Tirek and Martok ended up spending a few minutes alone with each other, both of them staring at the opening of the cave the second bonfire of Ariandel was located inside, though that was around the time that a shadow fell over the entrance and Sarana stepped into the cave, meaning she was done scouting out the area that was around them, to which the pair stood up and walked over to the area that she was standing in, as they were interested in what she had discovered and if there was anything important they needed to look into before heading over the bridge that was near the cave.
"So, what did you find out there?" Tirek asked, because it would be nice to have an idea as to what might be in front of them, depending on which direction they went in since one of the options was directly in front of them and the other two were currently behind them, back where the wolves happened to be wandering around, even though he had the feeling that the three of them would be able to overcome the enemies that were in the areas in question, if what happened earlier was any indication of their skills and abilities.
"Well, besides the bridge, there's not much else in this area," Sarana replied, which was fine with Tirek since that meant they could just head over the long bridge and head towards the church that was on the other side of it, instead of wasting time on things that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, before she considered what she had seen as they exited the cave and came to a stop for a few moments, "however, there is a ruined tower and some structures that are resting beyond the area that the greater wolf had jumped down into, while the path that's on the other side of that just has some of those trees and four of those follower hollows, since they seem to be the type that would follow the commands of something far greater than them... and won't instantly follow a newcomer, by my estimates."
"Basically, we've got enemies in one area, possibly more in a second, or the bridge to take," Tirek stated, though even as he said that he considered what he had just learned, because while he wanted to follow the path that was currently in front of them, like a normal Unkindled would, part of him wanted to make a quick run to the tower and see if there was anything they could find in the area, to aid them in their quest to find and kill Elfriede, hence the reason he shifted his stance for a moment, so he could look back at his companions, "I think we should check out the tower and the area that surrounds it, just to see if there is anything we can use to fulfill the quest we are currently on."
Sarana nodded her head and they headed back up the path that brought them to the bonfire in the first place, where Tirek found that all of the enemies they had taken out, the odd trees, the fly creatures, and the lesser wolves, had been revived, showing him that the revival function of the bonfires worked in this world as well, hence the reason he started to hurl Fire Orbs into the various areas that their enemies were standing in and blew them away like he had done earlier, all while allowing Sarana to lead the way towards the area the tower rested in. What they discovered, as they walked through the area the greater wolf had been guarding, was what appeared to be a ruined village of some kind that had the tower that was their destination, one that was partly ruined as well, and there was a warrior, dressed in what Tirek assumed was viking armor, patrolling the area, hence the reason they kept their guard up as they moved into the village and started to look around for anything that might aid them in their quest. The viking, seeing the three of them standing there, gripped his large axe and prepared his shield for a moment, which was followed by him rushing towards the area they were in with what appeared to be a shoulder bash, hence the reason Martok quickly stepped in front of the others and used his body to block the incoming attack, allowing him and the viking to clash as their weapons collided with each other, where this time around it actually looked like the warrior might have trouble with a particular enemy. What Tirek found was that the viking was rather aggressive in his attacks, so much so that it really did look like Martok was having trouble with his foe, but in the end he was able to cut down the viking, something that allowed the three of them to advance into the ruined village and see what they could find, all while being careful about any additional enemies that could be lurking behind the various walls that were scattered around the area.
