The Van Helsing Legacy: Part 3

Van Helsing's second retirement was not as pleasant a time for the legendary vampire killer as his first. Before he felt proud of what he had accomplished, and that he had earned a rest and even contemplated what his future could be like away from hunting. Now however, it was nothing but regret, guilt and fear. Despite having slain Dracula twice now and taken precautions to ensure he never returned. Van Helsing was still constantly looking over his shoulder in case the vampire king returned. It's safe to say didn't have a peaceful nights sleep at all during those two years. It wasn't just fear over what Dracula would do if he returned however. More the fact that Lawrence felt his life's work was pointless. No matter how hard he tried, the vampire would always find a way to come back. This also meant Dracula seemingly had an eternity to bring his vile master Khastran back from the dead. Much like the people of Klausenberg, even in death Dracula was still able to torment Van Helsing.

This period of depression and regret however eventually came to an end, when Van Helsing received a visit from a werewolf, or rather a wolfman named Leon, who hoped that Lawrence could help cure his condition.

Van Helsing's studies had continued to be shared by those who knew the truth about the supernatural. Whilst Leon didn't ever really read Van Helsing's papers himself, the hype and reputation about the vampire hunter convinced Leon that he was the only one who could cure him.

Leon's mother had been a mute serving girl and the daughter of a local jailer. They both worked for a cruel and decadent Marques who one day took a liking to Leon's mother when she was just a teenager. Though she managed to fend off his attempts to force himself on her, the Marques punished the mute girl by forcing her into one of her own cells, with its most deranged and brutal inmate, an unnamed beggar who the Marques had imprisoned decades ago.

The beggar was in fact a wolfman and came to the Marques for help, only for the Marques to simply lock him up and torment the beggar for years, until he forgot about him. Whilst the mute girl ironically was the only person there that showed him kindness. The beggar began to degenerate into an animal, with the line between his human and wolf persona's practically vanishing.

When the mute girl was thrown into his cell, the now degenerate beggar raped her. On the second night he changed in front of the girl and slashed her with his claws, before her father finally fought against the guards and released her. The beggar however escaped and then killed her father before fleeing in his wolf form into the countryside.

The mute girl, using one of the wolfman's claws she had broken off in the struggle, killed the Marques. She pretended that she had given into his advances and then stabbed him over twenty times in her fury before escaping the castle.

She later with the aid of the villagers, tracked down and killer the beggar in his wolf form as well.

Following this, the girl attempted to lay low, but sadly not only had she become impregnated by her ordeal, but infected too.

Those born to two werewolves in human form will become wolfmen, the least powerful of all werewolf breeds. The girl fortunately gave birth in human form, though the strain of the birth also killed her as well.

Leon was raised by the kindly old couple that took in his mother in the last few months of her life, the Fishers. Whilst he tried to have a normal life in spite of his condition. (With the Fishers using their modified basement to restrain him on the nights he changed into a wolf, in the same way they had with his mother.) Sadly one night in his wolfman form, Leon escaped and slaughtered an old drunk near Leon's favourite tavern, that he had been drawn too through memory. Leon's escape was orchestrated by the son of the Marques, who wanted to make the mute girl pay, but she was protected by the Fishers who lived outside of his influence and he ultimately had no evidence that she had killed him.

Leon was forced to flee through the woods and became an outlaw. He was eventually taken in by another group of werewolves, where he fell in love with a female werewolf. Sadly however this group were targeted by an order of fanatical demon hunters known as The Inquisitore, who were devoted to hunting and purifying demons and supernatural creatures in the most brutal methods imaginable. The Inquisitore had been established in the time of the vandals as renegades to the demons rule, and had largely remained so since, though certain fanatical religious groups and organizations had lent them some support due to their adherence to the old order. Their most famous member was Daniel Holtz who eventually became a renegade from the Inquisitore itself.

All of Leon's group were slaughtered by the Inquisitore except for his lover who was kidnapped and subjected to numerous horrific attempts to try and cure her lycanthropy.

It was not long after this that Leon visited Van Helsing, hoping he could actually have a cure, but Van Helsing regrettably was forced to turn Leon away.

