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Glory to my Proofreaders: Bakenekon and Solare. For they are the ones who point out mistakes and act as my favourite walls to bounce ideas off of.
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Tarnished stood still beside Torrent, the crimson haze of the Aeonian swamp wafting in the air like rot-scented mist. Marika's voice hummed in the back of his mind, low and troubled.
"An Unalloyed Gold Needle… Forged by Miquella, to block the influence of an Outer God?"
He gave a small nod, turning toward the rust-colored winds. "Yeah. He made it for Malenia, to keep the Rot from claiming her completely."
Melina narrowed her eyes and turned slightly to face him. "How do you know that?" she asked, skeptical.
A heartbeat later, realization bloomed across her face. "Ah… right. Queen Marika is in your head."
He said nothing and just nodded along with a casual shrug. It wasn't entirely true… But it saved him from explaining too much, a lie by omission seemed better than a straight up lie.
Ahead of them, standing atop a warped cliff overlooking the festering heart of Aeonia, was the broad figure of a knight clad in rounded, bulbous armor. His great helm gleamed dully, his arms crossed as he stared into the swamp like a watchman at the end of days.
Tarnished raised his hand. "Siegmeyer! Hello there!"
The knight turned, pausing at the sight of them. His posture stiffened slightly before recognition hit.
"Oh-hoh! Tarnished? Is that you?" Siegmeyer's voice rang out like old bells, joyful and surprised.
Tarnished laughed, hopping off Torrent. "Yes, it's me. Things got… a little interesting after the Cathedral."
Siegmeyer chuckled heartily and stepped forward. "That's putting it lightly, my friend! I hardly recognized you. What in the world happened?"
Tarnished clapped a hand to his chestplate. "Turns out eating the heart of a particularly ancient dragon like Greyoll for Dragon Communion has a few side effects. Unexpected ones."
"By the flames…" Siegmeyer muttered beneath his helm. "You really do go all in, don't you?"
Marika's voice returned, sharp and pensive. "Something doesn't add up."
He blinked and tilted his head slightly. 'What is it?'
"If the Needle lies here, at the Heart of Aeonia. Where Malenia bloomed. Then she must have had it before her bloom. That means Miquella gave it to her and she accepted it."
His expression slowly dropped, the weight of realization starting to settle over him. 'Which means… She was already cured. She had a way to suppress the Rot. But she willingly threw it away…'
"She cast it aside." Marika's voice grew heavier, almost sorrowful. "My Malenia… Forsook the one thing that could save her, the one thing she had been searching for her entire life, freedom from the Rot's corruption and influence. For what? To win? To match Radahn? To scorch the earth for pride?"
Tarnished looked out across the swamp, eyes locking onto the sickly bloom that stretched across its center like a scar. 'I… I don't think it was her choice.'
There was silence. Even the wind seemed to pause for a few moments before Marika whispered softly. "Surely not…"
Tarnished clenched his jaw, his draconic eyes growing cold. 'From what I know of Miquella… The things he's done… I wouldn't put it past him. Not for a second...'
Marika's voice echoed into his thoughts like a sigh drifting through stone corridors, low and pained.
"Miquella… to have charmed and enslaved the mind of his own twin sister? For how long hath she been under his thrall? Since the very beginning…?"
Her tone faltered slightly, barely audible through the shame curling beneath every word.
"I have failed even more as a mother than I had thought I had…"
Tarnished responded in his mind, his tone firm yet oddly gentle. 'It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known he was this kind of monster from the start. No matter how much you think yourself this flawless goddess, no one can bear the weight of the entire world alone… And you shouldn't expect yourself to.'
A pause followed. Though she said nothing, Marika's hum of reflection softened through the bond. Not agreement, not yet.
All this, his thoughts, her guilt, his reassurance, happened in less than a breath, mind to mind, faster than lips could ever move.
Siegmeyer's voice cut in, grounding the moment in the world again.
"Regardless of all that's happened, you are still a comrade most valued," he said, turning to face Tarnished, steel clanking softly with his movement. "And I would be honoured if you'd help me fulfill my promise."
Melina tilted her head in curiosity. "What sort of promise?"
Tarnished stood quietly behind her, nodding along.
Siegmeyer took a moment before speaking. "I made a vow to my old friend… Commander O'Neil. Should he lose his way, I would end his journey myself, with a warrior's death."
Melina's expression changed. "Commander O'Neil? One of Godrick's old generals?"
