The journey to the merchant was short but eventful. Lex had told Oscar to wait on the bridge to a rooftop where two armored hollows with spears stood guard. He proceeded alone and verbally harassed one of the hollows until it attacked him – not because it could understand what he said but because he certainly wasn't making any effort to defend himself. Lex flailed wildly before being stabbed horrifically in the gut.

The cleric rolled back onto the bridge, refused Oscar's help, and healed himself with his talisman before rushing back toward the hollows. This process repeated a few times before he got the timing right. At long last, he deflected the incoming spear with the back of his free hand and followed up with a brutal swing of his mace, knocking the hollow's head clean off.

"Now you try," he had said.

Oscar showed immediately that he understood the concept of parrying. Lex hung his head a little and took out his inadequacy on another hollow that was hiding behind a bookcase downstairs. On the balcony outside was another hollow by the looks of it, but Lex held Oscar back.

"Well, now… You seem to have your wits about you, hmm? Then you are a welcome customer! I trade for souls. Everything's for sale!"

The undead began cackling wildly while lovingly polishing a long, thin blade.

"I need that key of yours," Lex said. "A thousand souls should be fine, no?"

"Oh, the night watchman's key, hm? You're welcome to it. I doubt there's much left worth stealing. Little Yulia and I picked the place clean when we arrived."

He began chuckling again.

"I need it to free a bumbling spy who somehow managed to get tied up and trapped in a barrel."

Oscar stared at him blankly. Technically, every stare was blank with a helmet on, but he didn't even muster a silent response. The merchant didn't seem fazed.

"I have it right here, if you have the souls."

He held out a single iron key. Lex nodded and took a deep breath. He willed a fraction of the souls he had collected so far to coalesce and exhaled. The whitish-blue soul mist billowed out of his nose and toward the merchant. The merchant inhaled the souls through the rotten hole where his nose should have been with a grin.

"Thank you kindly," he said before laughing once more and tossing the key to Lex.

With the key secured, the pair headed back to the bonfire to discuss their next move. Lex briefly explained the geography and enemy positioning within the rest of the upper Burg. Oscar nodded, and they were on their way. They dashed across the bridge, and Lex ran through the room to strike the hollow in back while Oscar killed the one in front. The wooden door on the left opened, and another hollow rushed in, only to be struck by sword and mace at once.

They ducked into the interior of the house next door and slew the hollow in the first room. Lex moved on to the dining room to retrieve the black firebombs while Oscar went out to the balcony and quickly stabbed the hollow there before it could react. They regrouped at the staircase outside.

"Back me up," Lex said quickly before dashing up the stairs.

Three hollows were straight ahead. The one in the back moved to throw a firebomb, but Lex rushed between the first two and took it out with his mace. Oscar hustled to the hollows as fast as he could with his heavy armor. Lex quickly rolled away from a falling axe and retaliated with a bone-shattering mace swing. Oscar took the other hollow by surprise and made short work of it.

"I think I'm beginning to see the appeal of forgoing armor," Oscar said, panting.

"Eh. Depends on your fighting style. And if you've got enough endurance and the right magic rings, you can wear a decent amount while staying mobile. Of course, the greatest of warriors wear heavy breastplates and compensate for the weight by forgoing pants."

"Not wearing greaves seems-"

"I said pants. Not just greaves. They don't wear trousers either."

A terrible groan echoed within Oscar's helmet.

"I'll take the firebomb-throwers. You get that crossbowman."

Lex turned to the building they had just passed and climbed the rusty old ladder. He tiptoed across the rooftop to the scaffolding on which three hollows stood. The first, he killed with an unexpected attack. He dodged a pair of explosions before doubling back and hitting the next hollow with a spinning swing. As the final hollow moved to throw, he circled around and kicked it off, its body shattering on the cobblestone some six or seven storeys below. With that accomplished, he grabbed the soul clump, walked back to the rooftop, and hopped down to the courtyard where Oscar was waiting.

"For the next part, parrying will make everything much easier. You take the front; I'll take the back." He paused. "That sounds a little vulgar."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh my god, you are innocent."

"Wha-?"

"So this is what a soul looks like uncorrupted by the internet!"

Oscar sighed. He wasn't about to feed Lex's melodrama. Without saying anything, he turned and began to walk down the next staircase, where a pair of hollow soldiers waited for him on a parapet. Lex shook his head and used the key he'd gotten from the merchant to unlock a nearby house. He went out the back door and retrieved the gold pine resin from the chest in the garden before leaping over the fence to confront a third hollow. While it was distracted by Oscar, he hit it in the back of the head, killing it.

Oscar had riposted after parrying the first hollow's spear, killing it. The remaining hollow turned back and forth, unsure which opponent to engage. Oscar slapped its shield with the flat of his sword, staggering it, while Lex gave it a fierce blow with his mace.

"Nice teamwork!" Lex said, giving a thumbs up. "Now, to spring the trap! Wait on the first step."

Lex moved on to yet another staircase. He ran up past a bend and took a few steps more. A flaming barrel began rolling toward him, so he turned heel and sprinted back past Oscar. Behind him, the barrel rolled over the bend and into the walkway below. It still wasn't safe, though, as the hollow that had rolled the barrel blindly chased after him. Oscar blocked its running swing with his shield and followed up with a sword to the gut.

"Yeah!" Lex shouted, starting to get much too into the game. "There's just one more thing to do in this area, then."

The pair walked up the staircase and into the circular tower. They ascended still further up the spiral staircase along the tower's inside wall, stopping on the third floor. Above was the tower's roof, judging by the sunlight streaming through the shoddy patchwork, but the stairs to the top were broken. While Oscar looked at the fog gate straight ahead, Lex turned and stared at some barrels against the wall.

