A/N: Double update today, hopefully. Oh, and BRACE YOURSELVES.
That's all I'm going to say. Slifer really helped this chapter shine, but certain parts are...intense.
...but that said, it packs a wallop.
So once again, brace.
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. Disclaimer over.
"Ah, hope. Such a fragile, fickle little thing.
Take care it does not lead you astray.
But perhaps that too, is hope."
~?
Hopes Beyond the Horizon
If there ever comes a time when our objective is out of reach and there is nothing to do, then all that remains for us is to wait.
Waiting. It was something that Gherman the First Hunter was used to, to the point where if asked he would say that waiting and hunting were his only two transferable skills. Yet as his withered lips drew back in annoyance, old eyes trying their hardest not to twitch, it was evident that the lank haired man was no good at prolonged waiting despite his epoch of practice. Standing at the edge of a long wooden jetty that poked from the waters near Redmane castle, he found his mind seizing upon very abstract observations about his passing of the time, a far better alternative than getting annoyed about how long all of this was taking! In the time that it had taken for the sun to move from the east to directly overhead he had remembered that he was fond of tapping his foot to pass the time.
Specifically, his right foot.
He grunted, teeth snapping together at the dull 'clunk' from his pegleg as if the numb approximation of feeling was an insult. He didn't take it as an insult, far from it. He relished the feeling of his own flesh and blood once again rather than the transitory thought form gifted him by Flora.
A pair of men shuffled past him carrying a crate of what smelled like oil, likely firebombs or some arcane equivalent. They gave Gherman a curt nod, each carrying a mix of supreme respect and light fear, his handling of the Daughters of Rot having engendered much support from the surviving participants of the abandoned Radahn festival. Ever since Jerren had made the proclamation that he intended to travel with the First Hunter to Liurnia there had been renewed cheer despite the death of so many, for while there chance to send the titular General to his rest there was still a chance to do a deed all would remember. Bringing the mad witch queen of the moon to justice.
So ever since dawn they had been making preparations to go, packing every piece of equipment, weaponry and supplies onto a large ship and, wind permitting, over one hundred adventurers, seasoned and green alike, would be on their way with him at their head.
'Leading young men and women on what they think is an adventure… how disgustingly nostalgic.' Gherman grimaced, his leg aching with phantom head at the memories. He closed his eyes to cut out the happy and excited faces, hoping he would no longer subconsciously see the faces of so many fallen friends in their place, ready to lead them off to gloomy fates once again. It had been a mistake he instantly realised, for it left him with nothing but the gentle lapping of waves against the jetty, an echo of the worst day of his life.
"Good hunter?"
His eyes snapped open looking over his shoulder to bark at the mechanical facsimile of his beloved, "Not now, dol-" he said scornfully only to stop, realising it was only Jerren. His fellow elder had had time to bathe and and freshen up but his characteristic beard served to banish the phantoms of the doll. "Ah, Castellan Jerren, apologies I was…"
"A long way away?" Jerren supplied, earning a gesture of assent from Gherman, neither were the overly sentimental type and it was clear that when needed the conversation could be kept laconic at best. "I hope wherever your mind went it was better than this godforsaken place."
Gherman snorted in black humour, "That's not the best thing to say about ones own castle, though I can certainly say that Caelid is easily in the top three worst places I have ever been."
"Why thank you, I can take solace in knowing that there are worse places in existence than Caelid, I was under the impression that this was the rock bottom of the universe."
"Oh yes, a veritable hunting holiday. Just take in your landscape, you can have it in any colour you want, just so long as it's red." he chortled, drawing a chuff of amusement from the bearded fellow as he tightened the straps on his equipment.
They fell into pregnant silence then, watching as the ramshackle group of an Albenuric mage, a sentient jar and a dozen strongmen lifted some esoteric piece of masonry onto the Barque that would be their chariot. The ship, named 'The Lion's Pride', visibly dipped a few feet under the waterline at the extra weight. Gherman shook his head, having always preferred to travel light on a hunt but the Castellan had assured him that the rune carved rock would be of great help against Rennala.
"What troubles you, Gherman?" Jerren asked eventually, his hidden eyes watching the scythe master curiously. "We're burdened with the purpose of justice and set to it with strong allies and sturdy wills." he reasoned before pushing on, "Will it be a hard battle? Aye, without a doubt, the Full Moon queen is a mistress of esoterica, but between my knowledge of her ways, our allies' adventurous will and your sublime bladework, we'll bring her to justice."
Tipping the brim of his hat to better shade his eyes, the grey haired member of the pair was about to shrug off the old Castellen's words but could not bring himself to do so. It puzzled him, thumping like an old wound that he had packed behind so many aeons of ennui that he reflexively tried to banish it from his mind. Finally he spoke, his voice still terse but with an undercurrent of tenderness there. "I hate the sea," he proclaimed banaly, hoping that Jerren would let it lie.
Or at least make some black humour that could pass the time!
Instead he was left with a level and thick silence, a nonverbal urging to speak his mind, and as Gherman considered it, he believed that Jerren deserved that much. He took a deep breath before speaking and kept his cadence sincere and uncorrupted by centuries of self hate. "Many years ago, a plague of beasts came to my land and caused great terror. At first we could do nothing but try to the endure the attacks until one day I stood and said no more. We would not be hunted, we would hunt those who terrorised us and burn the plague out at the route. At first it was just me, hardly the most imposing sight the first time I took up a farming implement to hack a beast to its stinking guts, but with time others joined and we ceased being the hunted. We were the hunters… though I suppose we are the Old Hunters now…"
Water lapped at the jetty, the red light of the sun glaring down balefully at them as they loaded men and weapons alike, sound falling away til Gherman could hear naught but the water and the wind. It couldn't be more different from that moon filled night ages ago, watching his friends help scholars and men of the cloth onto a modest sloop. "Then one day, in the aid of trying to understand it, my Hunters took a ship to a Fishing Hamlet down the coast… my friends, my family, the woman I loved. All of them…"
A gauntleted hand gently closed around Gherman's shoulder, he found himself looking into Jerren's old but still sharp and empathetic eyes. They did not need to speak, did not need to rage or spit curses as if they were poison, for there was an understanding there. Each had sent generations of men and women off to their doom on a seemingly futile effort and felt damned for it.
Gherman inclined his head, it would be as much thanks as he was willing to show with so many watching. He and Jerren were united in their goal even if their reasons were different. The Caelid Witchhunter wanted to exact justice on one who he viewed had violated her oath as a mother and queen while Gherman was simply doing what he had been asked in the name of his freedom.
