• Published 3rd Oct 2020
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Dark Souls 3: Cinders of Power - Blackdrag-rose



Tirek awakens to find himself in a state of undeath, in a foreign land, and must use everything at his disposal to survive the dangers that await him.

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The Painted World

It didn't take the group all that long to return to the shrine that the Fire Keeper and the rest of the individuals of this world gathered in, when they weren't busy tackling the dangers of their own worlds, though as they appeared near the bonfire Tirek noticed that two of the four vacant thrones had heads on their seats, showing him that Sarana and Martok had placed the ashes of Aldrich on his throne, though he decided not to pay it too much attention as he walked over to where the Fire Keeper stood and let her take the souls he had gathered so he could empower himself further. At this point he was sure that talking with her wasn't going to give him all that much anymore, due to the fact that his power was far greater than it had been the last time they saw each other, though he figured he might as well let her do her job as he considered their next move, as while he would like to chase down and crush Yhorm, to start the quest for the missing Prince, there was someone in the shrine that he wanted to talk to before he did anything else. While he did that he noticed that his companions were standing near the bonfire, meaning they must have traded in their souls while he was absorbing the power of Aldrich, which he was totally fine with, though it wasn't long before the Fire Keeper was done with her work and he was allowed to walk away from her, something that he did as he kept his eyes open for the individual he was looking for, even though he knew she would be in the same place she had been standing in the last couple of times he had seen her. One thing he noticed was that none of the others were terribly interested in him or his companions, something else that he was fine with since most of them were unhelpful in the grand scheme of things, save for the Fire Keeper and Ludleth, before he turned his attention back to what he was doing as he walked into the lower area of the shrine and turned towards the tunnel that would bring him to his destination.

Sure enough he found Yuria standing near the wall that was opposite of the area that Yoel had fallen in, where it was easy to see that the body of the pilgrim was still resting in the area that he had fallen in earlier, when his life force had been extinguished thanks to all the power Tirek had drawn from him, before he came to a stop near Yuria and faced her, which just so happened to be the moment where the lady did her little bow towards him, which she had done a few times in the past, before she readied herself for what she was about to say.

"Ah, our Lord and liege. I presume your holy vows have been sworn?" Yuria asked, though while Tirek was under the assumption that she might be able to feel the power that was currently coursing through his veins, the same power that Yoel had drawn out and Yuria had expanded thanks to the Hollow Wedding that had happened earlier, it was clear she was just asking to make sure things had progressed along the path she and her followers had set for him, one that he was eager to walk since it resulted in him rapidly regaining his former power.

"I have indeed, and the power Anri has 'gifted' me brought about the downfall of Aldrich," Tirek replied, because that was the truth of the matter, as he was positive that had he not done the Hollow Wedding and absorbed the dark power that had been inside Anri's body, which had given him a rather substantial power boost, the second Lord of Cinder would have beaten him and the others into the ground a few times, or at least those were his assumptions on the matter, before he focused on Yuria once more.

"Wonderful. Now you are the true and deserving Lord of Hollows." Yuria stated, where Tirek detected that she might have been happy to hear the fact that he had gone through with the wedding and gained the power that it gave him, even though most people in this world seemed to have problems with their emotions, hence the reason he said nothing as she braced herself for what she was going to say next, "With a spouse by your side, and her power is added to your own, you now have the strength to claim the Fire is yours... so, your Lordship, I pray that you will wrest the Fire from its mantle and take this world for yourself, where I, and all of Londor, will become your subjects and embrace your rule."

"And I will take all of you, and the rest of this world, as my subjects and my kingdom, once I find the areas the last two Lords of Cinder are hiding in and beat them," Tirek said, though his statement was correct when one thought about it, as there were two more targets for him and his companions to take out, in order to Link the Fire that Yuria and the others talked about from time to time, which seemed to be the ultimate power in this world, which seemed like a reasonable end goal for his quest, before he glanced back towards Yuria for a moment, "that is, of course, if you don't have anything else for me to do while I'm looking for Yhorm and Prince Lothric, since I have the feeling there are some loose ends you might want me to take care of before I find my targets."

