Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose

Guardian of the Crown

The moment the duo was done resting, and had recovered from their fight with the Blue Smelter Demon, Rarity and Edric used the bonfire that was in the cave they found and teleported back to the one that was near the slot they had put the scepter into. From there the duo walked out and waited for the statue to return to the level that was below them, where they first discovered the key they had acquired, though when it came to a stop they walked onto the walkway and followed it to a point where a second statue was supposed to bring a platform to. They waited for a few seconds before the platform appeared in front of them, which allowed them to descend downwards once more, though when the statue came to a stop the duo discovered that the path they needed to take was behind them and that there were two options for them to choose from this time around. The downside to that discovery was that they didn't notice it until the statue was moving back up to the level they had been on moments ago, to which they patiently waited for it to reach the two paths and jumped off onto the top walkway that was in front of them.

From there Rarity and Edric walked forward and entered the chamber that the path was leading them to, where they discovered a hole in the flooring that would allow them to jump down to the floor below them and an iron chest that contained a ring, one that they pocketed before continuing along the path in front of them.

When they dropped into the room below them Rarity spotted an ashen warrior that carried a pair of axes that happened to be on fire, though Edric proved that he wasn't worried about that fact as he rolled behind the warrior and cut it down from behind. Rarity noticed that the enemy on the floor below them was carrying a halberd and looked ready for combat, though before Edric had a chance to move down there she launched a trio of Soul Arrows through the air and impaled the warrior, allowing them to drop down and not have to worry about enemies for that level. The duo of warriors that were on the next floor happened to be separated from each other at the moment, so while Edric dropped down and targeted one of them Rarity did the same trick against the second one, to which the duo simply removed the pair of enemies with some ease as they looked around for anything of use to them. Before they jumped down to the levels below them, and dealt with the enemies that were waiting for them, the duo noticed that there was a ruined part of the floor that would collapse if someone walked on it... to which Edric heaved the body of one of the warriors that they had taken out and watched as the ruined floor collapsed, and heard a few more collapse in the process.

Rarity and Edric looked down at the opening they had created and noticed that they had created a pathway all the way to the bottom floor, though it appeared to be dangerous and they opted to take it one floor at a time, to which they jumped down to the floor below them and took out the warrior that was waiting for them. What surprised them was that the next floor had no warriors at all, to which the duo looked at each other for a moment before jumping into the hole and moved onto the next floor. There they found two more warriors minding their own business, to which they split apart from each other for a few seconds as Edric cut down one of their enemies and Rarity blasted the other one with her Soul Arrows, though once they took them out Edric picked up a spear with a broad blade at the end, which he stored away before they continued downwards. As they reached the final floor, as Rarity recognized it from what she had seen earlier, the duo discovered an ironclad warrior standing guard in front of a large iron door, to which Edric stepped forward as Rarity watched him fight.

She still found it amusing that there were times that Edric insisted on fighting these foes without her help, since she was so used to be asked for assistance by her friends, but at the same time she was ready to jump in if he called for aid... which didn't happen, since he felled the ironclad warrior not a few seconds later.

With the ironclad warrior defeated Edric pulled the lever and opened the large iron door, allowing him and Rarity to see another part of the tower that the larger statues were kept in, though these ones appeared to be cooled off and had been rendered incomplete since the Old Iron King never finished them. As they walked forward Rarity could feel the slight hum of power in her ear, meaning that they were drawing even closer to the Crown of the Old Iron King, though at the same time Edric took out the possessed armor that was standing in their way. When Rarity noticed that the armor was covered in ash, not from rising out of the ashen ground, the armor picked itself back up and turned towards Edric, though before anything else happened Rarity flashed between them and blasted the armor backwards before the two of them quickly made their way to the passage on the other side of the room. When they reached the other side of the chamber Rarity quickly blasted the second possessed armor and the ashen warrior that were waiting for them, allowing them to enter the hallway they had been heading towards.

From there it was a simple matter to walk onto the elevator that was in front of them and allowed it to carry them down into the true depths of the tower, where they both knew the crown had to be located in, if their trek through Shulva was anything to consider.

"Are you sure that the crown is down here?" Edric asked, as while he trusted the fact that Rarity could sense the magical artifacts, at the very least the four crowns and the King's Ring, he didn't like the fact that they were constantly heading even further into the earth.

"It has to be down here," Rarity said, as she could feel the tug of the ancient crown from where she was standing, which meant that they were getting close to it, "Just a few more minutes and we will have found the guardian of the third crown, which we'll have to destroy before we can claim our prize."

