Finally they were here. After the realization that some beings could see her, from the battle against the Crystal Sage. After traversing the zombie-ridden outskirts and the winding rafters and hallways of the Cathedral of the Deep. After mucking through the poisonous bog of the Farron Keep, a place where Selh'teus had told Lumina to remain behind for the majority of.
They had traversed the Catacombs of Carthus, a sprawling underground mausoleum of the countless dead beneath the mountain, filled with animated skeletons acting as keepers, heralded by the dark-fearing undead king, High-Lord Wolnir. A being so consumed with a terror of the Dark he stripped his loyal clerics of their regalia and donned them himself, only for them to be shattered in battle, where his skeletal form was consumed by the very Abyss he fled.
It was harrowing, annoying, and Lumina discovered a newly found distinct dislike of rats.
She also learned that if Selh'teus ever says something completely nonsensical and out of left field, start paying attention.
'Tony get the boulder'…what kind of twisted individual makes a giant rolling ball of skeletons?!
But finally, they had emerged on the other side.
To this beautiful, moonlit city: Irithyll, of the Boreal Valley.
It was a beautiful sight, a sprawling, lake-borne, cathedral city, backlit by gentle clouds amongst a starry, moonlit night sky. It was quite possibly the most beautiful place amongst all of Lothric…and like all things in these Worlds of Dark; hiding terrible, disgusting secrets.
It was here…eyes glistening with the reflection of the moon…that Lumina decided to tell her tale.
(BGM: Celeste – In the Mirror)
She had been cast aside. She was born to a woman, Claire Farron, when Claire was fifteen. However, her birth was not the normal one, but a conceptual one, generated by Claire's young mind attempting to compensate for the deaths of her parents. Claire subconsciously took the parts of her that would be useless to helping her younger sister Serah, and cast them aside.
Over time, these emotions bubbled and morphed, creating the personality of the new 'Lightning', until after a series of events triggered by the Gods of their world, Lightning 'ascended' to a place of divine bearing, but in the end, failed her mission of defending Etro, Goddess of Death, leading to the world becoming stagnant, and Lightning being sealed into crystal stasis, to await the end of everything.
During her 'slumber', another God, the one who set off this chain of events leading to Lightning's ascension, and consequently, Serah's early death; Bhunivelze, God of Light, reached into Lightning's being and severed her from the remnant essence of Serah, that had taken shelter in her beloved sister's soul.
Those remnants, fused with Lightning's suppressed personality traits, merged with the Chaos of the Unseen Realm, taking a physical form to protect the existence of Serah, and that form, was Lumina.
Lumina exhibited personality traits of both Lightning's younger self, a slightly selfish, quietly terrified, lonely teenage girl, and Serah's determined, loving, playful nature.
In the end, Lumina managed, after multiple antagonizing encounters, to convince Lightning to let her back in…but before she could, at the End of the World…something no God could control, appeared.
The Heartless.
Blessed by God, granted the title of Savior, given the ability to 'save' and 'release' souls, something lost to the world with the death of Etro five centuries prior; Lightning was quite possibly the most powerful woman amongst the remnants of humanity of their world, with her friends and battle-buddies being no slouch either…
"But none of it mattered. We watched those things rip everyone apart…Vanille was first to fall, with Fang following. Then Snow, who died taking on a hundred of them at once…then Sazh died protecting Dajh…even that weird chocobo lady Chocolina went down fighting…but…it didn't matter. Everything we did, even Bhunivelze couldn't do anything…they just kept coming back…and then…"
She gave a shuddering sigh.
"And then…Lightning just looks at me…and there's this…bright light that came from behind me, but when I turned to look, she'd grabbed me and threw me into it! She threw me away again!" the girl angrily shouted.
"Just…tossed me aside like garbage! Just like before! After everything!"
Lumina continued to shout for a little while, wrath and pain written all over her face. And Selh'teus just listened, quietly. Soon enough…she calmed down.
But…he knew something…well, not knew knew…but heavily suspected something. Something she wasn't able to see. Wasn't able to comprehend. It wasn't her fault. It's just who she was, right now. And the subject matter…was too personal. But he believed something, and had enough understanding, enough meta-knowledge, due to the reality of his Station…to theorize, and be accurate.
"Tell me." He said, after her rant.
"Why did Claire, cast you away, the first time?"
"…because her parents died and she thought she had to 'grow up' right away."
"Mm." He nodded. …why wasn't he looking at her?
"Tell me." He pressed. "What is the most important thing. To Lightning Farron?"
Lumina stared at him, baffled at the question. "…her sister?"
He nodded again. "Her sister."
