-Chasm of the Abyss-

Seiko noticed Jinta hadn't followed her past the bonfire. When she turned back to ask why, Jinta spoke up first.

"I don't think it's safe for us to go much further without some kind of protection," he said. "This is the Abyss, after all."

Seiko looked around and shook her head after.

"No. This is different from what's beneath New Londo. It's a cave. Yeah, it's dark, and yeah, the Abyss is here. But we should be ok to survive this much. Let's at least talk and move?"

Jinta jogged up to her and they started into the chasm.

"If we let this go, it will get just as bad as under New Londo. We have until then to save Sif and Dusk. We also need to find what this stuff is tied to and kill it. The Abyss anchors to a powerful soul and spreads. New Londo, it was the Four Kings and their shard of Gwyn's soul. Here… I guess we'll see."

Jinta took an extra long step to get in front of her and cast Force. A dark sorcery hit the wall of magic harmlessly. Seiko immediately bolted for the source, a caster up on a ridge ahead. She jumped up and cut the mage down, then turned to go back to Jinta. Jinta wasn't looking at her, he was looking off to the side, distracted.

"Jinta?"

"I see something. Come on."

He started off in that direction, so she jumped down and followed him. He didn't get far before the ground under his feet gave way and he fell out of sight. Seiko heard him land almost instantly, so she jumped down after him and nearly landed on him.

"You idiot! We can't see far in here! What're you doing?!"

She helped him up and he turned right away to keep following something.

"Just come on! I think she's trying to lead us!"

"Who?!"

Her gaze followed Jinta as he ran down a narrow path and she saw what he meant. A spirit that looked curiously like Alvina, the feline who lead the guardians of Artorias' grave. The spirit ran just head of Jinta before running through a wall. Seiko noticed something else near the wall: a sprite like that of Humanity, but much larger and with distinctly glowing white eye dots.

Jinta ignored them to feel around the wall until his hand sunk through it. He carefully stepped through the illusion so Seiko stayed outside to ward off these large Humanity beasts. They died quickly and left behind several usable Humanity each time. After killing only two, Seiko felt Jinta using a miracle so she ran over to the wall and felt around to find the entrance. She went inside to find Jinta kneeling with Sif, both perfectly healed now.

"How did… We would never have found him here!" she said.

"I know. He was trapped down here. Sealed by some barrier that only went away once I cleared out those Humanity monsters. We should be good to go now. We need to find Dusk."

Sif's ears raised and he ran for the exit. He stopped for a moment to look back and them, then rounded the corner. The two followed him to find him up ahead waiting. He ran out of sight again, this time seemingly over a cliff. Seiko and Jinta followed again and found a bridge that hard formed when a large pillar had collapsed. They proceeded carefully down and found Sif at the bottom, waiting again until they could see him before running ahead again.

"Seiko, if he's leading us to Dusk, you should know I have two major casts left right now. And it's starting to get harder to breathe down here."

"So shape up, steel yourself, and breathe. The Abyss has a will. If you shut it out, it will respect your strength. But if we go too deep, your will won't matter. If the Abyss gets too thick, it'll just smother us. On the bright side, I'm pretty sure we just die."

Jinta didn't have the freedom to stare at her, incredulous. The two just kept jogging after Sif. In about a minute, they came to a sheer cliff. Sif had stopped to sit near the edge, and he stared into the dark below, his fur standing on end.

"Well," said Jinta. "I guess this is it."

The pendant still on Seiko's belt was taut on its string, being pulled by unseen force. Seiko looked down at it when she noticed. As her eyes moved from the pit to the pendant, the same black hand that tried to steal her away before snapped up. Seiko dodged it, but the arm swept over the cliffside and batted down Jinta and Sif.

Seiko's eyes flashed in the dark, the only thing either of them could see of her once they hit the ground, but she was surely furious. She jumped down after them, trailing mist from Power Within, sword in hand.

