Author's notes: First off, I can't begin to apologize enough for the severe lack of updates. So much for "every week", huh? Honestly, too many things came up. So many things that I'd be here all day if I listed everything off. But hey, we're back now!
Though I had yet to play DS1 at the time, the infamy of Blighttown made me especially dread The Gutter and Black Gulch. Much like the Duke's Dear Freja however, it ended up being easier than I expected, likely because it was the last of the four areas I chose to tackle, meaning my build was more or less finalized. Since this area wasn't incredibly challenging, I had a hard time making a decent chapter out of it. What a bad time to have a gap in updates! Poison aside, I absolutely adored the atmosphere of these two areas. While DS1 does the better job of giving the player a sense of vertical height, I thought 2 nailed the feeling of exploring deep beneath the earth here, and I personally find the area boss rather creative!
Chapter 11 – A Deepening Fear! – "To the glory of competition!"
25th of Rain's Hand
Majula
"…and after all that toil, I didn't find a damn thing of note." Vivi ranted to his colleagues, lamenting his unsuccessful attempt to reach Castle Drangleic. "Here I was, thinking I could at least have something to sh-"
"Down there?! I always thought it was just some huge well! For decoration, really! Now you're gonna tell me different?! Uh-uh. I ain't goin' down there, sista." LoveGame bickered, talking over Vivi.
"If you chicken out on me, LoveGame, I swear… You're gonna catch this end of my sword! I'll just tell everyone you went hollow down there, how's that sound?" snarled Ilia with a slight evil giggle.
Between the arguing, Vivi shouted in frustration, "Are you two listening at all?! See, Vivi? This is what happens when you open up to people…"
LoveGame calmed his voice. "Yeeeah… I hear ya, Vivi. 'Spose we really can't reach the Castle without all four souls, eh? Let's do it, then."
"Oh, so he can convince you?" groaned Ilia.
"…But I'm gonna need to re-spec if we're getting anywhere in that well. See, I've mapped it all out in this amazing mind of mine; that place has gotta be lined with snipers. Poisonous ones. Without ranged support, we'll all succumb to a fairly slow death. So I'm thinkin, right? Back home, King DSP could defeat just about anything with a few of those handy Lightning Spears! Ilia, you saw Melanie use 'em, right? With this…" he continued, holding up a blue-and-brown orb, "I can reallocate some of the souls I've earned into deepening my faith enough to learn that spell! Please, hold your applause." be beamed.
"A little superfluous, don'tcha think? What do you mean, 'mapped the place out'? We've never even been down there!" inquired Ilia, more than a little bit skeptical of the knight's plan.
He scratched the back of his head. "…I, uhh… heard some rumors."
Ilia snatched the orb from his hands. "Anyways, we don't have time right now! We did give you that extra day, remember? Besides, what happened to all that talk of your honor preventing the use of ranged weapons? I thought you hated magic!"
"First off," said LoveGame apprehensively, "not around Vivi! Secondly, give that back! I need it to respec!"
He reached out to it, prompting Ilia to shout, "Ya want it so badly, huh LoveGame?! Then go get it!" as she aggressively threw it down the giant well.
LoveGame ran after it, stopping himself at the well's edge. He whimpered tearfully, lost for words. Before he could replay the events in his head, the knight felt a heavy steel boot on his back, kicking him in as he yelped.
Vivi screamed in disbelief. "Why did you do that?! I thought you were supposed to be his protector! How do you know he isn't dead?!"
"Because…" Ilia sighed, "That man's got the devil's own luck. Did you think we got this far on combat skill alone?"
They peered down the well, and sure enough, LoveGame had landed on a wooden support below, flashing a thumbs-up.
"I might've also given him a Cat Ring." she said, revealing two more between her fingers. "It came out of my pocket, y'know. LoveGame, for whatever reason, refuses to talk to Shalquoir…"
"…She keeps complimenting me on my scent! It's weird!" echoed LoveGame's voice from the pit. "Now, are y'all coming or not?!"
