Nox awoke to the strangely familiar sounds of the old Bonfires of Dark Souls, and blearily looked around to find himself in a very, very old and crumbling mixture of a garden and a cathedral. Moss, vines, flowers, all kinds of plants covered the crumbling stone brick walls of the cathedral, tall, tall grass covering the floors. Overgrown hedges lined the area around the bonfire in a circle, the grass having grown to half the height of them, whilst two paths lay ahead and behind him. One led to a fountain area with two ponds on either side, covered in moss and lillies, while the path behind him led to a steep set of wide stairs leading down into a gigantic, overgrown city.

Nox stood up slowly with a groan as he noted the cathedral, which was open-air, had statues of what he could only describe as anthropomorphic horses wearing togas, both female. They held bowls filled with arrays of flowers.

He looked up to find the sun looking like the Dark Sign from Dark Souls, sky a number of shades of red.

“...Well. That certainly confirms my suspicions. Guess that’s why we were given such realistic sets,” Nox sighed in resignation, pushing himself to his feet and took a look around with Artorias’s Greatsword resting on his right shoulder. “So...wonder if anyone’s home...or Undead.”

He received no answer from the empty cathedral garden, only the burbling of the fountain behind him, and the crackling and humming of the Bonfire next to him.

Nox looked down at his left gauntlet and willed his Pyromancy Flame to manifest, causing his left forearm to burst into oddly gold-tinted flames before he aimed his Flame to the sky and attempted to throw a fireball into the air to act as a flare.

He was not about to leave the Bonfire anytime soon, so anyone in the area was going to have to come to him, instead.

Again, nothing. Save for the squawking of a few errant birds, that is.

“...Fuck it. I’ve got armor, two or three Big Fucking Swords, and a multipurpose flamethrower. I’ll be...mostly fine,” Nox grunted as he headed towards the fountain area first. He soon found a familiar sight. Standing tall behind the fountain was a Pharros Lock, covered in moss, but the face was undeniable. A very, very old and very overgrown wall stretched out to either side of it, the plants covering it nearly entirely. Nox looked down to find, to his luck, a Pharros Lockstone.

Not bothering to question the absurd convenience, Nox grabbed the Lockstone and headed over to the Lock, then shoved the stone into the receptacle.

And immediately jumped back in case the Lock ended up spewing lava or poison or something. To his confusion, as this had never happened in the games, it spat out a familiar pendant.

“...This seemingly useless thing?” Nox mumbled to himself as he kneeled down and picked up the pendant, gazing at its worn features before sighing and stuffing it in a pouch on his right hip. “Eh, might as well, if I’m being given it for free.”

Nox then turned around and headed down the other path. As he passed the bonfire and reached the stairs, a massive wall of earth sprang up in front of him, blocking his way down. He then noted that the pendant in his pouch started to grow warm in response.

“...Either you’re keeping me here, or my way out, little Miss Pendant. Let’s find out, shall we?” Nox exhaled as he took the pendant out of his pouch and held it up to the wall. The earth slowly turned gray and cracked, then crumbled away, allowing him to descend the gargantuan set of stairs.

Nox wordlessly stuffed the pendant back into his pouch and continued down the stairs, Artorias’s Greatsword resting softly on his shoulder as his eyes continuously scanned his surroundings. He looked out to the streets of the city below, noting the architecture had a theme. Nearly every building was open-air or had a skylight, and every building, without exception, had a garden added onto it somehow. He also noticed that the city seemed deserted. Not even any Hollows or Undead around. At least, that he could see. He was pretty high up.

Concerning, but it didn’t pose any kind of immediate threat, his mind deduced as he kept scanning his surroundings, sword arm tensed and ready to lash out at a moment’s notice.

If there was one way that being in the military actually benefited him afterwards, it was the heightened situational awareness that one developed after being shot at and nearly getting the contents of one’s skull painted across the helmet of the guy next to you.

