Before I stand up to go again, I strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered and attune the Cast Light spell I got from Dusk, replacing my Fire Orb spell - I will need to get myself more power so I can have more spells on-hand, the souls I just used don't cut it. Back down the stairs and outside, I find a ladder embedded into a sheer stone wall to my left; up it, I find another lever, and pushing it in rotates the bridge. Again, I have to wonder, what's the point of having several of these? If the intention was to keep people out, why have the same thing twice? Anyone who's gotten this far would have to know the trick. With a sigh, I shrug it off, cross the bridge, and traverse the white light; on the way, down in a pit below, I see some floating heads.

On the other side of the white light, which dissipates behind me, is a dark passage with stairs leading down along a wall to a solid floor. There are three skeletons here, one of which manages to sneak up behind me and slash at me. After I smash one, the other two end up at the side of the steps with me halfway up; I jump down and smash them both with gravity aiding me, and both are annihilated. There's a simple doorway out of here, but to the right is a very weak-looking wall with bricks that aren't even lined up; I smash through it, and find myself being shot at with arrows. I have to climb the stairs to escape them, and a few moments later, I find myself being blasted by fire, so I have to run all the way back outside to take a moment and think. One of the fire-casters is working with skeletons to guard something. But what?

Regrouping, I run back in. The first skeleton is directly to my right, on a ledge just a little below the one I'm on formed by some crumbled stone - there isn't much floor to stand on past the wall I smashed. I hit it once, and it falls to the floor a ways below; I follow. There are two other skeletons down here, these with swords, but none are a bother - the bow-wielding skeleton even drops its short bow; more food for Frampt. Once they're all gone, I look around, and find some stairs; I climb these, wary of the statues here along the way that turn out not to be booby-trapped, and am soon met with a giant skeleton. I've never had to kill one of these with my Divine Morning Star before, and one hit on it costs me greatly. I run back, spot a ladder embedded in a wall, and climb up. The other skeleton with a bow is up here, and I stop to smash it; this ledge is higher than the one I came in on, and I try to jump down to the entrance, but I end up on the ledge below it where the first skeleton was. The giant skeleton is still raging below me, and this gives me an idea: I jump down weapon-first, using gravity to aid my swing, climb the ladder again, jump down on it again, and just like that, it's dead.

There is another ladder here, which I climb, expecting to find the fire-caster, but there's nothing up here except a way back out; I wonder where the fire-caster went? In any case, I climb back down to see what the giant skeleton was guarding. At the end of the passage is a stone coffin at the foot of another statue like the one the drake was guarding, with the lid slightly ajar; inside is a corpse wearing the Darkmoon Seance Ring, which can allow me to have more spells on hand without needing to strengthen myself with more souls. I can't remove Havel's Ring…but the blue tearstone ring, I guess, can go. I change rings, and can now have three spells on-hand. Of course, I'll have to go back to the bonfire just to make use of this.

Now, I head back. As I go, though, I notice I'm barely able to move, and after a minute, I realize I accidentally swapped out the wrong ring. I fix the problem and return to where I was; then, I deliberate: go forward, or back to the bonfire? Forward, I decide, at least for now, and I find myself on the ledge around the pit with the floating heads that I saw earlier. Four skeletons are creeping towards me from around a corner; I lure three floating heads into exploding and killing them, but here, I finally see the phenomenon of skeletons reassembling even after being destroyed - only my Divine Morning Star can kill them. Why these ones? I wonder if it has something to do with the fire-caster from earlier…Ultimately, I smash through three; one falls off a ledge, and I don't get the souls from it, so I wonder if it's now in a cycle of constantly reassembling and dying. Curious, I look over the edge, and to my surprise, I see a couple of glowing spots - there must actually be something down there.

For now, though, I turn back to see if I can find the fire-caster. I stand in the spot where it struck me before and wait, looking around, but nothing happens. Maybe I'll find it after I go back and use the bonfire; for now, I set it aside and proceed. There's another floating head on the far end of the pit, but it doesn't hit me when it explodes, though it does smash some pots. There are a lot of statues here, but the space is relatively open, and if any of them are booby-trapped, I don't trigger it. Around the other side of the pit, I pass by the broken half of what was once a bridge from the doorway I came out through, then go through a small doorway into a dimly-lit crypt. Stone coffins jut out from the walls on both sides; one has its own alcove to my left, but there's nothing else there. Along the way, I find a hole in the wall in an alcove to my right, but I go past this, and in the distance, I barely make out the figure of another headless demon.

Here, I stop. Fight, or flee? Fight, I decide, switching out my drake sword - this, surely, won't come back to life if not killed with a divine weapon. Just before I reach it, I take out my catalyst and cast a Great Soul Arrow at it, just to see what happens; the magic drops to the floor without a target, though, as I can't aim at the monster yet - possibly because it hasn't moved. Unbothered, I discard the plan and simply run in with my drake sword. It awakens, and the fight begins.

