"Who knows? I may be a decorated sorcerer by then!"
"I have an inkling it could spell trouble for you, somehow. So I just wanted to get the apology out of the way, beforehand."
"Oh, m'lord! How did you know? It was my only wish, that I might honor you with a decent appearance!"
"Why does that girl weep for me? Have I forgotten something of dire importance?"
"What a horrible thing to ponder. Your ascendancy requires her sacrifice, whether she wishes it or not."
"I will kill you, as sure as night follows day. Such is my duty, for allowing you the strength of runes. Goodbye, Torrent. Goodbye..."
"Jaune."
Consciousness struck him like a bolt of lightning.
In a flash of sapphire light, a Carian sword projection was in his right hand in an instant. In his left, a small spark roared into a ball of black flame. With a bit of magic, a gust of wind kicked up beneath his feet and he used the boost to roll backwards over his head and into a low crouch.
Gaze darting left and right and body turning to take in the full scope of his surroundings, his first observation was that he was no longer in the Elden Throne, but in a forest of some kind. The dull glow of his magic cast long shadows upon inky black trees that held no substance, as if they were drawn into the world; like a painting. Turning his gaze upwards, he was met with not the radiance of the Erdtree, but the gentle caress of brilliant pale light from the moon above.
A shattered moon.
Jaune breathed out a low sigh.
He flicked his hand to extinguish the black flame, but he kept the Carian projection a little longer until eventually he dispelled it too. It was hard to fight instinct, to let his guard down, but this place was safe.
After all, it wasn't real.
"O' child of mine."
Her voice came without warning, her presence bearing down on the world like sunlight at dawn.
Jaune let his head dip in acknowledgment as a hand gently clasped his own. "Mother eldest."
Gentle fingers reached for his chin, urging him to turn his head. Swirling, majestic blue met radiant, regal gold. Her gaze was fond, but he knew better than to take her at face value. A beautiful visage wreathed by elegant blonde, her womanly body dressed in a simple black robe adorned with gold. She was beauty incarnate. But behind those gilded irises, beneath the gentle smile that graced her features, lay a vicious cunning. When she looked at him with such sweetness, what did she truly see?
He'd accepted long ago that he would never find out.
"Why have you called for me, mother eldest?" he asked, keeping his voice level as best he could. If she was displeased by his casual indifference toward her, she did not show it, the soft smile that adorned her face not even twitching.
"Thy battle hath ended. Thou'rt Elden Lord, and yet thou falterest." Her words were said softly, but all the same Jaune clenched his teeth. "Thou soughtest the Elden Ring to return from whence thou camest, no?"
"I will not leave the Lands Between," he hissed, heat leaking into his words, "until I am assured that the people's suffering has been alleviated, Marika."
Marika, the Eternal Sovereign, only looked on softly, as if she were speaking to an unruly child. Jaune hated the notion; that despite the trials he faced and the power he'd taken, her presence so thoroughly overtook his own. It was a truth to swallow bitterly.
And it was true that he'd yet to return home to Remnant, despite having claimed the title of Elden Lord; but in honor of those who came before him, and to remember those who once stood beside him, he was adamant in repairing all the damage wrought to the Lands Between. The people would not be left to cower in petrifying fear, nor would they languish in agonizing undeath, this he swore.
And yet, he had no idea how to go about it. For three weeks since he'd become Elden Lord, he'd done all he could to improve the lives of his denizens. The dead were finally put to rest thanks to the release of the Rune of Death, and he personally went to each sealed abode in Leyndell to coax the citizens out of hiding.
With his new authority, the Leyndell knights who once saw to put him to the sword were now under his command–minds now free of the Greater Will's imperative– and Jaune made use of their talents and strength swiftly. Citizens and soldiers alike worked tirelessly to clear the streets of the death, decay and ash that blanketed the city, and work was progressing steadily, albeit very slowly.
And still, that was only Leyndell. There were thousands of people scattered to the winds; still in fear, and still in danger.
Elden Lord he may now be, but there were other maleficent forces in the Lands Between than the Greater Will. Even though his face was hidden behind his helmet, Jaune had no doubt Marika could sense his displeasure.
"And what canst thou do?" She asked. "Thou hast not the means to ease the scars wrought upon the Lands Between."
