Chapter 10: No longer Unkindled
Hey guys here is the new chapter of Re: Zero Souls just to let you know updates are going to be a lot slower so please be patient
"How is this even possible?" Birsingr questions as he looks down at his hands "The First Flame is gone I shouldn't be alive but here I stand as if nothing happened."
As he hears footsteps coming, he tries to grab his bottomless box, but it wasn't around his waist, so he looks around his room to try and find his box after a quick search he sees it on the desk, so he quickly rushes over to it and grabs the Repeating Crossbow and aims it at the door.
"They must be truly foolish to just leave my belongings here"
When the door opens instead of seeing the psychopathic maids, he sees Emilia with items in her hands "Birsingr I have your uniform…" she sees a weapon pointing at her "Is it a bad time to deliver this to you?"
The Ashen One lines up the sights in case something happens "Am I now your prisoner?"
Emilia has a look of confusion "Prisoner what do you mean?"
"What I mean is, are you going to lock me up in a dungeon or am I waiting to be executed again by Roswaal." He says aggressively.
Emilia still looking confused "Execute you? Did you have a nightmare Birsingr?"
Still on the defensive he pushes on with his questioning "Don't play dumb with me! Last night Rem and Ram were trying to kill me and here I am alive and well."
"Birsingr you must be exhausted, so let us help" she tries to calm Birsingr.
Puck appears on Emilia's head still a little tired "Emilia is something the matter?" He sees Birsingr with a crossbow aiming at his daughter, so a scowl appears on his face "What do you think you are doing pointing a weapon at my daughter like that, you must have a death wish." Ice spears form around him.
Birsingr sets the crossbow into volley mode, but Emilia get in both of their way "Stop this instant and calm down, Puck I just need you to see what is wrong with him." She looks to the Unkindled "And Birsingr put that crossbow away and be reasonable."
Birsingr doesn't budge "And what makes you think I can believe you?"
Emilia tries again to try and defuse the tension "Birsingr you just had a bad dream, no one is going to harm you so please, put the crossbow away and let Puck see what's wrong."
The Ashen One looks for any deception from Emilia but couldn't see any. "Alright I trust you, but the crossbow stays."
Puck refuses "Put your weapon away or you'll be a giant ice cube."
"Oh? Let's see you try that then." As he says he readies the crossbows again.
Both glare at each other with killing intent before they could try to kill each other an ice wall appears in the middle of them making them look at the direction on who summoned it.
Emilia has look of anger "That's enough you two fighting will just make the situation worse so calm down."
The Unkindled points to Puck "I'll calm down if he cancels his magic."
Emilia looks to Puck "Please cancel out your magic."
Puck looks at her as if she has gone mad "Are you joking Emilia! He aimed a weapon at us, and you want him to get off easily?"
Emilia doesn't say anything and looks at Puck with pleading eyes which causes Puck to give in "Fine Emilia, you win." The ice spears start to disappear.
Now Emilia looks to Birsingr "Please let us help you."
"I'll calm down but as I said before the crossbow stays." He demands again.
"You see! he is being uncooperative." Puck complains once again
"Puck that's enough!" Emilia shouts which surprised Birsingr and Puck as usually she is calm and gentle.
Puck crosses his arms and puff up his cheeks "Fine I'll stop."
Emilia looks to Birsingr with kindness on her face, "Birsingr please relax and let Puck check you for any anomalies."
Birsingr slightly relaxes but keep his crossbow trained on them in case of any tricks, "Fine I'll let him check me, but if you are lying, you'll be dead before you know it."
Puck floats to Birsingr but stops when a pungent odour enters his nostrils, so he grabs his nose "Bleh, he smells like a witch."
Birsingr looks confused "Witch? I smell like a witch."
"Not just any witch you smell like Satella." Puck points his paws at Birsingr.
"Witch's don't smell that bad, I should know because I know someone who was a witch."
"I remember you said she was mischievous" Emilia asks.
Birsingr nods his head "Yes she was."
Puck raised his eye brow "So she wasn't called Satella."
Birsingr shakes his head "No that is a different person, the witch I knew was called Karla." The Ashen One clarified.
"Regardless of who they are, witches are witches and they cause nothing but trouble." Puck insults.
Birsingr glares at Puck "Watch your tongue Puck, she went through a great deal of pain because of who she was, I was probably the only one who didn't see her as a foul creature of darkness."
Puck shrugs his shoulders "She was probably just using you to get what she wants and when you were all used up, she would have thrown you away like trash." Puck dodges a crossbow bolt flying at him.
"You are trying my patience cat, so I would advise you to hold that tongue." Birsingr threatens.
Before Puck could say anything, Emilia grabs him and walks out "I'm sorry Birsingr we will leave you alone to calm down the items are on your desk."
Birsingr is now in his room standing alone he sits down on his bed with his crossbow on his back and keeps an eye on the door in case someone else tries to enter or worse kill him.
