Hello everyone.
So... I said one week for the next chapter? Let's just say that I may have made a slight mistake in the date of my final exams and got caught up in the turmoil of six hours of written work a day over two weeks.
Now that I've got my freedom back and seen the sun again for the first time in a fortnight I'm publishing this chapter in total urgency so I can't be patient any longer.
I apologise for the wait which is totally my planning error.
Chapter 18 : VileBlood and Great Ones.
How long had the vileblood been walking? Days? Hours? Years? Centuries? He didn't know. Those feet seemed to have disappeared. No more sense, no more reality.
He chuckled, feeling his throat go dry as he lowered his gaze so that he couldn't even make out his hands in the darkness.
"My Queen... Was it your will? Was my loyalty so questioned by you? Or was it old Gerhman? No... He could not have sent me so low?" he interjected into the void as he continued to move forward.
"Ruth... Ruth? Can you hear me? Why did I leave you for her? These waves... this right here. This place is a tiny room, but infinite..."
He looked behind him, still seeing the two creatures fighting... Or rather doing nothing, barely moving but seemingly in terrible combat out of his sight. No matter how far away he got, it didn't change in size, seemed frozen in that infinity.
"These waves. And they're all... there."
He chuckled, then looked at the infinity of black above and spit, resuming that all-aristocratic arrogance he'd never abandoned.
"I am not the common plebeian; I would not break. I am a noble of the Vileblood!"
He resumed his march, strengthening himself mentally and thinking of the far more trying ordeals he had already endured.
Finneas saw the darkness gradually diminish, or rather he saw a light in the distance. His sense of self was slowly returning, and he felt the numbness leave his limbs, giving way to an exhaustion he never thought he had.
A hole separated from the ground, like a gaping hole leading to an infinite light. There was not just one, but an infinite multitude emanating the same vision of paradise. The one he was in front of seemed the best, as if he had been led here.
He felt a gentle warmth, like Doll's when she made him stronger. Finneas approached the hole, looking down. Then a jolt in his back knocked him off balance, and as he turned in his fall, he saw the Good Hunter staring at him, his hand still extended forward where Finneas had been standing before.
"BITCH!" he roared, despair and prior abandonment giving way to his more insulting personality.
Finneas felt himself falling as if into a deep well, before he could think of holding back any further. He gritted his teeth, preparing for the impact so that he would feel nothing for several long seconds.
Either the well was really deep, or it was falling horribly slowly, which, given the habit of insanity in Yharnam's quarters, which could be quite insane in its operation, would not surprise him.
The Vileblood looked down, noticing nothing but the light getting stronger and stronger. As he approached it, a wave of energy hit and he passed through it, beginning to fall back into the darkness, hearing screeching, screaming monsters.
"FUCK! I HATE YOU!"
A new hunter had arrived in Orario and certainly not in a gentle way.
There was no light in this place, at least not for a long time. Only eternal darkness had invaded what had once been a hunting ground. The smell of blood, the colour of corruption, everything suggested that this place had been abandoned by the gods who should have inhabited it, or at least considered it.
Hordes of infinite creatures threw themselves tirelessly at the hill. An endless wave, like an infernal flood of shapeless, diseased creatures straight from the hellish pits of the cursed city of Yharnam.
But, despite all this, a black figure was visible between the groups of violent monsters. A single solitary form fighting tirelessly in the middle of what had been a path to higher ground.
On his wounded body were the marks of the battles he had been waging for several hours now. His long scythe was covered in the black blood of his enemies, while his once blue leather cloak was now a dark scarlet.
The monsters came incessantly, leaving him no real time to rest. The agonies of time had passed, interminable... He could probably have fled in that time, but he had not.
It wasn't as if he had any desire to do so, his fight was on, and nothing would stop him. He had freed the Vileblood from this cursed place, against his will, but that freedom was still there. One last request from Gehrman.
He had lost track of time. Had he been fighting for an hour, a minute or several days? He didn't know. The sun no longer shone in the high hidden sky, only a full and eternal moon, symbol of his power, floated, empty of any imperfection.