"Are you, Teacher Gherman; or do you simply want to save others from such a path we have walked?" the voice from his memory spoke, the woman's words were heavily accented but with ephemeral warmth. "Blood and blades have served us well, but maybe we must find a different way once we put down our weapons. 'Lest we all end up corpses that aren't left to sleep in death. I feel…a corpse should be left well alone."
Those had been her last words to him, echoing into that moonlit night as the schooner had vanished over the horizon. And centuries later he still did not know what they meant, yet still they remained with him.
A foul scent on the air broke him from his reverie and caused him to look over his shoulder. He scanned the horizon before eventually spotting his pray, eventually spotting the four figures as pinpricks on a distant cliff, watching them. Gherman smirked, "Stupid children," he exclaimed in wry amusement.
"They won't come near us after you drove them off, licking their wounds." Jerren posited, the only tell of his hatred of the daughter of rot being the tensing of his hands.
"Carrion corvids then, and it's bruised pride that stays their hand, they don't wish for me to fill their guts with quicksilver again." Gherman replied before finally walking up the gangplank onto the ship. As their host loosened the sails and The Lion's Pride slinked from the shallows into the sea, Gherman standing at the prow, his perpetual glower providing an amusing figurehead for the old ship.
If there was one thing that this entire debacle had taught him it was this. He did not know what he hoped to do with his freedom, but whatever it was he did not want to wait for it. Because, he finally knew why he was so bad at waiting.
It left him alone with his thoughts.
So for the first time in ages, he did not suffer in silence, with the wind in his hair and with people at his back, Gherman the first hunter felt his vocal chords warm. He remembered something that Maria had once hummed in his presence, a Pthumerian hymn.
"An cuimhin leat an grá
Crá croí an ghrá
Níl anois ach ceol na h-oíche
Táim sioraí i ngrá"
His voice was soft, quiet, but it carried over the sea and though he was ignorant of the words meaning, he could hope to understand why he felt a deep melancholy from them.
"Leannáin le smál
Leannáin le smál
Lig leis agus beidh leat
Lig leis agus beidh grá"
He hoped… that whoever the fool that was bewitched by the moon, need never know such profound sadness in days yet to come.
(.0.0.0.)
Diminutive though it was, it felt sublime to have a physical form again after so many years imprisoned under the font of her own power.
Indeed, Marika felt the telltale haughty smugness of queenship tinge her movements, about to speak of the pleasantness of the day. She banished the thought after her initial euphoria wore off in recognition of her position because despite the Goddess finally being housed in a body that may as well have been tailored for her and by her, it was perilous. It was not by her own will that she had seized control of Melina, but when Ranni's sorcery had snagged her linked consciousness from the heart of the Erdtree, she had not resisted its pull. In layman's terms she had just survived a spiritual shipwreck and walked out of it with the grace of a ballet lead.
It did not change the fact that she found herself in the centre of the lion's den in the body of a child, staring down a group of people whose eyes were growing increasingly murderous with each passing moment.
Naruto's eyes stared into hers and she watched as they began to shift colours, his face like stone. Their deep blue, turned frigid by his countenance, bled to a sanguine red as his pupils contracted to slits to give him a fierce disposition fitting of the tile she knew him as. Surprise registered in her lone golden eye when the blonde's orbs shifted to match it, the slit pupil visibly splitting into a cross shape and sending a wall of power washing over her. Small stars seemed to swirl in those determined orbs but with a note of restraint, as if it was taking effort to hold back true menace. It felt as if she was stood at the foot of a colossal damn, a safety in knowing there was a small mountain in your way that did not diminish the reality that if such power were to crash down on her…
'Calm yourself, you are a Queen, the Queen! Address them with the decorum they deserve and we shan't come to blows.' She thought, assuring herself before looking over the assembled group on the balcony.
She addressed their host first, whose narrow features were caught between a trio of horror, confusion and anger, her hand trembling on her catalyst. "Rennala, I thank thee for giving this body succour and using thy beauty to calm the beast." she said with a curt nod that must have looked ridiculous given her tiny stature.
"Blaidd, ever determined to your charge even though you are released from such expectations. Your dogged loyalty does you credit, I dare say that Malekith may have some competition." Marika saw the tall Shadow flinch at the mention of the borderline mythical Beast Clergyman, perhaps his stolen Destined Death imparted a curse of malignancy on all who heard his name? Her eye briefly settled on Kaimon sheathed at Naruto's back, perhaps there was a resonance there.
"Marika…" Ranni uttered, her visage a funhouse mirror duplicate of the one she was borrowing from Melina. The Darkmoon Princess of Caria kept her tone level but her bright blue eye gleamed with intelligence, trying to work a million different scenarios at once. "So I was right, causality hath conspired to bring others with links to those not here to the blonde's presence."
"So frigid, daughter," Ranni flinched at the word, "Is that any way to greet the returned voice of your mother and Queen Eternal? Though truthfully it is you that deserves the praise for conjuring something so effective in such a short time."
"I am your daughter no longer! Not a jot of Empyrean Flesh remains, I am free from you and anything else the Fingers had planned for me!" Ranni rebuked, bearing her teeth.
Rennala sniffed in wry derision, "Ah, but you cannot take back what passed in the halls of my house as my daughter, step or otherwise. Truly, you called the Altus Plateau home longer than you did Liurnia-"
"Enough."
Naruto's right hand slowly closed into a fist, knuckles flushing white before golden wisps of fiery energy began to waft from between his clenched fingers, humming with golden power. A small breeze began to radiate from his body, rustling the clothes of all present as he spoke. "You turn up out of the blue, possess mydaughter and then start antagonising my fiance and her daughter and friend. Queen or Goddess, it doesn't change the fact that right now that is a very dangerous place to stand." He extended a finger of his right hand, now positively burning with auric power and Marika sensed that a crack was forming in that metaphorical dam.
A bead of sweat rolled down the back of Marika's neck and with it came an echo of humility, or perhaps vulnerability.
"Come now, let us be reasonable about this." Marika raised Melina's arms. "I mean you no harm. This was the only way I could think to communicate with thee; indeed, it is a feat I'll not be able to repeat for sometime...
Naruto blew out an angry breath. "Talk...and then let her go. Be quick about it, or I'll rip you out of her."
