"Go now....>cough<...Go now Vogel...Run " Lina growls between coughs, blood is streaming from her neck and chest.
"Neither now, nor ever will I leave you." I cry and try to crawl to her side. My legs are bleeding bad, but it matters not now...
" Oh dear, what a touching scenery... Let them be, gentlmen" Leo mockingly says and motions the crowd to stop.
" Sickly creatures...", " Burn down this cursed abode... Burn them down...", " Wretched sickos, I knew it all along they are no good..."
The spear-wielding militia curse and threaten, but I care not about them.
I finally reach Lina and hug her. She's soaking wet by her own blood and her body is getting colder now...
"Captain Vogel... Please come back to your sense. She is infected" Shouts Jake, who once was my second-in-command.
" My dear Jake, he is no longer the captain. I am the captain now" Leo says. " He has gone mad because of the hunt and he is a filthy beast sympathizer like his friend Djura ."
I hug my loved one and shurg off the verbal assualt.
" Vogel... I ... I ... love you" Lina says " But you have to go...now"
" Neither now, nor ever will I leave you." I cry and say it again. How could I leave her when she is the only reason I live for? I cuddle her half-transformed face on which I lay a kiss. Her breath is weak, now.
" So, are you quite done yet, my DEAR friends? Hurry up and die so we can burn this plague blighted house to the ground..." Leo mocks us again, he lengthens each words just as always when he win me over something. He was always envious with our love... That slick snake in the form of man.
" Captain, the night is long and we have to slay the infected in the Tomb of Oedon. Henryk and Gascoign need our help." One of his spear weilding hunter speaks up.
" So be it... You hear that too, Vogel? Oh, I would love to let stay with one another a wee bit longer, dear friends... But a captain have little time to waste, you know..." Diego waves the Chief Emblem at me mockingly, like he did when he took the position from me.
" Kill them" He coldly orders.
The impatient lancer charges at me but just before he can drive his Rifle Spear to Lina's chest, I take out a fintlock pistol and shoot him in the face. Blood stream from the two-inches wide hole and he drops to the ground and vomits blood.
" Oh, heh heh, a cornered rat will bite back... I don't expect less from the former captain." Says Leo. " Perhaps I will settle this personally. On your feet, Vogel"
I look at the hateful man, who I once call friend and draw my cutlass out. I try to get up on my feet and slash widly at him. However, he dodges most of the slashes and counter the rest with his Ludwig Holyblade.
" You know why did you always lose to me, Vogel " He kicks my wounded leg and slash at my left rib. I fall to the ground and drop my cutlass.
" You are so predictable, get up." He grins and adjusts his glasses.
I get up and try to punch his hateful face. Again, he dodges my attack effortlessly and strikes me right leg.
Though the pain is so much, I can not help but looking at a dying Lina. Leo must have noticed this as he says. " Now I'm glad that I did not marry her. Heh, heh."
Somewhere, echoes the sound of a small bell.
" What's that? " A church hunter says. " A bell-ringing woman . One is here. Everyone stays alert."
Leo frowns and asks the hunter " What's the matter? Who's that chime maiden and why everyone's nervous?"
" She's like a witch, captain. And she calls forth the cursed old hunters from the nightmare to hunt the living." The church hunter says.
A chime maiden in this house. this place will soon be soaked in blood. I crawl to Lina side as the hunters split out to hunt the bell-ringing woman. The bell rings again and follow by screams of folks and deafening gunfire.
" A kin! She calls out a deadly kin. Every..." The man who shout the warning is cut short by something.
Leo and five of his personal guards are surely frightened. Then, there comes the running sound in the corridor and a mortally wounded hunter run into the room, blood streams from his eyes and from multiple blood spike that grow from his body.
" A kin! It's a cursed Kin" He stammers and drops to the floor. There are more running sound towards this room.
"Close the door. " Screams Leo.
" But how about others?" One of his guards says
" I said close the door" Leo shouts and pulls out his Ludwig Rifle. The guards close the door and hold it against the blows from the outside
" Open the door, captian Leo." " Help us. Aaaargh..."
When the rattling ceases, blood streams into the room from below the door and just after a second, the door is blasted open, sending five muscular men flying.
At the door, stands a humanoid figure, its head is blooming with Lumenflower and its skin resembles that of a treetrunk. Its Choir Grab is soaked wet and blood is dripping from its body. Tendrils grow where its hands should be and this Kin is too far unfamiliar to any Kin deployed by the Choir. Its presence gives a shiver down my spine and the surrounding immidiately turns malice and nightmarish.
