"Hey, Lyn?"

"Yes?"

"How much longer do you think this bird is going to carry us? It's been quite some time now."

Lyn sighed. The amusement of being carried through the sky had quickly worn off as time went on. Her arms were dangling out in front of her as she was held between the talons of a large raven. Below her was a sea of grey clouds, almost like fog, as the raven soared through the sky. Next to her, in the clutches of the raven's other talon was Robin. His eyes were those of a dead fish as they mindlessly looked forward at boring sea of grey.

"I wish I knew," Lyn answered.

Robin groaned. "It's been at least an hour…maybe longer…yeah, I think it's been more than than an hour…" Tilting his head up, Robin glared at the raven. "Hey, raven! Are we almost there yet?"

"I'm not sure if it'll understand you," Lyn said.

"You never know," Robin replied. "Some animals are a lot more intelligent than you may think."

As if to answer Robin, the raven screeched before suddenly plummeting. The rapid descent caused Lyn's stomach to rise and next to her, Robin let out a nauseating sound as his face was drained of color. The wind howled in Lyn's ears as the raven continued to drop.

At long last, they broke free of the monotonous grey. Lyn gasped as she was greeted by a breathtaking view.

A grand city was sprawled out before her. A near golden glow was cast over the landscape as Lyn shielded her eyes from the sun's glare. Tracing the border of the city was an insurmountable wall that was built straight out of a mountain itself, spreading as far as the eye could see. Lyn's amazement turned into excitement, then to confusion as the raven flew lower and lower until they were below the wall. Descending even further, Lyn saw a glimpse of a menacing fortress that loomed in the distance with a large bell atop a building's roof. Then, she felt herself in a freefall as the raven released both her and Robin from its clutches.

Falling for a couple seconds, Lyn immediately fell into a roll in order to not break her legs on impact. Rolling onto one knee, Lyn looked around to get a grasp on her surroundings. The moment she tried, however, she was interrupted by a scream and a dull thud from just beside her.

Turning her head, she saw Robin sprawled out on the ground.

"That damn bird…" Robin's muffled voice was heard from the face-down tactician. Groaning, Robin slowly stood to his feet while glaring upwards into the sky. "I swear I'm going to roast that oversized piece of - dropping me like I was a sack of flour…I COULD'VE DIED FROM THAT FALL, YOU STUPID OVERGROWN PIDGEON!"

Lyn giggled as she also rose to her feet. Taking another look around, she was pleasantly surprised at her surroundings.

She was standing in the ruins of what looked to be an old shrine. Multiple stone archways leading further in could be seen to her right, with stairs made of a pale white stone. In front of her was a small firepit with another bonfire in the center. Ringing the fire-pit on the outer edge was were multiple archstones and an old dying tree was sprouting a little ways off the bonfire. Just behind the tree, Lyn was able to make out stairs leading further down into the shrine, and sitting on a mossy stone next to the stairs was a man in a set of chainmail armor. Nudging Robin on the arm to get his attention, Lyn started walking over to the man.

As Lyn approached, the man looked up at her. The first thing that she noticed that his eyes were almost lifeless, as if they belonged to one who lost his purpose.

"Well, what do we have here?" the man rhetorically asked. "You two must be new arrivals."

Lyn nodded. "Yes, my friend and I - "

"Let me guess; Fate of the Undead, right?" the man interrupted, to which Lyn could only nod. The very corners of the man's lips twitched upwards in a wry smile. "Well, you're not the first. But…you'd have done better to rot in the Undead Asylum… Too late now, I suppose."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked, walking up next to Lyn.

"It means that there's no salvation here," the man tiredly replied. "But, since you're already here, let me help you out. I'm sure you already know the legend of how the Bell of Awakening is to be rung by the 'Chosen Undead'." The man said the last two words in a mocking manner before continuing. "What they don't tell you is that there's actually two Bells of Awakening.
"One's up above, in the Undead Church." The man lazily pointed his finger in a general direction behind Lyn. She remembered catching a glimpse of a large bell atop a roof as the raven was descending. "The other is far, far below, in the ruins at the base of Blighttown." The man pointed at the ground." Ring them both, and something happens… Brilliant, right?"

