Kwai kwai nidobak! If you readers haven't figured it out yet, the black knight isn't exactly a nice person. I had him kill those two people last chapter for a reason. In the actually game after freeing him, the player can find the corpses of two unnamed NPCs; one on the stairs and the other on the second floor. I just felt like it was important to add that small scene. Also, this chapter will reveal probably one of the most difficult bosses in Demon's Souls. You'll see why in a short bit. Remember to leave a review or send me a PM!
Chapter 9: The Madman's Creation
Within the Tower of Latria, Bilbo Baggins passed through the fog wall with Sting in his right hand. In front of him, he could see the thirteen Dwarves and the knight and they were each ready for battle. They were all currently on a bridge that was only a few feet wide, which mean that only three of them could stand side-by-side without falling off.
Further down the bridge however, something that could only be described as a monster was lumbering towards them. The creature was humanoid in shape and resembled a muscular gargoyle, but this thing was different. It had bat-like wings and jointed legs, but it's face was concealed by a metal mask. The mask resembled a grinning old man and they two eye holes were glowing green. The creature also had a snake for a tail, which occasionally hissed menacingly. This Demon was called the Maneater.
Most of the Dwarves appeared to be unfazed by the rather intimidating Demon and Thorin Oakenshield let out a loud battle cry as he suddenly charged forward with an Orc sword in his right hand. The large Demon roared back as it quickly crouched down on all fours. It then leapt forward with a lion-like roar and it smashed it's bulk right into the charging Dwarf.
Thorin grunted as he was forced onto the ground and the Maneater jumped right over him and glared at the others. It flinched when a Soul Ray pierced into it's right shoulder and it glared at the knight, who was pointing his talisman of beasts at it.
The Demon's snake tail suddenly began to hiss and it roughly bit into the Maneater's neck. The gargoyle-like monster went stiff when this happened an it's entire body began to radiate a yellow glow. The snake then released it's host's neck and the creature charged towards the group with much more power in it's movements.
The Dwarves swung their weapons at the Maneater, leaving gashes and heavy bruises on it's flesh, but it ignored the attacks and raised both of it's arms. As it did this, the beast clenched it's hands into fists and brought it's arms downwards like two mighty hammers. Luckily, the Dwarves were able to back step away from the attack, but the knight wasn't so lucky.
The monsters two large fists smashed the armored ghost into the ground and some green colored ectoplasm splattered out of his body. The Maneater growled as it raised it's fists again to finish the spiritual warrior off, but Thorin Oakenshield rushed forward again and roared as he swung his sword in a downwards swipe.
The Orkish blade sliced clean through the snake tail and the Demon let out an almost ear-piercing roar of pain as it arched it's back to look up at the dark sky. But with the Demon distracted, the knight was able to stand up again and he quickly ate some full moon grass to heal his wounds.
At that moment however, the group heard a rather unsettling sound; the sound of heavy wing beats. Within moments, a second Maneater flew over their heads and it hovered in the air not too far away from the bridge.
'There are two Demons!?' the knight screamed in his head as both Maneaters let out challenging roars.
Even though Thorin and his company didn't know too much about the Demons of this land, they knew that fighting two of them at one was not a preferable situation. Plus, the very narrow bridge they were on didn't help their situation. All they could do was fight on and hope for the best.
In the hidden Nexus, Selen Vinland was examining the dead body of the woman that had fallen from the stone steps leading to the second level. Many of the refugees of the Nexus were standing behind her and many of them were praying to their God. Even Saint Urbain, a very well-known pilgrim of God, was there and praying for the recently deceased.
The holy knight ignored the others however and very gently rolled the dead woman onto her back to see that her neck was slit wide open. Even with her dead, the wound was still bleeding rather heavily.
'This was no accident nor was it self-inflicted. Someone murdered this poor woman.' Selen thought to herself with a sad sigh.
With this in mind, the holy knight slowly closed the corpse's eyes and slowly stood up. She then turned to look at Saint Urbain.
Urbain was a middle-aged man with thick, white robes that went down to his ankles. He had light skin and brown hair that was in a sort of bowl style. This man was looking at the holy knight with an obviously distressed expression.
