//------------------------------//
// Archdragon Peak 
// Story: Dark Souls 3: Cinders of Power 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

"You know, I really didn't think we'd be coming back here," Sarana stated, though as she said that she, Tirek, and Martok appeared at the first bonfire they had found in the lit up mountainous temple area that was known as Archdragon Peak, a place that was hard to get to without the proper meditation stance and was ruled by the dragons, though it was rumored that there were cultists of some kind here, people who worshiped the dragons still, as she knew the various rumors Andre knew, before she glanced at her companions for a moment, who were staring at the part of the temple that was in front of them and were on the lookout for any enemies that might be waiting for them.

"Yes, I was willing to chalk this up to being an area we wouldn't be exploring," Tirek remarked, as he had thought there was nothing worthwhile in this place, since it was so far from where the Irithyll Dungeons were located, but after talking with Andre in the shrine he had learned of a powerful type of metal that had been forged into a weapon and was supposed to be somewhere in this odd mountain temple, in the hands of someone called the 'Nameless King', meaning all they had to do was fight their way through this area and overcome whatever obstacles were resting between them and the person that held the weapon he was after, "but, to make what I have in mind, we need to tackle whatever is guarding this place and locate the person that Andre mentioned, then we can return to our hunt for the final Lord of Cinder."

Martok, of course, maintained his silence as the three of them walked forward, even though that was where they heard the sound of a bell ringing somewhere in the temple, either due to the residents of the structure doing something that was important to them or because they knew enemies were here and wanted to warn everyone else in the temple, meaning it was likely that the three of them would have foes to fight in the near future and that was why they kept their guard up as they walked forward and headed for the gateway that lead deeper into part of the temple. As Tirek and his companions walked up the stairs that were in front of them, however, they noticed that none of the enemies that were off on their right came towards them, meaning either they didn't care that enemies were in this part of their domain or they were just being unobservant, where it was likely that the latter was correct, before they found a fallen soul to their right and one of the Titanite Chunks down the short bit of stairs to their left, something Sarana collected in the off chance they needed it later on. The stairs that were beyond where Sarana found the chunk happened to lead them up to the top of the walkway that Tirek would have walked through without much thought about a potential trap, or at least that was what his companions would have thought despite the fact that he had spotted one of the serpent brutes, the larger version of the enemies that were in this place and carried larger weapons, standing on top of the walkway, on the far right side if one was staring right at the walkway, so what he did was form a Lightning Spear and hurled it right into his target's chest, an attack that caused it to stagger before glaring down at him. The reason Tirek had done it that way was because, despite his foe's larger frame and it's large weapon, it walked down a set of stairs that were behind it and had to walk around a small corner before descending down towards the area that he was standing in, something that caused Tirek to smile as Sarana dropped down from the walkway and cut its neck open, causing the serpent brute to drop its weapon as Martok stepped out of the area he had been hiding in and drove his blade into their foe's chest.

Tirek appreciated the action, as it was an effort to make sure the serpent brute died from their combined attacks and that it didn't survive, so it could come at them from behind while they were distracted, but as soon as the foe was taken down the three of them explored the rest of the area that was in front of the massive gate, one that looked like a dragon could fly through it if they wanted to, when it was opened anyway, though that was when Sarana checked out an area to the side and found one of the serpent knights, which she cut down and returned a few seconds later with one of the rings that was shaped like a dragon's claw, which had a yellow gem inside it. Based on what he remembered these rings were designed to increase one's damage output, in terms of the element the gems were attuned to, so Lightning was the one this ring was attuned to, but at the same time the rings damaged one's ability to take damage from attackers, so it was yet another dual-edged sword that existed in this world, one that he allowed Sarana to pocket as they headed back to where the gate was located, as there wasn't much else for them to explore before they headed through the gate. In the end Tirek decided that it was time for them to move forward and that was what the three of them did, where Sarana walked over to the left side of the gate's structure and pulled the lever, which happened to be out in the open and not hidden at all, that was no doubt connected to the gate itself, something that was confirmed as the gate started to move up and opened the way for them to move forward. Once that was done they walked through the area the metallic gate had been in and took a moment to look out at the massive area they would be exploring for the foreseeable future, a massive walkway of sorts that lead up to where a bell rested, a small one to be exact, where Tirek noticed that the size of the walkway seemed to be the size that a dragon of this world would use if they were walking and not flying, though his attention was drawn to the area that was above them, what looked like a stone walkway that had large dragon statues on it, while the walkway they were currently walking on had a few humanoid statues of what he assumed was either a powerful enemy or someone who gained their respect, and his weapon was a spear of some kind.

