Chapter 21: Down the Rabbit Hole
School of Mensis Inquisition Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own Bloodborne, this is just a Fanfiction.
Featured Music: "Moonlit Melody" - Bloodborne OST. Chapter Briefing.
"Light and Darkness" - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess OST. Scene 1 (First Half).
"Legend of Hyrule" - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).
'Nightmare Slain'.
It is by those words that Stewart Forbes and Youthful Gus make their final ode to their fallen companion, Simon the Harrowed. Though they could not save him, they do as he asks and rids the Hunter's Nightmare of its restless spirits by putting to rest the vengeful Orphan of Kos. In doing so, Stewart and his other side, the notorious serial killer, the Byrgenwerth Butcher finally make amends with one another; in their engagement with the Orphan of Kos, the two make the ultimate sign of trust together and their power grows exponentially.
Finally strengthened by new knowledge he has uncovered in the Hunter's Nightmare, Stewart returns to Yharnam a stronger and more confident hunter with his new companion, Gus, in tow. Adding up the poor lifeless bodies left behind by the Healing Church in the Nightmare, Stewart and Gus postulate that, with the knowledge of the fishing hamlet, Master Willem at Byrgenwerth Royal had been the indirect cause of the needless inhumane slaughter of the poor people living there. Sending through his forces, comprising of numerous officers including the names of Gehrman, Maria, Ludwig and even Laurence, Master Willem attempts to harvest the peoples' 'illness'.
Their first exposure to Kos... and of 'Insight'.
The envoys of Master Willem are soon ordered to put a stop to the growing infection and, using their weapons, puts them all to the sword. In the aftermath they build a research hall in which to experiment on these poor inflicted people to discover how they achieved enlightenment using their bodies as materials. Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, unable to live with herself with these horrible deeds, ends her own life.
Vengeful, full of hatred and livid at the cause of its kin's death, the Great Ones instill a blood-drunk curse among the people responsible, damning them to an eternity of constant hunting, their sanity gone. This curse lasts for generations and extends even to their families, their children and their children's children. In Stewart, Simon and Gus' efforts however, the three heroes have finally ended this stigma, their hardened journey through history finally coming to an end.
For the former Byrgenwerth Butcher however, his adventure is merely entering its second and final stage; now strengthened in unity together, Stewart Forbes and the Byrgenwerth Butcher join hands, their skill and potential reaching to the heavens themselves. With their stalwart fighter and companion, Youthful Gus in tow, the lone survivors of the Hunter's Nightmare make their next expedition together through Yharnam...
Scene 1
"So you're not a killer anymore, hm?" Youthful Gus questioned his comrade as they sauntered on through the Cathedral Ward together, almost as if on a casual stroll.
"No," the Byrgenwerth Butcher shot back in a similar grin, edging his head to the side suggestively as he did. "But keep pressing me and I might change my mind." He finished in his suggestive grin, though joking, clearly a bad one.
Gus couldn't help but burst out laughing anyway however, grasping his stomach as the pair descended down a group of steps together. "I had once thought the Byrgenwerth Butcher was Yharnam's most prolific serial killer and yet now..."
"Yes," the Butcher spoke through Stewart's body as they walked down the steps, his grin dissolving into a low frown. "I never thought I'd change, believe me."
"So then, what was it?" Gus questioned curiously, folding his arms; an old habit. When the Butcher rose a similarly inquisitive eyebrow upward, Gus couldn't help but put on a little grin. "What changed you?"
"I'm not sure in all honesty...," the former murderer murmured out as he shook his head in brief thought, unsure. "Seeing another side of me that didn't exist in pure hatred I suppose," the Yharnam accented young man chuckled, briefly shutting his eyes as he did so. Gus listened dutifully, opting to be respectful and not interrupt him. "I couldn't understand his motives; he did it all with no advantage given to himself. It just didn't make any sense to me," the seemingly wiser young man claimed as he shook his head a second time, clearly referring to his other side. "I suppose once you live for yourself devoid of any human companionship for a certain amount of time... you lose the ability to see sense in these kinds of things." He finished, this time in a briefly shut-eyed smile, finally coming to the end of the staircase.
"Do not be so hard on yourself," Gus smiled back out before re-turning his folded-armed eyes out in front of himself. "You have changed after all," the white-moustached gentleman pointed out as he chuckled, the pair passing through the ward's plaza and descending back down another staircase. "There's not many men or women in Yharnam that can say they've done that."
The Butcher couldn't help but smile back at his first companion since Stewart; a rare sight indeed.
As the pair made their final descent down a fourth staircase, their senses stiffened; the Butcher in particular narrowed his eyes, a very familiar chill running up his spine.
