Well, everyone, it's official – I'm going back to school! And on my job's dime too!
To be more specific, my place of employment has this Guild program that offers to pay the entirety of the tuition for employees who want to go back to school, most if not all of which is done online. As part of my goal to try and better myself even a little bit this year, I joined the program and my application was recently approved. So long as things go well, which they hopefully should, then I will be starting my first course this March or so.
Given that the program is described as self-paced, I'm not entirely sure just yet what sort of schedule awaits me or how much time it will require from me, but I just thought you all should know now in case updates in the future likely end up taking longer to be posted. Though my goal is, again, to focus on myself some more, I do still intend to continue writing fanfics for as long as I can so this is simply me doing my due diligence of keeping you all up to date.
Wish me luck, guys!
Now then, other than that, whew, what a wild start to 2023, it seems what with all the events in the news nowadays. Seriously, be safe out there everyone. Live your lives as best as you can and as joyfully as possible too… but always be sure to be as vigilant as you can. A hell of a thing to balance, I know, but still I wish you all the best anyways.
As for this fic… yeah, I have no words, ha ha. As much as I would love to talk shop about it and maybe drop some hints of some things to come, I think it might be better to keep things close to the vest for now and just soldier on with my writing.
That said, wow, it still amazes me to see the response this fic has been getting! The crossover section for Elden Ring is still pretty young and new, so to see this fic get as many favs and follows as it has been is nothing short of mind-blowing to me. I'll do my best to keep you all entertained!
Now, let's get onto the chapter!
P.S. As usual, please consider buying any of my books, sold on most platforms such as Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Apple, and more! Universal links to samples can be found on my profile page, just remove the spaces first!
P.P.S. Got Witch on the Holy Night finally... and I have to ask, have there been any fics done with Aoko, Sojuurou or Alice as the main characters done? Because they seriously have fic potential, easily just as much as all those other fics where Shirou, EMIYA or Shiki Tohno end up as the main characters. Hell, I think even Lugh Beowulf can somehow make for a good MC somehow! Ha ha, the fic ideas never end for me!
P.P.P.S. Please read the AN at the end (duh) of this chapter!
Chapter 11
The Tarnished rode ever onwards, not once dropping his guard from atop Torrent. Even his faithful steed seemed ready to put on a burst of power should it be required. The ever reliable spirit had been with him through some very tight and dangerous spots back in the Lands Between, be it in the midst of some frantic battles or traversal through some very dangerous and hard to reach areas. The experience gained from those times were clearly showing through in Torrent's movements, muscles tense.
They traveled at least eight miles without issue, not a single enemy in sight… and yet the Tarnished only readied his Uchigatana.
He could sense them better now – creatures altered by an outer god. Its thick and invasive influence could be felt even from this distance… and considering the putrid, bloody 'feel' to it, he was absolutely certain he would soon be encountering the new followers of the Formless Mother.
And if they had abilities anything like the ones Mohg and his followers had possessed…
He shifted his grip slightly on his favored weapon, preparing for a swing at the first sign of trouble. He was silently quite thankful that he and Heavy Warrior's party had parted ways when they had. Not that he doubted their abilities, but them confronting the horrors from his world was not something he believed they would have been fully ready for, no matter what form this threat came in. If it had been Heavy Warrior and Female Knight, that would have been one thing, but with Scout Boy and Druid Girl around, such a scenario would have likely gone very bad since the protection of the two youngsters would need to be prioritized.
The Tarnished traveled onwards, following the dirt road through the light forest terrain until it almost gave way to plains-.
-And that had been when he could see them off in the far but still visible distance.
Five creatures in counting – goblins, their usual green skin now a dark and ominous blood red in color. Their beady yellow eyes almost seemed to glow now, such was their bloodlust both in the literal and figurative sense.
All things considered, this was a rather anticlimactic way to be coming across them but this thought was without any sense of emotion to it; the Tarnished knew well the danger the Formless Mother's influence posed through its followers. Goblins or not, this was not something he should be taking lightly.
The tainted goblins spotted him in turn and charged, shrieking in mad glee. All sense of the cowardliness that goblins usually possessed was nowhere to be seen at all as they openly brandished crude and bloodied weapons that they fully intended to use to bludgeon him with.
The distance shrank between both parties rapidly, from tens of meters away to tens of yards, then less than even that.
Once the goblins were within twenty feet of him, one of them suddenly slowed down in its charge to barf out a stream of thick and coagulated blood at him, akin to a geyser in its speed and range. But with just a slight tug to the left on Torrent's reins, the Tarnished avoided the blood by abruptly shifting to the left and then immediately dismissed Torrent as he leapt from his steed's back. Now airborne, the Tarnished sailed right over most of the goblins and landed just right before the one that had spewed blood at him.
