Once Tirek, Sarana, and Martok were done with their visit to the shrine, as in they were done empowering themselves and had talked to Cornyx and Ludleth, they returned to the bonfire and headed back to the Undead Settlement, as in they chose the bonfire that was near the bridge that would allow them to walk through the sewer area and get near the walkway that would take them up to where the tower was located. Now that the Greatwood had been defeated, and there was really no other way to go forward, they had to descend into the tower and face the icy knight that had killed them once already, as he was blocking the only way for them to progress, but before they did that Tirek was focused on taking care of the enemies that were between the two areas. Despite the fact that Tirek had been unable to gain any spells from Cornyx, making the Pyromancy Flame he had been given rather worthless for the moment, he had the feeling that if they cleared out the area between the bonfire they selected and the location of the tower, maybe once or twice, he would have more than enough souls to get one or two of Cornyx's spells, to help them in their journey. Sarana and Martok barely glanced at each other as he told them of his plans, which were just about empowering themselves with more spells, but, since it appeared that he was the leader of their little group, they decided to agree with his statement and followed him as he entered the sewer once more.
The moment they arrived at the bonfire in question, outside the sewer that would allow them to cross over to where the tower was located, the three of them headed into the sewer and fought their way through the rats that were waiting for them, but since they had cleared out the enemies in this area already they knew how to take them out and proceeded to do so as they dropped down into the area the rats were in. Martok did what he did the last few times they had come through this area and challenged the larger rat to a fight, cleaving the beast apart in the process, while Tirek and Sarana took out the lesser rats at the same time, and it wasn't long before all six rats had been taken care of, allowing them to leave the sewer and come to the area that was just before the three manservants. As such they had to take care of the evangelist and her pair of peasant hollows, including her undead dog, though none of them were really difficult for them to take out and it only took a few moments for the way to be cleared, allowing them to focus on the manservants that were in front of them. The group wasted no time in attacking their targets, first the two that seemed to be a small group of their own, and once those two were taken care of they focused on the one that was overlooking the cliff, who fell rather easily since it was three on one, but once that was taken care of Tirek had them backtrack to the bonfire so they could rest for a moment, something that was followed by their enemies coming back and allowing them to kill them all over again, just for the souls they contained.
Once they had cleared the path twice, and had acquired enough spells, Tirek returned to the bonfire again and left his companions behind for a few seconds as he headed back to the shrine, so he could approach Cornyx and traded him the souls he had just acquired for the Fireball and Fire Surge spells, before returning to where his companions were waiting for him to return.
The moment Tirek returned to where Sarana and Martok were located they headed through the path they had taken twice so far and cleared out the sewer, though this time, instead of wasting more time on the area that was between the sewer and the tower, they waited for the evangelist's group to walk towards the church and then rushed by the three manservants that were in their way. For some reason, as Tirek quickly discovered, the manservants only cared about the area that they were patrolling and didn't follow them to where the tower's entrance was located, allowing them to come to a stop at the lift and pause for a few moments, mostly to allow them to mess with the pair of lifts so that the one to the basement was in front of them. The instant they were ready to move forward they stepped onto the lift and headed down into the basement that was their destination, though it wasn't long before Tirek and his companions returned to the small chamber that the icy knight was located in, still guarding the way into the next area, to which they separated from each other and readied themselves for the fight that was going to unfold in the next couple of seconds. Tirek had no idea if the spells he had picked up would be useful in the battle to come, or if he wasted a few minutes gathering souls for them, but he had them now and there was no turning back, hence the reason he focused on their foe as he and his companions approached it, as it was time for them to move forward.
