• Published 28th Oct 2017
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Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials - Blackdrag-rose



Rarity's curiosity gets the better of her and she steps through the crystal mirror. Now she's in an unfamiliar world, with an unfamiliar body, and she's cursed with being undead as well... and has to complete an insane quest to go home.

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The Squalid Defenders

Rarity and Edric remained sitting by the bonfire for a few moments, where they made sure that they were well rested for the trials ahead, before they started moving again, though Edric insisted on exploring the area around them instead of remaining near the bonfire. Rarity went along with his suggestion, since she had no idea where they might find the foes that guarded the second crown, though as they moved towards the right of the bonfire the malformed dragon creatures glared at them and charged with the intent to kill them. Fortunately these enemies were weak against dark based attacks, meaning that the Dark Orbs and screaming spheres were more than enough for them to take care of their foes, especially since they only came at them one at a time, allowing them to focus their efforts on one enemy before moving forward. Thanks to that it didn't take them long to reach the area that Edric wanted to explore, as it was an alter of sorts with a circular stone that looked like a shield, and it also had an intent on it that looked familiar.

Rarity took a moment to look to their right, finding a passage they could use to go somewhere else, before noticing that there was a walkway high in the air above them, like a bridge that was missing two pieces of it for some odd reason, though they both knew what they needed to do.

"I am so happy that we keep finding the keys before the slots they're supposed to go to," Rarity commented, to which she pulled out the Dragon's Stone, the item they had found in the hidden area earlier, and carefully inserted it into the slot that they were standing in front of, "Now then, let's see what this unlocks."

The moment the Dragon's Stone was in it's proper place the shield like stone sunk into the floor until the majority of it was under their feet and hooves, though that was before the duo watched as two sections of the bridge rose out of the water nearby and only stopped when they reached the same level as the part of the bridge that they had spotted earlier, forming a perfect walkway between what was ahead of them and the top of the temple.

"I'm not sure how we're going to get up there, but at least the bridge is complete." Edric said, to which he sighed for a moment, because it actually seemed like they were going to get somewhere with putting the stone in it's slot, but at least they knew that a way was open, "Let's keep searching... there has to be a way to access that area."

From there the duo walked through the doorway that was to the right of the alter and found themselves in a small room that had a button, one that summoned a square elevator of sorts, though instead of taking it instantly they walked through the other entrance and followed the path to the end, where they discovered a blade that had an insignia that looked like dragon's blood. Edric decided to switch to the new weapon, as he had been using the same old sword since the beginning of their journey, though with the new weapon in hand they returned to the elevator and stepped onto it, where they waited as it rode upwards and passed through the passage that had been crafted for it. A few moments later the elevator came to a stop, though as they walked out and discovered that there was a second elevator, likely taking them even higher, Rarity smiled as she noticed that the level they were on was the level were the stone bridge was located, meaning that they could now access the temple itself.

Edric insisted that, before they moved on, he take his new weapon back to the blacksmith and upgrade it to the level of the one he had been using the entire time, where Rarity nodded and followed him as he rode the second elevator back to the entrance of Shulva. Instead of following him further she remained near the bonfire and stared at the city they had been walking through as Edric teleported back to Majula and got his new weapon upgraded, giving her time to think about what they had seen so far and where the crown had to be resting. A few minutes passed before Edric, carrying a blade that the blacksmith called the drakeblood greatsword, returned to where Rarity was standing, to which they stepped back onto the elevator and rode down to the level below them. From there they carefully crossed over the stone bridge, just in case they encountered any enemies, before they reached the other side and walked up the stairs that were in front of them, where the duo entered a chamber that had one open path they could choose from.

