C105: End to it all Pt12, Quest failed
Im starting to fall behind a bit but hopefully ill be able to write the last few chapters needed before I collapse and my signature 3 day posting falls apart.
9/27/26
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The two of us stand off against each other. Me with my two swords in hand while Mergo's Wet Nurse stands there with a single halfmoon curved sword. A heavy silence ensues as the two of us face off.
Though I am forced to make the first move and that is to defend myself against a shadow version of the Wet Nurse who still retains the original four blades of itself. I sensed it had been in hiding for some time now. I don't know why it kept it in hiding, maybe it didn't realize I could sense it but just never got the opening it needed to unleash a successful sneak attack with it. Hard to say for sure.
Regardless, I am now forced to block or dodge its attacks which leaves me open to the attack from the main body that…only puts all its hands on the handle of the blade. Arms overlapping like wisps upon a single blade. Arms fusing for greater control and power until it looks like it only has 2 yet still have the six elbows sticking out from the original areas.
While I'm still tangled up with dealing with the clone, a dull searing flame arises from the blade behind me and I get a chill down my spine, like tendrils of creeping hunger crawl towards me, inch by inch.
I know it would not be good for me at all if I allowed this to touch me. So I use a tendril of darkness to hold one of my weapons in place while I set up my chaos barrier around myself and use a negative chaos spell to summon a pool of acid around myself. Something I had found out previously during my fight against the Beloved Child of Kosm.
The acid in this situation spills out in all directions. It has a violent reaction against the encroaching flames as sizzling occurs behind me. As for the shade, it violently shifts away, back into hiding. This allows me to turn around and properly gauge the threat before me.
The dull flames are alight a piss yellow with hints of red that seep off the tip of the blade itself like droplets of water, the droplets fall at such a rate that it is no different than a stream of water from a faucet. Except when it reaches the floor, it multiplies into a vast pool that tides out towards me. The pool of acid which I'm already protected from is quickly being overwhelmed by the liquid flames. For now though, they are somewhat at a standstill as the acid from the other end, near me, is flowing in quickly to fill up the gaps that the fire creates.
Afterall, one is an actual liquid while the other replicates a liquid but is not. It's akin to asking a child what they feel fire looks like if they had never seen it but saw what a stream of water looks like.
I slightly crouch down to prepare to move when I am forced down as I block another four bladed strike from a new shade replica of the Wet Nurse. I can still sense the previous one in a corner of the arena when this one appeared seemingly out of nowhere. I only realized it due to the displacement of the air which I'm getting better at sensing naturally after using the air bubble spell so much.
I sense that the acid is being pushed back, I see the darkness around me encroaching deeper into the surroundings, the faint moonlight around me suppressed. What remains is simply darkness enhanced by ambient red light of the Eclipse.
As for me, I have been forced onto my knees as one shade after another emerges from the darkness, they all join their 'sisters' in slamming their four blades down on top of each other, creating layers of strength pressing down on me. They hope to crush me in my entirety, that or serve me up for the nightmarish flames to subsume me.
These flames have invaded step by step towards me as I was forced to use my darkness to fight against these pyres as the accident had long run out.
I continue observing my surroundings, my two blades, the greatsword and Null remain flat on their sides, against my back, the final wall before these shades would crush me.
Yet I still observe, I watch them to see how they work, what makes them tick, what their goal is. The swaying darkness flowing around them. Their lifeless presence touches neither life nor death as there is only the sign of their weight upon the air, the weight upon their blades and the weight that accumulates upon me.
"I see now" I find a trace of something through my magic vision. A strand of something, that which makes up my surroundings. A strand of their weakness. A strand of the plan which would encapsulate my victory.
"Heh heh hah ha ha ha" I laugh out loud as a few of the shades and the main Wet Nurse tremble from that laughter. I can sense that the trembling was not of fear or anything but rather long standing annoyance from my pathetic existence still 'standing' even now. Still living, still thriving, their duty un-upheld from the continuation of my very lifeforce.
A quote suddenly comes to mind and it feels very appropriate in this situation.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally. But you merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING! The shadows betray you, because they belong to me!"
I drop my darkness magic from obstructing the flames as instead I have them gather all over my body. It formed new armor, new weapons. It transformed my legs into a tendril of darkness that allowed me to drop down further than I was already kneeling and shoot out from under the accumulated blades holding me down.
These blades slam into the ground, confusing the shade Nurses as I hover over the newly formed pit. I spin in place with my arms out, a wind turbine of darkness that decapitates each shade before escaping from the general area so that the flames simply pass through the shades and not touch me one bit.
