Rarity and Edric continued their careful walk up the strange bridge that was taking them to the main gate of the castle, where they were either going to be welcomed by the staff or attacked by the guards, as none of the places they had gone through so far had any peaceful encounters. As they ascended, however, Rarity noticed that they hadn't found a bonfire yet, which was different from all of the other zones they had traveled through so far, but that didn't stop her from keeping her eyes open as she searched for one. When they reached the top of the stairs portion of the bridge, however, they found two statues that reminded them of the primal knights they had encountered back in the Doors of Pharros, though as they walked towards the main gate the statues came to life and forced the duo to back up to avoid being hit... especially since the guards had archers backing them up.
Fortunately the two knights were susceptible to the same pattern they used to defeat the ones they fought against earlier, where Rarity acted as bait and threw spells at her target while Edric attacked the weak points, though the only downside to this situation was that there was a second knight... but in the end they managed to succeed and moved forward so they could better understand what was going on in front of them.
When they returned to the top of the bridge Rarity snapped up a barrier in front of her and let the arrows hit it, where she found that there were two archers that she and Edric had to be aware of, while at the same time noticing the strange statues that had holes in the chest area. She had no idea what those were supposed to represent, as the only creature like them were the giants they had killed so far and their holes were in the head, but she was sure that there was something dark and sinister about them. She also noted that the statues were positioned behind some pedestals of some kind, which reminded her of ones that they might be able to light, while at the same time Edric suggested that they might be able to turn them, as they might be the keys to opening the gate.
Another thing happened in their favor, as both archers moved back towards one of the statues so they could get a better aim on her and Edric, to which Rarity dispelled the barrier and they charged at their targets, Rarity heading towards the one on the right while Edric focused on the archer on the left. Fortunately the archers were easy to take care of, as they missed with their arrows and died in two hits, regardless if it was a sword strike or a Soul Arrow to the chest, to which Rarity and Edric watched as the souls of their defeated enemies flew into the hearts of the statues and awoke them from their slumber. That was followed by some soldiers charging out of their hiding spot near Edric and attacked him, though Edric made short work of them as Rarity watched the statues grip the two sides of the pedestals in front of them and turn them like keys... to which the gate opened before their very eyes.
With the gate open, and the soldiers no longer rushing out from where they were hiding to attack them, Rarity and Edric walked into the main entrance of the castle and found a walkway that would take them up to a ghost that could be one of the head servants for the King... which really didn't boost Rarity's confidence in finding the King if his soldiers were out to kill them and his servants were all ghosts.
"Who are you two… and by whose permission do you stand before me?" the ghost demanded, speaking to the duo the moment they walked up the stairs and approached him, though before they could answer it appeared that he was going to talk again, "This castle is the domain of King Vendrick. Is your trespass intentional? … His Highness… Where has he gone?"
"The King's MISSING?!" Rarity exclaimed, though at the same time Edric brought his palm to his face, as neither of them could believe their luck at the moment, while at the same time understanding that they didn't any leads as to where they might find King Vendrick, "Do you have any idea where we might be able to find him?"
"You are a guest of our castle. I am the Chancellor, Wellager." the ghost replied, though as he responded Rarity had to resist the urge to slap him or something, because she wanted to know how to find the King and this wasn't helping her or Edric at all, "Do you seek an audience with my Lord, King Vendrick? Unfortunately, His Highness is absent. My Lord… the King has… the Queen… has taken him…"
"Great, so we have to talk with the Queen to discover what happened to the King," Edric said, to which he moaned for a few seconds, because this was starting to turn into a nightmare, as they were going to have to search the whole castle to find out where the Queen was waiting, before he turned towards Wellager, "Can you tell us anything useful, like where to find your Queen or where she might have 'taken' the King?"
"My Lord made magnificent findings on souls, an accomplishment for the ages." Wellager answered, though it was at this point that Edric groaned and turned away from the ghost, while at the same time Rarity listened, as there might be a clue as to what they needed to do next, "He vanquished the Four Great Ones and built this kingdom upon their souls. Our King has watched over this land... since ages long, long ago. King Vendrick… we must fight back… or the Giants will take Drangleic."
It was then that Rarity detected a tone shift coming, though she had learned a bit from that first bit of knowledge, that she and Edric weren't the first to gather the four Great Souls, meaning that they might actually be questing for the leadership of all Drangleic.
"The King had a dear Queen," Wellager continued, causing Rarity to resume listening while Edric leaned against one of the railings and simply waited, as he honestly didn't care about most of what the ghost was telling them, "a woman of unparalleled beauty. Long ago, the Queen came to us, alone, from a faraway land. She warned our Lord of the looming threat across the seas… of the Giants. The King crossed the ocean… and defeated the Giants, with the Queen at his side. The King then commandeered their power… and created the Golems. With the Golems, the King created this castle. To celebrate victory… and to show his love, his gratitude to his Queen. The Queen… brought peace… to this land, and to her King. A peace so deep… it was like… the Dark…"
It was then that the ghost stopped talking, but Rarity now understood that those statues with the holes in their chests had to be the Golems that Wellager had mentioned, while at the same time she knew that the Dark was around here somewhere, as she could feel it beneath her hooves. So instead of heading through the door in front of them, which may or may not be the correct path, Rarity decided to investigate the area around the stairs she and Edric had climbed up, as she knew that there had to be a bonfire somewhere and that it would be safer for them in the long run if they could find one to rest at. Edric understood where she was coming from, since she always had great ideas to use at any situation, though there were a few fails like her insistence to fight the Pursuer again, where she was impaled on his sword... though it was then that she awoke her true power, so it turned out alright in the end.
