#cursed flame

[sh-means-severely-hostile]

A gift for Shiro_Daemon from twitter <3

[aquatic-hybrid]

Cursed Flame

“Come on….just a little….longer….” Akio struggled as he walked as deep into the forest as possible, his curse was acting up, it was far more aggressive than usual to the point where the smell of burning ash was stained into the darkened skin of his right arm. His clothes, burned and tattered due to the poor attempts he made in order to slow down this painful progress as he felt the curse extend further up his arm to the point where it almost reached his shoulder.

‘So much…pain…make it stop..’

His tone started to change to a more rough and harder to understand. Stumbling towards the nearest tree Akio had to stop and check for far the much the curse was consuming him.

“Just…a look…” 

Without much effort Akio folded up his sleeve in which he then jumped back in fear, “No…no-nonononoNONO!!!”Akio yelled as he noticed how much of the curse was already taken his whole arm, his panic started to make the mark even more unstable as a flame burst from his palm which caused not only a significant amount of pain,but made the Hybrid scream in agony while the tree he once leaned one now had a hole through it.

“F-Fuck!! AAGHH-Come on!! Come on focus!! Gghh-” While he attempted to best his own flame, Akio began to walk once more further into the forest, no one had to be around, no one had to see him, they…they will die if he looses control over the curse. 

While grunting and wheezing in pain, Akio began hearing a whisper that sounded like someone was right behind him.

“  Fòo͝l͏, ͘you̡ ca̢nt͏ o̕v̷e͘r͜c̢ome ͘yo̵ur ͘own cu͝rse.͏ ͜Y̵our͢ cưr͜io̕s̵it͏y ̢w̢ill͞ ͞not ̕b͟e ̷y͝o̷ur̡ ̕dơwnfa̵l҉l̷"̛ 

“Shut up, shUT UP SHUT UP” Akio yelled out as he swung his blackened arm backwards to whatever was behind him, leaving a small and thin fire trail from the swing itself. But there was nothing there, his confusion only lasted so long before the burning pain stung his arm once more. He was running out of time, if he even had any left to begin with.

“  L͟e͡t͝ ͠t͝he f̡lam̕e t̢hát̸ i ga̴ve ̶you͞ i͠g̡ni҉te, y͏ou̴ ͡ar̵rog͠a͞n̸t hy̕bri̷d!͏ Do̷nt̸ ͠den͟y̷ ̕th̴è ̷p̷ow̶e͜ŗ t̨h̵a͞t̵ ͜i͠ gave̕ ͟yóú!͢” The voice became clearer as the burning feeling grew stronger, it was the curse, the curse was talking back to him. “NO, I WILL NOT USE YOUR DARKENED FLAME, JUST LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE ALREADY

AND

MAKE

IT

S̡̛͞T͏̴͟͝Ó̴͢͡P̧̧͞͝͡!̀͟͟!̴̷!̷̵̨͟”

A loud scream was followed after his screaming as he pulled his right arm back and slammed his burning fist on the ground beneath him. Filled with both rage and desperation in a poor attempt to make the curse stop, he ignited the ground around him and caused ash to form as well.

Akio began to gasp for air, the burning pain was slowly decreasing with each grasp of air as well as his mark began to descend back from his shoulder to his wrist. Leaving behind ashes that the wind picked up from his arm as the curse settled on its original spot.

“  Y̶o̡ur ̢flame̴ ̴is ̨we͞ak̨ Àk̡io,͢ ̕l̴et͡ it ̢çońs͠u̕m̷e ̡you a̵n̵d͏ ͢e͢mb́r̵a͡c̕e͏ ̷t͢he ͝Flàme i gav͞ȩ ҉y͢ou̸! “

That was the last thing before the voice started to fade back into nothingness, his body started to become heavier and more exhausted after such burst of magic being used. 

“No….not this time….not ever….” Akio whispered with a faint smile, he managed to slowed down the curse once more, but this pyrrhic victory was short lived as Akio fell to his left side as he passed out from exhaustion. 

This wasnt going to be the last time he would encounter the curse again, yet he didnt felt like worrying about it at the moment. 

