Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

"At least we can find a starting point based on this clue!"

At this moment, Zhi also strongly supported Xiaoyan's point of view.

“Zhi, originally, we might have gradually revealed more to you, but now, do you have that much leeway to bear the responsibility of knowing this information?”

"..."

"Intelligence also carries weight. Once you know many things, you won't be able to escape these vortexes. Of course, we won't say anything against our conscience that we're thinking of you. We're giving you a chance now: whether you want to know more about the truth of this world. The choice is in your hands."

Zhi paused for a moment, and like Granny Wolf, silently looked at Xiao Yan.

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Granny Wolf left and lay back in her old spot, seemingly too lazy to even respond to the call of the Farron Oath.

"Xiaoyan...is this really okay?"

"It's okay. My goal is still to return to my own world. I can't take on more than that yet."

Zhi looked at Xiaoyan, whose expression had become resolute again, and lowered her eyes in some trouble.

"Besides, didn't Granny Wolf give us some advice on how to break out of this predicament? I almost forgot about the effects of the Ember and the Mark. Once we get back to the Undead Settlement, we can summon another teammate to help us."

Xiaoyan probably misunderstood what was troubling Zhi, so she comforted her by explaining her future plans.

"And, Zhi, would you mind if we had another long-term teammate?"

"Ah? Ah... that girl? Of course I don't mind, if you can persuade her to join."

The two women looked at the petite girl who was still sitting to one side with her knees drawn up to her chest. The girl seemed to sense their gaze and buried her head even deeper into her knees.

Xiaoyan stood up and walked towards the girl.

"Hello, I haven't had a chance to introduce myself before. My name is Homura Akemi, and I'm from Earth in 2011. May I ask what's wrong?"

"Uh!... Hello! My name is Asahina Mikuru, from... This is forbidden! Anyway, that's all."

The petite girl spoke in a somewhat flustered manner, and her wording was rather strange.

"Here's the thing, we're encountering some difficulties in our strategy for conquering this world, so we're hoping to have another teammate to share the burden. I invited you before, and I wanted to ask again this time. If you could join us, it would be a huge help."

"Uh! Do you... do you need my help...?"

“That’s right. I think you know that the world has changed. It’s no longer something that one person can overcome alone. Strength, wisdom, and companions are all necessary. And I hope that you, who have experienced the same thing as me, can overcome these difficulties with me.”

"This... I'm sorry, but as you saw last time, I'm just a... coward who's trying to avoid the trials. If I really joined, I'd only be a burden!"

"No, I don't think someone with a similar experience to me is an incompetent coward. You just... haven't made up your mind... You also have people you want to go back to, people you want to stay with, right?"

The cold words seemed to penetrate her heart instantly. The petite girl trembled slightly, slowly raising her head, which had been lowered, and meeting Xiaoyan's eyes.

Her eyes flickered for a moment, as if she was trying to make up her mind. She bit her lower lip tightly, and faint blood seeped through.

"I'm sorry! I've really found other important people, so... so I don't need to go back now!"

In the end, however, she buried her head back in her knees, her averted gaze signaling her renewed attempt to escape.

"...Okay, my promise won't change. Please contact me once you've thought it through."

Xiao Yan remained silent for a while, but finally had no choice but to give up. She made another promise, wanting to pat her on the shoulder, but after her hand passed through the afterimage, she shook her head and returned to the campfire.

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"So, in the end, you still couldn't convince the child?"

By the campfire in the cliffside basement, Xiaoyan and Zhi were teleported back there.

"Yes, she seems somewhat self-destructive, denying her own value. Perhaps it's because of something she encountered during her time travel... I initially thought that someone with such insights would be stronger, but alas..."

"Alright, alright, anyway, that child will basically stay at the sacrificial site when she's in this world, so there will be plenty of opportunities to persuade her."

Zhi patted Xiaoyan on the shoulder, feeling relieved that at least outside the sacrificial site, she could still comfort her companion in ways that weren't words.

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yan suppressed these distracting thoughts, took out the embers An Li had given her, and prepared to recruit another teammate according to the previous plan.

Flames spread from the charred statue, and miraculously, not only Xiaoyan herself, but also Zhi, both of them were faintly glowing with fire. It wasn't the purple and gold of their own flames, but these most ordinary flames still made them feel warm.

After briefly feeling the warmth on their bodies, they immediately began searching for talismans near the campfire. Strangely, according to Zhi's experience, there should be many different kinds of talismans, but at this moment they could only find one that shone with a golden light.

"Oh! The Sun Knight! Little Flame, let's summon him! He's definitely a reliable teammate!"

Upon seeing the iconic sun pattern on the image, Zhi became inexplicably excited. Since she had made such a promise, Xiaoyan had no choice but to summon this guy if she had no other options.

However, before they could communicate with the Sun Knight, the golden runes dimmed and turned into ordinary scratches on the ground.

"This is……"

"Someone probably summoned him first. The mark hasn't disappeared, but we can't contact him."

"Okay, so that means we can't find any help."

"...Actually, I had thought of something before."

"what?"

“Do we really need to follow the town’s roads so obediently? Look, for example, this basement has many handholds on the surrounding walls. We can climb up using rock climbing techniques, instead of having to use that staircase.”

"You mean, we can use the terrain to bypass some places that are impossible to break through head-on?"

“That’s right! Remember the gatehouse above the basement campfire? There’s a main road below that cliff, and it perfectly avoids all the enemies in front of the temple. As long as we can go down there and through a sewer, we can reach the next campfire.”

