A/N: EDIT: Well that's not a lot of feedback at all. That's a crying shame, that is.
And that cheeky bastard is back telling me to retire again. Lovely. Just great.
Here I thought folks would like a chapter devoted to Milicent...T_T
Back in the update rota this goes, I suppose...
Just a heads up, the explicit version of Lord of Frenzy is now officially available on A03, should anyone wish to see it. I doubt anyone will care, but I thought I'd let folks know. I've been going back and expanding the steamy scenes and raunchy bits there, scenes I can't properly post here, due the rules. Better safe than sorry these days with the site being as it is. I nearly retired with all that glitch nonsense going on with the site, but I'm still writing...for now.
Furthermore, I'll be posting the explicit version of this chapter on A03 there in a few minutes. Might take a bit to show up, but it'll appear eventually.
If this story gets a ton of feedback-hopefully!-then I'll do my best to ensure an early update my fifteen year anniversary on this site finally here, I find myself reflecting on the little things in life. What was once a lazy pastime meant for me and a few friends really grew and evolved over time. There are days when I look back on the last fifteen years here and I wonder if anyone will remember me; if I made an impact, despite never making a single cent on any of these stories. Some days were happier than others, and some stories I enjoyed writing WAY too much; to the point where I'd stay up all night working on them.
And of course, there are times when I look to the future and wonder what will become of things when I'm gone.
Of course, I try not to dwell on the latter overmuch; I'm still alive and still writing. In an ideal world, I'd like to keep doing so for as long as I can. But old age is catching up to me and these days, the world is filled with so much madness and death. Feels like everyone's out for themselves, or just plain lost their minds. Even before that, so many friends and fellow writers I once knew are gone, now. Will I still be here in twenty years? Ten? Five? Its a chilling thought. But for now, I'm still here, still writing.
As ever, I own no references, quotes, memes or themes. Nope, not me, no sirree! Not a wit or a one. They're merely tributes to those far greater than I.
So here we go. The fate of this story depends on you, the reader. Your feedback determines the fate of this tale, and many others.
I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time.
Time and feedback will determine if this little ficlet remains a story. Simple as that.
As for the soundtrack to this chapter...I'd recommend on we all know.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella, from Elden Ring.
"You can't do this-can't just walk back into my life. You were gone. You were dead.
"I got better.
"Clearly! But I didn't! What am I to do with all these memories in my head!
~?
Ninth Frenzy
Millicent had lost herself.
There, she said it, admitted it freely.
She no longer knew what was real and what wasn't; what was fact or fiction.
How could she? Her memories were all ajumble, like one life bleeding into the next. With every clash of the blade she saw things that shouldn't be there. With each parry she heard voices of her dead sisters snarl at her. Not just them, but everyone she'd ever failed. Were they dead? She wasn't sure they were. They certainly sounded dead; she remembered them dying. She remembered dying.
So why was she alive? Why was he here, tormenting her even now?!
"Because you must bloom." The Rot within whispered in her ear, tormenting her even more with fingers of purest poison in her thoughts. "Bloom and forget it all. The pain, the misery...yield to me and be free...
But you see, Millicent didn't want to be free. She wanted to kill the ghost before her.
To silence him once and for all, so that he might never haunt her dreams again.
She would. She had to. She must.
Her foe brandished a beautiful blade of baleful blue, a greatsword that shone with the dark light of the moon itself. The blade was familiar to her. It shouldn't have been, yet it was. He danced with her, using that gleaming weapon as an artist would their brush; blocked her blows as though she were no more than a fledgling, a hapless child, not a renowned swordswoman feared the world over. After all she had never known defeat. She was herself and no other she was Malenia...no, she was Millicent. Wasn't she?
Ack! Pain in her mind! Foul ghost!
The "shade" of Naruto took full advantage of her distraction, the craven, and brained her with his sword-hilt.
She stumbled back, clutching her head.
"That's enough." his irksome voice rose in her ears as she staggered away. "You can't beat me."
Could these specters cause her pain now? Was it all in her mind? Yes, it must be. Attack! Millicent leaped at him, and although he parried and swayed back, he did not attack, which was strange and odd and only made her angrier still. Her hallucinations haunted her now more than ever. They'd never spoken to her before, never tormented her like this, never spoken and fought back...
She remembered fighting him before.
