Elder Cryptid: It's probly gonna get worse from here on. I looked back into the previous chapters I and shake my head. I don't even know what was going through my head half the time.
guisniperman: Vengeance is a dish best served fanfiction.
Start.
Menma dumped Griggs onto the ground in Firelink Shrine, a curious hum entered his ear making him turn to the sound, it was none other than the antisocial sorc, Logan. The big hat wearing man tilted his brim for a moment, "A Spook? However did you come across this young man, friend?" Quired the older man, Menma adjusted his new giant blade so he could stake it into the ground next to him.
"Found him locked in a house, behind a wooden door. He one of your lot?" Asked the Uzumaki.
"Never seen him before, though he's obviously from the Dragon School of Vinheim." Admitted Logan, spotting the Slumbering Dragon Crest Ring upon the boys finger. "It's so sad to see how dreadfully incapable the newest generation is though. To be caught behind a wooden door of all things." Logan sighed and shook his head, Menma snorted in amusement garnering the Sorcerers attention.
"Says the man who got locked up by Lizard men." Logan was suspiciously silent as Menma let out a few more chuckles, "Anyway, I gotta head to Blighttown, I'll see you lot later." Menma said, running a demonic hand through his hair and slid his newest prize onto his back, a few loose threads of leather wrapping around it and holding onto it tightly, the sheer arsenal he was building made the renowned magic man shake his head.
The man looked ridiculous, carrying around so many weapons when a spell could do as much, if not more, damage with a flick of his wrist and a staff. No matter the Weapon enhancements a well placed spell was still easier than a unrefined slab of metal.
Menma suddenly felt the urge to punch Logan, very hard.
Passing through the New Londo ruins always did rub him the wrong way, but also at the same time he felt it would become incredibly important...It was a weird sensation. Crossing the small bunch of wooden planks he crossed shortly through the Valley of Drakes, idly noticing another Undead-looking Dragon, it didn't seem to evoke the same melodrama it did last time. So he ignored it and went into the fetid mouth of the cesspit that was Blighttown.
Quelaag's Domain
It went much the way it did last time, though this time he had a plus one, a certain Mother of Pyromancy slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, Menma ignored Quelana's complaints and demands to be put down he was gonna force this little family reunion if it killed him. Because she else had to be there to watch as he tried to fix Quelara, she may have managed to escape but bloody fuck her family was still alive, well two of them were anyway. He heard there were like 7 or so Daughters of the Witch, but he couldn't be sure. 7 just seemed to jump to his head, it could be wrong.
"What do you think you're doing? You think because I taught you a few tricks that you know what's best for me!? Do you have any idea how they will react? Family or no they are taken by Chaos, they will kill us both!" Snarled the robed woman, Menma merely jostled his shoulder, ducking his head to fit into the web covered hole to the Domain. He idly noticed the Ogre's didn't try to bother him, smart bunch, they were learning.
"Life is full of interesting events, Sensei. Don't be a shit about this." Said the Uzumaki, boredly. This could go two ways, both of which he was prepared for.
"Oh! You have returned!" Said the excited voice of Eingyi, Menma nodded to the egg bearer he quickly gestured for the giant to enter, though confused he was at the sight of the robed woman.
"I'm back." Announced Menma, dropping his teacher onto her feet next to the bonfire and taking Quelara's hands into his own, her frail form was looking a little healthier, her skin ever so slightly more coloured, "It's good to see you looking better, Quelara."
"Oh Menma! Welcome back, I am glad to hear your voice again, I wanted to thank you for what you've done for me...I haven't felt pain in many days, your gift has made Quelaag's life much easier, dear sister was fretting so." Said the girl, before she hummed looking down at his right hand, or more likely looking at her hand that was being held by it.
"Your hand is very warm, a and it feels...Hard. Did something happen to it?" She asked interestedly.
"Magic." He answered with an amused smile, she didn't seem to get it and ever so slightly tilted her head, "Nevermind..." Taking his hands from hers he looked around the small enclave, "Is Quelaag around? I managed to make a seal that absorbed Chaos Energy, and I figured that she'd wanna see what happened when I used it on something with Chaos Energy." He asked, though he would first have to get something with Chaos energy so ripe in its body to see the effects it would have on the two women, the point was he wanted to give a progress report.
