Chapter 2: The Cemetery

Slowly the woman,who is named Gertrude steps out of the coffin. In no time at all she notices a hollow, mindless undead who has died until they lost their mind. simply standing in a puddle. Gertrude approaches the hollow unwaveringly curious.  Curious as to why they are standing there. But she steps a bit to close! And the hollow lunges with a broken sword, but Gertrude had suspected danger and had drawn her shield. The hollow lands on the shield and gets tossed into the cliffside, killing it upon impact, as it's spine breaks in two, a loud snap is heard, echoing throughout the area. Multiple hollows look her way, running towards her with the little might they have. there's six total. five with sword hilts, the final hollow being armed with a crossbow shooting from a distance. She ready's her shield, and her stance changes, with one foot being far back, the other partially bent. In response; three of the hollows leap simultaneously at her, and as they do, she slams her shield into their decrepit bodies! She gives off a grunt then turns and slashes the final two's throats in one fatal slash. She darts towards the final hollow, who shoots a bolt. however, she maneuvers to the side weightlessly as if the heavy and bulky armor she's wearing doesn't exist. It's been mere moments since the fight started,  but even so, adrenaline is raging through every vein in her body! as she leaps, she holds her shield in front of her onto the hollow ,plunging her sword clear through the hollows chest. She walks to a nearby puddle,cleaning off the bright red blood of the otherwise pristine sword,the brightness a signature sign of one being undead. She smiles at the holy and pristine blade and begins to explore every crevice of the area,until she finds a puddle, about waist deep. She mutters: Great. Now I have walk in water. : She regretfully walks through the water and is met with a small hill, she heads up but as soon as she gets up the ledge,there's a indescribable beast. it looks as if a giant lizard was stabbed with millions of crystals,but it seems in no pain ,as if the crystals were a part of it's being. Gertrude approaches carefully, expecting a good fight. As she approaches,the lizard-like creature turns it's head ,lunging at Gertrude's face without the slightest bit of hesitance. Even though the creature is twice as big,perhaps even three time’s as big as her ,she calmly dashes to the side. the creature lands with an enormous thump! Gertrude quickly takes advantage of it being almost flat to the ground,and leaps impressively directly on top of the beast's head,startling the great beast! She stabs her pristine blade as hard as she can into the beasts hide,piercing it with slight difficulty ,straight into the beasts neck. she doesn't remove the blade until it stops screaming in agony ,even though the creature screeches,until not a single movement, nor peep,is heard from the beast , she does not remove the blade. She feels an overwhelming wealth of souls be absorbed into her being. She scoffs:so much for a good fight.: she mutters sarcastically. She returns to the area she's already explored and continues up the one place she hasn't explored yet  which is the cliff side.and as she follows it she finds a precious bonfire,which is a safe haven for undead,and where they reincarnate,should they perish. She smiles,and rests for a few hours.

After hours she smiles gratefully the blue moonlight glistening off of her imperfect and ragged armour. She slowly rises,using the signature coiled sword of a bonfire to stand up. she stares at the full moon, muttering that its : one of the few beautiful things left in this damned world.: In the distance she notices a hollow,curled up in a ball ,and rocking back and forth silently . She walks up to the hollow,who is surprisingly enough passive. Suddenly,she hears a sound,in the other than wind, dead silent cemetery ,behind her two hollows scream at her,dashing towards her as fast as their decrepit body's could go. Side by side, she bashes her shield into both hollows. Appropriately she heard several snaps,bright red blood pouring from their pale skinned mouth's. Swiftly she ends each one's life! with a thrust into each one's head,breaking and piercing their skulls. She goes hesitantly backwards, Soon she is filled with regret as she's attacked from both sides,in a remarkable show of reflexes she bashes the one on the left of off the after seeing there is nothing more cliffs edge, blocking the right hollow with the hilt of her guard and bashing it into the hollows head.  Doing this breaks the beings skull and  she sends it with the other,and over the cliff edge. As she starts to go down the left path,a bolt is shot at her. showing slight clumsiness, she falls on to her hands and knees. Getting her gauntlets even more tainted by dirt and wear as she strains her calloused hands  which are gripping the dirt as another echoing shot is let loose. She falls to her right, dangerously close to edge,in mere moments even  adrenaline pours into her veins as the shot lands next to her lower abdomen. gritting her teeth, Gertrude charges at the hollow slashing the hollows  cross bow in half,turning she holds the blade to her back and slashes upwords, the blade slicing through the bones of the hollow with little difficulty. She takes a moment to study her new surroundings, to find that she is standing next to an enormous archway. which she walks into. Its what seems to be an arena. the cracks in each and every stone indicate what's ahead. She simply grunts and marches forward towards what at first seems to be a statue. The statue begins to rise from his knees picking up a terrifyingly large halberd,even around double her height,Gertrude stands fearless and charges. The knight slashes at gertrude,but to no avail,as she dodges and with incredible strength kicks the knights knee with such force it cracks the metal,and breaks the knights knee.he collapses in dread as she stands on his chest,pulling the helmet off and stabbing her blade through his throat,the knight mutters his last words with a heavy grunt:...curse your soul…:  another bonfire is created as Gertrude feels the power of an ember course through her veins. she takes her time and goes over to the bonfire,lighting it. She looks up at the golden doors in front of her,they are at least triple her height with symbols etched into it. First,she examines the knight's body,finding a sword almost identical to those of a bonfire,and finally,the Knight perishes fully, another load of souls being absorbed into her being. She starts to push the overly large doors open ,it takes quite some might to open them . She looks around as she takes a small step out of the door way. She sees a massive structure,made out of stone bricks,but clearly old and decaying. She mutters to herself:..well...this is going to be fun.: She starts to climb the small hill,,after just a minute she's arrived,and walks into the structure with its crumbling archways and candles spread around it,as if it were a shrine.  The ceiling raises as she walks forward,at least 100 ft tall in its entirety . She almost gasps in awe of the size of the structure, her metal boots clanging on the stone ground with each step,she speaking softly to herself: incredible… places like this...really exist?: She walks forward to the ledge of the entrance carefully scanning the surroundings ,seeing dusty,dirty and molding thrones she gasps,now knowing where she is,she exclaims: the legendary shrine of the first flame!!: She steps down the stairs which are cracking,ash falling down the stairs. As she steps onto the ash filled floor,a woman turns,as she does her black robes twirl elegantly.her silver and diamond mask covering her grey,blind eyes.she speaks in a soft tone: Hello Ashen one, I am a fire keeper. if you bring me souls,I shall grant you strength, as you need to bring the Lord's of cinder to their molding thrones, as they have abandoned their duty.: Gertrude replies gleefully,and pridefully: then grant me strength.: she kneels down raising her hand,whom the fire keeper grasps,with her gentle, soft hands meeting Gertrude's bulky ,strong armor which she floods t.he fire keeper with a swarm of souls granting her great vitality and even more brute strength and dexterity then than the matched amount she already had. She quietly rises and rushes to the bonfire, eager for more adventure, and vaporizes into ash teleported to the high wall, where lands converge