Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose

Old Memories

Instead of walking all the way through the shrine that they were in, and fighting any additional enemies that might be lurking around the area, Rarity had Edric pull out the ancient feather they had been given and activated it's power, to which the two of them disappeared for a moment. When they reappeared a few seconds later, right beside the bonfire that they had lit when they first reached the shrine, Rarity immediately deduced that the feather was like the Homeward Bones, meaning they could use the feather to return to the last bonfire they used. With that information in hand the duo accessed the bonfire and teleported themselves back to Majula, where the projection of the Emerald Herald, which looked real to the two of them, happened to be waiting for them. Edric, once again, used the power of the souls he had gathered to further boost his own strength and health, making it so that whatever they fought would have a tough time taking him out while he devastated his enemies in return.

Rarity, on the other hand, remained stubborn and kept her souls to herself, because at the moment she still felt that she was already overpowered and didn't want to become a magical god that terminated everything that she and Edric encountered, because she knew what power did to some people and didn't want to repeat Sombra's mistakes.

Once Edric was done the two of them returned to the bonfire and made sure to think about the forest ruins this time around, where they remembered where they had encountered the merchant that had been selling the key to the blacksmith's workshop, before they teleported back to an old location. When they arrived in the chamber, which was close to the first area where they had died to the first Pursuer they had encountered, the two of them got back onto their feet and headed out through the hole in the wall. Since they were much stronger than what they were when they first explored this area none of the existing enemies really stood a change against them, as Rarity only used her magic once and that was to catch a firebomb and throw it back at the hollow that threw it at her, blowing her target to bits, while Edric simply cut his way through his foes.

With their new power it was a simple matter for them to make their way through the group of low powered enemies that were in front of them, take out the turtle armored knight, and turn to the right so they could walk up to the dead giant, which was definitely slowly transforming into a tree.

"Okay, so this is a giant," Edric commented, staring up at the dead giant while remembering the living ones he and Rarity had fought since their adventure started, which was only three of them if he was being honest, "but what do we do with that strange object the Ancient Dragon gave us?"

"Simple, we approach the giant and enter it's memories," Rarity replied, though as she approached the giant she could tell that her body was turning into some sort of mist, to which she waited for Edric to touch her shoulder before they walked right up to the giant.

A few seconds later the two of them passed right through the giant and time seemed to shift on them, because not even a moment passed before they were in some sort of tunnel that shook, but the air around them felt different, which told Rarity that they had to be in the memory of the dead giant. The two of them then proceeded forward and followed the tunnel until it brought them to a room of the ancient ruin, one that now looked intact and sturdy in comparison to it's future counterpart. At the same time the duo noticed that there were dead soldiers scattered everywhere, meaning that this must be during the time when the Giants attacked Drangleic, though oddly enough there was one living soldier left that happened to notice the duo before they approached the door that would take them out of this area.

"What are you two doing here?" the soldier, a captain in Rarity's eyes based on the armor he was wearing, demanded, though that was before he stared at them and took in the armor they were wearing and the weapons they were carrying at the moment, "Neither of you are one of our soldiers. And I don't take either of you for a mercenary. Whoever the two of you are, this is no battle to involve yourself in. Whether you are guided by bravery, or brashness, this is no place for you."

"Listen, I don't know who you are, but this is the place we're looking for," Rarity replied, to which she beckoned to Edric, who approached the door that separated this room from whatever was on the other side, "now then, if you'll excuse us, we have some searching to do."

"I am Drummond, and the Lord has placed this fort in my hands." the captain stated, to which Rarity turned and looked at him for a moment, as she was curious as to why the man felt the need to give her his name, though she guessed that he really thought that they were a part of the memory and wanted them to leave with their lives, "Whoever the two of you are, I forgive your trespass. But leave this place immediately. Just mention my name, and no man will challenge your exit. And even if you don't, by now, my men have not the will to resist."

"Right, because the Giants are attacking," Edric said, as he remembered what the chancellor of Drangelic Castle had told them, though at the same time he was more interested in leaving this area and getting their mission underway, but one look at the captain's face told him that they wouldn't be leaving just yet.

"Soon, the Giants will descend upon this fort." Drummond told them, to which Edric and Rarity nodded, as they had seen several places where a corpse of a giant rested, indicating that they had indeed attacked this fort at some point during their war against Drangelic and King Vendrick, "It is revenge, for the Kingdom's misguided barbarism. The venerable Lord built this kingdom to bring prosperity to His subjects. What has transformed him so, I can not imagine. Long ago, the King crossed the seas, pillaged the land of Giants, and brought back a 'prize'. It was then that the golems materialized. The Giants are no ordinary barbarians. A singular rage burns within their hearts. My father, and his father, both fought the Giants on this very land. The Giants have wills of steel. They cannot find it within themselves… to forgive the misdeeds of our lord."

