“Sunset?”

I twisted and turned, trapped.

“Wake up, Sunset.”

She sounded so sweet. It made me feel small in the best way. Like I was a child again, hearing my mothers voice calling to me, beckoning me into her loving embrace. My heart beat like a drum.

“Here. Maybe this will work.”

I heard the scraping of metal and was enveloped in a blinding light.

I put up a hoof to block out the light while my eyes adjusted.

A mare stood by the window. Tall, regal, coated in white fur and a golden regalia. Her bright rainbow mane fluttered behind her in the nonexistent wind. She spread out her godly wings to try and protect me from the sunlight beaming in through the window behind her.

“Whoops. Didn’t mean to blind you,” she said.

“Celestia?” I whispered.

Sure enough, it was her. She stood over me, the great horn on her forehead awash in a golden glow. Her smile warmed me more than any ray of sunlight could ever dream.

“Good Morning, my little Sunset,” she said.

I struggled with my bedsheets, trying to sit up. “Celestia, what’s going on?”

“I told you that I would be waking you up at dawn for your first day.”

“Well, can’t you move dawn back an hour or two?” I asked through a yawn. “I’m still really tired.”

“I am afraid I cannot,” Celestia explained with a chuckle.

The softness of her laughter gave me butterflies.

Celestia waited patiently as I crawled out of bed. I tossed my hind legs over the edge of the bed, putting my hooves flat against the floor as I stretched. I made a few unladylike growls of exertion before finishing with a long, relieved sigh.

“Well, I guess I can’t stall anymore,” I joked as I slid out of bed.

As I stood beside Celestia, I realized just how small I really was. At my current size, I hardly stood as tall as her knees. She turned and started toward the door, and I had to gallop to keep pace with her.

With a flash of her golden magic, she pulled open my bedroom door. Together, we stepped out onto the purple and gold carpets that lined the hallways of Canterlot Castle.

“So, what’s my first lesson?” I asked, practically bouncing alongside Celestia.

“In due time, dear Sunset,” Celestia said over her shoulder.

As we walked, I watched out the window. From this high up in the castle, I had the perfect view of Canterlot. A fresh blanket of snow covered the many shops and restaurants of the city. The mountain stood over it like a guardian. I could see the sunrise on the horizon. It was late enough to hear the birds singing their tunes, but still early enough that the hustle and bustle of city life had yet to begin, leaving me in the perfect moments of peace in between.

Celestia’s voice roused me from my thoughts. “I know you only recently passed your entry exam, but I thought we could begin today by going over the types of magic you’re most comfortable with. That will allow us to establish a good baseline. Don’t you think so?” She glanced down at me.

I started skipping. “Whatever we do, I’m going to ace it,” I promised.

I made it a few more steps before pausing.

Celestia had stopped moving. She froze mid-step, though her mane continued billowing. Outside, the sun reversed its course. It sank below the edge of the city, plunging the landscape outside back into night.

No. That wasn’t right.

This wasn’t nighttime. It was darker. No stars lit the sky.

I gasped as I noticed the abyss encroaching. Line by line, I watched the snow-covered shops and homes fall into the void. I tugged on Celestia's foreleg, but she didn’t move.

Meanwhile, the darkness crept closer, swallowing up the golden castle gates.

Then the courtyard.

Then the lower levels.

And then there was nothing but darkness.

I felt myself falling. I screamed and reached out to hold on to Celestia.

But she was already gone.

I smacked the back of my head against the stone and screamed.

My reply came in the form of a nearby dragon’s roar.

Massaging the newest bruise on my scalp, I sat up. I was sitting beside the bonfire on the tower roof. That one that I managed to light just before the knight . . .

My throat went dry.

Before the knight killed me.

I supposed that I really shouldn’t have been shocked by it. It wasn’t the first time I’d died here. Still, that peace, that numbness that accompanied each death . . . it probably wasn’t something you ever got accustomed to.

I pulled my knees up to my chest.

In my head, I quickly ran through a list of my recent memories. Mister Knight finding me in the graveyard. The judge. Firelink Shrine. The wall. The dragon. The evil knight. There didn’t seem to be any gaps. Of course, if there were, I wouldn’t remember.

I needed a better system for tracking my journey.

More importantly, though, I still remembered Twilight. I could picture her face, imagine her voice. And the rest of my friends, too, of course. I wouldn’t want to leave them out of it.

I was lucky, it seemed. I’d avoided losing memories.

Now that I was sure that I was all here, I needed to check my gear.

