Dark Souls 3: Cinders of Power

by Blackdrag-rose

The High Wall

Tirek had no idea how long he had been out, especially since he wasn't expecting the world to go black when he decided to sit down at the bonfire that Sarana decided to sit in front of, but eventually the world seemed to come back into focus and he was able to see once more, only what was around him wasn't what he was expecting to see the moment he regained his focus. Instead of being in the shrine, where the bonfire and the thrones were located, he was in a rather small chamber that only had one entrance, though there happened to be a few tapestries around him, all looking like time had gotten to them in some manner, even though it was hard to make out the symbol that was on each of them, meaning he had no idea where they were, if he asked Sarana anyway. Speaking of which he found her laying on the ground next to him, no doubt still experiencing whatever had happened to them, allowing him to pick himself up and look around the rest of the small area that they were in, where he found a bowl that had a coiled sword on top of it, though something told him that this time they wouldn't need to pick something like that up, hence the reason he left it alone. After looking around for a few moments he determined that his earlier thoughts were correct, that there was only one entrance and that all they could do was move through the wooden door that was in front of them, once Sarana was awake anyway, since he wasn't about to leave without the person that all of their enemies seemed to focus on.

As he thought about that, however, there was a light sound as Sarana seemed to come to, as her arms and legs started to shift for a moment, showing Tirek that she nothing terrible had happened to her and that she was fine, before she picked herself up off the ground and shook herself, appearing to be a little warn out from whatever had happened to them when they sat in front of the bonfire.

"What the hell happened to us?" Sarana inquired, showing Tirek that she was just fine, that nothing had happened and that they had likely been teleported to a brand new location to begin their search for the Lords of Cinder, though she did take a moment to look around and get her bearings, just like he did a few minutes ago, even if it was was possibility that she might not know where they were either.

"From what I can gather, we were teleported to another location, with no way to get back to that shrine," Tirek replied, though at the same time he moved towards the door that was in front of him, because he was eager to get this adventure underway so they could seek the beings that needed to be returned to their thrones, even if it meant killing everyone that stood in their way, "though I suspect that the bonfire is to blame, especially since it seems to have brought us to a place where we can start our quest to find those Lords of Cinder."

It didn't take long for Tirek to open the door, as it was rather easy to force it open despite the fact that it looked like it could have been sitting in that state for years, but the moment it was open Tirek gazed out at the massive city that was in front of them, a city that just so happened to be built around the large castle he had seen earlier, and it looked like there was a large church of some kind down below them, meaning whatever walls surrounded this place had to be tall, and they weren't even the highest point since parts of the castle were even taller.

"Great, we're on one of the high walls that surround the castle," Sarana said, where she looked out at the area they were in and kept an eye out for enemies, because she knew that there would be some between them and the three Lords of Cinder that they needed to find, before even thinking about the missing Prince that was the last Lord that needed to be returned to his throne, "I'm willing to bet there's a good number of hollows down there, standing between us and what we're supposed to find in this place, so you had better be ready for a fight this time."

"I have learned my lesson from that knight," Tirek stated, informing Sarana that he would be more careful as they explored the new area that they were in, as he could have been killed by that knight and was lucky that their foe didn't finish him off, but now it was time to see what sort of enemies this place had for them and what they would need to do to get through whatever they found.

Sarana said nothing as she followed Tirek down the stairs that were in front of them, allowing them to leave the area that they had appeared in and descended into an area that seemed to be the top of a castle's wall, where soldiers would gather and move around whenever the city was under attack, but there was no one down there when they reached the last step, to which they lit the nearby bonfire and considered their next move. From what it looked like there were two paths they could take, one to their left and one to their right, and from a glance the path on their right seemed to be the safer one, mostly due to the fact that there wasn't a dragon over there, even if it seemed that the dragon to their left was down for the count, as Tirek wasn't about to take the chance, not with the limited power he had at the moment. Despite the fact that he wasn't very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of this land, Sarana agreed with him, that waking up a dragon was a bad idea at the moment, especially when they couldn't take one out without exhausting themselves in the process, so she was thinking about taking the path on the right, just to see what was over there. While she thought about that Tirek noticed that there were a fair number of branches or poles that seemed to be sticking out of the ground, with ashy white corpses stuck to them in some manner, making him wonder if the land had delved into chaos once they heard that the world was ending, as that was what he determined from the fact that everyone seemed to be eager to link the Fire and whatnot, something that still confused him at the moment.

