While Fingri and the others worked out how to break through the monsters surrounding the church and get word of the church's location to the boy outside —
Leon and the others had independently arrived at their own plan involving the same child.
"Boss, that Fingri guy is genuinely awful. Didn't even bother introducing himself properly — just started fighting the second he showed up!"
Maru, finding Leon freshly revived at the kitchen bonfire, couldn't hold back the complaint.
The Onion Knight remained asleep beside the fire, undisturbed, raising real questions about whether he'd ever fully wake up. Probably the most eccentric NPC anyone had encountered so far.
"I don't think it was malicious. He was probably just too flustered to think of a better play at the moment."
Leon tried for understanding.
Privately, though, his thoughts ran differently: If someone shoved footage of me going full-wild back in my hometown in front of my own eyes, I'd absolutely deny that the guy laughing maniacally with a daddy in one hand and an older sister in the other, spewing embarrassing lines, was me.
Everyone has an off day where chuunibyou wins.
Understandable, genuinely.
"Hmph. Whatever. Next time I see him, I'm making a face at him," Maru said, with real menace. "I'm going to humiliate him properly."
I don't think your definition of humiliating is quite what you think it is.
"But Boss — didn't you and Fingri drag a bunch of monsters into your fight earlier?"
Leon thought back. The two of them had covered practically every street in the process. Attracting attention had been inevitable — at one point they'd even briefly teamed up against the incoming wave, clearing everything before resuming the duel proper.
One a Warrior of Sunlight, the other a Darkmoon Knight.
Both sides had, notably, impeccable sportsmanship throughout.
"When we swept the battlefield afterward, we picked up a Pontiff Knight's leg armor and crown," Drew mentioned.
Leon considered it.
"But we're missing the rest. Just those two pieces alone won't cover it."
"We've also got the Fire Witch gauntlets and armor," Maru added. "Why not try mixing them? He never said everything had to come from the same monster — we're the ones who assumed a matched set was required."
"…I'm not holding out much hope here."
But —
"Really? These are for me? Thank you so much!"
The boy's delighted voice carried through the eastern avenue's door.
It had actually worked.
Leon and the others exchanged looks. None of them had genuinely expected the improvised attempt to pay off.
"Thank you! Now I can disguise myself and slip in with the bad people to find my brother! Thank you!"
Maru couldn't stop herself.
"It's genuinely dangerous out here. You're still going through with looking for him?"
"Mm! No matter what, I have to find him and bring him home."
Maru glanced toward Leon. Catching a nod of approval, she offered:
"How about this — let us escort you? We'll be your bodyguards while you search."
She'd developed real sympathy for him by now. And, admittedly, there was the outside chance this triggered something new.
The boy's response came sincere and firm.
"No, thank you. You're all good people, big brothers and sisters. I can't keep asking for more from you — it's dangerous here. I'll tell you about a shortcut through the big iron gate, but… please stop exploring past there. It's genuinely terrifying beyond that gate."
No amount of persuasion moved him. He wouldn't accept bodyguards.
Frustrated, Maru struck the wooden door with her fist.
An immovable barrier lit up across it instantly.
A frightened voice came from behind it.
"D-did I do something wrong? I'm sorry — please don't be angry with me, I…"
Everyone's resolve softened at that.
The group followed his terms: left every piece of equipment outside the door and stepped back.
"Thank you! Once I find my brother, I'll leave a message on the door so you know! Here's something for you, and a map showing the shortcut. Please don't go too deep into Irithyll, kind big brothers and sisters."
The door cracked open. A pale small hand pushed something through.
[Special Blue Bug Pellet]
A pill ground from insects into fine powder. Temporarily and significantly boosts resistance to magically imbued attacks.
Originally a secret medicine produced by Irithyll's slaves. After being refined by the boy's older brother, its potency increased considerably — at the cost of a shorter effective duration.
The pill carries his love for his family within it. For that reason, it's entirely unique — only members of his family possess it.
Alongside it:
[Rough Map Showing the Shortcut]
"I really hope you find your brother safely," Maru said, unable to hide the worry in her voice.
"Thank you, big sister! I definitely will."
Leon studied the map carefully. Maru pulled the group into a nearby alley, where they watched the boy's house, curious whether he'd actually come outside to collect the equipment.
"Got it — there's a hidden path west of the iron gate. Follow it and you hit a cemetery. Passing through one of the disturbed graves opens into an underground passage that surfaces inside the square enclosed by the iron railings."
None of them had noticed that route before. Without the boy's directions, they could easily have spent several more days without stumbling onto it.
After roughly half an hour of waiting, the boy still hadn't emerged.
Maru sighed. Nothing more to be done here.
She followed the others toward the hidden path marked on the map.
Its entrance sat concealed behind a cluster of trees and tucked into a narrow gap between buildings — the kind of gap that existed all over Irithyll, indistinguishable at a glance from any other.
No wonder they'd walked past it repeatedly.
