//------------------------------//
// The Baneful Queen 
// Story: Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

After Rarity and Edric had rested for a few minutes, after defeating the monstrous demon creature that they had encountered, which was the first powerful creature of this area, the two of them got back onto their feet, or hooves in Rarity's case, and headed towards the passage to the left of the entrance they had used to enter this chamber. There they found some stairs that they had to walk up, though at the same time they remained on their guard considering that they were in enemy territory and it was possible that enemies were already waiting for them. When they turned the corner, however, the two of them growled as they realized that there had been a bonfire not a minute away from where the demon creature had been resting, which they would have used had they known about its existence. In the end they sighed and activated the bonfire, so they could teleport between here and somewhere else, though that was before they noticed a familiar face standing against one of the walls.

Rarity wasn't sure how Lucatiel had arrived in this area, without battling the demon she and Edric had just slain, but she was beginning to suspect that they were from two different worlds, sort of like how they had learned about leaving signs behind and appearing as phantoms in the world of whoever called upon them for assistance... though this time she was thinking that the bonfires crossed all the Undead worlds and this was why they encountered other Undead near them.

"I thought the noise I heard had to be the two of you. You two haven't changed a bit, have you?" Lucatiel said, though at the same time she chuckled for a moment, though Rarity didn't find it to be funny considering that all three of them appeared to be suffering from the Undead Curse, "The longer I am here, the more madness I discover. This is a wretched place, indeed, but not without traces of its former glory. What could have caused such degradation?"

Rarity had to admit that she had no considered why Drangleic appeared to be in a total state of ruin, though at the same time it appeared that the Emerald Herald thought that the King had something to do with it, making her wonder if the King had disappeared and that was, in turning, causing this to happen across the land. It reminded her of what happened to the castle that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had lived in a thousand years ago, in what would become the Everfree Forest, and how decayed it got once ponies stopped using it.

"Honestly, I have no idea why the land is like this," Edric commented, snapping Rarity out of her thoughts, though at the same time she was a little annoyed that she couldn't speak her mind, but she guessed it was best if people didn't know she was from an entirely different world, "but it was great seeing you again."

"Ah, before I forget, I have not thanked you for humoring me the other day." Lucatiel replied, to which she reached into her own pack and withdrew something, which she promptly handed over to Edric while Rarity looked over his shoulder for a few seconds, "That is for the two of you, though I have no idea what it is."

The fact that Lucatiel was handing over a Human Effigy, which all Undead used when they needed to restore their humanity, shocked Rarity and made her wonder if the warrior was from another world or if she actually was apart of the world she had been teleported to. One thing was for certain, with a decent amount of these effigies inside their bags she and Edric could easily restore themselves to how they had been after meeting with the Fire Keepers, while at the same time having more than enough in case they needed them in the future.

"The land of Mirrah, where I hail from, is surrounded by enemies and is constantly at war." Lucatiel commented, while at the same time surprising the duo, as they hadn't said anything that would make her tell them about this part of herself, but they stood there and listened to what she had to say, "There is only one way up in Mirrah; join the Order and prove yourself in battle. My family had little fortune and no name, so I had to carve out a piece of the world for myself… with two things. Those two things were my sword, and my loyalty to my Lord. I was raised to wield a sword from birth. Life was hard, but I never gave it a second thought. I had swift success on the battlefield, and quickly attained respectable stature. And then I… And then I came here… to…"

"Lucatiel? Are you alright?" Rarity asked, though at the same time she feared that the Undead Curse was starting to take a toll on the warrior's mind, as it appeared that she was already starting to head down the path of turning into a Hollow, something that she feared for both herself and Edric.

"Have you heard of the Undead? These poor souls affected by the curse." Lucatiel asked, completely changing the course of this conversation once again, though at the same time Rarity suspected that the warrior hadn't heard her question or was outright ignoring it, "An Undead gradually loses his humanity, until his wits degrade completely. Finally, he turns Hollow, and preys upon others. And a Hollow can never be human again. One can skirt this wicked fate only with the help of the souls found here. Assuming, of course, that the legends are true. I can only hope… that the stories and legends are. I'm sorry… to burden you with talk of my fate. I suppose I've grown weary these days."