A few moments later, when it was time to move, the pair headed over to the stairs that would take them down into the stone walkway that was over there, which seemed to connect to two other locations from the looks of things, but as Tirek headed down the stairs Sarana remained up on top and found someone with a crossbow, who seemed to be readying the weapon in question, so she cut him down before he had a chance to fire the weapon. While that happened, and the hollow collapsed on the floor, Tirek noticed that none of the civilian looking hollows seemed to care about what was going on, meaning they could progress through the area without having to kill everything that was around them, and the only thing that might worry him were the two undead dogs that were wandering around the area that was ahead of where he and Sarana were standing. Interestingly enough Sarana did join him, though she only did so for a few seconds and dropped over the edge to his left, where he found a ledge that allowed his companion to remain out of sight for one of the enemies that were walking up the stairs, a set he hadn't noticed yet, and proceeded to backstab the knight that was walking up the stairs, removing a threat from their path. As his companion started to explore the area she had opened up, to see if there was anything they could use to get around this place, Tirek heard a growl and found that one of the undead dogs had gotten close to where he was standing, and seemed to be annoyed about something, to which Tirek raised his staff and prepared himself. The dog rushed at him not a few seconds later, not giving him a chance to actually cast one of his Soul Arrows at it and take it down, so what he did was use his staff when the dog leapt into the air, as he caught his foe in the chest and lifted him a little higher into the air, before turning around and slamming the dog into the ground, which let him pull out his blade and stab his foe until it stopped moving.

The second dog, on the other hand, was easier to deal with since Tirek was able to blast it with a pair of Soul Arrows, though once that was done he looked at what was behind the dog and found that there was a hollow that was carrying a large axe, maybe a halberd of some kind, who glared at him and readied himself, showing him that he had to do the same thing, which is what he did. It was in that instant that the hollow jumped into the air and crossed the distance between them, barely giving him time to move as the foe landed near him and brought his weapon down, essentially cutting Tirek in half, before his reality faded for a brief moment and he reappeared by the bonfire he and Sarana had ignited, causing him to look down at his body for a moment and discovered that it was just fine, like he hadn't been cut down. Not a few seconds later the air that was to his right seemed to change for a second before Sarana suddenly appeared, though in that instant he noticed that both of them had lost the odd ember state they had been granted after defeating the knight earlier, making him wonder what in the world had happened, because he was sure he had been killed by that one hollow.

"Fucking hell, I leave you for a minute and you go and get yourself killed." Sarana commented, though Tirek got the feeling that she was rather annoyed with him at the moment, even if she definitely didn't have the emotions to convey that to him, though it was hardly his fault that some of these enemies were moving so quickly, especially when his body was annoying him at the moment with its old and frail nature.

"I cannot help the fact that my current form is slow and can easily be brought down," Tirek replied, though even as he said that he turned towards the path they had been exploring and found that everyone they had just killed had returned to where they had been standing a few moments ago, even though he knew that they had taken them out and collected their souls, before spotting one hollow that had glowing red eyes and another that had glowing black eyes, "though I was not aware of the fact that we would be brought back to life when we died, nor was I aware of the fact that our enemies would come back if we were both killed in some manner."

"Yes, that's because we're undead, cursed to remain in this state until the day we lose our minds and become like the hollows we're fighting, unless we link the Fire anyway." Sarana stated, where Tirek turned and glanced at her as she came to a stop near where he was standing, so she could look out at the area they had tried to explore earlier, as if thinking of a way to take out the more dangerous enemies that were in their way, "When we die in battle, like we just did, we'll reform at the last bonfire we used, though at the same time all of our enemies will come back as well, which means that we will have to kill all of them all over again, and the enemies that killed us will be vessels for the souls we had on us, making them even stronger in the process."

