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

Chapter 8: Facts Concerning the Good Hunter

LOG: [Error: Data Corrupted]: Data Corruption Extreme

Cyrus Bishop: …won't do…

[Unintelligible Screeching]

Cyrus Bishop: … NO! …

[Error: Data Corrupted]: All it… …one… …Blood.

Cyrus Bishop: …again and… …death.

…/…

Even though the ride to Maker's End was silent, Cyrus could tell that Aloy had questions for him. Simultaneously, he could see the warring thoughts behind her eyes. His execution of Dervhal was sudden, and some would argue that it wasn't just, but Cyrus didn't really care. In the grand scheme of things, Dervhal was but a footnote in the story of the cosmos, if that. The only beings that would ever be more than a footnote were the Great One and the Old Ones.

"I can tell you have something to say." Cyrus stated as they passed through the woods.

"Was his death really warranted like that?" Aloy asked.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not." Cyrus said. "The Carja king would have wasted too much time, men and resources transporting him back to the Oseram's homeland. I merely cut out the middle man."

"You still didn't need to kill an unarmed, helpless opponent." Aloy said.

"Strange." Cyrus replied. "I didn't take you for sentimental. You certainly don't seem to have a problem with killing off the men who attacked you and your own at your ritual."

"Death in combat and execution are two very different things." Aloy snapped, bringing her strider to a stop.

"Are they?" Cyrus replied, turning his Strider towards her. "What about an execution makes it different from death in combat? A death is still a death, a life is still a life. Are you one of those fools who believe that everyone deserves a second chance or a psychopath who couldn't care less about the lives of those you see as beneath you?"

"Neither." Aloy answered.

"Then why do you have such a problem with executing a criminal? You heard from Avad and Erend that he would likely have been sentenced to death either way." Cyrus said. "Honor is a foolish notion to hold to."

He turned and continued their ride north. Aloy spurred her Strider to catch up to him.

"What about you?" She asked. "How do you see life?"

Cyrus glanced at her. She was staring intently at him. He turned his gaze back to the road ahead.

"Life is a conundrum. A fascinating puzzle that exists to satisfy the whims and boredom of deities who see themselves as above us." Cyrus said. "Our purpose is their entertainment. My drive is to see life freed from such shackles."

"You make it incredibly hard to like you." Aloy said.

"I told you once, I don't care." Cyrus replied.

A moment of silence passed between them.

"I didn't take you for one to believe in gods." Aloy responded.

"Do you not?" Cyrus questioned.

"Not particularly." Aloy said.

"Strange. I know the Nora has, at the least, a goddess." Cyrus stated.

"The All-Mother is just a machine. A door tucked away in the back of a mountain." Aloy said. "Why do you believe in gods?"

"It's hard not to believe in a deity when you've killed a few." Cyrus muttered.

"What?" Aloy asked.

"The gods are something I've always believed in." Cyrus stated, louder than his muttering.

The pair continued their ride in silence. Snow started to set in, falling gently from the clouds above. Cyrus noted that Aloy was looking around for something. Their path led them through some ruined buildings. Aloy and Cyrus dismounted their striders and continued the rest of their path on foot.

There was clear evidence of activity, but no signs of any people. Aloy stopped and knelt next to a ruined vehicle. Time had not been kind to the metal, but it was still somewhat recognizable. A wooden chest sat in the snow behind the vehicle. Aloy opened it and pulled out various supplies.

"Right where he said it would be." Aloy muttered.

"Who?" Cyrus asked.

"An interested third party. He told me this place had a lot of Eclipse agents." Aloy said.

"Is that what they're calling themselves?" Cyrus responded.

"Apparently." Aloy said with a shrug.

They both held their weapons at a ready stance and walked into the ruins. Cyrus looked up and scowled. He recognized the tower. Faro Automated Solutions stood out as a blight on the world. He did take some satisfaction in seeing it brought so low.

Their trek led them into the outer ruins of the compound. Strangely, it was devoid of people. There was clear evidence of them being here. Scaffolding and wooden bridges had been built to make traversing the area easier. Cyrus stepped on something hard. He looked down and saw one of the masks the, now named, Eclipse were fond of. He knelt and picked it up. He noticed some dark cloth sticking out of the ground.

He brushed snow away to discover the clothes and weapons of one of the Eclipse warriors, but just the clothes and weapons. He stood, a feeling of dread and anticipation settling in his gut.

"Cyrus?" Aloy asked.

"Is there any reason that anyone would remove all of their clothes and weapons in a ruin like this?" Cyrus asked.

"Not that I know of, why?" Aloy answered.

"Because I have a feeling that things just got worse." Cyrus answered.

They continued deeper into the ruin. More clothes and weapons, even a dead Scarab, but no people. Cyrus snarled; he had a good idea as to what happened. His suspicions were proved correct as they made it to the ruin just below the tower proper. A Khopesh was walking around. Cyrus scowled as he noticed the dark crimson stains on the machine.

"That's a big machine." Aloy stated.

