Dark Souls 3: Cinders of Power

by Blackdrag-rose

Irithyll of the Boreal Valley

With their business in Smouldering Lake finished, and Tirek was sure of that when he considered what they had been able to do during their time in that area, Tirek, Sarana, and Martok returned to the chamber that the High Lord had been resting in, where they appeared in front of the altar and stared up at the stone door that had opened when they beat the powerful creature that had been in this area. A few moments later the three of them stood up and walked around the altar, as it was no longer important to them, where the three of them walked up the steps that were behind it and headed through the doorway, which revealed a decent sized chamber that was carved out of the caves that the Catacombs had been built into, along with some stairs that lead towards the exit. Based on what they had seen so far the group readied their weapons as they started to walk up the stairs, mostly since they had no idea if there were any additional enemies in this area or if there was more to the ruins that they had to explore, so if someone tried to attack them they were ready for anything and everything that might come at them. When they neared the top of the stairs Tirek noticed that there was some sky that could be seen on the other side of the opening that they were heading towards, where he determined that they might be wasting their time in having their weapons at the ready, before they eventually headed through the opening and came to a rather sudden stop when they saw what was in front of them.

There was a majestic and seemingly magical city resting in front of them, across what appeared to be a river of some kind that was rather low at the moment and had a cliff off to their right, but as they stared at the city Tirek took in the bits of architecture that they were staring at and had to admit that it was a rather interesting place, especially with a rather large church or cathedral that was in the distance, before noticing that there was a city or something that was even higher to the left of the city that was in front of them.

"Allow me to introduce Irithyll of the Boreal Valley," Sarana said, where she could tell that Tirek was taking in what they were seeing at the moment, something that everyone did when they first visited this city, especially the architecture and the chill in the air, not that any of them were worried about the cold at the moment, "If what Anri said is correct, this is where Aldrich should be hiding."

"Its also where Vordt and the Dancer came from," Tirek remarked, because he remembered what he had been told when he investigated the souls of the two powerful creatures some time ago, even if his companions didn't seem to care about that fact, as it seemed like Sarana was more interested in finding their target and Martok didn't seem to care about the view at all, but he had to admit that Irithyll was rather majestic, before he turned to the path on their left and started to walk down the steps, "Come, its time to invade the city and see if we can't find Aldrich, or any other powerful creatures that might be guarding the way to wherever he's hiding."

The first thing Tirek found was a bonfire that was on a level that was below where the opening had been located, one that was odd to see considering that there was one in the chamber they had just walked out of, but he lit it and headed down the rest of the path without delay, eventually coming to a stop for a few seconds as he noticed that they were now on a stone bridge that was rather majestic looking, even if the part to their left lead nowhere due to a cliff collapsing on top of it. Despite the fact that he never even labeled anything this way, he had to admit that Irithyll was a striking place and could be considered beautiful in the grand scheme of things, something he would never tell anyone, before he and his companions walked through the opening and stepped onto the part of the bridge that would allow them to walk over to the city's entrance. Sarana and Martok followed after him, taking in the sights they were seeing at the moment, as it didn't appear like there were any enemies in the area and that meant they were allowed to take a short break before they reached the city itself, though Tirek knew that when they reached the end of the bridge they would be able to see if the small doll they picked up earlier would allow them to enter Irithyll or not. As they walked out onto the bridge, and were able to get about a sixth of the way to their destination, Tirek stopped and let his companions move forward for a few seconds, before they stopped and glanced at him as he glanced at the opening they had walked through earlier, where a large beast, with four legs, a crocodile shaped head with numerous teeth and three pairs of eyes, with grey colored fur and a curved tail, and a chest that had an intimidating and exposed rib cage, standing behind them.

The creature, which had to be a guardian of some kind, roared at them and rushed at the area that they were now standing in, where Tirek stood his ground and glared at the beast as it approached them, something that, as he quickly discovered, caused the beast to slow down and stare at him when it came to a stop in front of him, but when it lowered its muzzle Tirek realized what was going on and rubbed it for a moment with a smile on his face, before beckoning with his head and the beast jumped over the bridge, landing in the water to do whatever it wanted.