"That's not - "

" - much to go on," the man interrupted again. "But I have a feeling that won't stop you."

Lyn frowned for two reasons. One was the lack of information that the man gave her, and two, for the disheartedness nature of the man. On the other hand, Robin seemed to be carefully mulling over the information. Lyn could practically see the sharpness of his mind through his eyes.

"So, off you go." The man waved a dismissive hand at the two. "It is why you came here, isn't it? To this accursed land of the Undead?"

"Wait, 'accursed land'? What do you mean by that?" Lyn asked, but the only response she received was a hollow laughter from the man.

It was clear that the man wasn't going to answer her question, so Lyn looked over at Robin. There was a slight gleam in his eyes, the same gleam that Mark would have when he would come across an epiphany or something of the sort. Noticing the gleam in Robin's eyes, the man narrowed his own.

"What, you want to hear more?" The man grudgingly said. "Oh, that's all we need. Another inquisitive soul." Letting out an annoyed sigh, the man continued. "Well, listen carefully, then…
"One of the Bells is up above in the Undead Church, but the lift is broken. You'll have to climb the stairs up in the ruins, and access the Undead Burg through the waterway." The man pointed behind Lyn and Robin at a small aqueduct in the distance. "The other Bell is back down below the Undead Burg, within the plague-infested Blighttown. But I'd die again before I step foot in that cesspool." Sighing, the man leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees.
"Now that I've said my part, off you go. And leave me alone, I'm not up for chatting."

. . .

"So, what did you make of all that?"

Lyn and Robin were sitting by the bonfire. After the man shooed them away, the two sat down to decide their next course of action.

"Despite his cryptic way of speaking, he actually gave us a lot of information," Robin said. Looking over at the waterway that the man told them about, he narrowed his eyes. "Looks like we'll have to fight our way there, though."

Following Robin's eyes, Lyn looked over her shoulder. A set of stairs were built into the ground as it led towards a cliff edge. Four figures, each armed with either a sword or an axe, could be seen standing watch. Judging from their skeletal frames, Lyn assumed that these were the same as the hollowed men back in the Asylum.

"That shouldn't be much of a problem, should it?" Lyn asked. Her hand moved to the hilt of her sword out of habit.

"Not a problem," Robin grinned. He was about to get up when Lyn suddenly sneezed. Frowning, he looked over at her in concern. "Are you alright?"

Lyn sniffed, rubbing her nose as she dismissively waved her hand. "I'm fine, Robin," she assured him. "Just a weird feeling."

"Oh?" Robin raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Mm...it's a little difficult to explain, but I just remembered the first encounter with Mark." Lyn adopted a faraway look in her eyes as she stared into the bonfire. "I don't think I told you how I met him, have I?"

Robin shook his head. "You might have during the flight here, but honestly, I don't remember anything from that trip."

"Somehow, that sounds just like you," Lyn giggled before sighing. "I lived on the plains of Sacae, as I'm sure you've known through your history books. Funny, that makes me feel ancient just from saying that. Anyways, I was walking up to a hill that I went to often. There was a large tree there where I'd just sit down on. The breeze was really pleasant, one that you could just doze off to." Lyn paused as her eyes once again regained that faraway look.

"Then one day, when I went up to that tree as usual, I found a man on his back by the tree. As you've probably guessed, it was Mark. At first, I was wary of him since he was a complete stranger, but I couldn't just leave him there since he was covered in wounds. So, I took him to my home and treated his wounds as best as I could. A few days later, he woke up.
Not long after we introduced ourselves, bandits attacked. I was going to fight them alone, but Mark surprised me by coming along. I was against it at first, seeing how he didn't have any weapons on him, but he didn't look like the type to take 'No' for an answer. It was a good thing that he came along too, since I wouldn't have been able to defeat the bandits were it not for him guiding me."

Robin smiled. Her story, rather Mark's, was quite similar to what happened to him.

