I remember the bright sun, shining in my face.

I remember the guardians, emotionless.

I remember the voice of a god, telling me I'm not welcome.

I remember falling, I remember dying.

But then... Light.

Northern Undead Asylum

The black iron knight is suddenly rushed back into reality as a corpse lands at his feet. It took him a few seconds to compose himself, looking around his expression goes from dazed to shocked as he sees himself trapped in a dark, damp, rusting jail. "What happened to the city of the gods!" he exclaims with his rough, strong voice. Suddenly his attention is brought back up onto the roof as he notices an astorian knight peering in, the blue, armour clad knight looks as he is about to say something as his attention is put towards something to the right of him. The hatch closes quickly as he stands up. Tarkus's attention is put back towards the corpse in front of him, thrown down by the astorian knight, when he notices a key strapped to the rotting corpse.

He attempts to stand up his armour feels stiff and creaks loudly, almost like as if it hasn't been used in forever. Finally up on his feet his joints start to ache, almost like as if they haven't been used in forever just like his black iron armour. "How long have I been asleep? The dream I had was so real... Was it even a dream?" he began questioning his own sanity. The iron knight's attention is put back to his armour as it clear has shown signs of aging. "For black iron to rust like this..." he thought "I must of been... gone for at least a year. But... It's not possible. I couldn't of been in a coma or even asleep!" he began pondering his situation as he looks at the corpse. His mind wakes him up at the look of the key, he picks it up and looks at the rusting iron door.

As he walks out into the decaying hall he is alarmed by the hollows, staring at him as he walks past. They were docile so his defences were lowered, he walks up to the ladders and sees the state they are in. "They'll probably break under my weight. Knowing my luck" he chuckled to himself. But as he started to climb they held firm, soon he reached the top and stared at the empty bonfire as memories of Lordran come flowing back into his mind. "Sen's Fortress" he uttered. He shakes his head trying to focus on what is happening now, he walks up to the large door as he pushes on the door it creaks and groans as it slowly opens. As he walks in he hears a loud SLAM noise as the door behind him closes quickly. "That can't be g-" before he could even react another loud noise echoed throughout the room as a large, hellish demon with an oversized hammer comes crashing down through the roof.

Tarkus immediately reached for his great sword when he gasped. "It's gone!". He soon found the hammer heading towards his head when he, with a sudden burst of courage, grabbed the demon's hammer and tossed towards the side, giving him time to escape.

He quickly ran through the door way as the rusty iron door slammed behind him, he found himself in front of another bonfire as he slowly walked down into the room. He sat down at the bonfire and looked down the hallway to his left. He noticed a very, very familiar object. "My shield!" Tarkus quickly stands up and charges down the hallway towards his shield, as a hollow fires a barrage of arrows at him. The Black Knight lunges himself towards the cell with his shield in, throwing himself to the floor by the momentum caused by his heavy armour. He dusts himself off and stands up, he walks over to his shield. "Hmmph... There's a few scratches on it." he muttered to himself. Indeed his shield, like his armour, looks like it has been left there for a few years. But as he slides his arm through the handle it feels sturdy as ever. As he charges down the hallway once more, as arrows bounce off his great shield he slams it into the hollow archer causing it to fall to the floor and flail about. Using his shield like a blunt guillotine, Tarkus severs the head of the hollow with pure, brute strength. Upon finding his great sword held tightly to a rotten corpse, he marches onward through a wall of what seems to be fog.

Tarkus exclaims as he barely dodges a large iron boulder which slams into the wall behind him. The hollow at the top of the stairs was quickly dispatched off. His great sword seems to be the only thing that hasn't aged or rusted. Tarkus turns around to make sure there are no more hollows. He notices the large hole in the wall the boulder made and he hears loud, sickly coughing from inside almost as if a man was choking on his own Blood.

"Oh you, your no hollow..."

END OF CHAPTER 1