Ilia and Vivi slipped their rings on and took the plunge, landing on the same wooden beam as their knightly companion. He stretched and put one hand on Ilia's shoulder. "Why'd you have to go and boot me like that? I would've jumped in when I was good and ready…"
Ilia brushed his hand off, still not used to the oversized black gauntlet that covered it now. "Sometimes… You need a good push to get you moving. With you, I've learned to take such sentiments literally."
The trio peered down the Majula Pit, noting several more wooden beams on the descent. "Where this could possibly lead… definitely raises a few questions about our little home here… Guess there's only one way to find out." mused Vivi as he holstered his Sunset Staff on his back. One by one, the three companions bounded from one platform to the next. As each one landed, they shrieked and grunted in pain from the impact, taking a few swigs of estus and crushing lifegems to mitigate it. The series of falls lead to a rocky cave entrance in the distinct shape of rat's mouth.
"Hwoah, this one's a little different…" said LoveGame as the thud of Vivi's landing behind him resonated off of the pit's rounded walls. Without a second thought, he rolled off of the plank structure and landed on the lip of the cavern. Ilia and Vivi had little choice but to follow suit.
Shrine of Winter
As the wayward knight and his faithful companions descended closer to their final Great Soul, Melanie became curious enough to try a more straightforward method of reaching Castle Drangleic before them.
"Surely it can't be that strong! How about this?!" roared the cleric, wildly bashing her Crypt Blacksword and casting a flurry of lightning spears against the lustrous metal door separating her and the castle. The door was unwavering. It failed to display so much as a scratch.
Catching her breath, Melanie conceded. "Not working with me, huh? I thought for sure… if I envisioned it was that… knight. If it were him, I could break it through sheer willpower." She plunged her sword into the ground in frustration. "Why the fuck do I keep thinking about him?! Why is that making it so hard to concentrate?!"
Melanie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "He's probably already done with the Great Souls by now. The waiting game's my only option. I don't peg him as the type to close the door behind him…" said the voluptuous woman, nodding off for a quick slumber.
Grave of Saints
Many souls lived out their entire lives in Majula without the knowledge of what stirred directly beneath its strata. This memorial site had long since been overrun by sentient rodents, lead by the Rat King. Using a complex network of Pharros contraptions, the rats set an array of traps to make life hard for unwary intruders. Statues that belch corrosive acid, bridges that raised and lowered, and plenty of rats lying in wait for the ambush. No one, not even the Lindeldt clerics, knows who the eponymous "saints" were, but their skeletons were curiously larger than that of a normal human…
"Gyah!" shrieked LoveGame, flailing his Sun Sword at an emaciated hollow that had just eerily laughed at him upon entering the cave mouth. "That… isn't funny…" he gasped, shaking and regaining composure. He continued through the cavern into the remains of a stone building, along with Ilia and Vivi.
Ilia gazed at the rows upon rows of Pharros contraptions, strange agape faces that would activate one thing or another when the corresponding stone was placed into the mouth. "Come to think of it, LoveGame… I've always wanted to explore this pit, ever since we first arrived… Figured it was just where everyone threw out their useless junk, but this… I'll be sure to chronicle it all when we hit the surface again."
The trio continued through the underground gravesite, mostly consisting of long hallways, narrow enough to force them into a single-file line. "This place was waiting for us the whole time, huh?" echoed LoveGame's voice along the walls. "Down we go, further still…" he sighed, spotting a ladder at the end of the first hallway.
Three thuds resounded through the corridor as each warrior slid down the ladder, leading to a mostly-identical hallway. As they took a few more steps forward, however, several more thuds followed. "Wait a moment!" exclaimed Vivi, grabbing LoveGame and Ilia by their arms and forcing them to turn around. What assailed them was a small pack of giant rats. Though they outnumbered the warriors, their bites did little to pierce their armor, and each of the hollowed animals was dispatched with little effort from the group. Ilia wiped her armor clean of any potential toxins and kicked the rats' bodies to the side.
The remainder of the second hallway was void of any activity, save for the Pharros contraptions casting their expressionless gaze on the heroes. After turning one last corner, they found themselves in a room full of praying rat statues that looked just a bit too realistic, unnervingly so. They were so great in number that the heroes could scarcely fit through the gaps. All three of them were reasonably puzzled, but before any of them could speak up about it, more undead rats began to fill the curious room. Some emerging from holes in the wall, others descending from the ceiling, until it was flooded with the giant vermin.
