Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-14138255-20170320024103/@comment-14138255-20170421190921

 Chapter 6: The Pus of Man   

 Pyrrha sat at the foot the alcove where a burly, bearded man named Andre had made his shop. Although there was plenty of space, Andre kept himself only in the middle of the entrance, sitting on a wooden chair, surrounded by various blades, hammers, and shields, all the while hammering a red-hot piece of metal on an anvil.

“ So, how’d ye enjae yer first foray into Lothric, lass?” Andre asked, pausing his nearly constant hammering to talk with her.

Pyrrha shivered somewhat to alleviate her stillness, having become used to the clattering of the hammer.

“ Better...and worse, than I thought” Pyrrha answered, recalling the sadness of the hollows on the wall and the sheer amount of horror that had taken place atop it.

“ Heh, sounds rath’r rough. You didn’t get yerself killed too often, did ye?”

Pyrrha looked at the floor. “About two or three times, perhaps...”

“ Hmm, not too bad, but I pegged ye for a more savvy lass than that. The Estus not help?”

Pyrrha perked her head up at this new noun. “What was that you just said?”

“ That Estus Flask ye have, didn’t it help?”

Pyrrha blinked and then reached into her back pocket, pulling out the golden flask she found in her sarcophagus. “You mean this?”

“ Aye. Estus: An Undead favorite, it heals the body from any wound. As for the mind, well, that’s up to you. Doesn’t do you much good if you’re dead though, so people use it whenever they can” Andre explained to her, returning to his hammering.

Pyrrha looked at the flask and proceeded to take a hesitant sip from it, which quickly turned into an enthusiastic chug. The drink had the consistency of light syrup, but it had the pure flavour of a favorite meal and refreshment of cool water on a warm day, and the warmth of the sun on a cold one.

Pyrrha exhaled as she emptied the flask. Andre let out an amused chuckle. “Nice to see you like it too lass, but ye really got to ration it. It refills at bonfires, but ye won’t always be near one when yer travelin’.”

“ Thank you Andre”

“ I take it back, yer more skilled than I thought, going that long without any Estus and managin’ only a few deaths.”

Pyrrha blinked wearily. “How do you get used to it so easily? Dying? Every time it happened to me, it’s always been frightening as is waking up at the bonfire realizing what happened,” Pyrrha said, holding her forehead with her hand.

Andre stopped hammering. “Who knows? Might be a be a blessing, really. I’ve met too many undead who’ve stopped caring whether they lived or died, no matter what I tell ‘em. Never see ‘em again, though I assume they just go hollow when that happens. ‘Least ye got a healthy fear o’ death, keeps ye alive long enough to get ye to yer goal.”

“ How is it like for you though?”

“ Mmm?” Andre grunted, confused at the query.

“ How do you deal with dying?”

“ I don’t recall ever dyin’” Andre replied simply, returning once again to his smithing.

“ You’re just human?”

“ Oh gods, no. I’ve lived too long to be considered one. I’ve been in my trade since...hmph...well I reckon’ since the First Flame first started dyin’. That was a long time ago.”

Pyrrha didn’t pry deeper, she didn’t want to ask how long ago was ‘a long time ago.’ “Well, thank you Andre. I think your words helped.”

“ Don’t mention it, lass.” Andre said, briefly pausing and then hammering again. Pyrrha began to walk back to the shrine’s bonfire. “Oi, lass, I forgot somethin’. Come ‘ere!” Andre called suddenly. Pyrrha went back to see what it was all about, and Andre reached down into a box and took out various gems and metal fragments. “I ain’t simply ‘ere for decoration. Ye find any o’ these out in yer travels, bring ‘em to me and I’ll forge yer blade into something ye can fight with. Heh heh.”

 Back on the tower, Pyrrha got up, looking briefly at the corpses on the poles, which ringed the whole parapet. The corpses looked finely balanced on the poles, and were reaching outward. More unnerving was the long, wing like protrusions from their backs, which were lined in threads where presumably feathers would go.

Walking down the steps, she was immediately greeted with a knife to the chest, which gave her a good amount of pain, but more alarmed her than anything. The thrower crouched down near the barrels and unsheathed another to throw, which Pyrrha swatted away. Seeing the knives would no longer work, the hooded figure brandished a short sword and charged. Pyrrha blocked the first attack, but the figure attacked quick enough to get a nick on her arm. Pyrrha grunted in pain, but still slashed at the hooded hollow. Without the heavier armor of the soldiers, the hooded one fell quickly.

