The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 113

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Time itself seems to slow down as she shifted near to death. Everything went numb and she could no longer feel pain. Her nerves were being overwhelmed from the sheer pain produced but the lightning bolt of Ornstein. It left her paralyzed.

She could feel slow streams of blood flowing out from her mouth. Even if as he could not feel anything, it seems that blood was an exception. Will she finally be embraced by the soft hands of death in this place? A question in which the answer was becoming increasingly clear.

But the two would not simply wait for her to finish pondering. Smough lifted his hammer as he ran straight to her. Should she die here? The answer was simply, no. She would not mind if it were after she has accomplished everything she has to but there were still many things left to do.

She started burning souls inside her rapidly to recover. The most recent one was the soul of Artorias. She quickly burned it away but there was one stubborn part that would take a long time to burn but that is a matter of later.

People has sacrificed their souls to keep the flame burning and that was what she was doing right now. She was burning the souls inside her to keep herself alive. Death shall claim her another day and she shall remain in the waking world for now.

Of course merely burning souls would not get her out of this predicament. The hammer of Smough still came down. But she survived. That was all that matter. She survived but now that she was awake once more, pain was searing all throughout her.

She could barely stand up and gaping hole in her torso did not help. She out her hands over and heal it by burning it. But Ornstein was already coming through while Smough was ready to charge once more.

The Ornstein here was no illusion. It was the real deal or else it would have never pushed her this far with even Smough add into the mist. She jumped and generated a chain of fire in her hands. She threw it over to the foot of Ornstein like a slingshot.

It worked. They were monsters at attacking but were not very good defenders. Comically, to her surprise, he tripped over the chain. Guess that was expected since people in Lordran rarely attacked like this.

But he struck his spear to the ground before his face hit the floor and got back up. He raised his spear as lightning rained down once more. Smough was now in front of her with his hammer swinging right at her face.

She did not do anything but generated a giant snake of fire. Forbidden sorceries of the Abyss. Giving life to something non-living has always been a taboo but she could care about it less now. Snakes were the best opponent for someone who relied on brute strength like Smough.

The snake climbed up on top of Smough and starting wrapping its body around him. The executioner used his giant hammer to stop the snake but was too slow to even hit it. The snake slowly started trapping Smough by slowly strangling it and all he could do was watch helplessly.

Ornstein did nothing to attempt to help his partner and that was good for her. They were not lifelong companions and would finish each other off with glee. They were not perfect teammates and that shall be their downfall.

And as before, Ornstein started stabbing her rapidly with his spear. It was so fast, it left illusions of the spear even after he retracted. She did not even attempt to deflect them.

She knew she would lose. So, she teleported right on top of him as she formed a giant fireball. She slammed it down. She felt very disoriented after that. There was a reason she rarely used teleportation in such a fast-paced fight.

But, so was Ornstein. Having a giant fireball slammed down on top of your head tends to leave people with concussions. But he attempt to stand up anyway. He stomped at the ground causing lighting to erupt in fury under his metal heels.

She jumped away immediately. She did not wish to stand it its range and get paralyzed. Instead, she stood from a distance and kept bombarding with multiple smaller and faster balls of fire. Was it honourable? No it, wasn't.

But there were no honour in scoured bones and melted flesh either. She was sure some knights would remark her as a cowardly sorcerer but let her be a coward if it meant winning. She threw her stick right onto top of his head which disorient him further.

Using her remaining blade, she rushed in as she stabbed him in the chest. It was a classic and boring technique but it worked. But that was not enough finish off the first knight of Gwyn. She stretched out her hands as the snake strangling Smough turned into a giant hand.

She lifted him up into the sky. It was pure manual labour to lift someone of Smough's caliber to the sky but all she had to do was lift him high. Her hands slowly went up as she let it down. Smough fell from the sky in a giant ball of fire on top of Ornstein.

It was a pretty disgraceful death in total but just to be sure, she bombarded the place with multiple fireballs once more. And it was no more.

All that was left was the corpses of the knight and the executioner. She stretched out hand once more as Ornstein's spear arrived into her hands.

'The Dragonslayer Spear', a weapon far too magnificent to leave it rotting in this city of despair. She would enjoy wielding this spear. The Dragons might not like it but it was put aside for special occasions.

She opened the giant door that was the final barrier between her and all of history. She expected to see Filianore or maybe any other princess. She was not sure since a lot of things were different from what she remembered. But sleeping inside holding a dragon egg was not a princess.

It was her.

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This is Chapter 113.

I will update another chapter tomorrow so stick around to find out more.