[dramatic orchestral music playing]
-[insects chirping] -[wind blowing]
[melancholy orchestral music playing]
[lapping water]
Whoever left here left in a hurry.
A little light?
Speaking of leaving in a hurry,
you really wanted to get away from Zamfir.
[grunts]
Sit down.
Comfy bed.
Is this why you wanted us to be alone?
Hmm?
I wanted to get away from everyone else for five fucking minutes.
All we've been doing for weeks is reacting,
being bounced from one thing to the next.
And we do best when we've got time to think and talk things over.
I'm glad you think so.
I'm not completely stupid.
I'm glad you think so.
Ha ha. Very funny.
Listen, we need to stop reacting and start acting.
If I'm gonna get killed, I'd rather choose it
than get tricked into it by someone else.
All right.
Where would you like to start?
At the beginning,
before we find ourselves backed into the end.
[menacing music playing]
-[growling] -[crashing]
[pounding]
[dramatic music playing]
[creature snarls, gags]
-[grunts] -[neck cracks]
[chorus vocalizing]
[groans]
[snarls]
[creature growls]
[snarls]
[growling]
[grunts]
[chorus vocalizing]
[chorus ends]
You sent me a letter?
Yes.
Welcome to Danesti.
I presume it's seen better days.
Quieter ones.
I'm Greta, the village headwoman.
Call me Alucard.
No "The."
Did Marius...
Was that your rider?
I'm afraid not.
He was attacked en route and bled out from his wounds.
His horse carried him the rest of the way with your message in his hand.
Oh.
I'm sorry.
Well, he's not the only one we've lost.
But he was the last of his family, which is why he risked the journey.
Still, I'd hoped...
That's what hoping gets you, I suppose.
I have a lot more people to save, Alucard.
Get some rest, everybody, while you can.
How long have you been under attack?
Four days.
First it was just one of those bastards.
More every night.
We barely made it through last night.
We're lucky only a third of us are dead.
Will you help us?
I'm sure I can do something for you.
I'm not interested in magic tricks and one fight.
These people are under my care.
Will you stay and defend them for as long as it takes?
-I said-- -You have to understand.
I don't know you.
You've been 20-odd miles away for months.
You creep around the forest.
You've got bodies on stakes outside your weird castle.
You're obviously half-vampire, and you stink of wine,
and you appear to me to be at least half-crazy.
But you were the only possible advantage I could think of.
I don't need to be impressed by low-key swagger.
I need you to commit to saving these people.
Because my life isn't worth living if I can't save theirs.
All done?
Did it work?
Yes.
Then I'm all done.
Thank you.
And that was one hell of an entrance.
[Saint Germain] Yes, indeed so.
You really are a very impressive young man.
Sickening violence isn't especially in my skill set, you understand,
but I can recognize a fellow expert, no matter what the field.
[door creaks]
Oh, God. This one.
You would be Adrian Tepes, yes?
Yes.
Do allow me to present myself.
I am the Count Saint Germain,
scholar in residence to many of the great courts of Europe.
Why are you cowering in a latrine hut in Wallachia?
Oh. [chuckles] Is this a latrine?
I just--I just thought someone had gotten very scared.
I'm traveling, sir.
Interesting times in Wallachia.
I felt that a man of letters should bear witness.
And are you enjoying your tourism so far?
Um...
it has been, um...
[sighs] enlightening.
Saint Germain, Your Majesty,
occultist, scribe, and counsel to the great courts of Europe.
Saint Germain, Your Imperial Majesty,
astrologist, intelligencer, and--and scholar.
Saint Germain, Your Royal Highness,
soothsayer, prophet, and practitioner of the dark arts.
Saint Germain, Your Grace,
librarian, scribe, and scholar.
Saint Germain,
your humble servant in, um...
whatever you may need.
[melancholy music playing]
[urinating]
Oh.
[hopeful music playing]
[liquid sloshing]
Do not grope for a person like that, you rude little clump of frog shit.
-[bottle breaks] -[finger cracks]
Ah. [chuckles]
Uh, Saint Germain.
Swift violence is not my forte, but I certainly recognize and admire an expert.
