The Day that Everything Changed

Well, college has started, and that means a whole lot of extra work.

It also means my senior capstone project is to build a remote-control submarine that can dive down to 100 meters and deploy a payload. We're figuring out the ballast system, power, propulsion, cameras, wireless controls, structural integrity, software, sealing, and more.

It's not due until May 2024, so we have time, but we also don't have time.

But anyway.

I'm thinking I'm going to alternate the chapters. One chapter of this, and another chapter of Remnant. Then repeat.

I'm glad the fight last chapter was enjoyed! I think it goes without saying that since this isn't based on videogame ideas of hit boxes, damage points, resistances, and health bars, that the fights herein won't be like the game.

Which basically means that some fights will be very underwhelming, while other fights will be epic.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Elden Ring

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When Marina bolted upright in her bed, the first thing she saw was her mother.

And the first thing out of her mouth was, "Please don't make me poop in a bucket."

The Queen Eternal yanked her daughter into her bosom and hugged her so tight she threatened to break bone. "You are not ever leaving my sight again, young lady. Do you understand me?"

"I can't breathe," Marina wheezed.

Marika let her go, and the princess saw the tears in her mother's eyes.

"I killed the lord of the dragons," Marina informed.

Marika nodded. "The entire continent knows about that."

"They do?"

The goddess brought a finger to the center of her forehead, and when she removed it, there was a glowing light at her fingertip. The light glowed at a blinding level, and Marina got to see through her mother's eyes the aftermath of her battle with the Dragonlord. The huge explosion in the East that looked like the rising sun, the terrific bang that echoed across the planet, the rain of debris from Farum Azula, and how the dragons surrendered unconditionally.

Marina blinked when the memory ended, and then she smiled. "That was amazing."

Marika's eye twitched. "No, that was not amazing! That was dangerous, reckless, and foolish! You could've died! Been eaten! Reduced to ashes! I would've never known what happened to you! Your father would never have known! Your brothers and sisters! Do you have any idea-!"

"I love you too."

Those four words saw Marika crumble as she hugged her daughter again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dawn Princess was Marina's first official epithet, a contrast to Ranni's title of Lunar Princess.

The youngest demigod gave her rendition of the battle along with the description of Dragonlord Placidusax. Starting with the ancient Elden Lord's blasphemous remark that the Greater Will was nothing more than a parasite, and ending with how she cocooned him in several mountains' worth of rock and blasted him with her new spell, Critical Nova.

After demonstrating what the Critical Nova was by obliterating the distant top of Mt. Gelmir, Marika expressly forbid the practice of that spell by anyone other than her daughter, and even then, Marina could only use it niche situations, and only while aiming in a general up direction.

Of course, what Marina could not explain was what happened after the grand explosion of her Critical Nova and Placidusax's golden beams. That's where Marsinax came in and told everyone that she had recovered enough to teleport to Marina, and get her out of the blast radius that managed to break through space and time. No one questioned it.

After that story, then came the big question of what to do about the dragons, both Ancient and Lesser. With the Dragonlord dead, the war was more or less over, but there were still plenty of dragon around. Declare them enemies of the state and ruthlessly hunt them down? Let them leave in peace? Let them live here?

The answer came from Godwyn and Marina: friendship.

Godwyn had befriended Fortissax, and Marina had befriended Marsinax, and neither was about to let their friends be hunted like common animals, or kicked out of the Lands Between and all other allied Lands to parts unknown. Because of the demigods, a truce was reached with the dragons: hostilities were at an end, and any dragon that wished to ally itself with Leyndell were welcome to do so, and any dragon that merely wished to live in peace was allowed to do so, but any dragon that desired a continuation of the war, or violence in general, was destroyed.

With the induction of Fortissax, his sister Lansseax, and their distant cousin Marsinax into the Golden Order, the Dragun Cult was officially created, and this cult was sanctioned by the Greater Will because the dragons' scales were imbued with gold.

That was literally it.

