I would just like to thank everyone for their reviews. I read every single one of them, and each bring a smile to my face. I would like to personally thank a certain Guest that wrote an essay-long review on my story. It was such a nice feeling to know how much you all liked my story, and want me to continue it.
City of Lowee
Neptune and Maria casually strode across the streets of Lowee, making their way to the Basilicom. In comparison to Planeptune, Lowee was much less futuristic in terms of design. The buildings were much more varied when it came to color and design, and it looked very childlike. It was almost nauseating to look at. Maria on the other hand, looked like she couldnt be happier. She smiled widly as she looked at her surroundings, apparently taking a liking to the designs and colors. She truly was the opposite of The Good Hunter.
The Basilicom was not hard to spot, and was much easier to get to due to it actually being connected to the rest of the city via land instead of some unnecessary holorail. As they walked the uphill trail to the Basilicom, Neptune began to notice that the city was quieter than Planeptune. And by quite a large margin.
'Perhaps this city can actually keep it's citizens quiet for a few minutes.' Thought Neptune as she and Maria entered the Basilicom.
Loweean Basilicom.
The first thing that happened when Neptune entered the Basilicom, was the sound of children laughing and assaulting her eardrums. It echoed throughout the castle-like structure, and was quite unpleasant to listen to. Neptune began to walk further in, noticing that there was only one person at the very long table. She approached the girl working behind the table, who did not notice her until she cleared her throat a few feet from her. The girl then turned to face Neptune, who seemed to be rather intimidated. Probably due to the massive blade slung over her shoulder.
"Yes? M-May I help you?" She asked meekly.
"Where is the Goddess?" Replied Neptune in her usual, uninterested voice.
"In her chambers. I c-can schedule a meeting with her if you would like me to."
"Hm. Where are her chambers?"
"Just follow the signs..." The girl quietly stated, pointing to a sign bolted to the wall. There were many words on it, likely the names of rooms, but the one that caught her eye was, indeed, "Chamber of Lady White Heart".
Wordlessly, The Good Hunter turned and began to follow the signs, Maria on her heels. She ignored the meek protests of the girl, and kept her stride up. The Basilicom proved to be a rather sprawling complex, containing many hallways and side rooms. However, the path to the Goddesses chamber was fairly straightforward. Upon approaching the door, The Good Hunter could hear faint chattering beyond it. It sounded like four voices. Four very familiar voices.
The Good Hunter frowned. 'Have they already arrived here? Bah, I suppose it doesn't matter anymore.'
Stepping back, she reared her body back, before slamming her foot into the center of the large double doors with the entire weight and force of her body, causing them to fly open and slam against the walls they hit. Scanning the room, The Good Hunter quickly became confused.
Blanc was there alright, and was staring at her with a shocked expression, but the other goddesses were nowhere in sight. In fact, the only things in the room were a large bed, multiple bookshelves and a small table in the center of the room, which had a rectangular screen and a strange block on the floor connected to it.
What was on the screen, she could see from where she stood. And it confused her to no end.
On the screen were the faces of the other three Goddesses, all wearing similar expressions. She began to walk over to Blanc, Maria in tow. The voice she recognized as Vert then spoke through the screen.
"Well, it would appear we do not need to search for her anymore." She said with an exasperated tone.
"I would like all of you to know that if you hadn't sent your bloodhounds after me the second I left, I would have contentedly returned to the Basilicom. I suppose I am simply not allowed to go and train with my protege, then?"
It was then Noire that spoke up. "Protege? What do you me-" It was then that the Goddesses seemed to notice the presence of Maria, garbed in standard Hunter gear aside from the tricorn hat, Rakuyo and Hunter's Pistol hanging from her waist.
"Uhm... Hello, my Goddesses." She said politely, offering a bow.
"Neptune, you can't be serious!" Shouted Nepgear from the other side of the screen. These Goddesses really knew how to easily get on her nerves...
"Oh but I am. I have realised the potential this girl has, as you have all failed to. I intend to bring out the strength in her." She stated, Maria brightening at what she took as praise.
"That doesn't matter! You didn't give her enough time to recover from that experience. Not even a week, and you are forcing her-"
"I wasn't forced!" Maria stated loudly, cutting off Nepgear's rant. The Goddesses then looked at Maria, surprise painted on their faces.
