The Upper Cathedral Ward, hidden sanctum of the Choir, was a creepy place. Balyn especially found it so because he hadn't actually run into any member of the Choir yet. A corpse of someone from the Choir, yes, one that pretty obviously had had its brain sucked out by an aptly if unoriginally named brainsucker that had been standing over the body, but not a living one.

...Come to think of it, maybe he had met a technically living member of the Choir. At least until he'd run the point of his rifle spear through its back, experience having taught him that blue, goopy abominations were better stabbed than sawed.

But if that was the case, Balyn had a bad feeling about what else he'd find in this place. There was a strange hymn echoing through its halls, promising some kind of living organization, but the keening sound wasn't the kind that felt like it came from human throats. Or possibly any throats. Did brainsuckers even have throats?

He had another bad feeling, then, that he might learn the answer to that by having his very eldritch knowledge slurped out of his head when one grabbed him.

Still, he crept down the long hallway, eyes alight for any danger. The yellow-orange glow from his hand lantern stretched for too short a distance before being smothered out by the encroaching dark. Balyn felt trickles of sweat run down the back of his neck, and it wasn't because he was wearing his sturdy Hunter's caped greatcoat indoors. At last, he came to the end of the hall, which finished in a boarded-up window. Perhaps this wasn't the first time violence had broken out in the building, though Balyn would have thought that the Healing Church could have at least afforded half-decent carpentry work. The boards weren't even neat and even; the eerie, corrupt light from the paleblood sky crept through the cracks.

The thought had him so distracted that the squelching sound from his left nearly made him jump out of his socks. Balyn whirled, spear coming up in defensive position, jabbing towards the brainsucker whose blue, tentacled face filled his vision.

The spear's point thunked against the closed door separating hunter from monster, nearly jolting out of Balyn's hands. He was looking at the thing through the door's inset windowpane.

"Oh."

Well, that wasn't going to stop him now. Balyn reached for the door-handle, ready to yank it open and plunge his spear into the body of the octopoid fiend that...

"Damn it, of course it's locked."

The brainsucker swayed back and forth, mouth-tentacles writhing. Was it laughing at him? It was probably laughing at him.

"Well, then, laugh at this!"

Balyn gripped the spear in both hands, braced his back foot, gathered himself, and lunged. The spear-point smashed through the window-glass, thrusting forward to its full extension, and smashed into the probably-laughing orifice. The punctured skull collapsed in on itself like a popped balloon, and Balyn got a faint glimpse of something slimy and glowing blue withering to dust inside.

He managed not to be sick, a good thing since he was wearing a mask.

When he pulled the spear back, he realized to his surprise that the brainsucker had been wearing something beneath its robe, a thin gold necklace that had gotten snagged on the end of the spear. Dangling from the necklace was a small key, which Balyn immediately tried in the door lock. Of course, it didn't work. That would have been far too convenient.

Plus, if the brainsucker had had the key to the door, it could have opened it and grabbed Balyn from behind while he was staring at the boarded-up window. That thought definitely made him feel better about having to go back up the hall and find another way around.

He'd taken all of three steps in that direction before the rickety boards exploded apart as something big and furry burst through them, slammed Balyn to the ground with the force of its leap, and tore his head off.

~X X X~

"Welcome home, good hunter. I am surprised to see you here so soon," the Doll remarked. It was polite of her; by now quick returns to the Dream following violent and messy ends were old hat, so it shouldn't have been surprising at all. Balyn appreciated the courtesy.

"Well, I didn't really intend it, but I got into a pretty vicious argument about the best way to attack someone through a closed portal. Let me tell you, to some of those beasts, quality cheese is serious business!"

~X X X~

A/N: Personally, I prefer to use the transformed Beastcutter to cheese the brainsucker with the Orphanage Key through the door. I know the window doesn't break in-game, but I figured that was a good way to explain the Magical Teleporting Loot Key.