Once Emilia and Puck left, he circles his room trying to figure out what in Izalith is happening, "I shouldn't have been able to resurrect the First Flame is gone nothing, but a used-up kiln covered in ash and blood but here I stand as if it is still here active." The Ashen One stops and looks out the window and he walks to the window.
"I must go back to the shrine to see if it's active, but there is a simpler way to test it." He reaches in and grabs the Coiled Sword Fragment, he kneels and closes his to focuses on the fragment and puts an image of the shrine in his mind.
The Unkindled opens his eyes hoping to see the shrine but he is still in his room "Great I have to walk all the way back to the shrine, but with Midir it should cut the time quite a bit." he gets up puts the fragment back into the box and makes his way to the door.
He suddenly realising he is not wearing any armour his body glows for a brief second changing into the Faraam armour set, once he is set, he opens the door to see Rem and Ram in the door frame.
Birsingr stops and glares at the twins behind his helmet "What are you two doing here?"
"We came to see what is taking you so long to change into your uniform." Ram Asks.
"Out of my way." He shoves past them and makes his way to the stables.
The twins stare at him and decide to report this predicament to Roswaal.
Birsingr opens the stable to see Midir waking up from his nap.
The Ashen One walks to Midir and strokes his face to show affection "Good to see you boy, listen we need to head back to the capital as I need to check something." He grabs a saddle and food for the Dragon, he opens the pen door and enters, he places the saddle on Midir's back and fastens and he leads Midir outside entrance.
Once outside he mounts Midir and is about to leave when Roswaal blocks his way, "My dear butler what are you doing?"
Birsingr doesn't say anything and flicks the rein to make Midir run outside the mansion's property.
Roswaal looks at the area Birsingr's dragon ran and smiles faintly "Rem Ram follow him and see what he is up to."
"Yes, Lord Roswaal" they both bow and chase after Birsingr.
Birsingr has been traveling for hours and right now it is night, he would have continued riding but Midir needs rest, so he sets up camp and stares at the bonfire.
As the Ashen One is staring at the bonfire he could feel two familiar presences in the background "Well it would seem that two little birds decided to fly away from the nest." He put his hands on the twin swords in case they try something again "Now what are they planning to do, I wonder what new tricks they are going to play on me."
A good distance away the two maids are on top of tree branches spying on Birsingr.
Ram looks to her sister "Rem what do you think he is doing?"
"I do not know sister."
"We should get some sleep, so we should take turns watching him, Rem you will take the first watch so keep an eye on him for a while and wake me up in a few hours then well swap." Ram orders.
Rem nods "Yes sister."
Ram leans against the tree and closes her eyes while her sister watch's Birsingr like a hawk.
As the sun rises Birsingr gets up and shakes Midir to wake him up he looks around to try and see if the maids are still in the trees "Come on boy its morning and I want to get out of here and I know the twins are persistent on following me."
Midir reluctantly gets up as he is still sleepy, so he shakes his head to try and relieve some of the sleepiness, once Midir is up Birsingr climbs on to his back, he pulls out a staff and raises above his head and in a flash of greenish blue light a orb surrounded his and Midir's feet "First I need to get some distance between them then I can cast that spell."
The Ashen One flicks the reins causing Midir to run, surprising the maids they quickly jump from tree branch to tree branch to make sure they don't lose track of Birsingr.
As Midir is running the unkindled slightly turns his head to see some of the branches shaking "Time to cast the spell." He raises the staff again and small golden particles gently land on him and the dragon causing them now to be see through.
Thinking the time is right he pulls on the reins causing Midir to completely stop, and as he did, the maids rush past him not realising that he made an abrupt stop, it won't take them long to notice that he's gone.
Seeing the maids are a good distance away he makes his way to the shrine.
He arrives at the cave entrance to the shrine, so he dismounts Midir and ties him to a tree, to make sure he doesn't run away.
Once he made sure the leash was fastening, he makes his way into the shrine
Inside the hole is nothing but pitch darkness so he grabs the torch to light the way, he continues to walk when he sees the familiar stone work of the shrine, the air suddenly has a putrid smell but not the worse he has smelled.
He continues forward not caring about the smell, when he enters the shrine everything was the same but there is a big hole in the wall.
"I don't remember that hole be…" The Ashen One couldn't finish as something hit making him fly towards the pillar.
He hits the pillar making it crumble due to the force and he immediately rolls when he hits the ground "It would seem I have an uninvited guest in my home." He draws one of his Gotthard Twin Sword and ignites his pyromancy hand and coats his blade in a bright orange fire, he extinguishes his flame and grabs the other sword now ignited.
The flaming of the swords made the creature visible to Birsingr, the creature is a large hideous creature with greyish skin a large mouth with tusks coming up from its under jaw, teeth that have the colour of green sludge, the creature's eyes are blood shot red and it is wearing a loin cloth and welding wooden club.
The creature growls menacingly before roaring then it charges swinging the massive club downwards, Birsingr rolls to the right avoiding getting squashed, the club hits the ground making a small indent on the floor.
Using the opportunity Birsingr rushes in and takes a swing to the creature's leg cutting deep into the flesh as well as burning it leaving a burned slash mark.