It certainly made the Draconic Tree Sentinels feel happy.

Despite having helped found the Cult, Marina wasn't a big part of it. The true leaders were Godwyn and Lansseax, with the dragon able to take on human form like Marsinax, and her human form was much of the same, with a muscular, athletic body, dragon-like eyes, pronounced teeth, gold-tinted skin and white hair. The same was true of Fortissax, but with muscles and broad shoulders.

The teachings of the Cult were simple: red lightning, gold lightning, dragons were cool and powerful creatures, and the Erdtree and Golden Order were cooler. The and was specifically used in place of but.

The reason Marina wasn't a big part of the Cult was because had been given other duties, those being the duties of a true Empyrean.

Her victory over the Dragonlord, the Elden Lord in the prehistoric era before the Greater Will, was basically seen as the Golden Order's final victory over all vestiges of the old world. All the Outer Gods had been beaten back, their followers destroyed or converted, and churches dedicated to Queen Marika the Eternal had been erected in all lands, and the Fundamentalism of the Golden Order was the official religion of the known world. With Placidusax defeated, there were apparently no other foes left to oppose the Erdtree.

As a reward for this monumental achievement, Marina was made a true Empyrean by the Greater Will. That may have seemed redundant since she was a naturally born Empyrean, being the daughter of Marika and Radagon, but the other two natural Empyreans, Miquella and Malenia, weren't chosen to be successors to Marika as the new goddess since they were afflicted from birth—tainted, you could say.

Ranni was also chosen as a true Empyrean for her efforts in the war, and that was why many people believed the Greater Will was a male deity, since it evidently had a thing for women, Marika, Ranni, and Marina, because none of the boys were chosen like the latter girls despite their feats in the war. Godwyn had been the one to befriend Fortissax after defeating him, after all, which was the first step in peace with the dragons, and Radahn had lived up to his rank as general and his title of Starscourge, having felled many dragons in his campaigns.

Rykard hadn't really been a big help in the war.

Now, the way that the Greater Will distinguished between Empyreans like Miquella and Malenia and true Empyreans like Ranni and Marina was simple: it said so.

It also gave them their own shadowbound beasts like it had given Marika her half-brother Maliketh.

To Ranni, the Greater Will bequeathed to her Blaidd, and despite having two "D's" at the end of his name, it was actually pronounced like "Blythe." Blaidd was not like Maliketh, however, in that he was gigantic wolf, but actually a half-wolf. Blaidd could easily be mistaken for a very tall, hairy man, since he had the body of one with legs, feet, arms, and hands, though his head was that of a wolf, with a fanged muzzle, keen eyes, and sharp ears. Blaidd came dressed in full armor with a fur cape and a huge sword that was already decorated in the style of the Carian Royals.

Upon his birth, Blaidd the Half-Wolf, in an act that wasn't necessarily a defiance of the Greater Will, swore an oath to Ranni, swearing that there would be no other master over him than her. As soon as he said that, his Royal Greatsword became imbued with cold magic to reflect Ranni's connection with her Dark Moon.

Now, if Blaidd broke the mold for shadowbound beasts in that Maliketh was a huge wolf and he was only a half-wolf, then Marina's shadowbound beast definitely broke the mold. You know, since she was a half-pint wolf girl that was even less wolf than Blaidd, if only slightly.

Her name was Morgen, and when surrounded by people that were over nine feet tall, her stature of five feet made her look tiny. She had a fluffy tail, furry ears, , thick, glossy hair that went down to her shoulders, and a human body that was covered in the softest, silkiest black fur on the planet (according to Marina), with bright golden eyes, pronounced fangs, and sharp claws.

Like Blaidd, she came dressed in armor, but her set was golden, smoother, more streamlined. She had a breastplate and bracers, leaving her shoulders, biceps and hands exposed, greaves covering her legs, and a belt made of black leather, the buckle of which depicted a brilliant sun. The belt came with a waistcloth that went from under the bellybutton to under the tail around the left leg, black with a golden interior, and embroidered on the outside of the cloth, taking up the whole face, was a depiction of the Erdtree.

