Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose

Down the Gaping Hole

After a few moments of rest, where she and Edric regained some of their energy, the two of them pulled themselves up from where they had been laying and gathered their weapons, before searching the area that they had fought the Old Iron King in, where they quickly found an entrance to the ruined building they had been fighting near. They discovered an iron chest that contained some sort of bone dust, before they spotted some stairs that brought them down to a chamber that contained one of those Primal Bonfires that they only discovered after beating the Lost Sinner. From what Rarity knew they did something useful, though what that something was she had no idea, but she was happy to see if as she and Edric stood near it and activated it... before they teleported back to Majula so they could tell Shalquoir, as well as the Emerald Herald, the good news about their victory.

When they returned to the small town that was their home, when they weren't traveling through all the dangerous areas they had to go through, they discovered that the smile on the Emerald Herald's face was slightly bigger than the one she had given them when they bested the first Guardian... meaning that she was extremely pleased with their progress at the moment.

"The soul and the curse are one and the same." the Emerald Herald said, though at the same time the duo stopped in front of her to hear her words before they started to empower themselves, as they knew that the next Guardian was going to be as dangerous as the Old Iron King, "Both of your souls have grown stronger since I last saw you. I only hope it brings you both what you wish."

Rarity let Edric do what they always did, though at the same time she walked over to where Shalquoir's shop was located and found that the cat was already expecting her arrival, as she seemed happy to see Rarity again.

"You and Edric continue to impress me," Shalquoir said, to which Rarity nodded her head for a few seconds, as she was used to the fact that the ancient cat could see everything they had done and knew that they had conquered another part of their journey, "First you take out the Lost Sinner, and claim the Great Soul that she was carrying, and now you have taken out the Old Iron King and claimed the second of the four Great Souls... that's definitely more than a lot of the other Undead can say."

"The Old Iron King sure put up a fight, as it still took us some time to take him out," Rarity commented, though while she knew what Shalquoir could do it felt good to actually talk about it, where she noticed that the cat simply nodded and let her speak, "My magic is much stronger than it has ever been and I knew our foe's weakness, but even so he took a lot of Lightning Spears and was still standing despite the pain that he had to be in. Just seeing what I'm capable of so far reminds me of what my friend Twilight Sparkle could do and makes me wonder what my limits are... if I even have any to begin with, considering that I can use Dark Magic as well."

"You'll know your limit when you reach it, and then you'll likely surpass it," Shalquoir said, though she was liking how Rarity was acting, because the seemingly scared girl that had arrived with Edric was long gone and, in her place, stood a capable sorceress that was channeling spells that were decimating her enemies, "You know the large hole that rests right outside my shop?"

"Yes, I've see it every time I have come to see you," Rarity replied, though at the same time Shalquoir jumped over to the broken window, where she joined the cat and stared out at the large hole in question, "What's so special about it?"

"Somewhere deep inside that hole lies the Grave of Saints," Shalquoir said, though when she used 'somewhere' she was intentionally not revealing something to whoever she was talking to, because if she gave Rarity all the information she and Edric needed they might not figure anything out for themselves, "which is the home of the Royal Rat Vanguard, and beyond that is the Gutter... though you'll want to make your way to the Black Gulch, where the Rotten rests."

"So if Edric and I climb down that hole, we'll eventually find the third Guardian?" Rarity inquired, as she had never considered that the hole might take them to where one of the four Great Souls was being held, though if that was true then that meant that the final one was in the ruins that they abandoned earlier.

"That's correct," Shalquoir stated, to which she jumped back over to her table and sat down again, though she waited a few seconds for Rarity to turn towards her before talking again, "You have three options that are available to head down that hole; one, you buy two of my Silvercat Rings and take your chances, two, you buy the services of the man that's now sitting next to the hole, or three, you find someone that's selling the Fall Control spell and use it to help you out. Of course it's up to you and Edric to decide which path you want to take, though I know that you'll make either of them work out for the two of you."

