Chapter Six

The Cleric Beast, Father Gascoigne, The Blood-Starved Beast, Vicar Amelia, The Witches Of Hemwick, Shadows Of Yharnam, Rom, Dark Beast Paarl, One Reborn, and now Micolash. Micolash was a man who sought knowledge, but was already dead, creating a Nightmare where the three Hunters were forced to go through him and into his mind, or what was left of it. It was a difficult fight, playing by the rules of someone's world, but they beat Micolash nonetheless.

Now, they were left within a Nightmare with only one more Boss to defeat. Marshall couldn't pry any information from Gerhman, leaving them in the dark, save for the name Mergo's Wet Nurse.

"I've found a way out," Sora said. Marshall whipped his head around to find Sora standing, covered in more blood than before. He must've dozed off beside the lamp. He turned his head to Diana, who was fast asleep. "The portal the Micolash used when he was running from us. I think I know how it works."

Marshall could see the worry in Sora's eyes. It helped that with every hour, every fight, Sora stopped trying to hide it. "What's the bad news?"

"We'll have to go through another Nightmare." Marshall sighed against himself, wrapping his arms around his knees.

"Let's finish all this soon," Marshall said more to himself than to Sora. "I'm ready to go home, wherever that is."

Sora nodded and then laid down, resting his head on his sack. Marshall did the same. After what seemed like hours, he finally fell asleep.

Where they stood was on the staircase of the roof of whatever this building was. On the inside, it looked to be a college of some kind, maybe. The woman in the bloodied gown was weeping on the floor below them. She pointed to an elevator, which led them here.

A baby was heard crying, and they could see the stroller. Diana was the first to walk in. She made her way carefully all the way to where the baby cried, but when she pulled the blanket back, nothing was there.

Suddenly, a huge, cloaked creature with wings appeared. It bore down at Diana with a face that didn't exist before six arms appeared, all carrying curved blades that could easily tear through her. She stood there, frozen before this horror. How could something so horrible exist?

Before she knew it, the thing raised up an arm and brought down one of blades on her. Marshall came just in time to meet it with his Holy Moonlight Sword. An arm was around her in an instant, dragging her way from the Nurse. Sora whipped her around across the other side of the roof and shook her vigorously until she snapped out of it. She gave him a thankful nod before pulling out her Burial Blade and leaping back into the action.

Sora ran to the side, ending up behind the Nurse immediately, hitting it with the full force of his Hunter's Axe. The Nurse staggered and both Marshall took the opportunity: Diana, driving her scythe through the creature's torso and through the head (if there was one), splitting even it's hood open. The Nurse screeched and tried to attack Sora from it's behind, but the Bone of Morius deflected every hit, giving him the chance to cut off two of the six arms. They dropped to the ground before dissipating into nothing.

The Nurse fell to the ground, but it still lived. One of its long arms reached out and sliced Sora's chest, causing him to fall to the ground, blood pooling over his hand as he tries to stop it. Marshall leaped out and plunged his sword straight through the Nurse's head again, this time chopping it off. The head was invisible, but you could still hear the crunch of bone before the Nurse's deformed body went limp. Diana ran to Sora's side. His breathing was heavy and his eyes screamed with panic. She tossed her bag to the ground, spilling out all the vials and items she stored in it. She grabbed the med kit and went straight to work. Sora passed out and Marshall had to take over, because her hands were shaking so badly. Time seemed to stop, but Marshall seemed to have dealt with the wound.

Everything seemed to blur in together, and then suddenly they were back at Micolash's mirror and Sora was awake.

Sora drifted in and out of consciousness. He opened his eyes to Diana leaning above them. Marshall eased her aside and tried to save something to Sora. It took countless tries before he finally heard through the fog in his mind. "How do we get through?"

"Arcane... around... the edges..." His eyes refused to stay open any longer and the whispers consumed him.

Marshall brought the mirror to life and him and Diana forced Sora up, one arm over each of their shoulders. It took about five minutes before they made it through the mirror and into a whole other Nightmare. They were back at the Oedeon Chapal. Except things were different. The walls were half crumbled and there was no sign of life. All the doors were shut, save for the one straight straight ahead of them.

"Where are we," Diana asked before sitting Sora down against a pillar that still stood in the midst of all the destruction.

Marshall flipped one of his Shining Coins and peered over it on the ground. He waved a hand of arcane over the coin to read it. "Hunter's Nightmare."

"That doesn't sound too good."

"Yeah, well, neither did staying there. Speaking of, I figured out what was causing the Night, and why it's over."

"What do you mean?" She looked above to the a ceiling that was no longer there, and found a sliver of dawn peaking from over the far horizon, illuminating light and dark colors in the sky.

"I vaguely remember, but I think when I was younger, I took Latin. 'Mergo' translates to 'submerge'. She also resembled Amygdala. I think the reason the Night is over is because Mergo was the one who 'submerged' us into the Night. I think the thing we fought wasn't really Mergo, though, the baby was. I think the Nurse and the baby had some kind of link that, when severed, ended the Night."

"I guess that makes sense." Diana pondered the theory in her head for a few more minutes before speaking again. "I'm happy that the Night is over, but we still need to back to the Hunter's Dream. How do we get out of here?"

"The coin said something about a clocktower. I assume it must be talking about that one." Marshall pointed behind her and when she turned she saw a clocktower far on the other side of Yharnam.

"Of course," she grumbled. "It couldn't be easy, could it?" After a few more hours, the sun was finally up and the made their way to the distant clocktower which held their freedom.