Days of the Hunter

**Days of the Hunter** is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Interra and follows the perspective of young monster-hunter Duchesse. It follows the continuity of Call of Cthulhu : Holiday Special

## First Arc

### Early Death

After a long journey, in the early twenty-first century, Duchesse, accompanied by Devos Raines, finally manages to find her arch-enemy, Leona McMillan, who cursed her with a prey's mark. However, just as Duchesse finds her, Leona uses a ritual to warp into the past, and Duchesse follows suit, returning to the early twentieth century, in her own town.

There, Duchesse encounters Hayley Llujah, a cold, arrogant and entitled monster hunter who also seeks to find Leona. When Duchesse investigates, calling upon the help of friendly hunters Raphaelle Primeverre and Summer Lagann, she loses sight of Hayley. When the latter reappears, it is as a powerful, predatorial angelic entity who claims to have overcome her weakness, then leaves.

Angry at the devastation caused by Hayley upon her town, and fearing that Leona might manipulate her, Duchesse chases her. Raphaelle asks for the help of Olive Day, an eccentric genius who reveals herself to be an expert in Ki manipulation, and teaches Duchesse to use her prey's mark to call upon powerful ability: Singularity.

However, the group encouters much more problems that they initially thought: Hayley seems to subjugate and transform some people into her kin - powerful, Singularity-possessing supernatural beasts. While Summer and Raphaelle confront Blacke Thelema, Duchesse manages to subdue Maryann, and recruit her by her side.

After learning that Duchesse has left the United States for France, Duchesse and her group follow suit, encountering journalist Kimblee Guile who joins them, out of interest for their mission. In France, Duchesse uncovers a trap laid by another transformed human, the spider-like Chrysanthème Guillard, before finding once more Hayley's trail.

In one of France's richest palaces, Duchesse finds Hayley, experimenting on humans with her powers in order to transform them. Hayley shows her arrogance and lack of remorse, as well as desire to transcend and "own the world". Hayley and Duchesse briefly clash before another of Hayley's minions, Deathe Thelema, helps her escape.

Duchesse's group keeps advancing east, traveling through time with Olive's power to reach Nazi-era Geraany - encountering government agent Emmara Spencer who takes notice of their powers and attempts to emulate them, Rheanna, a Russalka-like polish woman who brings Duchesse close to the ends of her sanity, and the kind Vampire Esther Tepes, whom Hayley has transformed to eliminate her sunlight weakness.

Ultimately, Duchesse encounters Leona, in Russia, as the latter encounters her former teacher, witch-queen Baba Yaga. Baba berates her teacher's progress, focusing instead on Duchesse and Hayley, believing them to hold a much greater key. After noticing that Duchesse spies on her, Baba teases her before dismissing her, guiding her towards Hayley.

The ultimate showdown between predator and prey happens in Russia's snowy, empty landscape. Duchesse and Hayley first fight, their conviction stronger than ever, but the bond they have formed during their encounter also influences their actions. As they release their ultimate Singularity and clash, in a blend of love and hate, all fades to white.

## Second Arc

Duchesse wakes up in jail alongside Hayley, back in the twenty-first century. As they strive to understand what happened, fellow prisoner Columbina helps them perform a prison break. Despite policewoman Jaila Blue's intervention, the trio escapes, only to encounter another of Hayley's leutenants, her second command Christiane Thelema.

Christiane explains that Hayley and Duchesse have rewritten reality through a transcending Singularity, **Stairway to Heaven**, creating a world where supernatural abilities are commonplace, according to Hayley's wishes for the desperate to transcend their weakness. After confirming Hayley's identity, Christiane releases them, allowing Duchesse to regain her seemingly normal life in her town.

However, it becomes clear that something is oddly off: a string of murders, with a seemingly supernatural origin, strikes the town. Duchesse encounters Roussetta Stone, Charlie Aguilera and Sekhmet - powerful Singularity-using individuals who have all been transformed by the same artifact, the Weaver that transformed Hayley.

Despite their initial aggressiveness, the three women - two of which, Charlie and Sekhmet, have actively murdered inhabitants of the city - acknowledge they were forcefully transformed and tricked by Leona and her daughter Eleonora McMillan into performing murders for the sake of covering another, mysterious murderer's crimes.

Although Duchesse thinks at first that said murderer is violent sociopath Perria Blackheart, she instead discovers when interrogating her that Leona has used Perria's blood in order to reach another world and seize a powerful Artifact, an Alma Decepta, in order to perform a ritual, whose specifications are still unknown.

Research into a ritual, as well as chance encounter with another victim of the Weaver, Takoko Ming, allows Duchesse to realize a geometric pattern between the places of murders, anticipating the next one. She finds out the culprit is another Duchesse who, unlike her, is Yin-aligned. Using a variation of Duchesse's own Singularity, the mysterious criminal escapes.

Duchesse, alongside Hayley and her other companions, does everything she can to track her. She only manages to uncover Eleonora at first - who explains the second Duchesse is part of Leona's plan to use her alongside Alma Decepta in order to summon an antique goddess from the Dark Tapestry. She also informs Duchesse of the other's ability to erase memories of her.

Through these informations, by searching for inconsistencies, and using the help of Punkh Thelema, another powerful lieutenant of Hayley immune to supernatural alterations, Duchesse manages to find her rival once more. However, the second Duchess, upon seeing Hayley, interferes with Hayley's world alteration, creating her own world through another unique Singularity, **Bohemian Rhapsody**.

Inside Bohemian Rhapsody, Duchesse struggles with keeping her memories intact, but still tries to investigate and understand what happens. As Leona begins her ultimate ritual, Duchesse seeks to find her, although, for unknown reasons, Deathe seems to have betrayed Hayley and now sides with Leona, constantly impeding Duchesse's path.

By finding an old journal in Leona's mansion, Duchesse however ends up understanding the situation: another entity has given Leona steps to a ritual in order to reincarnate, promising to give Leona access to her Deity in exchange for being resurrected. This entity, it turns out, is another Hayley from Duchesse's own Timeline, aligned with Yang energy.

Although Duchesse is too late to prevent the ritual, she manages to stop the reborn Hayley from merging with the alternate Duchesse and become absolutely divine - forcing that Hayley to absorb Deathe (who always was secretely loyal to her) instead. Despite this, the newly reborn Hayley proclaims herself a goddess and attempts to reshape the world.

Duchesse and Hayley, alongside those they have met along the way, manage however to face her, and using Stairway to Heaven once more, defeat the alternate Hayley, forcing her to split apart from Deathe, ruining Leona's ambitions and greatly weakening the second Hayley. However, Duchesse is greatly weakened by the aftereffects and crumbles, being taken care of by Olive for months in order to recover from the aftermath of her victory.

## Characters

* Duchesse
* Duchesse (Alternate)
* Hayley Llujah
* Hayley Llujah (Alternate)
* Devos Raines
* Olive Day
* Deathe Thelema
* Christiane Thelema
* Punkh Thelema
* Blacke Thelema
* Raphaelle Primeverre
* Summer Lagann
* Maryann
* Kimblee Guile
* Chrysanthème Guillard
* Emmara Spencer
* Rheanna
* Esther Tepes
* Baba Yaga
* Columbina
* Jaila Blue
* Roussetta Stone
* Sekhmet
* Perria Blackheart
* Takoko Ming
* Charlie Aguilera
* Eleonora McMillan
* Leona McMillan