Author Note: So i remade this to be a slice of life of the Ashen One showing best waifu Firekeeper the beautiful sights of the world, also no way i can do her shakesperean olde english talk so she'll be in normal talk even if this takes away the charm ;-; but she cute anyways and lived with the undead long enough to learn normal talk, i also "fixed" some bad writing i think?
Chapter 1: The End of Fire and a New Sun
The Age of Fire has ended, the cycle of linking and snuffing out the flame finally stopped and now the nameless Hollow waits for the new and final age of the Dark to come and pass, hopefully ending the madness of the old dead gods so the world restarts anew. "Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?" says the voice of the delicate Fire Keeper his most loyal friend and a loved one. "Clearly my love, after we survive this endless Dark and the world is fixed, i can't wait to show you the sights of a beautiful world now that you have eyes once again" He says while holding her hands tight in a reassuring manner while really not knowing what will happen now, and before long both fall into a deep slumber.
And fixed the world was, hundreds of thousands of years later after the Abyss covered the entire world thanks to the snuffing of the Flame and no pesky gods to fight it in fear of their tyrannical rule being threatened, it finally cleansed itself from the parasitic disease that was the Deep which tainted it and the darkwraiths which coveted its power, once again becoming the fabled gentle and calm Dark the preaching Locusts said wasn't to be feared, and with nothing else to taint and incite it even the Abyss itself vanished and left behind a clean slate of the world, from which tiny little embers flared and life was reborn in interesting ways. And on this day a man and woman woke up in midst of a nameless ruin forgotten by all.
"Fire Keeper, are you still alive? wake up we finally did it i can see the sun once again" the Ashen one rises up from his sitting position after an eternity his muscles coming back to life from underneath a mound of ash
"Yes Ashen One this light is so gentle and beautiful different from our sun, how much time was passed for it to be like this i wonder" the Fire Keeper also rising up from her position is helped by her knight of Ash still weak for her stamina wasn't as good as his
"I don't know but we shouldn't care about the past, if the world was fixed it must've been thousands of years, i doubt anyone will remember us, well maybe Patches is still around, after all he didn't break even at the end of time in the Ringed City" he muses remembering his old friend "but that's not important now, let's get out of here and see what's beyond the light" he gives her his hand and both depart from this dreary place to see the light once again.
After getting out from the ruins everyone thought was from some old civilization and had nothing of value other than being a resting spot during long travels, both were surprised to see the lush green expanses around them, birds other than crows were chirping, the wind didn't had the stagnant smell of ash and death and the sun was oh so gloriously incandescent like it never was before.
The undead struck a funny pose and said "Do you remember when i said before the dark consumed us, that i would show you the world after everything was fixed? I didn't expect it would be so beautiful like this" after noticing a ghost of a smile forming on the lips of the lovely fire keeper he continued "my lady do you want to explore these lands with me?"
The maiden giggled and took his hand, she accepted his proposal, her curiosity about things other than the flame stroked and her fear of the visions of betrayal gone,, both man and woman, the last true undeads took off in a journey to see the sights of the new lands before them.
Days have passed in their pilgrimage, both didn't see any signs of human life yet, but they weren't wary of it, after all they took it slowly, at one point the Fire Keeper saw a strange fruit that looked extremely tasty and once she took a bite of it, it was love at first bite, so the undead took upon himself to collect more for her when the chance arises. Both didn't know said fruit was know as prisoner fruit and that for a normal human it was dangerous for it's corruption properties, except they weren't normal humans, or maybe they were the last true humans? Only time will tell.
But not everything would be peace and frolicking on grassy plains, finally after weeks of traveling without any objective they found something that resembled a human settlement, the undead was wary of it and got ready for battle, now he had a companion and even though she would come back after dying he wouldn't let it happen again, he was still regretful of the day he tried to test all the new shiny spells, miracles and pyromancies he got, and some had a bigger area of effect which ended up killing the poor maiden. "NEVER AGAIN" he thought to himself and step by step got closer to the settlement which was deserted, but he knew better and to the lack of his surprise the ashen one was attacked by something resembling the dead mushrooms of Farron's Keep, but much more sexier.
Remembering his worst days in that horrid place he knew what to do next, he would burn everything down either the spore clouds would continue and he really didn't want to deal with the risk of Toxic, even more he didn't want his fair maiden to deal with it, so after telling her to go as far away possible the undead prepared his Chaos storm and everything in the village was reduced to ashes and pools of magma in midst of screams and sobs.