“Wonder if these guys were druids or something. All the nature shit certainly suggests some kind of nature-centric culture. Open-air buildings allowed for better garden irrigation and a clear view of the sky, and prevented any kind of airborne attack from coming in unnoticed. Smart...if they weren’t probably all dead by now,” Nox mused as he stopped to look at a plant bearing very familiar seven-pronged leaves. He then looked around, shrugged, and broke off as many leaves as he could and stuffed them in his pendant pouch.

And then, out of nowhere, his pouch was nailed to the railings of the stairs by an arrow, and he calmly looked around to see a knight with roots growing all over its body, only the armor was made of stone similar to Havel’s set, and the helmet had a visor that was opened enough for Nox to see the rotting muzzle of an anthropomorphic equine. It raised a very beautiful looking bow that seemed to be designed to look like it was two tree branches woven together, and notched an arrow back.

“...Hollow, or still have some sanity in you?” Nox called out, not wanting to kill the first sorta-living thing he’d met in this new hellhole of a world. His answer was an arrow bouncing off of his chestplate.

“...Well, ‘least I tried,” Nox shrugged as he charged towards the Hollow, his Greatsword held just behind his right side. He jumped over the railing and onto the terrace, flowers being crushed under his boots as the knight pulled out a strange weapon. It was like two daggers connected by chain, but one dagger had a hooked end. The whole thing was decorated with bronze and made of gold, and the knight kept one hand on the handle of the dagger without the hook, swinging the weapon in its grasp.

A fireball thrown directly into the conveniently opened visor was Nox’s response to the flashy and impractical weapon his opponent was using. The Hollow screeched in pain, dropping it’s weapon and clawing at its face, trying to put out the fire. Nox then planted the tip of his Greatsword firmly in the Hollow’s braincase. It let out an inhuman screech, then collapsed, and Nox felt and saw what he assumed to be souls jump out of its body and into him, filling him with an odd euphoria and a strange urge to kill more.

“Mmm, nope. I’m not putting up with that shit, Mr. Undead Curse,” Nox shook his head as he yanked his blade out of the corpse’s skull, then flicked it to the side to get the blackened blood off of it before returning it to his shoulder. Then, the former marine went back to grab his pendant-and-weed pouch, removed the arrow, and reattached the pouch to his right hip.

“Now, then...wonder where else I could go,” Nox asked no one in particular as he looked around. He saw the terraces that laid on either side of the stairs, but looked back to where the stairs led into the city proper.

Nox nodded and headed down the path that led into the actual city, where he’d (hopefully) find someone that wasn’t a mindless murder-zombie to talk to and ask what the fuck was going on.

He reached the bottom of the stairs after a short time and found a number of Hollows just wandering around, from knights like the last one, to regular citizens.

“...None of them deserved this,” Nox sighed as he looked for a way around them. He saw many streets that likely wove around them, and decided they’d be better for now.

With that, he headed down the streets without any Hollows around them. In time, he reached a park, where he saw a… mare, he supposed, in a toga, much like the other citizens. The only difference was that hers had a pauldron of stone on the shoulder, and there was a scythe on her back. She didn’t look like a Hollow, and had an orange mane and tail, along with white fur and yellow eyes, which he noted were much larger than equines back on Earth. He also noted that he must be pretty back in the past, since the toga she wore, while armored, was much like those from Rome or Greece, and paid no mind to one side, meaning her left breast was open to the elements.

She didn’t seem to care, though, as she pulled out her scythe as she saw him, a wary look in her eyes.

“Hollow or sane?” Nox asked preemptively. She paused, as if not expecting the question.

“...Sane,” she answered, voice cultured and flowing like honey. She kept her scythe at the ready, however.

“So long as you don’t attack me, I won’t attack you. So, since I’m obviously not from around here, mind telling me why the Darksign is trying to eat the sun, and where I can find other sentient beings that aren’t going to try to devour my flesh the instant they see me?” Nox asked in a deadpan, stabbing the tip of his greatsword into the ground and resting his forearms on either of the rather large handguards.

“...Thou’rt new to this land, then,” she surmised, lowering her weapon.

“I literally just got here about...ten or fifteen minutes ago. Woke up back at the top of those stairs back there-,” Nox gestured to the point from whence he came by jerking a thumb back over his shoulder. “-in a garden with a fountain and a cathedral or something. Back where I come from, the sun isn’t dying, there aren’t Hollows, and there certainly aren’t any of...your species around. So, yes, I’m new to this strange land.”