Morgen's weapons also broke the mold of her shadowbound half-brothers. Maliketh and Blaidd had been blessed with impractically large slabs of metal that could only be considered swords by the loosest of definitions. The little wolf girl had been given a pair of twin daggers in a style that hailed from the Land of Olives, parazonium, long, triangular blades that were wide at the hilt and narrow at the tip, showing that the Greater Will had been paying attention to Marina's trip there, and approved.

Like Blaidd, Morgen swore an oath to Marina to be loyal to her and only her…after Marina stopped squealing in her sensitive wolf ears about how adorable she was while nuzzling her furry cheek after she had scooped her new shadow off the ground.

Suffice to say, Marina was quite happy to have a little sister.

Yes, little.

Perhaps Morgen's stature was by design to fulfill one of Marina's dreams, because the youngest daughter of the Queen had always wanted a little sister, that way she could be a big sister to a girl, and give to someone else what Malenia and Ranni had given to her. Give her unshakable loyal nature, Morgen readily accepted her position of being the little sister to her mistress.

The wolf girl was a quiet creature, observant, reserved, and typically only spoke when around Marina. Given her small size, black fur, and daggers, it was clear she was built less for overwhelming strength and power like her brothers, and more for stealth and agility, a silent protector from the shadows. That being said, she was absolutely vicious in a fight, using her daggers to terrifying effect, and her skill was proven in no better circumstance than when a five-strong group of rogue Lesser Dragons wanted to attack her, Marina, and Marsinax when they were having a girl's day on the scenic beaches of Caelid, and she killed all five in less than a minute without taking a single hit.

Do not threaten Morgen's big sisters, especially Marina.

Yes, the princess could absolutely handle herself without a wolf girl half her size, but that wasn't the point.

The point was Morgen's dagger going into your skull for so much as thinking about attacking her big sister.

On top of finally being granted her own little half-sister, Marina was also granted her own personalized suit of armor, courtesy of Miquella.

The Dawn Princess's eyes sparkled and her mouth broke into a huge grin. "It's beautiful~!" she gasped.

Miquella smiled as he presented his little sister with his creation. "I am glad you like it."

Indeed, it was beautiful. The armor was white with gold trim and highlights, done in the likeness of the Ancient Dragons. The breastplate protruded in the front to accommodate Marina's chest, and the front was adorned with the image of an Ancient Dargon standing tall upon a rock with its four wings splayed out, a sun rising in the background, and on the backside of the breastplate was the rising sun.

Spaulders covered each of Marina's shoulders, the segments going down to above her elbows, and they were made in the visage of a dragon, with eyes and the beginnings of a snout on the shoulders, with the segments looking like the rest of the snout, complete with teeth on the outer curves.

The gauntlets that covered her forearms and hands were done in the same way, the forearms bearing the likeness of a dragon, with the eyes starting at the elbows, the rest of the armor being the maw, though the little plates that covered the tops of Marina's hands were pattered after fire, that way it looked like she had dragon heads on her arms that were breathing fire over her hands.

Her greaves were also patterned after dragons. The eyes were placed underneath her knees, and the snout-like visage continued down the rest of her legs with lines, contours, and teeth on the sides of her legs, and the armor going over her feet had the same flame pattern as on her hands.

Around Marina's waist was a girdle of white leather, complete with her own waistcloth. A wide strip fell down her front, ironically obscuring most of her greaves, and a standard waistcloth went from hip to hip around her butt. The cloth was white with a gold interior, and emblazoned across the backside of the cloth was the symbol of the Dragon Cult in gold. On the front of the girdle was a buckle emblazoned with the symbol of the Erdtree.

The final piece to the set was a mask made in the likeness of the Ancient Dragons. It covered Marina's whole face, with protrusions extending from her cheeks, and two more growing up past her temples, with a short snout and curled back lips to show two rows of sharp teeth, and deep eye sockets that showed only the faint glow of Marina's golden eyes. Because it was a mask and not a helmet, it didn't offer much in the way of actual cranial protection, but it did allow her golden hair to be free, so that was nice.