The two of them walked back down the part of the stairs they had walked up to reach Wellager before they turned to the right, where they headed down towards the chamber that rested at the back of the room they were currently in and found two small normal doors and two larger doors that they might not be able to open. At the same time the duo encountered a few knights, their size this time around, guarding the area from invaders and were attacked by them, to which Edric went on the defensive and Rarity moved to the side and summoned her magic to aid her. Since it didn't take them long to deal with these knights, as they were also weak to magic, the duo opened the door near the entrance they walked through and found that it brought them to a dead end... to which they walked out of that small room and headed towards the door on the other side of the chamber.
When they opened that door, however, they had two more soldiers inside it to contend with, as well as one that had been guarding the other path to this area, but with their combined might Rarity and Edric were able to overpower the trio of knights and explored the other room they opened the door to... where they found a ladder that would allow them to delve deeper into the lower reaches of the castle.
At the bottom of the ladder they found a short hallway that had two rows of statues, on the left and right sides of them, that actually didn't move and were purely for decoration, to which she and Edric walked towards the door at the other end of the hallway and opened it. From there they found that they could go down three paths; as the path on their right would bring them to a large black gate that seemed important, the left path brought them to a room with more golems and closed doors, and the path in front of them brought them to a bonfire. They glanced at each other for a moment and opened the way to the bonfire, where they activated it and let out a sigh of relief, as this would definitely aid them in their endeavors to find the King... or rather the Queen, as Wellager told them.
At the same time, however, Rarity could feel that they were close to the location of Darkdiver Grandahl, though she had no idea where he was exactly and wasn't about to seek him out until they had figured out what the Queen wanted from them.
From there the two of them walked into the large room and found that two golems did exist in this area, in the two corners that were opposite of where they were standing and were apparently holding unlit torches, meaning that if they offered one of them a soul it would turn them on and light the entire area up. At the same time Rarity noticed that there were three doors on the left side of the room and three doors on the right side of the room, though each door had two soldiers standing guard in front of it that were waiting to be activated. They approached the pair of stone guards on their immediate left and attacked them the moment they woke up, though as the soldiers died two things happened; one of the souls were gathered by the duo, while the second soul was taken by the door... which opened and revealed a sentinel, like the ones they fought in the Lost Bastille, that was immediately aggressive against them.
Fortunately Rarity remembered that these enemies were deathly allergic to lightning based attacks, so she loosed a Greater Lightning Spear, one of the spells from Shalquoir's portion of the spellbook, and blasted a gaping hole in the sentinel's chest... causing it to topple to the ground instantly while Rarity stared at it.
"I knew these guys were weak to lightning based attacks," Rarity said, while at the same time rubbing the back of her head, as this was starting to get really old for her, and she was sure that Edric was thinking the same thing, "but I figured these versions would be more resilient... it appears that I was wrong in that regard."
"It's okay," Edric replied, though he was happy that this had happened, as it made the journey going forward that much easier for the two of them, before beckoning to another door, "Come on, let's open the rest of them and see if they have anything interesting."
For the next few minutes Rarity and Edric carefully approached a door and woke the two soldiers that were guarding it, where one of the stone guards had their soul sacrificed to open the door they had been protecting and Rarity tore the sentinel on the other side to pieces. By the time they had opened all six of the doors, empowered the torch holding golems, and killed five sentinels, Rarity had exhausted the Greater Lightning Spear spell for the moment, but she was fine with that as she and Edric searched the chambers for their prizes. One of the chests had a lockstone that they might not even need at this point in time, another had a ring that seemed identical to one they collected in the past, and the third chest contained a greatsword. The other three rooms proved to be empty, save for one that appeared to have the path they would want to take, the second had nothing in it, and the third room, the third one on the left side of the room, had it's floor crumble beneath them... dropping them into an area where a darkdweller was guarding a corpse, which they were forced to kill since it attacked them.
As Edric collected the armor, as he might use it in the future or sell it when they got back to Majula, Rarity found two tunnels in front of them, though while one tunnel brought her to another bonfire the other one had the person she was searching for, as she found Darkdiver Grandahl sitting in his chair... which rested near the same alter she had seen at the other two locations she had encountered the man.
"We meet again, young Undead." Grandahl commented, though this time around he sounded happier to see her, indicating that he was pleased to ha seen her at all three of the locations they had encountered each other in, "You have the look of a true seeker. I am Darkdiver Grandahl, seeker of Dark, giver of Dark. If you seek true Dark, I will grant it to you. As much as you desire. Well, then… is Dark what you wish for?"
From what Rarity was able to tell this Dark that a few people had mentioned was either something good or something bad, depending on who she and Edric talked to, but at the same time she knew that the bulk of her power came from the Dark Magic that was now coursing through her veins. Her hatred for the Pursuer had given her the strength to break through her own limits and boosted her own power in the process, though she honestly had to wonder if she could get another power boost from completing whatever trials would be in this Dark Chasm that Shalquoir had mentioned. She could also tell that Edric was watching her, trying to figure out if she would take the plunge and accept some additional guidance, before she let out a sigh and faced the old man that was in front of her.
"Yes." Rarity replied, because she had the feeling that she was going to need every scrap of power she could get her hands on for the powerful creatures that were waiting ahead of them... even those that she and Edric weren't even aware of at that moment.
"There you are, you are now a Pilgrim of Dark." Grandahl said, though that was when he handed Rarity a seal of some kind as the alter came to life, as the circular ring in the middle started glowing and the middle of that circle seemed to be a portal to another dimension, "The Dark Chasm beckons you. Those drawn to the Dark are destined to seek it."
Rarity wasn't sure if now was the best time to enter the Dark Chasm, especially since she wanted to ask Edric and Shalquoir a few questions before she did so, but she was happy to know that the Dark Chasm was open to her so she could enter it whenever she wanted... and find the Darklurker, when she was ready to face it.