Walker of the Abyss

by lunarstallion

Horrible discoveries

The chosen undead continued through the Tomb of the Giants. Large were his foes, and in great number, but even the deadly skeletons of this forsaken place were no match for the chosen one's blade. Archers, sword fighters, towers of bone, even the pinwheel creatures, all fell without a thought.

Before advancing any further into the tomb, a familiar noise made itself known to the undead warrior. A noise that signaled someone entering his world, more than likely, to bring harm to him and hinder his progress towards the Gravelord.

Walking along the edge of a cliff, the chosen undead spotted the trespasser. Cloaked in a dark red aura, the phantom wielded a massive club of some kind, evidence of apparently high strength on his part. The shield in his left hand glowed with a holy golden light, enveloping the red man with its power. His armor was holy, to say the least. Gleaming golden plates engraved with holy symbols, and a cloth robe with patterns of some unknown god to the chosen undead.

This was the Paladin, Leeroy, a previous acquaintance of the Chosen Undead, and a fierce warrior, high of strength and resolve.

"Well met, chosen one," Leeroy said, bowing to the knight that stood before him, "Although I wish it had been under better circumstances. It would seem I am here to kill you."

The chosen undead merely nodded, accepting of the inevitable fight.

"Then if you don't mind, I'd like to skip the small talk and get right into it." Placing his shield on his back, Leeroy rushed forward, intent on crushing the chosen one on the first strike. His hammer was effortlessly smacked to the side with the shield of the undead, and with a burst of strength, Leeroy found himself plummeting down the cliff side, a fresh hole where his heart once was.

'Over before it even began, eh?' he thought to himself as he fell into the endless mist of this forgotten place. 'What should I have expected from that god among the cursed?'

The chosen undead looked to where he shoved the Paladin down, his eyes betraying the sadness he felt from being forced to slay one he called ally. Shaking his head, the undead picked up the shield and weapon that was dropped, and placed them within his inventory.

Pressing on, the chosen one cut down several more bone towers, massive skeletons, and clones of the demon Pinwheel, before coming to a doorway surrounded by a massive amount of what seemed to be wooden spikes. The doorway itself was filled with a viscous fog, the likes of which the Chosen one had seen many a time before, just before he fought a powerful demon, usually.

Thinking through his plan once more, the chosen undead drew out a holy weapon, an Uchigatana, and stepped through the fog wall. Immediately, this was different. Instead of leaping straight into an epic battle, he found himself in a small room with a large hole at the far end. Stepping forward, he stared down the hole to see nothing but the ground roughly fifty feet below. Shaking his head, he uttered a small prayer for himself, and jumped down into the cave below.

The rough landing was followed by an immediate dive to the side as two skeletons rose from the ground and swung their rusted weapons at him. 'Dull, but effective nonetheless. I must be careful if I wish to speak with the Gravelord...' One good swing from his holy sword made short work of each skeleton.

More skeletons appeared from behind the only corner in the room, a massive pillar directly in the center. Before they reached him, he gathered his breath and shouted "Gravelord Nito, first of the dead and wielder of the Lord Soul, I wish to speak with thee!"

To his pleasant surprise, the skeletons all immediately stopped in their tracks. They seemingly glanced back slightly, before simply collapsing wherever they happened to be. A deep rumbling began from the opposite side of the pillar in the center of the room. The chosen undead walked around it to find a massive coffin, likely built specifically to hold the massive mound of bones he saw within, which began to move. Two giant skeletal arms reached up from the sides of the bone pile and began to pull.

Now about halfway out of the coffin, the mound of skeletons drew its massive legs beneath it, and stood, bones of unknown amounts of dead creaking and snapping in protest. A cloak of black energy shot forth from the heads of the skeleton mound, enveloping its bottom half as it stood to its full height. One skull, directly in the center of the pile, moved towards the chosen undead. This appeared to be the actual head of the creature, although when it spoke, its voice seemed to come from everywhere.

