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Alexander walked down toward the Firekeeper's cage and stopped.
No sign of Naruto whatsoever.
He looked up toward the church ruins. A faint shimmer of white light was bleeding out from the upper hallway. The specific residue of a covenant's baptism that Alexander recognized immediately because he had seen it before. It never meant anything good for anyone involved.
The crestfallen warrior started running.
He came to find Naruto holding a parchment.
"An excellent choice, young squire," Petrus was saying. "The Force miracle is widely favored among cleric knights and paladins. Reliable, versatile, and demands nothing more than genuine faith."
"That's great," Naruto said, still rotating the parchment. "But how do you actually use it?"
"Ah, well, you simply sit..."
"What are you doing?"
Both of them looked to the crestfallen.
"You are the one who sits by the bonfire," Petrus stated.
"Observant," Alexander said, walking forward.
"You are interrupting a private sermon."
"I am interrupting a clergyman of the Way of White doing business with a boy who doesn't know what he agreed to." Alexander kept walking. "Your order has a reputation in these lands. Not all of it flattering."
"You dare speak of the Way of White in such terms."
"Frequently and without much regret."
The pleasantness in Petrus's face left. His hand settled on his mace with the casual deliberateness of a man making a point he was not ready to fully commit to yet.
"Petrus." Naruto stepped between them. "Alexander is my friend."
The word dropped into the hallway and sat there.
Alexander looked at the boy. Nobody had called him a friend in a very long time. He was not entirely certain anybody ever had. The crestfallen warrior shook his head and reached out. He took Naruto firmly by the arm and steered him toward the stairs at the far end of the hallway. He pointed up and then to the side.
Naruto knew to trust the man who had sat beside his soul drop for three days without taking a single soul from it over the cleric who had charged him for stuff even though he joined their covenant.
Alexander turned back to Petrus.
The hallway settled into silence.
"I could have you reported," Petrus said. "Interrupting a sermon of the Way of White carries consequences."
"You are in Lordran," Alexander said. "Your church's reach in these lands is roughly equivalent to a strongly worded letter delivered to a pile of ash. That particular threat needs more foundation than you currently have."
"I have companions. Members of the order. I am not entirely without recourse, I assure you."
"Bring them," Alexander said, already turning. "I have given up on living and have nothing left to lose. Threatening a man in that condition is a peculiar strategy. I would think about it more carefully before committing."
He had taken a single step when the air shifted behind him.
He turned on instinct, shield coming up hard, and the Force miracle hit it like a wall collapsed outward. The shockwave expanded in a dome from Petrus's talisman and hit Alexander full in the front. He skidded back across the stone floor, boots dragging lines through the grit, absorbing the impact through his legs and his shield arm until he found his footing again.
He looked at Petrus over the rim of his shield.
"A holy man," he said, "attacking while another's back is turned." He reached into his pouch and produced a firebomb. "I cannot say I am surprised. It is almost admirably consistent with your order's broader reputation."
It hit the floor between the two men and bloomed into a low wide wall of fire.
"You will regret this," Petrus said.
"I have a long list of regrets already," Alexander said, a second firebomb loose in his hand. "You would be a minor entry among significant companies. I would consider carefully whether this is the hill you want to die on, cleric. Literally speaking."
The fire between them breathed.
Alexander turned and walked back toward the bonfire. He reached the bottom of the stairs and looked up toward the second floor landing.
No Naruto.
He looked left. Right. Up at the landing where he had delivered what he considered extremely clear instructions involving jumping from the second floor to the bonfire.
Where are you now... Naruto?
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Naruto found a corpse on the second floor without any warning or ceremony.
It was just there, slumped against the wall at the top of a broken staircase that led up about four steps and then stopped into an open air room.
"Is it normal to find corpses in this place?"
He absorbed the soul and paused to look at where Alexander wanted him to go.
The second floor of the church had no place to go other than a large stone opening in the wall that looked like it had once housed an elevator. The shaft beyond it ran upward a considerable distance. The elevator itself was gone. What remained was a hole shape with a tunnel at the base leading downward into darkness.
The musty smell made his nose wrinkle but he jumped down.
The tunnel deposited him into the back area of the church. A wide open space ringed by moss covered pillars and walls.
Then Naruto spotted the treasure chest.
A greyish brown chest with a rounded top, reinforced with metal bindings and a weathered latch, sitting against the far wall like it had been waiting specifically for him. Naruto had always wanted to open a treasure chest. He crossed the space in a breath and opened it.
Bones.
Fragments of bone, actually, reduced almost entirely to white ash and arranged on ceramic plates, each piece emitting a faint golden glow from somewhere inside the marrow like the memory of warmth that had not fully left yet.
A system window opened.
[Item: Homeward Bone]
[Description: Bone fragment reduced to white ash. Return to last bonfire used for resting. Bonfires are fueled by bones of the Undead. In rare cases, the strong urge of their previous owner to seek bonfires enchants their bones with a homeward instinct.]
Naruto read it twice wondering if he can use these items to go back home without killing himself.
But...
"How do you even use this," he said. "Do I snort it? Eat it?" He made a face. "Gross."
He stored it away to think about later and turned around. Four more chests remained with unknown treasures.
"Lady luck is definitely on my side today."