One question always remains - "What is the Dark Soul?"
Is it a culmination of our imagination?
Is it a power unrivaled?
Or is it the friends we made along the way?
In the Age of the Dragons, long before Drangleic had even neared to exist, and right when the Gods at the time clashed with the Everlasting Dragons in the most bloody war that the universe would ever see..
Fodder was common, and among that fodder, The Slave Knights.
Those who were deemed only good fighters and nothing else, those with wills above all.
Those who had seen everything..
One among them, the man who would later consume all.
The man who would later be dubbed by none that remain as, "The End of the World".
-"That thing.. Hand it over...
Your Dark Soul..."
Was all that blared in his mind as he arises in a freezing wasteland.
The man, covered by his familiar red robe, with nothing but crossbow and shattered sword in hand, awoke standing in a glacial storm.
"...The.. Dark Soul..
It falters.. Dissipates..!
Where is it...?"
The man felt his heart tugging forward.. As if directing him to go straight ahead.
He did not wonder where he was, he did not care.
All he wanted to know, all he wanted to see, was the Dark Soul.
And so he forged ahead.
Step, step, step.
The 100 mile marathon begins with one step they say, but this was no 100 mile marathon, this was, unbeknownst to him, or, beyond his actual care, a cross continent walk.
But he never wavered.
He never stopped, actually.
Indeed, not a single moment or a fraction of a second did he stop.
His body seemed to have given out prior to his sudden appearance, and all that was on his mind was 'The Dark Soul'.
It was like he was a hound chasing after blood.
Dark rose, then day followed.
Then dark rose, then day followed, then dark rose and so on..
Until the tugging ceased.
The man went ballistic, incomprehensible sounds were like a tortured prisoner's shouts as he kicked, screeched and then finally.. Calmed down.
He had thought he lost his precious 'Dark Soul' but.. It in fact was not lost.
All hope remained for this man as he saw ahead two people approaching, and in the far, far distance he could see a castle made of the purest ice, crystalline like a dragon he once knew.
The two that approached looked befuddled by the man before them, but it seems like they were intending to do something as if they were ordered to.
The man, at that moment, sensed not a shred of the 'Dark Soul' in them, so he sort of just stared off into the distance, not paying them any mind as he didn't find them necessary to focus on.
It was like his mind was on auto-sort by importance.
The two that approached were two women wearing a maid outfit, very fashionable in a damned frozen wasteland but who was he to judge when he's only wearing a cape like a superhero?
The one to his left had blue hair, the one to his right had green.
They seemed hesitant to strike a conversation, but they did so anyways.
-"U...Uh... H-"
The blue haired one started before being cut off by the green haired one.
-"Silence Raine, one word in and you're fumbling it so badly, I'll take the lead."
The green haired one seemed more mature, whilst the blue haired one pouted like a child.
The caped man stared at them with a hollow dead stare.
"Are you perhaps the man that just ap-
Sigh nevermind obviously you are.
Come with, our Lord has need to talk with you."
Not wasting a moment to inquire, the caped man asked the vital question.
-"Is he in possession of the Dark Soul?!"
Now, neither of them had any idea what this man just babbled about but they sloooooowly nodded, and he followed compliantly.
They both hoped they hadn't made the wrong decision but it was too late for that.
The road was silent, no one talked to each other, the blue haired maid tried to strike up a conversation with the green haired one on multiple occasions only to be chopped to the head every time.
Soon enough, and after a literal cross continent walk, the caped man had arrived at the crystalline palace.
Now for any other person they might've been mesmerized by its mightiness and beauty, but to the man here he didn't give two damns.
He entered along with them, almost slipping on the ice.
His mind faded away into thought for a minute, his first genuine thought since coming here.
-"What if the Dark Soul was extinguished..?
The only ones at the end of the world were him and I.. Yet..
I couldn't find a way to defeat him, even after defeating the world itself..."
It seems that a certain someone had put him out of his life mission.
He was snapped back to reality when he was on a luxurious balcony, with a red haired man with a open coat revealing his torso sitting, with what seems to be a teenager with white hair sitting on the armchair beside him.
-"Ah.. Finally arrived, Otherworlder.
You don't see someone appear here randomly."
-"Otherworlder?"
The caped man thought...
-"Tell us your name."
The other four people sort of anticipated this, and he found no reason not to share his name, so he did.
-"Gael, Slave Knight Gael."
The red haired man seemed amused, not by his name, but by his title.
-"Slave Knight? How peculiar..
Seems we are in for quite the information dump, well, let's get to it.
Before that, I'll introduce myself."
The red haired man stood up, a smile plastered on his face, as he extended his hand.
-"Name's Guy, Guy Crimson.
This one's Velzard.
The two that came with you are Raine and Mizery."
Gael nodded slightly, as he shook Guy's hand.
The other three relaxed seeing how the man wasn't aggressive, especially the two maids considering how he was acting but a minute ago.
Velzard however, seemed very intent on something.