He loosed a sigh. "…Claire cast you aside, to grow up, for her sister. To be the 'adult' amongst the two. To be the teacher, the guide, the parent, the keeper. Everything that Lightning Farron became, everything she did, was for the sake of her younger sister. Every choice she made, every step she took, every thought in her mind, was matched to the obsessive ideal of 'does this help Serah stay safe?'
Everything that matched that ideal was performed, everything that didn't, was rejected. That, was Lightning Farron's personality. The 'self' she crafted of her own will, of her own belief. Everything was for Serah. The jobs she took? Serah. The foods she made? Serah. The very act of going against the government itself? Serah. Lightning Farron, would burn the world, she would perform any incredible good, any unspeakable evil if it meant that Serah was cared for, protected, and healthy."
Lumina was simply watching his face, drinking in the words…but still confused.
"You say, Lightning started to accept you, accept your existence, and then suddenly cast you aside at the very last second? I ask you this: what was the most important thing, to Lightning Farron? What was the thing she became a servant of God, for?"
"…Serah…to…to try to save Serah. But it was-
"Pointless…because you, hold Serah."
She froze.
"Clare Farron, cast you aside, you, the remnants of her childhood self. You, the shadow of who she once was, for the sake of her sister. It was a foolish act, born of fear, desperation, and oh so much love."
She began to shiver.
"Lightning Farron, sent you away, not out of rejection or disgust or disdain, but because she knew who and what you were. And she knew, that you held the most important thing in her whole life. The one, very thing, that set her on the path to playing Savior in the first place. She sent you away, through a Gateway made of Faith, to protect the one who kept safe, the soul of her sister Serah."
Now, Selh'teus turned to Lumina.
"Claire Farron, did not cast you aside out of hatred. She did it out of love for someone who was not herself. Obsessive, blinding, self-destructive love. Lightning Farron held no hatred towards herself, nor you, her shadow. But her empty feelings were oh so easily defeated, by the sheer love she held for her sister. You weren't thrown away, the second time. You were sent to safety, riding a wave of her final hopes and dreams: a world where her sister could be safe and happy."
Their eyes had locked. Lumina was trembling, shivering, gripping her elbows and clutching her arms to her chest, staring deep into the pools of grey-ringed brown.
Eyes…that reflected the sense of failure she herself was submerged in.
He sighed, before reaching out and patting her on the shoulder, rising.
"Sit tight for a bit. I'll be back in a few. Gotta go play with the Dog."
Lumina merely sat there. Mind racing. Eyes seeing yet unseeing as he walked towards the bridge that crossed the waterway into the city proper.
As she contemplated the meaning of her existence.
Kingdom Hearts Re: Order
Chapter XLII: The Meaning of Our Pains
"Your turn."
It came out of nowhere.
"Eh?"
They'd made it about half-way through Irithyll. Annoying encounters with the fluidly moving Pontiff Knights, the barely-visible Slaves they'd kept were playing backup to the Burning Stake Witches, and one particular rabid Cathedral Evangelist; littered their journey to the Church of Yorshka. Throughout their relatively short trek (with half the time due to looping around after the Evangelist), Lumina had been quiet…but fierce in her attacks.
She'd taken up actively sticking to his side during combat, launching unexpected strikes on the ghostly Slaves that were unaware of her presence, even as they were being impaled. The Knights seemed to be slightly aware of her, able to detect her intent at the last second, usually only resulting in them being distracted and leaving themselves wide open for Selh'teus' katana, and the Witches were just trying to set everything on fire…
But other than the unexpected aggression, she was quiet. Unless she was annoyed or he'd told her to stay silent, she usually peppered him here and there with questions about wherever they'd found themselves in.
Yet her silence was broken, once he'd lit and sat down at the Bonfire within the Church of Yorshka.
"You said…when I was comfortable enough to tell you my story, you'd tell me why you know so much about this place. Well, I've told you. Your turn."
He looked at her. She stared back.
"…it's the same reason why I knew so much about you."
"And why you were able to make that assumption back there." She cut in.
He sighed and nodded, but she just flicked her wrist in a 'go on' motion.
"I'm…the last. That I know of. Of a race of people on a world where yours were…stories."
Her eyes narrowed. "…stories."
He shrugged. "Interactive ones. We…couldn't truly affect the outcome. But we could…see the world through certain people's eyes. See the plots unfold…witness the trials and tribulations…the victories and defeats."
"…so like…a video game…like in the arcades at Palumporum?"
His head snapped to her. "…shit I forgot your world was advanced enough in media tech to have those…" he muttered, before continuing.
"Yes. Just like that."
"So my world was a game in yours."
"I never beat Final Fantasy XIII. Made it half way through, to around when Lightning and the others reached Gran Pulse…but then stopped."
"Why?"
He shrugged. "Wasn't a fan of the battle system, honestly."
Her face scrunched up.