"It's true, I haven't entirely gotten over what happened to me. But that all wouldn't have happened if I wasn't so weak! I don't ever want that to happen to me again, so when Neptune told me to meet her outside Virtua that night, I felt like running away would only hurt me, Md not her. I gladly took her up on her offer because I didn't want to be weak anymore! And another thing, why are you so restricting of her? As far as I can tell, Neptune is a good person at heart, if not a little misunderstood on the outside. Sure, she may do some... questionable things. Sometimes downright wrong things, but she has never done them with malicious goals in mind! I guess she's just one of those people who think that the means justify the end, but as long as she doesn't do anything wholly evil, I dont see why you need to hold her down with a thousand locks and chains!"
The room was silent for what felt like years after Maria finished her speech. Even Neptune was somewhat surprised.
"...I see." Was the only thing Blanc said. Her expression, and the ones that all of the other Goddesses wore, told her that all of them were in thought. Especially Nepgear, who was no longer facing the camera.
"Well, now that you are here to speak to, I was hoping you could clear up a rather urgent pair of questions I have." Asked Vert, a serious expression making itself present across her face.
"Very well." Responded Neptune, approaching the table while Maria stood by the door.
"Now, I have two very important questions to ask you. One, I sent a member of my SMD to Lowee in order to assist in your search, and she has failed to report in for the last few hours. Her hair is red and in twintails, and she wears some sort of hybrid maid and nurse outfit. Have you seen her? And if so, what happened to her and her Leanbox soldier supporters? They have not reported in either." She asked. The Good Hunter swore mentally. 'They wont like this.' She turned to Maria for a moment, who was now hiding her face.
The Good Hunter sighed, and turned to face them. "Yes, we did indeed have a run in with them." She responded. Vert narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.
"Perhaps you could shed some light on their condition?"
"One soldier dead, melted to slag. Another critically injured, missing a leg among other injuries. The operative had only superficial wounds, but was unconscious."
Looks of shock crossed all of the Goddesses faces. Noire then spoke up.
"...Melted to slag? By what?" She asked.
"A Beast, and a powerful one at that. A Watchdog of the Old Lords. And you needn't worry, Maria dispatched it." She gestured to Maria, who was still standing by the door.
"A Beast?! One from Yharnam?" Inquired Nepgear.
"No. One from the deep chalice dungeons." Responded The Good Hunter.
"...Chalice Dungeons?" echoed Blanc. "You never told us about those."
"I had no reason to, and I still have no reason to. A Beast is a Beast, no matter where it comes from." She stated.
"So you did leave things out." Concluded Noire. Her only response was a huff of indifference from The Good Hunter.
"Anyway, There is still one more question to be answered. Since you and Maria were the ones they were searching for, I imagine such an event would have been reported, yet nothing has come up. Perhaps you could tell us why?" Vert asked. The Good Hunter shrugged, and pulled out the red, sparkly phone she nabbed from the Operative as she was called. Vert visibly tensed up.
"That phone is... Why do you have that?" She asked sternly.
"Well, I was in need of a map as I had lost my way. Maria told me that any phone should come with a map, and your Operator just so happened to be in possession of one."
"You said she was unconscious. Did you..." Vert trailed off, looking at The Good Hunter with eyes that could kill.
"While she was tending to the critically injured soldier, I simply delivered a chop to the back of her neck. I grabbed her phone and went on my way. As far as I know, she is still there now."
She could practically feel the anger radiating off of the Goddess next to her as she said that.
"...You not only knocked out Cave, but you also possibly got a soldier KILLED?!" Blanc said with her voice rising The Good Hunter turned to face her, and was met with a blinding light.
That could only mean one thing, and The Good Hunter instantly made to draw her weapon, and just in time too. As soon as she got her second hand around it, she found herself blocking a crushing blow from a large, glowing blue and white axe. She quickstepped away, and laid her eyes on the now transformed Blanc. She seemed to ignore the cries of protest and worry from the other Goddesses, and raised her weapon once again.
"I can put up with a good amount of shit, but ever since you started pulling things like this my patience has well been fuckin' dwindling. It's time for someone to teach you a lesson!" She shouted, charging the girl again, swinging her axe with insane speed. The Good Hunter deftly dodged with practiced precision, however. She then leaned forward and sent her body soaring forward in a stab, which was blocked by the flat blade of the glowing axe. It was then that Maria made an appearance, and shot her pistol at the Goddesses hip, tearing through her body and coming out the other side, eliciting a hiss of pain from White Heart, before she retreated. The Good Hunter then saw something that made her frown.
