"So this orb will allow me to hunt other undead for their humanity? Are you certain that is a good thing?" Yeral asked, looking down at the large crimson eyeball that Kaathe had given him. Attacking people didn't sound like the type of thing a noble knight was supposed to do, but surely Kaathe had a good reason for it, he told himself. The primordial serpent chuckled and slithered in a circle around Yeral, clacking his teeth.
"Bah. The undead that you will be slaying are fools who are trying to link the fire. To succeed in that goal would mean an eternity of burning... Really, killing them now is a kindness, and besides, you will need all the power you can get, Dark Lord. Regrettable as it may be, power does not come without... sacrifices." Kaathe answered a moment later, clearly formulating his response in a way that would satisfy Yeral. To his credit, Kaathe was a smooth talker, and he did a very good job of making himself sound sincere. Yeral, however, was not quite convinced, and simply looked up at the serpent questioningly, wondering what benefit there could be to Kaathe's plan. As if he had read Yeral's mind, Kaathe opened his mouth and spat out a glowing black wisp of humanity. "Come now, have a taste of the power of the dark. With this, you can make the world a better place." he insisted.
Hesitantly, Yeral reached out and crushed the floating humanity in his fist, the smoky black energy flowing into his body. Instantly, Yeral felt his body rejuvenating from the power of the humanity. All of his aches and pains were gone, and even his skin felt softer. Slowly, he pulled off one of his metal gauntlets and stared at his hand. Instead of the shriveled, rotted hand of an undead, Yeral saw smooth human flesh. He was hollowing no more. Kaathe grinned wider than ever as Yeral gazed at himself in awe. "This effect is only temporary, but if you collected enough humanity and extinguished the First Flame... the whole world could be freed from its curse!" Kaathe exclaimed.
"Thank you, Kaathe. I understand now. I am ready to begin hunting as a Darkwraith." Yeral said with a sudden burst of conviction. He was no longer unsure of himself, now he knew exactly what he needed to do. "I will gather as much humanity as I can. Once Reise has obtained the other Lord Souls, all I have to do is prevent her from linking the fire." he explained, to Kaathe's delight. Deep down, Yeral felt a bit odd about what he was saying, but he quickly brushed off such feelings. There was no time for doubt, not now that he had a purpose of his own. Kaathe leaned very close to him – almost uncomfortably so – and spoke again, sounding very pleased indeed.
"Well then, no time to waste! Don your new armaments, Dark Lord, and let none escape your grasp!"
"Thou hunted other undead!? That is horrible! What kind of knight art thee!?" Priscilla exclaimed, aghast. She had jumped to her feet and backed away from Yeral, holding her scythe defensively in front of her. As Yeral had recounted the events leading towards joining the Darkwraiths, Priscilla had become increasingly concerned. By the time Yeral had stopped talking, she seemed very upset indeed. Yeral said nothing for a long time, looking down at the ground in shame. "I trusted thou! How many lives didst thou endeth? How many!?" Priscilla demanded angrily, her voice echoing throughout the painted world.
"...Several. Ten, at least." Yeral admitted eventually, still refusing to look up at Priscilla's face. Priscilla gasped in horror. All this time, Yeral had been deceiving her completely. The brave knight who told her tales of heroic adventure did not exist. Instead, sitting before her was a selfish, murderous undead, who only undertook his quest for his own benefit. Priscilla felt betrayed, she had placed a lot of trust in Yeral, the only person that she had trusted since Ariamis. But now, she wasn't even sure if anything that he had told her was true. "Please understand, I only did what I thought was necessary..." Yeral said weakly, but even he wasn't entirely certain whether that was really true. Priscilla glared at him coldly and pointed to her right, where a large plank jutted from the side of the structure.
"Tis time for thou to leave. Jumpeth down from that plank, and hurry home." Priscilla commanded icily. Anger like this was something that Priscilla had not felt in a long time. She was utterly furious at Yeral now, and just wanted him out of her sight. Slowly, Yeral stood up and started to walk towards the plank, but stopped abruptly and turned around. Priscilla simply glared as Yeral spoke up slowly.
"If I could undo what I did, I would. They never should have died because of my selfishness, and nothing I ever do will make up for that. I realized how wrong I was after... after what happened to Reise. Just know that I am, so, so sorry." Yeral murmured sadly, choking up as he spoke. Priscilla crossed her arms, but her gaze softened slightly. Now she was feeling very conflicted because, on one hand, Yeral had done terrible things. On the other hand, he did seem to be legitimately repentant. After a moment, Priscilla realized one of the things that Yeral had said...