“I see…” She looked to one of the trees. “Well, this land is known as Erra, homeland of us Earth Ponies. Now, it is but ruins, the old inhabitants Hollowed ages past, and I am all that remains of the old Caretakers.”

“Shame. Any remaining civilians? Or you the only one of your kind left?” Nox asked bluntly, not bothering to be tactful or sugarcoat his words with all the Hollows around. The mare shook her head slowly.

“I have nary a clue as to if there art others out there. I know only that this city, is lost,” she turned her view back to him. “Tell me, what is thine name? How didst thou cometh here?”

“Nox. As for how I got here...well, kind of a long story, but to sum it up: Two friends were on a camping trip with me in a forest, we found an old abandoned mansion, we went in and got locked in by a disembodied voice that called us the Chosen Knights or whatever, then gave us three sets of armor and equipment, and then we jumped into a portal that appeared in a doorway...and I woke up back there. Now, your name? I did tell you mine, after all,” Nox explained as briefly as he could before gesturing lazily to her.

“Somber Nights,” she answered.

“Well then, Somber...what say you and I discuss what happened to this world, and maybe get the fuck out before anything else comes in and tries to kill us?” Nox suggested.

“I can abide by that. Come,” she gestured to the tree as she sat down near it. “Sit a while, let us converse, as thou’st seem to have such a yearning for it.”

“...I was thinking more of getting out of this particular place before, y’know, some Hollows hear us talking or smell our souls and come to kill us, and then we would talk. I’m not exactly keen on conversing in a place wrought with danger,” Nox elaborated as he straightened his back and pulled his greatsword out of the ground, bringing it to rest on his shoulder once more. The mare tittered, pointing to the strange, glittering white flowers surrounding the park.

“Those bear a scent that repel most Hollows. I am certain thou’st caught a whiff of it by now,” she said. She patted the ground next to her. “Come. This is as safe a haven thou wilt find in this city.”

Nox stared at the mare for a few moments, then nodded and sat down beside her, “...Fair enough, though I must inform you that I don’t actually smell anything besides air. No fragrance or Hollow-repellant.”

“Now...tell me everything from the start. The history of this world, when the Darksign started to appear...and why the world seems to be stuck near the end of the current cycle,” Nox requested, giving the mare a firm stare that was hidden behind his helm.

“Hmmm, well, the history of this world hath been lost to the…” she paused, seeming to ponder something. “...Millenia, I suppose, of Dark. Ever since the two Great Ones left with their two children - and those children became one with the order of the world much like their parents - the world hath been in Dark. The sun rises, sets, the Blood Moon rises, sets… Each day is the same.” She paused once more, hand stroking the blade of her scythe. “...And then, the Dark gained its most recent embodiment.”

“...Embodiment? As in...an avatar, through which it exerts its will…?” Nox half-asked, half-stated as he looked at the sun, then grunted and shook his head. “Well, guess it’s only natural that other worlds with the Darksign and all that comes with it would have their own Manus, too.”

“Thou’st encountered beings like this before?” she queried, turning her golden yellow eyes to him.

“No, not I. A Chosen Undead long before my time, one who Linked the First Flame and gave his life to give his dying world precious time to live, encountered that abomination. Manus was known as the Father of the Abyss, and was supposedly the source of all the Dark in our world, amongst its many timelines...and it is from Manus, or what he once was, that humans - the Chosen Undead’s and my race - were born, by him splitting his Dark Soul to create us.”

“To make a long story short...the Chosen Undead went back in time after Manus pulled him back, slew the beasts and Abyss-warped denizens of the city of Oolacile, at the bottom of which was where the Abyss was born, and then killed Manus in order to stop the spread of the Abyss. He was a hero...but his deeds were attributed to another, one the Chosen Undead felt was far more deserving of remembrance than himself. But those who met him remembered. And they passed it on through generations, until someone told it to me,” Nox finished explaining, making good use of his experience with Dark Souls.

