"Disgusting."
The huntress ripped her crescent saw from the split, misshapen skull of one of the so-called "Living Failures." The corpses of a dozen or so blue, sexless giants littered the field of sunflowers. Though they appeared otherworldly, the muddy red blood dripping from the saw's teeth proved a much more macabre origin. The horrors of the research hall where the Healing Church had performed ghastly experiments on believers were behind them now. The hall now held only the silence of death, though the Hunter's Nightmare would soon restore the trapped souls to their half-mad agony.
"Yeah, they're pretty gross. They don't look as phallic as the finished product, though."
"That's hardly what I meant. The lengths to which you humans go for power. Nations laid to waste, drained of life or worse. This. I love you dearly, but I cannot fathom why your people were Chosen."
"It's our tenacity. Weak, pathetic humans, without claws or fur. All we have is that inferiority complex driving us to to want more. It's up to the individual what they're willing to do for power. It just happened that the Church here was willing to sacrifice innocents for a power that they couldn't even control. Same story, different Age."
The male hunter eyed the enormous, multi-headed sunflower in the center of the field nervously. The faces looked unsettlingly like eyes. The huntress brushed a stray lock of wavy hair out of her eye and sighed.
"It is, isn't it? Let's see about this conspiracy's guardian, then. Maria, I believe it was?"
"Yeah. One of the Old Hunters. She was one of Gehrman's apprentices, but it looks like she sided with the Church in the end. A distant relative of the Vileblood Queen as well."
"I recall you saying that she was the most skilled swordsman among them?"
The foreign prophet nodded
"She uses a daisho – bastard and shortsword katana pair. Originally, she hated the use of blood blades, but well, I think she hates herself more now. Blood and fire – she's a clear link between the Vilebloods and the Pthumerians."
"A woman after my own heart. Oh, I have relished the chance for a fine duel since dear old dogbreath lost his arm. Let me fight her, alone."
The hunter quirked an eyebrow. His partner leaned in close.
"I'll make it worth your while," she whispered, dragging an inhumanly long tongue along the side of his neck.
The man quivered, hair standing on end. He put his hands on her hips, putting some distance between them so he could look her in the eye.
"Be careful," he said seriously. "I'll wait at the edge of the room, in case you need me."
"Of course. What's a duel without an audience? I'll let you do your proselytizing once I'm finished."
With that, they headed up the short stairs to the great bronze doors opposite the entrance. The man lit the nearby lantern while the woman unlocked the doors and pushed them open with a grunt. Another set of stairs inside led to a ruined room, upturned floorboards everywhere. It had been cleared of its contents, save a lone chair and end table at the far end. The room was illuminated by sunlight streaming through the circular holes that marked the hours on an enormous brass clock.
The chair sat beneath the clock, perfectly centered at the far end of the room. A woman slumped over in the chair, unmoving. As the pair approached, they could see that she wore a leather longcoat and a tricorne with a feather in it, the model from which modern hunter attire derived. A white ascot with a jeweled broach was tied about her neck, but it had run red with blood. One arm hung loosely over the side of the chair, blood dripping into a puddle on the floor.
On the table were set a red goblet and a shattered picture frame. Blood spattered these as well. All around the chair were strewn sunflower petals, and whole sunflowers were placed upon a memorial plaque behind the chair. The male hunter ascended the stairs to this plaque and leaned on the railing, waving to his partner. She nodded and reached to stir the cold corpse.
In an instant, the body lurched to life, grabbing her arm and jerking her forward. The huntress was a pale beauty, but a corpse is easily paler. Platinum blond locks fell out of either side of the tricorne, and watery yellow eyes leered at her from a distance closer than her partner had held her.
"A corpse," the dead woman said tiredly, "should be left well alone."
She released her grip gently and allowed the huntress to beat a hasty retreat before leisurely rising from the chair.
"Oh, I know very well. How the secrets beckon so sweetly."
A blade had been left standing vertically, wedged between two floorboards. The woman tugged it free – a cutlass and a long knife connected at the ends, blades opposite one another. She held them close, and with a metallic clank, snapped the paired blades apart.
"Only an honest death will cure you now. Liberate you from your wild curiosity."
