-Kiln Of The First Flame-

Seiko collapsed against the rubble blocking the arena, exhausted. After the first two in the way, there had been a trickle of Black Knights over time trying to get in. One on one, they were no problem, but one after another after another, and she was worn out. The sounds of combat on the other side of the rubble gave her motivation, but she was out of Estus and both physically and magically exhausted.

While she waited, both to see the outcome of her journey, and for her next enemy, somehow her thoughts wandered to Tetsuro. She wondered if he had made it this far, and if he had why he would walk away from linking the fire. That reminded her of Kaathe, and his promise that a dark age would come one day, that feeding the First Flame was a useless way to prolong the Age of Fire. She resented her former self, her failure to stay by Tetsuro and keep him mild and moral.

But as she pitied and resented the Weaponmaster for what she felt was his betrayal of both her and himself, she thought of Jinta. The blind fool who had not only accepted her, but supported and defended her. She thought of many things in this idle time, even down to Quelaana and her training, and wished she knew where the Daughter of Chaos had gone.

As the sound of battle rang out behind her, boots thudded on the stairs toward her, and Seiko was forced to her feet again. She brandished her Black Knight Greatsword, sure she could handle at least one more…

A/N: Gwyn, Lord of Cinder Meets Metal - 331Erock (this was supposed to have a strikethrough, but FFN doesn't support that, I guess)

A/N: E.S. Gwyn - Alex Roe (both are good suggestions for music, but I recommend this one if you listen while reading)

The last Lord to face turned around, Hollowed as could be, draped in ashen clothing, wielding a sword touched by the First Flame. Gwyn, once-lord of the sunlight and keeper of the Light Soul, now ruled only embers and cinder.

Jinta had to consciously relax his grip on his swords, his fear and anticipation forcing his hands to clench painfully. He couldn't tell what Solaire was feeling - the man simply took his stance and started forward. Jinta walked quickly to catch up, then kept pace with him.

Seiko let her sword drop to the bricks. She was completely exhausted. She'd somehow been able to kill two more Black Knights, but now she couldn't even raise a weapon. She could hear lightning striking and metal clashing, so she knew the fight wasn't over.

Seiko forced herself to straighten. If any more enemies approached, her only choice would be to blast the stairs with the last of her strength and hope she created a big enough gap to keep the Knights away…

Please… Finish him soon… Don't die…

Suddenly, Gwyn jumped at them, clearing half the arena in an instant, and slashed down at Jinta. Jinta barely dodged by swaying to the side, then slashed upward through Gwyn's chest to his collar. Ash sprayed out instead of blood in a light cloud, but Gwyn was relatively unphased. He ignored Solaire stabbing him in the ribs to grab Jinta, lift him up, and blast him with what had to be a Fire Art. Jinta was thrown, flipping through the air, to the ground far away, smoking.

Solaire ripped his sword out to slash again before Gwyn swung at him backhanded. Solaire blocked and was pushed back over the ash, but he kept his footing for now. Gwyn raised his sword and swung several times, forcing Solaire to block and dodge and keep his distance.

Jinta recovered, and drank more of his Estus, leaving barely enough for another mortal wound. He got to his feet and ran back toward Gwyn, who was currently occupied with attacking Solaire. Jinta cut through Gwyn's calves, thighs, and back before the Lord could turn to try and stop him. Despite so many critical points being sliced open, Gwyn seemed more annoyed than anything else. His life force was a magic unto itself, keeping him alive, keeping him standing, and keeping him fighting.

Lord Gwyn spun and slashed, so Jinta dodged backward. Gwyn raised the pommel of his sword and turned it point down, then stabbed the ground to unleash a wave of flame. Solaire was in the middle of a strike and Jinta had no way to block. Both were throw backwards, off their feet. As they both got up, Lord Gwyn hurled a Sunlight Spear at Solaire and turned to pursue Jinta.

Gwyn slashed down at a slight angle, so Jinta swayed to the side and helped redirect the blow with one of his swords. With the other, he stabbed Gwyn where the heart should be. Again, almost no reaction. Gwyn lashed out with a kick, but Jinta was able to move aside and slash under Gwyn's ribs in a dodge. Gwyn stepped back and slammed a Sunlight Spear into the ground. Jinta dodged away during the wind-up, his caution paying off.

