Chapter 8:

Upon arrival to Sen's Fortress (and getting a meeting with Andre the blacksmith to get our armor and weapons repaired) we immediately noted that there were snake guards that were waiting for us inside the fortress, which we defeated in some hand-to-hand combat, which was easy for me when I had 3 allies to work with of great power.

"Hmm... maybe I could take over one of the snake guards from this place?" Pollocks asked, me smirking at that.

"You'd choose scales over stone?" I asked.

"Hmm, good point," Pollocks admitted as we then got to the first treacherous part, that being the long walkways with the giant swinging axes. I then decided to try and attack the poles of the axes and, when I did so with the Black Knight Sword, I was shocked that I'd managed to demolish it in one go! But doing so also made the sword get a bit damaged.

"I think that sword may be destroyed if only it is used until the end. Maybe we need to attack it with other heavy weapons, like my gargoyle's axe," Pollocks suggested.

"I actually have another heavy-duty weapon on standby, I just haven't used it because it's a blunt-force weapon," I admitted as I showed off the giant club I'd got from the Asylum Demon, which the others looked at in surprise at how I hefted it with one hand, me then going forward down the path and using it against the next couple axes. And when I did, the axes got shredded into shrapnel and the club itself barely got a dent!

"Holy shit! That's a spicy-a meat-a-ball!" I shouted in an Italian accent, making the others confused before I then simply smacked the club into the first snake guard in our path and sent him down to the thick water below, motioning my allies forward, us getting past before the lightning lizard noticed us. And when we got up to that one, I proceeded to smack the axes in unison and block the electrical blasts with Havel's great shield as I inched further down until I finally smacked the cobra mage in the head, squishing his face into the ground flatter than a pancake!

"Impressive! But we should still be cautious," Solaire said as we then moved forward, and I then saw the chest in front of us. I proceeded to put my foot in front of it and have the shield eat up the dart for me.

"Booby-trapped," I smirked.

"How did you know it would be?" Castor asked as I simply pointed to the blood that was on the ground next to the chest as well as one other thing.

"A treasure chest lays out in the open and you expect nothing bad to happen when you open it?" I asked.

"Good point. Most people would hide their chests somewhere safe," Pollocks smirked as we then moved to the next part, that being the boulder room, where we saw the boulder roll past underneath us! And when this happened, I then moved forward slightly and saw another boulder slam into some cobras that were on the other side of the hole in the wall! But before we could move forward anymore, we heard a voice.

"I say! Are there any decent folk over there? I could use a bit of assistance!" said the voice of Big Hat Logan down the road from the broken wall from the first boulder, me going down there and making sure my group was protected from any further boulder intrusions by making sure they were blocked by my magic. And as we moved back, I had to blast back at least 4 boulders in succession, each of them colliding into the wall until they happened to make it cave-in enough to the point the boulders went off-course and into tbe large chasm as opposed to coming to us. As for Logan's location, he was trapped in the cage at the very end of the rows.

"Would you happen to be the sorcorer Logan?" I asked, him chuckling at that.

"I am... do you know how to get me out of this cage?" he asked, me then simply getting a simple thing that I'd had on my person since I'd arrived in this world. What was it? A shaved key. And before anyone asked, no, I didn't use it for crime, just to get into my dorm when I lost my original key, which happened after only three days at college. But in this case, it made the perfect insertion to open Logan's cell door, and he got out of it and onto dry land without a scratch. "I thank you, fair maiden. May I ask your name?" he asked.

"Penny Pines, leader of the group and planning to meet with Princess Gwynevere in Anor Londo. We saved your apprentice Griggs, and he told us that you might need help," I smirked.

"I did. If you had arrived an hour later, I'd be placed in one of those skewer sarcophagi. I'll get going out of this place now. I'll meet with you in the future, I'm sure," Logan said as he then warped away with a Homeward Bone, me smirking at the fact that he couldn't do so in the cage because it blocked magic.

"Anti-magic metal, huh? Very tricky whoever made this fortress," I admitted.

"That would mean that this is made of Occultic metals, made from followers of Gravelord Nito," Pollocks smirked.

"Leave it to the necromancer to know about the occult," I joked.

"Yes," he smirked as we then backtracked to the area with the large hill, where we happened to see Siegmeyer had managed to get to the top of the hill and then motioned us to the fog wall that led us further into the complex, me then defeating the two snake guards that were waiting for us inside.

"A soldier from the nation of Catarina? That's a very far away country. May I ask your name?" Solaire asked the onion-armored bro.

"I am Siegmeyer. I was hoping to go out and find adventure, but I got right stuck for a bit in this area because of those dastardly boulders. I then heard the boulders getting diverted elsewhere, allowing me to fight my way to the top of the hill, into the area where the boulders come down, and I threw something special at the machine to make sure it never made any more come down," he said, me being confused before we then moved forward to see what he meant. Once we got to the top of the place, we saw that he'd managed to block the large mechanism's gears of moving the boulders with a spare set of his armor and he also destroyed the puncher mechanism so that it broke after it tried to send one final boulder to the south, which made it completely broken!

"Huh, smart move, mister Siegmeyer! But how did you get through that far with all the swinging axes?" I asked him.

"I didn't. I climbed around the walls until I got to the clearing on that side, which is when the iron golems noticed my presence and blocked my progress with the boulders," he admitted.

"That sounds even more impressive, since Catarina armor is extremely heavy," Castor smirked.

"How about we keep moving forward through this place? We're on our way to Anor Londo to meet a princess," I smiled.

