First and foremost, content warning: This chapter gets a bit excessively violent in some parts.
Hello again. I apologize for the long wait; this semester of college has been absolutely ruthless. I fear these longer periods in between chapters may be the norm, as I will be juggling summer classes and a job once finals are over.
I'll admit, this chapter was the hardest to get to a point I was satisfied with. Seeing as how Regression has taken Malenia's journey in a new direction, I fear it has added a sour touch of aimlessness to the pacing of the story. But with the conclusion of this part, soon we will be back on course, and I am looking forwards greatly to what that entails. I hope you do as well!
The red tint that hued the blackness of her vision slowly brightened. Things were taking shape in her mind: Those awful tendrils, ever-present, reaching in from the edges of her vision. Vignetting an image that wasn't even there. She wanted to blink, to shake her head, to do anything to get the tentacles of rot out of her eyes, but she couldn't. She couldn't do anything. She was completely paralyzed, held in petal chains within the heart of the hot scarlet bud. The voice that always whispered away in the back of her head was all around her now. The flower itself was blaring beckoning words into her ears.
"Rise, goddess!" the flower hissed. "Rise from your chamber! One more bloom! 'Tis all you need! All WE need!"
One more bloom… slowly, the binds that held her in place laxed. Her one remaining arm slipped free from where it was held aloft at her side. With a small gasp, she planted it on the ground to steady herself. The unbearable heat that enwreathed her mellowed, alighting delicately on her flesh like a warm sun. Suddenly, she felt soothed by her bud. The petals that clutched at her were still receding, but they didn't feel like binds anymore. They felt like… like an embrace. An embrace that she yearned for. But the petals seemed only to recede faster at such a thought, as the flower chimed again.
"One more bloom, goddess," it said. "One more bloom, and you may sink into the scarlet embrace for as long as you like. Just one more bloom."
One more bloom… one more bloom… one more—
"Milady!"
Suddenly, her bud was ripped open by a massive halberd. The warmth that cradled her was dashed, supplanted by an unbearable burning cold. Her mouth stretched open in a shocked gasp that was cut off when two hands clasped her shoulders… and ripped her free from her chamber.
The sound of tearing plant flesh was deafening to her ears, but not nearly as much so as the gentle voice in her mind unleashing a rage-filled scream. With what felt like punitive deliberation, she was hoisted from her flower and into the body of her assailant, who promptly stumbled backwards, struggling to stay upright with her in their arms.
Footsteps rushed up to meet them. A woman's voice could be heard over the scarlet din in her mind.
"Commander Emma!" she cried. Then, a gasp. "Lady Malenia!"
The person holding her grunted. "Leftenant," she muttered, "take her."
A new pair of hands grabbed her, one underneath her arm and another reaching around her midsection to pull her in. The new arrival hoisted her onto her own back, letting her arm and one leg drape around her shoulders. She would have resisted, had she the strength, but her limbs were heavy as stone, and her head felt fuzzy as wool.
She was so, so tired.
"We need to move," the one called Emma said gruffly. "Our Lady cannot stay here, now that the rot festers. Bring her—ack!"
She cut herself off abruptly with a series of violent, choking coughs. The carrier lurched forwards, jostling her passenger roughly in doing so. Her delirious mind stirred a bit, just enough to let her hear the two's dialogue.
"Commander!" the one carrying her gasped.
"Ugh… dammit. Even just a few moments within that flower was-" another, longer coughing fit "-was too much for me. Leftenant… do not let our Lady succumb to the scarlet rot. Bring her—ACH!—bring her home."
"But what of you?"
"I am beyond saving. I can f-feel it. The unrestrained rot of that bud has doubtlessly advanced my decay… immeasurably so. S-Soon I will be little more than half-emulsified refuse."
"Commander, no…!"
The woman's voice trailed off. The silence that ensued was quickly broken by the sound of a popping latch, then the shifting and sliding of fabric and metal.
"Take this," Emma rasped. "The make of my armor is shameful in comparison to her true prosthesis, but it will suffice for now."
