Disclaimer: I own Nothing. Ventus is 20 years of age in this fic. Also, I plan on shipping Ven with either Melina, Zorayas, or Ranni, I might go for a harem thing, but that will be up to y'all. (I personally think Ranni and Ven would have good chemistry due to Ventus' love of astrology and Ranni's whole Moon ending) Anyways, I could also go for different endings and maybe will right a secondary fic to this. Who knows?
Chapter One: Tarnished Arrival, and a Fateful Meeting
We open our story in the room of a young man by the name of Ventus. He was a golden blonde haired young man who had striking green eyes, a tall, athletic, and toned yet slim figure, and his hair pulled back into a ponytail. He wore a black, long sleeved muscle shirt underneath a short sleeved and cropped, white and black jacket with a red interior.
He also wore a pair of tan to grey baggy hakama pants which tucked into a pair of armored black leather boots. Upon his hands he wore a pair of black fingerless gloves with grey circles upon the palms as to activate his new set of armor. Around his neck he wore a red scarf as well as his wayfinder charm.
Over the years he had grown quite a bit, surprisingly overtaking everyone barring Lea in height, so now he was 6'1", just between Lea and Terra. And now, he was packing his things, getting ready to leave the Land of Departure to go on his own personal journey as a fully fledged Keyblade Master.
He packed all of his belongings, putting them within his enchanted bag and strapping it to his belt. The young man looked at his now empty room before he closed the door, remembering how it used to be littered with memorabilia and notes from his training and adventures.
Now it was a barren canvas, just waiting for a new owner, perhaps one of Aqua and Terra's Students. The two said it was okay for Ventus to stay, but he felt otherwise, he wanted a few years to himself to test the waters and they respected his decision.
He would even be leaving behind Chirithy, his first friend, who respected his decision as well. He walked the halls of the castle, admiring it's walls, and floors for the last time, the pristine condition of it never failed to amaze him, leaving this place behind would always be difficult.
As if to try and convince him to stay, Terra, Aqua, and the other Guardians of Light had greeted him once he made it to the palace Doors. They hugged, shook hands, and bid each other a farewell, he gave them all a smile as he opened a gate leading to the unknown.
He then clapped his hands together and his armor appeared. A sleek light armor with a deep greenish bronze, silvery blue, and black color scheme. It looked exactly like his first set of armor, and upon his back waved a silvery white cape which parted to look like an angel's wings as it blew back into the wind.
He walked into the gate and he gave one last look at his friends before it closed, he was on his way now. He travelled for a few days, soon finding himself being pulled to a world he had never seen before. A world that he instantly knew the name to, The Land's Between. A massive world open for him to explore.
He landed within the world where the fallen leaves tell a story, the story of the Elden Ring's Shattering. The story of Lords, the story of Gods, Demi-gods, Warriors, Witches, Depravity, Power Lust, Order, Disorder, Death, Exile, and of A Tarnished.
Ventus stood within a ruined chapel, entering into it from a gate. He walked further into the room which was filled with strewn about chairs, broken wooden supports, cobwebs, a dusty maroon carpet, pages, moss, and stone brick flooring. Behind him stood a statue of a robed maiden, one he would not recognize.
He made his way to a bookshelf, pulling books from it to store away within a secondary magic pouch for later reading if any of these books provide valuable information. He then walked to the entrance of the small and decrepit chapel, finding a slowly rotting body, clutching a mummified tarnished finger.
The reek made him gag, it smelled terrible, rotting flesh and tattered musty cloth. He dropped the finger, refusing to carry it with him as he did not wish to defile the already rotting body it came from. He silently left the Chapel of Anticipation, exiting out into a world full of fog.
And he saw before him falling golden leaves, all of them falling from a large golden tree, miles away upon a plateau he could not reach just yet. He could see the shadow of a fort-like castle within the distance as well, truly worth seeing later on, but first things first, finding his way to the plateau.
He walked along the Chapel's grounds, finding sacks of abandoned flour, barrels of rotting food, and overgrown patches of grass amongst the misplaced stone slab bricks. He made his way down rickety wooden stairs, sturdily, yet haphazardly hanging off of the smaller plateau the chapel sat upon.
He walked across a rope bridge into a walled off grave filled courtyard, within the middle of it was the statue of a woman, her arms outstretched like wings as her gaze sent downwards whilst behind her a set of rings floated. As Ventus approached the statue he felt the need to dodge, and so he jumped back as a creature he could only describe as a grafted monstrosity landed a few meters away from him.
It was a mess of hands and feet covered by a flag turned into a cape, carrying a bronze tablet-like shield, and two longswords. This being had the look of a crazed noble, drove to lunacy as it grafted itself into the form of a human spider. It's grey skin stretched over it's limbs as it were mostly skeletally thin.
"Holy hell you're terrifying!" Ventus shouted as he summoned his keyblade to his hand, barely dodging as a blade was thrusted forwards, cutting three strands of hair off of Ventus' right side. He spun his own blade, Lost Memory, a silvery white blade with an angelic appearance despite a broken red heart within the teeth of the blade.