"Bad news for you, then. The guard of the rune that can summon our rides there is guarded by the giant Iron Golem that oversees this place. You'll need to kill it to get its rune so we can go to Anor Londo, land of the gods," he said, me nodding as we then went forward more, and I saw that... Siegmeyer destroying the boulder mechanism ALSO halted the motions of the swinging axes! Now it was a straight shot through the narrow walkways! Though we did have to kill a couple more annoying serpents that would've fired some more electric attacks at us. And when we finally went through the next fog wall, we then saw that above us was the very tough-looking iron golems and they looked very agitated with the one at the boulder dropping area for not doing his job.

"What in the world are they saying?" I asked in confusion.

"I believe they are arguing about why the mechanism broke and who should go in and fix it, but neither of them can because they are too large," Siegmeyer said with a chortle.

"I do declare, being able to control a giant golem would be amazing!... I'm going for it! Anyone have a bow and arrow?" Pollocks asked.

"Um... would you be okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, we are on the top after all. I doubt that we'll get skewered now," Castor mentioned.

"I'm going to test it... but when I do so, I'm going to protect all of us with some Iron Flesh from the ring," I said, making all of us get the pyromancer status before I then hovered off of the ground... and when I flew up higher with Pollocks in my grasp, we saw that nothing happened at all! On the sides of the building below us, however? At least 4 rounds of heavy arrows were fired from the walls in straight angles before then stopping!

"Great! We're out of the danger zone!" I shouted happily before then getting all the other allies with the levitation magic and having us go to the big golem at the top of the tower with the explosive barrels, me smacking the heavy club into its head, which made it fall to the ground dead in one shot because of me slamming down with the iron flesh still active onto his head!

"WHOOHOO! That was more awesome than the drop from the rollercoaster!" I shouted in glee as Pollocks got on the head of the golem and he then started to laugh maniacally.

"HAHAHAHA! I AM FINALLY GIANT! THIS IS GREAT!" he shouted in excitement as he then controlled the golem to the area of the bridge that led to the big guy, where we followed after, and we saw the giant Iron Golem appear from above the giant wall and slam into the ground.

"TIME FOR GIANT VS GIANT!" I shouted in excitement as Pollocks then forced his golem to place the giant Iron Golem into a headlock as I then attacked the Golem's wonky legs with my club, causing him to fall on the ground off-balance for all of us to slay his giant body and for him to turn into dust shortly after as we got a mess of souls! And on the ground in the center of the arena was the symbol we needed.

"So what do we do with this, then?" Siegmeyer asked as I simply picked it up... and before we could even react, each of us then got grabbed by two bat demons each and the others were about to freak out before they then realized what was going on.

"T-They're taking us to Anor Londo, aren't they?! I finally get to see the land of the gods! I finally get to see the goddess Gwynevere with my own eyes!" Solaire shouted happily.

"But before that, we need to talk Gwyndolin out of whatever he's doing and ask him to release Gwynevere from whatever prison she's at," I said as we were then dropped at the center of the starting area instead of at the top of a tower. Much better than accidentally getting killed shortly after beating the Iron Giant... yes, that happened to me at one point. "Okay, now where do we go?" Castor asked.

"Now, we just stay here and rest our feet a bit. Maybe we can fix up our weapons and armor?" I said, the group nodding as we then set up shop at the closest bonfire available, that being the one watched over by the Darkmoon Knightess, who looked at Pollocks in confusion, since he had to disembark his giant steed in order to get in, and he opted for the top of Castor's head.

"Brother Pollocks? What are you doing here again? It's been almost 20 years... you certainly shrunk a lot since I last saw you," the Darkmoon Knightess said with seriousness.

"Well, I had to return to my town to protect it from the harm of one of Oolacile's attacks. I managed to make a family in that time, but then, 10 years ago, I was tricked into drinking a mind-control potion by Lautrec, a monstrous man that murdered women for fun... and I was only recently rescued by Master Polly, who is the one with the big club," Pollocks explained as I simply waved my hand at her.

"Hi... so what's your name?" I asked her.

"My name?... No one ever asks me about that anymore... my name is Dorothea, but I am normally referred to as Darkmoon Knightess, the only female of the ranks and the one in charge of being this bonfire's Firekeeper," she explained. "So what has made you desire to come here?" she asked.

"We uh... we have gotten this message from a certain someone," I said as I showed her the note from Gwynevere, her then looking at it and reading it, but then, when it got to the part about Gwynevere needing to be released from Gwyndolin's imprisonment? She looked at me like I was stupid.

"You expect me to believe this? How do I know you weren't the one to-" she was about to finish before we got our answer.

"I can sense that you're in Anor Londo now, Penny Pines... as for you, Dorothea, it is the truth," Gwynevere said, which caused the Knightess to gasp and look all over before then looking to the note again. "I am Gwynevere... contrary to what my younger brother has said, I am still here in Anor Londo, and am imprisoned somewhere in the city... but I do not know, for Gwyndolin has hidden that knowledge from me... only he knows where I am and only he can release me... please treat these adventurers kindly and do not be angry at my brother... he's just misguided," Gwynevere spoke as Dorothea looked at me and simply gave me the note back.

"If you're going to meet with Gwyndolin, you bring me with you. Only I have the ring that can allow us to his chambers," she said, me nodding at that.

"What about the bonfire?" Solaire asked.

"It will be fine. It will only extinguish if I am killed, which I know you will protect me, should Gwyndolin get angry," she said, me nodding. It was time to do something that could not be done in the games. We had to convince Gwyndolin to release his sister... and we needed to prevent him from being angry by any means, or the whole plan would be a bust... dammit, now I'm thinking of what Gwynevere's bust will look like!

"Stop thinking about something that won't happen," I heard her say in my mind, me smacking my face at that. "If you do succeed, I may let you touch them, but only in private." (YEESSS! ! !) "Pervert." (Giantess) "You'll just have to wait and see."