The creature had slowed down enough to leave quite the gap between it and the rest of its little group, thus swinging his blade at this distance would've been a futile distance… normally, that is. The Tarnished had swung down his Uchigatana in midair and ended up only burying the blade into the ground, exactly as he had intended. With only a mild grunt of exertion, he maneuvered the blade to carve out a solid chunk of grass and dirt, having easily cut a few feet into the earth and then launched said chunk of earth directly into the goblin just as it had been about to leap at him.
The chunk of earth impacted hard against the goblin's face just as blood began to pour uncontrollably out of its orifices and several cuts that it had somehow obtained prior to him coming across the group. Some of this blood got on him and even through his armor, he could feel the effects of it, exactly the same as the blood magic utilized by Mohg and his followers. Exposure to enough of this blood for enough time will suddenly induce severe hemorrhaging. However, he's long since developed quite a resistance to such a dangerous effect due to all the times he's been exposed to it in the past, a resistance bolstered further by his armor. He had no need to worry so much in this particular case.
And so, unafraid, he put on a burst of speed sliced through the chunk of earth with a blinding fast swing that connected with the goblin's torso, drawing blood. Alas, the goblin proved to be surprisingly tough, having actually survived the attack and even beginning to try and recover its balance. However, a second swing finished the job as he cut upwards at an angle, severing an arm and the effects of the Uchigatana inflicting, ironically, a huge amount of blood loss on the goblin.
The Tarnished didn't spare the now deceased goblin a glance as he spun around and promptly sidestepped a swing of a crudely made mace from the other goblin that had occupied the rear – now front – of the little group. A backhand from him ended up breaking its jaw in addition to sending it sprawling along the ground by a good few yards.
The Tarnished then took a backstep or two as the other goblins now leapt into the fray, blood spewing all the while from their mouths as they tried to dogpile him. The goblin at the top of the impromptu pile rolled right off, not unlike the corrupted Albinaurics found in the blood swamps outside Mohg's palace.
He made the goblin regret this action by way of stomping hard on it in midroll, his foot connecting with the back of its skull. Its head practically burst open in an explosion of blood from the sheer strength of the stomp, further allowing the dark effect of the blood to accumulate on the Tarnished. Still, he was hardly in the danger zone just yet from the effect and so he moved in.
The other two goblins in the pile had started to get up, but it was already too late for them as the Tarnished lightly jumped and skewered them both with his blade through their torsos. They had perhaps all of a millisecond at most to let out their final cries before he then picked them up with them still stuck on the blade and let out a warrior cry and he swung the Uchigatana downwards. The goblins ended up being smashed into the ground with such force that their upper bodies were practically annihilated immediately upon impact. The ground itself wasn't spared from the strength of the Tarnished, small yet noticeable craters now formed where the goblins had struck. He then flicked his blade once, the action removing what remained of the goblins' bodies from it.
And now there was only the one goblin, whom he'd backhanded just seconds ago. Its close proximity to him earlier had prevented him from swinging his blade but now that was no longer the case. This was a fact that he demonstrated by rushing forward and doing a little spin before cutting horizontally. The goblin, having been in the middle of shooting a glob of blood his way, only succeeded in coating itself with its own blood as its upper body flew off and landed on the ground a few yards away.
And just like that, the battle was over…
…Or rather, the first of what would likely be several.
The Tarnished grimaced as he could sense a somewhat larger pack of goblins further down the road he'd been traveling. The five he had so swiftly dispatched just now had merely been the ones who had moved faster than the rest of their brethren.
He was hardly surprised by such a fact. After all, goblins only ever truly attacked when they had a significant numbers advantage, something that evidently hadn't changed despite how much they've clearly been affected by the Formless Mother's influence.
…Sadly, the rest of the pack that he could sense didn't feel large enough to qualify as a goblin horde. That meant the pack coming his way now was merely an offshoot of the horde, albeit a large offshoot, for what little comfort that provided him.
That he couldn't sense the rest of the horde meant that they had gone elsewhere. Whether the 'elsewhere' in question was back to their current lair or perhaps to the nearest settlement was unknown. In any case, the horde was nowhere near his current location, which was already very worrisome.
Nonetheless, all he could do was the same thing he's always done in life: take things just one step at a time.
The Tarnished reached into his inventory and pulled out a Stanching Bolus, specifically one of the inferior made ones he'd created as part of his little experiment just the other day. Though noticeably less effective than a genuine bolus, it was still able to swiftly purify him of the slight hemorrhaging buildup that he'd accumulated in this short time. Going into another battle against enemies could potentially kill him from blood loss alone would be foolish, even if the foes were 'merely' goblins.
Now free of his affliction, the Tarnished decided to put away the Uchigatana for now in favor of the Darkmoon Greatsword, one of his other preferred weapons if only because it symbolized his union with Ranni. Depending on how big of a pack he was about to meet, it may do him wonders to slow their movements down with the frostbite the blade was capable of generating.