Ride the left back, I remind myself. This is more difficult in this relatively enclosed passage, though, and it jumps like the other one did when it can't reach me. I manage to fight pretty well, but I went in with only one swallow of Estus left in my Flask, and when I use it, I'm left vulnerable; eventually, the monster manages to wear me down.

Now I'm back at the bonfire, Hollowed once more. I take the time to attune my Fire Orb again, making use of the Darkmoon Seance Ring, and then head back out; I won't have to look through that wall again, so I'll almost certainly have more Estus than last time by the time I make it back to the headless demon.

Just outside the bonfire room, I get hit by the booby-trapped statue, but it does almost nothing to me. As I cross the bridge this time, I notice some ledges to my right, under where the stairs to nowhere were - I'll have to go back and see where that goes later. As I observe this, a skeleton's souls flow into me; I don't care from where. Near the end of the bridge, I see a skeleton fall down a cliff above me to my left and die, and I wonder where it came from…it doesn't matter. The entirety of the trip is short and mostly uneventful, though this time, three of the skeletons on the ledge fall and don't die. I only need one swig of Estus to make it back to the crypt with a few scratches, and I take a second just so I'm ready before swapping out my drake sword and running towards the headless demon. It's a very close match, but my downfall comes in not being able to avoid its plunging attack when it gets tired of not being able to hit me.

Undeterred, I go back and try again; the trip is even easier this time. When I get there, though, it almost seems as though the creature's attacks are stronger than before, and one diving strike kills me from near-perfect health. I'd use my gold pine resin, but the substance doesn't work with dragon weapons.

Every time I cross the bridge, the souls of a skeleton flow into me - it did last time, and it does this time. I'm starting to wonder about it, but accept that it's a mystery that will probably never be solved. Back on the ledge with the floating heads, though, the skeletons lure me into a position where a floating head can knock me off the edge, and it does. Annoyed, I head back out again.

This time, the trip is cake - I run out to get all the floating heads to explode sooner rather than later, then retreat to fight the skeletons. Two always end up falling off the edge of the cliff for some reason, but I'm not complaining. The moment I get to the demon, though, it kills me - I have my shield up, and I try to aim for it, but it's as if nothing at all is protecting me, like fighting a ghost. I'm getting angry now.

On the way through this run, when I get the rush of souls, I also get a humanity. I don't waste it, though - I won't use it at least until I've killed the headless demon. When I get back to it, the greenish glow from my death spot is illuminating the monster; it's a rather interesting effect. This time, at last, it's a slaughter on my part - I'm at full health with two swallows of Estus left when the monster falls, leaving me with a chunk of strange titanite like the last one did. Triumphantly, I head to the back of the crypt to see what it was guarding; all it was was a corpse carrying three cursed eyes like the one I got from the black frog thing in the sewers, which I won't ever use. Still, the victory alone is gratifying.

Through the hole in the wall I noticed earlier, I find myself on a high ledge in a room with a corpse bearing a medium soulmass in the corner to my right. Something tells me to wait for the two skeletons that are climbing up the ladder from the floor below; I defeat them without any difficulty at all. At the bottom of the ladder is a big stone coffin, and questionable bits of floor at either end; I avoid these and go back up to investigate the ledges I noticed earlier. On the way, I look through my supplies and find I've gathered a lot of medium to medium-large soulmasses that I haven't absorbed; I absorb them as soon as I find them, and am left with just barely too few souls to strengthen myself. When I'm almost across the bridge, another skeleton jumps to its death in the same place as the one I saw last time (this time on my right), but another drops down onto the path in front of me; I kill it easily, but still, I have to wonder where they're from. Before I go investigating, I restore my body at the bonfire.

I'm heading back down the stairs from the bonfire when a faint voice tells me to equip the Fall Control spell I got from Griggs. She couldn't have told me sooner? Bemused, I go back, swap out the Fire Orb for Fall Control, then head back out. Right away, I backtrack to the inside of the previous area to kill the skeletons by the exit so they don't bother me; only then do I walk down the stairs to nowhere, take a moment, and drop down to my right. After I land on the ledge I saw, another ledge presents itself, this one in front of a cave, and I jump down to it. Here, I find a corpse carrying a great scythe, and a room with a false floor portion that I'm not sure I trust. I decide not to take it, and drop down the ledge that was in front of me when I jumped here. This puts me back in the room with the lever I used to open the stone door.

