"You sure finished that Pursuer off in a timely fashion." Edric commented, as he had been watching the fight the entire time and was pleased to find that Rarity was fine, even though she had been stabbed in the chest again and showed nearly no sign of the cut being there, save for a scar.
"He was predictable, thanks to the couple of times we fought the other one in the forest ruins," Rarity replied, though at the same time she held out a hand and dropped the ring into Edric's palm, where he glanced down at it for a few seconds, "I found that on the body of my opponent and figured that you might be able to use it, once we figure out what sort of ring it actually is."
"Right." Edric said, to which he accepted the ring and pocketed it, though that was followed by the two of them walking forward until they came to a door, one that looked like the one they had seen earlier.
Rarity and Edric smiled for a few seconds as they pushed open the door, as it happened to be the one they had stopped by earlier and now allowed them to pick up right where they left off, which meant that they had to deal with the bulky knights that were damaging the walkway in the chamber on their right. Before they did that, and continued their search for the Old Iron King, the knight that stood near the door noticed them and came right at them, to which Edric raised his shield and blocked the attack. He then hacked and slashed at the enchanted suit of armor, like he had done earlier when they were progressing through the Iron Keep, though at the same time Rarity moved into the chamber they needed to pass through and stared at the two knights that were in their way... or rather it became one, as the one that was the furthest from her turned tail and retreated.
Unfortunately Rarity remembered the weakness of the turtle shaped knights, to which a Lightning Spear appeared near her right hand as she faced her target, who appeared to have gone still as it waited for her to make the first move, which would end up being the last move of this fight. She then spun around and sent the spear flying through the air, where she watched as it pierced the knight's chest and caused him to stumble backwards, before the armor tumbled backwards and fell into the lava below the walkway she was standing on. With the first opponent taken care of Rarity walked towards the gap in the walkway and jumped over it, causing the second knight to come out of his hiding spot and attack her with his full power.
Rarity simply jumped backwards and landed on the side of the walkway she had been on a few seconds ago, to which she released a Dark Hail at her opponent and watched as the balls of dark energy slammed into him, causing her foe to stagger before collapsing on the walkway.
"You know, I think our enemies should fear your approach," Edric commented, though at the same time he and Rarity jumped over the gap and continued forward, while he took a few seconds to study Rarity's handiwork, "As long as you can figure out what element our opponents are weak against, in a timely fashion, we should be able to get to our destination in no time... provided that there isn't a creature with complete magical resistances."
"Oh, I'm sure I'd find a way to break such a foe as well," Rarity said, though as they walked into the new area she found a lever waiting nearby, as well as a good number of enemies standing between them and the doorway they needed to walk through, "This ought to be interesting at least."
Instead of targeting the archer that was moving around the area above them, like she would normally do, Rarity simply pulled the lever and watched as the section that two of the turtle knights were standing on started to lower towards the lava that was below them. Before the platform got too far the archer jumped down onto it and raised his bow so he could get a good shot at her and Edric, though that was before the platform breached the lava and killed both him and the two knights that were with him. At that point both Rarity and Edric felt like laughing, as this couldn't have turned out better for them, though once they were finished with their laughter they walked up the nearby stairs and started their battle against the other enemies that were still alive.
As they started to advance, however, Edric spotted one of those Titanite lizards nearby, so while he chased the creature down, and killed it for the supplies it had, Rarity lobbed a Dark Ball at the archer that was trying to hurt her friend, as well as the other archer that was staring at them. Once Edric returned to her with the Titanite chunks that the lizard had been carrying, something that she wasn't about to question since this world was so strange, the two of them continued along the platforms and made sure not to activate any of the pressure plates. Edric had accidentally stepped on one and caused the two of them to move fast to avoid being dropped into the lava, though Rarity told him that it was fine, as everyone made mistakes, before they continued forward.
Since Rarity had a habit of pretty much killing everything in the Iron Keep with one or two hits, save for that demonic suit of armor they fought, Edric told her to relax as he started fighting the archer and the turtle knight that were standing between them and the fog door they were heading towards. Rarity was fine with that, as it allowed her to observe the area around them and search for hidden paths they might be able to take, to make their journey that much easier, but at the moment she saw nothing out of the ordinary. After a few minutes the two of them approached the fog door and removed it from their path, to which they entered an area that had a large cauldron suspended in the air... and had a knight walking around the support beams for the cauldron.
Rarity, seeing the opportunity that was presented to her, simply called forth another Dark Ball and knocked the knight off of his walkway, allowing him to fall into the pool of lava that rested far below where they were standing... though once that was done they walked down the stairs that were to their right and began their descent. At the end of the stairs they found a narrow hallway that forced them to form a single file line, though part of the way down the hallway stood another turtle knight, who started moving towards them the instant it noticed them. Edric, still insisting that Rarity conserve her energy for now, stepped forward and fought the knight that was in their way, though at the same time he had to avoid the guillotine trap that was in the hallway.
At the end of the hallway stood another turtle knight, though this time around Edric simply lured their enemy into the trap that he had passed by and watched as the knight was slain by the defenses that were built into this section of the large Iron Keep... though once that was over he and Rarity moved onward.
The next area they faced was full of statues that were breathing fire, just like the one that they had passed by at the entrance of the Iron Keep and the ones that had been resting near the last fog door they had walked through, though this time they carefully moved around the area when the flames weren't blowing. They spotted a ladder nearby and decided to see where it would take them, as they were certain that the Old Iron King was below them and wanted to be sure that they didn't miss anything important. It didn't take them long to climb the ladder, where they found themselves in a large chamber that looked like a cage, but since there weren't any enemies they looked around for anything useful... until Rarity spotted a ladder that would take them even higher than they already were.