Now as prepared as he would ever be for the time being, the Tarnished rolled his shoulders and promptly dashed off into the distance to meet his next challenge in the only way he knew how:
Head on.
The typical hustle and bustle within the adventurers' guild had returned, following the events of the other day. However, said mass panic had still had a lingering effect on the place, with adventurers and guild staff alike looking decidedly on guard. Whether or not these people were actively expecting a repeat occurrence or were simply still mentally recovering from what had happened was unknown.
And Goblin Slayer and his party were hardly an exception from this norm.
Within the guild's mess hall, the party of five sat at a large table and were digging into a light breakfast lunch together in relative silence.
"…Are you okay?" Goblin Slayer, ever so awkwardly, asked of High Elf Archer.
As he hadn't been here when the sudden panic had ensued, he had to have been told as much by others once he'd returned to the guild. Hearing of what had happened had put him on edge, for the timing of it all had seemingly lined up with when he'd felt so terribly offput himself back at the farm. Unfortunately, his asocial and generally awkward nature made it hard for him to properly formulate his thoughts right now and it was only with considerable effort that he was able to ask that question after all this time.
Rather than grunt and glare at him in annoyance as he'd been expecting, High Elf Archer merely snorted as she used her fork to play around mindlessly with her salad. "About as okay as could, Orcbolg," she replied quietly, thought not quite unkindly. It would seem the strange effect she'd experienced had somewhat mollified her for the time being.
"I… see. Good." Goblin Slayer then turned to look to the others. "How about you?" he asked in general.
Dwarf Shaman was also gloomy, which seemed even more wrong than the state that their sole elf party member was in. Gone was the dwarf's boisterousness and instead in its place was a thoughtful and even worried expression.
"About as well as could be, Beardcutter," Dwarf Shaman grumbled. "A lot better off than most of the others, that's for sure. Still… I've never felt the spirits act the way they had."
"How do they feel like?" asked a curious yet nervous Priestess, having finished her light lunch and now clutched tightly to her headwear, which she'd placed beside her on the bench.
Dwarf Shaman took a long swig of his fire wine as he clearly pondered how to word his response. He took so long to do so, however, that even Goblin Slayer couldn't help but share in Priestess' obvious concern.
Finally, the dwarf finished his swig and let out a single word response. "Terrified."
Thanks to how subdued the atmosphere was in the mess hall, it seemed as though that single word drifted throughout the very air, for Goblin Slayer could vaguely make out other adventurers there seemingly slumping or tensing in response to Dwarf Shaman's reply.
"Yeah, I bet," spoke High Elf Archer in a quiet tone. She finally resumed eating her salad, but without the same gusto she normally had. "It was… it was like something from a whole other world just decided to pop up… and it sure doesn't feel friendly. Or weak. In fact, it felt outright… foreign. Alien. Wrong."
"Mm, quite a detailed description, all things considered, lady ranger," remarked Lizard Priest, having long since finished his usual wheel of cheese.
His words actually got High Elf Archer to snort with just a bit more energy than before. "Comes with being an elf, especially a high elf – we've got very good senses when it comes to nature." However, the miniscule smile Lizard Priest's words had brought to her face now vanished as she got serious again. "But honestly, I don't think anything I could say does that thing's presence justice. I could shout out how wrong it felt all I want… but it'll just sound like an understatement the whole time."
"…Is there anything you think can be done?" Goblin Slayer asked.
His party's – his friends' – collective reaction was one of surprise to his words. The young man couldn't fathom why that would be the case.
For so long, he always felt so unbelievably antsy when not really doing anything. Why, there'd been some times in the past as a child where he'd felt as if the very ground would swallow him if he stayed in one place for too long. It was a sensation he'd eventually learned to get past… only for that same sensation to now return, he realized, and it was in response to whatever was going on now.
Why and how this was the case, he couldn't fathom – he just wasn't that smart a guy, in his own opinion.
But he was certain of at least one thing:
When something big like this happened, it wasn't just people that responded to it but literally everyone. Humans, elves, dwarfs, lizardmen, wizards, dragons, demons… and especially goblins.
Whenever there was something amiss, there would always be goblins trying to capitalize on the chaos to take from others as violently as they could manage. The petty creatures were opportunistic like that, perhaps the only real sense of intelligence that they had outside of the anomalous Goblin Paladin he and his party had encountered in the mountains in more recent times.
…Of course, his feelings aside, that didn't necessarily mean that goblins may have some significant role in this newest incident. He understood, if only on a purely intellectual level, that goblins didn't always have some involvement in every event out there.
But his instincts were telling him that something was afoot and he's learned long ago to trust his instincts.