One of the woman's hands was clutching her passenger's arm, securing her in place, but the other reached out to take her commander's offer. Almost as soon as she did, the knight in question issued another spurt of choking, hacking gags; this time, there was a new layer to it. It sounded… gurgly. Far too liquid.
"Emma!" Even in her slipping state, the sound of that horrified cry made her shiver.
"Forget about me! Just—glrhh-A-HACK!—move! Before the bloom's contamination encroaches upon you too!"
She felt the woman carrying her start to slowly shuffle backwards as she carried her. Through the wool that had been pulled tight around her head, she could barely hear the knight choke out, "I-I'll bring her home, Commander. You have my word. In the name of unalloyed gold."
"In the name of unalloyed gold, Leftenant."
With that, her carrier turned tail and ran down the slope. Away from Emma. Away from the bloom. Away from her scarlet chamber.
Her sightless eyes were struggling to stay open. Her senses were hazier than the fog of the thickest blizzard. Her head lolled to the side, hanging freely at the woman's side, as the one black veil that was darker than her own blindness crept up into her vision… until a small, trembling voice reached her ears.
"Lady Malenia… can you hear me?"
For just a moment, the haze cleared. She stirred. Her head raised by just a few millimeters, gazing blearily towards the sound of the woman's voice.
"F… Finlay…?"
Malenia stumbled her way out of the heart of the swamp. Her knights, addled by a mixture of rot, confusion, and fear, did not move to follow her. Some stared after her as she trudged in a random direction, while others returned to aimlessly roaming, too far gone to even understand what had happened. Crossing through the inner reaches of the swamp, she found her tired legs beginning to burn as she trudged up a steep hill. As the incline fell level, her foot snagged on a jutting root; a hoarse squawk issued from her throat as she pitched forwards, trying to regain her balance. In her stumble, she almost didn't notice the damp peat squishing around her metallic soles give way to hard, unswept cobblestone, but as she slewed to a halt and doubled over, hand propping her up against her golden knee, the realization made her straighten.
Pavement. Road. Highway! She'd found the highway! Her heart leapt into her neck. Tensing with the effort of keeping her breath steady, she darted her head left and right. The highway stretched in either direction, but only one path took her north. Dread attempted to supplant her hope, but she quelled it with a hard swallow. It was alright. She had only two paths down which she could travel, and if one route didn't seem to be bringing her to Limgrave, she could simply turn around and go back the way she came.
Yes, she decided, even if her sense of location was still completely frayed, at least now she had a sense of direction. Turning her body left, she planted her next foot forwards and set off with a renewed sense of hope.
As she continued on, though, her thoughts flickered back to the Cleanrot Knights wandering amidst the scarlet waters down below. She was halted as a swell that all of a sudden rose within her seemed to yank her back towards the swamp. Her teeth pressed together as her dear soldiers flashed into her mind. For uncountably many years they'd floundered amidst the scarlet shallows of the swamp, trapped in their undeath as they were, yet holding their vigil with duty even as mind and body alike turned to putrid mush. For so long they'd waited, held on, fought, for her. And their first time reuniting with her in lifetimes… was to see her lash out at them before stumbling away like a madwoman.
Malenia winced and cursed herself for her craven actions. Those soldiers need me, she thought. They need their leader. They need their qu—
She gritted her teeth as the mere thought of such a word made her head pulse with pain. Her next breath filtered through clenched teeth, and was let out slowly.
"I am Malenia," she muttered. "Blade of—"
"IT'S HER!"
The Empyrean was snapped out of her dire mnemonic by a worn, ragged cry. Her head perked to gaze ahead of her as the sound of footsteps on cobblestone met her ears—armor-clad footsteps. Several sets of them. At least three. And they were getting louder.
The heaviest of the footsteps slowed as they approached her, but the other two men diverged in opposite directions from their presumable leader. Malenia found herself taking a small step backwards as they each found a position on either side of her, surrounding her on three fronts.
