I'm not going to leave you.
I promised I'd protect you.
I promised I'd always keep you warm.
I'm not going to leave you.
Not now. Not ever.
The cell was dank in every sense of the word. The air held just a tint of stagnant dampness that made Yang's skin feel like it was crawling. It completely lacked furnishings aside from piles of random detritus in the three corners she wasn't huddled in. The walls and floor where old-style brick construction, quite old considering the wear and tear they had obviously undergone. It was a pretty miserable place to wake up in.
There was a rusty manacle tied around her leg, something she effortlessly snapped off on reflex before even fully coming to her senses. Where was she? She couldn't remember how she got here. Then again, much like you can never remember exactly when you fell asleep she couldn't remember any sort of reason why she would be here in the first place. All she really remembered at the moment where Beacon, her classmates and friends, and her sister Ruby...
Thoughts of Ruby cause Yang to clutch her forehead as a sudden pain bolted through it. Headache. Yeah, that'll happen. Suddenly realizing something might be wrong Yang quickly ran her hands through her hair. Whew. Okay, that's all still there. She'd need to find a mirror to make sure it was still styled properly but at least whatever force brought her here hadn't taken any of her golden locks away. She looked down to see what else could be wrong. She was wearing her standard battle gear, her leather jacket, hot pants and other fashion-conscious but practical clothing. It was dirty. He bared skin was covered in a thin layer of dust too. Yang winced at what that meant for her perfect hairdo, but tried to force those thoughts away in favor of trying to figure out where she was. And how to get out of it.
The cell had a barred iron door leading out into a hallway on one end. It seems that she was at the end of a long line of prison cells. Stealing a quick glance upward she found that there was an open hatch in the ceiling that let in bright rays of sunshine. Really, either way was a perfectly legitimate way to get outside. She could jump high enough to easily clear through that opening, and one strike from Ember Celia would be enough to shatter the...
Yang's eyes shot open as she looked at her wrists to inspect her weapons. Ember Celia. It was gone. Her shotgun-gauntlets weren't attached to her hands anymore. If she were more foul-mouthed she'd let out a curse. Those things where her pride and joy. Aside from her hair. And Ruby. Still, pretty up there. No matter, getting out of the cell would still be pretty easy.
She looked up with a start as she heard movement above her. The sunlight around her fell into shadow as a figure stepped above the open hatch and blocked the rays. It was a knight by the looks of it, covered head to toe in metal plate armor. The figure stared down at Yang wordlessly.
"Uh, hi!" the girl said to the knight as cheerfully as she could, and then spat out some dust that managed to sneak inside her mouth as she said it. Yeesh was her throat dry. It took her a second before she managed another word, but by then the knight was out of sight. Huh. What a jerk. Before she could call out the figure for their behavior, though, a corpse came falling down from above.
Yang leaped out of the way, partly in fright and partly from her combat instinct. The body flopped down on the ground with a thud. "HEY!" Yang screamed upwards. "HEY THAT WAS UNCALLED FOR!" she had half a mind to run leaping after the knight to give them an earful before she noticed the corpse had a rusty metal key tied around its waist. Curiously, Yang picked it up and held it close for inspection. She then looked up at the cell door that kept her boxed in. Her eyes narrowed on the barred iron's keyhole. It looked like a perfect match. "You know you could have just dropped the key you know!" Yang yelled up at the ceiling, the knightly figure long since gone. Shrugging her shoulders Yang approached the door and slid in the key. Her cell opened with a rusty scrape. Half considering smashing the doors anyway, the young woman walked out into the corridor.
It was crafted from the same medieval brick as her cell, the floor cobblestone. Retro. It was lit rather well with a series of burning torches, but one feature immediately drew her interest. There was a glowing red inscription burned into the floor a few steps away. Hopping over to it, Yang frowned at the runic script. It was completely unknown to her. Oh well. As she stepped forward gingerly she peered into the handful of other cells that lined the corridor. There where people inside, emaciated and extremely unhealthy looking. They all looked like they were wordlessly praying to some unseen deity. To say the atmosphere was creepy was an understatement. Could she get them out of this place? Did they even want to? They certainly didn't notice Yang, even when she passed straight through their line of vision.
