Author's Note: I have no idea what the story of Elden Ring is truly about because I've only beaten Godrick and have barely touched Caelid and the Academy. However, the whole of Limgrave, apart of the Weeping Peninsula, is twice the size in this story than in-game. The Weeping Peninsula's size is unchanged due to the fact that it is already big enough.
Somewhere in north-western Lescatie
The mission was supposed to be an easy one. At least, that's what the Inquisitors said, and honestly, it should've been easy. There were moving far into the North West of Lescatie, to the coast. They're supposed to be few if any monsters and even fewer amounts of bandits, and the mission was simple; some kind of strange road suddenly appeared, connecting a small village to the nearby forest. The road should lead to the beach but... no one's come back from it, and when other village scouts went to the beach and then headed into the woods to find the road they just... appeared at the edge of the forest. As such, the nearby forest villages called out for help. Lescatie is sending a small band of scouts, with a young hero, Lesia, at the stead. Six in total, they grouped up the village and headed down that road. Their horses were quiet as they wordlessly rode down the road, only for the fog to come, creeping around them like spiders encircling their prey. The scouts rose their torches, trying in vain to dispel the darkness, only for a shriek to descend down upon them.
"Shit! Harpies! Ride!" the youngest of the soldiers said, as he started to ride at break speed ahead of the other men as they quickly started to follow the young soldier as the slowest of them suddenly gets picked out his saddle, screaming as he was pulled into the sky.
"Quick! Close up the formation! Into the fog!" Lesia ordered as the soldiers closed up around the hero in a column, 2 men wide, with Lesia in the center, at the front. The shrieking grew louder as the fog only got denser, "Stick together! Don't break the formation or we're doomed!" Lesia shouted as the harpies swooped down, barely missing the soldiers as both of the groups descend deeper and deeper into the fog. As the fog consumed all vision, Lesia could barely see in front of her and could barely see the men next to her. But the flapping and laughing of the Harpies? Oh, she could hear that very well. But as they rode, she could see a dim light, a light that was quickly growing brighter as they rode ever faster, "It's a sign of the Chief God! Ride faster and we might be saved!" Every step was a moment of terror, a chance to suddenly get pulled off their saddle and into the lustful clutches of the harpies, but every step also brought them closer to the light. And Lesia could actually see now as they finally came upon the light!
Limgrave, a new road near the Third Church of Marika, and Mistwood
The horse's hooves hit cobblestone as the world suddenly lit up, showing rolling hills, and to their left was a massive forest. The road had a fork, either go through the forest or go around it. Maybe, just maybe, if they go through the forest, they'll shake off the harpies. "Left! Head into the forest now!" Lesia shouted as the formation rode down the cobblestone road and onto the dirty path of the forest. Even the slight glances she gave showed that the trees were large, larger than most trees back home at least.
But despite her hopes, the harpies kept coming... and then the laughter and flapping grew quieter and quieter. She did not order them to stop, she may have been a fresh Hero but she wasn't stupid, these monsters could act smart. Thus they rode on... for around six minutes.
"Halt!" Lesia shouted as they stopped at a strange sight. A destroyed wagon.
"Ma'am?" one soldier asked, "Shouldn't we be moving on? Those harpies could catch on to us any moment now!"
"There's a destroyed wagon, we have the right to at least search it for possible humans," Lesia said in turn as she dismounted from her horse and unsheathed her sword. The other soldiers looked at each other as the youngest among them got off his horse to go join Lesia.
"Is there anything in there, Ma'am?" the young soldier asked as Lesia took a look into the wagon.
"It..." she started to say as she poked around the entrance of the wagon only to get cut off by sudden screaming. She turned only to see her men start to get pounced on by the harpies. She rushed towards them, her sword drawn, only to get knocked down onto her stomach as a black harpy jumps on her and pushes her to the ground.
"HA!" She could hear the harpy on her laugh as Lesia tried in vain to get out from the talons of the harpy, "You dumb order types always keep forgetting when our breeding season takes place! Oh well, at least I can have some fun with you lot!". The black harpy laughed louder as the other harpies started to tear the clothes off the other men. Only for one harpy to stop laughing and look at Lesia's direction in confusion and then glee. "Oh!" the harpy shouted in glee, "More husban-" THA'ACK. The sound caused everyone to stop. The harpy looked down at her chest, a shoddy arrow was lodged in her chest, and collapsed.
All hell broke loose. The black harpy on top of her suddenly jumped off her, all while shouting at her sisters to get them and their new to be husbands out of here. Lesia quickly got up from the ground and just started to run. Run down the path that they were heading anyway, not that she realized that. But she ran, with tears in her eyes. She failed at doing the basic duty of keeping her soldiers safe, and now she was running like a coward. But run she did, regardless of her feelings. She glanced back, only to see, what looked like small, grey-skinned, monsters with swords and bows, all seemingly made out of iron, not demonsliver, but deadly iron. The harpies were trying and failing, to flee, only getting themselves shot by the poorly made, but shockingly well-aimed, arrows. Her men were either dead on the ground or were being pulled off the ground by the harpies. Lesia didn't even think, she just ran. She ran as fast as she could, the shouts and screams of terror behind her and roaring into her ears as she could see some kind of building. She sprinted faster then she thought she could in the heavy steel armor she was in. She ran to the closest wall and ducked behind it, breathing loudly as she tried to get her breathing under control.
