I'm so eager when I rise. This is Lost Izalith, it must be! Without even thinking, I start climbing the stairs. Apart from the two fire-breathing statues I saw when I came in, there are two more along the way, and a close-set trio guarding a large soulmass at the top. Each statue takes three swings, so I swing twice at the front two of the trio, back up, wait for all of them to finish breathing fire, and charge back in and kill them all without a scratch. Here, as well, I notice those weird branch-roots growing out of the floor; they don't seem natural, and I begin to wonder…

Flanking the final set of stairs are two short banister pillars, one of which is topped by a fire-breathing statue - it doesn't come after me when I pass it, but looking back, I can see it moving. Despite this, I can't hit it, no matter what I try; odd.

Up top, there's a four-way crossroads with stairs leading down in all directions; the ones to the left and right end in solid walls after about six steps, but the one past where I come leads down, presumably to wherever I'm to go next. The four corners of the crossroads are marked by more pillars, all topped with fire-breathing statues; these, too, move in place, but don't approach me. At the center of the crossroads is a round metal platform with a very intricate wavy design and a pressure plate in the middle. Naturally, I try this first. A wavy red star pattern glows red on the pressure plate, and I rise…up to the bottom of the bell tower, where I thought the center of the room looked like a lift. This means that I can stop by that kindled bonfire and get more Estus, and that I have a shortcut back down; I stop at the fire briefly, then descend once more and proceed - though it takes me a moment to orient myself.

Down the stairs, down, down…it ends a fair distance above the floor, broken. I still haven't re-attuned Fall Control, so I jump with no protection; the drop hurts, but not too badly. However, this turns out to be a path right back to where I fought the fire demon, nothing more. Confused, I start climbing the stairs again, when I realize that there's no other way for me to go up there; so, after I kill the two statues, I go down to the bonfire to see if there's a path this way. And, as it just so happens, there is: A flat, twisting root leads down from the bonfire to a lower floor. There's a corpse bearing a large soulmass on a ledge maybe a third of the way down, and I don't miss it; I am, however, stuck after I get it, and forced to jump from up here. I hit the ground hard, but I don't die, and the bonfire's just back up the root anyway; I really should re-attune Fall Control…though I probably won't need it now. Still, I go back up and fix the mistake, getting rid of the useless Homing Crystal Soulmass.

There's a wall of white light blocking the doorway out of the enormous hallway I've gotten to the floor of. Among some roots to the left, a summon sign glows; I inspect it, and discover that it will call upon Solaire. Is there a strong monster ahead? There must be…I call upon him, then traverse the white light, his golden phantom behind me.

Through the door is a field of lava, with just enough cool stone for me to stand on; I look around, and from the ceiling, an enormous creature drops into the magma, like a centipede or a scorpion of some kind. Solaire is behind me, but for some reason, he doesn't use his lightning spears, and the creature slowly crawls over to us and starts smashing us with one enormous claw. It's a struggle to stay alive, even with Estus, and I have no idea how to go about actually fighting; Solaire, too, seems stymied. Before long, I die.

When I rise, she's laughing at me. That fire demon before gave her no end of trouble, but when she fought this creature (Solaire by her side), she took it down easily on her first try. Annoyed, I use the Twin Humanities sprite to revive myself and kindle this bonfire so I don't have to go back up; then, I go down, call on Solaire, and try again - I don't see the summon sign on the way down, and at first I'm worried, but when I draw close, it reappears. I wonder if I can suck humanity out of the phantom with the Dark Hand…It shouldn't come to that.

At first, we're given no chance at all - the thing, which I start to think might be several centipedes growing out of a muscular lower body, slams us repeatedly, and neither of us can move. Solaire, still, does nothing but take it; I try to dodge, and succeed once or twice, but can't hit the thing. After a while, the monster finally comes closer to us, if still not close enough to hit…it starts getting really difficult to keep visual track of what's going on; all I know is that, at one point, I'm grabbed up and chewed on, and Solaire somehow ends up running around on the field of lava, distracting the monster more than attacking it. With the creature's back turned, I swipe at its legs, and find that my sword hurts it quite badly; unfortunately, Solaire is constantly taking damage, from the lava when not from the monster, and at last, the thing swallows him up and chews him until the phantom is vanquished. For a moment after this, the thing stands still, and I try casting a couple of Great Soul Arrows - which turn out to hurt it a lot, actually - but then its attention is on me, and the fight gets close to impossible. I do my best, taking a drink of Estus every time the thing picks me up and chews on me, and I start making use of what little space I have to move around in so that it starts doing other things, but just as I start to think I might have a chance, a jump attack lands right on top of me and kills me.