As they explored the area Tirek noticed a pair of vikings that were patrolling the area beyond where the first one had been resting, though these ones were accompanied by wolves, as in one each, that looked like they had been tamed by the vikings, where one wielded a massive hammer and the other carried an axe and shield, so Tirek, falling back on what they had discovered so far, hurled a Fire Orb at the pair of vikings when they stopped near each other a few seconds later, only to find out that neither of the vikings were overly weakened by the attacks and the wolves were taken out. That told him that his earlier opinions were wrong, there were enemies in this world that appeared to be resistant to the fire spells that he had access to, meaning he would have to see what else they were resistant to so he didn't make the same mistake in the future, since he knew that they would be seeing these enemies more in the future, if the last areas they had traveled through were any indication, though him wiping out the wolves worked out in their favor. By that Sarana rushed forward and jumped into the air as she dodged the incoming attack from her foe's warhammer, where she slashed open his neck in a matter of seconds and dropped him to the ground, so she could finish him off, while at the same time Martok parried the incoming attacks from the other viking before he cleaved his foe in half, allowing Tirek to focus on the rest of the area as he kept an eye open for archers or anything else that might be waiting for them, even if something might be inside the tower that held his attention. He did, however, spot an area that had a number of odd trees that was at the top of a hill, to the left of the part of the village that they were currently in, though instead of worrying about all of them he focused on what his companions were doing and if there was anything he needed to help them with, even though it didn't seem like there were any enemies in the immediate area, allowing them to continue their progression through the ruined village as they marched towards the tower.
It was around that time that the viking that was in the upper levels of the tower loosed an arrow down into the area that they were standing in, where Tirek and the others moved to the side as it emitted a burst of energy that could have damaged any of them if they were standing near it, hence the reason that they rushed towards the tower so they could take down the viking and wrap up their search of the area, so they could head towards the bridge and see what was on the other side of it, since that had to be where their target had to be resting. When they approached the opening of the tower Tirek found that there were a number of dead vikings, either due to their life giving out on them, or being killed by those that were still alive, or crushed by some of the fallen pieces of the tower, before Martok stood at the front of the line as the three of them walked up the curved stairs that were in front of them, allowing him to be the main attention of the archer if it realized that they were inside the tower. Sure enough the archer was waiting for them and had heard them coming, as he had to switch to his axe and shield as Martok reached the floor that he was standing on and engaged him, even though that ended rather quickly as he pushed the viking off the floor thanks to one of the openings that were near them, which ended its life for the time being, allowing Tirek and Sarana to walk up to where he was standing so they could see what was up here, or see if they were wasting their time with this tower. There wasn't much on the second floor of the tower, save for the corpses that rested around the area, so Martok walked over to the ladder that was near them and started to climb up it with Tirek and Sarana following behind him, once more going first so he could intercept whoever might be up there and make sure the others didn't have to worry about being attacked while they were climbing up the ladder, which Tirek appreciated, even if he doubted there were more enemies waiting for them.
There was a second archer at the top of the stairs, standing next to the opening he loosed arrows through, which just so happened to be around the time that Martok barreled into the archer and knocked him through the opening as Tirek and Sarana finished climbing up the ladder, where they walked up the nearby stairs and found that no one else was in this area, so they found a walkway outside the next floor and climbed up yet another ladder, allowing them to reach the top of the tower and found no one was up there... to which they started to climb back down to the entrance, where Sarana made sure to pick up a few souls that were lingering on some of the corpses, some ashes, a battle axe, a shield, and a gemstone from one of the gem lizards, which was when they headed back to the second bonfire.
"That was a little interesting, but not really productive," Tirek commented, though even as he said that he came to a rather brief stop at the front of the bridge that they would be crossing, where he found that Sarana and Martok did the same thing for a few seconds as they stared at him, to which he gazed out at the frosty abyss that rested all over the area that was below the bridge, certain death if they fell over the edge of the wooden walkway, before he stepped forward and started to walk towards the church that was off in the distance, "though now its time for us to see what the church has to offer, than we can retrace our steps and investigate the odd village that's down to our left."