I know this feeling, he thought with a sense of dread.
There was deathly killing intent in the air.
"You sense it too...?" Gus mouthed out, his eyes darting around in search for the cause, his fingers twitching for his Whirligig Saw. "What is that...?"
"Get back old man...," the Butcher growled out in warning, stepping forward through the small area in which they both resided. "I'll deal with this."
It is after all, what I do best, he thought.
"Mm... Stewart..."
The pair of hunters snapped their eyes and their head to their right; barely acting in time, the Butcher managed to narrowly lean his head out of a plunging knife's way. He soon traced the knife's owner to find a familiar form standing before him; a young woman dressed in the ebony of the Healing Church.
Wasn't she the one Stewart met at Yahar'gul?
Adella, he thought in remembrance.
"M-My sweet hunter...," the long, black-haired woman grinned over at him as she pulled her crude weapon back, seemingly already covered in that familiar deep-red. "Your blood is tainted..." She chuckled endlessly and somehow maliciously as she very slowly advanced on the pair. The Butcher's eyes narrowed at her and he growled in a mixture of anger and frustration.
What am I supposed to do, he thought.
This is a survivor and a friend of his.
"You have to kill her...!" Gus hissed over at him in warning quietly, eyes similarly narrowing.
"Silence!" The Butcher suddenly barked back in his direction, his eyes widened and his grown frustration showing. "I can't just kill her...!" He similarly hissed back out, snapping his eyes back to glare at the approaching young woman.
Stewart would never forgive me, he thought.
"If only we did not trust each other." The Butcher couldn't help ponder to himself in his usual mirthless sense of humour.
"I can't..," Adella gasped out as she suddenly lunged forward; the Butcher's eyes widened as she gained a sudden surprising burst in speed, leaping forward. She crashed into him and the pair fell to the ground, struggling together endlessly. The Byrgenwerth Butcher growled in grit-teeth as he grasped at her right arm in an attempt to stop her attack; the widely grinning Adella however stuck her free left hand down on it, as if to empower her assault. The Butcher's eyes widened when the broad knife found its mark and pierced through his side, spitting up blood and a single pained grunt. "Can't help myself...!" The young nun finally finished her sentence by taking her now free hands and grasping the sides of his face contrastingly softly when compared to her earlier roughness.
The Butcher shut one of his eyes in sheer pain, his teeth grit roughly in the agony he suffered. Adella leaned her low-smiling face forward and closed her own eyes as she brushed her lips against his. Though the action was against his will he could do little in spite of it; he could only grunt in her contrastingly soft embrace, his blood spilling out into the streets of the Cathedral Ward.
SKRR
As if to interrupt the pair, Gus' noisy weapon whirred into frame, catching the wide-eyed woman on her right side; she yelped as the spinning blades caught her cheek. Blood and skin frayed off into the air and she immediately rolled on off the gasping Butcher, finally allowing him room and time with which to poke at his wound.
"Are you all right?" His elderly companion questioned, hovering his weapon over his injured friend; Gus' eyes never left the recovering form of the wide-eyed Adella as she turned to stand back up, staring over at him hatefully.
"Gagh!" The Butcher hissed out in pain as he grasped at the broad knife stuck in his side before yelling aloud as he yanked the blade out. It clattered to the pavement with a noisy echo, further of his blood following it. "She stabbed me...!" He seethed out, similarly hatefully as he spun a blood vial around his right hand, puncturing it into his wound with a light grunt. "Stewart saves you and you try to kill him?!" The former serial killer roared over in sudden outburst without thinking or realising his words' suggestions.
Thankfully for them both, Adella was not all there.
She used her gloved fingers to softly grasp at the two sides of her face, smiling strangely over at the pair before finally opening her mouth with which to respond. "Y-Your blood... sweet Stewart...," she addressed in her mystifying smile. "It is tainted," she repeated once more. "Allow me to settle it..."
"She's insane," Gus whispered as the growling Butcher pulled himself up to his two feet, staring firmly back at the young nun before him. "I don't know if it's the Blood Moon that's doing it... but whatever she once was is all gone."
"Bastard Moon Presence...," the Byrgenwerth Butcher hissed out angrily and in a heated tone of voice, his eyes narrowing at Adella but clearly referring to something else entirely. His curiosity piqued, Gus raised an eyebrow very briefly at the youth next to him before re-settling his eyes on their enemy. The Butcher pulled out his shortened Hunter's Axe, glaring forward. "I'm sorry, Stewart...," he apologised at first, his scowl dissolving in place of an eye-shutting frown. "But it is time for me to do... what I do best."