Tarnished blinked. "Wait, O'Neil was one of Godrick's men?"
She nodded. "Aye. His hatred of Radahn was… well-documented. After Godrick fled his castle—which was later renamed Redmane Castle in Radahn's honour, abandoning it when he heard Radahn was coming, O'Neil stayed behind. He followed Malenia into the field. Even after his Lord cast him aside."
Tarnished blinked, brow furrowing. "Hold up. Redmane Castle used to be Godrick's?"
Melina nodded again. "Yes. One of many fortresses he tried to hold across the Lands Between. But Radahn's arrival was enough to make him flee, tail between his legs. He abandoned everything."
Tarnished scoffed, he wasn't surprised. It was typical of Godrick to be a coward. "Then why did O'Neil hate Radahn, why even fight?"
Siegmeyer stepped forward, his voice tinged with weighty reverence. "Because that fortress had been his home for decades. He stayed. With his best men. Ready to die rather than let it fall without a fight."
Tarnished looked between them. "And what happened?"
Melina's voice dropped. "Radahn came. And his army broke them. Slaughtered nearly everyone. Then, from what eye witness accounts I recall, O'Neil was the only one left standing."
Tarnished raised an eyebrow. "Why spare him?"
She shrugged faintly. "There are whispers that Radahn offered him a place among his own."
Tarnished let out a low whistle. "Damn. Kill the man's brothers-in-arms, then offer him a job? That's cold. I didn't expect that from Radahn."
Siegmeyer folded his arms and shook his head. "I would not hold it against the General. He saw death in battle as the highest honour a man could wish for. Perhaps, in his mind, he was doing O'Neil a kindness. But I am unsure of the reason myself, you would need to ask the Starscourge himself for an answer."
Tarnished snorted at the idea. "Yeah? Doesn't sound like O'Neil saw it that way. Then why does he want to die in battle?"
Siegmeyer gave a heavy sigh. "Because, my friend… What we desire for ourselves and what we believe others deserve are often very different. I think my old companion saw Radahn's mercy not as honour, but as pity… Humiliation. The shame Hollowed him."
"And following the battle between Malenia and Radahn; he alone continued to brandish his flag in the devastation of the rot-eaten field of battle, the sole veteran who remembered that battle with pride. As it was the day his self-proclaimed mortal enemy was brought low." Melina concluded, drawing a solemn nod from Siegmeyer.
The Onion Knight's voice grew firmer. "Indeed. Now, I wish to honour our vow. But I do not believe I can best him alone, even after all this time. Will you help me grant him that final glory?"
Tarnished grinned wide. "Do you even have to ask?"
Siegmeyer laughed loudly and heartily. "Hah! I suppose I don't! Then let us go, friend! TO BATTLE!"
Tarnished laughed, raising his sword. "LET'S!"
The two men sprinted off, side by side into the red haze of the Aeonian swamp without a care in the world, right towards the festering heart of rot and memory.
Melina stood there, hand on her brow, letting out a long and tired sigh.
"Reckless fools… the lot of you."
"Well said, mine dear daughter…"
…
5 Minutes and Several Lord's Aid uses later…
Tarnished stepped onto the fungal shore of the Heart of Aeonia, boots crunching through petals and decay. The air tasted like rust and mold, thick with the hiss of unseen spores dancing in light that didn't seem to come from the sky.
Behind him, the faint splash of another footstep announced Siegmeyer's approach, his armor clanking gently with each careful stride. Beside them, Melina walked in silence, arms crossed as her hazel eye scanned the haze.
They stopped at the edge of the battlefield.
"I feel obliged to ask this," Melina said wearily as she looked from the grotesque bloom in the distance to the two warriors flanking her. "But do either of you have a plan?"
Tarnished blinked and turned toward her, head slightly tilted. "Uh… Attack and dodge when needed?"
Siegmeyer pounded a fist against his plated chest. "I shall face him head-on in a glorious battle!"
Melina sighed, a long-suffering sound muffled slightly by the hand she pressed to her brow.
Tarnished shrugged. "If it matters that much to you, I can think of a quick plan that should make it simple. But honestly? I don't think this guy's all that tough to kill. Worst comes to worst, we throw him into the rot swamp and wait for him to die from it."
She turned her gaze on him flatly. "I doubt someone who has endured this long in the very Heart of Aeonia, where the Bloom of Malenia herself occurred, would be so easily felled by rot."
