"So let me this clear" Amy pondered.
"After I was born, you discovered that you had cancer, and after leaving me to my father, you well… died."
"Yep" The Good Hunter nodded as she kept pouring the ritual blood inside a chalice in front of a tombstone.
"Only that you didn't actually "die" but instead you founded yourself into a city, called Yharnam, in what was probably a completely different Earth…"
"Yep"
"And then, you were subject to a process called the "Blood Ministration" which turned you into a hunter, which is like a cape that hunts beasts…"
"Yep"
"This thing called Old Blood makes you stronger, faster, and progressively better by absorbing the "echoes in the blood" of your enemies…"
"Yep"
"…So, you slew horrors after horrors until you discovered that the entire "Hunt" was apparently a plot to slay a stillborn infant eldritch abomination…"
"I actually killed two infant eldritch abominations, but the second one was more of a side quest… also much harder…"
"Then after killing this "Mergo", you died… for real… again."
"Yep"
"And, then, after waking up on a pile of trash. Your first thought was to kidnap, your estranged biological daughter that you didn't saw in almost seventeen years and feed her with your blood, turning her too into a hunter too? Did I miss something?"
"No, that's it all… I mean unless there is another eldritch entity to slay in this world… Tell me, Amy, there is any Lovecraftian monstrosity that must be slain, lest humanity is doomed?" The Good Hunter asked.
"No, there aren't," Amy said, closing her eyes and trying to contain her massive headache. "Can I ask you a simple question, Emilia?"
"Ok, go ahead…"
"Why?"
"Why what?
"What?! Everything! " Amy opened her arms as if encompassing the entire Dream. "Why the dream, why the blood? Why making me a hunter? What made you think that it would be a good idea?"
"Oh, my silly lumenflower, what kind of mother would not want her daughter to become a hunter? I mean you are basically immortal, now! And I am sure that you feel much better now! You actually looked so tired before…"
Amy paused. She didn't want to admit it but she was actually right. She didn't just felt fine. She felt great. Her energy levels were through the roof. The exhaustion had disappeared. She felt like she could have stayed at the hospital for entire days or like she could keep up with Victoria's rabid shopping spree for an entire hour. Since her trigger, she never felt so… energized. An itch on her back was telling her to do something, to move.
"Once again you are not my mother. My mom is- Hold on. Hold on… What did you say: immortal?"
"Yeah, every time you actually die, you will instead respawn here, completely healed and patched up! You don't have to worry anymore about bug bitch threatening you with a knife…"
Amy's brain froze, trying to comprehend the implication of what she had just told her.
…
…
Apparently, she was now immortal.
That didn't have any sense.
"I-I think I c-can't believe this…."
"Don't worry that's okay. You will cope with that eventually."
"Fine… Now changing the subject. Can I ask you another question?"
"Of course, sweetheart…"
"Why you forced me to dress like an oversized crow*?"
Amy complained, crossing her arms. After she had awoken from the transfusion, the first thing the Good Hunter did (after squeeing about how cute she looked now, without those pair of massive eyebangs), was forcing her to try a ridiculous amount of Victorian-styled dresses, until she found a black long robe with black pants, a large black feathered cloak, a hood and white crow shaped mask with even an, you guessed it, hat.
God, she looked like Shadow Stalker now. Well, a Shadow Stalker that wasn't comically edgy. A Shadow Stalker that actually had style… No, bad Amy, never agree with the villain, even if the cape on the shoulders feels really nice...
"Because you look absolutely adorable, Amy! You look like a tiny little hatchling that just came out the egg. Yes, I will be the momma duck and you the little duckling that follows me wherever I go. Aww, that will be so cute! And besides, that also looks like a plague doctor mask and you are a doctor! And you wear a cape! You are a cape! See? Everything just matches."
"Emilia, I understand that you are been away for long but animal-themed capes are unfashionable from years. Today, they are literally considered the bottom of the barrel" Well, unless they are called Mouse Protector but she is a completely different matter...
