The Tarnished gather themselves after the defeat of the Night's Cavalry.
They gather their breaths.
Gareth: Now... Gareth: Not complaining... Gareth: What, by Marika, happened?
D: I have no idea. D: Maybe he was a shadow.
Gareth: Come again? D: If we possess light, then we also cast shadows.
D: As to whom is casting whom, don't ask me. D: My arms hurt.
They move inward into the valley. The tombstones loom large.
A spirit, the Mausoleum Knight, guards the Black Knight Catacombs.
Gareth: I'm beat. D: And, my arms.
They look to Yuina.
Yuina looks at them with a worried glance.
Yuina: S-Sure.
Yuina approaches the knight from behind.
She raises her katana.
The knight vanishes.
She blinks rapidly, and looks left and right.
Yuina, to D and Gareth: That settles that -
The knight is behind her, swinging.
Yuina rolls on the ground.
Yuina swings her sword wildly at the knight.
Yuina and the knight exchange sword swings. Gareth, resting: So... Gareth: Is that another walking dead?
D: Of a different kind. D: Rogier explained the unity of the Order? Gareth: Aye.
D: Those knights divested themselves of their being to serve the Erdtree and the demigods. D: They are one with the Erdtree's light.
Gareth: So...do they exist, or do they not? D: Yes.
D: They have linked their entire bodies, minds, and souls to the Erdtree's destiny. D: And the Erdtree has assigned them to protect its roots.
D: It's a fate everyone should want. Gareth: ...
Gareth: So they'll never be reborn? Gareth: Do they have wills?
D: No. Gareth: They, then, are slaves to the Erdtree?
D: They are the Erdtree. Gareth: Hmm.
Gareth: But what about those others? With the mariner?
D: Those have the worst fate in the Lands Between. D: For them, the unity is broken.
D: The spirits that flew in the air, are mind only. D: Resentments, longings, miseries living onward, with no rest.
D: They attempt to take any body, to continue on their broken destiny. D: It's pathetic.
D: You noticed it too? How the tree that grew in Rogier could not be cut?
D: That's the body, divorced from mind and fate.
Gareth: But it's a tree. D: Yes, these have fates too.
D: Without fate, the body grows and grows, adhering to no shape... D: It grows ugly, twisted, ambitious, hungry...
D: Tormented that it will never be perfect.
D: When we go into those catacombs, we'll see a number of corpses who simply cannot die.
D: They remember how to fight... They remember they should fight... D: But they do not know what it is they fight for.
D: Those Who Live In Death. D: An abomination to the perfection of the Golden Order.
D: The mariners are a confluence of those spirits, as the waves in the sea join together.
D: As to why the Order is the way it is...
D: That tale precedes the Shattering. D: Moreover, it is the cause of the Shattering.
A view of Leyndell, awesome in the blessings of the Erdtree. Godwyn is somewhere here, face probably obscured. D: There was no suffering when the Golden Order was perfected. D: People were fed by the light of the Erdtree. D: There were no infirmities in the body. D: Because all knew their fate, there was neither pride nor ambition. D: And, because nature was cyclical, everyone would see their loved ones again. D: The demigods, the offspring of Marika, ruled justly and wisely.
The Rune of Death. D: All of these auspices, were bought by Marika sealing the Rune of Death. D: A letter of nature saying living creatures must suffer. D: The Rune of Death ensured bodies must decay, minds must perish, and destinies never complete.
The classic image of the Night of the Black Knives, in the opening cutscene of the game. D: And yet, some mad fool approached the symbol of ruin, and from it wrote weapons that would kill the gods. D: These were then given to denizens of the Eternal Cities, Marika's mausoleums, whose fates were severed from the Golden Order. D: Arrayed in armor of silver, They slayed Godwyn the Golden, Leyndell's greatest defender, in what would come to be called, eons later, the Night of the Black Knives. D: And did no more. D: For that was enough.
The Erdtree rotting black in its roots. D: The Erdtree is a whole. Every living creature participates in the Erdtree, and the Erdtree is confirmed in every living creature. D: The Rune of Death, written on Godwyn's body, was thereby written on the Erdtree. D: The Erdtree rotted, loosening its rule over the Lands Between, D: and now body, mind and fate are split apart. D: And that is what Deathroot is: a decaying part of the Erdtree, D: a symbol of neverending, powerful, vital life, withering out of a contradiction brought upon by mortal folly.