Reacting quickly, LoveGame and Ilia both drew their straight swords and began to slash at the veritable sea of rats as they converged on the warriors. Some of their strikes hit the mark, but many of their slashes went right over their quadrupedal foes. Even worse was the statues, which caused their swords to ricochet when struck by a wide swing. As he watched his cohorts struggle against the growing mob, Vivi sighed to himself.
"Are these rats the only thing down here? How incredibly bland… I choose to follow these two swordsmen, and look at them. Using the same style no matter the foe. Complacency makes me sick."
He gripped his Sunset Staff with both hands and channeled dark energy through it, the gyroscope at the top spinning wildly and erratically in response. Under his iron mask, the wizard was grinning in triumph. The tip of the staff began to rapidly spew hexen bolts, which spread out as they flew further. The sheer amount of area they covered ensured that not a single rat would come close to reaching Vivi, each bolt claiming one of their lives. LoveGame and Ilia watched in awe as they were mowed down by the dark hail.
Having never seen Vivi perform this attack, LoveGame questioned him. "The hell kind of spell is that?!"
"Something lovely I picked up on my little excursion a while back. I've named it the Dark Hail!", shouted the wizard as he continued to lay out an ocean of rodents.
"I thought you didn't find anything useful back there!" LoveGame said, confused.
Vivi scoffed. "…and I thought you said magic was cheap."
The spells eventually drained the staff, its gray aura fizzling out slowly until it was no more. "That's all she's got. Make yourselves useful and waste these filthy creatures!"
As Vivi's voice echoed through the grave, one more rat tumbled down to face them. This one was slightly larger and sported a prominent mohawk running all down its back. Evidently however, it wasn't much stronger, as LoveGame switched to his tried-and-true Smelter Sword and flattened the rat with one crushing blow from the molten hunk of metal. With the demise of this odd rat, the remaining few all scurried back into the holes, and once again, the grave was eerily silent.
"Damn, where they goin'?!" LoveGame asked himself. "I wanted to steal that guy's look…"
Ilia gave her typical eye roll, still confounded that her friend was interested in such trivialities after all their time together. "You already stole their stench, it seems. Anyhow, nevermind that. We can get through the opening now."
She pointed toward a very manmade-looking doorway that lead even further into the grave. The wall was packed with human skeletons and rat corpses alike. They proceeded through it, wading uncomfortably through the corpses, until they found yet another drop-off created by a hole in the floor near one of the abnormally large skeletons. The room below, or what they could see of it, was round and spacious. Lining its wall were rows upon rows of coffins from top to bottom. Some were half-pulled from their slots and awkwardly jutting out.
"Whoa! You're tellin' me this place goes even further down?!" said LoveGame in partial disbelief. "Whoever built this place… I think they dug too deep!"
Peering down at the displaced coffins, Vivi lightly elbowed LoveGame in his exposed chest. "LoveGame… can you tell what I'm thinking?" asked the wizard, waggling the finger that had his cat ring wrapped around it.
One by one, the heroes bounded down the pit, hoping it wasn't too disrespectful to use the saints' resting places as makeshift platforms, until they reached something a little more practical – a series of ladders that descended wooden scaffolding. At the bottom was a dirt floor with a single hole in the rock wall.
"Huh. At least it's fairly straightforward." mused Vivi as they strolled into the darkness ahead. "Honestly, LoveGame… I can't fathom what you were afraid of. Light opposition and a few leaps of faith here and there…"
Just then, a projectile of green slime fired from an unknown source and narrowly missed LoveGame. He yelped in terror and ducked. "See?! What'd I tell ya, snipers! This place's crawling with 'em!"
Curious, Ilia let her eyes adjust to the darkness and peered further ahead. The source of the poison appeared to be a cluster of bizarre, peanut-shaped statues with crude faces. She quickly smashed them all in two with a few strikes from her red kiteshield. "See? Nothing to get so jumpy about. Betcha you'd have a hell of a good time smashing these things with the Smelter, eh LoveGame?" she remarked with a light laugh.
