"That does explain a lot… Especially what Oswald said. All that death, all of that anger and hatred. How do you carry on?" Xren asked.
"You see how I do it. I try to stay calm and focus on the present, but the world always finds a way to bring up my past again," Orion explained.
"Like me…" Azuron said.
"Yes, however, I have noticed you are not like Artorias. You have yet to show his poor sense of trust and loyalty. I still see that mark as heresy, but not the one wearing it so much anymore."
Azuron clutched a fist at the insult, but knew Orion was trying to compliment him in his own way.
"At least he tried…" Azuron thought.
"If you needed your journal so much to use your spells, how do you go about not using it now?" Dextrous asked.
Orion reached behind his back, unlatched a small book, and slightly waved it side to side.
"I have been rewriting them as I get the full spells again. I could only remember half of the incantation at best, so I have been studying the rest. I have already memorized what I have in here, so I don't use it in the field anymore," Orion explained.
Orion suddenly remembered the scroll with Yulva's spell on it. He jotted the spell into his journal, and began mumbling the words to himself as he did. The area became very quiet as Orion mumbled away.
"Does anyone else feel like they are being watched?" Xren said, breaking the silence.
"I have the same feeling," Dextrous agreed.
"Same for me," Azuron agreed.
"We should have a look around then," Orion said, finishing his entry.
The group stood up, and began up the rear stairs past the man in chainmail.
"Oi, did you hear about the maiden?" he asked.
"Who?" Xren asked.
"That virtuous little maiden, complete with followers in tow. They're probably going straight to pillage graves. I've heard enough 'M'Lady' for a lifetime, and that's just one of the new problems!"
"New problems?" Orion asked.
"I assume it was you who rang the second bell? Incredible, but our new problem is in the next room. It's noisy, it snores, and it's breath is lethal… This is no laughing matter I tell you."
"Come to think of it, there is a new aroma here…" Azuron said.
"Damn that stench… I was just beginning to like it here too. Maybe it's time I do something about it…" the man in chainmail said with a sigh.
The group walked past the moping man and continued up the steps. Upon reaching the top, the group was met by a massive serpent-like monster sitting in what used to be the small pool of water. It was staring directly at the group with a giant toothy grin on its face.
"What is that thing?" Xren whispered.
"Let's find out," Orion said, withdrawing his new spear.
"There is no need for such violence," the serpent said in a deep voice.
Everyone slowly advanced through the stone arch to the massive serpent.
"Was it you who rang the Bell of Awakening?"
Everyone slowly nodded, feeling a tad intimidated by the serpent's massive grin.
"I am Kingseeker Frampt, a close friend of the Great Lord Gwyn."
Everyone tensed up at the mention of the well familiar name, and the foretold lethal bad breath smell.
"Chosen Undead, I wish but to elucidate your fate. Do you seek such enlightenment?"
"Sure, can't be anything worse than what has happened so far…" Orion answered, replacing his spear onto his back.
"Your fate… is to succeed The Great Lord Gwyn. So that you may link the fire, cast away the dark, and undo the curse of the Undead."
Everyone was frozen in shock as to what they just heard, unable to believe the fate in store for them.
"That's… impossible! How are we supposed to dethrone a practical god king and his army?!" Xren called.
"You must seek the Realm of Lords. Brave Sens Fortress, a deadly house of traps. Many have tried before you, none have returned. Fate has brought you together, fate has chosen you."
The group thought about the newfound information, as it wasn't just a small matter, but a matter that affected their lives and future.
"If we are supposed to do this, how are we supposed to overthrow such a figure?" Orion asked finally.
"You must acquire the Lordvessel and face your future, only then will you be ready to answer that question," Frampt replied.
"Brave a house of traps, face our future, conquer stuff, doesn't sound too bad to me. Especially with all four of us," Xren said, trying to make the situation seem more positive.