"Dying sounds like its going to be a pain." Tirek said, where he sighed for a moment, something he rarely did before coming to this world, as he took in what Sarana had just told him, though the one thing he figured out was that it was the souls that they had been carrying at the time of their deaths and not all of the souls that they used earlier, to empower themselves, as his power was the same as when he had the Fire Keeper empower one of his aspects, before he glanced out into the area they had died in, or, to be more exact, the foes with the glowing eyes, "Of course the halberd knight would have my souls, which means his friend is the one you'll need to take out... its a shame that neither of them returned to their patrols after killing us, as that would have made things much simpler for us."

"Quit your whining. None of this would have happened if you weren't killed by that one hollow." Sarana replied, where Tirek watched as she took out the crossbow hollow once more, that way they didn't have someone shooting at them from behind when they headed down into the area that they had both died in, before she dropped down next to Tirek and, once more, headed over to the ledge that would allow her to get the drop on someone.

Tirek sighed for a moment and focused on the pair of dogs that were blocking the way, finding that he could take both of them out rather easily, but this time around he made sure not to pull the halberd hollow over to the area that he was standing in, as this time he was preparing a Heavy Soul Arrow and knew that it would do some decent damage to the foe that had killed him a few moments ago. Sure enough his attack caused his target to stagger for a moment, since he wasn't expecting the attack to happen in the first place, but even a single spell of that category wasn't enough to take down the halberd hollow and striking it alerted it to the fact that Tirek was even there, which happened to be the moment that it turned around and faced him, indicating that it was going to rush at him in the next couple of seconds. Fortunately he didn't have to worry about anything, as Sarana appeared behind the hollow and stabbed him in the back, enough to cause him to collapse on the ground and stop moving, though once that was done Tirek blasted the axe hollow that was right behind her, knocking it into the stairs that were behind it. With those two hollows taken out in rapid succession, and both Tirek and Sarana had their souls back, they proceeded up the stairs so they could see what their foes had been guarding the entire time, where they found a couple of the docile hollows praying to the odd branches that were growing out of the ground and a crossbow hollow that seemed to be protecting them.

Of course, as the pair started to approach the hollows, one of the docile ones got up and suddenly his back burst open as some black substance wrapped around him, much like what happened when they fought the knight earlier, and the force of the transformation took out the two other docile hollows that were near it and the crossbow hollow, meaning all they had to do was take out the transformed hollow and this part of the wall should be cleared out. What worked to their benefit was the fact that their new foe was focusing on Sarana at the moment, swinging its claws at her and trying to bite her with its new serpent head, allowing Tirek to stand behind it and blast it with a few Soul Arrows, as he was saving the heavier ones for later, when they encountered someone like the halberd knight. Still, he had to blast the creature five times, in addition to the couple of stab wounds that Sarana was able to inflict upon it, before it finally collapsed where it was standing and reverted back to its previous form, that of a hollow, which disappeared before their eyes, leaving a gem with a dark purple glow emitting from its core. The gem seemed to radiate some sort of dark energy, that much Tirek was certain of from just looking at the gemstone, to which he picked it up and stored it inside his pack, as he felt that they could do something with it in the future, before glancing over to Sarana, who picked up a longbow and some standard looking arrows that had been left behind, which she added to the weapons she was using at the moment.

"You sure you're going to need that?" Tirek inquired, as he felt that his magic was more than enough for them, in the sense of ranged combat anyway, but he was curious as to what Sarana had to say about the longbow and the arrows that she had added to her list of weapons, even if she had moved over to where the remaining docile hollows were praying after doing that, where she put them out of their misery.

"There are always enemies to be taken out from afar, and this will allow me to do so," Sarana replied, though once the pair of docile hollows were taken care of she headed back down the stairs and started walking back to where the bonfire was located, as it was time for them to explore the other path, since the one they had picked out was actually a dead end at the moment, even if Tirek was sure there was a shortcut they could open at some point in the future.

Tirek said nothing to that as they headed back to where the bonfire was located, not even bothering to rest at it this time as they walked down the other set of stairs and descended down into the area that the second path was in, where the pair spotted a number of docile hollows on the right side of the path, though near the area that the dragon's head was resting in stood a hollow with what appeared to be a bell of some kind, to which he held out his hand for a moment and stopped Sarana from heading down into the area.