"Sister is right behind you is she not?" Asked the girl curiously.
"I am not, Quelaag. Sister." Informed Quelana, managing to find her voice finally. Menma took a step back as Quelara gasped, nudging forward his teacher as he did so, he wasn't really in the mood to deal with familial reunions. Acting on this a little more intensely, Menma left the enclave and decided to poke around a bit, he went down the nearest tunnel at the exit to the Covenant, passing a few more Eggbearers he saw a giant lake of lava, a giant demon misshapen and malformed, constantly spitting lava, allowing the lake to continue flowing.
Menma spotted a lone bonefire resting atop the next mound before him, with a click of his slowly scaling arm it ignited into a roaring flame, slowly flickering down and settling. Menma walked towards the giant demon, over the bridge and through the stone archway, a slow and uneasy tension began to build in his stomach, the only comfort he had being the hilt of Oscar's Astoran Straight Sword at his side. He lightly cursed the man for dying on him, dumping that prophecy on him.
Whilst this journey was not as hard as he expected, the things he'd seen and the endless despair that permeated all those he met aside from one out of place optimist, it weighed upon the Shinobi's soul likes waves against stone, slowly but surely it wore at him.
But as he approached the demon, and all of its red eyes locked onto his form, Menma felt no despair. Only pain, a pain that seemed to be so thick in the air he could almost taste it, this creature...It's eyes whilst many and redder than blood, its eyes were, human in a way. It saw him, as he saw it.
Menma saw a small altar with a robed corpse atop it, "A daughter of the Witch?" He questioned aloud, the demon heard him, obviously, as it shifted slightly to peer at the corpse it eyes dipping with sadness, but also a bittersweet comfort.
"How do you know them..?" Menma asked the creature though he got no response as expected, Menma felt its gaze shift to his arm, "Everyone looks at the arm. I'm not going to waste my breath explaining it to someone who can't talk back." Informed the weapon laden giant, the creature seemed to lose interest in him anyway, returning its gaze to the corpse.
"So, thou hast found our dearest brother, and our departed sister." Came the familiar voice of Quelaag, Menma didn't bother turning his gaze from the creature, this world had taught him not to put his back to an unknown, Quelaag approached from his side all of her hooked spidery legs stabbing the ground with each step she took.
"Your brother, huh? He must have been quite powerful to become so large." Commented the Uzumaki, idly, earning a rather unladylike grunt from the spider woman. "Apparently, the size of a being is a good indicator for the power of their soul. I don't know if this holds true for anything but the Lords and their servants, but if it is. May I say, wow." The slight smirk that lined his face seemed to irk the woman slightly, but only slightly.
"To what end has your returned brought?" She asked, her arms still crossed.
"I have a seal that can absorb Chaos energy, when I used it on my own arm it was like ripping off a limb, I don't know how else to go about it though." Informed the black haired male, Quelaag's expression turned stormy at the idea of such a thing being done to her sister. "Then again it hasn't been tested on anything but myself. I figured I'd go into the ruins and see what happens on a few demons. If all else fails...I'll have to think of something else."
"Thine words best not ring hollow, Demigod. Or the pain I shall put upon thee...Not even the gods will save your soul." Swore the Witch, Menma shrugged and looked at her, she met his gaze for match and found his eyes filled with apathy and exhaustion.
"I'm nothing if not a man of my word. I said I'd try, so that's what I'll do. But I can't get past jumbo here to get into the ruins, lake of lava and all." He informed, only to have a small ring tossed at him, he caught it in his armoured hand and looked at it, a small onyx metal ring with a orange gem in the centre.
"Tis a ring this foolish boy repeatedly lost. It was all we could do to ease his pain, as a child he had many welts upon his body, filled with a sickly magma due to the flame in him being malformed. This ring prevented a majority of the harm from such things, allowing his body to heal. Like a fool, he lost it in the ruins. One of my servants recovered it not long ago, use it to pass through the lava unharmed." Informed the Witch, before turning away from her brother and from the 'Demigod', intent on returning to Quelara.
