To see a Darkened Sun
chapter 20
The halls echoed with a loud clattering as Arias ran. He briefly noticed the main hall to his right as he passed it, and looking back down the corridor he was running down now, all the doors were open and there were fewer windows and more candles, he was going the right way.
It wasn't long before he ran into the firekeeper, she was fighting with three silver knights in the middle of the corridor. Seeing that she was struggling, Arias unsheathed his greatsword and charged in, quickly slicing the arm off of one of the knights.
The knights and firekeeper both stood still for a moment, shocked by the sudden and swift intrusion. One the two knights that still had both arms defended the third "Unarmed" knight, leaving only one fighting the firekeeper.
Arias waited for the knight to strike, bringing his greatsword down to meet theirs as it was about to hit him. The sudden and heavy strike was enough to slice the sword clean in half, briefly stunning the knight as reverberations from the clashing steel ran down it's arm. He utilized this window to bring his sword back around and sharply cleave through it's armor with a swift horizontal slice.
The sliver knight let out a phantom screech before Arias silenced it, finishing it off with a vertical slice, splitting it down the middle, until it was two halves of the one knight. Panting briefly, Arias ducked as he heard a "whoosh" beside him.
A sword swept over him as he lowered, the wielder of the sword was a stumbling one armed knight. Arias span around, using the momentum to swing his greatsword and slice the knight's shins clean off. As he made a full spin rotation, he used the last of the momentum to swing the sword vertically into the air and then back down through the falling knight, cleaving diagonally from the upper neck through to the hip.
With the knight's remains falling clumsily to the floor, Arias held his sword out to his side and crouched down to catch his breath. As he lifted his head up to check for threats, he saw the firekeeper toss the lifeless body of the last silver knight to the floor.
She turned around, ready to help Arias in battle, only to see him alone, surrounded by the dead knights.
"What in the- How?" She stuttered, bewildered that he was able to kill two of Anor Londo's strongest knights in a few seconds. He didn't respond, not wanting to waste his breath that was certainly in short supply at the moment.
"No matter, that room, it's full of them. And the master, some bastard has a sword to their throat. I'm not sure what they want, they made no demands, they didn't even look at me, they just sent out some of those traitors to attack me. Speaking of, they've got an entire legion in there, we cannot contest them by ourselves, we may need all of the blades just to face up to those numbers, let alone that mysterious figure holding the master." The firekeeper ignored his breathless state and explained the situation to him. He held his breath when she mentioned that there was a blade to Gwyndolin's throat.
"As things are, it looks like we'll have to go find the other blades first-" She started but was interrupted as Arias quickly rose to his feet.
"No. That's out of the question. We can't just leave Gwyndolin in there, especially when we don't even know the intention of whoever has him hostage!" He almost shouted.
"What!? Look, I don't care how skilled you are, we can't take all those silver knights on as just the two of us! We'd be slaughtered! Then who'd save the master!?" She retorted, starting to believe that he was trying to flex his combat prowess or that maybe his ego had gotten to him.
"I know but- There's just no way anything good could come from just leaving! Not with things as they are!" Arias stood his ground even though it was becoming more apparent that the firekeeper had a good point.
"We aren't! We'll be back and soon, with a party large enough to take on that many foes!" She tried reasoning with him, fully believing now that was just too full of himself after taking down those knights so quickly.
"I know, but... I just can't. I just can't leave Gw- The master here while she's in such a state." He admitted, though the Firekeeper couldn't really understand what he actually meant by it.
"Of course you can! If you'd just swallow your damn pride and accept that you can't do everything maybe we'd get back in time!" She was getting really angry with him now.
"It's not about pride!" He told her, still trying to avoid confessing directly.
"Then what is it!?" She responded immediately, getting right in his face.
"It's... It's..." He started, but he knew that he couldn't say it, knowing what Gwyndolin would think of the truth spreading, thinking of his face, he just couldn't.
"Answer me!" She shouted in his face.
"It's... My duty, to the master, as the knight of the Darkmoon." He lied. He couldn't think of anything else to say to her, there was nothing else he could say to her, anything else would just make her more suspect of him.
"Hmph. Then I suppose there's nothing to be done about it. Loyal to your vows, I suppose I can't fault you for that. But that doesn't change that we'll be killed." She eased up, respecting his loyalty. But she was still adamant that they should not go in.
"Yeah, I know that too... But.. if we're smart, we might be able to have it both ways." He said, an idea brewing in his head.
"How so?" She asked, interested in how he though they could work around this.
"The idea, is that you'll go get the rest of the blades, and I'll fight the knights, to keep them distracted, so they don't kill the master." He told her.
"What? But I just said that would be suicide! You can't seriously think that you'll be able to do that all alone!" She responded, bewildered by how quickly he seemed to forget everything she'd just said.
"I know, I know. It sounds ridiculous but hear me out. If they only sent three knights to take you on, then they clearly aren't that worried about one of us alone. My plan is that I'll fight these knights three by three, and by the time they realize that won't work and decide to move in to all attack me, you and the blades should be back. This way you get the others, and the enemy is too distracted to kill the master." He explained, though he did realize there were some faults in his logic, it was the only plan he had that worked.
"That... sounds possible. But you must be able to see the holes in it right? What if they send out more than three? What if you kill too many too quickly and they all charge in too soon?" She quickly pointed out these problems, but Arias just shrugged and said he'd be careful.
The firekeeper still had many doubts about the plan. As always she doubted Arias, but there was nothing else she could think of to make this situation work. He was just too stubborn to leave and of course they'd be killed if they just charged in, not to mention what the cost of total inaction would be.
"Fine, I suppose I'll just have to believe in your ability for now. Don't die before we get back. And no matter what don't let them slay the master." She sighed, finally giving up. Arias nodded, affirming that he wouldn't be careless. Then he watched as she pulled out a bone from her pack and faded into mist.
He waited briefly, breathing deeply. He knew that now he was walking alone on thin ice, and how he handled this was of utmost importance. Readying himself, he lifted his sword and cautiously walked through the doorway to his left.
A/N A short chapter, I know, but the next one will probably end up being one of the longest in the entire story so I thought it was appropriate to write a shorter one first. If only so that I don't overwhelm myself while writing. I just looked at the date and oh my Gwyndolin it's been 6 months since I started writing this fic. Can't believe I've been simping for Gwyndolin for half a year straight and I'm still going. The story should be complete soon though, just a few more chapters, and I'm thinking of maybe doing multiple endings too. It's kind of sad to think that soon I probably won't be writing bits of this every time I get home. Monologue over. See you in a week or two, or maybe three.