-The Catacombs-

Tetsuro's shield bent nearly in half at the force of the axe hitting it, dead center. His left arm underneath was broken in the process, and the force bearing down carried him to the ground. An elbow shattered a skull under him as he hit the ground. The Black Knight pulled its axe back, looking down at its crushed opponent. Tetsuro had to choose between holding on to his Silver Knight sword and reaching for his Estus. Either choice might still have the Black Knight kill him anyway.

A sound like rushing air came from the Knight, slowly turning into an unmistakable war cry. The sound, and a strange feeling almost like an aura, gave Tetsuro goosebumps. The Knight swung down, Tetsuro slashed up, and the black axe split Tetsuro's skull, killing him.

Shards of bone and wood flew through the air, sizzling when they landed in the stagnant water nearby. The sign that Seiko was finally having some success against the skeletons now that there wasn't a necromancer to protect them. Jinta stared down his opponent, a Black Knight with a massive greataxe. Jinta had both of his swords drawn, his estoc in his left hand and a falchion in his right. Blessed, in his hands they were more powerful and unbreakable.

The Knight stepped in and swept the axe horizontally for Jinta's chest. Jinta slid his left foot forward, bent at the waist to let the axe pass over him, then swept his right foot to pivot on where his left had stopped. It was a duck to avoid the axe and a spin to get his falchion in the right place to gut the Knight. Jinta's sword slashed a rent in the Black Knight's armor, but it was empty inside. The Knight bashed Jinta in the head with its shield and jumped away. With the distance between them, Jinta sheathed his estoc, replacing it with the talisman from his belt.

As Seiko watched, and listened, Jinta receited a fairly long incantation as the Black Knight charged forward. Jinta didn't dodge, or even appear worried. Instead, he finished with emphasis on the last words of his miracle, thrusting the talisman forward as if it would scare away the Knight.

"Wrath of the Gods!"

There was a blinding white flash and an explosion of magic that had Seiko shielding her eyes. The Black Knight was blown back, but quickly gained its feet again and charged in. Jinta drew his estoc while the Knight was down and now began dodging about again. The Black Knight's axe was powerful, and it could swing with a speed no human could match while wielding such a large weapon, but it was still too slow to catch Jinta. Jinta kept a keen eye on his opponent, ducking, dodging, stepping this way and that, and always sneaking in a strike with his long estoc. A slash, a stab, a quick hop back, a hop in for another stab, and finally his moment came. The tireless Knight raised its axe high for a heavy strike and Jinta stood his ground. The Knight swung down, its heavy blade aimed for Jinta's head.

It was here Seiko would learn of Jinta's weapon's divine properties. Already, she'd seen his weapons leave thin white trails in the air as they swept through the dark, and here she expected Jinta to break his thin sword in an attempt to redirect such massive force, but the opposite occurred. Jinta angled his estoc, deflecting the blow and stepping to the side slightly, so that the Black Knight missed and his axe slammed into the bone-riddled ground. Jinta reversed his grip on his falchion, stabbed the Knight high in the chest, and ripped the blade down between its legs and out. White mist sprayed from the Knight and it fell, crumbling away to nothing.

"You didn't tell me that magic protected your weapons too," said Seiko.

"I was surprised to learn of it as well," said Jinta. "If you'll humor me, though…"

He held out his falchion to her. She took it, and right away the faint aura around it faded. With a flick, Jinta smacked his estoc into the sharpened blade of the falchion, knocking a visible chip in it.

"The blessing only works in the hands of someone with proper faith. These weapons are as useful in combat as they are a reminder that I have talents that can push me on. They're proof I can be useful, and they give me confidence I didn't have when I first started this journey. May I?"

He took the falchion back from Seiko, used a small pinch of repair powder from a pouch on his belt, and nodded toward their way forward.

"Shall we?"

Seiko followed. They wandered through the dark cavern for a while before coming to a section that narrowed but let in sunlight from above. At the end of the narrow path was a massive sarcophagus that had been pushed open. Inside, a black-robed figure worked over a table, surrounded by towering piles of books. The floor of the sarcophagus was mostly covered with very shallow water that had leaked in from above ground, but thanks to the slightly raised edges near the walls, the books were dry, as were the figure's feet.

