Chapter 3: Paledrake
Seath the Scaleless. A mad, pale dragon who did not possess that which all other dragons did…the scales of immortality. In his overwhelming jealousy toward his brethren, Seath had betrayed and aided Lord Gwyn in their destruction. For his actions, the paledrake was granted dukedom, and was left free to pursue his own means of reaching immortality in his massive archives. Somehow, as years had passed, Seath succeeded in his goal, and became a true undead. Any injury that fell upon his colorless hide would close moments after, rendering him immortal, if not totally invincible. The Dragonslayer and Executioner knew all this, yes, but the secret to their prey's immortality remained a mystery. Even with all their might as the former guardians of Anor Londo, the golden duo would not be able to destroy Seath without first removing that which made him immortal. As the elevator they rode on continued to carry them upward, they pondered on this.
"Is it a spell of some kind that protects him?" Smough inquired. Limited in thought though he was, the Executioner was aware of the existence of sorcery. Seath was its progenitor, after all.
Ornstein shook his head in response.
"No. I have heard and born witness to great magics, but no miracle, no sorcery, not even one of those chaotic pyromancies could grant one true immortality. There must be something else…something we're overlooking…" he said.
As the Dragonslayer wracked his brain for what could allow him and his partner victory over Seath, the elevator reached its destination, finally stopping at a floor high above the previous one. Almost immediately, opposition presented itself in the form of a handful of hollows brandishing swords and bows. However, the golden pair quickly realized that these were no ordinary hollows. Their skin had all turned to a deep and brilliant blue, complete with strange crystal growth across various parts of their flesh and even stretching onto their swords and shields. Unsettled, but not undeterred by the sight Smough lumbered forward and brought his great hammer down on the nearest hollow, aiming to crush it in an instant. To his surprise, the emaciated undead managed to completely halt the blow of his massive weapon…though only for that first blow. The one that followed crumpled the hollow's shield arm into his body and crushed him against the nearest wall. Momentarily distracted by the surprising show of strength from his enemy, the Executioner failed to notice the bolt of magic surging through the air toward him until it struck his shoulder.
"What the devil?!" he shouted as he wheeled around, hammer at the ready.
Staring at Smough through a six-eyed visor in the room directly behind the one he stood in now was none other than one of the infamous Channelers, servants of the paledrake that traveled Lordran in search of undead like the ones assailing them at the moment to be used in experiments. The tall humanoid held a golden trident in its right hand, which it then brought to the center of its body to be joined in its other hand as it began to chant another spell. Gritting teeth behind his contrastingly pleased looking mask, Smough tried to hurry as much as he could to crush the rest of the hollows between him and the Channeler, knowing that the caster probably had much more painful spells in its arsenal. As he struggled, the Dragonslayer leapt past him, skewering one of the crystalized hollows with ease. Ornstein took but a second to realize the creatures seemed especially vulnerable to his weapon before attacking the next in his path.
"Smough!" he shouted. "I will clear a path, destroy that sorcerer!"
What was once a grimace became the matching expression of the Executioner's mask as he heard this.
"Gladly."
Ignoring everything but the Channeler dead ahead of him, Smough rose his great hammer in a defensive position and charged. Another spell, this one stronger than the last, soared at him. The Executioner grunted as the impact of the soul arrow washed over his hammer, but kept charging nonetheless. Realizing it had no time to incant another spell, the Channeler shifted its stance and held its trident at the ready, the tri-pointed tips beginning to rotate as though preparing to bore through the golden behemoth charging at it. Alas, such actions were utterly futile in the wake of an enraged man with a hammer as big as his own body, especially when said hammer caved in the sorcerer's helm so that only the flat brim atop it sat where its head should have been. Chuckling wickedly to himself, Smough then picked up the trident and hurled it into a hollow standing atop the flight of stairs that indicated the way forward, pinning it to a bookshelf as it died. Soon enough, he and Ornstein had cleared the rooms of enemies, allowing them some actual time to think.
"Wait…do you hear that?" the Dragonslayer stated.
Now that all the fighting had died down, there was a faint moaning of sorts coming from the top of the next elevator upwards. Upon listening further, the golden duo also picked up sounds of something massive sliding around up above.
