The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 110

"Nothing's going on here. Who are you anyway?"

"Thou may address me as Firekeeper but thy answers did not sate mine curiosity."

It was she was still talking that the guards moved towards her. She dodged the yellow parts and flipped them over. She took a look at one of the sticks and sensed the power of time in it.

What a powerful organization to equip all their guards with the power of time.But they had one defect. They were weak. They were merely ordinary people.

According what she sensed, the glowing part of the stick would send people to somewhere in time. The end of time to be precise.

And in there, she sensed a familiar aura. A very familiar aura. It reminded her of Gael, the Slave Knight but she could also sense beings she knew there. And what else would exist in the end of time other than the last city standing?

She would be teleported to the ringed city when she touched it. And so, she did the only logical thing. She touched it. The rest of the people looked on in shock as she willingly touched it.

Of course, she was not that reckless. She left a mark here to teleport back here at any moment. Although it was not very reassurance by the way how teleportation seems easy to block, it might not be a guarantee but it was reassuring nonetheless.

She also brought along Morris in case she got 'lost' and needed to find a way back so it was all good. She would have been sitting alone fuming had it been the Ashen One travelling so recklessly but she herself was so reckless.

Oh my, how reckless she has become. She had to thank the people of this world for bringing out her childish self. But, enough thoughts for now. She laid her eyes upon the last city of Lordran for the first time in person.

She sensed her companions once more. But all she could sense were the everlasting dragons and something else. She realized this was the end of 'her world'. Her disciples were in the end of 'their world'. Two different endings.

It was the end of the world and only in the end of the world would she truly understand how it all begun. In the age of the ancients, four Lords would crawl out from the darkness and claim their soul to shape the world.

Of course, a lord requires subjects. Gwyn had his royalty, the Witch had her daughters, Nito had his death and the Pygmy who found the dark soul give rise to humanity. But what exactly was the Pygmy?

Most believed it to be Manus who went insane in Oolacile. But the identity of the Furtive Pygmy was never important. He was the Pygmy and that was it. Whoever it was, it did not seek an identity. But he too had his Pygmy royalty in the Ringed City.

She walked upon this ruined city as she looked at the fallen guards that were no longer alive. It was here that she found the evidence of early man, descendants of Pygmies with armour forged in the fires of the Abyss.

And their shields, they were something else. They were not shields. They were heads. Heads of the arch dragons that each Ringed Knight hunted down. Such was the might of humanity. They were strong enough hunt down the descendants of the everlasting dragons.

Despite standing amongst the gods in ranks they were never lauded for their contributions in war. Another thing she noticed amongst the fallen guards were the ring of fire place upon their armour and weaponry of early men with their true darkness being sealed by that very ring of fire.

The true dark of men was lost forever. She knew it very well that the ring of fire would appear in the very flesh of men in the future. A seal of fire surrounding the darkness of humanity. A brand that would burn away the very soul of a human until only a hollow is left.

Eons later in her era, her very world would bear this brand. It would be visible in the sky itself. With darkness itself sealed to prevent the coming Age of dark, the world would be unable to move on from that endless age of fire.

It was the event that tied humanity to the age of fire. An event that changed the very nature of men sealing its darkness. This was the first sin.

She continued walking along the path and started seeing more of the history of men. The very history of mankind was 'visible' before her eyes. The ruins of the Ringed City was telling her a story. A story that explored the roots of the world itself.

Despite all that, some humans remained faithful to the gods and rejected the darkness deep within them. Some took pride in the brand revealing in the fact that they will no longer die and become undead. Eventually a new being would be born.

The Unkindled. The Ashen One was an unkindled. Beings born from the ashes of the undead who sacrificed themselves to the Flame long ago.

Some pygmies realized the lies and cursed the very gods themselves.

'May the Abyss's curse take the gods.' Those words were etched into the ruins she saw.

Gwyn awarded all his followers and to the Pygmies, he gave them the Ringed City at world's end. The forbidden city was walled off by the gods to contain the Pygmies. To them, the dark soul was better left well alone.

And so, she slowly head into the middle of the city where Gwyn's daughter, princess Filianore lies in her endless slumber. The princess Filianore was sent there by Gwyn to contain the darkness and protect the Pygmy Royalty.

And as she expected, the entire city revolves around the defence of this princess. And she walked she spotted her first foes in this end of time. The Judicator giants.

The towering overseers of the Ringed City, Judicator Giants were tasked by the gods to protect the city and its secrets from intruders. Those foolish enough to attack the city were struck down and their wills enslaved by the giants, who used them as defenses against further intruders.

It raised his hands and she expected multiple ruined knights to come out but she was wrong. What came out was not the spirits of the knights of the Ringed City but the spirits of the Abyss Walkers.

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The mass upload ends here. 

From here, I will update one chapter every 2 days.

I still have university so, bear with it.