Ashen Ring 2 (Patreon)

We made it to a road fairly quickly, before picking a direction and following it. Firekeeper had taken it upon herself to walk in front, sending out waves of fire to burn away the scarlet rot in front of us, leaving the road black and white with ash. But we weren’t walking in magic curse fungus, so I considered it a plus. I sincerely hoped that there wasn’t some contractor out there that decided to use scarlet rot as a power source, but there probably was.

It took four hours of walking along the road before we saw what looked like something approaching civilization. A massive gateway with a portcullis cut the road in half, dilapidated buildings and ancient pillars on either side of the road. It had been a while since I’d actually played through the Caelid region, but I let out a sigh of relief, since I was pretty sure I knew where we were.

“That’s the Sellia Gateway,” I told my girls. “There’s probably another one of those giant dogs ahead, if I’m right it has a spiked collar on and the unfortunate ability to breathe out clouds of scarlet rot.”

“Delightful,” Yuria drawled, her hand moving to rest on the hilt of her katana.

Anri went a step further, drawing her longsword and readying her shield. I drew my own blade, the zweihander’s weight comforting me as my eyes searched the roadside. Firekeeper’s blue flames gathered in her cupped hands, and she held them up in front of her.

The sky was getting dark by the time we came across the gate. There was a massive dog standing outside of it, its red fur standing out against the grey stone of the gateway. The beast raised its head, looking at us with large, yellow eyes, before letting out a loud bark, rising to its hind legs. Its forelimbs dangled limply, giving it a build not unlike a t-rex. It's head, large enough to fit any of us inside its mouth, locked on us as it stared with a mad, hungry gleam.

There was a sound not unlike a cat with a hairball, before a mass of red particles, moving like a mix of a gas and a liquid, was hurled at us by the giant dog. It hit Anri first, the girl recoiling from the attack, her shield almost slipping off her arm before she managed to stabilize it. The creature in question didn't seem bothered, however, as it brought its head down towards us again, charging us with its jaws wide.

Anri screamed, bringing her shield up just in time to block the bite of the dog. It lifted its head back up, blood dripping down its muzzle as if it were an oversized, mangy animal. A low, rumbling growl filled the air as all four of us did our best to avoid the snapping jaws, the sound felt more than heard.

“Firekeeper, concentrate your flames,” I called out. “Use them to set the monster on fire.”

“Understood!” She replied, shooting forward into the thick of battle. Her blue flames engulfed the dog, the creature roaring in pain and rage as it tried to shake itself free. Yuria ran forwards, her hand on her katana, preparing to do the draw cut she killed the earlier one with. Unfortunately, the giant dog wasn’t as injured as it appeared. It kicked back, knocking Yuria aside with a powerful blow that sent her flying.

I leapt forwards, swinging my zweihander at the creature's throat. The blade bit in, but only barely, the tough skin of its neck resisting my efforts. I grunted as I pulled myself back, trying to get away from the snarling dog. The thing lunged forward, baring its teeth and hissing. I swung my sword over my shoulder, aiming for its head, but it rolled to the side, avoiding my strike. I cursed under my breath as it closed in on me, still growling loudly.

It tackled me from the side, knocking the wind out of me as it dug its tiny forelimbs into my chest. I could feel its hot breath on my face as I struggled to move out from under it without being stomped on or being used as a living chew toy.

A moment later, a gout of blue flame slammed into the giant dog, making it yelp as it leapt off and away from me. Okay, fuck this tanky shit. I scrambled to my feet, not reaching for my zweihander, and instead doing what I should have done from the get go. A small orb of red, orange, and yellow materialized in my left hand, while my right lifted up, palm pointed to the giant dog as Anri and Yuria ducked and dodged from the beast’s t-rex like bites and stomps.

I didn’t hurl a ball of fire at first. Instead, I raised the ambient heat surrounding the giant dog, making it start to sweat even more than its exertions already had. The magic took hold, the pyromancy sticking to the giant dog before I brought my hands together and hurled a ball of fire like I was a baseball pitcher.

Anri juked out of the way of a bite, just as my fire spell slammed into its eye. I felt the heat as it burned through, causing the giant dog to pull back, whimpering as it shook its head. Yuria was faster though, slashing at its neck as it tried to get back onto its feet. She struck true, cutting deep into the flesh around its neck, but the giant dog was strong. With a roar, the beast kicked out, its massive paw slamming into her stomach and knocked her off her feet. She fell backwards, skidding across the road, as I readied another spell.

Firekeeper was faster, letting out an angry scream as a ring of fire exploded from her, before pointing both arms at the giant dog and unleashing what looked like a veritable wall of scorching blue flames. Yuria was already out of the blast zone, Anri managed to bolt out of the way, but the giant dog received the full force of the blast. It let out a cry, barely audible over the roar of the fire and the crackling of its flesh as it cooked.

