Accursed Citrine - Yet another Dark Soul/Madoka Magica Crossover

[X] continue talking to Solaire
-[X] About each of your "Suns" and what they mean to you both.



"Right… So, uh, you said this whole thing is to help others looking for their 'suns' right? You haven't seen a girl with long ash-like hair and emerald eyes, have you? She'd either be wearing a fancy white dress with a big hat or a dark red school uniform. Oh, if she's in the dress, she'd have a silver broach, or a ring with a silver gem if she's in her uniform!"

Solaire thinks for a moment, then shakes his head. "I'm afraid I haven't seen her. You mentioned her name was Oriko, yes? I shall make sure to keep my eyes and ears out, and ask anyone I encounter."

You can't help but deflate a little at yet another person claiming they haven't seen Oriko. Maybe she's not in the city after all? Wait, but that pink-haired god-girl said she was… You look up at the walled off area at the very top of the mountain – Anor Londo, Oscar called it on the way down. Pinkie said Oriko was super high up, so maybe she's up there?

Solaire must've noticed your dejection at his answer, because he asks. "Miss Oriko seems very important to you. I can see the dedication you have for her in your eyes. If I may ask, is she your Lady or something else?"

Now it's your turn to chuckle, albeit awkwardly instead of jollily. You're not blushing, are you? "Ahaha, well she's, ah… It's a bit of both, I guess. I'd follow any order she gave me, and she's given plenty, but I just wish…" You stop yourself from continuing and shake your head. "Ah, no! I'd be perfectly happy if I'm just able to always be with her. I don't want to mess things up by trying to go further than that…"

Solaire laughs and pats you on the shoulder encouragingly. "Young love is truly a magnificent thing! Truly a sun worth fighting for! I'm sure you'll find your friend, and wish you luck with her."

"You… don't find it weird?" You ask, shrinking away in a mixture of confusion and a tiny bit of fear. "I mean, we're both girls, so… There's a bunch of this kind of thing in manga and stuff, but…"

"Miss Kirika, look around." He says, crouching down to be eye level with you. "The Fire is fading, the world is being overrun by the Undead Curse and even the mighty kingdom of Lordran has fallen into ruin. Who someone loves is far from the most pressing matter for people to worry about. Certainly, the hatred of the undead is a sure sign that people are merely seeking an excuse to look down upon others."

You stare at him for a moment, not sure what to say. Through the little slits in his helmet, you can see a sincerity in his eyes that you've never seen in anyone else before. You open your mouth to speak, but no words come out when you move your jaw.

Solaire laughs and pats your shoulder again before standing up. "Do not fear, Miss Kirika! No matter how dark the world may seem, remember that the light of the sun will always reach you, even if it's so faint that you're unable to see it!"

You finally give up on replying after that and just give a thankful nod. Silence falls over the garden and Solaire merely stands there looking up at the sun.

After a while, you slap your cheeks a few times and sit down against the little wall railing around the garden. With a sigh, you realise that with all Solaire's helping you, you should at least ask what his sun is.

Wait, weren't you supposed to be manipulating him?

"Hey, so, I've talked about my 'sun,' so what's yours? I take it you're not looking for a literal sun, right?"

Solaire's helmet shifts ever so slightly away from the sun towards you. "Ah, while there is more to it than that, I must admit I am indeed searching for a true sun. You see, the magnificent orb that shines above us now came to be after the war against the dragons. Lord Gwyn was the Lord of sunlight, and therefore the sun is the ultimate symbol of his majesty! With the Fire fading, I believe now is the best chance to discover my own sun to let me shine with the same radiance as Lord Gwyn once did!"

"So, you want to become a super powerful king or something?"

He shakes his head. "No, no! Not at all. I merely seek the incandescence of such a thing would grant. To come to understand the grandeur of Lord Gwyn and his Firstborn son."

You give a wry chuckle. "Heh, sounds like we're both chasing after some pretty impossible stuff, huh? I guess we both have weird magic undead-ness to thank for giving us hope."

"No, Miss Kirika. It is our determination that keeps us going. Our condition gives us a means of reaching what we desire, but it's our dedication that drives us forwards."

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[] Go talk to Ada again
-[] Write in

[] Go talk to Oscar
-[] Write in

[] Mess around with the Hollows

[] Move on

[] Write in

[x] Move on



You give Solaire a thankful nod and smile, then take a deep breath. You take a few steps down the little staircase back towards the shrine before turning back. "I think I should get going now. My 'sun' is waiting, after all."

