Okay, so this is my first try at this whole "crossover episode" meme going around. Being a big fan of Dark Souls, and pre-retcon-of-most-of-our-lore League of Legends, I thought I'd try to meld the two after the ending of the former, because it really ain't DS if there isn't a hope spot of better times for our protagonists that's just dying to be choked to death.
So, please, do stay and read. Curtains up!
Prologue : Only Dark will remain
The Kingdom of Lothric finally entered its death throes, just like its Lords beforehand.
The Incarnation of Kings, the unliving manifestation of Gwyn's necessity to protect His realm, along with both the Lords and the First Flame's last representation of power, had fallen, kneeling in the ash before joining itself to it, leaving only its embers and soul. The Twin Princes, as brothers, the Ashen One punished for destroying the last chance the Flame had. He took Lothric's and Lorian's cinders by force, albeit not without hearing the former's condemnation and warning. Just like the rest of the Lords, except for Ludleth; noble Ludleth, ever faithful to the Flame. It made his answer, and acceptance, to the Ashen One's betrayal of the cycle all the more heartwrenching. Champion of Ash, he moved determined, and triumphed over the Lords. But they weren't alone to be crushed.
There was Ariandel, and his despicable wench Friede. Gone was the fool's hope of eternally sustaining the painted world. It rotted away before Ariandel could even realize it, and he left the Unkindled the scars that mercy kills inflicted upon the survivors.
Gael, slaveknight, and an helpfull ally against Aldrich, too became his opponent, at the World's Edge, the Ringed City, home of the Pygmees. His quest for the Dark Soul of Man consumed him, and his death left his mistress with the irony of a painted world without its intended subject.
Hope, just like embers, turned to be naught but ash. It always ended in ash.
Slowly, the unkindled warrior made his way to the bonfire. All around him, the world itself seemed as if it contracted its distances to feel warmth one last time, as the Seal of Fire itself overlooked the ordeal, in the form of the Sun, seemingly to mock everything the First Flame ever built to ward of the Dark.
The Ashen One bogged in the shifting ash and steel that made the ground of the Kiln. No more, he recited in a litany, thinking of the Untended Graves as he pushed against the cinders carried by the wind, no more Lords, no more Hollows, no more sacrifices, no more gods or dragons, no more men, no more pain, no more...
No more Fire.
The Ashen one was now an arm's length away from the bonfire. He hesitated. None of what he saw of the Dark was reassuring. The Pygmee Lords contained the Dark Soul, true, but they carried the strength of the first Lords. Gael came back to the Champion of Ash's mind, his red cowl turning into murderous magic, and the sky darkening with his mere presence. The Abyss Watchers, forced to slaughter each other, corrupted by the power beyond the Light. Just like their founder.
His thoughts wandered on the eventual fate of the Firekeeper… a process brutally repressed when his mind, on a tangent, associated with her and the Darkness the memory of Wolnir, somehow. The refusal to associate those concepts left him immobilized with his right hand suspended above an empty area one time his height away from the bonfire. Beneath his palm was a summon sign.
She, unlike Wolnir, would not stand alone, and she, unlike Wolnir, would not unnaturally prolong her own suffering by killing her companion. The Ashen One shook his head, determined to finally allow his world to rest.
Come forth, Firekeeper.
Beneath his right hand, the ground became marked with light, as a form emerged from the markings. Materialized before the Ashen One stood the crowned, ethereal beauty; it was for her eyes and insight that he crossed the Consumed King Oceiros and the Untended Graves, met with Gundyr in battle a second time, and was revealed the depths of Lothric's treachery. From this new information, and after finally confronting the Twin Princes, the Ashen One judged that the Lords' rest mattered more than their honor, if such a thing can be lost in being forced unwillingly to serve as the Incarnation. She simply agreed, as if the demise of Gwyn's work was just another quest, just another step.
Then again, there was the Firekeeper mass grave the Ashen One saw in the Bell Tower. If that was the fate of obedient bonfire tenders, he preferred his agreed to end this pointless cycle.
Her masked eyes seemed to gaze at him for a second, before making her way to the bonfire, slowly. The Undead followed solemnly from behind.
The Firekeeper kneeled near the First Flame, and extended her hands toward the warmth. What the Ashen One saw next left him fascinated, unable to tear his eyes away or move.
As her hands met the fire, the First Flame lodged itself between her palms, leaving the bonfire to its embers. The Firekeeper herself seemed rather enraptured by the flames she held.
After a few seconds, the warrior noticed the Darkness gaining all around the both of them, as the realm of Lothric was devoured by the unnatural night falling upon them. The Darksun itself seemed to fade as the Primordial Fire lost more and more of its intensity.
So this is it, then, he thought, resolute to see the End of Fire.
As if mirroring his thought process, the Firekeeper, still keeping her (apparent, the Ashen One pointed to himself) gaze on the last lights, spoke for the world one last time, a gentle smile on her face :
"The First Flame quickly fades. Darkness will shortly settle."
Around the couple, the wind howled in answer.
The Ashen One, deciding that he would rather appreciate the last glimmers of the Flame from close, moved slightly to her right side, before sitting on his knees, beside her. Though her facing her charge was unchanged, her faint smile was disrupted for a second, before returning brighter, if only barely so.
"But one day", the masked blonde continued, with a soft tone inspiring hope, "tiny flames will dance across the darkness…"
The Undead turned his head from the Flame to look at her, bathed in the last lights. It was, of course, this faint vision of a flame reborn that led them to this moment, even moreso than his wish to see the Lords rest, but as she spoke with faith about her dream, the Ashen One found himself accepting it as solid fact.
I would have loved seeing that, he thought to himself, dragging his vision back to her hands.
As the last dim rays of light died in between her fingers, her clear voice resonated once more through the wastes of the Kiln :
"... Like embers, linked by Lords past."
Before all that could be seen was lost to the Darkness, the Ashen One, in one final bid for comfort, and defiance to all that seemed to end, took his left, gauntlet-clad hand, and put it on the Firekeeper's right forearm. He soon felt the light weight of her delicate palm, her own left, resting on his gauntlet.
As even the wind seemed to die with the coming Darkness, the Firekeeper lifted her head toward her final companion, and called for him :
"Ashen One, hearest thou my voice still?"
But by the time she was finished, the gauntlet she held onto was gone.
You might have noticed I changed the scenario a bit. There's one narrative reason, and another, personal this time.
The narrative reason is for the Ashen One and the Firekeeper to notice their companion's disappearance from one another by their proximity, which was entirely absent in the original End of Fire Ending. For a game that hammers down how these undeads and gods are all animated by very predominantly human behavior and fears, it seemed to me that the fact that they didn't get closer to each other as Oblivion descended is a strange cut in behavior, almost bizarre, considering it is THE most noble ending in intentions, in the least.
The second, personal reason, is that the Firekeeper is indeed absolute waifu material, whose entire life was tending over bonfires with her own lifeforce, and pretty much would've ended in a mass grave if you linked the Fire. She deserves someone gives her a bit more than a "well done" as she's about to disappear in the Dark.
On a final note, the Ashen One's class is Deprived, and he uses a roleplaying, miracle-based warrior build : Morne's and the Firstborn of Sunlight's rings, Havel's Ring, and Chloranthy's Ring. He picked up a full set of Farron's Undead Legion Armor (Bloodborne vibes intensifies), and uses an Irithyll Straigth Sword. Favors Lightning miracles. No shield. No Covenant. I'll leave the stats to your imagination, since for the rest it's essentially roleplay.
Needless to say, this being a LoL crossover, expects plenty of jolly cooperation from his part. He's just definitely not at his brightest moment here.