[birds chirping]
[no audible dialogue]
[Saint Germain] The sheer breadth of your travels is incredible.
I'm frankly amazed you ever bothered coming back to this shit hole,
and delighted.
I needed the money, but I also wanted to pick through the library here.
I understood there was a volume
regarding a place called the Infinite Corridor,
but I can't find the damned thing.
This is it.
This is the book.
And, yes, offering us the journey of a lifetime.
If you really want to do this...
then that is what we will do.
Anything for you.
[wind gusting]
[echoing] Take my hand!
Please!
[energy flows]
[Saint Germain] The Infinite Corridor is a route to many other worlds.
It is in fact a system of doors to other lands,
separated from our own by space and time.
A long time ago, I lost someone very dear to me...
in the Infinite Corridor.
And I have been looking for a way back in ever since.
Portals to the Corridor are few and far between,
and they drift in and out of existence.
[echoing] I'm closing the Corridor!
Get out now!
Thank you!
Thank you both!
[Saint Germain] I'll see you again!
[rubble clatters]
[energy whooshing]
No! No! No!
Where is it?!
I know it's here!
I just--I have no control!
Why can't I control this?!
[gasps]
[groans]
Ah!
I made it back!
Shout so I can find you!
[gasps]
[screams]
Whoa!
[wind blowing]
[groans]
-[rail clatters] -[gasps]
[door creaks]
[footsteps echoing]
[echoing] Ah. It's me!
[echoing] Hello, you.
Your friend has recently moved on to another sphere within the Corridor.
I am sorry.
But wh-where did she go?
I cannot be certain.
I have not looked for her...
Saint Germain.
You know me?
I know much.
I'm an alchemist.
So am I.
No.
Not really.
You fell by the wayside long ago.
Well, I've been...
busy, but I still believe in the goals of the path.
Believe in?
Not committed to?
Well, life tends to mitigate against complete commitment, doesn't it?
Wh-where is she?
And so you find yourself here.
With no power, no control...
and no way forward.
It's impossible to control the Corridor.
Where is she?
No, it's not.
You know it's not.
You've witnessed it being controlled.
Yeah, by a monster who had dozens of people killed to use their souls as fuel.
So don't say it's impossible to control.
I am not a mass murderer.
Where is she, damn it?
Saint Germain...
what is the true goal of alchemy?
Do you remember?
Or have you left the path entirely?
The magnum opus, the great work, reconciling the chaos of the world.
And what is the result of the great work?
The Rebus, the putrefied and purified fusion
of matter and spirit in a body both male and female.
Is this a test?
Two bodies into one, Saint Germain.
Two souls.
You're not serious.
Do I not look serious?
You're claiming that the final victory of the alchemical process
is using a Rebus to control the Infinite Corridor.
Here I am.
Show me your damned Rebus, then.
[scoffs] My Rebus cannot be looked upon.
It is a creature of order and chaos,
of natural humanity and supernatural horror,
purified by fire and sent to rot in Hell.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
I hope not.
You understand.
You understand what your alchemy must summon, don't you?
You mean "who," don't you?
Who I must summon, bind, and fuse into one?
Only then will you be able to travel the Corridor with power.
[jewelry jangles]
I will show you this.
[jangles]
This is charged with many deaths.
It will open the Corridor wherever you choose.
If I take this, then I leave you stranded in the Corridor.
I travel the Corridor with complete control.
I dance through a hundred different universes every year like a goddess.
Why would I ever want to leave?
Thank you.
You are welcome.
This is useless to you unless you commit to the work of alchemy
and do what needs to be done.
Couldn't you just help me find her?
[sighs] I've helped you as much as I can.
What remains is your task, not mine.
Commit.
I will.
I am committed. I'm here, aren't I?
You must sacrifice.
I have.
No!
You have lost something.
That is not the same.
Bloody feels like it.
You must sacrifice, give willingly.
Give what? What's left?
Everything.
Sacrifice your ethics, your morals.
Sacrifice your soul to the task.
You must give everything to it, and you must cause pain in the doing of it.
Do you love her enough to do that...
Saint Germain?
