As the saying goes, the level of horror in a horror game is often related to the abundance of firepower.
Imagine this: your car breaks down with your brother on the edge of a deserted area.
You head to a nearby village for help, but on the way, you see the corpse of a wild dog.
You and your brother are starving and parched.
You arrive at a remote mountain village, where the population is dwindling, the settlement is decaying and rotten, and you can faintly smell blood.
Other residents are all holed up indoors, with only eyes peeking out from the darkness, looking exceptionally eerie.
Finally, in the village's assembly ground, you discover countless religious runes drawn in blood, and a two-meter-tall hulking butcher, holding a blood-stained boning knife, is relentlessly chopping at a freshly sacrificed offering.
And then, he spots you; you are just another offering for the demon.
Oh, right, one more thing I forgot to mention—your name is Dante, and your brother's name is Vergil.
Doesn't the story immediately transform from your horror game into the monster's horror game?
This is the situation Goki is currently facing. Although Saltwind City by the sea is filled with decaying and dilapidated buildings, numb and hungry people, lawless cults, and monstrous creatures beyond comprehension.
However, he is not some unarmed, perpetually failing sanity checks, perpetually succeeding inspiration checks, occult folklore enthusiast.
Goki has hunted beasts, cleansed churches, confronted gods, and is one of the ten outstanding youths of Yharnam who helps others. Even Ludwig, the previous excellent Hunter cadre, was personally sent to heaven by him.
To an Old Hunter who has seen all sorts of devils and ghosts, a cult in a coastal town that worships a strange giant squid is indeed nothing significant.
Of course, the most important thing is that he also has a Submerged Saiyan by his side.
Even if Goki didn't know the plot and genuinely investigated Saltwind City with Skadi for a few rounds, the final result would still be the two of them kicking down this door.
In a Cthulhu-esque world, it's really best not to have Ultraman and Saiyans appearing.
In the dim church, the service had just ended. All the commoners had left, and after the doors closed, only three people remained in the gloomy church.
Soon, there would only be two.
"It's decided, Skadi! Use Aqua Jet!"
With the Saw Cleaver on his shoulder, Goki waved his hand, pointing towards Quintus, like a Pokémon trainer who can't win a championship—and Skadi was the Gardevoir destined to become his wife!
Although at first glance, when he saw the somewhat young, not at all sinister, and even smiling "cleric" in front of him, Goki thought that the person might not be Quintus, but just a normal person.
However, after hearing the other party's words, Goki could only sigh that time is indeed a butcher's knife—a handsome young man in his youth would also turn into that neither-human-nor-ghost appearance in the game when he got old, eventually becoming two large sea anemones.
Of course, Goki mostly thought that this guy had just eaten too much fish.
"Ha... I always feel like you're saying something bad. I told you, this move is called—"
Sighing, Skadi was already used to the strange things Goki often said.
Skadi attacks, Goki covers the surroundings—that was their tactic.
Boom—
The beautifully paved marble floor cracked like ice under the force of Skadi's slender calves.
The long benches used for prayer on both sides of the church were directly blown apart by the air currents generated by Skadi's charge.
A booming sound erupted. Before the Abyssal Cultist could react, Skadi swung her dark mechanical greatblade directly at him in a horizontal slash.
Among the Abyssal Hunters, the fastest was the captain of the second squad; her speed could easily break the sound barrier, which Skadi admitted she couldn't match.
However, she was not without her strengths.
Among all the Abyssal Hunters, Skadi had never lost an arm-wrestling match; she was the strongest.
As the saying goes, brute force makes bricks fly. As long as Skadi exerted great strength, she could also easily break the sound barrier's limit in a short time.
The rest was just left to miracles!
—Wave Slash.
Bang!
Without hesitation, Skadi's greatsword cleaved directly down towards the Abyssal Cultist in front of her.
Pfft—
The heavy sword was unsharpened, but its unmatched power, unrestrained, was like a raging storm, directly smashing half of the cleric's body.
Quintus, who believed his disguise was complete and flawless, had not anticipated Skadi's sudden attack.
However, as if beyond his control, at the moment he was about to be decapitated by Skadi, two powerful bluish-white arm-like appendages suddenly extended from within his dark blue robe—identical to those found on a Terrorfish.
Just as he was about to be cut, these appendages grabbed onto a nearby pulpit, allowing his body to dodge backward, but a huge gash was carved into his waist.
Yet, from the wound, no gushing red blood emerged; instead, a viscous blue plasma flowed out.
"Ah, ah, ah—you lunatics, how dare you... I am a cleric of Iberia's state religion! You faithless evil spirits!"
Intense pain instantly swept through Quintus's entire body. His disguise was shattered in an instant, and his false smile was replaced by a ferocious cry of agony.
"Heh, I thought you were as impervious to pain as the Seaborn—Goki just performed much better; he had so many holes in him and didn't howl as much as you."
Seeing the arm-like appendages growing beneath Quintus's clothes, and confirming that the opponent was indeed not innocent, Skadi's expression was no longer indifferent, but filled with hatred and contempt.
"You'll die with the next sword, traitor. Aegir is ashamed of you."
Without stopping, Skadi swung her greatsword in an arc, slashing at Quintus again.
From ancient times to the present, a turncoat has always been more hateful than an enemy, and it was the same for the people of Aegir.
Skadi had no other thoughts about the Seaborn, because the people of Aegir and the Seaborn were destined to be enemies who would kill each other, but these Abyssal Cultists... were just plain idiots.
However, just as the greatsword, accompanied by bodily fluids, was about to strike down, a Terrorfish, rushing forward and mimicked as a dog, lunged at Quintus, delaying the strike for another moment and allowing Quintus to scramble away backward.
