THE HUNT I

A Vampire Hunter

With the looming threat of darkness starts to spill out onto both worlds, the school has started to train its students even harder. A week before the New Ones' admission to the school Seraph holds a meeting with Death on his bar. Albert and Lachlan stood beside them and listens to what she has to say. She gives him a mission in order to repel or weaken the looming threat, but he does not seem to cooperate with her.

"I ask you to hunt the Harbinger of Greed" Seraph asked Death who only responds with a sip of whiskey that he does not fully taste.

"....."

"The fact that he has risen one of his own means the inevitable is approaching us, Father" Even with those words Death continued to sip the drink and even offered her some.

"....."

"Why do you not reply to me? This is not part of the 'Oath', you can reply to me"

"I have my Reapers to listen, My power is forbidden to attack and destroy something that is created from a soul"

"Then you could have at least replied"

"Like I said, my Reapers has listened, and it is under the Oath that they must follow what a Ethereal being like you asks, will you?"

"Of course"

"Since Dracula has a soul, we need to free that tortured poor soul. He was a man that seek knowledge, but in the process he destroyed himself to achieve it"

"He is not my problem, How about Mam-" Seraph halted her father from speaking and stood taller than him, her eyes glared in fear. She was quick to aggression. Death showed pity upon Dracula which triggered Seraph for some reason. He smiled upon her reaction and took another and louder sip.

"Do not act ignorant, Father, you know very well how we were created"

"Can't your old man have at least a smile?" He chuckled calmly, he knows Seraph cannot do anything to him but just be angry.

"You are to take my request directly and seriously" She calmly asked as she sat back down.

"You sound exactly like her" He looked at his cup this time without the smile, but a sad and long face; as if he regrets something. He was about to pour himself a drink but refrained from doing so, he listens now to Seraph.

"Now is not the time to act like this"

"I understand, Do we even know where he is?"

"Logan, the boy, he managed to look through Mammon's eye, he is in a castle he said, but it was dark"

"I'm guessing it is Dracula's?"

"Obviously, the Castle he said is located in Eastern Europe, obviously Romania, he saw visions of Landmarks from the country, and foreseen a bleak future"

"Wallachia, one of my favorite places to be"

Death looks at Albert who stands beside him with no idea with the fact that he is connected in that place. Death then remembers his first meeting with Albert, on the forests of Wallachia.

"Only if you knew what you did"

A man riding his horse moves through a Forest in the middle of a rainy and stormy night, with him different weapons that would be able to kill a bear. Behind him he carries a bag full of weapons.

A thunder strikes and a clear face of the man is seen, he seems to be wounded and bleeding but the cuts does not bother him, his hair is long down to his ear, he has a beard and wears a big cowboy-esque, he sports a leather jacket with several straps for different sidearms and his knife, he also wears a long duster, leather coat that cannot be damaged by different attacks. 'HYAH!' He shouts in order for his horse to go much faster, he arrives on his destination and he sees a wooden bridge in front of him and Vlad's castle on the other side.

"I'm here you devil!"

He hops off his horse and ties the leash on a nearby tree, he puts down his weapon and checks it if everything is operational, he has a different array of weapon, 3 different types of revolvers, a sawed-off shotgun, a rifle, a crossbow, 3 knives and one broken pike and a lasso. As he prepares his weapon a man slowly lurks over him but he did not bother to even worry. 'Missin' your home?' The man with a familiar husky voice asked, 'No' a manly voice replied.

"Of course, if my father was abusive I would not have missed where he is"

"Do not take my father lightly, Helsing, you are a man and you might be the only casualty"

"Yeah sure, I already killed so many of his minions"

He said so in an arrogant tone, as he puts on his weapons on him a long sword passes by and shaves a bit of his beard. He looks on it and towards the handle.

"Why do you bear the hunters name, he is not you Albert"

"None of your business of who am I, he was my mentor, his name deserves to be remembered. And Calm down Alucard, I am not the enemy"

"....."

The thunder strikes and lights up the sky to reveal a extremely handsome and tall man, with long grey hair, he has fangs resembling his father's. His sword made from pure silver does not hurt him because of the fact that he is half human. The sword has a smooth handle and on the pommel is his blood. Both parts resembled that of a cross. Alucard calms down and puts his word beside him, from the blade up to the pommel, Helsing looks at it sees how long just the sword is. Just the blade alone reaches from his feet up to his bicep and the hilt reaches up to his shoulder, the blade is thin but is durable made for slashing and thrusting, despite its thin size.

