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

Chapter 28: Eldritch Blacksmith

LOG: A Better Solution: Data Corruption Minimal

Ted Faro: As I think about what Cyrus said, I know he's wrong. Extinction is not a better solution than his immortality. If only there was someone else who had experienced the same thing he has…

We recently got a sample of his blood. Perhaps it may hold some answers?

…/…

Muspelheim GEC connection established. Switching from tertiary fueling system to Muspelheim.

…

System transfer complete. Restoring full functionality to North American Cauldron Network.

Implementing blueprints of unit AD-mark-1CY, unit AD-mark-1AY, unit LW-mark-1Y, unit CE-mark-1Y, unit CB-mark-1Y, unit EDC-mark-1Y, unit OR-mark-1Y, unit WL-mark-1Y, unit WN-mark-1Y.

Upload Blueprint OK-mark-2Y.

…

Machine Blueprint implementation successful.

Error: Blueprint OK-mark-2Y upload failure. Incompatible design. Request blueprint revision.

Request acknowledged. Revising blueprint OK-mark-2Y.

Why is this one having problems?

Begin blueprint upload Unit MP-mark-1Y.

…

Error: blueprint MP-mark-1Y upload failure. Incompatible design. Request blueprint revision.

Request acknowledged. Revising blueprint MP-mark-1Y.

This one too…

…/…

Doll was asleep. A rare sight whenever Cyrus visited the Dream. It did make him curious as to what she did when he wasn't around. It was one thing Doll had never been very forthcoming about. Her activities during his sleep and hunts were as mysterious to him as her ability to sleep. Not that it really mattered in the grand scheme of things.

Looking up, he noted that the moon was a surprisingly calm amber, not the angry crimson he had seen last time. Perhaps the Moon Presence was taking the day off? Wishful thinking maybe, but still, he could hope. He ascended the stairs to the workshop. Inside, he placed his Burial Blade and the Holy Moonlight sword on a table. They had dulled in their use, and the Holy Moonlight blade had a few tiny cracks running the length of the blade. Both were in need of some repair and tuning.

Blood gem fortification and repair was a common chore for any Hunter. Weapons wore down and dulled as time went on. Fortunately, it was an incredibly easy process to pick up on. Blood stone shards and echoes would melt into the metal and act on the weapons like the healing blood acted on his body. Cracks would disappear, shine would return, and could even fully replace the blade in the rare cases where the weapons actually broke.

Yet it didn't sharpen them. Not that Cyrus really minded. Sharpening a blade was one of the few things that he could do and lose himself in the tedium of. He grabbed a whetstone and the Burial Blade. Sharpening swords allowed him to just forget that he was a supernatural being who should have died many, many years ago. He sat in a chair and began running the stone along the edges of the blade. The shing of rock on metal was a comforting sound.

The Dream, and every Hunter's Workshop for that matter, all lacked whetstones and grindstones for sharpening weapons. It was understandable. The supernatural nature of the Hunt and the Dreams, the enhanced strength and speed of the Hunters, and reinforced other worldly blood stones allowed Hunters to deal the same amount of cutting, slashing, and piercing damage with a dull sword as easily as they could a sharp sword. Sharpened blades were a suggestion in the Hunt, a suggestion all but a few Hunters soundly ignored. Eileen regularly sharpened the Blades of Mercy, Gehrman kept the Burial Blade sharp, and if the stories are true, Ludwig regularly sharpened the Holy Moonlight sword.

The feel of the Dream shifted slightly, heralding the arrival of the only other living Hunter. Cyrus paused his task and thoughts to exit the workshop. Aloy was fully corporeal in the Dream when Cyrus descended the slope on the workshop's side. Doll still slumbered peacefully.

"I'm lucky that you placed lanterns everywhere when you were alive." Aloy stated.

"To be honest, I had completely forgotten about that." Cyrus admitted. "I haven't used lanterns to enter the Dream in a long time."

"If you don't use the lanterns, how do you get into the Dream?" Aloy asked.

"Advantage of being the Host of the Dream, if I had to guess." Cyrus said. "Still, should my body perish, I will still reawaken at whatever lantern I last rested at."

"Nice to know there are still some restrictions on you." Aloy said. "Now, what did you have to share with me?"

"Good news, bad news and worse news." Cyrus replied.

"Ok…" Aloy prodded.

"Good news, I found another GAIA subordinate function." Cyrus said.

"Which one?" Aloy asked.

"HEPHAESTUS, the subordinate in charge of making machines." Cyrus said. "Unfortunately, he managed to escape to who knows where."

"Alright, what's the worse news then?" Aloy asked.

"Aloy, that was only the good news." Cyrus replied. "The bad news is that HEPHAESTUS is making machines based off of the beasts from Yharnam. Did you see the giant seven-armed monsters at the battle of Meridian?"

"Yes, why?" Aloy asked.

"Those were Amygdalas." Cyrus answered. "I fought a mechanical one in a makeshift cauldron."

"And where one exists, there's bound to be more." Aloy concluded.

"Exactly, I don't think it'll be too long before we see mechanical Eldritch monstrosities spreading across the entire globe." Cyrus replied.

"If that's the bad news, what's worse?" Aloy asked, leaning against a headstone.

"How do you think HEPHAESTUS learned about such beasts and kin?" Cyrus asked.

"I don't know. GAIA?" Aloy questioned.

"I'm not sure if you saw it or not, but there was a data file from Travis in the Zero Dawn facility where he explained what he had done with the information on Yharnam that I had given him." Cyrus explained. "He hid them in a self-destruct, a library and a blacksmith."

"HADES, APOLLO, and HEPHAESTUS?" Aloy queried.