" Finally..." It says. Its ghastly voice is somewhat echoing like voices from an abyss. " Someone high ranking member of the Holy Blade"
One of the guards charges at the creature and fire his Flamesprayer, ignites the bookshelves and the curtains in the process. The kin, however, evade the fiery attack as if nothing and gaze at the man. Blood spikes emerge from his body and and rolls on the floor, screaming.
The four others guards transform their trick weapons and attack the Kin at once. Too bad for them, it swifly dodges and delfects the incoming attacks. It moves so fast its blurring image is almost imposible for my eyes to follow.
A Rifle Spear hunter manages to punch the Kin in the face and interupts its swiftly movement. But before he can revel, the Kin slice him in half with its tendrils. His guts and internal organs spill out from the grievous wound. Just a second later, The kin grabs another church hunter and tears out his head as if he is just a paper doll. The kin holds the poor man's head and say " This one is sorry drunk. Good, we will meet again soon."
Then it throws away his bloody head, still attached to a part of his backbone. The murderer Kin then turns toward the survivors. The last two guard, tremble in fear, run away. For a second, I thought the the monster would kill them but it just stands and stares, without any attempt of pursuing. Leo, cowers in fear, holds his sword defensively... The fire has set the bookshelves aflame and the room is burning.
The kin, without a word, close in with blinding speed snatch the Chief Emblem from him and asks " Where do you hold the Ritual Materials?"
The coward Leo trembles and spills out where the church hold its Holy Chalice Material so as to keep his lowly life. After that, the coward runs out of the door which has started to catch the fire.
" Very well" The Kin says and proceeds to walk away. It, however, stops before me and Lina and stands still for a moment. Lina is very weak now.
" Vogel... Are you there? ... I ... I can't see you" Lina whispers
" I'm here, Lina. I'll never leave your side." I hold her cold hand and say.
" I feel sleepy... and cold, Vogel... It's so cold..." Lina whispers again.
" Don't leave me, Lina. I promise you I will never leave you."
The fire has started to break down the ceiling.
The kin put one of its tendrils on Lina's breast, which I swat aside. " Leave her alone" I shout and grab my cutlass from the ground. " I'll kill you if you dare to disparage her body."
The monster chuckles. " Disparage her indeed... I'm a woman, baby. Can't you tell? And beside, she can still be saved... But, of course, with a certain price."
" What's your price?" I ask, hoping the murderer Kin would not trick me.
" Your blood" The kin calmly replies. The fire is flickering in the nearby bookshelf and the smoke start to get denser.
" Deal! Take my blood if you want to, please save her. She is everything I have" I say and cough, trying to shake Lina so that she don't fall asleep.
"Apply pressure on her wound and try to keep her awake...and, oh, on second thought, I'll take this instead" The Kin talks walks to our food storage and put as much food as she can into her garb. The grand clock, whose narrow legs are consumed in the flame , falls to the floor and break apart. A large chunk of ceiling drops just a few feet away from me and Lina.
" For f*** 's sake, do something!" I scream.
" Just a minute. I gotta take this salt. To pasteurize her wound and also as a payment. Did you know that the British were trying to restrict the salt the colony were able to get during the war? It were so scarce it was more scarce than gunpowder. And by 1783 the price of salt had rised 16 fold in the colony and..."
" Then hurry up" I shout out and interrupt her.
The kin grabs both me and Lina with a tendril. She then breaks the wall with a single stroke of her tendril and walk out of the fire. She moves quite fast and soon my house, which is burning, is out of sight.
Moment later, in the Forbidden Woods, she lays us down and stiches up Lina's wound with a suture. After performing Blood Ministration, Lina seems to be a little bit better now.
" Lost too much blood... Half-transforming... Heart literally broken" The Kin whispers " At this rate... No blood can save her... This can only buy us some time"
Sudenly she turns towards me and asks " Do you want to save this woman? Her heart is pierced by a Quicksilver bullet, the chance is scacre... And even if I can save her, she will transform into a beast. Do you wish to be with her forever and at any cost?"
" Yes, of course! I would die for her. Please save my Lina. I love her no matter what she is going to be." I tell the Kin.
She thinks for a moment and says " Very well, as you wish. Then the only solution is..."
The kin grabs a stick and hit me in the head. I collapse and everything goes black.
