VictorArrivesInMilanToFindPeaceButInsteadDoesn't

With his newfound awakenings Victor was prepared to carry out a fruitful and passionate life away from turmoil and conflict. He would have been much better off to brace for the adverse. When he strolled into the breathtaking city, excitement overcame him and he immediately began making friends and settled in. That lasted for about a week, for a very large French-speaking army was about to invade. Victor had obtained a job working at an inn whose owner was a kind old man with a strikingly radiant daughter. Victor did not speak the language of the Italians very well but he was a quick learner and swiftly familiarized himself on how to get by in the city of his dreams. He began courting the innkeeper’s daughter and they became fast romantic items. Her name was Celia. There was finally the serenity Victor was looking for in his heart and mind. Then he heard the gunshots.
Victor was in the middle of tidying up the inn when he heard the crackling gunpowder in the distance. He beckoned for the inn-goers to stay inside and keep low, but the innkeeper poked outside in his curiosity and was hit by a stray bullet in the gut. Bleeding on the floor Victor had just cleaned, he rushed over to the mortally wounded old man with some rags and alcohol, but it was already too late. Celia, mortified, clung to her father as he took his last breath. Now that everyone had extra incentive to do as Victor had said, they went down into the cellar while kneeling and crouching to the door.
Once safely in the cellar Victor grabbed one of Celia’s hands, “I can’t stay here.” He said calmly but saddened. “I’m going.”
Victor started to walk to ascend the cellar stairs but Celia stopped him, “Not without me. Take me away from here. Without my father I have nothing in this place.”
Victor nodded, “I know where we can go.” He said softly. “It will take some time but we’ll get there.” He smiled and kissed her forehead. When the fighting had died down, the two walked into the street that the battle had torn up. A horse-mounted soldier rode up to them pointing a pistol. He began yelling in French, which Victor did not speak, so Victor began saying some Italian-sounding gibberish and pointed behind the soldier. When he looked Victor drew his gun and shot the cavalryman in the head. Victor mounted the horse and pulled his beloved up with him. They galloped to the North edge of the city as fast as they could but they had caught a few tails and shots were exchanged in their direction. Victor and Celia broke through the confused vanguard at the exit of the city for they were not expecting two civilians riding a stolen horse to charge at them. The soldiers were too slow to halt them on foot, but a few more dragoons joined the chase. One got close enough to use his sword but Victor was better than he and cut him down, which hindered the rest of the pursuers. After a while they reached the wilderness and the soldiers gave up. Victor began to laugh. He had not seen such excitement for a few months and realized he somewhat missed and enjoyed the thrills. For a time Celia and Victor spent their nights in towns and ate food with the loot the soldier Victor felled had pillaged and put on his horse. Only a couple of weeks prior, on his way into this part of the world, Victor had heard of a shortcut that would lead him home, and that is what he had decided to finally call it. He elected he would take this shortcut, first stocking up on supplies in case anything went awry. The two travelers set on their way for Prince Dementia’s domain.
Victor spun his tales of his furlough in the hidden kingdom of his good friend the Prince to pass the time. He made it clear that the Prince was a crude, self-serving, manipulative narcissist, but was also at times caring and helpful although in maliciously crafty ways. However, fearing Celia would think him insane, he left out the truly horrifying aspects. Victor almost let them slip until he remembered that not everyone has seen what he has and would most certainly think him mad or a liar.
At sunset they fell upon an abandoned, ominous looking tower. Victor thought of keeping on but Celia was tired and they had the means to camp out for the night. After entering the tower the two stood and looked around for a few moments while dim sun still shown through the holes of the structure. “I don’t know…” Victor started. “It smells strange.” Celia shrugged. The couple paced for a bit but was interrupted when they heard the sound of a few horses approaching. Victor peered out of one of the windows and spotted three French soldiers. The enemies pointed at the horse Victor had stolen. “Up the stairs.” Victor said. They climbed the spiral stone staircase that hugged the wall and Victor readied himself to kill the trackers.
The sun had now set and only the light of the moon shining from the roofless tower lit up Victor’s foes. The stalkers slowly entered and crept across the stone floor. One of the soldiers began to gaze at a dark corner. After a few seconds of staring a smile appeared in the black unknown. Suddenly out of the dark corner jumped a small man with a pike. Screaming, he gored one of the soldiers with it and jumped onto the other and began stabbing him repeatedly with a little knife. The last man standing ran out of the tower. Despite the soldier’s head start the little man in the red cap caught up to him and took his life by slashing his head with its claws.  The little gremlin took off its hat and soaked it in the soldier’s blood, then stomped back into the tower and did the same with the remaining two corpses. Victor would have thanked the goblin-dwarf creature but instead decided not to risk being its next victim. Victor no longer wore a cross around his neck, but Celia did. He took it off of her and threw it down to the level where the red-capped beast resided. When the monster looked at it with its glowing red eyes it took a step back, then looked up at Victor who had already made it halfway down the steps. Victor jumped down and impaled it with his sword. This assault did not faze the fiend. The two scuffled and Victor unknowingly knocked its hat off. The creature relented and went to pick it up and nearly put it back on but Victor knocked the cap out of its hands. Victor ran outside to have more room to combat the redcap. It came at him but Victor took the hat and threw it in a small pond. This washed the blood off of it and the redcap shrieked as the little devil dried up and broke into bone dust.
“Victor, what in the name of god was that?” Celia pleaded as she ran out of the tower.
