Accursed Citrine - Yet another Dark Soul/Madoka Magica Crossover

Ah, why am I so useless?

No matter what I do, no matter how much I change, I always seem to mess things up…

Oriko, why would you throw your last chance because of an empty husk?

She claimed she regrets it all, but how does that help now? No, wait, maybe that was just the dream of a dying mind.

At least I know, with my final moments, I was able to be of use to her. We achieved her goal.



But why do I just feel so empty…?

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You are Kirika Kure, and when you awaken with a sudden jolt, you're immediately assaulted by a chilling cold. Your throat burns as you attempt to suck oxygen back into your lungs. You begin to shiver uncontrollably, your teeth rattling against each other as your body starts to repair itself.

Once you manage to get your shaking under control to at least some extent, you take in the room around you.
It's a stone cell, damp and crumbling. Mould grows thickly on the walls and dozens of giant roaches the size of your hand scurry about between holes in the stone. There's a big hole in the roof, letting in a faint light and tiny flakes of snow drift in to form a small pile in the centre of the cell. A rusty cell door bars the exit.

Outside, you hear the echoes of a horrible, inhuman wailing, as well as a rhythmic thud of something fleshy hitting stone over and over.

What the hell is this place? How did you wind up in here? Where's Oriko-?

Oriko.

You check the cell again, despite clearly not seeing her. You rush to the cell door, nearly faceplanting when your stiff legs take a second too long to move, and shout out Oriko's name in hopes of getting a reply.

No…

Where is she?! Weren't you just together?!

No, no, no…!

You remember blood. Yours and Oriko's…

Nononononononononon-!

A loud thud snaps you out of your panic. A body has dropped down through the hole. Looking up, you see a guy (probably? It's hard to tell) in some kind of Western-style suit of armour. He nods at you before disappearing.

What the hell?

Ignoring the body for now, (don't touch weird corpses thrown into your cell, as your mother probably would've told you if she thought you'd ever end up in such a weird situation) you calm down and check yourself over.

While you remember brief flickers of a fight, you seem physically fine. Your clothes are undamaged beyond being a bit wet from sitting on the damp floor, and the injuries you sustained during the aforementioned fight have completely healed. Your Soul gem, on the other hand, is another situation entirely. The black impurities cover just under half of the Citrine gem, but there's also a strange orange colour flickering around the edges like some kind of embers of a flame.

While that's rather unusual, the more pressing matter is how you still have a Soul Gem at all. You very much remember being a Witch. It actually wasn't as bad as you expected; maybe because you did it willingly? That's beyond the point, though. The real question is: Why are you still here?

Actually, where even is here…?

A glint of light in the corner of the cell catches your eye. You move around the body and shoo away a few of those giant roaches to find-

No…

It's a small silver shard of a gem.

Oh no…

A shard of Oriko's gem.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

Your knees give out and you slump forward. Fuck!

Oriko's dead! You failed her, and now this is probably some punishment for being so damn useless!

You curl up into a ball and can't stop the shivers from returning.

"Kirika…"

You freeze. Was that… Oriko? Damn it, of course she's haunting you. You deserve all the hate she can throw at you.

"Kirika…"

The shard glows faintly and you sense a very subtle trace of Oriko's oh-so-familiar magical presence. It's… alive? Is Oriko alive?! You grab the shard and hold it up. The thing's warm in your hands, comfortingly so.

If this shard is here with you, then maybe the rest is somewhere here as well!

Relieved by this miraculous possibility, you pocket the shard in a safe place and shakily get to your feet.

Turning back to the body, you casually kick it onto its back. You're surprised by the state of the thing. Ragged robes, bloody hands and feet, and skin taut to the bone. A sickly black growth spreads its way out from the thing's heart like a parasitic infection.

Hanging from its neck on a lace is a small key. It's a bit bloody, but it's not like you've ever been particularly squeamish, so you pull it free with no issues.

Next, grasped tightly in the figure's right hand is…

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[] A gift (choose 1)
-[] Aid from the Gods
-[] A bag of destructive concoctions
-[] Farseeing eyes
-[] An open doorway
-[] A gentle warmth not of this reality

[] Afterwards, you…
-[] Try the key on the cell door
-[] Try jumping up through the hole
-[] Write in


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So, I finally got around to starting this little brain-nugget I've had brewing from a fair while now. Original ideas stolen from thagguy's Read Soul and RecurringExtra's Blue Ash, although I'd technically been toying with the idea of dumping a PMMM magical girl into Dark Souls a little while before reading either of those.

Anyway, you may be wondering "why Kirika Kure, of all the characters in Madoka Magica?" Well, the short answer to that is: because the two other best options have already been done by the above quests. Another short answer is: because Kirika is best girl and needs some attention.

Now as to posting schedule for this quest, I'm going to try to stick to the same 3-4 day voting period that my other quest has, although the fact that I'm now going to be balancing two quests will probably mean any form of schedule will be going out the window… Honestly, if it comes down to it, I'll likely prioritise my other quest over this one, since it's closer to completion.

