A/N: It seems this story isn't as popular as the other Elden Ring iterations. That's a shame...really takes away the inspiration for longer chapters...T_T
Back in the update rota it goes I suppose...unless folks convince me otherwise.
Do let me know what you think.
With my fifteen year anniversary on this site finally here, I find myself reflecting on the little things in life. What was once a lazy pastime meant for me and a few friends really grew and evolved over time. There are days when I look back on the last fifteen years here and I wonder if anyone will remember me; if I made an impact, despite never making a single cent on any of these stories. Some days were happier than others, and some stories I enjoyed writing WAY too much; to the point where I'd stay up all night working on them.
And of course, there are times when I look to the future and wonder what will become of things when I'm gone.
Of course, I try not to dwell on the latter overmuch; I'm still alive and still writing. In an ideal world, I'd like to keep doing so for as long as I can. But old age is catching up to me and these days, the world is filled with so much madness and death. Feels like everyone's lost their minds sometimes. Even before that, so many friends and fellow writers I once knew are gone, now. Will I still be here in twenty years? Ten? Five? Its a chilling thought. But for now, I'm still here, still writing.
So here we go.
The fate of this story depends on you, the reader. Your feedback determines the fate of this tale, and many others. I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild, wicked world, one word at a time. Once more, I own no quotes, references, or memes. Not a wit or a one. NOT! A! THING! They're all tributes to legends far greater than little 'ol me. Disclaimer over. Time and feedback will determine if this little ficlet remains a story.
If I could impress upon everyone one aspect for this chapter it would be this:
Naruto's the friendly face of the Golden Order, the charming talker.
Marika's the hammer; and tonight the hammer comes DOWN.
Sukuna references/tributes as well.
They just work. GET READY.
"I am not my husband and tonight I know not the meaning of mercy. Hear me, you little knives who would harm my family. I wish to play a game.
Thus, I hereby declare; I forbid every person in a hundred meter radius from moving until I say the word now.
Naturally, I'll kill anyone who violates that rule. Not yet. Still not yet...
...now. Now, you may flee. RUN FOR YOUR VERY LIVES."
Best be quick about it. I'll be right behind you.
~Marika, the Eternal Queen.
I Hereby Declare
Death came for the gods.
It did not announce itself with any sort of fanfare or pomposity, nor with celebrations and fireworks. It arrived with a whisper; came in the form of cloaked figures and black blades, of twisted knives and the screams of young children.
"MOMMY! DADDY!"
Naruto burst from his bed with a snarl.
Their children were screaming, wailing for help.
Marika was only a heartbeat behind him, hammer in hand. "WHO DARES?!"
They took the news about as well as one might expect.
And so it was, dearest reader, just like that...
...HELL WAS UNLEASHED.
(.0.0.0.)
Miquella flung the book down with an exasperated hiss. "Blast it! Why is it so hard to find answers?! Has even this library been censured?!"
A door crashed open behind him. He turned on instinct, ducking a thrown dagger. It clattered harmlessly against the wall.
"An assassin? You have god timing." he rounded on them with a snarl. "I needed to vent."
(.0.0.0.)
"Put these foolish ambitions to rest!"
Morgott made an annoyed noise as he mowed down another assassin with his blade
It was a woman, judging by her death rattle, not that it mattered. Her kin kept coming, swarming over one another to get at him.
All the while, they made scarcely a sound. It was unnatural. Terrifying. Eeerie. He sensed the Death in their blades; knew that a single lethal blow would spell his end. But he could not move from this place. To flee now would not only guarantee his own demise; but that of others; the death of his wife in the room behind him, and the babe in her belly. He'd been looking forward to showing them to Mother and Father; indeed, such was the reason he'd brought them to the capital at all. Doubtless these "Black Knives"
A pity, then, that these fools had chosen their target most poorly!
His tail swept out, sending nine killers sprawling.
Even as they fell, his hand rose.
A storm of golden swords materialized over his head. With a flick of his wrist he brought them crashing down.
"Pillagers! Emboldened by the flame of ambition! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
The world burst into light.
(.0.0.0.)
Godrick was dying.
Odd. He thought it would hurt more.
In hindsight, the boy was vaguely aware of the wound he'd taken; he'd lost an eye and a good bit of his face besides.
And yet there was almost no pain, nearly not at all.
He'd been the one to fling himself forward after all; to leap into harms way, throwing himself between Melina, Reyna, and the assassins blade. He hadn't even realized he'd done anything until he did; they'd screamed as their spells sizzled harmlessly against the woman's cloak, as she stabbed down for them. His body moved on its own. No one had controlled him. He'd willingly placed himself in harms way and taken the death meant for them. The pain was a small price to pay.
He was lesser.
They were greater.
His death wouldn't matter; but if anything happened to them...
Ah. There was the pain now. His face ached and he crumpled to a knee with a low wheeze. His world was going grey. The girls were grabbing at him, babbling in his ear, slinging healing spells his way to rouse him, all for naught. You didn't lose half your face and live to tell the tale. It just wasn't done. At least he would die happy, knowing he'd saved someone. He was not worthless. He had purpose. He had achieved something, before the end.