"It almost sounds like the Giants had someone leading them," Rarity commented, as that appeared to be the most logical conclusion, because someone had to have urged all of these Giants to go to war with Drangelic, despite the rage and anger the creatures had felt for King Vendrick.

"Did you see him? That towering monster among them." Drummond asked, though his tone immediately told Rarity that she had hit a nail on the head, indicating that there was some sort of ruler for the Giants, even though she had merely guessed at such a thing, "That is most certainly their King. He will be a thing to topple, even if I should die trying! My blade may break, my arrows fall wide, but my will shall never be broken. Those who live by the sword will die by it, and I, Drummond, won't go down without drawing mine!"

That was when Rarity decided that it was time to leave and Edric opened the door in front of them, though as they walked through the passage in front of them they took it slowly, which worked in their advantage because a giant burst through the wall in front of them and collided with the wall across from the first one. Since the creature was stunned Edric charged forward and hacked into it's touch skin, while at the same time Rarity discovered that the giant was weak against magic based attacks, specifically those like her Soul Arrow, and dark based attacks. A few moments passed before the giant pulled itself from the wall and attacked them, proving that it could work through the pain it was feeling and continue it's attack. That was until Rarity toppled it with a well placed Dark Hail, though even with this victory they knew that there were more enemies waiting for them, as by looking outside they could see two more giants waiting in their way.

As Edric dealt with the giant that was wielding a large club, and was dodge rolling to avoid the attacks, Rarity slipped by them and focused her attention on the other one, though her opponent appeared to be a poison spewer, as it tried to fire balls of poison at her and tried to poison her by hitting her with it's left arm. Oddly enough the poison giant was much weaker to dark based attacks than she originally realized, as she was able to drop her foe before Edric finished his off, giving her the chance to move forward and see if she could do some recon on how many enemies were still in their way, despite the fact that she knew it had to be a high number. When she finally found some giants she noticed that they were currently at war with a large group of guards, who were currently being bombarded by fireball throwing giants that there standing on the rooftop above them.

This time around it was Rarity who went on the offensive first, as she started throwing around Dark Hails at the giants on the rooftop, eliminating them before they had a chance to target her, before she backed away as the first melee enemy tried to hit her with it's club. That was around the time where Edric appeared by her side and attacked the enemies in front of him, allowing her to pull back and start using spells to weaken his foes, even though that meant ending one of the three remaining giants in the process. While all of this was going on an even larger giant walked around the corner and approached them, though Rarity could tell that this wasn't the Giant Lord that Drummond had told them about, rather it was a powerful warrior that Edric had to back away from. Fortunately the giant's size really didn't help it all too much, as it only had two enemies to fight and Rarity decided to stay on the ground and use the shadows to her advantage, while Edric climbed up to the rooftops and attacked the creature from there.

After a minute or two of fighting the giant, and it dropping to the ground in defeat, the duo got back together and headed towards the building that was in front of them, which allowed them to enter a room where they discovered a dead giant that was impaled by several spears and other weapons like them... before they walked through the other entrance and headed outside once more.

On the other side of the building they discovered an area that reminded them of the place they walked by in the present day ruins, though in the past it appeared that it had been a flowing river, but they paid it little attention since they now couldn't cross to the other side. The only path available to them at the moment was to head to their left and walk up the stairs that were beside them, to which the duo did that and made their way up to an area where another large giant was standing guard. Upon closer inspection Rarity discovered that the giant was guarding the body of a dead comrade, one whose soul was burning brightly, indicating that they must have discovered what they were searching for and only needed to remove the guardian before retrieving what they came for. Since they knew that the giants were weak to magic and dark based attacks, as well as Edric's attacks when he timed them just right, the duo quickly put their plan into action and swiftly brought the giant down... before Rarity walked up to the corpse and collected the powerful soul that was resting in front of them.

That was immediately followed by the air around them changing as they disappeared from the world of the past, though a few seconds later they reappeared beside the tree giant that the two of them had entered, where Rarity grinned as she turned towards Edric.

"So what do we do with that soul?" Edric asked, because if Rarity was going to figure out what the mysterious item the Ancient Dragon had given them could do, and use it in the manner it was meant for, he knew that she could figure out why they needed more than the one giant soul they had already collected, from the two giants they had found in the Black Gulch area earlier.