It wasn't hard at all for her to realize just who these men were—especially when the near-unified sounds of all of them unsheathing their swords sliced through the humid air. Her hand instinctively moved to adjust her prosthesis, but when it wasn't there, she clenched her hand into a fist. In that moment, her qualms quieted, and all her focus shifted to stare down the squadron's leader.
"Step aside, Redmanes," she growled. "You do not want this fight."
"General Radahn sends his regards," the leader rasped back, voice muffled by his metal helm. Suddenly, from both sides, the other two soldiers fell upon her.
Malenia was in no state to fight. She was exhausted. Confused. Unarmed and one-armed. Her whole body yet screamed with pain as her blood boiled with the heat of rot. She was a miserable shadow of her usual self, reduced to limping aimlessly along the abandoned Caelid highway, like some lost child rejected by their order.
And in spite of all of that, these men were no match for her.
Her actions were swift. She caught the sound of the man on her right lifting his sword as he almost stumbled towards her. Effortlessly, she sidestepped his clumsy swing, and the blade soared clear over her head. Grunting in astonishment, the soldier careened in the direction of his arcing blade, and the sword plunged directly into the shoulder of her other attacker, whose cry of shock and pain was cut off as the sword's wielder fell on top of his squadmate like a sack of potatoes. The footman's heavy weight shoved the sword deeper into the neck of his comrade, and he let out a final choking gasp before falling silent.
The knight ahead of Malenia raced towards her, sword at the ready, but didn't get four paces before the metal of her shoulder socket, eye level with the armored man, buffeted him square in the face, sending him sprawling onto his back. Malenia's golden foot slammed into his stomach, and the gasp that issued from behind his helm as the air left his lungs was so wretched that it nearly broke her focus.
Her head spun around at the sound of metal being pulled unceremoniously from flesh. Paying no attention to the fellow footman he'd just slain, the soldier unleashed an angered bellow as he charged towards her, thrusting his sword out with such reckless abandon that it carried him into her.
It was as if he'd never wielded the thing before. And that made him all the easier to dispatch.
Malenia sidestepped the sword's path, thrusting her forearm into that of her attacker's with such force that it pushed his sword arm off to the side, taking him with it. So swift and so devastatingly effective was her counter that the soldier's sword slipped free of his hand and fell towards the earth. Malenia caught it by the handle mid-flight and, before its owner was even finished sprawling onto the cobblestone, dove upon him and sank the sword into his back. The blade ran him through and sank into the mud between the gaps in the pavement. He was dead before his blood could touch the earth.
Pulling the sword free of its stone, Malenia spun to face the final Redmane as he staggered to his feet. She could hear the battle-hungry rage in his panting breaths. Slowly, she raised his man's sword, like a dagger to her, and pointed it at him.
"Don't be a fool," she urged him in a low voice. "There is still a chance to—"
"Rotten whore!" Completely ignorant of her warning, the knight sprinted towards her in uncontained fury with his imposing greatsword held high. Like swatting a fly, Malenia brandished her sword and batted it to the side as it came upon her, almost sending the knight flying with the force of the redirection. He stumbled backwards for two steps before falling like deadweight onto one knee.
Shifting her blade into an overhand grip, Malenia held it aloft, the bloodstained tip pointing right down at the knight.
"Wait—!"
She plunged the sword straight into the visor of the knight's helm with a righteous fury befitting a goddess. Metal screeched upon metal as the end of the blade exploded out the back end of the headpiece. Its wearer was dead in an instant.
The fight was over before it began. Malenia let the weapon fall with the last Redmane's corpse and stepped away as his pooling blood began to lap at her toes. Her breath had hastened and deepened in the short time the battle had raged, but as the real world—and the pain—crept back in, her adrenaline-fueled lungs quieted, and her shoulders sagged.
"A waste," she muttered ruefully to herself, before angling her head in the direction she had been heading. Stepping around the crumpled corpses of the Redmane squadron, she continued onwards with a barely-even gait.
