The Hunt.
It was something that had come up several times now. The note telling me how to transcend it, Iosefka's first words to me, and now Gilbert telling me it was happening right now.
But what were they hunting? The answer should be simple, things like the beast that had killed me twice before I got revenge. But then there was the man that tried to kill me. The two others that were faking sleeping. The beast had been ignored by Iosefka. Did she even know it was there? There was the man with the huge fucking axe.
Things weren't lining up.
I knocked on Gilbert's window again to let him know I was going.
"Across the valley to the east of Yharnam, you'll find the Cathedral Ward." Gilbert reminded me, misinterpreting my message. "Deep within lies the old main cathedral, said to be the source of blood. I haven't heard of Paleblood, but… that's your best bet if it's anything to do with unique types of blood."
So that's where the healer was. With luck, they would be able to help fix the issues I was having with communication, because it wasn't that people here weren't speaking a different language.
I was the one with a symptom, being the one that could understand but not speak. It wasn't that my passenger was translating for me, that was impossible. I had triggered already, then probably triggered again while I was still inside the locker. Doctor Mother had been very keen to tell me so when the world was ending.
My role in the end of the world, while horrifying, didn't fit the parameters of a trigger anyway. Not even my death. My first death had been calm. Expected. The best choice.
That phrase, 'my first death' slipped in so easily.
Plus, I could read. The note read Paleblood to me the same as it read to Gilbert. I read it again, 'Seek Paleblood to transcend the hunt.' all in cursive handwriting reminiscent of surviving old english texts. I didn't miss that it was Paleblood, not paleblood. Whoever had delivered this to me was placing importance on the word. Paleblood was either a tinker like Iosefka, or a thinker, given the context.
Cathedral Ward should be my first destination, then. Paleblood was going to answer some questions.
I also needed to find some paper and ink. My mouth didn't work, but my hand- shit. My handwriting was going to be crap, but I could at least write down my questions.
With another tap on the window, I left. Leaving Gilbert to start spouting advice again. I considered entertaining him, but decided against it when I realised he was just repeating himself. He cut himself off halfway through, realising I was gone.
"Oh." I heard through my bugs, followed by a lot of coughing and Gilbert wheeling further into his house. He murmured to himself, "Goodbye, then."
Goodbye. I responded to myself as I moved far enough away that I lost the bugs in his house.
This place, Yharnam, was not in a good way. It didn't have most of the luxuries that my world seemed to have, even the other earths had had more advanced stuff than this. Those places had electricity, plastic, factory made tools, clothes, and equipment, etcetera. Yharnam didn't even have electric lighting. There were several moths that had fallen under my influence with burns from flying into burning lamps.
Was this a new world? Was I the first person from Earth Bet here? I couldn't just call this place Earth. It needed a name.
Earth Yharnam? No. That was the name of the town. Cathedral Ward seemed to be the more prominent place here, Earth Cathedral? No. Earth Ward? Definitely not. Shorten Yharnam to Yharm and call it Earth Yharm?
Fuck it. Earth Yharm.
As I was thinking all that I had crouched on a bridge and surveyed the street below. There were a dozen or more 'Yharnamites' as Gilbert put it moving as a mob. Each had a weapon. Some had torches. One had a shield.
Was this the hunt?
They were moving down the street towards me, which was why I decided to crouch. They were all dressed similarly to the man that had attempted to assault me before, and I worried that they would all charge me if they caught sight of where I was. What was making me feel claustrophobic right now was the fact that I could see the people and they were close enough I could make out clear details, but I couldn't tag them with bugs because they were all outside my range.
I was pulling bugs along with me as I moved, so I wasn't hurting too much for bugs in my swarm. The loss of perception still hurt.
From my vantage point I could see two more red lanterns set beside doors. One was fairly close, and I could reach it by dropping down to a lower floor, while the other was further down on the street where the mob was.
By the nearer door was a well that had a small pyre leaning against it. It was lit, and the smell was making my nose wrinkle. A horribly malformed man had been strung up and left to die. It was already too late for me to do anything.
I shook my head and focused on the mob with pitchforks. These guys were going to be a problem, knowing my luck. The problem was that they were going to want to stop me, question me, and possibly attack me on sight. The numerous coffins lining the street they were walking suggested they would go for the attacking option, and not stop until I was dead. Meanwhile, I wasn't totally sure I was comfortable killing them in return.
