The raven soared through the cloudy sky, leaving the desolate mountains of the north. It flew for what seemed like hours until we finally reach it. The land of Lordran. The dark clouds parted, sunlight breaking through and shining down on the ancient kingdom. It was majestic. The raven swooped down and dropped me on the ground before taking off again. I stood up, a bit nauseous from the sudden halt. I looked at my surrounding. The raven had dropped me off in a circular clearing surrounded by ruins. There was a blazing bonfire in the middle of the clearing. Blazing. The previous two bonfires in the asylum hadn’t been smoldering like this one. This bonfire was different. I drew close to it, like an insect attracted to light. Suddenly, the fire started to move, as if it were alive. Tendrils of flame gathered together, forming a humanoid figure that hovered above the bonfire. “Hello young chosen one. I have been awaiting your arrival for quite some time now.” The being raised its arms. “Welcome to the last vestige of humanity, Firelink Shrine.”

I looked around. This was the last vestige of humanity? There was only one more person here. I fell to my knees. No. This can’t be. I had hoped there would be at least a few dozen undead who had still retained their sanity. I need human interaction. I need to remember what I’ve lost, so I can continue to fight for it. But those were just hopes. And again, this cruel world reminds me that the only purpose hope has is to be destroyed. I looked over at the man residing on a broken pillar. He was sitting, just staring into the flames. He hadn’t even acknowledged my presence. His eyes were cloudy and devoid of emotion. His face was expressionless. A broken world creates broken men, and this one was beyond repair.

“You seem disappointed. Do not worry, just because there aren’t many people at Firelink Shrine does not mean there are none outside of this place. Throughout your travels you will meet those who will become your allies. You can try to bring these people back to Firelink Shrine, to unite those who are for your cause. But be warned. Everyone who has retained their sanity till now has without a doubt done heinous things to survive. Do not let their cruelty corrupt you.”

I stood up, eyes filled with ambition. The being nodded at my newfound resolve.

“Good. Now we can begin. My name is Ikiw, essence of the flame, and I am here to help you along your pilgrimage. Come here.” I approached the bonfire. “There are elements of being the chosen undead that you have yet to discover.” Ikiw placed its hand on my head. Its touch was strangely cool for a being made of fire.

“Have you felt something enter you after you kill an enemy?” I nodded my head. “What was entering you, was the souls of your enemy. The stronger an enemy is, the more souls they will have.

Intelligence, Vitality, Attunement, Endurance, Strength, Dexterity, and Faith. These are the seven areas inside the human body one can improve in. You can increase your mastery in these areas by sacrificing souls acquired from the enemies you have slain, a process called leveling up.”

You currently have 2288 souls. Enough to level up three times.”

“You seem to be a sorcerer, seeing that you carry a catalyst. If you want to make your spells stronger, I recommend you increase your intelligence. Raising vitality will give you more health. Attunement allows you to equip more spells. Endurance lets you wear heavier armor, run longer distances, and block stronger blows. Strength increases the power of your physical attacks. Dexterity allows you to use unwieldy weapons, and at higher levels it can decrease the cast time of pyromancy spells, if you decide to pursue that branch of magic. Faith increases the power of miracles, again, if you decide to pursue that branch of magic.”

I laughed dryly at that last one. How could it be so simple to increase one’s faith. It’s much more easier to lose faith than to gain it. Still, I suppose I was wrong for looking down on the hollow that was praying inside its cell in the Undead Asylum. If miracles still have power, then that would mean gods have yet to leave this world. But that’s even worse. That means they did nothing as their followers were slaughtered and turned into abominations. Not because they were powerless to protect them, but because they simply didn’t care. They did not leave this world, but they still abandoned it.

I weighed my options before making a final decision. Ikiw nodded in approval at the advances I chose. “Good, two in strength and one in intelligence. Even if you are a sorcerer, it isn’t wise to advance intelligence by itself. No matter how strong your spells are, it doesn’t matter once you run out of them. Especially at lower levels of attunement, where you can’t equip many spells.”

The souls I had acquired till now coalesced in my body, and Ikiw absorbed them through his hand. Three strands of golden light then emerged from his fingertips and entered my body, traveling to my arms and head. I moved my arms around. I had expected something more.

“You most likely will not be able to tell the difference after improving your strength and intelligence by such a small amount, but I assure you, it worked.”

I nodded. I would take its word for it.

“On to the next subject. Look behind you. Do you see that corpse?”

I turned around. There was a corpse laid across a well. There were wisps black smoke emanating from its body.

I walked to the well and peered over the edge. It had dried up a long time ago, the bottom so far down it seemed to lead to the underworld. I might have imagined it, but I thought I heard the wails of something down there. I reached over to the corpse and pulled it off the well. The black smoke was coming from its hand. No, something it was holding in its hand. I reached down and tried to take the object but its hand was like a vise, refusing to let go. I pried its fingers open and took the object. I looked back at the corpse. For it to cling to this so hard even after death, it must have been precious to it. I observed what was in my hand. There were actually three objects. They looked like three globs of mist. Black mist concentrated so highly it became tangible. I walked back to the bonfire.

“The black sprites you hold in your hand are humanity. Now, offer one to the bonfire.”

I’m not sure how, but I knew what to do. I raised a humanity in my hand and crushed it. It exploded, turning into thousands of particles that entered my body. I walked to the bonfire and kneeled in front of it. Bowing my head, I raised my right hand to the flames and pulled my left hand towards my chest. I felt the humanity inside me surging through my body. It was excited. My body began to change. The wrinkles faded, my skin turned back to the color it was before I died. I could feel the muscles around my bones regrowing, my figure becoming less of a corpse and more of a human. My eyesight became sharper. My hair grew out as well.

I blinked. The whole world seemed different...it seemed more alive. So this is what it was like to be human. This is what I am fighting for.

First of all, Ikiw is not in the game. He is the character I mentioned before that I would add in the story. I put him in the story for progression, because without guidance, it would be a much longer journey. And then there's the mechanics with Ikiw I used to replace the tables(btw I didn't name him that because I'm lazy, but because I like having fun with names).

So what do you guys think between the two chapters?

I admit, I've been completely awful at responding to comments, which is something I'm going to work on from here on. I haven't responded to any of them, but I have been reading all the comments, and I'm really happy about the positive feedback, especially on the side story. A lot of you guys have been asking about implementing multiplayer features such as phantoms and messages. My plans can always change, but for now, I'm going to write the story from the viewpoint of someone playing Dark Souls singleplayer. I'll still add npc phantoms such as Kirk and Leeroy. But again, my plans can change, and I've been thinking of a way to tie in invaders to the story.