After defeating the vanguard of rats that had come out and attacked them, with the Chaos Storm spell Rarity had picked up earlier, Rarity and Edric took a moment to rest at the bonfire that was right in front of the room the rats had been in before they continued along the path that they had unlocked. When they entered the new room they had access to they found a large pile of bones, with a coffin resting on top of the pile on the right of the entrance, and a rather passive rat that was sitting on the pile. Rarity, having gotten used to all of the strange people they had encountered so far, knew that this rat was either someone that would move to Majula after they talked with it or it was a person that allowed them to enter the covenant that it represented. It reminded her of the off man they found after fighting the Executioner's Chariot, which had to be for a blood type covenant, but she and Edric kept their guards up while they approached the rat.
"Leave this place, humans." the rat said, though at the same time Rarity detected that the rat had a tone that would suggest that he was royalty of some kind, but he looked like all of the lesser rats they had slain to reach this point and knew that it was likely a pretender, "We have no time for thy kind. Humans bring nothing but filth."
"If that is how you feel, then we'll be on our way," Rarity replied, because if the rat was going to watch them emerge from what was clearly one of its burrows, and claim that it basically wanted nothing to do with them, then she and Edric were going to leave the creature alone.
"Is that a Rat Tail, human?" the rat inquired, to which Edric glanced back at him for a few moments, as he had found a Rat Tail in the charred ashes of the enemies that Rarity had burned with the Chaos Storm she unleashed earlier, but he hadn't even considered what use it could have, "Thou'st one of mine rat burrows conquered. This will not go unnoticed. Rejoice, for the right to serve me is now thine. Since thou'rt human still… Permit me ask. Wilt thou thy human soul surrender, and pledge thyself to me? Swearest thou by the sweet-tempered sludge that laps at our bosoms?"
"Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to say no," Edric replied, though at the same time he decided to toss the tail away when they were far away from where this rat was, just so it couldn't see what he was planning on doing.
"Of course. Humans are all alike." the rat said, though Rarity could tell that the rat was annoyed, but at the same time she knew that she would have done the same thing if the rat asked her the question, "Get thee gone. We will tolerate thy stench no longer."
The moment the rat was done talking Rarity and Edric turned to the path on their left and departed from the room that the rat was sitting in, because they were eager to get the next leg of their adventure started so they could find the Rotten and claim the third Great Soul. They found a skeleton, a human skeleton, resting at the end of the tunnel they were walking through, though when they noticed that there was a way down into the circular area they had seen earlier the two of them jumped down into the area. When they landed in the circular area Edric found a Pharros Lockstone waiting for them, to which he claimed it and stashed it inside his pack for later, though that was followed by the two of them walking over to the hole that was in front of them... as it was the only way forward at this point in time.
The two of them noticed that the way down meant that they would have to jump on coffin platforms, to which Edric jumped down onto the first one, to be sure it was safe, before heading down to the next one, though when he reached the second one Rarity jumped down to the first one. They carefully made their way down towards the walkway that was below them, but when they reached the last coffin platform they had to injure their legs by jumping down to the stone walkway, to which they used their flasks and healed their wounds. The two of them then jumped down to the wooden bridge that was below them, though Edric jumped down to the iron chest and found a ring waiting for him, one that he resolved to ask Shalquoir about... to which he sighed, as he realized that he was instinctively going for the cat when they found something unusual, interesting, or odd.
Not even a few seconds later he heard the sound of something exploding, to which he turned around and found that Rarity was already inside the pit that was below them, throwing spells at the hollows that were coming at her, where they exploded before they could even reach her. He waited for a few seconds, watching Rarity deal with the enemies that were around her, before they stopped coming and she investigated one of the two passages that were around her, to which Edric dropped down and followed her. The two of them came to a dead end almost immediately, where Rarity smiled as she found a Great Heal spell page, which meant that her spellbook was growing once more, before they walked over to the second pathway... where they found a bunch of wooden platforms that they needed to use some ladders so they could climb up and down the area they were in.
They carefully made their way down the series of ladders that were in their way, noticing that the first one was really short and prevented them from climbing back to the area they had been in earlier, while at the same time the final ladder was the same as the first, meaning that they couldn't climb back towards the Grave of Saints. When they reached the bottom of the passage they found a chest that contained some sort of token, one that felt sinister to Rarity's senses when she laid eyes on it, before they noticed the path they needed to take. When they reached the end of the passage in front of them, however, they discovered that the area they were in was much darker than what they were used to and that there were a large number of statues sitting around them... and, when Edric took a step forward, something struck him and caused him to step backwards.
"What in the world was that?" Edric asked, though at the same time he raised one of the pieces of cloth they had been carrying and wiped off whatever had hit him, to which he wondered what was going on.