"Still…" Vivi said in a more careful tone, "…We should take great care to break any of these statues we find. More likely than not, someone placed them here as sentries. Friends, I think it's safe to say we're further down than any undead was ever intended to go."
The Gutter
Did you ever think to yourself about where all your trash ends up when you discard it? For those who sought a life in Drangleic, the answer was The Gutter, a myriad of shoddy wooden huts and towers just waiting to snap to pieces. Everything that was unwanted was to inevitably end up here, to be forgotten by history. Those who ventured all the way down here were quick to understand why it should've stayed that way.
When the trio took their first steps into The Gutter, the rotten wood beneath them gave in under the weight of three armored warriors, and they tumbled below, only to be caught by more scaffolding thankfully enough.
"Let's make some tracks, you two. I'm gettin' real sick of fallin' on my ass today… man, I can't see shit down here!" exclaimed the wayward knight, trying to get his eyes to adjust, but to little avail. "Say, Ilia. Be a saint and give us some light, wouldja?"
Although she was less than thrilled with the concept of taking orders from LoveGame, Ilia echoed the sentiment – aside from a few torch sconces that dotted the other makeshift buildings in the distance, she could scarcely see her hand in front of her face. "Comin' right up, my honorable knight." she said with extreme sarcasm as she produced a flame butterfly from her bag, broke the jar open, and lit a torch.
The immediate area was quickly illuminated in the orange-and-yellow glow. Save for some chips in the wood and uneven edges, the platform they stood on was nearly a perfect square. However, that wasn't what LoveGame and Vivi were focusing their gaze on. Vast rock walls surrounded the makeshift town, and they were oozing, flowing, and dripping in their entirety with a strange sludge. A mix of sickly greens and vomit-inducing browns flowed down the walls in an eerily consistent manner, like a viscous waterfall of all things unsanitary. Neither of the warriors cared to ponder upon what the foul slime might actually be.
Vivi dry heaved, and him and LoveGame both fell silent. Ilia, who was a few paces behind the two, tilted her head. "You two okay? Still can't see? I'll get close-"
Vivi spoke in a deadly serious manner. "We can see just fine."
"Yeah… we can… can you put that out now?" added LoveGame, as though he were shaken to the core. Ilia didn't take long to understand what warranted their reaction. She kept the torch lit nonetheless, but tried to avert her eyes from the crawling walls, opting instead to head further down into the rickety excuses for buildings. The torch's warm glow revealed what looked to be… beds. Crude, makeshift beds laid out with animal hide or some other tarp.
Ilia couldn't help but cringe. "Oh gods… The thought of people actually… living? Down here? I would tell myself not to think about it… but this needs to be documented." Everything she'd faced before coming to this cursed kingdom was child's play. She wondered if it was better experience than LoveGame and Vivi, who had faced Drangleic as their first real trial.
Her concentration was broken as LoveGame snapped her out of her deep thought with an excited yell. Seeing no other way to advance, he'd taken a huge leap to the lower level, surrounded by a perfect circle of lit torch sconces. "This way, slowpokes! Shake out those legs; it's quite the jump!" shouted the knight from below.
The trio of warriors continued to make their way through the poisonous dumping ground, destroying more of those strange totems, lighting their path with torches, and descending half-broken ladders. Like the Grave, the opposition they faced here was almost laughably light – just the occasional, emaciated hollow clothed in the most rudimentary of rags. Save for a few of them having deceptively strong attacks thanks to their dark-infused weapons, there was little to impede their journey here.
Their only notable discovery, in fact, was the giant corrosive ant queen. Ilia theorized that whoever was using it for producing corrosive urns and anti-poison remedies had long since discarded the colossal insect down here, it having outlived its usefulness. Such a thought briefly saddened the knightess, but she didn't spend much time dwelling on it. As far as the heroes descended, they had found no worthwhile treasure, no useful supplies, and most importantly, no fourth Great Soul.
After carefully navigating an intricate network of ladders, some of which dropped into the abyss below, they had reached the bottom at last. Waiting for them was a conspicuously-placed large pile of lifegems – at least twenty – which LoveGame didn't hesitate to scoop up. As he turned his head back up, he was met with a row of dormant poison totems. The sludge-covered walls were now dry, and had traded their sickly verdant hue for one that was unnaturally neon-green. At this point, it was the only thing providing any light, perhaps to atone for what was soon to come.