Back to Liurnia. D: That's the sum of it... D: Though there are other things I'll refrain from speaking on for now.
Gareth: ...If I may. D: Go ahead.
Gareth: And yet I may offend, on your beliefs. D: You won't.
Gareth: There couldn't be a contradiction, if the Order was truly perfected. Gareth: The order was flawed to begin with.
D: ...I suppose. D: And yet, if we didn't sin, then we wouldn't be speaking of contradictions.
Gareth: I suppose that is true.
D, standing: Therefore, what I propose we do is return Rogier directly to the Erdtree's roots, D: so he will return to the Order's cycle.
D: Most other catacombs have rotted roots now... D: I had never tried this one.
D: I wonder how our friend is faring.
Yuina has somehow been disarmed. The Mausoleum Knight is pointing her greatsword at her.
Gareth and D have beaten up the Mausoleum Knight. Gareth: Yuina, stay here and watch the team. Gareth: If you encounter any issues, run or hide.
Gareth and D before the door to the Black Knife Catacombs.
Gareth opens the door to the catacombs.
Gareth and D descend, with Rogier's coffin following them.
They face the locked double doors leading to the Erdtree's roots. D: Those doors lead to the Erdtree's roots. D: They're locked, to ensure, after the Night of Black Knives, no one would hurt the Erdtree, or its subjects. D: In older days someone, on surety of our character, would open it for us... D: But, those were older days. They leave Rogier's coffin here.
They turn a corner.
The head of a skeleton, mouth open.
The skeleton's head shakes.
D: These catacombs are rife with Those Who Live In Death... D: I will deal with them.
The skeleton rises. D crosses his arms over his chest.
D raises his arms, in the pose of the Golden Order Totality. Light is emitted by him, dissolving the skeleton into dust.
D: That is the gesture of the Golden Order, meaning faith in its totality. D: It makes them less rebellious.
D: I would teach it to you but... D: It requires some devotion.
Gareth: I'll be fine. Gareth: I'll put my faith in you.
They round more corners.
They hear blades slicing rapidly through the air, and grinding against rock. They round another corner. Gareth: What is...?
A blade comes down.
They see a wide corrider, in which giant blades, spanning the corridor's length, shoot upward, and then brutally downward.
Gareth: What are - D: Beats me. They're in every catacomb.
A skeleton revives behind them. D: Maybe they're used to cut down things bigger than people? D: I don't know.
D: I suppose dragons are part of the Erdtree too. The skeleton lunges.
D performs the Litany of Proper Death. The skeleton is toppled in the wave of gold.
The skeleton lays on the ground.
It stirs again.
D: I don't understand... Gareth, looking up: D.
Gareth protects D with his greatshield, held over their heads. Fire explodes on the shield.
On a balcony overhead, skeletons are throwing bombs at them.
The skeleton lunges again.
Gareth knocks it into the gullotine, where the blow of the blade shatters it.
The skeleton, even after its destruction, still shakes. Gareth: D, is there any more magickery I'm not privy to?
D: As far as I know, no. Gareth: Then hold onto me, and my shield.
D jumps onto Gareth's back; he balances himself on Gareth by looping his arm around his neck, and balances one end of the greatshield over Gareth's head with the other. Gareth holds the other end.
The gullotine comes down.
Gareth, with one arm, holds onto the raising gullotine. They are raised up.
The skeletons throw their bombs. The shield, carefully maneuvered by D and Gareth, block them.
D climbs over Gareth and runs along the gullotine to the skeletons.
He cuts them with the Inseparable Sword.
D sees a fire lurking in the background.
It is a Tarnished, holding a torch with a whie-blue flame.
D: A living, breathing man?...
The skeletons rise.
With one sweep of his sword he cuts down the skeletons and imbue his blade with gold.
He fires the wave of gold at the Tarnished.
The brilliance of gold sears the Tarnished's flesh. He falls backwards. Tarnished: Eeeee!
The skeletons fall apart, no longer animated.
D and Gareth tower over the fallen Tarnished. D: Talk. Tarnished: W-what?
D: Don't play stupid. D: Why do you use ghostflame?
The Tarnished looks at his torch. Tarnished: T-this? Tarnished: It's dark in here...
D kicks him in the face. D: Stop lying.