"Yo, Oscar."

The knight looked over his shoulder.

"When I say go, break the first barrel over the stairs."

"Why?"

Lex looked bewildered.

"That is a very good question. Plan B: I'll open the lid, and you stab inside violently."

"I think the difference between a prophet and a madman might be that people can understand what a prophet is saying."

"Look, there's a lizard inside, and we need to skin it. Don't worry about ruining the skin when you're stabbing. The skin itself can't be damaged, so you're basically going to be killing the lizard with brutal blunt force trauma."

Oscar shook his head but turned and held his sword aloft.

"I'm ready."

Lex opened the top of the barrel quickly. Sure enough, there was a fat blue lizard inside with some sort of broken shell. Oscar hit it fiercely between the pieces, killing it instantly.

"I thought you said the skin couldn't be pierced. Should I doubt your other visions?"

"I figured more of the skin would be titanite," Lex said, shrugging.

"Titanite? The iron of the gods?"

"Yeah. We'll see what kind the lizard had embedded in it later. For now, just toss it in my bag."

Oscar was unsure how to feel about his companion carrying a dead lizard around, but he complied and hefted the lizard out of the barrel, placing it gingerly in Lex's bag. The cleric let the flap back down and swung it into position on his hip before walking back to the fog. He dispersed it, revealing a long ruined bridge. The pair stepped out onto it and gazed out at the beauty of the surrounding sunlit countryside.

"What a gorgeous view," Oscar said.

"Verbatim," Lex noted.

"What?"

"Be wary of elation. Fatty ahead."

Oscar stared at Lex again.

"Fine. Kill my fun. Behind us is a ladder with two crossbowmen at the top, so be careful. I'm going to aggro the big scary thing on the other side of the bridge."

"Was that so hard?"

"You know, some people hate spoilers. I mean, are fearful of prescience."

"I came here desperately chasing a prophecy. Do you think I would mind knowing what sort of enemies are lurking around the next corner? Go ahead and do what you said while I get rid of the hollows above."

Lex nodded and walked halfway across the bridge at a leisurely pace. He looked up at the tower he had left to see Oscar wave back. He had made swift work of the hollows. Lex continued until he was three-quarters of the way across, when a giant minotaur wielding a stone axe that dwarfed even the Asylum Demon's club leapt down from the opposite tower. The cleric immediately broke into a sprint toward Oscar's tower.

He ran out of breath a few feet short but walked to the ladder and swiftly began climbing. As he neared the top. The stone axe breezed just below his feet and caused the iron ladder to reverberate, threatening to throw him off. Oscar dove to the side of the tower and extended a hand. Lex grabbed him and scampered up to the top.

"Just like before!" Lex shouted, adrenaline pumping. "Let's hit him before he decides to join us up here!"

With that, he and Oscar stood and made running jumps off the edge. This time, Lex's club rebounded off of the demon's tough skull, and he fell at its feet, trapped between the hulking monster and the restored fog wall. Oscar fared a little better, the extra momentum from his armor causing him to slide down its back as he cut. Lex swore and dove awkwardly between the demon's legs as it swung again. Oscar pulled him to his feet and out of immediate danger as the monster turned.

The demon hefted its axe back for a lunging swing, so the pair backpedaled slowly and hit either side when its attack crashed into the stone floor. Now the monster lowered its head and tried to charge them. They sprinted away, though Oscar lagged behind by quite a bit. Though the demon wasn't able to run him down, it did manage to keep up with him. It swung wildly, but the knight was able to backstep in time.

"Under it, Oscar! We'll hit it from both sides!"

As it lunged at him, Oscar rolled under it, his armor making a terrible racket as he flopped. By the time he was back to his feet, it had already turned and was readying another attack. Lex was charging at its back, but he wouldn't be in time to stop the next blow.

"Just like you said!" Oscar shouted, starting to catch Lex's excitement.

The immense stone axe came down vertically, and the elite knight swung his shield up to deflect it.

"That shit's too big to parry!"

Unfortunately, Oscar lacked perfect knowledge of the game's mechanics. Strangely, that didn't matter. The stone axe bounced off of his shield, and the redirected force of the swing caused the demon to stumble backward. There was an eternal moment where it sought its balance, but the moment passed, and it tumbled backward off the bridge and into the valley below. An enormous rush of soul force rose from the trees and filled the adventurers as Lex approached Oscar, gaping.

"That. Is. Not possible."

"I just did it. Isn't seeing believing?"

Oscar's tone was pained.

"No, I mean-" Lex paused. "Is it because fate has already been changed? In a million times, in a million worlds, you died in the Asylum. In a million times, in a million worlds, parrying the Taurus Demon was impossible. Oscar, do you know what this means?"

"That my arm is broken?"

"Oh, stop being a baby and just drink some Estus. We didn't even use any on the way here. But no! In all honesty, when I tried to save your life, I half-expected to fail. I broke the rules, and you're alive. Now you're breaking the rules too."

He paused, nodding.

"Let's break all the rules. Let's save the goddamned world! None of this depressing cycle of Light and Dark shit!"

"Cycle? Dark?" Oscar asked, about to take a swig of Estus.

"Right. Forgot to mention that it's technically possible for the Age of Fire to give way to the Age of Dark. It never happens, though. It doesn't matter how many Chosen fail or attempt to become the Dark Lord instead; it only takes one to Link the Fire."

"Now there's a Dark Lord? We need to have a long talk, Prophet Lex."

"Sure, I guess. But let's move on for now. We're going to meet everyone's best friend shortly."