I do not own the rights to RWBY or Dark Souls. All rights belong to the holder.
There I stood at the end of my journey. Nashandra vanquished, Aldia… appeased I suppose. All that was left was a choice, to relink the first flame or let it die out. Throughout my journey I scoured the ruins of four fallen kingdoms, learning what I could. Seeing the lessons laid out by those who came before me, Aldia, Vendrick, the old kings of yore. What should I have learned? What was I meant to? I'm not sure I will ever fully understand. I thought back to the words spoken to me by Alida,
"Young hollow do you wish to shed this curse? Young hollow there are but two paths. Inherit the order of this world or destroy it. But only a true monarch can make such a choice."
"Young hollow, conqueror of fear. What drives you so to overcome this supposed curse."
Life is brilliant, beautiful. It enchants us to the point of obsession. Once the lord of light banished dark and all that stemmed from humanity, and men assumed a fleeting form. These are the roots of our world. Men are props on the stage of life, and no matter how tender, how exquisite, A LIE SHALL REMAIN A LIE."
"What is a king? You, neither born of greatness nor granted it by the fates, what is it you seek? You cannot even say yourself."
"Peace grants men the illusion of life. Shackled by falsehoods, they yearn for love, unaware of its grand illusion, until the curse touches their flesh. We are bound by this yoke. As true as the dark that churns within men. All men trust fully in the illusion of life. But is this so wrong? A construction, a facade, and yet… A world full of warmth and resplendence. Young hollow, are you intent on shattering the yoke? Spoiling this wonderful falsehood?"
Seek the throne. Seek light, dark and what lies beyond. You, conqueror of adversity, give us your answer."
My answer. I've decided to shed the yoke to end this falsehood. To see what lies beyond this age. I would stand guard over the Throne of Want for as long as it takes for the flame to die out completely, leaving nothing, not even a single ember. Such a choice would likely be idiotic to any undead as they would go hollow long before the fire faded, but I had what no other undead has ever. A cure.
Though it is more like medicine than a cure to the curse, for so long as I wear the crown I shall never hollow. Not even through death. With my decision made I turned from the throne and waited, for the next chosen to come to claim the throne, to extend the age of fire, to be rid of the curse of the undead. I would not let them.
The truth I sought, the decision I made, the only true decision that could be made since the gods perpetuated the cycle. Many thoughts were strewn about my mind, the largest thought being the selfishness of my choice. I knew many who hoped for the relinking of the fire. Lenigrast and his daughter Chloanne, Maughlin, Melentia, Saulden, Rosabeth, Cale… Shannalot…
The last of that group was the one who brought me the most sorrow. She assisted me on my journey with the assumption that I would link the fire so that she might fulfill the purpose for which she was created. I can only hope she will find a purpose of her own.
As I stood there waiting for the fire to fade I decided that I should try to improve my abilities to pass the time. My physical prowess and martial skill were fine as is and so other skills would be my priority. I decided as such, I would practice magic until the first challenger approached. Upon their defeat I would switch to the improvement of my pyromancy until another challenger would come, then I would switch to my miracles and follow that cycle until the fire was finally gone.
The challengers eventually came, to each I offered the chance to stop and turn away, to live out their lives or their undeaths. Some accepted the offer but most did not. The humans were the easiest to deal with, a single death would halt their progress. The undead were tricky, not all could survive more than a handful of deaths before they went hollow. But some could die hundreds of times before they would die their last. One undead stood out amongst the others, their name unknown to me but their tenacity, their drive, It was quite the sight to see.
By my count they made 638 attempts to link the flame and even then they did not hollow or fade away, they just stopped on their 639th attempt. They turned away and that was the last I saw of them. It hurt my soul to stop them, they only wanted an end to their curse or the curse of others, but I could not let them. The curse would eventually end with enough time, or at least I hoped it would. Perhaps when challengers finally stopped coming that would be the sign that my hopes were vindicated.
I eventually hit a wall in my practice. My sorceries would not improve, not with the amount of casts I could perform nor in the power they produced. Much was a similar story with my pyromancies. My miracles had also hit a similar wall but in a different way; miracles were performed with a talisman and the recitation of a story, and since I was isolated from the world above I could not learn any new stories from which new miracles could sprout. It was rather unfortunate but I suppose every being has their limits, and without a firekeeper by my side to make use of the souls I collected as I defended the flame my limits would stay as is.