"Strange, normally they aren't as vocal could it be they had intelligence and weren't just mindless monsters?" the Ashen one though, these new enemies much different from what he dealt before didn't try to attack him again after releasing the spores and nothing was so easy for him, "but the spore clouds looked dangerous so it's better to be safe than sorry if it was a mimicry" He thought to himself deciding it was a deserved victory.
"Are you alright Fire Keeper?" He looked back and noticed she had a cough and sneeze fit after breathing in some spores, her sneezing sounds were so cute, he was loving her more and more each passing hour but the stopped his reverie when they became stronger, so he gave her a divine blessing and a purging stone just for safety against whatever type of ailment those spores carried while also using the same things himself.
"The world is beautiful, but it seems even now there's strife we'll keep taking in the sights but we should be warier from now on" the undead suggested and the Fire Keeper accepted before giving him a piece of her mind
"Then don't just go looking for trouble, this time the enemies couldn't do more than that cloud, but the next ones could be worse" the Keeper had a pout, she would be angry for the next minutes.
"Sorry it's my fault for diving first into enemy territory without a plan" he appeased his maiden while ingraining her adorable angry image in his mind "next time we'll talk first if they are able of speech" noticing she was calmed both began walking without a objective in their pilgrimage once again.
Sometime later after both were long gone a group of monstergirls came to the Matango village and fell in shock after seeing the cruelty against these girls who in their opinion were inoffensive, some cried when noticing all the charred corpses of both matango and their mushroom people husbands and others vowed revenge against the person who destroyed their happiness ignoring the fact matangos were considered a biohazard for humans thanks to their unrestricted spread and infection rates. Others in horror noticed spots were magma still burned hot and the sand around became glass, for such was the power of the chaos storm, then quickly dispersed to tell their superiors that a new hero appeared and he apparently was a maniac.
The pair found themselves in front of a forest and before long dove in to explore, after a good time dealing with bushes and vines the couple found themselves in front of a church that has seen better days and decided to stop inside for shelter, when to their surprise they saw children for the first time in their undeath, living breathing children who also reacted with surprise at seeing the pair since this was a hidden place only their caretaker visited, and how tasty and intoxicating their aura seemed to be.
"Do you see that Fire Keeper? the world truly was fixed, there's kids here, people are born!" the excited Ashen One had reason to be giddy, for even the youngest one of his time was hundreds of years old, nothing ever was born in the kingdom of Lothric anymore.
"The little ones are adorable Ashen One", the Fire Keeper was happy for him before scrutinizing the children further, "but i don't think they are humans, their limbs are monstrous and some have tails and wings" to which the monster children took a step back, tears and fear began to form
"Hmm maybe those have a incomplete covenant with the dragons?" he remembered his adventures at Archdragon Peak and how tiresome was dealing with the man serpents before noticing the children's reactions "ow look what you did, now they're afraid the bad scary Fire Keeper scared some children" Now his fair maiden was the one sad noticing she did indeed do a discourtesy to them in her sheer sincerity.
"I beg your pardon little ones, i didn't mean to offend" the sad fire keeper spoke while doing a bow thinking there was more to their story and they were the fruit of something vile, explaining why they were abandoned in this place.
"Yeah, the Fire Keeper is the gentlest soul you'll ever find even if she's a little of an airhead nowadays" the Ashen one added and the kids laughed while she pouted with a blush, good he lifted up the mood.
"Are you two siblings mister?" one of the girls spoke noticing both man and woman were using the same clothing, long black robes skirt and manchettes making they look like banshees, the only visible difference between them being that the girl was using a ornamental mask which didn't appear to have any holes to let her see but it didn't seem affect her navigational skills, but she knew basilisks and their masks didn't impede them from seeing either so she wasn't as surprised.
"We do look similar don't we little one?" the male spoke with a gentle tone, "we have no blood relationship, and i don't know if we even have the same age range but i idolized her so much i just made myself to look like her" he remembered how he changed himself at Rosaria's hands, while some of the girls blushed when they began thinking if they would find someone so obsessive about them like this mister was to the lady, and the Fire Keeper finally knew why the Ashen one suddenly came back looking like a copy of hers after gifting her eyes.
"Aren't we beautiful? the best of both worlds we complete one another" he took his maiden by surprise for a embrace making some of the kids squeal, then a banging sound came from the door silencing everyone and ruining the mood.