They left Lucatiel to her own devices and headed towards the doorway in front of them, where they walked across a walkway and through another doorway, which brought them to an area that had a few gears rotating some distance in front of them. Neither of them had any idea what the gears, or the massive windmill, were supposed to be powering, but at the same time they decided that it might not concern them at all, to which they turned to the left and walked up the wooden ramp that was in front of them. They then found two hollows, dressed in what Rarity assumed was light armor and were wielding one of their weapons like they were about to stab someone with a knife, in front of them, though while Edric fought the first one Rarity used her magic to take out the second one with a Soul Arrow. As her target fell one of the green skinned hollows broke the large cauldron that was in front of it and came at her... to which Rarity simply got rid of it with a pair of Dark Orbs that slammed into its chest.

Rarity was still amazed that, after empowering herself so much, that her spells could do so much damage to her targets, while at the same time doing nothing if the target happened to be immune to the particular element she was using against them.

While Edric finished off his opponent Rarity noticed that there was a Lifegem, one that looked more powerful than the ones they had picking up so far, and decided that she might as well claim it, as she was sure that they could use it when she was out of healing spells. Once the room was clear of enemies they walked through the doorway and stopped the moment they spotted a knight, wielding a spear and a shield, standing in the doorway they needed to go through, while at the same time Rarity spotted some archers trying to fire at them. Instead of giving the archers a chance to attack them, and possibly poison them considering where they were, Rarity called upon her magic and blasted the two archers off the walkway they were on, allowing them to concentrate on the knight in front of them. Sure enough the knight approached them and raised its shield, but as it started moving from side to side Rarity immediately noticed a weak point in how the knight was moving... as it wasn't paying attention to how narrow the walkway was.

Since only one person could walk on the walkway at a time, or two if they were coming from different directions, Edirc approached the knight and beckoned him forward, though that was before the knight made the mistake of setting his foot on the side of the walkway and tumbled off the walkway... falling into the pit of poison below them.

Rarity and Edric stared at each other for a few seconds before they started laughing, as they had never seen one of their enemies do that before today, though they also walked across the now open walkway and kept their eyes peeled for other creatures and hollows that wanted them dead. When they entered the next area that was in front of them, which appeared to be an area where they could look out over the poisoned area they had just walked through, two of the light armor wearing hollows dropped down from the level above them and attacked without warning. Despite the fact that neither of them were actually ready for any enemies in this room, considering that the knight had killed himself, both of them raised their weapons and fought back against the hollows that were coming after them.

Instead of investigating the area further, and seeing what the path on their right held for them, the two of them approached the ladder on their left and climbed up it, with Edric going first, though a few seconds passed before he told Rarity that it was fine to come up to where he was. From there the two of them had to fight another light armored hollow, which fell much easier than the others did considering that there was only one hollow and two of them, before they turned to their right and found a fog door resting near a ramp. The other side of the fog door wasn't the chamber of the second powerful creature, like they were expecting it to be, rather they found another bonfire to activate... though as they returned to the ramp, however, Rarity noticed that there was a small walkway leading right to the main part of the central fan of the windmill.

From what she could tell the wood that made up the fan appeared to be close to the point where a single flame or ember would be enough to set the entire thing on fire, something that may or may not help them in the near future... to which she pulled out the Pyromancy Flame, which she got on the ship the Sentry was on, and summoned a fireball.

"Let's see what this does," Rarity said, to which she pulled her arm back for a few seconds before she swung at the wooden posts she had seen, though she was not ready for what came after the fireball made contact with the rest of the windmill's main blade.

The fireball, connecting with the cylinder that the windmill blades were attached to, was set ablaze for a few seconds as the flames reached for the main part of the windmill, while at the same time the rest of the structure followed suit. Rarity watched as the various pieces of the structure, those that happened to be made out of wood, caught on fire as the windmill's motions came to a halt, though as she watched the flames she had to wonder if that had been worth it. She still had no idea what the gears were powering, besides this part of the mill anyway, but somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that this would likely help them in the near future... somehow anyway.

From there the two of them walked up the ramp that Edric had been heading towards, and had stopped halfway up so he could watch Rarity burn the windmill with one of her spells, though once they reached the top of the ramp they found a Firebomb sitting on the ground, which Edric collected so he could sell it later on. They then walked outside and dealt with the light armor wearing hollow that was to their left, though once he was taken care of they headed towards the right and eventually came to a short passage that brought them to an elevator chamber. From what Rarity could tell this place was designed to make someone think that there was no treasure in this area, though she could see the gears and they had passed by a lever... making this one of the most terribly hidden contraptions she had never seen.