"What, precisely, happened to Lady Reise?" she asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow at Yeral. Yeral looked down at the floor again, clearly upset.
"Something horrible. Something worse than death."
Yeral stood in Firelink Shrine, placing a wisp of humanity in his pouch, having just got done hunting down another undead. He had traded out his knight's armor for the uniform of a Darkwraith, a thick silver plate mail with white engravings patterned like bones. Covering his face was a silver skull-shaped mask and a raggedy black hood. The sinister skeletal armor seemed more robust than Yeral's standard knight plate, though not as sturdy as the elite knight set that he would obtain later. Along with the massive greatsword on his back, he had a darkwraith's black broadsword hanging at his hip.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of armored footfalls behind him, and quickly turned around, startled. Standing there uncertainly was none other than Reise, looking the same as ever. He hand clutched her catch pole tightly, not recognizing Yeral in his new armor.
"Ah, Reise! Good to see you!" Yeral exclaimed. He wasn't really especially thrilled to see Reise yet – he was, after all, working against her now, but he didn't want her to know that. Reise stumbled back in surprise.
"...Sir Yeral? Is that you? I was looking for you. ….What are you wearing?" Reise asked tentatively. Realizing that his ominous armor probably looked very strange to her, Yeral quickly tried to think up an excuse, rubbing the back of his head.
"Oh... Um... I found this in a building in New Londo, and my old armor got damaged badly by the Four Kings. This set is a bit morbid for my tastes, but I was in dire need of a replacement." Yeral bluffed quickly. To his relief, Reise simply nodded. She noticed that he was acting slightly odd, but decided that it was probably nothing.
"Well, I am glad to see that you made it out alive anyway. I had similar luck in the Duke's Archives, though Seath was quite a tricky beast indeed." Reise said, producing a glowing orange Lord Soul from her pouch. Yeral showed her the Four Kings' soul in return, and both knights nodded contently. "Anyway, that isn't the reason I was looking for you. I decided to explore the Darkroot Basin – not far from the Undead Parish – and I found something. Something you need to see." Reise explained, pointing towards the elevator leading up to the Parish. Yeral was rather curious about what Reise had found. Trying to spread the darkness could wait a little while, he decided, and trudged after Reise as she set off.
Darkroot Basin, as it turned out, was a dark wooded grove with a lake in the center. Green, mossy trees dotted the area and vines snaked their way across the pitch-black soil. Oddly, it seemed to become night time the moment that Yeral and Reise entered the basin, with the full moon shining brightly in the sky. Yeral put this sudden shift of time towards Lordran's distorted nature, and thought nothing of it. Reise led Yeral down the dark hill towards the bank of the lake. Arriving at the clear, deep water, Yeral saw a thin bank, half-submerged in ankle-deep water, wrapping around to the left. Without further ado, Reise splashed right into the shallows and trudged along the waterlogged path. Yeral cautiously followed her, grumbling as water filled his boots. As they turned a corner past a waterfall, Yeral saw what Reise had been leading him towards.
Floating in midair, above the surface of the water, was a swirling black vortex, like a portal. Yeral simply stared at it, confused, as Reise walked towards it.
"What IS this thing?" he asked confusedly. Reise stopped and turned to face him.
"Well, if I had to guess, it will transport us somewhere... But I have no idea where." she explained. Yeral was uncertain about what to do, but Reise simply looked back at the churning dark portal. "Only one way to find out... Come on!" she yelled, jumping into the vortex. In an instant, Reise was gone, whisked away to parts unknown. Hesitantly, Yeral walked towards the portal and reached out to touch it. The moment his arm reached the swirling darkness, he was pulled in. For several seconds, all Yeral saw was darkness, before suddenly bright sunlight shone in his eyes. After a moment of blindness, Yeral was able to see his surroundings clearly. He was in a green forest not unlike Darkroot, but the trees were younger and the grass was greener. In front of him was a shear drop from a cliff, which Reise gazed down.
Slowly, Yeral walked up next to her and looked down to see what she was staring at. Below them was a large city with architecture unlike any city that Yeral had seen. The buildings were mostly square and tightly clustered, with blue ceramic roof tiles. The city had multiple levels, descending deeper into the valley, with thin stone staircases connecting them. In the highest level of the city was a rounded structure, shaped like a large coliseum, with a single tower standing next to it. There was a stone bridge leading to the city not far from where Yeral and Reise were standing, so they gradually made their way across. Standing at the end of the bridge was a guard, who looked at Yeral and Reise curiously.
