-Anor Londo-

Siegmeyer couldn't help but wonder how many thousands of Undead had been stunned by the same sight he now beheld. Anor Londo, the seat of Lord Gwyn, his knights and progeny, and the destination of all who brave Sen's Fortress. The city was illuminated in a breathtaking sunset that cast the buildings in gold. The demons carrying Siegmeyer and Seiko deposited them on a high platform on the mountain. There were stairs nearby that led down toward the entrance to the city, and the demons perched on the rampart surrounding the platform.

Siegmeyer slipped his Zweihander into its strap on his back, picked up Seiko to carry over his right shoulder, and started down the stairs. It was awkward with the extra weight, but Siegmeyer managed to make it down the stairs and came upon a giant in worn armor standing aside a massive archway into a hall. The giant made no move to stop Siegmeyer, so he continued on his way. There was an elevator to the right that would take them down to the city and a set of stairs to the left. Siegmeyer investigated the stairs and could see a bonfire at the bottom. He sighed with relief, picking his way down the steps again.

He set Seiko down near the fire, resting and talking to the Firekeeper while he waited for her to wake up.

"Silver Knight armor? I think I'll stick with what I have until I've got a bit more strength to bear heavier armor," said Jinta.

"More stamina would be a good idea," agreed Solaire. "Perhaps we'll get lucky and find another bonfire."

"Somehow I doubt that. In any case, this is a way back to where we came from. We should go back up the stairs and move ahead."

"I agree. But we should rest first. The bonfire is just down the hall, after all."

"Good idea…"

Seiko woke up curled into a ball on a tiled floor, next to a bonfire. Siegmeyer was seated against a nearby wall, his sword leaning next to him. Seiko tensed her whole body in a stretch and got up, looking around at the unfamiliar place.

"Finally awake, I see." The Firekeeper, a woman in bronze armor, was the one who spoke.

"Where is this?"

"You don't know? Well, I suppose you weren't conscious when you arrived, after all. You are in Anor Londo."

Seiko looked around again. It was certainly clean and sleek enough to be a fabled city of Lords. She stood and nudged Siegmeyer to get his attention.

"Hmm…?"

He didn't move. She nudged him again, harder.

"Hmmmmmm…"

Again. Harder this time.

"Hmm- Hmm?! Oh hoh! Sorry. I was pondering our situation. Good to see you doing well again! You gave me quite the scare, you know."

"I hadn't practiced much with Chaos Pyromancy. It took more out of me than I thought. I didn't realize it had, and I overdid it… It caught up with me right after my jump… At least you caught me, though."

"That was quite the display, to be sure. Chaos Pyromancy, you say? Where did you learn such a thing?"

"From one of the remaining Witches. And one of her charges also taught me how to use poisonous mist from Pyromancy. I have an idea for another Pyromancy, too, but I need to try it. I'm ready to go if you are."

"Of course. We should move quickly, I imagine. I could see two Undead warriors near the great chapel up ahead, and I'd like either a word with them or to go to their aid."

Siegmeyer stood up and retrieved his weapons.

"Thank you for the shelter, dear Firekeeper. Perhaps we'll meet again," he said.

"You are most welcome, as are any Undead free of sin. Blessing of the moon upon your journey."

Seiko chose to bow in place of words, then followed Siegmeyer up the stairs toward the elevator.

"You take the little guy, I take the big guy?" asked Jinta, a golden phantom.

"They are Ornstein and Smough, the Dragonslayer and Executioner. I would be best suited for Ornstein, you're right. Agreed. Let them make the first move, though."

"I'd prefer not to fight them..."

"I know. But they guard the way, and we have no choice. Besides… The one you'll be fighting has committed more than enough wrongdoings to warrant your ire. There are rumors he's a cannibal…"

Jinta grimaced, readying his Estoc and Falchion. Neither side moved against the other for a few seconds, until Ornstein lowered his spear and shot across the room, lightning at his feet. Solaire stepped up quickly, deflecting the spear with his iron shield and scraping his sword across the Dragonslayer's armor.

Jinta hopped to the left, away from the two as they began to clash, and waited as Smough ran across the room in his odd-looking armor. If he looked nearly as fat and ugly as the armor did underneath it, Jinta thought to himself, sin itself might be insulted to be compared with the Executioner. Jinta dodged away from Smough's first attack, an overhead swing with a hammer that was so strangely proportioned that it had to be enchanted in some way. The handle was far too thin and long to support a mallet of such a size, nearly as big as Smough himself.

Pillars crumbled here and there as Smough chased down Jinta, Jinta keeping his advantage of light weight and speed over Smough's heavy and slow style. Solaire and Ornstein traded blows, but neither seemed to be phased by the other very much. Jinta stepped forward quickly, too close for Smough's next swing to connect, and stabbed with his Estoc. It was the fourth time he connected, but Smough seemed completely fine. He bled freely from the four holes in his armor, but otherwise showed no weakness. He kicked Jinta in the chest, sending him tumbling backward. Jinta recovered, but saw Smough wasn't on the offensive. Instead, he was running to where Ornstein had fallen to Solaire.