The woman raised both blades upside-down and burst forward with a twisting downward lunge. The huntress hadn't expected a human to move so quickly, but accustomed to the surprises of the Hunt by now, she quickly ducked out of the way, making a quick swipe at the dead woman's ankles. Maria stumbled, so Quelaag spun around and hacked across her back. Abruptly, the old hunter vanished in a puff of smoke. The foreign queen rushed after her but quickly dropped to the ground, sliding between Maria's legs as she crossed her blades in front of her.
Quelaag let her arm go limp and dragged the sawblade up Maria's back as she sprung to her feet. The church hunter pivoted in place, tearing both blades around with enormous torque. Quelaag grabbed her blade with both hands and blocked, allowing the force of the blow to throw her back and put distance between them. This time, Maria charged with one blade high and the other low, snapping together like a beast's jaw. Quelaag jumped to one side and pirouetted, hopping from one foot to the other as she repeatedly hacked away at Maria like a bladed top.
The old hunter ducked out of the attack at last and swung her saber overhead, stepping inside Quelaag's rotation. The spider queen quickly threw herself down, standing on one hand while slamming her blade upward to block the attack. The long knife followed at a delay, so she quickly finished the flip, hopping out of range but facing the wrong direction. Maria lunged forward again, but this time, Quelaag threw herself backward. The blades surged overhead as her armored buttocks bowled over the flustered church hunter.
"Dat ass!" her partner cheered from the sidelines.
Quelaag took a blind swipe as she spun about, but Maria had quickly turned the momentum of her fall into a retreat.
"Hold on!" the prophet shouted. "She's going to power up and then explode!"
Maria stood with feet apart, blades at her sides. She raised her fists into the air, then without hesitation, drove both weapons under her collarbone and out above her shoulder blades. She drew them out again with a tremendous blood spray, slumping over somewhat from the pain and exhaustion. Both blades were half again their prior length and width, half-solid blood melding with the iron. Now, a mere swing of the blade unleashed a wave of volatile blood.
After missing her opening strike, the Vileblood connected the weapons and focused for a moment. With a roar, she unleashed a rising arc of blood that could have easily cut a swath through the beasts outside. Quelaag quickly slid to one side and charged. Maria tried to block her passage with a quick one-two, forming a wall of tainted blood, but the Old Lord stopped herself before she ran into it, leaping to the side again. The huntress was able to get in a quick slash before Maria exploded into blood and vanished.
Again, she combined the blades, holding them as if to make a lunging charge. Quelaag charged directly toward her, heedless of the stance. In an instant, the Vileblood lashed out, unleashing a piercing lance of blood, but the Old Lord was gone. Quelaag flipped in midair, tearing her saw down Maria's exposed side. Maria quickly retaliated, swinging one blood blade, then the other, arcing them up again together, and then lunging, but Quelaag slipped under the first strike, popping up on the other side to avoid the second, and using the third as time to get behind her.
The saw's teeth cut deep, and Maria tumbled away, exposing herself for another blow before she could quickstep away. At a safe distance, she corkscrewed into the air, propelled by a spiral of blood spurting from her swords. She screamed, jetting herself through the air before crashing down with a crimson hammer. Blood and shattered floorboards sprayed everywhere, but this time, the huntress attacked from behind. As Maria stood on all four limbs from her landing, Quelaag leaped over her, dragging the saw across her back.
The Vileblood snorted and rose, then continued rising. Blood circled around her in rings going every direction as she floated serenely, blades to her sides. Abruptly, the blood burst back outward, coating much of the room. Maria snapped her swords together overhead, paused, then hammered them into the floor. An explosion of blood and an arc of flame followed, and Quelaag's eyes went wide in delight.
"Finally, you face me at your strongest! I shall put away this toy as well!"
With that, she flipped her grip and slammed the crescent saw between two loose floorboards. Keeping an eye open to attack, she unhinged her jaw. She coughed, and a light glowed from within before something long and reddish-black emerged. Maria quickstepped one way, then the other, charging with her blade at a right angle to cleave through the demon queen while she was preparing her counterattack. Unfortunately, it backfired.
