Dark Souls 3: Cinders of Power

by Blackdrag-rose

Invading the Castle

With his work inside the Shrine complete Tirek appeared in the structure that the Dancer had been in and walked away from the bonfire that Sarana and Martok were now standing by, where he turned his attention towards the metal ladder that would allow someone to climb up to the next level and chuckled for a moment as the Space Stone glowed, which was the moment that his companions watched as he manipulated the ladder and the walkway it was connected to so he could make a makeshift set of stairs, even if he also ripped out some of the tiles that were around them to get the job done. From there he walked up to the area that would lead him in the direction of the Twin Princes, who just so happened to be the last Lord of Cinder that they needed to hunt down and kill, where both of his companions followed after him as he ascended the short bit of stairs that were in front of him and entered the decent sized structure that they lead him to, one that happened to have a number of stone coffins or containers that likely held some of the knights who protected the city and castle, no doubt having fallen before the world was turned into what he had seen since his arrival. What he could see as he entered the chamber was that it could have served as a small chapel or something at some point in the past, maybe before the rest of the castle had been built, though there was a much smaller chamber on the left side of the building that seemed to be the area that a lift could be in, even though that would require them finding the lift later on and using it to get back down here so they could use the Dancer's bonfire with a shortcut, despite the fact that none of them needed that anymore, not with the Infinity Gauntlet and the five Infinity Stones Tirek was wielding at the moment. After discovering the area that the lift could be in he found one of the Lothric knights praying at an alter of some kind and a black robed figure who was walking near the kneeling knight, meaning the second one was more like a priest, though as he stepped into the chamber the Lothric priest cast some sort of enchantment over him and the knight, who stood up and marched over to where Tirek was standing with its weapon drawn, intending on smiting him.

The knight did swing at Tirek the moment it was close to him, though Tirek kept the grin on his face as Sarana and Martok noticed that the Space Stone was glowing again, this time with a blue aura surrounding the arm that held the weapon and the weapon itself, apparently stopping the sword before it could reach its target, something that was followed by Tirek swinging his right fist right into the knight's chest, where he crushed the metal armor that was in his way and sent his foe flying right into the alter that it had been praying in, displaying the sheer power of a gauntlet forged from the godly metal that went into making the Infinity Gauntlet. The priest seemed surprised by what happened, or at least that was what the movement could have been if the hollow was alive and could react like a normal person would in this situation, though as that happened Tirek seized the opportunity that had been presented to him as he accessed the power of the Power Stone and blasted the priest in the chest, knocking it into a wall and taking a chunk out of the stone it connected with, nothing he wouldn't be able to fix once he had control over this world. Once that was done Tirek stood there for a few seconds, all so he could make sure neither of his foes got back up and tried to challenge him again, something that was confirmed when neither the knight or the priest moved over the next couple of moments, which included Sarana making sure both of them were truly dead, before she collected one of the crestfallen souls and rejoined the group as Tirek headed over to the right side of the chamber, where a path and some stairs rested, which seemed to be the start of the path that would take them to where the Twin Princes were hiding. For a moment it didn't appear that there was anyone else in the area beyond the opening that lead them to the stairs, save for some unlit candlesticks which likely lit up the passage, though when Tirek glanced to the right of the top of the stone stairs he found one of the priests standing off to the side and noticed that it seemed to be of the sort that would attack them from behind if they left it alone, so he blasted the priest with a burst of purple energy from the Power Stone and moved forward.

As he moved forward Tirek found two more knights, one holding a spear and another carrying a sword, walking towards him and his companions, to which he allowed them to do so before activating the power of the Space Stone as both of his foes swung at him, stopping their attacks in their tracks with the same blue aura that he had used in the previous part of the structure they were walking through, which was when he punched the spear knight in the chest and let it strike the wall that was behind it, no doubt killing it instantly, before turning the Infinity Gauntlet on the sword knight as he used the power of the Power Stone to punch it into the wall that was right behind it, creating a crater that collapsed once he took a step away from the wall.