The knight was just as fast as Tirek remembered him being, so much so that all Martok could do at the moment was go on the defensive and parry the incoming attacks to the best of his ability, allowing Sarana to attack the knight from the back while Tirek gathered his magic and decided to use his new toy, so he pulled out the flame in his right hand and sparked a Fireball in seconds. What he found to be interesting was that when he used the Soul Arrows, be they the small ones or the Heavy ones, the knight would turn on him and lash out, but this time around their foe seemed to think that he was the weakest of the group and that he could put him off to the end, despite the fact that a Fireball hit the side of the knight's helmet. He wasn't about to question what was going on, especially after what happened the last time they fought this particular foe, so Tirek continued to gather his magic, spark more Fireballs, and then throw them whenever the knight paused for a few seconds, allowing him to accurately hit his target each time, even though he was incredibly tough and would take some time to truly take down. Sarana and Martok didn't seem all that worried about what they were doing and attacked the knight whenever an opening presented itself to them, something Tirek felt was hard to do considering the speed that their foe was moving in from time to time, but it seemed to be working more than he thought it would, so he kept his mouth shut and continued to ignite the knight with his Fireballs, mostly because the knight didn't pay attention to him when he used this spell and would turn on him if he used his Soul Arrows.
This time around, thanks to them being empowered by what they had done in the Undead Settlement since their first encounter with this knight, the three of them were able to bring down the knight and caused him to disappear into ash or dust once the killing blow was struck, though he did leave behind his blade, something that Sarana collected so they could add it to their collection.
"It was a good idea to focus on somewhere else for a time, since that allowed us to beat that knight." Martok stated, as he knew that they had done a good job in taking care of the enemy that had killed them earlier, and Tirek did agree with him on this matter, even if he still felt that Martok was a fool at times, based on what he's seen so far, though Sarana said nothing as they relaxed a tiny bit.
"Indeed, though now its time we moved forward." Tirek remarked, to which his companions nodded their heads and approached the door that the knight had been guarding, though that was when Martok braced his hands on the large door and pushed it open, revealing a path that would take them away from the Undead Settlement, even though it seemed more like one of those nature trails that ponies liked to walk or run along.
To their immediate right rested a rock wall, high enough to where they really couldn't see what was on top of it, even though Tirek assumed it was part of the Undead Settlement that was above them, but what interested him was the new bonfire that was near the rocks, one that they activated and rested at, mostly so it remembered where they had last rested in case something happened to any of them as they explored the new area they were in. There was also a raised section of earth to their left, meaning that they would be walking into a canyon or something and would need to keep their guards up while they were exploring the area, but Tirek also spotted a large tree growing nearby, one that seemed rather healthy despite the conditions of the area, especially since he didn't see any water nearby. Other than the two walls it didn't seem like there was anything else for them to focus on, to which the three of them got up from where they were sitting and started to follow the path that was in front of them, as it was time to see what the knight had been guarding and continue their quest for the missing Lords of Cinder. When they rounded the corner, however, Tirek found that there was a massive chasm between the area they were in and the area that seemed to be the exit for the zone they had walked into, though he also had the feeling that the chasm was pretty deep and that anyone who fell over the edge was pretty much dead, so they decided not to fall over the edge and continued to follow the path that would take them around this area and would deposit them on the other side.
That was when Tirek noticed a blackened creature that seemed to resemble some of the hollows they had taken care of back in the Undead Settlement, though what was interesting was that it seemed to be cowering at the moment and was wearing dark gray clothing over its chest and waist, but that was before he spotted something else, the creature's hands seemed to be pointed and, if he was seeing things right, it almost looked like its feet were a mix of a person's feet and a crow's talons. Sarana and Martok stared at the creature as well, as it seemed to be scared of them, but Tirek knew there was a good chance it would lash out at them if given the chance to do so, which was why he had a Fireball at the ready as he and his companions approached the knife wielding enemy, all of them ready for anything since they had no idea if this guy and the others were friendly or if they were hostile. As they approached the figure, however, it seemed to shudder in pain for a moment as a pair of crow wings burst out of its back, rather painfully and bloody Tirek might add, and that was quickly followed by a second pair, why he had no idea and he honestly didn't care, but once that was done the creature tried to fly through the air and basically flailing around as it tried to stab at them with its knife and claws. Both Tirek and Sarana ducked out of the way, by rolling to the sides and avoiding the cliff, before they attacked the creature as it went for Martok, but as that happened Tirek noticed that the Fireball he threw seemed to inflict a good deal of damage to their foe and smiled for a moment, as it appeared his purchase was going to be more useful than he originally thought.