My flasks were back in my bag. They were glowing again. My dagger had straightened back out into a usable condition. The cleric’s chime looked newly polished. The sinister-looking axe I’d received from that strange treasure-chest monster leaned against the wall nearby.

My armor was good as new, and when I lifted it up to take stock of my body’s condition, I found no trace of the wound that led to my previous death. I ran my fingers across my abdomen’s smooth skin. In my mind’s eye, I could still see the cut, could feel the blood spilling over my fingers and pooling around me. It made me light-headed.

Drawn by some sick curiosity, I turned.

There, by the wall, at the edge of a colossal scorch mark, I could see a bloodstain. My bloodstain. I could only describe the sight as surreal. Despite the puddle having already dried, I couldn’t help but feel a chill as I realized just how much blood covered the ground. Too much. Looking at it made me sick. I thought by now that I could tolerate the sight of my own blood, but apparently not.

I turned away and tried not to think about it.

I needed something to distract my mind. I reached into my pocket and found my phone. After holding the lock button for a few seconds, the screen lit up. I spent a moment admiring my background on the lock screen.

I typed my birthday into the digital keypad, opening up the rest of the phone.

Instinctively, I scrolled through a few apps. Most of them didn’t work. Shockingly, this medieval world of dragons and knights didn’t have cell coverage. I was still able to pull up a few songs that I’d saved directly. Good to know for the future, but not the best use of my limited battery.

I opened the camera next. I spent a minute or two scrolling through. I hoped that seeing all these photos of happier times would improve my mood a bit. Unfortunately, I met with the opposite result. Seeing all of my friends and I, at parties, at the beach, at school . . . it made me long for those moments. It also reminded me that I might never see such times again.

“Don’t be such a downer, Sunset,” I said to no one. “I will see them again.”

With a renewed vigor, I climbed to my feet.

I just had to keep reminding myself exactly why I was fighting. For the sake of my friends, for the sake of seeing my world again.

I walked down the stairs and into the tower. This was the tower I needed. There was a walkway about halfway down that led out to the city’s rooftops. From there, it was only a short journey down to the ground and over to that cathedral I’d seen from the wall.

Inside the tower, I waited. It dawned on me here that I wasn’t the only one who came back after death when I noticed the knight from before. He was back on his feet, with armor and weapon both restored. I hid behind the doorway and waited until he patrolled out onto the wall to spring over to the stairs on the other side of the room.

Like the top floor, the second one down was an absolute mess. Tables, chairs, crates, barrels, and all sorts of wooden things were piled around. There were also a few hollows around.

The first one stood at the bottom of the steps facing away from me. They looked different from the ones up on the walls. These ones were dressed with black shawls around their heads. Their outfits left much of their cracked, blackening skin exposed.

I was getting tired of fighting hollows.

Instead, I crouched as I descended the bottom half of the stairs. I gripped the haft of my axe tight and snuck into arm’s reach. With a silent grunt, I lifted the axe up and brought it down. It split the hollow’s head in two and continued down through most of his chest. His rotting skin practically fell apart against the axe’s dark edge.

I tried not to look at the aftermath, but got a pretty good idea of the damage I had caused when my axe got stuck. My attempts to remove it were interrupted by a hiss from behind.

Whatever training I’d gotten in my younger years, it was starting to come back to me. My body seemed to move purely through muscle memory as I drew the knife from my belt, swung around and caught another knife against the flat edge of the blade.

Another hollow stood behind me. He’d probably been hoping to catch me off-guard like I had to his friend. Fortunately for me, their dead bodies snarled and groaned like wounded animals as they moved.

I knocked the hollow’s blade aside, opening him up for a kick to the chest.

My opponent flew backwards, crashing into a pile of barrels and splitting a few of them open in the process. A dry, gray powder spilled out through the cracked wood. It was the kind of powder used in cannons. The hollow started to rise, but I pinned him down with my knee and plunged my knife between his eyes.

It felt easy. The knife slipped through their flesh like butter.

I wanted to be bothered by that, but I wasn’t. I wanted to be disturbed over getting sprayed with blood every time I killed, but I wasn’t. The violence and killing were coming more naturally now, and I didn’t like it.

Maybe I was just numb to it.

Maybe dying had simply sapped the empathy from me. Was that a part of the undead curse? To deaden my emotions and strip away my humanity? Would I become like them? Mindless and bloodthirsty?

I closed my eyes as I ripped my axe from its bloody stump.

Something warm and wet splashed across my cheek as it pulled free.