"Well, there is something I would ask of you," Yuria replied, not that Tirek was surprised by that, as it appeared that all of the residents of Londor, or at least the couple he had encountered so far, had things that they asked him to do, so all he did was remain silent as he considered what in the world Yuria wanted him to do, which just so happened to be around the time that she resumed talking, knowing that his time was precious and that he didn't want to waste it, "I know you are unaware of this fact, but the Stable Church was founded by myself and my two sisters, Liliane and Elfriede, and that it rests in Londor, the land that Yoel, myself, and many others came from in our quest to find a new Lord to follow, but as of right now only Liliane and I rule the Church, as Elfriede... well, she was a poor wretch that was turned to ash, into one of the Unkindled, if you will, and she turned her back on us and the Church. Liliane and I have been searching for her since that fateful day, to either try and convince her to rejoin us or put her down if she tried to kill us, but the trail went cold.. or at least that is what we assumed, until now anyway..."

"Let me guess, you'd like Sarana, Martok, and I to track her down and kill her?" Tirek inquired, though even as he said that he realized that having a betrayer to the cause around was a bad thing, because if Elfriede learned that a new Lord of Hollows had risen, and that they were in the process of returning the missing Lords of Cinder to their thrones, she might try and gather some allies to her side so she can stop Yuria, Liliane, and their new master from succeeding in their quest to usurp the Fire and take the world for themselves.

"That's correct, and we have a lead on where you might be able to find her," Yuria said, where Tirek felt that she had only just discovered whatever information she was about to share rather recently, as in possibly before she had even met him, though at the same time he was sure that if he found and killed Elfriede it would ensure that everyone in Londor would follow him and his orders, without objecting to his rule, before she started speaking again, "I have heard that there is a wandering priest, or something akin to a priest, resting at the church that is outside the Cathedral of the Deep, as in the individual in question arrived sometime after you dealt with the Deacons that guarded the area, and that they have the key to figuring out where Elfriede wandered off to."

Tirek nodded for a moment and departed for the area that Sarana and Martok were standing in, where he informed them that they would be departing from what he had planned on originally and that they would be heading back to the Cathedral of the Deep, something that surprised the pair for a moment as they returned to the bonfire and headed back to the church that Yuria was talking about, though as they reappeared in the area in question they found a red hooded individual, whose robe covered most of his body, though Tirek determined he had long silver hair and a gray colored beard, but it looked like he was praying to something as they appeared near it.

"Ah, merciful goddess, mother of the Forlorn, who have no place to call their own... please, please bear witness to our resolve... Fire for Ariandel... Fire for Ariandel... and the ash to kindle the flame..." the pilgrim, as that was what the person was, not a priest like Tirek had been lead to believe, said, though they remained silent for a moment as they looked at the lone figure that was in front of them, even though Tirek was sure that Sarana and Martok were interested in what they were doing in this place again, especially since the pilgrim glanced at them for a second, "Wait, you... you have the same scent as that woman... then you must be an Ashen One. You must be! You don't know how long I've searched for one like you! Oh, oh... don't mind me, I didn't mean to fall apart like that. Now then, Ashen One, I have a kindness to ask of you: my lady lives in the cold land of Ariandel, and I need you to show her flame. A proper flame, that will burn the rot away. If you truly are Ash, then it must be fire that you seek?"

"Your lady?" Tirek inquired, where he took a moment to consider what they had learned and everything Yuria had told him when they were at the shrine earlier, about Elfriede to be exact, where he came to the decision that they had found the way to locate the missing sister and kill her before she could cause trouble for him and the others, and he could tell that neither of his companions seemed to care about what was going on at the moment, since they were waiting for him to tell them what was going on, "Sure, I will do you a 'kindness' and show your lady a 'proper flame'."

