After Alex freed Ludwig from the Hunter's Nightmare, he also freed the souls of those who had died at Ludwig's own hands. The once spacious hall that had served as Ludwig's dwelling had been filled with blood and mutilated bodies.
Now, this hall — which had recently been soaked in blood and piled with corpses — was completely empty. There were no bodies, no blood — only an old, spacious hall that no one had entered in a long time. The only thing present was a Messenger lamp burning in the center, casting a dim gray light around itself.
Looking over the now clean hall, free of bodies and blood, Alex shifted his gaze to Alucard, who suggested they move on. Alex had no objections to continuing forward, since the place that interested him was very close.
Climbing the stairs to the spot where Ludwig had previously slept, Alex and Alucard saw a passage on the left side. As Alex remembered, this passage led to the prison cells, where people were still slowly going mad. As they climbed the stairs, they heard a strange sound.
A strange squelching sound and quiet muttering echoed from a prison cell behind them. Alex approached the wooden doors and peered through the small barred window. He saw a man repeatedly banging his head against the wall, endlessly repeating the motto of the Healing Church hunters. The spot on the wall where the man was banging his head was so covered in blood that it was already dripping onto the floor.
"You look like you've never seen madmen before," Alucard said, standing behind Alex and leaning her back against the wall.
"I was just curious. How many cursed psychiatric asylums do you think I've visited?" Alex asked, stopping paying attention to the mad hunter.
"Apparently not enough," Alucard replied with light sarcasm in her voice.
Alex lazily shrugged, not denying her words. Stopping paying attention to the mad hunter who continued banging his head against the wall, Alex decided it was best not to stop anymore and to keep moving forward.
Ahead of Alex and Alucard stretched a long prison corridor with closed cells. As they began walking down this long corridor, they heard the sound of footsteps. Ahead appeared several Church Servants in black robes, walking along the corridor like prison guards. Seeing them, Alex pulled the Holy Moonlight Sword from his back.
Gripping it with a reverse hold, he narrowed his eyes slightly. The sword in his hand began to glow with a soft green light, and in that same moment Alex delivered three slashing strikes, sending cross-shaped energy slashes forward. Where the three energy slashes passed, clear marks were left on the walls.
The three energy slashes instantly reached the Church Servants and cut them into pieces. After killing the Church Servants, Alex put the Holy Moonlight Sword away on his back and narrowed his eyes with a satisfied smile.
"Looks like I found a temporary replacement for Rebellion," Alex said with a pleased smile, looking at the aftermath of his strike.
"What kind of sword?" Alucard asked, shifting her gaze to her husband.
"Rebellion is the opposite of my Yamato. To put it simply, Yamato can separate, while Rebellion can unite."
Alucard raised an eyebrow slightly, showing interest in such a weapon. She knew that the Yamato sword Alex possessed had unique abilities and wasn't just another piece in his collection. Seeing that Alucard had shown interest in Rebellion and Yamato, Alex decided to share a few facts about these weapons.
As they continued walking down the corridor toward the church hall that would lead them to the Research Hall, Alex told her about the two swords and how they were created. Even though the Yamato in Alex's hands had been created by the hands of the Creator himself — Alex's father. Hearing about the special properties of Yamato and Rebellion, Alucard was somewhat impressed by such weapons.
By the end of the prison corridor, Alex had finished telling her about the two swords, and they began climbing the stairs.
"If I remember correctly, Laurence's skull should be in the hall ahead," Alex said, climbing the stairs.
"And why do you need the skull of that man?" Alucard asked, climbing the stairs beside him.
"For the ritual to resurrect the monster we saw in the Grand Cathedral," Alex said, looking at Alucard and reminding her of what he wanted to do.
"You're planning to go back?" Alucard clarified, narrowing her eyes at her husband.
Alex smiled slightly, hinting that they would return in a much faster way than a regular walk. Noticing the smile on Alex's face, Alucard smirked and continued climbing the stairs.
A moment later, they stepped into a very spacious church hall. Unlike all the other places in the Hunter's Nightmare, this church hall looked very neat, as if the place was frequently cleaned. Alex's gaze fell on several empty medical beds that looked as though people had recently slept on them. And at the very end stood an altar, before which a woman knelt, quietly praying.