"The hands and feet are made of the same material as the sacred seals," Miquella explained. "Now you can cast incantations with all four limbs. I have also enchanted the whole set to be able to appear and disappear at your will, that way you don't have to carry it around, or set it down somewhere where you might forget it or someone might try to steal it. It is lightweight, but flexible and sturdy, and quite resistant to blades, arrows, and the many elements. I tested it myself. It will not rust nor tarnish, and will enhance your own spells."

Marina threw her arms underneath Miquella's armpits and lifted him to her as she hugged him tight.

Miquella blushed at how easily his little sister could manhandle him. "You do not need to hold me this way."

"Nope! Any excuse to hold my little brother this way is a good excuse."

"I am not you're little brother. I am your big brother, regardless of our height disparity."

"Morgen is taller than you are."

"That has nothing to do with this situation!"

"She's my little sister, she's taller than you are, therefore, if she's my little sister and taller than you, that makes you my little brother now."

Miquella grumbled something about annoying baby siblings.

Once people started seeing Marina in her dragon-themed armor, especially when flying around on the back of Marsinax, that's when they started calling her the Dragon Princess of the Dawn instead of just the Dawn Princess. Dragon Dawn Princess and Dawn Dragon Princess just didn't flow off the tongue as easily for most folk, though some did continue referring to her as the Dawn Princess, and others as the Dragon Princess.

Marina didn't have a preference, since she was just happy to have a moniker by which she was known.

And a dragon, and a shadowbound beast, both of which were girls, both of which became her official oath-sworn knights and also her official bodyguards. The absolute powerhouse juggernaut that was Marsinax, and the deadly quiet Morgen.

Marina's magic repertoire expanded after the war. On top of her gravity and Carian sorceries, and Golden Order and lightning incantations, the Ancient Dragons taught her how to use their red lightning, something that was easy given her foreknowledge of golden lightning. It also came to pass that when Marina was brushing up on her history, she found the accounts of Godfrey's battle with the Storm Lord, and was curious about the kind of magic the lord had used. Digging through Stormveil Castle, she found the scrolls and prayerbooks, and proceeded to teach herself storm magic.

A bit of misnomer, really, since it wasn't really storms as in high winds, rain, thunder, and lightning, but high winds. It was more accurate to say the conspectus of the Storm Lord was actually wind magic. But anyway.

Marina's solar magic, unfortunately, did not go anywhere. She had her Critical Nova, and also another spell she made that was a direct rip-off of Ranni's Dark Moon, which she simply called Marina's Rising Sun. She hovered off the ground, manifested a huge fireball around herself, and then she dropped out of it and let her miniature sun go flying at whatever she was aiming at.

Then she almost blasted a hole in the ozone layer.

Marika forbade the use of that spell, too.

With bans on her only two solar techniques, Marina's interest in coming up with more techniques sharply waned. What was the point in making new solar spells if they were so powerful that Mom said she couldn't use them? To that point, why not just make low-powered spells, and Marina's counterpoint to that would be the question of what spells based on the Sun would be low-powered?

Of course, Marina's question was rooted in a rudimentary understanding of the Sun that only stemmed from what her teachers in Sellia, the Alabaster and Onyx Lords, knew of the Sun from their communions with the cosmos through their magic. The short version was that the Sun was extremely far away, it's light and heat were actually so much worse up close, and it was unfathomably gigantic.

Magic communion with space hadn't given the Lords the exact knowledge that the Sun was 93 million miles away from Earth, or that its diameter was 109 times bigger than Earth's, meaning about million Earth's could fit in the Sun, or that the Sun was comprised of incandescent plasma fueled by nuclear fusion, or that the Sun's surface temperature was over 9000°F and its corona was usually clocking in at somewhere above 3.6 million degrees, or that the Sun was an excellent source of electromagnetic radiation, or that light from the Sun travelled at 300 million meters a second.

