Vyr’s Journey Through The Multiverse - Chapter 17

Vyr was thrown out in a small cave overgrown with plants and roots. Looking around she recognized it as the starting area of the dlc to dark souls one. She layed on the ground for a bit longer before standing up and starting to move.

‘Oi system what is this? Why am I starting here? Do I have to kill all the bosses?’

(system)<You must progress through the trial. System access will be restricted. No outside communication will be allowed.>

‘Fuck you too. That didn’t answer my question. But i guess if i’m here i do have to fight them all, or at least most of them. But if you think you can send me here and me not milk it for all its worth you got another thing coming.’

Vyr did a quick check over her equipment to see if everything was ok before she moved forward. She didn’t want to get caught in a tight spot when she could just check and avoid it. Walking through the tunnel she was in she could see the fog gate blocking the way. She shuddered at the possibility that it may be made of what she used to joke about with friends playing the game. Reaching forward she found it was a weird mixture of cooling fog and warm air, not nearly unpleasant as it seemed. The gate even had a nice amount of give if pressed softly. As she thought about using the fog to make a bed, she willed herself through the gate.

On the other side she met a clearing filled with inch thick water. The clearing was at the bottom of a circular whole in the ground. As she looked around a beast jumped into the area with her.

The animal looked to be a manticore, like the ones she studied about in the witcher world. The only difference she could see was the horns were longer and it had two pairs of white feathered wings. She smiled thinking it would be a short fight.

The Guardian who saw this smile got angry at vyr and rushed towards her. Vyr’s smile widened at the charging beast as she prepared to dodge the ramming attack and return an attack of her own. Sadly it wasn’t meant to be as the guardian wasn’t a feral beast. It had survived many battles, against many foes. It stopped its charge right outside Vyr’s range, and shot a bolt of lightning out of its mouth followed by a sting from its tail.

Vyr was surprised by the cunning the Guardian displayed with its feint and sneak attack. Thanks to her reflexes she was able to dodge the lightning while jumping over the swinging tail. As she looked down she cursed to herself as she watched the lighting spread throughout the water around where it landed.

When she reached the ground again she dashed forward, deciding it would be best to keep close to the beast. She zigzagged through a barrage of lightning bullets before drawing close to it’s side. As the Guardian took flight she lunged forward using her two scythes as picks, plunging them into the gapes of the Beast’s ribcage, before pulling down. This left two large gashes on its side, one which was covered in frost and another deeper one that seemed to have hit the lungs.

The guardian didn’t seem to like his new breathing hole, so he jumped away gaining quite a bit of distance. As it landed it reared back on its hind legs with its wings outstretched before throwing its weight forward. In doing so it somehow created a wave of water that smashed(?) towards Vyr. Vyr countered by freezing the water with her scythe before rushing once again to meet her foe.

The fight dragged on for a few minutes, as the Guardian would fly away every time Vyr got close. Having decided enough was enough Vyr used the invisibility that came with the scythes. While it didn’t make her undetectable, as her feet still splashed the water, it did give her enough time to get close before the beast noticed what had happened.

This exchange had pretty much sealed the end of the fight. With both of its lungs gone the Guardian could no longer fight. It’s breathing became shallower and shallower, before it eventually collapsed frothing a sickly pink foam coming from its mouth.

After finishing off the boss monster, Vyr quickly absorbed it, before continuing on. She went to the other side of the clearing, through another tunnel and up some stairs. As she exited she was in the Oolacile Sanctuary. Seeing the bonfire just in front of her, Vyr got excited and ran over to it. When she got there she followed what the characters in the game would do and held her hand above the hilt of the sword. She could feel her magic drain a bit before a sudden burning ȧssaulted her. Right above her heart a dark red circle started to brand itself on her. As the circle touched her, the energy in her armor rushed toward the brand and changed it. Now instead of the dark red it was a matching blue red mix as her eyes.

As she inspected the new addition she felt a sudden rush as something was pulled into the mark. Feeling the stream had come from behind her, she figured it was the souls the boss should have given. As she stared at the now blue red bonfire, she heard a voice coming from a bit aways “that’s new, what kind of being aret thou?” looking at where the female voice came from she could see a mushroom person(?) that seemed to have grown from the wall.

(Vyr)”Uh? Depends on who you ask. I like to think I’m a good kind though.”

“Sadly it matters not. If you are in this cursed land, you will eventually become a shallow husk like the rest.”

“Well aren’t you just a ray of sunshine. Well i can’t really blame you, this place is a shit hole. Sadly though I know worse.”

“worse , than this curse of corruption and never ending death? I doubt it.”

