Event 2: Bell Of Awakening

For those with eternal life, time flows differently. For those who know a thousand deaths, dying twice by the same foe or fall, perhaps more than twice, may run together in the mind. Practicing a spell twice or a thousand times may feel the same. So it was for Seiko, training in Pyromancy under Quelaana, the last Sister of Chaos. Her training long complete, Seiko remained in the sewer chamber after her teacher left her to her own devices. Seiko, forever heeding the warnings of her teacher, handled her blue flame, but never lost the fear of it. Carefully she crafted two new Pyromancies, which she would teach Quelaana before returning to her practice. The first was her natural reaction to forming a flame, the blue, straight-flying, Flame Arrow. The second, an actualization of the imagination, the Flame Bow. By maintaining a summoned flame, and from it firing Flame Arrows, one vastly conserved strength. However, to master the Flame Bow, one must first perform Flame Arrow as second nature. In this way, Seiko with her cracked flask and black robes alone, contributed to the land she had yet to know. Her experiences in Lordran were only of poison, dark, and the flames she wielded. But this was not to continue until the end of the Age of Fire. The Undead man she had followed out of the Asylum was moving as well, and he was not so complacent...

One ring. Another. And another. The Bell of Awakening had been struck. Someone had killed Quelaag, traversed Blighttown, and rung the bell. Within moments, Quelaana appeared in the sewer chamber.

"Seiko! The other with the Darksign! He has returned and felled Quelaag! He is returning to the surface! This will be your one chance to escape. Quickly, child, flee! Either with him or behind him, escape Blighttown! You come from the Asylum, like him. If he is to link the First Flame, it is only right you should follow! 'Thou who art Undead art chosen!'"

Seiko remembered the prophecy Quelaana had told her. If the Bell of Awakening had been rung, and by the cursed Undead she had followed, he could be the Chosen Undead. More than that, even if he wasn't, with his help or by following behind him, Seiko could escape Blighttown once and for all.

"Yes, Sister," said Seiko. She stood, pulling her cloak close and gripping her flask tightly. She ran from the chamber, leaving Quelaana with just those words.

Quelaana watched her run, a smile and tear the only things visible under her dark hood. "'Sister,' she called me..."

The ruins of Blighttown, full of corrupted beings, tribal inhabitants, and foul poison, were nothing more than rickety boards and wood pillars now. On a good day they spelled death for even the most balanced of warriors. Now, not only stirred up by the passing of the Undead man, but assaulted twice over by his departure, Blighttown was more perilous than ever. But also more empty than ever. Somehow, the Undead man was able to make a swift escape while felling most enemies who showed themselves, leaving little for Seiko to worry about. Up and up she climbed, passed the bugs with fire in their chests and masked people spitting darts with poison that could kill in seconds. Up the last ladder, and still Seiko was not free. High above, up the massive sewer pipe in which she found herself, faint rays of light from the sun could be seen. But the ladders stopped here, leading into the Depths. Quelaana had warned of the things here as well. Beasts that cursed with their breath, Undead rats with blight poison on their fangs, and the Gaping Dragon.

Seiko found the first room to be empty, but there were three ways to go. Four if one counted the hole down which the sewer water rushed, with no visible bottom. The one closest to the door to Blighttown housed a massive chamber, with only two pillars remaining to support it. Remaining because the Gaping Dragon had destroyed several in what must have been a fight to the death with the Undead man, one where he had won, obviously. The beast lay dead, its three-sectioned body in a heap. One who understood what they were looking at would see that it was headless.

Down the second path were many Undead rats, several of which spotted Seiko and rushed her. Quickly, she fired a few Flame Arrows at them, burning through their heads and stopping their tackles halfway. So far, her way had been free of danger. The Undead man couldn't have gone this way. Which left the last path, a staircase up to an open door. Seiko ran up the stairs, through the door, and was greeted by more evidence to the strength of the Undead man. Before her, a ladder up, but to her right lay the corpse of a giant Undead rat, a rusted and broken ax sticking out of its left eye. This wasn't the cause of death. It must have been the massive split in its skull, made with too much force to have been a jumping attack; the Undead man must have dropped down on it from higher up somewhere. Seiko continued up the ladder, and was once again met with a choice. Two paths, one up a small set of stairs, the other down the hallway. The stairs were closer, and went up, so Seiko chose that path. When she reached the top, she saw the path to her right was moving somehow. A closer look revealed living lumps of goo, wood and bones sticking out of them. One had a captured sword poking out of it, and several hung from the ceiling. To her left was a door with a faintly lit bonfire. Seiko decided it would be best to retreat to the bonfire for a short while. As she retreated down the narrow hallway, away from the slimes, they seemed to lose interest. Perhaps their senses did not reach far enough to detect her anymore. Safe for the moment, Seiko sat down next to the small flame, much easier now that she was human and wasn't resting all her weight on her bones.

