Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose

Visiting Brume Tower

With the Crown of the King and the Crown of the Sunken King in hand, and some souls for their efforts, Rarity and Edric returned to Majula so they could stock up on whatever they needed, or rather repair some of Edric's armor since the next set of foes they were going after were bound to be even stronger than the ones they had just finished off. Once he was ready the duo returned to the bonfire and teleported over to the bonfire that was the closest to where the entrance to the area where they fought the Old Iron King and claimed the Great Soul he had been holding onto. From there they climbed down the ladders that were in front of them and returned to the staircase that would bring them to the ruins that they were searching for, while also taking out a turtle armored knight in the process. After that they approached the crumbling ruins and made their way to the primal bonfire they had ignited the last time they were here, though as they walked into the small chamber they both noticed that there was a new open doorway they could walk through... one that brought them to an identical shrine that took them to Shulva.

As they approached the shrine Rarity pulled out the Heavy Iron Key that she had been given, though before she placed it in the waiting pedestal she glanced over at her companion, knowing that he was still curious as to why they were doing this and was only doing so because the answer was because Shalquoir told them to do it... though she understood that the true answer would become known once they had all four of the crowns.

"So, this is supposed to take us to Brume Tower?" Edric asked, remembering what Rarity had said earlier, about their next destination, though like usual the two of them had no idea what to expect since this was going to be an entirely new location for them to explore.

"That's right," Rarity replied, though at the same time she placed the key on the pedestal and woke up the magic in the air, feeling the teleportation energies getting ready to take them to the tower, before she turned towards her companion once more, "Come on, the next crown awaits our arrival."

Edric stared at her for a few seconds, which he was starting to do ever since she bested the Darklurker and had noticed that she was now excited about fighting something instead of trying to cower behind him, before he sighed and placed his hand on her shoulder once more. A few seconds later the two of them disappeared from where they were standing and reappeared in some sort of chamber, one that had an identical door to the one they opened to see what Shulva looked like. Before they went anywhere they checked the rooms on their left and their right, finding nothing inside them save for some strange statues, to which they ascended towards the door and carefully pushed it open, allowing them to walk onto an elevator that brought them up to a fog door. Edric, seeing what rested in front of them, prepared himself for battle immediately, though Rarity shook her head and stepped through it, revealing that there wasn't a powerful creature waiting for them the moment they arrived... but she did reveal something else.

That something else was a large tower, which appeared to have a top missing, that happened to be resting in front of them with what could have been two other towers resting near it, though that was before the duo noticed that the area around them was on fire, as it resembled a normal area... save for all of the flowing lava, molten rocks, and a great deal of ash in the air, which was more than Rarity was originally expecting to find.

"I guess this is where the Iron King got his iron," Rarity commented, while at the same time noticing the heat in the air as well, where she was thankful that she wasn't in her natural pony form at the moment, otherwise the heat would have killed her outright until she was completely hollowed, "and I'm guessing that the larger tower is going to be where the majority of our attention is going to be."

Edric nodded his head before he and Rarity moved to the right, as they couldn't do anything else, and ascended the stairs that they discovered, though when they reached the top they found that the dead in this area were covered in ash, and that the only way to access the main tower was to cross some rather large iron chains. There was also a human sized ashen colored statue with some sort of spike impaled on it's chest, though as Edric removed the spike, which turned out to be six spikes instead of one, the statue collapsed into a pile of ash. The duo immediately wondered what they were going to do with the spikes, but instead of worrying about them Edric stashed them inside his pack before he and Rarity carefully walked over the large chain that was in front of them. It was an effort to not look down, since there was nothing for them to latch onto if they fell, but after a minute or two of walking over the long section of chain they finally reached the top of the main tower... where they found some gears, the first bonfire, and an area that had a statue of some kind.

The first thing the duo did was activate the bonfire and sit at it for a few seconds, so that way if something did happen to them they would reappear here and not back in the Iron Keep, before they stood up and continued on their way as they explored Brume Tower.

