The Hunter's Sanctuary
You felt something all over your body as if something or someone was carrying you gently towards the direction your head is pointing. You wonder and ponder on who or what was carrying you but to what end? You ask yourself what would be the point. It's all over. You died at the hands of someone during your mission. You were shot in the head after listening to a story that made up to no sense in your mind. Names, places, races or maybe groups like Vilebloods and the like left you confused at first, but it doesn't matter now. You drift away little by little maybe to the beyond and can't help but reminisce about how you ended up held down by a Grimm before that woman. How a beowolf unlike anything ever seen or recorded incapacitated you and forced you to be at that woman's mercy. You ponder and the memories poured out with the chime of the bell.
You where a normal young individual on there way to become a hunter of the monsters known as Grimm. You were on your way to becoming something grand or renown but then you were sent to investigate a disturbance in the world. Some manners of sickness as affected the people of Walo Village. You and your friends all in a team of four were sent in and then ended up separated in a bad crash. The town was on fire when you arrived and the people took that fire and used it to take down your craft. You went down into the midst of the darkness and the fire thrown into the midst of blood thirsty monsters in man's bodys. These weren't men anymore. You didn't know what they were. You had so many questions leading up to one that had an definitive answer.
They wanted you dead and you needed to survive.
You drew your weapon and bashed them away. You kicked and punched and forced your way through them. You didn't kill them though. You were taught to never take a human life. You were trained to hunt the Creatures of Grimm but little did you know just how much these people began to mirror the very thing you were trained to obliterate. You had your friends in mind and looked for them for a time. You found one of your team but Grimm and those afflicted people quickly separated the two of you. You watched helplessly as they were torn apart. You fought back the best you could pushing your semblance when you could but it was too late. Those screams… they will stay with you until death.
You smiled a bit at the irony. Before you knew no matter what happened or how it happened you could never truly die. You never worried about death for long for you had no cause to. This time though you know your dead. You know you're being led to your judgement for you've been alive much longer than you deserve. You've lingered in this world for too long and thought it would remain that way for eternity. You thought wrong it seems.
Death had been given to you by a God.
A beautiful woman with dressed in such an old fashion wardrobe as if she was born over 200 years ago in a different era with archaic weaponry that probably are the precursor to modern day weaponry. That Threaded Cane was like a whip sword you've seen one huntsmen use that could be used rend reality itself when combined with there semblance. That Rifle Spear was extremely primitive compared to the gun blade variations of today's world. You couldn't see such weaponry missing the versatility of the weapons now could have been effect in the past but then you remembered the aura around them.
That God's weapons are just as powerful or maybe more so than the goddess herself. You chuckled a bit. You never believed in God or the presence of one but being killed by one made you believer and quick. Too late as well. Her weapons were alive as well and had their own aura. The aura was as violent and unwavering as it was Serene and soothing. You felt as if someone or something wielded those god weapons you could stand behind them and not worry about a thing. That Threaded Cane caught your attention same with that pistol she used. That pistol is a simple single shot. In a horse or monsters that pistol wouldn't have been that preferable. That's in a normal world though. You felt that pistol with one shot could level a city or rend reality itself. Each one of those weapons served a purpose, you're sure of that.
The story from that Goddess by the man of Evelyn began to flow next as well as how you happened across her. You wandered to a cave in Hope of escape that… Scourge. Yes, that's what she called it and it fits. Those people became like beasts and affected the next. It affected you as well. You could feel it in your body as time went by being hunted by Scourge victims and Grimm alike. The blood got into your mouth when one landed on too of you. It screamed blood murder and then a fountain of it flowed over your face and mouth. It was like little works or parasites crawled and slithered through your blood stream. You felt emotions of fear only reciting the Chant of Fire could hinder.
You heard voices and began to see things. You felt as if you allowed those voices to guide your actions you would fall into darkness. You struggled with the inner demons that threatened to consume you. You struggled knowing that in the end you will fall to… Beasthood. That's what she called it and once again it felt right. That sickly sensation gathering in your body, the pressure at your back as if I was about to burst out, and the thoughts you suffered telling you to kill and revel in the death and decay. To become a beast. You resisted because you know once you fall there would be no coming back. You resisted in hope to get to help in time to cure you.