At the other end of the room, I saw another doorway. Through it, I spied the walkway I’d seen from the first tower. Despite not being in the dark for very long, I had to squint when I stepped outside. Sure enough, to my left, I saw another dead dragon. A duo of hollows knelt beside it, bowing in reverence to the fallen beast.

As I approached, their prostrations turned to cowering. They put their heads to the ground and covered themselves. I thumbed the pommel of my knife as I watched them through narrowed eyes. I didn’t like leaving them here. Hollows were strange and unpredictable. If I left them, maybe they would try to attack me from behind.

I took a step back, shook my head, and pulled my hand away from my weapon. What was I thinking? They were no threat to me. With a shuddering breath, I turned away and started to climb down toward the rooftops below. As I made my way down the half-rotted rungs of the ladder, I could see the dragon’s long neck hanging off the building beside me.

It looked suspiciously similar to the other two, but I tried not to think too hard about that.

Stepping off the bottom rung, I landed on a rooftop of dusty brick. After a few steps, the ground changed, turning from brick to pale blue shingles. They were slick with dust and awkward to walk on. The only bit of traction I could get was when I stepped on the dry vines that had grown up and over the building’s walls.

Another group of six hollows were gathered on the highest point of the roof. They were formed into a circle, bowing fervently to one of the corpse-trees that had sprouted from a crack in the building.

Between them, the duo at the dragon, and the hollows up on the wall, I was beginning to wonder if this wasn’t just a dead land, but a land that welcomed death. These hollows worshiped the dead. Perhaps they envied the dead, hoping to appease them or join them.

I didn’t know what to think. It was strange and unsettling, like many things I’d witnessed in this world.

I did my best to avoid them, instead keeping my distance and skirting around the edge of the roof. It was a slow process, and I nearly fell to my death once or twice, but I eventually reached an overhang where I could climb down to the next level.

Taking a second to steel myself, I sat down at the edge and allowed myself to slide off feet-first. I dropped a solid four or five feet before hitting a wooden awning. I felt one of the not-so-solid planks crack under the force of my landing, but the whole of the frame stayed intact.

I dropped down again, same as I had before.

This time, though, I was aiming for a balcony. I hit the solid ground with a grunt. The tile I landed on wobbled, twisting my ankle and sending me stumbling into the stone railing. I caught myself, but wound up staring down into a deep pit between the building and the base of the wall. I groaned, watching a few bits of debris bounce down into the dark.

Behind me, two torches hung from the wall on either side of a large stone archway. Inside, I could see tables and chairs, lined up across the room. Shelves held bits, baubles, and books. Marching around the room, I could see another knight. Unlike the previous one that had killed me, this one carried a spear and a much larger shield. Just watching him lug that hunk of metal around was making my arm sore. Luckily, he hadn’t noticed me yet, allowing me to duck out of sight before he got any closer.

I listened for the sound of his metal footsteps, only to realize that I could hear a second, louder set of footsteps. If I closed my eyes and listened close, I could track them coming up from the courtyard below. After sneaking a peek around the corner and seeing the knight had his back to me, I rolled past the archway and over to the other side of the balcony.

I was on the second floor of the building, allowing me to look down upon the courtyard. It was . . . well, to put it simply, it looked like the aftermath of a battlefield. Dozens of suits of armor were scattered around the courtyard. They were huddled together, in groups of five or six, all sitting, all with their heads down.

Or, at least, that would have been the case if they had heads.

From this distance, they looked almost like empty suits rather than corpses. Broken weapons and bent battle standards were scattered around the courtyard. More of the empty suits were gathered around a central fountain, which held a statue depicting a man holding a sword.

Fires raged at every corner of the courtyard. I could see more hollows, patrolling and watching from balconies all around.

But, at the far end of the courtyard, I could see a flight of steps leading up out of the courtyard and through a larger archway. Over the small wall, on the other side of that gate, I spied the cathedral that I’d seen from above.

But it was more than empty suits of armor that blocked my path.

From here, I could also see the source of the heavy footsteps that had drawn me here. I’d say he resembled a knight, but not like the other ones that I’d come across. In fact, he more closely resembled the judge I’d helped battle outside of Firelink.

He was tall. Too tall to be human.

Unlike the judge, whose sleek physique resembled a living statue, this knight wore shining silver armor with enough bulk to make him look fat. Tattered scraps of blue fabric waved off him as he patrolled. Two spiky, silver crescents protruded from his back in the shape of wings.

To match his enormous size, he carried a halberd bigger than I was.

