Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

After a sharp metallic scraping sound, came the sound of flesh being pierced, and foul-smelling blood sprayed all over her.

Succeeded?

His raised left arm grabbed her, and the judge demonstrated the futility of his attack.

She was pulled up, along with the longsword she was gripping tightly, and blood flowed again, but to the judge, it was just a small, insignificant hole.

She struggled to break free of her restraints, but her petite body, relative to the judge, was held tightly in his hand.

She was thrown out, and the last thing she saw before she died was the judge charging at her with a gun.

The next moment, the halberd pierced through her body.

YOU DIED

Chapter Three: Death Will Always Be With Us

YOU DIED

The bright red subtitles burned like fire in the dark vision, and the pain of being torn apart was so unforgettable.

She missed the fact that she could hardly feel pain after becoming a magical girl.

Is this what death feels like? In a pitch-black world, the pain of that moment of death is repeated over and over again?

She was still conscious, but the tearing pain in her body enveloped her in the darkness.

I'm not reconciled! I'm not reconciled! How could I just die like this? I still have people I need to save!

Even more painful is the despair of being separated by death forever.

Tormented by this double torment, she was almost ready to give up and let her consciousness completely succumb, but suddenly, her vision was filled with flames, the darkness disappeared, and the warmth from the bottom of her heart dispelled all the pain.

The pain left her, and she regained sensation in her body.

The flames subsided, and the comfort of soaking in the hot spring was gone; she felt herself squatting on the ground.

He opened his eyes, sat up in confusion, and saw the familiar campfire burning brightly in front of him.

"I... I'm back to life?"

Despite having many questions, the joy of rebirth welled up in my heart before I even realized what had happened.

For the first time, she realized how wonderful it was to be alive.

"Oh my god—I can actually see other people resurrected right before my eyes."

A spirited voice suddenly rang out. This should have been the communication she had been looking forward to, but her tormented nerves made her take a step back immediately and hold her shield in front of her.

"Sorry, sorry, I scared you. I didn't mean to. I was just a little surprised because it was the first time I'd ever seen someone revive at a campfire."

His spirited voice tried to dispel her hostility, explaining his abrupt behavior with repeated apologies, yet his tone betrayed an barely suppressed curiosity.

Xiaoyan once again increased the distance, and this impolite action made the blurry figure on the other side pause for a moment, and then the sound of her talking to herself came over again.

"Ah, I forgot that people in other worlds can only see blurry shadows and cannot hear sounds."

The words contained a great deal of information, and Xiao Yan finally realized that the communication opportunity she had been looking forward to was right in front of her.

No, I can hear what you're saying.

Her voice was a little hoarse; she hadn't fully recovered from the state she was in before her death.

"Ah... Oh, so you can communicate anywhere besides the Firelink Shrine... Oh, I see, it must be because it's near the campfire."

The person on the other end seemed surprised to hear her voice, and she had to interrupt the guy who was lost in his monologue again.

"Excuse me……"

"Ah, sorry, sorry, something just suddenly came to mind."

The cool, husky voice successfully woke the guy who was lost in his own world. This somewhat eccentric behavior was out of place with the surrounding environment, so Xiao Yan couldn't help but take a good look at the guy sitting on the other side of the campfire. His shoulder-length hair was slightly shoulder-length, and his handsome face made it impossible to tell whether he was male or female at a glance. He was wearing a bright red kimono, which looked like it had been savagely scratched by something and looked tattered.

Wait, a kimono!?

"Did you also suddenly arrive in this world?"

Even the usually emotionless Xiaoyan couldn't help but get excited at this moment.

"Ah, that's right. I was supposed to be dead, but I suddenly appeared in this world."

"died?"

"Yes, yes, judging from your surprised tone, you probably didn't enter after death, right? Look at this outfit..."

She shook her tattered kimono and gesticulated wildly as she described the circumstances of her death.

"But I was hit hard by such a big truck, which is why I was scratched like this. By the way, I died at the end of 1995."

Although she spoke in a cheerful tone and said some carefree words, the amount of information contained within left Xiaoyan completely bewildered.

"In other words, the way and time we entered this world are completely different..."

She glanced at Xiaoyan's oddly shaped shield and added a sentence.

“Even the world we originally lived in was different.”

"What exactly is going on..."

"Ah, it was mentioned in the initial message about the flames, right? This world of the Flame has summoned us from our own world, to exist in this world as 'ashes.' The events that have been confirmed as possible for summoning are death, reincarnation, and time travel..."

"Wait! Don't say so much at once! I can't possibly understand it all! I'll ask you one question, and you answer one, okay?"

Xiaoyan interrupted the overly talkative and familiar woman again, deciding to break free from her excessively information-packed conversation and take the lead in the exchange of information herself.