"Their suffering does not come from scars." Jaune argued. "Outer Gods still claw their wretched hands into the fates of man, and their influence yet spreads. Their scars may yet heal on their own, but only when the scourge has been purged."
"And tis not the responsibility of thy consort, o' child? The Lunar Princess hath made known her intent to rid the Lands Between of the Outer Gods, no? Dost thou doubtest the will of thy beloved?"
Jaune scowled. Right. Ranni. "I doubt her loyalties, not her will."
And how could he not? In the weeks since his ascension, when he'd taken her hand expecting to leave the Lands Between on their hunt of the Outer Gods, Ranni instead left him with naught but the whisper of her touch and the sting of her perceived betrayal; for what else could it have been?
He was not stupid. Jaune understood what it meant to help Ranni since the beginning, and that she'd sought to ascend to Marika's former station as Sovereign Eternal: a Goddess. Yet, he foolishly made the mistake of assuming their bond went deeper than associates. A part of him had hoped that he meant more to her than just a tool for her own ascension, that the love she so dearly expressed for her other companions would extend to him as well. Yet, looking back, what did that "love" give in return?
The memories of the corpses of Blaidd and Iji both surged to the forefront of his mind before he could suppress them. Tears gathered in his eyes, but he turned his head down and blinked them away before Marika could see; though, given the slight tightening of her hold on his hand, he probably failed. Even still, he wouldn't grieve anymore.
Raising his face once more, his eyes burned behind the slit of his helm, glaring directly into Marika's own. "I am Elden Lord. I may not be the divine sovereign, but I have strength of my own. The people need me, and Lord Godfrey and Lord Radagon are proof alone that the Elden Lord has the power to change the world. Even if Ranni will not help me, I will rise to the task myself."
"The change brought by my lords cometh through mettle and military might," Marika pointed out calmly. "Is it thine intent to declare war on the Outer Gods alone? Thou triumphed in the battle against the Greater Will by a hair's breadth, and it holdeth no candle to the sheer devastation wrought by the likes of the Scarlet Rot and the Flame of Frenzy."
A rare smirk found its way to Jaune's face, then. "You forget, Marika. I slew the God of the Fell Flame as well. The likes of which even you feared."
"Yes, tis true," Marika conceded, though before Jaune could feel any satisfaction, she was quick to cut through with a rebuttal. "Yet, twas only after the Giants were slain to their last didst thou succeed. Thou hast seen the corpses in the mountaintops to the North, no? Wert thou to face the manifestations of the Scarlet Rot, or the Frenzied Flame, alone, thou wouldst perish."
"So what would you have me do, mother eldest?" Jaune questioned, his temper flaring once more. He was getting tired of these games of hers, and being the divine sovereign that she was, he could scarcely get a read on her. "I am not willing to abandon your citizens, unlike you."
Evidently, this was the wrong thing to say, as his arm was pulled roughly, thus dragging him forward and into her grasp, where she gripped him by the cuirass of his Fallen Knight armor. Finally, her visage cracked, and a dark look entered her eyes, accompanied by a frown. Jaune refused to bow, however, and returned the look with a scathing glare through the slit in his helmet
"Hark, o' child of mine. Thou speakest of matters unknown to thee. Mine intent to give salvation to the souls of the Lands Between I have declareth."
"To declare as such is different from making it so," Jaune grit out. "You of all people know this. You preached for prosperity, yet look around at what your reign has amounted to: ashes and little else. I will succeed where you have failed."
"Thou art but a single man, demigod though you may be," Marika retorted, displeasure evident across her features. "What hope hast thee where even Gods failed? Belay thy ego, child."
"Ego?"
A swell of searing fury lit itself in his chest, and Jaune let it encompass him. With a snarl, black flame encroached upon his person, flaring across his body with a roaring spark that caused Marika to retreat in wide-eyed surprise.
"You dare lecture me on ego?!" Jaune spat. The flames began to creep at the edge of his vision, and the air crackled with his anger. "I am the one who has had to mop up the aftermath of your ego, Marika! You thought you could whisk away death without consequence; that in your station you could mold the laws of nature to your will, and look at what you have wrought!"
