14 Secrets Unraveled

[AN: I was going to write earlier today, but guess what...My neighbors' house caught on fire. No shit. They weren't home so...Got on the phone with the fire department, by the time they got home I was done making the call, (really good timing) and helped em keep the fire down with garden hoses till the fire engines arrived. Which took around 30 minutes seeing as I live in the absolute boonies. But anyway, we gave shelter to their five(5!) kids, all below the age of 10 for around 5 hours while the FD worked. And they had to touch and get into everything! One of the boys managed to get into a locked room and get into my knife collection! I don't think I want kids anymore, they are demons.... They also ate my pizza, which I had just finished cooking. So after they left and the house wasn't on fire, I took a break and played DS1 till I passed out. On another note Al is now on NG+2, trying hard not to simp for spider girl.]

[AN: ONE SLICE FOR ME!!!!]

[Al POV]

[21'st floor]

I adjusted my position slightly as I slowly crept forward towards the back of the blue-colored Vouivre that was drinking from a small pond. With the help of the slumbering dragon crest ring I had found in Sen's Fortress, courtesy of getting knocked off by giant swinging ax blades, I was completely silent. When I was just outside of throwing distance, the monster glanced up and looked around right as I was about to throw the net, perhaps it had a sixth sense or it was simply paranoid. Regardless it screamed like a scared human and dove into the water, the net landed in the water harmlessly and sunk to the bottom.

"Damn, why did it have to go and do that?" I heard Tsubaki grumble as my teammates regrouped with me. "Perhaps we should wait," Riveria offered while examining the pond, "There is an opening to what looks like a tunnel, it might come back out soon, thinking we have left." I shook my head at this and said, "I'll just swim after it, I was always a good swimmer." The three of them looked at me before Tsubaki shrugged and said, "Make sure to grab the net while your down there." Seeing as they didn't have any qualms about me doing it, I walked to the edge of the water and then plopping in, the weight of my armor easily pulling me to the bottom where the net lay.

Once the net was retrieved, I walked along the bottom and into the small tunnel. Once out of sight, I pulled off my helmet and touched the burning circle on my neck. Within seconds I was Hollowed and no longer needed to breathe. I took a few moments to acclimate to being hollow once again, the sheer wrongness of it causing me discomfort. Once done with that, I began walking along the natural path, dodging roots every few feet.

[3rd POV]

[Xenos Village]

*Splash!*

The inhabitants of the 21st floors Xenos Village turned towards the sound of someone exiting from their secret entrance, an underwater tunnel linking two ponds together. Four, a Fomoire Xenos with the body of a humanoid goat, was the first to see who had made the noise. Since he was the self-proclaimed gatekeeper. Four watched the Vouivre pull herself out of the water and gasp for air. The journey was quite difficult for non-aquatic Xenos' since the trip was around 5 minutes. Once she caught her breath she turned to Four and got her words out in between coughing fits.

"A-Adventurers Tri- *COUGH* tried to capture me!" Hearing this Four and many other Xenos in earshot became both angry and concerned. Within moments Lyd, a Lizardman Xenos that wielded a Scimitar and longsword, and Ray, a Siren Xenos had come to get the newly-born Vouivre's account of what happened, so they could warn the rest on where and where not to go, as usual.

Before long there was a group of around 25 Xenos, nearly the entire village, comforting the young Vouivre or preparing to go on a raid to vent their anger. The entire village went silent when the form of an armored human's head appeared above the surface of the water.

[Al POV]

I couldn't help but punch the root closest to me when I came upon another dead end, this would be the fourth, but thankfully there was only one route left to try. If that wasn't it, I am going to scream, lungs full of water be damned. When I entered the last opening, I heard what sounded like people talking, so assuming that another party of adventurers, possibly from the expedition, had captured or killed the Vouivre, I popped my head out of the water and instead came to see a group of around 25 monsters all surrounding the Vouivre which was...Crying?

My shock came to an abrupt end as I was grabbed around the head by a gray-colored monster that I identified as a gargoyle, within a moment I was pulled out of the water, kicking on reflex I hit the gargoyle in the jaw, making it drop me and onto dry land. I rolled backward, drawing my Zweihander into a ready guard, with it resting on my left arm. (Think wardens from "for honor")

The group of monsters took similar stances. The monster that had grabbed me held a large battle-ax while what seemed to be a Lizardman stepped up as well, holding two swords. Soon there was an assortment of monsters all surrounding me, most with some type of weapon and armor, though they seemed to be salvaged as most were damaged or didn't fit.

While I was debating on whether to try and jump back into the pond or slug it out, a monster stepped forward and through the crowd, and I was immediately shocked. Though it was obviously a monster, it had a human's face and upper body, minus the bird wings for arms. "Do you have any last words, adventurer?" The humanoid monster spoke, yes spoke, it took me a moment to realize what had just transpired and due to the water in my lungs, I couldn't speak.

