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Ticking Cosmic
I
The Grey Pilgrimage
Nothing had steeled my nerves for what was to come-
-although I imagine, there was little that could.
A hunt and its gruesome closeness to the insidious machinations that slithered to the surface from deep inside of the Yharnam people. Funny, I hear they might be fighting an uphill battle there.
Many went before me, and many have fallen behind. I had signed a contract though. You see an ailment had begun sapping my health, and with rapid potency at that. I had heard that there were a myriad of ways in Yharnam to receive this sort of, mystic transfusion and cure any withering poison. My curiosity was piqued about this 'holy blood' of the healing church above. Despite some shady echoes from the neighboring areas, I was curious to test this blood ministration, even if the hunter's moon shown bright. I figured as long as I stayed off of the main streets and kept to the rumored routes to this crimson salvation of sorts, I wouldn't have to shed blood sickly like. It was a bit frightening to be journeying somewhere so dangerous on rumor, but it would be indeed be worth the payoff.
Trusting the route I'd taken down I followed and followed until I found the place thankfully, not before seeing more than a few horrid and eerie forms along the sides of the country roads, menacingly staring into me, gazing into my mind with gaunt and hollow expressions out of their dying houses and shacks. Approaching the inner city there was a sick silence that hung on the air. A few of the people I'd encountered even screamed garble at me, crumpling into delirious heaps among the coffins and their respective black carriages. When I finally made it into the city and beyond, the coffins increased in number tenfold, and the stench of fetid decay was near omnipresent. The amount of lunatics and their malformed figures also went up. I made quick sure to keep my eyes locked on my feet and the stone road below them, being swift more than a few times to dodge some potential trouble. Making it to the clinic I was more than relieved, and practically nodded myself into the process without really listening to what I was signing up for. The old man assured me I'd feel better, that I'd be better – faster, stronger, more durable, a perfect candidate for the hunt. I didn't know if I could believe all of his saying, but I could fancy the idea at least I figured.
His voice and face hidden in shadow, blurred into half remembered tones and images among the transfusions processes, eerily echoing in my mind among almost sinister and unintelligible whispers. I fell under into a darkly dream. This back alley transfusion of sorts could have gone both ways for me, but the way I saw it, there was little choice. With that I had grimly stared into the void; oh how my blood churned, polluted and consumed with a new and potent catalyst of the oldest and most dubious source. I didn't really understand it a whole lot, and frankly there wasn't much information about anyhow. That wasn't important though, what mattered was my dwindling sickness and new purpose here in this new land: hunt.
The problem was that I wasn't much of a hunter; the few beasts under my belt were in tandem with other, much better hunters. To make matters worse, I had heard that around Yharnam there were.. mutations, variables of the beast plague that grow to immense and sickly phantasmal proportions. I had no interest in any of that, and hoped to stick to the sidelines with the mass, taking out the scourge's minor waves among the bloody rubble that was beginning to swallow the city. The larger ones were for the crazy hunters, the masochists with a beast's sadism under their nails. Quickest to transform into one of them I say, and here more than ever.
Tis' a shame, a beauty shimmers eerily off the tops of the almost heavenly architecture, scraping under the Gods' feet in blasphemous splendor.
Waking up I was instantly assaulted with that all too sickly blood smell, blackness, a few murmured voices. Something was wrong, the transfusion wasn't finished and I was slipping away.
There was a beautiful house. A hunched figure in the distance. Images moving beyond my control.
A small and quaint line of gravestones ascended around a dirt bend up and before me, the green of shrubs and their surrounding trees hazily bordering. All was concealed in fog under a looming moon, enormously shimmering overhead. A crisp air made my skin tighten as I took in its sweet scent, or rather series of scents.. Flowers and rich earth, old wood and the faint hint of.. blood.
I awoke to a scream. A woman, somewhere else in the clinic. The old man was calling my name, or rather – hunters in general, somewhere towards the front.
"Outside outside! We got a few dogs workin' roun' the side 'ere lads!"
I grabbed my cleaver off the nearby table. I could hear footsteps, and even a few shouts and other sounds crashing out front. I wasn't too excited in all honesty. Still groggy from the transfusion I was almost unable to even stand, let alone fight. But I owed them this, Yharnam this really, perhaps we all did to an extent. Each hunter did it for their own reasons, wherever they came from. In Yharnam they have them doing it for a second chance made right, to rid the blessed city of this all too sinister blight.