“There is a place called Yharnam, a land of constant night. Where the people hide and cower from a never ending plague, that changes men into nightmarish beasts. Some even grow in strength more than the beast I just killed. But enough about that, do you know where I can find the one named Manus Father of the abyss. It is my quest to end him.”

“That is a fool’s errand if there ever was one. I am Elisabeth, I will ȧssist thee to mine utmost. For I am one with the sorceries of Oolacile.”

“Ah! Sorry, I am Vyr BloodLotus a witcher”

“I have not heard of this witcher title before, would thou mind telling me of its origin”

“Not at all! It is a title given to those who survive the training and trials. Witchers are a kind of mercenary knights who can be hired for various tasks. We are like knights because of our superior and systematic training, and mercenaries because we take contracts and hold no allegiance, most of the time.”

“I see, so thou will take a reward for this quest thou aret on?”

“Yeah pretty much. Though probably not in a way you are thinking. Anyway do you know where i can find Manus?”

“I have heard, before all of this started they found something when expanding the prison. If I had to say it would be there thy should look.”

“Thank you, for the help. I’ll head there after a short rest.”

“I wish thee luck. May thine hunt be fruitful.”

After she was done talking to Elisabeth, Vyr went to rest by the bonfire. She wanted to try upping her stats, as she sat down near the fire a wave of white and blue fog/smoke radiated out from the bonfire. As she sat there she could feel her mark connect to the bonfire, drawing her in until she could see a replica of the level up screen from the games. All of her stats were grayed out except STR, DEX, INT, FTH.

Her stats that were changeable look like this:

DEX 20

INT 30

FTH —

‘Oi what’s with this? Why can I not change my other stats? And what abouts miracles, can I even use them with my faith like this?’

(System)<Your stats look like this because of your race. Since you can change things at will the bodily stats are unavailable. While strength, dexterity, and intelligence are also affected by the body. In this instance upgrading them will improve on efficiency and usage. While your faith is not quantifiable because of your relation to gods and trying to become one.you can still use miracles of course, but they will now scale off of you int instead.>

‘Yeah thats makes sense.’ Vyr thought before shifting some of the souls in her mark to the fire, she boosted her dex and str to match her int. After confirming the changes she could feel the quality of her muscles increase. The stats increased every part of her muscles and even her joints. It was an oddly good feeling as stats went through. Deciding this was good for now, she moved on to her int. She chose to just add five to the stat to feel the change. It was different to the feeling str and dex gave her. Where those were a warm almost emotional feeling, int gave her a cooling feeling. Doing some basic checks she found it too was a qualitative increase. Her reflexes, thought speed, and even mathematics speed went up.

Happy with her new upgrades Vyr stood up and waved goodbye at Elizabeth. Heading forward once more Vyr arrived in a large forest. In said forest was apparently a village’s worth of annoying half plant half people things, all of whom carried pitchforks. This didn’t bother Vyr as much as the giant armored Men(?) carrying metal hammers, who liked to join in fights just to outnumber Vyr. Neither of these foes were very threatening, just very annoying. The upside though, was that Vyr managed to find a set of armor called the Guardians armor laying around, as she swept the area clean.

Having found the now enemy and loot free woods satisfactory, Vyr proceeds towards the bridge she had seen earlier. As she was about to take her first step onto the bridge A giant Black dragon with a red gem embedded in its forehead landed on the far side. As the two stared each other down, the dragon broke eye contact first and flew away. Vyr let out a sigh and vowed to herself she would own, or at least befriend, a dragon as badass as Kalameet one day.

After checking the bridge once Vyr continued on following the path where she found a crystal lizard. She quickly picked the lizard up so it couldn’t scurry away. Tucking the struggling lizard under her arm Vyr walked forward another couple of meters. Just ahead was another plantman who this time held a pair of shears. She quickly ran up and kicked the man to the floor before stomping on its head, crushing it. She looked at the lizard under her arm, then to the enemies in the distance and thought ‘Damn! I wanted to take one of these with me and see if I could grow it. *sigh* oh well guess it’s not to be’. She adjusted her hold on the squirming lizard before breaking its neck with a sharp twist. She then cleared the second part of the forest the same as the first.

After clearing the forest she took a small break to admire the broken coliseum. As she gazed at the crumbling structure she could see some of the corruption staining its wall grow. Vyr had stopped to examine the spreading Abyss in the forest. She didn’t go so far as to touch it, but the system did say it was safe as long as she didn’t bathe in it for an extended period of time. This was of course counting her armor was in between her and it. Gathering what little she could remember of the area in the game, Vyr stood up and walked toward the lift down. Before she went through the fog gate, Vyr decided to end future problems early. She walked toward a man wearing a mask and trench coat. As Vyr approached he said “Hrm.. Oh let me Gu-“. sadly he did not get to finish his iconic lines as Vyr had already used the special ability of the Frayed blade to decapitate the treacherous man. She looted the poor unsuspecting man, and activated the short cut before walking back to the entrance of the coliseum.