If Marina had known such wonderous scientific facts, she could've come up with some spells, like altering her vision to see in different spectrums of light, or a new speed technique to compliment her Cosmic Tunnel and Golden Displacement, or something like a blinding flash or a heat wave, or certainly something to do with fire, but no. All she knew was that the Sun was hot and bright, and with that she made her two solar techniques, both of which were scraping the boundary of fire.

Fire was bad for the Erdtree.

But the Sun inherently wasn't, because plants needed sunlight.

To compound with Marina's failed venture in Sun-based magic, her first relationship also failed. Hardly anything to leave someone emotionally crippled for the rest of their life, but it was still a sad moment for Marina, albeit one even she knew was coming.

The Dragon War had seen the princess unable to leave her home for its duration, and finding the time to send letters overseas was difficult with merchants weary of travelling to and from the Lands Between thanks to the dragons. They weren't too keen on their wooden ships being reduced to cinders with them onboard. As such, Marina hadn't been able to talk to her boyfriend Roman for a long time.

Even between royalty, lack of communication was a huge detriment to a relationship.

On the ship to the Land of Olives, both Marsinax and Morgen felt their sister's reservation.

"Are you okay?" Morgen asked of Marina.

"Just appreciating what may have changed in these past years," the princess mused. "Is the Land of Olives still standing? Is King Troy still in power? Is Roman even alive? Has he waited on me all this time, or did he move on and find someone else?"

"Do you want me to kill him if he's replaced you?"

Marina snorted and then looked at her little sister. "No, I don't want you to kill him if he found a new girlfriend…right now, anyway. That might change when I see her if he has one."

Morgen tilted her fuzzy head. "Why would the quality of the girl change your decision on her life?"

"It probably won't. That was just a joke."

"Oh."

"Would you be sad if he found a new girl?" Marsinax asked.

Marina thought about it. "I would, yes…but I would understand. No guarantee if I'm alive, and why should he suspend his happiness and the rest of his life on the off chance I do still live? Truth be told, I think it's more unrealistic to think he's waited on me this long, as opposed to thinking he moved on, but…we are soon to find out."

Sooner than they thought, actually. Roman heard the princess was coming, and he met her at the dock with a straight back and composed expression. On his arm was his girlfriend of three years now, Andromeda.

Marina wasn't at all surprised, but she couldn't deny she was disappointed. Even though she knew it was illogical, a part of her had still hoped.

"It's good to see you," Roman said evenly, on guard and ready for things to get ugly.

It didn't help that the wolf girl and the dragon woman were both staring at the visibly nervous Andromeda.

"And you," Marina said. "Didn't know if I was still alive and didn't want to take the chance on waiting, I take it?"

"Yes," Roman admitted.

"That's fair," Marina conceded.

"Marina, if I had known-"

"I know," she said gently. "I'm not angry, sad, or about to level the island because you wanted to be happy. This is life, we're young, and these things happen. Personally, I'd have been more surprised if you didn't find another girlfriend in all this time. Now come here."

Roman let go of Andromeda's arm and stood before the princess.

Marina wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for their final kiss. When she broke it, she gave him a meaningful look, and then she went over to Andromeda. "Do you know who I am?"

Andromeda answered with a shaky nod. "Th-The D-Dragon Princess of the Dawn. Daughter of Queen Marika the Eternal. Demigod."

"Correct. Roman is my first love. If I find out you broke his heart, I will kill you."

And it was not at all an empty threat. There was no teasing smirk or mischievous glint in her golden eyes. Marina's golden eyes weren't even glinting, but instead perfectly reflecting Andromeda's pale visage.

The time in which Elden Ring was presently set was comparable to medieval times. Back then, the rule of law was more or less whoever ruled made the law, and right now, Marina was about the third closest thing to ruler there was, being behind her father the Elden Lord and her mother the goddess. More to that point, on top of being the princess of the most powerful monarchy, she was the princess of the ruling divine monarchy. It was one thing to go against the princess of the most powerful monarchy, but something else entirely to cross the divine princess.

