Chapter 42 But I Reject
After leaving the main priest hall, Xia Yu arrived at the cliff in a moment. He stood on the edge of the cliff and took out the small ring flag given to him by High Priest Emma. The next moment, three snow-winged demons flew over from afar.
These are the porters of Anor Londo, very ugly creatures that resemble western devils. Their skin is extremely pale, with only their arms and claws being blood red. They have thin wings similar to bat wings, and a long thin tail dangling behind them.
Two of the demons grabbed Xia Yu's arms and led him away from the cliff, while the other demon led the way to the undead settlement under the high wall.
That is where the lowest class of people in Lothric live. It is filled with mindless wandering souls transformed from the undead and has a very serious problem of zombie infestation.
The so-called undead are immortal beings. In order to deal with the constantly resurrected zombies, the undead settlement has a lot of barbaric and cruel methods, such as dog execution, dismemberment, incineration, and even stuffing them all into a cage, but none of them can completely solve the problem.
No matter what you do, you can at most slow down the resurrection of the undead, but you cannot completely eliminate them.
In the soul world, immortality is a curse of despair, not a gift.
“Pah~”
With a sound of landing, the Snow-Winged Demon brought Xia Yu to a ruined tower, which was once used as a defense when fighting against foreign enemies, but now it is in ruins, with broken walls and ruins everywhere.
With a quick glance, Xia Yu discovered the extinguished campfire nearby. As he stepped forward, he took out a scarlet spiral sword.
The spiral sword can ignite bonfires. As long as the extinguished bonfire is ignited, he, as an ashe, can teleport freely between any bonfires.
"Chi~"
A blazing flame ignited from the tip of the spiral sword. Xia Yu inserted the sword into the embers of the corpse, and the next moment, a bonfire was lit.
At the same time, the power generated by the bonfire also flowed into his body along the hilt of the sword. His physical strength was directly restored to its peak, and the consumed elements in the element bottle were also replenished by the flames.
After lighting the bonfire, Xia Yu looked at the undead settlement in the distance. It was a block of dilapidated wooden houses, and occasionally wandering zombies could be seen.
The spell teacher who taught him spells was imprisoned in a cage on the second floor of one of the wooden houses.
Speaking of which, almost all the teachers in the Souls series are imprisoned, whether it is Komicus and Kalula in Souls III, or Serenity in Ring of Magic, their fate is to be imprisoned and then rescued.
After collecting his thoughts, Xia Yu walked down the broken stairs, holding his pistol in both hands, alert to the approaching enemy.
“clang…”
Just as Xia Yu walked to the avenue, the clanging sound of an iron gate opening suddenly rang out, and the next moment, three skinny wild dogs suddenly jumped out.
"Woof woof!"
After three wild dogs rushed out, they bit the zombies on the road mercilessly. Every bite would take the life of a zombie. This was the dog fight of the Undead Settlement. Every once in a while, the wild dogs would be released to devour the resurrected zombies.
"Tsk tsk, the Three Dogs Slaughtering Firewood Formation is indeed worthy of its reputation."
Many players have fallen victim to these three wild dogs because they can cooperate with each other and each bite will cause a large amount of blood. Almost no player can survive the combined attack of these three dogs.
In a short while, the group of zombies were wiped out by the wild dogs. After losing the zombie target, the wild dogs suddenly set their sights on Xia Yu.
They couldn't tell the difference between zombies and ashes, and with their bloody mouths drooling, the wild dogs attacked Xia Yu enthusiastically, fully demonstrating the undead settlement's warm hospitality towards outsiders.
The hospitable Bu Si Street, the simple folk customs of Yanan people, the fresh air of Falankeng, and the tourist attraction Dianhuo Village.
Xia Yu was very moved by the dog kings who welcomed him so warmly. He gave them their favorite magic bullets, and the delicious dog heads exploded.
Soon, the threats on the avenue were cleared by Xia Yu with a few shots. Looking at the iron gate that released the wild dogs, he did not rush in, but turned and walked to the other side.
On the other side is a broken road that leads to the city of Lothric. After Salivan destroyed the bridge, the pilgrims who wanted to enter Lothric were trapped at the bridgehead and eventually died of dehydration.
But among that group of pilgrims, there is still a special pilgrim alive. As long as you come into contact with him, your destiny will be branched.
In layman's terms, it is one of the last four endings. There are four endings in Soul Three, namely, passing on the fire, extinguishing the fire, usurping the fire and seizing the fire. This branch corresponds to the ending of usurping the fire.