I'll do anything...
anything to be able to actually tell her...
that I love her.
-[insects chirping] -[wind blowing]
[wind blowing]
[gasping]
[groans]
[pants]
[wind blowing]
[ominous music playing]
[scribbling]
-[man grunts] -[blow strikes]
[glass shatters]
-[yells] -[blow strikes]
Just give it to me!
[gasping]
Oh, God!
[groaning]
[weeping] Oh, God.
Wh-wh-why didn't you just--
wh-why couldn't you just help me?!
[weeping]
Oh, God, I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean to. I--
Why couldn't you help me?!
Why won't anyone just fucking help me?!
-[pottery shatters] -And now look at you.
Uh, now...
look at me.
[panting]
[groans]
[panting]
[fire crackling]
That was indeed the most suave tale about sexual congress with livestock
that I've ever heard in these parts,
but before you lift your stinking jar to your stinking jaws,
you will now tell me, what was the final location of Dracula's castle?
[scribbling]
[case rattling]
Would you be the famous Saint Germain?
I have that pleasure.
And you would be...
Varney of London, sir.
Friends of friends tell me we have a project in common.
And what might that be, Varney of Lundenwic,
thousand-year-old vampire beggar and tramp?
You've heard of me.
Generations of the learned
have written of detecting you from a thousand paces by your stench.
I say again...
what project?
Returning Dracula to this world.
[footsteps shuffling]
And that's everything.
Strict adherence to the plan is crucial.
Ah.
But what if-- and hear me out, Saint Germain--
what if I just killed you here,
drank all your blood, and did your plan myself?
Oh, Dragan, feared Dragan,
storied Dragan of a hundred ambushes and a thousand dead...
yeah, you could absolutely kill me right here,
but you cannot enact my plan,
because you don't have the skills or the wit.
-[hisses] -Shut up.
You sound like a cow farting.
Do you want your precious Dracula back or not?
Yes.
Then get back in your fucking pram.
You can't do this without me.
Obey my instructions.
[growls]
I will kill you.
Do as you're fucking told!
Drive them all towards Danesti.
I'll do the rest.
You can kill me afterwards.
[insects chirping]
-[distant villagers chattering] -[dogs barking]
[cart rattling]
Ah, yes. Remember the drill, old boy.
"Charming place. Weary traveler.
"Many coins. Just a simple place to sleep."
It'll all be over soon enough.
[indistinct faint chatter]
What a damned shame.
All these little lives.
Straighten up, man.
They all have lives.
You have nothing.
Is that fair?
[insects chirping]
Can you hear that?
I hear nothing.
Me, neither.
Something's coming.
[suspenseful music playing]
[faint clattering]
[wind blowing]
[snorts]
Someone brought your stupid bloody horse back.
That's a good horse.
[horse snorts]
[no audible dialogue]
[metal clattering]
She's very good, isn't she?
It's a shame.
What is?
Well, such a talent with the common people,
but it's wasted out here, don't you think?
I think she's probably right where she's supposed to be.
They're from Lasa, a village about ten miles away.
They've been walking for hours.
They were attacked, too?
Their village was put to the torch.
They they're not the only ones.
This group includes refugees from five other villages in the region.
[Alucard] I see.
They escaped.
They survived.
They lost many people to vampire and night creature feeding attacks.
Interesting. Why would they be burning the villages, though?
If vampires are involved,
this isn't the blind destruction we're all used to with night creatures.
They're conducting feeding to sustain them through continued battle.
They're removing shelter and the possibility of aid and witnesses.
This is troubling in its complexity.
I am of course not a military man,
although I have certainly advised generals and kings,
but might I suggest that this village is inherently indefensible?
[key jangles]
It hasn't worked out well, so far, has it?
You may have a point, Saint Germain.
Perhaps, just until we all find out what's going on,
perhaps the remaining persons in your charge
might be moved to a more secure location, like, um...
y-your castle...
[gasps]
possibly.
[growls]
[sighs]
And God shits in my dinner once again.
Oh, no.
I really am turning into Belmont.
Is life even worth living now?
[ominous music playing]
[eight-bit music playing]
Frederator!