Emerging from Gael Tunnel, the trio of Tarnished hurried toward Redmane Castle without pause. The closer they drew, the more clearly they could hear the mournful sound of horns—a dirge symbolizing the twilight of a hero.
It was also the herald of a new legend being born.
It was a surreal sight... spectral forms gathered in a massive crowd, yet the entire field was deathly silent. Everyone was immersed in this sorrowful atmosphere. Gathered within the castle at this moment were the elite of the Lands Between.
A few individuals stood out prominently among the crowd: the old warrior in heavy, rounded armor, Lionel the Lionhearted; the peerless swordsman from the Land of Reeds, the nameless Okina; the helpful soul wielding a heavy hammer and clad in absolute heavy plate modeled after a bull-goat, Great Horned Tragoth; and a witch in sorcerous robes who seemed ordinary yet possessed a somewhat strange physical form.
"Seems we aren't late." The Tarnished leaped directly into the castle courtyard with a single bound. Scanning the crowd, he spotted several familiar faces—Lionel, Tragoth, and the taciturn Okina were all old acquaintances of the Tarnished.
Hearing the commotion, the crowd turned, curious as to who would make such a flamboyant entrance. As the dust settled, they saw a Tarnished wearing battered Carian Knight armor.
Following close behind were Iron Fist Alexander and Blaidd the Half-Wolf.
"Friend, having a horse makes things far too convenient," Blaidd couldn't help but tease.
"I see quite a few familiar faces here," the Tarnished noted, eyeing Lionel and the others.
"Hm? Does Your Excellency know us?" Lionel was the first to speak.
"I recognize the armor, if not the man. Lionel... though it's true, if you changed out of that pitch-black garlic armor, I might not recognize you either."
"You—You are!?" As the Tarnished spoke, Lionel and Tragoth showed visible reactions.
"Shh, we'll reminisce later." The Tarnished signaled for silence, then turned his gaze toward Jerren, who stood on the high platform. Jerren nodded in understanding.
"Brave champions! Welcome to your arrival!" Jerren raised his flamberge high, his expression fervent. "The stars are aligned! The time for the festival is here!"
"The strongest demigod of the Shattering! General Radahn is waiting for you! Champions! Fight! With honor, defeat the mighty foe and claim the Great Rune!"
"The battle festival begins!! The Festival of Radahn has begun!" Jerren's sonorous and infectious words successfully ignited the atmosphere. The warriors raised their arms and cheered, their eyes filled with fighting spirit—a complete reversal of the previous deathly silence.
With a grand wave of Jerren's hand, the warriors surged forward, crowding toward the lift that led to Radahn's location.
"Before the battle begins, I wish to speak with you, Tarnished." As the Tarnished prepared to descend with Alexander and Blaidd, Jerren called out to him.
"Brother, we'll head down and wait for you first." Blaidd and Alexander could tell Jerren had something to say, so they didn't linger and took their leave.
"What is it? Something else on your mind?" The Tarnished looked at Jerren, sensing the man had something weighing on him.
"Your strength is great... Had the General not suffered his fate, you would surely have become his best brother... Therefore, I wish to ask you to deliver the final blow to the General. If he is liberated by your hand, I believe he can finally rest in peace." Jerren bowed deeply.
"Heh. To have a brother like you at the very end... Radahn truly lived a life without regrets." The Tarnished gave Jerren a short laugh, then leaped down without looking back. A lift? Who needed such an inconvenient thing!
Decay, silence... The place where the Tarnished now stood was in front of a river. There must have been a path here in the past, but now it was long gone... leaving only a single Carian teleporter.
The great wastes were infinitely desolate, filled with piles of discarded weapons where towering giants wailed. There, a majestic figure sat—the true hero who had guarded Caelid and resisted the Scarlet Rot for long ages. Foul blood covered his body, long since obscuring the once-golden lion armor and the fiery red hair that resembled a lion's mane.
"Radahn..." Blaidd stood at a vast distance from Radahn, the flickering in his eyes proving his hesitation. But to grant him peace, and for Ranni's future... "Forgive me... Brother Radahn." This was the first time Blaidd called Radahn "Brother," and it would be the last.
"The strongest demigod... how magnificent! I, Alexander, am honored to face him in battle! Wahahaha!"
"Warriors! Do you see the giant in the distance? He! He is the strongest of the Shattering, the Lion's Fire that resisted the rot! Champions! Charge! Show the General your strength!" Jerren led the charge; as Radahn's old friend, it was only right and proper.
As Jerren's roar echoed, Radahn, who had been motionless, snapped open his maddened eyes and returned a roar that shook the heavens. A greatbow, far exceeding the size of a Golden Greatbow, was gripped in his hand. Using the spears in his back as arrows, he fired a series of world-shattering shafts imbued with gravity magic.
A single move eliminated a large portion of the festival participants. This strike crushed not just the people, but the will of those remaining. Most had heard the rumors that General Radahn was a flickering candle in the wind and had come hoping for an easy kill.
He's "failing"? Are you joking! Many began to beat a retreat. But time waits for no one. While they were dazed, Radahn pulled a handful of spears and crudely notched them to his greatbow, unleashing them toward the sky.
"It's a rain of arrows! Get down!!" This was Radahn's ultimate archery, a technique he and Ogha had refined to the limit. "Trouble... I didn't expect the General to still possess such power." Even Jerren was surprised that Radahn maintained such terrifying strength despite his waning life force.