And it wasn't like Marina had to go running to Mommy and Daddy in tears, and prompt them to send an order to King Troy to have Andromeda executed, which would either lead to King Troy doing just that, or faking her death, or him sending a reply of nonconformance, which would lead to the dramatic scenario of a war starting, with the Leyndell Knights sailing across the ocean to raze the Land of Olives and kill Andromeda anyway.

As much of a story as that would be, it would actually never happen, because, as Marina said, she'd do it herself.

That was perhaps the scariest part of her promise: if Andromeda really did break Roman's heart, like cheat on him or something, then Marina really would come for her head, and there was literally nothing anyone could do to stop her.

Well, unless her parents got in the way, or maybe one of her siblings, or a number of them.

Andromeda shakily nodded. "U-Understood."

Morgen growled and Marsinax bared her teeth.

"Down girls," Marina said. "She gets the idea." The princess looked to her ex-boyfriend, and spoke to him with sincerity. "I truly did enjoy our time together, and I will cherish all the memories we made."

Roman nodded. "As will I."

With one more look at Andromeda, Marina took to the sky with gravity magic. Marsinax assumed her dragon form and followed, Morgen jumping on her neck.

Roman had to help Andromeda back to her feet after her legs collapsed and she fell to her butt. "W-Woah…"

"That went a lot better than how I thought it was going to go," the prince admitted.

Meanwhile, the captain of the ship that the royals had taken to the Land of Olives was left absolutely befuddled as to why the royals had bothered to sail across the ocean if they could've just flown over here on their own.

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On their way back to the Lands Between, they were attacked by a gargantuan bird with two heads. A twinbird, one wreathed in the cold ghostflame that was used to burn the dead before the Erdtree. Marina recognized it from her studies in history and religion, and remembered that the twinbird was the envoy of an Outer God, and that it mothered the Deathbirds and more powerful Death Rite Birds that had been rendered all but extinct in the Golden Campaigns, and that the assassins from Ravenmount worshipped the Deathbirds as heretics that had so far done a good job of giving the Confessors a headache.

The twinbird hit hard and hit fast, spewing ghostflame all over the ocean, using its surprise and admittedly considerable power to its advantage during its surprise attack. Marina didn't get a chance to ask it why it was attacking her, but she was still a bit forlorn that she had broken up with her boyfriend, so she wasn't bothered by retaliating with deadly force despite not getting an answer as to why the twinbird was attacking.

When Marina got her feet back under her and started whipping out the holy spells, the twinbird summoned reinforcements in the form of a dozen Death Rite Birds. Marina considered that to be the greatest thing to happen to her all day, because it meant she could really cut loose.

She manifested her Rising Sun, bringing light back to the fading dusk, and with Marsinax teleporting away as fast as she could with Morgen still on her back, Marina really let the magic flow. Upon release, it was like the Sun was rising from the West, something that definitely caught the attention of Marika.

The explosion definitely destroyed all the Death Rite Birds, and Marina was certain she had also destroyed the twinbird. As such, you can understand how absolutely surprised she was when the twinbird appeared behind her in an explosion of ghostflame, and struck her with the tip of its right beak.

Even through her armor, Marina felt it. Even though her armor didn't even break or scuff, it still felt like someone had rammed a rod of ice into her chest.

"You will know the day in which you will need this power."

Marina was only vaguely aware of the twinbird's words before it vanished. She was more focused on the overwhelming cold that was coursing through her. It felt like fire, but it was freezing.

And building up.

Marina dropped into the ocean, ghostflame burning around her. Upon contact with the water, instead of boiling or hissing, the water started freezing, little chunks of ice rapidly floating away towards the surface. The princess tried to contain the cold fire, but she had no idea what she was doing. It spiraled out of her limited control in seconds, and there was an explosion of ghostflame not seen since the campaigns against the Death Rite Birds.

