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Bloodborne belongs to FromSoftware, Horizon Zero Dawn belongs to Guerrilla Games

Chapter 6: A Third Party

LOG: Desperate Times: Data Corruption Minimal

General Herres: Reports from the front are getting worse. I've been hearing rumors of one of the swarms. It's far worse than anything the Faro Plague has thrown our way before. The only way to really describe it… one of the swarms has acquired a taste for humans. It sounds just as ridiculous when I say it as when I read the report. Fortunately, we have managed to acquire the assistance of someone who can only be described as a living legend. All the records refer to him as The Hunter. Reports have been saying that he can take on whole squads of machines by himself. We can only hope he can take down the Blood Wasp. If he can't, Zero Day will come before Zero Dawn is finished. Lord save us.

…/…

The third dig site was well guarded for supposedly being a simple ruin scrounge. Three dead Scarabs, a number of armored morons, and a single Oseram whom Cyrus presumed to be Olin. He watched as one of the masked men was posturing over something. Cyrus didn't rightfully care what it was. He only scowled when he raised a device of some sort and the three Scarabs stood up. The Oseram stepped back. Even from the distance he was, Cyrus could see the regret and fear in his eyes.

He looked around the dig site. It was nestled, rather nicely, in the rocks, hidden from view of the outside world. The scaffolding provided decent cover from the sights of the men and machines below. Several of the men patrolled along the rocky outcroppings. A few more patrolled the inside alongside the Scarabs. He could just barely make out the Faro Focus on the nearest of the men. It was safe to presume most of them had one.

Cyrus would try stealth, but once one man went down, they were sure to know it. They would easily find him. Nothing would hide him from the Focuses, except a shutdown of said Focuses. A shutdown that was unlikely to happen. The more interesting thing was to know who would be watching on the other side of the network. Who else would see him?

Cyrus frowned as he looked for his out. His best bet would be to simply leave. No one need ever know he was there. But, he had to know about the men who were reviving the Faro Plague.

His thoughts drifted to his best chance of coming out of this as unnoticed as possible, blue elixir. His supplies weren't heavily limited, but they didn't ever last too long, and he was unsure if the Focus would still see him. The same applied to the Messenger's Gift, though it lasted considerably longer than the blue elixir.

With a resigned sigh, he realized he would have to reveal himself to whoever was pulling the strings. The least he could do is not advertise too heavily what his abilities were. With a small grin, he stalked his way towards the nearest cultist. The man was busy watching the site below. He certainly wasn't anticipating the sword in his chest.

The man gurgled on his blood as he fell to the ground. Cyrus was already moving towards his next target.

"We have a man down!" One of the cultists yelled.

"Someone's infiltrated the site!" Another called.

"Find them and kill them!" The apparent leader ordered.

Cyrus had already beheaded the next man when the leader gave the order. The head rolled into the dig site below.

"There he is!" Someone called out.

One of the cultists ran towards the Good Hunter. Cyrus shot him in the chest. He slammed his fist through the cultist's ribs as he fell to the ground. A fountain of blood erupted from the dying man as Cyrus pulled his fist from the man. A deranged grin formed on the Hunter's face as he absorbed the echoes.

The three Scarabs focused their attention on the Hunter. Seeing that the machines were no longer patrolling, Olin took action. He swung his own hammer at the cultist leader. The blow caught the man unawares. The side of his head crunched as he fell over dead. Some of the cultists saw Olin's attack and ran at him. One of the men began shooting at Olin.

The Oseram was able to bring down two of the cultists before a sharp pain echoed up through his leg. Looking down, he could see an arrow sticking out from his shin. One of the other cultists tackled Olin to the ground. As he raised his weapon the loud bang from Cyrus's pistol resounded around the dig site. Olin could only watch in horror as the Good Hunter stabbed the man with his scythe and threw the dying man at one of the Scarabs.

The last cultist fired at the Hunter. The arrow whizzed through the air, only for Cyrus to catch it like someone had thrown a rock at him. The cultist lowered his bow in awe and terror as the Hunter turned his gaze towards him. With nary a thought, Cyrus launched the arrow at the cultist and loaded some bone marrow ash into his pistol. A bullet followed the arrow a second later. The arrow hit the cultist and bounced off him, the bullet however went straight through his head.

Cyrus turned back to the Scarabs in time to see one of them slam its tail into him. Cyrus was thrown towards the rock walls. He slammed into the rock and groaned. He could feel the broken vertebrae with that one. He grit his teeth and stabbed a blood vial into his leg. The relief from the pain was immediate as he stood up. The three Scarabs were already advancing on him.

"Fine then, let's play it that way." Cyrus growled as he sheathed the burial blade.

He traded the weapon for Ludwig's Holy Moonlight Blade. He raised the blade above his head and ran a hand along the edge.