"I wonder," Rarity said, to which the shadows surrounded her hand for a moment and she launched a small sphere forward, where she watched some of the statues spit out something that caused the sphere to break apart, "I see, the statues are spitting what appears to be poison out of them."
"Is there a way around this?" Edric inquired, though while he considered smashing the statues with his weapon he figured that Rarity had a much safer method, especially with her strange Dark Magic that she seemed to be working with all the time now.
Rarity smiled as her shadow moved again, though this time around it surged into the statue she had seen earlier, the one that spat out the poison, and shattered the statue from the inside out before doing the same thing to the other poison spitting statues in the immediate area. The more she used the Dark Magic that was inside her the more uses she was finding for it, where she constantly wondered what sort of uses King Sombra had for this type of magic, because so far she wasn't experiencing any of the negative effects of using this magic. With the poison spewing statues taken care of she and Edric walked forward and dropped down onto the platform that was in front of the end of the tunnel they had been walking through... though they followed that up by carefully moving through a square hole and followed the slant down to where a bonfire was waiting for them.
When they activated the bonfire, however, Edric decided that it was time to forgo the shield and lit the torch he was still carrying, as it was too dark for them to really see too much, though this only gave light to their immediate area and caused the two to search out any areas that they could light up.
The two of them moved up the small wooden bridge that was in front of where they were standing, though as they walked over it they accidentally walked onto a weak section and dropped down into the area below them, where the suffering hollows that were laying around them picked themselves up and came at them. Since Edric couldn't use his shield, thanks to the torch, he had to be more careful about which attacks he tried to block and which he parried, while at the same time Rarity simply backed away from her enemies and used her Soul Arrows on them. She was sure that they weren't sturdy enough to require the use of her stronger spells, thus allowed her to save all of her stronger spells for later when they came across a stronger opponent or the powerful creature that called this place home... as she and Edric knew that there had to be one here somewhere.
From there they moved around the new area they were in and discovered that the only way for them to move forward was to jump across to another platform where two hollows were walking around, to which Edric charged over to the edge of where they were standing and jumped over to where the hollows were standing. As he surprised them, and cut them down in the process, Rarity crossed over to where he was and surveyed the area around them, where she found a ladder that took them up to where a scone that they could light was located. With some additional light in their area the two of them entered the small cave that was in front of them, where Rarity's shadow had a field day shattering the statues that were all around them... before they came to another stone door, though Rarity backed away from it, as the sinister feeling she had felt earlier was still there, only it was coming from somewhere below them.
These strange doors, in unusual places that appeared to have a keyhole that they didn't have a key for, seemed to know some dark creature and were warning her about it, to which she determined to figure out what the creature was and where it was located... so she could kill it before it did anything bad to this world.
After finding the strange stone door Rarity and Edric jumped back down to the platform the ladder was attached to and found a scone that they had missed, adding some more light to the area, before they headed towards the walkway that would allow them to move forward. The wooden building they walked onto the roof of had a scone for them to light and a hole in the roof for them to go through, though since it was the only path available Edric carefully lit the scone before he and Rarity jumped down into the area below them. From there they found that they had to go through an opening that led them to a large dog-like creature that appeared to have been skinned at some point in the past... to whcih Rarity sighed as she and Edric walked towards the poor creature.
Fortunately Rarity was able to take the creature out with some well placed spells, though since she was demanding the creautre's attention Edric was able to approach it from the side after it passed him and cut into it from behind, though once it was dead they smashed some of the vases that were near them and Rarity discovered another pyromancy flame, only this one was a dark flame. From there they walked into the lower area of the wooden building that was in front of them and climbed the ladder that they found, where Edric walked over to the nearby scone and lit it, though that was followed by four hollows, two from the area below them and two from the level above them, used the ladders to assault the duo. What they discovered was that these enemies fell in literally one hit, so all Edric had to do was slice them with his sword while Rarity used the lowest level Soul Arrow spell to finish off her foes... though once the coast was clear they headed over to the other ladder and climbed up to the level above them.
When they reached the top of the building they had been climbing up, and surveyed the area around them, Edric lit the nearby scone before Rarity jumped down to the platform that was in front of her, where her shadow shattered the nearby statues as Edric joined her... where he lit the scone on their left before they walked over the bridge that was in front of them.
A hollow charged at them while they were walking and Edric cut it down before it could even hurt them, though when they reached the end of the bridge the two of them found one of the skinned dog creatures standing in their way, and it happened to be obvious to their existence. Rarity smiled as she switched to her Emit Force spell, to which she blasted the dog creature in the side and set it flying into the abyss that existed below them, where she was sure that the creature would die the moment it hit the ground. A few seconds later they climbed up the ladder in front of them and dealt with the two hollows that called the area home, where they paused for a few seconds, for Rarity's shadow to shatter the poison statues, before they opened the wooden chest in front of them... where they found a firebomb, which they knew that neither of them were going to use at all.