A few moments later the elevator came to a stop and let the duo off in what, at first, appeared to be a small room, though when they walked up the stairs they found that they were finally at the bottom of the tower, where a large portion of the ash had gathered. When Rarity noticed the fog door, the sure sign of a powerful creature, she also noticed that the entrance was small because of the broken ash covered statue pieces that rested in front of them, though at the same time she spotted a familiar red glow to their left and right. Instead of heading into the fog door she moved them to the right and found an idol resting on the ground, though as she approached it Edric spotted an ironclad warrior pulling itself from the ground. Rarity, still carrying the wedges that they had found when they first entered the tower, pulled one out and studied it for a moment, before driving it into the beating heart of the idol, causing the power inside it to die before it turned to ash, along with the wedge she had used on it.

The duo repeated that three more times, as they found a second idol further to the right and a bonfire resting near that one, before they headed down the left side of the chamber and found two more idols, in identical spots to the first pair, that Rarity destroyed with the wedges they had been holding onto. The moment all four of them were taken care of, and they were positive that there weren't any other idols in the area, they returned to the fog door and stared at it for a few seconds. A few moments later they braced themselves and moved through the fog door, allowing them to enter the area that the guardian of the crown was standing in, though when they entered the chamber they discovered that their foe this time around was not visible at the moment, as all they could see was a sword that was sticking out of the middle of the floor... though, upon seeing that, both Rarity and Edric prepared themselves, as their presence was likely going to awaken the powerful creature that guarded the crown.

That was moments before a knight, his armor colored black, pulled himself from the ash as the shadows gathered around the area that the sword was in, though as the duo noticed that he was already carrying a katana in his right hand the knight grabbed the handle of the larger sword and pulled it out of the ash... before staring at the duo as he waited for one of them to make a move.

Edric rushed forward and met the Fume Knight, another name granted to Rarity thanks to Shalquoir whispering it into her head, to which he dodged the incoming attack and rolled behind the knight, where he pulled himself up and cut into his back, though the Fume Knight jumped away and stared at him for a moment before rushing forward once more. Rarity, on the other hand, repeated her earlier tactics and stayed away from the Fume Knight, though as she did that she also channeled the four types of spells that she had gathered along the way so she could determine the knight's elemental weakness. That was where she discovered an upsetting truth about the Fume Knight, as he had an extremely high resistance to fire magic, which Rarity expected considering where they were, and an almost equally high resistance against soul type spells. Lightning and dark type spells, on the other hand, seemed to do more damage to the Fume Knight than the other two types, to which Rarity smiled for a moment, as it appeared that she wasn't going to be useless in this fight after all... to which she started moving as the Fume Knight jumped towards her and tried to cut her in half.

Even as she moved away from the Fume Knight she had to consider something about the thought of being split into two halves, since she had every move the Darklurker used she could actually use that to their advantage and have two of her fight at the same time, one wielding dark based magic and the other channeling lightning based magic... but ultimately shelved the idea until it was needed in battle.

One thing they both had to be careful about was the fact that the Fume Knight was carrying a greatsword, as when he swung the big weapon the air around him shook for a few seconds as he tried to cut down or flatten who he was aiming at, though he was doing a good job of keeping them guessing, since his attacks seemed to flip between the duo. It was a good change of pace, since they were so used to dominating their enemies it was refreshing to have an opponent that they couldn't take out easily. The best part, in Rarity's eyes anyway, was that the Fume Knight didn't have a thing for trying to impale his opponents, meaning that they could fight him to the best of their abilities and only had to worry about him slicing them to pieces or flattening them, both of which Rarity could easily use to separate herself using the Darklurker's technique... if the Fume Knight managed to touch her anyway.

Still, despite the fact that they understood that the Fume Knight was trying to keep them guessing, they had to be prepared for what was coming at all times, as one of the knight's backslash attacks shattered Edric's guard for a moment, but Rarity saved him from danger with a shield spell that appeared in front of him, allowing him to move before the Fume Knight attacked again. That, of course, made the Fume Knight a little upset, or what they considered to be upset, as he raised his greatsword and brought it down on where Rarity had been standing, though she had moved out of the way before such a thing happened. She was sensing that the knight knew she was the larger threat, due to her magical abilities, though at the same time she knew that the Fume Knight was going to keep up it's process of making them guess who he was targeting before making his move... though at the same time she gathered some lightning around her hands as she moved away from her target, knowing that she'd get a clear shot soon enough.

Everything seemed to be going well for the duo, all things considered, though that was soon followed by the Fume Knight discarding the smaller sword he was carrying and took to wielding the greatsword with either one hand or both hands, though he also empowered it with a mixture of fire and dark energies... though seeing that happen, however, gave Rarity ideas that only someone like Twilight would come up with.