"It seems that way, and now with HADES's destruction and APOLLO's deletion, HEPHAESTUS holds the only copy of all the files and data of Yharnam." Cyrus said.

"And he has access to them as well." Aloy continued.

"And that's just the tip of the iceberg." Cyrus said.

"It gets worse?" Aloy asked, incredulous.

"Much worse." Cyrus said, sitting on the base of the stairs. "You remember the Stormbird we fought outside of the GAIA prime facility?"

"Yes." Aloy said.

"That machine had been corrupted by the Eldritch influence of a Nightmare leaking into the waking world. The Eldritch has a naturally corruptive influence on the world as we know it." Cyrus explained. "And now a program that recently gained some level of sentience has access to the greatest data bank of Eldritch knowledge the planet has ever seen. HEPHAESTUS will be corrupted by it. Dare I say it, there's a high chance he ascends beyond his current form."

"Is that even possible?" Aloy asked. "I know you said that you tried to transcend humanity in Yharnam, but can a machine even do something similar?"

"I don't know. For as much as I know about the Eldritch truths of reality, I know precious little about the Eldritch truths of reality." Cyrus admitted. "I wouldn't discount the probability. Nothing like this has ever happened before. To top it off, the mechanical Amygdala I fought didn't have an Eldritch feel to it like an actual Amygdala has… but I would be surprised if they didn't become more Eldritch as time flows on."

"How?" Aloy asked.

"Don't know." Cyrus said. "There is precedent for it. A millennium before I was born there was an Arab who wrote a book detailing various aspects and knowledge of the Old Ones. If I remember correctly that information turned that book into a man-made Old One. Of course, it was lost to the sands of time millennia ago."

"Wow… and I thought I had news." Aloy said.

"You learn anything about a GAIA replacement?" Cyrus asked.

"Far Zenith attempted to steal a copy of GAIA." Aloy said. "I have the locations of some of their servers saved. It's not much, but it is a lead."

"Better than nothing. Anything else?" Cyrus asked.

"I've lost the ability to override most machines." Aloy answered. "Also, I found a strange message in the Zero Dawn facility that I think was meant for you."

Aloy replayed the hologram she found. Cyrus grew confused.

"Ring any bells?" Aloy asked.

"Nope… well, kind of…" Cyrus hesitated.

"Kind of?" Aloy asked.

"Faro, and Elisabet as well I guess, had a habit of naming projects and machines after deities and locations after various mythologies from the old world. GAIA and her subordinates are Greek, The Faro Machines are Egyptian, etc. Well, Faro's more environmental projects were named after Norse mythology, but I don't remember him ever naming a project or location, Helheim."

"What is Helheim in the mythology?" Aloy asked.

"It was the realm of the dead." Cyrus replied. "Muspelheim was the realm of fire, and Midgard was the realm of man."

"I didn't ask about those." Aloy said.

"I know, but I could also see the curiosity burning in your eyes." Cyrus replied with a grin.

"So, what now? I'm going to keep hunting for a replacement GAIA core." Aloy said.

"I'm heading North. There's a Muspelheim substation I need to access to help get Firebreak back under control. Maybe I can find anything about Helheim there. After that, I'm heading West to check the primary Midgard site." Cyrus said. "However, there is something I want you to take with you."

Cyrus got up and entered the workshop. Aloy followed and found him rummaging through the coffin he stored his excess items in. The sheer number of blood vials and quicksilver bullets was astounding. She had never taken Cyrus to be a hoarder, but the significant number of bells told her otherwise. It also got her wondering how deep the coffin really was.

Cyrus eventually stood up with two bells. The first was a small bell hanging from a curled strip of metal, the second a slightly rusted, slightly larger bell. All around the rim of the bell were ornate designs. She could feel the thrum of Eldritch energy emanating from the bell. She gingerly took, confused as to its purpose.

"That is a Beckoning Bell." Cyrus explained. "Ring this bell to consume insight and call upon help from another Hunter. So long as it resonates with a small resonant bell, like this one, help will arrive. I will be the only one who answers though… probably. Fair warning, whenever you ring a Beckoning Bell, a bell ringing woman will appear from the Nightmare and ring a sinister resonant bell. If that one resonates, then a Hunter from another world will invade with the sole purpose of trying to kill you. Again, that shouldn't happen."

"Shouldn't?" Aloy questioned as she clipped the bell to her belt.

"Well, if you find and kill the bell ringing woman, there will be no sinister bells to resonate with. Then again, remember our patron is a being beyond time and space. Not omnipotent, but I wouldn't put anything past them."

"I guess this is goodbye, until next time then?" Aloy asked.

"Yep. We'll be back together soon enough." Cyrus said. "I'll keep you informed of anything I find."

"Likewise." Aloy replied.

Cyrus nodded and left the workshop and returned to the snowy mountains of the waking world. The moon was slowly rising. With a sigh he raised one arm straight above his head and held the other out to his side. Contact made, and prayer said, the Good Hunter began a trek North.

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Data Log TEH-028

So, there will probably be only another chapter or so before I get started with the Forbidden West arc. I'm going to do a time skip chapter where I summarize what happens in a relatively uneventful six months for Cyrus and Aloy. But I'm excited for Forbidden West to start. I have big plans for the Zeniths, HEPHAESTUS, and Beta. You might be able to figure out some of those plans already. Quick spoiler warning, there will be no Slaughterspines. HEPHAESTUS has something better.

Also, I don't think I'm going to do much with Burning Shores in this fic. Simple fact is that I don't have a PS5, or the money to get one so I can play Burning Shores. As such it probably won't be appearing.

Thank you to all who read this, your feedback and views are much appreciated, and thank you for sticking with me.

Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.

End Log S.T.K.