Beyond the barrier was a short ledge that served as a natural balcony over a vast pit. Lex didn't hesitate, sprinting to the edge and hurling himself into the air as he roared the hymn to activate his armor. Oscar, Solaire, Laurentius, and Sif saw him and immediately followed after. Chester, however, stopped to take stock of the situation. He wasn't exactly enthusiastic about jumping blindly into the darkness with no bottom in sight, but at the same time, he was a sitting duck on the platform, the fog blocking his retreat.
After a few seconds' consideration, he sighed and followed the others down. They slowed as they neared the bottom, a warm updraft setting them on their feet gently. They stood atop a mound of dirt with a vaguely human-shaped indentation in it. Around the upturned soil were two surrounding rings of stones. Rough pillars formed a final ring, and in their midst were three large stones stacked as a crude marker of sorts.
A horrifying creature stood at the edge of the pillars, hunched over on crooked legs and supported by a left hand nearly as large as its warped torso. Teeth growing out of the hand bit into the dirt as it leaned forward to roar from the lipless mouth on its horned, eyeless head. Warped bony protrusions as large as the rest of its body rose out of its back like broken rips, an odd number of gleaming red eyes studded into them at random. A long feathery tail like Priscilla's whipped behind it, and much of its body was likewise covered in fur. In its relatively-normal right hand, it clutched a gnarled, petrified sapling crudely fashioned into a wooden axe.
"What could have been done to this man!" Solaire gasped.
"It's not that bad," Laurentius offered. "At least he's not made of lava like Master Quella."
"To be fair, broski was born like that," Lex said.
"Am I the only one who remembers we're trying to kill each other?" Oscar grumbled.
On cue, the monster lunged forward and slapped its giant hand in the midst of the group. The humans quickly scattered, but Sif twisted under the attack and hacked away at the wrist before coming face-to-face with the Father of the Abyss, snarling. As the monster swung at her, she slashed him across his face while leaping backward. Manus screamed, but quickly turned to choking as Chester shot straight down his throat. Lex had actually rolled closer to the beast to avoid the attack, and now that he'd had time to get behind it, he hacked away at it while singing.
"Yeah, I am the astro-creep! A demolition-style Hell-American freak, yeah! I am the crawling dead! A phantom in a box! Shadow in your head, say: acid, suicide! Freedom of the blast! Read the f-ckin' lies, yeah! Scratch off the broken skin! Tear into my heart, make me do it again, yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! More human than human! More human than human! More human than human! More human than human! More human than human! More human than human!"
Manus unleashed a sweeping uppercut as he whirled around, but Lex dropped back and charged a lightning spear. Another struck the primeval man from behind. He roared and turned to face his attacker, but the cleric loosed his own. As he turned again, Chester fired a spray of bolts into his back. Utterly enraged, the beast of the Abyss stomped in place and chewed at his own chest with the mouth on his left palm.
He screamed and waved his massive staff around in a circle. As he did so, a quartet of black-gray wisps formed in the air around him. One of them was near Lex, and he screamed and flailed wildly until it had dispersed.
"Destroy them! Quickly!"
As the modern humans scrambled to disperse the other wisps, the Father of the Abyss slammed the butt of his staff against the ground, causing a rush of Dark to spew from the top like oil from a rig. The individual orbs arced away from one another and fell around the area like a cage before turning sharply and rushing inward.
"Run!"
With hardly any time to recover from dispersing the wisps, the party charged directly at the roaring monster in the epicenter of the oncoming attack. Manus seemed to laugh and slammed his staff into the ground. Despite being in the midst of one spell already, a blastwave knocked the group away and streams of Dark spiraled out around him. Oscar quickly raised his pendant high into the air, and the golden light blasted away the hungry Dark on either side. Solaire, too, was within the bubble's reach, and it was a mere leap's distance away from the great wolf cub.
Chester was not so lucky, a rushing orb blasting him forward into a torrent of energy. As it rushed past him, he wobbled and struggled to remain standing, gasping and clutching at his mask. Laurentius, used to explosions, had dug his heels in and managed to avoid getting swept away by the initial pressure wave. With a quick roll, he wormed his way into Manus' personal space and flared up his pyromancy flame. Lex was the least fortunate.
As a result of funneling all his souls into Faith and Endurance and his parasitic armor, he was by far the frailest of the group. Like Chester, he had nowhere to go after being repelled, and he likewise was blasted forward by the orbs from behind and the torrents in front. When the Dark had passed, however, he was a gray husk of a human being that wheezed as it fell to its knees and dissolved into souls.
"Bull…shit…"
"Lex!" Oscar cried, his hand at his flask but realizing it was too late.
Now Laurentius slammed the ground as well, and enormous pillars of fire rushed up around him, trapping the beast and searing its flesh. Manus slammed his massive hand down on top of the pyromancer as if to pat out the flames, but the sea of flame didn't recede.
"This is for Master Lex, you monster!" he hissed through gritted teeth.