Oddly enough Sarana picked up the dagger that the creature had been holding and added it to their collection, in the sense that she was wielding it in place of the weapon she had started with, before they headed down the path that was near them and kept their defenses up, as all three of them knew there were more of those enemies they would have to deal with before they reached the end of this area. What they discovered was that there happened to be one of the crow hollows off to their left as soon as they walked down the hill that was near where the first one had been located, who was trying to transform when they found it, so instead of letting it get out all four of its wings, and lash out at them, Martok cut off the wings that were already growing and let both Sarana and Tirek finish off the creature. With it dead they found a white stone of some kind, potentially another gem of some kind, so they added it to their pack and continued moving along the path, keeping their eyes open for anything and everything that might want them dead, even though it wasn't all that long before they found some carriages, or cage wagons, resting near a cliff that had some of the crow hollows resting near them. Off to the left, before that area, was another crow hollow that seemed to be minding his own business, but the group did notice that there was another one of this type of enemy hanging out in the middle of the path that would take them to the end of this area, meaning they had to be careful since it looked like a spell user, not that the others were to be underestimated since two of the crow hollows had some deadly looking scythes in their hands.
What they did was head over to the crow hollow on their left and cut it down before it could even transform, as all of them waited until any enemies were within a certain range of them before they revealed their wings, before they headed over to where the other three happened to be resting, which was when Tirek pulled one over to them by baiting it with a Fireball to the back. That was a rather effective strategy, as the one he hit transformed while the other one that was near it just looked out over the cliff, clearly trying not to get involved in the fight, and then rushed over to where the group was standing, where it quickly met its end thanks to Sarana and Martok standing at the ready, though Tirek honestly wasn't expecting his plan to work out that way. Since it did, and there were only two enemies left in the immediate area, it took them no time to break the other non transformed crow hollow, the one that was wielding a scythe, before they turned to where the staff carrying crow hollow was standing, who seemed to be in the middle of spraying a purple mist over the area that was between them and it, like it was trying to prevent them from moving forward. That didn't stop Tirek from using a few Fireballs on their foe, enough to send it over the edge and into the chasm that was behind it, informing them that the wings were mostly for a few seconds of flight and weren't sturdy enough to actually let these guys fly, which was good to know since there were a number of ledges around them that they could exploit. That was especially true for the area that seemed to be the passage to the next zone they had to move through, as he recalled seeing a stone bridge and plenty of space to do what they just did, meaning he and his companions might not have to worry about anything killing them in this particular area.
Before they moved forward, however, Tirek stepped back to where the two scythe wielding crow hollows had been positioned and found that one of them left behind their scythe, since enemies liked to disappear when they died and often left something behind, be it weapons or armor from what he's seen so far, to which he smiled as he claimed the weapon and added it to the collection, since he was sure it would hit harder than the other scythe they were carrying in what he now believed to be a Bag of Holding. That was the only way they would be able to carry all of the gear they were picking up along the way, by having a shared container that happened to be enchanted with the ability to hold an infinite number of items, though he was sure Sarana had acquired one from the Fire Keeper and hadn't told him, but he wasn't about to ask her about it or chew her out, as it was a welcome addition so they didn't have to carry everything on their backs. With the scythe in hand, and Tirek making sure it was the first thing he pulled out if they encountered a scenario that was similar to the hollows that rushed to the Greatwood's aid, the trio walked over to where the spell wielding crow hollow had been standing and found that there was a path directly under where they were standing, but instead of jumping down there, and potentially dying when they hit the ground, they headed to their right and found a path that, even though they did have to jump down a small ledge, allowed them to move forward. Fortunately the split that was beyond that meant they could head left and visit the lower path they had discovered, which was what they ended up doing since it seemed like it might have a few items for them to acquire, which included an axe of some kind and, more importantly, a female figure that seemed to be wearing no armor, save for some wrappings around her chest and waist, and was wielding a large slab of metal that looked like it could have been a knife at some point in time.