“I don’t know but we aren’t staying here.” The two embraced and Victor couldn’t help but feel proud of Celia that she hadn’t screamed or did anything out of reason upon seeing a wicked creature of the night. They acquired their slightly bloodstained gear and Victor, after examining one of the soldier’s corpses, took a belt with a dagger sheathed in it and strapped it under his shirt. They set forth again, only sleeping during the day and moving and staying alert at night.  This soon became an unwise decision as they both felt stalked. They knew they were correct when they heard heavy hoofs pounding the ground around them. Originally they assumed them to be their initial pursuers but when this unseen presence revealed itself it manifested out of thin air in front of the apprehensive couple. Black horses with dark, armored spirits riding them. Victor turned his chestnut colored horse around and rode fast but his speed did not seem to matter as a few more of the specter-riders appeared before him. A fiery glow was in the knights’ eyes. Victor stopped the horse and brandished his moonlit sword, then turned to look behind him. The phantoms were nearing so Victor decided to charge at them. Coming into contact Victor swung and cast down one of the riders, causing it to burn up and explode into flame. Now back on his original course, Victor drove his horse hard. So hard in fact that the horse began to slow down, eventually kicking its two passengers off. As Celia and Victor hit the ground the steed ran and disappeared into the forest. Seeing their assailants still coming in at deadly speed, Victor mustered his strength, got to his feet, then swiftly pulled Celia to hers. They started sprinting to get off the barely beaten path and avoided being run down and trampled but only just narrowly. These two souls fled into the fog-enshrouded forest. The sound of their demonic pursuers stayed behind them, exceedingly loud and close but whenever they glanced back there was nothing to see but the mist and the trees. Victor and Celia thought they would have to run forever until a clearing in the woods presented itself. An enormous castle on the top of a cliff was made visible to them. From their perspective the orange supermoon, peaking through the clouds in the night sky beside the lofty palace, was nearly the same size. Celia and Victor both silently agreed to run towards it. During their march Victor thought he kept seeing something massive flying around in the sky. Another thought occurred to him; were their hunters leading them to this castle? Perhaps, but Celia and Victor had no choice. The running would need to stop and maybe at this castle the fighting could begin. The woods ended and a faint dirt road started. They followed it up towards the gray and dark-red castle. This one was much bigger than Prince Dementia’s, yet looked in worse shape and older. There was a moat with a drawbridge. This moat led to two waterfalls going over the cliff. Not even having caught their breath, the specter-riders reappeared, giving them nowhere to go but onto the drawbridge. Once on it, Victor and Celia heard the main gate across the bridge open. They turned to look and several red-armored, gold lion-mask wearing figures marched out of it. Victor attempted to fight with them. Only being able to decapitate one, the opponents apprehended Celia and Victor. Victor implemented his training on how to not be captured that Prince Dementia had taught him: become deadweight, but then jump up, kick and scream, bite, and spring free. Victor succeeded and rolled to where his sword was dropped. He quickly re-armed himself and charged again but during this second struggle Victor was either thrown off or he fell into the moat below. Celia called out to Victor while being taken away, however, the castle would muffle her. Once inside Celia heard the laughter of a woman emanating through the candle-lit, painting filled hallway. The floors had impressive, extravagant rugs and contrary to the outside appearance the castle was quite charming.
“Thank you for thinking so, my dear.” The voice said. Celia became confused.
Victor was swept up in the violent, unnatural current of the moat. Nearing the edge, he found a drain he could grab hold of. His right leg was hanging off the cliff. Victor looked down and saw a lake at the bottom. Focusing back on his situation, Victor pulled with his left arm to get closer to the drain. He used his sword to cut through the bars and climbed into it. The space was narrow and forced him to squeeze in, keeping his arms fully extended and putting forth all of his might to wall climb the small liquid-filled drain. Most of the liquid was blood. Victor was finally able to reach the top. He found himself in a prison. Several cages and cells held dead humans and dead other strange beings. There was a small cage in the corner to his right, a glowing cage only as big as a curio cabinet. Victor approached it and saw a little brown haired woman with wings sleeping. Victor went to touch the cage but the woman flew up extremely fast and kicking him in the face. Victor fell back while covering his nose.
“Oh! I am so sorry!” The startled lady said. “I had assumed you were one of the bastards from upstairs. Are you hurt?”
Victor chuckled, “No, I’ll be fine. Who are you?” He asked, groaningly getting back to his feet.
“My name is Peg! What’s yours?” She asked quite peppy.
“I’m Victor, and you seem to be rather pleasant.”
“I try to be. How did you get in here?”
“A drain of sorts. I fell… jumped… from the drawbridge. I do not know what this place is or what kind of goings-on there are to be found here, but the cretins took someone special from me and they tried to take me as well. Do you know where they would take her or what they would want with me? Or her!?” Victor sighed, pushed his hair back and knelt down.
“I am so sorry. They caught me just a few days ago. Some of these people in here were alive then… and some of the monsters in here were human then.”
“What are you saying?” Victor stood again.
“She’s been carving people up and turning them into monsters, or trying to. They always end up dying. They captured me to try and keep them alive with some of my healing abilities but I can only do so much after she’s had her way with them. You have to stop her! And I can help.”
“Who is she?”
“She is a horrific woman who needs to be put to death. Free me and I will bring her Adversary here and he’ll tear off all of her body parts!”
“How can I free you?”
“There are two parts to the key held by each of her lieutenants. Slay them! Take the key fractions from them and come back here to unlock the cage but permeate unctuously for they are dangerous.”
“I will do this for you, Peg. But when I return I have many questions that merit answering.”
“It’s a deal!” Victor set out through the prison of dead humans and dead used-to-be-humans-but got turned into freaks.