Chapter Text
To see a Darkened Sun
chapter 21
Treading carefully as the doorframe passed over his head, Arias held his sword out in front of him, prepared to strike at a moment's notice. His eyes taking time to adjust to the ominously dim light of the large chamber he'd found himself in, only now noticing the oversized windows that adorned the left side of the room, though thanks to the disappearance of the sun, less and less light was seeping through the glass as the sky's light dissipated. Soon all that would be left would be torch light.
Soon he was able to recognize all that was around him, just as the firekeeper had said, there was a legion of them, silver knights waiting around the corners of the room, ready to pounce on him at any moment. And in the center of the room, a brilliant white dress, a majestic golden crown and a blade to the neck adorning his lover.
He stopped in his tracks, anger quickly seeding in his mind but something distracted him. That sword, those gauntlets. They were the same as the ones out in front of him, his blade, his hands. It didn't take that long for him to put two and two together. Whoever that was, had been watching them and chose the perfect moment to disguise themselves as Arias and sneak in.
That would mean that they knew about everything that'd happened the night before. Arias couldn't decide who to be angry for, himself or Gwyndolin, they'd both let their guard down that night. The grip on his sword tightened and he refrained from charging in. So far none of the silver knights had moved to attack him, for now they just watched in total silence, like statues.
Stepping slightly closer, Arias readied himself, for a knight to attack, or even worse, if the assassin decided it was time to slay his prey. If Arias was quick and accurate enough he could hit him in the hand with a throwing knife, at least briefly stunning them and giving Gwyndolin a chance to get away.
But neither of those things happened, the room stayed still, and soon Arias was only a few feet away from the intruder and Gwyndolin.
"I'd watch your step if I were you. Any closer and I might flinch." A voice spoke threateningly from behind Gwyndolin, the large greatsword pressing closer to his throat as it spoke. Arias stopped right where he was, greatsword still drawn and ready for battle.
Gwyndolin held his breath as the blade neared his throat. Arias was desperately holding himself back, flames of rage building up inside him, begging, demanding to be let out, but he couldn't, not yet.
Then he heard a crunch, and Gwyndolin shrieked, his arm twisting behind his back unnaturally. The sudden movement and the flinching from the pain caused his to jolt into the sword, slicing a shallow but sharply painful wound into his neck.
Arias almost charged in on instinct, just barely constraining himself. Gwyndolin was tossed to the floor to the left of them, Arias' first thought was to go grab him and run, but the assassin had turned their gaze to him. If he grabbed Gwyndolin now, his back would be open to attack and it's likely that neither of them would survive.
Now being able to see their whole body, Arias' suspicions were confirmed. The armor, the sword, all the exact same as his, even the throwing knives. They reached into their pack and held out a grimy old charm in their hand, abyssal void quickly encompassing the entirety of their left arm.
Dark miracles. Arias had never seen them in person before but he'd heard of them from Gwyndolin. Dangerous miracles stemming from old tales of the Darkstalker, tales of his manipulation and evil. This was a formidable opponent indeed.
Arias remembered that he couldn't fight them all until the others got there, but a lot had changed since the plan was put together, clearly it wasn't going to work in this situation. He had no choice but to fight.
"Come, strike me, I'm wide open." The assassin spoke slyly. Arias had almost suspected that it was Oscar but their voice was different, deeper and smoother. Concentrated. Still holding himself back, he recognized that he had to be smart about what his next move was, but that was getting harder and harder.
"Who... What the hell are you!?" He almost shouted, he felt like he was holding back a greatwolf from inside him. The fire of rage eagerly melting it's own shackles.
"Darkwraith Lenovis. servant of the Darkstalker... And soon to be slayer of lords." They said, trying to tease out a reaction. Arias saw Gwyndolin move on the floor, he went to grab his catalyst but he was unable to with a dislocated elbow. Lenovis saw this too, and with a simple hand motion, three silver knights restrained him, violently.
That was it, Arias couldn't hold himself back anymore, like a boulder from a catapult, he flew at the darkwraith in a flurry of rage.
Lenovis quickly met his blade with their own, striking it with enough force to jolt him, using this small window they grabbed him by the throat with their abyss covered hand, and Arias soon felt his humanity draining away.
He used his own free hand to uppercut Lenovis, something they clearly weren't expecting. However his legs gave way and as he collapsed he saw them kneel down, their abyssal arm outstretched and heading towards him. Arias quickly rolled to the left, only to see their sword already heading toward him.
He was barely block the strike with his own sword, getting pushed back by the force as he did. He kicked at Lenovis' knees, the tip of his sabaton jabbing them in the kneecap and making them stumble.
Arias was able to quickly get up on his feet and roll around them as they steadied themselves. Seeing a golden opportunity, Arias went in for a backstab, but Lenovis was quick enough to counter it, leaving him open for another grab. Though this time he saw it coming and kicked them in the armpit when they reached over for him.
As they flinched from the kick, he swung his greatsword back around for a vertical swing. But they noticed it just in time to duck out of it's trajectory. Though it did whack their helmet off, revealing Lenovis to be a white haired woman.