One would have assumed that the lady was a formidable warrior that would be hard for them to kill, especially after the icy knight that had blocked their way earlier, but the reality of the situation was that she was rather easy to take down as Martok caught his foe's blade, yanked it out of her hand, and then kicked her over the edge that was behind her, getting rid of an attacker in a matter of seconds as he pocketed the weapon. Further beyond where the lady had been standing was a set of armor that must have been what the lady had been wearing some time ago, before apparently ditching all of it like she did, before they found a pair of odd daggers that were resting at the end of the path they were following, which seemed to be a dead end at this point.
"So, that was the madwoman of the Undead Settlement," Sarana commented, where Tirek got the feeling that she only knew about the lady because it appeared that she and Martok had grown up in the ruined settlement they had gone through earlier, even if neither of them wanted to talk about their pasts, before she turned towards the top of the path and started to make her way back to the main path they were following, "well, if we succeed in our quest, whoever is left won't have to worry about her coming after them."
Tirek noticed that Martok nodded his head and decided not to say anything as they stashed the new items inside their pack, before they headed up the path that they had walked down a few moments ago, quickly returning to the main path so they could walk under the small stone bridge that connected two points above them, even though he did see a pair of crow hollows minding their own business on the other side of the walkway. As such the three of them decided to turn to their left after crossing under the arch and walked along it until they could see the pair of foes in question, because Tirek was sure one of their enemies would call all of these hollows to its aid and wanted to take them out before such a thing happened, and his companions seemed to agree with his decision. When they neared the crow hollows, who were trying to ignore them, Tirek raised his right hand and blasted the nearest one with a Fireball, causing his target to cry out as it transformed and then went berserk as it rushed at them, which was the moment that he stepped back and let Sarana and Martok cut into their foe, letting it drop to the ground once it was dead. Tirek was a little surprised that such a simple tactic seemed to work as well as it did, as all he had to do was pull one of the crow hollows and then let his companions finish them off, mostly because he knew that his frail body couldn't handle the enemies that they were fighting at the moment, and, at the same time, he was a little surprised that neither of his companions seemed to be arguing with this setup, as if they understood that fact and were making sure they all stayed alive.
Regardless of what the truth of the matter was the pair of crow hollows didn't stand much of a chance, not when they faced Tirek's tactic, and once the pair was taken care of they walked up to the end of the path they had followed and found that it overlooked the area the pair of scythe wielders had been in, along with a Titanite shard, before they turned around and headed to the stone bridge that would take them to the next area they had to explore.
When they reached the bridge in question, however, the group found a number of crow hollows on the other side of the stone bridge, appearing to guard the way forward so they could prevent the Unkindled from passing through the area, and when the three of them came to a stop, to survey the area for a few seconds, the one that was carrying a staff let out a screech that awakened all of the others in the area. The ones that were the closest to the staff carrier transformed in a few seconds and raised their weapons, while the one that was on the bridge seemed to be immune to what was going on, but that was a wrong thought to have as it tried to transform and rush them, only to be stopped by Martok and Sarana, which let Tirek focus on the rest of the foes that were in front of them. His first order of business, instead of blasting any of the crow hollows that were starting to approach the bridge, was to blast the staff carrier with a Fireball and caused it to shake for a few seconds, but since it didn't move much, and didn't force the other crow hollows to increase their speed, he raised his hand and kept throwing Fireballs at his target, eventually taking down his target before the others even reached where he and his companions were standing. The three remaining crow hollows charged at them anyway, to which Martok stood his ground and let the three enemies come at him, though as he stunned them Sarana and Tirek lashed out with their own attacks, where Tirek even saw one get hit by a Fireball and went over the edge it was standing near, meaning they only had two more to deal with, which was quickly brought down to none as his companions took care of the other two, meaning they were able to explore the rest of the area that they were in.