"We cannot say that any of thine undead kin hath attempted to converse with us before, slayer of our fellow bearers." The Gravelord said, leaning down to get a better look at the chosen undead. "Why speak with us, when one of our fellow Lord Soul bearers would have been far better for conversation?"

"Great Nito, I was led astray by one who claims to serve Gwyn, the lord of sunlight. He goes by the name of Kingseeker Frampt, and I believe him to be leading me into some sort of awful fate, so I came to one who would likely give me better answers." The chosen undead started, the strain from never using his vocal cords affecting him only slightly. "I was led to believe that I could fix the world with all four lord souls, but as my quest went on, I discovered that burning myself for eternity wasn't exactly a way to fix everything that went wrong, no matter how Frampt worded it. I came to you because you were the only one left, plain and simple."

Gravelord Nito seemed to ponder this for a moment before nodding slightly, "It is true that rekindling the flame shall not fix the world of the living. But what dost thou think that we can do about such a thing?"

"I..." The chosen undead thought for a long moment. 'What did I hope to accomplish by coming to the Gravelord?' After a few minutes of intense thought, the undead warrior gave a long sigh, "I do not know. Perhaps I simply wished for answers. Maybe I hoped that you would have something for me to do that could solve this riddle. Perhaps I truly did come here to take your soul."

"This is an ill advised way to acquire our own soul, undead," Nito said, leaning down to stare into the eyes of the warrior, "But perhaps thine reasons for coming here were to inquire about one you hath recently felled. A warrior, perhaps, that hath escaped death's own clutches."

"I don't believe I know what you're talking about," The chosen undead said, "I have killed many a warrior in my time in Lordran and beyond. Are you saying that one of the many lost souls I have sent your way has escaped you somehow?"

"Verily."

"Who could've escaped death itself? What power would a soul need in order to accomplish such a feat?"

Nito leaned back in contemplation. "Before thou wandered into our abode, we thought upon this for a long time. Death is infallible, even for beings such as those who wield the Lord Soul shards. Even for a being such as us, who is death's agent in the world above. Few would have the power required to escape the icy clutches of death, and fewer still would be able to in time. We were shocked to learn that the escapee was thy doing."

The chosen undead thought yet again, and came up with nothing. "Great Nito, I am afraid that I still do not know who you are talking about. Who is it that I have slain that has escaped the clutches of death?"

"A warrior that we hath known, millennia ago, by the name of Knight Artorias." Stunned silence was all Nito got in reply, the thought of Artorias himself escaping from death somehow seemed to terrify the undead. "Unknown to us is how he hath escaped, but what we wouldst enjoy knowing is how this warrior escaped our clutches many years after his death."

So, the chosen undead told him. He told him of the crystal golem that held Princess Dusk, of the purple portal that dragged him to the past. He told the god of the journey through the forest, the discovery that he was indeed back in time, and finally, of Artorias himself.

"I had never fought a more difficult combatant. And even then, he seemed... off. His arm hung limply from his side, as if it was broken, and his stance was like nothing I had ever seen, even in all my time on this world." The chosen undead stopped reminiscing, and yet again focused his attention on Gravelord Nito. "If it is true that he has escaped from your clutches, then I must stop him from doing anything harmful to this world. Do you have any idea where he is?"

Nito leaned down to be face to face with the relatively small undead. "No, we do not. But we can inform you that he hath left our sight completely; It seems thine foe hath found a way to transcend this plane, and flee to another. Perhaps with his own powers, perhaps with another's. We know not."

The chosen undead steeled himself, and looked into the main face of the skeletal behemoth. "Can you take me to him, so I may finish what I started?"

"No."

"Then can you tell me who can?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

Nito stood back to his full height, and backed away into his coffin. Before settling down, he uttered "Knight Artorias drew power from the everlasting darkness. The Abyss."

