A/N: EDIT: Made some minor tweaks here and there. Hope ya'll enjoy 'em.

We're baaaack! Slifer wrote the bulk of this chapter, its an absolute MONSTER, with a ton of content! I just tweaked and added bits.

Do excuse the occasional grammar error. Hopefully we fixed them all..

Read this note, would you kindly? Got some important info.

Big changes are coming to this site.

I'll say it plain, if this email opt-in business with the site doesn't get resolved soon, I'm probably going to retire.

It HURTS to say that, but with this new system, reviews and readers have dropped to an all time low, many authors are leaving the site in droves.

Sometimes the app helps. Sometimes it doesn't.

If you're not already aware, ever since the 16th of November -going on two months now!- you now have to turn ON your email alerts in account settings-MAKE SURE YOU CLICK SAVE SETTINGS!-else you won't be notified when anyone updates. No alerts, no email, no nothing. Apparently that's a thing we all have to do every ninety days or so, now. Alas, not many are aware of it...which is a problem. As things stand this new "fix" as it were, has cut everyone's viewership/reviewers in half because most folks don't know about it. Authors are leaving/quitting in droves because of this.

Sometimes opting in works. Sometimes it doesn't. Really depends. Hopefully the devs can fix tweak/update this system.

As ever the Embers rule persists, reviews are my fuel, my fire, my life. Without them, I lose all inspiration, all hope, all ability to write. That's no joke. I have so little time to write these days with two jobs, and silence hurts. So by all means, speak up! Make yourselves heard! Every bit of feedback, no matter how small or large, matters! Really, it helps a lot. Its a joy to talk with you all and bandy ideas back and forth; it really is. Sorry if this seems shorter than usual, working on a tight schedule here.

No questions once more, for spoilers lie ahead. With that said here we go. I've kept you waiting long enough.

As ever, I own no references, quotes, themes or memes! They're merely tributes.

Not a wit or a one. They're merely tributes to legends far greater than I.

And finally, a warning. Spoilers. Goes without saying, I suppose.

Heeeeeere we go~!

"Gods never learn, do they?"

~?

What Say You Now

Sleep never came easily for Godrick the Grafted.

Within the confines of his dilapidated chambers at the heart of Stromveil Castle, the misshapen royal thrashed upon his moldering mattress, his many extraneous limbs twitching nonsensically. Fingers of a dozen hands spasmed in search of something to grip onto in hopes of riding out the storm of horror that raged within that misshapen body, sinews and tendons creaking with a noise that no man should ever have to hear. He let out a whimper, a wordless moan that was neither curse nor apology, just a pathetic noise uttered from a piteous creature.

It had always been like this. Since the beginning, long before he had perverted his body into its grotesque grandeur, Godrick has never slept well. It was another reason why his kin, the Golden Lineage, had derided his weakness when he had still called the capital home. The blood of Godwyn was thin in his veins, they would say, Marika's light illuminated him just enough to make him look pathetic day or night. It hadn't changed with the Shattering; the exhilaration and fear that had thundered through his ears had propelled him to make a mad dash to collect the Anchor Rune. He hadn't slept for the weeks that had followed his flight from the capital, even with his full host of knights at his back, Godrick had been on the verge of heart palpitations at the thought that Radahn pursued him and only gained his first night's rest upon reaching Stormveil.

His body tensed as he was dragged into true slumber by unwelcome dreams. He found himself walking along a thorny path, his body much smaller than its current grafted edifice, inclining his head, his dream self looked to the far horizon where the Erdtree stood proud at the end of the long and winding path.

"The gold of the capital…" his dream-self whispered in reverence, beginning his trek towards the great tree and the domes of Leyendall at its foot. He could just hear the distant flutes ringing out over the planes. Oh, how he longed to return to the glimmering gold of the capital, to be accepted into the land of his birth far distant from this horrid castle. "But… I need power to get there."

And as always with this dream in particular, Godrick heard them begin to call the further he went along the path, quickening his pace to be past them though his legs felt like they were sunken into mud. The sounds came in rustling sheets of noise, the cracking of small bones and squelch of gore echoing up the path around him even as he broke out into a run. The silver-haired legacy did not need to turn his head to look at them, for they filled his peripheral vision in ever-encroaching waves.

Arms

Millions, nay billions of severed arms flowed towards the thin strip of land that was the path he walked, each and every one moaning a distinctly morose keen, accusatory and miserable. They hated him, hated his weakness and what he had done to them, so with their owners long dead, the arms of those who had been crafted clawed their way towards the origin of their misery who ran all the faster to be rid of them.

It had all been a means to an end, that's what he'd told himself in the beginning when Melenia, cantacourus bitch, had robbed him of his arm.

Marika's blood was too thin to let him grow in power as a demigod.

He lacked the attunement or patience to be a sorcerer.

And while he led a mighty host of knights, he lacked the logistical savantry to lead great armies.

All that left him was the profane art of grafting.

"Profane!? Neigh, tis only right for those who rule to take from those who supplicate. Strength is squandered on the low born when it could be pooled in those deserving!" Godrick raved, sure of himself even as he flew as fast as his atrophied little legs could carry him. "Limgrave is mine, its limbs, MINE! And I shall graft the lowliest pauper to the truest of Dragons until my dominion takes us back to the Erdtree!"

And as it had always been with every time he had been subjected to this abhorrent flight of fancy, Godrick felt a hand lock around his ankle and send him tumbling, its vice-like grip making his bones creak. "Leave me be!"

They did not.

The tide of arms broke upon the shaw for the path and reached for him, pulling him inexorably towards their clawing embrace, kicking and screaming all the time, gripping the edge of the path with his fingers sinking into the dirt.

"Pathetic," a woman's voice said.

Godrick snarled, he had been waiting for this particular phantom to show up. She always did. "Come to mock me? Or maybe take another arm, my rotted kin?"

A familiar pair of bone-china legs filled his visage, Godrick did not need to look up to know that a pale face adorned in winged helmet was sneering down at him.

"Godrick the Gilded, never golden. Silver of hair, yellow of belly. For all the limbs you gain, you are no closer to the capital and ever closer to your meagre fiefdom being stripped from you." the spectre of 'Melania' said, though it had been so long since he had heard it, Godrick could no longer say if it was hers or his own.

The tide of limbs roared around him, clawing at his pristine body and digging cracked nails into alabaster flesh, drawing peels of agonised screaming and flesh from him in equal parts.

A grubby hand, six-fingered and long, scratched at his face, its seeking digits looking to pluck his eyes from their sockets as they darted hither and thither.

"Abandon this path, Godrick, lest you face an ignominious end as less than a man." 'Melenia' said levely, voice cutting through Godrick's screams much as her blade had done his flesh.

"Never! None shall take more from me than you already have!" Godrick snarled.

A beat passed, and Godrick did nothing but glare up at his oppressor as he had every other night, his body being twisted into a nightmarish schism of flesh. Oh, how he hated them all.

"So be it," 'Melenia' replied before her bone-china foot whipped out, savagely kicking Godrick in the face and sending him over the edge into the waiting sea of limbs.

He screamed and screamed and screamed, the golden light of the distant capital snuffed from his vision, replaced by the endlessly undulating and clawing hands that dragged him ever downwards to their necrotic depths.

As he fell, Godrick felt a brief moment of lucidity settle upon his paranoia-addled mind, an awareness of just how far he had fallen to be tormented by his actions as he slept. But still, he wanted to see it just one more time, the golden light of the Erdtree, and the gates of his home opening to welcome him back.

"Mayhap that would be a possibility, last of the traitorous whore's bloodline."

Godrick gasped, his madness reasserting itself around his senses as he whipped his head left and right, searching to find the one that had spoken; he did not register until a few moments later that he was no longer lost in a sea of tortured and vengeful arms. No, now he floated aimlessly in a mist-filled darkness, with a single pinprick of golden light far above him.

His eyes zoned in on the light as it grew in brightness, letting it wash over him as it resolved into a constellation of perfectly arrayed golden stars and nebulae high above him. It was the same colour, he realised, that same brilliant gold light of the Erdtree that he had once basked in so many years ago. Unbidden, he crooned wordlessly in delight at the splendour.

"Hmmm, thou truly are a wretched little thing, so twisted away from my brilliance to that travesty of a form. Yet… even blunt instruments have their uses from time to time."

"Wha-what is this? Who speaks to me now?" Godrick demanded, only to feel a tremendous pressure slam down on him, flattening him against the floor of this quasi-realm.

"Mind thy tone, whore's son, you speak to one so far beyond your comprehension, to know the truth would drive thee mad. Though truly thy mind is already that of a mendicant long before mine advent."

The meanest demigod attempted to glare up at the gilded constellation before the stars glowed brighter, filling him with a feeling that he was trying the patience of something so much bigger than him. In a rare showing of humility, Godrick inclined his head.

The constellation seemed to like that if the celestial hum it emitted was anything to gauge.

