Dark Souls 3: Cinders of Power

by Blackdrag-rose

Into the Ruins

With their business in the shrine concluded, and there was nothing else for them to do at the moment, Tirek, Sarana, and Martok used the bonfire to return to the ruins that were near the area that the old demon had been resting in, since there was no reason for them to teleport over to where they fought the demon, and it wasn't long before they appeared in the area in question. Sarana, upon arriving at their destination, headed outside and headed over to the area that the sand worm was located in, where Tirek and Martok stood up on the stone ledge that was above her and waited to see what she was even doing, since they were more interested in heading through the ruins and finding a way to take out the ballista that was firing at the rest of the area. What Tirek soon discovered was that Sarana was standing at the middle part of the stone hill that was between the sand worm and the chamber the old demon had been in, though because of that the ballista fired its arrows into the area that she was standing in, only for those arrows to strike the sand worm as it burst out of the ground and coiled around itself for a moment. One thing that was interesting was the fact that the ballista seemed to reload itself in a matter of seconds and continued to fire bursts of three arrows at the area Sarana was standing in, forming a loop where she forced the ballista to damage the sand worm and could just wait in the safety of the area she was currently standing in, until her target collapsed and fell apart, where she collected a few items before retreating to the area that Tirek and Martok were waiting in.

As it turned out killing the sand worm gave them another Undead Bond Shard and a spell page, one that gave Tirek the knowledge of the Lightning Stake spell, one that seemed to be rather simple, the user summoned a bolt of lightning, just like the spear spell, but instead of throwing it they stabbed the ground it with, meaning it was designed to hurt the area and enemies that were around them, where Tirek took it and added it to the tome.

With that done the group returned to the bonfire and approached the opening that was just beyond it, one that was short and brought them to a set of stairs that allowed them to walk down to another chamber, one that reminded Tirek of what they saw back when they were invaded by that one red phantom, only there was more fire than what they had seen earlier and there were small tree roots everywhere. That was when they heard a growl to their left that reminded them of the Ghru they had fought back in Farron Keep, to which they turned and discovered that there was a Ghru over there, only it had different horns that were twisted, was wearing a beak shaped mask over its face, and happened to have four arms, two that seemed to be channeling a pyromancy while one held a machete and the other had nothing, but it didn't seem all that happy to see the three of them. Tirek saw it raise its empty hand and stab the orb of fire that it was charging, where it pulled its hand out a few moments later and put a floating orb into the air, one that seemed ready to fire blasts of fire at them, so while Sarana rushed at it, to cut it down, he summoned a Lightning Spear and blasted the orb to pieces, allowing his companion to cut down the Ghru before it could get angry at them. Martok, on the other hand, stood near the passage that was leading away from the opening that they had just walked through, keeping an eye out for any additional enemies as they took that foe out, so Sarana found an ember and picked it up, before she and Tirek returned to Martok's side and continued to move through the ruins that they were now in.

There was a set of stairs that would take them down into the chamber that was the middle of the area, or at least of the area that they could see at the moment, but instead of heading down there Tirek walked down the rest of the hallway and found one of the Ghru from Farron Keep, as in one of the poisoned foes and not one of the twisted smouldering ones that were in this area, walking around. The spear wielding Ghru got annoyed the moment if spotted them and rushed over to where they were standing, where Martok raised his weapon and cleaved their foe in half, allowing Tirek and Sarana to round the corner that was ahead and to their left, where they found one of the poison spewing Ghru and two of the blade wielding Ghru, in positions that made it clear that they were ready for battle. Instead of giving their foes a chance to even raise their spears, and defend themselves, Tirek held his hand out and focused his mind for a moment, summoning a ball of fire that was different from the others he had used so far, as this one looked more like a small sun that was as big as his head and had fire swirling around it, which he loosed right into the middle of the group of enemies. The Ghru had only a few seconds to realize that he was doing something and start to move, though the moment the spell hit the ground that Tirek had targeted it exploded and knocked all of them away from it, though that brought a smile to Tirek's face, because now he was glad that they had taken down the old demon, as Chaos Bed Vestiges, or Forbidden Sun as he was going to call the spell, mostly because that was way cooler, had made sort work of their foes.

