Undying Light (MHA x Dark Souls)

Chapter 14 - Firelight

The ruins are growing in number, and seem less corrupted as I go on. At first they were hard to see with how much darkness had spread across them, but now they stand out against the black like a sore thumb, with only a few veins of darkness covering them. They're also more complete, and are more buildings than ruins. The stone walkways are almost untouched, and they're leading somewhere. To a big stairway, leading up to some sort of temple, or something.

I walked up the steps, and the temple was empty. Or at least, I thought it was, until a massive wooden spike covered in chains came barreling at me. I barely managed to dodge to the side before it slammed into the wall, leaving a crater that a wooden spike had no right to be able to make without breaking. It swung wildly, flinging around a ball-and-chain, blindly hoping to hit something. I ducked under a side swing and sliced through one of its legs, and as it stumbled, I stabbed into the mass of chains. I tried to pull my sword out, but the flailing of the spike-thing shook me off of it, and as I stood back up, it hit me in the side with the spike.

It sent me flying into the wall, and I crashed straight through it, which hurt, but the watcher hurt worse. I pulled myself out of the wall, and when I landed on the ground, the chain-thing charged again. I couldn't dodge this one, but luckily, the thing has terrible aim, so it only skimmed me before slamming into the wall. While it was stuck, I grabbed the handle of the watcher's greatsword, and slammed it down onto the mass of chains, cutting it in half.

I put the greatsword on my back and pulled my sword out of the chained corpse, before heading to the back of the temple. When I reached it, I was greeted by a staircase that led down to a pit of... nothing. Nothing at all. An empty pit. I took a step forward to peek over the edge, and something moved down below me. A stone plate, the edges now glowing blue, humming a sound kinda similar to Ochako's magic. A platform floated out of the darkness, and stopped right in front of me.

I stood there for a moment. Well, a stone slab just floated out of a hole, in a temple at the bottom of a cave. It leads deeper, so maybe this is where the heart of the abyss lies. Yeah, that makes sense. I stepped into the platform, and it floated back down into the pit.

I reached the bottom, and stepped off. There were cells with iron bars lining the sides of the room, and at the end, a busted wall. I walked through the busted wall, and beyond it was more cave. The corruption on the walls was completely gone though, with no traces left. The darkness was still there though, still making it impossible to see more than 10 feet in front of me, which is always fun. I took a step forward, and the same voice I heard before rang out from inside the cavern.

"Do you know what the flame really is, human?

I stayed silent.

"No, of course not... You wouldn't have so much blind trust in it if you did."

"What do you mean?"

No response.

I guess I'll just keep going then.

There's a path leading down the sides of the cave. I wandered through the empty chasm, spotting a few humanity sprites floating around. Unlike the others, these ones didn't seem to be afraid of the fire. They just kept floating, without a care in the world. They didn't even seem to care that I was here, as they weren't moving towards me. I even walked right up to them, and still they didn't respond. I continued on, and spotted a huge broken pillar leaning on the side of a cliff.

There was nothing below the pillar, just a pit of darkness. I climbed onto the pillar and slowly climbed down, it was broken in several places and I didn't want to risk it becoming unstable. The bottom of the pillar was resting on a ledge, and in the wall there was a tunnel. I jumped off of the pillar and walked into the tunnel, and after following the path a little while longer, I came to an opening. A drop into nothingness. I held my sword out, and could just barely see a bottom, probably 30 feet below me. I can survive that fall. I jumped, and descended into the darkness.