"Aye! A beast!"
I froze. Screams and louder crashes reeled to my ears across the clinic.
This was it. I became very aware of my surroundings all of a sudden. The profuse amounts of blood staining glass beakers and wooden work tables alike were almost dizzying. Books upon books rested on their shelves nearby, no doubt the genesis of the academia tinted scent that sat quietly behind the blood's pungent own. I almost found a comfort in the place, a sort of healing calm worked through me. If not for the odor of death and sight of crimson stains every direction and which way, it would be where I'd prefer to work on this huntsman's eve. Alas, my cleaver weighed on my side for a reason I suppose. I was quick with it, but was I quick enough? I wasn't sure. I hadn't any idea what to expect.
As I approached the front, weaving around mattresses and their equipment and down a dimly lit staircase, I heard a cry from outside among the slaughter. I say now with the utmost certainty and zealotry some of the local Healing Church's disciples emanate in their power – or so I've heard amongst some local disgruntled whispers here or there – that never, at any point in my life had I heard a wallowing cry that made my heart freeze in its faceless pulse like what rang through the air that evening. I stopped dead in the doorway, the men outside went silent as well. I had my hand halfway to the handle, shaking in silence. I could see their silhouettes through the window, frozen still in morbid curiosity. I was the same, but trembling, my mind awash with images of the demented and horrid undead things I ran into along the journey here. The cry rang out again. Cobwebs and dust circled in the candle lit air and I simply couldn't move.
It was an eerie concoction of audio geometries I say, human and beast working in perfect sync, vibrating in tongues I've never heard before or could even dream of. A deep and guttural growl tearing out of a screaming girls form. I shuttered; this was one of the big ones, one of them.
"Aye hunters! Listen ere'! The cathedrals got its fair share er' crazies! That cry was non' oter n' Amelia 'erself. Blasphemous werebeast out uh the infernos I tell ya!" I could hear some slurring here or there, if I had more evidence, I'd be certain our old friend was a bit drunk. Can't say I blame him with this mess. "We got our own church to curse fer that noise!"
I watched the forms move and walk off, some splitting in opposite directions and every other tangent. I stood still in that doorway all the same. Another long and terrifying wail screamed out from the sky. My heart near stopped. I couldn't do this, I was not a hunter of those scales of beast.
Coward.
No, I needed this. I pushed through the door and stepped out, the old man gone. Strange, I hadn't even seen him step off. The air was thick with smoke, rot, death. I pulled my a scarf up, my favorite one; my mother had given it to me a long time ago. I smelled home in the cloud of demise that sat in that sweet Yharnam air. I began walking towards the cathedral, or at least a cathedral, only visible in the far off distance. I could see mobs with torches far up the path, beyond the coffins and small fires here or there. Some beastly hybrids scurrying in the shadows among them and off to the sides; the state of things was declining hastily. Their voices sounded abhorrently disfigured sometimes, making sounds that barely bordered on human. Backwards realities were breaking into existence here and with little sign of slowing down.
The wailing broke through the air once more, my steps slowing as I ached at the realization it was closer. That thing was closer.
Amelia? One of the few coherent words I could easily make out in the old man's screaming beyond the door.
My speed picked up at this point, the fear in me was all too strong now. My blood thirsted for the carnage – what was this thirst? I quickly dispatched of a few reeling runoffs from the mobs, trying my best to keep from the minor spatter here or there. I didn't want contamination, but deep down I knew I was already at least somewhat stained. I was a bit pleased to be quick on my feet still, maybe even faster like the old man said. My weapon cut down the beasts and their kin all the same. Still, I could swear I tasted that growing death in the air I was breathing, morbidly dancing on my tongue in delirium. I had turned and began sprinting down an alley. I saw it turned right up the bend, past a few tightly shut doors and their curious owners staring out at us. This was hopefully bringing me closer to the cathedral and at least a few others of my new found legal kin. I wasn't much alone but in numbers perhaps I could at least assist.
Just then saw a shape up ahead, just beyond an opening back into the streets. Black, sullen, avian, a strange humanoid bird sat silently. It was kneeling down behind a crate, staring up and out into the road. The wail once more blessed our ears in sinister grace overhead, to my confirmation, closer.
