Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

He closed his eyes slightly, remaining noncommittal to her confrontation. He walked past the three of them and went straight to the steps of the sacrificial site. He sat down slowly, leaned against the steps, and once again scanned the three people present.

"Ryougi Ori, Akemi Homura, Asahina Mikuru, in terms of progress in the campaign, you are all still newcomers, but two of the three have already awakened to become ashes, so their strength should not be underestimated... Don't rush to refuse, because you don't even know who your opponents are."

With one hand resting on his crossed knee and the other hand propped up on the step, he slowly recounted the information about the three men, his tone calm and unhurried.

"And do you think the duty of the Farron Guard is just to guard that small piece of land? No, we also need to expand our living space for the ever-growing ash. The World of Fire is just one option, and the characteristics of ash determine that we can venture into more worlds."

“I can’t pretend I didn’t hear that. I thought Holo was keeping her promise to me and was stopping some of you guys from interfering with the World of Fire.”

The voice of the Withered King of Cinder broke in, as Rudaws looked down from his throne at the ashes below.

“Old sir, your worries are pointless. The connection between our two kinds of ashes can only continue to deepen, and it’s not easy to stop it. Haven’t you always hoped that we could pass on the fire? And now the world of the fire hasn’t collapsed yet, but our people are providing the fuel.”

The captain didn't even glance at the King of Cinder on the throne; he simply continued to scrutinize the three people in front of him, casually deflecting the King of Cinder's question.

"We are now changing the state of Ashes, which is currently scattered and disorganized, because the changes in this world are irreversible. We can no longer leisurely pass our trials. Your world is showing us malice, and we also have people showing us malice. If we don't band together, Ashes' survival is already in jeopardy."

These words seemed to be addressed to the Lord of Cinder, but in reality, they were spoken to the newcomers before him. His gaze never wavered, as if he had seen through all three of them.

"Oh~ So, you seniors are indeed considering building an Ash Society?"

Zhi's sudden question interrupted the unhurried narration. The captain put down the arm that was supporting his head, straightened his posture, and turned his gaze to Zhi with interest.

"That's right, this is what Kaneki told you, right? I don't want to go into the details. Now it's your problem. Regarding what I just said, I'm working on forming a unit to explore the world beyond the Flame of Life. Well, let's call it the Survey Corps for now, and this is the unit I want you to join."

"If we join, will it allow us to freely explore the original and intermittent worlds of other Ashes?"

This time, it was Ashflame who asked the question; she was clearly interested.

"Yes, you can think of this as a deal. We provide the technology and persuade the Ashes to open up their world, and you go and do your duty... Now the decision is in your hands. Join or not join, it's up to you."

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Chapter Seventeen: An Intermittent Opening

"Yes, you can think of this as a deal. We provide the technology and persuade the Ashes to open up their world, and you go and do your duty... Now the decision is in your hands. Join or not join, it's up to you."

Finally, the man who gave his name, Levi Ackerman, left. The deal he proposed eventually convinced them to join the Survey Corps. Asahina's request was officially registered and became the first mission for their suddenly formed team. It was said that upon success, they would be rewarded with "Wolf Blood Sword Grass," a common currency.

The induction ceremony couldn't be held here, and Captain Levi didn't force them to go to Farron Fortress. According to him, everything was just getting started, and everyone was extremely busy. If he didn't have a contingency plan for forming the Survey Corps, he wouldn't have come to find them.

For Xiaoyan, the greatest reward is being able to explore other worlds.

Ori didn't care, as long as she could follow her princess. But she said she wasn't without desires. She wanted to spread the sun's light to every corner she had been to. This was not a joke. So she went to the samurai-like maid and forcibly added something to her heart fire to learn several miracles that Onion Knight had used, as well as the lightning spear that Misaka had used.

“I remember that the girl who called herself a maid said that these powers were all plundered. Isn’t it dangerous for you to forcibly add them to your own inner fire?”

“No problem. Anyway, I have a big hole in my heart. It’s better to fill it with something than to leave it empty. Besides, I’ve seen these miracles carefully with my magic eye. They weren’t purely plundered from the World of Fire.”

Incidentally, Zhi also got a sun amulet from the old woman. She originally planned to enhance her own weapon, but seeing the petite girl sitting quietly by the campfire again, she felt embarrassed to keep others waiting any longer.

Homura also replenished her damaged weapons and equipment from the old woman, and the two of them, fully equipped, headed back to the campfire to meet up with Asahina, intending to begin their first mission as members of the Survey Corps.

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At the high walls of Lothric, the Ashbringers officially take their first step on the path of trials, in that breathtaking place that weaver had only recently longed for. Here, two Ashbringers and a Ghost are about to renew their Ashbringer Pact.

"We hereby swear an oath that from this day forward, Homura Akemi, Ori Ryougi, and Mikuru Asahina will always be together!" ×3

Bai Ling began to manifest, but the fire on her body was so weak, and there was even some black stuff flowing beneath it. This sight made the two Ashes frown and look at each other again. Zhi couldn't help but worry whether the Ash Oath they had made this time was worth it or not.