He allowed a small measure of his power to manifest, twisting their surroundings to show the Lands Between from when he first arrived. Each place that he showed Marika caused her to flinch. Leyndell. Caelid. Mt. Gelmir. Liurnia. Limgrave. The moans of the living dead and the screeches of the mentally taken shredded the air.
Jaune stepped forward, his blood singing in his ears. Marika stepped back. "You dare to lecture me on ego when it was yours that brought despair to this land?!" He raged. Memories, fond memories, came to his mind in flashes, before they were snuffed out by the tragic aftermath that inevitably followed.
"I will be the one to heal the Lands Between. Not out of ego, Marika, but out of necessity: for the place that my friends died to save." Jaune's voice was barely a hiss, cold and cutting in a way that he knew disturbed the woman before him, not that he cared anymore. He simply glared into her eyes, his vitriol evident through his gaze and the air surrounding him; but Marika remained silent. Her mouth remained slightly open as if there were words that she wished to say, but whatever they were they went unsaid.
The black flames died as his emotions waned, flickering as the embers of his anger faded and left him only with a deep-seated exhaustion that clung to his very soul. He turned away from Marika then, reverting the scenery back to the forest from before. The moonlight felt almost cold, seeping through the cracks of his armor and prickling at his skin. The lull of silence persisted until he could barely hear the sound of a sigh escaping Marika's lips behind him.
"The answer to thy plight lies in thy homeland, the realm of Remnant."
His head whipped around to stare at her incredulously. "...and you know this, how?"
Marika gestured to herself. "Though imprisoned within the Erdtree, languish, I didst not. As the faith in its strength dimmed, the Greater Will grew complacent. Inattentive. I scoured the cosmos to find a power to rival the Outer Gods."
She smiled softly, turning to the side and staring off into the darkness. Her eyes were dim, their golden glow flickering for a moment as if conflicted.
"Thy realm hath been touched by them once before," she continued, "differed in nature, yet divine all the same. Though they hath since departed from the mortal coil, vestiges of their power yet remain, scattered across the winds."
"And you wish to use these vestiges, in the hopes they will grant the power to battle the Outer Gods in the Lands Between?" Jaune deduced.
"Indeed." Marika returned her gaze to his own, and Jaune could see the golden glow of her grace burning brighter than before. "Thou shalt use their own essence to rise to an equal plane, and eradicate the foul parasites."
"And I'm certain you have no other reasons for wanting to go to Remnant?" Jaune narrowed his eyes at her, to which she only smiled without guilt. Sighing, he threw his hands to the air. "How do we even travel to Remnant?"
"Thy power is enough. Thou'rt the Elden Lord, and though thy consort commands the Elden Ring, thou hast thy own control over the strength granted by it."
"So, do I simply will it? It can hardly be that simple."
For the first time in that interaction, Marika laughed. Jaune looked on in confusion, and it must have shown in his face, for her laughter only intensified.
"My child, thou'rt a demigod," she stated, as if that were enough of an answer. When it became evident that it wasn't, she sighed in exasperation. "Shouldst thou will it, thou couldst scatter the very stars if t'was thy wish. Radahn was capable of such, was he not? In spite of holding naught but a fraction of the Elden Ring's power."
Jaune huffed, once more bristling at the lecturing tone Marika had taken. But he let it slide, if only for the fact that he was tired of feeling irritated. Letting out a slow breath, for the first time in years he dug deep into his memories…
Of a moon not whole, but shattered.
Of his parents and sisters.
Of home.
Of Remnant.
Glynda Goodwitch wanted nothing more than to be done with today: from Ozpin's paperwork, to the stress of making arrangements for the new students, and especially Port's recent Emerald Forest escapade, Glynda was about ready to tear her hair out. With iron-clad force of will, she pushed the urge to scream down into the depths of her being. There were more important things to worry about, right now.
Such as the dispatch coming in from the Vale Police Department, which was why she was currently in a bullhead en route to the Dust 'Til Dawn store.
"Roman Torchwick," she muttered under her breath, "you just don't know when to quit, do you?"
Once, the man had been a respected alumni of Beacon; a shining record, as befitting of the valedictorian of his year. When he turned for the worse, it caused a large uproar, and it seemed the attention only urged him further into depravity. Glynda let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. To think she'd once regarded the man with respect.
A beep from the overhead grabbed her attention, as did the opening of the bullhead's rear hatch.
