//------------------------------//
// Elfriede's Stand 
// Story: Dark Souls 3: Cinders of Power 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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After discovering the Painter and 'talking' to her, which really meant Tirek and his companions just listened to her so they could get some information on what was happening in this world, the group took a moment to explore the rest of the room that was around them, where they found a lever resting near an open shaft, one that seemed to be a shortcut back to this area at some point in the future since the device wouldn't move at all, a door that wouldn't open from this side, and a hole in the wall behind the lady that was laying on, which served to let them walk outside and see what else the Painted World had to throw at them, even though there was a bonfire resting to their right. As it turned out there was a small ledge of some kind between the area the new bonfire was in and the walkway that the hole in the wall brought them to, one that Tirek was sure would stop the Unkindled from just walking or jumping back up it, though that was when Sarana opened the door that rested near them and opened one of the shortcuts that existed in this area, meaning they could activate the bonfire and rest at it for a few moments. While Tirek didn't feel the need to do so, given that his foe didn't do that much damage to him, he joined Sarana and Martok as they sat near the bonfire for a few moments, just to make sure all of them were ready for what the next part of this world would throw at them, before his companions nodded and they stood up, showing that both of them were ready to depart from the area, which was perfectly fine with Tirek as he did the same thing. From there the three of them turned towards the mountain path that the edge of the building was connected to, as it was time to see what else they could find before heading back to where Friede was waiting and take her down, so they could return to their quest to take down the remaining Lords of Cinder.

What they discovered, as they walked up the mountain path, was two of the vikings guarding the first large area that they came to, where one was wielding a sword and a torch while the other had a javelin with a shield, so Martok focused on the foe that carried a shield while Sarana dodged the attacks of the torch carrier, allowing Tirek to focus his gaze on the rest of the area and see if he could find anything of interest, and by that he meant enemies, items, and the path that would take them down to the structure they had seen earlier. While he could see a short path on their right, or at least he was sure of that fact, he focused on the area that was directly in front of them and hurled a Fire Orb through the air, one that struck one of the javelin throwing vikings in the chest, who had been staring at them with the intent to harm them at some point, no doubt while they were distracted, and this was the best chance to take it down, before he and the others walked up the path and entered the area that their foe had been standing in. There was a large tree in front of them and a number of vikings seemed to be resting around the upper parts of the area, based on what Tirek was seeing, so he turned around for a moment and hurled a number of Fire Orbs into the air, striking down several of the vikings that had revealed themselves to him and his companions, which was why he let Sarana and Martok move out and cut down some of the remaining enemies on their own, even though he found some of the odd prism stones on the ground, which he decided to ignore for the foreseeable future as he joined his companions a few moments later.

When he found his companions it was easy for him to see Martok kicking one of the javelin throwing vikings off the ledge that it was standing near, killing it in a matter of seconds since rolling down the side of a mountain or falling into an abyss had to hurt, before they checked one of the side paths and found Sarana cutting down a pair of vikings that carried torches, though that was when he headed up through the area Sarana had found and continued to explore the area she had found, all while keeping his eyes open for any potential enemies. One of the things they discovered as they explored the area was a bell that seemed a little out of place, given the fact that they were in a forest of some kind, though there were a few vikings in the area and that didn't stop Tirek from blasting several of the vikings with a burst of Fire Orbs, due to the fact that most of the enemies in this world were weak to his flames. While he did that Sarana and Martok dropped down into the area below them and started to cut down the couple of vikings that remained in the immediate area, which gave Tirek a chance to glance at the top of the building the knight had been standing in earlier and noticed that there could be a path of some kind above where the Painter was resting, or maybe he was wrong, but he was sure they would come back to this building and check it out in greater detail at some point, which was when he focused on what both of his companions were doing as he joined them once more.