A few weeks later however, when the countryside was plagued by several mysterious killings, Van Helsing initially suspected Leon, who had remained in the local area to keep hidden from the Inquisitore. Van Helsing however soon discovered that it was in fact his former lover, who as a result of the Inquisitore's attempt to cure her, had been transformed into a hideous wolf/demon/human hybrid worse than even the Wolvrons. She had tracked Leon down due to the last few ounce of humanity in her, but sadly that was soon overrun by her demonic and animal instincts.

Whilst Leon tried to help her, as did Van Helsing, ultimately the effects of the Inquisitore's magics could not be reversed and both Leon and Van Helsing were forced to slay her. Seeing what the Inquisitore had done inspired Van Helsing to resume his battle against the supernatural, but for a different reason. He became worried that his writings may inspire other fanatics like the Inquisitore to hurt innocent supernatural creatures such as Leon. He felt his view in his earlier research had been too black and white in regards to demons and the paranormal and sought to make amends. Leon meanwhile wanted to make up for failing his clan.

Together Van Helsing and Leon travelled Europe for years both fighting and trying to help other supernatural beings. In time they picked up other paranormal creatures, with Van Helsing eventually establishing a new team or family as it were.

Among those included Anna Franklyn, a girl who was cursed by a cult who worshipped the snake like demon known as the Lambton Worm to the locals, though in its own dimension it was known as the Donohox, which simply meant god. Donohox's followers attempted to use Anna's body as a portal for him to enter this reality, by converting the power of her soul into a dimensional rip. Her parents were killed rescuing her from the cult, and she fell into the care of her uncle, who bitterly resented having to look after Anna and was terrified of her unnatural powers which began to manifest themselves. Whilst the ritual had not been completed before Anna was rescued, it had brought forward a trace of the demon briefly, enough to infect Anna's soul which caused her to partially transform into a similar albeit considerably less powerful snake creature. Anna's uncle kept her locked up after her first temporary transformation when she was 10 and he both isolated and beat Anna any time she started to display powers from then on. Little did her uncle know however the demon grew stronger due to her anger, hatred and fear, all negative emotions that it could feed on. Eventually the transformation became powerful enough when she was 17 years old to break free from her chains and slaughter her tormenter.

Much like Leon she was soon forced to go on the run until she was discovered by Van Helsing, who would help her harness her rage to control the demon within and become a hero in her own right.

The trio also worked with one of Frankenstein's creations. The first female "monster" so to speak that the Professor created, using the brain and body of a young teenage girl that had been killed in a freak accident. Many believe that Victor intended her to be a replacement for his children that had died as a result of his first creatures actions. This so called daughter of Frankenstein stayed with the Professor for many years, with the two even forming into a family, when the Professor created another female companion, from the brain of much older woman. This "Bride of Frankenstein" as she was known was said to be beautiful unlike the Professor's other creations and some even believed he was in a relationship with her. Eventually however Frankenstein's daughter who he named Diana turned against him as he descended into madness and created more abominations to plague mankind.

Lost without her father she remained a recluse for many years until she encountered Van Helsing who similarly took on a fatherly role to her. Sadly despite her now centuries of life, Diana was still in many ways mentally a teenager as when Frankenstein revived her brain, it was frozen as it were using a combination of the gamma rays he was able to harness and magic. Leon meanwhile served as a big brother figure to Diana, though her closest relationship was with Anna.

The final member of the group meanwhile was Marya, who at this stage had become a recluse and assumed the alias of Carmilla Karnstein. She did so to keep the local villagers who knew she was a vampire from bothering her, as the Karnstein's reputation proceeded them in this area. However Van Helsing at first was horrified at the thought that one of his old enemies could still be alive and tracked her down. After discovering the truth he was able to convince Marya to join him. She felt she owed him a debt for killing her father and gradually whilst she was still somewhat of a loner, who clashed with Van Helsing's leadership. In time she came to embrace this rag tag group of vampire hunters, werewolves and cursed immortals as her new family. She and Leon would even fall in love with one another, though the relationship was not to last. Marya also continued to refer to herself as Carmilla Karnstein to invoke the family's reputation against her enemies.