"Okay, we will do it. Which direction to Sens Fortress?" Orion asked, receiving a nod from Azuron and Dextrous.
"It is past the Undead Parish, across a bridge above the forest."
"Sounds like Andre's area, maybe he can point us in the right direction," Dextrous said.
The group turned to leave, but were stopped by Frampt.
"Chosen Cleric, wait," he said.
Xren turned around to face the serpent.
"What is that delicious smell on your person?"
Frampt leaned down to Xren, being frightfully larger than expected as he got closer. He inhaled deeply as he hovered over the foul pouch Xren decided to keep.
"That! What is in that pouch? It smells… intoxicating."
Xren glanced back to his group with a face of disgust, getting only a couple shrugs in response.
"Are you sure you want it so badly?" Xren asked the serpent.
Frampt gave a nod.
Xren untied the pouch and tossed it onto the floor in front of Frampt's pit, landing with a squishy plop. Frampt proceeded to lean down, take a deep breath, and eat the pouch. Everyone suddenly wore an expression of sheer horror as the serpent actually enjoyed what was in it. Frampt gave a few souls for the gift, directly to Xren's crystal.
"If you find anything you wish to throw away, bring it here and I will exchange souls for it. Especially those delicious pies," Frampt said.
Everyone nauseously left Frampt's area and back down the stairs, only to find Laurentius sitting in a small patch of grass.
"Ha, that explains the bad breath," Xren said, trying to hold his stomach together.
"Well, I see you made it out! Yeah, I made it out safely, too. I have my Pyromancy of the Great Swamp, so I can usually manage, with a bit of care," he said.
"Good to hear," Orion said.
"What is this 'pyromancy' you have? If you don't mind me asking," Azuron asked.
"It is a different type of magic you see, one of the fire element. I can teach you, should you wish, all you need are the right materials. Unless you find magic unsavory?"
"No, all of us study one class of magic or another…"
"With the exception of me, who was never gifted in the art," Dextrous interrupted.
"Nonsense, anyone can learn pyromancy, that is the wonderful part about it. There are so many different forms and uses as well," Laurentius said.
He withdrew a glove, which had a flat rune engraved orange stone on the back of it, and gave it to Dextrous.
"Put this on. You can either wear it under your current glove, or in lue of it."
Dextrous removed his right leather glove, situated the new one on, and replaced his old one.
"Now concentrate, pyromancy is linked to its caster. It is a primitive magic tied to nature herself, and anyone close to her. A pyromancy flame is part of your body, your soul, and will develop right along side you."
Destrous held out and focused on his right hand.
"Think he can do it? Since he hasn't studied any of the classes of magic," Orion asked Xren.
"I'm not sure, Laurentius said it is tied to nature, and he is the most tuned to it of all of us," Xren replied.
"I was thinking the same thing, so what does that mean for the rest of us?"
Before Xren could answer, Dextrous' open hand began to shine with a dull orange glow. Before everyone's eyes, a tiny flame ignited from his palm.
"Great, now channel that pilot flame into a small ball of fire," Laurentius said.
Dextrous imagined a larger ball of fire, and channeled the image to his hand. The small flame began to expand and grow larger. It soon became very hot as it just sat in his hand.
"Toss it!"
Dextrous threw the fireball as hard as he could, which sailed over Frampt's area and into the graveyard. A faint explosion sounded the landing of the fireball.
"Amazing for your first try! You are a natural at pyromancy. I have a few more scrolls if you wish to broaden your knowledge."
"I would, now that I can use magic, I will learn all I can!" Dextrous called excitedly.
Laurentius sold Dextrous a few pyromancy pages he had already learned. Meanwhile, a billow of smoke began rising from the graveyard.
"Was that smoke always there, or did Dextrous set the graveyard on fire?" Orion asked.
Everyone, Laurentius included, turned to see the black cloud coming from over the ruins.
"I didn't do it…" Dextrous said.
"We need to get down there and see what is going on."