"It's a Blood Wasp Khopesh." Cyrus snarled.

"A what?" Aloy turned to the Hunter.

"Stay back. If that thing sees you, you're dead." Cyrus commanded, looking around.

He saw that the Khopesh was alone. It was walking around and scanning the area. It appeared to be looking for more victims. The ruins had crumbled in such a way as to prevent the Khopesh from leaving too easily, a small consolation for dealing with a Blood Wasp. Directly under the tower, he could see a hole in the metal, presumably a way into the tower proper.

"The tower's entrance is over there." Cyrus said, pointing towards the hole he saw. "If you can get over there, you should be able to get into the ruins."

"What about you?" Aloy asked.

"Like last time, I'll be the bait. I should be able to keep its attention while you make it into the tower." Cyrus said. "I'll meet you up top."

Aloy didn't respond as Cyrus leapt into the arena. He immediately ran into the Khopesh's line of sight. The Khopesh trained its weapons and began firing at him. The twin machine guns on its sides were bearing down on him. With nary a thought, he activated the art of quickening and dashed through the stream of bullets. He brought the burial blade up and severed one of the turrets.

Two panels on the back of the machine opened up. A cloud of red and black was released from the panels and targeted him. Cyrus braced himself for the pain that was sure to come. He dashed through the cloud and brought the Burial Blade down on one of the machine's legs, severing it. He spun and severed the other leg immediately next to him. He could feel the Khopesh's biofuel system eating away at his flesh. He dashed behind the machine and slammed a blood vial into his leg.

The healing blood repaired much of his flesh, but he could still feel the system eating away at his flesh. The Khopesh was slowly turning around. The loss of two of its legs had proven enough to give the Khopesh stability issues. The Khopesh started firing again. Cyrus dashed in and cut off another leg. The Khopesh, with the loss of three of its legs, fell forward. It tried to turn and fire at Cyrus, but the Hunter had already gotten out of the machine's now limited sight.

He switched from the Burial Blade to Ludwig's Moonlight Blade. He made a quick prayer and climbed on top of the Khopesh. He stabbed another blood vial into his leg as the ethereal moonlight bathed the arena in a pale blue. As Ludwig once did to him, Cyrus held the blade straight, point down. The eldritch moonlight glowed brighter and he pushed the blade straight down into the Blood Wasp Khopesh. A large circle of magic power erupted from the ground around him. The cosmic power destroyed both the Khopesh and the biofuel system that was eating away at his body. He sheathed the sword on his back and stepped off the dead machine. He stabbed another blood vial into his leg and sat against the Khopesh.

"You were always the worst." Cyrus said to the dead machine. "Let me tell you, if they resurrect the Blood Hornet, I might just leave this world to its fate."

A small orange light caught his attention. He stood up, pain still radiating through his body and walked over towards the light. It was a Focus. He picked it up and placed it on the side of his head. He hated Focuses, but that didn't mean he couldn't use it. He started scrolling through the files on the holographic interface.

"Entity is not Eclipse." A harsh monotone voice spoke.

The Focus's interface was filled with an ominous red light. The voice of the being was clearly not human. Quite mechanical in nature, actually.

"Entity does not register as human. Entity is an anomaly." The voice continued. "What is anomaly?"

"What are you?" Cyrus asked. "You don't sound human either."

"Identity is irrelevant. What is entity?" The voice asked again.

"How about an exchange. My identity for yours?" Cyrus countered.

"Exchange is acceptable. What is anomaly?" The voice asked again.

"The Good Hunter." Cyrus answered. "And you?"

"Hades." The voice answered. "Anomaly is unknown. Anomaly is not human."

"Neither are you." Cyrus spat as he pulled the Focus off his head.

He threw the small device on the ground. Cyrus turned towards the tower entrance that Aloy had probably entered. The Focus sparked as it was crushed under his boot. The open door revealed that Aloy had indeed made it into the building.

…/…

The three holograms had revealed much. Project Zero Dawn. A top-secret program that had stopped the Faro plague. The question now was how.

"Quite fascinating, isn't it?" A hologram of a dark-skinned man said.

"So, you decided to show your face." Aloy snarked. "Who are you?"

"Everything we just learned, and you only want to know who I am?" The man said.

"I'm not the uninvited guest here." Aloy retorted.

"Fine. Sylens." The man said. "Any other pointless questions?"

The mechanical voice spoke up again.

"A fourth file has been recovered. Beginning playback." it said.

Aloy and Sylens turned to the holograms. Ted Faro was sitting at his desk, again, his head resting in his hand.

"Dear God, I hope this works." Faro said. "Lis's idea…

To their surprise, Cyrus Bishop stepped up to Faro's table.

"Why have you called me, Faro?" Cyrus growled. "You are lucky I'm here. Make this worth my time."

"Mr. Bishop, have you heard about the rogue swarm?" Faro asked.

"Yes. I've fought them. I also know you've lost complete control of them and are coming to me for help." Cyrus stated.