"Ok so like, it's a turn-based RPG. You know what an RPG is, right?"
"Uhh…y'know what you tell me."
"Well…in some cases, it's a Rocket Propelled Grenade. Aka, a portable missile." She nods. "in this case, it means Role-Playing Game."
"Ahh. Ok then I do know what those are."
"Right. So, Turn-based RPG, is where battles, combat, is taken in turns. You act, your opponent acts, you act, your opponent acts. With me?"
"Yeah."
"Right, so, Square-Enix, the company that made the Final Fantasy series, was known for their battle system having an ATB gauge in the more recent years. ATB, meaning Active Time Battle. Where everyone's got a meter or hidden meter, that fills based on their speed stat, in real time, while on the battle screen."
"Okay."
"I usually am all about ATB fights but the way they handled 13's was kinda meh. They made it a little too…specific. Lightning and the others had primary Roles they could take, shit like Fighter, Mage, Thief, sort of thing."
She nodded, showing she was following.
"But their roles could be expanded into lesser versions of the other classes. So like, Vanille was primarily a caster, but Snow, who was main tank, could also be a caster, but would be less of a caster than Vanille. While Sazh, was more support caster, throwing around buffs at the party."
"Right." She actually was following. There weren't many of them left at the end of the world, but some of the kids still had a few gaming devices. She didn't play often, but she'd…met a few that thought she was cool and taught her some things.
"So like, usually for cross-class stuff you can better plot shit out but like, my biggest issue was that for some reason, they pulled a concept off of another game series, Persona. While 13 was run on ATB, Persona was a more traditional turn-swap style with a few quirks, but the biggest thing about Persona's battle system, is that from Persona 3 on, if the main character fell in battle, it was an automatic game-over."
"Why?"
"Plot reasons that were largely similar between each game, but ended up not making sense until you learned that reason. Usually having to do with the main character being an unknowing key to someone's plans. In 3, it was that he contained the Shadow of Death, and if he died, Death as a conceptual being would be released, and the Fall, the end of mankind, would occur. So shit like that."
"Right okay. Weird, but makes sense."
"So. 13. What that did the most wrong, to me, was two huge things. One: you could in-battle class-change at will. That was good. The bad, was that doing so, locked you into an animation that you could not skip, and the enemy could still attack you during. THAT, was bad."
Her face scrunched up. "That's…dumb."
"I can see how the idea could have been that they wanted to push a more tactical usage of the system but it backfired in reason two: whatever character you were controlling, if they fell, it was automatic game-over."
Now she jerked back. "oh lame!"
"Exactly. Tie those two together, and combine with some battles having you fighting upwards of five things at once, each with their own ATB gauges and you could literally run into repeated situations where before you could get a heal off, who you were controlling, would be attacked three times, you'd have your turn, have to change classes, they'd be attacked during the animation, you'd select your spell, then get attacked again, putting you near death, only now you were poisoned, and before your spell got off, the poison tic took enough health off to kill you, and game over."
"That's…"
"Only mid-game. In a game with no difficulty slider. So it wasn't a self-imposed challenge thing. And not even a Boss. Just a random mob. It was stupid. So I gave up cause while I was enjoying the story, seeing all these kinda realistic people dealing with suddenly being public enemy number one and trying to do The Right Thing while on the run and dealing with their own issues, the gameplay pissed me off. Cause at least Persona was made by a company well known for having bullshit difficult combat, and that's the draw."
"Right."
"13-2, one of the few Final Fantasy titles to have an actual proper sequel, was Serah's story. I never played that one cause while I'd heard and later saw that they changed the battle system to be less bullshit, they added in a whole…monster raising mechanic. Which…I don't mind as a side-thing or if it's a game devoted to that sort of thing but as a required part of the main-line combat instead of just having a Location-based guest character…yeah no. That and Serah's journey was…"
"Stupid?" she deadpanned.
"Yeah kinda? Like…the fuck was the point of the sudden hyper-revealing wardrobe change? Like she was always pretty but like, really? Tight ass top making her titties pop for no goddamn reason, then giving her a random ass shape-shifting moogle thing? 10-2 already did the Charlie's Angels Magical Girl thing with the in-battle transformations and somehow barely made it work – best fucking ATB system use by the way – and…ugh. Sorry, I have strong feelings about Serah's journey."
"Well go on then." She leaned back on one of the Church's pews.
"Ok so…there's another game. From LONG before your world existed. Chrono Trigger. It was…incredible. Especially since at the time, video games on my world were still being seen as dinky little time-wasters or money-grabbing arcade games."
She nodded.