"Your Infinity Gauntlet is impressive, despite the Infinity Stone that's missing," Sarana commented, though as she said that she and Martok followed their Lord, as there was no denying what their true relationship with the powerful being was, into the chamber that the path lead them to, where they discovered a larger room that seemed to be a meeting place of sorts and had an opening that would allow someone to drop back down onto the walkway that connected to the path that they had just walked through and the path that took them to where Oceiros had been hiding, before they located a bonfire in the middle of the chamber, which even she had to admit was a little odd since there was one not a minute or two away from the area they were now standing in.

"Yes, which is why I asked Yuria to keep her eyes and ears open for anything or anyone that has the power to affect reality, so I can forge the final Infinity Stone," Tirek stated, allowing Sarana to know what he had done before they left the Shrine and came to this castle, because if the lady was able to find the area that her traitorous sister had fled to, not to mention how he could follow in her footsteps so he could hunt her down, he was sure that if he gave her such a task she would, in time, tell him exactly what he wanted to know, even though he was sure the soul that possessed the power he was after might be in another world, like the Painted World they had explored, before he activated the bonfire and turned towards the stairs that lead out of the area they were in, "but, from what I have seen, five Infinity Stones seems to be more than enough for the enemies that are standing between us and the Twin Princes, despite the fact that I'm currently using two of the five Stones at the moment."

Sarana said nothing to that as she and Martok followed Tirek up the stairs that were near the bonfire, where they found a chamber that happened to have a pair of chairs, a fireplace that wasn't lit, and a chest that was resting on the right side of the room, though what Tirek was interested in was the open walkway that was to the left of where he and the others were standing at the moment, especially when he noticed that the coloration of the sky had changed from the last time they had seen it, making him interested in what might have happened to this world. While he did that Sarana opened the chest and pulled out a set of robe armor that she seemed to recognize immediately, as it was made from aged cloth that was used in ancient prayers, which Prince Lothric had worn for the longest period of time, due to the fact that it was all he had worn since the day he was born, though she simply sighed and stowed it inside their pack before she walked over to the area that Tirek was in, since he was advancing on the path that would allow him to invade the castle. The walkway just so happened to connect to a set of stairs that had two hollowed soldiers walking down it, one of them carrying a sword while the other had a crossbow, though this time around Tirek tried something else as he approached his foe, as the one that carried the sword was stopped in the normal manner, with the aura stopping its attack when it swung at him, while the bolt that was fired from the other hollow's crossbow hit a blue barrier that he put around himself and disappeared, even though the bolt appeared behind his foe and hit the hollowed knight in the back of the head, sending it flying down the stairs and right into Tirek's punch as he swung his right fist at it. Once that was done he crushed the other hollow with a short blast from the Power Stone and advanced up the rest of the stairs, something that revealed some fortifications that a couple of hollows had to be guarding, along with a room off to his right that might have someone wandering around in it, as he heard something walking around near their location, though for now he focused on the other enemies that were standing around the area they were now in.

Before the enemies noticed them, and started to lash out in their direction, Tirek noticed that there were some creatures, which seemed to look like flying nervous systems in a sense, flying through the air, before he glanced in the direction of the sun and noticed that it had turned black, almost like the moon had eclipsed it at some point, and that there was a ring of fire around the black sun, a short one from where he was standing, though he felt that it was connected to the Flame that everyone in this world was interested in. He had to admit that it was rather interesting, since it was different from the sun he was used to seeing, though once he thought about that he turned his attention towards the enemies that were all around them and focused as the Space Stone glowed again, this time wrapping the blue aura around two of the hollowed knights and crushed them with the power of the Infinity Stone, not even giving them a chance to fight back this time, but as he did that the depressed hollowed knight that was to their left got up and started to walk over to where he, Sarana, and Martok were standing, who didn't get very far as Tirek blasted it in the chest with the power of the Power Stone not a few seconds later. While he did that Martok walked into the room that was off on their right and emerged from it with one of the large fat knights following after him, who happened to be carrying two axes from what he could see, which was the moment that Tirek paused the knight's arms when it swung at Martok, who backed away immediately as Tirek walked up to the knight and punched it in the chest, shattering the armor and creating a crater in the wall that was behind it when it hit the stone, once more displaying the sheer power of the normal gauntlet, before he turned away from the room and continued to move forward, his movements showing Sarana that he didn't care about the room and that she was more than welcome to explore the room in question if she wanted to. After taking care of the chubby knight Tirek found a path that lead to a dead end and a hollowed knight broke the wood posts that seemed to be in the way, which was fine with him since it allowed him to crush his foe with the Space Stone's power, before he found three weaker hollows climbing up the sides of the dead end and kicked all three of them over the edge, as there was no reason to waste the power of any of his Infinity Stones on them.