“Intriguing…” Somber mused. She was silent for a long time. “Well, there is not much else I know or truly remember, so I am afraid I can say little more to explain what thou wisheth to know.”

“That’s alright, I understand. I’m just lucky that I’ve managed to keep hold of who I am for the past...hundred, two hundred years? I guess that having my friends by my side for mutual support helped, but regardless, I don’t blame you if the Curse has taken its toll on your memory,” Nox reassuringly waved a hand as he leaned back and stretched his back, eliciting a few satisfying pops in the process. “In any case...I don’t suppose that you would be willing to accompany me as I try to reunite with my friends and save the world by utterly shattering the cycle of Light and Dark, correct?”

The mare tittered. “A lofty goal. I wouldst be happy to oblige… After thou’st helped me with something.” She answered cryptically.

“Sure, so long as it isn’t rape, murder or something equally reprehensible,” Nox replied.

“Well, thou’rt a cheery sort, aren’t thou?” the mare joked dryly with a shake of her head. “Nay, this is more… More an endeavor. There lies a fiend below the city, within the Tomb Gardens. A fiend I wouldst like dead, so mine mind doth not weigh so heavy with the idea of its life poisoning the sacred ground.”

“...Alright, then. Before that, however, I need a description of the beast, any information about the area we’ll be fighting in, and any knowledge of weaknesses or resistances that that thing might have. Don’t wanna go in there with a fire-coated sword and find out that it’s made out of fire, among other things,” Nox remarked as he stood up, plucking a few of the white Hollow-repelling flowers and putting them in the pouch with the pendant and the other leaves he took. The mare stood as well, and Nox finally took note that her scythe looked to have a stone blade covered in black moss, while the rest was just gilded silver. He also noted the black moss seemed to continuously leak a viscous purple liquid.

“I can describe it, but I know’st not its weakness, only that it was heavily resistant to my blade’s poison. It is a cragodile, but like no other of its kind I hath e’er laid eyes upon. Its stone scales are lined with chain, so I can only assume it was once a prisoner, or pet. It bears a shell, like a turtle, but tis cover’d in spines and spikes. It hath two sturdy defenses in both its scales and shell, and I hath yet to figure out how to best it and slay it,” Somber explained as she walked towards the edge of the park, urging him to follow.

“Lightning. Lightning or raw blunt force as weaknesses. Aim for the joints where the scales would be weakest or absent for flexibility to reduce or outright cut off mobility. Aim for the eyes if possible to blind it, make unable to see and thus react as effectively. If possible, focus on particular parts of its hide where the vital organs, such as the heart and lungs, are located and weaken the armor at that point until it breaks, or you’re able to stab or strike through its hide and hit a vital organ.”

“Blood loss is a slow, possibly risky, but undeniably effective option for killing it, so long as it doesn’t regenerate quickly from wounds and we actually have enough time for it to bleed out. Avoid the jaws and tail, the former could likely bite straight through solid rock and the latter can both break your entire skeletal structure and cut you if the scales are sharp or abrasive,” Nox listed off all of the things they could use to kill the cragadile almost the instant the last word left the mare’s muzzle, the man following just beside her.

“Thou seemest… oddly knowledgeable, of these matters…” Somber noted as they walked down the abandoned, overgrown and crumbling streets of the city.

“I was a soldier in my country’s military for a couple years, got into exactly 17 life-or-death combat situations, and thus learned how to identify and how to exploit the various weaknesses an enemy combatant might have. Plus, I read a lot of books that covered historical battles and whatnot,” Nox answered easily.

“I see… Well, that is certainly useful,” Somber Nights mused as the two continued walking, the sound of her hooves and his boots clicking and clacking and thudding against the cobblestones becoming the sole sound around them, aside from the many small critters and their cries and skittering.

“...So, since we’re just walking towards a hard fight, can I ask why you’re wearing a toga that’s only covering one tit, without any other armor except for that pauldron? It strikes me as a very bad idea to be wearing simple clothes instead of metal or even leather armor against a giant reptile with stone for scales,” Nox finally asked, giving her the vocal equivalent of a raised brow in the process. “I’m asking cuz most people back in my homeland don’t exactly wear togas into battle...nor do our women casually allow their more private parts to be uncovered for all to see.”

