The merchant lost it long ago maybe she could be healed but for now it wasn't something he would take his time with, he had just gotten his newest and most important tool of the millennium.
A bottomless box, a truly bottomless box, there was no bottom, it was infinity, truly and he wouldn't stop using, from the scrapes of the barrels around to some old wood planks to old almost useless weapons to actual fighters.
He would take it all, and then there was the fact that how it could change its size with but a thought, so that everything would fit in, and its weight wasn't increasing, he was a lucky man today, not tonight it was never night in Lordran.
Elekta decided to go with the classic of a restoring toolbox, and some better armour, while Oskara decided for the smithing box to be capable of independently upgrading her weapons, maybe she didn't like the smith girl they just met but oh well.
It wasn't as if they all didn't have to share he got to transport the stuff for them, they kept him safe he gave them purpose jada jada.
Now to the important part, could he put corpses inside, calmly he went over to the slayen elite hollows of before, making sure no reinforcement came and was ready to snipe him, and he got himself a test subject, a girl no less, almost all enemies were women here, hmm strange.
But Noel couldn't be bothered by the realization that hollowing drastically shrinks a woman's three sizes, and makes them horrendous to look at, it just added to the number of reasons why he had to help this world.
She was dead, a husk of something that she once was, would the box take it, stripping her out of her armour and taking her spear from her all went into the box before her, now from the final moments, he started to slowly lower the hand into it and there was no rejection, the arm the shoulder the head and then the rest.
He did it he perfectly contained a hollow to his knowledge, did she need oxygen was air in the box, would it take some in how would he add it, or would it suck some in the second the hallow would revive, would it spit the then living creature out or was it a perfect containment for the undead?
No matter maybe he was stupid, in doing so but then her friend followed, and her stuff too, then all the other hallows that they defeated before, would at reviving immediately die, the box was capable of holding souls, would he have to check on its count to see what would happen, should he store his humanity inside of it?
So many questions but for now, the girls were still checking the wars of the merchant out looking for better wares and guess who gets to carry it then, this Noel is right here.
Although it was a bit strange for those that most of the time shadowed him, constantly to just let him roam around freely, well more into the box. Could he use it as a sort of trap, as its owner he could adjust the box size, could he extend it and then flatten it and just collect every hollow that ran up to him, could he himself be collected in it?
Too many questions and too little info, well he knew one could collect emotions itself primarily greed with them, greed directed at the item inside and it would over time make the box evolve into a fully fletched mimic, oh found memories of being mauled his first time and all the precious time he lost.
Considering how much this world seemed to be showered in lewdness until now, well closet comparison would be demonic mana from the monster girl encyclopedia, could he direct lust at the box until it turned into a girl or would maybe something more direct be necessary?
Considering he was holding a box so ancient it made most of the civilization still around look prepubescent, what would he get out of it?
For now nothing, so he had to fatten her up even if she could swallow endlessly, everything from dust to corpses to firebombs and so much more.
He had to go look after the girls now.
"So you done?"
"Yes my lord we are almost done"
"You are good customers but you won't get my girl! Hehehe!"
The merchant still misbelieving that her sword was her girlfriend, showed all the signs of going hollow, but had just enough wit to hang in there a bit longer, as long as she gave herself the purpose of looking after the sword, what the actual girlfriend in the sewers harvesting medicine, thinks about this, well it the sword was named after her so who was he to judge.
Some of that medicine could be useful, should he learn 'undead rapport' and send his own trained combat gimps around to collect stuff for him.
No need he already has Oskara and Elekta for now that would be enough.
Onwards with the journey, they could be here all day talking with the merchant but he made a note to come back here anyway.
The archers were already taken out, courtesy of his spells, so the bonfire waited.
Place inside of a tower, with broken stairs but thankfully some ladder smith or decorator already place a way around it inside.
Now the usual way in the game would have been to fight the Taurus demon, now hopefully a demoness and then go to the bridge with the wyvern. Then sprint underground and activate the shortcut, but there were three people they could just climb over the bit of the broken section and from there activate the ladder, skipping both the sun bro girl and a boss.
Live could be too easy, hmm he could go around and collect so many undead and treat them to an existence possibly worse than death, trapped in an infinite expansion of space, eternally falling, without ever capable of grasping something until they are held by an outside force.
"Hey Oskara do you want to destroy another demonic slave?", both girls peeked up at him, just sitting there while he was crawling over rubble to lower the ladder.
Neither really liked the demons, their torturers their wardens even if they were but slaves.
"Why do you ask?"
"Well with the ladder here we could just go around her, as a Taurus demon is most likely guarding the next big bridge and the wyvern from before the one after, but we can just go immediately to the wyvern girl if you want.", part of him left out that it going by statistics the chances of it being a Taurus demoness or in more derogatory terms a cowgirl.