"Well, this is just a guess, but maybe we're supposed to free King Vendrick from the Curse," Rarity replied, though she knew that by killing the hollowed king the three keys Shalquoir had given her, the keys that would allow her and Edric to access the domains of the other fallen kings, would become active, "and, by gathering the souls of his enemies, we might be able to weaken him in some manner, making the fight easier for us... when we decide to fight him anyway."

"That's better than what I could have come up with," Edric said, to which he shrugged for a moment, though that was before he raised a hand to his chin as he thought about something, or more like he was recalling where the other treelike giants were resting, "I think there's another giant, like this one I mean, past where we fought the first Pursuer... though, now that I think about that, he's likely still impaled on that crystal spike of yours."

Rarity would have felt sorry for the knight, but since the Pursuer had killed them multiple times, and always made sure to kill her first, she wasn't too sorry for the person that had started her down the path of using Dark Magic, though she simply sighed and nodded her head. From there the duo walked out to where the turtle armored knight had been and turned to the right, entering the large hallway where a statue's sword pierced the side of one of the walls, before they headed right once more and walked up the stairs that were in front of them. After that it was a simple matter for them to walk out onto the area where they fought the Pursuer, where Rarity found that the armored knight was still impaled on the crystal spike she had summoned so long ago... though all she could determine was that her anger and hate had been so great that it made the crystal become a permanent fixture in the landscape.

Instead of dwelling on what had happened the duo headed through the hole in the statue's head, which was resting in their path, and found the second giant that Edric had mentioned, to which he touched Rarity's shoulder again as they walked towards the treelike creature and disappeared as they entered it's memories.

When they appeared in the world of the past once more, however, the duo discovered that they had appeared inside a room that had several ballista pointed in the same direction, though as they took in their surroundings Edric took his hand off of Rarity's shoulder and raised his weapons, as he knew a fight would be coming their way soon enough. From there they found a staircase that allowed them to access the floor above them, where they found the not yet hollowed versions of the soldiers that defended the present day ruins preparing for war with the Giants. The downside to them walking into the area that the soldiers were in was that they weren't friendly and started attacking them immediately, though that was when the duo discovered that the soldiers were as weak as their present counterparts... to which Rarity refrained from using magic while simply using her sword to speak for her, which was what Edric was doing.

Once they were done with these soldiers they climbed the stairs once more and arrived at the top of the building that they had been climbing, where they discovered another group of giants attacking another group of soldiers, to which they walked forward and engaged the giants like they had in the past... only this time the soldiers were killed the instant the two of them started their battle with the two giants that were with them.

It didn't take them long to deal with these two giants, though once the battle was done Rarity discovered that the only ways for them to get to the street level, which would bring them to the soul they were looking for, was for them to either jump down and risk dying or head back to the level they first entered the memory in and use the other path. Edric was quick to determine that heading through the second path, the one they had ignored, was the way to go, to which the two of them retraced their steps down to the lowest level of the building they were on and walked down the new path that they had chosen. As Rarity expected there were a pair of giants standing outside the entrance, though instead of charging out there she had Edric remain still, which was a wise move as several ballista bolts were fired and pierced the giants in front of them... to which Rarity and Edric finished off the two giants before they engaged the soldiers that were manning the ballista at the moment.

A few moments later the soldiers that had been manning the ballista, along with the ballista themselves, were down for the count and the duo walked towards the stairs that were in front of them, though at the top of the stairs they found another giant corpse, complete with the soul they had been searching for... to which they collected the soul and allowed the connection to this time period to be broken again.

"That was significantly shorter than the first giant we passed through," Edric commented, though at the same time he was actually happy about that, because he didn't like seeing what the giants were capable of and didn't like seeing what happened during the war.

"Agreed," Rarity said, though at the same time she stared at the ring that Edric was wearing, the King's Ring, and knew where the third and final giant had to be resting, as she could feel the slight tug of it's energy now that the two of them possessed three of it's kind, "Let's head back to the bonfire for a moment... I think I know where to go from here."

The duo quickly returned to the bonfire that Rarity was talking about, though since they came from the back way, and didn't climb a ladder to reach the hole in the wall, that meant that the two of them could cross the bridge that much sooner and opened the door that was near them. From there they turned left and followed the tunnel until they came to an area were a King's Gate was located, to which Edric nodded and touched the metallic surface with his hand, causing the mechanism to unlock for them. On the other side of the gate they found a bonfire, allowing them to rest for a few minutes before they walked through the entrance in front of them, where they discovered another treelike giant resting diagonally to the right of where they were standing... to which Edric touched Rarity's shoulder one more time as they passed through the veil and entered the past once more.