"If only that were possible, Elden Beast. I am she. She is me…"
Brows knitting into a line, Naruto let out a confused, "eh?" The light from his hand dimming at the cryptic words.
Seeing her opening, Marika capitalised, regaining some measure of composure in the face of the very real threat that if she said the wrong thing then this Elden Beast would rip her to shreds. "My soul is not here to be ripped out of her, merely my mind that hath temporarily swapped places with my true body pinned at the heart of the Erdtree. A local I would be thankful if you kept far away from, Beast."
CLICK! The sound of a set of teeth snapping together.
Marika blinked, searching from the source of the noise as Naruto's power ebbed away, eventually landing on Rennala whose face had finally settled on an emotion. All of a sudden the Carian queen advanced on the possessed Melina, face like thunder and teeth gnashing together. Lack of depth perception proved to be her undoing as it seemed that the exceedingly tall mother was before her sooner than she could speak.
Panic! She tried to backpedal away from Radagon's ex wife, creamy pale skin twisted by scorn, only to find she could not move, a pair of blue magical shackles having manifested from the flagstone at her feet and rooting her to the spot. "Wha-unf!?" Marika could only let out an indignant squeal as Rennala's hand descended from on high and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and effortlessly lifted her into the air. She held her up in front of her and glared into the little girl's lone eye before speaking through gritted teeth. "I can only take so many slights without acting, Marika. And thy form finally matches the selfish child I have long thought thee. But harken. YOU. WILL. CALL. MINE. BETROTHED. BY. HIS. NAME! HE IS NO ONE'S BEAST, NOT YOURS OR THE WILL'S!" she spat angrily before sitting on the couch and draping the incumbent goddess over her knee. "Now take a punishment fitting and long overdue," she finished, raising one hand.
Marika's borrowed eye bugged from its orbit, "Cease, Rennala, you wouldn't dare!"
She did.
THWAP
"OW!" Marika squeaked as a sharp pain impacted her borrowed rear. She craned her head around to look at the older woman and confirm the reality that her dignity would not let her parse. "How dare the-"
THWAP
"EEK!" Marika bleeted as the sharp pain returned followed, joining the sting of the first. "Ignominious little sorceress-"
THWAP! THWAP! THWAP!
"Ah, ow, you- gnngh!" She looked towards the veritable peanut gallery watching the display and saw that they were equally if not more gobsmacked by the show than her. Naruto was slack jawed, eyes having returned to their normal blue and numbly trying to form into words that had abandoned him, unsure of if he should intervene or let whatever this was -she would not acknowledge it!- or let it run its course.
Ranni looked equally shocked, using a pair of her hands to cover her mouth but judging from the tremor in her secondary hands the little blue and white imp was also enjoying the sight. Blaidd looked between the pair while Radagon's Red Wolf just wagged its tail, enjoying her plight.
Loathed as she was to admit it… Marika was being spanked over the knee like a naughty girl.
"What have I done to deserve such indignity!" Marika bridled only for Rennala's hand to swing down anew, her strikes were swift and to the point, delivered with an open palm.
"There's the jokester reputed from youth, I can't say I enjoy it coming out of my child's mouth," Rennala jibed, her punishment unrelenting. "Thy sheer audacity to ask such proves you are still a goddess. But there is no power to bring to bear here, is there, after all it is just thy ego in Melina's place is it not?"
Marika gritted her teeth, that wasn't exactly the truth but her spanking was currently taking up all of her mental capacity.
Not getting an answer, the blue eyed ravenete continued to talk between each slap. "You made war with my people, threw your own children into a sewer, banished Godfrey, had Godrick abused and put him on the path to the retch he became, stole my husband-"
"He was my brotherself and I his Goddess and Queen Eternal, twas my right!" Marika interjected petulantly.
THWAP! THWAP! THWAP!
"Awgh!"
Her boldness swelling at being able to get long held thoughts off her chest, Rennala continued to read Marika the riot act with the staccato beat of her palm upon Marika's borrowed rump providing a demeaning soundtrack for the once monarch of the lands.
"You summoned my children away, claimed them for your own and prevented me from seeing them! SHATTERED THE ELDEN RING! And now, and now…" she sheathed, "now that I'm just starting to get my life back on track, you possess my daughter, insult my betrothed and can't be bothered to say his name in my house!? You have more reason than stars in the sky for you to suffer indignity and I am the only one who can give it. So heed my words, Marika, Neophyte Ephemeral," she stated, seeming to relish the fact that the title stung Marika's pride.
Rennala straightened and reared back her hand to the apex of its arc, her hair flicking around her face, "I am going to spank you until I am satisfied, and then you are going to explain your presence with nothing held back or obfuscated by half-truths. Am I understood?"
Marika scowled with as much animosity as Melina's cherubic face could manifest, which is to say, less than a planck length. However she did not refute the other queen's words, perhaps due to her pride but also because in some way she was accepting that she did need to face some kind of rebuke for what she had done. And while she did not think all of her actions were wrong… 'If there is any woman in the Lands Between who I wronged, it is her. I will only permit her to take her pound of flesh in retribution, no one else.'
Taking her silence for agreement, Rennala began the punishment anew and Marika did her best to endure it with dignity save the odd sporadic grunt or meep of displeasure. While it was still deeply mortifying, Marika realised that the pale moon monarch was professional and fair about it, as oxymoronic as such a thing was juxtaposed to what was happening to her. The strikes stung but were delivered unerringly and without sadism, none harder or softer than the other. Had the situation been reversed she was not sure she would have been so merciful.
She also observed the others going about their business, trying their best to address the wild scenario with as much tact as it deserved. Blaidd had been the first to bow out, excusing himself by saying that he had to go put away his and Naruto's prior sparring equipment while Ranni had plopped herself down on one of the couches to watch the proceedings with just a twinkle of mirth radiating from her otherwise perfectly schooled features. Naruto was the most interesting to watch as he stayed standing, shifting his weight from foot to foot and looking like he was about to ask Rennala to stop at any moment, sparing Marika in Melina's form several empathetic looks.
'Simply worried about Melina's body no doubt. He surely does not care for my well being…surely?' She wondered. He was a curious beast- no, he was a curious man, because while the hallmarks of wrath hid under the surface, Marika was surprised that he seemed to be a genuinely good man. An almost foreign concept to one that had dealt with backstabbers for millennia but strangely refreshing.
Her astonishment grew when after Rennala had finally finished sufficiently tanning her borrowed hide that Naruto sauntered over and rested a hand over the recently abused flesh, a green mist of pleasantly cool energy permeating her form and taking the edge off the stinging in an instant.