The only reason he mentioned that was due to the fact that there just so happened to be a village of some kind that was off to their left, on a lower area than the church that was their destination, though it wasn't long before Sarana and Martok stepped onto the bridge and followed after him, where the three of them made sure to brace themselves when the bridge shifted a little, since there was no telling if it could support having three individuals walking on it, though it did look like nothing major was going to happen. When they reached the other side of the bridge, where they were surprised by the lack of anything happening while they walked over the rigidity bridge, though when they reached the area that the church rested on they discovered some of the corvians praying towards the large structure that was in front of them, who were rather docile and didn't seem to care about them at all, meaning they could follow the path that rested right in front of them and approach the church at last, so they could see if Elfriede was here or not. What was interesting was that there was a knight standing near the door of the large church, whose armor seemed to be darkened a little, no doubt due to the fact that the wearer might be one of the Unkindled, or his armor was naturally colored that way, and there was some blue cloth over the chest and waist area, though it was easy to see that he was being a guard for the entrance, meaning they needed to talk to him before they were able to enter the structure. While they approached him, however, Tirek noticed something rather interesting, there was a hint of illusion based magic in the air and right now it seemed to be circulating around the knight that was in front of them, meaning it was either the one casting a spell or it was an illusion that was designed to slow their progress down, though he kept his guard up as he approached the knight, just in case he tried to lash out at him or his companions.
"Well, well... based on what I'm feeling, you must be Lady Yuria's Lord of Hollows." the knight said, showing Tirek that those that followed Elfriede must have a sense that allowed them to figure out what he was, where he suspected that his target must have taught the knight this trick at some point in the past, before the knight tilted his head for a moment as he thought about something, "No bell tolls, and yet you and your servants have slipped into the painting? Ah, no matter. If you've lost your way, as it seems that you have, then the words of Lady Friede will guide you back towards your path. Now, go on inside, show respect, and carefully listen to what the Lady has to say."
Tirek stared at the knight for a second before Martok opened the door that was in front of them, where they found that there were no seats inside the church, rather there was a bare area in front of them, a door off to the right, a bonfire near the back of the building, and a lady that was sitting in a chair that was near a number of paintings, who seemed to be of a lady that wasn't the one in front of them, and a statue that seemed a little important, though there was also a ladder near the bonfire, something that Tirek put at the back of his mind as he approached Lady Friede, who had to be Elfriede, if his thoughts were correct on the matter.
"Welcome to the Painted World of Ariandel. I am Sister Friede. I have long stood beside our blessed Father, and the rest of the Forlorn." the lady said, though she didn't do much as she sat in her chair, as all she did was glance towards the three of them for a moment, even though Tirek was sure she was looking right at him as she felt what the knight had felt a few moments ago, while at the same time Sarana and Martok remained silent as they waited for something to happen, as the pair knew something would be happening soon, "But you aren't one of the Forlorn. Lord of Hollows, I know not the missteps which led you and your servants to this Painted World, but your duty should be your main objective, and, based on what I know, your duty lies elsewhere. The bonfire that rests in this room will guide you back to the world outside this Painted World, allowing you to fulfill your purpose and leave us in peace."
"You know nothing about my 'duty', purpose, or goals, Elfriede," Tirek stated, where he could see that 'Friede', as she was calling herself now, seemed to freeze for a moment as she heard her true name for a moment, before he stood up for a few seconds and beckoned towards his companions with his fingers for a moment, so they activated the bonfire and stayed still as they waited for him to do something, to which he glanced at his target for a second, "but, if you wish to be left alone, we'll leave and investigate this world a bit more, before heading on our way."
Friede, as Tirek was going to call her until they returned to Yuria, said nothing as she reached into her robes and took a moment to toss a ring towards them, one that looked like it was made out of silver and had a sapphire set in it, like it was something to celebrate their encounter or a bribe to get them to leave, before the three of them climbed up the ladder so they could see what was up there, even though all they discovered was an attic that served as a painter's area, based on all of the canvases, frames, and paints that were resting around the area, including a painting that a stool rested in front of, though the painting itself was mostly white with red sides. It didn't take Tirek long to determine that heading up here had been a waste of time and that there was no reason for them to stick around, to which they climbed back down the ladder and headed through the main door of the church, leaving Friede and her guard behind, though once they started across the bridge again Tirek made sure that Sarana kept her eyes open for the knight, as he had the feeling that someone was going to be coming after them in the near future, especially since he told their target that he intended on exploring the rest of the Painted World before leaving. Technically speaking that wasn't a lie, he was a little interested in what the rest of this world looked like, due to the fact that such a place was unusual to him, but the part he hadn't said was that he'd be back to kill her when they were done exploring the rest of this place, something Friede either knew and made no mention of, for fear of revealing his hand early, or she was ignorant of what was coming her way, where he found that the latter was what he was hoping for.