Usurping the First Flame and becoming the King of Wandering Souls would end the Age of Fire and usher in the Age of Darkness.
It seems that this ending has ended the curse of the fire and ushered in a new era for the world, but who can be sure that this is definitely a good thing? Maybe becoming the King of Wandering Souls is just a conspiracy of another force.
As for the ending of this world, Xia Yu has never changed his mind, which is to seize the power of the First Fire, then leave here and let this world enter the next era.
Reincarnation is irreversible. The emergence of fire and the extinction of fire are just part of the world's self-regeneration cycle. Since an era will begin, it will also inevitably come to an end, just like when the world was still in chaos.
Gwyn, the First God, opened the Age of Fire and went through its most prosperous period. When the flames gradually faded, in order to keep the Age of Fire going, Gwyn voluntarily went to the First Furnace and let the First Flame ignite his soul, so that the world would continue to be bright.
Gwyn's behavior is also known as the inheritance of the fire. In order to continue the Age of Fire, he voluntarily sacrificed everything and used it as firewood to keep the First Fire alive.
But it is precisely because of this behavior that the world has declined and fallen into ruin. The world should have entered the next era long ago, but because of Gwyn's behavior, it has continued to survive to this day.
Xia Yu had no idea of violating the laws of the world. Since the world wanted to enter the next era, he would respect the world and let the next era come.
…
The avenue was filled with overturned cage carriages, which were the means of transporting the undead to the undead settlements. There were too many undead people, so they had to be dumped in the undead settlements.
After passing through the archway of the avenue, Xia Yu came to the end of the broken avenue, where there were densely packed dead pilgrims.
They looked at the city of Lothric in the distance, but never had the chance to step into it.
The only living pilgrim was among them. Xia Yu did not look for him because he knew that he would make a sound to attract his attention.
"...Please, let me die, let me be free..."
Here we come!
Xia Yu's heart moved, and he looked for the source of the faint sound.
The sound was intermittent, repeating like a candle in the wind.
According to the position in the game, Xia Yu strode forward, and at the corner at the end of the broken road, he found the pilgrim who made the sound.
"Please, let me die..."
The pilgrim was still repeating his words begging for death intermittently, but when Xia Yu came in front of him, he paused and asked cautiously.
"...Ah, you...you are the Hero of Ashes, right? It is an honor to see your face. I am Yuel of Londor. As you can see, I am a pilgrim. It seems that I am the only one left alive...but this may be my fate."
Xia Yu did not say anything, but just looked quietly at Yuel who was bowing in front of him. Yuel was a little frightened by being looked at, but for the sake of the plan, he still spoke with trembling hands.
"Lord Ashes, are you willing to let me be your follower? I am originally a magician, and I think I can help you to some extent."
Xia Yu sneered in his heart. The old guy's acting skills were quite good. He wanted to seduce me to engrave the Ring of Darkness on myself and lure me into becoming the King of Wandering Souls. It was a nice thought.
"Are you willing to be my follower? You should know that what I like to do most is to whip my followers and listen to their desperate screams."
“…”
Yuel's body froze, but for the sake of the Abyss Serpent Lord Kaas, he still spoke with trembling voice.
"Lord Ashes, when the pilgrim who managed to survive met the hero, I couldn't help but think that this must be fate. So, please let me be your follower. I... I can endure your whipping."
"Well... since you are so sincere, then I..."
Hearing Xia Yu's tone as if he was about to agree, You Ai'er was delighted, but the next moment, Xia Yu changed the subject.
"But I refuse!"
"What?!"
" One of my favorite things to do is to say no to people who think I will say yes!"
"Since you keep talking about wanting to be free, then go die."
As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Yu raised his gun, pointed it at Yuel's head, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
“Bang!”
"Ahh, is it worth being proud of killing the undead? Cursed hero, this is truly... worth celebrating..."
Under the shooting of the magic bullet, Yuel's figure turned into a cloud of ash and disappeared in front of Xia Yu.
"Tsk, he really had a backup plan, but he managed to escape."
Xia Yu put away his gun unhappily. Yuel was not to be feared, but the Londorian forces behind him were disgusting. After all, they were related to the world serpent Kaas.
The World Serpent has existed since the ancient dragon era, and Kas is one of the World Serpents. It is a force of the abyss, and it hopes to extinguish the world on fire.
As for why Cass hoped to put out the fire, Xia Yu didn't know. This question has never been explained in the Souls trilogy, so he can only guess.