The petite girl had no such concerns. Not counting her experience in the abyss, this was the first time she had seen real ashes in the world of the Flame. For a moment, she was also curiously observing the changes in herself.

The other two waited silently for her to confirm her status, because neither of them had the heart to bring up the next steps.

"Oh dear, now I'll have to die ten times over."

Asahina wasn't stupid either. From their silence, she could also read the unspoken meaning behind their silence. So she put on a smile, and spoke with a mix of self-deprecation and complicated emotions.

"Don't worry about me. I've done this countless times. It's just that I'm still a little embarrassed to commit suicide in front of my companions, so I'll do it at the next campfire."

She placed her hand on the campfire, gave the two people present a final smile and then left.

Before the magnificent view, only two ashes remained, speechless.

"By the way, I still have a lot of information to share with you, Xiaoyan. Let me tell you about it while we have this opportunity."

"OK, all right."

The two walked to the broken high wall and sat down side by side. Before them was the magnificent city of Lothric, which truly looked like an oil painting. However, instead of pointing out the most beautiful scenery as she had imagined, Zhi was explaining to her how the painting was created.

No matter how beautiful a picture is, if you break it down layer by layer, each layer will have no beauty when viewed alone; the content woven in is like disassembling the canvas of the world of inner fire, piece by piece, and presenting the most fundamental and simplest part to Xiao Yan.

"In short, that's how it is. It seems that there are still many things hidden within the fire of the heart that we ourselves don't understand."

"The kindling, the fire in the heart, the flame, the firewood, the shadow of the fire in the heart, and the other side of the abyss—these are the reflections of our complex, ever-changing, and obscure human hearts. It feels like we've stumbled into an alchemy laboratory, had our hearts ripped out, and been thrown into a crucible to be refined. All the chaotic things in our hearts have been turned into a pot of incomprehensible medicine."

"Yes, and there's more than one of these crucibles. If they were accidentally knocked over and mixed together, the world would be quite a sight."

"The world would be ruined then, completely corrupted by the chaos in people's hearts."

It seemed to have a deeper meaning, yet it also seemed to have no deeper meaning. It was just two idle ashes making meaningless remarks about the world they lived in. They just wanted to fill their minds with something to avoid imagining what a certain girl was going through.

They dared not imagine whether dying ten times in order to obtain the pass was a sign of strength or cowardice; nor could they imagine which of those ten deaths the girl would experience.

Human nature is truly complex. Even those who lack the courage to take up arms can face death time and time again, just to send those who are capable of taking up arms to the front lines.

This is probably the price to pay for choosing cowardice.

The flames sent a message: the girl who shared the flames with them had left this world where the three overlapped... or rather, it wouldn't be accurate to describe it as leaving.

After awakening, the two once again glimpsed the secret of traversing worlds. Last time, when Zhi returned to the Heartfire World, she felt her own heartfire radiating outwards, enveloping her. Her body seemed to be constructed of golden flames, and the location of that body was quite intriguing.

Xiaoyan was kicked out of that bloody world. As for where she was kicked, she only felt her flames break free of their restraints, and the next moment she was back at the sacrificial site.

This time, they clearly felt a resonance beyond the flames. Some ashes called to them from where she truly existed, like inside and outside the crucible. The alchemist, forging his own heart, pushed open the laboratory door, where there were birds singing, flowers blooming, and the warm sun.

The two ashes exchanged a glance. They didn't intend to refuse the invitation. They wanted to temporarily shift their focus from their inner fire world and follow the alchemist to the open door, carrying with them the enlightenment in their hearts.

It turns out that when the ashes died as humans and were thrown out of their own world, they were not rootless duckweed; their remnants drifted to some other world, were accepted by that world, and thus truly existed there; it's just that the remnants that were about to go out focused all their attention on the instinct to reignite themselves, immersed in the world of inner fire, and were unaware of their surroundings.

Even in their trials of inner fire, they would grow weary. Only when they were exhausted to a certain extent would they look away from the flames, dragging their ashes to admire the scenery of the other world. Once their fatigue subsided, they would immerse themselves back in their inner fire, hoping to replenish their ash bodies as soon as possible and achieve sublimation.

The ashes named Mikuru Asahina were unaware of this, nor were they capable of being aware of it. She could only repeatedly accumulate fatigue, or rather, death, in order to leave the Heartfire and return to the world she was truly temporarily residing in, under the protection of herself.

This time, however, she exchanged her flame with the other ashes and made a vow.

Where exactly does the fire of the heart burn? Is it deep within the human heart? Or in some higher dimension?

Probably both. If the heart is where one's emotions boil, no one can say for sure where that place is. And since they are clearly in different worlds, yet their inner fires can draw close, the dimension there must be different from that of each other. So let's make an assumption—the inner fire burns in the heart, and the heart exists in some unknowable higher dimension.