It had been a spar on the golden fields of the Altus Plateau. She had been...different then, her fight arm made of cold steel. Lesser, yet better. Weaker, but more sure of herself. She recalled his smiling face, her own faint smile. They had danced, her blade against his as they struggled against one another. He'd been stronger than her but she was better with a blade. She remembered disarming him, his startled laughter when she tackled him, drove him down, and tore his clothes off. Making tender love in the shade of a tree...
Another clash of steel snapped her back to reality. Enough! When would he stop haunting her!?
"Don't look at me like that!" She screamed at him as he swept her legs, sending pain blossoming up her shin now when she tumbled away. "Hit me! FIGHT ME!"
Naruto didn't look happy about it, but he did. The stance he took was almost familiar, no, it was hers, how-
He twisted the Darkmoon Greatsword aside and smacked her with the flate of the blade, ringing her skull like a bell. Stars burst before her vision. She lashed out at him desperately, fearing a fatal blow while she was yet stunned. It never came. Instead she found her blade stuck in something. A rush of hot blood flow over her sword arm
She looked up and found him skewered on her blade once more, just as before. "Why won't you die?!"
He smiled sadly for her, reached down and cupped her cheek. "I ask myself that every day."
In an instant she was lost in the past again. Their positions were reversed, she was crouched over him, his body riddled with weapons and alike. The image made her wince. She knew this place. The smell, the ash in the air. This wasn't Caelid but Mount Gelmir. A manor loomed in the distance, momentarily forgotten now as she crouched over her beloved.
"Why didn't you die?"
He'd granted her a small, tired smile. "'Cuz then you'd be alone."
"No! Stop!" she recoiled, pushing herself out of the past. "Get out of my head!
Naruto raised a hand to ward her off, confusion flashing across his face. "I'm not doing anything-
Her fist cracked out, slugging him in the jaw and snapped his head to the side. A tooth whistled free through the air. His eyes flashed a frenzied gold. And then there was pain. One moment he was still, in the next Milicent found herself crumpled to her knees before him, clutching at her gut. When...how? She hadn't even seen him move...
.
..
...am I going to die again?'
The thought triggered something in her, flinging her back to the past.
She could feel her body crumbling. She looked at her hands and watched them melt.
"Leave me, my love." words that weren't hers passed her lips. "Its too late. I've already taken the needle out...let me die as myself, at least."
He sat down beside her and touched her cheek, eyes red from all the tears he'd already shed. "I'll stay with you until the end."
A rusty laugh tumbled past her crumbling lips. She had to squint to see him now. "Forever and always?"
He gripped her good hand, uncaring as the rot stung him. "Forever and always."
His hands had held hers, until the very last moment.
He had stayed...or so she thought.
But he hadn't, had he? He'd lied. She'd closed her eyes and died, only to awaken in this strange new world alone. He was gone. She had searched all across Caelid for him and found nothing. Then her head had begun to ache. Then had come the voices, the visions and the ghosts so many ghosts, all crying out for vengeance and retribution...and...and...AND...!
Gah! Not that memory! The world snapped back again. And when it did...
She found his hand upon her face. "Are you alright?"
Milicent went mad.
Her sword slammed into the side of Naruto's neck, biting deep. He accepted it with a grunt, reached up, grabbed the metal, and snapped it off well above the hilt, leaving her clutching an inch of useless steel. She balked at him, faltering for a moment as she watched him tear the blade free. Golden flame bled from the wound, mingling with his blood as the injury stitched itself shut. Wait. Was he real? It might be him. Could it be him? Could it be-no! Hope was horror! Belief was pain! No more sadness! No more sorrow! She would slay this shade and finally know some semblance of peace!
"Mili, just calm down-
Even his voice was a mockery of the man she loved! She fell upon him in a flurry of blows, striking high with her broken blade, low, then high again. Each were warded off by that blade. The witch's blade. Ranni. She remembered. How this ghost mocked her. How it rankled her temper, how it irked her soul, boiled her blood! The Rot writhed within her demanding vengeance, retribution, justice, eager to bloom. Every second that this foul shade smiled at her roused her ire to new heights.
Perhaps she should!
Just burn it all away and scour Caelid clean where Malenia had failed. Let it end. Let it all end. If this life was nothing but pain, if she could not have him, then so be it! Let Them Rot!
