章 73: The valley hamlet, home to beasts and abominations
After reading the note on the door, Surgit pondered for a moment then decided to go back for the extinguished lamp. He wanted to try something he had in mind for some time. He looked at the lamp and closed his eyes. With his insight he started seeing the shape of the lamp, as it were a distant thing in a dark field. He touched it and a blue flame appeared. It was the only thing he could see and upon opening his eyes, he was still in the building. He knew that there was a way to light it without automatically getting transported back to the dream all the time.
He went back to the closed door and stopped in front of it. He had no other place to go to and this seemed like the most likely place that would lead him to the hamlet Gehrman had spoken about. He opened the big door, pushing with both his arms as hard as he could. Dust filled the place as if the door hadn't been touched in a very long time. It creaked and resisted Surgit's push but in the end it let the faint remaining sun rays penetrate the previously dark lit room.
Surgit found himself standing in the middle of a large plaza. The sun had set and only its faint rays remained in the sky. He looked above him and saw the great city of Yharnam high up. He managed somehow to get deeper into the valley on top of which the city was built. He could see on his upper left, Central Yharnam and on the right, the Cathedral Ward. The great bridge that connected between the two sides of the city cast its large shadow upon the valley underneath. The air was damp in the area and Surgit felt heat building up on his body.
Upon looking around him, he was reminded by how horrific this place was. The plaza was circular and on one end, there was a small bridge that connected to the other side of town. In the place where he was standing, crucifixes were scattered all around. He could count at least twelve, all of them containing humanoid beasts which were on fire.
The fire seemed to be burning constantly and the beasts appeared to have been dead for a long time. All of them had heads slightly bigger than a human's. The heads were hairy and their open mouths showed canine teeth. Their bodies were charred and what remained of them showed traces of burnt hair and scars all over the body. Their hands had claws on them and their feet were as small as a human's. Surgit had seen the same crucifixes in the serpentine street leading from Iosefka's clinic towards the large fountain plaza in Central Yharnam.
He wondered at the nature of these beasts as they seemed less dangerous to him than the ones he had encountered so far. What drove people to put them on these crucifixes and burn them?
As he moved towards the bridge, he heard a movement from the other side. He stopped and clenched his weapon. Smoke was hindering his eyesight so he waited for the thing that was moving behind the smokescreen to move forward. To his surprise, it looked like one of those creatures that were crucified. As soon as it saw Surgit, it ran towards him and slashed at him with its claws. Surgit avoided the attack and kicked the creature in the stomach, sending it flying backwards.
It rolled on the ground and held its belly in pain. It laid down on the floor whimpering and covering its face, in fear of its assailant. "You shouldn't have attacked me my friend" said Surgit as he drove his saw deep within the creature's chest, aiming for its heart.
Suddenly, he heard a deep ringing voice in the distance. It felt like it came from everywhere around him. "You there! Hunter! Didn't you see the warning? Turn back at once. Old Yharnam, burned and abandoned by men, is now home only to beasts. They are of no harm to those above. Turn back… Or the hunter will face the hunt." The man stopped talking and silence settled back in the area.
'So this is Old Yharnam after all. I'm sorry old man but I'm not willing to back down.' He thought to himself as he crossed the bridge. He started getting used to facing unknown enemies and that fact didn't unsettle him anymore. After all, he was immune to death and he could come back and hunt whoever tried to kill him before. It didn't matter how many tries it would take him, he vowed to clear the place of all danger. Moreover, he had to find the chalice hidden in Old Yharnam. That was his objective at that moment. He had to have something to strive for in order to forget the little orphan's incident.
As he crossed the bridge three beasts came rushing at him. Surgit elongated his cleaver and, putting some distance between him and the three in order to anticipate their jumping attacks, cut them open in three quick strikes. Their hide was tougher than expected and two of them still came at him despite the injuries they suffered. He shot one of them in the head, staggering it and finished the other. He then retracted his weapon to its original form and attacked the remaining foe with all his strength, cutting it deep enough to cause it to stumble to the ground, gasping for air.
He looked around him again and inspected the town. He had a clearer view over Old Yharnam and the first thing he noticed was the difference in architecture. The buildings in the new part of Yharnam had a gothic architecture while the ones in the old part of the city had square roofs and smaller buildings.
He was at the uppermost part of the old town. He could see the city extending downwards, full of open areas and larger streets. The city had more squares and the only two tall buildings were a clock tower in the distance and a large cathedral behind it. He decided to aim for the cathedral as it was more likely the place to host the hidden chalice. The streets were still filled with crucifixes and the never fading flames filled the place with smoke.
He walked further and came upon some stairs that took downwards, towards another square. It was an open area where more beasts stood, holding their heads as if in pain. Surgit noticed that they struggled to breath and its sound was similar to the fully transformed tall beasts he had fought in the aqueducts.
Statues decorated the square. More like haunted it in fact. They looked eerie as they were of veiled women holding their heads as if in pain. From underneath the women, there appeared to be incomplete bodies forming at their feet. Some of them had the small messengers at the women's feet, holding their hands together in a praying gesture. The strange sculptures reminded him of the ones he had seen in the graveyard where he fought Gascoigne. He shook his head, trying to chase away the morbid thoughts that rushed back to him. He had to keep moving.
He went down the stairs and approached the unsuspecting beasts. There were six of them. He wanted to surprise them but a claw tore down his right sleeve. A humanoid beast wearing a veil, which hid its head and most of its face, was hiding behind one of the statues and almost killed him in one hit. Their claws were sharp and Surgit had let his guard down.
With one swing from his cleaver he hit his enemy on the head. Surgit's weapon hit its mark but it slid down as it made contact with the beast's tough skull. The latter stepped back but came at him again. They were definitely tougher than they appeared to be. As it tried to attack him again, Surgit shot the beast and staggered it. He prepared to deliver a visceral attack but the others had heard the shot and rushed towards him.
He stepped back and got ready to face them all. It was going to be a tough fight if all of them surrounded him so he had to act fast. The veiled one appeared to be the toughest. Surgit led the horde towards him, up the stairs and jumped behind them. He hacked at the veiled one who lagged behind and cut its head off, aiming for its neck this time. As the others turned to face him he tackled two, throwing them to the ground and shot another; One of the remaining beasts, still capable of coming at him, jumped towards him and aimed for his neck. Surgit avoided the swing and punched the beast in the face with his left hand. He then swung with his cleaver vertically at the beast, opening its chest.
While two were struggling to stand up, two attacked Surgit relentlessly. He jumped back and elongated his cleaver, hacking at both as fast as his limbs allowed him. After five strikes, he was breathing heavily and soaked in his enemies' blood. He rushed the remaining three then as he had more stamina left to dispose of them before they regained their composure.
He kicked the first one, knocking it against the stairs. He then crushed another's skull using the pommel of his saw. It took him three strong hits in order to break the poor creature's defense. He then jumped at the other, imitating their jump attack.
He came down at the poor beast with full force in a vertical attack. As blood poured out of it he turned and finished the agonizing one whose bones had been broken by the impact against the sharp ends of the stairs.
Surgit stopped for a while to catch his breath. The humanoid beasts in this village were definitely more powerful than the ones in the streets of Central Yharnam and the Cathedral Ward. He would need to stay on his guard and not underestimate his foes. One wrong step could mean his death and despite the fact that he was immune to it, he didn't want to feel all the pain that comes before losing consciousness.
From the square where he stood, Surgit could see the clock tower and the big cathedral far away in the distance. He would need to descend through the streets beside him and find a way towards yet another plaza that preceded his objective. He started inspecting one of the statues in the square. They stood out from the general style of Old Yharnam. The stones looked well-polished, no cracks or dents were to be seen on them. He wondered if the man who had spoken to him earlier was the one taking care of the statues. And what was their symbolism anyway? The one he had in front of him was clearly a woman, veiled in a manner that hid even her face. Her back was bent forward and her hands closed together in a praying gesture.
With the establishment of the healing church, perhaps new religious beliefs sprung up in the city and people erected those statues to symbolize their faith. There was a startling resemblance between the woman in the statue and the veiled creature that almost killed him earlier. Could it be that it was a woman that transformed into a beast? After all, Surgit started seeing a lot of similarities between humans and beasts. Something in Yharnam must have triggered these transformations and over time, everyone either succumbed to it or died fighting it. Or at least that was Surgit's general assumption of what had happened.
He heard the voice ringing in the distance again: "You are a skilled hunter. Adept, merciless, half-cut with blood; as the best hunters are… which is why I must stop you." A loud noise could be heard from the direction of the clock tower and as Surgit looked at it, he saw sparks flying towards him. He rolled just in time to hide behind one of the statues. Bullets started destroying the previously well-polished statue and Surgit had to find a way out from that situation.
The man had a Gatling gun on top of the clock tower and was raining bullets at him from a distance. The situation was very dangerous. If he managed to completely break the statue, Surgit will be filled with wholes. A painful death he wasn't ready to experience. 'That's very cheap old man, I'm going to get you, mark my words.'
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