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Bloodborne belongs to FromSoftware, Horizon Zero Dawn belongs to Guerrilla Games
Chapter 30: Answers Beget Frustration
LOG: Echoes of the Blood: Data Uncorrupted
Cyrus Bishop: In your time as a Hunter, you will find yourself killing many beasts, men, and kin of the Great Ones. If you are particularly unlucky you will be tasked with killing a Great One as well. Whenever you make a kill, I'm sure you'll have felt something enter your body. We call these Blood Echoes. Simply put, they are the lingering will of those you kill. You do not have to worry; such Echoes are incapable of overriding your will. Though, a fair warning, the Echoes from the blood of Great Ones can and will alter you. Either physically or mentally depends on the Hunter and the Great One. Such an event has happened to me before. I was lucky in that my own will did eventually overcome the Echoes I absorbed.
Anyways, this is important for you to know because Blood Echoes are so much more than just the lingering will of your prey. Everyone who kills, Hunter or not will absorb Echoes from their kill. However, only Hunters ever have to deal with the consequences of such an action, but such a con also brings a massive bonus. We are also the only ones capable of utilizing Blood Echoes to their fullest extent. Blood Echoes are the currency of the Hunt. The Messengers will trade a wide variety of items including but not limited to weapons, tools, garbs, blood vials, gold coins, etcetera, etcetera, for Blood Echoes. More than that, they can be used to augment your physical body. The Doll in the dream acts as a conduit for the Eldritch energy to flow and morph the echoes into such an augmentation.
One last warning, these Echoes always carry with them a trace of the Old Blood. And as Hunters, we should fear the old blood.
…/…
Unit AD-mark-1CY, unit AD-mark-1AY, unit CB-mark-1Y, unit CE-mark-1Y, and unit WN-mark-1Y are ready for deployment. Commencing deployment worldwide.
Uploading blueprints: Unit OK-mark-3Y and unit MP-mark-2Y.
Revising blueprints: Unit LW-mark-1Y, unit EDC-mark-1Y and WL-mark-1Y
Has rogue FAS-ACA3 Scarab unit 416C6F79 been found?
Negative.
Has the rogue entity known as the Hunter been found?
Negative.
Continue searching.
Begin design of new unit MK-mark-1Y. Priority status 2.
…/…
The ruined Muspelheim facility was actually little more than a Muspelheim substation. The rest of the facility had nothing to do with the energy system. Cyrus was able to discern that much. As for the rest, it was hard to say. Bodies lay strewn everywhere. Dead Byrgenwerth scholars, Faro security, Shadows, researchers, engineers, even a few Scarabs and Khopeshes. Faro machines that he quickly recognized as Blood Wasps. That was more than a little concerning.
With no respect for these dead, Cyrus entered the long-abandoned building. Vegetation had reclaimed much of it, but it was still recognizable as a Faro lab. Its purpose, however, was a mystery. He kept the Holy Moonlight Blade active and ready to fight. The Shadow he had killed earlier left him on guard, and the Eldritch energy emanating from the blade lit the building up as he walked on.
The light revealed little about the building. His Focus tried scanning data points, but the vast majority were corrupted beyond readability. Amidst the corruption were a few mentions of a scientist, Faro, and the name of the project. The only thing about the names and scientist he could discern were that the scientist was a scientist with an e in his name and the name of the project also had an e and h in its name. Though, the biggest clue was that he had no idea what this place was.
During his time dealing with the Faro swarm, Cyrus had experience with a majority of Faro's projects. This one didn't match anything in his memory. A data file that was only moderately corrupted was found. A file from a scientist Cyrus didn't recognize. The hologram began to play.
"Head researcher Ozark said that this place was going to be the key." The researcher said. "But this place is nothing but death. He found a way to power the project. Helheim will-"
The message devolved into a garbled mess of static.
"-end the war." The static cleared as the researcher continued, head hung in despair.
"Helheim…" Cyrus muttered to himself.
The file revealed nothing else about the mysterious Helheim project. Whatever it was, Cyrus was growing ever more curious. Yet this facility appeared to have been mostly stripped of whatever might hint at Helheim's purpose. At least it revealed what the Muspelheim substation was for. The only other thing of note was a heavily corrupted data file that seemed to hint at two other Helheim facilities.
Cyrus sighed and exited the crumbling building. The ruin was as enlightening as it was confusing. Cyrus sighed in deeper frustration as he exited the Helheim building. A familiar, unwelcome presence had settled over the immediate area. He looked towards the night sky to see a moon that glowed amber. He could almost see the form of the Moon Presence silhouetted against the celestial body.
Unknowable Eldritch words echoed through Cyrus's mind. The Hunter grimaced at the volume and emotion roiling through them.
"I don't know." Cyrus growled at the moon.
More words. More emotions. More discomfort.