"Better?" he asked with the ghost of a smile as Marika let out a sigh.
Rennala huffed at her betrothed's actions, "The punishment won't stick if you are so quick to dampen its lingering reminders." she admonished, but there was affection in her words as if she were chiding something she found cute despite her better judgement.
Naruto simply flashed his fiance a beatific grin as Marika got to her feet, rubbing her sore but much better feeling borrowed rear. "My thanks to thee, Naruto, Consort of Caria." she said with as much grandeur as she could muster before stepping towards the couch and sitting down. "Now, as promised, I shall begin."
And so she did. Naruto, Rennala and Ranni listened with rapt attention as the transmigrated Queen Eternal laid bare her intentions. How after her ascension and the banishment of her omen children to the sewers beneath Lyndall she had seen the Greater Will for what it was. An unfeeling, vein and petty god that did not understand its patrons or the world it held dominion over, simply wishing to banish imperfection from its heinous grand design.
"Selfish as it was, scorned as I was, I decided that the Will was ill fit to rule the Lands Between. So I rebelled." Marika explained.
"Your children… why would you ever do something so vile?" Naruto asked, appalled.
Marika looked up into the sky so she did not have to meet his judging gaze. "I was… different back then. While not as ardent a follower of the Will as my Brother Self Radagon, I did believe in the patronage and the boons its plan afforded. But my children, Morgott and Mohg…they may have been mishapen and Omen, tainted… but they were mine, and the will made me throw them away."
"Why didn't you get them back, you're a goddess aint'cha?" Naruto questioned.
Marika looked down at Melina's little feet, "The Golden Order had eyes and ears everywhere, and I had so many things to lay down for the plan that by the time my firstborn was able to find his kin… they were changed." Her words were clipt but held genuine remorse, drawing a nod from Naruto, seeming to sense her percolating self loathing that most of the time she ignored.
She went on to explain how her plan involved the banishment of her husband Godfrey and his kin, stripping Grace from them in the hope that the banishment of these newly created Tarnished would eventually result in an army unaffected by the Greater Will and strong enough to return and drive its taint from the Lands Between for good.
She had summoned Radagon to her side, married him and lain with him, hoping that centuries in her presence would bring him around to her way of thinking, that the joy of children could see that she deserve to be the sole goddess of the land, not an idiotic and unfeeling will.
And then everything went to shit.
The Night of Black Knives.
Godwyn.
Her grief.
The Shattering.
By the time she had come down off of her grief and anger induced act of metaphysical destruction the Greater Will had acted against her, using Radagon as an anchor to hold her in place long enough that she was bound at the heart of the Erdtree, her own titanic power and that of the Elden Ring twisted into a prison where she could do nothing as her Lands fell apart and her children fell to fates worse than death.
Silence reigned for a time after that, all those that lived through the Shattering sombre while Naruto paid close attention. She could not fault him for neither empathy nor a desire to understand. "Melina…. What is she?" he asked eventually.
Melina's possessed hands touched one another index finger to thumb. "She's… an offshoot. I suppose is the best way to put it. When I sensed that the Will was finally tired of the hoards of Tarnished throwing themselves at the Erdtree and beckoned you from whatever world you hail from, I knew that I had to somehow stop you. So I sectioned off a small part of my existence and utilised the power of the Elden Ring and the Erdtree to give it life. She just ended up being far smaller than I intended, so small that I couldn't fit any of my consciousness inside so Melina simply came to exist to fill the void. She is, for lack of a better term, my daughter."
Rennala squared her shoulders but Naruto surprised both by chuckling, "Hehe, of course that little munchkin was made by a Goddess, wouldn't have expected anything less. How else could she be so cute."
Marika felt her cheeks warm at the indirect complement he had given to her craftsmanship and was silently thankful when Ranni coughed to gain their attention.
"You road my cantrip to swap places with with her mind, meaning there must have been an active connection there. How much have you seen or are able to influence my… sister?." Ranni asked, the last word a little stilted, coming to terms with the new minucea of layers that constituted her and Melina's biological relationship.
Honestly this family tree was quickly morphing into a family tesseract…
"I can see through her eyes and hear through her ears, but it is an active effort to push my consciousness into her mind to listen, I don't see everything. The connection is one way when she is awake, I can only speak to her when she dreams." Marika answered truthfully, seeing no reason to lie.
A beat passed while they digested this new information and took comfort in knowing that the magenta haired girl's mind was her own.
"An unintentional cantrip induced mind switch won't last all that long, even in exceptional circumstances." Ranni observed, Rennala nodding gravely.
"So… you aren't going to be here for long." Naruto interpreted the witch's words succinctly.
Marika nodded slowly, the reality of the situation a forlorn conclusion. "It shan't be long before the Elden Ring that serves as my prison reacts to my absence and drags me back. The presence of thy runes has likely stabilised the process but I have a few hours at best."
Naruto stroked his chin in thought, working the problem in his head, "Will you be able to do this again?"
Once more did the errant Queen Eternal shake her head, "I sincerely doubt it, the Ring will adapt to the spell and make sure I cannot escape in such a way again. I will still be able to talk to Melina in her dreams but beyond that I cannot say."
Naruto closed his eyes before turning serious and asking, "What does the Greater Will want with me?" he asked, determined to finally get an answer.
Marika was all to happy to provide what little she could surmise. "To change the rules of this world the Greater Will needs someone to claim the Elden Ring, to do that they need to be of sufficient strength to be able to breach the Erdtree and rip it from my body, so it summoned you, hoping that you would find your way to the tree and through you be able to somehow reorder this cosmos into something profaned, without free will."
"Yeah that's never going to happen, no offense but you're big gilded shrub is kind of an eyesore so I don't think I'll be going near it any time soon." Naruto replied, full of mirth but his eyes shifted to something more sincere. He approached Marika and dropped to one knee, tapping her forehead, "You've done a lot of things that you need to atone for, so maybe one day you will get out of that tree and if you do, don't be the same queen you were before. Be better."
He rose then, picking up his discarded jacket and found Ranni by his side, taking his hand. The pair left the balcony, leaving just Marika and Rennala alone with the Red Wolf. Rennala it seemed was going to watch her until the spell broke.
"You know," Rennala said, breaking the silence, "I think this is the first time you and I have ever been alone together. Before Radagon left to go to your side I had only ever seen you with a Royal Courterge at your side."
