The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 95

She watched them as they slowly got up. They stared at Sif not doing anything. She was wondering what they were doing until one of the wounded fell down. She rushed quickly to heal him back to life. The one that fell was the one she first injured with two slashes.

It would have been a pretty fatal injury if left alone longer without treatment. In fact, not treating injuries was one of the most common ways to die back in Lordran. She did not know whether it would affect the Watchers but there was nothing wrong with treating an injury.

Another one also fell on the ground as it could no longer stand on a broken leg. She quickly rushed over to heal him again. They did not do anything but stare at her. She must admit it was a bit unnerving to be stared at three very tall humanoids at once doing nothing.

"Doth any of thee hath a way to gather every one of the Abyss Watchers?"

She just went ahead and asked the question directly. With little time to spare, she might as well be done with the affair. They all turned to stare at Sif waiting for instructions. When they knew that they wouldn't be getting orders from a wolf, they looked back at her once again.

For being hailed as one of the fastest troops in all or Lordran, they sure were slow to get the massage. She spelled it out to make it clear to them.

"This is Sif as thou may have realized. He has come here separated from his Master, Artorias to seek help against the forces of the Abyss. Artorias is currently trapped inside of the Abyss and require the help of the Abyss Watchers."

They still continued to watch him. Of course, why would the Abyss Watchers obey a random woman when there was the wolf of Artorias himself in front of them.

"Consider me a translator for Sif."

She generated a ball of flame and called Sif to come over. He did and started licking the flame happily while his tail wagged in a similar fashion to a fan.

It was only when they saw that she wasn't just any random woman that they started to move away. One of them gestured a 'stop' sign to her. Or rather it was the 'wait' sign.

As far as she was concerned, Hawkwood the Deserter was perfectly capable of speech. Why the Abyss Watchers did not speak, she did not know. Perhaps a mystery to solve for another time.

It was then she started sensing the presence of more and more Abyss Watchers gathering around them. She thought of it as normal. The Abyss Watchers would continue showing up with no words when the Ashen One was battling with them too.

They must have communicated through their souls. That was until they continued showing up in small groups of three until the number started reaching up to thousands.

'Huh?' was the only thought she had. She thought that there would be around 30 or 40 with a range of hundred as a maximum number. They kept showing up so frequently that she is starting to lose count.

She stopped counting altogether as it could be done when they finish coming. What she did was look around for the first time. The very second, she got here, she had been in combat and did not had time to observe her surroundings.

The sound of a crying baby caused her to focus more on hearing. She really had no idea where she was. She simply teleported to one of the Abyss Watchers that seems closest. They were in a castle that bear a slight resemblance to the architecture of Lordran.

But there was a slight difference. While the castle of Lordran were built to endure wars, this seems more like a horror castle meant to scare people as much as possible with its gothic style. She looked upon the sky too. The ever-present sun was nowhere to be seen. Only the moon remained.

She may not have like Gwyn, the lord of light but she prefers light to the dark. The moon bears a strange resemblance to the ones on Earth. She left the Sif and the Abyss Watchers alone to venture out by herself.

She slowly walked towards the baby's cries. On the way, she also noticed several candles still alit. Someone or something was here. The Abyss Watchers had no reason to lit candles inside a castle.

As she continued walking, she came across a baby stroll. It bears so much resemblance to the ones in Earth that she could not dismiss it as mere coincidence. The crying came from inside the crib. The crib was labelled 'Mergo'. She has never heard of the name 'Mergo'.

She walked over and peered inside to see a stone baby. Not a baby made out of stone but a skeleton of baby that looked like stone. She recognized this phenomenon. She believed the term to be called 'Lithopedion'. She read about it during her stay on Earth.

It occurs when a fetus died during childbirth and become calcified due to it being too large to be absorbed by the mother's body. The strange thing was that the crying was coming from this 'stone baby'.

Beside it, she also saw a book titled 'Hidden Mothers'. She opened it. Honestly, she did not think anything from this world could even slightly faze after the horrors of Lordran but this book proved her wrong. It was just 'wrong'.

Inside were photos from what was the 'Victorian Era' on Earth. It contained pictures of babies with their mothers covered. Some mothers wore veils while others just scratch the mother out of the picture. Babies were seriously creepy among these pictures.

The calcified baby and the surroundings did not help at all with her perception over this. The baby continued crying. Even though it seems like it was coming from the crib, now that she was here, it came from everywhere and nowhere.

She was starting to hear music too. It was like a lullaby to keep the baby asleep. She rolled away immediately as something crash from top of her. It did not harm the crib in any way. She looked up to see one of the most bizarre sights she has ever witnessed.