"I still remember the leader of the bandits," Lyn continued. Clearing her throat, she deepened her voice in an imitation of the bandit leader. " 'You think you can stand up to Batta the Beast?'" Lyn softly smiled. "He sounded so confident, and had the brute strength to prove it. But Mark was able to find his weak spots and openings left behind Batta's attack, which I took. After that, we traveled across Elibe to meet my grandfather, making invaluable allies along the way."

Robin couldn't help but laugh. After retelling his tale to Lyn, she joined on his laughter, and the two sat in comfortable silence.

"We've both come a long way from fighting off a few bandits, haven't we?" Robin wistfully sighed.

"I agree." Lyn nodded at his words. "Even more so seeing how we've arrived in this strange, new land." Looking over, she gave Robin a small smirk. "You think you're up to the challenge of figuring out on how to leave this world?"

"Oh? What makes you have so much faith in a mere tactician such as myself?" Robin playfully retorted. "What could I possibly do with my humble brain?"

Snickering, Lyn stood up. "You're a smart person, Robin. I'm sure you'll figure it out."

Robin's face contorted into something of…irritation? Nostalgia? Sadness? Lyn couldn't figure it out.

"Robin?" Lyn called out, worried that she may have accidentally offended him with that line. "Are you alright?"

Robin blinked before quickly shaking his head. "It's nothing of importance," Robin answered with a smile. "Just…what you said…" Robin paused, choosing the right words to say. "…a few close friends of mine said that exact same things. I guess it reminded me of them.
"And before you apologize, since I know you're going to - " Robin quickly added, and Lyn closed her open mouth. " - don't. As I said, it's nothing of importance, so it's nothing that you need apologize for."

Dusting his pants, he stood up. "Now then, shall we get going? Sitting around won't do anything for us."

Robin walked on ahead with Lyn only a couple steps behind. The stairs that the cynical man spoke of was nothing more than a narrow incline at a cliff's edge with a few mossy remains of a staircase. At the top of the 'stairs' was a slightly small, open staircase leading further up. Only, the stairs were also on a very precarious cliff edge with three of the hollowed figures in their way. One was directly in front of them, dressed leather rags and a battered helmet, another halfway up the stairs with the same gear as the first, and the third was all the way in the back at the edge of the cliff. The third one actually had a sword that wasn't broken and a shield, unlike the others.

As Robin advanced, the first two noticed them. Their movements were very much like the Risen; slow, jittery, predictable. Casually sidestepping the first Hollow's swing, Robin trusted his back to Lyn as he moved towards the second Hollow, who jumped off the stairs. A swift swing of his sword and the Hollow's crumpled to the floor along with its now-detached head.

Robin turned around to see Lyn flick the first Hollow's blood off her blade. Then, some fragile object hit him on the back, followed by the sound of glass shattering and his vision was covered in flames.

"Robin!" Lyn cried out.

Robin waved his hand, signaling her through the flames that he was fine. The flames lasted for only a few seconds and was as strong as a beginner mage's Fire spell. Mildly curious as to what hit him, Robin turned his head to see a brown spherical…thing coming flying towards him. Easily batting it off the cliff to his right with a gust of wind, Robin's eyes searched the area to see where the brown object came from.

Just above the second staircase to his left, there was another one of the hollowed men. In his hand was the exact same brown thing that Robin deflected. The Hollow threw the object again, and this time, Robin slowed the object down with a very weak Wind, easily catching the thrown object.

"Interesting," Robin mused, inspecting the thrown object. It was a round container made of what seemed to be porcelain. There was a small fuse on the top which Robin quickly put out. When he shook the item, Robin felt some sort of sand-like substance inside. He could've sworn he'd seen something like this in the past, though he couldn't figure out exactly when and where.

Without looking, Robin deflected another one of the thrown objects and sent out a bolt of lightning at the Hollow. The lightning pierced through the Hollow's head, instantly killing it.

"Lyn, has there ever been something like this in your world?" Robin asked, lifting the object in his hand.

Eyeing the object in Robin's hand, Lyn shook her head.

"Hmm…" Robin stared intently at the object once more when his eyes lit up.