Now I'm confused; why did I need the Fall Control spell? And that's when she finally tells me that I can drop down from the crumbled edge of the outside staircase safely. Outside the door, a skeleton attacks, and I knock it to its death - to the place I'm apparently going to be jumping myself. Trusting her, I cast the spell and make the jump, another skeleton falling to its death beside me; sure enough, a couple of ledges allow me to relatively safely drop to a hole in a ceiling, which leads to a crypt passage. One of the ledges has a corpse carrying a shard of green titanite, and the bones of the skeletons I saw fall/knocked down here are littered around the hole. Before the final drop, I take a moment, and the spell wears off, so I have to cast it again first. As I use my catalyst, though, I hear the pounding of metal, and while it sounds for a moment like swords on stone, I realize after a moment that it's actually the sound of smithing.

Expectant of what I'll find, I drop down. At the far end of the passageway, to my left, I can barely make out the figure of a wide-set skeleton with weird little metal squares hanging in strands from its upper lip like a beard. He thunders towards me, then lifts the pickaxe he's carrying and smashes it into the wall to his left (my right). Then he looks at me.

"Be gone with you!" he says in a strange, raspy voice. "You'll spoil my focus!"

Then he goes back, and resumes his smithing.

I walk down the passage, past the hole in the wall, to see this strange creature - I could use some smithing, I've been using my weapons often and taking a lot of hits. In an attempt to seem less rude - this creature is clearly cantankerous, whatever he may be - I put away my weapons and remove my helmet. The skeleton's back is to me.

"What's that then? Need some smithing?" he asks without turning or even pausing in his smithing. "Then produce me some wares."

I have plenty of souls - 12,200, just about 200 shy of enough to strengthen myself - and I look at what he has and what he can do. He can ascend my +8 broadsword into a fire broadsword, but though I'm tempted, I decline; he can, of course, reinforce my Divine Morning Star to +2 with the green titanite shard I found on my way down here, and I have him do so. Besides that, I have him repair all the damaged equipment I have with me, which costs me nearly 3,000 souls - my armor in particular has been taking quite a beating. He also sells Homeward Bones, titanite shards, repairboxes and smithboxes for weapons and armor, and basic arrows and bolts.

"Who are you?" I ask him. "I am Deimos of-"

"Hmph! I'm not here to chit-chat," he spits.

"Very well then," I say; "thank you for the repairs."

"If that'll be all, then be gone with you," he rasps. "You'll spoil my focus."

I leave him be, re-equip myself, and investigate the hole he made in the wall; it leads to a grassy path into pitch-blackness. After a moment, she tells me to run; I take a swig from my Estus Flask, then do so, my shield raised. Mounds of bones crunch under my boots, and after a little ways, skeletons in spiked wheels start rolling towards me. She guides my feet, and the ones ahead miss me; the ones that have been chasing behind catch up to me, but I avoid them for the most part, and they roll past me. Two roll past me at once, blocking my way; just beyond them is a wall of white light, and I know that if I can pass it, I'll be safe, but they prevent me from reaching it, and a couple more come up behind me and kill me.

Now I'm back at the bonfire, Hollowed once more. I left about 9,000 souls back there, but I feel oddly rash, and so I head back to the place with bits of false floor to see what's beneath; I get to the place by way of the false floor near the corpse that was holding a great scythe, which turns out to lead to the space right in front of the crypt where the headless demon was lurking - a significant shortcut. Something urges me to swap out my drake sword when I reach the place with false floor bits; I obey it, drop down through one of the false floor sections, and find myself facing off against a black knight.

The black knight swings its battle axe and nearly kills me with one blow as soon as I land; I manage to evade it after that and take a drink from my Estus Flask. It uses moves like both the mace-wielding black knight and the greatsword-wielding black knight, and I strike it whenever it uses the moves I've learned give me ample opportunity to attack. At one point, a floating head drifts through a hole in the wall and explodes; it only does a little damage to both of us. The drake sword, on the other hand, cuts the black knight down almost with ease, and it's soon dead, leaving me with a white chunk of titanite and the black knight's greataxe - a powerful weapon, but far too heavy for me to lift just yet.

With the monster gone, I pillage a large-ish soulmass from a corpse hanging halfway off a cliff through the hole in the wall, then drop down to a lower ledge of about the same size. At the bottom, I can just make out the water and bones characteristic of the place where I recently died, and soon, the spike wheel skeletons are clanging against the bottom of the cliff. Trusting her to guide me again, I jump down and run, dodging left and right; I'm almost dead by the time I reach the wall of white light, but this time I make it, and I traverse it. It does not dissipate.

Only once I'm on the other side do I drink from my Estus Flask - as much as I need to heal every bit of damage I've taken, until I have one swallow left. Then, I walk a ways down the path, and soon come to a spot where a hole in a ceiling leads to a huge underground room. The drop is far, and to be safe, I cast Fall Control before I jump; I'm sure there's a powerful creature here, so it's all the more important not to be hurt at the start.