Van Helsing spent about 5 years with his new "family" and they took on many strange and powerful enemies together, including zombie master Hamilton, Valerie who in Dracula's absence had become a major vampire queen, and the Lambton worm itself which through using Anna was finally able to project itself into our reality, albeit over a prolonged period of time. It proved to be their most implacable enemy, possessing a perfect combination of strength and intelligence.

Once the worm was finally slain however, Van Helsing after five years finally left his new family. His relationship with Sarah was rekindled and this time the two would get married and even had a son together named Leyland born in 1870.

Marya, Anna, Leon, and Diana continued to recruit other supernatural creatures, building a veritable league, whose base was situated in one of Frankenstien's old labs, where Diana had in fact been created. There they were able to make use of many of his old inventions and labs.

This group of heroes who became known as the Dark League continued to remain active for the next 200 years, becoming among the greatest heroes of their respective eras.

Van Helsing meanwhile continued to publish his writings and theories on the supernatural to anyone who would listen. His reputation as a serious scientist was of course damaged beyond repair, but his writings continued to influence hunters around the world.

Now and again he returned to help Leon and the others, but overall as he settled down with his family Van Helsing came to believe that his demon hunting days were behind him. Even Leon and the others eventually couldn't rely on him as Van Helsing didn't want to risk placing his family in any kind of danger. Sadly however whilst he remained vigilant of course in case any of the demons he had crossed before returned, he and his family were tragically to be ripped apart by two of his oldest enemies.

The first was ironically the original demon that he ever faced, Zerkan. Having escaped from Quortoth unknown to the hunters when they travelled to the demon dimension. At first he did not strike back at Van Helsing despite desiring revenge out of fear. The suffering he had endured in Quortoth made him far more careful to cover his tracks when carrying out his crimes. However seeing Van Helsing become older and weaker and happier, eventually convinced the demon that he could try, and the monster set his sights on Van Helsing's wife Sarah. It didn't however possess her for long. Rather than use the usual demon tactic of taking over someone and forcing them to carry out atrocities. Zerkan instead fused his mind with hers to such an extent that all his memories of the tortures that were inflicted on him in Quortoth's darkest pits, beyond physical agony itself, became trapped in her conscious mind. They were all she could experience mentally over and over again even after he stopped possessing her. The demon accomplished this using both the magics he had stolen from Quortoth and other advanced forms of magics he had picked up over Europe.

Sarah suffered for several months reliving the tortures of Quortoth before Van Helsing was finally able to free her, but by that point it was too late. Sarah had mentally endured tortures no human had ever experienced. Tortures that were beyond what humans were capable of experiencing. The fact that she survived at all was a testament to her strength, but she was left completely broken mentally and Lawrence was forced to put her in an asylum afterwards, where she remained for the rest of her days.

Following this tragedy Van Helsing returned to his work in an effort to find the demon. It was during this period that he first came to work with Carlene. Sadly due to what had happened to Sarah, some of Van Helsing's old prejudices about vampires and the supernatural returned to some extent and he and Carlene did not have a good working relationship as a result.

Eventually Van Helsing would have a chance at revenge against Zerken, when the demon having become more bold after its victory over Van Helsing, targeted its other most hated enemy. The vampire queen Valerie. Her power base had already been smashed by Van Helsing, Leon, Marya, Anna and Diana, but Zerken dealt her the final blow by exposing her weakened out group of vampires whereabouts to a fanatical group of hunters. Unlike Van Helsing however, Valerie was able to sense the demons presence and soon sought out Van Helsing. Despite their friendship as humans, and their past alliances against Dracula, Valerie and Van Helsing were now bitterest enemies, but both nevertheless had a special hatred for Zerken and working together were able to destroy the demons spirit rather than simply banish it. Valerie meanwhile was forced to flee from Van Helsing. She never regained her former power but did later join an iteration of the Circus Family. She was extremely reluctant to do so as obviously saving other worlds and lives was not exactly in her nature. However she was forced to in order to preserve the timeline. Even she did not want to tangle with the Guardians. She spent many years ironically fighting evil with the Family, though none of it ever came close to actually changing her nature, and she always remained an unreliable and treacherous member of their group.