Gareth: Ghostflame is...? D: Untethers spirit from body.
Gareth: And so it - D: Is heresy to the Erdtree.
D, at his most fanatical. D: All the Erdtree hates, is fire. D: You hold fire. How do you want to die?
Tarnished, spluttering: I-I-I-
Tarnished: You're the one, ignoring the Erdtree's w-
D cuts his head off.
The head rolls off. D: The head is supposed to be where the light of the Erdtree enters.
D puts his foot on the man's head. D: Well then.
He crushes it, reducing it to a bloody pulp and cracking the skull.
D, shaking uncontrollably: Sinners...ugly sinners... D: Sinners...why does the Erdtree permit them?!...
Gareth puts his hand on D's shoulder. D: ...
D: Gareth: D: Don't look down on me. D: I, too, am in violation of the Golden Order.
D: I have a brother. Gareth: A brother?
D: Aye. D: And I'm doomed never to meet him.
D: We're two different men, except we share the same fate. D: Two men, meant to vie for the same path, will hate each other.
D: In our original lives, we were hated, called the cursed twins...
D: We tried to ignore fate, and yet we came upon torment after torment...
D: Ironically, it was the Golden Order that accepted us. D: Said our sins were not ours alone to bear.
D: If I do not defend the Golden Order, it's the same as abandoning my brother.
D: Perhaps you may never understand... Gareth: D. No more. You're a decent man.
Gareth: But, to be truthful... Gareth: I don't believe in the Golden Order. Gareth: So, no judgment.
A hallway with statues of Erdtree Burial Watchdogs are seen.
Skeletons rise.
D and Gareth fight them.
They press onward, the skeletons defeated behind them.
A hallway. Gareth, inspecting the right of the hallway: Well, there is a portal here, but it only leads downward...
D is transfixed by the end of the hallway. He hears noise behind a wall. Gareth: I'm quite tired of climbing... D: Wait.
D sticks his hand forward. His hand passes through the wall.
The illusory wall reveals an altar room, where Tarnished are praying.
D, voice barely suppressing anger: Gareth, stay there.
The Tarnished pray, for the spirits to fly freely. They pray so fervently, they do not notice D is amongst them.
D cuts off a Tarnished's head with his sword.
Tarnished back away from him.
He raises his blade.
He cuts the head of a Tarnished in half.
He looks to the others murderously. They scurry from him.
D is in a room full of dead bodies. Blood paints his armor, and pools underneath his feet. He breathes heavily.
Behind him, waiting in the corner of the altar room and observing D in the entire time, is a Black Knife Assassin. The darkness of her attire disguised her in D's frenzy. D: Oh Erdtree, I have avenged you of your transgressers.
The Assassin grabs D by his cape, pulling him back.
The Assassin has pinned D, such that his chest is raised upwards; her black knife is pointed down into his heart, ready to stab him.
A hand on a longbow, which is the same bow held by the skeletons.
Gareth fires.
The arrow comes closer to the Assassin.
She steps backwards, dropping D and grabbing the arrow in mid-air.
Gareth rushes in with his shield.
The Assassin smoothly and inhumanly moves to Gareth's side, near cutting him.
Gareth turns; the knife meeting the shield causes sparks.
The Assassin flies again, stepping to Gareth's other side; she lunges.
Gareth meets the knife again.
D recovers. Gareth: D! D: A rotten leader for rotten sinners...
D: Make no mistake. D: That is a Black Knife.
The Black Knife dances around Gareth and D, threatening them with her flashing blade.
Gareth: All well and good, but what do we do?
D: Well, she seems puzzled by a giant hunk of metal...
The Assassin rushes at Gareth, her knife scraping the ground.
Gareth braces with his greatshield.
By a mighty underhand swing, she knocks Gareth backwards. Gareth: Woah! D: ...Nevermind.
Gareth is in mid-air. The Assassin dances around Gareth, ready to cut his back.
D swings at her. She dodges.
D blocks her knife with his sword. Gareth lands.
The Assassin stabs D in the side. D: Hrrgh! Gareth picks himself up.
Gareth rushes to D's side, bashing his shield against the Assassin. She, predictably, dodges backwards smoothly.
She grinds her knife on the ground, ready to push Gareth backwards again.
Gareth unexpectedly rushes forward, stopping her before she can swing. She is knocked backwards.
Gareth picks D up. Gareth: We have to put space between us and this wasp and her sting.
