The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 105

She clearly heard the sorrows of the great dragons. Once rulers of the world, they roam around unchallenged. Once great mighty beings reduced to background roles for the new gods. New gods who were destroying the world they once ruled.

And it seems Kalameet was still hung up on his defeat by the Chosen Undead and Hawkeye Gough. His rage was clearly expressed in his words. He declared anything to be beneath himself other than the Chosen Undead. He clearly did not put the knights of Gwyn in his eyes.

'A mere knight?', she thought to herself. Indeed, Artorias was a mere knight and no lord. He may be one of the greatest knights to ever live but he was still a knight. A knight fights and kill but a knight did not decide things.

Kalameet was also demanding her to resurrect the chosen undead. She did not want to. The fact that she did not want to disrupt the peace of the death was one reason. Another reason was that she was unable to do it.

She could call back Siegward from the death when battling against Yhorm due to his obsession over his friend. Siegward longed for resurrection, and she channeled that wish into reality. The Chosen Undead has no reason to be resurrected.

And so, she came to a decision. She would make Artorias the lord of the Abyss with the Abyss Walkers as his subject. There were many reasons for this. One was due to his status to be equal to that of the everlasting dragons.

Another one was because he was probably the only being to understand the very nature of the Abyss. There is a reason he was called the Abyss Walker. He also had a will strong enough to withstand the corruption of the Abyss.

And last of all, it will break his connection with Gwyn. She did not think he would betray Gwyn but if he were to become a Lord, that would be another matter.

He was a good man that the Lord of Light did not deserve. In fact, Gwyn did not deserve any of his followers. Just thinking about him is about burst her nerves. People who followed him might not be classify as 'good', but they were always willing to sacrifice themselves for the world.

"Indeed, my dear Kalameet, an everlasting dragon would not speak with a mere knight. Artorias is but a mere knight at this moment but he shall be knight no more.", she started the conversation.

"Then what shall he be?", Kalameet asked clearly intrigued by her answer. Artorias looked equally as curious on what he shall be. She dropped a bombshell on them.

"From now on, let Artorias be known as the father of the Abyss."

"Father of the Abyss? Me?", Artorias spoke first clearly in shock as he pointed a finger at himself.

"Did you seek help from us just to replace one lord with another?", the dragon asked once again but this time with a more threatening tone.

"That way, both of thee shall speak on equal terms. I can understand that either of thee loathes the Abyss and its inhabitants, but it must have a ruler. A lord to control it from corrupting every single being it comes across.

Manus has run away like the coward he is. Someone must take his place and it shall not be me. And it shall not be the dragons either. There exist no beings who walks upon the realm of Lordran more familiar with the Abyss than Artorias. Not even Gwyn himself.

I can understand thy anger over this, but I hope for thee to leave the past behind and look forward to a better future. May the dragons unite with the Abyss."

"You wish for us to overlook the fact that they drove us out of our homes?"

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[General POV]

Artorias merely hung is head low in shame. Clearly, he knows what he has done and recognize it to be a necessary evil. For men to prosper, the dragons must perish, and the dark of men will corrupt anything it touches. Even Kalameet himself was no exception to this rule.

In the understanding of Artorias, they cannot withstand the rampage of one dragon much less the rampage of an entire race. That was the conviction of Artorias for fighting against the dragons. Many people misunderstood the dragons.

One thing to note is that they are not drakes. They are not lizards with wings that breath fire. They are beings beyond human comprehension. Eternal beings. They are not made of flesh and blood but of unknown substances, minerals.

They did not breath fire. There were only some exceptions to that. They breathe crystals and curses. Many often mistook it for fire. Curses also meant different things on Lordran. Curses in Lordran usually meant stone. Even Seath breaths crystals that curse anyone who touches it.

The stone was a symbol of longevity and eternity. Was it a good thing? It was, but there are more to it. It also represents statis. Before time, when the dragons ruled, nothing changed. But then came the first flame which gave birth to disparity.

And with fire, came Disparity.

Heat and Cold.

Life and Death.

and of course... light and dark.

Kalameet was part of an ancient race of mineral based life forms, existing since long before the emergence of mankind, yet, despite his superiority over men, the time of the dragons' time has passed, and he finds itself alone in the world, the last of its race forced to survive in any way it can.

As to what triggered this change... well, the emergence of life corrupted it, it was warped by emotion and desire. It was corrupted by the dark of men. The Abyss was merely a physical form, and the dark was what truly corrupted it.

That was also the reason why the Lord of Light feared the humans. It feared the dark that men would produce. The Age of Dark that will come after the Age of Fire.

The stone scales of the dragons were their source of immortality. Their source that allowed them to return to the world. Without their stone scales, they could only linger between life and death, never truly reaching any side.

Artorias believed that Gwyn killed the Dragons because they produced curses, and that the Age of Ancients itself functions as a stagnant curse of stone, perpetuated by them.

The world cannot progress to be a land of life, death, light, and dark without the source of the curse being snuffed out.

Society cannot exist so long as this curse persists, and so Gwyn struck down the dragons. This is also supported by the fact that the Age of Fire begun when the last dragons fell.

Not during the war of the ancients. Not when the fire was first born but after the dragons were no longer here. With Gwyn's lightning bolts and spears of sunlight, they don't feel pain. They feel something else. Something beyond human understanding.