"It was a very similar tale to Serah's. In short: Boy lives with single parent, goes to county fair celebrating centuries victory over destructive force, to meet up with childhood friend. Boy crashes into random girl, she convinces him to join her in seeing the sights. They do, meet up with childhood friend, who is a genius level inventor. She develops teleport device, the first of its kind, and boy tests it. It goes flawlessly. Girl decides to try it. But something Girl is wearing, reacts to the device and rips open a hole in time and space, throwing her through it. Boy bravely follows, and that kicks off a journey spanning multiple eras, where they gather people from across time, while learning that something threatens the whole world, that has existed, since the dawn of humanity, and the planet itself is effectively begging for help."
Lumina blinked at all that.
"So along the way they meet, a beautiful blue haired girl and her little brother…while fighting against a tall, blue haired man, who unbeknownst to them, has a grudge against the force threatening the planet for a specific reason, tied to said blue-haired girl."
Lumina gasped here. "Yuel and Caius…" she whispered.
"Schala and Magus."
"You didn't like Serah's journey…"
"Because how it played out was stupid. They could have had Chrono Trigger 2.0, retelling the story with a Final Fantasy twist, keeping all the established things intact, and it was bloody ruined by a goddamn enforced monster-raising mechanic when they could have had that be a game-long sidequest for phat loot and just have different time-periods have a third member show up as a guest and…GAH!"
She snorted…and then giggled. And then stated laughing.
"Yeah yeah I know its dumb and the stories are already pretty damn close but come ON! Like, admittedly there were some hilarious moments in both tales and it really is similar but…ugh. I hate enforced pet mechanics in a game that ISN'T about pet-raising. Like, it'd be one thing if it was a tale of Serah finding herself like, a Rancher or something, and had to raise monsters to go between locations cause at least that'd be…fitting. The theme of the game and the story would tie together. But having it be 'you got Noel, and Serah, Lightning's sister. Also for no reason at all its just those two and they're suddenly pokemon trainers except the game isn't about raising pokemon you just HAVE to in order to have a third party member.'"
He pouted in annoyance, and Lumina just giggled again.
"Right…right…so…my tale."
"Your tale. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII."
She stared at him, eyebrows raised.
"Hey I didn't come up with the title." She rolled her eyes to that.
"Riiiight."
"Anyway. You know how that one goes."
"Yeah…yeah I do. You…played us…then?"
"Made it to damn near the end, but got tired of how slow Lighting controlled. Honestly, all three games had some legit accolades going for them and were kept from being the best in town, because of minor, stupid things. Like LRFF13's system was closer to an action game than Final Fantasy's standard but it was still pretty good, had some nice systems, Lightning got to be everyone's Barbie Dress-Up Doll and fuck that woman looked good in either a suit OR a dress, she was just…a little too slow in combat. For me, at least. And when you've got a woman whose whole combat style is supposed to be fast and hard, a speeding glass-cannon effectively, then having her move at a crawl for repositioning and not having the ability to speed up her movement was…it kept me from finishing, but I know how the story ends. All its endings."
Her head snapped still from the nod.
"All?"
"Multiple endings based off of how much you did. Yours…the one you lived? Seemed to be headed towards the 100% completion, aka, 'true' ending."
She stares at him.
"If it weren't for the Heartless being hungry? Galvanize would have been killed -
"Wait…Galvanize?"
"A group I used to watch, one of their members called Bhunivelze, Galvanize. Shit-talk."
She snorted. "Galvanize."
"He'd have been defeated, a new world would have been created, you'd have been returned to Lightning, Serah would have been reborn, and everyone would have been at peace. One of the people Lightning 'saved' would have been writing reports on people's memories of the past world and the time that time stood still, as well. So it would have eventually gotten understood that this was Round Two for everyone…"
"We…were gonna be fine?"
He nodded, standing up, stretching, and then padding over to sit down next to her.
"You were all gonna be just fine, Lumi."
She sighed, body shivering.
"Damn…damn the Heartless."
He pouted. "Oi, oi…can't be mad at a cat for being a cat."
She leaned away, questioning on her face.
He sighed. "There's two breeds of Heartless. One breed is colorful and has a weird heart shaped red and black crest somewhere imposed on their bodies. They're Artificial Heartless, created by an idiot and his followers, fucking around with the power of the Conceptual Heart. The other breed, the breed you dealt with, are the Natural Heartless. Beings that reside in the Realm of Darkness, that are the natural polar opposites to…well…everyone."
She blinked, still frowning.
"Thing is, the Natural, or Pureblood Heartless, are little more than animals. All they know is to feed and replicate. But they also normally stay at their own Realm, snatching up whatever idiot is stupid enough to go poking around. But…the idiots that made the Artificial Heartless, fucked things up and ended up ripping open the way to the Realm of Dark, letting the Purebloods come flying out, where they could then feed as much as they wanted. The Purebloods, being animalistic, will listen to the Strongest, and at the time, there was no Ruler to direct them, just base instinct of survival."