As it turned out the statue that they had seen was actually a throne of some kind, likely the Old Iron King's, though as they approached it some sort of creature clawed it's way out of the ash and revealed itself, though it was a strange idol of some kind that apparently liked to spawn flames that they had to avoid. Rarity sensed that the only way to physically destroy the thing was to drive something into it, no doubt the pointed wedges that they picked up from the ashen statue, but instead of using one at the moment she chose to call Edric off and continued searching the way for a way to descend into the actual tower. As it turned out the way down that they were looking for was to the immediate left of the walkway they used to reach where the idol was resting, to which the duo ignored the idol as they walked down the steps and kept their guards up, since they had no idea what sort of enemies were waiting for them.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs they stopped when they couldn't go any further by simply walking, to which they jumped onto the large metal bucket that was to their left and them hopped down onto the large gear that was below them, where both of them counted themselves lucky that it was stable since it hadn't been used in a long time. From there another jump, this time onto some metal boxes, allowed them to step down onto a walkway where they could actually walk outside the tower, for now anyway, and found an armored hollow pulling itself from the ash while also wielding a pair of large axes. The warrior turned his attention to Edric and charged at him, where Rarity watched as her friend expertly dodged the incoming attacks for a few seconds before getting behind his opponent, where three well placed slashes cut through the defenses and killed the hollow, allowing them to continue once more.

They headed down the ramp that was to their right, which was completely covered in ash, and fought the three warriors that pulled themselves free, where Rarity discovered that their innate magic weakness as to soul based magical attacks, like the Soul Arrows and Soul Spears. Since these guys were easy to destroy all she ended up doing was using the lowest level of that attack, the Soul Arrow that she picked up at the beginning of this journey, and found that it was also easy for her to take them out, though she was willing to pin that on her new level of power. With even the weakest form of this spell killing her targets in one blast, sometimes two, she added dodging incoming attacks and kicking the armored foes in their chests... as the energy she could wrap around her hooves prevented her legs from taking damage while also allowing Edric to impale an enemy if he wrapped up his foes before she did that.

With those enemies taken care of the duo entered the tower once more, using a new entrance at the bottom of the ramp, and walked along the circular walkway until they came to a ladder that happened to be the only way for them to progress at the moment, where they shrugged and climbed down to the level that was below them... though, since it was a rather short climb, they also descended to the level below that one and found an axe shaped weapon. Rarity considered asking why this sort of weapon was referred to as a scythe, as she knew that they had found one in the past, instead of an axe, since the blade wasn't anything like what a scythe should have. The head of the weapon was the same as an axe's, only made longer so it could fit over a longer handle, which was different from the curved head she imagined when she thought of a scythe, though she eventually sighed and pushed that thought to the back of her mind as they walked into the room that was behind them and continued exploring the tower.

At the end of the passage they were in the duo found an iron chest, as all of the metallic chests in the world seemed to have been made from the same material, that was resting near a ladder, so the duo claimed the Titanite Slab that was inside the chest before climbing down into the unknown.

When they reached the bottom of the ladder the duo discovered another ashen idol churning out it's power, though what concerned Rarity was the warriors that were standing near it, as there was no telling what would happen to their enemies when the idols let off their power. As they dropped onto the ashy floor the duo headed into the room near them and took out the warrior that was waiting inside it, though while Rarity spotted a scroll resting in the ash Edric turned around and hacked the warrior that was following them to pieces before it could hurt either of them. Rarity, on the other hand, gently lifted the scroll out of the ash and found that it was the Dace of Fire spell, where she could snap her finger and drag it in a horizontal line. She pulled out her spellbook and magically bound the new spell to it, as when she departed from this world, and she knew it was going to happen sooner or later, she intended to take the book with her and hand the spells over to Twilight, if the book survived the journey anyway.