The Naruto who-might-be-her-Naruto must've seen the madness in her eyes, because he flung out a hand. "Don't!"
Millicent ignored him. No more sorrow. No more pain. Let it all end!
She screamed and let go of everything.
All the world became Rot.
With a wordless roar, the Scarlet Aeonia bloomed around her in all its crimson glory, enfolding her, with a flower of purest Rot. Within its searing embrace, Milicent was reborn. Her clothes smoldered down to nothing and fell from her body, rotting away to bear her flesh to the world. The chapel walls crumbled around her and left naught but a blasted plain behind. She staggered upright, one hand over her face. Rotten wings bloomed from her back like some scarlet valkyrie, formed both of butterflies and the long flowing tendrils of her own hair. She spread them wide and let their chorus fill the air.
She stood tall, uncaring of her nakedness.
Silence. Sweet, blessed silence. She heard not a sound.
For the first time, her mind was blessedly silent, it only for a moment
There. It was done. He was dead for good this time, and his specter silenced.
So why did she feel so miserable? Surely he'd been just a ghost, a phantom of her mind. He couldn't be real...
.
..
...could he?
N-No. If he was real, that meant she'd killed him again...!
Baleful red light flowed across the broken blade still clutched in her grasp; gathering up the shards of her weapon and making them whole once more. Each fragment coursed with a Rot so foul it not only tainted the very steel itself but made something new, warping the mental into a something monstrous longsword not unlike that of her predecessor. Still the Rot bloomed and bloomed and bloomed within her, eager to overtake Caelid, to rectify its mistake. In it, she was reborn. She was no longer her weak, frail mortal shell now. She was as a Goddess. She would TAKE THE WORLD!
Yes! That was precisely what she would do!
"Sorry." Someone coughed behind her. "That's my line."
Milicent whirled, rounding on the sound with an incredulous noise.
Naruto stepped out of the red mist and walked right through the petals of the Scarlet Aeonia without a care in the world. He too, was much changed. His body was filled with fire, brimming with lustrous life. The last dregs of his armor were even now melting away, revealing his body unto her, and the horrific scar set within his chest. Even his once-blue-eyes now glowed gold, wisps of ethereal light bled out from his gaze, leaving little trails of flame behind as he walked her way. The Rot washed harmlessly off his shoulders like so much water off a duck's back. If she had become as a Goddess, then so too was he a God.
No, there was more to it than that.
The Rot of an Outer Goddess touched him, yes, but it was burned away before it could hope to take root.
He strode into the epicenter of her bloom and marched up to her at a brisk pace, eyes ablaze, mouth set in a grim line.
Milicent panicked and slashed at him with her new blade. He smacked it out her hand, sending it flying into the marsh. From there took her by the hands and yanked -tugged, really- her forwards. She tensed, expecting an attack, a fatal blow at the least. He clearly had the blessing of an Outer God of his own. Her rebirth had been for naught. Her life would end here, no, she was certain of it...
.
..
...but it didn't.
A strong arms wrapped around her naked waist, uncaring of her Rot. The other swept up and thumbed under her chin, lifting her head, urging her to look at him. She had but an instant to comprehend the slightest smile, then he leaned down. His lips met hers, not caging them but embracing them tenderly, oh so tenderly. She was weak. She found herself melting into him, even if he wasn't real. If this was to her end, if she was to melt in his grasp, then she would at least savor this illusion of happiness. Even if he wasn't here, even if he wasn't truly real...
He deepened the kiss and her eyes widened in surprise as his light -his fire!- rushed into her. With it, came clarity.
His fire did not burn. It cleansed. Purified. It filled her up to the brim and washed all her pain away.
"Hello!" A decidedly chipper voice chirped inside her head. "We remember you!"
Another ghost to haunt her?! But no, this one sounded...content.
What manner of madness was this?
She could feel him. Touch him. Taste him. There was no pain at all. His body was warm against hers, skin to sinful skin. Her hands betrayed her wholeheartedly and she reached up with both arms to hold him closer, her new wings curling behind her. He held her even closer as she bit his lip, absently running a palm down his bare flank. It was only when he did the same, when a delightful, delicious tingle shot through her very being, that she realized her blunder.
.
..
...oh, gods.
He was real, wasn't he?
But if he was real...then what had she done?!
