• Published 28th Nov 2022
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Elden Ring: The Deaths of Tirek - Blackdrag-rose



Tirek, following his defeat at the hooves of Twilight and her friends, is transported to a world unlike anything he could imagine, filled with large trees, violent creatures, and danger around every corner.

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The First Catacombs

After Tirek's encounter with Renna, or whatever her real name was, Tirek found that there was an easy way to tell when he could use the summoning bell to call forth whatever ashes he wanted to use, it gave off a faint blue glow and, as it's new master, he could sense when the magic was available for use. It was an interesting spell and meant he could plan out his attacks on some of the more powerful creatures, as it could also serve as a warning for him, due to the fact that he was sure that if the bell had been in his possession beforehand he wouldn't have engaged the Tree Sentinel. That knight was rather annoying, as this powerful foe was strong enough to take him down in a single swing of his halberd, though at the same time he possessed a spell that allowed him to reflect spells that were launched at him, turning them into a blast of golden energy that was incredibly painful. With that thought in mind he knew that challenging the Tree Sentinel right now was a foolish endeavor, because he would die in a single hit no matter what, regardless if his foe noticed him first or not, so he knew that it was time to power himself up and do something else.

As such he rushed over to where he dropped his Runes upon his last death, collecting them as the Tree Sentinel noticed him doing so, before rushing back to the Grace to reset the world, allowing him to sigh as he used what he had collected earlier to grow his own powers once more.

With that done Tirek stood up and headed through the western side of the church, since parts of the eastern and western walls had fallen at some point in the past, allowing him to emerge from his resting spot without drawing the attention of the knight who seemed to be patrolling the area. Such a thing allowed him to sigh once more, this time in relief, as he started to explore the rest of Limgrave, as right now he was hunting down targets that would allow him to grow his power, because he suspected more power was important in this world. He discovered that there were all sorts of wild animals wandering about, like deer eating or eagles resting on some rocks before flying off if something got too close, which told him he would likely encounter more of them in the future, even though killing them would no doubt earn him nothing in the long run. He also discovered some stone ruins that looked like they might have been towers or ancient structures, one even looked like it was just a stone cube with no real purpose, making it hard for him to understand why someone would even put forth the effort to make something like this, even though he picked up a few fist sized fragments that were on the ground and slipped them inside his pouch.

While he carefully explored the area Tirek discovered something interesting, there was a statue of a hunched figured on a hill near the church, who was wearing a robe and seemed to have a candle as it looked off in another direction, right at part of the cliff side that was to the north of the church's location.

"Hm, curious... I wonder why someone would create something like this." Tirek remarked, especially when he noticed that the statue, upon touching it, started to glow as a faint blue light moved to the north, as if pointing to something, though as he considered that he realized he had nothing to lose, as he needed to power up before worrying about the Tree Sentinel and the other beasts of this odd world.

He carefully followed the path that the faint light was leading him on, which had to be Grace related as well, before finding a few Hollows tending to a piece of ruins that had fallen to the ground in the past, though to be on the safe side Tirek turned some of his magic on them. He quickly discovered that none of them were particular sturdy, in fact one spell was enough to take each one down as he got meager Runes for his efforts, and none of the seemingly mindless beings wanted to fight him, making him wonder what was up with this world. With that in mind he decided to ignore the last few Hollows and turned his attention to the rest of the area, finding that there was a way down near part of the side of the cliff, in line with the statue no less, that brought him to a large wooden door that rested between two stone pillars carved into the cliff side. Tirek raised his hands and pushed on the door, finding that it tried to resist for a few seconds before he pushed it open, revealing a path on the other side that lead down into a carved tunnel, almost like a catacombs, meaning he might have found an area that he could gather more Runes in.