That was followed by two more warriors erupting from the ash as they passed by the idol, though instead of fighting them near the thing Rarity and Edric pulled them away and approached the door that was on the other side of the room, to which Rarity swung her arm and snapped her fingers... to which a wave of flame moved from left to right in front of her, cutting through the two warriors in a instant, much to their amazement.

The instant the warriors were dead, and they ignored the one that happened to be looking at the center of the tower, Edric pulled the lever that was to their right and the door in front of them opened, allowing them to head to the exterior of the tower once more, though instead of heading downwards they turned right and followed the path that awaited them. As they did that two warriors attacked them from behind, to which Edric fought the first one while Rarity teleported behind the second one, where she summoned a Soul Spear and struck down her target as Edric did the same, allowing them to walk away from the door they had opened. The two of them quickly walked along the path that was to the right of the large door and came to yet another iron door, a smaller person sized one this time around, to which they braced themselves as they opened the door and headed back inside the tower... where they spotted some undead, this time being corpses that were walking, carrying some barrels of what Rarity assumed was powder of some kind.

Rarity held Edric back for a moment as the barrel carrying hollows noticed them, to which she smiled as she waved her hand and threw a Flame Swathe at the closest undead, though as it died in a fiery explosion that caused a chain reaction that killed all of the undead... allowing them to progress without having to worry about foes for a minute.

As they climbed down the ladder that was on the other side of the room, from the door they entered through, the duo noticed some sort of possessed armor that was carrying either a flaming arrow or a flaming sword, while at the same time holding a deadly looking bow in it's left hand. Edric stepped forward and engaged the possessed armor, though as he did so he dodged the incoming attack and rolled out of the way as the armor tried to flatten him by rolling over on top of him, allowing him to deliver a powerful blow to his opponent before he finished it off. From there they continued around the corner that the armor had been guarding and noticed a few more barrier hollows waiting for them, though Edric backed up and let Rarity blow them up with the Flame Swathe spell, opening the way for them to move forward and moved outside the tower again. Rarity and Edric sighed as she spotted a ladder they could use to climb down to the level below them, as it appeared that they were going to be constantly going in and out of the tower before they made any progress in finding the third crown.

On the level below them Edric discovered another warrior and engaged it immediately, allowing Rarity to climb down the ladder that it was guarding, with the intention of following after her once he was done with his target, though at the same time Rarity found two warriors waiting for her. Instead of letting them attack her first, since she was still on the ladder, she let go of it and hurled a pair of Soul Arrows at the warrior that was guarding a wooden chest, crushing it within moments, before she did the same with the other warrior that was marching towards her. A few moments later, after she touched the floor, Edric climbed down the ladder and joined her, where they discovered that the chest contained a fist type weapon, which the two of them stored in their packs before they headed down the short flight of stairs that were in front of them and entered another part of the interior of the tower... though on their immediate right was a bonfire, which they activated instantly.

From there they headed down the path that was opposite of where the bonfire was resting and came to a fog door a few seconds later, one that brought them to the middle of the tower once more, to which the duo sighed as they started to explore the area and search for the way forward. They discovered three paths they could take; an elevator that might take up to an area above them, a metallic bucket that likely took them into the depths of the tower, and a ladder that would allow them to access a level below them. Since two of them seemed to be stalled at the moment, meaning that there was no power inside the tower, they took the ladder into the area that it was connected to, allowing them to see a barrel hollow that walked backward and fell through a section of the floor that closed up behind it, while also looking like it might do the same thing if they walked on it... but instead of following it they headed out of the area they were in and followed the path on their right. That allowed them to approach an iron door a few moments later, though as they opened it the two of them discovered more barrel hollows waiting for them, to which Edric immediately retreated as Rarity waved her hand as she ducked out of the room as well.

A few moments later they saw the light of the explosion occur and walked back into the room, where they discovered that the barrel hollows had been taken care of, including the other barrels that had been resting around the room, before they approached a wall that allowed them to survey what was in the room they would be heading into next... where they spotted a large suit of iron armor, likely possessed, standing guard in front of a large door.