"Did... did you tame it?" Sarana asked, because while this was the first time she had seen this sort of creature before, and she had seen a large number of odd or dangerous creatures before, she normally would have assumed that such a beast would have attacked them until either they were dead or it was brought down by them, instead of staring into the intensity that was Tirek's eyes and bowing its head in total submission.

"It appears that the beast realized that it was unwise to attack us," Tirek replied, though at the same time he glanced at the beast for a moment and watched as it seemed to be chowing down on some odd looking creatures that were under the water, meaning that it would be busy killing some of the enemies that they would normally be fighting, and it wasn't long before it loosed a burst of lightning from its mouth at some of the foes its was tearing apart, "and, at the same time, it even realized that there was someone far stronger than it and submitted to me without delay, meaning we might have an ally during part of our trek through Irithyll."

Sarana and Martok glanced at each other for a moment, clearly not sure what to make of what they had just seen, but they said nothing as Tirek started to walk down the rest of the bridge, heading for the partly hidden barrier that he could see at the moment, where he held the doll they had acquired from the Cathedral of the Deep and readied himself for what they were going to do next. When the three of them neared the barrier Tirek made sure that both of his companions were close to him and forced his way through the magic that was in front of him, entering the courtyard that was on the other side of the barrier, and it wasn't long before Sarana and Martok appeared near him, meaning that his idea had worked like a charm and that they were free to scour the city for their target or a path that would lead them to Aldrich. The first thing they did was light the bonfire that was near the middle of the courtyard, which was even weirder to see since there was one right across the bridge, maybe three minutes away from where they were standing, before locating some clumps on a nearby body and two decent sized souls on other bodies, before heading for the stairs that would allow them to head into the rest of the city. As they walked up the stairs they found a ghost of some kind that was taller than they were and was wearing the armor of one of the foes that emitted frost at the area around them, though this one more looked like the knight that had been guarding the path to the Road of Sacrifices, but their attention turned to something else as they came to a stop at the top of the stairs and found the foes that they would be fighting next. There were three knights that were as tall as the ghost they had just seen and were wearing silver armor that looked like what Vordt and the Dancer had been wearing, and they seemed to be wearing a cape or something like the Dancer, while their weapon seemed to be a scimitar that had a few holes in it and one of them even had a nice shield to block attacks.

As they stepped forward one of the knights rushed at them and raised their scimitar to cut them down, where Sarana and Martok dodged out of the way as Tirek loosed a Forbidden Run right into the incoming knight's face, blasting it back onto the ground, where he discovered that fire must be the weakness of the knights that they would be facing for the next and that meant he had an edge over them, especially with the main fire spell he was using. Once they discovered that sort of weakness, which would make the battles to come easier for them, the three of them moved forward and Sarana picked up a soul off to their left, as in around the corner, before the next knight, the one with the shield, started to walk at them with its shield raised and the other tried to attack them from afar. Fortunately Tirek was ready for the ranged foe by using a Lightning Spear to obliterate the incoming orb of darkness and then used his other hand to throw a Forbidden Sun into his foe, allowing him to stand back and watch as Sarana and Martok cut down the knight that they were fighting, which opened the way for them to advance deeper into Irithyll. From what Tirek had seen the speed of the knights wasn't to be underestimated, based on what they had seen from the first group they had encountered, so he kept his guard up as they headed up the path that the three knights had been guarding, choosing to ignore a doorway off on their left that didn't appear to be all that important, since it only lead to an area that had a tree.