Once I realized they were actually waiting for me to speak, I held up a finger on my left hand in the universal 'wait for one-moment' gesture, to which they nodded, and slightly lowered their weapons which I mimicked. I thumbed my bottomless box causing my chest piece to disappear, causing the monsters to once again go on alert. I ignored them and started to punch myself in the chest, causing them to have very confused looks, but soon all the water was knocked out, and after taking a swig of Estus to repair my cracked ribs and collapsed lungs I spoke, "Since when do monsters speak?"

[3rd POV]

The Xenos were on high alert when the Humans chest armor abruptly disappeared, preparing for a fight once again, upset that their offer at honor was denied they raised their weapons to attack when they were shocked for a different reason. The human began to beat himself on the chest, cracks the Xenos recognized as breaking bones echoed out revealing that he was practically killing himself. The Xenos shared incredulus looks before they noticed water flying from the man's mouth, and after a few more hits the man took a swig from a strange glowing bottle and he began to speak. "Since when do monsters speak?"

[Al POV]

"Do not refer to us as monsters, adventurer scum!" The Gargoyle monster yelled in anger at my words. I thumbed my bottomless box once again and my chest plate was back in place. "Do you think me blind? If you are not monsters what are you? Human?" I shot back at the beast mostly due to the stress of the soon-to-be fight. I was almost having flashbacks to the second floor of the Undead Church, that group of hollows ganging up on me was a scaring episode of my un-life.

"We are Xenos, Adventurer, your kind seem to like to butcher and kidnap our friends, so I think I'll return the favor and skin you alive!" A 'Xenos' as they called themselves screamed from the group. The humanoid bird 'Xenos' spoke up again once the outbursts calmed down, "You say you have never heard of us, but yet you are here chasing one of us to capture and kill! Do you take us for fools!?" Despite the pleasant sound of her voice, the anger behind it was truly heavy.

It was around this time when a thought popped into my mind. When I had fought the Chaos Witch Quelagg, I had assumed she was just trying to kill me because she was mad, only to find out she just wanted to protect her sister. I wonder....Is this the same type of misunderstanding?

"No, I do not take you for fools, but I also have no idea what is going on...I've never heard of talking monsters or Xenos before. I was asked to go and capture a Vouivre that had been spotted on the 21st floor. But instead, I end up surrounded by a bunch of talking monsters that call themselves Xenos. So no, I don't take you as fools, but I am very confused, so why don't you tell me, just what the fuck is happening!?"

Though I could have been more diplomatic in my words, I had a lot of different emotions running through me. I was even entertaining the thoughts that Finn and the Loki Familia knew these Xenos were intelligent and sentient creatures and sent me to hunt them like animals anyway. During my time in Lordran, there were many inhuman creatures that helped me on my journey, if I have the chance to be on friendly terms with someone, human or not, I always try to take it.

The Xenos had mixed reactions to my words. Some were angered by my tone, some looked almost pitying and some were just confused. The bird Xenos I was speaking with was in the confused category, "You.....Had no idea that the Vouivre you were trying to capture was a Xenos?" I nodded at her words, "I didn't even know what a Xenos was till now. That is the truth." She then asked a question that many of the Xenos seemed anxious to know the answer to, while the others just wanted to kill me. "If you had known what us Xenos were and knew that the Vouivre you were after was a Xenos, would you have tried to capture her?"

I looked at her for a long moment and answered her question with a question of my own, "Are the Xenos the enemy of humans? Do you want to kill us on sight?" The bird-woman didn't get a chance to answer it as many of the Xenos answered for her. Their words ranged from, "Of course not!" or "Were not monsters!" to "We just want to co-exist!" Once they all calmed down the bird-woman asked, "Does that answer your question?"

I nodded and lowered my sword while saying, "It does, I am not the enemy of the Xenos if you aren't hostile to me. No sentient creature deserves to be treated like a mindless animal." Once I had answered the majority of the Xenos lowered their weapons or put them away altogether and walked towards me, leaving only around five holdouts, the Gargoyle was one of them, he just snorted and walked off. A Xenos similar to Quelagg in that she was part spider also left. the other three just stayed near the back of the group, weapons in reach.

"So Mr.Adventurer, I think there is one thing you need to do." One of the Xenos, a large lizardman said once they reached the corner I had backed myself into. I gave him a look and he pointed to the still quivering form of the Vouivre, I understood what he wanted me to do. So I kneeled down in front of the Vouivre, which was only around the size of a young teenager, and removed my helmet so I could apologize face-to-face. But instead, a look of horror dawned on her face and many gasps were heard from the Xenos. The Lizardman that had spoken to me even said, "Damn, what happened to your face?!" It was then I realized that I was still hollow.

[AN: Al meets the Xenos and accidentally reveals his hollowed form to the Xenos. Will the simpleminded and honorable Xenos reject him as a monster or accept his 'deformity'. Find out next time on Bonmachi.]

[AN2: I am considering changing Al's Elite knight set for a modified Artorias's set so it will match his Soon-to-be alias. 'Abysswalker'. Tell me what you guys think or if there is a better set you can think of. Or if you want you can describe something completely original, and if I like it, I'll use it.]