Alright, learn and try again - that's always been the pattern, and it always will be. This time, I move around a lot more as it approaches, buying time; Solaire, however, still fails to do anything to defend himself…idiot. Once the creature gets close, the fight starts, and I try to swipe at its legs while it's occupied with Solaire earlier this time, but a stomping attack I didn't know it had shakes me off once, and the second time, it kills me.

With one Humanity sprite left, I need other options…like Solaire. Is he still up by the drake's old roost? If so, I can transport myself there, suck life out of him, and transport myself back here easily - no need to gather souls or anything! He must have humanity in him to spare, as strong as he is, no matter his idiocy…and, he'll still help me in the fight, I'm sure. Having reached this conclusion, I use my last sprite without concern. Before I go charging in to attack again, however, I think to actually go and check to make sure he's there - she'd go charging in without checking, but I'm not a moron. Luckily, he is in fact still there; knowing this, it's time to try again. The lift is already up for me, no need to even pull a lever; now that I have Fall Control, getting back to the bonfire before the monster is easy. On the way, I kill those two fire-breathing statues, and use the souls they give me to repair some of my equipment (my armor has to go unfixed apart from my gauntlets).

It's close this time, very close - when Solaire starts running around on the lava and attacking the monster, I shoot Heavy Soul Arrows and Heavy Great Soul Arrows from the sidelines. Eventually, the fight comes back over to where I am, so Solaire isn't even getting hurt by the lava anymore; by the time he falls, I could easily kill the thing myself. One well-placed jumping attack from the beast kills me, though.

Okay, time to use Solaire for other things as well. He grunts when I grab him, but like all the others, makes no other attempt to defend himself or even protest. The souls I get on the way back from the two statues are even enough to repair the rest of my things. Solaire's golden phantom still comes at my call…He's such a useful person. Early in the fight this time, the monster knocks me onto the lava, and though this doesn't kill me, one strike from it afterwards as I try to get somewhere I can safely drink from my Estus Flask does.

My love is in hysterics, her laughter echoing from the flames. So much for being the one worthy of extinguishing the Fire! That just makes me angrier, and more determined to kill this thing; furious, I charge in, summoning Solaire on the way. The fight starts out like normal this time, but soon, the thing is on him, while standing within my reach; I swing my sword, and after a couple of strikes, something comes off of it, like a dragon's tail. I think the thing had a sort of tail of its own; the detached appendage is still alive, like a giant centipede, but one swipe from my sword kills it, leaving me with a ring that I don't have time to examine right now. Between my magic, Solaire's strength, and my sword, the thing soon falls, without me having to take even one drink of Estus. Solaire's phantom gives me a Sunlight Medal and vanishes, and the monster drops a Humanity sprite and a Homeward Bone. And that's it.

See, that was how her first fight with this monster went. Why I had to fail so many times before having the same experience as her, I'll never know. Regardless, I take a closer look at the ring I got from the monster's tail. It's charred black, an intricate design like a tiara on the top, with an orange stone's color just poking out from the middle of the centerpiece. There's magic in it, that much is more than obvious; I take off my Cloranthy Ring and try it on. A sensation similar to what that ring of Artorias's gave me coats my feet…on a hunch, I run out onto the lava, and though it still sort of burns through my boots, the heat is almost completely tolerable - lava is now more or less free ground to traverse, if not indefinitely. There's a corpse on one side of this room carrying two shards of green titanite that I couldn't have gotten to without the ability to walk on the liquid fire. Before I proceed down a cave I find in the side of this lava cavern, I go back up to pillage those corpses I saw on the molten rock before; I also have enough souls to use on myself, but this time, I save them for the other things I intended to do. The statues' fire hurts just as much as it used to - the resistance is only to what's beneath my feet - so I don't bother with the trio near the top of the stairs; and of course, I also run past the egg-laden people.