"It seems that we may have a bit of a problem," Tirek said, where he pointed at the hollow he had spotted and made sure his companion could see the bell that he had focused on the moment he noticed it, though he could tell that Sarana was wondering what he was doing and might be hoping that he would get on with what he had to say, "that hollow seems to be the type that will incite the others, the docile ones, into attacking whoever enters the area, meaning we need to take him out first, before he has a chance to sound the alarm."

"And you thought we might not need the bow." Sarana replied, to which she crouched down where they happened to be standing at the moment, giving her enough room to draw her new longbow and nock one of the arrows that she had picked up, something she was going to have to keep in stock for the future, before carefully aiming at the hollow that her companion was worried about.

In the following moments Tirek watched as Sarana loosed the arrow and sent it flying through the air, where it struck the hollow in the head and caused it to fall down the stairs that it was guarding, meaning that none of the docile hollows would even care about what happened, though both of them waited for a few more seconds, just to see if anything else happened, and when the hollow didn't resurface they knew she had taken it out. With that hollow taken out the pair stood up and headed down into the area that was in front of them, were Tirek quickly found one of the warrior hollows walking around and used two of his Soul Arrows to put the creature back in the ground, allowing Sarana to attack the docile hollows that were around them, just in the off chance that another bell hollow was nearby, mostly so they didn't get overwhelmed by enemies while they were exploring this part of the high wall. What the pair discovered was that there were two paths they could take, one that seemed to go up to where the rest of the dragon was resting and once that went into the building that the dragon was perched on, though despite everything Tirek was of the opinion that the best was dead, as none of the sounds they had made seemed to be having any effect on the creature. Sarana decided to check out the top of the structure, where the pair found another bell ringer hollow and a few armored hollows that seemed ready for battle, which was fine with Tirek as both he and Sarana engaged their foes, dodging attacks to the best of their abilities and hitting their foes with their own attacks, and while that happened Tirek even blasted a hollow that was trying to throw small bombs at them, taking it out so it didn't hurt them at all.

Despite the fact that Tirek couldn't move as well as he would prefer to, since he liked having his full power and his not so old looking body, he and Sarana were able to take out the group of hollows in no time, allowing them to gather all of the soul energy that came from their enemies, as well as a pair of binoculars that neither of them really needed, though once all of that was done they headed over to the other route, as the one Sarana had picked lead to a dead end, meaning the other one had to be the correct path to take, to which they headed back towards the stairs in question, even though Tirek did find a stray soul resting a little bit above a body, one he collected for later.

As they headed down the stairs Tirek found that they were entering what appeared to be a storage area of some kind, due to the boxes and barrels that were around them, and that there was a ladder that would take them to the level that was below where they were standing, as the other entrance of this area seemed to be blocked at the moment by some rubble, though he also spotted two more hollows in the area, both looking depressed. Of course, as the pair expected, the two hollows were luring them into a false sense of security and lashed out at them the moment their guards were lowered even a little bit, hence the reason that Sarana parried the incoming attack from the first one and Tirek, instead of using one of his spells, used his staff to trip up his foe and then stabbed him with his sword, figuring that he might as well use it from time to time, instead of letting it hang there on his belt all the time. Sarana also took out the other hollow that was hiding behind some crates, out of sight so that it could attack them when they were least expecting it, but in the end they were able to take out all of the enemies that were around them and headed over to where the ladder was located, which allowed them to descend to the next level of the tower they were in, though Tirek went second so he could keep an eye out for enemies and blast them if they rushed at Sarana. Once she was down on the lower level, and indicated that the way was clear, Tirek moved off to the side and picked up some of the firebombs that he had seen her pick up earlier, to which he climbed down the ladder and joined her, handing over the items in question since she knew how to use them and when to use them, though once they were put away the pair moved forward and left the cell-like area that the ladder had brought them to.