Seiko and Jinta surveyed the room, but there was no way down other than to jump from where they were, though there was a ladder on the far side.

"Of course, we have no choice but to investigate… But first I feel the need to tell you something. There's another reason I came here first, aside from it playing to my strengths. I was made a Paladin after I agreed to help the Way of White in their mission to retrieve the Rite of Kindling. I was told a powerful sorcerer of some kind had stolen it - a sorcerer strong enough to have stolen power from Gravelord Nito himself. I have the sinking suspicion that we're looking at the sorcerer in question right now. And it's made worse by the suspicion that those sent down before me might be what's on his table down there. Be cautious with this one."

"I'm not worried. If it makes something, your holy weapons should be able to deal with it. And I'm strong enough with Pyromancy that any spells should be easy enough to deal with."

She jumped in then, without giving Jinta the chance to respond. He jumped down after her. Their armored feet made plenty of noise hitting the stone floor, and the heap of cloth at the other end finally turned to face them. It held lanterns and tools in each of its six arms, and had three masked faces poking out of its robes. It raised its hands and the flames from the torches around the room flew from their wood and oil purchases to instead inhabit the necromancer's lanterns. The loud sound of shifting stone and the turning shadows signaled the closing of the giant coffin. The lanterns went out and suddenly all was dark.

Seiko lifted her right arm and lit it, but found that her light didn't reach nearly as far as it should. The smothering darkness was drowning even her blue flames.

"Seiko?"

She turned - face to face with the necromancer. A blast of magic threw her back into the water, putting out her flame.

Jinta could hear the combat, but couldn't see past the end of his own weapons. He walked carefully toward the sound, his boots hitting the shallow water. As he approached, the necromancer came into view. Jinta crossed his swords as the necromancer raised its arms, and its magic pulse met the blessing on his blades. Jinta was shoved back, but unharmed. He rushed forward and slashed, but the necromancer fled quickly. All Jinta managed was a cut in the enemy's robe, revealing a form that had far too many ribs and bones interwoven to be human.

Seiko was up and saw the trail that Jinta's sword left in the air. She ran toward it.

"It's me!" she declared ahead of time, to avoid startling him.

"There you are! This thing is an Undead like us. If I can get the chance to strike, I should be able to take him down without too much trouble. It just won't stay still."

"If I go all out with my Pyromancy, will you be able to find it and kill it?"

"Either we find it and kill it, or it's going to keep sneaking up on us and wear us down. Do what you need to."

"You might need this," said Seiko. She whipped her Gold-hemmed Robes off her shoulders to hand to him.

Jinta sheathed his Estoc and took them. "Are you sure?"

"I told you I'm not good with control. Those robes will shield you in case you get in the way."

"Get in th-"

Seiko lashed her arms out and summoned two Fire Whips. She swept the room in front of her with them, lighting piles of books and the operating table on fire. Where her flames drew too near the water, steam issued into the air. She didn't hit the necromancer, so, obviously, it must be behind them. Seiko whirled, Jinta ducked and ran to the other side of her, and Seiko swept that side of the sarcophagus as well. Nothing.

"Did it just run away and trap us in here?!" she yelled.

Jinta was blasted in the back by a large fireball and stumbled forward. He flogged his back with the robes in his left hand, putting out the residual flames. Seiko spun past him, lashing out with her whips in that direction. Her flames were parted by fire from the necromancer, so she pulled back and whipped both straight forward into a spiraling blast. The necromancer dodged, lanterns lighting and shooting smaller fireballs. Seiko's flames dissipated as she and Jinta dodged. Then, as they watched, there was almost an optical illusion as the necromancer split into two. Both weaved their arms and lanterns in strange patterns, each projecting a large fireball at the pair.