I was having enough trouble with the smaller knights, but this giant was in a completely different league. His insane bulk might let me outrun him, but that wasn’t a chance I wanted to take if I didn’t have to. I would have to turn around and see if I could find another way. Maybe one of the houses here had a path that would take me around.

Then my eyes started to water. Below me in the courtyard, a fire blazed. The column of smoke was enough to bother my sinuses. But that also gave me an idea. Above, on the walls, the wind blew hard enough to dissipate the smoke. But down here, trapped between buildings, the smoke swirled and roiled like a sea.

If I could keep low, I could use the smoke to cover me.

That could work. And, worst-case scenario, I would just have to run.

Now, I just needed a way down. The entryway to the building behind me was a no-go. Not with the knight waiting for me there. But a short hop over the balcony rail would get me onto the roof of the next building. From there, I could slide down onto a lower balcony. That might have been close enough to drop down the rest of the way.

I waited for the patrolling spear-knight to turn his back and climbed up onto the railing. The gap between the buildings only measured maybe two or three feet, but if I missed . . .

I swallowed hard and stepped onto the other side of the rail.

It took a second for me to find my resolve before jumping.

I hit the roof and slipped onto my hands and knees. In my scramble to steady myself, I kicked one of the shingles away, only to hear it shatter on the ground after a brief time.

Okay. First part done.

I scampered across the rooftop until I was over the next balcony and dropped.

Another of the crossbow hollows stood watch here.

Maneuvering myself over him, I let go and slid down off the roof.

The hollow looked up just in time to catch a boot to the face,

He flopped to the ground under the weight, making him an easy target to finish off with my axe. I picked myself up and dusted myself off.

From here, it was still a decently sized drop down into the courtyard.

Still, it didn’t look far enough to kill me. Hopefully.

I took a deep breath and sort of skipped in place to get my legs ready for what came next. Before I could psyche myself out of it, I hopped the rail. I managed to slow myself by grabbing onto a windowsill, but that didn’t stop me from hitting the ground hard enough to make my body numb.

I tried to break my fall with a roll, which left me down on one knee amidst a squad of empty armor suits. I held my breath as the giant knight passed a few feet away from me. The cloud of smoke between us was decently thick, and the red parts of my hair kind of resembled the shredded banners around me.

The winged-knight swept his gaze over the battlefield, but didn’t spot me.

I waited for it to move on to the next section before running.

Careful not to disturb any of the armor around me, I pulled my collar up to cover my mouth and nose from the smoke and took off running. I made it about halfway across the courtyard before dropping down over the ledge to the lower section.

Here, I pressed myself against the wall, closed my eyes, and held my breath. I felt the earth shake as the winged-knight stepped up to the ledge, scanned the area, then turned and continued his patrol. That gave me just enough time to reach the stairs and dive through the gateway to get out of sight before the knight came around for another lap.

I pressed my back against the wall.

Then a crossbow bolt sparked off the wall just inches from my face.

Looks like I wasn’t out of the woods just yet.

To my right, a crossbow hollow was reloading. He finished just in time for me to knock the weapon of his hand with my own. He reached for the blade on his belt, but wasn’t able to draw it before I buried my axe in his shoulder.

The hollow gasped and sputtered as it collapsed into a pool of blood.

Now, I had a moment to breathe.

And just in time, too, because the sight that greeted me when I stepped forward was . . . breathtaking. I found myself standing on a stone pathway that ended in a flight of stairs. At the bottom of those stairs was a four-way intersection. Ahead, another flight of stairs went up. To the left, a bridge-like walkway that led to the front steps of the cathedral. To the right, a flight of stairs led down to another courtyard. One that looked like it led through the base of the high wall.

I stood in awe for a moment. This was the first part of the city that I’d come across that didn’t look dead. Gardens lined the pathways. The beds were overgrown with grass and weeds, but also sported large golden bushes the color of autumn fire. Vines and ivy were wrapped around the stonework, carpeting the headless statues and fences along the path with a lurch carpet of greenery.

Sunlight spilled through the buildings, forming thin rays of light that only cast the sight in an ethereal glow and served to highlight the cool colors of the cathedral’s stained-glass window.

I descended the stairs, hearing and feeling the soft cushion of crunching leaves beneath my boot. I closed my eyes, and could picture myself walking through the parks back home, feeling the cold wind on my face and the warm sunlight on my skin.

When I hit the bottom step, I opened my eyes again.