"What do you know, you abominations of the deep sea! I intended to represent the ocean and bestow gifts upon you—you wretches, daring to refuse this grace, you are equally foolish both on land and in the sea!"
Finally getting a moment to breathe, the cleric's body began to heal at a visible speed, and from the back of the church, countless twisted Terrorfish began to surge out, sweeping towards the two Hunters like a tide.
"I brought His greatness and benevolence to the land, allowing the ignorant to receive it. It was I who gave life to these land-dwellers, you fools, do you want these famine victims to die one by one—your relationship with that cub is quite good!"
Hearing Quintus's words, Skadi hesitated for a rare moment; Anita's face flashed in her mind.
"Tsk."
But she still swung her greatblade without hesitation, turning into a whirlwind that shredded flesh and blood.
"FNNDP!"
Clang—
And then, accompanied by a national curse translated into Iberia, two small ceramic jars, sealed with rags, were violently smashed on the ground, and countless viscous, clear liquids were splashed onto the Seaborn.
"This is your grace? Please, what kind of grace did you give? The reason why offshore fishing isn't possible isn't because the Terrorfish ate all the marine life—you yourselves are the root cause of the disaster, and then you offer a tiny bit of food to make people worship you? You really like to absorb the dregs of terrestrial religions, don't you? I should chop off your octopus tentacles and make sashimi for Anita!"
Crack—
In Goki's hand, the huge, sharp Saw Cleaver swung down fiercely, neatly cutting off the arm of an Abyssal Cultist who was holding a large firearm and preparing to take a potshot at Skadi from the window, all while not forgetting to curse at Quintus.
Having finally left Yharnam, he still had to encounter such crazy fanatics, Goki felt annoyed just thinking about it.
Goki snatched the grenade launcher-like firearm, then smashed barrel after barrel of oil-filled ceramic jars where the Seaborn were surging, aiming at the spilled oil on the ground according to his memory of modern firearms.
[Oil Urn
This jar will douse a target in oil upon impact, making it extremely flammable.
Fire is often used in hunting, and oil urns can enhance the effect of fire.
Sometimes, Hunters seem to enjoy the pleasure of burning and purifying monsters with fire.]
Letting fire purify everything, Goki indeed enjoyed doing so—who doesn't enjoy a good blaze?
Click, Goki pulled the trigger—nothing happened.
"Alright, in this shitty world, you can't even fire a gun without Originium Arts."
Shrugging, Goki threw the valuable firearm, which could attract the Inquisition's pursuit, out the window, and pulled out his trusty Hunter Pistol.
Bang—
Raging flames ignited like a fiery Dragon, instantly spreading over the Seaborn throughout the church.
"Gaa—"
This scorching and unshakeable thing, which had never existed in the sea, clung to them like maggots, continuously burning away their lives, causing the Seaborn to let out wails of agony.
"You haven't even adapted to fire, yet you dare to call yourselves higher beings? Truly utterly stupid."
Bang—
With a slight shake of his head, Goki dodged a bullet filled with liquid Originium.
For someone who could walk casually through the hail of bullets from the machine gun-wielding guy in Old Yharnam, most bullets could still be dodged, except in dire emergencies.
"Bia!"
Making a sound effect for himself, Goki raised his hand and fired a shot, a Quicksilver Bullet directly entering the forehead of another cultist.
It was clearly a bit difficult for these ordinary people, who were tricked into the cult for eternal life and fanaticism, to face a well-trained Hunter.
However, Goki had no mercy; mad fanatics deserved to die, and the more thoroughly, the better—unless she was a cute, 36D beautiful girl, otherwise Goki had no interest in re-educating them.
Unfortunately, the beautiful girl in Yharnam turned into a white sheep.
Whether viewed subjectively or objectively, the root cause of all disasters in Saltwind City essentially came from the Seaborn and their lackey Abyssal Cult.
Even if they temporarily fed the residents of Saltwind City, it was more like taming livestock.
In the future, after the Inquisition left, these residents would still be controlled by Quintus, eventually becoming like in the game, in a state of confusion, becoming sacrifices offered to the ocean.
And then, what would happen to Anita?
If Quintus was eliminated, the future of Saltwind City, whether good or bad, remained unknown.
But if he wasn't eliminated, the future would definitely be terrible.
Accustomed to the choices and wavering of human nature, Goki was single-minded in his hunt!
"Enough! You land-dwelling beast, I've had enough of your blasphemous words—and you, you Aegir mongrel, it was us who abandoned you, you are the traitors who betrayed the truth!"
Watching one Terrorfish after another wailing in the flames and high temperatures, and the most powerful Abyssal Hunter slowly approaching him like a bulldozer, Quintus finally couldn't bear it and roared in anger.
"Enough, I originally intended to reform you and then reunite you, but it seems there's no need for that—Shark, kill this man, and bring this Abyssal Hunter back!"
And with Quintus's command, a white figure rushed out from behind him.
"Yes, Priest-sir."
Hum—Clang!
Under the flickering firelight, Skadi's indestructible greatsword was suddenly stopped by something hard.
A white-haired nun, dressed in a black nun's uniform with a serene expression, was holding a long-handled circular saw, blocking Skadi's path. Weapons clashed, and sparks flew.
"As you command."
"Ha—what a small world."
Seeing the familiar figure in front of him, Goki couldn't help but be stunned—it was the 36D cute beautiful girl fanatic!
And seeing her face, Skadi's eyes couldn't help but widen a few points, seeming to have lost her composure from before.
"You are, you are that, that—who was it again?!"
Even in Aegir society, Skadi's friends—were indeed very few.