I do not own Dark Souls or Kuroinu: Kedakaki Seijo wa Hakudaku ni Somaru
Well this is happening, eh I got to playing DS3 before the remaster came out then I started to play that and then it kinda spiraled out of control and now here we are.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Dark Character Speech"
'Dark Character Thoughts'
Prologue: Visions
Soft green eyes opened slowly in pain as the owner coughed into the ground that they lay upon.
They then slowly raise their face off the ground and get the dust out their mouth. And with more effort then they'd like to admit began to pick themselves off the ground first with their hands before putting wobbly and unbalanced feet underneath them.
It was only when they rose to full height that the full figure of the person was revealed in what light remained in the sky.
The person had pale skin like that of fine ivory, bright blonde hair that ran all the way down to her ankles, vibrant green eyes and long pointed ears. As for her attire she wore a very loose fitting robe and cloth that wrapped up and around her back and crossed at the neck and worked its way down the front of her body before meeting again under her chest and quickly splitting off just her above stomach and once again coming together at her hips before hanging somewhat loosely around her legs. Over all of this was a long brown cloth that began at her stomach where the cloth separated and dangled in front of her just on top of the white cloth weighted by a large golden pendant. And as for the others things she wore she had a crown of what seemed to be two olive branches atop her head, a small golden crown that sat upon her ears and wrapped around her head and met at the center of her forehead, and brown cloth wrappings around her calves, which ended at the ankle and became leather sandals on her feet.
This was Celestine Lucross, high queen and to many of the people the most beautiful woman in her country of Eostia.
But now she wasn't sure as to where she was.
She looks around to the field that she seemed to have woken up in and wondered just where she was. The field was lifeless with the only things littering it for miles were thousands of weapons ranging from dagger, to spears, arrows, everything in between, and some weapons that looked too massive and heavy for any single person to wield.
All in all it was quite unsettling to look out at all of them as she herself tended to be a pacifist by nature and to look out among thousands of discarded weapons, she knew that somewhere there had to be thousands of corpses of those who used them.
And that thought brought her to near sorrow as she was forced to think on the war that been raging on in her kingdom for almost an entire millennium. Perhaps this was a reminder of how many have died in her war with the Dark Queen? Perhaps it was a premonition of how many more had to die before it would end?
Either way it did not matter to her, death was always one of the ugliest and most heartbreaking things she had been forced to look upon in her long, long life as a queen. So she knew that she would never be used to it no matter how many times she sees it.
So that begged the question as to why she was being shown this now?
She then looks up into the sky and her jaw fell at what she was being shown in the sky above.
The sun seemed to be in an eternal eclipse.
She had seen plenty of eclipses in her life, but this one was very different. Never has one looked or felt like this one. It was as if the warmth of the sun had disappeared and all that was left was quiet and still darkness.
However she didn't have long to think on the phenomenon as large heavy footsteps could be heard behind her. And against her better judgment she turned to face whatever it was that crept behind her.
It was a knight, but it was the most unusual knight she had ever seen.
The knight was tall, over double the height of a normal man and his armor was badly worn and burned almost to the point of being completely black.
His legs were covered in plate armor and looked as if they were tree trunks when she compared them to her own. His waist held a large assortment and daggers and throwing knives, and appeared to even be on fire at one spot. His chest piece looked as if it were a set of protruding ribs with a burning cape bellowing in the wind blowing past the two. Her eyes then continued to wander upward and saw that only his left shoulder was covered by a heavy pauldron, but the right shoulder seemed to still be well protected with a smaller and much more burnt one. Their arms were covered in charred leather and ended in knuckled plate gauntlets with each knuckle being red hot.
And then she looked at both their face and to the weapon they carried in their right hand.
The helm was charred and burnt like the rest of his armor and for the most part to her was a typical if slightly creepy helm. Until she got to the fiery crown that seemed to be resting at the top with all of the points of the helm glowing as if they had just come fresh out of the forge.
Also the knight didn't seem to have eyes of any kind, as the slot where one would normally be able to see them was a total void of black.
And then there was the weapon, a large vicious and twisted greatsword twice the size of any she had ever seen. It like the crown since it was glowing with heat so much so that she could feel herself begin to sweat from it.