Only the sound of battle kept him sane. He knew that if he let go now, his humanity would go, and with it the hope of ending it all.
His blade once again pierced the flesh of an enemy attacking him from the front. Alone in the middle of this place it was easy to let the memories of her life come flooding back and mix with the surrounding noise of the demons.
"The night, and the dream, were long...
A voice answered this sweet memory of a man who bitterly regretted his choices. A cavernous, mocking voice watching him struggle desperately. The voice was incomprehensible to any normal human, a set of infernal words that would have driven anyone mad, but not him.
Now that they understood them, they seemed empty and hollow.
"He never trusted you! That's why you're here! They abandoned you."
"Are you sure you want to hold them back?! We can fight together!"
"You will die! Join me and we can stay together! You will have your rightful place among us!"
"Humanity doesn't have to be worth anything but our disinterest!"
The man inhaled sharply, shivering. His hands immediately moved to strike a passing enemy at his back, in a single instant he released a flash of light, and hundreds of tentacles formed at his back, sweeping away the abominations.
Several hundred of them flew, a hellish smell of blood, mucus and flesh filled the air. A shrill crack sounded, and he saw the deformed body of a man. His eyes had been hollowed out by the impact, leaving only a hollowed-out hole in the middle of his split skull. His non-human brain had covered the membranes the man had created.
The treacherous thoughts had taken over at times allowing him moments of madness between his moments of painful lucidity. But relentlessly he thought back to the last moments of the first hunter and began to fight again so that the cycle would be broken. His voice rose silently to himself as he made another direct slashing motion at yet another monster, blood spurting to his feet and organs spilling out before him.
"A hunter must hunt," he said.
There was no fear in his face, not even the slightest doubt as to what he was doing. He had been planning it ever since the doll had held him, ever since he had felt his mind become more than humanity.
He was happy that he had been able to accomplish something great. To have been able to help change the course of destiny, even if it was worth what he cared for most. He was surrounded, it was only a matter of time before they came. Finally, he saw them
A smile spread across his covered face as the massive, misshapen forms of the Great Old Ones loomed on the horizon. They were impossible to describe because they were so meaningless that only his identical mind could grasp any of their logic. He could go, let go of all that remained and cut this dream from what it had once been.
The glow of the moon engulfed him; the Good Hunter was no more, only the being that had grown in his place.
A misshapen set of tentacles covered with a mask, the New Lunar Entity, the Great Ancient One who had just ascended.
"THE HUNT BEGINS!" the entity uttered in a voice distorted by its inhuman body.
He had done it... Yharnam would be no more... The Great Ones could no longer hinder humanity. He hoped that the one he had appointed would do his duty properly... But that no longer concerned him.
Between every realm of existence in the infinite space of the World, there is an absolute place. A place inaccessible to most people. A space between life and death, between reality and dream, between existence and madness. A complete and black void devoid of all sense and logic.
The Good Hunter could feel his soul moving in this dark and lifeless space. Nothing awaited him in this place outside the roads of life and death. Pushing through the pain he felt, he took a step forward chasing the shadows that gathered around him.
Why had the First Hunter left such a powerful trail to bring him here? As he swung his hand, a figure came into view.
A man stood before him, a wound similar to his own running through his belly where he had just been pierced during his endless battle. An old scar ran along his eye exactly where the one from his old life had been. The two counterparts looked at each other. The silence around them seemed to await the outcome of their solitary meeting and only the faint sound of the hunter's footsteps cut through the calm of the place.
"So you finally left?" the figure began, looking at the soldier. He seemed to be visibly holding back a laugh as he looked at his counterpart. "It's kind of ironic knowing that you should have been with us. No... It's actually hilarious!"
Nothing answered him.
"I also find it curious that you chose to fight us when we would have welcomed you as one of us. This wound." The shape pointed to the still fresh wound on the hunter's chest. "Why don't you heal it? It would be so simple to leave it all behind.
