Chapter 9
"Well kid, consider me impressed. You just took down a team of nightmare hunter's all on your own. That's pretty good for a newbie like yourself." The Blue Hunter said.
"You're the one that took down those cleric beasts." Shirou responded back, instead of looking shocked the hunter just grinned.
"Oh-hoh… well aren't you a clever little runt. Yes, I did kill these pups on my own. Tell me, that was magecraft you just used… wasn't it?"
Shirou nodded, still wary about the hunter who was so beyond his level. But this hunter wasn't attacking on the spot, so…
"Yeah, are you with the clock tower?" he asked, perhaps this man could lead him there. Optimistic to be sure, but you need to be when it comes to things like this.
"Bwah! The clock-tower, eh? I'm assuming you mean the magus one and not the old one ye? 'Cuz let me be the first to you bud… There lies a prey you're not ready for yet." He said in a voice filled with warning.
"So I've been told…" Shirou grumbled, first The doll and now this hunter. Just what in Kos's curse was in there?
"Eh, don't worry about." The Hunter shrugged before hopping off the pile of corpses. Dropping right in front of him.
"Well, if we are to join in jolly co-operation, then we should probably introduce ourselves, right?" Putting out his hand towards Shirou.
"Name's Cu Chulainn or Setanta, friends just call me Cu."
"Bold of you to assume I would consider you even slightly trust worthy." Shirou said with his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Ha! Yeah kid, you gonna make it far in this place." Lowering his hand, he then pulled out a piece of parchment.
"What is this?" Shirou asked, confused at why Cu was showing him this.
"Jeez, you sure you are magus? This is like magecraft 101, it is a geis. You know for contracts and the like?" Cu looked at him a little bit astonished, which made Shirou feel the need to defend himself a bit.
"I was self-taught mostly, my father died before he could teach me too much except to fight. That, and the fact I'm a shit magus in most things." Shirou internally cringed at his response. Okay, was going strong in the beginning, but fell a little bit at the end.
"I'd say… anyway this is a geis of non-aggression. Basically, I no hurt you and you no hurt me. Comprendo?" Cu said holding out the mark, before biting tip of his thumb and letting the blood stain the worded geis.
"Sure… I can do that." Shirou then proceeded to do the same.
"Great! Now that we can't harm each other without our souls being ripped to shreds, I think it's bloody time to get the fuck outta here." Cu then stated.
Shirou and Cu then walked off, venturing further and further into the city.
/
"GRRRRAAAAAAAGGGH!" Was the sound of hundreds of beasts being slaughtered in the blink of an eye.
While the massacre continued, one man watched all this occur in horror. This man couldn't lift up his gun even when inevitable doom came closer and closer.
This man was Djura, sworn protector of the beasts in Old Yharnam.
"Impossible, why… why now… you have left alone for so long why only now do you decide to slaughter us?" Djura spoke in a hushed voice, knowing that death was now standing right behind him now.
The deep yet silent breath of the giant man behind let him know of his existence.
They had an agreement long ago that if Djura kept the beasts within Old Yharnam, then he would leave them alone.
Djura thought back on everything that had happened recently, and could find nothing which would allow for the actions just taken.
"Simple Djura… Can't you hear the bell?" He said, only then became Djura aware of the tolling of a distant bell as if beckoning him.
"Of course you do… It toll for thee."
'Ah… I see, it has finally come.' Thought Djura as his head was cut off and his body and soul dissolved into mist.
/
"Just where exactly are we going?" Shirou spoke, it had been a while since they had teamed up. Yet despite the fact that they had gone in search of the Clocktower, they still didn't seem anywhere close to one.
"Calm down kid, we'll get there. You have more than enough insight to be able to see it, but don't think that magus just leave their doors open so that anyone can just enter." Cu answered, sniffing the air.
"Magi used to utilize magecraft from Age of Gods, but that was slowly dying. In an attempt to revive magic, they invested in the College of Byrgenwerth and then later the Healing Church." He explained
"The project was so successful in reviving magecraft, that many of the flaws and weaknesses in it were eliminated by the new magical foundation." Cu talked as he approached a wall.
Touching it, he began to inscribe some runes in a square shape onto it. They pulsed with energy, before the wall that was once there simple faded away.
"So they upgraded and erased the previous style, leaving way for the era of the arcane." The path revealed path was narrow and claustrophobic.
"Yadda yadda yadda, big deal, arcane and magecraft fused together basically; Gaia can't correct mysteries of magic and therefore magic strong." Cu summerised, before patting Shirou on the back and walking into the dark alley.
"…Wha?" was Shirou's response to Cu's random bout of knowledge, did he think Shirou was an idiot or something? Gascoigne and Henryk had told him more than enough to fill in the gaps that Kiritsugu had left.
Of course, they hadn't taught him anymore magecraft but they told him about how it came to be obviously.
"Hey! you didn't even answer my question right!" Shirou shouted as he caught up with Cu in the alley.
"Meh. Don't worry too much, you'll see when we get there." Cu shrugged as he continued on the path.
After a while in the dark, light began to brighten in the distance. Becoming more and more pronounced with each step.
Entering out into light, Shirou let his eyes adjust to the brightness before he actually became aware of his surroundings.
"Well, welcome to our first stop on the way to the clocktower… the Old Hunter's Inn." Cu said in a bit of a flourish.
The Inn was a large fortified mansion looking thing, with three levels and two balconies surrounding the upper two levels. There wasn't much to be said about the place except for the fact that it was situated in a crater covered in moonflowers.
"Aight fella, say we get in there and ask for some drinks. You know loosen up with the ladi-" The sound of a large bell suddenly echoed throughout the land.
The toll seemed to mean something bad as Cu's face from giddy to sober in a second.
"Ah… fuck, kid you might have as shit luck as me." Cu crinkled his before walking up to the inn.
"And why do you say that? What was that sound exactly?" he asked.
"That bud… was the start the Hunter's Night. And not just any… no we are a going to be seeing a Hunt purge, which hasn't happened since the fall of Old Yharnam."
Cu looked back at him, his red eyes staring right into Shirou's dead on.
"And we are on the top of that list."
/
"So the hunt begins anew with the toll of the bell… once again, blood will flow all through the land… purifying the disease once more…" The Dark Hunter uttered as he sat on a pile of beast corpses made from every beast old Yharnam.
Old Yharnam had been easy after the defeat of the Blood-starved. No where was safe from his blade, that was his purpose.
She has awoken him for the second time and only desired one thing from what she had whispered in his mind.
HUNT THE HUNTERS, THE PREY AND THE GODS
"IN YOUR WILL IT SHALL BE DONE." He spoke to no one, Simply fading as the messengers took him to the next kill.
