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Best. Workout. Ever. (Dark Souls SI)

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    • Oh my god it's another update.

    What madness is this!?
    *^*
    Why did I have to be such a greedy bastard?

    I'd seriously need to consider that question later, but for now, delaying my suicide seemed the bigger concern.

    What did the demon have in it's repertoire? Bolts of lightning for one, and I had to assume that they would wreck me as badly as any of Reah's miracles. It was massive, and had serious reach with that pole. It had a tail if i could remember right, though i couldn't see it from here. It did have two arms, so grappling could be a thing that would ruin my day.

    It was made of stone and metal, so the sword probably wasn't the best thing I could be doing. Fire might be a thing, depending on the melting point of the metals. The hall it was in was cramped, so it's catch pole would hinder it as long as I kept the fight there. I could see that it was missing a leg just as in the game, so mobility would be more limited.

    Conclusion? I would have a hell of a time hurting it let alone killing it. So given that, what are my choices?

    I could leave, which would be awesome. If, you know, i wasn't such a greedy bastard.

    I could try and get around it. Now, it's pretty big, so that will take some doing, but the real trick it what comes after that when it knows I'm there i may or may not have anywhere to go.

    I could lure it out, and try some kind of sneakiness but that would involve me and it sharing a room where it could use that catch pole to it's full effectiveness.

    The problem, I reflected, was that I really didn't know anything about what I was up against. I couldn't really formulate a plan. Sure, i knew what it could do in a game, and I could make a few educated guesses

    I halted my footsteps with a heroic effort.

    Ok, aside from leaving, luring it away seems like the option with the greatest amount of success, given that fighting would end with me as a smear, and getting around it would end with me smeared from behind. Probably.

    I knocked back a bolt, and fired at the thing speculatively.

    Frankly, with how big a target it was, i was hardly going to miss, and i tensed as the bolt slammed home sticking into it's chest.

    And nothing happened.

    I knocked another. Maybe it was broke?

    Fire. No response.

    "Huh." I noted quietly, and started forward again, still cautiously and trying to make as little noise as possible.

    Nothing.

    My paranoia levels were through the roof at this point.

    I finally had closed up with the demon, and what I found was somewhat disturbing.

    The demon was covered with the same kind of filigree as the rest of the room. The difference was that these delicate vines seemed to pulse with magic. A bit of further inspection showed that the demon really did want to crush me, it's ore based muscles straining against the mocking cage of filigree.

    Something wanted me down here and wasn't about to let this thing kill me.

    Dots started connecting.

    The filigree had expanded the who city, and was coating this demon. Now, while mundane sources could be behind the stuff on the walls, the demon was an entirely different matter.

    The soul hunger was new, only appearing after i had died down here, and it seems to have completely subsumed my hunger for humanity. Or if not subsumed it, made it seem irrelevant by comparison. This indicated something powerful, and probably scary.

    The hunger itself was drawing me towards powerful souls yes, but it was pulling me towards Pinwheel in particular.

    Whatever magic put the filigree on the demon wants me in one piece. That suggests that I'm either doing what it wants, or it's made me a pawn somehow. Given that the only notable thing I'm doing here on my own relativity free will is finding the rite of kindling, the same thing that wants me to kill Pinwheel probably is pulling the demons strings.

    The Catacombs were Gravelord Nito's domain.

    I grimaced. I was being played like a fiddle, and it took me this long to figure out that very little of it was my own idea. I also had a difficult time deciding whether this was 'just as planed' for me as well, or my absolute worst case scenario made manifest.

    I put all that out of my mind. I'd been more or less pushed across the Rubicon at this point, so now I had just had to hope my dice didn't roll snake eyes.

    Of course, even if they did i had a sneaking suspicion that i would get up again to regret it later.

    Confident that the demon wasn't going to crush me this time, I put away my weapons, and trotted down the hall.

    I passed several open coffins, all in fairly good repair, and made a note of them. Probably how to have my audience with the Gravelord. Nap in a coffin.

