Dark Souls: The first flame

Part three, The first of the dead?

Many years had passed since Gwyn linked the fire, wich in turn caused the undead curse to fall upon the humans of civilisation.

Throughout the years, many a tale had been spun of Lord Gwyn. The most interesting however, was a prophecy which had arisen from the distant land of Astora.

"Thou who art undead, art chosen. In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum, maketh pilgrimage to the land of ancient lords. When thou ringeth the bell of awakening, the fate of the undead thou shalt know."

This of course, was all a load of rubbish to Leeroy, a paladin who threw over half of the undead within the walls of that asylum himself. He was one of the most respected members of the Way of White, a group of people who as much feared the curse as they did hate it.

The Asylum was where the udead were fated to await the end of the world.

He pondered over the stories he had heard, and, after a long time of sitting by the pond in in the shrine, it was apparent to him that an undead would soon venture fourth, if the prophecy held true.

Leeroy hald already heard of Oscar, a knight from Astora who was also undead, Who had freed the undead of the Asylum, only to go hollow there himself, in the hopes that he had found the chosen undead.

Leeroy grabbed his trusty shield, Sanctus, gifted to him long ago by the Way of White, and Grant, his great hammer, also gifted by the Way of White. He stood up, and headded to find his good lady Reah of Thorolund.

'My lady, you've heard the prophecy, no? Shouldn't we be doing something?'

She simply raised her hand to quieten him. 'We must let this event unravel. And must I remind you that you, also, are an undead? We will not do anything to prevent the chosen undead, besides, we don't know who it is.'

'I know, so why don't we just...'

'We will do nothing about it!' she yelled. 'Make the necessary arangements for our travel to the catacombs. Only after you have prepared all of our travel, I send you, Leeroy, Paladin of the Way of White to go and clear the catacombs for our arrival.

Paladin Leeroy made swift preparations and set out at sundown. 'Finally, some real work for me.' he had thought to himself as he left into the darkness of the night time.

When he arrived at the entrance to the catacombs, he found that the skeletons seemed to rise at his presence. He'd have to fight his way through. Perfect. Just what he was trained to do, smash the faces of the undying to oblivion.

Three skeletons surrounded him. He chuckled. With one large swing of Grant, spinning him in a circle, he shattered all of them to broken bones and bone dust.

Fortunately for Leeroy's anger and lust for combat, there was an abundance of skeletons for him to smash Grant into. The fighting took hours as he slowly fought his way through the catacombs. He fought long and hard. He had finally let out his anger only minutes before his company arrived.

Reah and two of her protectors, Vince and Nico of Thorolund had caught up with Leeroy.

'We're close to the sacred "rite of kindling"' she had explained. 'It should be held just down that tunnel there.' She said gesturing towards a long dark tunnel.

They never entered the tunnel, at least, they don't remember entering the tunnel. They blacked out, only to awake within the dark depths of the Tomb of Giants. Leeroy found the rest of his retinue and insisted on finding a way out safely, and that he'd return to her once he had done so.

The road was long and twisted in the dark caverns. It was when he thought he had completely lost his way that he found a path leading out into one of the most beautiful sight's he'd ever seen; thousands, upon thousands of Archtrees. Then a sudden roar from thet tunnel that led him back into reality, the only way he could see that might lead to a way out.

He followed it, fighting all manner of small skeletons, giant skeletons, skeleton centipedes, and pinwheel monsters. He battled his way to a drop, where he stumbled under the crumbling rock and fell down.

He was laying in the tomb of Gravelord Nito, first of the dead. Nito limped up to him, and grabbed him.

'Don't come back.' Nito whispered, as if brandishing his very soul with this as an impossibility as he threw him from the room. Leeroy didn't need to be told twice, especially not by a lord. he wandered back the way he came and rested by the ledge, overlooking the archtrees.

He looed to his left, the way he had originally come. Could he go back and bear to tell his lady he couldn't find a way out.

It was at this very moment, however, that the chosen undead should appear. Leeroy knew it was the chosen undead, no other undead could have made it to Nito alone. He also knew that it wasn't him. He hadn't rung any bell of awakening, and they had both been rung. It had to be this undead.

Leeroy got up, placed Sanctus on his back and took Grant in two arms. Time to see what this undead is made of. Leeroy ran towards the undead and swung Grant at him. The undead was good, perhaps too good. Grant never made contact with the undead, rather it's shield which parried the blow harmlessly. Leeroy had been careless with his heavy swing and it left him vulnerable, and this vulnerability was exploited.

Leeroy felt a pain surge in his stomach. He looked down to see a sword had been thrust straight through him. He felt weak. Grant fell out of his hand and crashed to the floor. Next thing he knew he was being kicked off of the blade. As he hit the floor, he felt suddenly... at peace. Although it did pain him to see the undead strip him from his weapon and shield, but the undead had the dignity to let him die with honour, wearing his armour.

He lay his head back while laying on the floor as he let the world fade from his view. The last thing he saw was the Archtrees. He couldn't have found anywhere better to die.