Oskara did take the worst beating out of all of them so maybe she still has some beef with the general race, making her racist toward demons by definition, due to trauma-induced PTSD, but that could be explained by emotional instability due to early signs of going completely hollow.
She took a few necessary breaths, her face well kept hidden behind her helmet, she was questioning herself, questioning her motives and proposing and finally answered "My Lord the choice is yours to make.", Elekta kept silent.
"Well we can skip the worst of it but even then there is still someone I would love to recruit even if unlikely.", Noel really didn't want to have to make the choice since it might have some hefty consequences down the line but with how things were going he would at least grab the summoning stone from the sunny gal.
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In search of a purpose for her sun, she travelled the realms. Once long ago she used to be a mighty cleric in her order, her rank high in the church, but there always was something as the ages passed, and even the god's power dwindled she had to question herself and her beliefs more and more.
Over time the nagging feeling became ever harder to ignore, this world was lost for now, its embers dying, the old powers fading, She took the curse willingly, to die in her sister's arms and be awakened anew from that moment in she knew there were no more excuses that she called make to herself. The journey was a hard and long one but she had made it to the site her lady once frequented ever so often, here she would search for her very own sun, not one given by false prophets or gods but one she would discover herself.
The day never passed and the sunlight's blessing upon her never once faded, it was a beauty to behold to watch the divine object fixed in the sky's shine so bright and never dimming. It was glorious; all below it would have paid it its proper respect and duty for all it brings them.
She could remain the next hundred years here just watching it, might just be purpose enough.
The wyverness fire breath has been especially fierce ever since she came back from her little excursion, but no matter. If someone else sane still roamed this land they would find her eventually, so that she could give them her orders blessing in proper, and guide them.
Now even she was slowly roused from her yearlong daydreaming, no undead here to bother her she remained undisturbed for god knows how long, and without push into the cathedral church guarded by the lizard she continued to wait her out, the sun was just that great in rousing the memories of the family of light and their days of glory and victory. Century's she had to remember and she had the years to do so, for who wished it upon themselves to fight one such scaled one bread to bring devastation with but their breath.
Now as time passed and fire kept raining upon the bridge even she had to get worried about the structure's integrity after such an onslaught. How was she to find her master's statue and pay proper duty to it once more if not through the bridge?
The undead soldiers upon it were nothing but distractions there to keep her busy while the wyvern was patrolling, they had beaten her back and kept her busy in waves with proper support from archers, even her miracles were powerless against the numbers and now, charred beyond recognition, calling them white hot bone ash wasn't expressing it properly.
The darkness in their souls exhausted beyond mental stability but now maybe even beyond recognition, she felt the broken pieces of souls rush to her to fuel her prayers soon, but she wasn't the only recipient some others were around, somewhere she couldn't place. The stream of souls was recognizable the place not.
A voice was to be heard, the lizard was heard and maybe she too would become a dragon slayer, oh what would her lady say to her at that? It was wild unrestrained too loud to belong to a human, it screamed of pain and retribution, it was the wyvern herself up in the skies, her tail missing.
The bridge was light alight, as fire rained upon them, blood, tears and more among the falling sparks.
Standing up from the dazed introspection of the remains of her kin she heard a voice "See, see I told you Elekta when a dragon loses their tails they transform into weapons and now look at my new and improved Drake sword." The words had barely a meaning to her, as inaudible as they were, but someone out there on the bridge wasn't hollowed yet.
Did they walk past her? What was a savior of the many if a rain of fire would stop her, she had to come to their assistance. They were brave enough to try and wrestle with such a lizard surely they could be stupid enough not to think about the consequences of such actions.
Flames might rise from the spray of the pyres that her kind left in the fire, the sizzling of it wasn't silent by any means but she was sure of it that she heard a voice, or had time won out and her hollowing was coming. Then dying in the flames was a fine way to go out as any.
The fire was sizing her body, her nerves were frying, but her undead constitution would fight off the worst of it. Her armour would outlast her in the end, it was a shit way to go out.
The fire's agony was without words to compare to, her cells died in droves, and her muscles cramped and seized up, but she willed to continue even as her head was engulfed in one of the lizard's loose sprays. Her left eye was covered in the sticky fire as it burned, no matter what, one step at a time, one step at a time.
Part of her might have wished for her mind to be gone now, half of her field of vision was now gone, and the rest covered in red yellow and orange flames. She knew not why she continued, her knees were starting to give out she had to start sprinting now if she ever wanted to get out of here and have a future. A future for an undead was a silly joke, but as dead as she was in almost all manners her final end had for now to still be postponed.