Worried, she noticed one of the prisoners was out of their cells, standing unmoving near the middle of the corridor. She ran over to it. The prisoner was in a position that made it look like it was weeping, although it made no sounds. "Hey!" Yang exclaimed as she shook the figure. "Are you okay? You look like a corpse."
There was no response. Curious, Yang put her fingers on the ragged prisoner's neck. No pulse. The huntress in training took a step back in dawning horror. These other prisoners really where corpses. Corpses that could move and stand on their own, but dead bodies nonetheless. Choking on her disgust, she whirled around at the sound of heavy footsteps behind her. The opposite wall of the corridor was covered in more barred-iron windows, which gave her a view of a courtyard outside. It was more grey stone brick, with several pillars lining either side. And in the middle of it walked the ugliest thing Yang had ever seen. It was a giant demon, bloated and warty. While it stood on two legs and had two arms, calling it humanoid would be a mockery. The creature's stubby feet held up a massive lower torso that slimmed slightly at the chest and was crowned by a grimacing face covered in all manner of skin defections and protruding bone. The monster may have once had a tail and wings, but all that is there to show for it now was skeletal remnants that flopped around uselessly as it patrolled back and forth. In its' hands was a massive makeshift maul that looked like it was made with Stone Age forging practices.
Yang quickly ducked behind the amount of brick wall that still stood between her and the monster. The creature's black skin and bony protrusions reminded Yang of the Grim, but it was unlike any of them she had ever heard about before. Stealing another glance at it, she sighed with relief as it didn't seem to have noticed her. It continued its' patrol left and right along the courtyard, rather pointless as the seven meter tall monstrosity cleared the length of the area in a half-dozen steps.
She waited for its back to be turned and the dashed towards the end of the corridor. Yang didn't fancy an encounter with that thing while she didn't have Ember Celia on her. She passed by more glowing writing and another of the mindless zombies who had its face pressed up against the wall, but paid neither any mind as she launched herself up the flight of steps found at the end of the corridor.
The corridor gave way to an odd room, partially filled in water. Yet another of the living corpses crouched fully submerged in the other end. Luckily there was a elevated pathway around one wall that she could take and only get her feet wet. While Yang really needed a bath and a drink, she didn't trust the quality of any pool of water that houses a rotting corpse as a permanent resident.
Leaving the square waterway and making her way into a circular tube-like structure, Yang climbed the ladder there and brought herself out into open air. While she was surrounded by stone walls on all sides, she did sigh with relief upon tasting the fresh air in her lungs. It was another courtyard, largely barren. She took a moment to take in the decaying ruins around her... And the ragged ground below her. Calling this place "In disrepair" was a massive understatement. The only thing that looked like it was being taken care of was the sky above her.
On the opposite wall of the way she came into was a flight of stairs leading up to a massive metal-reinforced wooden door. But for some odd reason, the object that drew Yang's attention was a rusty metal sword imbedded into the ground in the middle of the courtyard. It was partially covered by small bones that surrounded the base of the blade. Curiously, Yang inched over to it. Maybe it was some sort of makeshift shrine? As she instinctively raised her hand over it, she felt an odd sensation. Like something was tugging at her. Quite suddenly, the bones burst into a deep orange flame.
Somehow not being surprised by this, Yang sat down in front of the odd bonfire. It felt... Right. The warmth given off by the flame was almost unnaturally comfortable. It felt like it was protecting and healing and cheering Yang up all at once despite its' morbid origins. It felt... Well, it felt sort of like Yang herself now that she thought of it. Or at least that's what she hoped she felt like being around.