A Great Lightning Spear hit Gwyn in the head and he flinched, batting at the cloud of smoke with his free hand. He pulled his fist back and responded with a Sunlight Spear before swinging at Jinta again. Jinta dodged to the right, to strafe around and keep himself on the opposite side of the Lord as Solaire. He intended to keep the flanking advantage as much as possible.

The fight took a final turn, in their favor, when Solaire ran in and stabbed Lord Gwyn with all his might and body weight. His Sunlight Straightsword pierced in to the hilt, but Solaire had to retreat to avoid getting hit, and left it there. As Gwyn turned, Jinta cast Soothing Sunlight, hoping the prayer would reach Solaire… And possibly Seiko as well.

With the bolts from earlier - damn waste of energy - and Bountiful Sunlight… I think I've got two more Great bolts in me… We need a way to end this…

Jinta stepped in and slashed at Gwyn's sword-arm. The cut nearly went completely through, but even still, Gwyn's arm didn't falter or lose any force. None of the many cuts or bolts seemed to slow him down, even in their great number.

Gwyn spun and Jinta predicted the backhanded slash correctly, ducking safely under before stabbing Gwyn under the ribs with both of his swords and shoving them in with all the strength he had. He jumped away, watching Solaire wind up in his peripheral vision. Solaire threw a Great Lightning Spear right at the pommel of his own sword, sticking out of Gwyn's back.

Jinta was the only one to see the face of Lord Gwyn as he finally went down for good. The Lord of Cinder's eyes lit from within with the light that ripped through his husk, his limbs rigid and frozen. Gwyn stabbed his sword into the ground to try and prop himself up, but his body broke down despite that. He fell to pieces in the ash, and was no more.

Solaire retrieved his sword and sheathed it. Jinta did the same with his swords. The two of them walked to the center of the arena, to the small pit where the remains of the First Flame smoldered. Without an anchor, the flame would surely die soon.

"This is where we part ways," said Solaire.

They both looked into the embers rather than at each other.

"I have pursued this goal, and only this goal, for much longer than I care to admit. I am glad to have a fellow Knight of Astora by my side in the end. The rest is up to you, now. You must leave behind the legends and stories we all believed our whole lives, and walk a new path. We can only assume the fire will fade again. I hope you can find a way to break the cycle before then."

"I promise you," said Jinta, "I will do all I can to make sure this never happens again."

The sounds of shifting rocks behind them drew Jinta's attention, but not Solaire's. Jinta looked back to see Seiko digging out the entrance that she'd collapsed. She jogged over to them, dark circles under her eyes, clearly exhausted beyond words. She dragged two Black Knight Greatswords behind her in reverse grip through the ash.

"I don't imagine you'll be alone in that endeavor," said Solaire, without looking back.

Jinta looked at Solaire in time to see flame wash over his body.

"Now go. Quickly."

Seiko and Jinta ran for the exit, fire growing from Solaire as the First Flame consumed him, body and soul. The flames began to consume even the ash, spreading over the ground to chase them. Jinta said a healing prayer, only a basic one so Seiko wouldn't be struggling to keep up with him. They ran up the stairs and over the walkway, a spiraling inferno behind them. They ran over the ash dunes as that same fire swept over the entire Kiln, chasing them on their heels until the doors to the shrine shut behind them…

-Firelink Shrine-

Seiko and Jinta sat where newcomers were brought by Velka's crow, around the same bonfire that Seiko had sat with Tetsuro when they reunited in Lordran. Jinta recounted the fight, and the two of them tried to come up with ideas for what they could try first. While they sat and talked, two men approached from two different directions, only arriving at the same time by happenstance.

The first came from the stairs, from the direction of New Londo. He was in fairly simple armor draped in white cloth. It looked like a pedestrian version of Jinta's Paladin armor, without the gilding and gold plates. A large sword was wrapped in bandages on his back, but the parts that could be seen looked like smooth stone.