You found a cave and inside you saw something. A monster that stood at least twenty feet tall stood before you. Eyes redder than the darkest abyss and fire in it's hands. It stood before you and sniffed you st first before it attacked. The voice said to fight back and to tear it apart but you resisted and ran. You ran and it followed until you approached edge of a cliff. You had no choice but to fight and fight you did. The battle was bloody and harsh. The words from that beast filled your head. It called you a monster as wind encased it's hands. It called you inhuman as fire whipped past you. It filled your head with thoughts and feeling that threatened to make you go insane. The Chant no longer soothed you, running was no longer an opinion, and you couldn't run from the beasts anymore. Not the one before you… or the one within.
Silence took residents in your mind and you faced the beast with a clear mind as you accepted the coming battle. Nothing mattered anymore. Not you, your friends, your family, or the mission. What matter was ensuring no monster stands to take hold of the world past this village. To fall to the blackness like you eventually will. You felt a pressure your mind as you felt a sense of resolution take hold of you. The beast was slain and you stood the victor. And that's when you heard it. A chime at the edge of hearing. You heard a bell ringing almost hypnotically in the distance. A ring that soothed and washed away the hate. It was beautiful to you to the point that you followed it mindlessly. You followed it to the edge of the cliff and over into the darkness below.
You woke up to something dragging you and the ring of the bell was gone. You looked around as a forest you don't recognize came to view. It wasn't a forest for long because something dragged you into a clearing towards a building. It looked to be centuries old from the architecture and yet appeared new. It was ghostly with a think most surrounding it. It was dragging you towards it. It turned out to be a beowolf and at the same time it wasn't. It was larger, leaner but with a far more condensed muscle structure. It was built for speed as well as powerful while walking on its hind legs with near perfect balance. The Grimm was strange and even stranger is the fact you yourself were alive. It had no wish to kill you. It wanted you alive and you weren't about to allow yourself to see this through.
You broke out of its grip and tore your garb but not your scarf. You stood before it ready and it stood calmly before it. It examined you for a couple moments before walking around you like a shark. It bared it's fangs and it's claws shown once they extended out from it's paws. The Grimm was actually sizing you up but that's impossible. You thought it impossible until it attacked. You expected for it to be Savage and Feral like all other Grimm but it was testing you just as much as you tested it. You moved, ducked, and stuck back and it countered with growing speed and ferocity. You tried to find a pattern on how it moves and reacts but its attacks were random and swift just like yours. It began to overcome you with little stress on it's part until you were on your knees with a claw in your torso. It disarmed you and slammed you down into the ground. It won fruitlessly.
The beowolf dragged you on with vines from the trees in it's grasp. It tied down your hands behind your back, your ankles together, and forced pieces of your ripped clothing into your mouth to gag you. Out of aura, exhausted, and feeling the darkness within beginning to take you, you felt helpless for once in your life as it dragged you closer. This thing that acted nothing like the common Grimm bested you and subdued you. It knew what it was doing. It read you, your move set, and your patterns much like you were taught. You underestimated it but it didn't underestimate you. You felt shame at this until you were on your knees in front of a corpse of sorts. It was a woman and yet it didn't move. She looked to be asleep almost. Resting quietly in her chair shining in the night light heavenly. It was day break with you bested that abnormal talking beast meaning you were out for hours for it to be night. You found yourself at the mercy of a beast and some body it must've praised or honored. Being offered to this woman as I sacrifice was your first thought until it moved.
You heard the bell once more suddenly and it was louder than before. Whispers in your mind of something that made no sense. You heard the sound of something being absorbed into your mind but it wasn't through your ears. Your mind swam with questions and pain within your mind nearly broke you.
Her eyes opened and they rested on you giving you a curious stare. "My oh my," she said as she crossed her legs and rested her chin on her interlocked fingers. "What have you brought me today?" The woman turned her gaze to the wolf which bowed on a single knee before her. It grabbed the back of your neck and forced you down into a bow just as deep as it's.
"You brought me a human. A special one at that if they happen to be here and… able to see me," the woman smiled at you with a new level of fascination you found uncomfortable and unsettling. "You have dark blood and corruption in your body but a little Pale blood might help," she giggled beautifully. "Anders you brought something interesting." She suddenly began to speak about her herself a bit then stopped suddenly. It was apparent she's not accustomed to the company of people and it showed her in strange and yet polite mannerisms.