"Dropping you on Raine Street, now," the pilot said over the speakers. "You'll have to make it to Dust 'Til Dawn on your own, we don't know what that bastard has going on in his head nowadays, and I'd rather not owe my first splash to that clown in makeup. Do me a favor and nab him, won't ya?"
Glynda smirked, thumping the cockpit door twice with her fist in affirmation before taking a running leap out of the back. Casting her Semblance upon herself, she began flying toward the store.
As she approached the corner where the store was located, she could already hear the sound of fighting, which was worrying. Then, the sound of bullhead engines caught her ears over the sound of the rushing wind. In the distance, a bullhead was making its way toward the store, crawling just barely over the rooftops.
She hadn't heard of any other Huntsmen assistance, and that certainly wasn't the bullhead she'd arrived on, unmarked as it was. Her eyes widened when she saw Torchwick leap onto a nearby rooftop, and immediately began her descent.
As she made her way over, a girl in black and red joined Torchwick on the tower, though it didn't seem as if they were on friendly terms given she had her ridiculously large scythe pointed his way. With her Semblance, Disciplinarian found its way into her hands, as did a pouch hidden beneath her cape. With a quick flick of her crop, the pouch opened and released a cloud of fine iron mist, glowing with the violet hue of her Aura. With another twist, the iron mist coalesced together and solidified, forming a spike. Rearing back, Glynda prepared to launch it when the bullhead from before came into view, rising from the street, allowing Torchwick to climb in.
"Oh no you don't…" Glynda scowled, sending the spike screaming forth. Just as it was about to impact the bullhead's port thruster, a red Dust crystal was thrown out of its side hatch.
Toward the girl.
Glynda inhaled sharply when she saw the girl just dumbly look at it instead of moving, and she dispersed the spike, instead using it to form a shield in the form of a spinning glyph. She launched herself down, landing just in front of the girl just as Torchwick shot the red Dust crystal.
She shook her head, the ringing in her ears from the explosion gradually fading, and she could hear Torchwick's mad laughter resound across the rooftop. Frowning, she dispersed the glyph shield and instead formed several smaller projectiles, which with a swing of her crop she sent tearing towards the bullhead, shredding away several bits of its armored plating and causing it to destabilize.
Recalling the iron mist and preparing to catch the bullhead with her Semblance, the aircraft righted itself, and Torchwick retreated further inside. Glynda's frown deepened, and she summoned another spike.
Just as she was about to launch it, however, a stormcloud appeared directly over the bullhead. She tensed, dispelling the spear and preparing another glyph shield for an attack.
The attack never came, though; at least, not towards her.
Crystal swords, blue in color and glowing brightly against the dreary sky, rained down from the clouds, all of them embedding themselves into the bullhead's hull and then shattering into nothingness, the cloud disappearing not soon after.
That hadn't come from her, so who…?
Before she could worry about that any further, a woman, covered in shadow but glowing a dim orange with the etches of her dress, stepped into view from within the bullhead, her hand alight in wild flames. She thrust her hand forward, and a ball of what seemed to be molten lava was sent screaming down at Glynda. Clicking her teeth, Glynda blocked the attack with her glyph shield, the ball slamming into and dispersing around the glyph in a shower of sparks and globules of hot magma. Suddenly, the unknown woman made a gesture with her hand, and the ashen remnants of her molten attack reignited, and began to intensify their heat. Flipping backwards and pulling the girl in red away with her Semblance, Glynda just barely managed to avoid the explosion that tore apart the floor where she once stood.
With a scowl, she grabbed the debris from the explosion with her telekinesis. If this woman wanted to stay at range, Glynda was more than happy to oblige.
Forming the debris into a spear, she simultaneously collapsed the glyph shield into a spike and hurled them both forth with a grunt. The unknown woman blasted the debris spike to bits, but the iron spike continued to sail toward the woman, only for the bullhead to suddenly tilt to the side and cause it to just barely scrape over the top of its canopy, breaking the cockpit glass but not doing much else.
Torchwick was probably the one at the helm. Crafty bastard, she'd give him that.
Grabbing the remaining debris around her, she formed them into a series of tendrils, intent on pelting the bullhead while she recalled her iron mist, but that was quickly halted as the unknown woman began to glow. After a pulse, the flames in her heats beating akin to a heartbeat, a scorching wave of heat erupted from the bullhead, immolating Glynda's debris tendrils as well as dispersing her iron mist to the wind.