He knew that the Ghru were weak to fire damage, based on what he had seen back in Farron Keep, which meant that it was a bad thing that they were here in the first place, for the Ghru anyway, so he was interested in seeing what the other foes were resistant against, just to see which spells he could use in this area and which ones he would have to hold off on for the future areas they would be exploring.

"That... was an interesting spell." Sarana commented, because while she knew that there were some interesting spells in the land, and she had seen a number of them before she even encountered Tirek, but this one happened to be one of the few that she hadn't actually seen before, though she had to admit that it was rather powerful and had wiped out an entire group of enemies in an instant.

"Chaos Bed Vestiges, or Forbidden Sun as I'll call it from this point forward... a useful reward for our effort," Tirek said, referring to the fact that they had taken down the old demon and took its soul, even if he hadn't used the soul to get the spell in the first place, causing him to assume that the tome allowed him to use spells that he met the 'requirements' for, since he was sure there were a few he couldn't use right now.

Sarana and Martok glanced at each other for a moment, mostly because they weren't sure what to make of why Tirek was going to call the spell something else, before deciding to move forward as they ignored the second set of stairs that lead down to the lower chamber and walked around the corner to find a passage that brought them to an area that two of the weaponless Ghru, the more dangerous ones as Tirek knew them to be. Instead of giving their foes a chance to fight back, since there was a chance that these two could actually do some damage, Tirek wiped them out with another burst of his Forbidden Sun, blasting them back into the walls that were around them at the moment, allowing his companions to walk out and make sure they were dead, of which Sarana determined that he had killed both of them. As they started to move towards the other doorway in this area, to see what else the ruins had to offer them, Tirek paused for a second as he stared at the large four armed Ghru that was resting in the corner that was behind where one of the weaponless Ghru had been sitting, though as he stared at it, and where the arms were located, he discovered something that would have been unsettling, it was a mutated Elder Ghru, but it was dead. Based on what they had seen he knew that the versions of this foe that they had seen in Farron Keep were very dangerous, and the only reason they had been able to get through the swamp was because of his fire being the weakness of their enemies, but part of him did hope that there were no Elder Ghru in the ruins, otherwise they might be in a bit of trouble.

He could see that his companions stopped to stare at the seemingly dead body as well, even though Sarana did make sure that it wasn't moving at all, before they walked into the opening and found that it was a tunnel, though above them rested a slime that seemed to be smouldering like everything else in this area, and to their right rested a statue that might have been made in the style of the demons they had seen so far. As such Tirek switched his magic tools for a moment and used his chime to summon a Lightning Spear that obliterated the slime in a matter of seconds, allowing him to pull back as Sarana took his place and slashed into the demonic statue that was trying to spew fire in their general direction, quickly breaking it before it could do anything to them, mostly because Martok couldn't really swing his sword in the confined space of the tunnel they were in. Sarana also found an ember on the ground, between the area that both of their foes had been standing in, before they discovered a gap in the tunnel to their left, meaning that they would have to head down the stairs that they had walked by earlier if they couldn't make the jump, so what they did was let Sarana jump over to the other ledge, since she was the only one that could do that, and picked up an Estus Shard that was laying on the ground, before returning to where Tirek and Martok were standing. From there they turned around and headed back to the area that the pair of stairs to the lower area were resting in, where the group walked down the first set of stairs and found that the lower part of the chamber had a number of statues lining the walls, before focusing on the couple of Ghru that were in this area, who had to be annoyed by their presence.

For now Tirek could see that there were two of them at the moment, so while Sarana and Martok dealt with the foe that was in front of them he focused on throwing Lightning Spears through the air and blasted all of the floating orbs that their foes had summoned into the area they were guarding, where the closest mutated Ghru fell in a matter of seconds as its companion that was further down the chamber continued to throw fireballs at them, something that Tirek stopped with his magic to allow Sarana to take him out.

