The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 49

"The red hood has come to eat us ... To eat our dark soul" - The Pygmy Lord
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Every single of her senses was screaming to put the red hood on. She could not resist its power.

Every single drop of blood and her soul was screaming to put that head on. Slowly but surely, she eventually reached for the head.

Moreover, she could recognize the red hood. It was the one worn by the Slave knight Gael. Gael used to out a slave knight during the era of Gwyn himself. It is said that between the ancient war between the dragons and the Gods, Gael was a slave knight.

A slave knight was someone who served the Lords as a slave in exchange for being unburdened by the Dark Sign, a cursed sigil that appear only on the human undead.

They serve as cannon fodder against the rank-and-file monsters deployed by the dragons and who could get back up immediately after dying to do it all over again.

Gael was enslaved this way for countless thousands of years, then somehow left or broke his servitude to the gods and met the painter, whose goal was to get the Blood of the Dark Soul.

The painter wanted to use the Blood as pigment to create a painted world for humanity that could replace the rotted painted world of Ariandel, a painted world that, thanks to the power of the Dark Soul, would never rot or decay.

Essentially, she wanted to replace the new world with a painted world.

Thinking he could use the new painted world to make a home for himself and the painter girl, Gael agreed to help her, journeying to the end of time, slaughtering the pygmy lords and taking their blood to steal the Dark Soul, then going mad as the Soul's power was far beyond what he could carry and control since he wasn't a champion like the Ashen One.

Unlike the others, he wasn't a god, or a demon.

He was just a human.

A lowly human at that.

The undead curse slowly corrupt greater and mightier beings either by twisting their mind, or by slowly driving them to more and more desperate means until they resemble nothing of their former goodness.

Gael is something of an exception to the Rule. The one who managed to stave off losing sight of his original purpose by somehow incorporating it into his madness. It says something, about his state of mind in contrast to the others.

Gael knew he'd go mad; knew he'd be unable to complete his mission without sacrifices. Especially in regard to himself. But he accepted this, rather than letting the fear of it rule him - as is often the case for others.

He resigned himself to it and gave over to doing the one thing he thought would save others. He couldn't just take the Dark Soul, a powerful, corrupting force that is probably the source of the abyss itself. It had to be tamed somehow, and Gael's plan is to literally drink it into himself.

He chose to become consumed by it and let the Ashen One come and harvest his blood fused with the Dark Soul. In effect, ever the slave knight, his plan is to sacrifice both his life and his sanity to this, his life's goal.

At the end of the world, one can wonder if there really is any vigor, any value, left in the world, and why not let it all end. Gael and his lady showed that, somewhere, kindness and hope for a gentler future still thrived. Gael gave all of his very long life for a future he believed in.

And here in front of her was his hood and she was putting it on for some reason. It was a long thought process but before she knew it, time itself was frozen. The two everlasting who could resist the flow of time was nowhere to be found.

Both Selph and Falkor has disappeared for some reason she did not knew. Fog was slowly settling within all confines of her current vision. The red head on the top of her head was also gone. Slowly form the edge of her vision, ruins were revealed with wind howling.

There was not a single sign of life in here with how horrid the environment was. Somehow, it was nostalgic. It was home. In she can see a man wearing a red hood. He was kneeling perhaps in pain or in madness. She knew him. He was the Slave knight Gael, previous owner of the red hood.

"What, still here?", he looked at her as he asked. He received no reply.

"Hand it over ... your dark soul. For my lady's painting."

By no means was he friendly by the fact that his monstrous sword was drawn out. He had armor covering his body, but it resembled leather by how worn out it was. The sword was also dull paying more attention to weight rather than its sharpness.

Suddenly out of nowhere, he stabbed a nearby corpse and threw it at her. She tried to teleport but found out that her powers were merely limited to strengthen herself. Somehow though, she still had the burial blade. So, she retreated to a safe distance.

Then he came howling and charging towards her like a feral animal. No trace of being a knight could be seen from him for he was no longer a man but a beast. He tried to grab her with his metal gauntlets but that she managed to dodge the blow by rolling away.

Despite rolling being a simple move, most mighty beings have trouble trying to attack a rolling person simply due to how small normal people are compared to them. His hands turned the ground to rubble.

But he wasn't just done yet, he still had his sword. He made a savage vertical slash downwards with his giant sword. She didn't need to be a prophet to know that a single blow from him would surely kill her. She managed to roll away from that too.

Using the short time that he stalled from lifting his giant blade, she struck several blows against him using only the scythe. It merely enraged him further causing him to roar from anger. He picked up his sword once again to struck her.

She dodged that but he wasn't just done yet. Instead of going inside the ground, it bounced off the ground and flew into the sky. She has no idea how much strength it would take to make sword bounce.

While it was in the sky, he threw a punch at her that she managed to deflect. The fist struck the ground. He used that fist as a fulcrum and punch the ground so that he would fly off the ground. It must have taken tremendous strength.

While in the sky, he grabbed his blade that was now falling, used its momentum and started to spin in her direction. It was much too fast for her to dodge or row so, she did the only logical choice. She deflected it but it was not completely successful simply due to the sheer power of the blade.

She could barely feel her legs due to the act of deflecting the mighty sword. She tried to retreat again and was still in the process of moving backwards when Gael the slave knight thrusted his sword straight to her.

He hasn't just used two legs. He used all his limbs excluding the arm holding the sword and rushed straight towards her. The keeper was caught off guard by the amount of speed the mighty one had. It was a blow she could neither deflect nor dodge.
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It is Chapter 49 and here comes a random boss fight.

Just kidding, I know what I am doing, and it will clear up in future chapters.