Gathering her focus and steeling her will Vyr walked into the fog gate. On the other side a poor corrupted citizen of Oolacile was nailed to the floor by a great blade. The broken and battered form of Artorias held the blade in his right hand, as his left arm dangled uselessly by his side. His Armor still held the majestic presence it always had, even now as it was covered in the viscuse blue and black sludge that oozed out of the damaged pieces. Black mist congregated onto his being before being absorbed by him. This seemed to pain the broken knight as not long after he gave off a great roar, followed by him launching the corpse that was stuck to his blade at Vyr.

Vyr dodged the makeshift projectile while keeping her eyes locked onto the Knight. Artorias crouched down before launching himself skyward and slamming his sword where Vyr had just stood. She turned around quickly swinging her scythes at the man. This attack only met blade as Artorias had spun and used an attack to meet an attack. He followed this by quickly backing off before preparing a charging thrust. Vyr side stepped the over extended thrust and used her shorter scythe to gouge a hefty chunk out of the man’s thɨġh, hoping to slow him down. Sadly this was a short lived hope as the Abyss corruption acted as a replacement for the lost flesh. Artorias did a quick spinning slash followed by a second faster follow up slash to force Vyr to back away while dealing damage at the same time. In a way this worked as when Vyr blocked the first slash with her longer scythe’s head it had forced open a gap in her defenses, allowing a deep cut on the shoulder and upper arm.

Vyr Quickly backed off feeling the sword had only stopped after it reached bone. She was lucky it had only been a glancing blow, because if it had been a “real” hit with more of the sword’s weight behind it. She might have lost an arm. Thinking back the whole thing might have been a set up if he was willing to get hurt just to injure her. Shivering at the thought she willed her arm to start healing faster while she dodged Artorias’s attacks. As she dodged more and more she began to marvel at how the legendary knight wielded his blade. It was like he didn’t need to gain momentum at all! He even sped up mid swing many times. Even his slower swings seemed to try and bait you into parrying him before speeding up, slowing down, or stopping altogether, just to make you mistime the attack. He even incorporated the Abyss in some of his attacks as it would shoot out from his left arm every time he waved it. Seeing his strength and swordplay Vyr shivered once more at the realization that the Knight in front of her was weakened so much yet still she could bȧrėly compare. Yes he was still a great foe, but the thought of him not being able to fight to his full power and still outplaying her sent a cold chill down her spine. This man not only is no longer alive, he is fighting with his off hand as his real sword arm is broken!

Having decided to keep the offensive Artorias did a charging slash at vyr, where he practically slid forward and started a horizontal slash that became much faster after it started. This back and forth of small almost meaningless trade of blows continued well over an hour until Artorias backed off and started to summon more black mist. After the mist gathered around him he seemed to disperse it all at once before black flames lit up on his body.

Vyr saw this and said “Oh so that’s how it’s gonna be huh?! Well i guess i’ll start using magic too then.”

The battle started anew once more. This time Vyr used signs and her chains gained an even bigger advantage over Artorias. The new blackish flames seemed to have buffed the knight, giving him more speed and strength.

After a few more test exchanges Vyr finally made a real play. As Artorias went for an overhead smash Vyr sidestepped and hooked his leg with her scythe and pulled, this broke his stance when she combined it with a focused Aard blast towards his upper ċhėst. As the Knight fell she lunged forward with her other scythe and buried the blade in his face.

As she looked over her defeated foe she looked down at the greatsword vertically speared through her upper abs/stomach and lower ribcage. It seems like when Artorias fell she performed one final thrust. Vyr slowly set herself down and took out her estus flask setting it to the side before gripping the greatsword. She grit her teeth and with a solid tug she got it most of the way out. Vyr started cursing profusely before repeating the process pulling the sword the rest of the way out. With it coming out so too did massive amounts of blood and some of her organs. She grabbed the estus flask and downed all she could, she almost swallowed the Philosopher’s stone in it as well, before absorbing Artorias as well, to boost the healing process. After another bout of cursing, Vyr stood up and looked at the loot she got for ending the tragic knight.

The first thing she got was the Sword and armor, sadly but as could be expected, neither were in the best of conditions. The armor was fully coated in the abyss and barley usable. The system let her know she could trade it away for rewards later or keep it as a collectible, but she wouldn’t be allowed to use it. The sword was pretty much the same, but she did get a nice piece of information. If she used all the Artorias set pieces, rings included, and she reforged them, it would increase the final product.

(System)<Soul of Artorias the Abysswalker found! Would user like to A. integrate B.. reforge/enslave/resurrect C. Soul bind as shadow >