Black Gulch
In the deepest recesses of Drangleic lay the Black Gulch. Its name was an interesting choice, as bright-green veins ran along its stone surfaces, likely due to the toxic ooze that seemed ever-present here. Perhaps 'Green Gulch' didn't encourage as many unsuspecting explorers to turn back. Creatures not meant for the eyes of man lurked here, thriving in poison and murk. Some chroniclers even cited Black Gulch as a place of refuge for those who fought in the Human-Giant War, but this has always remained a point of contention…
LoveGame gave an annoyed, loud grumble at the sight of even more poisonous statues, this time lined end-to-end on a mostly straight path leading to a familiar sight – a frothing wall of mist. "Wow! Y'think whoever made these left enough of 'em?!" asked the knight rhetorically.
"Heh, you're starting to sound like your old King, LoveGame!" said Ilia, trying to lighten the mood. "There was nothing you could do, right?"
Vivi crossed his arms in contempt. "No, he's right. I think I've finally decided upon what I hate the most… those fucking totems. If I ever meet the rotten fool who crafted them, he won't have time to explain himself."
"Right, well… If I'm gonna keep bustin' 'em down, this shield of mine's gonna need a few repairs." LoveGame propped his prized Dragonrider Greatshield against the cavern wall and rummaged through his supplies for repair powder. "I suggest you guys do the same. I'm not breakin' every one of these myself, y'know."
Both of LoveGame's companions took his advice and performed some routine maintenance on their gear, Vivi doing so with great enthusiasm as he relished the thought of destroying more of those vile things. As LoveGame was running his palm across the smooth, ornate surface of his shield, he heard a booming voice from someone deeper within the Gulch.
"Show yourself, challenger! I'm going to make this quick! Don't struggle too much, now! I've a promise to keep to a dear friend."
The voice carried a great deal of authority. It sounded familiar to the wayward knight, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it until he laid eyes on its source – a warrior clad in silvery-white.
"Whuh? Asmundr? Err, long time no see and all, but what kinda suicidal idiot comes here willingly?!" inquired a confused LoveGame.
The ancient tactician scratched the back of his head. "Oh, man… You're my last one? I might as well forfeit now… I'm fucked!"
Vivi shrugged at Ilia. Understanding what he meant, Ilia cleared up his confusion. "Friend of LoveGame's, apparently. Just as strong, just as dumb…"
"Hold up, pal! What are you going on about now?" LoveGame asked, still not following Asmundr completely.
"Dumbass, don't you get it?! You're my last mark. One more victory in the name of the Brotherhood of Blood, and I shall obtain my aura, the highest honor. Though… heh heh, I didn't think my opponent would be THE Knight LoveGame himself." He said, stretching his legs. Noticing that LoveGame flinched a little, he clarified, "Oh, it's just a duel, bro. I'm not actually gonna kill you! From the looks of it, you and your buddies have come too far as it is. If you're all the way down here… I'd wager you're after the bearer of the fourth Great Soul! I hear that guy's a complete asshole… but what would I know?"
Picking his shield back up and gripping it, LoveGame was still a bit apprehensive. "A… a duel? Okay, sure. But… How do you know it's supposed to be against me, bro?"
Asmundr laughed heartily. "Why, it's simple! Nahr Alma, God of Blood guided me here! He told me that my final opponent would be here, so I left immediately! Now, draw your weapon, LoveGame!" he shouted, readying two of his own longswords.
Wasting no time getting to the point, Asmundr rushed LoveGame with the blades, opting for the lightning and magic variants. The knight in black deftly sidestepped his friend's rushdown as twin trails of aethereal blue and electric yellow followed in his wake. As if he expected this, Asmundr sprinted halfway up the green-veined surface of the wall in an almost weightless motion and kicked off of it, performing a flying dual slash toward LoveGame. He raised his greatshield and bashed Asmundr's entire body to the side, but he effortlessly landed back on his feet with a stylish flip. Both swordsmen went on the offensive, charging each other with a blinding series of attacks. LoveGame stuck to his preferred thrusting stabs, clashing against Asmundr's articulate dance of cross-slashes.
