//------------------------------//
// Descent Into Danger 
// Story: Dark Souls 3: Cinders of Power 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

With their business in the shrine finished, and Tirek determined that there wasn't anything else they really needed to do at the moment, he regrouped with Sarana and Martok not a few moments later, who happened to be standing near the bonfire, waiting for him to finish talking with Yuria and hand over the tomes that he had to Cornyx, where the man took the first tome they found, at the start of the Catacombs, and said that the other was forbidden. Tirek was sure that he would have jumped at the chance to see what was inside the tome, but, as it turned out, his thoughts were incorrect and the tome was back in his pack, until he found someone that was willing to open it and see what was inside it, where he returned to his companions and found them ready to head back to the area that they had been exploring earlier. Tirek had no idea if he would even find someone that would be willing to open the tome and tell him what the spells were, given how difficult is had been to locate the various merchants they had found in the world so far, even if he had taken one down to prevent him from taking the Lordship that he was working towards, but that was something for the future as he turned and looked at both of his companions. From there the three of them gathered around the bonfire and focused their thoughts on the chamber that they had found the High Lord in, or rather the goblet that had brought them to wherever he had been hiding, for however long he had been hiding there, and it wasn't long before they disappeared from bonfire in the middle of the shrine and headed to their next destination.

After that they reappeared in the chamber that they had found earlier and glanced at the two directions that they had to pick from, one that would likely take them to Irithyll and another one that would allow them to drop down to an area that was below the Catacombs of Carthus, an area that Tirek was glad to leave behind, and he could see that Sarana and Martok were waiting to see what his decision was.

"So, where do you want to go?" Sarana asked, where she glanced at the open door that was up the stairs that were behind the altar that the goblet was resting on, one that would likely take them outside the Catacombs and allow them to start the trek towards Irithyll, which may or may not be right outside the area that they were currently in, while Martok remained silent as she asked the question.

"As much as I would like to see if Irithyll is outside this chamber, and beyond the path that is behind the now open stone door we unlocked, I'm more interested in the bridge." Tirek replied, referring to the fact that if they cut the ropes of the bridge it would collapse and form a ladder of some kind that would allow them to find a brand new area to explore, one that might have some gear or items that might help them in their quest to take down the enemies between them and the remaining two Lords of Cinder they were currently hunting down.

Sarana and Martok nodded their heads as they followed Tirek as he headed back towards the large doorway that had allowed them to enter this chamber in the first place, where it took them a few moments to reach the bridge in question and he stood back as his companions cut the ropes that were on their side of the bridge, but as the structure collapsed in the next couple of seconds Tirek noticed that Anri must have moved on, either down the path they were opening again or through the door that was in the High Lord's chamber. Once the sections of the bridge had stopped moving Tirek found that they could climb down the planks like it was a ladder, though they couldn't ride down it like they could do to a normal ladder, hence the reason that he went down it first and eventually came to the end of it, which just so happened to rest just above a stone path, one that definitely lead somewhere. He paused as he glanced over the edge of the area he was on, to wait for his companions to join him, and found that the knight that was lingering in the bottom of the large hole, who he had spotted earlier, was still down there, meaning the three of them might be able to find him at some point in the near future, before Sarana dropped down behind him and caused him to continue walking. The path, as he quickly found out, was rather short and it brought them to another part of the Catacombs, which was annoying since he had been hoping for something different, before he walked forward a little more and found out that there was a set of stairs to his right, which would allow him to walk down into an area that a demon was standing in.