The duo dropped down through the opening in the floor that was in front of them and landed on a fragment of a staircase, where they jumped over the gap behind them and walked down the rest of the stairs, knowing that the only way back up, save for dying, was Rarity's teleportation spell. They then walked through the doorway that they discovered and dropped down onto the walkway below them, before dropping down onto the side of the chamber they were heading towards. They started walking down the hallway to their left and found that there was a room on their immediate right with two circular doorways with a knight guarding them, though this time the knight didn't have corroded armor or weapons like the previous soldiers they had encountered so far. What they discovered was that the black armored knight was stronger than the other knights they had fought in the previous areas, though Edric discovered that it was easy to parry the knight's attacks and slip several attacks passed the shattered defenses... before finally bringing an end to the knight, allowing them to see what was so special about the doors.

As it turned out the door on the entrance's left brought them to an area that contained four chests, all of them having been looted by someone else, while the door on the right revealed a set of four titanite lizards, which Rarity trapped with her magic so Edric could take them out and collect their items... before they returned to the hallway and followed it towards the next area they needed to go through.

Rarity and Edric reached another broken bridge that let them drop down to a walkway, allowing them to walk around the exterior of a large square and found another black knight standing near some stairs, where Edric dealt with their foe before it could overwhelm them in some manner. Instead of dropping into the area in front of them, where a knight was patrolling, they took the safer route and made their way along the path that was in front of them, though as they rounded a corner Rarity tapped one of the walls on their left and opened a secret compartment. Inside the secret area rested a bonfire, one that they eagerly lit before they followed the bend in the path, which brought them to some stairs that had a knight standing at the bottom step, clearly waiting for intruders. Rarity found out, when she attacked the knight from afar, that these enemies weren't weak to the elements like the majority of their previous foes, but that didn't stop her from ruining the knight with her magic... or from Edric doing the same to the other knight they had spotted when they were above the area the pair had been guarding.

Once those two foes had been taken care of they made their way down the path on their left and came to another chamber that was filled with open chests, once more revealing that someone had looted the place already, though at the same time they found a corpse that contained the entire suit of armor that one of the black knights was wearing. Edric noticed that it was likely stronger than his own armor, since he hadn't upgraded or switched armor sets since the one he found near where the first Pursuer had been, but the look in his eyes told Rarity everything that she needed to know before she dragged him back to the secret bonfire and sent him back to Majula. She knew that Edric must have been depending on her power for quite some time, since he never bothered to switch weapons and armor, but now that he was defining his fighting style he needed to make sure he had the gear to overcome any damage that was dealt to him and to deal the same damage in return... which was why she was having him fix up the armor as well, even though that meant the two knights would be back when he returned.

Sure enough Edric returned a few minutes later, wearing the full drakeblood knight armor set, but he had a purple piece of cloth tied around one arm, that way Rarity knew that which knight was him and which were the enemies, to which she nodded and they pressed onward once more.

From there the duo made their way to a central tower of sorts and carefully climbed down the shattered staircase and landings that were in front of them, eventually allowing them to reach the bottom of the tower and come face to face with a fog door, one that they merely stared at for a few seconds before they pushed themselves through it. It was then that they discovered that their foe was a lady of some kind, mostly based on the chest and face areas, though she was dressed in an ugly gown that appeared to be made up of some sort of vine, or something else entirely. Their foe was also singing for some reason, which stopped when they entered the area and stared at her, though the duo also noticed that she carried a weapon that looked like a cross between a staff and an axe, and that she happened to be standing in front of a stone carving of a dragon... maybe the same dragon that they had seen earlier, when they first entered Shulva.

"Huh!" the lady said, to which she turned around and faced the duo, though based on her features, and how impossible it was to read them, all the duo could guess was that she was annoyed with them, much like every other foe they had fought so far, "You were not deserving of the mireā€¦"

Edric and Rarity decided to do what they normally did against the powerful creatures that they encountered, they split up and tackled the creature in two ways, since Edric charged up to where the lady was standing and swung his new sword at her while Rarity stayed at the back and experimented with the elements to see which she was mostly weak against. From what she could tell magic and fire based attacks seemed to be the strongest of the four, while lightning and dark based attacks seemed to be the weakest, meaning that she had an understanding of which spells she could use before the fight got serious, especially since the lady teleported away from Edric and appeared some distance away from where she had previously been standing. As Rarity followed where the lady was going she could have sworn that she heard someone, who sounded similar to Shalquior, whispering the name Elana to her with an image of the lady following it, along with the name Sinh and an image of the dragon they had seen... giving her the names of their targets.