"You… seriously think this is something we can just fix?" High Elf Archer's tone was one of incredulity, scarcely able to believe what he'd just said.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Won't know until we try, though." Goblin Slayer spoke his mind as best as he could. Now that some plan was forming in his mind, insanely vague as it currently is, he found himself better able to speak. "If nothing else, all this panic will give goblins every chance possible to do as they please."
His words got a light guffaw out of Dwarf Shaman and a chuckle from Lizard Priest.
"Ha, Beardcutter never really does change on that front, does he?"
"Indeed. Lord Goblin Slayer is, as always, a man of action. Truly respectable." Lizard Priest licked his own face with his long tongue as he spoke, a little tick of his that popped out whenever he was amused or otherwise feeling a particularly strong emotion. "Do you agree as well, our dear Priestess?"
"M-Mm!" Priestess was only able to really make that sound in response, one of true agreement.
As for High Elf Archer, the two thousand year old high elf could only sigh tiredly. "I swear, I'm getting a little déjà vu from when we first met."
"…That a bad thing?" Goblin Slayer asked with a tilt of his head.
The high elf was quiet for a few seconds before letting out another sigh, only this time it was followed by a smile. Not a face-splitting one or anything, but the smile was certainly larger than the one prior. Her long ears were even twitching a bit in response to her lifting mood.
"I guess not. If nothing else, it should do me some good to move around and take my mind off things," she replied before then narrowing her eyes. "But remember – nothing too drastic! We can only go blowing up so many caves or whatever!"
"Is that so?"
"Yes!"
The others clearly enjoyed the swift banter between Goblin Slayer and High Elf Archer, the feeling of normalcy from before seemingly returning.
In short order, they finished up their lunch and made a beeline for the reception desk. Normally, the goblin slaying quests would be posted on the board alongside all the other quests, but every now and then it was best to consult Guild Girl on the matter. Typically, whenever something of significance occurred, there would be some especially unique goblin slaying quests that would appear and it was up to Guild Girl to inform them of these things since she worked with Goblin Slayer the most out of all the guild staff.
And it would seem this wasn't an exception.
If anything…
"Goblin Slayer! Over here!"
…It seemed like this time around was an especially unique instance of such a thing.
Guild Girl had apparently been in the backrooms of the guild and as if by some lucky roll of the dice from the gods, she came rushing out with a single sheet of paper. As soon as she saw them enter the reception area, she wasted no time calling out to the silver ranked adventurer.
She waved for them to follow her and she nervously waited for them to pick up the pace before leading the party into one of the meeting rooms. Evidently, whatever was going on clearly warranted some manner of privacy.
"What is it?" Goblin Slayer began as he and his party got comfortable in the meeting room. They all stood, including Guild Girl, which was quite the surprise… and cause for worry – she wouldn't do that unless something very significant was going on. "Goblin slaying?"
"Y-Yes… but this time around… it seems quite unique," replied a tense Guild Girl.
She handed him the paper and as he began to read it, she added context to it.
A large group of goblins, colored a blood red instead of their usual green, had been going on something of a rampage not too far from the town. Still a solid day or two's worth of travel from here and mercifully in the opposite direction of where he went to and from the farm but still startlingly close all things considered.
Normally such cowardly creatures that would eagerly use their brethren as shields to ensure their own survival, these differently colored goblins had assault a village and anyone else they'd come across with outright reckless abandon that seemed in complete defiance of standard goblin behavior. Some had even been spotted moving out and about in the middle of the day and had openly attacked despite there being only a relative few in number.
That was what Guild Girl said.
As for what the paper itself said, it kept things very simple and to the point:
Blood red goblins. Attacked with borderline suicidal confidence. Were all too eager to spill as much blood as possible, without discrimination from where the blood flows from, be it their victims or even themselves.
Some travelers that had been taking another road close to the main one had been assaulted by these goblins. At least half the group had been slaughtered with the other half having managed to escape and riding without rest until they reached town. A representative of the guild, in this case being Guild Girl, had been sent out to meet with them at the local healing clinic when said survivors had frantically called for them just earlier this morning.
This hastily scribbled quest had been the end result of that meeting, a map drawn on the back of the paper to show a general location of where these goblins had been encountered.
It would seem that Goblin Slayer's feelings on the matter had been right on the money, not that even he could've anticipated this of all things.
"Are they okay?" asked an understandably horrified Priestess.
"They should live, according to the healers, but…" Guild Girl looked off to the side, seemingly haunted by something. "…They'd been scalded somehow and treatment so far hadn't been as effective as it should have been so far. The horses they'd rode here had apparently taken the worst of it and already died."
"I… see," spoke Goblin Slayer.
He once heard a phrase that went 'when it rains, it pours.' He found himself suddenly recalling that phrase and found it quite apt for this sudden situation.
But even so…
"What else can you tell us about this?" he asked.