When I wake up, I am shocked to see my body has fur grown all over, and I try to lift myself up but realize I'm chained to the floor. Before my eyes lie vast shelves of organs and various body parts and even fetids preserved in dubious liquids. I almost vomit. And above me, hang bodies of huntsmen and women whose belly have been emptied. hanging next to them are various knives and evil-looking devices. The place is so horrible it makes one think of the kitchen of a butcher form Hell.
" Wake up already?" The voice of Luna the kin echoes from somewhere near " Ah, don't you worry. We are in the storage of the Church. Have you not wander to this area? Oh, yes, you are just a hunter, you are mustn't allowed in this area. This is where they harvest Inflicted Organs. Everything here is guaranteed to injure, maim, or kill you. Except me. I only kill when I want to."
I look to my left side and see that it has been cut off, and attach to my left side, an Abhorrent Beast which lacks its right side and even worse, in Lina's dress.
I scream out loud. " What's happened to me? WHere's my Lina? Arrrgghhhh!"
" Oh, my. That's her. Next to you. Did you say you will never leave her side? Now I grant you that very wish" The Kin stands above us a few feet, grinning a malice smirk.
" What have you done to me? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY LINA?" I scream but the effect of the anesthetic is strong and the chain is tight, I can not get up.
" She lost her heart. So I lined her veins with your heart and stitched you two up. And a human heart cannot beat for two, so I injected beast blood into your veins as well. Unfortunately, when her body was sustained with fresh blood, her transformation kicked in and turned her." The kin replies with a smirk. " But didn't I warn you?"
I feel tears roll on my eyes and I just want to tear that evil looking kin apart. But I'm powerless against it now.
" This is utter madness! Stop it at once Luna!" Shouts a woman who wears Crowfeather Set. " Has the blood taken over you?"
" Oh, no, no I'm very sane, Eileen" The Kin with the name Luna replies " I think it was you who lacks eyes on the inside. I think I have just saved two lives tonight...Haha. Don't you see Eileen? Mister Vogel and miss Lina here loved each other so dearly that when they did not see each other they were sad. So isn't this beautiful?"
" That nightmare must have driven you insane. As a friend, I humbly request you to leave the Hunter's Nightmare, Luna. I have given you that Tonsil Stone and I'm sick of your invasions and sickly harvest.Leave the hunting of hunters to me. Or else..." Eileen the crow says, brandishing her strange knife. I know this hunter. Eileen the crow, hunter of hutners. A formidable hunter who skills and deadliness are legendary.
" Or else what? I shall not abandon the dream. I will soon will be granted eyes! No one can stop me now. Ha ha ha" The Kin laughs manically and takes out a large Sawspear.
The two trade a few slash but it seems they have no intention of wounding one another.
" I pity you. A hunter gone mad for the hunt..." Eileen says and takes some back steps to dodge a slash.
Luna advances and use her tendrils to shove a shelf onto Eileen. The crow woman sidesteps, and split her trick weapon into two knives. She dashes forward and slash at her opponent. However, Luna is faster and dodges the attack effortlessly.
"The brain is all we have, Eileen. And it is also our limit. I need more eyes to line the wrinkles of my brain." Luna says and unchain me. Then she shots herself in the head, collapses and bursts into blue smoke.
" I have collect enough ritual materials and now I should leave. We will meet again soon, Eileen" Luna's voice echoes the dark basement.
Unchained, I run as fast as I can into the wood, dare not to look back at the hunter of hunters. I suddenly hear a growl next to me and see that Lina has woken up.
" Lina? Is that you? " I ask. She growls and howls and tears out the skirt. She's no longer Lina I know. Now she's just a flesh-hungry beast.
" If you will never leave me, I too will never leave you." I tell her before my animalistic instict and my thirst for blood overwhelms me.
And we run, run through the wood until the morning come... We run day and night and we have finally left Yharnam behind... And then after a day, we sit down on a rotten log. Lina growls. She must be hungry. I'm hungry too. Soon, we find a homestead and we feast on the unsuspecting lambs and herdsmen alike... Yes, the sweet blood and the delicous flesh. I startle because of the deliciousness and euphoria the I feel from eating men. I have always frowned upon those who used Blood Healing excessively, but now I understand why... The smell of blood, yes... Better than any alcohol or aphrodisiac known to men... Warm blood and flesh. I look aside and see my dear Lina digging her mouth in a man and drawing out his organs. Oh, my dear Lina, I'll never leave your side...