She jerked back, eyes wide, expecting to find anger in his gaze. Her wings twitched restlessly at her back -oh dear, what was she going to do with those?!- and she grasped at his face, expecting to see him crumble in her tainted grasp at any given moment. He did no such thing and only continued to burn in her grasp. No words were needed. Her own crime was clear.
"I'm sorry!" The words tore out of her in a wail. "I wasn't myself! I didn't mean to bloom! I can't stop it! I-
He pressed a golden finger to her lips. "Shhh. It's alright.
"It is most assuredly not!"
With a rasping cry, the Scarlet Aeonia withered around them, devoured by tongues of hungry yellow flame. Milicent had never truly seen a flower fold in on itself before; not like this. The Rot was burned back, then sucked inward and downward, that explosion of death-bringing-life scoured from the ruined church in a wave of cleansing, holy fire. And yet said Flame left her untouched. It did not burn or scorch her as proper fire ought to, but restored her, incinerating all that distinguished and divided her ruined mind, bringing with it everlasting peace.
...what have you become?"
She already knew the answer.
Her beloved was The Lord of Frenzy.
"I saved you once before." Her beloved kissed her forehead. "And I'm here to save you again. I said I'd never leave you alone, remember?"
Her lower lip trembled. She shivered, and not from her lack of clothes. "This isn't some mad fever dream? You're...real?"
"Always have been." He actually dared to wink, the silly git.
"Where does that leave us, then?"
"Between passion and obsession, war and peace." he was quoting someone there, she just knew it. "At the end of the day we're just us."
She held him tighter, heart wavering at the last. "I'm not the same-
"I can see that. He grinned at her wings. "You got taller."
So had he, she realized.
She still towered over him. In unleashing the Rot, however briefly, she'd undergone a transformation of her own and awakened her blood. Wings aside, she figured she must nearly as tall as Mother, now. How strange it was, to actually be taller than him. She rather liked it-No! Focus!
"This is no joking matter!"
"I know." he ran a hand through her hair. "You said you're not the same." he thumbed his chest, and the grisly scar therein. "Neither am I."
Clearly! Still, her paranoia persisted. "You'll die. Or I will." the words tumbled out of her in a mad babble, pain not so easily forgotten. "It'll all go wrong again-
"No, it won't." His forehead touched hers, bringing some small, scant comfort to her. "I'm here for you."
A tinny little hiccup fled from her lips. "Forever and always?"
Milicent hated how weak the words made her sound, but she just couldn't help herself. Here and now she was weak; near delirious with sheer bloody joy. She'd never been one to believe in miracles. Life was cruel; it lived but to take and take and take, endlessly and always, without fail. Her hope had been trampled ceaselessly and endlessly time and again. Yet, if he said those words, if he remembered them...
He kissed her again, lips lingering over his as he spoke. "Forever and always."
His words sparked something in Milicent.
It was desire.
She still wasn't wearing any clothes, and neither had he. They'd burned -or rotted in her case- all that away. A lifetime ago she might've felt embarrassment. Not so now. She grabbed him by the shoulders and he moved closer to her in return, his hands tangling in her hair, fingers gripping her hips, now her rear and oh that felt rather nice, very nice indeed.
Memory was slow to return but once it did, sensation was quick to follow. She wanted his hands n her him inside her, wanted to ride him to oblivion until his pelvis shattered.
Someone was sobbing, she wasn't sure who.
'Oh, its me...
She was the one crying, she realized, but not tears of sadness and sorrow, but joy and relief; that he was here, that he was alive and so was she, that it hadn't all been some wretched fever dream. She had to be sure. Must make herself certain. But even so she found herself hesitating.
Hesitation is defeat.
There would be no more hesitation on her part.
"Uh...Milicent?" Her lord squinted at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
She smashed her lips to his and dragged him down to the ground. He laughed and she found herself doing the same as she pinned him to the ground and straddled him. She dove in and kissed him again before she could lose herself to hesitation. Within a matter of moments, they fell into a familiar rhythm, just the two of them, lost in their own little world. No one dared to intervene against what followed; which was wonderful; she would have slaughtered any who dared try. Him and her, flesh to flesh, skin to skin, again they would begin.
There were no clothes to tear away.
No need for anymore words, nor were they needed.
Milicent had her beloved back. Nothing else mattered to her.
A/N: Aaaand scene.
Milicent really stole the show here.