It was rather interesting to see another one of the stone demonic creatures, especially since it hadn't noticed him yet, and he stood there for a few seconds as Sarana and Martok joined him, pausing as well when they noticed the demon as well, before he spotted the chest that was off on the other side of the walkway and gestured for Sarana to move as they remained near the opening, just to make sure the demon didn't hear them. Sarana nodded her head and started to move across the area that they were in, making next to no noise once more, something that Tirek counted as a blessing since that meant the demon wouldn't be able to hear them at all, before she reached the chest and paused for a moment, only for Tirek to realize why she had stopped, as the blasted thing was a mimic. Instead of using one of her charms to stun the mimic, and steal the item it held, Sarana pulled out her bow and loosed an arrow into the side of the demon's head, which caused it to roar and loose a burst of fire towards the area that she was standing in, something that was followed by her dodging out of the way as the flames hit the mimic, waking it up and causing it to expand into its true form. Sarana wasted no time in returning to where Tirek and Martok were standing, allowing them to watch as the mimic rushed forward and headed down into the area that the demon was standing in, where it lashed out with its arms and legs as it tried to take down the demon that was blocking the way forward, and, at the same time, a skeleton rose behind the demon and lashed out at it as well, causing Tirek to nod his head as he watched what was going on.

The battle lasted for a minute or two, where the demon used its large axe and attacked its foes, before it took down both of its foes and scattered their bodies around the area that it was standing in, where it appeared that it had been hurt by the pair of enemies, allowing Tirek, Sarana, and Martok to walk down into the area that it was standing in and lashed out at it, quickly striking down a weakened foe and collecting its powerful soul for the future, along with a katana that had resting nearby, no doubt the treasure the mimic had held.

With that taken care of, and they were sure that there were no more enemies in their immediate area, Tirek walked over to another set of stairs that would allow them to walk down into an area that had a couple of skeletons that would no doubt rise in the near future, no doubt as they headed for the passage that was in the wall in front of them, so he, Sarana, and Martok readied their weapons as they walked down into the new area. As he expected the skeletons rose as they entered the area that they were resting in, so instead of rushing down the passage, to move forward, the group turned and faced the skeletons that happened to be approaching them, where Martok took the majority of them by swinging at them in the first couple of seconds, leaving the rest for Sarana and Tirek. Despite the fact that he wasn't used to wielding a blade, since he had stuck to using magic since he woke up in this world and let Sarana do most of the melee combat, Tirek drew the Morion Blade and lashed out at the skeleton that was approaching him, cutting into the bone without meeting any resistance, before he knocked his foe backwards and blasted it with a Lightning Spear, blowing the bones apart in the process. Sarana, of course, lashed out with her blades and cut into the enemies that were trying to get close to her, even if those that fell once rose again, but even then the skeletons didn't seem to be doing all that much to her and she was able to take down the entire group that was around her, before the three of them took down all of the skeletons and turned their attention to the items their foes had been guarding, some Titanite Shards and a lost soul.

Once the area was cleared of enemies and items, and they were positive of that fact, the group headed for the tunnel that they had found and discovered that it was a short set of stairs that lead into one of the passages they had seen in the main part of the Catacombs, where Tirek found a ring and a blindfold at one end while Sarana and Martok found a bonfire in a side passage, one that they immediately ignited.

"What did you find?" Martok inquired, as he was simply curious as to why Tirek was interested in the ring that he had just picked up, since the only rings he seemed interested in where the ones that allowed him to empower his magic and all the types of spells that were in this world, and he could see that their leader was staring at the iron ring he had spotted, while at the same time Sarana looked at the other opening and made sure no enemies were coming at them.

"I am unsure of what the name of the ring is, but it empowers my pyromancies," Tirek remarked, as he could feel that it would increase the power of his fire spells, just like the previous rings he had found so far, to which he held out his hand and slipped it onto one of his other fingers, adding its power to what he was using so far, meaning that whoever was weak to fire spells was going to be really annoyed with him in the future.

With that done, and a fifth ring donned, Tirek walked towards the opening that Sarana was staring at and found that it held a passage that belonged to a cavern and not the Catacombs, where his companions followed after him as he slowly made his way towards whatever was at the end of the passage, only to come to a stop when he found out what they were getting themselves into this time around. It appeared that they were going to be fighting their way through a lake of some kind, thanks to the rather low amount of water that was in front of them, and there were a number of large stone pillars that were growing out of the ground and seemed to be connected to the ceiling, before he determined that they weren't actually stone pillars, rather they were massive tree trunks that were smouldering. From what he could tell all of the trees must have been burned at some point in the distant past and they were still in an odd smouldering state, and he could have sworn that he felt a little heat from the tree that was the closest to where they were standing, though he noticed one of the Fog Doors off in the distance, revealing that another powerful creature was nearby, making him wonder if they should explore the rest of the area first, before heading for the Fog Door. The oddest thing about the entire thing was the sounds of something mechanical moving off in the distance, like a weapon or something, but from what he could see there didn't appear to be anything around them that was like that, so he walked down the ramp in front of them and his companions followed him as they started to head over to the area the powerful creature was in.

