After defeating High Lord Wolnir, an entirely new cutscene appeared.
Everyone knew that Sein Dungeon's popularity peaked whenever a new cinematic and a new area were unveiled together. The appearance of another video lifted the spirits of the exhausted adventurers immediately — the fierce battle still fresh in their bodies — as though someone had just refilled a lamp that was nearly out of oil.
Elsa was still new enough to the dungeon that she didn't quite understand why everyone's energy had snapped back so suddenly. But seeing the focus on every face around her, she straightened her posture and quietly matched their expressions.
A soft, melodic tune began to play.
Tiny points of light gradually filled everyone's vision. The camera pulled back slowly, revealing a vast night sky crowded with stars.
Moonlight bathed the earth below. Pale silver rays streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows of a palace corridor, illuminating the slender figure of a "woman" whose upper face was concealed beneath the Crown of the Dark Sun.
She gazed silently at the starry sky.
Several serpents emerged from beneath her long dress, coiling upward around her body. Their expressions matched hers exactly — quiet, melancholic, touched with a loneliness that had clearly been settled into for a very long time.
Even with half her face hidden, the exquisite line of her jaw alone was enough to reveal a beauty that came once in ten thousand years. Even Luluwo, another woman, felt her heart stutter.
Yet beyond the instinctive admiration came a different question.
"Isn't this… the Dark Sun from the Abyss Watchers bonfire cutscene?"
Aside from the different background music, the character, the setting, and the movements were identical.
They're literally reusing assets?
Just as Luluwo was building toward a complaint, the scene shifted.
The moonlit corridor transformed into the magnificent interior of a vast palace. Even without seeing the outside world, the lavishness of the décor made it obvious —
This was the dwelling place of the gods.
The Dark Sun stood upon a raised platform, looking down upon all things.
And behind her —
Luluwo held her breath without meaning to.
Two dazzling golden figures stood at the Dark Sun's back.
From their appearance and their presence alone, it was immediately clear —
These two were absolute powerhouses.
One was tall and lean, clad in golden lion-themed armor. Lightning coiled around the spear in his hand with an ease that suggested complete mastery.
The other was large and heavyset, armored even more heavily than the Onion Knight. He carried an enormous hammer. His aura had the quality of an executioner — brutal, unhurried, certain.
Standing together, the two complemented the Dark Sun's frail appearance perfectly, radiating a sense of protection so complete it was almost tangible.
As long as those two remained, no one would be permitted to touch the Dark Sun.
"After the gods departed, Dark Sun Gwyndolin remained alone to guard the royal city, offering trials to heroes seeking to Link the Fire. Dragonslayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough loyally protected the city at his side."
With Gwyndolin and his two trusted guardians holding Anor Londo, the city maintained its solemnity and grandeur despite the gods' departure. Heroes continued to arrive in search of the trials of Linking the Fire. On the surface at least, the Age of Fire appeared capable of enduring.
But then —
The quiet music was cut off mid-phrase.
A massive shadow, like two enormous hands closing, loomed over everything.
The image froze.
Its colors drained away until it had become nothing more than a painted page.
Crimson and violet flames erupted.
In an instant, the painting was consumed.
An endless black substance surged forth and swallowed everything whole.
Not the Abyss.
The being everyone had encountered in earlier bonfire visions —
Saint Aldrich of the Deep.
"Yet as the fire fades, all things inevitably decay. Can the path of Linking the Fire truly still hold hope?"
The elderly narrator's voice continued.
"As the First Flame weakened, so too did the power of the gods. A conspiracy woven by ambitious schemers descended upon Anor Londo."
A series of place names followed one after another.
"The High Wall of Lothric."
The scene shifted.
Beneath towering walls, knights from opposing factions cut each other apart across a battlefield churning with smoke. Corpses covered the ground. Inside a nearby structure, an abnormally tall Dancer paced back and forth. From the opposite gate, a frost-covered beast-like knight growled at low register.
The Dancer of the Boreal Valley.
Vordt of the Boreal Valley.
"The Road of Sacrifices."
The scenery changed again.
A dense forest path appeared — somewhere none of them had seen before. Groups of Corvians were gathered throughout. Standing at the mandatory passage was another frost-covered warrior. A Boreal Outrider Knight.
His appearance remained unchanged from the one they knew. Behind him, the scenery continued shifting as more locations were named.
"Cathedral of the Deep… Profaned Capital… Lothric… Anor Londo…"
Every location mentioned had Outrider Knights stationed within it.
