Watching the bandit's descent into madness, the ashen one felt his anger get doused and replaced with slight pity. He didn't dwell on it long however. Moving back, he stood over the fire-keeper and scanned his surroundings thoroughly, including the ground beneath him and the sky above. The area was saturated by corpses again. Some had died from excessive bleeding, some from poison and others when their humanity was taken from them, though most died from sword wounds. He supposed it didn't really matter in the end. The important thing was that there were no enemies left to threaten them.

Confirming their safety, he kneeled down and quickly cut the fire-keeper free as he inspected her condition. Physically it seemed she was alright. There weren't any visible injuries on her, nor were there any cracks on her ashen cocoon. However, that also meant that she probably wasn't and hadn't woken up at all since this whole ordeal began. Considering that he started awakening even before their separation, this wasn't an encouraging sign.

The usual Dark thoughts immediately started filling his mind again. It was a familiar feeling and a familiar situation after all. Clenching his fists, however, he refused to listen and quickly pushed them away, back into the far reaches of his mind.

Grabbing a black firebomb from his bottomless box, he quickly lit it and tossed it some distance behind him. Upon hitting the ground, it instantly exploded into a large fireball, kicking up dust and producing a deafening bang. Ignoring the slight ringing in his ears he kept his eyes on the fire-keeper, searching for any slight movement, any sign of life.

It never came.

The voices started climbing back up, but he pushed them down again.

He could try to remove the shell himself, but it was stuck tightly to her skin and he was afraid of hurting her further. He didn't believe it would really do much either. They didn't need to breath and it didn't seem their consciousness was tied to it in any way.

Thinking quickly, he pulled out the priest's chime, equipped the Priestess ring and started casting the heal miracle. It was a slow and weak spell that only healed basic wounds, but even with the ring boosting his faith, it was the best miracle he could use. When nothing happened, he cast it again and again and again, to no effect.

"Damn it!"

Quickly looking back again he remembered that the loud noises initially roused him from his slumber, yes, but what really forced him awake was their separation. He recalled feeling the cold wind on his hand at the time, followed by the warmth of the sun before one of the bandits grabbed it.

Pulling out the irithyll straight sword, he Gently grabbed her exposed hand and carefully placed the flat of the freezing blade against it for a moment. Nothing.

Throwing it away he used his ember to warm up his hand and placed it against hers. Nothing.

he could feel the doubt and panic re-emerge, only he found it much more difficult to push them back this time. Still, he tried to ignore them and kept on trying.

Divine blessing, siegbrau, Sun Princess Ring, caressing tears. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Hidden blessing, duel charm… purging stone. NOTHING.

He went through his entire bottomless box, all his spells, rings, miracles and pyromancies thrice, he tried everything he could think of, anything that could possibly help and yet nothing worked.

She still lay there, unmoving, unchanging, unfeeling.

He kneeled down next to her, grabbing her hand with both of his own shaking ones and let his head lower.

It started really dawning on him now, she was gone, but he was not. Everyone and everything he ever knew and cared for was gone, erased by time. Everything… except for him. Again.

However, before he could fully give himself to despair, he felt something. From the hand he was holding he could feel the tiniest of embers still burning within her. They were barely noticeable and on the verge of extinguishing forever, but they were there.

Latching onto this last lifeline the ashen one flared up his own ember and forced it to feed the dying one. The flames and heat that once coated his armor, were slowly getting colder and colder, before disappearing entirely and yet her embers didn't reignite. They had simply burned for too long, to the point only warm ash remained anymore.

Without hesitation, the ashen one split the many humanities, he had so painstakingly gathered throughout his journey, from his soul and fed them to the embers as well. He could feel his skin and muscles start to dry out and be pulled taut against his bones, his eyes starting to recede and his senses dulling, but he didn't care and ignored it. To his slight relief he could sense the embers stabilize and spread somewhat, but they still refused to reignite.