As he spun it around it glowed as it changed shape, and now within Ventus' hands sat a long silvery pole, a wing-like scythe blade on top of it. He dodged more slashes from the grafted scion, blocking some with his scythe blade and pole before delivering some swift strikes of his own.
He danced around the abomination, using his abilities as a keyblade master to confuse it. He traded blows with the beast, using magic to heal his wounds when he could, and soon enough the grafted scion was defeated, roaring loudly as it fell, fading away on the wind as ash.
The keyblade master dispelled his blade, walking through a small archway, jumping down he misjudged the height, falling unconscious from the landing. He landed without any injuries, yet he fell unconscious as he hit the ground. As his consciousness faded, he thought he heard the sound of a horse, and the voice of a woman.
"One of his kind is sure to seek the Elden Ring." He heard clearly before his consciousness gave way to sleep. "Even if it does violate the Golden Order."
He woke up within a cave, the only light he could see was from a small golden sapling, filling the room with enough light to make out a staircase with four matching statues leading to a wooden door. It was odd, and he was questioning how he had gotten there, maybe the woman he heard brought him to the cave somehow.
He found that on the ground there were four golden flasks, three with a red liquid within them, and one with blue liquid within it. He tasted the liquid, and he felt less sluggish from drinking a little of both, they were potions or elixirs of some sort. He doubted he would need them, but he kept them just in case.
"Looks like my adventure is off to a very interesting start." He sighed inwardly, brushing himself off as he walked towards the door, but he noticed something else. A robed specter, bent over within an arm chair, looking into a deeper portion of the damp cave.
He got closer to the specter and he heard it speak. It was a soft, nondescript voice which left an impression of importance.
"Brave Tarnished. Take the plunge. Of Learning and Rememberance." It said, gazing downwards into the depths of the cave. "Recall the arts of war. And your warrior's blood." It added, yet Ventus denied the voice. He had not grown rusty during the years he grew, he felt as if he were in top shape to take on the world before him.
So he left to the door, walking up the stone steps and opening the doors. He made his way up the cave via a set of strangely built rooms and up a lift before out through a door into a grassy plain, filled with sunlight and gorgeous scenery, yet it had an air of emptiness despite the life that filled it.
In the distance he could see ruins of buildings that had seemed to have fallen ages ago, he had entered Limgrave, a fallen kingdom. Ventus would soon meet the gaze of a masked man, one who clasped his hands together like a scheming man. He walked towards the man, finding him standing near a floating light, a sign of lost grace, a safe haven for tarnished.
As he touched the light he felt warmth fill his body and he recoiled in surprise, yet he soon shook out of it, looking over to the man next to the lost grace. The man wore ragged clothes that looked covered in dirt and filth. Ventus did his best not to judge and the man spoke first, needing not to introduce himself.
"Ah yes, Tarnished are we?" The man asked in a strangely giddy accent. "Come to the Lands Between for the Elden Ring, Hmm?" He added to the question as he examined Ventus from where he stood, sizing him up.
"Of course you have. No shame in it." He answered the question himself, chuckling. "Unfortunately for you, however, you are maidenless." He said with a teasing tone, laughing more.
"Without guidance. Without the strength of runes, and without an invitation to the Roundtable Hold... You are fated, it seems, to die in obscurity." the man finished, creeping Ventus out significantly for him to sigh and speak up.
"Ok, first of all I am new to the Lands Between." Ventus began. "Second off, why does everyone keep calling me a Tarnished, I honestly have no idea what that means." He gave a fierce-some glare to the man who leaned back defensively.
"Now now my angered friend, you need not be worried." The man did his best to calm Ventus down, which wasn't very necessary as he was still keeping a considerable cool. "Allow me, Varré, to provide you with a bit of wisdom."
"All you must do is follow the rays of light the signs of Grace give off, and answers will follow if you do so." Varré said, pointing to the light, and Ventus did in fact notice that it had shown a ray heading off into the distance. Perhaps it was connecting to another site of grace.
"Thank you, also, my name is Ventus, not Tarnished." Ventus said, introducing himself before he set off into the distance, only to be stopped by Varré before he left.
"Be wary of the sentinels, as well as the soldiers of Godrick the Grafted, whom lives in storm veil castle, they are very nasty folk who would no doubt attempt to cleave you in two." Varré said, giving Ventus a word of warning. And so Ventus left the man by the cave, sneaking past a large soldier in golden armor upon a horse as he made his way.
He also stopped by bushes to gather fruit for his journey, finding Rowa Fruit, as well as a few small golden orbs, they seemed to be filled with a strange energy. He then walked towards a ruined church, finding another site of grace as well as a merchant, who he walked over to.
"Hello, I was wondering if you had anything I might find useful, a map perhaps?" Ventus asked, greeting the merchant with a kind expression.
"Ah, a Tarnished new to Limgrave I see. Well, since you aren't after my throat I suppose I could offer you my business." The merchant said, scratching his chin before he provided a map. "My name is Kalé, Purveyor of fine goods." He introduced himself.