The influence of the Boreal Valley reached everywhere.
Then —
A familiar location was named.
"The Catacombs of Carthus."
The scene returned to the place they knew best.
Within one of the Catacombs' chambers, two groups in completely different attire were meeting. One side wore the clothing of church clergy — some tall and thin, others short and stout. The other was composed entirely of tall silver knights radiating cold air.
No explanation was needed. They, too, came from the Boreal Valley.
One knight handed something to the church members.
The clergy responded with smiles that managed to look both delighted and deeply unpleasant at the same time.
Looking closely at the object being exchanged —
A small doll.
What exactly did this scene mean?
The screen went dark again. But control didn't return to anyone. The cutscene clearly wasn't finished.
The brief pause gave Luluwo time to organize her thoughts.
Every cinematic in Sein Dungeon left her in the same state — thoroughly confused and deeply impressed simultaneously. The experience always felt like:
"I have absolutely no idea what's happening. But this looks incredible."
Her working summary:
Dark Sun Gwyndolin, one of the gods, had remained alone in the royal city to guide those seeking to Link the Fire. But the First Flame was weakening further, and with it, the gods' own power appeared to be fading. Gwyndolin seemed to have entered an increasingly precarious situation.
As his condition deteriorated, the "ambitious schemers" had begun moving.
And there had been the fleeting appearance of Aldrich, Lord of Cinder.
Afterward, a series of formidable figures — all carrying the title "of the Boreal Valley" — had appeared across multiple regions.
Given the context, whoever was behind all of this had deep ties to the Boreal Valley.
Which combined interestingly with the Pontiff's Right Eye, and the lore descriptions on equipment dropped by Outrider Knights.
The repeatedly mentioned Pontiff had to be a central figure in whatever was unfolding. What role did this person play in the conspiracy?
And then there was Aldrich, who had appeared for only a few seconds.
"Maybe the Lord of Cinder was behind some earth-shattering scheme, and the Pontiff was his accomplice."
That was Luluwo's guess. Every Lord of Cinder was an extraordinary figure. Plotting against the gods didn't seem beyond them.
What worried her more, though, was something else entirely.
"We're not actually going to have to fight all of these people at some point… are we?"
If that day came, she was surrendering on the spot.
Never mind a Lord of Cinder. Whether it was Ornstein, Smough, or the Dancer — none of them looked like opponents anyone should willingly provoke.
Speaking of Ornstein —
He looked strangely familiar.
That's right. He was one of the Four Knights of Gwyn alongside Knight Artorias. And the Nameless King's close friend.
The realization made Luluwo feel genuinely warmer toward him. If Artorias had that kind of character and was worthy of admiration, his comrade couldn't be a bad person.
She had also read a rather popular novel written by what appeared to be a devoted Ornstein fangirl — quite well done, despite the melodrama. Unfortunately, the author had gone on indefinite hiatus. No news of a continuation had emerged.
As for Executioner Smough — his round, sun-shaped silhouette was simply not to her taste.
"Who even is that? The secret fifth member of Gwyn's Four Knights?"
Like those classic stories where the "Four Heavenly Kings" somehow ended up having five members.
She couldn't place him. But standing at Ornstein's side, he had to matter somehow.
Just as that train of thought wound down —
A new scene appeared, as though perfectly timed.
To everyone's surprise, the location was somewhere they had only recently left.
High Lord Wolnir's boss arena.
Footsteps sounded behind them.
Luluwo turned.
Her eyes went wide.
Someone she recognized.
A knight.
Or rather — Ash.
[The Ashen One, wearing the Knight Set.]
Among Bedford City's adventurers, anyone who had pushed the Abyss Watchers into Phase Two would have witnessed the cutscene in which the Ashen One dismantled them through movements so precise and so unhurried that it looked less like combat and more like an extended demonstration. Every step calculated. Every action frame-perfect.
Everyone who had watched it arrived at the same conclusion: even with another lifetime of training, they could never achieve that. It bordered on cheating.
Many people hadn't understood why the dungeon showed that scene. It revealed no great conspiracy. No hidden historical truth. It was simply the Ashen One showing off.
But Luluwo understood the intention, more or less.
The dungeon was communicating one simple thing:
If you're weak — train harder.
"So," Luluwo said, sitting up with the posture of an attentive student, "what kind of ridiculous stunt is he pulling this time?"
She was genuinely looking forward to an earth-shattering clash between the Ashen One and High Lord Wolnir. The most visually spectacular cutscene she had ever witnessed in Sein Dungeon remained the battle between the White Wolf and the Great Existence in Painted World: Waste Stone. The audiovisual experience had been breathtaking.