The bell, as it turned out, didn't have anything to offer them, other than revealing a few more paths for them to take, one ahead of them and one to the left of where the bell happened to be resting, and both of them had a viking that was guarding the way forward, hence the reason Sarana and Martok rushed forward to take their targets down, before Tirek decided which path they were going to take and wonder where each of them had to go, especially since neither of them seemed to be heading downwards anytime soon. The path ahead of where the bell was resting had a side path that just so happened to have a viking guarding a rotting tree, one that was more rotten than what they had seen in the past, so both Tirek and Sarana stepped to the side as Martok cleaved the viking in half, while making sure to push the body over the edge in case it was still alive after that attack, before Tirek loosed a few Soul Arrows into the rotten portion of the tree's trunk and blew it apart, causing the rest of it to fall backwards and form a bridge between where they were and the top of the structure the Painter was inside. As it turned out the makeshift bridge let them access a square structure that had a lift in the center of it, one that, when they stepped on the button in the middle of the platform, lowered them down to where the Painter was resting, revealing the shortcut they had tried to access earlier, which was followed by the three of them using the platform and returning to the new bridge they had created, before finding a stone walkway nearby, one that lead them back to the first part of this area, so if they wanted to explore the first part of this area the way was open for them to do so, hence the reason they walked over the makeshift bridge once more and pressed onward. Once they returned to the main area that the three of them had been exploring it was easy to walk up a hill and find another viking just resting off to the side, though as his companions took care of it Tirek spotted an archer on a ledge that was higher than where they just so happened to be standing, so he caused the area around his target to explode with a well placed Fire Orb, saving the vast majority of his magic for when it came time to deal with Friede.

While he did that he heard the sounds of Sarana and Martok fighting, tearing down the vikings that were around the area they were in, hence the reason he took a few steps back and headed over to the path that his companions were now walking along, this time staying at the back of the pack so he could keep an eye open for enemies or blasting the targets that Sarana pointed out for him to blast with his magic, showing that he was willing to trust his companions, even if some would think they were his minions in a sense. Interestingly enough there were a few lesser wolves in the area and the pack certainly didn't like any of them, though that didn't stop both of his companions from taking them down, as Sarana took a moment to dodge a few of their attacks before cutting her targets down while Martok just swung his weapons at his foes and made sure the wolves were the ones that landed on the ground a few seconds later, though while they did that Tirek hurled a few Fire Orbs down into a lower area, one that happened to be where the other path they had seen lead to, as he was blowing away a few vikings for the fun of it, especially since he didn't need to expand too much of his power to do such a thing, before following his companions once more. They did find one of the taller and more aggressive vikings a few moments later, though with the three of them working together it wasn't long before it fell down and collapsed, allowing them to claim a warhammer that was resting behind where their foe happened to be standing, before they returned to the main path they had been following and kept an eye out for any of the lesser wolves or the vikings that had been in their way up until this point in time.

Eventually they found two more of the taller vikings, though while Sarana and Martok carefully fought the first one on the narrow path that would take them to the lowest part of the Painted World, whenever they got down there, Tirek used his magic to take out the archer that was off in the distance, as he could tell it was using the arrows that released a burst of energy that knocked around anyone that was near the shaft, allowing it to fall off the ledge it was standing near and fall to its death, for now, before his companions dealt with the other one.

"I do hope we find the way down to that structure soon," Tirek commented, mostly because he was annoyed by the lack of downwards progress they should have been making since they left the building the Painter happened to be in when he killed the knight, since he was sure that the three of them would have found some way to get down to the structure they had seen before entering the building, but right now it really didn't seem like anything was going to happen if they continued to follow the path that was in front of them, "otherwise I'm going to call an end to this investigation and switch our attention back to our main target."

"Well, spending a few more minutes looking for a way down might be worth it, as there's no telling what we might find down there, but I would have to agree," Sarana stated, informing Tirek of her thoughts on the matter, that while she was interested in finding a way down to the lowest part of this Painted World, just to see what was down there before Tirek ended up destroying everything with his vast power, even she was starting to get tired of going up since they left the lone building that the Painter was located in and that she was fine with them calling it quits if they couldn't find a way down to the structure they were interested in.

