NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1: "The Hunter"
Alone in a terrible dream, an old man, a young man, and a nebulous monstrosity, opened their eyes, and a new Hunter was born.
…
An unbearable feeling of loss, despair, and pain was rushing through a Hunter as he tried to acclimate to his surroundings. A familiar landscape was laid out before him. A plethora of white flowers covered a sloped hill that he sat atop. However, many of the flowers were trampled, some areas looked as if a meteor had struck. It was as if the peaceful garden had been brought to ruin by a fight between inhuman monsters. The scenery brought a tear to his eye, but he wasn't sure why.
In fact, despite the nostalgia, he wasn't sure where he was…or even who he was. Fragments of memories swirled in a chaotic mess, his emotions were unstable, and his own body felt unfamiliar.
Looking down, he realized he was a young man, perhaps around the age of twenty. This did not seem right, but he couldn't fathom the reason. Perhaps it was the discrepancy between his apparent health and the shoddy wheelchair he rested in. How strange, he thought. Why would I be in this thing when I can stand? To prove that point he pushed himself up and stood with ease.
In fact the ease of which he stood was distinctly odd. He was not just healthy, he felt as if he was in peak condition. His body trembled with power that reached just beyond the human limit. Marveling at this, he took a step forward, before stopping abruptly. It was only then that he realized how strange his attire was.
Indeed the Hunter wore a fitting garb of lightweight but tough leather. A swaying coat, metallic bracers, and (for some inexplicable reason) a worn tophat. A polearm of sorts was strapped to his back. There were two guns hidden in his coat, one pistol, and one blunderbuss. What stood out to him the most, however, was a large blade with a length nearing a meter. The metal showed signs that it had been used in many a hunt, and yet, its edge remained as deadly as any newly forged blade. The metal itself was in an odd shape. It's not really a sword, or a knife…it's more like the head of a scythe.
This thought was the first that jogged some memories. No words, names, or ideas ran through the Hunters head, but instead, a feeling so warm and natural that it boarded on ecstasy. With this rush came a swift movement. In under a second, the Hunter had grasped the blade, swung it backwards at his hip, and with a snap, attached it to the polearm on his back. In the same movement, the scythe came free, and he held it in his hands as if it was the most natural thing he had ever done.
The darkness that encroached on his soul abated as the Hunter smiled and a name came to mind.
Gherman.
The Hunter was unsure if this name was his own. It certainly felt familiar, and he could imagine responding to it. Yet at the same time, he wasn't sure.
With a sigh he broke the blade again, returning it to his side and the polearm to his back. It was at that moment that the Hunter spoke his first words. "What the hell is this? What the hell am I?"
He had no answers to either of these questions, so he started walking down the hill and exploring the land he found himself in.
The Hunter had as keen an eye as his identity would suggest. He quickly noted the deteriorating cobblestone, the pale foliage, the gross abundance of tombstones, the wooden building on top of a nearby hill. This hill seemed to be the center of this place. The garden-like area where he was before was nothing more than decoration. All of these discoveries did nothing to shake his spirit. However, two things struck him as off.
For one, there was no moon in the sky. It did not occur to the Hunter to ponder the absence of the sun. It was with his sole focus that he pondered the implications of the absence of the moon. He felt that he knew the answer, but was choosing to be blind to it.
His attention was then drawn to the fog that encircled the whole did manage to shake free some more memories. The Hunter recalled walking over to the edge of the fog and looking out, only to see an abyss. An endless void that was unfitting for reality.
"This isn't reality…" The hunter did not phrase it as a question for he felt this was an unquestionable truth. "This is a dream."
However, when he started to question whose dream it was, he was met with conflicting answers. It's that thing's dream. It's that old man's dream. It's my dream. Though the true owner of the dream was unclear, the nature of it was not. Though the place seemed idyllic at first glance, and yet he knew with every fiber of his being to be wary of it.
All of these thoughts, all of these memories, and all of these discrepancies with his own reality caused him to shiver. An unsettling fear was starting to creep into the Hunter. It was the fear of being prey. Despite having an acute awareness of his surroundings, a feeling of helplessness was crushing him. The conflicting ideas and memories did not help the situation.
Reacting on instinct, he started for the wooden structure on top of the hill. The center of the nightmare. He knew in his mind that this was a safe haven, it was someplace he was intimately familiar with. He climbed the cobbled path, going past tombstone after tombstone. Then, he reached the door. With a quivering hand he reached out, and then stopped.
A hollow yet infinite anger was directed at the Hunter with such force that he nearly keeled over. His throat went dry as he tried to regain some semblance of control. The corruption in him started to spread under the presence of a mighty gaze. He trembled at the inhuman nature of it.
He took a step back, then another. He could not turn and run as he was sure that turning his back to the wooden building would mean exposing himself to whatever entity had taken up residence there.
The wrongness of the whole situation sparked a genuine anger of such great magnitude that he managed to stand up straighter. Though he still trembled, and he still slowly backpedaled. The corruption in the Hunter's soul slowed.
It was at that moment, where his malice grew to equal the entity's that he felt a tug. His entire being was suddenly and abruptly pulled into the fog. He was flung backward as if gravity had turned, and indeed it had.
As the Hunter spun around in confusion and panic he took note of the thing pulling him away. The giant and glowing moon took up his entire field of vision. The Hunter flew with no agency of his own through the fog.