"ROOOAR!!"
The battle opened with Wolnir's roar.
The same deafening sound that had interrupted Luluwo's group mid-action.
On the Ashen One, it had absolutely no effect whatsoever.
Carrying nothing more than an ordinary straight sword, he charged directly toward Wolnir's bracelets. Clearly, he knew the correct strategy.
After only a few swings, Wolnir immediately launched a sweeping attack, chaining follow-up strikes in an attempt to end it quickly.
The Ashen One simply rolled across the ground.
Every attack missed.
Luluwo stared.
"Wait — something's wrong."
"Wolnir clearly connected during that roll. I watched it hit him."
"So why did he just get back up like nothing happened?"
Either the Ashen One's durability was genuinely incomprehensible —
Or there was something fundamentally abnormal about that roll.
It was absurd. As long as the timing was correct, attacks that visibly connected with his body dealt no damage whatsoever.
"How is that meaningfully different from cheating?"
Well.
There was one difference.
Even if adventurers possessed the same rolling ability, they still couldn't execute it anywhere close to the Ashen One's level.
Apparently deciding the straight sword was insufficiently satisfying for the task of destroying bracelets, the Ashen One pulled another weapon from seemingly nowhere.
The Exile Greatsword.
Luluwo nodded with approval.
"Smart. Heavy weapons are the right call against Wolnir's bracelets."
She studied the sword.
"Although his looks considerably lighter than Guts's."
"And he didn't even weaken the bracelets with Rust Monsters first."
"It'll probably take quite a while to destroy even one."
She adjusted her sitting posture, mentally settling in for a long fight.
The Ashen One continued rolling through Wolnir's attacks while stacking buff after buff upon himself. Some she recognized — Sacred Oath, Power Within. Others she didn't. They all radiated the kind of energy that suggested something catastrophic was being prepared. He kept switching accessories too. Different rings, rotated in and out with practiced efficiency.
"Just start hitting the bracelets already!"
"I want to see how many swings it takes someone who cleared the Abyss Watchers!"
The moment those words left her mouth —
The Ashen One swung once.
His blade connected with a bracelet.
Crack.
It shattered.
Instantly.
And so, simultaneously, did Luluwo's composure.
"Holy—!?"
She looked around.
Every face in the group wore the exact same expression.
One hit.
It only took one hit.
The corner of her mouth twitched.
She watched as the fully buffed Ashen One shattered the remaining bracelets one after another — single slashes, each one — and the entire fight resolved itself within seconds. Wolnir didn't even have time to draw the Holy Sword. The Ashen One emerged from it completely untouched. He hadn't needed to drink a single Estus Flask.
"…Please."
Luluwo no longer had words for it.
She watched Wolnir scream as he was dragged into the Abyss. She watched the Ashen One sit cross-legged on the ground to rest with the calm of someone who had just completed a light warm-up.
Only one sentence surfaced.
"Beating him that fast just makes the rest of us look stupid."
Why had he destroyed each bracelet with a single swing, while they had needed to sacrifice countless Rust Monsters just to weaken one enough to crack it?
Suddenly, it felt as though every Rust Monster had died entirely for nothing.
It was simply because they were too weak.
Oh no.
Luluwo turned toward Elsa.
Elsa was looking back and forth between the Ashen One and her own greatsword with an expression that had moved well past bewilderment.
She appeared to be genuinely reconsidering whether the weapon in her hands was real.
This is a problem.
The girl is questioning her entire existence as a swordsman.
Fortunately —
The cutscene ended at exactly that moment.
One more demonstration of the Ashen One's capabilities and Elsa might have arrived at the firm conclusion that she was nothing but a counterfeit greatsword wielder.
Returning to reality —
High Lord Wolnir's crowned skull rested quietly before them.
Without its owner, it was simply a skull.
Luluwo stared at the crown.
The image of the Ashen One ending everything in three effortless swings replayed in her mind, slow and merciless.
Her eyes went distant.
"I know."
"I know the dungeon showed us that specifically to mess with us."
She exhaled at length before speaking.
"But when the gap is this overwhelming…"
"People really do just give up."
[To the heroic warriors who fearlessly overcame great hardship — accept this blessing as your reward for defeating a mighty foe.]
"Oh."
"We got so wrapped up in the cutscene we almost forgot defeating the boss comes with rewards."
A beat.
"…Although."
Luluwo blinked.
"We weren't the first group to clear it?"