Orion, Azuron, and Xren ran past Frampt and to the graveyard.
"Thanks Laurentius, I will be sure to drop by if I need anymore training!" Dextrous called, and went after the group.
He arrived to see a single tree engulfed in flames.
"You idiot, you managed to hit one of the only trees in the entire area. Now we need to put this out before it spreads," Orion said.
"I didn't know, how could I have known?!"
"We need to just knock the tree down and over the ledge. Problem solved," Xren said.
They reached the bottom of the steps and headed towards the burning tree on the opposite end of the graveyard. Xren and Azuron withdrew their respective catalysts and began carving away the tree's trunk with magic. Orion was about to fire a spell off, but instead of coming from his catalyst it came from the end of his spear. He put his catalyst away, and tried it again, which yielded the same result.
"Yulva, you are amazing…" Orion mumbled.
Not long after, a rustling came from behind them. The magic stopped, and everyone turned to see the once again risen skeleton army.
"How did they come back?! Where did they come back from?!" Xren called.
"Dextrous, you and Azuron hold them off, Xren and I will finish this tree," Orion called.
Within five minutes, the tree's trunk exploded with one last lightning bolt, causing the tree to fall off the cliff. The duo went to help the others, but noticed nothing but a large pile of bones.
"About time you finished, we have been done for a bit. Not as many as before," Azuron joked.
Orion rolled his eyes, and noticed a small path that was hiding behind where the tree used to be.
"Did anyone notice this path here before?" he asked.
The rest of the group gathered around, looking at a sketchy path that led below the graveyard.
"We should see where it leads, being hidden like it was means it has something to hide," Xren said, and began down the path.
"What about Sens? Isn't that where we need to go?" Azuron asked.
"What's a little exploring going to hurt?"
With that, Xren was gone below the ledge of earth that overhung the path.
"Ugh, let's follow him, might as well." Orion sighed and headed down behind the cleric.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Dextrous said.
They descended into a brick covered passageway, with the natural light fading as they did. Soon there was no natural light remaining, and only their crystal glow to light the way.
"I don't like it down here, it's far too dark," Dextrous said.
The brick tunnel ended at a stairwell heading downwards into more darkness.
"What are those?" Xren asked, pointing at floating glowing orbs of light.
"It's too dark to see my notes, so I'm not sure," Azuron said.
Upon stepping down the steps, all three glowing orbs began to float towards the group. Suddenly a skeleton appeared from the darkness and rushed Xren, who was in front. As Xren defended, Orion was jabbing at the skeleton from behind him. They failed to notice one of the glowing orbs was on the stairs.
"That's not an orb, that's a head!" Xren called.
The glowing head started to shake and its glow became blindingly bright.
"Back up!" Xren called, parrying the skeleton.
Everyone backed up quickly, just in time to see the head explode, shattering the skeleton into pieces and sending the pieces everywhere. Everyone held up a shield to deflect the incoming bone shrapnel.
"Note to self, floating glowing heads explode…" Azuron said.
They noticed two more floating over a chasm beside the stairs.
"I say we run for it," Dextrous said.
"Agreed," replied Orion.
"One… two… go!" Xren called.
The group made a break for the opening opposite the stairs. The heads caught a glimpse of them, and began pursuit. The heads caught up quickly, but had to stop to detonate, with only the shockwave hitting the group. Once through the doorway, they were met with more skeletons. Azuron and Xren took them out with ease, with their heavy weaponry knocking limbs off.
"These are too easy," Xren laughed.
They made it a few steps before Orion stopped.
"Why are you stopping?"
"Didn't we get a few souls for killing the skeletons up top?" he asked.
"Yeah. Come to think of it, we didn't get any just there did we?" Azuron said.
They turned around to see the three skeletons they just "killed" putting themselves back together.
"I withdraw my statement…" Xren said with a sigh.
They fought the same group again, with the same result.
"Just run!" Dextrous called.