'Okay, point to her. I suppose cheese from the game wouldn't always apply here…' Tarnished thought, rubbing the back of his head. He closed his eyes for a few moments in thought, then opened them again. "I have a plan."
Melina arched an eyebrow. "That quickly?"
He set a hand on his hip and gave her a lopsided grin. "Do you wanna hear it, or do you just plan to be a party pooper about it?"
Siegmeyer raised a gauntleted hand. "I, for one, would love to hear your plan, friend!"
"Thank you!" Tarnished exclaimed while pointing at the cheerful knight, then shot Melina a pointed look. "See? Positive reinforcement."
She exhaled through her nose. "Go on, then."
Tarnished pointed at the battlefield ahead. "Siegmeyer and I charge in. You stay back and support us with your high-level Faith incantations. Honestly, you're cracked, you should be more arrogant about it. If O'Neil summons anything, you and I tag-team them while Siegmeyer holds the line."
Siegmeyer nodded thoughtfully, then turned his full helm to Melina. Tarnished mirrored him with a wide, stupid grin.
After a brief pause, she muttered, "A plan is better than no plan."
They pressed forward.
The Heart of Aeonia yawned open before them like the festering maw of a great god, rotten blooms swaying in the breeze like the limbs of drowned trees. Craters of scarlet muck oozed and hissed.
In the center of it all stood Commander O'Neil, his halberd buried into the red-marbled earth. Both hands rested upon its hilt, head lowered, as though asleep on his feet.
Siegmeyer came to a halt. His voice, soft and sorrowful, escaped behind his helm. "That is him… That is my old friend, Commander O'Neil."
Tarnished cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. "Alright. Melina, hit us with a Golden Vow, would you?"
She sighed once more, raising her hand. Gold light swept over them like a blessing from a forgotten god, filling their bodies with holy strength.
"Golden Vow."
[Attack +15%, Defense +10%]
"Flame, Grant Me Strength." Tarnished whispered with a grin, flame blooming from his palm before sinking into his muscles like living magma.
[Physical Attack +20%, Fire Attack +20%]
He reached into his inventory and pulled forth his Greatsword with a flare of light. Beside him, Siegmeyer hoisted his Zweihander with both hands and stepped forward into the miasma-soaked field.
"Commander O'Neil! I am here to honor our vow." Siegmeyer called out, loud and proud. "And grant thee the end thou once wished for, old friend!"
The still figure twitched. Slowly, Commander O'Neil raised his head. A rumble escaped his throat, a laugh, deep and distant.
"A vow from an old friend?" His voice sounded like dead leaves dragging against stone. "How wistfully tragic. I scarcely remember meeting anyone like you, Vagrant Knight."
Siegmeyer flinched, his voice wavering slightly. "I feared such a thing could happen… Has the rot taken you?"
O'Neil opened his eyes, they were milky, yet burning from within. "It has taken its toll on me, yes. However, I remain Commander O'Neil, proud Warrior and mortal enemy of the Starscourge. And afflicted though I am, I remain far more than enough to handle some whelp in bulbous armor."
His gaze flicked over Tarnished and the maiden at his side, then back to the Onion Knight.
"So… What say you?"
"Of that I am aware, I am no match for you, even now." Siegmeyer sank into a battle stance, blade poised. "And that is why I brought comrades to help me."
Tarnished and Melina stepped up beside him.
O'Neil's expression twisted into something that could have once been a smile. Now, it was emptied of joy and filled with weary malice.
"Very well then…" He muttered wearily as he yanked his halberd from the muck with one arm and raised it high.
Ash-gray wisps curled from the rot around him. With a sweep of his halberd, a dozen spectral soldiers emerged beside him, crossbows leveled and gleaming in the miasma. His former comrades, once fallen in battle against General Radahn's mighty army, now reborn as spectral ashes under his command.
"Have at me, vile heathens!"
Tarnished drew a slow, deliberate breath as he eyed up the battlefield, counting the crossbow soldiers. His throat began to glow from within. First it was orange, then gold, then white-hot like molten iron. A faint, crackling tremor rattled up from his chest as a dull hum filled the air around him.
Melina's eyes widened. She'd seen that glow before. "Siegmeyer, dodge now!"
Without question, the knight leapt to the side, heavy armor groaning as he rolled through the muck with surprising grace.
A split-second later, Tarnished parted his jaws and the world erupted in frost.