A/N: The Story ~Destiny~ by Mori Hideharu, from BRS TV

Just as only Seiko's eyes were visible on the cliff, so too were the enemy's eyes down in the pit. A large creature was approaching, red eyes piercing the cloudy Abyss. Manus, Father of The Abyss, came into view in the dim light. Grinding on stone drew Seiko's eyes for a second, and a glance revealed it to be Sif pulling his sword out from under a rock, perhaps left behind from a previous attempt. He seemed unaffected by the press of the Abyss.

Jinta, on the other hand, was having trouble standing, and he seemed to have a lot of trouble breathing. He was up, but he was off to the side and ignored by Manus. It was all he could do just to stay awake. Seiko knew that unless he could throw off the Abyss, he'd be useless and dead soon and there was nothing she could do.

Sif didn't hesitate or spare any concern for Jinta. He attacked Manus with a snarl in his throat and a sword like Artorias' in his teeth. Manus swung a large staff at the wolf, but Sif was too nimble for the huge aberration to catch that simply. Seiko dashed in to help, slashing at Manus' thigh and passing by him to try and get behind him. Her slash, even with the weight of her blade and her strength, didn't bite very deep.

Manus' massive paw caught her out of her attack, snaking around behind his back to smash into her like it had a mind of its own. Seiko hit the ground hard, but she rolled to her feet. Power Within gave her unimaginable strength and deadened her reaction to pain, but she knew without Jinta's miracles it would kill her quickly. She saw Manus turn so she stepped up to him and cut across his chest several times before jumping away. All her attacks landed, his counter missed, but still she didn't feel like she was making much of a difference.

Manus was bleeding, and some of his ribs were faintly visible under Seiko's cuts, but he didn't seem to care in the slightest. He raised his staff, swirled it in the air, then pointed suddenly at Seiko. A blast of dark magic, many fragments at once, flew at her and blew her off her feet. The magic scored her armor, and she felt like an anvil had hit her in the chest, but she wasn't dead. She drank Estus and got to her feet, not bothering to release Power Within.

Seiko threw her right hand to the side, manifesting a Fire Whip. With concentration, she pulled it back and lashed out with physical fire, scorching Manus down his arm, up to his shoulder, and across his back. She pulled back on the whip and Manus pitched toward her, unable to completely resist her raw strength. Seiko stabbed him in the face with her Black Knight Katana and he punched her with full force. His fist was nearly the size of her entire body and she was thrown backward, leaving her sword sticking out of one of his eyes.

Jinta fell to one knee, swords sheathed, his hands around his throat. His vision was going dark until someone grabbed him about the chest and he was pulled hard in a direction.

He only realized the direction had been up a few moments later when he found he could breath and was awake again, having passed out from lack of air. A white knight with a huge sword was standing between him and the pit. It was Zaubrei.

"What… How did you… Help her!" Jinta wheezed. He couldn't even lift his head or put force into his words.

"This is not her fight or mine," said Zaubrei. "But she will fight it and I cannot stop her."

"That thing killed… Her father…!"

"She is… Ahh, so this is why I was told to speak with her…"

"Who told you?"

"A blacksmith. I discovered the Abyss as I wandered, and he was the first person I met after that. I asked if he knew what to do, and he told me to seek the Pyromancer, Seiko. He did not tell me why, but I did not waste time to ask, either."

"I need to help her," said Jinta, rolling over slightly and trying to stand.

Zaubrei looked back at him.

"You can do nothing. I cannot either. Without Artorias' legacy, if we go any deeper, we will be unable to fight."

The white knight held up a gauntlet.

"Even here it seeks to invade everything."

His gauntlet had a slightly purple tint to it, and what looked like ink blots of Abyss were clearly visible. As Jinta watched, they were clearly spreading, but extremely slowly. Whether that was a property of the armor or the wearer, he didn't know. It prompted him to look at his own armor. Sure enough, the grooves in his gold-plated armor had turned purple and the cloth over his mail had black spots on it.

"You are lucky to have made it out alive, and I understand if you wish to stay and see the outcome of the fight yourself… But we are not needed here. We should retreat."