…He is still Goblin Slayer. Where there be goblins, that is where he will go. He will exterminate them down to the last until it is done… and perhaps, finally take some measure of pride in his work. The stranger they'd met the other day had told him as much.
"I'm afraid what's listed on the paper is all that there is to know," Guild Girl replied. She sighed heavily, clearly wracking her brain for something else to work with. After ten seconds or so, she did seem to think of something. "…There is an old outpost somewhere out that way. Built back when this town was first getting its start but was abandoned a few decades ago when the town had simply grown too large for it to be of much use."
Goblin Slayer nodded. Information may clearly be quite scarce as far as the size of the goblins' forces and what their numbers are comprised of outside of these changes already listed, but this was nonetheless something he was used to dealing with.
"We'll leave immediately," he declared as he stood up, clutching the paper tightly in his right hand. He then paused for a split second, recalling how this behavior of his in the past had caused his party – mainly Priestess and High Elf Archer – to admonish him for not allowing them to voice their opinions first. To his slight surprise, however, both female members of his party remained silent on the matter.
"An old outpost, huh? Well, it sure beats mucking around in another cave this time," the sole high elf of the party quipped. Her comment got the nervous Priestess to somewhat lighten up, her soft features briefly forming a smile.
"Hmm, maybe the ones who abandoned might have forgotten some of their drinks in the process?" Dwarf Shaman chuckled as he spoke. "Might be kinda nice to see how well such things could've aged!"
"Mm, quite brave of you to even consider such a thought, master spellcaster," Lizard Priest replied. "Even I would balk at trying my hand – or rather, my tongue – at something that may have been exposed to the elements for so long."
Dwarf Shaman guffawed. "A lizardman nervous in the face of drinking? Now that's something new!"
"…" Goblin Slayer made a noise as he watched his party act as if this was all so normal for them now. Even despite hearing such grisly details, they still retained their calm.
"…Let's go," he said after another moment, at which point he began to take his leave.
"U-Umm! Be safe!" Guild Girl called out, surprised by how sudden he was leaving.
"…Of course," he replied as he paused by the door, nodding firmly. He shot the receptionist a brief glance as his party followed his lead.
Once they exited the room, they all picked up the pace.
It was time to get a move on.
Ranni hummed as she continued her travels via her Dark Moon spell.
Her handiwork was doing wonders for her, she couldn't help but admit.
It's been some odd hours or so since she'd fought those birds affected by the Frenzied Flame. Since then, she'd taken to destroying the hills around the area to both allow for smoother travels…
…As well as using some of the material to craft a staff for herself.
It was a very simple and plain one, made of earth and wood in the form of a staff that was perhaps a bit less than half her height and with slight grooves on it that vaguely formed the symbol of the Carian royal family. In comparison to the staff she'd once wielded in the past, this was a complete far cry from it. Too advanced to belong to that of a fledging sorcerer yet not advanced enough to consider it worthy of belonging to a master spellcaster, much less one of her station. This was a result not necessarily of her own skill, but rather of the materials at hand. With the right sort of materials and time, the Lunar Princess could easily craft one that was much more fitting of her.
But simple or not, it made a very significant difference in her spells. With the staff to better help serve as a focal point, she could cast her spells faster than by gesture and thought alone. Why, even her Dark Moon spell could now float along at a noticeably faster speed.
The journey ahead would still be lengthy, but less so now that she had this by her side. Such a fact was almost enough to make her regret having taken this long to make one.
Almost.
Alas, now was no time for such meager regrets. Rather than be sorry, it would more than suffice to simply do better, which is what she was doing now.
"…Perhaps during the night, I may try to read the stars," she murmured to herself as she continued her trek via her spell. While it would still be fruitful to study the field of astrology in this world, with her newly formed staff, perhaps it would be possible for her to read the stars above a bit better now that she could focus better.
She would have to wait until nightfall to try such a thing, however. It was always easier to read the stars during the night, when they were naturally at their brightest.
But nightfall was still hours away. Until then, she could only continue her journey until it became too dark to continue on, barring using spells to light her path forward.
Now if only her path would just be free of obstacles…
Ranni sighed wearily as a massive bear that had made its home in the forest she was now going through spotted her. While not reaching the size of the Runebears found back home, it was still easily thrice the size of a normal bear and its aggression was made obvious when it roared and charged right at her from more than forty feet away to her right, well out of the range she believed a bear would be willing to tolerate from most unknown beings.
A single Glintstone blast was all it took to end the bear's life, the spell blasting through its head and upper body in general just as it had leaped at her. The intensity of the attack cauterized the flesh, resulting in a bloodless death despite the horrific damage inflicted upon it. Its body fell short of her position at that moment and Ranni simply continued on without paying it further mind.
This bear had been far from the only one to attack her thus far.