With those last words, the dark magic cloak surrounding the mass of bones faded away, leaving only a pile of bones, alone in their tomb. The Chosen Undead nodded in thanks, pulled a glowing white bone from his pouch, and crushed it in his hand. He took one last look at the Gravelord's tomb, and his vision was swathed in fog and flames. He felt himself shift without moving his body himself, and the next thing he saw was the grassy terrain and stonework of Firelink shrine.

A warrior in light chain mail briefly looked up at his arrival, but put his head back down towards the ground, seemingly lost in thought. Loud snores could be heard from one end of the shrine, signifying that Frampt was asleep yet again. 'Good,' the undead thought, 'I don't want to argue with him about my plan.'

The Chosen Undead stepped quickly down several sets of stairs, and came to an elevator, which he promptly went down. Coming to the bottom, he stepped out of the elevator and into the New Londo Ruins. Ignoring the mindless cries of the several hollows that were around him, he quickly set off towards the main ruins of the city, pausing in the middle of a wooden bridge to absorb the power of a small, ghostly hand into him. This paid off when the terrifying visage of a woman came floating towards him, large transparent knives held out in front of it. A quick swing from his weapon put a stop to her advance, and caused a scream to echo from her remains.

Slaying yet another ghost, he came to a drop off, which he jumped down onto a large wall atop a pool of water about a foot deep, which he splashed down into next. Walking slowly forward, he found himself face to face with a Darkwraith. To any normal warrior, the sight of a muscular being cloaked in black, with the face of a skull, would've sent them scurrying away. The chosen undead, however, has encountered these beings many times before, and could fight if he needed to.

"Let me past, Darkwraith. I seek only to drop into the Abyss, not to kill you and your company." The chosen undead took a step forward.

The Darkwraith drew his sword.

"So be it. You've chosen your fate." The undead drew his blade, and crossed swords with the Darkwraith. The battle was over quickly, with the chosen undead's sword sticking through the spine of the Darkwraith. The chosen undead continued on his way, slaying several more of the warriors on his way, and at last came upon a wall of dense fog.

Before stepping in, he took one of his rings off, and replaced it with a small green band that glowed with power. With that done, the chosen one forced his way through the fog wall, and began descending the degraded stairs.

---

Artorias stood up, pain wracking his body. Another blow with his sword, three more beams of purple energy. Another King had risen from the darkness, making the battle that much more difficult for the Abyss Knight. The wounds he has inflicted upon the two kings he had been fighting were great indeed, but he is significantly worse for wear than they. 'I fear I may die here, and succumb to this darkness in my heart.' Artorias thought to himself, dodging two of the blades, but getting hit by a shockwave from the third King, sending him flying backwards in pain. 'But I will not go down easily!'

With a shout of determination, Artorias rushed forward, a burst of eneergy allowing him to dodge the three grey swords swinging his way. He made his way to the first of the three kings, and somersaulted forward, bringing his blade over the king's head, and slicing him in half, killing him instantly. Artorias stopped for a second to relish in his small victory.

A second was all the other kings needed.

With yet another burst of purple light, a beam of dark magic pierced Artorias yet again, knocking him down. The moment he got up, he was grabbed by the third king, who began to suck the life out of the knight.

Artorias could feel his life leaving him. He could feel the darkness rapidly approaching, eager to reclaim the great warrior from this new place. Artorias struggled with all of his might, but it appeared that it was all for naught. Gasping in pain, Artorias looked up, not wanting to look the king in the eyes as his soul was sucked out.

Something glinted above him. Something shiny. Something coming down fast.

Something sharp.

With a resounding crash, an armored figure dropped down from the top of the Abyss, sword pointed down, directly on top of the king that held Artorias. The king screeched in pain, and dropped Artorias, who then put as much distance as possible between him and the kings. The armored figure wrenched his sword from the king, and swung it again in a great arc, beheading the grey monarch with one swing. When the mist faded from view, two kings stood seemingly in the distance, staring at the two knights with contempt. The final two kings raised their swords as one, and launched purple beams of darkness at the warriors.

