THE LEGEND CONTINUES, MY FRIENDS.
Hope you guys are ready for another chapter of this awesome tale because this one's a bit of a special addition.
After thinking things over a bit, I thought that I should give a bit of attention to one of the potential villains of this tales and after sitting down and typing a few things out, I Kinda found out that there Is a hell of a lot more potential to the guys than I originally thought.
Don't have much to add other than that little tid bit, so let me get straight to a few..
Comments that caught my eye.
Guest- You know three mask's is a lot of metal to work with. Our prophet might just end up with a full helmet at this point. Though what it would look like is beyond me. But please make it look cool, something that looks either dark souls like or a completely new flavor like anime, futuristic, high fantasy so on and so forth. Though please tell me if his the prophets equipment is going to be customizable in the future.
My Response- No worries, bro. I've definitely taken the fact that the mask might contain a pretty large amount of material into account. I've actually played around with the idea of using the left over material to craft a ring of some sort. Maybe give it abilities that are similar in likeness to the mask and give it to another character who the prophet thinks needs it more. Again, this is just a little idea swimming around in my head, so I won't say whether this is a guaranteed inclusion in the story or not.
Also, yes, the Prophet gear in most definitely going to be customizable in this story. But I'm going to try and keep the gear creation in moderation. Don't want the Prophet getting to god-tier to soon, now do we.
Tylermecha66- this is something that needs to be done, to right the wrongs of so many hopeful fans, something that was considered badass but we never got, instead a pale imitation... the manikin mask from the ds2 trailer! "you could even add a billowing black hood for extra badassery points!)
My Response- Alright, pal, I'm going to need you to stop reading my mind like that.
But in all seriousness, I actually plan on getting the Prophet a badass hood to match the sort of warrior pyromancy he become. I'm thing something along the lines of the Ringed Knight hood from Dark Souls 3.
Also, its so hilarious that everyone's pretty much split between the mannequin mask from the Dark Souls 2 trailer and Ichigo's mask. Honestly, I can pretty much go either way on this, since they both work pretty awesomely.
Guest- You should really get into the occult rebellion. And the dark rogue side of velka. And maybe the other games
My Response- Give it time, bro. I've got plenty of plans to show that side of Velka and you'd better believe that the knowledge of other games will play a part in this. Most notably, I will say, will be the information regarding the Ringed City and the first Pygmy's.
SOUL Survivor (Regarding the warning from the previous chapter.)- DAMIT I JUST GOT BACKSTABBED BY INVADING BLADE OF THE DARKMOON AND ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!
My Response- Sir, It is my firm belief that only scrubs of the highest order get backstabbed during an invasion. I recommend that you Git Gud before reading this story any further.
Alright, guys. That about all I got for ya.
Hope you all enjoy the read.
Warning: This chapter can't truly be understood unless you understand the true definition of insanity. (That's right, I'm bringing Far Cry 3 references into this.)
Its gone.
The boy has burned to ashes.
Climbing onto the rust covered elevator and ascending higher into the interior of the chapel above, Petrus held on to the feeling of resentment for that child as long as he could. Thinking of all the ways he would make him suffer for his actions.
But one could only stay angry for so long until their mind came back to reality and their situation at hand.
Moving through the church and towards the opening the lead back outside, a heavy sense of weariness swept through his body, almost seeming to weighing him down even. Where was he going right now? His mission to retrieve the rite was a failure and returning to Thorolund would only end in his demise. So what was it his intend from here?
Moving forward through the doorway at the other side of the building and allowing the bright rays of the sun to strike his body, the cleric was met with the sight of what appeared to be a lone hollow. Standing on his left, holding a shield and a spear, the creature stared forward with the most vacant, empty look in its eye's. It was almost as if it was waiting in anticipation to fight off some imminent threat.
Seeing the utter nothingness that hung behind the hollows eye's filled Petrus with a small sense of irritation. But, once again, he did not understand why. He had bore witness to hollow soldiers before, even killed more than his fair share. So why was it that he was feeling anything towards something that was so insignificant and inconsequential to him?
More than fed up with this line of thinking, Petrus decided to simply disregard these thoughts completely. Moving himself forward with the intent of heading towards the large cathedral in the distance. After moving but a few steps forward, the hollow at last noticed his presence and slowly moved forward with its shield raised to confront him.
It didn't take more than a few moments for Petrus to deal with the mad, undead creature.
Not even bothering to raise his shield, Petrus easily side stepped the hollows pathetically slow thrust from its spear. Waiting for the moment when its reach would extend just far enough for him to get a strike in. Once such a moment presented itself, the Cleric delivered a single powerful blow to the hollows head, crushing its skull in and sending its body falling dead to the ground.