She said she was a hunter and curtsy before. She said her name was Evelyn. Named after a pistol from… Cainhurst or something like that. She told me a story of her noble lineage as well as coming done with a blood sickness which caught your attention. It sounded as if she contracted the same Scrounge as you and yet found a cure. You wondered what and picked apart a bit of her story for an answer or to piece something together to save yourself. Paleblood is what you thought of and apparently to escape her abyss she performed a ritual to free her friends, family, fellow hunters, and herself. Only she wasn't free. She became a goddess chained to the higher existence she never wanted.
You chocked this story up as the insane ramblings of a mad woman and yet certain words, phrases, and instances caught your attention. The fact she died once or twice and came back being one of them. How w can she have this ability, you wondered for nothing to cure you of your curiosity.
Then she began to glow and the mist pushed back away from us. She said she found a hunter and she looked at me as she said it. What did she mean and what did she want? You felt the bloodborne pathogen within beginning to grow hot. You felt out of time. The bell rang in your ear, she recited some manners of ritualistic verses, and then she hot you with a bullet swimming in her blood.
Then you woke up here. You opened your eyes as trees past you by. You felt yourself be carried and relaxed for the end.
"Ahh," you heard a soothing voice before you as you came to a stop. "It appears you've found a hunter," you heard that voice with a thick accent from maybe the east. It was loving and gently as well as a cold hand and brushed across your face. "Good hunter, why do you rest in a dream?" That cold hand caressed your cheek and filled you with a strange warmth. You said nothing and awaited judgment and your passing. "Well, all hunters come and go. This is your home. You may do as you wish." You heard the sounds of footsteps moving away from you and someone sitting down near you. The eyes on you didn't feel aggressive or untoward but just as gentle as the touch from before.
After waiting for an unknown time you opened your eyes to a pale sky blue sky above. You clenched your fists and leaned up once nothing happened. You looked around and saw trees with markings on them and a stone almost engraved into the bark. You climbed up to your feet feeling almost as if your body wasn't there. You feel rejuvenated. Your clothes are clean of blood, repaired from the cuts, tears, and burns, and even your insides are cool and your thoughts quiet. The Beasthood thoughts are good from your mind and you front free of your mortal shackles. You felt as if you transcended to the heavens. You looked around the small forest and saw an empty clearing in the distance. You walked towards it, through the trees, to the edge of this world, you assumed. You ask yourself if anything exists here outside of you and the presence that called you at… hunter.
The turned you head back and rushed back the direction you came until, you happened upon the same building that the Goddess Evelyn or Eliana rested on her throne. You saw her in her seat or rather you though it was her. You approached the woman as she rested in the same chair as Evelyn, she looked like Evelyn, and has a strange aura surrounding her body like Evelyn. This wasn't Evelyn though. This woman has dull, near lifeless grey eyes, she's in a dress maybe from the same time as Evelyn with a cowl over her head, and her body isn't normal. Her fingers are segmented and her next as well appears attached the same way. If not for the way she followed me with her eyes and moved you would have thought she were a doll.
"Are you ready to begin good hunter?" The doll asked suddenly with a stoic expression and monotone voice. "You've rested for so long while the little ones took care of you."
Little ones? You looked around for this little ones to not until you looked up the stairs. You saw a couple little things, like little people, in a small ethereal pool of mist, moving about while playing catch with something they have.
"Yes, aren't they cute. They are here to assist you in anyway they can." You looked at the little ones then back to the doll woman. This doll that looks like Evelyn. Her name is doll then if you recollect correctly. You looked around from the forest with the stones in them, the clearing with a couple cauldrons and chairs and the like of different shapes and sizes. Thrones almost with the one that is etched into your memory occupied by the doll. You wondered what this place was.
"This is the Hunter's Dream," the doll answered your unspoken question. "This will be your home throughout your journey good hunter. A place to rest, restock, and reach out to the many Hunter of other planes and times. Anything here is at your disposal and I shall accompany you as you move forward." That left meant questions answered and many more to go. You looked towards the doll and she stood up from the thrown. She stepped towards you and you inadvertently took a hesitant step back. You prepared for an attack until she bowed politely before you.
