A/N: Double update day! This, and another story~!
Blasted cough is driving my lungs mad, but I'm alive. And yes, I'm working on all the lemons for my other stories over on A03. Some time is needed.
Hello, hello~! Can anyone see this chapter?
Yes? No? Maybe so?
The site broke down a day or so back for everyone across the board; major crashes and everything; and it still seems to be happening intermittently. I might have to seriously consider stepping away and reassessing my path here. Every time a glitch happens -power outage or otherwise- on their end it throws everything I'v set up way out of wack. The stress isn't good for my heart or head, either. That's not a healthy setup for a writer, let alone someone of my age. I'm trying to stay positive, but its so very difficult. These constant breakdowns are testing my patience...
...but I remain. We'll see where this goes. I've started posting on other sites now as well.
In other news, updates for "One With Spirits", "Scarlet Vow" and "Omen of Change" are being pushed back, their slots being replaced with "Let Them Rot", "Upon My Name" and an unnamed Elden Ring story -Naruto as Morgott- that I'm contemplating. "Flame of Ambition," maybe? They'll still be updated, mind you, just not as quickly. They're just not as popular compared the rest. Heir of Dragons managed to claw its way out of that pit, and I'd like to think that they will, but I don't have much hope. Consort and Forget me Not may be ending soon as well, as reviews have dropped off. It all depends on feedback.
Take the World is likewise in limbo; its fate will depend on the reception to the next chapter...which is going to be intense. But onto other matters.
With 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 lost their minds sometimes. 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.
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, wicked world, one word at a time.
Once more, I own no quotes, references, or memes. Not a wit or a one. NOT! A! THING!
They're all tributes to legends far greater than little 'ol me.
Hope this chapter makes you smile!
"Hell hath no fury like a child thrice scorned.
Hell hath no fury like a child well-trained.
Hell hath no fury like...her."
~A Reference.
Scarlet Vengeance
"DODGE!"
Three years of killer instinct howled at Malenia, months of muscle memory made manifest in a singular instant. Golden eyes widened as clenched knuckles barreled into her vision. She opened her mind to them and let go of her emotions, just as she'd been taught. Time slowed to a crawl in her mind's eye as the fist slammed her way but slowly now, oh so very slowly. It felt like that punch took an entire lifetime to reach her; plenty of time in which for her to react, time to step back and reasses.
The little godgling smiled softly to herself. Much had been lost to her when her heritage was sealed, but she had gained other gifts through training. This was but one of them.
She raised a hand and nudged the fist away from her head an inch to the side, letting it rush over her shoulder to brush her hair. Strands of scarlet whistled past, tickling her ear, not unlike the smile she now wore. Time was quick to reassert itself as she struck back, hammering a punch home into her opponents ribs, then another, followed by yet another. One, two, three, then two more. All in all she dealt five quick blows now before her opponent recovered, forcing her to disengage. A stray punch caught her shoulder as she danced back, sending her spinning.
"Better, but don't get cocky!" her mentor chided her. "You need to keep your guard up at all times!"
Then he was upon her again, slamming a knee down at her face. She caught it narrowly with one hand even and she intercepted another punch with the other. The effort winded her. He immediately tried to use his greater power and strength to force her down, the better to make her submit. Once she had struggled against it and tried to overpower him in return. Now she redirected it, giving ground to letting him rush past and lost balance rather than meet her head on. It gave her a moment; let catch her breath.
Her reprieve was unfortunately brief.
Naruto whirled and launched a snarling blue sphere at her face.
Golden eyes widened in momentary surprise. She knew full well what would happen if that hit her.
Of course she did; she'd begged him not to hold back after all. Thus she knew better than to face it; had many times, in fact. Each had been painful. Instead she dodged by a hairs breath, jumped once, and flowed into a familiar stance. Her blade swung up as she adopted a stance in midair, defying gravity itself for a moment, reveling in her ultimate technique just before she unleashed the-
Waterfowl Dance.
Her mentor could not feel pain.
She knew this. They both did, the both of them.
It didn't stop Naruto from grunting in surprise as she lopped both arms off at the elbow and lacerated his chest besides. She didn't stop. Another pass took his eyes and a third drove him down to his knees. He made a rare noise of approval at that, one that set her spirits soaring. Rather than press she swayed away, pivoting with her hips to face him fully, careful to keep her distance. Even with no arms, she knew her mentor was a danger to be feared. She would not be taken in by this feigned showing of weakness.
"Good!" he crowed. "You've improved!"
...pride, however, came all too easily to Malenia.