So many people were dead because of me, sacrificed in the name of the greater good. I hadn't hesitated them, I couldn't. But now that Scion was dead, did I need to put such a low value on life? I didn't want to. I wanted to value life. These guys were going to make that difficult if they came after me.
I could incapacitate them like I had the man before. But with my shortened range, I wasn't totally comfortable I would be able to leave them behind without forcing them into unconsciousness. That's how it would have to be. I wasn't killing for now, extraneous circumstances notwithstanding.
I needed to get moving.
Someone tried to jump me before I even rounded the corner. My bugs were in position and ready to ambush him before he even started smashing the boxes. I had the cockroaches, beetles, and flies all overtake him and soon he was rolling on the floor, yelling incoherently.
Had this madness affected everyone?
Not wanting to get closer to the insane man, I dropped down the ledge and approached the door.
"Are you that outsider?" A man asked from within before I could knock. I stayed my hand and waited. Couldn't say anything he would comprehend, anyway. He took my silence for a yes. "Well, sorry, but I don't want anything to do with ya. Trot along, will ya."
Reasonable reaction, considering the mob. I did.
The mob was moving, so I waited for them to pass the next door before knocking there.
"Lousy offcomer." Another man. This one's voice was deeper. "Who'd open their door on the night of a hunt!" There it was again. "Away with you. Now!"
It was fair advice, the mob was coming back and I didn't want to tangle with them. I skirted up to a higher path that they seemed to be ignoring and used that to advance. I spied a few more red lanterns and knocked on the doors there, but received similar reactions.
Yharnamites were a suspicious kind. They would have fit right in at Brockton Bay.
That they were familiar with death in the streets was another point in the similarities column. I had lost count of how many coffins I passed so far. Though, with what was happening towards the end of it, that would be something all of Earth Bet was familiar with.
There were more crazy mobsters that tried to ambush me. There were so many that I started preemptively swarming them with bugs. There was one who had a gun that I immediately confiscated. He had six bullets on him as well which were succinctly reappropriated to my gun. I started moving around with the gun in hand and my saw cleaver at my belt. I relieved them of their blood vials as well, and soon had a collection going.
It was better to keep at a range than to get up close and personal. Though, it was always good to have an option for the close and personal. I would have used the man's gun, but it was a rifle that required two hands. Those kinds of things were pretty handily outside of my capabilities.
Then I saw the bigger pyre.
It must have been more than twenty feet tall, and was fed with bone. The timber that usually surrounded the base of a pyre had been replaced with skeletons. I could see a half dozen of rib cages at least, as well as several oversized skulls and that wasn't even the most disturbing part.
Instead of a man, this pyre burned a beast. One just like the beast that I had killed in Iosefka's clinic. It's limbs were tied up in an attempt to recreate a crucifiction, with the upper limbs spread in a t-pose. An attempt, as the beast had apparently torn one limb free before the fire claimed it, breaking the wood of the crucifix rather than the rope tying it there.
There seemed to be a portion of the mob that was staying around the fires. For warmth or for motivation, I couldn't say. It may have been to guard it, even. Although I couldn't think of anyone who would want to take something like this pyre down. Whoever the police here were, maybe, but I hadn't seen any trace of them yet.
Behind the thing, going about thirty to forty feet up was a wall. It looked like it matched up with where I had seen the bridge extending from when I'd looked from Gilbert's.
The pyre represented a problem. The way forward was blocked on my side of the street, the street doors were closed, and there were thirteen crazy mobsters between me and the open passage on the other side of the street. It would be a fight that put me horribly outnumbered if they were as murderous as the last six guys I'd pacified, which was the crux of the matter.
I briefly considered climbing a building, but banished the notion because that would require more than one hand. There was nothing for it, then. I would have to fight through. Fortunately, they were all human, so I could overwhelm them with bugs.
Still, it didn't make sense to fight a battle where you were grossly outnumbered. My experience as a Master meant that there was a difference between fighting twelve people and fighting twenty people by yourself. At least, that was true in my case. More so, given that my range only extended to the other side of the street. I waited for the mob to join the people at the pyre.
They milled about some and turned around. I started moving.
There wasn't a good direct route to the exit beyond the pyre, I would have to run a few turns and the shortest route involved a one way drop. I committed without hesitating. My bugs were already overwhelming the guys with torches, they were the biggest threats.
There were shouts as a man in a black coat pointed my way before aiming a gun. I waited for his finger to twitch before sending flies into his eyes and dodging down. The gun went off and the four men that hadn't been overwhelmed yet started charging.