As she walked, she brushed her fingers across the needle. It was still shaking, but thank the heavens above, it seemed to be calming, if only by a bit. Her body certainly couldn't feel that; her veins were on fire and those infernal tendrils were still wriggling their way into the edges of her vision. But for the time being, while the heat of combat still roused her focus, at least the hissing voice in her mind had quieted.
The sounds of yelling and roaring made themselves known to her. Somewhere in the distance, directly along the highway, was violence, between men and some howling beast. Malenia felt a pang of angered dismay. She was not sure if she could endure a true battle, but they almost certainly blocked the way forwards.
Almost as soon as these thoughts crossed her mind, more footsteps approached her. But these were not the footsteps of a mere man. No, they were large, and heavy enough to be felt through the earth.
Then, the creature issued a monstrous snarl.
Malenia barely had time to dodge as the giant dog lunged at her. Spinning to face it, she clenched her hand into a fist, dearly wishing she hadn't left that soldier's sword buried in the corpse of his captain. The dog dashed towards her again, but suddenly, a war cry filled the air, and the dog was sent off-course with a yelp as a horseback-mounted warrior appeared from seemingly nowhere and drove its spear directly into the dog's temple. The two tumbled off the highway, leaving her standing there watching dumbly.
Simply a smaller part of the battle that waged, it would seem, for as Malenia turned and trudged onwards, she could make out unsettling barks and howls amidst the cacophony of the melee. Steeling herself, Malenia stopped to retrieve a sword from the nerveless hand of a fallen grunt; the weight and balance was near-identical to the last one she'd scavenged. The noise of battle cries, screams, steel, and beastly bellows soon surrounded her, and yet, she found herself unbothered by any of the warring bodies. They seemed oblivious to her in the chaos. Malenia did not let her relief slow her step; if anything, she quickened her pace and ducked through the thick of it, weaving around bodies both flailing and limp.
As the din of battle started to sound like it would soon be behind her, she felt the back of her hand graze something burning hot. She flinched away with a sharp breath sucked in through her teeth, trying to ascertain what had assaulted her.
It wasn't an enemy, but rather, a wall. A smoldering wall, more cinder than stone. Summoning what strength was left in her legs, Malenia hopped up and cleared the wall, landing with a grunt on the other side. Taking a moment to steady herself before continuing onwards, Malenia turned to gaze behind her as the sound of fighting began to sound distant rather than near. The goddess released a breath she hadn't been holding, almost surprised at how easy that had been—
The sound of a crossbow bolt whipping through the air made Malenia perk up—a fraction of a second before it hit her square in the temple. The thick steel projectile bounced right off her unalloyed helmet, but the sudden and unexpected force had her stumbling forwards. She caught herself on a waist-high slab of stone, leaning against it for a moment as her head whipped around to stare up in the direction from which the bolt had come… only for her head to spin right back around, staring down at the stone upon which she'd leaned as she felt an ethereal tug on her skin from the center of the structure. The pulling intensified, faster than she could blink, and she felt herself beginning to dissolve into the magical void in front of her.
She'd fallen right against a waygate, and had inadvertently activated it.
She had no time to jerk away before she was whisked off, and landed on one knee atop a dusty, uneven flight of stairs. At once, her stomach sank. Now where was she, even? Turning around, she registered the faint humming of the waygate's exit. It was set up two ways. Thank goodness. Hastily, Malenia reached her arm out towards the magical veil.
A bass-filled roar made Malenia step back, just in time to avoid the massive paw that swiped down where she was half a moment ago. Rock crunched and cracked under the tremendous force of the attack, and there was a glintstone-like explosion as the waygate crumbled. Another vicious growl, leonine in its sound, vibrated Malenia's head. She took another, hasty step backwards, to avoid another oncoming swipe, but her blind eyes had no chance of registering the massive blade chained to the lion's limb. The layer of mail underneath her golden dress protected her from the blade's intimidating edge, but the sheer force of the impact when it caught her square in the chest sent her flying backwards. The sickening thud that issued when she collided straight into a brick wall was almost as loud as the stars that burst into her vision were bright.