The concussive force blasted five football fields of ocean away from Marina, while the cold froze the water to such a degree that she made a huge bowl of ice around herself, with so many thousands of frozen water droplets pelting the ocean in all directions.

Marina lay at the bottom of the icy bowl, staring behind her in abject horror.

Wings.

The fiery wings of the Death Rite Birds were spread wide between her shoulder blades, teeming with the souls of the heretical priests wielding flaming versions of the now-illegal Death Ritual Spears they had used in life as they fought against Godfrey.

Marina started to suffocate because she couldn't breathe due to her own rapidly mounting mental breakdown. She had wings, things that were impure and disdainful under the Erdtree since wings were a mark of the Crucible, along with scales, horns, and tails. Even worse, this was ghostflame, a two-fold insult because it was fire, a bane to the Erdtree, and because this was a kind of heretical fire used to burn the dead before the Erdtree. Even worse than that, and no doubt the worst aspect to it all, was that she was now tainted.

An Outer God had assaulted her, raped her in a sense, injecting its power into her.

She was now afflicted, just like Miquella and Malenia were.

From all the she had been taught and held true, Marina was now an abomination in the eyes of her god.

Then there was a burst of gold, and Miquella was there. In his hand was a golden needle. Without a word, he plunged the needle into Marina, and the ghostflame wings instantly vanished.

The princess broke down into tears, pitching herself into the arms of her big brother as she sobbed.

Miquella said nothing as he held his little sister. Instead, his piercing eyes were looking into the future.

As he had foreseen and arranged, Marina now had the power of an Outer God at her disposal. All she needed was the right push to get past her mental block, but that would come with time. For now, this needed to be kept quiet. No one needed to know about the ghostflame that resided within Marina, and Miquella would make sure no one ever knew.

Not until the time was right.

Not until it was time to destroy the Erdtree and remove the evil that was the Greater Will.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Only Miquella, Marsinax, and Morgen knew that Marina was carrying the power of an Outer God within her, and they were all keen to keep it that way.

Miquella's unalloyed golden needle proved as effective at keeping the ghostflame at bay as it did Melania's Scarlet Rot, and it became almost an hourly ritual on Marina's part to make sure her needle was where it needed to be. The absolute last thing she wanted was to erupt like she did in the ocean, least of all in the capital.

Other than that, not much of note happened for a long time.

Marina still took Malenia on flights above the Lands Between, showing her big sister things she would never have been able to see on her own.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Marina would have blistering races with Radahn through the heavens, both of them achieving speeds so great the very air caught fire around them, and they became streaks of light in the sky.

With Godwyn, Marina would often spar and develop new lightning techniques, their bond through their golden hair having never waned.

Whenever Ranni was in a sociable mood, she and Marina would hang out and have their sister days together, and also come up with new spells.

Marina still loved to wrestle with her Uncle Maliketh, and even Morgen loved to get in on the fun. Maliketh loved wrestling with his nieces even more than they did.

When it came to Rykard, Marina honestly tried, but Rykard was just so damn creepy. Rykard himself also made no moves to be familiar with any of his other family, always choosing to focus on his justiciar job, and busy himself with bringing down the enemies of the Erdtree. A noble effort, except for the torture.

As for her parents, Marina made conscious effort for a week to limit her time with them so that neither of them detected her curse, golden needle or not, but she started getting more comfortable around them. She would spar with Radagon, and spend evenings with him as father and daughter, arm and arm, as they walked through the capital or the countryside. With Marika, she held in court in public, and often painted with her private.

Without a doubt, though, Marina's favorite thing to do with her mother was nap.

It was a tradition from her first days, in which Marika would often hold her daughter in her arms as they both napped. Marika did this in Marina's infancy, toddler days, when she was a small child, and even all the way up to her teen years on occasion. Marika once thought that the days of napping with her youngest princess were over, that she was too old now, too mature, but nope.