"Do you hear steps?"
"Yes my lord I do."
There were voices again, coming from below her, the wyvern was letting her torrent of flames go, and the fire would find no hold on the stone for long, but how could the voices come from below?
"Who is there!", she screamed, maybe out of disparity at her own plight as she walked head first into this, her body's burning parts screamed in agony as the very divinity in her soul willed her flesh back into a state between death and live just the perfect sweet spot to maximize agony in the fire.
She used to be a knightess, a cleric to call her a divine paladin would be no overstatement but it was as it had to be, was that thousands or just hundreds of years ago, she couldn't recall not now in the heat of the moment, not when her instinct and mind were screaming at her to take cover while the lizard was preparing to attack once more, would she land before her, or just continue exhausting her throat.
She hesitated, her sight returning as the flames were dying out, whatever means the wyverness used to have her flames stick around was now gone, only a charred mess and heated fumes left neither good for the body but an undead wouldn't be stopped from it. Looking around she had to wonder about how to proceed she had passed the midway point of the bridge, usually, she would have been more careful but it seemed her good sense finally returned to her after a bit of pain and the voices were also silent.
The bridge shuddered as the mighty wyverness plopped her body endowed with strength in many aspects onto the bridge. Right before the warrior of sunlight, shield and sword in hand, she was ready to face it all, but would she survive or join the other soldiers in the end with her grudge and failure spurning her on to be an obstacle to all others that try and find their own sun.
Behind her a man and 2 women were peeking out of the floor from an angle, snickering and laughing at her for fighting obstacles straight on while the one man was simultaneously shaking his head at her and trying to discourage her, to the discouragement of his entourage, she never saw them, missed one of the reasons she stepped onto the bridge entirely.
The scaled women before her had to reorient herself, both familiar in their own ways with the other, neither sure what was to be attributed to the other that such an unusual behaviour was to be undertaken but neither would dwell on it either. Both readying their weapon, one wishing to breathe more fire from an exhausted supply and the other drinking estus to return to full strength.
Neither at the top, one burned in hellish fire the other missing a tail and blood, both women were ready to throw their lives away for their self-given mission. And Noel was watching like the coward that waits for others to exhaust themselves before swooping in to secure everything.
Talisman in hand she knew the conceptual weakness of all the scaled live forms in this world, how could she not, after the war even the children were told of the tales of old, lightning. Drawing upon her faith in the old belief in the firstborn, who to pay tribute to she wished to find one of her few last remaining shrines and made it a major point in her quest to pay tribute too, a sunlight spear would be enough to lessen her scales for now.
Against the natural weapons of terror in the skies, breed for battle, breed for superiority in the fight one of the last of her kind and instilled with a mission even without a rider she would not fail.
Sword meet scales, and fangs armor, both looked into deadly combat, weapons and health exhausted long before either meet the other. They should laugh about it neither responsible for the other's predicaments and yet they held each other responsible.
As the wyvern opened her mouth exposed her fangs to get a bite if not a full mouth of the knightess, but Solaire herself was guarded, her shield had not weathered every blow she could, and might have been barely but scratches she put onto the overgrown lizard but it was a start. Her flesh and armor protect de flesh only so much but even then she was ready to hurl herself out of harm's way.
The expected bite came hard and fast and missed her completely, the stomps of her mighty legs got her nonetheless, and she got squashed to the ground, her condition long past critical for living things, but she could wheatear it just and estus or a healing miracle and she would be fine but she couldn't tell if it would ever come to that.
Her head so far from where she actually got her opponent the wyvern could only sign in disappointment as her opponent fell by coincidence, with a swift kick she had the knight's position relocated to where she could pick her off more easily. Slowly and deliberately to get the most amount of terror out of her victim she slowly stalked towards her.
Laying lazily and broken at the midway point of the bridge she knew how it all came to an end and with how hollow she must be by now it was a wonder that she ever made it this far.
Maybe the wyvern was overexerting herself to get another loud out now, but if she was lucky and the fire would find purchase in her immortal bones she could say goodbye to sanity, but with her broken body she could neither roll out of the way nor use her shield and ray she wouldn't pass on from the damage unblocked.
As the scaled fury breathed out, Solaire watched as the fire would be her end, as she was sinking and falling into darkness even before the fire ever met her she knew this was the end.
The world had turned dark she was falling sinking, into a place devoid of light, if these were the final moments before the dark claimed her so be it, the fire must be long gone as no embers were left, in her mind's eye was she without purpose yes that was why she was searching for it maybe that in itself was one was it enough, well she could rest for just a bit, as her limbs stopped moving her mind slowed down in the tomb of her own making.