AN: I won't pretend to understand all the lore of Dark Souls, so please forgive me if there are errors in any of this. Please don't just call me an idiot, tell me what I did wrong, and how I can fix it. I'm also altering lots of dialogue to be more organic and modern, as well as allowing Raven, the chosen undead in my take on the story, more voice than the chosen undead has in the base game.

Chapter One: Asylum Abdication

Raven sat in the corner of her cell, bored. Nothing interesting had happened recently, unless you counted the rat that had wandered through the grated door an indeterminate amount of time ago. Yup. That's what her life had been reduced to. The master key in her pocket, one of the tools of her trade, was useless against the advanced lock of her cell door.

"Why can't I just go hollow and get it over with?" she asked herself, thinking aloud. Her body was already there, rotting away beneath the black leather of her thief's getup. But no matter how long she sat there, with no purpose, her mind just wouldn't depart her.

"Why, that would ruin the fun of this escape!" Raven was startled that someone had actually answered, not having a conversation partner in ages. She looked around, and finally she realized the sound had come from above. She peered through the skylight in the top of her cell, and saw an Astoran Knight peering through. He tossed a corpse through the hole, which dropped to the ground heavily. A key glittered on it's belt.

"I'll see you on the outside, friend," the strange, kind knight said, standing up and turning away. Raven stood up, grabbing the key hungrily, and realized that there was something else that clung to the corpse. She fumbled for the object, realizing that it was a small ring. Looking at it, she couldn't determine its purpose, but tucked it away in case it turned out to be useful. She tried the corpse's key on the lock. It turned smoothly, and the cell door which for so long had been the bane of existence creaked loudly as it swung open. Raven couldn't help but grin wildly, as she took her first step towards freedom.

She stepped into a hallway, and immediately broke into a run, ignoring the hollows that were staring at the wall in despair along the way. She noted the grating on the other side, giving an ominous view of a chaos demon, but kept running. That demon was a problem for when she got her hands on a weapon besides the hilt of a straight sword, with barely an inch of blade remaining, which currently rested in her satchel. Come to think of it, it was better than nothing. She pulled it out as she reached a circular room with a ladder leading upwards. She clambered up quickly, before exiting the room and coming into a courtyard. It's most prominent features were a coiled sword stuck point-down into a pile of ash, and a large set of double doors.

Raven touched the hilt of the coiled sword, and the bonfire that it marked magically flared to life. She rested quickly, giving the curse that afflicted her a marker to return her to, should she be killed. As she stood up, she raised a hand to the darksign branded into the side of her neck, before she realized what she was doing with horror and immediately removed her hand.

"Best not to think about that thing," she muttered, moving towards the large set of double doors. She heaved forwards, and the doors swung open. She stepped forwards, and the room immediately shook as a large chaos demon crashed down from the ceiling.

"Well, shit. How am I supposed to beat this thing?" The demon growled, leaping forwards and swinging it's massive great hammer over its head, smashing down towards her. Raven took the opportunity to dive forwards, going right under the demon, and came up in a roll. She slashed at the demon's posterior with the inch of jagged blade that her current weapon boasted. It made a small incision, but the demon didn't even notice. It spun around, sliding the club along the ground and flinging up debris. Raven hopped over the debris that preceded the massive club, and, praying to every god she knew of for luck, rolled into the demon's swing. The demon ran out of momentum as it spun, and lifted it's great hammer up as Raven rolled towards it, causing it to pass mere inches above her head. She spun around as she rolled, swinging again. Again, a small cut, but absolutely no reaction. Raven noticed that the lacerations she had caused hadn't even drawn blood. She looked around the room for a better weapon, and her eyes settled on a small, bronze portcullis in a corner of the room. Screw fighting this thing, Raven decided in that instant. She sprinted for the open gate, diving through it just as the demon jumped again. Behind her, it's hammer smashed down, crushing the gate and the stone around it, sealing off the path she had just taken. She grinned at her amazing luck.

Moving on, Raven turned to assess the area she had just come into. It was a decently sized room, partially flooded, with a doorway in one corner, and a bonfire close by. Raven lit it, and once again sat down for a short rest. When she got up, she decided to press onwards. As she went through the doorway that was the room's second notable feature, she heard the twang of a bowstring, and immediately dropped to the ground. She felt the wind of an arrow sailing over her head. She got up, and saw a long hallway, with a hollowed archer at the far end. There was a doorway halfway up, with a corpse slumped in it, clutching a target shield. Raven sprinted towards it, grabbed the shield, slung it over her left arm, blocking another arrow that came sailing towards her. She sprinted at the hollow archer, who turned and ran up an adjoining hallway to the left. She saw another corpse, impaled through the chest with what appeared to be a bandit's knife, laying under where the archer had been standing. She snatched up the knife, tossing the broken straight sword hilt aside, and turned to chase after the archer, who shot another arrow at her.