"I nearly forgot I could teleport" I shake the darkness off of my legs so that I could stand. I had gotten so used to having an advanced form of Dash that teleporting just became a waste of time. I had to sense the area I wanted to teleport to and then do so. Too much effort when I could run really fast.
In addition to the previous two steps of sensing and moving, There is also the need to create an area of darkness either by setting up a shadow step or using magic to create an obvious dark zone to teleport to. This is all simply inefficient to the Seeker mindset but now, here.
There is only darkness.
A darkness that a creature like the Wet Nurse can control was of it's birth, not one that was learned. It may form darkness but so can I. It may create shades but so can I. It can vanish in darkness but so can I. Yet that is where the comparison ends.
I have worked harder in my creations, I have created new forms, I have made new constructs, I have fought dozens of times more than the Nurse. I have, through the system, seen the edge of creation. I can make new forms of darkness the Nurse has never seen before.
Through this, I have already won. Through this, I have undermined every advantage the Nurse has. Through this, my blade shall once more claim victory.
Through this, I'll beat its imaginary skull in.
Coating my two blades, I enhance their power further beyond their regular states. Null: with its shining bolt turns Silver Blue as the electricity does not grow hotter but colder, lighter and thinner, yet all the more powerful.
Through the Moonlight greatsword; I suppress its light, mend it true to its own primal nature. A blade of light that seeps through darkness. A blade that is a reflection of the moon and not it's just its light, a blade that shall act as a beacon to all weary travelers. A pigment of light to brighten the road ahead, to a new tomorrow.
With these blades combined, I lay waste to the new flow of devilish flames coming at me. The river of yellow and black churns in tides as it is itself burned by lightning and light itself.
The silver lightning crackles at the incoming blaze as it flows freely, reaching the real Mergo's Wet Nurse as it's body trembles all over the shock while the true moonlight seeping through the cloudy darkness blinds and further weakens the imaginary Boss.
(wet nurse is not considered a beast or Kin, so it's not real. It's just an extension of Mergo who is a great one)
The dual bladed attack causes a lapse in the moment for the Nurse as it causes the flames to dissipate and the Nurses actions to freeze as my follow-up attack sweeps right up and cuts apart another set of arm, leaving it with just three left to hold its sword.
It releases a horrifying shriek that I see starts my frenzy gauge. Since I don't have hundreds of insights. I can now properly take my sedatives to calm myself down while using shadow-ports to zoom around when it summons its shades to strike me.
Im still not able to leave the arena but im alright with it now. I'm not trapped in here with it, it's trapped in here with me.
As the sedative kicks in and the shriek ends. I teleport above the Nurse and slam down both the Silver Null and the Night-shrouded Moonlight Greatsword through the Nurse's back as Null shreds it's back and when shredding the back isn't enough, Null tears into the cloth-like wings, grounding the boss in place.
Meanwhile the Greatsword pierces through along where the spine would be. As it gets a GoW2&3 feel with how the thick blade of pulsating blue is causing an egregious amount of blood-like ooze to spill out all over the floor.
The Wet Nurse thrashes around, trying to get me off its back and I jump up, perform a spin in mid air as my shadow and chaos magical energy covers the Holy Moonlight Greatsword.
This turned it into the Moonlight Ultra Greatsword.
Combined with my spinning motion, I slice the Wet Nurse right in half at the waist.
I spin in midair a bit before landing in a half kneeling position before brushing my coat of dust as I retract my magic power back to myself.
[Nightmare Slain]
I get the dark golden message flow in my vision from the system followed by a notification.
[Ding: Main questline has been completed. Return to the Hunters Dream to collect your prize.]
[1/3rd of an umbilical cord obtained]
"Ew" I comment as I begin to make my way out of the arena when I get hit with another system message.
[Warning: Side Quest Failed. Cherry, Daughter of Gascoigne has died. All rewards discarded]
My eyebrow twitches as my body enters a trance, I simply walk forward. Bypassing the fragment of the Pthumerian Queen who handed me something in her typical Yoda style speech which I eat while stepping over the edge and falling down just beside the shortcut lamp to return to the Dream.
Upon my arrival, I found the workshop on fire. Yet my magic vision shows it all as an illusion. The cabin remains intact but smothered in foreign essence. I walk around and find the Doll lying down, unconscious beside the garden entrance which had been locked till now.
I step inside, walking among the flowers as I spot the raggedy old bastard, Gehrman, sitting in his dumbass wheelchair and in front of him is Cherry's dead body. Her head decapitated from her body with a pained expression written on her face.
I can see the clear signs of abuse that remain on her body, recent ones, likely indicating that the old bastard had inflicted unnecessary pain upon her before killing her. A pain that I will inflict back onto him as I yell out with all the grief in my body.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!"
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Word Count = 2180