"Good man!" Chester laughed as he rushed into the inferno, slinging his crossbow onto his back and flapping his sleeves to drop a pair of hidden kukri into either hand.
He juked around another column of flame as it rose and dove straight into the beast's side, hacking away in a flurry of gore. At last, Manus let go of Laurentius to swat at Chester, but the masked man jumped to one side and tossed his offhand knife into the air. As it neared his main blade, he caught the handle, and the pair snapped together into a single shortsword. He swung his crossbow into his free hand and fired. As the beast recoiled, Chester rushed in and jerked the blade up through its ribcage.
Laurentius took a deep breath and backed away slowly, bones broken and exhausted from keeping up the firestorm for so long. Manus tore free of Chester and chased after him but received a lightning spear for his efforts. He hardly had time to recover before Sif charged at him, ducking under his flailing arm and slashing the wound Chester had made. Manus roared and raised his staff higher than ever, a roiling cloud of Dark forming above his head. Spears of humanity rained down on everyone at once.
Oscar sprinted ahead and slid toward Laurentius, raising his family's magic-resistant shield like an umbrella. Solaire held the Silver Pendant now and drew a lightning spear from within the protective bubble to counter the Dark storm with some thunder of his own. Sif and Chester were both agile enough to avoid the slow and steady cascade, the latter seemingly floating through the air as he leaped away rather than rolling. Hardly waiting for the spell to end, Manus chased after the nimble Chester, powering through the lightning striking at his back. His arm whipped ahead of him on a vortex of Darkness, swatting the masked man into the dirt.
Oscar and Sif rushed the beast from either side, hacking gouges out of the beast's flesh. At last, Solaire approached with sword and shield. Oscar quickly backed off and took a swig of Estus to heal Chester and Laurentius. The former chucked a black firebomb up into the monster's face as he rolled away. Solaire took the front just as Manus swung at the downed fighter with his axe-like staff.
The knight caught the blow solidly on his shield and made a quick slash with his entirely ordinary straightsword. It did little damage, but now Manus focused on this new opponent. The creature reared back and roared before unleashing a flurry of blows. A smash, then a backhand, an uppercut, and an overhand smash. Solaire held his broad shield firmly, standing strong against each attack.
At last, the creature lunged into the air and brought down its massive hand and axe together, but the experienced knight knew better and had beat a swift retreat. The Father of the Abyss drew his staff back and hurled a wave of Dark after him, but he simply presented the Silver Pendant, and the wave washed over him without effect. As Manus raged impotently, Chester peppered him with bolts and Sif made a strafing slash through his heels. The wolf turned about and growled at the creature before jabbing her sword into the ground and biting into its casting arm.
After a moment of flailing proved insufficient to shake her loose, Manus raised his mutant hand to bite her himself, but Oscar dug his sword into the back of the palm. Sif glanced upward, then released the monster, barking at the knight opposite her. He retreated quickly, raising his shield.
"Round two!"
There was a flash of steel as Lex's claymore sunk through Manus' back, all the way to the barbed hilt. With one hand, he twisted the blade, and with the other, he pressed his talisman to the pommel, electrifying it. The Father of the Abyss shrieked and bucked, his movement impeded by the blade running through his chest. His deformed hand smashed against the ground and some of the few stone pillars still standing until it bled. Then, time began to bleed.
The weight of Manus' humanity approached infinity, and his hand tore away at the present. He tried to tear away at his wounds, replacing his flesh with uninjured tissue from the distant past, but while the cleric was on his back, he was a sitting duck. He howled and unleashed another shockwave, but Lex held on tight, and Oscar healed him with a quick swig of Estus. Though not nearly as powerful as Quelaag, Laurentius melted the earth on which the beast stood, slowing it down even further as it flailed in the muck. Manus raised his staff once more, calling down another storm of Darkness to ward off his attackers.
The group was more than ready for it, though, easily evading the laggard falling humanity and clustering around Solaire and the Silver Pendant's light. Manus screamed and tore at time itself, offering brief glimpses at horrors to come and beauty long dead. A queen for want of flesh, another one rotten, a third impaled upon iron, and the last ruling endless winter. His humanity buckled under its own weight and shattered, Dark rushing away from him as his souls began to pour out.
"Not this again," Chester groaned and shot him in the chest.
The Father of the Abyss fell to his knees in the molten earth and let out one last whimper before bursting into souls, Dark and light. His principal soul clump fell to Lex, a gently purring whirl of Darkness about an otherwise ordinary humanity sprite. He looked at it, then at the ground.
"You know, in retrospect, there was an offhand chance that could have been resolved nonviolently."
Sif growled.
"Yeah, I know he did lots of bad stuff, but that's what makes us the good guys, right? We don't give up on people and just kill them because it's convenient."
She snorted.
"I'll remember that a few hundred years from now when you have that ring I need."