"That's because there has been an animal-themed cape badass as you, dear," She said bopping her on the beak of the mask. Again, why the fuck she was so supportive? Why she couldn't just be like Carol? It would make hate her much easier…
"And done!" The Good Hunter exclaimed as she completes the ritual to break the seal of Chalice. Many tiny little beings emerged, their hands trying to grasp the chalice. Amy winched: Emilia had called them messengers. They were, honestly, sort of cute. She always had a thing for body-horror with deformed or multiple parts...
"Now, Amy, kneel yourself in front of the grave this way and lend your hand." The Good Hunter not so subtly grabbed her body and shoved it in the correct position. Did she actually have a choice? Actually now that she thought about it…
"Did you actually mastered me with your blood?" Amy asked quizzically.
"Please, how I could master my own daughter…"
"Well, you didn't have a problem with kidnapping your own daughter, so excuse me if I have my share of doubts…" Amy snarked.
"I swore upon my honor of a Hunter, that I didn't master you in any way, shape, or form…" She shouted solemnly placing her hand on her chest. "…the Old Blood actually cleanse the mind from any poison and sickness, leaving it vulnerable only to the whispers of the Old Ones… now that it reminds me… if you happen to saw, down here, a woman with a large head and many eyes… just run."
Ignoring the ominous warning, Amy rolled his eyes internally. "Now what I have to do now?"
"Just close your eyes and listen to the whispers of the blood…"
"Just close your eyes and listen to the whispers of the blood…" She repeated in her mind with a mocking tone. "As if it could ever work…"
"Holy crap! It actually worked"
Amy could only stare stupefied. She closed her eyes for a few moments, doing as the Good Hunter asked her, and when she opened them, she found herself in front of a massive door made of stone.
"Nnngh… Told you so…" Emilia told her as she somehow slowly pushed the massive stone door, slowly opening it. "Well, Chalice Dungeon meet Amy Lav-Dallon. Amy Dallon meet Chalice Dungeon.
Emilia took a look at the large cave in front of her. It was big with massive roots pulling from above, a sign that they were actually underground. On the bottom of the cave, way below her feet, there were massive tombstones easily bigger than a person. Numerous tunnels were on the other side of the cave; to reach it, it seemed that they had to descend at the bottom of the cave and climb to the other side.
The entire atmosphere reeked with death and decay. It was to lack of a better term…decadent. It somehow reminded Amy of Brockton Bay. A claustrophobic, tunnel-like version of Brockton Bay.
"Okay, did you see the iron gate on the other side?" Emilia pointed at a metallic gate, surrounded by two statues holding a pair of lanterns. "We have to find a lever that will open the gate... Did you have the weapons that I gave you"
Amy nodded. At her sides rested the weapons Emilia gave her. A massive crude saw-cleaver (which was apparently considered a starting weapon) and a flintlock pistol. She had protested that wielding a firearm was against the rules but Emilia didn't care because "It's not a modern firearm, so it doesn't count…".She initially, actually, tried to lift the axe, she had offered to her but it turns out that it was too heavy for her.
"Okay… Now, listen if something moves towards you… shoot it or cut it. Just do it. Shoot it once. Shoot it twice. It doesn't matter. Everything here is either already dead or is trying to kill you anyways. Got it? Okay, now let's go!"
"Hold on…Wait!" But it was already too late, for the Good Hunter was already climbing down the ladder with ridiculous speed. Amy could only sight as she followed her…
Amy caught so mysterious shadows at the end of the bottom of the cave. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that those shadows were actually rats. Humongous rats big as full-grown adults. She shuddered hoping that those monsters didn't saw her. Fortunately, they didn't seem to have noticed.
Just as she shifted her attention from the rats back to the road ahead. She felt something grabbing her from the neck. Emilia had pulled her away just in time before the ground in front of her burst into a small explosion of flame.