"Does that not really hurt you?"

"No, it does not"

"Because you are human?"

"Half, I still have my father's blood running in me"

"Sure, all right, let's go"

Alucard grabs his sword and summons a shield from his blood. The shield has a sharp base.

Alucard steps forward as he hears a loud and familiar cackle echoing in the castle. he seems to be angry. Alucard hated the fact that his father placed all of his anger, because of the death of his wife, on humans, her own kind. He hated this and wants to protect man kind, even if some of them is arrogant over the fact that they are worthy of even hurting beings like him. He sees Helsing trembling on his boots, "Afraid?" he asks, Helsing stops and laughed at him.

"No, its cold don't you see, I have faced many times death even on that village alone, but none of them are enough to put fear in this old mug"

"You had that witch of a woman did you not?"

"Valenti-"

"HEY!"

They hear a woman calling them wildly from behind and on horseback, Albert sighed and turned around and sees the woman they are talking about, a beautiful woman wearing a robe. 'Hey' Albert greeted Valentina, she then clenched her fist and punches him right on his stomach. Her punch was potent enough for him to feel it through his armor. She tried to hit Alucard but she couldn't.

"ow, Careful Val, he's the only human I know capable of killing my old man"

"Why did you left me behind?" She grabbed Alberts collar and carried him up to her face. "Yes, why did you leave her behind?" Alucard bowed down to add more pressure to the man.

"I, well..."

She lifted his head up and slapped him once more, 'I deserve that' he whispered. "Your a dick" Valentina slapped him once more to fully vent out her anger towards him. Since their arrival on the town near the castle, because of the reports of missing livestock and then people, Valentina was already there sent by her organization in order to investigate and defend them. Upon Alucard and Albert's arrival she voluntarily worked with him because it is her duty, they fought several wave of Dracula's minions and manages to protect it the village until the skin of their teeth. Albert mocked her before and still do because she cannot protect the whole town herself.

"Well, thanks now will you help us?" Albert asked her.

"....."

"Hello? She just walks past me"

"What do you think that means?"

Valentina starts to control the whole weather and creates lightning around them and struck the castle. That part of the castle slowly crumbles and falls down the hill on which the castles stands, minions starts flying out, massive humanoid bats flies in the air as the moon bathes them and they start to get muscular and much more hungrier.

"Alucard?"

"Got it small man"

They start to charge at them but Alucard was faster and he manages to kill all of them instantly, "Too long old man" He mocked Helsing who pulled out his rifle, he just chuckles and lit a pipe. As he puts it on his lip, Valentina sets the whole thing and fire and he dropped it.

"What was that for?"

"Hurry up old man" Alucard called onto him to pick up the pace. "Old man" Valentina repeated to him as a form of mockery.

"You do look old, Albert" Alucard said as he slowly floats down on him. The halfling rudely looks close up and personal to Albert. Even pulling back his face in order to really see his face.

"I'm still 36, how old are you?"

"Centuries"

"hmm, this seems unfair" He said as Alucard looks ridiculously younger than him even when he himself was young.

"I give you a pat on the back, let's go"

"Sure"

As they make their way to the castle Albert gets dragged by one of those creatures that acted dead and is thrown up the air. Alucard sees this and his incredible speed made it as if he was teleporting. He appeared beside them and kills the creature into half and throws their corpses back to its own kind. Albert falls but Alucard manages to grab him, none of his weapons fell except for a few loose stakes that he won't be using. They got back to Valentina and healed the gashes that Albert has.

"You mock how weak I am but you cannot even heal yourself"

"I don't have what you people call, emprium"

"Imperium, the essence of life"

"Really?"

"Yes"

"You guys believe those things?"

"You are looking at a vampire, and someone who can control the weather"

"We even saw a man turn into a werewolf down at the villages"

"You can believe anything you want now"

"Sure, I believe I am my own god"

They got up as soon as Albert's wounds has healed, he got up and they start to enter the castle. They can feel the bloodlust through the air, and the fear shakes both humans directly to their bones.