"Seath?" Smough questioned.
Orsntein nodded.
"Without a doubt. It'd be folly to face him as we are. Now that we have a few moments, let's see if we can't find something that could point us to the secret of his immortality."
His partner grunted in agreement, and began looking about the large room, scanning for anything that might be of use. While the Executioner did so, Ornstein seated himself upon the steps that led forward, going into thought. The Dragonslayer tried to recall everything he knew about the paledrake, going as far back as the great war with the beast's kin. Seath was obsessed with achieving that which he was born without, and surely there had to be more to the immortality of his race than their scales. Ornstein himself had earned his title for his efficiency in removing them, after all. He thought of the aftermath, of the talks between Seath and Lord Gwyn. The Dragonslayer then recalled talk of a treasure, an item of some sort that the paledrake had taken from his kin. Surely, that was the key to uncovering his immortality. Ornstein wracked his brain for any possibility of what such a treasure could be, what the dragons would have coveted, what would have given Seath that which he desired. His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of an arrow being notched not too far from him. The Dragonslayer quickly grabbed his spear, turned, and thrust a bolt of lightning at the source of the sound. A hollow, crystalline like the others, fell upon being struck, dropping down on to the stairs and landing in a heap at Ornstein's feet.
"You're lucky that these beasts are so weak to your lightning." Smough commented as he approached, having heard the discharge.
"If not for that weakness, and our great might, these crystal fiends would be next to unstoppable."
Ornstein was about to reply, when something his partner said stuck out. The crystalline aspect made them strong, difficult to damage. A substance that was powerful. Something rare. Something treasured.
"A crystal…" the Dragonslayer whispered.
"What?"
"It's a crystal. That bastard has a crystal of some sort stolen from his brethren. That's what is keeping him immortal!"
The Executioner took a moment to process this. It certainly made sense, and would coincide with the rumored experiments that produced the sort of hollows they had been fighting. If such experiments made meager creatures like hollows able to stand up to his hammer, then a crystal coveted by the dragons would undoubtedly bestow great gifts upon the paledrake. Smough nodded in agreement.
"Very well. A crystal it is. But where would he hide such a thing? Surely not here, not in a place where any simpleton with enough toughness could find it?"
The Dragonslayer nodded and resumed his thinking. The Executioner had a point, a treasure like the one they were searching for could not have been in an easily accessible location. At the same time, in all his madness the paledrake probably kept somewhere not too far away from the archives, someplace he could easily guard it. Ornstein walked toward a nearby balcony as he continued to think, and looked out at what lay beyond the walls of the archives. In the distance, easily within a brisk walk of the end of the archives, rose enormous crystal spires out of the earth.
"Well…that looks as like a place as any." He stated, waving over his partner.
Smough stepped forward and looked at what his friend had found. Again, he found himself agreeing that Ornstein had passed sound judgement.
"It looks as though we might reach that place simply by traversing the rest of this accursed place."
"Indeed."
A destination now in mind, the golden duo proceeded to make their way through the archives. At every turn they were met with crystalline hollows and Channelers, but the Dragonslayer and Executioner pressed on nonetheless. Eventually, after the usage of several oddly placed levers, they found themselves exiting the archives and onto a short hill leading downward into a gargantuan cavern formed completely out of crystals, out of which grew the spires they had spotted earlier from the balcony. A handful of fierce crystal golems obstructed their path, but only until Smough chose to use one of them as though it were a boulder to roll into the rest, knocking them over and making most easy kills. The two that recovered traded blows with the duo, but were ultimately struck down. Pausing to rest after the encounter, Ornstein and Smough then proceeded down into the cavern. Inside, they were besieged by fewer, though much stronger golems. As they fought the beasts, the golden pair took care not to disturb the large butterflies strewn about the cavern, knowing that the creatures would undoubtedly fly out of reach, right over the massive gaps between the haphazard crystal bridges. For a moment, they were forced to stop at the base of a crystal and try to locate a means of crossing to the next. However, upon noticing that the dust falling from the ceiling kept halting at something solid and unseen, an invisible bridge, they were on their way once again. Across a few more gaps, and after battling through a small army of bizarre clam-like monsters, the golden pair found themselves in a gigantic chamber, at the very back of which sat a thin flower like crystal whose brilliance outshone that of every other around it.