The greatbow alone held the majority of the crowd at bay. However... where there are pretenders, there are also true masters. As the rain of arrows fell, the Tarnished, Blaidd, and Alexander each used their own methods to evade the barrage while closing the distance to Radahn.
Okina and the other two did the same. Okina, whose mastery of the blade was transcendent, calculated the distance of the arrows perfectly, using minimum stamina to dodge. Though some shafts grazed him, they only damaged his clothes without wounding his flesh.
"Heh, it seems there are true masters after all!" Jerren was well-acquainted with Radahn's fighting style; they had sparred many times, and he had certainly tasted this rain of arrows before. He could evade it on his own.
"Hm?" Just then, the General suddenly stowed his greatbow. As if by instinct, he summoned his two colossal greatswords and began hacking madly at the ground beneath him. "It's the Tarnished... such speed!" Just a moment ago, the Tarnished was dodging arrows, yet in the blink of an eye, he was the first to reach Radahn's feet.
"Starscourge General... let me see your might..." Using a Starscourge Greatsword as a stepping stone, the Tarnished leaped toward Radahn's shoulder, raising his blade. Unexpectedly, Radahn discarded his swords; his massive palm snatched the Tarnished out of the air, and he headbutted the Tarnished, sending him flying.
"Such fierce combat instincts..." Blaidd was incredibly surprised. He hadn't expected Radahn, in his current state, to retain such fighting intuition. Truly a man born for war.
"Hahaha, this makes my blood boil!" Alexander landed a Shoryuken-style blow that made Radahn's frame shudder, but a moment later, Radahn manipulated gravity to recall his swords, swatting Alexander into the dirt with a single strike. Then, with murderous eyes, he turned toward Blaidd.
"Awe-inspiring power..." Following the "minesweeping" done by the Tarnished and Alexander, Blaidd had gained a certain understanding of Radahn's current level. Tragoth and the others arrived shortly after and immediately joined the fray, fighting alongside Blaidd and Alexander, who had crawled back out of the earth.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the wastes...
"Hehe.... Hahahaha! Quite a blow. Truly remarkable power..." The Tarnished cracked his neck and stood up like a released spring. The blood-aura surged around him once more, but this time it wasn't just blood; it contained the Fire of the Giants—the power of the Sun God's flame.
"Hm? Patches?" As he was about to charge back into the fight, the Tarnished saw Patches peeking out from behind a small dune, sneakily observing the battle. He hadn't noticed that the Tarnished had spotted him.
"Hehehe, even if they're just spirits... they're bound to drop something if they lose... and there are plenty of real warrior corpses here... Gu-hehe, what a harvest! Hahahaha!" Patches rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"Eh...? Who's there? Didn't you see I'm—W-W-White Wolf! P-P-Partner! What are you doing here!?" Patches jumped as he saw who it was.
"Back to your old trade, I see," the Tarnished laughed, looking at Patches in his scavenger-like state.
"Brother, I beg you... don't stop me, alright? I... I'll give you a massive discount in the future, how about it?" Patches was terrified. While the White Wolf wasn't a "saint," he acted entirely on whim. And with Radahn nearby, drawing the General's attention would be a death sentence.
"Patches... do me a favor." The Tarnished gave a sinister smile that made even Patches shudder.
"No... let's talk this out, we're buddies... y-y-you stay back! AAAGH!!"
"The General's might is terrifying... huff... huff..." Even clad in his absolute armor, Tragoth couldn't withstand more than a few rounds of Radahn's onslaught. The General seemed to have infinite stamina and Herculean strength; every strike felt like a collapsing mountain.
"Hmph... the more it is so... the more pleasure there is in victory." Okina's face remained stoic and resolute. (Nearly there... if I use Radahn's blood as a catalyst... my Rivers of Blood will be complete!)
"Everyone, look! Something is flying over there... with a red light!" Alexander, having dodged an attack, was startled by a high-speed projectile approaching. Was this another of Radahn's tricks?
"MOVE! GET OUT OF THE WAY!!" The flying object spoke in a human voice. As it drew closer, people realized it was a person! A bald one at that.
"What is this... where did this guy come from?" Blaidd was stunned. Then he saw an even more ridiculous silhouette trailing behind the bald head, both charging forward in tandem.
"Hmph!!" Radahn knocked the others back and raised his twin blades to cleave the newcomers.
"No, no, no!" The high-flying Patches was scared out of his wits.
"Patches! Sever the connection! My turn!" The Tarnished's voice echoed from within the red light. At the sound, Patches immediately acted. The smoke from the vanishing phantom caused Radahn to fall into a near-imperceptible moment of distraction. But for the current Tarnished, that was enough.
"Starscourge General Radahn! Round two!" The red light exploded as a terrifying spatial tremor kicked up the sands of the entire wastes.
"What...?! He stopped the Starscourge Greatsword with a single fist... As expected of you... brother."
•
Today updates!
Well it took me some days but I managed it. Also, no matter how dire your pocket was, never, ever, took welder job for couple of bucks. I'm just giving some advice here since I had to act like a blindman for three days for it. Anyway, you can found advanced chapter on my Patreon here—↓
patreon.com/EBBYRITH.
—feel free to visit it!↑