door open. "You're about to partake in your first monster fight with better training, are you ready?"

Stela nods as she hurried past him to exit the library before they closed the door behind them.

"How many do you think are up there?" She asks when Trevor checks to make sure the door is closed and stands beside her. "Three, four?"

"Maybe five, or six judging by the pounding from up there." He responds as the room shook again. "You think that Hearthstone will hold? Not even your brother could lift it."

"Probably, but not for long." Stela could hear faint growling and snarling from above, and the whole room was now illuminated by moonlight. "And I was right."

She gripped her spear tightly as she looks up at the long spiraling flight of stairs they had descended not two nights ago. This was happening now, this was really happening.

"Whatever happens, don't ever hesitate when you fight." Trevor says, breaking Stela out of her thoughts. "Are you ready?"

"No." Stela responds. "But let's get this over with."