This place was neat and well-maintained for a reason. This church hall had been created from Maria's own memories. And unlike the other inhabitants of the Hunter's Nightmare, Maria had not gone mad from blood or insanity. Maria's life had ended because of the guilt that had been devouring her from within.
And this church hall symbolized how Maria had cared for the sick in the hope of saving as many people as possible. The Research Hall above served as a reminder that all her attempts at redemption had been pointless. The place that was supposed to save people had turned into a place where people were subjected to even greater suffering.
"As I've come to understand, the world in the Hunter's Nightmare is formed from how the people trapped here perceived it. That's why this place looks like this. And this place — it was born from Maria's memories," Alex said, lighting a cigarette.
"So it's a cage she built for herself. Quite ironic," Alucard said, looking around the church hall that had been used to heal the sick.
"Perhaps. It reminds me of the Hell my brother managed. To eternally watch the very thing you blame yourself for… And the most interesting part is that the doors aren't locked. You can leave at any moment," Alex said, shaking his head and letting out a heavy sigh.
"Has anyone managed to leave through these doors?" Alucard asked, turning her head toward Alex and showing interest in the Hell he had mentioned.
"No one even tries to leave. And that says a lot," Alex said, exhaling cigarette smoke and flicking the ash at his feet.
Alucard narrowed her eyes slightly, understanding what Alex was saying. She had seen this many times in the memories of people whose blood she had absorbed. Guilt that cannot be fought. But Alucard had no intention of sympathizing with these people or commenting on it.
Perhaps, a very long time ago, she had once blamed herself for the actions she had committed. But that was so long ago that those memories had long been washed away by time, and she had no desire to recall them.
"It's time to move on. I hope these church nuns don't attack us," Alex said, tossing aside his extinguished cigarette.
"Are you talking about her?" Alucard asked, pointing her finger at the nun in black robes.
Alex shifted his gaze in the direction Alucard was pointing and noticed the nun holding a two-handed Ludwig's Holy Blade. At that same moment, Alex realized he had stopped hearing the quiet voice of the praying woman.
Looking around the church hall, he saw that the second nun in white robes was also walking toward them, holding a Threaded Cane in her hand. Pursing his lips, Alex let out a heavy breath through his nose. He looked at both nuns, who clearly had no intention of talking, and pulled the Holy Moonlight Sword from his back.
"Black nun or white nun for you?" Alex asked, looking at Alucard.
"I'll take the white one. She has a more innocent look. I like those," Alucard said, lightly licking her lips.
"You sound like a pervert," Alex said, giving his wife an empty look.
Alucard only smiled at Alex's words and instantly appeared beside the nun in white robes. The nun didn't even have time to react before Alucard's palm pierced through her chest. Instantly, the white robe of the nun became soaked with blood and turned red. With a slight smile on her face, Alucard pulled her hand out of the nun's chest and lightly licked the blood from the tips of her fingers.
Seeing how quickly Alucard had dealt with the nun, Alex shifted his gaze to the nun in black robes. Before she could get close, Alex attacked first. He drew the Holy Moonlight Sword back and then made a sharp forward thrust. Alex instantly closed the distance between himself and the nun in black robes.
The Holy Moonlight Sword pierced straight through the nun's chest, and she didn't even have time to raise her two-handed sword to deliver a counterattack. Blood immediately gushed from the nun's mouth, partially splattering onto Alex's hands and the blade of the Holy Moonlight Sword.
"I know you're still not completely mad. But this outcome is the most merciful," Alex said, looking directly into the eyes of the nun he had impaled.
"Lady… Maria…" the nun in black robes croaked with her last strength.
After the nun in black robes spoke her final words, her body turned into white sand that immediately vanished. Alex shook his head, understanding why the nun had spoken Maria's name. These nuns were trapped in a single moment of their lives and no longer realized what was happening around them. Putting the Holy Moonlight Sword away on his back, Alex turned to Alucard, who had approached the altar.
Alex also walked up to the altar where the nuns had been praying and began examining it. On the altar stood three statues towering over a human skeleton, as if performing the final ritual before burying the body.
"And how do I make this platform move, my love? You do love playing by these stupid rules," Alucard asked, resting her chin on Alex's shoulder and looking at the skeleton lying on the altar.
"You'd better take a few steps back," Alex said with a slight smile.