The creature roars in pain and slams its fist to try and crush Birsingr, thankfully he dodges it and quickly turns around to give another slash to the monster's arm, the creature then back hands The Unkindled causing him to slide on the ground for a few inches but he manages to hold his composure.
Thinking it is time to end it, Birsingr reaches into his belt and grabs a throwing knife and throws the knife with precision hitting the creature in the right eye causing it to grab its eye and roar out of pain.
Birsingr quickly thinks of way to kill the beast he sees that its back is turned to two thrones that is just high enough for him to jump off and impale the creature, he runs up the stairs turns left to the towards Yhorm's and the Abyss Watcher's thrones.
When he is behind the Abyss Watcher's throne he runs then leaps of the edge and implants his swords into the back of the beasts extinguishing the flames and making it roar once again.
The giant starts to thrash about trying to throw off Birsingr, he releases his left hand activates his pyromancy hand, using all his strength he plunges his fist into the flesh splattering some blood on to his helmet and igniting the sacred flame to cook the monster.
The beast could feel itself being cooked inside out so now it is desperately trying to separate Birsingr from its back, so he tries and slams its back into the wall to try and kill Birsingr.
But it proves useless as Birsingr's grip does not loosen and after another minute of pointless struggling the creature falls forward dead, The Ashen One pulls out his hand covered in cooked flesh and blood, he shakes the cooked meat off his hands and pulls out his swords which are covered in smoking flesh.
Birsingr uses the carcass to clean of the grilled meat and once it is done, he sheaths the swords, "Now that the minor problem has been dealt with, time to check the Kiln of the First Flame." He walks over to what is left of the bonfire which is in the centre of the room and stretches his hand out, he closes his eyes and imagines the Kiln.
When he opens his eyes hoping to see the ashen wasteland, he sees that he is still in the Shrine "So if it's not the Flame then what made me come back to life."
Pushing that aside he needs to check if there are more surprises then that monster, because if that thing was able to get in here than anything else could have slipped in.
The Unkindled looks all over the shrine and finds no evidence that anyone else entered the shrine, remembering that there where a few chests full of treasures and that he needs money he decides to take a bit of it to make things easier for him.
He makes his way up to the area that Patches usually stays, to see three chests in the corner so he walks to them and opens the middle one and is greeted with the reflection of gold coins and every jewel imagined "Looks like when Patches and Greirat plundered they went a bit overboard with the treasure." He reaches in to take some of the gold but as soon he touches the gold turns black then to dust "Of course I should have expected that from Patches."
The Ashen One then turns to the right and opens it to reveal old smith tools all placed neatly "This must be Andre's chest." He turns to the last of the three "And finally Greirat's." Birsingr opens the chest to reveal the same type of jewels and coins from the first chest in case it is another illusion he touches the coins, but it didn't turn to dust.
Satisfied that it is real Birsingr removes the bottomless box from his belt and places it in the chest scooping up the coins until its empty once he finishes clearing it up, he gets up but before he left there is one more item, he needs to get so his final stop is the throne of Ludleth.
He stops and looks at the creature thinking if that monster could enter the shrine then what is stopping others finding this place and relighting the flame to start the cycle all over again. "I need to seal this place up for good I can't let that happen again."
The Ashen One arrives to the throne of the little lord "Well my old friend this is the last time I'll ever come here, the secrets here need to remain here not to be used, but in case anyone comes here I need to take the Transposing Kiln for safety." Birsingr reaches into the withered body of ash and removes the kiln.
With everything in hand, the knight makes his way out but before he leaves, he takes one last look at shrine remembering his time here but as he looks away, he could see the ghostly outlines of his friends laughing with him before disappearing.
The Ashen One clenches his fist knowing this is a hard thing to do, but he has one final task to finish and he can't let his emotions interfere with his task at hand, he turns his back and walks away.
When the Unkindled reaches outside he looks back at the entrance "Time to seal this place up for good." he takes out a giant double-bladed axe with decorations on the blade, turns it around and plunges it into the ground causing a small earth quake.
Resulting tremors within the cave to fall in on itself, the entrance becoming smaller and smaller and soon the entrance that lead to the shrine is no more and all that is left is a wall of solid stone.
The Ashen One puts the axe quickly back into the bottomless box and runs to Midir, who is thrashing out of fear and grabs the reins to keep him under control "Calm down its over for good." He pets the dragon's head to add a bit more comfort.
Once he is sure that the dragon is calm, he climbs on the back but before he goes, he takes on last look at the entrance taking a deep breath before wiping the reins making Midir run.
After a day of travel Birsingr is taking a short break letting Midir rest but something is still bothering him "Why am I even coming back here, the maids attempted to kill me and Roswaal managed to kill me." He ponders for a while "I guess fate is tugging me to Emilia, on the first day I met her, fate made us cross paths more than once. But the main question is why? Am I supposed to kill her or am I supposed to help her in some way?"
Ok left on a bit of question so hoped you liked it please Review and Favourite and may the flames guide your way.