Blood Drunk Hunter (Shadow Slave/Bloodborne Fic)

Gehrman was not having a great day. For one, he had multiple limbs broken and been cut several dozen times during his latest hunt. He had miscalculated, and the nest the slaughtered had inhabited two Awakened Devils. They were fortunately of the same species, so he already had their attack patterns memorized. But the warped intelligence of Devils made the fight rough. He may have been able to perfectly dodge one, but two of them quadrupled the number of options they had. He had to fully consume one mid-fight (flesh included) in order to complete the slaughter. 

This, in turn, caused him to descend very deeply into madness. He was in the worst condition he had been in since coming to the Dark City. On top of that, he seemed to be suffering from a different type of madness. Before it had been as if his thoughts multiplied upon themselves until all that was left was a violent chaos. Now though, he experienced hallucinations. They were mostly auditory in nature, but sometimes he saw shadows move even when his [Sixth Sense] assured them they hadn't. 

Then he saw Maria standing in his doorway. He thought it was another pure hallucination, but it was actually a distortion of reality. It seemed that Seishan of the Handmaidens had traveled to his home while he was away. 

While her aura was similar to Maria's, they appeared to be very different people. This was good news since it meant the hallucination wore off quickly. They had the same deadly air and regal bearing, but Maria was far more daring, cheerful, and emotional. The similarities were purely surface level. 

He had drunkenly stumbled through his post-hunt routine, and then he finally acknowledged her existence. Then he looked at her and came to the sudden realization that she was very, very pretty. Drop-dead gorgeous, most beautiful woman ever, pretty. 

It was then he remembered he was in a thirteen year olds body when he got…excited. As a sixty four year old man, this was HIGHLY uncomfortable. He decided to just take a break and work on the Kirkhammer. 

This was actually his 8th try at forging the short blade part of it. He kept having to try different materials, as nothing really worked. He couldn't temper the metal to the exact right level since it wasn't metal. It became a trial and error process. As an added bonus, this work let him get used to his body more. He was slowly becoming more and more comfortable with the smaller size. 

Eventually, his thoughts started to become more settled, and he went back to the pretty lady (or rather the pretty "princess") and acted like a good host. 

They greeted, and then shook hands. 

"As for your reason for visiting," Gehrman continued their previous conversation. "I imagine that it is not a simple greeting."

"Well…I suppose not. I wanted to evaluate your condition and find out if you would be willing to serve me directly until we escape this cursed place," Seishan said in a velvety voice.

"Funny, Caster offered me the same thing," Gehrman leaned back in his chair. "I'll tell you the same thing I told him. I have no interest in serving. I serve only the hunt, the blood, and death." He added a little grandeur to his beliefs with that last line.

Now that he had collected himself, he realized the true danger this woman represented. She had dodged a blow from his "tricked" Burial Blade. As far as he knew, this type of weaponry was wholly unfamiliar. The fact that she only received a scratch when he was boosted by the blood and not holding back, just went to show how much of a monster she truly was. 

Despite his bold proclamation. The princess smiled at him. The grin was so easy and pleasant that it caused his heart to accelerate once more. This time though, she wasn't doing anything on purpose, so he held his tongue. 

"Of course you serve them. These are the values of The Beast God, and thus the values of Clan Song. I myself am the physical manifestation of these things you describe. As I am an inheritor of this lineage, and the daughter of its true heir."

A chill ran down Gehrman's spine at this counter. "The Beast God?" he asked slowly. "It was my understanding that the people of this world didn't hold belief in any such divinites." Indeed, in the boy's memory, he never recalled going to church. In fact, he never remembered anything that suggested any religion was practiced in the Waking World. 

Seishan frowned at his response. After taking a moment she asked a question herself: "What is the last thing you remember before coming here?"

"I have some vague recollections from before my First Nightmare. Some memories of my home and life before the Spell. Not to mention the lives of a few others. However, my memories only truly became linear and perfect since coming to the Forgotten Shore," Gehrman answered honestly. Mentioning the fact that he had memories outside of his own, hoping to throw her off. 

"So you are suffering from amnesia. Or at least a partial one," she concluded thoughtfully. "Not only that, you have suffered a psychological break of sorts." She looked toward him, judging his reaction. But Gehrman made no move to confirm or deny this claim. "Your pure longing for the hunt is good enough for me. You don't have to swear fealty again either. For now, I will consider and treat you as an equal. I will also help you recover from your condition, and also help you manage your Flaw." 

"I believe I said I didn't care for your help," Gehrman said through gritted teeth. Her attitude annoyed him slightly. As if treating him as an equal was a great charity, and not a basic human right…that being said, from what he recalled of this world, he couldn't recall the boy ever receiving such treatment. Perhaps the class divide here was greater than in Yharnam. 

"You are my vassal, perhaps even something greater," Seishan pressed. "You will receive my support, and when you regain your memories I will welcome you back into service."

"...is that so," Gehrman narrowed his eyes. He couldn't deny she had a strange allure about her that made him want to agree. It wasn't just her looks, her confidence and charisma were something special. This was another thing she shared with Maria. 

Gehrman rubbed his temples. "I don't really need anything right now, I am just going to continue killing and growing stronger. Maybe I'll eventually wipe out all the Nightmare Creatures from the Dark City as well. After that, I'll see what I can do about that Terror, though I am not sure if I can kill it. Since I can't receive Memories or Echoes none of that will be helpful. My strength doesn't grow from absorbing Soul Shards either." Gehrman revealed a lot of information, but it wasn't really an issue. None of this information could be used against him. All that it revealed is that he kept growing stronger even without Soul Shards and that his connection with the Spell was strange. That being said, she knew he had somehow gotten his hands on Memories (from witnessing the dismissal of the Hunter's Attire and the Burial Blade), nor did she know how big of an arsenal he truly had.