Thinking quickly, Artorias pulled out his Silver Talisman. Getting ready to deflect the blows from him and his savior, he noticed with a bit of confusion that the unknown knight also pulled out an identical talisman. Deciding to ask later, they activated them at the same time, glowing golden spheres appearing just in time to redirect the dark magic away from them, and somewhere into the Abyss.

Artorias looked to the knight, sensing some familiarity from him. Looking back to the kings, Artorias simply said "I will take the right, you take the left."

Artorias saw the knight nod once, and immediately sprang into action. Hefting his greatshield in front of him, Artorias charged directly at the king, tanking the sword hits in a way that he couldn't have if the other king wasn't distracted. He weaved around an attempt to grab him, and drove his blade into the back of the king, getting one final screech of resignation as he wrenched the sword to the side, shattering the chest of his foe completely, and sending it to the darkness from whence it came.

He gave a small sigh of relief. Looking over, Artorias noted that his savior had easily dispatched the final remaining king as well. 'Good, at last those fools are put to rest. Now to find out who this is, and why they helped.'

As he approached the knight with his back turned, Artorias saw him take off his helmet. Before he could say anything to the warrior, they turned around to fully face the Abyss knight.

Artorias' original killer, the Chosen Undead, stood before him.

"Well, it seems Nito was right," The chosen undead said, closing the remaining distance between him and Artorias, "Going to the Abyss was the right way to find you. I just wasn't expecting the kings to be back."

Artorias was at a loss for words. In front of him was the man that had slain him once before, the undead that killed him while he was consumed by the Abyss' lord, Manus. "I am grateful for the assistance, great warrior, but I must ask, how did you get here? And how are you able to walk in this cursed place without perishing?" Artorias held up his hand, showing the undead the green band around his middle finger, "As far as I know, I and my wolf pup are the only two who have this ring, and it is the only thing allowing me to be in here right now."

The Chosen undead smirked at the knight, and held up his own right hand, revealing an identical ring. "Well, I obtained one nonetheless. I will not say how, for fear of upsetting you, but know that now that I see that you are of your own mind, I am no enemy of yours." The Undead put his hand down and thought for a moment. "As a matter of fact, I would like to ask you why you are down here. It seems rather strange that a legendary warrior such as yourself escaped death to simply come face down the Four Kings."

So, Artorias sat down, temporarily forgetting the peril being faced in the world above, and told the Undead the tale of what has happened to him ever since he died. The voice that heralded his arrival, the meeting of the ponies, his small show of power, which got a good chuckle out of the undead, and the rest. "And when I was about to give up, you came plummeting down through the ceiling, and you know the rest."

The chosen undead sat for a moment, his head in his hands. "You say it's another world altogether, right?" Artorias nodded. "Then, why would Manus want anything to do with it? Surely, someone up there didn't find his Pendant?"\

Artorias put his hand up, as if to dismiss the thought, when he stopped suddenly. 'Did... did I ever ask?' He thought to himself, suddenly getting very worried. "I... I do not think I asked, I just leaped in once I heard it was here..."

The chosen undead didn't hesitate, "Well, looks like it's time to go ask them." He stood up from his position on the 'ground' and helped Artorias to his feet. "Do you have a way to take us back to the surface?"

"Well, I believe that, since I have apparently died and disappeared completely from your world, if I use a homeward bone, I will be taken back to Equestria," Artorias pulled a bone from his bag, "But I don't believe it's possible for two people to use a bone at the same time. It's unheard of."

"Well, it's worth a shot, isn't it?" The Chosen Undead grabbed Artorias' shoulder. "If not, we can meet back here when you come back down."

"I don't think you fully understand how long I ran to get here."

"Artorias, crush the bone. It will be fine."

With that 'encouragement,' Artorias crushed the pearly white bone in his hand, and mist slowly surrounded the two of them, making them leave that dark place.