Oddly at peace as she lounged in front of the flame, Yang felt like the world was turning ten times faster and a hundred times slower around her at the same time. She felt like she was both sleeping and wide awake. Her thoughts, or perhaps dreams, drifted to her beloved sister and her two other teammates. Where were they right now? Where they going through something like this too? She sure as heck hoped not. If Ruby was somewhere in this decaying structure or decaying world, she'd punch everything in between the two of them until they were reunited. Yang made a promise to herself about Ruby she intended to keep.
Opening her eyes and standing up at attention, Yang marched towards the big door. "You hear me world!?" She took a fighting stance. "You can't keep me here!" her fist slammed into the large double door and caused it to fly open. "You can't keep me anywhere!" she proclaimed as she strode into the courtyard that really should have been familiar to her. "Nothing will stand in my way today!"
The oversized Asylum Demon slammed into the ground from above and hissed unnaturally as it locked its ugly gaze on the intruder.
"Except that!"
A desperate roll to the side was all that kept Yang from being flattened like a pancake as the monster's maul struck downwards. Taking half a second to take in her surroundings was just long enough for the Demon to take another swing that Yang just barely managed to leap over. "If I had Ember Celia right now you'd be toast, big guy!" Yang yelled at the creature's hideous visage as she ran behind one of the pillars, knocking over some stray pottery in the process. Yang didn't fancy her chances against this monster unarmed.
As she tried to collect her thoughts, the maul came at her again and easily shattered the pillar that Yang had taken refuge behind. Caught by the end of the demon's weapon Yang was sent flying across the right end of the courtyard, clutching her shoulder. That hurt. She thought to herself. This thing was as strong as any Grim she'd faced before. Yang wasn't exactly a pushover even fighting with her bare hands, but against something with this monstrous strength...
But then salvation caught her eye. Right on the opposite end from her was an open shutter door leading out of the courtyard. Making an adrenaline fueled mad dash for it before the Asylum Demon could ready for a fourth swing Yang threw herself into it and it closed shut behind her. She heard an annoyed roar as she gasped for breath. Hurriedly picking herself up and heading down a flight of steps she found herself in another square room partially covered in water like she found at the end of her prison corridor. And right in front of her was another one of the bone-fueled bonfires. Again it lit itself as Yang held her hand over it, it seemingly igniting automatically at the taste of her aura.
She felt the pain in her arm where the massive maul had struck her through the stone pillar fade away. Whatever sort of dust was powering these things was certainly welcome. Rotating her arm around she found the bruising was completely gone.
Stepping through the water she saw the next corridor was a slope that led upwards, and atop the high ground was another one of the living corpses. As Yang marched forward she was surprised when the creature loosed an arrow at her from a bow clutched in its decaying fist. Knocking the slow-moving projectile away with a backhand was rather trivial for someone who could dodge bullets. However, something on the ground caught her eye as the living corpse ran off from the advancing Huntress-in-training. Around the wrist of another body propped up against the wall was a pair golden bracers... It was Ember Celia! Spitting in disgust before wringing the weapons off the body Yang shaked them a few times before slipping them over her own hands. "How'd you get your mitts on this, I wonder." She said as she continued up the sloped corridor. Feeling the weight of her weapons was very welcome. It felt natural. Now all she needed to wash off all this grime and physically she'd be back at her prime.
The living corpse tried to ambush Yang again from around the corner at the end of the slope but she merely punched it once and it dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes. "Guess dead bodies make bad puppets." Yang said to herself as a white globe of energy rose up from the now fully-dead corpse and floated away. At the end of the corridor (All these stone corridors where starting to annoy Yang, but she figured she hadn't even begun to see the end of them) was a white light, one that sort of held together like mist rather than shone. Believing that having a giant Asylum Demon land on top of her was the worst thing that could happen to her today for crossing through a door that hid the other side she stepped through it and it dissipated harmlessly.