After that they walked down towards the other side of the chamber and found a number of corpses resting around the area, more demons based on what Tirek was seeing, before they found an item that was being guarded by a slime, to which he blasted the foe with a Lightning Spear to wipe it out, allowing Sarana to pick up another Undead Bone Shard for them to use when they returned to the shrine, which she put in her pack not a few seconds later. Once that was done they moved away from the area and found a tunnel that had a hole in the floor, one that lead to another passage that had a large rat waiting in it, but instead of even attempting to jump over the gap this time, which was too large and would force them to walk along the side of the wall, Sarana shook her head and backed away from the area, showing Tirek that they needed to find another way to explore the part of the ruins that they were in. From there they headed to the opposite end of the chamber, in terms of from where they found the Undead Bone Shard, and found two more passages for them to pick from, one that headed to the right and might head down to where the large rat was located, while the other headed forward and seemed to hold another path for them to take. Sarana ended up picking the forward path, something that Tirek agreed with, mostly because he was curious if they could find a better bonfire than the one that was at the start of the ruins, but as they walked down the tunnel in question the three of them discovered that one of the weaponless Ghru was walking around the side passage. This time around, since the Ghru knew they were there by the sound they were making, it rushed towards the area that they were in, but that was just fine with Tirek as he raised his pyromancy flame and blasted the Ghru in the chest with a Forbidden Sun, knocking it backwards and caused it to collide with the wall that was right behind it.

As the Ghru died, however, the wall it struck disappeared before their eyes, revealing another Illusionary Wall as Tirek was going to start calling them from this point forward, and it revealed a chamber that seemed to go nowhere, though it did have one of the Ghru fighting a black knight at the moment, where the battleaxe wielding knight cut the Ghru apart in a matter of seconds, before being pushed back by Matrok's incoming attack. Fortunately he required no assistance in his fight with the black knight, as their two weapons collected a few times before Martok pushed his foe's guard back and then swung his greatsword in the opposite direction, cutting through the knight's armor and dropping him to the ground, which was the moment that he picked up another greatsword that was lying nearby, from a dead black knight that looked like it had been crushed at some point in the past. From there they returned to the passage that they had walked through to get to this chamber and then turned down the part of the passage that the weaponless Ghru had been walking down, where it brought them to another chamber and caused them to be on their guard, because they knew that if the Ghru ambushed them it would spell the end of their current trek through the ruins and force them to restart from the beginning, which would only annoy two of them, since Martok didn't seem to care about stuff like that. It was a good thing that they did that, as there happened to be a pair of weaponless Ghru in the next chamber they were heading towards, along with two of the demonic statues, so Tirek had his companions wait for a moment and watched as the two Ghru got close to each other as they seemed to scout out the area that they were in, leading to a predictable end result, him wiping them out with a well placed Forbidden Sun in between them.

That, of course, lead the way for his companions to deal with the pair of demonic statues that were in the chamber as well, where it took them a few moments to clear out the area of enemies and found that nothing was there, to which they walked forward and found another passage that would allow them to move deeper into the ruins, where a lone Ghru with a dagger was walking around. Sarana, seeing a new foe enter the chamber that they were entering, rushed forward in a matter of seconds, making no sounds while she did that, and severed her target's head in moments, before Martok found a second one over to their left and cut it down before it even had a chance to attack them, which was fine with Tirek as he looked around the new chamber that they were in. While he did that there was something interesting he discovered in no time, the opening in the floor they had seen earlier, near the Estus Shard, lead to this chamber and would have likely caused the three of them to be take out in a matter of seconds, before he spotted one of the spear Ghru resting near the wall to his immediate right, down a path he hadn't seen before this point, and simply hurled a Fire Orb down to where his target was resting, blowing it away in seconds. That was still a surprising thing, that enemies that were lingering in an area like this would be weak to fire, but, at the same time, he wasn't about to complain about things since that weakness made it easier for him to take his targets out, before he pushed the thought from his mind and focused on what his companions were doing at the moment. After that, and they were sure there were no more enemies in the immediate area, they found a passage that brought them to a dead end that had an ember at the end, another one to add to their collection, before they discovered some stairs that brought them to yet another chamber that was right above the one they had been in a few moments ago, which had to be on a level that was at the same height of the area the first mutated Ghru had been standing in earlier.