The path the knights had been guarding was made up of a couple of stairs and brought them to a higher level that had another fountain in the middle of it, one that didn't seem to be working at all, before they found two skinny looking beings that were wearing ragged robes and were carrying swords that they were two-handing, though their weird smokey hair and their white glowing eyes made them different from the various foes they had encountered so far. Tirek quickly found that a quick Fire Orb to the chest, and splashing out at both of them, was more than enough for bring his targets to their knees or to the ground, as both of the slaves, as that was what they were, fell to the ground after being hit by his spell, allowing Sarana and Martok to focus on the other enemies that were in this area. After that they found some items on the fountain, a few blossoms and a decent sized soul, both of which they added to their pack, before discovering that a new enemy had arrived at the edge of the area, revealing a path that would take them even deeper into the city, though this one seemed to be more armored than the other knights were and was carrying a flaming staff that seemed to be a banner or something for the three slaves that were near it. Not a few seconds later the knight raised her staff into the air, where Tirek knew it was female due to the bit of its voice that he could hear, and then stabbed it into the ground, where the three of them jumped out of the way as a pillar of fire erupted from the area that they had been standing in, showing him that these foes would be dangerous, just as the three slaves rushed out to kill them.

Interestingly enough the flaming knight was resistant to both fire and lightning spells, to an extent, as Tirek threw one spell of each type at it and watched as she staggered for each other them, all while dodging the line of fire that came from the knight swinging her staff in his direction, before blasting his target in the chest with another Lightning Spear, taking her down as Sarana and Martok finished off the slaves.

With that group of enemies taken care of the group moved forward and found a few more slaves guarding the area in front of them, which were easily defeated by Tirek blasting them with a Forbidden Sun, while Sarana picked up some more clumps that were added to their pack, before they walked up the path they had been following and noticed that there was another flaming knight on the walkway above them. Instead of worrying about that foe, however, Tirek found two more of the normal knights walking towards the area that they were in, so he let Sarana and Martok deal with the flaming knight as he hurled another Forbidden Sun into the chest of his target, allowing the other to be hurt as well and caused them to fall to the ground in defeat, since they really didn't like taking fire spells to the face. Part of him did have to wonder if the reason their new foes were falling so easily was due to the type of spell he was using, just like what happened when they were taking on the Ghru's of Farron Keep, or if it was more due to his true power being far stronger than he originally believed it to be, but at the end of the day he decided not to focus on that so much and watched as the flaming knight was crushed by his companions. From there they carefully explored the part of the city that was in front of them and found that there was a side path that basically lead up to a slightly higher platform that would allow them to look out over a good portion of Irithyll, something they could do if they really wanted to, but instead of worrying about that the three of them turned around and found that the church was some distance behind them.

Tirek found that it was rather interesting that they were almost to their destination, as he was heading for it since it did seem to be the area that a powerful creature would be resting in, or a Lord of Cinder if they were lucky, before finding that there was an arch way type of opening some distance in front of them, where some scimitar knights were standing near a flaming knight, at the top of a platform... but, instead of heading forward, they walked up a short set of stairs and found a second church, a smaller one, in front of them, which happened to have a bonfire in the middle of it, two paths to pick from, and, interestingly enough, Anri standing close to the wall to their right.

"Anri, its good to see you again, even though I wasn't expecting us to meet again." Tirek commented, because it was a little odd to see her again, especially after having encountered her twice in the Catacombs of Carthus, and he knew that his companions were surprised to see her again, even if they couldn't show their surprise due to their helms and their unique personalities, before he focused on the other Unkindled, "I trust that you are doing well?"

"Oh, Tirek, I thought it might be you." Anri replied, speaking to him and no one else right now, not that he was even remotely surprised by that, but Sarana and Martok remained silent as the two talked with each other, knowing that Tirek liked to chat with the other Unkindled once when they found them, "Its good to see you again as well, even though I never managed to find Horace, after searching the Catacombs twice... but my duty must be done, even alone, as an Unkindled Lordseeker. For the children I knew, bless their souls. We all have our reasons for what we do, don't we?"