First, I go to the corpse that's just across lava, and it turns out to carry a medium-sized soulmass. Then, a bit apprehensively, I take a drink of Estus and go out for that one lying in the middle of a hot magma pool. On it, I find a strange ember; its flame is dangerous, and unlike any other I've seen before…this, too, that skeleton smith will probably find useful. Now I have a flame ember, a strange flame ember, and a crystal ember, and I don't know which of the few smiths I know can use them. Well, I have to go to the giant in Anor Londo anyway, to get materials and upgrades so I can see what else these golden souls of mine can do; he might as well be my first stop.

Dark Anor Londo is dark and empty - and always will be, now, without even Seath the Scaleless nearby to give the ancient city purpose. Once I'm the Dark Lord, maybe I will claim the castle for myself - it's certainly ornate and furnished enough, I don't think I could design a better palace, and a smith lives right next door. All of my embers are on display as I approach the smithing behemoth, and right away, he fixates on the brilliantly shimmering crystal ember.

"Mng. What's that?" he grunts. "Shiny-shiny. Give me that. I make weapons shiny."

"Uh, sure," I reply, handing it over.

"I hath shiny-shiny," he says happily. "I make weapons shiny!"

Odd to hear archaic dialect mixed with baby talk, but I guess it's not his fault. I buy a third large shard of titanite to bring my old broadsword up to +10, and as it turns out, it can be turned into something else, by combining it with the Soul of Sif. With no reason not to, I do it, and it becomes the Greatsword of Artorias; it's the least I can do for an old friend, even if I won't be using it. The giant and I exchange farewells, and I take a closer look. I'm actually not quite capable of wielding it right now, and though it has a lot of benefits, my drake sword is still basically stronger. Still, I'm glad to have this - a little bit of respect for the tool that got me so far.

What's more, I still have enough souls to buy Crystal Soul Spear from Logan - though I'm far from capable of casting it, and I still have other things I want to do with the bloodshield, just having this last spell will be a victory. To make things easier, I use the Homeward Bone I just got to bring myself back to the bonfire down in the firelands, then take that to the Duke's Archives. Upon my arrival, the old sorcerer greets me pleasantly, and I buy the last spell in his repertoire. I thank him, and though his farewell is pleasant as he offers to teach me everything he finds here, there's something concerning about his voice. Moments later, something strange happens.

"…Who are you…" he gasps, glancing up at me as if he only just noticed me. "Stay clear…stay clear of my work…Curses upon you! How dare you disturb me?!" This brief rant ends in something almost like a whine.

"I-Logan, it's me!" I exclaim. "Deimos of Astora? Your, er, pupil?"

But he only repeats the same exclamations again. Seath's research drove the albino dragon to madness…it occurs to me that perhaps that wasn't rooted only in Seath's own insecurity about being born without the scales all other members of his kind were blessed with. Maybe there's something in these books, this research, that would drive anyone mad. There's nothing I can do about it, though, so I leave.

Getting back to the bonfire outside the cavern of lava is as easy as ever; though I momentarily mistake the lava for another wall of golden light, I correct myself before I start to worry. Now, at last, forward. The cave I found earlier seems strange - it's almost perfectly round, and all of it is of cooled lava, including the ceiling; how could nature have created such a thing? Through it, I start to see huge root-branches growing down into lava without catching fire, making them all the more suspicious. Just before the next lava field, there's a bonfire, which I light and rest at just in case - the bonfire in the Duke's Archives gave me fifteen swallows of Estus, so I should be set.

Walking on fire, on molten rock; it takes me a minute to fully realize what I'm doing as I proceed down the ravine I'm in. Fire bows before me…I have the powers of a god. Sure, anyone who put on this ring could do it, but could just anyone have gotten this ring in the first place? No…I am a god-to-be, and at last, I truly feel like one. And yes, the heat is all but intolerable even when I'm on solid ground, but I can bear it. A flat root leads up and over some lava, then down, and I round a corner to see the remains of an ancient city.

Lost Izalith, the ancient city of fire. I'm really here.

Some solid stone leads to a bridge, and then I can't tell through the glare of the glowing liquid rock beneath me if I'm standing on wood or stone anymore. A root twists up and over the path I'm on like an archway, a main entrance to this fallen city. Standing on the lava all around me are what look like several of that back half of the rotten dragon in the painted world of Ariamis; I wonder if there's any relation?