"Robin? Have you figured something out?" Lyn asked. As she walked closer to the tactician, she warily eyed the hollowed man near the cliff's edge in case he'd run at them.

"Sure did," Robin smiled. "I just remembered one of the Shepherds, Miriel, and how she was experimenting on a bunch of different subjects. One such subject was on the matter of detonation devices that she called 'bombs'. I knew this looked familiar!"

Looking over at the Hollow at the cliff's edge, Robin's face took on a near evil looking grin. Pinching the tip of the fuse with his fingers, he relit the flame. Then he lobbed the firebomb.

Lyn watched as Robin's firebomb sailed through the air. The Hollow Knight didn't even try to dodge as the firebomb hit his chest. The porcelain casing shattered and Robin managed to catch a glimpse of a black powder from the depths of the firebomb before the small flame on top of the fuse ignited the black powder. The fire quickly roared to life, engulfing the Hollow in its entirety, before quickly dying out. As the last wisps of the fire flickered out, the Hollow's eyes momentarily flashed as it charged Robin.

There was a blur of green and blue from Robin's side as Lyn lunged forward with terrifying speed. A second later, Lyn was flicking blood off her blade once more before sheathing it as the Hollow's body lifelessly fell to the ground. Robin watched in minor amusement as the corpse rolled down the incline like a ragdoll and off the cliff's side.

"I had that completely under control, you know," Robin smirked.

"Well, you seemed to be having a lot of fun with that bomb of yours that I thought you'd be too distracted," Lyn countered.

Robin laughed. "Alright, maybe I was having a little fun there."

They continued forward, walking up the steps that were next to them. Robin's face fell as he saw another set of stairs in front of him. This set of stairs ran parallel to the waterway in front of them, and a small doorway could be seen leading inside at the top of the stairs. And at the top of the stairs was another Hollow, equipped with a broken sword. What was up with these poorly maintained weapons and armor, Robin wondered.

Robin's hand reactively raised itself when a figure jumped out from behind the stairs with an axe raised. A quick cast of lightning and a guttural sounding grunt later, the Hollow was sent flying off the edge of the cliff.

"Spooky."

"You're quite adept in magic," Lyn said as she sliced down the Hollow at the top of the stairs. "In my world, no one would even think of casting magic without a tome or a magic circle."

"Same with my world," Robin replied, walking up the stairs. "I'm just an irregularity, along with my counterpart."

"Counterpart?" Lyn raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, that's right, I didn't mention that bit to you - OH GODS THAT REEKS!" Robin quickly covered his scrunched up nose as he entered the waterway. The pungent smell was similar to the odor that exuded off the Risen, only this was worse. "Gods, it's as if a rotting carcass of an animal puked up its digested dinner and then the digested dinner of said carcass shot out a pile of excrement covered bile from its rear!"

"That's quite the description," Lyn muttered, covering her nose as she followed Robin into the waterway. "But I must agree with you; this smell is not pleasant in the slightest."

Their feet made small splashing noises as they made their way through narrow tunnel of the waterway. There was a barred door further down, but Robin quickly exited through the first doorway he found on his left. The moment he stepped outside, he took in an exaggerated breath of air.

"Gods, that was worse than the smell of Sully's cooking!" Robin exclaimed between gulps of air.

After a minute of cleansing their systems of the waterway's stench, the two continued onward. They walked up the very narrow passageway in front of them, up a small flight of stairs, and came across what looked to a flat rooftop of a fort accompanied by a few more Hollows. One of them was carrying a small bundle of firebombs, which Robin gleefully took. The expression of his face was that of a child's when they would receive a new toy, though that wouldn't be far off in Robin's case. These firebombs were toys in his eyes.

Moving through a small building and another flight of stairs (Robin's hatred for stairs was now climbing ever so slightly at this point), and exited through the upper portion of the building. Recalling what the cryptic man said back at the shrine, Robin figured that this area was the Undead Burg. True to it's name, the Undead Burg looked to be a hybrid of a town and a fortress. They were travelling across rooftops, and yet the very rooftops had more building stacked on top of each other, some of them looking to be houses.