Not long after Zerken's death, Lawrence faced his greatest enemy Dracula for the last time. Despite Lawrence's attempts to prevent another resurrection by placing a magical barrier around his remains that would stop his soul from entering this world. It did work for decades, but eventually some of Dracula's followers in Translyvania the country he had once ruled (which was still a hotspot for demons and vampires in particular) were able to find a way using the darkest magics of the land to restore the vampire to life within the ruins of his old castle.

The resurrection however hadn't gone ahead completely as planned. Van Helsing's magics did still disrupt the process somewhat, resulting in Dracula now having a much older and withered appearance than before. Luckily for the vampire king, drinking fresh blood helped restore his youth and strength though it was still a prolonged process.

Dracula planned to move to London. He hoped to use the British empire, at that point the largest imperial power in the world, to spread the curse of vampirism like never before and use its influence to cripple all of the vampires enemies. Ironically he was wanting to follow his sworn enemies, the vandals tactics of ruling from behind the scenes, hoping that way he could destroy humanity from within this way to restore Khastran.

With the aid of an unknowing real estate agent named Jonathan Harker who he lured to his castle, placed under his will and sired. Dracula was able to buy a property in London and book a trip there on the ship Demeter (with the vampire subsequently slaughtering the entire crew on the voyage to London.)

In London Dracula hoped to build an army of vampires, with one of his first attempted recruits being Jonathan Harkers fiance Mina. Unfortunately for the vampire however his resurrection forced him to drink a greater amount of blood before, forcing Dracula to take more victims and draw more attention to himself.

Van Helsing and his new group of vampire hunters were soon drawn into battle with Dracula after Mina, who escaped the count's attempts to sire her, contacted Van Helsing. (Carlene at this point was out of the country dealing with another crisis.)

Lawrence had been training several young men to continue his work following his death. His own son Leyland had never been interested in becoming a hunter, which at first Lawrence was happy about, but after Sarah's death he put pressure on his son to follow in his footsteps, leading to them drifting apart.

Unfortunately however Van Helsing's amateur band of hunters were a far cry from his previous two teams, and Dracula managed to slaughter most of them. Van Helsing himself was past his best too, something which Dracula was aware of and delighted in reminding his archenemy of constantly.

Still Dracula ultimately underestimated his mortal foe when he went after Leyland. Determined not to lose his son like he had Sarah. Lawrence with Mina's help not only rescued Leyland but burned Dracula's London castle to the ground. The vampire attempted to flee back to the Demeter with the aid of a human he had ensnared driving a horse and carriage, but Van Helsing chased the vampire down and jumped on top of the carriage where he and Dracula fought with one another as the carriage sped through Hyde Park.

Dracula beat Van Helsing to within an inch of his life, and eventually threw him from the cart, but Van Helsing's actions still caused the horse and cart to go spinning out of control and crash into a nearby tree. Dracula was impaled on the wooden wheel of the carriage in the crash, though not deep enough to pierce his heart. As he struggled to pull it out however, Van Helsing with his last ounce of strength, tackled Dracula to the ground and pushed the wooden cart wheel straight through Dracula's heart, killing him once again. Van Helsing lived just long enough to see Dracula melt into a pile of ash on the ground before finally succumbing to his wounds.

The vampire's ashes were placed in the same church that Lawrence was buried in, with the likes of Leon, Carlene and Anna attending his funeral. The local priests who thanks to Van Helsing were versed in the ways of the vampire protected Dracula's ashes for decades using similar magics, boosted by the hold ground of the church to ensure he couldn't be resurrected again.

Most of Van Helsings new protege's without him to guide them soon abandoned their lives as hunters. One of them, Bram Stoker became a writer instead and even wrote a novel based on Dracula and Van Helsing's final battle, though obviously he embellished certain details. The popularity of this novel caused both Dracula and Van Helsing to become among the most famous literary characters of all time, something which irked both the Van Helsing family and later Dracula, who resented being seen as pop culture icons than the important historical figures they actually were.