Rarity trusted that Shalquoir's rings would help them, and she had to assume that the Silvercat Ring reduced the amount of damage they would take if they fell from a great height, but at the same time she knew that seeing what the man by the hole was selling would be beneficial as well. Since she hadn't empowered herself yet, and had quite a fair number of souls to spend, she decided that she might as well see what the man was selling and excused herself, to which Shalquoir smiled and waved a paw at her as Rarity walked outside. As she walked over towards the man that was sitting near the hole, however, she found Edric walking towards her as well, indicating that he was eager to move on and find their next target... to which she gestured towards the hole that she was walking near with her head before doing the same thing to the man, to which the two of them approached him and caused him to look up at them.

"Wait, you found your way out, too!" the man said, though at the same time Rarity and Edric knew that he had them mixed up with someone else he must have encountered, as he was the first person to acknowledge one of them and not both of them, "The name's Gilligan. Don't make me say it twice! All right, what do you want? I have everything you need!"

"We need to get down that hole," Edric stated, as he had understood part of what Rarity's gestures had meant, as she must have spoken with Shalquoir and got the location of the third Guardian, which apparently had to be somewhere inside the hole they looked at every time they visited the powerful cat, "and we were told that you could help us out."

"You want to go down that awful hole? You must have lost your marbles!" Gilligan replied, to which he laughed at them for a few seconds, though Rarity and Edric patiently waited for him to stop what he was doing before he focused his attention on them once more, "Fine, sure, fine, I'm happy to be of service. You need a ladder, then, sure enough. But you'll… you'll have to show some generosity."

Rarity, having known from Shalquoir that this was coming, raised her hand and drew a symbol in the air, to which she immediately transferred twelve thousand of her souls to the man, who raised an eyebrow in surprise before chuckling at her knowing when it was time to make a transaction. She didn't mind parting with the souls, as she had more than enough thanks to the defeat of the Smelter Demon, the second Pursuer, and the Old Iron King... and she was sure that she could get that much back when they killed the next powerful creature that blocked their path. Gilligan mentioned something about her being generous with the amount she gave him, to which she mentally chuckled since she was still living up to her Element despite being in a whole new world, before he started moving his ladder into position.

Since it was going to take him a few minutes to do that Rarity decided that the best course of action for her to take was to spend the rest of her souls on empowering her spells once more, though while she was doing so she heard Rosabeth, who had moved to Majula after she and Edric freed her, mention something about a missing spell that she could have sworn that she possessed before being frozen. From what little she heard Rarity could tell that the spell had to be powerful, as Rosabeth was worried about it having fallen into the wrong hands, so when she was done with the Emerald Herald Rarity walked back to Shalquoir and asked if she knew something about the spell. The cat revealed that it was actually resting inside a chest in the Iron Keep, near where the Smelter Demon had been resting, to which Rarity decided that, since Gilligan was taking some time modifying his best ladder to give them what she paid for, she and Edric could spend a few more minutes inside the keep and locate the spell.

Edric, of course, didn't like the idea that they were backtracking, as he wanted to go forward with their quest, but he understood that such a powerful spell shouldn't be left where someone terrible could claim it, to which he and Rarity returned to the bonfire that was just beyond where they fought the Smelter Demon. From there they fought the knights that had reappeared, thanks to them resting at one of the bonfires, before they came to the large area that had the lever that dropped two knights to their deaths. Since they already knew where all of their enemies were standing, and how they would be attacked, Rarity and Edric stood their ground as they quickly made their way towards the iron chest that was situated on a path of burning ground... which happened to be surrounded by lava and the only visible path was to walk on the burning ground that was connected to a set of stairs.

Instead of doing any of that Rarity remembered something that she had seen in the Crystal Empire, and discovered thanks to Twilight's statements about finding a reference to one of Sombra's spells, to which she held her hand out and focused on what she was doing... to which a plat crystal spire rose up beneath the chest and carefully pulled it up to where she and Edric were standing, complete with a short walkway for them to use. While Edirc chuckled about how useful some of Rarity's spells were, from her home world anyway, Rarity walked over to the chest and opened it up, where she smiled as she gently removed the spell and added it to her own spellbook. With the spell claimed Rarity sunk the chest back down to where it had been moments ago and she and Edric walked away from the area, returning to the bonfire so they could head back to Majula.