"…are you…trying to get me to stop blaming the Heartless?"
"Yes."
She just stared, incredulously.
"Like I said, the Heartless, the Purebloods, were…are generally just like a wild animal. They know only hunger, sleep, and replication. Just…y'know, no copulation. They replicate by consuming Hearts, and consuming the Heart of a World, something you might know as a Crystal, allows them to reproduce on larger scales. But they can be directed by someone who is powerful. And only recently the Realm of Dark crowned its Queen, who wants balance to the worlds. So your world…everyone you knew…"
"Was just food. For a race of beings that…"
"Shouldn't have been roaming in the first place, but were, because of-
"Idiots."
He nodded. She…stopped pulling away.
"It…"
"Won't be easy. I know. It's fine. I've…traveled with some Purebloods for a while, and I know the Queen very personally. I just…can't get a hold of her right now for some reason. But she'd like you. You'd be more than welcome. In both Realms."
She just sighed, nodding.
"…so that's…how you know about this world too then? But…wait…why did you say you failed."
It was his turn to sigh, and pull away.
"…because I thought I'd prevented this world from existing in the first place…"
It was a strange thing, to find out that the man you travelled with, your only friend in a world your older self conglomerate sent you to; was responsible for an entire dimension being consumed.
...must be how Yuel felt about Caius…
Learning that Selh'teus and his…world-core 'daughter', had consumed worlds to boost 'her' existence, was an eye-opener. Lumina had already known the man to be…well occasionally ruthless.
He was also strange, personable, goofy, and skilled with his blade.
But to find out he thought himself a failure…because he was wrong in believing that Lothric could not exist without Lordran's continued existence…
He had known, the worlds were linked. But as far as he knew it, due to the way they were linked, if Lordran was consumed, Lothric, and any 'worlds' prior in the collective 'Souls Timeline' as he referred to it, could not exist.
And he was wrong. And he admitted that made him feel like a failure, because while all those lives snuffed out had effectively become food for his growing world, he was hoping to take the atrocity he knew he was committing, and use it to prevent a worse one.
According to him, none of the 'Worlds' that represent the Dark Souls Trilogy have 'proper' endings. They have cycles. Players would find themselves taking the role of a 'chosen undead' or in Lothric's case, a 'Champion of Ash', who were beings who failed to link the First Flame, resurrected in a time of great emergency to attempt to succeed once more.
But all the games had multiple endings where none were true. As he'd explained it, because there was no confirmed knowledge of what actually happened, the cyclical nature of the timeline, caused an erosion of the World-Core, the planet's 'Heart'.
"World-Cores are born in either Light or Dark, and their stories reflect the Realm. Dark worlds tend to be depressing and sad, with a small fragment of hope, while Light worlds tend to have more uplifting tales, with motes of suffering to force their inhabitants to grow."
But there was a third type of world. A 'dead' World. As he'd babbled in explanation, shocking her with how he seemed to…curl in on himself at her mounting horror; a 'dead world' is a World with no true ending to its story. A World of recurring time-loops that are unstable. He used another 'World' in what he called her Final Fantasy series, as an example.
"Squall's world was a Stable Time Loop. The origin of the loops was never stated, but the game you play through is a fragment of the Loop. Squall's story has him going from emotionally damaged cold loner child soldier to emotionally damaged child soldier. Yeah I know doesn't sound like much of a difference but the growth was surprisingly blatant. But the Stable Time Loop, was that, in the future, there would be a Sorceress called Ultimecia. She was told to be the most powerful Sorceress ever, causer of many atrocities and seeker of the past, to link it to the future in such a way that both merged into a present where she was effectively God. Thing is, Ultimecia became so atrocious as a result of the oppression that Sorceresses faced.
What makes it fuckity, is that the Sorceresses only faced active oppression, because of the foreknowledge that one of them would become Ultimecia, and effectively destroy the world. The way Sorceresses work is through a quiet ritual called the Succession of Witches, wherin a Sorceress, always female, declares someone her inheritor. The Sorceress' power then goes to the new girl, who is instantly a Sorceress, even if she has absolutely no training at all.
How the time loop worked, was that Squall or rather 'a SeeD with a Gunblade' would defeat Ultimecia, who would pass her powers onto a gorgeous goth-looking woman who ran an orphanage, who would then be warned about that very Sorceress and that she needed to prepare for a coming War. The woman would then, with her husband, create the idea of a system of training academies loosely bound to three major continents of the world, to combat the Sorceress, all while the woman's mental state was slowly degraded by that very same Sorceress, reaching backwards in time. But because it was becoming spread amongst important people, that a Sorceress named Ultimecia was a major threat, by the time Ultimecia's time came around, everyone had a hate-boner for Sorceresses, who were already a rather…unrepresented people, which led to Ultimecia's desire to merge time into a world she could control, in the name of the fallen, which led to her being defeated, which leads to Squall telling Edea about Ultimecia…and you get the picture."