"Ah, thank you. They of Ash never fail. Just a moment, then..." the pilgrim said, where he reached into his pack, a small one that wasn't like the ones that Tirek had seen in the past, and produced something that Tirek assumed was a fragment of a painting, a small one that fit in someone's palm, where he held it out towards them for a moment, like it was a sacred item or something, which was rather interesting when Tirek thought about it, "The painting of Ariandel... well, its a rotten scrap of the painting, that's what this is. Go on, take it, touch it..."

Tirek made sure that Sarana and Martok were touching his back, as he had the feeling that the key to where Elfriede was located was the scrap of a painting that seemed to have some magical properties to it, and the moment he reached out to touch it the magic wrapped around all three of them and dragged them into the scrap that was currently resting in the pilgrim's hands, to which they disappeared from the world that they were standing in and traveled to whatever world or realm the scrap was taking them to.


What Tirek found, when he was able to see things again, was that he, Sarana, and Martok were standing in the middle of a tunnel of some kind, meaning whatever magic had been used on them had a clear destination that had been set up ahead of time, before he glanced backwards for a moment and found that neither of his companions were touching his back, to which he assumed that either they had stopped doing that when they appeared in the tunnel or the magic had forced it to happen, before he discovered some sort of corroded creature sitting near some sort of rot, only it looked docile and didn't seem in the mood to attack them.

"Ah, have you just arrived?" the creature asked, where Tirek found that it was one of the corvian enemies they had encountered in the past, like when they traveled down the Road of Sacrifices, only this one seemed to have no wings and, what was even more interesting to him, had the ability to speak, even though it appeared that it hadn't spoken to anyone for a long time, before the creature seemed to consider something, "How very unusual... just how long has it been?! Oh well, you should rejoice, my new friends, for this is a true haven of the Forlorn, the cold and gentle Painted World of Ariandel. Quickly now, go along, find one for yourselves... a sweetly, rotting bed to lie upon..."

Tirek glanced at the others for a moment, where Sarana and Martok had no idea what to make of the odd corvian that was in front of them, but at the very least it was kind enough to inform them that they had reached their destination, the land of Ariandel, or the Painted World of Ariandel as some apparently called it, something that interested Tirek since this was the first time he had heard of an entire world being inside a painting, before he heard what could have been chuckling as he turned back towards the creature that was sitting in the rot.

"Ah, yes, of course, you three are no exception... we've all seen and done terrible things in the past." the corvian said, where it was clear that there might be more for them to listen to before they got started on their new quest, which Tirek was going to share with Sarana and Martok once they left the tunnel that seemed to be the starting point of this world, or at least that's what he was assuming at the moment, before the creature stared at them again, "But you're safe now, all of you are safe now. Let that ease whatever burdens you might be carrying. Ariandel will make a fine home for you. So, go on ahead, find one for yourselves... a sweetly, rotting bed to lie upon..."

Instead of blowing a massive crater into the tunnel, and wiping the corvian out, Tirek turned around and headed for the front of the tunnel, as he felt that it was time for them to see what in the world he had gotten them into, even though he could tell Sarana plucked some clumps from the corpse that was resting near the creature that had talked to them, but as they approached the opening Tirek found that they were in a world of snow, as there was a lot of snow on the ground and it seemed like there was more snow slowly raining down on them, and right in front of the opening rested a bonfire, which was when they ignited it and rested at it for a moment.

"What the fuck did you get us into this time?" Sarana asked, something that surprised Tirek for a moment, more due to the fact that she had reverted back to using one of her more vulgar words when talking with him, though he guess he couldn't fault her for being angry with him since he hadn't told either her or Martok about the individual that Yuria wanted him to hunt down and kill, to make sure no one tried to make some of his soon to be followers turn traitor and attack the side that was helping him get the power he needed to fulfill his own goals.