He nods his head thoughtfully and gives a low chuckle. "Indeed. Look luck, friend. I shall move on shorty as well, so do look out for my shining sign if you ever need help."

"Yeah, will do!" You reply, giving him a thumbs up before stepping inside.

You spot Oscar off to the side when you enter, seemingly finishing up with putting together a little kit of stuff he's got from the crates. He has comfort things like a waterskin, a small pouch of what's probably food and one of those blankets you slept on last night, but also what looks like a few tuffs of some plant.

He looks up from organising everything into a bag when you approach. "Ah, Kirika. Are you ready to head off? I spotted what looks like some kind of church not far ahead, so we might be close to the first Bell of Awakening."

"Yep, all set to go." You reply, holding your hands behind your head. "Already lazed about for long enough. Oriko's not going to find herself."

She could, you note. Oriko's way smarter than you are, so she might even be out there looking for you too. If that's the case, all the more reason to find her before she gets jumped by one of those giant demons.

"If you are departing, I have a request." Ada says, stepping up beside you. She offers you a small pouch of what smells like food with one hand, while in the other she's holding a surprisingly large metal hammer. "There is a blacksmith beyond the parish. Would you be capable of taking this hammer to him for repair? I believe the head is chipping and the handle feels like it's about to give out whenever I use it."

Oscar takes the hammer and fits it into his new bag. "We also have some need of a blacksmith, so we'll pass it on to him. It's the least we can do to repay you for your supplies."

Ada shakes her head. "The provisions are there to be used. But I thank you. Usually I would make the trip myself, however a number of Hollows from some distant kingdom have moved into the parish and move too quickly for me to calm them, so I'm unable to get past."

You accept the offered pouch as the two of them are talking and take a peak inside. It looks like a few bits of dried meat and your stomach growls loudly the moment the smell reaches your nose. You suddenly remember you haven't actually eaten since waking up and can't resist reaching in for a piece.

"What does a priestess need a hammer like that for anyway?" you ask through a mouthful of meat.

You feel Oscar's disappointed eyes on you at your manners, but Ada doesn't seem to mind.

"It is one of my duties as the priestess of this shrine to keep the bonfire here lit. I usually must acquire the kindling myself, and I've found bones burn better when broken into smaller pieces." She replies matter-of-factly.

You and Oscar share a glance. "Ah, I see…" He mumbles, glancing down at the hammer. Well, thank you again for allowing us to stay the night here, but she should be heading off."

Ada's lips twitch up into small, almost mischievous smile and she bows her head. "Indeed. I hope for your safe travels. Do not hesitate to take shelter here again if need be."

With your farewells sorted out, you and Oscar move on slightly faster than you normally would, not entirely sure how to feel about the less-than-holy priestess. A pair of Hollow guards stand over by the wall at the top of the stairs, but let you by with little more than blank stares.

Upon passing through an archway under a wall, however, you both come to a quick halt.

In front of you is a small courtyard with a big gate at the other end and a small staircase goes down off to the right just in front of the gate. Big clumps of weeds sprout up through cracks in the bricks and plenty of vines climb up the side of the walls. A rather unsettling sight of two corpses impaled on axes and lit on fire contrast the overgrown appearance of the area. A pair of Hollows with crossbows stand up on a raised bridge section, presumably accessible from another staircase to your right, and another pair with swords and shields stand over by the gate.

These Hollows aren't what's given you and Oscar pause, though. That's the giant, spike-tusked, red-eyed boar in a full casing of steel armour.

"That could be a problem." Oscar comments. "I'm not so sure this sword's going to be able to get through that thing's armour, and I doubt those Hollows will give us much time to throw firebombs at the creature."

"Maybe it won't attack us?" You offer, gesturing back at the two Hollows behind you. "These two seem okay, so maybe these guys will let us through too?"

As if hearing you, the boar lets out a very unfriendly snort and kicks its hooves against the bricks. It shakes its head and you spot bits of what you hope isn't gore fly off its spiked tusks.

Okay, maybe not…

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[] Split up
-[] Go after the crossbow Hollows while Oscar deals with the boar and sword Hollows
-[] Deal with the boar and sword Hollows while Oscar goes after the crossbow Hollows
-[] Write in

[] Stick together
-[] Ignore the crossbows and go after the boar and swordsmen
-[] Go up the stairs and deal with the crossbowmen before getting the drop on the others
-[] Write in

[] try to make a run for it
-[] Through the gate
-[] Down the stairs

[] Write in

[X] Split up
-[X] Deal with the boar and sword Hollows while Oscar goes after the crossbow Hollows



You nod in the direction of the stairs to your right. "You go get those guys up top. You have a shield and I want nothing to do with them."