Alucard narrowed her eyes and turned her head toward her husband. Seeing that Alucard didn't want to move away, Alex raised his hand and waved it lightly, hinting that she should step back. Rolling her eyes, Alucard demonstratively took a few steps back, moving off the platform. Seeing that Alucard had moved away, Alex took out a silver pendant with a crystal eye in the center from his pocket. Seeing this pendant, Alucard raised an eyebrow.
"I told you this thing would come in handy," Alex said, spinning the pendant on his finger.
"What a good boy… Now activate this platform," Alucard said in a sarcastic tone, clapping her hands a couple of times.
Alex rolled his eyes at his wife's words. Stopping spinning the pendant on his finger, Alex leaned over the skeleton on the altar. Gripping the pendant in his hand, he slipped his hand into the cracked skull of the skeleton, feeling for the hole where the pendant needed to be inserted to activate the mechanism.
Finding the hole, Alex inserted the pendant, and a click sounded, indicating that the mechanism had activated. Before the platform began to rise, Alex jumped backward. With the creak of the mechanism, the platform slowly began to rise to the very top. Alex and Alucard watched as one platform moved away and another rose from below to replace it.
The platform that arrived from below looked more like an altar in honor of a specific person. On this altar stood a golden throne, beneath which was a golden coffin, and on both sides were statues of people reaching out their hands, as if asking for a blessing from the person who was supposed to sit on this golden throne.
And beneath this entire structure was a table on which lay a human skull wrapped in bandages. And the person in whose honor this altar had been built was the first Vicar Laurence, who was revered in the Healing Church that he had created together with his closest followers.
"Ah, poor Laurence… So many aspirations and so many sacrifices. And it all turned out to be in vain. And the remnants of your memories remain only in this nightmarish world. Now you are nothing more than a skull forgotten by time. And a monster in the eyes of people. No lips, no speech, only an empty void in which the whole world saw your end," Alex said, holding Laurence's skull in one hand and looking into its empty eye sockets.
Alex himself didn't know why he had suddenly felt poetic when he took Laurence's skull in his hands. But it seemed to him like the perfect moment for something like this. Alucard, watching this, clapped her hands lightly, fully appreciating such dramatic poetry. Hearing the applause, Alex turned his head toward his wife. A soft smile appeared on Alex's face, and he bowed slightly, like an actor after finishing a performance.
"That was wonderful, my love. I thought such behavior wasn't like you… But you surprised me," Alucard said, looking at Alex with a slight smile on her lips.
"Thank you, my Countess. Your praise warms my heart and soul," Alex said, bowing once more.
"Don't overdo it, my love," Alucard said, poking Alex in the forehead with her finger.
Alex chuckled lightly at Alucard's words and stepped off the platform. Putting Laurence's skull into his inventory, Alex walked over to the lever that controlled the platform's mechanism and pulled it slightly. The sound of the mechanism working rang out again, and the platform began to descend.
Lighting a cigarette, Alex waited for the upper platform to come down. When the upper platform descended, Alex and Alucard stepped onto it. And the platform immediately began to rise with the characteristic sound of the working mechanism and the clinking of chains. Alex raised his head and thought about what awaited them above.
The place the platform was rising to was the Research Hall, where the Healing Church conducted its inhumane experiments on people, trying to find a path to Ascension through the blood of the Great Ones. Alex didn't consider it a coincidence that the skull of the first Vicar Laurence was located in such a place. After all, it was by his orders that all these experiments had been carried out.
"I wonder if there will be any records in this place," Alex said, stroking his chin.
"Are you that interested?" Alucard asked, shifting her gaze to her husband.
"A little. I'm more interested in the diaries of the patients who were experimented on. I keep things like that in my creepy museum," Alex said, shrugging.
"Ah, yes. The creepy museum. I'll have to visit it sometime," Alucard said, remembering what Alex was talking about.
Alex nodded, showing that he didn't mind if Alucard visited his museum with its collection of creepy items from cursed places. When the platform reached the very top, a single passage with stairs leading upward and a lone Messenger lamp burning with a dim gray light appeared before Alex and Alucard.
Touching the Messenger lamp to light it, Alex began climbing the stairs to enter the Research Hall. After climbing the stairs, Alex and Alucard entered the Research Hall. Raising his head, Alex saw a long spiral staircase that went all the way up.