A few seconds later they spotted a bonfire that happened to be in this chamber and quickly lit it, where none of them bothered to sit at it this time around, not when none of them had actually been hurt, despite the nature of the area that they were in, and Tirek still had more than enough power for his spells, enough to where he wasn't worried about falling to what else might be in the parts of the ruins they hadn't explored yet.

With the bonfire lit they quickly searched the chamber that they were in, where Sarana approached the wall that was on the opposite side of the room from where the bonfire was located and stared at part of the wall for a moment, where Tirek understood that she was thinking back to what they had seen and recalled an odd passage they hadn't seen yet, to which she swung her blade and cut into the wall. Not a few seconds later the wall shimmered, revealing that Sarana had found another Illusionary Wall, before revealing the passage that they had seen earlier, one that allowed them to walk out to an area that let them glance down at the area the mutated Ghru with the fireballs had been resting in, the one that was connected to the hole that would allow them to drop down into the passage the large rat was in. For the most part Tirek didn't see a reason to mess with the seven slimes that were hanging on the ceiling of the side passage Sarana discovered, mostly since it appeared that they found the other part of the tunnel the Estus Shard had been in, but, even then, he took a moment and blasted them all off the ceiling and blew them away, clearing the area out so they could head to the other opening that was near the new bonfire. One of the mutated Ghru was on the other side of the short tunnel, where it did look like it was ready to lash out at someone with a fireball, but before it could do anything Martok swung his greatsword and cleaved through his target's body in seconds, opening the way for Tirek and Sarana to join him as he kept an eye open for any additional enemies. Tirek found that they could either move forward and enter the chamber that was right in front of them, or head down the passage that was to their right and head to a new area, to which he headed down the passage and decided to save the chamber for later, where his companions simply followed after him and said nothing as they waited to see if more enemies were waiting for them.

What they discovered was that the passage had no enemies, even though Tirek did stop shortly after the first turn to stare at the wrecked portion of the ceiling that would collapse if something massive struck it, before they eventually found a small crystal lizard at the end of the path they were following, which seemed to be a dead end, where Sarana killed the lizard and claimed the odd fiery gem that it was in possession of, one that was different from the fire gems they might have found in the past. Once that was done they retraced their steps and returned to the part of the passage that would allow them to enter the chamber Tirek had decided to check out later, where they found one of the dead large mutated Ghru resting against the back wall, but that wasn't what he was focused on since there seemed to be a few living Ghru in the chamber, waiting to ambush whoever entered the room. There were three enemies in total, where Sarana rushed to their right and cut down the spear Ghru before it could even get up, Martok parried the incoming attack from the foe that was resting to their left, and Tirek just blasted the one that was in front of them, the one that seemed to be the type to poison them while they were distracted, using a single fireball to put his target down. The moment the last foe fell Tirek walked forward and stopped when he reached the area that was in front of the dead large mutated Ghru, where he found another pyromancy tome and added it to his collection, because now that he had the tome that Yuria had given him he really didn't need the other tomes anymore, to which he turned around and watched as Sarana tested the walls, finding that there were no more Illusionary Walls for them to break.

The moment the chamber was cleared of enemies, and the lone item, Tirek headed back to the bonfire and started to retrace his steps as he headed back to the split in the path that allowed him and his companions to reach the area the new tome had been in, where he quickly found his way to where the passage with the rat was located and waited for Sarana and Martok to reach him before they entered the next part of the ruins. The rat that was in front of them didn't last all that long, as a quick slash from Sarana put it down, though instead of turning down the path to their right Tirek continued to the turning point and found a hole in the floor that prevented them from going forward that way, which would drop them off into a pool of lava that would kill them in seconds. As such they started to make their way back to the split in the path that Tirek had originally ignored, even though he did blast the rat on the other side of the hole and made sure it was dead, and it took them a few seconds to reach the other passage and entered an ashy grey version of the ruins that they had been in so far, with three rats getting ready to charge at them, which fell as Martok slammed his greatsword down on them and crushed them. Tirek paused for a moment as Sarana checked out the chamber that they were in for a couple of seconds, where she found an Illusionary Walls for them to investigate, one that brought them out to the other side of the passage that the large hole was in, the one that allowed them to stare down at the large rat, before they turned to the left and approached the stone-like spider statue that was at the end of the passage and found another pyromancy tome, one that Tirek added to his collection.