A surge of ancient frost burst forth from his mouth in a blinding wave, the roar of dragon breath transformed to a piercing howl of cold. Crystalline shards cut through the miasma like spears of winter, blanketing the battlefield in freezing mist and shimmering death. The spectral soldiers, ghostly and brittle in the face of primordial power, were caught in the onslaught.
O'Neil slammed his halberd into the ground, teeth clenched as he steadied himself against the arctic tide. Ice crept up his limbs, fracturing his armor, gnawing at his nerves.
"How…" He growled through chattering teeth. "Impossible… No dragon communion. No altar rites. How… does a mere Tarnished breathe frost?"
The last of the ashen crossbowmen disintegrated, their forms turned to glittering dust in the freezing gale.
'That must have proc'd frostbite since his health bar lost a big chunk at once at the end. He should be slowed and more vulnerable now…'
Tarnished's breath came ragged and shallow as he stumbled a step back. The heat in his throat faded to a dying ember. Mana drained, he fumbled for his flask and downed the shimmering blue liquid in a single swig.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist and eyed the battlefield. The frost cleared slowly, unveiling Commander O'Neil, heavily frostbitten, his limbs sluggish, his stance compromised. Cracks spiderwebbed across his armor. A chunk of his health was gone, but more importantly, he was slowed.
'That'll buy us a window… frostbite should make him die faster. We have to press the advantage. I've only got juice for one more of those.'
"Siegmeyer! Go! He's open!" Tarnished shouted.
The knight blinked, still shaken from the display. "R-Right!" he said, regaining composure as he charged forward, Zweihander raised high.
O'Neil let out a breath of his own, white and shaky, more mist than roar. "Accursed mongrels, the lot of you…" he rasped, muscles twitching under the weight of cold and decay.
Tarnished took off beside Siegmeyer, dragging his Greatsword through the rot as sparks danced across its edge. The two met O'Neil in unison, blades flashing in mirrored arcs.
Steel clanged, staggered, rebounded.
Tarnished stepped left, slashing low but O'Neil parried with his halberd and swung upward. Siegmeyer was already there, catching the haft with the flat of his greatsword and shoving it aside. They fought as if they'd trained together for years, two massive weapons dancing in tandem, one sleek and brutal, the other wide and thunderous.
Melina remained behind, hands glowing with faint flame. She waited for the briefest openings, and then struck. A Flame Sling caught O'Neil in the side, shattering a shoulder pauldron.
The commander roared and swept his halberd in a massive arc. Tarnished ducked under it, sliding across the slick ground and slashing upward into O'Neil's ribs with his massive Greatsword. The blow was blunt and heavy against the veteran's armour, causing him to gasp slightly in pain.
"Come now, Commander!" Siegmeyer bellowed, striking from the other side. "Show me the fire I once knew!"
"I'll show you ash, Vagrant!" O'Neil hissed, driving the haft of his weapon into Siegmeyer's chest and sending him skidding backward. Melina raised her hand, and a glowing Flame Spear appeared above her.
She hurled it just as Tarnished distracted O'Neil again. The burning projectile slammed into the commander's thigh, igniting the rot-laced flesh beneath his armor.
O'Neil staggered, one knee nearly buckling under the pressure. Tarnished pressed in, not relenting as he withdrew his uchigatana from his inventory and ran it straight through the commander's exposed side.
Steel tore through leather as the commander's grunts became strained growls. He bled rot and something darker, older, into the battlefield as his life drained visibly.
Tarnished watched the faint crimson glow of Commander O'Neil's lifeforce drain beneath the halfway mark. The rot-slicked warrior staggered slightly, shoulders slumping, grip loosening on his halberd as if the fight was finally slipping from his grasp.
'Is that it?' Tarnished thought, letting out a short breath. 'Didn't even need to kill him. Maybe I can just grab the Unalloyed Gold Needle now-'
'FOOL!' Marika's voice crashed through his thoughts like a warhammer against glass. 'Do not turn thy gaze away! Finish it, now!'
His heart skipped, but it was far too late.
O'Neil's head jerked up. The shadows under his helm split into a vicious grin.
"Amateur!" He hissed as in one blinding movement, the halberd shot upward.
Metal pierced flesh.
Tarnished barely registered the moment O'Neil's hand closed around his throat, lifting him into the air like a broken puppet. The halberd skewered him clean through, and a pulse of corrupted energy surged from its core. His body convulsed as the sickness took root.
[Status Effect: Scarlet Rot]
He choked, eyes wide, blood running down his lips.