"Good Hunter, I am a doll, here in this dream to look after you. Honorable hunter, if you pursue the echoes of blood I will channel them into your strength." The doll walked up to you with it's or her hands out as if asking for yours. This "echoes of blood" she mentioned made no sense at all but her intent isn'tto harm you. This mush you feel. You rose your hand up and placed it on top of hers. She rose her other hand to rest on top of yours.
"You will hunt beasts." You feel the cries of the monsters you killed and the Grimm you destroyed affected by the Scourge cry in your ears. You almost pulled back for the cries became too much.
"And I will be here for you." The doll's honey sweet voice calmed down the voices. The roars faded and the blood within you began to settle. You heard a soft echo at the edge of your hearing. Time stopped as her words washed away the hate, the pain, and the fear.
"To embolden…" she whispered and you felt your legs nearly give before you but your eyes did close. No, your eyes are open but you vision is encased in darkness. Thoughts swam through your mind unsure of what to do. You allowed instinct to take the reins. The echoes suddenly flowed from your hand within the doll's into your body and you mind expanded.
"Your sickly spirit."
Light came back to your eyes and you felt your strength return to you. The pressure on your mind dulled and you felt… stronger? Yes strong in a sense but which you are not sure. Your eyes feel more open though and maybe that's enough. The doll moved to the side suddenly and gestured towards the little ones on the stairs. You walked without words or defiance towards the pools of mist before the little ones.
"Good Hunter, like you the little ones are inhabitants of the dream. They find hunters like yourself, worship, and serve them. Speak words, they do not, but still, aren't they sweet?" The doll waved a hand through the mist as the little ones played with a cane of sorts and a couple things. All of them appear as weapons to you. Once the doll waved her hand through the mist the little ones stopped and looked towards you. They have no eyes but you know they are looking at you. They rose up the weapons before you eager for you to select one.
One is a cane, almost like the Threaded Cane Evelyn possess, but this is different. It's head is more slanted with a couple attachments and the like. A cartridge is are the top with a red square glowing under the head. If you weren't mistake but by the crease in the center it appears capable of separating. Two whips in hand and if that red glow means anything it's that fire dust is engrained into this weapon.
The other is saw like weapon with three circular saw attached to the shaft and sharp pommel at the end. It looks to be capable of single handed wielding and the shaft capable of extending. You noticed a greenish and red engraving along the saws and shaft as well as the fork that holds them suspended between it. You could assume once you placed your hands in the indents of the shaft you can cause the axes to spin but not just that. The mixture of dust will cause a magnifying effect. If you can release the blades and control the magnetism you can only imagine the damage you can do.
That last weapon is like an axe of sorts but almost familiar to you because of earlier implications and variations from other Huntsmen and Huntresses. You didn't pay it too much mind.
"With the coming changes in the hunt these new trick weapons were made for Hunters like you to combat them. Please choose any one that out desire." The doll bowed her head and walked away back to the throne and waited patiently you assumed to make your choice.
You looked down to the weapons and then up to the next pool. Those are range weapons that much is apparent. Three as well. You climbed up to your feet past the pull but stopped once you saw the little one groan and distress. They want you to choose one it seems but which is the question.
You looked back down to the axe that one lifted up higher than the others. The axe was meant to rend flesh from bone with it's lightly toothy edge. You noticed a trigger at the end of the haft and the hammer of a gun behind the blade of the axe. A placed for rounds rested within the metal of the shaft between the hammer and trigger. You wondered why until a team of them pulled the hammer back and pulled the trigger. The hammer came alive with fire and once the trigger was pulled the first sprayed the area to my left. That was a bit impressive but I feel this axe can do much more than this. Ever single one of these weapons are probably impressive but you can only choose one.
In the area of the ranged weaponry you noticed thebweapons changing every couple seconds. You think that maybe it's dependent on your choice of weapon. It would make sense. It's best to choose a range weapon that suits the main and the user. That leaves you with a choice of main weapon.
Which do you choose?
A/N: The chapter came a bit slow bit came regardless. The Good Hunter of Remnant has entered the dream and has their first choice. What weapon to choose from. Answer the question as you see fit and we'll see what happens next.