"Indeed we do." Tirek stated, where he flexed an arm for a moment and called a bit of his magic to the surface, as his power was the reason he was even bothering with this quest, and he had the feeling that soon he would be back to fifty percent of his total power, which would allow him to blow down everyone and anyone he and his companions fought for the foreseeable future, before he returned his body to normal.

"Oh, please, take this, as recompense for my foolish request... and also a token of protection." Anri said, to which she reached into her pack for a moment and seemed to be looking for something, something that caused Tirek to raise one of his eyebrows for a moment, as he didn't feel any significant magic coming from her pack, so he doubted that it was an item he would even care about, before she pulled out a ring, one that was made out of silver and had a stone that looked like a cat's eye or something, which he took, "Anyway, you are incredibly brave, to face your duty alone and with your own power... I would do well to learn from you."

Tirek said nothing to that, because while someone would normally focus on the fact that Anri had ignored Sarana and Martok during their conversation, even though they were standing right behind him, he now understood what Yuria had told him earlier, about Anri hollowing, meaning that the reason she was only focusing on him was due to the fact that her mind was going and likely assumed that the pair were either phantoms of some kind or mirages. Fortunately both of his companions were just fine with what was going on and said nothing, to which Tirek bid Anri farewell for now and headed towards the other two paths they could pick from, one that seemed to be heading up to a level above them and one that seemed to be heading down towards another level, which did look like it might lead them outside, which seemed to be the correct path to take. As such he made sure Sarana scouted out the upper area and it took her a few moments to return to him, revealing that there was nowhere to go up there, meaning it was just a tower and nothing else, to which Tirek turned and started to walk down the steps that would lead outside, so they could see what else they had to deal with as they continued their search for the powerful creature that rested in this city, or Aldrich if they were lucky. While they walked down the steps Sarana found a side passage that was rather short and had a stone slab resting near the wall, one that had a number of names engraved on it, where Tirek didn't seem to care about it and let Sarana claim it, before they headed outside and discovered that they were on a section of ground that served as a graveyard between the building they had been in and the structures that were their next destination.

What was interesting was that there were two slaves hiding in the shadows, like they were using some sort of spell that allowed them to be invisible as long as no one was near them, so while Tirek collected the item that was in front of them, near the ledge of the area, Sarana and Martok dealt with the pair of enemies as they raised their weapons, though Tirek found it was a weak soul, to which he simply said nothing as he stashed it inside their pack. From there they headed to the right of the opening they had walked through, passing a tree or two, and arrived at a larger gravestone that had one of the crow hollows praying to something, where it transformed the moment they approached it, but that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things as Martok cleaved it in half. From there they found three more of the bones that would allow them to teleport back to a safe area, be it the shrine or the last bonfire, and, more importantly, another Undead Bone Shard, something that they claimed so they could empower their flasks the next time they returned to the shrine, which was when they turned around and headed back down to where the two slaves had been hiding so they could head down the other path they had seen. The path in question was a set of stairs that lead them down to another area, one that contained a hidden slave to their left and a lower opening that seemed to head into another building, so Sarana stabbed the slave and took it out, while ignoring the side area that was near her, before they headed into the next structure and discovered that they were in a darker area than what they were used to.

Based on what Tirek was seeing they were in a cellar of some kind and there were ten or twenty of slaves that were hidden in the shadows, resting between the end of the stairs that were to their right and the opening that would allow the three of them to head outside, but instead of heading down there immediately, and draw all of their enemies to them, Tirek raised his hand and hurled a few Forbidden Suns into the area that was below them, blowing away the slaves that were trying to hide from them. He had to admit that this spell was rather useful in clearing out large groups of enemies, regardless of whether or not his foes were weak to fire, and the slaves couldn't stand up to the power that it gave him, to which he and his companions walked through the burning area that the majority of the slaves had been hiding in and headed for the opening, choosing to ignore the side passage, even though Tirek did burn the other group of slaves so they didn't get ambushed from behind. The opening allowed them to step out onto a set of stairs that were to the left of where the bridge leading to Irithyll was resting, where it was easy to see that they were going to be heading down some stairs and that would bring them to the watery area that the beast had withdrawn to after Tirek tamed it, though he could see the beast off in the distance, crushing one of the white skinned monsters that seemed to live down here.