"I have a feeling we're going to be here for a while," Alex said, looking at the number of floors and the size of the Research Hall.
"Only if you don't plan to clean out every corner of this place," Alucard said, also looking upward.
"You can sleep in my shadow while I do all this. And when I reach the garden, I'll wake you up," Alex said, looking at his wife.
"And what's so interesting about that garden you mentioned?" Alucard asked, lowering her gaze and shifting it to Alex.
"I think it would be appropriate to call those beings the ones who are stuck between human and Celestial Messenger…" Alex said, narrowing his eyes, stroking his chin, and looking at the balcony that led to the garden.
Alucard thought for a moment, considering her husband's suggestion. After thinking for a bit, Alucard smirked and extended her palm toward Alex. Alex understood without words what Alucard was asking for. In that same moment, the Black Cat jumped out of his shadow.
The Black Cat jumped onto Alex's shoulder and opened its mouth, spitting out all the crystallized Blood Echoes it had managed to collect up to that point. Alex had already gained enough experience to quickly separate the contaminated Blood Echoes from the pure ones. After spending a few minutes separating the Blood Echoes, Alex extended the finished pure crystallized Blood Echoes toward Alucard.
"Thank you, my love. Now you can play researcher for a bit. And I'll take a little nap," Alucard said, gently touching her lips to his.
After another short kiss, Alucard gently ran her fingers across Alex's lips and took the crystallized Blood Echoes from his hands. Alucard stepped onto Alex's shadow and began to slowly sink into it, not taking her eyes off him. She saw no reason to interfere with him playing researcher of secrets, but she also didn't want to watch.
And since Alex had offered her a chance to sleep a little, she had no intention of refusing. When Alucard disappeared into his shadow, Alex was left alone. Or at least he thought he was alone, because the Black Cat was still lying on his shoulders with a clear intention of not going anywhere. Stroking the Black Cat's chin, Alex raised his gaze upward again, thinking about where to start.
"I hope I won't waste my time searching every corner of this place… But first, I need to get rid of all the obstacles," Alex said, looking around the spacious Research Hall.
In response to Alex's words, the Black Cat only yawned and closed its eyes, settling more comfortably on his shoulders for a nap. Alex took out the magic musket from his inventory and raised it with the barrel upward. Closing his eyes and spreading his mana throughout the entire Research Hall, Alex marked every target in this place. After marking everyone who needed to be killed, Alex fired the magic musket. The bullet shot out of the barrel with a bang and flew toward its first target with a whistle, twisting in the air.
The Research Hall was a multi-story building with a spiral staircase that reached all the way to the top. Long balconies with wards and research rooms. And all of it formed a labyrinth of stairs, balconies, and mechanisms. Only the first floor was relatively normal.
If one ignored the shallow pool in the center of the room, which was filled with suspicious liquid. The smell coming from the liquid in the pool was far from pleasant — it resembled the smell of harsh chemicals that stung the nose. And in this suspiciously caustic liquid lay the dried bodies of dozens of people in medical coats.
Seeing nothing interesting on the first floor except for two closed doors, Alex decided to first climb the spiral staircase to the second floor to see what was there. After climbing the spiral staircase, Alex saw two sets of stairs leading in different directions. Choosing the one that led to the second floor, Alex began climbing the steps.
"I'll start from here and gradually work my way upward," Alex said, arriving at the balcony on the second floor.
The balcony on the second floor was lined with cabinets containing various reagents needed for the experiments conducted in this place. Approaching one of the cabinets, Alex took a glass jar and pulled out the cork to smell what was inside. Inhaling the smell, Alex grimaced strongly from the ammonia scent and immediately threw the jar aside. Deciding it was better not to smell anything that might be in these reagent jars, Alex entered the first room on the second floor.
Upon entering the room, he saw a dozen simple beds that looked as though everyone who had slept on them had died in a far from pleasant way. The sheets on every bed were soaked with already dried blood. And the room itself was filled with the bodies of those who had been experimented on. Elongated bodies with long limbs and huge heads covered with sacks.
Approaching one of these corpses, Alex squatted down and saw a hole in the chest left by a magic bullet.