In fact, from after she'd obtained her staff until now, she's been attacked no less than ten times by the local wildlife, all of which was still on edge from the incident the other day. Some of the animals had been easily scared off by a few intentionally misaimed attacks, but others such as this bear had made it known through their bloodlust that they wouldn't back down at all, having required her to put them down by her own hand.
That she was able to just kill the bear with nary a second glance spoke volumes of how used to this she had quickly become… as well as how annoyed.
The only consolation she had so far in this situation was that at least she's yet to come across the more fantastical creatures that roam these lands such as those forest giants from before or something else. But the Lunar Princess didn't dare count her blessings just yet on that front; it wouldn't be much longer until circumstances aligned to force her to confront foes much greater than the wildlife or the flock of birds afflicted with madness so far. It was only a matter of time.
That said, she was perhaps just a few days of travel away from reuniting with her consort. Provided, of course, nothing happens to disrupt her current pace too severely. It was this thought, more than anything else, that gave her some extra motivation to push her Dark Moon spell to its current limit, the speed increasing ever so slightly.
And of course, she could sense the Tarnished making his own journey as well, so there was actually a likelihood that they could reunite a day sooner than her initial expectations outlined.
"…Ah, if only mother could see me now, acting almost like a lovestruck maiden," Ranni muttered. Despite her embarrassment, however, she giggled lightly.
Though the time she had known the Tarnished had been a fraction of the time she'd known certain others, he had still made a very strong impression on her, enough to earn her affections and dub him her dear consort eternal. If he approached their combined rule with the same stalwart attitude he had approached his journey throughout the Lands Between with, then their Age of Stars would surely be a blessed age for all.
Ranni shook her head, ridding herself of such thoughts for the time being. She was putting the carriage before the horse. She must first focus on what mattered right now, just as she always had.
…
She sighed upon hearing yet another growl.
This time around, the direwolf didn't even get a chance to lunge for her before she struck it down with Loretta's Bow. A needless gesture of magical might against a mere direwolf, yes, but to be fair… she was feeling quite annoyed by now with all this.
As if to further impress upon her such a fact, more growls could now be heard from all around her, the forest growing thicker as she kept on traveling.
With a barely repressed sigh, Ranni merely fired Loretta's Bow yet again directly ahead of her, blasting through tens of meters of forest ahead. Simultaneously, she cast Night Maiden's Mist, the cloud of death dispersing throughout the forest.
In mere seconds, if that, the pack of direwolves that had been roaming the area let out their final howls before succumbing to the spell's fatal effect.
She sincerely hoped this would not keep up for the entire duration of her journey.
Outside of the Four Cornered World, a fierce battle raged on…
…And the gods that managed said world were not having a good time at all.
Truth in particular was having one hell of a go at it, with snarling teeth and howls of frustration. Long gone was his usual smirk and mad glee. Instead, he could only succumb to emotions he'd long since gone without as he was pushed back by that terrible force that pervaded his and the other gods' territory.
Illusion helped him up and he shook her off – not to be rude, but rather to essentially save her as that terrible rotting force seemed to target her. Had he been an instant slower… Truth shuddered at what could've happened.
He knew he wasn't what one could call an inherently good being. After all, truth comes in many forms, both good and bad, healing and hurtful. The truth can help people find closure in their lives while for others it could have the opposite effect and drive them to the deepest depths of despair and madness.
Illusion had made no, well, illusion of disliking his interference in her campaigns but the two were like peas in a pod or a coin with two sides. She existed to embody ideals and dreams of grandeur. It was why she always liked crafting campaigns where the adventurers involved got to go on grand adventures full of twists and turns and glory.
Meanwhile, he existed to embody reality, brutal in its fairness. After all, one could dream up all the grand dreams they want, envision themselves as heroes that would go on to be deified forever after in history by future generations but at the end of the day, those same individuals could just as easily meet an early and pathetic demise as anyone and anything else. Such was reality.
Many would call it unfair, but he was of the personal belief that life itself was perfectly fair – it was simply a matter of taking advantage of the olive branches extended one's way when they appeared, rigging the system so to speak.
Yeah, all in all, he just liked really making adventurers work for their goals. It was how reality rolled and it was a fact that he firmly believed everyone should just accept.
Except now… now was one time where not even he could believe what was going on.
Just as that unknown force tried to latch itself onto a still recovering Illusion, he threw himself upon the strange being – and immediately regretted it.
He's made contact with it several times in rapid succession a while back and had hissed in pain every time. But those moments had been very brief indeed, mainly in the form of him trying to bat it away. He could chalk the pain at those times – in other words, lie to himself – as him having just hit it wrong or something.
But no, not this time.
As he wrapped his arms around the force and pulled back, he outright screamed in agony as a rot, scarlet in color, began to wash over him in turn. His sole fortune in this particular situation was that he only had to hold it for several seconds at most before he finally managed to get some leverage and literally chuck the dangerous thing deeper into the void that he and his fellow gods occupy.