---

Once they returned to Majula the first thing Rarity did was inform Rosabeth that she had found the Chaos Storm spell and was going to incorporate it into her current set of spells, that way it was safe from harm considering that she and Edric were righting the wrongs of the land. Rosabeth seemed to be okay with her keeping the spell, as she was sure she would have lost it again in the future anyway, so Rarity moved on and returned to the hole where Gilligan was working, only to discover that the ladder really went a great distance into the hole. Gilligan was proud of his work and was currently sitting where Rarity and Edric had found him, though while Edric praised the man's quick engineering of the ladder Rarity returned to Shalquoir and showed her that she had claimed the Chaos Storm for herself.

Shalquoir did ask if she ever intended to use the spell or if she had gathered it to prevent someone else from stealing it at some point in the future, to which Rarity said that she might use it once or twice after she figured out how exactly to cast the new spell.

Once she was done talking with the all knowing cat, who was always happy to talk with her, Rarity walked back outside and joined Edric by the hole, to which the two of them started climbing down into the wooden platform filled area, though Edric went first while Rarity followed him down. Rarity spotted a few items laying around while they descended, ones that she might grab later on with a telekinesis spell, once she figured out how to use it anyway, though she paused when she noticed a strange door that was near the end of the ladder. The door seemed to radiate with an intense darkness behind it, one that called out to the Dark Magic inside of her, so when she reached the lowest part of the ladder she found a second one that she used to reach the door... but even as she approached the strange metallic door she knew that she couldn't open it, not without whatever key she needed, and she was sure that using Dark Magic to open the door wouldn't work either.

When she stared at the door, however, an image flashed through her mind, one that was of a humanoid creature with what she assumed were angel wings, who possessed four arms and was casting some sort of fireball above their head... to which she jumped away from the door and growled as her own Dark Magic came back to life. There was something special about this strange door, that much she knew from her brief interaction with it, to which she resolved to find the key and slay whatever foul creature she had just seen. She waited for a few more seconds, just to be sure that there wasn't anything else that was strange about this door, before climbing back down to where Edric was waiting for her arrival. It was then that she discovered that they had a decision to make; did they jump down the remaining wooden platforms to the cave entrance that was below them, or did they climb up the ladder Gilligan made so they could jump over to the entrance above them.

In the end Rarity and Edric decided that jumping for the one above them was the more realistic decision, as the one below them appeared to have several highly withered beams that appeared to be ready to collapse at any moment, to which they climbed up to a decent location and jumped over to the entrance... though once they were both over there they drew their weapons and carefully entered the cave that rested beneath Majula. A few steps later and they came to a slightly larger area that had a bonfire waiting for them, so they wouldn't have to attempt to climb out of the area they were in, though it was being overlooked by a large rat head that was carved out of the stone around them.

After a few seconds of staring at the new bonfire, after they activated it anyway, the two of them walked into the mouth of the large rat head and continued along the path that was available at the moment, though along the way they found a few suffering Undead, who appeared to be in the final stages before they Hollowed completely. Instead of passing by them Rarity and Edric put them out of their misery, to which they walked towards the end of the passage they were in and discovered a circular room that looked like it belonged in a temple of some kind. As they entered the circular area they were set upon by a large group of rats, ones that were larger than what Rarity had seen back in Equus, as these rats seemed to come up to the top of Edric's boots... if not somewhat shorter than that height.

Unfortunately since Edric was so close to her, as the rats apparently wanted to keep them close while they tried to tear them apart, Rarity had to fall back on her Soul Arrow spells to get the job done, where she blasted the rats that dared to come near her while Edric sliced his targets apart. When the rats were taken care of they walked around the room and found that this was a tomb of sorts, as there were coffins and skulls everywhere, though at the same time Rarity wondered why this place was called the Grave of Saints. Personally, she didn't think that the name and the location fit together, not like all of the other places she and Edric had walked through so far, but in the end she couldn't argue with whoever named the place since he or she wasn't around anymore.

