//------------------------------//
// Exploring Shulva 
// Story: Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Once Rarity had determined where they needed to go after acquiring the King's Crown, and the armor that had been located inside the same chest that the crown had been inside, they returned to the bonfire they used to reach the shrine area and teleported back to the Black Gulch. When they arrived at an old destination Rarity let her shadow move into the area around them and shattered all of the poison statues that were around them, while at the same time the duo made their way down towards where the Rotten had been located. It didn't take them long to reach that area, where they avoided the pits of fire and all of the other hazards that rested around them, before they made their way towards the tunnel that would take them to the area that the Primal Bonfire was located in.

A few moments later they turned the corner and looked at the Primal Bonfire again, though that was when Rarity noticed the shrine, which was identical to the one that they has passed by when they opened the door to access Drangleic Castle... and at the same time she could tell that the Dragon Talon was glowing, indicating that they had reached the right area for them to open the way to Shulva.

"Okay, that wasn't here the last time we were here," Edric commented, though at the same time he realized that this had to be the area that they were supposed to be in, for the 'key' to work like Rarity thought it would, "So, how does that talon get us into Shulva?"

"I have an idea," Rarity said, to which she approached the shrine for a moment and gently placed the Dragon Talon on the center of the shrine, where a small pedestal rested, and felt the magic awaken in the air around them as she beckoned for Edric to come over, "Here, take my hand and I'll activate the magic that's in the air around us."

Edric stared at Rarity's hand and glanced at the shrine for a moment, before sighing as he grasped his companion's hand, where the two of them were connected to the magic in the air around them before they vanished from the area that they had been standing in. A few moments later they reappeared in a larger shrine area with a brazier that was surrounded by some odd statues, though that was before the duo noticed the door on the other side of the chamber they had found themselves in. From there they stopped holding hands and crossed over to where the door was waiting, though once they reached it Edric braced himself against it and pushed forward, causing the door to open before their eyes and allowing them to walk through the tunnel that was in front of them. As they walked Rarity was able to determine that the city they were heading towards, because that's what Shulva had to be, had likely never been accessed by the portal they stepped through... meaning that she and Edric were likely the first ones to find Shulva in a long time.

When they exited the tunnel, however, the duo looked upon what was Shulva and were a little surprised to find a city resting underground, though what caught Rarity's attention was the fact that there was a pyramid resting near their location and that all the paths she could see at the moment lead right to it... meaning that she already knew where they could find the crown of the king that had ruled Shulva. Rarity was under the impression that the three keys she had been given were the keys necessary for her and Edric to teleport into the heart of another king's domain, though those kings were likely gone at this point in time, if Vendrick was anything to go by. A few moments later they stopped staring at the city and turned around the corner that was ahead of them, though as they did so they came face to face with a dragon that appeared to be dead... though when Edric accidentally kicked a rock the dragon's eyes snapped open and it turned it's head towards them, before it roared and moved itself from it's perch as it flew into the city and disappeared.

One thing Rarity had noticed about the dragon, however, was that there was a spear of some kind sticking out of it's back and it's chest, though the wound appeared to have healed around the spear... but that didn't stop her from wondering if she might have found a way to deal with the creature when they found it in the future.

"Great... this place has a dragon as well," Edric said, as he remembered the trouble the last dragon they had fought gave him, before Rarity put the creature down anyway, to which he sighed and started moving forward, "Come on, let's get out of here before that beast decides to come back and fry us or something."

The duo carefully followed the path that they were on, since there was no railing they could easily fall to their deaths, before they found the first thing they usually found when they entered a new area, the bonfire that would allow them to teleport back to Majula if they needed additional supplies or needed to empower themselves even further. Truthfully Rarity didn't feel the need to empower herself anymore, not after she shattered the limits of her mana pool, destroyed the Darklurker, and absorbed every ability that her foe had possessed, all while increasing her power at the same time. She had always been a little envious of Twilight's abilities, but now that she had the power that put her on the same level as her friend, and had some rather frightening abilities of her own, she was content. She already felt like she could dominate everything that was in front of them, but at the same time she was still restricting herself to the point where it was a fair fight, otherwise they'd reach the end in absolutely no time at all.

She was, however, hoping for a stronger foe to show up at some point, one that would make her want to use her full power again, but for now she was content with following Edric through a new area as they sought out the crown that was hidden somewhere in the city.