Left with no other weapons, she made to grab the bullhead directly with her Semblance and wrestle it out of the sky…
…were it not for the appearance of another cloud.
However, instead of gathering into more swords, the cloud began to swirl into a vortex, spinning faster and faster, erupting with thunder and the roar of wind, before out of the eye of the storm flashed a brilliant, blue lightning bolt.
It collided with the top of the bullhead, causing it to dip noticeably toward the ground. Glynda quickly grabbed it with her telekinesis, preventing it from crashing into the streets below. Grunting with the effort, she heard the girl in red transform her weapon beside her. The girl began to fire her weapon at the bullhead, only for the unknown woman to block the shots with balls of fire that melted the bullets on contact.
Glynda was about to tell the girl to aim for the bullhead itself when her eyes caught movement on the charred surface of the bullhead's top. A man stood from a kneeling position, –wreathed in flame but unbothered by it– and unsheathed a sword from his back. It was almost like seeing a knight in the flesh, clad in worn plate armor obscured by a thick veil of tattered cloth that hung from his shoulders and obscured his helmet in shadow.
Cloak flaring in the wind, he twirled the sword in his hand, and Glynda watched as the man plunged it into the hull beneath him, bewilderment crossing her features as the sword began to glow an ethereal blue. Her surprise only heightened as the sword seemingly grew in size, flashing at each point of its growth, before eventually the sword was so big it penetrated the bottom of the bullhead as well.
The unknown woman inside the bullhead swirled with flame in her hands, a ball forming in each of her hands that began to grow bigger and bigger. Then she slammed her hands together, sending another storm of fire outward, this time far more radiant and scorching than the last. Glynda tore up some of the roofing with her Semblance and used it as a shield to cover both herself and the girl behind her, but even then she could still feel the searing heat as the fire washed over them and sent both their Auras flaring. Letting the scorched debris crumble to the ground, she was shocked to see the glowing sword remained embedded in the hull, and the man–despite being so close to the bullhead–was unaffected, instead leaping into the air and pulling his blade out. It returned to its normal size and lost its ethereal glow, but only for a moment.
In the air and slowly falling to the whims of gravity, the man twisted his body and spun. His sword flashed once more, and suddenly it was almost as long as the bullhead. It bit into the hull, slowing for a mere fraction of second before the man finished his spin, the momentum pushing the sword through and cleaving the bullhead in half with the screech of metal.
Glynda snapped herself out of her stupor and caught the two pieces of the falling bullhead, but in doing so was unable to capture Torchwick and the unknown woman as they jumped from the remains and fled the scene, leaping across the rooftops and into the night.
The man in armor landed beside Glynda and gave a passing glance to their opponents, ultimately leaving them to flee. Suddenly, Glynda's strain was lifted as the man raised a hand and both pieces of the bullhead raised themselves without her input. A quick glance revealed that the man had summoned a glowing blue platform to support the pieces from beneath. The man turned to her and jerked his head, and Glynda nodded slowly, letting her Semblance drop and allowing the man to gently set the bullhead debris down.
"I… I appreciate the help, sir," Glynda said, dipping her head slightly. "I wasn't expecting Torchwick to have an assistant on par with a Huntress."
The man turned to her–his hand coming up to remove his hood and helm–and her breath hitched.
"...Jaune?"
A/N: My first story, finally come to fruition.
First, if you got this far, then thanks for reading my fic! This originally started as a one shot, but I decided, "Y'know what? I'm gonna try to write a full story for this. And thus, this was borne.
Heh, borne. Like Bloodborne?
I make myself laugh. Sorry.
Second, this story was inspired by the Carian Combo Warriors mod for Elden Ring, which in turn was mostly inspired by DMC5 as far as I know. At least, the movesets were, anyway. The DMC5 connection was actually one of the reasons I kept Marika alive, as opposed to her fading away at the end of the game. And Ranni, oh my little Ranni, we'll be seeing her much later.
Third, I don't really know when the next update will be, so I won't make any promises. I'll probably try to finish the DLC first before I commit to expanding on the world-building.
Once again, thanks for reading, and I hope to see you in the next one!