"Yuria informed me that there is a traitor to the Stable Church, one that could undermine all of our efforts if she were to return to Lothric or Londor," Tirek replied, deciding that he might as well tell them the truth of the matter, since lying to Sarana was a bad idea based on what he had seen in the past, and while this might not lead them towards one of the two remaining Lords of Cinder he did have the feeling that they would be walking away from Ariandel with more power than when they went into this world, meaning the journey to find their last two targets would be a little easier for them, which all depended on the enemies that were in their way, "and she had it on good authority that the key to finding Elfriede was inside the church we were in earlier, meaning that our target is lurking somewhere in this world... we're here to hunt her down and end her life, and once that's done we'll head back to the shrine and resume our search for Yhorm."

Sarana thought about that for a few moments, where it was clear that she might not like the idea that Tirek hadn't told her anything about this mission, especially while they were in the middle of a quest to find the missing Lords of Cinder and return them to their thrones, before she sighed and simply shrugged, no doubt showing that she wasn't interested in even arguing with Tirek over his decision and that she was going to follow it, though Tirek had the feeling that she was going to be keeping an eye out for the individual they were here to kill, so she could get this over with. Once that was sorted out, at least for the time being, the three of them got up and walked away from the bonfire, where they stared out at the snow filled area that they would be exploring and noticed that there was a hill some distance in front of them, one that looked like it was climbable, though all of the trees looked like they were either dead or had lost all of their leaves due to what was happening around them. Sarana started to climb the hill, so she could see if there was a path she could spot, but as she did that she jumped backwards and Martok made sure to be a stepping stone so she could get back to the ground safely, without hurting herself in the process, though that was when Tirek found that their foes were undead that wore armor that seemed like it would do well against the cold, though while one of them carried a javelin and a shield, almost like a knight, the other carried a torch that it breathed on to send out bursts of fire. Of course the torch bearer was the one Tirek wanted to deal with first, due to the fact that it let out a sound that no doubt warned the rest of their kind that there were intruders for them to deal with, so he figured that putting the one with the torch down first was the better move, just to make sure they didn't fight an endless hoard of enemies, hence the reason he hurled a Fire Orb through the air and struck the torch bearer in the chest, knocking it backwards through the air as Martok rushed forward to deal with the one that carried a shield, allowing Sarana to make sure there weren't any others before joining the fight.

Of course that was when they spotted enemies that were carrying javelins, as in they wanted to throw them through the air and not wield them as their main weapon, though that didn't stop Martok from bracing himself for a moment as he launched Sarana into the air, as she had jumped onto the part of his weapon that wouldn't cut her and he swung it so she could rush towards the enemies that were further away from them, where she cut both of them down before they had a chance to react to the fact that she was there. It wasn't long before Tirek was able to join her and blasted another shield bearer in the chest with a Fire Orb, knocking it to the ground in a matter of seconds, which was the moment that the two of them glanced out at the area they were in and found that, for right now, there weren't any additional enemies in this area, to which they waited for Martok to join them before moving forward once more, this time keeping an eye open for any enemies that the torch bearer might have alerted with its earlier sounds. There were a few odd looking trees around them, ones Tirek had to wonder if they would come to life and attack them, but for the most part it looked like they were still and wouldn't come alive, to which they decided to walk over to where a body was resting, though as they walked onto the edge of the area the snow collapsed and the three of them dropped down into an area that was a little lower than the one they had been on a few moments ago, to which they shrugged as Sarana collected more of the frost clumps as Tirek and Martok walked forward. For the most part it didn't seem like anything was in this area, save for a cliff that was near the area the small avalanche happened in, though that was around the time that they found a white furred wolf that stood near the cliff, or maybe it was a dark gray furred wolf which had its fur altered by the snow, though it growled at them for a few seconds, no doubt as a warning or an attempt to scare them off, but when none of them moved it howled and Tirek glanced behind them for a moment, finding eight more wolves rushing towards where they were standing.

