Dark Souls, Twin Humanities (Rewrite) Notes and Prologue
A/N: Essentially a complete rework of the story with very base, core things remaining the same. I've wanted to write a sequel for so long, but not only was DkS2 a huge letdown for me, I had this fan-fiction draped over my shoulder and crippling the things I wanted to do. I received a lot of harsh, and very deserved, criticism for the way Twin Humanities was. I tried to move on (and in a way Kell of Light was a big step forward), but the weight of this failure has been far too much to bear. Twin Humanities became a huge hit with you all, for some reason (maybe the feeling behind it all?), so if you liked it before, prepare to like it more. Thanks for reading, and here's your new intro:
Begin Again
-Undead Asylum-
The lock on the cell door clicked open, a worn key quickly scraping out of the lock. The Undead in the cell jerked awake, looking around before getting up to inspect the door. It squeaked open easily, and she looked around the hallway. In the dim torchlight, another Undead was going door to door, unlocking all the cells. It wore light leather armor, the hilt of a sword in its right hand. A loud crash caused the Undead woman to stumble back in surprise. She looked the other direction down the hallway to see a Hollow collapsed on the floor, its cell door open. She looked back to find that the warrior was gone. Other Hollows were emerging, and she had no way to defend herself save her strength, so she ran to follow the warrior. From one of the newly opened cells, a Hollow threw itself at her, groaning. She ducked, slowing and turning to pick up her foe by the rags it wore. Holding it by a tuft of cloth at the waist and the collar, she threw it bodily back into the cell where it remained long enough for her to run ahead.
Creeping up some stairs in a snow-covered courtyard, the Undead woman saw the warrior from earlier leap from a platform and stab his new longsword into the neck of the Asylum guardian, a great Demon with an equally large hammer. The Demon shook off the warrior, sending him crashing to the floor. The Undead woman looked around quickly, trying to find something, anything, to pick up as a weapon to help. She saw an open iron door, rusted and aged like all the others, and scrambled over to it. She looked at the hinges, prepared to rip off the door, and was startled by an ear-splitting roar. She grabbed the door, shifting her feet for a better stance, and heaved. The bricks into which the door was embedded shifted, but the door didn't come free. Another roar and an earthquake and the Undead woman fell back, off balance. She ran back to see what was happening in the battle.
Another Undead had joined the warrior, this one in cumbersome knight armor with a broadsword. The Demon swept its hammer from side to side, forcing the knight to dive to the floor and the warrior to flip through the air after attempting to block the strike. Both Undead struggled to their feet, but the Demon was stumbling. The wound in its neck was taking its toll, blood coursing down the side of the Demon. The new arrival took his chances, running forward and swinging his broadsword with all his might, cutting deeply into the Demon's thigh. The slab of flesh that was the Asylum Demon toppled, crushing him. While it was down, the warrior broke into a run, almost crashing into the door at the other end of the collapsed hall. He struggled to open the door while the Undead woman ran over to the dying Demon, bending down to try and roll it to free the trapped Undead. As soon as she could move it at all, the metal-clad man clawed his way out from under the dead creature. He looked from the woman, bound in rags, to the Asylum Demon.
"You moved that?!" he asked, surprised.
"My strength is all I have," she answered.
"What's your name?"
The Undead woman stepped back, letting the mounds of flesh she'd been holding sag back to the ground. She tilted her head, a wisp of hair drifting over her face. After a few seconds, she put a hand on her head, looking pained or saddened.
"I don't remember," she said at last.
"I'm sorry to hear that," he said. "I was called Tetsuro, The Weaponmaster. I lived in Catarina for many years until I found myself branded Undead. I had to leave behind much, but I seek great battles and it has lead me to pursue the legends in Lordran."
"I remember Lordran! Something about breaking the curse…"
"Indeed, so the stories go. I have no hate for this curse; fight for a purpose, maintain willpower, and it is no curse but a blessing."
"But… My memories…"
"You, like so many, must have lost your way. Your hopelessness has cost you some of who you once were."
"That sounds right…"
"Take it from one who has not been Undead long, then, that this is the truth. Now, we ought to get out of here while we can. There's another demon around, and that warrior freed many other Undead, most of them Hollows. It's dangerous to stay."
The Undead woman nodded. They rounded the corpse of the Asylum Demon in time to see a massive crow snatch up the warrior, atop a not-so-distant cliff. Though they ran to the site as quickly as they could, all they managed to do was watch the crow's figure vanish into the distance.
Nearly a day passed as Tetsuro and the Undead woman waited for the crow to return. In that time they discovered yet another crow, though smaller and able to speak simple words, who offered a treasure in exchange for the Undead woman's only possession. She held out the linked black sprites and the crow quickly snatched them up and flew away. Moments later, the crow returned with a brilliantly sparkling ring. Unsure if it had been a smart trade, she put the ring on anyway, as the crow wouldn't return what she had given it. When at last the large crow returned, Tetsuro insisted she leave with it.
"I'll be just fine here. I have a few things with me to keep me going. You should go ahead, see if you can't find something for yourself. I'll follow when I can and look for you in Lordran. May we meet again soon."
The Undead woman smiled as best she could through her cracked skin, nodded, and ran forward. The crow balanced on one leg, reached out with the other to grab her, then took off once more without a moment's rest. Tetsuro remained on the hill, clutching a small pendant and watching the crow disappear a second time...
Several hours passed with the woman stuck in the crow's grasp, the cold and rushing wind making sleep impossible. When at last the scenery below began to change, the woman heard a terrible roaring and saw flashes of orange light. She struggled to see what was happening when the crow suddenly dropped her and cawed in pain. As she fell, she finally saw the cause to be a large red drake. Having assaulted the crow, it briefly landed on a bridge before taking off again. The woman flew into a panic, falling into a dark chasm and bumping into a huge pillar. This caused her to spin until her leg, just above the knee, slammed into a stone walkway, sending her flipping through the air and finally smashing into another pillar. Her hell of gravity was finally punctuated by hitting the dirt, a brief moment of silence, then the sound of glass cracking as her ring broke neatly in half and blackened.