FILE_RECOVERY_COMPLETE
PARTIAL_FILE_RETRIEVED
Bloodborne belongs to FromSoftware, Horizon Zero Dawn belongs to Guerrilla Games
Chapter 37: The Infant Great One
LOG: Historical Impossibility: Data Corruption Minimal.
Historian Solomon Prudens: I have studied history for all of my life. I've primarily been interested in Central European and Eastern European history. There are many fascinating stories that come from Central and Eastern Europe. However, one of the most fascinating mysteries any historian has ever encountered also comes from that same region of the globe. I can't say for certain where, and that lends to the mystery.
The mystery is that of Yharnam. For all intents and purposes, Yharnam is mythical city, along the same vein as Atlantis or El Dorado. It was known throughout its time for the power it possessed, it grew in wealth and size, then it vanished or was destroyed by the gods. Everyone's heard the tales.
Yharnam is different. Yharnam's wealth and power was through healing, primarily blood ministration. A common practice of its day and age, the early to late 1800s, which is also when Yharnam is supposed to have existed. Every other mythical city is lost to time, generally believed to have been built by ancient nations. So Yharnam is incredibly young. Now, that might not seem like all that big of deal… it is but there is more to the story than just a relatively recent mythical city.
The real mystery is that we have conclusive evidence of Yharnam's existence, but no location or artifacts from the city itself. Nations and cities across Europe that actually tracked imports and exports have multiple references of goods shipped to Yharnam. Nothing ever from Yharnam. That's pretty good, but it gets better. The seat of learning in Yharnam was a college called Byrgenwerth. Granted, like Yharnam, that college is gone as well. However, we have publications linked to scholars of the school of Byrgenwerth. The finds are so incredibly rare, but I own one of the few legitimate works published by Byrgenwerth. A paper titled "An Expedition into Pthumeru". The paper is signed by a man named Waller. Now, while that might not seem like much, the actual contents of the paper describe a group of students and prospectors hired by the college of Byrgenwerth to begin scouting out an ancient labyrinth belonging to people they called the Pthumerians. Granted, much of the paper is nonsense. Mentions of outer gods, alien monsters, and an ever-shifting labyrinth, like the one Daedalus built to contain the Minotaur.
However, we have other works from the time that confirm Byrgenwerth existed. We have evidence that Yharnam itself was real. So, what happened to it? Where is Yharnam?
…/…
Plainsong was a rather fascinating settlement. A series of intricately woven huts and bridges stretching over and across a multitude of satellite dishes from the old world. Below the settlement were the blighted fields of the Utaru people. Cyrus would readily admit that it was quite an impressive sight. However, sightseeing was pretty low on his priority list. Zo and Varl were waiting for them at the base of the settlement. Zo was frowning.
"No luck?" Cyrus asked as they approached.
"The Chorus are singing to the land-gods in the hope that the blight will end." Zo replied.
"That would mean yes. No luck." Cyrus confirmed. "How long do you think they'll keep at it?"
"Until the land-gods hear the song and begin fixing the fields." Zo answered.
"We don't have time for this." Aloy growled.
She stormed into the settlement. The rest of the group just watched her leave.
"No one's going to stop her?" Erend asked after a moment of silence.
"I mean, she may not be one for diplomacy, but her methods are usually effective." Cyrus said.
It only took ten minutes before Aloy returned. A scowl etched on her face.
"Negotiations went well, I see." Cyrus said as Aloy stormed passed.
"Shut it." Aloy growled.
She started walking towards the sacred mountain of the Utaru. Cyrus shrugged and followed after her. The rest of the group quickly followed as well. Zo put up a mild protest, but none of them turned from their path.
"I don't understand what's so special about this mountain." Erend said.
"It's where the land-gods rest and repair." Zo replied.
"Something tells me that stopped a while ago." Cyrus replied.
The group lapsed into silence. Aloy slowly calmed down, but tension still echoed through her form. Cyrus was content to simply follow behind. Cyrus noted a strange Eldritch presence as they neared the mountain. They crested a hill and stared down at their target destination. Cyrus could almost see the Eldritch energy flowing from a cave at the mountains base.
"Do you feel it as well?" Aloy asked as the group came to a stop.
"Feel what?" Erend questioned.
"Yeah. My money's on HEPHAESTUS." Cyrus replied.
He took the lead. The Eldritch power grew ever so slightly denser as they reached the entrance. The cave was a tunnel of metal and wires, similar to the cauldrons scattered around the world. And similar to Firebreak when it was under HEPHAESTUS's control, purple wires wove through the area. Each wire was tinged with streaks of Eldritch power.
"This feels wrong." Zo stated as she looked around the cave entrance.
"It is wrong." Cyrus said. "Be careful, who knows what we'll find down here."
