Twilight turned away from the light of the outside. "I should finish checking what's in this building before pressing on. I might miss something." The thought pleased her neurotic mind, to have avoided being sloppy, and she smiled as she trotted towards the ladder that led downward.

She swung herself around and dropped her hind legs onto the first aged step and started to descend, only for something to catch her eye. Across the room was a huge hulking hollow wielding a polearm of some sort. It was massive with a blade and a stabbing tip. It appeared old, but Twilight had long learned that apparent age did not mean a weapon would not hurt if treated dismissively.

Not feeling safe on the ladder, she slid down, hooves grabbing the outside of the ladder to keep her descent somewhat controlled until she could get them onto the floor with a hollow thump of landing. The creature-- could such a person so far gone still be called a person? The creature clutched its weapon tight as it approached her. It may have lost its senses, but it knew how to wield its weapon quite well enough.

Twilight considered how to approach it with her axe and shield, like a puzzle, really. She liked puzzles... right? She got distracted a moment trying to pin down how much she liked puzzles when the hollow lunged with the halberd first. The suddenly incoming metal broke Twilight from her thoughts as she brought her shield up just in time to be pushed back under the weight of the blow, but keep her flesh intact.

Thoughts of puzzles faded. She backed away and around the hollow, but it had no urge to take it easy on her. It jumped and swung its weapon, every motion as if it were its last. Twilight swung her shield back, connecting with the weapon and bashing it aside. The hollow's stance was thrown entirely off, leaving it exposed for a precious moment. Her axe proved an instant was all that was needed, slamming into its midsection in a spray of blood and seeping black malfeasance from the weapon itself. It, surprisingly, did not die from the savage blow.

Barely seeming to notice the injury, it brought its halberd around in a wide circle towards Twilight, forcing her to dive out of the way, heaving for breath. It was tougher than most she had faced, excepting the knight perhaps. Twilight grunted with annoyance. "I'm not a knight!" she shouted at the unfeeling thing. "This stupid world is making me fight and I did it right. Why aren't you dead?!" The hollow cared little for her complaints. It did care about her arcane bolts, several slamming into its decayed chest and sending it staggering to the ground. "See, like that. That wasn't so hard, was it?" She let out all her breath, trying to recenter herself a moment before she nodded.

Looking around she could see a closed door of metal bars and an open archway. It was then that a thought occurred to her, more of an urge really. She scaled the ladder and trotted up the stairs to peek out where the knight had been patrolling. She could see a mass of whirling spiritual energy. Her energy! She dashed out to it and felt it flood into her form, imbuing it with the force of the souls she had laid claim to before her last, unfortunate, end. Though she had started to not notice the trickle that came with each individual victory, the rush from so many at once could not be ignored and she shuddered under the moment of glory in it.

"Maybe I should spend them," she spoke to herself. Spent souls could not be lost, she had learned that much. "Let's finish this tower..." She trotted back inside and returned to her choice. The doors had been good to her so far, and she tried it, only to find it locked tight. "Archway it is," she spoke to herself. Few other things would speak to her, at least she could keep herself company?

She descended the declining hallway and noticed several barrels in the upcoming room. They had a scent of oil that tickled at her nose. "Curious..."

Her voice stirred something. A lanky hollow rose and pulled free a bomb from its tattered clothes. It lit the fuse with a deft motion and threw it, or so it intended. Twilight grabbed the bomb right in its hand, holding it in place. "Stop that!" she shouted, not that it would care for her words. The bomb exploded in her arcane grip, knocking the hollow aside.

A rational being would try something else, anything else, but the hollow could scarcely be considered alive. It pulled free another bomb, but before it could light it, Twilight swatted it aside and leaped at it, axe first. She brought the weapon down from its shoulders across its front, blood oozing along the wound as it went to the ground beneath her. It let out a little sigh, and nothing else. Twilight's eyes darted to a slumped form, but it wasn't rising. It did have something though. She nudged it until she found a bag hidden in its clothing that held a full set of throwing knives. "This world..." Of course it would be weapons.

She pocketed them even as she sighed and pressed on. There was glowing writing on the ground. "Be wary of left?" She looked up into the next room and saw from it opened to the left and right. She raised her shield and stepped forward, eyes darting to the left, but not resting there. The message could be a lie. It hadn't happened yet, but the decayed world hardly seemed above such things.

As she came into the room, a hollow much like the one she had just bested was leaning up against a wall. It was standing. It hadn't noticed her yet. She considered her options. Approaching any closer would likely set it off, and trying to slip past it might also. She had to be decisive, or so her thoughts went. She raised her axe high and charged into the room. It spun around to face her just in time for her to start hacking and tearing at the thing with her fell axe. It did not have a chance.