From there Rarity and Edric jumped back onto the platform that was below them and crossed over the walkway that was in front of them, where Rarity smiled as the statues shattered and Edric lit the scone that was in the area they discovered, before they climbed up the ladder that was in front of them.
When they reached the top of where the ladder was taking them, which was the top of the wooden structure they had been standing on, Edric lit the scone before he and Rarity walked over the bridge that was in front of them, where Edric cut down the hollows that charged at them while Rarity focused on finding other enemies. At the other end of the bridge they found a third skinned dog creature that was ignoring them for the moment, but since it wasn't near any of the edges Rarity simply hurled a Lightning Spear into the dog's side and caused it to turn on her. Of course that meant that it ignored Edric and was hurt in the process, to which the duo continued their attack before the dog creature was defeated, allowing them to move forward once more.
They found two scones in the area that the dog creature had been patrolling before they found another bridge, only this one took them to a walkway that had a scone resting on it, so they carefully removed the hollow that was in their way before they approached the scone and lit it. At the end of the walkway rested another scone, which they also lit, though they spotted another skinned dog creature patrolling the area below them, while at the same time noticing that they were close to the fog door that the powerful creature had to be resting behind. Before they did that, however, two hollows charged out of a cave and attacked them, causing the duo to defend themselves, though once the two weak enemies were taken care of they investigated the cave... where they found another miserable hollow and an iron chest, which contained some sort of shield that had a hand emblazoned upon it.
From there they returned to the area that the dog creature was patrolling, though when they arrived they discovered that it had moved close to the edge of the platform it was walking on and that one blast should be enough to push it over the edge, to which Rarity dropped down behind it and used her Emit Force spell to knock it off the edge... though that was followed by her and Edric turning towards the fog door.
"Are you ready for whatever creature is lurking behind that door?" Edric asked, because so far he knew that Rarity's magic allowed her to deal with everything and anything they could come across, but he felt better asking her if she was ready or not.
"Honestly, I'm getting tired of all these powerful creatures," Rarity said, as she was mostly annoyed that the majority of the 'powerful' creatures they had fought so far were weaklings, save for some like the Pursuer, but in the end she sighed as she recalled her shadow, "but we have to fight whatever is in there in order to move on... so let's get this over with so we can find the Rotten and get out of here."
Edric nodded and the two of them pressed their hands through the fog door, though when they reached the other side they found that this area was mostly just a bunch of ladders that descended even deeper into the ground below them, which meant that they had to find the correct path in order to move on. Rarity was slightly relieved that they didn't have to fight any creatures this time around, as the last few had been simple once she figured out what they needed to do in order to win the fight. Fortunately one of the ladders in the middle of the area allowed them to climb down to a platform where they could either choose to climb back up via a different ladder or go even further down thanks to one that Rarity found after watching an enemy use it to climb up onto their platform. One thing that was interesting was the number of hollows that resided in this area, as there were at least ten to fifteen of them that were climbing the ladders and following the duo... before they met their end at either Edric's blade or Rarity's magic.
With the enemies cleared the duo climbed down to the lowest level possible and finished off the hollows that called that area home, but before they moved forward they found a large number of urns blocking the cave entrance that they needed to pass through, to which Rarity used her Emit Force spell and blew them all to pieces. With the way clear the two of them advanced once more, where they jumped down to a stone platform where they found a lit another scone, as well as another Fragrant Branch of Yore. As they walked down the path that was in front of them, however, they spotted a good deal of statues that had green markings on them, which Rarity shattered with her shadow, as well as a second fog door, to which they raised their defenses again in case this was the real deal.
When they passed through this fog door they found an underground area of sorts, one that was lit to the same standards as the area that they had just passed through, and discovered more of those poison statues lining the wall on their left and the edge of the walkway on their right. The two of them immediately knew that this was going to take some time to get around, as they were sure that this was where the Rotten was waiting for them, but before they did anything else they turned to the small hole on their left and found a bonfire waiting for them. They smiled as they left the new area alone for the moment and activated the bonfire, to which they rested and waited for their energy to come back before they attempted the new area they had discovered.
At the same time, however, Rarity could easily sense the pulsing dark energy that the strange doors had been warning her about, which meant that a clue to whatever that dark creature was had to be hidden somewhere in this area... and she aimed to find it when she and Edric started searching this area for the Rotten and the Great Soul it carried with it.