"What was that?!" Amy squeaked. The Good Hunter simply pointed above. A pale white skeletal man, that was guarding the ladder, had thrown at them something at them: a Molotov. The Molotov landing on the puddle of oil in which Amy was about to step on, had caused the explosion. Before the pale being could throw another Molotov, the Good Hunter had grabbed a sharp small knife and launched it at the man. The knife stuck right into the forehead and the limp body fell down below in the puddle of burning oil.
"Y-you killed him…" Amy stuttered.
"As I just told you, Amy, if it moves, probably it's already death or death is mercy…" She answered while nonchalantly climbing the ladder.
"You don't know it! May-Maybe I can do something about it… I can help them…"
"Amy, they are Phtumerians… They aren't even human and they have gone insane after being locked inside this labyrinth, for God knows how long…"
Amy paused, reflecting on her next words. "I don't think that is right… but… but… thank you for protecting me…" Amy told her as followed her on the stairs.
"Oh, Amelia, I am your mother!" She gave her another bone-crushing hug. "What kind of mother would not care about her daughter?
Yeah, what kind of mother would not care about her own daughter? She repeated in her mind sarcastically, thinking about Carol. Oh, where did that came from?
The duo proceeded into the next room. It was a long corridor, actually, a bridge over a cave with fetid pools of god-knows-what on the bottom while at the celling were strapped massive rusted cages and four ominous pendulum blades that descended rhythmically. Seriously what's wrong with this place.
"Okay, now when the blades reach the ceiling, run. I'll go first." The Good Hunter explained.
"You can't be serious... Those things will kill me!"
"No, they will not because…"
"If you said because you are my daughter I swear that I will make everything you eat taste like bile for the rest of your days…"
"I was about to say because you are a cape and immortal but…"
"But I am just a support role. The New Wave never let me take part at direct fights…" Emilia paused. Now it was her turn to process what she just heard.
"Wow, that's… just really really dumb.."
I know, right? Something inside Amy's head agreed.
"Okay… just… just observe what I do…" Emilia waited to the blades to reach the end of their arc before sprinting an inhuman speed to the other side, where she landed gracefully. "You can do this, Amy"
Amy stared at the swinging blades. If her timing was bad or she just wasn't fast enough, she would have been torn apart by the massive metal pendulums. Perhaps, she could run away? The blades would have given her her time before her captor would have caught her. But run where? She was now in a tomb, below the earth, if this place wasn't just an illusion created by Emilia. She still had some doubts...
She took a deep breath trying to calm herself down. No, she had to try. She had to be strong like Vicky. She had to live so that the New Wave could come and rescue here. And anyway, worst case scenario she died and everyone would have been better…
Except for Emilia. A small part of Amy could not help but think that her death would have broken the Good Hunter's heart.
As the blades reached their climax, Amy ran. She ran the fastest she could. She ran much faster than she could before. Was this the Old Blood? Still, her timing was nowhere good as the Good Hunter's and she could already see herself getting mangled by the blades, so she jumped, avoiding them by a hair's breadth. She landed much less gracefully than her biological mother, hitting the ground with her face (or mask).
Meanwhile, the Good Hunter was dealing with another Pthumerian. The pale skeleton had thrown a knife at the Hunter, the hunter simply ignored the small blade as it landed on her face and dashed towards her prey, ramming her saif straight into his entrails. The blade pierced the monster's stomach, killing it on the spot.
"Great job, Amy!" The Good Hunter chirped as the girl dressed like an oversized crow was catching her breath. "I did it… Yes, I did it" Amy couldn't help but think. Her heart was pumping excitement. She felt so good, so alive, so… Oh my god, what is that!
Her eyes had fallen on the massive dagger stuck inside Emilia's right eye. Her hunter seemed completely nonchalant about it, smiling at the success of her daughter.
"Oh, wait, let me a sec…" She said grabbing the dagger inside her eye.
"Hold On, maybe I can do something about it… Heeep!" Amy could only watch as her biological mother pulled and crudely ripped the small blade out her eye socket, her eye along with it. She then threw the blade with her eye into the bit before picking a vial of a red liquid from her pocket and injecting it inside her right leg. Before Amy's very own eyes, the eye of Hunter suddenly regrown back from a small puddle of blood.