He slammed the Holy Moonlight Blade into the ground and willed the Eldritch energy to coat the blade. A soft blue glow lit the path before them as they descended. Whispers from the sword echoed through Cyrus's mind.
"Danger. Pain. Hunger. Deeper down." They said.
Cyrus pushed the words out of his mind and led the way through the tunnel. The hum of machines echoed in the silence around them. Distant echoing screeching punctuated the steady hum every few seconds. The tunnel pulsed, almost as if it were alive. A soft squelch instead of the tapping of echoed footsteps drew the entire groups attention to the ground in front of them. Cyrus lowered the blade to see what he had stepped on. One of the purple wires running along the floor had a small patch of flesh grafted to it. Cyrus lifted his foot off the fleshy wire. The Eldritch seemed to be flowing freely to and from it.
"It's like the Stormbird outside GAIA Prime." Aloy said as she looked upon the flesh in disgust. "I thought it took a long time before flesh started growing like this."
"Or a significant amount of power." Cyrus replied. "If HEPHAESTUS is able to manipulate that much power already, we may have less time than we hoped."
Cyrus turned to the rest of the group.
"Watch your step." He said and they continued deeper into the mountain.
The purple wires led them deeper underground, and the screeching grew louder. When at last they opened up, the group found themselves in a repair bay. A corrupted repair bay. The walls, ceiling and floor of the room were laced with purple wires. Small patches of Eldritch flesh grew throughout the room. Several of the walls had eyes staring at the group. The entire room felt alive.
"By the forge…" Erend muttered as he looked around.
"What is that?" Varl pointed at the center of the room.
On a raised platform that once was the pedestal for repairs, lay a hideous abomination. A machine, heavily altered from its original form was screeching and flailing about on the platform. The basic form of a Plowhorn was there, but it was buried by the additions. Sprouting from its back were three mechanical Amygdala-like arms. While mostly mechanical, one of the arms had a hand that looked more flesh the machine. A small patch of eyes grew from the machines one remaining frontal horn. The other horn had been fused with one of the repair arms that hung down from the ceiling of the room. Fleshy muscles and tendons ran along the entire apparatus. Electricity and Eldritch power sparked between the other two arms and the back of the machine. The legs of the Plowhorn had been replaced by a twisted mess of limbs and wires. Three large purple wires humming with Eldritch energy connected the machine to the platform it was altered on.
The platform itself was as twisted as the machine above it. Purple wires wove all around the platform. Numerous eyes, all unseeing, teemed with Eldritch power. A mechanical arm had been attached to the platform on one side.
"Cosmos beyond…" Cyrus muttered.
"What happened to her, she cries out in pain!" Zo exclaimed as another screech echoed throughout the room.
"HEPHAESTUS." Aloy said as she took in all that she could see.
"Hold this." Cyrus said, handing the sword to Aloy.
She grabbed the sword and lurched forward when Cyrus let go. The sword was far heavier than the Hunter made it seem. Cyrus turned to the rest of the group and started handing them Molotov cocktails.
"Empty these all over the room." He commanded.
He pulled out several cocktails from his pouch and approached the pedestal in the center of the room. The flailing of the machine was wild and uncoordinated, making it easy to avoid the few swipes that abomination threw his way. Between the swipes he started pouring the cocktails all over the machine and the pedestal it rested on. For good measure, he even broke a few oil urns against the machine. When he had one cocktail left he dropped down from the platform.
The rest of the group had gathered at the end of the room opposite the tunnel they had entered from. Cyrus joined them.
"What now?" Zo asked. "Is this going to help her?"
"The only thing that will help your land-god now," Cyrus said, "is the sweet release of death."
Zo looked at the monstrous machine in sorrow. Nothing else would save her. Cyrus threw the cocktail at one of the sparking arms. The glass shattered against the arms and flammable liquid rained below it. One spark was all it took for the flames to spread. The fires burned through the exposed wiring and melted the flesh from the metal walls. The machine screeched once more as the flames delivered it from its agony.
Cyrus turned and led the group through the door and into a staircase. They walked up the stairs and exited into a room filled with servers and a terminal. The terminal was labeled MUSPELHEIM. Aloy led the others higher up the facility as Cyrus approached the terminal and turned it on. He started navigating menus until he found their location. A few commands were all it took to cut off power to the repair bay below. The Hunter smiled and looked around.
"Mas-as-as-as-as-as-as-aster override -ed. Restor- MINERVA func-fun-fun- to original code." A glitching synthetic voice echoed through the mountain.
Cyrus hurried up the stairs. They ended in a hub room of sorts. Smaller rooms branched off from the main room. However, most important to Cyrus was the opened room. Aloy, Varl, Erend and Zo were just beyond a slightly open door in front of a powered-on terminal. Cyrus entered and saw that the room was a massive domed projection room. The door closed behind him as he approached the group. Aloy had a smile on her face for the first time in days.
