When Valerius was a boy, he was nearly pulled under by a strong current at the beach. Aurelius and I were in the water with him, and I managed to grab him and get him safely to his father, but a wave knocked me under from behind. I remember tumbling endlessly into the dark, bereft of all senses except with the water roaring in my ears until my glyphs burned, and I righted myself, swimming with the current until I made it back to land.
I felt the same sensation now, tumbling into the abyss with only the constant roaring in my ears, but I came to my senses far quicker in my celestial form, fanning my wings and flying along the current that was the Infinite Corridor.
I'm in the Corridor! How!?
It had to have been the Alchemist! He must've opened a door with his remaining power before he died, so Trevor wouldn't fall to his-!
Oh no..Trevor!! I scanned the undulating current of the Corridor, soaring within the vortex of intense colors.
TREVOR! WHERE ARE YOU!!
My cry echoed in the vortex, my eyes sharp in hopes of pinpointing a small flickering soul among the swirling colors. I have to find him before he's overwhelmed. Even a small exposure would drive someone mad! I wondered if that's how Saint Germain lost his marbles and became Grim's puppet.
That's if.....he isn't already dead.
TREVOR!!! I screeched, my voice carried away by the corridor. TREVOR I AM HERE!!
He had to have been sucked in, I saw it just as he gave me that smile. He's here I know it! How am I going to find him!?
The Corridor. An ethereal voice whispered in my mind. Use the Corridor to your command, Egrigori. It is your path you must take.
Uriel. One of the Bigwigs whose good side I'm on. Memory returned to me and I flexed an outstretched hand, opening a Door.
Through the door. A witch in spandex and high heels fought a choir of angels, blasting them back with dual pistols. She turned around with a wicked smirk and aimed her weapon at my head. I swerved out of the way before a shot was heard and the portal closed.
He's not there, I feel bad for any angel living in that universe.
I flew along and opened another Door.
I looked into a warm cozy library lined to the ceiling with books in the middle of a bustling modern city. A human formed angel walked into view, nearly spilling his tea over his cream colored coat seeing me through an open door. He was more startled about me showing up unannounced and he hadn't prepared extra tea.
Sorry, my mistake, I can't stop for tea right now! Goodbye! We waved farewell to each other before I closed the door.
Nope not there either. I feel bad I've forgotten him too. He's a friendly good chap!
The next Door opened to an aurora lit sky beneath polar starlight. A clan of witches flew on their branches and one of them politely greeted me as I glided along. Apparently they knew about my kind.
I'm looking for a human! A Belmont with a red sigil! Please can you help me?
The witch said that he'd be in the Corridor itself and not another world far from his, wishing me good luck. Below them a balloon rode on the thermals, carrying two children and an armored polar bear.
I closed the Door frustrated. I'm never going to find him opening Doors here and there all over the place following the endless vortex of the Corridor, I'll be stuck here for eternity!
A memory sprung back to me. Not if I narrowed things down.
The Infinite Corridor is just that; a corridor. A highway taking you where you need to go. A road for you to drive on. I told myself.
All you need to do is find the right exit.
I closed my eyes, flexing my hand. Take me to my own world, and to Belmont. The vortex shifted, blue bursts overtaking the purples, and dipped like a hill, connecting me to what I hoped was the timeline of my universe.
A Door opened to a misty docks beneath a clouded night. At the edge of the dock stood a man in blue grasping a whip with the Belmont crest emblazoned on his back.
Trevor!?
The man turned his head, as if sensing me through the fog.
A blonde haired girl stood next to him in a pink dress with a green ribbon in her braid. She gasped when she sensed me, turning her head and watching me with a mix of curiosity and foreknowing. She wore an amulet with an angelic glyph and wings around her neck, faint silver markings etched on her sternum exactly like my descendants who inherited magic.
"Do you see something Maria?" The blue clothed Belmont asked in French.
"No. Nothing at all." Maria answered quietly, clutching her amulet and tracing the marks on her chest. I closed the door more perplexed than when I opened it.
I'm close. I'm getting close. Keep going. I'm on the path of my own world. I called for Trevor again, searching for his soul in the vortex before opening another Door that felt close to me.
Is it this one?
Hope sprung in my heart when I saw my castle home, yet it crashed in a million pieces getting a look at its surroundings. A portion of the castle had been rebuilt, and was unfamiliar. Statues of angels watched the towers where Alucard's childhood room once stood.
Wait! This isn't the home I know!
Castle Dracula loomed over a large surrounding city sprawling from its shadows like the ripples of a pool. An alternate Wallachia? Have I gone astray? Or have I gone forward in time? I wondered, flying along the moving wormhole following it through a forest on the city's outskirts.
A hooded young woman crouched among the ancient trees, scraping a patch of moss on the side of a decayed trunk with her pocket knife. She inspected the cut patch with a critical eye, nodding in approval before sealing it in a jar by her basket.
Is this me from another dimension? She wore the Glaring Cloak, and angelic glyphs traced plainly up her arms. They revealed the strange woman as a Watcher, but hers were different from mine and faded. Like Val's.
The sunlight shimmered from the treetops through the portal, reflecting off my wings and revealing my presence to her. The woman stood like an alerted deer and looked straight into the corridor, clutching Maria's pendant at her breast. She was taller than my human form and very beautiful. When she removed her hood, her gaze cast on me in shock and overwhelming joy.
Her eyes were gold as her long flowing hair. Her gawking revealed small pointed canines.
I almost lost my way staring disbelieved at her.
"Hurry! Go home!" She cried to me as the portal closed.
I'm close. Burning hot. Fleeting shapes darted past me calling my name. Wings sparkling within the vortex of colors like sunlight on the sea.
Other angels! Malakim. Messengers. I accelerated towards them, calling for them in the angelic language. More approached, guiding me and surrounding me like divine birds.
There!!!
Ahead, angels flocked around a flickering light like seagulls over a fish. Trevor!!!! He lay on his side completly still, body buffeted by the immense current of the Infinite Corridor. I landed before him and picked him up. He was alive, thank the Boss above, but unconscious. Perhaps that's a good thing. I thanked the angels and leapt aloft, carrying Trevor in my arms.
The human groaned against my breast. I've got you, Trev. I breathed in, remembering what to do. Let's go home.
I closed my eyes and pictured my home. The castle and its forests. Alucard, Sypha, Greta, and all those who I've come to love and know as family.
The Castle appeared through the door surrounded by forests and snowy mountains. The Western wing is gone, along with Alucard's childhood bedroom. I knew it in the depths of my soul that this was it.
Eureka.
I bolted through the Door to meet the light of the sun.