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

Chapter 20: No Matter the Form

LOG: Ageless: Data Corruption Minimal

Cyrus Bishop: I will never shy away from the fact that immortality is more of a curse than a blessing. However, there are some aspects of it that are indeed blessings. For one, I'll never actually grow old. My body has stopped aging. At least, I don't think I'll grow old… It has been a couple millennia already and my body still looks the same as it did in Yharnam, give or take a few hundred scars. Being ageless is a definite plus. Yet not being allowed my eternal rest far outweighs that.

…/…

Cyrus stopped Alloy before they left the room.

"One thing before we leave, Aloy," Cyrus started. "All talk of Mergo does not leave this room. She is GAIA outside."

"What if the Moon Presence reads our minds? Surely it will see this conversation and that hologram." Aloy countered.

"We'll be fine." Cyrus replied. "The Moon Presence can only read your mind if it inhabits your body. They wouldn't do that to you, not yet at least. As for me, I've learned how to keep it from seeing certain memories."

"I'll keep that in mind." Aloy said. "Now to deal with the Nora."

"Good luck with that." Cyrus said.

"What?" Aloy turned to him.

"I'm going to dip out to the Dream for a bit. I'll meet up with you outside the village." Cyrus replied.

"Why?" Aloy asked.

"I'm going to head off the Moon Presence." Cyrus answered. "Just because it is unlikely to read your mind doesn't mean that it won't try. Besides, when we go silent in the Hunt like this, it gets suspicious."

"Good luck, then." Aloy said.

"Didn't you hear Mergo? I've never needed luck. Oh, one more thing, when I vanish, a small pool of blood will appear on the ground. Collect it." Cyrus said.

"Why?" Aloy asked.

"Left over Blood Echoes." Cyrus answered with a smirk. "Not many, but I have little use for them."

Cyrus focused on the Hunter's Mark. His body slowly began to vanish from the world as and Eldritch blue light shone around him. He smiled as his vision went dark. The gentle calm of the dream was as welcome as it was unwelcoming. He stood and looked around at the ever-unchanging horizon. The Doll was standing at her usual spot, looking at him.

"Good Hunter, you have returned." The Doll stated in greeting. "The Moon awaits you in the field. It is rather displeased with you right now."

Cyrus nodded and walked through the gate into the small field of flowers where he once fought Gehrman. The Moon Presence stood at full height underneath the tree at the far end. Cyrus steeled himself as he could feel the displeasure emanating from the beast. As soon as he made it to the base of the small hill, the Moon Presence's head glowed an angry red. Cyrus grit his teeth as pain surged through his body. Blood exploded all around him. He could feel his life hanging by a thread, simply because the Moon willed it.

The voice of the Moon Presence resounded throughout his mind. Cyrus fell to one knee at the Moon Presence's power. It stopped speaking as Cyrus slowly stood up.

"I'm not sorry, I… had no idea it was… warded like that." Cyrus wheezed.

The voice of the Moon Presence spoke again. Still angry but less so.

"I know." Cyrus grunted. "She would have found out eventually. It is her nature."

The Moon Presence pointed an accusatory finger at him as it spoke again.

"It was by accident I discovered it. Besides, she should be allowed some measure of privacy against you. Let her enjoy it while she lasts." Cyrus answered.

Another series of Eldritch words resounded.

"The created an AI, a man-made mind, to restart life." Cyrus answered.

A questioning, almost gleeful tilt of its head followed by more inhuman words spoke.

"Yes. That information still exists. You should know this. I do believe that someone out there is looking into the Hunt." Cyrus answered. "We are going to GAIA Prime to stop the destruction of this world."

The Moon Presence spoke once more. Its voice sounded slightly disappointed. Then, just as the conversation began it ended and the Moon Presence vanished from sight.

"That's what I was afraid of." Cyrus muttered as he injected three blood vials into his leg.

He walked back out of the field towards the Doll. He sat on the wall next to the Doll. She turned towards him, a questioning glance in her glass eyes.

"Good Hunter, are you all right?" She asked.

