Girolduses journey

Chapter: 1

As he sat in the cell and stared blankly at the floor of his cell, the warrior began to get the gnawing feeling that had grown stronger and stronger every day, the feeling of utter helplessness and the degradation of all he had left, his mind and body. The feeling was what many called, hollowing, and the closer he got the stronger the feeling became. Going hollow was the worst thing that could happen to a person, it rips away at the very things they hold dear, their memories, it tears at your will to continue until you are naught but a husk who hungers for the souls of others.

"I will get out, I will not go hollow." No matter how many times the warrior repeated the phrase he knew it lost more and more value each day. Knowing this might be his last day as he had for the countless years he had been imprisoned, the warrior looked about the only thing he had known for the longest time, his cell. The chains that had once shackled him had rusted away and the moss and grass that had once only inhabited the cracks of the small space now ran rampant and were his only concept of time.

As he curled up and prepared to accept his fate, the warrior heard the whine of an old and long rusted roof hatch creak open, being shortly followed up by a corpse smashing against the floor in front of him. As he looked up to see his savior, that of a knight, looking down upon him, greeted his gaze. Before any words could be exchanged the knight returned to whence he came, leaving him out of view, and the warrior quite confused. As he wondered what the corpses purpose was, the warrior noticed that one of its hands was firmly clenched around an object and upon further inspection it was a key.

The sight of the key sent the warrior into a phase of absolute joy but it was also paired with the great fear that the key may not even be for his cell. He cautiously pried the key from the man's hands almost as if it was a tiny being he wished not to hurt and gently slid it into the lock, slowly turning it, and hearing it click. This gave him an unbridled happiness but also a fear of what was to come.

The hallway behind the door was dimly lit and contained two undead such as himself, who could not die until they had gone hollow and been slain many a time. These two though, unlike him, had met with the fate he so dreaded but seemed not to notice the warrior as he walked through the dim hall, his steps echoing in the melancholy silence.

The two gave no notion of attack only a sad blank stare that was all too familiar. As he reached the end of the hall, he came upon a watery room with another hollow that sat in the ice-cold liquid but seemed to feel no pain. Upon closer examination his skin and other bodily parts seemed only held together by the cold frost of the water. This room held a quick turn, which led to a latter, and after a short climb he found a small courtyard, which held only a small fire of sorts, and the first real grass he had seen in a long time. The fire sat in the middle of the courtyard and though he'd never seen it, it felt familiar.

Approaching the fire he reached out to it, causing a reaction that seemed to light the fire; though he was enthralled by the fire he was more curious about the large doors in front of him. The doors had a small set of stairs leading up to them and two decayed and eroded statues on either side. Through the doors sat a courtyard that was larger and unlike its natural counterpart, had a stone floor along with two sets of doors, one large like the ones he had just encountered, being situated at the far end, and one small that sat on the left side wall. Not wanting to waste his time, though the daylight never seemed to dwindle, he headed toward the door on the far side of the courtyard.

As he neared he was greeted by a gluttonous demon, crashing to the ground in front of him and letting out a foul and crude howl. The demon wielded a large hammer that look as if it was a combination of stone and wood, but in his terror he had not noticed that the same demon he was dreading was in the process of swinging the odd weapon, he realized all too late that an impact was bound to happen. The hammer smashed into his chest, his bones giving an audible crunch and sending him flying side ways into the wall and smashing into it and down on to the stone floor.

The pain was unimaginable, if his punctured lungs could scream his vocal cords would be ripped. As he regained his senses, he gazed from his position on the floor seeing the other door not far off. The warrior mustered the strength to begin to crawl towards the now closer and open door the demon seeming to thunder towards him confident, in it's kill. He managed to get to the frame of the door and use a final bit of strength to pull himself through, the hammer slamming close behind, the impact sending him skidding forward and down a flight of stairs, landing next to a fire.

"If i'm going to die, I might as well see if the stories are true." The warrior sputtered and coughed, reaching for the fire and seeing it light his vision faded into black. As he awoke he couldn't believe it, he felt his once broken and smashed chest, it now being fine, and sat up gazing around at the room and then at the fire.

"So the legends are true, these fires allow me to negate the effects of my death." The warrior soon found his way to what used to be a hallway for the asylum, it now decayed and having no roof.

As he looked out he saw some faint orange writing and as he approached it turned out to be a message contains the phrase, 'Grab your shield' as he wondered what that meant an arrow penetrated his armor stabbing into his shoulder. Looking up he was greeted by the sight of a hollow wielding a bow and prepping another arrow, so ducking into the room near the message, he noticed the corpse in it clutched a small Heater shield and picking it up he felt a strong pain in his head as what seemed to be a memory came to light.

The flashback seemed to take place in a dimly lit and small meeting room in what appeared to be the basement of a large building, a man sat in front of him and another on his side. The man in front seemed to be the leader and wore armor made of stone; the one to his side seemed to be the same as him status wise and wore a foreign heavy armor. The armor he wore in the memory was that of a strong looking steel.