Everyone made a break for the next door. They soon came across a ladder, which led them into another skeleton infested room.
"To the left! There is a light inside the hole in the wall over there!" Xren called.
Everyone ran inside the crumbling wall, only to find a bonfire being guarded by an Undead with a shrunken head. The Undead fired a fireball from the head, which missed terribly. Xren bashed it on the head with his mace, killing it instantly. The distinct sound of rattling bones was coming closer as the skeleton hoard they ran past closed in.
"We are cornered in here!" Orion called.
"I'm at least going to go down swinging!" Xren called.
The hoard emerged from the hole and flooded the room. Within seconds of aimless swinging and slashing, the group killed everything. A large burst of white flowed from the pile of bones, and everything went silent.
"Are they dead? Did we kill them this time?" Xren asked, kicking a skull across the room.
"I think I understand it. The Undead we killed must have been some kind of necromancer or such," Azuron said.
"I thought that was a lost and forbidden dark magic," Orion said.
"Apparently not."
Everyone lit the bonfire and gathered around.
"Do we want to keep going? Now that we know what we are up against?" Dextrous said.
"Why not? Who knows what will be at the bottom," Xren answered.
"First, what is this thing?" Orion asked, examining a stone pillar with a pulled out lever.
He pushed the lever in, and a series of grinding gears followed. The wall behind the device seemed to move downwards as if the floor above was sinking.
"What did you do now?" Azuron asked.
Orion shrugged, and headed out of the cave to investigate. A newly opened wall showed the way onwards into a sunlit cave. Everyone continued inside past some strange statues, and onto a moss covered floor. Within seconds of entering, another poorly aimed fireball flew past them from across the room. Dextrous saw the necromancer, and promptly put a few arrows into its head. They continued onwards, killing multiple skeletons along the way. They soon came into another room with multiple smaller ones attached. Upon finding their way out of the maze-like tunnels, it exited into the sunlit cave once more. Across a spike covered walkway sat two skeletons guarding another necromancer.
"Watch this," Dextrous grinned.
He shot an arrow into the necromancer's leg, and as it recoiled downwards, he revealed its face from under the doorway. Dextrous quickly fired another arrow into its face, killing it instantly.
"My sneak attacks actually hit their mark," he laughed.
"Sorry to spoil the mood, but we have more glowing heads," Azuron said, gesturing to the right pathway.
"Should we run for it?" Xren asked.
"I have an idea," Orion said.
He walked outside, got the attention of a glowing head, and ran towards it.
"Are you crazy?!" Xren called.
Once the head began to shake, Orion ran away, effectively setting it off with minimal effort.
"That is how we need to deal with them. Get close enough for them to think they can get you, then run away."
"Clever," Azuron said.
Orion baited the last two to explode, accidently taking out a few skeletons in the explosions. On his way back to the group, he passed a statue on the side of the path. Three spikes came out of the statue, with one grazing his shoulder plate, leg plate, and the back of his shield as he walked by. He jumped back and watched the spikes retract back into their statue.
"Are you alright?" Xren called from down the path.
"I'm fine, but watch the statues, they are traps! That would have been lethal if not for my armor!" Orion called back.
He continued down the path and found another lever, which he pushed in. The spike covered path rotated, revealing the way onwards. They cleared out more skeletons as they descended another spiral staircase. At the bottom sat another necromancer, which Xren took out with a single lightning bolt. Inside the room it was guarding sat a third lever, which opened a door above them. They passed through the door, and back into the sunlit cave. They came across another turned walkway, but as they walked away, it rotated back. Instead of crossing it, however, they headed left towards a wall with a ladder beside it. Xren, Orion, and Azuron headed up the ladder, only to find a bald man standing beside another lever. Dextrous sat examining the odd wall beside the ladder.
"Good day! You look reasonably sane! What are you lot doing in the Catacombs? Are you clerics or something?" he asked.