His words echoed out from his mouth to join the hard sound of the Hunter's Axe elongating.
"K-Kind hunter...," the frowning Noah stammered out in a frown, the first time having seen his companion in days. "That lady you sent over... she's dead. Killed stone dead."
The Butcher turned in his frown to face the little man before striding over and turning his eyes away from him. "Yes..." He began before briefly rotating his eyes around to face the blonde woman's corpse behind him, still ever sitting in her chair.
Arianna.
"No-one else shall suffer," the Butcher added however as he re-turned to face the little man below him. "I have made certain of this."
"Oh w-why...," Noah murmured out, lowering his bony fingers to rest across his crimson hooded face, as if to ward his negative emotions away. "I only wanted to help... just once in my life...," he gasped out, his body shuddering as if crying somehow. "They told me it wouldn't work... my mum always told me... I should have known. Gods, please... I'm so sorry..."
His words drowned out into mindless crying babble and, awkward in dealing with feelings, the Butcher could only frown and turn his eyes away from him, lowering them guiltily.
"I'm sorry." He could only offer before finally about-turning to leave the little man on his lonesome. "But not as much as Stewart will be..." He added silently to himself, his eyes briefly closing as he descended down the small staircase ahead of him. Leaning on the wall next to the open door leading to the Healing Church Workshop, Youthful Gus frowned back at the Butcher as he approached, his arms folded.
"I hope you're not blaming yourself," Gus insisted forward as he pulled his back off the wall to face the youth. "It had to be done."
"If I won't he will," the Butcher pointed out in his own hardened grimace, referring to his currently dormant other side. "I know he had feelings for that woman of all people."
Gus turned his own eyes downward in silent sadness, seemingly also unable to offer any condolences. Finally however, re-thinking his approach he re-raised his head and opened his mouth.
"Earlier before... you mentioned a name."
"I mention lots of names," the Butcher pointed out, raising a curious eyebrow. "Care to venture which one?"
"You said... 'Moon Presence'."
The former serial killer's eyebrows lifted up in brief surprise before he soon nodded in confirmation.
"What is that; should I know it...?" Gus questioned as he leant his folded-armed head to the side curiously.
"No; very few in this world do actually," the younger hunter responded, his Yharnam-refined accent soldiering through. "Sensei Gehrman, Sensei Laurence and perhaps myself... we are all that know the name 'Moon Presence'."
"And what exactly is this Moon Presence?"
"Remember the Orphan of Kos?" The Butcher frowned back as he took to very quietly pacing around Oedon Chapel, eyes facing forward. His curious-faced friend raised an eyebrow but nodded. "It is a being similar to that; a Great One," he further explained as he continued to pace, hard frown ever strong on his face. "But far stronger," the youth hissed out, his eyes narrowing to slits. "It is my benefactor," he claimed, this time stopping to turn his hat-wearing head to face the older warrior, his long brown hair whipping with him as he did. "The master puppeteer of the Hunter's Dream."
"The Hunter's... Dream... yes... you are a 'Dreamer'... aren't you...?" Gus murmured out thoughtfully, nodding from his knowledge gained from Simon earlier. The Byrgenwerth Butcher opted to nod in his firm frown. "I see! So this presence... it is the Great One that answered Sir Laurence's call years ago! He called it to save Yharnam!" The gasping Gus managed out, his eyes widening in sudden realisation, as if adding together two sums that had eluded him for an age.
The Butcher nodded a second time in his joyless expression.
"So then... how do you know all of this...?" Gus questioned, suddenly realising his younger friend's wealth of knowledge. The Butcher lowered his eyes in response, as if unsure on revealing his answer.
He eventually did however.
"I also knew of the Pthumerians and of their ancient scriptures; Sensei Laurence's research was vast," the former murderer finally divulged, soon folding his own arms as he turned his eyes away. They narrowed as he continued on, as if thinking back to earlier days. "My goal when I was killing in Byrgenwerth was to be their prophesied 'Last Hunter'," he claimed before finally re-turning back his eyes and his face to confront the older man before him. "I wanted to ascend humanity, Gus," the Butcher whispered out, baring his teeth as he spoke. The older man in question could only widen his eyes as he listened, as if shocked by his words. "Surely there must be some better fate for our doomed race than as fucking puppets for these Great Ones?" He further cursed and hissed out in his folded-armed scowl.
Youthful Gus could only lower his eyes in frowning, as if unsure on his own response. Finally however he did and frowned as he re-rose his head.
"What will you do now?" He questioned curiously, raising up an eyebrow. "Have your schemes changed since then?"