"Done!"
...
"How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"The eye thing…" She exclaimed. She was a regenerator? Hold on, if her powers came from the blood, does that mean she is now a regenerator, too?
"Oh, that thing.." She pulled another fist of those red vials and gave them to Amy. Amy could not help but inspect them. It was blood. Blood vials but not normal blood. It looked somehow different…maybe redder?
"Crush it on your leg, when you are hurt and it will heal your founds… for the love of God, never use it on normal people, lest you want to see Brockton Bay burn by the end of the day… but considering your healing hands, I doubt you will ever need it to use on other people…"
Amy could not help but smile under the beak-shaped mask. This was great, really. If what Emilia said was true, now she could regenerate too! Her biggest weakness has always been that she couldn't heal her own body, which means that she was always stuck on a support role, but now… now she could have fight with Vicky side by side. No more night spent awake, waiting for her to return… She could be always together with her sister!
Maybe not everything about this kidnapping thing was that bad…
"Pssh… Ehi Amy…" Emilia snapped her back from her pseudo-tinker fugue. She had moved at the end of the corridor and was hugging the wall trying to crouch beyond the door, prying into the following room. "come here…"
Amy followed and took a glance at the next room. It was a large spacious room with a set of stairs that led down to a lever, probably the one that they had to use to open the game. The lever was guarded by a massive fat Pthumerian, obese just as much the others were skinny. He wielded a lantern a massive club made of metal.
"I can deal with the fat you but you see the one here?" She pointed at a corner of the room. Another skeletal Pthumerian was hiding here and he didn't seem to have noticed the pair. "I want you to deal with him… If he starts to throw those knives while I fight the big one that would be annoying…"
"W-what you want me to kill him? That's… That's wrong. He isn't hurting anybody... I don't kill…"
The Good Hunter sighted. "Amy, for the last time, those things is insane. They are no different from animals… You don't have to save them… So please go ahead and butcher that thing… Do it for mommy okay?" Before she had time to answer, the Hunter dashed at his prey.
Amy gulped, as she drew her saw. Using the same movement that the Hunter showed her, she unfolded it, turning it into a pretty nasty cleaver. She took a deep breath and then she exhaled.
No.
She wasn't a monster. She was a heroine, a cape. She will not take another life, even if it was an alien, an undead or whatever. She will knock this "Pthumerian" with the New Wave's way.
The girl lunged at the monster with newfound speed. The monster had just the time to turn towards her before she had him rammed with her weight. She was quite a lightweight but the monster was even frailer than her and she managed to pin him to the ground with his legs.
The monster screamed and lashed against her, as she tried to contain it. He was much stronger than he looks like. "Stop please, I' am doing this for your own good." She took off the glove from her right hand, dropping the pistol. And then she made touched the monster. She could have used part of his blood to create a sedative. To knock it down temporarily. She didn't work on brains but still could have improved his life… somehow. She was Panacea…