With that business finished, the Cleric turned away from his enemy and continued towards his destination, feeling as though he had done nothing but waste his time on something that did not matter in the slightest.
Moving forward, he proceeded to walk down a small flight of stairs and across a very long walkway until he came upon a doorway that lead into a ruined and decrepit room.
CLINK. CLINK. CLINK. CLINK.
That sound. It was familiar to him. The sound of steel striking steel.
Turning to his left and seeing a flight of stairs leading downward, Petrus wasted no time in following the sound to its source.
With each step causing the hammering to grow louder in his ears, the Cleric proceeded down the stairs until he came upon a bonfire sitting directly in the middle of a small room that held another doorway and another flight of stairs that lead further downward. After brief inspection, he saw that the doorway seemed to lead to a massive gate that blocked the entrance to a massive bastion like structure. So after igniting the bonfire for his own use, he decided to proceed down the long stairway toward the hammering and was met with an unexpected sight.
Sitting off to the corner of a very small room sat an absurdly large and burly dark skinned man who looked as if he spent his entire life working his muscles to the bone. Almost the entirety of his head and face covered in wild, overgrown grey hair the seemed to ruffle with each strike he sent onto a piece of metal he was working on. Not to mention the large amounts of weaponry that sat behind a very sizable and well kept forge where he worked.
Once the man spotted him, he immediately ceased his hammering and spoke.
"Well, you must be a new arrival." the heavy set man said in a deep voice. "I'm Andre, of Astora."
Definitely not in the mood for talk and still unable to shake the feelings of displeasure that plagued his mind, the Cleric aimed to make this conversation brief.
"I am Petrus of Thorolund." the Cleric said introducing himself. "Forgive me, but I'm afraid I am new to these parts. Would you be able to tell me anything useful about the area?"
"Very well." Andre replied simply. "This is the old church. It was abandoned in favor of the church that you passed through. There are paths leading from here to two forbidden planes: Sen's Fortress and the Darkroot Garden. They attract all sorts of lunatics, no-one as cultured as yourself. It's fine to be Undead, but keep a level head, eh? Hah hah hah!"
Mentally rolling his eye's at the mans poor attempt at humor, Petrus proceeded to continue with his questioning.
"Am I to assume that the gated off path above is this Sen's Fortress then?" the Cleric asked.
"Aye, you'd be correct." Andre responded. "Its an old proving grounds built by the ancients gods. It is the only route leading to the great Anor Londo. Of course, most fools can't even find their way into that fortified deathtrap. But they won't stop trying! Take that bumbling Sir Onion. Hah hah hah!"
"And this path leads to the Darkroot Garden then." Petrus said, completely ignoring the second joke the large man had made entirely and looking towards the only doorway in the room.
"Yep. Though admittedly, I know very little about it." Andre said. "I've heard rumors of a divine blacksmith who resides there. Those who get stumped in the Catacombs seek him for divine weapons. But the path is blocked off by a stone-made monstrosity that sits right beyond the door there. Luckily it doesn't seem to want to go any further than that."
"I see. Thank you for your assistance." Petrus said as he proceeded through the doorway.
Seeing this, Andre couldn't hold back a small warning.
"I won't stop you if you really intend on doing it, but I wouldn't head in there if I were you." the Blacksmith forewarned. "That thing is terrifying enough, but trying to get past it alone will probably only end in your death."
The Clerics eye's darkened slightly at this, not even bothering to turn back and dignify that statement with a response. Him? Being killed in a place like this? Nothing more than utter nonsense. He was one of the worthy. A devout member of the church and warrior of the gods.
"I do not need the help of anyone else." Petrus said resolutely. "My faith will see me through any foe."
The Cleric then continued forward through the doorway without allowing Andre the chance to speak even a single word further on the matter.
But as he continued forward, a certain voiced echoed through his mind.
"Good luck surviving without your little miracles to help you out. Bet it sure would be nice if you had a couple friends to help watch your back, eh?"
Walking through the doorway and down the stairs that lay beyond it, Petrus just barely recognized that he was now standing in a wide open room with crumbed stone pillars strew about all across the area. He could only see that boys face. The image of him burning his talisman in his hand and smiling about it.
As a behemoth of a monster comprised of entirely dark grey stone and wielding a long spear-like weapon came into view, he did not feel fear from it. The only thing that ran through his mind was the mocking tone the boy held. How he believed that he would simply die away without so much as whisper to be spoken of his name.
The thought infuriated him, but why?!
He had survived. Turned the situation to his advantage with but a few empty words. So why was it that he felt as if he was the one who had been beaten and left with nothing.