"You won't mind if I touch your head a little, will you?" Alex asked, placing his palm on the swollen head of the patient.
When Alex's hand touched the patient's head, he pressed lightly on the bloated head. Continuing to squeeze the patient's head, it felt to Alex like he was squeezing a jellyfish. Feeling disgusted by the touch of something like this, Alex pulled his hand back and shook his head slightly. He had no intention of looking under the sack covering the test subject's head, as he saw no particular point in it.
Standing up, Alex lit a cigarette and looked around, thinking about finding something interesting. But all he saw were wooden beds with bloodstained sheets and the corpses of experiment victims. Exhaling cigarette smoke, Alex climbed the stone stairs to reach another hall on the second floor.
Entering the second hall, Alex saw the same picture: wooden beds with bloodstained sheets and the corpses of experiment victims. The only distinctive feature in the second hall was a staircase leading to the third floor. Looking at the staircase leading to the third floor, Alex exhaled cigarette smoke and shook his head.
He didn't see any reason to climb to the third floor yet, so he went back to the balcony on the second floor. Returning to the spiral staircase, Alex descended the steps and began climbing the other staircase that led higher. After climbing the stairs to the third floor, Alex saw a sign attached to the wall near one of the closed rooms.
"Third floor, left wing. Experimentation Hall… This is what I need," Alex read the inscription on the sign by the doors.
Recognizing what kind of room this was, Alex smiled and approached the door. Seeing a small bullet hole in the door, Alex nodded understandingly. Pushing the door open, Alex saw an old and creepy research laboratory, in the center of which stood several tables with the bodies of patients lying on them.
Looking around, Alex saw piles of books stacked against the walls, surgical instruments hanging from above, and several cabinets filled with medicines and reagents. Like any such room, it was quite spacious enough to accommodate a sufficient number of people.
There was also a freight elevator used to deliver gurneys with patients for experiments. Before starting to look around, Alex kicked the lever to call the elevator. While the elevator was rising, Alex began his inspection with the books, of which there were a great many. Taking the first book, Alex blew the dust off it to see the title.
"Human Anatomy… Structure of the Human Body… Theories of Brain Function… Collection of Herbs…" Alex read the titles of the books, picking one up after another.
Throwing aside the uninteresting books, Alex continued to explore the experiment room. Alex took everything his hands could reach or whatever caught his eye. In this way, Alex reached the desk that belonged to one of the doctors. On the doctor's desk lay dozens of different books, which Alex immediately tossed aside as useless.
Beginning to open the drawers, Alex was looking for one specific thing — the diary of the doctor who owned this desk. Alex was one hundred percent sure that such scientists always kept diaries. Opening the last drawer of the desk, Alex found a worn diary in a leather binding.
Smirking, Alex took the diary in his hands and opened it.
"Doctor Augustine Crane… Let's see what you managed to write… Although your handwriting is quite beautiful," Alex said, seeing the name to whom this diary belonged.
Taking the diary in his hands, Alex walked over to the dead old man in the wheelchair who was supposed to be guarding this room. Shoving the corpse off the wheelchair, Alex lazily settled into it. When Alex sat down, the Black Cat that had been dozing on his shoulders immediately jumped onto his lap. Beginning to read from the first page, Alex lit a cigarette and slowly read page after page, in no hurry. Lightly rocking back and forth in the wheelchair, Alex balanced on the rear wheels while reading Doctor Crane's diary.
"So you were researching the connections between consciousness, dreams, and other dimensions… Interesting," Alex said, flicking the ash onto the floor.
After reading to the last page, Alex was quite impressed by Augustine Crane's notes, who had been engaged in such research. There were many cruel moments in the notes in which the doctor himself admitted his actions. But like other people of his kind, he repeatedly wrote in his diary that all these sacrifices were for the sake of science.
Closing the diary, Alex tossed it onto his shadow so that the diary would become part of his collection. Not wanting to get up from the wheelchair, Alex decided to examine a couple more similar doctors' desks that were in this room. Rolling over to one of the desks in the wheelchair, Alex quickly found another diary.
"I wonder what you were working on, Cyrus Walter… Interesting… Research into death and resurrection using Blood Echoes. Now this is interesting," Alex said, beginning to read the diary of another doctor.
