The smell of blood fills the air as The Hunter and Godfrey face off. Rocks fall from the top of the cave inciting its slow collapse. The 10 knights all remain still as they await the command to charge. It has been a long time since they have come together for a battle, so they are all excited to be going into battle together again. Godfrey ,watching The Hunter intently, is analyzing the situation. He can tell based on his instincts as a leader that this battle can quickly become a losing one if one wrong move is made. The Hunter on the other hand also realizes this and figures he will need speed more than anything. If they are able to all stack on him it could cause many problems. But at the same time his heart beats faster than ever. As much as he hates to admit it, he has missed this feeling. The feeling of a battle where one move equals death. The feeling of facing a powerful foe. The feeling of going against the gods. He switches his saw-cleaver back to the short form and puts it away. He instead grabs a small silver blade from his waste, and wields it as his current weapon. He breaks it into two, forming two small blades. These were known as the Blades of Mercy. Godfrey watches him as he is making preparations. 2 of the crucible knights begin to ready their bows, while the rest prepare a sword and shield. Wings begin sprouting from their backs as they take to the sky and sit in waiting.
While all of this is happening, Ranni and the Tarnished arrive at Mt. Gelmir. They cannot help but be disgusted at the sight they arrive at, as bodies litter the floor. A foul stench can also be smelt as they pass by the area. "Could thoust hunter have caused all of this?" Ranni questions as they pass by the floor of the mountain. "I've no doubt tis was his doing. See their clothes? These are Godfrey's men." The Tarnished responds while avoiding stepping on the bodies. Ranni tugs on his shirt and points at the wall revealing a grafted scion crushed and stuffed in the cracks of the wall. "You sure…tis was his doing?" Ranni says while staring up at the corpse. The Tarnished stares at the body then looks up at the sky. A dark fog has overtaken the mountain. A thick smoke like none he has seen before. He and Ranni continue along the mountain slowly making their way to the top. After going up a long….long ladder, they decide to take a break. The Tarnished grabs a chair for Ranni, then begins to survey the area. As they head up the fog gets thicker and thicker, but that isn't the only thing that's off. The bodies of the soldiers seemed weird as well. Almost as if they were transforming. Nevertheless The Tarnished had one goal in mind, that is to meet up with The Hunter and get out of here as soon as possible. Staying here any longer would be dangerous as he fears the gods will get involved soon enough. He walks back over to Ranni and rests next to her.
He turns to her and says, "Your dreams are nigh. Itching closer and closer to reality. So…what comes next?" Ranni faces the Tarnished and releases a slight chuckle.
"I suppose that would depend on you… Tarnished" She responds while smiling. The Tarnished cannot help but blush at the sound of her words.
The Tarnished looks down and begins to fidget with something in his pocket. "I suppose… I would be your consort?" He says with a slight crack in his voice.
Ranni blushes for a bit before responding "We will see in the end..Won't we?" They both look at each other and smile before turning back to the sky. The Tarnished reaches over and grabs one of her hands, she correlates and they clasp hands. Even in times like this, there seem to be little moments where joy can be found.
"Ah…young love. Perhaps I could have achieved such a feat had I followed my dreams.." A voice says beside the Tarnished. Ranni and The Tarnished jump and look to their left to see an old man in a wheelchair. He has a tethered hat and rugged clothes. As well as the same pistol the Hunter has. The Tarnished jumps to his feet and draws his sword pointing it at the man. But the man doesn't budge at all. In fact, he begins laughing at the sight of it.
"I come here not to fight but to deliver a message. I am much too old to be battling once more." The man says while looking at his injuries. "That Hunter… he's still as fierce as ever I see!"
The Tarnished, holding his weapon still, backs away with caution and pulls Ranni away. "What is thou message.. Make it quick!" The Tarnished yells. Ranni is flustered by the actions of both the Tarnished and the man sitting in the chair. She has never seen the Tarnished act like this. Act like he is ready to kill at any given moment. The Tarnished is emitting a small aura even if he doesn't realize it. But the man on the other hand, is oozing a dark aura. It doesn't seem as formidable as The Hunter's aura but it is nothing to scoff at. Even if the aura's aren't the same, he is still leagues above the Tarnished.
"My message is quite simple. It's for the hunter." The man says while slowly starting to disappear. "You can run away from the dream… But you can never escape the.. The nightmare!" By the time he finished talking, the man had fully disappeared, his aura with him. The Tarnished puts his weapon down as he falls to the floor with relief. But now both him and Ranni have something new to think about as well as deliver. Who was that old man? And what did he mean by that?