"What have you found out? How did this poor soul taken from us?" the Saint questioned softly with a frown.
"Her neck was slit open; expertly too. I have reason to believe that she was murdered by someone who knew exactly what he or she was doing." Selen answered grimly as she looked into his light brown eyes.
"Oh Umbasa…" Saint Urbain quietly prayed before he looked up the steps where the woman fell. "Can you-"
"Yes. I will find out who did this." the holy knight promised as her sad tone turned into that of determination.
"Alright. I will have everyone pray for her…" he looked at the corpse before he looked up at the holy knight again. "…and your safety." he told her.
Selen Vinland nodded before she turned around on her heels and began to walk up the steps. As she made her way up, she unsheathed her partially transparent sword, Blind, in her right hand and took out Geri's Stiletto in her left hand.
When she reached the top of the steps, Selen immediately noticed the magician's body on the other side of the floor she was on and she noticed the large pool of blood under his body. Normally, she would go over to the body and inspect it for the cause of death, but the fact that a murderer was about put her on edge. Instead, she held her weapons firmly and slowly walked around the open space around her.
The holy knight stopped suddenly when she spotted something in the corner of her eye. She quickly turned to look at a dark corner and she spotted a man donning black body armor resting his back against the wall with his arms crossed. She noticed the man make a slight nod to acknowledge her entrance, but he otherwise didn't move a muscle.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Selen asked with a glare, obviously not trusting this mysterious knight.
For a moment, the black knight didn't answer. Usually, this wouldn't frighten her, but something about this man put her on edge. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was definitely wrong about the man in front of her.
"What is it you want? I have no business with you… not yet." the black knight stated darkly, ignoring her previous demand.
The holy knight was rather put off by his statement. It almost sounded like this man was threatening her. The black knight seemed to notice her sudden discomfort, so he decided to address it.
"Do not be concerned. Life is hardly as precious as one might think…" he informed her with a coldly emotionless tone of voice.
Selen didn't know what to think of this at all. The first thing that came to mind was that this nameless man had murdered that magician and that woman. She suddenly clenched her teeth together and took a threatening step forward.
"You are the murderer, aren't you? I should have you beheaded for this." she murmured with a glare.
Right after she said that, Selen took another step forward. With only a moment's hesitation, the black knight lifted his pointed boot and kicked the holy woman away. She grunted lightly as she was pushed back, but she was able to keep her footing. When she looked back at the armored knight, she noticed that he was unsheathing his shotel and parrying knife.
"Well, what have we here? Do you wish to die so soon?" the black knight questioned with slight anger in his voice.
Without replying, the holy knight rushed forward and swung her transparent sword, Blind, in a horizontal motion. Before the blade could connect however, the black knight raised his parrying dagger. With the help of the knife's wide guard, he was able to parry Selen and he sent Blind safely away to his left, causing the woman's eyes to widen in surprise.
Without giving her a moment to retaliate, the black knight swung his sickle-like sword in an upwards motion and the curved blade clawed right into Selen's lower stomach. She let out a loud gasp as blood began to drip from her lower lip. She tried to stab his side with Geri's Stiletto in an attempt to hurt him, but he quickly pulled his shotel out of her body and stepped away from her avoiding the attack.
The holy knight had never received such a serious wound before and she felt herself fall to her knees as the gaping wound in her stomach bled profusely. She barely even registered as she dropped her weapons and rested her bare hands on the wound. Slowly, she looked up at the black knight to see him looking down at her. Even though his black helmet didn't allow her to see his eyes, she could practically feel him stare at her with pure hate.
"I am Yurt… the Silent Chief. I… am an assassin." the black knight finally answered the questioned she asked him earlier.
After he introduced himself, Yurt sheathed his parrying knife and held his shotel in both hands. With the strength of both arms, he swung his shotel. With a splash of blood, Selen's severed head rolled off of her shoulders and her body fell to the floor with a thud.
With the holy knight now dead, Yurt, the Silent Chief, sheathed his shotel and stared down at her body. He watched as a pool of blood began to spread out in all directions around the corpse. There was so much blood; he had to take a step back to avoid getting it on his boots. But unlike most people who killed in Boletaria, he refused to absorb her soul. Instead, he repelled it and allowed it to wonder in the void. He did the same with the magician and his wife when he killed them earlier.