Since they couldn't enter the central part of this area, however, the two of them carefully walked over to the stairs and walked into another part of the tomb they were in, though as Edric spotted another suffering Undead to the left of where they were standing, and started to put it out of its misery, Rarity had to guard them as two more rats tried to attack them from behind. From there they continued to investigate the surrounding area, where they found a decent number of faces that were the keyholes for the Pharros' Lockstones, of which they had none at the moment, before they walked towards the right side of the area they were in and found a ladder that allowed them to climb up to the level above them.

When they climbed up to the top of the ladder, however, Rarity felt the air shift and knew that one of those red phantoms must have invaded their world again, though when they walked out of the small chamber the ladder brought them to they spotted the phantom in question standing a fair distance down the path to their right. At the same time Rarity heard more rats coming from behind them, to which she turned around and blasted the two she saw with her Soul Arrows, though while she was going that Edric charged forward and blocked the attack that was coming at him. One of the things that Edric had to do was stay close to his opponent, because if he got too far away the phantom blew darts at him that hurt, regardless if he blocked them or not... but in the end he was able to cut the invader down while Rarity finished off the last of the rats that were up on this level.

They turned towards the area that the phantom had come from and walked forward, where they passed by some rat statues before finding a path that they could take, where they discovered a bonfire that rested near a fog door, meaning that they could rest before fighting the powerful creature that rested behind it.

"This area must be short if we're already at the powerful creature," Edric commented, though at the same time he activated the bonfire and had Rarity rest for a few seconds, as he was sure that she had used a decent amount of Soul Arrows and wanted her to be at her best for the battle ahead.

"Yeah, I'd have to agree with you," Rarity said, though she had to wonder what sort of foul creature rested down here while she rested by the bonfire, but she had to assume that it was a rat related creature due to the statues she and Edric had seen so far.

A few moments later the two of them walked through the fog door and entered a chamber that had a large number of rat statues resting around each other with some separation between them, though at the same time Rarity and Edric watched as more rats started crawling out of all the holes in the chamber. For every rat they cut down or blasted into the wall another took it's place, meaning that this place was swarming with these large rats and that they would likely have to fight through all of them before they could leave. Rarity also noticed a second fog door, the exit to this area, and made sure that she and Edric were standing near it, because it appeared that the rats moved slowly and that they had the advantage until they got close to where they were standing... though when a slightly larger rat, one with spiked hair growing down the length of its spine, arrived and started walking towards them with the entirety of its army.

Rarity already knew that killing all of the rats in this area was next to impossible, as they seemed to be swarming out of the holes whenever one died, which meant that she and Edric needed to take out what would pass as the commander of their force... to which she sighed for a second as her right hand caught on fire.

"Rarity, what are you planning?" Edric asked, as while he knew that Rarity knew the Fireball spell, the one that they found on that ship that took them to where the Lost Sinner was located, he knew that she didn't have anything more powerful than that... save for the Chaos Storm spell that she had insisted they pick up earlier.

"I'm going to kill all of them, all at once," Rarity replied, though at the same time she charged forward as the Dark Magic surged around her eyes once more, to which she jumped onto one of the statues and started moving around the chamber they were in.

Rarity used the statues in the chamber to move around the rats for a few moments, where the spiky haired one growled at her and caused the other rats to turn towards her, though once they were all gathered in the middle of the chamber she made her move. With her energy burning above her right hand she jumped off the top of the statue she was currently on and landed in the middle of the swarm of rats, though before they could turn and attack her she activated the spell that she had picked up earlier. That was followed by at least ten pillars of fire, large ones Rarity mentally thought, erupting from the floor and engulfing the rats that were caught in the process... while at the same time the spiky haired one suffered the same fate as the rats that followed it.

Rarity poured as much power as she could into the Chaos Storm spell, to ensure that she did enough damage to make the rats think twice, before finally cutting it off completely as she removed her hand from the ground... where she quickly spotted the charred body of the spiky haired rat and noticed that the others were fleeing now that their leader was dead. Once the deed was done, and no more rats came out to challenge them, Rarity returned to the bonfire with Edric, as they were definitely going to have to rest after a fight like that one... and there was no telling how much stronger the next powerful creature was going to be.

Comments

[Randablitz]

"Men are props on the stage of life, and no matter how tender, how exquisite, a lie will remain a lie!"- Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin