You let out a small breath as you finally make it back to the lantern, the messengers flocking up at your presence. Ahead of you, the seemingly abandoned building of Byrgenwerth lies, but you were tired, injured, and running low on blood vials. It would do you some good to return to the dream for now.

You do so, feeling yourself fade away from the waking world, before fading back in to a now-familiar sight. The Doll was looking at you, the same expression on her face as always whenever you came back from your quest.

Wordlessly, you go up to her, and begin channeling blood echoes, and you feel yourself get ever so stronger as a result.

Once you were finished, you were about to go inside the building to inspect and work on your weapons, same as always, but the Doll stops you by speaking. "Good Hunter, you have a visitor. She is waiting inside."

Curious, you start walking up the steps into the workshop, a hand resting close to your saw spear. You weren't sure if they would be a threat, but in your experience, it's better to be safe than sorry.

In the middle of the room, in much the same place Gehrman usually sat, was a dark blue horse of some kind, though you could also see that it had wings and a horn. It was facing away from you, lying down. In fact, she looked haggard, as if she had been greatly exerting herself not too long ago.

As usual, Gehrman was nowhere to be found. You weren't sure where he liked to disappear to, but it was not of any concern to you.

You approach the horse, and your footsteps seem to startle it slightly. It raises itself onto its hooves, and slowly turns to face you. She seems to take in your appearance for a moment, before speaking. "Thou- I mean, you are a Hunter, correct?"

You hesitate for a second before nodding.

The horse, female judging by the voice, relaxes visibly. "Oh, thank heavens." Suddenly, you noticed that her hooves were slightly transparent, and she seemed to notice, too. "We do not have much time. My world is in severe danger, and we've decided that we need a Hunter to help us, as we have exhausted all other solutions. Please, noble Hunter, will you help us?"

You thought it over briefly, before coming to a decision.

She smiles upon seeing your nod. "Oh, thank you!" Her horn started to glow a pale blue. "We do not have much energy left, but there is just enough to send you to our world. Your... 'messengers' should be able to follow you through once you are there."

She gestures at you to come close, and you do so, holding your hand towards her glowing horn. Shortly after, you feel yourself fading away to whatever world she spoke of, though you're around long enough to see her stop her horn from glowing.

"T- There. That... should..."

Suddenly, she collapsed, and you could see that more of her was now transparent. This was the last you saw of her before the dream faded away.

You awakened in a pitch black room. You light your hand lantern in an attempt to see, and what the light reveals was a now familiar sight to you.

You were in what appeared to be a bedroom, and copious amounts of dried blood rested on the floor and some of the walls. The furniture was upended, torn asunder, or in some cases even burnt, their ashen remains long ago mixed with the blood.

Two doors were in the room, but one of them didn't budge when you tried to open it, so you opened the other to find yourself on a balcony, looking out into the open air. From here, you could tell that you were at the top of a tower of a castle of some sort, which appeared to be positioned on the side of a mountain. The sky was dark, but when you looked for the moon, you saw that there was an eclipse, instead.

Below you, you could see a town surrounding the castle, and you could see that the buildings were in a state of total ruin, some collapsed entirely, some burnt out husks. A few were even still on fire, giving off tall stacks of smoke.

Seeing as the other door back in the room would not open, you looked around for another way to descend the tower. Thankfully, where some of the railing had collapsed away, you could spot a ledge large enough to walk on down below. Steeling yourself, you drop down, wincing slightly from the pain the impact brought.

Inching along the ledge, you soon come across a window, smashed to pieces. You head inside, finding yourself on a winding staircase. You begin heading down, seeing more smashed windows and more bloodstains as you go. At the bottom of the staircase, you find a simple wooden door, which offers no resistance as you open it.

On the other side is a large hallway, in just as bad a shape as everything else you've seen so far. However, there were a few bodies here, and they looked to be similar to the horse that sent you here in the first place, though they all had either no horn, no wings, or neither. The armor on most of them made them out to be either soldiers or guards, though a few corpses were unarmored.

Picking a direction at random, you begin walking down the hallway, your saw spear and pistol both drawn and ready.

This would prove to be a worthwhile action, as when you reached the end of the hall and turned the corner, you were too slow to avoid a lurching swipe from a creature. You cry out in pain before jumping back, getting as much space between you and your attacker as possible. As you inject a blood vial to undo the damage, you look over what attacked you.

It was one of the horse-creatures, that much was certain, but it was clear that something wasn't right. For one, it had no eyes, and its front hooves were disfigured into grotesque claws, still wet with your blood. Its muzzle was surprisingly normal shaped, but the bloody cuts on the sides told you that the creature now sported large fangs, not suited for such a mouth design.

It roared at you, a noise that echoed through the halls, before it lunged again. You were ready this time, though, and you quickly sidestepped it before swinging your folded spear at it, causing a spray of blood and a wail of pain.

You don't give it time to react, as you continue swinging, drawing more blood and cries from the creature. After several hits, you unfolded the spear and plunged it directly into its chest, making it cry out one more time before it went limp. Retracting your spear, you watch as the creature falls to the ground, just in case it wasn't quite dead. When it failed to move again, you start moving down the hall again.

Soon, you found yourself at the top of a large staircase, and you saw the messengers erecting a lantern for you. Realizing you never got the chance to go over your gear again, you light the lantern before kneeling, fading back to the Hunter's Dream.

You had another long hunt ahead of you, after all.

Author's Note

So in case you were wondering, I'm basing the Hunter's equipment on my own equipment from my playthrough.