"Meddling souls never last for long…" Yurt mumbled darkly to himself before he began to walk away to find a new hiding place.
The black knight immediately stopped walking however when he spotted someone standing not too far away from him. The Maiden in Black was lighting some candles were her candle staff and when the candles she was tending to were all lit, she turned towards the armored assassin's general direction.
Neither of them spoke a word and Yurt found himself staring at her wax covered eyes. He knew exactly who she was and he so desperately wanted to kill her, but that was impossible to do… not yet. Besides, he knew she wouldn't tell anyone what he just did to Selen Vinland.
Without a word, the Silent Chief walked right passed the Maiden in Black and towards another dark corner. The Maiden just lowered her head before she walked over to some more unlit candles and began to light them.
Back in the Tower of Latria, Thorin and his company were still battling the two Maneaters; however they were keeping the two Demons separated. Thorin and a few of the others were keeping the now tailless monster near the fog wall while the knight and the other half of the company were tending to the second Demon on the other side of the bridge.
The second Maneater was proving to be quite a challenge because it spent most of it's time flying through the air. It would also send out a set of five Soul Arrows, which were homing orbs of lethal light. Luckily, the knight's Dark Silver Shield could take the powerful spells' punishment and the Dwarves fighting by his side through various rocks at the creature and shot arrows at it. It didn't seem like their attacks were doing anything, but he knight knew that the monster would fall in time as long as it didn't change it's tactics.
Thorin and his half of the group were having a much more difficult time. Even though it's snake tail had been cut off, it was pouncing all over their half of the bridge. Whenever it jumped off of the bridge by mistake, it would just fly back over to the group and land with a double fisted slam to the ground. And whenever it pounced, at least one of the Dwarves would be knocked down by it's sheer force.
At one point, the tailless Demon pounced right at the center of the group, causing three of the Dwarves to fall off the edge of the bridge. Quickly, Glóin grabbed onto the edge of the bridge and held on with a death grip. As he held on, Fili grabbed onto his legs and Bombur held the younger Dwarf's legs with one arm while he kept a firm grip on his sword with his free hand.
Glóin roared from the pain of supporting two other people and he did his best to pull them up, but he just couldn't without losing his grip. So, he just focused on keeping them from falling to their deaths.
"Fili! Don't worry; we'll help you up soon!" Kili yelled with wide eyes before he ducked down and the Maneater pounced right over him.
"Hurry! We can't stay like this forever!" Glóin yelled back through clenched teeth.
The tailless Maneater snarled menacingly as it stood up straight and whipped around to glare at Kili. The young Dwarf gulped nervously as he took a few steps back. Before the Demon could attack however, Thorin ran up behind the monster and began to repeatedly slash his sword across it's back.
The monster roared as it's back bled heavily and folded it's wings over it's back in an attempt to protect itself. Kili saw that the Demon was distracted, so he ran right up to it and stabbed his dagger straight into the creature's neck.
The Maneater went stiff as the blade went into it's jugular and blood poured out of the wound. All of a sudden, a white light flashed around the monster and it began to fade away. Thorin and Kili watched as it gradually disappeared and even though they weren't sure exactly what happened, they were almost positive that it was dead because when it was fully gone, the air felt less thick for some reason.
Shaking off their slight stupor, the two Dwarves rushed over to their fallen comrades and they both reached under Glóin's arms. The Dwarf leader nodded to Kili before they both pulled upwards with all their might, groaning as they did so. It took a lot of effort, but the long bearded Dwarf was soon on the bridge itself and the other two Dwarves began to help Fili up next.
Because of Fili's light weight, it didn't take long at all to pull him up. Bombur on the other hand was much more difficult. His heavy weight proved too much for Thorin and Kili. It took the combined efforts of Thorin, Kili, Fili, and Glóin to pull Bombur back onto the bridge.
"Are you alright, brother?" Kili questioned nervously as he rested a hand on Fili's shoulder.
"I'm okay, Kili. Don't worry." the young, light haired Dwarf assured with a small smile.