When they reached a certain point, however, there was a roar as one of the gray scaled wyverns, this one appearing to be somewhat different than the ones that Tirek had seen on the High Wall of Lothric, emerged from an area that was just beyond the structure the small bell was attached to, where it landed on the top of the stairs and glared down at them for a few seconds, giving Tirek and his companions a chance to see that it was going to attack them, before it opened its mouth and loosed a burst of fire at them. Tirek, seeing that coming, weaved his magic through the air between them and where the fire was located, drawing on the power of the Space Stone, figuring that now was the best time to test the four Stones out, against a powerful foe that seemed rather ancient and would likely strike fear into the hearts of its enemies, where he used the Stone to create a small point in the air between them and the wyvern that the flames were drawn into, though it also created a light shield of sorts over them until either he stopped channeling the magic or the wyvern stopped trying to breath fire on them. It was in that moment that Tirek diverted part of his attention to Sarana, who was staring up at what appeared to be part of the stone walkway, a part of it that happened to be resting above the wyvern's head, before they locked eyes with each other and he nodded, showing her that he was fine with what she was planning and even used a bit of his power to hide her for a while, an Invisibility spell so she could get up the stairs and investigate the upper parts of this area without the wyvern stopping her. While they did that Martok rushed passed the flames and sliced into one of their foe's legs, since that was the only thing he could target due to the fact that the rest of its body was mostly out of his reach, but that was just fine since it forced the Ancient Wyvern, as Tirek was going to call it, to stop breathing fire and switched to trying to smash Martok with its feet, showing that it was irritated by what the warrior was doing below its body and that it was in the process of trying to remedy the situation they had forced upon it.

Once Tirek was sure that Martok was the main focus of the Ancient Wyvern's attention, which he was able to figure out after a few moments of watching them, he switched the flow of his magic for a second and loosed the flames he had collected inside the little vortex he had created when the battle started, which struck the side of the wyvern's head and caused it to roar, though he knew that such an attack wouldn't do much in the grand scheme of things, especially since he knew that the dragons and wyverns of this world were rather weak to Lightning spells and he had access to several of them, all of them powerful and would likely cause some decent damage to their foe. While all of that happened Tirek was sure that Sarana was running through the rest of the ruined area that they were fighting in, moving through the structures and crossing the bridge that was far above the opening they used to enter this area in the first place, so all he and Martok could do was distract their foe while Sarana did her thing, so he refrained from the Lightning spells for now and focused on using his Ice spells so he could slow down the Ancient Wyvern's movements to the best of his ability. From what he could tell it appeared that three of his Stones were useless in this fight, or at least two of them since he hadn't felt the need to mess with time yet, but he also didn't have much of an occasion to use the Space Stone due to the wyvern trying to smash Martok into the ground, so much so that it seemed like he was forgotten entirely, meaning that he could walk up the stairs and explore the area if he really wanted to, but he decided not to do that in the off chance it caused the wyvern to turn towards him, not that such a thing mattered since he could use the Space Stone to absorb and redirect the flames once their foe stopped attacking him. Other than what he had seen so far it appeared that this was a standard fight with a wyvern, meaning someone had to distract it while another hit it with ranged attacks, in this case his spells, even if he was sticking to his Ice type spells to slow the beast's movements to the best of his ability, though all of this was to make sure the Ancient Wyvern didn't see or hear what Sarana was doing and try to interrupt her before she was able to drop down on their foe's head.

It was in the following moments that Sarana jumped over the edge of the area that Tirek had spotted and drove both of her blades right into the Ancient Wyvern's head, where he guessed a weakness existed and could be exploited by those that knew of it, though as their foe staggered and shifted, like enough damage had been done to crush it, Tirek called out his Soul Stone for a moment and channeled its power towards the wyvern's chest, where he latched onto the creature's large and rather potent soul, something he felt would be lost if he allowed it to disappear, and used the power of his new gem to draw out what he was reaching for... something that ended up with the Ancient Wyvern disappearing in a familiar flash of light, where an amethyst, the same size as the other four gemstones, appeared.

"You and your gems are full of surprises," Sarana commented, where she dropped down into the area that their foe had been standing in, before she dropped on top of its head to be exact, and walked over to where Tirek was standing, as Martok was doing the same thing, mostly so they could join him and move deeper into the temple, as she had seen a path or two they could take if they climbed the rest of the area, before noticing that Tirek was staring at the new gemstone he had created, meaning it had to be one of the two remaining Stones he wanted to create.