[poormanjoestar]

Cursed Flame [Part 1]

The Firelink Shrine: The beginning crossroads for many Undead that venture to Lordran, "Land of the Ancient Lords". It is said to be thousands of years old, and once realm to a group of almost "god-like" beings that were responsible for the destruction of the Anceint Dragons. Now it is a decrepit shell of it's once former glory, rotten and weathered beyond recognition whilst infested with Undead and demons and many other creatures. The legends surrounding the land tell of a 'Chosen Undead', whom would ring the Bells of Awakening and bring about the truth of the Undead. However, for such an old legend, no such thing has come to pass...at least not yet. If one were to view it from a crow's point of view, you would see small dots of light across the land, marking bonfires. These spots were safe zones for Undead, and provided healing and warmth in the cold world. One of these in particular was larger than the others, known as the Firelink Shrine to the inhabitants.

At the Shrine, a young woman sat in front of a bonfire wearing a red hooded cloak, spotted with ash and the ends caked with dirt from much traveling. She sat in front of the fire, young face illuminated by the flames that acted as a beacon of solace for many. She wore light leather armor underneath her cloak, and carried a scythe as her means of protection besides a crossbow, worse for wear than one would expect. 

She sighed as she laid against a nearby tree facing the fire. Being an Undead, almost essentially leaving her semi-immortal, didn't ease her pain and mind from her goal. After her first few deaths, she began to slowly accept the fact of the curse, even if it left her mind shaken. If you died and came back over and over, you'd be a bit freaked out yourself.

Which brought her to her current goal, being to locate and find her sister and teammates Yang, Weiss, and Blake. Last she heard, they had gone on a journey to Lordran to investigate the legend and see if it meant a cure for the curse plaguing the world. However, that was nearly 3 years ago, and while she was left at home, Ruby Rose decided to train more to catch up to them and follow them. However, the long time gap left her worried that something happened to them. For all she knew, they could've Hollowed out. Pushing that fear aside, she eventually felt she could handle herself and set out for them along with her companion Zwei. Of those 3 years, she spent half of it trekking over to Lordran by foot, with Zwei pitter pattering behind her. Thankfully when they reached the mountains a giant ass crow came and swept them off to here, so they didn't have to traverse the entire place. 

"Sheesh Zwei, why couldn't they go somewhere closer? And nicer." She groaned. "This place is a dump."

Zwei lay curled next to her, his head plopped on her lap. Animals were also affected by the curse, but as they were content as they were, it didn't effect them as drastically as humans, Zwei being an example. He'd only died twice, but each time he came back, he was just as happy to see Ruby. Of course, this was good news to Ruby too because now didn't have to worry as much about Zwei becoming food for the Hollowed.

"Now then, which way should we go? According the the depressing dude over there, we could go down to a place called Blighttown, or we could go upwards more to the Undead Burg." She pondered, scribbling a crude map into the dirt. "Hmmmmmmm......what do you think Zwei, up or down?"

The little dog walked over to the drawing, and with a small bark pointed to the one for the Burg. 

"Ok, we'll try that out then." She grinned, cuddling Zwei. "I hope they're okay. It's been so long since I've seen them...."

=======================================================

After a well needed rest, Ruby got up, dusted herself off and after packing her belongings filled up on her Estus Flask, the only thing that could heal an Undead. Heading up the stairs leading away from the bonfire, she already came right up to three Undead Hollows at the top of the stairs and another from above chucking firebombs all over. Her scythe has good range, so she batted one of them off a cliff, cut the next one's head off, and after sticking the head of one of the Undead on her scythe lobbed it at the one throwing firebombs down and knocked it over. Running up to it, she then gave it a sharp kick off the cliff.

She continued this process a few more times along the way of the Undead Burg. The Undead were more geared as she moved on, and even started using crossbows as well. She didn't have a shield of her own, so she had to make do trying to avoid as many of the arrows as she could. She got nicked on the legs a few times before getting one square in the shoulder. After clearing the space of enemies, she made her way to another bonfire close by, and pulled the arrow out before taking a seat by it. 

The heat of the flames warmed her up, and began mending her wounds. These guys weren't much of a challenge, but they were annoyingly stubborn. She would need a shield sooner or later, but for the time being, she got up after she healed and kept on moving.

She made her way up a spiral staircase and passed some corpses, one being a Taurus Demon. When she finally made it to the bridge leading to the church, she froze in her tracks. A giant red drake was perched on top of the archway on the other side of the bridge, it's crimson scales glistening in the sun. A line of charred bodies was strewn about, a burnt barbecue smell lingering in the air.

And just past the archway in the shadows, a figure was seated by a bonfire, her white clothes a dirty grey, white hair loosened, and a rapier by her side...