"Excuse me, sir. May we enter the city?" Yeral asked politely. The guard saw that Yeral was wearing the armor of a darkwraith, and seemed to recognize it.
"That's the armor worn by the servants of that toothy serpent. Are you here to help with the excavation?" the guard asked. Yeral's eyes widened behind his mask. Why would the people of this city know about Kaathe? And what was this excavation he was talking about? Not wanting to look suspicious in front of Reise, Yeral quickly replied.
"Uh, yes, of course. I am here to oversee things." he lied quickly. Reise glanced at him, but said nothing. The guard nodded and gestured for the two of them to pass.
"Very well. Enjoy your time in Oolacile." the guard said as the two knights strode into the city. The city square was oddly empty, and there were no lights in any of the windows. Everyone must have been participating in the excavation, whatever that was. As soon as they were out of earshot of the guard, Reise turned to look at Yeral.
"Toothy serpent? Excavation? What did he mean?" she asked curiously. Yeral simply shrugged.
"I have no idea. I just needed to get us in. I assume it has something to do with New Londo, since that is where I found the armor, but I do not know." he replied after a moment. This statement was half true, at least, he really didn't know what the excavation was. Obviously it had something to do with the Abyss and the age of Dark, but why hadn't Kaathe mentioned anything about it to Yeral?
"Did you hear what the guard called this place? Oolacile? That city was destroyed long ago. We've traveled to the past!" Reise exclaimed suddenly, surprising Yeral. Yeral contemplated the meaning of what Reise was saying for some time. "I'm guessing, whatever destroyed this place has something to do with that serpent, whatever it is." Reise concluded. Yeral nodded vaguely, but his mind was busy racing with questions. Why would Kaathe want to destroy a city? And why didn't Reise know about primordial serpents, when Kaathe had said that she was working with one? Either Kaathe was lying, or Reise was, and Yeral was not sure which.
"We should head deeper into the city. Maybe we can find out what is going on." Yeral said eventually. Reise looked at him, nodding in agreement, and together the two of them headed down into the deeper levels of the city. Just like the city square, the entire place seemed to be strangely quiet. Finally, at the very bottom of the valley, Yeral and Reise saw the city's residents, standing around a large hole dug in the ground. There were pickaxes and shovels lying about on the ground, but no-one seemed to be digging anymore. Instead, they stood around chatting, glancing nervously into the pit. Pushing their way through the crowd, Yeral and Reise gazed down into the hole that the citizens had dug, and saw what looked like a crude stone tomb, with what looked like a mummified body lying in the center.
"It is quite something, is it not? The grave of the primeval man?" a man dressed in a heavy black coat with a top hat and an unsettling grin spoke to Yeral and Reise. As the two knights turned to face the man, he pointed into the pit and continued speaking. "The serpent told these people that the primeval man could give them great power. I wonder if he was right?" the grinning man continued. Yeral was about to say something, before the man looked him directly in the eye. "I know that you two do not belong here. Whisked off to the past, just like me. But since you're here, why not have a look? I'm sure they'll let you in." the man whispered quietly, letting out an unsettling chuckle. Yeral turned to Reise, who nodded, and the two started walking towards the pit.
"Alright everyone, stand back! I work for the serpent! Now let us see what kind of power this corpse has!" Yeral called out loudly. Everyone turned to look at Yeral and Reise as the two descended into the pit. No-one tried to stop them, because they believed Yeral's lie about being sent by Kaathe, though of course it was only a half-lie. In the bottom of the hole, Yeral stepped towards the mummified corpse. Reise stood behind him nervously, as he reached out to touch the primeval man. As soon as he got close, Yeral felt a powerful force, like the life was being sucked out of him. The black humanity that Yeral had gathered flowed out of his body and into the primeval man, reducing him back to his hollowed form. A terrible roar rang out, and the corpse exploded into a shower of darkness, blinding Yeral and Reise for some time.
Once the darkness finally cleared, the two knights found that the ground had cracked open all around them, and the shrieks of the townsfolk filled the air. Enormous masses of humanity floated around in the air around them, and looming out of the cloud of darkness were many eerie glowing red eyes. The eyes leered at the two for a few moments, before turning away. A loud stomping sound could be heard as Manus, the Father of the Abyss, made his way into Oolacile.