These roots that don't burn are the only means of traversing this place besides running across lava, and walking on the molten rock is still necessary in places, as some of the root paths come close but don't actually touch. I find a large soulmass around behind one tower, and another on a patch of tiled ground that has survived the flames. Now, I'm on some real ground, and as I approach a large, square tower, I'm getting perilously close to some of those rotted dragon rears. One statue waiting outside the tower comes for me, but though the other moves in place, swinging my sword at the latter reveals it to be solid stone, nothing more. Going counterclockwise around the outside of the building, as I round the corner to the last of the four sides I check, a rumble and roar tells me that one of the dragon bottoms has noticed me and isn't happy about it. Fortunately, this side of the tower turns out to be open, and I take shelter inside; a living statue I didn't notice comes in after me, but it's badly injured - presumably by whatever that lizard bottom did - and I kill it quickly. Inside this tower is a treasure chest, and when I open it, I find a gigantic soulmass, bigger than I would have thought possible; it seems like it would be a waste to use it now, when I'm not in an immediate position to use whatever souls I get, so I just tuck it away for the time being.

That thing is still outside, and probably still angry. Do I want to bother with killing it right now?…No, no I don't. I'll cast Hidden Body and run past it. This is met with limited success - I still get close enough for it to notice me (somehow - how can it notice me when it doesn't even have eyes?), but I manage to get through, and it soon gives up. Another root path brings me up to the top of an old, crumbled building; a corpse hanging off the edge of the remains of a bridge bears a Twin Humanities. Now…where I go from here is tricky, she warns me - she can't even remember the exact route right away. Merging my mind with hers, I clutch my pendant and let her guide me, looking where she asks me to; after a minute, she finds the remaining walls and roof of an old passageway that has partially sunk into the lava, down and beyond the end of the crumbled bridge; that's where I have to go, she tells me, and it means I have to get down from up here. Ready to take a chance, I cast Fall Control and jump down to the ground I see below me; I make it down without harm. Before proceeding, I run around this tower - which is just like the last one - but only find two living statues, and no ways inside. One of the statues even gets a blast of fire on me, so I have to drink from my Estus Flask before I run across the lava.

There's no floor under this stone roof, but some flat roots provide a bridge anyway, taking me up and around the mound of stone that's just ahead of me. Once I take it all the way up, I find myself inside the walls of a large, ancient building; it's slightly cooler in here, much to my relief. Another flat root leads down from where I am (which is either a second floor or the roof) to the floor below, but as I try to get a better look around, I slip and fall. The fall doesn't hurt me very much, but down here, there are living statues. Two of them come for me, and I cut them down; a third turns out to be a fake. As I proceed, I come to a dark overhang that seems to be the underside of an entire building; there are a ton of fire-breathing statues down here, and I have to back up for Estus at one point. When the ones chasing me are down, I decide to change out the charred ring for the Flame Stoneplate Ring - I don't think I'll be walking across any more lava, and fire will probably be a significant danger here, from more than just these statues.

Past this, and all the statues on the other side, there's a wide staircase that leads up and up; at the top is some sort of grotesque thing, like a lump randomly covered in eyes with six maggots for legs - two more maggot appendages like arms open up and shoot some sort of substance that I don't want to know about. Since it's in my way, I swing at it, and when I get underneath it, I'm safe to kill it. Once it's gone, I start to get wary - something more treacherous is here, I just know it, so I take out the bloodshield. At the top of the steps is another tower, like the one I found the gigantic soulmass in, but this one has two open sides: the one facing me, and the one to my right when I enter. This takes me further into the compound, and roots are everywhere now, stairs and roots up and down; I take some stairs that go up to my left, and suddenly, I'm met with…a pyromancer? The person is dressed in the garb of the Witch of Izalith, like the corpse I found above, and soon summons fire in their hands; I'm not prepared, and when a huge firestorm erupts from the ground, I'm killed, just as a disturbance in the air tells me that a dark spirit has invaded as well.