"Welcome home Alucard" Albert said as he pats his back. "I am.... home"

They entered the castle and sees the design that Dracula made. The castle reeks of blood and rotting corpses stuck on pikes. Albert drew his 2 modified revolvers and looks around cautiously. Alucard and Valentina uses their own keener and much better senses in order to increase their reaction time. Albert just is there looking at the tracks under them, most of the footprints are not human nor animal.

"What the fuck has been Dracula doing for sometime?"

"Experiments, to improve his army, the one's that we encountered on or journey were the weak ones"

"Seriously, I almost lost my head on the first one"

"Like I said, those are weak for him, even you with incredible skills took long to defeat the creature"

"Well, now we can imagine what happens here?"

"Indeed"

They got into the bloody and chaotic courtyard, bones in gibbets, bloods in buckets, and everything just reeks of malice. Entrails are spilled all around, it was not like the home that Alucard ran in when he was a boy.

"This place was once bright, my mother, my little sister... I am sorry"

Albert gets his head straight and much more focused as they start to walk around the area. Valentina starts to feel scared upon what they witness around them, Alucard approached one of the heads and sees a familiar face among it.

"I knew this monk"

"Monk?"

"Yes, he was a good man, I saw him give food to the children"

"I'm guessing this is why you hate your dad?"

"He kills the innocent among those who are guilty, all humans are evil he said, he is living proof of it as well. He shows that all men are capable of being vile as him, and humans must embrace it"

"At l-"

"Shush, Abraham"

They hear fleshy footsteps running around them. Alucard grabs one of the vampiric skull, it has fangs on it and is covered in blood.

"ALUCARD!" Albert and Valentina called but he cannot hear them calling 'Cannibals' He pressed the skull in his hands and pulverizes it, he blows it away as he sees a man above them. The man of the evening.

"Well, well, a brat who does now know his place, an arrogant man, and a witch whose purpose is to be a burden"

Valentina fires a jet of flame and a tendril of water towards Dracula, all he did is lift one of his finger and the 2 elements morphed into a ball. He just snickered and attacks Albert, and he pins him down.

"Weaker than I expected" His cold voice starts to break Albert's fortitude.

"I'm more than capable on killing you, NOW!"

Valentina freezes the 2 of them and Alucard slices one of his arm but it was enough to even hurt him, Dracula flies above them and his arm starts to sprout back up.

"Really human?"

Alucard starts to become angrier and annoyed at his father, Valentina releases icicles at him but he easily melted it, but it was a distraction for Alucard who disappears. He appeared behind his father but he can easily sense him and grabs him by the neck, 'I should kill you' He said as his nails grew longer and dug into his neck, he raised him and he is about to dig his own son's heart.

"Albert!!!!!"

Valentina called him out, and fires fire balls towards the Vampire, Albert quickly drew his automated crossbow and fires 4 bolts on to the fire and struck Dracula's arm. Alucard called on to his sword, he called 'Argint'. It flew right passed him and stabbed Dracula's left arm and he lets go of him. Alucard manages to save himself by floating. The sword spins and completely destroys Dracula's arm, his healing weakens.

"Hi"

"A bit too close mate"

Alucard moved away and Albert manages to land a hit directly on Dracula's face who was chasing Alucard down. Dracula, enraged, created a flaming snake and it chased after the man, he jumped behind Valentina who puts out the fire quickly. Dracula opens his mouth wide and turns into something else.

"FIRE EVERYTHING AT HIM!"

Val and Albert gave as much attacks as they can, some of their hits land on him but not enough. Albert grabbed his lasso and moved closely to the morphing vampire, he grabbed his lasso and manages to grab one of his legs that starts to manifest. He and Alucard pulls its hard and he falls down into the courtyard and stopping him from morphing. Valentina creates a cage for them and completely closes the ceiling.

"You just killed yourselves Witch"

"Well, we're planning on taking you down with us"

"Back to hell"

The 3 of them gave their all on their battle against the Count, hits after hits they managed to land even more, as the battle grew longer it grows fiercer. As the hours passed by and their energies drain except for the 2 vampires the sun slowly rises from the east. Dracula tries to turn into a cauldron of bats but Albert stops him by grabbing a pike and stabbing it right through his eye.

"YOU FILFTHY HUMAN"

Dracula has him on a choke and the vampire and man gives all they have, Albert obviously has the lower hand here as he is weak compared to the strength of the being. Alucard and Valentina tries to their best to stop Dracula but they cannot do it. Dracula sharpens his nails and stabs it right through the left side of his torso, puncturing Albert's left lung. Despite this he still continued to fight.