Quelaag turned as the blow came, catching the attack on her back. She grunted in pain as the blood and steel struck her, but the flame simply washed over with no effect. Turning with the attack, she pulled the thing from her throat, drawing up a long katana with a warped and mottled blade and inflicting the same wound on her foe's back. Maria turned and unleashed a slash that tore through the wall and ceiling, but the demoness simply wasn't there. This time, she caught the blow before it struck her, though, stopping the katana with both blades as it aimed to take a chunk out of her shoulder.
She threw the blade back, but Quelaag only lunged forward again. Maria sidestepped, but the wicked blade still clipped her side, slicing through the leather with a red-hot blade. She slashed from the shoulder, but Quelaag spun around her in a circle, the searing edge cutting a red line through her armor. Thinking to catch her foe, she slashed in either direction, boiling blood and roiling flame forming an impassable arc around her. The Old Lord had taken her rightful place above the mere Vileblood, flipping over the attack to make a quick slash from behind.
Maria whirled about, striking quickly, but Quelaag caught it on the katana's delicate blade. The Vileblood became a beautiful vortex of swirling blood and flame, and the Chaos Queen matched every blow, laughing wildly as her weapon splintered and sparked from the abuse. Furious, Maria roared and hammered against the thin blade with both of hers, splattering the foreign huntress with blood and embers. The half-liquid blood blades washed over the katana and nearly cut into the witch's neck, but she only laughed the harder for it. Abruptly, it was no longer a laughing matter.
"Get back!" Quelaag demanded, swallowing hard. "Back!"
"What could be the matter?" the dead woman said flatly. "A moment of sanity, perhaps?"
"No, you idi-!"
The demoness choked and bit her lip.
"Get back! NOW!" Quelaag hissed. "I'll give you a free hit! Just do it before I-!"
Her eyes went wide. She took a deep breath and swallowed. She nearly lost her grip on her sword. Then, with a lurch forward, she vomited magma all over her foe. Maria fell over screaming, rolling on the ground in a vain effort to extinguish the molten stone.
"Darling, heal-!"
Quelaag doubled over and vomited the other direction, the lava quickly spreading over the dry old floorboards and causing fire to spread much more quickly than Maria's transient attacks. It would only be a matter of time before the entire building was alight. The foreign priest rushed over quickly and began to recite the spell of healing over his partner, but she covered her mouth and pointed to Maria before vomiting a third time and destroying any hope that the clock tower wouldn't burn to the ground. Fortunately, the hunter reached Maria before she was slain by the all-consuming Chaos Flame. He quickly healed the worst of her injuries and then helped brush some of the remaining lava off her ruined outfit.
The old hunter was so confused by the sudden chain of events that she didn't resist the help. Exhausted, her blood blades flickered and burst, pouring over the burning floor. She slumped over slightly but maintained her dignity.
"I want a rematch," Quelaag said, shuddering as she spat out the last of the lava. "Perhaps in a more suitable arena," she added, seeing the uncontrolled blaze.
"If you wish to do battle again, you must leave this place. I will not allow hunters to pass," Maria said adamantly, despite her fatigue.
The male hunter shook his head.
"We have to end this nightmare, or more hunters will keep getting dragged in. The Orphan of Kos is already dead. Better to put it to rest than let it continue living out this nightmare. "Sins of the Father" is a bullshit paradigm. The younger hunters have nothing to do with what happened there."
"Then you know what they are capable of-!"
"I know what people are capable of, yeah. That doesn't mean I'll let some alien preteen edgelord judge a bunch of unrelated people. You know how the two of us got here? We tricked the stupid Amigdala thing that grabs people off the street. Grabs people off the street.
Sure, pretty much everyone on the street is insane by now, but when the choice is between beasthood and death, I'm pretty sure most people are going to ask if you have any more blood vials. If you want to make sure that we don't do something stupid, then come with us. It's already clear that we could have forced our way through if we wanted to."
Maria stiffened.
"Oh, just do it," Quelaag groaned, still a little nauseous. "This idiot gets monsters to follow him like stray dogs. Myself included."
The hunter circled around and began gently massaging her back. The Vileblood grimaced, then nodded.
"Very well. You do not have the overpowering scent as the blood-mad hunters do. Perhaps a mother will have more pity for the orphan.