I was standing on a broken cobblestone street, staring up at the decrepit, yet hauntingly beautiful monolith of stone that was the cathedral. It was hard to judge its size from up on the wall, but here, as I craned my neck to see the entirety, I realized just how massive the structure really was.

The cathedral wasn’t the only thing of interest here.

There were more bodies.

Sure, some were the knights and soldier hollows that I’d seen already, slain by the sharpened edge of a blade. But there were others, too. At first, I thought they were merely some sort of empty suit, like the armor up in the courtyard. As I got closer, though, I saw that wasn’t the case.

They were dressed in black cloaks covering every inch of their skin, save for their hands. Between their weathered fingers, they clutched gnarled, weathered staffs, each of which had a golden incense burner hanging from it. Their bodies were motionless on the ground, crushed beneath the weight of a heavy, shell-like rock chained to them.

The shape of their bodies suggested that they had carried those stones for years. I briefly wondered why. Were they prisoners, chained to drag the weight of their sins with them wherever they went?

Or were these burdens self-inflicted?

I turned and walked to the top of the descending staircase opposite the cathedral. More of the stone-laden corpses. All kneeling in death, all holding their staff tight.

Believe it or not, I was growing used to the sight of bodies.

But these were different.

They weren’t cut down like monsters, just left to suffer and break under the weight of their chains. I wiped a tear from my eye before I even realized I was crying.

Here, one final thing caught my eye: a fog wall.

At the bottom of the stairs, blocking the threshold of the gate, a wall of rolling fog blocked the path. I’d seen one before, back when Mister Knight and I had returned to challenge the judge. I found myself drawn to the wall’s white glow.

Before I realized what I was doing, I was descending.

As I neared the fog, I heard the sounds of battle on the other side. Clashing metal. Crunching stone. Cries of defiance and monstrous roars. Someone was in there, fighting something big.

I turned, looking back at the cathedral at the top of the stairs.

That was where I needed to go, but . . .

Someone was in trouble. They needed help. I couldn’t just turn my back on that.

I’d seen how cruel this world could be. I’d seen what happened. What if Mister Knight had never saved me? What if I’d been left alone in that graveyard to be slaughtered by those hollows? I had to do something. I adjusted my armor and checked all of my gear one final time before reaching out toward the fog.

And then recoiled.

It was freezing cold.

The last one hadn’t been like that.

Still, that didn’t change what needed to be done.

I squared up to the wall again. I pushed my hand through, ignoring the numbing cold up my arm as it slipped through. I closed my eyes and took a step. The cold enveloped me for a moment before I opened my eyes.

My jaw dropped.

I was standing in another courtyard at the base of the city wall, made entirely of cracked and uneven stone. The wind carried a winter chill with it now, along with a healthy dusting of snow and ice. In the center of the courtyard stood another giant knight.

This one wasn’t the same as the winged-knight, though they shared some visual similarities. Large, decked out in full silver plate. He had the bulk of the winged-knight, too.

Except, this knight was even bigger, easily the size of a building.

And this one was definitely not human.

The beast moved on all fours, dashing around on his hands and feet like a rabid dog. Admittedly, for his size, he could move fast, too, charging from one end of the arena to the other in only a few seconds. An aura of frust emanated from him, coating the stone around him in ice. In his hand, he held a mace the size of a small car.

Luckily for me, he seemed preoccupied with something.

A single knight stood in opposition to the snowy beast, panting and hunched. I recognized the familiar battle-scarred steel armor, the longsword, and kite shield. I felt a chill run up my spine, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

I reached into my pocket and pulled the chime free.

With a familiar twitch of magic, lightning coursed through my fingers, stretching out into a javelin bolt. In front of me, Mister Knight took off running as the colossal knight lifted his mace. Whatever the thing was planning, it opened itself up perfectly.

I took a running start, and with a shout of my own, launched my spear.

The lightning bolt crashed into the snowy giant’s chest dead center, knocking it onto its back. Mister Knight stopped running and turned to see who had just saved him. I offered a simple wave in return.

“Sunset?” I heard him ask.

“In the flesh,” I said back, my voice teetering on the edge of laughter.

“I . . . What are you . . .”

The courtyard rumbled as the giant recovered.

“Kill this thing, then we can talk. Deal?” I asked, forming another bolt.

Mister Knight stared at me for a moment before turning back to face the giant.

“Deal.”

Author's Note

Welcome back.

The High Wall of Lothric is so much longer than I thought it was going to be.
That's kind of intentional, I guess. The first level is kind of a slog when you're playing the game. Suppose it only make sense. This is her first playthrough, after all.