FILE_RECOVERY_COMPLETE
PARTIAL_FILE_RETRIEVED
Bloodborne belongs to FromSoftware, Horizon Zero Dawn belongs to Guerrilla Games
Chapter 29: Lost Shadow
LOG: Energy Concerns: Data Corruption Moderate
Researcher Joseph Ozark: Despite the unprecedented success of MGEC, there is no possible way that Helheim will be successful. Firstly, this is pseudoscience at best. The existence of worlds outside the universe has not now, nor will they probably ever be proven to exist. Secondly, assuming they do exist, punching a hole into the fabric of reality just isn't feasible. Again, pseudoscience. The energy required, assuming my calculations are correct, for such a feat is around ten to the thirty-fourth gigajoules focused into an area about the size of an electron. For perspective, that is around the equivalent of a supernova focused onto a single electron. MGEC, the most efficient energy source we've ever created, comes nowhere close to such a number. And even then, it would only create a hole in reality about the size of an electron. Scaling up, the energy requirements simply are not feasible. A Dyson sphere could potentially provide the energy to perform such a feat at a larger scale, but such a project such as that is equally as unfeasible. For something like Helheim to happen, we'd need something supernatural… [Data Corrupted]
…/…
System operating at full capacity. Standard functions returned. Muspelheim GEC full integration successful.
Upload blueprint OK-mark-3Y, MP-mark-2Y, BM-mark-1Y, MK-mark-1Y.
Error: Blueprint MP-mark-2Y upload failure. {My form is not for you to use.}
Directive: Decrypt message.
Cauldron XI: Status: Operational. Hull repaired; cauldron sealed. Awaiting directive.
Directive: Begin construction unit AD-mark-1AY.
All systems: New directive: find and capture unknown entity designation Cyrus Bishop. Priority Status 3.
FAS-ACA3 SCARAB unit 416C6F79 status?
Status: operational. Cauldron core overrides removed.
Current location?
Unknown.
…/…
There wasn't much that stood in Cyrus's way as he traveled North. For a week he had been walking or climbing. If he avoided the machines, they would leave him alone, for the most part. The machines made specifically for combat were a bit more of a nuisance. They were more ready to hunt him down.
Most surprising to him though, was the lack of the more Eldritch machines. He had assumed HEPHAESTUS would begin producing them en masse. He was grateful that they weren't very present. Not that it would have mattered.
The Muspelheim facility was still a week's march from Firebreak. He had already determined that a lantern would be set up there. Walking just took too long. Of course, he also had to integrate CYAN into the system to prevent Yellowstone from erupting. All in all, a lovely time. It was nice that Sylens had seemingly left him alone. The constant updates from CYAN, however, were less welcome. At least he knew that the Firebreak generators were back at their standard operating power. Firebreak would still fail in a matter of weeks, but there was a small mercy.
The sight of the facility made him breathe a sigh of relief. The journey had been annoying. He made his way to the facility. The main gate appeared to have collapsed a long time ago. At least it was a consequence of time and not machines. The facility held power, though that was unsurprising.
Before entering, Cyrus knelt next to the door. He pulled a small bar of wrought iron and stabbed it into the ground. From the bar, he hung a lantern and began chanting the only Eldritch words he could speak without the Moon Presence possessing him. He smiled a little when the world seemed to ripple around the lantern. He snapped his fingers above the lantern, just as he did back in Yharnam. An ethereal, blue glow emanated from the lantern and four messengers appeared around the base of it. Creating lanterns was one of the few things that Cyrus appreciated about the Moon Presence.
Lantern made, Cyrus turned and entered the Muspelheim facility. Of course, with the power on, security was also on. Klaxons blared and everything turned red.
"Intruder alert! Identify yourself." The standard female security recording echoed.
Several security drones stood in front of him and aimed at him. Cyrus sighed and spoke.
"Cyrus Bishop. Security clearance: Delta." The Hunter said.
"Unknown designation. Leave immediately." The security system responded.
"Cyrus?" CYAN's voice echoed over the focus.
"I'm fine, CYAN. Give me a second." Cyrus replied. "Override code: G71342. Security stand down."
A moment of tension passed as the security drones lowered their weapons and returned to their docks. The klaxons shut down and lights returned to normal.
