Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls/Plot

A summary of the storyline of the game Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls. It is split into multiple chapters that are released over the course of the game's active service. As of now, there are only five chapters as the game had temporarily ended its service until its return in 2021 with the last five chapters being added in the Apple Arcade version.
==Introduction==
“Count DraculaProphesized to rise every hundred years,descending the world into darkness."'"But there are those who standbefore the rising tide, heroes all."
"After centuries of battle, Dracula'sCastle was finally sealed within thesolar eclipse of 1999."
"Count Dracula was destroyed,but then, one day..."
"While working with national security,Genya Arikado receives a mysterious envelope."
"Unknown to many, his true identityis Alucard, the son of Dracula."
"Within the envelope is a letter..."
"'The Grimoire has awoken.''The darkness comes.'"
"Beset by doubts, Alucard diligentlychecks the moonlit sky to ensureDracula's Castle has not reappeared,before setting out on a journey to findthe sender of the letter."
 "This is the story of theGrimoire of Souls,a new page of a tragic history."
After receiving a letter from Lucy Westenra, Arikado ventures to the Elgos Building. There, Lucy addresses him on the Grimoires, magic books which contain information on all the past events of Castlevania, which are overflowing with dark power and beyond their control, hence needing the help of Arikado to restore order on them. Then, with appropriate magic created by Elgos, Arikado must enter the Grimoires and defeat the monsters inscribed into them for the dark power to dissipate, mainly the Core Monsters which have control over the Grimoires.
==Chapter 1: Dracula's Castle==
As Arikado enters the first Grimoire, he changes to his Alucard outfit and loses his former powers, since the Grimoire cuts off connections to the real world, meaning that he has to gather power inside the Grimoire itself to be able to write into it and become stronger. As Alucard reenters the Grimoire and goes into the castle, he summons weapons and abilities with the help of Lucy, and she tells him that good personalities inscribed into the Grimoires may also join him in his battle.
Meanwhile, Death appears to Alucard inside the Grimoire and has a short battle with him, in which Alucard gets defeated. After that, Death reasons that he won due to Alucard being weaker inside the book, revealing that he isn't part of the inscriptions on the Grimoire, but rather a living personality that entered it just like Alucard himself. Alucard then leaves the Grimoire and talks to Lucy about Death, to which she surprisingly reacts, saying that no one else should have the ability to enter the books, but Alucard dismisses this and says that Death most likely found his own way inside, all in order to resurrect Dracula.
After that, Lucy talks again about bringing other heroes from the Grimoire inscriptions who could help Alucard against Death and his dark forces, revealing Simon Belmont, who was directly summoned from the Grimoire, much to Alucard's surprise. Simon reacts violently due to Alucard being a dhampir, advised by the Vampire Killer, thus forcing Alucard to explain his reasonings and tell Simon about Trevor, convincing Simon that he plays a good role in these events. Furthermore, while Simon and Alucard enter the Grimoire again, Lucy summons the young version of Maria Renard from the year of 1792, and Charlotte Aulin, who then catch up to the heroes inside the book. Finally, they all face the core monster, the Giant Bat, which is in possession of the Vital Soul that is darkening the Grimoire, and upon its defeat, the book is pacified again.
==Chapter 2: A City of Fog==
Next, the heroes enter into the second Grimoire, which described one of Brauner's paintings in 1944. Again, Lucy summons Shanoa to join them, and Charlotte was eager to see her childhood friend and partner Jonathan Morris in the Grimoire, since its inscriptions tell about her own time inside the castle.
While the heroes discuss the Glyphs and the Belmont's disappearance, Lucy notices that the writings have changed when they entered it and supposes it's due to the dark forces trying to take control of the book, since the overwriting is putting Jonathan into a disadvantage against the monster he's fighting. After delving deeper into the Grimoire, Lucy discovers the monster which holds the Vital Soul is also the one fighting Jonathan and currently winning due to the overwriting. To make matters worse, Charlotte suddenly expresses unease and starts to fade away due to the rewrites. Then, they all enter the book and save Jonathan, stepping forward to clash with the headless champion Dullahan, destroying its head and securing the Vital Soul, reverting the flow of Chaos back inside of it. Finally, Lucy materializes Jonathan; however, due to the alterations, Jonathan won't be at full strength and may only help the others for a short period.
==Chapter 3: Ash Banquet==
Although Lucy can't locate Grimoires with corrupted contents, she finds one that is being manipulated at the moment - namely the one detailing Transylvania in 1792, when Richter Belmont wielded the whip, and the heroes enter it to prevent the full corruption.
After venturing into it, Shanoa asks what exactly the Grimoires are, to which Seward, the Director of Elgos, appears to clear any doubts. He then speaks about the "Grimoire of Souls", a detailed account about Dracula and the circumstances of his recurrent resurrections that was written in order to understand and prevent human malice from taking over again in the future. Seward also tells Arikado that his organization was founded in 1999, the year Dracula perished forever inside the solar eclipse, meanwhile Maria begins to feel uneasy and starts to fade herself due to the corruption on the books that also is endangering Richter inside the Grimoire. At last, Lucy identifies and locates the Wyvern, which fights Richter, and the heroes save him while also defeating the monster and capturing its Vital Soul, restoring Maria back to normal and partially summoning Richter the same way it was done with Jonathan.