Upon taking in her surroundings she realized that she had looped back to the first courtyard that contained the first bonfire, albeit now she was on top of the walls looking down on it. The place looked even more ratty up here; walls, doors and stairwells had all collapsed around her leaving little reason or ability to explore. Making her way across the top of the wall lead her to climb another set of stairs, or at least she would if a large boulder hadn't immediately begun rolling down it. "Oh come on!" she exclaimed as it went barreling down past her, having jumped off the staircase to avoid it. With a loud crashing sound it burst through the wall at the foot of the staircase.
As she began climbing the stairs again, hoping that the world had run out of random boulders to chuck at her, she heard a groaning sound. Doubling back and stepping through the massive hole in the wall the boulder had left, Yang found herself in a closed-off room. And sprawled across a pile of rubble was the knight she had seen peer into her cell shortly after she first woke up. "Hey! Hey! Are you okay!?" Yang stuttered as she ran over to the knight, her boots again getting soaked as she sloshed through the shallow water that covered the floor of the room, who let out some pained gasps before replying.
"Oh... You... You're no hollow are you? Thank goodness." It was a soft, male voice. Yang tried to see where the man was injured, but his thick armor hid his body completely from view. "... I'm done for I'm afraid. I'll die soon, then lose my sanity..." Yang stood perplexed. "You're already going crazy if you think that's the order things go in. Hold on, I'm gonna get you out of here. Find you a doctor or something." She stooped to lend the armored knight a shoulder. "It is too late. Listen, I have something to ask of you-" "That can wait! We need to get you out of here!" Yang interrupted as she pulled the Knight upwards to his feet. "No... Stop... Leave me be. I may harm you after death..." he stuttered as Yang shifted her stance to allow the Knight to lean most of his weight on her. "You... Are strong for one so little." The Knight said with a small degree of astonishment as Yang half lead and half dragged the man out of the room. "But... I will just slow you down. You must-" "NOT LISTENING" was Yang's only reply. The Knight's sword and shield clattered to the floor as Yang shifted the man into a bridal carry as she began jogging up the steps that the boulder had previously fallen down. There was another one of the living corpses at the top of the steps, presumably the one that had pushed the boulder down on her before. With her arms tied up, she just delivered a swift kick to the monster's knee as it raised a sword. After it collapsed to the ground, Yang stomped on its head to finish it off.
There was another barred door in front of her, so she laid the knight down and rested him against a wall. "Hold on. Gotta get through this." She said as her wrist armlets extended into a full-fledged set of shotgun gauntlets. "This door. I believe I have the-" before the knight could complete his sentence or fish into his pockets, Yang delivered a solid blow with her right fist that blew the door off its hinges and sent it flying outward into the area outside. "-key right here." The knight finished, holding another rusty key out in his hand.
"There could be more of those living corpses out there. I'll be right back. Sit tight, okay?" Yang commanded the knight, who gave a brief "... Okay." As Yang strode forward. She found herself on the top of what she would say where castle battlements, again strewn with rubble. Two more of the living corpses rounded the corner, carrying dull swords and lurching towards Yang in a manner that one could describe as "Menacing" if one was being generous. Yang was not feeling generous. A single blast from her shot-gauntlet sent both of them flying over the edge of the wall down below.
Getting her first solid view of where they were, Yang yelped in surprise. All she could see for countless leagues around her where mountains. And she wasn't looking up at them. This castle, this... Asylum... It had been built on top of a massive mountain itself. The view was breathtaking, even if it did raise many questions of how she was going to get down from it.
An arrow sped through the air and nearly struck her as she was taking in the view. Another one of the living corpses was standing in front of another one of the white light barriers, and it was preparing to fire its bow again. Yang smirked before picking up a small stone by her feet. She chucked it at the zombie and hit her mark right on the corpse's forehead. It reeled, giving Yang time to saunter over to it and crush it with a downward palm. Yet another of the monsters walked in from inside a surprisingly un-collapsed portion of the castle, one that unlike the other was fully armed and armored with a steel sword and shield and a steel breastplate. It ran up to Yang and prepared to skewer her with a thrust of its sword, but to Yang it looked like he was moving slow as molasses. A roundhouse kick caused the hollow soldier to go flying, flipping through the air continuously and off the entire mountainside.