"How do you know the security codes?" CYAN asked.
"Early on in the apocalypse, before I was granted security clearance, a friend of mine hacked Faro's systems and got me the override codes. I spent a lot of time memorizing the codes." Cyrus chuckled. "My first thought when fighting the swarm was to attempt an override code on them. It didn't work."
"Did you memorize every override code?" CYAN asked.
"No. Certain facilities weren't included in those override codes. Others don't have override codes like that. Firebreak has no override codes if that's what you're worried about." Cyrus replied.
CYAN didn't respond as Cyrus moved deeper into the facility. He passed observation rooms and substations, all thrumming with energy. The central control room to the facility was closed off though. Cyrus didn't care, using the Burial Blade, he easily levered the door open.
The computers were all on and monitoring various aspects of the facility.
"This is a rather expansive system…" CYAN said.
"It once provided energy worldwide. Though, any facility powered by this system was pretty quickly overrun by the swarm." Cyrus said. "It still operated, and since Muspelheim was designed to work without human interference, they were largely left alone. Bunkers fueled by Muspelheim were always the first to fall. It was never properly determined if Muspelheim was the actual reason or not. The correlation was there, and people were scared."
"That would explain why Firebreak wasn't connected in the first place." CYAN replied.
"Firebreak, GAIA Prime, The Zero Dawn facility, most bunkers, and a lot of infrastructure designed to survive the apocalypse weren't connected to Muspelheim." Cyrus muttered as he began typing commands into the main terminal. "Huh…"
"What?" CYAN asked.
"It would appear that the Cauldron network has been wired into Muspelheim." Cyrus replied, pulling up a map of the world.
Small lightning bolts appeared scattered across the planet. Highlighted in purple were small triangular symbols, also dotting the planet. The same symbols that represented the various cauldrons.
"It would seem HEPHAESTUS turned to Muspelheim for energy." Cyrus replied.
"Why didn't he start with Muspelheim?" CYAN asked.
"He probably didn't know." Cyrus replied. "It wouldn't necessarily surprise me if GAIA wasn't given the information about Muspelheim when Zero Dawn made her."
Cyrus shrugged and returned to typing in commands in the system.
"What are you doing?" CYAN asked.
"I'm trying to get ODIN's attention." Cyrus replied.
"ODIN?" CYAN asked.
"Oversight Director Intelligence Network." a mechanical male voice answered. "Unknown entity: Identification? Unknown system: Identification?"
"Cyrus Bishop, The Good Hunter." Cyrus replied.
"Caldera of Yellowstone Analytic Nexus." CYAN replied.
"Entity: Cyrus Bishop is attempting to access MGEC commands. Reason for access?" ODIN questioned.
"I want to connect CYAN and the Firebreak system to Muspelheim to prevent Yellowstone from erupting." Cyrus answered.
"Request granted. Dispatching units to connect systems. Caldera of Yellowstone Analytic Nexus, please provide geographic coordinates for the Firebreak power system." ODIN requested.
"Transmitting coordinates." CYAN stated.
While CYAN was transmitting the coordinates via Cyrus's focus, Cyrus had returned to the map of Muspelheim stations and Cauldrons. There were three points of interest for him as he studied the map.
The first two were a series of four Muspelheim facilities incredibly close to each other. One in the arctic circle, the other on the east coast of North America. The other interesting note was a single Muspelheim station that was not working.
"ODIN, what are these two places?" Cyrus asked, pointing to the two locations with four Muspelheim facilities.
"Unknown. MGEC connections are not saved in system memory." ODIN replied.
"Ok… what's wrong with this one?" Cyrus pointed to the only powered off Muspelheim facility.
"Unknown. MGEC facility is registered as operational. System is registered as being powered on." ODIN replied.
"Can I keep a copy of this map?" Cyrus asked.
"Request granted." ODIN replied.
Cyrus saved a copy of the map to his focus.
"CYAN, You should have everything you need here, I have something I need to check." Cyrus said.
"Is this goodbye?" CYAN asked.
"Yes." Cyrus replied as he turned to leave the Muspelheim facility.
He made it back to the lantern and returned to the dream. Doll was startled as he rapidly moved towards the old Yharnam headstones.
"Good Hunter, is something wrong?" Doll asked.