His gaze steeling, the Cleric shook these thoughts from his mind.
"I don't need anyone." Petrus said as his grip on his mace tightened and the stone beast shifted slightly, its forming towering in the middle of the open room. "Reah, the boy, his keeper, every last one of them can burn in hell."
Eyeing the statue with a deep malice, the Cleric raised his weapon and shield at the ready.
"I'm nothing like the rest you. I am chosen. I am worthy. And I will survive!"
With that final thought, Petrus charged forward with his shield raised and a heavy grunt of frustration. His plan: he would crush this beast with brute force. Everything had a breaking point and this creature was no exception.
Rushing in a straight beeline towards his foe, Petrus was quick to duck below a slow, extended strike the creature gave with its pole like weapon, proceeding to go underneath its arm and strike where one would assume ribs would be.
Though a resounding crack did ring true, the creature barley seemed to notice that a chunk of its body broke free underneath the force of Petrus's mace. Swinging with a backhanded strike of its weapon, Petrus found it at least easy to read this creatures movements, as each of its attacks were widely telegraphed. Hell, one could even say that the creature looked to be in slow motion as it raised its staff and wound up each attack.
Grinning smugly, Petrus ducked under many of the attacks the creature sent his way, bashing into the monsters massive form after every evasion. Breaking off piece after piece, the Cleric was indeed making progress. Though the monster still behaved as if it had barely noticed the damage.
Wanting to make himself even more difficult to attack, Petrus ducked under yet another swing and rushed behind the monsters body.
"Dull creature!" the Cleric said as he lashed out at the monsters arm the was holding its weapon. Only for the creature to lean down slightly before launching itself high above his small form. The last words to leave the Clerics still grinning face as the beast shadow fell over him was very confused. "What..?".
CRASH
Slamming its weapon down with the full force of its falling body, the stone beast would likely have crush the cleric in two had he not hastily raised his shield to absorb some of the blow. Unfortunately, with his strength not even worth comparing to the monsters, Petrus's body completely crumbled as he was hit with the force of a falling boulder, breaking a number of his ribs as he was forced to the floor.
With its prey now helpless before it, the beast hammered away at Petrus's still raised shield. Every blow earning a cry of pain from the Cleric as he experienced the pain of having the bones in his arm bend, fracture and then finally break. Coupled with the pain of having his entire body repeatedly pulverized into the ground, it was all he could do to keep his shield raised.
The creature then attempted to deliver another devastating strike by leaping onto the air once more with its weapon raised high above its head. But just before the blow could connect to him, Petrus rolled himself out of the way, allowing the beast to promptly jam its own weapon into the concrete below.
Grunting with a heavy pain, Petrus did his best to hastily get to his feet, letting his injured arm hang limp as he turned around and headed back the way he came, trying his best not to think about the immense torture that poured over his body with each step.
"Ergh...ugh..Damn...I can't beat this thing like this...I need to rest..." Petrus though through the pain. "The bonfire...if I can just make it to the-"
BTZZZZ SCHLIK
The Cleric got no more than a few feet before the stone beast suddenly wrenched its weapon from the ground, pulled it high above its head and shot a heavy bolt of lighting at the fleeing humans body, striking his injured arm with such power that it ripped it clean from his body. With the immense agony of having arm blown from his body, Petrus faltered for a moment before collapsing to a knee with a wide eyed look upon his face as his mind attempted to comprehend what just happened to him.
He never got the chance as the beast reeled back once more and shot yet another bolt of lightning on the Clerics kneeling form, this one striking just above his hip and blowing a chunk of flesh and muscle from his body. At this, Petrus howled in agony before falling onto his back, allowing a small pool of blood to form underneath him.
The world seemed to move hyper drive as adrenaline pulsated through his veins with loud booms, every second magnified to an unimaginable number. It was growing harder for him to breath, his vision was clouding...soon enough, the pain seemed to just simply become numb, though his mind was to far gone to acknowledge that fact.
"Wh...What happened?...My body...I can't...move..." Petrus thought to himself as the feeling of helplessness and despair began to fully weigh in on his mind, causing actual tear to rim along his eye's. "Why...I was one of the chosen...why did this have to happen to me..."
Its funny how at the climax of every life, a person never thinks of what's happening to them at the end or how they were about to be killed, rather they always feel the need to go back to the past. To relive all that they had experienced and lived through.
For the most part, when he looked back on his own life, everything that Petrus saw only filled him only served to aid his sadness.