Though Arias didn't have time to take in the details as she grabbed him again by the throat, and with his sword still swinging through the air, this was enough to topple him over. Wasting no time, she began to drain his humanity again. Despite his desperate struggle, he wasn't able to push her off, and he could barely even see through the abyss now encompassing his head.
Feeling more and more of his humanity slipping away, he thrashed about wildly, hitting her in the face multiple times but she didn't relent. Then he heard shouting and suddenly she let go of him, vision quickly returning to his eyes.
It was the firekeeper, and the blades. They'd hit Lenovis with crossbow bolts to get her off of him. Lenovis simply jerked her hand and the silver knights immediately jumped into action, save for the three holding Gwyndolin.
Arias barely had the time to dodge as she prepared to strike him with her greatsword. The force of the large hunk of iron smashing the stone under him, causing some pebbles to fly into the air and hit his visor. From there on he was stuck in a loop of rolling away from an attack, Lenovis never giving him a chance to get back on his feet.
Recognizing that he wouldn't be able to dodge her forever, Arias rolled into her legs, forcing her to fumble onto the floor.
Arias quickly got back to his feet and grabbed his greatsword from the floor with his right hand, and unsheathed his moonlight greatsword from it's place on his back with his left.
They were almost perfectly matched in terms of skill, it really was like fighting a mirror image of himself. The only thing that could really turn the tides was their equipment, she demonstrated that well with her use of dark miracles. This sword was his only opportunity to counter that.
Arias readied himself, holding his greatsword out in front of him and holding his left arm over his right, so that the moonlight greatsword was parallel to his right side. Waiting, watching, he saw as Lenovis quickly picked herself up.
Looking briefly to the others, he could see they were struggling with all the silver knights. That's when he noticed that as soon as one died another appeared from the shadows. Looked like he wouldn't be getting any help with this.
Noticing his distraction, Lenovis acted quickly to take advantage of this distraction, grabbing her greatsword and running at him. Seeing her approach, Arias swung his greatsword downwards, missing her and smashing through the brick floor.
As she attempted a thrusting attack, Arias ducked and swung his moonlight greatsword at her from it's resting place on his arm. it slid off the top of his sword and scraped along the underside of hers, finally passing off of her blade and straight through her side before she could tell what was going on.
Yelping in pain, she desperately dodged away, barely avoiding a diagonal slash from Arias' greatsword, though it did fling some rubble into her open wound, causing her immense pain. She ran quickly away, desperately reaching for her estus.
Though Arias was already behind her as the flask reached her lips, she only avoided a strike by having a silver knight charge in from the dark behind her, thrusting it's sword into Arias' abdomen before he could react.
Shouting out in pain, he retaliated and swung his sword around, cleaving the knight in half. However, the sword was still buried deep in his abdomen. He knew he wouldn't have enough time to sheath both swords and pull it out before Lenovis killed him in the same vain as he killed the knight. But he couldn't roll like this. Not only would it hurt just moving like that but the sword would likely catch on the concrete and slice him open.
There was only one option.
Lenovis was already putting her flask away now, he had to be quick. Throwing his moonlight greatsword into the air, he grabbed his greatsword with both hands and lifted it up vertically, so that the blade was meeting the hilt of the sword buried inside him.
Breathing deep, he prepared himself. Closing his eyes, he flung his hands over his head, all the way until the hilt of his sword hit his back. On it's way up, the greatsword caught the hilt and quickly flung the straight sword out of his abdomen, and into Lenovis' leg.
Arias screamed in pain, but was interrupted by the blood he started coughing up. The pain forcing him to his knees, he dropped his greatsword in an instant, desperately fighting against the pain as he searched for his flask.
Soon he found it, quickly bringing it to his lips and drinking deep, the hole in his abdomen healing over in seconds.
Taking the flask away from his lips, he saw Lenovis drinking from hers, and a blood covered straight sword laying next to her. He rushed to put the flask back in his pack, turning around and grabbing his greatsword as quick as possible.
As he lifted it up, he saw Lenovis charging at him again, raising his sword to defend himself from a strike just in time. Their swords met with a clash, sparks flying as Lenovis held firm, pushing her sword against Arias' as he tried to defend.
Seeing that she wouldn't relent any time soon, Arias pushed back, locking the two in a bind, their equal strength and skills keeping either from overpowering the other.
Though it wouldn't last forever, one of them would tire from the strain of holding the other back, leaving them totally open for attack, both of them knew this, and focused on being the last one to falter. It wasn't long before both Arias' hands shook, his blade rattling against Lenovis'.
Arias saw as she grinned, felt her push harder against him. She thought she'd already won. He wouldn't let that happen, no not after what she'd done to Gwyndolin, Not with what she'd done to him. The inferno of rage came back in full force, overwhelming and blinding him.
The rage turned him into a beast. Screaming wildly, he pushed back against Lenovis and and broke the bind, forcing her sword to the floor and stunning her briefly.
Arias lifted his greatsword at breakneck speed and swung downward. Lenovis, realizing what was happening, backstepped as soon as she possibly could, instinctively raising a hand to protect herself. She managed to prevent getting cut directly in half but Arias was still able to slice straight through her left arm, leaving her without her dark miracles.