"But the Cursed Tree is in the temple, so doesn't that completely solve the fundamental problem?"

"Don't worry, although I didn't defeat the Cursed Tree before, I still know there's a side path that leads directly into the temple. If we're fast enough, we can take down the BOSS before the enemies can even react."

Given Zhi's unreliable past, Xiao Yan stared at her for a long time until her cheerful smile almost faded before finally agreeing to the plan.

"Let's try your method first..."

The plan has been finalized, so the next step is to implement it.

They first cleared out the enemies near the gatehouse using the old method above the basement, and then came to the cliff next to the gatehouse, where they found that there was indeed a main road and an entrance on the cliff directly below.

"Okay, so what are you planning to do next?"

"Hehe, Princess, just you wait and see!"

Suddenly, Zhi picked up Xiaoyan and rushed towards the cliff.

"Wait, wait! You're not planning to jump right now, are you?!"

"Of course not! Trust my magic eye and my skills!"

Although it's called a cliff, the mountain wall still has a certain angle, and many protruding rocks can provide temporary footholds.

However, despite all that, this is not a place that an ordinary person can pass through unscathed. But Zhi Ke has a magic eye. The moment she jumped off the cliff, she calculated the order of her landing. Stepping on the protruding rocks, she used her extraordinary skills to rush down the cliff with Xiao Yan in a thrilling and exciting way.

"Zhi! Believing you was definitely a mistake!"

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Homura Akemi's Intelligence Compilation Manual

Information about the terrain: The terrain is not a limitation to your actions, as long as you have the ability to get through it.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Three Knights, One Show

"Zhi! Believing you was definitely a mistake!"

The speed at which they rushed down the cliff was extremely fast, and for Xiaoyan, who was not able to place her feet on solid ground, the experience was not much different from freefall. She had to hold tightly to Zhi's neck and nervously watch the ground getting closer and closer.

Zhi's skills were indeed impressive. When she landed on the rocks, she always managed to use some of her strength to fight against gravity. She clung to the steep cliff and walked downhill at a speed that seemed fast but was actually even.

Finally, she was very close to the ground. She stomped heavily on the cliff. In an instant, the newly added horizontal vector shifted her entire force direction from vertical to a large angle. The next moment, her foot touched the ground. In the slide, she transferred all the force of the fall to the ground.

"Yo-ho~ Safe landing~"

She gently placed Little Flame on the ground, puffing out her chest with a hint of pride.

He took a punch as a matter of course.

"Next time, when setting up such a plan, be more specific."

"Xiao Yan, you didn't ask in detail either..." QAQ

"I didn't ask because I trusted you, and to repay my trust, you should explain it clearly on your own initiative."

"Yes, yes, you're the princess, you're in charge." QAQ

"Let's not talk about that. Over there... it seems a bit lively."

They had now come to another main road leading to the temple where the Cursed Tree was located. There were no caravans transporting corpses passing through here, so it was rather deserted.

But across the stone bridge, not far away under the tower, things were unusually lively.

A somewhat familiar, ice-blue, beast-like figure was rampaging around, while a considerable number of mentors and executioners, along with a large number of villagers, seemed to have surrounded someone.

Some familiar knight armor flashed by in the crowd.

"Anri?"

It's also possible that I was mistaken, since the situation over there was extremely chaotic, with ice, fire, and holy light flashing incessantly, and the rumbling vibrations could be clearly heard on this side of the bridge.

"Wait, wait, wait. I specifically observed this area before. Although I saw many enemies gathering here, there wasn't such a large-scale battle. Also, shouldn't only we, and the spirits we summon, be able to fight these enemies in this world?"

“Didn’t I tell you before that there was a knight named Anri who fought alongside me on the walls of Lothric? It’s very likely that she’s in trouble now, and I think it’s necessary for us to go and check on her.”

"You're the princess, you're in charge."

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Xiaoyan wasn't mistaken; the knight fighting beneath the tower was none other than Anri. She had finally passed the test of the mutated ice dog, only to be tricked and left bleeding profusely upon arriving in the more authentic and simple Undead Street.

She really didn't want to recall the painful experiences along the way. She had even changed her Ash teammates three or four times. She had finally made it to the foot of the tower and was about to have a chat with Onion Knight when she ran headfirst into the Undead Settlement's Fire Demon Extermination Team.

She had previously been relieved that she had encountered another era of change, and that she might be able to escape her predetermined fate. But now, it seems that how to survive peacefully has become a major problem.

Fortunately, even though the knights were inexplicably assigned to the expeditionary force, they still had another powerful force on their side.

Kalim's knight, Igor, guards his saintess here. Even though he speaks rudely about his ward, he still steps forward when these dangerous men approach the saintess's place of imprisonment.

Onion Knight also joined the battle without hesitation. Although his initial intention was just to have a heart-to-heart talk with the guy shooting arrows from the tower, he would not stand idly by and watch someone he could talk to be besieged for no reason.

And so, the current situation has arisen: three knights, each with their own unique characteristics, are now locked in a fierce battle with the demon-slaying team.

In fact, Anri was partly responsible for this situation. She had just bought the key to the sewers at the Firelink Shrine, but due to the strange changes in this world, she decided to drag some people down with her. After failing to find any fellow Ashbringers—who were probably already exhausted from being tricked and had no time to care about others—she thought of a helpful knight from Catarina and came over. Now it seemed she could also ask a certain arrogant guy for help.