4 Andre and the Depths

We exited the Undead Parish and went to the Old Church. We descended the steps where I came upon Andre of Astora, the famous blacksmith.

He eyes me, "Your armor, never seen metal like it before. Nor have I seen such skill in smithing that I see in its making."

I reply, "Thank you for the compliment then Andre, I made it myself. Now, I have come here for a reason. Although my skills in blacksmithing are...divine. I don't possess every and any technique, nor do I devote all my time to it. Hence, I have come for you. As you are a smith loyal to your craft."

Andre stops hammering on his anvil, "What is it that you seek from me? Also, you know me, but I don't know you?"

I introduce myself, "My apologizes Andre, I was overeager. I am Sauron."

Andre grunts, "I feel like there should be a title attached to that name."

"....Dark Lord Sauron."

Andre begins to nod slowly, "A dark lord huh? Well, first one I've met."

I say my purpose, "I want to know the techniques of forging the metal of this world. As well as any knowledge you have on the forging methods using souls."

Andre was listening until he froze up when I mentioned forging souls. He scowls, "Knowledge on using souls for forging is forbidden and taboo. Why should I hand that knowledge over to you?"

I counter, "Why should you not hand it over to me Andre? What evil could I possibly do in this world of death and undeath. I can do no further damage to your hollow world than this. As a matter of fact, my grand mission is to save this world. I wish to restore the natural order and heal the realm. I will not misuse the knowledge."

Andre frowns and thinks. He then sighs, "You make a point oh Dark Lord, hehe. What more harm could you do to this damned place? If what you claim is also true, then I that gives me only more reason to let you have the knowledge. I will do it. May take a while though."

I laugh amiably, "When death is a null factor, time no longer matters. Let's get started."

Andre and I then sat around his anvil. I was being though how to use the gems and metal. Then he finally taught me his methods of using souls to forge. Of course I have my own, as I did forge my One Ring with a part of my soul before. Andre's methods are different from mine though. He has contributed much to my forging knowledge. Andre has proven to be more than what the rumors have said. My dark knights were out farming mobs while we doing this.

After some time, we were finished. I extended an offer to Andre, "Andre of Astora, I invite you to join me. Become a part of my forces. Your skills will be valued and needed."

Andre thinks for a moment, "I have no reason to refuse. If you lose in the end, I just continue with my craft. If succeed, then the world is saved and I'll be serving a worthy lord."

I smile beneath my helmet, "Then I will make what I've been needing."

I take some pieces of titanite, then a couple of measly souls. I begin to hammer them away into 3 coins that bear my emblem. The All-Seeing Eye.

These coins will bind my followers to me. The binding will connect their souls to mine. I will be using a buffer made from compressing 10,000 souls though. I call it the oversoul. Any backlash will go to my oversoul instead of my main soul. I have made the coins to be able to hide within the souls of my followers. This way, they are hard to destroy and impossible to extract. Backlash will only suffered if their souls are completely destroyed. Something impossible to accomplish for even most gods.

Now finished, I hand Andre a coin. He takes it, and it melds into him. Andre smiles and praises, "An excellent product my Lord. Most impressive."

"I agree, now I must continue on my quest. Can't keep the dead waiting. Until next time Andre of Astora.", I get up and leave the old church. I give two coins to my dark knights which they gladly take. Then we begin to head into the Lower Undead Burg.

It is a short area, but notably annoying with the assassins. Hildra and Jaun took the lead to save me the headache. Not even the dogs got past them. We cleared our way to the Capra Demon. When I reach the Capra Demon, it was not impressive. There were also dogs, but I had my dark knights flank my sides to intercept the dogs as I advanced.

Clashing with the Capra Demon with my mace, I blocked each wild swing it made. Feeling bored, I kicked it hard in the chest, blowing it out the other side; a gaping hole was left and the Capra Demon fell. I grabbed the key and headed to the rusty metal door that led to the Depths. I inserted the key, opened the door and walked inside.

We cut fought through the butchers and the dogs. I burned away the rats and slimes. We made our way through these wretched sewers like this. Finally, we came upon the door that leads to the boss, the Gaping Dragon. An abominable mistake of a dragon subspecies. Should've been stomped on as a newborn.

I enter the boss area have my knights stay back for this. The Gaping Dragon crawls out of its cistern to fight me. It roars with its freaky maw. It does a straight rush at me. I smash it aside with my mace. It takes damage, but not too much. This monster is actually durable.

It does get mad though, it jumps into the air and tries to flatten me. I hold up my left hand and catch it. I one hand throw the dragon into the sidewall.

"Disgusting creature...", I scowl out. I shoot my flames at it, letting it burn to death. It screams were grating and maddening. So I upped the power to turn it to ashes in a flash. When the flames died out, the ash shadow silhouette of the dragon was imprinted into the sidewall and ground.

"On to the next one..."

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Author's Note:

Glad to see some readers from the Star Wars fic here. Also, for Andre, I was thinking if I wanted Sauron to strongarm Andre or sweettalk him. I obviously went to sweettalk. Evil torturing and strongarming will happen, but only if manipulation is not the better option. See ya :)