Ilia and Vivi watched in awe from a safe distance, the latter remarking to himself, "Fascinating… I've never seen two normal humans move like this…"
Indeed, their eyes almost struggled to follow each intricate series of well-placed strikes, each one appearing as a lustrous flash of lights.
A few of LoveGame's thrusts managed to sneak past the small crevices in Asmundr's silver armor, while his own armor failed to resist the tactician's elemental infusions. In an attempt to get some breathing room in the fight, LoveGame raised his greatshield. All in the blink of an eye, Asmundr took the opening and, with his entire right arm, knocked away the mighty shield, sending LoveGame into a stagger as though he'd had the wind knocked out of him. With a smirk, Asmundr pointed the sword in his right hand at LoveGame's throat, touching just light enough to avoid drawing blood. This would've been the killing blow, and thus Asmundr was declared the victor.
Ilia's mouth was agape. "Unbelievable… He managed to defeat LoveGame in just over thirty seconds!"
"I'll be damned, I s'pose I won. You've gotten a lot stronger, LoveGame!" Asmundr announced as he twirled both of his swords before sheathing them. "You rely on that greatshield way too much. Focus more on timing your blocks with each strike and attacking when their weapon bounces off."
"…Eh, sorry bro. I'm… not used to fighting other humans. Really, it's just one… and she's… a special case, but I think she means well…" responded the knight as he caught his breath. "Ohh!"
LoveGame took a step back as a rose mist began to emanate from Asmundr's body, spreading all over it until he was engulfed. The ancient tactician couldn't help but jump for joy. "At last, I've earned it! Nahr Alma smiles upon me this day! Thank you, LoveGame, for the exhilarating duel! It was the closest I'd had thus far… only fitting, if you ask me!"
Memories of LoveGame's showdown with the old Smelter Demon washed back to him. "…Yeah, bro. I thanked someone for a good fight once before, too… Haha, don't mind me, just getting a little nostalgic over here!"
Asmundr lifted his estus high in the air and said "To the glory of competition!", prompting LoveGame to lift his own as they made a toast. With a swig of the flask, the wounds from their duel quickly healed.
"Either way, if you're gonna press on, the monsters ahead… they might seem tough, but they have a fatal weakness. After trying everything, I concluded that they can't stand fire! It makes 'em writhe in place, if you can stand the disgusting sight. Oh! And they leave behind a ton of titanite. If you guys are lookin' to fortify your gear, make sure you slaughter each and every last one of 'em!" said Asmundr, doing his best to give advice. "Well… that's all I know. I've gotta head back to the Purgatory. Whoo, just wait til the Brotherhood sees me now!"
LoveGame gave a salute and a peace sign with his fingers. "Don't even think about goin' hollow on me, bruh. If you do, I'll have to whoop you good!"
"I wouldn't think of it! I do want another duel one day, LoveGame. Stay gold." With that, the ancient tactician produced another homeward bone and vanished in an instant.
Ilia sighed. "Those two… they should just fuck already!" she said with a snicker. "Still… now, there's no doubt in my mind that those two are the strongest humans alive…"
"Debatable." remarked Vivi. "I analyzed their entire battle, and now I'm going to apply it to my own efforts. Let's get to statue-breaking!"
Mostly recovered, the trio of warriors continued along the poisonous path, disarming each stone totem as they advanced. They reached a pit of black tar, and from deep within it sprung what they assumed were some of the creatures Asmundr mentioned. They had the distinct appearance of hands. Five-fingered, severed hands slithering on the tendons of a tar-coated arm and a writhing eyeball in the center of the palm.
"Careful about these things!" warned LoveGame, raising the Smelter Sword. "Don't get grabbed, they might drag you all the way back to the entrance!"
Like the tactician told them, these hand creatures were easily dealt with using the fire from LoveGame's greatsword, and against three capable heroes, were more of an eyesore than a real threat. The trio continued even further, dispatching more black tar hands along with some overgrown cave worms that tunneled out of the walls, collecting the ore they left behind for later use. As the last monster fizzled into ashes, the wall of mist was upon them.