...This wasn't over. This was far from over. But for now, he would listen.

"Thou seem to grasp thy place at last, commendable little mendicant king. But how aware of you of thy enemies, surely a king is wise?"

Biting down the curse that bubbled with vitriol at the back of his throat, Godrick replied. "I am surrounded on all sides by enemies, there is no end to them, but none dare to brace my fief!"

A warble of wry amusement passed through the cosmos.

"The projection of my most loyal servant appears to have slipped thy gaze then. But enough of that, I give unto you an omen most grave, mendicant king, bad tidings from the northwest."

Godrick watched in fitful silence as the still unnamed being gave its message, his lined face twisting into a sour expression. The northwest? Liurnia, but that made no sense, the water-logged province had long been broken since before even the shattering.

Yet his paranoia subsumed rational thought. "What in the lakes challenges my Fief!?"

Instead of responding, a series of dust and stars began to swim within the golden nebulae, shifting in shapes and colours until it took on the smokey visage of a woman, tall, proud and haloed by the moon. At her side was a young man with blonde hair and blue eyes, yet something was wrong with his image. Every few seconds, it would flicker, briefly replaced by a faceless figure made of fire and starlight.

"This boy has returned the senses of the Full Moon Queen in her seat of power. Thou knoweth the ramifications."

He felt his heart, transient in the dream, thundered loudly in his ears. Rennala of the Full Moon, the head bitch of his family's old allies and enemies. One who, at the peak of her power, had been able to stalemate mighty Radagon. "Who could do something like that!? The witch queen was mad since before the Shattering!"

"Yet sane she is, the blonde possesses four Great Runes, a fine prize for any king."

Godrick felt hunger in the pit of his stomach, but in his mind, he felt his paranoia coil and spit. With the sense restored, would Caria's queen rebuild her once grand host? Bring it to bear against Stormveil and unseat him? No! He could not permit this! "This will not stand, but how can I touch a master of mystics."

"Very astute, Mendicant King, for this alliance has a pair of weaknesses."

The images changed, shifting until a pair of redheaded young girls appeared before him, one with gold eyes, the other sealed.

"This duo are… loose ends. One a shard of the whore, the other a miscalculation. But they are special to the two. Seek the girls before Raya Lucaria builds its forces to dethrone you, and you shall have your prize."

Without any warning, a beam of golden light blasted out of the nebula and struck Godrick in the chest, sending streams of light through every vein as he screamed in pain, locking around and adding to the Achor Rune grafted into his very soul. Squealing in agony, Godrick soon found a feeling of mind-numbing power washing over him, filling every pour with golden brilliance.

By the time he returned from the mix of agony and ecstasy, he was no longer dreaming, once more in his chambers with the shaft of his golden axe clasped in his muscled six-fingered hand.

"M-my Lord!"

Godrick looked up at the wall, seeing the green and red robes of one of his knights that he had pinned against the wall with the heavy head of his axe. He must have come to check up on him thrashing in his sleep, only for Godrick to unconsciously attack him when he woke from the dream. Letting the knight drop to the floor and gasp for breath, Godrick rose to his full height and barked out an order, still feeling this new power crackling within him.

"Muster the garrison, every single Knight of Godrick. All Scions and Fingercrawlers, corral the bears. We march for Raya Lucaria and golden glory!"

(.0.0.0.)

Jogging through the halls of the academy, Naruto couldn't quite keep a grin from his face.

There was no grand reason for its presence; if anything, the grin was no brighter than the one he usually wore while interacting with most people, but still, there was something decidedly amused about it. A dimple to his whiskered cheeks that said to the world at large, 'I am having fun, and if that annoys you, stuff it!'

The peel of laughter from above him cemented the reason for his merriment. "Faster, papa, faster!"

The blonde felt a pair of pudgy hands grip his thicket of yellow spikes harder, and a couple of short legs beat against his shoulders like a rider spurring their horse. "As the little lady commands!" he laughed said, increasing his pace to blur through the corridors as little more than a streak of blue, yellow and plum.

Melina let out a jubilant little whoop as they broke out onto one of the many steps of ascending structure towards that made up the climbing levels of the academy. Naruto lept from the steps and boosted himself off of the stone balustrade to slingshot the pair into the air. Freed from gravity's clawing embrace for but a moment, the duo enjoyed the feeling of the wind against their clothes in the bright light of day.

Extending an arm, Naruto alighted them on one of the many spires that made up the rooftops of faculty buildings with nary a sound, hand locking around a solid hold while his feet stuck to the sheer angle with chakra. "Quite the view, isn't it, little dove?"

Melina nodded excitedly atop his shoulders, preening at the name Naruto had taken to call her. It was a habit he had picked up from Rennala after he had caught her referring to the seal-eyed Melina as 'little culver', a long and laborious task to decipher until the Headmistress and Queen had giggled and told him that it simply meant dove. She was about to say something when they both heard a tinkling sound on the edge of their hearing and turned to the west side of the academy, catching the visage of a large barrier of blue magic breaking down into shimmering dust. "Oooohhh, pretty."

Naruto nodded, then unlatched the nearest window to let the pair inside the building once again. A lot of things had happened in the last few weeks, most interestingly that they had gained another houseguest. One of Rennala's oldest and most fervent followers, a knight by the name of Moongrum, had returned to Raya Lucaria at the news that his Queen had regained some measure of her sanity. According to the man himself, he had attempted to enlist a party of adventurers to uproot the traitorous scholars and other ne'er-do-wells that had taken the Academy for themselves.

Naruto winced at the memory of the old knight's face when Rennala had told him that Naruto had succeeded in weeks where he had failed for years. Well, she put it in much nicer terms than that, but it hadn't stopped Naruto from feeling bad when Moongrum had knelt to him in thanks for 'bringing his queen sense once again.'

"At least he made fast friends with Boggart. Probably the food." Kurama grumbled as Naruto and Melina exited out into the halls of this section of the Academy, again on their hunt.

'Well, a hearty meal and good talk after decades of trying to protect someone is definitely a nice change of pace. I can hardly blame him.' Naruto thought before pausing, ears pricking up. "Do you hear that?"

The last Uzumaki felt his little charge look left and right, her head resting at the crown of his head, lifting a hand to cup her ear. "Sounds like… Milli?" Melina questioned, hearing the muffled mumbling of a familiar little girl from down the hall. She looked down at Naruto in a childish approximation of an askance glance, "we should see what's wrong!"

Nodding, the blonde was pleased by the altruistic tendencies that he had managed to instil in the little girl before they quietly crept through the halls until they came to the source of the annoyed grumblings. It was a corner room with the door ajar just wide enough for the pair to peak in without opening it any further. They instantly spied Milicent, sitting atop a desk clad in a dark blue dress that fit the little girl well, though it was clear to Naruto by its old creases that the dress had been in storage for a very long time. He noted that the redhead had a book open between her legs and was attempting to write something with a long feather quill, but the tells of her frustration were clear to him.

The tips of her fingers were soaked in ink from where she had held the tip of the quill too tightly, the tendons in her hand stood out from the skin of her hand, close to a strain, and her face was screwed up in an annoyed grimace. It was honestly pretty cute to see, but Naruto knew that writing exercises when you weren't in the mood could tick you off something fierce.

Empathy filled his chest, prompting him to push the door open.

Milicent practically jumped out of her skin, snapping the book shut and inadvertently trapping one of her fingers inside of it. She winced in pain, but her gold eyes were locked on Naruto in embarrassment. "I was, no, ummm...

"Shhhhhhhhh," Naruto shushed her gently as he approached, holding out a waiting hand expectantly, his meaning clear. Suppressing a pout, Milicent slowly extended her ink-stained hand that had been caught in the book to rest in Naruto's much bigger palm. Blue eyes carefully assessed the little girl's hand; the ink-stained digits were nothing that a damp cloth couldn't fix, but her middle finger was throbbing quite fiercely, and the telltale swelling and darkening of a busted blood vessel under her nail made him frown.

Cupping her hand with his other palm, Naruto lifted the trio of limbs up to Milicent's mouth, "Blow on them to make it feel better," he instructed in a calm voice, amused when he felt his shoulder-bound passenger lean forwards to watch in wrapped attention, "Come on, Rennala might be the sorcerer, but it doesn't mean I can't work a little magic for someone who needs it." he encouraged the gold eyed girl.

Looking between the young adult and similarly aged little girl that rode him like a pony, Milicent raised an eyebrow before throwing caution to the wind and blowing lightly on the cupped hands. Her eyes widened when Naruto's hands began to glow with cool mint-coloured light, sending a feeling of cool relief through her throbbing finger and making her sigh pleasantly. It lasted for a few seconds before Naruto drew his hands away from the now healed finger.

"Better?" Naruto asked, getting a thankful nod from Milicent before he pulled a rag from his back pocket and ran water-natured chakra into it, the cloth growing visibly moist in his hand. Setting about cleaning the ink from her fingers, Naruto asked, "So you want to tell me what's got you in such a tizz, Milicent?"