    Before too much longer, I'd hit the end of the hallway, and found a small alter with a bag of small calcified 'eyes' to the side of it. They didn't look too much like how i remembered the graphic, but I didn't see anything else that seemed to fit the bill, so i shrugged and started back towards the coffins.

    I was just mentally preparing myself to get in when I heard a large crash from down the hall. Sounded far too loud to be Oscar and co. No human voices.

    My blood froze, and I leaped into the coffin.

    Five seconds. I heard a faint grinding noise of metal on stone.

    Ten seconds, another crash, this one sounding different, and also much closer

    fifteen seconds, the catch pole came into veiw, and the demons crawled behind it.

    It arced its shattered head slowly side to side, and though trying to see or listen. I could see debris falling off of it. I realized with a start that the bits and pieces falling off of it were the filigree.

    The demon was no longer my 'friend'.

    Twenty five seconds, the demon scraped out of view, and i made a barely audible sigh of relive.

    Thirty seconds, just as the coffin started to shut, a black horned helmet loomed in the darkness above, with an axe raised above its head.

    As the axe rebounded from the closed lid, again and again, shaking the coffin as the thing from nightmares hewed away at it, I started to scream.
     
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    • Hey, Look, I wrote a thing.

    Took me long enough
    *^*

    The impacts stopped long before my screaming did, and it was even longer until the coffin lid finally creaked open again.

    What it opened to was vastly different however.

    Where there was once a stone hallway, there was now a bleak cave. Getting out of the coffin revealed that it was simply laying in the middle of floor, no lift mechanisms, nothing.

    I was seriously unsure whether I liked that or not. It also highlighted just how little about magic I knew. Pushing the thoughts aside, I started onward. The Gravelord was waiting, and frankly I wanted to get this over with.

    "Abomination."

    I halted midstep.

    That voice resounded with a hundred individuals. All ages, all genders, all species and cloaked with the sound of death itself.

    This was a terrible idea.

    I pivoted on my other heel... and the coffin was gone.

    "Darkspawn."

    That twisted voice was growing closer, and it did not sound pleased. I gagged on the smell of lingering death. I looked around, frantic. This was not where I wanted to be. This was a terrible place. I needed to run, hide, escape.

    "That which should not be."

    But there was none to be found. I turned again, unwillingly, to find myself staring into the cloak of terror.

    Gravelord Nito. First of the Dead. Lord of the Catacombs, and the Tomb of the Giants.

    I couldn't speak. I felt the claws of death wrapped around my soul, and I knew that my fears had been confirmed.

    "Thou hast not destroyed the traitor." The grasp was tighter, my sight hazed. "Inability, or lack of opportunity?"

    I writhed, for what else could i do? The power of the Gravelord was so immense, it was impossible for me to stand against.

    "I shall choose to be charitable."

    The pressure eased, and I gasped for breath.

    "Speak, Aberration. Tell me why thou hast come to seek audience with the Gravelord."

    A million things blazed across my mind. I had forgotten that this was not a meeting between peers. I had something that Nito needed, but that did not mean that I was in a position of any strength. I was also aware, now, that if I turned out to be a... poor investment so to speak, the Lord would snuff me out and find someone else more suitable.

    "I require aid."

    They were dangerous words, but truthful. I just hoped that admitting my weakness didn't cause this being to fast-track onto a decision to eliminate me.

    Nito considered me, flexing a skeletal hand "Elaborate."

    So far so good, "My strengths lay in cunning and subversion Gravelord. Yet the task I have at hand has obstacles that can only be vanquished with power."

    The dozen skulls nodded slowly. "Thou speaks of Gwyns knight."

    I nodded, Finding myself slightly relieved. If that was what Nito first went to, then there was a better then average chance that Tall Boy was the worst non Pinwheel thing in the catacombs."My friends and allies may have the strength to vanquish it, but it too is cunning, and will not face us while united." I found myself less sure of our own ability, but the fact that it refused to engage in a protracted fight suggested it was at least somewhat wary of us.

    "The remnant has been a thorn in my side." Nito noted. "It's destruction would be favourably received..."

    My heart leaped. Did this mean that I'd-

    "My reach has... diminished however. Which is why thou art required." Nito rasped, "Thou shalt find a way." The tone of the voices told me clear as day that the phrase was an order, not a platitude.

