A/N: FIRST AND FOREMOST this is a tribute to the new Epic album. I own nothing.

Second, I'm thinking about taking an extended hiatus from writing in general. Life's been rough lately. Feedback's dipped, the world has gone mad, and writing isn't as fun as it used to be. The latest chapter of Claws of a Lion was one such example-not a lot of feedback there-and now the utter lack of response here...

...I just don't know anymore. T_T

I shouldn't have to beg for reviews and I...am...tired...

Needed to get this out of my system because it was in my HEAD and threatening to become its own story. So I turned it into a scene instead. You all know where this hails from. I own nothing.

As ever, I own no quotes, references, themes or memes. Not a wit or one. They're tributes, one and all.

I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time.

Time and feedback will determine if this should become a story. Simple as that.

In other words...everything is up to YOU, the reader. Do let me know~!

New Epic album is a bloody banger...

Consider this a teaser for an upcoming chapter.

"LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE MADE!"

~?

Six Hundred Strikes

Marika laughed at him.

It was a decidedly ugly sound she knew, but she didn't care. Here, at the end of the world, battered as she was, she knew that victory belonged to her; that she held all the cards in her fractured fingers. Even here and now, broken on her knees before him, there was not a thing he could do to wrest it from her grasp.

...you idiot." she snarled. Can't you see? You've sealed your fate, just to beat me." He didn't rise to her bait just yet. That was fine. She had more words for him, more means by which to torment him. "You released the Elden Beast upon the Lands Between. If you thought I was a horror to fight, then your mind is way off track. Now you'll never get Her back."

His shadow fell over her, looming in the light of the Elden Ring. "You're going to call off that Beast."

"Or what?" she tilted her head, sneering up at him. "You can't kill me, son."

"..."

Rather than retort immediately, he reached down instead. Plucked her hammer from the broken altar at her feet now. Tested its weight in his grip as he held it aloft. Brandishing it in one hand, he turned to face her at the last, his blue eyes shimmering an ominous shade of gold.

...Exactly."

Horror dawned and Marika's gaze widened with it.

No. Surely not. He wouldn't dare.

She was his mother!

"Wait." she struggled up onto one knee and tried to step backwards. "WAIT-aaargh!?

A golden arc flashed across her vision and snapped her head to the right; with it she felt something she hadn't in eons. Another laid her low, forcing a gasp from her lips. A third bent her double as he smasher the base of her hammer into her spine, driving her down. She began to lose track after that. And over it all, his voice thundered in her ears, louder than Radagon's had ever been.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE HELPLESS?!"

She stumbled back, but her son snarled, seized her golden braid, and reeled her back in to dent her skull.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL TO KNOW PAIN?!"

Pain...was that was this was?

"I WATCHED MY FRIENDS DIE IN HORROR!"

She'd almost forgotten.

"CRYING AS THEY WERE ALL SLAIN!"

A backhanded swiped sent teeth flying into the air.

"I HEARD THEIR FINAL MOMENTS!"

A downward smash broke her nose.

"CALLING MY NAME IN VAIN!"

Blood flew through the air.

"LOOK WHAT YOU TURNED ME INTO!"

Marika choked on it as he obliterated her right eye and an ear besides.

"LOOK WHAT I'VE BECOME!"

Falling to a knee, she glared up at him through a cracked visage. "Enough…!"

"ALL OF THE PAIN THAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH!"

Gasping, she tried to block the hammer, bat it aside with her good arm. "Stop!"

"HAVEN'T WE SUFFERED ENOUGH?!"

He destroyed her arm with a single stoke, causing her to scream in agony. "STOP!"

"YOU DIDN'T STOP WHEN I BEGGED YOU!"

Her other arm crumbled just like the first in so, leaving her helpless on her knees.

"TOLD ME TO CLOSE MY HEART!"

She spat at him. "You...

"YOU SAID THE WORLD WAS DARK!"

He lopped out her left leg from underneath her.

...MONSTER!" she cursed his very name, blighting it before the world.

Almost immediately her right leg joined the left in oblivion, sending her sprawling to the floor. Her accursed spawn swept in for the final blow that would break her body and leave her little more than a shattered soul clinging to a broken husk. Immortal, yes, but not invincible, and certainly not invulnerable. She couldn't regenerate from such devastating damage. Such a fate was worse than any death. To be little more than a tiny wraith of a soul, unable to act, unable to enforce her will upon this world, unable to do anything...!

"DIDN'T YOU SAY THAT RUTHLESSNESS IS MERCY UPON OURSELVES?!"

His arm cracked down with a burst of fire and thunder to finish her off.

"Alright!" She broke, bowing her head with a gasp. "I yield! Please...

The hammer stopped just shy of her skull. It remained there, hovering with ominous intent, unable to kill her, but more than willing -and capable of!- crippling her unless she called off the Elden Beast. There was no other way. She had no choice but to break it her connection to it once and for all, to watch it crumble away in the distance like so much dust.

And with it, so too crumbled the last living vestige of her power.

She turned a baleful glare on her descendant, wretched and unable to do anything else. "After everything you've done...how will you sleep at night?

Here at last progeny crouched down before her, his anger melting away, whiskered cheeks dimpling in a satisfied smirk. "Next to my wife."

Marika tried to snap at him, to say something. Anything. To get the last word in before he took the power of the Elden Ring from her.

No such luck. His hand swooped forth to seize her face.

Darkness rushed in.

A/N: Once more, this was a MASSIVE tribute to Epic.

I'll let you guess whether this scene itself was meant for By the Flame, Runt of the Litter, or something else. Would you like this to see this scene fully realized? Do let me know~!

No previews this time. I'm exhausted. Aaaand there we go. As ever, reviews keep me alive. Without them, I cannot write.

So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...Review...Would You Kindly? It would mean the world to me.

Hope you enjoyed this, and may your day be filled with lots of luck!

Warm regards,

~Nz.