Satisfied that she had cleared the area, she walked back to where she had left the knight only to see him crawling towards the weapon of the fallen zombie that had pushed the boulder down. "What are you doing? You're in no shape to fight!" she exclaimed as she rushed to the knight's injured form. "You don't understand... I need to kill myself... Before I go hollow. I don't want to hurt you..." Yang huffed. "Listen, I don't know what's going on but do you REALLY think you could hurt me right now if you wanted to? Even if you where at full strength?"
Yang stared the injured knight down. "My name is Yang Xio Long. And I'm going to get you out of here. Do you understand me? None of this chivalrous pointless sacrifice or honorbound death crud. I'll drag you out of here alive if I need to knock you unconscious first." Her tone had slipped into the kind she used when scolding Ruby for doing something dangerous. She had gotten good at that sort of thing. The knight remained silent for some time before replying, his voice having an odd tinge of relief to it. "I am Oscar... Knight of Astora. I came here on the undead pilgrimage." He sat down, apparently making him more comfortable. "Undead pilgrimage? I don't understand." Yang asked. "All those branded cursed with the darksign end up here eventually... Willingly or not. We are all undead." The knight said under his breath. "I'm not undead." Yang stated flatly. Oscar tapped his helmet. "You have indeed seemed to have managed to retain your humanity even after a long stay in the Asylum. You haven't transformed into a hollow like these others." He gestured in the general direction of the zombies Yang had defeated. "But the word humanity has many meanings here."
Yang picked the knight up. "Well, I don't really understand, but we still have one big obstacle we need to clear before we get out of here." She said as she shuffled the two of them towards the large light barrier. "One big, ugly obstacle." The Asylum Demon's groans could be heard from the other end. "Before you face that monster, take this. An Estus Flask. An Undead favourite." The knight took a bottle attached to his hip and handed it to Yang. "I'm not Undead." Yang replied, it dawning on her that perhaps Oscar was. The knight continued his explanation. "It contains the flame from the bonfires. It will soothe and heal you when you drink from it." He said as he again sat on the ground next to the light barrier. "Then why don't YOU keep it?" Yang asked as she examined the psychedelic swirl of energy inside the flask. "My wounds... Are not physical." Oscar said as he clutched his head.
Yang bit her lip. "Gimme half a minute. I'll be right back after I've kicked that jerk around town." The knight nodded, but Yang wasn't satisfied yet. "You hear me? I'm going to crush that Grim and then I'll be right back for you. You are going to be exactly here when I get back, and you will be ready to leave this place. DO YOU HEAR ME?" The words and insistence struck Oscar deeply, and for once he was ready to obey without question. "Yes sir!" he blurted out before resting his form on the staircase leading up to the white light. Yang smirked and cracked her knuckles. "Alright huge, dumb and ugly. You're about to come face to face with Yang Xiao Long!"
And with that, she stepped through the light a second time. Unlike the last, the light didn't fade as she walked through it. In fact, it seemed to tighten up like it was a one-way street. Somehow Yang wasn't surprised. But it didn't matter. All her focus was now set on the creature that stood down below her. The Asylum Demon looked up, its twisted mockery of a face staring at Yang's form as she crouched down. As the Demon brought its maul upward, Yang saw her opportunity and leapt downward. She caught the maul in the middle between the creature's two hands and used the momentum from her fall to swing around it like a trapeze bar and land a double-footed kick straight into the monster's ugly mug. Bouncing off, flipping around and landing sideways against the wall Yang shot straight back in and punched the beast, her shot-gauntlet blasting it point blank in the chest immediately afterward.
