216 Vermin
Francis tore through the Upper Cathedral Ward with his Chikage. His blood skills made short work of the church doctors at the entrance. He didn't bother going in from the back though. He stormed through the main door and dealt with the werewolves roaming the main hallway.
Brain suckers rushed him as soon as he started making a noise, but they were no match for his blade. He'd discovered a few well-placed stabs were enough to get rid of the nuisances.
The mansion and its surrounding looked completely different to him. He remembered the first time he snuck through the place, making good use of the blue elixir he had.
Back then, the beasts and blood frightened him beyond measure.
Now, everything felt... normal!
Blood ministration made blood and carnage his new "normal," and he didn't mind it. He often wondered at the price he'd have to pay to pursue his dreams. Blood and beasts turned out to be the price, but that wasn't enough for him, not yet.
'This place is cursed, as if stuck in a moment in time,' he thought as he explored the dark corners he omitted earlier. 'Beasts and blood are not the only shadow that looms over Yharnam. There's something deeper, something that points to this area of town. The hunters must have kept records somewhere.'
He only found dark corridors and empty rooms. If there were books around, they were damaged beyond repair. His only consolation was a corpse he discovered in a dark hallway. The corpse was wearing a perfectly intact garb. It looked like the one the lady who first gave him blood ministration wore.
Inspecting it with his insight, whispers came to present him with more information.
"Attire of the Choir, high-ranking members of the Healing Church," he read out loud. 'They should be the ones with answers then,' he thought.
"Members of the Choir are both the highest-ranking clerics of the Healing Church, and scholars who continue the work that began at Byrgenwerth," he went on. 'Damn it, I should've seen Byrgenwerth through with Surgit.'
"Together with the left behind Great One, they look to the skies, in search of astral signs, that may lead them to the rediscovery of true greatness."
He finished reading and frowned. 'The left behind Great One... That vision!'
He knew his vision was strange, but no amount of strange things should have killed him. He shivered, and diverted his attention to his discoveries.
The corpse wore a hunter hat as well, but with a fancy embroidered blindfold. He inspected it, and got the same description as the garb, save for a small detail.
"The eye covering indicates their debt to the teachings of Master Willem, even though their paths diverged."
The Choir were obsessed with the knowledge they acquired from Willem, master of Byrgenwerth. He made a mental note of asking Surgit when he met him again, then headed outside the mansion.
After he had that strange vision, the humming of a song never stopped ringing in his ears. It came from a point beyond the mansion. Stairs to his left were the only way he could go to reach it.
'The left behind Great One,' he thought as he climbed the stairs leading to the song. 'Was there really such a thing in the city? Is it the one causing all this mess?'
The stairs were lined with strange statues of creatures bowing and holding candles in their hands. They lit the way up to the balcony, which opened up into another stone bridge. The humming got louder as he walked into it.
Francis spotted a strange blue creature in the distance. Its skin was pale blue, like the sky in the early morning. Its large head was inflated, like a balloon. It wiggled as the creature ran toward him. Its head sparkled, as tiny dots flashed within it.
Francis frowned at the unusual sight. He thought the new beast would pose a threat to him, but it was also as weak to stabs as the brain suckers.
He crossed the bridge and soon reached a wide garden with a gigantic tree in the middle. The garden was built on a balcony, right behind the Great Cathedral's roof.
White flowers littered the place, a breathtaking contrast to the sinister red moon above his head.
He spotted tomb stones as well, sprouting haphazardly around the flowers.
The hum turned into a buzz, louder, incessant.
He climbed the stairs down onto the garden, then he saw them.
Pale blue creatures stood and faced him, their fluffy heads sparkled with thousands of tiny dots. Their dark blue eyes looked like buttons in a stuffed toy. They didn't screech or roar. They just ran toward him, their hands outstretched.
He made short work of them, stashing and stabbing. Once one of them fell, however, another would sprout out of the ground, like a magic flower, and join the battle.
Francis kept his offensive, growing more and more aggressive. The beasts kept coming, however, with no sign of stopping.
He cursed under his breath. 'At this rate, this won't end.'
He stabbed himself and coated his blade with his Vileblood. Then he drew a horizontal arc with his Chikage.
Blood flew out and drew a bigger half circle, taking down more than half of the creatures.
He grinned. 'That's what power looks like!'
The creatures stopped their offensive. They observed Francis for a while, then quickly retreated to the center of the garden.
"Where are you going? We're just getting started!" Francis said then ran after them.
The creatures ran into each other in the middle, humming and buzzing, an otherworldly sound that made Francis's head spin. He shook his head and went on with his pursuit.
He didn't see the creatures piling up on each other until he reached them. They seemed agitated, and their buzzing got so loud it caused Francis to wince and take a step back.
Then the explosion came.
Francis caught a glimpse of a bright blue aura before he was propelled backward and slammed against a stone wall.
He got up, moaning and cursing, then injected himself with a blood vial. His senses recovered, and his blurred vision cleared. He expected to see the tiny creatures teaming up against him. he didn't expect, however, to see them merge into a gigantic version of itself.
Tentacles grew from its giant round head, humming, lightning zapping from one end to the other. The lightning concentrated above the beast's head in a small bubble, then a beam shot toward him at full speed.
Francis got away at the last minute. The beam hit his cape and burned a large hole in it.
Francis took a loud gulp. 'That escalated quickly.'
The beast kept shooting beams at him while he danced around them and tried to cut the distance between them. From long range, the beast had a great advantage. Its incessant reliance on shooting beams out of its head didn't help either.
Francis felt like a chained dog. He could see his prey right before him, but he couldn't get to it.
He clenched his sword's pummel then stabbed himself with it. He groaned at the beast. "You're not the only one with unusual powers!"
He drew a vertical arc with his sword as he dodged a beam, and his Vileblood traveled at full speed toward the beast, growing in size as it approached. If it went on any farther, the blood would dissipate and its effect will be negated, Francis knew as much.
His distance assessment was spot on, however, and the arc hit the beast in the chest, causing it to falter. He ran toward it, firing his pistol at its legs and chest, not giving it any second of respite.
He finally reached it and unleashed a flurry of slashes and stabs. The beast wailed as he turned its pale blue skin into shreds. It exploded into tiny specs, leaving Francis in the middle of the garden, breathless.
"Take that!" He screamed after the beast vanished.
The humming finally stopped, and Francis took a deep breath. 'Finally, some peace and quiet.'
His ears perked again at the sound of a song, sad and heart wrenching. He scanned the garden trying to pinpoint its location.
That's when he heard a different sound, footsteps. They came from the top of the stairs leading to the garden. He looked up to see a man in a blue uniform approach him. His long red hair fell over his shoulders and hid most of his face.
Francis frowned. 'Who the hell is that? And why is he wearing a constable's uniform?'
The man raised a cane in the air, which looked like some kind of banner. His yellow eyes landed on Francis.
The hair on the back of his neck prickled.
His muscles tensed. 'This one definitely doesn't have good intentions.'
"Who are you? What do you want?" Francis asked.
The man in blue uniform approached, his cane still raised to the heavens. "There shall be no mercy for Vermin!"
