Survival in the game world begins with Biochemical 2

Chapter 439: Ring of Darkness? Ashes without Fire!

"...Lord Li You, please kneel down and salute the spiral sword in the campfire in front of the Fire King.

"This ceremony is for you to inherit their remaining flames, and for you to become the true Lord of Fire."

Since Li You has made up his mind, the Fire Keeper can only go along with the process even though she is not sure.

On the five thrones, the only living Fire King, the Exile Rhodos, also looked down at Li You below.

To inherit the remaining fire of the Cinder Kings, they must let them burn once more. Not to mention that only the heads of the other four Cinder Kings were left, even Rhodos's body would be burned after the ceremony began, and he would once again feel the burning pain that he could not forget even in his dreams.

But despite this, despite talking in his sleep and constantly groaning and praying because of the pain he suffered from passing on the fire, when Rhodes looked at Li You at this time, there was no fear in his eyes. Instead, there was encouragement for those who were coming later, and relief for finally completing his mission.

Li You came to the campfire without saying a word, and was about to kneel on one knee according to the ritual in the game, but at this moment, he suddenly received another system message.

【Ding! 】

[Tip: You are about to go to the furnace of the initial fire. The initial furnace is a special map. Those without a brand cannot stay in the initial furnace. ]

[If there is no mark, you need to go through a specific ceremony to enter the initial furnace. ]

Li You was also stunned after reading it, and then he realized the meaning.

Does this mean that I can't summon companions at the initial furnace?
...Ah this?
Li You was a little confused. This news was beyond his expectation. After all, if you choose the ending of the Wandering Soul King in the game, the White Shadow of Londor and even Yulia herself will leave a summoning mark at the initial furnace to help the player. Why is it that in this world, the initial furnace is off-limits to outsiders?
But when Li You looked at the second half of the hint and thought about it carefully, he felt that it made sense.

Londor, the kingdom of wandering souls, was deliberately trying to usurp the power of fire, and even the eldest sister of the three sisters turned into ashes. Combined with the other ending of Soul 1 besides passing on the fire, it is normal for Londor to have a way to avoid the restrictions of the rules and enter the initial furnace. But others may not be able to do so.

"...I should have known better than to kill Yulia so easily. It would have been better to torture her first."

Li You was also somewhat helpless. "At the end of Lord of the Wandering Souls, so many people from Londor ran to the initial furnace to welcome the protagonist Ashes. Apparently, this ritual is not uncommon in Londor... Tsk, but now I really can't find anyone from Londor."

It seems that when you come to the world of Soul 3, the easiest way to pass the level is to become the King of Wandering Souls?
If you choose this ending, both the progress of the overall process and the difficulty of the final BOSS battle will be significantly reduced.

As for the risks...if you want to become the King of Wandering Souls, you have to bear the Ring of Darkness and then accept the Mark of Darkness. This is the biggest risk.

The dark ring given by the system would naturally absorb his humanity, and if he let the people of Londor poke eight holes in his body, the speed at which his humanity was lost would be greatly doubled.

Under that condition, Li You doubted whether he could get out of the undead settlement before turning into a zombie... If that were the case, he would probably have to eat the BOSS soul as a meal to maintain his humanity.

What's more, becoming the King of Wandering Souls would require sacrificing Anri. So Li You just thought about it for a moment, but he didn't regret it at all.

He just felt sorry that the old thief was always so secretive when telling stories, so he didn't know about the limitation of the original furnace. Otherwise, he would have captured Yulia and tortured her severely, asking her to hand over the ritual of Londor before sending her to see the dark snake Kaas.

As for now, there was no other way. He couldn't just go to Londor to kill them, could he? Even if he could find a way, he wouldn't have the time.

At this moment, the fire keeper saw that Li You was still distracted and reminded him again. Li You came back from his thoughts, took a deep breath, and then knelt on one knee in front of the campfire without delay.

The Fire Keeper then stepped forward, stood beside Li You, looked up at the five thrones and the five Fire Kings, and spoke slowly:
"Great Lords of Salary.

"The fire has died down, but the king is nowhere to be seen."

As her voice echoed in the Firelink Shrine, the Firewood Kings on the throne - the heads of the Fire Kings - now had wisps of flames rising from the bottom.

