My Hollowing Tomb (A Dark Souls Fanfiction)

Chapter 1: Introduction

The air was damp, a constant rumbling could be heard from all sides inside this murky coastal cavern, blades had been dragged all across the floor and walls of the cave, as if a hundred soldiers were all fighting each other, shoulder to shoulder.

Amidst the rubble of broken stalagmites and rotting sword handles, laid a worn leather satchel, slowly being sunken from the rising tide. Atop the satchel was a journal, untouched by almost everything around it, the damp air, the rising water, even the patches of dried blood staining the stone and leather about it.

Your hand reaches for it, drawn to it instantly, like as if the journal had its own little light to signify it's importance to be picked up. Upon touching the journal, you find no title, or memorable characteristics about it, just a plain leathery bound journal.

Flipping it open randomly, you find the book has been filled from the front to the near end of stories, people and places that almost seem unworldly, but every so often a word you know all too well reveals itself from the pages; HOLLOWING...

Though the book has grabbed your interest and feels like it's molding to your hand, resting against its spine, you just don't know where to start. And so you look at the last page used, though the text starts off familiar, it begins to distort and change crimson red with the authors own blood.

"I am.. Was. Sir Alexander VII of the house Evergreen. I was on a quest given to me by my dying father.. The quest to find the origin and truth behind this accursed ailment known as many titles; The Darksign, Undead, Hollowing..." You take a breath, the book has called to you somehow as the information seems clear as day, a curse you know too well.

"As my father passed from this illness.. I felt it was my duty as a son, and a knight to protect the weak from such a horrific fate. I slayed my father after he became crazed and rotting. It was apparently.. the only way to kill an accursed when they lose all sanity..."
"I have been across all the rumors in search of a cure, but it was this very quest that became my undoing. I have became infected with this.. horror, for a full week on the third-quarter moon. I have begun to feel the drain of energy and vigour, soon I bet my sanity will drain too.. much like my father's, I fear that there won't even be anything able to kill me when I do, thus please be careful for a Hollowed veteran is truly, too deadly with a sword.." Your eyes can't stop scanning the page, paragraph after paragraph as you wish to uncover this man's fate, then the light of your torch flickering across the pages brings you back to life, as you scan the cave entrance, now swallowed by the sea.

Taking precautions, you journey further into the cave before finding it an dead end, raised by much stalagmites and stalactites, intertwining into an almost forced wall, the ground feels much higher to the tide, though it's eating through your shoes heavily as you feel every dent and pebble through your soles.

Around you, a broken boat has been thrown into the wall, making a makeshift seat, resting down on it, you find a crack to sheath your torch and use the light to read. The text locks back into place as you feel almost drawn into Alexanders very mind.

"Time... I don't know how much I have left, but I will keep searching, I want to know why even the just and righteous are forced with this curse." with a pause you then glance at the next paragraph as it begins to transcend into madness, the text transforming and bleeding off the pages, "My journey... hAs bRouGht mE HErE buT my TimE HAs come.. MYyyY memORIES FaDde and I can onlLlLllLyyy HOold on to my sanity one last time.. I will leEaVE My answer withIN BOOoK T-to be inherited by YyOuR SOUL..." As you decipher the text of the mad knight you find the blood streams off to the corner, the text running empty like his sanity.

Confused about 'the answer' you frantically flip through the pages, trying to unravel any clues intertwining in this man's life and journeys.

Nothing.

Pointless.

"Another dead end." You huff as you toss the book to the side before looking to the ceiling and collecting your thoughts, you take a step forward before gazing at the cave entrance, the tide sinking back in after trapping you with such a lie. As you try to take a step to leave a voice appears in the quiet corners of your head, whispering horrors as it crawls closer, "TaAkE YoUu BaAcK... BacKk tOoo DOMAIN!! BaACK TooOo KinGDoM!.." As the voice booms and overpowers your own thoughts, you feel two bone-like claws tangle themselves around your boot, somehow escaping the very pages of the book they begin to reel you in, a pool of blood emerging from it, dark energy dancing out off the pool of crimson. As you scratch and claw for safety you glance down at your boot, only to see it disappear within the blood, "How can this be?! There should be rock under that journal!" You scream in anger before drawing your sword at the awkward angle given.

Desperate for escape you, thrust your straight sword at the pool, hoping to sever the bones that bind themselves to you, but nothing hits and you feel the sword sink before pulling your arm under as well, wriggling with all your might, many more claws of ossein slither around your torso and neck before giving one last tug under the surface, filling your lungs with its metallic taste as you fade from consciousness.

As you come to, you feel the warmth of a fire, the warmth feels familiar but can't place it. As you squeeze your eyes open you find yourself a few feet away from a sword driven into the ground, fire spouting out around the rusted blade but the flames merely circle around the blade as if they were non-existent. As you angle yourself you catch a woman cross-legged on a stump near the fire, humming a tune as she examines the horizon filled with many silhouettes of mountains and ruins.

She turns to you, her face hidden under a tattered hood but her smirk breaks free of the shadows, "Why hello there.. awake are we? I hope your feeling well considering you threw up alot of blood when we pulled you out of the river." You shook your head before gazing upon the woman and then peeking down at your clothes which had been dyed from the blood pool.

You clear your throat, spitting out the dry fluid that settled in your throat, "I have no idea how I got here... I was at the coast not too long ago." You said with much confusion hanging on your voice. The woman giggles at you before looking away and resting her arms behind her head rather childishly, "I don't think anyone does. But here we are! In the middle of all this with many hollows here and there."

Suddenly a twig snaps behind you and the bushes rustle with danger, as you twist to face them you find a tall aged man tower over you with a sack slung to his back, the woman erupts towards him, "Bern! You're back! And just in time, Blood Borne here just woke up. Care to fill him in?" with a chuckle Bern looks down at you before aiming his voice towards the hooded girl, "Well I guess I'll have to since your as busy as ever Sennetta!" in an instant, Bern sat down with a big thud and still seemed so big sitting next to you, he extended his hand to Sennetta and opened his grey bearded mouth and said cheerily, "I am the great defender Bern and this here is Sennetta, or as I call her Sen the Firekeeper."