Of course he was proven wrong a few moments later, as a large metallic arrow struck the area that he was walking in and impaled him in the process, taking him down in a matter of seconds and forced him to reappear at the bonfire that had been activated not a few moments ago, where he waited for a few moments before Sarana and Martok reappeared as well, both appearing to be annoyed about something.

"There's a fucking giant ballista in this area," Sarana stated, showing Tirek that she had gotten some information from the zone they had discovered before she and Martok had been killed as well, meaning that the arrows were quite deadly and that the three of them needed to avoid them to the best of their ability, "the giants must have installed one here, to do war with the demons in an age we've forgotten about, and someone is either using it to kill whoever comes into this area or its set on firing on its own."

"So we have to be careful and find a way to take it down," Tirek remarked, though at the same time this was where he wished he had his full power again, something that he had felt when they were walking through Farron Keep, because that would have allowed him to do whatever he wanted to this area, be it freezing the entire place or doing something else, but that would have to wait for later, "Whatever, let's keep moving and see what else we can discover, provided that ballista doesn't kill us as we move through this place... this would have been a good time to have access to my full power, as that machine would have been reduced to a pile of pieces in a matter of seconds."

"We should keep moving," Martok said, knowing that Sarana didn't like the machine that they had discovered and that Tirek would remain true to his word, that he would have been able to wreck it if he had his full power, but he was more interested in moving through the area they had discovered, especially since the main thing they were interested in was locating that knight they had seen earlier.

Tirek nodded his head and they headed back through the opening that allowed them to head into Smouldering Lake, the name that he was going to give to this region, regardless if it was the true name or not, before they quickly returned to where the edge of the safe zone was located, where Sarana waited for a moment, to give the arrows a chance to fire at nothing, since they seemed to be aware of their presence all of a sudden, before she rushed forward and dodged the next set of arrows with a level of grace that Tirek had come to expect from her. Once she was behind the next tree, and had made sure to pick up her own souls along the way, Martok waited for a moment before running through the area as well, moving as soon as Sarana beckoned for one of them to come over to where she was standing, and he managed to make it to the next safe area as well, with his souls claimed. As such Tirek paused for a moment, to let the rest of the arrows to rain down in the area between him and his companions, before seeing the signal so he could move forward, where he ran across the gap, picked up his souls, and hid behind the tree as the arrows slammed into the area, showing that Sarana's idea had worked out quite well, allowing them to turn their attention to the next area they had to pass through. They were in luck, as it appeared that there was another tree close to where they were standing, one that happened to be near the wall of the area, even if the rest of the zone they were in was much larger and couldn't be explored, but even as Tirek saw that he spotted something that would endanger their chance of making it to the wall in question, as there was a massive sand worm of some kind in the way.

Instead of worrying about the sand worm, and the fact that it had lightning based powers, based on what they saw as it moved around the area, the group rushed over to the other tree and found that they were able to squeeze between the sand worm and the side of the wall, even if that was tricky since the creature was roaring at the ballista, due to it being hit by one of the arrows that were following them, before Tirek found a side path that seemed better than immediately going for the powerful creature, which turned out to be a good idea since that brought them to a bonfire.

"Well, I was not expecting to see another one so soon," Sarana remarked, though at the same time she walked up to the bonfire and lit it, where the three of them rested at the new bonfire for a moment, merely to make sure that when one of them died they would come back here, instead of the other one they had activated a few minutes ago, which was when they walked out and stared at the Fog Door, "but at least we won't have to jog through the ballista arrows."