"But Lex, how would that be possible?" Solaire asked calmly. "You saw our foe was more beast than man. It's true we attacked first – and dishonorably – but the creature never uttered more than a snarl. Surely, his reason was long gone."
"True, but I also have half of his beloved stone pendant, which may have calmed him down a little, reason or no. I just sort of forgot I had it."
Oscar groaned and walked away, shaking his head. Chester just laughed.
"Well, that's quite all right. You can have my half as well!"
The masked man reach in his coat and withdrew the broken pendant, pressing it into the cleric's hand. Lex put it in his bag, then did the same with Manus' faintly pulsing soul. With that, some of the oppressive darkness left the cavern. Princess Dusk lay insensate at his feet, and a bonfire flickered to life some distance from the foot of the upturned grave. The entire area was enclosed in an impenetrable wall of rising Darkness.
"Can somebody help me move Dusk? I swear to god I'll drop her if I do it on my own."
Solaire and Laurentius both jumped to offer, speaking over each other by mistake.
"I would be happy to-!"
"Yeah, of course-!"
The pyromancer looked quite awkward, but Solaire laughed it off.
"Well then! Why don't you and Lex grab her arms? I'll take the legs."
The prophet shrugged, so they awkwardly carried Dusk between the three of them the short distance to the bonfire.
"Right, so still not tested everything yet," Lex said quickly. "For the time being, warping more than one person involves physical contact and may or may not work for non-humans. Or maybe even non-Undead. So anyway, Chester, grab hold of someone, and we can get out of here. Sif, if we leave you and possibly Dusk behind, the Knights minus Ornstein are at the old coliseum."
The wolf nodded and barked, so once Chester had skeptically placed a hand on Oscar's shoulder, Lex focused on the Oolacile Sanctuary and cast the group through the Fire.
OOLACILE SANCTUARY
They emerged from the bonfire without anything amiss, Sif shaking her coat as if to fling off the Abyss like water. Chester looked about slowly, and seeing Elizabeth, faced the other direction as he sat down in front of the bonfire.
"Don't keep me waiting," he teased.
Once again, the trio clumsily moved the princess, setting her down gently next to the mushroom woman. She seemed a little ruffled to see Chester in the distance but quickly recovered her composure.
"I have awaited you. You have rescued Princess Dusk and rid us of that terrible primeval human – even halting the spread of the Abyss! I salute the grandeur of yourn enterprise. Please, allow me to express my gratitude. I thank you… as do we all."
With that, she knocked some large fungal shelves from the tree beside her.
"It is not much, but these are fully-grown. When ingested, they are a potent medicine. I can only hope that you will never have need of them."
Lex picked up the discs and put them in his bag.
"No, I think I actually already know someone who might get some use out of them. Thanks."
"I only wish I could give thee more."
"No, this is great. I don't think medicine's of much use, actually, but we're working on a cure. She might need these during the recovery afterward."
He scratched the back of his head.
"Well, we should be going. Don't want to overextend our welcome in the past. So begins the legend of Abysswalker Artorias, I suppose."
The mushroom nodded – or rather, bobbed slightly.
"I will remember you, but I will keep your story to myself. No one will sing your praises, but yet your greatness will live on. For it shall be my purpose to remember all you have done for us!"
"Okay, but the first time a mushroom person cold-cocks me in the face, I'm coming back to frown at you aggressively."
He left the puzzled mushroom woman and returned to the bonfire. They linked hands again, except Chester, who sarcastically maintained contact with one finger pressing against the side of Lex's head – and Sif, who lacked hands anyway but was content to be pet by Solaire.
OOLACILE TOWNSHIP
"More errands?" Chester hummed, annoyance slithering into his tone.
"So many errands!" Lex replied with fake enthusiasm. "I could probably drop you off somewhere after this. We're going to be running in and our the Abyss for a while, and after that, we've got an everlasting dragon to slap around."
"You don't say?" the scoundrel replied, interested. "Well, maybe I could stick around a little longer."
Lex turned to Laurentius.
"Do you need to head back now? I mean, time travel, but dragonslaying isn't what you signed on for. Honestly, you didn't have to fight Manus with us – I just forgot to ask if you wanted to head back."
"Of course not! I'll stay as long as you're here, Master Lex. Even if I didn't want to, I'd be too afraid of Mistress Quelaag to return alone."
Sif had no time for this nonsense and quickly rushed out of the crater to Artorias, whimpering.
"Calm thyself!" Ciaran hissed, having been knocked away by the overeager wolf. "Artorias yet lives… diminished though he may be."
Gough climbed down from his perch atop one of the buildings, chuckling heartily.
"I see you all have returned triumphant from doing battle with that thing, the Father of the Abyss. Already, the Dark is receding, and only that old bat is left to blight the land."
"We'll get to him in a bit," Lex said casually. "I have to scrape all the humanity out of the Abyss first."
"More nonsense," Ciaran huffed.
"Okay, fine. Not all of it. As much as I can carry and make everyone else carry and cram in the bottomless box I forgot to buy."