The only reason Tirek considered it to be like a cell was because of the wall around the door frame, which looked like the wall of a cell, but without there being a door he and Sarana were able to walk through the opening and passed by the desk that was to their right, where Tirek picked up the lingering soul that was resting above a corpse, before they walked through the opening that was in front of them, so they could move to another part of the wall. On the other side of the opening they found another section of the wall they could walk on, provided they walk up the stairs that were to their left so they could get up to the area in question, but first they had to deal with a pair of hollowed soldiers that happened to be in the area they were in. Since one of them had a shield and the other had a crossbow Sarana had the bright idea to lure the hollow with the shield back to where they found the lost soul, where Tirek watched as the hollow in question turned around and followed them into the chamber that they had been in a few seconds ago, though while they did that Sarana hid by the entrance and waited for their foe to come at them. A few seconds later the hollow walked into the passage and turned to face Tirek, only to have Sarana appear behind him and cut his life to pieces, allowing him to walk outside again and blast the crossbow hollow twice, eliminating yet another foe from their path, which meant they could move again and he headed up the stairs, figuring that it was the best course of action.

What he wasn't expecting, on the other hand, was for a roar to sound in the area they were in, which was the instant another dragon landed on top of the building that was at the end of the walkway they had been heading towards, to which he backed off as the beast flamed the walkway and burned all of the enemies that were up on the level above them with its fire breath, allowing them to collect the souls of the fallen hollows.

"Great, there's more than one dragon and this one's alive." Tirek remarked, because while he knew that he and his companion could take out a number of enemies on their own, or take them out together if they needed to do so, this was a foe that neither of them could take out, not with the weak amount of power that he had access to, before he headed down the stairs, "Come, let us check out the other path."

"Whatever you say... and its a wyvern, not a dragon." Sarana replied, showing that she understood what Tirek was trying to do and that she knew what the beast was, even though he didn't care about what the locals called the winged beasts that were either guarding the castle or had been attacking it earlier, but it was information and he filed it away for the future, just in case they found more of them.

Tirek stopped for a moment as he spotted a number of hollows blocking the other path he wanted to use, meaning that he and Sarana would have to fight their way through them to get to the building that was behind them, though it was in that instant that the wyvern turned to look at the area that they were planning on walking through, where it flamed the entire area and took out the hollows that had been blocking the way. He stood there for a few seconds, waiting for the flames to die down, and the moment the flames died down both he and Sarana made a run for it, as neither of them wanted to be burned to death by the winged beast, and it didn't take them long to run up a set of stairs and reach the area that the group of hollows had been guarding. In the area beyond the stairs they found a fully armored knight that happened to be patrolling the area, someone who looked incredibly dangerous if either of them allowed him to get the drop on them, though while there seemed to be one other knight in the area, who wasn't as dressed up as the first one they found, they focused on the main knight for now. The knight's movements were quicker than what the pair was really expecting, though while he seemed to go after Tirek, like he thought that magic users were the first ones that needed to be taken out, which opened him up to being stabbed in the back by Sarana, causing him to stagger, though as he knocked her backwards, and turned to advance on her, that was the moment Tirek loosed a Heavy Soul Arrow into his chest, an attack that knocked him into the wall and made him collapse in a pile nearby.

The pair stared at each other for a moment as they regained themselves, before they headed up into the area that the knight had been guarding and quickly took out the other hollow that was up there, along with one they hadn't spotted earlier, before finding that the door to their left was locked, meaning all they could do was head up the stairs that the knight had walked down, though Tirek did make sure to pick up the lost soul nearby as he followed Sarana. What the pair discovered was what appeared to be another storage area with a hidden hollow that jumped out at them the instant they entered the area, where Tirek blasted it with the last bits of his magic and let Sarana finish it off, though it was a good thing he had the Ashen Estus Flask, as he was able to regain his power as they explored the rest of the area. Tirek found that the hollow they took out had a gem on him, a rather square looking one, so he pocketed it as Sarana located an item on a plank of wood that rested above the lower level, so if she fell it would be slightly painful, even if neither of them could actually feel pain thanks to their cursed states. In the end it appeared that she had found a few more firebombs, though once she put them inside her pack she returned to Tirek as he walked through the other opening that they would walk through and exited the building, where he found some stairs that lead to the roof, which just so happened to be the area that a new bonfire was located in, causing him to smile for a moment as he ignited it. While he did that Sarana found a metal or stone shard of some kind nearby, something that she pocketed, indicating that it must be important and that they would need it at some point in the future, but once that was done they headed back down the stairs and continued to look around the new area that they had found.