Scarlet rot bloomed inside him.
Melina screamed. "Tarnished!"
"My friend!" Siegmeyer shouted his name, voice cracking through the mists like a thunderclap.
O'Neil snarled with rising rage, the calm edge of his pride now shattered. "I've had enough of you hapless children!"
The blade of an Uchigatana was still jutted from O'Neil's side, forgotten and buried deep but the commander didn't care. He lifted the impaled Tarnished higher and flung him like trash. The force sent Tarnished sailing across the battlefield and crashing onto a sloped ridge of the swamp.
His body skidded to the edge of the rot-pool below, just shy of sinking in.
Pain surged through his body as every muscle screamed at him in agony.
'Damn it… Forgot what game I was in for a second there…' He thought, fading fast as more blood than breath left his mouth.
His health plummeted, first from the impalement, then the landing, and now, the rot gnawing deeper with every second. The curse burned under his skin like living acid.
He couldn't move.
He could barely think.
"Tarnished!!" Melina's voice cracked through the chaos again as she broke into a sprint, tears shimmering at the corners of her eyes.
But O'Neil was faster.
The frost was gone and his movements, once sluggish and weighed by decay, now blurred with terrifying speed.
He lunged forward, his halberd sweeping toward Melina's neck.
She barely twisted in time, parrying with a slender dagger. Sparks flew as steel met steel, her arm trembling under the force of the blow. She leapt back instinctively, eyes never leaving the motionless figure on the shore.
"Stay with me," she whispered under her breath. "Please…"
Siegmeyer roared in defiance and charged in, but the commander was ready.
O'Neil dropped to a knee and the swamp wind around him shifted, within a split second, the very air turned violent. Rot churned beneath his boots as the winds screamed in circles.
"Back!!" Melina called, already moving.
Siegmeyer dug in his heels, but the moment was lost.
O'Neil's halberd swung in a wide, brutal arc.
Once, Twice and then a third time.
The storm that surrounded him was no mere wind, it was blight incarnate. The land itself was torn apart beneath the weight of it. The air was filled with slashing force and rotting fog, forcing both Melina and Siegmeyer to retreat beyond the radius or risk being torn apart.
The distance between them and Tarnished widened again. Too wide.
He lay still, breath shallow. The world pulsed red.
O'Neil exhaled harshly, his body trembling from the frost wounds and the strain of battle, but his grin widened, smeared with blood.
"That draconic brat will die soon," he rasped. "And the two of you will very soon follow."
Melina's hands shook, with sheer rage. Her voice dropped low, shaking with heat. "You'll die before that happens."
"I swear it," Siegmeyer said beside her, voice firm. "I will not let him die for my vow alone."
O'Neil's smirk grew more twisted. "Then allow me to show you true despair."
As O'Neil raised his halberd, the spectral forms of 3 towering Exile Soldiers burst from ashes, their massive cleavers gleaming like executioner's blades, faces frozen in wrath as if torn from the memory before death ever took them.
The commander lowered his weapon, pointing it toward them.
"Come." He said. "And witness your painful demise."
Darkness clouded the corners of Tarnished's vision, his breath rattling in his throat as he watched his own health bar tick down to a mere 7% now. Every limb was drenched in rot, his armor fused to his wounds, and even the cold mud beneath him felt like knives digging into every nerve.
Marika appeared before him, kneeling gracefully, her eyes filled with impatience. Her divine presence shimmered like golden mist, yet her expression was anything but ethereal.
"Get up." She snapped, eyes narrowed. "Thou cannot die here. Not like this."
Tarnished coughed, a wet, rattling noise that brought up more blood than breath. His chest burned, he could barely breathe. The halberd had pierced deep, pierced straight through his lungs, most likley. Every breath was agony. His fingers twitched as he reached for his satchel, shaking, useless.
'Everything hurts.' He thought through the haze. 'Feels like every part of my body is shitting itself simultaneously.'
Marika's eye twitched. "Charming as ever. But thou still possess thy Crimson Tear Flask. Use it. Finish the battle."
And he did, or atleast he tried to do so.
His body wouldn't listen to him, not after his internal organs had been minced by the Veteran's Halberd. He rolled partially onto his side, chest rising in shallow, pitiful gasps, fingers fumbling blindly for the flask he couldn't yet see. Blood matted his lips, his armor, the ground beneath him.
6%.