One of Van Helsing's protege's however Marcozia did become a renowned hunter, though after being turned into a vampire he ironically became a notorious vampire king, responsible for a huge influx of the undead into London towards the end of the 19th century.

Van Helsing's legacy was carried on by not only his work and the thousands of hunters he influenced for centuries afterwards, but that of his descendants. He and Leyland had reconciled somewhat right before his death, with Lawrence apologising for dragging both he and his mother into this war. Still Leyland even after seeing his fathers sacrifice did not change his mind about not following in Lawrence's footsteps. On the contrary it finally convinced him after seeing both his parents die as a result of his fathers obsession to avoid any dealings with the supernatural.

Sure enough Leyland lived a long and happy life, though unfortunately for him, his son, Lorimer born in 1908 became fascinated by his late grandfathers work and did follow in his foot steps.

Lorrimer became a great vampire hunter just like Lawrence from when he was a teenager. The first stage of his career peaked during world war 2, when Lorimer became the leader of a special group known as the Magic Gang. The Nazis utilised many supernatural creatures, including vampires who they had a strong alliance with and the Magic Gang were one of many projects designed to help the allies win this side of the war. Lorimers other team mates included a Golem, the original Frankenstein's monster (by this point Sycina had sadly passed away of natural causes) his grandfather's old ally Marya, the magical King Arthur who finally returned and Helga, an expert on the supernatural who specialised in hunting Eva's witches. Her family in fact had a feud with the Grand High Witch Eva, similar to the Van Helsings feud with Dracula, with Eva similarly even targeting Helga's grandson, though that is a story for another time. She and Lorimer became lovers during their time in the Magic Gang though they split not long after the war.

After the second world war, Lorimer much like Lawrence abandoned his life as a hunter, whilst Helga wanted to continue. After their relationship ended Lorimer returned to his first wife Helen, who he had split from just before the war. They had a son born in 1930 who Lorimer reconciled with. Lorimers granddaughter named Jessica meanwhile was born in 1955. Sadly however Helen later died of natural causes, whilst Lorimers son and his daughter in law were killed in a car accident. Lorimer then took Jessica who was just 3 at the time into his care and raised her. Whilst the two had a very close relationship, Lorimer also dived back into his work during this period to distract him from his devastating losses.

In time Lorimer became a paranormal advisor to the police force, helping them deal with a number of occult killings and demonic cases. Sadly however none of these experiences could prepare Lorimer in dealing with his grandfathers greatest adversary, Dracula. The church that contained the vampires remains had been abandoned in the 1950s having suffered during the blitz, after which it became desanctified, losing its holy power, with its magics also diminishing. Once the last of the magics faded, Dracula's will was able to summon a local vampire worshipper, who had even dubbed himself Johnny Alucard, to perform a blood ritual on the sight of Dracula's death to bring him back from the grave in 1972.

Dracula by this stage having spent close to a century on the other side had lost all hope in Khastran's plan. All he wanted was to make his hated archenemy pay by not only killing his descendants, but turning them into vampires. Under his tutelage, Dracula hoped the modern day Van Helsings would become among the most brutal and sadistic vampires in history, ensuring that would be the legacy of Lawrence Van Helsing.

The former vampire king, with Johnny's help captured Jessica, but in the final fight in the ruins of the church, Lorimer defeated Dracula. He burned the vampires face with holy water and threw him into a pit of stakes. Dracula however was able to escape and afterwards went into hiding. He had foolishly believed that Lorimer would not be a challenge, and realised almost only too late that Lawrence's grandson was a truly worthy successor.

The vampire had also been at a disadvantage as he was out of his depth in this new world, as he had been unable to observe it like before due to Van Helsing's magics covering his remains.

Dracula subsequently remained hidden for the next few years in order to fully learn and understand the new world. He later assumed the alias of D.D. Denham an eccentric and reclusive millionaire (which served as the perfect cover during the daylight hours.)

Meanwhile Jessica having previously dismissed her fathers research into the occult, was shaken by the experience and committed herself to studying his and her great great grandfathers research, becoming every bit as much an expert as Lorimer himself. In his attempt at revenge, all Dracula had done was create another formidable vampire hunter.

