The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 8

After some time, she was in the room alongside the others. Fury was talking with Dr. Banner, but she could barely understand due to the number of technicalities involved.

She lost it at the word algorithm. Barton seemed to have disappeared. As for where he went, it was not her problem. Infact, her mind was now mainly on Dr. Banner.

There appears to be a hint of the Blood of the Dark Soul mixed in him. This gave the answer she to the question she has had since she arrived here.

Even if this world wasn't created by the painter, she was sure to have some influence within it. As for how and where, she would have to search further.

This might also explain why the good doctor would destroy everything once he gets angry. Luckily for the doctor, there was only a very small hint of it.

His strong mind would be able to control it later on. The fact that the doctor is one of the most educated individuals speaks a lot about how strong his mind is.

Whereas a normal individual would have gone mad instantly and seek to destroy everything they see once in contact with the blood, the doctor had some control over despite the control being very sloppy.

'It seems that coming here was not a simple accident.' she thought to herself feeling a little bit excited as there was still some connection with her old world.

Just then, Fury came in and told her that Loki had been found in a city in Germany and that she was required to go. She went to another quinjet.

Once she arrived, the captain jumped out immediately and confronted the 'god'? 'This is a god?', she thought to herself. She could not see an ounce of divinity anywhere. If anything, it resembles a giant rather than a god.

Just then, a man wrapped in iron flew in with music blasting from somewhere. He fired a shot from his palms. They appeared to be talking about something.

She simply teleported using flames and went over to check the wounded. There was a man missing an eye. A tendril made of flames spread out from her hands and went into all his wounded areas. They all healed immediately.

A new eye had been regrown from where there had been nothing. The man stood up unsteadily while touching his eyes. "Thank you.... thank you", he muttered.

"Worry not for I have tended to all of thy injuries. Allow me to continue tending other injuries.", she then left him as he had been completely healed.

There was a disease within this man which he probably got it even before being attacked by the 'god'. She healed that too.

She could sense many wounded souls. Hence, she made a replica of the bonfire within her palms. Many tendrils constructed of flames seeped out from the small bonfire within her palms.

They made contact with every single injured being. Most people were afraid at first but accepted it after being healed when touched. It was the first time she had created such construct, yet it felt second nature to her. It was as if she was born to do this.

Not to burn down civilizations but to heal the common people. Of course, it could still be used to burn but that was no longer its sole purpose.

Using the fire to continue the existence of a world was like using poison to quench your thirst. It would cure symptoms first but the longer you continue, the worse it gets.

Her world burned itself to sustain its miserable existence.

This was Gwyn's original sin.

Gwyn sacrificed himself to keep the first flames ongoing. Making it so that all powerful souls had to sacrifice themselves to continue burning the flames. He dragged out an era meant to end. After the age of fire, the age of darkness was due to come.

Souls were the essence of a world. But, due to how the essence of the world continue burning to prolong an age, the world could no longer continue.

Too much essence has been lost simply to drag out an era. Of course, the world tried to heal itself. This was created in the form of the undead and hollows.

It could not allow souls to continue in a cycle, so it made it so that souls were locked in their original forms. Once people die, they revive as their souls has nowhere to go.

The more they revive, the more they lose themselves. Even if they did not die, they suffered. Only a few mighty beings were able to retain their selves.

Some knights still remember their mission of guarding and they did so by attacking anything that came near it. Others lose themselves and attack everything they can for the feeling of hate is most lasting emotion. It was a miserable thing.

However, who could truly blame Gwyn for sacrificing himself?

He could easily order lesser souls to sacrifice themselves, yet he did it so himself.

o fuel the flames that even the Witch of Izalith; the mother of pyromancy itself and the leader of the flame sorceress could not imitate is a legendary feat all on its own.

She remembered a man named Crestfallen Saulden. She has never met him but the Ashen one had told her of his experiences.

According to him, Saulden told the ashen one a saying that stuck with him. "To be alive.... To walk this Earth.... That's the real curse right there.", were his exact words.

Here, people loathed death. They did everything in their power to get away from it yet people from her land searched entire continents to experience it.

The irony was not lost on her. They do not know the painful curse of immortality.

Death is painful for a while but to live is to prolong pain.

She was lost in thoughts while denying injured people from their inevitable death just for a little longer. It was not until a few moments that she looked up to see everyone staring at her.

She merely bowed her head disappeared in a ball of flames. She returned once again into the quinjet while waiting for the others to arrive just like she has always done.