Feeling his desperation reach new heights, he then gave up the only thing he had left. Hundreds of thousands of sovereignless souls split off from his own and were fed to the embers as well.

It was slow at first. A spark here, a flash there, but eventually a bright fire started burning within the fire-keeper again and cracks slowly formed on her ashen prison.

Leaning back, the ashen one kept watching with baited breath as the cracks spread further and further, flaking ash and dust along the way. Until finally, in a puff of smoke, the rest of the ash came free and was carried away by the wind.

Sitting up slightly, the fire-keeper reached out towards him and asked in a disoriented voice "Ashen one… is that thouh?"

Taking a shuddering breath, the ashen one held her hand, before slowly pulling her into an embrace. Placing her head against his chest, he wrapped his arms around her protectively, as he held her tightly.

The fire-keeper was surprised for a moment and not knowing what brought this on, she made to speak, but instead she smiled gently and returned the embrace.

After the ashen one calmed down again and made sure her fire wasn't in danger of burning out, he carefully released the her and stood up, offering to help her do the same. She was still a little shaky from her awakening, but reassuringly she was able to stand and move on her own.

Looking around one more time the ashen one then hopped off the cart and began moving towards his weapons. The firekeeper meanwhile stood still as she looked up and slowly raised her hands towards the sun.

"Ashen one, this warmth, it cometh not from fire, does it?"

The ashen one stopped and turned back towards her. After a moment of realization, he shook his head and looked upwards as well. She was right. High in the sky he could see a small ball of fire shining brightly down onto them. It was still somewhat covered and hidden by ash, but it was undeniably there and unlike the last times he saw it, its light was real, strong and wide-spread.

The fire-keeper formed a small but genuine smile before speaking again "Then mine eyes did not deceive me"

Turning towards it fully she continued "It feeleth… different. Not just in potency, but also in… nature. Its light, it is benevolent, liberated"

Its bright rays warming up his cold armor once again brought him a great deal of relief. And yet the feeling was ultimately soured. Beautiful though it was, he couldn't help but be reminded of the past… all the way back to the lord of sunlight himself, who started this terrible ordeal in the first place. More so than that, though, as he watched the sun, he questioned just how long this one would last…

Looking at the fire-keeper basking in its light, however, he felt his cynicism soften a little.

Walking away again he reconsidered 'Its light still shines brightly. No matter when its end comes, it won't be anytime soon, so there is no point in worrying about it right now.'

He didn't know how long the initial age of fire lasted, but the subsequent cycles reached the thousands of years, only dropping down to centuries at the end. So, they had time. Time to… do what though…?

Reaching the irithyll straight sword, he apologetically brushed off the ash on its blade before storing it into his bottomless box and moved to do the same with the Zwei-hander. As he lifted it up off the ground, he felt a strange incongruity in its weight, but didn't pay it much mind. Instead, he focused more on the corpses littering the ground.

There was a certain relief to seeing their bodies still present and still dead. It meant that they aren't undead like he was, but rather living beings. Or at least weren't…

The dark sign being a product of Gwyn, was reinforced and maintained by the first flame, so it made sense, but it was still relieving to witness it in person as well. That meant that he was probably the last carrier of the darksign and once he was gone as well, it would truly be the end of the curse that plagued humanity for millennia, that caused so much death and suffering for so many people.

Part of him wanted to ask the fire-keeper to remove it right now, yet as much as he despised it, he didn't have the luxury to deny the power it provided him at the moment.

Stranded as they were in a new age and a new land, with its own threats and dangers, they would need every advantage they could get. Banditry, armored and not, clearly still existed, but he had no idea what else there could be. From skeletons to dragons, to abyssal abominations, to giants, to gods, or even something he had never seen before. Especially considering they only had one life now. Without the first flame, they wouldn't be able to preserve their souls and recreate their bodies should they die. One mistake, one misstep could…

"Art though well, Ashen one?"

Startled, he nearly rolled away, before realizing it was the fire-keeper. He must have been really lost in thought as she had managed to move right next to him without him noticing.