Two hidden slaves tried to stab them from the area in front of them, though they utterly failed due to Sarana hearing them coming and lashed out at their new foes accordingly, though once that was done they headed down the stairs and stepped down into the area that the beast was in, where it spared them a single glance before returning its attention to the enemies that were near it, tearing them apart with ease. Walking through the water was rather easy now that they had an ally taking care of the monsters that were in this area, allowing the three of them to approach another split in the path, one that lead into a building that was in front of them and one on their left that might head into a basement of part of the city, so the first thing they did was see what was inside the building, only to discover a bonfire and another route that was leading in the opposite direction, as it was going down instead of up. What they did was light the bonfire and then headed back outside so they could head into the passage that was too small for the beast to access, so they would have to take down whatever was in this area, which was just fine since Tirek was sure they would break whatever was resting in their way, just like they had done since they started their quest. The group discovered that they were more in a sewer like area than a basement, where a number of the odd white centipede creature that looked like ladies that had drowned, in a slight sense, were resting, the same creatures that the beast had been tearing up earlier, but they were incredibly weak to fire attacks as they soon discovered, because Tirek was using the Fire Orb this time around.

There wasn't much to find inside the area that they were exploring, except for some ashes that they could hand over to the Handmaiden when they returned to the shrine, before they stepped up some stairs and entered what appeared to be a kitchen of some kind, meaning they were definitely in a basement of one of the buildings, and there was some of that Estus soup they had found earlier, complete with bowls this time, but no sign of whoever made it. Instead of wasting time in the kitchen they found some stairs and walked up to a small room that seemed to be an area that servants prepared before they answered the call of their masters, before heading up a second staircase and entered a larger chamber that seemed like the living area for the entire building, and they weren't alone, as there was a knight in silver armor standing in front of a large painting of some lady. It appeared that the knight was either guarding the building due to it being part of the path that lead to the large church, even if they were going to find some doors or gates that would be shortcuts to use later on, or because it was taking a break before resuming the patrol that it was supposed to be doing, though since it hadn't noticed their arrival in the room the group looked around for a few moments to see if there was anything else they might need to be aware of, like an upper level that had two more silver knights, where one happened to have a bow. That meant one of the other two knights were waiting for enemies to enter the area and were planning on ambushing them as they tried to take out the first one, the one in front of the painting, so what happened was that Tirek hurled a Forbidden Sun right at the archer and blasted it back into the wall, giving Sarana and Martok an opening to attack the knight in front of the painting, who wasn't expecting to be attacked from behind, so it was easy for them to take the pair down.

Instead of going out of his way to crush the other knight, like he normally would, Tirek observed the paintings that were near him as his companions headed up a hidden set of stairs to deal with the remaining enemies, where he quickly discovered something interesting, the lady in the main picture had what he guessed was a large rack, in comparison to what he had seen so far, and guessed it might have something to do with what the knight had been doing, which was the moment that he shook his head and waited for Sarana and Martok to catch up with him. When his companions did return to his side he discovered that they found a ring of some kind, a large two handed mace that looked pretty dangerous, and a vial of some kind that looked somewhat special, though none of it seemed like items they would be using anytime soon and they made sure to put them into their shared pack before moving forward. Fortunately there happened to be an area they could walk through right behind where the silver knight had been standing a few minutes ago, like an entrance that lead outside, to which the three of them stepped outside and found themselves in a new part of the city, one that had a decent number of steps for them to climb up, no doubt with some enemies for them to take out. At first it seemed like there was no one for the three of them to fight, as they were able to get up the first set of stairs without anything coming out to kill them, but when they moved beyond that point some of the undead dogs rushed out from where they were resting and charged at the group, along with some invisible spell users loosing Soul Arrows at them, though that was the moment that Tirek focused on dodging the various magical arrows and blasted who was sending them their way, allowing his companions to cleave their way through the dogs that attacked them.

