How long had he spent in this torment. Aden did not know. His only constant in life had been the immense pain from the fire that tried to consume him. His body was still human but after all this time his armor and clothes had either burned or melted off to join the pile of ashes that surrounded the Throne of Want. What a joke, who would want this agony? Aden after a time learned how to cope and adapt with the pain. After all he had to learn how to adapt while traversing Drangleic.
His mind while not focusing upon the pain was also focusing on the rage of the one known as Gwyn and how he took everything. He thought of Shanalotte and what she must be going through. As time passed the rage grew like the flame he was surrounded by.
When he first ended up in this room he kept bashing his fists against the walls in some effort to give himself hope but after a while he stopped. He went on to eventually pace his prison until that novelty eventually wore off. He tried to do anything to take his mind off this place from talking to himself to building castles with the ashes he was surrounded by. After all that he eventually gave up and sat on his throne and slept.
His dreams were always a blessing he looked forward to. Usually they were in Majula where he and Shanalotte first met.
As the newest hollow to reach Drangleic he walked with utter confidence through the Things Betwixt. He wore a brown leather longcoat and wielded a scimitar and a short sword. A hood was worn on his head while leather gloves gripped his blades tightly. His boots trudged through the narrow platforms of this place.
"How is this place being held together?" He said aloud to no one in particular. He kept walking straight and ignored the other paths before himself. As he walked he eventually saw a cave before himself so he took off at a sprint. When he was inside the cave he noticed a bunch of orange messages that lit up at his feet. He read a few to himself. 'Praise the Sun. What the hell does that mean?' He thought to himself.
When Aden reached the edge of the cave he saw a breath taking sight of a cliff that had a massive pillar on it. The sun was at the edge of the horizon and shined out a golden light upon this little place. He decided to go down the path towards the area. Upon reaching it he was met with a bonfire that had a woman covered in an emerald cloak sitting by it. When he approached the woman looked up revealing a pretty face to him.
"Are you the next monarch? Or…merely a pawn of fate?" The woman asked him in a soft voice. Aden scratched the head in confusion.
"What?" Aden asked confused. Why was this pretty girl asking if he was a king? And what the hell was a pawn of fate? The woman's eyes widened a bit before returning back to normal.
"Bearer of the curse... I will remain by your side. Till this frail hope shatters... Take this with you. May it ease your journey. Go on, and see the King. He who made Drangleic what it once was; he who peered at the essence of the soul. King Vendrick." She stated before handing him an empty green bottle that he somehow knew was called an estus flask.
"Alright pretty lady. But do you have anything you call yourself so I don't just keep calling you lady?" Aden asked. Shanalotte slightly blushed under her hood at hearing some praise about her.
"You may call me the emerald herald. You have not earned my name yet." She responded. Aden smiled at this.
"Then my first goal in this place will be to earn you name!" He shouted out with pride which caused the man sitting by the monolith to look at him strangely before he went back to brooding. Shanalotte smiled at this.
"Then good luck." She replied.
"Herald, I think this is the start to a beautiful friendship." He stated to her.
Aden shook his head at this memory. The memory of one who was free. He became angered at this. The fire around him responded by feeding on this anger and growing. Aden felt the sting as the fire grew and his anger rose in response which made the fire grow until it was hitting the ceiling of his tomb. Aden didn't care though he wished to rage and the flame responded to his whim which was causing the flame to now put pressure on the walls of the tomb. They shifted to the tiny cracks in the walls in order to make room for the growing bulk of itself. The cracks widened as the flames probed the walls. One of the flames finally managed to push enough till the crack where it pushed broke. The flames felt this and responded by shoving it's girth through the broken area which made the opening wider and wider. All of these flames were driven by one purpose…freedom.
Aden was lost in his rage until he heard a large crack as the walls around him started breaking. "What the hell?" He asked. He just watched as his impenetrable prison was finally breaking apart. A smile came upon his face as he laughed. Then the ground started to rumble. He ignored the rumbling as he kept laughing until everything broke and the fire around him became a bright blue before turning into a blinding white light. And that was all he remembered.
Outside of his tomb the flames created a massive white pillar the rose into the sky. All around the kingdom, citizens that had settled around this area cried out in panic at what was happening. Inside the castle itself the lord of the castle Gwyn, stared at the pillar that went through his throne room and up into the ceiling. His subjects that were gathered near him were running out of the room while his guards came in to protect their lord. The only being that was still in the room with Gwyn and his guards was a woman in a red dress that hugged her curves. She had brown hair that went to the small of her back while her bangs covered her eyes. "My lord what is happening?" She said in a soft monotone voice.
"The hollow has managed to escape his duties. We must recapture him. My kingdom will not fall again." Gwyn stated. "Yeager! I have need of you!" Gwyn shouted. After a few seconds a man in a black cloak came from the line of guards. He went before Gwyn and kneeled.