And then, the needle in her breast trembled violently. What happened next was beyond her consciousness.
She landed with one knee onto the ground. Her hand clenched into a fist as the light of the stars in her head faded into a faint red glow, masking the whole of her constrained vision with a bloody hue.
The lion lunged at her again. This time, with an unhindered gait and blinding speed, she ducked underneath it and rammed her shoulder socket straight into its underbelly. The massive creature, for all its ferocity, was duped by her frail form, and when she surged up from underneath it, the unexpected strength threw the lion from the balcony, sending it tumbling with a throaty yowl into an alcove below.
She looked down at where the lion had fallen for only a moment, for her attention was snatched by an incomprehensible pulling sensation in her mind, further up the stairs, beyond the confines of this structure. Without pause, and with a renewed vigor, she turned and ran deeper into whatever complex this waygate had taken her to. The lion, disoriented and winded, found no bearings in time to pursue.
She ran up the stairs, through dilapidated wooden barricades, up another flight of stairs, and then another. As she rose higher and higher, she could feel the structure open up; there was more of Caelid's thick scarlet air on her skin. Her golden feet carried her forwards swiftly as if she were good as new, not stopping for a moment, even when she heard the gasp of an old man followed by a disbelieving "Wait. Aren't you…?!"
She followed the pull in her mind without thinking, without feeling. As its presence grew stronger, so did the red glow in her eyes. Suddenly, the tendrils that always vignetted her vision crept in closer, much closer than before. She paid them no mind.
The source of the beckoning was coming from below. She stepped forwards, expecting to find stairs, and instead gave a start when her foot pressed down upon a pressure plate, and she felt herself start to descend.
Of course. A lift.
As soon as the wooden platform was done with its journey, she leapt forth. Her feet carried her to a shallow river, which she splashed through effortlessly before coming upon the other side. As she did, her wettened feet were dried by a layer of warm, fine sand.
Sand… a dim thought echoed in the very back of her mind. I haven't felt sand since…
Suddenly, everything rushed in like a charging chariot. The pulling sensation on her body and mind vanished. The redness of her vision was sapped away, leaving her only in darkness. And with the fading of the redness, came the fading of her strength, all at once, like it was never there. Indeed, the sudden surge of vigor in her veins was supplanted, seemed almost to become, that same disorienting pain… in full, merciless force.
Just like that, it was as if her blood had been lit aflame. It felt like her flesh was tearing and bursting with rot. It filled her body, flooding her veins, squeezing her bones, choking her with a vicious intensity that brought her to the earth. Malenia fell to the ground like a deadweight, dropping her scavenged blade; the softening of her impact by the sand did nothing to assuage the brutal return of that scarlet torment.
The needle in her chest felt ready to crack. It squeezed on her lungs, making her gasp for air as she struggled to prop her head up. Confusion and dread filled her head alongside the sickening pain. What had just happened? Was that… the rot? Had the rot within her led her here? But why? What was here that was so…
Malenia slowly found her hand, planting it gingerly into the earth to lift herself up, but another wave of the rot's infernal machinations seized her, and she collapsed with a sharp intake of air that was then let out as a small, plaintive whimper. She wanted to writhe with the agony, but it was immobilizing. She was paralyzed with pain. She could do nothing but breathe in fast, panting gasps that coated her lips, teeth and tongue with particles of sand.
Her head was throbbing with such an egregious ache that it almost blocked out the sounds of the outside world. What it did not block out, however, was that vile hiss returning to resonate within her mind.
Ahh… it hummed. The satisfaction in that ethereal whisper sent a chill down Malenia's spine. After all this time, we have returned.
Wait. Returned? Returned to where? Craning her head up in spite of the screaming pain, Malenia tried to look around, as if that would help her.
"To where have I been lured, foul rot?" she hissed, in between slow heaves of breath. Her own voice sounded muffled amidst the din of her pounding skull.