"Honestly that's what I was considering on the way back here from the Hunter's Nightmare," the Butcher acknowledged, turning his body to re-pace around the chapel. "I'm not sure now that I could live up to the task."
"How can you say that?!"
The Butcher, surprised, turned his curious and raised eyebrow frown on his older and wiser friend.
"You and Stewart decimated Kos' orphan!" The older man laughed out as he shook his head jollily. "You are by far the best candidate to save this land!"
Oddly silent for a few seconds, maybe two, the Butcher idly turned his eyes over to the ground in thought before finally re-opening his mouth to retort.
"I still have no attachment to these people," he answered in his hardened frown, shaking his head. "I care not whether they live or die." He admitted firmly.
Gus' smile dropped from his face in place of a sad frown. "But..."
"Stewart does," the former serial killer added, this time turning his eye back on his companion. "If anyone is to be the Pthumerians' 'Last Hunter'... it should be him."
Gus' smile soon returned to his expression, warming his face up. "Well... perhaps you underestimate yourself," the white-haired warrior chuckled before finishing his sentence. "If it wasn't for you at the fishing hamlet, I would surely have perished with Simon."
Though normally never without a scowl on his face, the Byrgenwerth Butcher could not help but slowly etch a low smirk on his face as he listened in a similar mood.
–
2
"Their chanting has stopped..." The Byrgenwerth Butcher frowned out thoughtfully, his eyes scanning the strangely derelict streets of Yahar'gul, Unseen Village. He stood just outside the prison he was once brought to earlier in his journey, having adventured there now with the similarly curious Youthful Gus in tow.
"Chanting?" The older fighter questioned as they slowly paced on down the ruined streets, his eyes narrowing in thought.
"Yes," the Butcher answered as he turned his eyes briefly on a demolished cart before re-facing the quiet front. "We were brought here once in our quest; I believe we could hear the sounds of men and women chanting, perhaps in some effort to summon something."
Gus' eyes widened in light alarm but he kept his shock to himself. "W-What were they...?" He trailed off in a worried tone of voice.
"We're still not sure," the Butcher shot back, turning to face his older companion in his usual hardened frown. "But I believe it has to do with the Moon Presence."
"Why do you think that?"
"'Hail the Nightmare'," the former serial killer explained very briefly, eliciting a silent raised eyebrow from the listening Gus. "A line of lyric I managed to decipher from the rest of their malevolent warbling."
"Hail the Nightmare...?" Gus frowned out, folding his left arm under his right elbow, bringing his right finger to rest softly upon his white moustache. "You think this faction is in league with the Presence?"
"No," the Butcher answered; Gus tilted his head in uncertainly, not quite following. "I don't believe they are working together. I believe the School of Mensis are perhaps hoping to join forces in some extent but only for their own benefit. The Presence has no interest in joining hands."
"How do you...?"
"The notes left for I and Stewart in the Hunter's Dream seem to point toward eliminating this 'School of Mensis'," the Butcher answered, briefly re-facing the older hunter before turning back to scowl as he always did. "'Madmen toil surreptitiously in rituals to beckon the moon. Uncover their secrets,'" the young man quoted the note he once found weeks back in his journey. "'The Mensis ritual must be stopped, lest we all become beasts.'"
"You worked all this out from notes?" Gus whispered out, his eyes narrowing in light shock.
"Not quite," the former murderer smirked in his direction before re-facing the front. "I meshed this knowledge together with what I already knew from Sensei Laurence's information; a lot of it made sense."
"So then... who is this... 'School of Mensis'?"
"There's not really much on them I'm afraid to say," the Byrgenwerth Butcher frowned out as he shook his head. "But I shall reveal what I know."
"Please."
"The School of Mensis are an organisation of people; men and women that run and control this area of Yahar'gul," the Butcher claimed as he narrowed his eyes at the strangely open pair of double doors at the end of the street. "It is said they were first formed after Sensei Laurence first caused the 'Schism' and departed from Sensei Willem's college."
Gus frowned out as he listened respectfully, nodding silently.
"At the time I believe the School was a separate and secret part of the church that Sensei Laurence utilised in order to ascend humanity, using the Old Blood they discovered in tombs to do the job."
"That would certainly explain a lot...," Gus murmured out as he let his eyes wander before soon re-facing his younger friend. "Yes? And then?"
"Similarly, within the School, once Sensei Laurence's mind became lost to him and he perished to the Hunter's Nightmare, 'the Choir' was formed, effectively splitting the Healing Church in two," the Butcher re-explained before facing his older companion and putting on a satisfied smirk as he did. "It would appear history repeats itself."
A side of Gus' own face upturned as he listened but only very briefly.