Nodding.

Perhaps it was the inexplicable aura amplified by Xiaoyan's expressionless face, but in any case, under Xiaoyan's influence, this chatterbox covered his mouth with both hands and nodded repeatedly, which could be considered as agreeing with Xiaoyan's way of speaking.

"Okay, so the first question is, you're not a native of this world either?"

Nodding.

"Secondly, did you enter this world after you died?"

Nodding.

"Thirdly, although we have all entered this world, we come from different timelines, or even different worlds?"

Nodding.

"Then the last one..."

Xiaoyan took a deep breath, while the guy opposite her watched her nervously.

What is a Flame Message?

The woman opposite her froze, covering her mouth and tilting her head, seemingly considering how to answer the question with a nod or a shake of her head.

I didn't forbid you from speaking!

This eccentric behavior made Xiaoyan unable to help but feel annoyed.

"Huh? Ah! The message from the flame, isn't that what it is?"

She looked in the direction the man was pointing, where there were words left about the campfire, as if they were branded onto the ground by flames.

“I know what this term means, but what I want to ask is that the information recorded here is completely different from what you just said.”

"That's right, the information mentioned here is about the campfire, but the one that provides us with basic information about this world and intelligence about our mission is the one in the Ash Graveyard... Could it be?"

"...Yes, I missed the very first comment."

Xiaoyan finally realized where the déjà vu she felt when she first saw this message came from. It turned out that she had completely forgotten to check that conspicuous message because she was surrounded by the gravediggers... Now that she thought about it, she didn't seem to have investigated the white glowing corpse there either... Let's not say that outright.

"Pfft...cough cough, that's quite normal. After all, when facing those tomb guardians who attack without saying a word for the first time, most people would miss the most crucial message if they tried to run away."

Because the girl in front of him looked like a qualified warrior, he subconsciously assumed that she had seen the message.

Of course, the person on the other end didn't say the above sentence out loud. She was just seriously analyzing why Xiaoyan would miss the message—if she didn't burst out laughing at first, then she was indeed being serious.

In short, Xiao Yan's face darkened completely after hearing this analysis. Without saying a word, she picked up her longsword and left the campfire.

"Wait, where are you going..."

"I'll go check the message. You wait here for a moment."

"I know, I just wanted to remind you that after you sit by the campfire, the monster will... ah, it's already gone."

The girl in the red kimono watched Homura leave in a hurry and scratched her head helplessly.

"By the way, we haven't even introduced ourselves yet. Is this kid a bit off-key?"

A fellow eccentric guy was talking to himself.

————————————————————————————————————————

Little Flame returned to the Ash Graveyard with a crossbow bolt stuck in her shoulder.

She never expected that the graveyard she had just slaughtered would now be filled with a new group of gravekeepers, and their location seemed to be exactly the same as the first one. Especially the gravekeeper with the crossbow; he was the one who caused her first injury in this world, and this time it was the same. Little Flame, who stepped into the graveyard without any precautions, was shot with a crossbow bolt by the gravekeeper next to the entrance the moment she entered.

She was stunned for a moment, and it wasn't until the second crossbow bolt came that she came to her senses, charged forward with her shield, and finished the guy off with a single sword strike.

After figuring out the routine here, things became much easier. She remembered that there were still six more tomb keepers, and if their locations hadn't changed, they should be distributed on both sides of the tomb and at the stone basin in the center.

Having lost their advantage of surprise, the gravediggers were defeated one by one by Xiaoyan. She discovered that first using a shield to block their attacks, and then using a longsword to stab them in the heart to execute them, was not only efficient but also safe and reliable, and could also effectively avoid creating some strangely shaped corpses.

It's worth mentioning that at the intersection with the two gravediggers, she discovered a fork in the road, which she guessed she had missed before. She planned to go in and check it out after reading the initial message from the flame. She had to explore this place thoroughly; she didn't want to miss anything important and be laughed at by that guy again.

While deciding on her next course of action, she returned to the stone basin in the center of the cemetery and found the message written in flames.

She understood the message the moment she saw it, but compared to the message by the campfire, this time she felt a solemn and heavy feeling.

"The fire has been extinguished, and the king is nowhere to be seen."

"And the ashes without fire will come in droves."

“You are all nameless, not of this world, and are the undead who have been summoned.”

"But that is precisely why you should pursue the embers you crave!"

It felt like it was burning... no, it really was burning. The information that flooded her mind twisted and ignited the desire in her heart, burning from the deepest part of her soul.

For the first time, she felt an intense longing for the embers.

"If I could get the embers, then I could... Wait! Why would I have such a thought! I don't even know what embers are!"