Bloodborne - 176 Metamorphosis

When he was but a teenager, Surgit met an officer in the army. He was his father’s friend, who came to visit after a long campaign. The man told Surgit of the exploits of the army, about his countrymen. They were feared by most neighboring countries for their discipline and ruthlessness. All of this was thanks to their academy. Bright people were taught to lead. They had a rigorous training, consisting of combat arts, tactics, even art and literature.

Their king, aspiring to build an empire, believed that leadership must be acquired through honing one’s mind and spirit. He built an outstanding academy, invested a lot in bringing the most brilliant scholars from all over the world. He wanted to build a nation that strives for supremacy. Most people revered him, including Surgit. He was a man of vision and incredible talent.

Surgit heard too many stories about his country’s military exploits. That was his main motivation to join the army. As a young boy, he was brainwashed into fighting for his country. He used to fantasize about the heroic Surgit, planning a perfect assault against an impregnable fortress. He’d dream every night of how his life would be at the academy.

He was disappointed when he joined the place though. All the glory he had imagined was replaced with bland walls and tiny bunkers in which they slept. “War isn’t a comfortable matter boy,” an officer told him once when he complained about it. “You are being trained for field dispatch. We’re not fantastic schools from the books you admire so much.”

Surgit’s second disappointment was when he had finally reached Byrgenwerth. He admired Yharnam’s architecture and could only expect better from the place that gave birth to a legend. The academy was small though. There were no lecture rooms, no big halls. It was basically just an observatory. The dome on top was actually used for stargazing. He wondered if he’d find any telescopes, like the ones in his country.

An intricate iron fence surrounded the place, barring passage to any visitor. Surgit found a dream lantern before he reached the academy. He activated then moved on to investigate the fence. He wanted to explore more of the place. His expectations were low at the moment. He expected to find some rare materials for the chalice dungeons. They were the ones who discovered something in the tombs of the Gods. They must have materials to explore them then. That was Surgit’s initial chain of thought.

Two metallic gates stood on each end of the fence that surrounded the observatory. Surgit walked towards the open one. On his way, he met with the second strange creature. The first one almost killed him after the fight against the shadows of Yharnam.

Their appearance alone could kill a person from fright. They had a gigantic head. It looked like a fly had grown in size, almost on par with a human. It had a humanoid body. It even wore normal human clothes. Apart from its disgusting fly head, it also had bones that protruded from its back, three from each side. The six bones had some torn fabric attached to them. One could only speculate that this creature used to have wings that were torn after a long while.

They buzzed as they approached the hunter. Seeing a foreign, as big as an average sized fist, flying towards you is enough to send you into frenzied state. You’d flail about with your arms in the air, trying to chase the thing away. How would you react if you saw a human sized grotesque fly? It’d buzz towards you then quickly jump at you.

Surgit experienced this right after dealing with that giant mysterious snake. The fly buzzed then jumped at him with tremendous speed. At first, he thought he was hallucinating. But the hunter felt sharp small teeth gnawing at his shoulder. Disgust filled him, he pushed the strange creature away. Surprisingly, the humanoid insect’s grip was too strong. It kept gnawing while Surgit struggled to find his pistol. It was only he shot the thing three times that it loosened its grip.

Surgit backed up, injected himself with a blood vial. Just at the moment when he felt reinvigorated, a new sensation enveloped him. Terror, unlike he’s never seen before, filled his soul. The whole world became blurry. In his mind, he could hear multiple beasts shouting or murmuring words to him.

They all spoke at the same time but in different languages. Some sounded angry, others sounded in pain. The mixture of different sensations coming from all those beasts embedded themselves in his body. Surgit held his head with both hands. He couldn’t take the feeling anymore. He didn’t know what he was supposed to think or feel. He wasn’t in control anymore.

The shout that came out of him wasn’t of his own volition. The sound came, like a howling beast, and blood followed. Surgit felt suddenly weak, but calm. The voices stopped. The feelings didn’t submerge him anymore. The fly was again in the sky, jumping at Surgit one more time.

He jumped to the side then fell to the ground. His body was too weak to support his weight. Surgit injected three vials then immediately shot the insect in front of him. He felt strength filling his body once more as blood surged through his body. He had lost ninety percent of his blood to that frenzied state he was in. His insight informed him of that only after he managed to take care of the insect.