When they returned to the lower level Tirek found out something interesting, because when he and Sarana used one of the bonfires all the enemies in the area came back to life, though this time, since neither of them had rested at the new one, none of their slain enemies had come back, meaning they could progress a little further before having to rest at the bonfire and regain their energy. As they walked down the wooden ramp that would take them to the level that was below them one of the hidden hollows tried to attack them, where Sarana stabbed him before he could really do anything and removed him from their path, though not a few seconds later Tirek had to blast one as well, opening the way for them to move forward and continue exploring the area they were in. By that the pair walked through the opening that was near them and headed outside, where they noticed another fallen wyvern in the new area they had walked into, one that did appear to be dead, that had a few hollows praying near it, especially one that was approaching them with the intent to harm them. What actually happened next was another hollow pulled itself over the edge to their right, so Sarana cut down the new enemy while Tirek blasted the first hollow in this area, allowing them to take out both of their foes at the same time as they approached the ladder that was near the fallen wyvern, finding that none of the praying docile hollows even got up as the pair walked by them, which let them move down onto the roof of a building that seemed to be part of their path, which brought them to another group of docile hollows.

What neither of them were expecting was one of them to transform like the one they had taken out near the very first bonfire they had found in this entire area, with the force taking out the rest of the hollows that were around him, but they simply repeated what they had done earlier and brought down the transformed foe like it was nothing, though that did lead to an interesting development.

"We must return to the bonfire for a moment." Tirek stated, to which he turned around and started to head back to the new bonfire they had ignited, something that meant he had to climb up the ladder again, though he could tell that his companion had stopped and was likely wondering what in the world he was talking about, but as he did this he found yet another forgotten soul to add to his collection, maybe to use in some manner when they returned to the shrine to give themselves some additional power.

"And why do we need to do that?" Sarana asked, though she followed Tirek anyway, because she knew that even if they rested at the bonfire they were able to take out the various foes that were around them and could afford to bring all of them back, since it would give them more souls to use whenever they decided to talk to the Fire Keeper again, but she kept her eyes on Tirek as they headed toward the bonfire.

"I am out of magicka, and I used my only Ashen Flask earlier, so I must replenish both of them before we move even deeper into the city." Tirek replied, because while he didn't like the fact that he was out of magicka, since it left him with little to no actual defenses, he was glad there was a quick way for him to restore his limited power while they explored this land and sought out the Lords of Cinder, who were his tickets to restoring his true power.

It didn't take them long to return to the bonfire and rest at it, to let Tirek restore his magicka and his Ashen Flask to what they had been earlier, though he knew that after a few moments they would resume their adventure and that it was only a matter of time until they found something that revealed the location of the Lords of Cinder, which would really kick off this quest, and he was eager to find one and take it down for its power.

Comments

[badninja]

Hopefully when Tirek levels up next he will spend the points and improve his health. He is more of a liability with him being so slow.

[Comickook]

Again, excellent job on the exchange, action, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Yeah, Tirek went and got himself killed, but at least he learned to be more careful. And I can see BOTH Sarana and Tirek's points. Yes, one can definitely understand why Sarana would be so upset and Tirek has a point about being too slow at present.Hopefully, when he levels up enough, he'll have built up his health AND his speed enough to be less of a liability.

VERY definitely looking forward to more of this.

[PrismStrike]

Death Counter:
Tirek: 1
Sarana: 1

wow Tirek seems to be actually learning from this experience but then again Dying can do that, though he damn lucky he can't feel being cut in half as I imagine that woulda hurt something fierce. Definitely Enjoying Sarana and her no fucks given attitude is a great contrast to the guy from the last one with Rarity. Really good to see someone finally giving the bow some love as its one of my personal fav weapons in darksouls as a useful backup weapon. As always another great chapter, looking forward to more of Tirek dying (cause I loved seeing that happen to one so deserving of it). Keep up the great work.