"Ludwig's Moonlight, guide me." The Hunter prayed to whatever being had deigned to bless the blade.

The tell-tale blue of the arcane blade brought a smile to Cyrus's face. He grasped the greatsword in both hands and felt it charging.

'Left' s small voice spoke in his head.

Cyrus swung the blade towards his left and let the energy release itself. An arc of magical moonlight was flung from the blade and towards two of the Scarabs. One leapt out of the way while the other was caught by the blast. The arcane moonlight sliced through two of the machines legs and it fell to the ground.

'Guard, back' the voice whispered again.

Cyrus braced the blade over his back as one of the Scarabs brought its tail down on the blade. The arcane magic seared straight through the metal and the machine reared back. Cyrus spun and swung the blade through the machine's midsection. The second Scarab fell. The third, now wary of the Hunter, was readying its own volley of ranged attacks. Cyrus brought the blade up and readied a thrust. Arcane energies swirled around the sword once again.

"Nice try." Cyrus grinned as he thrust the blade forward.

A beam of pure arcane energy issued forth from the blade and shot through the center of the machine. The moonlight beam thoroughly destroyed the robot. Cyrus grinned as he lowered the blade. The final Scarab fell to the ground. He walked towards the first Scarab and stabbed the machine through its eye.

With a heave, Cyrus slammed the weapon into the ground and the arcane energy dissipated. He smiled and sheathed the sword on his back once more.

The groans of pain from the Oseram drew his attention. Cyrus walked over to him and knelt next to him.

"Are you going to kill me now?" Olin asked.

"That is not my call. I'm more interested in why you're trying to raise ancient machines." Cyrus said.

"I don't have a choice. They have my family." Olin replied.

"Do you know why they're raising them? Or who they are to begin with?" Cyrus asked.

"They call themselves the Eclipse, an offshoot of the Shadow Carja. It's done on the orders of their 'god'." Olin answered.

"Their god?" Cyrus questioned, his whole body tensing up. "Who is this god?"

"I don't know. They call it the buried shadow." Olin replied.

"That's one bit of good news." Cyrus muttered with a sigh of relief. That epithet did not ring any bells. "Why were you drawing schematics of these machines?"

"I thought it might help me figure out how to stop them." Olin answered. "They originally only came to me to find them. I didn't know until recently that they were reviving them."

"Well, it would seem your ignorance led to the slaughter at the Nora's proving ritual." Cyrus said.

"You were there?" Olin asked.

"No, I've been traveling with the only survivor." Cyrus replied. "Anything else you can tell me about this buried shadow? Has it ever spoken?"

"Once. When I first saw the red-haired Nora." Olin said. "My focus glitched and I heard it say 'system threat detected'."

"Interesting." Cyrus muttered. "Have you ever seen her before? Because it sounds like this buried shadow and the Eclipse want her dead."

"Once. An image of her, or someone who looked like her was on a door in Maker's End." Olin answered.

"Thank you." Cyrus said standing up.

"Wait." Olin said as Cyrus turned to leave. "Please, could you at least save my family?"

Cyrus glanced down at the man.

"I know I don't deserve any mercy, not with the blood on my hands, but they're innocent." Olin pleaded.

Cyrus turned back to the Oseram.

"Consider this the only mercy I'm giving you." Cyrus stated.

The Good Hunter raised an ornate gray bell. He knelt and pulled the arrow out of Olin's leg. Olin grunted in pain. Cyrus rang the bell. Ethereal white light glowed around the two for a second as Olin's leg knit itself back together.

"As far as anyone knows, I did nothing." Cyrus stated, leveling a hard glare at the Oseram. "You can save your family, and we'll never see each other again."

Cyrus didn't wait to see Olin's response. What was important was the lead for Aloy. Maker's End. Presumably a ruin… somewhere. Someone in Meridian probably knew. The Good Hunter shrugged it off and rode back to the city of the sun.

…/…

Finding out that Ersa was possibly still alive had left Erend deliriously happy. He had already rushed back towards Meridian. Aloy was still exploring Dimmed Bones. The ruin was certainly interesting. She was investigating further when a voice spoke up over her focus.

"It would seem that your friend has more to hide than I initially thought." The male voice said.

"Who is this?" Aloy demanded standing up and looking around.

"An interested party. Your dealings with the Hunter have drawn my interest. Consider me an ally." The voice answered.

"That doesn't answer my question!" Aloy exclaimed. "Who are you? How'd you speak to me?"

The voice didn't respond.

"That's remarkably helpful." Aloy grumbled as she mounted her strider and rode back to Meridian.

ERROR-DATA_CORRUPTION-BEGIN_FILE_RECOVERY…/…

Data Log TEH-006

Thank you to all who read this, your feedback and views are much appreciated.

Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.

End Log S.T.K.