Her hands went to her face as she finally realized what she have done, she's not only failed in her duty, but she also failed in even attempting to save her soldiers. She slides down the rough stone wall and onto her butt as she weeps into her hands. After what feels like minutes of crying, her face was red and puffy as she looked up from her hands and into the sky, blocked by the large, thick trees. She can't go back to Lescite now, if the order realizes what she did, she'll be... she has no idea what they'll do to her! Kill her, punish her... maim her. She rubbed her head as she thought of a good cover story for the men, only to hear snoring. Loud snoring. Her hand went to her scabbard, only to grasp at empty air. Shit, she left the sword at that ambush. Lesia sighs as she gets up and silently, at least as much as one can in steel armor, towards the snoring and as she looked past a wall, she gasped. There was a massive bear! She grasped her mouth as she could feel it opening for her to scream. Silently, she strode away from the massive bear and onto the road again. She glanced to the right and left and quickly fled rightwards once more.
Fort Haight
Knight Benif gazed from the wall of the stone fort, overviewing the wooden palisade that formed a curtain wall around the fort itself. He silently sighed to himself as he thought, 'Another day, another raid from demi-humans,' he turned to his right to the tallest tower on the fort where Lord Kenneth is currently planning his next attempt at settling/harvesting/exploiting Mistwood. Benif understood why Kenneth was doing this, King Godrick personally ordered him to find some way to set, at least, some kind of temporary logging camp in order to feed the ever-expanding need for good houses in Limgrave. Yet, somehow... this felt wrong. As if Godrick wasn't supposed to be ordering anyone in Fort Haight, much less a Lord Kenneth. He rubs the side of his helmet, he's been getting these weird feelings ever since he became a knight and the doctors can't explain it to him.
Benif's thinking is cut off as a strange sight appears upon the land leading up to the palisade, a single woman in plate armor, without a horse or sword! He stood in confusion for a few moments until he snapped back to reality and yelled down at the gatehouse, which is, of course, connected to the palisade, "Ready for visitor!" and started to sprint to the tall tower and yelled up it for Lord Kenneth to hear, "We have a visitor, get down here and see her!" and turned around and ran-walked down the stairs to the courtyard and then out of the main fort into the exterior fort courtyard. In the middle was a golden branch, slowly becoming a dull wooden tree. A small number of barracks, some wooden, some stone, are placed against a smaller stone wall adjacent to the main stone wall of the fort proper. He ignored it all as he headed through the smaller stone gatehouse and into the outer palisade. Some spearmen stood at the gatehouse silently ignoring the yelling woman as Benif came closer to the gatehouse
"You stupid fools!" the woman screamed as she pointed towards Mistwood Forest in fear, "I was attacked by monsters and I need enter or else they'll get me to- you!" She started to point at Benif, "You, you're clearly a knight, right? Order these treasonous bastards to let me in!"
"Treasonous?" Benif laughed as the woman looked on in confusion, "Unless you're from a secret sect of the Banished Knights then I don't see how you're of our King's host!" Benif's voice suddenly turned serious, "Now, tell me just exactly who you are and where you are from. And I ask you to please be accurate or else we shall be forced to keep you out. We are not willing to... entertain potential spies."
Before the woman responds, a similar voice comes from behind Benif, "Knight Benif! Are you insulting a visitor?". It was Lord Kenneth.
"My Lord, this... outsider dares call our soldiers traitors! We mustn't allow such insulting!"
Kenneth ignored Benif as he walked past him and to stood just across the woman, "Is this true, woman?" Kenneth asked, "Did you call our fair soldiers traitors to some... unknown power?"
The woman just looked behind her and looked back to Kenneth, "I... I apologize, I didn't know this land didn't follow the laws of the Order," she quickly gives a small bow to the clear lord.
Kenneth simply looked back at Benif, and after a moment, Benif silently nodded, before looking back to the woman, "Open the gate, we're letting her in.".
The guards glanced at each other before opening the gate, allowing the woman to quickly enter onto the other side. "Now," Kenneth said, "Let us get inside so you can better explain just what this Order is supposed to be.".
The woman started to pace alongside Lord Kenneth as the three of them, Benif escorted them, walked to the fort proper.
"Let me guess," Kenneth suddenly said as they walked into the exterior fort courtyard, "Your band was attacked by one of the demi-human tribes, right?"
"Demi-humans? Do you mean the monsters? They assaulted us with bows and swords and killed even the monsters amongst us... I never expected that kind of brutality in this era..." Lesia hardly even noticed the raised eyebrow of Kenneth as they marched from the fort's inner courtyard and into the fort proper and into a small meeting room.
"Alright," Kenneth said as he sat down at the desk and gestured to Lesia to sit down. Benif guarded the door as Kenneth started up, "First off, you're name, and just what in Marika's name is this 'Order?'".
A quick answer to the first review of this, hopefully, long and good fanfic!
A Guest: Thank you for the first part, I'll change that. The second part is odder though. As the wiki itself seems... kinda contradicting? While it states that since most monsters now have some small amount of succubus's demonic energy, they can do "charm" spells, however, it also goes on to say that most monsters can't use magic at all. It gives multiple reasons from lack of intelligence, lack of ability to properly use it or are unable to even use it at all. As such, I assumed that such creatures like harpies fall into the second category. Now if an Owl Mage was there, then yes I'd show off some magic. On the human side, well, it was just supposed to be a scouting mission. Sending five soldiers with a fresh hero, and not all heroes know magic, would've been more than enough to go somewhere, look at something, and then run away to notify the Order if they should send more people.