==Chapter 4: That Witch Writhes==
It is said, then, that all the Grimoires are connected, and chaos in one of them influences the others. Due to this, the heroes depart to enter one of the most corrupted ones, the book that represents Transylvania in 1797, the era of Alucard's lone fight against Dracula and Shaft. After discussing Richter's possession by Shaft, they enter Dracula's Castle in the Underground Caverns and fight the monsters inside.
While Richter feels troubled by the bloodlust inside of him, which was what got him possessed in the first place, the other heroes responded, trying to soothe his troubles. In the Abandoned Mine, Charlotte recalls the encounter with Death, saying that the dark forces are overtaking the Grimoire, then Lucy tells about the next Grimoire alteration, which is affecting the older Maria, also from 1797, who acts like a different person compared to young Maria. Arikado vows to help Maria and they depart to the Catacombs. As Richter and Jonathan train their whips, Lucy informs about the monster fighting Maria, making Arikado anxiously rush to save her, for whom she shares feelings for. Inside the crypt, Alucard saves Maria from the Legion, followed by a battle of the heroes against the monster.
When defeated, the Vital Soul is secured, but Soma Cruz suddenly appeared before them, with Alucard sensing Dracula's dark power raging inside the young man. The corrupted Soma tries to take the Vital Soul from them, but retreats after a brief sparring. When interrogated, Soma is interrupted by a woman called Hermina, who takes Soma with her. Then, Seward reveals that she was the one who made entering the Grimoires possible, and was a former member of Elgos, until she fled and took several books with her, including the catalogue containing the real world Soma's evil counterpart. He also mentions that Hermina is possibly the reason that the books are full of Chaos right now.
==Chapter 5: Dark Laughter==
Lucy tells Arikado about the next Grimoire, a record of Castlevania in the 19th century, during the Belmont's disappearance, which is Shanoa's era. While the heroes venture through the Barracks of the castle, adult Maria is summoned with her Beasts spells, much to young Maria and Richter's awe.
When Shanoa explains about the nature of the Glyphs, Ecclesia and its secrecy from the worldly knowledge, the text of the Grimoire begins to get altered again, putting Shanoa into a disadvantage, slowly making her fade. Though Lucy frightens when she finds the monster holding the Vital Soul, due to the enormous power it emits, Shanoa doesn't falter due to the promise she made to her brother figure, Albus, which was to keep on living.
While they prepare to confront it, Lucy explains that the heroes she summons are but a manifestation of the words written by historians long ago, when past events surrounding Castlevania happened, rather than their actual selves. And the representations, their skills and memories are all restricted to what was recorded previously, much to Arikado's dismay, since he isn't talking to the real Maria that he once loved.
Once everyone entered the Grimoire, they found themselves inside of a Colosseum with Eligor, a giant horse demon which was attacking Shanoa. The demon is fiercely defeated, and the Vital Soul was free to capture due to Hermina and Dark Soma not showing up to interfere like before. As the Vital Soul is sealed and Shanoa returns to normal, Lucy surprises everyone by summoning Albus, who gladly reunites with Shanoa. Meanwhile, Richter and young Maria both begin to fade again, meaning that another rewriting is taking place, urging the heroes to return to 1792 and save them both.
==Chapter 6: Accursed Cranium==
This chapter continues the adventure in 1792 to save Richter and young Maria from fading once more as well as the former's girlfriend, Annette, who was possessed by the monster that is overwriting the sixth Grimoire: Carmilla.
==Chapter 7: Death's Reign==
This chapter continues the adventure in 1797 to take all the Vital Souls back from Hermina and Dark Soma. The Grimoire version of Dracula is the initial Vital Soul Boss and Death is the true boss of this chapter. It was revealed that Hermina was trying to prevent Dracula's resurrection all along and that Elgos was an organization created as part of the real world Death's plot. It's also revealed that she summoned the heroic Soma Cruz from the catalogue to counter the crisis, but due to the grimoire's chaos spreading to his catalogue, he was corrupted into Dark King Soma.
==Chapter 8: Demonic Visions==
This chapter takes place in the eighth Grimoire, recording the events of 2035. While journeying inside Soma's first time period, the heroes devised a plan to save him by performing a ritual that isolated Dracula's power from his body instead of performing the second Solar Eclipse ritual. The boss of this chapter is Balore.
==Chapter 9: A Vessel for the Lord==
This chapter takes place in the events of 2036. The boss of this chapter is Gergos and Dark King Soma was fought for the final time and the heroes purified him with the Aurora Spell. Seward is revealed to be Death in disguise and robbed the Crimson Moon Souls from the heroes after they purged it from Soma's body and the latter was revealed to be only a vessel to activate the inert of the Crimson Moon Souls' full potential before shedding his disguise and retreated. Afterwards, Charlotte and Shanoa used their powers to heal the newly-purified Soma Cruz, who became remorseful over the crimes he had committed as the Dark King. But Hermina assured that it wasn't his fault and forgave him. After being forgiven, the reincarnation of Dracula joins the team to defeat Death once and for all.
==Chapter 10: Dracula's Curse==
This is the final chapter that took place in the year where Dracula was first destroyed. The heroes are considering about summoning Trevor Belmont as their last hope, but they can't since the grimoire recording the events of 1476 is the oldest. However, Hermina reveals herself as the descendant of the Lecarde Clan and offers to use his Whip's Memory to summon him, in which they succeeded. Dracula himself served as the final boss of this concluding story.
Category:Grimoire of Souls