The bullet wound was quickly regenerating, and within seconds was completely closed.
The Good Hunter turned to Maria. "Get out of here. I will face this Goddess by myself."
Maria looked shocked and conflicted for a moment, before silently nodding and running out the open doors, closing them behind her.
"Saving your little apprentice, eh? I don't blame you. She'll be ashamed to be your student once im done with you!" Taunted White Heart.
The Good Hunter responded by pointing a glowing, moonlit blade at the Goddess. "Shut your ugly hole and face me." Was all she said. This seemed to strike a nerve, as White Heart bore her teeth and charged savagely.
It was easy to see that this strike was completely savage and had no planning put into it other than the desire to smash whatever was in front of it, and it was easily interrupted by The Good Hunter, who shot a silver bullet into White Heart, causing her to lose balance and stumble, before recovering just in time to block an overhead slash from Neptune's blade. The Loweean Goddess reacted first, delivering a hard, solid punch to Neptune's gut, causing her to lose the air inside of her and stumble back, losing the grip on her Evelyn. White Heart took immediate action, and sliced the thing in half before it even hit the ground. The Good Hunter responded to this by swiftly reaching into her pouch and throwing a fan of poison-tipped throwing knives at her, none making full contact. However, the leftmost dagger caught her in the middle if her dodge, and scraped her hip. That would have to be enough. The Good Hunter went on the offensive.
She began by sending a beam of moonlight energy at the Goddess, which seemed to catch her off guard as she didn't fully dodge it and got caught in the right leg as she attempted to panic dodge, cutting a large gash in it. The Goddess yelped in pain, and looked at the quickly regenerating wound on her leg. She looked back just as The Good Hunter was charging for another strike.
The Good Hunter found herself on the receiving end of a full force swipe from the axe, courtesy of an enraged and savage White Heart.
The Good Hunter flew across the room and slammed into the wall with a loud Thunk, Squish and Crack. Falling to the ground, she heard another loud crack. She tried to get up, but couldn't.
Her legs were annihalated. Eviscerated. Completey destroyed.
She used her barely stable arms to flip herself over, and was met with a bright flash as her vision blurred ever so slightly.
'Dammit... Am I going to die again?'
Through her messy vision, she could make out the shape of a reverted Blanc looking her over.
'I guess it's true. These Goddesses are no pushovers.' She thought, and was about to close her eyes when she felt... Something. It felt like something that had been chained up inside of her had finally broken free, and was now pumping raw energy throughout her entire body. And she could feel it, too.
Suddenly, and for no discernable reason, The Good Hunter began to float, and small, thin strands of black and red began to materialize and float around her, all moving below her waist. Looking down, she noticed that there were thousands, maybe millions of the things in place of her legs.
Then, suddenly, an explosion of black smoke blew outward of Neptune, which seemed to blow Blanc away.
She felt an unimaginable surge of power. It felt like she could take on every single Great One at once, and come out with maybe a few scratches at most.
Looking down, The Good Hunter's eyes widened. Her legs were back, and there were thin, black lines running down and across them in random patterns.
Then, she felt everything covering her body dissapear as if it was never there. In moments the black smoke began to flock to her body, and solidified. In seconds the girl was clad in jet black armor, with spikes jutting out from the shoulders, arms and other places. Her new legs had been covered in thick, black boots with what looked like razor sharp teeth decorating the heels. ď Her chest, however, was barely armored at all. Instead there was a thick bra and-
Had she grown? Her body seemed much more developed...
Well, The Good Hunter attempted to pry at the armor, but it would not come off. It was as if it had been melded to her skin.
Then, her back exploded in pain. It was as if she had been doused in oil and lit ablaze. She grit her teeth and hissed at the sudden, immense pain. And then, she felt her back explode outward, and the pain was gone. Sweating slightly, The Good Hunter turned to look at what the hell had just happened, but long, Mauve hair got in her way. Despite initial surprise, The Good Hunter quickly brushed it out of the way and looked at her back.
"What the hell is happening to me?!" She loudly said, her eyes laying on large, leathery wings sprouting from her back.