Siegmeyer and Seiko rushed up the massive set of stairs, toward the front doors of the main cathedral. Before they could enter, they were both overcome with dizziness. Their vision swam, as if they were looking at the world through tear-clouded eyes. For Jinta and Solaire, Executioner Smough had fallen, and his soul split evenly between them, changing the balance of power again. When Siegmeyer and Seiko could bear to open their eyes again, the doors were closed, the bridge they'd crossed had been raised, and two Giants were swinging their halberds down. Death mingled with disorientation, and the two were reborn at the Firekeeper's bonfire.

"Back again, I see," said the Firekeeper.

Seiko was rubbing her head through her hood, nursing a massive headache even after death. Siegmeyer was standing, a bit out of sorts himself.

"I've never seen such a shift before," said Siegmeyer. "That alone was painful enough… Without the Giants and their hostility afterwards."

"A shift?" asked Seiko.

"Surely you're aware of the transitory nature of this world," said the Firekeeper.

"I don't know much anymore. I lost nearly all my memories in the Asylum."

"There's a lot no one understands," said Siegmeyer, "But there appear to be many worlds, all anchored to different hosts, with similar events occurring at the same time. If you are the one the world is anchored to, you can affect those events the most, but if you aren't you can find yourself at the mercy of those shifts. All I've been able to gather in my travels is that it has something to do with the strength of one's soul."

"Indeed, it does," said the Firekeeper. "Souls near to one another in power can remain connected to the same world, but should the host gain a substantial advantage over the other Undead, those Undead will be thrust from that world and into another. There is magic to cross worlds temporarily, soapstones and crystals and orbs, but nothing can fuse two worlds except the power of one's soul."

Siegmeyer looked at Seiko. "And just like that, today we learn together. Fascinating!"

"So, is the world anchored to the strongest soul in it?" asked Seiko.

"It would appear that way," answered the Firekeeper.

"With that knowledge, I'd say we'd best remain human as often as we can," said Siegmeyer. "One of us may be the new master of this world, after a shift like that. We should hurry our way through Anor Londo. You need to catch up with your friend! I'll take my time exploring here when we've accomplished that goal, first."

The two reversed their Hollowing at the bonfire and thanked the Firekeeper, heading back outside to the elevator. At the bottom, down the stairs, and out to the bridge, a gargoyle stood in their way.

"Hmm… The middle platform's been raised… We'll have to reach the lever behind this gargoyle!"

Siegmeyer ran forward, with his usual warcry and zeal, slashing overhead with his Zweihander. The gargoyle jumped back, took flight over the two of them, and started running at them, trying to back them up to the missing bridge, and a fatal drop. Siegmeyer turned, but Seiko held up a hand to keep him from passing her as the gargoyle opened its mouth. Bright orange fire spewed from its mouth, just like in the Undead Parish. Seiko twisted her hands before her, crafting a Fire Surge to match and feeding her strength into it. Her blue flames quickly overtook the gargoyle's, washing over the beast and causing it to flail. Flesh that once seemed as hard as stone boiled and melted under the Chaos Pyromancy. Siegmeyer stood back, watching as the gargoyle quickly faded to mist, its soul splitting between himself and Seiko.

"I could feel the heat from here," said Siegmeyer. "Was that the new idea you had?"

Seiko heaved a few breaths to catch up with the exertion, but said, "No, I just wanted to see if Chaos fire could be combined with physical fire, and Fire Surge is the easiest thing I have next to Combustion. My idea is different, but I'll try it later."

"Hmm… Well… Now… Now we need can pull the lever here, and- Oh, dear…"

Siegmeyer tried the lever but it wouldn't move. He set down his sword and used both hands, bracing with a foot against the railing. Still nothing. Seiko stepped forward, hands open. Siegmeyer let go and picked up his sword. Seiko tried and the lever still wouldn't move at all, even withstanding her grip without so much as an indent.

"Hmm… Perhaps we missed something near the elevator… Or perhaps there's another path… Hmm… No, we would have seen it. The path to the left should lead to the Duke's Archives. There's nothing we need there quite yet. Oh, this is quite the conundrum."

Siegmeyer sat down, legs over the side of the dead end.

"I'll have a look around, I guess," said Seiko.

She backed up, spotting the stairs and a short path below the bridge, but it only led to a dead end with a chest containing Demon Titanite, a rare item for infusing weapons. She returned to Siegmeyer, but soon wandered off again. This time, she saw how a thin support from an adjacent building was close enough to jump onto and walk on. She went back to Siegmeyer again.

"I found a way, I think. We can use the roof there," she pointed out.

"Oh, my. I doubt I have the balance for that. Not in all my equipment, anyway. And there could be danger up ahead, so I can't leave it all here… I'm afraid if crossing this is the answer, I'll have to ask you to go alone. I suppose I'll go back up the elevator and look for another way myself. We can meet back here after we each explore a bit. Good luck…"

"Same to you," said Seiko, stepping carefully out onto the thin path and walked up the slanted support toward the building.