Alas, this brief contact had scarred him for the time being, a ghastly and sickly odor now coating him, continuing to eat away at his very being. His status as a god meant that in due time he would shake off such an… effect – in fact, he could already feel the sickness begin to slowly leave him – but the fact that he was even affected at all spoke wonders about the enemy.
By this point, he was able to help Illusion to her feet and the duo warily shot a look in the other directions.
Their fellow gods – Life and Death, Order and Chaos, Time and Fear, Abundance and Void – were effectively ganging up on the other presences here, utilizing their superior numbers and more versatile… well, he supposed he could call what they do Authorities or something like that… to beat down those forces.
But that was about all they could do. These literally otherworldly forces were unbelievably strong, to the point where the very realm was slowly beginning to shift as a direct result of their influence trying to spread about. Even with the numbers being against them, these strange entities' conceptual forms and esoteric power meant that the best the gods could do was ultimately keep them in check…
…Meaning that it was ultimately up to Truth and Illusion to handle the sole entity that still mucked about while those other two forces still trying to squirm their way into the Four Cornered World were currently left untouched, infuriatingly enough.
Truth swore beneath his breath as the scarlet entity now shuddered and heaved, clearly preparing some new attack. Out of all the gods, he and Illusion possessed no Authorities that could really be utilized in a direct situation such as now. The said and painful truth, fittingly enough, of them perhaps being the two gods aside from Order and Chaos that perhaps had the most hands on involvement of the going-ons in the Four Cornered World whereas the other gods could simply wave their hands and make their impact known on the world.
Still, despite the shitty situation, Truth wasn't about to take this lying down. Reality was never pretty, not even for gods, but that didn't mean that he had a problem with getting down and dirty if it meant surviving. After all, that was really how things were meant to be done, not in any of those stupid and needlessly theatrical ways that Illusion seemed to prefer seeing things play out in her campaigns.
At that moment, a wave of that scarlet colored rot was unleashed by the strange force, washing over everything without bias. Not even the other strange entities were spared from it, Truth watching as the two that were trying to enter the Four Cornered World practically seized up and silently howled in either pain or anger. It was perhaps the only thing he and the other gods could take solace in at the moment, aside from the additional fact that they all were using just a sliver of their own power to shield their figurative and literal gameboard from the otherwise all-encompassing; it would've been a true nightmare if that attack had hit the world so openly.
Of course, that just meant that they all got affected and practically fell to their knees, their very selves being eaten away by the strange and impossible rot.
Through a howl of pain, Truth scooped up a bit of the realm itself through brute strength and chucked it at the thing as hard as he could. It hit the entity head on and managed to knock it back somewhat, even causing it to lose the focus needed to maintain the rot which now cleared up immediately. Then, together with Illusion, he ran up and practically smacked the thing as far downwards as they could. If they could just keep it far enough away, then maybe they could finally focus on the ones by the world, which still thankfully seemed stunned for the time being.
The entity resisted the combined blow quite well, however, and it thus required a simultaneous kick from the duo to make it truly lose ground and knock it away. Unfortunately, their repeated contact with the thing had only caused the rot still coating their bodies to worsen; Truth could literally feel and see bits of his very form rotting away as strange growths began to take root.
He shuddered, not just from the pain but also from horror; by now, he's been able to get a better sense for this damned monster and came to realize a terrifying fact:
It wasn't at its full strength.
Somehow, some damn way, he could tell that a solid bulk of its power just… just wasn't there. Whether it had somehow lost that power outright or if it was merely sealed off, he couldn't tell. But the fact it could still pose such a threat in spite of lacking its full might was equal parts relieving and downright terrifying. If there was even the slightest chance of this thing being able to regain its power completely, then this situation was even more dire than any of them had already found it to be.
Still, for the time being, the best they could do was perform triage.
Thankfully, the fact that its attack had affected even its fellow oddities meant that now Truth and the other gods had an opening to work with.
And they sure as hell weren't about to let this chance pass them up.
It was Chaos who made the first move, the usually unpredictable bastard using his power to literally throw sections of the realm itself out of whack. In other words, space itself was split up and isolated. Normally such a display of raw might took up not only a good portion of power but also a solid few seconds of time to concentrate, a time frame that these things haven't been allowing until now.
Through this power, the strange enemies were all immediately isolated within small sections of their own realm, at which point Void stepped in and sucked them up into a hole of his own making. Normally, these holes in reality itself would result in whatever poor suckers got thrown in being reduced to nothingness… but not these things, Truth could just tell. His domain made him privy to the facts of pretty much any given situation.
As such, the combination of Chaos' and Void's moves meant that for now, a good portion of those things would be out of the picture for a while, but Truth and the others could already sense them trying to crawl back into their realm. Void had no other choice but to remain rooted in place, doing his best alongside Chaos to make sure that those creatures remained outside of their realm… but their efforts wouldn't keep those things out forever.