Of course, just as Tirek expected, the knight approached the bridge while they were walking on it, and had only gotten about a fourth of the way to the other side, and swung his blade at the rope, where Tirek had to assume that either he was wrong about the knight being an illusion or this was one of those illusions that could actually interact with the real world, to which he and the others braced themselves as the bridge shook for a moment and then split in half, their side heading back towards the cliff wall while the other half collapsed and fell apart, though to make sure none of them were injured Tirek weaved his magic through the air and wrapped it around the three of them, before flinging himself and the others over to the area that was right below the bottom of their half of the bridge.
"You know, when you said to keep an eye out for danger, I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon," Sarana remarked, as she had been expecting the knight to appear in the village that they were planning on exploring, even though that was now put on hold until they either climbed the bridge turned ladder or found a bonfire that was somewhere in front of the area they were now standing in, which seemed to be an area full of large tree limbs and maybe a structure or two further below, or at least that was what she could see at the moment.
"We're in the same boat, though now I have one more reason to kill Friede and her little guardian," Tirek stated, as his plan for the Painted World remained unchanged, because he was still going to kill his target while they were here, but the act of destroying the bridge meant the knight had placed himself in harms way, meaning he would have to suffer at some point as well, to which he got up from where he was sitting, brushed off the snow that was on his body, and then glanced at the direction they were now heading in, "Come on, let's get moving before that knight, illusion or otherwise, decides to come and see what happened to us, even though we'll kill him later for what he just did."
The roots that were in front of them were partly covered in snow, so they had to be careful as they started to move down towards the structure that was far below them, though at the same time the group also discovered that there were a few of the vikings hanging out on the massive roots, either because they were bored or they had been deposited in this area at some point in time, but instead of wasting time on actually fighting the vikings Martok simply grabbed onto their heads and hurled them off the roots while they were still getting up. That allowed Tirek and Sarana to keep an eye out for any foes that might try to attack them from afar, as in Sarana would locate them with her own skills and Tirek would hurl a spell or two in the direction to knock their foes off the roots that they were standing on, which meant they didn't have to waste too much time worrying about enemies since it was easy to push them off the edge and defeat them, hence the reason Sarana was mostly focusing on the path they were currently following. Fortunately it appeared that there was some solid ground after the first few roots, something that would allow them to spread out if they wanted, though Martok was the first one to step forward as he cleaved a viking in half and opened the way for them to continue moving forward, while Sarana killed one of the lizards that dropped crystals, collecting another gemstone so they could add it to their collection, even though Tirek was sure they weren't going to be using any of them for some time, if at all. They also found a javelin thrower that was in their way, though while Sarana and Martok did that Tirek turned around and found an archer that was looking diagonally down at the area they were standing in, meaning the viking in question must have been above where the roots started, which was when he blasted the archer off the roots with a Fire Orb to the face, which meant there would be no arrows coming at them, at least from that direction.
When they reached the end of the roots, and Tirek blasted another archer off of them while Sarana and Martok dealt with some vikings that were blocking their way, they discovered that whatever structure they had seen was likely further ahead of where they landed, as the area that surrounded the three of them was more of an icy area that was also a valley, hence the reason Martok walked forward and kept his guard up while Sarana and Tirek followed behind him, each of them ready for whatever might be in this area, where the first thing they did was locate a bonfire near the end of the roots and activated it so they could head back up to the bonfire that was on the other side of the bridge.
"So, we have an icy crab resting nearby," Tirek stated, as there happened to be a crab near the bonfire, like around the corner from where they were standing at the moment, though it seemed to be sleeping right now, though even as he said that there was another movement in the area and a second icy crab burst out of the frosty ground, which looked like ice now that they were standing on it, who just wandered around the area while the first one slept, "well then, I'll take care of them while you guys figure where we're going."