Sure enough he found a new Grace spot further down the stairs in front of him, to which he activated it before moving even deeper into the catacombs, finding another ghostly figure in a chair to his right and a weathered statue in a chamber some distance in front of him, likely an imp of some kind. This time around the ghost had nothing interesting to say, rather all he talked about was the Erdtree and 'proper death', so Tirek tuned him out as he started to explore the rest of the area he had discovered, since he might find new items to help him on his quest, as in Runes, weapons, and gear. As he walked into the other chamber, passing by another tunnel that lead deeper into the catacombs, Tirek was assaulted by a statue that actually moved, as in the little imp had moved to a corner by the opening and attacked him as he found that he had spotted a lone chair a few moments ago. While the attacks weren't very strong he had to admit that they were painful and annoying, and that was before he found another Imp Statue that threw small knives at him, or daggers he guessed, causing him to turn his magic on them both.

Tirek discovered that three hits were enough to take them down, though he had focused the dagger thrower since those seemed to do more damage than the first statue's weapon, only to discover that his foes had been guarding some resin, which he stashed away as he headed back to the other tunnel.

The tunnel just turned out to be a set of stairs leading down to a larger locked stone door that almost seemed like slabs of material, meaning he would have to track down a lever, since this world didn't seem to have switches like what he found in parts of the world he had called home. It also had some odd stone statues on either side of it, like guides or something, but since he didn't see any levers in the area Tirek sighed as he headed down another tunnel and continued to explore the rest of the catacombs, but first he picked an odd white flower that seemed important, as he felt some sort of power from it. He then discovered his final destination, there was a statue with a lever on a level he couldn't access right now, which meant he had to track down the stairs or ladder that lead up to where it was located, though he could tell that more of the Imp Statues were moving, meaning he had to be careful. Such a thing was turned on him as he found that the pair lashed out with their throwing weapons, so Tirek moved and hurled some Glintstone Pebbles at them, breaking them apart while getting a dagger in the leg, causing him to make sure they were taken down before taking a swing from both of his flasks after removing the offending item, just to be on the safe side.

He also discovered that there were other hazards besides the Imp Statues, as there was a tunnel with a device that loosed a burst of fire every now and then, causing him to stand at what seemed to be the edge of the flame's reach as he took a few seconds to consider his next move. In that moment he came up with a way to use those ruin fragments he had picked up earlier, he pulled one out, considered the distance that he would have to throw it down, before hurling it with all of his might, sending it flying down the tunnel and right into the side of the statue. What interested him was that the statue that was producing the flames stopped spewing them entirely and sunk into the floor, opening the way for him to explore the rest of the catacombs as he searched for the path that would lead to the final lever. As he did that he had to turn and blast an Imp Statue that landed behind him, he wasn't about to let them get the better of him after seeing what each of them were capable of, but once that was done he moved on and kept his guard up.

The shocking thing was that Tirek found a second tunnel with another flame trap, connected to the first one no less, so he simply repeated his motion and knocked the statue down with one of his thrown ruin fragments, before discovering a few Imp Statues in the chamber that the second tunnel ended in. He simply sighed as he raised his staff and loosed a couple of pebbles per statue, blasting each one to pieces while making sure to keep his magical energy up, since it would be most annoying if he ran out of mana and died because he thought he had more to spare. The other down side was that he only had the one cerulean flask, so since he had used it already he needed to be careful with his remaining mana, meaning he either needed to find a way to make more flasks or simply boost his reserves to the point where he only needed to restore his magical energy once. As he considered that Tirek discovered a rather short side passage that had a ladder, one that, when he climbed it, brought him up to a level he had seen earlier, not where the lever was, so he carefully blasted a few more Imp Statues as he moved along the path that was in front of him, only to discover that he had found a dead end up on his level, with some glowing ashes that were absorbed into his Spirit Bell.

In that moment, before he spoke his mind, he glanced over the ledge to his left and found that he could drop down onto the level that had the lever and did so without delay, allowing him to hear that the heavy door opened and made his way back to it, only to stop when he found that there was a golden mist wall at the bottom of the stairs.

"Great... a powerful creature is down here." Tirek remarked, to which he sighed and returned to the Grace he had lit up at the start of the catacombs, where he sat down and allowed the world to be reset as he focused on Melina's power for the next few moments, turning the Runes he had gained in the catacombs into newfound power, not enough to give him any sort of confidence for the Tree Sentinel, but at least he wouldn't lose anything if he died, "Alright, let's do this."

