Event 22: Complete Failure

It must be mine once more. No one else may possess it. No other may be its ally.

"Seiko...? Seiko...? Come on, you're almost there... Wake up..." said Jinta, quietly. He'd been trying to rouse her for several minutes. She was stirring, but couldn't seem to fully wake up. At first Jinta feared she was dead, and had removed a glove to check her pulse on her neck. The two were in a small cave, at a dead end full of roots and occupied by a bonfire. Jinta hadn't tried to leave yet, not once considering leaving Seiko behind. Whatever had pulled her through the portal must have lost its grip, leaving Seiko and Jinta to fall out prematurely into this place.

Seiko opened her eyes, blinking a few times and looking rather bemused. Memories rushed back and she sat up suddenly, looking around. She visibly relaxed when she saw only Jinta was with her. She reached for her fallen sword, half buried by its own weight in the soft dirt floor.

"Where...?" she started, getting a better look around.

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Jinta. "All I can say is that whatever tried to capture you failed, I jumped in after you, and now we're here."

Seiko tilted her head, trying to think of why something would try to do such a thing. She absentmindedly rubbed the side of her leg where something had been pressed against it as she'd been unconscious. When she did, her hand brushed the broken pendant, still hanging out of her pocket. Surprised, she picked it up, lifting the left side of her coat with it. The pendant's odd "chain" was tied inside her pocket to a small loop of cloth meant for restraining bottles or other small objects.

"Maybe this?" she said, looking at it curiously.

"What even is that?" said Jinta, leaning forward to inspect it. His helmet was off, and the motion brought them unexpectedly close.

Seiko recoiled, flushing, but kept the pendant held up for him to see.

Jinta cleared his throat, flushing as well, but maintained himself.

"Where, uhh... Where did you get this?" said Jinta.

"Seath's Archives..." said Seiko.

"It's... Weird... Something's wrong with this thing and I can't put my finger on it... I don't think we should hold on to it... That thing was as tough as a Lord. Maybe stronger. The last thing we need is to be ambushed by something as strong as a Lord."

Seiko sat still for a moment, considering. After a moment, she slid the pendant back into her pocket.

"You think we should keep it?" said Jinta, not off-put in the slightest.

Seiko just nodded. She agreed something was strange about the pendant, but to her it was a good something, unlike Jinta's dislike of it.

"Alright. No reason not to trust you, I guess. Do you feel ok? I'd like to get out of here and see where exactly we ended up. I can't warp with the bonfire, oddly enough, though I can still retrieve our items. Something seems very wrong here."

Seiko stood up, stretching her arms up over her head. Thanks to the soft dirt, she wasn't as stiff as the time she'd slept on stone in Anor Londo. That brought back the strikingly few memories she had of the Asylum. It had been less than two days from the moment Seiko had regained sanity to the point of her escape, but her nights in the water-logged cell had been nothing short of torture. The floor had been full of water up to ankle height, so the only place to stand or sleep had been a bordering lip of bricks less than a third of a meter wide. Jinta noticed the look of distaste on Seiko's face as she remembered more unpleasant times, and caught her attention by moving into her staring line of sight. He raised an eyebrow in question, but Seiko snapped out of it and shook her head, dismissing the topic and thoughts. Jinta put on his helmet, checked his swords and talisman, and sighed.

"Looks like our only way out is through that small tunnel," said Jinta, looking at the tube of dirt and roots just barely too small for him to stand upright.

Seiko went first, not needing to duck like Jinta. She had to snap a few roots hanging from the ceiling, but was otherwise unobstructed. The tunnel grew brighter, rounding a corner to a wall of white mist. Seiko looked back at Jinta, her face serious. They both knew what that meant. Seiko pressed forward, the thick mist slowing her until she could push completely through. Jinta followed as quickly as he could, appearing seconds after Seiko.

In the sunlight, everything looked different. Yet, unmistakably, this was the place where Artorias was buried. Only, it wasn't. The ring of water around his grave site was instead ankle deep everywhere in the basin. The high dirt walls encircling the basin were covered with brighter, more lively grass instead of the ill-lit weeds Seiko remembered. Above them, familiar skylines further gave away where they were. Across the basin, more mist blocked the way out, and the stone doors Seiko had passed through were missing. Instead, a strange beast guarded the way out, eying Seiko and Jinta as they entered.

"What... Where..." said Jinta, his voice one of awe and confusion.

"Ask later," said Seiko. It was more important to defeat the enemy in their way than to question their circumstances. With the head and body of a lion, the horns of a goat, wings on its back like an eagle, and the tail of a scorpion, the beast crawled down from the lip of the basin. It was graceful, as its feline features would betray, and it seemed intelligent.

"If that thing rushes us, go for the wings first," said Jinta.

Seiko nodded in agreement.

The two readied, but were caught off-guard by their enemy's first attack. The guardian, as it must be, opened its mouth and spat a ball of lightning. Since lightning didn't work that way, Jinta assumed it was spitting some kind of electrically charged fluid instead... And he and Seiko were standing in water.

"Get away!" said Jinta, dodging to his right and fleeing from the point of impact. The charge would spread, but not forever in a pool this big.