Oscar looks between you and the boar for a moment. "Are you sure that's a good idea? I don't doubt your abilities after seeing you fight, but I don't see any gaps in the boar's armour."

"I have plenty of experience beating up big mean bad guys like him." You reply with a shrug. With a flick of your hands, you summon your claws. "I'll be fine, just watch."

He stares down at you through his visor for a few more seconds, then finally nods and turns towards the stairs. Both of you step out into the courtyard together and you hear a guttural groan from your right. A hollow charges Oscar with a spear from the bottom of the stairs, but he manages to catch the attack with his shield.

You don't see the rest, as you look towards the boar in the centre of the courtyard. Oscar has his fight, you have yours.

The boar, clearly having noticed you, lowers its head and stamps its hoof. It lets out a challenging snort and you match it with growl. You stand there for a moment, gazes locked. The boar moves first.

The animal charges with a surprising amount of speed, but it's not fast enough. You charge to meet it and, not even needing your slowing magic, you have no trouble leaping up over the boar as it wildly swings its spiked tusks. As you go, you snap your arm out and send a claw-chain down at the boar's front leg. You spin mid-air and roll to the side, causing the chain to wrap around the leg.

The boar stumbles and falls to the ground in a loud cry, but you're surprised to find the leg is still well attached and seemingly fine when you touch down and look back. Even more surprising is that the boar's tumbling roll comes to a stop with its feet down. It's either very lucky or far nimbler than it has any right to be, neither thought is very pleasant.

You flinch at the thunk of a crossbow going off, but for once you don't feel the sharp pain of a bolt going through you. You look up to see the two crossbow Hollows focused on Oscar as he fights with another Hollow. You spot a bolt sticking out of a gap in his shoulder armour, but he doesn't seem to be slowing.

Another, much louder thunk draws you back down to the courtyard. On the other side of the gateway, a hollow has pulled a big lever and the gate is shifting to come down.

Without much time to think, you focus your time-slowing magic on the gate and rush forward. You toss a claw at the hollow, removing its head. Another, with a sword and shield, charges at you to block your path, but you jump over its swing and use its shield as a springboard. Slashing a claw out at the hollow as you touch down behind it, you barely feel the weapon cleaving through rotting flesh as you move on.

You barely make it in time, but you manage to dispel your claws and catch the gate as it comes down. You feel your entire body bend and shudder under the sudden impact of the heavy gate. Your arms and legs twist in unnatural angles under the pressure, but you thankfully thought to cut off your senses just before the gate came down.

Catching and stopping the gate is all well and good. You probably look pretty awesome doing it, too, even if it's probably going to waste a bunch of magic to heal the damage something as crazy as this is going to do to your body. Unfortunately, you forgot one very big thing in your scramble to the gate.

Even with the pain switched off, you still feel a placebo of the force of the boar slamming into you in your mind.

The animal carries onwards past the gate, which slams down behind it, and only stops as its momentum is slowed by a flight of steps leading up to the cathedral beyond. With a snort, it shakes its head and sends you flying.

You don't actually process moving through the air and hitting the wall, your brain only heals enough to start functioning again after enough time has passed for the boar to turn and walk back over to his now-blocked way back to the courtyard. When you do 'wake up' again, though, you find out just how badly you took the charge.

Bits of you seem to have caught on the spikes of the tusks, because the bits of flesh and cloth on them match the bloody chunks taken out of your body. Your left arm is hanging on by a thread, the shoulder having been impaled through by one of the boar's tusks. Your right arm doesn't respond for a while either, but starts moving again once the healing kicks in. Your head seems to have been spared most of the damage, besides the impact of hitting the wall, but you feel your mouth full of something and end up spitting out a fair bit of blood and a bit of your tongue.

That could've gone better.

You just sit there in your own blood and gore for a while, not really processing much of anything beyond the boar pacing back and forth in front of the gate. Your legs don't seem too badly damaged, but even once your spine repairs enough for you to move them, you don't really seem much of a point.

Hell, what's the point of any of this? You've already died and came back who knows how many times and thought you'd finally kicked the bucket after dying as a witch. That Madoka girl says Oriko's alive somewhere in this world, but all you really have to go on is a faded shard of her broken soul gem. You could be wasting your time trying to find a lifeless corpse, and even Oriko is alive, who's to say she'll even care. You willingly allowed yourself to be her disposable pawn, and maybe that's all she saw you as.