Once the first hidden sorcerer was taken out Tirek let Sarana and Martok continue forward and cut down the couple of dogs that were their enemies, allowing him to claim another large soul for their collection, before he marched forward and blasted the next couple of hidden sorcerers that were trying to hurt his companions, though as that happened he did find a side passage that looked like it had an elevator inside it.

As it turned out the area he had thought was a side passage was really a tower of some kind, a small one that did have an elevator that brought them back to the area that happened to be near the path that brought them to where they found Anri, and even opened a door to get there, so they road the elevator back down to the area in question and headed up the next flight of stairs to see what else they needed to cut their way through before they reached the front of the church and determined who was hiding within it. That allowed them to access another building that was more square shaped than what they had seen since they entered Irithyll, though at a glance it didn't seem like there were any foes for them to fight, before Sarana turned her head for a moment and Tirek nodded, where he channeled his power for a moment and started to blast everything that was in front of him as his companions stood behind him. At first it looked like he was blasting all of the pots and containers that were in the building, but that was shortly followed by a number of hidden enemies being knocked away from where they were hiding and fell to the ground in defeat in a matter of seconds, though he made sure to cover the entire chamber, just to be sure that he hit everything at least once, before he stopped throwing spells around and lowered his hand. With that done he walked forward and found that there were no items for them to worry about, as none of their enemies had dropped any and there had been none in the first place, so they found some stairs that lead them to an opening that held a short walkway that brought to an area that was near the church's front.

The set of stairs that they found a few moments later really brought them to the front of their destination, where they stared at the church and found two more knights that needed to be taken out, one wielding a scimitar and another that was wielding a scythe, one made in the same style as the other weapons, to which they readied themselves for battle, even if it was a one sided fight. The reason for that thought was due to the fact that Tirek could just wipe them out with a single Forbidden Sun to the chest, though this time around he decided to use the Fire Orb spell to take down the scythe knight in a matter of seconds, allowing him to claim a third scythe for his collection, while leaving the scimitar one to fall to Sarana and Martok's combined attack, opening the way for them to challenge the creature that was inside the church. Instead of doing that they explored the rest of the area they were in, finding a few summon signs near the entrance of the building that was their destination, one of which seemed to be Anri and another was Gotthard, while a third was a name that none of them recognized, a Shade of some kind, but instead of focusing on that they headed down some stairs that were on the opposite side of the area that they had walked up and discovered a door that served as a shortcut, one that would allow them to return to where the chapel they had found Anri in was located. Of course that was guarded by a pair of hidden slaves, who fell in seconds due to Sarana's attacks hitting them, leaving Martok to open the way forward, before Tirek returned to the front of the church and located an area he could walk off and drop down into a structure that was near the group of three they had seen earlier, the two scimitar knights and the flaming knight.

Those enemies fell in moments as Tirek sent a Forbidden Sun down into the area, at the very least weakening them so that Sarana and Martok could take them out, before he dropped down onto the structure they had been guarding, which allowed him to collect a golden ring that radiated magical power, so he added it to the ones he was wearing, on an empty finger, and then headed back to the chapel so he could rest for the big fight that was coming up.

Once that was done the three of them made their way back up to where the entrance was located and took out the scimitar and scythe knights that were guarding the way forward, which was when Sarana walked over to Gotthard's sign and summoned him to their side, almost confirming that she knew the man and that there was a reason she was having him join them, before Tirek pushed his way through the fog that was in front of him and entered the church. The very first thing he noticed, as his companions and their new ally entered the church after he did, was the number of seats that were in the massive chamber that made up the inside of the building, before he shifted his gaze and spotted the powerful foe that was standing in their way. It was a tall creature that stood on two legs, like all of the hollows and knights they had seen inside Irithyll, though it was dressed like some sort of figurehead for the church, and it seemed that it was waiting for something or someone to come near it, though Tirek was informed that this was Pontiff Sulyvahn, someone who followed the orders of Aldrich, meaning that if they beat this guy they would be one step closer to their true target. One thing Tirek spotted was the pair of greatswords that Pontiff Sulyvahn was carrying, one that seemed to contain the power of fire while the other one commanded the power of darkness, since when they got closer to the level that he was standing on both of his blades activated, revealing that he intended on preventing them from getting to his master.

