The Price Is Always Steep
—There are too many complicated things on the ground, I'd better walk on the walls or the ceiling.
She moved swiftly, and as she did, every wall in the cathedral, which resembled a massive fortress, trembled and shook—this provided her with some advantage, at least the knights wouldn't pay too much attention to the dust swirling on the ceiling. The armed dwarves, also suspended on the walls, remained completely unaware of her movements.
She still didn't know the situation in the area where Surtr was, and she couldn't get close to it.
However, when she left the complex terrain and reached the open central hall, she found the priests and knights still pouring into the battle zone—she saw a colossal Mud Giant lying on a large platform near the entrance, its upper body cleanly severed and charred. Every now and then, knights were launched from the battle like cannonballs, crashing into the walls and shattering into a shower of bloody iron dust!
The monster howled, and the flames boiled. What was once just a slight warmth was now scalding hot to the touch even from hundreds of meters away. The cracks in the walls and ground were widening, and the healing and repair process was gradually falling behind.
The odds of victory or defeat are obvious.
Kal'tsit breathed a soft sigh of relief—she carefully controlled her upper body to continue moving outwards, gradually shifting away from the center of the combat zone.
Then--
—What is that?
She saw a monster, a somewhat familiar one— the Sunken Cursed One had sniffed her a few minutes earlier and acted somewhat human-like. She didn't know its scientific name yet, but she knew that such a large, robust monster with many limbs should at least possess above-average combat strength.
However, at this moment, she saw that the monster, which seemed to hold a high position in the church, was sneaking away from the church!
The Fire Keeper ventured into another area far from the fighting—she maintained her disguise as a church knight, but the deeper she went, the fewer priests and armed dwarves she encountered. She could sense that the ritual array used to solidify the fortress church was overloaded and weakening, partly because the ritual was gradually unable to withstand Surtr's power, and partly because the ritual's maintainers were gradually giving up.
The church is deep and secluded, and has three bishops.
Louis, MacDonald, Clim —the three archbishops—controlled three factions within the church. And until Aldrich was awakened by the tolling of the bells, they maintained a relative balance of power.
Until Aldrich woke up.
Until it awakens.
In a future unknown to the Fire Keeper, the Sunken Church splits after Aldrich explicitly refuses to link the First Flame. Louis remains in the Sunken Church, while MacDonald follows Aldrich to Anor Londo and dies in the Reservoir. Clim, on the other hand, completely abandons the path of the Deep, turning instead to serve a Mother of Rebirth named Rosaria, and in an era when the Flame wanes, transforms into a maggot-like priestess who harbors no hostility towards the ashes.
Rosaria ... there is much evidence linking Rosaria to the Lothric royal family. If she is not the Queen of Oceiros, then she is a descendant of a god who inherited the bloodline of the ancient Sun Princess. She must be the Queen's daughter, the imprisoned Princess Gwyndolin, who upholds the angelic faith.
Of course, all of the above are speculations. There is no concrete evidence—however, once the game becomes a real world, this hypothetical truth, supported by numerous circumstantial evidence, may very well become a reality.
So, will the future Bishop Clim betray the profound and mysterious? In this era when the flames are only fading, will he have made contact with the Lothric royal family before everything even begins?
This question is not difficult to verify.
For when the Fire Keeper entered the hall where the protective ritual took place, shedding her disguise of light magic, the gaunt, old priest in the center of the magic circle bowed to her.
"Your Elder Princess." The deep-set Clim bowed her head to the royal bloodline.
Chapter 189 - The Price Is Always Heavy
"Priest Clim." The Fire Keeper nodded to him. "It must have been seven years since we last met."
"Yes, Your Highness." The bishop looked up; at his feet, the control of the magic circle was weakening. "I was invited to participate in your coming-of-age ceremony then. And that was the last time you appeared before the world—you came here to urge the Saint of Aldrich to fulfill the duties of the Lord of Cinder? But I have heard that the Firelinkers of the royal family never serve the Lord of Cinder."
"Yes." The Fire Keeper nodded slightly. "From ancient times to the present, the Royal Fire Keeper have only pledged allegiance to the First Lord of Cinder. Only to His Your Majesty Surtr, who was on par with the gods. My predecessors were like that, and so am I."
"... so the prophecy came true."