Seiko stood between the two fireballs and Jinta, held out her hands, and snapped a Great Combustion with each hand to block the volley. Before the blue and orange flames could fade, Seiko's hands were together, palms forward, shooting a Fire Surge across the chamber. Both necromancers dodged and split again. This time, however, one copy was immediately cut down by Jinta. He had run around the edges of the pool of water to sneak up on the enemy while it was distracted. The remaining three all vanished suddenly.

Seiko growled her frustration, her breathing heavy but steady. Four copies reappeared in the corners of the room. Their lanterns cut through the darkness, unlike Seiko's flame, casting her shadow in four directions.

"Jinta! The robes!"

She raised her hands, summoning spiraling fireballs with both before kneeling to slam her palms into the water. A short delay and the pillars of Firestorm began to erupt all around the chamber. Jinta shielded himself, back to the wall, but kept an eye on the four copies. Three were quickly burned away, leaving the real one across the chamber.

"It's that one!" he yelled. He dropped the robes, drew his talisman, and hurled a Lightning Spear at it. His bolt struck, shattering the illusion and revealing the copy to be the original, sheared robe and all. It retaliated with a fireball, and Jinta bent to snatch up the robe and block. Just barely, he was able to fling the robe in the way and block the fireball, but when the robes settled in his grip and he could see clearly, his vision was full of bones and metal. The necromancer had teleported again, across the room. This close, the lanterns were all around Jinta, and he couldn't block all the fireballs at once. The necromancer pelted him with smaller flames from each of its lanterns until he was ash on the floor, faded away and returned to a bonfire.

Seiko, meanwhile, was trying to recover from using her strengthened Firestorm. She stood, holding up better than she expected to, but her limbs felt heavy and she was lightheaded nonetheless. The necromancer held out its lanterns and started shooting fireballs, small ones, very rapidly. Seiko dodged as best she could, using Combustion as a shield here and there if she was too slow, until a fireball hit her in her left ankle. She pitched face-first into the water, and the stone floor beneath. She didn't get up.

When Seiko reformed at the bonfire, she saw Jinta sitting nearby waiting. Her robes were still in his hand. She snatched them away, put them over her shoulders and pulled up the hood to hide her face, and immediately ran out of the room and down the stairs.

"Hey! Wait!" said Jinta, who popped up to chase her.

"That was the sorcerer I'm supposed to hunt down! Pinwheel, a necromancer who stole power from Nito himself! Pinwheel probably has the Rite as well. We can't just rush into this!"

Seiko was mildly surprised to see him keeping up, but she didn't respond. When they reached the sarcophagus again, it was still sealed.

"You're a cleric, right?"

"Well, a Paladin now, but I can do the job of-"

"Can you heal magical exhaustion?"

Jinta paused in silence, both at the interruption and the question posed.

"Estus can't heal magical exhaustion. If I don't use Pyromancy, fights would last a lot longer and I'm not exactly durable. But using Pyromancy for fights with these more powerful enemies drains me a lot faster. If you can't heal magical exhaustion, I won't be using Pyromancy for this next fight… Because I need to use it to open this thing."

"I have one miracle that I think can, but it's not something I can use often."

"What, the wonderful gods don't want to help too much?"

"The miracles have to work through someone. Believe it or not, I can suffer from magical exhaustion as well, but mine works differently. If I use too many miracles too quickly, it can be a risk to my mind more than my body like you. It's a story of madness I've heard told too many times to take lightly, so my more powerful miracles are ones I reserve for times of great need. Things like Force, however, carry very little risk due to their simplicity, so I can use them more often."

"But you can help, right?"

"Only once, for this fight."

"Then I'll open the coffin, but I won't be using flames nearly as much this time."

"How exactly-"

Jinta suddenly found himself smothered by heat and unable to speak. He flinched away from Seiko, who was now so hot he couldn't even keep his eyes open or breathe. He could hear stone shifting, but all he could do was hold his breath and reflectively try to shield his face with his left arm.

Seiko pushed the lip of the coffin with all her might, using Power Within as high as she dared to. She managed to open enough space to jump back in and immediately let up, backing away from the opening and releasing Power Within. Her backing away turned into her legs giving out and landing on her butt on stone. She broke out in a cold sweat that quickly evaporated, creating a light mist about her.