Elana had a habit of using the Flame Swathe spell to target Edric, along with throwing dark based magic at him in general when he was near her, though she also teleported away after he hit her once, meaning that he had to let Rarity deal some damage with her spells before their foe moved to a new part of the area and forced them to start again. When Edric did get hit it wasn't by the magic, it was by the axe-staff that their foe was carrying, which seemed to do a good deal of damage that Rarity healed before Edric charged into battle once more. What Rarity found to be odd was that literally every aspect of her magic had been empowered, because the Darklurker never used a healing spell and her own healing abilities did wonders for her companion, even repairing his dented armor from where he was hit, much to their surprise and delight, since it meant he might not have to get it repaired at the blacksmith anymore. All Rarity was able to figure out was that both her offensive and defensive capabilities had been greatly improved since she absorbed the power of the Darklurker and shattered her limits... though she didn't want to think about what might happen if she found and shattered the new limits on her already considerable abilities.

Elana also had the interesting ability to summon a trio of skeletons that were either glowing red or glowing green, both of which were bad for the duo, summon a group of piglets to the battlefield, like the ones that had attacked them while they were searching for the final Great Soul, and even a knight that resembled the one that had been guarding King Vendrick earlier... though all of them forced the duo to take them out when they arrived so they could turn their full attention back to Elana.

With her considerable powers, and how much damage they could do if the duo wasn't paying attention to their surroundings, it took Rarity and Edric some time to master how Elana conducted her battle before they were able to cut down the amount of damage that their foe dealt to them. At the same time Rarity had to guess that Elana must have been born from some sort of darkness, as her power was definitely on a different level, though the Darklurker still proved to be a more challenging foe in her mind. Despite all the damage Elana could do, with all of her abilities, Rarity proved to be the superior magic user, as she ended the fight by calling forth three Forbidden Suns and merged them into a single entity, surprising Edric with the power they commanded as the area shook a little, before she blasted Elana with them... knocking her into the wall before her, before she dropped to the ground and stopped moving.

That allowed the duo a breather as Elana's body broke apart and her soul was given to them, like all the other powerful creatures they had bested, though at the same time the dragon carving split down the middle, vertically anyway, and pulled apart a little bit to reveal a passage... one that brought them to a bonfire, which they activated and sat around while they stared at the fog door that was in front of them.

"What are the odds that two powerful creatures would be back to back?" Edric asked, as he didn't think such a thing was likely, but at the same time he wanted to know what Rarity's opinion on the matter was, since her power was still going to be the key to their success.

"Considering that we haven't fought any powerful creatures until Elana," Rarity said, gesturing to the area they had come from, allowing Edric to understand that the lady was Elana, before returning her gaze to the second fog door, "I'd hazard a guess that there's a second foe waiting behind it... and it's got to be Sinh, the dragon we saw earlier."

"How do you know their names?" Edric inquired, as this was the first time he had heard Rarity say either name, but at the same time he had an idea of who might have told him the names before they came to Shulva, especially since the cat seemed to favor Rarity more than anyone else.

"I'm pretty sure Shalquoir whispered them to me while we were fighting Elana," Rarity replied, though that was when she shook her head and pulled herself off the ground, to which she started to approach the second fog door, "Come on, let's not keep Sinh waiting."