"Not needed?!" yelled Jinta, mostly recovered. "She can't fight a Lord in his element on her own! This is nothing like fighting a weakened Nito, a trapped Izalith, an insane Seath, or aged and withered Kings! This is Manus as he gains power! Inside the Abyss!"

"Yes," said Zaubrei, sarcastically. "And do you remember a colossal vortex of darkness eating Lordran as you travelled to fulfill your 'prophecy'?"

Jinta paused.

"We aren't needed. I'm leaving before I suffer any ill effects from this place."

Zaubrei took a Homeward Bone out of a pouch on his belt and was gone in an instant. Jinta knew the prayer for Homeward, and he knew Zaubrei was right… But leaving Seiko to her fate felt wrong. He took out his talisman and instead said a different prayer first. One to the god of war he knew from Astora, on his name as a Warrior of Sunlight, to give Seiko the protection she needed to make it out alive.

And then he, too, was gone, and Seiko was alone in the Abyss with Sif.

And Manus.

A/N: Final Battle from Zone Of The Enders 2, composed by Maki Kirioka, Akihiro Honda, Toshiyuki Kakuta, Norihiko Hibino

Seiko dove over Manus' staff as he swept it across the ground at her. She had long since let go of Power Within, wary of the magical exhaustion it would bring over her. She realized early in the fight that Manus didn't care much for her numerous cuts beyond such attacks drawing his attention. Despite having recovered her sword, she let Sif do most of the physical damage after that, instead opting to use her Pyromancy when he was clear of Manus.

As the fight dragged on, Seiko focused more on dodging about and conserving her strength. She was angry, but now she knew that fits of rage wouldn't help her. As Manus fired another blast of dark magic at her, Seiko kept calm and avoided the attack, hurling another Fireball in the gap between Manus' attacks. Unlike her sword, the flames were certainly doing damage.

Manus must have noticed as well, because he swept his staff about before raising it over his head. A wave of thick Abyss washed over the ground toward him, knocking over both Seiko and Sif. Manus swirled his staff in the air then smacked the butt of it onto the ground. Dark magic rained from above like hail, leaving Seiko to scramble to her feet and look up to try and avoid the falling magic. One blast hit her in the shoulder and caused her to stumble, but otherwise she was able to avoid it well enough.

While she was distracted, however, Manus' paw lashed out and grabbed ahold of her. He lifted her into the air and threw her to the ground, then smashed her with his palm. Seiko was dazed, tried to stand, but was hit again and thrown backwards. Her sword was left behind and she ended up on her back. As she tried to get up again, a black wind blew, taking her breath away and blowing her hood off. She tried to shield herself with her arm until the wind died away.

When she looked again, Manus was trying to wrestle Sif off of his head. Sif had stabbed Manus high on the back and was busy grinding the sword around, shaking his entire body while standing on Manus. Seiko swept a Fire Whip over Manus' legs with one hand as she drank Estus with the other, her last swig, then used Great Combustion as she got close enough. She snatched up her sword, slashed at Manus' Abyss-coated arm, and got clear.

Sif ripped his sword out and jumped away as well, leaving Manus bleeding, burned, and very angry. But Sif wasn't done, nimbly slashing at Manus too quickly for Manus to stop him. All Manus could do was raise his arms to guard. Midway into the attack, Manus roared, threw his arms out, and flooded the room in darkness. Seiko suddenly felt the push of the Abyss much more strongly than before. Manus roared again and Seiko lost the ability to even see her own body. She began to choke…

"Ahh, dragon-slaying. Knighthood's highest calling… I await your stories of battle, young human. I will listen from here…"

Seiko suffered in silence. It was another trap. Another drowning spell, like the one she'd had after losing Artorias' ring in her fight with the Kings. Only this time there was no ring to melt and crush. There was no crutch. No fallback plan. And she knew no one could survive the Abyss even as it was before but her, let alone this.

There was pressure, pain, on her eyes, in her nose, her ears, her mouth. Seiko could feel the Abyss close in all around her, like deep water and high pressure. She couldn't even move freely, stuck in a position of reaching for her throat but not quite there yet.