“Tis the traditional Battle Attire that all Caretakers bear. Back in the days of yore, these clothes were commonplace,” She turned to him, raising a brow. “Why? Doth my bare breasts make thee uncomfortable in thine trousers?”

“Lady, I was around naked men and women every time I washed myself in the communal showers. I’ve seen more than enough tits, ass, pussy, and cocks to desensitize myself to that sort of thing. You casually having one boob uncovered doesn’t really bother me, or arouse me. I bring it up because it’s a major liability in combat. It might weigh nothing and not constrict your movements whatsoever, but it’ll also do jackshit against a sword, mace, fire, or what-have-you that’s coming right at you unless you’re fast enough; and even then, even if you’re faster than your enemy can hit you, all it takes is one little mistake to get you clipped by a sword, an arrow in your body, or a set of teeth the size of meat cleavers clamped down around your arm. Then, you’re fucked...by which I mean that you’re as good as dead,” Nox lectured, returning her raised brow with a tilt of his head.

She huffed, crossing her arms. “I shall not let the paltry fear of death or injury keep me from respecting my people’s old traditions, nor shall I simply let some beast end my life. He did not end nor harm me before, and he won’t in the future.”

“...Never said that death was the worst thing that could happen to you. If that thing’s feeling particularly vengeful and possibly wanting to stick its dick in something, it could keep you alive and trapped as a sex slave or breeder for the rest of your undead life,” Nox bluntly and brutally stated. “It doesn’t matter if you’re not a female cragadile or not. If it wants to make you suffer, then there are worse things than death that it could do to you.”

Somber Nights gave him a flat look, then sighed. “Thou’rt truly a source of hope in this bleak world,” she said before stepping up her pace.

“Considering that I’ve seen entire villages of men, women, elderly, and children burnt alive as part of a scorched earth war tactic, women raped into catatonia, and my own comrades explode in showers of limbs and gore, it’s hard to talk of sunshine and fucking rainbows,” Nox rolled his eyes as he kept the same pace as before.

“Well, in this world, thou shalt need to learn to hold out hope for once,” she called back as a large mausoleum entrance loomed ahead of them.

Nox snorted, “I have hope, lady. I’m just not letting myself be naive or overly idealistic in a world that couldn’t give less than a shit about you as it chewed you up and spat you back out. The world’s a fucked-up and cruel place, and it won’t ever go easy on you.”

Somber Nights sighed deeply and continued to walk. As they entered the mausoleum, skeletons filling shelves on either side as flowers and plant grew over them, Somber picked up a loose brick, and, to Nox’s mild surprise, she crushed it, somehow molding it like clay in her hands. And then, after she was done, it looked like a partial breastplate, and she strapped it to her bare side. She turned to him.

“Happy?” she asked irritably.

“Much better, now that the chances of you dying and leaving me alone in the world again are lower,” Nox answered, this time in a much softer tone. She clicked her tongue.

“Suck it up,” she said simply, before turning a corridor and walking off.

“...Did that 2 years ago,” Nox mumbled to himself as he followed after her, his Pyromancy Flame held up like a torch.

In time, they passed a number of chambers, and started to hear the sounds of feral snoring up ahead.

“Don’t rush in screaming, or else we’ll lose the element of surprise,” Nox warned. Somber rolled her eyes.

“Do not mistake me for some novice to combat,” she said, quietly pulling her scythe from her back as they crept around corners towards the sound.

Nox cut his Pyromancy Flame off to shroud them in darkness, then drew his Black Knight Ultra-Greatsword. They turned a final corner and entered a massive chamber filled with piles of skeletons and bones, all looking to have been gnawed on and chewed.

A positively massive crocodile with stone scales and a spike turtle shell, was sleeping on a pile of bones, chains wrapped around it. A large scar was on it’s eye, and Nox felt the oddest sense of deja-vu from the sight of the beast.