The assassin tutted above them. "Fool of a boy...but your death will do.
His ruined, ravaged face creaked in a smile at her.
For you see, he saw something. "You first."
Godrick perished a second later.
As such, he did not see the golden hands close around the woman's head, nor hear the awful crack that followed as they twisted. He was very much Dead by then you see...
.
..
...until he wasn't.
That same palm touched his face and he lurched back to life with a cough.
His face mended, the pain eased, and just like that, he found himself able to see again.
Melina and Reyna wasted no time; they latched on tight and all but hauled him backwards to safety.
"You did well to last this long." a voice like warm sunlight praised him for his efforts. "Leave the rest to me, now."
Godrick tried to speak. He really did...Melina and Reyna just beat him to it.
The Elden Lord's daughters crowded in around him, chattering wildly.
"Godrick! Of all the reckless things you could do...!
"Indeed, sister. He must never do that again!"
...were they worried about him?
Through blurry eyes the battered boy beheld a familiar golden man standing before him; no, there were many of him, at least half a dozen moving to protect Melina and Reyna...and even him, much to his surprise. Godrick watched it all unfold seemingly in slow motion from there; he saw the assassins close with Naruto, lunging at him from nearly every angle.
And the golden man smiled.
A black knife swept in at his head, a twisted facsimile of its cold reflection gleaming in his left eye as it sought to blind him. Melina's father dodged at the last possible second, swaying aside as it whistled past, shearing a strand of golden hair from his head...and drove a fist through their chest. They crumpled with a low groan as he tore his bloody limb free.
Humming softly, Naruto crushed their heart in his first and turned to face the remainder.
"Would any of you care to talk"? His smile was limpid, a smirk that didn't reach his eyes.
A soft rasp was their sole response.
It almost sounded like laughter.
More fools they, this lot.
"No? Well that's fine." Whiskered cheeks dimpled, unfazed by their foolishness. "In that case...you die."
He swayed back from yet another wicked blade, flicked a hand out at them and cut theirs off the at the wrist; no wait; he told a lie, he'd lopped their other arm off at the elbow. Couldn't very well swing a blade when you didn't have arms now did you? The assassin didn't even have a chance to scream. His fist thundered into their face and they fell without a sound, only to be grabbed and swung like a flail, splattering two more against the wall.
"Before we continue, I'll ask one more time." he turned to face the rest, clutching a severed leg in his hand, "Would anyone like to surrender?"
No one did.
"GOOD."
Naruto backhanded one of the Black Knives hard enough to render them a stain on the ceiling and waded in, hands a blur of wind and wrath. He was calm yet fire, fury made manifest but ice incarnate. It was perhaps the most wonderful thing Godrick had seen in his life.
Three words sprang to the forefront of his mind even as he protected Melina and Reyna.
"I want that!"
"Do you, now?" A vicious scarlet sit gazed over the Elden Lord's shoulder. "You're being awfully brave tonight..."
Godrick quailed a little under such a primordial stare, but forced himself to meet it all the same.
At length, the golden god smiled. "Watch closely, then."
(.0.0.0.)
Malenia raised her blade, Rykard and Radahn at her back. Together the trio stood their ground as the Black Knives closed in.
Ranni pitched backward with a yelp, blasting a would-be killer in the face with a spell.
"Away, vermin! You shall not have us this night!"
(.0.0.0.)
The corpse of Gransax twitched.
Slowly but surely it began to move, rising like a puppet bound by many strings.
Dragons, that is to say the truest of Ancient Dragons, did not rot, nor did their bodies. Their scales were stone, their bodies granite.
Though they could be beaten and broken, their corpses did not crumble. They remained, a facet of the everlasting name bequeathed upon them by their lord Placidussax. Dead though he might be, struck down by Godfrey himself, mind long gone to the heavens...the power his corpse held yet lingered on. Spurred by sorcery from afar, empowered the sacrifices of one hundred souls slain in the darkest of rituals on this most unholy of nights, he finally began to move. First his tail, then his legs followed by his arms, now his wings.
Life!
Air in his lungs!
It brought purpose to him.
With a great and mighty roar, the zombie dragon grasped his fallen golden bolt and lumbered forward, crushing buildings in its wake. Many a knight tried to stop it and paid dearly for it, slapped aside like so many gnats at a feast. The dragon paid them no heed. Its target was the Erdtree. Let death take them all. He would finish what he had started so long ago.
The beast thought itself prepared.
And it was, in a sense. Many were occupied this night.
It was not, however, prepared for the giant golden fox that burst out and latched onto its neck.
"Hello, dinner~!"
(.0.0.0.)
The Black Knives were panicking.
They had descended upon Leyndell in great numbers, their task to kill but a single god. It mattered not who so long as SOMEONE died this night alongside their Lord Godwyn. To that end they had enlisted aid from other lands, promising riches and rewards to any who might aid them. Many were they who agreed. Mercenaries and miscreants, those who hated the Golden Order, even those who sought to spit in a god's eye. Most of these so-called "recruits" would die of course, but the Knives had accepted that and spread themselves out among their ranks. They were distractions after all. And for a time it went so very well...