Surgit was facing the second now as he tried to make his way towards the metallic gate. He swiftly decapitated the insect then moved forward. ‘I cannot allow them to attack. That frenzy felt like when I was snatched by something near Oedon Chapel.’ As he thought, he noticed yet another insect walking towards the metallic gate. It didn’t seem to notice the hunter that was approaching from the side.

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Surgit crept behind the insect, trying to land a backstabbing visceral attack. ‘Wait a fucking minute!’ he reprimanded himself. He stopped backed away a few steps then observed the insect. ‘Something’s not right. It stopped. It feels like it’s inviting me to go and kill it. I don’t like this.’ Surgit had become too wary of his surroundings. Gone was the hunter who’d dive into the hornet’s nest, unprepared. ‘I bet there’s one hiding behind that large tree. They’re smart after all. The first ambush almost killed me. I won’t allow that to happen again.’

Surgit silently walked around the tree he had noticed. Surely enough, a large insect’s head shuddered behind it. He observed the grotesque creature that hadn’t noticed him yet. ‘They look strange to me those insects,’ he stroked the small beard that grew on his chin. ‘They’re wearing clothes, like those fully transformed huntsmen. Does this mean that they were human once too?

‘What pushed these to transform into this form, while others developed canine teeth and fur?’ Surgit’s eyes widened. ‘Does it have to do with the beasts they consume? Every beast one kills transfers its echoes to them. Does this means that they transform into what they kill?’

‘What form do I have?’ asked the voice inside his head before he could ask it himself. ‘Do you remember the body you’re given? I can feel everything you feel. I can sense your heartbeat getting faster. I can sense the dark thoughts in your head. You despise me. But don’t you see it? We are one. I’m just that part you always kept hidden, restricted by all those laws set by the society you grew up in.’

‘You are the result of the beasts I killed, nothing more. You’re not part of me. You’re the devil that tries to stray me off the road.’

The beast heartily laughed. That laugh sent chills down the hunter’s spine. ‘The devil? Since when did you become religious? You see all these beasts that roam about. Look at the one in front of you! Look at yourself in a mirror. You’re no different than those monsters.’

‘A mirror?’ Surgit thought. It was the first time he’d thought about this fact. There were no mirrors in the city. The light on the windows didn’t reflect his body. Now that he thought about it, Surgit wasn’t sure anymore. He couldn’t remember seeing his reflection anywhere. Perhaps he did, he was used to seeing his reflection that he no longer thought about the matter.

‘There was one when I awoke after the blood ministration. I must get back to the clinic. Iosefka won’t allow me inside, but I must find another way inside…’

‘You do that,’ the beast said in a mocking tone. ‘In the meantime, you have beasts to hunt. Bless us with blood good hunter.’

Those last words unsettled Surgit to an unimaginable degree. The more he hunted, the closer he came to fully transforming. ‘Am I really a beast you ask? Who are you talking to right now? Who saved you against the Vicar. Wake up hunter! You’re no different from the ones you slay. Go ahead, decapitate that one. You’ll feel the thrill again.

‘Don’t be afraid of you really are. Embrace it. It is the source of your monstrous strength after all.’ The voice inside Surgit’s head intensified, urging him to kill, slaughter, and feel the blood shower his body. ‘I’m not a monster. I’m not who you tell me I am. I’m a hunter, my curse is my blessing. I kill beasts then absorb their echoes to gain strength. I won’t be influenced by some voices that try to change me. You can’t even control my body unless I give you permission. You’re but a figment of my imagination. That’s right! I made you to cope with the horrors of this town.’

‘He he he… he he he… ha ha ha…’ the beast inside Surgit’s mind laughed, its voice booming in his mind. ‘You keep telling yourself that. I can easily dispose of that insect for you. Observe.’

Surgit’s hand moved without his consent. It moved at tremendous speed, throwing the sword in his hand at the insect’s big head. The sword went through the head, piercing it from one side and leaving through the other. Surgit watched helplessly, as his body ran for the next insect and cut it to pieces.

It was ruthless, the way the beast slaughtered its prey. The courtyard of the observatory was swarming with those insect-like creatures. The hunter danced around them, slicing their limbs off before they could even catch a glimpse of him. Surgit, or the beast that controlled his body, cleared the courtyard in no time. He then went inside the observatory. “Such a nice place, it reeks of fermented organs,” the beast observed with a raspy voice.