"Truly?" Marika asked, failing to recall a time where she had ever been truly alone with the Carian Queen, "I think I can remember at least one instance. When Radagon and Godfrey went hunting in Limgrave together."
Rennalaslowly hugged herself at the memory, her smile melancholic of times long past.
Unbidden, words poured from Marika's lips before she could stop them. "I miss Godfrey. Radagon will always be my other half, but there was something special about Godfrey… banishing him from the capital is one of the few things I regret. I don't even know if he's still alive."
Rennala leaned forwards in her seat, her face betwixt with sardonic humor. "If he is anything like my Naruto then he yet lives, Marika. It seems we both fell into the trap of falling for men too stubborn to die."
Laughter percolated between them and Marika wondered again if their positions had been switched if she would have found herself laying with the blonde. A beautiful image, if a hope she could never obtain in this life. Hope…
"What is it you hope to achieve, Rennala?" she asked the raven haired sorcerss who raised a thin eyebrow at the question. "It's rare, even rarer these days, that I can speak with another monarch, so tell me, for all your power, what do you hope for in the future?"
Marika knew that she and Rennala could never be friends at this point, too much had passed between them for that, she had stolen her husband and Ranni had murdered her beloved son. But still, they could speak as one queen to another.
Humming in thought, Rennala eventually responded, "I would see my family returned to me, those that yet live that we might sit around a table as kin. I would have my adopted children know that they are loved forever and always, and that the door was always open for more of them. I would join in union with my betrothed, have him sit by my side so that I might bask in his serenity as I cool his temper. That is what the woman in me hopes."
"And the Queen in you?" Marika asked, her countenance something only a monarch could understand, for to be a Queen you must have a realm, that which you ruled over and provided for."
Her companion looked out over the walls of the academy towards the distant tower of her apartments, with all the renovations that Naruto, Boggart and Moongrum had done to it had regained much of its splendour. "The Queen in me, wants a king and a kingdom."
"You intend your consort as more than a husband?" Marika was surprised by this.
"The Lands Between are broken, both as a land and in their sense. As much as part of me still despises the theocratic dirge you reigned in over them, the realm was for a time as one. Raya Lucaria is a bastion for those who require a home and succor in a world that has forgotten what those words mean. So why not open the doors of a school to those that need to relearn what it is to be kind. Grudges forgotten, scars healed, the kingdom of Caria reborn."
"Heavy will be your head that wears the crown," Marika pointed out.
Rennala smiled, looking at Naruto walking with Ranni far below, "A weight I need not bear alone."
(.0.0.0.)
For many aeons now, blackness was all Radagon had known.
The absence of light and colour both metaphorical and literal was a reality trapped within the Erdtree, bound as he was just as much a penitent as his heretic of a sister self. True servant of the Golden Order he may be, but trapped even within Marika's own body he had not even been afford the luxury of physical form for ages. Though unlike Marika he would not gripe about it.
So it was with supreme surprise that the redheaded warrior had witnessed colour in this drab and dreary place. First there had been a familiar blue light that seemed to seep up from his memories, melancholy coiling in his heart at feeling the cool gossamer tendrils on Marika's body but he had been surprised when Marika's daily bickering had stalled and guttered before being yanked away.
Before he could begin to voice his shock at the profane miracle, Radagon had felt their shared body begin to shift and mould from Marika's womanly form to that of his own. Where once the Queen Eternal had been crucified to the a pillory of her own power was a tall and broad man with long red hair that trailed down his scarred bare chest.
Hanging there, he reflected that Marika deserved a grim level of admiration for being able to endure this position for centuries with nary a wince. But where was she, her mind did not respond to his probes even if the connection was still there.
"My Lord, Marika has escaped." he spoke, voice echoing out into the darkness, "Please, you must act before she does greater heresies." he pleaded, hoping that the Greater Will would grace him with an answer, or at least acknowledge his presence.
No reply came, nor any feeling of the Will's perfectly ordered majesty. It was simply him left hanging alone in the void, unanswered. Alone.
Pursing his lips, Radagon screwed his eyes shut and did his best to ignore the feelings that burned in his heart. He was a penitent here as well, cast into this prison for the crimes of his sister self and doomed to never again feel any form of… anything.
He had endured such thoughts for generations, full epochs of the Shattering had come and gone and Radagon had simply maintained his scorn of Marika and vigil to make sure she never escaped. And now, in that failure he was met with nothing from his beloved god that did not even care enough for him to observe his very failure.
That stung.
His head hung limp against his chest, closing his eyes and words passing from his lips in the meanest ghost of a whisper. "Lord… why have you forsaken me?"
Because it didn't care. It didn't care that he had been its greatest champion, that he had brought the light of the Erdtree to the Lands Between and born not one, not two but three Empyrean to inherit its lineage should Marika fail. It had made him do things that were monstrous and he had done them without a second thought, despite his heavy heart. But what sense there was there to defy the Greater Will? It was the one and true god that had a plan, they all existed the serve it… even if he did find its design-
"Who forsook you?" asked a childish feminine voice in front of him.
Golden eyes snapped open and Radagon's head whipped up with a snap, startled at the sudden intrusion, a foreign voice and the first he had heard besides Marika's in centuries. It was an entirely uncalled for and unbecoming act for one who had mastered himself but entirely irresistible. God or no, the minds of men were social things, and starved of social interaction for centuries he acted to meet the newcomer.
At last a new colour breached the darkness at the heart of the Erdtree. Magenta.
Radagon's surprised face twisted into a confused frown, perhaps due to this being the first time in a while he had physical synapses to fire but before him was a little girl he could not place. She 'sat' on the air before him, her body translucent like a phantom but definitely there.
"Hi!" she greeted him animatedly, waving a hand, "I'm Melina… do you know where Mama is?"
His mind rebooted at that, realising that to which he spoke and felt a weight lift off him. "Ah, Marika's offshoot." he stated to himself. The truth of Marika's vanishing suddenly snapping into position. "Ranni…" he groaned forlornly, concluding that his daughter's magic was at work here. It did add a measure of comfort though that the Ring would soon act to drag Marika back to her prison. He did not like how hollow the feeling felt though and instead decided to pass the time by speaking with his sister self's heretical spawn. "Thy sire has been drawn away and thou hath filled the gap. It shan't last long, I ask you leave me to my penance."
"Hmmm," Melina pouted before shaking her head. "Nah! You look sad and papa always says to help sad people be happy."