The giant dog stumbled back, falling hard against a rock, nearly knocking itself over as it scrambled to its feet. The fire didn't stop, the giant dog was now trapped within a burning hell as Firekeeper tightened the blaze into a pillar around it, my own relatively weak flames added to it. The giant dog howled as it tried to escape, rolling about on the ground, but there was no escaping the raging inferno that surrounded it. Flames shot skywards, filling the air with smoke and ash, the smell of burning meat filling my nostrils, as the giant dog collapsed, writhing about wildly, finally giving in to death.

I panted as I let the orb of fire in my hand dissipate. Even those few spells left me feeling utterly drained. Yuria stood, her posture a bit shaky, and made her way over to Firekeeper and I, joined by Anri. I reached down to the charred ground, picking up my zweihander and placing it on my back.

“Is it just me, or did that seem harder than the last one?” I asked rhetorically.

“I am unsure,” Anri said, sounding slightly winded, less so than me.

We caught our breaths, then continued on through the gateway towards the town on the far side. It looked… pretty shitty, all told. The scarlet rot had ravaged the buildings as well as the population, leaving the place looking like a ghost town.

“Where is everyone?” Firekeeper asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” I muttered, my brows furrowed under my helmet. From what I remembered, we should have seen someone by now, hostile or not. It was the last settlement left in Caelid, after all.

Firekeeper called up a ball of fire, holding it in her hand and casting more light around us. A breeze blew through the street, making doors sway with the squeak of rusty hinges. But that was the only sound around us. No trees in the wind, no scurrying of rodents, no birds, nothing but rusty hinges.

“I’m not the only one unsettled by this am I?” I asked, as I prepared myself to cast another fire spell.

“Indeed, you are not, Ashen One,” Yuria agreed, sounding a touch reluctant. “I feel we are not alone here.”

“Let’s check over there,” Anri suggested, pointing to one of the buildings. “I think I hear something.”

All of us were on edge as we walked over, and I heard what Anri was referring to. It sounded like a voice, saying… something, almost mumbled, and it took me a bit before I was able to parse what it was saying.

“Free… must… find… free… must… find… free…” over and over again, the same three words repeated by a raspy voice. Until Anri opened the door, and the words changed. “No… more… pain… no… more…”

It was only Anri’s quick reflexes that let her bring her shield up in time to block the magical projectiles that were sent at her. She fell back, pulling the door shut as she did, and spikes of what looked like shiny, glimmering rock punched through the rotted wood. I raised a hand, a fire ball forming as a white, spectral form of an old man leaning heavily on a walking stick walked through the door as if it wasn’t there. He stared at us for a minute, seeming confused.

I was as well, I could feel something in me… reaching out, for want of a better way to put it. This individual… their body had long since turned to dust and fungus thanks to the scarlet rot, they should have died long ago. But they were still here. Some strange part of me, one I couldn’t put words to, raged at this. It went against some irrevocable truth, both of reality and my own nature.

The spell fizzled in my hand, as I gently pushed past Anri and Yuria, the latter of which offered a confused, “Ashen One?”

Standing before the spirit, I reached out, offering my left hand to him. His gaze looked down, his spectral brow scrunched in confusion. Before, after a minute, he reached out with his own left hand and clasped my forearm. There was a surge of light, and despite the brightness, I kept my gaze locked with the spirit’s as he seemed to dissolve. A small amount bled into me, so little that I could barely feel it. But it was there, and if it happened enough times, it would make me even more powerful than the original Ashen One.

Or it could make me more powerful than any of the demigods competing for the title of Elden Lord. I glanced up at the slowly dissipating spiritual remnants. I could forcefully absorb more, consuming the traces of the spirit until nothing would remain. No reincarnation, no afterlife, just the eternal nothingness of oblivion.

I turned around, looking past my companions at the environment of Caelid. This land had been a hell ever since the scarlet rot was introduced, an endless life of pain and torment. A nightmare land where you were forced to suffer your body rotting to nothing, yet being unable to die. Was it really life? Would the silence of nothingness be a mercy?

“Search the building, see if you can find anything useful,” I told the girls. “If you hear someone speaking, come find me. I think I can deal with the ghosts of this place.”

I was met by three nods, as we started searching the contents of the building. There were a few chips of bone, various runes carved into them and oddly untouched by the scarlet rot, and in the back there was a staff that seemed to be made of some kind of stone. The majority of it was some rust red color, polished until it was as smooth as a baby’s skin, but there was a faintly glowing crystal on the top of it.

We rinsed and repeated throughout the rest of the town, the ghosts confused or stunned into inaction by my presence, me moving them along to the next stage in the cycle, and then looting the shit out of the building we found them in. That was until we got to the far end of the massive staircase in the center of town, and were greeted by what looked like the first living people we’d seen since arriving in Caelid.

Of course, they immediately attacked us.