"Yes, the prophecy has come true." The Fire Keeper answered softly, "His Your Majesty has awakened and is determined to reclaim all the firewood of the Lords of Cinder in order to seek a new path for this cursed age— Aldrich's death was its inevitable fate. But apart from that, His Your Majesty is not particularly pleased with the Ideas of the Deep."
"...I am not a follower of the way of flesh and blood." The old, withered priest's voice was hoarse. "If I repent, can I receive forgiveness and redemption?"
He was full of anticipation.
However, the Fire Keeper simply responded to him calmly.
"The Deep is the Deep." — As a member of the Deep, one must naturally pay the price. Because of the Deep's development and prosperity, every member within it bears an inescapable responsibility.
The aged bishop then lowered his head.
"I understand." He picked up a Candelabra Sword, and the next moment, he forcefully plunged it into his chest!
Flames spread from every orifice of his body. He knelt in the center of the magic circle; the death of the one who wielded it had directly caused the ritual to spiral out of control. A sense of collapse immediately arose in every corner of the church. And the invisible resistance that had been suppressing the Fire Keeper's spellcasting quietly vanished.
"At least you have some self-awareness." The Fire Keeper snorted, shifting her gaze from the burning corpses while simultaneously tucking the Sacred Spear medium she had been gently holding into her sleeve—she didn't care about Clim's resolve or resistance—he was just an archbishop with a little power, what was there to care about? After all, on this land, those who could defeat her were nothing more than the Lords of Cinder, the gods, and the Dragon Kind.
She turned around, and the tower where she stood crumbled and decayed as the ritual dissipated. A miracle of hovering allowed her to levitate lightly in mid-air. This enabled her to quickly fly to the Purification Chapel where the hostages were located, mark the location, and assess the overall battle that was now drawing to a close.
She saw the church dome inflate like a balloon, with fiery red and black flames surging out from every crack in the bricks. The next moment, a rising pillar of fire tore through the upper part of the church, and a slender human figure, enveloped in flames, grasped a fat, burning creature and rose into the sky!
'Boom--!'
The idiot's head was crushed by the humanoid figure, and bursts of flame erupted from its fat body, causing a powerful explosion as the slender girl plummeted downwards—the church's sturdy structure was split in two, and hundreds, even thousands, of burning priests and knights screamed as they were thrown into the air, their bodies ablaze. Among them, a gaunt, short old man in ornate robes stood out starkly in the wailing crowd!
The fat, foolish man is MacDonald, and the thin, short old man is Louis.
In the Fire Keeper's eyes, the slender human figure that had torn apart the church, trailing a long line of fire, returned into the distance. Like a blazing spear, it easily pierced the ruler of the deep congregation of bishops and rammed it headfirst into a bell tower!
The clock tower collapsed because a large hole was punched through the middle section.
Behind the bell tower was another small chapel, and the next moment, blazing fire burst forth from every door and window outside the chapel!
Fire brings death.
A slender human figure rose from the fire and stood in the sky—the dark red flames surrounding her faded, revealing the unharmed body of the girl inside. Her hand was then raised high, and the blazing fire that had been boiling all over the earth detached from the ground and rose up like a flock of swallows returning to their nest, gathering in her hand!
Thousands of flames formed Molten Fire Sword as majestic as a mountain.
When the flames subsided, the true essence of the alien species was revealed within the ruins and wreckage.
It was a swamp, a writhing, dark, enormous creature, like a slime monster, sparkling with tiny Mars —and as this behemoth devoured the earth and soil, countless hands, eyes, and faces sprang from the surface of the black mud. They howled, screamed, and amidst a thousand roars, constructed various dark miracles that were projected into the sky!
But the Flame Sword still descended.
The move was nameless, and there was no roar or shout. The Flame-haired maiden simply lowered her sword indifferently, and all resistance came to an end.
No dark miracle could harm her, whether it was the dark green curse poison, the black bloodsucking worms, the jet-black flames, or the pure black rays—all these powers were annihilated by the Flame Sword she unleashed.
The massive, burning, mud-like creature was engulfed in flames and swayed amidst its wailing. But no matter how desperately it struggled, uttering cries of agony from countless men, women, and children, it could not change its predetermined fate.
It fell silent.
But the Flame Sword continued to relentlessly plunge into the earth.
Until the earth and stone turned into lava, until the steel turned into flowing fire, until the entire ruins of this church were submerged by the boiling lava and the boundary extended all the way to the mark of the Fire Keeper.
Only then did a long, sharp wail emanate from the deepest part of the magma, marking the end of everything.