"My lord, what is it?" Yeager asked.
"As the only hollow in this kingdom, I need you to travel through the flames in order to recapture the hollow known as Aden." Gwyn commanded to his hunter. The man nodded and then stood. He slowly approached the pillar of white flame. He stuck his hand at it before he disappeared in a cloud of ashes.
Gwyn turned his head towards the woman in red. "Come, I have need of you in my bedchamber before I prepare for battle." Gwyn then left the throne room with his regiment of guards leaving the woman behind. The woman shed a tear before following Gwyn out of the throne room.
Meanwhile all around the multiverse twisted swords rose from the ground while fires ignited from the blades of those weapons. One of these newly created bonfires led to outside a cathedral and into a cemetery.
On the cathedral a being of stared with many eyes in fascination at this fire that radiated power. It lowered its body slowly from its place on the cathedral with its many arms until it reached the ground. The being crawled forward in an alien feeling of excitement toward this new power. It reached out a hand to feel the warmth of this…treasure until the fire started fluctuating. It pulled it's hand back in a new feeling of fright. The fire started to turn white. The creature was afraid now as it screeched before trying to move away from the light. Unfortunately it's last feeling was fear as the being was turned to ashes as well as the surrounding area.
From the ashes a white haired man with glowing red eyes rose from the ground naked. On his body there were multiple scars but what really was brought to attention was a glowing piece of red hot metal that appeared to be embedded into his skin. The man walked forward a few paces before collapsing to the ground. Inside the chapel the inhabitants heard all the noise and a few of them came outside to see what all the commotion was about. Of them an androgynous figure in a red cloak who crawled outside, and a woman in a black robe with a white sash around the waist and white gloves. She had a visible face of pale skin and brown hair that was bound behind her head.
"Can you see what it is?" The cloaked figure asked in a soft voice.
"It's a man. And he's in a crater. He does not look like a hunter. We should probably take him inside." She responded.
"Alright then. Let's hurry. The beasts might have heard so we haven't much time to doddle." The figure said before lifting their head up in the air revealing a face of pale blue skin and eyes that were blind to the world. The figure sniffed the area for the metallic scent of blood before nodding their assurance of no beasts in the area. The woman ran over to the man before grabbing both of his hands and dragging him out of the crater.
For the next minute the woman dragged the man on the ground and into the chapel while the figure in the red cloak sniffed the air for danger. They eventually made it inside where they lean the man onto the wall.
"What's this thing?!" A man in the corner of the chapel shouted out. He wore a worn brown hat, a brown waistcoat, a white shirt and pale burgundy trousers. He was and old soul on this night of a full white moon.
"It's someone who needed help. I'm so happy that my chapel could provide protection for another!" The cloaked one said in soft spoken joy.
"Probably is just a beast, you should kill it and be done with the mess." The man responded. His distrust of the cloaked one being for once overshadowed by another.
"We should help this one. It is probably a sign from the gods that he was brought to us." The Sister responded while holding her hands together in prayer.
"Where did this beast come from then you blood church goer?" The distrustful man asked. The sister stopped her prayer and looked at him.
"He came from an ash filled crater outside." She responded before walking towards the unconscious man and examining him. She took a step back when she noticed the sizzling sound coming from his cheast and saw the glowing metal located there. "Someone get me some water, quickly!" She asked. The narrow minded man sighed before removing a flask of water from his waist coat and tossing it over to Adella. Adella fumbled with the flask before finally getting a good grip on it. "The gods bless thee sir!" Adella said with a smile towards the man.
"Damn your gods, they probably left us to rot here for all the good they do." The man replied. Adella ignored the man and poured the water on the glowing metal which caused a sizzling and a cloud of steam to be released. The metal now shined a silver color. It was still warm but no longer was it hot to the touch.
The man groaned as he started to open his eyes. "Easy now, you're quite injured. Thankfully we found you out there when we did or the beast might have had you." The cloaked figure spoke to the man.
"Wh-where am I?" He asked. The cloaked one gave him a strange look before replying.
"We're in Yharnam right now. You must've hit your head if you couldn't even remember where we are." The figure responded.
"What the hell's a Yharnam?"
Chapter tw- bzzzt - WE ARE SORRY TO IMFORM YOU EARTHLINGS BUT YOUR CHAPTER HAS CONCLUDED. GO HOME, NOTHING TO SEE HERE. 01101101 01111001 00100000 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100100 01110010 01100001 01100111 01101111 01101110 01110011 00100000 01100111 01110010 01100001 01101110 01100100 01100110 01100001 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01110101 01110000 01101100 01101111 01100001 01100100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101110 01100101 01111000 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100101 01100101 01101011 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100.
Ehem… What they said.