"You're not a very quiet hunter lad, a bit green still eh? Hm," a soft voice chuckled from the dark form. I slowed to a stop a few feet behind her. I wasn't sure what I had run into. She sounded a lot older, and I couldn't help but feel almost a sense of a warm relief, although strangers were always dangerous in this environment.
"That sound, that demon - many good men are off to take er' down. Not many will come back, or any at all honestly. 'Er strength is immense. You know hunter, your comrades need you now more than ever. You can't be here shakin' under your cape."
She was right, but I didn't have the slightest chance of being any help directly. I needed to be there for them though.
"How do I get there? Is it – is it up there?" I asked, approaching a few steps. I smelled death all of a sudden. Peering through a coffin door's crack on the right, I saw the rotting genesis that had become all too familiar to me. I was truly in the land of the dead.
"Through more than a few alleys you'll have to run I reckon'. You know –" she stopped. I stared and waited for her to continue. She remained silent however, suddenly standing up. Daggers appeared in her hands behind her suddenly, and I stepped back a bit, grabbing my cleavers handle shakily. I probably wouldn't stand much a chance against someone this confident in this hell. Up ahead, beyond her, a small and hairy humanoid approached down the road, its eyes aglow with a strange light. Then another appeared, and another as well, their small footsteps - or rather their claws - echoing on the blood drenched cobble roads below their feet. It was a small group.
I heard footsteps behind me, grunts. It was them, beastly snarls and hissing just behind us and around the alley corner. They had surrounded us, what force directed them I mused, sickly anxious now. Just as quickly the woman turned to me. I was a bit tensed at first: a long beak and red gleaming goggled eyes stared at me under the crowed shawl and pointed hat. This was the most alien hunter I'd ever seen. She had an almost deathly aura to her as well, but one in grace I'd argue.
"Hunter, we're in trouble."
"What?"
She raised her hand, a small gloved finger raised up. I felt my eyes widen, the sheer terror at what she was hinting at was almost unbearable right then and there. Slowly looking up, I heard a strange shuffling above as my eyes locked on what was up looking down at us. They were not prepared for any of this, for what abomination of nature's most warped constructs had culminated up on that roof. The beasts below, us below, squeezed tightly in the alley and surrounded by death. Above, a great white demon sat and stared down, wolf like in its immense and bandaged figure. Great gleaming eyes somewhat showing under a garment of sorts, I couldn't help but wonder how it could see well at all. Frightening more, I saw an almost sinister smile on its face, curled black lips around razor sharp, enormous and blood stained teeth. Long arms with equally giant claws clenched the roof's edge, their nails shimmering in the eerie light in the sky. Large horn like things sprouted from behind its canine ears, antler like, unnatural like. It reeled back, raising its head and belting out the loudest and most mind shattering howl I'd ever heard, absolute dread almost broke me right there, and I nearly fell to my knees had not the woman grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the way we came.
"We haven't the time to wait around and chat it would seem," she said, stopping for a second. She reached in her coat and pulled out a small glass, a firebomb of sorts I quickly learned. The small wolf like things had moved in, the monstrosity above leering down at us, silently steering the grim horde. She tossed it up, right near the beast above incidentally. I froze, watching in awe; a bullet from a suddenly appearing revolver in her other hand launched up the bottles shaft looking down at us above, exploding in cleansing fire on the beast's face. It was very impressive to say the least; she was an expert marksman it would seem.
The beast screamed and howled once more, the creatures in the alley at our perimeter now. Suddenly the area in front and behind me exploded into fire and noise, the creatures scurrying in every opposite direction, the few unfortunate ones struck lay and burned. She had began tossing firebomb after firebomb every way her arms could throw, quite prepared for this potential situation it would seem. We weaved in and around the small explosions at a lightning like speed. She hurried me alongside her as the beasts confusedly attacked and swiped at the smoke and sound, her gunshots picking them off and out of our way. I helped with the cleaver when I could, although for the most part, I happily let her lead the way. The white demon, that Amelia, had long since disappeared a few rooftops back now. I could only sickly calculate where she was, prowling just outside our sight. Hopefully this hunter could get us to safety.
I was more than pleased I had found her. This was the type of companion one simply couldn't pass up now.