Down at the bottom is a room with a floor mostly covered by a thin layer of water; books are piled up against the walls around the dry outside edges that are slightly raised. Skeletons hang from the ceiling by their wrists everywhere, and at a stone table with another skeleton is a black-cloaked figure. At first, I can't make out anything about them; then, two thin arms lift high, bearing lanterns. Moments later, the creature turns around, and I can see it has three different masks for faces and six arms arranged in a wheel around its center, each carrying lanterns. The three masks look at each other, then back at me; the next thing I know, I'm fighting.

Barely do I take a step before the creature rises into the air and twirls, and two copies of itself appear. Then I reach it, and find that my drake sword can cut it down with laughable ease. The clones disappear after one hit, and there's no reason for me to be all that cautious as I swing my blade at everything near me. It manages to cast a huge fire spell at me once or twice, but only one of them hits me; the next time it's ready to try making more copies of itself, I cut it down. And then it's over.

The rush of souls I get is tremendous, far disproportionate to how difficult the fight was, especially compared to the drake. I also get a Humanity sprite, a Homeward Bone, one of the creature's three masks - the Mask of the Child, which invigorates the wearer - and…the Rite of Kindling. I remember Petrus talking about this, about how clerics sought it; the burning magic flows into my body, and somehow, I know I can now kindle bonfires to twice the strength I could before, allowing me to fill my Estus Flask even further. This is incredibly useful, especially since I'll be going into Sen's Fortress, and I'm glad I came down here to get it.

A ladder leads out of the room, and I climb it out of curiosity. I'm met with a world of pitch-black, I can barely see anything at all - it's far darker than anywhere else I've ever been. Prism Stones glimmer along the ground with sparks of color, but I don't feel like following them, what with everything I have right now. Instead, I go back around to the stone pillar that marked the hole I came down through; beside and then over this, I find a passage out. The exit is marked by a corpse bearing a large-ish soulmass.

I look down. This looks a lot like the path I took to get down here - the place where I last died. There's no getting around the spike wheel skeletons. Sure, I could use the Homeward Bone, but I'm curious to see what the actual exit to this place is, since drops that can't be climbed back up marked the path no matter which way I might have taken. Boldly, I jump down and run, shield up; at first, I get turned around, but I quickly re-orient myself and start sprinting. Just a little ways outside the hole to the skeleton smith's forge, I die. No matter, I can get back there easily. I'd better…

Fortunately, I do. It takes a bit of maneuvering to get back to my death spot, but I manage. The spike wheel skeletons soon mow me down, though…I wish I had some easy means of fighting them - the way they move, the Divine Morning Star is too slow, and since they're still skeletons, I don't dare risk using my drake sword.

Again, I go down, recover, and die. The distorted time here is working against me now, putting my death spot much further from the hole in the wall than the place where I actually die. Yes, I'm starting to realize this was a mistake, and I should have used the Homeward Bone; if nothing else, I have the Rite of Kindling now, even if I lose about 26,000 souls for my mistake. A skeleton survives the drop to the forge this time, and gets a small hit on me before I kill it, costing me a drink of Estus - no way am I going out there without being at full health. But this caution does me little good; I die again. Once, I manage to catch a spike wheel skeleton with my shield, but it locks me in place until I can't hold my shield up anymore, then tears into me. I'm getting frustrated - if there weren't so many souls on the line, I'd give up.

This time, I almost make it, but four spike wheel skeletons catch up to me right outside the forge; I can only hope my death spot is a bit closer this time. By some miracle, it is - just close enough to avoid alerting about half the spike wheel skeletons in the area. I manage to run back into the forge, though I have to knock one skeleton down to do so; another makes it in with me, and at first I think that staying alive will be enough since my death spot will be away from any skeletons, but after it runs itself into a wall, I decide to actively smash it - it takes two hits, and gives a not-insignificant amount of souls when it falls. For a few seconds, I listen to the spiked wheels clinking uselessly against stone; then, I use the Homeward Bone.

Back at the bonfire, I decide not to rest, and instead to try to make my way back up and out, at least to the next bonfire. This turns out to be far from difficult - if the Firelink Shrine bonfire was still working, I might have actually waited until then. For now, this will have to do; I revive my body, then strengthen it with the plethora of souls I have. This gives me the ability to have another spell on-hand, and I choose Hidden Body instead of a pyromancy spell.

Through the flames, I tell her about how easy my fight with the creature in the depths was, and she laughs with me. She also chuckles at the difficulty I had getting out of there, but she's impressed that I managed to make it back to my death spot so many times. Then it's time for me to go.

I climb back up into daylight with no trouble. Once I feel the cool mountain air in my lungs, I swap my drake sword back out, glad to not have to use a slower, weaker weapon anymore. Slaughtering the skeletons outside with the blade is very cathartic. On the way, I feed Frampt my accumulated garbage, and then I head up to Sen's Fortress.