"Quelana is with the Fair Lady by the way, I figured family is something you'd all need in times like this." Said Menma, slipping the ring on the middle finger of his right hand, Quelaag turned to inquire more but he merely leapt off the side and began racing across the lava field into Izalith.
She wanted to curse him, she would butcher the man if his words turned out to be untrue. But with haste she returned to her lair, in hopes of seeing her lost sister.
A Short While Later
Menma's palm slammed against the chest of a Capra Demon, his human hand's glove inscribed with the rune, the Demon quivered before turning into the ashen mist he'd become familiar with when it came with these things. Menma frowned, "This is becoming a trend..." Muttered the giant male.
If all the seal did was absorb Chaos energy, and it instantly slew these creatures, did that mean that they were entirely made up of it? But what of the blood from the Capra Demon he butchered up above? Perhaps these were different? Menma was very confused, all of this was slowly making less and less sense.
He'd spotted a bonfire below him, on the 'ground floor' as it were, dropping down a level he landed next to the bonfire, through a giant centipede-creature exploded out of the wall and attempted to chew into him, backstepping Menma grabbed his Machete and slammed the blade right between its pincers, leaving a bloody mess upon the ground and upon his sword, though like the rest, it turned to ashen dust.
"What is with this place?" He gripe, clicking at the bonfire to activate, shaking his head the Uzumaki sat down, pulling his Estus Flasks from his pouch and filling them with the essence of the flame, the empty emerald flasks glowed a soft orange as the flames filled them.
Menma sat in thought, though a small idea did cross his mind, unsheathing his Uchigatana and unsealing his pot and ink he began scrawling the rune across its blade, "If nothing else it'll juice up my weapon." He thought distantly, he repeated the seal several times over giving the weapon a myriad of seemingly random markings down the blade. With a single seal the ink dried and sunk into the blade, permanently staining it with the seal, running his hand along it Menma activated the seal, it turned a dim red colour, showing its active nature.
He left the bonfire and continued on deeper still into Izalith, intent on finding a way to end this bloody demonic curse, for no other reason than to say he could defy nature itself and revert life to it original state. Arrogant boasting really, was what his desire came down to. He did have this epiphany about himself, he was trying to be nicer to these people because he pitied them, everyone he met he cared for out of pity.
But none deserve pity, for pity is merely an acknowledgment of weakness, and he hadn't really met anyone who was terribly weak, Quelaag had obvious slain all who came into her domain before him, Solaire was a Knight of great prowess, Siegmeyer was an adventurer and a good one if he'd managed to survive so long. Those who were able, fought.
And those like Anastacia and Quelara, whilst they were burdened by existence, they did not deserve his pity, for they were the strongest of all, to merely exist in the defiance of such adversity was a strength in of itself.
So he would not pity these people, and he would not hide behind a mask of kindness and sadness, he wasn't that kind of person.
As Menma spotted a Taurus Demon charging up towards him he affirmed himself in what he was.
A killer.
Leaping into the air Menma seemingly vanished into a small burst of oceanic flames, the creature skidded to a halt only to shriek in pain as its spine was pierced by a blade, Menma felt the seals suck up the energy, as the creature turned to dust no souls were collected by him, the sword drained the very soul itself into it. The blade turned a sickly black colour and the seals burned an angry red.
"Hmm..." He hummed curiously, but that only told him that he was absorbing the power, not reversing any affliction. But then, weren't the creatures created by the Chaos Soul? Perhaps, as a small revelation hit him his lips pulled into a smirk, "How to stop poison? Cut it off at the source."
Perhaps, he thought, perhaps it could be that simple. If the seals stopped the power from resurfacing by holding it within them, evidenced by the fact that none of the Capra Demons he slew returned after he rested at the bonfire, perhaps using the seal upon the Chaos itself would reverse the effects?
If nothing else he'd get a really nice sword out of it.
End of Chapter.