The very first thing Pontiff Sulyvahn did was, when they got close to the area he was standing in, took a step forward and quickly crossed the distance between where he had started and the part of the chamber that they were standing in at the moment, where Martok rushed to the front of parried the incoming swing with his greatsword, something that pushed him backwards as Tirek, Sarana, and Gotthard separated from each other so they could assault their foe. The next attack was with the shadowy sword, as the first one was with the flaming sword, though this time around Pontiff Sulyvahn thrust his blade forward and pierced Martok's chest, much to Tirek's surprise, which was when he lifted the warrior into the air and blasted him with the energy of his blade, before tossing Martok to the side, leaving the warrior alone as he turned his attention to the others. That actually allowed Martok to sip from his Estus Flask and heal his wounds, but even as they saw that they knew that this guy was going to be dangerous, especially if he was able to do that to their tank, though that didn't stop Tirek from using his most powerful spells against their foe, since the knights outside had been weak to fire, and maybe even lightning, so he was going to focus on two spells at the moment. Pontiff Sulyvahn, as if determining what was going to coming his way, turned and rapidly approached Tirek, which did allow him to blast his foe right in the face with a Forbidden Sun and knock him backwards, but while it did seem that their foe might be weak to fire spells he seemed to shrug off the damage and continue his assault, causing him to dodge out of the way as Sarana rushed in and sliced into the robe that their foe was wearing while Gotthard loosed a few arrows at their foe's chest.

What was going to make this fight all that much harder was that when Sarana dodged one of the attacks that was coming for her, and managed to do it without being hit in Tirek's opinion, Pontiff Sulyvahn actually hit her with the back of his blade and knocked her a bit away from where she had been standing, where her head whipped around and Tirek could tell that she was ticked off about something. Tirek felt the same way, that he was getting ticked off by what was going on at the moment, as Pontiff Sulyvahn was fighting with a level of power and speed that was far greater than anything he had seen so far, even more than what the Abyss Watchers had when the four of them fought the first Lord of Cinder, and even if one of them tried to dodge an attack there was a high chance he would clip them in the backside, just to punish them for their actions, meaning they had to be careful when they were dodging whatever attacks came their way. Even when one of them were hit by the first sword swing their foe struck them again and again, basically forcing them to step back and use one of their flasks to heal their injuries, and Tirek was no exception, as he was the first one to suffer that series of attacks and all of them suffered taking that series of attacks, showing just how strong their foe was, despite the damage Tirek was able to do with his spells. There was even the fact that when Tirek tried to get some distance, so he didn't have to worry about being up close and personal almost all the time, their foe rushed over to where he was in a matter of seconds and hit him with the backside of one of his blades, showing the four of them that Pontiff Sulyvahn was paying attention and that none of them could escape his sight, which made him all the more annoying.