The residual warmth of the bud… do you feel it, goddess? it hissed. After all this time, we are home. Truly, truly home. The heart of Caelid's rot… within arm's reach.
The heart of Caelid's rot… Wait. No. No, it couldn't be…
Suddenly, it made sense. The extrasensory pull. The descent downwards. The sand beneath her right this moment. That waygate had placed her smack in the middle of the one and only Redmane Castle, whereupon the rot had seized her body and led her to the wailing dunes where the final battle between her and her half-brother had taken place. Where… where she had bloomed.
Horror and anger welled up in equal parts within her bosom. Not here, she thought. Anywhere but bloody here! In a hot surge of ire, she reached her hand back and slammed it into the ground, practically shoving herself into a kneeling position. A fresh wave of scarlet screams pulsed through her body, filling her head with smoldering rocks, but she bit down and forced herself to her wobbling feet in spite of it.
"Damn you!" she cursed. "Damn you and your rot!"
Struggling to find balance, she began to totter back the way she came… tried to, at least. She didn't get three paces before her head, feeling like a spinning top, lolled to the side and sent her teetering feet slipping out from under her. She fell with a dull thud and a hoarse cry. As the impact resonated through her burning flesh, those infernal tendrils in her vision crept inwards.
A dull glow arose from them as the voice spoke again.
Do not resist, it commanded. In spite of the heat that it emanated, its words were as cold as ice. Gone was its sickening allure. It was done trying to convince her. It was done playing games. Take the needle out. Resurge, goddess! Become the Scarlet Queen!
Malenia's teeth clenched.
"Get… out of my head," she growled.
Another thundering pulse filled her temples. It felt as if her whole head were swelling, pressing against the sweat-lined inside of her helm. The golden plates squeezed on her skull, trying to crush her under its grasp. A furious, agonized snarl left her lips, and with a feverish intensity she reached up and snatched the helmet from its place upon her head and flung it to the side. It landed in the sand and stuck there.
It did little to assuage the pain, but at least her forehead could breathe now.
Malenia rolled onto her back. Her whole body was screaming at her. Her head felt ready to burst. The needle was piercing her heart, injecting scarlet rot directly into her soul. She tried to focus on her breathing, squeezing her eyes shut, but the glowing tendrils of rot stayed in her vision, dazzling her with their scarlet light.
The pain does not have to be, the voice beckoned. Malenia could hear nothing beyond it now; it was as if her whole head were filled with cotton. She felt… fuzzy.
Take the needle out, the voice repeated. Let your bloom resurface to your flesh. Let the warm embrace of the scarlet bud melt away everything.
Gasping, writhing, and clutching at the needle as it continued to radiate agony throughout her body, the valkyrie could only utter one simple sentence in response.
"I… am Malenia," she gasped. "Blade of—"
The scarlet in her eyes flared up with angry brightness, and the horrid, sickening wave of pain it sent throughout her body made her whimper. But she kept going.
"Blade of Miquella," she finished, then breathed in. "I am Malenia. B-Blade of Miquella. I am… Malenia. Blade of… Miquella. I am Malenia. I am… I-I… I am…"
"Malenia."
It wasn't her voice that finished her chant, nor was it the voice of the rot pounding on the walls of her skull. It was the voice of a man, deep enough for her to feel it in the sand beneath her trembling form. It boomed with awesome power unrestrained, and yet, it sounded so ill—rotten, like everything else in this cursed land. So intense was this voice that it snapped Malenia out of her stupor near-instantly and had her head swinging in its direction even before the worms of familiarity slithered their way into her mind—but when her memory was dredged up from the darkest depths of her thoughts, for an instant, everything seemed to fade. The sand on her skin and in her mouth, the rot in her brain urging her onwards—even the overwhelming agony seemed to halt for a brief instant as her stomach plummeted.
No. No, it was impossible. It couldn't be. It couldn't!
"R… Radahn?" she breathed.
"It has been a long time, sister," the Starscourge replied.