'Squall's' world, counted as a world in the Dark, but not a 'dead' world, because Squall's tale has a stated beginning and end. A world like Lothric, or Lordran, has a stated beginning, but no definitive ending.
"The game's stories centered around the cyclical nature of things. Gwyn found the First Flame and brought Change to the stagnant world. But because he brought Change, he brought Differences, opposites, contrasts and conflicts. 'Life' existed before, but now Life existed, thanks to Gwyn. And because of that, now Death existed. Things were no longer permanent. So like all things, the First Flame began to fade, and Gwyn panicked."
Lordran, Drangleic, and Lothric all existed on a timeline. Lordran, at some point would become Drangleic, which would at some point, melt into Lothric. Lothric was the defined final state, while Lordran and Drangleic were previous ones, but the only documented ones. But when and how Lordran became Drangleic and those two melted into Lothric, was unknown.
"The nature of the game's story states there Is a Chosen Undead. Not who, not where they're from, not even if they succeed or fail, or if they walk away in the end. The cycle repeats, Light, Dark, Light, Dark, Light, Dark, but nobody knows if its multiple chains of Light or constant Dark with a period of Light every now and then, or if it's a back-and-forth."
Because such key chunks of conceptual knowledge don't exist, the World-Core cannot stabilize properly, and begins to break down.
"Dead Worlds are Worlds that can create no native Keyblade. The Weapon of Heart's Light that all worlds hold as their Final Defense. Thing is, after Earth…it seems most World Cores were asleep. Silent. Existing but running in standby. The Keyblade and its concept, was sealed for a while."
Her World, was one that could have had this weapon…had it been awoken before the Heartless came and swarmed. But 'Dead Worlds' could have no such weapon, and thus were pools of concept just waiting to collapse in upon themselves.
By having his 'daughter' consume Lordran, he was putting its flagging energies to use, and in his eyes, preventing Drangleic and Lothric from existing.
"All three of these temporal islands are shitholes. There is no hope, barely survival. Their Gods abandoned them, their leaders focusing more on their own coffers and power than anything else. There are still some good people, but overall, the reason these worlds are in such turmoil is because the natural order of things was not allowed to happen. The First Flame has never properly gone out. The periods of Dark these cycles sometimes have, get extinguished by someone managing eventually to rekindle the First Flame. There is no ending."
Pointless sacrifices, he called them. Her world had 'A Savior' because that was always Bhunivelze's plan. 'Life' could continue in his newly created world but only the Lives he chose, and he would Rule them regardless. But Lothric, Drangleic, Lordran, and all the unstoried times in between those temporal hubs, had no savior.
Because even rekindling the First Flame wasn't an ending, it was a stopgap. The Undead Curse remained, the slow conceptual collapse of reality would resume, all because there was no definitive answer. Things would just suddenly get better, or suddenly get worse. No stories of a heroic sacrifice, no tales of a damning threat, just silent, unseen choices, made by unnamed, unknown individuals.
Because of this, its inhabitants could not tell the tale of what was True. And this lack of Observed Truth, meant that the World-Core would collapse in upon itself, and the world would suffer a fate worse than even becoming food for the Heartless.
"A world the Heartless consume the Heart of…can potentially be restored, if done soon enough. Like a temporal reset for the world, to the state it was in just before the Heartless devoured it. But even worlds that are fully consumed, lost to the bowels of the Dark, still have fragments survive.
Umbras, Realm of the Deep, is the name I gave to the new Queen of Dark, for her Realm. And even before I gave it that Name, I know, that fragments of worlds consumed by the Heartless, get added to it. Umbras, as far as I know, holds traits from many, many worlds."
But Dead Worlds…they just collapse. Nobody to know of them, nobody to remember them. Lost to the Void.
And Lumina…found herself wondering…
Knowing all of that…knowing who he was, and what he'd done…
Why do I still trust him?
"You are a true friend. Best of luck in your duty."
The battle was fierce, yet over unexpectedly quickly. When Siegward had slowly walked through the fog gate, seeing Selh'teus waiting for him on the other side, a sad grin on his face as if to ask what took him; he had prepared himself for a grueling battle. Both in emotional aspect, as the foe was his old friend, and in martial might.
Yhorm, after all, was…well…fucking huge. As tall as a house, as mighty as a God, and as durable as a mountain.