As he cleared out the area that was around him, and opened the way so he could walk up the stairs and head towards the part of the castle that was the next area he needed to explore, Sarana and Martok caught up with him, revealing that they had found a piece of Twinkling Titanite, the armor of the chubby knights, and a circular shield that was added to the vast collection they had accumulated since this quest had started, though once they informed him on what they had found the pair fell in behind him and followed Tirek as he moved into the next part of the castle. While they walked up the stairs it was easy to see that there was a hollow that was aiming at them from an area that was above them, though Tirek used the barrier power to stop whatever was thrown at them and dropped it on their foe, who didn't die or take damage from the attack, something that was followed by a blast of power from the Power Stone striking it in the chest and knocking it off of the area it was standing on, killing it in seconds, allowing them to move forward once more, even though there was an area off to the left of the path that he decided to ignore, since it looked like a dead end. Instead of worrying about the side path Tirek turned his attention towards the main path and found that there were two crossbow hollows waiting for him, or someone at the very least, to walk into their line of sight, as they raised their weapons and fired at him instantly, despite the fact that he stopped the bolts with the barrier and knocked both of them forward as they were hit in the back of their heads with their own attacks, something that was followed by him punching the two of them into the walls that were near them and defeated them in seconds, allowing him to walk forward once more. Tirek also discovered a large hollow that was standing on the stairs he wanted to walk up, where the foe carried a large axe that was swung in his direction not a few seconds later, to which Tirek stopped the attack with the blue aura and then punched the hollow into the wall, which created a brand new crater in the process, before he walked beyond his fallen foe and headed up into the area that it had been guarding, which was a large area that served as a resting spot for him and his companions, especially with a brand new bonfire off to their left.

What was interesting was that there was a dragon resting on part of the section of the oddly designed castle that he and his companions would be walking through, who seemed to have dull green scales and might be pinned to part of the area it was resting in, like a foot or something had something stuck in it, but as he walked up the stairs and stepped up to the bridge, leaving Sarana and Martok a second dragon, who had a dull white coloration to its scales, landed on the other side of the area that the first was in and together they breathed a massive torrent of flames down on the area between what seemed to be an entrance for the structure and the bridge he was standing on. Tirek quickly tapped into the power of the Space Stone and a vortex opened in the air between him and the dragons that were aiming at him, where the flames were sucked into the space he had created and he kept it open for a few moments, mostly until the pair of dragons ceased their foolish attempts to take him down, and once they stopped breathing fire in his direction he redirected the power of all the flames he had taken and charred the area that was below the bridge he was standing on, burning all the hollows that were resting down there, including some of the Pus enemies that had been lurking in the shadows, reducing them to ash with the redirected fire. As the dragons realized that he wasn't targeting them with their own flames, something that they might have been worried about, the Mind Stone glowed for a moment and he sent out a pair of yellow strands of magic, which rushed through the air and struck both of the dragons in the middle of their heads, causing them to stagger for a moment and go still as they stared at him, even though it was clear that both of them were still alive and were simply waiting for him to do something, which was why he decided to find what was chaining them down. Because he used the Mind Stone he knew that the dragons had been seized by his power and would follow whatever orders he had for them, just like what had happened to the large crystal lizard that he had tried the Stone's power on earlier, so it was nice to have them waiting for his command, to which he decided to check out the area to the left of where the bridge was located and jumped down into the walkway that was just above where the Pus hollows had been hiding.

"What did you do to them?" Martok asked, though at the same time he and Sarana jumped down into the area that Tirek was in, which was rather odd since they could have walked right through the area that the dragons had been guarding with little trouble, thanks to the dragons stopping due to whatever power their lord had used on them, but while they did that Sarana kept her eyes open for any items that she could collect on the way, to add them to their collection, even if it was possible that they might not need them anymore.

