The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 96

It is a strange towering creature with six skeletal arms with blades and two black tattered wings. It has bizarre features, with its long, black, hooded dress and various jewels. But that wasn't the most bizarre thing. There was still more to come.

It is not there. She did not know how to explain it in words. A simple way to put it would be that it has no body and is made up of practically nothing. The only reason she even knows it exists is because of the various cloaks and sickles surrounding it.

But that wasn't just it. She could not sense it in any way or any form. Usually people would know it if someone is standing right behind them but even if something as large as this stood behind a person, they would not know it.

It's like watching a movie on television. You can see it but you also know it is not there. It is not real. It resembled a projection rather than actual entity. But that blade that was cutting into the ground told her otherwise.

Strangely the sickles resembled the burial blade that she wields. The resemblance was rather 'uncanny' if she would say. With the baby crying even louder, and music coming out of nowhere, her guard went up just in case.

Another factor was that it did not make any form of noise. The only noise there was the sounds of blades, the baby and the lullaby.

It started to raise all of its arms. She moved back once again. it was a wise decision since it slammed down all arms at once. She might be able to defend against two but six? That was pushing it. She has practically determined that it was hostile.

He first instinct was not to engage but call for Sif and the thousands of Abyss Watchers that were still gathering. She would like to hear the baby cry when there were thousands of knights watching it. But how could she call them? It's not like she can just summon them.

She generated a small flame and scattered it. The heat that spreads from it would tell her what she needed about the surroundings. The result was nothing. It just spread out further and then it simply did not sense anything.

She knows this phenomenon well. She has discussed it with the Ancient One. She was currently trapped in another reality or dimension. The possibility of it being a pocket dimension was more likely since heat did not spread further.

Somehow while listening to the sound of the baby and following it, she has strayed from her reality. Teleporting outside was something she could certainly do at this moment, and she would have just dodged the fight if she were in the same dimension.

But the problem was, they are now in a separate dimension altogether. One with an owner. She has to slay the owner of this dimension. It may be the entity she was currently engaged in, it could be the crying baby, or it might just be another thing altogether.

She would not get out of this 'nightmare' with its owner still alive or allowing her to go. She did not like this place in any manner at all. The good news however was that this dimension was rather small and would not take long to explore.

The thing raised all its blades once again and made a circular motion to which she simply responded by rolling away. According to the various champions of Lordran, one is invincible while rolling. It served her well even here.

What she was trying to do now was calling for the Abyss Watchers through the piece of soul she got from Artorias. They should be able to sense it. Getting here though was another factor she did not know how they will be able to achieve.

Of course, the thing might turn out to be weak, but it is better to be safe than sorry. This was the only 'unknown' enemy she has faced so far. No matter what opponent she has faced before, she had some sort of information about them. But she could not even sense the being in front of her.

She rushed at it from behind. The thing had blades in all angles with no dead ends but according to what the Ashen One told her, she should always go for the rear end. Every single blade started swinging in all directions.

She was hit by multiple slashes at once. They weren't very deep, but they bleed and hurt a lot compared to normal wounds. She ignored her body screaming in pain and went ahead into the storm of blades. She tried slashing her blade at the body but only black mist came out.

She rolled back outside once again as her wounds started healing. It is said that anything that bleed can be killed but this thing doesn't bleed. It was here again that she realized her idiocy. Her mind had not come out of the fight against the Abyss Watchers.

This creature was neither a trained knight nor a warrior specifically prepared to deal with sorcerers. It resembled a beast more than anything else.

It was fast at swinging its blade but slow when closing the distance. She could just use her flames and so, that was exactly what she did. Small balls of fire lit up around her as they rushed straight at the creature. It did not scream but the baby's screams got louder.

It also moved its body in a manner of shrieking away as it swung its blades anxiously. Good, it worked. She would just keep her distance and bombard it with fire. She pressed her palm to the ground. Tiny snakes made out of fire crawled out from her hand and went straight at the creature.

There lies the possibility that the creature has never dealt with such things like sorcery for it did not knew how to react. The correct move would be to get away, but it walked straight into the fire in her direction. She simply jumped away to another location and continued hurling balls of fire at it.

After all, why bore through all the blades and endure all the unnecessary pain when she could just easily hurl fireballs at it.

Fireball was the most basic type of flame magic but there was a reason it is also the most common. It worked very well. The creature basically had no concepts of dodging and kept trying to charge straight at her.

The wings were also there for decoration, it seems for she has yet to see a single attempt at flying. The creature resembled a chimera she heard from stories on Earth. It was like they combined all creatures only to get a mutated horrible thing with no use for its physical features.

But as it slowly realized that charging at her was no longer going to work, it started to raise all its arms. She tried to intercept it, but it simply bore through all her attacks taking all the damage. Then, the world went dark.

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This is chapter 96.

It you still haven't realized it or have not played bloodborne, this is 'Mergo's Wet Nurse' from the game. Not exactly the hardest boss but I loved the vibe it gave off.

Changed a few things here and there but tell me what you think.