FSE

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Written By Kiyotoe

Based On The Game Dark Souls

In the Age of Ancients, the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of grey crags, archtrees, and everlasting dragons. But then there was Fire. And with Fire, came Disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course... Light and Dark. Then, from the Dark, They came, and found the Souls of Lords within the flame. Nito, the first of the dead, the Witch of Izalith, and her Daughters of Chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights, and the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten. With the Strength of Lords, they challenged the dragons. Gwyn's mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales. The witches weaved great firestorms. Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease. And Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own, and the dragons were no more.

Thus began the Age of Fire. But soon, the flames will fade, and only Dark will remain. Even now, there are only embers, and man sees not light, but only endless nights. And amongst the living are seen, carriers of the accursed Darksign. Yes indeed, The Darksign brands the Undead. And in this land, the Undead are corralled and led to the north, where they are locked away, to await the end of the world.

Chapter 1: The Undead Asylum

How long have I been here? I wondered, leaning my back against the cold, damp brick wall behind me. I had died many years ago, and somehow, I was here. In a cold, damp cell, the only light coming from above through a hole in the ceiling. I had tried all I could think of to reach it, but sadly, I never could. The only thing I could do was sit here and watch the rats run by, year after year. I wondered if there was anyone else in this world. Anyone that was still sane, that is. I knew there were people in the cells next to me, their moans rising up in union every so often. But not one of them spoke, and often, I would join in with them, to share their pain, their longing.

Then one day, I heard the sound of rusted hinges against rusted metal. I've never heard that here before, was there someone else being locked up in here with the rest of us? Sighing, I looked up at the ceiling, watching the shades of the fog that was ever so present. Then a face appeared, then body, and in an instant, it dropped down into my cell and hit the floor limply. What was that? Its flesh looked like burned leather. Its head was facing away from me, and I was thankful for that. Looking back up, I saw a knight's helmet, another person. The stranger nodded toward the body, then slowly slipped away elsewhere. Had I just imagined that? Quickly looking back to the center of the cell, I was sure I wasn't dreaming. Struggling, I got to my feet, my joints popping at the strained effort. Just to make sure the body was dead, I raised my foot, stomping its head in. With a loud crunch, and the sounds of frighten rats, I quickly leaned over it and ran my hands through the dead man's pockets.

My eyes widen as I pulled out a key, and with it a strange old ring. By the looks of the ring, it looked as if it could have been made by a witch, studying the drawings of strange rituals engraved into its metal. Not waiting to see if the years would start to repeat themselves again, I stepped over to the cell door, reaching my hand out past the bars as I slid the key into the lock. And then, it clicked. It had clicked. Feeling my heart beat faster, I gave the door a shove, watching in disbelief as it opened. I quickly stepped out, looking back into my old, damp, cold cell.

"I'm free..." I whispered to myself, my jaw straining to keep my smile. No, I wasn't free yet, I had just gotten out of my cell, there's no telling what would be beyond this corridor. As I turned, I squinted in the dim, eerie light of the torches. I could hear the others, the ones who I had spent years with inside this hell.

"Hello?" I called, hearing my voice echo down the dark, damp hall. I listened for a moment, waiting for a response, but nothing. So, carefully, I started walking forward, unsure what could be lurking in the shadows between the overly spaced out torches. I had passed two cells, and peering inside them, I saw no one. Had I imagined the others? Surely not, surely I was still sane... right? I started onward again, sections of the brick walls lay collapsed on the floor, only to reveal yet another solid wall. Then I heard something, something big. Taking a torch from the wall, I spotted a barred window, and looking out, I saw a shape. It was big, that was a fact. But, it seemed to be getting closer. And then, the torch light hit it, it looked like a demon from old tales. It was fat, much taller than any other natural animal. But, as it turned, I quickly slammed my back against the wall next to the window, fearing that if seen, it would have been my end. I could smell its breath, and fought to not let myself get sick. As the moments seemed to be drawn out longer and longer, it pasted, the sound of its clawed feet against brick becoming more and more distant.

I allowed myself a sigh of relief, leaning off the wall as I passed the window. But as soon as I hit the next patch of darkness, there was a figure, almost identical to the one who had fallen into my cell. I froze, expecting the creature to lunge at me. But then, it looked up at me. It's hollowed out eyes looked so sad, so longing, but not human. As it stared at me, it let out a long, dry groan, and it was followed by others, seeming to be closer then I knew. They were in the shadows, all of them. They were the ones I had spent my years with. Did I look like them? Were my eyes hollowed? I knew my skin hadn't turn to leather, the fur that covered my body used to by light brown, but it was now laced with silver. Then I noticed something odd. They were all in rags. I had died in combat, and I was still wearing my grey velvet hood that ended just barely past my knees, ending in shredded tatters. Under it I knew I still had on a long sleeved shirt, and black trousers with blacken steel boots that rose up to the base of my knees.

Feeling pity toward these people, I walked up to the first, wrapping my arms around him. I heard him sob as he did the same, wrapping his arms around my waist as he hugged as tightly as his boney limbs could manage.

"It's alright friend, you're free now." I whispered soothingly into his ear. Then he started crying. I brought my hands to either side of his cheek, and with a quick tug, I snapped his neck, letting his limp body slide to the floor. He was free now, he wasn't in this hell any longer. I started heading down the corridor again, doing the same with all the rest, telling them that they had been here long enough, and that they were off to a better place.