Tirek said nothing as they walked down the ramp that had allowed them to reach the new bonfire in the first place and paused for a moment as he heard the ballista firing at something, where the three arrows seemed to hit the area that was near them, meaning that they would have to be careful, so what he did was rush forward and got near the sand worm as Sarana and Martok rushed over to the Fog Door, that way the arrows targeted the area he was in, and sure enough the projectiles came to where he was standing, allowing him to flee and pass through the fog as well. What he found on the other side of the Fog Door was a number of demon creatures that were piled so high that they formed a circular arena for them to fight in, along with two piles that just seemed to be piles of creatures, before any of them spotted a demon that was resting in the middle of the area, apparently sleeping by the looks of it, since its body wasn't dull and dead like the rest of the various dead demons that formed the walls and piles. Tirek could tell that Sarana and Martok were ready for a fight, since their weapons were at the ready, before he stepped forward and channeled a Lightning Spear in his left hand, a sign for his companions to spread out and wait for their foe to get up, which he hurled through the air and struck the demon in the head, causing it to moan for a moment as it lifted its head, gripped the large mace that was its weapon, and pushed itself into a standing position as flames danced around its body, indicating that fire spells wouldn't be that effective in the battle that was coming their way.

The first thing the demon did was breath a burst of fire that it arched towards them, covering a portion of the ground that they had to fight in, so what the three of them had to do was jump over the flames that were coming their way, which was rather easy, before Sarana and Martok rushed at the demon and sliced into the side of its legs, so it would focus on the two of them and leave Tirek to casting his spells. One thing that they had to be careful of was the demon's melee attacks, due to the fact that its mace was large and that it had a bit of fire that followed each of his swings, something that Sarana and Martok avoided to the best of their ability as Tirek focused on throwing Lightning Spears at their foe, doing some damage to the demon. The foe did attempt to crush him under the weight of its mace, by using an overhead type of attack, which he was able to dodge despite the state of his body, and while that was going on his companions lashed out and cut into their foe, causing it to roar in annoyance as it tried to attack them, something that opened the way for Tirek to jump onto its back for a moment and hack into it with the Morion Blade, annoying it further as he did that. After a couple of moments, and cutting a few gashes into the demon's back, Tirek forced himself backwards by jumping off his foe's back, giving him a chance to throw a few more Lightning Spears into the wounds that he had created, opening the way for both of his companions to hack into the legs for a moment, before they backed off and regrouped as Tirek landed on nearby, so they could be ready for whatever happened next.

What happened next was the fact that the demon raised its mace and turned it so that the head was facing the floor, where it pounded the ground twice and loosed a wave of fire in their general direction, causing the three of them to jump over the wave so they could avoid being hurt by the attack, only for Sarana and Martok to rush forward and slice into its legs again as Tirek blasted it in the chest. This time around the demon didn't like the fact that it had enemies that were in the middle of stabbing its legs, to which it raised its left hand and gathered some fire into it, casting a rather large ball of fire into the area that was in front of it, trying to hit Sarana and blast her backwards, but she was able to dodge the attack as Martok cut into the demon's leg, weakening it a little more, though it was clear that they would be here for a time, until they brought the creature down. Those weren't the only new tricks that the demon had in store for them, as it eventually raised its mace into the air and started to spin it around like it was a staff to call something to it, where Tirek noticed that their foe was summoning flaming orbs in the sky, almost like meteors, so what he did was gather his power and loosed a number of Lightning Spears into the air, blasting their foe's attacks out of the air and preventing them from even touching the ground, giving his companions the chance to deal some damage to the demon without having to worry about their foe hitting them in some manner. They also had to be worried about the fact that their foe had another attack that involved slamming the head of its mace on the ground, one that loosed a burst of flames that caused Sarana and Martok to roll away from the demon so they could avoid taking damage from the attack, and since Tirek was standing far away from the area their foe was in he was able to ignore the attack and just continued blasting it with his spells.