"The map will cost you nothing, I have plenty of spares anyways." He added with a chuckle. "But should you need any other goods, those will cost you some runes."
"Seeing as I am new to Limgrave, and the Lands between itself, would you mind if I asked what Runes are? A man I met earlier said something about runes and I have minimal information." Ventus sighed, sitting by the fire where Kalé sat.
"Ahh, you are surely an interesting fellow then." Kalé chuckled. "The best explanation I can give is this, Runes are a source of power a way to strengthen yourself with the help of a Finger Maiden, who can weave runes into different aspects of your being like Vitality. But for those who are maidenless, they are a currency." He explained.
Ventus rubbed his chin briefly, remembering that when the grafted scion he killed faded away he felt as though he was filled with an energy that didn't know where to go. As he looked down to the fire he noticed the inside of his arm glowing, and he pulled back his sleeve to find a number written in a runic language.
"Would this happen to be related to runes?" Ventus asked, showing Kalé his arm.
"Aye, they would. You happen to have 12,800 spare runes on you now." The Merchant answered. "Best if you held onto those for now." He added with a bit of advice. "Now best you move on, it seems the grace be pointing you in a new direction." He pointed Ventus towards the grace, which was flowing towards a new direction.
He nodded and stood up, summoning his armor as to give him a better guard whilst he travelled. He walked along a dirt path, encountering a soldier who drew his weapon, charging at Ventus. The keyblade warrior summoned his blade, blocking the soldier's sword as it swung down at him.
"I mean no harm, please refrain from attacking me!" Ventus pleaded with the man, but the man didn't respond, he just kept swinging his blade. Ventus attempted to stun the man with a swing to his head, but he ended up decapitating the man, the man falling dead and fading away in the breeze as ash. Just like with the grafted scion he felt energy fill his being.
Ventus stood there in shock, he had just killed a man, something he was dreading deeply. But before he could find a place to sit down, he was attacked by more soldiers, and in his frantic state he dodged and weaved from the attacks, countering with his own.
He ran into a set of ruins in front of one of the stormveil castle gates, surrounded by even more soldiers there. He was pushed against a wall, and he didn't feel like dying, or becoming a part of a grafted scion so he fought, cutting down more and more soldiers.
And by the end of it, as he found another sign of grace, he sat there with an emotionless look to his eyes. As the sun set in the horizon, the sound of hooves made it's way to the sign of grace, and off of a horned steed a cloaked woman stepped down.
"Greetings. Travelled from beyond the fog." She said before she started to kneel.
She glowed like a specter, which faded as she knelt down besides Ventus, taking off her hood. She was a beautiful woman with long wavy reddish brown hair, she had one golden eye, and over her closed right eye was a tattoo of a three fingered claw-like hand.
"I am Melina, and I offer you an accord." The woman said, introducing herself as she gazed into Ventus' eyes, looking at him with curiosity. "Have you heard of the Finger Maidens?" She asked before Ventus could speak.
"They serve the Two Fingers, offering guidance, and aid, to the Tarnished." Melina began with an explanation. "But you, I am afraid, are Maidenless." She said with a soft sigh. "I can play the role of maiden." She said before Ventus could even ask what she was getting at.
She got closer to him, looking deep into his eyes as if looking into his soul. "Turning Runes into strength. To aid you in your search for the Elden Ring." She explained further before she told him his part of the deal. "You need only take me with you. To the foot of the Erdtree." Melina explained fully, sitting only two feet away from the young man.
"I... am unsure... if you haven't noticed, I am having a psychological crisis due to me killing a group of men earlier." Ventus sighed as he looked away, putting his head into his hands.
"You need not worry yourself, tarnished." Melina sighed again. "They have not truly died, they will return soon enough. No one truly dies in the lands between, unless stricken by destined death, which very few are linked too once they fall." She explained to Ventus, trying to ease his way into accepting.
And as if on cue, when Ventus looked towards the ruins, the guards he killed earlier faded back into existence, as if they weren't struck down at all. This eased his panicked mind, for the moment, but he would need some therapy after this adventure for sure.
"..I have nothing better to do, and as it is, if I want to understand what the hell this "Elden Ring" everyone seems to be talking about is, I have to seek it out myself." Ventus sighed deeply, looking at Melina. "I'll accept. And please, call me Ventus, or Ven, whichever suits your fancy." He emotionlessly chuckled.
"Then it is Settled, Ventus." Melina said with a smile. "Summon me by grace to turn runes into strength." She said as she stood up, before she left she paused and turned back to him.
"Ahh, another matter." She added as she handed Ventus a small ring-like whistle. It was golden and ornate, and looked like a pair of horns curved into a circle. "Use it to traverse great distances. It will summon a spectral steed named Torrent. Torrent has chosen you." She added.
"Treat him with respect." She finished before she left as Ventus stood up. Ventus didn't have any idea what he was going to do, all he knew was that he signed himself up for an interesting adventure.
Chapter end.
Before y'all ask, I am sending Ventus into hard mode, basically new game plus rules. Hence why he got 12,800 runes from the grafted scion.