And yet…his battle companion, the one who called himself Selh'teus…was an incredible combatant. Siegward needed not to worry about Yhorm's wide, sweeping, powerful strikes, for the Giant's attention was kept by Selh'teus' flittering movements. Storm Ruler roared with its mystic winds, summoning razor sharp gales, sharper than any blade, carving deep into Yhorm's flesh, well past his armor and mail. Each strike, long to prepare, quick to release, biting further and further, gouging a greater hole into not merely Yhorm's life, but Siegward's heart.
It hurt, to have to come to blows with his old friend, but he was a man of his word, and Yhorm himself had requested this battle.
And Selh'teus, a mighty ally indeed, kept the Giant distracted, unable to punish the long gathering time for the mystical winds of the Storm Ruler, as he was busy attempting to squash the dark-skinned warrior like a bug. It troubled Siegward, to have his ally – no, his friend, play bait in what should have been his duty…but…
"This is your story, Siegward. I am but merely an extra. Your promise will be kept by your hand, this, I swear."
The man was swift indeed. Though his armor was light – barely there even! – his movements were quick and steady. The air from Yhorm's swings seemed to ruffle only the tails of his coat, and the hairs on his head. His footing sure, even with the mighty stomps the Giant would make in attempt to squash the Ashen One. And yet…even as Yhorm knelt, drawing upon the power of the First Flame, the power nestled deep within his very Soul, Selh'teus made a mad dash to Yhorm's throne.
And retrieved the Storm Ruler that the Giant had sworn never to use again.
When Yhorm rose, he fell to his knees once more, as both Selh'teus and Siegward both, swung the sharpened air blades in tandem. Enraged, Yhorm took a mighty charging leap, at Siegward, only to be forced to stumble by the most pinpoint application of Emit Force that Siegward had ever seen. A mighty bellow was all the warning the Giant received, - "I cast FIST!" - as the distortion of compressed power launched from the Ashen One's fist, kissing thoroughly the back of Yhorm's head. The Giant, caught unawares, dropped to all fours, as Siegward rose his blade high once more.
And in that last moment blade poised high, raging winds converging around it, the Knight of Catarina, saw the pleading in his old friend's eye.
"So why…this? Any of this?"
"What do you mean?"
She gestured vaguely at the world around them.
"Why go through with all this? Why not just leave?"
He sighed.
"I can't. Like, literally. First thing I did when I woke up, before I realized where I was, I called for her. The Queen of the Dark. She's been my companion for the last year and a woman very close to me. I know if I call, she'll answer. But…she didn't. For some reason, she can't 'hear' me. I'm guessing it has to do with me having fought the Original World-Core and whatever She did before I got here…"
"The What?"
"Long story. Short of it is, your world, this world, every other world out there? Came after mine was destroyed. And mine wasn't destroyed by Heartless, but its own semi-sentient Core, deciding it made a mistake and wiping out humanity. That core was still alive, and I fought its personification, and I think I beat it…but I just…woke up here."
She stared incredulously.
"So anyway, I'm doing all this cause…when I was in Lordran, it wasn't until I reached a certain point in the 'plot' did I get back in contact with the rest of the greater universe. I'm hoping, in part, that by doing this, that either the same thing happens or…I dunno. Something, changes..."
Something changes indeed…
He quietly sighed to himself, sparing a glance over his shoulder.
After their…shared info-dumps, Lumina had – rightfully so, according to him – decided to take a break from the journey. She gave the excuse that she was tired from all the walking, but he knew the truth. Or…what he believed, was the truth: she was wary around him, now.
Not that he blamed her. He is, after all, responsible for multiple counts of genocide on multi-global scales. That guilt, that weight, would always sit with him, no matter how positive his life might become at times. Lycoris may have done the deed, but he was the one who gave the okay for it. Thus…after reaching the Distant Manor bonfire, she decided to take a break. He, on the other hand, kept going.
Doubling back, he'd turned, and headed back into the waterway, going to the sewer beneath the city, making his way to meeting Siegward once again. Sharing a drink with the Catarinan, he moved on, making his way through Silver Knights, Slaves, Dogs and Pontiff Knights alike, securing the path to the area's 'boss.'
Fueled by depressed anger, at both what seemed to be the inevitable loss of one of four points of 'light' in his life currently, along with rage at what the 'ruler' of Anor Londo had done, he tore into Pontiff Sulyvahn with a fury not seen before. Barely even paying attention to the gigantic man's own swings, he'd ducked and dodged and leapt over every attack, frustrating the Pontiff with each miss, punishing him severely with multiple rapid strikes of the suddenly stronger blade.
Unnoticed by Selh'teus, it was as if the blade was drinking in his darker feelings, his frustration, his guilt; and becoming somehow sharper. When the Pontiff summoned his branched wings, calling forth its shaded echo, the manifestation of his twisted soul was shattered in a single hit. So consumed by his own thoughts and feelings, Selh'teus didn't properly register the impossibility, while Sulyvahn himself, was simply stunned.