All of this caused the Asylum Demon to scream and roar as it recoiled from the torrent of strikes. Not one to see a recoiling opponent as anything other than an opportunity to strike again, Yang landed at the Demon's feet and began wailing away at the thick folds of fat that drooped down. The Asylum Demon seemed to be having enough of this, and brought its Maul down in a straight stabbing motion. Yang twirled out of the way, but the Asylum Demon flicked its wrists to swing the Maul like a golf club and sent Yang flying into one of the pillars that lined against the courtyard, shattering it with her impact.
Angry, she began circling the monstrosity. The Asylum Demon grunted and drew back for another swing, which Yang saw as an opening. She put on a burst of speed and ran around the Demon to its back as the Maul dented the stone block floor they were fighting on. Before the Asylum Demon could react, she grasped the monster's skeletal tail and with all her might gave it a massive tug. The monster's lower body was jerked backwards as the upper body pitched forward and the thing landed face-first into the ground. Wasting no time, Yang Xiao Long jumped onto its spine and ran towards the back of its head before delivering another torrent of punches that pushed the Asylum Demon's head right into the dent its maul had made.
"You like that? Huh? You want some more? Here's some more! You can have all you want! And you can't... What the!?"
With a heave, the Asylum Demon began rising into the air with Yang on top of it. Yang let out a cry of surprise. The Monster's wings where not only tiny in comparison to its body but atrophied to the point of barely having any flesh on them. How the heck was it using them to FLY!?
The Asylum Demon rose further upwards, although it seemed only capable of getting a few meters of clearance. Thinking quickly against all the wind that was blowing into her and blinding her face with her long golden locks, Yang dropped down in between the batting wings and grasped the roots of them with her hands before crouching down for a massive leap. Focusing all her aura into her legs, she jumped.
Using the Asylum Demon as a stepping stone allowed Yang to sail upwards over the Asylum. She saw the whole thing, it looking so much smaller from when she was in it. She saw the Asylum demon below her, now plummeting to the ground after Yang had wrenched to thing's wings right off its body. She saw Oscar huddled above where the door leading out of the Asylum was, preparing for her return. She saw all the mountains that compromised the large range she was in the middle of. And, to her great distress, she saw a strand of hair that had separated from her scalp float downwards between her and the Asylum Demon.
"YOOOOOOOUU~! You're gonna PAY for that!"
Yang exploded like a firework above the Asylum, her fiery aura letting loose and her eyes turning a bright red. She took a midair fighting stance, moving her fist backwards as gravity began catching up with her and dragging her back downwards. Like a falling star, she streaked straight downwards into the warty beast below and impacted with an angry clap of red steel sending ripples of fiery pain through a massive mound of demonic flesh.
All its roaring knocked out of it, the Asylum Demon faded away from existence in oddly harmonious silence.
Taking a few seconds to breath in deeply, Yang took a running leap over to the edge where the white light was, it now having faded away with the death of the Asylum Demon. Oscar was there, making a sound like he was hyperventilating. Yang slung the knight over her shoulders in a piggyback ride before leaping back down to the ground outside the Asylum, suddenly realizing her mobility meant she could have completely avoided the fight with the Asylum Demon. Oh well. Thing was too ugly to leave lying around anyways.
"Hang in there Oscar. I'm getting you out of here" She was on the clock. She was losing Oscar and she had no idea where to go next. They were on top of a mountain! Where WAS there to go? Desperately, she dashed across what room she had to cross and into another small ruin, the ground once covered in steps now leading up but now just rubble. She reached the edge and looked out over the edge of the mountain she was on. What do I do? She thought to herself. She had made a promise to Oscar that he would get away from this place, and now Yang found herself at a complete loss as to even escape herself. "What do I do?" she thought aloud this time.
The faraway sound of beating wings was all the warning Yang had before a giant Raven was upon her, screeching and grasping out with its claws. Before the Huntress-in-training could even shout out the name of Nevermore, though, it had already seized her and had taken off into the sky away from the Asylum.