Getting his bearings, he nodded to her and made to move towards one of the 'knights', before a hand landed on his back and stopped him.

"Thine soul, it has been greatly injured"

Placing a hand against his chest and looking within, he could feel his soul had less of a presence than before. It seemed… smaller somehow, less substantial.

"it is slowly weeping souls"

Falling deep in thought, the fire-keeper slowly removed her hand, before looking at him briefly and then towards the distance.

"Ashen one… bring me bones, plucked from their vessels…"

He looked at her curiously for a moment before retrieving a knife and quickly moving towards the nearest corpse.

It was slow and messy work, but he found that burning the skin and muscle away made it more manageable.

After getting a decent amount and variety of bones he moved towards the fire-keeper, who had cleared out a circular area and created a small mound of ash in the middle of it.

Accepting the bones from him, she washed them in the ash until they were clean of blood and removed any remaining flesh, before carefully placing them in the ash.

"The coiled sword, if you would." She said as she was completing with her work.

Despite the urgency of the situation the ashen one looked at her in apprehension, realizing where this was going.

Seeing his hesitation, she spoke reassuringly "Worry not ashen one, tis but a pale imitation of what once was. It will only be as strong as the humanity in the bones that feeds it and will last only as long as they do. Hurry now ashen one, thee are still bleeding souls"

He was still apprehensive, but he trusted her word and went to retrieve the sword anyway.

It was a lot harder to remove than the Zwei-hander. Its spiral shape and his diminishing strength made his progress frustratingly slow, but with some effort he eventually managed to pull it out.

Bringing it back and holding it in front of her, the fire-keeper gracefully slid her hands across the flat of the blade, her fingers barely coming into contact with the metal and intoned: "Let this blade become a vessel. Let it carry within the essence of fire, so that it may consume those already fallen and turn it into strength for those still living."

As she spoke the blade started heating up rapidly turning from dull black to red, orange and eventually yellow.

When she finished, she gestured to the mound of ash she had created, some urgency leaking through her movements.

Having made up his mind he moved forward and impaled the sword into the ash as it quickly lit aflame. Though it was no grand fire. It barely even had the strength to lift itself off the ash.

Silently kneeling before it, the fire-keeper placed her hands within the smoldering ash and removed a small flame from it. Stopping right in front of him, she willed the fire to enter his chest and heal his damaged soul. Clasping her hands and bowing her head she spoke, too quietly for him to hear, but he could feel a warmth blossoming within him and a weight be lifted from his chest. It reminded him a little to resting at a bonfire, only more subtle and targeted.

When the warmth faded and the healing was finished the fire-keeper placed her hand against his chest for a moment, before sighing and stepping back, clasping her lowering hands before her.

The ashen one bowed towards her as a way to express his gratitude, though, unlike usual she didn't return it this time. Straightening back up he worriedly looked at her and found her hesitating, head still lowered, before eventually speaking up.

"Ashen one, I am aware tis presumptuous of me to say, but… I ask thee to take better care of thine self"

He was a little surprised by the sincerity in her voice as she spoke of his wellbeing. It still astounded him sometimes how such a cruel world, as the one they came from, could produce such a kind soul.

Escaping his thoughts, he nodded seriously, before giving her a thumps up and banging his fist against his chest twice.

Finally looking up again, she responded with a smile and gave a small bow.

And that's it for the rewrite. You might wonder why i chose to do so in the first place, instead of focusing on writing more chapters. Well, simply put, reading through the previous chapters to refamiliarize myself with the story, there were several areas that i thought could be improved, to say the least. And since it was pretty short anyway i thought i'd just rewrite it. Overall, i'd say i am pretty satisfied with the result, so i hope you are too. As for the next chapter, unfortunately its still on the "who knows" schedule. I will say that there are much better foundations for continuation now, than there were before, but since the coming year is looking even busier than the previous one, i'll refrain from making promises. In any case, till, the assumed, next time. Bye.