    God damn it.

    "Do not think that I shall not grant thee aid however." The mountainous corpse turned, and gestured for me to follow.

    My feet stepped forward despite my inward protests.

    "If thou art cunning, then thy greatest weapon would be knowledge." The ancient lord led me to a massive coffin at the back of the cave, "Know then first, that I would have you succeed."

    I remained silent. That really was a comforting bit of information to know, though I couldn't see how it was particularly relevant. It did make me more inclined to take anything I learned here to heart though. If the gravelord thought that what he had to say was worth knowing for my task, then I certainly wasn't going to argue.

    "Know then second, I would have thee succeed in both the endeavour that brought thou to my domain and the task i have set out." Nito's arm twitched slightly, gesturing the direction he wished me to follow, "The white clerics have caused no end of trouble, and once they have claimed what they seek, they shall come here to seek no more."

    I bobbed my head a little bit, "Would I be correct in my guess that by solving one, I have an opportunity at the other?"

    "Yes."

    Now, to confirm if my guess about the pinwheels location is correct.

    "Where, gravelord would I find the Pinwheel"

    Nito halted abruptly. Exactly one second later I cursed myself. Nito had never told anything about the traitor, and 'pinwheel' would be a name based on it's appearance.

    "What do you know, Aberration?"

    The Gravelord then imposed his will upon me, and i could not hold back my knowledge any longer.
     
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    • That is so fuckin' Nito.

    I'm not sorry.

    Anyway, this has wonderfully not gone Full Hollow, and Evil!Papa!Nito is best Nito. He's kind of what I would expect Lung from Worm to be like. Nito gaining the SI's knowledge can only be a good thing. Surely. Yep.

    Well, if Nito learns(?) about the First Flame dying would he be inclined to go out and capture the other Lord Souls to rekindle the fire himself? Not by sacrificing himself of course, but one of the Dickwraiths. I guess it depends on your interpretation of the First Flame going out.

    One theory is that Nito actually wants you to take his soul and rekindle the Flame, because without it there is no more death, everything being timeless or Hollow due to the curse, just like the opening cutscene, and since he's the Lord of the Dead he takes exception to that.
     
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    Edison_Trent said:
    That is so fuckin' Nito.

    I'm not sorry.

    Anyway, this has wonderfully not gone Full Hollow, and Evil!Papa!Nito is best Nito. He's kind of what I would expect Lung from Worm to be like. Nito gaining the SI's knowledge can only be a good thing. Surely. Yep.

    Well, if Nito learns(?) about the First Flame dying would he be inclined to go out and capture the other Lord Souls to rekindle the fire himself? Not by sacrificing himself of course, but one of his Dickwraiths. I guess it depends on your interpretation of the First Flame going out.

    One theory is that Nito actually wants you to take his soul and rekindle the Flame, because without it there is no more death, everything being timeless or Hollow due to the curse, just like the opening cutscene, and since he's the Lord of the Dead he takes exception to that.
    Click to expand...
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    Nito runs the Gravelords. not the Darkwraiths.

    Glad to see this hasn't died.
     
    Edison_Trent said:
    One theory is that Nito actually wants you to take his soul and rekindle the Flame, because without it there is no more death, everything being timeless or Hollow due to the curse, just like the opening cutscene, and since he's the Lord of the Dead he takes exception to that.
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    I am going to say that it's not really a theory i subscribe too. The flame was kinda like pandora's box, once opened it changed the world forever.

    No It's not in Nito's (or any of the lords or gods) personal interests for the first flame to go out, but it's not because everything will revert to pre-flame era. The age of Dark is what happens when the flame goes out.

    As for what that means? Well, i haven't decided yet, but it probably won't be relevant to me.

    Probably.
     
    Would it be possible to get a Nito Interlude then, that is, if you're not trying to keep him all mysterious and above our tier? Something like him getting a slideshow of you playing through the game, with maybe a scene or two from your life that he would dismiss as unimportant? He might be interested in knowing what's become of the rest of his Eternal Dragon Raid Group (Oh my god guys, Gwyn just ran in!) at least, if he doesn't know already.
     