"I am, why do you ask?" Xren replied.
"I imagined as much. Good luck on your pilgrimage and such, or whatever it is you do. Be careful though, this place is dangerous. Do watch our step…" he trailed off with a deep, crazed laugh.
The trio slowly descended down the ladder once more, leaving the man to his eerie laugh.
"Xren, could you give this wall here a good strong hit?" Dextrous said once they arrived.
"Okay, but why?" he replied.
"It looks like a doorway was covered in a thin layer of stone and dirt. See the brick outline?" Dextrous gestured to the wall.
Xren wound up a heavy hit, and hit the wall with all his might. Instead of the wall crumbling, it merely vanished, and Xren's momentum sent him staggering forward and onto the floor.
"An illusion wall. Interesting," Orion observed.
Meanwhile, Dextrous was laughing at Xren.
"Not funny, I bet you knew it would do that!" Xren called, getting back onto his feet.
"I swear I did not, but it sure was funny."
Behind the wall was a tall staircase with a bonfire at the top, which was lit and left. The group now decided to head across the newly turned pathway. When they were halfway across, a sound of turning gears echoed through the cave. The path slowly began to shift and rumble.
"Run!" Orion called.
Everyone managed to make the run across, except for Dextrous, who was at the back.
"Jump Dextrous!"
Dextrous jumped and reached his bow towards the waiting group. Orion grabbed the bow, Xren grabbed him, and Azuron caught Dextrous' free hand. The three hoisted the archer up and onto the small platform.
"What happened?" Dextrous huffed.
The bald man's maniacal laugh echoed through the caves.
"That snake. He tried to kill us!" Orion called.
"Looks like the only way onwards is through this fog…" Azuron said.
He took a deep breath, expecting the worst, and walked through. Instead of staying, it vanished, and everyone let a sigh of relief. Suddenly from above, a fireball hit a direct hit on Azuron's shield. He quickly raised it in response and fired a few Soul Arrows at the necromancer. All of the commotion woke numerous skeletons in the room. In the crossfire, Azuron took out a wall in a backswing, revealing a hidden room. Everyone decided to explore the hidden room before continuing onwards. Inside were a few skeleton archers, which were easily taken out, as well as a few with shields. One by one the group descended the rocks along the wall and came to a room with a large statue in the back and sarcophagus in front of it. As Xren approached it, a giant skeleton dropped from the ceiling, almost crushing him. Xren dove into a side doorway, which was then covered by the falling debris. He heard clashing metal, but could do nothing to move the rocks.
"I'm going to find another way around!" he shouted, unsure if the rest could hear him.
He ran through the twisting and turning tunnels, and came upon a ladder. He ascended the ladder, only to arrive in a small room with a dead Hollow clutching a scroll. He pried the scroll from its hands, and looked it over. It appeared to be a miracle foreign to his teachings, something he has never seen the likes of before.
"Tranquil walk of peace, interesting."
He put the scroll in his pouch, and went back down the ladder. He soon found the opening in which the necromancer was standing, and the rest of the group below.
"Up here!" Xren called down.
"What happened to you? You vanished on us," Dextrous said.
"I got trapped in another cave. Find anything in that sarcophagus?"
"We found a ring, but it doesn't appear to do anything," Azuron said, disappointed.
"Oh well, let's keep going then."
They turned the corner to see a small army surrounded by more glowing heads off to the left.
"Really, why…" Xren sighed.
"Anyone else think they can jump this?" Dextrous asked, pointing to a broken ledge.
Everyone nodded, and decided to hop the ledge instead of having to fight the horde of skeletons. They arrived in a long hallway surrounded by sarcophagi on all sides. At the end of the walkway stood a large figure with red eyes.
"What… is that?" Orion asked, pointing to the figure.
Once they got closer, they noticed it was a giant skeleton wielding a massive scythe in its right hand, and its left was on fire. Instead of being bare, a ragged solid black cloak covered most of its body, and a hood covered its face.