The duo approached the fog door and walked through it, finding that the area they came to was a large cavern, which made sense considering where Shulva was located, with some carved pillars on their left and right and an alter of sorts resting in front of them. As they approached the alter Rarity noticed that there was a slumbering form behind the alter, though as she realized that Sinh was actually sleeping the dragon snapped it's eyes open and stared at them for a moment before roaring as it pulled itself off the ground and stood at it's full height. It was then that Rarity discovered that Sinh was an actual dragon, as it had four legs and a pair of wings instead of the two legs and wings that they wyverns had, but that didn't make the fight any easier for them, especially since Sinh's fire breath might actually be a poison breath, if the first gout of flames was anything to go by.

Sinh immediately took to the air and started flying around the area, breathing his poison-fire breath wherever he wanted, namely targeting one of them in the process, though at the same time the duo separated from each other as they considered their options. Rarity, of course, fell back on her practice of seeing which elements were suited for the foe she and Edric were fighting, where she quickly determined that Sinh had some good resistance for fire, magic, and lightning based attacks, though it appeared that dark based attacks were where his weakness was. The only problem for Edric was that Sinh was constantly moving, as the dragon was going from the air to the ground, barely giving Edric time to get over to where he was resting, before he as in the air again and was firing a poison-fire fireball at him, which Rarity stopped with a shield to protect Edric when he was caught off guard. When Sinh did land for a few moments Edric charged at him and used his new sword to cut into the beast's side, intending to do as much damage as possible, while at the same time Rarity blasted him in the head with a trio of Dark Orbs.

One thing they had to be careful about was getting too close to Sinh for too long, since he had a habit of trying to crush his opponents with his massive body or rearing up on his hind legs so he could breath fire down at whoever was in front of him, but that just made the fight all the more challenging. Sinh was also fond of spinning around while he was on the ground, using his tail like a whip to deal a good bit of damage to the duo, adding another element to the fight that they had to keep track of. Edric suggested that they cut the tail off, making it impossible for the beast to use it anymore, but at the same time Rarity decided that doing so would be a terrible decision, as it might make Sinh take to the skies and not come back down to fight them with it's claws. Since it was already hard to keep track of Sinh while he was in the air, on account for how quickly he moved despite the area around him, keeping him on the ground seemed like the better choice at the moment, something that Edric eventually agreed with when Rarity explained it to him.

When Sinh returned to the skies the duo had to be careful and track him to the best of their ability, because he enjoyed flying all over the place and seemed to love breaking all the stone pillars that were in the area, preventing them from hiding if they had decided to do that. Sinh also breathed his foul poison-fire breath and fireballs on the duo while he was in the air, while also quickly slamming his belly into ground in an attempt to squish one of them before he returned to the air. Rarity was surprised by all the damage that they could deal to Sinh, without making him fall to the ground in defeat, while also slightly shocked by all of the damage that could be caused to them if they weren't paying attention, meaning that the enemies they were being sent after were at least near the level of the Darklurker... and she honestly didn't want to know what was waiting for them in the other two areas they needed to explore for the remaining two crowns that they were after.

Eventually Rarity and Edric toppled Sinh, as Rarity had pooled a trio of Dark Orbs together in the fashion of the Darklurker's fusion of the Forbidden Suns, before blasting the dragon out of the air and caused it to hit the ground hard, though as they gathered Sinh's soul something fell to the ground... something that Rarity caught with her magic and smiled when she noticed that it was a regal crown, the very item they came for based on the power she felt.

"The Crown of the Sunken King," Rarity said, to which she showed it to Edric for a moment, who smiled as well when he looked at the item they had been searching for, before she returned it to her bag, "next stop, Brume Tower and the Crown of the Old Iron King."

She had an idea where the shrine that would allow them to reach Brume Tower was located and knew that Edric would follow her as they recovered the two remaining crowns, though it seemed like their challenges were far from over, especially with how powerful Elana and Sinh had been... and the next few enemies were likely going to be as tough as these enemies were, but Rarity and Edric would be ready for them when they showed up.

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