An indeterminate time later, Seiko stood, her thoughts collected. She looked down the hallway and noticed a Hollow in rags stealing a torch from the wall. It headed her way, obviously having noticed her. It ran toward her, flailing the torch to scare or hit her. Seiko jumped aside in the small chamber and fired a Flame Arrow into the Hollow's back. It cringed at the pain, dropping the torch and reaching for the hole in its back. Seiko ran forward and slammed its head into the brick sewer wall. The force cracked a brick, and the Hollow crumpled, seemingly dead. For Seiko, who didn't recall being so strong, it was a confusing victory. She tried to remember when and where she had gained so much physical strength. Lost in memory, she forgot a very important thing. Hollows are more resilient than the living, who have never been Undead. It wasn't until she heard the Hollow renew his attack that she remembered. The Hollow jumped on her back, crossing its arms around her neck to choke her to death. Seiko grabbed its arms, just below the elbow. She meant to throw it off, over her head. Instead, on tightening her grip, she broke its bones, causing it to moan loudly in pain and drop off of her. She turned and once again slammed its skull on the bricks, this time on the floor. In her new-found rage, Seiko crushed its skull. Before it even turned to ashes, she made her escape. As she ran, she had to stumble to a stop. Her flask. She had left it! She turned to look for the small green, cracked thing she had found so long ago. There it sat, next to the bonfire. Something kept dribbling out of the crack near the bottom, yet it was not empty. Power from the bonfire was silently filling it. An Estus Flask! Without realizing, she had found and kept one with her, though it was broken. She picked it up, blocking the crack with her hand, and gulped down some of the orange and glowing fluid. It burned going down, but Seiko felt revitalized intensely. If she didn't drink the rest now, she had no way of containing the fluid; it would escape from the crack unless she blocked it, and she needed a free hand to practice Pyromancy. She took another drink, hoping to find another bonfire further on, and ran again. The Hollow was long gone...

Seiko made it to where the slimes blocked the tunnel. Perhaps the Undead man had run passed them, finding them too slow and resistant to physical damage. Seiko didn't dare hit something that had bones and a sword sticking from it. With no other option, she tried her strength: Pyromancy. A single Flame Arrow may not kill them, but it may distract them for her to pass. She fired at the closest one, aiming dead center. The fire passed through it, and instantly it began to burn from the hole outward. The blue flame quickly consumed the slime. It seemed these things were weak against fire. Seiko thought this a good time to try her Flame Bow. She clenched her fist, setting down her broken Estus Flask, sprouting a blue bow of fire from her fist. With her free hand she reached into the curved flame and pulled back an ethereal string and ball of fire, letting the arrow fly. Another slime burned, leaving charred bones and an armor plate behind. Seiko heard another Hollow rushing up the tunnel behind her, so she turned and fired an arrow into its leg, crippling it until it died. It crashed to the dank and slippery floor, allowing her to turn and clear the way of slimes.

Not long after, Seiko was climbing a very tall ladder. She had passed through a chamber with many fallen torches and broken swords. Perhaps her leaving was a good idea, because if there were Hollows wielding all of them, they would be reforming at the bonfire where she had once rested. As Seiko reached the top of the ladder, she heard someone call out to her.

"Oi! You! Up there!" said a man's voice, far below.

Seiko looked down the ladder. A man covered in brown furs and belts was yelling up at her.

"Did you see which way that guy in the iron armor went?!" he asked.

Seiko shook her head. She hadn't seen anyone with armor.

"He freed me down 'ere! I wanna know if he got out or if he went to Blighttown!"

"Out!" yelled Seiko.

"Out? But you said... D'oh, just let me get up there! It's too hard yelling!"

The man began climbing the ladder. Seiko backed up, giving him room to step away from the long drop. When he reached the top, he blew out a breath and introduced himself.

"Sorry 'bout that. I'm Laurentius, Pyromancer of The Great Swamp. Who're you?"

"Quelaana named me Seiko, the Blue Child."

"Quelaana? You don't mean one of the Sisters of Chaos, d'you?"

Seiko nodded.

"Did she teach you anything!? Where's she?!"

"She taught me basics. But it's too dangerous to go back now."

"Now? You mean it'll get better? I highly doubt that. It's more than worth the danger to meet such a legend!"

"Don't go... You'll die..."

"Well, then why don't you come with me?"

"I won't go back now..."

"Again, you said 'now.' Why not?"

"Just left."

"You don't talk much, d'you?"

Seiko shook her head again.

"Ugh, fine then. I'll listen to you for now. I am returning to Firelink Shrine in that case. Perhaps we'll meet again there. Do be careful, and don't you dare go Hollow..."