Time continued to pass and the first showings of the fire fading came. Due to my location the only tells of such would be the flame itself growing duller with the passage and the ever growing paleness of the tone of skin that the challengers approached with. It would seem that the sun had or was fading from the world. That theory caused me to wonder what became of Majula. That small village brought me much comfort and joy, the thought that it would never do that for another made my heart wrench with sorrow. Though such a thought would not dissuade me from my path.
The challengers came less and less so much so that it had been roughly 800 years since the last visitor, though I could not confidently say how much time had passed as I had no reference to work with. Besides the lack of much, an event did happen. A quake that shook the earth, more powerful than any quake that I had felt before. It caused the ash within the throne to jump from the ground, coating me in ash and temporarily blinding me. It lasted for what felt like only a few moments and then stopped. I waited for the ash to settle and grant me back my eyes.
When the ash finally found its palace on the ground, I looked around the throne for any new cracks or fallen ground, but I could find nothing out of place. Next, I checked the entrance to the throne and found that the path that led to Drangleic castle had collapsed. The sight filled me with both joy and dread, Joy for the thought that my challengers might finally cease in their efforts and dread that when the fire finally fades that I might be stuck for the rest of time in the throne.
I decided to leave those thoughts aside and instead go check on the flame. Only three embers remained of what once was a bonfire level flame, at this rate another 300 or so years should see the fire finally gone. Perhaps in that time a way for me to escape the throne would make itself known. So that I might see the new world that would come from my actions, for better or for worse.
A thought then did occur to me. Perhaps with the collapse of the path I could rest whilst I waited so that the time might arrive sooner. Then I thought of what might happen If someone could make their way to the throne whilst I slept, sneak by me and link the flame. I could not allow that but the chances were also low of another challenger appearing in the 300 or so years that the flame had left, but as a precaution I thought to sprinkle the ground with lifegems as when crushed they produce an audible noise surely enough to wake me from my slumber. With my thoughts squared away I went to work laying out the gems and covering them with ash so any intruder would be none the wiser to the trap laid before them. With the gems laid out I finally took a knee in the center of the room and closed my eyes.
I awoke to the sound of one of my lifegems being crushed. The telltale song of its healing effects echoing throughout the throne. I slowly opened one of my eyes to observe my quarry quickly noting that my own body was covered in a rather thick layer of ash. My foe appeared confused as to where the noise emanated, looking underfoot yet seeing nothing as the gem disappeared upon being used.
The man himself appeared rather tall and lanky. He wore brown boots, green pants, a white collared shirt with a yellow tie, and a brown overcoat. He also wore some kind of helmet that produced light in a beam. Underneath the helm I could see… green hair? Strange, maybe the man was inflicted with some kind of illness that changed the color of his hair. Regardless, such a matter held little importance. The man was looking around the throne with an expression that denoted joy, more than I had even seen on anyone in Drangleic.
He also spoke while holding some kind of rectangle to his mouth. The words came as such,
"Oobleck archeological log recording 6. I finally managed to crack through the ground and enter the structure. The inside is full of ash. Perhaps this room was used to produce great amounts of heat, or maybe it was used to make vast amounts of charcoal all at once. Hmm or perhaps not seeing as there is a statue in the center of the room. Maybe it was used for some kind of ritual. A strange occurrence happened shortly before the start of this recording, upon entering the chamber a noise echoed, something resembling a ringing noise and after a few seconds several of the cuts I sustained while breaking through the surrounding structure healed themselves, faster than my aura should be able to heal the wounds on its own. It has not been made clear to me yet if the room itself is what caused the phenomenon or not. Further study will be required."
It seemed that this Oobleck was unaware of the throne, and lifegems. He also seemed to think that I was a statue, such an idea made sense seeing as the ash and my pose has made most of my features seem statuesque. Oobleck made his way to my lifeless form, I thought to extract as much information from the man as I could before revealing myself so I closed my eye and held still. He continued as he spoke,
"The statue appears to be depicting a king of some kind. It has a crown upon its head and has a sword and armor with a long cape. Perhaps a warrior king much like the king of Vale, although I suspect this statue is not depicting our old king. I am going to carefully break off some of the compacted ash to try and determine its age. Assuming the civilization the statue belonged to kept it clean, such a determination can only tell us how long it has been since it was last in such a shape but that in and of itself will still be very useful."
He then grasped my arm in an attempt to remove some ash but as he grasped it he reeled back and retreated several feet, stepping on another lifegem in the process. The ring echoed once again leaving me confused by the act until he spoke, "The statue is… soft… and warm to the touch. How strange, how could this be." As he pondered the implication I decided that my cover would be blown quickly and decided now would be the time to show myself and offer him the same deal that I have made to so many others.