Rarity sighed as the Fume Knight focused on Edric for the moment, completely ignoring her in the process, giving her time to focus her mind as she tapped into her own powers, though as she accessed the dark energies she was familiar with she also called the power of fire to her side. For a few seconds nothing happened, though when she considered that such a thing might only work for weapons, instead of a person, a black aura appeared around her body, completely with take on the appearance of flames in the process. Once she was ready she moved through the air and reached the area between Edric and the Fume Knight, where she raised a hand up and stopped the greatsword before it could even reach it's target, much to the surprise of Edric and their foe. Rarity followed that up by heaving the weapon back into the air, spun around, and planted her hoof against the Fume Knight's chest, knocking him backwards while leaving a small dent to show where her kick had landed.

"I... had no idea you could do that." Edric said, as he was surprised to have seen her do that, though at the same time she stretched her body for a few moments, as if she was working out a kink or something.

"Honestly, I never would have had the idea to try this is I hadn't seen the Fume Knight do it," Rarity replied, to which she gestured to the greatsword for a moment, since it was still surrounded by the energies that the knight was channeling along the edge, "but let's show him that we're not to be underestimated."

As the duo reengaged the Fume Knight they discovered that their opponent definitely had some new tricks up his sleeves, as one of the new attacks he had was where he swung his greatsword and the energy extended a little further from the edge of the weapon, meaning they had to be careful when they dodged his attacks. He was also a fan of leaping away from whoever he was attacking after he either hit his target or missed, meaning that they either had to come to him or wait for him to approach them again, by jumping or walking towards them with his greatsword at the ready. The other attack they had to be careful of was when he raised his weapon into the air, changed the direction it was facing, and drove it head first into the ground, to which the flaming darkness spread out from the blade as balls of shadow-fire surged out from where he was standing in a circular fashion. Rarity, seeing that attack happen, knew that magic could be done in such a manner and used it to create a barrier of the same magical combination, allowing her and Edric to be safe from that particular attack... while at the same time she considered the other combinations she could make and how best to show Twilight all of this when she got home.

The battle progressed in the same manner, where they had to be careful thanks to the Fume Knight's powerful attacks, but at some point Rarity decided enough was enough and raised her hand into the air while their foe was focusing on Edric, to which a trio of Forbidden Suns, complete with rings of darkness surrounding them, appeared above her. The air shook as the three empowered spheres merged into a single entity, exactly like what happened every other time she used this power, and the Fume Knight actually stopped swinging at Edric and started to turn towards her. Edric, on the other hand, used the opportunity to slip away from the Fume Knight and raced towards where Rarity was standing, who held the sphere of shadow-fire above her head for a moment... though the instant Edric was clear she lowered her hand and leveled it with their foe. The Fume Knight barely had a chance to move as the sphere of energy collided with him, engulfing him in a wave of energy that had been contained inside the sphere, which stripped him of his magical defenses before detonating.

When the smoke cleared the duo stood there for a few seconds before they caught sight of the Fume Knight, whose body started to glow brightly for a moment as he fell to his knees, before he eventually collapsed onto the floor and turned to ash... where the duo claimed his soul and the soul of someone else, who they would ask Shalquoir about when they returned to Majula.

"Now that he's taken care of we can claim our prize," Rarity said, to which she walked forward and headed down the stairs that were in front of them, where she found the Crown of the Old Iron King resting on the throne in front of them and picked it up, "With this crown we are one step closer to completing our quest... and that means we'll need to travel to the Frozen Eleum Loyce for the fourth and final crown."

Edric smiled, as it appeared that they were nearly done with their quest, though at the same time he still wondered why they needed all four of the crowns and why the number four appeared to be such an important number to these lands, but then he sighed and headed out of the area with Rarity... as he knew that there would be a time and a place for his questions to be answered, once they left Brume Tower behind and headed to their next destination anyway.

Comments

[Randablitz]

One crown remains!

[Midnight Moon]

There they found two more warriors minding their own business, to which they split apart from each other for a few seconds as Edric cut down one of their enemies and Rarity blasted the other one with her Soul Arrows, though once they took them out Edric picked up a spear with a broad blade at the end, which he stored away before they continued downwards.

I believe that's called a Naginata.

Also, I'mma name her Fused Forbidden Sun spells, if that's alright.

Base: Forbidden Nova

Double: Forbidden Supernova

Dark-Element: Dark Nova

Shadowfire: Forbidden Black Nova.

Theoretical Triple: Forbidden Hypernova.

Theoretical Omni-Elemental: Forbidden Reorigination.

[Blackdrag-rose]

8859435 These names, I approve of them.