She promptly ducked again, and the arrow sailed over her head and clattered against the wall behind her. She stood up, and continued to charge the archer, who desperately fumbled to draw another arrow from his quiver as Raven approached. To his credit, he did manage to get the arrow nocked before she reached him. Unfortunately for him, it didn't much matter. Raven kicked off the wall beside him, depositing her immediately behind the archer. She aimed her strike carefully but quickly, and deftly stabbed him in the back. The archer fell to the ground, dead, and Raven inhaled with a rush of euphoria as she absorbed his souls. She shook her head to clear the rush. Enough of that. It was time to move on. Raven turned around, walking the rest of the way down the hallway, where she was met by a gateway of shimmering white fog, a mysterious piece of magic that she wasn't sure she'd ever understand. Regardless, she stepped through the shimmering light, which faded behind her.

Raven found herself on a balcony overlooking the courtyard which she had recently occupied, and chuckled. She hadn't realized she'd circled around in such a manner, although she had known she was going in a general upwards direction, from the slopes of the hallways. She turned left, before realizing that that direction was a dead end, and turned back in the other direction. She found two sets of stairs; one leading down towards the courtyard, and one that led up further yet. She didn't need to go back to face the demon without exploring a little more, so she decided to go up, and was greeted with a rumbling sound. From the top of the stairs, a large boulder was rolling down towards her. Raven immediately jumped sideways, out of the boulder's path, and landed on the stairs leading down. She turned around to see that the boulder had crashed through the wall behind her, revealing a small room. She peered in curiously, and noticed the knight who had rescued her earlier, laying on a pile of rubble, illuminated by a single shaft of light which was, presumably, his own entrance to the room.

"Oh, you. You're no hollow, eh? I'm done for, I'm afraid," the Astoran Knight said weakly. His resigned tone almost made Raven choke; she had seen far too much death, even before she was undead herself, to be able to tolerate this easily. Everyone had told her that it got easier. It didn't. In fact, it seemed that each death she experienced wore away at the little tolerance she had for the matter, until now it was completely gone. She felt a tear run down her cheek, and she shook her head desperately.

"I'm not leaving you here to die," she said, crouching down beside him, and he chuckled in a despondent manner.

"There's nothing to be done. I'll die soon, and then go hollow," the knight responded, his head leaning back. Matching rivers of tears were readily flowing down Raven's cheeks, although she had no clue why. She shouldn't be crying over the death of this man. They barely knew each other. And yet, something about his prone, weak form compared to his upbeat attitude previously yanked at her heart. She knew that this was a death that her own sanity would not survive.

"You and I... we're both undead. Hear me out, will you?" The knight seemed resigned to his fate.

"No. Whatever you're going to ask me to do, you can do it yourself. You are NOT dying here," Raven told him, somewhat angry now. Raven looked around, begging the gods to send a way to save him. Funny. It was the first time she had asked the gods for anything, and it wasn't even for herself. She had always spent every last minute looking out for herself, as a thief living on the streets of various cities in various lands, as she got caught in, and escaped from, each one in turn. It had seemed that she had finally met her match in prisons when the curse of the undead landed on her, and she was carted off to the undead asylum. And now, here she was, actually looking out for someone else, someone that she barely knew.

She was snapped out of her moment of reflection as her eyes settled on something that meant a miracle. An estus flask, which had rolled away from the knight as he fell through the ceiling, lying in the corner. There was enough there to heal... anything, really. You could regrow a lost limb with that much left. She grabbed it, flipped up the knight's faceplate, and put the flask to his lips. He tried to mumble something, but it was lost in the estus.

"Drink," Raven told him, and he did. As he emptied the flask, a warm glow rose from his body, and then faded. The flask was empty.

"Thanks," the knight said, his voice already closer to the upbeat sound she had heard when he had dropped her the key than his exhausted, resigned tone.

"I'm Oscar, by the way. Who, exactly, are you?" The knight seemed genuinely curious.

"Not that I'm complaining, but... you shouldn't have let me free if you didn't know me. Name's Raven. I have a long and complicated life history, starting in Carim and ending in... well, hell. It's still unfolding. How am I to know where it ends?" The knight chuckled, and stretched a hand upwards. Raven accepted it, helping him to his feet.

"That estus works wonders, but I'd like to stop by a bonfire before facing that demon again, if it's all right with you," Oscar said, following Raven out of the room. Raven nodded, and headed down the stairs, rather than up. They came to a gate, which Raven pushed open, and they walked into the courtyard, sitting down at the bonfire. Oscar refilled his estus flask, and the magic of bonfires radiated over both of them, healing and rejuvenating them. Both rose shortly after. Raven walked up to the large doors, behind which the demon was undoubtedly still lying in wait.

"Shall we?" she asked, and Oscar nodded, joining her at the doors. She shoved on them with more than enough force to get them open, based on what she remembered of her last attempt. The doors held fast. Oscar joined in, pushing on one door while she pushed on the other. Still nothing.

