Yharnam. What was once a beautiful city, now ravaged by beasts and bloodlust. For many years ago, deep underneath the city, a promising student at the prestigious college of byrgenwyrth made a discovery.

Laurence had studied at byrgenwyrth for years, and quickly became one of the top students. One day, he had managed to discover the entrance to ancient ruins beneath Yharnam, and within them, he had discovered a red liquid, viscous and slightly warm. After finding it, He would find his way out of the catacombs, and bring the blood back to study it under his teacher, master Whillem.

For days on end they studied it, testing various samples in different ways, from seeing how it reacts to changes of tempurature, to studying the chemical makeup. However, the most important test was when they tested it upon a wounded rat. The rat was miraculously healed, with no observable side effects.

Laurence was ecstatic, as he believed that this so called old blood could be the next step in human evolution, making disease a thing of the past. But master Whillem disagreed, as they didn’t know anything else about it, including possible long term side effects.

Their disagreement caused their relationship to fracture, and for the college to split. Half chose to stay, searching for a different way to evolve humanity, while the other half took the old blood and traveled to Yharnam, in hope of sharing the holy blood with everyone. Soon, everyone within Yharnam had heard of it, and began to heavily use it. After all, it was the blood of the gods.

However, soon it would be known that not all was well with the blood, as people began to go missing, and strange wolf-like beasts began to stalk the streets. Upon these reports, Laurence would employ the help of an old friend from byrgenwyrth, Gehrman. He would go out under the cover of night and slay the beasts, quickly and quietly as to not scare the townsfolk.

As Gehrman hunts in the night, the demand for blood rose in the day, and more and more expeditions had to be sent into the old catacombs to find more. It was observed that the blood had an addicting effect, but none were concerned, as they believed it would ascend humanity.

As more and more blood began to be used, beast sightings became more and more common, to the point where Gehrman had to train new hunters. Laurence began to notice, and began to worry that the blood might not be as pure as he thought. He however dashed those worries aside, as for ascension to be successful, it had to be perfect, and the only way for it to be perfect is through trial and error.

As beasts became larger, weapons became more brutal. As weapons became more brutal, hunters needed less training to be effective. As hunters needed less training, Gehrman, once the best and most respected hunter was no longer needed, and disappeared one day. With less training needed, they could have more hunters, and more hunters means more people to test out more brutal weapons. But eventually, things took a turn for the worse.

One day, with no warning, a hunter began to attack his fellows and anyone else around. Many hunters died trying to put him down, and when they finally did, they discovered something. He had become drunk on bloodlust, and began to transform. What many feared had now been confirmed: the blood was the cause of the beasts.

The healing church covered it up, explaining that foreign blood mix with Yharnam blood, corrupting it. It kept the masses satisfied, but Laurence was terrified. He had just handed out a ticking time bomb to the people of Yharnam, and everyday, it ticked closer to its detonation. He began to ramp up studies, in hopes of evolving before the blood could consume them all, and he prayed that he would be forgiven for what he might cause.

Day after day, more beasts were sighted, and more hunters went mad, and the time bomb that was Yharnam came closer and closer to the end of its fuse. Then, one day, the bomb detonated. The moon glowed a crimson red, and the cries of madness and pain began to echo throughout the city. Whatever this red moon was, it caused the process of beastification to progress rapidly, to the point that the entirety of the old Yharnam district was infested, and had to be burned. Laurence, seeing what is work had caused, felt nothing but guilt. He had caused this. In his hubris to help humanity, he had doomed it. As the guilt burned his soul, he felt his flesh begin to tear.

His limbs began to extend, and his head began to deform. Horns burst out from his head, as he desperately jabbed anything around him into his leg, hoping that they could dull the pain. His skin began to peel off and crack, and his organs began to rot. Fur began to grow upon his body, and his head grew a bony plate.Soon, his mind was gone. He had evolved, just not in the way he had hoped. He had became the first cleric beast.

When the hunters, His hunters found him, they pelted him with Molotovs, burning his flesh, just like the people of old Yharnam. He screamed and screeched as the hunters tore into him with their weapons, until he stopped moving. After all, he was no longer their leader, he was just another beast, and had to be dealt as such. And then, his body disappeared. He had been whisked away, to a place similar his cathedral. But it was no longer his cathedral. He had been transported to a nightmare.

The hunters nightmare, a place where hunters drunk on blood are brought to as a punishment for the sins of their forefathers. So it only makes sense for Laurence, the one who discovered the Old blood, and inadvertently causing all of this to happen would find himself within its grasp. He had lost his way, and eventually lost himself. He had realized the side effects of the blood too late. Those who were unworthy of the power of the gods would be corrupted, driven only by their thirst for more of what they should never have had.

For so long, Laurence sat within that nightmare cathedral, eternally burning from shame, hoping that one day, someone would find him, and put an end to his misery. And one day, it did. A lone hunter, whom had only begun that day, found his way into the nightmare, sanity intact. He went throughout the nightmare, finding out secrets of the hunters and discovering the crimes of the healing church. But above all else, he put the blood drunk out of their misery. Even the most powerful hunters and beasts fell before him, and soon, all that was left was Laurence.

Laurence would awaken, seeing the intruder. As he no longer had control, all he could do was hope that this hunter had what it took to finally end his misery. He screeched, and lunged forward, ready to cleave the hunter in 2. But the hunter was skilled, and managed to dodge, while cutting into him with his weapon. Laurence tried over and over to swipe at him, but he was too nimble, as if he had fought him before, and memorized his every move. Soon, the hunter would cleave into his back, and cut the vicar in half.

The vicar lost half of his body, but he was not done yet. Still swiping, and clawing, he continued to try and kill this hunter, but like a fly hopped up on coffee, he dodged in between every blow. Finally, Laurence resorted to his last resort, expelling his molten blood upon the floor of the cathedral, but even that was not enough. The hunter, using every ounce of strength he had left, cleaved Laurence’s head clean off, ending the pained story of the vicar. Or so he thought.

For at that moment, something was watching. A great one, so powerful that it couldn’t have a physical form: Odeon. It took pity upon the vicar, as he had done everything in the name of his people. And so, Odeon collected the vicar’s soul, and began to work. It found a new realm, and began to craft him a new body. It then nudged open the barriers of reality, and placed the vicar and his new body within, before sealing the rift back up. Odeon hoped that this new, friendlier, more magical world would help the vicar forgive himself.

As Odeon was doing this, however, before it could close the dimension back up, something slipped in. Something that didn’t belong. And it’s presence could doom this world to repeat the mistakes of the last.

Author's Note

Hello! This is my first attempt at writing a story, so any tips or criticism is appreciated