Leaving himself open, for a finishing impalement to the head.
With that done, Selh'teus returned to the shrine, noting he didn't see Lumina nearby. A brief visit with Irina, who had told him of her reassuring conversation with Eygon, and…Selh'teus decided to spend some time speaking with the Fire Keeper. Whom, during one of his return visits with Lumina, he had asked if she had a name.
But it turns out, in this time, much like their eyes, Keepers give up their sight, for the price to tend the Flame. Thus, Selh'teus asked if she minded he gift her one.
"In thanks…for your sacrifice."
Stunned, she could do naught but accept, and thus, he named her 'Frelia'.
"The name of a Goddess…who maintained the World."
After his visit, he returned to his journey…
Downward.
He blew through the Irithyll Dungeon, ignoring all the jumpscare traps along the way (because fuck that and he had no need for the items), pushed down into the Profaned Capital, navigated the poison swamp, carved his way into the small cell-block that housed the key he sought, and set free Siegward…for his final confrontation with Yhorm.
Yet…the change he was musing on…
Was his unconscious reaction, to returning back to the Dungeon, and freeing Karla.
"Good to know a skinny little heretic can still turn heads."
*CRACK*
The woman jumped at the noise. …of…a man…snapping one…of the cell's bars…with his bare hand?
…wait a moment…that's not one of my captors.
"Oh…you're not one of them, are you? Forgive me for mistaking you for one of those leeches. Might I ask what business you have here? This is a land of monstrosities, after all…and I am no exce-
He moved, swiftly.
"Wh-hey! What do you think you are doing just-
And picked her up, slung over his back like a sack of flour. Her wide-brimmed witchy hat flew off her head only for him to grasp it by its rim, firmly, but gently. And then he moved. Swift, ground-eating strides. The Jailers' eyes glowed red, raising their life-draining lanterns…and were pulverized by a transparent sphere of pure Force. Karla, whom had been futilely struggling up to that point, stopped.
She had seen power. And she had seen Power.
This…what he'd just done…was Power.
Even the strongest of Clerics still needed a few moments to build their focus for the Miracle known as Emit Force. He'd done it with a simple raise of his hand and a vague shooing gesture. Not to mention, she had never even heard of the Gods wielding it with such strength that it obliterated what it touched. Thus, the heretical mage ceased her vain struggles.
…whatever he'd planned for her…couldn't be much worse than what the Jailers had done…
…
Couldn't be worse. Hmph. I am a fool indeed.
For all of the things she'd been resigned to…being found by a Champion of Ash, set free, 'kidnapped'…and brought to an underground heated lake and told to 'take however long she needed to wash herself of the filth of Irithyll and feel like herself again'…was not one of them.
Her captor-slash-rescuer, had brought her to an Abandoned Tomb, and after a journey through a small cave, the Smoldering Lake, dropped her by the lake's shore, and told her to clean herself, and relax.
She was…surprised. For his rough treatment of her before, she'd expected something different…but almost like a knight, he turned away and sat down, giving her space and privacy, offering to wash and dry her robes while she bathed, yet remaining close enough to keep an eye on her.
"I won't be looking unless you ask me to, but I'm staying nearby in case one of the crabs gets curious. Believe me when I say you'll hear them coming long before they're a threat, should they be of a mind to be, but still."
Thus…for the first time in a long time…Karla was able to bathe. Let alone with such delectably warm water. Scalding, nearly, but after a time, she adjusted…and all the aches and tension began to fade…
…maybe it's pointless…
Hearing the content sigh from the distance…he sat quietly.
…but just like before…even if it's pointless in the end…
…I want to make sure these people…can be a bit happy…before it all falls apart.
Staring at the cave wall. He sat silently.
…because this place exists. When it shouldn't. And if it exists anyway, then I failed. And if I failed to prevent its existential tragedy, then I need to do what I can…to soothe the end for the ones who just wanted peace.
And then he sighed.
"I'm skipping through the fucking Archives though. …agh shit I'm gonna have to fight that tit-bitch Gundyr…"
A/N: You all know the drill by now. This isnt dead, though i've no doubt some people's interest in it is. This will be done. Even if i'm fighting myself tooth and nail to get it done right, it will be done. Only a couple more Lothric-centric chapters left. Then...a couple more things happen and we hit the Endgame.
Ant0nius: it's actually thanks to you that this is being posted. i've got one other "finished" chapter waiting, but our conversation has given me enough of a mental boost that i feel like i might be able to push the next ones out soon. Still got to figure out how to best convey one particular bit but...we'll get there when we get there.