"Yes, and this is a good place to test out some of their powers, before we invade the castle," Tirek remarked, though as he said that he stared at his new Power Stone, as he was sure that the purple gemstone was that particular Stone and not the Reality Stone he had thought about, because this would be a good chance to test it out and see just how strong it really was, before he weaved his magic through the air and returned his Stones of Power, of which he now had five, to the pouch he kept them inside and then turned his attention to the area that was around them.

It was in that moment that he paused for a few seconds as a golden summoning circle appeared around him, Sarana, and Martok, sort of like what happened when they took down Yhorm and were teleported to where they had found and beat down the Dancer, to which the three of them stood still as they left the area that the Ancient Wyvern had appeared in and quickly reappeared on a ledge that rested near a doorway, even though Tirek had no idea where they were, but there was a bonfire nearby and they lit it, so they could mark this area as their checkpoint, which was followed by them entering the large chamber that was beyond the doorway. On the other side of the doorway they found that the chamber had two sets of stairs leading up to the upper level, where Tirek was sure they would find the lever and lift that would take them back to the first bonfire of this temple, and there were a number of humanoid dragon statues, the same size as the one they had found on the balcony of Irithyll Dungeon, along with a statue that looked more like a slumbering dragon, despite the fact that they knew it wouldn't wake up while they were in this chamber. A few moments later Sarana and Martok took a moment to turn their attention to the other side of the structure they were inside, where another doorway rested and was currently covered by a Fog Door, though that was when a knight, who carried a greatsword and wore armor that was dark gray colored, was summoned into this area and readied himself for battle, to which Tirek turned away from it as both of his companions rushed forward to deal with their foe, as he was interesting in seeing if there was anything else they needed to worry about before they moved forward. From what Tirek could tell there was a serpent foe on the level that was above where they were standing at the moment, one who was dressed like a sorcerer, meaning he'd be calling it a serpent summoner, due to the fact that he was sure the serpent in question had summoned the knight, and that meant that if they took it down they wouldn't have to worry about more enemies in this chamber.

As he determined what to do next, however, Sarana and Martok joined him as the air near the area the drakeblood knight, his name for the knight he had seen when they walked into this area, had been summoned had magic wrapping around it, meaning that the serpent summoner was calling someone else to this area, where Tirek watched as a knight, this one wearing what he assumed was armor made out of incredibly durable rock, a shield made of the same material, and a weapon that looked like a dragon's tooth club, meaning it would be tough to take down.

"Well, that's not good, Havel, or someone wearing his armor and carrying his gear, just showed up," Sarana said, not that Tirek was surprised that she knew something about the individual that had been summoned to this chamber, even if he was expecting more Invaders and not what they were getting, before she glanced at Martok, who nodded his head for a moment as he shifted his grip on his weapon, before focusing on the knight that was watching them, no doubt waiting for them to make the first move before it attacked, "Havel the Rock was a general in Lord Gywn's army, in ancient times to be exact, and it is said that he was a steadfast and resilient man, carrying a weapon made from a dragon's tooth while at the same time donning an entire set of armor, complete with a shield, that is supposedly hewed from a large boulder, one that was large enough to give him everything we're seeing right now... I was not expecting to run into someone like this while we were here..."

"You say that like he's going to kill us," Tirek remarked, to which he held up a hand as he walked down the stairs, as he was going to have Sarana and Martok stay where they were standing as he focused on the knight that was waiting for the three of them to determine what they were going to do, even though he guessed this was Havel from what Sarana said, as he couldn't see many people trying to imitate the knight by wearing the same armor, before he weaved his magic through the air and withdrew his new Stone, "This is the perfect chance to test this Stone out."

What Tirek did was grasp the Power Stone, as in wrapped his hand around it so that the Stone rested in his palm, and felt a wave of power rush through his body, mostly centered in his right arm since he was holding it in his right hand, as he approached Havel, who started to walk towards him as he readied his weapon, though in the next few seconds Havel took the first move and swung downwards at Tirek, who sidestepped the incoming attack with ease and then swung his fist at his foe's shield, where the power of his enhanced punch smashed through the shield, crushed part of the chest armor like it was nothing, and sent Havel flying into the wall that rested behind him, something that was followed by him vanishing as Sarana, true to form, beheaded the serpent summoner that had called him to this area.