'Where is it…?' His hand scraped across stone, dirt, rot. He hissed through clenched teeth, vision blackening at the edges. 'My lungs… Can't breathe-! Can't see… Can't-'
5%.
Marika stood still for a moment, watching Melina and Siegmeyer fight for their lives, watching Melina's flames gutter, watching her back exposed.
Then she turned back to him, and sighed. Her expression shifted, it was soft, but with a hint of slyness. A glint sparked in her gold-ringed eyes. She leaned down beside his broken body, close enough for her whisper to crawl inside his ear.
"Think how much Melina would love thee more… if thou cheated death and saved her." Her voice turned silken, coaxing, mocking. "Thy sweet little damsel in distress might even give thee a kiss in gratitude~!"
His eyes snapped open.
"Can't die yet!" He wheezed, fumbling for his flask with blood-slick fingers, his body reinvigorated with new-found strength. "Not missing that kiss!"'
"Unbelievable…" Marika muttered as she rubbed her temples, annoyed that it had even worked and that she had even worried about her fool of a champion for a moment. "For fuck's sake…"
With a ragged gasp, he chugged the Crimson Tear Flask, the liquid gold searing down his throat and into his veins. His wounds sealed and, like a divine miracle, even the hole in his abdomen closed up entirely.
He staggered upright. He was swaying, burned, rotting, but standing nonetheless.
Across the battlefield, Siegmeyer was locked in a brutal 3-on-1 against the spectral Exiles, deflecting blow after blow as he bellowed to keep their attention. Melina was holding her own against O'Neil, but barely. Her expression was pure fury, her flames desperate and wild, her footing weakening.
Tarnished stumbled forward, ignoring the rot gnawing at him, throat already glowing again. A dull, familiar hum rose up from deep in his core.
Across the field, O'Neil caught her. One gauntleted hand snapped around Melina's throat as he lifted her into the air. She kicked and struggled, her dagger falling from her fingers. The halberd came up, its point aimed at her chest.
But then she saw it.
Through watery eyes, from her place above the battlefield, she saw him.
Tarnished.
Standing again, alive. Throat burning with dragon magic.
Her lips parted in surprise, then curled into a grin; causing O'Neil to narrow his eyes in suspicion.
"What are you smiling at?" He growled. "I have you dead to rights!"
He paused when a breath of cold touched his back, the veteran let out a tired, almost wistful sigh. "…He's right behind me, isn't he?"
Melina's grin turned feral. "In words that he'd use: 'You're fucked, asshole.'"
The last thing O'Neil heard was the sound of a dragon drawing breath.
The frost hit him point-blank in the spine.
He screamed as the gale tore through his armor and flesh alike. Melina dropped from his grasp, shielding herself behind the veteran's own body as the frigid blast carved into the battlefield like a storm of daggers.
When the breath finally ceased, O'Neil was frozen near-solid, arms raised, body encased in thick ice, steam rising from his joints. His health bar had all but collapsed to a mere 15%.
Tarnished stood behind him, smoke rising from his lips. His eyes narrowed.
He summoned his Greatsword, bringing it up beside him, blade humming with his rage. "You should have gone for the head!"
He swung.
The sword struck the very spot where his Uchigatana had once been lodged, splitting O'Neil from his waist down. Ice cracked around him as his flesh split and his armor buckled. The commander let out one final, breathless grunt as he was cleaved brutally in half.
[GREAT ENEMY DEFEATED]
Tarnished dropped to his knees.
Breath came in gasps, each one a fight of its own until soft arms wrapped tightly around him.
Melina pressed herself to him, forehead resting against his as she held him tight, shaking slightly, her voice both furious and tender. "You absolute idiot! You almost died!"
He coughed a weak laugh. "Couldn't leave you to die… Melina. You're too important to me."
She pulled back just enough to look him in the eye, her own shimmering with tears. "Shut up. Just… Be quiet…" she whispered, hugging him tighter still.
She raised her hand, radiant light gathering around her fingers. Her seal flared with the last of her mana.
"Lord's Aid. Lord Heal." She muttered. "Don't move."
Warmth flowed through him. It was gentle, golden, and divine. The pain dulled and the rot receded.
But he barely noticed.
Because all he could feel was his teary eyed maiden's warm embrace.
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Author's Note:
Been waiting a while for this chapter to come out :3
Also did y'all hear? Silksong is finally coming out!! I've been waiting so fuckin long!
…
Next Chapter Title: One Final View.
…
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