For a moment the three of them headed down the tunnel that was near the stone statue and walked down the stairs that were in it, before coming to a stop when Tirek spotted the pool of lava that he had seen earlier, by looking down the hole that was near the rat earlier, to which he turned around and headed back up the stairs as Sarana and Martok made room for him to do so. From there they returned to the chamber that the three rats had been in and headed down the short passage that they had been guarding, heading down another set of stairs and discovered the rat that was on the other side of the hole they had seen a few moments ago, even though it was head, to which they turned to their right and headed down another stair filled tunnel, something that Tirek was getting used to seeing. At the end of the tunnel they found the passage that the large rat was in, which really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, along with a path that lead downwards and rested to their left after a few seconds, one that seemed to lead down to another area, which seemed to be a common thing in the ruins they were exploring. Before heading down the stairs Tirek stepped forward and held his hand out, summoning a Lightning Spear that he hurled right into the large rat's eye, shocking it to death in a matter of seconds, before switching spells as he spotted a cluster of smaller rats behind it, to which he loosed a Forbidden Sun into the middle of the group and blew them all away. After he was done clearing out the rats, and he was sure that there were no more coming after them, Sarana checked the walls once more, just to be sure they didn't miss any of the Illusionary Walls, and found one that caused a section of the wall to their left, if they were facing where the large rat had been located, to disappear, revealing a chest for them to open, where Sarana did so as Tirek and Martok watched her back, just in case anything tried to attack them.

Sarana found three of the large Titanite Shards inside the chest, which was rather plain in comparison to everything else they had found in chests so far, before she glared at the wall behind the wooden chest and struck it with her blades, causing it to disappear as well and reveal a side passage into the chamber that the other set of stairs lead to, though this one was a drop off of sorts, to a slightly lower area, meaning that once they walked over the edge there would be no going back for a few moments.

Tirek wasted no time in walking over the edge and landed on the platform that was below them, where he found a powerful staff that was as long as a greatsword, meaning he might have found a weapon to replace his current staff, but as he did that Sarana and Martok jumped over the ledge that was in front of him and descended down onto the couple of slim lizards that were clearly an ambush if they walked through the chamber from the other set of stairs. As the first two fell to his companions, dying before either of them could even attack anything, Tirek raised his hand and blasted the next lizard that was rushing at them, killing it in a matter of seconds, allowing him to jump down into the area that Sarana and Martok were in so they could move forward once more, especially since there had to be more of the basilisks lingering in the chamber they were now in. There happened to be three more basilisks in their immediate area, where Sarana made no noise as she approached one from behind and killed it, Martok simply cleaved his in half, and Tirek just blasted his as it realized that they were under attack, before finding a fourth one that didn't seem to realize that its home was under attack and was killed by Tirek blowing it up, allowing Sarana to pick up a Titanite Scale for their efforts. From there they headed forward and quickly found another split in the path, as there was a set of stairs that headed upwards to another level and a side path, where they headed to the left and ended the side path that seemed to be taking them towards a brand new set of stairs that was connected to a ruined platform that was near some lava.

It was in that moment that they discovered the same warrior that had invaded their world earlier, before they even faced High Lord Wolnir, where Tirek and Sarana let Martok rush forward and attack the incoming knight, where both of their blades collided with each other, as they parried each others attack, before they pushed each other backwards and started moving around the area that they were in as they tried to take each other down. Tirek knew that he and Sarana didn't need to step in to assist Martok, as he was able to dodge the in coming attacks with the same grace as the last time they engaged this particular foe, and it wasn't long before he swung his weapon and cut his foe down, where the knight fell to the ground and allowed them to collect both his strange greatsword and his large iron shield. Once that was done he took a moment to look at the area that the knight had been guarding and found that there was nothing here for them to take, to which he headed back up the stairs and retraced his steps until he and his companions were at the base of the stairs that at the last split in the path that they had ignored, as it was time to see what was at the top of the steps. As it turned out the path at the top of the stairs brought them to a stone bridge that connected their side of the large chamber, which was above where the knight had been hiding, to the other side of the chamber, where a black knight with a large blade seemed to be waiting for something to happen, hence the reason that Tirek let Sarana and Martok rush over to the other side of the chamber so they could deal with their new foe. Fortunately the knight couldn't handle the power of both of his companions and was quickly brought down, clearing the area in the process, to which Tirek picked up a soul that was resting to the right of the bridge and stuffed it inside their pack, before turning his attention to the next section of the area that they needed to pass through.