But what if that one would have been a friendly one?

"No!" Twilight took a half-step back. "Let's not... get distracted with what-ifs..." She turned away from her grisly work before she noticed a glint. The hollow had something. She pulled free a curious new weapon. It looked like a sword with wide guards. It had no edges on either side. Twilight wasn't sure about its function, and she had learned to appreciate her axe. She tucked it away, just in case, and left the corpse behind.

She pressed on, emerging from the tower as the stairs she walked on passed outside for a moment, wind gently teasing at her dirty fur. It all reminded her of how unclean it all was and she scurried ahead into a room in which half of it was barred off. In that barred area, a figure sat, seated with crossed legs and a hood over its face with a long pointed tip at the top that hung down the back. A hollow? It seemed likely. Still, it was safely behind bars, Twilight saw no reason not to try. "Hello?"

The figure flinched before looking over its shoulder. "Oh, great, a demon's come to tear little me to pieces. I suppose, in a way, it's better than rottin' here."

Twilight's face broke into a wide smile. It, no, he had responded to her! "No no no! I'm not here to hurt you, promise."

"Oh, well that's real good." He turned to face her, shuffling in his still seated away. "Don't suppose you have a key for that door? I would be ever so grateful if you did. Maybe I could even make it up to you, but I suppose that's unlikely, still, no harm in asking."

Twilight knew she did not, but she did not belong to that world. She was not beholden to its rules. She approached the jail door and tapped it with a hoof before leaning in and peering inside the keyhole. She set down her axe and shield to turn all her attention on the insides of the lock, sending her magic inside and feeling around. "Give me a moment... Why are you in here, anyway? Did you do... something wrong?"

"Well, I... might have... taken a few things, just a few... I was only caught once, once! And here I am, set to rot forever." He let out a sad sigh. "I'm not a bad person, promise, no, swear! Never hurt anyone, not a soul! I just... liberate things. It's a service a' sorts. O-oh! I'm Greirat, o-of the Undead Settlement, fine place, I suppose... Have you been there?"

"Can't say I have," spoke Twilight slowly as she stuck out her tongue a little, feeling the way the tumblers in the lock worked and jiggling them around. A thief was hardly the ideal new friend to make, and yet... he seemed far better than most of the things she'd run into, he seemed better in comparison.

"You'll go there, I have a feeling... Say, what are you doing?"

"Trying to... pick this lock." She tilted her head to the left, her magic turning with it as the lock gave a loud click. "Almost..."

"Are you a thief as well? I-it's nice to meet a peer. They took my picks away, you know, when they threw me away..." He rocked forwards and back, watching Twilight through his hood. "I-is it a hard one?"

Twilight could feel the internal mechanisms and tried to give it another turn, but it rattled in place. "Almost..." she repeated. "I haven't picked many locks, I admit, but I think I have... this.." She crimped her magic just so, changing the alignment of those tumblers before she gave a firm twist. The door swung open, defeated. "There! You're free."

"Very good... very good. Now... I don't mean to sound ungrateful, no, I don't... but could you do me a favor, a little one? Below the High Wall is a musty little town. Not the home of any lord, just a very old settlement of Undead. An old woman, Loretta, lives there. Please give her this ring. I- I am not asking for charity. In fa- in fact if you do this for me... I'll be sure to repay you in kind. I-I may be a petty thief, but I've more wits than most royalty. What do you say, then?"

Twilight accepted the blue ring offered to her in her magic. "If I see her, I'll be sure to give it to her. Still, are you going to stay here?"

"I humbly place my faith in you." He bowed down, prostrating himself before his fuzzy savior. " I am Greirat of the Undead Settlement, and I promise to assist you. Give this ring to old Loretta at the base of the High Wall. ...Do your part, and I'll do mine."

Twilight raised a hoof in objection, but he vanished away. "That... was odd... Where did he go?" She looked around, but no sign of the thief was there to be seen. "Still, that's it for this tower so far as I can see." She turned around and retraced her steps, ascending up past the archway that led to rooftops that she ignored for the time being. "I'll be back for you." She rounded some stairs to find the blessed bonfire. "First, I have some souls to spend." She sat before the flames and gazed into them, becoming lost in the forever of the world as her aches and pains dulled for a time. Just as the cursed world ran in cycles, she was returned to the start, renewed, in part. She thought of the Firelink Shrine, and she was whisked away with the blessing of the flames. Next Chapter: 11 - Rest and Recharge Estimated time remaining: 25 Minutes