They run out of the room. The Assassin recovers.
They jump down the portal Gareth mentioned earlier. The Assassin follows.
They fall.
Their feet land, falling into water and mud. Really, Gareth is doing more of the falling; he is supporting D, while D holds his side.
They are in the flooded basement of the catacombs.
D: G-Gareth. D is pointing to a lever. D: For the doors.
Gareth sets D aside for a while. Gareth: This stupid catacombs. He pulls on the lever.
The Assassin falls down.
The Assassin lunges at D; Gareth comes to his side, blocking the knife.
Behind them, skeletons shake, and rise.
They fire their bows.
Gareth ducks; the Assassin catches the two arrows.
Gareth and D run. A giant, grey plate is in the ground before them.
The plate stirs.
D: Gareth! Left!
Gareth winds to the plate's left; a giant claw swipes up from the mud, the claw belonging to a giant crab.
The claw grabs the chasing Assassin.
Gareth, with D holding onto him, climb up a ladder.
The Assassin, with blood running down her sides, puts her hands on either side of the crab's claw.
With her amazing strength, she pushes it open.
She cuts the crab in two.
She jumps up the ladder.
Gareth and D are waiting for her, where the gullotines fall.
She lunges.
Gareth plants his shield before the gullotine. The blade falls down; she dodges backward.
She sidesteps to the other side of the gullotine.
D sticks out his sword; she dodges back, over the gullotine.
The gullotine lifts up; she is surprised. Gareth carries his greatshield over his head.
He breaks the greatshield over her abdomen; blood spurts out, from the wounds the crab made.
The Assassin stands up. D, his blade golden, has fired a blade of gold on her.
She brings her cape up, attempting to defend from the gold; it still singes her.
She lunges forward, blood trailing from her sides. Gareth and D push backwards to the second gullotine.
The Assassin falls short of her mark; Gareth charges forward, pushing her in the way of the gullotine.
The gullotine falls; she moves backwards.
D fires another blade of gold; she winds around it, passing the first gullotine and making her way to Gareth.
Gareth, with his left arm, slams the Assassin into the second gullotine, with a side swing.
She slides down, as the second gullotine enters the ground. D raises his sword high above his head.
The Assassin passes the second gullotine.
The two sides eye one another, as the blade pulls up.
The blade obscures their view.
The blade pulls up. Gareth charges forward.
To Gareth's surprise, the Assassin has actually jumped up and over the second blade, and is bringing her blade down into his head.
A blade of gold. D has actually moved himself backward, so he is closer to the first gullotine. The Assassin is pushed backward, in mid-air.
Gareth charges forward, with his shield.
The assassin plants her foot and her knee on the ground, bringing her arms up, to stop the shield's charge.
She looks up; the shield has stopped midway in its path.
From her side, Gareth's leg comes up, kicking her across the face.
The Assassin is sent flying. The third gullotine comes crashing down.
Then, the twist everyone sees coming: the Assassin is cut in two, blood spattering everywhere.
The two halves of the body land. Gareth picks D up. Gareth: You ok? D: ...It'll heal.
They look down on the Black Knife. Gareth: ...I forgot things don't die here. Gareth: Even the ancient ones.
D: Frankly, the failure of the Night of Black Knives could have been amended with a few deaths.
Gareth: Why are they still around, if they're so hated?
D: ...I don't know. D: Craftiness. D: Incompetence. D: Marika's sentimentality.
Rogier's coffin.
They bring Rogier's coffin down into the vaults.
Gareth opens yet another set of doors into the Erdtree's roots.
The Erdtree's roots. It can be seen that corpses are already merged to the Erdtree, clamoring to return to consequence and cycle again.
D cuts off the roots from Rogier's heart.
D: Now, trust me on this...
He plunges his blade into Rogier's heart.
Black sap drips out.
He then, with effort and pain, brings the wound over the heart to the Erdtree.
The Erdtree accepts the body; it grows roots into Rogier's heart.
The rotten black roots are casted out, rotting on the ground.
Gareth: Literally uniting with the Erdtree in body and soul, huh. D: Yes.
D: Now Rogier will return to consequence; D: he may return as himself, D: or as someone else entirely.
D: But he will not wander evermore as a restless spirit.
D: Or another man's puppet.
Gareth and D share a moment, in the bowels of the catacombs.