"I don't like the looks of this…" Xren said.
Small wisps of black fire ignited along the corridor, slightly lighting the entire area. The Reaper let out a deafening screech, and dashed for the group. The thing was surprisingly fast, using quick slashing and sweeping strikes that covered most of the thin hallway. Orion barely dodged a scythe swing, running into a sarcophagus in the process. He retaliated with a full barrage of magic, followed by a few useless jabs that went straight through the cloak and nothing more.
"I can't seem to hit anything with my spear! All I can use is magic!" Orion called.
Azuron swept his blade at the Reaper's legs, but seemed to his nothing as well.
"Me either! It's like this thing is a ghost or something!" Azuron replied.
"You cannot kill Death!" the Reaper screeched in a ghostly tone.
"This thing can talk?! You can't be serious!" Dextrous said.
"I have an idea, buy me some time!" Xren called, falling back.
The Reaper swung its scythe, carving a gash out in the wall beside. The remainder of the group kept the thing busy while Xren worked on his plan. The Reaper began throwing black fireballs at the group, which became hard to dodge with the added scythe swings.
"We cannot kill Death, Death cannot kill something that is Undead. If I bless my mace with enough divine energy and use my brand to channel it, maybe…" Xren mumbled.
He rolled his right sleeve up, revealing a small black spiraled void on his upper arm. He began mumbling an incantation, resulting in his mace beginning to glow a dark red hue. His body slowly became less human and more Hollow-like as he imbused his weapon with Undead divine energy. Once the ritual was complete, his weapon was radiating in a black glow, but he was mostly Hollowed and his gem had half the glow it did before. He made his way back to the group to rejoin the fight and test his idea.
"Xren, what happened to you?!" Dextrous called, seeing him approach.
Xren walked past him, and drove his mace into the leg of the Reaper. A bone snapping crack echoed through the walls, followed by a screech. The Reaper engulfed Xren in black fire, attempting to kill him on the spot.
"Xren! No!"
Once the flames subsided, Xren was still standing.
"How!?" the Reaper called.
"I purged my humanity and all that makes me living. Death cannot claim that which is cursed and cannot die! Death's weakness is the Undead," Xren said, and took out the Reaper's other leg.
The Reaper fell to ground level, where Xren was ready with his mace. He held it in both hands, and brought it down on the Reaper's skull, shattering it into pieces.
"Death takes many forms… We will meet again…" the Reaper's voice whispered as the body vanished.
"Amazing work Xren! You… Xren?" Dextrous said, staring at the standstill cleric.
Xren turned around and slowly made his way towards the archer, mace still clutched in hand.
"Dextrous, watch out! He's too far Hollowed!" Orion called.
Xren charged the archer, swinging wildly through the air. Azuron ran to the cleric, and leapt onto his back and grabbed his arms.
"Someone dose him with a black sprite! Hurry! I can't hold on much more!" Azuron called as Xren was thrashing him around.
Dextrous withdrew a sprite from his crystal, held it, and smashed it into Xren's chest. The cleric dropped to his knees and Azuron let go. Within seconds, he returned to his human self.
"What… happened…" he mumbled.
"Whatever you did to that giant skeleton thing, never do that again," Dextrous said.
"What did I do? All I remember is fighting it, then everything going dark. Almost as if something took over my mind and body… and why does my arm burn?"
Nobody knew what to say, so no one did. To Xren, he was just knocked out during the fight.
"I am going to need to look into this. I remember reading something like this from the Archive all those years ago. What was it though…" Orion thought.
All things considered, they decided to continue onwards. Further through the Catacombs, they ran into more skeletons and a necromancer to match. They entered a large cave with more glowing heads. There was a new enemy inside, however, skeletons attached to spiked wooden wheels. As they stepped inside, three came blazing towards them. When Orion tried to block one, it continued to hit his shield until it broke his guard, in which it finally stopped. Azuron gave it a slash, and send bones flying.