Pushing off the desk with his foot, Alex rolled back to the center of the room and began reading the new diary. But after just a couple of pages, Alex lost all interest, because Cyrus Walter had ultimately come to nothing. The diary Alex was reading looked more like the diary of a lab assistant who had only just started working and knew nothing.
Throwing the diary aside, Alex checked the last two desks but found nothing except dusty medical reports and a few framed photographs. Tapping his finger on his chin and rocking back and forth in the wheelchair, Alex's gaze shifted to the freight elevator and then to the hatch with stairs leading to the second floor.
"Stairs are out. I don't want to get up. The elevator it is," Alex said, turning the wheelchair around.
Rolling into the elevator in the wheelchair, Alex drove straight onto the plate that activated the elevator. The freight elevator doors immediately closed, and the elevator began to descend. The freight elevator arrived on the first floor in another research room. Rolling out of the elevator in the wheelchair, Alex began looking around.
As he looked around, Alex noticed a patient who had been experimented on. And he remembered who this patient had been before turning into this creature with a swollen head. Alex turned the wheelchair to roll closer.
Rolling closer, Alex stopped a step away from the patient who was strapped to the chair. This patient was named Adeline. Just an ordinary girl who had ended up in the Healing Church's hospital and ultimately found herself in a place like this, becoming a victim of horrific experiments with the blood of the Great Ones.
"Is that you, Lady Maria?" Adeline asked, sensing a person nearby.
"Sorry, but I'm not Maria," Alex said with a light sigh, looking at Adeline, who was strapped to the chair.
"No? That's too bad… I haven't seen Lady Maria in a long time… She hasn't visited me in so long. I miss our conversations," Adeline said with a slight note of nostalgia in her voice, sitting perfectly straight in her chair, not even trying to move.
"So you knew Maria?" Alex asked, resting his cheek on his fist and leaning back in the wheelchair.
"Yes. We talked often. Her voice was soothing," Adeline said, still with that same nostalgic tone.
Even though Alex could hear Adeline's voice, it seemed to him that the voice wasn't coming from her swollen, fluid-filled head at all. Alex shook his head slightly from side to side, thinking about what to do with Adeline.
Alex could save Adeline and restore her human form, and he could do it quite easily. But then the question arose — did Adeline herself want that, or had she already forgotten what it was like to be normal? While Alex was lost in thought, considering what to do with Adeline, she didn't hear her interlocutor's voice.
"Are you still there?" Adeline asked, not hearing Alex's voice.
"Ah, sorry. I was just thinking," Alex quickly replied, hearing Adeline's voice.
"It's alright… It's been a long time since I talked to anyone. All I hear is this persistent sound. Do you hear it too?" Adeline said, sounding a little happier.
"Fortunately, no. I don't hear any persistent sounds," Alex said, chuckling lightly.
"I see… My request might sound rude. But could you help me?" Adeline said, nodding her head slightly.
"And how can I help you? Untie you? Help you get rid of the persistent sound?" Alex asked, lighting a cigarette.
"Please… I really need brain fluid. Soft, thick brain fluid," Adeline said in a tone as if she were drooling from hunger.
Alex stared at Adeline and realized there was nothing he could do to help her. And when Adeline voiced her request, Alex made a decision on how he would help Adeline. Alex raised the hand wearing the Ring of Death and touched Adeline's head.
The moment Alex's hand touched Adeline's head, she died instantly, and her body turned to ash. And all that remained of Adeline was her ashes and a key to the balcony on the first floor that led to the flower garden in this place. Taking the key in his hand, Alex let out a heavy sigh.
After all, he remembered that Maria had given this key to Adeline so she could enjoy the scent of flowers and the peaceful atmosphere of the garden. But Adeline had never been able to fully appreciate that flower garden. Sighing once again, Alex put the key in his pocket and decided to visit that flower garden a little later. Only after he had finished thoroughly exploring this place.
To be continued...
(So, I'll try to keep things short with the Research Hall; I'll show you a couple of things about this place. Then we'll move on to more monsters and my waifu, Maria. I can tell you more about this place if you need to. But it's all clear anyway: the Research Hall was created to conduct experiments with the blood of the Great Beings, transfusing it into human bodies. And so on. Now it's time for food and a little playtime on Dead Island. Peace, love, and don't trust anyone, they lie.)
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