What they found at the top of the second ladder was a new bonfire and a set of stairs that led them to a lever, one that Edric pulled the moment they discovered it, as he was sure that it was useful in some manner to their current goal and it appeared that Rarity agreed with him.
As they turned around the two of them noticed that the statues that were breathing fire seemed to have stopped entirely, meaning that the lever must have turned all of them off, to which the two of them carefully climbed down the two sets of ladders and returned to the first chamber they had entered. Edric picked up what appeared to be a bow of some kind, one that might have a lightning enchantment, but since he had no idea how to use it he simply stashed it away in his pack before they moved through the entrance that would take them towards their target. Of course they had to contend with another turtle knight, one that the two of them took apart easily, before they walked out of the chamber they were in and discovered some ruins resting on a level below them... and there happened to be a fog door waiting for them.
"There it is, the entrance of the Old Iron King's lair," Rarity commented, though at the same time she tightened her grip of her staff, as she was sure that this opponent was going to be much stronger than the Lost Sinner.
"Let's go claim the second Great Soul," Edric said, to which the two of them started walking down the stairs that were in front of them and carefully walked towards the fog door, just in case enemies were waiting for them.
When they reached the fog door they paused for a moment, as they wanted to be sure that they were prepared for the battle with the Old Iron King, before they pushed through the mist and walked out onto a decent sized ruined walkway that allowed them to look out at all the lava that rested around them. A few seconds passed before Rarity spotted something moving in the lava, to which the form of a great horned and winged demon made of earth and fire, with what Rarity had to guess were rivulets of molten iron pouring out of its body, erupted from the lava. Truth be told Rarity wasn't expecting a demon like this to show up, as she assumed that the Old Iron King was a human sized and shaped Undead, but at the same time she knew that they could pull this off... to which she and Edric raised their weapons as the Old Iron King started his advance towards them.
Rarity, sensing an opportunity that she couldn't pass up, snapped her fingers and a Lightning Spear phased into existence near her hand, to which she hurled it through the air and watched as the Old Iron King growled as it came into contact with his body. She could only assume that lightning was the demon's weakness, one that was significantly weaker than what she had see earlier, though since the Old Iron King was still some distance away she continued her assault before the demon reached the area they were standing on. She was only able to cast the spell twice more before their opponent arrived at where they were standing, to which she and Edric separated from each other as the Old Iron King pointed the palm of one of his hands at the previous location they had been standing in... which was followed by a beam of flames surging towards the wall for a few seconds.
From what Rarity could tell the Old Iron King definitely had a resistance to fire spells, since he had been living in the lava until she and Edric approached him, but since she specialized in Lightning and Dark elemental attacks she knew that she had the upper hand. When their opponent pulled his hand back he gathered some flames inside his mouth and started breathing fireballs at her and Edric, though at the same time Edric remained near the Old Iron King while Rarity moved towards the back so she could focus on casting spells. After the fireball breath failed to hit either of them, which made the Old Iron King angry, he started slamming his arms and fists on the walkway they were standing on, though he used enough power to hurt whoever he hit while not breaking the walkway in the process... which Rarity would have done, if she had been in the position of the Old Iron King.
When the Old Iron King tried to hit Edric, and toss him into the lava to kill him, Rarity focused her magic for a few seconds and a barrier sprung up between the two, to which Edric backed away from the attack before the barrier shattered into a thousand pieces... though Rarity was willing to take a loss to her magicka to ensure her friend wasn't killed in battle again.
The majority of the battle progressed in the same manner, as he used the same set of attacks for a few minutes while Rarity and Edric chipped away at the Old Iron King's health, though after a certain point he pounded the walkway with both hands and knocked Edric onto his back. Rarity raced to her companion's side and threw up a barrier around them as their foe rained fire down upon them, though while the barrier was up she healed Edric's wounds and pulled him back onto his feet. Once her companion had been healed the two of them separated from each other once more and continued the same pattern they had been using up until the new move was added to the fight, where they moved around the walkway and made sure to avoid the Old Iron King's attacks to the best of their abilities.
Eventually they weakened the Old Iron King to the point where a single spell would decide their battle, to which Rarity poured the rest of her magicka into a single Lightning Spear and hurled it into the Old Iron King's chest... where a large hole was created where the demon's heart was located, causing it to collapse in the lava and its Great Soul passed through both Rarity and Edric.
"Victory is ours!" Rarity said, though at the same time she fell into a sitting position as she looked out at the lava, as while she had been expecting the Old Iron King to put up quite the fight she hadn't been expecting a long drawn out battle like this, which made her wonder about the remaining two Guardians.
"It sure is," Edric said, though he smiled as he looked over at Rarity, because he was sure that without her he would have Hollowed at some point in the past and he never would have made it this far, as some of the creatures were definitely beyond his skill to take out by himself, "Let's rest for a few minutes and collect ourselves, then we can find the bonfire that will take us out of here so we can start the hunt for the third Great Soul."
Rarity smiled as the dark mist faded from her eyes, as she had no magicka to sustain it at the moment, but she was content at the moment... and she knew that the third Guardian was going to be even stronger than the Old Iron King, which worried her a tiny bit. At the moment she planned on resting before they moved out and she knew Edric was thinking the same thing, because the path to the next powerful creature was going to be a long and tedious one for the two of them... especially since they had no idea where to start looking next.