The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 50

Just as she thought she would finally fall by the lade of the slave knight, a figure appeared right in front of her and blocked it with a shield and pushed him away. That got her hopes up.

"Ashen One!", she exclaimed.

"Open your eyes, keeper. It's me Falkor.", the dragon reintroduced himself.

"Listen closely, I can only stay here for a few minutes. This is a battle of souls. The red hood you are wearing is restricting us from helping you. I just used my last chance to come in to save you. The next time, only Selph can come in and that will only be for a few moments too.

Now, while I still have time to stay here, I will damage him as good as I can.", he said as he eventually turned back into a dragon and rushed towards the knight.

"SLAVE!", bellowed the dragon. Perhaps he still remembered the war between the dragon and the gods. Of course, how could he ever forget the war that devasted the everlasting dragons.

The word slave got Gael's attention. He howled madly and charged towards the dragon. Even as a beast, it was clear that he still recognized the everlasting ones as his old enemies from the era of Gwyn.

The started an epic battle right there and then. The slave was empowered with the blood of the dark soul while the dragon was weakened. Falkor used his giant claws and proceeded to mash up the slave knight.

Even while being empowered, a mere slave knight could not hope to defeat an everlasting dragon. During this time, she was trying to recover and empower herself. Using the gap Falkor used to come in, a few of her old powers were returning to her.

She could now use pyromancy to a proficient degree. Eventually Falkor started to fade away and disappear. She dashed up and used her scythes to slam his neck. It made him flew away. That finally made him start bleeding a little from his mouth.

He jumped and brought his giant sword down using gravity and weight to his advantages. But this time, she manages to dodge it and used the short time gap to struck another blow into his neck once again.

He flew once again but this time, he ended in a kneeling position. Blood was now falling from his mouth trickling down to the sword on the ground. The blood was as black as the dark soul.

"Ahh ... Is this the blood? The blood of the dark soul?", he muttered. He then lifted his sword and slammed it down to Earth. Using it as a cane, he slowly rises. Red flames were now appearing on him, empowering the slave knight even further.

Thunder and lightning were now raining from the sky. He did not charge her like a beast this time, but held the sword in a proper stance. She was not facing Gael, the mad knight as of this moment. She was facing Gael the slave knight. A slave but, a knight nonetheless.

He slowly approached. She responded in the same way. Gael then swung the sword with flames coming out from his hood as long as a cape. She managed to dodge it easily. Then, came the simple vertical slash. It was also easy to dodge.

But the trick was that when she dodged to the side, Gael swung his blade in a circular motion with his red hood also lashing out flames. She was forced to block it but as a result, she was now far away from him. He then suddenly took out his crossbow and shot several arrows at her.

They were much too fast for her to dodge. She was forced to form a flame barrier to burn the arrows. Using the flame as a cover, she threw the handle of her scythe right at him. The stick struck a strong blow to his head. This disoriented him.

Using this disorientation, she rushed towards him, using the ground as a launching pad. She buried the blade right into his face but he then, broke up into several flaming balls. Rather than fireballs, the resembled ghostly wraiths or specters.

There were much too much for her to block them all so, she just moved backwards. They split up and followed her slowly. They were slow but there were too many. She was attempting to form into flame barrier before a sword slammed down at her from the side.

She deflected it straight towards the ground using her blade and used the remaining free hand to perform a hook. This just caused his to look away. So, she jumped onto top of his face and generated flames from her foot and jumped away.

He howled, only in agony this time. A soon as distance was created, she struck the blade into the ground and injected magic into it. This caused the ground to explode like a volcano. She could also control each individual rock due to her magic being imbedded within them.

She controlled the rock and smashed all of them towards Gael. The knight was able to crush many rocks but they were too numerous. He was overwhelmed and drowned in the sea of rocks. The keeper then, summoned the handle of her blade and created a scythe once again.

She did a horizontal pose and muttered 'god hunter' in her mind. It was the move that killed Ego. It would still work on the likes of Gael. He finally perished under the wrath of flames. Then everything went dark.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the keeper herself.", a voice came out from the darkness. She could not make out whether it was male or female but presumed it to be male due to its deep voice.

Her powers have now all return to her but no matter what, she could not make out to actual form of the keeper. All she could make out was two glowing orbs she assumed to be eyes. They were as big as a giant's eye.

"Thou hast slay my previous host. Take it as a start. The ancients hast awaken by thy blood and tis is just the beginning." said the voice. It was quite memorable to hear the same tone being spoken to her, but she would not be blinded by the voices.

"I have shown thee courtesy enough.", she said as she slashed down right between the middle of the two eyes. Another thing started glowing there and then. It was a mouth with a smile full of sharp teeth. They were that of a hungry predator watching its helpless prey.

"Beware the red hood that watches all the time.

Serving the lady from a place beyond.

It watches you by your dark soul.

It watches you from the first flame.

It watches you alongside the great old ones.

Beware the red hood that watches for your blood."

It warned her with a small poem before disappearing in a maddening laughter. She knew that the red hood will eventually come back but for now, it was time to rest.