As she touched the monster, information started to feed her mind. Everything was just disorienting and… wrong. Just like with the Hunter before there was something that she could not properly describe but it was even worse. The entire biology of the organism was alien, warped, and... inspiring… She could not do anything… She couldn't…
Y̵̪͙̫͓͢͟͝͝ͅO̺͕͖͔͍̫̥̙͠U̷̶̹̯̝̤̘̕͜ ̡̹̼̱̬̻̗̘̝̞̹̕͢Ǹ̶̶͎̙͈̫͢Ȩ̴̩̫̺̲̼̘̩̯̳̙͇̦̪̰̜̙͍̀ͅĘ̶̠̰̺̼̪̺̮͓̻͍̞͕̱̪̳̕͟ͅD̢͏҉̪͖͙̘͎͔̪̞̲̜̭͙̯͇̮̞̮͚ͅ ̴̘̟͚̮̳̪̻̩̞̹̞̹̬́͘ͅM̴̧̕͏͈̬͕̘̥͕̳̺̮̩̟̳̗̘̯̩̣O̵҉͟҉͖̗̮͇͕R̨͖̺͎͙̟̙͎͍̪̯̭͎̩͓͟͡͠ͅȨ̧͍̲̯̻͚͈̺̮͔̹ͅ ̷̡̯̹̭͙̱̻̕͘E̡̧͍̮̯͡Y̴̶̧̘̙̜̜͔̗̻͔͕̼̳͔͚̮̱̬͇͟͡E̢͚̜̫̦̪͍̤̮̠̖͉̪̯͍̯̗̫͔̯͠͡Ş̵̷̠̟̯̻̰͚̠̰͎͘ ̢҉҉͉̪̥͙̫͍̞̼̦̣͉̤͟ͅͅO͕̞̭̰̰̬̜̞̮̺̝͎͎͙͔͜͞N̵̛̤̜̫̬̣̪͔̯̣̥̣ ̴̶̤̱̯͇̱̤̝̯̫̤̹͎̩̝̱̯̫̰̦͘͟T̴̗͍̦̻̹͉͎̯͈͓͎̻̥̕͞H̵̡̻̹̯̖̘̣̙͉̱̳͓̥̭̪͓̜͘͢È̵̛͔̖̙̗̘̦͜͢ ̢̛̘̣̹̳͓͙̳͇͕Į̸̷͙͎̙̪̀͢ͅN̸̛̳̲͍̝̖̫̺̫̭̫̪̫͠S̵̛̙̻͇̞͈͡ͅI̢̺͖̪̠̝͈͈͎͜͠D̸̡̢̹̯͙̺̕E̸̷̡̡̤̣̖͈͖͠
She struggled as her brain and her powers tried to process the eldritch knowledge while lacking the insight to do it. Unfortunately, the monster seized the moment and with a sudden burst of strength, the broke off the weak grip, and with the knife in his hand, he stabbed Amy into the right arm.
"AHHH" She screamed in pain, a feeling that she wasn't used to, being a cape that fought on the sidelines, moment nearly closing her eyes. The Pthumerian continued to attack her with his knife, trying to get at her face, protected by the mask. She panicked. She wasn't used to these situations.
"No stay away from me" She shouted, instinctively lashing with her left harm. The arm held the saw-cleaver.
The saw hit something with a wet thud.
She opened her eyes again. "Oh, no, no, no…" She stuttered The saw had stuck right into the Phtumerian's neck almost severing his head. The monster now was lying unresponsive, barely able to breathe. That thing was dying because of her. Always because of her.
"Don't worry. I'll fix this. I'll fix everything.." She said, more talking at herself than at the dying Phtumerian. She touched him again, using her power and again her power failed to heal a person. So, she tried and tried again, ignoring the screams in her head about "needing more eyes…".
Again another one was paying the sins of her failures. Because she was a monster. She was wrong. She was evil.
But no matter how hard she tried, her power refused to modify, to "shape" that alien biology.
The Pthumerian stopped moving.
Her power stopped working completely…
It simply didn't work on dead organisms.
She had killed another being.
She backed away from the corpse of the Pthumerians. As if it was infected by some kind of miasma. Proof of her failures.
Monster.
Wrong.
"No, no, no, no…" She took off the Crow-slash-plague-doctor mask, throwing it at the ground. She needed to breathe, as she was hyperventilating. She had failed her namesake, she had failed the New Wave. She had failed Victoria. There was no place for here into the New Wave anymore, there was no place for here in Vicky's life anymore.
She started to cry, her tears ignoring the blood hemorrhaging from her arm. "I am a monster… a monster… a monster…"
It was all so fucked up. She was so fucked up.
She fell on her knees, sobbing and crying. Not in the pretty looking way. Even with her sight-impaired by the blood and tears, she felt her hand gently pressing on her shoulder. "It's okay, Amelia, it's okay."