Interestingly enough the demon had a third attack that involved slamming the head of its mace into the ground, this one requiring it to hit the ground twice and summon a ring of fire around it, though instead of heading outwards the new ring formed some distance from their foe and moved inward, showing them that it intended to hurt them from behind while they were busy fighting it, but it failed due to the poor timing. As Sarana and Martok continued to hack into their foe's legs, after making sure to avoid the incoming attack that it had used, Tirek hurled a couple of Lightning Spears into the air and cancelled out the incoming flaming orbs, as their foe decided to try that tactic again while they were distracted by attacking it, even if Tirek caused that tactic to fail all over again. After a few more moments of dodging the incoming attacks, dealing damage with their own attacks, and Tirek blasting either the fiery orbs out of the air or just blasting their foe in the chest, the demon staggered for a second and fell to one knee, though as soon as that happened Tirek called for his companions to leave the area immediately, as he had the feeling that something would happen. His thoughts were swiftly proven to be correct, as not a few seconds after Sarana and Martok vacated the area that was around the demon, and returned to his side, the demon let out an explosive blast that consumed the entirety of the immediate area that was around it, where the flames inside its body died down to a mere flicker of what they had been earlier and made it look like a dying creature that was on its last legs, like it was done fighting and wanted them to leave it alone.

Unfortunately for the demon it was facing Tirek, who walked over to where the demon was kneeling at the moment, channeling lightning along the edge of his new Morion Blade as his companions watched what he was doing, before he paused and lashed out, driving the blade into his foe's skull and allowing the power along the edge to tear apart the last bits of life the demon had, and when the deed was done he pulled his blade back and sheathed it, allowing him, Sarana, and Martok to collect its soul for their efforts.

"I was not expecting another powerful creature, especially so soon after the last one," Tirek commented, though even as he said that he had to admit that he was curious as to what sort of power or weapon he and his companions could create by using Ludleth's Transposition Kiln, despite the fact that nothing he had seen so far had really been worth it, but he had a feeling that this time would be different, "but I'm not complaining, since that means we'll have more power for when we find Irithyll, since that will allow us to overpower the guardians that much easier."

"Well, if that's what is on your mind, than maybe we should return to the shrine," Sarana said, since she knew what he was referring to and had to agree with what he was thinking, that they might as well see what they could get from the new soul that they had discovered, even if she and Martok would likely take the soul and use its power to strengthen their own power for the future battles that were coming their way.

Tirek nodded his head for a moment as they lit the bonfire that arrived after the demon's death, something that they had to do after they beat each and every powerful foe they came across, be it the Lords of Cinder or ones that were like the demons and the High Lord, before he focused his mind on the shrine and he was joined by his companions, which was when they disappeared from the area and returned to the shrine.

"Back to the safety of the shrine, for a time." Martok said, speaking as soon as they materialized in the middle of the shrine and found themselves standing around the bonfire, just like all the other previous instances they teleported back to this area, before he walked away from the middle of the area, since he knew that it would be some time before they were even ready to depart from this area and continue their quest.

Tirek said nothing to that as the warrior walked over to where the Fire Keeper was standing, which was what Sarana was doing at the same time, though his reasoning for saying nothing to that statement was because it was, in a sense, true and he wasn't going to argue with it, before he focused on something else and walked over to the steps that would take him up to where Ludleth was sitting.

"Ah, most illustrious Lordseeker, you have returned... or should I say, Lord-Slayer?" Ludleth commented, showing that he was paying attention to what was going on and that it had been a while since Tirek or his companions had bothered to approach him, even though the last time he hadn't been interested in using the souls he had gained so far, before Tirek noticed that the tiny Lord was looking at something else, the throne that the Abyss Watchers had been placed on, or their ashes to be exact, "Tell me, have you come across a twisted soul?"

"I might have." Tirek answered, though he raised his hand and revealed the soul of the demon that they had just slain, because he was curious if there was something that he could gain from using the Transposition Kiln, where the little Lord pulled out the device in question for a moment, showing that he understood why he was here and that he was willing to assist him in his endeavor.