Now I'm back at the bonfire before the entrance to the ancient city. I use my single Humanity sprite, then have to put the charred ring back on, and this time, I run through, headed straight for the way inside - my death spot is in there, and I had a lot of souls, even without the enormous soulmass I still have on me. Despite my use of the charred ring, I'm pretty burned by the time I make it in, and I have to take a drink of Estus. That's okay…

As soon as I make it, I swap out the charred ring for the Flame Stoneplate Ring, and I start cutting through the statues, one of which turns out to have been hiding around a random corner to my left. They don't give a lot of souls compared to some of the other stuff I've been killing lately, but they do add up, and I don't have an insignificant amount by the time I make it to the stairs. Around the left side of the first set of stairs, between the staircase and a wall, I find a corpse that bears a big soulmass that I missed before.

When I get up top this time, I grab my death spot and then run right back; the pyromancer follows me, throwing an enormous glob of what explodes into lava where I was just moments ago. As I run up to the person and start fighting them, trying not to give them time to cast anything else, that ripple goes through the air again, and Knight Kirk invades once more. Four swings of my sword manage to bring down the pyromancer, so I have time to fight off the dark spirit, who goes down easily and leaves behind a humanity for me to absorb, but nothing else. Once that's done, I check where the pyromancer fell (they faded away, like an Undead with a soul), and I find an ancient catalyst longer than a spear, formerly used by the witches of Izalith. Was that pyromancer really one of them? In any case, this catalyst is more powerful than the one I'm using, and better adapted to intelligence, though it's less useful as a physical weapon; despite its rather unwieldy size, I swap it out.

Now, I can keep exploring this place; I take a drink from my Estus Flask, then climb up these stairs to the top landing. Here, I find that I could go left and down into a wall of white light, or forward and down to more of this building. That wall of white light leads to my final destination, she warns me, so I'd better head forward first. Down the steps, I find a mirrored section of building, and another squishy abomination is waiting here for me; as I've discovered, getting underneath it is safety, so I do so, and cut it down. Oddly enough, it drops two chunks of white titanite - if it was going to drop titanite, I would have expected red. Behind it, I find a treasure chest - which I check first, to find it safe - that contains a powerful pyromancy spell.

My only other option is to go back and down the root I saw earlier, so I do. Down here, there are a lot more fire-breathing statues; once they're all cleared out, I see some stairs to my right, but a glimmer from underneath a building to my left catches my eye. It's right up against the left-hand wall of the space, but as I start to walk towards it, the floor crumbles underneath me, fortunately depositing me right on top of a flat root; the corpse I saw falls. In the middle of the pit, I see a group of those squishy things; looking from above, I now see that their toothy mouthes make up the entire top of their cup-shaped heads - they're basically walking digestive bowls. I explore where the roots can take me thoroughly, but find nothing; only next to the pit do I find something, and that something is the poor fool, Siegmeyer of Catarina, fast asleep again.

Idiot. What is he doing here? If I wake him, he'll probably want to start fighting those creatures…Come to think of it, that might not be such a bad thing. It'll spare me some trouble, at least.

"Hello?" I call, standing right in front of him.

He snores.

"Hey!" I shout, deciding not to wake him with the Dark Hand.

"Mm! Oh-hoh!" he exclaims, suddenly coming to and drawing his long sword and pierce shield. "Excuse me. I was so absorbed in thought, I just drifted away. It must be the warmth. Well, what's on your mind?" He doesn't give me a chance to answer before quickly saying, "No, don't tell me. Those monsters making life difficult for you?"

"Er…"

"You need not be ashamed," he tells me patronizingly. "We are in the same boat." He pauses a moment, then adds, "You know, I really have run up quite a debt to you…Perhaps the time has come…Hmm…"

"For what?" I ask.

Even through his onion-shaped helmet, I can sense him giving me a long, hard look. "Um…Friend, I have an idea," he says solemnly at last. "A good one, really…I will rush those dire fiends, and you can slip away in the confusion. Please, friend, I owe you much more than this. By the honour of the knights of Catarina, allow me to assist you. And now, I go! Don't be slow!" Without even giving me a chance to say anything, he then jumps down into the pit, roaring with a battle cry. "C'mon! Over here, you fiends!" he shouts. "Perish, foul creatures! I am Siegmeyer of Catarina, and you shall feel my wrath!"