The Good Hunter brushed against the wound in question, and felt the blood flowing. But instead of being the usual bright red colour, it was a golden colour, like molten gold recently baked.
In the face of silence, his counterpart took this as permission to continue.
"I know you are suffering, everything would be easier. Let yourself go to us, we would give you a place as ours. You wouldn't have to sacrifice yourself for hypocrites, for lives so low as humanity! They are only ants, ignore them. All of us must ignore them and stand by and watch.
The man burst out laughing as he looked at the hunter. As much as he hated to admit it, he was right. He had chosen to sacrifice himself for others, but he also had his dreams and desires. He had decided to stay because there was nothing waiting for him on the other side. The Good Hunter lowered his eyes to the ground, watching the shadows of his suppressed emotions dance. Hate, pain, fear... All the emotions he had buried during that far too long night, his human remains that seemed heavy in an inhuman mind. Yes... It was a weakness...
"Leave them! Let's resume the Hunt! They hate you! They are nothing!" A flash of light illuminated the surroundings, and a sort of rift opened up, showing a city below. It was lively, joyful, a tower resting in its centre, rising towards the sky. "The Gods of this world are a threat to us, if you follow the open path you will die! If you block the way to the workshop and the dream, nothing can continue. YOU ARE LIKE US!"
He was seducing the hunter. He was hitting where it mattered, if he left, the elders would no longer have a carrier to humanity, their bodies would be far away. Only a few cultists and sacrifices would stand a chance, forcing the Great Old Ones to use other methods to reproduce and abandon this hunt and this hellish night.
"It's probably true. I'm like you."
His voice was exhausted.
A huge smile spread across the face of the Ancient One in front of him. He had managed to convince him. Or so he thought. A slight laugh escaped the Good Hunter who looked up.
"Unfortunately, I must refuse. I accepted your powers to challenge you. Gerhman had every right to offer them a chance in another place and leave me here because I simply don't belong there yet. But soon..." He smiled and looked at his own body. Even though it was his own, it felt cramped. "I could mourn my losses and stand tall and proud. I will not let you restart this insane hunt for your own wishes."
The scythe that he had wielded until the last moment of his life was at his side. Calmly he picked it up. It was still covered with the blood of its many victims, the silent moans of those whose lives it had taken echoed in the empty place.
"Why?! WHY! After being abandoned and dying so many times you still resist? We are all one! No matter how much you want it you will be stuck here for eternity if you refuse! Just like us!"
The good hunter said nothing and swung his blade forward towards the spectre's body.
"You envy humans... They can procreate where you cannot... They exist in spite of their weaknesses while you merely remain. They evolve and you stagnate. You envy them their existence just as they envy your power. What a Dantean irony don't you think?"
"You... I knew Flora was different in her methods. Choosing the first hunter as a surrogate child. But you... you are like her..."
The Good Hunter threw his scythe in front of him and sliced the Great Ones form.
"Whatever you say Oedon, it's all concluded."
He looked at the light into which Gerhman had sent the Vileblood. Finneas if he remembered the name correctly. And more importantly, where he had sent the youngster, Ashton if memories were correct.
He sighed, feeling pleased with himself. A peculiar emotion for a Great One, but one that reminded him of the fragment of humanity he was trying so hard to retain.
An exhausted smile came over the man's face as he finally sat down, resting from a long and exhausting night of woe. A little rest before following them and closing that loophole would certainly not go amiss for the moment.
A chapter launching the continuation of the story and the entry of a new hunter but also the teasing of a Great Ones.
For those who don't like Finneas' attitude, I intend to change it and explain it later. No he's not a racist, royalist prick for no reason and yes his language is clearly that of a shit.
Wait and see what I intend to do with it. Anyway, he's only a secondary character
I warn in advance that Ashton and Aiz's relationship is going to evolve a lot over the next two chapters and that Finneas is only going to reappear in the next three or four chapters at least, this chapter is more of a plot launch than anything else and serves to advance the scenarios around Yharnam and the Great Ones.
Nothing else to say! In the meantime, take care of yourself and your loved ones.