Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose

The First Crown

Once Rarity had rested a bit, upon Edric insisting that she rest after her fight with the Darklurker, the two of them gathered near the bonfire once more and focused on what they were going to do next, which was them teleporting back to the Undead Crypt, where the hollowed King Vendrick was waiting. When they returned to the crypt they made sure to select the first bonfire, as there was really no reason to choose the second one when it was surrounded by the wraiths that they had seen earlier. Of course that meant that they had to deal with a torch carrying undead and some of the other unfortunate hollows that were with it, but the mage enemies that resided in this area gave Rarity the chance to test her new power out, to which she shimmered for a moment before appearing behind the mages. Edric looked at that in shock, as he was sure that Rarity already had a teleportation spell, one that she didn't use, but this one seemed to be different, as all she did was think of her destination and she was there, without casting a single spell.

Instead of drawing her sword to deal with these mages, who were slow on the uptake, Rarity held her left hand out and an energy blade, baring a faint black color like the aura that had surrounded her during the fight with the Darklurker, extended from her hand. She swung her arm at the mage on her left and literally cut the unfortunate hollow in half, though she paid little attention to it's soul energy as she dodged the incoming Soul Arrow from one of the other mages and pierced it's heart. She then used the second mage as a shield for the third one's attacks, though once the mage stopped firing Rarity opened a portal in the wall to her left and threw a small black orb into it, allowing a screaming orb to surge out of a portal behind her foe, blowing the mage to pieces... to which she let go of the mage she had been using as a shield and stared at the three bodies, surprised by how powerful she had actually gotten since she fought the Darklurker.

"Amazing," Edric said, as he had seen how strong Rarity had grown since they started their journey, going from a weak sorceress to a powerful mage in the span of what could have been a few days, and yet he was still surprised by her rapid growth, "Just how much power did you take from the Darklurker?"

"I'm pretty sure I took all of it's power..." Rarity replied, though once more she flexed her fingers and made sure that nothing was wrong, as she wasn't used to the seemingly endless power that was now at her fingertips, as if she had taken what had once been a small amount of mana and shattered it's limits, allowing her to indefinitely cast spells now, "Twilight is going to freak out when I tell her what happened to me."

"Why would she freak out over something like this?" Edric asked, as while he kind of knew the name, as Rarity might have mentioned it once or twice in the past, he was more focused on the mission at hand, which was why the two of them got moving the moment she was ready.

"Because I'm fairly sure that I reached the limit of my potential and then promptly shattered it," Rarity answered, to which she sighed for a moment, because now that something unusual was happening to her she wished that she had listened to Twilight's brief lesson on this subject, "Everyone in Equus, even the Princesses, have limits to their power and in rare cases some are born without those initial limits, meaning that the ones who are born with great power have even greater limits to overcome. There are only a few known cases of a pony breaking their limits, though Twilight would be the one who knew those names, especially since I never paid attention to that lesson of hers. Anyway, I know that when I tell Twilight about this adventure, minus some of the more horrible aspects, she'll be shocked when she learns that I have broken my limits."

Edric still wasn't sure that he understood what Rarity was saying, as magic was a foreign subject for him, but all he gathered from her statement was that it was rare for a pony to break their limits, though when it happened they gained incredible power as a result. He remembered her saying something about other ponies walking through the same mirror that she had walked through, which was actually a portal between worlds if her story was to be believed, and wondered if the other members of her species were going through the same thing that she was... before he sighed and decided that it was best if he didn't break his mind trying to think about what happened.

Together the duo walked through the Undead Crypt once more, following the path they had walked the first time they had come to this place, though this time around none of the warriors, soldiers, and hollows posed much of a threat to the duo as they walked. Part of the reason was because Edric knew the attack patterns of each enemy they fought and knew how to damage them, allowing him to put his upgraded strength to the test as he finished off the enemies that wanted to battle him. Another reason was because of Rarity's new power, as she was able to bypass the large shields that the knights and soldiers carried with her new teleportation power, though even if she didn't use that power she could always open small portals and throw powerful screaming orbs at her targets, much like the Darklurker did to her earlier. She was still getting used to her new powers, since she had never used anything like her earlier foe had done, though she was happy to find that they were useful against all of their opponents.