It was in that instant that Tirek withdrew the sapphire stone from where he had stored it and channeled its power into the area that was in front of them, or at least that was what he tried to do, as no portal appeared to make the hungry pack of wolves travel from where they were and head to the area that he had envisioned when he drew the stone, to which he returned it to the pouch and loosed a pair of Fire Orbs into the area in front of him, all while Sarana and Martok turned their weapons on their enemies. Interestingly enough the wolves were rather weak, maybe from the lack of food given the frozen nature of the land that they had found themselves in, so it was easy for them to blast and slash their way through all of the enemies that were around them, though while that happened Tirek did spot a larger wolf up on what seemed to be a cliff, on the left side of the area the avalanche had dropped them in, so it was high above their heads and it didn't look like there was a path up there, so all they could do was beat up the lesser wolves right now. Of course there were more than the nine wolves that had rushed at them once they found the first one, as a few more rushed into the area and tried to tear them apart, which was why the group continued to deal with their enemies as they determined what they were going to do next, even though the last of the wolves, the sixteenth by Tirek's estimates, fell and no more seemed to be in the mood to fight them, as in they thought there might be more lurking in the surrounding area, which may or may not be correct. Either way it gave them some time to gather themselves, heal any wounds that they might have gotten, as there was a chance some of the wolves might have slipped by their defenses and bit one of them, and look at the surrounding area, even if there was nothing useful for them to collect, allowing Tirek a moment to stare at the stone he had made not even an hour ago, as it was curious as to why it wouldn't work in this place.

"What's wrong with it?" Sarana asked, figuring that since Tirek was the one that created the item in question, almost like he knew what he was doing at the time of its creation, he would be able to figure out why it had suddenly failed to do what Tirek wanted it to do, as while none of them had been severely wounded by the pack of wolves she knew that moving some of them to another area, like beyond the cliff, would have made things a little easier for all of them, though if the blue stone was broken than there was nothing she could do about it.

"We're in another world," Tirek stated, because that was the only reason behind why the stone wouldn't work, like it had been made in the realm that was their world but, since they had traveled into a painted world, they entered an area that the stone was dull in, meaning it would be useless to try and wield it while they were inside Ariandel, before he found Sarana and Martok staring at him, to which he sighed, "From what I can tell, even if we have next to no information on this place, this Painted World seems to be a modified version of the world we were in a few minutes ago and the scrap that was offered to us served as the bridge between the two worlds, which would explain how Elfriede got here in the first place, and I'm guessing that the slight differences between our world and Ariandel are preventing this stone from working like it did when I tested it out... or at least that's the working theory at the moment."

Tirek wasn't sure if Sarana believed his explanation or not, even though it was possible that his idea could be wrong and that there was another reason for the stone to be silent in Ariandel, due to the fact that her helmet prevented him from seeing what was on her face, though before any of them could focus on the reasoning behind why the stone didn't work in this place they found that the greater wolf had jumped down into the area they were standing in and was walking towards them, no doubt to make them pay for killing the pack that attacked them. The greater wolf was faster and much more aggressive than the ones they had fought so far, as it dashed from one area to another while trying to strike one of them with its teeth, which included the fact that it was also more sturdy than the lesser wolves they had fought, as it took a few of Martok's swings and kept fighting like its life depended on it, before Tirek found that a Fire Orb to the face caused the beast to howl in pain, allowing his companions to quickly put it down. Once they took care of the greater wolf Tirek did notice that there appeared to be a few lesser wolves watching them, meaning all of them had seen the downfall of their pack mates and their pack leader, to which the other couple of wolves that were in the area around them turned around and departed from the area, allowing the group to focus on what else was near them as they continued the search for the individual Yuria wanted them to kill. From there the group determined that there were three areas that they could head down, three paths where any of them could be the way forward, so the first one they picked was the hill that was behind them, due to the fact that it was away from the cliff that the wolves fought them near, but as the three of them walked up to the highest point of the hill Tirek noticed that the odd trees were moving and reacted immediately as he spun around and hurled a number of Fire Orbs at his targets, burning the enemy trees down.