The hollow’s body fell, but Pyrrha heard footsteps lower in the tower. She looked through the broken floor in the tower, seeing a patrolling hollow. Pyrrha decided to capitalize on this by balancing on the exposed support beams, followed by dropping down on the unsuspecting hollow. Behind her however was another hooded ghoul, who got up upon seeing her and charged with its dagger. Pyrrha however redirected the ghoul and threw it into the barrels, the hollow, slashing it when it got up for another attack.

Before her was an exit to the tower, with orange tinted sunlight peering through the entryway. Behind her however was a ladder to a lower floor in the tower. Despite the consequences of her curiosity before with the mimic, she wasn’t going to learn anything or get a better sense of her location playing it completely safe. Besides, she had very little to lose when it came down to it...besides dying of course.

Pyrrha elected to go down the ladder, where she was greeted by an undead halberdier. The hollow began jogging toward her before finally made a diagonal slash that Pyrrha was only just able to roll away from. The hollow made another horizontal slash that Pyrrha managed to duck under before retaliating with some quick slashes. The hollow, unwilling to let her continue capitalizing on her close proximity to it, shoved her with the shaft of the halberd and prepared an overhead swing, but Pyrrha used her shield to keep it far enough away and use the momentum of her pivot to impale it with her sword.

Allowing the hollow to fall, she made her way through the tower. Through the halls and down the steps was a small opening to the outside, which lead to another section of the tower. Moving into this section she saw a large prison cell, with door that proved to be locked. Crouching in the middle of the cell craning its head, no doubt to hear what was approaching, was a person with a strange, long hood with eyeholes cut out and wearing the same tattered armor the soldiers wore as well as torn trousers. The man perked up when he saw her and spoke.

“ Ah, you’re no jailer are you?” the man asked, his voice raspy and somewhat muffled by his hood. “No no, you’re from far away.”

Pyrrha was taken aback by the strange person talking to her from the cell. “How do you know that?”

“ Ah, I can see it in your eyes lass.”

Pyrrha was puzzled. “I’m sorry, what about my eyes?”

“ They’re...I haven’t the foggiest, they’re... different. But you are sane aren’t you? Not like those hollows outside? Could I convince you to let me free from this cell?”

Pyrrha leered away from the suspicious character asking her to free him. “Wait, who are you?”

“ Ah, I should have introduced myself. I am Greirat, of the Undead Settlement, and though I may be a petty thief, I have more wit than most nobl-”

“ A thief? That explains the cell.” “ W-well I mean, listen. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, love, but the end time are on us. I-I don’t think anyone-”

“ I don’t have any key that can release you, and even if I did, I can’t just let you go free and pilfer things from people who need it” Pyrrha said. She then began to walk away. Greirat, his facade broken and growing desperate, grabbed the bars and called after her. “ Wait, WAIT! You don’t have to let me out, just listen to me! I have to ask something of you, PLEASE!” Greirat called out to her. Pyrrha stopped and turned around, going to Greirat’s cell. Greirat, having Pyrrha’s attention, continued in a still somewhat shaken voice “I need you to deliver something. You’re going by the Undead Settlement I warrant?”

“ I...might be” Pyrrha responded, half still not trusting Greirat, half genuinely unsure of where to go.

Greirat fished out of his pocket a ring with a blue gemstone and held it up to Pyrrha. “I need you to take this ring to an old woman named Loretta, she lives in the settlement at the base of the High Wall. She needs this ring. Please, would you do this for me?”

Pyrrha felt sympathetic to Greirat’s selfless request and took the ring. “I will.”

“ Thank you, love. What’s your name?”

Pyrrha hesitated, but responded warmly all the same. “Pyrrha.”

“ Pyrrha” Greirat repeated. “I won’t forget this Pyrrha. Thank you.”

Pyrrha finally left the tower and proceeded to go the other way she saw higher in the tower.