The wings were pale yellow on the inside, and black on the outside with large thorns lining them. Her body seemed to naturally know how to use them somehow, and she unintentionally beat them a few times, causing her body to raise.
Then, as if this entire situation wasn't as batshit enough, The Good Hunter felt a sudden light weight in her right hand.
Looking down, she was met with the sigh of a very long sword.
The blade of the sword was much like the blade of her Holy Moonlight Sword, except it was a single edged blade, and was a waning blue. The blade seemed to slightly thin as it got closer to the guard, and was slightly curved in the same style of her old, curved sword. The guard was sturdy and white. The handle of the weapon was quite long, and obviously meant to be handled with two hands. Cautiously bringing her other hand over, she noticed how the armor on her hands caused artificial claws to jut out from her fingertips. She frowned, if these were supposed to be useful in combat, they would certainly make handling a weapon more difficult. Sighing, she brought her other hand to the hilt and grasped it. It was much lighter than she was expecting, and found the weapon very easy to swing.
The Good Hunter felt a small grin creeping up on her features. She felt the raw energy surging through her frame. Could she face the Goddesses like this?
She couldn't finish her thought, as the surrounding, swirling smoke got sucked inside her body, and dissapeared. The Good Hunter was now revealed to the world, wings beating.
She quickly found herself on the ground, and on her new legs. She looked to Blanc, who was, again, transformed and holding her weapon at her side.
"You have access to HDD? How? You're not a Goddess anymore." She stated firmly, slowly rising.
"HDD? I haven't a clue as to what that means, perhaps you could enlighten me?" The Good Hunter said in a smooth, somewhat sultry voice as she beat her wings and began to rise as well.
"Those wings, that armor... That can't be HDD. What the hell did you do?!" She aggressively asked, stopping her ascent.
"Im not sure myself. But, I have legs again. I cant really complain about that, now can I?" She replied, stabilizing herself as well.
"Either way, we still have a battle to finish. Unless, you would rather give in?" The Good Hunter asked, raising and pointing her blue blade at White Heart.
White Heart audibly "Tsk'd" and suddenly flew towards The Good Hunter at an insane speed.
In any other situation, The Good Hunter would not have been able to react fast enough. In this new body, however? She brought up her blade to block it in what must've been less than a quarter of a second. A loud Clang resonated throughout the chamber, and the entire room, maybe even the whole Basilicom. Neptune then struck, retreating away from the blade lock and slashing upward, which was stopped by the large axe blade.
'Hm. This may not be as easy as I thought it would be.' concluded The Good Hunter, who barely managed to dodge a sudden diagonal slice.
The battle seemed to rage for ages.
Neither combatant was able to land a solid hit. They were equally matched. Any attack one threw at the other was blocked, dodged or deflected. But, they both were tiring. That much was obvious.
Blanc threw another heavy slash at Neptune, which was blocked by the flat of her own sword. Neptune then threw a random, weak kick in a desperate attempy to throw Blanc off balance. Her foot made impact with her stomach, but did little other than cause a small stumble.
That small stumble would have to do.
Taking advantage of the slim opportunity, The Good Hunter raised her blade with blinding speed, and brought it down in a savage diagonal slice, making solid impact with the Loweean Goddess and sending her rocketing into the stone wall behind her, sending her straight through and causing a large chunk of the wall to follow suit, leaving a hole of impressive size behind. Quickly following, The Good Hunter's eyes landed on a reverted Blanc leaning against a tree, heavily breathing and sweating. Quite frankly, she looked exhausted.
Lowering herself to the Goddesses level, The Good Hunter smirked evily. This girl had gotten on her nerves easily, and she didn't serve her any purpose. What reason was there to keep her alive?
Approaching the slightly bloody girl, she looked at her face. The girl's expression was as stoic as ever. She was rock solid.
The entire world seemed to cease all activity as The Good Hunter looked down at the girl, the sun beginning to set.
Blanc let out a light, pained chuckle. "You always were the strongest one of us..." She bitterly admitted. That caused a pang of pain to shoot through The Good Hunter's head, before she quickly shook it off, and raised her blade.
"You should feel special. You're the first one that will taste my newfound pow-"
"Shut yer trap with the monologue. If you really think you can kill me, get on with it." Blanc snapped, somewhat surprising The Good Hunter. Neptune stared for a moment, before sighing. She raised her blade, and moved to stand in front of Blanc.
