[h3]Pthumeru Yharnam layer, the Old Labyrinth[/h3]
One by one the Hunters went to the chalice they had gotten from the Vileblood Queen – a chalice they might note looked much prettier and far more expensive than the others that had been arranged on other altars – and looked into their crimson contents before touching the chalice itself. Though it was visually very similar to when they used the markers on the headstones or the lanterns, interacting with the chalice was a much different experience when they did it. Rather than feeling as though they were falling asleep and immediately transitioning into waking up, touching the chalice brought about a distinct sense of falling into something unfathomably deep. The Hunter's Dream was ripped away from them rather than fading to the embrace of sleep, and for nearly twenty seconds they would all find themselves in perfect pitch darkness with the sound of the wind rushing past in their ears and a sense of nothing but empty void under their feet.
They all felt rather than saw a multitude of [I]something[/I] rushing past them; approaching, missing and vanishing back into the nothing from which they had come. Deeper and deeper they fell; it felt as though they were moving insanely fast, much faster than should be logically and physically achievable, yet they kept accelerating to even higher speeds, until they thought they must have descended into the very bowels of the Earth, the bottom of the pit at the end of the world, the lowest of all things were the Waking World and the Nightmare overlapped.
Then, and only then, did their feet come to softly land on stone, as reality seemed to rush back into being from the black... and just like that they were there, where they had wanted to go for some time now: the Old Labyrinth, at last.

The place they found themselves in was a somewhat dark hallway, helpfully lit by evenly spaced sconces, though these did not appear to actually burn or give off any warmth, instead bathing the area in ceaseless cold, blue light. The floor was made up by flagstones of varying colors, shapes and sizes, making it rather uneven and a genuine trip-hazard. The walls at their sides were close by – the hallway was only about three meters wide – and made from smaller bricks that, though still somewhat uneven, appeared at least a bit more uniform than the floor. Above their heads the walls transitioned smoothly into a rounded, vaulted ceiling that was four meters high at its peak.
Ahead of them this hallway stretched on for what looked like fifty meters or so until it terminated in an open doorway that took up almost the entire end wall, spanning nearly from side to side and top to bottom, beyond which they could faintly spy a poorly lit room. They could see more flagstone floor beyond it and more bluish light, but beyond that they could see nothing from their current vantage point.

That is, they could see nothing [I]in the room[/I]. It only took the very briefest glance at their surroundings for them to realize that the hallway they were currently in was far from empty. In a way the scene might remind them of what they had seen on their short trek into Yahar'gul with the statues of figures in agony and fear... but these were not stone, these were flesh, blood and especially bone.
Scattered along the floor of the hallway lay fifteen [url=https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Bloodborne/Pthumerian_Undead_Concept_Art.jpg?v=1501106861476]emaciated, long-limbed figures with black, sunken eyes[/url], like smaller members of the same species that Pallid had belonged to, their bodies twisted, curled up and crushed to death. There were also two [url=https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Bloodborne/Snatcher_Frontal.png?v=1499362676971]much, much bigger men with similarly elongated limbs, but also large hands, pale eyes and bodies clad in black hooded rags[/url], one of which appeared to have been pierced and pinned to the wall behind it by a blade that had since been removed, and the other looked to have been bisected at the waist. A little further ahead lay two creatures that could best be described as [url=https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Bloodborne/KHD_Duo.jpg?v=1500980766442]twisted, demonic imitations of dogs, with horned heads, absurdly long tongues and generally misshapen bodies[/url], draped over a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bloodborne/images/e/e5/Keeper_concept_art.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180827190950]much more humanoid figure clad in unusual armor, with a pointy, wide-brimmed hat, underneath which was a face that was anything but human[/url]; all three of which appeared to have been smashed into the wall and flattened by great force.
But most notable of all was that there was, intermingled with all these slain, seemingly alien creatures, were the remains of a dozen figures that appeared to be human in shape. Not only that, but these men and women were all clad in similar garb, and garb that especially Ophelia would recognize: the [url=https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Bloodborne/Knight_set_small.jpg]finery of knights of Cainhurst[/url]. The sex of these knights could only be guessed at from their clothes, however, as the people wearing them had long since been reduced to naked skeletons, their flesh either decayed with time or devoured by the denizens of the labyrinth.

Observing her surroundings, Ophelia would find that here, just as in the Hunter's Dream, there were moon motes everywhere, because the Nightmare was everywhere; the only advantage the Guidance Rune would offer her here was her hightened connection to the Holy Moonlight Sword. This connection she did have, however, and she would hear its whispers as they arrived: “[I]It is here... its other half. It can feel it... The darkness to its light... the wrath to its serenity... the other side of its coin. It is near. It waits ahead. Waits to be made whole again.[/I]”
Deathly silence gripped the area. Nothing was moving but them and the faintly flickering blue firelight.