Jinta felt the heat die away so he looked back to where Seiko had been. He didn't see her, turned to look back and found her on the ground.

"What was- No, wait. Healing first."

Jinta knelt beside her, talisman in hand, and recited a new miracle. The passages Seiko could catch spoke of scenes of a gentle, golden sunrise, and the passage of time through a life lived satisfied. Unlike the other miracles he'd used, Seiko could feel this one's effects throughout his casting, growing stronger the longer he went on. When he finished, there was a glow that had begun emanating from him that reached a peak brightness before fading away. Seiko not only felt refreshed after her use of Power Within, but she felt stronger than she ever had. Well rested, on top of it all. Rather than contented, however, she felt the newfound energy spur her to action, unhindered by the fury she'd experienced only moments earlier.

They both stood up.

"What… Was that…?"

"That was Soothing Sunlight, a miracle taught to me by the Queen herself when I met her. Oddly enough, she refused to demonstrate it, so I don't know exactly how well mine works compared to the real thing, but if it helped you nearly as much as it helped me in the past, I imagine it's still very potent."

"Potent is a word for it, yes."

"Ready to try again? If the damn thing is even still in there."

Without any more conversation, Seiko walked forward and jumped in. Jinta followed only a second later and the sarcophagus sealed behind them.

All was quiet. Jinta took a step to shift stance, swords drawn.

"Quiet. Don't move."

Seiko saying that almost made Jinta want to hold his breath.

All was quiet again.

The silence yawned open, the dark settled in, and in the blink of an eye, Seiko was gone. In the next instant, Jinta heard an inhuman wail of pain accompanying the sound of thick bones snapping. There was a frantic crying and all at once Jinta could see by the light of flailing lanterns and flying fireballs. Seiko was across the room throwing punches and kicks in a storm of limbs, chasing down the necromancer who, for some reason, wasn't teleporting away. It definitely wasn't an illusion; Seiko's hits landed several times, each time crunching bones and dislocating some of the many joints under Pinwheel's robe.

Jinta watched the flow of battle and stood back, shifting around this way and that to prepare to capitalize should Pinwheel falter or try to run. Sure enough, Seiko took another quick step forward, ever pursuing, and landed a heavy blow. Jinta noticed a trail of mist behind her, using that same mysterious strength that had let her move the enormous slab above them. With that blow, Pinwheel was bowled over, rolling back a bit too quick for Seiko to instantly rush down. In that moment of breathing room, Pinwheel vanished.

Copies appeared and attacked, but Seiko was far too fast for them now. Her new approach had her down two illusions before any of them could even properly attack. Instead of trying to follow her movement, difficult enough as it was, Jinta kept an eye out for the real Pinwheel. He used the flat of his falchion to block a small fireball, but was otherwise ignored in favor of Seiko. Copies were appearing as quickly as she could down them, but still no luck.

Finally, Jinta spotted Pinwheel. It was nearly laying down and behind the table it had been working on, lanterns out, orchestrating its illusions and leading Seiko in her frenzy. Jinta sheathed his falchion and drew his talisman in his right hand. Without any warning or announcement, he hurled a Lightning Spear at Pinwheel. His throw angle was high, so the table was struck instead, exploding into sawdust and splinters where the bolt struck and catching fire.

Seiko, mid step, twisted on the tips of her toes, her whole body contributing to the action like a cat in midair, and dashed toward the startled necromancer. The flowering splashes from her footsteps hadn't even settled before she punted the desk up over Pinwheel, shattering it against the back wall and sending books showering into the room. Pinwheel shrieked, again in a near-human voice, but couldn't move fast enough to avoid Seiko's attack. Seiko brought her left arm down in a hammerfist, little finger nearer to the floor, thumb folded and on top, using the hard bone of her arm, from elbow to wrist, to smash Pinwheel in two.

Far less graceful than a sword, and in no way a clean cut, Seiko slashed her arm through bone after bone in less than a second, all accompanied by a furious grunt of effort. With Pinwheel's form ruined, it couldn't gain the composure to counter before Seiko cast Combustion inside it, lighting its robe aflame. She didn't stop there, lost in another fit of anger.