Ilia performed a stretch. "You guys know the drill by now, right? Something biiig and scaaary is gonna be behind this, probably won't like us very much?
LoveGame and Vivi nodded and proceeded through the fog, weapons at the ready. What they were greeted with sickened them far more than the oozing walls of The Gutter. What appeared to be an inanimate pile of bodies was moving. Every last one was very much alive and bound together by leather straps and steel bindings of some sort. It even had… arms. Or something resembling arms, with legs for fingers. It was lurking near the other end of the room – which itself was halfway on fire, appearing to fasten stone heads onto crude bodies. It was… building more of those poison-spitting totems. This quickly enraged Vivi beyond his breaking point. He readied his staff and bellowed, "Oh, that's it! This is the… guy who made all of those fucking statues?! Oh, friend, there won't be enough left of you to fill a teaspoon!"
The mass of flesh apparently didn't take kindly to threats, as it turned around, revealing itself further in the light of the flames. It had a vaguely humanoid shape, or rather one of a rotund human torso with what could barely pass as a head. It drew a machete large enough to dwarf any of its opponents, advanced toward them with an unnatural motion made by the bottom 'layer' of bodies crawling that made it appear to glide along the ground, and let out a fearsome roar bolstered by dark energy.
Immediately it began to wildly flail the great butcher's knife, the bodies evidently still vying for control of the mass. All three heroes too evasive maneuvers.
"Vivi! This guy's fat as fuck! Use that one spell on 'em again, you can't miss!" called out LoveGame, circle strafing the abomination in an attempt to attack its back.
The wizard dug his staff into the ground with extra enthusiasm as it glowed to life. "LoveGame, you don't have to tell me… He's already dead!" With that announcement, Vivi began to cast his dark hail straight at the beast, but it hardly flinched at the hexen assault. The bodies tensed themselves up and released it all back out as a surge of dark energy, causing LoveGame to get launched backwards into the fire. He jumped out before it could breach his armor's defenses and screeched in pain.
"No way, he's dark- resistant?! Of all the times to be me!" Vivi lamented.
Meanwhile, LoveGame continued his assault at the rotten mass, destroying bodies one-by-one. As each body perished, a new one emerged from the collective to take its place. "No good on my end, either. I can't keep these things down!"
Ilia gave a very disapproving sigh. "You boys… are so complacent. Using the same attacks no matter what we face. It'll only carry you so far, y'know. Besides, you didn't think I was gonna let you steal the spotlight for long, didja? Let me show you!" Her crimson longsword gave a low-pitched hum as it glowed a vibrant red. The Lord Protector made a bounding leap towards the mass of hollows and performed her special attack, severing its 'arm' in an instant.
"Why, Ilia…" said Vivi menacingly, "Tell me, does channeling your white-hot hatred into your attacks count as something different?" He put all his focus into another volley of dark hail. It still did little to damage the monstrosity, but the spell did cause it to stagger in place, already in some pain from the loss of an arm.
Ilia's sword hummed to life once more, this time relieving the rotten of its sword arm. With no hesitation, one final cleave caused the head to hit the ground with a deep thud, and the great soul bearer fell apart into individual bodies, each one fading into the aether until they had been excised from this world.
The blonde knightess put her weapons away on her back dusted her gauntlets off with a smile. "Let's see, that's… four of four, isn't it? Yeah, I've still got it. I could almost get used to this!" She turned her attention to LoveGame and Vivi celebrating, parading and laughing with their arms hooked together and an estus in their other hands. "…'almost' being the key word here."
The journey had been arduous. The wayward knight had been tested in ways he could never have fathomed, but at last, he had fulfilled the request of the Emerald Herald. Each bearer had been slain, their Great Souls within the knight's possession as proof of the deed. After the celebration was over, Ilia presented her companion with the final soul, and the three stalwart heroes lit the final primal bonfire, warping them once again to the place they had become accustomed to as home for their final preparations. Indeed, the journey was far from over. With no sign of King Vendrick as of yet, and Castle Drangleic still looming over them, it was clear that the final leg of their journey would forge them into something more than mere hollows. ~