"We got lucky." She stated as Cyrus approached.
"I heard." Cyrus said.
"What were you doing?" Erend asked.
"Cutting off power to the repair bay below." Cyrus answered.
"That's probably why the system started working again." Aloy stated.
"Are you going to restore GAIA?" Cyrus asked.
Aloy just turned back to the terminal.
"Do you wish to in-initiate heuristic matrix?" The system questioned.
"Yes. Restore GAIA" Aloy replied.
Lights turned on through the room as the walls of the doom lit up with dim light. The system was slowly powering on. An image of GAIA was slowly being reconstructed from light, starting with the feet. As the reconstruction reached the halfway point, the room turned red.
"ERROR: Unknown entity present. Continue reconstruction?" The system said.
"Yes! Finish the reconstruction!" Aloy shouted.
"ERROR: Incorrect Clearance Level. Continue reconstruction?" The system repeated.
"Elisabet Sobeck, Alpha Prime!" Aloy said.
"ERROR: Incorrect Clearance Level. Continue reconstruction?" The system repeated.
"Aloy, I don't think Elisabet is who this wants." Varl stated.
"Then who does it want? Faro? He's the only person with higher clearance than Elisabet." Aloy said.
"It said incorrect clearance, nothing about the level." Cyrus stated.
"What do you mean?" Aloy asked.
"Cyrus Bishop, clearance level Omicron. Finish reconstruction." Cyrus ordered.
"Clearance level accepted." The system said and the reconstruction continued.
The group looked at Cyrus, confused.
"You have security clearance?" Aloy asked.
"Yeah, never really had to use it before. It was more of a confirmation code than anything like Elisabet's Alpha Prime level." Cyrus replied, as he looked at the reconstructing GAIA.
The red lights returned to the dull gray they were previously as the matrix reconstruction began. Aloy's breath hitched as the program stopped reconstructing once more. Each panel of the dome flashed red twice more. When they faded back, they were remarkably different. The entire room was bathed in a comforting blue glow. Each panel was now black with a single Caryll Rune glowing in its center. Every rune was different, there were even some that Cyrus had never seen before, but they all had the same purpose protection.
"What on Earth?" Varl asked as he and the others looked around.
Cyrus focused back on the hologram of GAIA, which no longer appear human. In the place of the once human GAIA was something else, wholly unique, and entirely alien. The form of the being was vaguely humanoid one minute, entirely human the next, completely inhuman, utterly indescribable, or even just nothing. The form was utterly incomprehensible and yet, entirely familiar. A small smile found its way onto Cyrus's face as the being in front of them settled into a single form. He recognized the vaguely female humanoid face, strange mesh of limbs extending behind it from below the head in a cape of some form, four arms, each ending in a hand with a different number of fingers, and three legs. The humanoid face looked around at each person gathered around it. When it saw Cyrus, it smiled before shifting form once more.
Eldritch power suffused the room as the entire group focused on the hologram of GAIA. What had once been a woman with a golden toga was now a different woman. A woman with two blank white eyes set in a face so pale it almost seemed dead. Shoulder length black hair was held a strange red feather. Only Cyrus was able to recognize the garb of Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower.
"GAIA?" Aloy asked, confused. This wasn't the woman she saw at the cradle facility back in the Embrace.
"Kind of." The woman said. "The GAIA core is what makes up the digital aspect of this form, and what connects and controls the subordinate functions. But I, myself am not GAIA."
"Then who are you?" Erend asked. "I thought we were supposed to be finding GAIA."
"And you have." The woman said. "But you haven't. Sort of. Kind of."
"She's rather confusing." Varl said to Aloy.
"You'll get used to it." Cyrus said. "Aloy, Erend, Varl, Zo, I'd like you to meet the only good thing to come from Yharnam, Mergo. Daughter of the Hunt."
"She's a Great One?" Aloy asked.
"The only good one I've ever met." Cyrus said.
"And raised." Mergo added.
"This is going to be a long night, isn't it?" Aloy asked.
"Probably." Cyrus said.
"Undoubtedly." Mergo contributed. "I suspect we should tell them as well. And Sylens. I know he's listening, even if he's trying to keep his presence a secret."
"What's a Great One?" Erend asked.
"Have we got a story for you." Mergo began.
ERROR-DATA_CORRUPTION-BEGIN_FILE_RECOVERY…/…
Data Log TEH-037
And thus, the semester is over, and I have free time once again. I honestly don't think I'll be able to maintain a consistent schedule like I used to. Too much life is happening for that to be a feasible plan. I'll try to update regularly, but if this last year is anything to go by, don't hold out your hopes. I'm still going to keep at this though. I love writing, I just have little time.
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.