"Aren't you supposed to be the omniscient one here?" Cyrus snarked. "How should I know something I've never seen nor heard of until now?"
Cyrus noted a very slight, almost unnoticeable tinge of relief as the Moon Presence spoke once more. With its piece said, the moon shifted back to its normal white glow and the Moon Presence vanished.
"You're scared." Cyrus muttered to himself. "Why?"
The Hunter glanced back at the ruin. A ruin that was no longer there. All that was left were dead bodies and broken rubble. The Moon Presence had seen to finishing the destruction of this place. Regardless of the Moon Presence's uncharacteristic actions, Cyrus now had something slightly more important to look into. Yharnam was still gone, but something else might have taken its place.
…/…
Six months and nothing to show for it. To say Cyrus was frustrated would be an understatement. He had started by investigating the remains of other sites he had destroyed or had removed from the past. An old manor that once housed an Eldritch deity yielded nothing, a town that succumbed to the Eldritch influence was equally as barren, lost places of worship showed little to no signs of any activity.
Any hub for Eldritch power he could think of, any hint at a Great One or an Old One, all turned up empty. Faro was equally as unhelpful. Helheim was never logged on to any Faro datapoint or server save for a few stray references that barely hinted at what it was meant for. Uncharacteristically high energy requirements and the name of Joseph Ozark did not help. Cyrus could think of at least three different well-known projects that had extreme energy requirements. None of which seemed to match what Helheim appeared to require.
More than that though, another problem had surfaced. Slightly more imminent than Helheim. A blight had descended upon the world. Air, water plants, everything was slowly being poisoned. Crops and animals various tribes used were dying to something unknown that filtered through the entirety of the biosphere. Well, unknown to the tribespeople. Cyrus, and Aloy he presumed, knew what the cause was.
The detonation of GAIA prime would have resulted in biosphere degradation eventually. Slowly but surely, Earth's biosphere would return to a post-Zero Day state. Little more than a dead rock flying through the vast emptiness of space. However, almost twenty years on, it was remarkably stable.
The difference became apparent as the blight was spreading fast. Far too fast for it to just be a degradation of the biosphere. Cyrus could feel the cause. It was barely noticeable, completely unnoticeable to any who didn't know it was there or weren't looking for it. A slight hint of Eldritch energy.
HEPHAESTUS was accelerating the decay. Cauldrons around the world had stopped creating machines for the stability of the biosphere. Instead, everything being made was designed for the purposes of war. Cyrus had begun to see more and more Amygdala machines. Any he found; he was sure to destroy.
The worry only increased. One of the mechanical Amygdalas granted him Blood Echoes. Something that should have been impossible, and yet…
He had written off the occurrence as a one-time anomaly. He hoped that is all it was. But one could never be too sure.
Aloy was being equally as frustrating to him as well. In the months since their departure, she had seemingly closed herself off from him. He tried sending the messengers to inform her he wanted to speak with her. He tried to get Doll to tell her to speak with him. Nothing was working. He was almost tempted to ask the Moon Presence, but he had the feeling that their patron would find the whole situation rather amusing.
He had finally just asked Doll to tell him where Aloy would be next time she saw her. Doll agreed and Cyrus continued his search for the other two Helheim facilities. Still nothing on that front.
It was one day when he returned to the dream that one of his frustrations was finally alleviated.
"Good Hunter," Doll began. "The Roving Hunter was here."
Cyrus looked at Doll. "Did Aloy say where she was going?"
"She mentioned a launch site." Doll asked. "She wouldn't tell me directly. She doesn't speak to herself very quietly though."
"So, you overheard where she was going?" Cyrus prodded.
"She mentioned a group called Far Zenith. I presume she went to their launch site." Doll said.
"Doll, you are a peach." Cyrus complimented. "I'll be back soon enough, hopefully with our wayward Hunter in tow."
Cyrus knelt at another tombstone. He knew of a lantern near the Far Zenith launch site. He hadn't used it in over a millennium, but the Far Zeniths had never learned of it. Then again, there was very little about them that interested Cyrus. Still, it was always better to be a little paranoid.
A philosophy that paid off in more than one way during his life.
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Data Log TEH-030
Well, it seems that no matter how hard I try, I will never be able to maintain a consistent upload schedule. I wanted to write and upload this chapter a month ago, then I got hit with a rather inconsequential bout of writer's block deciding how to go about doing a six-month time skip. Then a week later my dad decided it would be a good idea to break his foot. I have been spending most of the last month or so helping dad get everything ready for winter, lawn care, chores, etc. I haven't exactly had a break to sit down and write very much other than some relatively small reddit posts. I'll try to return to my regular schedule, but who knows how well that will happen when life throws so many lemons at you that you are in 100% agreement with Cave Johnson.
Next time we will truly begin the Forbidden West arc of the Endless Hunt.
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.