Once again, a narrow walkway was their only way forward. Up ahead was a decently sized courtyard with shabby wooden barricades placed in one corner. Near the center of the courtyard was a poorly dressed Hollow Knight, looking eerily similar to the one that Robin threw the firebomb at not too long ago. They shared the same shield, broken armor, orange-lit eyes, and the wrinkly taut skin that showed their skeletal frame.

Sighing, Robin drew his sword as he moved to engage. Lyn followed close behind with her hand resting on her sword. Just as she was about to draw her blade, a large shadow darkened their view from overhead and -

*BOOM*

"GAAH!" Robin yelped, jumping back. "WHAT THE- DRAGON?!"

Actually, that's not a dragon. That's a drake. Notice the lack of four legs? It only has a single pair of legs along with wings.

Leave me and my panicking state be!

Ungrateful, aren't you?

Clamping it's scaly leg down on the walkway in front of them was an enormous dragon-drake-wyvern. Robin's head was in too much disarray to decide as his eyes looked over the overgrown lizard. Its scales were red, like the color of fire. Four massive horns protruded from its head accompanied by countless smaller ones running down the length of its neck and body. Its wingspan was nearly twice the length of the giant crow from earlier, and the ends of each wing had tears and holes in them, signs of having fought through countless battles.

Giving Robin and Lyn a look that a self-glorified and conceited lord would give to a peasant, the drake flapped its mighty wings before flying off into the distance. Robin let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding before shaking his head to clear his mind.

What's the difference between a drake and a dragon? And a wyvern? I thought wyverns were the ones with a lack of four legs?

Mm…the difference varies quite a bit depending who you ask. Some sources, such as a certain description of a certain sword from the tail of a certain dragon, will say that drakes are underdeveloped imitators of dragons, but are more likely a distant kin. Some have four legs like dragons, while others only have two, such as this one. Wyverns, as you're quite well informed on, are much smaller and only have a single pair of legs.

Huh, drakes are weird.

Indeed. But the easiest way to differentiate them would be by their sizes, that is, if they're adults. Dragons tend to be the largest with four limbs, then it's the drakes with either two or four limbs, and then there's wyverns, which are much smaller. There's also wyrms, but that's a different topic.

You are quite knowledgeable on these matters, aren't you?

This is all knowledge that you've accumulated over the years, I hope you realize that. It's just that you don't know you have this knowledge nor memories while I have easy access to them since I'm living in your head.

Good to know. I'll be sure to ask you to access the database that's my memories when needed.

…I'm not a librarian.

Congratulations, you just got promoted from a bum living in my head to the head librarian. Heh, get it? 'Head' librarian?

…Go concentrate on those Hollows approaching.

You're no fun.

Your puns aren't either.

Bringing his sword up, Robin parried the Hollow's sword. The Hollow's arm was thrown back in an exaggerated motion along with its arm that was holding its shield. As to how or why both arms were thrown aside when Robin only parried its sword, he didn't know, nor did he care. Turns out Lyn didn't care either as she took advantage of Robin's parry to plunge her sword through the Hollow's bony midsection. The amount of blood that spurted out from the Hollow's backside didn't make sense given the tiny frame of the body, but that made the second thing that Robin didn't care about in the past couple of seconds.

Lyn tried tugging at her sword to free it from the Hollow's limp body but failed. Lowering her sword a little, the Hollow's knees hit the ground as it was being held up by the Mani Katti in Lyn's hand. Placing a foot on the Hollow's chest, Lyn roughly shoved the corpse off her sword, freeing her beloved blade in a rough yet somehow still smooth motion.

Lyn walked onto the courtyard when Robin suddenly pulled her back.

"Wait," he cautioned, pointing to the wooden boards placed on the other side of the courtyard. "There's one behind that barricade in the corner and another up on that upper platform, most likely an archer."

Lyn looked at where he motioned to. Sure enough, she was able to see a rhythmic swaying motion on the other side. On the upper platform, the top of a helmet could be seen.