Opening her mouth to speak, Milicent instantly closed it, cheeks puffing in cute embarrassment. "I… I slipped away from the Queen on her… her… oh, what's the word?"

"Errands?"

Gold eyes widened in realization, "Errands! Yes, errands!" she cheered before turning embarrassed once again.

Naruto hummed in agreement, understanding why the little girl may have made a flight into the academy. It seemed that Rennala had quite the shine for the girls and enjoyed keeping them close, but her current task was to those without the attunement to sorcery, which was quite dull.

'We couldn't work out how the scholars and others kept getting back into the academy, so Rennala thought they might as well take down the entire set of defensive wards and put up new ones…' Naruto thought, remembering the dissolving wall of blue light from earlier.

Pulling away the wet rag, the displaced Uzumaki was happy to see that Milicent's hands were clean, nodding when she sent a thankful look his way.

"And I…I came here to do something, but I can't remember what, I keep trying to write it down, but my fingers won't do what I tell them to, and I just get so frustrated!" Milicent griped, sounding to Naruto like an older woman attempting to articulate through a child's mind.

Huh, what an oddly specific thought. Nah, it couldn't be that.

After about a minute of calming down and pondering on what he could do to remedy this internal strife, a thought occurred to Naruto, quickly blooming into an idea that split his mouth in amusement. "Say, Milicent, want to know what I do when I can't think straight?" he asked, the little girl shaking her head in negative but curious, "I like to pull a prank, set the mind at ease with some fun, want to help me with that?"

Milicent looked unsure, but when Melina offered a hand and patted Naruto's other shoulder, she found herself accepting and being pulled onto Naruto's other shoulder, his singular grin soon morphing into a trio.

It was about sunset when they had gathered the necessary materials for their improvised prank, and so it was as the Iron-masked Boggart and helmless Moongrum, his long grey hair washed, found themselves walking to go feed the great crayfish that even now still served as Naruto's mount.

The trio of pranksters watched from the shadows of the outer wall, Naruto hanging upside down and the pair affixed to him in a sling as the duo grew closer to the crayfish, large buckets of oats and fish in each arm. As they set the two buckets of feed down for the giant crawfish, they turned to go, only for Naruto to form a hand sign, a pulse of chakra setting in motion a series of events that the two girls watched in raptured attention. A tiny paper bomb with the strength of a firecracker exploded, dislodging a small, perfectly spherical iron ball that rolled down the stairs to strike a precisely laid series of stacked chairs, knocking loose a pithos containing cabbages.

As the collection of green vegetables bounced down from the walls, the trio watched the male duo look around in confusion, unsure why it was now raining cabbages and oblivious to the submerged crisscrossing of ropes that they had backpedalled to stand on in their confusion. Seeing that their marks were now in the correct position, Naruto and the two children let out a cackle before taking hold of the rope affixed to their side, cancelling the chakra flowing to his feet and dropping like a stone. As he pulled down on the rope, the rigged pulley that it ran through took up the slack and provided a sudden lift to the submerged ropes, snapping up in what was clearly a net that ensnared Moongrum and Boggart.

The pair let out startled yelps as they were lifted into the air, trapped in the net while Naruto tied off the rope and let them swing, dangling in front of the very confused crawfish that continued to eat its evening feed, its insectoid eyes blinking slowly.

"I don't think he likes his dinner, girls. Bit too much iron." Naruto chortled in amusement, enjoying the cackles of childish laughter from Melina and Milicent's much quieter but no less amused giggles.

"By the stars, what trickery is this!" Moongrum called, struggling against the ropes, he let out a squark of agitation when the crawfish poked the net inquisitively.

"It's that blonde bastard, that's what. I knew this day had been too quiet. Bloody bad omen when that one is out and about. Skulking cantankerously towards his devilish deeds!" Boggart replied. Moongrum's trapped leg flailed and unintentionally kicked Boggart in the side of his iron mask. "Ow! Mind your legs!"

Naruto was about to untie the rope and lower the trapped duo to the ground when he registered movement out of the corner of his eye. A glimmering blue sword whizzed into view, spinning in a perfect arc to cut the rope and free the duo before returning from once it had come in one fluid motion. Following it closely, Naruto watched as the energetic sword came to a shuddering stop, snatched out of the air by a pale hand where it dissolved back into a glintstone-tipped catalyst.

Rennala tapped her weapon of choice to the ground and surveyed the mess with a neutral gaze, he purple evening gown fluttering in the evening breeze. Spying the trio of pranksters, she tapped the staff's tip to the floor once, and her faithful red wolf trotted into the yard to approach them. "I think that that is quite enough tomfoolery for one day; you sweetings best get to your chambers for the night," she said slowly.

The Wolf gave a chuff of assent before padding over to the two young girls and picking the both of them up by the scruffs of their dresses, lifting them away and out of sight, leaving just Naruto to look sheepishly at his host.

Rennala tutted once and planted a fist against her hip. "I would have words with thee."

Naruto winced. "Alright...? Did I do something wrong?"

"Not as such, no. I merely wish to talk."

The pair of Moongrum and Boggart made strangled noises of offence, but Naruto paid them no mind, silently falling into step with Rennala, who turned and began to slowly walk through the tiered stairs of the academy.

A cool evening breeze rustled past them as they walked, idly discussing the nature of the little prank that Naruto and the kids had pulled. She wasn't angry as such, just a little ruffled that their absence for the majority of the day was over something so trifling. Naruto caught himself looking at Rennala as she led the way, eyes lingering on the sway of her hips in that silky purple evening gown, the wind turning that silky material into a sea of stars that he found himself drawn to.

She turned to face Naruto by the time that they had reached the doors to the headmistress's apartments, her body caught in half profile, revealing a full-length view of Rennala's figure from the tips of her inky black hair to toned legs showing through the gown. A lump formed at the back of Naruto's throat, aware that he was staring. Much as he wished he could write it off as just some inopportune lighting or wind making him feel embarrassed, deep down, he had to admit something to himself.

He liked Rennala. He found her quiet moments and beauty very attractive. And despite how often he had derided the people of the Lands Between for speaking nonsensically, he found it quite hard to express his slowly building feelings for the Full Moon Queen.

Rennala smirked, her painted lips curling in amusement, an unsaid 'caught you' lingering unsaid in the air as she led him inside and up the stairs towards her personal chambers.

'I don't think I've ever seen her room before,' he thought, his steps needed to be swift to keep up with the tall woman's stride. They soon came to a pair of tall oaken doors that Rennala pushed open.

Taking a moment to survey the room, Naruto found it to be very fitting for Rennala, a wide open expanse that was cluttered on one side with dozens of bookshelves and a large vanity mirror, the fading light of sunset pouring into the room from expansive panoramic windows and a balcony.

Walking along the wall, Naruto paused, noticing a large poster sitting pride of place in the centre of the wall, its canvas yellowed and aged but its occupants still visible. Five figures, two seated on thrones and three standing behind. A giant of a man in lion-themed armour with a jovial smile poking out from his red hair. A regal man with a beard and crown, his face serious but stance relaxed, a young girl with red hair and golden eyes. And seated in a pair of thrones, a tall redheaded man in armour and kilt while the other was- "Rennala?"

"Hmm? Oh, that old thing." Rennala said, setting down her catalyst by the bed to join him in front of the painting. "Tis something commissioned many scores ago, long before the shattering, both of the ring and…" she trailed off, heavy emotion swimming in her face.

Naruto grimaced before his face softened, extending a hand to touch Rennala on the shoulder, but she pulled away too quickly.

"Come, I have something to give you." the woman said, bustling over to a desk where a long wooden box sat waiting, as Naruto slowly crossed the room to join her, he saw that it was affixed with a brass latch that Rennala brushed undone then stepped back.

Lifting a hand, Naruto slid his thumb into the groove of the long wooden box and was presented with resistance, 'No one has opened this thing for ages!' He realised, bringing a second hand to bear bracing the lid and slowly prising it up with a tortured whine of age-hardened dust and solid hinges rendered immobile from centuries of disuse. At last, with a distinct 'pop', the lid came open and revealed its treasure for all to see. A strange feeling washed over Naruto, emanating from the box, something familiar yet alien to what he knew, tickling his memories as his eyes adjusted to the gloom.

It was…a sword.

But not just any sword. It was an odachi. Perhaps five and a half feet in length, the curved weapon had a long, two-handed handle wrapped in long white bandages of linen over a black, flower-shaped guard. It rested in a similarly adorned sheath with two brass fittings at its fulcrum from which a sheath was connected, resting undisturbed upon the velvet it was sunk into.

Rennala broke the silence as he stared at the sheathed weapon, "The stories thou hath told me of thy homeland paint a picture of something wonderful, so different from the Lands Between, and as thee did, I could not help but recall this old thing."