As I made my way out of the corridor, then past what I guessed to be just a flooded room, I came upon a ladder. It surprised me, it wasn't rusted. It had seemed ageless. Not wanting to take my time studying it, I quickly gripped the metal bars, climbing up until I was in yet another room, surrounded by the same brick walls. Heaving myself up, I took the closet door to me, and stepped outside. Before my hopes rose, I saw it was only a courtyard, surrounded by the endless walls of the Asylum. Stepping further toward the center of the courtyard, I noticed the ground covered in snow. Was it winter? Or in this land, did it always snow? If anything, I thought, that would explain the cold winds that had blown through the hole in the ceiling throughout the years. Then, my attention was drawn to a sword, stuck in the Earth in a pile of ashes and bones. I saw it as a weapon, anything would be better to fight with besides my bare hands, even if I did have claws. But as I gripped it, the ashes lit up, a small flame snaking its way up the swords spiral blade, and as the flame hit the hilt, the sword burst into flames. I yelped, instantly retracting my hand. Strangely, I wasn't burnt, and the warmth of the fire seemed to give me strength. I stood there, soaking up the warmth that I had long forgotten even existed. But all too quickly, it died out.

Sighing, I decided to leave the weapon where it was, and took my time looking about. I was in the center of the yard, to the left of me, nothing but solid wall. To my front, a large wood and iron door. It had been painted blue once, but as aged as it looked, it must have been lifetimes ago. Then, finally, to my right. There were brick columns, two out of the six lay in wrecks, bricks piled upon the ground where they once stood. And past them, a small red barred door. I decided to take my front option, padding over to it as I placed both my paws against it. I pushed, with everything I had. It took a few moments, and all the strength I could muster after doing nothing physical of years, but I finally opened it enough just to be able to squeeze in. Looking inside, it was another courtyard, bricks and debris lay scattered over the ground ahead of me, and to my left and my right, large clay pots had been set up. I thought it strange, wondering why they would have been placed out here in the first place. But, looking ahead, I saw yet another door. Sighing, I started forward. As I was half way through the second courtyard, I was nearly killed.

From what seemed out of nowhere, the large demon from earlier fell out of the sky, smashing everything it had landed on into dust, just five feet away from me. As it stood, I got a clear look at it. It's face looked like that of an over grown imp, it's belly and limbs fat and muscular, a long, thick tail covered in the green scales that covered the rest of its body. Its belly was olive, running from under its thighs to the tip of its tail. What looked like bones sprouted out from its legs and shoulders, as well as the back of its head.

But just as quickly as it stood, it heaved a massive club at me, catching my whole left side as it flung me against a brick wall. As I hit the ground, groaning in pain as I felt the cracking of ribs against stone, I struggled to get to my feet, pressing a paw against the stone wall and cursing the fact that this hell would pit me up against something like this, so ridiculously huge. It laughed, watching me as I struggled to stay on my feet. Wiping the blood from my muzzle, tasting iron, I looked for something, anything that would help me either fight this beast or escape. Then I saw it, a single little red barred door lay on the other side of the courtyard, it looked the same as the one I had saw only minutes ago, but it was an escape. The demon would have to tear down the Asylum if it was to catch me. If I could make it.

Taking my paw off the wall, I bolted, ignoring the pain and the crunching of broken bone against bone. The demon hefted his club, quickly swinging it downward. And there it was, a mistake I was more than thankful for. I quickly dove forward, hitting the ground in a roll as I kept going. The demon had also saw it's mistake, scraping it's club against the stone floor as it caught me in the back, flinging me past the iron door and tumbling down the stone steps. As I hit the bottom, I knew I had broken my left leg, one of the already broken ribs had punchered my lungs as I felt my blood seeping into them. As I lay there, slowly dying and hearing the angered screams of the demon I had just cheated, a faint musk of soaked ashes hit my nose, and struggling to shift my body, my rib scraping against the inside of my lung, I saw the same sword from before.

My mind must be playing tricks on me. I thought, straining my body as I crawled toward it. As soon as I was within reach, I let myself go limp. I knew I was near death, or at least, hoped. I wasn't certain what would happen, if I would just end up lying hear, bleeding out for ages to come. But one thing was certain, I wasn't going to be cold anymore. Reaching out my paw, using the last of my strength, I tapped the blade, seeing the flame snake its way up the sword as it had before. As the sword was set aflame, it shot at me, and before I knew what was going on, I was engulfed in its flames. It burned into my flesh, peeling away my clothing. I saw my skin, being burned and turned to leather, like the others near the cells. The flame shot into my eyes, burning them out till they melted away. I was now blind, burning, cursing out to what cruel gods would want this. The fur on my body was burnt away, followed by the snapping of bones in my rib cage. Whatever it was, something didn't want me dead, it wanted me to suffer. My legs straighten, the bones mending back into place with sickening crunches and snaps. By the time it was over, I lay on the floor weeping, the flames had retracted and my cloths had been replaced with the same rags as the others. I lay, crying, cursing everything I knew, every name I could think of.

It must have been hours before I calmed down. So, this is what the others had gone through, what had broken their will? Well I'll be damned if that happens to me.

"You can't get to me! You hear that? You'll never get to me!" I shouted out into the darkness in rage, getting back on my feet. I had found my hope. Through the pain and suffering, through this unfair land, I was going to break it, before it broke me.