The flame was not strong, on the contrary it was even inconspicuous. It just clung to the skulls of the Fire Kings and burned quietly.

The only living Fire King, Rhodos, was also engulfed in flames as the Fire Keeper chanted. He was short, but the flames that burned his flesh and blood rose up very high, burning his body very quickly.

In just a moment, only a crown remained on the throne, fastened on the pile of heavy robes.

At that moment, the "dwarf"'s face showed not only no fear or pain, but also no relief from before. His face was filled with only solemnity.

Rhodes, the King of Salary, was willing to die.

"Everyone, please hand over your fire... to the inheritor."

The fire keeper continued to chant slowly. As she spoke, the inconspicuous flames on the firewood of the five fire kings flew out one after another and gathered towards the fire keeper.

As the flames on the firewood of the Fire King faded, even the candles of different heights under the throne all lost their light. The entire Fire Sacrifice Field was darkened for a moment, and only the campfire burning in the center and the five flames converging towards the Fire Keeper illuminated the surrounding world.

The five flames were thrown into the hands of the fire keeper and merged into one, but it only became slightly brighter, and there was almost no difference. The fire keeper carefully held the flame and turned to Li You.

She came to Li You, held up the flame in both hands, and then the flame gradually turned into scattered ashes, falling on Li You's head and body.

Obviously, this is the most critical step in absorbing the remaining fire, so the dark ring on Li You’s chest responded and automatically lit up, absorbing all the falling ashes.

Seeing that Li You had indeed "fused into one" with the falling ashes, the Fire Keeper was relieved. She had always been worried that Li You would be burned by the First Fire because he was not an ashes or an immortal, but was forcing the ritual. But now it seems that Li You can indeed take on the remaining fire of the Fire Kings.

Then, the Fire Keeper, feeling relieved, opened her mouth and recited her final prayer.

“——And he will strike back with his sword at the ancient gods who inherited the original fire.”

At this moment, the flame in her hand had completely turned into ashes and fell, merging into Li You's body. Li You only felt the dark ring on his chest tremble violently, and then his eyes fell into complete darkness.

Of course he didn't faint, but all the light really disappeared.

There was no more sound in the darkness.

When the world was dimly lit again, Li You opened his eyes and found that he was still in the same place, still in the Fire Sacrifice Site.

But he knew very well that this was only an approximation. He was in a dilapidated sacrificial site with the fire extinguished. It was even more dilapidated than the fireless sacrificial site behind the Demon King's courtyard, so much so that many passage structures had collapsed.

In front of him was the extinguished campfire. The campfire could still be lit, but it didn't matter here. Out of habit, Li You lit the campfire and walked out along the only road in this dilapidated fire sacrifice site.

What he saw at this moment was the scene that he had reproduced in his spiritual world before, where all things in the world gathered towards the furnace.

In front of the sloping and surrounding city, one can see the trunk of an extremely huge ancient tree. Only the roots of the trunk remain, and the original furnace is on its broken end.

The "battlefield" that Li You had recreated before was right above the fracture. One can imagine how huge the original furnace was.

Outside the dilapidated fire sacrifice site is a cliff, which is some distance away from the original furnace. Fortunately, there is a campfire left by the previous fire bearer, which saves later comers from the long journey.

Li Youxian did not rush to the initial furnace, but opened the system panel first.

As expected, the companion section prompts that the companions have no imprints and are excluded from this area and cannot appear.

Li You shook his head and didn't hesitate. Since this was the result of his decision to abandon the Londor Line, there was nothing to regret.

Compared to this, he discovered that since coming near the original furnace, the dark ring has been vibrating very violently, as if it wanted to jump out.

Li You raised his hand and pressed it on his chest. After sensing it, the ring of darkness calmed down temporarily.

However, thinking about the various performances of the Dark Ring over such a long time, Li You actually had some guesses in his mind.

Your Ring of Darkness is not just a Ring of Darkness, right?
Now that we have arrived at the furnace of the primordial fire, it is time to find out what is hidden inside this thing.

After a good rest and recuperation, Li You is now in full condition, including his divine power value has basically recovered. Although he has no companions to cooperate with, there is only one enemy, and with his current strength, he is not without confidence.