She brought her blade back, and swung it down, aiming for the girls head. The blade sliced through the air, pleading to taste the bl-
"Imagining a world with two Neptunes gives me a migrane."
The Good Hunter let out a pained scream as her blade got stuck in the tree behind the grounded Goddess. Her brain felt like it had exploded, lit on fire, and poisoned all at once. She felt like her entire head had exploded, and if she couldn't hear her pained screaming, she would've thought it had.
She felt the power leaving her, and she felt her consciousness leaving her body. She could hear fast approaching footsteps, and what sounded like the calls of an alarmed Maria. How much of that did she see?
Eventually, she could only see black. And her hearing cut out.
Unknown Time/Date/Place.
The Good Hunter suddenly opened her eyes, and shot up. She frantically looked around, and saw that she was in a bed. Calming herself, she sliwed her breathing and looked around the room she was in, and recognized it as Nepgear's room.
Great. It seemed that no matter where she went, she would always end up back here.
Hearing a slight snoring, she turned to the right edge of the bed to see a sleeping Nepgear. Even after all this, she still wanted to make sure she was okay? Well, she had to admire her determination. In the left corner of the room was Maria, who was sleeping in a chair. Looking out the window, Neptune discovered that it was actually quite late. Probably midnight if she had to guess, moonlight lighting up the room. It was actually quite serene.
The Good Hunter sighed, a low rumble coming from her stomach. When did she last eat?
She got out of bed, only to stumble in surprise.
Other than the bandages covering her chest and limbs, she was completely undressed. Where had her clothes gone? Surely they hadn't been destroyed in that transformation. And where were her weapons for that matter?
She sighed, and began to look around the room. Her weapon was, oddly enough, easy to find. It was resting against the foot of the bed. Her clothing was proving to be more elusive, however. She checked the closet, and only found multiple copies of the same dress that Nepgear was currently wearing. There was no way she was putting that disgusting color palette on her body.
And so, with only the sheathed sword over her shoulder and bandages to protect her, she left the room. Perhaps she would find her clothes elsewhere.
I felt like I did something wrong with this chapter, but I cant put my finger on it. Please tell me what you guys think about it. And I have something else for you. Lately I have been thinking of a story I will do when this inevitably reaches it's conclusion. And I got thinking on a certain Idea, tell me what you all think.
Garryson trudged through the thick forest. He was used to forests, but he never really went off the established paths, which the Ancient Forest were abundant in. Teostra's Castle brushed against the plants he walked by, singing them. He would be lucky if he didn't start a forest fire at some point. Seriously, he could deal with giant flying steel dragons, or giant red death dogs, he could deal with that. The Research Commision never prepared him for THIS! They never prepared him for a portal to whisk away the Lunastra he had spent days tracking, and after he had JUST killed it! So of course he went in after it, he was so close to making that crown!
So. He appeared in the middle of this thick ass forest next to the dead Lunastra. He carved it, and then took the time to realize that he probably hadn't made the smartest choice. Mainly because he had no idea where he was or how he got here.
So here he was. Hours later and he was still trucking through this Diablos Damned forest! And as if that wasnt enough, he had encountered Monsters that shouldnt exist. At all. First there were translucent blobs of blue jelly with the faces of a dog, which somehow managed to propel themselves towards him. Then, he encountered a small pack of monsters which were, what he could best describe as, flat square monsters that seemed to only exist when looked at from two directions. And could only LOOK two directions. When he got back to the RC, Guild, Whatever, they would eat this up.
Then, he saw a shining beacon of hope: A treeline. The end of this infinite hell of a forest. He began sprinting to the end.
"Fuckin' finally. I don't have to deal with the shit that should've stayed in Eorz-"
He came to a sudden and abrupt halt as he came out of the forest. He widened his eyes behind his Kulve Taroth helmet, as he gazed at the impossible sight ahead of him.
It was miles away, many many miles away, but it was there.
A city. The biggest city he had ever seen, and at the epicenter of it was a gigantic purple and white tower that would give Zorah Magdaros a run for his money.
"You've gotta be Kirin me..."
Misplaced.
A Monster Hunter/Hyperdimension Neptunia crossover.