The other was Tetsuro, no weapons or shield in hand. He still wore his Elite Knight helm, steel cuirass, and Black Iron gauntlets and boots. Even though he had left the First Flame in his world to burn out, once Solaire had linked the fire, any remaining worlds were briefly smashed together into a single timeline. At least, that's what Tetsuro believed, and was prepared to explain.

These four warriors, in the same place for the first time, found themselves in a tense silence, broken by the stranger.

"My name is Zaubrei," he said, a slight accent that none of them could place in his relatively deep voice. "It is a taken name that you would understand as 'magic.' I have traveled many years to explore and study Lordran. If I understand correctly, you are the one to alert of the Abyss' activities."

They couldn't see his face or follow his gaze through his metal visor, but he couldn't be talking to anyone but Seiko.

"There is a danger growing," he continued. "The Abyss has certainly appeared in Darkroot, near the basin outside the Undead Burg. As curious of it as I am, the Abyss is far too volatile for me to approach safely. I would also like it if this world continued to exist as it is for the time being, so that I have more time to see everything it has to offer."

He came forward and sat on the uppermost step of the bonfire's pit.

"I'll need to go look at that before we do anything else," said Seiko, mostly to Jinta.

"Thanks for the warning," said Jinta. "And you? What are you doing here?"

The last sentence was directed at Tetsuro, who was still standing nearby listening, his arms crossed.

"I came to see if you two had improved at all after completing your journey," he said.

"We beat you before," said Seiko, "So I don't think it matters much."

Sitting on the stone next to her, on the opposite side as Jinta, were the two Black Knight Greatswords she'd saved, lying stacked there. Tetsuro had certainly noticed.

"I'm not here to offend or anger either of you again. The both of you together certainly are more powerful than I am. But I want a duel with each of you, one on one. I want to see who was stronger, in the end. The one who acted on his own? Or those who needed someone to rely on?"

Jinta shook his head.

"What, exactly, do you disapprove of in that?" asked Tetsuro in response.

"I'm just not competitive, I guess. If you want the gratification of fighting us and winning one on one, do it when we don't have more pressing things to attend to. Seiko?"

Jinta held up a hand, palm up. Seiko made sure she was touching both greatswords at her side and took his hand. Jinta reached out to the bonfire, and the two were swallowed up in the flame and whisked away in an instant.

Tetsuro uncrossed his arms and sighed, annoyed. He looked at Zaubrei, this man he'd never met before. He couldn't sense, as Seiko could, the magical force that surrounded Zaubrei. To Tetsuro, this was a simple warrior with a big sword, and nothing more.

"How about you? Fancy a duel? I'm rather frustrated after that exchange. I could use the chance to blow off steam."

Zaubrei raised his gaze from the bonfire to look at Tetsuro. When he spoke, his accented voice still reverberating through his helm, muffled slightly, he was calm and curious.

"What would frustrate you about their refusal to fight you? Surely the spread of the Abyss is a greater concern."

"The Dark will come, one day. What do I care if that's sooner or later? I seek only memorable combat. I can do that in this Age of Fire, or in the next Age."

"I see. Then perhaps you should instead seek a broader horizon - a broader viewpoint - lest you soon find that all combat can be broken down into simple, boring parts that only fit together a certain number of ways. When the day comes that you tire of your fight, you will Hollow. I don't imagine that day is far off, now."

Zaubrei stood to walk away.

"You're an equally frustrating figure, I see," said Tetsuro. "But for all your philosophy, I bet you'd be an easy win and nothing more."

Tetsuro drew his shield and Murakumo.

"So perhaps I'll just fight you anyway."

Zaubrei looked back, only turning his head enough to see Tetsuro with one eye through his visor. That single eye glowed with obvious power, and the moment Zaubrei reached back for his sword, it too glowed with magic. The cloth it was wrapped in did little to hide the true form of the Moonlight Greatsword.

"And perhaps you would very quickly lose for underestimating a stranger."

Tetsuro was mildly shocked, realizing that the sword on this man's back was the same useless thing he'd found hidden in Seath's tail.

Zaubrei let go of the sword and it lost its glow. He walked away, leaving Tetsuro with his weapons in relaxed hands, thinking.

A/N: Submissions are complete for the next three weeks in advance. I had a good week.