"I took over their minds, obviously," Tirek stated, knowing that Martok was a little slow in some instances and that he had to explain some of the things he did to the imposing warrior, despite the fact that Sarana understood most of the things he did and didn't need him to tell her what was going on at any given moment, before he turned his attention to the area that was in front of them and spotted some enemies that appeared to be in their way, "basically they'll serve me until I use the power of the Mind Stone to release them, but for now we should focus on clearing out the enemies that are in front of us as we hunt down the Twin Princes."

The next area had four more hollows for them to deal with, or rather for Tirek to deal with, one who threw charms down into the part of the area it happened to be watching over, a crossbow hollow that would snipe them from afar, a halberd hollow that seemed too eager for a fight, and an axe hollow who was as aggressive as the one that they had found right before the last bonfire, though none of them really did anything until Tirek stepped into the area of the structure that they were guarding, which was the last thing they did. The reason behind that thought was due to the fact that the Space Stone glowed not a few moments later, a barrier forming around Tirek to stop the ranged enemies from hitting him while at the same time an aura appeared around the weapons of the melee hollows that were rushing at him, which was followed by him loosing two blasts into the air, purple bits of energy that locked onto his targets and blasted the hollows into the walls that were near the areas they were standing in, before he punched the other two hollows with both his normal gauntlet and his Infinity Gauntlet, which was focusing on the Power Stone, leaving a pair of craters in his wake. Once those enemies had been taken care of Tirek walked over to where the short bit of stairs was located and discovered that there was what appeared to be a dead end just beyond the stairs, where two knights seemed to be watching over the body of a third, but since neither of them had noticed him or his companions he decided to continue into the building and discovered that it had a staircase that lead down into a basement, one that, upon closer inspection, had one of the Irithyll knights wandering around the area, who swung at him the instant it laid eyes on him, which Tirek was fine with as he quickly activated the Space Stone's aura power and prevented the first swing from reaching him, something that was followed by him punching the knight in the chest with his left fist and sent it flying into the wall that was behind it, creating a crater behind it while forcing it to drop the rapier that it was carrying, something that Sarana would collect as she collected whatever was inside the couple of chests that were down here.

From there he marched up the stairs and entered the area that rested below the dragons, who turned their heads to look at them as they walked out into the open, though since Tirek had dominated both of them it was easy for them to head over to the other side of the area and enter the next part of the structure they were exploring, even though he could easily smash his way through any and all barriers that might be in his way, before discovering that the chamber that was next on his list was massive and that there were a few hollows that seemed to be getting ready to hurl things at him. Instead of using the power of the Space Stone to freeze their arms, like he did for the majority of his enemies, Tirek used the Stone to create small portals to gather the bombs that were being thrown at him and made sure that the exits of his portals were placed near his targets, blasting every single hollow in the structure that dared to attack him to bits, or at least knock all of them into the walls that were around the area, allowing him to see what else the area had to offer him while Sarana and Martok kept an eye open for items to add to their collection. He found a set of stairs that lead up to one side of the large chamber and a ladder that lead up to a lower area than where the stairs lead, so what he did was quickly jump up to the top of the area that the wooden ladder was connected to and found that the dull green dragon's foot was stuck in, due to the fact that he could see the foot resting in the doorway, not to mention the Pus that seemed to be chaining it to the area it was in, to which he used the Space Stone to carefully extract it from the dragon's foot and hurled it into a wall, which was the moment he used a Forbidden Sun to reduce it to ash. With the first of the two dragons freed, where the dull green one roared for a moment before taking off, giving Tirek a chance to watch as it flew around the area and then landed near the bonfire he and the others had ignited a few minutes ago, before he took the two of them over with the Mind Stone, where the dragon bowed its head and waited for instructions, something that it wasn't going to get until Tirek was in control of this world, hence the reason he headed to the highest point of this building so he could see where the path forward might be resting and what he needed to do to overcome his enemies.