"Well, it seems that you were successful," Sarana commented, as she dropped down into the area that Tirek was in and stared at the part of the wall that Havel, or the knight that was wearing his armor, had been forced into, which now had the appearance of a crater, something that informed her of the power that was in the purple stone, especially since it looked like there was some smoke coming from his fist, though it wasn't causing him any pain from the looks of it, which could mean that his pain threshold was stronger than she originally thought.

"Yes, and now I'm even happier that we came here," Tirek stated, though as he said that he opened his fist and pulled the Power Stone out with his magic, where he studied the fact that his hand was just fine and no damage had been done to him, something that made him grin for a few seconds as he slipped the Stone back into the pouch he had withdrawn it from earlier, before he returned the pouch to where it usually rested and turned towards the stairs that would allow them to move deeper into the temple as they sought out the individual that held the item he was looking for, so he could forge the weapon that would topple everything inside the castle the Twin Princes were hiding inside.

Once he was done talking Tirek headed up the stairs with Sarana and Martok following after him, where they headed for what looked like the way forward, an opening in the upper floor of the chamber that had a locked gate in front of them, which happened to have a spear of some kind stuck between some of the square shaped bars, though as Tirek pulled it free Sarana informed him that this was the Dragonslayer Spear, a weapon of the gods that was once wielded by a warrior called Ornstein the Dragonslayer and was imbued with the power of Lightning, but it wasn't what they had come here for, otherwise that would have been too easy for them. Tirek nodded his head and tossed the weapon to Martok, who took a moment to slip it into their pack, before they headed down the rest of the stairs and discovered a tunnel that had no cover to their right, so if they were to stumble over the ledge they would be falling to their deaths, especially since there were a few serpent knights, the ones that carried curved swords and large shields, standing between them and the other side of the tunnel, so they would have to fight a few enemies before they were able to move forward. It was in the next couple of seconds that Martok slammed the tip of his greatsword down into the space between them and the first serpent knight that was in front of them, stopping the incoming attack from hitting one of them as their foe stepped out from behind one of the indents that were on the left side of the tunnel, something that was followed by Sarana cutting into their foe's neck, which had extended as it tried to bite into them like a snake would, causing it to pull itself backwards as Martok shifted his stance and cleaved the serpent knight in half. While they did that Tirek focused on the pair of serpent knights that were at the other end of the tunnel and hurled a pair of Lightning Spears through the air, where they rushed forward and avoided both of his targets' shields as they slammed into their heads, shocking both of the serpent knights and knocked them out in seconds, once more confirming that the enemies of this temple were weak to Lightning spells, though he smiled as he walked forward and kept his eye out for any additional serpent knights.

Interestingly enough there were no enemies in the other indents that the group walked by, which was fine with Tirek since it meant they didn't have to spend too much energy while they kept an eye out for enemies, though as the three of them entered the other side of the tunnel one of the dagger wielding serpent knights rushed out and tried to stab them, only to be stopped by Sarana as she parried the incoming attacks and then hacked into her foe's neck, removing its head in a matter of seconds, causing Tirek to nod as he and Martok kept their guards up. There was another one hanging out in the shadows, like it was scared of the sun or something, though as it stepped out to attack them Martok cleaved it in half, allowing them to move through the opening that was nearby and found that there was one of the larger serpent brutes waiting for them on a wooden bridge that seemed to be the way forward, so Tirek and the others jumped to the side as their foe stepped forward and swung its axe at them, where they allowed it to strike the ground and lodge itself into the stones for a few moments. That was when Martok swung his greatsword forward and hacked into part of their foe's body, cutting into the chest and knocking it away from where they were standing, driving it right into Sarana's ambush as she drove her daggers into it and forced it backwards, while at the same time Tirek slammed a Lightning Spear into a serpent knight with daggers that was hiding off to the side, knocking it off of the area that they were fighting in, as there were a few openings in the walls that rested near the wooden bridge. Once those two enemies were dealt with Sarana spotted a ladder and headed up it, to investigate it while Tirek and Martok stared at the structure that was on the other side of the wooden bridge, where Tirek noticed that there was no rails on either side of it and that it was curved a little, almost like it was damaged in some manner, but while he didn't see any enemies waiting for them Sarana joined him and Martok not a few moments later, revealing she had found a ring up on the small area that was above them, so that meant that the way forward was the bridge.

