《Cinder Souls II》The Village. Chapter 22
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The small villages shows little signs of life as the group of four now known as the Undead Legion arrives. The buildings are made of stone and mud with having roofs made out of dried straw and leaves. Ryan is unable to believe that someone can live this way but Ryan can understand that willpower can drive people to survive in any situation.
What villagers that are walking around the 70 some houses have eyes that are glazed with a feeling of defeat and lifelessness. They must be worried about the Abyssal Dragons making their way towards the area. When the notice the armour and weapons of Ryan's group, their eyes show a glint of life for a second but they quickly return to their somber attitude.
Ryan crouches down and lets Carmella off of his back and she thanks Ryan kindly. Ryan smiles back at her to accept Carmella's kindness and they continue towards the middle of the village. It is not long before a man appears before the four.
The man is so old that it looks like his is already one foot in his grave and the dark bags under his eyes shows that stress might take him out of this world any day now. The old man greets everyone with a deep bow and begins to look over the group.
"Is this all that was sent?" the old man asks while implying the four of them isn't enough.
"Hmph, what's wrong with what's in front of you old man. You should be glad we are even attempting to save you." Carmello says in a hostile manner. Ryan raises his hand to tell Carmello to calm down and even though Carmello shuts his mouth, he stills seems to be insulted by the old man's statement.
"I can assure you that I alone am enough to take down these beasts, but with four of us there is no chance of us losing." Ryan says with a confidence tone. He might sound arrogant but if Ryan backs it up, then his strength will be proven and the word of his heroic deeds will spread throughout the land, hopefully reaching the ears of his comrades.
"Ooohh? Really now? Well this isn't your simple Abyssal Dragons. If you all aren't level 200 then I doubt you can even beat one." the old man says. The group all has mixed feelings and everyone except for Ryan has a sharp and confident demeanor. Ryan is the only one that seems to be completely bewildered.
'No one has even brought up levels since I came here so I figured they weren't even implemented in this world. If I have all the same miracles and physical abilities from before, that means I am most likely my old level from before. Without being able to be Cindered though and also not being able to link myself with Galib, one of the true Gods, I am not even comparable to my old strength. With that in mind, I think I know what level I'd be around power wise right now.'
"I will you tell you that I am above level 400 so please be rest assured." Ryan says to reassure the man. The man's eyes open wide and Mountain shows a face full of smugness as the old man is speechless at Ryan's remark.
"W-W-What are your names, titles, and rank?!" the man says in a near yell.
"Mountain Ray, level 323, Rank A, my title is The Titan." Mountain says as his blad head shines in the sun.
"Carmella Pride, level 302, Rank A, my title is The Magical Wonder." Carmella says and smiles as she remembers how she got her title.
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"Carmello Pride, level 307, Rank A, my title is The Blood Thirsty Shadow." Carmello says while scoffing and smiling with an attitude that says 'Hear it and weap old man'.
"Frew, Level 420, Rank A, I guess you could say my title is The Abyss Watcher." Ryan says and facepalms directly afterwards. He needed to come up with a random level between 400 and 450, unfortunately the first number that came into his head was 420. He has heard so many people reference 420 and use it in cringy jokes and those jokes irritated Ryan. That is probably why it was the most memorable number between 400 and 450.
"Well if what you say is true, then this mission will be no problem for you fellows, but I highly doubt you're telling the truth. *sigh* If you are willing to go lose your lives over your pride then whatever, I can't stop you. I am the Elder of this village, follow me." the Elder says as he waves the group towards a house behind him.
The Elder moves over a piece of cloth that was at the entrance to the house. Inside is a lone man sitting at a table with his back to the group. There are two open chairs at the table and the Elder takes one. With Ryan being the leader, he takes the last chair and his group moves to be standing beside him.
Ryan gets a good look at the man and can see he is covering his left eye with a bandage and the man's whole exsistence seems grim and dark. Ryan looks over to the Elder and gives him a confused look.
"This man's name is Dark, he was in a band of wanderers and is the only person to have seen the Abyssal Dragons and live. He says there is a special type of undead roaming with the Dragons, isn't that right Dark?" the Elder says and the man seems to wince as he remembers something. With a very quiet voice, the gloomy man named Dark confirms the Elder's words.
"Correct, it is a breed of ancient undead of this world known as the Hollow and they are immortal." the man says. Ryan's gaze instantly turns sharp to this word and he stares at the man with piercing eyes. The man notices and quickly puts his hands into the air as to show he is submitting.
"I swear I'm not lying! No matter how many times you kill these undead, they also come back the next day-!" the man's rambling and shouting is cut off by Ryan lifting his hand into the air to tell him to be quiet.
"Everyone leave, except for you Dark. I would like to talk to you." Ryan says with the attitude that emminates power and authority. The three accompanying bow slightly and quickly leave the room since Ryan gives off the aura that it is urgent. The Elder reluctantly leaves as Ryan's heavy aura doesn't give him a chance to speak. Dark looks horrified.
"W-What do you want with me!" Dark yells as Ryan has yet to get rid of his sharp gaze at the man. Ryan slightly shakes his right hand a circle appears on the floor with several incatations on it. It is a series of miracles that prevent sound from escaping the room, prevents anyone from entering, and finally prevents anyone from leaving until the miracle is removed by the caster or another spell caster breaks it.