"How do you know it's an archer?" Lyn's tone was curious, not challenging.

"The upper platform is a perfect spot for an archer to be posted," Robin explained. "Away from courtyard, but still close enough for even an amateur to take accurate shots. At least, that's what I would do." He then held up his hand. Clenched in his fist was an arrow, only the shaft was much thicker than the standard arrows. "There's also this, which hit the ground next to me just as that drake landed earlier."

"Can you hit the archer with your magic from here?" Lyn asked. "With the archer out of the way, we'd be able to move forward easily."

"We'd be able to advance easily nonetheless," Robin confidently said. "But yes, taking down that archer will be easy. I trust that you'll handle the one behind the wooden barricades?"

Lyn nodded. Smiling, Robin walked onto the courtyard. The instant his foot stepped down, the archer poked his head out and the Hollow that was hiding behind the barricades came bursting out.

Turns out the archer wasn't holding a bow, but something very similar. His interest piqued, Robin decided to not call down lightning and simply knocked the fired arrow aside with his sword. With the help of a little wind magic, Robin propelled himself up onto the platform the archer was on. As he descended, he held his sword in a reverse grip as he plunged it down onto the archer. The blade pierced through the archer like a hot knife through butter, nailing it to the ground.

Wrenching his sword out from both the ground and corpse, Robin sheathed his sword before he pried the bow-weapon from the archer's hands.

"Very interesting." Robin adopted another childish grin as he inspected weapon in his hands.

It was a very simple looking weapon. It was almost as if someone attached a short bow the a narrow plank of wood with a groove in the center to hold an arrow. At the end of the plank of wood was a small protrusion which was used to keep the bowstring primed to fire. On the bottom side of the wooden plank was another small protrusion that could be pressed, and when pressed, it would lower the upper protrusion, releasing the primed bow string.

Robin clicked his tongue. If only he could bring this back to his world. Miriel would have a field day with this. But alas, he could only carry so much, and it wasn't as if he had some sort of bottomless box that he could carry around with ease.

Tossing the strange bow aside, Robin looked down at the courtyard to see Lyn looking back at him. Catching his gaze, Lyn raised an eyebrow and pointed the the adjacent wall where another small courtyard could be seen, connected to the first by another walkway. Stationed at the other courtyard were two Hollow Knights with shabby looking spears.

"Let's leave them be," Robin said. "Let's try and not walk into fights."

Looking around, Robin saw a tower-like structure with an open doorway a few steps in front of him. And if he wasn't seeing things, then the familiar looking sword was…

"Lyn!" Robin called out. "Found a bonfire!"

A wide grin formed on Lyn's face as she ran over. Without even sparing Robin a glance, she ran over into the building that Robin was pointing to. Curious as to why she was so excited, Robin made his way inside the bonfire room to see the swordswoman holding her hand over the coiled sword. With a sudden flash of light, the base of the coiled sword was alight, casting a warm glow over the walls of the tower.

"I did it!" Lyn cheered.

"You mean lighting the flame?" Robin inquired.

"Yup!" Lyn nodded. "You lit the first bonfire back at the Asylum and the second since I was unconscious for that, so I wanted to try lighting one on my own. It'd be troubling if we somehow got separated and I didn't know how to light one, so I thought I'd try it out."

Robin smiled. "With great success, it seems."

"It was a lot easier than I expected," Lyn said as she sat down.

"Lemme guess, you put your hand over the coiled sword and literally willed for flame?" Robin took a seat opposite of Lyn.

Before Lyn could answer Robin's guess, the sound of something exploding shook the air, followed by the clash of metal, and a few more explosions.

"Someone's fighting." Lyn shot to her feet, grasping the hilt of her sword. "Let's go!"

"Damn it," Robin groaned, rising to his feet. "I just sat down, too…"

As they left the building, a plume of fire rose behind a building to their left.

"I think I found the person," Robin muttered.

Lyn frowned. The building wasn't actually that far away, roughly fifty meters away with a straight line from Point A (where they currently were) and Point B (where the fighting was taking place). But the only route to get there was to cross a narrow bridge that led into a separate building, which would force them to go around.