"Ok… yes." Faro admitted.

"So, what is it that you want my help with?" Cyrus asked.

"Well, I've done my research on you. You've been cropping up quite a bit in the past." Faro said.

"So?" Cyrus asked, leaning against Faro's table and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, you have been appearing for over two hundred years." Faro continued. "My research has also revealed what's left of the history of Yharn-"

"No." Cyrus said.

"You don't even know what I-" Faro tried again.

"I said no. That city was destroyed for a reason. That city and its demons will remain buried." Cyrus said.

"Why?" Faro asked. "I found a few references to the Hunt. You are one of its Hunters. We can grant immortality to the people and save them from this disaster."

"Tough." Cyrus said. "Immortality won't save humanity. Your arrogance and mistakes will go down as the cause of the end of the world."

"But we can save everyone." Faro tried again.

"No, we can't." Cyrus replied, walking out of the hologram.

"Why?" Faro asked.

"It is better for humanity to die than to suffer in the Hunt." Cyrus replied. "If I hear you and the name of Yharnam in the same breath ever again, I will kill you."

The hologram cut off.

"That explains some things." Sylens muttered.

"You know, that was one of two times. I met Ted Faro." Cyrus stated, climbing into what was left of Faro's office.

Aloy turned to him, unable to keep the look of confusion and astonishment off her face.

"You're an old one." Aloy stated. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"First, don't call me an old one. Second, you never asked." Cyrus said. "So, I assume you have questions."

"Lots." Aloy said. "Right now, what is a Blood Wasp?"

"I assume you know about the Faro Plague?" Cyrus asked, to which Aloy nodded. "The Blood Wasps were a specific Faro Swarm. We started calling them the Blood Wasps when they… acquired a taste for human blood. The biofuel refueling system became their primary weapon." Cyrus answered. "The Khopesh downstairs was a Blood Wasp."

"How did you survive them?" Aloy asked.

"The same reason I'm still alive now." Cyrus answered.

"You're immortal?" Aloy queried.

Cyrus nodded. "Easily two thousand years old."

"Do you know what project Zero Dawn was?" Aloy asked.

Cyrus shrugged. "Vaguely. I know the name. I had a friend who was picked to work on the project. All I know is that it was one of countless potentially swarm ending projects at the end of the world."

"Did you work on one of those projects?" Aloy asked.

"No." Cyrus denied. "I was on the front lines, fighting the swarms. The Blood Wasps in particular were my primary quarry. I was also the only survivor of a cryogenics project, due to my previously mentioned immortality."

"What else do you know of the Faro Plague?" Aloy asked.

"Not much. I just fought them. I never bothered to care about why they went rogue." Cyrus confided. "Enough about me for now. Did you learn anything?"

"A little about the woman who I look like, the hitchhiker in my Focus, and some about how the old world ended. Something I, apparently, could have asked you about." Aloy snarked.

"That's your own fault. I haven't exactly made it a secret that I'm not from your world." Cyrus replied.

"He does have a point." Aloy heard Sylens say.

"So, who was the woman you bear a resemblance to?" Cyrus asked. "Also, hitchhiker in your Focus?"

"The hitchhiker in my focus is named Sylens and that's about all I know about him." Aloy answered.

"And the woman?" Cyrus prodded.

"Her name is Elisabet Sobeck." Aloy answered. "Do you know anything about her?"

"Not much. I never personally met her. She was reportedly a brilliant robotics engineer. One of the heads at FAS at one point." Cyrus said. "If I'm not mistaken, I think she also led one of the attempts to save life on Earth."

"She proposed Project Zero Dawn." Aloy said. "Did you learn anything?"

"A couple things. The 'god' of the Eclipse is a being called Hades." Cyrus answered.

"Does that ring any bells for you?" Aloy asked.

"The only thing I can think of is the Greek god of the underworld." Cyrus replied.

"Greek?" Aloy asked.

"Yeah, right, they were one of the old-world civilizations. The ancient Greeks had a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses they used to explain how everything in the world works. Hades was the god of the underworld, their afterlife. Ironically enough, he was really the only one of their gods that could legitimately be considered good." Cyrus recollected.

"Okay… anything else?" Aloy asked.

"I don't think the Eclipse or Hades know what the Blood Wasps are. The lack of Eclipse down below seems to indicate that the awakening of the Blood Wasp was in error." Cyrus said. "Anything else you learned?"

"I think I know the next place to go. They said something about U.S. Robot Command." Aloy said.

"So, we're headed to the USRC then, let's go." Cyrus said.

The Good Hunter smirked at Aloy and walked to the edge of the tower.

"Meet you at the bottom." Cyrus said, as he jumped off the tower.

"He is a very strange man." Sylens spoke up.

"This coming from the mysterious stranger who's been watching me for who knows how long." Aloy muttered.

ERROR-DATA_CORRUPTION-BEGIN_FILE_RECOVERY…/…

Data Log TEH-008

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

Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.

End Log S.T.K.