---

Things had been steadily getting better on the surface. The equestrian forces, pony or otherwise, held off whatever stragglers from the Abyss came through with ease, and eventually, it seemed as though they stopped coming entirely. The dragons used the opportunity to grab a bite to eat from the Everfree, the ponies and other mortal races used it to get some much needed sleep. The leaders of each race, however, could not stop for a moment from their discussions. Evacuations and fail-safe plans don't wait for anyone, goddess or otherwise.

So far, none of Celestia's special messages had reached their intended recipient, other than Chrysalis. Luna thought of this as a good thing, stating several times that they had "more than enough to stem the tide of darkness."

After the third time this was said, it appeared to have calmed Celestia down enough for her to get to work on her side of running Equestria: Politics. Any and all evacuation efforts were organized by her. She sent out commands to mayors and guard captains to all cities of Equestria, hoping to keep it all as organized as possible while not being there to organize it herself. Other than that, the minute her sister arrived, she took to the sidelines, avoiding the military leaders and their discussions, instead opting to simply stare into the Abyss.

Luna approached her on the left. "Terrifying, isn't it?" Luna said, staring into the darkness with a stony look on her face. "To think that this small bit of darkness has the power to break Equestria apart..."

Celestia draped a wing over her sister. "It will not come to that, Luna. We will not allow him to destroy this place as he once did all that time ago."

Luna rubbed a hoof on her necklace, subconsciously feeling the ancient pendant beneath it, the one her father gave her when she was but a filly. "I certainly hope so, sister."

Author's Note:

Yeah, poor attempt at "ye olde" english for Nito, but I tried, at least.

Unlike I did for Artorias. I don't think I'll ever live that down... Especially with the deus ex machina shit I just pulled getting the chosen undead in there.

Oh yeah, and on the subject of the undead, I need a name to refer to him as; I feel like I'm running "The chosen undead", "The chosen one", and "Undead warrior" pretty dry. If anyone's got a suggestion, feel free to let me know.

Also, exposition. And that TOTALLY amazing "twist" ending right there, that was great, right? Bullshitting my way through plot points has never been so hard.

Comments

[Vinyldropsthebase]

Dragin would be a cool name pronounced Dray·gin

[capedbaldy1234567890]

......that bastard killed sif u bastard you bastard

[lunarstallion]

7648074 Nooooooo, noooo, he didn't do that, he just...

Nooooooooooo...

[Black_Knight]

Nice to see this story update.

Here's a little suggestion of names for the Chosen Undead. Alistair, Lloyd, Maxwell, William.

As for your Deus Ex Machina and your way to go through plot points... eh, not the worst I seen so far.

Found this little mistake.

The armored figure wrenched his sword from the king, and g it again in a great arc, beheading the grey monarch with one swing.

[lunarstallion]

7648655 Uhhhhhhhhhh what mistake i don't know what you're talking about

(Look back again, I fixed it, thanks for the heads up.)

Also, I'm liking those names, I'll see if they fit.

[Ocean Man]

I enjoy this. Although still pissed that Sif is dead. I was hoping that Sif would meat up with Artorias. But yeah i enjoy this and hope to see this continued.

[Brony Archive MLP]

8530094
This one https://www.fimfiction.net/story/236020/7/back-into-the-light/questions-and-initiation

[lunarstallion]

8530146
Well, for the record, I did not copy anything from that story.

[Brony Archive MLP]

8532395
What about about the exact copies of the line during his explanation for liking wolves? And the quote I put in my first comment being exactly the same from the other story?

[lunarstallion]

8532807

Artorias maintained a smile that will soon be replaced by sadness. After he regained his composure, Artorias sighed deeply "Wolves. My favorite animals are wolves Fluttershy."

This is the quote form the story, yeah?

I mean, what do you want me to do about it? I sure as hell didn't copy it, I hadn't even read this story when I wrote mine. The lines are similar because that's the way Artorias would answer the question.

Dude likes wolves..

Also, I just checked and would like to point out, that chapter of that story was written months after I wrote my chapter. There was no way I could've copied it.

[Brony Archive MLP]

8532975
Rewrites are magic