Instead of heading over to the opening that the crow hollows had been guarding, in a manner of speaking, Sarana and Martok walked back towards the opposite side of the bridge and stared down at the walkway that seemed to wrap around to the end of the area, where Tirek watched as they took turns jumping over the edge and landed on the edge of the area they had spotted. Since it seemed that they might be able to find more items that way, whether or not those items were at all useful to their quest, he walked over to the edge and did the same thing, where Martok caught him, mostly thinking about his frail body, and set him down so the three of them could explore the area that was around them and see what sort of items they could find. Interestingly enough they found a pair of dogs hiding in a small cave that the path brought them to, where one that was fatter than the other one was, so what happened was that they waited for the pair to rush at where they were standing, which was when Martok grabbed onto the fatter one, without being bitten in the process, and then hurled it over the edge, leaving the other one to Sarana and Tirek. The other one didn't stand much of a chance as Tirek used his Fireballs to distract the rapid moving undead dog, allowing Sarana to attack it from behind when it came to a stop, something that ended in them taking down their foe and opening the way for them to collect whatever they were guarding, which Tirek was interested in seeing since this was out of the way for someone to explore.
What Tirek discovered was that there happened to be a tome of some kind that was written in an odd alphabet that he didn't recognize, one that neither of his companions seemed to understand either, to which he pocketed it for later, in case they found someone that could translate it, before he found a ring, one that looked similar to what the knight they had seen outside the tower was wearing, but he did notice that it seemed to be more like the ring he was wearing and let a smile appear on his face as he slipped it onto his right middle finger, to empower his magic further.
Once they had explored the little side area, and collected everything that seemed to be around them, Tirek, Sarana, and Martok headed up the rest of the walkway, where they found one more crow hollow that didn't seem to have heard the call of the staff wielder crow hollow, so it was rather easy for them to wait for the creature to transform and then lash out when that happened, bringing an end to it in a matter of seconds. With that enemy brought down they reached the top of the path and then dropped down near the fortress walls that seemed to be built into the sides of the area that was the opening to where the next zone was located, though as they walked through the small area Tirek found that the area in front of them did look like a ruined fortress that was about to collapse into nothingness. Beyond the area he located was a large swamp or woods of some kind, with more walls that seemed to indicate some sort of grand fortress had been built into this area and, due to the age of the walls he had seen so far, the entire thing was in the process of falling apart and breaking, which would have angered whoever built it since they would have been sad to see the area in this state, but he didn't care about that and focused on the other thing he noticed. There were two beings resting near the bonfire he had spotted, one sitting and one standing, though while they were both wearing armor, showing that they were dangerous in their own right, he did notice that one seemed to be female and one seemed to be male, as in the one sitting on some of the rubble was the lady and the one standing near her was the male, and that neither of them seemed aggressive to him and his companions.
The first thing they did, after walking down the steps that were in front of them, Tirek made sure to ignite the bonfire and make sure it was working like the others that had come before it, and both Sarana and Martok did the same thing so they would be reborn at this one if they died, before he turned towards the two figures that were nearby and approached the pair, mostly to see if they were truly hostile or not.
"Oh, hello. How do you do?" the armored lady asked, her tone suggesting that she was much friendlier than most of the other residents of this world happened to be, or at least that was what Tirek was gathering based on everyone that he and his companions encountered since his quest started, but he said nothing as the lady beckoned to herself for a second as Sarana and Martok came to a stop behind him, "I am Anri of Astora, and this is Horace, a friend of mine and traveling companion, and yes, we are both Unkindled like you and your companions. Out of curiosity, are the three of you looking for the Lords of Cinder, like most of our kind?"