She swallowed a lump in her throat out of fear at the towering burning knight before her. Silence crept over the area as the knight had yet to make a sound other then their raged and strained breath. The burning knight then slowly leaned forward bringing itself down to her height and seemed to look her directly in the eye.
She could hear deep and haggard breathing from behind the helm and she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as the knight seemed to be glaring her down without needing any eyes to do so.
"You are not ash." It said finally said to her in what sounded like a thousand different voices put into one body.
But for the life of her she had not even the slightest idea of what it meant.
The knight rose from his spot in front of her and placed a hand upon her head and began to grip increasingly tight.
She began to panic as the knight started lifting her off the ground with what seemed like relative ease and once again called out to her again in its multiple voices.
"You must see what ashes lay before you. If you are to survive the coming dark."
She didn't have time to wonder what this knight meant before the squeezing on her head became unbearable as she screamed in pain as each and every digit it used to grip her head began to heat and glow with red hot fury.
She was then assaulted with visions of figures she had no clue who they were or what they were supposed to mean, but they like the knight were violent and very foreboding.
With the first she found herself surrounded by fire. It was all around her, assaulting her from everywhere at once while it burned everything to the ground around her.
But among the fire she heard a soft laughter like that of a wise old man. Then almost for no reason the fire seemed to split apart for a moment revealing to her a dark figure that held a dark red flame in each hand and when they raised one hand out in front of them it showed a small grin upon their face.
"Fear the fire, young one. Or else you burn yourself." They say in a soft and tired voice.
They then gesture the other hand outward and the entire landscape becomes brightened with fire revealing that they had been standing in the city of Ken the capital of her country and her own personal home.
And now all of it was gone. Burnt to nothing more than ashes.
And like that the first vision ended.
Celestine didn't have time to think on that though as she found herself going from pure fire to pure darkness as now she couldn't see her own hand in front of her face. And all she felt was cold.
But then all the sudden the voice of a woman rang in her ear.
"And just what is one like yourself doing here?"
She turns trying to find the voice in the darkness and begins to feel the sensation of fear creeping up her spine.
"There is no need to fear the dark." She hears again in her ear with the same feminine voice.
She then feels herself being wrapped in hug from the front and she couldn't help but notice the soft silk like clothes that the other woman was wearing and the soft feeling of long hair mixing with her own.
"The abyss is always welcoming for more unfortunate souls." They say after a few moments of quiet comfort.
And then like that it was all gone.
The dark.
The woman.
The vision.
But from the looks of the third vision Celestine wishes she still couldn't see as now she found herself in a field of corpses and mutilated bodies all of them skewed with arrows while others were missing limbs or had deep cuts on both armor and flesh alike.
She hardly wanted to look at the carnage that lay before her, but the cold feeling of steel being rested on her shoulder forced her eyes wide open and stopped her where she stood.
She looked to her right where the weapon rested and she saw a long single edged curved greatsword soaked in blood.
She then heard a voice and unlike the first two, which were most likely an old man and a woman, this one was most definitely a younger man. His voice seemed somewhat muffled so he might have been wearing a mask or a helm she didn't know which it was, but she couldn't help but notice that the man's voice was smooth and calm. As if this wasn't the first time he has killed so many. So she tried her best to go completely still and not give him a reason to remove her head.
"You are not the one whom I seek." He says simply to her.
She opens her mouth to respond but he removed the blade before she could fully think of something to say and then simply walked away.
"I will not seek you for you are not among the spurned." He says to her cryptically.
She turns to get a look at the man, but the moment she did so the only thing she saw was the tip of a bolt soaring through the air and close to burying itself in her eye.
And then there was nothing.
Celestine at this point was somewhat used to the abrupt ends to these visions and simply prepared herself for the next.
She then blinked and suddenly found herself outside a grand cathedral surrounded by candles to the sides of the entrance and all along the large stonewalls.
Looking forward she could tell that the doors were shut tightly and yet something compelled her to step forward, to try and force them open. Something deep within her told her to take a look and see what lay behind the great wooden doors.