Crack. Crack. Thud.
As I stood to my standing height the thick layers of ash that encased me cracked off and fell to the floor. I made to look this Oobleck in the eyes and readied my sword before I spoke, "O' challenger, Seeker of fire. Turn back from your foolish ambition and let the world continue as it should. Let the cycle end." Although he appeared to be unaware to the purpose of the throne that did not mean he knew nothing about the fire thus my warning. The man looked at me with shock written upon his face, several seconds of silence filled the room before he collected himself and spoke, "Th-The statue appears to be alive. Mr. Statue I'm not sure what you mean by the cycle or the fire."
Such a declaration came as a slight shock to me, this man by all appearances seemed fairly well learned so if his words held true then perhaps those of the world above had finally forgotten the fire. But I did not know if the man could be trusted though I had a method to determine if that was the truth. After the events surrounding Creighton of Mirrah and Mild-Mannered Pate I thought it best if I had a way to determine if someone was lying to me, I couldn't exactly be tricked into freeing serial killers from their cells again, So I sought out Carhillion.
I asked if he had a spell to determine truth. He did not. But what he did have was a technique he referred to as soul sensing. It allowed one to observe the soul and through his studies of the technique Carhillion discovered that when someone lied their soul reacted by compressing a few centimeters. He proposed that the inclination of the soul was towards purity, and when someone went against that the soul would shift and morph in increasingly strange ways.
Lying, being such an insignificant slight to the soul only produced a slight effect where more abhorrent acts like murder could permanently disfigure the soul. With such a trick in hand I could ask the man what I wanted to and go from there, the one downside of this method was that I needed to be in close proximity to the target in order to use soul sensing.
Approaching the man suddenly might provoke violence so I decided to de-escalate the situation. "If what you say is true sir then I have no reason to threaten you." With that said I lowered my sword while subtly preparing my pyromancy flame in case he tried to take advantage of my lack of armament. "All I ask is that you allow me to determine if what you say is the truth or not." the man responded, "Well Mr. Statue I can assure you that what I say is the truth although I'm unsure of how you intend to determine the truth." "I simply need to be close to you, then I will be sure."
I slowly made my way over to the man and stopped when I was three feet in front of him. Being close enough I began using soul sensing and asked him again, "You say you know nothing of the fire, the cycle?" "Yes that is correct though I do know what fire is and I understand what a cycle implies but I don't believe you're speaking of a regular fire."
His soul did not shift in the slightest, the truth then. He continued, "If you don't mind my asking what exactly is it you speak of." Answering his question I responded, "Answer a few more questions of mine and perhaps I might tell you. First, are you well learned, second for what reason have you come here, and third have you heard of Drangleic or Lordran?"
The man took a few seconds before answering, "Indeed I am a Doctor, scholar and a professor of history. I came here to uncover some ruins that were discovered recently, and no I have never heard of either of those places you speak of. Are they perhaps the name of the civilizations that created this room? Oh and for what purpose was this room created for?"
Stars seemed to sparkle around the man's eyes as he spoke, the frequency of words increasing rapidly until they melded together. This man was rather strange, I don't believe I have or ever will meet another quite like him. Regardless of the man's personality his soul managed to stay still during his answers. As he continued his string of questions I decided that the man was harmless enough to me so I turned and made my way to the flame to see if I was finally free from my duty.
To my surprise it appeared that the flame was gone, the embers having died out and not even the warmth it once held remaining. A grand smile fell upon my face, a feeling of fulfillment following shortly after. It was finally over and if the man's presence was anything to go by it seems that humanity lives on. Now I can go and see the fruits of my labor after so many years. The man, finally noticing I had left his side, saw me on the other side of the throne and began to make his way over to my still form.
Once he made his way beside me again I looked over to him, a smile still adorned and spoke, "Sir your presence here is truly a blessing. Now I can finally leave." The man responded, "Glad to be of assistance, now perhaps you might answer some of my questions." "A fair trade I suppose, ask of me and I shall answer if I can." "Excellent, but perhaps a form of greetings are in order. Hello I am Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, might I know your name."
The question caused me to pause and think, how long had it been since someone asked me for my name. Most chose to refer to me by a title or by just calling me 'you'. Ah yes I recall now, those old women I met when I first arrived in Drangleic had asked me my name before telling me that I would die. If only they could see me now.