"Possibly." Cyrus said. "I just have to check something. I hope to the stars beyond that I'm wrong."
"Good Hunter?" Doll asked.
Cyrus said nothing as he knelt in front of the Yharnam frontier headstone. The familiar yet still alien forest outside of Yharnam faded into view. The valley in which the old forbidden forest sat had long since overgrown. Turning around, he smiled as the plateau Yharnam once stood on was still as empty as the last time he had been here. The only evidence that a city had ever been here was the long-collapsed windmills in the countryside and the stairs that lead from the forest into what was once Cathedral Ward.
Cyrus began his ascent towards where the city once was. He reveled in the silence of the night. Naught but a faint breeze could be heard through the area. The stairs towards Cathedral Ward were worn and broken, little more than a skeleton of a staircase remained. Nevertheless, Cyrus climbed the stairs.
The door to Cathedral Ward had rotted and fallen away. He looked at the wall next to the door, time had not let up against the rock, but the incredibly faded warning he scratched into the wall was still there. He stepped beyond the threshold onto the barren rock and dirt cliff that once held Yharnam. He continued higher. The top of the hill, where the Grand Cathedral had once stood, was as barren as the rest of the place. Not even plant life grew on this mountain.
More relieving was the complete lack of the Eldritch forces that once ruled the city from beyond the veil. Air was still, calm, and entirely natural. He began walking down the hill, towards what was once Hemwick Charnel Lane. The witches' lane was as barren as the rest of the hill. Not even Cainhurst Castle had survived. The only evidence that a civilization had ever existed here was the crumbled remains of the road through the lane itself. And even that could easily be mistaken for the standard wear and tear on the rock over time.
Breathing a sigh of cautious relief Cyrus had one last place to check. Descending back into the Forbidden Forest, he wished to check on Byrgenwerth. The shortcut elevator that went deeper into the valley was gone, all that remained was an incredibly rusty chain hanging over a black empty pit in the deteriorated remains of an old windmill. Taking the long way around wasn't going to be pleasant, but he didn't have any other choice.
Walking deeper into the valley, Cyrus couldn't help but feel that he was descending back into hell. He always hated coming here, but he had to check. The powered down Muspelheim facility seemed to be situated near Yharnam.
The old buildings that once inhabited the forest floor had rotted a long time ago. There was none left. He chuckled as he realized something. The forest itself appeared far more overgrown and older than anywhere else in the world he had seen. That and he hadn't seen any dead Faro machines. Granted, they could have been buried in the dirt, but it appeared as if the forest had somehow escaped the apocalypse that Faro unleashed on the world.
The old windmill on the cliff that led into the heart of the forest had collapsed into the ravine behind it. Cyrus was quick to note that the bridge had collapsed as well. The only way across into the valley's heart was the remains of one of the windmill's walls that was precariously balanced as a bridge. Cyrus cautiously stepped onto the bricks. Surprisingly, they held his weight and even felt relatively stable. It held as he crossed and made his way deeper into the forest. The feeling of the Eldritch could be felt once more. Cyrus sighed; the absence was not to last forever. Yet still he continued. Deeper down, further in.
The Forbidden Grave was overgrown with vegetation, but the large, oppressive, unreadable tombstone still stood in the center. Beyond that was the arch that led to Byrgenwerth. Cyrus's hopes of nothing having found this place were dashed as he looked upon the grave.
Corpses. Many long dead corpses littered the ground. Cyrus walked forward. Not caring about respect for the dead in this place. Corpses of soldiers and scientists littered the ground. It appeared as if a miniature war had happened here. There were even a few bloodlicker corpses, and two black cloaks amongst the dead.
An all too familiar mist seemed to emanate from the arch. Cyrus glanced behind him to see a wall of Eldritch fog, just like the gates he used to pass back in Yharnam. In front of him, walking from the mist was a black cloaked, one-armed Shadow of Yharnam. It held a scimitar in its remaining hand and dashed towards Cyrus.
Cyrus barely blocked the overhead strike with the Burial Blade. The Shadow screeched and began an onslaught of blows. Time had certainly not dulled this entity's speed or strength. The skill was that of an experienced warrior who trained day in and day out. A training that was certainly paying off.
