EDIT: Just updated the chapter to fix stuff no new chapter lol

Chapter 10 - Sanguine gifts

Lavishly decorated hallway after hallway, libraries, alcoves, snow-covered rooftops and frozen banquet halls turned into a blur as Tanya half sneaked, half sprinted through the winding old castle. There seemed to be no end to the ever repeating corridors stuffed full of once priceless antiquities and oil paintings depicting dozens of generations from undoubtedly extinct bloodlines.

Hunched over, the maddened menservants of a bygone age fruitlessly polished the tarnished silver candlesticks and mirrors, sometimes avoiding her, sometimes falling upon her in a blind rage to bewitch her with esoteric spells or beat her with whatever they were holding at the moment. Their creaking old bones were no match for her youthful agility, but the attempts on her life were annoying nonetheless.

And so she ripped and tore into them, sparing only few to attract the ethereal phantoms haunting the darkened halls with their crippled screams. Though their appearances varied, all of these ghosts were young noble ladies, obvious from their fine dresses and aristocratic features, bound by heavy shackles and either completely decapitated or exsanguinated through the throat.

Could these be wrathful figments of the Vilebloods who had been slaughtered wholesale by the Executioners so long ago?

It mattered not, for they fell by her blade all the same, hopefully finding rest for good. Depopulating the castle again after they rose from the dead a second time would be rather annoying in Tanya's opinion.

Although one creature whose origins she could not understand in the slightest were those pesky gargoyle things.

The first she met nearly severed her neck with its strong jaws, forcing her to empty her entire stock of bullets into its ugly, stone-grey body while she frantically downed blood vials galore in order to knit the gaping wound in her throat.

Objectively speaking, dying and reawakening fresh from the dream might have been more economic on her limited resources, but dying was never pleasant. Sure, the experience lost some of its horror, but it always took something out of her to seemingly rewind time to before her demise, blurring the edges between nightmare and reality just a little further whenever it happened. If she could avoid such an intimate confrontation with her lack of mortality then she was firmly determined to struggle and fight for it every single damned time. What was the point of living if you gave up on it just because it became inconvenient?

Regardless, from that encounter with the gargoyle onwards, she made sure to never trust a statue again. Nothing in this gigantic ruin seemed to be what it appeared as at first glance.

~\\∞۞[ ]۞∞/~

Another rooftop lay sprawled out before her and Tanya frustratedly asked herself why she had even bothered to climb out here. Some rooms had only been reachable through careful climbing around ledges and balconies, however this roof led nowhere as far as she could tell. It was a normal, plain collection of snowy tiles and masonry, lacking anything particularly useful.

Just the biting cold of the raging storm awaited her here, yet she also couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.

No matter how her exposed skin stung under the assault of winter, the young hunter followed her finely honed instinct, tasting the frosty air for any revealing smells and scanning the foggy night in mild anticipation.

Yes, she was nearly tempted to turn around and seek shelter again when she spotted the ominous figure sitting directly in the middle of the rooftop. Judging from its deathly stillness it had to be a corpse, yet the twisting sensation of dread merely increased as she stepped forward.

Frozen robes clung tightly to the mummified giant, his long beard speckled with icicles and his eyes two yawning holes emptily staring at everything and nothing at all.

What really drew her eye though was the shining crown atop his head, glimmering in a light that should not be possible in a place devoid of the sun, looking disturbingly enchanting and clean of even a single snowflake.

This was definitely a trap.

But where there was a snare there was usually something worth protecting.

Mindful of her footwork she stepped to the side as suddenly the leathery carcass moved. Creaking and moaning the skeletal man rose from his ice-encrusted throne and as if by his command the ambient winds began to pick up in intensity. He gripped the staff by its side and turned his ghoulish face to her, appearing distinctly unhappy by her intrusion.

"You wouldn't mind surrendering peacefully?" Tanya quipped in a half-hearted attempt to motivate herself for what was to come.

Her answer consisted of a swipe from his weapon and a barrage of flying, screaming, blood-dripping skulls.

"Yeah. As expected." she mumbled and dove behind a nearby spire for cover.

~\\∞۞[ ]۞∞/~

Panting, Tanya lay in the red, mushy snow that was now barely covering the broken rooftop. Stone debris and soot littered the place around her, forming a picture of pure devastation. At the moment she couldn't recall if the internal roof truss had collapsed before or after she set fire to the eastern side, but the results spoke for themselves.

Her clothing hung in tatters from where it had been shredded by the undead's blade and spikes of crystallized blood. Like a rain of crimson spears his attacks had covered the battlefield in sharp projectiles, flushing her out of hiding again and again. Then he peppered her with his arcane incantations, mostly keeping his distance and forcing the hunter to use up her last three blood vials.

In the end though, a desperately cobbled together explosive spell had narrowly decided the match. It had an equal chance of taking her hand off, but if the alternative was getting skewered by a demonically glowing scythe-staff then Tanya was willing to take the chance. Despite how weak it was, the shot detonated enough of his shrivelled head to let her finish the job by viciously hacking it off, even as the strength in her arms dwindled.

And what was Tanya's reward?

Slowly feeling life leave her as the unforgiving weather steadily sapped warmth and energy from her prone form.

"At least I got a nice, worthless crown from it though..." she wetly chuckled, blindly grasping for the kitschy item buried beneath scorched shingles.