Malenia's young heart soared, leaped into her throat. "Did I win?"
A spinning kick crashed into the back of her skull and made her eat mud.
...not quite."
She righted herself with a groan, rolled onto her back, and thumped the ground with a fist. "Blast!"
For once, Naruto didn't press the attack. Golden chakra bled from his arms as he walked past her, found his missing limbs, and reattached them. The great gaping wounds lining his body slid shut while he looked on; in a matter of moments he was fully healed. Bright blue eyes beamed down at her.
He offered her a hand, and she accepted it reluctantly.
After all, she was Malenia, Blade of No One and had never known victory.
But defeat offered a strength all its own; one learned more from failure than they ever could in triumph.
Naruto was a stern taskmaster but she couldn't call him an ineffective one; the fruits of his training were more than evident after the last thirty-six months. He hadn't just taught her himself here in the badlands; Godfrey had lent her his aid more than once and together, they'd brought the finest instructors he could find, compliant or otherwise. As such she'd grown, and not solely in skill. She stood taller than most of the camp these days bar two-Godfrey always said she'd be a towering warrior-lean and strong in her fur-and-hide armor. Many said she was a raving beauty and she wasn't even fully grown.
But beauty meant nothing in the face of overwhelming strength.
And at the end of the day a near-loss was still a loss.
"What have we learned, Malenia?"
She turned her head aside with a groan and spat blood as he pulled her to her feet. "Don't let my guard down."
Naruto nodded with a hum. "Well, yes that, but also...
Heat seared the back of her neck and she ducked as a wave of fire burst from his mouth, singing her hair. She tumbled to safety and scowled at him, honestly contemplating running him through, for all the good it would do her. He'd probably just laugh it off, the bastard.
...always expect the unexpected." she finished with a grouchy huff. "I saw that attack coming."
Pride gleamed in his gaze. "Kakashi would've liked you. You'd make a good shinobi."
Malenia felt her heart soften towards him, just a little. "...thank you, sir."
Naruto did that sometimes, speaking of names and places she didn't know, of things she couldn't possibly understand. Another reminder that her mentor -who was frankly a better father figure to her than Radagon would ever be- wasn't from this world, and that he might never return to his own. And speaking of returning...
She tugged off her helmet and looked up at him with a limpid smile. "Am I strong enough, now?"
Naruto's smile died an ugly death. He clapped a hand to his forehead. "Malenia, no!
"Hear me out!"
Her foster father leaned back, considering her pleading eyes as one might a venomous viper. "I don't think that's a good idea...
"Just one chance!" She held up a finger. "Give me an opportunity to prove myself!"
Naruto looked away, thumbing his chin. I dunno...
"Please?" She clasped her hands.
Naruto sighed ever so softly.
She stepped closer. "Please, please?"
Yes! He was weakening. She could feel it.
She hopped in place. "Please, please, please!"
He pivoted again, trying to evaded her pleading gaze.
Malenia dealt his defense a deathblow with but two little words. "Pretty please...daddy?"
Naruto made angry Naruto noises, heat spearing through his face. "Oh, sure. Now you say it...
She had him. She knew it. She wouldn't dare say the dreaded "D" word where anyone else could hear her -how Nepheli had laughed the one time she did!- but the fact remained that this man had essentially become her foster father. She still struggled with the concept at times, yet he was the Father she should've had. One who cared. And she cared for him as a child would their parent in turn. Nothing more, nothing less. And if she had to pull out all the stops to earn her just vengeance, then so be it!
"Alright." He relented with an exasperated noise. "
"Yes!" she broke character and pumped a fist in the air. "At last!"
We'll go for the runt of the litter. No one will miss him if he goes missing."
Godrick. He was talking about Godrick. Boo! Hiss! Her hopes faltered. "Aw. I wanted to kill Radagon...
"No awwing!" He jabbed a finger under her nose. You're much too weak to face anyone else. And you have to do exactly as I say.
Her head bobbed in quick agreement, eager to please. "I will! Are we going to Leyndell?"
His hand tousled her head. "No, you fierce, fiery, feisty little thing. We aren't...
(.0.0.0.)
None saw the shadow that stole over the castle.
None sensed the danger in the darkness.
None noticed his absence.
(.0.0.0.)
Godrick awoke to darkness.
Confusion had him blinking in the gloom, struggling to make sense of where he was. Sleep clouded his mind. What manner of fever dream was this? He remembered a lively day of grafting, the tortured wails of his victims a sweet lullaby soothing him to sleep. That grafted scion had been his finest piece yet; he might make more of them in the future. He just needed more...materials. He had slept soundly indeed, most soundly, dreaming of his great triumph, of the day when his kith and kin would come to respect his brilliance for what it was.