It wasn't long before they reached the stairs that would take them down to the area that the last of King Vendrick's knights were standing in, the final guards between them and and the King, but Rarity decided to show them that she wasn't messing around. Edric followed several steps behind Rarity as she lifted her right hand into the air and three large fireballs, Forbidden Suns he quickly realized, appeared above her head, though before he could be shocked by the display of power something else happened. Edric watched as the three spheres merged into a single mass and the floor shook for a moment, as if a godly power was visiting the area, though he was sure that several cracks appeared in the walls around them, but thankfully they weren't large enough to do any lasting damage to anything important. It was then that Edric found out that the display was to put some fear in the knights that were in front of them, as some of them actually backed away from Rarity... to which the two of them walked passed the knights before entering the room where the large golden knight had been earlier, where Rarity cancelled out her attack and continued towards King Vendrick.

They found the hollowed King wandering around the same chamber that he had been in when they came to claim the King's Ring, though this time around there were here for something more important, something that Edric had been meaning to ask about and was now going to voice.

"So, why are we here again?" Edric inquired, because it seemed like Shalquoir had convince Rarity to go on another quest of sorts, without telling him anything about what they would be doing.

"Shalquoir gave me three keys, each going to a different location," Rarity explained, as she wasn't sure as to whether or not she had actually told Edric about what they were going to do, besides try and find the King anyway, "according to our friend each of these areas contains a powerful crown that once belonged to the king of that area. From what I can gather we need the four crowns for something important and killing Vendrick will allow us to claim his crown... as well as open the way to the other three locations. I don't know what the crowns do exactly, but maybe they'll help us overcome the Curse at long last."

Edric could see why Shalquoir would have waited to tell them about such a thing, as she could have easily determined that the four Great Souls were the test to be sure that they were ready for the second part of their trials, which would require the death of the current monarch to start. He also realized that he could be overthinking everything and the crowns would serve no purpose, but at the same time he knew that there was a reason behind why Shalquoir gave Rarity the keys and decided to trust the cat once more. With that in mind he drew his weapon once more and walked into the area in front of them, where Rarity walked beside him as they both kept their eyes on King Vendrick, who was still ignoring them and hadn't noticed that he had company... revealing that he was more hollow than they originally realized.

Since he knew why they had come here, as it appeared that by killing King Vendrick they could activate the keys and find his crown, Edric approached the hollowed King and swung his sword, feeling the hate of the giants rush along the blade for a moment as he cut into Vendrick's leg, though it wasn't very deep at all. Vendrick stopped moving for a moment before he turned and looked at Edric, though as Edric removed his blade and backed away the hollowed King lifted his large sword into the air and leapt off the ground. That was followed by him bringing the blade down on where Edric was standing, though he rolled out of the way before the hit could connect and got back onto his feet as Rarity moved to the side, studying their foe for any weaknesses. From what she could determine Vendrick didn't have any elemental weaknesses, not like all of the other enemies they had fought so far, but since she had been powered up she knew that they would eventually win this fight.

When Edric dodged the next jump attack, however, Rarity was waiting as she snapped open two portals and let a screaming sphere of dark energy collide with Vendrick's chest, knocking him backwards for a moment, giving Edric the opportunity to cut a long gash into the King's left arm before backing away. Vendrick quickly recovered from the damage that they had dealt to him and continued his assault, where this time around he started swinging his large sword at whoever was in front of him, switching from Edric to Rarity and back with little warning. Fortunately the duo was ready for such a tactic, as all they had to do was carefully watch what their foe was doing and plan accordingly, though when Rarity was the target she used a barrier to block the attacks, allowing Edric a chance to attack from behind. The screaming sphere that Rarity had acquired from the Darklurker proved to be a great power to have as well, as she could literally attack Vendrick from any direction, meaning that he'd have no way of predicting her movements until the attack hit his body and caused him to stagger.

Rarity also discovered that she had access to all of the Darklurker's powers and not just the more common ones that had been shown off to her, as she could now create a phantom pair of wings, since she didn't have any of her own, and flap them forward in a motion that caused an explosion to happen in front of her. She made sure to use that power when Edric wasn't standing near Vendrick, as she didn't want to hurt her friend in the process, though the damage it dealt certainly weakened the hollowed King by a good amount. She even had the ability to create near perfect replicas of herself that fought like she would and possessed the same level of power that she did, making her realize why the Darklurker had used the power during their fight... but while she could easily create two copies right off the back, however, she only did it for a few moments, to distract Vendrick from what she was really planning, before she banished the copies. She knew that she, alone, could overpower the hollowed King with her new power, but at the same time she wanted the fight to be a little more fair and didn't use the merged Forbidden Sun technique.