What they discovered was a wide horizontal passage that seemed to go quite a ways towards the ceiling of the entire cavern that the ruins were in, and came complete with a ladder that seemed to be connecting where they were standing to the uppermost part, to which the three of them started climbing and didn't look back, as there was nothing behind them that required their attention anymore.

At the top of the ladder Tirek found a platform for them to stop on and another ladder, this one shorter than the first, that would allow them to reach the top of the passage, to which he quickly reached the highest point and found another passage that might actually lead them to the area that the ballista was in, something that he was keen on taking care of so they could see what else the Smouldering Lake had to offer. As Sarana and Martok joined him, however, Sarana jumped to a side platform and found a bow of some kind, one that she stashed into her pack before returning to the platform that the two ladders connected to, allowing her to return to where Tirek was standing in a matter of seconds, which was when they walked forward to see what else was waiting for them. The stone passage that was in front of them lead the way to a massive area that was between the cave and the area that the ballista was in, where Tirek could see that the weapon was starting to train on the area that they were in at the moment, so instead of heading towards the ruined structure that happened to be in front of them Tirek headed over to the ledge that was diagonally to his left. His reasoning was because the ruined structure didn't look like it would even hold back the power of the massive arrows that the ballista would fire at all of them, rather they would be in harms way if they hid behind it, and it wasn't hard to see that Sarana and Martok were following him, which was good because he jumped over the edge and dropped down into a walkway that was covered by some rocks, meaning they were safe for the moment.

The path that Tirek found brought them to yet another split in the path, something that was starting to become more annoying since it was repeating so frequently, where he found three of the wheel skeletons to their right and two normal skeletons to their left, to which he focused on the normal ones since they seemed to be on the path that would take them right to the base of the ballista. As such he threw a pair of Lightning Spears through the air and struck both of the foes that were in their way, drawing them from where they were standing and allowed Sarana and Martok to lash out at them in his stead, as he was more interested in stopping the ballista, which couldn't target them from where they were standing, only to find another pair of armed skeletons blocking the way forward. Fortunately his Lightning Spears were more than though to hurt his targets and take down down, allowing him to take down his foes as his companions did the same thing, where they regrouped not a few moments later and moved up the hill that was in front of them, which was the moment that they finally approached the ballista, the bane of their existence in this area. It was when they walked up to the weapon, and didn't stop for anything else, that they discovered that the ballista wasn't even being operated by anyone, as the giant that was supposedly using it was dead behind it, but that didn't stop Tirek from noticing that there was a switch in the middle of the underside of the weapon and had Martok move it into the off position, silencing the weapon so they could see what the rest of Smouldering Lake had to offer them. By looking over the ledge of the area they were on, which had a good vantage point over the entirety of the smouldering area, they could see a number of smouldering crabs wandering around and, more importantly, a cave that was near the path that had brought them to this area, to which Tirek jumped down the stone platforms that were to the side of the area they were on and rained down Lightning Spears on the crabs, blasting all of them before reaching the bottom of the lake.

The next thing they did was scout out the rest of the lake, mostly collecting the Titanite pieces that were scattered all over the area and an elemental gem as well, before they reached the cave that Tirek had noticed earlier, where they found two more small crystal lizards that Sarana rapidly took out, and then reached the area that they had seen earlier when they were talking to Anri, when Tirek found a knight down here... before he realized that Horace was the one that was down here, something that was strange since Anri was looking for him.