Instead of wasting time the duo dropped into the area, where Edric immediately killed the warrior that was standing near them while Rarity impaled another warrior with a pair of Soul Arrows, though as the duo stood up Edric charged at the larger iron warrior while Rarity took care of the remaining normal warriors. What Rarity discovered as that this area also contained one of those idols and had two warriors, one on their level and another on the level above them, that were prepared for battle, though the one on their level separated itself from the idol, allowing Rarity to finish it off before hurling another pair of Soul Arrows at the warrior that was throwing fire pots at them. That was followed by Edric toppling the ironclad warrior, to which the two of them approached the switch and flipped it, opening the large iron door and allowing them to walk outside the tower once more, though as they did so some of the defeated warriors and armor sets came back to life in the area in front of them and attacked them.

It didn't take them long to finish off the enemies that were around them, not since the majority of them were easy to take care of and they knew how to beat all of them, before they walked forward and followed the pathway that was waiting for someone to walk along it.

As they walked along the exterior of the tower Rarity spotted a mage type enemy that was raising her hand to cast a spell at them, to which she smiled and threw a screaming sphere into the air, where the mage stopped what she was doing as she stared at the attack, which disappeared and slammed into her back, knocking their foe off of where she happened to be standing and flung her into the open area between them. Rarity watched the mage for a few seconds, finding that their foe had landed in another area and was trying to fire up at them, though she paid her no attention as she and Edric continued walking forward. Along the way three more warriors rose from the ash and tried to assault them, but both of them were quick to take out the enemies that came at them as they reached an area where another mage enemy was standing, which Rarity took out with a pair of screaming spheres, to be sure that it died this time around. At the end of the walkway they discovered yet another ladder that allowed them to descend further downwards, to which the duo sighed as they climbed down the ladder.

Before they even reached the bottom of the ladder the duo noticed some warriors gathering nearby, indicating that they would have a fight on their hands, though neither of them were worried at the moment, especially since they noticed a fog door waiting for them. The instant they touched the floor Rarity turned towards the enemies that were standing on the ashen ground and snapped her fingers as she moved her hand, using the Dance of Fire to obliterate the two warriors that were in front of her, while at the same time Edric cut down the one that was in their way. From there they walked through the fog door and descended the stairs that were in front of them, allowing them to reach what appeared to be the heart of the tower, if the giant contraption in front of them was anything to go by, though at the same time they explored the area and looked for anything useful. They discovered two interesting things, the first being a slot where they could slip something incredibly important into, much like the Dragon Stone from Shulva... meaning that they had their way to power the tower, once they found the power source.

The other thing was that there was a bonfire near the contraption, allowing them to take a short break before they continued exploring Brume Tower as they hunted down the Crown of the Old Iron King... and the guardians that would be guarding such an important treasure.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

I see what ur doing here. your mixing locations from he first one into the second game either that or the expansion for the second one, scholar of the first sins (which i havent played yet) has all of these locations in it. either way great story. This one and your dead space chryssi story have so far become my favs among your works

[Blackdrag-rose]

8837041 Dark Souls 2 has three expansions, which contain Shulva, Brume Tower, and Frozen Eleum Loyce as the locations. The scholar of the first sin edition includes all three of these in the bundle... and I had forgotten that some of these three might have been in the prior game.

And I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying some of the stories.

[Randablitz]

8837061
Soon, our two hollows can either inherit the order of the world, or destroy it.

[Blackdrag-rose]

8837690 Yep, they just need to collect two more crowns and defeat the guardians of the throne... and then it's the decision of a lifetime.

[Midnight Moon]

She pulled out her spellbook and magically bound the new spell to it, as when she departed from this world, and she knew it was going to happen sooner or later, she intended to take the book with her and hand the spells over to Twilight, if the book survived the journey anyway.

Twilight will have such a field day with that...