"No, Doll, I am not." Cyrus replied. "I wish I had never gone to Yharnam."

"Do you think that anything would have changed?" The Doll asked, sitting next to him.

"No. If it wasn't me, it would have just been someone else. Gehrman might have lasted forever, or someone would have replaced him. I don't think anything would be all that different." Cyrus stated.

The Doll looked up at the Moon. "One of the more religious Hunters to pass through the dream once told me that everything happens for a reason. That, if it wasn't you who did it, it would have been someone else in your place. However, just because someone else could easily replace you doesn't mean that you should just give up."

"Thank you Doll." Cyrus said.

He smiled lightly as he stood up. The Doll watched him walk towards one of the gravestones.

"I'll try and be back soon." Cyrus said as he vanished from the dream.

"Farewell, Good Hunter." The Doll said as Cyrus traversed the cosmos back towards the waking world.

He found himself back in the forest just outside Mother's Watch. Aloy was sitting on a rock, waiting for him.

"That took a while." She said.

"Our illustrious patron was less than pleased with the silence on our end." Cyrus answered. "How did things hold here?"

"I convinced the War Chief to send some Braves to Meridian to help defend the city from Hades." Aloy said.

"You mean the Spire?" Cyrus asked.

"Same thing." Aloy replied. "We should get going. There's a master override that won't collect itself."

Cyrus nodded as Aloy called for two Striders. Cyrus and Aloy mounted the machines, and they rode off towards the mountain.

"You learn anything else in the Dream?" Aloy asked as they rode along.

"Only that the Moon Presence has taken a liking to this world. We've actually been tasked with saving it from HADES. The Moon has taken a liking to this primitive world." Cyrus answered.

"Primitive?" Aloy questioned.

"Compared to the world I left behind, yes this is pretty primitive. Still more advanced than Yharnam. Honestly, I'd hazard a guess that the Moon Presence thinks most worlds are primitive." Cyrus said. "How about you?"

"Did I learn anything?" Aloy asked. "Not really, but some of the older Nora remember when the mountain blew up. Great plumes of smoke, ash and rock flung far and wide. That was about the time machines started becoming more and more aggressive. One of the Braves said he had heard of larger machines gathering around the mountain."

"So, it'll be a fight then?" Cyrus asked.

"Sounds like it." Aloy responded.

The rest of their ride was done in silence. They soon came to a mountain. Cyrus could see the evidence of the blast from the base. Large boulders littered the hillside, many burned and broken machines were scattered amongst the rocks.

"If it's bad here, what's it like up top?" Cyrus asked.

Aloy didn't respond. She simply dismounted the strider and started climbing the mountain.

"Another climb. Best part of the day." Cyrus muttered sarcastically.

The two of them climbed up the mountain at a steady pace. It quickly became apparent that Aloy was a much better climber than Cyrus. Fortunately for the Hunter, the climb leveled off into a decently plateau before continuing on. There were a few small machines that the two of them quickly dealt with.

The climb continued, with more destroyed machinery being their method of ascent. Cyrus recognized the metal as they climbed higher. It was the same metal and hallway designs of the old-world ruins that he and Aloy had seen before already. They soon came to another ledge with a few more machines. All of which were quickly dealt with.

"This is feeling slightly easy." Aloy said.

"You shouldn't tempt the universe like that." Cyrus answered as he leapt to another ledge. "Chances are that something will go horribly wrong and something big will be waiting for us at the top."

"It shouldn't be that big of a problem if what we've already seen is anything to go by." Aloy said.

Cyrus didn't respond as they neared the top of the climb. A storm had blown in by this point, so visibility was low. The wind was howling all round. Aloy reached the top and leant over the edge to help Cyrus. Cyrus accepted the help.

"That was exhausting." Cyrus grumbled.

"You really need to practice climbing. It was practically a requirement in the Nora." Aloy joked.

Cyrus rolled his eyes and the two of them began trudging through the snow. Fortunately for them, it wasn't as deep as it could have been. However, a loud shriek drew their attention as a giant mechanical bird crashed into the side of the mountain.