Tirek said nothing to that as he grabbed Sarana and Martok with his magic for a moment before jumping into the air, where he used his power to slow their fall so they could touch the ground below them and then let go of his companions a few seconds later, where they rushed out and tackled the pair of tall vikings that were in this area, one that was lower than the area they had been on earlier, but from what he could tell it didn't look like there might be a way down into the area he wanted to investigate, and if that was the case he knew they could use one of their items to get out of here and return to one of the bonfires so they could tackle Friede at long last. With those foes dead, and the couple of souls in the area picked up to add to their collection, the group followed the path leading out of the area, something that caused Tirek to growl as he realized that the way out of this area just lead back to the rotted tree they felled earlier, though as he glanced out at the area that he and the others had been exploring, and moved a little to make sure they didn't miss anything, he discovered another rotten tree near where the two tall vikings had been standing and decided to blast it, causing the tree to fall so they could walk over to what appeared to be a tunnel they might have missed earlier. The tunnel was made out of brick and seemed to lead to what Tirek guessed was a burial place, something that was odd in a world where the dead eventually came back to life and could be revived until they hollowed and lost themselves, though the important part of the entire area was the fact that part of the area was covered in rot and there were a number of corpse flies in the area, meaning they had found something to do before they headed back to where their target was located. This time around only one of them needed to worry about the enemies that were in front of them, as Tirek channeled his magic and hurled Fireballs through the air, striking the corpse flies that were resting on the ground and any of them that were on the ceiling, just to make sure that all of them were taken care of, while at the same time Sarana tapped the walls as she looked for any illusions that might be hiding other paths and Martok made sure to pick up the few items that were around them.

While Tirek wiped out the enemies that were in the area Sarana managed to find one of the illusionary walls on the left side of the area they were walking through, though Martok happened to walk out onto some wooden planks and fall into the area that was off to their right, or the lower section to be exact, which was when Tirek found that Sarana's new passage brought them down to the area the warrior was now standing in and he opened fire on the corpse flies that were scattered around the new area they were wandering through, his Fireballs rushing out to strike down the enemies he could see while leaving the others to repeat what they had done on the level that was now above them. One thing that was interesting to Tirek was that all of the corpse flies were weak to fire magic, more than the other enemies they had fought so far, since they had come to this world, and the only good thing that came from it was that he could save his mana by utilizing the lower tier spells, like he was currently doing, but even then that didn't stop him from spotting a cluster of the corpse flies off in the distance and hurled a Forbidden Sun at them, blowing all of them away in a matter of seconds, which was totally overdoing it, though he felt better after doing that. The disgusting thing was that there were a vast number of corpses resting on the ground, either overtaken by the rot or just so happened to be what started the rot in the first place, so they were stepping on and crushing rotten bodies that had next to no substance to them, something he put at the back of his mind as they made their way through the area they were in, keeping an eye out for anything and everything that might help them locate the lower area, somewhere that Tirek was starting to assume was the top of the area he and the others had fought the gravetender in, but right now he wasn't seeing anything useful.

About the only thing Martok found was a blood gem, which Tirek wasn't surprised by given what was around them at the moment, before they found a suit of armor that looked like what the knight he had fought had been wearing, which was odd based on what Tirek had seen so far, though he let Sarana take the armor as he launched Fireballs at the rest of the corpse flies that were in the area, before they cleared out the entire area and discovered that there was a winch near one of the walls, where Martok stepped forward and turned the handles that moved the chains... which caused the ceiling to shudder for a few seconds as they heard stone moving and something shifting above them.

"I think the church, and Friede, are right above us," Tirek stated, where it was good to see that Sarana and Martok took a moment to nod their heads in agreement, which was the moment that Sarana started to lead the way back to the hidden passage she had discovered earlier, something that informed him they had found a way back up to the structure that their target was residing in, hence the reason he remained on guard as the three of them moved, just in case Friede attacked them while they were walking up the hidden stairs Sarana had found.