He quickly retraced his steps to the golden mist wall, avoiding the Imp Statues that had been revived, and passed through it without wasting time, where he found a square shaped chamber with some sort of stone statue of a cat, or what he had to assume was a cat, that held a sword and seemed to look like a warrior due to the red cape. It seemed to awaken after he entered the area it was supposed to be guarding, a chamber with roots right behind it, Erdtree roots no doubt, and not a few seconds later Tirek watched as it stood up and walked over to the area he was in. It was such an odd sight to behold, he wasn't going to lie, though it was incredibly fast, despite being made out of pure stone, and it's first downward swing caught him in the shoulder and crushed him into the ground with ease, though interestingly enough he survived the blow with a hurt body. He found that it seemed to pause for a moment and that allowed him to get up and move away from the area he had been standing in, where he pulled out the Spirit Bell once he was far enough away from the statue and focused on the wolves as he ran it, finding that three spectral wolves appeared out of thin air, though it did eat into his mana to summon them, a fate he filed away for later.

Tirek discovered that the Watchdog, as it seemed like a guardian of the area, turned on the wolves as it either thrust out at one of them with it's blade or floated into the air before slamming into the ground below it, both attacks looking painful to be hit by as he hurled more Glintstone Pebbles at his foe. As he did that, where he found that it was hard to tell if it took a lot of damage from his spells or not, he also uncovered a new move he would have to watch out for, as the Watchdog stopped in it's tracks before breathing fire on the area in front of it, complete with a rotating head to cover more ground. Fortunately his wolves seemed to be taking the majority of the damage right now, in fact he had to wonder if the powerful beings of this world focused on them first, thinking them more of a threat to their existence, than the one who summoned them, but he wasn't about to complain. As long as his wolves remained alive he could focus on blasting the Watchdog with his spells, as it seemed like he might be getting somewhere, especially since the wolves were able to bite into it's stony body and do some damage of their own, so he just had to take this one step at a time and not rush in like a moron.

With those facts in mind he was able to bring down the Watchdog, causing him to huff as he watched it break apart and he absorbed the Runes that had been stored inside it, where the wolves howled before disappearing, allowing him to collect his prize, the ashes of a 'noble' sorcerer that were absorbed into his Spirit Bell.

After that Tirek returned to the Grace at the beginning of the catacombs and quickly rested, where he made sure to turn his new Runes into additional power for the future, this time giving himself more physical power than mental, because now he knew the dangers of this world and realized that he couldn't solely rely on magic. With beings able to kill him in one shot, or more depending on which one he was thinking about, he needed more life essence so he could take more pain before even having to worry about using one of his crimson flasks to heal his battered body. In addition to that he suspected that doing the same to his stamina might not be bad either, since he'd be able to run for longer if the need arose and it might aid him in battle, how he really had no idea, but he knew that the stronger he became the less he'd have to worry about. Once he was done with his Runes, making sure to leave the Grace with nothing left in the off chance he encountered another powerful foe that kept killing him in a single hit, he got up and quickly left the catacombs before returning to the church that the Tree Sentinel was in front of, making sure to head for the Grace that was inside it.

A few moments later, after making sure to rest at the church's Grace, Tirek walked out of the structure and focused on the patrolling knight that had killed him the most so far, where he used his Spirit Bell to call forth his wolves, since he had to pick one ash to summon, instead of all of them. With that done he focused on the Tree Sentinel and readied his magic, as this would allow him to tell if he had improved or if he was fooling himself, before loosing a pebble straight at the knight's backside, hitting his target with ease even though it didn't look like it did much. His wolves rushed out to fight his foe, just as they did back in the catacombs, but they weren't long for this world as the knight crushed them with ease, showing him that he was just as dangerous as he had been during his previous attempts. The only good thing was that he was able to hit the knight with a few more pebbles, using the deaths of his minions to try and do some damage, but even that failed in the grand scheme of things as the knight crushed him with a swing of his halberd.

As Tirek returned to the Grace, however, he sighed and quickly erased his death spot by touching the golden circle, just so he didn't have to look at it, before sitting down to think about what to do next, since there were options to pick from and power to obtain, he just had to decide where to go next.