But it would have to do.
Now with the rest of them freed up, they were able to focus on the three remaining entities – the scarlet rot spewing one and the other two that were now about to resume their tunneling into the Four Cornered World. However, upon sensing the gods' collective approach, the two entities turned their attention towards them, their horrid influence manifesting as waves of energy clearly meant to keep the gods at bay.
A combined wave of frenzied death and corruptive blood slammed against the gods with unbelievable force, making most of them keel over momentarily. Humorously, if only relatively speaking, this combined attack also affected the scarlet one and blew it away, writhing about now.
Truth allowed himself a chuckle, grim humor and disbelief striking him now. Even for him, the current reality of this situation was beyond fucked up. To think things could have ever come to this… damn, he couldn't believe he'd once thought the usual routine of butting in on Illusion's stupid campaigns was getting stale. Right now, he'd kill for those times to return.
But in order to do that…
Beside him, Illusion gasped and grimaced as she bravely forced herself up. She was scared out of her mind, yet there was a glimmer of determination in her eyes. It was much like the look some of those sappy adventurers got during her campaigns, when they were faced with otherwise overwhelming odds.
…He was kind of starting to see the appeal of those moments now.
In any case, the sight of Illusion's struggle gave him the strength to stand against the ongoing wave, devilish borderline yellow flames and a blood-like substance now spewing into existence thanks to those two malevolent entities. His fellow gods now stood up as well, clearly eager to continue the fight.
Regardless of what personal reasons each and every one of them may have for doing so, determination to save the Four Cornered World now dwelled within them all. Yes, even Truth couldn't help but desire to save the world from these mad creatures' influence.
To think they, the gods, would now be so akin to the denizens of the world… it was almost a bad joke. Except if they failed, no one would be living to hear the punchline.
So, with a combined battle cry, the gods pressed on.
They had a world to protect.
So in summary – the Tarnished has some goblin slaying to do, Goblin Slayer and his party will be doing some goblin slaying of their own very soon, Ranni continues her journey with steadily increasing difficulty and the gods themselves find their battle intensifying… yeah.
To expand a bit on each statement there, let's go in order:
The Tarnished may sort of be pressed for time, but it's just not in his nature to pass up such an obvious threat. Getting sidetracked is pretty much a staple of open world games, after all, ha ha.
As for Goblin Slayer's section, well, obviously he's gotta slay goblins at some point soon otherwise he wouldn't be living up to his title. Plus this situation presents an excellent time to start showing how he and his friends will deal with the barest levels of influence (so far) from the forces of the Elden Ring setting. This is where the two settings sort of start to meld together more.
Ranni so far has had a comparatively smoother journey than the others as you can tell. This is mainly due to her magical abilities, backed up by the simple fact she's the vassal of the Dark Moon, making her easily one of the strongest non-Outer God characters in Elden Ring so of course it'd be pretty odd if she was being put in danger against the local wildlife and whatnot. But she will be challenged eventually, mark my words. It will just take the right types of enemies.
And then… the gods. Yeah, so recently I learned that there exists two types of gods in the Goblin Slayer setting. One type are the… well, I guess you could call them the lower gods such as the Supreme God, Earth Mother, etc… basically, the ones that are known to the denizens of the Four Cornered World and grant boons to followers and whatnot. Then there are the higher gods, or perhaps even the true gods of the whole setting, that being Truth, Illusion and the others mentioned in Truth's section in this chapter. I may have to go back and slightly change certain sections to correct that, depending on if I mentioned the Supreme God or Earth Mother existing on their level by accident.
Anyways, I decided to grant the gods Authorities, that is, ways for them to manifest their influence in some form of attack as needed. Make no mistake, the gods of the GS setting are still pretty limited but they're no longer the straightforward tabletop player-esque type that I had originally envisioned them being.
Hope you guys don't mind my revision on that front.
Other than that, this chapter basically marks where the fic will really start to pick up now that the characters will begin to more frequently encounter others impacted by the Frenzied Flame and Formless Mother so far. And as for the other Outer Gods eventually being able to show their stuff in the Four Cornered World… well, you guys will see, heh!
Oh and random side note, but the reason the Scarlet Rot is mentioned as being weak is because it was actually sealed away by a blind swordsman below the Lake of Rot, where it's still trapped. The one that is currently battling Truth and the other GS gods is basically a shade of the Scarlet Rot itself, a significant portion of its power that it was able to leak out thanks to the Golden Order's law being ended with the defeat of Radagon and the Elden Beast.
Alrighty, that about sums up all that I think needs to be said! Though if any of you notice anything off, either let me know via a PM or review and I'll do my best to address it either through a PM of a my own or through the fic itself!
Until next time, everyone. Stay safe!