The two shared a stare before Naruto gently lifted the long blade from its resting place, that odd foreboding yet comforting feeling vibrated up his arm before he rested this thumb beneath the guard and, after a moment, popped it open an inch. A silent wind whispered out from the blade, revealed to be as black as a starless night with a name written on it in Kanji.

Kaimon

Naruto stared at the small section of the blade for a moment, compelled to draw its entire length from the sheath before thinking better of it and resetting it within the sheath, letting out a breath he did not know he had been holding in. "Where the heck did something like this even come from? It's not like any of the swords I've seen Samurai here wield."

"Many centuries ago, when there was still a channel between Liurnia and the seas, a ship ran aground with nary a soul aboard save for the poor beggar that lashed himself to the wheel. In the hold was nothing but this sword, many who called it cursed. As the greatest sorcerers in the land, it was given to the stewards of Caria for safekeeping." Rennala explained, taking a seat on her bed. "I felt it appropriate to give to one so far removed from his own world."

"But why give it to me? I'm no swordsman, that was always more of Sasuke's deal." Naruto wondered, holding the sheathed Odachi in his off-hand. He sensed a change in Rennala's emotions at that moment, a bubbling mix of self-hate and worry that did not suit her beautiful face.

"There… is a tradition in my family, a symbolism to the gifting of a sword from woman to man… to arm one to…defend the other. Something I have done only once before." Her eyes drifted to the painting on the wall, shame filling them when she saw the redhead seated on the throne, looking away as if scolded.

"Rennala…"

"It's a silly thing, isn't it? The heart. So easy to break and easier still to lead you on fool's errands." Rennala chuckled in self-deprecation, resting her chin upon the palm of her hand. "Until recently, I was but a raving lunatic, I likely still am, but you have given me the lucidity to decide my fate from here on out, it is only right that I…I…" her words faltered, a glitter of unshed tears in her eyes. "I truly am a witch, aren't I? To covet something new while still mourning for that which I have lost. I would repulse anyone, unworthy as I am."

Slowly, Naruto took a step towards Rennala, who closed her eyes as her shoulders began to shake.

"Radagon, he left me with little more than a word. Radahn and Rykard, driven mad by actions their own and others, and little Ranni…every time I see Milicent, I can't help but see the daughter I lost."

Naruto stood before her, silently setting Kaimon down next to Rennala's catalyst.

The queen hiccuped, "And yet still my heart wants while knowing that you will never-"

Naruto slowly took hold of Rennala's chin and tipped it up, her eyes flying open to stare into his deep blue orbs, glittering with gold stars in the candlelight. He held her there for a second before gingerly leaning forwards and gently pressing his lips to hers. Her eyes widened, shocked into silence from the action before she slowly reciprocated, their lips meshing together until they found a rhythm, no words passing between them until, at some unsaid signal, they pulled apart. Drew back now, his pink lips only inches from to her painted red ones.

Now it was Naruto's turn to speak, and when he did, the world listened.

"I'm not gonna pretend that I know absolutely everything you've been through, but I know what it's like to lose everything, and how sometimes you feel that you don't deserve to have joy if you think you've failed. These things I know. What I also know is… I care about you. I don't know if that is love or simple attraction, if my heart races to see you smile from lights flashing in my head or some great cosmic plan. But as it stands, we have no room for what we don't know and do, only that we will find out."

Manoeuvring around her, Naruto sat on the bed beside Rennala and offered no complaint when the older woman rested her head on his shoulder.

"We are not puppets; we will not dance to the strings of unseen gods. We are the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls, and if you desire to seek comfort from me and I of you, we do so because we are better because of it, not worse. No more dancing on strings. We can choose to be better-no; we must be better. For the sake of our children."

The pair slowly but surely tilted back on the four-poster bed, content at each other's closeness.

They were both unsure where this would lead them, but they would try to make it work.

So they swore.

(.0.0.0.)

Whatever blissful sleep had been delivered onto the pair was short-lived as Naruto was awoken to the sound of a fist thundering against the door to Rennala's door.

Blinking in confusion and reaching up to wipe the sleep from the corners of his eyes, Naruto noticed that it was still the dead of night outside, the light of the full moon pooling at the foot of the bed through the balcony. It took him a second to remember the situation that had brought him to this unfamiliar place, a realisation that crashed to the fore of his mind when he felt someone shift beside him on the bed.

Rennala sat up slowly, still clad in her purple evening dress, her hair a little messy but no less beautiful in the light of her namesake. Naruto felt his cheeks darken when he noticed that he was staring and swung his legs over the end of the bed, mentally checking over his own clothes in a panic.

"Keep your panties on, you just fell asleep next to each other, almost disgustingly vanilla if you ask me," Kurama's, low voice warbled in wry amusement.

Naruto sighed in relief-then his brows knit together into a thick line. 'What do you mean disgustingly vanilla?'

Instead of rising to Naruto's provocation, Kurama's response was delivered with complete seriousness. "That can wait, there is something foul at the front gate."

Knowing not to mistrust his partner when he was being serious, Naruto rose from the bed, stooping to pick up the sheathed Keimon by its strap, turning to address Rennala as his own negative emotion sensing confirmed what Kurama felt. "There's something at the front gate."

"In the dead of night?" the raven-haired queen replied, eyes narrowing as she too rose to her feet, whatever embarrassment she may have felt about the last few hours banished in favour of pragmatism. With a gesture, her catalyst rose from the floor and flew into her hand. Not wasting any time, the pair strode to the chamber door and opened it, revealing a frantic Moongrum who was only half dressed, his clothes a mess of mail and cloth, probably hadn't had time to pull his clothes on in a hurry to get here. "What ails ye, loyal Moongrum?" Rennala asked in a clipped voice.

"Knights at the gate, my Queen. A host of them by my measure." Moongrum wheezed out, his breath coming in shallow gasps, he must have run from the gatehouse all the way to the top of the academy to tell them. "I tried to find ser Naruto, but…oh," his eyes alighted on the blonde who stood behind the tall queen, "I see…."

Naruto ignored the urge to look at his shoes at the telling note in the old knight's words, but Rennala took it in stride.

"What do these knights seek?" Rennala took the moment that Moongrum used to catch his breath to wave her hand through the air, looking progressively more annoyed, then muttered about taking the defensive wards down under her breath.

"They're asking for your presence as well as the immediate surrender of what they demand."

"And what're they asking for?" Naruto asked, feeling a cloying anticipation crawl up from the small of his back.

Moongrum grimaced, "The children."

For a fraction of an instant, less than a shadow of a moment, Naruto caught something in the corner of Rennala's eyes, framed in half profile from where he stood. Fury. Abject, righteous and insane fury, it was gone as soon as it had appeared, but Naruto had seen it.

He was much the same, he felt his hands snap into fists and killing intent flowing off him in waves, and it was only the taller woman's following words that got him back on track.

"Moongrum," Rennala ordered, strengthening up to her full height over the elderly knight, "Find Boggart and the sweetings and see them to the shelter beneath the main lecture hall. If anything comes through that is not us, cut it to scarlet and crimson. I would know the identity of mine foes by the stains you leave on their clothes."

Naruto felt a blonde brow rise to his hairline at the steely order, looking at Rennala even as Moongrum snapped off a sharp blow and sprinted off into the academy.

"Are you okay?" he asked the woman quietly.

Rennala faced Naruto with a surprisingly cruel smile, though the emotion was not directed at him, "Yes, Naruto, for the first time in a long time."

Naruto held her look before nodding, thumping a fist to the palm of his hand, "Then let's see who's knocking on our door."

Rennala preened, enjoying the sound of 'our' before snapping her fingers, her body covered in a shroud of glowing blue particles. "But first, permit me to get dressed for the occasion!"

In no time at all, the pair strode towards the gatehouse with purpose, now hearing the furious banging at the wooden doors that stood up to the abuse valiantly. Naruto mainly appeared the same, save for the fact that he had strapped Kaimon across his back; he was nowhere near tall enough to have the longsword anywhere near his waist.

Rennala, on the other hand, was a sight to behold, donning a crushed velvet royal blue coat trailing to her knees that was Jacquard with gilded representations of constellations across its shoulder pads. Under this was a figure-hugging tunic in red adorned in glintstone with small tassets at her waist, matching the pair of gauntlets that seamlessly melded with her frilled cuffs. Her lower body sported a pair of slightly puffed breeches tucked into gleaming black riding boots, prioritizing movement. She accessorized the ensemble with a dark blue and red shoulder cape affixed to her right shoulder, and a more functional version of her crown sat atop her head.

Able to hear voices clearly now, Naruto gave a sharp whistle and was unsurprised to see Radagon's Red Wolf bound in to walk beside them, his eyes dilated and furs standing on end. He knew enemies were at hand as the trio arrived at the front gates of the academy.