Melina's gonna lose her marbles when she sees this...
After all, Naruto essentially used the "Frenzied Flame" to beat back the Rot.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Really need to hear from you on this; should this stay M-rated or not?
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this particular story, and others.
As ever, I own no references, quotes, memes or themes. Nope, not me, no sirree! Not a wit or a one. They're merely tributes to those far greater than I.
If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular? Well...it won't continue! I'm working two jobs -might need a third soon!- so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy. So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.
I hate begging for feedback, but its genuinely all that keeps me going at times.
As ever, reviews keep me alive. Without them, I cannot write.
So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly? T_T
Here have your previews, wild though they are.
They're mostly the same; wouldn't do to spoil things overmuch.
As ever:
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
(Previews)
Melina confronted him, of course. He'd known she would. You couldn't hide a display like that.
You...have inherited the Frenzied Flame. How?"
Moment of truth.
"What the actual hell."
He vaguely remembered there being dragons here, but this...was not one of those dragon. Nope. Not at all. He certainly didn't remember one talking!
"Begone! I need no mortal aid!"
"Right, then. I'll just leave you to it-
"Wait!"
Gotcha. He paused, smiling in the shadows, feigning ignorance. "Hmmm? What is it? I've got a castle to conquer."
"P-Perhaps I shall deign to allow your assistance." the wyrm raised a wrecked wing and considered him with her good eye, tattered tail twitching painfully behind her. "As you can clearly see, I've landed myself in a bit of a bind after that tussle with Ekzykes. If I lay here to rest, the rot will surely overtake me as it has others." When he didn't answer she barreled on. "I must return to Lady Ranni and make my report, but I cannot do so in this form. Might you spare a few runes?
...Ranni? Color him interested. Still, he wasn't about to let her off that easily. Not after the tongue lashing she'd given him a minute ago.
"You seemed just fine earlier." he thumbed his chin. "I believe the words, I need no mortal aid were used."
The dragonling made a pitiful noise akin to a squeak, but didn't speak.
Naruto's grin grew. "Say please, and I might consider it."
She whimpered. "Please, I beg of thee! Heeelp~!"
"Good girl." He laid a golden hand on her head. "You gotta name?"
"...Adula."
This means war.
Then let war be had!
Papa!"
Naruto wheezed. "Pa...?!"
On a whim, he touched the bloody medallion beneath his chest. There was something he needed to be certain of.
Another way to confirm his theory.
"I'll be right back...
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"No reason. Regrets. Maybe a few. But don't worry."
The sword sang in his grasp. A headless body hit the floor.
The last thing they saw was his smiling face. "You won't have to worry about anything at all; not anymore...
"Is this all you can do? I am not impressed-
Naruto's head snapped up, eyes bleeding tongues of flame. Open palms swept forth, latching onto either side of their face.
A single word pierced the gloom. "BURN."
Fire flashed. The scent of charred flesh fill the air
His foe toppled back with a yowl, clutching at their ruined visage.
"What chaos is this?! What have you done?!"
"Chaos?" he rasped the word. "No, this ain't a flame of chaos any longer. This is purification."
He grabbed them again. His victim died screaming.
She tilted her head and granted him a soft smile, bright eyes crinkling softly in the firelight. "Hello, my lord."
Three little words. And they broke him. Shattered him utterly.
"No." now it was his turn to step back, miming Milicent's words from earlier. "No, no, no. You can't be here. You're not real."
But this wasn't Milicent.
"Not real? Did you hit your head? You look awful." She tutted softly and cupped his cheek with both hands. "See? You're running a fever. Come down and have a rest."
He didn't move. He didn't dare. "This is a dream."
"Is it?" her smile didn't waver. "They say you can't feel pain in a dream...shall we test that?
She grabbed his arm and tweaked the skin there between her thumb and forefinger.
Pain seared through him, hard enough to make him hiss.
"Ow, ow, ow! I'm fairly certainly this qualifies as spousal abuse.
She muffled his lips with hers and plundered his mouth with her tongue.
His brain fizzled.
"And what of that?" she drew away with a smile.
...it really was her. If this was a dream, he never wanted to wake up.
Edit: Hey, you made it! Thanks for sticking around~! Hope this chapter made your day!
Looking forward to chatting with you all when I get back~!
Have a great day~!
R ~!