"That's correct," Tirek remarked, though based on what he's seen so far the pair in front of them were definitely not hostile and they didn't have to worry about the pair trying to attack them, so he honestly didn't see any harm in informing Anri that he and his companions were looking for the three missing Lords of Cinder, since that seemed to be the goal of every Unkindled that was awoken from their slumber, "though so far we haven't seen anything that would direct us to where one of the Lords is hiding."
"Well, maybe I can help you with that." Anri said, to which Tirek raised an eyebrow for a moment, as he was interested in what she had to say, including the fact that she didn't seem bothered by his unnatural features, but if she was willing to give him some directions to where one of the Lords of Cinder, his prime targets, rested, then he was willing to pause for a moment or two to hear her out, "We are well along the Road of Sacrifices, an old route that was used to transport people, or sacrifices as they came to be called, to another location that is nearby, the Cathedral of the Deep. Beyond where we are standing is the Crucifixion Woods, an area that is guarded by all sorts of dangers and the Watchdogs of Farron, who make sure that the Abyss Watchers are not disturbed... meaning that beyond the flooded woods that are outside this crumbling fortress lies Farron Keep, the home of the Undead Legion. Horace and I seek the Cathedral, home of the grim Aldrich, to do what all the Unkindled do."
"Interesting, so that means we're close to one of the Lords of Cinder, possibly two." Tirek commented, as he could tell that the Undead Legion had to be the Abyss Watchers, even if it seemed a little odd to have two titles for the same group of people, but, at the same time, he was correct and it appeared that Anri and his companions seemed to agree with him, before he noticed something odd, "Is there something wrong with your companion?"
"Oh, you mean, Horace... he's not very talkative." Anri admitted, which made sense considering the fact that he hadn't said a word since their arrival, though even as she said that he pulled out a piece of parchment with a moon and sword on it, something that he was giving them for some reason, which Sarana put in their pack, before Anri said anything else, like she had been thinking for a moment, "He's also an upstanding and kind-hearted knight, and he's a fine partner to have on this rather grueling journey... to be honest, I would have cursed this onerous duty long ago if he wasn't helping me."
Tirek found that to be interesting, in a manner of speaking, and made sure to give Anri both his name and the names of his companions, just in case they encountered each other again in the future, before walking over to the bonfire so he could rest and recover from their journey through the Road of Sacrifices, as he wanted to be ready for the trek through the Crucifixion Woods, since it would take them to the locations of two Lords of Cinder, once they got passed all of the foes that were standing in their way anyway.
"I'm not wearing an illusion spell of any kind, am I?" Tirek asked, because it finally dawned on him that Anri, like many of the other people they had encountered in this world so far, hadn't commented about something important and it was starting to make him wonder if he had done something to make himself seem more human, even though he could tell that his hooves and horns were still in their natural position, and that he had the bipedal stance still.
"No... why would you ask something like that?" Sarana replied, where she and Martok glanced at Tirek for a moment and found that he looked the exact same as what they remembered when they met him, even if his skin did look like it was slowly getting younger as more of his true strength was drawn out by Yoel, but neither of them could figure out why Tirek was asking that, as his horns and hooves were in the right place, even though they were a little interested in his strange half human half horse form, which he didn't seem willing to tell them about.
"Just curious, that's all." Tirek said, though it was mostly because he had been expecting a fair number of people to ask or comment on his strange form and appearance, especially with the horns, but from what he could tell, after seeing the odd crow hollows, this sort of thing seemed to be normal for this world and people didn't even stop to talk about why someone had hooves or horns, or his tail for that matter, so he decided to roll with it, even though he was sure Sarana would ask him about his body at some point.
Regardless of the fact that the people of this world didn't seem to care about his body, or were just blind and didn't see anything wrong that would make them ask the question, Tirek focused his attention on the fact that they were close to two of the Lords of Cinder already, meaning it was only a matter of time until he regained a significant portion of his lost power and let this pitiful form behind, which caused him to grin as he stared out into the new area they would be going through soon enough, once he was done resting at the bonfire anyway.