But shortly after it was also something within her that told her to take a great step back.
And was she ever glad to have listened to her gut. As a massive object came crashing down onto the ground where she once stood.
She shields her eyes from the dirt and rocks that it kicked up from the impact and when the dust had finally calmed she looked out to see what she thought was a fallen church pillar. A pillar that so happened to have a long handle leading next to the entrance to the church wear its wielder stood surrounded in black.
Oh so it was a weapon. That didn't maker her feel any safer knowing there was a person capable of strength that surpassed anything she'd ever heard of.
"Heed my words wench. If you've any sense you'll turn back from this place. Else they'll have to find a nice little coffin for you to huddle up inside." A voice called out from the shadows.
The voice was a man's like the last one but this one was much rougher, much deeper, and much more intimidating. But yet Celestine found herself strangely at peace with it's rough and intimidating nature as the owner had yet to pursue her any further. He simply stayed there like a sentinel of some kind guarding the church.
She then sees the pillar begin to shift and was then lifted up with what looked like incredible ease. And for a moment she caught a glimpse of the gauntlet that held it and saw that it was black in color much like the shadows that surrounded the rest of his figure.
"Are you daft? I told you to leave." The voice called again this time slightly irritated.
Celestine quickly shook her head, "Forgive me, but I do not know where to go from here. I'm very lost." She says simply and with a refine tone befitting her position as a queen.
A rough and low laugh was let out, "Like it matters to me. Go wherever you wish, as long as it isn't this way."
Well she was getting nowhere at the moment. "But I must go this way." She says in retort.
She then sees the figure move to directly in front of her but for some odd reason the light of the candles wouldn't show she her anything other than his weapon and his hands. As if the rest of him was this dark mystery.
Though it was only now that she noticed the size difference between the two of them.
The man was a titian in stature, not as tall as the first knight she saw in the field of weapons, but still he was now the second largest man she's ever met. Though she couldn't make out details she was easily able to see large broad shoulders, massive amounts of muscle in both the chest and arms, and that he stood two heads taller than her.
"Move or be moved." The dark figure said plainly and with a tone of no patience to the high queen.
She wanted to back down but for some reason this figure seemed to draw at something in her soul, something that she hadn't felt in centuries, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.
Though in her thinking process she didn't notice his free hand reaching up to join his right and grip his weapon with two hands.
"Fine then, damned fool. Have it your way." He then brings his colossal weapon down on top of her and crushes her into the dirt.
And that was the froth vision.
Now she found herself in front a massive vault lit only with torches lining the walls to her left and right.
She was confused at first, as there seemed to be nothing here other than the vault in front of her and unlike the others she was completely alone. She was sure of it this time, there was no fire, no darkness, no bodies, and no church.
As she was about to try and pull upon her magic she heard a light tap.
Tap
Tap
Tap
The tapping was coming from the vault in front of her and she was ever so curious, but after the other visions she learned to keep her distance at this point.
But she then noticed that the tapping grew louder and louder until become a loud bang on the vault door.
Bang
Bang
Bang
With the last one she felt the ground beneath her shake a bit from the force behind the last hit on the vault.
She then hears the loudest one yet and saw in somewhat horror as the vault door now had a dent in the center and that it was slowly getting large with each hit.
The hits grew louder and louder as the dent got bigger and bigger until Celestine was certain that what ever the thing was on the inside of that vault was certain to punch through.
Then all was quiet the hits stopped and the vault was no longer shaking on its hinges from some force behind it.
That is until an even larger dent formed to the right of the center, in a single blow.
What followed were three more strikes to the inside of the vault and with them three more gigantic dents in the solid steel.
BANG
BANG
BANG
This finally seemed to have been too much for the large vault as the last one revealed the edge of a weapon, a weapon with a sharp curved tip, solid black in color, and what had to be a monster at the other end.
And before she could think on this anymore the vault was launched off its hinges and sending her flying into the back wall with a loud thud.
Looking up painfully she sees a figure just as large and imposing as the one in front of the church with a towering shield raised above her form.
"Free, I am finally free." The figure says in a masculine voice that seemed to be a medium between the man with the curved sword surrounded by corpses and the other in front of the church.