She didn't have the time to understand what was about to do as her power seized the control of her mind. She felt weak. The nightmares, the loneliness, the shithole that was her family, the fact that she was the daughter of a villain, the robbery, and now the blood and having just become a murdered.
She wanted the only thing that made sense in her life.
She wanted Vicky.
She wanted Vicky to smile at her.
She touched the Good Hunter face, feeling again the entire body and that something, but she ignored it. She tried to change, warp the color of the biological mother skin, to make it paler, to remove the freckles. The hairs, not curly anymore but blonde platinum, to take from somewhere else more cells to make her hairs longer. Her eyes, her mouth, even her tooth… And finally… finally her brain… so that Victoria would have loved her unconditionally.
She tried to warp her biological mother's face into a copy of Vicky and her mind into a clone of hers.
That something stopped it. Prevented it from working. But she… she had tried...
"Oh, god, what, what I've done…" She realized. She had almost broken her rules.
Do not do brains.
If it wasn't for her mother altered biology. She… She…
She…
She felt herself being lifted up. Emilia was staring at her with those large eyes. She hated her too, now, didn't she? The woman that kidnapped her, the woman that still treated her more like a daughter than Carol in her entire life. She had just tried to turn her into a clone of VIctoria, breaking her code in a moment of weakness…
An epiphany struck Amy…
She knew.
She knew what she had just tried to do now and she knew that before she had tried to give cancer.
And she didn't care.
She hugged her, covered in blood. Amy could feel the tick rusty sweet taste of blood in her mouth as she pressed her face against her mother's chest.
She had just ripped the entrails of the fat guardian and bathed in her blood and viscera.
And now she was hugging her.
It felt nice.
She hugged her back. And she cried on her chest. A lot. Blood mixing with tears.
"It's going to be okay, little lumenflower… everything is going to be fine…"
Amy sniffed, trying to contain the tears. "Who-Who was my father?!" She finally asked. The question that plagued her for her entire life. Tattletale said that she didn't actually want to know the answer and deep down she knew that she was right but, right now, she wasn't actually so sure. She always feared that knowing his name, his identity would have brought her to do things...horrible things... To break her code.
But she had already nearly broken it, alone without knowing anything.
"Amy, the New Wave never told you?" Her mother answered with a look of mixed incredulity and apprehension. She knew that Marquis wasn't exactly a good person and the New Wave, probably, thought that it would be better for her to never learn. But, but... she still felt bad for him and for her.
"No… I only know that he was a villain…"
"Marquis. Your father is Marquis... I used to be a cape-groupie and then… well, we had a thing…"
"Marquis" Amy ruminated over the identity of her father. So, it was him. The villain. The shadow that loomed over the entire life. "Yes, it makes sense. He was an osteokinetic right? Yes, I knew that his power felt familiar." She chuckled joylessly. Amy could feel the tight hug of her mother stiffened as she worried. "God, I have so many fucking problems…" She muttered, sniffing.
"Oh, Amelia…" The Good Hunter released her from the hug. "I want to learn an important lesson…" She told with a more serious tone but at the same time gently wiping away tears for her baby girl's cheeks.
The Good Hunter took a depth breath.
"Tell me, Amy, how do you think adults fix their problems?"
"What?"
"I mean… take the New Wave for example, how you think that… Carol?" Amy nodded. "Carol or... how was his name... Mike? Yes, let's go with Mike... work on their problems?"
The girl took a moment to think about a question, seriously pondering it. Then she realized that she had absolutely no idea of how to answer it.
"I-I don't know…"
"Amy, simply they don't. And neither should you…"
…
She gently placed her hand over Amy's shoulder, before continuing.
"Amy the first step towards adulthood is to learn that problems aren't meant to be fixed. They are supposed to be ignored and left forgotten."
…
…
…
What…
"What?" Amy asked, her brain stopped working, unable to comprehend if her mother was joking or not. She was deadly serious.