In the end, however, she and Edric toppled the hollowed King, where he staggered for a moment before falling towards the ground, where Vendrick landed on his side and breathed his last before he faded away... to which Rarity and Edric walked out of the area he had been roaming and returned to the closest bonfire, before teleporting back up to the second bonfire in the Shrine of Amana.

"So this is where the first crown is hiding?" Edric asked, because at this point he wasn't about to doubt Rarity, not when she was right about so many things, nor was he about to doubt Shalquoir, who he was beginning to suspect was actually a bored god and not a simple shopkeeper.

"Yes, and I can feel it beckoning for me to come find it," Rarity replied, referring to the feeling she had felt the last time they were in this area, as she had almost deviated from the path to see if she could find the source of the power, before she beckoned for Edric to follow, "Let's get that crown and see if we can't open the way to the area that the second crown is resting in."

As they left the ruins that the second bonfire in the shrine's area was located, however, the mage enemies that called this area home started targeting them, but Rarity simply frowned at them as she surrounded herself and Edric in a magical barrier. At the same time, however, Rarity opened a single portal inside the barrier and started throwing screaming spheres out at the mages that were targeting them, where Edric watched as their foes were blown backwards as they continued walking towards their destination. It didn't take them long to reach the bridge that was slightly beneath the water, to which the two of them started walking over it as they approached the rock wall in front of them, where they noticed that there were some branches that might be hiding something. When they approached the branches and cut them down, revealing the iron door that was behind hidden behind them, to which Rarity walked toward and touched the door... where it glowed for a moment before allowing itself to be opened, where the duo found a chair that contained the King's soul.

With the soul in hand Rarity turned towards the path on the left of the doorway and followed the path that was in front of them, where she lead Edric up towards a chest... one that, when opened, revealed a suit of armor that matched what was resting in the area they found Vendrick in, along with an iron crown that radiated power.

"The King's Crown," Rarity said, staring at the crown with a smile on her face, though as Edric collected the armor and the crown she felt some new information enter her mind, to which she pulled out the three keys she had been given earlier, before she looked at the Dragon Talon for a second, "I see, so Shulva is our next destination."

"And where is this Shulva?" Edric asked, because he was sure that his companion knew the location of the door, if Shalquoir was willing to hand over the three keys anyway.

"We need to backtrack to the Black Gulch for a few moments," Rarity replied, though at the same time she stored the keys inside her pack while Edric did the same with the crown, before she beckoned for him to follow, "Come on, let's begin the hunt for the second of the four crowns."

Edric still had no idea why they needed the four crowns, but since it was Shalquoir who gave them this mission he wasn't going to say anything about it... though that didn't stop him from wondering what sort of challenges he and Rarity would face when they reached their next destination.

Comments

[zachary12]

nice work.

[Randablitz]

Two crowns remain, then the most important choice in Dark Souls 2-Scholar of the First Sin awaits: Inherit the order of the world, or destroy it t!

[Blackdrag-rose]

8814595 Actually, three crowns remain, as there are four total crowns in Dark Souls 2. The four crowns are the King's Crown, the Crown of the Sunken King, the Crown of the Iron King, and the Crown of the Ivory King.

[erictheblue]

"Because I'm fairly sure that I reached the limit of my potential and then promptly shattered it," Rarity answered, to which she sighed for a moment, because now that something unusual was happening to her she wished that she had listened to Twilight's brief lesson on this subject, "Everyone in Equus, even the Princesses, have limits to their power and in rare cases some are born without those initial limits, meaning that the ones who are born with great power have even greater limits to overcome. There are only a few known cases of a pony breaking their limits, though Twilight would be the one who knew those names, especially since I never paid attention to that lesson of hers. Anyway, I know that when I tell Twilight about this adventure, minus some of the more horrible aspects, she'll be shocked when she learns that I have broken my limits."

i've read a few stories where "breaking her limits" results in a pony becoming an Alicorn.