'Might as well wear it.'

Tanya struggled to sit up and lazily plopped down the golden symbol of monarchic gaudiness on her matted hair, enjoying the ironic disparity between her sordid appearance and immaculate jewellery.

'Wait... Was that building always there?'

She blinked.

As if a blindfold had been pulled from over her eyes, she only now noticed the open gate directly in front of her, flanked by invitingly flickering torches and the indirect promise of safety from the elements.

More crawling than walking she hobbled inside, baffled by her apparent selective awareness. Either she was losing her touch badly, or this stupid castle was still able to play tricks on her mind, despite her vigilance.

~\\∞۞[ ]۞∞/~

Surprisingly, none of the dozens upon dozens of knightly armours on horseback attacked her while she dragged herself up one of the largest stairwells she ever had the displeasure of ascending. Ordinarily she would not have attempted to scale such a colossus of polished marble steps in her wounded state, but the tantalizing call of warm air was enough to pull her in along with a strange smell that made her mouth water. It somewhat reminded her of the pungent stench of her most recent kill mixed with the heady aroma of dried flowers on a deathbed.

Finally she arrived at the top of the staircase which opened up into what obviously must have once been the throne room of Cainhurst. Even before entering the candlelit hall a commanding voice called out to her from the lone person occupying it:

"Visitor… I claim no subjects, but here lieth our throne. Kneel afore us…"

Who in this ravaged world was presumptuous enough to immediately treat a stranger like a servant? Only a madwoman would be so arrogant. Kneeling in front of some lunatic pretending to be royalty of an exterminated people sounded pathetic.

Fat chance.

"…or get thee gone."

On the other hand, indulging the crazy, helmeted lady might reveal crucial information. (And let her bask in the ambient temperature before having to resort to violence again.) Utility came before pride after all. As unlikely as it was, this one seemed to be Cainhurst's sanest inhabitant so far.

Leaving a smeared trail behind her, Tanya made her way through the hall at an agonizingly slow speed. Partially because her aching flesh was seemingly held together only by sheer willpower and partially because she compulsively checked the hordes of elaborate statues lining the path.

A quiet hiss left her mouth as she fell to a shaky knee before the throne.

Now that she could make out more details, the haughty woman sitting up there looked rather beautiful, despite the metal helmet encasing her head completely. Her white dress fell elegantly around her slender form, serving to enhance the radiant quality of her milky white skin and long, platinum-blond hair.

"Visitor… Moon-scented hunter… I am Annalise, Queen of Castle Cainhurst. Ruler of the Vilebloods, and sworn enemy of the church."

'Heh. Maybe this woman was indeed one of the sanest people left in Yharnam.'

"Yet, our people are murdered, and we are prisoner to this wretched mask. What is it thou art in search of?"

What indeed?

If this was truly the queen of the Vilebloods instead of an impostor then that opened many possibilities. It appeared that Alfred's claims of her immortality were not exaggerated in the slightest, as she survived decades in here, possibly bound to a helmet that had no hole wide enough to insert food or drink.

Furthermore it stood to reason that any executioner who came near enough to put such a device on her would have surely been able to finish the queen off completely, which made the lenient punishment all the more mysterious. Gauging from the swathes of crying ghost ladies with horrific throat wounds that swarmed the castle, these old hunters had been anything but merciful or sensitive.

Subsequently, learning how Annalise achieved such supposed invincibility might become invaluable, especially in her current, dying, state.

Tanya's natural regeneration was superhumanly strong, but without the healing refreshment offered by her vials, she would soon be forcefully returned to the Hunter's Dream.

"I seek the secret of the Vilebloods. Teach me how you survived and I will see about how I can return the favour."

Not her most elaborate proposal, but she was kind of running short on time.

"Well, well… An odd hunter thou art indeed… We've tired of these piteous nights… Share in Our plight, and take oath against the church. If thou wouldst this path walk… I prithee partake of my rotted blood."

That sounded rather unappealing if the queen put it that way, but more blood was exactly what she needed right about now. All the pre-packaged blood from her vials also hadn't exactly been fresh and the less was said about the condition of what she consumed directly from her prey, the better.

These royal blood echoes would inevitably make her stronger; no matter how small the difference actually was, so she figured: 'Why not? Every member of the church she met so far was either mad or a fanatic asshole. Unsurprisingly, organized religion tended to breed such scum en masse.'

The upper cathedral ward teemed with masked church doctors, giant bell-bearing giants and similar folk, which should make obtaining proof of her 'oath' in the future child's play.

"I accept your offer, Queen Annalise of the Vilebloods. I shall slay all members of the church who cross my path, in exchange for your wisdom."

"Very well. Drink deep of our blood."

Daintily, Annalise stretched out her arm and slit the pale skin effortlessly with her astonishingly sharp fingernails. Deep-red liquid welled forth, raising the ambient scent from strong to unbearable levels. Nary a second thought could form inside her head before Tanya began greedily sucking at the offered wrist.

"Feel the spreading corruption burn. Now, thou art too a Vileblood. We two, the very last on this earth. We await thy return. For the honour of Cainhurst."

Stars exploded inside her vision. She couldn't stop! The world blurred together in a haze of pure agony. Her mouth burned, her brain froze, her arteries wriggled and squirmed to form elaborate symbols never seen by human eyes-

And then everything went black.