At that moment, the five Dwarves looked over at the other group and the remaining Maneater. It had stopped flying around at this point and was attacking the group of the bridge. The Demon was covered in bruises and arrows, but it was still fighting strong. Thorin realized this and looked over at the others who fought by his side.
"Let us go and help out brothers in arms." he commented with a dark frown.
The others nodded and the five Dwarves charged down the bridge with their weapons at the ready. The second Maneater whipped around to look at it's new targets, but before it could react, Bombur swung his sword across the monster's neck, causing it to stumble back in pain. At that moment, Nori approached the Demon from behind and smashed his Bramd onto it's back.
As the bones in the Demon's back shattered from the force of the attack, it too began to emit a white glow and it soon faded away. When it died, something happened to the knight. The armored human lost his ghostly features and his body became solid again. As the Dwarves and lone Hobbit panted from the adrenaline, they noticed that their ally was no longer a ghost.
"Did you just come back to life?" Bifur, the Dwarf wearing the hat, asked with amazement in his voice.
"Yes. I told you that I revive whenever I slay a Demon. I have you all to thank for my revival." the knight answered with his normal voice as he slowly turned to look at Thorin's company and sincere gratitude could be seen in his usually unreadable brown eyes.
"You're welcome. Happy to help." Bilbo replied with a proud smile.
The armored human then looked over at the other end of the bridge, opposite where they came from. The others followed his gaze and they could see an even taller tower than the one they just came from. Without a word, the knight led them all towards the tower and through an open doorway. Once they were through the doorway, the group found themselves in a semi-spacious room with a small Archstone in the center of the room.
"I'm assuming you all wish to return to your own world now." the human mumbled quietly as he turned to look at Thorin.
For a long while, both men were silent. It seemed like the Dwarf leader was in relatively deep thought. No one knew exactly what he was thinking or why he was hesitating.
"Are there any other Demons nearby?" Thorin Oakenshield questioned all of a sudden.
"Just one, yes." the knight answered with a slight nod.
"Tell me what you know about this Demon. For that matter, I would like to know just what happened to this land. I want to know why my men and I nearly died here." the Dwarf leader almost demanded with a straight face.
"That is a long story and even I don't know the full story." the armored human replied as he rested his back against the nearest wall.
"I don't care. I want to know." Thorin stated sternly and he crossed his arms over his chest in finality.
"I think we are entitled to an explanation." Balin murmured, receiving nods of agreement from the others.
"Fine… the Tower of Latria used to be a much different place than it is now. This used to be a powerful country led by the Ivory Queen. The Ivory Queen led this land and kept peaceful relations with the northern kingdom of Boletaria. The Queen had a husband, but he couldn't rule because Latria had always been ruled by queens. One day, the Ivory Queen banished her husband, but never told anyone why. Some say he tried to take her power while others believed she thought he was seeing someone else." the knight started with a slight sigh. "Around the time the Demons arrived in Boletaria, the Queen's husband returned… wearing a golden robe. For some reason, the Demons didn't attack him and instead, did his bidding; in Latria at least. He murdered the Ivory Queen out of revenge and imprisoned her whole family in the dungeons to be tortured to death. Those centipede monsters, the gargoyles, and eve those two Demons we just killed… they were all created by the Queen's husband. He has become so powerful that he himself has become a Demon." he explained grimly with his head lowered.
Everyone stayed silent as they listened to the story. Many of them were disturbed by the story, but most of them kept a straight face. Before any of them could make a comment, Thorin looked over at his company and started speaking.
"I would rather retake our home from the dragon than stay in this hopeless kingdom, but I would like you all to come to a decision. We can either return to Mirkwood or help this knight fight the Ivory Queen's husband." the long haired Dwarf told them all with an emotionless frown.
The Dwarves all looked at one another and they put some serious thought into this decision. Some of them really did want to help, but most of them just wanted to leave.
"If you would like to stay at the Nexus and wait for the rest of your allies to return, then that's fine too. However, you must make your decision now." the knight commented before he lightly pushed his back away from the wall he was resting on.
With that said, the armored man began to walk towards an open doorway that led to a narrow staircase. This left the Dwarves and Bilbo with a choice. Leave for the Nexus to wait for the others or help the knight fight another Demon.