Still as D.D. Denham, Dracula was able to use his resources to attack the Van Helsings in different ways. He framed them for murder, forcing them to go on the run, with it only being the aid of an old ally in the police force, Inspector Murray that allowed the Van Helsings to escape. For a while they were forced to abandon their fight against Dracula/Denham as they were constantly on the move through the country, though they still fought supernatural creatures wherever they could.

Whilst the Van Helsings were gone, Denham/Dracula returned to his old plans. The vampires depression was somewhat lifted by the corruption and decadence of the modern world, which led Dracula to believe that his conquest would be possible.

The count attempted to create a plague that would spread vampirism through touch. He enlisted the aid, willingly and unwillingly of hundreds of scientists, witches, demons, sorcerers from all over the world to help craft this plague.

After two years it was almost ready, but Denham faced opposition not only from the Van Helsings, but their new ally, Vampirella.

She came from one of the gods copies of the earth in another universe. In this version of events, Dracula led an army of vampires to overtake the planet sometime in the early 20th century. Though he was killed in the battle, the vampires eventually claimed the United Kingdom as their base of operations. The rest of the world meanwhile became a no man's land with vampires, demons and even corrupt humans all existing in gangs and scattered groups killing each other. The war essentially destroyed the surface of the planet. The UK meanwhile was christened Draculon after the vampires fallen leader.

Vampirella as she came to be known in our world, was a young woman named Caroline who had been sired by a member of her kind named Lilith, who later became the queen of the vampires in Draculon. Both Lilith and Vampirella had attempted to control their bloodlust, but only Vampirella succeeded and later joined a resistance movement.

Eventually however Lilith came to see her world as dead and desolate and tried to travel to our reality. (As the ruler of Draculon she had access to almost all of the United Kingdoms magics, allowing her to cross realities within the natural realm.)

The fight between Lilith and Caroline just as the former activated the portal resulted in Caroline falling through the portal which then burned itself out. Caroline then ended up trapped in our world, where at first she found it difficult to adapt, but fortunately Lorimer and Jessica being drawn by the magical energy created by her arrival, found her and took Caroline in. She came to refer to herself as Vampirella, and became like a second granddaughter to Lorimer and a sister to Jessica.

Vampirella was horrified and disgusted that Dracula, the killer of her world was still alive in this reality and became determined to destroy the vampire once and for all. Only working with Lorimer and Jessica however was she finally able to destroy and expose D. D. Denham industries. (Though obviously Denham was not revealed to be a vampire to the public. Still the exposure helped Murray to clear the Van Helsing's names, allowing Lorimer to resume his old job.)

Unfortunately however, Lorimer, Jessica and Vampirella soon faced the threat from Lilith who tried to invade our world (with some of her minions even coming into contact with Dracula who formed an alliance with Lilith.)

Ultimately however Dracula and Lilith soon betrayed one another as he attempted to dethrone her, and Dracula was soon forced to form an alliance with the Van Helsing's and Vampirella to defeat Lilith. They were able to trap her in the nothingness between realities seemingly forever.

Following this the Van Helsings and Vampirella would pursue Dracula to India, where the vampire attempted to fuse himself to the blood of the famous vampire god Kali. Here Lorimer reunited with Marya who finally overcame her fear of her father and helped Lorimer destroy Dracula, using the blood of Kali to create a weapon that could destroy his soul this time, seemingly forever.

After Dracula's final defeat in 1978. Jessica settled down and married, whilst Vampirella decided to explore this new world. Meanwhile Lorimer reformed the rest of magic gang after reuniting with Marya. In his final years he resumed his relationship with his old lover Helga with the two continuing to hunt vampires and witches together until Lorimer finally passed away from natural causes in the year 1990. Helga meanwhile passed away in 1994 not long after finally slaying Eva. The Van Helsing family however endured for centuries to come.

Many other Van Helsings followed in Lawrence, Lorimer and Jessica's footsteps, though the most prominent member of the Van Helsing family was Peter Van Helsing who in the year 2097 helped found the nexus, the single greatest vampire hunter organisation of all time and in the next chapter we will explore its history.