"Yes," she nodded with the head. "You see adults have a thing called drugs that help them to cope and forget their problems, everybody has its own drug: for some is work, for others is money, power or glory. Or in my case: blood, specifically the blood of the monsters I hunt. And I think that it would work for you too…"
…
"So you are telling me that instead of worrying about my powers, my father, my disastrous family situation, the fact I could accidentally create a life-wiping plague with a snooze, I should go around killing beasts and monsters until I feel better?"
There was a long awkward pause…
"Yes?"
Amelia started to laugh. It was so fucking stupid and irresponsible and yet it made so fucking sense. Look where always worrying had brought here. Her relationship with Vicky was ruined, after the robbery. The New Wave hated her. Her father was still a monster and now she not only murdered a living being but even tried to turn her own mother into a clone of her sister, breaking her code. Why continue to care? She beyond help, may as well just continue to living...
"You are truly a horrible parent…" She tried to cover the smile with her hands. There was no bite in her words.
"But I am the best you got…" She replied with a big smile. "Now, do you want to do something about that cut on your arm?"
The girl remembered the massive wound on her arm She had almost forgotten. Amy pulled out of her pocket one of those vials that her mother had given to her. She gulped, getting ready to test this blood on herself and then she injected it into her left leg as she did before.
It was incredible. She felt the blood entering in her system, revitalizing, repairing, and improving her body. She felt the wound on her arms closing, knitting herself together without leaving not even the slightest scar. The only trace of the wound was the large bloodstain on her costume and a pleasant electric shiver down her spine.
This felt great. She wiped away the few tears left. Yes, really great.
"How do you feel, now?"
Amy picked the crow mask that had felt to ground covered in blood. She took a moment to look at it before putting it back on her face.
"Honestly… I don't remember the last time I felt this good"
"Stay back, I will deal with this…" Her mother stated as she followed her in the final room of the layer. Inside it, at the opposite end, three figures were waiting for the duo. Watchers, the same obese Phtumerians that Emilia killed before. One was wielding a metallic club, another a cleaver, and the third a firearm.
The Good Hunter instantly dashed, unleashing her saif and locking herself into a duel with one of the massive Watchers, the gun-wielding one fired his pistol in response but she managed to dodge the salvo.
Amy stayed back and admired how Emilia was outmaneuvering two opponents at the same time. She was practically dancing and the only difficulty seemed to be the fact that she was outnumbered by the monsters. Every time she tried to attack the cleave-wielding one, the one with the gun fired, and when she tried to get close to the one with the gun the cleave wielding one attacked. Still, she seemed to power through with sheer bestial ferocity making up for the lack of numbers.
Then the trio of Wardens decided to remind Amy that they were… well, a trio. The club-wielding one tried to slam Amy down with an overhead smash. She avoided it at the last second, using her newfound speed, that she was so slowly getting used to, to dodge the hit that left a quite sizable crack into the concrete. Each one of those monsters would have counted as a minor brute back in Brockton Bay.
She tried to fight back with her own saw-cleaver, hoping that her wild slashes would push back the obese monster. The tooth of the weapon hurt the fat cadaver, tearing flesh and blood alike but he seemed unfazed by the cuts and bruises and kept powering through his brutal assault. The hits of his club becoming fiercer and fiercer until Amy couldn't fight back anymore, lest she wanted to become a splotch on the pavement.
Then she felt pain.
Something had hit her right leg, large shrapnels of metal pierced through her skin. The one with the gun had turned the back towards her and had fired suddenly when her back was turned but he didn't have the time to take advantage of the successful shot for Emilia with a bestial roar decapitated him with a swift brutal strike of his saif, soon as she realized what he had done to her daughter.
Still, Amy felt on her knee. Her right leg unable to support the rest of body thanks to the pain. The club-wielding one loomed over her, raising both of his arms for a massive brutal strike. Amy needed the blood, but she didn't have time for it.
In the midst of the moment, Amy heard a gun firing and the watcher froze.
It was her gun. Instinctively, Amy had grabbed her own pistol and fired at the monster. The obese cadaver recoiled from the hit. Now it was his turn to feel on the knees. Without even thinking, Amy rose herself on her feet and lunged at the monster. Her body was guiding her.