I answered, "My name is Atellius." "No surname?" "If I did, I have long since forgotten it." "A shame. Now onto more pressing questions. How long have you been here, why are you here, what purpose does this structure have, why were my wounds healed when I entered, are you a king and if you are from what kingdom do you hail?"
"My fellow please, I shall answer your questions but please no more than what you've already spoken for now." "Ah yes of course my apologies, such information can come with time. Ah before that might I ask if you would be alright if I record your answers?" "I suppose that will be fine. But you do not appear to have any paper on hand" "Paper? No, I shall be recording our conversation on this."
He presented to me the rectangle he spoke into when he first entered the throne. I took a look, it seemed to be a thin sheet of glass with something etched onto it. "How will you achieve that? There doesn't seem to be enough space to write anything there." "Oh I see, by record I do not mean writing down our conversation. This device will allow me to… trap the sound of our words so that it might be listened to at a later time, to put it in an easy to understand way."
"... By what sorceries does this… 'device' allow you to perform such an action." "None, this device was created by science." "Who is this 'Science', they must be a mage of great repute." "Science is not a person, it is a field of study." "Oh? How interesting, I would be very interested in learning more about this science. Perhaps another time, allow me to answer your questions."
The doctor placed the device close to my mouth before I spoke. "Starting from your first question I know not exactly how long I have resided here. I am here to defend the throne from… intruders. This structure was a kiln though it has not acted as such in a long time. Your wounds were healed because you stepped on a lifegem and no I am no king."
As I finished answering the questions another breached my ears. "What is a lifegem?" I bent over and brushed some ash from the ground, uncovering one of the hidden gems and bringing it up to eye level. "This is a lifegem. It mends the wounds of the body, but only for a small amount when only using one." I offered the gem to the Doctor and he greedily took it from my hand.
"Fascinating, how do they work? I've never heard of a gem with healing properties before." I paused for a second at the question. If the humans of this era were anything like the ones from my time, the revelation that soulgems were the crystallization of the soul would only cause trouble, so I prepared my lie. "I do not know how they work, none of the scholars I met in my time were yet to uncover the secrets of the gems."
"Hmm unfortunate, ah well perhaps I might study these and learn the secrets they hold." "If that is what you wish, now if you don't mind I would like to finally be free of here." "Of course, of course, I'd be more than happy to lead you out of here but first I would finish my archeological survey." With that said he began to speed around the room at a pace that would make a crystal lizard jealous.
Seeing as the only person to know the path out of here was currently occupied I decided to wait near the entrance for the Doctor to finish with whatever it was he found so interesting about the throne. It unsurprisingly did not take the Doctor long to finish his work and he met me by the entrance. "All done. Now follow me." I silently followed and the doctor led me the way he came.
It took us roughly half an hour of wandering through a cave to make it to the exit. When we were finally free of the dark of the cave. The first thing I noticed was the blinding light emanating from outside. The brightness forced me to shut my eyes and let them acclimate before I could fully open them. When I did I saw a grand forest, which I found strange as Drangleic castle was not especially close to any forests.
The Doctor then turned to me, "Welcome to the Emerald Forest. We are located in the Kingdom of Vale at the base of Beacon Academy." "You mentioned before that you were a professor, may I assume that this academy is your place of work?"
"You would be correct. The cave we just exited used to be home to a Death Stalker that was disturbed by some of our students during our recent initiation. The disturbance caused the cave to slightly collapse, opening up the path leading to you. My employer sent me in to ensure there were no dangerous grimm. It took exactly four days to scout out the entirety of the opening where I found the structure that held you. I had informed my employer of the structure and he asked me to investigate. I would ask that you accompany me back to the campus so I may report to the headmaster about my mission. Perhaps he might be able to assist with your acclimation to our kingdom."
I understood most of his words with the exception of what a death stalker is or what a Grimm was, but I allowed such questions to temporarily go unanswered. "And who is this headmaster you mentioned?" "His name is Ozpin."
AN: Hello all. Thanks for reading the first chapter of my story. I have been a big fan of Dark Souls 2 and there is not very many DS2 RWBY crossovers so I thought I would rectify that. That being said this is the first story I have ever written so the quality probably won't be up to snuff and for that I apologize. Just as a warning to those who read this I am taking some liberties with the lore here and there and I'm making the OC fairly strong but don't worry he isn't gonna be one shotting Salem or easily dealing with all of the problems that comes up in the RWBY plot. Any criticism is welcome and if there are any questions I'll try to answer them so long as they don't spoil the plot I have brewing. Thanks again
- Truth