Until here. Now.
In this very moment.
Laughter filled the night.
A high demented shriek of pure glee.
It rose loud and lurid into the night, a woman's merry cackle filling the gloom, heard all over Leyndell.
"Listen you lot!" the leader of one such mercenary band cried, raising their voice for the firs time this evening, "I don't know who, but someone pissed off the Eternal Queen herself!" another tremor shook the capital and Gransax went down with a pained roar as a giant golden fox barreled into him. "Screw this! That wasn't part of the plan! Lets gout of here-
"I think not."
Said queen appeared between two of them, well within arms reach, and caught them by the face.
The speaker and another mercenary imploded on themselves, coating her with blood.
Everyone froze, rooted where they stood.
"I am not my husband and tonight I know not the meaning of mercy." burning golden eyes turned to regard each of them as the two titans fought in the background. "Hear me, you little knives who would harm my family. I wish to play a game.
The undead dragon and the golden fox came closer.
"Thus, I hereby declare," her voice rang with regal glee, "I forbid every person in a hundred meter radius from moving until I say the word now. Naturally, I'll kill anyone who violates that rule." she raised her hands, palms outward, as though prepared to clap. "What say you? Shall we play?"
Gransax went down with a pained squeal less than a block away.
"Not yet."
Kurama tackled him, tails coming perilously close to flattening the lot of them.
"Still not yet...
A Black Knife died as rubble crushed their body.
...now!" Marika clapped her hands, allowing. "Now, you may flee. Best be quick about it. I'll be right behind you."
They fled.
Needless to say, they didn't get far.
Three died as she skewered them with a spear of light.
The rest tried to scatter...and failed as they stumbled into barriers of golden light.
Like a cat stalking a family of rate, she walked lazily after them, wearing an expression to match.
"You dare to touch my family, do you?" Marika tilted her head a touch, teeth flashing in a dark rictus of a grin, a smile that would've made a monster cry. "Know your place, fools."
A snap of her fingers, and two more imploded.
"Tell you what." She thumbed her chin. "Come at me. If any of you actually manage to hit me, I'll let you kill me. How does that sound, ants?"
None dared.
"No?" she walked forward, the ground splintering with every step. "Then we shall play another game. I tolerated your existence because I thought you knew better; did I not tell you? The plan has changed. I asked you to go forth and live your lives. But my mercy availed you naught. You must truly want to die...MONGRELS."
She flicked a hammer and three assassins dissolved into greasy red smears at her feet.
"Hmm? I meant to behead you with that...you really are weak, it seems. I will admit to being rusty." She touched her free hand to her face, eyes suffused with a soft golden glow. "In my heyday I could have killed you all with one finger. Now it seems my hammer will have to suffice. Naruto is busy playing with your pet dragon. Thank you for that distraction. I do not wish him to see me like this; to see what I was before we met."
Her hammer pulverized another skull.
"You see, I am a cruel, greedy, selfish woman. I want to hold onto everyone and everything within my grasp. But thee...I reject thee.
Crunch.
"I forsake thee."
Thwack.
"I cast thee out...of sight and mind!"
BANG!
Her hammer struck and the Elden Ring sang within her, sending another to the afterlife.
"The moon's shining bright tonight, don't you think?" She smiled down at them. "Its helping me see your pathetic selves most clearly. What's wrong? Isn't this what you wanted? I will play with you until your bones break, your muscles melt and your souls shatter. You should be grateful. Its not every day I deign to play with mortals."
Her hammer rose, singing a mournful dirge.
And she brought the hammer down.
Screams filled the night.
A/N: Aaaand scene.
Next upcoming chapter title: ...? ? ?
Well? Should this remain a story? Yay or nay? Do let me know!
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this particular story, and others. If folks don't enjoy it, the story will remain, but it won't be continued. And there we go. As ever, reviews keep me alive. Without them, I cannot write. Just wanted to thank everyone for sticking with me.
I'm weary from work these days, but coming home after a long one to read feedback really make it worthwhile~!
So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas....Review...Would You Kindly? And have some previews~!
I'm deliberately being coy with them this time around.
Some are far off. Others are closer than you think.
Once again, SPOILERS AHOY!
Seriously, ye be warned~!
Mostly the same here.
(Previews)
Mohg saw what he thought was an opportunity and took it. More fool he.
Everyone felt it. Across the Lands Between. The Death of a God.
Oh. So that's why you've been so emotional. You...you're pregnant, aren't you?"
"Surprise?"
"Oi! Is that all you have to say?"
Marika granted him a small, watery smile. "I wanted to keep it a secret...
"A challenger at our gates? How quaint."
"He says he's a messenger...for someone called the Gloam-Eyed Queen."
Marika smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. "Finally got too big for her britches, did she? Perhaps I should send Maliketh after her...
Malenia came crashing through the door. "I know who the traitors are!"
All eyes turned towards her.
"Oh. I'm late, aren't I?"
EDIT: Hey, you made it! Thanks for reading! Hope you have great luck and a great day~!
Looking forward to chatting with you all when I get back from work~!
R&R~!