"How urgently do you think this is?" Robin suddenly asked.

"Very." Lyn's answer was immediate. "That person might be on his or her last legs."

Robin nodded, seemingly pleased with her answer. Turning around to face her, he smiled. "Alright then, we'll take a shortcut."

"Shortcut?" Lyn pondered. "I don't see any other way to get there."

Robin's smile grew wider. "You have to think outside the box. My shortcut is to jump."

Lyn's jaw dropped. The space between them and the area where the fighting was taking place was nothing but a very, VERY long fall. Surely the fall would be instant death for those who couldn't -

"Remember the Asylum Demon?"

Smiling, Lyn recalled the fight with the Asylum Demon, specifically, how both she and Robin took took to the skies with Robin's aid.

"Very well." Lyn nodded, taking a couple steps back before sprinting forward.

Just like before, Robin placed his hands underneath Lyn's foot, and threw her backwards over the wide gap. Immediately after, he took a couple steps back before performing a running leap of his own. As he soared through the air, he shot out a gust of wind beneath Lyn's feet to slow her fall in order for her to not break her legs upon impact. Lyn surprised him, however, as she used Robin's wind not only to slow her fall, but almost pushed off of it, gaining more height and acceleration.

"Ho, not bad," Robin mused as he watched Lyn easily clear the building and disappear behind it. "I hope the person there won't mistake us as an enemy…"

Gracefully landing on the roof of the building, Robin immediately ducked as a firebomb whizzed over his head.

Where - ? Oh…they're right there…

Directly to Robin's left was a scaffolding with three Hollows on it. Two of the held firebombs in their hands while a third reached for another on from a pile behind it. Throwing out his arm in a wide sweeping motion, Robin released a powerful wind that pushed back both the now-thrown firebombs and their owners off the scaffolding and into the open air. Running forward, Robin was about to jump off the building and onto the ground below when a plume of fire suddenly rose up in front of him, forcing him stop.

"Yikes…that's some powerful stuff," Robin muttered as the flames died out.

Normally, Robin wouldn't have cared much for magic and elemental attacks as he was confident in his magic resistance. But after seeing the plume of fire, Robin instantly knew that this caster was powerful, possibly even more so than he was.

Cautiously peering over the edge, Robin saw Lyn fighting side by side with a girl with reddish-brown hair, held up in a ponytail. She was wearing a maroon one-piece battle garb, complete with a leather chest piece and combat boots. She even had a short purple cape on for some flair. In her hand was a regal rapier with an elegant guard and a blade that was faint golden glow to it.

All around the two swordswomen were the dead bodies of Hollows, either sliced apart of charred from fire magic. Robin watched as the new girl raised her hand. An orange glow surrounded her hand and a large, searing beam of fire shot out from her palm, incinerating any Hollow that was unfortunate enough to be in the way.

Only half a dozen Hollow's remained standing. Seeing how they were tightly grouped together, Robin called down a pillar of lightning on the undead as he casually jumped off the building. The girl quickly wheeled around, raising her rapier at Robin, who raised his arms in good will.

"Who are you?" the girl asked, taking a few wary steps back from both Robin and Lyn.

"Oh, come on," Robin groaned. "Hostilities? Me, I can understand since I literally jumped in. Well, to be fair, Lyn literally jumped into the fight as well, but she fought alongside you!"

Placing her hand on Robin's shoulder, Lyn took a step forward.

"I'm Lyn," Lyn introduced herself. "And this brazen one is Robin."

"Brazen?" Robin huffed.

"We mean you no harm," Lyn said, ignoring Robin's outburst. "We were traveling through the area when we saw your magic. Thinking that someone was in danger, we hurried over to aid you."

The girl silently eyed them. After what seemed like an eternity, she lowered her blade.

"Sorry, it's just…I don't even know what's going on here," the girl sighed. "I was helping out with the reconstruction of my village when I decided to take a small break. Then I see a blinding light and I'm suddenly transported here with my weapon and armor, things that I haven't used in almost a month. Then these… these things start attacking me, so I fought back."