"Do not block those things, your guard will not hold. I'm just glad mine did as long as it did…" Orion said examining the massive gashed that were worn in his shield.
"That is going to take a lot to repair…" he thought.
They slowly made their way through the cave, cautiously avoiding the heads and wheelies. At one point, Dextrous fired an arrow into an oncoming wheel, got it stuck in the skull, causing it to fall out and send the wheel into the wall. Another wheel ran the skull over and sent the wheel sailing into a glowing head, causing an explosion. That explosion set off two more, effectively killing half the room in one go.
"That was lucky…" Dextrous said, shocked.
"Haha, lucky or not, that was amazing," Xren laughed.
They continued until they hit a white giant fog door.
"Has to be something big. It has to be, it's been too far without something so far," Xren said.
"And that giant skeleton thing wasn't?" Azuron asked.
"Nothing that will give us a good chunk of souls."
"True. Everyone set?"
Nods replied, so everyone proceeded through. On the other side was a small stretch of ground before dropping down to an inner room. Upon dropping down, a strange creature was on the other side examining a skeleton on a stone table. It slowly turned around to reveal three masks and six pole-like arms with lanterns on the ends in a circular pattern. The masks looked as if they were talking to each other, then decided to attack. First it split into two separate targets, then each one fired a giant fireball at the group. Everyone split up and surrounded the foes. Xren ran in and hit the one closest to him, only to have it vanish under his hit.
"I hate these illusionary things in this place!" he called in frustration.
The Pinwheel split again into two targets.
"We have to hit them at the same time, only then will we know the real one!" Orion called.
The group split into two pairs, surrounding each Pinwheel. Azuron slashed the one he was by while Orion distracted it, making it vanish. Xren got a solid hit on the one he and Dextrous were targeting.
"This one!" he called.
"Keep your eye on that one, do not let it confuse you!" Azuron called.
As it split again, it became easy to track which was the real one. Not long after the Pinwheel began splitting into three, four, even five separate targets. While Orion and Xren attacked the real one, Dextrous and Azuron ran control on the illusions. Not long after, they killed the real Pinwheel.
"That was… really easy…" Orion said.
"I would hate to imagine doing that solo and unprepared though," Dextrous said.
"Indeed, what is that over there?" Azuron replied.
Where the Pinwheel died lay a large red ember hovering above one of the masks.
"What is that thing?" Dextrous asked.
"No idea, let's bring it back to Firelink and ask around. Someone has to know what it is."
"How do I look?" Xren asked, wearing the bronze colored mask.
"You look like an old man," Orion joked.
"Fine, but I'm keeping the mask."
Xren removed the mask and attached it to his belt for temporary storage.
"There is a ladder over here," Orion said, climbing up.
The rest followed up and onto the roof of the room they were in. Once they arrived, everything turned black. Not even the light of their crystals could cut through the darkness.
Orion fired a Soul Arrow, which traveled forward and vanished into the darkness.
"I say we head back to Firelink… That is, until we get something that can light our way in there, because I'm not going in there," Xren said.
"You were the one who wanted to come down here, too scared of the dark?" Orion joked.
"That much darkness, yes…"
"I agree, let's turn back and head out," Azuron agreed.
With that, everyone headed along the roof to find a way back the way they came. They found a cave that led to the wheel skeleton room, and followed that out.
It took a while to find their way back out, but eventually made it back out of the Catacombs and back to the Firelink bonfire. Everyone needed a good rest and a large amount of repairwork.
A/N: Back again! Sorry for the long disappearance. In all honesty I lost inspiration for a while, that and work has been really busy. Yes, the crew went a little off the normal beaten path, but it was worth the added spooky chapter perfect for the day. Anyway, I will continue to update this story, albeit not as regularly as usual, now that I have the next chunk planned out.
Regardless, I wish you all a spooky and fun HOLLOWeen!