Radagon blinked owlishly. This child was the epitome of everything he should despise, he should hate her as a magically created thing by his heretic sister, made to pervert his lord's plan and… and… 'She is completely and utterly innocent.' he thought, the darkness fading from his eyes.
"I see… then I… thank thee for thy company, Melina. I am thy… uncle." he said awkwardly, clearly unused to such niceties. Melina beamed at that and began to chatter animatedly about her growing family, causing Radagon to smile fondly when she spoke of Rennala, lords how his heart ached for his ex-wife, but that bridge was long burned and he was simply joyful that she had found happiness in the arms of another.
Happiness and safety that his absent God would seek to dispoil.
In the time that he and his odd relation conversed, Radagon of the Golden Order was in two minds, the first being wistful whimsy at this truly innocent child for the few hours they were together and the latter food for thought.
'If my God is truly forsaken me and it would see that which I found abhorrent made manifest and despoil that which I would keep safe… then maybe it is past time I think for myself.'
(.0.0.0.)
The weather remained fair in Liurnia for the rest of the day
High overhead, the sky remained an unbroken band of blue that served to thin the mist that clung to the province's namesake lakes and the sun provided a pleasant warmth that the mist defused an air of freshness into. The mist seemed to thin in one place in particular, a gap in a copse of trees that admitted passage from the lakes into the forests that ringed them. A peculiar sound approached from the opening, the sound akin to many dozens of hard taps in an irregular yet strangely methodical beat that put one in mind of some great insect on its approach, limbs scuttling as it made its way.
It was a correct description of the wrong animal.
Naruto entered the forest atop the back of his tamed giant lake crustation, lightly tapping the reigns to send the creature marching along the wooded track with little complaint, its beady eyes on small stalks curiously surveying a locale it would usually avoid.
"Okay. Crabby, that's good, let's get to high ground and maybe we can see about getting us all something to eat." Naruto complimented the large crustacean, patting its armored head as one might their steed, drawing an affectionate churning of its mandibles.
Ranni tutted, seated as she was in front of Naruto with his arms around her waist to make sure she didn't fall. "T'is not a crab, your crustation steed is a Giant Liurnian Crayfish, hath though never had seafood before?" she questioned haughtily, the tip of her pointed hat tapping Naruto's chin with each of the Crayfish's movements.
"Sure I have, I just call him Crabby cause he tried to attack me when we first met. Boggart makes great seafood." Naruto defended himself, reassuring Crabby when the odd steed let out an annoyed grunt.
The iron masked blackguard leaned his head over Naruto's shoulder to look at Ranni, his voice mediating between the two. "Seafood is all about preptime. But begging your pardon, Princess, might I make a correction," he asked, Boggart could be surprisingly tactful when it came to royalty.
"Thou may."
"As the channel to the sea has been severed for a very long time, technically the Crayfish are simply shellfish rather than seafood." the defacto cook of Raya Lucaria informed her.
Naruto smirked as Ranni sputtered, pulling the rim of her hat down to hide her face. "Ah, yes, I see. Thank you. Noble Blackguard. Your council on culinary matters is laudable." Ranni squeaked, unwilling to admit that there were gaps in her knowledge. Naruto could practically feel Boggart's hidden smile.
After Naruto and Ranni had beat a hasty retreat from Rennala and the possessed Melina, the blue skinned daughter had decided that it was best if she and Naruto made themselves scare from the Academy for a few hours, reasoning that the presence of his Runes may drag out how long it would take her cantrip to break down and swap the minds back to their correct places. Seeing the logic if not the mechanics of the sorcerer, Naruto had agreed and roped Boggart into some hunting.
Ergo they had ridden out across the lakes on his tamed Crayfish, 'Crabby' and now sought some game to hunt. He smiled looking down at Ranni, she seemed wrapt with the surroundings of her homeland, 'Probably so used to either her tower or teleporting everywhere that she's forgotten where she grew up.' he thought.
Kurama opened a large red eye at the back of his mind, the fox's maw curling in a curious smirk, "Has it ever occurred to you that people who teleport a lot must have an awful sense of direction? Never physically going anywhere, just popping there and back."
It was an interesting thought experiment, one he would like to put to the test and hopefully bond with the little girl who would one day be his stepdaughter. Reaching a clearing, the trio disembarked and Naruto hitched Crabby to a tree, feeding the great crustation a fist sized chunk of pork.
Behind him Boggart had already begun assembling a fire pit, their dedicated cook here as any other time.
"What art thou hunting today, father?" Ranni asked, amused that the word still made Naruto sputter and swoon but her eye widened when he mixed her with a grin.
"We are hunting deer." Naruto said, "unless it's beyond you."
Ranni fumed, shaking a fist at him cutely, "Jackanape! I am Ranni the Witch, my spells are more than enough for some antlered venison!" her voice cooled and she blushed in embarrassment, "Wherever they might be…"
He held her gaze for five whole seconds before she could no longer bear it, rushing over to him and using her four arms to clamber up onto his shoulders whereupon he set off, hopping up into the treetops above in search of the illusive game.
Half an hour later and they had scented a deer, a buck going by the scrapes of antlers against the bark of trees that Naruto pointed out while he explained the pits and pieces of hunting he had picked up during the training trip with Jiraiya.
"What an unscrupulous man!" Ranni exclaimed quietly, condemning the late godfather after a tale of when he had 'borrowed' Naruto's wallet to 'ply information' from a small town courtesan, leaving Naruto to have to hunt for them for the night.
"Oh he could be an asshole at times, but sometimes I think loving someone means being able to forgive small antics here and there." Naruto said, coming to a stop and falling to one knee as he spotted the deer. It was a large male, its large black eyes sweeping the surroundings, oblivious to the two in the trees fifty metres away.
Ranni looked at the deer and felt her anticipation rise. "Father," she began, her cheeks dusting pink in embarrassment. "I appreciate thou allowing me to ride'st upon thy shoulders given my childish form's lack of mobility, but I now lack the range to land my spells."
Naruto looked at her curiously, 'that's a lie,' he thought, then again perhaps she was worried about another misfire given her cantrip's knock on effect. It was still unfathomably cute. "So what would you like me to do about it?" he whispered back.
Ranni gained an impish amusement, jutting her chin in the direction of the deer, "Get closer to the deer, my spiky haired steed!"
Naruto lept forwards, silently leaping from tree branch to tree branch, the only sound or evidence of his movement being the few stray pine needles his foot dislodge with each silent leap.