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    42
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    • Six months later, and hey look, it's finaly an update.

    I'd like to say that we'll be seeing them pop up a bit more consistently now, but frankly I'm not on any sort of schedule.

    also

    THREAD REVIVED

    *^*
    Images flash across my mind. Thought was impossible, but some primal part of me railed.

    The Gravelord picked through my mind, my memories, and my motivations with relative impunity. That primal fragment struggled and fought, yet my pale soul was no match for the only remaining sane lord.

    My own mouth told Nito everything. The day to day lives we lived, the wars, the political struggles, the technology. A bare touch to my fragile mind and everything spilt like water. The Gravelord learned of wonders. Automotives, wondrous machines powered by fire and explosion. The internet, a vast, almost living consciousness forged of wire, and data, overseen and cultivated by millions.

    The Gravelord learned of Dark Souls. Learned of his own world on a level and a way that he could not have comprehended before now. He learned of Seathe's growing madness, and the depths of the depravity the dragon could achieve. He learned of the hollow Gwyn. The fate of Lady Izilith's kin. He learned of the Pygmy, so small and weak as to be overlooked and forgotten to his own devices, and of my speculation on humanity being the dark soul.

    Nito also learned of the differences I had seen. How not all that was in this 'video game' was set in stone in this world. Of how Lordran was a living thing that would punish any who would assume that all was the same as -what the lord now knew- was a pale imitation.

    And just as suddenly as my will was stripped, Nito released his hold and I collapsed like a puppet whose strings were abruptly cut.

    "Interesting." The voice of the grave hissed.

    I tried to rally, gather up my scattered thoughts, and tried to disassociate myself from how the Gravelord had so easily violated my mind.

    I wanted to cry so hard, but all I could do was shake.

    "To answer thine question, the traitor rests betwixt the catacombs of my servants above, and that of my own domain." The dead king paused, "The 'Tomb Of the Giants' by thine reckoning."

    I nodded numbly. Nice to know have confirmation that my guess was right i guess, even if the directions on getting there were hazy The skeletal amalgamation continued, having answered my question.

    "Thou art dangerous, Aberration. Know that there is not a single being in this world that is more so." Nito hissed at me, " Even flawed as thine gift of foresight is, it grants thou perspective that none other can achieve. Knowing not only the limited what, but why grants thou leverage beyond measure.

    "It is for that reason that though I -must- destroy thou, I shall not."

    I swallowed.

    "Though it is impossible for me guarantee thine subservience past the completion of my task, thou art valuable in thine... out of context properties. Thus, the scales tip to thine favour. Thou shalt have the aid thou requested."

    Nito reached out, and grasped me. I suddenly felt fire burn through my being, but that fire brought strength, not agony.

    "Return once thou hast completed my task. Return that which I have gifted thou."

    The First of the Dead dropped me, and moved to rest in his coffin.

    Stillness reigned.

    It took me several long minutes to get myself under control again. This was surreal. Also really bad. Also really good. And terrifying, can't forget that either. And traumatizing. As the weakness in my legs wouldn't let me forget.

    I set all of that aside with difficulty, finally standing to make my way back to the coffin i knew would be waiting for me again. The important thing was that I was still mostly sane, I think, and now I had a gift from the first of the dead to smooth my way with.

    'That went well." I told myself, trying to ignore how thin and weak my voice sounded.

    "That went well."

    *^*

    "By the gods man, you look like you've fought a war!"

    "Thanks Oscar." I drawled at him, "Way to make me feel better."

    I had been having my 'pleasant conversation' with the Lord for several hours apparently, given that not only had the Black Knight gotten board and went away, but my companions had finally caught up. Passed the mausoleum actually, but only just and it was only the work of a shout and a minute or two to catch up.

    Strange how getting ones mind violated makes the hours feel like months have past.

    "You all aren't looking terribly fantastic yourselves." I commented, having finally looked them all over.

    Oscar seemed the most composed. His eyes were focusing considerably better then they had been before our separation, but now there were dark spectres dancing behind them. He seemed tense, but not particularly jumpy, which I took as a good sign.