What they discovered was a curved staircase leading upwards, to what appeared to be a locked door, the same door that Tirek recalled seeing when they entered the church and spoke to Friede, though it wasn't locked and they opened it in a matter of seconds, where the three of them stepped out into the area that was between the church's entrance and the area that their target had been sitting in, which was when they found out something interesting, the statue that was near Friede had turned around and the base it was resting on had moved towards the wall that was behind it, which revealed a set of stairs leading deeper into the church, to a hidden area to be exact, and their target was no where to be seen, which wasn't surprising since they might have discovered her hidden secret at long last.

"You know, the fact that she's not here anymore means she's going to try and ambush us," Sarana commented, as she noticed that as soon as they entered the church and looked at the room their target had been inside when they first came to this building, meaning she had either fled the moment the way was opened or she was hiding herself somewhere and was waiting for them to expose their backsides to her, though as she considered that fact she turned towards Tirek, who just so happened to be thinking about everything that was going on at the moment, "So, what do you want to do? Head down those stairs and see whatever secret she's hiding from us, or head back to the shrine and turn in our souls, just in case we end up dying?"

"Let us rest at the bonfire, to recover for a few seconds, then we'll head down there and get this over with," Tirek said, as while he wanted to head down there and just blow Friede up, to complete his mission and return to the main world so he could find the third Lord of Cinder, he did know that resting at the bonfire would attune them to this spot again, in the off chance that they actually died from something when they stepped down into the hidden chamber of the church, but he had the feeling this was going to be an exciting battle and that it would be worth having all of his mana back.

Sarana and Martok, once more, nodded their heads in agreement before they sat around the bonfire, joining Tirek as he recovered the power that had been spent in the wilderness outside the building the Painter had been located in, but it wasn't long before he stood up and walked over to the hidden staircase that had been revealed, causing the pair to join him not a few seconds later, which was the moment that they walked down the stairs and started to investigate the hidden area that Elfriede might have been trying to hide from everyone... which was when they found a giant resting on the other side of the large hidden chamber, who seemed to be covered in feathers and had a small head, though it looked like he was chained to the chair he was currently sitting on.

"I see flame, flickering once more... I have not yet shed enough blood. My flail... bring me my flail!" the giant declared, where it sounded like he was talking to someone, likely Friede based on what they had seen and learned since their arrival in the Painted World, even though Tirek was starting to wonder if the name of the world, 'Ariandel', was drawn from the name of the one who either painted the world or was chosen as its protector, but in the end he decided that it didn't really matter as the giant tilted his head for a moment, "Ah, Friede. What stops thine ears? Please, my flail, right away..."

As the group stepped forward, and walked over to where the giant was sitting, Tirek had the pair walk over to the side of the chamber, mostly under the pretense that he wanted to make sure there were no ambushes down here, before he stopped in front of the giant, who glanced up to see what was going on and seemed interested in what was going on at the moment, before Tirek felt a chill in the air as he noticed the giant was staring behind him, hence the reason he turned around and glanced at the stairs he and the others had walked down a few moments ago.

"Fret not father, we have no need of your flail." a voice said, which just so happened to Friede's voice, something that Tirek expected as the lady emerged from the shadows of the staircase and approached them, though in her right hand she held a scythe, one that she made sure was sharpened as she entered the area, before she raised her head and turned towards the area that he was standing in, "This is only the flame, quivering at the actions of a misguided Ash. Please, good Father, avert your eyes, for I will snuff out these ashes for good."

"So, you want to fight me, Elfriede?" Tirek inquired, though even as he said that he raised his hand and readied some of his magic, something that was followed by a barrier wrapping around Sarana and Martok, who were standing on the left side of the chamber, coming from the staircase, before he drew his own weapon from its sheath as he stepped away from the giant, Father Ariandel, and focused on his main target, where he noticed that neither of his companions seemed all that annoyed by what was going on, rather they trusted him to take their target down, though he did notice that the giant had bowed his head, no doubt averting his eyes, like Elfriede had said, "Good, that's why I came to this world in the first place, to track you down and kill you for betraying Yuria, Liliane, the Church, and our plans."

