Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose

Storming the Castle

In the end Rarity decided that now wasn't the time to meddle with the Dark Chasm and battle the Darklurker, as she and Edric still needed to find the Queen and figure out what happened to the King, as well as determine what the next part of their quest was. She also wondered about the three 'keys' that Shalquoir had given her and wondered where they could be used, though she had only given her the locations that the three strange items were tied to and said that she would know what to do with them when the time came. Instead of wasting her time on Darkdiver Grandahl and the Dark Chasm, even though she knew that she should kill the Darklurker, she and Edric returned to the nearby bonfire and used it to teleport back to the one that was in the chamber above them... where they engaged a few of the stone guards that were guarding the door on their immediate right and the sentinel that was behind the now open door.

They walked up the stairs that were behind the door and came to an area where a wooden chest was waiting for them, to which Edric opened it and discovered fifteen arrows that seemed to have a dark aura around them, something that he stored in his pack before they turned to the right and moved onward.

Around the corner in front of them rested a set of stairs that would take them upwards, though under one of the arches rested a corpse with a hero's soul, a charm, and a powerful Lifegem, all of which the duo collected before they started climbing the stairs. It didn't take them long to reach a small chamber that had a stone statue of the turtle like warriors, which the two of them had fought a few of back in the forest ruins so long ago, but since it didn't come to life they walked right by it and ascended the stairs beyond it. What they found after walking up the stairs for a few seconds, however, was what appeared to be a pool of corrosive liquid that Rarity wanted to ignore, because she was sure that it would do something to their armor and weapons, or at least her sword and all of Edric's equipment. Edric seemed to be of the same opinion and continued up the stairs in front of them, where they found a chamber that had a stone statue of a knight, a portrait of some kind, and a doorway for them to walk through... which allowed them to walk around a corner and ascend another set of stairs.

That brought them to a door that revealed a chamber with head carvings added to all four of the walls, which happened to spit poison darts if either of them walked in front of them, to which Rarity sighed and summoned a barrier to protect them as they walked through the chamber. She also walked by a corpse that contained a brave warrior's soul and some Titanite that was unlike anything they had found so far, which Edric pocketed before they opened the other door and walked out of the poison dart filled room, allowing Rarity to dispel the barrier as they moved forward. From there they headed up the stairs that were in front of them and made their way towards another chamber, where they found three knights standing guard, as well as a giant portrait of who Rarity had to guess was the mysterious Queen... and she could feel some darkness emitting from the painting.

The knights weren't too happy to see that they were there, as the three of them advanced on the duo almost immediately after spotting them, but they fell back on their knowledge of their previous fights and separated from each other so the knights would do the same thing. This was another instance where Rarity was pleased to discover that her enemies were susceptible to magic, as she used her Soul Arrows to great effect in taking out the first knight that approached her, while Edric parried the attack from his foe and cut him down. The two of them then focused on the third knight and eliminated him before he could damage either of them, allowing the duo to walked out of the chamber and climb the stairs on their right. From there they discovered that there weren't any railings on their left and right, meaning that they had to be careful to avoid falling to their deaths, while engaging a knight that was protecting the way forward, who didn't stand much of a change against their combined power.

As they walked up the stairs, however, Rarity held a hand up and stopped for a moment, because she felt the arrival of another spirit that wanted her and Edric dead, which meant that they needed to stop and let the invader come to them, so they didn't waste energy hunting for the spirit. After a few minutes of waiting for the invader to show up, however, both Rarity and Edric were convinced that whoever had invaded their world was either a coward or had gotten lost somewhere along the way. It was Edric who had the bright idea to backtrack a little and found that the red spirit was blocking the doorway back into the room they came from, though this spirit carried a single sword and no shield, to which Edric decided to fight it... leaving Rarity to watch and destroy the various archers that tried to loose arrows at her friend from afar, allowing him to duel the spirit and not be interrupted.

Fortunately Edric proved to be much stronger than the red spirit was, as he actually disarmed the spirit at some point and delivered a wide slash against the spirit's chest, before he severed the connection by ending the spirit's life, sending the person back to whatever world he had come from... allowing him to return to Rarity so they could press onward in their search for the Queen. The duo then carefully followed the path that was in front of them and walked up the stairs that brought them to a walkway, which brought them to an entrance for a large area that had a gap between them and the area in front of theirs. In the other room that they were staring at, however, sat a lady that was wearing a white gown and seemed sad about something, though Rarity immediately knew that this had to be the mysterious Queen that they had learned about earlier... to which they remained silent as they waited to see what she had to tell them.

"You have fought admirably on your journey, cursed Undead." the Queen said, though while she didn't mention the number of people facing her neither of them were annoyed, even though Rarity now felt that there was something off about the Queen, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on, "I am Nashandra, Queen of Drangleic. A true monarch carries the weight of their souls. The last king of this land, King Vendrick, as he was called… He was less of a king than you might imagine. He found the strength to rule his people, and when the Undead were born, cursed… He found more strength, to face them. But in the end, he never took the true throne."