After a few more moments, the fog parted and the void came. He was instantly assaulted by all manner of madness and frenzy. Things, ideas, beings, beyond all comprehension encroached upon the Hunter with terrible inevitability, and yet, they never reached him. The moon had taken on an illusory form and it covered him in a soothing embrace befitting a mother. The hunter continued to move through the void, having become one with the moon. Hurtling faster and faster he continued to accelerate to an unknowable extent.
The Hunter passed in and out of consciousness. Eventually, he himself turned illusory. Time became an illusion. It both stopped and became infinite. They were pulled out of his skull and grew again on his brain. Hundreds upon thousands of eyes covered his brain. The Hunter died, but death was not a part of reality in the void, so he lived.
Then he felt himself slowly pass through a net of infinite matter and color, and reality existed once more. The moon glowed, and the broken Hunter returned to his previous form. Thoughts jumbled, memories conflicting, but not taken by madness.
Then, the moon let go. His still illusory form was flung into a new reality, a new dream.
He flew past unfamiliar architecture, giant metal structures, overwhelming smog, and he landed in a familiar scene. A room covered with blood. Two corpses. A small, crying boy who was on the verge of bleeding out. A large hairy beast, baring its fangs. And the ghost of the Hunter.
With unceasing momentum, the Hunter became one with the boy. With unceasing momentum they merged in a bloody mess of souls. With unceasing momentum, they kept going, and they entered another dream.
…
Surrounded in a terrible dream, an old man, a young man, a nebulous monstrosity, and a boy opened their eyes, and a new Hunter was born.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
...
Authors Note
(I want to note that I couldn't put this into the "Author's Thoughts" section because it was too long. This will only be the case for this first chapter since there is a lot to explain. Also, none of the links work. If you want to find the original Reddit post just search up the handle and for the YouTube videos just copy and paste the titles over).
Welcome to "The Blood Drunk Hunter". I've been working on this project for a couple weeks now and I am excited to release it to the public. I want to first thank u/ComfortableSame2830 from the Shadow Slave subreddit for the inspiration. I have tweaked the original profile that he gave in his post linked here. However, I did my best to include the main ideas he set forth.
This is my first fanfic ever so any constructive criticism on writing would be appreciated (besides grammar, I'm not gonna worry about that). I wanted to release the first eleven chapters in one go since it covers the first arc and gets a little into the second. The reason I did this is because I am trying to balance the amount of Bloodborne with the amount of Shadow Slave. The first eleven chapters will reveal the balance I want to strike so I'd appreciate it if you could give those eleven a shot before making the decision to drop or keep reading.
I recognize that the readers who came here for the Bloodborne content might not know what the heck Shadow Slave is while some Shadow Slave readers might not have played Bloodborne. To remedy this, I wanted to provide some resources/descriptions.
Shadow Slave is a web novel written by Guiltythree. It has gained a lot of prominence in this area of literature and is considered by most to be a top five web novel of all time. It is in my top three personally. The format for a web novel is very different from classic books. It is distributed on the web (obviously), and it doesn't release content one book at a time. Instead, the author releases one or two small chapters every day. I would recommend giving the "Auxiliary Volume" a read along with the first 50 chapters a read (don't worry it won't take you long, even if you are not a big reader). It touches on a lot of themes and ideas prevalent in Bloodborne though it has a vastly different world and lore, there is a lot of overlap. The official channel is the "Web Novel" app. I believe some of it can be bought on Amazon also in the form of "books". Please note that these do not line up with the "volumes" that break up different major arcs. Then of course there are illegal means. If you have money I'd recommend supporting the author after accessing the first 50 chapters for free. However if you're a broke college student like me…well maybe you can support the author later after catching up on it through some other channels. I won't list anything here btw, but I am sure you can find something if you try.
Bloodborne is a critically acclaimed video game. It is by From Software and is the child of the twisted mind of Hidetaka Miyazaki. It is very difficult for non- "Souls" players especially, but it has an astonishing amount of hidden lore, theories, and a great community. It is an entirely unique experience with an incredible Victorian horror vibe (as well as some cosmic horror). However, it is only available on Playstation. Though it is free if you have a PS plus subscription, it is out of reach for those without the console. Therefore there is some supplementary reading (YouTube videos) to get you familiar with the necessary lore. I have watched all of these a couple times to do research for this fic. Some of the videos are long, but they can be nice to have as background noise while playing another video game or something.
"Bloodborne: A World Without Hope" - A phenomenal and relatively short video essay to get you exposed to the world of Bloodborne.
"A Look Back At The Story of Bloodborne" - An analysis of the lore that happens during the game.
"Bloodborne - Story Explained" - A comprehensive description of the Bloodborne lore.
"Bloodborne's Story ► Explained!" - A video essay and broad lore overview from the legend VaatiVidya himself. He has a bunch of other videos discussing secrets and more specific lore analysis.
"The Timeline of Bloodborne Explained" - An especially helpful analysis of Bloodborne as Last Protagonist (the creator) speaks Japanese and his translations from the original source Japanese dialogue offers an extra layer of insight. He also has a couple other videos that go into more specifics.
I know this can be overwhelming and you definitely don't have to watch it all, but it will likely get confusing in the next couple chapters if you don't know a thing about Bloodborne. There are also a bunch of other great video essays analyzing the meta implications, inspirations, and themes that are worth watching. I'd appreciate any and all recommendations to be placed in the comments below.
After each chapter I will have an Authors Note describing certain details in the chapter or other miscellaneous things, but they definitely won't be as long as this one. Thank you and I hope you enjoy!