"Come on out!" A mighty fist banged against the door. "We know who you are! More importantly, we know what you are! No need for this to get bloody! Just give us the girls and-"

The door slammed open and smacked them in the face, sending them sprawling into their fellows. Down they went, clutching their bloody nose.

Naruto loomed over them, eyes blazing like twin coals in his skull. "Bit late for that…."

The blonde looked over those that stood before them, jaw set in a firm grimace. Camped out in front of the gatehouse was a host of perhaps three hundred of varying sizes and shapes. The majority of them were obviously knights, adorned in orange and green surcoats featuring the twin sigils of the Erdtree and a lion in addition to chipped plate helms with plumes. The majority of them carried heavy brass-coloured tower shields with either pitted greatswords or weathered partisans.

They had seen better days, but owing to the fact that the knights made up two-thirds of the enemy force, his eyes and ears picked up far more piteous creatures standing against them. "So these are the grafted that Boggart told me about," Naruto ground out, spying scores of patchwork men, great hulks of mismatched limbs grafted haphazardly to putrefying flesh, their hands wrapped around assortments of weapons. "They're disgusting."

While many had talked about the horrifying nature of Grafted Scions or the skittering Fingercrawlers that even now watched them from the edges of the formation, Naruto could feel their true nature, and it disgusted him. All of them were nothing more than lingering vestiges of what once might have been called human, many of them having their souls worn away to simple beasts piloting twisted bodies at the whim of bestial rage magnified for every mutated limb that had been crudely grafted to their bodies.

"They even brought their dogs. How quaint." Kurama commented macarbly, the titanic forms of truly massive Runebears held at bay by chains lashed to tamed Fingercrawlers, clawing at the ground in frustration and looking for a scrap.

Naruto eyed the surroundings before taking a deep breath and calling out across the lakes, "I'm only gonna say this once. Leave this place! We've no quarrel with you."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure we do!"

The sea of knights slowly parted to admit the one who had spoken, a tall and misshapen figure that limped more than walked. His body was disproportionately proportioned compared to his seemingly small head with its mane of lank silver hair. He was swathed in a mouldering green set of robes that barely contained his bulk, a tarnished gold circlet around his head that failed to glint in the light of the moon.

Rennala stared at the enemy leader before she let out a gasp of realization, "Godrick? Is it truly you?"

The sound of chipped and broken teeth grinding together reached Naruto's ears, Godrick's voice was hoarse to listen to. "Be silent, pretender Queen; we have come to nip your insurrection in the bud before it begins!"

Rennala balked, "Insurrection? And they call me mad! We have no quarrel with you or your knights!"

Naruto held up a hand to halt the conversation. "Crank it back a notch, big guy, no one's looking for a fight."

Godrick levelled a glare at Naruto, and the blonde saw for the first time that the interloper's eyes glowed with a golden internal light, a familiar shade of gold that put him on edge. "Hold thy tongue, neophyte, lest your queen rip it from you for insulting an honoured lord. I am Godrick, heir to the golden lineage and lord of all that is golden!"

Naruto's jaw snapped shut in chagrin, he had never been fond of these types. "And what, God-dick, brings you out here in the middle of the night when we were trying to sleep...?"

Scowling, Godrick shifted his robes and allowed a sizeable golden axe to emerge from within moth-bitten cloth, the arm far too long to belong to a normal human; in fact, Naruto could spot at least four separate biceps had been grafted together to affix it to his mangled elbow. He slammed the weighted axehead into the waterlogged ground with a splash.

"Do not pretend, thou are gathering Great Runes in this heretical bastion of magic! You intend to take Limgrave from me!" Godrick raved, the glow in his eyes growing brighter.

Rennala nearly guffawed outright, then caught herself. "What nonsense is this? I would never do such a thing!"

"No, no, no, no, no!" the misshapen madman stomped his feet like some towering toddler. "You don't get to speak, Witch! I am the blood of your betters! Give unto me the five great runes and the children, and I might consider letting you walk away!" he ended with a leering chuckle that instinctively made Naruto step in front of Renala.

"Do you have things handled here?" he asked, not turning to face the Carian Queen. "I'm gonna teach tall, green and gormless here some manners."

Her reply was quick as it was without pity, "Worry not for me, I only ask that you return in one piece."

Naruto grinned.

He launched himself forwards with such force that the ground cratered under him, a shockwave blasting in his wake as he threw himself at the crowned cretin. Drawing his fist back, Naruto thrust it forwards in a blindingly fast straight punch hoping to catch the legacy of Godfrey in the chest. The thin-blooded demigod widened his eyes and, with a dexterity that Naruto did not think he possessed, managed to manoeuvre the weighted head of his golden axe into the path of Naruto's fist at the last possible moment. Naruto's punch struck with the force of a charging bull, sinking into the gilded steel of the axe and driving its heft into Godrick. The meanest demigod was obviously unprepared for such a ferocious attack and doubled over around the hit before physics asserted itself, sending him blasting backwards a breakneck velocity.

He knocked several dozen of his knights and scions flying into the air as he pirouetted backwards through the air, flying over the shallow lake's surface. Snarling, he attempted to right himself in the air, but Naruto was already upon him again, sprinting across the surface of the water faster than Godrick flew. He lept again into the air above the demigod and delivered a kick to the jaw that propelled Godrick further away from the academy and towards the ruins of a sunken building. The silver-haired scion collided with the moss-covered edifice at terminal velocity, reducing it to shards of jagged masonry and timber, his flight barely slowed.

Naruto did not let up on this initial assault, determined to get the green-clad enemy as far away from the walls and, thus, the children as possible. Appearing below the axe-wielding wheel of cloth, Naruto let a Rasengan swirl into life in his hand, the vortex of chakra glowing before thrusting it at the still airborne opponent.

Much to his surprise, Godrick twisted in the air and divested himself of his mouldy green cloak, which flapped before Naruto's eyes and obscured his view. Moulding chakra inside his lungs quickly, Naruto spat out a bullet of air that ripped the cloak to shreds, only for there to be no sight of his opponent.

Hearing a mighty yell, Naruto reacted and faced the noise, his Rasengan catching the blade of Godrick's golden axe and grinding against it for a moment before the spiralling sphere detonated, knocking his enemy away to skip across the water like a stone.

Sandal-clad feet touched down upon the surface of the water and stood atop it while Godrick landed in an unceremonious heap amidst the mud and water. As his opponent got to his feet, using the golden axe to leaver himself up like a cane, Naruto got his first full glimpse at Godrick's body. His body was a patchwork of many different types of flesh and muscle, with legs like treetrunks and a chest as broad as Naruto was tall. He could clearly distinguish the crude stitches and iron staples that affixed Godrick's neck to the body, the flesh of the head and chest, two completely different colours.

Then there were the arms. At least a dozen of them grafted across the man's shoulders and back with more connected to his elbows, watch one of them taken from a different person but all of them armed. Some held greatswords or smaller axes, others had flails and hammers, and one even held some form of whip. And in the centre of it all was the glowing concentric circles of a great rune in the heart of his chest.

Godrick sneered at Naruto, gasping for air, compared to the blonde who was breathing evenly, he looked a right mess, but the golden light in his eyes was growing stronger, the pulse from the rune quicker. "How dare you strike me! I bid thee kneel, gobshite!"

Naruto grimaced before cracking his neck, "You're no lord of mine. To be honest, it hurts to even look at you."

Sucking in air through his teeth, Godrick took hold of the heft of his axe with both primary arms and once again slammed it into the ground. "Forefathers one and all, BEAR WITNESS!" he exclaimed, and to Naruto's surprise, a small vortex of golden light and energy began to fountain from the axehead, pushing back the water.

Cracking his neck in response, Naruto felt the comforting feeling of chakra circulate through his coils before forming a Rasengan in each hand and ran towards Godrick.

He was confident that he could win without a scratch but got the feeling this abomination would go kicking and screaming.

(.0.0.0.)

Far distant from the developing situation at Raya Lucaria, Ranni the Witch sat in deep thought, her four mannequin's hands steepled and tapping out a hollow tune against one another. She had been slowly listening to reports from Blaidd these last few days about his observing her mother and the blonde interloper that had apparently restored her mother's sanity.

'Truly?' Ranni tilted her head. 'He's taken in a second child, you say? You did well to report this, mine shadow…' she thought to herself, dimly aware of her surroundings. Her shadow and servant's stories of the goings on in her old home painted a bizarre but not entirely unappealing image.

She found herself curious, but curiosity was tempered by caution.

What manner of madman had mother taken into her home?

She wanted to see. She wanted to know-

She felt a familiar tug at the back of her conscience that she knew to be Blaidd calling upon her to deliver a report. Offering no resistance, she allowed a portion of her caution to be drawn along the line of sorcery until she was sure that she was in two places at once.

In her mind's eye, she could all but see the statuesque form of her great wulfen servant looking quite comical, holding up her doll to his face to speak, but that humour quickly faded upon seeing the worried look on the lupine maw.