Malenia's head spun. She was already collapsed on the ground, but even just lifting her head to stare in the direction of his voice was enough to make her feel as if she were on the verge of toppling over.
There was no way. There simply was no way. She refused to believe it. And she echoed that.
"N-No," she breathed. "I… I killed you! I killed you! You fell on that day!"
The rumbling, mirthless chuckle that issued from Radahn's torn throat made Malenia's skin crawl.
"You so dearly wish you had won the war," he leered. The wry contempt in his voice did not mask the rage Malenia could hear boiling underneath. "Do you? O, Malenia the undefeated, have you spent all this time denying your falterance?"
There was a small, wretched whinny. Heaps of earth shifted as Radahn's withered steed dragged him closer to Malenia. She tried to sit up, tried to put her hand out—tried to do anything—but she was too weak. All she could do was struggle to breathe.
"R-Radahn…" she rasped.
"Why have you returned?" Radahn growled, half-questioning and half-challenging. "To finish what you started? To take my fractured realm for yourself?"
He sneered. "What would even one such as you do with this broken country?" he went on. "There is nothing left. Caelid is beyond saving. Beyond redemption from what you did to it. To my land. To my men!"
Malenia winced as Radahn's gargantuan voice rose.
"Was it worth it, Malenia? Was whatever you sought when you laid siege to my castle worth the mass destruction? Tell me, then! Was it?"
Malenia could only keep her head angled upwards at her half-brother for a few moments longer. Her slow, agonized breaths began to quicken, as did the beating of her heart. The thick, heavy silence that hung in the stale air told her that Radahn wanted an answer, and it wasn't for several long moments that she dropped her gaze and gave one.
"I-I…" she mumbled. Gritting her teeth, she shook her head. "No. It wasn't."
It took all the effort in her tired body to bring her blind gaze back up to meet Radahn's.
"Brother," she stammered. "I-I… I am sorry."
Radahn snorted. "Sorry," he echoed. His voice dripped with mockery. "As if that will erase the centuries of rot that have ravaged me and my army! Are you oblivious to what you have done?"
"No!" Malenia protested. "Radahn, I—"
"Have the scars over your eyes blinded you to even the suffering your infernal touch carries?" the Starscourge roared. His enraged voice was just short of deafening.
The steed staggered closer. Suddenly, Malenia felt a massive hand wrap around her midsection, and she was lifted into the air. Radahn squeezed the breath from her lungs, leaving her wheezing as he brought her up to eye level.
"Then allow me to show you what you have wrought," he snarled. Malenia's blood went cold.
His other hand placed itself upon her temple. His crooked, cracked fingernails dug deep into her skin. His fingers clenched, tightening around her sweaty temple.
Then, in one savage pull, Radahn ripped the scarred flesh from her eyes.
The fire that swept through Malenia was unlike anything she'd ever felt in her life. Even the aches and pains of the evil, hellish rot, when it roiled and raged at its absolute worst, paled in comparison to the sheer mortal agony that filled every end of Malenia's brutalized face. For a brief moment, her lungs finally took in a gulp of air in spite of the massive hand squeezing on her ribcage—but it was only so a feral, horrified scream could tear through her dry throat. Blood poured from the ravaged flesh, streaming down the skin that remained on her face, dripping into her mouth, coating her tongue with the metallic tang.
Sunlight poured into her unblinking eyes for the first time in lifetimes. It was blinding. All she could see was a blurry, dizzying screen of reddish white—though whether the red was due to the scarlet rot that surrounded her, or the blood trickling into her eyes, was impossible to tell. But the torturous pain that seared through her torn face was so total in its invasion of her senses that, for a few moments, she did not even notice that she could see the sun at all.
It wasn't until Radahn roughly shook her that her wailing stuttered and died into hard, wheezing gasps, occasionally punctuated by plaintive whimpers—whimpers that were drowned out by Radahn's fury.
"Look at me, Malenia!" he howled. "Look at what you have done!"