Things got even worse when Tirek thought they were doing well and knocked their foe to his knees, somehow since he wasn't even sure they had done enough damage to even get him to this level, before he loosed a shockwave of energy that Tirek determined was basically a light dark colored explosion that knocked all three of his companions backwards, but the moment that was done Pontiff Sulyvahn stood up and seemed to have some sort of wing-like appendages on his back, not that it seemed to be giving him any sort of power. Of course that was when things went from bad to worse as their foe raised his dark sword and brought it before his face, with the tip of the blade pointing at the ceiling of the church as his other blade was idle at the moment, which was the instant that he seemed to split in half, like his shadow came to life and took on a dark aura, basically doubling the amount of foes they had to deal with, which was an absolutely terrible development in the grand scheme of things. What happened next was the fact that the group had to split their attention between their real foe and the shadowy version of him that he had summoned, though it was hard to really do much due to the fact that both of them shared the exact same moves and that if one of them did one move, like the painful series of swings, the other one did it not a few seconds later, or if one of them did the quick step forward and the swing the other one followed after that. There was even an attack where Pontiff Sulyvahn loosed what looked like a really powerful Heavy Soul Arrow at whoever he was targeting, or maybe it was a different spell, but Tirek and Gotthard were the ones that were knocked back by that attack, forcing them to take another flask before they returned to the battle, even though Tirek was starting to wonder if they even had a chance this time around.

Pontiff Sulyvahn even had an attack where he jumped into the air and impaled the ground that was below him, or the unfortunate target that he happened to be targeting, which was why Tirek found himself impaled by their foe's blade and, to add insult to injury, their foe even loosed a burst of fire to keep the others away, before he removed his blade and advanced on the others.

Tirek coughed for a moment as he remained where he was laying, mostly because it seemed like Pontiff Sulyvahn was of the opinion that he might be dead or something, before looking at the battle that was unfolding before his eyes, as their foe was resuming his attacks and was scattering his companions, showing him that even the four of them might not have been enough to deal with this guy. As that happened he recalled something that Yuria had told him, where she mentioned a being that was able to use the Forbidden Sun spell in a different manner, one where they combined it with two others and created an even stronger version of the spell, though that was when he determined that it couldn't hurt to try out a new attack, because at this point they were going to have to admit defeat and retreat for a time. As such he forced himself into a standing position and channeled all of his power, instead of the power he had been using so far, and the air around him blazed for a few seconds as three large Forbidden Suns, about twice the size of his head, formed around him, one to his left, one to his right, and one above him. In that moment, while his target was distracted and didn't turn to see what he was doing, Tirek raised his left hand and linked the group of attacks together, where he watched as the three suns moved towards each other and started to merge into a single form, enlarging the main Forbidden Sun into a massive sphere that was half the size of the entire church, like a miniature sun of some sort. Once that was done, and his companions took notice of what he was doing, they struck down the clone that Pontiff Sulyvahn had summoned before backing away, where this time around their foe didn't rush at one of them as he stood near the right side of the church, from the entrance, and that was the moment that Tirek sent the powerful attack straight at his target.

Because of the size of the attack Pontiff Sulyvahn couldn't dodge it and was forced to take it as Tirek pushed both him and the attack into the wall that was behind where his foe was located, though when the sphere struck the wall itself there was an explosion that he and the others had to look away from, but when the light died down Tirek grinned as he spotted the massive hole in the side of the church and the fact that he had wiped their foe out.

"Serves him right." Tirek stated, showing that he was pleased with the results of his spell, as the main chamber of the church had been split into four sections, one for the four directions, and the one that was to the right of the entrance had been taken out, and even though the body was gone he did feel that they got the soul of the foe they had defeated, which he would use to empower himself later on.

Tirek did notice that Sarana and Gotthard were talking about something, before Gotthard returned to where he had been when he had been called to their world, but decided to focus on his victory and ignited the bonfire, as he knew they deserved a small rest before they explored the next part of the city and sought out Aldrich, though a trip to the shrine might be in order, just to prepare themselves for what was coming next.

Comments

[badninja]

Yes resting would be a good idea. I hope he plans a bit more because just how far back would he have had to go if he had “fallen” here?

[Blackdrag-rose]

10566523 If Pontiff had beaten him and his group, well, they would have gone back to the bonfire near the sewer area, since it was the last one they had activated, which isn't too far from the Pontiff's boss chamber, so they wouldn't have had to repeat too much (now if it had been the first of Irithyll's bonfires, at the bridge, then they would have had to either repeat a lot of stuff or just teleport to the church and run from there).