"Aren't you a little old for this?" Marika asked one day whilst reading a book, lounging in her bed, after Marina unceremoniously plopped down next to her, wriggled under the blankets, and got cozy with her head in her mother's lap.

"Never to old to nap with my mama," was Marina's simple response as she closed her eyes.

Marika blinked in surprise. "I see."

Well…why not?

The goddess waved her hand and made the fires go out, bringing dim light to the afternoon bedchamber. Getting comfortable herself under her blanket, Marika pulled her baby to a more comfortable position, snuggling her like she was a little girl again.

"I love you," Marina said contentedly.

The goddess planted a gentle kiss upon the crown of her head. "And I love you, my darling."

It was moments like these in which Marika knew what she had to do. She knew her daughter harbored an Outer God within her, and she knew that parasite would reject her when it found out, and order her be cast out. It had tried that with Miquella and Malenia, but Marika had reached a compromise in that she had already imprisoned her second and thirdborn sons for their impurity. The Greater Will relented on this, but there was nothing to protect little Marina.

Marika had to get her out of her. Not just to some foreign and far away land, but a different place altogether.

A whole different world.

The reason Marika felt she needed to get Marina somewhere else was simple: she didn't want her daughter caught up in the utter chaos that was soon to come.

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There were a lot of things that didn't make sense in the game.

Some examples would be how Alexander, and also the Tarnished, gets to Crumbling Farum Azula, how Millicent makes it to the Prayer Room in Elphael, and how the Tarnished can't just use gravity magic to fly everywhere despite learning gravity magic.

In this same vein where things happen that way just because that's how they happened and there is no real explanation as to how and why those things happened other than just because, it also happened that one day, Marina was out flying with Morgen and dragon form Marsinax, and when they touched down on a cute island and decided to take a nap, they all woke up in freefall through a void.

Marina's wrist was snagged midfall by someone that was not human. He was standing on a black platform only discernable because it was a slightly different shade of black than everything else.

Marina could tell this man wasn't human because his eyes looked like pictures of space: deep black all over with twinkling lights like stars everywhere, swirling colors like galaxies where his irises and pupils were supposed to be.

"Well, well," he said, clearly interested and amazed at her presence. "Now this is curious. What to do, what to do…oh! I know exactly what to do with you."

Marina paled, gulped, and tried to call on her magic, only to be reduced to a state of terror when she couldn't feel a single shred of her mana. However, terror turned to confusion when this unknown being suddenly looked up with a wild smile on his face. She looked and didn't see anyone else, not even Morgen and Marsinax.

"Been a nice, wholesome show so far hasn't it, kiddos?" the being said to seemingly no one. "Well, I hope you enjoyed it, because here comes the madness!"

A bright light appeared beneath them, and Marina screamed as it raced up and engulfed her utterly.

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Yep, that was Chaos.

Nope, that was not a fourth wall break, but Chaos actually talking to in-story characters that could not be seen due to the nature of their presence. Not to worry, it will be made clear in time who Chaos was talking to.

Lots of fun stuff this chapter. Marina got her own suit of armor, which is, as a reminder, based on the Altered Bloodhound Knight chest piece, meaning no cape, the Nox greaves with the waistcloths, the Blackflame monk gauntlets, and a custom dragon mask. She also knows Dragon Cult incantations, Golden Order incantations, gravity sorceries, Carian sorceries, Storm sorceries—which come from the Convergence mod, by the way—and has been touched by the Outer God of the twinbird, given the heretical power of ghostflame and Death Rite wings, which means she will learn necromancy and death sorceries, many of which will also come from the Convergence mod.

She also has her own shadowbound beast of a little sister, Morgen, who is a vicious wolf loli.

When Marina gets back from the Shattering, she will be even more overpowered than she already is.

And also in desperate need of a hug.

But first, a few fun chapters to establish what Chaos just did to Marina.

And also the next chapter of Remnant of a Backup Plan, featuring Shin'en learning the history of the world from the main characters.

Fav, Follow, and Review please!