    Reah's eyes were red and puffy, not to mention that her once white and gold robes were now red and soaked through with blood. From the way she moved it didn't seem like she was injured, so i guessed that blood belonged to someone else. Whatever happened though, it was pretty clearly as awful for her as my own... experience was for me. Regardless, she seemed to have worked passed the worst of it now, because she was moving with a purpose she hadn't been before.

    The Clerical knights however, were both wrecks.

    Petrus was glancing around every couple of seconds, and constantly touching his talisman. His armour had a few new nicks and scratches, but I couldn't see anything that could account for the level of paranoia that he was displaying.

    Vince reeked of the wine that he had brought for their sacraments, though it seemed to me that more of it was covering him than was on his breath. He also seemed strangely listless... almost like whatever vital spark he had before had vanished.

    If Vince died, he was almost certainly going to come back as a mindless hollow.

    "We..." Oscar glanced over at the rest of their party, as though not sure if it was his place to continue.

    Fortunatly for him, Reah came to his rescue. "We found... what that thing made Nico into."

    Uhm... "I don't know if I like where this is going."

    "You don't." Reah said softly, "It... tortured him. Used the healing arts of Anor Londo to..." Her voice chocked, "What we found was Nico once, but no more. It was just a horror of steel and flesh and agony."

    Clearly, the Black Bastard was up to tricks. And just as clearly those tricks had served their purpose of crushing the spirits of the knights, but had inadvertently shoved more steel into our little priestess' spine.

    "Nico is at peace now." Oscar said softly, "We used the wine to help burn the remains. Your flame would have made the process... easier for all involved, but Vince insisted that we needed to do it then."

    It broke him, I realized. Vince was gone, following Nico to the endless black. It was only a matter of time until he just faded away.

    But not yet. While Vince was clearly not all there, he also stood firm. All but hollow, but for his devotion to his lady. That alone kept him here, even if it was just for a little bit longer. I could only marvel, and respect him for that. He would see this one last task through.

    Petrus on the other hand, was now a liability. I didn't know what was crawling around in his head to do this to him, but i knew that just as surly as Vince would hold until we were through, Petrus would break and run at the earliest opportunity.

    It was sobering. I was tempted to press on for details of what exactly happened there, but this was neither the time, or place.

    Of course, getting to that time and place meant getting out of this mass grave.

    "Lets get moving." I said firmly. "I have hard information. What we're looking for is at the bottom."

    I had the groups full attention now.

    "It's guarded by a being that is more or less the patron of the necromancers defiling these halls" I continued, "And the Pinwheel probably won't give it up easily..."

    I gave a death's head smile

    "But given that we have the Gravelord's blessing in this endeavor, i think we'll do alright."
     
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    • AWESOME.

    That said is there an actual effect to the blessing or is it just a name thing
     
    Not entirely sure I made it disturbing enough. Writing mind rape is hard. I know that I'm going to need to make the reaction 'better' in the edited version. It's the kind of thing that breaks a person, and the only reason that the MC should be functional is that his whole situation is so surreal that nothing really hits with the impact that it 'should'.
     
    Ironfox said:
    And just as suddenly as my will was stripped, Nito released his hold and I collapsed like a puppet whose strings were abruptly cut.

    "Fukin' Nito" The voice of the grave hissed.
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    FTFY You just know that Ravelord Nito had to have picked up on all the
    Dark Souls memes while he was in there.

    Ironfox said:
    Black Knight gotten bored and
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    unless he turned into a wooden carving, which wood be Nito.

    Ironfox said:
    Strange how getting ones mind violated makes the hours feel like months have past.
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    Top Kek. I LoL'd.

    "Guys, Nito said he was okay with us tromping through his base mausoleum, killing his dudes, so let's go trek into the dark, skeleton and necromancer filled catacombs until we find a pitch black cave filled with skeletons three times our size. Oh, we should also drop down into what seems like a bottomless pit to meet this cool undead blacksmith so we can invade some noobs reclaim Humanity for our friends from the heretics!"
     
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