And in spite of so many horrible sensations screaming at her at once, she obeyed. Slowly, the blurred shapes of everything around her condensed. Her eyes adjusted to the awful brightness of the sun, enough for her to stare with wild eyes straight ahead—and what she saw made her stomach turn.
It was him. Radahn. He glared at her with a rage so intense it seemed to set his very eyes aflame. The cracked, necrotic skin of his face, ringed by his dirty and lusterless helm, was pulled back in a snarl that exposed his blackened gums and dull teeth. On the edges of his countenance, shrouded by his heavy helmet, blood and pus oozed from unseen wounds. He looked the part of a reanimated corpse, a scarlet zombie. A putrid shadow of his former glory.
"Behold the beauty of your rot!" Radahn proclaimed. His rancid breath washed over Malenia's face, further inflaming the agonized flesh. "Behold, the path you have left in your undefeated wake!"
Another wail left Malenia's throat. This one rasped through her beaten body, weak and spiritless compared to her earlier mortified screeching. "I'm sorry!" she pleaded, inadvertently spewing globs of blood from her mouth. "Please, Radahn! I-I never wanted this!"
"You never wanted this?" Radahn repeated, incredulously. "Then why, Malenia? Why come here? Why lay waste to my good men? Why consign the whole of this once-proud land to ruin? Why desecrate me so? Why? Tell me, dammit! Tell me!"
Radahn fell silent as Malenia went limp in his grasp. What remained of her eyelids squeezed shut, trying to block out his scornful glare. She dropped her gaze to the earth, nothing but trembling breaths and weak whimpers issuing from her mouth. After several long moments, Malenia opened her eyes and returned her bloodied face to Radahn's—and in that time, his expression had changed. His shoulders sagged as he stared at her, and the righteous vindictiveness faded from his features. All at once, his once-flaming eyes were filled with sadness as he gazed upon his half-sister.
"Why?" he repeated, in a much softer voice. The hurt that filled his rot-torn throat had Malenia shying away more than any of his vindictive roaring. "Why would you do this?"
A surge welled up in Malenia and burst from her as a climacteric outcry.
"It was Ranni!" she keened. "Ranni set me unto this! The war was of her device!"
She doubled over, leaning her arm against Radahn's oversized hand. The towering Starscourge gazed at her for what felt like eons—and then, his expression hardened.
"Hmph," he grunted. His hand opened, and Malenia gasped as she fell to the floor with a painful thud. Immediately, she reached her one hand up to graze against her ravaged face, but the touch of her sandy fingers to the exposed muscle only intensified the horrible pain, and she retracted her trembling hand at once.
"Whatever it was she enticed you with," Radahn rumbled bitterly, "I hope this accursed battle brought it to you."
Malenia dimly registered the sound of his steed carrying him away atop its withered shoulders.
"There is nothing left for me here," he went on. "Caelid lies in ruins. If you desired my realm, then you shall have it. For the only one fit to rule this wasteland is you—you, the Scarlet Queen."
Malenia's heart leapt into her throat.
"W-Wh… What did you call me?" she whispered.
There was no response. Malenia looked up, trying vainly to blink the blood out of her eyes, but Radahn was nowhere to be found. He was… gone. He had simply vanished.
"Radahn!" Malenia rasped. She extended her arm into the sand, trying to prop herself up, but crumpled back down in a heap of pain.
"R-Radahn…" she whimpered to herself, as scarlet tendrils swept into her eyes, covering up her view of the outside world once more. "Radahn, I… I-I…"
A broken sob left her lips. "I am Malenia," she mewled. "Blade of Miquella. I am M-M-Malenia. Blade of Miquella. I am… I…"
She curled her knees closer to her chest. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Sorry? Sorry to whom?"
Malenia stirred. In spite of the pain, she rolled over to gaze in the direction of the voice.
"R-Radahn?" she breathed.
The voice answered, in a boisterous, unfamiliar timbre.
"Radahn? Oh, no, I'm afraid you missed the festival, my dear. My name is Alexander. And you are…?"