In Castlevania: Nocturne, while revolutionary fervor spreads across France, Richter Belmont and his friends try to stop the rise of a powerful vampire ruler. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
In Boston, in 1783, Richter Belmont witnessed his vampire-hunter mother, Julia, get murdered by a vampire named Olrox. The vampire spares Richter’s life but promises to kill him one day. Richter loses his magic after the incident and moves to France to live with a distant aunt, Tera.
Tera and her daughter Maria are witches, and Richter considers them family. Nine years after his mother’s death, Richter also becomes a vampire hunter. One day, they hear about the rise of the Vampire Messiah, the Devourer of Light.
Maria is a staunch supporter of the French Revolution, which threatens the power of the vampires along with that of nobility and clergy, as the vampires have to work with them. The Messiah promises the vampires that she will make even the most powerful kings bow down to vampires.
Maria and Richter visit the Abbot, a religious man who is against the revolution, to discuss this, and he promises to look into the matter. The Abbot has spies in the chateau, where Maria and Richter think something suspicious is going on.
At night, Tera, Maria, and Richter are attacked by night creatures, demons who are made from human corpses that are grafted onto souls from Hell. They are rescued by Annette and Edouard, who have come from Saint-Domingue to look for Richter.
Annette’s mother was a slave and her father was a descendant of the gods, so she has power over metal and rock. She is a witch who was trained by a sorcerer and seer, Cecile, who sent her to look for Richter to stop the Messiah, who is a vampire named Countess Erzsebet Bathory.
Tera had to flee from Russia because of Erzsebet, a dangerous vampire who killed her sister. Erzsebet’s representative, Drolta Tzuentes, arrives in Paris, as Erzsebet plans to crush the revolution first, and Olrox comes to Paris to meet Erzsebet.
Annette, Edouard, Maria, and Richter decide to go to the chateau to find out what is going on. There, Annette sees Comte de Vaublanc, the vampire who killed her mother. Comte de Vaublanc also notices Annette, which leads to Edouard getting captured and being turned into a night creature, but he retains his human soul.
It turns out that it is the Abbot who is forging the night creatures. He is working with Erzsebet because he also wants the revolution to end. He made a deal with a demon, who gave him the power to forge the night creatures.
The Abbot’s right-hand man, Mizrak, is sleeping with Olrox, who figures out that the Abbot plans to use his night creatures to kill Erzsebet after the revolution is crushed. Annette, Maria, Tera, and Richter then sneak into the abbey to see if the night creatures are being forged there.
The four of them come face to face with the Abbot, Drolta, and Olrox. Annette sees Edouard in a prison cell and wants to save him, but she has to fight Drolta. When Richter sees Olrox, he gets terrified and runs away, leaving his other companions no choice but to follow him.
The Abbot had stopped Drolta from killing Maria because Maria is his daughter. Maria feels betrayed when she finds out that the Abbot is her father and that both her parents have been lying to her for years, but she forgives her mother later.
Annette runs into Comte de Vaublanc and kills him, but not before he tells her that Erzsebet drank the blood of Sekhmet, an Egyptian goddess, and has all her powers. Erzsebet aims to plunge the world into darkness, and the vampires, who burn in the Sun, will no longer have any weakness.
Meanwhile, Richter meets an old man, who turns out to be his grandfather, Juste Belmont. He was once the most powerful sorcerer the Belmont clan had ever seen. This shocks Richter, who thought that he was the only living Belmont.
His grandfather lost his magic after his wife and friend were killed by a vampire, but he has been keeping an eye on Richter. The two of them are attacked by a group of vampires, and just when they are about to kill Richter, he gets his magic back and kills all of them easily. Richter returns to Maria, Tera, and Annette.
Erzsebet, who is in Paris now, wants the Abbot to sacrifice his daughter to seal his alliance with her. She plans to bring Europe under her control and then invade America with Olrox’s help.
However, Olrox does not want to work with her, but he cannot openly oppose her because he is aware of how powerful she is. Olrox visits Richter and his friends to give them the book that the Abbot has been using to forge the night creatures.
He also asks them to destroy the forging machine. After going through the book, Tera knows that the machine cannot be destroyed, as it has been brought from Hell, but it can be sent back. Richter, Maria, Tera, and Annette come up with a plan to rescue Edouard and send the forging machine back to Hell.
Castlevania: Nocturne ending explained in detail:
Does the Abbot sacrifice Maria?
Maria comes to warn her father about the attack on the abbey, where the night creatures are being created, because she does not want him to get hurt. The Abbot takes this opportunity to kidnap her for the sacrifice.
The Abbot loves Maria, but he is ready to sacrifice his daughter for God. A disillusioned Mizrak goes to Tera and reveals the Abbot’s plans. Tera, Richter, Annette, and Mizrak fight the Abbot’s men and night creatures. They manage to save Maria.
Meanwhile, Erzsebet uses her powers to bring eternal darkness to the world. A solar eclipse casts darkness everywhere. Erzsebet’s form changes, and she becomes Sekhmet, the goddess of war.
Are Richter and the gang able to send the machine back to Hell?
Annette goes to save Edouard, but he refuses to go with her. He can still sing, and he believes that his songs bring light to darkness. The other night creatures listen to his song and are able to retain their humanity. Annette then goes to deal with the forging machine.
Tera reads the spell from the book that Olrox gave them to open a portal to Hell, while Maria, Mizrak, and Richter fight Drolta and her minions. Olrox, who has been keeping an eye on Mizrak, takes him away from the abbey, but Mizrak goes back to fight for his beliefs.
Annette uses her powers to push the machine through the portal while demons from Hell keep crossing over. The moment Erzsebet enters the abbey, a scared Tera stops reciting the spells and drops the book. The demons from Hell overpower Annette, the portal closes, and the machine stays in its place.
Is Tera dead or alive?
Erzsebet is so powerful now that Richter and the gang cannot even touch her. Erzsebet wants Maria to be sacrificed to her. She does not want her to be killed. Instead, she wants to turn her into a vampire.
This leads to Tera sacrificing herself to save her daughter. She convinces Erzsebet to take her in Maria’s place to seal the alliance with the Abbot. The Abbot also wants to save his daughter, so he tells Erzsebet that he loves Tera, and Erzsebet turns her into a vampire.
Maria passes out while trying to stop Erzsebet. When Richter realizes that he cannot do anything to help Tera, he and Annette flee with Maria. The three of them are joined by Mizrak.
Despite the Abbot’s pleas to let Maria and her friends go, Drolta follows them with other vampires to kill them. However, a man comes to their rescue and kills Drolta with ease. The man introduces himself as Alucard, the son of Dracula from Hell, leaving Richter and his friends astounded.
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