Bemused, I look on. Poor fool. But, as the fight goes on, my thoughts change: His sword is powerful, and the monsters quickly fall before him. Their souls flow into me, and not long after he finishes his cries, all of the monsters are dead. Surprised, I cast Fall Control and jump down to join him, finding myself knee-deep in poisonous mud, like the Blighttown swamp. One of the monsters dropped a red chunk of titanite (that's more like it), and the man himself is on the other side of the pit. Paying no mind to the poison that enters my system, I walk over to him.

Grunting with exhaustion, he looks up at me and gasps. "Why, you?!" he exclaims. "Didn't you get away? Well…you've saved me once again. You only ever save me…and I have failed you." He coughs, chokes, and I realize that somehow, he's badly injured. "Heavens me…my dear little Lin…" he moans. Then, he collapses and dies.

That was unexpected. I get some souls from his death, and he also leaves behind three Humanity sprites and a Speckled Stoneplate Ring - a ring that is essentially the Flame Stoneplate Ring, Spell Stoneplate Ring, and Thunder Stoneplate Ring all in one, if slightly less powerful in each individual defense; I don't swap my rings out now, but I might at a later date, depending on what I find. Confused, I stare at the spot where he fell - there's no way that fight should have killed him. And…'Lin'? Who's that, I wonder?

Oh well. There's other stuff to be found down here in this muck - corpses, one that holds another chunk of red titanite, one that carries two shards of green titanite, and another that bears a large soulmass. Around a corner is another of those monsters, and this is how I discover how Siegmeyer was most likely hurt: in the limited movement of the mud, though I follow my winning strategy, it gets one hit on me, and that one hit hurts - and he was fighting about four at once. Past this, the path branches left or right, and I go right, around a large square hole that she warns me is bottomless - it was how she ended up killing most of the monsters, by luring them over here to fall to their deaths. There are actually three of these pits, I pass two more on my right as I walk around a large root-branch in a direction I initially think to be away from progress, but turns out to lead to stairs. Up the stairs is another monstrosity and a corpse bearing a chunk of red titanite, and a short jump down from here brings me to the floor where I can access the root bridge that will bring me up and out (though it takes me a few seconds to find it). Some Estus and purple moss are consumed in this process, but nothing worth worrying about.

So ends Siegmeyer of Catarina. Well, at least he gave me some Humanity sprites in the end, and a very rare and precious magic ring. His ending didn't happen to her, and she's sad; I don't care. Up the stairs I saw before, I check around the corners to make sure I'm not missing anything, then pass through another tower room to a long bridge, at the end of which I can see a headless demon. This one, she warns me, will respawn - and it's crazy how many souls I have right now, I almost certainly have more than enough to do everything I want with the bloodshield and then some. All I have to do is get past this thing, and I can open up a shortcut to here from the bell tower; I only take a moment to ready myself, and then I go charging in. Shame Siegmeyer isn't here to help me with this one.

It tries jumping at me to start. At first, I use magic, and when we're back far enough, I try to hide behind a root from its lightning like I did with Ornstien, but it proves to be just too far away to hit with spells when I do this. After a while, I manage to lure it into jump-attacking its way close enough to use the last of my Great Soul Arrows and a fair number of my Heavy Great Soul Arrows, though one of its lightning blasts does hit me (maybe I should be wearing Siegmeyer's ring). Once this is no longer an option, I go in to use my sword. This isn't the toughest headless demon I've ever fought - or, if it is, I've gotten a lot stronger since the last one I faced. Its plunging attacks, however, prove as dangerous as ever, and though I get very close to killing it, one good blow on me kills me.

Back outside Lost Izalith. It's okay, nothing particularly dangerous is between me and my death spot, so long as I'm somewhat careful. I use the Twin Humanities, and kindle the flame with the second humanity so I have ten swallows of Estus on me instead of five, just in case. Then, I put on the charred ring and run out. The same path as before gets me in safely, and once I'm inside, I put on the Speckled Stoneplate Ring so I'm ready for both the fire-breathing statues and the lightning-shooting demon. With a little more use of Estus than is really necessary - just to be safe - I make it back to my death spot.