Oh, they shunned him now because he grafted, but they were hypocrites all of them!
He was not the first nor would he be the last. They would see. They would all-
"Alright, he's slept long enough. Someone kick him awake."
Reality reasserted itself as a boot barreled into his back. Down he went, crashing into cold, unyielding soil. Godrick jolted in surprise and sucked in a breath, only for cloth to flood his mouth. Here at last, he realized that the deep cloying darkness surrounding him was not the comforting ceiling of his room, but rather a sack slung over his head.
A roar rose in his throat as he tried to grab at it, only to find his hands bound and his legs besides. He could not move! How dare someone lay hands upon him!
Naturally, he sputtered in confusion. "What is the meaning of this?! I am the lord of all that is golden! Release me at once!
A voice scoffed above him. "As you wish, your majesty."
Someone tore the sack from his head. Light rushed in and he cringed away from it like a spider in the dark. Mistakes were made. Something kicked against his back and he was flung to the ground again.
A boot entered his vision.
"This?" a low voice intoned, impossibly familiar despite him never having heard it. "THIS is what hath come of my line? Such shame I have never felt in my life...
"I agree," someone else said, just out of sight. "He's pretty pathetic, isn't he? Just look at him...
How dare they make light of him. Godrick lurched upright in a frenzy, gnashing his teeth.
He found himself surrounded by barbarians on all sides, trapped in a loose circle encircling him as a noose might a dead man's neck. None dared approach. Ha! The cowards.
"Free me at once!" he brayed at them, spittle flying from his pallid libs. "Do so now, and I might leave some of you alive!"
"Child," the solemn voice intoned just behind him. "Dost thou truly believe that thy words have any power here?"
Godrick looked up. Whatever retort he might've made died upon his lips.
"Great Godfrey?!"
For it was indeed the First Elden Lord glaring down upon him, both hands resting upon his broken battleaxe; he who had been banished from the capital so long ago, declared Tarnished and exiled and...oh. Oh, dear. He didn't look at all happy to see him. That craggy face was wrought in a thunderous scowl, His upper lip curled in disgust, raw and visceral. "Truly thou art a disappointment...
Those words were a knife in Godrick's black, twisted heart. "What?"
The mighty monarch scoffed at his reply. "Are your ears grafted as well?"
No! He had to understand! He must! "All this I did for you! To prove that I was worthy!"
"Worthy of what?" Marika's first husband sniffed, regarding like a piece of offal. "Becoming a monster? Thy crown is cracked and thy braids befit a clown."
Godrick strained against his chains, to no avail. The shackles sapped his strength and held him fast. If anything, struggling only seemed to make them grow tighter still. They dragged him down, choked him, throttled the strength from his bone as surely as the life from his lungs. Eventually he found himself forced to relent-if only for fear of harming himself. Wasted and gasping for air, he pressed his bulky body against the ground, laboring for oxygen that proved ponderously slow to come.
They had him. He didn't know how, didn't know why, and it terrified him to no end.
He had not felt so low since Radahn had bested him in single combat. This...this was worse. Far worse.
A blond man appeared beside Great Godfrey, scoffing softly. "Did you just soil yourself? And you call yourself a demigod...you're pathetic."
Godrick tried to retort, but there was something wrong with his eyes, an arctic chill in those baleful blue orbs colder than the Mountainops of the Giants.
"Why am I here?" Fear shuddered down his spine, threatening to break his voice, though he daren't show it in the face of such warriors. "What are you going to do with me...?"
"I?" His ancestor scoffed, Serrosh rumbling atop his back. "I shall do nothing. Thy fate rests with mine Goddaughter."
Godrick squawked. "Goddaughter, you say? Preposterous! You have no such thing!"
The blond beside him smiled. It was not a nice smile. "Ah, but we do.
He turned to the crowd and called out a name.
"Malenia~!"
Fear became confusion, warped now into spiteful pride.
"That whelp?" he rasped a laugh." She is dead. She has been these last three years. She is gone!"
"She is not." a solemn voice intoned to his right. "But you soon will be."
Craning his thick neck, Godrick beheld her.
A girl with short red hair stepped out of the crowd, clad in armor fashioned from tanned runebear pelts. He would recognize that golden-brown material it anywhere. His current body was fashioned from more than a few runebear muscles and powerful troll hide besides. She was tall for a mortal perhaps, but he sensed only a dull spark of divinity in her, sealed away.