“...Gustav? ...Why did that name come to mind?” Nox mumbled aloud. Somber gave him a puzzled look, only for the cragodile to snort in its slumber and creak open a slitted, yellow eye, looking straight at them. Seeing Nox, it’s eyes lit up in recognition, and it sprang up, chains rattling, as it let out a loud roar of what Nox knew was hatred.

And then, to his utter confusion, he saw a health bar pop up below his vision, with the name, Gustav, The Old Foe, above it. And then the bar faded from view again just as the cragodile launched itself at Nox, claws ready to tear him limb from limb as many times as it so wished.

“GLAD TO SEE YOU MISSED ME, SCALE-BREATH!” Nox shouted with a sudden and utterly alien sense of sarcastic joy and recognition, rolling to the side as the claws swiped through the air where his body had been.

He then promptly felt his eyes widen when Gustav pulled a Scorpion and tossed it’s chains at him, wrapping them around his leg expertly, like the cragodile had had practice.

“...Well, fuck,” and then, the cragodile yanked him over, and sucker punched him in the gut, denting the armor plating and sending him flying.

“Sir Nox!” Somber cried.

Nox stabbed his greatsword into the ground, slowing him down until he skid to a halt at the other end of the room.

Then, he gazed back up at Gustav, his helmet’s mouthguard now contorted into a manic grin, “If you were trying to get payback for the punch to your balls, then ya missed, asshole! But that’s okay! You’ll get another chance, right now!”

Nox pushed himself back onto his feet and pressed his now-flaming gauntlet to his greatsword, wreathing it flames before gripping it with both hands, his helmet’s grin widening even more.

“READY FOR ROUND TWO, PAL?!” Nox shouted, the utterly unnatural grin on his helmet stretching just a bit wider.

The cragodile roared in response, rushing at Nox. It smacked Somber away as she tried to jump in and help, the cragodile having eyes for only him.

“THIS IS BETWEEN TWO OLD ENEMIES, MISS OPTIMISTIC! JUST ENJOY THE SHOW!” Nox shouted with a laugh as he charged forward, dragging the tip of his greatsword along the ground as he ran.

And then, the cragodile retreated into its shell, spinning itself as it barreled towards him.

Just as the cragodile came within striking distance, Nox swung his sword through the ground like a knife through butter in an uppercut, the flat end of the blade smacking against the underside of the shell and sending it flying up towards the ceiling. He heard the cragodile cry out, whether in shock, surprise, or pain he couldn’t tell, but the beast quickly turned it to his advantage as his arms popped out and flipped himself over, the spiked top of the shell now aimed at Nox and falling towards him.

A cackle escaped Nox’s lips as he swung his greatsword overhead, smacking against the shell and sending the massive reptile into the ground several dozen meters away, though two of the spikes pierced through Nox’s gauntlets, a trail of blood following the spikes through the air and splashing across the ground.

“GODS-DAMN, IT FEELS SO FUCKING GOOD TO FIGHT A BIG GUY LIKE YOU AGAIN! DOESN’T MATTER IF I’LL JUST GO DORMANT ONCE MORE, IT FEELS GOOD TO BE REAL, AGAIN!” Nox roared, his helm’s mouthguard splitting open with a wet, fleshy tearing sound to reveal a set of blood-soaked teeth underneath as he laughed and laughed and laughed.

“S-Sir Nox?” Somber queried, startled.

She didn’t get a response as the cragodile unfurled from its shell, then started to swing it’s chains rapidly, whipping them around. Then, before Nox could do anything, Gustav started to whip him with the heavy chains relentlessly.

The chains smashed into Nox’s armor with the horrid sound of metal tearing and screeching from the impacts, blood flying all across the ground as Nox continued to laugh, his grin getting wider and wider as he dashed forward, uncaring of the damage to his body.

“THAT’S IT! KEEP SLICING ME OPEN, GUSTAV! LET THAT PAIN KEEP ME HERE LONG ENOUGH TO FUCKING MURDER YOU AT LONG LAST!” Nox screamed, his left arm bursting into flames as he threw a fireball at Gustav’s right hand. “HAVE SOME MORE FLAMES TO CAUTERIZE WHERE I FUCKIN’ STABBED YA!”

