Gwyn's 4 Knights: Legend of the Fifth
a Dark Souls fanfic by Satoshi & Haruka Koriryu
(Gamertag Ice340)
NOTE: THIS IS A FAN-MADE WORK AND NONE OF THE CHARACTERS (save Dranglor) BELONG TO ME. ALL PEOPLE, PLACES, AND WEAPONS MENTIONED BELONG TO FROM SOFTWARE AND ARE NOT EVEN PARTIALLY OWNED BY ME.
Chapter 2: The Awakening of the Betrayer
Dranglor has betrayed his friends in order to save one who piques his interest, getting him stripped of both his armor and title of Ironhide Dranglor, as well as forced into a cell in the Undead Asylum with naught but Wanderer's clothing and a broken straight sword...
Dranglor awoke to dark, damp stone walls surrounding him on all sides. He felt a hunger he had not felt since before the beginning of his second life: the hunger for Souls.
Right then and there, he knew where he was and what had become of him.
He smiled to himself as he thought of what they thought this would do to him when a trapdoor above him opened, letting in sunlight.
A split second later, a dead Hollowed One fell in, something clenched in its teeth.
Dranglor looked up at the source and saw a knight. The two locked eyes for a moment before the knight stood up and left.
Dranglor quickly stood up and walked over to the corpse, ripping a prison cell key from its mouth. Dranglor proceeded to open his cell door, cautiously looking around before continuing down the hall.
"Well..." he muttered, noticing a giant Demon roaming around in a room to his right, "they have most certainly improved the guard force here..."
Eventually, Dranglor entered an open area where a Bonfire was waiting to be lit. He lit the Bonfire before entering a stone courtyard through a pair of great wooden doors.
As he approached the center of the courtyard, Dranglor noticed something big leap down through a hole in the roof. Dranglor instantly identified it as another Demon, nearly identical to the one he had seen earlier.
As the Asylum Demon crashed to the ground, Dranglor rolled to dodge an attack from the Demon and bolted for an iron door that had opened mysteriously.
Dranglor continued running, going down a flight of stairs and entering a hallway, barely getting missed by an arrow that had been shot from a scrawny Hollow archer at the end of the hallway.
Thinking quickly, Dranglor ducked into a small room where another corpse was holding a leather shield, which Dranglor quickly grabbed. He began walking up the hall, his shield raised, contemplating how he could even hope to use the metaphorical toothpick he held in order to defeat the Asylum Demon.
Eventually, he reaced the end of the hallway, picking up a highly familiar weapon: a Scimitar.
Using his new blade, Dranglor quickly cut down the annoying pest of an archer before running flat up against a wall of white Fog.
Dranglor recognized the mysterious substance from old tales of an ancient city, Boletaria.
Steeling his nerves, Dranglor traversed the white light, anticipating a sudden ambush; however, no such ambush presented itself, leaving the Dragon Knight slightly more relaxed than before.
He turned around the corner to come upon two separate flights of stairs: one going down and another going up. Dranglor noticed a slight disruption in the space at the top of the upper staircase, so he cautiously walked up the left side of the stairs. Just as he had predicted, a large iron ball rolled down the stairs, nearly crushing him and breaking down a wall near where the stairs converged. Dranglor ran through the hole and came upon the knight that had engineered his escape, broken and nearing death.
The knight looked at Dranglor and smiled weakly, obviously in great pain.
"Oh, you... You're no Hollow, eh? Thank goodness... My name is Oscar of Astora and, well... I'm done for, I'm afraid... I'll die soon, then lose my sanity... I wish to ask something of you: You and I - we're both Undead; hear me out, will you?" the knight stated with a cough, a small amount of blood spurting out from the slats on his helmet.
Dranglor felt pity for the brave knight who had risked his life to save a total stranger, so the Betrayer nodded.
Oscar gave out a sigh of relief before continuing. "Regrettably, I have failed in my mission... But perhaps you could keep the torch lit? There is an old saying in my family: 'Thou who art Undead, art chosen. In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum, maketh pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords. When thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening, the fate of the Undead thou shalt know.' Well, now you know... And I can die with hope in my heart... Oh, one more thing... Here, take this: An Estus Flask, an Undead favourite... And this: you'll need it if you have any hope of leaving here… A key for a door to the second floor of the Asylum..." he choked out before handing Dranglor an emerald flask containing a fiery-orange liquid and a rusted iron key.
"Now I must bid farewell... I would hate to harm you after death... So, go now... And thank you..." Oscar said, giving out a great sigh before passing into the next world.
Dranglor stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes before leaving the room and climbing up the stairs to the second floor, parrying a scrawny Hollow pest and burying his scimitar in its chest. He then proceeded to open the iron door that stood before him with the key Oscar had given him, eleminating 2 more pests and another archer.
Another Fog wall loomed before the Ironhide Knight, but he was unimpressed, fearlessly traversing the white light and ending up on a balcony, the Asylum Demon far below him.
Thinking quickly, Dranglor leapt down and plunged his sword deep into the Demon's skull, following up with several quick slashes at its legs and bringing the beast down with little effort. In searching the remnants of the Demon's Soul, Dranglor found a large key and a small black sprite. He pocketed both of these and walked out of the large and previously locked door by using the large key. As he walked out towards the edge of the Asylum's boundaries, he heard a loud movement of wind above.
When he looked up, a Great Crow grabbed him and carried him away; to where, he did not know...
NEXT- Chapter 3: The Taming of the Taurus Demon