The shield was then moved and she clearly saw him a man in a silhouette of large bulky black armor holding a sword that looked more like a slab of metal with a sharpened and curved tip.
"And so the Slayer steps out into the world once more." He says before simply walking past her to smash open the great stonewall behind her with practiced ease using his greatsword.
And Celestine could do nothing as the entire room began to crumble around her.
And she hardly had enough time to even scream.
And like that she woke up in her own room, panting and covered in sweat with a face full of fear at the visions she had just had.
Calming herself down from her sudden awakening Celestine looks out her window to see that it was still morning in the capital city of Ken. And upon seeing that the city was still very much in tact she sighed a breath of relief seeing that it was all only a nightmare.
She then hears a knock at her door, "Come in."
The door opens to reveal two servants and the Knight Commander of all her forces, Claudia Levantine, who was already in her knight's armor. Ready for whatever the day may bring.
Claudia like Celestine was a beautiful woman with flawless pale skin and a very voluptuous figure. But unlike her queen she had light brown hair rather blonde, which she kept tied up into a bun and held it in place with a small golden headpiece with small silver wing like features in front of the ears.
As for her armor it had large two sectioned silver colored pauldrons on each of her shoulders, which sat on top of her other plates that curved up to, protect the sides of her neck and shoulders. Both of her arms were covered with silver and gold colored gauntlets that ended at the beginnings of her knuckles allowing for more flexibility when using her sword.
Her chest plate was a large and broad silver colored and gold lined double-layered plated material that extended from just below her waist to her collarbones and proudly adorned the symbol of the Seven Shield Alliance.
Below her torso she wore and armored waistcloth that held her sword and sheath in place when she wasn't training or teaching the other knights in her order. She then had on rather think leggings to distance her skin from the silver and golden colored greaves that went from her upper thigh all the way down to the ends of her feet at a fine point.
"Are you alright my Lady? We heard you shout out just now." She says with concern adorning her face.
The high queen nods to her bodyguard and friend, "Yes I'm fine, just a nightmare is all. Thank you for your concern Claudia." She says trying to make her friend drop the topic.
"Are you sure my Lady? You seem to be sweating a great deal, should we perhaps draw you a bath?" One of the servants says while keeping their heads bowed in respect to their queen.
The armored woman in the room nods at the suggestion, "Perhaps it would be for the best, she does have to make appearances today. She should look her best for her people, after all the war is most likely to end today."
The blonde queen sighs knowing why Claudia wanted the other two out of the room. So she casually waves her hand to dismiss the servants and they quickly bow again before they rush out of the room to prepare a bath for the queen.
And once it was only the queen and her guard in the room Claudia looked her friend in the eyes, "Must have been some nightmare if you're sweating this bad. Are you sure you don't want to talk about it my Lady?"
Celestine said nothing and merely looked out the window and stared at the city, "Claudia, do you think the war will really end today?" She asks suddenly with a completely serious expression.
The Knight Commander nods, "Vault and his band of mercenaries have been instrumental in the past few years, if anyone can take Olga's keep it would be them. Besides her monsters have been dealt a major blow at the border from their last offense. So it will take time before her forces are fully able to recover their numbers. I believe the timing couldn't have been better for The Black Dogs to strike. They know the area better than most of our other forces, and they took only their best warriors for this assault. Vault himself is even going to personally insure that Olga is captured and this war ended, once and for all."
She then laughed a bit and shook her head, "And you said it yourself at the last gathering that Olga's magic has been weakening over the past few decades. She's loosing her strength and with it her grip on the monsters of the North. Without them she doesn't have an army. And without her they will have no true leader and will be nothing but warring tribes and will hopefully kill themselves off."
Celestine still had a serious look on her though, "But tell me what happens if they fail? What happens if Vault and his men are lead into a trap and killed?"