"I hate-"

She smashed more bones with her right arm.

"-Stupid things-"

She tore away the rest of Pinwheel's robe.

"-That won't hold still!"

Abyss stabbed from the gaps in her armor and through Pinwheel in various places. Seiko ripped her arms apart, in the process yanking the Abyss and all the bones it was attached to in many directions, leaving Pinwheel an unrecognizable heap of bones. With it dead, the torches around the room relit, but the lid of the sarcophagus didn't move.

Jinta approached with skepticism, weapons still drawn. Seiko was still seething over the body of their enemy.

"Are you alright?"

The Abyss retreated back into her armor and she fell to her knees, eyes wide, out of breath.

"I'll take that as a no."

No response.

"I'm sure the Abyss can't be a good thing for you to be carrying around after this display. It's powerful… But were you always like this? This unstable?"

Seiko looked at him without moving her head, suddenly. It was unnerving.

When she'd caught her breath, more or less, Seiko stood, took a deep breath, and responded.

"Have I always been angry? Yes. I'm always angry, somewhere deep down. Not too many things bring that out of me, but one of them is trying to pursue something that keeps running away. That goes for arguments and fights. If I'm trying to debate with someone and they blow me off, for example. Or if I'm trying to catch some stupid-"

She kicked a bone fragment.

"-Necromancer that killed me before. But you might be right that the Abyss is making it worse. I don't know."

"If you know what sets you off, perhaps it would be best if you started trying to avoid letting them do so. It'll get you killed more oft-"

"I don't need you lecturing me, believe it or not. Maybe I'm just not in a place to be worried about my personality issues when I'm more concerned with progress and survival."

A pause.

"And, as it so happens, we Undead need a strong will to maintain ourselves across deaths. My vengeful streak helps."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Jinta, sincerely. "Now how can we get out of here? I'd hate to have made it this far and be unable to deliver the Rite or save the others down here."

"Depends. Can you carry me?"

"Excuse me?"

"Because I can probably use Power Within again to move the lid so we can use that ladder."

She pointed to it.

"Power Within? Is that what you call that technique you were using?"

"It's a form of Pyromancy. It can kill me. It can make me many times stronger than normal, is a lot harder to control than you might think, and has the side effect of generating a lot of heat."

"I noticed that much. I'm shocked you can survive the heat, let alone the strain on your body. You're asking me if I can carry you because you think you won't be able to move after freeing us, then?"

"Basically."

Jinta walked over, bent to put his shoulder on Seiko's stomach, grabbed around her waist, and tried to straighten and throw her over his shoulder. His legs nearly gave out, more because of the armor than her whether he knew or not, but he could walk after adjusting to the extra weight. He set her down.

"We probably won't make it far… But I can do it."

"It's either that or use that miracle again. Either way, I'm our way out, so follow me…"

A/N: Yes, I am actually returning, once again. I feel bad that all my progress is made in the summer these days, but living somewhere where winter exists is something I'll never get used to, I guess. To be quite honest with you all, I've actually been making a lot of progress writing... It just hasn't been here until now. I've finished a bunch of proof-of-concept works on my dA, so now I can claim copyright if any of my ideas happen to be stolen or similar things are published before I get the chance to write my own stories. I can finally say I'm proud of the content I create, and I have this community to thank for that, in large part. Coming here, working on the things I need to improve, getting lashing remarks and kind, constructive criticism has greatly improved me. This story is still fundamentally flawed, but I'm dedicated to working within the idea to bring out the best of it, and at this point I'm really doing it for all of you who enjoy the story. My practice is done, in my eyes, and I'm ready to go on and write books, but as I've said time and again, a promise is a promise. With the Dark Souls 3 DLC, the last gasp of the series, just around the corner, I'll be able to solidify my plans for the final arc and push forward to the ending. Chapters will resume posting here from now on, but might not be weekly until I can get into the swing of things again. Wish me luck, and thanks for reading.

Oh, and my profile has been updated to include reference pictures for the characters in this story, including in-game screenshots.