The reason he attacked them was due to the fact that he had noticed the magic that was gathering around them and that they were starting to loose small clusters of flame-like orbs, so his actions meant he had taken care of some enemies before any of them had tried anything, where they even discovered that one of the were guarding a large titanite shard for some reason, something Sarana pocketed as the three of them continued to explore their options as they searched the rest of the area they were in. One thing they noticed was the rotted area that was just below the top of the hill that all of the odd trees had been resting in, one that had a few fly-like enemies, which seemed to be a cross between a large fly and a human, due to the more human-like limbs and partial face, though Tirek hurled a Fire Orb down into the area and set fire to the enemies that were in front of him, to which he tilted his head for a moment as he considered the fact that most of the foes in this world seemed to be weak to his fire spells. It was an interesting thing to discover, and he was sure both of his companions were considering the same thing, or at least Sarana would be doing that, before they jumped down into the rotted area and investigated the area, even though part of it was currently charred by his attack and would be brought back to normal once they rested at one of the bonfires that were in this world, if they found another one anyway, but all they were able to find was a spell page that detailed the 'Frozen Weapon' spell, where Tirek assumed it added frost to the weapon the user was carrying, like a sword or axe or something.

From there they followed the path downwards, finding that there were a few dead ends that they might find a way back to them at some point in the future, if they explored the rest of the world they had discovered, something Tirek was positive the three of them would do at some point in the future, before they walked up a hill and discovered a rather long bridge that connected the area they were in to another area, one that held a church and possibly a small settlement, only they paused as they found a cave that contained another bonfire, one that they activated and decided to rest near so they could be ready for the next stage of their exploration of Ariandel.

"I'm going to scout the area for a few minutes, see if there's anything we might need to be aware of before we start to head over that bridge," Sarana stated, though before either Tirek or Martok could say anything she got up from where she was sitting and headed outside the small cave that the bonfire rested in, showing that she was remaining true to her word and that it would be a few moments before she returned to tell them what was going on, meaning the pair could get some of their energy back before they did anything else.

"So, since Sarana's goal is to kill the ruling body of Lothric, or that's what I'm assuming based on what I've learned so far, might I inquire as to what sort of goal you're working towards?" Tirek inquired, though this was due to the fact that he had learned nothing about Martok, save for whatever Sarana had told him in the past, and he was a little curious as to what sort of goals or objectives the silent warrior might have, hence the reason he even bothered to ask the question in the first place, mostly to kill time.

"Sarana... my heart belongs to her." Martok stated, where Tirek raised an eyebrow for a moment, because while he did have a few ideas on what sort of goals the warrior might have been working towards, like he was hunting someone down for a crime that had been committed against him, sort of like the fact that the first thing Sarana did was hunt down and kill her hollowed parents, before the warrior's head glanced towards the cave's opening, "I will help pave the way to the world you're working to create, as long as I can spend the rest of my life with her."

Tirek remained silent for a time, mostly because what he had learned was a surprise and he had to wonder if Sarana even knew that Martok had a crush on her, something that was hard to determine due to the fact that their rogue had no emotions to show them, before deciding that there was nothing he could do about it, because it seemed that Martok was willing to follow him to the ends of the world, if it meant getting the chance to live with Sarana when the new world came about, once he killed the other Lords of Cinder and claimed the power of the Fire for himself. He also wasn't sure if both of his companions had spoken to Yuria, back when he was creating the inactive stone that didn't work in Ariandel, which was one of the ways for them to even know he was working to make a new world, the other being him telling them about his plans at one point in the past, though either way it didn't matter, as his companions were on his side and it didn't seem like either of them were going to turn against him. As he considered that, however, he wondered how long it would take them to find the area that Elfriede was located in and end her life, since that was the reason that they were even here in the first place, though once Sarana returned from her scouting mission they would head out and continue their search, all so they could leave Ariandel and get back to hunting down the last two Lords of Cinder.