She stood on the middle of the platform and rose into the air the moment Edric pulled the lever, though at the top she found a steel chest that contained a strange shield, but before she could investigate what it was the vases near her position started exploding as hollows tried to attack her from another area. Instead of wasting time she grabbed the shield, smiled at her enemies, and jumped off the ledge that was behind her, where she levitated herself down to where Edric was standing and shoved the shield into his pack. From there they climbed up the stairs that were passed the elevator and walked through another doorway as they searched for the next fog door, which they had to be getting closer to at this point in time. Not a few steps later they found two spear wielding knights blocking their way, to which Edric impaled the first one from behind with his sword while Rarity blasted the second one it the back... though once their enemies were taken care of they continued along their way.

They turned to the left and walked up the ramp that was in front of them, though at the top they discovered a pair of sorceresses that were casting spells at the wall, to which Rarity impaled the pair with a crystal spike each before she bothered to look around the area they were in. Since there was nothing else in this area they retraced their steps and headed back to the fork in the road, where they continued forward after choosing what would have been the right path a minute ago. That brought them to a dead end that let them stare at a sorceress for a few seconds, though that was before Rarity took them back to the area where the other two had been located, where she carefully walked over the slow moving blade and found a new path for them to take... while at the same time hearing the sound of Edric opening a chest, dodging a trap, and claiming something, which turned out to be a Lockstone when he joined her.

Since they had to walk over a small amount of poison Rarity simply did the next best thing and called two crystal spikes into existence so they could traverse the small hallway... where she impaled the incoming light armor wearing hollow before they moved deeper into the windmill. From there they dealt with three more sorceresses and another spear wielding knight before they noticed a temple like area that had two spear knights guarding the main entrance, though around the base of the ramp was an area that had been wet recently. Edric silently thanked whatever god brought Rarity to him before he started this quest, as he would never have thought to burn the windmill and would have likely been walking through a poison pool of some kind to reach the next powerful creature. Once the two knights that were guarding the fog door had been taken care of the two of them approached the entrance to the creature's lair and walked through it, where they found themselves inside a circular chamber.

The creature, however, was something that was half lady and half snake, a naga or lamia as Edric knew them, but her skin was tainted by the same green color that some of the hollows had possessed... and she appeared to have been decapitated at some point in the past, as she was carrying her head in her left hand while wielding a spear in her right.

The next thing that happened was that the naga lifted her head up and released a piercing screech attack that would have pierced Edric's chest, had Rarity not snapped her shield into existence in front of them and deflected the attack into the nearby wall, while leaving a hole in the magical shield. Edric suspected that the naga's attack might have been more powerful than what Rarity had been expecting it to be, meaning that she didn't use enough power to block the attack and now had a better understanding of how powerful the naga really was. The naga then tossed her head towards them, causing them to disperse as a sound blast erupted from the head, which would have knocked them away at great damage to their bodies, but Rarity and Edric managed to avoid that entirely.

When the naga made a move for her head, in a way that made her forget about her opponents, Rarity had an idea on how to exploit that weakness, though at the same time she loosed several Greater Soul Arrows while Edric struck at the lower part of the naga's body.

The naga, having picked up her head, turned towards Edric and started swinging her spear at him, in an attempt to hit him, though at the same time she completely ignored Rarity, who used the opportunity to hit her target with several spells that weakened her. Edric, for the most part, dodged the attacks to the best of his ability and sometimes got a cut on the cheek or his arms by the edge of the spear's blade, but for the most part he was just fine with his attack pattern until he had to jumped out of the way when the naga threw her head again. He avoided the sound blast once more and watched as the naga charged at her head once more, though this time around Rarity claimed the head with her magic and floated it around the chamber they were in, causing the naga to follow it blindly.

Edric immediately understood what was going on, as the naga was too focused on her head to even consider that this was a trap, thus opening herself up to whatever damage Rarity and Edric could dish out... though a few minutes passed before the naga was lying dead on the ground, her soul claimed by the duo, and the way forward was open.

They then walked up the stairs that were now open for them and entered the chamber that was in front of them, where they discovered that there was only an elevator for them to interact with, to which they sighed and entered the iron cage that was waiting for them. Once they were both inside the cage the door closed a few seconds later and they started moving up towards the ceiling, where the cage entered a passage that had been dug out through the ground who knew how long ago. It took a minute for them to reach whatever their destination was, though as the cage opened up they carefully walked out and followed the passage that was in front of them, while also spotting a person's skeleton laying on the floor... before they came to an opening that revealed a massive keep or castle of some kind, which happened to be surrounded by lava, and had a single bridge connecting where they were to the massive keep.

Rarity couldn't help but grin at the sight of what was in front of her and Edric, as this had to be the area where the second Guardian was resting, which meant that all they needed to do was fight their way to where the Iron King was resting and claim the Great Soul that he was guarding.