"Sweet Blaidd?" she questioned. "Why do you call upon me at this hour…has something happened.

"Aye, a great many things and none of them good," Blaidd replied, his tone tense; she could make out his ears flapping in a fight or flight response.

"Speak then, and tell me of the calamity that I fear you hold for me…."

The wolf man's face grimaced, "Godrick the Grafted has laid siege to Raya Lucaria with his entire host, at least five scores from what I can see."

Ranni shot bolt upright in her little wooden throne. "What business does that ignominious kin of mine have attacking? Speak plainly, sweet Blaidd; I need details!" she barked in a rare, unladylike decisiveness.

Chuffing at the order, Blaidd answered as concisely as he could. "Haven't the faintest clue what possessed the lord of Grafting, but their forces laid siege at midnight. They've yet to breach the castle walls, nor will they any time soon if the blonde and your mother have anything to say about it."

"My mother is on the field!?"

"Aye, and making mincemeat of Godrick's knights with your father's blasted red hound! The blonde faces Godrick one-on-one, but it's hard to see what is going on from…" he trailed off, looking over his shoulder as a boom shook his surroundings.

"From what?"

Ranni watched the armoured wolf give the lupine analogue for a sheepish grin, "From all the explosions when they clash."

Taking a deep, if unneeded, breath to steady her thoughts and emotions, Ranni ran through her options before finally concluding on what she wanted to do. She gave Blaidd a shrewd look before speaking, "Blaidd, aid them in battle; our intervention is long overdue."

Blaidd nodded instantly before drawing his greatsword and hefting it to his shoulder, Ranni let the connection to the doll fade seconds later.

Silence reigned in the tower for a minute before Ranni silently rested her face in her hands.

(.0.0.0.)

When the retinue of the Grafted had first stepped foot into Liurnia to march for the distant academy, none of them could have foreseen the figurative meat grinder they were marching into. While those of them that still clung to sanity were keenly aware that they weren't at the top of the food chain, they were confident enough in the task that their lord had presented to them.

After all, they were an entire host of knights with support from the grafted and even brought with them their warbeasts. What hope could a mad woman and a vagabond have to oppose them?

At least, that was how Rennala interpreted the confused wail that had emerged from the knight before her when she had blown a fist-sized hole in his chest, stepping aside to allow him to clatter into the quickly growing pile of corpses, dead before he hit the ground.

Sweeping her catalyst through the air, she formed a half dozen magical sigils in the air from which teal-coloured lightning crackled in challenge at a team of knights that attempted to rush at her with their swords and partisans held high. The sigils glowed before discharging their payloads, electricity arcing across the surface of the water and hitting five of the less familiar foes, the sixth smart enough to jump clear of the water and was thus spared the cruel fate of his fellows. The five knights came to shuddering stops, lightning crackling from the inside of their armour, sending them into spasms and pained screams, the smell of cooked meat wafting from their now smoking forms.

They would not suffer for very long, Rennala formed a spectral greatsword that was twice as long as she was tall, its length a gleaming pale blue. The sword whipped horizontally with such speed that it seemed to be weightless, bifurcating the five stunned invaders through their waists, their innards spilling out to stink sourly in the night.

The sixth knight, obviously more experienced than his brothers, avoided this fate and charged at the Queen, using his gilded tower shield to block one of her arcane bolts. The force behind the attack was still strong enough to break his stride, so his follow-up Partisan thrust was weak. Rennala caught the arrow-shaped head with her catalyst and, with a flick of her wrist and pulse of blue light, sent it to bang into the tower shield with a chime. The light ran down from the catalyst along the partisan and into the shield, feelers of arcane brilliance reaching out to snag the remnants of magic from her initial spell bolt and rearranging them on the inside of the shield.

She spied the look of confused, then terrified eyes through the thin visor of his helm, having seen a magical circle take form on the inside of his shield, likely knowing it was too late. A dozen thick, half-metre-long glintstone spikes formed on the inside surface of the shield, mangling the knight's arm who desperately attempted to unlatch it. He did not expect Rennala's boot to stamp down on the shield, sending all the spikes into his torso and nailing the tower shield to his chest, causing him to crumple limply into the muck.

Rennala took a deep breath, surveying the battlefield. It had been some time since she had walked the field of battle, since she had hung up her arms to be a teacher rather than a warrior of arcane might. She knew she was diminished compared to the young woman from so long ago, but as the Queen looked into the scared faces of these knights and the way they shook, she knew something to be true.

'They are no warriors of Radagon. I did not fall to the Erdtree once, nor will these vagabonds make me consider the prospect again.' she thought, eyeing a Grafted Scion that stepped forwards.

"Throw down your arms, Witch Queen! We seek supplication, not bloodshed!" the Scion yelled, surprisingly composed given his otherwise mad body.

Blue eyes narrowed to flinty chips of ice. The nerve of this thing…

A distant explosion drew her attention, far away, in the heart of the lakes, she could see great towers of water exploding upwards like geysers, glints of gold and blue in their heart. Naruto battled with Godrick, and from her measure, he was giving the ill-bred little crr a proper thrashing. To protect the children, their home.

Her.

Rennala felt her blood warm at the sight.

Moreso at what followed.

With an icy face and boiling blood, she took a step off the entry rampart onto the surface of the lake, walking atop the water, not unlike the miraculous ability of the distant Shinobi.

"You come to my home with friction and strife; you demand supplication to your beggar of a lord and ask I hand over those children who seek succor in my halls." Rennala stepped forwards, and the enemies stepped back in trepidation, her catalyst snapping to a ready stance at her side. "And yet now as we resist, as my… guardian gives your lord a drubbing that his mother should have given him long ago; as I rend your fellows to mulch, now you ask for no bloodshed." Raising the catalyst before her face, she fixed the multitude with a deadly stare. "On my name as Rennala, Full Moon Queen of Caria, Headmistress of Raya Lucaria and greatest foe of Radagon of the Golden Order, hear my words!"

A large white magical circle emerged from her feet, glowing brightly and giving Rennala an unearthly quality.

"None of you shall leave this place alive!"

That was enough for many of the more cowardly members of the retinue.

They threw down their weapons and turned on their heels, beating a speedy retreat across the lakes with their tails between their legs.

A red blur caught them before they had any time to notice, let alone react, a spectral golden sword corkscrewed along the lines of fleeing troops, a furred sickle threshing wheat. Limbs and head went flying to sink into the water and muck by the time the blur stilled enough for the host to see the red wolf of Radagon leaning down to bite the throat out of a now legless brother. The wolf looked up at the group, gore and odour dripping from its long fangs, before giving a chilling howl and launched a barrage of glintstone comets into their backline.

The wolf was more a sheepdog than a wolf in that instant, running down any of the regiment that dared run and driving what was left towards Rennala like lambs to the slaughter.

The scions let out fearful roars as reality set in, clanking their shields and announcing their curses. Fingercrawlers and Runebears were slipped from their reigns and charged at the Queen, intent on ripping her to pieces.

"Come, Oath-sworn Dragon!" Rennala intoned, driving the bladed tip of her catalyst into the magic circle at her feet. A tide of white-blue motes of light surged around her before taking the form of a large spectral dragon that roared in challenge at the sprinting enemies.

It charged to meet them, the muscles of its sinewy neck and tail whipping left and right to send knights and scions away in broken masses of flesh and metal. Two Runebears attempted to claw and bite at the Dragon, but their attacks did very little to its semi-corporeal nature, though the same could not be said for them when in a show of surprising speed, the Dragon's clawed hand struck out to pick up one of the bears while pinning the other under its foot. The bear roared at the Dragon valiantly but was silenced when the Dragon's own deafening roar overpowered it, then locked its jaws around its upper body and bit it clean in half, the other half falling to crush a Fingercrawler.

Seeing its fellow so utterly destroyed, the other Runebear under the Dragon's foot let out a mournful call and redoubled its efforts to escape the spectral reptile's hold. Its efforts would be for nought, the Dragon opened its mouth and breathed scolding blue fire down upon the bear, cooking it instantly and angled the stream to cremate anything before it.

Rennala took no pleasure in the death of the beasts, but she certainly enjoyed driving glinstone comets into the hearts and brains of every single grafted that shambled in her direction. Jumping into the air, she glided over the battlefield, raining down lunar hellfire upon the knights and other abominations that Godrick had brought to her home. Some brave -or foolish- souls attempted to snipe her from the air with arrows, but she either swatted them aside or briefly let her body dissolve into mist to let them pass through her.

"Ye who think that you can take more from me than I have already lost, quail under my Moon!" Rennala shouted, high above the battlefield, raising her catalyst above her head and channelling the totality of her magic, far above her formed a dense orb of magic, quickly solidifying into the pitted surface of the moon. Sweeping her arm down, the man-sized representation of Luna fell upon the battlefield with a terrifying slowness, just long enough to make those still alive think that they may have had a chance to outrun it.

When it hit the ground the entire battlefield was enveloped in a blast of white light.