"Noth that one, the other one!" she instructed, indicating a particular branch that he hopped to. "N-no, closer still!"
He moved two branches forwards, they were barely ten metres from the deer now but still Ranni was not satisfied. She facepalmed before sighing sharply. "Ugh, thou knowest what? Just throw me at them. As far and hard as thou can."
The blonde gave her a disbelieving look, lifting her off his shoulder and holding her in front of his face akin to a large kitten. 'Is she serious?'
She read his silent comment and nodded imperiously, crossing one set of her arms while her other conjured a spectral bow and arrow. "Yes, I'll be fine, just do it."
Gulping lightly, Naruto reared his arm back and threw the white and blew missile in the direction of the deer, biting his tongue not to burst out laughing as Ranni let out a strangled war cry. But to his surprise the little witch came through, loosing a glintstone arrow from her magical construct that nailed the dear dead on, puncturing the hide and breastplate before piercing the heart. It did not suffer, letting out a surprised bleat before crumpling to the ground, dead.
Ranni hastily conjured a series of magical circles that she passed through in sequence, each one gently syphoning off more kinetic energy before she alighted on the forest floor with a hop, panting but beaming back at Naruto, preening at his proud nod.
He carried the deer carcass over one shoulder and Ranni on the other as he returned to the camp but as they walked both of their faces thinned to dire lines.
"You feel them too?" Naruto asked, him and Ranni sitting around the campfire while Boggart skinned and gutted the deer.
Nodding at the question, Ranni looked in the direction of the woods and waited, there was someone out there, slowly approaching and watching them, caution deep in their passive emotions that Naruto could sense. "I sense a concealment sorcery, powerful, but has its hallmarks."
"Then we wait til they come to dinner." Naruto said nonchalantly, his returned jacket concealing his muscles coiling imperceptibly.
Boggart let out a yelp and brandished his boning knife when a figure appeared from blue and gold mist at the borders of the camp, frightened at the sudden appearance of such an imposing figure.
It was a knight, mounted atop a horse in an imposing set of armour forged from a combination of brushed silver with unalloyed gold details at the gorgot, joints and gauntlets. Each of their muscled legs was sheathed in a pair of angular greaves and sabatons that met the knee in a chevron shaped guard, elements of blue underlayers visible between the plates of metal. What drew the eye most was their helmet, a fully enclosed silver sallet with artisanal engravings over its surface, affixed with a wide horizontal plume made of unalloyed gold that depicted a thin but fibrous tree.
Each arm bore a weapon that was as striking as the armour the knight and horse wore. A teardrop shaped mirror shield with the mysterious gold at its ende was affixed to the left vambrace while a tall halberd was clutched in the cestus of their right hand. It was forged from the purest silver and was ribbed along the midsection for grip, a necessity rather than a choice given that the thing was longer than the horse the knight rode upon was tall, its blade a hooked blade while its but was chevron shaped with a bluegreen crystal in the empty space, Glintstone, Naruto realised.
The knight did not move, watching the trio and one crawfish intently before finally speaking in a rich feminine voice, revealing the knight as a woman. "Hail, travellers of the lakes. Might I join you by the fire for food? I have come a long way." she said.
"Loretta?" Ranni said, causing the knight's head to snap to look at the diminutive little girl, sharply inhaling in recognition.
"I know that voice… but that's not… Princess Ranni?" Loretta questioned before dismounting from her horse with a thud. Stowing her war sickle on her horse, the knight raised her hands to her helm and unlatched it, a cascade of ashen hair tumbling about her shoulders when she pulled it free.
It was only then that Naruto realized just how exceptionally 'big' Loretta was, the plates of her armour were visibly thick and her tall and broad stature put her a head taller than even Rennala, she must be nearing seven feet tall. She had a pretty face, pale skin and long ashen hair that tumbled messily down her back.
"You know her?" Naruto asked rhetorically, it being obvious that the two knew each other.
Ranni answered her companion all the same, signalling Boggart to sheath his knife. "Loretta, she was a Royal Knight of Caria, once. Now she bears the sigil of my half brother Miquella…"
Naruto could feel the beginnings of conniption scratch the base of his mind at what was likely to be another emotional revelation or other familial drama. 'Oh shit this is my family drama now!' he realised, drawing a snigger from Kurama who always delighted in his mundane miseries the oversized fur ball that he was.
Naruto shook his head before gesturing to the fire where a spit of venison roasted. "No use talking on an empty stomach. Sit down and have something to eat, I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about."
Loretta favoured Naruto with a look, her nose wrinkling a little as if she did not like the way he spoke before accessing and sitting opposite them. She grabbed a stick of the rich meat and began to eat, mirroring naruto, Ranni and soon Boggart too.
"I was travelling the lands seeking help for the Haligtree when the Omen Margitt crossed my path." Loretta explained, "He said that something impossible had happened, that Queen Rennala had returned to her senses. I didn't believe it at first but seeing the academy again-"
"Oh yeah, Rennala's fit as a fiddle, I made sure of it." Naruto said before asking a question, "Ranni said that you used to be a knight of Caria, what changed?"
Chagrined at the interruption, the tall Knight answered, though notably annoyed. "When Queen Rennala fell to her madness, the Albanurics no longer had anyone to protect them. As one of their distant kin, I shepherded them to Haligtree and took up service under Lord Miquella to follow his cause. I still owe Caria everything, but until my debt to Lord Miquella is fulfilled I am a Knight of the Haligtree."
She paused, eyes drawn to the Moonlight Greatsword sheathed at Naruto's back. "Who, exactly are you?"
Naruto grinned, "Oh, I'm Naruto, Rennala's fiance!"
"..."
"..."
"...WHAT!? HOW MUCH HATH I MISSED!?"
(.0.0.0.
Note: This is the part Slifer and warned you of. Brace yourselves.)
"You are… radiant…" rattled a rasping voice with sick perversion, "More than any other. More mighty than your father, more beautiful than your mother. Unblighted like your sister but frail, so frail…" a clawed ebon finger trailed over a pale, emaciated arm. "Can you not see my affections? I will take care of you, build you a kingdom, a dynasty where all are united under Blood."
The hand pulled away from the dark figure, the flickering light of red fire painting the speaker with an evil light, his horns shadowing the object of his affections.
"...No Mohg, you are wrong, Ill, not right in the head-"
A trident slammed down, tipped with crackling red lighting, its thorned prongs sticking deep into the bear stomach of the one who replied.
