' So this is it ' Not for the first time he stood here, within the base of the great erd tree, forced to choose a fate for the world that would be unmade moments after being selected. ' Again ... '
A curse from the gods, the greater will and its ilk, for his destruction of their avatars. Every time he claimed the elden ring, he would wake up at the start of his journey once more, yet he retained everything. It wasn't like being sent back ... more like shunted into another universe and time for his defiance of the outer gods.
' Again and again ... ' He had seen it, in the greater wills domain, the multiple erd trees when he fought its avatar countless times, each one a different universe, each one a different choice ... and different path. And yet here he was, before marika's desecrated corpse, wearing Rellana's armour, her swords planted into the earthen ground at his sides.
' I just .... ' His flesh still bore the marks, the power of being the lord of frenzied flame, for all intents and purposes he was, his eyes glowed alight with the power of dragon communion fused with unholy power of chaos. He stood a giant after several cycles of becoming the elden lord, rivalling the goddesses children in stature. He bore the memories of being Rannis consort, of fighting radahn and his consort, of the world of shadow and these cursed lands ... he walked it all, and yet the gods simply sent him into another world to restart the process. ' Want it to end '
Death wasn't for him, no matter how he tried it simply wouldn't take, and so be spent eons... just walking. Sometimes he didn't even try to take the elden ring, but fate always brought him to its golden splendour.
' CANT IT JUST ' His hand lurched out and grasped the golden radiance protruding from the cavity in Marika's chest, grasping the rune as his hidden mouth contorted in thinly controlled rage. ' LET IT END ... LET ME GO '
His muscles became taunt, As palid flesh and cracked skin ground way slowly like stone. Golden hair fluttered as what sounded like a distant scream radiated the base of the erd tree, yet he pulled.
He pulled with all his might, eyes blind, uncaring as the world began to violently rumble under his actions.
" LET ME GO ... I'VE FOUGHT ENOUGH... " His daunting height of two metres cast a shadow stretching away from Marika, Whose body became radiant as the elden ring began to whine a ring that stung the ears.
" I SAID ... " One tug tore open her chest, yet the ring remained firm.
" LET ... ME " A second and third wrenched muscle and bone apart.
" GOOOO " A final tug ended it all, the world exploding into white and gold cascading lights, heat so powerful it's burnt his already marred skin, he knew nothing as the earth underfoot was unmade, as flesh and body fell apart like dust in the wind ... ad the lands in between exploded apart under the will of the man that tore the elden ring from its rest.
....
Glowing eyes snapped open under the soft light of a sun unfamiliar. Hidden behind the helmet or Rellana, Sulphuric orbs simply stared up as soft light reaching through ashen clouds in the skies.
' Where ..' He wasn't back in that cursed chapel, he knew that simply from the biting heat that prickled his skin' Am I... '
Stone growled under his stature as he slowly rose on the stone to which he lay, tapestries of blue cascading down from his armor, his swords planted at his sides like scattered tools.
" hmmm " Smog smothered the lands as far as eye could see, clouds of sulphur and greyed clouds clung to cracked mountains. ' Strange... this doesn't feel like... the lands inbetween'
The lands in-between always had a certain presence to them, like a faint presence that weighed apon the shoulders of everybing whom lived their, whether the presence was the gaze of the powers that be of the suffocation of life it self... he didn't know, but he ... after growing powerful enough, became accustomed to the world he had found himself in.
But here, there was none of that presence, there was no weight of the watch of the outer gods, there was no smothering of life apart from the smog in the air. Instead... the only thing radiating such weight into the air seemed to be coming from... himself.
' I'm .... ' He shivered physically, his hairs standing on end under his armor, delight rippling down his spine as a smile spread wide across his hidden face. ' free ... IM FREE..... '
There was no presence of the moon or the expression of the greater will, the only things he could feel were the energies that had always swirled within, the powers of choas... dragon communion...faith. But there was something... strange about them, they had their power and lustre... but it was like... the will behind them had been lost... like the powers were connected to their source but the mind that guided them had gone silent.
His Carian magic still connected to the moon and is cosmic radiance, yet it flowed with less resistance... but more... distance... like the source was farther away yet still provided power.
' interesting ' Strangely enough, the magics and sorceries of the golden order and faith seemed to be sourced from within himself much like his magics of dragon communion, ' strange... but not unexpected'
' enough of that now ' He gazed through the slits of Rellana's helm, towards the choked mountains, leaning down and hooking his hands around the twin Carian blades which he slung to his waist.