"That looks to be of great import. Likely our goal." The Executioner commented.
The Dragonslayer was about to reply, when the entire cavern began to shake, and a booming roar resounded through its crystalline walls. The golden pair turned from the Primordial Crystal to face none other than the paledrake himself. Seath the Scaleless now stood before them, his massive frame almost touching the roof of the chamber as he slithered toward them, snarling with rage. Had the dragon any eyes, there was no doubt that they would have been flushed red with anger at the two intruders who now threatened his most well guarded secret. Shimmering luminescent wings spread out behind the paledrake as he drew in a deep breath, just before unleashing a blast of white magic from his maw, crystals laden with curse rising everywhere the pale beam struck. The golden duo each dodged in a different direction, allowing the beam to pass harmlessly between them….and strike the Primordial Crystal with full force. The very thing Seath had tried so dearly to protect shattered as if it were glass under the pressure of his own terrible magic. Upon the treasure's destruction, the paledrake recoiled, seeming to writhe in pain as it thrashed about in a frenzy. Taking notice of this, the Dragonslayer stood and loosed a bolt of lightning at the dragon. The golden light struck Seath's crystal laden hide, breaking off one of the smaller crystal growths. It did not reform.
"It seems you have lost your 'immortality', paledrake." Ornstein said with a snarl. He then rose his spear and directed it at the dragon's head.
"Long have you been just out of my reach, protected by the good will of my former Lord Gwyn. No more! This day, I will act as I should have long ago…and erased your accursed existence from this world! Prepare yourself, dragon! This day you die!"
With a wrath fueled cry, the Dragonslayer leapt forth, stabbing at the bulbous crystal growth at the base of the creature's body. The Executioner couldn't help but marvel at the sight of his friend in a fit of normally unseen ferocity, stabbing the paldrake and blasting it with golden lightning whilst still dodging swipes from the dragon's claws and the occasional blast of white dragon breath. With a smile, that matched that on his mask, Smough charged forward and joined in the clash, pounding away at the crystal growth and swiping tails of Seath's lower body as Ornstein slowly ascended toward the paledrake's head. All the while, Seath bellowed and thrashed about in pain, never before having been subjected to such great torture, not even at the hands of the countless Chosen Undead who had felled him in cycles long past. Desperately, the paledrake called forth as much of his twisted magic as he could, and unleashed a deafening roar as curse laden crystals began to fill the chamber, forcing the Executioner to retreat. Unfortunately for Seath, this did nothing but slow the ascent of the Dragonslayer clinging tightly to his long neck. Mustering up all his strength to not be thrown off by the roar, Ornstein continued to climb, until at last he reached the crown of the paledrake's head. Shifting his spear for the strongest possible blow, the Dragonslayer let out a cry of fury before plunging the lightning infused blade into Seath's skull. The dragon roared and bellowed, flailing wildly in an attempt to throw off his assailant as he felt thrust after thrust be plunged into his skull, magical blood seeping from the wound. Finally, after another powerful thrust the paledrake stilled. His limbs became limp, the wings on his back dimmed and drooped lifelessly, and the dragon lurched forward, collapsing. Ornstein panted as his rage slowly subsided, and removed himself from atop the paledrake's head as his body dissolved into nothingness.
At long last, Seath the Scaleless was no more.
The first of the four great souls was now theirs.
A/N: Hope this was worth the wait for all of you. I tried to make it a good fight, since Seath is one of my favorite bosses in the series. Now, I'd like to make a quick announcement: I'm going to have to wait a bit before I do the next chapter.
The reason for this is because I am also working on Spider of the Stars, and despite the very low viewer count, I want to finish that story. So I'll be doing another chapter of that before I do chapter 4 of Big Lordran Adventure. However, do not think this means I'm giving up on this story, because I'm not.
So, as always, hope you enjoyed and don't forget to review! Till next time! Dark Novelist out.