"Okay... so seek the King, but without any information where to find him again," Edric mumbled, to which he bowed his head respectfully, since this was the Queen they were visiting, before heading towards the seconds open doorway that the room had, "back to square one... again."

Rarity shared Edric's frustration, because up until this point they had a clear objective, gather the four Great Souls and speak to the King, but no one knew where the King was, though even as that thought came to mind she knew that Shalquoir likely knew where Vendrick was. The cat was likely to either hand over the information or tell them were to go so they could get the information, but it would be better than searching the rest of the castle, which she and Edric planned on doing before they went somewhere else in their search for the King. The second doorway brought them to a fog door, which meant that a powerful creature was likely waiting for them, to which they sighed and pushed their way into the arena they would be fighting in... to which they discovered two pristine looking Dragonriders, like the one they fought in Heide's Tower of Flame, except one was an archer and the other carried a halberd.

The only other difference that Rarity could see at the moment, besides what types of weapons they used, was that the two Dragonriders had different colored armor, as the archer was wearing black armor and the warrior was wearing the normal red armor they had seen the last time they fought one of these creatures.

The moment they walked into the area both of the Dragonriders became active, to which Edric walked over to the warrior type while Rarity focused on taking out the archer, whose bow was actually aimed on her, showing that even though both of these knights had hollowed at some point in the past they were still smart. As such she moved around the area, and didn't get near Edric's fight in case the other knight turned it's attention towards her, and kept her attention on the archer while she avoided the arrows. Instead of picking the Lightning Spear this time around, like she always did when she fought a new powerful creature, Rarity selected the Dark Orb and Dark Hail spells, though she was shocked when she watched the first Dark Orb collide with the Dragonrider's chest and knock him backwards, as if he was terribly weak towards the dark element... just like some enemies had been to her lightning based spells in the past.

Rarity mentally moaned as her Dark Hail inflicted massive damage on the archer and effectively killed it before it could even hurt her, as she wasn't expecting the knight to actually be weak against dark based attacks... to which she sat on the side and watched Edric fight his opponent to the death. It actually gave her the opportunity to see that her companion had really improved since they started their quest, as now he was reading his opponent's movements, studying when they attacked and when they defended, and was looking for gaps in their armor that he could use against them. Edric rolled under the attack that was coming his way and let the halberd hit the floor where he had been standing, though as it got stuck he seized his chance and delivered a powerful slash to his target's side, cutting through the knight's armor and skin at the exact same time.

It went on like that for a few more moments, where Rarity watched as Edric displayed his skills in battle and delivered more damaging attacks against his opponent, before he finally delivered the finishing blow and killed the knight he had been fighting... opening the way for them to walk into a room that had a bonfire, along with someone that shouldn't be in the room with them.

"Ho! Well met, friends." the man said, waving at the duo as they activated the bonfire, though at the same time Rarity simply stared at him while she tried to understand what she was seeing, "Good to see that the two of you are well. Yes, very good indeed. I journeyed from the distant east to perfect my swordsmanship. Legend has it that powerful beings slumber in this land. This sword, it's been in my family for generations. And only a real man can wield it true. I may face any manner of man or beast, but none shall be a match for my sword. This land is a right mess, eh? King's gone, and the people have a mad glint in their eyes. The land itself is overrun by terrible beasts. No better place to test my sword, ey?"

"How could you possibly know that the King is gone?" Rarity asked, because while she understood that some of the people they had encountered wanted to test their skills and hone their talents to a new level, there was a question that she really wanted answered, "For that matter, how in the world did you get through the Sanctum of Winter, the only door to this castle, without killing any of the creatures we killed? There is no way, in any realm of Tartarus, that you should be sitting here, in front of us, and chatting up a storm all of a sudden."

"I am here to show that there are others that are capable of doing what you have done," the man replied, though at the same time he didn't seem to take offense to what Rarity had said, while also insinuating that he was also an Undead that was much stronger than what he looked like, "be careful though, the next powerful creature you encounter just might be the death of you... and potentially the awakening of the other."

Rarity would have wondered what that meant, but she knew that the man was telling them to be careful when they found the next powerful creature, whatever that creature happened to be, otherwise it would mess them up and potentially make one of them turn completely hollow. The man also seemed to be suggesting that her power of Dark Magic, which had awoken from being killed by the Pursuer one too many times, wasn't her limits and that she might be able to become much stronger, if she died as much as Edric did. It was like the man was suggesting that the way for her to unlock her true power was to sacrifice Edric to whatever creature was up next, to gain the power to overturn everything in her path... but she would never let that happen. She and Edric were going to figure out where the King was located, see if they could help him in some manner, and discover the method to cure themselves of the curse.

Before the end of this adventure, however, Rarity knew that she and the Darklurker would fight, but she focused on the task ahead and the next powerful creature, knowing that they would be in for a tough fight ahead.

Comments

[Ze1a7in]

"be careful though, the next powerful creature you encounter just might be the death of you... and potentially the awakening of the other."

...allusion to Nightmare Rarity?