As they started to walk over the bridge, and approached the structure that was in front of them, Tirek spotted what appeared to be a ruined tower of sorts off to their right, which seemed to be attached to the walkway that they would be following once they were outside the building they were heading towards, though the claw markings made him wonder if the dragons of this area landed on it from time to time, even though he would be ready in case any dragons landed on it and tried to attack them. When they entered the structure it was easy to find a crystal lizard hanging out near a short set of stairs, something that prompted Sarana to kill it and claim the gems that it possessed, before opening the chest that was at the top of the stairs, which had a rail to prevent someone from tumbling into the depths of the cavern that the rest of this building had been built near, even though whoever had built this area had carved the design of the temple into the insides of the mountain cavern, but all that was inside the chest was a few of the Titanite Scales, which she pocketed as Tirek kept his eye open for additional enemies. One other thing that Tirek noticed was another set of stairs that lead to an alter or a stone table, he honestly wasn't sure which one it was, before they headed through the other opening, the one that would allow them to move through the rest of the area that was outside the structures that made up the temple, but as they moved outside they found something interesting, there was a rock creature that happened to be resting nearby and when it spotted them it waddled over to them, before rolling forward to crush one of them into a wall, despite the fact that it was the size of the chests they found in this world. The rock lizard, as Tirek was going to call it, was rather easy for them to dodge, as they just had to move out of the way when it rolled towards one of them, though at the same time they found out that it breathed short bursts of flames at whoever was in front of it, which was also easy to move out of the way of so Martok could smash it into the ground, along with the next one that rolled down the stairs to their left, where it did seem like the rock lizards, despite their rocky appearance, were easy to break apart, especially when Martok used some of his heavier blows against them, allowing Tirek and Sarana to walk up the nearby stairs as they kept their eyes open for any additional enemies that might be in this part of the temple.

What happened next, as they stepped up into an area that could be a landing place for a dragon, one of the wyverns flew out of the air and landed in front of them, though while it did that it loosed a fireball down at them with the intent of blasting them into the walls or knocking one of them, or all of them, off the walkway that they were standing on, though as that happened Tirek wasted no time and threw up a brief shield to intercept the incoming attack, something that allowed Sarana to rush out from where they were standing so she could get up on the wyvern's back and attack its head, while at the same time Martok hacked at its legs while Tirek targeted the wings with his Lightning magic, to keep it grounded so his companions could hit the beast.

With their combined powers it was rather easy for them to bring down the wyvern, without relying on one of Tirek's Stones of Power, so once it crashed into the ground and stopped moving they moved over its body, where Sarana found a pack containing some upgrade materials, no doubt either stolen from those that invaded this place or taken by the couple of wyverns that flew out to the rest of the land, before they walked up some stairs and headed for the next section of the temple, where they found four of the rock lizards waiting near the arched opening that would allow them to progress into the area they were heading towards. Tirek quickly found out that the rock lizards weren't weak to Lightning, Fire, or even his Dark types spells, rather they were weak to his Ice style spells, something that allowed him to slow them down so both of his companions could lash out at them with ease, Sarana dealing light attacks as she rushed around all four of them while Martok used his heavier attacks and crushed them while they were weakened, opening the way for them to move further into the temple as they sought out the Nameless King. The part of the temple that they walked into didn't seem to have any enemies for them to take down, and it didn't appear that there were any traps that any of them needed to be worried about, so they were able to walk forward without anything happening and were able to pass through the opening that was at the end of the passage, where it looked like they found a u-shaped walkway of sorts that seemed to lead to another part of the temple, maybe an important part since there was a serpent summoner standing on the upper part of the walkway, just above where they happened to be standing. As Tirek expected their foe called forth one of the knights that the other one had summoned earlier, something that Sarana and Martok lashed out at while Tirek hurled a Lightning Spear right into the more important foe's chest, blasting the summoner into a wall so it couldn't summon any additional foes while his companions cut down the lone knight that had been called into this area, allowing them to regroup at the top of the upper area that the serpent summoner had been standing in, something that revealed two paths, the one that was in front of them was a walkway of sorts, like a connection between two towers or structures, while the one that was on the right seemed to head to another part of the structure, by walking up some ruined steps.

Instead of investigating the side path Tirek headed out onto the walkway and found out something interesting, there was a large lever of some kind off on the left side of the path, one that had to be connected to the massive bell that he and his companions could now see, which rested just outside what appeared to be the large walkway or bridge that they had seen while they were fighting the Ancient Wyvern, and when he reached the end of the path he found a short set of stairs that went down to a bonfire, to which he grinned for a moment as he activated it, as it would be a good spot for them to rest before they resumed the hunt for the Nameless King and the weapon he held.