"You should have left, Lord of Londor, when I told you to," Elfriede replied, where she did seem a little annoyed by the fact that Tirek was calling her by her true name, especially after all the effort she had put into making everyone that called this world home her alternate name, the one that Father Ariandel had used when calling out for her, though at the same time she quickly shifted her stance and held her scythe at the ready, knowing that since Tirek was the Lord of Hollows, or the Lord of Londor as she called him, he had to be strong and that this wouldn't be an easy fight, "now you will die and Yuria will lose everything she has worked to achieve."

Tirek said nothing to that as he started walking towards his foe, who did the same thing as she stepped over the stone floor that was below them, and it was easy to see that Elfriede shifted her stance by resting the handle of her scythe across her back as she got close to where he was located, though once they were close to each other Elfriede lashed out first as she went on the offensive, by swinging her scythe at Tirek, who parried the attack with the edge of his blade and found that there was a bit of frost following the blade of the weapon that his foe was using, before he kicked her backwards and rushed at the area that she landed in. After that happened Elfriede, instead of backing away like someone would have expected her to do, rushed forward as well and their blades came into contact with each other again, sparks flying as they struggled against the others strength for a few seconds, before the two of them separated from each other and Elfriede swung her scythe against the snow that was around them, as there was a hole in the ceiling of the hidden chamber and that allowed some snow to fall into this place, which kicked up some of the snow as her form shimmered and she quickly vanished from the area that they were fighting in. That action caused Tirek to chuckle for a moment, as Elfriede had a good plan on how to approach this fight, she was hiding her form and then leapt into the air while he searched for her, which would open his backside for her to attack him while he was distracted, but the problem with that tactic that was she used a bit of magic to make sure the snow hid her presence when she struck the ground, which was why he sidestepped to his right and avoided the scythe swing that had been coming his way, possibly surprising Elfriede with his actions, before he summoned his magic and blasted her in the chest with a Fire Orb, knocking her backwards.

Interestingly enough Elfriede, while shrugging off the damage of his spell, was able to get back up like nothing bad had happened to her, meaning that she might not be weak to Fire spells, like the rest of the majority of the enemies he and the others had fought over the course of their adventure in this Painted World, and that he needed to see which of the other three types of magic might do her in, be it Soul, Lightning, or Dark type magic, which was why he readied his sword while he waited for his foe to make the next move, so he could box her in and repeat what he had just did.

Sure enough Elfriede rushed at the area that Tirek was standing in and swung her scythe at him, where he parried the attack and found that one wasn't all she had in store for her, as she had a few dance-like movements in store for him and that seemed to put him on the defensive for a few moments as they fought each other, before she propelled herself away from her foe and quickly shifted herself into the shadows once more as she struck the snow, to which Tirek remained still for a few seconds as he felt the magic in the air. Sure enough he ended up sidestepping the attack that was coming at him, just like he had done a few moments ago, before he gathered some of his power and quickly formed a Lightning Spear in the space below his left hand, allowing him to blast Elfriede in the chest and knock her backwards, only this time around it took her a few more moments to get back up from where she landed, showing that Lightning spells had to be the type she was weak against, meaning he had a way to deal damage and actually turn the tide of this battle truly in his favor. Unlike all of the other enemies he and his companions had fought in the past it looked like Elfriede might be studying what was going on at the moment and was planning her next attack, something that was followed by her swinging her scythe and using her magic to crystallize some of the snow that was in the air, forming ice crystals that rushed towards where Tirek was standing in, though as that happened Tirek called his power into the area around him and lightning flashed, smashing the ice crystals that tried to reach him and scattered pieces around the chamber that they were standing in. It was hard to see if Elfriede was taken aback by that move or not, given the cowl that was covering the majority of her head, but he really didn't care about what she might be feeling as he slammed his hand against the stone floor and channeled some lightning across the floor, allowing it to spread outwards as he focused on Elfriede, who danced around the chamber and avoided his attack rather well, showing how skillful she was with her weapon and her moves, though despite all that Tirek had an idea on how to break her down and win this fight.