With that, Laurentius ran up the stairs and out of sight. Obviously, he knew where he was going, because he was out of sight when Seiko reached the door he ran out of. When she looked right, there was a charred bridge with a red dragon guarding a gate at the other end. A bonfire rested underneath it, but Seiko had no intention of challenging such a beast. Before she could regard the door in front of her, someone else new approached from the right.

"Oh, my! Pardon me, M'lady," said the man. He wore iron armor with a large orange sun adorning his chest. "I am Solaire of Astora. I did not see you here, as I came to gaze once more at the sun before continuing my journey. I was lost in thought, you see."

"Firelink Shrine? Do you know it...?" asked Seiko.

"Ahh, yes. I was thinking of returning there for a moment. It is only on the way, after all. Shall I direct you, M'lady?"

"Seiko..."

"I'm sorry?"

"My name..."

"Ahh, is it? Seiko, then. With such, I must admit, meager protection, I must ask you to keep behind me on the way. We will only encounter Hollows, but one without armor is at risk from even a single wound."

Seiko nodded, keeping her cloak close. Beneath it, only rags covered her body, just enough to hide nakedness.

"Then we are agreed. Let us hurry, lest our worlds split before we do."

Seiko had no idea what that meant, but she had not time to wonder. As Solaire set off, she rushed to follow him. He moved curiously fast for wearing such heavy gear. Sure enough, with his sword and sun-adorned shield in hand, Solaire cut his way across the environment quite easily. Once they met with a few Hollows throwing firebombs, small clay balls packed with oil that exploded on impact and burned afterward. Seiko used her Pyromancy to deal with them from afar and they continued. Before long, the two reached an aqueduct, with running water.

"If I keep you out of the water, will you open the gate to the left? It would make it easier to reach the Depths and Blighttown from here, but my armor prevents me from reaching through the bars properly."

Seiko nodded, grateful to not have to walk barefoot through the sewer water. Solaire put his shield on his back and sheathed his sword, then picked up Seiko like a bride and began trudging through the water. They reached the gate and Seiko threaded her arm through the bars to unlock the gate. After some struggling, she managed to do it, then push it open.

"Excellent. Now we finish our short time together. Firelink is just ahead."

Solaire turned around and walked down to the other end of the aqueduct. All went well until an Undead rat started toward them down the tunnel. Seiko aimed quickly and used a Flame Arrow to kill it. Solaire paused a moment.

"For that, M'lady, I must thank you. Fighting with my sword in this cramped space, as well as guarding you, may have spelled death. Excellent quick thinking."

He turned to the opening and stepped out, setting Seiko down on his left. He quickly turned right, drew his sword, and slew a Hollow rushing up some stairs at them.

"Let us go! Firelink is within sight!" yelled Solaire, drawing his shield and rushing down the stairs. His sword in the stomach of an ax-wielding Hollow, Solaire smashed another with his shield and spun, gutting the one he'd hit. No wasted motion, certainly a great warrior. In no time, all the Hollows were wounded, but not dead. On purpose, he left them alive to keep them from the bonfire. When they finally did reach the bonfire in the small dip by a cliff, Solaire did not rest.

"This is where we part, M'lady. I will continue up those stairs to the elevator. I trust you will find your own way with such knowledge. Farewell, and may we meet again!"

Solaire bowed woodenly, probably due to the armor, and jogged off. Seiko sat on a stone step near the bonfire, just about to relax when she heard odd clicking and grinding. Turning her head back, she saw a huge serpent or worm jutting out of a pit in a collapsed temple. She stood quickly and approached it, eager to see if it was friend or foe. If such a thing guarded this place, she didn't want to stay long. She noticed Laurentius to her left and gave him and the worm quizzical looks.

"Oh, 'im? He's fine, go on," said Laurentius. "Welcome to Firelink, by the way."

Seiko ignored him, a bit put off by him for some reason. She crept up to the serpent-worm, watching it cautiously.

"Yes, I see you," said the serpent, his massive flat teeth clicking as he spoke. Seiko was quite honestly revolted by its mouth, with lips ever pulled up over its teeth. "Have you questions, Undead? I sense the Darksign on you. Was it the ringing of the Bell that drew you?"

Seiko nodded. She saw movement in the corner of her eye, up to the left. It was the crow that had carried her.

"Do you know it?" asked the serpent.

Again, Seiko nodded.

"Does that mean you are from the Undead Asylum?"

Nod.

"Then, would you like to hear what I just told the other cursed one? He is the one who rang the Bell, and he may be the Chosen Undead I have long searched for."

Nod.

"Very well. I, Kingseeker Frampt, the Primordial Serpent, shall enlighten you as to the fate of the Undead..."

Event 3: Sen's Fortress coming soon...