They screamed then, a pitiful sound as fire and crimson lighting was sent streaming into their body.
"I AM THE ONLY SANE ONE IN THIS WORLD MY MOHGWYN!" Screamed Mohg, lord of Blood, his eyes maddened and sickened with perverse glee as his victim screamed hoarsely. "ACCEPT MY LOVE INTO YOUR BODY AND SOUL, MIQUELLA AND LEARN TO LOVE THE PAIN!"
The trident remained buried in Miquella's stomach for a whole minute before Mohg finally believed the frail demigod had had enough, ripping the weapon loose and watching, fascinated as the smoking wounds slowly closed themselves, but not fast enough to stop him from poking a finger into one of the round lacerations that still smoked with bloody curse. Miquell groaned, too exhausted to fully express his pain so Mohg removed the finger, lifting the blooded digit to his fanged mouth and tasting the sweet nectar that his consort's blood was.
"I thank you for your gift of life, my love," Mohg crooned revoltingly before disappearing into a pool of blood, "I shall return again, with a gift worthy of your affections."
The Omen son of Marika and Godfrey emerged from a pool of blood but was surprised to find that he was not astride the Siofra River but rather… nowhere at all. A black void peeled out in all directions, his only frame of reference being the floor of blood he stood upon.
Mohg smiled, a genuine and sincere smile rendered monstrous by his calamity of a face. "You call me, my lady?" he spoke into the void, sinking to one knee and lowering his head.
"I do, my loyal child, he who understands that pain is what links all as one."
Drops of blood began to rise from the lake of red, drawing together into an undulating sphere of dully glowing liquid that slowly but surely became akin to Mohg in size. The heart of the blood began to darken from red to black while the perimeter of the anomaly glowed brighter, seeming to shift from liquid to a fiery glowing miasma. The darkness too began to morph, an absence of form only evidenced by the barrier where colour ended and darkness began to extrude itself from a blob and began to take on a roughly humanoid shape, with time it became more shapely, like the silhouette of a buxom woman. The phantom hugged itself before a pair of horns gorrily split from its head in gouts of black ichor, followed by two sets of wings from its back, one leathery, one feathered.
The Formless Mother had come.
Mohg smiled magnanimous at his patron, clanking the butt of his spear against the floor in salute. "How may I help you then? What needs to bleed, what needs to hurt…"
The Formless Mother hummed at her servant, tracing a talloned finger over his chin and drawing a lone of scars there, they froze over and boiled all the same time.
"Something new has come to the Lands Between, something old and smelling of blood. Not our blood, but it has roused my interest and what I have seen I find most interesting."
"An Apostate of your greatness, another who has seen that this world needs dying red." Mohg proclaimed, "I shall seek them out at once, my Lady."
The Formless Mother's hand slashed out, jamming a thumb into where his thicket of horns crawled from an eye socket, he hissed in pain.
"You shall not. This one bears the stink of another Outer God, as well as the horrid normality of the Will. No, there is another in this land that I want."
Mohg huffed, cupping his face when the aspect of the Goddess retracted her thumb, taking a chunk of his horn with it. "Name them, and it shall be done!" he proclaimed, the pain not diminishing his fervour.
The silhouette cocked its head in amusement, pleased.
"The Will… it has called another Elden Beast to the Lands, but this one is a man. And he knows pain, oh how he knows pain. Oh how I must have him, I must pour my ichor into his mouth and proclaim him my child!"
Mohg watched as an image took form in the lake of blood the image of a young man with blonde spiky hair and beautiful blue eyes. He looked kind, but there was a power there that made Mohg quiver in excitement. "It shall be done, my lady."
"See that you do, though watch and be ready. For to make this one bleed you must learn where to strike. And Mohg…"
The Omen watched as the blood that constituted the mother's form began to pull inwards on itself, her voice growing fainter as it shrank to a single point of light and shadow.
"Succeed, and you shall be rewarded graciously…"
An object dropped into the blood before him as the Mother faded completely. Looking down at the tiny thing, Mohg dipped his hand into the lake and cupped it in his palm, lifting it into his hand to inspect it with his one good eye. It was a band of smoky obsidian with with a star shaped red gem set into it and glowing with malevolent light.
His shoulders shook, begging to laugh before gufforing in peels of raucous, maddened laughter. For he knew what this was, a ring of betrothal.
"Oh Miquella, how blind I must have been, you must be too lonely to return my affections, so our dear Formless Mother offers a soon to be son as your companion for the birth of our dynasty!"
Ebon wings burst from Mohg's shoulders, beating mightily as his laughter and sick, depraved joy echoed into the night.
Completely unaware that the Greater Will was not the only stupid Outer God that graced the Lands Between.
Fate would not be so kind to him.
A/N: Aaaaand scene.
I think we all know what's coming next.
Or do ye? You never know, Slifer and I might surprise you...
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(POTENTIAL!) Previews! What can I say? We've been busy.
"Papa!"
Naruto blew out a bemused sigh. "You're not getting off me, are you?"
He couldn't see her face from this angle, but he heard her voice.
And the innocent, brilliant smile therein.
"Nope~!"
Rennala was all smiles as only a mother could be. "Hush, little culver, you need not fear either of us. You are safe here.
The little girl warbled once, hiccuped, and broke. Then she rushed into her open arms with a wail.
Naruto sighed. "Well, we've got another one...I don't even know who she is...
Little arms reached for him. "Up!"
"Have at thee!"
Talked to her, did you?"
"Shut up, Blaidd. You're still in the doghouse."
LET THERE BE WAR!"
They just keep comin' out the woodwork, don't they?
Exasperated, he raised a golden hand and pushed his chakra to it.
The sky darkened around Raya Lucaria for miles around.
And heaven answered.
"Four rotten girls against an exasperated me. Its almost unfair...for you!" Naruto flung up his arms in a huff, glaring at the enemies assembled before him. "Right, that does it. Give you all a spanking.
He flung an arm forward and a golden tether of chakra snared the nearest sister.
Then he reeled them in like a fish. "GET OVER HERE!"
EDIT: Hey, you made it!
As ever, we're following the Ember's Rule here. That's no joke. Really, it isn't. If folks don't like this, if people don't enjoy...well, I won't continue it. What's the point in writing something no one likes? Every bit of feedback helps. Reviews are the fuel which keeps me writing in these crazy times. With my tight schedule -two jobs!- I simply don't have time to write a story folks don't like. Without them, my inspiration cannot take wing and I can't write a word. So by all means, speak up!
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