The girl looked at them with hopeful eyes. "Please, if you know what happened, tell me!"

"We'd like to help, but I'm afraid we don't know much either," Lyn sadly replied. "Robin and I woke up in a prison-like asylum not even a day ago. After fighting a hideous demon, we escaped here. Now we're journeying across the land in hopes of finding a way back to our homes."

The poor girl looked ready to collapse. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white. After a moment, she relaxed, slowly opening both her hands and eyes. The eyes that were wavering once before were now strong as she looked at Lyn.

"Can I join the two of you?" the girl asked.

"Of course!" Lyn replied. "Another companion is always welcome, wouldn't you agree, Robin?"

Robin nodded, and a large smile formed on the girl's face.

"Thanks!" the girl beamed. "My name is Jenna, a Mars Adept from Vale! Nice to meet you!"

Ba ba ba baaa~ Jenna joined your party!

...the hell?

What? You didn't like my fanfare? It's reserved for when a new member joins your party!

Huh?!

Your party consisted of only you and Lyn for now. Now you've a third member!

Oooookay?

Now all we need is a fourth member for the usual four-man team that all - I'm gonna stop talking now.

Please.

The three continued forward. Walking down a small flight of steps, Robin's heart dropped as he saw a very long set of stairs out in front of him, which then turned left, hugging a wall that loomed over them.

"Freaking...stairs..."

And here's Chapter 2!

Holy damn, I did not think this would take so long. I completely forgot how much environmental detail is in these SoulsBorne games. Normally, most games would just put them in just for some visual effects, but SoulsBorne games will usually put them in for a good reason, whether it's warnings or just a ploy to hide some secrets.
That's the main reason why this chapter took so long to come out. I'm not really used to paying so much attention to the environmental detail when writing especially since Fire Emblem: Another Awakening has almost none of that, so this is all new territory for me. If, by any chance, one of you readers has ever DM'd, and was a good DM, for a session of DnD, you know how it feels. It's especially worse here since the goddamned Burg has so many stairs, bridges, turns, and walking through doorways and buildings.

And welcome Jenna, one of the main characters from the Golden Sun series! I put a lot of thought on which character to bring in from Golden Sun and ultimately decided on Jenna.
I was originally thinking of Issac or Felix, the two faces of the games, while leaning more towards Felix. Why Felix instead of Issac? Because (*SPOILERS* skip this entire paragraph to avoid. If you don't care or already beat the game, continue on) without Felix and his group, Issac's group would've led the entire world to destruction. You were the actual bad guy in the first game, while in the second, you play as who you thought to be the bad guy when they're actually the good guys.

But yeah, Felix and Issac were put to the side since they're the standard knight class, and same goes for Garet. Piers…is still an enigma to me after over a decade, so no to him. Since I already have Robin and Lyn, a battle mage type and a dex build, I wanted to add in a magic user. I was thinking Mia (the main healer in pretty much both games), Ivan, or Sheba, but I have absolutely zero confidence in being able to portray both Mia and Shebe correctly. Why not Ivan? Cause he always dies. Sorry, gets "downed". Seriously, that guy has the lowest HP and Def rating out of ALL the characters. So yeah, that petty reason is the reason why he's not here.

So, all those reasons above is why I didn't pick the other characters. Jenna, on the other hand, is the 'average' of the eight characters, which in a way makes her a great character since she has good both offensive and supportive capabilities, especially if you equip the right Djinn. That and her battle theme is one of my favorites.

And that's all for now! Thanks for reading, and I'll hopefully see you soon!

P.S. Why the hell are crossover stories limited to only two games? I want to add Golden Sun, but can't! Hmm…maybe I'll alternate between having the crossover being Golden Sun and Fire Emblem. Can't change Dark Souls since that's the main world, while FE and GS are only for the characters…that or put it in the story summary…hmm…

For those of you who read this far, here's a little sneak into the next chapter and a certain character that the party will be meeting.

"The sun is a magnificent body," _ said. "Like a wonderful father! If only I could be so grossly incandescent!"