Claudia's expression also grew much more serious, "Then we would be dealt a crippling blow. Without the leadership of Vault, Kin, or Hicks their mercenary band would crumble and would lack any really skilled fighters leaving only rookies. And if they can't function properly then our own men would be forced to take the place of the mercenaries. Our forces would be even more thinly spread than they already are. Our cities would be less protected leaving them open for attack and the Dark Queen could possibly push forward almost all the way to Ken before we have enough men to stop her. Essentially this entire war rides on the success of Vault and his men; and they should be attacking sometime today or later tonight. So I suppose that either way this war is sure to end by sunrise tomorrow."
The queen said nothing as her friend laid out scenarios in front of her and she clenched her hands.
"Why the sudden interest? Does this have anything to do with your nightmares?" Claudia stopped in her tracks as another thought entered her head, "Or were they visions?"
Celestine turned and looked at her second in command, "I think they were, but they weren't visions of Vault or Olga claiming victory. They were visions of people who are complete enigmas to me."
Claudia raises a brow at that, "Do you remember the visions?" Celestine nods, "Then please tell me of them, perhaps a or more militarist perspective could explain something in them?"
The elf queen puts a hand on her chin as she recalls the vivid things she was shown in her sleep. "Well at first I was in an open field surrounded by nothing but weapons and a single towering knight who seemed to be on fire in certain places."
Claudia raised a brow but the look on her face told Celestine that she had no idea what it was supposed to mean.
"Next was Ken, burning to the ground. And among the fire was an old man one whom I've never seen or heard of, he told me to 'Fear the fire or else I will burn.' That was his warning to me, but he seemed to be a skilled mage of some sort. Though I've never heard of a fire mage being able to burn a whole city to the ground with only pure fire magic before." She says at the end drawing on her memories to recall of any notable mages in the past years cable of anything close to that.
Claudia already did not like the sound of the vision, first was a field of weapons, a giant flaming knight, and now all of Ken burning to the ground. She was very much hoping that the others ended better than the last.
So with a nod Celestine continued on.
"Next I was in a place of pure darkness, no light, no heat, lifeless like a void. But yet there was a woman. She seemed welcoming to me, like the dark was a place of peace rather than what we've come to believe. But that was all I was shown for that vision."
Claudia once again had no idea what it was supposed to mean, and she had an idea that every other one was going to be like this. But she still wanted to hear them and see if there was anywhere she might actually be useful for this. Magic always was the queen and Kaguya's place of expertise.
"Then it was a field of bodies, all of them killed with either arrows or with a curved greatsword. And before I really had a chance to look closer I saw and felt the very blade that had killed them on my own shoulder. A man then spoke to me claiming that he was seeking the spurned. Do you think he meant Olga?"
Claudia shook her head, "There are many who have been spurned in this world, your highness. But I do not think I can narrow it down enough to seek a single person to try and find the man. But perhaps time will give us another clue as to what this vision means?"
She then nods for the queen to go on.
"The next two were similar in a way. In one a large black knight figure guarded a church on a hill and in the other a black knight figure broke out of a vault or crypt. But in both of them I was killed for getting in their ways." She says recalling the fact that both a wall and a column had crushed her to death.
Claudia actually looked visibly angry at the last part. To kill her queen in a vision never ever was a good sign, no matter how one looked at it. And as the guard to the queen Claudia was understandably pissed at what the visions implied.
"So in one there was fire, another dark, the next war, and in the final two you died either way. Are we maybe looking at this from the wrong way?" She said hopeful that the visions were not literal if they came true.
The queen shook her head, "I don't know, these are the first visions I've had in some time. Only time will tell us how they unravel."
The knight didn't like it but her queen was right, only time would tell.
For now they still had a war to win. Or at least they could pray that it ends in their favor.
So Claudia followed her queen out the door and only had one thought going through her mind as they made their way down the stone halls of the keep.
One of her old master's main of warfare and battle, 'Pray for the best circumstances, but always prepare for the worst.'
And Done!
Well this story's going to be a bit out there but hey most of them usually are so….anyway.
The idea for this came from browsing Bloodborne stories when I came a across a gem called The Night Unfurls by StaffSergeant (really recommend going and giving that a read)
And I thought "Hey knights and wizards and shit….why not Dark Souls."
And here we are now.
But anyway if y'all would please Read and Review since it always helps out and lets me know how I'm doing.
Stay Cool