As it turned out Sarana realized what was going on immediately and informed Tirek that the knight was hollowed, as in he had totally lost his mind and was raging out at whoever was near him, meaning he must have realized this ahead of time and purposely distanced himself from Anri, so she wouldn't get caught by his mindless rampage and be killed by her own ally, which would have shattered her own will to continue. Tirek held his arm out for a moment, to stop both of his companions from trying anything, before he stepped forward and raised the new staff he had picked up in his left hand while keeping his sword in his right hand, showing that he was going to prove that he could take care of some of their foes on his own, where Horace seemed to notice him and started to move towards him. Instead of allowing Horace to even hit him, due to how his body looked in terms of age, Tirek dodged to the side and let his foe's sword hit the spot he had been standing in earlier, which was when he lashed out with both his sword, cutting a light gash into the back of his armor, and then loosed a Lightning Spear right into the gash, blasting his foe backwards a bit. He was using the skills he had seen both Sarana and Martok use over the course of their adventure, not to mention the techniques he had seen their foes use as they moved through the areas of the land they had passed through, though even as he did that Horace pulled his shield out and approached him slowly, no doubt to lure him into attacking at the wrong moment. Tirek grinned as he tapped into his magic for a moment, as in what part of his original power that he still had, and jumped into the air, allowing him to sail over Horace and land behind him, where he lashed out with another Lightning Spear and blasted a hole in the back of his foe's armor, before driving the Morion Blade right into Horace's back.

Of course that wasn't enough to put Horace down, given that he was hollowed and was trying to kill them, but that was followed by Tirek dodging the next attack that was coming his way and then blasted Horace in the chest with one of his Forbidden Suns, by switching to his Pyromancy Flame for a moment, and that caused his foe to stagger for a moment, before he drove his blade into Horace's chest and snuffed out his life, which was followed by his body turning to ash not a few seconds later, allowing him to sheath his weapons.

"Well, now we know what happened to Horace." Sarana commented, though she had to admit that she was slightly impressed by the fact that Tirek was able to move with the state that his body was in, because she would have assumed that he would have been restricted by the age of his body, but this proved that, despite how old his body was, Tirek was able to overcome the challenges that were thrown at him, be they powerful creatures or hollowed individuals, "So, since we found him at last, I guess we can tell Anri what happened to her former friend."

"No, we shouldn't tell her what happened to him," Tirek remarked, as he remembered what Yuria had told him some time ago as he glanced at the area that Horace had fallen in, about how Anri was hollowed and that she was important to whatever plan Yuria had set in motion, a plan that he was more than happy to follow along with, since it looked like their ally was practically handing him more power on a plate, before he started to head back through the passage that had lead them to this area, "she'd probably go hollow, just like Horace did, if we told her what happened to her friend, so we won't tell her what we discovered and continue on our quest to find the remaining missing Lords of Cinder."

With Smouldering Lake cleared out, for the most part, Tirek knew that it was time for them to head back to one of the bonfires and return to the chamber that the High Lord had been located in, so they could see what was on the other side of the path that was behind the altar and continue their quest to find Aldrich and Yhorm, the missing Lords of Cinder that needed to be slain, and maybe discover what Yuria was planning at the same time.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

deaths this chapter:
Tirek: 0
Sarana: 0
Martok: 0

total deaths:
Tirek: 12
Sarana: 9
Martok: 6

well seems like the group has more or less finished smoldering lake now what with Tirek finding the staff there and even soloing Horace. The trio is definitely getting quite powerful indeed. Also in an effort to boost comments if any of you have Questions about Sarana and Martok feel free to reply to me here as they are my characters originally used here with permission. (will happily give out backstory and stats for those interested but will not spoil anything still to come). though as always another great chapter, looking forward to the next. keep up the great work

[badninja]

10561271

I have some questions about Sarana. I looked up the game I couldn’t find any information about her so I thought she was originally the authors PC.

Nice to see the group powering themselves up. I was surprised when they just lit the bonfire and left, but they got lucky they didn’t immediately find a powerful character laying in ambush.

[PrismStrike]

10561333
yeah you wont find anything about her in canon as she was a character I created while playing the game. her base class from in game is assassin. please feel free to ask any questions you might have about her in regards to story, class and stats

[Blackdrag-rose]

10561333 Sarana and Martok are both characters that PrismStrike allowed me to use for Tirek's story, so he's the one that knows the most about both of them.