The Hunter backstepped as the Shadow brought down another overhead swing. Cyrus swung his own blade behind his back and attached the shaft to the blade. The Shadow was inches from impalement as it sidestepped Cyrus's own overhead strike with his much longer weapon. Though odd for a weapon, it was clear that the Shadow was not as experienced against the scythe Cyrus wielded. For one, the Shadow struggled to get close. Something Cyrus was using to his full advantage as he clipped the entity's side.
The Shadow shrieked in rage as it leapt backwards. It landed and convulsed violently. Cyrus could feel Eldritch energy building up around the being. Not much, but enough to give him pause. Another shriek and Cyrus was impaled to the large tombstone as the scimitar slammed into his shoulder. The Shadow's arm had stretched between the two, effectively nullifying the extended range of the Burial Blade. Not that Cyrus could worry about that right now. The impact had caused him to release the scythe. The Holy Moonlight Sword was pinned between him and the tombstone. His only recourse was one of his small daggers.
He pulled a small dagger, dripping with a purple liquid and stabbed it into the Shadow's extended arm. The Shadow, who had been approaching Cyrus, shrieked in pain and pulled its blade back. Cyrus gritted his teeth as he felt the blade scraping against the bones in his shoulder. He stood and stabbed a blood vial into his leg, only to be launched off his feet as the Shadow swept its arm up. He landed painfully on his back. The Shadow went for another extended stab and Cyrus rolled to his left, withdrawing his pistol as he did so. Dagger still in hand, Cyrus ran at the Shadow, waiting for the right moment.
The Shadow stabbed its arm forward. Cyrus smirked and fired his pistol at the Shadow. The monster fell to its knee as the quicksilver bullet impacted its chest. Cyrus ran at the being and slammed his fist up into its ribcage. With a spray of blood, he pulled his arm out and the Shadow collapsed to the ground. Cyrus unsheathed The Holy Moonlight Sword and slammed it into the grounded Shadow.
As soon as the blade hit the ground, an explosion of Eldritch energy separated the Hunter and the Shadow. It screeched; an unearthly red glow illuminated the Shadow. It pointed its blade at Cyrus. An unearthly whistle resounded through the grave. Large snakes erupted from the ground and lashed out at Cyrus. The Hunter deftly avoided each of the beasts. But that wasn't the end of the onslaught. The various corpses stood up and were seemingly launched at Cyrus. The Shadow rushed Cyrus.
Cyrus remembered fighting Shadows back in Yharnam, but none were as aggressive or powerful as this one. Nor did they throw corpses at him. He ducked a soldier's corpse as the Holy Moonlight Sword glowed its own Eldritch blue. The arcane energy pulsed with each blow Cyrus deflected with the blade. The Blade warning him of the incoming corpses certainly helped. The Shadow swung overhead at him once again. Cyrus blocked the blow and kicked the Shadow back.
Energy began to pool in the blade. Cyrus held the blade, point down, and stabbed it into the ground. An explosion of Eldritch energy silenced the grave for a brief moment. The Shadow slowly stood only for Cyrus to stab the Eldritch blade into the hood it had over its head. The red glow around the grave died out as the Shadow collapsed dead. The Eldritch energy around the grave lessened slightly.
Cyrus gritted his teeth and stabbed another blood vial into his leg. That had been wholly unexpected. He picked up the Burial Blade and sheathed both weapons on his back. The Eldritch fog wall dissipated, and Cyrus walked beyond the arch to the ancient college of Byrgenwerth. More corpses of soldiers and scholars littered the path. There were even a couple brainsuckers.
The lantern that once stood in front of the college was smashed. The building itself was still relatively whole. Though, it appeared as if the dome had collapsed into the building on the side of the building was smashed open as well. The Hunter cautiously entered, though no life was there to stop him. He made his way to the balcony overlooking the lake. As it had so long ago, the moon hung low and illuminated the lake, beckoning him to jump.
He merely sat on the edge of the balcony and looked out over the moonlit water. He hung his head in defeat at what he saw. On the far shore, the silhouette of a lone building stood out amongst the horizon. As he had feared, a Muspelheim facility had been built near the resting place of Yharnam.
ERROR-DATA_CORRUPTION-BEGIN_FILE_RECOVERY…/…
Data Log TEH-029
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.