Now. Now there was panic. Any anger she had harbored was gone. Already kept at bay by her rational thinking, it wasn't strong enough anymore to make her just bull forward. She was aware of it, and wondered, as she died and failed, if this was the price she paid for changing to satisfy others. Was this really who she wanted to be?

"You seem a bit out of sorts," said Tetsuro, walking with Jinta toward the ravine where Kalameet had fallen.

"You would be too if you had stuck with us."

"Speaking of, where is she?"

"Fighting where neither of us can help her."

"Speak for yourself. I still have my ring, and I'm not as flimsy in spirit as you."

Jinta didn't respond, he just kept walking.

"Distracting yourself with a fight, then?"

"Yes and no. This is something that needs doing, and I can't help her. So I need to have faith that she can make it on her own and move forward too."

"The only thing she ever did alone, she was prepared for by others. No one prepared her for this. She just ran in there, dragging you along with her, to exact revenge for a father she doesn't even know."

It's dark.

"I bet the only reason you two beat Artorias was because you were together. What can she do now?"

The failure is worse than death.

"I get that we can just die and keep going, but if it's so important to you two that the Age of Fire continue and she fails… We'll be rewriting history, and it won't be a bright future."

I can't breathe.

"You're right," said Jinta. "But I can't do anything else now but hope my prayers will be answered, and have faith that she is as unbreakable as I think she is."

"No one is unbreakable."

Please.

"That's true, to a certain extent. I think the secret to appearing unbreakable," said Jinta, "Is to break when no one can see you."

Too dark.

"And then just pull yourself together," said Tetsuro, "Before anyone realizes?"

"But if you can do that, without any help from others, doesn't that make you strong?"

"Moments of weakness do not define an individual. The strong are born strong. The weak are born weak."

It's talking to me again…

"But," said Tetsuro, "The weak don't have to die weak. They can discover their strength, and die with pride."

Make it stop talking…

"None of us can die with pride, Weaponmaster. We're cursed with a resilient life until we see the curse for what it is. At least you still think it's a blessing."

"Yes. And I die with pride every time I fall, knowing that I've done my best and whatever killed me will be my next story of triumph."

Death would be so much better!

"Not everyone is like you."

"You aren't."

"No. I'm not."

"Is she?"

If you want death so much, give in. We will provide.

You didn't even let my father die! You corrupted and used him!

We did nothing. He failed. Like you will fail.

I…

You are still nothing.

…

You once coexisted with us. We gave you strength so that you would carry us on the winds to new places. But you failed. You lost us, lost to us, and now you are all alone. You are nothing alone.

What is my name?

We do not care. The universe does not care. Your name means nothing. You are nothing.

…

You will break. We will break you. First your body. Then your mind. And then this world.

I can't let you…

You do not believe your own words. You have lost your will. You are weak.

Drowning alone won't-

Drowning alone is your fate. Not here. Not now. This will not be the last time.

So you know it, too. This isn't the end of me!

But it is. With your death, your failure, you will never stand up to us again.

…

Yet still you are not at peace. Why do you not let go? What hope do you have left?

… It's not hope.

Hope is what drives the Undead.

It's not hope.

Then what? Reveal to us what you must lose to die.

It's attachment.

A/N: Compression Space (Evocation Mix) originally composed by Maki Kirioka, Akihiro Honda, Toshiyuki Kakuta, Norihiko Hibino

In the nothing below Oolacile, a crack appeared. Then another. A black egg surrounded a firestorm. Tongues of flame issued from the cracks. They were small, but they shed light into the chamber. The light drew many red eyes. Drew curiosity of man.

More pressure was applied. The cracks sealed up.

New cracks appeared. More forcefully this time.

Manus closed his hand around the ball of Abyss, constricting it with more of the Dark.

Now the cracks that appeared did so violently. Manus released the thing, backing away to command the Abyss to apply more pressure. The figure was clouded in a maelstrom of ink.

There is more to strength than hope.

Manus looked around. Looked for the directionless voice he only thought he heard.