"We know monsters live here, open it and surrender to the order before we torch this entire church!" This didn't bode well with the Ashen One, how can people hurt children in this world? They are precious even if they are part of a incomplete covenant, then after sending his Keeper to care for the crying fearful kids who knew who those people were, he walked to the front door.
"What do you want vile scum?" He opened the door and surprised the guards when the mourning looking fair maiden in front of them revealed herself as him "there's no monsters here only kids you better explain yourself quickly before i bash your skull in" a evil glints in his eyes, thirst for blood rising which only enraged the guards further, not only they were dealing with a pervert but also a pro monster heretic.
"Heretical bastard you dare to protect monsters in a nation ruled by the Order, by the power placed upon me i sentence you to d-" He didn't finish his sentence as a club bashed his skull knocking him out.
"How dare you defy the o-" Another knight was bashed and knocked out.
"The trash was cleaned, you can come out now" all monster kids came out from hiding and hugged their shining prince in armor for saving them, some of the mature who weren't picky about being in a harem tried to imprint on him for the future, sadly that future would never come because the only woman for him was his Fire Keeper who smiled looking at them.
"Is this place safe? what about the monsters those people spoke about, did you see some?" they were surprised when their savior spoke that.
"Mister, we are the monsters they were talking" the couple was surprised, the only monsters he knew who had rationality to talk were the locusts in the ringed city, and if only intelligence was needed, the demons in the smoldering lake who built a mausoleum for their dead ones, both types being far more dangerous than the little things in front of him.
"What a funny joke, i've seen monsters and they weren't cute like you" some of the girls blushed with that then pouted after he implied they were liars, remembering there was a encyclopedia here, they showed it to both.
"Here is the proof, read it read it" shoving the book on him the pouting kids ordered.
"Monster girl encyclopedia?" he was surprised he could read it, then again time was convoluted in his own era and many kingdoms from the far past and distant future used the same words.
"Oh wow, they do what? so it's like that, i never expected.. oh woa, look at this Fire Keeper it's the fruit we've been eating, who would know it was supposed to be like that haha do you feel feisty?" After the finishing reading it, the undead had a big dorky smile and the porcelain skin maiden at his side was redder than a tomato.
"It seems our monsters are different now, but you only birth females, some monsters only reproduce by corrupting females, and others attack males even though they have families to go back to which is hypocritical since you have a non violence thing going on, even then some are more than happy with kidnaping and enslaving stray males against their will without caring for their wives if they aren't monsters who imprinted on them or just go back to their husband homes and convert everyone to be part of his harem..." some of the girls became afraid that their shining knight would turn against them now that he has knowledge of the world.
"Your Demon Lord is a complete moron! There's something called consent she should have forced on the monsters to learn it after doing what she did, but she was happy enough in just turning everyone into nymphos who still act like man eating monsters without the killing part" He facepalmed, for the one being in power in this new land did the same mistakes as the ones in power during his era.
"But i don't hold that against you little ones, the faults of the elders doesn't fall upon the children" he looked at the now scared monster children trying to find a way out "stop crying now please else big sisters will be sad too hahhah..." he looked at his maiden conveying a plea for help.
"It is as the Ashen One said little ones, you aren't at fault for the current way things are in this world", the Fire Keeper caressed the kids calming them, "this is caused by the short sight of people in power doing what they thought was right but in the end cursing us all", the Firekeeper was sad that the mistakes of the far past are still being made even after this world was reborn.
As they were in this lovely scenario with the now calm kids another banging began at the doors, now a female voice who was clearly upset.
"Open up please, oh god please protect the children, open up sob!" The little monsters ears perked up for that was the voice of their original caretaker before noticing the the man rose up and was going to answer the door once again, club in hand.
"Please don't hurt her, she is a friend!" the Ashen one gave them a quiet resolve gesture while walking away.
"What do we have here now sweetie?" just like the guards before, the woman was also surprised at the visage of a male banshee answering the door, she was more surprised at the apparent endless spirit and demonic energy the man seemed to have which didn't spill over to affect her, "are you a friend of those on your feet because my club doesn't discriminate" the man said in a cold tone making the Nun warier and ready for battle as a hero once again, before all the monster children and a girl which looked like his sibling and also had the monstrous spirit and demonic energy reserves came out and defused the escalating situation.
END OF CHAPTER 1