The memory had a fuzzy conversation containing something about killing some pale creature of great power. The memory then faded as he screamed in agony every second of it seeming to stab his mind.

The warrior returned to the old hall and wielding the shield blocked the arrows, coming upon another message as the scared hollow ran into another hall. 'Grab your Weapon' this triggered another memory this time of the previous three meeting up once more and looking at a layout of a mysterious archive looking building and talking of weapons to be used, the leaders being a tooth looking weapon, and himself and the foreigner possessing great swords. The agony was not as bad but the weapon felt right in his hands, it was only a Long sword and nothing like the weapon of memory but it must've had some link. A name was etched onto the hilt, 'Giroldus'

Heading into the hollows escape hall he charged up the set of stairs it had used as an escape, it standing at the top as it readied another arrow and sliced at its torso cutting in and stopping as it crunched against the hollows spine, it's flesh resembling parchment. The disemboweled hollow fell over and down the stairs, a small amount of white souls made their way into the Warriors pouch. Not noticing the Warrior approached a wall of fog that encompassed the small door that ended the hallway and placing his hand on it, as if instinct, he passed through feeling a sort of cold dew encompass him.

After exiting through the fog, it seemed to disappear and he noticed the knight who granted him freedom slouched down in the cell across the hall.

"Hail knight! I shall free you my friend!" Giroldus called the knight giving no reply but Giroldus was determined to free him. The door was blocked by debris but there had to be another way, heading to the side of the cell he found a weak spot in the wall and turning to the left he looked up a set of stairs spotting a large iron ball, perfect for use as a battering ram. He carefully approached it at an angle; this move proved useful as a hollow rolled the ball down, smashing a hole in the wall. The hollow came after him with a long broken sword but as he began to swing he was too slow and Giroldus severed his hand at the wrist, taking the helpless hollow and throwing him over the side of the stairs onto another pair a fair way down, smashing him completely and transferring more souls to Giroldus.

Giroldus found his way back to the hole in the wall and approached the knight greeting him.

"Hello friend, I've come to free you and see us both out of this hell hole."

"You're no hollow eh? Could you do me a favor then?" The knight asked

"Of course my good sir, what might it be?"

"Hand me one of those yellow flasks, and tip it into my mouth piece. I would but my arms are broken." Wondering how this would work Giroldus obliged and poured the flask, which contained a substance resembling golden water, the man seeming to almost instantly recover.

"Thank you. It's good to move my arms without extreme pain again. Take one, I've managed to find an extra few on my travels." Accepting the gift Giroldus felt the need to ask,

"How do these work?"

"You don't know? It's to be expected I suppose, these flasks are like hand held bonfires restoring small amounts of health for every drink, they're also refilled at these fires, walk with me." As they began to go up the same stairs that had freed the knight, they reached a door which the Knight happily opened, leading them into a small decayed room that used to be a corner of the asylum top floor it's roof being long crumbled. Two hollows approached while the Knight began to engage, telling Giroldus to hang back.

"My name is Oscar." He said as the first hollow to approached causing Oscar to kick it back into the approaching second hollow "I am an Astorian Knight who has come to complete my family's prophecy." He ran at the two withdrawing his sword and running them both through with it pinning them to the wall while they sat in a silent unexpressed pain.

Oscar then beckoned Giroldus to finish the job, making him run forward and driving his sword through their skulls ending the fight.

"Watch your left." Oscar said as an arrow whizzed by barely missing Giroldus. The arrow had come through the door to a longer room that sat on the left of the previous; it's one inhabitant being another hollow who possessed a bow.

They both ran at the hollow slicing at the same time, cutting off its legs causing it to fall down and blood to spurt from the open wounds, Oscar picked it up and threw it over the side of the asylum sending it crashing onto the rocks below.

"Now let's dispatch this demon filth and get out of here." As he said this Oscar walked up a set of three stairs to the left of them, passing through the fog causing it to disappear and Giroldus to witness him jump over the small balcony that lie through. As he approached the ledge Giroud could see that he had landed on the demon's head driving his sword into it and dealing a critical blow to its exposed skull causing it to crack.

Seeing his chance Giroldus jumped after as Oscar hopped to the floor, driving his sword into the beast's head, the pain temporarily guiding it and causing it to charge into the weak wall pillars, caving it inl. As the stone began to crumble and fall Giroldus withdrew his sword and slid down the gluttons back avoiding the debris that crushed the beast.

"Excellent work comrade, let's take this key," Oscar said grabbing it "And get out of here."

Opening the gate the two approached a small cliff.

"What do we do now!? How do you escape from a place with no road out and no way down?!" Giroldus yelled

"Why are you laughing Oscar?" He said quieting down

"Now comes the fun part." Oscar said as the two were consumed by a flurry of feathers and Talons