She plunged her hand inside the monster grabbing something.
And then she pulled.
It was an explosion of pure pleasure as she ripped the entrails of the watcher off his enormous belly. Her power feeding her of every bit information, she felt every single cell, both death and alive at the time, being crudely torn and shred by her claw-like hand. She felt the pain of the monster.
And she felt his blood.
It was a shower of blood, covering her entire body. Some of the blood ended even on her face, entering from the holes of her beak-shaped mask.
She licked it off.
It tasted, oh so, sweet.
She now loomed over the monster, her leg didn't hurt anymore. The fat creature tried to lift his body back, but whatever she had ripped off, had been really important because after a moment he felt on the ground again, dead.
She had killed another being.
The previous time was an accident. This time definitely not.
Yet, she felt so good… a guilty pleasure.
No, as her mother said. Those things weren't alive or saner anymore. She was doing them a favor. She was still a good person. Did she care, anymore if she was a good person? Yes, maybe...
There was nothing wrong with having pleasure doing a good deed, no?
"Awwww… My baby girl first visceral attack. It's really true that they grow so fast…" Emilia cooed. After having eliminated the Warden with a gun, the last watcher had failed to pull something even close to a fight.
"Anyways I think that we are done here," She said, lifting the lantern that (somehow) appeared in the center of the room.
Amy nodded. Emilia lit the lantern and they disappeared into the same silvery mist.
Once back at the Dream, Amy kept stared at the void in silence. "Soooo, you are been surprisingly quiet since we returned. Everything okay, dear?" She asked a bit worried by her change of attitude.
"It was…" She murmured.
"Did you say something?"
"It was… FANTASTIC!" Amy shouted. "I felt the blood rushing through me… it spoke to me… I have so many ideas now… I…I… the sweet taste was… was incredible. I could feel everything inside his body… I…"
She paused. Removing her mask.
"I… am becoming a monster," She said, still scared and uncomfortable about how much she enjoyed the crude act of simply let herself loose, drunk of blood.
"Yes, you awe mommy's little monster" Emilia baby-talked as she hugged her (again). "Yes, you are! Yes, you are. I can even start to see a pair cute little fangs…" She chirped.
"Mom, stop. This is serious…"
…
…
They both froze.
"D-did you just?"
"Oh, no, no, no…"
"Yes, you did…"
"No, I didn't…"
"Yes, you did!"
"No, I didn't"
"YES, YOU DID"
"MOM NO!"
"MOM YESSSS" She exclaimed as lunged towards her like a shark that had just smell blood. Before Amy had the chance to react she founded herself crushed by another hug. "AH YOU SAID IT AGAIN! OH, AMELIA. I AM SO HAPPY, HAPPY. HAPPY. HAPPY."
"My ribs…" Amy could only exclaim as she felt her bones turning into a paste. "Okay, now please stop. We need to talk…"
Emilia released her daughter from her iron grip, her face still radiant with pure joy and the massive grin on her face much shinier than the moon on the sky.
Amy took a deep breath: "Mom" She started and Emilia squeed. "After the last few events, I don't think anymore that you are bad person or a villain… and I really appreciate the affection that you showed me but…" She tried to act professionally, imitating how Carol acted when dealing with his costumers. Of course, this was quite hard as the person she was talking too, was smiling and jiggling all the time. "… I am sure that the New Wav… my family… is worrying about me, so why we don't make a deal? I will try for a bit this Drown-your-problems-into-blood (because it felt surprisingly good) but then you will let me go… I mean after all, you said that time doesn't actually flow here… so, what do you think? Sounds good?"
…
"O-Of course I don't mean to never see each other again! I can come here whatever you like. Actually it wouldn't be so bad… especially when I am stressed and I need to cool down…"
"Amy, you didn't have to ask. Of course, you can do whatever you want!"
"Oh good! Then we have a deal?" Amy offered his hand. Emilia grabbed it and they awkwardly shook hands.
What I am getting myself into?