Squeezing through the passage — barely wide enough for one person at a time — brought them to the cemetery proper.
The sight stopped everyone cold.
Rows of gravestones stretched across the open ground, arranged with careful precision. Close to a hundred, by rough count. A thick layer of snow blanketed every one.
Leon brushed the snow off the nearest.
"…Can't read this."
Unfamiliar script. After staring long enough, translated magical text overlaid the inscription automatically.
"Outrider Knight Noguyelan. You devoted your entire life to Irithyll. In recognition of your service, Pontiff Sulyvahn has raised this stone in your honor. May your wandering soul finally find rest."
Leon checked several more. Different names, different professions carved into each one — but every single stone had been erected by Pontiff Sulyvahn personally.
"Reading this, Sulyvahn actually seems like a decent guy," Terl offered.
"No — look closer, Terl." Maru had already caught the detail. "The stones only say he erected them. They don't say who these people died for."
Who had they died for, exactly?
Whatever the Outrider Knights had been sent to do outside these walls, it couldn't have happened without Sulyvahn's order. Whatever it was, they still had no confirmation of his actual goal.
Condemning him outright, without the full story, didn't feel right.
So what had he sacrificed so many lives for, specifically?
While everyone sat with that thought, an animal growl rolled through the cemetery.
Something dangerous, closing in.
"Outrider Knight."
Leon drew his weapon and squared up against the fully transformed shape approaching — limbs bent at wrong angles, cold radiating visibly off its body.
They'd fought enough of these by now to have the pattern down cold.
Ten minutes, and it was over. Leon's group won.
Something felt off about this particular one, though. Compared to every previous encounter —
Weaker?
As though its body was fighting itself constantly, struggling to hold basic control. It kept exposing openings it shouldn't have. Almost like someone had put on Outrider Knight equipment while whatever moved inside wasn't the genuine creature underneath.
"Yay — it dropped!"
Maru ran over and grabbed the glowing item.
"Irithyll Straight Sword, maybe? Those things sell for a fortune lately."
The blade had an extremely low drop chance off Outrider Knights specifically in the Catacombs of Carthus — outstanding handling, powerful frost infusion, and genuinely quick to build a serious reputation. It came in three variants depending on attached Ash of War: the common Stance, the rare Chilling Mist, and the reportedly singular Hoarfrost Stomp — the one rumored to belong exclusively to Sali, one of the Light Eagle Corps' vice-captains.
Sali had publicly demonstrated the Hoarfrost Stomp effect once, and the resulting envy had driven a genuine spike in Outrider Knight kill rates across the community.
No second copy had ever surfaced.
Even Chilling Mist remained genuinely rare.
The glow in Maru's hand shrank into a small box.
Mild disappointment.
She opened it anyway —
[Special Blue Bug Pellets]
"Just another Blue Bug Pellet."
She pouted and pocketed it without ceremony. Nobody bothered splitting small drops like this — whoever picked it up simply kept it.
"Boss, let's—"
Her voice trailed off.
Her eyes went wide.
She stared at the Outrider Knight's body, slowly dissolving into ash — then down at the pellets in her hand.
"AH! This is bad!"
She shoved the pellets into Leon's palm and spun, sprinting back toward the boy's house without another word.
Leon opened his mouth to ask what was happening —
Then registered the word Special on the item's name and understood immediately.
Was that Outrider Knight the boy's transformed brother?
If that's true — the boy's entire search was doomed before it started.
He glanced once more toward the cemetery, then led the group after Maru.
She wasn't sprinting flat-out, though — separating from the group left her badly exposed against anything that might ambush her alone. Rationally, this was just an NPC's fate playing out.
Wouldn't affect anyone actually living.
But Maru was the type who got genuinely invested in a story once she was in it. She cared what happened to him.
BOOM!
Right as they neared the boy's house, a pillar of fire erupted directly under Maru's feet, swallowing her small frame instantly.
"Cough — cough! Another Fire Witch? Thought we'd cleared all of them out already!"
She rolled clear of the flames immediately, coated head to toe in soot. Didn't slow her down.
She killed whatever had ambushed her without hesitation —
"Ah…"
And froze.
Because the "Fire Witch" hadn't been hiding at all.
It had been standing openly, in the middle of the street, directly in front of the boy's door.
Except calling it a Witch wasn't accurate anymore.
Its height had been roughly halved — the proportions of an underdeveloped child. Fire Witch armor and gauntlets paired with a Pontiff Knight's leg plating and crown. The combination carried no aesthetic logic whatsoever.
What it carried instead was something distinctly unsettling.
A Witch's staff in one hand. A Pontiff Knight's sword in the other.
Its full presence radiated far beyond either source monster's baseline.
No question — an elite.
Its eyes found Maru.
No recognition registered — just a soot-covered stranger.
Then it found Leon, arriving a beat behind her.
From beneath a dry, corpse-pale face, a voice scraped out — faint, distorted.
"Big… brother…"
The elite monster —
[Sulyvahn's Revenant]
— had arrived.