The path dead-ended into the wall of the building, but there was a balcony near enough that Seiko could easily jump down to it. Once there, she picked her way through a broken window and looked around. There were rail-thin rafters up above, which appeared to be the only way forward. Seiko approached the ladder that would lead her up to them when she heard something softly hit the ground behind her. She spun and immediately fell over backwards trying to dodge the blade heading right for her eyes. Seiko lashed out with Pyromancy to deter her attacker and jumped to her feet, hands up.

The enemy was a lean man in white, his face hidden, with a belt of throwing knives and two sheathes for curved swords, one of which was naked in his hand. Faster than Seiko could keep up with, he drew a knife from his belt and threw it. Seiko barely registered the attack in time to react, earning a rip in her robe and a thin red line under her ribs. She retaliated with a Fireball, but the man dodged, stepped in, and slashed at her. She jumped back, but he pressed forward, sword flashing. Seiko put out her flames, stepping in herself, and catching the man's sword-arm and punching him in the stomach.

The force of her punch would have sent him flying, but with her holding onto his arm, he simply flopped and went limp. Seiko threw him by his arm off to the side, where he lay still in a heap. Seiko walked over, taking a throwing knife and trying it out. It took a few tries to get it to fly straight, but once she figured it out, she decided to take the man's belt of knives. His curved swords were short and light, and Seiko quickly learned they would be of no use, as usual. She continued up the ladder, looking ahead. Sure enough, far across the building, there was another ladder, as if the path she was taking were the intended one. There were also more men and women in white, balanced perfectly on the rafters.

Seiko started out on the thin path, hands out to the side, one foot in front of the other in a slow and steady pace. One beam met another and she had to turn, but the juncture was wide enough that it removed the issue of balance for the turn. Another juncture and she was moving straight ahead again, toward the center of the room where a chandelier hung. One of the white warriors, a woman this time, threw a dagger. Seiko ducked, bending her knees and keeping her hands out. She swayed a bit, but straightened and moved forward again.

She reached the platform around the chandelier chain and drew her own throwing knife to counter. She threw it, but the woman wasn't phased by it at all, deftly flipping over the knife as it flew through the air and landing back on the railing, running forward and drawing her curved swords. Seiko stood in front of where the woman's narrow path would lead and brandished Fire Whip to fill the air with flame. The woman stopped on a dime, sheathed a sword, and threw a knife through the flames, hitting Seiko's black leather cuirass.

Seiko pulled out the knife, dropping it, and switched to throwing Fireballs with both hands, mixing up the timing on the throws to catch the woman. Nothing would connect, even though the woman was on such thin footing. She seemed to ignore the searing heat as the blue flames passed her by, finally getting close enough to lunge at Seiko. Seiko grinned, her right arm pulled back to hurl a Fireball in a feint, her left whipping forward and snapping out Great Combustion. The woman in white's curved swords never reached Seiko, as the eruption of blue fire sent her backwards onto the thin rafter. She landed off balance and tumbled over the side, falling all the way to the tiled floor from a dizzying height.

Seiko looked down, unafraid of the height, and saw a small army of warriors in the same outfit. If just one of them was this bad, with a terrain disadvantage, Seiko wanted nothing to do with the ground level. Looking forward there was only one other enemy in the way. She started back out in the rafters…

Siegmeyer stood up suddenly when he heard the massive platform in front of him start moving. The huge contraption spun around and lowered, forming a bridge toward the massive staircase to the main cathedral. Seiko stood on the center of the platform, next to the rotating handle that changed the platform's position.

"You did it! Well done! Now we can move forward. Only a little further now!"

Siegmeyer gathered up his sword and shield and started across the platform. He saw Seiko get attacked by another gargoyle, but she dispatched it before he arrived, looking visibly exhausted from all the Pyromancy.

"Can we… Go back…?" she huffed, "And rest first…?"

"Oh, my… I suppose that would be for the best. You're in no condition to fight like that. Good work, though. This Knight of Catarina commends you, fair Pyromancer. You should tell me what you found while you rest!"

A/N: FINALLY got one done… All this extra stuff going on as compared to the original makes me feel like I'm writing fluff, to be honest. I'm trying to skip around where I can without omitting important encounters for a lot of players, but the fact of the matter is that I never personally had too much trouble with the Souls games. The worst of it for me was a misunderstanding ("Your Faith teacher is down there. If you go in, you can't leave til you save her.") that lead to me being stuck in The Tomb of Giants at a very low level and not knowing about the lantern. It's hard to decide where and when people should die, how much to cut out, what to skip, what to focus on, etc, without boring people to tears. I suppose part of it is me, wanting to move on to better parts of the story (AND THE SEQUEL I WANTED TO WRITE FOR YEARS NOW), but also wanting to make sure I do things right this time… It's a very conflicting feeling. Anyway, I should have more time for writing now, so I'm going to try to post every Friday from now on again. Obviously, this isn't posted on a Friday, but hopefully the next one will be…!
A/N/N: Thought I posted this LAST WEEK… Oops...