Sarana nodded for a moment as she and Martok walked forward, where Tirek channeled his magic for a moment and hurled Fire Orbs through the air, striking down the crabs that were resting near the area they were in and blasted the pair of them into the walls that were nearby, allowing them to reach an area with a stone structure that seemed to be a grave of some kind, to which they jumped down into the area that was at the edge of the area, before spotting a couple of lesser wolves hanging around a grave, along with a warrior of some kind. The wolves noticed them immediately, where they got up and rushed over to where the group was standing at the moment, clearly intending on biting them and tearing all three of them down, though it wasn't too much trouble for them to cut and blast the wolves that were their enemies, all while the gravetender was walking towards them slowly, no doubt debating what he was going to do once he reached the area they were standing in. The three wolves were easy to deal with, though once they were done the gravetender rushed at them and swung his blade at them, where Martok parried the incoming attack and pushed their foe backwards, allowing Sarana to rush forwards and slash into their foe's side with her daggers, even though she added a kick that pushed him even further backwards so they could put some distance between them and their foe, which was just fine for Tirek as he manifested his magic and hurled a Lightning Spear through the air, one that separated into three individual attacks and slammed into their foe's chest. The gravetender staggered for a few seconds, clearly not expecting Tirek to do that, even though the reason he had switched to a lightning style attack was due to the fact that it was the only other element all of their previous enemies had been weak to and this proved his thoughts on the matter, though that didn't stop him from rushing at them and swing at whoever was the closest to him, revealing that he had to be hollowed and that he didn't even understand what was happening to him at the moment.
When Tirek released the second burst of Lightning Spears, and probably severely damaged the gravetender with the attack after his companions knocked him backwards again, there was a howl and a greater wolf, who could have been the true companion of the gravetender, jumped down into the area and rushed at them with the speed that the other greater wolves had used since their arrival in this world, to which Martok switched from their main foe and parried what the wolf was doing while Sarana and Tirek focused on the wounded gravetender. It didn't take the pair long to bring down their foe and drop the gravetender to the ground, where they turned their attention towards the greater wolf as it rushed through the air and tried to bring down Martok, who tanked the wolf's attacks and only attacked when he had an opening, which was a little hard given how the wolf was moving, but that didn't stop the pair from joining Martok, where Sarana gracefully moved forward and swung her blades at their foe's legs and Tirek gathered his magic to launch Fire Orbs when both of his companions were out of the way. The only difference between this greater wolf and the others that they had fought before this point was the fact that this one was capable of breathing frost in the general direction of whoever it was targeting, an interesting ability for something like it, hence the reason the three of them made sure to move away from each other as the wolf targeted one of them, meaning the others could attack the wolf while it was attacking one of them, something that proved to be an effective strategy as they soon found out. As such it really didn't take them long to bring down the greater wolf that they were facing, who staggered for a moment before collapsing on the ground, where it and the warrior it was likely bonded with faded away and left some bones behind, instead of a soul, and that was accompanied by a shield and a sword resting near them, indicating that the battle was over and that they had won, which they knew for a fact due to the increase of souls the three of them felt.
"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting to fight a powerful creature down here, even if the pair was weaker than most of the creatures we've fought so far, but I'm not complaining," Tirek stated, where he took a moment to activate the bonfire that had appeared nearby, while at the same time Sarana and Martok glanced at him for a few seconds as they wondered what he was going to do now, something that was followed by him glancing back at them, "but, now that we've taken them out, we can return to the bonfire that's on the other side of the bridge and investigate the village that we spotted earlier, which will no doubt reveal to us what's going on and what Friede is even doing in this world, before we return to the church and put her down, so we can return to our true quest."
Sarana and Martok nodded their heads for a moment, as they agreed with what he was saying, before they gathered around the bonfire and accessed the magic of the device to take them back to the bonfire that was in the cave that was on the other side of the bridge, all so they could finish their investigation of the Painted World, as Tirek was putting it right now, before they completed their mission to kill Friede and then returned to hunting down the last two Lords of Cinder, so they could fulfill Tirek's grand plan at long last.