They found themselves inside a passage that would lead them to the top of a building, though as they followed the stairs upwards they discovered a fog door blocking their way, to which they prepared themselves and walked through it with determination in their eyes... though on the other side they found a large giant, the one that Drummond had told them about, standing on the other side of the section of a wall they were on. Before they could move a head of a statue started rolling down the path they were about to walk on and crushed both the giants and the soldiers that were in front of them, opening the way for them to access the Giant Lord without having them fight anyone else. As they walked forward, however, Rarity noticed that the way their opponent moved, despite the black robe it was wearing, reminded her of the Last Giant they had encountered beneath the ruins... making her wonder if the two creatures were one in the same, but decided that now wasn't the best time to answer that question.

As they approached their target, however, the Giant Lord raised his large sword above his head, where it remained for a few seconds, before bringing it down on the ground in front of him, releasing a shockwave that traveled in a straight line and forced the duo to separate from each other. One thing that Rarity noticed was that the Giant Lord definitely saw her as a threat, as it started targeting her as soon as it's first attack was over, using the sword it was carrying to effectively force her into a position where she couldn't cast a spell without suffering any damage in the process. As Edric approached the Giant Lord from behind, however, their foe seemed to sense this and swung his sword to his right, though before he turned at the same time he was able to cover twice the ground and let his sword connect with Edric's shield, knocking him backwards in the process.

Rarity seized the opportunity and loosed a Dark Hail into the Giant Lord's chest, causing him to stagger for a moment, before her foe turned his head towards her and kicked her into the wall with his massive foot, where he impaled her with his sword and kept her there for a few seconds.

"You know, impaling me isn't going to work anymore," Rarity commented, though as she coughed up some blood the Giant Lord pulled his sword out of her, to which she pulled herself from the wall and hit the ground.

That was followed by the Giant Lord picking her up with his available hand and repeatedly threw her back into the wall that she had pulled herself from, only to pull her out and do it again and again as he ignored what Edric was doing, which was hacking at the Giant Lord's leg. After a few seconds the Giant Lord got tired of Edric's attacks and kicked him away from where he was standing, where he received another Dark Hail to the head, causing him to smash Rarity into the floor before stomping on her several times. That cycle repeated for a few minutes, where Edric would attack the Giant Lord and damage him, allowing Rarity to move and attack as well once the giant's attention was no longer on her, before she would be the focus of the giant's anger once more. It was a painful experience for the two of them, as they weren't expecting this sort of thing to happen at this point in time, but it was the truth of their situation and they dealt with it as best they could... up until the point where the duo toppled the Giant Lord and allowed Rarity to move freely once again.

Despite her Undead nature, and the fact that she didn't feel any pain at all, Rarity still groaned as her body recovered from the beating she had taken, though that required some usage of a shadowy regeneration skill she had picked up from the Dark Magic, one that required her to be standing still and taking no damage to work... though as she did that Edric picked up some sort of item and handed it to her, knowing that she knew exactly what to do with it. From there the duo left the defeated Giant Lord behind and walked through the passage he had been standing near, where they discovered another giant corpse with another soul, giving them four in total now. With the soul in hand the two of them finally departed from the past and returned to the present period that they came from, though once they returned to the ruins they walked over to the bonfire and rested once more.

"Our enemies are getting stronger," Rarity commented, though at the same time she wondered just how strong King Vendrick had to be at this point in time, especially since he had been the one to declare war on the Giants and had defeated the four Great Ones so long ago, "that means that we need to get stronger... and I know how I can do that."

"And how will you get stronger?" Edric inquired, because he knew that Rarity wouldn't have gotten the stuffing beaten out of her if she had spent her souls like he did, but hopefully she had learned her lesson on that matter.

"Simple," Rarity said, though at the same time she knew that Edric was going to think she was crazy, and maybe she was slightly insane for thinking this was a good idea, but it was better than nothing, "I'm going to challenge the Dark Chasm and destroy the Darklurker, allowing me to claim it's power for myself."

It was a gamble and she knew it, but it was the best option she had at the moment and knew that, if she had faith in her abilities, that she might be able to come out on top... but at the same time she knew that one wrong move could very well mean the end of her, which meant that she had to be careful once the trials of the chasm started.

Comments

[HB_DS2013]

Whoa. Rarity took that impaling like a boss... like Dio!

[Blackdrag-rose]

8798195 Over the course of this story several of the 'boss' creatures they have fought impaled her in one way or another... she's kind of used to it at this point in time.