Gustav smacked the flaming ball away, then bum-rushed Nox.

Nox stabbed his sword between Gustav’s legs, then jerked it to the left and right.

Two basketball-sized spheres fell to the ground with sickening squelches, and Gustav roared in utter agony, falling to the ground and writhing in pain.

“I FELT LIKE A KICK TO THE BALLS WASN’T ENOUGH OF A LESSON LAST TIME, SO MAYBE MAKING YOU A GIRL WILL WORK BETTER!~” Nox giggled in a horrifying way as he walked up to Gustav and gently lifted Gustav’s head by the chin to look up at him. “But don’t worry. Big brother Nox will make the pain go away~”

Nox then grabbed Gustav’s head by the upper and lower jaws, then twisted the reptile’s head a full 120 degrees to the right as he yanked the emasculated beast’s jaws apart with a bloody ripping sound. The cragodile gurgled and roared as blood spew out of it, but eventually, it fell dead, twitching a few times as blood seeped out of it.

Somber Nights approached Nox warily. “Prithee, Sir Nox, art thou sane now?”

Nox was silent as he turned around to face her, the impossible grin of the helm now receding and...healing back into its original form, “Yeah...yeah, sorry ‘bout that. It’s been awhile since I gave the fucker that scar and whatnot, and since I’ve been erased from existence for the past however fucking long, I got a little bit...carried away. My apologies if I terrified you. I’ll give you your reality’s Nox back. Just…” Nox...or whoever was speaking to her sighed, then looked up at her with a palpable sense of remorse.

“Tell him...that when he finds her, and he’ll know what I mean when the time comes...to always protect her. Okay? Promise me that you’ll tell him - please, promise me!” Nox suddenly begged as Somber felt...something, maybe reality itself, fixing something.

“I… I will,” she said uncertainly.

A sigh of relief escaped the being before her, “Thank you…”

Then, he was gone, and Nox shook his head sluggishly.

“What...the fuck just happened? I...everything just blacked out for me, though I remember...I remember killing Gustav, over there, but...I felt like it wasn’t me...and yet it was,” Nox said as he looked up at Somber.

“I do not know. But thou were frightening to behold with thine helmet turning into a bloodied maw,” Somber explained. “All I know is that thou underwent some change during the battle.”

“...Okaaay. Anything else?” Nox asked, feeling unnerved and wanting more than a little to kill himself before he ended up turning into some eldritch horror.

“A lot, truthfully. But first, let us find a spot to rest and recuperate. Oh, and grab the beasts soul, thou might procure use from it,” Somber said, starting to walk away.

Nox quickly grabbed Gustav’s soul before running up to catch her.

He found her sitting in a different chamber to the side, this one having the typical open-air garden. She was sitting on top of an overgrown stone bench, looking up at the sky.

Nox sat down next to her, then looked at her, “...So, what did the...other guy say to you?”

“Nothing, nothing, naught that really matters, that is, just…” she looked away.

“...Bullshit. Tell. Me. Now,” Nox demanded, fists clenching. She sighed.

“...I assumed it was about a lover, but regardless, he told me to tell thee to...protect her when thou finds her. I know not who this her is, but I can tell she is important,” Somber explained.

Nox was silent for a few moments.

“...I’ll protect her. Whoever she is, I’ll protect her to my last breath. He saved us the trouble of fighting Gustav, so...it’s the least I can do for him,” Nox finally said, rising to his feet and holding out a hand for Somber to take. “So. We killed that thing, now it’s time for you to hold up your end of the deal.” Somber simply looked to his hand, then slowly took it, letting him pull her up.

Then, for the first time since he’d met her today, she smiled genuinely at him. “Thank thee. That beast was… Well, he was a defiler.” She let go of his hand, then walked past him. She turned back to him. “Well? Shall we be off?”

“Yes. Let’s get going. Maybe along the way, we can find more of your kind and rebuild your world,” Nox suggested with a small chuckle as he walked side-by-side with her.

Author's Note

Part one of the first Arc, which I have taken to calling the Companionship Arc. Hope it's to your liking, my dear readers.