Okay, fighting this monster…Maybe I should use more magic, not try close combat until I've exhausted everything else I've got. Getting close to these things is always incredibly dangerous, and my new catalyst should see me through. This works - by the time I'm out of the Great versions of the Soul Arrows, it's badly hurt, and only one Heavy Great Soul Arrow misses it in the whole process. After that, it starts shooting lightning at me constantly from just too far away to shoot while still under cover; what's weird is that it takes an inordinate amount of time and distance backtracking before it gives up, even when I'm far too far away for it to hit me. Can these things get angry? Oh well; I wait for it to retreat to its former spot, then run out, this time with regular Soul Arrows ready. The simple spell chips away at its health, and by the time I'm back to the cover root, it's nearly dead. Knowing I'm almost there, I hide, expecting it to try lightning now. Instead, however, it swings its weapon; not being ready for this, I get hit once, twice, and I die.

So close! My idea works, I just wasn't careful enough; I will be this time. Those weird roots get me in trouble a couple of times against the fire-breathing statues, but I make it alright. More carefully this time…It, too, gets stuck on a root at one point, costing me several regular Soul Arrow castings as it hobbles at me but doesn't get closer; when I realize this and try to shoot a Heavy Great Soul Arrow, it realizes it at the same time and hits me with lightning, but I survive it and take cover. Three times I have to hit it with magic as we proceed along the bridge, then take cover and wait for it to go back to its post before going out again; the fourth time I go out, I have a handful of Soul Arrows left and only Heavy Soul Arrows remaining after that, but with one Soul Arrow remaining, it dies, leaving behind two chunks of weird titanite.

Finally, I can open up the shortcut. It's the same one I saw just before the fire demon's territory, she informs me, but there might be something else before I get to it…Warily, I jog across the bridge to see, my shield up. There's a crystal lizard in here, but me being too focused on guarding myself, it escapes untouched; down some steps, I see the door ahead of me, and there are some jumping beetles on this side, too. For a moment, I think maybe she was wrong. Then, I hear a groan - not a groan of anguish, but of delight. I don't recognize the voice right away, but when its owner comes running for me, I realize from the armor that it's Solaire - a beetle appears to have attached itself to his head. Even as he swings his sword at me, he's moaning with pleasure.

"Finally, I have found it, I have!" he manages. "My very own sun…I…am the sun! I've done it…I have…Yes, I did it…I did!" After this, he only gives groans of sheer ecstasy.

During all this, he's attacking me. I'm not sure he even knows what he's doing - he's not Hollow, but there's something else going on, something presumably related to that bug on his head. He fights as well as ever, though, using lightning spears and expertly wielding his sword; at one point, I run up the stairs to take shelter from his lightning so I can drink from my Estus Flask. Most of the time, he keeps his shield on his back, two-handing his sword; this gives me both opportunity and challenge, as I can hit him more easily, but his sword hits me more powerfully. After I get used to some of his attack patterns, I go from defensive to offensive, and at last, he falls.

"Ahh, it's over…" he gasps, falling to the ground. "My Sun…it's setting…" As he fades away, his voice still echoes: "It's dark…so dark…" Then he's gone.

First Siegmeyer, now Solaire…I am indeed nearing the end of this quest, as everyone is dying. The great knight leaves behind two Humanity sprites, his sword and shield, his armor set, and his talisman. I look them over, searching for the source of his strength, but to my surprise, though some of the armor and his shield are specialized for him, they're only specialized in that he's painted sun designs on them, with perfectly normal paint - nothing he was carrying holds any special powers of its own. His strength came from within, from training and experience…For an idiot, he was the worthiest person to ever hold the title 'knight', possibly even more so than me. But now he's gone…lost to a hopeless quest. Pity.

Well, now there's nothing between me and the lift to the bell tower; I might as well get there. Along the way, I kill the jumping beetles, and one in the right-hand corner beside the door leaves behind a glowing carcass - it's not dead, actually, but it no longer moves. I can wear it on my head, like the thing Solaire was wearing…this, though, doesn't take control of my mind, only gives off a bright light. It's like a head lamp - like Cast Light, only permanent, at the cost of wearing a helmet. Why did the one on Solaire's head corrupt his mind instead of simply glowing, though? Really, it doesn't matter.

All that done, I put a hand on the door; it unlocks, and splits vertically into four panels, which all sink into the ground at different speeds. On the other side, there are four more beetles, and I kill them too. Then I go up. For comfort, once I get to the bonfire, I take it to the Abyss; I need to think.