He scowled at this slip of a girl, sweat pouring down his brow. "You think to slay me while I am bound. Coward!"
"Not at all." her sword cleared its sheathe with a whisper of steel and it was a terrible thing to behold indeed. "We will release your restraints and return your weapon to you. If you manage to defeat me, you may go free. Is that not motivation enough?"
Godrick stilled, the rusted gears of his mind slowly churning.
Perhaps...yes, the flesh of an Empyrean, even a sealed one, would be powerful indeed. She would make a fine specimen for grafting; yesss, she might be just the thing he needed to ascend and claim his place at Marika's side. He would be a proper consort, far better than that rotten wretch, Radagon.
His thoughts bloated by glory and power, he barely noticed when the shackles binding his arms fell away.
Someone presented him with his axe. He grasped it with a malformed hand.
"I shall kill you and wear your arms!"
Malenia hummed. "You may try."
Godrick surged forward. "I command thee! Kneel!"
His ax slammed down at her, only to find itself summarily rebuffed.
Golden eyes leered up at him. "...is that the extent of your strength? This shan't last long...
His temper sparked. Little bitch!"
He was an avalanche of destruction, but she was water, flowing around him with grace until quite suddenly she was in his face. Her blade flashed out, slicing through one of his limbs. Then another. Another now. She was death incarnate, a whirlwind of blades leaping and whirling and twisting and ohgodshecouldnothither...!
Three more arms fell and he recoiled with a pained shriek.
No! Not like this! Not this quickly! Not to a child, to her, of all people! He needed something to graft, something to make him stronger!
He bulled forward, flailing away from Malenia, seeking safety, to no avail. "Someone...anyone...! Lend me thy strength!"
The barbarians of the badlands did not retreat but forced him back, hemming him in with their weapons.
In short order he was force back to the little goddess, and his doom. Steel kissed one of his legs, hamstringing him. He toppled like a fallen oak, crashing down to a knee. Red hair danced in his peripherals and he slashed at it with a mad yowl, never once realizing his mistake; that it might be a feint, a trick, or worse...bait that he'd eagerly gobbled up. He smashed his mighty ax down on her again and again. Foolish wench! He'd crush her to the ground, trample her, OBLITERATE HER-
Distracted as he was, he never saw the blow that took his life. Never felt it.
Perhaps that was a mercy for him. Perhaps not. Who could say?
Malenia's blade carved open his throat and took his head.
So ended the life of Godrick the Grafted.
He died as he had lived:
A meaningless life.
A/N: Aaaaand scene.
TFS references really are the best.
Time for a good old-fashioned training montage~!
Do you want this to remain a story? Yes? No? Maybe so? Make yourselves heard! Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this particular story, and others. If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular? POOF! Gone. Completely. 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.
Aaaand there we go. As ever, reviews keep me alive. Without them, I cannot write. So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly? And have some previews -potential blot bin things- that I'm working on.
(Previews)
They traded blows and she fought back like a hellcat, scratching and clawing.
"Fight as hard or long as you like, won't make a difference." Naruto dodged a swipe, blue eyes flashing. "You'll give out sooner or later. But it does, you oughta know before this ends."
He stepped in, let the weapon bit into his shoulder. Grinned, now.
"I. Can't feel. ANY OF THIS."
"You will always be a monster, Naruto.
"Ha! Where I come from that's a compliment. I'm a monster alright. Monstrously strong." He stood. Cracked his neck. His wounds closed as they looked on. He spread his arms once with that same, kindly smile. "Care to try again?"
Hello, father.
Radagon choked in her grasp.
Malenia snarled at him, rotten wings blooming from her shoulders. "Did you miss me?"
Radahn did not draw his blades. It was rare indeed, to see him without his scrawny steed. "...little sister. I bear you no ill will.
Malenia glared at him. "Then step aside."
She wondered if he would.
EDIT: As ever, the Embers rule remains: If people don't like this story? If they don't enjoy it? Well...I' won't be able to continue it. That's no joke, folks. I'm so busy these days with two jobs; holidays are HERE and basically, I don't have time off. Not anymore.
My free time is limited and as such, I can't afford to focus on something folks don't like. Reviews keep me writing in these times, and keep the daily updates flowing. Silence...silence only hurts. I hate having to beg for feedback, but without it...well, it feels like I'm not making an impact...
Looking forward to chatting with you all when I get back from work~!
Warm regards,
~Nz.
R&R~!