He redoubled his strength, now on the other figure as well, where Sif was held, dying.

A crack split the first egg from top to bottom, so strongly that the blue light was visible through the ink that surrounded it. Manus forgot Sif. He felt heat. Saw light. Heard roaring flames. This thing was life. It was desperate. It was strong.

There is more to me than strength.

Another crack split the egg, and all at once, the Abyss shattered around Seiko. Immolation flowered at her feet and covered her body, a burning teardrop at the bottom of the Abyss. She raised her hands over her head…

And Manus was engulfed in a tempest of fire. Seiko raised her head, her eyes wide. She cried out, in pain and effort and anger. Then she let go and the tempest was no more. Manus pushed out of the flames as they died and looked to where Seiko had been, but she was gone. Scorch marks left a trail to Sif, whom she stood in front of. Between the strangled wolf and Manus.

Manus roared and raised his staff. Seiko quietly raised her hand. Flames congealed from Immolation into a ball that she slammed onto the floor. Fire Tempest lit the chamber, avoiding Seiko and Sif and filling the room with heat, light, and embers. Seiko felt almost no exhaustion. She felt like a furnace was in her chest and her hands were the exhaust. Her eyes longed to see Manus in flames. Her body screamed not for revenge, but to save what she cared for. Her father's legacy and what it meant to the world. Her father's companion who yet lived. Her sister. Her old mentor. Her new partner.

Seiko's entire body tensed. She thought she would burst from her armor in fire and brimstone. Her sword lay half the chamber away. Manus roared and swung at her so that if she dodged, Sif would be crushed. Before his eyes, Seiko flashed like steel and blocked his strike. The flash was gone almost instantly, and the flames covering her body wafted outward, transformed into a wave of steam.

In a blur, she was gone. In another, she flew through the air, her sword in hand. Her left hand gripping the sword, her right up behind the blade to support it, she crashed into Manus' thick arm. She ripped the sword downward as she collided with the arm, then deftly rolled with the motion to land on her feet. Manus screamed, his arm nearly severed. Seiko twisted and blasted him in the face with her right hand, Great Combustion bursting to life between them.

Manus staggered back, firing dark magic wildly. Seiko threw up her guard and her Power Within returned to Immolation. The ball of fire that was Seiko grew to cover Sif as well, protecting him from a storm of Abyss without causing him any harm at all. Seiko threw her arms out to her sides and the Immolation pushed it all away. Manus cringed away from the fire, wailing in anger and pain.

Manus turned that motion into a swing of his staff at Seiko. She stabbed her sword into the ground and used both hands to stop his attack, sliding over the ground a bit before holding her footing. She smiled up at him, a grin of confidence and victory, as she set his staff aflame. Her blue fire raced up the staff, forcing Manus to drop it from a burned hand.

Seiko let her Immolation go. She let the flames on Manus' staff go, though they continued to burn in a natural orange without her power to feed them. She took one steadying breath.

And raised her arms once more. The exhaustion was coming at last. It would all catch up with her. But if she was to faint or die, at least she would not fail. Power Within met Seiko's will and Quelaana's legacy, and Seiko let loose a Fire Art the likes of which she would not again for many lifetimes. This one was silent on her part. The only shriek was from Manus as he was melted alive, hidden inside a tornado of blue flames that stretched as far up as Seiko could see. Maybe even out of the Abyss.

"No. She's better than you. Your purpose is empty and selfish. I know hers isn't. I can feel that from her. Your strength is skin deep. You live simply, to avoid that truth. She embraces it. Right now, she's stronger than you'll ever be. And she did it on her own, just like you. Yes, others taught her or influenced her, but she could just as easily been weak. Or stayed weak, if you think she ever was."

"And how do you know that?"

Jinta took off his helmet in awe. Somewhere subconscious, he wanted Tetsuro to see the expression on his face. Tetsuro followed his gaze to a pillar of blue flame reaching out of the chasm they couldn't even see from where they stood.

After a quiet moment, Jinta replied, "Because I love her. And I know she loves me. I think that's enough."