Firelink Shrine.
A cold wind swept ash through the air. The atmosphere was oppressive.
Zane, Gallagher, and Finn, three well-known Chosen Players from the Prison Rock faction, looked at one another's ashen faces and fell into a long silence.
"Everyone you brought out of the Painted World died?"
Finn looked at Zane as he asked.
Zane rubbed his face hard and took a deep breath before answering dejectedly, "Every last one. Gwyndolin was much harder to deal with than she was in the instance. Her area attacks and pursuit attacks barely stopped, and with Fan Lixin from the Nine Provinces constantly interfering, we had no room to maneuver."
Finn fell silent again. A long while later, he said, "We shouldn't have killed Crossbreed Priscilla. We fell for it."
At that, the other two had no reply.
They really had fallen for it.
They should have realized it when Lu Xiu, who had done nothing but cause trouble, landed in Anor Londo and chose to take the Nine Provinces players all the way to Oolacile rather than go to the much closer Painted World.
"There's no point talking about that now. We failed to bring anyone out of the Painted World, and we're at an overwhelming disadvantage in numbers—
"Our situation is bad."
Gallagher broke the silence and turned his gaze on Zane. "Most importantly, you're effectively a Core Bonfire now. If a Nine Provinces player kills you when the fighting starts, their side gets a Core Bonfire's worth of points and Prison Rock loses on the spot. Players from our own faction can't kill you either. Whoever does would inherit your Core Bonfire status."
The corner of Zane's eye twitched.
"Unless you're going to be a coward and run off to hide, we'll have to devote a lot of our