What Tirek ended up doing was jumping backwards the next time Elfriede did it, so that way when she hid herself with her magic he weaved a spell through the air that seemed to have no effect, when in reality he duplicated her spell and also used an illusion spell to make a copy of himself, so he was able to walk around while invisible as his foe rushed at his copy, which was followed by her revealing herself as she latched her weapon onto the copy's back and knocked it into the air, before slamming it into the ground. Just as that happened Tirek gathered his power around his empty left hand and let it form a bunch of lightning that danced around his hand, light a blade of lightning in some sense, where he rushed forward and pierced Elfriede's chest with his spell, surprising her in the process as the copy shattered and disappeared, though the moment she let go of her scythe Tirek ripped his hand out of her chest and let her body crumble to the floor, making more than enough noise in the process, though before he dispelled the barrier around his companions he noticed a pool of blood start to form around Elfriede's body. What was odd was that the blood started to move a few seconds later, heading down towards the large vessel or bowl that was resting in front of Father Ariandel, eventually gathering around the base of the vessel and, somehow, caused the giant to raise his head, where he zeroed in on the body of Elfriede, causing him to scream in anger, or what Tirek assumed was anger since he was having a hard time determining what sort of emotions the giant even had, before he shifted in his seat and started pulled out the restraints that were keeping the chair chained to the floor, causing him to raise his hands and mess with the vessel that was in front of him. Not a few seconds later Tirek watched as Father Ariandel slammed the vessel on the pool of blood that rested right in front of him, causing the embers to fall on the floor as he wailed for a few moments, something that was followed by a large amount of flames to fall to the floor as he struck the area once more, releasing a burst of fire that rushed out in all directions and knocked down all of the rotten sections of the walls that were around them... and, as an added bonus, Tirek watched as the flames danced over Elfriede's body, restoring her Unkindled status as she pushed herself up off the floor and stared at him.

In the next few moments Tirek discovered what was going on, as Elfriede seemed to stay back and swung her scythe to cast waves of ice crystals at him while at the same time Father Ariandel used his vessel as a melee weapon against his enemies, which Tirek just so happened to be, and even as a catalyst to channel some Fire magic, as there was a gout of flames that came at him a few moments later, as he dodged the melee attacks and put some distance between him and his opponents. He had to admit that facing two foes would normally be rather hard, especially against a foe that had the speed and grace of the Dancer while the other had the speed and power of Vordt, both of whom killed him and Sarana at some point during the early stages of their quest, but at this point in time he was used to his new body and how he was supposed to move, plus he had the power to back up both his physical attacks and any of his magical attacks, so now it was three powerful individuals fighting each other, even if it was two against one. For the first new moments of the fight he focused on figuring out the movements of his enemies, as while he had a decent understanding of what Elfriede could do, thanks to the first portion of the fight, she was changing up a few of her moves and was incorporating new ones that complimented what Father Ariandel was doing, so much so that their attacks passed each other without them hurting the other on accident, so his options were either area of effect spells, to take them both down at the same time, or take one of them down first and then lash out at the second before the first one stood back up, since he had the feeling that if he was able to kill one the other would try to revive them. Now one would expect that he would drop the barrier and bring both of his companions back into the fight, though he wasn't about to do that as he rushed over to where Elfriede was standing and used his blade to push her backwards, a simple swing that was followed by a Lightning Spear to the chest, though he rolled to the side and avoided being smashed by Father Ariandel, who was definitely following him and was lashing out at him whenever he had the chance to do so.