(.0.0.0.)

The cavern shook above Sellen as she sprinted through it.

Oh, dear. She was fairly certain the entire academy must have been felt that last attack.

Sellen winced. Nope. Not getting involved in that madness. Whoever those fools were, they'd serve as an adequate distraction, but she wanted no part in that insanity.

Initially, she had watched on with idle curiosity as the band of knights had trekked across the lakes towards the academy, wondering what could bring them there. She had initially theorised that they may have been seeking to petition goods and supplies before embarking on the trek to Caelid and the Radahn festival, but the moment battle had broken out, that theory had guttered and died.

And much as the Sorceress hated to admit it, so too had her hopes of beating the Full Moon Queen in a straight-up battle of Sorcery. 'At least I was able to glimpse the power of the blond interloper, now all I have to do is work out how his sorceries function. Ugh, perspective Sellen! One prize at a time!'

She still maintained her desire to understand just what the mystery behind Naruto and his abilities was, but the fact that both the distraction and the fact that Rennala had taken down the wards was too good a prospect to pass up. She was too proud to admit that it was greed that spurred her sprint through the secret tunnels in the cistern beneath the academy, determined to make her way to the main library and plunder its secrets while still undefended. This was her best chance to do so, and it would be foolish not to take it.

The sound of fierce combat was all but muted by the time her masked form came to the large oaken doors to the library, bracing both arms against them to press them open.

"Oh, the mysteries you hoarded for yourself, you maddened old bint!" Sellen seethed, walking into the towering rows of books. There was so many to choose from, so much stockpiled knowledge that she was foun herself spoiled for choice. "Its not fair, not fair at all...

Passing from one shelf to another, she picked several books before tossing them to the floor, not satisfied as there was always something better. If she was going to bring back a trophy, then it would be something extraordinary, but the issue was that all knowledge was sacred.

Hidden eyes caught a glint in the shadows, and Sellen paused, entirely taken off guard. A dull glow emanated from the far corner of the library, markedly different from the glintstone she was used to. This light was an orange-gold. Approaching the glow with cautious steps, the Sorceress lifted her hands to remove her helmet, revealing a narrow, pretty face with icy blue eyes and a bobcut of feathered black hair.

"What have you hidden here for me to find…." Sellen whispered, crouching low. Whatever it was had been haphazardly shoved into the bottom-most rung of one of the many bookshelves and covered with a dusty grey cloth, but its light glowed through the threadbare material, glowing brighter the closer she got to it.

Pulling it aside, Sellen let out a shocked gasp at the sight of a familiar golden egg of crystal.

It was Rennala's Great Rune!

But what on earth was it doing here?

Common sense told the aspirant sorceress that this made no sense, that she should simply leave the egg where it lay and seek some other prize.

Alas, greed again forced her hand.

Slowly she reached up and picked up the Great Rune to inspect it, holding it up to the light to see how it refracted the world through its surface. To think that this was a crystallization of a very rule of the world. Oh, the things she could do with this, the power, prestige and knowledge from the study alone would take her decades to come into, but it was worth it!

Another explosion rocked the academy, this one much stronger and much closer to home. Realising that she may well have overstayed her welcome, Sellen made to use a cantrip to hide away the Rune in a pocket space before making her flight to the cisterns once again.

She did not consider for a moment why Rennala had hidden the Rune so mundanely, nor what interaction with the simplest of magics would cause.

The egg began to grow hot in Sellen's hands, its interior light growing incandescent until she could no longer hold the thing, dropping it to the marble floor. "Blast!" she muttered, looking at her scolded hands only to notice that whatever burns had been created had also been healed. Her narrow face turned quizzical, and she looked at the egg for a moment too long. It let out a pulse of light before tongues of golden orange light emerged from its corporeal form before surging towards Sellen.

She hastily attempted to conjure a barrier, but the Rune's energies punched through it like a brick through a plate glass window. She could only offer a curse-filled tirade as the energy whips took hold of her and gently lifted her into the air, enshrining her in a golden sphere that grew thicker with each passing second.

"No, this is…NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed, feeling the energies of the Rune penetrating her body and soul. She thrashed as much as she could, banging feverishly upon the golden walls of her prison even as they turned opaque, warmth rushing through her body as her clothes seemed to grow larger around her.

Before unconsciousness claimed her, overwhelmed by the warm light and feeling of terrifying bliss that began to unmake her from the inside out, Sorceress Sellen realized something.

This was not a prison…this was a womb.

The globe of golden light hung suspended in the air above the library for some time until, with no warning, it began to slowly break down into motes of golden light and dust. A Raya Lucaria uniform was gently lowered to the ground to rest upon a bed of warm golden particles. After a minute, a small lump began to move inside the robes until, with the lethargy of birth, a young girl's hand poked from the fabrics, slowly at first, then with an all too familiar panic, sharp uneven breaths filling the halls of the otherwise silent in the library.

The silence stretched on a moment longer. Longer now. Longer still.

At last, a tiny plaintive voice filled the void.

...why is everything bigger?

It was too much. Panic had its say. Her eyes rolled in her head and she passed right out.

Had Rennala been present, she would've laughed herself silly.

T'was a most fitting punishment for her former student...

(.0.0.0.)

Gold and blue clashed under the light of the moon.

Naruto matched Godrick blow for blow regardless of his array of misshapen limbs and weapons. Sidestepping a golden windstorm sent his way, Naruto got in close, slid under the wide sweep of the main war-axe, and let his momentum carry him over the surface of the water. A tertiary arm cracked a whip at Naruto, but instead of dodging, the Uzumaki let it coil around his arm before performing an Ukemi on a fallen tree. Shooting into the air, the arm's hold on the whip held just as Naruto had wanted it to, arcing him into the air behind Godrick before yanking the line tight.

Naruto lanced towards the legacy of gold, slamming both feet into his opponent's back in a dropkick that sent Godrick face-first into the muck with a pained grunt. Not content with grounding the enemy, Naruto took hold of the whip-bearing arm and yanked it, overextending it until it was taught, then using his foot to stamp on the elbow, breaking it with a wet crunch.

A war-hammer swung at his midsection, so he disengaged and backflipped to get distance from Godrick, who stood back up with a roar. The axe came down in an overhead strike that sent another golden typhoon at Naruto, the blonde drove his fist into the coagulation of wind and knocked it aside, sending it into the lake.

A beat of silence passed between the two, one gasping for air while the other remained silent and stony-faced.

"Where's the love of the fight?!" Godrick demanded, reaching up to pluck the broken arm from his back in a bloody pop.

Grimacing, Naruto did not reply because, in all honesty, his foe didn't deserve it. Regardless of his physical strength and confusing physiology, Godrick simply lacked the strength and speed to actually be a threat to Naruto. And while with each passing second, the demigod seemed to grow in power, there was still a literal ocean of difference between him and Naruto in terms of power.

"What's to love about taking out the trash?" Naruto remarked, drawing a furious scowl from Godrick.

"Blaggard! I am the lord of all that is golden, yet you stand before me with hair of such wondrous gold and offer resistance! Insufferable, unforgivable! First, you threaten to invade me, and now you resist me!"

"Oh for fuck sake-" Naruto gripped his face, keeping his temper in check, "Get your fifteen generations inbred head out of your troll's ass! Who the hell told you that we were gonna attack you? I didn't even know who you were until tonight!"

"More lies! Ignorant that you stand before a lord yet still offering naught but lies and filth! Tell me, boy was your mother's slid stuffed with mud? Cause you strike me as one born from it-"

Naruto's fist thundered into the side of Godrick's temple with such ferocity that it shattered the grafted's crown, his body rolling backwards before coming to a stop against a fallen tree. His eyes glowed red-gold with slit pupils, incensed for a moment, on the verge of letting go of his restraint. He still had answers to get.

A Rasengan formed in Naruto's hand before it quickly turned white, three additional Rasengan's begging to orbit around it.

Godrick got to his feet, his face swollen and broken. He coughed up globs of blood that he caught with his hand and looked at, though Naruto noticed something off about it. Holding up his hand, Godrick flashed Naruto a sardonic smile; missing most of his teeth, his blood was no longer red but a dark gold. "See then, curr, the Order doth bless me with the mark of kingship, my blood thickens to be closer to the Eternal!"

Naruto's eyes widened, seeing the increasing golden pulse of light from the Rune on Godrick's chest, he knew this feeling. "You, you met the golden voice? That's what sent you here!"

"Blasphemy! I am my own lord, none commands me!" Godrick spat, shouldering his axe with a wince. "I was… informed of your treachery by the most glittering gold. And I shall take all that I can to get back to the capital and the light of the Erdtree!"

Godrick pointed the end of his axe at Naruto, who looked at him askance. "Then just go there, you damn creep!"

"I… would not sit upon the throne of Elden Lord without the strength to."