 Leaving the tower, she saw another corpse of a dragon. A pair of hollows were praying and prostrating before it, their moans as unintelligible as before. Pyrrha passed them by. She couldn’t understand why they’d worship such a monstrous looking creature, but seeing their desperation earlier in on the High Wall, she couldn’t be so callous as to fault them for clinging to something to keep them sane, to give them meaning. Up ahead, on a shingled roof, a larger group of hollows were surrounding another of the winged bodies on the spike. She approached them, all seemingly not hostile.

However, upon seeing her, one stood up. Pyrrha raised her shield preparing for it to strike. The hollow, however, started to release a pained, ear piercing screech which caused Pyrrha and the other hollows to cover her ears again. Beneath the skin of the hollow, a strange pulsation boiled beneath its back. The screeching abruptly ended as a shadowy force erupted from the hollow’s body, spraying pools of blood across the roof and blasting the other hollows away, killing them on impact. The force of the blast also broke the pole the winged hollow’s body rested on, scattering pieces all about. The shadowy figure took form, resembling the exact same serpent that she had fought in the Cemetery of Ash.

Pyrrha took a step back, but the serpent was on the attack. It leaped into the air and brought its claw down, sending Pyrrha against a rail. Pyrrha quickly got up, but her back felt smashed. Taking a moment of levity, Pyrrha quickly took a sip of Estus, which healed most of her pain, just in time to dodge a swipe from the serpent. The hollows that had survived the serpent’s violent birth had huddled where they were praying. Pyrrha looked to the serpent again, who opened its mouth and lunged to bite her, managing to sidestep and slash at the serpent’s neck. The serpent had hardly flinched and leaped into the air to slam itself down at her, sending her back and killing the hollow behind it. Pyrrha began to get up, but noticed the hollow still enveloped by the serpent, its legs moving the serpent to its target. She got up to do battle with the creature, blocking its swing, followed by slashing across both the serpent’s body and, more importantly, the hollow’s body. The serpent staggered but resumed its attack, stepping forward and swiping down. Pyrrha however bent backwards and twisted to face it again, slashing as she did, followed by swinging at it, finishing by stabbing the hollow inside in the head. The serpent was wounded by this, but it was able to retaliate, grabbing the arm that held her shield. The force of its grip forced Pyrrha to fall to her knees in pain, but she focused on flipping her sword to reverse grip and stabbed the serpent’s head.

The serpent recoiled under the sword before finally dying and dissolving, letting go of her arm, and leaving the hollow’s body where it stood. Pyrrha began to nurse her arm, still wincing in pain, before she remembered to drink her flask of Estus, which restored more feeling in her arm, as well as generally healing her wounds. Her injuries healed, she allowed herself to think about the existence of a second serpent. This one had come from a normal hollow, when previously she had seen it on Gundyr. Out of all the darkness she saw thus far in Lothric, she was puzzled by this familiar creature.

‘ It’s like it’s spreading. There really must be a darkness taking hold in this land” She thought. ‘What is causing it? Were they always here? Was it because of this ‘First Flame’ dying?’

As she thought, she couldn’t find any answers, reasoning she’d have to talk to Ludleth or Andre about it. Now that she had been thinking about it, she realized she didn’t know how the Grimm came to be on her world, except for legends and fairy tales; a creation story about feud between divine brothers over light and darkness. As far as she knew, shadowy creatures like the serpent and The Grimm had always existed, and had always been apart of her life as a result.

‘ It’s not about why...it’s about knowing’ she thought to herself, recalling the words she spoke to Jaune. She looked at the ruins of the shrine the hollows were huddled around, as well as the bodies of the hollows killed by the serpent, including its host, her head feeling heavy. ‘I don’t know this world though. Man has both light and dark, it’s what made us who we are, how we protected ourselves. But what happened to these people?’ she continued to think. She began to think of the thing on her right lumbar, the thing that she only noticed when she wished to. The Darksign she was told of.

“ What does this curse do to people like them...like me?” Pyrrha asked herself. She stared at the serpent’s host. “To turn them into that?”

'''Author’s Notes: Here is part 1 of what was going to be chapter 6 before I split it up. Writing has been a little slow recently, I’d been distracted by important things, like C&C Red Alert 3, Civilization V, and Mount & Blade: Warband (I think M&B: Warband is actually worse for writing than Civ V, If you can believe that). But, I still have a back log, and hopefully I can manage it so I won’t run out and require a hiatus. Also, thank you for the 2,000+ views, and I hope you like it. As always, see you Friday, ~12 PST.'''