After a while, they began ascending the mountain once more until they finally reached the Volcano Manor. There they can see Blaidd and the Doll sitting in the mansion. They run up to the two and voice their joy to see that the Doll is ok. When asking where the hunter was, Blaidd explained the situation to them. They now understand that the Hunter sits in a standoff with Godfrey, and that 2 more of the demigods have been killed. While they would like to be happy about the news, there is still something bothering them. Something…. Off.. But they leave it alone for now and decide to meet with the Hunter to voice to him their concerns. They head to the Audience Pathway to see 2 Crucible Knights hit the ground. The Hunter comes down from above and finishes off the both of them. Just as he does this, 4 more knights come flying at him, causing him to dodge immediately. One of the knights loop around and swing his tail, just barely missing the Hunter. Instead, The Hunter grabs his tail, and uses it as an anchor to shove his blade into the leg of the knight. The tail disappears and the knight attempts to break free but fails. The Hunter pulls out a weird looking whistle and blows it before jumping back into the air. The Crucible Knight attempts to stand back up, but when he touches the ground again he feels something sharp. A tooth. He sits in the Mouth of a creature he knows nothing of, all he knows is that his fate is sealed. He looks toward Godfrey and reaches out his arm, only for it to be severed as the rest of his body is swallowed whole. Godfrey screams at the sight of his men falling and runs in as well. He runs at the Hunter from behind and swings his ax. Before he can fully get the swing off, The Hunter leaps back and lands on his ax using it as a spring. He leaps off the ax, and towards one of the knights with a bow but is shot in the arm and sent flying into the ground. The other knights do not waste this opportunity and charge at him. The Hunter quickly removes the arrow from his body and counters one of the knights. The hole left by the arrow slowly begins to heal as he lands more and more hits on the knights. With all the knights flying in the air, Godfrey raises his leg and slams it into the ground, sending shockwaves throughout the floor of the cave. The Hunter was sent flying into the air and was shot back down by one of the knights. This time the arrow pierced his upper shoulder causing his movements to become off. He takes out the arrow once more and shoves a blood vial into his leg to heal his injuries. Irritated now, he draws his pistol and fires two shots at the crucible, killing him instantly. He then turns his attention to Godfrey who is preparing another stomp. He leaps into the air and towards Godfrey but is stopped by the knights once again. Luckily he still dodged the shockwave. Now he is conflicted as he needs to deal with the constant attacks from the knights, but he also needed to deal with the shockwaves from Godfrey. While dodging the knights he slowly makes his way over to Godfrey. Instead of a stomp, Godfrey jumps into the air and launches his ax at The Hunter. The Hunter dodges the ax and watches as Godfrey closes the distance instead. Just before they are able to head on clash, a giant black blade pierces the ground between them. Standing atop the blade is Maliketh. Fully equipped in armor, he stares at Godfrey then The Hunter and he soon realizes why his assistance was required earlier. Nevertheless he gets off the blade and instructs the two to leave and take a look outside. Ranni and the Tarnished follow closely behind them. They were surprised to see Maliketh the Black Blade appear before them but they were even more surprised to see that he didn't come as an enemy or friend. They leave the Manor to see a thick black fog overtaking the mountain and at the mountain's descent, the corpses of the soldiers turn into beasts. The moon begins to rise and so does the plague. Everyone stares at the horrible creatures with disgust but the Hunter.
"It would seem that it is time to hunt." The Hunter says while staring at the beast he is so familiar with. Ranni looks at The Hunter as she finally realizes what that old man was talking about.
"You can't escape the nightmare…" she whispers to herself and the Hunter looks at her. The Doll questions where she heard that. She explained that a man in a wheelchair told them a message and the Hunter chuckled.
"It would seem that Mother Kos is not done with me yet.." The Hunter states. Maliketh interrupts their conversation saying "I ask that you all put a pause on exterminating the Hunter." Godfrey looked up at Maliketh with anger.
"Are you inciting that we need HIS help in killing these beasts!?" Godfrey yells. Maliketh shakes his head and responds "I'm inciting that no one knows how to kill these beasts more than The Hunter. As it was these beasts he fought in the first place. It was these beasts that gave him training in a sense"
Godfrey can't help but agree with him. If the Hunter was able to become as strong as he did, these beasts must have played a part in it. Giving in, he instructs the knights to recover their strength as they prepare to intercept the beasts. The Hunter has his attention focused on something else. A humanoid figure sitting in the shadows. It would seem and old friend has come to visit.