He saw a young man admiring knights from afar, wishing with all his might that he could have the honor of joining their ranks. He saw the young boys hopeful face change to one of contempt as he grew into the knight that he so wanted to be and experienced the cruelty the world truly had to offer. He saw how he came to find that the life of a knight was not one filled with honor, renown or glory. Rather it was simply a life where one must be willing to do what was right for the betterment of a higher order.
And that meant being willing to do anything.
To sacrifice anything.
And to be sacrificed at any moment.
And that's what he was. Just another lamb that was used and tossed aside by those of a higher order. But why? He had served faithfully, hadn't he? Performed every duty that was asked of him. Yet still he was sent away to die in this godforsaken land without a second thought? Why?
These thoughts and questions brought a weight upon the clerics very soul, making him feel as though he was crumbling away from the inside.
Hearing something heavy scraping across the floor, Petrus cast his eye's downward to see that the beast who had put him in this state was making its way towards him. Obviously ready to finish what it had started.
Seeing his demise literally crawling towards him actually caused Petrus to feel a strong sense of abandonment as his mind went through the events of his final days, of the moment he found the cursed mark upon his body, of how he confidently believed that it would not matter for someone of faith such as him, of how the grand priest and noble bloods wasted no time in sending him away with two greenhorn knights and some purebred wench.
These memories made it impossible for him to hold back the stream of tears that trailed from his eye's and down his cheeks. The church of which he served faithfully for years had discarded him as if he were nothing more than garbage, his home was forever lost to him and the damned undead curse would ensure that he would not even be capable of maintaining even his memories of it.
With all this weighing on his mind, through all the pain, grief, tears and disparity that he was feeling, the Cleric could do not but laugh at the absolute hopelessness of it all.
"..heh...heh, heh...Gods, why...why have you dropped me into such depths?"
Of course, their was no reply given as the beast approached the clerics mangled form. The world did not give pause, nor silence as he was beaten and crushed into a bloodied pulp along the floor.
But just as every undead that slain before him, Petrus revived at the bonfire he used last, opening his eye's and awakening atop the stairs just above the Blacksmiths forge. He didn't need anyone to tell him what his death had turned him into. Bringing a hand to touch his face, the sensation that greeted his fingertips mortified him.
His mind felt...lighter. Unburdened. It did not feel right. He knew that this is what the curse would do to him, take every piece of his thoughts until he was left as nothing more than soulless corpse. No different than the other undead that he so despised.
Letting his hand fall from his face, the Clerics eye's fell upon his mace and shield, both of which lay strew about at either of his sides, waiting to be used once again. At seeing his weaponry, the Clerics paused for but a few moments before gaze suddenly hardened.
"No...I will not fade away like this... This curse will not take me..." Petrus thought to himself as he got to his feet, not even sparing the bonfire a second glance as he picked up both his sword and shield and began to walk back down the stairs where the Blacksmith lay. "I...I am nothing like the rest of them. I am chosen. I am worthy. And...I will survive."
And so he went. Just as many undead did. Moving forward, fighting...without ever really knowing why.
ALRIGHT BRO'S AND BROETTES, THATS IT FOR THIS CHAPTER.
Just want to add a few words here at the end to settle a few things.
Firstly, after thinking things over a bit, I realized that Petrus has a whole hell of a lot of potential that I could work with. Right now the guys lost everything, so that means that, even though he doesn't have much to live for, he also has nothing left to lose. And I think that little feature, if used right, could make him a very dangerous individual. Also, I feel that since he was, more or less, classified as one of the villains of dark souls that by his very definition he should be one of the most motivated to stay alive and keep going no matter what.
Not to mention that I hate it when villains out of no where reach some sort of epiphany and just go "Hmm, maybe I do care about others more than myself." That just seems Kinda boring.
Secondly, finding out what happened to him later on and what's he's been doing in the mean time will be a huge point for the story. I could make him a member of the forest hunter covenant, have him hack his way through the Darkroot garden in a mad search for purpose, have him become charismatic and influential enough to somehow overthrow Alvina. Like I said, the possibilities for this guy is pretty impressive for me.
And lastly, I want to say that things are about to get kicked into high gear from the next chapter on out. So expect things to go pretty off the rails for the Prophet and the gang.
Alrighty guys, that's all I got for all you guys this time.
As always, review and tell me what you guys thought of this chapter. I'm always looking to improve my style of writing to make the story more entertaining, so don't be shy in telling my your honest thoughts about how things are going so far. Outside opinions will have a huge effect on how this story will play out.
This is Supreme Gamer, Signing out
P.S. I am seriously forever dying laughing at how so many people want Reah in on the whole Prophet thing. Reading stuff like "I want the whole Waifu cataloged" just really makes my day. XD