As it turned out Sarana and Martok had decided to head over to the highest point of the building and had taken down one of the mimics that had been posing as a chest, which Sarana revealed had some Titanite Scales for them to claim, but once that was done Tirek headed through the opening that was to the left of the top of the stairs, facing the direction the mimic had been in to be exact, and walked out into a chamber that was on the other side of the large iron gate that he had seen earlier, which came with a lever that, when pulled, opened the gate in question. While he allowed Sarana to pull the lever, just so they didn't have to go through anything they had cleared out again later on, Tirek noticed that there was a knight that was carrying a greatsword and a priest that seemed to be walking near it, buffing the knight every now and then while they waited for enemies to come at them, to which he jumped down into the area in question and caused his main foe to turn towards him, who showed the same aggressive behavior that the rest of the enemies in this area had shown him, not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things. What the knight did was thrust its greatsword forward and it passed into the portal that Tirek opened not even a few seconds later, where the exit portal was right in front of the priest's chest and he forced the knight to slay its own ally, though as he did that he spotted a second priest walking up to where he and the knight were standing, so he allowed his target to pull its weapon back and shift its stance as they walked around in a circle for a few seconds, both of them daring the other to make the first move, even though this was mostly Tirek playing with his foe and not taking it seriously at all. Not a few moments later the knight swung its greatsword down at him and it was forced to watch as the attack passed through yet another portal, cleaving the other priest in half, which would have made a normal person upset at being played like that, but since this was a hollow all he got was silence and a head tilt, so what he did next was wait for the knight to pull its weapon out of the portal before punching it with the normal gauntlet, which sent it flying into a stone coffin and smashed the area around it, something that caused a bit of stone to fall on it and bury it under the weight of the fragmented stone.

With that done Tirek ignored the spear carrying knight that was off to the side on the lower level, as it hadn't noticed them and he figured he could leave it alone without it coming back to bite them, before he headed up the staircase that both the knight and the priest had been guarding and passed through the doorway at the top of the stairs, which was when he and his companions found three paths they could take, one on their left that might give them access to whatever was keeping the white dragon pinned down, a path to their right that almost seemed like a backtracking area for a place they hadn't discovered yet, and a set of stairs in front of them that lead to a Fog Door, which had to be the correct path since this had to mean a powerful creature was on the other side of the fog. Sarana found a lift nearby that, when activated by pressing the pressure plate in the middle of it, would take someone down back to the first chamber Tirek had taken care of when he started invading the castle, though it wasn't long before she returned to where the pair was standing and took her place behind Tirek as he studied the rest of the area and made his decision on which path he wanted to deal with first, even if there were only two options since he wasn't counting the Fog Door yet. What he did was head over to the ledge that allowed him to look down at the area that the white scaled dragon had landed in and found that it was being pinned down by one of the Pus enemies, so what he did was repeat exactly what he had done to the other Pus foe, he carefully removed it and then reduced it to ashes with a Forbidden Sun, something that allowed the dragon in question to take to the sky and then land in another part of the castle that was near the bonfire the other one was resting near, showing that it was doing the same thing and was waiting for instructions, to which Tirek turned away and focused on the ladder that rested near his position. The building that the ladder was resting against seemed to be a church or chapel, where Sarana found that the door they had walked by was locked and that it could only be opened from the other side, if Tirek cared to see what was inside the structure in question, which was followed by Tirek jumping up to the top of the building, thanks to his enhanced power, and he started to walk over the bridge that was connected to the structure, which had a roof that he happened to walk on a few seconds later.