One thing he noticed was that when he decided to slow Elfriede down, by knocking her backwards with another spell after the Lightning Spear, the Forbidden Sun he hurled at her missed his target by a hair, given the fact that she dodged the spell and it crashed into father Ariandel's chest, knocking the giant backwards due to the force of the spell in question, though he had the feeling that the giant was weak to Fire magic, just like how Elfriede was weak to Lightning magic, so he jumped backwards, sheathed his blade for the foreseeable future, and channeled his power into both of his hands as both of his foes turned towards him, Fire in his right and Lightning in his left. From that point forward he lashed out at the pair with his magic as he moved around the chamber, making sure to hit Elfriede with several of his Lightning spells and took a chance to knock her backwards, while at the same time hurling Fire spells at Father Ariandel whenever the opportunity presented itself to him, even though it was a little interesting to see that he was even weak to Fire spells, not that Tirek was going to complain about what was going on at the moment. Another interesting thing was that whenever he did enough damage to Father Ariandel, and caused the giant to stagger for a moment, Elfriede actually knelt on the ground and took a moment to pray, where it appeared that she was restoring Ariandel's life force by either using one of the miracles or by directing her own life energies over to him, but it was wrong of her to do that as Tirek hurled several Lightning Spears into her chest, blasting her into the wall so she couldn't restore her ally to full health or reverse the damage he had dealt to the Father, which was when he hurled another Forbidden Sun into the giant and knocked it into a wall. This time around, when he struck his target, Father Ariandel fell to the ground and Elfriede did the same not a few seconds later, showing that they had been linked in some manner, before Tirek watched as the giant broke apart, like he was being converted into energy or something, while his main target fell near where Father Ariandel had been chained, though an ancient slab of some kind did land near the barrier and he shifted it for a moment, allowing an opening to appear so Sarana could take the slab before returning to the safety of the barrier.

There was a good reason for that, as the energy of Father Ariandel surged into Elfriede's body and granted her both new life, as she just so happened to force herself to stand once more, and new power, as this time around black flames danced around her scythe and her body, showing that she intended on fighting Tirek until she no longer had the energy to revive herself by using the undead curse that every Unkindled and Hollows in the world were affected with, though it did look like she had a second smaller scythe in her left hand that channeled her original powers, meaning she was going to be more formidable this time around. The only differences between this form and the previous two forms he had fought so far, that Tirek could see, was the fact that she was faster in this state, she carried two weapons that she used in unison with each other, and that she had black flame versions of the skills she had used in the first and second stages of this fight, so all he had to do was repeat what he had been doing so far and switched to channeling Lightning magic, as he suspected that taking in Father Ariandel's power wouldn't give her his weakness, which would have made things too easy for him, so he was just fine with what was going on. Tirek found something interesting as he dodged the incoming attacks and hurled his Lightning spells out at his opponent over the next few moments, Elfriede, despite her additional powers, didn't even consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, it would be wise to change up her attack pattern and use movements he hadn't seen so far, so either dying twice and being revived through odd means had damaged her mind or this was all she had learned over the years and hadn't bothered to extend her skills after taking over this world, but, once more, he wasn't about to complain about what was going on at the moment as he continued to clash with Elfriede. In the end the battle ended with a repeat of the movement he used to end the first stage of this fight, as in he stabbed her right in the middle of her chest, exactly where he stabbed her earlier, and this time around she dropped both of the scythes and they turned into energy as her body broke apart before his eyes, something that ended in him holding a light blue soul, one that was tainted by bits of dark energy that had to be Father Ariandel's power.

With that done he dispelled the barrier around Sarana and Martok, who stood there like they were shocked by the fact that he had beaten them on his own, though that was when he beckoned for them to join him, as it was time to head back to the Shrine at long last and tell Yuria the good news, that the sister that betrayed her and Liliane had been killed at long last, before they resumed their search for the third Lord of Cinder, Yhorm, and the location of the final Lord that they needed to kill before everything was ready for him to make his move and steal the power of this world for himself, which was why they departed from this world not even a few seconds later and headed back to the Shrine.