I made a hundred decisions in an instant. Selecting the bugs that were doing the least to incapacitate the ones that were already down and redirecting them to the greater threats. In the same moment I heard barking. A dog had entered my range, I could sense the fleas.
The fleas all bit at the same time and the dog didn't care. Of course it didn't.
I pushed the ecstasy the fleas were feeling from drinking the dog's blood to the back of my mind as a rustic sensation started welling up in the back of my mouth. The mob was attacking. I dodged a pitchfork and shot another man in the leg. He howled and swung, but I was still keeping my distance. My diverted bugs were catching up now.
The fleas were close- The fleas were here. I tried to dodge as the dog bounded towards me, but it was faster than I was and managed to sink its fangs into my stump. I grit my teeth and tried to kick it off. It was clearly rabid, hopefully the blood protected from rabies.
Kicking was fruitless, so I aimed the gun at it. Cockroaches were climbing on my chest and arm between the gun and where I had stowed the bullets. They had just finished reloading the gun that I could not load myself.
Sorry Rachel. I fired, sending the dog flying backwards and splattering myself with more blood. It had to be done. I suddenly felt light headed as I realised how much blood was flowing from my stump.
I still wasn't clear of the mob. Another man who had been outside my range until just now was aiming a gun at me. I was sending flies into the barrel and had one land between the hammer and firing pin to compensate, but I wasn't sure if it would be enough. I dodged to the side as another pitchfork stabbed past me.
My gun finished loading and I shot him in the foot. He went to the floor and the bugs made him stay there. Three left.
I may have not wanted to kill, but I certainly wasn't above maiming. My years as a hero hadn't stamped that out of me. Not when so many people were trying to kill me.
Although, the man with a gun that I had taken out first had bullets. The situation here was winding down, save for the other man with a gun. He was standing on a carriage, so my bugs had to travel a little further to reach him. The mystery of why his gun wasn't working hadn't been solved. I was making the fly leave the spot by the hammer when the gun wasn't aimed my way.
I looted four bullets off the first man and calmly approached the second. The option of using a blood vial was one that I weighed, but decided against given how I reacted the first time. If using the thing made me react the way I did before, then I wanted to have immediate safety before doing it again.
There was an elevated path behind the man that he had clearly used to access the top of the carriage. I did the same and welcomed him to the wonderful ways of the pistolwhip. He went down, I kept him down, and I made away with another five bullets.
As I was doing that, the first Yharnamites I had pacified left my dismal range, and started succeeding in getting bugs off of them now that I wasn't forcing it. I noticed that the bugs on the clothes just left, while the ones on skin kept biting. They were going for the blood. It meant that they were still down for a while after they left my range.
With that morbid observation, I moved on. Blood still dripping from my stump.
The area I found myself in after passing the bridge had a dried up fountain with some depressing sculptures. I sat myself against the marble and fiddled with the blood vials at my belt, then jammed one into my leg. The tickling sensation spread through my body and I watched through my shredded sleeve as my wound sealed itself up.
Oh, to be a brute.
I giggled despite myself, then lunged forwards as a huge man covered in bandages charged where I just was. He had a huge brick in hand that would have split my skull if I let it hit me. If I hadn't dodged, my brain would have been paste, simple as that. The only reason I was able to dodge was because my bugs gave me an advanced warning. The big man was unreasonably sneaky.
The man was a brute. That much was evident by the way he was built and how he handled himself more than it was him possessing powers. It was also evident by the way he was acting. He rounded on me and charged again. I raised the gun and shot him, then dashed out of the way of his still-moving body.
He rounded on me again and charged, again. It was like the bullet hadn't even touched him. The swarm that I had gathered before wasn't with me, I had left it behind so the guys behind me wouldn't get up right away and I would have the chance to make some distance. I still had some bugs, though, and more from the immediate area. Thing about dried up wells? Bugs love them.
I made cockroaches cover his eyes and made more bugs start biting at the backs of his knees and the soft parts of his elbows. That seemed to have a greater effect than shooting him had. The brute started tearing bugs away from his face, inadvertently hitting himself with the brick. He still didn't go down.
Brutes.
Still, he was blinded, so I ran the fuck away.
The brute came after me twice more before he got the message and left me alone. While that was happening, I was also dealing with another small mob and two more dogs. Each time I had to put one down I offered a mental apology to Rachel. It was close, and I ended up having to use another blood vial, but I managed to find my way onto the bridge leading to Cathedral Ward with that rhustic taste in the back of my throat.
Now I just needed to cross it.