She fell to her knees and screamed in agony, only stopping to roll desperately away as Arias swung wildly at her like a mad dog. Tears in her eyes, she barely managed to dodge the mad flurries with her bleeding arm, her wound touching the floor every time she rolled, causing her immense pain, but she knew she couldn't die yet, not after what this man had done.
She managed to outlast him this time, her own abysmal rage propelling her to keep moving well past her breaking point. As Arias tired, letting up on his attacks and panting, Lenovis drank her estus again, finishing what was left of it and healing over her wound, though it didn't return her arm to her, she'd have to go to a bonfire for that.
Though Arias didn't notice, when he slashed off her arm, all the silver knights died on the spot, even the ones holding up Gwyndolin. Though the knights were gone, the Blades didn't get involved, none of them were confident enough to try keeping up with the two masters of combat. As the Firekeeper watched Arias fight against this unrelenting enemy she realized why he was chosen. As the chosen undead and Knight of the Darkmoon. He was like a demon in battle. Though it made her wonder, such skill will always come at a price, what was his? She supposed no one knew anymore, not after his memory was lost.
As Arias took a minute to recover from his violent outburst, Lenovis quickly readied her sword in her remaining hand and charged at him. Madly she flung her sword about for no care as to where it went, she just wanted to see him dead. And Arias met her equally with his own flaming rage.
The rapid, mad clashing of swords and screams of anger, creating the truest music of the battlefield.
The two were both blinded by their rage, seeing nothing but the sparks of the clashing swords. Their bones rattled with every blow but they didn't feel it, both were well past their physical limit but they didn't feel it. Every sense was laser focused on combat and fury.
Though they weren't unstoppable. As angry as they were, their rage only pushed them so far, and soon it would fizzle out for but a moment, long enough for the overuse of their bodies to catch up with them and hit them in full force.
And that it did.
With one last clash, they finally felt it, the rattling of bones, their abused muscles. Arias fell to his knees first, vision blurring and feeling as if he could barely even move, he struggled to keep his hands on his sword. He feared that Lenovis would abuse this opportunity to strike at him but she just fell down after he did, her own exhaustion catching up to her.
They sat panting on the spot for a minute or two, Arias' blurry vision soon returning to somewhat normal. The sense of urgency didn't take long to root itself back into his mind, as soon as he was able too, he looked around the room to get an idea of what was going on.
Lenovis was still on the floor much like him, though she still hadn't recovered yet, Gwyndolin was on the floor, gripping his arm, the Blades and the Firekeeper were watching them from a distance and at the Firekeeper's feet was...
"S... Sw.. HAahhh... Swor.." Arias wheezed, stretching his hand out in her direction, gesturing for the Moonlight greatsword not far from where she was standing.
The Firekeeper looked around her feet and saw the sword laying on the ground. Understanding what he meant, she picked up the sword and tossed it over to him, the sword landing a few inches from where he was.
Grabbing the sword, he used it as a crutch, burying it in the brick and using it to stand up. Painstakingly, he lifted up his other greatsword as he stood, placing it in it's sheathe on his back.
Pulling the Moonlight Greatsword from the brick floor, Arias turned his attention back to Lenovis, who was struggling to lift herself from the floor with one arm. Arias was tempted to go in for the kill now, but he felt that she'd have some trick up her sleeve that would turn the tides quickly.
No, he'd wait and be careful. Now was no time to get cocky. Lenovis struggled but eventually was able to stand once again, though her feet were wobbly. With much difficulty she was able to lift her greatsword from the floor and use it as a crutch.
She began to hobble over to Arias, flaming rage still burning in her eyes. Arias backed up as she approached, quickly thinking up a plan to end this swiftly. Neither of them could continue for much longer. This had to end. Now.
As he stumbled backwards, he felt his foot come into contact with something soft, looking down he saw Gwyndolin groaning beneath him. No where left to run, now he had to act.
Watching as Lenovis hobbled toward him with that hate in her eyes, Arias held his Moonlight greatsword lazily out to the left, and lifted his right hand up to grip the hilt of his greatsword from his back.
Eyes focused like a wolf hunting prey, Arias quickly unsheathed his greatsword and flung his arm out at Lenovis in one swift motion, though she was able to clumsily block the attack with a horizontal slice, knocking the sword away from her and out of his hands.
As the sword fell out of his hands, the force of the blow shifted him sideways slightly, giving him a small push off point to swing at her with the moonlight greatsword.
This tactic wouldn't work on her again however, as she narrowly dodged it by ducking down, though her legs gave way as she did. Yelping as her head hit the floor with a thud, her vision went blurry, and all she was able to see was the glint of the Moonlight greatsword as Arias lifted it up for a killing blow.
She clumsily rolled to the side before he struck her, narrowly dodging the attack. Laying on her stomach, she turned her head over to see the glint of the Moonlight greatsword once again, though now it was brighter than before.
Arias had expected to see blood paint the floor after that last swing, but instead there was nothing but some rubble.
Screaming in anger, his grip on the sword tightened and he swung it at her from the floor. The blade itself only scratched her face, but it produced a beam of Moonlight that cleaved her head clean in half.