"Without Sensei Laurence's direction, the School of Mensis now have lost all sense of right and wrong," the Butcher claimed as he turned his new and familiar scowl forward. "They kidnap people, men and women in the Cathedral Ward for use in their inane rituals." He elucidated on in his hardened frown.
"I recall this...," Youthful Gus claimed in his acknowledging nod, his brow furrowing in recognition. "No-one was – and still is – safe from their reach."
The Butcher nodded in his firm scowl as he stalked down the streets, his eyes set hungrily on the open pair of doors long ahead of them. "'The Choir' is the other half of the Healing Church as it exists today," he continued on. "They similarly opt to ascend humanity just as the School do but their methods differ."
"In what respect?"
"While the School still utilise the Old Blood Sensei Laurence once discovered, the Choir pursues ascension through medium of experimentation and 'Insight' once left behind Great Ones," the former killer claimed. Gus' eyebrows lifted in recognition, soon realising the potential of Insight. "I believe they are closer than the School."
"With Insight? You'll get no argument from me...," Gus frowned out as he re-folded his arms, lowering his narrowed eyes in thought. "Not after the massacre we witnessed in the Hunter's Nightmare and all for Insight."
"Yes...," the Butcher nodded his head in his low scowl. "Sensei Willem was ruthless; he may have ordered the deaths of those poor bastards but he may as well have done the deed himself."
"Why wasn't he in the Nightmare?" Gus suddenly pointed out, his brow furrowing as he faced his younger friend. "Surely he is the one responsible? Or at least one of them?"
"Because he is still alive."
"He's what?" Gus gasped out, eyes widening. "How?!"
"In a sense," the Butcher amended his own sentence with a low smirk before regaining his low scowl. "I encountered him in Byrgenwerth earlier in my journey. He's as good as gone now," he explained, recalling his earlier expedition. "He was a wise man, that Sensei Willem...," the Butcher frowned out in quiet respect. "If only his charisma were as high as his intelligence..."
"Then people wouldn't have split with Sir Laurence hm...?" Gus smiled out lowly. "Yes I had heard his magnetism near unmatched in all of Yharnam; commoners and lords alike were drawn to him."
"If not for Sensei Laurence, Yharnam might still have life in it," the Byrgenwerth Butcher claimed in his saddened frown this time. "I think he knew this when he asked Stewart to end this cycle of grief and hatred."
Gus stared at his friend in a similar melancholic sense, hovering his eyes downward before finally re-opening his mouth. "He was still a great man in spite of all that, I think," Gustav spoke his mind in a light smile. "Anyone I asked in Yharnam never gave me a negative thing to say about him. They miss him. I miss him," the elderly hunter amended as he smiled lowly and sadly. "I'm not surprised that he blames himself for what happened; he has paid for this in his suffering in the Hunter's Nightmare."
With very little positive to add to the conversation, the Butcher could only frown silently in response. He briefly eyed his older, smiling companion before re-facing the front.
"If what we do here now aids his effort in saving this land... then I will assist you and Stewart in any endeavour you do." Gus quietly gave his oath, turning to smile at his partner. The Byrgenwerth Butcher gave him one wan smile before turning back to his front.
"People in Yharnam never really deserved saving in my eyes...," the former serial killer explained very briefly as he shook his head. Gus couldn't help but drop his smile similarly as he listened. "If it wasn't for Stewart and everything he's done for these people, even for myself," he added before regaining his slow smile on his face. "I would have pegged him alongside these people."
Youthful Gus couldn't help but smile good-naturedly in response to his companion's heartfelt words before soon realising their proximity to the arena ahead of them. "Sir Butcher..."
"Just 'Butcher' is fine," the named killer grinned out amiably before frowning also as he faced the front for the umpteenth time. His eyes narrowed however as he glared along with them. "Yes... I see it too." He claimed as they stopped marching, their eyes scanning the suspiciously large site before them.
It looked just like a battle arena.
"Do you think...?"
"They know we're here," the Butcher hissed out as he darted his eyes up at the balconies overlooking the arena to the right and left. "That's why the streets are empty..."
"What's our plan of attack here?" Gus questioned as he reached for the iron mace on his back. "What do you reckon will happen here?"
"I'm not entirely sure...," he replied in his similarly whispering voice, eyes narrowing forward. "But I suspect an ambush; we should split up."
"Is that the best course of action?"
"So long as you can handle yourself," the Butcher shot back in his low, suggestive and friendly grin. Gus couldn't help but smirk back before finally nodding alongside the youth. "You take a look on those balconies and deal with anything if there's anything up there," the young hunter ordered before growling as he narrowed his eyes forward. "I'll deal with the meat of the issue here."