Dark looks at the circle and a glimpse of dumbfoundness strikes across his face.
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"Dark. Have you ever heard the name Dark Souls?" Ryan says with a softer voice than his gaze. Dark gaspes and realization hits the man like a solid punch to the face.
"Are you a player too?!" Dark asks desperately. Dark stood up and knocked his chair over as he asked this.
"Yes I am. My name is Frew. You might know about me."
"No... No way. You are..." Dark takes a second to think about what he is going to say before opening his mouth, "You are the God of Miracles!" Dark says as light returns to the man's eyes and any signs of defeat of fear wash off his face. Ryan laughs and nods his head up and down.
Dark's excitement quickly subsides and the man becomes very grim.
"Not even you can save them..."
"Save who?"
"My guild... We all woke up in this world together and we travelled together for about 6 months exploring this world. It was all great until we met those two Abyssal dragons. Five of our group of twenty died and the rest managed to get away... The next day we woke up to find them walking to our camp but something was different. Their eyes were missing and their skin was cracked and horrifying looking!" Dark yells and flips the table in front of Ryan in a fit of rage.
Ryan has been listening very closely and has learned many things, but he won't say anything and left Dark missing.
"Those five, we welcomed them back with open arms and as we went to hug them, they eached stabbed one of the their guildmates and killed them directly afterwards. The remaining 10 of us were horrified and then they... they came after us all! Not stopping and they kept murdering everyone of their friends without even thinking a second about it. They aren't human anymore Ryan! If we die we become Hollow! We become one of the blood thirsty creatures that we worked so hard to kill!" Dark shouts with tears flowing from his eyes. Ryan stands up and puts hand on the shaking mans shoulder.
"Don't stop, continue with your story." Ryan says. The man takes a few shaky breaths and continues.
"We were so caught of guard, they had killed 4 more of us before we even realized it. We tried to fight them back but it's harder than you think to strike down someone you have had so many good times with. This is realy life now and I can't kill one of my own friends... I can't man." Dark says with a defeated tone.
"And me not being able to do that, the rest of us were killed off without us even doing damage to the Hollows. I was the only one left and I was completely surrounded by the five. I had no choice but to us it. I didn't know where it would take me but as long as it saved me, I could've gave a fuck less."
"What did you use?" Ryan's voice is full of worry as he asks this and Dark doesn't respond. Dark begins to unwrap the bandages around his eye and Ryan's eyes open wide. The Dark Sign plagues Dark and Ryan realizes what happened. Emptiness replaced Dark's eye and that emptiness was circled by a burning ring of fire.
In the games of Dark Souls, you had an item called the Dark Sign. This teleported you to the last bonfire you rested at but you lose your souls. In Cinder Souls, it could be used but it had a different effect. Instead of taking your souls, which you used to level up, it gave you a curse and began to turn your character hollow.
While being backed against a corner, Dark had used the Dark Sign to escape and is now aflicted with this curse. One thing doesn't add up in Ryan's mind though.
"How does any of this relate to the Abyssal Dragons?"
"After I used the Dark Sign, I was teleported about 100 feet away from our main camp, where my tent was located. After I left my tent, I saw the Abyssal Dragons fly down and began to command my hollowed comrades. They spoke in a deep and low voice that shook me straight to the core. I ran when I had the chance and managed to make my way here. I warned the village Elder and he made a request, which you, the God of Miracles himself accepted!" Dark yells and he has a tinge of revenge emmiting from his aura.
Ryan shakes his head as he truly despises being called a 'God'. He wasn't a God exactly, he was just good at the game. It was the idea of the masses to call Ryan and his party Gods. Ryan knew there was only 10 actual Gods and his power stemmed from one.
Ryan finally sighs and looks off to the side. Anger is building up inside of Ryan as he thinks about how fucked up this world is.
'If this world is truly as dangerous as the games that means a lot of the people transported here have died. I wonder why Dark and his group came here so long before me though. I will have to investigate more later, for now, I will have to show why I was given the title God of Miracles.'
"I will accept the request and slay the Dragons that have given you grief Dark. Not only that, but I will bring back your friends." Ryan says and Dark becomes skeptical.
"How are you gonna save my friends? Do you have any Humanities?!"
Ryan shakes his head and brings up his right hand to Dark's left eye that has the Dark Sign curse. A yellow light wraps Ryan's hand and a circle formation appears in front of Dark's eye. Soon the circle breaks and the Ring of Fire on Dark's eye begins to disapper and his bright blue eye returns to him.
Dark touches his left eye and begins to cry as it returns. Dark doesn't know what Ryan has done, but somehow he has found a way to rid the curse that is the sole reason the Dark Souls games exsisted. A way to get rid of being hollowed without having to get humanity from being given one by someone else or having to kill a human being, or boss.
Ryan made this miracle in Cinder Souls but he has never had to use it until now. He is glad that it works but the saving of Dark's life doesn't calm Ryan down. His anger is still flowing through him and Ryan knows he needs to do something. The Abyssal Dragons caused all of this pain to a fellow player and Ryan plans to avenge him and bring his friends back.
Ryan doesn't realize it but a piece of his face became ash and fell off. There is only one thing that causes this to happen and it not hurt Ryan.
He is becoming Cindered again.
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