Seiko ran to the left, taking Jinta's hint to flank the guardian. Jinta ran toward the guardian, his swords drawn, preparing to jump and slice at its wing. The guardian saw him coming but, rather than turn slowly, had plenty of time to swing its scorpion tail at him. The long stinger aimed right at his chest, so Jinta had to come to a halt and spin out of the way. As he came out of his dextrous maneuver, Jinta slashed down with his falchion, slicing off the tip of the tail. At the same time, Seiko jumped for the guardian's back. She couldn't jump nearly as high as she used to without her sword, but it was high enough to grab a handful of fur and swing wildly at the guardian's right wing. With the heavy sword, Seiko was able to slice partly through the wing, but didn't have the stability to cut through bone. The guardian stumbled off balance from the extra weight, forcing Seiko to let go and retreat back or be crushed. The guardian tucked its wings in, ignoring the pain from its useless right wing, and rolled onto its feet quickly. It swung its head right, the top of its skull and its horns slamming into Seiko with enough force to send her flying, even with her heavy katana. She plunged into the shallow water, dropping the black katana in the process.

Before Jinta could get a hit in, the guardian kicked its rear legs up and pushed itself back, pinning Jinta into the water with its clawed feet. Seiko was up first, completely soaked and gripping her now broken right arm. The guardian spat more lightning at her, forcing her to keep moving. She snatched up her sword with her left hand and ran to the side. Stabbing the sword into the rock under her feet in the water, Seiko palmed a flame and pushed it into her chest. She pumped up the heat of Power Within, forcing the water all over her to turn to steam, drying her clothes, and causing mist to rise from the water she stood in. With Jinta slashing at the guardian's hindquarters, distracting it, Seiko released Power Within. She didn't want to overdo it in an unfamiliar place. Instead, Seiko ran for the guardian as it clawed at Jinta with a forepaw, breathing in deeply for another kind of Pyromancy. Jinta saw her leaning back, remembered the acid cloud, and instantly backpedaled away from the guardian.

"The face!" yelled Jinta.

Seiko kicked water at the guardian to get its attention, the pressure in her lungs rising every second. It turned, roaring, just in time for Seiko to spray a rust colored acid cloud into its face. The guardian recoiled, its forepaws flailing up. Out of breath, Seiko stumbled backwards, kneeling in the water. Jinta saw his chance, stabbing Emit Force with his rapier and aiming for the guardian's exposed chest. The guardian fell on its back, this time struggling to get up. Jinta ran over to Seiko, drawing his talisman and starting a prayer on his way. Reciting the whole thing had a much better effect than just saying the name of the miracle. He reached Seiko, grabbing high on her broken arm, and healing them both. Seiko's eyes bugged out and teared up as her bone snapped back into place. She felt the whole process and the pain was blinding.

"Sorry! No time for Soothing Sunlight! Now come on! Let's finish this thing!" yelled Jinta, putting away his talisman and drawing his rapier again.

Seiko looked up at him, her face one of anger and annoyance, not to mention pain. He could have at least warned her! As Jinta ran forward to continue fighting, he suddenly pitched forward and fell face-first into the water. Seiko had wrapped chains of Abyss around his ankles and had yanked him back. He jumped to his feet, sputtering.

"Wh-," he said, stopping to cough, "What'd you do that for?!"

Seiko didn't answer, walking passed him and whipping her arms from shoulder height downward. Abyss chains snapped from her fists, dragging through the water. The guardian finally managed to stand, its eyes blinded and fur falling from its face in patches. Before it could assess the situation with smell and hearing, it felt chains on its horns and was yanked to the floor. Seiko pulled back, yanking the entire beast forward in the water. Her eyes were still watery from her arm breaking and unbreaking, and her expression was one of rage and intense effort. Turning and letting the chains hang over one shoulder, Seiko started walking the guardian over to her sword, still shoved into the rock.

For a moment, Jinta thought Seiko could actually do it. As it turned out, however, she couldn't move fast enough to keep the guardian pinned down. It gained its feet and whipped its head back, yanking Seiko backwards into its nose. As she fell after the impact, the guardian opened its mouth to crush her in its jaws. Jinta didn't even have time to yell out before he saw her killed. Jinta was so struck by the image that he didn't even yell in anger. Seiko's remaining bits that hadn't fit into the guardian's mouth fell to the water, turning to ash.

Jinta traded his rapier for his talisman, preparing to try and fight from a distance and create an opening for Wrath Of The Gods. He managed to fire off several Emit Force miracles, hoping the wide effect blasts would keep the beast down. While it did keep the guardian from charging him, it wasn't as effective as he'd hoped. Giving up on that, Jinta began to recite the prayer for Wrath Of The Gods. Before he was even halfway through, the guardian's keen ears picked up his voice and it pounced on him. Pinning Jinta to the water with a forepaw, the guardian slammed its foot down over and over, pulverizing Jinta. Jinta was long dead by the time to guardian stopped stomping on the spot where he'd been...

Event 23: A Soul Not Worth Saving coming soon...

Author Note: Blah, blah, school's tough, blah, blah. This actually took so long because I had no idea how I was going to do this fight properly. I still don't like how it turned out. But, it opens the next event perfectly, and I know what I want to do for the next one. It should be out by next weekend. Sorry for the huge delay...