"Damn things are stuck fast," Oscar said finally, panting, "We'll have to find another way into that room." Not deeming it necessary to speak where a nod would suffice, Raven bobbed her head, and they headed back to the gate that they had come from. They climbed one staircase, and then the other, and were met with a hollow at the top. Oscar decapitated it with a single swing of his sword, then pulled a key from one of the pouches on his belt, unlocking a gate at right behind the dead hollow. Raven felt a sudden rush as the hollow's souls entered her body, and she swayed for a moment, before steadying herself, shaking her head to clear the feeling.

"First time absorbing souls?" Oscar asked, seeing her brief disorientation.

"I've only been undead for about a month," Raven answered, "and most of the time I was in that damned cell. Thanks again, by the way." Oscar chuckled, then lead the way into the next room. Well, it wasn't exactly a room, so much as a landing. The roof had long since collapsed, or been torn away, by some force or another. Raven caught up to Oscar, and they walked side by side around the corner, where they came face to face with two hollows. One jumped at Raven, who parried expertly, delivering a deft thrust of her dagger into it's unarmored chest, slipping right between the ribs and skewering it's heart. Oscar simply slashed upwards, cutting the second hollow in half vertically. Raven heard the distinctive twang of a bowstring being released, and dropped to the ground, anticipating an arrow. Oscar wasn't so quick, and the arrow was aimed at him. It hit squarely in his armored chest, causing him to stumble in surprise. Raven jumped up from the ground, throwing her dagger at the archer and killing him, before turning to Oscar, who shrugged sheepishly before pulling the arrow out of his chest, revealing that it hadn't made it through his armor. Raven grinned.

"We've circled around to the back of that room, I think," Oscar started, "which means that that," he pointed to a wall of shimmering white light, facing back towards the way they had come from, "leads directly into that room, from above. Let's check where that other door," Oscar pointed to a door behind the archer, at the other end of their current 'room', "goes." Raven walked towards it, retrieving her knife from the archer's corpse as she went. Oscar raised his shield, and went through the door first, to draw enemy fire. None came, and Raven followed.

There was a single hollow soldier, wielding a longsword and far better armored than the ones that they had faced to this point, at the far end of the room. Raven charged him, and slashed, causing a narrow score in his flesh where her dagger barely penetrated his armor. He raised a hand, holding an estus flask, to his mouth, but Raven cut it off before he could heal successfully. The estus flask clattered to the ground. Raven stabbed the soldier right through the eye, killing him. She heard metal clanging, and briefly wondered where the blacksmith was before she realized that it was Oscar, with his steel-clad hands, clapping.

"Well done, indeed. And you even managed to nab his flask, to boot!" Oscar said, gesturing to the half-full estus flask on the ground. Raven picked it up, slipping it into one of her satchels. There was a gate behind the soldier, which she tried. It was locked, and the master key didn't work on that one, either.

"Afraid I don't have the key for that one. Leaves just the demon, doesn't it?" Oscar said, somehow managing to sound cheery about the impending battle. Raven jogged out of the room, Oscar right behind her. She stopped in front of the wall of shimmering, white fog.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Oscar asked in mock annoyance. Raven stepped through, to find herself on a narrow ledge with the demon looking up at her.

Well, Raven thought, there's only one thing for it. She jumped off the ledge and towards the demon, ramming her knife through it's eye. It howled in pain, and shook her off, sending her flying across the room. By some miracle, she was actually able to hold onto the knife as she rolled to her feet, pain shooting up her back from her landing. The demon turned towards her menacingly, raising it's club. At that exact moment, Oscar leapt through the fog, shouting, "For Astora!" before bringing his sword slamming down into the demon's head, which split clean down the middle. The demon disintegrated into dust, which formed into a key and a black sprite. Raven felt a massive rush as she absorbed a portion of it's souls. The rest went to Oscar. Oscar picked up the key, and tossed the black blob to her.

"What's this?" Raven asked, looking at the sprite.

"I forget that you're new to being undead. That's a humanity. Crush it," Oscar explained. Raven looked at him, confused, but complied. Immediately she felt a massive rush, easily ten times the size of the influx of souls that she had just experienced. She actually felt it, somehow, inside of her.

"You feel that? That piece, inside you now? You can give that to a bonfire, and it will, for the most part, restore what you looked like before the curse of the undead afflicted you. Only works in Lordran, though. Something about the magic there." As he talked, Oscar inserted the key into a set of big doors which were separate from the ones that they had previously attempted to enter through. They swung open, and just like that, they were free to explore the whopping hundred yards between that set of doors and a sheer cliff. There wasn't much width to it, either.

"That wasn't what I expected to be outside," Oscar commented, "but let's at least go and admire the view. We've earned that much, don't you think?"

"I think we have," Raven replied, following him to the ledge. It really was a beautiful view. Suddenly, she heard a screech in the distance.

"What was that?" Oscar demanded, looking around in confusion. Suddenly, a crow swooped out of nowhere, bearing both of them up in it's claws.