"More like you're ass wouldn't fit in the seat…." Naruto shook his head, "Do you think your people are gonna take well to your ugly ass ruling over them, knowing that at any second you're gonna rip off an arm or a leg and stick it where the sun don't shine!"

Godrick snarled before his glowing gold eyes gained a perverse glint to them, "of course not… your body, on the other hand…."

Naruto glared, "What?"

"Hmmmm, yeeeessssssss, that will do just fine!" He hefted the axe into both hands, running his six-fingered left arm along its length with a toothless smile, "A golden body already encrusted with great runes, fit to sit upon the throne. I will have it!" Godrick raved, madness shining through the paranoia, beginning to stomp towards Naruto with the axe held out in front of him. "I'll hold it in trust for you, little pissant, such an honour to graft my head in place of yours!"

He bounded forwards now with the lope of a beast, frothing at the mouth with white foam and golden blood. Naruto raised his hand to meet the beast, not a man, in a cross but was beholden to something new entering the fray.

At the moment that Godrick made his lunge, a figure leapt into the air above him from the destroyed remnants of a tower, their body illuminated by the light of the moon. Tall, broad, armoured and above all else, a wolf's head. The wolfman howled valiantly and swung his great zweihander down in a frontflip arc that landed squarely at the elbow joint of Godrick's arm where the armour was at its weakest.

"...!?" Godrick roared in pained confusion, dropping his axe and looking in maddened shock at the interloper.

The wolfman did not stop, leaning his entire weight against the sword until, with a sickening crunch, it lopped the elongated limb clean off. Seeing his chance, Naruto rushed in and thrust his arm forwards, a chakra arm extending from his right hand to carry the planetary Rasengan into the heart of Godrick's chest. The spheres ground against the agonized creature, twisting his hardy troll-flesh like a baker mixing a cake, blood both red and gold fountaining from the impact point. Naruto pushed, the trio of Rasengans were sucked into their parent before it expanded and enveloped Godrick's entire body in a tunnelling beam of blue-silver power that picked up Godrick with no resistance, carving a seventy-meter smooth trench into the lakebed.

Letting out a breath, Naruto strengthened up to face the wolfman, who let out an appreciative whistle at the blonde's attack.

Turning to face him, the wolfman held up a hand in placation, palms out, "Peace, friend, I'm no foe of yours."

"I got that when you lopped off his arm, but you made quite the entrance," Naruto replied, eying the golden axe under the water, still clutched in the severed six-fingered hand.

"Well, you seemed to have the situation well in hand, if you'll pardon the pun." the other man - wolf?- chuffed. He fixed the shorter man with a lupine smile, "Name's Blaidd. You could say I'm an old friend of the family."

Nodding in acceptance for now, Naruto turned back to the end of the trench, where an indistinct lump began to pull itself from the muck.

"Surely he couldn't have survived that?" Blaidd questioned, shouldering his Zweihander, "I was sure that you could fit what was left of him into a tinderbox."

"Assholes are either stubborn or soft, this guy is definitely the former." Naruto quipped, but his eyes were anything but amused. "I don't think it's entirely his idea to keep getting back up."

Blaidd gave a confused sideways look as they both watched the lump stand up straight. Godrick was…it wasn't pretty. All of his arms were either broken or missing, one of his legs was snapped against its own axes while the other shook under his weight. His chest was nothing but a deep corkscrew of torn flesh and bone, the Great Rune glinting from the centre of the hole. Most disturbing of all was his face.

Rather the lack of one.

The force of the twisting tempest that Naruto had thrown him through had succeeded in completely degloving the skin from Godrick's face, leaving nothing but a bloody red skull that oozed rivulets of golden blood and had a pair of glowing gold eyes, like stars dipped in pools of pitch.

"Ihhh aaaaa loooorrrdddd oooo alllll thaatttt ishhhh gooooolllllddddeeennnn!"

Naruto winced at the ghoulish display, but his eyes locked in on the Great Rune at the heart of his chest, he could see feelers of golden light reaching out from its depths to line Godrick's body, plucking and pulling ruined limbs to move even though they were little more than mulch and bone chits. Dancing to the whims of an unseen puppeteer.

"What's the play?" Blaidd asked, readying his sword.

Naruto held out his hand to stop Blaidd before reaching up and grabbing the hilt of Kaimon strapped to his back, "I'm going to cut his strings." he said with a resigned air.

Popping the Odachi, Naruto slowly drew it from its sheath and felt once again that unnatural yet familiar feeling waft from its black blade. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Blaidd shiver despite the fact it was a warm night, the source quite obviously in his hand. Naruto held the blade aloft and noted idly that it did not reflect the light of the moon and, on a whim, let his chakra run into it. The edge came alive in his hand, vibrating in his and as an aura of blackness rose from Kaimon's blade, like thick ink flowing through the clearest water.

He was no swordsman, but with an unearthly sureness, he knew this was the tool for the job.

He stepped forwards, begging to walk towards his suffering yet mad foe, strolling before upping it to a jog, then a run before it was a full-blown sprint. Thrusting Kaimon, its edge facing the stars, Naruto plunged the sword to the hilt into Godrick's chest, causing glowing gold blood to fountain from the wound. Naruto looked up into the creature's old and felt the echo of pity for Godrick that his life could have led him to such a deplorable state. Then with both hands, Naruto lifted the blade upwards to part flesh like paper and, in one fluid motion, split Godrick in two.

The lipless mouth opened and closed several times, and his opponent attempted to reach for Naruto, fingers nought but bones. Naruto did not resist, feeling that for the first time in a long time, Godrick's mind was at ease. He felt the bony tips touch to his head before coming away to bring something in front of his quickly dulling eyes. The blonde realized what it was, glinting in the light of the moon were strands of his sunny blonde hair.

"...gold…"

Godrick let the golden strands slip from his fingers and toppled backwards, pitching into the lake, eyes no longer seeing.

Naruto gently exhaled and gazed upon his fallen foe; it had been an easy fight against a pathetic man driven to an ignominious end, but he couldn't deny that he felt that the demigod was being used. Idly, he lifted Kaimon and looked at the blade and frowned thoughtfully, there was something stuck to the sword. Looking closer, he recognized it as Godrick's Great Rune, impaled on the blade's length.

"Such a trifling little thing." he mused. Wonder what if is...?

His sixth sense blared a warning.

"Huh?"

The Anchor Rune glowed brilliant gold before detaching from Kaimon and streaking towards Naruto's chest. His free arm swept up to intercept but the blasted thing swept under his limb and slammed home before he could do anything to protect himself. His eyes bulged and let out a silent scream as the Rune burned a hole through his clothes and felt again that feeling of molten metal being run through his veins.

He collapsed to one knee, senses overloading and unable to hear Kurama's roars of warning.

Oh, there came the floor-

Naruto crashed face-first into the lake's surface, his body unresponsive.

The last thing he registered before the darkness of unconsciousness took him was the visage of a beautiful woman descending towards him, silhouetted by the moon.

Were one but to listen, they might hear the Greater Will howling impotently in cosmos.

A/N: Aaaaand scene.

Hope you enjoyed this, we worked real hard on 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...well, I'll not continue it. Every bit of feedback helps. Reviews are the fuel which keeps me writing in these crazy times. With my tight schedule, 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!

Reviews are my lifeblood. Without them, I cannot write.

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...Revieeeeew, Would You Kindly?

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And enjoy the previews.

As ever:

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!

PLOT DETAILS AHOY!

YE BE WARNED!

Get ready to smile~!

Obvious references are obvious~!

(POTENTIAL!) Previews! What can I say? We've been busy.

"Feel like I got hit by a truck...

Rennala smiled thinly. "Hello, Blaidd. So kind of you to visit after all these years after I thought thee dead. So kind indeed.

Blaidd certainly didn't seem to think so. "Right then, I'll just be on my way-

A staff slammed into the wall, barring his passage.

-or not."

They gazed down at the angry girl.

...who is this sassy lost child?"

Melina summed it up nicely. "New sister~!

Millicent groaned into her hands. "This is my life now, isn't it?

Didn't stop her from peeking through her fingers at the newcomer, though...

Well, this was humiliating.

Somewhere in her grand plan she hadn't accounted for this; being bounced on Rennala's knee like the child she now was.

"I know who thou art."

Sellen stiffened.

"...and I must say, I'm rather enjoying thy comeuppance. Did'st thou think to fool me?"

"..." Her mouth opened and closed like a guppy.

Rennala preened. "There's the Sellen I knowth, so sure she knows more than her teachers, so surprised when they prove her wrong."

"W...why the facade then! Of this...childish bliss!" Sellen grumbled.

"Thou art a brat, Sellen...but one I am proud of. Consider this...a centuries comeuppance for being a bad student!"

"I'd rather you throw me to the wolf..."

"Oh he'll be joining us for the family painting, though thou shalt sit upon thy father's lap instead."

The angry pout that followed was legendary.

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!

Looking forward to chatting with you all~!

R&R~!