You try to chuckle at your pitifulness, but you're pretty sure it comes out as a gargled cough. Your vision has started to flicker and fade around the edges at some point, and you're not sure if you care.

Maybe your magic won't be able to heal this much damage. Maybe this is it and you're going to die. Maybe you'll become a witch again and go on a big rampage without Oriko there to keep you focused. You wonder if Oriko will see it from wherever she is…

"…don't die!"

Huh?

"Don't leave me, Kirika!"

Is that… Oriko?

"Please don't die!"

It sounds familiar, yet hazy. Like a memory immediately forgotten after waking up.

"Kirika!"

Oriko…

"Kirika! Hey, Kirika! Damn it!"

Your mind suddenly snaps out of its decline and you feel like someone's thrown cold water over you.

Your eyes, which had drifted shut at some point, shoot open and you see the boar slam into the gate. Oscar leaps back just in time to avoid getting caught, but there's still no way for him to get through.

Your gaze falls upon the boars exposed butt. Not a phrase you'd expected to ever think, nor one you'd be in any way happy about, but it gives you an idea. You try to move and are surprised when your body obeys, albeit sluggishly. You pull yourself up and, still flowing with blood and half shredded, stumble towards the boar.

Its too focused on Oscar and the gate to notice you. Hell, it probably thinks you're nothing but a messy pile of meat after the charge you took. Either way, you slowly reach the thing's rear and raise your right hand.

With all the strength you can muster, you plunge your fist into the thing's ass, summoning your claws mid-punch and shredding the boar's insides. The animal cries in agony and flails, turning your claws into something of a pig blender of death.

Only after the boar drops and stops moving, and you pull your gore-covered arm out do you realise just how gross that just was. You shudder and gag (less vomit and more blood, which probably isn't a good thing) before stumbling over to the lever and pulling it back.

The gate creaks and groans, then begins to rise as some unseen mechanisms pull it up.

Oscar rushes to you just in time to catch you when you trip over a chunk of the boar you ripped out when removing your arm. "How are you alive?!" He exclaims, his voice a violent a mix of shock, horror and relief all at once.

You try to chuckle, but once again just end up coughing blood. You settle for a grin. "Magic, I guess."

Oscar stares at you for a moment, seemingly stunned. He snaps out of it after a few seconds, though, and fumbles about to retrieve the Estus Flask. He pushes it to your lips and pours just about the whole bottle down your throat. It seems to do the trick, as you start to feel warm and fuzzy even without your senses.

It takes a while, but eventually your body has healed enough that your willing to reactivate your senses. There's still a lingering throbbing pain across your entire body, but it shouldn't be enough to slow you down.

You pull yourself up out of Oscar's arms and back to your feet, trying to stretch the stiffness out of your newly healed flesh and muscles. You open your mouth to thank him, but it comes out as bloody phlegm instead of words, so you spend some time trying to cough and spit what blood you can out of your lungs and throat.

Eventually, you realise Oscar is still staring at you, not having moved from his crouch after catching you. And wave at him. "Uh, Oscar? Hellooooo?"

He twitches and seems to snap out of this stare. "Not even an Undead should be able to survive injuries like you just had." He says, strangely flatly.

You can only shrug. "I told you, I'm a magical girl. I probably would've been screwed without that Estus though, so thanks for that." You pause, realising the somewhat causal manner of your words and put on a more serious face. "Seriously, thanks. I've been in some pretty nasty spots, but that might've been the worst."

Oscar nods and slowly stands up. "I honestly didn't expect it to work. As I said, Not even an Undead can survive something like that." He pauses for a moment. "Perhaps we should go back to the bonfire and recover, just in case?"

"But… Oriko's out there somewhere." You reply, turning towards the big cathedral in front of you. "And you got to ring those Bells of Whatever, right?"

"Kirika…?" You hear from behind and turn back to see Oscar staring at you again. "Your gem is… flashing."

You stare back at him for a few seconds, not understanding what he's on about. When it finally clicks, you reach back and retrieve your soul gem, holding it up to look at. It's pretty heavily clouded over by corruption and its glow is barely even noticeable, but you can still make out the faint pulsing of what light it has left.

You just stare at it for a bit. You know what the pulsing means, but there shouldn't be any witches in this world. That's impossible, right…? You turn on the spot, finding that the pulsing grows stronger in the direction of the cathedral.

"Kirika? What does that mean?" Oscar asks. "Is something wrong?"

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[] Return to the bonfire

[] Press onwards
-[] Into the cathedral
-[] Down the stairs in the courtyard
-[] There's a path next to the cathedral…

[] Write in