In the end he discovered that the soul of the old demon would yield the great hammer it had been using and a spell that was called Chaos Bed Vestiges, something that caused him to raise an eyebrow as he decided to check out a few of the other souls before he made a decision, but it wasn't long before he pulled away from the little Lord and walked down to where the bonfire was resting, mostly because he was thinking about what he had seen. Tirek had to admit that some of the spells he had seen in the Transposition Kiln, from the various souls he had shown it over the last few minutes, were interesting and might be worth checking out, since he didn't care about weapons due to the fact that such a thing was for his companions to worry about, but he was debating whether or not he should bother with the kiln. Of course, even as he thought about that, he had to wonder if Yuria might have something for him, given what she had done for him so far since her arrival in the shrine, and decided to head over there while Sarana and Martok were using the souls they had gathered to empower themselves. It wasn't hard to locate his new target, as Yuria was standing in the same area that Yoel had been located in, which seemed to be someplace that she liked to stand in since it prevented the others from seeing her and overhearing what they had planned, and when he walked into the area that she was in Yuria bowed her head a little, just to show some respect to her new Lord, as she preferred to call him.

"Our Lord and Liege, it seems that you and your companions have returned," Yuria said, though at the same time she stood up straight and focused on him once more, showing that she might be curious as to what he was doing here, when he should be seeking the remaining two missing Lords of Cinder, which Tirek knew he and the others would find in the future, especially since they were closing in on Aldrich, "Is something wrong?"

"No. We have found a few powerful souls lately, but I have yet to turn them into weapons or spells," Tirek remarked, as that was the reason he was here in the first place, as he was curious as to whether or not Yuria had something for him, before he made a decision in regards to the ones that would yield some interesting spells, though he supposed that he could always just take the power of those souls and give him some additional strength.

"I understand." Yuria replied, where she reached into a pack that she must have been hiding behind her, not that it really mattered to Tirek since he wasn't going to steal anything from her, before she pulled something out and turned to face him once more, revealing a tome that resembled some of the pyromancy tomes he had found so far, though all of the markings made it look like it could contain spells from every element, where she held it out towards him, "This is an ancient tome that I've been carrying for a time, one that supposedly contains all of the spells in the land and allows one to learn everything there is to offer, without having to purchase them from the various teachers, much like how Orbeck was going to teach you sorceries in exchange for scrolls."

"Is that so? Interesting." Tirek said, where he accepted the tome and opened it up, where he immediately found a few spells that he recognized, as they were the starting spells that he had found in front of him when he first woke up in this strange world, before he flipped through the pages and found some interesting spells that might be of some use to them in the near future, before raising an eyebrow, "So, Chaos Bed Vestiges is in here as well, that's good to know, even if there is something strange about the page in question, especially around the part of the page with the name."

"Ah yes, it seems the scholars changed the name of that spell over the years," Yuria commented, showing Tirek that she did know what he was referring to and that she was more than willing to share what she knew with him, even though he was interested in seeing what else the tome had to offer him, which would be after they returned to Smouldering Lake or the area that the High Lord had been in, "From what I know, the spell was once called Forbidden Sun by the sorcerers of Drangleic, a once prosperous and powerful nation that was eventually swallowed by a series of unfortunate events, and for some reason the few magic users that survived decided to change the name of the spell to something else. I have also heard tales about there once being a creature in that land that once used that spell in a manner that was different than what others used it in, as it supposedly could summon three of them at the same time and combine them into an even stronger version of the spell, but, according to the tale, it was taken down at some point. Anyway, it does not matter to me what you call the spell, since both of the names are correct, but that tome should be of some assistance to you and your companions, though I will apologize for not handing it over sooner."

"Its fine, I can use this." Tirek remarked, because he wasn't annoyed with Yuria not giving him the tome, because the spells he had started with and picked up so far had been more than enough to deal with everything that stood between him and the Lords of Cinder he was looking for, and with this tome in his arsenal he would be able to overcome the area that was just outside the arena the old demon had been in.

Tirek had to smile as he walked away from where Yuria was standing, because he was eager to try out his new spells in the area that was outside the arena that they had found the old demon in, even if there was nothing worthwhile in the ruins that they had found, and then, once that was done, they could leave and see if Irithyll was right outside the area that the High Lord had been resting in.