With the bonfire lit the duo walked down the path in front of them and came to their first enemy, a soldier whose armor and weapon had been twisted by some sort of toxic miasma, while at the same time the soldier's flesh revealed that their enemies were hollows as well. As the solider started to pick itself up, and it's weapon for that matter, Edric slammed his shield into it and cut through it's already weakened defenses, though as the soldier fell Rarity knew that there were more of them waiting ahead of them. The reason she knew that was because of the archer that was standing near an edge, though as the duo walked forward two more melee soldiers rose from the ground, so while Edric dealt with the melee opponents Rarity focused on the archer. This was where the teleportation ability that the Darklurker had was useful, as it allowed her to move from one location to another, forcing the archer to keep it's arrow at the ready for when she finally came to a stop... though Rarity surprised her foe by loosing a screaming sphere at the archer's back, blowing it forward as it collided with one of the soldiers that Edric was fighting, allowing him to kill both at the same time.

Edric chuckled as he finished off the other soldier, after dodging the incoming attack anyway, because some of Rarity's new abilities would make situations like this that much easier for them to get around, once they determined that they needed those powers anyway.

Before either of them could react to the strange glowing triangular shaped pillar that was near them, however, Rarity noticed three more archers standing nearby and noticed that they were all aiming at her once more, to which she smiled as she repeated what she did with the first archer. This time around she didn't blast them with the screaming sphere, rather she distracted her foes and let Edric attack them from behind, allowing him to cut one of them down before they had a chance to defend themselves. As the remaining two turned towards him Rarity appeared behind the one in the back and struck it with a Dark Orb, knocking it into the soldier that was in front of it while Edric removed the two of them, giving them a small chance to examine the pillar they had noticed. When Rarity touched it, however, it moved for a moment before sinking into the pedestal it was on, which was followed by a structure erupting out of the ground where the first archer had been... though what purpose it served they had no idea.

Instead of messing with the pillar again, and doing something else, they moved forward and reached the edge that the trio of archers had been guarding earlier, where Edric carefully dropped down onto the area below him and dealt with the lance carrying soldier that was waiting for the two of them. At the same time Rarity touched the pillar they were walking by and another square structure erupted from the ground to her left, though she assumed that the creators of Shulva had some reason for building this area like this. She stared at the pillar for a moment as it rose from the pedestal it was attached to, meaning that she could raise and lower the structure as necessary, but she decided not to bother with lowering it as she followed after Edric and dropped down to the area below her. As she caught up with Edric she noticed that he was in the process of taking out another soldier, to which she approached a pillar and caused a structure to rise where a gap would have been, meaning that if they had fallen through that area in the future they wouldn't get hurt in the process... to which the duo continued forward as they resumed their search.

They walked up the small set of stairs in front of them and noticed that they could pick between two buildings, though since the one on the right appeared to go nowhere they considered heading through the building on their left, where some strange bulb like items were resting. As they started to debate which way to go a bug emerged from the building on the left and attacked them, though as the duo separated Rarity noticed an archer aiming at them, so while Edric cut the bug to pieces she loosed a screaming sphere and blew her target apart. Once their foes were taken care of the duo walked into the building on the left and carefully walked through the building, where they emerged from a doorway on the left of them and tapped the pillar that was at the end of the path, causing a structure to rise so they could enter the building that was in front of them. A few seconds later they discovered a soldier standing guard in the middle of the building, to which Edric took care of it, before they walked up the stairs to their left and headed towards the roof... where they discovered that they could drop back onto the main walkway they had walked on earlier, as well as a ring that Rarity collected.

From there they returned to the bulb filled room and discovered that the second doorway went nowhere, so they turned round and headed back to the second building that they had chosen to ignore, though at the same time the two of them kept their guards up. On the doorway on their left they found a pillar that extended part of a walkway to reach the area that the archer Rarity had taken out had been standing, though instead of jumping over the gap they spotted some stairs to their left, attached to the middle of the two buildings, and used it to reach the area below them. When they reached the bottom of the stairs the duo dealt with the two soldiers that were waiting for them, though at the same time Rarity carefully surveyed the area as she took in everything that was around them. They both agreed that the pyramid was their destination, though she was seeing if she could find the path there so she could save them some time, but she had the feeling that they'd had to find it by pure exploration.