Finally, shout out to everyone in my Teach Me the Dark Soul thread, which I partly created to make sure I actually knew wtf I was talking about when I finally got around to writing this quest. Those guys filled my brain with lore goodies and enjoyable discussions, all the while answering my silly questions and humouring my nonsense comments.


Anyway, I've probably forgot to mention something important, but hopefully everything will go smoothy for a while, at least.

[X] A gift (choose 1)
-[x] A gentle warmth not of this reality

[X] Afterwards, you…
-[x] Try jumping up through the hole



…a small circular pendant with a pink eight-pointed-star-shaped gem blazing from the centre. A small crown shape is carved above the star and a pair of wings are spread out beneath it. For whatever reason, you feel a comforting warmth from its subtle shine, and an odd sense of familiarity hangs in the back of your mind.

Whatever this pendant is, there's something about it that makes you compelled to hang onto it, so you pry the thing from the corpse's fingers, wipe the blood off as best you can and pocket it along with Oriko's shard.


With nothing else of interest left to find on the body, you give the cell one last look over before heading for the door.

A loud crash of something large hitting the tiles above makes you jump. The sound is followed by a repeated crunching sound of weighted footsteps on those same tiles. You step over to the hole and look up at the opening, only to get a face full of snow as it slides off of the roof.

You're focus is drawn away from the chill of the snow by a loud, inhuman roar that shakes the cell. The giant roaches scamper away into their hidey-holes as you receive another face full of snow.

You growl and brace your feet against the floor. With a mix of curiosity as to the source of the roar and wanting to give that source a piece of your mind for the two-time snow to the face, you launch yourself up through the hole with a magically-enhanced leap.

The tiles crack and give way as you land and you're nearly blown over by howling, ice-cold wind. Falling would've been pretty bad, you decide, upon realising this weird place is built at the peak of a massive mountain range. Giant, white-peaked ridges rise in all directions, while the sky above is a similarly dreary grey.

Another roar draws your attention towards the other end of the roof, where you see the back of some giant bloated beast with lanky, shredded-looking wings and a massive club made of what looks like stone. Bits of bone stick out from the thing's thighs and elbows, while A thick external spine runs from its bony tail up to a beastly crown of longer antler-like bits rising from its skull.

You spot that same armoured knight standing off against the monster a moment before it swings its giant club down onto him, causing a loud crash. When it raises the club, there's a big hole in the roof and the knight is nowhere to be seen.

With the first distraction delt with, the creature slowly turns to face you with a low growl. Its face isn't any prettier than its back, with its lips stretched back to reveal blood-red gums and a pair of large fangs. Its eyes burn red with the desire to destroy.

You heave a sigh, your excitement a little let down upon seeing this thing. After the understandable shock of waking up from the dead in a strange world, you expected something interesting. Instead, it turns out you've just woken up in a Witch's labyrinth. Strange that your soul gem isn't detecting any magic, but maybe it doesn't glow when you're already inside the barrier? You never bothered checking before, after all.

Idly, you wonder which of those girls became this Witch. It'd be pretty funny if that fancy-looking blondie became something like this, although the colour and weapon more fit that brat with the cat ears.

The tiles crunch and shatter under the Witch's steps as it slowly approaches. It rolls its shoulders and gnashes its teeth, clearly hoping to intimidate. Unfortunately for it, you've long lost your fear of Witches from the sheer number you've slain to stave off Oriko's magic drain. Besides, the big ones are easier to hit and fall harder when you cut them down, so this fat brute will be a piece of cake.

The Witch leans forwards and flaps its wings. Despite the clear impossibility that those stumpy little things could carry such a fat beast, Witch rules don't care about logic, and it rises into the air.

Well, maybe rise isn't the right word. It's more like a really high jump. Either way, it launches towards you, swinging its giant club horizontally as it comes down.

It's pretty easy to avoid the attack. You simply launch yourself up above the Witch and come down on a raised section of the roof overlooking a small courtyard.

"Nice try, fatty, but you'll have to be faster than that to catch me." You taunt, stretching a bit. You put a bit of magic into your clothes and they flash a bright citrine. When the light fades, the tan-cream blouse and black plaid skirt of your school uniform has been replaced with the black and white jacket and black skirt of your magical girl outfit.

With a flick of your wrists, your three-armed claws appear out of your long white cuffs. They glow with energy, fading from black to white and mixing into a dark grey as you admire them.

"Now, my gem's pretty dirty at the moment." You continue, not even paying the Witch any mind. "So, I won't be able to play with you much. That said, maybe I can have some fun and just clean it afterward with your grief seed."

As if in response, the Witch growls and beats its wings a few times as it stares up at you with a murderous glare.

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[] Kill the Witch using magic
-[] Blitz it, cutting it down before it gets a chance to move
-[] Shred it from range
-[] Write in

[] Kill the Witch without using magic
-[] Fast and lethal
-[] Toy with it a bit before dealing the killing blow
-[] Write in

[] Write in