The flames exchanged with Asahina became the coordinates, and the two awakened ashes witnessed how their inner fire, based on those coordinates, rekindled their burning bodies there.

The so-called time travel was now complete. Before them lay the campus under the moonlight. The full moon hung in the sky, cool and bright, illuminating the entire central square, giving the two Ashes the illusion of returning to Mitakihara Middle School.

This is not Mitakihara; there are no classrooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, nor a rooftop decorated like a church.

Under the moonlight, this place looks quite ordinary, more like the island high school I remember.

Having gained a first impression of the world where Asahina resides, the two Ashes fell into deep thought, as they were reminded of a trick by a Lord of Cinder.

Rudolf must have discovered the secret of the Ashes long ago. The service he provided was essentially just extracting the information remaining in the Ashes, finding the coordinates of the original world. With those coordinates, the Heartfire could travel on its own. However, these coordinates were likely incomplete, which is why it might have ended up on other timelines when it returned.

This journey was truly worthwhile. The two ashes, having come to understand this level, looked at each other and felt an immense curiosity about the vast and complex world around them.

A flower is a world, a leaf is a Bodhi tree; the so-called infinity is nothing more than this.

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In a world where death is incurable, death is the best way to say hello.

The high walls of Lothric rose rapidly in our view, the wind whistling past our ears, along with the icy, bone-chilling mist.

Asahina didn't know how many times he had jumped off the high wall.

She didn't need to keep count; she simply hoped that after one day passing through the clouds, what would rise before her eyes would no longer be the flames of a campfire, but the familiar blue sky and white clouds.

As darkness fell, jumping off a cliff proved to be the best way to commit suicide. As long as one overcomes the fear of weightlessness, there will be no pain at the moment of death, and one can even experience the feeling of the world rushing around one.

My thoughts raced aimlessly until my vision cleared again. A solid, cold touch came from my back, and in my field of vision, a bright, full moon enveloped the silent campus.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she let them stream down her temples and drip onto the courtyard floor, mingling with the dust and creating mottled spots.

A smile played on her lips, radiating warmth.

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Ashes were not the only visitors to this world. Below the teaching building next to the central square where they appeared, there was another newcomer, slowly opening his eyes.

He got up groggily, vaguely recalling his situation, but found his memory was so hazy that he couldn't see anything clearly. Just as he was scratching his head in frustration, the scene that burst into his field of vision startled him and brought him back to his senses.

Beside him, a girl with shoulder-length purple hair and wearing a school uniform-style uniform was hiding behind a flower bed, setting up an M200 sniper rifle and aiming at someone in the central square.

Oh, the one who recognized this sniper rifle model wasn't the amnesiac boy, but Ash, who was listening to Asahina explain the situation of this world.

"Ah, at this time, right—welcome to my intermittent world, which we collectively call the 'afterlife'... As for why it's called the 'afterlife,' it's because everyone I know says they're already dead, so..."

"Oh, so this is the legendary 'underworld' or something like that?"

It should be said that Xiaoyan hadn't been listening properly since the beginning. She kept staring at the opposite side of the square, at the purple-haired girl, and at the M200 sniper rifle she was holding.

"The M200 sniper rifle, short for CheyTac Intervention M-200, meaning 'intervention,' is a .408 caliber rifle with a 7-round magazine. With the support of a full set of shooting assistance systems, it has an effective range of 3000 yards and is hailed as the sniper rifle with the longest range..."

She wasn't just staring at it; she was also muttering to herself, as if reciting the firearm's performance parameters.

"'The underworld' or something, it shouldn't be. This place is like a normal school. Everyone... well, most people go to class normally, have normal breaks, eat normally, and go home normally; the only thing is that everyone has one thing in common, which is that they 'don't die'."

"Ha, if that's the case, isn't it pretty much the same as our Ashes?"

The purple-haired girl opposite seemed to be talking to the boy who had just woken up, and at one point she left the sniper rifle that she had set up, letting it fall casually to the side.

"Hey, sniper rifles are very precious. If you throw them on the ground like that, the optical sight will break."

He was still muttering to himself, but now it had turned into a complaint about a certain girl.

"Actually, there is a big difference. They don't light fires or campfires for them to rest. They can revive by lying on the ground for a while."

"Hmm, they can revive on the spot? That's much more convenient than us. Homura, what do you think?... Homura? Homura?"

The two Ashes, who were seriously exchanging information, finally noticed that something was wrong with their companion. Zhi called out to Xiaoyan twice but received no response, so she moved closer to listen to what she was muttering to herself.

"The target should be the silver-haired girl on the sports field, and the distance is estimated to be no more than 700 meters. At this distance, one shot should be enough to tear her to shreds. What's going on? Is that girl a monster? Is it really necessary to waste the performance of the M200 on close-range sniping?"

"So! Xiaoyan, what are you daydreaming about?"