She took a couple seconds to digest this information. Her eyes twitching so slightly that he was almost convinced he imagined it. After a while, she slowly said: "What are you building in that smithing room?"

Gehrman blinked. Ah, that's actually pretty smart of her. He grinned, dodging the question by bringing up something else. "That is a good point. I am having trouble working with the bigger Awakened material, and creating Fallen supplies is practically impossible. If you have some way that could help me smelt them down, I would be willing to either do a job for you or give you half of my Awakened Shards."

Her eyes widened at the offer of a couple hundred Awakened Soul Shards. In truth, this was a very unfair trade for Gehrman, but he wanted to get rid of them anyway, and this would finally help him get past this hurdle that he had been stuck on for months.

"I'll see what I can do," she said noncommittally. However, her eyes shone with avarice. Gehrman had no doubt that the princess would make his wish come true. 

"It's a pleasure doing business with you," he reached a hand across the table again. Shaking her hand, and concluding the frankly crazy encounter.

…

"Several hundred Soul Shards?!" A handmaiden exclaimed. "That can't be right."

"It is, I saw them for myself," Seishan leisurely confirmed. 

Seishan Song had now returned to her quarters in the Bright Castle. Now she was updating her closest advisors on what she had learned. She explained everything calmly, but she herself was filled with inner turmoil. The Bloody Hermit, Gehrman, surpassed all her expectations. His strength was simply unbelievable. He matched her even though she was twice his age. Not only that, he was exceedingly competent in other regards. Despite his young age, he showed wisdom and knowledge surpassing most of the instructors of the Awakened Academy. 

The only issue was his mental state. The amnesia was bad enough, but he also appeared to be suffering from some form of schizophrenia as well as general delusion. It appeared to happen in episodes, and it wasn't permanent, but that could be detrimental on the battlefield. 

Nevertheless, Seishan was absolutely dead set on bringing him over to her side. What was perhaps the most important thing she learned was something that he had glossed over: he didn't gain strength from Soul Shards. 

It wasn't unheard of, but from what she knew it was extraordinarily special. His Aspect was likely of at least the Supreme Rank. If so, it would make him a talent that surpassed some of the current Saints in pure potential. 

"I want to build a good rapport with him. The Soul Shards are honestly less valuable than his allegiance," Seishan said.

The Handmaidens nodded their heads, swiftly agreeing. If anyone else had said that, they would be met with uproarious protest. But Seishan commanded absolute respect and reverence from all of the Handmaidens. Anything she said was taken as pure fact.

"Search through the connections we have with the Artisans. I need someone who can fulfill this request. They must be able to be sworn to secrecy as well. No one must know about this."

"Yes, Lady Seishan."

…

The next morning Gehrman felt hungover. The memories of the last night came to him in a rush. He hadn't acted terribly, at least by the end. However he overlooked a few key details. The first was Seishan's Aspect. 

He didn't think about it at the time, but she had partially transformed into a beast, and a strong one at that. This supported her claim of being of a similar creature to Gehrman. Indeed this "Beast God" seemed to be a near perfect reflection of everything the Old Blood represented. He theorized for a moment that perhaps there was even a connection between Yharnam and this Beast God. Eventually though, he let this idea go. After all, whatever had put him here, had come from very far away. He wasn't sure if the void and its horrors were a match for this god, but the sheer distance made him doubt it. There was nothing in its divine properties that indicated its ability to bend space and allow for such a transfer.

The most immediate issue was actually something that he came upon by accident. It appeared his madness had changed. He was now suffering from delusions and hallucinations. The end result was just as pitiful as before, but this change set off alarms in Gehrman's head. 

After thinking long and hard about it, a thought occurred to him. Without delay, he dove into his Soul Sea.

The atmosphere was just as garish as he had recalled. The piles of corpses were no longer hidden beneath the blood floor. They now towered high, acting as monuments to his hunts. There was no structure to these pillars, as they were not uniform. Some still scattered the floor, and bones crunched under his feet with each step. 

However, his focus was not one the bodies, but the moon. In particular, his second Soul Core. He never really went into his Soul Sea as it creeped him out. Without acquiring any new Memories or Echoes he had little incentive to do so. This was actually fortunate, as it made the difference more noticeable. 

His second Soul Core had indeed changed, and the result was harrowing. Several faces were forming on the surface. They had no eyes, and simple craters made up that area. However the nose was clear, and it was the most normal part of the face. What was most terrifying was their mouths, which had opened unnaturally wide, their lips tearing from screaming with indescribable fear.

This moon, or rather his Soul Core, was developing. He brought up the [Inheritor of Madness] Attribute and read it over again. "Seven truths…for seven Soul Cores," Gehrman whispered. The first had been Frenzy, with the primal chaos taking over his mind. Now it was something different. 

He was only able to survive the first Truth because he had already experienced it. Would he have to go back down to 0% sanity to prepare for the full forming of every Soul Core? It was an unpleasant thought, but one that he could put off for now. 

He had only a quarter of the necessary Blood Fragments to become a Demon. It would likely take 3 more months before he would take that plunge. Until then, he could focus on perfecting his Kirkhammer and practice new applications of his Aspect. 

Gehrman exited his Soul Sea, stood up, and took a big stretch. 

"I wonder how I should go about reaching 0%...maybe the princess could help me out with that."