He found two crossbow hollows guarding the other building that the roof was connected to, which included a large hollow that carried an axe, so what he did was use the Space Stone to redirect the incoming attacks into the chests of the pair of hollows that fired some bolts at him, before freezing the swing of the axe carrying hollow and delivering a powerful punch to its chest, causing it to collide with a wall that was nearby, which was followed by him heading over to the building that the group of enemies had been guarding. What he found was that the inside of the building seemed to be a study of some kind, or at least that was what he assumed based on what he was seeing, and that there was a walkway for him to follow, so he could use a ladder to get to the level that was below him, though instead of worrying about that he jumped down into the area he had been staring at and turned around as he determined how many enemies were in this area, since he figured that there had to be someone nearby for him to take down before walking over the bridge that lead back to the chapel area. It took him a few seconds to determine that there was only one enemy left in this area, which happened to be the guardian of the bridge itself, and that the lower floor he had jumped down to was just an part of the castle that he and his companions would pass through without even caring about, something that was followed by him focusing on the lone knight that was guarding the bridge, who just so happened to be carrying a greatsword and started to move the moment Tirek reached a certain point, not that such a thing mattered as he grinned when his foe swung its weapon down at him and he stopped it with the Space Stone's power, which allowed him to deliver a punch from the normal gauntlet into his foe's chest and sent it flying. Interestingly enough the damage from the attack sent the knight flying into the locked door Sarana had tried to open and smashed it open, meaning it ruined the door and stopped moving not a few seconds later, to which Tirek walked into the small building that the knight had been guarding and found that it had been protecting an area that had a chest and a ruined statue, one that they could see the feet and part of the chest of, though Tirek noticed the swordspear that seemed to have been the statue's weapon, which was similar to what the Nameless King had carried into battle, despite looking different, before he walked through the ruined doorway and headed towards the Fog Door, as he didn't care about the other area at all.

What Tirek discovered, when he walked through the Fog Door, was that there was a cluster of the nerve creatures resting in the middle of the stone bridge that would allow him to access the next part of the castle, though as he came to a stop the cluster took to the air and revealed something interesting, that they had been covering a knight of some kind that was dressed up in a silver version of the dragonslayer armor that he and his companions had found earlier, though Tirek could see that it was carrying a massive axe and an interesting shield, both appearing to be weapons that were designed to take down dragons, before noticing that the knight was getting up and was turning to face him. A few seconds later the knight rushed forward and swung its weapon down at the area that Tirek happened to be standing in, though the attack didn't get very far as Tirek activated the power of the Space Stone and stopped the large axe before it could reach him, despite the fact that it paused a few inches from where his head was located, though what was interesting was that his foe also used its shield against him, as in it raised its shield into the air and proceeded to bring it down on Tirek's position, even though that attack was stopped by the power of the Stone Tirek was currently using. Once both of his foe's weapons were stalled by the Space Stone's ability, something that seemed to confuse the knight, Tirek accessed the Power Stone's power as he punched the knight in the chest, where the force of his attack launched his foe through the air and made it drop its weapons, while at the same time causing it to smash into the fountain that was in the middle of the bridge, a fountain that seemed like it had been broken for a long time, so there was no reason to worry over smashing it to pieces. As he downed his foe, however, the cluster of nerves, or whatever they were, gathered in the air to the left of the bridge and started to launch what seemed to be darkened Fireballs, at best guess, and were preparing a laser beam, to which Tirek shifted his stance for a moment and all of the attacks struck a number of portals that he opened up, though once that was done he opened the exit sides of the portals and struck down all of his enemies with their own attacks, where they fell out of the air with a cry of some kind, even though he didn't care as he approached the fallen knight and found that he had busted open the armor's chest, revealing that it was a reanimated suit of armor that apparently had its own soul, but it was unable to stand against his power and he added another soul to his collection.

Once the knight and its allies were taken care of, and Tirek was sure of it as Sarana lit the bonfire that rested near the end of the bridge, though once that was done he walked through the opening that the rest area was near and noticed that they had reached an area that looked like the entrance to an archive of some kind, even though there happened to be a bonfire nearby, which seemed redundant given the placement of the last one, before Sarana moved forward and, after a minute or two of looking, pulled a key out of a hiding spot, one that went to the Grand Archives, the area that was in front of them right now, to which Tirek grinned as they moved forward, as they were drawing one step closer to the Twin Princes and all that stood in their way was whatever was inside the Grand Archives.

Comments

[Gta Player]

I could be wrong about this but I don't think Tirek really cares about trying to take over equestria anymore. I think it makes sense considering he hasn't thought about it for a while. So I think he's content with ruling over the world he's in now once he takes out the lords of cinder.

[PrismStrike]

well then now Tirek has two dragons under his command to add to his five infinity stones. I do believe that the soul of Cinder is gunna have avery bad day when Tirek gets to that fight. (I would absolutely love to see Tirek completely skunk that bastard, go go gadget vicarious revenge through fanfiction)