206 Haunting Memories

"I only remember kneeling before that old conniving bastard..." Karla hissed.

Surgit frowned heavily. "You really don't like the old man. What gave birth to such hatred?"

Karla shook her head. "Even if I were to tell you, it would all seem farfetched. I'm still trying to get a grasp on my situation. I don't even know if those memories are true..."

Surgit took a deep breath. "How did you become so skilled at wielding the sword?"

"I trained, like everyone else," Karla dryly replied. She looked at Surgit with narrowed eyes. "Do you think I've become this skilled because I've been to Yharnam before?"

Surgit shrugged. "I can't really say. All I know is, you used to scare the crap out of me. You had this presence about you that pushed everyone to think twice before approaching you."

Karla chuckled nervously. "That didn't stop many men from challenging me. But enough about my past. I don't think I can find an answer by thinking about this."

Surgit nodded. "The more you think in this world, the closer you get to madness. We get answers by exploring the ruins of Yharnam. We also get answers by slaying the larger beasts, our natural prey."

Karla tittered. "Did we come here to drink rotten blood and kill beasts? I thought we came looking for the miracle cure."

"The 'miracle cure' as it stands, is blood ministration. I've been imbibing enough of it to know it distorts our minds, bends the reality we all thought made sense..." Surgit replied in a thoughtful tone.

Karla abruptly stood. "The more we stay here, the closer we get to madness. I don't remember how I got out of this nightmare, but it has to do with Gehrman."

"Gehrman appears from time to time here," Surgit said. "I haven't seen him in a long time, however. I don't know where he hides."

"In his own workshop, perhaps?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Noticing Surgit's confusion, she clarified. "Under the tower we followed Francis to, there's the hunters' workshop. That's where I was trained after I received blood ministration."

Surgit's eyes widened. "That place is as decrepit as the rest of Yharnam. I can take you there if you'd like, but you won't find anything more than this replica, here in this realm."

Karla shook her head. "That old man knows how to stay out of sight. What about Laurence? Have you ever met him?"

"I've only seen him in a vision in the Great Cathedral," Surgit replied. His eyes lit up, as though some bright idea had just come to his mind. "That crow feathered hunter, the one who's sent you to the past. He must know things!"

Karla crossed her arms. "As if we could make him talk," she said through pursed lips.

"He loves trash talking us. All we need to do is fight him, make the fight last and provoke him," Surgit said with a wide grin. He approached Karla and put both hands on her shoulders. "What's the worst that could happen? We're now beasts in human form. If we can't escape this nightmare, I might as well die so many times to that hunter that I stop dreaming."

"If we escape at all..." Karla replied, crestfallen.

"Oh come on!" Surgit snapped. "Karla does not mope around. That's my job, and Francis's. Don't you dare fall to our level."

Karla burst into laughter. Surgit had never seen her smile that way before. Her brown eyes shone and laugh lines appeared beside her nose. She looked at him, grinning widely, and Surgit couldn't help but return her smile.

"You're one weird son of a bitch, you know that?" she said.

Surgit shrugged. "I've been called worse."

Karla chuckled. "We still won't be able to fight Gavril for long. We need to get stronger."

"We have two locations that still need exploring," Surgit replied. He still had his hands on Karla's shoulders, and she hadn't brushed them off. "We could also check the Chalice Dungeons. I have enough materials to go deeper into the tombs of the old gods."

Karla's eyes widened. "The same gods that brought calamity to Yharnam?" she asked.

"The curse of Yharnam... A beast told me this once, yes. There are powerful beasts down there, and the payout is incredible. We'll come out stronger than we've ever been," Surgit replied.

Karla nodded then finally stepped away from Surgit's outstretched hands. "All right, I'll follow you to the tombs. I have a clear idea on which attributes I must upgrade."

Surgit's face lit up. "Then it's settled. We'll explore the tombs then get back to the Nightmare Frontier. I just cannot forgive that spider for what he's done to us."

"Then we find Gavril, and make him pay for the hell he put me through," Karla said, determined.

They left for the sacrificial altars and Surgit performed the ritual. He needed some Ritual Blood that he'd found exploring Cainhurst with Francis and the Forbidden Woods later on. Soon both hunters found themselves in moldy tunnels. The smell of blood and rotten flesh invaded their nostrils as soon as they arrived.

Karla looked around, astonished yet disgusted at the same time. "This is where the old blood was found..." she whispered. She didn't know why she was whispering. Perhaps because of how eerie the place felt, or because of the feeling that danger surrounded them.

"I don't know where they'd found the blood, but this is not it," Surgit replied.

He was staring at a marble wall before him. Traces of dried blood covered most of the engravings on the wall. Ash gray flowers grew at the foot of the marble wall. Surgit wondered how plants, even those grim looking ones, could grow in such dark places.

"We'd better get moving. There isn't much we can learn from this engraving here," he said then headed for the only door available to them.

"What about the one above the door?" Karla asked.

Surgit looked up, and his heart skipped a beat. The engraving above the door resembled his hunter's mark, the one he could use to revive at the cost of forfeiting all his blood echoes. "Do you think hunters did that?" he whispered.

"I can't really say," she replied. "All I can think of now is how I remember being in places like these before."

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