When the soldiers were taken care of Edric tapped another pillar and extended the rest of the walkway above them, to which Rarity simply warped up there with her new teleportation power and looked around for anything useful, which revealed itself in the form of a second pillar... one that extended a walkway in front of where Edric was standing, one that would allow them to access another building that they had been staring at.

Instead of heading towards the new pathway the duo headed down the stairs on their left and found a cluster of poison statues that were able to move around, though Rarity noticed that some sort of creature was carrying them, maybe a crab creature or something, but she simply loosed a Great Soul Arrow at it and blew it apart. From there they headed down the other set of stairs that were in front of them and noticed that the area in front of them had a decent amount of archer soldiers waiting for them. Another thing they noticed was that there were a fair number of pillars resting along the path in front of them, where Rarity used a Soul Arrow to hit one on their right and raised a larger structure into the air, which was replicated on the left side as well. It also, as they soon discovered, blocked the archers from firing at them until they moved out into the open, though Rarity smiled as she rose the other two structures on their left to prevent their foes from targeting them.

One thing she noticed while she did that was the three structures on the left were close together and seemed to form a walkway with their tops, though she wondered if there was anything up there worth investigating, but she paid it less attention as she and Edric moved forward.

The archers, unable to see the duo without moving themselves, weren't prepared for Rarity and Edric to attack them from the hiding spot that the structures had created, where they carefully took out some of their foes before evening the playing field entirely. As they engaged the remaining archers Rarity noticed another statue carrying crab, in the small building that the path was taking them to, and loosed a Soul Arrow at it, killing it instantly while Edric dealt with the rest of the enemies that were around them. Before they did anything else they explored the exterior of the building, where Rarity discovered a pillar that caused another structure to rise out of the ground nearby, though this one connected the other three structures to the building they were standing next to. The duo then walked into the building that was next to them and found a ladder that took them to the roof, where Rarity discovered that she had been right, as the four structures formed a bridge that allowed the two of them to reach the building they were connected to... which held a bonfire that they activated, even if they never bothered to use it in the future.

The only good thing that this bonfire did, besides allowing them to pass by a good number of enemies, was that it had a path that required a few drops before they reached a wooden bridge that would allow them to access the pyramid that they had been heading towards. Instead of jumping down the edge of the building they were on, however, the duo returned to the building that had the ladder and climbed down to the path they had walked along, where they simply headed back towards the stairs. Before they reached the stairs they also discovered a path to their right that allowed them to access the insides of another building, one that they eagerly entered and engaged the two soldiers that were definitely waiting for enemies to show themselves. Since it was easy to take care of the soldiers the duo walked out of the building they were in, through the entrance they had been heading towards, and walked across the bridge that was in front of them... though after a few minutes the two of them started to head down the stairs towards the stone bridge that was connected to the pyramid, before Rarity stopped them.

At first Edric thought it was about the soldiers that were guarding the bridge, which she could easily take out on her own, though that was before the dragon from earlier flew close to the bridge and loosed some fireballs at it, killing the soldiers that were on it before flying away... to which Edric was thankful that Rarity had felt the dragon coming and warned him ahead of time, in her own way anyway.

"Thanks for stopping me," Edric said, though he followed Rarity as she moved some of the vases out of the way, from a path that wasn't the bridge, until they found a corpse that had a spell page in it's grasp, "A new spell... not sure you actually need any new spells at this point."

"I will agree with that fact, but since I'm putting together a spellbook I'll need one of each spell," Rarity commented, to which she picked up the page that she was staring at and inserted the Focus Souls spell into the book that Shalquoir had given her, before she turned towards Edric once more, "Well then, let's enter the pyramid and see if we can't find the crown that belonged to the king that used to rule this area."

Edric nodded as he followed Rarity across the stone bridge that was in front of them, where they carefully approached the entrance of the pyramid, which was opening the moment they walked up to it, allowing them to progress inside the depth's of the pyramid until they came to a locked door and another path. Rarity had them stop for a moment, letting Edric rest for a few minutes before they started exploring the inside of the pyramid, as he had to be somewhat tired from the enemies they had fought... and Rarity suspected that the enemies inside this area were going to be slightly tougher than what they had encountered outside the pyramid.