Surgit shouted, willed his body to stop. He tried everything he could to halt the beast’s advance, to no avail. “No need to fight it good hunter!” the beast said in a mocking voice. “It’s too early for me to fully possess this body. The thought of the atrocities I can commit with a fully formed body. Ah! My mouth waters.”

At that moment, a hunter clad in white descended the stairs that led to the observatory’s first floor. “Come!” the beast shouted. “Satiate this lowly one’s thirst.” Surgit dashed towards the hunter, brandishing his sword in the air. The hunter flicked the cane she held in the air. The cane transformed into a snake sword, a whip made of tiny blades attached to each other by a metallic thread.

The hunter struck first. The whip lashed through the air, emitting whizzing sounds. Surgit easily dodged the attack. The whip though could change course mid-action. The hunter pulled the weapon towards her in a diagonal motion. The whip came back towards her, threatening to cut Surgit’s left arm in the process.

Surgit deflected the attack using the large slab of a hammer he possessed. He threw the axe towards the hunter as soon as its blade was knocked aside. The hunter jumped high. The hammer crashed into the wooden stairs, destroying them as it went past them. ‘What strength!’ Surgit was astounded at his own power. ‘You haven’t seen the rest of it, fool!’ replied the beast.

He swung his weapon horizontally. The hunter was still in the air. The sword cut through the air. It was impossible to reach the hunter from that distance. However, what happened next left Surgit speechless. “Dodge this!” the beast shouted in its raspy voice. The hunter was propelled backwards, midair. The sword’s swing was so powerful that it created a shockwave that travelled through the air. The shockwave hit the defenseless hunter and sent her flying towards the observatory’s ceiling.

Multiple cracking sounds ensued. The hunter went through the wooden ceiling then through a window at the second floor. She landed in the distance. Surgit could clearly hear the thud, followed by a metallic clang. His hearing and other senses had greatly developed when the beast took over. ‘This is barely the extent of your real power, fool! Not only do you absorb echoes to develop attributes on a screen, but you also use them to learn of their strengths and skills. A fool only explains what they see. He can’t look past the basic physical construct in front of him.

‘Behind every building, there is a mason who put the stones together. There’s the architect that planned it. There’s also the family that inhabited it. A building carries the memories of those who gave it life. If you observe it well enough, you’ll see its history embedded in its soul, in its dusty walls, in the smell that hides in its corners.

‘You only look at the beasts as prey. They’re more than that. Today’s fight was enough for me. I’ll leave you to your puny affairs hunter. And remember this well. Today marks the day you fully realized your true nature. You cannot get rid of me for I am you.’

The beast’s voice faded, and with it Surgit regained full possession of his body. The sudden change of events had left him speechless. He stood in front of the stairs, looking at the destruction he had just caused. “What’s this? What’s happening? What the fuck is going on?”

Surgit had seen and fought beasts he never imagined could exist. But the realization of his own nature came as the biggest shock he ever experienced. Somewhere, deep down in the confines of his subconscious, he buried the question that nagged him ever since he became aware of his beastly arm. He replaced the question with a theory. The theory that the beast’s inside him possessed him.

Today he took the beast’s place. He was passenger in his own body. He felt and experienced everything the beast had. The thirst for blood, that never ending hunger, the exhilaration killing caused. ‘Ah the taste of blood…’ his mouth watered just at the thought.

Surgit stomped on the ground, slapped himself a couple of times. He had to chase those thoughts away. He still refused to believe it. “I can’t be one of them. I must not. Do you hear me?” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “I won’t allow it. You’re just an impostor. I won’t give you this body. I will find a way mark my words. I’ll quell that thirst with echoes then I’ll bury you deeper than ever. I won’t allow you to come out anymore.You’ll be forgotten with time, and I’ll be me. You’ll fade to nothingness. You hear me?!”

Silence.

The beast didn’t answer. Surgit felt ignored, looked down upon. That only enraged him. He looked around him. The observatory was full of books. Two floors of the building had immense libraries, dusty books stacked all around the place. Surgit cleared a dusty sofa on the second floor and began reading. “I won’t leave this place until I find a way to bury you!”