"VAL!!! DESTROY THIS FUCKING PLACE!!!" He commanded.

Hearing that Dracula chases after the Witch but with the effort of Alucard and Helsing they managed to hold him down. Alucard uses his sword and stabs right through his father's abdomen and pierced right through Albert's leg. Valentina gathers as much Imperium as her body can, a strong force hits them and their ears starts to ring, but it did not stop the witch from blowing the whole place away and the 2 holding the vampire down.

Dracula opens his mouth and his fangs grew, he grabs Albert's head in order to bite his neck but Alucard did not allow it. Albert holds Dracula down, while Alucard hold his father's head on place.

Valentina screams her lungs and heart out as she released a huge wave of Imperium around her, completely destroying the whole castle apart. The sun, rises from the east and directly in front of the count. With his last breath he looked over to his son, 'I will be back' as his face starts to burn, he screams and writhes in agony as everything from his skin down to his clothes burn as they bask in the sun.

Dracula's eyes starts to run blood and it goes down his cheeks, his nails grew long, his skin and hair grew older and grey. His legion that is ravaging the village starts to burn and experiencing the same fate as their overlord, even if they hide in the shadow. Those who whose fate is unlucky and is turned into a vampire against their own will, smiled to their families and turns into ash and dust away into nothingness. Few of Dracula's minions tries to save him, but they also turn into ash.

Albert looks up and sees everything is gone, Val and Alucard as well. Footsteps come walking towards him and he sees a man in the same coat as he is, only in black. He slowly reaches for his weapon and fires at the man, but he deflected it easily.

"What is your name?"

"Helsi-, Albert, I mean"

"Albert, is it n-"

He slowly gets up, and asks him who he is.

"Death, the friend that wants to take you a new place, I now have a mission for you in a new life"

"The woman and the man I was with, where are they?"

"Alucard left when the sun rises and goes to slumber, the witch however she chose a different path, and you what choice do you have"

"Whatever mission you have for me in my new life fuck it, the village, the king, I hav- to quickly, help me"

"Quickly?"

"Well, I have to go down to the village and tell them this"

"Do not worry, I have already done that, even the king"

"The kin- as well. Really, can you talk to living beings?"

"No, only the dead and dying can speak to me"

Upon realization, for Albert everything starts to turn back. He sees his own body, that has bled to death, and a piece of cloth left by Valentina who lays on top of him, who has died.

"Who is she, on top of my body??"

"Go look"

"Poor girl.... Did you know h-"

"No, but if it makes you feel better, she will live a much better life than now, she's asleep my friend not dead"

"Well, I want to feel that"

"....."

"How was I Death?"

"You?"

"Did I live as a good man?"

"Of course, you saved and protected Humanity even if it costs a house, your professor, is proud to know you"

"Thank you"

Albert and Death spoke for hours and their deal has been, as time passes by Albert's concealing items changed from a pocket-watch up to a wrist watch that he kept, the broken watch is always set on dawn, the time he died, when the sun shined but he cannot remember it.

"Well father?"

"He goes, both of them"

"Thank you, and you?"

"I will keep watch"

Their meeting finishes and the 3 of them heads to the castle, Death opens a door and in they entered it and ended up in the same exact village, Albert has a nostalgic feel to this place as he looks around it and so did Death. They each took of their concealing items and now they walk amongst the crowd. As the 2 Reapers took a step forward they start to remember voices of a woman.

"I love you, we're getting married"

"Having no memory of you is a fate worse than death"

As the 2 Reapers stopped and looked confused, Death bites deeply into his lip. This for them is torture, they do not know it but he clearly does.

"Ready your weapons, we will fight, the 3 of us"

"You too sir, why?"

"Because he is the result of my creation, a man easily driven by Greed, my child"

Death stretched out his right arm and his scythe appears, made from bones. The 2 also prepared their weapons, and break their 'Oaths' unbeknownst.

"Father, thank you" Seraph said as the doors close on them. They arrive at the bridge that goes to the now ruined castle. No one dared to move in and allowed nature to take care of it, but those who stayed kept it as it is.

"They are here, and without your son"

"I know, I must fight them, and after that, you"