"STORMBIRD!" Aloy shouted as she dove for cover.

Cyrus quickly hid as well and watched as the Stormbird stood up. Its movement was far less fluid than the machines he was used to seeing. Looking closer, he saw why. Strange growths ran along the frame of the machine. The same sort of growths he had seen in some nightmares. An unseeing, yet flesh and blood eye poked out from above the machine's normal eye. Electrical discharges continually ran along the massive bird's body.

"What is that?" Aloy asked as she took a closer look at the machine.

"The unholy love child between a machine and the Nightmare!" Cyrus responded. "Who knows what else is wrong with that beastie."

Aloy rolled out from behind cover and shot at the machine. Her arrows impact the machine but did little to impede the massive bird. The Eldritch Stormbird turned and leapt at Aloy, slamming its beak into the snow-covered ground. A loud shriek immediately followed the missed attack as Aloy launched an explosive orb at the machine. To her dismay it too did very little.

"Use the Bowblade!" Cyrus yelled as he leapt onto the Stormbird's back.

Electricity surged into the Hunter as he slammed the Burial Blade into the base of the Stormbird's neck. A spray of blood and oil burst from the wound as the Eldritch machine hybrid shook off the Good Hunter from its back.

Aloy fired a salvo of Eldritch arrows from the Bowblade. This time they actually did some damage. The glowing arrows stuck into the machine. Blood began to leak from the arrow holes. Aloy had run back from the machine to avoid a multitude of electrical discharges fired from the mostly unaffected chest component. A wave of blue Eldritch energy slammed into the amalgamation. It shrieked at Cyrus and spread its wings. The small engines on the wings that helped the large machine fly began to ignite.

Aloy began firing at the engines on one of the wings. The monster screeched at her as an engine on its left wing exploded. Fired coated the monster, the Eldritch flesh burning far faster than the machine itself as the bird fell to the ground. It slammed into the rocky face of the mountain with a large thud. Cyrus ran up and stabbed Ludwig's Holy Blade into the beak of the machine. A surge of Eldritch energy focused in the blade before releasing in a blast powerful enough to decapitate the monster.

Cyrus sighed as the shower of blood and oil signified the end of the monster. He casually yanked the Burial Blade from its neck. Aloy walked up and knelt next to the machine. She grew slightly frustrated. Nothing could be salvaged from the beast.

"What was that?" Aloy asked him again, gesturing to the dead machine she was kneeling next to.

"A sign of things to come." Cyrus answered. "But still just a beast, no matter the form."

"Yeah, but-" Aloy began.

"Aloy, in the world of the Hunt, you have to remember, Eldritch power can and does affect everything. Yharnam bore the brunt of it, but I know that Yharnam wasn't the only home to the Great Ones." Cyrus interrupted. "The Eldritch world has a corruptive effect on the world around us. This is just one example of what can happen to a machine stuck in the Nightmare."

"You think there'll be more?" Aloy asked.

"Undoubtedly." Cyrus answered as he started walking up the slope.

"Wait, why wasn't the Robot Command Khopesh affected like this?" Aloy asked.

"My guess, Robot Command was a small rift through which a Nightmare was slowly bleeding through. Up here, I'd hazard a guess and say that a Nightmare is fully manifest in the waking world." Cyrus answered.

"Winter Lanterns?" Aloy asked.

"That would be the least of our problems." Cyrus replied.

"At least the snow is subsiding." Aloy replied.

Cyrus just laughed.

ERROR-DATA_CORRUPTION-BEGIN_FILE_RECOVERY…/…

Data Log TEH-020

Talk about a hectic start to a new year. This month has been one cavalcade of events. Family get-togethers and other events. Work preparations for this year. And one day where I was just sick. I hope you are all doing well and am glad that you are still with me. We are coming to the conclusion of the Zero Dawn arc of The Endless Hunt. I am unsure if I should start the next arc as its own separate sequel or just continue in from this one. That's still a little way off though. For the time being, thank you for reading and reviewing. It is all appreciated.

Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.

End Log S.T.K.