He didn't care for the suffocating smog, as he stepped a single foot forward over ashen ground, and began a slow trek forward toward the cracked mountain.' That should be a sufficient vantage point'
It stretched up and into the hanging clouds, its shadow stretching far and wide, its top glowing through the clouds as what was obviously a volcanic eruption spewed lava into the air hidden behind the louds.
The blue tapestries clinging to his body swung in the winds as he walked, the righteous freedom, the liberation coursing through him burning hotter than the air, hotter even than frenzied flame. As he crossed lads of shifting rock and burning ash, he gave half buried trees no mind, his gaze studying what appeared to be a half buried ruin with a raised brow.
'hm... interesting' he stopped at a shattered base of what he assumed to be a tower, brick and mortar blown apart by the force of a shockwave produced by a volcanic eruption.' curious to see whom had lived in such rustic buildings'
His gaze drifted past to see several rooftops in similar state, the realization he was standing upon an entirely buried civilization slowly dawning upon him. A boiling river seemed to cut the cityscape in half, like a rift had been town in the city, as a chasm reached down below into what he could see to be boiling river of orange glowing magma. ' such destruction ... '
A simple sprint and leap afforded him the strength and speed to cross the chasm in a single bound, crashing to the other side with a crash of stone and dust.
' Did you do all this' He stared at the mountains side, where he now spotted several ruins and buildings etched into the sides, long destroyed and decayed by time. ' Welp no time like the present'
...
' im being... watched ' He could feel them, presences mixed into the dust and ash, watching him from nearby and afar as he approached the towering mountain. Beast and what felt like intelligent eyes never broke his sight the moment he entered a certain distance of the volcanoes radius.
" I can feel you... " He stopped at a large rise of stone, what appeared to be a melted chapel standing half buried, He stared at it, squinting into the shadows as something seemed to shift ethereally. His right hand strayed to one of Rellana's blades, which erupted into a blade of orange flame that illuminated the pitch black of the chapel.
What greeted him was nothing but an abandoned chapel, as empty as the void, with destroyed pew's and toppled statues, golden eyes slowly passed from left to right before he grunted and stepped back out of the chapel, yet he didn't dispel the sword nor its magic, rather kept it on hand as he sheer magical presence seemed to ward off the watchers. " I would prefer not to fell you, stay away "
And so he continued, Past the eyes he could feel and the creature shifting under ash, through the city to the mountains edge.
' And so begins the long climb '
....
Standing near the top of the mountain revealed the scale of the destruction to him. Though ashen clouds covered much of the land, he could see what was no doubt once a metropolis that spanned much of the island he was on, though it had long been buried, From where he stood at the mouth of a cavern that spewed heat, he could imagine the destruction that swallowed the land whole.
His shadow, rippled down the crag of a mountain, his daunting height of two metres a sight to see on the mountains edge.
His eyes turned to the boiling sea, where boats lay half sunken in the harbour, with the hanging clouds slowly spreading apart to show a sea stretching as far as the eye could see in the distance.
" Hm ... curious to thee, what stands behind that ocean " Prepared as he was to depart, a rumbling of the ground drew his attention, a hiss that echoed from within the cavern he stood before. " Oh ... "
The silver helm he wore shifted slightly as ferocious heat suddenly erupted from the caverns maw, blowing his tassels wide as molten orbs narrowed. " Isn't this interesting ... wyrm... "
A rumbling roar shook the mputnaisn edge, threatening to unloose his footing, yet he persisted even as the heat washed over him, whilst his gaze remained plastered on the pair of fiery eyes that opened up in the pitch black.
" No ... a drake " He turned fully to face the lumbering shadow hidden by the cavernous mouth, many times larger than he himself, as grinding stone echoed within. " Come then beast ... let me fell you as I have many times before "
....
Valyria, the peninsula swallowed by fire during the doom, during the eruption of the fourteen islands, rumbled once more as clouds a thousand metres above the grounds parted as blackened wings tore apart the skies.
ROOOOOOOAAAAR
The shape, as black as night, screeched incoherently as it ascended away from the island and away from its resting place, fleeing as it was pursued by a figure a soec in comparison, carried by what was seem to be an almost translucent bird.
....