So, Li You touched the campfire left by his predecessors and went towards the original stove.

——Walking up the road that had long since lost its original appearance, the stairs on the ground were only halfway down, revealing the dust-covered ground below.

If you look back at this moment, you can see an entire city, or even the entire world, that seems to be collapsing and being crushed!
At the end of the era, all the remaining things will gather towards the furnace of the first fire. This is the law of the world of Dark Souls. Therefore, there will be the DLC2 map, the birth of the gathering place.

If it is in the game, in addition to going to DLC2 through the DLC1 painting world, you can also go directly to the furnace of the original fire, but similarly, Li You did not find the teleporting campfire here.

However, his focus now was not that. Continuing up the dilapidated stone steps with protruding tree roots, he came to a place that should be the gate.

Why should I say "should"? Because at this moment, all that remains of the "gate" are the brick columns on both sides, which are of different heights. On one of the columns there is a strange structure that looks like a stalactite growing horizontally.

The brick road ended here. Going forward, there were battlefield-like ruins, the core of the original furnace. The ruins were filled with ashes and various weapons were scattered everywhere. But in the chaos, there were also small red and white flowers, which were connected together and swayed in the wind.

Li You stood at the door and saw that inside the stove in front of him, almost where the light under the black sun in the sky was pointing, there was a dim campfire that was almost invisible. Even though there was no flame, it was still burning tenaciously, and waves of heat slightly distorted the surrounding scenery.

Behind the dying fire, there sat a charred figure with flames on his body, but it was not clear because of the distortion of the heat wave.

But Li You certainly knew that the figure was the final BOSS of the main story of Dark Souls 3, the incarnation of the Lords of Fire.

As for why this final BOSS is given such a name? It's simple, because inside this body wrapped in charred black armor, there are remnants of the Fire Lords of past generations. This empty body is the incarnation of the Fire Lords' will to pass on fire!
Only by defeating this incarnation can the successor take over the responsibility of the predecessor, turn into firewood and burn himself, so that the first fire can continue.

Looking at the incarnation sitting motionless in front of the campfire in the same posture as the ashes, Li You stood at the door of the original furnace, took a deep breath again, and exhaled slowly.

Then, he drew out the Thunder Moon Shadow, and took out the Dragon Hunting Sword and Spear, shrinking it into the shape of a dagger, and held it in his left hand.

Although the Dragon Hunting Sword was originally prepared for Yuzu, since his companions cannot show up at this time, it is natural for him to use it.

At the same time, the incarnations of the Fire Kings have the weakest resistance to lightning in the game, so Li You chose this weapon specifically.

Then, Li You stepped into the furnace of the primordial fire.

At this moment, the one who reacted most violently was not the incarnation of the Fire King in the distance, but the dark ring on Li You’s chest!

The ring of darkness trembled with unprecedented intensity and suddenly rushed out from Li You’s chest!
The circle of flames was suspended in the air, with darkness flowing slowly inside, which was strangely similar to the black sun in the sky.

Li You narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn't expect that the Dark Ring would react as soon as he stepped into the initial furnace. He thought it would have to wait until he defeated the incarnation of the Fire King.

But what happened next was something even Li You did not expect.

From the center of the dark ring, a large number of ownerless soul light spots quickly flew out and gathered around the dark ring.

After a burst of dazzling white light, those ownerless souls actually condensed into a human form!
Even Li You couldn't help but widen his eyes at this moment, with a look of surprise on his face.

what's the situation! ?

Finally, with the echo of "clang", the shape of the figure completely solidified, and the ownerless soul on the surface immediately flew away, revealing its true appearance underneath.

Li You looked carefully and was slightly stunned again.

The person who emerged was wearing a thick silver iron armor and a simple knight's helmet that covered his face. There were only two sunken lines on the left and right of the visor that looked like tear marks as decoration.

There is no way Li You could mistake this set of equipment; it is the standard equipment for a knight in Dark Souls 3, a lower-level knight suit!

"this……!?"

The knight in armor tilted his head, looked at Li You, and laughed softly:

"I've been following you for such a long time, but it's rare to see you show this kind of expression, Li You."

(End of this chapter)